Wood's Minstrels

“The ladies are great patrons of Wood’s Minstrel Hall, its elegance and convenient arrangements having especially won their approbation. As for the performances, well, they are unexceptionable in matter and manner. . . . The way they burlesque ‘Othello’ is a caution to Shakespeare.”

VENUE NOTE. “Wood’s Minstrel Hall” Long description of the hall itself and of a minstrel show. “[The] opening scene reveals the company strong like black beads in line, each ready to sparkle in his turn. The first half-hour illustrates African aristocracy, with shirt-frill corresponding to high sentiment, and dress suits indicating the social consequence of the members. Subsequently democracy sets in, to an extent which Mr. Eph Horn illustrates by snapping his leg like a whip-lash, and by sundry other dark-complexioned drolleries too funny in their execution to be interfered with by description. He represents the volatile and irresponsible darkey; Mr. Charley Fox is the contemplative and transcendental offset; and one is no less comical than the other. The programme is always interspersed with instrumental fragments which give it variety; and the celerity with which the pieces follow one another allows no opportunity for the attention of the audiences to grow cold. The regular attendance at Wood’s Minstrel Hall is overflowing, and prosperity here appears to follow, as is usual in New-York, the genuine endeavor to deserve it.”