Louis Douglas

Louis Winston Douglas (born May 14, 1889 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , † May 19, 1939 in New York City , New York ) was an American dancer .

Life

The African-American dancer Douglas came to Europe in the mid-1920s. His dances and choreographies played a large part in the success of the Revue nègre , with which Josephine Baker experienced her breakthrough as a star alongside Douglas. While Josephine Baker moved to Paris , Douglas stayed in the German capital Berlin after his successes . Here he appeared in the 1928 music revue It is in the air in the comedy on Kurfürstendamm . Douglas also starred in two German films in 1930 and 1931. First in Burglar by Hanns Schwarz . This film also features saxophonist and clarinetist Sidney Bechet , who was also a member of the Revue nègre ensemble . The second film was the war film No Man's Land by Victor Trivas where he starred Soldier Joe Smile played. Ernst Busch and Wladimir Sokoloff play at his side in this film .

When Adolf Hitler took power in Germany in 1933 , Douglas ran out of work and returned to the United States. A sick man, he died impoverished in New York City in 1939.

literature

• Louis Winston Douglas. In: The Philadelphia Dance History Journal. ( philadancehistoryjournal.wordpress.com ).
• Rainer E. Lotz: Black People: Entertainers of African Descent in Europe and Germany . Lotz Verlag, Bonn 1997, ISBN 3-9803461-8-8 , p. 297 ff . (English, books.google.de - detailed biography with photos).
• Rainer E. Lötz: The dancer, choreographer and actor Louis Douglas . In: Oumar Diallo, Joachim Zeller (Ed.): Black Berlin. The German metropolis and its African diaspora, past and present . Metropol, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86331-132-2 , pp. 124-130 .

Web links

• Louis Douglas in theInternet Movie Database(English)
• Louis Douglas at filmportal.de