Mr. McElroy was born in Boston, Mass., July 16, 1861; he died in Pittsburg, Pa., July 6, 1894.
Mark Murphy, the celebrated Celtic comedian, was not always thus. In the Spring of 1877 he was a member of Sargent’s Minstrels in California.
Mr. Murphy was not born in Cork—but knows how to use it.
(Courtesy of Byron Studio, New York)
PRIMROSE AND DOCKSTADER’S MINSTRELS;
Victoria Theatre, New York City, about March 1, 1902.
Reading from left to right—Neil. O’Brien, Harry Howard, Edw. Le Roy Rice, Geo. Sinclair, Harry A. Ellis,
Fred. Gladdish, Franklyn Wallace, Jas. B. Bradley, Wm. H. Hallett, Geo. Primrose, ——,
Wm. Scott, Charles Parr, ——, ——, Eddie Leonard.
Puzzle—Find “Slim Jim” Dukelan, “Mike” Latham and the Foley Twins.
Wm. S. Cleveland for several years held one of the highest positions in the realms of burnt-cork amusements.
It was of him that the late William H. West once said—“that he was the greatest executive that minstrelsy ever knew.” Like several of his contemporaries, he began his professional career in an humble capacity in his native town, and shortly after went away with a circus.
In 1882 Mr. Cleveland was lithographer with Barlow, Wilson, Primrose and West’s Minstrels; the three succeeding years he was with the Gigantean Minstrels; Barlow, Wilson’s Minstrels, Cal. Wagner’s Minstrels and Hallen and Hart’s Company.
July 30, 1885, he assumed the management of McNish, Johnson and Slavin’s Minstrels at the inception of that organization, and continued in that capacity for two seasons.