Tony Pastor’s Opera House

Event Information

Venue(s):
Tony Pastor's Opera House

Price: Children admitted at half price

Event Type:
Variety / Vaudeville

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
29 August 2012

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

23 Oct 1865, Evening
24 Oct 1865, Evening
25 Oct 1865, Matinee
25 Oct 1865, Evening
26 Oct 1865, Evening
27 Oct 1865, Evening
28 Oct 1865, Matinee
28 Oct 1865, Evening

Program Details

Robert Butler, stage manager

Performers and/or Works Performed

2)
Participants:  Robert [pantomimist] Butler (role: Old Dame Grimes, afterwards clown)

Citations

1)
Review: New York Clipper, 04 October 1865, 238.

“The Pastoral Opera House in the Bowery comes in for its share of public patronage, and is doing a good business for the managers.  Besides the usual miscellaneous performances given there, the burlesque of ‘Old Dame Grimes’ was produced last week.  It was well put on the stage as regards scenery, dresses and appointments, and as every number of the company was included in the cast, it was well performed.  Robert Butler, the stage manager, is one of the most comic men in the business, as well as an excellent pantomime.  The Old Dame Grimes, afterwards clown, is a very laughable performance.  The rest of the characters are in good humor and well acted.  In the variety business, Tony Pastor’s comic singing is the principal feature; he is sometimes called out from four to five times.  Master Barry, who is a first-rate song and dance man, reminds us more of Dave Reed than any one else we ever saw. ‘Old Dame Grimes’ will be continued this week.”

2)
Advertisement: New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold, 23 October 1865.
3)
Review: New York Herald, 27 October 1865.

“This house maintains its popularity, as it well deserves to do, among the theatres of the Bowery district. Without pandering to the lowest tastes, which have been so sedulously cultivated in the Bowery theatres, to the great detriment of public morals, Tony Pastor’s entertainments provide enough of fun and music and light enjoyment, suitable to the desires of the frequenters of places of amusement, without introducing those exciting dramas of the love, murder and bloodthirsty school so common on the Bowery stage and which corrupt while they amuse. People can enjoy themselves without being introduced to vice in its most seductive but not less pernicious form. A good hearty laugh is always worth the price paid for it. Such can be obtained at Tony Pastor’s Opera House any night. Although the programme varies, there is always to be found something to amuse, and often a good deal to instruct; but nothing to demoralize. In this respect Pastor’s Opera House has a decided advantage over some of the Bowery places of amusement.”

4)
Announcement: New York Clipper, 28 October 1865, 230.

Tony Pastor’s Opera House is a very popular addition to east side amusements, judging from the patronage so literally bestowed upon the establishment.  In order to keep up with the rage for pantomimes, Tony produces one of those mirth-provoking spectacles this week.  It is called ‘Old Dame Grimes, of the Good Fairy of the Harvest Home.’  It is to be hoped that it will be productive of a plentiful harvest to the manager of the Pastoral Opera House.”

5)
Advertisement: New York Clipper, 28 October 1865, 231.