William Fuse Benbow (October 15, 1881 or 1882 – November 18, 1950) was an American vaudeville entertainer who was the manager of the Alabama Chocolate Drops touring company and "a pioneer of black vaudeville entertainment in the southern states in the early part of the twentieth century".
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Biography
Benbow was born in Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...
, in either 1881 or 1882,[ William Benbow, ''DoctorJazz.co.uk'']
Retrieved 8 March 2017 though records show that in later life he claimed dates as late as 1887.[ William F. Benbow, death certificate, Indiana State Board of Health. Death Certificates, 1900–2011. Microfilm. Indiana Archives and Records Administration, Indianapolis, Indiana., ''Ancestry.com'']
Retrieved 8 March 2017 He started performing in touring black vaudeville shows by 1899, and in 1902 joined Allen's Minstrels in Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...
as a singer and dancer. He married, and linked up with Ferd "Jelly Roll" Morton, forming a small road show with Morton in about 1906.[
The following year, he established Will Benbow’s Chocolate Drops Company in ]Pensacola, Florida
Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ...
. The company, which also toured as the Alabama Chocolate Drops, included Benbow and his wife Alberta, Morton, and pianist and bandleader Frank Rachel. By 1909, the company had expanded to include singer, pianist and comedian Butler "Stringbeans" May and singer "Ma" Rainey. The company toured widely, in the north and New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
as well as in the southern states, and Jelly Roll Morton remained with the company until 1911. By then, Benbow had remarried, to singer Edna Landry ( Landreaux, 1895–1925). They separated in the mid-1910s, and she later recorded as Edna Hicks for various record label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
s in Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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In 1916, Benbow formed a new company, "Beans and Benbow’s Big Vaudeville Review”, with Butler "Stringbeans" May, who by then had become one of the foremost black entertainers in the country. The group had fifteen performers, but broke up in early 1917. Benbow was hired to lead another touring group, "C. W. Park's Colored Aristocrats",Lynn Abbott, Doug Seroff, ''Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, "Coon Songs," and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz'', Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2009, p.148]
/ref> initially also featuring May who died later that year.[ Erwin Bosman, "Butler May: was he the real Father of the Blues?", ''NoDepression.com'', June 4, 2012]
Retrieved 8 March 2017 Benbow continued to perform in vaudeville shows. In 1918 he was living in Washington, D.C.
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, and by 1920 was in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
. In 1925 and 1926 he produced a show, ''Get Happy'', with a troupe of eighteen performers, in Macon, Georgia
Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia. Situated near the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is located southeast of Atlanta and lies near the geographic center of the state of Geo ...
.[
From the 1930s he lived in ]Indianapolis
Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...
, where he became MC at a nightclub, the Cotton Club.[
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benbow, Will
Vaudeville performers
1880s births
1950 deaths
People from Montgomery, Alabama