07:16

[Music – The Charleston by The Savoy Orpheans, Album Fascinating Rhythm – Great Hits of the 20s]

Section 2 – History & Historiography

[Music Fade Out]

07:31

For American history, General John Pershing is one of the most influential generals in the 20^th Century with many of the World War II generals having had him as a mentor.  Pershing rose from small ranks into the top position by the time of World War I. 

Pershing is a highly decorated military veteran having served around the world in various capacities as both military officer and observer including the Spanish American War, the Philippine American War, Russo-Japanese War, the Balkans, a failed expedition to hunt down Pancho Villa in Mexico, and of course World War I.  Pershing serves afterwards as the Chief of Staff of the United States Army for 3 years into the early 1920s and declines to run as a 1920 presidential nominee but said he would accept if there was popular support.  He retires from military service in 1924.  Pershing mentors future World War II Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, George Marshall, George Patton, and Douglas MacArthur.

08:32

Prior to the U.S. involvement in World War I, General Pershing had been stationed at Fort Bliss in 1915.  While waiting for his wife and children to join him, a fire broke out at their San Francisco residence and took the lives of his wife and 3 young daughters.  Only his 5 year old son Warren survived.  His sister May and his son then live with him until he ships off to war.  Also before his departure, he dates his subordinate General George Patton’s younger sister Nita Patton.  Nita will never marry.

In Paris, Pershing meets then 19 year old Micheline Resco.  She is not a classic beauty, a thin figure with auburn red hair, large brown eyes on a delicate face.  She lacks the airs of sophistication and polish.  Only she has a magnetism that is unmistakable.  The nearly 60 year old general succumbs to her gentle attentiveness.  He insists they marry, yet she demures thinking it best after his glory days are over.

Many lonely and fearful nights Micheline worries over Pershing’s safety while in battle against the Germans.  During some of those nights, Cobina Wright watches over Micheline. 

09:46

Before the Paris Victory Parade in July 1919, scandal comes out about the age gap romance.  Micheline vows to stay hidden from the side and let him shine.  She watches Pershing in the parade from an apartment window overlooking the Arc de Triomphe as the crowd shouts “Vive le Pershing.”

After the war, Cobina celebrates with and entertains high level aristocrats, politicians, and military officials including Pershing.  Cobina’s voice and warmth gets her invited everywhere.  Cobina and Micheline will later rejoin many times in New York and elsewhere over the years.

Pershing marries Micheline in 1946 only two years before his death in 1948.

10:30

With the recent death of General Funston in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson appoints Pershing to lead the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe for the Great War.  Pershing resists the British and French requests to supervise the American forces under their command.  Pershing feels Americans should fight under American command.

10:49

Eventually, Pershing relents and sends two units – the 92^nd and 93^rd Infantry Divisions – over to French command.  These units are composed of Buffalo Soldiers, in other words African American units.  At this time, the separate but equal American policies extended to the military.   These units were prevented from combat duty with regular white soldiers and would have only been used in supporting roles with supplies or maintenance duties.  Previously in 1895, Pershing serves with an all black calvary when he earns his nickname “Black Jack.”

11:23

Another unit forms from the 15^th New York National Guard led by the white commander Colonel William Hayward.  Hayward repeatedly asks Pershing to send them to war, and then commented later “A fairy tale has materialized,” wrote Hayward. “We are now a combat unit…. Our great American general simply put the black orphan in a basket, set it on the doorstep of the French, pulled the bell, and went away.” 

11:48

The unit becomes the 369^th Infantry Regiment composed of African Americans mostly from Harlem as well as other ethnic groups also from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guyana, Liberia, Canada, and West Indies with white officers.  They receive French weapons, helmets, and pouches to wear and use along with American uniforms.  The 369^th is first referred as the Black Rattlers then the Men of Bronze (or in French Hommes de Bronze) and most popularly known as the Harlem Hellfighters.  Hellfighters supposedly coming from the how the Germans referenced them.  The 369^th spend 181 days in the trenches, more than any other American unit and suffered the most casualties – over 1,500.  They are also part of the first American unit to cross the Rhine River into Germany.

12:40

On May 15^th, 1918 in the Argonne forest, Private Henry Johnson (a former railroad luggage employee from Albany) and Private Needham Roberts (a former bellhop and drugstore clerk from New Jersey and North Carolina) fight off a 24-man German patrol and sustain multiple injuries. When Roberts is injured by a German grenade, Johnson continues fighting with ammunition, grenades, then the butt of his rifle and a bolo knife.  Johnson himself sustains 21 injuries.  Days later, Pershing himself praises their bravery and heroic efforts to the New York Sun.  Johnson earns the nickname the “Black Death.”

13:19

On December 13^th, 1918, Johnson and Roberts receive the French Croix de Guerre along with the other 168 members of their unit.  Upon return to the United States, the 369^th will be the first to march up Fifth Avenue back to their armory in Harlem.  Bill Robinson aka “Bojangles” will participate as a drum major in repeated celebratory parades during the 1920s and 1930s.  Despite all the accolades, Johnson, Roberts, and much of the unit will suffer both from the complications with what we now understand as post-traumatic stress along with racism.

By the end of the next decade, their heroics will fade from memory.  Henry Johnson dies from complications due to tuberculosis in July 1929, and Needham Roberts will commit suicide with his wife in 1948 amidst a scandal.  Unbeknownst to and estranged from his family, Johnson will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery with military honors on July 5^th, 1929.

14:23

But their unit has another profound lasting impact.  The Harlem Hellfighters unit is also known for introducing jazz to Paris and Europe.  The Hellfighters Band under the direction of James Reese Europe becomes famous traveling throughout Europe.  One member Noble Sissle takes over after James Europe is murdered by the band’s drummer in Boston.  Sissle teams up with Eubie Blake, and they form a vaudeville music act “The Dixie Duo” and together create the musical revue Shuffle Along, which will become the first Broadway hit written by and about African Americans.  Shuffle Along includes the songs “I’m Just Wild About Harry” and “Love Will Find A Way.”  Sissle’s long career includes collaborations with Walter Donaldson, the Nicholas Brothers, Ethel Waters, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Lena Horne, Nat King Cole, and “the Black Garbo” Nina Mae McKinney.

While the Harlem Hellfighters are in Europe, another future vaudeville comedy and musical act is just beginning.

15:26

Now there are two origin stories regarding how Buck and Bubbles start their entertainment careers down in Louisville, Kentucky.  Back in 1910, the manager catches the young janitors neglecting their duties while they are playing tricks on each other and showing off eccentric new dance steps on the stage of an empty theater.  When a last minute act falls out, the manager fills the spot with his janitors unbeknownst to the crowd.

Another is dated closer to 1917 at a bowling alley.  Ford “Buck” Washington and John “Bubbles” Sublett are pin boys, running around clearing and resetting the bowling pins in between rolls. 

16:03

Either way, they meet very young and immediately team up.  Once they start performing, they won a spot at the Kentucky State Fair, shortly after join a vaudeville troop tour, and then by September 1919 head up to New York quickly appearing at the Palace Theater.  Buck and Bubbles go on to large success, even performing in the Ziegfeld Follies in 1931 and appear in several films.  They will also perform with the Blackbirds Orchestra led by Eubie Blake in August 1930.  Endless engagements across the United States and even Europe along with both white and colored casts.  Al Jolson, Fred Astaire, Eddie Cantor, and Danny Kaye to name a few.

16:42

John William Sublett aka “Bubbles” is known as the Father of Rhythm Tap.  Ford “Buck” Washington plays the stride piano and sings while Bubbles dances and sings too. 

They will be the first black artists to perform at Radio City Music Hall, which opens on December 27^th, 1932.  I cannot confirm the exact date or event – as upon immediate opening several African American groups such as the Tuskegee Choir engage in performances.  In 1936 during a London BBC broadcast, Buck and Bubbles will be the first black artists televised anywhere in the world.  They will even dance for the Prince of Wales – future King Edward VIII and later Duke of Windsor.

Buck will have jazz sessions with Louis Armstrong in 1930, Bessie Smith in 1933, and Coleman Hawkins in 1934.  Buck will suddenly pass away in 1955.  Among the attendees at his funeral include Noble Sissle.

17:45

Bubbles will give dance lessons to Fred Astaire and even teaches Fred steps for his black face Bojangles tribute number in Swing Time (1936).  Bubbles and Fred will both give each other credit for being the best – Bubbles on Fred as the most universal dancer and Fred on Bubbles for his innovative tap dancing. 

18:04

George Gershwin will cast Bubbles as the Sportin’ Life in Georgy and Bess (1935), an opera which came from inspiration after an earlier party Cobina Wright hosted for visiting French composer Maurice Ravel featured in Episode 11: A Tall Order.  Buck portrays the role of Mingo.  As Bubbles couldn’t read the opera music, Gershwin taught him the music in relation to tap rhythm.  Bubbles would go on to confuse other cast members when he would make up rhythms during performance.

Buck and Bubbles will later appear in Oscar Hammerstein’s Carmen Jones (1946).  They are often cast as supporting characters in many productions and never truly star in their own films.  Before his death in 1986, Bubbles’ last performances include a 1965 Vietnam USO tour with Eddie Fisher and last appearing at the 1979 Newport Jazz Festival, which has other links to our main heirs and heiresses.  Bubbles influences many famous dancers… Sammy Davis, Jr., Gregory Hines, and Michael Jackson.

19:07

For reference around this time in March – April 1932, other forms of entertainment – Greta Garbo stars in Mata Hari, Ethel Barrymore tours in “The School of Scandal,” and Stotesbury & Cromwell in-law Lionel Atwill stars in the play “The Silent Witness.”

Rhythms and patterns repeat again and again while eventually evolving along the way.