Fred Douglass Sulis, F.D. Sulis and Frederick Douglass Sulis should redirect here
Frederick Douglass Sulis (1872–?), known professionally as Fred Sulis, and Professor Sulis,[1] was a Canadian-born vaudeville musician and music director. He performed ragtime music on the piano in the United States and Cuba.[1][2] He toured with Pat Chappelle and the Rabbit Foot's Company, a long-running "colored" minstrel and variety troupe.[1][3]
Biography
editFrederick Douglass Sulis was born in 1872 in Fredericton in New Brunswick, Canada, and was from Scottish ancestry.[3][4] He attended music classes in New Bedford and Boston, Massachusetts.[3]
In January 1899, Sulis was one of the performers in Pat Chappelle's Imperial Colored Minstrels.[3] From fall of 1901 until April 1902, he performed at the Mascotte Theater in Tampa, Florida.[3] This was followed by a role as musical director of performances and piano performer at the Domino Theater in Fernandina Beach, Florida from April 1902 until December 1903.[3]
In August 1906, Sulis was playing the piano alongside Tenia Mizell (from Key West, Florida) at the Indiana Vaudeville Theatre in Havana, Cuba.[3] And shortly thereafter he was playing with Tenia Gilhams and Anita Borden in Chicago Café in Havana.[3] He remained in Havana in 1909 and performed at Café Indiana, his favorite ragtime song was "Oh! You Kid!".[3]
References
edit- ^ a b c Abbott, Lynn; Seroff, Doug (September 17, 2009). Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, "Coon Songs," and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz. Univ. Press of Mississippi. pp. 395–396. ISBN 9781496800305 – via Google Books.
- ^ Abbott, Lynn; Seroff, Doug (February 27, 2017). The Original Blues: The Emergence of the Blues in African American Vaudeville. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 24. ISBN 9781496810052 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Abbott, Lynn; Seroff, Doug (February 27, 2017). The Original Blues: The Emergence of the Blues in African American Vaudeville. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 46. ISBN 9781496810038 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Frederick D. Sulis, Canada Census, 1881". FamilySearch.org. [better source needed].