Bicycle Club’s Minstrel Show

by Laurel | August 31st, 2009

August 31, 1895, page 6

The Holyoke Opera house was crowded last night at the bcycle club’s minstrel show. The performance was well arranges and was equal to a first-class professional minstrel show. The company was finely costumed and the overture gave an opportunity for some good singing by Herbert Rollins, George King, B. F. Lynch, F. J. Fitzgibbon, A. Laneau, George Hart and M. Geoffrion. There were some good jokes made, one being on Kamp Komfort Klub of this city, which was likened to the Holyoke architects because both could draw good houses. Some of the officers and members of the Kamp Komfort Klub occupied a box and then resented a large floral horse shoe to the minstrels. E. K. Collings made a speech between the 1st and 2d part on “Love and other things.” The specialties included a serpentine dance by Robert J. Desmond, whistling by Frank McCabe, a bicycle performance by Lew Hart and a speech by F. J. McCarty. The double quartet gave “A jolly good time.” One of the best things on the program was a drill by the “bicycle club swells.” Irving Bolt gave several female impersonations. The Keefe brothers work in the “Silent pastime” introduced several good acrobatic feats. The entertainment ended with a selection by the Crescent banjo quartet and the plantation sketch in which nearly every member of the company took part.

From The Springfield Republican.

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