Mar 24, 2022 - Sale 2598

Sale 2598 - Lot 265

Price Realized: $ 12,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
(ENTERTAINMENT--THEATER.) Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps. Jubilee: A Cavalcade of the Negro Theatre. [3], 53 carbon typescript leaves plus a title page in manuscript (page 4 skipped in pagination). 11 x 8 1/2 inches, bound with 3 staples; moderate soiling and wear to title, otherwise minor wear; title page marked "Arna" in pencil. [Chicago], [1940]
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Additional Details

"Cavalcade of the Negro Theatre" was originally written as one of the highlights of Chicago's 1940 American Negro Exposition. It was later reworked by its two original authors for a 1941 showcase production by CBS radio. It was then recorded in 1943 by the War Department for broadcast overseas to the troops.

It features 18 scenes from Congo Square in 1800 New Orleans; to the 1859 play The Octoroon; plantation songs; the Fisk Singers performing for Queen Victoria; the 1890s opera singer Sissieretta Jones, a.k.a. "the Black Patti"; the "Birth of the Blues"; and more. The pages for the final two acts are not present.

This important work was never published. The Schomburg Library holds another typescript, according to "Early Black American Playwrights and Dramatic Writers," page 111.