# Bert Williams was the recording industry’s first important and enduring black artist: Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2017/11/12/bertwilliams/
- Published: 2017-11-12T00:18:58+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**12.11. – Happy Birthday !!! Bert Williams was the recording industry’s first important
and enduring black artist. His dry but insightful humor, coupled with a downtrodden
but persevering persona, found popular success at the turn of the century, which
continued into the Roaring Twenties. **

Williams was also a noteworthy songwriter who performed on stages ranging from minstrel
shows and vaudeville to Broadway, and made great strides in overcoming racial barriers
in American entertainment.

Williams was born in Nassau in the West Indies, on November 12, 1874 or 1875. In
1885 he moved with his family to California. By 1893, he had teamed with longtime
partner George Walker and begun honing his talents in and around San Francisco. 
Two years later, the act relocated to Chicago, but it was the following year they
made their Broadway debut in Oriental America, the first “Negro” production featured
on the Broadway stage. At about this time, the team began turning a serious hand
to songwriting.

Soon after the turn of the century, Williams and Walker increased the range and 
ambition of their activities. On October 11, 1901, they made their first recordings,
including a comic duet called “Good Morning, Carrie,” which became a major success.
In the summer of 1902, they began work on a new production, In Dahomey, which would
become the first major musical written and performed by black entertainers to run
on Broadway. The show became a great success, not just in New York but on a tour
which took in most of the country as well as England, including a performance at
Buckingham Palace.

While Williams and Walker had a couple more hit recordings, Bert Williams’ solo 
performances were soon eclipsing them. Chief among these was his own composition,“
Nobody,” which was a huge hit in 1906. It became his signature song, and was eventually
voted into the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, by 
far the earliest popular recording so honored. Williams and Walkercontinued to be
successful on Broadway as a team, but by 1907, George Walker was becoming too ill
from syphilis to continue performing, (he died in 1911).

Bert Williams had concerns, but little trouble becoming a solo act. He did continue
to do comic skits on-stage, eventually joining the Ziegfeld Follies and performing
interracially with such stars as Eddie Cantorand W.C. Fields. He was well-liked 
by other performers, well-respected for his talent and his character. Williams did
much to break down the racial barriers of the time, aided by some of the many white
performers he easily befriended. In August of 1920, he became the first black member
of the Actors Equity Union, after W.C. Fields petitioned on his behalf.

His successful recording career continued to parallel his popular theatrical appearances.
Prohibition provided a new target for his humor, and in 1919 and 1920, he recorded
titles like “Everybody Wants a Key to My Cellar” and “When the Moon Shines on the
Moon Shine,” both best-selling records. His dry wit remained fresh 20 years after
his first recordings, and he seemed poised to carry on into the Roaring Twenties,
where he doubtlessly would have become a star of radio.

That was not to be. In early 1922, Williams began working on a new production, Under
the Bamboo Tree. During rehearsals, he caught a cold which eventually became pneumonia.
He persevered, even as his illness worsened. On February 25, he collapsed on-stage
and was rushed to a hospital, where he died a week later.

Although all but forgotten, Bert Williams was a giant of the era, and an important
and influential performer in many ways. As with all but a handful of jazz or classical
musicians from the period, his recordings are nearly impossible to obtain today,
a sad state for a truly marvelous catalog which displays a virtually timeless wit
and spirit.

![Image result for Bert Williams](https://i0.wp.com/www.moma.org/d/assets/W1siZiIsIjIwMTUvMTEvMjQvOWI0a2ljaWU4NV9CZXJ0X1dpbGxpYW1zLmpwZyJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcmVzaXplIDIwMDB4MjAwMFx1MDAzZSJdXQ/
Bert_Williams.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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