Sam Corker Jr.

Sam Corker, Jr. was familiar with both sides of the entertainment business, being knowledgeable about the business and administrative end of as well as being a topflight performer in front of the footlights. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, he was the son of a fisherman who served in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. The son decided that his fate led elsewhere, and when he was in his teens, he headed north to New York City where he got a job as an usher at Augustin Daly's theatre on Broadway. In 1897, Corker was the business manager for Bob Cole and Billy Johnson's traveling minstrel show, "A Trip to Coontown." In 1904, he managed the road company of "In Dahomey," eventually traveling to Great Britain, to great acclaim. In 1908, he was briefly the manager of the Pekin Theatre in Chicago and later involved in organizing minstrel shows and booking vaudeville acts. He died as the result of a fall from a ladder and was buried in his home town of Charleston.