A Dallas woman who once performed in a Michigan revue that showcased artists including Stevie Wonder and Sammy Davis Jr. is now the subject of her own musical, playing at Jubilee Theatre in downtown Fort Worth. Carlean Gill grew up in Detroit’s 8 Mile neighborhood, a segregated area near the economic and racial dividing line with the city’s white suburbs, before joining the revue in her early 20s; she later became a cosmetology entrepreneur, a horse breeder and a humanitarian who crossed oceans to help others. The new production, titled “I’ll Be Damned If…,” traces that arc from the stages of a long-gone Black resort town to the business world she built afterward.
The musical, written by Cherie Williams, premiered through Jubilee Theatre’s new works program and runs through October 25 at the company’s longtime home at 506 Main St. in downtown Fort Worth, according to The Dallas Morning News. As Fort Worth Report describes it, “This original musical follows Carlean as she joins the glamorous Fiesta Dolls at the Arthur Braggs Idlewild Revue, a famous Black variety show from the mid-20th-century.” The show centers on Idlewild, Michigan, and the Black artists and entrepreneurs who found opportunity there, a town often remembered as “Black Eden” or “Motown before Motown,” per the Dallas Morning News.
Actor Sydney Hewitt takes on the title role, portraying Gill across decades of her life in Jubilee Theatre’s premiere. In a review, Broadway Beyond with Branon noted that “Sydney Hewitt, as Carlean Gill, had the challenging task of portraying the lead character across different periods of her life.” The same account describes a staging device used to move the audience through time: “A yellow curtain was used to signal shifts between time periods.”
From Detroit Teenager to Idlewild Showgirl
Gill joined Arthur Braggs’ Idlewild Revue in 1960 as a “Fiesta Doll” showgirl at the Paradise Club in Idlewild, Michigan, according to the Dallas Morning News, and performed with the revue through the early 1970s. She toured during the offseason on the Chitlin’ Circuit, the network of venues that supported Black performers during segregation. Public radio station WMUK reported that Gill performed with the Idlewild Review at the Paradise Club in the 1960s and 1970s, and that there were four showgirls known as the Fiesta Dolls, with Gill one of them for six years.
The revue Gill performed in showcased a run of major talent during its existence. The Dallas Morning News reports the Idlewild Revue showcased Stevie Wonder, Sammy Davis Jr., Etta James, Della Reese, and Sarah Vaughan and B.B. King. Separately, according to BlackPast.org, various incarnations of the Arthur Braggs Idlewild Revue toured the South, Midwest, East Coast and Canada from 1954 to 1964, with headliners including Della Reese, T-Bone Walker, the Four Tops, Roy Hamilton and Jackie Wilson. Accounts differ on the exact size of that touring cast: WMUK reported the show consisted of 32 people, while BlackPast.org described a cast of 31 covering musicians, singers, dancers, showgirls, models, comedians, choreographers and makeup artists.
Idlewild’s Rise and Fade as “Black Eden”
Idlewild began as a vacation destination for Black Americans in 1912, per WMUK, and at its peak drew roughly 25,000 summer visitors from urban centers including Detroit, Cleveland and Chicago, according to Michigan Public. The resort’s popularity began fading in the 1970s as legal segregation ended, WMUK reported, and Michigan Public noted that once integration opened other resorts to African Americans, Idlewild began to die. BlackPast.org reported that the shows at Idlewild ended after the summer of 1964, as national civil rights legislation opened formerly all-white resorts to Black patrons.
That backdrop of boom and decline is the world the musical’s Gill character leaves behind as she builds a new chapter in Michigan’s Saginaw area. While still taking weekend breaks from entertainment work in the early 1960s, Gill enrolled in cosmetology classes at All American Beauty College, according to the Castle Museum. She later opened Carlean’s Beauty Salon, which she ran successfully until 1988, the museum reported, and according to the Dallas Morning News she went on to open a beauty academy and barber school in Saginaw, Michigan, and became one of the first African-American horse breeders in the Saginaw area.
A Business Leader’s Humanitarian Reach
Gill’s work extended well beyond Michigan. The Castle Museum reported that she traveled to Harare, Zimbabwe, in 1998 and 1999 to support the opening of Naturana Beauty College, and that she participated with charitable groups including the Red Cross, with whom she worked after Hurricane Katrina. The Dallas Morning News reports she also worked with Habitat for Humanity in Ghana. Today, per the Dallas Morning News, Gill is described as a business leader and humanitarian who now lives in Dallas.
Jubilee Theatre, the company bringing Gill’s story to the stage, was founded in Fort Worth on June 19, 1981, by Rudy and Marian Eastman, according to the theater’s own history page. It is located at 506 Main Street in downtown Fort Worth’s Sundance Square and presents works reflecting the African-American experience.
