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The Virginia Minstrels or Virginia Serenaders was a group of 19th-century American entertainers who helped invent the entertainment form known as the minstrel show. Led by Dan Emmett, the original lineup consisted of Emmett, Billy Whitlock, Dick Pelham, and Frank Brower.
After a successful try-out in the billiard parlor of the Branch Hotel on New York City's Bowery, the group is said to have premiered to a paying audience nearby at the Chatham Theatre, probably on January 31, 1843.[1][2] They followed with a brief run at the Bowery Amphitheater in early February before an expanded schedule of venues.[3]
- ^ Whitlock, who detailed the beginnings of the group, stated that the event was a benefit for Pelham. See Lawrence Hutton, "The Negro on the Stage", Harpers New Monthly Magazine, June 1889, p. 140. Such an event occurred on 31 January. See The New York Herald, 31 January 1843, p. 3. The following day the Herald reported that the troupe would be appearing at the Bowery Amphitheatre, and an advertisement in the 6 February issue refers to their first performance that evening.
- ^ New York Times, May 19, 1907: 'The Lay of the Last of the Old Minstrels; Interesting Reminiscenses of Isaac Odell, Who Was A Burnt Cork Artist Sixty Years Ago: "In nearly all the playhouses at least one minstrel appeared on the stage, but there were no regular bands or minstrel troupes until Dan Emmet, Billy Whitlock, Frank Brower and Dick Pelham got together and organized the original Virginia troupe, which opened up at the Chatham Theatre... That was back in 1842."
- ^ Lott, Eric (1993). Love and theft : blackface minstrelsy and the American working class. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195078322. OCLC 27069069.