AN INTRODUCTION to the CLARK BROTHERS Steve Clark (Born 1924) AIM: Jimmy Clark (1922 - 2009)
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Part: ONE AN INTRODUCTION TO THE CLARK BROTHERS Steve Clark (Born 1924) AIM: Jimmy Clark (1922 - 2009) To develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding CHILDHOOD I shared a bed with my of the origins and development of Black variety three sisters, Fredretha , entertainment in Britain and how this has contributed We were born and brought Lorraine, Evelyn and two to British cultural heritage and entertainment history. up during the depression brothers, Cornelius, and in Philadelphia. We didn’t Jimmy. We would lie head know too much about the to toe like sardines. In the Wall Street Crash of 1929, winter it was so cold and we just knew there wasn’t if one of us wet the bed it any food on the table. was tempting to stay in the wet warmth rather than My mother used to send face the icy room. me out to line up at the soup kitchen with a bucket I remember one Christmas for me to bring back soup Eve we were all in a for breakfast. The winter bedroom at the back of streets of Philadelphia the house, Dad fired his were frozen and one gun in the air twice in the morning I slipped and garden and then came spilled nearly all the soup, in and told us Father but Mama still managed Christmas had committed to stretch the dregs out suicide. to feed all of our hungry mouths that day. My Mum was a deeply religious lady, she taught My Dad, Cornelius was us 125 gospel songs. The Clark Brothers, Moss Empire’s Pubicity Photo a cook (when he could There were six of us get work) and my Mum, kids but only four of us SYNOPSIS: Josephine Baker, Billie Octavia worked in the wanted to be singers so Holiday, Sugar Ray Jewish bakery - bringing we became a quartet In this pack Steve Clark Robinson and Frank home the day old food to called The Clark Family. will give an unrivalled Sinatra. keep us alive. insight to what it was like to be born in a time when boxing, singing and dancing were the only legitimate ways a Black boy could escape poverty. The Clark Brothers have been in show business for 80 years. As dancers they witnessed the birth of Las Vegas, played the Cotton Club and Apollo in Harlem and came to London for the first time in 1948. They shared bills with Gypsy Rose Lee, Bill Robinson Elvis and The Beatles and Marian Anderson Jack Johnson Tap Dancer (1878 - 1949) were friends with Opera Singer (1887 - 1993) Boxer (1887 - 1886) 1 In the holidays we would visit our grandfather in Wilmington, North Carolina where there was a famous singing group called The Mills Brothers. They had a radio show on Sundays and one week we were booked to stand in for them and were an instant hit. BACKGROUND INFORMATION: During the Great Depression President Franklin D Roosevelt set up The Federal Theater Project, which was the largest and most ambitious effort mounted by the US Federal Government to organize and produce theater events. It was an Elena Karam as Odette and Rex Ingram as General effort to provide work for Christophe in the WPA Federal Theatre Project’s 1935 unemployed professionals hit “Haiti” at Lafayette Theatre, Harlem in the theater at a time of great hardship. THEIR FIRST asked a man if he wanted BREAK: a shine. He said yes and while Cornelius was When I was 4 years old shining his shoes he we visited some relatives asked my brother: “Is in Atlanta. To earn a few that all you can do, shine dollars while we were there shoes?” My brother said: my older brother Cornelius “No I have brothers and made a shoeshine box and sisters and they sing”. The Mills Brothers, Music Sheet Signed photograph of The Mills Brothers 2 This cast iron sign was placed outside Broadway Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee and is a reference to the racial segregation in the Southern United States in 1925 The man was Gene On Saturday our father “We toured with the Segregation was still Austin, who became a would go to the bank and show for six months widespread. Travelling great part of our lives and get a package of pennies, the countryside it was gave us our first break on giving 25 new pennies to and Mr Austin not unusual for us to see stage. each of us. When you’re gave my father one the body of a Black man young you see 25 brand hundred dollars a hanging from a tree and He invited us to audition new pennies and think that week for the family.” left to swing by a lynch for his show. The Theatre you’ve got all the money in mob. was the Erlanger and we the world. went there the next day. TOURING Being on the road was Thankfully he liked us. As I grew up I realised that hard for everyone. We passed the audition we got one dollar between We toured the Southern Sometimes the bands and he put us in the show us and my father kept states of America with the didn’t even have a place with him. ninety-nine dollars! Gene Austin show and in to stay and had to sleep in those states at the time their cars as many of the Our role was to re-enact If he was born in a different some white folks didn’t hotels wouldn’t let Black how Mr Austin and my time he could have been know that they had lost the people stay in them. brother met. Cornelius one shrewd businessman. war over slavery. would come on stage with his shoeshine box and ask if he could shine his shoes. Mr Austin would then ask if that’s all he could do, and that’s when we would come onstage singing our gospel songs. We toured with the show for six months and Mr Austin gave my father one hundred dollars a week for the family, which was a lot of money in those days. A family outside their home in the Southern United States 3 hardly seemed to lift his the show. Everyone else feet off the floor at all as he disappeared and Bill pulled moved around the stage. up a chair for himself and sat astride it (like he would Mrs Kean my gym teacher a horse) as Mrs Kean in Audenreid Junior High talked to him. He had an School took a liking to open kind-hearted face. me because I used to help her put on shows for I stood respectfully at the school. Without me the side of the stage and knowing, she went to see waited to be spoken to. I Bill Robinson and told him couldn’t believe that my “I’ve got a boy who fancies teacher was speaking to himself a dancer” “Bring the great man himself. him along” Bill responded, and a few days later she “Go ahead Steve” he took me to the matinee called out, his chubby show and afterwards we face breaking into a big went round to the stage smile “dance for me”. I door of the theatre. was taken by surprise but wasn’t going to miss Show Boat programme, We were shown in and this opportunity. I don’t Theatre Royal Drury directed onto the stage know what I did but I did Lane, 1928. Paul where they had just something and I did it with Robeson played the role finished clearing up after all of my heart. Joe. My brother Jimmy and I never went to any dance school, we taught ourselves, making up the Paul Robeson steps as we went along, (1898 - 1976) creating our own style. I was lucky enough to work with Paul Robeson on the “I don’t know 1936 film Show Boat and what I did but I did watched as he sang “Old something and I Man River” in front of the did it with all of my cameras. heart.” I was a strange looking kid with a big head and knock I was 15 years old when knees but by the age of 5 I Bill Bojangles Robinson, was a Hollywood old hand. the man who appears in the Shirley Temple When I was 6 years old films teaching her how my mother insisted that we to tap dance, came to come back home to Philadelphia to do his Philadelphia for a bit of show Hot Mikado at the schooling. We lived in Shubert Theater. He was South Philadelphia on considered the greatest Queens Street. tap dancer of the time. When you watched him he Bill Robinson with Shirley Temple 4 5 THE COTTON CLUB Hot Mikado Programme, Hall of Music, New Bill Robinson as “The Mikado” in Hot Mikado York, World’s Fair, 1939 At the end he applauded feel my heart beating in The club was the biggest and asked me a few my throat - Bojangles room Jimmy and I had questions. I told him “I Robinson had actually ever worked at. There was dance with my brother remembered me, I couldn’t a rail around the square usually, busking around believe it! stage with the audience the city”. Then I went sitting just the other side. back outside to sit down They would eat and then and wait for Mrs Kean. watch the show. Eventually she came out. “What did he say?” After the show the band I asked, as we made our would play and the way out of the theatre.