[78-L] Carson Robison Minstrel Show

[David Sanderson]

Michael Biel wrote:
> I recently received two Minstrel Show program booklets for charity shows 
> presented at the Wappingers Central School, Wappingers Falls, NY.  The 
> first one was Sunday Jan 30, 1949 at 3 PM, but it is the second one that 
> is of interest.  It was presented Saturday March 18, 1950 at 8 PM and 
> was produced and directed by Carson Robison.  I am assuming that both of 
> these productions featured local amateur talent, with scripts, costumes, 
> scenery, and production assistance and direction provided by a 
> professional touring production company.  I was involved with several 
> such shows when  I first moved to Kentucky 32 years ago.  However I see 
> no names in common in these two shows which were done two different fire 
> departments or companies.  In this second one, Carson Robison presented 
> a Specialty in part two of the show, and there also is a Don Robison who 
> performed "I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes" in the first part. 
> 
> Does anyone know anything about this part of Robison's career?  Did he 
> ever do any records of this type of material?

> Mike Biel   mbiel at mbiel.com

Robison, to my mind, was one of the most business-savvy of the early 
recording artists, and never quit looking for opportunities.  I'm still 
impressed that he had the foresight to head for Europe after 1930, where 
he recorded (HMV) and performed on the radio for several years.  I'm a 
little vague on his later work; "Life Gets Teejus" was a hit in the late 
1940's, so he was still getting commercial work then.  About the same 
time he did a batch of square dance records, music with calls, probably 
just because he could do it and make a few bucks.  He had a big home 
upriver from Manhattan (I forget the town), so the minstrel shows would 
have been an easy gig for him.  What I'd like to see is the script - 
Robison was one of the cleverest song writers around, and I'm willing to 
bet that if he took it into his head to write a show it would be worth 
seeing.  What about local historical societies, and the Robison family - 
Carson kept good records, at least of his copyrights, some 1200 songs, 
I'm told.

-- 




      David Sanderson
      East Waterford, Maine

      dwsanderson685 at roadrunner.com
      http://www.dwsanderson.com