Note 13 — THE DARKTOWN STRUTTERS ON BROADWAY

This review appeared in Vanity Fair sometime in the summer of 1922. I allow it to stand with nothing more than verbal corrections in spite of my dislike of books which collect articles expressly written for magazine publication, because I feel that the negro show is extraordinarily transient and that a transient criticism of it is adequate. The permanent qualities are touched on elsewhere; especially in the essay entitled “Toujours Jazz.” Since this was written there have been other negro shows, and I have heard that one was better than Shuffle Along. What has interested me more is the report that there is a “nigger show by white men” which is standing them up every night. This verifies a prediction made below—that the negro show would have an effect on the white man’s. I am not at all sure that there will not continue to be negro shows for a long time—why in Heaven’s name shouldn’t there be? They have their qualities and their great virtues. It is only in relation to the sophisticated Broadway piece that I find them lacking; and have perhaps not been fair enough to them.