IN THE OLDEN DAYS
Reminiscences of the Early Days of Variety by the Veteran Manager and Performer, Nick Norton. NUMBER THREE. (VARIETY 1906)
...The East had always been the Promised Land, and I made for Philadelphia, concluding that the time was ripe for an invasion. I had expected to find work at Robert Fox's, but to my dismay Martini Chiriski, a noted juggler and wire walker, was filling an engagement there.
There was no chance for me, so I took an engagement at J. C. ("Fatty") Stewart's Apollo Hall, a Vine street basement place where the ceiling was so low it was impossible to work on the stage and even from the floor it was hard to find room for my juggling.
My salary was small because Stewart knew that I was stuck, but I did not get even that, for Stewart was an inveterate faro player and as soon as the receipts were in he would streak off to a gambling room and lose the entire amount in the hopeless endeavor to gain back what he had already lost. The result was that the ghost was permanently disabled and when at last an opportunity came to go to Baltimore for an engagement at Bob Gardner's Melodeon. I could not raise the fare.
The late "Billy" Barry was then a youngster in the company, and it was to his inventive mind I owed my escape. Our credit was good at the bar and at Barry's suggestion I drew against the bar to the extent of my salary in bar checks and sold these to the waiters at a discount.
In this way I got enough for my fare and got out of town, leaving all of my personal effects except the suit I was wearing at the boarding house in lieu of my board money.
The Baltimore engagement was a good one and in a couple of weeks my effects were redeemed and my chances began to look more rosy. Later on business dropped, and when, on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth assassinated the President, all theatres were closed with no prospect of an early reopening and the management made this the excuse for welching on several weeks of arrears of salary.
I was broke again and without a single place of amusement in the entire country doing business.
Theatres then were not the important ventures they are to-day. A store with a stage at one end and ordinary kitchen chairs strapped to wooden bars constituted the equipment of many of the places, and I have known a place to be opened within forty-eight hours after some one had decided upon such a venture. If the place failed to pay there was small loss, and since there were no heavy investment charges the managers were not so anxious to keep the place open as they are now. There were from four to eight of these places in every town in addition to the standard place. I recall only eighteen important places open in the season of 1864-65, to wit:
Howard Athenaeum Boston, Mass.
Bob Butler's Theatre Comique, 444 Broadway, New York City.
Robert Fox's Casino, Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
Bob Gardner's Melodeon, Baltimore Street. Baltimore, Md.
George Lea's Canterbury...Washington, D. C.
Ben Trimbie's Varieties Pittsburgh, Pa.
Turn Chrr's Melodeon, Main St., Buffalo, N. Y.
Montpelier's Athenaeum, Superior Street, Cleveland, Ohio.
Theatre Comique (Chas. M. Welch), Detroit, Mich.
Charles Chadwick's Varieties. Dearborn Street. Chicago, Ill.
George Deagle's Varieties St. Louis, Mo.
Green Street Varieties ((apt. John Smith). Albany, N. Y.
Palace Varieties Cincinnati, Ohio.
Haverly's Theatre (J. H. Haverly), Toledo, Ohio.
Spaulding and Bidwell's, St. Charles Theatre, New Orleans, La.
Bloom's Varieties (John Bloom). Memphis. Tenn.
Tom Poland's Varieties Nashvllle, Tenn.
Bella Union San Francisco, Cal.
The list is unimportant as compared with the formidable array of houses today, but these'were the schools wherein many of the important legitimate actors of to-day and practically every comic opera comedian of importance was trained to his work. Men like Eddie Foy, Ned Harrigan, Francis Wilson, James T. Powers, Peter Dailey and hundreds of others were grounded in these variety houses, and they do credit to their instructors.
(To be concluded.)
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