Content area
Full text
THE REGAL THEATER AND BLACK CULTURE. By Clovis E. Semmes. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006; pp. v + 294. $79.95 cloth.
Clovis Semmes's impeccably researched history of the Regal Theater, a Chicago Bronzeville (or "Black Belt") institution for forty years (1928-68), provides the scholar of early twentieth-century performances a goldmine of information about the inner workings of the business and adds a new chapter to the history of African American theatre. Semmes's goal is to write not only a history of the Regal, but also of the role such a performance space played in the cultural life of blacks in Chicago. Built in 1928 in the heart of the Black Belt as part of a larger commercial center, the Regal produced its own stage shows over the years, as well as hosting touring vaudeville and performance groups, musicians, and traveling variety shows. Famous African American performers and bandleaders including Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, Ethel Waters, and Paul Robeson, as well as many lesser-known circuit musicians, dance troupes, and performance acts graced the stage of the Regal, the only "deluxe theater or motion picture palace ever built expressly for a Black American community" (15). While at times his chronological account feels like a laundry list of performances and performers, of facts and figures, it is a list worth reciting-especially...