Mose Humphrey
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Mose(s) Humphrey was a printer at the New York Sun and member of Fire Company 40. A parishioner of St. Andrew's Church,[1] he inspired an urban folklore character of Big Mose. He was said to have an eight-feet height and hands as big as Virginia hams, able to lift trolley cars over his head and rescue babies inside a stovepipe hat. The character of Mose first appeared on Broadway in Benjamin A. Baker's A Glance at New York, in 1848. Then Mose was featured in several stage shows and penny novels in the mid-1800s. The character was most identified with actor Frank Chanfrau.[2]
[edit] Notes
[edit] Further reading
- Mary Pope Osborne. New York's Bravest.
- David L. Rinear. F. S. Chanfrau's Mose: The Rise and Fall of an Urban Folk-Hero. Theatre Journal, Vol. 33, No. 2 (May, 1981), pp. 199-212
