Louis Winston Douglas, sometimes misspelled Douglass
(May 14, 1889, Philadelphia - May 19, 1939, New York City) was an
American dancer, choreographer, and music businessman.
Douglas
toured Ireland with a children's revue in 1903 and then went on tour in
Europe with Belle Davis from 1903 to 1908, and appears with her in the
1906 film Die schöne Davis mit ihren drei Negern. He branched into solo
dancing from 1910, doing shows throughout the major European capitals,
and toured South America in 1923. He was the star of the 1925 show La
revue nègre, which featured music by Claude Hopkins and his Charleston
Jazz Band. In 1926 he organized and starred in Black People, with music
by some of Sam Wooding's sidemen; the show toured Europe and North
Africa. His shows in Berlin in 1926 and in New York in 1927 featured, at
times, Sidney Bechet, Tommy Ladnier, Valaida Snow, and Juice Wilson.
He can be seen as a dancer in the films Einbrecher (1930) and
Niemandsland (1931); he had a leading acting role in the latter.
Douglas choreographed revues at the Casino de Paris between 1933 and
1936, then did a final tour of Europe before returning to New York in
1937. There he starred in Eubie Blake and Andy Razaf's Tan Manhattan,
then worked with James P. Johnson on the show Tan Town Topics. He and
Johnson also worked on Policy Kings the following year.
Louis
Douglas married the daughter of composer Will Marion Cook and singer
Abbie Mitchell. |
