{"id":11222,"date":"2017-04-02T23:42:12","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T03:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=11222"},"modified":"2017-04-11T19:53:37","modified_gmt":"2017-04-11T23:53:37","slug":"shuffle-along-broad-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2017\/04\/shuffle-along-broad-street\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cShuffle Along\u201d Broad Street"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Southwest<\/a>
Dunbar Theatre (a\/k\/a Gibson Theatre), Broad and Lombard Streets, Southwest corner. July 6, 1927. (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cFourteen Thousand Negro Actors in This Country Now Performing,\u201d read a headline at the start of the 1922 theatrical season. \u201cIn vaudeville alone there are more than six hundred acts, of which are about sixty are now in Europe. There are twenty-two Negro minstrel shows touring the south.\u201d According to Billboard<\/em>, \u201c368 theaters in the United States [are] devoted entirely to the colored race.\u201d Among them, in Philadelphia: the Standard near 11th and South Streets, the Royal near 15th and South and the Nixon<\/a> on 52nd Street. Plus the only theater built, owned and operated by African Americans: the Dunbar at Broad and Lombard.<\/p>\n

From the moment it opened at the Dunbar on April 11, 1921, Eubie Blake\u2019s \u201cShuffle Along<\/a>\u201d demonstrated the power of the African American Jazz Sensation. \u201cA ball of merriment rolling at aero-plane speed,\u201d \u201cShuffle Along\u201d would complete its run on Broad in Philly and return again before opening on Broadway in New York where critics raved. \u201cThe biggest hit New York has witnessed in years\u2026 a breeze of super-jazz blown up from Dixie\u201d that would, over the next 60 weeks, establish a 500-performance legacy before going on tour.<\/p>\n

“Whether you like jazz or not,\u201d admitted the Philadelphia Orchestra\u2019s Leopold Stowkowski in 1924, \u201cit is a modern featurization of our hectic times and it is with us to stay.” Eubie Blake suggested that jazz\u2019s \u201cflash and fire” generated \u201cflamboyant effectiveness” both artistically and commercially. It offers up \u201cingredients of freshness in a world where there must be freshness constantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShuffle Along\u201d would become the gold standard for American musical theater and for the Dunbar. Time and time again, managers would mount jazz and vaudeville productions hoping for another hit. They promoted \u201cLiza<\/a>\u201d as the \u201cmusical thrill that won’t let your feet behave,\u201d the “logical successor to \u2018Shuffle Along.\u2019\u201d They opened “Carolina Nights” with choreography by Charlie Davis, the \u201cdancing cop\u201d from \u201cShuffle Along.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the first half of the 1920s, Dunbar audiences would enjoy \u201cCreole Follies,\u201d \u201cHarlem Follies,\u201d \u201cEbony Follies” and “Charleston Fricassee.” They came out for “Come Along Mandy;” \u00a0“Runnin’ Wild;” “Banville Dandies Revue;” Jimmie Cooper’s All Colored Revue “Hotsy Totsy” and Mamie Smith and her “Syncopators’ Revue Cyclonic Jazz Band.\u201d None took off quite like \u201cShuffle Along.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no color line in the theater\u201d proclaimed one Inquirer<\/em> critic, claiming the broad and sustained appeal of “Shuffle Along\u201d as proof. Yet there was<\/em> a color line, possibly even several. Racial discrimination by mainstream theaters was one of the reasons the African American community built the Dunbar in the first place. And as quickly as the blockbuster \u201cShuffle Along\u201d found a home at the Dunbar, after the extended Broadway run, it would return, but to greener pastures on Broad Street. In May 1923, \u201cShuffle Along\u201d opened for a four-week run not at the Dunbar, but at the Forrest Theatre, then at Broad and Sansom Streets, a mainstream venue with a much larger stage and, more to the point, 400 additional seats for eager ticket buyers. Ironically, the success of African American productions would undercut the success of the Dunbar.<\/p>\n

\"Old<\/a>
Old Forrest Theater, Broad and Sansom Streets, Southeast corner. October 14, 1916. (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And this time, \u201cShuffle Along\u201d came to Philadelphia with the 16-year-old Josephine Baker on its chorus line.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the best part of a capacity house singles out one little girl in the chorus and gives her attention every time she appears,\u201d raved a critic, \u201cit shows the recognition of qualities as stars are made of. There is a girl like this in the all-colored musical success, \u2018Shuffle Along,\u2019 at the Forrest Theatre. She is a sturdy youngster with a winning way and comedy that asserts itself in everything she does. She is one of the happy-honeysuckles and her name is Josephine Baker. Jolly as she seems to be in her work, the stage romping is serious business with Josephine. \u2026 Miss Baker has been in the professional only a short time but she has done much during that period. She knows how to make people laugh and how to sing and dance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Would Josephine Baker ever<\/em> debut at the Dunbar?<\/p>\n

She would. In November 1924, Baker performed in \u201cChocolate Dandies,\u201d another Eubie Blake show. \u201cWith snap and zest and to the tune of much musical melody, \u2018The Chocolate Dandies\u2019 \u2018strutted their stuff\u2019 into Philadelphia\u2026 The lid was off and it was a race all evening\u201d and the double-jointed \u201cJosephine Baker carries off the honors.\u201d<\/p>\n

When \u201cChocolate Dandies\u201d closed, it was Baker\u2019s last appearance at the Dunbar and her next to the last<\/em> appearance on Broad Street. In February 1928, after Baker had relocated to Paris and performed at the Folies Berg\u00e8r, a clip of her famous \u201cbanana skirt<\/a>\u201d dance made its way into a film travelogue, “Paris by Night,” being shown at the Academy of Music at Broad and Locust Streets. No matter that the film had been \u201cviewed by more than 150,000 people and 15 cities without creating criticism on its alleged impropriety.\u201d One Philadelphia \u201cpatron\u201d had lodged her complaint about Baker\u2019s \u201clack of garb\u201d and the censors deleted Baker’s performance from all subsequent screenings.<\/p>\n

It wouldn\u2019t be the last time official censors<\/a> would have their way with African-American artists and their work on stage in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

[Sources include: \u201cDunbar Theatre To Open Monday, December 29th ,\u201d The Philadelphia Tribune<\/em>, December 27, 1919; \u201cShuffle Along,\u201d The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>, April 12, 1921; \u201cShuffle Along: Biggest New York Hit,\u201d The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>, December 11, 1921; \u201cThere are Many Colored Thespians,\u201d The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>, September 17, 1922; \u201c\u2019Shuffle Along:\u2019 Breezy Musical Show Scores a Big Hit at the Forrest,\u201d The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>, May 8, 1923; \u201cShe Is a Real Comedy Chorus Girl,\u201d The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>, May 20, 1923; “How a Jazzer Views Such Music,\u201d The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>, November 23, 1924; \u201cChocolate Dandies Score at Dunbar,\u201d The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>, November 25, 1924; \u201cParis Night Life Scene Cut From Travel Film,\u201d The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>, February 19, 1928.]<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cFourteen Thousand Negro Actors in This Country Now Performing,\u201d read a headline at the start of the 1922 theatrical season. \u201cIn vaudeville alone there are more than six hundred acts, of which are about sixty are now in Europe. There are twenty-two Negro minstrel shows touring the south.\u201d According to Billboard, \u201c368 theaters in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}