Abstract
Hamblin takes over the moribund Park Theatre, hoping for a toehold on the aristocracy it attracted by offering opera and ballet, but it, too, soon burns. At the edge of bankruptcy, an increasingly ill, depressed Hamblin continues to perform in charitable benefits, including those for the fledgling American Dramatic Fund. His successor in heroic melodramas, J. R. “Jack” Scott, draws audiences back to the Bowery. Mortgage battles with the shareholders escalate. Friends organize a testimonial benefit for Hamblin, which only partially succeeds. While many of his lawsuits and financial woes are resolved, others crop up.
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Notes
- 1.
Odell V:329.
- 2.
Clipper, June 27 and July 11, 1868; Ireland II:521.
- 3.
Northall, 103–4; United States Magazine and Democratic Review 23:280 and 371.
- 4.
Phelps 79–80; undated clipping from NYDM, HTC; Ireland II:522; Albion, Aug. 5, 1848.
- 5.
Odell V: 271; Ludlow, Dramatic Life, 664–65.
- 6.
United States Magazine and Democratic Review. Vol. 23 (Sept. 1848) 280.
- 7.
NYH, Sept. 5, 1848; SotT, Sept. 9, 1848; United States Magazine and Democratic Review. Vol. 23 (Oct. 1848) 371.
- 8.
Ibid.
- 9.
Albion, Sept. 16, 1848.
- 10.
NYH, Oct. 23, 1848.
- 11.
William B. Astor vs. Thomas S. Hamblin and Eliza Mary Ann his wife et al. (shareholders), New York Supreme Court, March 18, 1852, MACNY; Office of Register, City of New York liber 511, p. 306.
- 12.
Land Records, New York City Register Office (mortgage records for city properties prior to 1874 are not extant); John S. Giles et al. vs. Thomas S. Hamblin and Eliza his Wife, filed December 5, 1848, Court of Common Pleas, MACNY.
- 13.
SotT, Nov. 18, 1848; Albion, Nov. 18, 1848.
- 14.
Albion, Dec. 16, 1848.
- 15.
SotT, Oct. 9, 1880; Albion, Jan. 6, 1849; Clipper, July 11, 1868; Northall, Yankee Hill 92–93.
- 16.
Creditors’ lawsuits and judgments against Hamblin in “Indices to Records of Judgments, Transcripts, and Decrees in the City and County of New York, 1844–1856,” EBSCOhost research database Gateway to New York http://www.ebscohost.com/archives/featured-archives/gateway-to-new-york, accessed December 3, 2014.
- 17.
American Dramatic Fund Association records, 19.
- 18.
As there is no mention of Hamblin in conveyance records for this property, and it was later claimed by Astor heirs, he was apparently only renting the house. Hamblin’s mother’s death is unrecorded.
- 19.
Some accounts set the death toll as high as thirty-one.
- 20.
SotT, Oct. 9, 1880; Thornbury, Galaxy, May 1876, 582–83.
- 21.
NYH, May 9, 18 and 19, 1849; Albion, May 26 and June 2, 1849.
- 22.
HNYS 1:129, citing Hamblin’s receipt book for this season, no longer extant.
- 23.
Ibid. New York Sunday Telegraph, Dec. 20, 1893.
- 24.
Moses, Famous Actor Families, 220; NYT, Jan. 11, 1880.
- 25.
Odell V:535.
- 26.
Unidentified clipping, HTC.
- 27.
EBSCOhost, op. cit.
- 28.
Thornbury 582–83.
- 29.
Ibid.
- 30.
Skinners, 90; SotT, Aug. 24, 1850.
- 31.
HNYS, op. cit.
- 32.
Ibid.
- 33.
Giles et al. vs. Hamblins, op. cit.
- 34.
Julia Turnbull vs. Thomas S. Hamblin, Court of Common Pleas, MACNY.
- 35.
HNYS, op. cit.
- 36.
Giles et al. vs. Hamblins, op. cit.
- 37.
SotT, Mar. 29, 1851; (Macon) Georgia Telegraph, Apr. 1, 1851, and other papers.
- 38.
HNYS, op. cit.
- 39.
SotT, May 17, 1851.
- 40.
Skinners, 106.
- 41.
HNYS, op. cit.
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Bogar, T.A. (2018). “The Noblest Roman of Them All”. 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_12
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