"30 Negroes (Ladies and Gentlemen)": The Syncopated Orchestra in Vienna

Ira Aldridge1 in 1853, perhaps Hicks's Georgia Minstrels2 around 1870, the McKoy twins3 in 1872, and a genuine Negergesellschaft with scenes from Uncle Tom's Cabin4 are examples from the early period when a "Negro" act, normally, would be a blackface performance.5 In the last decades before World War I, African Americans made more frequent and comparatively well documented appearances, entertaining the Viennese mostly as "eccentrics" and with novelties like the cake walk.6 After the war, the former capital of an empire was impoverished and crowded with refugees, but performers from the victorious countries were part of its night life again. On July 31, these announcements of "Jazz" vanished from the ads of the Lurion and the Maxim.14 Künstlerspiele Pan, however, opened with "Jazz" in August - music, this time, by Artur M. Werau15 - and "Original Jazz und Foxtrott" were advertised, in small letters, for a few more weeks.16 In December 1919, a "Jazz-Parodie" was in the program of dancers at the Monte Carlo.17 From late January to early March 1920, the attractions there included dance performances of "Bobby-Jazz,"18 the piece by Robert Stolz which had been used for "Jazz" at the Lurion.19 It was recorded around the same time by Salonkapelle Himmel, the group that had played it there.20 In a third and last step a year later, in the paper examined, "jazz" became a label for bands that could be heard locally.