Jesse Allison Shipp, Sr. (March 24, 1864, in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

– May 1, 1934, in

Jamaica, Queens, New York Jamaica is a neighborhood in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Queens. It has a popular large commercial and retail area, though part of the neighborhood is also residential. Jamaica is bordered by Hollis, Queens, Hollis, ...

)''National Cyclopedia of American Biography: Volume 14.''
New York: James T. White and Co., 1910; pg. 244. was an American actor,

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

, and

theatrical director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...

, who is best remembered as a pioneer

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

writer of

musical theater Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, moveme ...

in the United States, and as the author of the book upon which the landmark play ''

In Dahomey ''In Dahomey: A Negro Musical Comedy'' is a landmark 1903 American musical comedy described by theatre historian Gerald Bordman as "the first full-length musical written and played by blacks to be performed at a major Broadway house."Bordman, ...

'' was based. Shipp played an influential role in expanding black theater beyond its

minstrel show The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of theater developed in the early 19th century. The shows were performed by mostly white actors wearing blackface makeup for the purpose of portraying racial stereotypes of Afr ...

origins and is recalled as perhaps the first African-American director of a Broadway performance.

Biography

Early years

Born in 1864 in Cincinnati, his father Thomas Shipp was born about 1821 in the

slave Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

state of

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

. His mother Ellen Shipp was of biracial heritage, and was born around 1830 in the slave state of

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

."Ellen Shipp,"
Notable Kentucky African Americans Database, University of Kentucky, www.uky.edu/ Sometime prior to the outbreak of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

both had managed to leave the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...

to live in freedom in Ohio. Shipp attended public school in Cincinnati, graduating from high school at the age of 16. Upon graduation he immediately entered the work force, working as a

retail clerk A retail clerk, also known as a sales clerk, shop clerk, retail associate, or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) shop assistant, sales assistant or customer service assistant, is a service role in a retail business. A retail clerk obtains or re ...

and driving a laundry wagon. In his free time Shipp got together with three of his peers and formed a

musical quartet In music, a quartet (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers. Classical String quartet In classical music, one of the most common combinations of four instruments in chamber music is the string quartet. String quar ...

, which sang evenings in the German section of Cincinnati.

Career

Shipp joined a

minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist enter ...

show based in

Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

, but left after three weeks. In 1887 he took his own quartet on the road, and they remained together for the next seven years, achieving success playing in conjunction with a variety of traveling minstrel companies. Following the disbanding of his quartet in 1894, Shipp became an actor in the traveling black theater of the day, including roles in such popular performance as ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' from 1894 to 1895,

John William Isham John William Isham (1866 – September 24, 1902) was an American vaudeville impresario who was known for his ''Octoroons'' and ''Oriental America'' shows. These had their roots in traditional minstrel shows but included chorus girls, sketches and ...

's ''Oriental America'' in 1896 and 1897, and ''A Trip to Coon-Town'' from 1897 to 1899. Shipp was hired by the

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

team of

Bert Williams Bert Williams (November 12, 1874 – March 4, 1922) was a Bahamian-born American entertainer, one of the pre-eminent entertainers of the vaudeville era and one of the most popular comedians for all audiences of his time. While some sources have ...

and

George Walker George Walker may refer to: Arts and letters *George Walker (chess player) (1803–1879), English chess player and writer * George Walker (musician), English musician *George Walker (composer) (1922–2018), American composer * George Walker (il ...

in 1900 as a stage manager, writer, and performer for their troupe's productions. A series of plays were written in subsequent years for Williams and Walker including books from which the seminal plays ''

'' and ''

Abyssinia Abyssinia (; also known as Abyssinie, Abissinia, Habessinien, or Al-Habash) was an ancient region in the Horn of Africa situated in the northern highlands of modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea.Sven Rubenson, The survival of Ethiopian independence, ...

'', works noted for better plot development and character development than had been typical of black theatre in the era. Unfortunately for historians of American black theatre, some of Shipp's original treatments have not been preserved, with the book for ''In Dahomey'' surviving only in fragments. Around 1908 Shipp went to work for Robert T. Motts and his Pekin Stock Company of

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

.Bernard L. Peterson, Jr., "Dressing Room Club," in ''The African American Theatre Directory, 1816-1960: A Comprehensive Guide to Early Black Theatre Organizations, Companies, Theatres, and Performing Groups.'' Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997; pg. 164. Shipp was hired as the resident playwright for the non-touring company. Shipp authored a number of critically acclaimed plays during this interval, but the demands of his employer for a constant stream of fresh fare forced Shipp to increasingly make use of traditional vaudeville forms. Motts would die in July 1911. By 1910 the Pekin Stock Company was in decline, wracked by competition from other theatres in Chicago, which had begun to supplement their dramatic performances with the showing of movies.Peterson, "Jesse Shipp Stock Company," in ''The African American Theatre Directory, 1816-1960,'' pg. 181. Jesse Shipp took over the operation, renaming it the Jesse Shipp Stock Company, employing Sam Corker as permanent stage manager, and making use of many of the remaining Pekin players. A number of plays were staged by the company in the

Pekin Theatre Established on June 18, 1904, Chicago’s Pekin Theatre was the first black owned musical and vaudeville stock theatre in the United States. Between 1904 and around 1915, the Pekin Club and its Pekin Theatre served as a training ground and showc ...

, including several written by Shipp. The Jesse Shipp Stock Company was itself disbanded in 1911, however. In 1913, Shipp produced and directed a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's ''Mikado'' for the Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C. The production featured the well-known contralto,

Daisy Tapley Daisy Tapley (1882–1925) was a classical singer (Contralto) and vaudeville performer. Born Daisy Robinson in Big Rapids, Michigan, she was raised in Chicago, where she played piano and the organ with music teachers Emil Liebling, Clarence Eddy, a ...

singing Katisha and Dr. Charles Sumner Wormley playing the title character. In 1921 Shipp established the second key African-American dramatic club in New York City's

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

district, the Dressing Room Club.Peterson, "Dressing Room Club," in ''The African American Theatre Directory, 1816-1960,'' pg. 59. Located at the Harlem Community House on 7th Avenue, the Dressing Room Club declared as its official goals the impressing of the world with "the dignity and economic value of the Negro element of the profession" and preservation of the history of the Negro in theatricals. Over 250 members of New York's black theatre leaders were members of this organization headed by Shipp, including writers, performers, composers, and musicians. Ship was intimately involved with the Harlem Productions Company in 1925 and 1926 — a group first organized to produce the musical farce ''

Lucky Sambo ''Lucky Sambo'' was a 1925 musical comedy staged on Broadway. It originally toured as ''Aces and Queens'' in 1923 and 1924. It was by Porter Grainger and Freddy Johnson. It played at the Colonial Theatre (New York City). Time magazine described i ...

.''Peterson, "Harlem Productions Company," in ''The African American Theatre Directory, 1816-1960,'' pg. 90. Debuting June 6, 1925, nine performances were staged on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

at the Colonial Theatre, with Shipp playing the key supervisory role of stage manager.

Death and legacy

Jesse A. Shipp, Sr. died on May 1, 1934, in

Jamaica Hospital Jamaica Hospital Medical Center is a private, non-profit teaching hospital and emergency facility in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York City, on the service road of the Van Wyck Expressway at Jamaica Avenue. The hospital is a clinical ...

Jamaica, Queens Jamaica is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It has a popular large commercial and retail area, though part of the neighborhood is also residential. Jamaica is bordered by Hollis, St Albans, and Cambria Heights to the ea ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. He had lived with his wife in

Richmond Hill, Queens Richmond Hill is a commercial and residential neighborhood located in the southeastern section of the New York City borough of Queens. The area borders Kew Gardens and Forest Park to the north, Jamaica and South Jamaica to the east, South Ozo ...

; he was buried at St. Michael's Cemetery in

Astoria, Queens, New York Astoria is a neighborhood in the western portion of the New York City borough of Queens. Astoria is bounded by the East River and is adjacent to four other Queens neighborhoods: Long Island City to the southwest, Sunnyside to the southeast, an ...

. Shipp has been lauded as a pioneer in moving black theatre beyond its

origins towards a more fully developed artistic form and is remembered as one of the first, if not the first, African-American director of a Broadway performance.Peterson, "Williams and Walker Company," ''The African American Theatre Directory, 1816-1960,'' pg. 203. Shipp's son, Jesse A. Shipp, Jr. (1886-1922), followed his father's footsteps into the world of show business as the founder of the Shipp Association, a dramatic booking agency based in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Footnotes

Selected plays

* ''Policy Players'' (1899) * ''The Sons of Ham'' (1900) * ''

'' (1902) * ''