#Fyodor Fyodorovich Tomas

[wezg]

Review: Black Russian - by Vladimir Alexandrov

Review: Black Russian – by Vladimir Alexandrov

This is an exciting tale from the turn of the twentieth century of an eccentric man of the world who encountered directly some of the most important global events of that era. It is a biography of Frederick Bruce Thomas or Fyodor Fyodorovich Tomas. He was born to former plantation slaves in Mississippi, USA in 1872. His parents overcame prejudice and in an age of abolition became successful…

[mixedracevibes]

How Pearl Hobson the “Mulatto Sharpshooter” became the most popular African-American dancer & singer in Imperial Russia in the 1900s

Face2Face Africa article 

Pearl Hobson was among a number of African-American performers who left the United States in the 1900s to somewhat escape racism. At the time, groups like the Fisk Jubilee Singers were making waves abroad due to the popularity of African-American culture through performance art. Hobson also wanted to profit from the situation. And so she did as she became the most popular African-American dancer and singer in Imperial Russia.

The “Mulatto Sharpshooter,” as she was known, wowed elite audiences from St. Petersburg to Moscow by 1909 while living much of this period in Odessa, Ukraine in Southern Russia, as stated by one account. Not much is known about Hobson’s background. Born on July 7, 1879 in Lisbon, Bedford County, Virginia — even though some say she was born in Roanoke, Virginia — she worked as a maid before becoming a member of the Fencing Musketeers (also known as the Fencing Octoroons and Les Mousquetaires Noirs) which consisted of 11 Black women.

It is not known exactly when Hobson left the U.S. although official records cited by BlackPast show that she arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark by April 1904 as part of an African-American dance troupe. The troupe would tour St. Petersburg, Russia at a time when scores of African-American professionals were already in Russia, particularly in its western cities. There were Black entertainers such as Black Troubadours, Darktown Entertainers, the Black Diamonds, and Minnie Brown, an actress and singer who “saw herself as a rival” to Hobson between 1915 to 1916.

Hobson did earn wide acclaim thanks to African-American entertainment impresario Frederick Bruce Thomas, who started work as a waiter after arriving in Moscow in 1899. Thomas, by 1904, was the owner of Yar, one of Moscow’s most celebrated restaurants. Acquiring Russian citizenship and changing his name to Fyodor Fyodorovich Tomas, he noticed the amazing talent of Hobson and started featuring her in his restaurant while managing her career.

Not too long after, Hobson became loved by many including those in high society as she started attending films, symphonies, operas while performing in Russian, French and German to thousands of people. Soon, her posters were almost everywhere, describing her as Russia’s “Mulatto Sharpshooter”.

“Beautiful young Miss Pearl Hobson is the best decoration of the stage. Her success grows every day, and she is beloved by the public…” Russian newspaper Moscow Leaf wrote about Hobson on December 3, 1907.

She did make money from her fame. A report states that by the beginning of 1910, she was living in a luxurious apartment at 20 Kamennoostrovsky Prospect, which had a team of servants. The popular Aquarium Theatre was not far from her home, and “between the nonstop masquerade balls, fireworks and festivals, Pearl sang beautiful Russian Romances and performed her dramatically orchestrated dances nightly at the most fashionable venue in the capital of the Russian Empire,” the report added.

It was during this period that she met Count Alexander Sheremetev, a Russian composer, conductor and entrepreneur. He had a relationship with her and would help her become a “well-received singer and ballet dancer” who headlined nightly at the Aquarium Theatre.

Many Black artists learned Russian and took Russian citizenship but Hobson did not. In July 1916, she filed her last application for the extension of her American passport and left Russia. Historians do not know much about her life after she left Russia although some say she adopted four children in 1918 before her death on June 4, 1919, at age 39.

Read the original article here 

[africanglobe]

AFRICANGLOBE – It was surprising when details emerged that an African-American who had not only lived in Tsarist Russia (or imperial Russia) but had thrived to become one of the “most successful musical impresarios and businessmen” at the dawn of the 20th century. Known as Frederick Bruce Thomas and son of former slaves, Thomas would leave Mississippi in the U.S. and settle in Moscow, where he changed his name to Fyodor Fyodorovich Tomas, became famous and owned property before eventually settling in Constantinople, Turkish Republic. “Occasional American tourists who passed through Russia on their European tours would report their astonishment back home at having encountered a ‘prosperous’ and ‘diamond bedecked’ Black American in such an unexpected setting.”

https://www.africanglobe.net/headlines/black-man-incredible-fortune-early-1900s-russia/

[demdread]

This man’s real name was Frederick Bruce Thomas (Russian name, Fyodor Fyodorovich Tomas), and he was born in 1872 to former slaves in Coahoma County, Mississippi. It is clear that he got his wings from his parents, who were remarkable people, and whose life was marked by extraordinary achievements. The first was that they acquired a two-hundred acre farm in 1869, at a time when most of the land in this part of the South belonged to a handful of white families and the vast majority of black people, who constituted three-quarters of the population, owned nothing. Thomas’s parents stood out as well because in 1879 they donated land to establish one of the first African Methodist Episcopal churches in the region. This is where Thomas began to acquire the rudiments of an education—also an exceptional experience at a time when most black people were illiterate. However, since the Thomas family lived in the Delta—which has been called the most Southern place on earth—their prominence was also the cause of their ruin. In 1886, a rich white planter who resented their success tried to steal their land. Initially, the Thomases fought back in court, which was a very brave and very uncharacteristic thing for black people to do. Even more unusual is that the Thomases won the first round. But when the planter appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court in 1890, the Thomases decided it would be prudent to get out of harm’s way and moved to Memphis. There, a second tragedy struck: Frederick’s father was brutally murdered and the family disintegrated. Every step that Frederick Thomas took after this was exceptional for a black American. Several decades before the Great Migration began, he left the South and went to Chicago and then Brooklyn, which had miniscule black populations at the end of the nineteenth century. Seeking even greater freedom, he went to Europe in 1894, several decades before some black Americans began to seek a haven in Paris. And in 1899, after crisscrossing the Continent, mastering French, and honing his skills as a waiter and a valet, he signed on to accompany a nobleman to Russia. https://www.instagram.com/p/BzBZhGLleVt/?igshid=x8tbmz5v8205