After the circus came variety houses, where he first put on cork; this was in 1884.
Mr. Lee’s minstrel career began in 1885 as a member of I. W. Baird’s Company; he continued with them for two seasons. The following year he joined the Goodyear, Cook and Dillon’s Minstrel Company.
At Andover, N. Y., July 26, 1889, he allied himself with Gorton’s Minstrels, and remained with that organization twenty years.
The season of 1909-10 Mr. Lee was with the Cohan and Harris Company, where he made a conspicuous success; his playing of the “bad nigger” in the afterpiece of that company was a clever bit of acting.
Mr. Lee, while with the Gorton Minstrels, was associated with the late Joseph Gorton, Jr., for nine years in a musical act.
Sam Lee was born in Lexington, Ky., November 24, 1864.
Tommy Donnelly, or Thos. H. Donnelly if you want it all, is a comedian—no one ever said he wasn’t.
He made his first appearance with Heywood Bros.’ Mastodon Minstrels at Athol, Mass., in 1885; it was Donnelly and Markham then.
The next season he joined Hi Henry’s Minstrels, and subsequently appeared with such well-known organizations as George Wilson’s; McNish, Johnson and Slavin’s; Carncross’, in Philadelphia; Al. G. Field’s, and Donnelly and Hatfield’s Minstrels.
Tommy Donnelly was born in Springfield, Mass., May 10, 1864.