Notes Introduction: the Regal Theater and Black Culture 1. Dempsey Travis, one of Chicago’s most prominent African American businessmen, who achieved his success in the field of real estate, has also made important contributions as an independent scholar of Chicago’s Black political and cultural history. In his several works in the field, Travis provides important information and insight on the Regal Theater. See, for example, Dempsey J. Travis, An Autobiography of Black Chicago (Chicago: Urban Research Institute, 1981) and Autobiography of Black Jazz (Chicago: Urban Research Institute, 1983). 2. Chicago Defender, January 14, 1928, pt. 1, p. 8. 3. Ibid.; Chicago Defender, January 14, 1928, pt. 1, p.1. 4. Ibid., February 7, 1959, p. 18. 5. Ibid. 6. Chicago Tribune, September 6, 1973, sec. S4A, p. 2. 7. W. Augustus Low and Virgil A. Clifts, eds., Encyclopedia of Black America (New York: Da Capo Press, 1981), pp. 412, 421, 441. 8. Ibid. pp. 515, 735; Jessie Parkhurst Guzman, ed., Negro Year Book: A Review of Events Affecting Negro Life, 1941-1946 (Tuskegee, Alabama: Tuskegee Institute, 1947), p. 17. Also see “Chicago Renaissance 1932–1950: Images and Documents from the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection, Charlemae Hill Rollins,” accessed March 14, 2003, from Chicago Public Library Digital Collection: http://www.chipublib.org/digital/chiren/instrollins.html 9. See John N. Ingham and Lynne B. Feldman, African–American Business Leaders: A Biographical Dictionary (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994), p. 492. 10. See, for example, “Doctor with Big Heart,” Ebony Magazine, Janauary 1958, pp. 51–53, 56; Chicago Defender, December 28, 1957, p. 20; “Theodore K. Lawless,” accessed on-line May 3, 2003 from African American Biographical Data Base (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Chadwyck-Healy, ProQuest Information and Learning Company, 2003): http://80-aabd.chadwyck.com.ezproxy.emich.edu/. 11. Cosmopolitan Community Church provided a brief historical account of Dr. Mary G. Evans in its serial publication, The Flame vol. 23, no. 1 (Winter 1995), edited by a long-time church member, Bessie Chatman. 228 NOTES 12. Howard Reich, “The Drill Sergeant of Du Sable,” Chicago Tribune Magazine, September 6, 1998; Thomas Hennessey, From Jazz to Swing: African-American Jazz Musicians and Their Music, 1890–1935 (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994), p. 70. 13. The Flame; Earl Calloway, “Dr. Joyner Dies at 98,” Chicago Defender, December 29, 1994, p. 1; Marjorie Stewart Joyner, interviewed by author, August 19, 1986, Chicago. Also see Ingham and Feldman, African American Business Leaders, pp. 634-640 for information on African American entrepreneur Annie Minerva Turnbo-Malone. Turnbo-Malone built a hair and personal care business prior to Walker’s that was equally as successful, if not more so. In fact, Walker may have worked for Turnbo-Malone before starting her own business. In 1930, Turnbo-Malone moved her business from St. Louis, Missouri to Forty- Fourth and South Parkway in Chicago, a few blocks from the Regal. Turnbo-Malone may have been the Black community’s greatest philan- thropist, contributing to numerous causes to aid African Americans. 14. Chicago Defender, May 26, 1928, pt. 1, p. 6; also see Roi Ottley, The Lonely Warrior: The Life and Times of Robert S. Abbott (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1955). Ottley’s biography of Robert S. Abbott describes Abbott’s intense commitment to elevating Black community life. 15. See, for example, Ted Vincent, Keep Cool: The Jazz Activists Who Built the Jazz Age (London: Pluto Press, 1995), p. 20. 16 See Albert Fried, The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980), pp. 170–171. 17. See, for example, Ralph Cooper, Amateur Night at the Apollo (New York: HarperCollins, 1990), pp. 41, 44, 63–64; Harold Cruse, Crisis of the Negro Intellectual (New York: William Morrow, 1960), pp. 20, 86; Travis, Autobiography of Black Jazz, pp. 39–49; William J. Grimshaw, Bitter Fruit: Black Politics and the Chicago Machine, 1931–1991 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), pp. 59, 82. 18. See Robert Staples, The Urban Plantation: Racism and Colonialism in the Post Civil-Rights Era (Oakland, California: Black Scholar Press, 1987), pp. 191–221. 19. Ibid., p. 10. 20. Ibid., p. 12. 21. See Clovis E. Semmes, Cultural Hegemony and African-American Development (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1992), pp. 1–32. 22. Ibid., pp. 105–107. 23. Ibid., pp. 111–138. Chapter 1 The Opening: Separate but Equal 1. Michael Conant, Antitrust in the Motion Picture Industry: Economic and Legal Analysis (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1960), NOTES 229 p. 157; also see Regal Theater folder, Theater Historical Society, Elmhurst, Illinois. 2. See Carrie Balaban, “Opening Night at the Tivoli,” Marquee: The Journal of the Theatre Historical Society 17, no. 4 (1985): 10; Conant, Antitrust, p. 157. 3. Conant, Antitrust, pp. 157, 159. 4. Telephone interview with Bill Benedict of Theatre Historical Society of America, August 5, 1986. 5. See Christine Basque, “Paradoxes of Paradise: Elements of Conflict in Balaban & Katz Movie Palaces,” Marquee: The Journal of the Theatre Historical Society 27, no. 2 (1995): 7. 6. Oliver Cromwell Cox, “The Origin of Direct-Action Protest Among Negroes: The Chicago Experience,” n.d. TMs (microfiche), Kent State University Library. Kent, Ohio, p. 8. 7. Chicago Tribune, August 19, 1926, pt. 3, p. 1. 8. See data on “Louis Englestein” and “Harry Englestein,” accessed June 30, 2003, from AncestryPlus at Eastern Michigan University Library Databases Web site: http://gale.ancestry.com/ggmain.htm. Also see “Englewood Map During the 1920s–1930s,” accessed June 30, 2003, from Jazz Age Chicago Web site: http://www.suba.com/~scottn/ explore/district/southtwn/southtw2.htm; “South Center Department Store,” accessed June 30, 2003, from Jazz Age Chicago Web site: http://www.suba.com/~scottn/explore/sites/d_stores/socenter.htm; “Becker- Ryan/Sears Roebuck,” accessed June 30, 2003 from Jazz Age Chicago Web site: http://www.suba.com/~scottn/explore/ sites/d_stores/becker. 9. Cox, “Origin of Direct Action Protest,” p. 10. 10. Ibid., pp. 10–11. 11. See E. Franklin Frazier, Black Bourgeoisie: The Rise of the New Middle Class (New York: The Free Press, 1957), pp. 55–56. 12. Interview with Scotty Piper, August 26, 1986; W. Augustus Low and Virgil A. Clift, eds., Encyclopedia of Black America (New York: Da Capo Press, 1981), p. 478; Thomas Yenser, ed., Who’s Who in Colored American, 1941–1944, 6th ed. (New York: Thomas Yenser, 1942), p. 299; Roi Ottley, Lonely Warrior: The Life and Times of Robert S. Abbott (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1955), pp. 200, 315 . 13. Cox, “Origin of Direct Action Protest,” p. 11. 14. Ibid., pp. 228–229, 247–248, 250–251, 255–256; also see M. R. Werner, Julius Rosenwald: The Life of a Practical Humanitarian (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1939), p. 278. 15. Ibid., p. 263. 16. Werner, Julius Rosenwald, pp. 274–275. 17. See Douglas Gomery, Shared Pleasures: A History of Movie Presentation in the United States (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992), pp. 41–44. 18. See Werner, Julius Rosenwald; and Edwin R. Embree and Julia Waxman, Investment in People: The Story of the Julius Rosenwald Fund (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1949). 230 NOTES 19. Chicago Defender, December 24, 1927, pt. 1, p. 7; November 9, 1929, pt. 1, p. 7; Pittsburgh Courier, October 22, 1927, section 2, p. 3; Chicago Tribune, August 29, 1926, pt. 3, p. 1; Dempsey Travis, An Autobiography of Black Jazz (Chicago: Urban Research Institute, Inc.), pp. 98, 101. 20. Norma Miller with Evette Jensen, Swingin’ at the Savoy: The Memoir of a Jazz Dancer (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996), pp. 28, 31; e-mail correspondence with Terry Monaghan, Harlem Savoy historian, August 28, 2000; Chicago Defender, September 29, 1928, pt. 1, p. 6; November 17, 1928, pt. 1, p. 6; November 24, 1928, pt. 1, p. 4; Fess Williams as told to Harrison Smith, “The Fess Williams Story,” Record Research 3 (October/November 1957): 5. 21. Thomas J. Hennessey, From Jazz to Swing: African American Jazz Musicians and Their Music, 1890–1935 (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994), p. 72; Travis, Autobiography of Black Jazz, pp. 84–86. 22. Ted Vincent, Keep Cool: The Black Activists Who Built the Jazz Age (London: Pluto Press, 1995), pp. 69–79. 23. Chicago Defender, September 29, pt. 1, p. 6. 24. Ibid., December 31, 1927, pt. 1, p. 6. 25. Interview with Jimmy Luckette, August 17, 1986; Travis, Autobiography of Black Jazz, pp. 79–80; Chicago Defender, December 24, 1927, pt. 1, p. 8. 26. Pittsburgh Courier, November 12, 1927, section 1, p. 6. 27. Chicago Defender, May 26, 1928, pt. 1, p. 6. 28. Ibid., November 24, 1928, pt. 1, p. 4; Travis, Autobiography of Black Jazz, p. 92. 29. Chuck Menville, The Harlem Globetrotters: An Illustrated History (New York: The Benjamin Company, Inc., 1978), pp. 9–10. 30. Chicago Defender, December 24, 1927, pt. 1, p. 7. 31. Ibid., September 29, 1928, pt. 1, p. 6. 32. Ibid., February 18, 1928, pt. 1, p. 4. 33. Ibid., December 24, 1927, pt. 1, p. 6. 34. Frederick L. Lights, “Memories: The Chicago Regal,” Marquee: Journal of the Theatre Historical Society 5, no. 4 (1973). 35. Dempsey Travis, “The Regal That I Remember,” Chicago Weekend 13, no. 3 (February 8, 2001): p. 30. 36. Lights, “Memories”; Travis, Autobiography of Black Jazz, pp. 144–155. 37. Lights, “Memories.” 38. Interview with Jimmy Luckette. 39. Lights, “Memories.” 40. Interview with Jimmy Luckette. 41. Chicago Defender, January 14, 1928, pt. 1, p. 8; Lights, “Memories”; Travis, “Regal That I Remember”; Travis, Autobiography of Black Jazz, p. 150. NOTES 231 42. Chicago Tribune, February 4, 1928, p.