Kelly and Leon’s Minstrels

Event Information

Venue(s):
Kelly and Leon's Minstrels Hall (8/70 and later)

Price: $.50

Event Type:
Minstrel

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
19 November 2022

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

05 Sep 1870, Evening
06 Sep 1870, Evening
07 Sep 1870, Evening
08 Sep 1870, Evening
09 Sep 1870, Evening
10 Sep 1870, Evening

Performers and/or Works Performed

1)

LIST OF PERFORMER(S)/ORGANIZATION(S)

Participants: Kelly and Leon’s Minstrels; George Guy [baritone]; Sam S. [Ethiopian comedian] Purdy; Willie Guy [minstrel]; Francis Leon; Edwin Kelly; Dave [minstrel] Wilson

2)

aka bones solo

Participants: Dave [minstrel] Wilson

3)

Balloonists, The

Participants: Sam S. [Ethiopian comedian] Purdy

4)

Petit Faust, Le, [burlesque]

Participants: Sam S. [Ethiopian comedian] Purdy (role: Valentine ); Francis Leon (role: Marguerite); Edwin Kelly (role: Faust)

Citations

1)

Advertisement: New York Herald, 05 September 1870, 11.

2)

Announcement: New-York Daily Tribune, 08 September 1870, 8.

Names of principal members of the company; “manifestly a good organization of its kind.”

3)

Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 09 September 1870, 4.

Much of the first ¾ of this review is illegible on the right side of the column in the “America’s Historical Newspapers” database. It concludes: “We would much rather remark on the merits than the faults of the minstrels. They are jovial souls, and they sometimes help us to laugh at care. Yet, since it is possible to be funny without being foul, we must remind them that even negro minstrels have no immunity from the obligations of refinement.—The visitor to Messrs. Kelly & Leon’s hall will particularly enjoy the comicality of Mr. Purdy, in the farce of ‘The Balloonists,’ and the flavor of Ethiopian character which marks the antics of Mr. Dave Wilson. There is quite a large band, at this hall, and, with a little more novelty and variety, its entertainment would be of the best available order in this particular line of merry-making.”