Jeffrey Wright Instagram – I’ve been thinking & talking a lot lately about this man. Bert Williams is at the beginning of American cinema – not just Afro-American cinema – American cinema. His first full-length film is Lime Kiln Field Day, 1913 (MOMA has it). By comparison, Chaplain’s first film, a short, comes a year later. Williams is the first black vaudevillian to perform in the Ziegfeld Follies. W. C. Fields described him as “the funniest man I ever saw and the saddest man I ever knew.” Listen to his music. His self-conscious subversion of the ridiculous and brutal artistic/societal constraints of his time is evident. My fave is The Phrenologist Coon, written by Ernest Hogan in 1901 and recorded by our man that same year. This is his poker pantomime from the 1916 film The Natural Born Gambler. It’s impeccable. All of us who do this work today can trace back to Bert Williams, even if we do not know it or care to know. (That li’l pantomime of mine in Topdog/Underdog? Bert Williams.) In 1922, Williams collapsed, while performing on stage in Detroit; the audience thought, at first, that it was a gag. He died a few weeks later, after returning to New York City. “That’s a nice way to die. They was laughing when I made my last exit.” Thousands of mourners, black and white, attended his funeral in Manhattan. Today, few know Bert Williams. Won’t see many tributes, in these silly times, to a black actor who, 100 years ago, had little choice in America but to perform in black face. But here’s one. The man was next-level. Bert Williams. Respect the source.
“Of all the mens of history
‘Tis said I’s the mystery
As conjureman I’m the King
Well-versed in phrenology
Knows all ‘bout psychology
In ethOHmology I am the thing
I can tell you what you are
By the feelin’ of your bump
In the mystery of your future
I’ll certainly make you jump
When I have an inspiration
All the future I can see
I can tell you what you are or was
Or what you’re going to be” | Posted on 14/Jan/2024 14:46:42
