Freddy Hylands in his stage attire, 1909
If you follow this blog, you may recall the post I did a while back about Fred Hylands and his relationship with the White Rats actor's Union. He First became associated with these ambitious theater employees around 1906. Many of the performers he worked with later were members of this union.
Hylands was not necessarily the leader of these progressives, but he was one of their main advocates who organized shows and got everyone paid accordingly and employed. He was and iron-willed member who would go so far as to fight the managers of the stages for the right amount of pay for everyone on the troupe, as he had been through being a house pianist at Columbia, and that was where Hylands really learned how uselessly theater musicians were really treated. He was tired of this by the time he got kicked out of Columbia in 1904, as around 1902, he had started his own union of performers called " The Knights of the Footlights"(haha interesting name...). The collapsing of this union must have left his very frustrated, as he was still working at Columbia when he attempted the unsuccessful venture, this might have been part of the reason why it didn't last very long.
Hylands didn't let that first failure stick with him for very long, as he knew that was a road to nowhere.
He joined his stage buddies in the White Rats actor's union and travelled around with them all the time. Most of the shows he did after 1907 were presented by the union, of which Hylands played piano and did blackface routines at most of these shows.
EHM! This is probably where the walrus story came from...
By 1910, Fred was living in a boardinghouse with all of his fellows at the actor's union, as can be seen in the 1910 census. All of the people boarding at the same house were actors and actresses, the only musician in the house was Fred. This house must have become a meeting spot for the union at Fred's obliging.
Unfortunately for Fred, the many managers that employed him by 1911 refused the ideas and decisions of Hylands and his "rat clan" of performers. A majority of the managers he had for a sustaining amount of time split with him and his buddies by 1912, all because of Fred's demanding and terribly stubborn ways. But one thing that has to be considered here in Fred's case, is that he still had Len Spencer. How? Well, Spencer's stage and booking office had expanded drastically by 1910 and he was open to taking many of his old friends in to perform who were no longer recording artists. So it is very likely that some of the White Rats(and/or Hylands himself) came into Len's busy office and got some of their shows booked there. It's for sure that Len would have gladly accepted their proposal and would have gone out of his way to have them perform.
If Hylands performed at Len Spencer's Lyceum, he would have most likely done an act in blackface with Wilbur Held or with his just-as-popular on the stage wife Marie.
The performance would have looked a little something like this.
(Wilbur is standing, and Freddy is seated)
Hylands and Held were reasonably popular in 1912 and 1913, as they travelled around the East coast widely in those two years. But of course, they were popular enough, that they were then contracted to tour in England in the summer of 1913. It was a promising thing for them, and a chance for Marie to once again see her land of birth. England was not Fred's favourite place but as soon as the shows started going, it got better, but it got busy quick.
Of course, this is as I have explained before, this was where Fred Hylands met his end.
Yes, he died in this oddly named old British town called Barrow-In-Furness on October 14, of 1913. This was a very sudden and heavy blow for the fit and swiftly moving troupe, because the troupe's contract had just been extended to at least another year and a half. So this meant that they had a few more shows to complete and then they called off the potentially very successful tour.
After two weeks, the troupe, along with Marie, wrapped up Freddy in a blanket, carried him onto the ship and set him down somewhere on the ship that would have worked for the situation, but unfortunately, it is hard to assume where they would have decided to put him.
His funeral was, of course, held by the White Rats Actor's union in late November of 1913. And it is very likely that many of his surviving old friends were invited by Marie, like Len Spencer, Harry Yeager, J. W. Myers, Steve Porter, etc.
It must not have been the most emotional thing for Marie, as she went off and married another actor type in Chicago again in 1914 or 1915.
The true will and spirit of the White Rats officially died when Fred's casket was set.
I hope you enjoyed this!
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