Lew Dockstader

Lew Dockstader (born George Alfred Clapp; August 7, 1856 – October 26, 1924) was an American singer, comedian, and vaudeville star, best known as a blackface minstrel show performer.

[3] On May 20, 1904 Dockstader was detained by the New York City Police Department for attempting to distribute a film "intended to caricature President Theodore Roosevelt and the office you hold."

The film was "in the possession of the Edison Kinetoscope people and, if they had not been taken in hand at once, would undoubtedly have had a wide circulation through the various agencies and mechanism of that large organization.

"[4] Dockstader agreed to surrender the film to the New York City Police in exchange for the charges against him being dropped.

Unfazed by his detention in 1904, in 1906 Dockstader began impersonating Theodore Roosevelt as part of his vaudeville show.

Songsheet cover for " Coon, Coon, Coon " from 1901 with photograph of Lew Dockstader in blackface inset