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Stanly Enterprise: March 3, 1910 POLK MILLER With
banjo, song and story, Polk Miller, assisted by his comrade-in-arms and lifelong
friend, Colonel Tom Booker, of Amelia County, two Confederate veterans famous as
entertainers, will give Albemarle people a glimpse of the Old South in a concert
arranged for Tuesday night, March 15, at Opera House. It
is a melancholy thought, revived by the annual reunion of the “boys in grey”
that a few more years will see the last of the already thin line of those who
knew and lived in Dixie before the big war.
After that, nobody will be left to tell of the things that were except
the books. To the younger
generation, therefore, an entertainment by such as man as Polk Miller, a typical
gentleman of the “old School” means something more than merely an
evening’s amusement. Between the
jokes and funny stories will creep a more serious thought.
It may mean to many the last chance they will have of seeing the
ante-bellum South through the eyes of those who have not simply read and heard
of it but who have lived its life and shared its sorrows and joys. Mr. Miller has absolutely no rival in the delineation of the character of the ancient darkey and his songs and stories have delighted thousands of people even in the largest cities of the North. Ably assisted by Col. Booker he presents a program distinctly unique and wholly enjoyable. The ‘two old Confederates’ as they style themselves, make not make another ‘tour’ and there is every indication on the part of the people of Albemarle not to fail to take advantage of an opportunity that, a few years from now, may be forever beyond their reach. Stanly Enterprise: March 10, 1910 POLK MILLER- QUARTETTE The
most unique musical “organization” in the country is Polk Miller’s “Old
South” Negro quartette which he will introduce as one of the features of the
fine concert to be given here on Tuesday evening March 15, at Opera House.
Equally unique is the humorist’s own description of it.
“Their
singing is not of the kind that as been heard by the students from “colored
universities” who dress in pigeon-tailed coats patent leather shoes, white
shirt front, and who are advertised to sing plantation melodies but do not.
They do not try to let you see how nearly a Negro can act the white man
while parading in a dark skin, but they dress, act and sing like the real
Southern darkey in his “workin’ clothes.”
As to their voices they are the sweet, though uncultivated, result of
nature, producing a harmony unequalled by the professionals, and because it is
natural goes straight to the hearts of the people.” The
Negroes are the typical, homely blacks picked from the famous singing factory
workers of Richmond. They are
uneducated and full of the awkwardness and angularities of the race but they are
true to their class and they can sing. Even
Boston admitted it, though it sighed over the absence of the pigeon tails and
snowy fronts. Between sections by the quartette Mr. Miller and Col. “Tom” Booker, another “Old Confederate” will contribute dialect stories, recitations, and songs with banjo accompaniment, completing a program as unusual as it is delightful.
Ad: Two Old Confederates Polk Miller and Col. Thos. Booker and Mr. Miller’s Famous Old South Negro Quartette Songs, Dialect Stories, Banjo Playing Opera House, Tuesday Night, March 15, 1910 Prices 50c, 35c, and 25c Reserved seats on Sale at Hall’s Pharmacy
This flyer is from: Traveling Culture: Circuit Chautauqua in the Twentieth Century at http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/traveling-culture/ This is NOT from Albemarle but does give more information about Polk Miller. |