George W. Williams

George Williams was created in Houston ‘circular about 1899, and his vaudeville sparring partner, Bessie Dark brown, was also given birth to in Tx, roughly 4 years previous. In 1918 they started working collectively as Williams & Dark brown around the touring entertainment circuit overseen from the Theatre Owners and Bookers Association. They performed the Putnam Theatre in NY the following 12 months with 15-year-old Thomas “Fat” Waller in the piano. Among the initial African-American vaudeville duos to record for a significant label, the group of Williams & Dark brown made 18 information for Columbia through the years 1923-1926; additionally, Bessie Dark brown cut four edges on her personal in 1924, and Williams racked up 15 game titles under his personal name between 1923 and 1930, providing his tunes in a solid voice having a inclination toward humming vibrato. The Williams & Dark brown discography is usually most noteworthy for the involvement of various users of Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra. Williams & Dark brown had been engaged to execute at Pittsburgh’s Celebrity Theatre in Feb 1924 and Williams is usually believed to possess appeared like a single act in the Sunset in Chicago seven weeks later. Pittsburgh’s general public apparently valued their routines, as the duo was asked back for come back engagements in 1925 and 1926. Williams spent the past due ’20s pursuing achievement as a performing professional. He was noticed at Chicago’s Grand Movie theater on several events in 1927, and in Brownskin Versions and Ginger Snaps of 1928 at the same place. Williams appeared within a Evening in Spain on the Lafayette in NY during June 1928, after that in Happy Move Lucky at Pittsburgh’s Elmore Movie theater six months afterwards. When in January 1929 that present shifted to the Chicago Apollo, Williams and Dark brown had been on the costs together, plus they had been also highlighted in S’Prise Me and Popular Town on the Alhambra in NY during 1930. Williams produced his last known recordings in-may of that season, and using one selection proven a hitherto undetected knack for yodeling. Bessie Dark brown (never to end up being confused with many identically called African-American feminine blues singers through the same period) give up the picture in 1932, shifted to Cincinnati, and resided there until her demise in the first ’70s. Williams stubbornly persevered being a vocalist through the entire middle-’30s. His last known engagement was on the Apollo in Harlem in Oct of 1937, and there is nothing known about his following professional actions or what occurred to him through the remainder of his lifestyle.