The Smart Set Company was an African American touring revue company fronted by

Sherman H. Dudley Sherman Houston Dudley (1872 – March 1, 1940) was an African-American vaudeville performer and theatre entrepreneur. He gained notability in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century as an individual performer, a composer of ragtime songs, ...

who took over for

Tom McIntosh Thomas S. "Tom" McIntosh (February 6, 1927 - July 26, 2017) was an American jazz trombonist, composer, arranger, and conductor. McIntosh was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the eldest of six siblings. He also had an elder half-sibling by his fath ...

. Dudley signed a five-year contract in 1904 and was considered the show's "chief fun maker." Reviews of a performance in Indiana in 1902 refer to singing, dancing and "clever acrobatic work" calling it "the smartest colored comedy in all of America." Their performances, which were not entirely minstrel shows, were often commentaries on race in America "a composite study of the stage from a racial viewpoint" covering "every phase of stagedom." In 1909, the group split into a Northern and Southern Smart Set Company with the latter being managed by

Salem Tutt Whitney Salem Tutt Whitney ( Salem Tutt; 15 November 1875 – 12 February 1934) and J. Homer Tutt ( Jacob Homer Tutt; 31 January 1882 – 10 February 1951), known collectively as the Tutt Brothers, were American vaudeville producers, writers, and performe ...

. Dudley retired from working with The Smart Set in 1912 and worked on building his chain of theaters. After 1917 Dudley devoted himself to producing black musicals, including updated Smart Set productions. The name was used later to refer to other collections of actors and performers who worked on the circuit performing comedies and musicals for a theater season, a point which Dudley was somewhat churlish about. Notable companies were Shark's Smart Set Company, Tolliver's Smart Set Company and Gus Hill's Smart Set Company.

Performers

Daisy M. Cheatham Daisy Marion Mitchell Cheatham (born 1881) was an African American actress, songwriter and vaudeville performer who worked with Williams and Walker Company and the Smart Set Company. She wrote the lyrics to "Gypsy, my Gypsy Lou," and "Ask Mammy ...

* Ernest Hogan *

Billy McClain William C. McClain (12 October 1866 – 19 January 1950) was an African-American acrobat, comedian and actor who starred in minstrel shows before World War I. He wrote, produced and directed several major stage and outdoor extravaganzas, and wro ...

Tom McIntosh (comedian) Tom McIntosh (1840–1904) was an African-American comedian who starred in many colored minstrel shows in the US from the 1870s to the 1900s. He was considered one of the funniest performers in this genre. Early career Tom McIntosh was born in L ...

* Salem Tutt Whitney and J. Homer Tutt *

Aida Overton Walker Aida Overton Walker (February 14, 1880 – October 11, 1914), also billed as Ada Overton Walker and as "The Queen of the Cakewalk", was an American vaudeville performer, actress, singer, dancer, choreographer, and wife of vaudevillian George W ...

References

Vaudeville producers Performing groups established in 1896 African-American cultural history African-American theatre Musical theatre Performing arts companies {{US-theat-stub