In 1845 he was one of the famous Operatic Brothers and Sisters in New York City.
Mr. Gardner was the father of W. H. Gardner, prominent in circus business; also Lida Gardner, who was the original Mabel Santley of the Rentz-Santley Burlesquers.
Dan Gardner was born in New York City, October 28, 1816; he died in Atlantic City, N. J., October 7, 1880.
M. C. Campbell (Cainan), one of the great ballad singers in the early days of minstrelsy, first appeared prominently at Wood’s Minstrels in New York in 1851; he remained successively a member of Wood and Christy’s; Wood’s; and George Christy’s Minstrels, covering a period of about nine years.
In February, 1861, he organized a company with James Budworth.
On November 10, 1862, he gave the first performance of Campbell’s Minstrels at what is now known as the Fourteenth Street Theatre, New York; June 27, 1864, his company opened at what is now known as the People’s Theatre, New York; January 16, 1865, R. M. Hooley became associated in the management, and in the Spring of the same year he disposed of his interest to Hooley.
Mr. Campbell had various minstrel companies until about 1870, when he retired; subsequently he was identified with the Evening News, New York City.
M. C. Campbell was born in London, England, 1817; he died in New York, January 6, 1883.
Edwin Deaves was associated with some of the very earliest minstrel companies in existence in his native and other Eastern cities in the middle 40’s.
About 1850 he went to California, where he remained many years. When he first played in the great coast metropolis, the “theatre” was a tent.