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| Samuel S Sanford in Racial Drag (Harvard Theatre Collection) |
SAMUEL S. SANFORD.
Samuel S. Sanford, the oldest of the minstrel performers and managers, died at his home in Brooklyn on Dec. 31, 1905. He leaves a widow and a son, Walter, who is now in Australia. Mr. Sanford, who was one of the originators of modern minstrelsy, was eighty-four years old and his sudden death was due to a stroke of paralysis.
Samuel S. Sanford was born on Jan. 1, 1821, and made his debut at the age of nine as a singer in Dan Neuman's ballroom, located at what is now know as Eighth and Willow streets, Philadelphia. Until his sixteenth year he traveled with his uncle, Hugh Lindsay, who was then a popular clown. In 1840 he entered the minstrel business as a solo singer, lie soon became a popular favorite as an impersonator of the plantation darky and made an especial hit as one of the first men to sing "Lucy Long." His debut as a manager was on Feb. 10, 1843, when he was associated with Jenkins, Diamond, Wynn and Lull at the old Southwark Hall in Philadelphia. The company was successful and moved to Temperance Hall, but after a short engagement there S. S. Sandford's Minstrels went on the road, returning to Philadelphia in the following season of 1844. In November of that year the company went South and Sanford attracted attention by singing " Cynthia Sue," " Lucy Neal," " Ole Bull and Dan Tucker" and "Whar Did You Come From ?" In the same year Sanford joined the New Orleans Serenaders and crossed the ocean with them, remaining in England, Ireland and Scotland for sixteen prosperous months. In November, 1848, this company reopened in New York, Sanford's salary being doubled, and the New Orleans Serenaders played an engagement of one hundred nights at the Broadway Theatre. In Philadelphia the troupe engaged Masonic Hall and there began producing burlesque parodies on Cinderella, La Somnambula, The Bohemian Girl and such pieces, all of these travesties being arranged by Kueass. Shortly afterward the New Orleans Minstrels disbanded, and Sandford, having returned to Philadelphia, organized a new company under his own name. This company appeared in New York at the Astor Place Opera House, opening on April 19, 1852. In 1853 the Sanford Minstrels played a remarkably successful six months engagement at Concert Hall on Chestnut street, Philadelphia. He then leased the Edwards Building, which was opened as Sanford's Opera House on Aug. 10, 1853, but was unfortunately destroyed by fire on Dec. 9 of the same year. In 1854 the company appeared again in New York and found a second permanent home in Philadelphia at Carter's Lyceum, which was rechristened Sanford's Opera House and where the company appeared continuously until 1862. During this period the minstrel troupe increased its roster from six to eighteen members and Sanford added some of his own compositions to the list of old burlesques, notably a travesty on Pocahontas. Each summer the troupe went on the road and one of his most successful engagements was for eight weeks at the Boston Museum, opening on July 7, 1856.
During the Civil War Mr. Sanford suffered financial reverses which temporarily crippled his enterprises, though he never withdrew from the field. On July 4, 1863, he was married in Philadelphia to Appoline M. Bond. On July 6, 1866, Sanford and a minstrel troupe appeared again in New York city at Tony Pastor's Opera House, having played a short time at Barnum's Museum exactly three years previous. In 1870 he leased an old church in Philadelphia, which he opened as a minstrel hall on Dec. 17, but this hall also was burned during a return engagement in 1871. In 1874 he was at the Eleventh. Street Opera House, Philadelphia, and in 1878 he made another short stay in his favorite city. From Dec. 4 to Dec. 9, 1871, Sanford appeared nn New York at Tony Pastor's in a darky sketch entitled Old Josh.
Besides his appearances as a minstrel Mr. Sanford sometimes assumed legitimate roles, his greatest hit being as Uncle Tom in the original production of that play. He also acted Wool in The Hidden Hand. Job in The White Slave, Happy Tom in Kentucky Home, and Pete in The Octoroon. For the past twenty years he had practically been In retirement.
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