154:, May 9, 1897, 'THE OLD TIME MINSTREL: He Has Gone Out of Vogue, but the Public Recollects Him with Pleasure:..."The black man has tried minstrelsy himself, but has never been so successful as the white man. In England and the British colonies, where the people were ignorant of the idiosyncrasies of the race, Sam Hague's and Callender's minstrels found some acceptance. But in the United States the white man, beginning with
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among his troupers. Hague's overseas success lent black minstrelsy a new credibility in the United States, although at least one critic maintained their rise had damaged minstrelsy, and that white blackface minstrels were better at representing black
Americans than black Americans were themselves.
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dancer. In 1850, he moved with his brothers Tom and
William to America, where they toured as the Brothers Hague Concert Party. He went on to partner two other renowned cloggers, Dublin-born Tim Hayes and fellow Yorkshireman Dick Sands, in the leading minstrel and variety theaters. He co-managed
68:. The troupe was initially a failure in both Liverpool and on tour, but business picked up when Hague added white singers and instrumentalists, retaining only a few "colored" specialty performers. The successful combination began an 18-year career based at St. James's Hall, Liverpool.
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Sam Hague's Slave Troupe of
Georgia Minstrels included both white and black performers, though at each venue they put on separate all-white and all-black performances. In England, Hague eventually counted stars such as
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and troupe owner. He was a pioneering white owner of a minstrel troupe composed of black members, and the success he saw with this troupe inspired many other white minstrel managers to tour with black companies.
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Wagner and Hague's
Pontoon Minstrels, touring the western states, then briefly retired from show business in 1866, opening the Champion Shades bar with his brother Tom opposite the Mechanics Hall theater in
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By 1881, Hague owned a white minstrel troupe composed of
British players, Sam Hague's Operatic British Minstrels. The British had a reputation in America for not being as apt at portraying
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By the mid-1870s, most successful
American black troupes had been bought by white owners who had followed Hague's lead. When the Slave Troupe returned to the United States,
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On the Real Side: Laughing, Lying, and
Signifying—The Underground Tradition of African-American Humor that Transformed American Culture, from Slavery to Richard Pryor
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Five years after Hague sold the troupe, on an expedition to the
Minstrel Troupe Owners Symposium in October 1879, he was introduced to his future wife, Clare Thiele.
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stressed their musical abilities and their refined costumes and sets. Only the endmen wore blackface, and the troupe did no base comedy.
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The twice-married Hague died
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Blacking Up: The
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adopted Hague's idea and sparked a new trend in minstrelsy.
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158:, has been the only recognized delineator of negro humor."
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195:Blackface minstrel managers and producers
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215:19th-century American businesspeople
174:. New York: Oxford University Press.
22:(1828 – 7 January 1901) was a
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95:black roles or performing
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66:Theatre Royal, Liverpool
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52:. A visit to Utica by
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93:caricatured
189:Categories
165:References
156:T. D. Rice
74:Bob Height
27:blackface
20:Sam Hague
54:W.H. Lee
30:minstrel
131:Clipper
24:British
97:comedy
33:dancer
118:Notes
107:and
76:and
45:clog
56:'s
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