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Updated: July 13, 2025 @ 3:34 am
In the 1920s, Huntington native Revella Hughes was in a pair of Broadway musicals with all-Black casts and recorded on W.C. HandyƵs Black Swan record label.
Courtesy of Marshall University Special Collections
In the 1920s, Huntington native Revella Hughes was in a pair of Broadway musicals with all-Black casts and recorded on W.C. HandyƵs Black Swan record label.
Courtesy of Marshall University Special Collections
EditorƵs note: This is the 413th in a series of articles recalling vanished Huntington scenes.
HUNTINGTON Ƶ Revella Hughes (1895-1987) Ƶ the daughter of George W. Hughes, who was HuntingtonƵs first Black postal worker, and his wife, Annie, a piano teacher and seamstress Ƶ began playing the piano at age 5 and the violin at age 10. Clearly she was destined for a musical career, and what a career it was.
She studied music at Hartshorn Memorial College in Richmond, Virginia; Oberlin Conservatory in Oberlin, Ohio; and Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Early on she had a promising concert career as a lyric soprano, but Broadway beckoned her. She became the first female Broadway choral director when Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake asked her to direct the chorus of the road company of their hit show ƵRunning Wild.Ƶ Later she played the female lead in James P. JohnsonƵs ƵRunninƵ Wild,Ƶ which introduced the Charleston dance. Both shows were all-Black musicals. She also recorded for W.C. HandyƵs Black Swan records.
In 1932, she returned to Huntington to take care of her widowed mother. Ƶ supervisor of music in the communityƵs then-segregated Black schools, she created the first band at Douglass High School. When her mother died, Miss Hughes returned to New York, where she developed and toured with ƵAn Informal Hour of MusicƵ on the Hammond organ. She played East Coast supper clubs and toured Europe and the Middle East, performing in USO concerts for members of the U.S. armed services.
She retired from full-time performing in 1955, but 25 years later staged a final round of concerts, including an appearance at Radio City Music Hall.
Miss Hughes became Dr. Hughes when Marshall University awarded her an honorary doctorate of music degree.
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