Shuffle Along is the first major successful African American musical. Written by Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles, with music and lyrics by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, the musical premiered on Broadway in 1921.

Sam and Steve both run for mayor in Jimtown, USA. If either one wins, he will appoint the other his chief of police. Sam wins with the help of a crooked campaign manager. Sam keeps his promise to appoint Steve as chief of police, but they begin to disagree on petty matters. They resolve their differences in a comic 20-minute fight scene. As they fight, their opponent for the mayoral position, Harry Walton, vows to end their corrupt regime, underscored in the song “I’m Just Wild about Harry.” Harry wins the next election as well as the girl and runs Sam and Steve out of town. One character explains that the lighter the skin, the more desirable an African American woman is.

The musical premiered on Broadway at the Daly's 63rd Street Theatre on May 23, 1921 and closed on July 15, 1922 after 484 performances. It was directed by Walter Brooks, with Eubie Blake playing the piano. The cast included Lottie Gee as Jessie Williams, Adelaide Hall as Jazz Jasmine, Gertrude Saunders as Ruth Little, Roger Matthews as Harry Walton, and Noble Sissle as Tom Sharper. Gertrude Saunders was replaced by Florence Mills. Josephine Baker, who was deemed too young at age 15 to be in the show, joined the touring company in Boston, and then joined the Broadway cast when she turned 16.Bessie Allison's first professional performance was in Shuffle Along. The orchestra included William Grant Still and Hall Johnson.

James Hubert Blake (February 7, 1887 – February 12, 1983) was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, Blake and long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans. Blake's compositions included such hits as, "Bandana Days", "Charleston Rag", "Love Will Find A Way", "Memories of You", and "I'm Just Wild About Harry". The musical Eubie! featured the works of Blake and opened on Broadway in 1978.

Blake was born at 319 Forrest Street in Baltimore, Maryland to former slaves John Sumner Blake (1838–1917) and Emily "Emma" Johnstone (1861–1917). He was the only surviving child of eight, all the rest of whom died in infancy. In 1894 the family moved to 414 North Eden Street, and later to 1510 Jefferson Street. John Blake worked earning US$9.00 weekly as a stevedore on the Baltimore docks.

In later years Blake claimed to have been born in 1883, but his Social Security application and all other official documents issued in the first half of his life list his year of birth as 1887. Many otherwise reliable sources mistakenly give his year of birth as the earlier year, reprinting the false information that had been printed before these official documents and census records came to light.

Noble Sissle (July 10, 1889 – December 17, 1975) was an American jazz composer, lyricist, bandleader, singer and playwright.

Noble Lee Sissle was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on the 10th of July, 1889, around the time his father, the Rev George A. Sissle, was pastor of the city’s Simpson M. E. Chapel. His mother, Martha Angeline (née Scott) Sissle, was a school teacher and juvenile probation officer. As a youth Sissle sang in church choirs and as a soloist with his high school's glee club in Cleveland, Ohio. Sissle attended De Pauw University in Greencastle, Indiana on scholarship and later transferred to Butler University in Indianapolis before turning to music full-time.

On October 1, 1918, Sissle joined the New York 369th Infantry Regiment at New York City where he helped Lieutenant James Reese Europe form the 369th Regimental Band. Sissle played violin and also served as drum major for the 369th that, under Europe as bandmaster, is now considered amongst the greatest jazz bands of all time. Sissle sang several vocals on the last album recorded by the band that was released in March 1919. He left the army after the war as a second lieutenant with the 370th Infantry Regiment and joined Europe’s civilian version of the 369th band. Not long afterwards, on the 9th of May, 1919 James Europe was murdered by a disgruntled band member in Boston, Massachusetts leaving Sissle, with the help of his friend Eubie Blake, to take temporary charge of his band. Years earlier Sissle had struck up a partnership with Blake after they first met in Baltimore in 1915 and had remained in touch during the war.

Joe Morley (born December 3, 1867 Kinver, South Staffordshire, Great Britain - died September 16, 1937 London) was a British classical banjoist who achieved great fame and renown in his homeland and abroad. During his lifetime, he composed hundreds of banjo solos.

Morley's father was a busker playing the concertina and entertaining crowds in the streets. At the age of five, he accompanied his father to Wiltshire, and while his father played on his instrument, the young boy would step-dance dressed in jacket and knickerbockers. In 1887, his father bought him an old seven-string banjo without frets and soon he was learning how to play from different music books he had purchased. Eventually he invented his own finger picking style.

About 1890, Morley formed a busker quartet consisting of himself, Fred Sanders, and Ben Hollingworth on banjos, and Alf Wentworth on concertina. They toured North Wales performing tunes composed by Morley. The quartet broke up and he toured West England as a solo act. His popularity grew steadily. He joined the Victorian Minstrels in 1891, performing at Sandown, Isle of Wight. The minstrel band consisted of a banjo, a concertina, a harp, a tambourine, a tin whistle and bones. The band changed its name to the Royal Osborne Minstrels after a successful performance on the Royal yacht Osborne. In 1893, the "Minstrels" disbanded and Morley was hired by the Clifford Essex Pierrots, formed in 1891. He bought himself a six-string banjo with frets, but since he was accustomed to play without frets, he removed them.

Theater and film director, movie producer. Born 12 December 1934 in Bucharest, Romania, deceased 5 May 1996 in New York, USA. He left behind his wife of 32 years, and their daughter.

MA (Cinematography and Film Direction), Ion Luca Caragiale University Bucharest, 1958; PhD (Social Psychology), City University of New York (CUNY), 1974. At CUNY he studied with Stanley Milgram, who later became his colleague.

Film Director at the Sahia Film Studio, Bucharest 1959-61; Movie reviewer for the Bucharest Press 1958-60.

Chamber Theater, Tel Aviv 1962-63, artistic drector of the Comedia Theater Tel Aviv 1963-66; Artistic advisor for Tel Aviv Municipality 1962-66.

Member of the Jerusalem Theatre, Israel 1964.

Recipient of the Jerusalem Theatre for Youth Award.

Independent director, writer, producer for various organizations including Time Life Films, Harper & Row, NYC 1969-77.

Director and producer of the Off-Broadway Rhinoceros (play), 1970.

Director, producer, and co-writer (Movies) The City and the Self(*), 1972; Psychodrama, 1973; Invitation to Social Psychology(*), 1974; Conformity and Independence(*), 1975; Human Aggression(*), Nonverbal Communication(*), 1976; Night Patrol, 1977. (TV) Dr Berger Plan, 1986; Love is (a series of three one-hour shows), and a special TV program entitled 2090, 1990.