Mummers Museum

This guide to the Mummers Museum in Philadelphia follows James Bland, a Black entertainer so successful in 1880s London that he earned by some accounts ten thousand dollars a year, and the quick, stomping tune he dashed off in 1879 called Oh Dem Golden Slippers. It then traces his return to Philadelphia as vaudeville replaced minstrel shows, and to Charles Dumont, a string band captain who started running his musicians through Bland's song simply to loosen them up before New Year's Day. You'll hear how that rehearsal habit spread through Broad Street's string bands long after Bland himself was gone. Look for the feathered and sequined costumes behind the glass while you listen, and for the tune playing somewhere nearby most days of the year.