PALGRAVE STUDIES IN THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE HISTORY Thomas Hamblin and the Bowery Theatre Th e New York Reign of “Blood and Th under” Melodramas Th omas A. Bogar Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History Series editor Don B. Wilmeth Emeritus Professor Brown University Providence, RI, USA Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History is a series devoted to the best of theatre/performance scholarship currently available, accessible and free of jargon. It strives to include a wide range of topics, from the more traditional to those performance forms that in recent years have helped broaden the understanding of what theatre as a category might include (from variety forms as diverse as the circus and burlesque to street buskers, stage magic, and musical theatre, among many others). Although historical, critical, or analytical studies are of special interest, more theo- retical projects, if not the dominant thrust of a study but utilized as impor- tant underpinning or as an historiographical or analytical method of exploration, are also of interest. Textual studies of drama or other types of less traditional performance texts are also germane to the series if placed in their cultural, historical, social, or political and economic context. There is no geographical focus for this series and works of excellence of a diverse and international nature, including comparative studies, are sought. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/series/14575 Thomas A. Bogar Thomas Hamblin and the Bowery Theatre The New York Reign of “Blood and Thunder” Melodramas Thomas A. Bogar Independent Scholar Silver Spring, MD, USA Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History ISBN 978-3-319-68405-5 ISBN 978-3-319-68406-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68406-2 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017960770 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. 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Cover illustration: Art Collection 3 / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland The Bow’ry, the Bow’ry! They say such things, And they do strange things On the Bow’ry! The Bow’ry! I’ll never go there anymore! v A cknowledgments In researching and writing Thomas Hamblin and the Bowery Theatre I have been aided tremendously by a small army of dedicated, tireless profession- als. First among them is Bruce Abrams, the indefatigable New York City Municipal Archivist (now retired) and researcher, who located and exhumed lengthy documents long buried. As always, the staffs of various institutions have gone far out of their way to make a writer’s life easier. These include the Newspapers and Periodicals Room of the Library of Congress; the Harvard Theatre Collection of Houghton Library, notably Curatorial Assistant Dale Stinchcomb; the Folger Shakespeare Library; the National Archives; the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, KY; the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, Performing Arts Division, New York Public Library; the Theatre Collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia; and the Library of the New York Historical Society. Tom Tryniski’s Fulton History website and New York newspaper archive again proved an invalu- able resource. I am also grateful to the anonymous peer reviewers whose insightful comments have made this a stronger work. I am deeply indebted to the entire staff at Palgrave Macmillan, especially Don Wilmeth, series editor, who by any definition is the consummate theatre historian. And as with my previous books, I could not have undergone this effort without the steadfast love and support of my wife, Gail, who doubtless learned more about Tom Hamblin than she ever wanted to know. vii c ontents 1 Introduction 1 2 “He Is Yet Very Young, Both in Years and Practice” 9 3 “Let Those Who View This Sad Example Know/What Fate Attends the Broken Marriage Vow” 31 4 “We Girls Always Patronize the Bowery” 57 5 “Throw Not the Pearl of Shakespeare’s Wit Before the Swine of the Bowery Pit” 83 6 “Down with the British Bastard!” 111 7 “Circumstances Never Satisfactorily Explained” 133 8 “Marius Brooding over the Ruins of Carthage” 155 9 “The Public Have Only Themselves to Blame for the Reign of Melodrama” 177 ix x CONTENTS 10 “The Sanity of All the Parties Are at Par Value” 197 11 “We Are Not Dead Yet, Boys!” 217 12 “The Noblest Roman of Them All” 237 13 “Blessings and Benedictions” 259 Works Cited 273 Index 287 l f ist of igures Fig. 1.1 Thomas Souness Hamblin (Source: Library of Congress) 2 Fig. 2.1 Elizabeth Blanchard Hamblin (Source: Extra-Illustrated Ireland, HTC, Houghton Library, Harvard University) 12 Fig. 4.1 Josephine Clifton (Source: Extra-Illustrated Ireland, HTC, Houghton Library, Harvard University) 76 Fig. 5.1 Naomi Vincent (author’s collection) 87 Fig. 8.1 Louisa Missouri Miller (Source: Extraillustrated Ireland, HTC, Houghton Library, Harvard University) 163 Fig. 8.2 Eliza Trewar Shaw (Source: Extra-illustrated Ireland, HTC, Houghton Library, Harvard University) 165 xi