Sister Francesca Thompson lecture, "The Lafayette Players, 1915-1932," at the University of Iowa, June 5, 1973
Speaker 1: The following is an address from the Fifth Annual Institute for Afro-American Culture recorded at the University of Iowa, June 5th, 1973. The topic for the Institute was the Afro-American On Stage and Film. The Lafayette Players, 1915 to 1932, was the subject of this address by Sister Francesca Thompson, Assistant Professor of Drama at Marion College in Indianapolis, Indiana. Introducing Sister Thompson is Darwin Turner, Director of the Institute for Afro-American Culture at the University of Iowa.
Darwin Turner: I warned Sister Francesca this evening that it's quite fortunate for her that I had no copy of Chaucer available when I thought of the way I would really like to begin this introduction. With the description of one man's impression of what certain individuals of religious orders can be.
Darwin Turner: Chaucer had admiration for the gentleness of the woman, but Chaucer would have written an even stronger, more impassioned, more humanized description if he had had the opportunity that some of us have had both at this Institute and earlier to know Sister Francesca Thompson, one who turned against the ways of our parents, turned against individuals identified with the sin of theater, to return to the true light. You know with many individuals who are members of religious orders, I not only would not dare do this, but certainly would not dare do it with my back turned. This, however, I think is an indication of the true warmth, the genuineness of Sister Francesca Thompson, who is our lecturer for this evening. The remark I made was not facetious. Her parents were theatrical performers, very distinguished theatrical performers, in the very distinguished company that is going to be discussed this evening.
Darwin Turner: Her parents were Edward Thompson and Evelyn Preer, members of the original Lafayette Players. Sister Francesca, who was born in Los Angeles, received her masters at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. We discovered a commonness tonight since I was across town at the University of Cincinnati. She received her PhD in Speech and Theater from the University of Michigan, where she did a dissertation on the Lafayette Players. She was one of the founders of the Indianapolis Catholic Theater Guild, lectures throughout the country on interracial relationships, on drama, and on catholicity today. She's presently employed as an Assistant Professor of Drama at Marion College, a co-educational college sponsored by her religious community in Indianapolis and at Marion, she directs two plays a year and at least one play is a Black play performed by the Black Student Union. It gives me great pleasure to introduce Sister Francesca Thompson, to discuss the Lafayette Players 1915, 1932.
Sister Francesc...: Those of us who have had to suffer through long introductions being made about oneself, know how horrendous that can be. I've always thought that they really were such a bore, anyway, because the really important things could never be said aloud. Also since it has been well established here, that I've completely blown the nun image, I suppose I can't quarrel with Professor Turner's allusion to Mr. Chaucer's description of the nun. At least it was spelled differently. Please believe me when I tell you, and I am not merely being prosaic, when I say that it gives me a great deal of pleasure to stand before you tonight to speak about the subject that has been chosen for this evening's lecture, and I can almost hear the male members of the audience as they inaudibly sigh, and what female isn't anxious to be up and talking about anything. But I am particularly interested in my subject this evening.
Sister Francesc...: Let's say that it gives me special pleasure to talk about something that is especially dear to me, the Lafayette Players. So little has been written about, or is really known about, the Lafayette Players that my research into this topic became almost a matter of detective work. By advertising in every Black publication in the country that generously offered me their services gratis, I was able to contact two of the most important people ever connected with the company, Anita Bush, who founded the players, and Clarence Muse, who was their illustrious star for many years. Both gave generously to me of their time and placed at my disposal their private collections. Edna Thomas is another living member of the Lafayette Players who resides in New York. Edna has been a personal friend of my family's for years, and she too was a big help. As you have already been informed both my deceased parents, Edward Thompson and Evelyn Preer, were members of this group. I therefore confess to you at the outset, some prejudice and bias perhaps.
Sister Francesc...: And because of this, I have made every effort to be as objective as possible. Admittedly, this was not a very easy task for me. I am more than anxious, therefore, to share with you tonight some of the information that I have unearthed about the Lafayette Players.
Sister Francesc...: The history of the contributions of Black dramatic actors in America has been, up until this time, an obscure one. In an effort to shed some light upon a past that has for too long lain in darkness, I wanted to find out as much as I possibly could about the real achievements of the original Lafayette Players. This group, which performed from 1915 to 1932, was the first, and we said today that we had to be careful about using the word first, major professional Black stock company in this country. Making a significant stride forward, they were, I think, an ambitious band of Black artists who were successful in their attempt to step outside the mold which had been forced upon them by white writers, producers and managers, as well as by both white and Black audiences in the early days of American theater history. Prior to the early 1900s, Blacks were in evidence on the stage only as caricatures of themselves, comic, shuffling misrepresentations of real life people of color. Sepia, if you will.
Sister Francesc...: The entire recorded history of the minstrel show and minstrelsy in America helps to support my argument, that for many performers, as well as for the majority of audiences, the Black man could only be represented upon the stage in a manner in which he had been conceived in some people's minds, as the indolent, English gobbing buffoon with a handkerchief wrapped head. This outlandish, in quotes, "typical Negro" became unhappily the stock Negro upon the American stage. Obviously, those who mistakenly believe that the stereotype was the first and only type of Black entertainer are ignorant of the achievements of proud Black artists, such as James Hewlett and Ira Aldridge.
Sister Francesc...: These men earned the title of Black tragedians long before Uncle Tom, Topsy or Rastas had done their irreparable damage to a nation's thinking about an entire group of people. Swiftly and effectively in America, a pattern was established upon our stage. A Black performer could only be considered a source of laughter, ridicule, sport and derision. It was his designed place, the fool's place, and if he would not fill it, then white performers would fill it for him.
Sister Francesc...: By donning a pseudo Black court mask, white entertainers set about imitating their own creations, and it is important to remember that it was the white man's creation. The caricature Black man, who rarely if ever existed in real life. The American white man was determined to have his fun out of the Negro, observes Professor Sterling Brown in an analysis of the social role of minstrelsy in this country. The first break with the damning tradition gradually began to develop, but it was not until the late 1880s that Blacks were creating for themselves roles that put aside the accepted tradition of the past. It was in the musical comedies written by Blacks for Blacks that this change came about.
Sister Francesc...: The Black performer continued to do what he had been told that he did best, sing and dance. But at least he was writing his own material, and his comic routines were an attempt to have an audience laugh with him rather than merely at him. It was a time of change in many areas. Forces were being unleashed everywhere, especially within theatrical circles. Hope for a first class place in the mainstream of American living grew stronger. This hope, affecting every aspect of the Black man's life, pulsed throbbingly in the Black performer's being. Black entertainers of those early painful years are to be accorded credit for having survived within a system that seemed to be, and actually was in most instances, bent on destroying them artistically.
Sister Francesc...: The ultimate goal was the freedom to be an artist and a dignified entertainer. There remained with these early entertainers, the ever present and abundant hope that one day they themselves could share in the laughter that they generated, and that their own laughter, to quote "would not ever and always be tainted with the salt and chagrin of tears".
Sister Francesc...: The story of the progress of the Black man in the entertainment arts since 1900 has been one of growing affirmation of manhood and of full citizenship. His final goal of course has not been reached, nor will it be reached until his own unique contribution cease being isolated from the larger panorama of the American entertainment and theater history as a whole.
Sister Francesc...: At this time, in the early part of the new century, one of the new breed of Black entertainers, young Anita Bush came forward with a new idea. Ms. Bush had performed successfully as a singer and a dancer with the famous company of Bert Williams and Andrew Walker, but she wanted to do more than sing and dance. She conceived the idea of a Black dramatic stock company, and although her idea was not entirely new or even original, the method by which the company would function had been, prior to that time by Blacks, completely unknown.
Sister Francesc...: In my last years at the University of Michigan, I took a course called theater companies of the 20th century. And during that course, an uninformed colleague of mine gave a report about Hallie Flanagan's Federal Theater Project. And in that report, he mistakenly said, "It was not until Hallie Flanagan generously gave them the opportunity that Black entertainers were able to perform upon an American stage credibly." And at that point, I did a very un-nunny thing. And in spite of the fact that Francesca is known for un-nunny things, I screamed aloud in protest. And securing the attention of the other members of the class, I settled back to my very nunny voice, and said, "I wish to disagree." And I tried to tell a bit of the story of Anita Bush.
Sister Francesc...: As a little girl growing up in Brooklyn, the daughter of a tailor whose clients were predominantly show business people. Ms. Bush had come into contact with the theater and fallen helpless prey to the lure of footlights, grease paint, stage doors, dressing room and rum. She relates that while watching Walter Houston, the great actor and father to Hollywood's Houston, before magnificently in the Shakespearian dramas at the Old Columbia Theater in Brooklyn, she decided to herself, ridiculous as it seemed at the time, "That's for me."
Sister Francesc...: Her first opportunity to act came when she and her sister were offered roles as extra serving maids in a production of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, presented at the Park Theater by white professionals, for whom her father sewed. After this initial presentation, she admits that she was addicted for life, and thereafter, she and her sister played any part given to them. Any part that they could wheedle, beg or implore the director, manager or stars to hire them for.
Sister Francesc...: Ms. Bush says that she managed to wiggle her way into every scene possible and learned everybody else's lines by heart, waiting for the day when somebody would drop dead and she would get to go on in their stead. Her sister too, took part in the productions, and after dinner over the dish pan.
Sister Francesc...: They enacted together the entire play, line for line, alternating roles. "We felt certain," says Ms. Bush, "that Broadway didn't know what they were missing." I would have to agree.
Sister Francesc...: At the age of 16 and after much cajoling of her worried father, Anita was permitted to join the Williams and Walker Company, then playing successfully in New York. She traveled to Europe with the group when it toured and performed with them in London and throughout England. She remained with the company after they returned to the States and during their triumphant return to New York. After a few years, Burt Williams though followed the call of Broadway big time and joined the Follies of Ziegfield, where his name of course has become legendary.
Sister Francesc...: The company disbanded and Anita found herself without a job. Undaunted by the temporary misfortune, she chose four or five of her most talented friends who called themselves Chorus Girls, and she farmed her own dancing group. She said she knew that she had arrived when they had their own dressmaker. Unfortunately, a serious accident backstage resulted in a critical back injury that kept her on crutches for a year. Crutches not being the best asset for a hoofer, she was forced to disband her group of dancers.
Sister Francesc...: Removal of the crutches was followed by a long and weakening fight with pneumonia. Confined to her bed for many weeks, Anita had time to rethink her earlier dreams and plans, and to reconstruct her wild dream of a dramatic stock company. She vowed that as soon as she could get out of bed and walk, she would set out to fulfill her earlier dream and ambition. At this time, there were two theaters in Harlem that were catering to colored patrons. The Lincoln Theater located at West 135th Street and the Lafayette Theater at 132nd Street and 7th Avenue. The latter theater boasted of a co-manager, Lester Walton, who was Black. Anita had to decide to which theater she would make her offer of a dramatic stock company.
Sister Francesc...: The Lincoln Theater had opened experimentally as a storefront theater containing 297 seats and had been in operation since Christmas Eve of 1908. In order to meet the growing demands of the community, the building of a new theater was begun and completed in October of that year. And so the theater was called The New Lincoln. One reason for the past success of this unique playhouse had apparently been the broad management of the proprietress of the theater, Mrs. Marie C. Downs, who was considered by the Harlem community to be a very liberal white. According to Mrs. Downs, the theater had been built to give colored performers an opportunity to receive a hearing before the public, since there was no hope of colored performers being heard or seen on the great white way.
Sister Francesc...: Mrs. Downs was assisted in the management of the theater by a Mr. Eugene Elmore, who because of his appearance, evidently was referred to by the theater people of Harlem as Frenchy Elmore. While still recuperating from her illness, Anita Bush attended a Saturday afternoon matinee of a silent motion picture at the Lincoln Theater. There had been a big slump in the vaudeville attractions and the house was being used at that time for films in between bookings of live entertainment. Anita was strongly impressed, she said by the beauty and majesty of the theater and was very distressed to see only six or seven patrons enjoying the movie.
Sister Francesc...: Her mind began to whirl and she immediately thought of contacting Frenchy about changing the face of the newly renovated theater. Worried about the business slump that had hit the new theater and to which so much money had been invested, Elmore was evidently more than anxious and ready to listen to any idea that might possibly boom his business. Anita says that he took to her plan so quickly that her head, which was already spinning from fever began to get even dizzier. She told him that she wanted to launch a new idea in New York, especially in New York theatrical circles, a colored dramatic stock company called the Anita Bush Stock Company.
Sister Francesc...: Speaking with a conviction that she says she, of course did not feel, she convinced Elmore that her group was already assembled and ready to go to work. Even at this early stage, I believe she was proving her acting ability. She assured Elmore that she could guarantee him an eager and receptive crowd to fill his empty theater. Anita Bush spoke her dream aloud for the first time. Her positive, confident air obviously impressed Mr. Elmore to such a degree that he didn't stop to discuss money matters first, but he asked her how soon her company could be ready. Promising a finished production within two weeks and her company ready to perform in front of a paying audience, and pushing for a fair amount of money for her actors, which as yet didn't exist, Anita and Elmore met the following Monday morning in the office of an attorney, Louis [Radallshiner] and signed a contract, which made their verbal agreement legal. Anita said, "I lied through my teeth and it worked."
Sister Francesc...: Next, she contacted Billy Burke, a white director who was fairly well known around Harlem and who had done some playwriting. The play chosen for her groups' debut was one of Burke's own works, The Girl At the Fort. She says, "It was really David Belasco's play reworked, but I didn't stop to quibble with him about that." Anita felt certain that she could find good character actors to fill the five roles required. She rushed back to Harlem to scout for actors because Elmore wanted pictures taken as soon as possible so that he could advertise the opening performance in the Black newspapers of New York. And while these actors existed very vividly in Anita is mind, she didn't feel that these actors in her mind could be photographed.
Sister Francesc...: She happened to run into an old friend along the way, Jesse Shipp, whose name will be familiar to many of you, a Black director of no little reputation who would manage most of William's company productions. When she told him of her plans, she said Shipp was almost taken off his feet and promptly assured her that she was crazy, that the time was not ready or ripe for such a venture. He felt that there weren't even enough proficient Black performers to provide a competent cast. Undaunted and undismayed, undiscouraged by his negative reaction, Anita Bush rushed on to her search that was to yield a cast which proved to be more than adequate.
Sister Francesc...: Tab shows were very much in vogue as fillers between vaudeville acts of the silent movies that were becoming more and more popular. These were short skits, usually musical, but not always so, that took from 10 to 20 minutes. Charles Gilpin, who had made a name for himself at the Pekin Theater in Chicago and was well known in Harlem, was engaged in such a tab show act with a young woman. Gilpin was the first person that Anita just happened to meet after her encounter with Jesse Ship. And when she explained to Gilpin what she intended to do and her accomplishments up to that time, Gilpin responded with great interest, although he agreed with Jesse Ship. "You know, Anita, I think you're crazy." Eyeing her silently when she was finished talking, however, he shook his head after she had asked him to join her endeavor. And he said, "Bushy, I have to close up my tab act. You understand that?" And then thoughtfully rubbing his chin and breaking into a huge grin, he said, "But you know, we ain't doing nothing anyway." And so Charles Gilpin became the second member of the Anita Bush Dramatic Stock Company.
Sister Francesc...: Next, Ms. Bush ran into Dooley Wilson, who was a well known Harlem comedian. He had not gained the great fame that was to come to him as soon as he was addressed by a famous white movie star, who said to him, "Play it again, Sam." Then Carlotta Freeman, who was delighted at the prospect of work. And finally, a handsome young man, very popular among Harlem theatrical folk, particularly among the female members of the Harlem audiences, Andrew Bishop. Bishop brought the number of a neatest company to the grand total of five. And Andrew Bishop was to remain with the group intermittently throughout the entire 17 years that it was to remain in existence. At a later date, Bishop was temporarily to assume the role of manager and director for the company.
Sister Francesc...: Through the newspaper, ads, pictures, et cetera, the newly formed stock company was introduced to the Harlem community. Both popular Black newspapers in Harlem, the New York Age and the New York Amsterdam News, heralded the grand opening of the company at the New Lincoln Theater, November 15th, 1915. Ms. Bush recalls that opening night with pride and some humor. She says that whenever she hears herself spoken of as the little mother of drama, and this often happens today, she has to laugh, recalling the labor pains that she suffered in preparation for the birth of her company on that November night. And she says, "No mother ever clasps more warmly to her breast a new newly born infant than I did my company after we had successfully taken our last curtain call." Curtain call's numbering 28 on that opening night.
Sister Francesc...: Anita's scrapbook bulges with clippings about this monumental occasion and all the reviews are favorable. Needless to say, all the reviews were written by Black critics. The company played successfully for six continuous weeks at the New Lincoln Theater, changing the bill several times during its engagement. During this time, Billie Burke assumed the management as well as the directorial duties for the company. Since Mr. Elmore had left the theater and gone over for some reason to the rival theater, the Lafayette, he allowed Ms. Bush to select plays which she preferred performing. Most of the cast, like the one for the Girl at the Fort, were small.
Sister Francesc...: In response to the question that came up this afternoon, "How well did the people of the streets, let's say, receive the Lafayette Players or how much did it mean to them?" I would think from what I have read concerning these early performances, that it meant a great deal to the people of Harlem to be able to see their own people doing something successfully that they had not seen done successfully prior to that time. Anita says, and quite eloquently, "We had very little, you know, but we took what we had in our hands, and we offered it to our own people, to the people of Harlem. And they did not disappoint us, for they were eager to be fed the whole bread that they were now getting instead of the crumb that had been thrown to them prior to this time."
Sister Francesc...: The newly developed company did more than merely provide entertainment, I think, for its Black patrons. It afforded an education from the stage for its participants, as well as for its audiences. The members of this pioneer group of Black artists were messengers of a new generation of Black performers and were recognized as such by an equally new Black audience. They were not Black perhaps in the sense that we speak of being Black today. But to those who would deny that the time was right, they cried, "The time is indeed ripe for us to show that we have talents yet unexplored. And now is the time for us to begin proving this fact to all who would doubt us." True. There were no Black playwrights who were being heard through these actors. Angry voices of militancy and dissatisfaction with the system were not the tools that they used in their particular area of contribution toward advancing the Black artist on the American stage.
Sister Francesc...: I would be the first to grant this. However, they did bring the existing materials and the only tools that they had, their own native abilities, and as had been said to them so often, their innate ability to mimic. An understanding and appreciation for this new form of entertainment did not develop among all its audiences overnight. Both audience and performers needed time to be reeducated. And thanks to Anita Bush and her company of neophytes, school time had begun. To whites who said, particularly the white critics, "But all they're doing is imitating, because they really don't have the feelings. They don't have the depth of expression that white artists have. All they're doing on stage is imitating what they have seen white artists do." And I agree with them, because they had seen white performers mimic Blacks. And so it was time to get back at the mimickers.
Sister Francesc...: When questioned about the aims and ambitions of the early members of the Lafayette Players, Clarence Muse, who was to join the company later and become one of its brightest stars, said reflectively and positively, and I quote "Girl, don't talk to me about aims and ambitions. All we ever intended to do was give vent to our talent, and approved everybody who was willing to look to watch and to listen that we were just as good as them. We wanted to prove that we were as good as anybody else had been or could be. The door opened just a tiny bit. And as always, Black folks, when faced with an open door, no matter how small that wedge is, eases in." The company of Anita Bush eased in, and they met with so much success in those first weeks of initial trial that the business minded Mrs. Downs did the most business minded thing possible for her to do, and I admire her for it.
Sister Francesc...: She requested for business reasons, of course, that Miss Bush change the name of her group from the Anita Bush Stock Company to the Lincoln Stock Company just so people wouldn't be confused. The request was prompted by a good business woman's reasoning. The thing for the theater managers to do was to capitalize on the newly found fame and popularity of the young group. Mrs. Downs however, had not reckoned with Miss Bush's great business sense or her indomitable pride.
Sister Francesc...: In response to Mrs. Down's proposal, Miss Bush declared, "My company plays under my name dear. You want a company under your name, you start one." Taking advantage of the very lenient contract between them, Miss Bush gave the theater managers two weeks' notice and transferred her entire company consisting of the five original members to the rival theater, the Lafayette, which if you recall by this time was under the co-management of her very dear friend, Mr. Frenchy Elmore.
Sister Francesc...: The newspapers announced that on December 27, 1915, the Anita Bush Stock Company would make its debut at the Lafayette Theater in an entirely new play, Across the Footlights. And Anita says, "I don't remember who wrote that one."
Sister Francesc...: Perhaps we may say at this stage, in retrospect, that the group was far from accomplished, far from being sophisticated or polished according to today's standards. They were still groping of course, in many ways, but the Black night of the prejudice past, which had so long held them from the bright glare of the footlights of the American stage was ever so gradually receding and the bright dawn of acceptance, appreciation and perhaps understanding was at long last breaking upon them.
Sister Francesc...: A newspaper article announcing Anita Bush's move also stated that when the history of colored theatricals was written, Anita Bush would have the honor of being mentioned as the first person to have introduced legitimate drama to both the colored theatrical houses in New York. I hope that Anita Bush's name will always be mentioned whenever the history of Black theater is spoken of in America.
Sister Francesc...: The audiences, which the company had delighted at the new Lincoln, followed them after they transferred headquarters to the Lafayette. The Black drama critic for the New York Age, Lester Walton, was also co-manager of the theater, and I'm certain that this added to the company's ability to get good reviews in the news. While Walton admitted that the stock company might not reach the peak of greatness in its time, he declared that it would be remembered as having introduced to New York the idea which was bound to take deep root to spread and to redound to the good of the Negro on the stage. Isn't that what genius has always been about; implanting ideas?
Sister Francesc...: In January, the original group of five was joined by seven new members for the production of the Actor Room. Among the new members who were to remain with the group for any length of time were J. Francis Mores and Mrs. Charles Anderson, who after some success in the theater assumed her own name, Ida Anderson. After this production, new names constantly appeared in the cast list.
Sister Francesc...: In March 1916, an ad in the New York Age announced that Charles Gilpin would star in a forthcoming production, Southern Life, directed by Mr. A. C. Winn, and he would be supported by the Lafayette Stock Company. This was the first time that the new name was used in print and it is also the first noting of A. C. Winn's direction.
Sister Francesc...: Although there were to be several titles given to the group in ensuing years, they considered themselves from this time forth, The Lafayette Players. Even while playing under the sponsorship of the Elite Amusement Corporation, and sometimes being identified with the Elite Amusement Company, or even later when various members of the company assumed temporary management, the group was still known to its public as the Lafayette Players. Apparently Anita was no longer adamant about her name being used because in spite of the changed name, Miss Bush remained with the Players until 1920, not leaving them until opportunity to begin another new venture was open to her. The New York Age continued to announce each show and review each week's offering.
Sister Francesc...: When I first began trying to dig out and ferret out information about the Lafayette Players, I went to the Schomburg Collection in New York, and I was told by a very distinguished historian there, "Oh sister, you have set for yourself an impossible task. I don't believe that you could find 10 pages about the Lafayette Players, because nobody wrote about them." After having gone through 17 years of microfilm reading and after having suffered partial blindness, because of my microfilm reading, I begged to disagree with the distinguished historian.
Sister Francesc...: Their offerings changed weekly, and the productions ranged from drama, to farce, every now and then a musical just to show that they could still sing and dance. Since the law prohibited dramatic performances on Sunday, it was the day off for the company and the house ran either vaudeville acts or the popular silent movies. The company was to incur the wrath of the law when they tried to perform on a Sunday night. They were playing Shakespeare, and I think therein lay their crime.
Sister Francesc...: There arose some financial difficulties and due to some disagreements between Lester Walton and the actual owners of the Lafayette Theater, Walter left the Lafayette Theater as co-manager. He did not know then that within a few years, he would be returning to the Lafayette as sole manager. Always a man who looked to the future and prodded members of his race ever upward and forward to new horizons, Walton remained a staunch supporter for the Lafayette Players and closely followed their career in his weekly columns in the New York Age. I found as many as five articles a week pertaining to, or about the Lafayette Players or their members.
Sister Francesc...: During these early years, the Players presented such Broadway hit as, Within the Law, Paid in Full, Under Cover, [inaudible], Bought and Paid For, Deep Purple, Fine Feathers, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Wolf and the Man on the Box. Not very Black, you say, but a step above minstrel shows, yes. When asked about the type of plays that were presented, Clarence Muse said, "Everybody wondered why we do Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in Harlem. Let me tell you, honey, the Black folks in Harlem understood that play far more than anybody that ever read it. You want to talk about split living, Black folks been doing it a long time."
Sister Francesc...: In 1916, Anita was asked to come to Chicago to start a new group of the Lafayette Players under the direction of Edgar Forest. It was not to be a rival company, but rather an extension of the New York group, invited by the managers of the Grand Theater in Chicago to come and perhaps pump new life into a waning theatrical house. Anita gladly accepted this new challenge. As she said to me, "Where I was wanted, I went." The second company was born. In May of the same year, to answer the growing demand for the Lafayette Players to perform in the Eastern cities of Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, a third group of the players was formed. And for many years, the players traveled under the titles of Lafayette Players One, Two, and Three.
Sister Francesc...: Clarence Muse made his first starring performance with the Lafayette Players in Harlem in their production of the Mastermind. And when I asked him how he got cast, he said "It was because of the title and they thought it suited me." Muse was a man with many talents, and he possessed a variety of interests. He began an association with the Lafayette Players because of his wife, Ophelia Muse, who had played at the New Lincoln Theater in tab shows. Having begun his career as a lawyer, one can tell when one speaks with Mr. Muse today that he has not forgotten the flair or his rhetorical ability to sound like a lawyer. He began an association with the Lafayette Players that was to continue periodically until the company finally disbanded in Los Angeles.
Sister Francesc...: A week's interview with Muse provided me with a wealth of stories about these early years of the players. Of course, Mr. Muse wanted me to write the story of the Lafayette Players and call it the Muse Players. And whenever I tried to bring him back to talking about the entire group, he would say to me, "All right, girl, are we doing this your way or mine?" And figuring out that I was in a dangerous position, I let him do it his way, but I wrote it my way. As Muse recalls his initiation into the group he says, "You know, I felt out of place, like an Ethiopian among all those other high yellow Negros in the company." He is a very well-built man of dark complexion and there's definite Afro-American features. Muse decided to change his appearance on stage, by the skillful use of white makeup and a blonde wig, constructed especially for him by a German wig maker.
Sister Francesc...: He reflects an amusement today, to his credit, that the alterations served no real purpose, except as an ego booster for himself. He recalls with fond pleasure, and I have heard others speak of it, that before his first entrance on stage in a particular play, he was required to speak lines off stage. The audience, well acquainted with his voice, then set waiting for Muse to appear. They were not prepared for the white Muse who entered, and it often took them at least five minutes to stop stomping and clapping and laughing in appreciation of the excellent makeup job, which he himself had executed. And then we hear people say, it took Holly Flanagan to show the Negro, how to do anything on stage.
Sister Francesc...: In Mr. Muse's possession now are pictures taken at this time in his career. These are a testimony to his remarkable ability to change his normal appearance and stands as a positive proof that Blacks were experimenting in many areas of theatrical undertaking. Muse recounts with obvious delight, the story of a particular performance given at the Howard Theater in Washington. At one point in the play Muse was to embrace the very light skin leading lady, whose costume was an elegant Black evening dress. After pressing her close to his heart in a torrid embrace, Muse thrust the lady from him. But before he could speak his own lines, he was upstaged by an odd admirer and the balcony section of the theater. This uninhibited admiring spectator cried aloud, "God almighty, look at her dress. Muse don't even rub off on Black." Needless to say, the most enthusiastic applause of the evening was not accorded to Mr. Muse's acting ability.
Sister Francesc...: Muse is only one of a long list of Black performers who gained their apprenticeship with the Lafayette Players. They already mentioned Charles Gilpin, who went on to fame in O'Neill's The Emperor Jones. Lawrence Chenault, one of the first Black movie stars. Ida Anderson, Laura Bowman, Inez Clough, Cleo Desmond, Evelyn Ellis, the lovely Abbie Mitchell, and last but not least my own mother, Evelyn Preer. These are only a few of those that began their careers with the group.
Sister Francesc...: In an article printed in the Baltimore Afro-American in 1936, the Lafayette Players were highly praised for having given Black artists a chance to perform. And over 50 names of prominent Black entertainers were listed as having won much of their success and subsequent fame through their association with the original Lafayette Players. In my dissertation, I am proud to say I have an appendix, which lists over 300 names of performers who at one time or other were associated with this illustrious group.
Sister Francesc...: In the latter part of 1916, the Lafayette Players were bought by an agency which called itself the Quality Amusement Corporation, later to be called the Elite Amusement Company. The players themselves were known for a time as the Quality Amusement Company. The management rights for the players were later purchased by a man who was to have much influence upon the group, Mr. Robert Levy. In 1917, when Torrence's triple bill, three plays for a Negro theater were produced at the Garden Theater outside the Harlem area downtown, featured in the cast of the plays, Granny Maumee, The Rider of Dreams, and Simon the Cyrenian were several of the Lafayette Players, Andrew Bishop, Inez Clough, Charles Gilpin, and Lottie Grady.
Sister Francesc...: By the end of 1917, there was one group of players at the home theater in Harlem and two traveling companies on the road. The New York Age, the New York Amsterdam News, the Chicago Defender, and the Indianapolis Freeman, the Pittsburgh Courier, all carried reviews of the Lafayette Players productions. A great deal of space was devoted to what they were doing and where they were doing it by the Indianapolis Freeman. Not only because the editor of the paper, George L. Knox, was particularly fond of the theater, but probably mostly because that in 1917, his grandson, my father, joined the Lafayette Players.
Sister Francesc...: The Indianapolis sometimes carried one page of news about happenings in Indianapolis and six pages of news about the Lafayette Players. By 1917 on the TOBA circuit, the Lafayette Players performed in cities all over the country. Often, they introduced dramatic productions for the first time to Black audiences in such cities as New Orleans, Jackson, Memphis, Atlanta, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Yazoo City, Mississippi, Birmingham, and Nashville, to name but a few. The Lafayette Players can take the credit for having introduced serious drama to Black audiences in over 25 cities of this country.
Sister Francesc...: When the financial slump hit this country in the late '20s however, the players, like all other performers, were among the first to be affected by the decline in show business everywhere. In 1928 therefore, Robert Levy purchased once again the right to their management and moved the players to Los Angeles, California. From 1928 until July of 1932, the players performed successfully at the Lincoln Theater in Los Angeles, opening with a production of Rain, which had met with so much success in New York when it starred Jeanne Eagles. The Lafayette production starred Evelyn Preer. Again, Clarence Muse said, "Of course Black audiences could identify with Rain. There was a preacher tiptoeing on the wrong side of right."
Sister Francesc...: Rain ran to over 54 ... Pardon me, the Lafayette Players ran over 54 consecutive weeks at the Lincoln Theater and played to mixed audiences that were largely composed of members of the Hollywood set. During this time, Clarence Muse, who was producing his own musical show for nightclub performances, was persuaded to rejoin the Players to recreate one of his most famous roles, that of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Muse and Evelyn Preer also did a successful production of the non-musical version of Porgy. Whenever Porgy was discussed by my father, he told one of his favorite stories. A. B. DeComathiere was asked to perform in the first production of Porgy on Broadway. DeComathiere was one of the players, one of the leading men of the Lafayette Players. He was to play Crown, and as you know, Crown's opening lines are from off stage, "All you niggas, clear out of the way because here come Crown." DeComathiere said with disdain, "I refused to go to Broadway shouting at the top of my voice, 'All you niggas clear out of the way.'"
Sister Francesc...: The show will run two nights, one night for whites to say it's rotten, and another night for Negroes to say it's terrible. After it had run for about 300 performances, my mother used to taunt DeComathiere with, "How'd you like to go to Broadway shouting, 'All you niggas get out of the way, DeComathiere?'" In 1932 however, the curtain was lowered for the last and final time. Many factors, not the least of which was financial, caused the Lafayette Players to disband. Somebody asked me the question today, "Why?" There were some bit of irony in the fact that the article which announced their closing also informed the public that the feature motion picture that was to open in their stead at the Lincoln Theater, was a new all-colored film titled, Harlem is Heaven. For so many fruitful and productive years, Harlem had almost been that for the Lafayette Players.
Sister Francesc...: What is the significance then of the Lafayette Players in regard to the history of Black entertainers in American theater? I personally feel, and I told you before, I admit to some bias. I think that their influence was great in so far as what they did when they did it. Even under the handicaps of exploitation and mismanagement, which they would have to suffer just because they were Black. Even in spite of the prevailing style of the theater of the time, the existing sociological problems of their time, and unfortunately the Black public's apathy about a theater to which they could not absolutely relate, they did persevere in their artistic determination to successfully perform legitimate drama. They wanted, as Clarence Muse says eloquently, "To perform for the sake of pure self-expression."
Sister Francesc...: And I feel that that's as good a reason as any for an artist to wish to perform, to express himself. They were thus responsible in many ways for helping to raise the standards of Black entertainment. Prior to their advent in Harlem, there had been no Black actors performing Significant Rose on Broadway. Charles Gilpin was the first Black actor to break the barrier and to receive serious attention from Broadway critics and audiences in a play written by a white writer for a white audience. The Lafayette Players won a claim in Hollywood from their white peers, who had never seen Blacks seriously attempting Black ventures.
Sister Francesc...: Muse and my father said, "They came to laugh, but they stayed to cheat because they had to admit that we were good at what we did. And if what we did was only an imitation of them, then by God, we were the best imitators that ever were." Spanning a period of 17 years of almost uninterrupted performance, which in itself is a feat considering the time, the players laid a foundation upon which the accomplishments of Black entertainers in today's American theater have built. True as Alan Locke, the Black historian asserts in his essay, the Negro in the American stage, the drama of their time was essentially anemic, deficient in the vital symbols and ideas to which Black audiences could relate. However, they brought to that drama if not the gift of a Black tradition, then the gift of a particular temperament and talent. It is true that in one sense, as I have admitted, the Lafayette Players were merely modeling themselves upon what white performers were doing.
Sister Francesc...: I don't deny it. But even in their limitation, there was a kind of liberation expressed. They did break with what had been a well established pattern with which the Black performer had been previously associated. They proved that Black performers could work effectively and successfully in a dignified medium, in a medium that up until the time of the Lafayette Players, had been closed to any and all Black performers. It is to be noted that the Black actor was accepted seriously as an important force in the American theater at the end of the Lafayette Players' existence, rather than at their beginning. In 1927, at the conclusion of his association with members of the players in his production of the Broadway hit Lulu Belle, David Belasco, one of the country's greatest directors, predicted that the Black artists would receive in the future more serious consideration than he had received in the past. And Mr. Belasco thank God, was right.
Sister Francesc...: The audiences which attended the Lafayette Players' performances were more of a novice group than even the performers. So unaccustomed were some of the audiences to serious dramatic entertainment, that on at least one occasion preceding a play in an Atlanta theater owned by the famous theater owner Bailey, the manager had to instruct the audience on what they were to expect and how they were expected to behave during the performance. Stepin Fetchit, who happened to be a friend of my parents, recounted the story with glee.
Sister Francesc...: They wanted to use Mr. Bailey's white theater, because it was the only place that they felt would accommodate the Black members of the audience who wanted to see the Lafayette Players. He was not happy about letting his theater out to Black performers and letting in Black audiences. And so they talked him into coming to a rehearsal, and he was told by the manager of the Players, "Just watch them, and if you don't like what they're doing, then you can tell us no. But watch them first." Mr. Bailey was so enamored of the Players that he insisted they not play on the scheduled one night only, but that they stay the entire week. And he himself introduced them to the Black audience that came to see them.
Sister Francesc...: There was much bottle throwing, popcorn throwing, whistling, because these people, remember, had never been allowed inside a theater in Atlanta before. And as he stood on the stage and cried for attention, he yelled, "All you niggers shut up because we got high class niggers here tonight." He considered it the ultimate accolade.
Sister Francesc...: My father often recounted the story of Branded. It was the custom for one of the managers or one of the producers of the Players to go ahead of the company, particularly in the South, and try to arrange living accommodations since Blacks were not permitted in hotels, of course, and America had not discovered the convenience of motels for various and sundry reasons. And so these promoters went ahead to get homes for the Players among the members of the community. Because my mother and father were the stars of this particular company, they were privileged to stay in the home of a leading minister and his wife. The play in which they were performing was titled Branded. And it's a story of a cattle rancher whose wife is unfaithful to him. The cattle rancher, my father, his unfaithful wife, my mother. At the end of the play, he says to her, "You will never cheat on me again," and he brands her on the forehead with a hot brand, and the curtain comes down as she turns to the audience and they see this brand on their forehead.
Sister Francesc...: They had a lovely afternoon with the minister and his wife. They had an even lovelier dinner with them, and they gave them two complimentary tickets to the production. After the show, they were entertained by somebody else and so they didn't go home with the minister and his wife. When they arrived at the lodging, there was my father's suitcase and my mother's suitcase on the front porch. They didn't quite understand at first, but as the door opened, and the minister stood in the doorway with all the wrath of God about and upon him, he said, "We thought you were good and decent people, but any man who would do that to his wife, I cannot allow to spend the night under my roof." And the door was promptly slammed in their faces.
Sister Francesc...: And so it was in many instances, education time. The Players became actual educators, as well as entertainers. They were instrumental certainly in guiding their audiences to accept a more sophisticated and an intellectually superior form of entertainment.
Sister Francesc...: Appearing in more than 250 plays, the Lafayette Players performed in plays like Salome, Madame X, Irene, Desire Under the Elms, as well as those mentioned before. Productions never before nor since presented by an entirely Black company of actors. By acquainting Black audiences with legitimate theater and by proving to white audiences that Black actors could perform successfully in serious drama, the Lafayette Players helped pave the way for other Black dramatic groups who were encouraged by their success, meager as it may seem today.
Sister Francesc...: A few of the most important groups who followed in their footsteps were the Negro Art Theater, the Rose McLendon Players, the Alhambra Theater, the Gilpin Players, the WPA Federal Negro Theater Project. Each of these groups included members who had originally played with the Lafayette company. What the Lafayette Players as artists gave to American theater history that is wholly Black cannot be taken from them, for their contribution I feel does have merit and it does have worth. It was a positive contribution that permeated the apical circles of the time. They effectively achieved what their initiator, Anita Bush, had set out to achieve, recognition as legitimate stage artists. She stood up and she cried aloud, "Look at us. We can do it too."
Sister Francesc...: She was their own Black Moses who endeavored to bring the Black performer out of a wilderness of neglect and ignorance to a place where he could stand on equal ground with his white peers. And even though we are still fighting for our place on that equal ground today, even though we are perhaps still searching and seeking a table of welcome within the American theater program of today, it is so much better to have walked to where we have come than to have been forced to crawl, and the Lafayette Players stood up no longer willing to crawl and they walked to a place where they said, "We can do it too."
Sister Francesc...: According to the Black poet, A.B. Adams, "Good cannot die and greatness does not end with a fleeting breath of life. That which is worthwhile I say always triumphs over death, for it lives in the hearts and souls and affects forever the lives of those who dare remember." It is remembrance then that shall keep the Lafayette Players from being deprived of their deserved immortality. Their years of existence were filled with activities that make them forever a vital part of Black theatrical development in America.
Sister Francesc...: Cathedrals and basilicas are only built on top of firm foundations from the bottom up, we never begin with the spire. The Lafayette Players laid foundations, and as long as there exists a recorded history of Black achievements within the realm of American theater history, I hope the Lafayette Players will continue to live.
Sister Francesc...: I would like to close with some very inadequate words written by a very inadequate Black poet in tribute to the Lafayette Players. In tribute to the two people who are responsible for my life. What matter that you did not lengthy shine or strongly glean throughout the entire long night. Of import that you did blaze brilliantly, if only briefly, lending to the star star for one glittering gleaming moment, lustrous illuminating guiding light.