Francis S. Chanfrau (1824 – October 2, 1884) was an American actor and

theatre manager Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

in the 19th century. He began his career playing bit parts and doing impressions of star actors such as

Edwin Forrest Edwin Forrest (March 9, 1806December 12, 1872) was a prominent nineteenth-century American Shakespearean actor. His feud with the British actor William Macready was the cause of the deadly Astor Place Riot of 1849. Early life Forrest was born i ...

and of ethnic groups. In 1848, he appeared as a

Bowery b'hoy The Bowery Boys (vernacular Bowery Bhoys) were a nativist, anti-Catholic, and anti-Irish criminal gang based in the Bowery neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City in the early-mid-19th century. In contrast with the Irish immigrant tenement of th ...

named Mose in ''A Glance at New York''. The play became a record-breaking hit, due largely to the Mose character, and Chanfrau spent most of the rest of his career playing that role. In later life, Chanfrau appeared regularly in '' Kit, the Arkansas Traveller'' and ''Sam''. His wife,

Henrietta Henrietta may refer to: * Henrietta (given name), a feminine given name, derived from the male name Henry Places * Henrietta Island in the Arctic Ocean * Henrietta, Mauritius * Henrietta, Tasmania, a locality in Australia United States * Henrie ...

, was a well-known actress who usually performed under the name Mrs. F.S. Chanfrau.

Early life and career

Chanfrau was born to French parents in w York City; he grew up near Essex Market. As a boy, Chanfrau saw a performance by

and decided to become an actor himself.Banham 188. Various legends arose during his career to explain his later choice of roles. One, related by T. Allston Brown, claims that in his youth Chanfrau frequented a small restaurant called the Broadway House on the corner of Grand Street, where he would order a daily plate of corned beef for six pence. One day, a printer at the ''

New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...

'' named

Mose Humphrey Mose Humphrey was a member of Fire Company 40 in New York City in the 19th century, and the inspiration for the folk hero character "Mose the Fireboy". The character of Mose first appeared on Broadway in Benjamin A. Baker's ''A Glance at New York ...

sat down by him and yelled out his order: "Look a heah! gim me a sixpenny plate ev pork and beans, and don't stop to count dem beans, d'yr heah!" Chanfrau would later adopt this persona of the Irish

and popularize it on stage.Brown, p. 284. Another version, related by A.E. Costello, says that Chanfrau witnessed Mose Humphreys in a street brawl: Whatever the ultimate source of his fireboy impression, Chanfrau was a gifted impersonator from a young age. He took the stage as a young man doing an

impersonation An impersonator is someone who imitates or copies the behavior or actions of another. There are many reasons for impersonating someone: *Entertainment: An entertainer impersonates a celebrity, generally for entertainment, and makes fun of ...

of Forrest and a string of minor roles while touring from theatre to theatre with various companies. Brown says that he "played every dialect known to the stage, except the Welsh."Brown 285. Chanfrau became a member of the house company at Mitchell's Olympic Theatre in 1848. There, a friend and playwright, Benjamin A. Baker, wrote ''A Glance at New York''. The play is a collection of jokes, short skits, songs, and other scenes centered on a country bumpkin from

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

who is guided through New York by Chanfrau's fireboy character. The two proposed it to Mitchell, the

, but he rejected it.

Chanfrau as Mose

In 1848, Baker had a benefit at Mitchell's Olympic and asked Chanfrau to do his part from ''A Glance at New York'' in the

afterpiece An afterpiece is a short, usually humorous one-act playlet or musical work following the main attraction, the full-length play, and concluding the theatrical evening.p24 "The Chambers Dictionary"Edinburgh, Chambers,2003 This short comedy, farce, o ...

. Brown relates that "Mitchell used to tell how he went on the stage that night just before the curtain was rung up, and seeing Chanfrau at the back, dressed for his part, was on the point of ordering him off, supposing he was one of the 'Centre Market loafers.'" When Chanfrau took the stage, the audience greeted him with silence. The play was an immense hit, and Baker, Chanfrau, and Mitchell changed the name to ''New York as It Is'' and rewrote it to focus on Mose. It played to a full house for the next two weeks.Wilmeth and Bigsby 460. Chanfrau's huge popularity as Mose prompted William Northall to lament that at the Olympic W. Olgivie Ewen leased the larger

Chatham Theatre The Chatham Theatre or Chatham Street Theatre was a playhouse on the southeast side of Chatham Street (now Park Row) in New York City. It was located at numbers 143-9, between Roosevelt and James streets, a few blocks south of the Bowery. At it ...

for Chanfrau to manage beginning 28 February 1848. Chanfrau changed the name to Chanfrau's National Theatre and allowed working-class patrons to sit in all sections of the playhouse, not just the pit as was customary. Chanfrau acted in a number of melodramas and burlesques with a concentration on Mose plays. Meanwhile, ''New York as It Is'' broke all records for New York theatre, playing for 47 nights straight and becoming the most popular play in the United States to that point. The ''

New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the ''New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. His ...

'' reported that a performance on 26 April 1848 was so packed that the crowd rushed the stage, howling and laughing. The police and theatre staff had to remove the excess theatregoers, some of whom had to literally walk over members of the pit to get back to their seats. Chanfrau retained Chatham's lease until 8 July 1850. For one week during 1849, Chanfrau performed ''A Glance at New York'' in two New York theatres and one in

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

every day. He performed the early evening performance at the Chatham then went to the

Olympic Theatre, New York Olympic Theatre was the name of five former 19th and early 20th-century theatres on Broadway in Manhattan and in Brooklyn, New York. First Olympic Theatre (1800–1821) Although perhaps best known as the Anthony Street Theatre, the first theatr ...

for another performance and then head nine miles to Newark in a

horse and buggy ] A horse and buggy (in American English) or horse and carriage (in British English and American English) refers to a light, simple, two-person carriage of the late 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, drawn usually by one or sometimes by two ho ...

for a third performance. Chanfrau began touring widely, starred as Mose at a number of working class, working-class theatres. The Mose series expanded to include '' Mose in China'', '' Mose in California'', '' The Mystery and Miseries of New York'', and many others. David Renear estimates that Chanfrau appeared as Mose at least 385 times in seven plays between 15 April 1848 and 6 July 1860. Meanwhile, other actors tried to cash in on the Mose fad, and Bowery b'hoy dramas appeared on stages across the United States. In 1850 the illustrator,

Thomas Butler Gunn Thomas Butler Gunn (15 February 1826 – 7 April 1904) was an English born illustrator, writer and war correspondent who spent fourteen years in America. His diaries of this period provide details of his life amongst the bohemian writers and artis ...

, drew and designed a graphic novel call ''Mose Among the Britishers or The B’hoy in London'' featuring the popular character. Gunn dedicated the work to Chanfrau.

Later career

In the spring of 1857, Chanfrau became the manager of the

Bowery Theatre The Bowery Theatre was a playhouse on the Bowery in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City. Although it was founded by rich families to compete with the upscale Park Theatre, the Bowery saw its most successful period under the populi ...

(at that time known as Brougham's Bowery Theatre). By this time, the popularity of the Mose character was waning, so Chanfrau turned to other parts. He did satires of Edwin Forrest,

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

, and a version of

Dan Rice Dan Rice (January 23, 1823 – February 22, 1900) was an American entertainer of many talents, most famously as a clown, who was active before the American Civil War. At the height of his career, Rice was a household name. Dan Rice also coine ...

's circus. In late June, he moved to the theatre at 585

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

(previously home to

Buckley's Serenaders Buckley's Serenaders was a family troupe of English-born American blackface minstrels, established under that name in 1853 by James Buckley. They became one of the two most popular companies in the U.S. from the mid-1850s to the 1860s, the ot ...

) and renamed it the New Olympic Theatre. He played there until August, mostly concentrating on nostalgic pieces from the 1840s and early 1850s. Chanfrau eventually had a minor hit as the title character of '' Kit, the Arkansas Traveller'', which he played 360 times. Later he appeared in the play ''Sam'' (written by Thomas de Walden) 783 times. For the remainder of his career, he played these parts, Mose, and other roles from his early life as an actor. Brown left this description:

Death

Frank Chanfrau died at Taylor's Hotel in

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.19th-century American male actors American male stage actors American male comedians American theatre managers and producers Male actors from New York City American people of French descent Date of birth unknown 1824 births 1884 deaths Comedians from New York City 19th-century American businesspeople 19th-century American comedians