Some of the information is Boop-Oop-a-Dooping full of SPOILERS. Boop-Oop-a-Doop!
Shuffle Along
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Name |
Shuffle Along |
Shuffle Along is an all-black Broadway show that premiered on Broadway at the Daly's 63rd Street Theatre on May 23, 1921, and closed on July 15, 1922, after 484 performances. It was the first major production in more than a decade to be produced, written and performed entirely by African-Americans. The original star of the show was Gertrude Saunders,[1] who stated that "Boop-Boop-a-Doop" had originated in her number "Daddy Won't You Please Come Home," ending the entire scat chorus[2] in baby-talk.
Instead of a "Boop" or "Poop," two of the leading ladies were notable for using a "Toot" and a "Tweet".
It is said that Gertrude Saunders paved the way for many other female artists, who would interpolate her technique, only in their acts they would change the words, making Saunders the originator of the scat singing technique. This technique had been copied and or adapted by many other female artists of the 1920s and 1930s, making "Boop-Boop-a-Doop" have somewhat African-American origins.
Saunders' original songs in the musical featured "scat rhythm" and Florence Mills eventually took her place. In 1928 an African-American child entertainer from Chicago by the name of Esther Jones started impersonating Florence Mills by dancing and scat singing in her act. Jones had been scat singing since 1925 under the employ of Lou Bolton.
In history it is stated that Helen Kane, cited as the original "Boop-Boop-a-Doop" girl saw Esther Jones' act in 1928, and it inspired her to want to scat sing in her act too. And that Kane had adapted Esther's technique, which originated in the African-American Broadway musical Shuffle Along by Gertrude Saunders.
Similar to Saunders, during the 1930s, Mae Barnes, another vocalist in this show, was often compared to Helen Kane.
When Helen Kane sued the Fleischer Studios and Paramount Pictures for stealing her technique it came out that she was not the first scat singer in the business. Though animated cartoon character Betty Boop was clearly based on Kane's success, in court they proved that Helen Kane was not the first person to interpolate scat sounds into songs and that Kane was not original in any way, shape or form.
Daryl M. Waters who worked as arranger for the reboot of Shuffle Along, does the musical supervision and arrangements for Boop! the Betty Boop Musical.
Notable Cast
- Gertrude Saunders (1921)
- Florence Mills (1921-1922)
- Adelaide Hall (1921)
- Josephine Baker (1922-1923)
- Clarence Williams' wife Eva Taylor (1922)
- Mae Barnes (1927)
- Cab Calloway's sister Blanche Calloway (1927)
- Adrienne Warren (2015-2016)
Music
Act I:
- "I'm Simply Full of Jazz"
- "Love Will Find a Way"
- "Bandana Days"
- "Sing Me to Sleep, Dear Mammy"
- "In Honeysuckle Time, When Emmaline Said She'd Be Mine"
- "Gypsy Blues"
Act II:
- "Shuffle Along"
- "I'm Just Wild About Harry"
- "Syncopation Stenos"
- "Good Night Angeline"
- "If You Haven't Been Vamped by a Brownskin, You Haven't Been Vamped at All"
- "Uncle Tom and Old Black Joe"
- "Everything Reminds Me of You"
- "Oriental Blues"
- "I Am Craving for That Kind of Love"
- "Daddy Won't You Please Come Home"
- "Baltimore Buzz"
- "African Dip"
Trivia
- Shuffle Along marked a breakthrough for the African-American musical performer and legitimized the African-American musical, proving to producers and managers that audiences would pay to see African-American talent on Broadway.
- After appearing in the musical, New York City raved that Gertrude was the greatest colored entertainer in the world, and was a positive sensation.
- When Gertrude Saunders left Shuffle Along to make more money, she was replaced by Mills, who proved to be an even bigger sensation than Gertrude. After appearing in the musical, Mills became famous overnight.
- In 1928, a year after Florence Mills had died, Baby Esther Jones based her act on her.
- It had brief revivals in 1933 and 1952, including a 2016 Broadway adaptation.
- The all-black Broadway musical Shuffle Along debuted long before Oscar Hammerstein's musical Good Boy, the musical in which Helen Kane introduced "Boop-Boop-a-Doop," a scat singing style adapted from African-Americans that originates from the musical Shuffle Along in alternative scat form.
- According to Cab Calloway, his sister Blanche Calloway inspired his most famous scat-singing routine.
- In the 2016 revival of Shuffle Along, the roles of Florence Mills and Gertrude Saunders were played by Adrienne Warren.