comedians

Bert Williams, 1874-1922 "Egbert "Bert" Austin Williams was one of the greatest entertainers in America's history. Born in the Bahamas on November 12, 1874, he came to the United States permanently in 1885. "Williams met George Walker in San Francisco in 1893 and the two formed what became the most successful comedy team of their time. After appearing on Broadway in Victor Herbert's The Gold Bug (1896), Williams and Walker created pioneering vaudeville shows and full musical theater productions, including Senegambian Carnival (1897), The Policy Players (1899), The Sons of Ham (1900), their biggest hit, In Dahomey (1902)--which also played in London the following year, Abyssinia (1906), and Bandana Land (1907). "When Walker retired in 1908 due to illness, Williams starred in Mr. Load of Koal (1909)--the last black musical on Broadway for more than ten years. Unable to continue producing shows without Walker, Williams signed on with the Ziegfeld Follies in 1910--the only black performer in this famous review. He explained this controversial move saying, "... colored show business is at a low ebb just now ... it was far better to have joined a large white show than to have starred in a colored show, considering conditions." Williams stayed with the Follies through 1919, after which he appeared with Eddie Cantor in Broadway Brevities (1920) and Under the Bamboo Tree (1921-22). While on tour with the latter show, his failing health caught up with him and he contracted pneumonia. Williams died in New York City on March 4, 1922. "Williams was also one of the most prolific black performers on recordings, making around 80 recordings from 1901-22. Indeed, his first recording sessions with George Walker for the Victor Company in 1901 are considered the first recordings by black performers for a major recording company. Williams signed with Columbia in 1906 and the majority of his recordings were with that company, including what became his signature number, "Nobody," with words written by Alex Rogers." –From BIOGRAPHIES • Selected Works at the Library of Congress. This publicity still portrait was reportedly taken on January 01, 1920. There is a licensed companion photograph which appears to have been taken at the same time here. To look at some of Bert Williams' notated sheet music from the Ziegfeld Follies or to hear selected audio recordings, including his signature "Nobody", at the Library of Congress click here.

I think the Getty dates are often rough guesses.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Williams

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Nick Altrock & Al Schacht had a baseball comedy act that they put on to warm up the Polo Grounds crowd before Game 2 of the 1922 World Series, on October 5, 1922: "Play-by-Play Account of Yankees-Giants Tie Contest By Joseph Val Nick Altrock and AI Schacht, world's series comedians extraordinary, held the center of the stage at the Polo Grounds yesterday throughout the early afternoon and up to the very minute when play began. In fact, the comedians outdid themselves to such an extent that the voice of the an- nouncer could hardly be heard when the batteries were made known. Altrock and Schacht carried the house with their final act, a slow-mo- tion pitching and batting feature, which was absolutely the best trick in their repertoire. The fans simply roared in glee, and depended on their eyesight, or the scoreboard, to dis- cover that Bob Shawkey was the Yan- kees' pitching selection and Jess Barnes was to toss them up for the Giants." New York Tribune, October 06, 1922 chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1922-10-06/ed-...

An interesting article about Al Schacht and the comedy duo: sabr.org/bioproj/person/al-schacht/

LOC, the photo seems properly dated based on the caption card in the Notes above, but misdated as 1923 above that. Please check with the Pictorial History Committee, Society for American Baseball Research.

Thanks for the details and correction, Art Siegel .

Melissa (LOC P&P) You're welcome. I see that it is still identified above as 1923, thoug

If you have any information regarding the individuals within the picture, please leave a comment.

the man on the left side must be one of the actors mentioned here, I guess: www.stummfilm.at/content/view/252/111 So it could be: Eugen Neufeld (Uncle of Rubens), Simon Nathan (Motti Brauner), Salomon Zucker (Schabse) or even Eugen Preiss (Mensche) himself, who plays in the movie as well as Sidney Goldin... Except of Eugen Neufeld and Eugen Preiss, the actors must be of the same yiddish theatre group in whitch also Picon and Kalich are members - because they came as a team to vienna to act in the movie...

So, now I got it: The person on the very left must be Saul Nathan (according to J. Hoberman, "Bridge of Light", Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1995, page 57 (description) and 58 (the same photo as shown above) :) with best regards...