Howard, George C. (George Cunnibell), 1820-1935

The marriage of actor George C. Howard to Caroline Emily Fox in 1844 linked the theatrical careers of not only Howard and Fox, but also those of two of Caroline's brothers and two of the Howard children (Cordelia and Walter), as well as cousins George L. and Frank E. Aiken.

George C. Howard (1815-1887) was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He appeared in amateur theatricals in Boston in 1837, then took engagements in Philadelphia and Baltimore. In 1842 he joined the company at the Tremont Theatre in Boston where he met, or was reacquainted with, thirteen-year-old Caroline Emily Fox (1829-1908). Caroline, already an experienced actress, had appeared as a child as one of the Little Foxes with her brothers George L., James A., Henry N., and Charles K. Fox. She married Howard in October 1844.

In early 1846, Howard took over the management of the Fox troupe and began billing them as Howard and Foxes. The troupe toured through New England, securing engagements in previously theater-hostile towns because of the air of respectability lent by their status as a family. As the Foxes grew up they left the troupe as they developed careers of their own. James A. Fox quit the stage in 1850, much to the advantage of George L. Fox, who had been overshadowed by James. Little Henry had died in 1844. In the fall of 1850 George L. Fox was hired at the National Theatre (N.Y.), though he continued to work with George C. Howard throughout the 1850s.

In 1852 Howard commissioned Caroline's cousin George L. Aiken to write an acting version of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, probably as a vehicle for his four-year-old daughter Cordelia. Aiken's dramatization was produced at the Troy (N.Y.) Museum in September 1852 with Howard as St. Clare, Caroline as Topsy, Cordelia as Eva, and the playwright as George Harris. Though the script ran at three hours fifteen minutes, it only took the story up through little Eva's death, and in November Aiken prepared a sequel that ended properly with Stowe's denouement. The two scripts were combined later that month into a drama of six acts which became the standard acting version of Uncle Tom's Cabin. When Alexander H. Purdy agreed to put on the play the following July at his National Theatre in New York, where George L. Fox was employed, it became a sensation, running at that theater until April 1854. The play was performed continuously in the United States for eighty years, a remarkable run by any standard. The Howards appeared in Uncle Tom's Cabin until 1857.

Howard undertook the management of the Troy Adelphi Theatre in 1857, but the season failed and George, Caroline, and Cordelia were soon back on the road. In 1863 Howard stepped in as acting manager of Fox's Bowery Theatre, filling in for his brother-in-law while Fox served in the Civil War. He stayed at the Bowery until Fox's managerial role terminated in 1867, but even the presence of a relative as business manager could not prevent other employees from gambling away the receipts. Howard appeared on the stage intermittently until he died in 1887.

Caroline Emily Fox Howard continued to play Topsy until her husband died in 1887. She lived in Cambridge until her death in 1908.

After starring in Uncle Tom's Cabin, Katy or the Hot Corn Girl, and The Death of Little Eva, a shortened version of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Cordelia Howard (1848-1941) retired from the stage in 1861 at thirteen years of age. She completed her education in Cambridge, Massachusetts and married Edmund Jesse Macdonald in 1871.

After Uncle Tom's Cabin, George L. Fox (1825-1877) continued appearing at the National where he stayed until he decided to become a manager in 1858. That year he leased the Bowery Theatre, then the New Bowery, with partner James W. Lingard, but in 1862 he split with Lingard and opened his own George L. Fox's Olympic. Less than a month later he went back to the old Bowery as lessee where he stayed until 1867, appearing in a variety of roles. In 1868 at Mrs. John Wood's Olympic Theatre he was first seen in a pantomime called Humpty Dumpty. This quickly became his most popular and lasting role. He scored another success in 1870 with his travesty of Hamlet at Wood's Olympic. Four years later, he tried management again, this time lasting six weeks as head of Fox's Broadway Theatre. In 1875 he began showing signs of dementia. During a performance of Humpty Dumpty in November 1875 he was removed from the stage by George C. Howard and placed in an insane asylum. He died in 1877.

Charles K. Fox (1833-1875) acted with the Little Foxes and Howard and Foxes, then appeared in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Later he became assistant manager to his father. In the 1860s he played Pantaloon to his brother George's Clown. He died in 1875 of typhoid fever.

Frank E. Aiken (1836-1910) was born in Boston. He began his dramatic career acting under the management of his uncle George H. Wyatt and went on to become a leading man before going into theater management in Philadelphia. He opened the Aiken Theatre in 1873 and ran it for fifteen years.

Walter S. Howard (1868-1945), son of George C. Howard and Caroline Emily Fox, was an actor and stage manager with the Joseph Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson, Augustin Daly, and Ada Rehan Companies before his retirement in 1912.