Gretchen Branche in Broadway’s “Blackbirds of 1933”

The publicity photo of a young African American woman seemed out of place in the box. The large photo was lying at the bottom, hidden by a stack of  smaller-sized cabinet cards of African Americans from the late 19^th century.

Hers was obviously from a later period, and when I turned over it over, it bore her name – Gretchen Branche – in pencil along with an inscription announcing her appearance in Lew Leslie’s “Blackbirds of 1933” at Brooklyn, NY’s Majestic Theater. She had been photographed by DeBarron Studios, known for its glamourous theatrical portraits.

Branche was a singer in the 1933 version of Leslie’s two-act Broadway “colored revues” that featured all-black casts singing, dancing, telling jokes and playing music for white audiences. It was one of six revues starting in 1926 and ending in 1939. Along the way, the shows were said to have made stars of tap-dance maestro Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, and singers Florence Mills and Adelaide Hall, who sang with the Duke Ellington Band.

Branche signed on to the show in September and appeared in performances in Boston before arriving at the Majestic. The revue was then headed to Broadway at the Apollo Theater on West 42^nd Street, with tickets costing $3.30. An ad boasted that it had 100 black actors.

She performed in three skits and sang a duet with Phil Scott titled “I Just Couldn’t Take It Baby.” The production featured skits that mocked some other well-known shows, including Eugene O’Neill’s play “The Emperor Jones.” It was rewritten as “Emperor Bones,” with apologies to O’Neill.

“If you were fortunate enough to witness a performance (of) Lew Leslie’s ‘Blackbirds of 1933,'” stated a Dec. 30, 1933, article in the Pittsburgh Courier, “you saw a student of Juilliard’s Conservatory of Music, a graduate of West Virginia State ’33, and a native of Fayetteville (NC) in the person of the pretty Gretchen Branche, who featured the song hit of the production “I Just Couldn’t Take It Baby” with Phil Scott.”

I could find no mention elsewhere of her attending Juilliard.

The 1933 revue attracted some harsh reviews – “started badly, may catch on,” said Variety. It opened at the Apollo on Dec. 2, closed for revisions on Dec. 15, reopened on Dec. 25 and closed on Dec. 30 after 25 performances. Robinson was in the first half of the run but didn’t return after the revisions.

Several critics cited Robinson as the star. He performed the staircase tap dance that he had popularized in the “Blackbirds of 1928.” “In the midst of a floundering Negro revue,” a New York Times critic wrote, “he is the one master of style. Without wasting energy or time or directing attention to anything except his virtuoso feet he devotes himself to tap dancing, which is a form of physical exercise he has translated into magic.” A New Yorker magazine critic noted that since Robinson had left, the show offered little to see. “It was the only ‘colored revue’ on Broadway ‘for you to see, if you want to see a colored revue.'”

African American scholar W.E.B. DuBois found the show, whose material was written by whites, stereotypical. The skits included scenes on a plantation, poker players, voodoo and minstrels in black face.

The Blackbirds enterprise was conceived by Leslie, a former vaudeville actor who became famous for producing black shows at the Cotton Club and other nightclubs. His Blackbirds was not the first Broadway show with an all-black cast but was the longest running, with 518 performances. The other was “Shuffle Along,” the 1921 hit by composer Eubie Blake, lyricist Noble Sissle, and writers Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles. It ran for 484 performances.

The Brooklyn Eagle newspaper, in announcing Blackbird’s premiere at the Majestic, described Leslie as the “discoverer of Negro talent.”

“Lew Leslie, whose newest edition of ‘Blackbirds’ comes to the Majestic Theater tomorrow, is, they say, one of the most self-effacing producers in show business. He begins planning a show six or eight months in advance of the rehearsal and virtually closets himself in a room with his authors until he works out in full his entertainment pattern.

“Thus, one of his productions is hardly under way when he starts his labors on a new one. Because he has been identified … with colored extravaganzas, the playgoing public labored under the idea that he was a member of that race. Leslie, however, is a Caucasian and has produced, among other white shows, ‘The International Revue,’ with Gertrude Lawrence, Jack Pearl and Harry Richman, and ‘Clowns in Clover.’

“He imported the first contingent of colored entertainers from Harlem and established them, with appropriate scenic investiture on a night club stage then known as the Plantation. This innovation so pleased jaded amusement seekers that the Gay White Way has since not been without its Negro entertainers.”

Leslie produced the first Blackbirds in 1926 in Harlem clubs, then took it to Europe before coming to Broadway. It featured Mills, who appeared in several of his productions before she died in 1927 after the London tour. The troupe was in London for 279 shows. The most legendary Blackbirds was in 1928. It included Robinson, Hall, and actors Nina Mae McKinney and Mantan Moreland. Eloise Uggams, the aunt of Leslie Uggams, was also in it.

The 1930 show featured Ethel Waters, tap dancer Louise Madison, and Miller and Lyles with music by Eubie Blake, and stayed around for 62 shows. The Nicholas Brothers were in the 1936 show in London. The 1939 show was the last one and ran for nine performances. A young Lena Horne sang and danced in it.

As for Branche, she met her future husband, Arthur A. Waples, while singing at a service organized by her great aunt in Burlington, NJ. She got married in 1940 and joined her husband in operating funeral homes in the area. She obtained her mortuary license.

Branche had a love for mink coats and fine cars, according to her obituary. She died at age 97 in 2011. “She was always smiling, vivacious and grand. The life of the party. Being from a background of an opera singer, you’re usually onstage. That spilled into her life as a funeral director,” said her son in the obit.

A Republican, she ran for the New Jersey Assembly in 1967 but lost, was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1968, voted for Richard Nixon and went to his inauguration. Branche also founded a debutantes ball and created a scholarship in her husband’s name.