Get Up - Bert Williams (1920)

"Get Up"

Bert Williams

Columbia A3305

1920

Robert Hood Bowers song

In 1901, on three occasions, Bert Williams and partner George Walker attended recording sessions for the Victor Talking Machine Company.

The first session was on October 11, 1901.

They performed 14 numbers during these three session--sometimes one sang as a solo artist, but other times the two sang duets.

Piano accompaniment was not credited at that time, but C. H. H. Booth was present at most Victor sessions at that time.

Bert Williams was born Egbert Austin Williams in New Providence, Nassau, British West Indies, on November 12, 1874.

He became an important star in vaudeville and broke color lines when he worked with white performers on Broadway.

Before his teen years, Bert and his family moved to Riverside in southern California.

Eventually Bert moved to San Francisco and joined a West Coast traveling minstrel show called Martin and Selig’s Mastodon Minstrels.

In 1893, Bert met George William Walker, who was born in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1873.

The two men developed a vaudeville act, using burnt cork to make their faces look like the white men who worked as minstrel performers. Onstage, Williams played a buffoon whereas Walker’s character was a scheming dandy.

In 1900, they enjoyed great success with a show called "Sons of Ham." This was at the Star Theatre on Broadway, which ran for two years. This show provided the songs that would be recorded by the duo in 1901.

George Walker died in 1911.

Bert Williams died in New York on March 4, 1922.