Lew Leslie

Lew Leslie (born Lewis Lessinsky; April 15, 1888 – March 10, 1963)[1] was a Jewish American writer and producer of Broadway shows.

The sell-out show transferred to the Moulin Rouge in Paris, France, where it ran for three months before returning to the U.S., where it commenced an American road tour.

[7] The Blackbirds revues helped advance the career of several famous artists, including Florence Mills, Adelaide Hall, Tim Moore, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Aida Ward, Edith Wilson and Lottie Gee.

Ms. Rand later went on to make a fortune by recognising the average American was starved of gleaming white flesh -'I never made any money until I took off my pants.

'[11] Leslie then put on a revue starring Belle Baker and Bea Palmer at the Café de Paris, which later became the Plantation Club where Leslie staged Plantation Revue, the second edition of which, in 1922, starred Florence Mills and her husband, dancer Ulysses "Slow Kid" Thompson.

The last of the series, Blackbirds of 1939, produced in New York, included in its cast Lena Horne, whom Leslie called "the New Florence Mills".

On his World War I draft registration card of June 1917, Leslie stated that he was an alien and was born in Russia on April 15, 1888.

[15] Lew Leslie died in 1963 in Rockland State Hospital in Orangeburg, New York, still hoping to the last to revive a new version of his old show, Rhapsody in Black.