Aubrey Lyles

Biography

Aubrey Lyles was an African American songwriter and lyricist who also was a Broadway actor and vaudeville performer as part of a duo with Flournoy Miller (who was better known as F.E. Miller). Born in Jackson, Tennessee in 1883, Lyles met Miller when he was studying medicine at Fisk University. The two went to work at the first African American theatrical company, Chicago's Pekin Theater Stock Company, from 1906 to 1909. The duo's Broadway debut was in August 1907 at the Harlem Music Hall, when the Pekin Theater Company brought the musical comedy "The Husband" to New York. Miller and Lyles wrote the book and lyrics. Independent of the Pekin Theater, they had a second Broadway show in 1907, "The Oyster Man". Lyles made his Broadway debut as a performer in the 1912 musical "The Charity Girl", playing the character "Jumbo" (Miller played "Mumbo"). They did not contribute any writing to the show. By this time, they were a vaudeville act billed as Miller and Lyles, touring the U.S. and England. They wrote the book for the 1921 Broadway musical "Suffle Along", collaborating with Eubie Blake (who wrote the music) and lyricist Noble Sissle. Lyles and Miller also were performers in the show, which was a huge hit, playing for 484 performances. They also worked on another Broadway show, "Runnin' Wild" in 1923, providing the book and performing in the production. It also was a hit, running for 228 performances. Lyles and Miller performed in the 1926 hit musical revue "The Great Temptations", which racked up 226 performances. The following year, they not only performed in but made their directing debut in "Rang Tang", a musical revue that ran for 119 performances. In 1928, they wrote the book and performed in the musical comedy "Keep Shuffling", which featured music by Fats Waller. Their last successful Broadway show, it played for 104 performances. In 1929, Miller and Lyles appeared in the musical comedy "Great Day". It closed after only 36 performances. That same year, Lyles split with Miller, though in December 1931, they were back on Broadway together, in the musical comedy "Sugar Hill", a flop that closed in January 1932 after only 11 performances. Later that year, they started to develop a new show, "Shuffle Along of 1933", but their partnership was terminated with finality when Lyles died of tuberculosis in July.