The Lykens Standard of February 19, 1970, published a news story that indicated that a black-face performer, Robert “Bobby” Snyder, originally from Millersburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, had joined a traveling circus. The article did not state that in 1970 he would be performing in black-face, since by this time this offensive form of “entertainment” was waning and was considered offensive by a more enlightened society. The article did note that Snyder’s reputation as a “comedian” was built on the black-face routines he performed through his character, “Peachbasket.”
VETERAN SHOWMAN JOINS BARTOK CIRCUS
Robert “Bobby” Snyder, well-known musician and vaudeville entertainer of Millersburg, currently from Elizabethville, and for the past 11 years manager and secretary of The West End Republican Club, Harrisburg, has recently signed an 8-month contract as a musical performer with Bartok Circus, formerly Hunt Brothers, at their winter headquarters in Sarasota, Florida.
The written agreement includes playing the calliope, also presenting a ventriloquist act on the side show, featuring a musical clown specialty in the Big Top and participating in TV interviews.
This famous circus opens in Florida and will tour the Atlantic coast states, Pennsylvania and the New England area, returning to the south sometime in October.
In his early days, Mr. Snyder, known by his many friends as “Peachbasket,” had built a reputation as a black-face comedian on various medicine shows throughout the eastern and southern part of the country.
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For related articles on this blog, see Black-Face.
News article was obtained from Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.