Title: Minstrel, comedian
Birthdate: September 15, 1827
Death Date: December 14, 1898
Plot Location: Section 123, Elks' Rest, B row
He was known simply as Frank Moran, one of the many popular minstrels of his time, who was a friend of one of the first and most famous in the minstrel show business, Sam Sanford. Sam employed him briefly, socialized in the same lodge, and was a pallbearer at his funeral. Minstrelsy and “blackface” is explained as part of Sam’s notable life story, which can be found here.
Little is known of Frank’s personal life except for scant references below to his parents and his first marriage. His second marriage took place when he was 70 and his bride was 26. A lengthy Philadelphia Times obituary was published the day after his death and appears below, verbatim. A sidebar excerpt from the Philadelphia Inquirer provides details of that second marriage that took place ten months before his death.
“Patrick Francis Moran, one of the greatest natural wits who has ever appeared on the American stage, died at 2 o’clock yesterday afternoon at the German Hospital of a combination of bronchitis and inflammation of the lungs. At the time of his death he enjoyed the distinction of being [one of] the oldest living exponent[s] of blackface minstrelsy, and one who never failed to hold the interest and elicit the applause of his audience.
“He was admitted to the hospital on November 13, and his death yesterday was but the fulfillment of his own conviction that he would never leave it alive. His wife, known to the profession as Miss Jessie Millar, was with him at the last, having canceled her engagement with the Lillian Tucker Company to come to his side.
“She has consented that the Philadelphia Lodge of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, of which Mr. Moran was one of the first members, shall have full charge of the funeral arrangements. He will, therefore, be buried from the lodge room, 232 North Ninth street, at 2 o’clock on Sunday next, the interment being at the “Elks’ Rest,” Mount Moriah Cemetery.
A Half Century of Stage Life
“Born September 15, 1827 in “Old Southwark,” Mr. Moran was a familiar figure in the history of the elder generation in the lower section of the city. He was an honorary member of the Moya Hose Company and, with Squire McMullen, took an active interest in the welfare of the volunteer fire laddies of half a century ago.
“When quite a youth he was apprenticed to the printing firm of McLaughlin Brothers on Third street below Chestnut. This line of business was not, however, to young Moran’s liking, although through all his after life he maintained relations of the warmest friendship with his employers; and his father, a well-known violinist of his day, endeavored to make a musician of him.
“But it was through his keen wit, which came as freely and naturally as the breath he drew, that Moran was destined to make for himself a name in the world of stage-land. His first public appearance was in November, 1848 when, to use his own words, he “blacked up and went in the ring at Raymond & Waring’s Circus,” then occupying the site of the present Auditorium Theatre on Walnut street between Eighth and Ninth.
Played Around the World
“In 1851 he went to the Pacific Slope, going to Australia in 1852 where he stayed until 1856 and came back with $3,000 in gold, a large sum for a blackface comedian in those days. For some months after his return to the United States he did nothing, but in 1857 he became manager of Bryant’s Minstrels, and two years later joined Sam Sharpley’s Minstrels. The following year, 1860, he joined Sam Sanford’s Minstrels, and in 1861 became identified with the original Carncross & Dixey Co. at the old Carncross Theatre, now the Eleventh Street Opera House, playing with them until 1871.
“Carncross then dropped out and the aggregation became Moran & Dixey’s Minstrels, which lasted three years, when Moran undertook the management of the company alone. This venture, however, was a failure, although the company hung together one season. But Moran lost money, and after filling numerous engagements in various cities he went to San Francisco in 1875, returning the next year to play again with Carncross.
One of the Elks’ Founders
“In 1877 he returned to California with M.B. Leavitt, stayed there one season, and joined Haverly’s Minstrels in 1879. He was with Barlow and Wilson in 1880, after which he only played legitimate houses. He was very fond of London and spent three summers in the English capital, sometimes in company with Tony Pastor, who was his most intimate friend.
“In 1871 he was initiated into the Philadelphia Lodge, B.P.O.E., of which he was at the time of his death [one of] the oldest member[s]. He was also a charter member of Neoskaleta Tribe No. 6, Independent Order of Red Men, and was the first prophet of that tribe.
“He was seized with an attack of the grippe in the spring of 1897, and from this he never really recovered. February 2, 1898, he married Miss Jessie Millar, of the Millar Sisters, and his last appearance on the stage was in the early fall, when he joined his wife’s company at Wilmington, N. C. He was then playing in “white face,” having, as he declared, “discarded the burnt cork forever.”
Short Southern Tour
“His stay in the South was short, for after the brief period of two days with the Lillian Tucker Company he was seized with so violent attack of coughing as to necessitate his immediate return to Philadelphia, where he shortly afterwards entered the German Hospital. He was subjected to several operations, his left lung being repeatedly tapped to draw off the accumulated inflammatory matter, but his strength was gone and he became so attenuated that the exertion of breathing became an impossible effort.
“Delegations of the Order of Elks are expected to attend his funeral from New York, Brooklyn, Boston, Baltimore, and other cities where the order has lodges.”
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