ORATORS OF THE OLD DAYS.
Charles Petrie was one of the old time banjoists, and one of the first to open a variety theatre in Chicago.
He was associated with the minstrel companies of Arlington, Kelly, Leon and Donniker, Lew Benedict’s and others.
He was born in Lockport, N. Y., in 1833; he died in Dallas, Texas, November 12, 1881.
J. E. Green was known as “Mocking Bird Green,” from the fact that he was so long identified with singing of the song of that name, and whistling imitations of same. He entered the profession about 1856, as a member of the minstrel firm of Shorey, Carle, Duprez and Green; subsequently it became Duprez and Green’s Minstrels, and continued until 1865 under that trade-mark, when he sold his interest to Lew Benedict. He subsequently had several companies of his own and was associated in another with “Hop Light Loo” Charley Gardner.
At the time of his death he was musical director with Archie White’s “Duprez and Benedict’s” Minstrels.
J. E. Green was born in Portsmouth, N. H., April 9, 1833; he died in New York, November 30, 1886.
Billy Wray, the father of Mrs. John Wild, was one of the most versatile of performers; as an end man and stump speaker he excelled; he was likewise a clever magician.
With his wife (Louise Payne) and daughter, Ada, already referred to, he traveled in 1862, giving an entire performance by themselves.
Billy Wray was born in New York, July 25, 1833; he was lost in the wreck of the Steamer “Evening Star” between New York and New Orleans, October 3, 1866.