- Songwriter ("Shine"), composer, conductor and pianist, educated at Armstrong Manual Training School. He studied music with his father and also with Charles Donch, William Waldecker, and Samuel Fabian. In 1904, he was the official court musician for the president of Haiti, and returned to the USA in 1907 to lead his own quartet. He was owner-operator of his own film and vaudeville theatre in Washington, and in 1913 he organized the Tempo Club (A Negro talent bureau) in New York. He created original dance numbers for Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Castle, and conducted the Ziegfeld Midnight Frolics orchestra for eight years. He wrote the Broadway stage score for "Rang Tang". Joining ASCAP in 1937, his chief musical collaborators included Joe Trent, Cecil Mack, and Lew Brown. His other popular-song and instrumental compositions include "That Minor strain", "Oh You Devil" and "Puerto Rico".
- IMDb mini biography by: Hup234!
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