Flournoy Earkin Miller

Flournoy Eakin Miller , sometimes credited as F. E. Miller, was an African 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, and as one of the seminal figures in the development of African American musical theater on Broadway, he wrote many successful vaudeville and Broadway shows, including the influential Shuffle Along , as well as working on several allblack movies between the 1930s and 1950s.

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. From 1905, Miller and Lyles were hired by Robert Mott 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 introduced the characters Steve Jenkins and Sam Peck , with which they would be associated for many years.

Source: Wikipedia