Silas Green from New Orleans was an African-American owned and run variety tent show that, in various forms, toured the Southern States from about 1904 through 1957.
"Silas Green" was a fictional character created by the show's original writer, Salem Tutt Whitney.
[2] According to a 1941 article in the Pittsburgh Courier by Egar Theodore Rouzeau (1905–1958), the origins of the show, Silas Green from New Orleans, as produced by circus owner Prof. Eph.
Rouzeau qualified his statement, stating, "Records of that first peregrination of Silas Green have faded with the years, but we do know that the future of the show could not have seemed very bright to the Brothers Tutt, because they renounced all claims and turned it over, title and all, to the late Prof. Eph Williams, in lieu of services rendered as a performer.
[citation needed] Williams managed the show and continued to perform horse tricks, alongside musicians such as Bessie Smith.
The images are part of the Farm Security Administration–Office of War Information Photograph Collection, available online through the American Memory Project.
(retrieved January 27, 2021) ... from a collection courtesy of the University of Georgia: News media Books, journals, magazines, and papers Government, institutional, and genealogical archives