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Show SEES MINSTRELSY'S RETURN ; S & inpHREE merry minstrels, friends for forty-1 11 six years; left to right, Tom Heath, George Primrose and William Mclntyre. i- N , ; v , 'r'- . t . ? 1 v . - v. , 1 , r ,-.ii.)in.i-..ia.i.i.in, mjKi,i..aavt....i, m .i,..,,w1M.,tw,-.j j-iMj-iiftiiiTiiiiiiiiiliiiii'ii-iiiiiii George Primrose Asserts Stage Now Revamps Old i End Man's Quips. , Minstrelsy is surely coming into its own. Within two years the old-fashioned black-faced white man shows will ride the crest of theater popularity I I shalj see it and rejoice. George Prim- I 1 1 t AS it merely the hope that springs eternal in the human ' II breast that inspired George Primrose,-dean of black-faced i miustrels, to make the claim, or was it a prophetic utterance born in the psychology psy-chology that history must and will repeat re-peat itself? George Primrose, famed the world 1 over for the perfection of his art in minstrelsy, is confident that the bones and banjo, the slapstick and clog', mekv and hoedown, plug hat and cane, quiD and buffoonerj', syncopated patter, exaggerated representation of the rotund ro-tund black mammy, the picaninnv and the burnt cork, afe coming back". He bases his prediction, so he says, upon the trend of theatrical things "throughout "through-out the country. The old minstrel traces the origin of every successful "show" to the minstrel aggregations of more-than more-than half a century ago. He finds in the jests modern " theater audiences crack their sides over merely revamps of the jokes the "end nan" of his original shows cracked. "And I know, for I hear them every day on the vaudeville stage," Mr. Prim-rdsc Prim-rdsc confirms. Minstrelsy of the "Daddy" Rice days gets credit, too, for furnishing the foundation upon which the structures of modern vaudeville and musical sketches, as well as many musical melanges, me-langes, are created. Mr. "Primrose sees nothing in modern shows of this sort that are not actual repetitions of the minstrel performances of the days when the black-faced artist ruled the stage. "In the universal order of things minstrelsy min-strelsy must come-back, for minstrelsy is the Alpha and Omega of all stage entertainments, en-tertainments, ' ' he says. The buffoonery of Charlie 'Chaplin, I according to Mr. Primrose, is nothing - - iiuire than artists in companies organized organ-ized by the fumed Priunosc & West firm; Lew Doclistailcr, Al (I. Kiclds nud even as far back as "Daddy" liicc, presented for the edification" of their audiences. Kevicw'uig the comedy antics an-tics of many other modern giggle-producers, .the' dcau of minstrels finds nothing original. "We had all that stuff in the old days," he says. And so the old-tasliioned minstrel man is coming back for keeps! Primrose is so confident of this that he is watching every new move in the land of the stage with a view to reorganizing re-organizing his old I'rimrose baud of burnt-cork comedians. He expects to be back on the minstrel stage with a big company a year or two hence. It is through the medium of the vaudeville vau-deville circuits that old-time minstrelsy is expected to find its revival of popularity, popu-larity, according to the dean of the clog, who watches with the keenest delight de-light the steadily increasing interest vaudeville audiences ar displaying in the minor performances of minstrel folks now tramping the variety boards. He declares that pieture play -popular-, it v is waning rapidly, and to replace this form of amusement minstrelsyinust return. Confirming this impression, Primrose points to the tremendous success attending attend-ing tho "comeback" in eastern circuits of Al G. Fields 's minstrels, and the Neil O'Brien show, which are playing to overflow throngs nightly. Gus Hill of "Bringing Up Father" and "Mutt and Jeff" fume, too, is reaping a harvest har-vest through his eastern minstrels, and is at this time organizing a western company of burnt-cork artists. This show will doubtless come west next season. sea-son. Gus Hill is a new man in the minstrelsy min-strelsy business, but he is making good, although departing not a whit from the original set scheme of this sort of show. "Tho minstrels of Iiice's day haven't been forgotton, although popularity waned about a decade ago, and eight years ago they seemed to Tje backed off the boards in the whirl of so-called novelties. nov-elties. But good things can't be unceremoniously uncere-moniously killed. Minstrelsy, altfToiigh in innocuous desuetude these eight years, has lived, and the inevitable re-vivication re-vivication is about due. I am going to be one of the reproducers, too." Is Young at 64. Mr. Primrose is 64 years of age. Forty years ago he played his first show in Salt Lake. He celebrated the event by returning last week for a commemoration. commemo-ration. He, with a small band of artists filled a week 's engagement with one ot the vaudeville houses. Between performances Primrose saw the town. He possesses a rare memory, does this minstrel man, and between performances per-formances at the theater he recounted incidents connected with his ifo-st stop in Salt Lake and those immediately subsequent- "Dovou know," he queried, "that when I first came to this town with the Primrose & West minstrels, we played ball on the block where Auerbaeh company's com-pany's department store stands? AVe lodged at the Clift house, then the most modern and commanding hotel in this section of the country. I noticed the pame on the building as I came up from the Denver & Eio Grande depot, and called the attention of the boys to it.' The house stands on the northwest corner cor-ner of South Main and Broadway, it is still doing business as a lodging house. Mr. Primrose was bora inc London, Ontario, in JS54. Early in life he displayed dis-played a peculiar proficiency at rythmic clogging, and in 18 OS he joined a "free and easy" show company in Chicago, doing what he could in the way of entertaining en-tertaining for $6 a week and board. For this compensation he toiled sjx months from 8 in the morning to midnight, mid-night, and deemed ,himself well off. This was his college in minstrelsy, for with that "free and easy" outfit he learned the tricks of tho trade while graduating his feet in all the wiles and whims of the hoedown and the buck and wing. Primrose today is drawing $1000 weekly on his vaudeville contract. con-tract. In the early '70s Primrose was with the Skiff & Gaylord minstrels, and in 1874 he joined Haveiiy's minstrel 'company, 'com-pany, remaining to the close of the 1876 season. Among the Old-timers. The following year the Primrose, West, Barlow & Wilson show was organized, or-ganized, the company making its debut at Lexington, Ky. Of the original company com-pany Primrose and Wilson remain, Barlow Bar-low dying sixteen years ago and West the year following. For many years the Primrose and West team led all in clogging clog-ging art, both solo and duet. Upon the death of his partner, Primrose teamed with Lew Dockstader, this partnership continuing sevqral years. Since then Primrose haB since clogged alone. George Wysou is now- principal comedian with the Gus Hill show, although he is" 69 years old. Primrose continued the operation oper-ation of the Primrose & West minstrels until a lull in business caused disband-ment disband-ment a few years since. In his minstrel days George Primrose always led the parades, aud he estimates esti-mates that the distance covered in these spectacular pageants would provide a good start on a second circling of the globe. The Primrose & West shows set styles in dress for all shows, plug hats and dusters forming the foundation founda-tion of the more elaborate uniforms affected af-fected in later years. Each season found tho Primrose & West minstrels with some new sartorial gear. Although George Primrose has passed the three-score mark by four years, he is still in the best of physical health and condition. His eye is bright and keen, his hand steady, step elastic and his wholo physical bearing that of a man not more than 40. In addition, his hair, somewhat sparse now, - holds to its original color, brown. "I just simply sim-ply won't let it get gray," Primrose says. A cruel intimate explained, sotto voce, that a certain bottle in George's closet tells the whole story. "Daddy" Rice Originator. American minstrelsy, that is, of the burnt-cork tvpe, was born in New York in 1848,- "Daddy " Eice fathering the infant that was destined to thrive and become the one great source of amusement amuse-ment for American theater audiences. Dan Bryant followed, and the Christy minstrels of England made their beginning be-ginning on the Bice foundation. The Christy minstrels were organized as street "corner entertainers, and England still supports this form of show. There were at one time fifteen minstrel shows on the road in the United States. That was when the burnt-cork artist was at the crest of popularity. In those days every minstrel show was a success, because, be-cause, besides the drama and the circus, there was little else. The favored minstrels of the old days, besides Primrose & West, wore Duprez : & Benedict, Lester & Allen, Birch, Wam-! Wam-! bold & Bacus. Dan Bryant, "Buckley's j Minstrels, "Happy Cal " Waggoner, J. I H. Haverly. McXish, Johnson & Slavin, j Lew Stoc'kstader, Hooley's Minstrels, ' Bil'v Emerson, Me.Tnt.vre' & Heath, AJ G. Fields, Beach Bowers and " Honey Boy" George Evans.' The oldest hlnck-faeed hlnck-faeed team, in point of partnership, is Fox and Ward. This pair h:is teamed on the stage for fifty years, and at present is entertainrnpr vaudevillo audiences. Lew Stocwtailcr. too, is in vaudeville. Original minstrel companies consisted of sixteen people. The "cast" consisted con-sisted of a couple of "funny" end men, an interlocutor, who, while acting in the role of manager of affairs, was made the butt of attack; a quartette of singers, sing-ers, a half dozen musicians, a specialty man and a manager and- agent. It was Jack Haverly who originated the big company idea with his "Forty; Count 7em," notion. riongs introduced and sung to popularity by the old showmen include "Willie's "Gone to War," "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp," "Rally! 'Round the Flag," "Hard' Times Com'e Again Xo More," "Sollv Tome Up," "Keep in the Middle of the Koad, " and many others. J |
