Thomas Fletcher (May 16, 1873 – October 13, 1954) was an African-American vaudeville entertainer, actor, and writer.
Fletcher was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, and started a career on the stage after performing in Uncle Tom's Cabin in his teens.
"[1] In 1919, Fletcher joined the New York Syncopated Orchestra led by Will Marion Cook, and performed in Chicago, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh.
[1] His autobiography, 100 Years of the Negro in Show Business: the Tom Fletcher Story, was published in 1954.
It "gives the only eyewitness account from a black insider of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century theatrical players, personalities and pioneers,"[1] including Hogan and Scott Joplin,[3] and has been used as a source by many historians of musical theatre.