Welcome back for our second Ghost Hunt episode. I’m your host, Erin Bogert. In this episode, we’re jumping back to 1921, and we’re just shy of backstage at Daly’s 63rd Street Music Hall, at 22 West 63rd Street, between Broadway and Central Park West. A performance of “Shuffle Along” ended about thirty minutes ago, and the Reverend Edward Hall and his date, Mrs. Eleanor Mills, stayed behind to grandstand the fact that Edward Hall knows (in passing) the already famous Rutgers alum Paul Robeson, here making his Broadway debut in the choir while attending law school. The stars of our little story are not the doomed lovers or the great Paul Robeson, but two other choir singers, Nelly and J.E.B. are waiting for the theater patrons to leave the theater so that they can get on with their evening. Oh, and for those who don’t know, Shuffle Along was the first Broadway smash hit with an entirely Black cast: it not only changed who belonged on Broadway’s biggest stages, it also introduced an entirely new sound and feel to the music and rhythm of American popular music. But in both 1921 and now, success on the stage did not result in equal treatment, a dichotomy reflected in the thoughts of our radio play’s protagonist, J.E.B.

This episode was brought to you by the New Brunswick Historical Society and Thinkery & Verse. Grant funding has been provided by the Middlesex County board of chosen freeholders through a grant award from the Middlesex Cultural and Arts Trust Fund. Our theme music this season comes from Blimp66 of Freesound.org, and our closing jazz loop is by Anechoix. Today’s radio play was written by Johnny Meyer and James Edward Becton, and edited by Johnny Meyer and Karen Alvarado. It featured voice actors Ashley Bufkin, James Edward Becton, Joey Sponseller, J Meyer, and Kaitlin Omerod Hutson, and songs from Shuffle Along.

S03 E02: A visit to Broadway, or, 'a good way to get killed'