He came to the United States a few years later, and as the Limber Boy he played an engagement at Woodward’s Garden in San Francisco.
Charley Armstrong was his first partner; next came Clark and Bruno, and then Johnson and Bruno, who for five years did one of the greatest black-face acts in the country, playing the principal variety houses and minstrel organizations.
Mr. Bruno subsequently allied himself with the foremost farcical organizations; he is now playing vaudeville.
He is probably the best dialectician in America, and was the first to give the Swedish and Low Dutch dialects on the stage.
Gus Bruno was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, May 4, 1848.
Ruey Hughes (James Quigg) was a fine dancer and a good general performer.
He appeared at the Green Street Theatre in Albany, N. Y., as early as 1863. The following year he was with A. P. Ball’s American Coliseum Circus.
In 1866 he formed a partnership with John Hogan, and as Hogan and Hughes they did neat songs and dances, and quickly made reputations for themselves.
Early in 1867 Mr. Hughes and his partner joined Griffin and Christy’s Minstrels in New York. Subsequently they appeared successfully with Hooley’s Minstrels in Brooklyn, N. Y., and with Bryant’s, also Kelly and Leon’s in New York. In 1869, with Mr. Hogan, he joined Buckley’s Serenaders for the season.
In 1870 Mr. Hughes began an engagement with Manning’s Minstrels in Chicago, where a few months later he was taken sick and finally forced to separate from Mr. Hogan.