Al Emmett Fostell (born Foster), minstrel show and variety performer, theatrical manager, and operator of a traveling dime museum, began his career in 1872 performing for New Yorkers at clam bakes and picnics with the monologist Frank Bush. As a teenager in the 1870s he appeared with Birch, Backus, Wambold, and White's Junior Minstrels (named after the senior troupe), worked in a musical and slack wire act, and changed his name to Fostell. In the early 1880s he toured the American South and West, particularly Texas, and later claimed to have performed in Mexico in the 1880s. For a time he managed a theater in New Orleans where he produced the opening acts and afterpieces of each evening's entertainment.
In 1885 Fostell joined Keith & Batcheler's stock company in Boston where he met his wife, the singer Florence Emmett. By 1887 the couple was appearing together as Fostell and Emmett, the Dutch [German dialect] Musical Comedy Team. Fostell played Fritz the German Musician, accompanied by his wife's comedic yodeling. The Fostells' daughter Gilberta Fostell (stage name Vesta Gilbert) joined her parents' act in 1913. Fostell and Emmett was by far the family's most successful act, performed for twenty-eight years until Fostell's retirement from the stage in 1915.
In addition to his work in the family troupe, Fostell worked in show
business in a variety of other capacities. He lent his name to several variety
ensembles, among them Fostell's Refined Minstrels and Fostell and Tourjee, and
joined The Novelty Trio, a
During his half-century career, Fostell formed business partnerships
with Eckl and the minstrel show performer Joseph M. Norcross. He also worked
for several theatrical management companies as a booking agent and secretary,
and set himself up as a freelance theatrical agent. In addition to his
performance-related activities, Fostell assembled a collection of historical
memorabilia. For twenty years he toured his
The Al Emmett Fostell Papers, 1879-1920, consist of letters, playbills and programs, clippings, stationery, and ephemera documenting the careers of Al, Florence, and Gilberta Fostell, as well as the personal interests of the family patriarch. The papers are arranged in two series: I. Fostell Family, 1887-1920 (34 folders) and II. Fostell the Collector, 1879-1920 (43 folders), with materials arranged alphabetically within each series by name of performer/ensemble or subject.
The Fostell Family series contains material relating to each of the Fostells in their capacities as entertainers, managers, or entrepreneurs, as well as material of a personal nature collected by Al Fostell. Subseries A. Performers and Ensembles, 1887-1915, contains programs, clippings, and other materials relating to each member of the Fostell family and the various ensembles to which they belonged. Al Fostell's variety ensembles are represented, along with a small amount of material on Vesta Gilbert's brief career in variety. Highlights of Subseries B. Dime Museum, 1888-1909, include detailed catalogs of Fostell's exhibitions in their various manifestations, and Fostell's query to and reply from Tony Pastor regarding the date of one of Pastor's shows. Fostell's managerial activities are the subject of Subseries C. Theatrical Management Stationery, ca. 1900-10. Many of the materials in Subseries D. Personal, 1890-1920, were compiled by Fostell in the last few years of his life. Included are photographs of Fostell with family and friends, notes in Fostell's hand, and a poem he may have written. Also present is a brief autobiographical sketch which, though marred by tall tales and inaccurate dates, nevertheless provides a wealth of information about his life.
Series II. Fostell the Collector, 1879-1920, contains letters, clippings, programs, and ephemera relating to twenty-five performers and ensembles, most of whom were minstrel show or variety performers. Like the Personal subseries above, Series II was compiled primarily in 1919 and 1920 when Joseph Fox and William H. Ward of Fox and Ward sent their friend Fostell letters and clippings about the age of minstrelsy. Other correspondents were the variety performer Major Burk, who wrote to Fostell while on tour in 1919, and former colleagues of Fostell then living in the Actors' Home. Of particular note are the materials relating to Frank Dumont's death in 1919, an event which, along with the death of George H. Primrose, spurred a flood of nostalgic letter-writing amongst the old-time minstrels; the McIntyre and Heath material, most of which relates to the musical comedy
Researchers will find related material in the Minstrel Show Collection and the Popular Entertainment Collection.
b---box
ff---flat file
ob---oversize box
Purchase, 1956
Open for research
Helen Baer, 2000
The Al Emmett Fostell Papers were purchased in 1956 as part of the Albert Davis Collection.