Minstrel show

“ Another cast of characters from the country presented “Cherry Tree Farm,” an English comedy, in a most acceptable manner. An illustration to demonstrate that a home talent play is a dynamic force in helping people find themselves was afforded in the production of “The Country Life Minstrels” by an organization [70] of young men coming entirely from the country districts. The story reads like a fairy tale. The club decided to give a minstrel show. At the first rehearsal nobody possessed any talent, except one young man. ”

“ His career started in 1859, on the boat “Dixie”; where Manning, who was very proficient with the “bones,” played an end with a minstrel show.
In the fall of 1862 he was with Campbell’s Minstrels, and on November 23, 1863, he joined Morningstar’s company. The engagement was a brief one, and he next opened with Rumsey’s Minstrels, with whom he closed May 27, 1864; opening with Hooley in Brooklyn, three days later.
That same year he was with Morris and Wilson’s Minstrels, and in 1865 with Dan Shelby’s Company. Engagements with Kunkel’s Nightingales ”

“ Some of the circus managers do not dispose of the side show privilege, but run it themselves. Then, again, the manager of the big show rents out what is called the “concert privilege;” that is, the right of giving a minstrel entertainment within the canvas of the big show as soon as the regular afternoon and evening performances are over. This consists of a regular first part and variety minstrel entertainment, given by the circus performers, who can either play some musical instrument or dance; occasionally some of the ladies of the company dance. ”

“ Born fifty years later he might have known brief fame in some midnight revue or Club Alabam’ on Broadway. Certainly Magnolia unwittingly learned more of real music from black Jo and many another Negro wharf minstrel than she did from hours of the heavy-handed and unlyrical George.
That Mrs. Hawks could introduce into the indolent tenor of show-boat life anything so methodical and humdrum as five-finger exercises done an hour daily was triumphant proof of her indomitable driving force. Life had miscast her in the rôle of wife and mother. She was born to be a Madam Chairman. ”

“ Some maintain that minstrelsy is here to stay, while others insist there are no more minstrel shows.
But if the question were: Are the minstrels dying out? there could be no divergence of opinion. The passing away in the last decade or so of such luminaries as Neil. Bryant, Billy Rice, Billy West, Billy Emerson, Wm. Henry Rice, Frank Cushman, Ben. Cotton, Johnny Booker, Jack Herman, Andy Leavitt, E. F. Dixey, J. B. Donniker, “Eugene” J. H. Haverly, Sam. Hague, Dave Reed and many others, eliminate the matter of doubt entirely. ”

“ The following year he organized the Kitchen Minstrels, and was with many companies until November 24, 1846, when he opened the Melodeon at 53 Bowery, New York. He was twice burnt out, but rebuilt each time.
The place finally closed April 22, 1854, and on August 7 following he opened a place at 49 Bowery; each establishment was run as a minstrel show; the admission was 61⁄4 and 121⁄2 cents. Mr. White was again burnt out, and later opened places at 585 and 598 Broadway. He was with Mrs. Matt. ”

“ Tom. Warfield (J. B. Hersey) , the old-time banjoist and black-face performer, entered the profession in his native city.
He was with several minstrel shows, also had his own company, Warfield and Wicks Minstrels.
He married Minnie Chapin in Baltimore, Md., in August, 1876.
Tom Warfield was born in New Orleans, La.; he died in Birmingham, Ala., November 12, 1899.
Queen and West constituted one of the great song and dance teams in minstrelsy. They formed a partnership about 1868, which was terminated by the death of Mr. Queen. ”

“ But the men of the race were as cruel and harsh as the women were fair and loving. It was the fashion then for all the fair ladies of the court to have a minstrel attached to the household to beguile the idle hours with songs and improvisations. Lady Edith followed the fashion and had a favorite minstrel, too, one Douglas North. He was of gentle blood, handsome, brave, and chivalrous. My Lady Edith, was a flirt in her day. She angled for the young minstrel’s heart, meaning to play with it a moment, then cast it aside like a broken toy. ”

“ And the laddies along the roads took them as a man takes a grand bit of scenery, coming before his eyes, suddenly, as he turns a bend in a road he does not ken.
As for myself, I felt that I was becoming quite a proficient open-air performer by now. My voice was standing the strain of singing under such novel and difficult conditions much better than I had thought it could. And I saw that I must be at heart and by nature a minstrel! I know I got more pleasure from those concerts I gave as a minstrel wandering in France than did the soldiers or any of those who heard me! ”

“ Their music, both vocal and instrumental, is excellent. Each performer seems to be not only a natural, but a cultured artist; and all have the faculty of being exceedingly mirthful, without overstepping the bounds of refinement. In fact, each performer seems perfect in his rôle; and all appear to be masters of minstrelsy."
Again the same paper said,—
"The Georgia Minstrels have burst upon us like an avalanche. All the reserved seats were sold last evening before the performance commenced; and the house was filled by a fashionable audience,—one rarely seen at a minstrel entertainment. ”

“ For the rest, though kings and great nobles might have poets attached to their courts, the majority depended for their amusement on the professional story-teller. In the long winter evening, no one was more welcome than the wandering minstrel. He might be the knightly troubadour who, accompanied by a jongleur to play his accompaniments, wandered from place to place out of sheer love of his art and of adventure; more often, however, the minstrel made story-telling his trade, and gained his living from the bounty of his audience—be it in castle, market-place, or inn. ”

“ Nevertheless, the antithesis may easily be pushed too far. After all, the minstrels were entertainers, and therefore their business was to entertain. Did the lord yawn over a gest or a saintly legend? the discreet minstrel would be well advised to [Pg 67] drop high art, and to substitute some less exacting, even if less refined fashion of passing the time. The instincts of boor and baron were not then, of course, so far apart as they are nowadays. And as a matter of fact we find many of the most eminent minstrels boasting of the width and variety of their accomplishments. ”

“ This unique character in minstrelsy, up to the time of his death, enjoyed the double distinction of being the oldest living minstrel, as well as having attained greater longevity than any other known black-face performer.
There have been many versions of the veteran’s interesting career. Mr. Moore in a letter to the author, dated December 3, 1908, says his first appearance was in New York with Welch and Delevan at the old Broadway Circus in negro opera, playing in black-face, in 1844. ”

“ And it is a happy thought that those minstrels were such
considerable persons, so honourably treated, so generously esteemed.
The modern mind, accustomed to think of the singer of popular songs
either as a highly paid music-hall artist, at the top of the ladder, or
a shivering street-singer, at the bottom of it, may find it difficult to
conceive of a minstrel as a sort of ambassador of song, moving from
court to court with dignity and ceremony. ”

“ The scene at a dramatic rehearsal is the scene of perfect peace and harmony compared with that of a minstrel company. The difference is caused by the fact that dramatic performers study their lines and business carefully, and have the idea constantly before them that they must adhere to the text and the author's ideas closely, while minstrels, or "nigger singers" as they are called by members of the profession, work with only one end in view, and that is, to be funny. A minstrel having a speech of a dozen lines will make it twenty-five times and never make it twice alike. ”

“ What is more, it shows that women were now accredited minstrels. When Edward II. this year (1316) solemnised the feast of Pentecost, and sat at table in royal state in the Great Hall at Westminster, attended by the peers of the realm, a certain woman, dressed in the habit of a minstrel, riding on a great horse, trapped in the minstrel fashion, entered the hall, and going round the several tables, acting the part of a minstrel, at length mounted the steps to the royal table, on which she deposited a letter. ”

“ Here's my last coin, minstrel, for that song."
The minstrel laughed, throwing back his curly head and showing his white and pearly teeth.
"I pity thee, man-at-arms. 'Tis better to be a bird in the bush than in a cage. But this coin is heavy and I owe thee change. To-night, then, if thou art on the castle walls I'll come and sing to thee."
"It's a bargain!" and homeward rode the man in armour, clanking and clashing, and in his hoarse voice making vague shouts after bits of the carol that still haunted him, wondering meanwhile if the minstrel really would come. ”

“ Young Mr. Guy was always ambitious, and seventeen years later was qualified to vote. His debut was made in white-face, as a singer; subsequently developing into a comedian of unusual ability.
Mr. Guy early showed executive talents, and it was no surprise to his friends when on February 22, 1909, he organized and produced what he claims to be the originator of—giving a complete minstrel performance in vaudeville.
Six years previous to this, however, he organized Arthur L. Guy’s Novelty Minstrels.
Arthur Leopold Guy was born in New York City, January 26, 1872. ”

“ The character of the minstrels, or jougleurs, their wandering life, and the ease with which they were admitted everywhere, caused them to be employed extensively as spies, and as bearers of secret news, and led people to adopt the disguise of a minstrel, as one which enabled them to pass through difficulties unobserved and unchallenged. ”

“ But they were not minstrels in the old sense, for with the production of literature, except perhaps for a song here and there, they had no longer anything to do. That had passed into other hands, and even the lineaments of the trouvère are barely recognizable in the new types of poets and men of letters whom the Renaissance produced. The old fashioned minstrel in his style and habit as he lived, was to be presented before Elizabeth at Kenilworth as an interesting anachronism [270] . Some of the discarded entertainers, as we shall see, were absorbed into the growing profession of stage-players ”

“ For daily entertainment, every castle of any pretension had its own minstrel or minstrels, whilst in the smaller castles a wandering singer was warmly welcomed. Sometimes the lady gave audience to a poet, who read his latest idyll, a minstrel, to the accompaniment of his viol, singing the interspersed lyrics. Such a scene may be found depicted in miniatures, and suggests how such a story as "Aucassin and Nicolette," and many another, partly in prose, partly in verse, was rendered. ”

“ John Queen made his first appearance as a clog dancer in Boston with Morris Bros., Pell and Trowbridge’s Minstrels. While with that company, he, in conjunction with R. M. Carroll, did the first double clog dance ever seen in minstrelsy.
William West began his theatrical career in 1857 as a black-face performer, and until about 1863 played mostly with circuses.
His first minstrel engagement was with Duprez and Green. Subsequently [136] he played with Hooley at the Novelty Theatre in Brooklyn; with the San Franciscos in New York, and with Bryant’s, Wood’s, and Morris Brothers. ”

“ He was quite insensible when he was taken out of the morass and carried to the palace. The princess at once recognised him to be the minstrel who had before visited Ireland, and hoped that his birth was sufficiently good to enable him to win the prize. The queen gave him a sleeping potion, and told him to keep quiet. Then taking her daughter into the next room, she showed her the horrible tongue of the lind-worm, and the sword with which the creature was slain.
“Look,” she said, “the minstrel is the real hero of this adventure, and not that cowardly sewer.” ”

“ By degrees the name of minstrel was extended to vocal and instrumental musicians of every kind: and as in the establishment of royal and noble houses, the latter would necessarily be most numerous, so we are not to wonder that the band of music (entered under the general name of minstrels) should consist of instrumental performers chiefly, if not [Pg 429] altogether; for as the composer or singer of heroic tales to the harp would necessarily be a solitary performer, we must not expect to find him in the band along with the trumpeters, fluters, &c. ”

“ Minstrels gave their first performance in Brooklyn, N. Y.
Previous to this, and for several years subsequent, they had their own variety companies; in addition to playing the best variety theatres in the land; likewise were they identified with some of the foremost minstrel organizations; they also made a trip to Europe, playing England and Ireland.
In the Summer of 1875, Delehanty and Hengler separated in Pittsburg. Mr. Delehanty then formed a partnership with James Cummings, and as Delehanty and Cummings they made their first appearance at the Theatre Comique, New York, August 23, 1875. ”