''Plantation Days'' (1922) was a touring

musical revue A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own du ...

with

Sam Wooding Samuel David Wooding (17 June 1895 – 1 August 1985) was an American jazz pianist, arranger and bandleader living and performing in Europe and the United States. Career Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, between 1921 and ...

and

James P. Johnson James Price Johnson (February 1, 1894 – November 17, 1955) was an American pianist and composer. A pioneer of stride piano, he was one of the most important pianists in the early era of recording, and like Jelly Roll Morton, one of the key ...

musical director A music(al) director or director of music is the person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert band, the d ...

s at different stages of the tour. Produced by Morris "Maury" Greenwald,"Blondie Robinson collection of African-American Minstrel and Vaudeville photographs (MS.2015.018), Biographical/Historical note." Brown University Library.
''Riamco.org''. Retrieved 16 December 2022. the touring show was conceived to capitalize on ''

Plantation Revue ''Plantation Revue'' was a 1922 revue put together by Lew Leslie, featuring some of the more popular musical numbers and comedy acts that he had hired at Harlem's Plantation Club. The original revue underwent other versions, with minor or major ...

'' (1922-23), the successful show staged by

Lew Leslie Lew Leslie (born Lewis Lessinsky; April 15, 1888 – March 10, 1963) was an American writer and producer of Broadway shows. Leslie got his start in show business in vaudeville in his early twenties. Although white, he was the first major im ...

. Beginning its inaugural run either in Chicago with Johnson as a principal performer, accompanied by Marjorie Sipp and The Plantation Four, among many others or in New York, it was staged by Leonard Harper (who also performed in the revue with his wife, Osceola Blanks), and featured acts by Eddie Green, The Crackerjacks, and The Three Eddies, among others. At the end of its first US tour, the show was scheduled for a week February 1923 at New York's Lafayette Theatre. However, a court order forced the show to drop three of its most popular numbers, by

Noble Sissle Noble Lee Sissle (July 10, 1889 – December 17, 1975) was an American jazz composer, lyricist, bandleader, singer, and playwright, best known for the Broadway musical '' Shuffle Along'' (1921), and its hit song " I'm Just Wild About Harry". ...

and

Eubie Blake James Hubert "Eubie" Blake (February 7, 1887 – February 12, 1983) was an American pianist and composer of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, he and his long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote '' Shuffle Along'', one of the first B ...

, which had been pirated from their successful ''

Shuffle Along ''Shuffle Along'' is a musical composed by Eubie Blake, with lyrics by Noble Sissle, and a book written by the comedy duo Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles. One of the most notable all-Black hit Broadway shows, it was a landmark in African-Ameri ...

'' (1921). The show, minus the three numbers, eventually opened at the Lafayette just over a month later, with

's orchestra. Following its run at the Lafayette, the show moved to London, where it was initially integrated, as a 12-minute segment, into Gershwin's ''The Rainbow'', which opened at the Empire Theatre in April 1923, brought over by the British promoter

Albert de Courville Albert Pierre de Courville (26 March 1887 – 15 March 1960) (born in Croydon, England) was a writer and director of theatrical revues, many of which featured the actress and singer Shirley Kellogg, whom he married in June 1913. Career In ab ...

. Although

Ethel Waters Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was an American singer and actress. Waters frequently performed jazz, swing, and pop music on the Broadway stage and in concerts. She began her career in the 1920s singing blues. Her no ...

had originally been approached by Greenwald for the London run, she actually joined the company in Chicago in August 1923, as an "extra added attraction" to "save the fast-flopping revue". Revived in 1925, it was during its run at the Royal Theatre, Baltimore, in 1927, with

Blanche Calloway Blanche Dorothea Jones Calloway (February 9, 1902 – December 16, 1978) was an American jazz singer, composer, and bandleader. She was the older sister of Cab Calloway and was a successful singer before her brother. With a music career that span ...

as one of the main acts, that

Cab Calloway Cabell Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, conductor and dancer. He was associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he was a regular performer and became a popular vocali ...

, with his sister's help, joined the revue "as a replacement for the first tenor in a vocal quartet", and decided to devote himself to show business. p. 138

References

{{Reflist Revues