He also played in various melodramatic productions.
John C. Rice (Hildeberg) was born in Beaver Kills, N. Y.—the reader must guess the rest.
James Griffin (McNally) was born in Rochester, N. Y., September 10, 1852; he died in Philadelphia, May 10, 1904.
Fred Hallen (Smith), prominent for many years as one of the famous farcical duo of Hallen and Hart, was “Master Ad. Weaver” as late as April, 1875, doing black-face parts in acts with that once well-known minstrel, Ad Weaver.
If Mr. Hallen has any regrets, he doesn’t look it.
Harry Le Clair, the famous protean player, had his experience with cork.
About 1876, at the Terrace Garden, Buffalo, N. Y., Manager Dan Shelby suddenly confronted LeClair and asked him if he could play Topsy. Mr. LeClair said he could play pinochle and seven up, but had never heard of Topsy, except in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” That’s the same party, said Shelby. So Mr. LeClair blacked up, and he blacked-down, he blacked in and he blacked out; he blacked his lips and he blacked his teeth; and he probably would still be blacking if the cork had not run out. After the show they had to run him through a washing machine to un-black him.
Smith and Byrne were a well-known black-face musical act thirty years ago. Their first appearance was at Washington Hall in New York, in 1878, on which occasion they introduced the famous “dislocated organ” solos, of which Mr. Byrne claims to be the originator—and to date no one has disputed it.
The team separated in 1884; Mr. Smith later ran for several years Smith’s Opera House in Bridgeport, Conn.
Mr. Byrne became a monologuist, but before that, a pessimist.