Illustrated Advertising Envelopes for John Isham's Octoroons - 1898

Description

Illustrated Advertising Envelopes for John Isham's Octoroons - 1898

Illustrated advertising envelopes for John W. Isham’s Oriental America and Octoroons and the Octoroons’ Hit Song, No Coon Can Come Too Black For Me. New York City: 1898.

One of the advertising envelopes is from the Booking Office of John W. Isham’s Oriental America and Octoroons and features ornate lettering and an oval half-tone portrait of Isham. The other cover is from Howley, Haviland & Company, the publishers of the Octoroons’ hit song, No Coon Can Come Too Black For Me and features a large, dark-skinned African-American face enclosed in a yellow circle. The Octoroon cover is franked with a 2-cent pale carmine Washington stamp (Scott #252), and the other is franked with a 2-cent copper red Trans-Mississippi commemorative. The stamps and covers are in nice shape.    John Isham was an African-American theatrical entrepreneur who broke into advertising and managerial positions by passing for white. By 1890, he had become the advance man for Sam T. Jack’s Creole Burlesque Show, the first African American show to replace its male minstrels with beautiful black chorus girls and to feature original songs, sketches, and comedy by black artists. Isham's work contributed greatly to the acceptance of quality black entertainment, and he was recognized by the Indianapolis Freeman newspaper as having “done more for the advancement of the colored race in all America than any other man since the day of its emancipation.” 
  Isham struck out on his own in 1895, forming what became the Octoroons. The company featured a chorus line and a musical story line that centered on New York City. The Octoroon’s were popular with both black and white audiences and toured for five years. It’s faced-paced, “reverse-coon” song, No Coon Can Come Too Black For Me, sang the praises of dark-skinned men, “The blacker they come, the better I like ’em. All them yaller babies, I’m bound to slight ‘em."  

Isham created a second  show , Oriental America, which was the first all-black show to appear on Broadway. By 1898, Isham had three companies, two touring the United States and one traveling throughout Great Britain. He retired in 1900  and turned the shows over to his brother William, who promptly converted them to a low-class “coon-show” that he named King Rastus.

As of 2017, OCLC shows no institutions hold any Octoroons, Oriental America, or Howley-Haviland advertising materials. None is for sale in the trade, and no auction records are found at ABPC, the Rare Book Hub, nor Worthpoint.  

#8849

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