Florence Mills

Saturday, January 18, 2025

I went to Keith’s chamber orchestra Friends and Family concert this afternoon. It used to be called the Young People’s concert or something like that, but they welcome everyone, so there you go. There is no cost for kids, so it is still very kid friendly (also only 50 minutes long).

The opening piece was entitled Harlem’s Little Blackbird, the story of singer, dancer, comedienne Florence Mills. I had never heard of her. It was a strings-only piece with accompanying illustrations on the screen above. Florence was born in 1896 and was a natural singer and dancer from the start. She led shows on the playground, unafraid to give it her all. She made her stage debut at age 5 as Baby Florence. She must have been talented, because she had great success getting hired and going on the road with her two older sisters. It was a good story, cute pictures, and pleasant music accompaniment.

Then suddenly Florence was suffering from racism – she was black and theaters were whites only. It came as quite a shock to me, because although I could see her in the illustrations, we were going along quite smoothly until BAM. She complained that her friends couldn’t come to see her and the “kind” white theater manager snuck them in to see the show when she threatened to leave. Then she went to London and people didn’t want to see her because she was black – until she sang and was good, and then they loved her and went to her show.

Mmmm. This was not written in 2025. I was watching it in 2025. I can’t see not mentioning that racism was an even crappier thing a hundred years ago than it is now, but it really changed the tone of piece. The instant “fixes” to the racism aren’t exactly what we would want kids to take away from this piece, are they? I was letting it all float in the back of my mind while the show continued, and suddenly she DIED (after “the doctor could do little for her”. Well, that’s the thing of nightmares, isn’t it? She was 31 and died of tuberculosis). DIED. Lots of people came to her funeral, so it wasn’t all bad.

Huh.

I don’t know what I want to say. I hate to cancel things, but sometimes you should. Maybe. I don’t know. Okay, I’m not ready to cancel. I will think about this as an opportunity for conversation. Look! The past was crappy. Look! She was really talented. Look! She existed. Look! Medicine is so better now. Look! Music is better when wind instruments are added.

Okay. Some days I am more coherent than other days.

Keith went to the rehearsal last night and walked in as Colin Mochrie from Whose Line Is It Anyway? was walking on stage in the theater. He said, “It doesn’t happen every day that I run into Colin Mochrie backstage,” and Colin responded, “It does to me all the time.” Today, I looked on the performers’ wall and found his and Brad Sherwoods’ signatures. A brush with the talented…for Colin.

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