Harry Blakemore

Harry Blakemore was born in Gallatin, Tennessee in 1859. He made his stage debut in Chicago at the Standard Theatre, with Henry Weber, in Nip and Tuck, after which he joined Harry Mann’s Opera Company, with whom he was first seen in Philadelphia. Later, he appeared on the stage for many years and with many companies and was seen in such productions as The Black Crook, The Pavements of Paris, Held by the Enemy, The Little Host, The Traveling Salesman, David Harum, Hello Broadway, Comic Supplement, Smart Alec, Charms, Outside Looking In, and The Breaks. His last stage appearance was in vaudeville with Frank McGlynn.

In an article published in the New York Morning Telegraph, August 12, 1909, it was stated that Harry D. Blakemore claimed to have played in every town in the United States with 10,000 or more inhabitants, primarily during a two-year road tour in Hello, Bill. Apparently, the Telegraph had ample extra space that day, and the article went on to note that his grandmother, Betsey Bowie, was a niece of the inventor of the Bowie knife; that his grandfather, John DeGosse, of Haiti, was at one time secretary to a general under Napoleon, that his great grandfather was one of only five survivors of the Haiti insurrection; and that his grandmother on the other side was an aunt to Amélie Rives, author of The Quick and the Dead.