Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-01-04
OLD MINsTRELsY.
An Early Managers "Ideas"-Causes of
the Revolution in the "Show Business"

An Early Managers "Ideas"-Causes of
the Revolution in the "Show Business"
There is in the city to day, representing
the Spider and Fly Pantomimic Bur-
lesque," one of the Oldest and most expe-
rienced of the earlier managers of min
strelsy.
From boyhood William Foote has been
related intimately with the show" bust
ness. He has never appeared upon the
stage, but he has organized and managed
the largest minstrel organizations known
to the stage. At times he has had 100 to
40 minstrel performers in single troupes.
He took Haverly's Minstrels through En-
rope years ago. He was as a youth inter-
ested in the management of Bryant's old
time Ministries, and knew Daddy Rice
"Eph Horn" Edward Christy, Billy Birch,
Sam Wells, George Goes, Charley Backus,
Dan Bryant and all the rest in their prime
He was at one time a manager at the
Princess Theater and at Drury Lane, Lon
don. He has travelled with minstrel
troupes nearly all the world over, ard has
made study in all lands of the trait of
humor that distinguishes the negro race
and that suggested the idea to the white
man of mimicking its manifestations.
He has original and very entertaining
views upon the subject, and claims that he
can prove by Egyptian remains that 1000
years before the Christian era men BACKED
their faces and posed and grimaced for
the amusement of their fellows; that in the
British Museum he found proofs that i'll
the north of England negro minstrelsy or
its counterpart was shown some hundreds
of years ago. Mr.. Foote warmly denies
that old-time minstrelsy has not declined
it is what it ever was. But conditions
have changed.
why" said he to REcoRD-UNIoN re-
preventative, ''let Daddy Rice and Dan
Bryant and Christy ana all their dusky
oonfreres of the socalled good old days be
brought back, and in all their glory of
minstrelsy be billed for a season in New
York; well-there are enough of the few
left to fill the house one night, but after
that the old boys would Jump Jim Crow to
empty benches. Not that the performance
might not be as good as its kind ever was,
but the people have grown away from il
they are strange to it: the local conditions,
the historic surroundings are not the same.
Like the old fashions of costumery, old
time minstrelsy would be out of place
What do / think is the reason
for the revolution ia theatrical business
that has wrecked the stock company, and
made players slrollers? Well, there are
two reasons; first, the people prefer TO be
amused rather than instructed in the play
house. A few lights, such as Booth and
Barrett and Modjesks, and the like, can do
well in the heavy drama but the repre-
sentatives of the stock" business. all thor
oughly good people, competent, trained to
versatility, able to fill any role within rea-
son-sh they have hard time TO make
living.
Then the railroad companies were fac
tors in building up in America the stroll
ing business, IS you call it. In their hot
competition at the East they encouraged
troupes to travel from town to town, they
gave them low rates, they passed the
managers, they passed the baggage, they
prepared cars for scenery-in fact, they
built up an enormous business of carrying
troupes. and even helped build theaters
and halls TO encourage the traffic. Why,
the business grew so, that it was immense,
and managers multiplied over and over
again, and troupes were thicker than ber-
RES in summer time.
AFTER 3 while the railroad companies
found great many people imposing upon
them under this guise, and three years
ago, when theinterstate commerce bill went
into effect, they improved the occasion to
restrict the privileges of theatrical traffic,
and now the strolling players cannot get as
good terms, often. as lesser bodies of tour
lists.
so you see the public taste was cult