{"id":2272,"date":"2016-02-24T15:27:22","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T15:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/watkinson\/?p=2272"},"modified":"2016-02-24T15:27:22","modified_gmt":"2016-02-24T15:27:22","slug":"voices-from-the-past-a-black-man-who-performed-blackface","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/watkinson\/2016\/02\/24\/voices-from-the-past-a-black-man-who-performed-blackface\/","title":{"rendered":"Voices from the past&#8230;a black man who performed blackface&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 480px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('video');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-2272-1\" width=\"480\" height=\"640\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/watkinson\/files\/2016\/02\/VID_20160223_125622.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/watkinson\/files\/2016\/02\/VID_20160223_125622.mp4\">http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/watkinson\/files\/2016\/02\/VID_20160223_125622.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p>[Posted by Henry Arneth, Special Collections Assistant]<\/p>\n<p>Egbert Austin \u201cBert\u201d Williams (1874-1922) was an American blackface vaudeville star. Born in the Bahamas, Williams began performing at an early age with various minstrel shows, and in the 1890s took a partner, George Walker. The pair performed under the name \u201cTwo Real Coons\u201d because there were so many white blackface performers. It was also in the 1890s that Williams made his first recordings.<\/p>\n<p>By the early 1900s, Williams\u2019 style had changed. He performed with the Ziegfeld Follies beginning 1910, singing and \u201cphilosophizing\u201d during the breaks in the Follies routines. This recording, \u201cI\u2019m Gone Before I Go,\u201d (Columbia A-2078) from 1916, is typical of his later work. In the song, he speaks of the African-American participation in the Mexican Revolution (ca. 1910-1920). This song forms an interesting juxtaposition when compared with other patriotic songs of the period both in tone and music. The happy-sounding composition seems to belie the somewhat dismal lyrics. Williams\u2019 delivery is also different because he doesn\u2019t sing the entire time. He sings refrains, but speaks the stanzas, which gives the listener the feeling that one is viewing Williams on stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Posted by Henry Arneth, Special Collections Assistant] Egbert Austin \u201cBert\u201d Williams (1874-1922) was an American blackface vaudeville star. Born in the Bahamas, Williams began performing at an early age with various minstrel shows, and in the 1890s took a partner, George Walker. The pair performed under the name \u201cTwo Real Coons\u201d because there were so [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,29],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/watkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/watkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/watkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/watkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/watkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2272"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/watkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2276,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/watkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272\/revisions\/2276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/watkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/watkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/watkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}