Music database

Musician

Flournoy E. Miller

born on 14/4/1887 in Nashville, TN, United States

died on 6/6/1971 in Hollywood, CA, United States

Flournoy Earkin Miller

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Flournoy Eakin Miller (14 April 1885, Columbia, Tennessee - 6 June 1971, Hollywood, California) was an African American composer, singer, writer, and actor who appeared in vaudeville with Aubrey Lyles as Miller and Lyles. From 1906 to 1909, Miller and Lyles performed with the Pekin Theater Stock Company in Chicago, and then on the vaudeville circuit for many years. In 1915, they appeared in André Charlot's production Charlot's Revue in England, and upon their return to the U.S., appeared in Darkydom with Abbie Mitchell.

Biography

Miller's script for The Mayor of Dixie was the basis for Shuffle Along which premiered in 1921,a Broadway musical with music by Eubie Blake and lyrics by Noble Sissle. Although the book for Shuffle Along is credited to Miller and Lyles, it appears that the principal author of the book was Flournoy E. Miller. F. E. Miller and Aubrey Lyles also starred in Shuffle Along as Steve Jenkins (Miller) and Sam Peck (Lyles). Also in 1921, Orlando Kellum made a short film with Miller and Lyles performing their song "De Ducks" in Kellum's short-lived Photokinema sound-on-disc process.

Miller and Lyles also worked on another Broadway production, Runnin' Wild (1923). Lyles broke up the act in 1929, but they reunited briefly in 1932shortly before Lyles' deathtrying to put together a new show Shuffle Along of 1933. Miller also starred in the 1930 version of Lew Leslie's Blackbirds on Broadway, and in the all-black Western Harlem on the Prairie (1937).

During the 1940s Miller teamed with Mantan Moreland in several race films.

F. E. Miller was posthumously nominated for a Tony Award in 1979 for his contributions to musical theater as described in Eubie!, based on the life of Eubie Blake.

Reminiscing with Sissle and Blake by William Bolcom and Robert Kimball; Viking Press April 12, 1973, tells the story of Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles's involvement with Shuffle Along.

The late jazz harpist Olivette Miller and playwright-librettist Sandra Seaton are descendants of Flournoy E. Miller.

See also

  • African American musical theater

External links

This page was last modified 27.04.2014 09:02:58

This article uses material from the article Flournoy Earkin Miller from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.