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Ezra Freemont Kendall (February 15, 1861 – January 23, 1910) was an American actor-comedian, humorist, playwright and author who was known for his depiction of typical New England Yankees. The summary - Volume 33, 1905, p. 2 accessed November 21, 2012 During his time in vaudeville Kendall was said to have been among the highest paid monologist in America. The Green book Magazine - Volume 3, p. 541 accessed November 20, 2012
Kendall left school at fourteen to work as a printer's assistant. At seventeen he traveled to New York City where he became a cub reporter on several newspapers and the youngest member of the New York Press Club. By nineteen or twenty he was touring with a theatre company playing bit part for free board and laundry service. Later Kendall replaced the troupe's property man at $4 a-week before making his professional stage debut as an English butler in Elliott Barnes' melodrama, Only a Farmer's Daughter.
On September 19, 1884, Kendall opened in We, Us & Company, a musical farce he wrote that would bring him to national attention. After a successful yearlong tour Kendall sold the rights to We, Us & Company to Mestayer and then proceeded to organize his own company. His most successful production during this period was probably A Pair of Kids, that toured for at least six seasons over the late 1880s and early 1890s. Around 1894 he wrote and then toured in The Substitute with the diminutive comedian Arthur Dunn and his sister, soubrette Jennie Dunn, and appeared in David Henderson's extravaganza Ali Baba, during its run of one hundred nights at the Chicago Opera House. Kendall would find success beginning in 1896 as a monologist on the vaudeville circuit before returning the legitimate stage in 1902 with his play The Vinegar Buyer and later, Edward E. Kidder's Weather-beaten Benson and road adaptations of George Ade Bad Samaritan and Land of Dollars.
The Vinegar Buyer, Kendall's most successful play over the last decade of his career, was also released as a book. Kendall would author late in his career a number of humorous books that included Spots of Wit and Humor (1899), Good Gravy (1901), Tell It to Me (1903), Hot Ashes (1908) and Top Soil (1909). The first three books were later published as a hard cover collection by the Cleveland News Company.
The text of the books is reproduced from handwriting, and accompanied by line drawings of people and objects from the stories being told. The stories contain frequent wordplay and clearly portray the rhythm and comic timing of vaudeville players.
The following is an example of the style of short humorous stories in Kendall's books:
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