Bob Cole (1868-1911) was a composer, actor and playwright. Born in Athens, Georgia to recently freed slaves, he grew up in a musical family learning to play multiple instruments at an early age. Two of Cole’s songs, “Parthenia Took a likin’ to a Coon” and “In Shin Bone Alley” were published in Chicago where he became a writer and eventually a producer of  The Creole Show. He joined the Black Patti Troubadours, a vaudeville group founded by Sissieretta Jones, but his best known work was A Trip to Coontown, which is said to be the first musical entirely produced, created, owned, and performed by Black showmen.