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EJ Phillips and people she knew

Family members and friends
John Nickinson died in 1864, leaving EJP with two small children.  Elizabeth Jane Phillips Nickinson (1830-1904)  wrote most of these letters to her son, Albert Nickinson (1863-1948) and daughter-in-law after he married Mary Penelope Macardell Nickinson  (1864-1954) in 1889. They were the parents of Edward Phillips Nickinson (1890-1948)  Nickinson family 

Daughter Hattie Nickinson Dolman  (1860-1946) married John Dolman, Jr.   (1857-1937) in 1887   They were the parents of  Jack Dolman (1888-1952)  Elizabeth Ellen Dolman  (1891-1892) and Melanie Nickinson Dolman  (1897-1978)   Dolman family

Dr. and Mrs. Dr. John T. Nagle kept a boardinghouse on East 21st Street and were friends as well as landlords.  He was a public health physician at 301 Mott Street, and, as an enthusiastic photographer, collaborated with Jacob Riis in investigating New York slums.

The Zavistowskis  Christine (Aunty) and Uncle Antonio, daughters Emmeline Zavistowski Shailer and Alice Zavistowski Webb were dancers who had worked with John Nickinson and boarded Albert and Hattie as EJP worked and traveled after John Nickinson's death.  Various Kirbys and Fays are referred to, but we have very little information on them.   EJ Phillips was (almost) 53 when these letters begin in Aug. 1883.

Theatrical Friends and Colleagues  
Barrymores and Drews       Booths

pre-Palmer Lawrence Barrett   Charlotte Cushman   Louisa Lane Drew   Ben  and Mrs. DeBar   Samuel Pike   Sol Smith Russell    

Palmer Companies colleagues  Maurice Barrymore  Agnes Booth  Maud Harrison  William LeMoyne  AM Palmer  Walden Ramsey   Annie Russell   JH Stoddart   

Union Square colleagues  Kate Claxton, Rose Eytinge, Virginia Harned, Sara Jewett, Fanny Morant, Clara Morris, Jams O'Neill, and  John Parselle, and Charles Thorne, who don't appear in these letters.  Thorne died in 1883 and Parselle in 1885.

post-Palmer  Elsie de Wolfe   Charles Frohman   Daniel Frohman   Gustave Frohman   Charles Hoyt   Ramsey Morris   Olga Nethersole

Playwrights  Dion Boucicault   Robert Williams Buchanan   Bartley Campbell  AR Cazauran   C Haddon Chambers  James A Herne  Bronson Howard   William Dean Howells   Charles H Hoyt   Henry Arthur Jones   Brander Matthews    Peter Robertson   Clinton Stuart   Augustus Thomas   Denman Thompson   Oscar Wilde

Theatre managers  Lawrence Barrett   James Collier William Henry Crane   Augustin Daly  Ben DeBar  Charles Frohman  Daniel Frohman  Gustave Frohman Oscar Hammerstein  Al Hayman  Charles Hoyt James Humphreys   Henry C Jarrett   BF Keith Barney Macauley   FF Mackay  Steele MacKaye  James H McVicker  Marcus Mayer  Ramsey Morris   AM Palmer  Samuel N Pike  William Seymour  Denman Thompson  James Wallack Lester Wallack  George Woods

People only briefly mentioned

Palmer and other company colleagues

Julia Arthur [Mrs. B.P. Cheney Jr.] (1869-1959) Canadian actress, appeared in Broken Seal. First NY success was at Union Square Theatre in The Black Masque.  On committee with EJ Phillips for the Actors' Fund Fair New York, 1892

Lewis Strang's Famous Actresses notes "Less than ten years ago, when a member of AM Palmer's Madison Square Theatre Company, Julia Arthur first demonstrated that she had exceptional talent... The play was Lady Windermere's Fan, an exotic, in which, nevertheless, Miss Arthur made plain the tragic element that is so much a distinguishing trait of her dramatic personality. ... In August 1891, she appeared at the Union Square Theatre, New York, in "The Black Mask". In November she joined AM Palmer's company playing Jeanne in The Broken Seal.  The summer of 1892 was spent in Minneapolis and St. Paul.  Returning to Mr. Palmer's company in the fall, she created in America the part of Lady Windermere... After leaving the Palmer company Miss Arthur joined Henry Irving's forces in England.
Julia Arthur from Strang's Famous Actresses

At the height of her fame, in 1899, Julia Arthur had retired from the stage after marrying a wealthy Bostonian, Benjamin Pierce Cheney, Jr., the year before. At the time of her marriage, in fact, Saturday Night had pondered the question of whether or not Arthur would "vanish finally from the stage just now when she has captured the favour and applause of the continent." Indeed, it turned out that Cheney had told Arthur that she would have to give up the stage entirely if she wanted to marry him: "He had no intention of traipsing after her whenever she went on the road." When Steinmetz spoke to Arthur for the Maclean's article in 1916, it was during a break in rehearsals for The Eternal Magdalene. Arthur explained that she had found the play by Robert McLaughlin "so big, so powerful" that it was worth appealing to her husband to change his mind about permitting her to act again. The impression she gave Steinmetz was that Cheney had allowed himself to be persuaded by his wife's serious artistic aspirations, but in fact Arthur had no choice but to go back to work. As it turned out, Cheney had lost his fortune in a series of disastrous business ventures, and, ironically, it was Arthur's theatre work over the next ten years that was to go a long way to repair these losses. Paula Sperdakos, CANADA'S DAUGHTERS, AMERICA'S SWEETHEARTS: THE CAREERS OF CANADIAN 'FOOTLIGHT FAVORITES' IN THE UNITED STATES, Theatre Research In Canada, Fall/Automne 1999 Vol 20 no.2 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/TRIC/article/view/7084

At home and abroad: The acting career of Julia Arthur, Dennis Salter  Theatre Research in Canada, Spring 1984 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/TRIC/article/view/7446

Personal papers in the Harvard Theatre Collection  1 folder
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Arthur

EJP to Albert, Washington DC Jan 6,1893 I suppose you have seen by the papers that AMP[almer] is to have possession of the Madison Garden Theatre in 1894.  The company are now playing Alabama in Boston & rehearsing Lady Windermere's Fan" for next week I guess. Miss [Julia] Arthur, Miss [May] Brookyn & Mrs. [DP] Bowers are the ladies in the cast.  [JH] Stoddart & [Frederic] Robinson are not in it. [Maurice] Barrymore, [Edward M.] Bell & [EM] Holland are.  Miss [Maud] Harrison is still idle, as I suppose I should have been, had I not been lucky enough to accept this.

John H Barnes (1850/52-1925) English actor WWS WWT/1-5. The final Union Square Season began on October 6th, 1884 with a costume play in the time of Louis XV and a "dire failure" The Artist's Daughter by Elliott Barnes in which JH Barnes played a persecuted hero. In Feb. 1885 an avalanche overtook Maud Harrison when, disguised as a boy, she was trying to rescue her father JH Barnes the "prisoner for life [Odell]

Barnes retired in Dec. 1894 and sailed to England, leaving Olga Nethersole's company behind.

JH Barnes as Iago, Shakespeare & the players, Emory Univ. http://english.emory.edu/classes/players/o08.html 
Forty Years on the Stage others (principally) and myself 1915 http://books.google.com/books?id=F54WAAAAYAAJ&dq=transgressor+gattie&source=gbs_navlinks_s  Writes about working with Charlotte Nickinson Morrison   Olga Nethersole, Dion Boucicault, AM Palmer and the Union Square Theatre Company.

The final Union Square Season began on October 6th, 1884 with a costume play in the time of Louis XV and a "dire failure" The Artist's Daughter by Elliott Barnes, with JH Barnes as "a persecuted hero", JH Stoddart as "a dreadful villain" and Sara Jewett as the mother of the prologue and the daughter of the main play.  EJ Phillips played Nanette Ponchon and Maud Harrison, Ida Vernon and Marie Greenwald were also in the cast.

Lawrence Barrett  (1838-1891) 
Barrett was a great friend of Edwin Booth.  Barrett was 8 years younger than EJ Phillips and 5 years older than Edwin Booth.         

photo from Strang's Players and Plays   Strang says of Barrett that he was "one of the first actors of the United States to realise his responsibilities in furthering the artistic development of the theatre. ... He had practically no schooling and when , at the age of fourteen years, he became a call-boy at the Metropolitan Theatre, Detroit, he could scarcely read and write. Yet he became, in the course of time, preeminently the scholar of the American stage, thoroughly versed in every branch of English literature, and an authority on the history of the stage. "

Barrett was a captain in the 28th Massachusetts during the Civil War. Strang cites "the summer of 1870 saw the real turning-point in Lawrence Barrett's life".  Barrett played Cassius in Julius Caesar in a production at Niblo's Garden, New York. Barrett played parts opposite Edwin Booth in the new Booth's Theatre for four months starting in December.  'In December 1871, he was once more a manager in New Orleans.' [This seems to be when EJ Phillips was in his company.] 

EJ Phillips was a member of Barrett's stock company in New Orleans and traveled with him to throughout the South and Midwest. . 

William Winter's Shadow of the Stage 1892 t writes about the death of Lawrence Barrett. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18860/18860.txt
About Stage Folks by William Ellis Horton 1902 http://books.google.com/books?id=tQQOAAAAYAAJ&dq=buried+%22May+brookyn%22&source=gbs_navlinks_s   says that Lawrence Barrett is buried in Cohasset Massachusetts.
Wikipedia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Barrett 
Encyclopedia Britannica http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/54069/Lawrence-Barrett      more about Lawrence Barrett

Georgie Drew Barrymore (1856-1893) was the wife of Maurice Barrymore and mother of John, Ethel and Lionel.  Her promising career was cut short by her early death.  

EJ Phillips probably knew her from her years in Philadelphia, where her mother Louisa Lane Drew (see letter of  Sept. 6, 1897 for that funeral) ran the Arch Street Theater for many years.  EJ Phillips reports an encounter of Palmer's company with that of Crane's (of which Mrs. Barrymore was a member) in June 1890 halfway between Tacoma and Portland, where both companies sang Auld Lang Syne. Georgie Drew would have been 19 when EJ Phillips was in Philadelphia starting in 1875. She married Maurice Barrymore in New York in Dec 1876.

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgiana_Drew
Wikipedia Barrymore family http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrymore_family
Georgie Drew Barrymore with her three children Lionel, Ethel, and John https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a6/64/c4/a664c420fc49c73e4b5d93e0be906ab0.jpg

   
 Maurice Barrymore (1847-1905) Born Herbert Blythe in India he came to New York in 1875, first working for Augustin Daly.  He moved to Wallacks and then to AM Palmers in 1888, playing Wilding in Captain Swift and Captain Davenport in Alabama.  more on Maurice Barrymore   Barrymores and Drews Maurice & Georgie c 1876 

Edward M. Bell (c1857=?) was in the Pharisee with EJ Phillips 1890-1891and played a loving cripple in Sunlight and Shadow 1891. He was also in Lady Windermere's Fan 1893.

Agnes Booth (1846-1910) Born in Australia, first appeared in the US aged 12 in San Francisco as a child dancer.  Married at 16 to Harry Perry and widowed a year later.  She married Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. (brother of Edwin and son of the more famous actor of the same name) in 1865 (and was widowed again in 1883). In 1885 she married John B. Schoeffel, manager of Boston's Tremont theatre.  more on Agnes Booth  

Junius Brutus Booth, Jr.  (1821-1883) Brother of Edwin and husband of Agnes Booth who still used his name professionally, though she had been widowed and remarried by the time of these letters. His father Junius Brutus Booth and brother Edwin had been  members of the "Providence Museum Company", organized in 1848 in Rhode Island which at one time included John and Charlotte Nickinson.  EJ Phillips was playing with Junius Brutus Booth Jr.  in Othello in Cincinnati the night Lincoln was assassinated. 

He was also married to Clementina DeBar Booth.  (1840-1855).   more on Booths

Mrs. D[avid] P Bowers   Elizabeth Crocker Bowers (1830-1895) American actress, was playing in Broken Seal when she served on an Actors Fund Fair committee with EJ Phillips in 1892. Catalog of Dramatic Portraits  Dictionary of American Biography    She was Emilia in the 1886 Booth Salvini Othello, the Queen in their Hamlet and the Duchess of Berwick in the first American Lady Windermere's Fan in 1893. Bordman, Oxford Companion
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Crocker_Bowers
Mrs. Bowers as Lady Audley in Lady Audley's Secret,  http://www.sensationpress.com/ladyaudleyssecret_play_williamesuter_braddon.htm

May Brookyn (c. 1859-1894) First shows up in Our Society, went west with Palmer's company in 1886 and 1888.   Described by EJ Phillips as one of the "weak lot to take to San Francisco" in 1888.  Cast in Partners in Boston 1888    more on May Brookyn

Virginia Ellen Buchanan  (1846/66-1931) CDP Made her debut as an apparition in Macbeth in Cardiff, Wales.  Played all lines of business in California.  HAS In The New Magdalen at Union Square in Jan. 1882 Actress in Fair Fame 1887, in Heart of Hearts 1888 San Francisco 

Marie Burroughs (1866-1926) Played Letty Fletcher, the minister's daughter in Saints and Sinners in 1885. Played Florida Vervain, the lively American girl the priest (Alessandro Salvini) fell in love with in Foregone Conclusion. more on Marie Burroughs 

*Charles Coghlan (1842?-1899) brought by Daly from England in 1876 to be "a leading man of distinction and charm ...he seemed unable to remain with any ensemble for long" moving to Union Square in 1877, and in 1878 to Wallacks, then toured with Lily Langtry as her leading man.  "Shortly before his mysterious death, he appeared as a Sidney Carton-like figure in his own play about the French revolution." [Oxford]   

NY Times Nov. 28 1899 obituary doesn't sound like his death from gastritis in Galveston was particularly mysterious https://www.nytimes.com/1899/11/28/archives/charles-coghlan-is-dead-famous-actor-succumbs-to-gastritis-at.html

What happened to Charls Francis Coghlan? http://www.texasescapes.com/MikeCoxTexasTales/What-happened-to-Charles-Francis-Coghlan.htm or what happened to his body?

EJ Phillips'  first role with the Union Square Company had been Mrs. Tubbs in Pink Dominos, starring Charles Coghlan and Agnes Booth, with Maud Harrison as a French serving maid. JH Stoddart's Recollections of a Player, quotes  Coghlan as saying the Banker's Daughter [1878] "was the greatest trash he had ever heard" when it was first read to the company.)Coghlan played Jim in Jim the Penman in 1888.  With his younger sister Rose Coghlan he revived Diplomacy

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Francis_Coghlan   Photo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Francis_Coghlan#/media/File:Charles_Francis_Coghlan_002.JPG

*Rose Coghlan  (1851-1932)  English actress, with Wallack until the Company disbanded in 1888. With older brother Charles revived Diplomacy Dictionary of American Biography.  EJ Phillips ran into her in San Francisco in 1896.  
Wikipedia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Coghlan  

Rose Coghlan was a backup choice to play Vera in Oscar Wilde's first play Vera the Nihilist (between first choice Clara Morris and final choice Marie Prescott.

Lewis Strang in Famous Actresses writes of Rose Coghlan that "in 1871 EA Southern brought her to this country to appear in a dramatisation of Wilkie Collin's novel "The Woman in White." The management collapsed, and Miss Coghlan sought refuse with Lydia Thompson's famous blonde burlesquers. She was then at Wallack's Theatre one season, and in 1873 returned to England. ... In 1877 Miss Coghlan again became a member of Lester Wallack's New York company, this time as leading lady. ... when Wallack's closed its doors on May 5, 1888, the last performance being "The School for Scandal," Miss Coghlan was especially engaged for Lady Teazle.

Miss Coghlan appeared with the Union Square Theatre Company in 1887, acting Lady Gay Spanker, Peg Woffington, Rosalind, and Zicka in "Diplomacy", a remarkable performance. She was the Player Queen in the star cast of "Hamlet," which was produced in New York, May 21, 1888, in honour of Lester Wallack's retirement from the stage. That fall Miss Coghlan started out as a star ... Then she tried her hand, without much success, at farcical comedy, from which she emerged, in 1894, with the Oscar Wilde sensation, "A Woman of No Importance." The next year she starred in "Princess Walanoff," "Diplomacy," and "Forget-Me-Not".  Since that time Miss Coghlan has drifted. yet she is an actress of the rarest accomplishments, a type of player of which there are but few, and she must soon stand forth from her comparative obscurity. 

Rose Coghlan http://www.josephhaworth.com/rose_coghlan.htm
Rose Coghlan in Diplomacy, 1877 http://www.josephhaworth.com/images/Fellow%20Actors/Rose%20Coghlan/Rose%20Coghlan%20in%20Diplomacy%20(1877)-Photo-B&WResized.jpg

*Charlotte Cushman  EJ Phillips' report on her rehearsing style and more Cushman is mentioned in EJ Phillips' New York Dramatic Mirror obituary as someone she had acted with. 

Wikipedia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Cushman  Cushman died at Boston's Parker House hotel and is buried in Mt. Auburn Cemetery. 
Boston Public Library, Rare Books Dept. has a Charlotte Cushman collection  correspondence, playbills, clippings, and monographs  https://web.archive.org/web/20100612224708/http://bpl.org/research/special/collections.htm

more on Charlotte Cushman

Augustin Daly (1838-1899)     Actor's Fund benefit performance of Engaged Feb. 1886    more on Augustin Daily

Fanny Davenport (1850-1898)  English actress. Played Wilhelmina Fitzralph, a second cousin of Harold Fitzralph (Louis Massen) in Heart of Hearts. EJ Phillips played Lady Clarissa Fitzralph, mother of Harold. First a leading lady in Daly's Company, later headed her own company, became famous for her roles in Victorien Sardou's Feodora (March 1888) and La Tosca.  She recreated many of the roles Sardou (1831-1908) wrote for Sarah Bernhardt. Her sister May married Willie Seymour  
Fanny Davenport https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/search/index?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=fanny+davenport
Personal papers in the Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghtonn Library  1 folder includes manuscript material
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Davenport

EJ Phillips wrote to Albert in Sept 1898 "Fanny Davenport passed from this earthly sphere last night at her home in Duxbury Mass. enlargement of the heart the ailment".

William [Pleater] Davidge (1814-1888) Born in England, principal comedian Davidge first appeared in the US in 1850 at the Broadway Theatre. He later acted with Daly’s and Palmer’s Madison Square Theatre Companies. “Rare Old Bill” was awarded a special testimonial during his fiftieth year on the stage (which EJ Phillips acted in on April 21, 1887) and died the next year, in Wyoming, on his way to San Francisco with the Madison Square Company.  Death of Mr. Davidge, drawing is from his NY obituary  

more on William Davidge

Ben DeBar (1812-1877) had been "stage manager for Noah Ludlow and Sol Smith at the St. Charles Theatre in New Orleans, when they retired in 1843 he assumed management of their  New Orleans  and St. Louis  theatres.  At the outbreak of the Civil War he moved to St. Louis.  He remained active as a performer, touring the  Mississippi River valley as a star every season, and was the most influential manager in the region". [Concise Oxford]   EJ Phillips was a member of his stock company in St. Louis and New Orleans 1860s-1870s    photo from Strang's Famous Players  Both Ben and his niece Blanche DeBar Booth seem to have been Confederate sympathizers. Writings of John Wilkes Booth 2000 http://books.google.com/books?id=x-5t8Zd94w4C&dq=ben+debar+confederate&source=gbs_navlinks_s  has five references to DeBars.

Bates Theatre later DeBars, St. Louis Mo Theatre History http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.176704352386960.43690.176688349055227&type=3 

Grand Theatre 514 Market Street. St. Louis http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/4359 demolished         more on Ben Debar

Mrs. Benedict DeBar (1828-1894) born Henrietta Vallee in Philadelphia, retired from the stage in New Orleans in 1857. History of the American Stage  EJ Phillips attends funeral of in Philadelphia in Aug. 1894.   She had married Ben De Bar in 1843 and  died in the Forrest Home in Philadelphia.

A Jan 27, 1878 New York Times article "Ben DeBar's estate" reports a suit filed by Mrs. DeBar claiming a forged power of attorney had deprived her of DeBar's considerable estate, largely in real estate. "Mrs. DeBar is living very humbly, her only income being $15.00 as a subordinate actress at the Opera house. She is about 40 [actually 50?] years of age. Jolly Old Ben and his wife never got along very well and his friends scout the idea that he could have been a party to the forgery of his wife's name.  There will be a big fight in the courts. https://www.nytimes.com/1878/01/27/archives/ben-de-bars-estate-a-contest-in-the-courts-the-administrator.html

 The case seems to have been settled in 1884 by the Supreme Court of Missouri http://books.google.com/books?id=T9MaAAAAYAAJ&dq=ben+debar&source=gbs_navlinks_s

*Elsie de Wolfe (1865-1950) actress, decorator and hostess. Enjoyed amateur theatricals and turned professional after her father's death.  Joined Charles Frohman's Empire Theatre Stock Co. in 1894.  Despite a number of successes "she was unable to escape a sense of her own mediocrity as an actress".  She left the stage in 1905, and later achieved distinction as a designer, a career "she created for herself and other women."  Dictionary of American Biography She was 27 in 1892. She first shows up in a Stone's Opera House (Binghamton NY) program Nov. 21, 1892, playing Constance Flutterby in Malcolm Watson's Joseph and was In The Judge in Cincinnati Jan 1893, as part of Ramsey Morris's company.

Lewis Strang writes that her father died in 1890 and after his estate had been settled Miss DeWolfe found that she would be obliged to earn a livelihood. Her tastes and training led her to choose the stage and she succeeded in getting an engagement with Charles Frohman, under whose management she has remained most of the time since. Her professional debut was made at Procter's Theatre, New York, on Oct. 5, 1891, in Victorien Sardou's "Thermidor" in which she assumed the leading emotional role, Fabienne Lecoulteur. She prepared herself with great care for the part, going abroad and studying it in French under the direction of Sardou himself. ...  "Sardou" Miss DeWolfe added, "is the best hated man in France, and he loves it!"  He often says that, if the day comes that sees his countrymen own that he has produced anything great, he shall know that he has reached the end of his career."

After her appearance in "Thermidor," Miss DeWolfe spent two seasons on the road, acting leading parts in "Joseph,", "Judge," and "The Four-in-hand".

Elsie deWolfe, Lewis Strang's Famous Actresses, 1900
          Owen Fawcett, Brown's History of the American Stage 

Campbell, Nina and Caroline Seebohm, Elsie deWolfe: A decorative life, Panache  Press, c1992.
Smith, Jane S. Elsie deWolfe: A life in the high style, Athenaeum 1982
Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_de_Wolfe

Frank Drew (1831-1903)  Played Uncle Bamberry in Saints and Sinners  in 1885. Played McGillicuddy in Engaged 1886   Barrymores and Drews

*Ada Dyas (1843-1908) English actress, made debut with Augustin Daly but later left his company over his policy of billing "no stars" and joined Wallacks.  In The Danicheffs in Dec 1878 as part of in the testimonial for John Gilbert at Wallacks, on the fiftieth anniversary of his theatrical debut.  In Jim the Penman 1887, on the Palmer's company western trip summer 1890 (mentioned in a letter from Tacoma), replaced Mrs. Booth in Jim the Penman Jan. 1892, engaged (with Mrs. Thorndike Boucicault) for A Woman of No Importance in Nov. 1893.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Dyas
Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence Chapter XIII Ada Dyas and Harry Montague in Boucicault's The Shaughraun http://www.americanliterature.com/AI/AI13.HTML 

*Louisa Eldridge (c. 1829-1905) Member of the Union Square Theatre Company..  Born and made her acting debut in Philadelphia.  History of the American Stage Was in The Danicheffs with EJ Phillips at the Union Square Theatre Feb. 1881

London Ontario Nov 1892 "No letters here from anyone but "Aunt Louisa", Mrs. Eldridge, who wants a donation to the children's Xmas at Tony Pastors [Theatre].
    Louisa Eldridge

*Owen Fawcett (1838-1904)  English actor, first appeared in the US in 1853.  Member of the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia Spent 20 years with Edwin Booth's company.  Later a member of Frohman's Lyceum Theatre Company in New York.  Was with EJP in Jan. 1881 in The Creole and in Camille in the fall of 1881.

San Francisco, July 31, 1886  Owen Fawcett called this AM.  He is playing with [Helena] Modjeska.  They close tonight and leave tomorrow for Los Angeles.  
Photos and more, University of Tennessee Knoxville   http://www.lib.utk.edu/special/featured-collections/fawcett-theatre/

Reub Fax (c.1862-1908) actor in Pharisee and Joseph, member of AM Palmer's company and later hired by Ramsey Morris in 1892.
Reuben Fax in the Bonnie Brier Bush  1903 https://digital.library.louisville.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/macauley/id/1101/rec/3

William Jason Ferguson (1841-1930) Famous as the actor who saw Lincoln  shot, his stage career began at Ford's Theatre as a call boy.  The construction of the Theatre supports the claim that Ferguson  was the sole witness.  His description has been accepted as the most reliable account of the shooting (Sat Evening Post and NY Times (Apr 18, 1915) and a book I Saw Booth Shoot Lincoln (1930) EJ Phillips knew him from the Union Square Theatre Company.  He joined Wallack's in New York City in 1872. Dictionary of American Biography Played Joseph Pinglet in The Gay Parisians and went on the trip west in Aug 1896 with EJ Phillips. "Mr. Ferguson caught cold, has a sore throat this Morning.  [Grandson] Jack could not be more childish over it than he is."

Member of the Madison Square Theatre Co.

Charles P. Flockton (c.1828-1904) actor. Oscar Wilde wanted Flockton to be in his first play Vera the Nihilist. Flockton played Prabble, a grocer and junior deacon in Saints and Sinners. Played Belvawney in Engaged in 1886, was in Margery's Lovers and Jim the Penman in 1887, including the Actors' Fund Benefit in Washington DC.  Played Daniel Robins, father of Lucy, the butler's niece in Heart of Hearts 1888. Odell included him and colleagues in Saints and Sinners "as among the best stock actors in America." 

C. P. Flockton — " Flocky," as everyone called him — a dear old English gentleman who bore the most extraordinary likeness to [Henry] Irving. Indeed he always vowed that he had been compelled to leave England because Irving was so like him. A most lovable and quaint personality, Flockton died suddenly in the train on his way to California, at a great age [76], and my brother Herbert and Charles Stevenson — the husband of Kate Claxton, of "Two Orphans " fame — had the body cremated and the ashes brought to Fortune Bridge, Prince Edward's Island, where " Flocky " had a tiny cottage on a lonely promontory. Over the gentle old man's ashes a sundial was erected, and the natives always vowed that the dead actor's ghost " walked " If it did. I'm sure it would never have harmed anybody. Jessie Millward, Myself and Others, Hutchinson  1923 http://www.archive.org/stream/myselfothers00milluoft/myselfothers00milluoft_djvu.txt

CP Flockton's Comedy Co, Prince Edward Island http://home.worldonline.co.za/~townshend/abellscape.htm

Omaha Excelsior Oct. 13,1888 Jim the Penman  Edwin Forrest, Strang's Players and Plays, 1902

*Edwin Forrest (1806- 1872) is mentioned in EJ Phillips' New York Dramatic Mirror obituary as someone she had acted with.  We have a review from an unidentified newspaper of a performance at the Metropolitan Theatre [Indianapolis, 1860 probably in the Fall] of his performance in Othello where "Miss Phillips' Emelia was hardly inferior, if at all, to Iago and her last scene was striking.   

Strang writes "even now, more than a quarter century after his death, his precise niche in the \hall of fame is by no means determined. As a matter of fact, there were two Edwin Forrests, -- one a man of scholarly tastes, intellectual dignity, moral refinement and strength, the other a man unbearably rude, intolerably selfish, harsh toward his fellows, a creature of uncivilised bluntness, and of untempered brutality. 

Lawrence Barrett, Life of Forrest and said Forrest's greatest Shakespearian parts were Lear, Othello, and Coriolanus. 
Edwin Forrest, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Forrest

Charles Frohman produced Lady Windermere's Fan The Frohmans start to show up in these letters in 1888.  Charles, youngest of the three was then 28.  Brother Daniel was 37 and Gustave was 34.    Daniel Frohman      Gustave Frohman  Charles Frohman managed Neil Burgess.   more on the Frohmans

George Giddens (1845-1920) English actor CDP  Member of  the Union Square Theatre company. Played in  The Judge  Described in a Joseph review (Dec. 29, 1892, Washington Post) as "for years the principal feature of Charles Wyndham's London company. A June 1892 letters from Philadelphia reported that he had been engaged by Ramsey Morris. 

John Glendinning (1857-1916) English actor  Mrs. John Glendenning was Jessie Millward. Described in a Joseph review (Dec. 29, 1892, Washington Post) as "leading man of Mr. and Mrs. Kendall's company. A June 1892 letters from Philadelphia reported that he had been engaged by Ramsey Morris.   He appeared in the 1895 hit Trilby.

As an actor my husband had represented the leading character in nearly every leading play, ancient and modern, and in determining the range of his versatility one had not to bother to strain one's calculations beyond two points — " Macbeth " and " The Girl in the Taxi."  In the 'eighties Mr. Glendinning was known all over the United Kingdom as " the Terriss of the road."   While Terriss, handsomely defiant, was steadily winning the evergreen stage case of virtue versus vice, and vice versa, at the Adelphi every night and at Saturday matinees, John Glendinning was doing likewise in the provinces. Romantically and physically robust enough for the hero of " The Harbour Lights," it naturally fell to the lot of Mr. Glendinning to be chosen to follow Wilson Barrett in " The Silver King " and Charles Warner in " In the Ranks." From melodrama  he passed to comedy- drama — to " A White Lie " at the Court, under the management of Mrs. Kendal, and it was this engagement that led to his future work being confined almost entirely to the American stage. In 1889 he went with the Kendals to New York, playing Octave in " The Iron- master," Victor in " Impulse," and Captain Tempest in " A White Lie."  Later he played lead with Cara Morris in " The New Magdalen," " Renee," "Camille," and "Claire," and from that time onwards was engaged in playing to American audiences an extensive variety of parts, including Shylock and the Laird in " Trilby," Othello and Mark Embury in " Mice and Men," lago and Sir John Plugent in " The Hypocrites," Mercutio and Charles Summers in " Irene Wycherley," Macbeth and Frederick Smith in "The Girl in the Taxi." His last appearance was in " The Rosary," in which he played the part of a Catholic priest, Father Brian Kelly, a lovable and sympathetic character which has won thousands of hearts in America and in the British Isles.   Jessie Millward, Myself and Others, Hutchinson  1923
http://www.archive.org/stream/myselfothers00milluoft/myselfothers00milluoft_djvu.txt

Marie Greenwald The final Union Square Season began on October 6th, 1884 with a costume play in the time of Louis XV and a "dire failure" The Artist's Daughter by Elliott Barnes in which Miss. Greenwald was cast. Member of the Madison Square Company (1885-?) Played Lucy Roberts in STORMBEATEN in 1884. Played Fanny Parridge in Saints and Sinners 1885. Played Parker In Engaged 1886 and was in Margery's Lovers 1887. Played Barton, a lady's maid in Heart of Hearts 1888.  Also in Elaine, Madison Square Theatre 1888, All the Comforts of Home, Baldwin San Francisco 1891, Too much Johnson  1894 Standard Theatre

Chicago June 1886 "Miss Greenwald kindly intimated that she would help me -- and if you are pushed, why perhaps I can get the sum you want.  She knows a young man who went down to some part of Texas a couple of years ago and who is making money fast. --I forget what she told me he was doing -- but she thinks it is the right thing for you [Albert] to go [to Texas]. "   Chicago July  1886 "I have not returned Miss Greenwald's money she so kindly offered & that is not right."
San Francisco Aug 1886 "I am all alone today, the girls Maud [Harrison] & Marie [Greenwald] having gone across the bay with Mr. Palmer & Mr. Unger. "  EJ Phillips joined Miss Greenwald for Christmas dinner with Maud Harrison and her mother in New York in 1887.

James K. Hackett (1869-1926) Canadian actor, manager Catalog of Dramatic Portraits Made his stage debut in Broken Seal  (which EJ Phillips played in) with AM Palmer in 1892.  He soon left Palmer's to work with Lotta Crabtree and then went to Daly's in 1892-1893.  Joined the Lyceum Stock Company in 1895 and took EH Sothern's place in The Prisoner of Zenda in Feb 1895 "the reigning romantic drama of the day" Dictionary of American Biography    

James Hackett Strang's Famous Actors, 1900   
 
Strang writes that Hackett "received a college education [BA] before he had any thought of going on the stage professionally (though both his parents were actors).  Hackett "was also prominent athletically and socially while in college [College of the City of New York], and was a member of the Alpha Delta Pi Greek letter fraternity".   

Hackett http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Keteltas_Hackett

Clarence Handyside (c.1854-1931) Canadian actor  He was in Saltl Lake City in Sept 1888 with the Palmer Company.
Filmography http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0359715/   1914-1918 
Photo https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0359715/

*Virginia Harned (c 1868-1946)   Union Square Theatre Company  
WWA/2 WWT/1-6  DPC.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Harned 

Virginia Harned

Originated the role of Trilby in Paul Potter's dramtisation of George Du Maurier's novel, which was produced in Boston in 1895  Better known as Mrs. E.H. Southern "the wife of the popular star, is a buxom young woman, whose bracing and frank personality carried with it exuberance of spirits, life, freedom and happiness.  Her dramatic temperament is sumptuous, warm, and full of colour, suggesting voluptuous ease, love of pleasure, and a fondness for luxurious refinement. There is nothing spirituelle about her; her stage presence is distinctly material and very much of the world; she seems a woman with a streak of Bohemia in her makeup". ... "I do not think Trilby was a bad girl," Miss Harned answered, when asked her opinion of the character. "How can a woman who has never associated with pure women know that she is not good?"  There's a mention of Trilby in one letter which I need to find and transcribe.

Previous to going on the stage she lived abroad for many years, in England and on the Continent. Her early theatrical experiences were with road companies, her first engagement having been with a company playing Robson and Crane's old success Pour Boarding House." In the spring of 1887 she was the leading lady with George Clarke of the Daly Company ... Daniel Frohman engaged her as EH Sothern's leading lady ... Leaving Daniel Frohman's management, she joined AM Palmer's stock company, scoring her first success as Mrs. Erlynne in Lady Windermere's Fan, and afterward acting such roles as Letty Fletcher in Saints and Sinners and Mrs. Sylvester in The New Woman.  photo from Strang's Famous Actresses

Charles L. Harris (1854-1892) CDP Appeared with Maurice Barrymore in Alabama    He also appeared with EM Holland and Edward M Bell in one performance of James Herne's Margaret Fleming in Dec. 1891.  NY Times obituary Oct. 23 1892 
https://www.nytimes.com/1892/10/23/archives/squire-tucker-dead-charles-l-harris-breathes-his-last-in-a-chicago.html

Maud Harrison (1854-1907)  [Mrs. Edward M. Bell] was a member of the Madison Square,  Union Square and Palmer's Companies.  The New York Dramatic Mirror obituary of EJP notes  "The great number of friends that she leaves behind is evidenced by the many letters of condolence received by Mrs. Dolman [Hattie] and by Maude Harrison, who was to Mrs. Phillips almost as a daughter."    Maud Harrison was 29 in 1883.   more about Maud Harrison

Al Hayman (1847-1917)  Partner of Charles Frohman, who provided the financial backing behind the successful producer, and enabled them to build the Empire Theatre in New York in 1893.  more on Al Hayman

*Barton Hill (c. 1829-1911) A Washington Post Dec. 4, 1894 review Olga Nethersole's debut before a Washington audience as Camille mentioned Barton Hill and Mrs. Phillips as "excellent in their roles."

Histrionic Montreal https://books.google.com/books?id=svQ_AAAAYAAJ&dq=barton+hill+histrionic+montreal&source=gbs_navlinks_s  has many eferences to Barton Hill and his parents.

Barton Hill's parents Anne and Charles Hill who knew John Nickinson in Canada The Hills were persuaded to travel north to Montreal to join their friend John Nickinson's troupe at the Theatre Royal. ²¹ The move marked the beginning of the most successful decade in their careers as mature artists. Again Mrs. Hill was singled out at their debut performance, with the Montreal Gazette(30 June 1843) declaring she was 'the most graceful dancer we have seen for many a long year, and on every night of her appearance has astonished and delighted the lieges of Montreal by her charming performances on "the light fantastic toe."' The French-language paper La Minerve (6 July 1843) remarked, 'D'abord Mad. Hill, comme danseuse, et comme actrice, s'est toujours attirée les applaudissements. . . . Mad. Hill, ne laisse pas d'être très-gracieuse et très attrayante.' Nickinson planned his semons to appeal to both English and French audiences; a popular choice was Capers and Coronets featuring Charles Hill as a French ballet dancer (La Minerve, 17 July 1843).  Anne Fairbrother Hill: A Chaste and elegant dancer, Mary Jane Wanrer, Theatre Research in Canada 12(2), Fall 1991  https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/tric/article/view/7264/8323

*Caroline Hill  Mrs. Herbert Kelcey according to Odell.  Chicago July  1886 "I went to see Jim the Penman on Monday night.  It is a very strong, well written play and was, with the exception of the two leading parts, well played.  Miss [Caroline] Hill and Mr. [Frederic] Robinson failed to bring out all the heart & soul of the two characters of Jim the Penman and his wife."
 
Wikipedia born c. 1850 – died after 1920  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Hill  
photo  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Hill#/media/File:Caroline_Hill.jpg
Brought to the US by Wallack, New York debut in 1883. Returned to England in 1890's and marriage ended. 

*AC Hilsdorf was a member of the  1884-1885 Madison Square Theatre Co. and appeared in Hazel Kirke.  He was in Salt Lake City in 1888 and one of the people who went to the Great Salt Lake.

*Henry [Harry?] Hogan played a porter in Saints and Sinners and a servant in Sealed instructions, both in 1885.  During the March 1888 Blizzard "Went to rehearsal yesterday at 11. After Stage manager, prompter and the stage hands, no one was there but Mr. [EM] Holland and Mr. Hogan and myself."  EJ Phillips appeared in December 1879 at the Academy (of Music?) in the fourth act of Camille with Charles Thorne and Harry Hogan.  Harry Hogan was one of the original cast members of Jim the Penman in  1886.
Are Henry and Harry Hogan the same person? 

Edmund Milton Holland (1848-1913)  Joined Wallack's Company in 1867, his actor father insisting that his son be billed as E. Milton until he was sure he would not discredit the family name.  After thirteen years at Wallack's, and a London engagement, he joined Palmer's Madison Square company, playing Lot Burden (foreman to Hoggard and collector of pew rents at Bethel Chapel) in Saints and Sinners, Captain Redmond in Jim the Penman (according to the NY Times one of the stars of the play as  the "sly seemingly blasé, but effective detective", Dr. Chettle, the family physician in Heart of Hearts, Colonel Moberly in Alabama, and the title role in Colonel Carter of Cartersville.  He was also in Brander Matthews' Margery's Lovers  Shared a birthday (see letter of Sept. 7, 1887 from Boston) with EJ Phillips (but was 18 years younger).   more on EM Holland    

*Gertie Homan (c.1880-1951) TW8, cast in Partners in Boston 1888. Two Homans [Gertie and her mother?] went to the Salt Lake in Salt Lake City in  1888.
Omaha Excelsior Oct. 13,1888 Jim the Penman

Gertrude Homan Thanhouse  Early life of Gertrude Homan https://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Narrative_files/c1s11.htm Chapter 1 begins with her trip to California in  1888 aged six, with Partners, and of singing for Thomas Edison as he recorded her..
 Womens Film Project Pioneers: All in the Family https://wfpp.cdrs.columbia.edu/essay/all-in-the-family-the-thanhouser-studio/
 https://wfpp.cdrs.columbia.edu/pioneer/ccp-gertrude-homan-thanhouser/  https://www.thanhouser.org/index.html

  Gertie Homan  Herbert Kelcey Famous Actors of the Day in America, Lewis C. Strang, 1900

Benjamin Franklin Keith (1846-1914)  Theatrical manager, started out in the circus business, expanding to become a vaudeville proprietor and promoter, inducing legitimate stage stars to appear and greatly increasing salaries. more on BJ Keith

Herbert Kelcey  (1855/56-1917)  English actor, member of the Madison Square Company 1884- 1887.  Kelcey was 28 in 1883. His departure to Wallacks in 1886 is described by EJ Phillips.  Kelcey played Captain Eustace Fanshaw of the army in Saints and Sinners  Lewis Strang writes that Kelcey played Cheviot Hill in Engaged and Philip Van Pelt in Our Society.  

Mrs. Kelcey see Caroline Hill  Kelcey was later married to Effie Shannon.

NY Times obituary July 11 1917 https://www.nytimes.com/1917/07/11/archives/herbert-kelcey-popular-actor-dies-leading-man-on-new-york-stage-for.html  

According to Strang "Herbert Kelcey won his spurs in the frock coat, kid glove era of the New York Lyceum Theater. He was one of the original members of Daniel Frohman's company, and he remained with the organisation until 1896 when he was succeeded by James. K. Hackett. His first appearance with the Lyceum Company was in Oct. 1887, as John Rutherford, in "The Wife," which part he created.  ... In 1884 Mr. Kelcey was a member of the Madison Square Company, in which he played such parts as Cheviot Hill in "Engaged", Edward Warburton in "Old Love Letters," and Philip Van Pelt in " Our Society."  EJ Phillips gives us a first hand account of his leave-taking of Palmer's Company 

Chicago July 5, 1886 Well, [Herbert] Kelcey and [AM] Palmer are having a good time by telegraph.  Mr. Palmer having cast Mr. [Frederic] Robinson for Jim the Penman and Mr. Kelcey not only refused to play a part named Percival that he is cast for, but demands the part of "Jim".  Mr. Palmer telegraphed this morning that he would not change the cast.  So Kelcey and wife will leave they say. 

*Sarah Cowell LeMoyne  (1859-1915)  CDP    New York April 1886 "I am going to loan Miss Cowell my sewing machine and she is going to let me stand my bookcase and the Shakespeare easel [what is this?] in her back parlor and will buy the bookcase in the Fall if I should not require it anymore."

Denver Sept  1886 "Miss Cowell is back in her flat 475 [4th Ave, New York]."   I have a card for Sarah Cowell of  475 Fourth Ave., New York and a receipt for the printing Albert did for her.

Philadelphia, July 1, 1888 Friday we received the wedding cards of Sarah Cowell & Mr. [William J.] LeMoyne.  I think they will soon start for California with the Lyceum Co. [LeMoyne had been dismissed from the Madison Square Company in April 1887 because he had signed with Daniel Frohman and the Lyceum Company.]  

San Francisco 1888 "Mrs. LeMoyne, nee Sarah Cowell, called on me last night.  Saw Mr. LeMoyne this morning."      more on Mrs. LeMoyne

Philadelphia Feb 1898 "Next week they [Chestnut St Theatre] produce a new play.  They expect to make a great hit.  I am to go see it.  Sarah Cowell LeMoyne is to be in it,"

William J. LeMoyne (1831-1905) LeMoyne made his acting debut in 1852 in the Lady of  Lyons. He toured in Uncle Tom’s Cabin before the war. He interrupted his acting career to enlist in Company B. 28th Massachusetts Regiment, as a first lieutenant, later captain. Took part in the battles of James Island, second Bull Run,  Chantilly, and South Mountain, where he was wounded. Permanently incapacitated for further service, he was honorably discharged. In after years he was wont to tell stories of picturesque and exciting incidents of his life as a soldier.  more on Mr. LeMoyne  

*Clara Lipman (1864-1952)  American actress, dramatist [Mrs. Louis Mann]

Boston 1888 "The plays with the exception of Jim [the Penman] are weak, and the ladies who are to go are weaker.  The ladies are Misses [Marie] Burroughs, [May] Brookyn, [Kate] Moloney, [Clara] Lipman and myself. ... Things generally are in a muddle."   Miss Lipman was one of the people who went to the Salt Lake in Salt Lake City in 1888. She also appeared in The Middleman in 1890 at Palmer's Theatre. .

Clara Lipman, Theatre Magazine 1910 front cover

Clara Lipman, Cyrus Adler and Frank Vizetelly, Jewish Women's Archives 1998=2011 http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/lipman-clara
Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Lipman
Louis Mann, Fifty Years in Theatrical Management. 1912 discusses Clara Lipman https://books.google.com/books?id=ODEzAQAAMAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s

*Mathilde Madison Played Mrs. Haughton in Sealed Instructions, Madison Square Co. Spring 1885   She was also in The Martyr and Partners

A New York Times review http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F40810F73B5411738DDDAD0994DC405B8584F0D3  described her as a debutante      Mrs. Charles Dennison

Philadelphia May 1888 "I think the California managers have insisted upon having more plays and more ladies than AMP intended sending.  When I left New York Misses [Annie] Russell, [Maud] Harrison & [Mathilde] Madison were not to go.  Now they go and perhaps Miss Ada Dyas."
Mathilde Madison as Mrs. Haughton Sealed Instructions 1885

Richard Mansfield (1854-1907) Mansfield's company performed the comedy Prince Karl in the Madison Square Theatre (May - August 1886.  He played both title roles in a play of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1887), the title roles in Beau Brummell (1890), Cyrano de Bergerac (1898) and the lead in his own play of Don Juan (1891), and was instrumental in introducing George Bernard Shaw to the US.  First brought Ibsen to the attention of US theatregoers.

Richard Mansfield, Strang's Players and Plays of the last quarter century, 1902

"He was an extremely short man with a pale square cut face and thinning brown hair, who was sensitive about his appearance.  ... He was generally detested by his fellow actors because of his arrogance, short temper, and treachery.  ... His vanity was such that shortly before his death he commissioned William Winter to write a monumental (two volume) biography of him.  The critics' reaction to his acting was mixed, and a wag once remarked "There are good actors, bad actors, and Richard Mansfield".  [Oxford, Dictionary of American Biography  After AM Palmer gave up Palmer's Theatre he managed road tours for Mansfield for some years. Dictionary of American Biography 

NY, Feby 6th/[18]90  [William Palmer] Also invited me to go to "Palmers [Theatre]" but I told him I did not care to go there, I did not like the man ([Richard]  Mansfield).  And he replied, "I don't either".  Judging by the Herald notice this morning I do not think Mansfield made much of a success last night in Master and Man.  The theater closed two nights for rehearsals and preparations.  I do not think his engagement has been a very great success.  

Strang wrote "While professionally Mr. Mansfield lead here [US] as Mr. [Henry] Irving lead there [England], it is not likely that the American actor will ever secure that same personal hold on the people that the British actor has; for Mr. Mansfield is sadly deficient in suavity and in social tact, qualities that are especially prominent in Mr. Irving. ... Born on the island of Heligoland, one of the Frisian group in the North Sea in 1857"  His mother settled in Boston in 1872 and sent for her son. He worked for Jordan Marsh & Co as an advertising copywriter and was the music critic for the Boston Globe for a year. After appearing with D'Oyly Carte he became a member of Palmer's Union Square Theatre Co. and made a great hit in 1883 in "A Parisian Romance" in the role of Baron Chevrial that JH Stoddard gave up "in disgust saying he could do nothing with it"  Mansfield traveled with Palmer's company, making another hit "as the irate French tenor in "French Flats".  

Ridgewood NJ, July 4, 1895 Had no rehearsal today but go at 12 tomorrow when Mr. [Richard] Mansfield takes the rehearsal in hand, and I hope will straighten us out.  

Richard Mansfield, picture of Mansfield as Shylock, Chicago Tribune, 1893  scan in
Richard Mansfield has a stained glass window as Richard III at the Church of the Transfiguration, New York Episcopal Actors' Guild of America, Inc. 
https://www.facebook.com/gary.kimble.77/posts/10203207131271795

Mansfield photo Shakespeare and the Players, Emory Univ. https://shakespeare.emory.edu/richard-mansfield/
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mansfield
William Winter in Shadow of the Stage 1892 writes about Mansfield as Richard the Third. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18860/18860-h/18860-h.htm#Page_301
William Winter, Life and Art of Richard Mansfield, Moffat Yard & Co. 1910  http://books.google.com/books?id=4s86AAAAIAAJ&vq=palmer&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Mr. Mansfield’s article on “Man and the Actor,” Atlantic Monthly, May, 1906, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston  http://www.authorama.com/19th-century-actor-autobiographies-9.html 

Sadie Martinot (1861-1923) [Mrs. Louis F. Nethersole] American actress, singer, played in comic opera in London and took leading roles in Irish drama with Dion Boucicault.  CDP. Married to Olga Nethersole's brother Louis and in the cast of the Gay Parisians 1897 playing Marcella, an architect's wife.  Harrisburg Pa Jan 1897 "We were called to a rehearsal at 10:30 this Morning, hence my hurry to leave Hattie.  After all, we had no rehearsal, Miss [Sadie] Martinot having failed to leave New York in time to be here."

Sadie Martinot, Chestnut St. Theatre Philadelphia  
   Omaha Excelsior Oct. 13,1888 Jim the Penman                                                                               

*Louis F. Massen (c. 1858-1925) Eight tear member of the Madison Square Theatre Stock Company,   First husband of  Marie Burroughs  who divorced him in 1895. French/American actor/director . Massen played Ralph Kingsmill, a young farmer in Saints and Sinners. Played  Angus Macalister in Engaged in 1886.  In the cast of Margery's Lovers 1887 and Jim the Penman. He played Harold Fitzralph of Avonthorpe Priory in Heart of Hearts 1888.

Boston May 1886 "Mr. [Louis] Massen just called to know if there was anything he could do for me.  I told him "no".  Kind of him though, wasn't it?  Said he and his wife would see me to the Depot which is only one black away, but I feel the kindness for very seldom so you find actors so thoughtful of an old lady."

New York Nov 1886 "I am rehearsing in a play called Priest and Painter.  [Alessandro] Salvini Jr. is the Priest, [Louis] Massen the Painter"  The play was later called Foregone Conclusion .

Boston Oct 1887 "Tomorrow we leave here at 4 PM for New York.  I am going with Mr. & Mrs. [Louis F] Massen to the Rossmore, 41st and B'way.  Mr. Massen thinks I can make terms there to suit me for the winter."

Mr. and Mrs. Massen went to the Salt Lake while in Salt Lake City in 1888.

Louis Massen, Internet Broadway Data Base  http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?id=51794

Marcus Mayer  Managers  Managed Olga Nethersole

*Herbert S. Millward played Leeson, Fanshaw's man (Kelcey) in Saints and Sinners.  He was one of the Jim the Penman company playing in Washington DC in 1887 for the Actors' Fund benefit. Washington DC April 1891 Mr. Millward was the company prompter.   He seems to have been the brother of Jessie Millward, according to her memoir

New York Oct 1887 "Well this morning I went to 50 West 24th where Mr. [Herbert] Millward roomed last winter (and will again if he does not have to travel all season with Jim [the Penman] No 1 Co) and there I can have 3rd story front room heated for $8 per week. "

Jessie Millward [1861-1932] played Katharine Ray, a governess in Sealed Instructions, Madison Square Co, Spring 1885.  She was one of the people who went to the Great Salt Lake in 1888 in Salt Lake City and married John Glendenning  in 1907.

Wikipedia  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessie_Millward

Jessie Millward, Myself and Others, Hutchinson  1923 http://www.archive.org/stream/myselfothers00milluoft/myselfothers00milluoft_djvu.txt  This memoir has much to say about the Frohmans.

Who's Who in Music and Drama 1914 http://books.google.com/books?id=tpafAAAAMAAJ&dq=madison-square+1890+%22her+father%22+theater+OR+theatre&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Jessie Millward as Katharine Ray in Sealed Instructions   Strang's Players and Plays of the Last Quarter Century

Maggie Mitchell (1832-1918)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Mitchell_(actress)  Matthew Brady photograph http://www.civilwar.si.edu/brady_mitchell.html   We have an undated clipping announcing Fanchon.  John Nickinson played with Maggie Mitchell. 

*Kate Moloney: From Detroit, a stockholder in the Detroit Baseball Club. She played in Partners in San Francisco in August 1888.

Boston 1888 "The plays with the exception of Jim are weak, and the ladies who are to go are weaker.  The ladies are Misses [Marie] Burroughs, [May] Brookyn, [Kate] Moloney, [Clara] Lipman and myself. ... Things generally are in a muddle

*Clara Morris (1849-1925)  Oscar Wilde's first choice to play Vera in his play Vera the Nihilist    Palmer had initiated a popular series of special Clara Morris matinees that winter, [1880-1881] and EJ Phillips replaced Marie Wilkins in Conscience at some point.  "The regular season closed on the 30th of April, a term, except for Daniel Rochat and the Clara Morris matinees, not among the most glorious in the history of the Union Square."

Clara Morris photo from Strang's Famous Actresses  

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Morris

Clara Morris on Daly, Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth  http://www.authorama.com/19th-century-actor-autobiographies-5.html  from her autobiography "Life on the Stage"   http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33537
Life on the Stage,"  1901 Clara Morris Harriott, S. S. McClure Company, New York excerpt  http://www.authorama.com/19th-century-actor-autobiographies-5.html Some Recollections of John Wilkes Booth

Lewis Strang writes of Clara Morris in Players and Plays "In her early days, when she was a member of the Union Square company, it is said that many an actor dreaded to have a scene with her when she was in a mod to "guy," and that she was literally the terror of Charles Thorne's life, although he, too, had something of a reputation for "guying".  ""To a great may acute observers," wrote critic "Nym Crinkle" she was like a woman with a deep corroding sorrow that is continually hidden by badinage, and that only comes tumultuously to the surface in intense moments of simulation. Education she had none, but she made smartness and intuition take its place... To those of us who tried to look into her heart, she drew down the blinds of her Bohemianism an defined us with murmurs frivol.  Dictionary of American Biography 
http://www.josephhaworth.com/clara_morris.htm
Images https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Clara_Morris  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clara_Morris_1.jpg

  Olga Nethersole

Olga Nethersole (1866-1951) Miss Nethersole was 28 when she first shows up in these letters in 1894.  She was managed by Charles Frohman and performed in Camille, Frou Frou, Romeo and Juliet and The Transgressor.

Photo and commentary  from Strang's Famous Actresses.   

The English actress made her American debut in 1894 in The Transgressor at Palmer's Theatre, and was famous for her torrid love scenes.  She was arrested for indecency in 1900 while playing a French courtesan [in Clyde Fitch's Sappho, but acquitted after many notables came to her defense. [Oxford, History Am Theatre]  more on Olga Nethersole

James O'Neill (1847-1920) Actor, father of playwright Eugene O'Neill, and model for roles in Ah, Wilderness! and Long Day's Journey into Night. Returned to the Union Square Theatre stock company  in January 1882, in The New Magdalen.  First appeared as Edmund Dantes in The Count of Monte Cristo in 1883. "Although he subsequently played other roles...his public demanded only his Monte Cristo and as a rule he obliged. He was a florid, emotive actor of a supercharged romantic school." Oxford

James O'Neill as D'Artagnan in The Musketeers,  Strang's Famous Actors, 1900
    

Playwright Augustus Thomas wrote of O'Neill in his autobiography Print of my Remembrance 1922 "After Charles Thorne, James O'Neill was then perhaps American's favorite romantic actor, but as modest and lovable at the height of his popularity as he continued to the day of his recent death. His son, Eugene, author of "Emperor Jones" and "beyond the Horizon", promises to surpass his noble father in enduring fame."

biography http://www.eoneill.com/references/black/chapter1.htm  
Ella, James, and Jamie O'Neill "My Name Is Might-Have-Been", Edward L. Shaughnessy, Eugene O’Neill Review, Suffolk University, 1991b  http://www.eoneill.com/library/on/shaughnessy/review91f_3.htm

Gelb, Arthur and Barbara, Life with Monte Cristo, 2000  https://www.amazon.com/ONeill-Monte-Cristo-Arthur-Gelb/dp/0399149120


Strang writes that O'Neill's success in this [The Musketeers] has apparently ended the career of Edmond Dantes as the chief feature of his repertory.  O'Neill started out working in the National Theatre in Cincinnati, with Edwin Forrest, later joined the St. Louis Varieties, returned to Cincinnati and then to the Holliday Street Theatre, Baltimore. He spent two years at McVickers Theatre company in Chicago, spent a season with Edwin Booth and became a member of RM Hooley's stock company.  Was engaged by AM Palmer in 1875 for the Union Square Stock Co. and played in The Two Orphans and the Danicheffs (both of which EJ Phillips played in).  EJ Phillips was 17 years older than Eugene O'Neill's father.

Ella, James and Jamie O'Neill, Edward L. Shaughnessy, Eugene O’Neill Review, Suffolk University, 1991 http://www.eoneill.com/library/on/shaughnessy/review91f_3.htm 
James and Ella 1844-1877, Chapter 1, Stephen Black, Eugene O'Neill: Beyond Mourning and Tragedy, Yale Univ. Press, 1999 http://www.eoneill.com/references/black/chapter1.htm 

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_O%27Neill_(actor,_born_1847)

Monte Criso  Cottage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Cristo_Cottage  New London CT The setting for Eugene O'Neill's Ah Wilderness and Long Day's Journey into Night
Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953)

YouTube Monte Cristo Cottage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1hXLH7TXBw

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_O%27Neill  James O'Neill bought this property in 1888 and after renovations were completed in 1900 the family spent summers here.

*Nance O'Neill (1874-1965) Albert ran into McKee Rankin and Nance O'Neill when he was in Hawaii in 1898 and mentioned her remembering having met EJ Phillips in St. Paul. 

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nance_O'Neil  Managed by McKee Rankin

AM Palmer   Union Square Stock Co  Madison Square Stock Co.  Palmer's Theatre Palmer was 45 in 1883.  more on AM Palmer

*William Palmer  AM Palmer's brother,
Boston May 1888 Wm. Palmer sat in front of me with some friends. at the baseball game].

New York Feb 1890 "I met Mr. Wm Palmer at the Madison Square Theater yesterday, and he asked me if I had seen the Gondoliers.  I told him I had not -- He said "Well, why don't you go"?  I said, "Nobody has asked me".  "I ask you now", said he.  "And will give you the order now."  He did, and I went."

New York, Sept. 11, 1895 I suppose by this time you have heard of the dreadful fate of Mr. Wm. Palmer.  I am very sorry.  He was always very kind to me!  Everybody liked "Willie", but they couldn't keep him from the cup and dissolute companions.  Too bad!  Too bad!  

HB Phillips   San Francisco August 1888 Met H.B.Phillips also.  I think it is likely he may be engaged for Mr. Davidge's parts [after Davidge died on the train en route to San Francisco] .  I hope so.  He is a very gentlemanly man.   

Was this the manager of Ford's Theatre until it was closed after the assassination of Lincoln?   1819-1896 had been manager of the Theatre Royale, Montreal Histrionic Montreal.   See Backstage at the Lincoln Assassination for more on HB Phillips.

Henry Mader Pitt  (1850-1898)  American actor and stage manager. It was Mr. Pitt's death that brought EJ Phillips out of retirement for her last stage appearance, replacing Mrs. Pitt in A Bachelor's Romance.  See letter of March 15, 1898   He played Captain Lionel Haughton in Sealed Instructions in 1885.

*Joe B. Polk (c. 1861-1902) Union Square Company actor CDP Played the tenor in French Flats 1884. EJ Phillips ran into him in San Francisco in Aug. 1888 "Met Joe Polk this morning.  Did not know him.  He has changed so much, was very ill a year ago and not expected to live.  He is just as lively as ever though."  and a few days later "JB. Polk paid me a long visit on Sunday.  He is interested in three silver mines.  Is likely to become a very rich man.  He is soon going East. "

Walden Ramsey  (c1855- 1895)  Member of the Madison Square Company 1884-1891, later joining  Palmer's Theatre.  He played the villainous brother-in-law in Alabama and Jack Raddles in Saints and Sinners.    more on Walden Ramsey

*McKee Rankin (1841-1914)  While managing the Third Avenue Theatre Rankin returned to the Union Square after many years, in Nov. 1883, and played one of the two mortal enemies in Robert Buchanan's melodrama Stormbeaten  (the other was Joseph E. Whiting) who met in mortal struggle on an ice floe.   EJ Phillips played Maud Harrison's and McKee Rankin's mother. Rankin was 42 in 1883.

EJ Phillips ran into Rankin in San Francisco in Aug. 1886, where he had "closed his season of 56 weeks last night."  Albert ran into Rankin in Honolulu when he was there in Nov1898 for the Spanish American war. "I did Honolulu for awhile ... had dinner at the Hawaiian Hotel and there saw McKee Rankin who with Nance O'Neill is playing there.  The show was billed "Nance O'Neill and the McKee Rankin Company:" so  paid but little attention to it, not believing he was with her. But at the dinner table she was pointed out to me and a man sitting alongside of her was said to be McKee.  his back was toward me and I could not recognize him. He looked so young, but I finally got up and walked over to the table to see.  Sure enough it was he, looking splendidly and young.  He was much surprised to see me, particularly in Uncle Sam's uniform way out in the Pacific... He introduced me to Miss O'Neill, who remembered having met you in St. Paul she said".

A "slim handsome actor who grew somewhat portly with age" became a leading man at the Union Square Theatre in 1872 and was later active as a producer and theatre manager.  Member of the Chestnut Street Theatre Company and appears on a Centennial (1876)  program of Our Boys there.   

Rankin came to Cincinnati in 1863. The English Opera arrived at Pike's. Rankin remained in Cincinnati  for June probably as a supernumerary with the opera under Nickinson's direction. The opera terminated on June 13, after which Nickinson  rehearsed the company in Massaniello, The French Spy and A Midsummer Night's Dream for a month's play at the Duffield Theatre in Nashville, TN, from June 22 to July 20. There is no indication that Rankin went with him to Nashville, but he may have. http://www.amazon.com/McKee-Rankin-Heyday-American-Theater/dp/0889203903 . 

McKee Rankin was eventually Lionel Barrymore's father- in- law.

David Beasley, McKee Rankin and the Heyday of the American Theater, 2002 http://books.google.com/books?id=lFz0XOblBDIC&dq=storm+beaten+%22union+square%22&source=gbs_navlinks_s   talks about McKee Rankin being mentored by John Nickinson in Toronto at the Lyceum Theatre and Cincinnati at Pike's Opera House, where John Nickinson had become stage manager  March 11, 1863..

Frederic Robinson  (1832-1912) English actor   Made his first appearance on the stage in York, England Apr. 23, 1849. Was engaged in England in 1865 by Lester Wallack for America. Was at Selwyn's Theatre, Boston season of 1868-69 and 1870.  Played Marcus Latimer, guest at Avonthorpe Priory in Heart of Hearts 1888.   more on Frederic Robinson

May Robson (1858/65-1942) Was in San Francisco in 1886/ Played in Jim the Penman including the 1887 Actor's Fund excursion to Washington DC.  May Robson in 1888 was paid $25/week by Palmer ($1250/year) and went to the Lyceum Company at $35/week (at most a $500/year increase).

 May Robson, Lewis Strang's Famous Actresses

Australian actress Born Mary Jeanette Robison in Australia.  "Delighted in playing eccentrics, usually elderly or unhandsome ....adept at eliciting tears from her audiences, she excelled in comedy."  Married AH Brown, police surgeon for NYC. Dictionary of American Biography  

Lewis Strang recounts of May Robson  "the upshot of it all was that a friend told me that, although I had talent, he thought, yet I'd never get an engagement if I said I had no experience.  What I must do was to pretend I had. Before long I was engaged to play Diamond in" the Hoop of Gold", a melodramatic creation of the cast-off daughter of an obdurate father style. This was at the Madison Square Theatre. The morning of the first rehearsal came. I had been told to watch the others, and do just as they did.  My turn came. "take the stage", said the stage manager, old Mr. Morse. If he had told me to take the sky, I'd have been as wise.  I clutched the table behind me and piped up my lines in a thin little voice, and was horribly conscious that the others were guying me for my greenness.  the stage a manager walked over to me and said, "how long have you been on the stage?' I never had told a deliberate lie, and it choked me. I hemmed and hawed and said, "let me see, let me see." "Let me see," said Mr. Morse, looking straight into my eyes, "I should say about fifteen minutes." "yes, I said, glad it was out and expecting my walking ticket. But he helped me after the rehearsal, and the next day I wasn't so very dreadful. "... After The Hoop of Gold Miss Robson was engaged by Daniel Frohman for the Lyceum theatre. Later she came under Charles Frohman's management, and has for many seasons been identified with the Empire Theatre Company. 

May Robson YouTube   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfsNdSiI0J4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prc61EjGWJQ  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP4CBR4GOIA

  Stuart Robson Brown's History of the American Stage

Stuart Robson  (1835-1903) Listed in EJ Phillips' Dramatic Mirror obituary was one of the actors she was particularly associated with. 
New York Nov 1886  "Hattie took lunch with Mrs. Dr. Nagle to-day and then they went to People's theatre to see [Stuart] Robson & [WH]  Crane in "Comedy of Errors."

Member of Laura Keene's NY company, spent time with Mrs. Drew at the Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia, but was most successful teamed with WH Crane.  At a time when clergy regularly railed against actors, Robson was known for maintaining a scrapbook filled with published accounts of erring ministers.  Dictionary of American Biography   Low comedian, born in Annapolis MD. At 16 [1852] had the satisfaction of seeing his name on a printed poster, announced as Horace Courtney, in "Uncle Tom's Cabin as it is" (a piece written by Prof.. Hewett, of Baltimore, in opposition to Mrs. Stowe's) in Baltimore. In 1855, he was engaged for utility ad small comedy parts, at the Varieties Theatre, Washington, under the management of John Keenan. ...he has played engagements in Washington, Richmond, Cincinnati, St. Louis , and numerous other places, occasionally starring with considerable success. ...  appeared at the Arch Street Theatre, Philadelphia, where he remained for some time a great favorite. History of the American Stage

Strang writes of his engagements in Philadelphia, New Orleans and Boston after which he joined the Union Square Theatre Company for three years, then going to London and eventually working with William Crane for twelve years, until 1889.

Annie Russell (Mrs. Presbrey) (1864-1936) Born in Liverpool, her family went to Montreal  when she was five, taking her from a Dublin convent, and put her on the stage in 1872. She made her New York debut in 1879 in HMS Pinafore in the chorus, but soon was playing Josephine, as well as a boy in Rip Van Winkle and Eva in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.  She joined Palmer’s Madison Square company in 1885 and created many important roles there, including Maggie McFarlane in Engaged, Elaine, and Mabel Seabrook in Captain Swift.  She became quite ill in 1889 and two years later went to study and regain her health in  Italy, on the proceeds of a Palmer benefit for her. Oxford Dictionary Theatre, Dictionary of American Biography Annie Russell was 19 in 1883.  more on Annie Russell    

*Sol Smith Russell (1848-1902)  Philadelphia March 15th [1898] A week ago Sunday Mr. and Mrs. [Willie] Seymour called to see me -- he being here with Mr. Sol Smith Russell who was playing a two weeks engagement at the Broad St. Theatre. 

American actor, singer, and drummer, raised in St Louis he joined Ben DeBar's stock company there, [which might be where EJ Phillips met him] and spent the 1867 season at the Chestnut Street Theatre and came to New York in 1871, eventually joining Daly's Company.  Described as having a "quaint personality" and being "tall and slight in appearance, deliberate in action, he had a dry crackling comedy manner that was irresistible in its appeal to an audience". Dictionary of American Biography  Wikipedia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Smith_Russell

NY Times obituary April 29, 1902 https://www.nytimes.com/1902/04/29/archives/sol-smith-russell-dead-the-actors-demise-in-washington-due-to.html

Strang writes that Russell was with DeBar's Theatre, St. Louis with Lawrence Barrett, and first appeared in New York in 1871. He joined Daly's Company in 1874 and was first a star in 1880. 

Sol Smith Russell as Doctor Pangloss in "The Heir-in-Law" Famous Actors of the Day In America 1900 *  Omaha Excelsior Oct. 13,1888 Jim the Penman

Alessandro/Alexander Salvini (1861-1896)  Boston Sept 1887 "Today, this being a perfect day, I am going with Mr. [Alessandro] Salvini & Miss [Kate] Molony to see the Bostons & Detroits this afternoon."

Boston May 1888 "The "Globe" yesterday morning, in its article on the game said, "Mr. Alexander Salvini, accompanied by Mrs. E.J. Phillips, watched the game from the grandstand. ... I was just going to tell you here, that I would not go today, when Salvini came with Mrs. Presbrey to ask me to go, so I am going."

The Boston Globe (May 30 1888) notes "In the grandstand yesterday were noticed Alexander Salvini accompanied by Mrs. E.J. Phillips.  Mr. Salvini thinks that Dick Johnston is the greatest centre fielder in the league.  Near him sat Will Palmer, Fred Purmort, Morton Atwood and Jimmy Connolly in a group.  This quartet was unanimous that if [Mike] Kelly were in the game Boston would have won. 

Boston June 1888  "Today, this being a perfect day, I am going with Mr. [Alessandro] Salvini & Miss [Kate] Molony to see the Bostons & Detroits this afternoon."

Philadelphia June 1888 "he [AM Palmer] has given $25 per week more to [Alessandro] Salvini for the California trip, without his asking for it, yet he lets me go on the same small salary, and knows I spend most of what I get for his plays, and I am tired of his treatment of me, compared with the way he treats others."

Salvini was one of the people who went to the Great Salt Lake in Salt Lake City in Sept. 1888.

JH Stoddart's description of the death of William Davidge in  1888 in Wyoming mentions Salvini "In the evening, to please him, -- for he believed so implicitly in everything that was English -- the members of the company had been singing "God Save the Queen" and Davidge had joined in the chorus...and retired in high spirits.  His berth was next to mine and at about one o'clock in the morning I was awakened by his heavy and labored breathing...He looked around saying "Oh my God, surely I am not going to die here [in Cheyenne Wyoming] away from them all!".  [Alessandro] Salvini picked him up like a child and carried him into the smoker, where we poured brandy down his throat."

Catalog of Dramatic Portraits  Italian actor, son of the 'great Tommaso" (Am Theatre) who had been in the Union Square Theatre Stock Company. Salvini was 22 in 1883. Played the priest Don Hippolito, who falls in love with the American girl Florida Vervain (Marie Burroughs)  in William Dean Howells Foregone Conclusion 1886 (originally called Priest and Painter). 

NY Times obituary Dec. 16 1896 https://www.nytimes.com/1896/12/16/archives/alexander-salvini-dead-the-young-actor-breathes-his-last-in.html

JG Saville: Harvard Photographs of Theatrical Productions Lady Windermere's Fan  Scene from Lady Windermere's fan with E.M. Holland, W. Ramsey, and J.G. Saville : cabinet photograph, undated. Photographed by The Royal; Boston (Mass.).
Scene from Lady Windermere's fan with E.M. Holland, W. Ramsey, and J.G. Saville at Palmers Theatre : cabinet photograph (signed by Holland and Saville), 1893.  Photographed by The Royal; Boston (Mass.).  Inscription on verso: Here are three men, so wonderous wise they look at the world through little glass eyes, the first is a [?], the second the same and the third's a "Jim Dandy, you bet by Cain!" "Lady Windermeres Fan" 1893. To Miss Rose Barrington.  Houghton Library, Harvard Theatre collection
 
Saville played Charles Dumby in Palmer's New York productions of Lady Windermere's Fan in 1893

JG Saville was manager of the National Theatre in Washington DC In 1871 for about two years, until it burned in 1893.  New National Theatre: A Record of Fifty Years 1885 https://books.google.com/books?id=EqQ3AQAAIAAJ&dq=%22JG+Saville%22+theater&source=gbs_navlinks_s  He and his young wife May Hart Saville was at Ford's Theatre when Lincoln was assassinated.  Backstage at the Lincoln Assassination  2013

By 1885 Saville was a member of the Madison Square Theatre Company, appearing in Chicago in Gillette's The Private Secretary  He also worked for Charles Frohman.

*William Gorman Seymour (1855-1933)  Philadelphia March 15th [1898] A week ago Sunday Mr. and Mrs. [Willie] Seymour called to see me -- he being here with Mr. Sol Smith Russell who was playing a two weeks engagement at the Broad St. Theatre. We had a pleasant chat -- and he left about 6 PM and I did not suppose I should see him again.  -- but as I was washing the supper dishes on Monday he came in a cab -- to ask me to go with him to the theatre to play "Clementina" in A Bachelor's Romance in place of Mrs. F.A. Pitt whose husband Mr. H.M. Pitt had died at 3 PM that day in New York ... Tell Albert Willie Seymour has five children, two daughters and three sons.  The eldest 14 years and the youngest 5 months.  He is traveling as stage manager with Sol Smith Russell this year and his family live in Roxbury, Boston, Mass."

Actor, director and stage manager with the Union and Madison Square companies, the Metropolitan Opera House and Charles Frohman's Empire Theatre [1898].  Spent 1879-1888 at the Boston Museum  Married May Davenport, younger sister of Fanny Davenport.  Willie was 28 in 1883.  EJ Phillips knew him and his parents  from their days at the Varieties Theatre in New Orleans (1872-1875) with Lawrence Barrett. She visited his mother in Roxbury Massachusetts while in Boston.  His mother was Lydia Elizabeth Griffith Seymour [1830-1897]

William’s parents played in a stock company in New Orleans where young William first appeared on stage, at the age of three, in his mother’s arms. He appeared on stage at the age of 5 with John Wilkes Booth, the young tragedian who assassinated President Lincoln in 1865. After William’s father’s death in 1864, Mrs. Seymour and her son took a steamship to New York, where young William became a call boy at Edwin Booth's new theater. Here, at the age of 14, he enacted the role of the queen in “Hamlet” for 100 nights, in accordance with the custom of Shakespeare’s day of having young boys play female characters. In 1871 he became the call boy at the Globe Theater in Boston. In 1874, before he was 21, he was made stage manager by the tragedian, Lawrence Barrett, with whom he toured as manager and actor.

 In 1875, William was acting and directing the stage at the Union Square Theater in New York, then the leading stock theater in the United States. William. Seymour played Jabez Green (a shepherd) in STORM BEATEN (1884).

After working in San Francisco, William came East again as stage manager for Lawrence Barrett. It was then he became stage manager at the famous Boston Museum (Theater) at a salary of $50 a week instead of the $100 a week he had been getting. He took the cut in pay because of the enhanced prestige and the varied experience the museum engagement would give him. He often said his nine years at the museum were the happiest years of his life. It was here in 1882 he met and married the juvenile lady of the company, May Davenport. Early Settlers Duxbury Massachusetts http://duxburyspilgrimsandtheirland.com/2011/12/28/early-settlers-john-washburn-part-3/  William Seymour, Fanny Davenport and more of that family.

1898 he was appointed general stage manage for Charles Frohman, a position he held for until 1918 and in 1927, he retired. Find a grave  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/148613693/william-gorman-seymour

William Seymour Family Papers, Theatre Collection, Dept. of Rare Books, Princeton Univ., http://findingaids.princeton.edu/collections/TC011   also holds Davenport family papers.

*Helen Stockwell Described in a Joseph review (Dec. 29, 1892, Washington Post) as "pretty, vivacious and accomplished.

James Henry Stoddart (1827-1907)  Originally from Yorkshire, England, Stoddart made his American debut in 1854 with Wallack’s Company. “The slim, handsome, if somewhat gaunt-faced actor was immediately recognized as a superior low comedian. A fiery temperament allowed him to stay at Wallack’s only two years, after which he moved to Laura Keene’s.  By 1875 he was playing under Palmer’s aegis at the  Union Square  …Although his prominence later diminished, Stoddart continued to act until he was struck down by a train.” Dictionary of American Biography,  Autobiography Recollections of a Player (New York, Century 1902). more on JH Stoddart  

Denman Thompson (1833-1911) Author of the Old Homestead, which EJP, Neppie and Neppie's aunt went to see in the winter of 1889-1890. Thompson had joined John Nickinson's Royal Lyceum Theatre Company in Toronto in 1854.  He appeared in Uncle Tom's Cabin  (as Uncle Tom) with John Nickinson, EJP and Charlotte and Virginia Nickinson. [Shortt, family playbill collection ]   more on Denman Thompson

Odette Tyler (1869-1936) American actress and popular comedienne, was a member of the Madison Square Company  for the 1884-85 season.  Born Elizabeth Lee Kirkland in Savannah, Georgia.  Her father went to West Point, but went with the South during the Civil War. Mrs. RD McLean  Was she 15 in 1884 and acting in New York? How reliable is her birth date?

EJ Phillips received a copy of her book for Christmas New York, 12-29-1895 Miss [Odette] Tyler her book, Boss [A Story of Virginia Life] and a pretty paper cutter. 

Lewis Strang in  Famous Actresses writes of Odette Tyler that "her first professional appearance was made in 1884 in "Sieba," ... She was next engaged by Daniel Frohman for the Madison Square Theatre Company and made her debut in that house in William Gillette's The Private Secretary".  Mr. Frohman then loaned her to Minnie Maddern... Charles Frohman next secured her as leading comedienne of the Empire Theatre Company.  .. She originated the leading role in "The Gay Parisians"..

Wikipedia  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odette_Tyler

*Ida Vernon (1843-1923)  Americna actress, "a great favorite in the South during the Rebellion"  Played in the final Union Square Season which began on October 6th, 1884 with a costume play in the time of Louis XV and a "dire failure" The Artist's Daughter by Elliott Barnes. Visited EJ Phillips in Philadelphia in 1902 while traveling with John Drew's company.

Cinderella: A Fairy Tale Extravaganza by William Brough. Wallack's Theater, New York. Opened June 15, 1851. Cast: Adelaide Gougenheim (Cinderella); Josephine Gougenheim (Prince Rodolphe); J. G. Burnett (Baron Sold-off); Mrs. Junius Booth, Jr. (Baroness Soldoff); Ida Vernon (Rondoletia); Miss C. Howard (Patchoulia); Charles Peters (Capillaire); Mr. Zavistowski (Red Man of Agar).  http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cinder/cin8.htm 

Was in Edwin Booth's company and a 1917 article "Love story of Ida Vernon and Edwin Booth" said they had been lovers after the death of his first wife.  But Booth wrote to critic William Winter about tumors of him marrying again "Marry again -- whew -- no sir" Between actor and critic: selected letters of Edwin Booth and William Winter, Princeton University Press, 2016 https://books.google.com/books?id=pqZ9BgAAQBAJ&dq=%22edwin+booth%22+ida+vernon&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Ida Vernon cigarette card

Ida Vernon played Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest in 1895 at the Empire Theater in New York. Internet Broadway DataBase  http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=5575 

photo https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/sayre/id/10479

Thomas Whiffen (1845-1897) Actors and Authors 1951

The only reference to Whiffen in these letters is about Whiffen's flat [on Fourth Ave.] being $50. Denver, Sept.. 26, 1886  He was listed in EJ Phillips' Dramatic Mirror obituary as being one of "those with whom Mrs. Phillips was more particularly associated".
Played Faithful Benton, an old family servant in Sealed Instructions, Madison Square Co. Spring 1885  Appeared in the 1879 Union Square HMS Pinafore.

Benton in Sealed Instructions 1885  Blanche Whiffen

*Blanche Whiffen 1845-1936  Pioneering crusader for Actors' Equity Association.
The original Buttercup in the first New York production of HMS Pinafore.

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanche_Whiffen
Autobiography Keeping off the shelf, 1928  https://books.google.com/books/about/Keeping_off_the_shelf.html?id=Qwo2AQAAIAAJ

Internet Broadway DataBase  http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=69049

*Joseph E. Whiting (1842-1910)   Played Richard Orchardson, son of Squire Richardson (John Parselle) in STORMBEATEN 1884.one of the two mortal enemies (the other was McKee Rankin) who met in mortal struggle on an ice floe. Appeared in a pith helmet and puggaree [turban] in Three Wives to One Husband (1884). Cast as Jim in Jim the Penman in Philadelphia 1887   New York Clipper articles

Oscar Wilde's first play Vera the Nihilist was produced by AM Palmer in 1883, and EJ Phillips performed in Lady Windermere's Fan  for several years, as did Walter Dolman.   more on Oscar Wilde

*ES Willard (1853-1915) EJ Phillips was in both Middleman and Judah "E.S. Willard accomplished his first appearance upon the American stage (at Palmer's Theatre, November 10, 1890), in the powerful play of The Middleman, by Henry Arthur Jones. A representative audience welcomed the modest and gentle stranger and the greeting that hailed him was that of earnest respect. Willard had long been known and esteemed in New York by the dramatic profession and by those persons who habitually observe the changeful aspects of the contemporary stage on both sides of the ocean; but to the American public his name had been comparatively strange. ...When Willard played the part of Judah Llewellyn for the first time in America (December 29, 1890), he gained from a sympathetic and judicious audience a verdict of emphatic admiration. Judah Llewellyn is a good part in one of the most striking plays of the period—a play that tells an interesting and significant story by expressive, felicitous, and incessant action;[Pg 331] affects the feelings by situations that are vital with dramatic power; inspires useful thought upon a theme of psychological importance; cheers the mind with a fresh breeze of satirical humour; and delights the instinct of taste by its crisp and pungent style. William Winter's Shadow of the Stage, 1892 mentions ES Willard's appearances in The Middleman and Judah. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18860/18860-h/18860-h.htm#Page_322

English actor, producer toured US for 3 seasons under AM Palmer's management.  Particularly admired for his villains in contemporary melodrama. COC 
Library of Congress photo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Smith_Willard#mediaviewer/File:Edward_Smith_Willard_cph.3b35753.jpg 
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Smith_Willard

*Ellie Wilton (c.1852-1902) Mrs. Thomas Doremus CDP American actress, played at the Union Square Theatre in The False Friend and French Flats.

Leading lady at the Old California Theater 1878 photograph http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/tf3779p0ff/  

*Percy Winter (1861-1928) Canadian actor and stage manager. Son of William Winter the theater critic and historian according to a 1913 New York Times article. 
He was on the 1890 Denver trip. and appeared in the New York 1890 Palmer's Theatre  performance of the Middleman and in Wealth both  with EJ Phillips

Ryan's dissertation on AM Palmer says that Palmer received a letter from William Winter asking about an engagement for his son in Feb. 1886, and that Percy Winter made his debut as Professor Socrates Browning in the May 1887 Madison Square Theatre revival of Our Society, and then became stage manager of a Madison Square touring company until Dec 1888, when he returned to New York as Presbrey's assistant and business manager of Boucicault's Madison Square acting school. Once Palmer left the Madison Square Theatre in 1891 Winter became assistant stage manager at Palmer's Theatre and toured with the ES Williard Company 1891=1892.

The Actor's Birthday Book, volume 2 1908 https://books.google.com/books?id=AG0uAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22percy+winter%22+theater&source=gbs_navlinks_s says that Percy Winter spent most of her career as a stage manager.

William Winter (1836-1917) American critic, author and stage historian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Winter_(author))
He has papers at the University of Texas Austin , Harry Ransom Center http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=01182  and at the Folger Shakespeare Library https://findingaids.folger.edu/dfowinterw.xml

Henry "Harry" Woodruff  [1870-1916] in Pharisee by Malcolm Watson  Dec 1890 and Mar 1891 In Denver in 1890  "Made his debut in HMS Pinafore and left the stage after playing Charley in Charley's Aunt to attend Harvard. Oxford Companion.
  Henry Woodruff, By Otto Sarony Company - J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs, Wikimedia

People briefly mentioned, in other theatre companies
Some were people EJ Phillips knew in Toronto, Philadelphia or from other engagements. Some she mentioned as seeing perform in New York and while she was on the road.

Mary Anderson (1859-1940) Made her London debut in Ingomar: The Barbarian [by Friedrich Halm] in 1883 and retired from the stage in 1889 after collapsing on stage at President Harrison's  inaugural in Washington D.C. She disbanded her company, retired, and sailed to England.

Mary Anderson, Strang's Famous Actresses   Wikimedia

Boston 1886 Thursday night we went to see Mary Anderson, the play Ingomar.  Was not electrified by the Star or her Company

William Winter, Shadows of the Stage 1892 has a chapter on Mary Anderson  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18860/18860-h/18860-h.htm#Page_90

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anderson_(actress,_born_1859)

Photograph, Univ. of Pennsylvania http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/furness/detail.html?id=FURNESS_ft_pan100_11_s 

PT Barnum  (1810-1891)  Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._T._Barnum  Barnum had organized his traveling circus in 1871, and ten years later combined it with that of James Bailey, his chief competitor.

New York March 1886  Saturday was a stormy day here too, but the snow melted as it fell and did not obstruct travel, but it was very wet walking.  I had to have a carriage to & from the shop.  Barnum had to postpone his procession Saturday night and will have to tonight, for it is still raining 4:45 PM and looks as if it meant to continue all night.

PT Barnum and the circus http://www.circusesandsideshows.com/owners/ptbarnum.html

Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)  Minister and center of scandal  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ward_Beecher 

26 West 31st Street New York Dec 3 1891 I think I am living in the house of the late Henry Ward Beecher.  The initials of this gentleman are H.W..  He is not here a great deal himself but his wife and family are.  The cuisine is run by another party, a Mrs. Millard, & is run very sparingly.

Beecher had lived in Brooklyn, so it seems unlikely that a house in Manhattan was connected with him.

Sarah Bernhardt  (1845-1923)   pictures of and  recipe for preventing colds

Toured America nine times, played in Frou-Frou. Was in the first night audience for Alabama at Palmer's Theatre in Nov 1891.

Edwin Booth (1833-1893)  Son of the noted actor Junius Brutus Booth and brother-in-law of Agnes Booth, played Hamlet for 100 performances with Isabella (Nickinson) Walcot.  Founded the Players' Club in 1888. Played almost continuously with Lawrence  Barrett from 1887 until Barrett's death in March 1891. Dictionary of American Biography Concise Oxford C Actor, founder of the Gramercy Park Players' Club (remodelled 1888 by Stanford White after Booth bought the building) and founder of the Actor's Fund in 1882 with Lawrence Barrett, Joseph Jefferson, Wallack, Daly and Palmer. Booth and Joseph Jefferson opened the Actor's Fund Fair in May 1892.

Edwin Booth Strang's Players and Plays1902

  more on Edin Booth

Neil Burgess (1846/51?-1910)  As a stage manager with a company on tour Burgess took the place of Mrs. Barnaby Bibbs when she was unable to appear.  "Although he disliked the task, he found favor with the audience and his destiny was thereby settled.  After that, his entire life on stage was spent in grotesque impersonations in which he burlesqued rather than interpreted the eccentric personalities of elderly women.  For. .. the laughter across the footlights, he relied largely upon extravagances of feminine costume.  He starred first in 1879 in Vim, or a Visit to Puffy Farm.  Married Mary E Stoddart, a niece of JH Stoddart, in 1880.  Acquired considerable wealth but lost the greater part through injudicious investments and unprofitable theatrical ventures.  Essentially a single character performer, doing his own specialty with an individual ingenuity, that brought him, for a considerable period, unbounded popularity." Dictionary of American Biography

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Burgess_(comedian) 
Patents by Neil Burgess http://patents.justia.com/inventor/neil-burgess

Lizzie Hudson Collier (c. 1864-1924) WWT/14  appeared with William Crane in The Senator in 1890  Noted as one of the people EJP knew in Crane's company when their trains met between Tacoma and Portland in June 1890.

Frank Connor (d. 1902) Manager Era Almanack, London, 1903. 
March 1894 Phila Pa "Had a nice letter from Mr. Frank Connor this morning, tells me he saw Mr. [Arthur] Shirley and Mr. Wells off for England last Sunday"

Nym Crinkle (1835-1903) was the byline used by Andrew Carpenter Wheeler at both the New York World and Sun as well as magazines.  His reviews were "highly caustic but highly informed". [Oxford] 

New York 1888 "Yes, Nyson Crinkle and all the critics gave La Tosca a drubbing and the play is crowding the theatre.  Tell people a play is bad and they are bound to see for themselves.  [Fanny] Davenport will make more money with it, than with any other play she has ever appeared in, but possibly for only one season. "

As a theatre critic, Wheeler had a reputation for belligerence. It is said of him that actors blanched with fear and managers crossed themselves at the very thought of a Nym Crinkle review. It is true that he could be merciless in condemnation. He found fault with virtually every actor and actress, with the possible exception of Eleonora Duse. Clara Morris he considered "morbid"; Mary Anderson, crude; Sarah Bernhardt, too studied and controlled. Lawrence Barrett declaimed, he did not act. Salvini was great as Othello, but could act little else; anyway he got along mainly on good looks which only the women appreciated. Anyone reading Wheeler finds him contradictory. When he has an initially favorable reaction to a performer or play, he often reverses himself the next week and expounds upon the weaknesses of the performance or work…He enjoys arguing, no matter which side of the question he defends. Nym Crinkle: Gadfly Critic and Male Chauvinist,  Thomas K. Wright, Educational Theatre Journal, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Dec., 1972), pp. 370-382  http://www.jstor.org/stable/3205931

Personal papers in the Harvard Theatre Collection  Stored offsite, about 150 letters

Augustin Daly (1838-1899) Playwright, producer and major rival to Palmer and Wallack.  more on Daly

Walter Damrosch (1832-1950) succeeded his father Dr. Leonard D. Damrosch (after his father's death) as director of the Oratoria and Symphony Societies and became assistant director of the Opera.

New York 1886 "George Riddle sent me tickets for his course of readings, the 1st on Saturday night at Chickering Hall.  Hattie went and took Mrs. Kirby.  A Midsummer Nights' Dream was the subject, with [Walter] Damrosch's orchestra playing the music"

George F. DeVere (c.1835-1910) BE 
Tacoma 1890  "Of Cranes Company whom I knew were Mr. & Mrs. [William Henry] Crane, Mrs. Foster, Mrs. Lizzie Hudson Collier, Mrs. Georgie Drew Barrymore, Mr. [George F.] DeVere and Mr. Herbert who was at the Chestnut St Theatre [Philadelphia] during my last season at that house. "

Frank Drew (1831-1903)  Played Uncle Bamberry in Saints and Sinners  in the first New York performance in November 1885, when EJ Phillips played Lydia.. Played McGillicuddy in Engaged February 23, 1886 with EJ Phillips playing Mrs. Macalister. He and EJ Phillips were also in Our Society in May 1886.
Frank Drew was the brother of John Drew Sr., so uncle to Georgie Drew Barrymore. John Drew Jr and Sidney White Drew.     more on Drews and Barrymores

John Drew (1853-1927) Uncle of Lionel, Ethel, and John Barrymore, Drew was with Daly's company in New York  for many years as a high comedian and noted for his Petruchio.    Brother of Georgie Drew Barrymore and son of Louisa Lane Drew.

New York Nov. 29, 1895 By today's Herald I see that Chas Frohman is going to put John Drew in Palmer's Theatre on Jany 6th, and that I guess has given rise to the report that he was trying to get a theatre to put us in on January 6th, but I guess we will have to go to Brooklyn and Harlem and dear knows where! before getting to Boston when we are to stay for a "run" (4 weeks I guess)

  Frank Drew Strang's Famous Actors       
more on Drews and Barrymores

Louisa Lane Drew (1820-1897), John Drew's mother, managed the Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia  for many years, "which she ran with an iron hand." from 1861 to 1892;  and established it as one of the greatest of American stock companies.  Dictionary of American Biography Mother of Georgie Drew Barrymore
Mrs. Drew  Strang's Players and Plays of the Last Quarter Century  

Mrs. John Drew [mother of Georgie Drew Barrymore, and grandmother of John, Lionel and Ethel] appeared in Toronto at John Nickinson's Royal Lyceum Theatre   in 1858 with her third husband an Irish comedian, drawing good houses with familiar Irish comedies and farces: The Irish Ambassador, The Irish Emigrant and the Irish Lion. [Shortt]

more on Drews and Barrymores

Mrs. EL Fernandez (1852-1909) Dec. 22, 1909 New York Times obituary describes her as a dramatic agent, Vice President of the Professional Women's League and "known to every actor who ever sought an engagement in New York". Her employment office was in the New Amsterdam Theatre building. https://www.nytimes.com/1909/12/22/archives/mrs-e-l-fernandez-dead-dramatic-agent-and-friend-of-children-of-the.html

William J Florence [1831-1891]  is mentioned in a letter to EJ Phillips from John Nickinson and in the thesis on the Nickinson years at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Toronto. .  William Winter's Shadow of the Stage Ebook by Project Gutenberg has two chapters on Florence  and notes   After that he met with the usual vicissitudes of a young player. He was a member of various stock companies--notably that of W.C. Forbes, of the Providence museum, and that of the once-popular John Nickinson, of Toronto and Quebec--the famous Havresack of his period.  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18860/18860.txt

Mrs.  Malvina Theresa Pray Florence (1830- 1906) https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/florence-malvina-pray-1830-1906

Mrs. GH [Ann] Gilbert (1821- 1904) was no beauty, but was "for many decades one of the most skillful and beloved American comediennes. She joined Augustin Daly's company in 1869 (after she and her husband had failed as farmers) and essentially stayed with it for its thirty year history.

From an EJ Phillips obituary in Aug. 1904
A dozen years ago Mrs. Phillips held a position on the American stage very similar to the one Mrs. Gilbert holds to-day. She had all the grande dame roles in Mr. Palmer's and afterward in Charles Frohman's stock companies.  Like many other stage favorites her "last appearance" was predicted many years before it actually occurred. Toward the end of her career every time she came on the stage she was greeted with a storm of applause, just as Mrs. Gilbert was greeted at the Garrick last fall

We have an obituary of Mrs. Gilbert from an unidentified Dec. 1904 New York newspaper. She was still performing (in Chicago) at 83 and had announced her intention to spend the day Christmas shopping following her customary cold bath, on the day she died.  

Stage Reminiscences of Mrs. Gilbert, https://archive.org/details/stagereminiscen00gilbgoog/page/n13 She mentioned that "old lady" parts meant that her parts lasted longer than those of younger actresses, and that John Wilkes Booth was "the most perfect Romeo, the finest she ever saw. ... He was eccentric in some ways and he had the family failings"

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Gilbert 

NY Times Dec 7 1904 funeral https://www.nytimes.com/1904/12/07/archives/many-at-the-funeral-of-mrs-gh-gilbert-police-summoned-to-prevent.html
William Winter, Shadows of the Stage 1892 has a chapter on Mrs. GH  Gilbert http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18860/18860-h/18860-h.htm#Page_374

Nat Goodwin (1857=1919)   comedian (1914 autobiography Nat Goodwin's Book.  https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000323119

Nat Goodwin Strang's Players and Plays of the Last Quarter Century

Nat Goodwin and baseball
In 1878, Goodwin  co-founded the Boston Elks Lodge, and his association with the lodge, and that of his manager in the 1880s, George W. Floyd (né George Wood Floyd; 1853–1923),^[a] would change baseball history, giving us arguably the first role of an agent in baseball history. Floyd, in particular, would serve as a go-between, starting in 1887, between the management of the Boston National League club, the Beaneaters, and its newly signed star, Mike "King" Kelly. In 1889, Goodwin became a member of the governing committee of the newly created Actors' Amateur Athletic Association of America.

When Kelly and his Chicago teammates won the pennant in 1885, Goodwin and Floyd treated the Chicago team to a performance of "The Skating Rink" at Hooley’s Theatre in Chicago. "After the overture the orchestra struck up 'See, the Conquering Hero Comes,' and Mr. Floyd conducted the eleven Chicago players to their boxes," Chicago captain-manager Cap Anson in the lead." After the first act, Goodwin presented Anson with a "solid silver facsimile of a League ball."

"Excelled as a mimic and eccentric comedian, he was also effective in serious parts.  Married five times he gained notoriety for his offstage antics...His autobiography took revenge on his many enemies. (Cambridge Guide to Am Theatre) .
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Carl_Goodwin

Mentioned in a Boston Globe article about a baseball game attended by EJ Phillips    

Percy Haswell [1871- 1945] actress  on committee with EJ Phillips for the Actors' Fund Fair New York, 1892


Percy Haswell Fawcett  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Haswell  Mrs. George Fawcett

Joseph Jefferson (1829-1905) Opened the Actors Fund Fair in 1892. 

Joseph Jefferson as Rip Van Winkle Famous Actors of the Day in America by Lewis C. Strang, 1900
 "The most popular and respected American comedian of the 19th century...even as a relatively young man his quizzical face was wizened.  In 1893 he succeeded his friend Edwin Booth as president of the Players Club." Autobiography of Joseph Jefferson (1890).  https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/autobiographyof00jeff

Joseph Jefferson and WJ Florence in the Rivals photo http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/ref/collection/19thcenturyactors/id/921
Joseph Jefferson in Rip van Winkle  1903 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwiBdrOtGmA

Lewis Strang writes in Famous Actors that "Joseph Jefferson is a comedian with a rare gift of pathos and an extraordinary talent for character delineation. Although the modern stage knows him in but four parts, - Rip Van Winkle, Bob Acres [The Rivals], Doctor Pangloss, and Caleb Plummer [Boucicault's Cricket on the Hearth]. 

Autobiography excerpt http://www.authorama.com/19th-century-actor-autobiographies-2.html
William Winter, Shadows of the Stage 1892 has three chapters  on Joseph Jefferson http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18860/18860-h/18860-h.htm#Page_130 
Bloom, Arthur, Joseph Jefferson: Dean of the American Theatre, Savannah, Frederic C. Beil, 2000

The Church of the Transfiguration has a Joseph Jefferson stained glass window with Jefferson as Rip Van Winkle leading the shrouded figure of George Holland 

Laura Keene: 1826-1873 Actress and theater manager Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Keene 


 "It would give me much pleasure" says Mrs. EJ Phillips, "to be able to furnish you with some material for your commendable work, but my acquaintance with Miss Keene  was very slight.  She was a  beautiful woman and a thorough artist.  It would be difficult, I think,    to discriminate as to her greatest characterization. for in my opinion she was great in all she essays -- from Lady Teazle to Ogarita in The Sea of Ice. I wish you every success and would gladly help you if it were in my power." ... Mrs. Eldridge (Aunt Louisa) is then quoted as saying she first met Keene in "April 1865, the week after the assassination of the lamented Lincoln, when she came to play an engagement at Wood's Theatre, Cincinnati, where I was a member of the stock company. She then told me the entire story of the assassination.  John Creahan, Life of Laura Keene: Rodgers Publishing,  1897 https://books.google.com/books?id=4sg_AAAAYAAJ&dq=laura+keene++ej+phillips&source=gbs_navlinks_s   Perhaps this is where EJ Phillips saw her perform.

Isabella Nickinson Walcott was a protégé of Laura Keene's and married Charles Melton Walcot in 1863, who was also a member of Laura Keene's company. "Mrs. Walcot, however, or Miss Nickinson, had more advantages than being a member of Miss Keene's theatrical company, then one of the foremost in this country. Miss Nickinson, if we are not in error, lived in Miss Keene's house, where she had advantages which do not often fall to the lot of a young actress. That Mrs. Walcott profited by her close and early associations with Miss Keene, her subsequent career as an actress and artist have attested. " I am told," said Emma Taylor to the writer, " that Mrs. Walcot's art greatly resembles that of my mother’s.”  Life of Laura Keene 1897

Charles Peters, husband of Eliza Nickinson Peters was the original Binney in Our American Cousin, first performed at Laura Keene's Theatre, New York in 1858.
Mr and Mrs. Owen Marlowe (Virginia Nickinson) were in Laura Keene's company 1861-1863 in New York, and also in 1871..
John Nickinson appeared at Laura Keene's as Havresack [for the first time in ten years]  and Isabella Nickinson Walcotts Melanie in May 1862 and in June as Spurritt in The Post Boy.  History of the American Stage.

Mrs. William [Margaret Robertson] Kendal (1848-1935) English actress, wife of actor William Kendal, made her American debut in 1889 under Daniel Frohman. Biography The Kendals 1900 [Oxford]

EJ Phillips went to hear her lecture at the Hotel Brunswick in 1890. in  1892 " the Kendals take possession of "Palmers" for two weeks"

Julia Marlowe (1866-1950) Married Robert Taber 1894, divorced him in 1900.   Was particularly noted in plays of Shakespeare. Marlowe was her stage name.  She was a cousin of Owen Marlowe, who was married to Virginia Nickinson Marlowe.

Detroit, Michigan, March 13, 1895  I did have a letter from Robert Taber, husband of Julia Marlowe, wanting to know my terms for next Season.  I wrote him a week ago yesterday but so far have had no reply so I imagine I frightened him.  Would like to be with them there, for she plays all the old plays in which I am at home, and there would not be much study, but I would require lots of good clothes.

Julia Marlowe as Mary Tudor, When Knighthood was in Flower, in Strang's Players and Plays, 1902  
   
Lewis Strang in Famous Actresses writes of Julia Marlowe that she played Parthenia in Ingomar, Pauline in the Lady of Lyons, and Julia in the Hunchback, as well as in Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, As You Like it and Much Ado about Nothing. "Always satisfying to a degree, and particularly delightful as a comedienne, she has never shown any unfathomable depth of temperament, nor has she yet achieved the really tragic."

Julia Marlowe and EH Sothern in Taming of the Shrew http://www..com/watch?v=OaxdIHU6V3k&feature=related  Romeo & Juliet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uobbfUUCo4
  
Encyclopedia Britannica on http://search.eb.com/shakespeare/micro/377/44.html 
Julia Marlowe bibliography http://www.questia.com/library/music-and-performing-arts/theater/julia-marlowe.jsp 

Photos http://digital.library.louisville.edu/cdm/search/collection/macauley/searchterm/marlowe%2C%20julia%2C%201865-1950/field/people/mode/all/conn/and/order/title/ad/asc

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Marlowe  English-born American actress and suffragist, known for her interpretations of William Shakespeare's plays....In 1904, she began an extremely successful partnership with actor E. H. Sothern, beginning with their appearances in the title roles in Romeo and Juliet, Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, and the leads in Hamlet. They toured all over the U.S. in these plays, adding The Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night to their repertoire in 1905. Unhappy with their compensation from their manager, Charles Frohman, they continued under the management of the Shubert Brothers, from then on receiving a percentage of the profits. ....Marlowe and Sothern married in 1911.

Helena Modjeska (1840-1909) The Cracow born actress came to California with her Polish second husband, fleeing Poland once their radical political views became known.  Her theatrical debut in 1877 quickly established her as a rising star and she went on to play Ophelia, Juliet, Camille, Frou-Frou, Mary Stuart, and Lady Macbeth.  "For the next twenty eight seasons, despite a slight paralytic stroke in 1897, her career was a series of triumphs, and she became one of the most respected and beloved of all American performers." [Oxford] 

"The newer style of acting that she introduced in the USA stressed naturalness and credibility.  She was frequently and sometimes favourably compared with [Sarah] Bernhardt, who was more sensual and flamboyant...The basic types of women Modjeska excelled at playing were the grand lady, the wronged mistress...and the girl who succeeds due to her looks, intelligence and fantasy". [International Dictionary Theatre]  

Shakespeare & the players, Emory Univ. http://shakespeare.emory.edu/actordisplay.cfm?actorid=184
Modjeska documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUPNInge7GA

San Francisco, July 31, 1886  Owen Fawcett called this AM.  He is playing with [Helena] Modjeska.  They close tonight and leave tomorrow for Los Angeles.  

From Lewis Strang's Famous Actresses "Modjeska's theatrical life in America is closely interwoven with that of Edwin Booth, whom she so much resembles in the matter of artistic temperament. . Modjeska's first appearance on the same stage with Booth was on April 30, 1883 , when she acted Juliet to his Romeo at the closing of the unfortunate Booth's Theatre in New York. On May 21, 1888 when Hamlet was given with a great star cast for Lester Wallack's benefit, Booth appearing as Hamlet and Joseph Jefferson and William Florence as the two grave-diggers, Modjeska was the Ophelia.... Modjeska's Shakespearian repertory includes Beatrice, Cleopatra, Imogen, Juliet, Lady Macbeth, Portia, Ophelia, Rosalind, and Viola.  Outside of Shakespeare there is her great part, Adrienne Lecouvreur, besides ... Camille, Gilbert in Frou-Frou, ... Nora in Ibsen's A Doll's House..."

Frank Mordaunt actor [1841- 1906]
New York 1892  "the Ladies Executive Committee [of the Actors Fund Fair]  made me chairman of Sub- Committee no. 24 ... Had Mrs. Frank Mordaunt but she and her husband leave the City next week with the "Lost Paradise" and she cannot act on the Committee here
Photograph https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/19thcenturyactors/id/428/

Charles Norris (b. 1846) Chestnut St. Theatre, Philadelphia actor.  Canadian actor, played Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet, Booth's Theatre, New York. 
Chicago, Sept. 15, 1890  Hattie thinks Dr Kneu is the one who operated on Charles Norris's throat while he was at Chestnut [St. Theatre, Philadelphia]. 

Tony Pastor 1837-1908, manager   A letter from Albert, aged 14 to his mother mentions going to Tony Pastor's Theater.