The name of Samuel Milady (better known as Sam Lucas) will ever go down in Thespian circles as one of the greatest performers in the old school of Negro actors. He not only wrote the sensational play of his day, “My Grandfather’s Clock”, but played its leading role. But his world popularity and fame were mostly won through his impressive playing of “Uncle Tom” in the original white “Uncle Tom’s Cabin Company.”
S. Tutt Whitney and J. Homer Tutt, with their “Smarter Set” Co., are to stageland today what Williams and Walker were with their Company years ago. The team work of Whitney and Tutt is without doubt the most wonderful combination of versatile comedy acting put forth over the footlights within the past ten years. They produce and act their own compositions to full houses whenever and wherever they perform, and one of their latest hits is “Bamboula.”
A Colored comedian who is in a class by himself is the many-sided Billy King. His ability to make people laugh without tickling them in their ribs or even on their knees is nationally known. Beside being a genius in acting, he is versatile composer of over a hundred stage productions in which he has played the leading parts in scores of them. His show is such a financial success that it is said he annually pays over two hundred thousand dollars as salaries to the half hundred or more people in his employment. Billy King is without doubt the greatest individual producer-performer of high-class musical comedy in the Negro race today. He is also one of those (scarce-as-hen-teeth) human beings on earth who seems to have been born under certain stars whose horoscopic influences magnetize dollars from every place and steadily drop them into his pockets whether he is working or playing. For Mr. King is just as financially successful in his insurance company and other business seriousness as he is in his theatrical fun making.
Two of the leading moving picture actors among the American Colored people are: Noble Johnson who has appeared in such national reels as “Intolerance” and “The Death Warrant”, and Donald Lashley who has acted and posed for pictures with Alice Joyce, played forty-five weeks with Billie Burke in “Caesar’s Wife”, and took part in “The Passion Flower” with Norma Talmadge. During the four years he has been acting for the screens he has played in company with many other white moving picture stars.
According to an article that appeared in the May 27, 1921 issue of the Negro Star of Wichita, Kansas, Colored people in America own and operate seven film companies producing pictures with Negro casts. One of these companies is The Lincoln Motion Picture Company, which is incorporated in California and has been producing moving picture films for the past five years. Negro actors and actresses are wholly featured in its reels that are shown in Colored theatres and other institutions throughout the United States. Among its star reel features are: “Realization of a Negro’s Ambition”, “The Trooper of Troop K.” “Law of Nature” and “By Right of Birth.” The Micheaux Film Corporation, Chicago, Ill., is another nationally known moving picture producer. The founder and president of this company is Oscar Micheaux, who is recognized as America’s foremost Negro producer. His chief productions are “The Brute”, “The Homesteader”, “The Gunsaulus Mystery”, “The Symbol of The Unconquered” and “Within Our Gates”.
Some of the leading Colored moving picture stars of today are: Dick Abrams, Jack Austin, L. De Bulger, Jim Burris, Lawrence Chenault, Louise Dunbar, Iris Hall, Evelyn Preer, E. G. Tatum, Walker Thompson, Lee Whipper and Mattie Wilkes, W. H. Herman.
Right here before the facts again slips from the writer’s mind, must be mentioned two actors, the late Tom Brown and Ernest Hogan. On account of their seemingly unlimited theatrical abilities, their earnestness in performing and their cheerful and lovable dispositions, those two were among the best and most popular actors during their times.
S. H. Dudley aside from having shone in the center of the actor’s spotlight when taking active parts on the stage, has become one of America’s leading Colored theatrical promoters, builders and managers in the country. He is owner or part owner of theatres in Washington, D.C., Petersburg, Va. and other cities. In theatrical circles the name of Dudley is as familiar and popular among Colored people as the name of Keith is among white people.
“The King Pin of ’em all” (A humorous and fitting description made by the “Old Roll Top Desk Man, With the Million Dollar Smile”) is Charles S. Gilpin the world-famed dramatic actor, who was given the highest thespian honors of the season on Broadway.
“Never in the history of the stage has an actor been accorded the class of press notices handed Gilpin during his present engagement. What he did in a dramatic way in “Abraham Lincoln” attracted the plaudits of the critics of the metropolitan press; but his wonderful work in “The Emperor Jones” has more than eclipsed anything seen on Broadway in many years. Indeed, some writers claim that never before has a character been portrayed in as graphic a manner as is the title role in Gilpin’s present vehicle.” The above is an extract taken from an article that appeared in the March 26, 1921 issue of the Chicago Defender and which article was written by Tony Langston, Dramatic Editor and Advertising Manager of that paper.