CASS (Sadie).
Sadie Cass. The Real Octaroon. The Smart Little Lady in Versatility. Comedienne, Clog, Buck and Sand Dancer and Novelty Baton Juggler.
A SMART TURN. A SURE SUCCESS.
CASS (Sadie).
Sadie Cass. The Real Octaroon. The Smart Little Lady in Versatility. Comedienne, Clog, Buck and Sand Dancer and Novelty Baton Juggler.
A rare publicity flyer for Sadie Cass who, judging from this advertisement, was self-employed, without an agent, and in control of her career. These publicity posters were produced by her for distribution to venues.
Originating in Ireland, clog and buck dancing were styles of folk dance performed in the United States where dancers incorporated a percussive rhythm (stomping if you will), and was an obvious precursor to modern tap. Sand dancing, as the name suggests, was performed on a stage strewn with sand. Performers would slide and shuffle, soft-shoe style, across the stage exploiting its texture. Both buck and sand dancing were appropriated by minstrel performers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and so by branding herself, “The Real Octaroon,” Cass reclaims that heritage.
Very rare, Sadie Cass is so elusive we know nothing about her outside the evidence of this sheet. But she nonetheless appears to be a further example of Black women such as Josephine Baker (1906-1975) who assumed control of her career by taking ownership of her contracts as well as the activist Lucy Parsons (1851-1942), who printed ephemera such as this.
