I’ve just watched the Who Do
You Think You Are episode about John Bishop yesterday and something rang a bell
when they were talking about his ancestor who was a Minstrel.
Apparently (at least) in the
1880s and 1890s they all performed with blackened faces.
It reminded me of this
week’s Trove Tuesday blog about my great grandfather, William Collier FRANCIS, singing in a Minstrel
group in Morwell.
I had to go back and look at the ad – sure enough it actually
said, “Morwell Brown Coal Minstrels”.
I had sort of noticed this
and at the time thought it a reference to the open cut coal mines that so many
in the area worked in.
I wondered if the same thing
applied with Minstrels in Australia as in the UK.
I searched further and found
the following:
19 October 1889 a short
article referring to the “dusky savages” performing again.
16 November 1889 an article
refers to the recent show and the “two negros”.
5 October 1889 a very large article about “The Black Boom or Morwell Brown Coal Minstrels”.
This article is
about their debut performance and mentions “…the rich ebony color on the faces
of the dress-coated circle with amplitude of shirt-front adorning the stage had
been produced by the coal found at ‘Dead Man’s Gulch’…”
Then, my great grandfather
gets a mention: “…Mr Francis was most happy in his rendering of ‘Rock-a-bye
Baby’, the charming lullaby of childhood’s days being entered into with zest by
the whole company…”
The critique: “A slight
trepidation was discernible throughout, otherwise the whole of the circle would
be passes as veterans at the business… one of the most amusing entertainments
the people of Morwell have yet enjoyed in the Mechanics’ [hall] to a close. The
minstrels are to be congratulated on their unquestioned success, and it is
pleasing to record, that a bumper house would contribute so largely to the
funds to sustain the club.”
The Morwell Brown Coal
Minstrels continued on performing with funds going to many groups in the area
such as the A&P Society (Agricultural and Pastoral), and the Cricket Club.
Now I have to contact the
Morwell Historical Society to see if any photos exist although a friend did
point out to me – how would I recognise my great grandfather?!
When I told Dad what his
grandfather had got up to, he was surprised, but then came back with his typical
dry sense of humour and said “you wouldn’t need much to blacken the faces in
that area – everything was always brown or black with all the coal dust.”
He
added that his mother always insisted on dressing “her babies” in whiter than
white and wondered how she ever kept them so clean and white.
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| William Collier FRANCIS |
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| Baby Dad in his whites |
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| slightly older Dad, still in his whites - how do you keep a toddler this clean!? |
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