Barnum, P. T. (05 July 1810–07 April 1891), showman, was born Phineas Taylor Barnum in Bethel, Connecticut, the son of Philo F. Barnum, a farmer and storekeeper, and Irena Taylor. While attending public school in Bethel, Barnum peddled candy and gingerbread. He later wrote that he had always been interested in arithmetic and money....
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Barnum, P. T. (1810-1891), showman
James Ross Moore
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Blackton, James Stuart (1875-1941), motion picture pioneer
Douglas Gomery
Blackton, James Stuart (05 January 1875–13 August 1941), motion picture pioneer, was born in Sheffield, England, the son of Henry Blackton, a carriage maker, and Jessie Stuart. After the family moved to the United States in 1886, Blackton worked several years as a carpenter while taking night classes at City College of New York. He then became an illustrator and reporter for the ...
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Drake, Samuel (1768-1854), actor, theatrical manager, and pioneer of professional theater in the West
Anthony R. Haigh
Drake, Samuel (15 November 1768–16 October 1854), actor, theatrical manager, and pioneer of professional theater in the West, was born in England of unknown parentage. Very little is known of his early life. It is said that he was born Samuel Drake Bryant but later adopted Drake as a stage name. He was apprenticed as a printer but broke his apprenticeship and joined an acting troupe. He became a manager of a small provincial theater in the west of England and married Alexina Fisher (date unknown), sister of the manager of the theater in Exeter. They had five children and, in the tradition of great English stage families, founded a theatrical dynasty. Martha Drake, their eldest child, was an actress who married a Frankfort, Kentucky, businessman and returned to England. Samuel Drake, Jr., was a talented musician but an average actor. Alexander Drake, who suffered from deafness but was an excellent singer and low-comedy actor, married the celebrated actress Frances Ann Denny ( ...
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Durang, John (1768-1822), dancer, choreographer, and theatrical entrepreneur
Kate Van Winkle Keller
Durang, John (06 January 1768–29 March 1822), dancer, choreographer, and theatrical entrepreneur, was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the son of Jacob Durang, a physician, and Joeann Catharine Arter, who had emigrated from Strasbourg, France, in 1767. Settling first in York, the family moved to Philadelphia in 1778. America’s first native-born theatrical dancer of prominence, Durang was influenced in his youth by Louis Roussell, a French dancer and teacher. In his memoirs he states that he emulated Roussell’s “pigeon wing” and learned the correct way of dancing a hornpipe “in the French stile [ ...
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Henson, Jim (1936-1990), puppeteer and entertainment industry entrepreneur
Tina Margolis
Henson, Jim (24 September 1936–16 May 1990), puppeteer and entertainment industry entrepreneur, was born James Maury Henson in Greenville, Mississippi, the son of Paul Henson, an agronomist, and Elizabeth Brown. Henson studied art and stage design part time at the University of Maryland. At college, he met his future wife, Jane Nebel, an art student. The two worked together in creating puppet segments on local Baltimore and Washington, D.C., childrens’ shows. They married in 1959 and were to have five children. Henson graduated from college in 1960. Soon afterward, Jane Henson essentially withdrew from her involvement in Henson’s puppetry work....
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Hopper, Edna Wallace (17 January 1864?–14 December 1959), actress, entrepreneur, and financier
Nola Smith
Hopper, Edna Wallace (17 January 1864?–14 December 1959), actress, entrepreneur, and financier, was born and raised in San Francisco, California, the daughter of Walter Wallace. (Her mother’s identity is unknown.) Little is verifiable about her early years, except that she was educated at the Van Ness Seminary, as public records were destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. She began her stage career on a whim when, at a reception, she met and charmed comedian Roland Reed into issuing her an invitation to join his company. In August 1891 she made her debut as Mabel Douglas in the musical comedy ...
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Hopper, Edna Wallace (17 January 1864?–14 December 1959)
In
Edna Hopper Seated in her berth on a train. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-95412).
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Kiralfy, Bolossy
See Kiralfy, Imre
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Kiralfy, Imre (1845-1919), dancers and producers of realistic-pictorial theater
Barbara Barker
Kiralfy, Imre (01 January 1845–27 April 1919), and Bolossy Kiralfy (01 January 1848– March 1932), dancers and producers of realistic-pictorial theater, were born in Pest, Hungary, the sons of Jacob Königsbaum, a cloth manufacturer, and Anna (maiden name unknown). The brothers were born shortly before the unsuccessful Hungarian Revolution of 1848. When Königsbaum, a nationalist, lost his fortune during the revolution, the young boys supported the family as child performers. First Imre, at age five, joined two years later by Bolossy, earned a living for the family by performing traditional folk dances in theaters and at private performances throughout the Austrian Empire. By virtue of their youth the children escaped official censure against public shows of nationalism for performing dances of the Hussars, Hungarian cavalry, and Cossacks. They changed their name from Königsbaum (king’s tree) to Kiralfy, a shortening of ...
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Klaw, Marc Alonzo (1858-1936), theatrical entrepreneur and producer
Charles W. Stein
Klaw, Marc Alonzo (29 May 1858–14 June 1936), theatrical entrepreneur and producer, was born in Paducah, Kentucky, the son of Leopold Klaw and Caroline K. Blumgart. He moved with his widowed mother to Louisville when he was five. There he attended both elementary and public high school, after which he received his law degree from Louisville Law School in 1879. Although he practiced law for a while, his primary interest was in theater; he was for a time the dramatic editor of the Louisville ...
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Palmer, Albert Marshman (1838-1905), theater manager and entrepreneur
Glen Nichols
Palmer, Albert Marshman (27 July 1838–07 March 1905), theater manager and entrepreneur, was born in North Stonington, Connecticut, the son of Reverend Dr. Albert Gallatin Palmer, a Baptist minister, and Sarah Amelia Langworthy. He was educated at the Suffield Institute and graduated in 1860 from the New York University Law School but soon turned his attention to politics....
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Rothafel, Roxy (1881-1936), movie theater impresario and early radio host
William Stephenson
Rothafel, Roxy (09 July 1881–13 January 1936), movie theater impresario and early radio host, was born Samuel Lionel Rothapfel in Stillwater, Minnesota, the son of Gustav Rothapfel, a shoemaker, and Cecelia Schwerzens. The younger Rothafel dropped the “p” from his family name at the end of World War I when names of Germanic origin were in disfavor. His family moved to Brooklyn, New York, in 1894, and his education ended with grammar school. At age fourteen, Rothafel began drifting from one temporary job to another. He joined the Marine Corps in 1902, saw action in China’s Boxer Rebellion, and ended military service as a sergeant in 1905. He remained a believer in military discipline, and later uniformed ushers in his theaters drilled and saluted....
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Thompson, Lydia (1836-1908), entertainer and leader of a British burlesque troupe
Richard Butsch
Thompson, Lydia (19 February 1836–17 November 1908), entertainer and leader of a British burlesque troupe, was born in London, England, the daughter of a Quaker father, Philip Milburn Thompson, who died when she was three. Her mother, whose name is unknown, remarried a well-to-do businessman who financed Lydia’s dancing lessons when she was a young child....
