Milt G. Barlow (June 29, 1843 – September 27, 1904) was an American

blackface Blackface is the practice of performers using burned cork, shoe polish, or theatrical makeup to portray a caricature of black people on stage or in entertainment. Scholarship on the origins or definition of blackface vary with some taking a glo ...

comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...

and

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

popular in

minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist enter ...

and

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

shows over the latter half of the 19th century.

Early life

Barlow was born on June 29, 1843, at

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city coterminous with and the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the city's population was 322,570, making it the List of ...

.Monarchs of Minstrelsy from 'Daddy Rice' to Date (1911) by Edward Le Roy Rice He was the son of James Madison and Elizabeth Susan (née Barlow) Barlow.Barlow Genealogy (Susan Barlow Holmes webmaster) He was probably raised in the household of an uncle in

Harrison County, Kentucky Harrison County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 18,692. Its county seat is Cynthiana. The county was founded in 1793 and named for Colonel Benjamin Harrison, an advocate for Kentuc ...

, after his parents divorced and his father, a silversmith, relocated to

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

. At the age of twelve Barlow began working as a

printer's devil A printer's devil was a young apprentice in a printing establishment who performed a number of tasks, such as mixing tubs of ink and fetching type. Notable writers including Benjamin Franklin, Walt Whitman, Ambrose Bierce, Bret Harte, and Mar ...

for a newspaper in Cynthiana, the county seat of Harrison County some thirty miles north of Lexington. He was forced to abandon the job at age fourteen when it began to affect his health. Barlow spent the next few years working on a Missouri farm (possibly a relative's) before moving on to

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...

where he would resume working as a printer.

Military service

Barlow served in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

enlisting on April 23, 1861, at Louisville as a private with Company C of the First Kentucky Infantry. He would later serve with several Virginia cavalry companies before surrendering at Appomattox Court House in April 1865 along with the remnants of General

Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a general officers in the Confederate States Army, Confederate general during the American Civil War, who was appointed the General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate ...

's army.

Career

One of Barlow's earliest performances was in 1867 when he teamed up with James and William Arthur, a song-and-dance duo who called themselves the Barlow Brothers. Beginning in 1871 Barlow would play in such minstrel shows as the Jackson Emorsonians, Harry Robinson's Minstrels, Benjamin's New Orleans Minstrels, Haverly's Minstrels and Sweatman and Frasier's Minstrels. In 1877 he formed with George Wilson, George H. Primrose, and John T. West, the very successful Barlow, Wilson, Primrose and West Minstrels. In later years he would form shows with George Wilson and later yet with Wilson and Carl Rankin. Barlow also toured in a number of plays, usually playing African American slaves or former slaves. His most notably performances were in ''

Uncle Tom's Cabin ''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two Volume (bibliography), volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans ...

'' where he played the title role and in productions in which he played ''Old Black Joe'', a character he had created over the years. Milt G. Barlow was, for better or worse, considered one of the best "burnt-cork" actors of his day. His finale performances were in 1903 playing the Minister to Dahomey, in ''A Texas Steer'' productions.

Marriages

Barlow's first marriage to Martha Giles is something of a mystery for neither her nor their son Reginald's names appear in any early public record available to this writer. One source has suggested that Martha may have been a Canadian actress, though a large Giles family lived near his uncle William Barlow's farm in Harrison County, Kentucky, thus not far from Cynthiana. In the 1870 US census Barlow is listed as a resident of

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

with his wife Molly and one-year-old daughter Lillie. Ten years later census records have him living at his mother's boarding house in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River. Toledo is the List of cities in Ohio, fourth-most populous city in Ohio and List of United Sta ...

with his wife Mary and children, Lillie, age eleven and Harry, age nine. Molly and Mary were both born in Kentucky around 1847 and are possibly the same person, Mary Muir, a daughter of Samuel and Mary Cory Muir of

Paris, Kentucky Paris is a home rule-class city in Bourbon County, Kentucky, and the county seat. It lies northeast of Lexington on the Stoner Fork of the Licking River. It is part of the Lexington–Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2020, it ha ...

. Milt Barlow would later spend much of the year 1887 as a guest of New York's

Ludlow Street Jail The Ludlow Street Jail was New York City's Federal prison, located on Ludlow Street and Broome Street in Manhattan. Some prisoners, such as soldiers, were held there temporarily awaiting extradition to other jurisdictions, but most of the inmate ...

after a judge charged him with

contempt of court Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the co ...

for failing to make his

alimony Alimony, also called aliment (Scotland), maintenance (England, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Canada, New Zealand), spousal support (U.S., Canada) and spouse maintenance (Australia), is a legal obligation on a person to provide ...

obligations. Barlow married next actress Lilly (Lillie) Hall on March 14, 1888, a union that ended in divorce on January 20, 1899, after allegations of drunkenness and battery.

Death

Milton G. Barlow died of throat cancer on September 27, 1904, at the Home of the Incurables in New York City. He was survived by his former wives and children, though curiously Reginald is not mentioned in any of his obituaries. Both Harry and Reginald would follow their father's lead and take to the stage. After a distinguished military career

Reginald Barlow Reginald Harry Barlow (June 17, 1866, – July 6, 1943) was an American stage and screen character actor, author, and film director. He was a busy performer in Hollywood films of the 1930s. Early life A native of Cambridge, Massachusetts ...

would find success as a character actor on Broadway and in Hollywood. Harry Barlow's career mirrored more his father's, but was cut short by his untimely death in 1909. Harry's daughter, Violet Muir Barlow (1901–1963) was a vaudeville and nightclub entertainer known for her comedy dance routines. Violet also appeared in several motion pictures in the 1930s and '40s.imdb.com

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barlow, Milt G. Male actors from Lexington, Kentucky 1843 births 1904 deaths 19th-century American male actors American male stage actors Blackface minstrel performers