In the talented Florence Mills with her unique, birdlike voice and captivating performance, who was a staunch and outspoken supporter of equal rights for African Americans, he had found his ideal lead star.

[1][3] The series were named after Mills' theme song, "I'm a Little Blackbird Looking for a Bluebird", a thinly veiled protest against racial injustice, which she first sung in the Dixie to Broadway show in 1924.

[3][7] After an extended five-week tryout at the Harlem Alhambra, the Blackbirds opened on 28 May 1926 in Paris, at Les Ambassadeurs, newly redesigned as a "theatre-restaurant" that year,[8] to attract the growing number of American tourists,[9] rivalling Josephine Baker's Revue Nègre that had been a tremendous succes in 1925.

The show of two and a half hours further included the Three Eddies, close-harmony singers and tap-dancers, and the Plantation Orchestra (led by violinist Ralph "Shrimp" Jones).

[1][12] During the summer holidays in August, the show moved to the fashionable sea-side resort at Ostend beach for a week, after which the Blackbirds returned to Paris.

[14] As in Paris, the show was a financial and artistic success enthralling audiences and a veritable 'Blackbirds mania' took hold of London's popular cultural life for a while, including Blackbirds-themed society parties.

[15][16][17] The interest of the young British royals, especially Edward, the Prince of Wales, for the Blackbirds and jazz in general did contribute greatly to the popularity of the revue.

[17] The show move on to the Strand Theatre in June 1927 and subsequently set on a tour in England and Scotland with two week runs in the Glasgow Alhambra, the Manchester Palace, and the Liverpool Empire.

[19][20] Exhausted and diagnosed with pelvic tuberculosis, Florence Mills, left the show to rest in the German spa Baden-Baden, before returning to New York City.

Blackbirds of 1928 was the most successful, bringing international fame to the dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and the singer Adelaide Hall, who replaced Mills.

In Paris, shortly after the opening of Blackbirds at Les Ambassadeurs, a black man and a white woman stepped onto the dance floor during the intermission.