Introducing Bert Williams: Burnt Cork, Broadway, and the Story of America’s First Black Star
by Camille Forbes
Faces of color in chorus lines or in photographs under theatre marquees no longer cause us shock and awe, since minority presence on stage now approaches cliché status.
Historian Camille F. Forbes brings us a worthy portrait of arguably the most seminal African-American trailblazer in Broadway history---Ziegfeld Follies star Bert Williams, who W.C. Fields famously declared to be “the funniest man I ever saw, and the saddest man I ever knew”.
In her scholarly yet readable biography, Forbes does indeed “introduce” readers to the man who truly brought black performing sensibility to a mass audience, albeit shadowed by lingering controversy among his own people.
Egbert Williams was born in 1875 Antigua. His family later settled in California where Bert joined a minstrel company touring mining camps, eventually teaming with George Walker in 1893 as vaudeville’s “Williams and Walker”.
They specialized in musical numbers and humorous skits, initially with Williams as the slick con man and Walker as his “dumb coon” victim. However, they later reversed personas, after which, ironically, the sartorially elegant, intellectual Williams developed his trademark pantomimic character, the shuffling oaf.
Significantly, Williams used “blackface,” despite his own naturally dark skin. At that time, his financial survival as a performer for white audiences demanded it. Blackface continued to be artistically questionable for vaudevillians, and Forbes thoroughly discusses its precedents and broader ramifications.
The Williams/Walker duo became increasingly successful as they attempted to eschew stereotypes and embrace more realistic comedy. In 1902, their biggest hit,
In Dahomey, became the first black musical to open on Broadway, followed in 1906 by
Abyssinia, in which Williams debuted his signature song, “Nobody,” a doleful lament spiced with dry wit, which he would perform for the rest of his life.
When Walker left the act in 1909, Williams languished alone until Florenz Ziegfeld invited him to join his Follies as its first African-American performer. Spotlighting a black man in an all-white show was a potential shock to 1910 sensibilities, but Williams soon became indispensible to the troupe, despite ongoing off-stage racial tensions.
He also became one of the world’s top recording artists, thanks to affiliation with Columbia Records. But after leaving the Follies in 1917, Williams’ career soon lagged and he died in 1922, at age 46.
Forbes’ fine book will inspire new appreciation for Williams the man and artist. While she details his fluctuating career fortunes, she also examines his era’s cultural/social issues of minstrelsy and blackface. Readers will gain keen insight into the milieu in which Williams struggled and ultimately triumphed, all too briefly.
This book is extensively footnoted, including a lengthy bibliography and well-placed illustrations. It is especially recommended for students of African-American and/or theatre history.
Thanks to Camille F. Forbes, we know that when Bert Williams told 1910 audiences that he was “Nobody,” he unknowingly guaranteed that countless minority performers nearly 100 years later would indeed be “somebody” on the Broadway stage he loved so much.
Reviewed by:
Catherine Ritchie, Theatre/Film Librarian
Dallas (TX) Public Library
Forbes, Camille F. Introducing Bert Williams: Burnt Cork, Broadway, and the Story of America’s First Black Star. New York: Basic Books, 2008. 404p. ISBN 978-0-465-02479-7. $27.50
