Hearing the Americas

S.H. Dudley Circuit

This circuit was organized by vaudeville star S.H. Dudley in 1912. He consolidated various theaters along the East Coast into a circuit for Black performers. This circuit was very successful, and was was often covered in the Black press.

c. 1912

Location data taken from descriptions in Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff, Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, “Coon Songs,” and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz and The Original Blues: The Emergence of the Blues in African American Vaudeville.