Mattie Wilkes
{{Short description|African American theater and film actress}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name =
| image = Mattie Wilkes Poster.jpg
| alt = See caption
| caption = Poster of Mattie Wilkes circa 1899
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1875|02|14}}
| birth_place = Montclair, New Jersey
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1927|07|06|1875|02|14}}
| death_place = Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| other_names =
| occupation = Vaudeville and film actress
| years_active = 1896-1927
}}
Mattie Vera Wilkes (February 14, 1875 – July 6, 1927) was an African American theater and film actress who appeared in vaudeville shows and films from the 1890s through the 1920s. Beginning as the prima donna for the Williams & Walker Company (Bert Williams and George Walker) in the 1890s, she starred in multiple vaudeville performances as a soprano singer. She would go on to perform in multiple shows alongside Ernest Hogan, whom she would later marry. They would have a falling out, however, within a year and would remain estranged until his death in 1909. During and after, Wilkes would feature in multiple theater shows, including tours across Europe and Russia, even up until her death in 1927.
Career
Born on February 14, 1875, in Montclair, New Jersey to Sarah H. Wilkes, Wilkes started performing in vaudeville as a singer, becoming a member of the vaudeville company Williams & Walker. She performed as a soprano singer in the 1899 production of The Policy Players.{{cite news |author= |date=January 7, 1900 |title=Orpheum - Williams and Walker's Company |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-kansas-city-times-orpheum-williams-a/153304751/ |work=The Kansas City Times |access-date=August 17, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite news |author= |date=January 21, 1900 |title=Theatres |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/omaha-world-herald-theatres-mattie-wil/153305057/ |work=Omaha World-Herald |access-date=August 17, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}} Described as the "prima donna of the company" by The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, she was said to have "a rich, cultivated voice, of wide range".{{cite news |author= |date=October 31, 1899 |title=The Bijou |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-brooklyn-daily-eagle-the-bijou/153560454/ |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |access-date=August 18, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}} During the early 1900s, Wilkes worked with Ernest Hogan's group for songs and plays, acting in the performances he wrote.{{cite news |author= |date=March 6, 1904 |title=Ernest Hogan |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/democrat-and-chronicle-ernest-hogan/153541412/ |work=Democrat and Chronicle |access-date=August 18, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}} Despite her falling out with Hogan in 1903, she continued to work with him, though frequently separately, through 1905 before going on a vaudeville tour of Europe in the summer of that year. She also began a tour of vaudeville theatres across Russia in 1911.{{cite news |last=Walton |first=Lester A. |date=October 26, 1911 |title=Music and the Stage |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-age-ernest-hogan-tidbit/133907767/ |work=The New York Age |access-date=August 18, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}}
The 1925 reproduction of Runnin' Wild was cancelled midseason due to the new road production owners Clifford Gray and Matt Smith failing to pay out the costs for the play. Wilkes herself was noted to have been cut the $700 acting fee she was promised for starring in the production despite her attempts to have the local sheriff seize the money till and all the play's scenery and effects.{{cite news |author= |date=May 2, 1925 |title="Runnin' Wild" Ghost Failed To Appear: Mattie Wilkes "Set Back" $700 Which She Failed To Collect |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-afro-american-runnin-wild-ghost-f/153304930/ |work=The Afro-American |access-date=August 17, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}} Commenting on the 1926 production of Lulu Belle, Variety pointed out that in addition to actress Evelyn Preer, Wilkes' role was the only other "valuable" part of the play.{{cite news |author= |date=March 6, 1926 |title=Miss Preer Shines |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-afro-american-miss-preer-shines/153479508/ |work=The Afro-American |access-date=August 18, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Theater
- Forty Minutes of Grand and Comic Opera (1896){{cite news |author= |date=October 27, 1896 |title=Academy of Music - "Oriental America" |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-star-academy-of-music-orienta/153578425/ |work=The Washington Star |access-date=August 19, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- Thirty Minutes Around The Operas (1898){{cite news |author= |date=May 15, 1898 |title=Star Theater |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-brooklyn-daily-eagle-star-theater/153560917/ |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |access-date=August 18, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- The Policy Players (1899){{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WhzfAQAAQBAJ&dq=%22Policy+Players%22+brymn&pg=PA49 | title=Spreadin' Rhythm Around: Black Popular Songwriters, 1880-1930 | isbn=978-1-135-50972-9 | last1=Jasen | first1=David A. | last2=Jones | first2=Gene | date=October 31, 2013 | publisher=Routledge }}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XFnfnKg6BcAC&dq=mattie+wilkes&pg=PA520 | title=Vaudeville old & new: An encyclopedia of variety performances in America | isbn=978-0-415-93853-2 | last1=Cullen | first1=Frank | last2=Hackman | first2=Florence | last3=McNeilly | first3=Donald | date=2007 | publisher=Psychology Press }}
- The Smart Set (1902){{cite news |author= |date=February 22, 1903 |title=The Smart Set At The Fourteenth Street |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-times-the-smart-set-at-the/153558441/ |work=The New York Times |access-date=August 18, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- The Missionary Man (1904){{cite news |author= |date=February 11, 1904 |title=Coming To The Theaters - Orpheum |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-kansas-city-times-coming-to-the-thea/153542512/ |work=The Kansas City Times |access-date=August 18, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- The Black Evolution (1905){{cite news |author= |date=February 7, 1905 |title=Poll's Theater |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-morning-journal-courier-polls-theat/153539683/ |work=The Morning Journal-Courier |access-date=August 18, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- Doings In Coontown (1909){{cite news |author= |date=March 9, 1909 |title=Billy Harper & Co. the Leading Feature of This Week's Bill |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/lancaster-new-era-billy-harper-co-the/153539542/ |work=Lancaster New Era |access-date=August 18, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- A Cowboy Preacher (1916){{cite news |author= |date=May 11, 1916 |title=Lincoln Theatre |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-age-hunter-and-chappelle-at/82670751/ |work=The New York Age |access-date=August 18, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- Trilby (1917) as Mrs. Bagot{{cite news |author= |date=March 22, 1917 |title=Trilby |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-age-clarencemusetrilbynewyo/16246534/ |work=The New York Age |access-date=August 18, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- Fifty Miles From Boston (1917){{cite news |author= |date=April 10, 1917 |title=Howard - "Fifty Miles From Boston" |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-washington-post-howard-fifty-mile/153537968/ |work=The Washington Post |access-date=August 18, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- The Burglar and the Lady (1919) as Annie{{cite news |author= |date=May 10, 1919 |title=Andrew Bishop's Play At Lafayette |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-age/84547750/ |work=The New York Age |access-date=August 18, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- Madame X (1919){{cite news |author= |date=October 4, 1919 |title="Madame X" Will Be Next Attraction At Lafayette |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-age-madame-x-will-be-next/153535043/ |work=The New York Age |access-date=August 18, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- De Luxe Annie (1919){{cite news |author= |date=November 8, 1919 |title=Bishop-Desmond Co. To Play "De Luxe Annie" |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-age-bishop-desmond-co-to-p/153534999/ |work=The New York Age |access-date=August 18, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- The Silent Witness (1919){{cite news |author= |date=November 22, 1919 |title="The Silent Witness" at Lafayette Next Week |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-age-the-silent-witness-at/153534881/ |work=The New York Age |access-date=August 18, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- Shuffle Along (1921–1922) as Mrs. Sam Peck (Mattie Wilks){{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bDMOAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22mattie+wilks%22&pg=PA450 | title=Burns Mantle Best Plays and the Year Book of the Drama in America | date=1921 }}
- Lulu Belle (1923) as Mrs. Jackson{{cite news |author= |date=February 10, 1926 |title=The New Play |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/times-union-the-new-play/153479439/ |work=Times Union |access-date=August 18, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- Runnin' Wild (1923){{cite news |author= |date=April 5, 1924 |title=New York White Press Fair Toward Negro Shows |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-kansas-city-sun-new-york-white-press/153532702/ |work=The Kansas City Sun |access-date=August 18, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Filmography
- The Symbol of the Unconquered (1920), extant
- The Gunsaulus Mystery (1921)
- For His Mother's Sake (1922) as the mother{{cite news |author= |date=February 17, 1922 |title=Carey: "For His Mother's Sake" |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-afro-american-carey-for-his-mother/153532904/ |work=The Afro-American |access-date=August 18, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Personal life
Wilkes married Ernest Hogan on May 11, 1902,{{cite journal |last1=Lefferts |first1=Peter M. |date=July 29, 2016 |title=Chronology and Itinerary of the Career of Ernest Hogan: Materials for a Biography |url=https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1060&context=musicfacpub |journal=Faculty Publications: School of Music |volume=59 |access-date=August 18, 2024}} taking on the name of Mattie Crowdus{{cite news |author= |date=March 7, 1903 |title=Ernest Hogan Arrested: Wife Accuses Him of Throwing Her Down two Flights of Stairs |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-afro-american-ernest-hogan-arrested/153545894/ |work=The Afro-American |access-date=August 18, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}} and latter Mattie Hogan after her husband's name change. While still remaining married, they had separated on December 15 of that same year and were seen in multiple public fights in the months following regarding possible divorce and alimony payments. On March 6, 1903, Hogan was arrested after Wilkes accused him of throwing her down two flights of stairs, noting that he had been exhibiting violent tendencies in the year since she married him. Despite Hogan seemingly becoming involved with another woman in the years following, he did not appear to file for divorce with Wilkes, as she is legally listed as his widow upon his death in 1909. She died on July 6, 1927, at her home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.{{cite news |author= |date=July 16, 1927 |title=Stars That Shine - Mattie Wilkes |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/new-pittsburgh-courier-stars-that-shine/153477839/ |work=New Pittsburgh Courier |access-date=August 18, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkes, Mattie}}
Category:Actresses from Montclair, New Jersey
Category:Actresses from Pittsburgh
Category:19th-century American actresses
Category:20th-century African-American actresses
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:American film actresses
Category:American stage actresses