Sam Lucas

American entertainer (d. 1916)

Sam Lucas (August 7, 1840 – January 10, 1916)

Lucas' career began in blackface minstrelsy, but he later became one of the first African Americans to branch out into more serious drama, with roles in seminal works such as The Creole Show and A Trip to Coontown. He was the first black man to portray the role of Uncle Tom on both stage and screen. James Weldon Johnson described him as the "Grand Old Man of the Negro Stage". He was vocal about liberating himself from the minstrel profession and was the only composer of spirituals in his time to present them consistently within the context of jubilee concerts.

Lucas was born Samuel Mildmay Lucas (or Samuel Lucas Milady) in Washington Court House, Ohio to free black parents. He showed a talent for guitar and singing as a teenager. While working as a barber, his local performances gained him a positive reputation. In 1858 he began his career as a performer with the traveling African American minstrel companies. Over the next five years, he sang and acted on stage and riverboats, and composed music for his shows. Meanwhile, he found ways to integrate his African American roots into the mostly white form; for instance, his tune "Carve Dat Possum" borrowed its melody from a black religious song, although Henry Hart (musician) may have been the source. As black minstrelsy grew popular with the general public, Lucas became one of its first celebrities, particularly known for his portrayals of pitiable, comic characters. His fame allowed him to choose his engagements and he performed with some of the best black minstrel troupes, never as leader, including Lew Johnson's Plantation Minstrels (1871–73), Callender's Georgia Minstrels (1873–74, 1875–76) and Sprague's Georgia Minstrels (1878–79) in Havana, Cuba.

In 1890, Lucas served as an endman in Sam T. Jack's The Creole Show, often cited as the first African American production to show signs of breaking the links to minstrelsy. He married during its run, before he and his wife played a succession of variety houses, vaudeville stages and museums. In 1898, he performed in Boston in A Trip to Coontown, produced by Bob Cole. This was the first black production to use only African American writers, directors and producers,

From 1905 to 1906, he starred in Rufus Rastus, which was directed by Ernest Hogan. In 1907, Lucas starred in the second showing of an original musical comedy from Cole and Johnson, The Shoe Fly Regiment, which ran from June 3, 1907, to August 17, 1907. This production showed at the Grand Opera House in New York City from June 6–8, 1907 and at the Bijou Theatre, which was also located in New York, from August 6 to 17, 1907. The Shoe Fly Regiment was a three act musical, with Acts One and Three taking place in the Lincolnville Institute in Alabama and act two taking place in the Philippines. Lucas played Brother Doolittle, who was a member of the Bode of Education. Lucas later performed in another original musical comedy The Red Moon, portraying Bill Webster, a barber. The Red Moon ran from May 3, 1909, to May 29, 1909. The Red Moon was also a three act musical, but set in fictional "Swamptown, Virginia". In 1908, Lucas became a charter member of the professional theatrical club The Frogs, participating in 1913's The Frog Follies.

In 1913, Lucas starred in the unfinished film, Lime Kiln Field Day, produced by the Biograph Company and Klaw and Erlanger. The footage of the unfinished film was assembled in 2014 by the Museum of Modern Art, which had rescued the film cans from a Biograph film storage vault in 1938.

In 1914, Lucas revived his role of Uncle Tom in William Robert Daly's film adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. He is generally credited as the first black man to portray Uncle Tom, a character that had typically been played by white actors in black face. The film was released on August 10, 1914, by the World Film Company. This silent film was shot on location in the South with scenes of its fields of cotton and Mississippi river boats. Its screening was accompanied by organs or other instruments at local theatres. It was an inductee to the 2012 National Film Registry list.

Lucas was married no fewer than three times; his second wife was Carrie Melvin, whom he married in Boston, Massachusetts on August 11, 1886. Carrie Melvin Lucas was a violinist, coronetist and actress. They had one daughter together, Marie Lucas (1891–1947). Marie went on to become a successful pianist, trombonist, arranger and conductor. Sam and Carrie performed together in vaudeville, but they divorced in 1899. Marie and Sam later worked together.

After completing Uncle Tom's Cabin, Lucas died in 1916 from pneumonia, following liver disease for many years.