He next appeared in white-face with the “Volunteer Organist”; after which with his daughter and son-in-law, as Ten Brooke, Lambert and Ten Brooke, he played vaudeville. Subsequently Ten Brooke and Henry formed a partnership, and are now in vaudeville.
James Ten Brooke was born in New York, January 23, 1858.
James Mack (McAvoy), who attained some prominence with minstrel shows as a female impersonator, died at Elyria, Ohio, November 5, 1890; age 32 years.
The Girard Brothers ranked with the great black-face song and dance teams of minstrelsy. Their first appearance was made at the Wigwam Theatre, in Paterson, N. J., in 1874.
In 1876 they were with Washburn’s Last Sensation, and two years later they played a brief engagement with Ben Cotton and “Happy” Cal. Wagner’s Minstrels.
In 1879 they joined Hooley and Emerson’s great Megatherian Minstrels; about 1880 they formed an alliance with Seamon and Somers, and were known as the “Grotesque Four”; and incidentally this was one of the greatest “four” acts ever put together.
The quartette opened with Thatcher and Ryman’s Minstrels in Philadelphia, December 20, 1880, and remained until the closing of the season. In 1881 the four joined Leavitt’s Giganteans for the season.
Early in 1882 the four joined forces with Lester and Allen, and as the “Funny Six” met with considerable success.
Subsequently the Girard Brothers separated, and Eddie Girard joined Haverly’s Minstrels, continuing with them for several months; with this company, in conjunction with Callan, Haley and Callan, they produced “Down Where the Cotton Grows.”
In 1884 with the same organization, Eddie Girard also worked with the late Charley Seamon.