Respectfully yours,
F. B. W.
Chas. W. Milton, a well-known comedian who was known as the “Mansfield of Minstrelsy,” died in Milledgeville, Ga., November, 1909; age 39 years.
Barney Gilmore, Irish comedian, good fellow and matinee idol, did a black-face turn with Billy Kinsley in Philadelphia in 1888. Mr. Gilmore modestly admits that Schoolcraft and Coes did an act superior to Gilmore and Kinsley.
“Stuart” (Everett Stewart), who has achieved international fame as the “Male Patti,” began his professional career as a singer with McIntyre and Heath’s Minstrels in Springfield, Mo., in the Fall of 1887. And this is how it happened—“Tom” Heath sauntered into the Post-office at Wichita, Kan., one morning, just twenty-three years ago, and inquired if there was any mail for McIntyre and Heath’s Minstrels? Yes, indeed, there’s lots of letters for the minstrel boys, said a real gentlemanly voice back of the window. The deed was done, and a few days later, Stuart “blacked up” for the first time in his life.
It was certainly a coincidence, that the boy who had daily for many weeks answered inquiries concerning missives that were not forthcoming, should sing, “The Letter That Never Came.” Mr. Stuart also began an engagement at Emerson’s Minstrels in San Francisco, August 6, 1888. And thus it was that the mail clerk became the “Mail Patti.”
And that is the story of “Stuart.”
Courtesy of
White Studio, New York
FAMOUS MINSTREL FIRST PART OF THE “LAMBS” CLUB, METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE, NEW YORK CITY, MAY 31, 1909.
Geo. Fuller Golden, the famous founder of the White Rats of America, and one of the most intellectual performers that ever graced the vaudeville stage, did a black-face act with Billy S. Clifford from 1888 to 1890.