Tim Reid and Tom Dreesen traveled the unlikeliest of paths to form the unlikeliest of acts—the first and only black and white comedy team in the history of show business.
They agreed it wasn’t a bad idea, and it wasn’t long before the duo was performing around Chicago, then all over the country. In Playboy clubs and prisons, in restaurants and nightclubs, in jazz clubs and on the chitlin’ circuit. With their fresh take on race relations, they thought—no, they knew—they were going to make it big. They never had a chance.
“Same here,” Reid says.
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Most of Atlantic City was still asleep when the party started. It was six o’clock Sunday morning and Club Harlem held a sunrise service for the customers of nearby clubs that had closed at three or four AM. The owners of those clubs were there too, and the bartenders, waiters and waitresses, and entertainers who worked in them. There was another client base, too, one that had come to town from brothels and backseats up and down the eastern seaboard.
“Hey, you sure look good,” friends and acquaintances would holler.
They stood and watched the other acts on the bill. First, a dance act revved up the crowd. This morning it was Mama Lu Parks, a large, energetic woman who danced by herself on the stage while half a dozen couples danced around her accompanied by a full orchestra. Then a male singing group, the Sons of Robin Stone, was followed by three women, Quiet Elegance. When they finished, the audience knew there was one more act before the headliner, the young singing star Ronnie Dyson.
“Well, we got us a comedy act. They came all the way from Chicago and…“
