Irving Sayles
Irving Sayles (1872 – 8 February 1914) was an African-American vaudeville entertainer. He spent much of his life in Australia as a popular minstrel show performer, touring the Tivoli circuit. He performed coon songs and employed a self-deprecating humor involving comic interpretations of plantation slavery that reinforced negative racial stereotypes.
Early years and work in Australia[edit]
Irving Sayles was born in Quincy, Illinois, to Melinda (née Wilson) and Josephus Sayles.[1] He reported his year of birth as 1872. He became a member of Haverly's United Mastodon Minstrels at a young age.[2] In 1888 he traveled to Australia as part of the Hicks-Sawyer Minstrels,[3] the second company that minstrelsy manager Charles Hicks brought to Australia. That September, the group played the Opera House in Sydney, where Sayles performed a solo piece and played the tambourine. Following a leg in Tasmania, Hicks wrote in 1890 that Sayles was the hit of their trip, saying that "[h]is song, 'Father of a Little Black Coon,' gets three and four encores nightly."[4] After the minstrel group broke up in 1890, Sayles went to Melbourne, where he worked for Frank Clark.[4] He met Charlie Pope and the two formed a double act, with Pope playing the straight man. They worked for theatre owner Harry Rickards.[2]
Later life[edit]
Sayles entered Australia prior to the White Australia policy and the Immigration Restriction Act 1901. He participated in amateur races[5] and in 1897 he married Englishwoman Edith Carter in Melbourne.[1] From 1909 until his death he partnered with Les Warton.[6] He made a long run as the cornerman "Tambo" and appeared on the cover of Theatre magazine in 1911.[7]
Death[edit]
Sayles died suddenly from a blood clot on 8 February 1914 in Christchurch, New Zealand, after performing on the Brennan-Fuller vaudeville circuit as part of Fuller's Vaudeville Company. He was 42.[1][8] He was buried in Linwood.[9]
Notes[edit]
- ^ a b c "Death certificate of Irving Sayles". Nugrape.net. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
- ^ a b "Irving Sayles". History of Australian Theatre Archive. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
- ^ Waterhouse, Richard (October 1989). "Minstrel show and vaudeville house: The Australian popular stage, 1838–1914∗". Australian Historical Studies. 23 (93): 366–385. doi:10.1080/10314618908595819.
- ^ a b Abbott, Lynn; Seroff, Doug (2009). Out of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular Music, 1889-1895. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-60473-039-5.
- ^ "Pedestrianism". The Sydney Morning Herald. 9 August 1895.
- ^ "Irving Sayles". Australian Variety Theatre Archive. 2011-04-27. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
- ^ "Irving Sayles a Unique Record", The Theatre, 1 April 1911. pp. 32–33.
- ^ "Irving Sayles: Death at Christchurch". The Argus. 10 February 1914.
- ^ "Death of Irving Sayles: A noted Vaudeville Performer", The Theatre, March 2, 1914, pp. 38–39.
References[edit]
- Norman, Charles (1984). When Vaudeville Was King: A Soft Shoe Stroll Down Forget-Me-Not Lane. Melbourne: Spectrum Publications. pp. 9–10. ISBN 978-0-86786-067-2.
- Waterhouse, Richard (1990). From Minstrel Show to Vaudeville: The Australian Popular Stage, 1788-1914 (1st ed.). Kensington, NSW, Australia: New South Wales University Press. ISBN 978-0-86840-100-3.
Further reading[edit]
- Bellanta, Melissa. "Irving Sayles: The black American who became an Australasian vaudeville star", The Vapour Trail, 9 February 2009.