Flournoy Miller

Flournoy Eakin Miller (14 April 1885 – 6 June 1971), sometimes credited as F. E. Miller, was an American entertainer, actor, lyricist, producer and playwright. Between about 1905 and 1932 he formed a popular comic duo, Miller and Lyles, with Aubrey Lyles. Described as "an innovator who advanced black comedy and entertainment significantly," he wrote many successful vaudeville and Broadway shows, including the influential Shuffle Along, as well as working on several all-black movies between the 1930s and 1950s.

Biography He was born in Columbia, Tennessee, the second son of the editor of a black newspaper. His older brother Irvin C. Miller also became a noted vaudeville performer and theatre producer. He studied at Fisk University in Nashville, where he began performing as one half of a comedy duo Miller and Lyles with his childhood friend Aubrey Lyles. to be resident playwrights with the Pekin Theater Stock Company in Chicago. They performed with the company in blackface, and in the show The Colored Aristocrats, introducing the characters Steve Jenkins (Miller) and Sam Peck (Lyles) with which they would be associated for many years.

With Marion A. Brooks, Miller founded the Bijou Stock Company in Montgomery, Alabama in 1908. One of the first black theatre companies in the South, it folded soon afterwards and Miller returned to Chicago.

During the 1930s, Miller became increasingly involved with the film industry, working in particular with the comedian Mantan Moreland with whom he also performed in vaudeville. He died in Hollywood in 1971, aged 86. The jazz harpist Olivette Miller was his daughter, That's the Spirit (1933) Harlem on the Prairie (1937) Harlem Rides the Range (1939) The Bronze Buckaroo (1939) Lucky Ghost (1942) Mr. Washington Goes to Town (1942) Professor Creeps (1942) Stormy Weather (1943) Yes Sir, Mr. Bones (1951)