Sale 2471 - Printed & Manuscript African Americana, March 29, 2018

371 c   (THEATER.) Program for a London performance by BertWilliams and George Walker of “In Dahomey.” Two-sided tri-fold brochure, 10 x 12 1 / 2 inches, printed in green and brown on pale green paper; minimal wear and foxing. [London]: G. Harmsworth, 1 August 1903 [600/900] Considered “the first full-length musical written and played by blacks to be performed at a major Broadway house” (Bordman, American Musical Theatre, page 222). The production debuted in New York in February of 1903 before traveling to England. A musical comedy in the vaudeville tradition, it featured lyrics by the poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar and music by Will Marion Cook. Most reviewers keyed in on the lead performers, though, calling the Bahamian-American actor Bert Williams “a vastly funnier man than any white comedian now on the American stage.” The program features numerous advertisements, including one of Dunbar’s book “The Jest of Fate.” 372 372 c   (THEATER.) Photograph of vaudeville star Bert Williams. Silver print, 5 x 7 inches; small chip in lower left margin; inked stamp of photo agency on verso. Np: Bain News Service, circa 1916 [800/1,200] Bert Williams (1874-1922) was a very popular Bahamian-American entertainer who often performed in blackface.W.C. Fields once described him as “the funniest man I ever saw–and the saddest man I ever knew.” He is here posed casually, reclining on a lawn in street clothes and smoking a cigarette. 373 c   (THEATER.) Richardson,Willis; editor. Plays and Pageants from the Life of the Negro. Numerous illustrations. [iii]-x, 373 pages. 8vo, publisher’s pictorial cloth, minimal wear; lacking front free endpaper and possibly a half-title; inscribed by twice by May Miller and signed ten times by James LesesneWells. Washington, [1930] [300/400] A compilation of plays by May Miller,Willis Richardson and others, with illustrations by James Lesesne Wells.This copy is specially inscribed to Howard University law professor J. Clay Smith Jr. On the title page, the illustrator has written “To Clay Smith, friend of the arts, James L.Wells.”Wells then signs underneath his illustrations on pages [1], 24, 74, [75], [107], [139], 291, [293], and [343]. In addition, the playwright May Miller adds her inscription on page [109]: “For J. Clay Smith, the man who understands the rise of difference in ethnic groups. Sincerely, May Miller, 6/28/80.” She signs again on page [141], adding that Smith “understands many ways of handling a situation.”