Black was born in Sunderland, but spent many years in Manchester with the Comedy Theatre, and in Birmingham with the Theatre Royal. Eventually, he bought a huge waxworks exhibition and toured the country with it.
In May 1906, Black opened the Monkwearmouth Picture Hall in Bonnersfield, Sunderland, in the former St Stephen's Presbyterian Chapel. Black and his three sons ran the cinema as the British Animated Picture Company and claimed that it was the first permanent cinema north of Birmingham. There is evidence to suggest that moving pictures were put on as early as 1904, as an added attraction to the waxworks. The audience sat in the old chapel pews, with a white sheet tied to the lectern as a screen, while young George operated the hand-cranked kinematograph, Alfred took the money and Edward wrote the prologues for the silent films. The first film shown was The Launching of the Mauretania. As early as 1907 the Blacks anticipated the Cinematograph Act of 1910 and separated the projector from the audience, as well as originating 'twice nightly' shows. The family made a great deal of money from old George's purchase of the area screening rights to Charlie Chaplin's Tilly's Punctured Romance.
In 1909 Black opened the New Picture Palace in Gateshead and was also sole proprietor of the Palace Theatre, West Hartlepool, the Blyth Theatre Royal and the Borough Theatre in North Shields. He was the lessee of the Picture Hall, West Hartlepool and the Tivoli, Laygate Circus in South Shields. Old George was a charitable man and distributed food and shoes among the poor children of Sunderland.
By 1912, after old George's death, the brothers controlled a chain of twelve cinemas. In 1916 the original cinema became the Bridge Cinema, and when the Marsh brothers took it over it was known as the Bromarsh Cinema. The building was destroyed during World War II. George claimed that he and his father were the first to start 'talkies':

'We collected a couple of old women and old men who saw the film through once, chose what parts they wanted to play, stood behind the screen on the first night of its performance and made up the dialogue as they went along.'

After George Black's departure for London, Alfred and Edward opened their most luxurious cinema, the Regal in 1932. In 1936, Edward gave up his interest and turned to producing with Gainsborough Films, Gaumont British, London Films, Twentieth Century Fox and Rank. Eventually, many of the Blacks' cinemas, including the later-built Regals, were disposed of to other concerns, including the Essoldo circuit of Sol Sheckman (q.v.).
Young George Black (1891-1945) broke his ties with local entertainment by moving to London in 1928, and by the 1930s he was joint managing director of Moss Empires. He was recognised as the outstanding figure in music hall management. He ran the London Palladium and in 1932 presented the first 'Crazy Week', to be followed by another. A 'Crazy Month' followed in March 1933, bringing in Flanagan and Allen to join Nervo and Knox (a Newcastle man) Naughton and Gold, Caryll and Mundy and Eddie Grey. The Crazy Gang dominated the Palladium scene until the war years; then subsequently at the Victoria Palace until 1962. Black also ran the Royal Command Performances at the Palladium. Eventually, Black controlled the programmes of some 380 cinemas. When he died in 1948, he was succeeded by Val Parnell as managing director of Moss Empires and the London palladium.