Thomas Bowers (singer)
Template:Infobox musical artist Thomas J. Bowers (c. 1823–October 3, 1885),<ref name=nettles/> also known as "The Colored Mario",<ref name=philly>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> was an American concert artist. He studied voice with African-American concert artist Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield and toured with her troupe for a few years before embarking on his own successful solo career. He was the brother of professional singer Sarah Sedgwick Bowers, known as "the Colored Nightingale",<ref name=nettles/> and John C. Bowers, a Philadelphia entrepreneur and church organist.
A fictionalized version of Thomas Bowers's life was depicted by actor William Marshall in a 1964 episode of Bonanza titled "Enter Thomas Bowers".
Early life
Thomas Bowers was born in 1836 in Philadelphia. His father, John C. Bowers Sr. (1773–1844), was a secondhand clothing dealer, a vestryman and school trustee at St. Thomas African Episcopal Church, and one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society.<ref name=Winch/>Template:Rp<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> His mother's name was Henrietta.<ref name=Winch>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp As a youngster, Thomas showed a desire to learn music and was taught piano and organ by his older brother John.<ref name=nettles>Template:Cite book</ref> At the age of 18, he succeeded his brother as organist of St. Thomas African Episcopal Church.<ref name=james>Template:Cite book</ref> He and his brother were trained as tailors and operated a "fashionable merchant tailor shop" catering to upper class gentlemen and businessmen in Philadelphia.<ref name=Delany>Template:Cite book</ref>
Concert artist
Despite his natural aptitude for music and enjoyment of singing, Bowers deferred to his parents' wishes not to perform outside the church. He declined offers to sing with the famous Frank Johnson's Band of Philadelphia, among others.<ref name=james/> But as more people became acquainted with his singing, he was persuaded to appear at a Philadelphia recital in 1854 with African American concert artist Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, and became her student in voice.<ref name=james/> That 1854 appearance met with popular and critical success; the critics began calling him "The Colored Mario" and "The American Mario" for the similarity of his voice to Italian opera tenor Giovanni Mario.<ref name=nettles/><ref name=africana/> Bowers personally disliked the sobriquet,<ref name=ency>Template:Cite book</ref> but agreed to be billed as "Mareo".<ref name=james/> He proceeded to tour with Greenfield's troupe in Philadelphia, the Midwestern United States, New York, and Canada,<ref name=africana>Template:Cite book</ref> and afterwards embarked on a successful solo career.
Bowers specialised in "romantic ballads and popular arias from well-known operas".<ref name=ency/> His voice was described as having a "wonderful power and beauty"<ref name=africana/> and "extraordinary power, mellowness, and sweetness".<ref name=ben/> His range was nearly two octaves.<ref name=james/> He was said to be "handsome" and had a strong stage presence.<ref name=james/><ref name=ben>Template:Cite book</ref>
Bowers found the stage an ideal platform from which to espouse his opposition to racial inequality. He was purportedly reluctant to launch a public singing career until he realised: "What induced me more than any thing else to appear in public was to give the lie to 'negro serenaders' (minstrels), and to show to the world that coloured men and women could sing classical music as well as the members of the other race by whom they had been so terribly vilified".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He became famous for refusing to perform before segregated or white-only audiences.<ref name=africana/><ref name=ben/> For an 1855 performance in Hamilton, Ontario, where the theatre manager refused to seat six black patrons who had purchased reserved first-class seats, Bowers refused to perform.<ref name=nettles/><ref name=philly/><ref name=africana/>
Trotter writes: "Mr. Bowers, during his career, has sung in most of the Eastern and Middle States; and at one time he even invaded the slavery-cursed regions of Maryland. He sang in Baltimore, the papers of which city were forced to accord to him high merit as a vocalist."<ref name=james/>
Bowers also appeared at benefit concerts to raise funds for the recruitment of black soldiers to the Union Army training camp at Camp William Penn.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Other activities
Together with other members of his family, Bowers was a national organiser of "black opposition to the fugitive slave laws of the 1850s and a state representative of the Equal Rights Convention.<ref name=penn/> In October 1864 he was a delegate from Philadelphia to the National Convention of Coloured Men in Syracuse, New York.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Personal
Bowers married Lucretia Turpin, a native of New York, sometime before 1850.<ref name=penn/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> They had one daughter, Adelia.<ref name=penn/>
At the time of his death in 1885, he possessed "nearly $10,000 in real estate, Pennsylvania Railroad stock, household furnishings and cash in the Farmers and Mechanics Bank".<ref name=penn>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Bonanza episode
In a 1964 episode of Bonanza titled "Enter Thomas Bowers", Thomas was portrayed as the African American opera singer by actor William Marshall.<ref name=nettles/>