Frank Dumont (January 25, 1848 – March 17, 1919) was an American

minstrel show The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of racist theatrical entertainment developed in the early 19th century. Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people spe ...

performer and manager.Rice, Edward Le Roy
Monarchs of minstrelsy, from "Daddy" Rice to date
p. 198 (1911)Finding Aid: Collection 3054 - Frank Dumont (1848-1919) - Minstrelsy Scrapbook
by the

Historical Society of Pennsylvania The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a long-established research facility, based in Philadelphia. It is a repository for millions of historic items ranging across rare books, scholarly monographs, family chronicles, maps, press reports and v ...

(2004)(17 March 1919)
Frank Dumont, Noted Minstrel, Dies At Theatre

Evening Public Ledger The ''Public Ledger'' was a daily newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, published from March 25, 1836, to January 1942. Its motto was "Virtue Liberty and Independence". For a time, it was Philadelphia's most popular newspaper, but circulation de ...

Life

Dumont was born in

Utica, New York Utica () is a Administrative divisions of New York, city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The List of cities in New York, tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 ...

on January 25, 1848. He started performing in minstrel shows as early as 1862, and worked with a number of groups, including Duprez & Benedict's Minstrels from about 1869 to 1881. He eventually founded "Dumont's Minstrels", around 1895/96, after purchasing the Eleventh Street Opera House in Philadelphia. He authored many sketches and songs for the genre. One

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 ...

he wrote was later expanded into a successful 1884 play, ''

A Parlor Match ''A Parlor Match'' is an American musical play which debuted in 1884 and was one of the biggest hits of its time. It starred Charles E. Evans and William F. Hoey.Morden, Ethan''Ziegfeld: The Man Who Invented Show Business'' p. 32 (2008) Charles ...

''. After the Opera House closed circa 1909, Dumont acquired Dime Museum at Ninth and Arch Streets and renamed it "Dumont's Theatre".Frank Dumont
Northern Illinois University Libraries -- House of Beadle & Adams Online -- The Authors and Their Novels, Retrieved November 3, 2011 He died in the box office of the theatre on March 17, 1919 during the opening number of that afternoon's matinee show.(26 May 1939

''

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''(26 February 1929)
Noted Shrine of Minstrelsy Ends Career
''Providence News'' (noting fire that burned down Dumont's Theatre, 1929) He is interred at

Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Founded in 1836, it was the second major rural cemetery in the United States after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery is ...

in Philadelphia. Dumont's 1899 work "The Witmark amateur minstrel guide and burnt cork encyclopedia" is a valuable resource on the history of American minstrelsy. Dumont wrote in 1915 that he had been the first to perform two classic 19th century standards, "

Silver Threads Among the Gold "Silver Threads Among the Gold", first copyrighted in 1873, was a popular song in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today it is a standard of barbershop quartet singing. The lyrics are by Eben E. Rexford, and the music b ...

", and "

When You and I Were Young, Maggie "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" is a folk song, popular song, and standard written by George W. Johnson and James Austin Butterfield. Origin Although Springtown, Tennessee, has a small monument outside an old mill claiming the song was writt ...

".Dumont, Frank (27 March 1915)
The Younger Generation in Minstrelsy and Reminiscences of the Past
''

New York Clipper The ''New York Clipper'', also known as ''The Clipper'', was a weekly entertainment newspaper published in New York City from 1853 to 1924. It covered many topics, including circuses, dance, music, the outdoors, sports, and theatre. It had a ...

'' ("Dumont was the first to sing "Silver Threads Among the Gold," for whom it was written by H. P. Danks. He also first introduced "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" as the Duprez & Benedict’s Minstrels programs, dated, will show and the still living members of that celebrated troupe remember well.")

Pat Chappelle Patrick Henry Chappelle (January 7, 1869 – October 21, 1911),Lynn Abbott, Doug Seroff''Ragged But Right: Black Traveling Shows, Coon Songs, and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz'' University Press of Mississippi, 2009, pp. 248-268.

commissioned Dumont in 1900 to write ''A Rabbit's Foot'', a comedy-based show that became a hit and led to the creation of Chappelle's " Rabbit's Foot (Comedy) Company." Chappelle was the first black owner of a vaudeville company with an all-black cast, and utilized upscale performers that helped him dominate the southwest and southeastern areas of the U.S. and also traveled to

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, New York,

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, and

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."The Stage." News/Opinion (Lakeview, NJ opening), ''The Freeman'', page 5. March 9, 1900. Indianapolis, Indiana Lynn Abbott, Doug Seroff, ''Ragged But Right: Black Traveling Shows, Coon Songs, and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz''
Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2009, pp.248-289

References

External links

* Dumont, Frank
The Witmark Amateur Minstrel Guide and Burnt Cork Encyclopedia
(1899) (full copy online) * Th
Frank Dumont Minstrelsy Scrapbook 1850-1902
containing more than 50 years of documentation about minstrelsy and its origins, is available for research use at the

.
The Younger Generation in Minstrelsy and Reminiscences of the Past
by Frank Dumont, ''New York Clipper'', March 27, 1915 {{DEFAULTSORT:Dumont, Frank Blackface minstrel performers 1848 births 1919 deaths 19th-century American singers