Between Two Eras

From 1933 until 1946-47 Margot Webb and Harold Norton performed on the Afro-American vaudeville circuits of night clubs and theatres in the Northeast and the Midwest. Known professionally as “Norton and Margot,” they were one of the few Afro-American ballroom teams in history. Their career was emblematic of the frustrations, paradoxes, and double standards which existed for Afro-American artists in the United States. As a ballroom team, they faced the same obstacles as a Dean Dixon or a Marian Anderson: they were traveling on a white road posted with “No Trespassing” signs for the Afro-American. They followed on the heels of the 1920s, which was the golden era of Afro-American vaudeville, of the Cotton-Club-type, posh nightclub, and of “Black Broadway.” They preceded by two decades the civil rights era of the 1960s, when more opportunities became available to Afro-Americans in mainstream (or white) show business. Norton and Webb belonged to the swing era of the 1930s and the 1940s. However, due to the nature of their performance style and the racial tenor of their times, they were either too early or too late for success. It is in this sense that they existed between two eras

African american · American history · Art · Art history · Ballroom · Club · Entertainment · Mainstream · Media studies · Performance art · Political science · Sociology · Style (visual arts) · Visual arts · White (mutation) · Anthropology · Cinema and Media Studies · History · Law · Medicine · Music History and Culture · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts

• Nation Drag

  Open Access•Micol Seigel•Journal of Transnational American…•2009

  Add to list