Monarchs of minstrelsy, from "Daddy" Rice to dateRice, Edw. Le Roy (Edward Le Roy)
History
Monarchs of minstrelsy, from "Daddy" Rice to date
Rice, Edw. Le Roy (Edward Le Roy)
Actors -- United States; Minstrel shows
G. WASHINGTON (“Slim Jim”) DUKELAN. Probably no active musician in
theatredom has had a more varied and lengthy career than “Slim Jim,”
so named in 1864, by G. Brooks Clark, the well-known ring master; Mr.
Dukelan was about six feet high, and 130 in avoirdupois then; he has
filled in considerably since, but he’s still “Slim Jim,” and probably
always will continue so. As Will Shakespeare once remarked, “A Rose
with any other name, etc.”
His very first public appearance was with an amateur minstrel show,
doing a song and dance, about 1862, at Fulton, N. Y. Two years later
he began his professional career as member of the band in A. P. Ball’s
American Coliseum Circus; with this troupe G. W. once did an “end.”
Mr. Dukelan was with various organizations until 1868, when he joined
the Flint (Mich.) band; he remained there some time, subsequently
allying himself with several well-known miscellaneous companies until
September 15, 1877, when he joined Harry Saxton’s famous theatre
orchestra at Mitchell’s Theatre Comique, St. Louis, Mo.; he continued
there for three years, then going with Mr. Saxton to the old Howard
Athenæum, in Boston, Mass., where he remained four years; at the end
of this period, with this same Saxton at the Grand Central Theatre in
Philadelphia, he commenced an engagement that lasted three years.
Now comes the “Slim Jim” we all know. From 1887 to 1889 he was with
Thatcher, Primrose and West’s Minstrels; following season with Primrose
and West. In 1890 he was with George Thatcher’s Minstrels, and the
following year with Thatcher in “Tuxedo” (here “slender James” enacted
a “rube”). In 1892 he was with Hughey Dougherty’s “Tuxedo” and Minstrel
Company.
It was not until 1893 that our friend qualified as a “real trouper;”
he then joined Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” Company. He played in the
first performance of Primrose and Dockstader’s Minstrels in 1898, and
continued with them two seasons; in 1900 he was with William H. West’s
Minstrels, subsequently he returned to Primrose and Dockstader, and
remained with them until the dissolution of the organization in 1903.
[Illustration:
JOE. B. McGEE
ALF. GIBSON
JERRY HART
EDDIE CASSADY
BILLY VAN
OUR ENGLISH COUSINS WOULD CALL THEM GOOD CORNER MEN.]
He played at the inaugural performance of Cohan and Harris’ Minstrels
in 1908, and is at present with George Evans’ Minstrels.
G. Washington (Slim Jim) Dukelan was born at Smith’s Falls, Canada,
January 12, 1844; but you’d never believe it--the year, of course.
HUGHEY DOUGHERTY--if you never heard of him, better get acquainted now.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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