Bert Williams and Minstrel Shows by Namita https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175 Made by Namita Kannan en-us 2017-05-12 08:49:03 UTC 2026-03-02 11:54:34 UTC hello@padlet.com 06nkannan https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172280490 2017-05-17 09:15:52 UTC https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172280490 06nkannan https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172281462 2017-05-17 09:21:24 UTC https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172281462 06nkannan https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172281585 2017-05-17 09:22:06 UTC https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172281585 Bert Williams 06nkannan https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172282837 "the funniest man I ever saw and the saddest man I ever knew."- W.C.Fields]]> 2017-05-17 09:30:11 UTC https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172282837 Williams' Cakewalk 06nkannan https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172746613 Bert Williams invented a famous dance style known as the cakewalk dance]]> 2017-05-19 07:58:10 UTC https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172746613 Who was Bert Williams? 06nkannan https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172746812 Born in Nassau, Bahamas in 1875, Egbert Austin Williams. At the age of 11, Bert permanently emigrated with his parents, moving to Florida. The family later moved to California, where he graduated from Riverside High School. Forced to abandon his college study of civil engineering at Stanford to earn a living, in 1893, while still a teenager, he joined different West Coast minstrel shows, including Martin and Selig's Mastodon Minstrels, where he first met his future professional partner, George Walker, he turned his self-taught musical skills and gift for comic mimicry into a lifelong career.
Williams was a key figure in the development of African-American entertainment. In an age when racial inequality and stereotyping were commonplace, he became the first black American to take a lead role on the Broadway stage, and did much to push back racial barriers during his long career. 



]]> 2017-05-19 07:59:24 UTC https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172746812 06nkannan https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172746873 "he had the humour of pain]]> 2017-05-19 07:59:46 UTC https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172746873 Williams and Walker 06nkannan https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172748326 Bert Williams met his professional acting partner George Walker at the Martin and Selig Minstrels. By 1903 their partnership elevated from the vaudeville circuit to Broadway, where their act evolved to full-scale musical comedy. They produced, wrote and starred in In Dahomey (1902), the first Black musical comedy to open on Broadway.]]> 2017-05-19 08:09:45 UTC https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172748326 "The man with a real sense of humor is the man who can put himself in the spectator's place and laugh at his own misfortunes." 06nkannan https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172748961 2017-05-19 08:14:16 UTC https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172748961 Minstrel 06nkannan https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172749279 The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American form of entertainment developed in the early 19th century. Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music. The shows were performed by white people in make-up or blackface for the purpose of playing the role of black people. There were also some African-American performers and all-black minstrel groups that formed and toured.]]> 2017-05-19 08:16:14 UTC https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172749279 Death of Bert Williams 06nkannan https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172749828 As the years went on, Bert began to suffer from almost chronic depression. Heavy drinking and insomnia also took a toll on his health, but he never missed a performance. 

Williams continued to work even after contracting pneumonia. Finally, on Saturday, February 25 1922, with both a matinee and evening performance to give at the Shubert Theatre in Chicago, Williams collapsed halfway through the evening show. Gravely ill, he returned to his home in New York City, where he died on March 4, 1922, at the age of 47.  

]]> 2017-05-19 08:20:04 UTC https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172749828 What was Blackface? 06nkannan https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172750082
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-black performers to represent a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky on the plantation".  In 1848, blackface minstrel shows were an American national art of the time, translating formal art such as opera into popular terms for a general audience. Early in the 20th century, blackface branched off from the minstrel show and became a form in its own right, until it ended in the United States with the Civil rights Movement of the 1960s.]]> 2017-05-19 08:21:28 UTC https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172750082 06nkannan https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172750404 In 1910, Bert Williams was also hired by Florenz Ziegfeld to act in his follies. He was the only black member of the troupe. When the other white actors refused to act with him and asked Ziegfeld to fire Williams Ziegfeld was ready to fire them but not Williams]]> 2017-05-19 08:23:21 UTC https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172750404 List of Bert Williams Shows 06nkannan https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172752005
  • "Abyssinia"
  • "Bandanna Land"
  • "In Dahomey"
  • "Ziegfeld Follies of 1910"
  • "Ziegfeld Follies of 1911"
  • "Ziegfeld Follies of 1912"
  • "Ziegfeld Follies of 1917"
  • "Ziegfeld Follies of 1919"



    • ]]>     2017-05-19 08:32:31 UTC https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172752005     06nkannan https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172752483 2017-05-19 08:34:34 UTC https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172752483 06nkannan https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172753027 2017-05-19 08:37:10 UTC https://padlet.com/06nkannan/Naminiki19737175/wish/172753027