[SHEET MUSIC; FISK JUBILEE SINGERS] Laugh and the world laughs with you : song

Cover: “Sung by Clarence Tisdale”. Melbourne : Allan & Co., [c.1908]. Series: Allan’s Popular Sixpenny Edition, no. 200. Folio (350 x 250 mm), illustrated cover with inset portrait of African-American tenor Clarence Tisdale by Talma Studios and vignette portrait of Fred Hall, original owner’s name ‘Roland Thomas’ and wet stamp of Melbourne music seller Miss M. R. Walden to front; [4] pp of music notation; a fine copy.

Celebrated African-American tenor Clarence Tisdale was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1878. He arrived in Australia with McAdoo’s Fisk Jubilee Singers in late 1904, and ended up touring and performing in Australia until 1910, when he eventually returned to the United States. He was much loved by Australian audiences and received rapturous reviews everywhere he went. He performed in all the major cities, and a myriad of regional towns in every state – including on the Western Australian goldfields.

Very scarce. Trove locates only one copy of Laugh and the world laughs with you in Australian collections (NLA).