The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-04-19
SWEATNAM A STAR.
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and used all the spare ribs ] could
| find in practising with the bones
| My mother saw possibilities of add
ing to the family bank roll and en-
couraged me in this line. We had
soup for dinner every day in the
week to enable me to practice with
the soup bones.
The rest of the family finally re-
| belled against the soup diet, but by
that time | could make the bones
eat out of my hand. ] got an en-
| gagement at fifty cents a night and
was billed as Willie, the Boy Won
der, Champion Bone Soloist of
| Ohio. | mixed my bone work with
few stories, and the first thing
knew l was sitting on the end and
doing a speciality, in the olio. l was
about fifteen when l broke into the
minstrel business
Early Days in Minstrelsy.
Minstrel companies could not af-
| ford orchestras in the early days
and each company lugged one of
| those old-fashioned square pianos
from town to town. You know the
kind. Looked like the top of a
freight car. Stars and everybody
| else had to help hoist the piano into
the hall. Sometimes it was neces-
sary to rip the building apart to in
sert the piano, and when we got it
in there wasn't room for the audi
ence. All the halls were small in
those days"
Didn't you have several compan-
| les of your own?"
about half a dozen, l guess. One
time | took a company to Philadel-
phia to stay two weeks and we re-
manned there eight years"
You woke up earlier than the
regular inhabitants"
'On the level, what I'm telling
you is the truth. We were under
contract to show two weeks and we
stayed there eight years Had one
of the finest theatres in town. Phil
adelphia has always been a great
minstrel town. They still support a
first class organization over there
the year around. The biggest COM
pany | ever organized was the
Sweatnam, Fagan & Rice minstrels.
! We had sixty-fve people in the COM
pany."
Did you make any money!"
'Ha, ha, hal" laughed the come
dian. Every time ! think of that
experience | have to laugh, although
it was one of the costliest l ever had.
At the start it looked as if we would
have to hire a lot of extra help to
tie the money up in bales, but we
finished on our hands and knees.
Barney Fagan, whom | consider one
of the greatest dancers that ever
shook leg, had an immense follow
ing He put on the first of his fam
Gus marches with that show. Billy
Rice had tremendous popularity
and | had few friends myself. The
press lauded the show and the pros
poets could not have been brighter. "
Killed by Love of Geography.
And what happened?"
well, we had a manager who was
possessed with a desire to see every
part of the United States just as
quickly as possible. AT least that
was the way we figured it out when
the crash came. He thought moth
ing of jumping us from st. Louis to
Trenton, n. j., for one night en-
gagement. Then he would jump
from Trenton to Fond du Lac, Wis
After he had hustled us from Bing-
hamton to Lincoln, Neb., we began
questioning him, but he said ii
would be all right and not to worry
about it, You know, the show busi-
ness wasn't on such a solid compre-
hensive basis as it is now and you
took what dates you could get.
think the last jump was from Mont
gomery, Ala, to Montpelier, Vt, OF
some trif1e like that. He kept us
on railroad trains so much that we
didn't have to black up. But his
love for geography put us out OF
business"
What do you think of present
day minstrelsy?"
Minstrel shows as a whole have
improved just like everything else
but | don't think the coon songs are
as good as they were in the old days
They lack the ginger and plaintive
melody, and go in more for the
story. 1t makes me smile when
hear some one say that the old game
is dead. Minstrelsy will never die
p 1t is typical American form of en-
: tertainment, and always will sur
vive in some form or other. Love
for a minstrel show is inherent il
most of us, especially the men folk
1t is the same feeling that mos
men have for the circus. They have
seen the animals and the tarpese per
formers and the curiosities over anC
: over again, but they never lose theil
fondness for the show. You canno
remember when you heard a new
joke from an end man, and yet yol
are willing to go back once in
= while and laugh at the old ones"
~. A. Fitzgerald in the N. Y. Her
aid