AN AMERICAN MUSICIAN
Bert Williams, born in the Bahamas (1874), epitomizes the transition from minstrelsy and black-vaudeville into movies and records. Dubbed "the funniest man I ever saw" by W.C.Fields, Williams was a comedian, writer, singer, musician, actor, and most of all a star.
His parents immigrated to the US before he was five, to settle in New York City. By his late teens, he was performing with Martin and Selig's Mastodon Minstrels in San Francisco, where he met George Walker, his stage partner for the next sixteen years. They began in song-and-dance numbers, added comic dialogue, and then wrote and performed humorous songs.
At first Williams played the sharpster to Walker's "ignorant coon," but they soon switched roles for a better audience reacton. Walker's ineffectual scheming dandy was perfectly offset by the oafish Williams making comic faces, and Bert's large frame highlighted their physical comedy. In their partnership, as in the act, Walker was the active one - he dealt with the reporters, lawyers, and managers.
By 1896, the pair headlined vaudeville shows, billed as "Two Real Coons," with cork-blackened faces and kinky wigs. Audiences liked the sly irony of their lauded cakewalk - where they parodied face-blackened white men making fun of blacks. Bert made early Grampohone recordings in 1896, as well (though none have survived).   Walker & Williams appeared in New York shows like "The Gold Bug," "Senegambian Carnival," "Lucky Coon", and in 1900 put on the musical "Sons of Ham" with Will Marion Cook and Jesse Shipp.   
When "Sons" enjoyed modest success, the four principals immediately went to work on a more ambitious show: "In Dahomey." It opened on the road and moved to Broadway's New York Theatre in early 1903; followed by two American tours and a London season.   It was the earliest full-length African American musical to appear on a Broadway theatre stage. It was a significant step in the evolution from minstrelsy through vaudeville into musical comedy. And - though still using black stereotypes - its characters were people, not caricatures.   The group produced "In Abyssinia" (1906) and "Bandanna Land" (1908); both were highly successful with critics, audiences , and their financial partners.   "In Abyssinia" is largely remembered today for Bert's solo number "Nobody," which he recorded for Columbia - as many as 150,000 copies were sold through 1930.
"Bandanna Land" was the final show for George Walker, who suffered a stroke onstage in 1909 and retired. In less than two years he was dead.   Williams was now adrift, especially since he now dealt directly with organized anti-black sentiment among white performers and theatre management. In 1910, though, an offer to join Ziegfield's "Follies," (Broadway's biggest attraction) let him concentrate on performance rather than business.
For years he shared the stage with Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor, W.C.Fields, and Will Rogers. During the same period, he continued recording for Columbia - along with Al Jolson and Nora Bayes he was the highest paid recording artist in the world.   In 1913, Bert led the cast for Biograph's "Lime Kiln Club Field Day"- the first feature film with an all-black cast; he later made two short films with Biograph.
In 1921 he left the “Follies” for new material, a musical by the popular team of Bob Cole and the Johnson Brothers. But - while on tour in Detroit - he collapsed on stage (like his partner a dozen years earlier), and died at home a month later.
A decade earlier, Booker T. Washington had said of Bert Williams that "He has done more for our race than I have. He has smiled his way into people's hearts..."
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https://youtu.be/MvDpz1EJb_M
Excerpts from 1913s “Lime Kiln Club Field Day” (MOMA)