American entertainer and playwright
Flournoy Miller
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![A magazine cover from 1921, Dramatic Mirror, featuring a drawing of Miller & Lyles, two Black men with short dark hair, drawn in black, grey, white, and red](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5e/MillerandLyles1921.png/220px-MillerandLyles1921.png) Miller and Lyles, from the cover of Dramatic Mirror (June 25, 1921), illustration by Charles Gordon Saxton
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Born
| Flournoy Eakin Miller
(
1885-04-14
)
April 14, 1885
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Died
| June 6, 1971
(1971-06-06)
(aged 86)
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Other names
| F. E. Miller
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Occupation(s)
| Vaudeville entertainer, actor, playwright, theatre producer
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Children
| Olivette Miller
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Flournoy Eakin Miller
(14 April 1885 – 6 June 1971), sometimes credited as
F. E. Miller
, was an American entertainer, actor, lyricist, producer and playwright. Between about 1905 and 1932 he formed a popular comic duo,
Miller and Lyles
, with
Aubrey Lyles
. Described as "an innovator who advanced
black comedy
and entertainment significantly,"
[1]
and as "one of the seminal figures in the development of
African American
musical theater on Broadway",
[2]
he wrote many successful
vaudeville
and
Broadway
shows, including the influential
Shuffle Along
(1921), as well as working on several
all-black movies
between the 1930s and 1950s.
Biography
[
edit
]
He was born in
Columbia, Tennessee
, the second son of the editor of a black newspaper; his older brother
Irvin C. Miller
also became a noted vaudeville performer and theatre producer. He studied at
Fisk University
in
Nashville
, where he began performing as one half of a comedy duo Miller and Lyles with his childhood friend
Aubrey Lyles
.
[3]
From 1905, Miller and Lyles were hired by impresario
Robert T. Motts
[4]
to be resident playwrights with the
Pekin Theater
Stock Company in
Chicago
. They performed with the company in
blackface
, and in the show
The Colored Aristocrats
, introducing the characters Steve Jenkins (Miller) and Sam Peck (Lyles) with which they would be associated for many years.
[1]
[5]
[6]
With
Marion A. Brooks
, Miller founded the Bijou Stock Company in
Montgomery, Alabama
in 1908. One of the first black theatre companies in
the South
, it folded soon afterwards and Miller returned to Chicago.
[5]
In 1909, Miller and Lyles traveled to
New York City
, where they started to perform on one of the
vaudeville
circuits, uniquely relying on comic performances rather than incorporating song and dance. They developed comedy devices later copied by others, such as a
prizefighting
routine which contrasted Miller's height and Lyles' short stature; completing each other's sentences; and "mutilatin'" the language in their phraseology. In 1915, they appeared in
Andre Charlot
's production
Charlot's Revue
in England,
[1]
and upon their return to the U.S. appeared with
Abbie Mitchell
in
Darkydom
, a
musical
with score by
James Reese Europe
that was the first major black musical comedy.
[5]
[6]
For several years they continued to work together on the
Keith
vaudeville circuit, as well as writing and producing plays.
Miller's script for
The Mayor of Dixie
was the basis for
Shuffle Along
which premiered in 1921, a
Broadway
musical with music by
Eubie Blake
and lyrics by
Noble Sissle
. The show "set the style for more than a decade, inspiring many imitations,"
[1]
and showcased the song "
I'm Just Wild About Harry
". Miller and Lyles also starred in the show, as Steve Jenkins and Sam Peck. Although the book for
Shuffle Along
is credited to Miller and Lyles, Miller was the principal author.
Shuffle Along
ran in theatres until 1924.
Also in 1921,
Orlando Kellum
made a
short film
with Miller and Lyles performing their song "De Ducks" in Kellum's short-lived
Photokinema
sound-on-disc
process. Between 1922 and 1925, Miller and Lyles also made a number of recordings for the
OKeh
label.
[1]
The pair wrote a three-act play,
The Flat Below
, and Miller also wrote another play,
Going White
.
[5]
Miller and Lyles continued to work together for several years writing and performing in Broadway shows including
Runnin' Wild
– one of the first shows to popularize the
Charleston
, in 1923, with a score by
James P. Johnson
–
Rang Tang
(1927), which they co-directed; and
Keep Shuffling
(1928) which featured music by
Fats Waller
.
[2]
They split up the act in 1928, while Miller worked with Eubie Blake in
Lew Leslie
's Blackbirds of 1930
on Broadway. Miller and Lyles later reunited to perform on radio, and also threatened to sue
Freeman Gosden
and
Charles Correll
, writers and performers of the
Amos 'n' Andy
radio show, for
plagiarising
their act. However, the case was dropped after Lyles' death in 1932, at a time when the duo were trying to put together a new show,
Shuffle Along of 1933
.
[1]
By 1942, Miller had accepted a job with Gosden and Correll as a writer for the radio show.
[7]
During the 1930s, Miller became increasingly involved with the
film industry
, working in particular with the comedian
Mantan Moreland
with whom he also performed in vaudeville.
[6]
He performed in, and wrote for, several
all-black movies
between the 1930s and 1950s, including the
Westerns
Harlem on the Prairie
(1937),
Harlem Rides the Range
(1939), and
The Bronze Buckaroo
(1939). He moved to
Hollywood
, but retained an interest in theatrical productions, including presenting the unsuccessful show
Shuffle Along of 1952
.
[3]
Miller appeared alongside
Scatman Crothers
in the minstrel review short film
Yes Sir, Mr. Bones
(1951). He also worked with the producers of
Amos 'n' Andy
, becoming a script consultant and recommending
Tim Moore
to take the starring role in the
TV version
.
[1]
[2]
Miller married Bessie Oliver in 1912.
[3]
He died in Hollywood in 1971, aged 86. The
jazz
harpist
Olivette Miller
was his daughter,
[6]
and playwright-librettist
Sandra Seaton
is also a relative.
Influence and commemoration
[
edit
]
Miller was posthumously nominated for a
Tony Award
in 1979 for his contributions to musical theater, as described in
Eubie!
, based on the life of
Eubie Blake
. The book
Reminiscing with Sissle and Blake
by
William Bolcom
and Robert Kimball (
Viking Press
, 1973), tells the story of Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles's involvement with
Shuffle Along
.
Filmography
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
Wintz, Cary D.; Finkelman, Paul (November 14, 2004).
Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance: K-Y
. Taylor & Francis.
ISBN
9781579584580
– via Google Books.
- ^
a
b
c
Jon C. Hopwood, "F. E. Miller",
IMDb.com
. Retrieved 11 July 2014
- ^
a
b
c
Sheaffer, Louis (May 8, 1952).
"Curtain Time"
. The Brooklyn Eagle. p. 8
. Retrieved
March 17,
2017
– via
Newspapers.com
.
- ^
"Robt. T. Motts, Prominent Chicago Financier and Business Man Passes Away Monday July 10." (Des Moines IA)
The Bystander
, July 21, 1911, p. 1.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Sampson, Henry T. (October 30, 2013).
Blacks in Blackface: A Sourcebook on Early Black Musical Shows
. Scarecrow Press.
ISBN
9780810883512
– via Google Books.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Flournoy Miller collection, New York Public Library Archives
. Retrieved 11 July 2014
- ^
"Rowe's Notes"
. Pittsburgh Courier. January 3, 1942. p. 19
. Retrieved
March 17,
2017
– via
Newspapers.com
.
- ^
Liebman, Roy (May 20, 2015).
Vitaphone Films: A Catalogue of the Features and Shorts
. McFarland.
ISBN
9781476609362
– via Google Books.
External links
[
edit
]
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International
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Artists
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Other
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