calsfoundation@cals.org
December 20, 2007
In 1921, the first major all African-American musical comedy premiered on Broadway. The show, which would run for 504 performances, was a breakthrough for the African-American musical, proving to financial backers that an audience would support such performances. The show’s music was performed by Eubie Blake’s Shuffle Along Orchestra, which included (identified with arrow) Arkansas’s own William Grant Still, before his great fame.