“At the request of either Dan or Jerry Bryant, on the tenth day of September, 1859, Dan Emmett was asked to write a ‘Walk Around’ for Bryant’s Minstrels, then located in New York City, at Mechanic’s Hall, 472 Broadway. The next day (Sunday) it was put together, and the following night, September 12, 1859, ‘I Wish I Was in Dixie,’ was sung for the first time on any stage.
A reproduction of the programme is shown [elsewhere].
This is absolutely the first time the proper date has been furnished.
Joe Hughes (Sovey) was raised in St. Louis, Mo., where he entered the profession as an amateur, doing a black-face single turn in 1882; as partners he had in turn a schoolmate whose name was Chamberlain, and later Billy Gray, playing his first engagement at Ninth and Pine Streets, St. Louis, for Howard and Alton, here taking the name of Hughes; subsequent partners were Billy Hart and Tom Glenn. In 1887 he doubled with Jack Symonds, and a year later a clever colored boy, known as “Rastus,” who was quite a dancer, was taken into the act; together they played all the principal variety houses as Symonds, Hughes and Rastus; their minstrel engagements were with Goodyear, Elitch and Schilling’s; Haverly’s; Carncross’, and Lew Dockstader’s; the trio separated in Philadelphia in July, 1895. Mr. Hughes then worked single for a year, and in 1896 he joined Frank Riley, an excellent old darky impersonator; as Riley and Hughes they remained a team for seven years; then one year with Jack Hallen, and on September 24, 1907, and ever since the firm has been known as Golden and Hughes.
Mr. Hughes has a rich dialect, which he knows exactly how to use.
Joe Hughes was born in Chicago, Ill., March 21, 1863.
Frank V. Chase formed a partnership with Dan Swift about 1881, and made their first appearance at the Front Street Theatre, Baltimore, Md., doing a black-face musical act—and an exceptionally good one.
They played engagements with Johnson and Slavin’s, Primrose and West’s, and the Cleveland-Wilson Minstrels; they were with the latter in August, 1898.
Frank V. Chase was born in Baltimore; he died there February 11, 1899; age 36 years.
Andrew Mack (Wm. A. McAloon), the favorite Irish singing comedian and actor, joined Thatcher and Ryman’s Minstrels in Philadelphia December 27, 1880, and as Master Will Le Mack, singing “A Violet From Mother’s Grave,” met with phenomenal success.