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Philip Sterling research materials on Bert Williams

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Collection Data

Description
The Philip Sterling Research Materials on Bert Williams primarily contain clippings, correspondence, notes, and other research materials compiled by Philip Sterling, a writer and public relations executive for CBS, mainly between the years, 1959-1962. Sterling began conducting research on Williams during the late 1950s in the hope of writing a biography, which, apparently never was completed. He performed extensive research at a number of libraries and interviewed some of Williams's surviving relatives, as well as other individuals with firsthand memories of Williams, including Andy Razaf and Carl Van Vechten.
Names
Sterling, Philip, 1907-1989 (Creator)
Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963 (Contributor)
Razaf, Andy, 1895-1973 (Contributor)
Shreeve, Eunice C. (Contributor)
Sterling, Dorothy, 1913-2008 (Donor)
Tyler, Lottie (Contributor)
Van Vechten, Carl, 1880-1964 (Contributor)
Walker, Aida Overton, 1880-1914 (Contributor)
Williams, Bert, 1874-1922 (Contributor)
Williams, Lottie Cole Thompson (Contributor)
Dates / Origin
Date Created: 1899 - 1981
Library locations
Billy Rose Theatre Division
Shelf locator: *T-Mss 1991-026
Topics
African American entertainers
Biographers
Entertainers
Genres
Clippings
Correspondence
Photographs
Ephemera
Notes
Biographical/historical: Philip Sterling (1907-1989) was a writer and a public relations executive who worked for the Columbia Broadcasting System for many years. Born Philip Shatz in New Rochelle, New York, he worked as a copy editor and journalist for several newspapers in the Midwest and suburban New York from 1926 through 1931. During the 1930s, he found employment with government agencies, including serving as an associate editor for three years on the Film Index, a unit of the Federal Writers Project. Sterling, who legally changed his surname in 1936, began as a writer for CBS Radio in 1945. In 1959, he became the assistant director of press information. He later worked for CBS Television until his 1965 retirement. After 1960, Sterling published several books, primarily biographies and children's literature. Among his most well-known works was Sea and Earth (1970), a biography of environmentalist Rachel Carson for young adults, which won a Christopher Award. Sterling, like his wife Dorothy (the former Dorothy Dannenberg, who also was a prolific writer of children's books), was particularly interested in researching and writing about prominent figures in African American history and the civil rights movement. His works for children on these topics include Four Took Freedom (1967) and The Question of Color (1973). Sterling also was interested in African American humor and vaudeville, editing the anthology, Laughing On the Outside: The Intelligent White Reader's Guide to Negro Tales and Humor (1965) and conducting extensive research on Bert Williams and his associates during the early 1960s. Bert Williams (1873-1922) was one of the most influential African American entertainers of the early years of the twentieth century. Born Egbert Austin Williams in Nassau, Bahamas, Williams spent much of his childhood in Riverside, California. He developed a comedy act with George Walker, whom he had met in San Francisco in 1893. By 1895, the two had made their way to the East Coast, eventually breaking into vaudeville in New York City. In keeping with the conventions of minstrelsy, Williams, as the comedian of the act, performed in blackface makeup. By appropriating demeaning stereotypes, however, the pair was able to break new ground and to exert greater creative control over their own material in such Broadway hits as In Dahomey (1902), Abyssinia (1906), and Bandanna Land (1906). Following Walker's retirement in 1909, Williams began appearing as a solo artist. He became the first African American performer to be featured in the Ziegfeld Follies (1911), playing in editions of the Follies regularly throughout the decade. Williams also became a successful recording artist. Having signed with the Shubert Brothers in 1920, Williams was touring with an all-black show, Under the Bamboo Tree (1921), at the time of his death.
Content: The Philip Sterling Research Materials on Bert Williams primarily contain clippings, correspondence, notes, and other research materials compiled by Sterling, mainly between the years, 1959-1962, a period in which he was preparing to write a biography of the African American entertainer. Sterling began conducting research on Williams during the late 1950s in the hope of writing a biography, which, apparently never was completed. He performed extensive research at a number of libraries and also traveled to Riverside, California to speak with individuals who may have known Williams as a teenager, as well as to Chicago, Illinois to interview Lottie Tyler, one of his surviving nieces. He also corresponded frequently with another one of Williams's nieces, Eunice Shreeves, who agreed to authorize Sterling's project and assisted him with research advice. Sterling was in contact with several other individuals with firsthand memories of Williams as well, including Andy Razaf and Carl Van Vechten. In addition to making audiotapes of rare Williams's recordings, Sterling appears to have taped many of the interviews he conducted. While no complete transcripts exist for any of the extant tapes, notes from a few of these sessions or conversations (including one with W. E. B. Du Bois) can be found among the correspondence and research notes in the collection. Audiotapes have been separated from the collection and will be cataloged separately. Also included with the collection is a small set of photographs and printed ephemera relating to Williams and other contemporary African American performers, including the wives of Williams and his professional partner, George Walker, Lottie Williams and Aida Overton Walker.
Physical Description
Extent: 0.84 linear feet (3 boxes)
Type of Resource
Text
Identifiers
Other local Identifier: *T-Mss 1991-026
NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b16690303
MSS Unit ID: 21811
Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 5fc1f890-6b77-013c-0db9-0242ac110002
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