Harvard Theatre Collection - Francis Leon TCS 1

Francis Leon (born Francis Patrick Glassey; November 21, 1844 – August 19, 1922) was a

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 ...

performer best known for his work as a

female impersonator A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part of ...

. He was largely responsible for making the

prima donna In opera or commedia dell'arte, a prima donna (; Italian for "first lady"; plural: ''prime donne'') is the leading female singer in the company, the person to whom the prime roles would be given. ''Prime donne'' often had grand off-stage pers ...

a fixture of blackface minstrelsy.

Biography

Leon was trained as a boy soprano by Rev. Dr. Cummings in

Fordham, New York Fordham is a neighborhood located in the western Bronx, New York City. Fordham is roughly bordered by East 196th Street to the north, Webster Avenue to the east, Burnside Avenue to the south, and Jerome Avenue to the west. The neighborhood's prima ...

. He performed the first soprano part in Mozart's Twelfth Mass at St. Stephen's church in New York City at age 8. Leon entered minstrelsy in 1858. Only 14 at the time, he quickly rose to fame by specializing in portraying female

characters,

mulatto (, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese is ...

coquettes in yellow makeup and elaborate costumes. Leon's 300 dresses (which he refused to call "costumes") were a key piece of his act, and some cost as much as $400.Toll 144. He came to refer to himself as simply "Leon" or "The Only Leon". His influence was such that by 1873, every major minstrel troupe had its own Leon imitator. In 1882, he earned more than any other minstrel performer. The press loved him. In 1870, ''

The Clipper ''The Clipper'' was a weekly labor-orientated newspaper published in Hobart, Tasmania, from 8 April 1893 until 25 December 1909, before its merger with the '' Daily Post'' in 1910. History Its first editor was James Paton, a Christian sociali ...

'' raved, "Leon is the best male female actor known to the stage. He does it with such dignity, modesty, and refinement that it is truly art."''New York Clipper''. Quoted in Toll 142. In fact, Leon's impersonation was so convincing that a reviewer in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

remarked, "Heaps of boys in my locality don't believe yet it's a man in spite of my saying it was", and that Leon could "make a fool of a man if he wasn't sure." Another critic raved, "He is more womanly in his by-play and mannerisms than the most charming female imaginable." The idea that a male performer represented women better than women was echoed by another critic who noted, "Just as a white man makes the best stage Negro, so a man gives more photographic interpretation of femininity than the average woman is able to give". In 1864, Leon formed a minstrel troupe with

Edwin Kelly The name Edwin means "rich friend". It comes from the Old English elements "ead" (rich, blessed) and "ƿine" (friend). The original Anglo-Saxon form is Eadƿine, which is also found for Anglo-Saxon figures. People * Edwin of Northumbria (died ...

. Leon and Kelly's Minstrels spoke of their freedom from vulgarity and featured elaborate scenery and refined

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

s with Leon as the female lead. Though these were at heart

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

s, Leon insisted that everything was quite proper. He claimed to have studied

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

from a respected dancer and to have practiced for "hours every day" for seven years. He further asserted that he took voice lessons from famous opera teacher Errani. Ultimately, however, Leon's performances were not enough to keep the company afloat. By 1883, Leon had joined the San Francisco Minstrels. In January 1891, he was performing the character Carmencita at Niblo's theatre in New York. His last known appearance was in Chicago in November 1900, when he was attempting a comeback. One critic felt his days as a female impersonator were definitely over. An old friend, Malcolm Douglas, reminisced about him in a 1942 news article. He said that in later years Leon owned a large office building in Chicago and that he lived to an "old age." Leon died in Chicago on August 19, 1922 and was interred at Mount Carmel Cemetery.''Chicago Daily Tribune'', 20 Aug 1922: 9

Gallery

Francis Leon in costume.jpg File:Harvard Theatre Collection - Francis Leon TCS 1.643.jpg File:Harvard Theatre Collection - Francis Leon TCS 1.638.jpg

Notes

References

*Toll, Robert C. (1974). ''Blacking Up: The Minstrel Show in Nineteenth-century America''. New York: Oxford University Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Leon, Francis 1844 births Year of death missing American male dancers American male singers Blackface minstrel performers American drag queens 19th-century American dancers