Between the Covers

Unbound. Broadside on yellow paper using a variety of show types. Measuring 6" x 19". Publication information is tiny and obscured, but appears to be in Tennessee. A couple of old irregular folds, small chip in upper left corner, tiny tack holes in upper margin, very good or better. The manager, African-American Lew Johnson (listed at the bottom of the broadside), ran the all-black troupe intermittently between 1876 and 1884, with the name changing constantly, the version that toured under this name seems to have been active about 1881. He originally ran the troupe to capitalize on the success of other Tennessee Jubilee singers, but vacillated between running the troupe as "authentic plantation" singers or as comic minstrels, depending on the fashion any given day and the expected audience. He eventually disbanded the troupe in 1884. *OCLC* locates no copies.

Item #435555