Mariupol, Ukraine (April 15, 1912)
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| Mariupol (1910) |
Theatre Uvarova:
**The articles above her successful reviews in Moscow, mentioned the tragic sinking of the Titanic**
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Galima "Black Nightingale" in Mariupol (Ukraine)
**The articles above her successful reviews in Moscow, mentioned the tragic sinking of the Titanic**
Galima "Black Nightingale" at the Petrovsky Yacht Club
Voronezh, Russia (July 11, 1913)
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| Petrovsky Yacht Club (1900?) |
During the warm Russian summer of 1913, Emma Harris, under her stage name Galima "The Black Nightingale", entertained at the Petrovsky Yacht Club, built by Tsar Peter I during his major campaigns on the Ukraine in the 1690s.
"The negress Galima, known as the Black Nightingale delivered a great public performance at the Yacht Club on July 11th. After her perfect delivery in a voice similar to that of the ocarina & flute, Galima (in her pretty Oriental accent) sang Russian romance songs. This was followed by dancing, of which she loves so much. Her movements were smooth and light, somehow her feet barely touching the floor. Her body, burning with African passion, wriggled like a snake and twisted and turned at a dizzying pace. After being loudly applauded by the audience, Galima was forced to return several times to the stage."
Friday, October 27, 2017
Satan's Woman: First Black film star of Russia
Satan's Woman (released May 14, 1915)
Description from "Films from Pre-Revolutionary Russia":
Satan's Woman. Drama, 5 hours, 1 350 m. T / D S. Veselovsky and Parkhomenko. Issued by offices "Alians" May, 14 1915. Scene and dir. S. Veselovsky. Acts: Ge-De-Gayam (Gaia Assi, circus actress). N. Saltykov (actor Yevgeniy Tolsky), Lihomsky (Andrey, his brother), Galima (Emerita, Negro), Oriedo, Lyubomirsky, Kuznetsov, Nezhdanov. A tricky adventure film from circus life; an interesting attempt from a building on Russian soil.
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| Moscow around the time of the filming |
Sunday, October 22, 2017
The Louisiana Amazon Guards
Louisiana Amazon Guards (1901-1904)
Around 1900, the idea of an all-Negro revue touring Europe came across the mind of Paula Kohn-Wollner, wife of a German theater owner. She had witness several African-American performers, such as Belle Davis, Arabella Fields & Edgar T. Jones performing across Europe (particularly Germany) since 1890, and thought she could profit well of a successful group of her own.
In the spring of 1901, arriving in Brooklyn, Mrs. Kohn-Wollner sought out six black women willing to travel across the Atlantic with her. Quickly she found, Ollie Burgoyne, Fannie Wise, Emma Harris, Florence Collins, Alverta Burley and S.T Jubrey. Most of the women had no prior experience on stage (besides Emma Harris & Ollie Burgoyne), so Mrs. Kohn-Wollner offered to train them. After applying for new passports on April 10th, 1901, the women boarded the S.S. Deutschland seven days later for Hamburg.
After disembarking in Hamburg, Mrs. Kohn-Wollner pulled the awestruck women into the non-segregated train heading south for Leipzig, her hometown. Leaving their belongings at Mrs. Kohn-Wollner's home (Georgenstrasse 11), they left for the theater. It was at Leipzig's Krystallpalast where much of the organization and rehearsing of the "Louisiana Amazon Guards" was held and organized by theater director (and Paula's husband) Sigmund Kohn. The 4-act revue was ready by the time of it's debut at the Kaiserkrone in Kiel, Prussia on June 9th, 1901. The whirlwind show opened onto the first scene 'Hustlin' & Bustlin' on a Cotton Plantation' slowly chanting My Old Kentucky Home. This was followed by 'Banjo Serenade' where the girls (in a chorus line) strummed six banjos and sang, Down on the Ohio. Finally the show picked up speed with 'Cake Walk', where the the girls high-kicked and danced the popular Cake Walk dance while shouting The Old Folks at Home. The revue ended with it's most popular act, 'Rough Riders' where the girls performed an intricate dance in military uniform and rifles while singing (in German) Nach der Heimat mocht ich wieder.
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| Europe around 1901 |
The successful show was seen across Prussia and Bohemia that summer, before the girls set out on a hectic four month European tour. They kicked off the tour at the Os-Budavara (an Medieval fortress) in Budapest, Hungary on August 15th, 1901. This was followed by the Colosseum in Vienna (September 1-30), the Circus-Variete in Copenhagen (October 1-31), before closing after appearing at the Circus Madigan in Goteburg & Svea-Salen in Stockholm (November 1-30). They were then pushed into a five-month German tour opening in Berlin's Circus Schumann on December 1st, 1901. Followed by Braunswich (Feb.1-15), Halle (Feb.16-28), Brelau (Mar.1-15) and Danzig (Apr.1-15).
The show returned in late-April 1902 to Leizig as S.T. Jubrey and Fanny Wise decided to return home to the United States. In their places, arriving in Germany from Brooklyn sometime in May was Corette Hardy (later changed to Corette Alefred) and Fannie Smith.
1902 Line up: Ollie Burgoyne, Emma Harris, Alverta Burley, Florence Collins, Corette Alefred & Fannie Smith.
In June 1902, the revue was touring Zurich (Jun.26) and St. Gallen, Switzerland (?). From there they moved on to Munich's Deutsches Theater (Jul.1-Aug.1) and later Leigzig's Centraltheater (Sep.1-Nov.9). During their final appearance in Leipzig, the women, feeling mismanaged by Mrs. Kohn-Wollner, decided to walk out on their manager. The rest of the girls, now as the "5 Louisiana Amazons" relocated to Berlin (nearer the American Embassy) and opened at the Orphum Theater on November 16th, 1902.
In the spring of 1903, after appearances in Berlin and Dreseden, Ollie & Florence seperated from the group, forming (with Harry Scott & unknown man) the "Louisiana Troupe". Performing quietly in Berlin up until the fall, late 1903, the remaining four girls made their way to England. Under the management of Gustav Kaczka, opened in Islington's Holloway Empire Theatre on Novemer 30th, 1903. The traversed England, playing London's New Cross Empire Theatre (Dec.7-11) and the Hackney Empire Theatre (Dec.19-24). This was followed by several dates outside of central London, starting in Newport (Jan.16, 1904), Nottingham (Jan.21-29), Leiceister (Jan.30), Bolton (Feb.20-25), Birmingham (Mar.3-5) and finally closing in Leeds (Mar.6-??).
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| Moscow's Aumont Theatre (1900) |
The show made its way to Russia in the spring of 1904, opening in Moscow's Aumont Theater, which sat in the center of the Aquarium Gardens. There the show ran for several months before falling apart in that fall and reorganizing under the direction of Georgette Harvey as the "Creole Belles Quintet", which appeared in Saint Petersburg (Nov-Jan.21), Moscow (February) and later Warsaw, Poland (June).
The Mysterious Dinah Cofie & Her Colored Cracks Orchestra
Dinah Cofie (1900-1959)
The origins of Dinah, the racially ambiguous entertainer, are still a mystery. She was born Madge Khamm around 1900 in Birkenhead, a busy industrial port town across the Mersey river from Liverpool in Cheshire county. She claimed in later interviews to have the product of an African-American father and an English mother. However, currently there aren't any records of her family.
During the summer of 1915, at 15-years old, Madge crossed the river Mersey to Liverpool and began performing in various local theatres and variety halls. The following year she had teamed up with a local comedian, Jack Seymour and she joined him on the British theatrical circuit. In September 1916, on a trip back from Scotland, Madge ran across Charles Harrington's “Uncle Tom's Cabin Company” in Manchester and joined as a singer. In Act 4, Scene 3: The Plantation Festival, she received considerable attention for her song and dance number, where she performed ‘Away Down Tennessee’. She quickly caught the eye of the West African actor John Bessima-Kofie, who played the lead role of Uncle Tom.
Kofie was born John Bessima Boehm-Kofie around 1884, in the British Gold Coast Colony (now Ghana) in the village of Elmina, 45 miles west of the port city of Sekondi-Takoradi. Claiming to be the son of a wealthy Ashanti chief, he was privileged enough to receive an education and by 1901, at age 17, he was studying music. By 1908, Kofie (under the name John Harris Boehm) had migrated to central England, settling in Coventry, where he met 25 year old Louisa Vernon, a clerk at the Empire Theatre. On December 7th, 1908, the couple married. Moving into the home of Louisa's parents at 126 Westwood Road, Kofie began studying to receive his driver's license.
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| August 1909 |
Then one day, he stopped coming home. Roaming around England seeking employment, in May 1909, he wound up in London, where he auditioned and received the lead role in the Uncle Tom's Cabin Company. From 1909-1913, Kofie quickly rose to fame as a successful actor, criss-crossing around the British Isles. Earning 35 shillings a week, he frequently sent his estranged wife a stipend of 10 shillings, but never sent for her to join him. On August 24th, 1909 she filed a separation order, however the order was dismissed by December 1912. Although she seems to have carried his surname for the remainder of her life, the marriage was effectively over.
In May 1913, Kofie began working as the manager of Will Garland's Negro Opera Company. Composed of a mixture of African-American and Afro-British musicians, entertainers and a set of chorus girls known as the Eight London Belles, the company undertook a five month tour across the Russian Empire, beginning on May 15th at Warsaw's Aquarium Theater. Besides managing, Kofie also operated as a pimp, seizing the passports of the chorus girls and pressuring them to sleep with wealthy noblemen after the show. The tour eventually ended, after the women began submitting complaints to the British Embassy. Returning to London, Kofie possibly resumed working with Garland's company in 1915 before joining Harrington's Uncle Tom's Cabin Company that winter.
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| May 1918 |
In the summer of 1917, a heavily pregnant Madge left the show and returned home to Birkenhead and on July 24th, she gave birth to Beleika Boehm-Kofie. Six months later, in January 1918, John Kofie had also departed from the company, forming the comedy duo “Kofie & Kam” performing a sketch onstage called, “Her Savage Suitor”, written by John. They were frequently advertised as the funny South African Chief and his Creole assistant. The couple toured extensively across the British Isles until September 24th 1919, when Mr and Mrs J. B. Kofie boarded the RMS Abinsi in Liverpool for a four month trip to his homeland. The purpose of this trip to the Gold Coast is unknown, although it's possible John wanted to introduce his new wife to his family.
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| SS Appam Passenger List |
In January 1920, a six-month pregnant Madge boarded the SS Appam in Sekondi-Takoradi for the trip back home alone to Birkenhead. John followed her shortly afterwards. On May 26th, Nada May Boehm-Kofie was born and later baptized the following month on June 12th at St. Paul's Catholic Church. Shortly after her birth, the couple began a brief European tour, eventually winding up performing at Milan's Monte Merlo nightclub as members of the Quintetto Mirador with Madge playing alto saxophone and John playing drums.
Settling back in London early 1921, the children were put in the care of a family in the town of Newington (a neighborhood in South London) while her parents continued working. That February, the couple were cast in Laurence Eyre's play “Mis Nell ‘o New Orleans”, which opened February 14th and ran successfully for four months at the Duke of York Theatre before touring Britain.
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| Bal Tabarin (mid-1920s) |
Eventually the couple made their way to Paris in 1923, appearing in the revue "Luttes Feminine" at the Bal Tabarin with their Darktown Jazzers Orchestra and regularly performing at 9pm on Radio Radiola. Three years later, in 1926, they were frequently seen around the Montmartre and Montparnasse in nightclubs such as the Lido des Champs-Elysées, Harlem Cabaret and the Château Caucasien. While in Paris, John (now performing under the pseudonym of Samuel Cofie) organized a new jazz band, 'Cofie's Colored Cracks', composed of African-American musicians mostly from Harlem and Chicago (The Kofies, Frank Withers, saxophonists Angelo Fernandez, Maxwell Philpott and Wilson Townes, trumpeter Titus D. Triplett, pianist Abram Henderson and banjo player Gilbert Roberts).
In January 1927, the band began a four month Spanish tour, performing at Madrid's Palmero-Alkazar Cabaret, where Madge was listed as the 'Creadora del Black-Bottom' (before the arrival of Ruth Bayton). Afterwards the group played a month at the Kursaal Cabaret in Scheveningen, Holland. Beginning in October, the band arrived in Budapest for a two month engagement at the Parisi Kalitka in the jazz revue "A Neger Jazz Utolso Honapja". Madge's singing & dancing caught on well with the Hungarians and they were engaged for another month at the Royal Orpheum before returning to Paris.
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| Barcelona International Exposition (1929) |
Most of 1928 was spent performing around Paris, particularly at the Café Anglais. That October, the band returned to Spain, moving into the Hotel Meuble and beginning a five month engagement at the Palmero-Alkazar Cabaret. Afterwards, they spent a brief period in Italy, playing places like Bologna's Teatro Medica with acclaimed success. Returning to Spain in May 1929 for the opening of the International Exposition, the group performed on the exhibition grounds in Barcelona's Turo-Park for two months before moving on to Madrid's Ideal-Rosales Cabaret for another two months that summer. This was followed by two months at Barcelona's Miramar Club and three months at the popular Eden Concert Musichall.
In February 1930, the orchestra departed for Italy once again for an engagement at Rome's Teatro Excelsior before moving north in April for Switzerland for a three month engagement at Zurich's Cafe Esplanade. Afterwards the jazz band disassembled and the Kofies returned to Paris, playing the Music Box nightclub in November.
During the spring of 1931, while performing at Ange Bleu nightclub, Madge Kam-Kofie suddenly reinvented herself. She became the American blues singer, Dinah, her repertoire composed of popular African-American jazz and blues numbers while Sam continued to accompany her on the drums. On July 7th, Dinah departed for Berlin's UFA Studios to appear in the French-German comedy film, “Le Petit Écart” directed by Henri Chomette and Reinhold Schünzel. Like most Black entertainers in Europe at the time, she appeared in a nightclub scene, singing J'ai Tout Quitté Pour Mon Amour. The film was released on October 22nd.
Returning to her homeland of England in September, she performed for a month at London's Berkeley Hotel. While there, on October 9th, she recorded two songs for Decca Records. The songs, Good For You, Bad For Me and Makin' Faces At The Man In The Moon are the only known recordings she is known to have made.
Meanwhile, back in Paris, Sam had signed the lease for a new nightclub at 132 Boulevard Montparnasse. The establishment, Chez Dinah, opened October 15th and ran until mid-June 1932. The club rose to become a popular fixture in the Montparnasse. Black entertainers and tourists residing in Paris flocked to the club and mingled. Unfortunately, the Great Depression that was ravaging the United States had reached France and businesses began failing. Strict French laws were also making it difficult for Black entertainers to remain working in France for long periods of time. Throughout the summer of 1932, Dinah began performing in various galas, parties and nightclubs around the French capital such as the Abbaye Thélème and the Cigogne restaurant. However, according to an American gossip column on August 9th, she was unemployed.
In September, Dinah departed for Germany for a three month engagement at Berlin's short-lived Beguine Bar. The German engagement proved to be successful and upon her return to Paris on December 7th, Sam had opened a new establishment, Cabane en Pigalle at 72 Rue Pigalle, where Dinah was the star of an elaborate floor show titled, “Below The Mason-Dixon Line”.
However that too failed, and after a month, she departed for Cannes in January 1933, where she appeared at the Dolphin Cabaret. While there, she signed a contract with British director Robert Messulam to appear in the film, Lily of the Laguna. Unfortunately the film never materialized and Dinah returned to Paris where she partnered with Ada Bricktop Smith with plans to open a nightclub together. Unfortunately soon, the two began to feud and quickly grew into rivals. After running another failed Chez Dinah in Biarritz that summer, Dinah returned to Paris that fall, entertaining at the American Women’s Club, Le Pigall’s, Caverne d’Ali Baba, Café Alcazar and the Pot Aux Roses restaurant until May 1934.
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| Rio de Janeiro (1936) |
Possibly influenced by Afro-British bandleader George Stretton (born William Masters in Liverpool 1887), whom Sam met in 1915 as a member of the Will Garland Company, Dinah and Sam Cofie decided to travel to South America.
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| June 1934 |
In June 1934, the couple boarded the MS Neptunia in Trieste, Italy and sailed to Buenos Aires. Arriving June 11th, the couple were given a warm welcome from the Argentine press. Nine days later on June 20th, the couple debuted at the Gran Teatro Broadway, where Dinah was billed as the ‘Reina de Harlem’. Their engagement lasted two successful weeks and upon the end of their contract, they signed a contract with Radio Prieto, where they performed throughout the summer while appearing nightly at the popular Boîte Tabú. During this engagement, Sam sent for his friend, African-American bandleader Benny Peyton and his Jazz Kings Orchestra to join the couple in Argentina.
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| April 1935 |
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| Dinah at the Monseigneur Club |
In February 1935, the Dinah and her orchestra traveled to the resort town of Mar del Plata for a successful engagement. When they returned to Buenos Aires the following month, Sam was reported as gravely ill and later falsely reported as dead. However, in April, they appeared very much alive at the Boîte Monseigneur and three months later at the Téatro Maipo in the revue, “Okey, ché”. By mid-1935, Benny Peyton and his Orchestra had returned home to Europe.
In December 1935, the couple departed for Rio de Janeiro for a three-month engagement at the Casino Atlântico’s new roof garden. The large roof garden cabaret overlooked the Atlantic and Copacabana beach and had revolving floors and the walls were decorated with scenes of popular cities around the world. The couple returned home to Buenos Aires aboard the SS Highland Monarch on March 8th, 1936.
Dinah didn't appear again until December 1937, singing at ritzy La Chumiere restaurant with Gordon Stretton and his Harlem Knights Orchestra. Unfortunately she seems to have disappeared from the entertainment business shortly after this engagement.
At some point, Sam Cofie (John Bessima Boehm-Kofie) died and Dinah returned to England to be closer to her daughters. In the 1940s, Dinah married a man named Thomas Evans and relocated to Ghana with her daughters. In 1948, her oldest daughter Beleika (sometimes spelled Baleeka) immigrated to the United States, settling in New York City, where she died on July 13th, 1995. Her daughter, Nada May returned to London in 1950 with her son, Wallid Accad (born 1946 in Accra, Ghana). Nada later died in Shrewsbury on November 3rd, 1975. In 1953, Dinah and her second husband settled in the lush North London neighborhood of Hampstead, where she died six years later in the summer of 1959.
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
Emma Harris, Black Nightingale of Russia
Emma Harris (1871-1937)
Emma Elizabeth Matthews was born on October 9th, 1870/1 on (or near) the John Phinizy Plantation in Richmond County, Georgia near the city of Augusta to former slaves, Sarah Green and Richard Matthews. In the summer of 1880, upon finishing 4th grade at Ware High School, Emma was sent to Norfolk, Virginia to live with her widowed Aunt Hattie to continue her studies and later attend the Negro Mission College (which opened 1883). But after a few years, her Aunt suddenly died, leaving the young Emma stranded in Virginia with no place to go.
Instead of returning home, Emma caught the next train north, enrolling herself into the Boston Musical Conservatory and finding work as a chambermaid to support herself. Early 1896, Sissieretta Jones arrived in Boston to organize her Black Patti Troubadours, a vaudeville revue featuring Negro operatic singers, dancers and blackface comedians. After opening in Pittsfield, the show traveled to New York City in October. In the winter, while performing in Brooklyn, Emma met and married local janitor, Joseph B. Harris. They rented a small apartment, and Emma brought relatives up from the South. Emma traveled with the Black Patti Troubadours across New York and the Eastern Coast frequently until 1899. In 1900 she departed to join Theodore Drury's Opera Company.
In the spring of 1901, while leading the Trinity Baptist Church choir, German Impresario, Paula Kohn-Wöllner, approached Emma (and seven other women) to organize a Negro revue Louisiana Amazon Guards. Late-April, the show arrived in Germany and rehearsed and opened in Leipzig before touring across Germany that summer. That fall, the four-act revue began it's European tour, traveling across Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Denmark & Sweden. The show reorganized late-1902, after firing Mrs Kohn-Wollner, the revue relocated to Berlin and continued touring Germany until the winter of 1903, when Emma and Corette Alefred paired up as Koretty und Kreol (Corette & the Creole Girl) and traveled to Russia.
Upon arriving in Moscow, February 1904, Emma learned her lonely husband died back in Brooklyn. The duo opened at the Aumont Theatre (later Aquarium Gardens), run by the manipulative French director Charles Aumont. That winter, they traveled to St. Petersburg to join Georgette Harvey & her Creole Belles Quartet. January 1905, while attending a party hosted by William Caton (Popular American jockey), Emma witnessed the 'Bloody Sunday' protest outside the Czar's palace and riots across the city. The show packed up and left the city that night. Returning to Moscow, Emma gathered Corette Alefred and Fannie Smith and organized the Harris Trio, and performed at the the Aumont Theatre until the trio split at the end of February. The following month in Helsinki, now as a solo artist, Emma opened successfully at the Princess Restaurant with her singing and classical dances.
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| Vyatka (1900) |
During the spring of 1905, she began an extended Siberian concert tour. While performing in Vyatka, Emma met the handsome scientist and museum curator, Count Baranov. The two quickly became lovers, and Emma joined his Central Russian tour, as he promised to organize an American tour for her the following year. As she performed in the major cities along the Volga river, Baranov held his lectures. Trains hardly reached many parts of Russia during that period, so much of the journey was using 'troikas' and were often followed by hungry wolves. But soon Emma realized he was a charlatan. Baranov presented her as his singing African savage, manipulating and stealing her money after the show. Arriving in Kazan, Emma escaped, but Baranov reported her to the authorities as a Japanese spy. Emma was thrown in jail until an intervention from the US Consulate in Moscow. Returning to Moscow to meet the Consul Samuel Smith, he was shocked to discover she was a Negro. Realizing she couldn't count on America for further help, Emma decided to remain in Russia. That Fall, Emma joined Afro-American comedian Edgar H. Jones on one his many Russian, appearing in Latvia and Poland.
Towards the end of the year, Emma ran into an old friend, Baltimore businessman, Harry Leans who was visiting Europe. He offered to fund her first solo tour across Europe. From late-1905-1914, Emma (as the Black Nightingale) toured the Russian Empire, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, and the Balkans. She spoke and sang in Russian, German & French. In 1911, while touring through the Caucasus mountains, she ran into Russian theater director, Alexander Ivanovich Mizikin. Sometime in 1913, couple married and established a residence in Kharkiv (becoming Emma Richardsovna Mizikina). Alex opened a string of cinemas across the Ukraine (such as the Zerkalo Zhizni Theatre) which featured Russian and American films. Meanwhile, Emma continued touring throughout the Russian Empire.
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| Moscow (1917) |
During the summer of 1914, upon the outbreak of WWI, the couple relocated to Moscow and purchased a 15-room mansion in the central part of the city taken care of by six servants. Their home also doubled as an exclusive brothel, which served wealthy and aristocratic clientele. In the spring of 1915, as Alex fought on the front lines, Emma shifted from dancing & singing to acting. At the G.I. Libken Studios in Yaroslavl. Emma appeared onscreen in an interesting attempt on Russian soil an American adventure film *Satan's Woman*, about life within the circus and musichall; co-starring alsongside Nikolai Saltykov (as 'Tolsky'). Directed by Sigismund Veselovsky and produced through the 'Alians' Film Office {F. Parkhomenko}, the film was unfortunately lost (or censured) after the Bolshevik Revolution. The film however made Emma the first major black actress in Russian cinema. In 1917, after a failed attempt to flee the country, Emma joined the Soviet Red Cross, working as a nurse on armored train no. 1045 aiding the new Bolshevik conquerors. The following year, Emma turned her home into an boarding house for visiting American journalists and diplomats, whom she threw large dinners and was kindly referred to by as the 'Mammy of Moscow'. Sometime in March, during a massive rally, Emma was pushed to the front and introduced to Vladimir Lenin, who believed blacks represented the "ideal Communist". Shortly afterwards, she was given a government position in the Commissariat of the People's Education, teaching English to government officials in the city of Simbirsk near the Russian front lines.
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| International Red Aid (MOPR) |
In September 1919, the Cheka raided her home, and arrested Emma under suspicion of hiding White Army soldiers. After a few days in Lubyanka Prison, she was released as the government refused to execute a Negro woman. Emma quickly returned to acting, working with her husband and the Soyuze Film Trust company. She wrote and appeared in several Soviet films which were well received by the Russian populace (although recalled that they were quite terrible). As the Great Famine ravaged Ukraine in 1921, Emma joined Col. William Haskell's American Relief Association aiding the starving population. In 1922, Emma joined as one of the lead speakers for the International Red Aid (MOPR), she traveled Russia giving fiery speeches and singing Spirituals. She also wrote poems for Soviet newspapers. After divorcing Alex in 1929, Emma retired from the stage, working as an interpreter for Proletarsky Trud Silk Mill (until 1932). In June of 1932, Emma was among those who welcomed 21 African Americans (including Langston Hughes) who had come to organize and appear in the political anti-racism film *Black & White* with the Meschrabpom Film company. Emma was also asked to be apart of the film, due to her acting experience in Russian cinema. During the productions, she gave several powerful speeches at the Park of Rest & Culture in fluent Russian protesting the Scottsboro trials in the American South. However the film never materialized and Emma a given a job with the Moscow Torgsin Store.
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| Moscow (1933) |
Early 1933, she became chief correspondent for the Stankoimport State Trust. That August, after an interview mentioning a wish to visit the US, took a trip to Latvia to receive an American passport then caught the caught the next ship in Hamburg, Germany back to New York. Emma spoke across the US speaking of her success and experiences in Russia throughout the up until 1937. By then she was no longer interested in remaining in the United States and disappeared shortly after writing up the transcript of her biography, many sources claiming she soon died. However, American Communist leader, Homer Smith mentioned that she returned to Russia only to receive permission from the Soviet government in 1943, to return to the US only to die not long after arriving. Emma may have returned to Russia in 1937, but was definitely back in the New York by early 1940 living with her nephew (a few of her relatives moved to New York just before her arrival in Europe). There Emma remained, hoping to return to Russia after the war, instead passing away in Brooklyn sometime after 1945.
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