The Tribune

By SANCHESKA DORSETT

Tribune Staff Reporter

sdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE government is working on plans to “enshrine” the life and work Egbert “Bert” Williams to ensure that the country knows the work of the first Bahamian actor to ever be caught on film, Prime Minister Perry Christie said last night.

At a screening of Lime Kiln Club Field Day (1913), a silent film starring Mr Williams, Mr Christie said it is regrettable that the Bahamas has moved “relatively slow” in lifting up persons who have contributed mightily to the development of the country.

“The odds were stacked against him,” Mr Christie said at the event held at Galleria Cinemas on Wednesday night. “Here he was a black man in an industry where the odds of success for someone whether black or white were highly stacked against them but more so for a black man in the US.

“He became the toast of Broadway in New York and almost single handedly broke the racial barrier in entertainment at a time when people of colour where denigrated to the bottom of the social ladder. This Bahamian of humble beginnings performed for the most grand of audiences, including the King of England.

“Be assured that my government will cause the relevant agencies to enshrine the memory of this Bahamian icon. We have been relativity slow in going through our history and lifting out the exploits and contributions of persons who have contributed mightily to the development of our country notwithstanding some of the challenges they faced. He was very proud of his roots and proud to be Bahamian. He was also one of the first black millionaires in the United States.”

Mr Williams, born in Nassau in the fall of 1874, was the first black actor in film and Broadway and is considered the pioneer during the vaudeville and renaissance era of black entertainment throughout the Americas.

Seven reels of Lime Klin Club Field Day were produced before the project was officially abandoned.

In 1938, the Museum of Modern Art secured the negatives of the film from Biography Company in bankruptcy proceedings.

Subsequently in 1976, an archivist rediscovered the reels and began the process of restoration of this film - then considered the only surviving film of its kind.

After being mastered and rendered, the film was finally presented by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2014.

Bert Williams died in 1922 from pneumonia. He remained a performer until the time of his death.