I could tell there was another clear frame behind the one with a sheet-music cover of a black woman in orange kerchief lovingly holding a white child in night clothes. I wasn’t sure who was on that second cover, but I assumed that it, too, was one of those all-too-common early images of black women.
They were both propped up against a cardboard box on the auction table, partly hidden by other stuff closer to the edge. I slid the first cover aside and saw a face that I recognized: vaudevillian performer Bert Williams in black face.
More than a century ago, Williams had built his career by applying burnt cork to his dark skin, donning ankle-high pants and speaking in a dialect that had been ascribed to his people. He and his partner George Walker were among the most successful and well-known black vaudeville teams at that time.
Now, here, I had in my hands a torn and unfolded piece of sheet music from a 1920 play in which Williams had appeared. This was the first original item I had come across with an image of the actor/comedian/singer. Most of what I’d seen were pictures of him on the web – with and without makeup. The title song was “You’ll Never Need A Doctor No More,” and, according to the sheet, it was written by Chris Smith and introduced by Williams in the 1921 show “Broadway Brevities.”
Someone had written the name “Wiley” in ink and pencil on the front, and I wondered if it referred to actress Stella Wiley, wife of the famous vaudevillian Bob Cole. She had appeared on postcards demonstrating the cakewalk with Williams, Walker and Walker’s wife Aida Overton Walker, circa 1900. Williams and Walker had incorporated the dance into their act.
Cole, I learned, had teamed with J. Rosamond Johnson and his brother James Weldon Johnson (composers of “Lift Every Voice and Sing”) to write songs that elevated the usual fare of lyrics for vaudeville acts. Cole and Rosamond created an act that they performed without black face or tomfoolery that showed a disdain for blacks.
- The inside page of the sheet music with lyrics from the song “You’ll Never Need A Doctor No More” by Chris Smith.
The sheet music at auction contained only partial lyrics of “Doctor,” copyrighted in 1921 by Skidmore Music Co. of New York:
“I spose you all have heard of Doctor Fojo Bones
A very bitter enemy to Deacon Jones
Tuesday ev’ning Deacon Jones took sick
And seems he had to send for Doctor Fojo quick
On the Deacon’s face was a distressful frown
Indigestion had wore him down.”
I listened to Williams sing – his performance was more conversational than singing – on the web, and the song tells us that the doctor prescribed a solution that basically called for Deacon Jones to eat himself to death with both good and tainted food.
The front of the sheet music also listed the songs “Save a Little Dram for Me” and “Eve Cost Adam Just One Bone,” also from the Broadway show.
“Doctor” was written by Chris Smith, a black composer who was described as a prolific writer known particularly for the song “Ballin’ the Jack” for which he wrote the music. The song spawned a dance based on the lyrics by Jim Burris, and was popularized by an instrumental version performed by James Reese Europe Society Orchestra. Smith also collaborated with singer-actor Jimmy Durante during the 1920s.
Williams and Walker seemed to have thrived during vaudeville, smutting up their beautiful faces with black paint (One book noted that Williams had also longed to do serious theater). They were said, though, to have tried to round out the black characters in their skits.
Walker stopped performing after contracting syphilis, and Williams went out on his own to perform in “The Ziegfeld Follies” on Broadway. He spent the next 10 years or so in the yearly productions and became a Broadway star. He also produced, directed and starred in some all-black films. Williams recorded with Columbia Records (he and Walker had first signed with the label in 1906), and his music was among the label’s most popular recordings. The sheet music at auction noted that the song could be purchased either on vinyl or piano player rolls.
He left Ziegfeld in 1919 and then signed on with “Broadway Brevities of 1920,” which opened at the Winter Garden in 1920 (not 1921 as the sheet music had printed). Williams composed music for a burlesque ballet in the show, as well as appeared in sketches as a prison inmate and shoe-store customer. He also sang the song “Save a Little Dram for Me,” which he had previously recorded. The show did not get good reviews from critics and lasted for only 13 weeks.
This was Williams’ last Broadway appearance. He died in 1922 after catching a cold and developing pneumonia on tour with the show “Under the Bamboo Tree.”
