|
|
Stage Name |
Birth Name |
| Williams
and Walker (and Overton) |
George
W. Walker |
|
'Bon-Bon' Walker |
Aida
Reed (-Overton) |
--
"The
Immortal Colored Team," African Americans George Walker and
Bert Williams were
part of the very successful 'Williams and Walker' comedy vaudeville
act. They popularized the 'Cakewalk'
by including the dance in many Broadway type plays. Although Black,
they performed in Black face makeup which was not unusual for
the times. Their first success came when they billed themselves
as 'The Two Real Coons.'
--
While still teenagers, Walker met Williams in the early 1890s
in San Francisco, California. They decided to do something different
in Minstrel shows and rebel against the stereotypical Minstrel
Coon. With this idea in hand they put together an act titled "The
Two Real Coons" which sounded like a normal Minstrel Parody
at the time, but was actually based on a real African-Amercan
DANCE-COMEDY act. In this show, Mr. Walker portrayed
a
|
|
real, intelligent, richly dressed, natural high strutting "Darky,"
(in blackface) rather than the 'Black face stuttering
fool' that was usually portrayed. Alltho today these are still
considered stereotypical of those times, they were not back then.
Williams played a shiftless, shuffling 'darky' whose shoes pinched
his feet.
---They were instrumental in bringing Black face Minstrel players
who were actually African American to a major white audience and
redefined the boundaries of legitimate Negro theater. W.C. Fields
described Williams as " the funniest man I ever saw, and
the saddest man I ever knew." One of Walker's trade marks
was his pearl white teeth, when he would forget his lines, he
would stop, and at the same time open his mouth in this great
big smile showing his teeth, frozen there, until someone cued
him his lines, and then he continue as if nothing happened...
the audience loved it.
---George
Walker married Aida
Reed who was already an accomplished actress and dancer. After her
husband became too ill to perform in 1909, Out of respect for
George, Aida often dressed up in his costumes and played George's
role in 'Bandana Land,' which was the last production of the Williams
and Walker Company. Overton later danced with the Black Patti
Troubadours and on Broadway with the Smart Set Company.
For
more info on Bert Williams go to his page Here!,
for more info on Aida Overton go to her page Here!.
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