January 25, 1896 - November 1, 1927


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T

Musical feature 

One of Florence's most fervent admirers was the great Paul Robeson.  During a difficult time in his life she helped him by finding him a slot in her show Plantation Revue. Paul said:
“I donned some overalls and a straw hat and warbled ‘Li’l Gal’ to a chorine. How thrilling it was to listen to Florence Mills sing nightly”
 “Li’l Gal.” was a charming dialect poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar, originally set to music by J. Rosamund Johnson for the Cole and Johnson show The Shoo-fly Regiment. Here is Paul's version:

Li'l Gal

(
From: The Collector's Paul Robeson: Smithsonian Folkways  MON61580)

 

                                   Florence Mills: Month by Month
                                  
JULY               
    
 1911    Plays Happy Hour Theatre, Philadelphia with Mills Sisters
 1914    Plays Palace Theatre DC with Mills Sisters
 1919    Plays Pantages Theatres, Edmonton and Calgary, with Panama Trio
 1920    Florence Mills Trio featured @ Lincoln Theatre (Harlem)
 1922    Stars in Plantation Revue @ Lafayette Theatre (Harlem)
 1922    Stars in Plantation Revue on 48th St Theatre (first Black mainline  Broadway show)
 1923    Stars in Dover Street to Dixie @ London Pavilion
 1924    Her new show, Dixie to Broadway, opens at Asbury Park (Main St Theatre)
 1926    In Blackbirds of 1926, sharing bill with Paul Whiteman @ Paris Les Ambassadeurs
 1926    Simultaneously stars in Blackbirds @ Champs Elysees, and Dixie  to Paris @ Les Ambassadeurs in Paris
 1927    Plays Blackbirds @ Glasgow Alhambra and Manchester Palace, for 2 weeks though seriously ill


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