Krystyn R Moon, David Krasner, and Thomas L. Riis
FORGOTTEN MANUSCRIPTS: A Trip to Coontown
Finding A Tríp to Coaitovai, by Krystyn R. Moon
By 1897, most American audiences had had an opportunity to see African
Americans perform on the stage during the previous thirty years. Hired by
European American agents and managers, they were expected to reproduce many
of the songs and skits that had been made famous in blackface minstrelsy in new
theatrical genres, such as variety and vaudeville. Others were forming their own
concert companies to do a variety of popular and high-art music, and writing and
singing ersatz spirituals, "coon songs" {i.e., black dialect numbers), and sentimental
Victorian tear-jerkers. These had all become popular thanks to writers/performers
such as Ernest Hogan, Sam Lucas, and Gussie Davis, among others.^ It is within this
context that Bob Cole and Billy Johnson's A Trip to Coontownfirst appeared on the
stage during the 1897-98 season. Although African Americans had written numerous
short theatrical and musical works, none had written a full-length musical production.
To add to its historical significance, A Trip to Coontown was performed, directed, and
produced by African Americans, an astounding feat in an era where few independent
theaters could even consider taking a chance on such a production. Unfortunately,
the play—like so many other nineteenth-century African American documents and
artifacts—was lost, and scholars could only make conjectures (based mainly on
newspaper reviews) about what it looked and sounded Mke.
My interest in finding A Trip to Coontown began when Jack Tchen, director of
Asian/Pacific/American Studies at New York University, contacted me about writing
a short essay on "The Wedding of the Chinee and the Coon" (1897), a song that
was originally written for the play. My own research on the dynamics of American
Orientalism had uncovered the practice of African Americans in yellowface starting
in tbe late nineteenth century, but I had not thoroughly explored this particular song.
"The Wedding of the Chinee and the Coon" is an extraordinary piece of music about
a series of comedie mishaps during a wedding of a Chinese immigrant woman and
an African American man. Because the song was written and performed by African
Americans, it was more than a comedie ditty that perpetuated African American and
Chinese immigrant stereotypes. To address interracial marriage in a period when
African American men were lynched for merely looking at European American
women, "The Wedding of the Chinee and the Coon" is a bold political statement that
celebrates a future where interracial marriage is commonplace. Its performance in a
contemporary farce, chock-full of other racial impersonations, including Germans,
Italians, and "Hebrews," might also be viewed as an effort to move specifically
antiblack stereotypes out of the spotlight.^
As a historian, I was intrigued by "The Wedding of the Chinee and the Coon,"
and wanted to see whether the musical play for which it was originally written would
shed any further light on the intent of the songwriters. In A Trip to Coontown, Cole
and Johnson reworked a skit originally titled At jolly Coon-ey Island that Cole had written
for Black Patti's Troubadours (the operatic variety company formed by Sissieretta
Jones) and named the new production to spoof one of the most popular musicals of
the 1890s, A Trip to Chinatown (1891).^ Despite positive reviews in the fall of 1897,
Cole was unable to produce his work except in third-rate American and Canadian
African Amenoen Rev/ew44.1-2 (Spring/Summer 2011): 7-24
© 2011 Krystyn R. Moon, David Krasner, and Thomas L. Riis
theaters over the course of several weeks. By the end of the nineteenth century', the
theater industry was owned and operated by a handful of European American men
who could blacklist any performer and destroy his/her career. Not until after World
War I did actors and writers have some success unionizing, but African Americans
were almost unilaterally excluded. Cole's previous employers organized a boycott of
Cole and Johnson's play because they chose to work independently. Despite this
hurdle, its success grew, and Klaw and Erlanger, one of the major theatrical booking
agencies in New York City, finally broke the boycott in April 1898 and opened A Trip
to Coontown at the Third Avenue Theater.'^ A Trip to Coontown toured the United States
for three years and appeared in New York City two more times before it closed
(WoU 5-6,12-13).
In order to make sure that A Trip to Coontown did not exist, I checked every possible
library and archive noted for its African American musical and theatrical collections.
The institution nearest to my home was the most fruitful—^the library of
Congress. With assistance from Mark Horowitz, from the Performing Arts Division,
and Alice Lotvin Birney, from the Manuscripts Division, I first looked at the Library's
Copyright Deposit Drama Readers Collection, but I found nothing. Then, I was
horrified to learn from Birney that a zealous administrator had destroyed most of
the Library's nineteenth-century dramatic holdings about twenty-five years ago in an
attempt to clean out its storage facility, and if Cole and Johnson had deposited a
copy of their play, it probably did not survive (Conversation n. pag.). When nothing
turned up, Horowitz recommended that I continue searching and visit the U. S.
Copyright Office to check whether A Trip to Coontown had even been copyrighted and
if so, whether they had a copy.
On the fourth floor of the Madison Building at the Library of Congress is a
room filled with card catalogs. In a digital age, card catalogs may seen quaint, but
this room has a different purpose—its contents are the records of every copyright
application in the United States from 1870 through 1977.^ The U. S. Copyright
Office has hardly any visitors anymore, and the majorit)' of those who do visit it are
copyright lawyers or staff at the Library of Congress. Sadly, scholars appear to have
forgotten about the Copyright Office and its usefulness, but it is this room that ultimately
led me to discover the lost manuscript for Bob Cole and Billy Johnson's A Trip
to Coontown.
Near the back waU of this vast sea of card catalogs are two large red volumes,
entitled Dramatic Compositions Copyrighted in the United States, 1870-1917. Despite their
size and color, you would almost miss them (I did several times until the reference
librarian helped me). For those of us who work in the history of the performing
arts in the United States during the turn of the twentieth century, these books are
quite useful. They list every kind of dramatic performance, both published and
unpublished, that was copyrighted during this period, giving an exact copyright date,
number, and name(s) of the copyright's owner(s). As part of any application, the
copyright claimant was to submit two copies, one to be housed as part of the Library
of Congress's collections and another to be held by the Copyright Office to be used
in the event of copyright infringement.
There it was! A Trip to Coontown was copyrighted on September 27,1899 (Reg.
No. 62711).^ Although the play was written two years earlier, it is possible that Cole
waited until the show was a success before feeling the need to have it protected by
copyright. The precise reason for the delay, however, is ultimately unknown. Scholars
know tihat scripts such as Cole's were continuously modified, and songs and skits
would be cut and then new ones added. Still, Cole would have submitted the most
complete script that he had, which most likely had parts from the 1897-1898 season,
including "The Wedding of the Chinee and the Coon."
With A Trip to Coontown\ copyright information in hand, Birney put me in contact
with Frank Evina, Senior Public Information Specialist at the U. S. Copyright
Office, to request a special search for the original copyright application. All copyright
N=R\CAN AMERICAN REVIEW
applications are housed at Iron Mountain, a former mine in western Pennsylvania
that is considered to be one of the most secure, privately run archives in the United
States (Haynes n. pag). Special searches at Iron Mountain are not free—the U. S.
Copyright Office charged me $150 and said that it would take at least four to six
weeks. There was also, of course, no guarantee that they would find anything, but
Evina believed—based on his own searches through the copyright applications—
that there would be something relevant. A couple months after I had completed my
essay on "The Wedding of the Chinee and the Coon," the U. S. Copyright Office
contacted me that it had indeed found A Trip to Coontown.
There is much more in the text of A Trip to Coontown that further demonstrates
how this production played to and against stereotypes of African Americans during
the late nineteenth century. Our purposes, however, were in introducing readers to
the text and in further expanding the existing conversation regarding the aspirations
of African Americans, the creative process, and practices thereto during this period.
Although Cole and Johnson faced a resistant theatrical establishment, they nevertheless
found a way to the successful production of their musical. Ultimately, their
willingness to def)' theatrical, and racial convention makes them pioneers in American
music and theater, and leaders of many of today's actors and writers.
The Genius of Bob Cole, by David Krasner
I he most important individual engineering the success of A Trip to Coontown was
•i Bob Cole (1868-1911). He was born in Athens, Georgia, the son of Robert
Cole, Sr., a carpenter and political activist. His first stage appearance was in Chicago
with Sam T. Jack's The Creole Show in 1891. In 1893 Cole paired up with his dancing
and singing partner, Stella Wiley, performing in vaudeville. In 1895 he returned to
Jack's Creole Show, this time, not only as an actor, but also as a "stage manager,"
which in today's vernacular means director. Despite his success. Cole was dissatisfied
with the depiction of African Americans by whites. He made several attempts to
form an all-black theater company and an all-black theater school called the All-Star
Stock Company. His aim was to train black performers by developing a high-quality
st}'le of entertainment that countermanded the prevalent and debasing minstrel stereotj^
e. In 1895, Cole joined the Black Patti Troubadours as performer and songwriter
(he would later team up with another pair of Johnson brothers, J. Rosamond and
James Weldon, to produce a string of hits for popular singers such as May Irwin
and Marie Cahill). Cole was also a choreographer, staging the musical numbers in
his shows. He was a fine singer and excellent dancer, a popular comic, and was
known to play several musical instruments. By 1896, his musical arrangement and
performance in the Black Patti Troubadours' production of At jolly Coon-ey Island
had become enormously popular. The success of the show prompted Cole to ask
for a raise for the company of black actors and musicians. When he was denied.
Cole bolted from the show, bringing along with him several others. It was at this
time that he created A Trip to Coontown (1897-1901) along with the comedian-partner
Billy Johnson. In estabüsliing the production company for A Trip to Coontown, Cole
enunciated his goals: "We are going to have our own shows. We are going to write
them ourselves, we are going to have our own stage managers, our own orchestra
leader and our own manager out front to count up. No divided houses—our race
must be seated from the boxes back" (qtd. in Foster 48)
One of the remarkable features of A Trip to Coontown is Bob Cole's performance,
in which he portrays WLUie Wayside, an inebriated tramp. One reviewer notes two
features of Cole's performance that stand out: the actor is praised for his comic talent,
and Cole is in whiteface makeup:
FORGOTTEN MANUSCRIPTS: A TRIP TO COONTOWN
Photo of Cole as
Willie Wayside
Bob Cole, who plays Willie Wayside,
the tramp, in a white make-up which
makes it almost impossible to guess his
particular tint, is quite the equal as a
comedian of either Dan Daly or Walter
Jones, while he has more distinction
than either of them and is funnier than
[Hap] Ward and [Harr>'] Vokes rolled
together. [Cole] showed last night that
he is capable of playing any white part
far better than most Negro comedians
playing black ones. (Rev. 5)^
The suggestion that white actors might
actually "learn" from Cole may have had
far-reaching consequences. Cole was one
of the first actors to employ the "hobo"
persona, the tramp figure that would take
hold of American audiences' imaginations
during the early twentieth century. By the end of the Civil War, it became evident
that railroads would be the dominant means of transportation. The railroads thus
emerged as one of the key features of American economic growth. Furthermore,
owing to transcontinental travel, the railroad made travel attractive, relatively safe,
affordable, and comfortable—and far speedier than covered wagons. The discovery of
gold in California encouraged further migration. The Gilded Age, with its emphasis on
entrepreneurial individualism, inspired the "gold" rush to wealth. Such motivations,
however, also left many victimized by scams. It was not uncommon for people to
leave home and family to find fortunes, only to discover failure and nowhere to
return. The combination of train travel and poverty quickly coalesced, creating the
image—and the reality—of drifters hopping freight cars. These railcar travelers
soon captured the imagination of writers and actors, estabMshing the romanticism
of down-and-out "hobos."
Cole's performance, I suggest, inspired popular hobo clowns Emmett Kelly and
Charlie Chaplin, as well as several others.^ The development of the tramp character
was not unique to Cole; other actors were adding to this popular mythology of the
happy-go-lucky wanderer. But Cole's performance has received far less attention.
This is unfortunate, because Cole was a highly popular actor. Thomas Riis observes
that Cole "stands tall in the middle of a somewhat neglected generation. One of
several performer/composers who were recognized as leaders in his day, his presence
was important, perhaps even critical, to the development of black musical theater"
(RÜS 135).
Hobo "roodessness" becomes more complicated when African American history
is considered. Blacks experienced three major migrations: slavery; during the post-
Reconstruction era (c. 1876-1910); and during the civil rights movement. In the latter
two cases, black moved north by railcar in large numbers, seeking work in industrial
cities and escaping Southern oppression. Langston Hughes termed these major
movements as "Bound No'th Blues," and Jacob Lawrence created a series of migration
paintings in honor of the travelers. Although Cole would eventually drop the tramp
character in his later shows, the breakthrough performance in A Trip to Coontown
established the black hobo character to black and white audiences.
Another significant feature of Cole's performance was his makeup. The quote
from the Freeman review above reports that Cole "plays Willie Wayside, the tramp, in
white make-up, which makes it almost impossible to guess bis particular tint." Cole's
performance follows the long history of stereotypes associated with African
Americans: drunkenness, laziness, conniving, and craving chicken. For instance, in a
AFRICAN AMERICAN REVIEW
musical score titled A Trip to Coontown Grand Finale (located in the Moorland-Spingarn
Research Center, Howard University), the unknown author (probably Cole) remarks
on the stage directions: "Tramp exits and returns with chicken .. . Tramp assumes a
comical attitude with chicken." Chickens would have been quickly recognized by
audiences as a staple of the minstrel caricature. Yet Cole's "white make-up" complicates
the obvious relationship between blacks and the semiodc "chicken." Who is
Willie Wayside racially, and what does his race mean in association with racial clichés?
If the white makeup means Cole is a "white" tramp, what does this say about WiUie
Wayside? Are the stereot)'pes associated with blacks—laziness, chickens, and buffoonery—
now white caricatures? The makeup, I submit, makes a subde commentary
on blacks and stereotyping. Given the restrictions on African American performers at
the time. Cole was limited in what he could do. How could Cole defeat caricatures in
this climate? By putting on white makeup and acting the clownish minstrel caricature
with a chicken. Cole was making a sophisticated, albeit subde challenge. Do whites
carry chickens, too? As I have noted elsewhere.
Acting in whiteface was indeed a bold act, an articulation of racial difference that dislodged
a colonial representation that for generations framed the idea of race. In creating new signifiers.
Cole interrupted the continuit)' of minstrelsy's semiotic tradition. . . . Cole's whiteface
performance disrupted the fixed stereotype, creating a transience that interrupted the steady
stream of cultural signifiers aimed at reducing African Americans to ridicule. (Krasner 32)
Cole's performance, I contend, was a subde but brilliant attack on racism; audiences
could assume that Cole—a known black actor—is sdll the stereotype, but the
ambiguous makeup sends a second signal to audiences that assumpdons are not
necessarily true.
Cole had made prescient remarks on the state of affairs he faced and the hope
for the future. He said in his essay that the "greatest dramas of Negro life will be
written by Negroes themselves, and I think the day not far off when the American
public will witness a play by American Negroes" (Cole, "The Negro" 5). Cole is one
of the pioneers of African American theater and hopefully the discovery of this
manuscript will sdmulate attendon to this remarkable figure.
The Music of Coontown, by Thomas L. Riis
I he songs in A Trip to Coontown, while typical of their dme in many respects,
J L reveal something about the disdncdve creadve touch of their composer and
lyricist. Billy Johnson is usually credited with the lyrics only, and Robert "Bob" Cole
with the music, although the roles were somedmes combined or exchanged. Before
the emergence of a full script, the evidence in hand suggested that Coontown was Htde
more than an impromptu assemblage of farcical skits and ordinary songs bathed in
racial clichés. A startling cridque, which appeared in a New York newspaper in 1900,
its author unidendfied, suggests quite another image, however:
Something was constantly doing, and if there had ever been any superfluous or stupid lines
or situations, they had long since been rooted out. The speeches of Bob Cole especially, as
the tramp, were uniformly rich, with touches of the nature which lies deeper than pigment,
and the quick gleaming flashes came with an invariably irresistible quiemess and unction.
(Anon. n. pag.)
This descripdon of a subdy dmed pantomime would seem to be at odds with
the noisy music and jumpy gestures that were the order of the day for most shows in
the blackface minstrel tradidon. It is likely that this cride, repordng in 1900, saw the
third or fourth edidon of the show, so the performance was surely a road-tested one,
FORGOTTEN MANUSCRIPTS: A rRIP TO COONTOWN 11
and the play he heard evidently strongly resembled the original version. Between 1897
and 1900, Cole, in whiteface makeup, acted the part of a tatterdemalion with props,
including a live dog named Bo and a rubber chicken suitable for waving during the
final reprise of the concluding song, "All I Wants Is My Chickens." It is difficult to
imagine anything other than buffoonery at this point, yet evidently more was heard
by audiences.^
Most of the songs in Coontown are less striking for their modernity or charm than
their "coon song" words. Such songs are usuaUy made in standard forms and speak
a familiar tonal language, as they depict a series of stereotypical situations featuring
dice, razors, watermelons, and random acts of mayhem. Cole's tunes are pleasant
and singable, with infectious rhythms, mildly flavored with ragtime syncopations.
Johnson's rhymes are sometimes clever but often forced. The songs contain two or
more narrative verses followed by a rousing chorus. The balanced verse/refrain forms,
exuding a generally carefree spirit, conform to the normal recipe. So much is not
surprising.
But the songs of A Trip to Coontown, taken together, are distinctive in several
respects. They vary in topic, tempo, and function, and their use in the play suggests a
grander, even mildly subversive, agenda that may help to explain the critic's effusiveness.
Cole and Johnson apparendy sought to demonstrate that black singers could
work cooperatively to bring off nothing less than a complete and balanced musical
banquet—a full evening's entertainment beholden to neither self-mocking minstrel
show ditties, nor pious religious folk songs (so-called Negro spirituals), which had
captivated white audiences of the previous generation to the exclusion of almost
every other African American musical accomplishment (Peterson 359-61).'^ In order
to understand the extent of their achievement, we need to examine the total product
noting the absence of these older types of song.
That A Trip to Coontown turned out so well is doubly surprising, because its genesis
was somewhat haphazard. Only a handful of the songs were written specifically
for the 1897-98 season. Some had been created for Cole's earlier efforts, such as the
skits he directed with the Black Patd Troubadours and his New York friends at the
All-Star Stock Company in 1895. To beef up the musical menu, tunes by other
composers—one attributed to Bert Williams, another by the vaudeville dance team
of Deas and Wilson, and arrangements made by Willis Accooe, the show's music
director in its second touring season—^were also added. Some dozen songs were
placed in the first act, while fewer were sung in the second, so as to allow the interpolation
of Tom Brown's ethnic impersonations and operatic arias by classically
trained vocalists, Lloyd Gibbs and Desseria Plato. (Black opera singers came into
vogue periodically, when such luminaries as Matilda Sissieretta Jones (1869-1933),
also known as "the Black Patd," gained wide public attention.)
Once the show left New York in the autumn of 1898 for a second triumphant
touring season. Cole and Johnson advertised in the New York Clipper (September 24)
a set of additional songs for sale, presumably written to replace the weaker numbers in
the original run. Such substitution was also standard operating procedure. Producers
of early American musical theater neither expected nor especially prized a full
evening's work dominated by a single composer. Indeed, such a production would have
struck most Broadway aficionados of the 1890s as woefully lacking in imagination
and excitement. Some thirty songs were used altogether during the four years of the
show's run, including interpolations by actors who were not original members of
the cast.
The creative team for most shows was exacdy that, a group of contributors which
consisted of singers, tunesmiths, pianist-arrangers, comedians, dancers, actor-managers,
and whatever other hot talent—even acrobats, jugglers, and animal acts—was available
for booking. Concocting a potpourri of fresh acts to entice new ticket-buyers
was a preeminent goal for an ambitious impresario.
I
12 AFRICAN AMERICAN REVIEW
Along with the practical desire to offer a crowd-pleasing show, BiUy Johnson
and Bob Cole were dedicated "race men," which is to say, they were committed to
presenting African American entertainers in the most favorable and impressive light,
minimizing stereot\'pes and demeaning situations related to African Americans. But
they also introduced a plethora of different racial take-offs—using Asian, Arab, and
Spanish motifs, among others, in playful ways. They included the widest possible
variety of popular styles, rehearsed diligendy, and performed at the highest level of
qualit\' possible, with the goal of building a diverse entertainment, if not a color-bHnd
Although the songs that came to be associated with A Trip to Coontown cannot be
exhaustively interpreted in this brief introduction, there is no doubt that Cole and
Johnson achieved a signal triumph with the show by successfully embedding a wide
range of musical t^fpes, lyrical styles, dramatic attitudes, and individual characterizations.
VC illiam Foster recounted its seminal impact over twent\' years later in his memoir
"Pioneers of the Stage," included in the 1928 edition of Official Theatrical World of
Colored Artists., an important industry directory (Foster 48). With script and song list
finally in hand, there is still much to explore in this provocative, century-old show.
1. This is not the place for a lengthy survey on the history of African American music and theater in the Notes
late nineteenth century, but I would like to direct readers to several important texts. See Thomas L. Riis,
Justbefore Jazz:Black TheaterinNew York, /Ä90-/9/5(Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 1994); David Krasner,
Resistance, Parody, and Double Consciousness in Afiican American Theatre, ¡895-19 (New York: Palgrave, 1997);
Andrew Ward, DarkMidnight WhenlRise: TTie Story of the Jubilee Singers Who Introduced the World to the Music
of Black America (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2000); Geneva Handy Southall, Blind Tom, The Black
Pianist-Composer (1849-1908): Continually Enslaved (New York: Scarecrow, 2002); Lynn Abbot and Doug
Serofî, Out of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular Music, 1889-1895 (Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2009).
2. Chinese immigrant caricatures were quite common in African American musicals during this period.
The majority were similar to that produced by whites, and were usually set in either a laundry or restaurant
where comic patter was driven by intercultural conflict. See Krystyn R. Moon, Yellowface: Creating the
Chinese in American Music and Performance, 1850s-1920s (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2005), 133-42.
3. A Trip to Chinatown was loosely based on the popularity of Chinatown as a tourist destination starting
in the 1890s.
4. The Third Avenue Theater was still a small-time theater, far from Broadway. The week of April 4
usually contained Passover and Easter, the slowest theater week of the season.
5. The years 1978 to the present are available online at www.copyright.gov.
6. There is a copyright application number for A Trip to Coontown dated 1897 in Dramatic Compositions,
but the copyright research staff told me that only the 1899 apphcation number would be of use.
7. Dan Daly was a popular vaudevillian known as "the eccentric comedian" because it was said no one
could imitate him. He belonged to a well-known theatrical family (his two sisters married Ward and Vokes).
Walter Jones was noted for his "tramp" character. The comic duo of Ward and Vokes (a.k.a. Harry Laughlin)
were also referred to as "eccentric."
8. Emmett Kelly's character was called "Weary Willy." The suggestion of Cole's influence on Emmett
Kelly and Charlie Chaplin was brought to my attention by Marvin McAllister, author of White People Do
Not Know How to Behave at Entertainments Designed for Ladies and Gentleman of Colour: William Brown's African
& American Theater (Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 2003). I am grateful for his original insight.
9. Cole broke with his first partner Billy Johnson after 1900 and at the close of A Trip to Coontown. Cole
then teamed up with another set of Johnson brothers, J. Rosamond and James Weldon. It is these latter
Johnsons with whom Cole wrote several more hit songs and at least two more successful operettas over
the next decade. The standout song hits, "Under the Bamboo Tree," "My Castle on the Nile," and "The
Maiden with the Dreamy Eyes," were all the products of this latter partnership.
10. The full panoply of Cole and Johnson's musical inclusiveness is discussed in detail in Thomas L. Riis,
More than Just Minstrel Shows: The Rise of Black Musical Theatre at the Tum of the Century, I.S.A.M. Monographs:
Number 33 (Brooklyn, NY: Institute for Studies in American Music, 1992), 8-22.
11. Jones had few peers, and with Gibbs and Plato, has nearly been lost to history. She performed in the
most prestigious venues in America and Europe, and received invitations to sing at the White House and
before members of the British aristocracy, among other honors. See John Graziano, "The Early Life and
FORGOTTEN MANUSCRIPTS: A TRIP TO COONTOWN 13
Career of the 'Black Patti': The Odyssey of an Afncan American Singer in the Late Nineteenth Century,"
Joumal of the American Musicohgica! Sodety 53.3 (Fall 2000): 543-96.
12. See Thomas Riis, Just Before Jazz: Black Musical Theater in New York, 1890 to 1915 (Washington, DC:
Smithsonian Institution, 1989), 77-78.
Works Anon. Newspaper clipping. 6 Feb. 1900. Harvard Theatre Collection. Pusey Library, Harvard University.
Cited Bimey, Alice Lotvin. Conversation with author. 31 July 2008.
Cole, Robert 'Bob'. A Trip to Coontown. New York: Howley, Haviland, 1897.
—•. "The Negro and the Stage." Colored American Magazine A.Ji (January/February 1902): 301-06.
Foster, Will. "Pioneers of the Stage: Memoirs of William Foster." The Official Theatrical World of Colored
Artists \.\ (April 1928): 48.
Haynes, Gary "Under Iron Mountain: Corbis Stores 'Very Important Photographs' at Zero Degrees
Fahrenheit." National Press Photographers Association. January 2005. Web. 1 Aug. 2008.
Krasner, David. Resistance, Parody, and Double Consciousness in African American Theatre, 1895-1910. New York:
St. Martin's, 1997.
Peterson, Bernard L., Jr. A Century ofMusicals in Black and White. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1993.
Rev. of A Trip to Coontown, by Bob Cole. Indianapolis Freeman 16 Apr. 1898: 5.
Riis, Thomas L. " 'Bob' Cole: His Life and His Legacy to Black Musical Theater." The Black Perspective in
Music 13.2 (FaU 1985): 135-50.
WoU, Allan. Black Musical Theatre: From Coontown to Dreamgirls. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1989.
14 AFRICAN AMERICAN REVIEW
An Excerpt from Act 1, scene 1 of A TríptoCacutawr^
SUas,Jr.2
Ah, there they go with Capt. Fleetfoot and his war, and the chances are that the only
war he knows anything about is the South before the war. But I wonder if Fannie is
in the bunch? Her mother has promised to set the dog on me the next time I came,
but I must see her at all hazzards [si^.^
(FANNIE enters)
Ah, young lady! I was just looking for you. Your mother still objects to my calling,
I suppose?
Fannie
Yes, and its unfortunate that I dropped my handkerchief and come in search of it.
Silas Jr.
And why unfortunate?
Fannie
Well, my mama says she doesn't want you to call any more and—
(MRS. B. enters)
Mrs. B.^
Fannie!
Fannie
Yes, Mama.
Mrs. B.
Is this the way you obey my orders?
Fannie
Well, Mama -
Mrs. B.
Shut up. Miss! And you, sir, have I not told you that I wished no such person as you
are, to associate with my daughter? Have I not forbade you railing?
Silas, Jr.
WeU, Madame—
Mrs. B.
Madame nothing! Have I not forbade you caUing? Answer my question!
Suas, Jr.
Oh, don't speak that way! You frighten me! You see, I had good news for the girls.
Mrs. B.
Good news for the girls? That seems to be chronic with all young men.
Silas, Jr.
Oh, yes, I am troubled with chronic cheerfulness.
Mrs. B.
Sir?
Silas, Jr.
Well, I thought that news might also interest you.
FORGOTTEN MANUSCRIPTS: A TRIP TO COONTOWN 15
Mrs. B.
What news could you bring that could possibly interest me?
Silas, Jr.
Well, you see, I have a telegram from father stadng that he had received his pension
and would be home this afternoon.^
Mrs. B.
Yes? Well, how much was your father's pension?
Silas, Jr.
Oh, something more than $5000,1 think.
Mrs. B.
Well, Mr. Green, is a real good man and well deserving of success, and j'ou, my boy,
should shape your ufe now, so that you will be a comfort and joy to him in his old age.
I am going in the house now and make preparadon for him. Old man Green, is a
real good man, and I don't know that Silas is so bad after all!
(Exits)
Silas, Jr.
What a lovely disposidon your mother has, Fannie.
Fannie
Yes, and she has a lovely opinion of you.
I
Silas, Jr.
Oh, yes, since I mendoned the pension, but I guess she isright. No more race horsing.
No more staying out at night at the Young Men's Investment Club trying to make a
bob tail flush stand up for the real thing. Say, Fannie, have you ever taken one card
to a four heart flush and caught a club?
Fantiie
Why. What in the world are you talking about?
Silas, Jr.
Oh, I was talking about a friend of mine—Jack Pots.
Fannie
Jack Pots? Why I never heard of him!
Suas, Jr.
What, never heard of Jack Pots? Why you must be a stranger in—Well, I was talking
about—Just be seated and I will tell you.
{Song and exits) ^
(MRS. B. enters)
Mrs. B.
Oh, Girls! Giris!
(COMP. enters)
Comp.
Yes, we are coming!
Mrs. B.
Why, Silas's father has received his pension, and telegraphed that he would be home
this afternoon.
16 AFRICAN AMERICAN REVIEW
Comp.
Is that so?
{SILAS, JK enters)
Silas, Jr.
That's quite right, ladies. Father telegraphed that he would be home this afternoon,
and I am expecting him on the 2.30 train. I'll just go down the road and see if I can
meet him.
{SILAS, SK enters)
Comp.
Oh! Here's Mr. Green now!
Silas, Sr.
Well, children, I'm back again and I'm mighty glad to be here!
Silas, Jr.
How did you like Washington?
Silas, Sr.
Fine! Might fine!
Silas, Jr.
Well, who did you see in Washington, Dad?
Silas, Sr.
Oh, I seen the Capital, I seen Pennsylvania Avenue, and I shook hands with the
President of the United States.
Silas, Jr.
Say, Dad, who is President of the United States?
Silas, Sr.
Why, it's a man named a—a—Hannah—Hannah.^
{COMP. laugh)
And I seen lots of colored folks too; but the colored people there ain't like them
around here, 'cause every colored man in Washington plays the colored peoples'
national game.
Silas, Jr.
What game is that?
Silas, Sr.
Why, policy! Just gather round me, children, and I'll tell you all about it.
{Song}»
Silas Jr.
Here, Dad, here is your satchel.
Silas, Sr.
Yes, thank you, son. Now, children, I heard you all singing when I was coming up the
road yonder and it sounded mighty good; but these new fangled songs ain't nothing
like the old ones, such as "Suanee River," "Old Black Joe," "Massa'a in the cold, cold
ground" and so on. Thems the kind of songs I like to hear, and above all, there's one
song that always touches my heart and that's "My Kentucky Home."
Now, children, I brung you all a present.
FORGOTTEN MANUSCRIPTS: A TRIP TO COONTOWN 17
Comp.
Oh, give me mine now!
Silas, Sr.
No, run on in the house. I'll be in there, and give them to you.
{COMP. exits)
Capt. E
The Pension! Ah, well, I guess I'll go to Washington myself, and dig up a pension.
(Exits)
Silas Jr.
Come, Fannie, let me see what father has brought me.
Silas, Sr.
Yes, boy, go in the house and find my pipe for me.
Silas, Jr.
Ah! Ah! The pension must be working.
(Exits)
Mrs. B.
Now, Mr. Green, I want you to tell me all about Washington, what you did and who
you saw while there.
Silas, Sr.
Well, Mrs. Brown, Washington is a mighty funny place, and there's so many people
in Washington, I couldn't see nobody I know that after I got my pension though,
there was two mighty curious looking men following me, they were down to the
depot when I was leaving, but it made no difference to me, Mrs. Brown, 'cause I was
thinking of you all the while, and I made up my mind that as soon as I got back
here I was going to ask you a question.
Mrs. B.
Well, Mr. Green, there is no one here but you and I. What is it?
Silas, Sr.
But this is a very 'dcular quesdon, Mrs. Brown.
Mrs. B.
Yes! Well, what is it?
Silas, Sr.
Ah! Ah! You remind me so much of my first wife!
Mrs. B.
Yes, Mr. Green, and you remind me very much of my first husband, Fannie's father,
you know.
Silas, Sr.
Yes, ma'am, I heard people say that he was a very handsome man.
Mrs. B.
Well, what is it, Mr. Green? You haven't asked me it yet.
Silas, Sr.
Ah!—Ah! Mrs. Brown, you don't look like my second wife at all.
18 AFRICAN AMERICAN REVIEW
Mrs. B.
Well, you don't expect me to resemble your endre generadon, do you?
Silas, Sr.
Well, you know they say we all look alike, and I—I—^^
{SILAS, JK enters)
Silas, Jr.
Dad, where did you say the pipe was?
Silas, Sr.
Oh, the devil! Go upstairs in the cellar and get that pipe, and don't bother me!
{SILAS, JK exits)
Mrs. B.
Well, I am waidng, Mr. Green. Why, don't you ask me it?
Silas, Sr.
Oh, I'll ask you it! If it kills me! Oh, Mrs. Brown, here on my bended knees, I swear
to always—
{SILAS, JK enters)
Silas, Jr.
Oh, Dad!
{Interrupting [si^
Silas, Sr.
Confound that boy! I'm gwine to get him a job in the workhouse, so he'll have something
to do. Ah!—Come on, Mrs. Brown, I'll ask you this if I have to take you to
Cuba to do it.
{Exits)
{KUBE enters—song and dance—raps on door.) ^ ^
{MRS. BKOWN enters)
Rube
Ah, excuse me, Madame, but is this the residence of the Widow Brown?
Mrs.B.
Yes, I am Mrs. Brown.
Rube
Oh, you be?
Mrs. B.
Yes, I am.
Rube
Well, is there a gendeman stopping around here by the name of Silas Green?
Mrs. B.
Yes, Mr. Green boards with me.
Rube
Oh, he do?
Mrs. B.
Yes, he boards with me.
FORGOTTEN MANUSCRIPTS: A TRIP TO COONTOWN 19
Rube
WeU, kindly step in, Madame, and teU him there's a gentleman out here would Uke to
speak to him.
Mrs. B.
Won't you come in and see Mr. Green youself ?
Rube
WeU, I wiU, be gosh!
(Exit)
(FLAM. & WAYSIDE enter)
(Soni¡^^
Flam.
Now that we've expressed our sentiments, to business!
Way
To business, yes.
Flam.
The man that we are foUowing that's got the money that we are trying to get, is in
that house.
Way
What's his name?
Flam.
SUas Green.
Way
Who Uves in the bouse?
Flam.
Why, the Widow Brown!
Way
Widow Brown! Ah, weU, I wonder where Miss Blue Uves?
I
Flam.
Ah! Now this is no time for nonsense!
Way
It's about time we're eating, ain't it?
Flam.
Eating! Why, you're always thinking about eating!
Way
Yes, but don't you think a sandwich would make a Uttle change in my appearance
right about here?
Flam.
Now we must get a move on ourselves if we want to get to that old guy's money.
AFRICAN AMERICAN REVIEW
Way.
Yes, and I must get a move on myself too, if I want to get to something to eat.
Flam.
I've got a bonanza!
Way.
Give it to me quick, and let me eat it!
Flam.
Why, you don't eat bonanzas! Now, I discovered a deserted pleasure ground about
3 miles from here, and I've decided to rent it for a few days only and name it
"Coon-town," and I am sadsfied that we can get to that old guy's money if we can
get him interested in the affair.
Way.
I'm sadsfied that I could get some comfort, too, if I could get a sandwich interested
in my appedte.
Flam.
Ah! Never mind that, the place to which I refer is quite commodious; there's a spacious
house that I can easily convert into a hotel. The only inconvenience is that there is no
water there, and we must devise some scheme or other to get some water on the
premises.
Way
I must devise some scheme or other to get some food on my—
Flam.
Ah! Think about the money! Five thousand dollars! Why, if I can get two thousand
of that, it will bridge me over the winter.
Way.
Just give me fifteen cents! That will carry me until tomorrow night.
Flam.
You leave that to me. I'll see that you get carried.
Way.
Well, say, is the man in the house?
Flam.
Yes, I saw him go in there.
And he's got the money?
Flam.
Yes.
Way
Well, come on, and we'll go and get it.
Flam.
No, now don't you be too hasty! You lay in the background.
FORGOTTEN MANUSCRIPTS: A TRIP TO COONTOWN 21
Way.
Lay in the background?
Flam.
Yes, you lay in the background.
Way.
Well, where is the background?
Flam.
I mean, you must not be seen with me.
{COMP laughs)
Go ahead now! Get in the background? Hurry up! Hurry! Up! Some one's coming.
Get in the background. Hide! Hide! Hurry up!
Way.
WeU, I'll hide under here.
I
Flam.
Why, you can't hide under there! They'll see you. Here go in the dog-house.
Way
No, sir, I'm a gendeman!
' Flam.
Oh, a gentleman! What are you talking about? Come on, get in the dog-house.
1 Way.
Well, suppose the dog comes home while I am here?
Flim.
Well, he'll find his house occupied. Hurry up! Now lay dead, lay dead, here he comes.
I'll get him.
{SILAS, SK enters)
—^Why, how are you, Mr.—^Ah—Mr.—!
Silas, Sr.
Green—Green is my name, sir.
Flam.
Ah, yes,—Mr. Green—a little sudden, I know, but I recognized you from the back.
By the way, how is your—your—ah—
Silas, Sr.
My son, Silas? Oh, he's well.
Flam.
Yes, sir, your son, sir. Ah, he's a great boy, Mr. Green.
Silas, Sr.
Oh, does you know him, sir?
Flam.
Know him? Why, we used to sit on the same bench at Sunday School.
AFRICAN AMERICAN REVIEW
Süas, Sr.
Well, what is your name, sir?
Flam.
Why, my name is Jim Flimflammer.^^
Silas, Sr.
And what are you doing, Mr. FUmmy?
Flam.
Why, I am owner of a strip of land not far from here, Mr. Green. I've named it
"Coontown". I have also organized a company for the promodon of my Coontown
expedidons, which leave every Monday morning for the richest strip on the L.Y.M.
short line, situated four miles to the east of Lake No Water, and on the summit of
lowland mountain overlooking the most beaudful stretch of scenery man's eyes ever
beheld. In addidon to this, sir, you will find in the southeastern corner of my strip an
area of two miles yielding daily gold, silver, iron, copper, coal and several other valuable
minerals. You'll find fruits of all descripdons, including the red and rosy watermelon.
Silas, Sr.
Watermelons?^'*
Flam.
Yes, sir, the air is as fresh as the milk that comes from a Jersey cow, there are fourteen
mineral springs within 100 yards of a most magnificent hotel erected in the midst of
a beaudful garden of flowers, able to accommodate one thousand persons—for which
I charge nothing. Mr. Green, if you wül make the small investment of two thousand
dollars, and take a trip to Coontown with me, I will give you a written guarentee [sic\
of becoming a millionaire inside of two years. I will also issue dckets for yourself
and as many others as can be found in a day's walk, for it's the greatest thing that ever
happened, and here's your hat.
Mrs. B.
Mr. Green.
Silas, Sr.
Ma'am?
Mrs. B.
I'm waidng dinner for you.
Silas, Sr.
All right, ma'am. I'll be right in. Now, Mr. Flimmy, come in and have some dinner
with me and we will talk the scheme over.
Flam.
WeU, I am not hungry, Mr. Green, but I'll go in and join you anyway.
(GREEN exits)
You lay in the dog-house, now, you're a dog.
Way.
Ha?
Flam.
You're a dog!
(FLAM, exits)
FORGOTTEN MANUSCRIPTS: A TRIP TO COONTOWN
Notes 1. This scene is set on the lawn of Widow Brown's Boarding House in a suburb of New York City.
2. Silas, Jr. is the son of the musical's protagonist, Silas Green, Sr.
3. Captain Fleetfoot leads the Black Moguls, a send-up of ethnic-based militias founded in cities such as
New York and similar to those first created on the stage by Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart in the late
1870s. Fleetfoot opens the play with stories of questionable veracity about his heroics during the Civil War.
4. Mrs. Brown owns the boarding house where the Greens live and is Silas, Sr.'s love interest. She is also
the mother of Fannie.
5. Silas Green, Sr., had served in the Union Army during the Civil War and has gone to Washington, D.C.
to obtain a pension. The Dependent Pension Act (1890) had expanded the number of veterans and their
dependents who could receive a federal pension to any veteran who could not perform manual labor, had
served at least ninety days in the army, had been disabled for any reason (and not only through military
service), and had received an honorable discharge. It is not clear from the script what kind of disability that
Silas Green, Sr. had to receive his pension. In general, African American veterans had trouble obtaining a
pension and were often manipulated by white agents to defraud the U. S. Pension Bureau. See Donald R.
Shaffer, " 'I do not suppose that Uncle Sam looks at the skin': African Americans and the Civil War Pension
System, 1865-1934," Civil War History A6.2 (June 2000): 132-47.
6. In the version of the play performed at the Third Avenue Theatre, Silas, Jr. sings "I Hope These Few
Lines Will Find You Well" (1897), written by Bob Cole and Billy Johnson. It is presumable that they
wrote this song specifically for A Trip to Coontown, although the sheet- music version of this song does not
mention the production. Playbill, A Trip to Coontown, Third Avenue Theatre, New York, NY, week of
April 4, 1898, Clippings, Harvard Theatre Collection, Pusey Library, Harvard University; Bob Cole and
Billy Johnson, "I Hope These Few Lines Will Find You Well" (New York: Howley, Haviland, 1897),
Lester Levy Sheet Music Collection, Johns Hopkins University.
7. "Hannah" is a reference to Marcus Alonzo Hanna, a prominent Republican politician from Ohio who
had helped William McBCinley win the presidency in 1896 through his aggressive fundraising campaign.
At the time, he was seen as the mastermind behind McKinley's political success, revolutionizing the
American campaigning process. Political cartoonists, most notably Homer Davenport of William Randolph
Hearst's New York Evening Joumal, vilified Hanna's relationship with big business and the unprecedented
sums of money that he raised for McKinley. Hanna was also seen as one of the most influential politicians
during the McKinley administration.
8. It is unclear what Silas Sr. sang here, based on existing playbills, but he presumably sang something
about policy, an illegal lottery system that was popular among African Americans at the end of the nineteenth
century, in the production at the Third Avenue Theater. Flimflammer and Wayside, along with
two female chorus members, sing "(Play) 4-11-44," which is the number combination in policy that leads
to the biggest payout. In 1899, George Walker and Bert Williams would write The Policy Players, which
was their first full-length musical production together.
9. Blackface minstrels originally sang all of the songs that Silas, Sr. mentions here in the 1850s and 1860s.
The playbill from the Third Avenue Theatre has Lena Wiser, who played Fannie, singing Stephen Foster's
"My Old Kentucky Home" (1853), a sentimental treatment of slavery.
10. This comment refer? to Emest Hogan's "All Coons Look Alike to Me" (1896), one of the most popular
ragtime, or "coon" songs, of the late nineteenth century. The song ridiculed whites for their inability to tell
African Americans apart.
11. A Rube (also spelled Rueb) is a shortened version of "Reuben," and was a nineteenth-century slang
term to describe a country bumpkin. It is likely that Tom Brown, who played this Rube cis well as other
ethnic caricatures in the production, used whiteface.
12. In the Third Avenue Theatre version, Flimflammer and Wayside sing "Two Bold Bad Men." No copy
of this song appears to exist.
13. "Flimflammer" refers to a swindler or deceiver.
14. Cole and Johnson were poking fun at the common stereotype in blackface minstrelsy that depicted
African Americans as slaves happuy eating watermelon. Later in the production, the authors also poke
fun at the perception that African Americans like fried chicken.
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