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Harry (Henry Nathaniel) Braham (13 September 1850 – 21 Sep 1923) was a British music hall comic vocalist and actor. He toured with vaudeville impresario Tony Pastor in the 1870s and was a leading low comedian with American actor/manager William Henry Crane for 5 years acting the part of Baron Ling Ching the Chinese Ambassador in Crane's most celebrated play "The Senator". He acted on Broadway in the light opera ''Sergeant Kitty'' with Virginia Earle, and then in silent film where he played Cameron's faithful servant (uncredited) in DW Griffith's controversial epic ''Birth of A Nation''. ==Early Life and Career== Braham was born in 1850 in West Street in the rookery of Seven Dials in London, to artist Nathaniel Henry Braham and Susan Dorothy Frost, his father was Jewish, his mother Anglican and this interfaith marriage caused a split in the family when they married at St Martin-in-the-Fields on 11 November 1848.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title = GRO marriage registration, St Martin in the Fields )〕 Braham had two younger brothers, Charles who became an acrobat using the name Carl Robarts, and Edwin, who had mild learning difficulties and was cared for by the family but later suffered vascular dementia and died aged 58. Braham became a minstrel through his uncle Frederick Burgess who managed, together with George Washington (Pony) Moore, The Moore and Burgess Minstrels at the St James's Hall in Piccadilly. He then went on to tour with minstrel companies including Wilsom and Montague appearing before Queen Victoria at Balmoral in October 1868. Braham then started a career as a solo act in music hall as a comic vocalist using his expressive face in a myriad of facial expressions, conveying different characters. He named his act "Masks and Faces". Braham sailed to Australia in 1871 in the clipper ship ''St Vincent'' with fellow minstrel Thomas Pedder (Tommy) Hudson who was to become famous as a manager of "Hudson's Surprise Party" which later toured India and Australia. After having success in the early music halls in Sydney, in June 1872 Braham met Lizzie Watson born Eliza Stephenson (?1840 – 17 February 1913) an Irish serio comic and Burlesque actress ten years his senior. Watson was the headline star of Harry Rickards and Enderby Jackson's music hall touring company. Watson parted company acrimoniously from Rickards to start up her own company with Braham. They married on 6 February 1873 in Brisbane, and sailed from there to Sydney in April. After further success as a partnership, in music halls in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, various surrounding towns which had benefited from the Gold Rush, such as Bathurst, West Maitland and Hill End and then in New Zealand, Braham and Watson sailed with the Billy Emerson minstrel company in June 1874 aboard the steam ship ''Tartar'' bound for San Francisco. The ship however ran aground on a coral reef. After landing safely at Honolulu where it was scheduled to make a stop, the Emerson company, Braham and Watson did not re-board but stayed a couple of weeks during which they were unexpectedly commanded to perform before the last King of Hawaii David Kalakaua. The company then sailed on to San Francisco where Braham and Watson performed at the Bella Union Saloon in the Barbary Coast district for an unprecedented 47 weeks. When their contract finished Braham and Watson went to New York where they impressed the famous impresario and "father of vaudeville" Tony Pastor who invited them to tour with him. In 1876 Braham devised a solo act based on the art of Commedia dell'arte calling it "Silly Bill and Father" in which a model of an old man was made with Braham holding the model while acting the part of his son on the model's back. Braham and Watson returned to the UK in February 1878 as the highest paid entertainers of their profession, and toured all of the main music halls throughout the country, including The Crystal Palace in London. In 1881 Braham and Watson's marriage collapsed when it was discovered Watson who had entered "widow" on their marriage certificate was still married to her husband Henry Hemingway. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Harry Braham」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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