Somebody mentioned Aida Overton Walker--she was the wife of George Walker who was Bert Williams's partner in Williams & Walker. They were superb singers, dancers and comedians.

Poor George went senile by about 1910 or so. I'm not sure why. Syphilis perhaps, it was a common affliction and, back then, as bad as AIDS. But I'm just guessing as to what destroyed his brain. Bert Williams went off on his own and gave us great songs such as "I Ain't Got Nobody" and the traditional jass standard "That's A-Plenty".

Aida Overton joined up with S. H. Dudley and his Smart Set Company to do "His Honor, The Barber". Dudley is another great black talent who has been forgotten. He deserves credit for starting up black-owned theatres which he ran from 1912 to 1929. He was for a time even more famous than Williams & Walker and Ernest Hogan--yet another great black talent who has been forgotten and who is credited by many a music scholar as being THE originator of ragtime.

Also interesting about Dudley is that he is the earliest known entertainer to use the line "Is Everybody Happy?" Dudley wouldn't ask it, another character would but then Dudley would blurt out drunkenly, "Hapsy!" and get a big laugh. Ernest Hogan began using "Is Everybody Happy?" and then it was picked up by a slew of entertainers before ending up with white clarinetist Ted Lewis who is now remembered for it while its originators have been utterly forgotten.

Somebody else asked about Clarence Ashley being black. I am referring to the claw-hammer banjoist who does a wonderful version of "House Carpenter" found on Yazoo's "Before the Blues" series (vol. 3). His photograph is also included and he looks black to me. He's light judging from the photo but has African features from what I can see.