Salsbury’s Troubadours played Mount Vernon in 1878

MOUNT VERNON — As many of you know, I have a background of years spent in the theater as an actor, director, writer, and producer.

Hence, I’m fascinated by reports — on those occasions when I can find them — of prominent acts that once played on local stages.

Browsing through an 1878 issue of the Mount Vernon Republican, I found a passing reference to a local appearance by one of the most widely-traveled groups of post-Civil War entertainers, Salsbury’s Troubadours.

The group was started by entrepreneur Nate Salsbury, who was originally from Illinois, but ran away from home to join the Civil War at age 15. According to legend, he came home from the war with $20,000 accumulated from winning poker games with his fellow soldier — an enormous sum of money in those days — but he burned through it in the next year and a half.

Broke and utterly uninterested in holding down a conventional job, Salsbury went into the theater as an actor, singer, and musician playing the banjo.

Success was slow to come at first, but Salsbury’s troupe ran on a shoestring budget and toured the country relentlessly, until people began to anticipate their returns.

The show would typically contain a variety of presentations (thus the birth of the term “variety show,” soon also to be known as “Vaudville”) including short dramas, farces, songs, comedic stories, and instrumental interludes.

By 1878, the group was chugging along successfully, and when they appeared in Mount Vernon, at Kirk’s Opera House, the main event on their bill was almost certainly the short farce “The Brook,” which Salsbury had written in only 12 hours between tours.

At the time they came through Mount Vernon, the troupe probably consisted of the following performers, known to have toured extensively with the group: Nellie McHenry, John Webster, Helene Dingeon, Frank Maeder, and John Gourlay.

Helene Dingeon always played ingenue roles, which is the innocent female lead. Nellie McHenry became famous for playing the soubrette parts, which was the saucy sidekick to the ingenue.

Webster and Gourlay were listed as comedians, though Webster had the distinction of being called a “light comedian,” and was listed higher on the bill, which suggests that he handled male leads with clever comedic lines. Gourlay was most likely more of a physical comedy performer.

Frank Maeder was the pianist for the troupe, though the others might pitch in on instruments as well.

Salsbury himself was the main male lead, the director and often writer of their shows. He is remembered not so much for this project, but more for his next one.

In the 1880s, he handed over the Troubadours to Nellie McHenry, who continued to tour with the group for years.

Salsbury created a new troupe along with the famous western scout William F. Cody, better known by his nickname “Buffalo Bill.” Their famous Wild West show toured all over the world, making Cody one of the planet’s first international superstars.

It incorporated entertaining skits of the sort Salsbury had always used, adding in such features as Native American performers, historical reenactments, and the use of live horses on stage as part of the action.

The show was hugely successful, and toured for years, even after Salsbury himself retired from active performing due to health issues.

He was also notable for running a side project at one point called “Black America,” which toured a group of African-American performers all over the country for half a year in 1895.

Salsbury’s intent to demonstrate the advancement of America’s Black population was notably progressive for its day. Salsbury continued to manage his entertainment empire from a wheelchair in his later years, and became very wealthy from investing his tour income.

He passed away, aged only 56, in 1902. Kirk’s Opera House, for the record, was a rival to Mount Vernon’s perennially popular Woodward Opera House.

Kirk’s facility operated on Public Square and was set up by prominent local, national, and international politician Robert Kirk. Though it flourished for a number of years, it eventually ceased operations after Kirk’s passing.

As for Buffalo Bill, he passed through this area performing many times.

One such occasion was on Oct. 28, 1888, when he signed the dressing room wall in the Hayesville Opera House, which can still be seen today when they offer backstage tours. No word on whether or not he got his horse up the stairs at that venue in order to perform.