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32 Broome Special Phonograph Records One of the more exciting recent developments in the study of early black recordings is the discovery of the first black-owned and -operated record label. That label was long assumed to be Black Swan Records, founded in 1921 by Harry H. Pace, the publishing partner of W. C. Handy, which made its name in the field of jazz and blues.1 Nearly two years earlier, however, a black entrepreneur in Medford, Massachusetts , launched a label dedicated to black concert music, which he sold by mail. Fewer than a dozen sides were issued, but what remarkable records they were! The few artists on Broome Special Phonograph Records were among the most famous and important black concert figures of the era. For three of them, these were their only commercial records. Broome records are little known and exceedingly rare, but they are vital sound documents of black cultural history. Broome was founded by a man who devoted much of his career to the advancement of black culture. Information about the life of George Wellington Broome is sketchy. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, most likely on April 8, 1868, although various sources indicate that the year might have been as early as 1866 or as late as 1871.2 According to his death certificate his father, George Broome, was born in England and his mother, Louise Brooks, in Washington, D.C. Early in his life Broome lived in New York, Washington, D.C., and Boston. An alumni publication of Howard University indicates that he attended medical school there from 1894 to 1896, but he apparently did not become a doctor.3 Instead he was attracted to the New York musical and theatrical world, where in April 1897 he helped arrange a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall for the Pickford Sanitarium for Consumptive Negroes. A letter survives from Harry T. Burleigh to Booker T. Washington in which Burleigh introduced Broome to the great educator and solicited the latter’s help in making the concert a success.4 Soon thereafter Broome became associated with Will Marion Cook as manager of Cook’s pioneering black musical, Clorindy; or, The Origin of the Cakewalk, although it is not clear whether this was during the original 1898 run or for a 1900 touring company. In February 1900 he was reported to be the American representative and agent for O. M. McAdoo’s Australian musical and vaudeville enterprises.5 Broome’s office at this time was on 29th Street in New York City, although he lived in Newark, New Jersey. Around1900 he married; he and his wife, Mary, would have a son named Charles. After a few years trying to get a foothold in New York’s competitive theatrical world, Broome moved his family to Medford, Massachusetts, where his occupation was variously listed as porter, laborer, and waiter. His first listing in the Medford city directory was in 1907, and he would remain in that city for the rest of his life. He apparently worked in some capacity for the government, while continuing to dabble in various theatrical and educational enterprises. In 1910 the New York Age reported that he had formed the Broome Exhibition Company to produce documentary films of black colleges. His purpose was to show “the progress of the Ne05 .335-496_Broo 12/22/03, 1:43 PM 464 465 gro along industrial lines by means of moving pictures,” and he was said to be exhibiting films of Tuskegee Institute at the Crescent Theatre in Boston and Carnegie Hall in New York. “Among the well known institutions to be given consideration in the future will be Hampton, Fisk and Shaw.”6 There is no indication whether additional films were made. In the 1910 census Broome claimed that he was thirty-nine (perhaps optimistic) and gave his profession as “producer, moving pictures” (which no doubt sounded better than “porter”). He was living at 23 Clayton Avenue in Medford with his wife, Mary E. Broome (age 38), and sister-in-law Fannie M. Ellis (age 24). He owned his own home. City directories show Broome living at this address from 1907 until at least the late 1920s. Mary Broome died on April 6, 1918, at about the time her husband became involved in a new enterprise with a young tenor named Roland Hayes. Hayes, a Southerner, had come to Boston in 1911 with the Fisk Jubilee Singers and decided to stay. His goal was to become a...

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