On September 6, 1924, the Cleveland Gazette announced the arrival of the celebrated black musical comedy Seven-Eleven with a lengthy article that described the veracity of its character portrayals: “The authors of Seven-Eleven have striven to depict the southern ‘Negro’ in the true character, and the cast has been selected with the same point in view.”1 Appearing in the city's daily black newspaper, this story attempted to reassure readers that Seven-Eleven was different from earlier black musicals that had been mired in damaging African American stereotypes. This show, according to the Gazette, was more realistic and honest. Similar claims of realism followed Seven-Eleven throughout its four years on the road as it toured black and later white theatrical circuits. When headlining as the first all-black show on the Columbia Burlesque Wheel, a national theater circuit catering primarily to white audiences, stories attesting to its truthful rendering of African...
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