and musical director for the George Walker-Bert Williams Company, an African-American agency started by two top vaudeville comedians who had been performing together for a decade. As Cook continued to compose, he also produced many successful musicals. Chief among them was In Dahomey: (1903). This is generally considered Cook's landmark show, which was developed with Williams & Walker, who starred in it. J. A. Shipp wrote the book, and poet Paul Laurence Dunbar the lyrics. Theatre historian Gerald Bordman says that this is "the first full-length musical written and played by blacks to be performed at a major Broadway house." It was also notable for featuring the two leading vaudeville performers of the day, and for satirically addressing elements of African-American and US history, developing its characters well beyond the stereotypes of the day. After its opening, the musical was taken on tour to the United Kingdom. It returned in a revival in New York in 1904, and then toured the United States as well. Best known for his songs, Cook used folk elements in an original and distinct manner. Many of these songs were first performed in his musicals. The songs were written for choral groups or for solo singers. Some were published in A Collection of Negro Songs (1912). Later in his career, Cook was an active choral and orchestral conductor. He produced several concerts. He also organized many choral societies in both New York City and in Washington, D.C. The New York Syncopated Orchestra, which he founded, toured the United States in 1918 and went to England in 1919 for a command performance for King George V. Known also as the Southern Syncopated Orchestra, it sought to bring jazz and ragtime to other countries, and toured in England and Europe. Among his company were assistant director Will Tyers, jazz clarinetist Sidney Bechet, and Cook's wife, Abbie Mitchell. Cook also mentored younger musicians, such as Eubie Blake and Duke Ellington, who became renowned in successful careers of their own. One of his last shows was Swing Along (1929), written with Will Vodery. In 1944, Cook was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was admitted in June to Harlem Hospital in New York City. He died 29 days later in the hospital, on July 19, 1944, from cancer and a heart ailment. Cook is buried in Washington, D.C's Woodlawn Cemetery. Legacy and honors The Will Marion Cook House on Striver's