Deeply in debt and relegated to a shabby theater, the musical
Shuffle Along debuted at the Sixty-Third Street Music Hall on
May 23, 1921. The odds were stacked against the revue-style
show, written and performed by African Americans, but it ran
for over a year, making it the first major Black American musical
on the Great White Way.

Shuffle Along was written by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake,
shown below,vaudeville veterans who worked together for
over six decades.