ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

From America to England
William John Bullock’s Royal Marionettes opened at St. James’s Hall, London, in
July of 1872. A contemporary arts newspaper, The Era, advertised an evening of “the
most marvelous Fantoccini, Blondin’s tight rope feats, the amusing Contortionist,
‘Chorus Tommy,’ etc. Also the Great Troupe of Christy Minstrels [sic] the funniest
Niggers in the World.” 26 He would continue to advertise his miniature blackface players
with the namesake of E. P. Christy’s company throughout his career.
The band of blackface players that began with E. P. Christy, George Harrington,
and T. Vaughn, and whose popularity later standardized the classic minstrel “line,”
visited London in 1857. 27 At least fourteen years before their English tour, the “Christys”
were presenting full minstrel shows with an apparently high level of sophistication.
According to H. P. Grattan’s 1882 article in The Theatre: “The Orchestral implements of
the troupe (they all played double) were a banjo, a violin, a tambourine, a triangle, and
the immortal bones […] I not only laughed till my sides fairly ached, but […] I never left
an entertainment with a more keen desire to witness it again.” 28 The company brought a
fully detailed minstrel show to England, inspiring a lengthy history of marionette
26 W. J. Bullock, “Notice: The Royal Marionettes,” The Era 34 (London: 28 July 1872).
27 W. T. Lahmon Jr., Raising Cain (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998), 59-60.
Since the 1800s, there has been much disagreement as to the originators of the “line.” Two companies
carried the name, The Virginia Minstrels, Dan Emmett’s and E. P. Christy’s. While Christy’s is likely not
the original, the summit of his popularity, and their ten-year New York residency, coincides with
establishing a standard band starring Mr. Interlocuter, Tambo, Bones, and Middlemen. See Hans Nathan,
Dan Emmett and the Rise of Early Negro Minstrelsy (Tulsa: University of Oklahoma, 1962), 143-46.
28
Quoted in: Hans Nathan, Dan Emmett and the Rise of Early Negro Minstrelsy (Tulsa: University
of Oklahoma, 1962), 145.
25