Frank Dumont (January 25, 1848 – March 17, 1919) was an American

minstrel show The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of theater developed in the early 19th century. The shows were performed by mostly white actors wearing blackface makeup for the purpose of portraying racial stereotypes of Afr ...

performer and manager.Rice, Edward Le Roy
Monarchs of minstrelsy, from "Daddy" Rice to date
p. 198 (1911)Finding Aid: Collection 3054 - Frank Dumont (1848-1919) - Minstrelsy Scrapbook
, by the

Historical Society of Pennsylvania The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a historic research facility headquartered on Locust Street in Center City Philadelphia. It is a repository for millions of historic items ranging across rare books, scholarly monographs, family chron ...

(2004)(17 March 1919)
Frank Dumont, Noted Minstrel, Dies At Theatre

Evening Public Ledger The ''Public Ledger'' was a daily newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, published from March 25, 1836, to January 1942. Its motto was "Virtue, Liberty, and Independence". It was Philadelphia's most widely-circulated newspaper for a period, but ...

Life

Dumont was born in

Utica, New York Utica () is the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most populous city in New York, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 census. It is located on the Mohawk River in the Mohawk Valley at the foot of the Adiro ...

, on January 25, 1848. He started performing in minstrel shows as early as 1862, and worked with a number of groups, including

Duprez & Benedict's Minstrels Duprez & Benedict's Minstrels were an United States, American minstrel show, minstrel group led by Charles H. Duprez and Lew Benedict, which enjoyed its greatest popularity in the late 1860s and 1870s. Background Charles H. Duprez began performi ...

from about 1869 to 1881. He eventually founded "Dumont's Minstrels", around 1895/96, after purchasing the Eleventh Street Opera House in Philadelphia. He authored many sketches and songs for the genre. One

afterpiece An afterpiece is a short, usually humorous one-act playlet or musical work following the main attraction, the full-length play, and concluding the theatrical evening.p24 "The Chambers Dictionary"Edinburgh, Chambers, 2003 This short comedy, farce ...

he wrote was later expanded into a successful 1884 play, '' A Parlor Match''. After the Opera House closed circa 1909, Dumont acquired Dime Museum at Ninth and Arch Streets and renamed it "Dumont's Theatre".Frank Dumont
Northern Illinois University Libraries -- House of Beadle & Adams Online -- The Authors and Their Novels, Retrieved November 3, 2011 He died in the box office of the theatre on March 17, 1919, during the opening number of that afternoon's matinee show.(26 May 1939

''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''(26 February 1929)
Noted Shrine of Minstrelsy Ends Career
''Providence News'' (noting fire that burned down Dumont's Theatre, 1929) He is interred at

Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery, also called Laurel Hill East to distinguish it from the affiliated West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, Bala Cynwyd, is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls, Philadelphia, East Falls neighborhood ...

in Philadelphia. Dumont's 1899 work "The Witmark amateur minstrel guide and burnt cork encyclopedia" is a valuable resource on the history of American minstrelsy. Dumont wrote in 1915 that he had been the first to perform two classic 19th century standards, " Silver Threads Among the Gold", and "

When You and I Were Young, Maggie "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (or simply known as "Maggie") is a folk song, popular song, and standard written by George W. Johnson and James Austin Butterfield. Origin Although Springtown, Tennessee, has a small monument outside an old m ...

".Dumont, Frank (27 March 1915)
The Younger Generation in Minstrelsy and Reminiscences of the Past
, ''

New York Clipper The ''New York Clipper'', also known as ''The Clipper'', was a weekly entertainment newspaper published in New York City from 1853 to 1924. It covered many topics, including circuses, dance, music, the Outdoor recreation, outdoors, sports, and ...

'' ("Dumont was the first to sing "Silver Threads Among the Gold," for whom it was written by H. P. Danks. He also first introduced "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" as the Duprez & Benedict’s Minstrels programs, dated, will show and the still living members of that celebrated troupe remember well.")

Pat Chappelle Patrick Henry Chappelle (January 7, 1869 – October 21, 1911),Lynn Abbott, Doug Seroff''Ragged But Right: Black Traveling Shows, Coon Songs, and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz'' University Press of Mississippi, 2009, pp. 248-268.

commissioned Dumont in 1900 to write ''A Rabbit's Foot'', a comedy-based show that became a hit and led to the creation of Chappelle's " Rabbit's Foot (Comedy) Company." Chappelle was the first black owner of a vaudeville company with an all-black cast, and utilized upscale performers that helped him dominate the southwest and southeastern areas of the U.S. and also traveled to

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, New York,

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

. Lynn Abbott, Doug Seroff, ''Ragged But Right: Black Traveling Shows, Coon Songs, and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz''
Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2009, pp.248-289 He died in 1919 and was interred at

in Philadelphia.

References

External links

* Dumont, Frank
The Witmark Amateur Minstrel Guide and Burnt Cork Encyclopedia
(1899) (full copy online) * Th
Frank Dumont Minstrelsy Scrapbook 1850-1902
containing more than 50 years of documentation about minstrelsy and its origins, is available for research use at the

.
The Younger Generation in Minstrelsy and Reminiscences of the Past
, by Frank Dumont, ''New York Clipper'', March 27, 1915 {{DEFAULTSORT:Dumont, Frank Blackface minstrel performers 1848 births 1919 deaths 19th-century American singers 19th-century American male singers 20th-century American singers 20th-century American male singers American theatre managers and producers Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia) Musicians from Utica, New York Singers from New York (state)