Gertie Brown

Gertie Brown Moore (born Gilberta Gertrude Chevalier, August 23, 1882 – February 24, 1934) was a vaudeville performer and one of the first African-American film actresses. Brown is most famous for her part in the 1898 silent film Something Good – Negro Kiss, which went viral in 2018.

Gertie Brown
Saint Suttle (left) and Gertie Brown (right) in a still from the 1898 silent film "Something Good -- Negro Kiss."
Born
Gilberta Gertrude Chevalier

August 23, 1882
Washington, Guernsey County, Ohio, USA
DiedFebruary 24, 1934
New York City, New York
Other namesGertie Brown, Gertie Brown Moore, Gertie Moore, Gertrude Brown, Gertrude Brown Moore, Gertrude Moore
Spouse(s)Tim Moore (1915-1934) (her death)

Biography

In the 1890s, Brown performed alongside well-known composer and entertainer Saint Suttle (1870-1932) in vaudeville and minstrel shows in the Chicago area and nationally.[1][2][3] Suttle, Brown, and John and Maud Brewster performed as a group called "The Rag Time Four" that was responsible for popularizing a variation of the cakewalk dance.[2] From about 1906 to 1915, Gertie Brown was one of the stock players at Chicago's Pekin Theatre[4]. She continued an independent career in vaudeville, including roles as "an Indian" in Coffey and Girls of All Nations in 1915.

Brown married comedian and actor Tim Moore in September 1915, and he introduced her to a new career which took her throughout the country and aboard[5] Billed as Tim & Gertie Moore, the couple toured vaudeville circuits across the United States, New Zealand, the Hawaiian Islands, and Australia and received acclaim as an "exceptionally clever" pair.[6][7] From 1920 to 1924, they toured the Dudley and T.O.B.A. vaudeville circuits in their own stock company, The Chicago Follies. In 1923, they acted in the lost silent film His Great Chance.[8]

With Tim Moore as the star, Gertie, appeared with him on Broadway in the musical comedy Lucky Sambo in 1925.[9][10] From 1925 to 1927, they toured the Columbia Burlesque Wheel in Edward E. Daily's hit show, Rarin' to Go. After her husband was engaged as the star comedian of Lew Leslie's Blackbirds of 1928, Gertie only occasionally appeared on the stage. She devoted much of her time to her home and helped organize charitable assistance to theatre folk who lost their jobs during the early years of the Great Depression, which included the setting up of a home for destitute actors.

She died in 1934 of double pneumonia.[5]

Something Good – Negro Kiss

Rediscovered in 2017, Something Good – Negro Kiss stars an African-American couple embracing, kissing, and dancing. Research by scholar Allyson Nadia Field identified the actors as Suttle and Brown.[3] Film historians believe that Something Good was an impromptu film shot in Chicago's South Loop district, possibly while Suttle and Brown were at William Selig's film studio to film a cakewalk dance.[1][2]

References
  1. Bowean, Lolly. "Tracing Chicago origins of 'Something Good,' a recently discovered film clip depicting first onscreen kiss between two African-Americans". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2020-07-24.
  2. "Library Of Congress Honors Groundbreaking 1898 Film Depicting Black Joy: Lulu Garcia-Navarro interviews Allyson Nadia Field". National Public Radio. December 16, 2018. Retrieved 2020-07-24.
  3. Wang, Jack (Jun 10, 2019). "Academy honors UChicago scholar who identified historic on-screen kiss". University of Chicago News. Retrieved 2020-07-24.
  4. The Pekin: The Rise and Fall of Chicago's First Black-Owned Theatre Thomas Bauman, University of Illinois Press, 2014
  5. "Gertie Brown". IMDb. Retrieved 2020-07-24.
  6. "Tim Moore, Comic in Blackbirds". The New York Age. 1928-07-14. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-07-24.
  7. "His Majesty's Theater". Papers Past. May 28, 1917. Retrieved 2020-07-24.
  8. Albright, Alex (1993). "Micheaux, Vaudeville & Black Cast Film" (PDF). Black Film Review. 7: 4: 8.
  9. "Lucky Sambo". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved July 23, 2020.
  10. Sampson, Henry T. (2013-10-30). Blacks in Blackface: A Sourcebook on Early Black Musical Shows. Scarecrow Press. p. 378. ISBN 978-0-8108-8351-2.
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