File:James Mackin and Francis Wilson.jpg

Identifier: recollectionsofp00wils (find matches)
Title: Recollections of a player
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Wilson, Francis, 1854-1935
Subjects: Actors and actresses
Publisher: New York : Printed at the De Vinne Press
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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, in which everybody joined except theman with the broken leg and the individual whohad gone through the big drum — which hadmade a sad spectacle of its invaders nose. I did not regret leaving the circus, for I was notfar from Mackin, who was awaiting me at Indi-anapolis. We there agreed to tour the countryunder the professional name of Mackin and Wil-son, and devote ourselves entirely to minstrelsy. Mackin was a very clever dancer, and together welabored very hard and successfully to make a goodbusiness reputation. We decided to add a gymnastictrick or two to our songs and dances, and many werethe weary hours given up to somersaults, flipflaps,and neck-springs, which were practised for weekstogether in an abandoned ice-house on the outskirtsof Indianapolis. We were a merry crowd of boysin that ice-house, as two or three of Indianapolissmost respected merchants, who, as youngsters, be-came capital gymnasts, will testify. Mackin andI soon won recognition as capable artists, our first
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r I ir MACKIN AND WILSON. Recollections of a Player. 19 success being made at the Howard Athensum,Boston, when it was under the management ofthat Mrs. Partington of the drama, John Stetson,and it was not long before we were called to NewYork to join Birch, Wambold, and Backuss SanFrancisco Minstrels. After a long term before metropolitan audiences,we were complimented with enough public favorto insure ourselves ready engagement in any ofthe first-class minstrel organizations, and the lateTom Maguire, whose name is associated withthe early dramatic history of the Pacific Coast, sum-moned us to San Francisco to become members ofone of the most notable minstrel companies everorganized. Under the leadership of Billy Emer-son, the Big Sun-Flower and NicodemusJohnson man, who with his sweet voice andgraceful dancing was then a great favorite through-out the country, we played for some months inSan Francisco, in the little hall on Bush Street,between Kearney and Montgomery, now known asthe S

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