Christy's Minstrels

[2] The troupe also invented or popularized "the line", the structured grouping that constituted the first act of the standardized three-act minstrel show, with the interlocutor in the middle and "Mr. Tambo" and "Mr. Bones" on the ends.

The troupe's commercial success was phenomenal: Christy paid Foster for the exclusive rights to the song.

It opened in London, England, as "Raynor & Pierce's Christy Minstrels" at the St. James's Theatre on 3 August 1857.

They then performed at the Surrey Theatre and later the "Polygraphic Hall" on King William Street, where they appeared for ten months.

Eventually, the original members of that troupe retired or died, leaving only "Pony" Moore and Frederic Burgess surviving into the 1870s.

[6] George Orwell, in The Road to Wigan Pier (published 1937), describes a coal miner's "Christy-minstrel face, completely black except for very red lips".

A staple of the walkaround was the cakewalk, which white audiences loved despite not realizing that it originated with plantation slaves imitating their masters' walks.

A preposterous stump speech served as the highlight of this act, during which a performer spoke in outrageous malapropisms as he lectured.