Harvard Theatre Collection - Cool White TCS 1

John Hodges (July 28, 1821RICE, Edward L., ''Monarchs of Minstrelsy'', 1910 – April 23, 1891); known as Cool White, was an American

blackface Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person. In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereo ...

minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who ...

entertainer, who wrote or popularized the song "

Buffalo Gals "Buffalo Gals" is a traditional American song, written and published as "Lubly Fan" in 1844 by the blackface minstrel John Hodges, who performed as "Cool White". The song was widely popular throughout the United States, where minstrels often ...

", published by him in 1844 under the title "Lubly Fan". There is some dispute as to whether he composed the tune or adapted a traditional air.

Career

Hodges's stage name was "Cool White". He debuted in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

in 1838, at the

Walnut Street Theatre The Walnut Street Theatre, founded in 1809 at 825 Walnut Street, on the corner of S. 9th Street in the Washington Square West neighborhood of Philadelphia, is the oldest operating theatre in the United States. The venue is operated by the Walnut ...

, Philadelphiahttp://www.circushistory.org/Cork/BurntCork4.htm BROWN, Col. T. Allson, ''EarlyNegro Minstrelsy'' and specialized in "dandy" roles: in 1842 he was a particular hit as a character called "Fancy Cool" in Silas S. Steele's ''Philadelphia Assurance''. In 1843 he organized the Virginia Serenaders and later a troupe called the Sable Melodists. He later performed as a 'Shakespearian clown' with Spalding and Rogers Circus. From about 1855-59 he appeared with Sam Sanford's Minstrels in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. In the 1860s and 1870s he appeared in New York. In 1879 he also acted the straight role of

Uncle Tom Uncle Tom is the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel, ''Uncle Tom's Cabin''. The character was seen by many readers as a ground-breaking humanistic portrayal of a slave, one who uses nonresistance and gives his life to protect ...

in a stage version of the famous anti-slavery melodrama.

Retirement from the stage and death

By 1887 White appears to have retired from performance, becoming stage manager for Hooley's Theatre in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

.''New York Times'', July 10, 1887 'Drop-Curtain Monographs:"Of the minstrels of the very olden time only Dan Emmett, Sam Sanford, Charlie White, Cool White, and Dave Reed, are living...Hooley is a theatrical manager in Chicago, Cool White is stage manager for Hooley's Theatre..." He was also instrumental in founding the Chicago Lodge, 3, of B. P. O.

Elks The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE; also often known as the Elks Lodge or simply The Elks) is an American fraternal order founded in 1868, originally as a social club in New York City. History The Elks began in 1868 as a soci ...

. He died in Chicago on April 23, 1891.

References

External links

John Hodges
at ''Music in Gotham'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Hodges, John Singers from Pennsylvania Blackface minstrel performers 1821 births 1891 deaths 19th-century American singers