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THE BANJO NOW IN FASHIONTheatrical Stars anil Social Leaders Who Strum Its Resonant String*.Who ever faucied a score of years ago, when some dear old Uncle Remus, whom all the children and dogs on the. plantation adored, sat picking at his banjo by the light of the little cabin lire or strumming the same instrument in the soft Southern moonlight while the other darkies sang the plaintive songs of their captivity to the twanging strains, that the banjo would ouo day become the fashion? Whoso imagination ever pictured a future for that mdo instrument in which fair white lingers would evoke from it sweet strains, when it would rival in popularity the guitar, the harp and the zither, and would bo found in Rings’ palaces, played upon by Princes! Yet this is just what has come to pass. Now is tho era of the banjo. From the very primitive instrument fashioned and played upon by the negroes of the South has been evolved a graceful, beautiful creation of fine wood and silver and snowy parchment. It is rich with carving, delicately inlaid with moLher-of-pearl. Sometimes It Is jeweled. The fair player hangs it over her shoulder by a silken scarf. It is packed in a softly-lmed case of beautifully-dressed leather. It often costs as much as would have kept a plantation of darkies jolly for a year in the days when the humble prototypo of this splendid evolution of the darkies* banjo was the only “piece** of music at their revels.It is now some thirty years since the Dobson brothers, live in number, began to create tho popularity of the banjo. They gave concerts all over the country and finally in Europe. Professionals began to seek instructions, and amateurs sprang up everywhere. Suddenly society “discovered** it, and its fortune was made. For some years past it has fairly raged in American drawing-rooms. Maids and matrons alike have toyed with it. displaying more or less sirill, according to the patience with which they havo studied. C. Edgar Dooson, the sou of the original Dobson, has an establishment at 120 West Forty-second street, where l.e gives instruction in banjo playing. He is a young man, but has already at one time or another taught most of the amateurs and a good many of tho professional players. Ho was born and brought up in an atmosphere of banjos. He gave Ellen Terry lessons during her first season in New York, and speaks of her us a most delightful and indefatigable pupil. She has a seventy-five dollar “Echo” banjo. Lotto, who is a little banjo crank and has nn fewer than live instruments, has taken lessons at different times. Estelle Clays on. who plays nicely, is a pupil of the present representative of i the family. So is Carrie Swayuc, who has a two-hundred dollar banjo.Among other professionals who play the banjo are Mi'S. Langtry, Helen Sedgwick. Royal Moss, Myra Goodwin, Dave Wain-bold, Denman Thompson, Clara Louise Kellogg, Christine f Nilsson, Emma Abbott. Capoul, Mrs. James Brown Potter, Emmet, Tony Pastor and James S. Burdette. The late Lester Walltu-k played the banjo with considerable skill, as did also E. L. Davenport.—The Indicator.
Newspaper Details
Waterbury Evening Democrat
Waterbury, Connecticut, US
Fri, Oct 18, 1889
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
George R.
USA 26 Feb 2023
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