Gertie Brown Moore (born Gilberta Gertrude Chevalier, August 23, 1878 – February 24, 1934) was a

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

performer and one of the first African-American film actresses. Brown is most famous for her part in the 1898 silent film ''

Something Good – Negro Kiss ''Something Good – Negro Kiss'' is a short silent film from 1898 of a couple kissing and holding hands. It is believed to depict the earliest on-screen kiss involving African Americans and is known for departing from the prevalent and purely ste ...

,'' which

went viral Viral phenomena or viral sensation are objects or patterns that are able to replicate themselves or convert other objects into copies of themselves when these objects are exposed to them. Analogous to the way in which viruses propagate, the ter ...

in 2018.

Biography

According to the 1900 United States federal census, Gertie Brown, then aged 22, was born in 1878. According to her obituary, she began her career on the stage at the age of nine."Gertie Moore Passes Away: Comedian's Wife Dies of Pneumonia Attack," p. 1, ''New York Amsterdam News'', Feb. 28, 1934 In the 1890s, she performed alongside well-known composer and entertainer

Saint Suttle Saint Suttle (February 1870 – February 4, 1932), was an American composer and performer. Suttle was well known as a cakewalk artist and vaudeville performer in Chicago. An African American, he was a pioneering performer in early film of the la ...

(1870-1932) in vaudeville and

minstrel show The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of racist theatrical entertainment developed in the early 19th century. Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people spe ...

s in the Chicago area and nationally. Suttle, Brown, and John and Maud Brewster performed as a group called "

The Rag-Time Four The Rag-Time Four was an American Quartet performance group circa 1898 to 1899, they were known for popularizing a version of the cakewalk dance. The four members of the group were Saint Suttle, Gertie Brown, John Brewster, and Maud Brewster. ...

" that was responsible for popularizing a variation of the

cakewalk The cakewalk was a dance developed from the "prize walks" (dance contests with a cake awarded as the prize) held in the mid-19th century, generally at get-togethers on Black Slavery in the United States, slave plantations before and after End ...

dance. In 1899, Suttle and Brown were billed in vaudeville as "Two Real Ragtime Coons." From about 1906 to 1915, Gertie Brown was one of the stock players at Chicago's

Pekin Theatre Established on June 18, 1905, Chicago’s Pekin Theatre was the first black owned musical and vaudeville stock theatre in the United States. Between 1905 and around 1915, the Pekin Club and its Pekin Theatre served as a training ground and showca ...

. Her performances there included such roles as "an Indian" in the show ''Coffey and Girls of All Nations'' in 1915. Brown married comedian and actor Tim Moore in September 1915, and he introduced her to a new career which took her throughout the country and abroad. Billed as Tim & Gertie Moore, the couple toured vaudeville circuits across the United States, New Zealand, the Hawaiian Islands, and Australia and received acclaim as an "exceptionally clever" pair. From 1920 to 1924, they toured the

Dudley Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...

and

T.O.B.A. Theatre Owners Booking Association, or T.O.B.A., was the vaudeville circuit for African American performers in the 1920s. The theaters mostly had white owners, though there were exceptions, including the recently restored Morton Theater in Athens, ...

vaudeville circuits in their own stock company, ''The Chicago Follies''. In 1923, they acted in the lost silent film ''His Great Chance.'' With Tim Moore as the star, Gertie, appeared with him on Broadway in the musical comedy ''

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 it ...

'' in 1925. From 1925 to 1927, they toured the

Columbia Burlesque Wheel The Columbia Amusement Company, also called the Columbia Wheel or the Eastern Burlesque Wheel, was a show business organization that produced burlesque shows in the United States between 1902 and 1927. Each year, about four dozen Columbia burlesqu ...

in Edward E. Daly's hit show, ''Rarin' to Go.'' In 1927, she also appeared with him ''The Southland Revue'', and, early in 1928, in his show, ''Bronze Buddies''. After her husband was engaged as the star comedian of Lew Leslie's ''

Blackbirds of 1928 ''Blackbirds of 1928'' was a hit Broadway musical revue that starred Adelaide Hall, Bill Bojangles Robinson, Tim Moore and Aida Ward, with music by Jimmy McHugh and lyrics by Dorothy Fields. It contained the hit songs "Diga Diga Do", the duo's ...

'', Gertie only occasionally appeared on the stage. She devoted much of her time to her home and helped organize charitable assistance to theatre folk who lost their jobs during the early years of the Great Depression, which included the setting up of a home for destitute actors. She died in 1934 of

double pneumonia Pneumonia can be classified in several ways, most commonly by where it was acquired (hospital versus community), but may also by the area of lung affected or by the causative organism. There is also a combined clinical classification, which combi ...

Harlem Hospital Harlem Hospital Center, branded as NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem, is a 272-bed, public teaching hospital affiliated with Columbia University. It is located at 506 Lenox Avenue in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City and was founded in 1887. The hosp ...

''Something Good – Negro Kiss''

Rediscovered in 2017, ''Something Good – Negro Kiss'' stars an African-American couple embracing, kissing, and dancing. Research by scholar Allyson Nadia Field identified the actors as Suttle and Brown. Film historians believe that ''Something Good'' was an impromptu film shot in Chicago's South Loop district, possibly while Suttle and Brown were at

William Selig William Nicholas Selig (March 14, 1864 – July 15, 1948) was a pioneer of the American motion picture industry. In 1896 he created one of the first film production companies, Selig Polyscope Company of Chicago. Selig produced a string of c ...

's film studio to film a cakewalk dance. In 2022 it was included in the exhibition ''Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898 - 1971'' at the

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is a museum in Los Angeles, California constructed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), which is devoted to the history, science, and cultural impact of the film industry. It is the f ...

in Los Angeles, USA.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Gertie African-American actresses American film actresses Vaudeville performers 1878 births 1934 deaths 20th-century American actresses Deaths from pneumonia in New York City People from Guernsey County, Ohio Actresses from Ohio