Tom Lewis says that when making the parade in Lynchburg, Va., about ten or twelve years ago, a “rube” asked him (Lewis) what “society” it was. “Sons of Poor Parents,” replied Lewis.
Billy West, who happened to overhear the retort, also said something.
Wm. H. Bernard (White) was the greatest interlocutor, or middle-man, that minstrelsy has ever known.
He is credited with having organized the first minstrel company in San Francisco; this was in August, 1849; performances were in the Parker House, and patrons gladly paid $5.00 per ticket for the privilege of seeing the minstrels. “Those were the happy days.”
In the winter of 1849 he made a trip to the Sandwich Islands as one of the “New York Serenaders,” and in 1850 he went to Sydney, Australia, and gave the first minstrel performance that the big island ever saw; subsequently he went to India, and was the first to introduce minstrelsy there.
In January, 1865, he joined Birch, Wambold and Backus with their company in San Francisco, and until the Spring of 1872, when he retired permanently from the profession he so long and ably graced, he was associated in partnership with those gentlemen.
William H. Bernard was born in New York City, in 1830; he died there January 5, 1890.
Charles A. Morningstar, a well-known agent and manager of the 60’s, and proprietor of Morningstar’s Minstrels in 1863, was murdered near Mobile, Ala., December 27, 1871.