Evelyn Preer was a notable stage and screen actress, as well as an accomplished blues singer of the 1910s through the early 1930s, till her premature death in 1932. Evelyn began her career in early vaudeville and minstrel shows before beginning her critically lauded professional association with Oscar Micheaux, the African-American film director dubbed the "Father of Afro-American Cinema". Preer's first film role was in Micheaux's 1919 debut effort The Homesteader. Her most well known role is in her only known surviving Micheaux film appearance, 1919's Within Our Gates. In 1920, Evelyn Preer joined The Lafayette Players. In 1926, she had a successful stint on Broadway in David Belasco's production of Lulu Belle. Preer supported and understudied actress Lenore Ulric in the leading role of Edward Sheldon's steamy drama of a Harlem prostitute. She won further acclaim as Sadie Thompson on the West Coast in a revival of Somerset Maugham's fallen woman melodrama, Rain in 1928. A 1930 race musical Georgia Rose, presented Preer in her feature talkie debut. In 1931 Preer performed onscreen opposite actress Sylvia Sidney in the film Ladies of the Big House. Her final film performance was the minor role of a prostitute named Lola in Josef von Sternberg's 1932 film Blonde Venus, opposite Cary Grant and Marlene Dietrich. As an accomplished vocalist, and during stints in cabaret and musical theater Preer was occasionally backed by such legendary and diverse musicians as Duke Ellington and Red Nichols. IAs for this excellent record, it was made in 1926. The band accompanying Preer is identified as Duke Ellington and His Orchestra, including Bubber Miley, cornet, Otto Hardwick clarinet,alto sax; Duke Ellington, piano and Sonny Greer drums.
