Bert Williams

Bert Williams was born In the Bahamas on the
12th November 1874 to Bahamian parents,
Frederick Williams Junior and Julia (nee
Moncur) Williams according to his birth certificate
in the Registry of Records in Nassau at
entry 24 in St. Matthew’s Parish. At the age of 11 young
Bert left Nassau with his parents for South Florida
where the family remained for a long spell before
moving to California where Bert completed high school
and opted out of attending Stanford University for a
planned career as an engineer, choosing instead to
follow his passion as a singer, comedian and dancer.
He quickly became the toast of the New York
Broadway and his lifetime is praised as one of the
most significant “coloured artist” to have broken the
racial barrier in a time when race mattered most in
America.
His Vaudeville character which he personified to
great success was that of a “slow talking, deep
thinking victim of life’s misfortunes”.
His famous line was, “even if it rained soup, I
would be found with a fork in my hand and not a
spoon in distant sight”.
One of his celebrated great performances was in the smash
hit, “In Dahomey” in which he got to relish the history of
Africa and the pride of his race.
He was the first Black performer allow on stage with White
Women and in interviews with the American Press he was
always quick to point out the racism in which he endured
and how he set about conquering it.
The American Vaudeville icon, W. C. Fields, hailed Bert Williams
as the greatest comedian he had ever met and Fields’
own biographers said that next to Bert Williams, Fields was
the greatest comedian and vaudeville star of the time.
Bert Williams made several recordings for Columbia
and his signature song, “NOBDOY” became an instant
hit and a classic.
“When Life seems full of clouds and rain,
Who soothes my thumping bumping brain?
(PAUSE) NOBODY
When winter comes with snow and sleet
And meets me with hunger and cold feet
Who says, ‘here’s two bits, go and eat?-
(PAUSE) NOBODY
I aint never done nothing to Nobody
I aint never got nothing from Nobody,
No time.
And until I get something from somebody sometime,
I don’t intend to do nothing for nobody,
No time”.
At the top of his career starring in New York in Ziegfeld
Follies, Williams was earning $62,500 per year or $1.5
million in 1920.
He said his greatest performance was in the UK at a
Command Performance for the King of England.
“It was the proudest moment of my life… to appear
before my Sovereign for I am British born hailing from
the Bahamas.”
Williams died at the age of 47 and even in death broke
the colour barrier as he was laid out in the All White
Masonite Lodge in Manhattan having become the first
Negro admitted in the lodge’s century old history.
The press of the time said more than 5,000 people filed
passed his casket and