Buckley’s Serenaders

Includes names of some of the members of Buckley’s Serenaders.

“A band of valiant serenaders, fearless of sun, and heat, and sweltering nights, are disporting on the sable playgrounds of the San Francisco Minstrels, in Broadway, and well-pleased audiences answer their musical summons. Swayne Buckley, a concentrated orchestra, is the chieftain of this Ethiopian troupe, and Pete Lee is his able lieutenant. A brass band blows martial music on the startled air. Hogan and Hughes dance with preternatural vigor marvelously unmindful of red-hot thermometers, and a merry burlesque on Sonnambula caps the characteristic climax. All of which, being interpreted, means that the celebrated and time-honored Buckley’s Minstrels are now to be seen nightly at the Hall of the San Francisco Minstrels.” 

“Buckley’s Serenaders commenced a summer season at San Francisco Hall July 11^th, the scene of their former triumphs in years gone by. Mr. G. Swaine Buckley, who will be remembered by New Yorkers as one of the best artists in his line, and the only remaining member of the original troupe, has gathered around him several good artists who give an excellent performance, and, in consequence, they have attracted good houses during the week. Swaine Buckley and Pete Lee occupy the ends. The latter has a fine voice, and favored us with some of the best specimens of vocalism we have ever heard from an end man. The selections of the first part were pleasing and well sung, the quartett being unusually good. At the close of the first the company appeared as a brass band and executed a medley which called forth an enthusiastic and well-deserved encore. Hogan and Hughes appeared in a song and dance entitled ‘Riding in a Street Car.’ They were elegantly costumed and performed the act with grace and spirit, and were rewarded with a double encore. Swaine Buckley created a sensation by his act in which he plays upon seven instruments at one time, some of which are strapped upon different parts of his person, and while playing these instruments he executes a clog dance. The performance concluded with the Buckley’s travestie, in three acts, upon Bellini’s opera of ‘La Sonnambula,’ which introduced to a New York audience an excellent vocalist, Miss Celia Barry, who possesses a good voice, well cultivated and capable of great modulation. She made a hit. It was in these travesties upon operas that the Buckleys acquired both fame and fortune at the time they formerly occupied their present location. We opine that the success they have met with will induce them to remain until the San Francisco Minstrels commence their regular fall season.”