As a native of Covington, Kentucky I had never heard of Eddie Gray until a few years ago. And I've been itching to do this post ever since! However, I doubt very seriously if I'm alone in not being familiar with Mr. Gray. I'd say that most Covingtonians have probably never heard of him and most of those who make up the African American community could probably care less! I'm not going to attempt to suggest that we even should have heard of him. I'm just saying that Eddie Gray provides a bit of color, texture and unique history to an otherwise non-descript geographical blot in the Northern Kentucky - Greater Cincinnati region. And THAT'S WHY Eddie Gray is proudly featured on this blog TODAY!
All of the indicators suggest that tenor Eddie Gray was not really a big star, but he was at least partly known to early African American record buyers when Blacks first started making significant waves in the recording industry in the 1920's.
During the first few years of that decade, Gray was a featured recording artist with the very first (and for a very long time the only) African American-owned record company in the states, Black Swan Records.
Headquartered in Harlem, Black Swan was an outgrowth of the Pace & Handy Music Publishing Company, which was the issue of the famous composer W.C. Handy - the "Father of the Blues" and his partner Harry Pace. By 1920, Mr. Pace looked around and saw that the major recording labels still wasn't about recognizing the fabulous black talent that could be found right there in Harlem. So right before the first sonic boom of the female blues singers exploded, Pace broke off his association with Handy, and organized Black Swan in the basement of his own home at 257 W. 138th St.
Black Swan took its name from the beautiful 19th-century slave-born opera singer, Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, who was called The Black Swan, and that was the initial sound and image that Harry Pace wanted his company to represent. Realizing that he was cutting off his nose to spite his face, Pace soon welcomed the blues and more jazz-oriented artists to his label. Miss Ethel Waters cut her recording teeth there! Essie Whitman, one of the famed Whitman Sisters joined the company. Eddie Gray was there, too!
Biographical information on Eddie Gray is very scarce. It is said that Gray was born sometime in the early 1890's and "ran away" from Covington, Kentucky with the Primrose and West Minstrels at the tender age of just nine years old. That company was very well-known and supposedly took a somewhat unique, unorthadox approach to minstrelsy which can be gauged by this company poster. Minstrelsy was still minstrelsy and it was never meant to depict Black folks with any accuracy or dignity whether portrayed by whites pretending to be black or by blacks pretending to be white pretending to be black. Black characters still cut the fool, the coon, the moron, the buffon and the idiot!
Throughout the 1920's, (and not always in blacface) Eddie Gray made a living performing in high-toned New York area restaurants, nightclubs and revues. He had a featured role in the landmark Black 20's musical, Runnin' Wild - which also showcased other then well-known Black stars such as Ralph Cooper, Elida Webb, Adelaide Hall, Monte Hawley, Miller & Lyles, and Black Swan labelmate Revella Hughes. In this production, Elisabeth Welch introduced the Charleston - the song and the dance! Gray was also hired as the MC for Lew Leslie's Blackbirds of 1928, the musical which catapulted Adelaide Hall to stardom!
As seen in this video, Eddie Gray at some point went back to his roots as part of a minstrel-type trio of entertainers called The Three Eddies. The tall one in the middle is certainly not Eddie Gray and I'm not even sure the others were named Eddie at all. Like it or not, we are fortunate to have footage of them. Whatever you may think about them, they were undeniably talented dancers.
Unfortunately, as the 20's drew to a close, the curtain was also drawn on Eddie Gray's life. He died in New York on October 27, 1930. I don't know much more about Eddie Gray. But as much as I do know, I present to you what should be a BONAFIDE COVINGTON KENTUCKY LEGEND!
I enjoyed this blog as I do with all things obscure. But a hats off to you for your fine writing skills on this particular piece. The vido had me laughing as they sang "Underneath a Harlem Moon" the line take off your skin and dance around in your bones. Just does me in!
Posted by: Jahlaune Hunt | May 29, 2011 at 03:04 PM
Thank you for posting. I would have never known about Eddie Gray. Love the video too. Saw some Chris brown and Usher moves.
Posted by: Kairi | May 31, 2011 at 08:58 AM