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Dan Burley (November 7, 1907, inLexington, Kentucky – October 29, 1962, inChicago,Illinois) was an Americanpianist and journalist. He appeared on numerous network television and radio shows in theUS and had two radio shows of his own onWWRL Radio inNew York.
He was editor of manyAfrican-American publications, including theNew York Age, theAmsterdam News, and the magazinesEbony,Jet andDuke. He also appeared in five films, performed withDuke Ellington,Cab Calloway, Milton Hinton,Lionel Hampton,Leonard Feather,Fats Waller,Billie Holiday,Ella Fitzgerald andLouis Armstrong, and wrote music for Lionel Hampton and Cab Calloway.
Dan's father, Rev. James Burley, anEvangelistBaptistminister, died while preaching at Mt. Gilead Baptist Church in Texas when Dan was three years old. His mother, Anna Seymour, an educator, (born inGeorgia), remarried and in 1915 moved toChicago and became involved with politics on theSouthside within theRepublican Party ofRuth Hanna McCormick, Charles Dineen andWilliam "Big Bill" Thompson. His mother taught underBooker T. Washington atTuskegee University and was the first African American woman to teach at a school then called "Armour Tech", later theIllinois Institute of Technology.[1]
Burley attendedWendell Phillips High and was president of the school paper and on the High School football league. He also played basketball, fulfilled his love of writing, worked as a paper carrier for theChicago Daily Defender as a teenager and playedboogie-woogie piano. While attending Phillips, Burley developed friendships withLionel Hampton,Milton Hinton,Louis Jordan, and Langley Waller, who later all moved from Chicago toNew York City to work in the music, writing and entertainment industries.[1]
By 1929 Burley was the sports editor for theDaily Defender with a featured column syndicated throughout the country. He also wrote for theChicago Bee, owned byS.B. Fuller who also owned thePittsburgh Courier, in which Burley had a syndicated column, and who co-ownedThe New York Age with Burley after he moved to New York.
After moving toNew York City Burley became theatrical editor of theAmsterdam News.[1] From 1936 to 1937 he worked as a writer on the paper; three years later he became the managing editor, a position which he held for over twelve years. He became the managing editor of theNew York Age, which he co-owned with S. B. Fuller. He was an editor ofEbony magazine from the late 1930s. While in New York, Burley married his first wife, Gustava McCurdy, the first black woman to sing the national anthem atMadison Square Garden. Gustava, at the age of 35, developedcancer and died.
Burley reputedly coined the wordbebop and was the creator ofThe Harlem Handbook ofJive,[2] which sold more than 100,000 copies. It was published in 1941 and reprinted in 1944. Burley's handbook brought mentions fromH. L. Mencken,Gertrude Stein, Danton Walker, Winchell and others.The Handbook of Jive was translated into French, Italian, Spanish and Norwegian.[3]
DuringWorld War II he served as a war correspondent and led a Special ServiceUSO Unit inChina,Burma,North Africa,Egypt andIndia. Composed of Henry Armstrong, Kenny Washington, Jow Lillard, and Bill Yancy it was rated No. 2 (behind theBob Hope show) byVariety Magazine.
From 1947 Burley was writer forElijah Muhammad, published asMohammad Speaks, so helping establish press exposure for the Black Nation of Islam. The foreword of the publicationMessage to the Black Man was written by Burley, who got involved through S. B. Fuller, the only owner who would accept the articles, in thePittsburg Courier.
Fuller entrusted Burley with editing the work, knowing the controversy of the material. He editedMohammad Speaks until his death in 1962. He himself was not a Muslim nor a member of the Nation at any time but was friends withMalcolm X, who had columns in several publications under different names, as did Burley. Later Malcolm X contacted Burley's former classmate Langley Waller inNew York City as a printer of journals and papers in New York. Mr. Waller had a press he was willing to sell to Malcolm, but instead Lerner of Chicago printed the paper.
Burley returned to Chicago with his second wife Gladys. Their only child was D'Anne Elizabeth Burley. Her father had taken the prototype magazineJet to Johnson Publications in Chicago.[4] After a dispute Johnson took on the magazine and made Burley managing editor ofJet and associate editor ofEbony Magazine from 1951 until his son Robert succeeded him. The columnistWalter Winchell became a good friend of Burley's along withDorothy Killgallen,Ed Sullivan,Bill Corum, Hy Gardner, Earl Wilson. Burley contributed his works toEsquire Magazine,The Saturday Evening Post,Pic,Crisis,Interracial Review andThe Catholic Press.
He began to add publications to his syndicated arena:Tan,Life,Look andSepia among them. Gladys helped with editorial work and management out of their apartment in Lake Meadows, a complex into which the Burleys were among the first families to move: Burley sat on the board, partly because his mother had owned a property at 31st Street/King Drive which was used for the development. He managed and editedThe New Crusader with Mr. Lavalle, and wrote syndicated columns in both black and white publications.
Burley started his music career by playing Chicago "house rent parties",blues cafes, socials, and clubs.[5] Hisbarrelhouse playing has been said to have influencedHumphrey Lyttelton's "Bad Penny Blues" and hence the Beatles's song "Lady Madonna". His group Dan Burley & His Skiffle Boys, founded in 1946, may have given rise to the 1950s British music genre nameskiffle.[6]
Burley recorded withLeonard Feather andTiny Grimes in 1945, and withLionel Hampton in 1946. That same year, he put together Dan Burley & His Skiffle Boys, an ensemble that includedBrownie McGhee and his brotherSticks, as well asPops Foster. During the course of his career, Burley also recorded withHot Lips Page,Tyree Glenn, andBaby Dodds.
During his career, Burley composed more than twenty original musical compositions, with colorful names, such as, "Pig Foot Sonata," and "The Chicken Shack Shuffle."[6]
