Part 18

The Pace Phonograph Corporation, New York City, is the first of its kind in the world to be composed only of Colored people. It is presided over by Harry H. Pace, a Colored man who founded it, and it is turning out records reproducing only Negro music sung or played only by Colored musicians. All of its officials and employees are Colored, and its chief purpose is to preserve in vocal form such as are left of the slave-songs of America. Its records are known as the “Black Swan Records,” that are already in much demand and finding large sales.

Today the original and unique, singing of Perry Bradford’s “blues” by Mamie Smith, is attracting admiration and endless praise on both sides of the ocean. Her successful singing for the reproduction of her voice on the records of the Okeh Phonograph Co., has made her the first Colored female singer to so suddenly achieve world fame along that line. It is said that the royalties from her records amount to such a sum that it would gladden and look big in the eyes of even prima donna singers in the operatic world. The records containing her voice are in such demand by the public that the manufacturers turning out the disc have to put on night shifts in conjunction with day shifts in order to fill the orders piled up on their desks. In the fall of 1920 Miss Smith’s stage singing had become so popular that she had to table engagements from Paris and London in order to fill a thirty week touring engagement in the United States.

Band Musicians throughout the world heard of and learned to admire the late James Reese Europe, who was one of the greatest “jazz” musicians the world has ever heard. Of the four best bands overseas during the World War and representing the four greatest nations, James Europe’s American Colored bandmen were in demand more than any of the others, especially in England and France.

At the St. Louis World Exposition of 1904 and at the Panama Exposition held at San Francisco, Cal., in 1915, Major W. H. Loving, as conductor of the famous Philippine Band, was among those who were awarded the highest band honors for being among the greatest bandmasters of the world. Other Colored musicians who have achieved success and recognition as band leaders are quite numerous in America, and a few of them are mentioned herewith; Lieut. Tim Bryan, F. L. Drye, W. H. Howard, W. L. Jackson, C. Wesley Johnson, N. Clarke Smith, A. J. Thomas, W. H. Vodery, and P. G. Lowery who has developed such a great band that yearly throughout the seasons it is to be found with the Ringling Bro. Show as one of its most important bands. W. H. Graham, as well as a great band leader is a talented composer of band music. His home is in Denver, Colorado.

According to the determinations of one of America’s nationally recognized authorities and critics on Negro music composition, the following ten named Colored composers are among the foremost in the United States:

Harry T. Burleigh, whose “Deep River”, “Jean” and “The Soldier” are three of his voice compositions that are among his numerous spirituals and art-songs published by Ricordi & Co., New York City. For his work as a singer and composer, Mr. Burleigh was awarded the 1917 Spingarn Medal.

Melville Charlton, whose piano production: Poeme Crotique is published by Schirmer & Co., New York City.

Will Marion Cook, whose “The Bandanna Land”, “The Casino Girl”, and “The Rain Song” are among his popular choruses in Negro style that are published by Schirmer & Co., New York City. As director of The New York Syncopated Orchestra and the celebrated Clef Club Orchestra, Mr. Cook has won himself a place among the first-place orchestra leaders in America and Europe.

R. Nathaniel Dett, whose chorals: “Chariot Jubilee”, “Listen To The Lambs” and “I’m So Glad Trouble Don’t Last Alway” are among his voice spirituals published by John Church Co., New York City; his piano composition “Magnolia” which is one among others published by Summy & Co., Chicago. A white publication, Musical America of December 17, 1919, said, “If R. Nathaniel Dett had written no other work, his “Chariot Jubilee” would suffice to make his name.” Mr. Dett is also a noted pianist.

Carl Diton, whose pipe Organ production; “Swing Low Sweet, Chariot” is published by Schirmer & Co., New York City, and whose voice composition; “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” is published by Presser & Co., Philadelphia, Pa.

Helen Hagan, who has composed for the piano; Concerto with orchestral accompaniment (manuscript).

J. Harvey Hebron, who has produced for the voice splendid semi-classic ballads (American Magazine Co., 1514 South St., Phila., Pa.,) and for the violin and piano: Sonata in E (manuscript).

J. Rosamond Johnson, whose classic ballads and light operas have been written for the white company, Klaw & Erlanger and such noted white actresses as Lillian Russell. In the production of many of his pieces, J. Rosamond was ably assisted by his brother James Weldon Johnson who also was the translator for the English libretto of “Goyescas” the Spanish grand opera produced by the Metropolitan Opera Company in 1915. James W. also has several French music translations to his credit. The works of J. Rosamond Johnson are published by Ditson & Co., Boston, Mass.

Gerald Tyler, who has composed for the voice, Art-songs that are published by Schirmer & Co., New York City.

Clarence Cameron White, whose violin Spirituals are published by Carl Fisher & Co., New York.

The “blue song” compositions of W. C. Handy are known and sung all over the world. He is president of the Handy Music Co., of New York City, which is the leading firm of its kind among Colored people in the world. Perry Bradford is composer of the “Crazy Blues” that have made himself, Mamie Smith and the Okeh phonograph records nationally and internationally famous.

N. Clark Smith is second to none among American Colored musicians as a composer of instrumental, especially, band music. For several years he was band leader of the Tuskegee Institute expert band and also served for a long period as bandmaster of the famous Old Illinois 8th Regiment. Today he is Director of Music at the Lincoln High School, Kansas City, Mo.

The following list contains the names of some of the leading musicians who are foremost composers of different lines of music: Mrs. B. Consuelo Cook, J. E. Dowell, E. Edmonds, W. H. Farrell, Harry Freeman, Jessie L. Gaynor, A. P. Grant, H. P. Gilbert, L. Godfrey, Nora Douglass Holt, Edwin F. Hill, E. A. Jackson, Scott Jolpin, E. T. Jenkins, Joe. Jordan, Turner Layton, Therwold Otterstrom, Dave Payton, J. S. Pollen, Alex Rogers, H. E. Stewart, Dekiven Thompson, Clarence Williams, Spencer Williams, Geo. Hoff.

IN ATHLETICS

SOME MAN.

When a white star fames in football fray, Three rivals at most against him play; And he gets the cheers of every fan For they feel for him no racial ban; But when Colored star in white games set Eleven “cave men” play him “to get”; And when thro it all they can’t him “can” He sure must be what is called “SOME MAN”. --_Harrison._

The main thing every boy and girl should have or begin to acquire in early life, and then continue to keep during his manhood or her womanhood, is a clean, healthy, supple and well-developed muscular body that is guided and governed by a pure thinking and self-controlling mind. And such a body is mainly built up and preserved by taking plenty of out-door playful exercises in early childhood; by taking frequent parts in athletics games played in a fair and honest way against friendly rivals while in young manhood and womanhood; and by regularly and systematically going through a good drill of setting-up exercises, gymnastics or calisthenics throughout both middle and old age. These same childhood games and youthful athletic sports have their good effects upon the young and tender minds by early teaching them courage in times of facing big odds and developing self-control during the angry moments of an exciting game when temptations so often come up to strike an unfair blow or say some mean and rude thing. And these same out-door activities have their purifying results upon those minds in that they are nearer to Nature and thereby prompt more Godly thoughts, words and deeds among such minds than do certain in-door pastimes that are not so wholesome. No country in the world surpasses America in the general suppleness in movement, gracefulness of carriage and all-round muscular development and physical prowess of the bodies belonging to its people. And the following named records show that American Colored youths have played large and valuable parts in helping to build up the physical reputation of the United States that is today recognized as the leading country in international athletic sports.

In Football

W. H. Lewis (one of the ablest Colored lawyers in America today) before graduating from Harvard proved to be the greatest football center, Colored or white, in his college and of his time. Every fall when Harvard now faces her, Brown University heaves a loud sigh of regret that Fritz Pollard, a Colored All-American Half-back, is not on her football team to again and mostly alone carry the brown and white pennant to a crushing victory over the almost unbeatable crimson and white colors. Williams has since made such a football record at Brown that he was given a place on an All-American team by the New York World. It was Johnny Shelbourne, All-American Fullback, who was one of the four stars on Dartmouth football team that so smoothly steam-rollered the team of the University of Pa., with a score of 44 to 7 on Franklin Field, at Philadelphia, Pa., November 13, 1920. Shelbourne is also such a sprinter that he is able to “fade-away” over a 40 yard stretch in 4 4-5 seconds. Calloway not only made the Varsity team of Columbia but has proved one of its most valuable men. All football teams that have recently played against Northwestern University have felt the brawn and held the weight of “Buddy” Turner. Washington & Jefferson in their latest football games have fully relied upon the punting toe of their Colored player, West. Athletic writers and critics on the staffs of both the Chicago Tribune and Colliers Weekly have given Duke Slater, the Iowa tackle, a place on an All-Western football team. Leon Taylor was made All-Ohio Conferee fullback at Oberlin, Ohio. Smith’s tricks of going completely wild when turned loose on the gridiron of Michigan Agr. College caused them to put him on an All-American team for safe keeping. When knocking men right and left on the field of Minnesota University, Marshall acted so much like a Minnesota Indian on the war path that they had to do something to sort of tame him down, so they put him on an All-American team. Beside winning his letters in baseball, basketball and track athletics, A. Hamblin of Knox College was made captain of his 1918 football team. M. Richmond, on account of his excellent defensive and offensive playings was made captain of the Des Moines College 1917 football team. Sol Butler, when playing on the Dubuque College football team, came in such close contact with and made such lasting impressions on his opponents that they will until their dying days remember having met a Sol Butler at some time and at some place. W. E. Morrison and W. Brown were two of the outstanding stars who played on the Tuft College varsity eleven at the times it beat Harvard and gave Princeton one of the toughest battles and one of the worse heart-stop-beating scares it has ever had on a football field. In New England, the names and pigskin deeds of those two charging warriors, especially that of Morrison are still fondly remembered and always referred to with admiration and pride. Paul Robeson of Rutgers College was made an All-American End. Walter Camp (white) of Yale University in selecting his All-American Football Team of 1918 said, “There never was a more serviceable end, both in attack and defense than Robeson--the 200 pound giant of Rutgers. Defensively this team is remarkably strong with Robeson and Alexander backing up the line as secondary defense; Taking turns at this they would be employed in a line of work to which they are thoroughly accustomed and in which they have had no peers in many years.” (quotation from Work’s Negro Year Book, 1918-1919 edition, page 44). Other Colored youths who have won distinction as football players in white universities and colleges are; Taylor at the University of Pa., Bullock at Dartmouth, Gray and Pinkett at Amherst, Ayler at Brown, Chadwell at Williams, Craighead at Massachusetts Agri. College, Jones at Harvard, Ransom at Belout, Young and Wheeler at Illinois, Johnson and Ross at Nebraska, Tibbs at Syracuse, Green at Western Reserve and Roberts at Colorado Reserve, Niles at Colby.

On The Track and Field

Howard P. Drew, the present holder of the Official A. A. U. world record of 9 3-5 seconds for 100 yds, was selected in 1918 as a member of the All-American Athletic Team and in 1919 as a member of the All-American Track Team. In writing of Drew in the Philadelphia North American of July 17, 1920, Lawson Roberston (white) Coach of Athletics at the University of Pa., said: “Just before Drew broke down eight years ago in Stockholm he showed enough speed in his trial heat to warrant the belief that he could beat any man in the final by 3 yards. In the semifinal heat he “pulled” his tendon when he had covered about 80 yards and limped in the remainder of the distance. Even at that he won his semi-final heat by about eight yards from Thomas of Princeton, the 1912 intercollegiate champion.” The following quotation on Drew is extracted from Work’s Negro Year Book, 1918-1919, page 44: “At the 1918 Western Conference College Outdoor Track and Field Championship Events, Howard Drew, the world’s famous sprinter staged a comeback by winning against a very fast field the 100 and 220 yard dashes. A comment on Drews’ performance said: “By winning the 100 and 220 yard dashes from the fastest fields that the middle western colleges could boast, Drew demonstrated that his victories were not due to accident or lack of formidable opponents. If any further proof were needed, the time would amply attest the high standard of Drew’s sprinting as he ran the 100 in 10 seconds. When it is taken into consideration that Drew is 28 years of age and has been competing for thirteen years, during which time he has won numerous victories and equalled the world’s record time in both of these events, it can be seen that his latest triumphs are little short of athletic marvels.”

Beside being one of its best football players, Sol Butler was also one of the best all-round athletes Dubuque College ever turned out, and was holder of the American A. A. U. broad jump record of twenty-four feet and eight inches. In July 1919 Butler (now of Drake College) won the broad jump in the Inter-Allied Games at Pershing Stadium, France. He was one of the athletes selected to represent the United States in those games. Butler also won the broad jump event at the Relay Carnival of the University of Pa., by leaping 23 feet 5 3-4 inches. Even in his youngster frolics while attending the Hutchinson, Kan. High School, Butler showed his unusual speed by getting loose at Evanston, Ill., on March 28, 1914, and pushing 60 yards of air out of the way in 6 2-5 seconds. When he finally slowed down at the end of that affair and kept still long enough to listen he learned those boyhood runaway wild steps had established the best United States Inter-Scholastic Track Record for that event.

Edward Orval Gourdin

The field sensation among the white colleges during the past two years has been E. O. Gourdin, the Harvard all-round star athlete. This Colored athlete is at this writing unquestionably the backbone and mainstay of the Harvard track team, and throughout their competitions with other colleges, Gourdin has been in the majority of cases the highest individual point scorer for his college. And yet, his victories have been under the most trying conditions and circumstances. Being a star in many events and the chief one upon whom Harvard depended, in numerous meets he has repeatedly been called upon to skip from one event to another and back again without stopping to catch his breath or get a rest: even fates, especially during the spring of 1921 seeming to be against him, for it usually rained the day before or the day he had to perform. As his best work is done on dry ground, and he fully knows it, his wet, muddy and slippery events were of course entered with a certain amount of mental depression, but his courage never faltered nor his willingness halted. During the spring of 1921 when Harvard and Yale met in their annual track meet, the track was soaked from a former rain; yet, Gourdin won the 100 yard dash from Yale in 10 2-5 seconds. Although the runway was uncertain from dampness, the take-off risky for the same reason and the pit wet from holding rain, he won the broad jump from Yale by hurling himself through the air 24 feet and 4 inches. In the shot-put under favorable conditions he clears 41 feet and in the 220 yard dash he hugs 22 seconds so tight that it can’t get away from him.

Extra! Extra! Extra! Special Delivery Red Rush Telegram!

At last, fates and the atmospheric elements smiled down upon the Colored athletic world wonder and marvel, “Ned” Gourdin, by giving him “A Perfect Day” (no drizzling rains, no wet slippery grounds, no damp heavy airs) on July 23, 1921. On this date, that hilariously kissed the sun “good night” and joyously embraced the moon “good morning”, was held a dual track meet between the Harvard-Yale teams and the Oxford-Cambridge teams of England, at the Harvard Stadium. Regarding the results of that meet, the writer quotes the following extracts as part of an article that, according to the Chicago Defender of July 30, 1921, appeared in the July 25, 1921 issue of the Boston Daily Post:

“By Wilton Vaugh”

“Edward Orval Gourdin now goes down in the Harvard annals as the greatest track athlete ever to represent the Crimson.

“His record-breaking jump of 25 feet 3 inches in the running broad jump last Saturday at the stadium international college meet was just a climax to his amazing achievements on the cinders.

“Amazing Record”

“But that particular feat alone would have been enough to rank “Ned” with the elite of Cambridge, because the world has been waiting twenty years for a man capable of matching Peter O’Connor’s leap of 24 feet 11¾ inches. The Harvard idol accomplished it, and with such a margin that it now seems hopeless of developing a greater jumper for a number of years, anyway.

“His all-round prowess on the track would have been sufficient to rate him with the best. Had he chosen to specialize in any one of the eight events it is not beyond the scope of human thought to see him shatter different marks. His best winning records in the matches he has already tried are:

100-yard dash--9 4-5 seconds. 220-yard dash--22 1-5 seconds. 440-yard run--52 1-5 seconds. Running broad jump--25 feet 3 inches. Running high jump--5 feet 9 inches. Running hop, step and jump--45 feet 3 inches. Javelin throw--140 feet. Discus throw--110 feet.

In the above meet on July 23, 1921 Gourdin also won the 100-yard dash from his closest rival, Rudd, the famed sprinter and captain of the British team.

During his athletic career, the late J. B. Taylor of the University of Pa., was a track wonder in both America and Europe. When in action he had the easiest and prettiest carriage of body and the smoothest clocklike movement of limbs of any sprinter seen on the cinder path for years. When making his 440 yard and other records he used a remarkable sprinting stride of nine feet--about two feet longer than the average sprinter takes.

While at Harvard, T. Cable won fame as a hammer thrower; L. V. Alexis was a star trackman, and E. L. Davidson won the 125 pound-class wrestling Collegiate Championship in competing against the best white wrestlers of his class from the other six big colleges that had entered the match. A. L. Jackson was one of the best hurdlers Harvard ever turned out. B. Dismond of the University of Chicago and Lee Umble of Colorado University made records for their schools, and Umble is today one of the best wrestlers of his class in the West. J. T. Carter has won recognition as a crack sprinter on the Brown track team, Dewey Rogers is a star trackman on the University of Pa. track team and his ability to push 440 yards back of him in 50 2-5 seconds shows he has a pair of heels that must be closely watched or they may some day on some cinder path get fast ideas to elope from their owner. Rogers in one of his 440 yards sprints defeated the captain of his own track team--Earl Eby.

Roy Morris has won a national reputation as a sprinter of note. R. E. Johnson of Pittsburgh, is one of the best 5,000 and 10,000 meter runners in the country. Little Charley Mitchell of the St. Christopher Club, New York, is one of the pluckiest and ablest marathon runners in the land and has finished eighth out of a string of sixty. G. L. Brashear, now coach of Straight University, New Orleans, La., was at one time one of the best all-round athletes in California. E. Niles has repeatedly shown that he is one of the best 440 and 880 yard sprinters in New England.

“The New York Athletic Club games saw another promising Negro athlete come into prominence. Billy Parker, representing the St. Christopher Club, raced to an easy victory in the 1,000 yard run. He won about as he pleased in 2:10. Parker is one of the best-looking runners that the Colored clubs have developed in years. He is big, rangy, and a good strider.” The above is what Howard Valentine, a sport writer, had to say in a white paper, the New York Globe, about Wm. S. (Billy) Parker who so easily defeated some of the fastest Colored and white runners in the East. Parker is also one of the foremost basketball players in the East. Young men who are interested in bicycle riding might be encouraged to learn here that little Major Taylor, a Colored man, during the year 1900 held the championship as the fastest bicycle rider in America.

Track and Field Records Held by Colored Youths

Best Western Inter-Collegiate Conference Record. 440 Yards, 47 2-5 seconds, Binga Dismond, Chicago, at Evantson, Ill., June 3, 1916.

Best United States Inter-Scholastic Track Record. 60 yards, 6 2-5 seconds, Sol Butler, Hutchinson, (Kansas) High School, at Evanston, Ill. March 28, 1914.

In July, 1919 Butler (now of Drake) won the broad jump in the Inter-Allied Games at Pershing Stadium, France.

Track Amateur World Records

100 Yards, 9- 3-4 seconds by H. P. Drew at Berkley, California, March 28, 1914. 130 Yards, 12 4-5 seconds, H. P. Drew at Brooklyn, N. Y., Nov. 22, 1913. 220 Yards, 21 1-5 seconds, H. P. Drew at Clearmont, California, Feb. 28. 1914.

Colored Youths Who Have Won Unusual Distinctions in Track and Field Work in White Colleges.