Paul Dresser

Who was Paul Dresser?

Paul Dresser was born Johann Paul Dreiser Jr. in Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana. After changing his surname, Dresser went on to become a well-known singer, popular American songwriter, and comedic actor of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In addition to songwriting Dresser performed in traveling minstrel and medicine-wagon shows and as a vaudeville entertainer. Dresser sold his songs through sheet music publishers, especially the firms in New York City's Tin Pan Alley, and became a partner in the music publishing business.

Dresser grew up in a large family and lived in Sullivan and Terre Haute, Indiana. He had a troubled childhood and spent several weeks in jail. Dresser left home at age sixteen to join a traveling minstrel act and performed in several regional theaters before joining John Hamlin's Wizard Oil traveling medicine-wagon show in 1878. Dresser composed his first songs while working for Hamlin. Dresser settled in Evansville, Indiana, for several years, while as he continued to work as a traveling performer and musician.