I looked up my book "Profiles of African American
Stage Performers and Theatre People, 1816-1960" By Bernard L. Peterson
[This directory includes over 500 African American performers and theater people who have made a significant contribution to the American stage from the early 19th century to the beginning of the civil rights movement]
Bohee
BrothersJames Douglas Bohee (d.1897) and George Bohee (d.1930). Celebrated team of the minstrel stage; active 1870s/1890s. They were also singers, dancers and minstrel troupe owners. Their speciality was singing and playing the banjo as an accompaniement to a soft-shoe dance of their own creation.
They performed their first minstrel troupe, the Bohee Minstrels (1870s), then with Haverly's Colored Minstrels (1880-1882), which toured
England with great success. There they remained after the rest of the troupe had returned to the States, entertaining and giving banjo lessons to British high society and royalty, including King Edward VII.
While in
England they formed their second company of minstrels, called the Bohee
Brothers Minstrels (1890), which performed mainly in
London , where they made their permanent home.
Their third troupe, which they called the Bohee Operatic Minstrels, an integrated troupe, opened in Picadilly
Circus in 1899, then toured the British provinces for one season before disbanding.
Further reference: BioDAfMus (
Souther). Ghost (
Sampson).
Was this the James Bohee who married Elizabeth
Dewhurst or his son?