Curiosities of the American Stage

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: zation of the minstrels I claim to be my own idea, and it cannot be blotted out. One day I asked Dan Emmett, who was in New York at the time, to practise the fiddle and the banjo with me at his boarding-house in Catherine Street. We went DANIEL EMMETT. down there, and when we had practised Frank lrower...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: zation of the minstrels I claim to be my own idea, and it cannot be blotted out. One day I asked Dan Emmett, who was in New York at the time, to practise the fiddle and the banjo with me at his boarding-house in Catherine Street. We went DANIEL EMMETT. down there, and when we had practised Frank lrower called in by accident. He listened to our music, charmed to his soul J. I told him to join with the bones, which he did. Presently Dick Pel- ham came in, also by accident, and looked amazed.I asked him to procure a tambourine, and make one of the party, and he went out and got one. After practising for a while we went to the old resort of the circus crowd?the ' Branch, ' in the Bowery? with our instruments, and in Bartlett's billiard- room performed for the first time as the Virginia Minstrels. A programme was made out. and the first time we appeared upon the stage before an audience was for the benefit of Pelham at the Chatham Theatre. The house was crammed and jammed with onr friends; and Dick, of course, put ducats in his purse. Emmett, describing this scene, places the time in the spring of 1843, and says that they were all of them end men, and all interlocutors.'' They sang songs, played their instruments, danced jigs, singly and doubly, and did 'The Essence of Old Virginia' and the ' Lucy Long Walk Around.' Emmett remained upon the minstrel stage for many years; he was a member of the Bryant troupe from 1858 to 1865, and he was the composer of many popular songs, including Old Dan Tucker, '' Boatman's Dance, Walk Along, John, Early in the MorninY' and, according to some authorities, he was the author of Dixie, '' which afterwards became the war-song of the South. Mr. White, according to a biographical sketch pub- CHARLES WHITE. lished in th...