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Thomas Hamblin and the Bowery Theatre pp 1–7Cite as

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Introduction

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History ((PSTPH))

Abstract

This chapter provides a description and general assessment of the physical, emotional, moral, and professional characteristics of Thomas Souness Hamblin and establishes a context for the work which follows.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Charles Gayler, “Tom Hamblin’s Days,” NYDM, Sept. 24, 1885; Clipper, Feb. 19, 1887. Hamblin’s middle name has been repeatedly and erroneously cited as Sowerby, a last name adopted by his half-brother Frank upon arrival in New York, but Hamblin’s christening lists him purely as Thomas Souness. His common-law wife Louisa Medina, in a June 1837 biographical sketch, identified him as Thomas Souness Hamblin. He signed his name with only the middle initial “S.” The first mention of a “Thomas Sowerby Hamblin” was by T. Allston Brown in the Clipper, Nov. 22, 1862, from which subsequent historians have drawn.

  2. 2.

    Mary Carr Clarke. A Concise History of the Life and Amours of Thomas S. Hamblin, Late Manager of the Bowery Theatre, as Communicated by his Legal Wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Hamblin, to Mrs. M. Clarke . New York: n.p., n.d., 12; James H. Hackett. Notes and Comments upon Certain Plays and Actors of Shakespeare, with Criticisms and Correspondence. New York: Carleton, 1863, 124–25; Augusta (GA) Chronicle, Feb. 12, 1828.

  3. 3.

    (Boston) Dramatic Mirror, Feb. 19, 1829; “Old Fashioned Managers,” NYS, July 3, 1876; Maud and Otis Skinner. One Man in His Time: the Adventures of H. Watkins, Strolling Player, 1845–1863, 145.

  4. 4.

    HNYS, op. cit.

  5. 5.

    Abram C. Dayton, Last Days of Knickerbocker Life in New York. New York: G. W. Harlan, 1882, 284–85.

  6. 6.

    Bruce McConachie, “American Theatre in Context: Commercial Performance, 1830–1870,” The Cambridge History of American Theatre. 3 vols. Eds. Don B. Wilmeth and Christopher Bigsby. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998–2000, I:155.

  7. 7.

    Francis C. Wemyss, Twenty-Six Years, 106–7; SotT, March 29, 1851; New York Tribune, Jan. 10, 1853; NODP, Jan. 23, 1853.

  8. 8.

    Wemyss, Twenty-Six Years, 106–7.

  9. 9.

    “The Hermit in New York” in Troy (NY) Weekly Times, Dec. 19, 1868; NYT, June 19, 1887; Joseph H. Tooker. “Booth at the Old Bowery,” NYT, June 19, 1887.

  10. 10.

    Louisa Lane Drew. Autobiographical Sketch of Mrs. John Drew. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1899, 50–51, 179.

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  1. Independent Scholar, Silver Spring, MD, USA

    Thomas A. Bogar

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  1. Thomas A. Bogar
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Bogar, T.A. (2018). Introduction. In: Thomas Hamblin and the Bowery Theatre. Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68406-2_1

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