The following year he created the role of Joe in +Showboat, the part he would inevitably be most lauded for, although ironically much of the public associates Paul Robeson with this character. Bledsoe's interpretation of Ol' Man River was a stunner, turning the song into a standard of Americana. +Showboat premiered at the Ziegfield Theater, and in 1929 Bledsoe recreated the role in the first of three motion picture versions of the show. By 1932 Robeson had taken over the Joe and Ol' Man River franchise, his interpretation of the role pretty much a Xerox of his predecessor's work. Meanwhile, Bledsoe was hardly sitting around griping. He triumphed in a 1931 Carnegie Hall recital and in 1934 took on the title role in the Louis Gruenberg opera +Emperor Jones. The latter show began its run of performances at the Hippodrome in New York, continuing with both domestic and European tours. Bledsoe sang with the BBC Symphony in London in 1936, and the next year with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. He also performed for vaudeville and radio.
In the early '40s, he seems to have tried to launch a Hollywood career, beginning with the corny part of Kalu in #Drums of the Congo. This was followed by a series of uncredited bits in films such as #Safari, #Western Union, and #Santa Fe Trail. Clearly, the Hollywood film moguls had no idea what to do with him.
Bledsoe's activities as a composer include his African Suite for voice and orchestra as well as a selection of patriotic, spiritual, and folk songs. These include Does Ah Luv You?, Pagan Prayer, Good Old British Blue, and Ode to America. One of his most epic projects was +Bondage, a 1939 opera based on Harriet Beecher Stowe's book -Uncle Tom's Cabin. The word "under" can be easily prefixed to any discussion of performances or recordings of Bledsoe's original music. Vocalist Esther Hinds created the first recordings of five Bledsoe arias on her solo CD in the '90s, about which the producer commented that he had learned "never to have a fight with a 300-pound soprano." Bledsoe died of a cerebral hemorrhage while still based in Hollywood. He was buried in Waco. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi