- Francis Leon
Francis Leon was a blackface minstrel performer best known for his work as a female impersonator. He was largely responsible for making the prima donna a fixture of blackface minstrelsy. Leon entered minstrelsy in 1858. Only 14 at the time, he quickly rose to fame by specializing in portraying female prima donna characters, mulatto coquettes in yellow makeup and elaborate costumes. Leon's 300 dresses (which he refused to call "costumes") were a key piece of his act, … - Dan Emmett
Daniel Decatur "Dan" Emmett (October 29, 1815 - June 28, 1904), was an American songwriter and entertainer. - Jimmie Rodgers
Jimmie Rodgers (September 8, 1897 -- May 26, 1933) known as The Singing Brakeman and America's Blue Yodeler was the first country music superstar, resulting in another commonly used nickname: The Father of Country Music. - Bob Wills
James Robert (Bob) Wills (March 6, 1905 - May 13, 1975) was an American country musician, songwriter, and big band leader. - Joel Sweeney
Joel Walker Sweeney, also known as Joe Sweeney, was a musician and early blackface minstrel performer. Born to farming family in Buckingham County, Virginia, (now Appomattox) he claimed to have learned to play the banjo from local African-Americans and is the earliest documented white banjo player. In addition, he is the earliest known person to have played the banjo on stage. Aside from his important role in popularizing the instrument, … - Billy Whitlock
William M. "Billy" Whitcock was an American blackface performer. He began his career in entertainment doing blackface banjo routines in circuses and dime shows, and by 1843, he was well known in New York City. He is best known for his role in forming the original minstrel troupe, the Virginia Minstrels. - Al Jolson
Al Jolson was a highly acclaimed American singer, comedian and actor of Jewish heritage whose career lasted from 1911 until his death in 1950. He was one of the most popular entertainers of the 20th century whose influence extended to other popular performers, including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Judy Garland, Sammy Davis, Jr., Eddie Fisher, Jerry Lewis, Elvis Presley, Tom Jones, Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson. - Billy Kersands
Billy Kersands was an African American comedian and dancer. He was the most popular black comedian of his day, best known for his work in blackface minstrelsy. In addition to his skillful acrobatics, dancing, singing, and instrument playing, Kersands was renowned for his comic routines involving his large mouth, which he could contort comically or fill with objects such as billiard balls or saucers. - Charles Hicks
Charles Barney Hicks was an African American advance man, manager, performer, and owner of blackface minstrel troupes composed of African American performers. Hicks himself was a talented minstrel performer who could sing and play challenging roles such as the minstrel-show interlocutor or endmen. However, he was most interested in the business side of minstrelsy. Over the course of his career, he worked with most successful black minstrel troupes as manager, owner or both. - Frank Brower
Frank Brower was an American blackface performer active in the mid-19th century. He began his career doing blackface performances in circuses and theatres. His act was well enough known that Master Juba (William Henry Lane) did an impression of Brower dancing. In January, 1843, Brower was out of work in New York City. He teamed up with three other blackface performers—Dan Emmett, Richard Pelham, and Billy Whitlock—to form the Virginia Minstrels, … - Sam Hague
Sam Hague was a British blackface minstrel dancer and troupe owner. He was the first white owner of a minstrel troupe composed of black members, and the success he saw with this troupe inspired many other white owners to purchase black companies. Hague began his career as a performer in British and American minstrel shows. He eventually branched into troupe ownership and management, and in 1866, … - Bert Williams
Bert Williams (November 12, 1874 - March 4, 1922) was the pre-eminent Black entertainer of his era and one of the most popular comedians for all audiences of his time. He was by far the best-selling black recording artist before 1920. Williams was a key figure in the development of African-American music. In an age when racial inequality and stereotyping were an accepted part of life, he became the first black American to take a lead role on the Broadway stage, … - Patricia Collinge
Patricia Collinge (September 20, 1892 - April 10, 1974) was an Academy Award-nominated Irish actress. She was born in Dublin, Ireland. - Emmett Miller
Emmett Miller was an American minstrel show singer noted for a yodel-like falsetto voice, born in Macon, Georgia on February 2, 1900. In addition to touring widely with minstrel shows, he made several recordings for Okeh Records between 1924 and 1929. His final recording session was for Bluebird Records in 1936, which resulted in the release of two final records. Because minstrel shows are now looked upon with no small degree of embarrassment, … - Sam Lucas
Sam Lucas was an African American actor, comedian, singer, and songwriter. His career began in blackface minstrelsy, but he later became one of the first African Americans to branch into more serious drama, with roles in seminal works such as "The Creole Show" and "A Trip to Coontown". He was also the first black man to portray the role of Uncle Tom on both stage and screen. James Weldon Johnson described him as the "Grand Old Man of the Negro Stage". - Bob Height
Bob Height was an African American blackface minstrel performer. He was a standout talent in the companies with which he performed, although frustrations eventually drove him to pursue a career in Europe. Later writers have compared him to his contemporary, Bert Williams. Height joined with Charles Hicks in the late 1860s to form Hicks and Height's Georgia Minstrels. This company proved quite popular among African Americans, particularly in the Washington, D.C. area. - Master Juba
Master Juba was the stage name of William Henry Lane, who danced in minstrel shows in the 1840s. He was one of the first black performers in the United States. He began his career in the saloons and dance halls of the Five Points neighborhood of Manhattan in or near 1840, moving on to minstrel shows throughout the decade. Dance historians Marshall and Jean Stearns assert that Juba soon went beyond the routines of the day, … - Charles Correll
Charles James Correll (February 2, 1890 - September 26, 1972) was an American radio comedian, best known for his work on the "Amos 'n' Andy" show with Freeman Gosden. Charles Correll was born in Peoria, Illinois and died in Chicago, Illinois. Charles J. Correll was born in Peoria, Illinois, in 1890 and earned his first dollar delivering newspapers. When he became old enough to distinguish a hammer from a ripsaw he entered the construction business, … - John Diamond
John Diamond, also known as Jack or Johnny, was an Irish-American dancer and blackface minstrel performer. Diamond entered show business at age 17 and soon came to the attention of circus promoter P. T. Barnum. In less than a year, Diamond and Barnum had a falling out, and Diamond left to perform with other blackface performers. Diamond's dance style merged elements of English, Irish, and African dance. - Cordwainer Bird
Harlan Ellison (born May 27, 1934) is a prolific American writer of short stories, novellas, essays, and criticism. His literary and television work has received many awards. He wrote for the original series of The Outer Limits and Star Trek, edited the multiple award-winning short story anthology series Dangerous Visions and served as creative consultant to the science fiction TV series The New Twilight Zone and Babylon 5. - Hattie McDaniel
Hattie McDaniel was an African-American actress. She was the first performer of African descent to ever win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in "Gone with the Wind" (1939). McDaniel was also a professional singer, stage actress, radio performer and television star. - Dan Rice
Dan Rice (January 23, 1823 - February 22, 1900), was an American entertainer of many talents, most famously as a clown, who was pre-eminent before the Civil War. During the height of his career Rice was more of a household name than Abraham Lincoln or Mark Twain. Coining the terms "One Horse Show" and "Greatest Show", he was a leading personality in the new American "pop culture", … - Freeman Gosden
Freeman Fisher "Gozzie" Gosden was an American radio comedian, and pioneer in the development of the situation comedy form. He is best known for his work in the "Amos 'n' Andy" series. Freeman Gosden was born in Richmond, Virginia. During World War I he served in the United States Navy as a wireless operator, which prompted his great interest in the young medium of radio. - Clarence Williams
Clarence Williams (October 8, 1898 - November 6, 1965) was an American jazz pianist, composer, promoter, vocalist, theatrical producer, and publisher. Williams was born in Plaquemine, Louisiana, ran away from home at age 12 to join Billy Kersand's Traveling Minstrel Show, then moved to New Orleans. At first Williams worked shining shoes and doing odd jobs, but soon became known as a singer and master of ceremonies. - Red Skelton
Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton (July 18 1913 - September 17 1997) was an American comedian who was best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, clubs and casinos, while pursuing another career as a painter. - Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor (January 31, 1892 - October 10, 1964) was an American comedian, singer, actor, songwriter. Known to Broadway, radio and early television audiences as Banjo Eyes, this "Apostle of Pep" was regarded almost as a family member by millions because his top-rated radio shows revealed intimate stories and amusing antics about his wife Ida and five children. - Thomas D. Rice
Thomas Dartmouth (T.D.) "Daddy" Rice, was a comedian in the blackface form of comedy of the 19th century. Because he developed an immediately popular song-and-dance routine playing the role of an old black slave called "Jim Crow", he has also been called "father of American minstrelsy". "Daddy" Rice was born in New York City. His act included the song and dance "Jump Jim Crow" which would later give its name to "Jim Crow" segregation laws in the southern United States. - Edwin Pearce Christy
Edwin Pearce Christy (November 28, 1815 - May 21, 1862) was an American composer, singer, actor and stage producer. He is more commonly known as E. P. Christy, and was the founder of the blackface minstrel group Christy's Minstrels. - Richard Pelham
Richard Ward "Dick" Pelham, born Richard Ward Pell, was an American blackface performer. He was born in New York City. Pelham regularly did blackface acts in the early 1840s both solo and as part of a duo or trio. His early performances were in the mould of Thomas D. Rice; he did song-and-dance versions of "Gumbo Chaff" and "Oh Pshaw!", among others. His brother, Gilbert Pelham, paired with him for part of his early career. - Wallace King
Wallace King was an African American blackface minstrel performer from the 19th century. He played with Callender's Georgia Minstrels, and in 1882 was second to only Billy Kersands in pay and popularity. King was a "Sweet Singing Tenor" and known for his emotional, romantic ballads. - Julian Eltinge
Julian Eltinge (born May 14, 1881; died March 7, 1941), born William Julian Dalton, was an American stage and screen actor and female impersonator. After appearing in the Boston Cadets Revue at the age of ten in feminine garb, Eltinge garnered notice from other producers and made his first appearance on Broadway in 1904. - Arthur Fields
Arthur Fields (August 6, 1888 - March 29, 1953) was a United States singer (baritone) and songwriter. He was born Abe Finkelstein in Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, but grew up mainly in Utica, New York. He became a professional singer as a youngster. Around 1908 he toured with Guy Brother's Minstrel Show, and helped form a vaudeville act "Weston, Fields and Carroll". - Ida Cox
Ida Cox (October, 1890-10 November, 1967) was a popular African American singer, best known for her Blues performances and recordings. Cox was born October, 1890, although historically listed as February, 1896), as Ida Prather in Toccoa, Habersham County, Georgia (Toccoa was in Habersham County, not yet Stephens County at the time), the daughter of Lamax and Susie (Knight) Prather, and grew up in Cedartown, Georgia, … - George Washington Dixon
George Washington Dixon (1801? –2 March 1861) was an American singer, stage actor, and newspaper editor. He rose to prominence as a blackface performer (possibly the first American to do so) after performing "Coal Black Rose", "Zip Coon", and similar songs. He later turned to a career in journalism, during which he earned the enmity of members of the upper class for his frequent allegations against them. - James A. Bland
James Alan Bland (also known as Jimmy Bland) (12 October 1854 - 6 May 1911) was an African American musician and song writer. He was one of 8 children born in Flushing, New York to a free family before the abolition of slavery in the United States. Beginning with an eight-dollar banjo purchased by his father, he was performing professionally by age 14. Bland was educated in Washington, DC and graduated from Howard University in 1873. - Edwin Forrest
Edwin Forrest (March 9, 1806 - December 12, 1872), American actor, was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania of Scottish and German descent and was an unusual actor. - Tony Pastor
Antonio Pastor (May 28, 1837-August 26, 1908) was a variety performer and theatre owner who became one of the founding forces behind American vaudeville in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. The strongest elements of his entertainments were an almost jingoistic brand of United States patriotism and a strong commitment to attracting a mixed-gender audience, the latter being something revolutionary in the male-oriented variety halls of the mid-century. - George Christy
George Christy (born George Harrington) was one of the leading blackface performers during the early years of the blackface minstrel show in the 1840s. (Lott, 1993, 174) His career began as a star performer with his stepfather E. P. Christy's troupe Christy's Minstrels; in two and a half years with them he earned $19,680, a fortune for those times. (Lott, 1993, 267; Belcher) Jim Comer credits him with inventing "the line", … - George Washington Johnson
George Washington Johnson (May 1850 - most likely January 23, 1914) was a singer and pioneer sound recording artist, the first African-American star of the phonograph. Johnson was born in slavery on a plantation in Virginia and around 1885 he married Annie. About 1889 Johnson was whistling on the Staten Island Ferry in New York City when he was heard by someone connected with the infant recording industry (one story says that it was Thomas A. Edison himself). - Lucille Hegamin
Lucille Nelson Hegemin (November 29, 1894 - 1 March, 1970) was a United States singer and entertainer, and a pioneer African American blues recording artist. Hegamin was born as Lucille Nelson in Macon, Georgia. By the age of 15 she was touring the US South with Minstrel shows. She became a prominent singer, billed as "The Georgia Peach". She settled in Chicago, Illinois in 1914.
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