Douglass in Macon does big business : manager praises Billy Chambers Production / by William Smith

Item

Title
en Douglass in Macon does big business : manager praises Billy Chambers Production / by William Smith
Description
en News bulletin for the Douglass Theatre, by William M. Smith, manager of the Douglass Theatre, probably for May, 1925? or 1926?. Smith notes that they had very large attendance for Billy Chambers and his Oh Mandy show on May 26th. He describes the show as featuring eighteen girls and twelve boys from the Ballard Normal School, located in Macon. Smith enthuses that two thousand people attended the performance, which was "billed ... like a circus" by Billy Chambers. He opines that the T.O.B.A. Circuit would be ashamed of their productions if they could see Chambers' production. Smith criticizes the T.O.B.A. shows for being too much alike. He reports that Oh Mandy will show for "white people" at the Grand in June by special request, and that they will have William Benbow's Get Happy for the week of June 1st. Benbow was a producer, owner, and performer in several well-known minstrel and vaudeville shows. Get Happy was produced in 1925 and 1926 with his last known troupe of eighteen men and women, the William Benbow Company. The stars of the 1925 show included Deatta Robinson, Margie Cohen, Odell Irvins, "Rastus" Winfield, "Shorty" Edwards, and Elnora Mantley. The 1926 cast included William Benbow, Ozie Stennis, Henrietta Leggett, Mabel Jones, "Shorty" Edwards, Zue Robinson, and his jazz band. It is possible that this announcement may have been sent to African American newspapers such as the Chicago Defender which had a Southern edition (see dbr054 which mentions a column by Douglass that appeared in the Defender)., Digital image and encoded transcription of an original manuscript, scanned, transcribed and encoded by the Digital Library of Georgia in 2005, as part of Georgia HomePLACE. This project is supported with federal LSTA funds administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Georgia Public Library Service, a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.
Bibliographic Citation
en Cite as: [title of item], Theater Records Series, Charles Henry Douglass, Jr. Business Records, 1906-1967, Middle Georgia Archives, presented in the Digital Library of Georgia.
Creator
en Smith, William M., theater manager
Date
en 1925-05/1926-05
Extent
en [1] p.
Format
en text/html; image/jpeg
Identifier
en dbr098
Relation
en Manuscript held by the Middle Georgia Archives, Washington Memorial Library, Charles Henry Douglass, Jr. business records, 1906-1967, box 22, folder 223, document 41.
Source
en Middle Georgia Archives
Spatial Coverage
en United States, Georgia, Bibb County, Macon, 32.84069, -83.6324
Subject
en William Benbow Company
en Theaters--Georgia--Macon
en Musicals--Georgia--Macon
en Revues--Georgia--Macon
en Entertainment events--Georgia--Macon
en Advertising--Georgia--Macon
en Advertising fliers--Georgia--Macon
en Get happy (Musical show : 1925)
en Douglass Theatre (Macon, Ga.)
en Smith, William M., theater manager
en Chambers, Billy
en Benbow, William
en Ballard Normal School (Macon, Ga.)
Type
en Text
Site pages
Music