Greenwall, Henry
- Claudia A. Beach
Extract
Greenwall, Henry (1832?–27 November 1913), theater manager, was born in Germany and brought to New Orleans by his parents (names and occupations unknown) in 1837 at the age of five. Details of his family background and his childhood are almost entirely lacking.
Sometime around 1865 Henry and an older brother, Morris, moved to Galveston, Texas, and opened a brokerage firm. In 1867 they rented a theater in the hope that they could enable a stranded actress to recover enough money to repay a debt to the firm. The venture proved profitable and launched Greenwall on a lifelong career as a theater manager in Texas and the South. He acquired a building that had been the first in Galveston designed specifically as a theater, formed Greenwall’s Star Stock Company with actors and actresses he employed during a trip to New York, and opened the New Galveston Theatre on 21 November 1867. On 14 December 1868 he also leased the Perkins Theatre in Houston....
