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THE JUBA PROJECT
Featured Performers and Documents
Juba and the Ethiopian Serenaders in the UK: 1842-52
Timeline: Itinerary and Reviews
What follows is a Timeline for the British tours of two 'versions' of the Ethiopian Serenaders. You can follow their travels, and look at reviews and other documents that can help you understand what they looked and sounded like, and how audiences reacted to them. This is the kind of timeline you can create for any performer or troupe when you search the database.
Jump to the Second Ethiopian Serenaders (1848-9) here.
The First Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-7)
Arriving in Britain late in 1845 under the management of J. A. Dumbolton, this troupe included G. W. Pell playing the 'Bones' and acting as the primary comedian, as well as W. White, George Harrington, Moody Stanwood and Frank Germon. For most of 1846 they performed three nights a week at the St James Theatre in London, alternating with foreign-language theatre troupes and concerts of classical music. They played for a remarkably broad audience, including appearances at working class taverns and minor theatres, morning concerts for children, private concerts for the aristocracy, and a Royal Command Performance for Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and the Duke of Wellington at Arundel Castle late in the year. They were at least partly responsible for standardizing the repertory, costuming and patter used by minstrel troupes after them; the name itself became a common term for all minstrels.
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Follow their itinerary in London and beyond as you scroll down this page, interrupted by links to document galleries related to each part of their tour.
Itinerary of Performances
1846
January 19-31, 1846: First Performances in Great Britain, at the Hanover Square Concert Rooms in London
Click here to see a gallery of documents related to this part of the tour. Documents have been taken from Observer, John Bull, The Morning Chronicle, and the Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library (unidentified clipping), as cited in the title for each image file.
February 9 – August 6, 1846: in London at the St. James Theatre
Click here to see a gallery of documents related to this part of the tour. Documents have been taken from The Court Gazette & Fashionable Guide, Morning Chronicle, Observer, The Mander & Mitchenson Collection and The John Johnson Collection, courtesy Bodleian Library, Oxford University, as cited in the title for each image file.
February 24, 1846: Command Performance at Gloucester House, in honour of the Duke of Cambridge’s Birthday
April 22 - July 20: London; also performing at a variety of London venues (Crosby Hall, Sussex Hall, The Horns, Royal British Institution, etc.) on nights off from their run at the St. James
May 30, 1846: Command Performance for Duke of Devonshire at Chiswick House
August – November, 1846: Whereabouts unknown; May have been giving concerts in Ireland around the beginning of November
December 1, 1846: Command Performance before the Queen at Arundel Castle
Click here to see a gallery of documents related to this part of the tour. Documents have been taken from Morning Chronicle, Illustrated London News, New York Clipper, Observer, and the Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library (unidentified clipping), as cited in the title for each image file.
1847
December 14, 1846 - July 3, 1847: in London at the St. James Theatre
Click here to see a gallery of documents related to this part of the tour. Documents have been taken from Morning Chronicle and Observer, as cited in the title for each image file.
January 4 –May 24, 1847: London; also performing at a variety of London venues (Crosby Hall, Albion Hall, King’s Arms Assembly Rooms, London Bridge Hotel, Manor House, Grecian Saloon etc.) on nights off from their run at the St. James.
June 26, 1847: Command Performance at the St. James for the Royal Children & a number of juvenile children of the aristocracy. The Serenaders were part of a larger, Variety bill.
Click here to see a gallery of documents related to this part of the tour. Documents have been taken from Observer & Morning Chronicle, as cited in the title for each image file.
The Second Ethiopian Serenaders (1848-9)
A new version of the Ethiopian Serenaders returned to England in June of 1848 and commenced a long and successful run as part of a variety bill at London’s Vauxhall Gardens. They then embarked on a wide-ranging tour of Great Britain beginning in October of that year. Led by G.W. Pell, the famous ‘Old Bones’ of the first Ethiopian Serenaders, this popular troupe had seven members, including the renowned banjo player Thomas Briggs and the exceedingly popular dancer Juba. Other members included J.H. Everton, M.C. Ludlow, J.H. Irwin and J.W. Valentine. By September of 1849 the troupe had fragmented, and only Pell, Juba and Briggs remained.
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1848
May 11 to early October, 1848: in London, performing at Vauxhall Gardens as part of a larger Variety Bill
Click here to see a gallery of documents related to this part of the tour. Documents have been taken from Britannia, Ladies’ Newspaper, Morning Advertiser, Weekly Chronicle, Morning Chronicle, Observer, Bell’s Life in London, Globe & Traveler, Illustrated London News, and The Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library (The Puppet Show, unidentified clippings), as cited in the title for each image file.
October 10 - 28, 1848: in Manchester at the Free Trade Hall
October 31 – November 3, 1848: in Sheffield at the Music Hall
November 7 –December 16, 1848 (approx): in Liverpool at the Theatre Royal
December 18 – 23, 1848: in Birmingham at the Theatre Royal
December 23-30, 1848: in Wolverhampton at the Theatre Royal.
Click here to see a gallery of documents related to this part of the tour. Documents have been taken from Albion (Liverpool), Birmingham Journal, Birmingham Journal & Commercial Advertiser, Liverpool Mercury, Manchester Courier, Manchester Examiner, Manchester Guardian, Sheffield & Rotherham Independent and Sheffield Times, as cited in the title for each image file.
1849
February 17 and/or 24, 1849: Pell and company in Liverpool doing “threepenny concerts” on Saturday evenings (venue unknown)
March, 1849: in Nottingham (possibly spurious)
March 18-24, 1849: in Birmingham at the Theatre Royal
Click here to see a gallery of documents related to this part of the tour. Documents have been taken from Albion (Liverpool), and Birmingham & General Advertiser, as cited in the title for each image file.
April 4 – April 28 (approx), 1849: at the Royal Surrey Theatre, London, as part of “Holy Week Concerts” (April 4/7), and as part of a longer evening including the play “Alhamar the Moor”
May 21 – 3, 1849: at Music-Hall, Bedford Square, London
June 4 – 16: at Theatre Royal, Sadler’s Wells, London
Click here to see a gallery of documents related to this part of the tour. Documents have been taken from Era, the Library of Congress (Rare Books/Special Collections), and from the Harvard Theater Collection, Houghton Library, as cited in the title for each image file.
August 25 - September 1, 1849: In Edinburgh at the Adelphi Theatre; a reduced version of the Ethiopian Serenaders (Pell, Juba & Briggs) giving concerts as part of a longer entertainment consisting of a range of plays each evening.
September 3-15, 1849: in Stirling, Scotland at the Corn Exchange; Pell, Juba & Briggs performing at intervals between various plays each evening
September 17-29, 1849: in Perth at the Theatre Royal; same format as Edinburgh & Perth runs
October 1-7 (approx.), 1849: in Dundee at the Theatre Royal.
Click here to see a gallery of documents related to this part of the tour. Documents have been taken from Edinburgh News, Edinburgh News & Literary Chronicle, Stirling Journal & Advertiser, Stirling Journal & Morning Advertiser, Stirling Observer, and Constitutional & Perthshire Agricultural, as cited in the title for each image file.