The Washington times., 1904-03-06
Blackjack Actors
A Roll Which Includes Many
Great Names-The Origin
of Jim Crow and His
Famous Dance.

comedy by citing the fact OF Edwin
Booths career as a minstrel. 1t was
chance thought, but it struck fire. Many
a reader of The Times raised his eye
brows, paused a moment. and then read
on in a much more sympathetic frame
OF mind. The Times was moved to in
vestigate. and the result has been that
its estimate of black-face acting has
been much raised. as the following will
certify.
after some searching Of old records in
the Congressional Library il seems fair
to say that the first black-face acting
in America was that of Lewis Hallam.
the younger-a most acceptable Hamlet
in later days-who appeared In New
York May 20, 1853. as ''Mungo." This
character is the first OF his race. He
figures in The Paddock" a comic opera.
for which Isaac Bickerstaffe wrote the
words and Charles Dibdin the music.
Mungo is a slave OF a planter in the
West Indies. and the truth with which
Dibdin. himself often undertaking the
role. portrayed the negroes of the day
may be guessed from the following bal
lad. which Mungo sang. and which Law
renee Hutton duuteE:
Dear heart. what terrible life am led!
A dog has better that's sheltered and fed.
My pain Is deir game.
Ne wish TO de Lord me was dead
The first American negro for stage use
died early. In fact. no enc ever under
took TO rival Hallam with any success,
and Mungo stepped aside two years
later for Friday. the black man in Rob
inson Crusoe." The part was first done
In America by a Mr.. Bancker. who
played 1t in New York. Then came half
a dozen actors in as many roles. includ-
ing what one historian considers the
birth Of minstrelsy performance in
Boston in 1929 when a Mr.. Graupner ap-
peared after the second act of "Oroono-
ko." sang THE Gay Negro Boy" and
accompanied himself on an instrument
called banjo.
Edwin Forrest a Minstrel.
About twenty years elapse before the
playbiils give any great name opposite
that of a negro character. The first of
them was Edwin Forrest according tc
w. r. Ayers life Of that actor.
Forrest was long a strolling player in
the far West-Cincinnati and there
abouts-and in 1923 at the Globe, under
the management of Sol Smith. he played
a negro in farce by Smith called THE
Tailor in Distress" This role required
Forrest to sing and dance. and he seems
TO have succeeded, for the audience paid
him the compliment Of teTming him "a
niger all ober." Mr. Alger says that
Forrest was the first actor who ever
presented on the stage the Southern
plantation negro with all his peculiari-
tics Of dress, gait. accent. dialect. and
manner" Lawrence Barrett. who alse
wrote a life OF Forrest. quotes the play
81 fl,at Oh
a modern dandy in the first play: Cu1fee.
a Kentucky negro. in the second. and
Sancho Panza in the pantomime Of Don
Quixote"
Sol Smith, himself as "three-hngered
Jack" and Bernard Flaherty, as a
Negro Singer and Dancer" succeeded
Forrest in the public eye Flaherty
holds the peculiar position of acting the
negro 10 the great delight OF his aud
fences, because OF his utter inability 20
lose his Irish dialect
Edwin Booth joins the company OF
black-face artists in 1850 year after
his debut in the Boston Museum he
gave an entertainment with John S.
Clarke. youth like himself. only seven
teen years old. at the courthouse in Be
lair. Md. They read selections from
"Richelieu. ''The Stranger" and Jul
ius Caesar" and sang negro songs. in
Notwithstanding TO Mrs. Asia
Booth Clarke-with appropriate dia-
logue, and accompanying their vocal
attempts with the somewhat inharmon-
ious banjo and bones The program of
this performance is reprinted By Mrs.
Clarke. together with an account Of their
distress or discovering chat the real
negro they had employed 10 post their
bills had put them up all over the town
upside down.
Jim Crow" and Joe Jefferson.
Minstrelsy had meanwhile risen to
some position on the stage. II seems
&c owe it's origin to the law OF demand
and supply. but the instrument through
which IL came into existence was the
well-known and historic Thomas D.
Rice Some time after 1879 Rice Jumped
into the widest public favor by virtue
OF his Jim Crow, dance BY 1898 Rice
had become an entertainer OF much i'm
portance, for in that year he and joseph
jefferson the latter being then at tho
ripe age Of four years. appeared to-
gether in n benefit performance at the
Washington Theater. Little Joe, black
encd and costumed exactly like Rice
was carried on the stage in a bag and
empt.ed from it with this couplet from
Rice:
ladies and gentlemen, I'd have Tor you TO know
Sc got little darby here % jump Jim Crow
Jumping Jim Crow was the secret
OF Rice's success. Along about 1873 Rice
presented on the stage II Louisville a
sketch based upon the manncrisms and
song Of negro stable man he had seen
behind the theater. This man was an
Ole and decrepit slave, who was en-
ployed 20 do odd jobs. and had assumed
his masters name. Jim Crow He was
much deformed-his right shoulder be-
ing drawn up high and his left leg stiff
and crooked at the knee-so that no had
ludicrous limp. While al work jim
would Groom queer old tune. 20 which
be gave words OF his own. At the end
OF each verse he made peculiar step,
rocking the heel and then sang this
refrain:
Wheel about, urn about,
DO jis 50.
Aa' ebery time ! wheel about
jump Jim Crow.
Rice copied the movcment and dane
as accurately as he could, frightened
the old mans song a little, and ther
appeared before his audience IN Louis
vile He was recalled the first night al
least twenty times. Thus came into ex-