Thomas Hamblin and the Bowery Theatre

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Thomas A. Bogar

   Pages 1-7

3. “He Is Yet Very Young, Both in Years and Practice”

   • Thomas A. Bogar

   Pages 9-29

4. “Let Those Who View This Sad Example Know/What Fate Attends the Broken Marriage Vow”

   • Thomas A. Bogar

   Pages 31-55

5. “We Girls Always Patronize the Bowery”

   • Thomas A. Bogar

   Pages 57-82

6. “Throw Not the Pearl of Shakespeare’s Wit Before the Swine of the Bowery Pit”

   • Thomas A. Bogar

   Pages 83-109

7. “Down with the British Bastard!”

   • Thomas A. Bogar

   Pages 111-132

8. “Circumstances Never Satisfactorily Explained”

   • Thomas A. Bogar

   Pages 133-154

9. “Marius Brooding over the Ruins of Carthage”

   • Thomas A. Bogar

   Pages 155-176

10. “The Public Have Only Themselves to Blame for the Reign of Melodrama”

    • Thomas A. Bogar

    Pages 177-196

11. “The Sanity of All the Parties Are at Par Value”

    • Thomas A. Bogar

    Pages 197-215

12. “We Are Not Dead Yet, Boys!”

    • Thomas A. Bogar

    Pages 217-235

13. “The Noblest Roman of Them All”

    • Thomas A. Bogar

    Pages 237-257

14. “Blessings and Benedictions”

    • Thomas A. Bogar

    Pages 259-271

15. Back Matter

    Pages 273-301

    PDF

This book recounts the personal and professional life of Thomas Souness Hamblin (1800-1853), Shakespearean actor and Bowery Theatre manager. Primarily responsible for the popularity of “blood and thunder” melodramas with working class audiences in New York City, Hamblin discovered, trained and promoted many young actors and, especially, actresses who later became famous in their own right. He also epitomized the “sporting man” of mid-nineteenth century life, conducting a scandalous series of affairs and visits to Manhattan brothels, which cost him his marriage to Elizabeth Blanchard Hamblin (1799-1849) and made him the brunt of moralist, religious and journalistic crusades, notably that of James Gordon Bennett’s New York Herald. His machinations and perseverance through trying challenges, including several destructions of the Bowery Theatre by fire, extensive financial and legal complications, and the untimely deaths of several young protégées, earned him equal measures of admiration and opprobrium.

• Actor-manager
• New York
• Drury Lane Theatre
• Park Theatre
• A. W. Jackson

• Independent Scholar, Silver Spring, MD, USA

  Thomas A. Bogar

Thomas A. Bogar taught theatre history, dramatic literature, and theatrical production for forty years. He holds a Ph.D. in theatre history, literature and criticism from Louisiana State University, USA. He is the author of Backstage at the Lincoln Assassination, American Presidents Attend the Theatre and a biography of actor-manager John E. Owens. He is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships, and served as a judge for Washington’s Helen Hayes Theatre Awards. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.

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