December 23, 1889, he opened with Hermann’s Trans-Oceanic Vaudeville Company for a limited engagement.
The following month he became a member of Primrose and West’s Minstrels and continued with them until the Spring of 1891, after which he joined George Thatcher’s Minstrels in San Francisco, and finished the season with that company.
Dockstader’s Minstrels were next organized for a road tour and made their first appearance at Dayton, Ohio, July 23, 1891. They traveled successfully until February 20, 1895; on that date giving their closing performance in Cincinnati.
Mr. Dockstader immediately entered vaudeville, and continued in it successfully until 1898, when in connection with George Primrose, a minstrel company bearing their names was organized. It traveled for five years during which time it gave universal satisfaction.
In 1903 Mr. Dockstader again headed his own aggregation; each year since then successfully conducting it on lines that have long since made it synonymous with all that is best in minstrelsy.
Mr. Dockstader does what no other black-face monologuist has ever attempted, namely, to give a different specialty every season, each one being an expensive scenic affair that requires generally a full stage to properly produce.
Lew Dockstader was born in Hartford, Conn., August 7, 1856.
Tom Sadler, a well-known comedian, was a member of Haverly’s Mastodons at their inception in 1878; he went to England with them in 1880, and continued with them several years after. He was of the team of Green and Sadler, and later Morton and Sadler. Mr. Sadler was born in Nashville, Tenn., October 16, 1856; he died in Liverpool, England, December 31, 1893.
Billy Stiles (Lyons), a well-known performer of three decades ago, who was at one time connected with Haverly’s Minstrels, and Washburn’s Circus, was a native of Bridgeport, Conn. He died in Newark, N. J., October 10, 1909; age 53 years.
Rice and Barton, famous for many years for their burlesque productions, did a great black-face act in 1882, and three years later headed Rice and Barton’s Minstrels.