Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
In 1916, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “Our big job for Dayton, Ohio for Fred Dixon is well under way.” In a later entry that year, he wrote, “Drove down to Dayton, Ohio, to see our new work that had just been installed.”
I have located precious little information about Fred Dixon or the Dayton project that Moses worked on in 1916. One of the difficulties is that there were so many Fred Dixons mentioned in the newspapers, but I think that I found him.
Fred Dixon began his career as a performer, appearing in papers across the country during the late nineteenth century and was associated with a variety of touring productions. He was a singer, performing both tenor and baritone roles in touring shows. He was also known for his acting and theatrical management abilities.
In 1891, the “Philadelphia Inquirer” reported “An artist whose work will manifest itself in Bijou production is Fred Dixon, who besides being a light comedian of reputation is accounted the best comic opera stage manager in the profession. His many years of service in that capacity with the famous Boston Ideals and later with the Bostonians, attest the fact, and to him belongs and is conceded the credit to staging the present reigning New York comic opera success, “Robin Hood” (12 Nov. 1891, page 8). That year he was appearing with the Gaiety Opera Company under the management of Albee. Dixon became well known for his part in staging “Robin Hood” for the Bostonians. By 1896, Dixon was managing the “immense panoramic extravaganza” of “Cinderella” at the the Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Inquirer, 25 Oct 1896, page 20).
In 1900, Dixon was billed as “Singing Contingent Extraordinaire.” He was noted a previously performing as tenor, with the Bostonians eight years, as well as he original Ko Ko in D’Oyly Carte’s “Mikado” (News-Palladium, Benton Harbor MI, 6 Oct., 1900, page 8). Finally, by 1908, the “Fall River Globe” reported that Fred Dixon was presenting “’Erin’s Isle,’ a beautiful Irish Singing creation and the most pretentious offering of true Irish humor that has ever been attempted in vaudeville” (13 Sept 1913, page 2). And that is where his trail grows cold.
To be continued…
