Ezra Kendall (February 15, 1861 â€" January 23, 1910) was an American
actor-comedian, humorist, playwright and author who was known for his
depiction of typical New England Yankees. During his time in
vaudeville Kendall was said to have been among the highest paid
monologist in America.Ezra Freemont Kendall was born on a farm near
Centerville, New York, to Ezra W. and Eliza R. (née Pratt) Kendall.
The September following his birth, Kendall's father enlisted as a
sergeant with Company D, 64th Infantry Regiment, New York and soon
rose to lieutenant before losing his life during the Battle of Seven
Pines.Kendall left school at fourteen to work as a printer's
assistant. At seventeen he traveled to New York City where he became a
cub reporter on several newspapers and the youngest member of the New
York Press Club. By nineteen or twenty he was touring with a theatre
company playing walk-on rôles for free board and laundry service.
Later Kendall replaced the troupe's property man at $4 a-week before
making his professional stage debut as an English butler in Elliott
Barnes' melodrama, Only a Farmer's Daughter.He later toured in Lillian
Cleves' Grump, Elliott Barnes' Dr. Clyde, Wallack and Hinds' Criterion
-Comedy Company and Edward ("Teddy") Byron's, Summer Boarders. Around
1882 Kendall organized a minstrel company with Horace Johnson, which
lasted a short period, and next partnered with comedian Alfred Klein,
in an act that collapsed after one week. Kendall later starred in the
original Muggs' Landing and in early 1884 scored a hit in Wanted, a
Partner with a run that lasted until late spring. Over the summer of
1884 he worked as an advance agent for a minstrel show before
beginning the 1884â€"1885 season performing with William A. Mestayer's
company in A Box of Matches.
actor-comedian, humorist, playwright and author who was known for his
depiction of typical New England Yankees. During his time in
vaudeville Kendall was said to have been among the highest paid
monologist in America.Ezra Freemont Kendall was born on a farm near
Centerville, New York, to Ezra W. and Eliza R. (née Pratt) Kendall.
The September following his birth, Kendall's father enlisted as a
sergeant with Company D, 64th Infantry Regiment, New York and soon
rose to lieutenant before losing his life during the Battle of Seven
Pines.Kendall left school at fourteen to work as a printer's
assistant. At seventeen he traveled to New York City where he became a
cub reporter on several newspapers and the youngest member of the New
York Press Club. By nineteen or twenty he was touring with a theatre
company playing walk-on rôles for free board and laundry service.
Later Kendall replaced the troupe's property man at $4 a-week before
making his professional stage debut as an English butler in Elliott
Barnes' melodrama, Only a Farmer's Daughter.He later toured in Lillian
Cleves' Grump, Elliott Barnes' Dr. Clyde, Wallack and Hinds' Criterion
-Comedy Company and Edward ("Teddy") Byron's, Summer Boarders. Around
1882 Kendall organized a minstrel company with Horace Johnson, which
lasted a short period, and next partnered with comedian Alfred Klein,
in an act that collapsed after one week. Kendall later starred in the
original Muggs' Landing and in early 1884 scored a hit in Wanted, a
Partner with a run that lasted until late spring. Over the summer of
1884 he worked as an advance agent for a minstrel show before
beginning the 1884â€"1885 season performing with William A. Mestayer's
company in A Box of Matches.
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