This season Mr. Clifford stars in “The Girl, the Man and the Game.”
Billy S. Clifford was born in Urbana, Ohio, January 24, 1869.
The famous Freeze Brothers, Larry and Billy, had the distinction of being the champion tambourine spinners of the world.
They made their first professional appearance at Newton’s Varieties, in Hartford, Conn., in 1879, doing a plantation song and dance; at that time they were the youngest black-face team before the public.
The idea of the double tambourine spinning act originated in the fertile brain of their brother, John Freeze, well known as the manager of the Opera House in the hustling little town of Rockville, Conn.
The brothers put on amateur minstrel shows in their home town, and their specialty was constantly improved upon by Billy Freeze until it attained the state of perfection vaudeville and minstrel lovers know so well.
In 1885 they played their first minstrel engagement with Hi Henry’s Company; the two succeeding seasons they were with Lucier’s Minstrels, while the season of 1888-89 saw them with the Van Derveer’s Minstrels. Then came three consecutive seasons with Vreeland’s Minstrels.
After this, five years of vaudeville, followed by a season with Primrose and West’s Minstrels, commencing in 1897; the next season they were with Wm. H. West’s Minstrels.
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| BARNEY FAGAN | R. M. (“DICK”) CARROLL |
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| TOMMY HYDE | EDDIE HORAN |
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| JOHNNY DOVE | WILLIS PICKERT |
| SOME REAL DANCERS. | |
About 1900 they were engaged with the Barnum and Bailey Circus as a feature of the concerts; they played Russia, Austria, England, France, Holland, Hungary and other European States. In Paris the brothers played eighteen weeks at the Olympia. Their last joint engagement was with Cohan and Harris’ Minstrels, 1908-09.