R. S.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Thomas Potter Cooke, familiarly known as "Tippy Cooke," left London at the age of ten to join the navy, where he distinguished himself by courageous exploits on various occasions. The peace of Amiens closing that career he sought his second love—the stage, playing small parts in the provinces until engaged by Elliston as stage manager of the Surrey. He subsequently joined the Adelphi, Drury Lane, English Opera House and Covent Garden Theatres, performing eccentric and melodramatic parts suited to his mammoth frame, like Orson and the Monster in "Frankenstein," and being especially liked in Long Tom Coffin and other sailor characters. In 1829 a poor playwright named Douglas Jerrold had "Black-Eyed Susan" accepted by Elliston, who made a small fortune out of its four hundred consecutive performances with Cooke as William, whose representation became a part of English stage history. Mr. Cooke died in 1864.
[B] Clara Fisher's first appearance at Drury Lane in 1817, when but six years old, occasioned a craze for the "Infant Phenomenon" that swept through England; and, that being exhausted, she was brought in 1827 to triumph in America as a sparkling comedienne. Until her marriage in 1834 to Professor James G. Maeder she was the favorite of the stage, and continued to act, though with diminished lustre, until 1880, when she left the profession.
As an infant prodigy her greatest successes were in Richard III., Douglas, Shylock, and similar parts, and her more mature and acceptable performances in her famous career throughout the United States for ten or fifteen years were in "Kate Kearney," "Letitia Hardy," "Clari," "Paul, the Pet," "Victoire," "Kate O'Brien" and the whole range of bright musical comedy and elegant vaudeville. She died at Metuchen, N. J., on November 12, 1898.
[C] Joseph Jefferson, first of that name, the son of the comedian of Garrick's company, Thomas Jefferson, and grandfather of our Joe, was born in Plymouth, England, in 1774. Tired of the Plymouth stage, with which he had been connected from childhood, he came, at the suggestion of Manager Powell of Boston, to America at the age of twenty, and played with Hodgkinson and Hallam at the John Street Theatre, New York, until Dunlap opened the Park in 1798. For five years he there essayed comic and old men's characters until, in 1803, he was fortunately and permanently engaged at the then leading theatre of the country, the Chestnut Street, in Philadelphia. There he practically remained until his death, in August, 1832, the favorite and popular comedian of the American stage. Of the two hundred characters he essayed, many are unknown to the playgoer of the present day, but his versatile talent was greatly commended in Polonius, Jeremy Diddler, Touchstone, Bob Acres, Dominie Sampson, Mawworm, Captain Copp, Dogberry, Scaramouch and Solus in "Every One Has His Fault," a comedy by Mrs. Inchbald.
Only careful and clear-headed readers of William Winter can form an idea of the comic genius involved in the name of Jefferson on the American stage. One of its most promising members, who died when but twenty-three, was John Jefferson, third son of Joseph. His last performance was in 1831, at Lancaster, in "The School for Scandal."—The cast was as follows:
| Sir Peter Teazle | Joseph Jefferson, Sr. |
| Sir Oliver Surface | John Jefferson |
| Rowley | Joseph Jefferson, Jr. (Father of Our Joe.) |
| Lady Teazle | Mrs. S. Chapman (Elizabeth Jefferson, John's sister, a celebrated and popular Park Theatre actress.) |
| Mrs. Candour | Mrs. Joseph Jefferson, Jr. |
| Lady Sneerwell | Jane Jefferson Anderson (Daughter of John's sister Euphemia and mother of Effie Germon.) |
| Maria | Miss Mary Anne Jefferson |
[D] George Horton Barrett ("Gentleman George"), came here as an infant from England, where he was born June 9, 1794, and appeared, when but thirteen years old as Young Norval at the Park Theatre. He afterward became one of the best known light comedians on our stage, performing, with great success, Charles Surface, Puff in the "Critic," Captain Absolute, Doricourt, and similar characters from 1822 to 1855, when he took his farewell testimonial benefit at the New York Academy of Music. Mr. Barrett was especially celebrated as a stage manager through a long part of his fifty years of professional life, first with Gilfert of the Bowery Theatre, then with Tom Barry at the Tremont Theatre in Boston: afterward with Caldwell of the New Orleans Theatre.
He was best known in this city as the manager of Colonel Mann's Broadway Theatre from its opening in 1847. He was a tall and graceful actor, with a refined manner which secured his well-known appellation. He died in New York City, September 5, 1860.