Jump to content

User:Eurodog/sandbox241

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rang Tang

Swedish article

[edit]
Scenen (Swedish magazine)[A]
N:o 1: 14.e årg
1 Jan. 1928
REDAKTION
Karduansm.-g -11 A
Redaktör
Erik Ljungberger
träffas säkr. 2–3
Utkommer 1 o. 15 varje månad
Prenumeration:
Helår krona 10: — halvår kr. 5:50. lyxuppl. helår krona 15:—. Utom Sverige
van: uppl. krona 15:— pr år: lyxuppl. krona 20:—.
Postadress: Stockholm 1. Telefoner: Norr 81 66, Norr 243 33
Scenen
Svensk Negerrevy På Broadway
ett litet Amerikabrev från en svensk skådespelerska
Scenbild från Rang-Tang på Majestic Theatre i Newyork
New York har mycket att bjuda på ifråga om teater och biografer. Det finns en hel del att välja på, musical-comedies, shows och allt som kan tänkas både vitt och svart, men att få se en hel negerrevy och därtill en som är skriven av en svenska hör till ovanligheterna.
På Majestic theatre har sedan fyra månader en negerrevy Rang-Tang, skriven av stockholmskan Kaj Gynt, gått för pukor och trumpeter.
Ett annat svenskt inslag är dekorationsmålaren Olle Nordmark, känd från Stockholm, vilken fått mycket beröm för sina färgglada och verkligt vackra dekorationer.
Inför scener som Afrika, Sambos-Jambo och andra satt man stum, och den ena applåden avlöste den andra. Revyn räknas som en av de största succéerna i New York under senare år. Musiken av Ford Dabney är melodios och vacker.
Bland de uppträdande togo paret Miller & Lyles priset, de voro storartade och tog publiken med storm så fort de visade sig. Dessa båda lär vara det bästa man kan få tag uti i komikerväg.
Samspelet var briljant, och inte minst roade två små negerflickor Lavinia Mack och Mary Baines med sina lustiga danser. Evelin Preer svarade för skönheten tillsammans med Zaidiee Jackson, som var storartad i en scen, kallad Sambos Jambo.
Baletten, bestående av flickor under sexton år, utgjorde enaast ögonfägnad och det var en fröjd att se dem dansa, antingen det var solo eller i ensemble.
En annan sak att notera är att man slipper se de nakna benen längre, utan alla ha strumpor eller trikåer, detta på alla teatrar.
Miss Gynt skall ut på turné med sin revy till London—Paris—Berlin och så hem till Stockholm. Det skulle nog vara något för Rolf att få som gästspel.
Det är nämligen inte det vanliga negersprattlet och skränet, utan en rolig komedi med lagom avvägd sentimentalitet och kärlek för att bliva fullt njutbar, därtill goda artister och vacker musik. Och det svenska inslaget, Kaj Gynt och Olle Nordmark, behöver inte skämmas för sig.
Rosa Tillman

History

[edit]

Acts

[edit]
  • Act I
Scene 1 — Public Square, Jimtown
A — Daybreak
Mrs. Jenkins ......... Lillian Westmorland
Laborers, washwomen, cottonpickers
B — Barbershop business
Customer ......... James Strange
Villagers ......... B. Jackson, A. Allen, E. Thompson[B]

Cast Principals (keep)

[edit]
  1. Flournoy E. Miller (1885–1971), as Sam Peck, a barber ‡
  2. Aubrey Lyles (1884–1932), as Steve Jenkins, a barber ‡
  3. Josephine Hall, as Queen of Sheba and singer
  4. Evelyn Preer (1896–1932)
  5. Daniel L. Haynes (1889–1954), as King of Madagascar and chorus member
  6. Inez Draw, singer
  7. Lillian Westmoreland (maiden; 1906–1935), a so-called "double-voiced" talent – the ability to sing both soprano and alto
    Dancers
    Barnes, Mack, Jones dance trio
    1. Mae Barnes, dancer
    2. Byron Jones[Bio-note 1]
    3. Lavinia Mack (born about 1908), dancer
  1. Zaidee Jackson (1898–1970), as Magnolia
  2. Crawford Jackson
  3. Joe Willis
    • Bryson & Jones
  4. Ralph Bryson, dancer

Who are these people?

Jerry Mills
Le 'Etta Revelle
In September 1927, "The Witch Doctor," a new scene by Trent and Dabney was added to the show.
‡ Member of the 1921 Shuffle Along cast

Post Broadway productions

[edit]

After closing on Broadway, Rang Tang opened in

Music notes

[edit]
The lyrics to "Brown," according to author Samuel A. Floyd, expresses optimistically the hopes and aspirations of the 'New Negro' during the Renaissance.Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page).

Side notes

[edit]
Kaj Gynt's real name – Karin Cederstrand, who emigrated in 1907
1918: Lived at 599 West 178th Street, Manhattan (per husbands WWI Draft Registration)
Husband (married 1907 in Manhattan): Harold Gustav Frederic Matthiessen (born 1883)
Kaj Gynt (aka Miss Kay; born abt. 1895) sued Daniel L. Haynes in 1935 for making false statements in 1934 (about bankruptcy) related to The Green Pastures.
She acted for three years with the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm
Acted in a role supporting Ethel Barrymore in The Eternal Mother

Effie King & Lottie Gee

[edit]
  • In 1914, Gee and King were one of the first African American acts to tour the Lowe Circuit.

Black vaudeville circuit

[edit]
  • Comedy Theater, Brooklyn
  • F.T. Kearney's Fairyland Theater, 1838 L Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.
  • Dabney's Theater
  • Daly Theater, 936 Pennsylvania Avenue, Baltimore
  • Deas Theater, Wilmington, Delaware

African African American Theater Buildings: An Illustrated Historical Directory, 1900–1955, by Eric Ledell Smith (born 1949), McFarland & Company (2003); ISBN 978-0-7864-4922-4

Profiles of African American Stage Performers and Theatre People, 1816–1960 (re: "Effie King"), by Bernard L. Peterson, Jr., Greenwood Press (2001); ISBN 0-313-29534-4

Critic's reviews

[edit]
  • Oakland Tribune, "Percy Hammond's Letter on the Theater" (column), "Stage Swarms With Undressed Virgins," by Percy Hammond (né Percy Hunter Hammond; 1873–1936), Vol. 107, No. 31, July 31, 1927, p. W-2 (Newspapers.com)
Note: Percy Hammond – drama critic for the New York Herald Tribune from 1921 until his death – was regarded a conservative, with respect to theater
"The New York Age is unable to comment because of the failure of the management to remit the usual press tickets."
  • New York Times, "Rang Tang Opens at the Royale Theatre," Vol. 76, Whole No. 25,372, July 13, 1927, p. 20, col. 1 (mixed positive and negative) (link)
The article is unsigned, but could have been J. Brooks Atkinson (1894–1984), theater critic at the New York Times from 1922 to 1960
The New York Times critic was displeased when Miller and Lyles in their book show, Rang Tang (1927), attempted to imitate what he felt were dance practices for white shows only, "in this case dividing its ensemble into show girls, ponies and ballet." The critic even makes a sly dig, "Indeed, there was around the entertainment last night the suspicion that it might be in the language of Mr. Van Vechten [the white patron of black artists], passing.Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page).
In other words, the show was trying too hard to be perceived as a "white" show. Even contemporary critics like Jean and Marshall Stearns appear to endorse the prejudice: "Unfortunately, the chorus girls imitated the Tiller Girls, in spite of the precedent of Shuffle Along (151). The jungle choreography of "Monkey Land" and the segment where the entire chorus strummed banjos, was deemed much more appropriate.[1]
  • New York Daily News, "Miller & Lyles Bring Rang Tang to Royal" (theater review), by M.L., July 13, 1927, p. 25 (accessible via Newspapers.com; subscription required)
  • Brooklyn Daily Eagle, "Another Musical Comedy of Color – Rang Tang Is Offered at the Royale Theatre With Miller and Lyles, Black Bottoms and Other Native Talents," by Martin Dickstein (1900–1988), July 13, 1927, p. 30 (accessible via Newspapers.com; subscription required)

New York Times critics

[edit]
J. Brooks Atkinson (1894–1984), theater critic at the New York Times from 1922 to 1960
Walter Kerr (1913–1996), theater critic for the New York Herald Tribune from 1951 to 1966, then the New York Times from 1966 to 1983
Algonquin Round Table seated critics – Alexander Woollcott (1887–1943), Dorothy Parker (1893–1967), Robert Benchley (1889–1945) – as well as theater folk Edna Ferber (1885–1968), Tallulah Bankhead (1902–1968)
Samuel Beckett (1906–1989), retired as Chief Critic at the Times

New York Daily News critics

[edit]
James Whittaker (www.newspapers.com/image/615385357)
Burns Mantle (1873–1948), Chapman's predecessor, drama critic for the Daily News from 1922 to 1943
O. O. McIntyre (died 1938), Mantle's assistant (www.newspapers.com/image/375795349)
John Arthur Chapman (1901–1972), drama critic at the Daily News from 1943 to 1972, and Mantle's assistant since 1929
John Rosenfield, Jr. (né Max John Rosenfield, Jr.; 1900–1966), once Mantle's assistant, but went on to become film critic of the Dallas News
Fintan O'Toole (born 1958), drama critic at the Daily News from 1997 to 2001

Other New York critics

[edit]
John Simon (1925–2019), critic for New York magazine
Martin Dickstein (1900–1988), Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Critics from Boston

[edit]
Elliot Norton (1903–2003)

Critics of Chicago

[edit]
Ashton Stevens (1872–1951)

Employment of African American actors

[edit]

As mentioned earlier in the chapter, the first example of an integrated cast on Broadway was Will Marion Cook's musical The Southerners in 1904. While the idea of blacks and whites onstage together threatened to cause an uproar, no riots occurred, nor did a revolution. On the Broadway stage integrated casts remained rare, but they became worth counting in the 1920s.

Scratch pad

[edit]
Inlines for Joe Jordan
3rd ed., compiled and edited by the Lynn Farnol Group, Inc. (1966), p. 374; LCCN 66-20214
Referencing:
  1. ASCAP (3rd ed.) (1966)
  2. Black press, including:
  3. Chicago Defender, 20 Aug 1913
  4. Chicago Defender, 26 Oct 1915
  5. Chicago Defender, 24 Dec 1932
  6. Chicago Defender, 11 Sep 1943
  7. "Musical and Dramatic – Chicago Weekly Review," by Sylvester A. Russell (1864–1930), (re: "Joe Jordan, well-known musician, actor and composer," Indianapolis Freeman, August 12, 1916, p. 5
  8. "The Hogan Testimonial Benefit" (citing "Joe Jordan"), New York Age, June 25, 1908, p. 6 (Newspapers.com; subscription required)
  9. They All Played Ragtime (4th ed.), Rudi Blesh and Harriet Janis, (1950), Oak Publications (1971)
  10. 100 Years of the Negro in Show Business, by Tom Fletcher (1873–1954), Burdge & Co., Ltd. (1954), pps. 129–131
  11. JaTrRR
  12. The Complete Encyclopedia of Popular Music and Jazz, 1900–1950, Roger D. Kinkle (1916–2000) (ed.), Arlington House (1974)
  13. Jazz Records, 1897–1942 (2 Vols.), Brian Rust, Arlington House (1978)

Broadway era

[edit]

January 11, 1927

When Rang Tang premiered, the recently built Royale Theatre had only been open 6 months and 1 day. When, in overruns, the production moved to the recently built Majestic one block south, that theater had only been open 5 months and 15 days.

The Royale, on the south side of West 45th Street, and the Majestic, on the north side of 44th Street, were back-to-back (contiguous) to each other. They were both built and owned by Chanin brothers and both designed by the prolific theater architect Herbert J. Krapp – the Royale being Channin's third of six theaters and the Majestic being their sixth and largest capacity.

All six of the Channin theaters were between Seventh and Eight Avenues, one on 44th, two on 45th, which between those two avenues is known as George Abbott Way, one on 46th, and two on 47th.

Also, when Rang Tang opened, there were more than fifty-two major theaters in Manhattan's Midtown Theater District, all of which had been built and opened over the previous twenty-three years. Ten of those theaters were on West 45th Street, in the same block, between Seventh and Eight Avenues. One block south, on West 44th Street, between the same avenues, there were five theaters. Completions and openings of three major theaters occurred while the Broadway Rang Tang was running.

Anecdotal footnote

[edit]

Leon D. F. Paris, a Haitian aviator, flew from New York to Haiti around 1933.

Notes, copyrights, references

[edit]

Bio note

[edit]
  1. ^ Byron Jones (né Henry Byron Jones; 1889–1934) and Evelyn Keyes (née Evelyn Blanche Keyes; 1908–1990), both dancers, married each other March 24, 1928, in Manhattan. Their romance began during their participation in Rang Tang. Byron Jones died in Barcelona. Evelyn re-married choreographer Henry LeTang (1915–1907).

Copyrights

[edit]
Original copyrights
Note: sheet music copyrighted in the U.S. (a) prior to 1925 with copyright renewal or (b) from 1925 through 1963 without copyright renewal is deemed public domain.
Catalog of Copyright Entries, Part 1, Group 3: Class D: Dramatic Compositions, Motion Pictures, New Series, Library of Congress, Copyright Office
Catalog of Copyright Entries, Part 3 Musical Compositions, New Series, Library of Congress, Copyright Office
Catalog of Copyright Entries, Third Series, Renewal Registrations – Music
Copyright renewals

General references

[edit]
  1. The ASCAP Biographical Dictionary (3rd ed.), American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (1966)
  2. Biographical Dictionary of American Music, by Charles Eugene Claghorn (1911–2005), West Nyack: Parker Publishing Company, Inc. (1973)
  3. The Oxford Companion to Popular Music, by Peter Gammond (1925–2019), Oxford Companions, Oxford University Press (1991)
  4. Biography Index, A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines, Vol. 14, September 1984 – August 1986, H.W. Wilson Co. (1986)
  5. Profiles of African American Stage Performers and Theatre People, 1816–1960, by Bernard L. Peterson, Jr., Greenwood Press (2001)
  6. Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians, by Eileen Jackson Southern (1920–2002), Greenwood Press (1982)
  7. In Black and White, A guide to magazine articles, newspaper articles, and books concerning black individuals and groups (3rd ed.; Vol. 1 of 2), Mary Mace Spradling (née Mary Elizabeth Mace; 1911–2009) (ed.), Gale Research (1980); OCLC 631458944
  8. In Black and White (3rd ed.; supplement), Mary Mace Spradling (née Mary Elizabeth Mace; 1911–2009) (ed.), Gale Research (1985); OCLC 849767637

Inline

[edit]
  1. ^ American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle (4th ed.), by Gerald Martin Bordman and Richard Norton, Oxford University Press (2011), p. 481; ISBN 978-0-1997-2970-8

Cite error: A list-defined reference named "Floyd 1990, 1993" is not used in the content (see the help page).

Cite error: A list-defined reference named "NYDaily-News 1928 Mar 20" is not used in the content (see the help page).

Genealogical records

[edit]

Cite error: A list-defined reference named "JWDabney's address 1906" is not used in the content (see the help page).

Cite error: A list-defined reference named "Jones-Keyes-Marriage-NYC 1938 Mar 24" is not used in the content (see the help page).

Historic newspapers, magazines, and journals

[edit]

Cite error: A list-defined reference named "NYTs 1927 Jul 13" is not used in the content (see the help page).
Cite error: A list-defined reference named "Rang-Tang-program-1927 Sep 19" is not used in the content (see the help page).

Cite error: A list-defined reference named "Scenen 1928 Jan" is not used in the content (see the help page).
[edit]
Category:Broadway musicals
Category:All-Black cast Broadway shows
Category:1927 musicals


Cite error: There are <ref group=upper-alpha> tags or {{efn-ua}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=upper-alpha}} template or {{notelist-ua}} template (see the help page).