Thomas L. Moxley (c. 1828, Baltimore — 7 July 1890, Baltimore)[1] was an American actor, blackface minstrel show entertainer, and theatre manager. As a stage actor he performed under the name Master Floyd and was an acclaimed female impersonator in minstrel shows.[2] He formed a close partnership with the minstrel show impresario, actor, and theatre manager George Kunkel. He was a leading member of Kunkel's Nightingales, one of the most popular minstrel shows of the 1850s and 1860s, and toured widely with the troupe during this period. In 1855 he formed a theatre management firm with Kunkel and John T. Ford; co-managing multiple theaters in Baltimore, Washington D.C. and Richmond, Virginia. These included the National Theatre in Washington D.C.,[3] and the Richmond Theatre (then known as the Marshall Theatre) in Virginia.[1] When Kunkel adapted Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin for the stage in 1861,[4] Moxley portrayed the role of Topsy. In his obituary he was credited as the first actor to perform the role of Topsy in the theatre.[5]
Moxley died of heart failure in Baltimore, Maryland on 7 July 1890 at the age of 62.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c "Deaths In the Profession; Thomas L. Moxley". The New York Clipper. 12 July 1890. p. 279.
- ^ Rice, Edward Le Roy (1911). "Thomas L. Moxley". Monarchs of Minstrelsy, from "Daddy" Rice to Date. Kenny Publishing Company. p. 59.
- ^ Bogar, Thomas A. (2013). "A Hotbed of Spies and Seditious Plots". Backstage at the Lincoln Assassination: The Untold Story of the Actors and Stagehands at Ford's Theatre. Regnery Publishing. ISBN 9781621571742.
- ^ Egle, William Henry (1896). Pennsylvania Genealogies: Chiefly Scotch-Irish and German. Harrisburg Publishing Company.
- ^ "Death of Original "Topsy"". Madison Daily Herald. July 8, 1890. p. 1.