Frank Cushman’s life’s ambition was to be associated with a minstrel company in his native city. He died as it was about to be realized.
G. Washington (“Slim Jim”) Dukelan. Probably no active musician in theatredom has had a more varied and lengthy career than “Slim Jim,” so named in 1864, by G. Brooks Clark, the well-known ring master; Mr. Dukelan was about six feet high, and 130 in avoirdupois then; he has filled in considerably since, but he’s still “Slim Jim,” and probably always will continue so. As Will Shakespeare once remarked, “A Rose with any other name, etc.”
His very first public appearance was with an amateur minstrel show, doing a song and dance, about 1862, at Fulton, N. Y. Two years later he began his professional career as member of the band in A. P. Ball’s American Coliseum Circus; with this troupe G. W. once did an “end.”
Mr. Dukelan was with various organizations until 1868, when he joined the Flint (Mich.) band; he remained there some time, subsequently allying himself with several well-known miscellaneous companies until September 15, 1877, when he joined Harry Saxton’s famous theatre orchestra at Mitchell’s Theatre Comique, St. Louis, Mo.; he continued there for three years, then going with Mr. Saxton to the old Howard Athenæum, in Boston, Mass., where he remained four years; at the end of this period, with this same Saxton at the Grand Central Theatre in Philadelphia, he commenced an engagement that lasted three years.
Now comes the “Slim Jim” we all know. From 1887 to 1889 he was with Thatcher, Primrose and West’s Minstrels; following season with Primrose and West. In 1890 he was with George Thatcher’s Minstrels, and the following year with Thatcher in “Tuxedo” (here “slender James” enacted a “rube”). In 1892 he was with Hughey Dougherty’s “Tuxedo” and Minstrel Company.
It was not until 1893 that our friend qualified as a “real trouper;” he then joined Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” Company. He played in the first performance of Primrose and Dockstader’s Minstrels in 1898, and continued with them two seasons; in 1900 he was with William H. West’s Minstrels, subsequently he returned to Primrose and Dockstader, and remained with them until the dissolution of the organization in 1903.
He played at the inaugural performance of Cohan and Harris’ Minstrels in 1908, and is at present with George Evans’ Minstrels.
G. Washington (Slim Jim) Dukelan was born at Smith’s Falls, Canada, January 12, 1844; but you’d never believe it—the year, of course.