George Kunkel (theatre manager): Difference between revisions

{{Short description|American theatreminstrel manager,show impresario,performer actor, singer-songwriter and playwright(1823–1885)}}[[File:George Kunkel.jpg|thumb|1853 lithograph of George Kunkel]]

As an entertainer, George Kunkel was a leading performer in [[minstrel shows]] of the 19th century, and was particularly associated with the role of [[Uncle Tom]]; a character he portrayed in [[blackface]]. After initially working as a printer in Philadelphia, he began his stage career in 1844 performing with the [[Virginia Minstrels|Virginia Serenaders]]. A talented [[bass (voice type)|bass]] vocalist, he wrote many of his own songs as well as music for other minstrel entertainers. In 1853 he established his own traveling minstrel show, Kunkel's Nightingale Serenaders (later known as George Kunkel's Nightingale Minstrels), for which he managed the performance and personnel aspects of the business with [[John T. Ford]] serving as the group' business manager. With Ford and [[Thomas L. Moxley]] (died 1890)<ref>{{cite news|title=Death of Original "Topsy"|work=[[Madison Daily Herald]]|date= July 8, 1890|page= 1}}</ref> as his occasional partners, he became a prominent theatre manager of the mid 19th century. Some of the theatres he managed included the [[National Theatre (Washington, D.C.)|National Theatre]] in Washington, D.C.,<ref name="Bogar">{{cite book|chapter=A Hotbed of Spies and Seditious Plots|title=Backstage at the Lincoln Assassination: The Untold Story of the Actors and Stagehands at Ford's Theatre|first=Thomas A.|last= Bogar|year=2013|publisher=Regnery Publishing|isbn=9781621571742|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WByBAgAAQBAJ&dq=%22Thomas+Moxley%22+%22Kunkel%22+%22national+theatre%22&pg=PT24}}</ref> the [[Richmond Theatre (Richmond, Virginia)|Richmond Theatre]], and multiple theaters in Baltimore.<ref name="obit"/><ref>{{cite news|title=Early Minstrelsy|work=[[Saint Paul Daily Globe]]|date= June 1, 1884|page= 11}}</ref>