Fostell, Al Emmett, 1856-1920
Biographical notes:
Al Emmett Fostell (born Foster), minstrel show and variety performer, theatrical manager, and operator of a traveling dime museum, began his career in 1872 performing for New Yorkers at clam bakes and picnics with the monologist Frank Bush. As a teenager in the 1870s he appeared with Birch, Backus, Wambold, and White's Junior Minstrels (named after the senior troupe), worked in a musical and slack wire act, and changed his name to Fostell. In the early 1880s he toured the American South and West, particularly Texas, and later claimed to have performed in Mexico in the 1880s. For a time he managed a theater in New Orleans where he produced the opening acts and afterpieces of each evening's entertainment.
In 1885 Fostell joined Keith & Batcheler's stock company in Boston where he met his wife, the singer Florence Emmett. By 1887 the couple was appearing together as Fostell and Emmett, the Dutch [German dialect] Musical Comedy Team. Fostell played Fritz the German Musician, accompanied by his wife's comedic yodeling. The Fostells' daughter Gilberta Fostell (stage name Vesta Gilbert) joined her parents' act in 1913. Fostell and Emmett was by far the family's most successful act, performed for twenty-eight years until Fostell's retirement from the stage in 1915.
In addition to his work in the family troupe, Fostell worked in show business in a variety of other capacities. He lent his name to several variety ensembles, among them Fostell's Refined Minstrels and Fostell and Tourjee, and joined The Novelty Trio, a military comedy musical replete with instruments including bagpipes, concertina, and two novelty instruments. With Joe Eckl and Minnie DuPree he appeared as The Three Brilliants; later, in the early 1910s, he toured western Canada as The Four Brilliants with the puppeteer Zera Semons and The Two Bees (Harry and Flora Blake). It was an idyllic trip for Fostell, for he had a reliable source of income and plenty of time for sightseeing.
During his half-century career, Fostell formed business partnerships with Eckl and the minstrel show performer Joseph M. Norcross. He also worked for several theatrical management companies as a booking agent and secretary, and set himself up as a freelance theatrical agent. In addition to his performance-related activities, Fostell assembled a collection of historical memorabilia. For twenty years he toured his Museum of Natural History and Abraham Lincoln relics around the United States and loaned his materials to various newspapers for publication. Fostell died in February 1920 following a nervous breakdown.
From the guide to the Al Emmett Fostell Papers TXRC00-A17., 1879-1920, (Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin)
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Subjects:
- Blackface entertainers
- Dime museums
- Vaudeville
