Review by Choice Review
Teresa's work explores the responsibility that early-20th-century black journalists had in producing the black entertainment industry long ignored and derided by the unabashedly racist white press. Today, the web misses some stories, but the black press fought just to get coverage of black community events. Teresa writes, "the Black press was one of the few forums in which Black communities could obtain and share news about themselves." Failure of that press equated to nonrepresentation for minorities. Here, representation was a mediated discourse crafting a "real" (often fictionalized) version of a performers' life. The black press was often the sole arbiter of a performer's legacy. Teresa chronicles two pioneering black stars, Bert Williams, a quiet, studious professional actor and Ziegfeld star, and Jack Johnson, a prize fighter and international star who craved attention and flings with women. She also explores complicated figures such as classical artist Roland Hayes, who not only performed classical repertory but also was charged with uplifting the race, a monumental burden for black entertainers. By the Jazz Age, new performers embraced mythologized roles engineered by black media "that embraced technological modernity and social progressivism." Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --Stuart Lenig, Columbia State Community College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
