HEADS OF FAMOUS MINSTREL ORGANIZATIONS; PAST AND PRESENT.
J. H. Haverly was born in Bellefonte, Pa., June 30, 1837; he died in Salt Lake City, Utah, September 28, 1901.
Add Ryman (John Addison Ryman) was one of the greatest burlesque actors that minstrelsy ever knew.
He was likewise famed as a stump orator, in which he was different from all of his contemporaries.
His debut as a minstrel was made in 1859. In 1871, Hart, Ryman, and Barney’s Minstrels were organized. Subsequently he was with Emerson’s Minstrels in San Francisco, and with the San Francisco Minstrels in New York about six years.
He left the above company with George Thatcher, and opened Thatcher and Ryman’s Minstrels in Philadelphia, December 20, 1880, as a permanent organization.
In 1882 he took a minstrel company to Australia, remaining about two years. He later re-engaged with Emerson’s Minstrels, and in September, 1887, with Wm. Henry Rice and John Hart, organized a company bearing their names.
Mr. Ryman’s late years were with dramatic companies. Add Ryman was born in Ohio; he died (suicide) in New York, June 27, 1896; age 59 years.
Sid C. France, famous for many years for his drama “Marked for Life,” in which he enacted a black-face part which was the principal character, was born in Landsport, England, October 4, 1838; he died in New York, May 25, 1895.
The Norton Brothers made their first appearance as the Norton Family in Roxbury, Mass., in 1848 or 1849; accounts vary.