In Black America; Eddie Green, with Elva Diane Green, Part I

From the University of Texas at Austin, KUT Radio, this is In Black America. That bothered me so much that I actually got a resentment against Louis Armstrong. Because, you know, it's funny because I've never met Louis Armstrong. But, and going through Eddie's entertainment life, one of the things I did realize is that he was there. He was there with James Baskett and Lena Horne and Bill Robinson. And then I thought, well, shoot.

You know, it's like he just disappeared. It's like one minute he was standing there the next minute. He just disappeared. Which gave me the impetus to do this, to really want to write a book. Elva Diane Greene, author of Eddie Greene, The Rhymes of an early 1900 Black American entertainment pioneer, and daughter of Eddie Greene. One has to wonder how Eddie Greene got lost in the shuffle. He was a man of many talents. His talent and determination made him a well-known composer. He was a sought after vaudeville and burlesque comedian and a song and dance man. Greene was one of the first African American man to appear on a television broadcast. He was a pioneering filmmaker. He started three movie studios and starred in five films. Greene made a name for himself by playing Eddie The Wayser on the popular radio comedy show Duffie's Tavern. Also, Greene's other notable role was Stonewall, The Lawyer. All name is an Andy.

Greene performed before audiences from Broadway to the Apollo Theater. I'm Johnny Ohenson Jr. and welcome to another edition of In Black America. On this week's program, Eddie Greene, The Rhymes of an early 1900 Black American entertainment pioneer, with author and daughter Elva Diane Greene, In Black America. He somehow found a book on magic. He had taught himself to read and he decided he liked being a magician. And so he chose to take care of himself by going to churches and halls and whatnot around Baltimore, Maryland and performing for the people there as the boy magician. I don't think he actually got paid because you couldn't hire young people in those days. He figured he must have gotten food or whatever, and also he had what you might call a mentor today. Mr. James Handy was a bishop.

The bishop and his wife helped Eddie because the bishop's wife was Eddie's aunt. So they were helpful to him. The only reason I knew that is because in 1946, in an interview, Eddie told the interviewer that most of his family had passed on, including Bishop Handy. At a time when African-American entertainer struggled to gain a position in the entertainment world, Eddie Greene started movies, wrote a popular song, and tied up a good man as hard to find, and performed on old-time radio with some of the industry grates of the era. Greene achieved more in a short period of time than most people could dream of. Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Greene left home at the age of nine. Without any formal education, he taught himself to read through newspapers. During this period, he discovered the world of magic and made ends meet by calling himself the boy magician. He also took on small jobs and did handy work at nearby theaters.

According to Greene, he really became somebody when he was asked to perform his comedy skit on the radio program for Commander Richard E. Bird. Greene had a problem. His last curtain was at the same time the radio broadcast was scheduled to begin. Problem solved. NYPD provided an escort with sirens to get him to NBC. Through years of research, Greene's daughter Elvadae had brought her father back to notoriety. Well, let's see. My grand son is the reason that I decided to write the book. And so I guess he's the reason that he's what led me to begin the research. I knew a little bit about my father, of course, but in order for me to teach my grandson about his great grandfather, I decided to write a book as the easiest way for him to...

I just decided to write the book. And viewing the research he was having problems with his homework and he was getting frustrated? Right, Edward, my grandson's name is Edward also. As is my father, Eddie, his name was Edward when he was born. Edward was born with some issues. He was born without... His blood had to be reoxygenated, meaning they had to take the blood out of his brain for a while. And they thought he might have learning disabilities and as a young toddler or three or four by the time he got to kindergarten, he was having reading difficulties, but we had someone coming in helping him. And when he got into grammar school, he would complain to me that the homework was hard.

So this was back in 1996, I think it was. So he was like five or six years old. And he would say to me, I can't. That was his favorite word. I can't. And I thought, but you can. And I said, you know, look at what Eddie was able to do. And of course, he didn't get it at the time. And, you know, I just, I don't know. I decided to write the book then, but I didn't really get started then. I didn't get started until my mother went to the library, central library in Los Angeles. And she was going through a book, Blacks in Blackface by Henry Samson, I think it was. And she found a picture of Eddie on stage in his Ameson Andy role.

He was a stone wall, the lawyer. Right. And she brought me the picture. And that was really the beginning of my idea of starting to do research. Although it didn't still, didn't kick in until quite a while later. Once you started the research process, where did you start? Did you go back to the library or did you go on the internet? Well, the first thing that I did was I went to the African American Museum in Los Angeles. Because I just, I happened to see that they had a program on 40s, 1940s, and 50s, Black entertainers. And I went there to see if they would have any information that I could use. And I was looking at the pictures that they had on the walls.

And I actually found a picture of Eddie hanging on the wall. And also, my mother was standing right next to him in this picture. And that kind of blew me away because I wasn't expecting to see my mother on the wall in the African American Museum. You know, I just never thought of her as being anybody. So my mother. So I asked the curator at the time if he, if I could find out where he got that photo. And he actually went down in their basement. And he found a different photo with my mom, Eddie, Louise Bevers, and had him at Daniel in the photo. And he gave it to me. And that's where I went from there.

You know, in the next place I went, was the Central Library in Los Angeles. Yeah. Because I had to start looking at newspapers. And the central library has microfilm of the old California Eagle newspaper that was one of the first black newspapers here in Los Angeles. And that's where I started looking. And from, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, go ahead and finish the statement. Go ahead. From there, I just took suggestions. I went from the Central Library to the Natural History Museum. Because somebody told me they had addresses for people from Los Angeles. And I was looking up all the old addresses of my relatives.

And once I got there, they suggested I go to the Mamie Clayton Museum here in Culver City. Which I had never heard about. And from, you know, from then, from there on, I would just go to different places that were suggested to me. And reading your book, you run across all these artists that you're familiar with. And it was perplexing to try to wrap my brain around. Okay, Eddie's around all these stars as we know them today. And somehow, he got left out. Did that bother you too, a point once you were doing the research? That bothered me so much that I actually got a resentment against Louis Armstrong. I'm staying. Because, you know, it's funny because I've never met Louis Armstrong.

But. And going through Eddie's entertainment life, one of the things I did realize is that he was there. He was there with James Baskett and Lena Horn. Bill Robinson. Bill Robinson. And then I thought, well, shoot. You know, it's like he just disappeared. It's like one minute he was standing there and the next minute he just disappeared. Which gave me the impetus to want to do this, to really want to write a book. You know, because I thought, well, hey, there's all I can go online and look up Louis Armstrong. And there's all kind of stuff online about Louis Armstrong. But nobody says that in 1937, Eddie was a co-host. When Louis Armstrong did the summer flashments, yeast hour was the first time.

Well, we were Negroes then. Right. But it was the first time that Negroes were on a commercial radio station. And Eddie was one of the co-hosts. But if it's mentioned at all, people remember Louis Armstrong. They don't remember Eddie Green. And in 1929, in chocolates, Louis Armstrong made a debut. His saxophone. What did he play? I forget what he played. He played trumpet. He made his trumpet debut. And, but Eddie wrote all the skits and performed in the program. And nobody knows who Eddie is. So, yes, I, of course, I still, I don't still have a resentment. And I will say this, my mom told me a bit about Eddie's life.

When she met Eddie, he was in his 50s and she was 22, 23. And they were married for five years. And she told me basically highlights. And I don't even know if she knew that, for instance, Eddie was one of the first black men on RCA NBC broadcast television program. Right. Because she never mentioned it. But I found there's a lot that my mother didn't know or didn't say. And Eddie's life, I could follow Eddie's life from 1921 to the day that he died in the Pittsburgh, Korean newspaper, newspaper. Let's talk about your dad. He was born in 1891 in Baltimore, Maryland. And I guess he was born area where most African Americans lived back in the day.

Yes. And he left home at nine years old. Right. And you can pick up the story from there for us. He decided he would somehow found a book on magic. He taught himself to read and he decided he liked being a magician. So he chose to take care of himself by going to churches and halls and whatnot around Baltimore, Maryland. And performing for the people there as the boy magician. Right. I don't think he actually got paid because you couldn't hire young people in those days. So I figured, you know, he must have gotten food or whatever. And also he had what you might call a mentor today, Mr. James Handy was a bishop. Right.

The bishop and his wife helped Eddie because they were, the bishop's wife was Eddie's aunt. So they were helpful to him. And the only reason I knew that is because in 1946 in an interview Eddie told the interviewer that most of his family had passed on including Bishop Handy. And that led me to research Bishop Handy because I found a lot of things that I just, I didn't know in those newspapers. You know, so Eddie, he went on to, he was a magician for the next few years. He was able to hire people to help him, but he also became a laborer. And by the time, let's see, he was married and he got married in 19, by the time he was 18 years old, he got married. And he would take work as a handyman in the nearby theaters.

And there was a gentleman there who saw his act and he just, he told Eddie, he said, you know, you can, you should drop your magician act because you're really funny. And that's what Eddie did. And he went, he began his comedy act. And in the meantime, he had written a song, a good man is hard to find. He wrote that song in 1917. And then he sold that song in 1918. So I don't believe that Eddie's made any money on that song since he had, he never made any money on it because I figured at the time he probably needed the money that he sold the song for. Now who did he sell the song to? Pace and handy. And they were in Chicago at the time. And I think who's that Sophie Tucker took it and ran with it? Yes, actually, Sophie Tucker had, yeah, she loved it.

She used it in her act. She said, every night for 10 straight weeks or something like that because she thought it was the best blues song she had ever heard. But I believe the money came, started coming in when Marion Harris recorded it. You know, these were both white ladies. Marion Harris was evidently the first white woman to successfully sing race songs. Okay, back then. You know, if you listen to her version, it sounds just like it should sound in 1919. And I've never heard Sophie Tucker's version though. But she, she not only sang it in her nightclub act, she carried it into other areas of her own work. And then Eddie took his song and formed a group called the Deluxe Players. And he went out and he toured the South, singing this song and using his dancing girls.

And while he was doing that, he saw an article in New York for comedians. And he applied to become, you know, to work with this gentleman. And that was when he went straight into Vodville. If you're just joining us, I'm Johnny Johansson Jr. And you're listening to In Black America from KUG Radio. And we speak with Albert Dianne Green, author of Eddie Green, the rise of an early 1900 black American entertainment pioneer and also Eddie Green's daughter. Miss Green, it seems like Eddie was always at the right place at the right time. Yeah, it does. And I think also that, you know, Eddie evidently, he was funny. People thought he was funny. Truly funny. Yes, he really was a funny man. And he was also a regular fellow is what they called him. People liked Eddie.

So when they needed someone for a specific part, he was the first person they would thought of. And Eddie evidently never turned down, you know, he was always available. Like he was working day and night. Yes, the corner phrase. Yes, he never said, no, can't make it. Or, you know, sorry, he said, okay. And he showed up. And so that's, you know, in 1925 when he wound up working with Billy Minsky in the Apollo Theater. And they liked him so much that he worked with Minsky for like two years, two years. He was also a song and dance man at that time. Evidently, he was a soft shoe. He was perfect doing a soft shoe. And he did some work with the nickel, nickel brothers.

You know, I don't know if he actually worked with them, but I do know that they were friends of the family. Okay. Yes. And I know that they were at benefits. They would be at benefits together. Yes. I know that. And that was, that was the one thing I found that they said about Eddie that he was always available for benefits. You know, he never turned anything down. Your dad was also an enterprising entrepreneur started two movie companies had a barbecue restaurant. Eddie had actually Eddie had three movie company. Okay. The first one with Dean Wood was the first one. Yes. Okay. And Washington DC. That one didn't last long. And that may have been the one my mom said that there was a time in Eddie's life when, you know, one of his partners absconded with the money.

But she was never really, she didn't know which who that was. So and Eddie started, he started that out in 1922. He was still, he was a youngster still. And so and his, he actually had a string of restaurants according to the newspapers. I could only find addresses for two of them. One was on 7th Avenue in New York. There were both in New York, 138th and 7th. And I forget where the other one was, but ribs. That was his, it was barbecue. He said Paul Sweatman used to spend all this time in there. Right. Right. He was a band leader. Yeah. So yeah. And he had even, he had at least 12 ladies working for him during that time. He also gave, he would give free food out for Christmas to needy families from his restaurant. And, you know, unfortunately, he let those go as time went by, but maybe because by the time he let those go, he, he was on his way to becoming, to going into a Paramount movie.

And his, he didn't actually start his second movie company until 1939. Was this a CPL? That was CPL arts pictures. Yes. That was the, the, where he began, he made his first four movies. I also was interested in that that Eddie was a licensed radio ham operator on the first African Americans to actually hold a, hold a operator's license. Yes. And he was very proud of that. Also, I have a, a headshot of him with his pin on the lapel with his call letters. Right. Yes. And once I published the book, I heard from people who said, like one man said, he said, oh, I knew Eddie was, was a good guy. He was a ham operator. And my mom told me that Eddie, he loved it. He stayed, he had his own radio station in the basement of our house.

Right. And she said he would talk to people all night. You know, he talked to people in China. He was, he was big into electronics. Talk to us about Connie's hot chocolate. Well, Connie's hot chocolates. Now Eddie wrote all the comedy sketches for that. And Connie's hot chocolates ran longer than, I think it went, ran for 218 shows or something like that. And he said, he actually said in his, in his own words in a letter that there, the comedy sketches didn't work for them. And, and then he had to rewrite exactly. And, and he also was a part of the ensemble. But I have a, an album, Connie's hot chocolates. And it's got pictures on the inside. And it's got information about the show on the cover.

It's got Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Andy Razoff. And then it has Eddie Green also. But when you open the, when you open the album and you read what's in there, there's like a line that mentions Eddie. All the rest of it is about Louis Armstrong or Fats Waller. And that was another gentleman that, you know, Eddie was, Fats Waller recorded Eddie's song. A good man is hard to find. But that was another man that Fats, that Eddie performed with. But you wouldn't know it, you know, if you asked your next door neighbor who Fats Waller was, they would know. But they wouldn't know who Eddie Green was. When you look at some of the cast members of Connie's hot chocolate, you got Jackie Mons Maibley. And then you have Dwayne Pickney, Markham. And all these individuals that we know of, and as I stated earlier, in the conversation, that your father worked with.

And it's amazing that his stardom wasn't as large as those that he worked with. Yeah. And I, I tend to believe it was because Eddie died just as television was coming into its own. Elvis Diane Green, author of Eddie Green, the rise of an early 1900 black American entertainment pioneer. We will continue our conversation on next week's program. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions ask your future in black America programs. Email us at in black America at kut.org. Also, let us know what radio station you heard us over. Remember to like us on Facebook and to follow us on Twitter.

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