Bert Williams

Bert Williams was born In the Bahamas on the 12th November 1874 to Bahamian parents, Frederick Williams Junior and Julia (nee Moncur) Williams according to his birth certificate in the Registry of Records in Nassau at entry 24 in St. Matthew’s Parish. At the age of 11 young Bert left Nassau with his parents for South Florida where the family remained for a long spell before moving to California where Bert completed high school and opted out of attending Stanford University for a planned career as an engineer, choosing instead to follow his passion as a singer, comedian and dancer. He quickly became the toast of the New York Broadway and his lifetime is praised as one of the most significant “coloured artist” to have broken the racial barrier in a time when race mattered most in America. His Vaudeville character which he personified to great success was that of a “slow talking, deep thinking victim of life’s misfortunes”. His famous line was, “even if it rained soup, I would be found with a fork in my hand and not a spoon in distant sight”. One of his celebrated great performances was in the smash hit, “In Dahomey” in which he got to relish the history of Africa and the pride of his race. He was the first Black performer allow on stage with White Women and in interviews with the American Press he was always quick to point out the racism in which he endured and how he set about conquering it. The American Vaudeville icon, W. C. Fields, hailed Bert Williams as the greatest comedian he had ever met and Fields’ own biographers said that next to Bert Williams, Fields was the greatest comedian and vaudeville star of the time. Bert Williams made several recordings for Columbia and his signature song, “NOBDOY” became an instant hit and a classic. “When Life seems full of clouds and rain, Who soothes my thumping bumping brain? (PAUSE) NOBODY When winter comes with snow and sleet And meets me with hunger and cold feet Who says, ‘here’s two bits, go and eat?- (PAUSE) NOBODY I aint never done nothing to Nobody I aint never got nothing from Nobody, No time. And until I get something from somebody sometime, I don’t intend to do nothing for nobody, No time”. At the top of his career starring in New York in Ziegfeld Follies, Williams was earning $62,500 per year or $1.5 million in 1920. He said his greatest performance was in the UK at a Command Performance for the King of England. “It was the proudest moment of my life… to appear before my Sovereign for I am British born hailing from the Bahamas.” Williams died at the age of 47 and even in death broke the colour barrier as he was laid out in the All White Masonite Lodge in Manhattan having become the first Negro admitted in the lodge’s century old history. The press of the time said more than 5,000 people filed passed his casket and