[Program for a] Big Benefit Contest . . .

San Francisco, California: [San Francisco Community Chorus], [1929]. 11” x 8”. Bifolium, printed all four sides. Pp. [4]. Very good: edges lightly worn and soiled; tiny corner crease; lightly spotted.

This is an illustrated program for a benefit performance by “200 Ne*roes” which took place at the Dreamland Auditorium in San Francisco in July 1929.

The performance was staged as a competition between the Oakland Community Chorus and the San Francisco Community Chorus to decide who would represent San Francisco at a statewide chorus contest in Hollywood a few weeks later. The program boasted that audiences would be regaled with classic African American ballads, spirituals and “Plantation Melodies . . . As None Other Can Sing Them,” and urged potential attendees to “Hear Them – 'You'll Be Surprised.'”

The concert also featured African American singers Naomi McCulloughPharr and George Jones, reprising their performances from the 1929 film Hearts in Dixie. Per the film's entry on the American Film Institute website, it was the first feature film produced by a major studio (Fox) with an all Black cast, and the first African American musical. The program held two photographic images of McCullough-Pharr (deemed “Hollywood's Favorite Col*red Contralto”) and one of Jones (“formerly of Oakland”), along with great group shots of the competing choruses. There were small portraits of the groups' directors, including Oakland's leader, an African American woman named Lincolnia Morgan. Morgan had previously been the Music Supervisor for the Black public schools of Dallas. She also directed a celebrated group of all African American musicians in Oakland in the late 1920s known as the Etude Musical Club.

A lovely illustrated advertisement for an African American musical extravaganza. Not located in OCLC; one other found in the trade. Very good. Item #8018

Price: $300.00