Frank Brower
Encyclopedia
Francis "Frank" Marion Brower (November 20, 1823 – June 4, 1874) was an American
blackface
performer active in the mid-19th century. Brower began performing blackface song-and-dance acts in circuses and variety shows when he was 13. He eventually introduced the bones
to his act, helping to popularize it as a blackface instrument. Brower teamed with various other performers, forming his longest association with banjoist Dan Emmett
beginning in 1841. Brower earned a reputation as a gifted dancer. In 1842, Brower and Emmett moved to New York City. They were out of work by January 1843, when they teamed up with Billy Whitlock
and Richard Pelham
to form the Virginia Minstrels
. The group was the first to perform a full minstrel show as a complete evening's entertainment. Brower pioneered the role of the endman.
After a successful tour in the British Isles, Brower returned to the United States and teamed with Emmett and other blackface performers for a time. In the 1850s, he left minstrelsy to work in the Tom shows based on Uncle Tom's Cabin
. He returned to minstrelsy briefly as the decade closed and nostalgia for the old minstrel show came into fashion. In 1867, Brower retired from show business and opened a saloon.
. Brower claimed to have learned to dance from black people, and he took to doing song-and-dance blackface performances in circuses and theatres. For the 1840 season, Brower toured with the Cincinnati Circus Company, paired with a banjoist named Ferguson. The two became the stars of the show.
In 1841, Brower teamed up with banjoist Dan Emmett
, who had been playing banjo in the circus orchestra. Brower took up the playing of the bones
, making him one of the earliest to marry the instrument with blackface theater. The following season, Brower and Emmett toured with Raymond and Waring's Circus. The duo became well known, and Brower earned a reputation as a first-tier dancer. Brower's introduction of acrobatic leaps to the stage caught on with other blackface performers. His act was well enough known that Master Juba
(William Henry Lane) did an impression of Brower dancing (an 1845 playbill for the Ethiopian Minstrels, with whom Juba was touring, lists Brower as the fifth ranked dancer in Juba's show).
In November 1842, Brower and Emmett moved their act to New York City. They played a variety house called the Franklin Theatre in Chatham Square
and added a young dancer named Pierce to the act. Emmett likely played banjo as Brower and Pierce danced. All three likely sang. The New York Herald
on December 4, 1842 called Brower "the perfect representation of the Southern Negro characters". By mid-December, Brower quit the trio, but he and Emmett had reteamed by January 1 in a show billed as "Negro Holiday Sports in Carolina and Virginia".
, and Billy Whitlock
—to form the Virginia Minstrels
, the first group of blackface performers to put on a full minstrel show
. Brower took the role of one of the minstrel endmen and played the bones
. His performance style was characterized by wild poses and antics while he played, and he and fellow endman Dick Pelham, the featured dancers, broke into "Virginia Breakdown" dances. Brower wrote some songs for the troupe, including "Old Joe" in 1844; he did a stump speech
called "Definition of the Bankrupt Laws".
joined Cooke's Circus. He and Emmett eventually returned to the United States, arriving on October 7, 1844. They found two more blackface performers and formed a new band, playing at the Lyceum Hall
in Salem, Massachusetts
, on October 23. The group traveled to Boston and played the Melodeon
as the "Legitimate Ethiopian Band". Emmett and Brower toured together on and off into 1846.
In 1854, Brower took the role of Uncle Tom
in the Bowery Theatre
's Tom show staging of Uncle Tom's Cabin
(a role vacated by Thomas D. Rice
). The production, dubbed "Happy Uncle Tom" featured Brower as a deaf Uncle Tom and relied on broad humor about deafness for its appeal. Brower also performed a banjo song and jig during the show. Brower briefly returned to minstrelsy in the late 1850s when several companies introduced a nostalgic
program derived from minstrelsy's early years. For example, in January 1859, he joined Sanford's Opera Company in Philadelphia for a two-week engagement during which he did his "original Tom Dance and Reel". The Sanfords gave him a benefit in October 1855. "Uncle Frank" Brower retired from show business in 1867. He spent his final years running a saloon
. Brower died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, on June 4, 1874.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
blackface
Blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
performer active in the mid-19th century. Brower began performing blackface song-and-dance acts in circuses and variety shows when he was 13. He eventually introduced the bones
Bones (instrument)
The bones are a musical instrument which, at the simplest, consists of a pair of animal bones, or pieces of wood or a similar material. Sections of large rib bones and lower leg bones are the most commonly used true bones, although wooden sticks shaped like the earlier true bones are now more...
to his act, helping to popularize it as a blackface instrument. Brower teamed with various other performers, forming his longest association with banjoist Dan Emmett
Dan Emmett
Daniel Decatur "Dan" Emmett was an American songwriter and entertainer, founder of the first troupe of the blackface minstrel tradition.-Biography:...
beginning in 1841. Brower earned a reputation as a gifted dancer. In 1842, Brower and Emmett moved to New York City. They were out of work by January 1843, when they teamed up with Billy Whitlock
Billy Whitlock
William M. "Billy" Whitlock was an American blackface performer. He began his career in entertainment doing blackface banjo routines in circuses and dime shows, and by 1843, he was well known in New York City. He is best known for his role in forming the original minstrel troupe, the Virginia...
and Richard Pelham
Richard Pelham
Richard Ward "Dick" Pelham , born Richard Ward Pell, was an American blackface performer. He was born in New York City....
to form the Virginia Minstrels
Virginia Minstrels
The Virginia Minstrels or Virginia Serenaders was a group of 19th century American entertainers known for helping to invent the entertainment form known as the minstrel show...
. The group was the first to perform a full minstrel show as a complete evening's entertainment. Brower pioneered the role of the endman.
After a successful tour in the British Isles, Brower returned to the United States and teamed with Emmett and other blackface performers for a time. In the 1850s, he left minstrelsy to work in the Tom shows based on Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman....
. He returned to minstrelsy briefly as the decade closed and nostalgia for the old minstrel show came into fashion. In 1867, Brower retired from show business and opened a saloon.
Early life and career
Francis Marion Brower was born on November 20, 1823, in Baltimore, Maryland. Brower began his career at age 13, first performing at Dick Meyer's Third and Chestnut Streets Museum in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
. Brower claimed to have learned to dance from black people, and he took to doing song-and-dance blackface performances in circuses and theatres. For the 1840 season, Brower toured with the Cincinnati Circus Company, paired with a banjoist named Ferguson. The two became the stars of the show.
In 1841, Brower teamed up with banjoist Dan Emmett
Dan Emmett
Daniel Decatur "Dan" Emmett was an American songwriter and entertainer, founder of the first troupe of the blackface minstrel tradition.-Biography:...
, who had been playing banjo in the circus orchestra. Brower took up the playing of the bones
Bones (instrument)
The bones are a musical instrument which, at the simplest, consists of a pair of animal bones, or pieces of wood or a similar material. Sections of large rib bones and lower leg bones are the most commonly used true bones, although wooden sticks shaped like the earlier true bones are now more...
, making him one of the earliest to marry the instrument with blackface theater. The following season, Brower and Emmett toured with Raymond and Waring's Circus. The duo became well known, and Brower earned a reputation as a first-tier dancer. Brower's introduction of acrobatic leaps to the stage caught on with other blackface performers. His act was well enough known that Master Juba
Master Juba
Master Juba was an African American dancer active in the 1840s. He was one of the first black performers in the United States to play onstage for white audiences and the only one of the era to tour with a white minstrel group...
(William Henry Lane) did an impression of Brower dancing (an 1845 playbill for the Ethiopian Minstrels, with whom Juba was touring, lists Brower as the fifth ranked dancer in Juba's show).
In November 1842, Brower and Emmett moved their act to New York City. They played a variety house called the Franklin Theatre in Chatham Square
Chatham Square, Manhattan
Chatham Square is a major intersection in Manhattan's Chinatown. The square lies at the confluence of seven streets: Bowery, East Broadway, St. James Place, Mott Street, Oliver Street, Worth Street and Park Row. The postal ZIP Code is 10038.-History:...
and added a young dancer named Pierce to the act. Emmett likely played banjo as Brower and Pierce danced. All three likely sang. The New York Herald
Herald
A herald, or, more correctly, a herald of arms, is an officer of arms, ranking between pursuivant and king of arms. The title is often applied erroneously to all officers of arms....
on December 4, 1842 called Brower "the perfect representation of the Southern Negro characters". By mid-December, Brower quit the trio, but he and Emmett had reteamed by January 1 in a show billed as "Negro Holiday Sports in Carolina and Virginia".
The Virginia Minstrels
That same month, Brower and Emmett were out of work. They joined two other blackface performers—Richard PelhamRichard Pelham
Richard Ward "Dick" Pelham , born Richard Ward Pell, was an American blackface performer. He was born in New York City....
, and Billy Whitlock
Billy Whitlock
William M. "Billy" Whitlock was an American blackface performer. He began his career in entertainment doing blackface banjo routines in circuses and dime shows, and by 1843, he was well known in New York City. He is best known for his role in forming the original minstrel troupe, the Virginia...
—to form the Virginia Minstrels
Virginia Minstrels
The Virginia Minstrels or Virginia Serenaders was a group of 19th century American entertainers known for helping to invent the entertainment form known as the minstrel show...
, the first group of blackface performers to put on a full minstrel show
Minstrel show
The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....
. Brower took the role of one of the minstrel endmen and played the bones
Bones (instrument)
The bones are a musical instrument which, at the simplest, consists of a pair of animal bones, or pieces of wood or a similar material. Sections of large rib bones and lower leg bones are the most commonly used true bones, although wooden sticks shaped like the earlier true bones are now more...
. His performance style was characterized by wild poses and antics while he played, and he and fellow endman Dick Pelham, the featured dancers, broke into "Virginia Breakdown" dances. Brower wrote some songs for the troupe, including "Old Joe" in 1844; he did a stump speech
Stump speech (minstrelsy)
The stump speech was a comic monologue from blackface minstrelsy...
called "Definition of the Bankrupt Laws".
Later career
When the Virginia Minstrels broke up in 1843, Brower and banjoist Joel SweeneyJoel Sweeney
Joel Walker Sweeney , also known as Joe Sweeney, was a musician and early blackface minstrel performer. Born to a farming family in Buckingham County, Virginia, he claimed to have learned to play the banjo from local African-Americans and is the earliest documented white banjo player...
joined Cooke's Circus. He and Emmett eventually returned to the United States, arriving on October 7, 1844. They found two more blackface performers and formed a new band, playing at the Lyceum Hall
Lyceum Hall
Lyceum Hall is an historic site at 49 Lisbon Street in Lewiston, Maine.The hall was built in 1872 and added to the National Historic Register in 1986....
in Salem, Massachusetts
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...
, on October 23. The group traveled to Boston and played the Melodeon
Melodeon (Boston, Massachusetts)
The Melodeon was a concert hall and performance space in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts, located on Washington Street, near West Street...
as the "Legitimate Ethiopian Band". Emmett and Brower toured together on and off into 1846.
In 1854, Brower took the role of Uncle Tom
Uncle Tom
Uncle Tom is a derogatory term for a person who perceives themselves to be of low status, and is excessively subservient to perceived authority figures; particularly a black person who behaves in a subservient manner to white people....
in the Bowery Theatre
Bowery Theatre
The Bowery Theatre was a playhouse in the Bowery neighborhood of 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 populist, pro-American management of Thomas Hamblin in the 1830s and 1840s...
's Tom show staging of Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman....
(a role vacated by Thomas D. Rice
Thomas D. Rice
Thomas Dartmouth Rice was a white performer and playwright who used African American vernacular speech, song, and dance to become one of the most popular minstrel show entertainers of his time.-Background:...
). The production, dubbed "Happy Uncle Tom" featured Brower as a deaf Uncle Tom and relied on broad humor about deafness for its appeal. Brower also performed a banjo song and jig during the show. Brower briefly returned to minstrelsy in the late 1850s when several companies introduced a nostalgic
Nostalgia
The term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form.The word is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of , meaning "returning home", a Homeric word, and , meaning "pain, ache"...
program derived from minstrelsy's early years. For example, in January 1859, he joined Sanford's Opera Company in Philadelphia for a two-week engagement during which he did his "original Tom Dance and Reel". The Sanfords gave him a benefit in October 1855. "Uncle Frank" Brower retired from show business in 1867. He spent his final years running a saloon
Bar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
. Brower died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, on June 4, 1874.