His first appearance was at the age of nine years. He subsequently joined a circus, and on February 16, 1843, for the first time assumed managerial duties. About 1846 he joined Buckley’s Company, and went to England with them, returning late in 1848.
Mr. Sanford left the Buckleys about two years later.
He built the first theatre ever constructed especially for a minstrel company, at Twelfth and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, Pa., which he opened August 1, 1853; it was destroyed December 9, following. April 23, 1855, Sanford’s Minstrels opened at the Eleventh Street Opera House, that city; he continued until the Spring of 1862.
Subsequently Mr. Sanford had other theatres in the Quaker City, and one in Harrisburg, Pa., as well as many traveling minstrel organizations.
About 1875 he essayed the role of Uncle Tom, and played that character at intervals for several years. In his day Mr. Sanford was rated as one of the best comedians of his time. Sam Sanford was born in New York City January 1, 1821; he died in Brooklyn, N. Y., December 31, 1905.
Cool White (John Hodges) was one of the pioneers of minstrelsy; he entered it at its inception, and for many years was one of the most brilliant luminaries. Mr. White was a grand interlocutor, and an actor of no ordinary merit.
As early as 1838 he appeared at the Walnut Street Theatre in his native city, singing songs in black-face between the acts. He portrayed the dandy negro, and as such was very successful.
In 1843 he organized the Virginia Serenaders. Later he organized the Sable Melodists, and subsequently Sliter’s Empire Minstrels, and was with them four years. He then appeared as a Shakespearian clown with Spalding and Rogers Circus, and after engagements with some other minstrel companies, he joined Sam Sanford’s Minstrels in Philadelphia about 1855, and continued there about four years.
He then went to New York, and later organized Cool White’s Broadway Minstrels, and on September 12, 1870, in Brooklyn, N. Y., with Archie Hughes and Fayette Welch, started a permanent minstrel company in that city.
In the Fall of 1879 he played Uncle Tom. For several years prior to his death he had been connected with Hooley’s Theatre in Chicago.