Elmer Keeton and His Bay Area Negro Chorus: Creating an Artistic Identity in Depression-Era San Francisco

Leta E. Miller
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引用次数: 4

Abstract

On June 25, 1939, a vibrant show, the Swing Mikado, opened at the Golden Gate International Exposition on San Francisco's Treasure Island. Featuring an all-black cast, the production was a "brashly irreverent" adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado (Hobart 1939b) with the locale changed from Japan to an unidentified "coral island" in the South Seas. The Swing Mikado preserved Sullivan's music intact--albeit with minor changes in lyrics to omit racist references and adapt to the changed geographical setting. Added to the score, however, were a half dozen swing arrangements and "specialty dances" that were greeted with immense ovation and that accounted for the sellout, standing-room-only crowds. The Swing Mikado--which had originated in Chicago a year earlier--represented one of the most successful endeavors of the Federal Theatre Project (FTP), one of four arts programs collectively called "Federal One" that were sponsored by the Works Progress Adminsitration (WPA), the federal government's massive employment effort of the Depression era. San Francisco's version of the show featured fifteen soloists, a "singing chorus" of about fifty, and a "dancing chorus" of about twenty. John Hobart, in the San Francisco Chronicle, characterized the singing group as "really magnificent.... After the anemic voices that usually make up the ensemble in G. and S. revivals," he wrote, "it is wondrous to hear this huge crowd of singers, with full-bodied voices, pitching into the music" (Hobart 1939b). This "singing chorus" was well-known to locals: under the inspired direction of Elmer Keeton, it had become one of the most prominent ensembles in northern California's Federal Music Project (FMP)--another Federal One unit. (The FTP and the FMP often collaborated on musical theater productions. The other two components of Federal One were the Federal Art Project and the Federal Writers' Project.) Keeton's Bay Area Negro Chorus had been attracting large crowds and exceptional reviews for the previous three years. Critics predicted that the Swing Mikado was in for a long run. Two weeks after its opening, however, Congress shut down the FTP, bending to conservative opposition to the WPA in general and to rumors of Communist influence within the Theatre Project in particular. "4100 Lopped Off Rolls; 'Mikado' Show Closed," lamented the Chronicle in a page 1 story the day after the closing ("4100 Lopped" 1939). The Music Project, which felt invested in the production because of Keeton's chorus, tried to convince WPA authorities to take it over from the defunct FTP, but to no avail (Ness 1939; "Music Project" 1939). A month later the Swing Mikado reopened under private sponsorship in the city and then went on tour. Thereafter, the chorus continued to perform concerts under Keeton's leadership, and was even featured in several nationwide broadcasts. The story of Elmer Keeton and his "Negro chorus"--pieced together here from programs, reviews, WPA documents, and recordings--is one of musical artistry and success, but also of racial exclusion and marginalization. Keeton himself walked a tenuous line between tolerating the segregation of the WPA and promoting the extraordinary musical heritage of U.S. blacks. His nonconfrontational approach cultivated positive interactions with the white population, whose responses to his programs were for the most part appreciative, but also, at times, patronizing. With the exception of a small minority of white singers directly threatened by the group's success, Keeton and his chorus attracted well-deserved praise from the city's arts critics. Keeton's quiet attitude toward racial issues stands in stark contrast to that of younger arrivals to San Francisco, among them one of the solo singers in his musical productions. Joseph James, featured in two theatrical presentations with the chorus, spearheaded a contentious legal battle that led to the integration of local labor unions. …
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埃尔默·基顿和他的海湾地区黑人合唱团:在大萧条时期的旧金山创造一种艺术身份
1939年6月25日,在旧金山金门国际博览会上,一场充满活力的表演“秋千天皇”开幕了。这部全黑演员的作品是对吉尔伯特和沙利文的《日本岛》(Hobart, 1939b)的“无礼无礼”改编,背景从日本改成了南海一个身份不明的“珊瑚岛”。《摇摆Mikado》完整地保留了沙利文的音乐,只是在歌词上做了一些小改动,以省略种族歧视的内容,并适应变化了的地理环境。除此之外,还有六首摇摆舞和“特色舞蹈”,受到了热烈的欢迎,座无人席的观众也因此而爆满。Swing Mikado——早在一年前起源于芝加哥——代表了联邦剧院项目(FTP)最成功的努力之一,该项目是四个艺术项目之一,统称为“联邦一号”,由联邦政府在大萧条时期的大规模就业努力,由工程进步管理局(WPA)赞助。旧金山版的舞台剧有15个独唱演员,一个约50人的“合唱”和一个约20人的“舞蹈合唱”。约翰·霍巴特(John Hobart)在《旧金山纪事报》(San Francisco Chronicle)上形容这个合唱团“真的很棒....”他写道:“在g和s复兴中通常组成合奏的沉闷的声音之后,听到这一大群声音浑厚的歌手投入到音乐中是令人惊奇的”(Hobart 1939b)。在埃尔默·基顿(Elmer Keeton)富有灵感的指挥下,这支“合唱团”已成为北加州联邦音乐计划(FMP)中最著名的合奏团之一,FMP是联邦一号的另一个单位。(FTP和FMP经常合作制作音乐剧。联邦一号的另外两个组成部分是联邦艺术计划和联邦作家计划。)基顿的海湾地区黑人合唱团在过去的三年里一直吸引着大批观众和好评。评论家预测,摇摆天皇将长期存在。然而,在开幕两周后,国会关闭了FTP,屈服于保守派对WPA的反对,特别是对共产主义在剧院项目中的影响的谣言。“4100个剪掉的卷;《纪事报》在展览结束后的第二天,在第一页的一篇报道中哀叹道(“4100 Lopped”1939)。由于基顿的合唱,音乐项目觉得在制作上有投资,试图说服WPA当局从已经倒闭的FTP手中接管它,但无济于事(Ness 1939;《音乐计划》(1939)。一个月后,在私人赞助下,Swing Mikado在该市重新开业,然后开始巡回演出。此后,合唱团继续在基顿的领导下举行音乐会,甚至在几次全国广播中出现。埃尔默·基顿和他的“黑人合唱团”的故事——从节目、评论、WPA文件和录音中拼凑而成——是一个音乐艺术和成功的故事,但也是一个种族排斥和边缘化的故事。基顿本人在容忍WPA的种族隔离和推广美国黑人非凡的音乐遗产之间走着微妙的路线。他的非对抗性方法培养了与白人的积极互动,白人对他的项目的反应大多是赞赏的,但有时也会表现出优越感。除了少数受到乐队成功直接威胁的白人歌手外,基顿和他的合唱团获得了该市艺术评论家当之无愧的赞扬。基顿对种族问题的冷静态度与那些刚到旧金山的年轻人形成了鲜明的对比,他们中有一个人在他的音乐作品中独唱。约瑟夫·詹姆斯(Joseph James)与合唱团一起出演了两场戏剧表演,他带头发起了一场有争议的法律斗争,最终导致了当地工会的整合。...
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