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RARE CDV of African American Actor Thomas Dilward also known as Japanese Tommy

RARE CDV of African American Actor Thomas Dilward also known as Japanese Tommy

SKU: 9082834475171
$3,200.00Price

RARE CDV of African American Actor Thomas Dilward also known as Japanese Tommy. Their is no other example of this image card combo to be found! This pose of Thomas is in the LOC but no other examples of a Brady CDV with this racial joke verbage has been avalable on the market! Other images of Dilward with out the racial content are ranging between $2000-4000. This is a amazing example of early black americana and a famous early American actor!

 

Thomas Dilward (1840–1887), also known by the stage name Japanese Tommy, was an African-American dwarf who performed in blackface minstrel shows. He was also sometimes billed as "The African 'Tom Thumb'" and the "African Dwarf Tommy".

Dilward is one of only two known African-Americans to have performed with white minstrel companies before the American Civil War (the other being William Henry Lane). Dilward's size, between 23 and 36 inches in height, made him a "curious attraction" and allowed him to take to the stage with whites at a time when almost no black men did; in addition, his stage name may have been intended to hide his ethnic background. He was famous for his skills at singing, dancing, and playing the violin. He has also been credited in John Russell Bartlett's 1877 Dictionary of Americanisms with having invented the word hunky-dory, meaning "everything is all right".

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