Lillyn Brown (born Lillian Thomas; April 24, 1885 – June 8, 1969),[ "Lillyn Brown", Oxford Index. Retrieved 15 July 2014]
Biography
Brown was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on April 24, 1885, as Lillian Thomas. She was the daughter of an African-American mother and a France father.[Other sources suggest that her father was Iroquois.][Brown, Gloria (2014). "Brown, Llillyn". In Black Women of the Harlem Renaissance Era. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 32] She was light-skinned, and "some black friends said that they did not realize she was a Negro until she told them."[
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She first performed in 1894 as "The Indian Princess" with an all-white female string band. By 1896, billed as "The World's Youngest Interlocutor", she was performing in as a Cross-dressing,[arwulf arwulf. "Biography". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 15 July 2014] often credited as E. L. Brown to disguise her gender. She developed an act in which she wore a top hat and tails, sang several songs as a man, and then revealed her long hair and continued singing as a woman.[ "Lillyn Brown". African, Black and Diasporic History. Retrieved 15 July 2014] She claimed to be the first professional vocalist to sing the blues before a public audience, in performances at the Little Strand Theatre in Chicago in 1908.[
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In 1918, she replaced Esther Bigeou as the female star of the popular musical comedy Broadway Rastus in New York City. She made her only recordings in March and May 1921, a few months after the pioneering blues recordings by Mamie Smith. Brown recorded for Emerson Records, backed by the Jazz-Bo Syncopators, a band that included Ed Cox (cornet), Bud Aiken and Herb Flemming (trombones), Garvin Bushell (clarinet), Johnny Mullins (violin), and Lutice Perkins (drums).[ She only recorded four tracks – "Ever Lovin' Blues", "If That's What You Want Here It Is", "The Jazz Me Blues", and "Bad-Land Blues".][ "Lillyn Brown and Her Jazz-Bo Syncopators". RedHotJazz.com. Retrieved 15 July 2014] They were then reissued under different names by other : Maude Jones on Medallion Records, Fannie Baker on Oriole Records, and Mildred Fernandez on Regal Records.[
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Brown appeared Broadway theatre, toured in Europe, and performed at many of the major in Harlem and on the Keith vaudeville circuit. She announced her retirement in 1934,[ but she appeared in 1938 in the Broadway show Sing Out the News.][ In 1949 she appeared in Marc Blitzstein's opera Regina, at the 46th Street Theatre in New York.][ In 1952 she appeared in a short-lived revival of Kiss Me, Kate on Broadway.][ "Lillyn Brown". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 15 July 2014] She operated an acting and singing school in Manhattan during the 1950s and taught at the Jarahal School of Music in Harlem.[ She also wrote, performed and produced plays for the Abyssinian Baptist Church,][ and was active in the African American Actors Guild.][ Her final public performance was at a tribute concert for Mamie Smith in 1964.][
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Brown died at St. Rose's Home at 71 Jackson Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, on June 8, 1969, at the age of 84.[
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Broadway
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Sing Out the News (1938)
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Regina (1949)
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Kiss Me, Kate, revival (1952)
See also
External links
