Irving Sayles (1872 – 8 February 1914) was an African-American vaudeville entertainer. He spent much of his life in Australia as a popular minstrel show performer, touring the Tivoli circuit. He performed coon songs and employed a self-deprecating humor involving comic interpretations of plantation slavery that reinforced negative racial stereotypes.
Irving Sayles was born in Quincy, Illinois, to Melinda (née Wilson) and Josephus Sayles. [1] He reported his year of birth as 1872. He became a member of Haverly's United Mastodon Minstrels at a young age. [2] In 1888 he traveled to Australia as part of the Hicks-Sawyer Minstrels, [3] the second company that minstrelsy manager Charles Hicks brought to Australia. That September, the group played the Opera House in Sydney, where Sayles performed a solo piece and played the tambourine. Following a leg in Tasmania, Hicks wrote in 1890 that Sayles was the hit of their trip, saying that "[h]is song, 'Father of a Little Black Coon,' gets three and four encores nightly." [4] After the minstrel group broke up in 1890, Sayles went to Melbourne, where he worked for Frank Clark. [4] He met Charlie Pope and the two formed a double act, with Pope playing the straight man. They worked for theatre owner Harry Rickards. [2]
Sayles entered Australia prior to the White Australia policy and the Immigration Restriction Act 1901. He participated in amateur races [5] and in 1897 he married Englishwoman Edith Carter in Melbourne. [1] From 1909 until his death he partnered with Les Warton. [6] He made a long run as the cornerman "Tambo" and appeared on the cover of Theatre magazine in 1911. [7]
Sayles died suddenly from a blood clot on 8 February 1914 in Christchurch, New Zealand, after performing on the Brennan-Fuller vaudeville circuit as part of Fuller's Vaudeville Company. He was 42. [1] [8] He was buried in Linwood. [9]
Irving Sayles (1872 – 8 February 1914) was an African-American vaudeville entertainer. He spent much of his life in Australia as a popular minstrel show performer, touring the Tivoli circuit. He performed coon songs and employed a self-deprecating humor involving comic interpretations of plantation slavery that reinforced negative racial stereotypes.
Irving Sayles was born in Quincy, Illinois, to Melinda (née Wilson) and Josephus Sayles. [1] He reported his year of birth as 1872. He became a member of Haverly's United Mastodon Minstrels at a young age. [2] In 1888 he traveled to Australia as part of the Hicks-Sawyer Minstrels, [3] the second company that minstrelsy manager Charles Hicks brought to Australia. That September, the group played the Opera House in Sydney, where Sayles performed a solo piece and played the tambourine. Following a leg in Tasmania, Hicks wrote in 1890 that Sayles was the hit of their trip, saying that "[h]is song, 'Father of a Little Black Coon,' gets three and four encores nightly." [4] After the minstrel group broke up in 1890, Sayles went to Melbourne, where he worked for Frank Clark. [4] He met Charlie Pope and the two formed a double act, with Pope playing the straight man. They worked for theatre owner Harry Rickards. [2]
Sayles entered Australia prior to the White Australia policy and the Immigration Restriction Act 1901. He participated in amateur races [5] and in 1897 he married Englishwoman Edith Carter in Melbourne. [1] From 1909 until his death he partnered with Les Warton. [6] He made a long run as the cornerman "Tambo" and appeared on the cover of Theatre magazine in 1911. [7]
Sayles died suddenly from a blood clot on 8 February 1914 in Christchurch, New Zealand, after performing on the Brennan-Fuller vaudeville circuit as part of Fuller's Vaudeville Company. He was 42. [1] [8] He was buried in Linwood. [9]