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106:-themed song and dance as the main focus, and sets and costumes came to mimic fancy European powdered wigs and eveningwear. Only the (sometimes) blackfaced endmen kept the new troupe from severing its ties to minstrelsy completely. George Thatcher, one of the troupe members who became a partner of Thatcher, Primrose & West (and later had his own troupe), explained later that "We were looking for novelty, and for a change tried white minstrelsy." When
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had refined all the fun out of it. Minstrelsy in silk stockings, set in square cuts and bag wigs is about as palatable as an amusement as a salad of pine shavings and sawdust with a little salmon, lobster, or chicken. ... What is really good is killed by the
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left the troupe in 1882, Primrose and West did away with plantation and blackface material completely. In its place, audiences witnessed such upper-class pursuits as
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troupe ownership with a refined, high-class approach that signaled the final stage in the development of minstrelsy as a distinct form of entertainment.
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Nevertheless, Primrose and West's approach caught on, and the blackface act continued only with minor troupes and as a regular fixture of
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73:. That year, they both quit when their demands for more pay were not met. They formed their own company, which largely copied
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90:'s British Minstrels, then on a U.S. tour. Primrose and West adopted Hague's techniques of ultra-refinement:
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George
Primrose was mentioned in song as "Georgie Primrose" in the "Minstrel Number" during the 1954 movie
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122:. Primrose and West had a hit, and they came to be called "The Millionaires of Minstrelsy".
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with its elaborate sets and visual spectacle. The troupe proved so successful that in 1879,
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gave them a front-page story, treatment normally reserved for famous actors and actresses.
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1882. Newspaper clipping from "How Burnt Cork Pays". Quoted in Toll 154.
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In 1877, Primrose and West were playing with a minstrel troupe owned by
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Still, traditional blackface entertainers disliked the new approach.
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July 1893. Clipping from "Dockstaders Ideas". Quoted in Toll 154-5.
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Program for
Thatcher, Primrose & West's Minstrels, late 1800s.
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Blacking Up: The
Minstrel Show in Nineteenth-century America
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216:Blackface minstrel managers and producers
49:song-and-dance team made up of partners
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94:and high-class music played by a large
86:In 1881, the pair became familiar with
57:. They later went into the business of
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202:. New York: Oxford University Press.
75:Haverly's United Mastodon Minstrels
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30:George H. Primrose and Billy West
129:remarked that Primrose and West
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221:Blackface minstrel performers
16:American song-and-dance team
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226:Blackface minstrel troupes
198:Toll, Robert C. (1974).
236:American comedy troupes
55:William H. "Billy" West
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231:American comedy duos
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43:Primrose and West
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104:African American
45:was an American
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148:White Christmas
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51:George Primrose
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127:Lew Dockstader
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134:surroundings.
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71:J. H. Haverly
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120:yacht racing
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116:lawn tennis
112:fox hunting
108:Milt Barlow
80:The Clipper
210:Categories
193:References
140:vaudeville
100:low comedy
167:Toll 155.
98:replaced
96:orchestra
88:Sam Hague
47:blackface
59:minstrel
65:History
118:, and
92:Ballet
155:Notes
102:and
53:and
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142:.
114:,
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