Lew Dockstader (born George Alfred Clapp; August 7, 1856 – October 26, 1924) was an American singer, comedian, and

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic compositio ...

star, best known as a

blackface minstrel Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person. In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereo ...

show performer. Dockstader performed as a solo act and in his own popular minstrel troupe.

Biography

He was born George Alfred Clapp on August 7, 1856, in Hartford, Connecticut, to Chester Clapp and Sarah Reed. He married Lucin Brown on December 20, 1883, in Hartford and had a daughter, Mildred Havlin Clapp, who married Warren Palmer. He legally changed his name to Lew Dockstader in 1887. Coon Coon Coon sheet music cover 1901

In 1898 he teamed up with George Primrose to form Primrose and Dockstader's Minstrel Men, which toured the vaudeville circuit till 1904. He appeared on film in a number of comedy shorts from 1904 to 1907. On May 20, 1904 Dockstader was detained by the New York City Police Department for attempting to distribute a film "intended to caricature President Theodore Roosevelt and the office you hold." The film was "in the possession of the

Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invention ...

Kinetoscope people and, if they had not been taken in hand at once, would undoubtedly have had a wide circulation through the various agencies and mechanism of that large organization." Dockstader agreed to surrender the film to the New York City Police in exchange for the charges against him being dropped. Unfazed by his detention in 1904, in 1906 Dockstader began impersonating Theodore Roosevelt as part of his vaudeville show. He said Roosevelt had personally given him permission to do the impression. Three years later, while Roosevelt was in British East Africa as part of the Smithsonian–Roosevelt African Expedition he commissioned a writer to prepare a sketch entitled "Dockstader in Africa, or Rescuing Roosevelt". He failed to pay the writer and was sued for non-payment. The sketch was never performed. He played the title role in the 1914 feature

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...

"Dan". His wife died in 1919. In January 1923 he was injured in a fall in New Brunswick, New Jersey, from his nascent cancer. His last performance was at Keith's Star Theater in December 1923. He died on October 26, 1924, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

of bone cancer on his left leg, at age 68. His funeral was at

All Angels' Church All Angels' Church is located on 251 West 80th Street in the Upper West Side of New York City. It is a member of the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Communion worldwide. In 2020, it reported 406 members, average attendanc ...

and he was buried in Kensico Cemetery.

Performers with Dockstader's Minstrels

Will Oakland Will Oakland (January 15, 1880–May 15, 1956) was an American countertenor famed for his exceptionally high vocal range. He was born Herman Hinrichs in Jersey City, New Jersey, to German-American immigrant parents. Oakland began his music ...

* Al Jolson *

Cornelius J. O'Brien Cornelius J. O'Brien (1869 - January 14, 1954) was known professionally as Neil O'Brien. He was a vaudeville performer and a minstrel show performer. He worked with Lew Dockstader. Biography He was born in 1869 in Port Dickinson, New York. He j ...

References

External links

Short biography and sample recording from 1905 on Archeophone.com findagrave.com
1856 births 1924 deaths Blackface minstrel managers and producers Blackface minstrel performers Vaudeville performers American male comedians Comedians from Connecticut 19th-century American male singers Musicians from Hartford, Connecticut Burials at Kensico Cemetery {{US-singer-stub