The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1879-10-25
Our BrOadbrinl Letters.
Theatres and Theatricals, Old and New :
The Actors and Play-houses Of Fifty
Years Ago-Politics and Pedes-
trianism- Business Revival.
NEW YORK, Oct II. 1879.

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Years Ago Politics and Pedes-
Observation-Disclosures Revival.
NEW YoRK, Oct. ii, 1879.
EDITOR CHIEF:
Nothing is more Indicative Of th
vast change that has taken place II
this city, than the utter destruction
b and may say anDihilation, Of all tn
places that were. forty or fifty year
: ago, the centres Of amusement for oil
New York. OF the theatres, only on'
remains, and all the public gardens
of forty years ago have vanished.
was passing up the Bowery the othe
day on the Elevated road, and rs we
dashed by Old Drnty, rs the Bowery
Theatre used to be called in the olden
time, it seemed as it a ghost bad
started from the grave, and the deel
gap Of forty years had suddenly been
filled up. The Bowery Theatre, which
for twenty years has been little more
than ruin, is once mole Aecked cat
in gay colors, and looks as bright and
as clipper as when Tom Hnmblin,
Ingersol1, Cooper, Forrest and Booth
trod its boards, and exemplified to old
New York what good acting really
| II 1.t,
pamby, walking stick school, irrev-
erently speak of the men have
named as blood and thunder actors,
but if the present style of so called
society plays are allowed to demor-
alize the stage much longer, it will
utterly an,il,ilate the race of good
actors in America. There was time
when there were many young men
coming forward, who promised to be
ornaments to the American stage !;
but they have been elbOwed oul Of
/ the way by the lsweepiDgs Of London
concert roonns.antl music halls, while
our young %omen have been driven
away from the stage by brazen
herd, whose vulgar display of So called
charms would scarcely be received
as 4, model by the painter Of u pot
house sign.
Although the old Bowery remains, it
is no longer an American Theatre it
has been handed over tn the Germans,
80 that tire last Of our old American
Theatres has been literally wiped
out. What glorious days were those
when we used to wander of Sunday
evening with the girl of our hearts,
| down to Castle or Atlantic Gardens,
and there, while enjoying the soft
evening breeze that swept over the
moon light bay, revel III the luxnries
of ice cream and doughnuts. Oh,
sweet golden hours, Will ye never
come again7 Atlantic Garden has
been gobbled up by the Elevated
railroad, and the lovers retreat is foul
with grimy engines, and Uttered will,
the ruins of defunct railroad ears,
while Castle Garden, which once
echoed with the divine notes of
Jenny Lind, is now disturbed by
conglomoration Of sounds that would
have affrighted the denizens Of Babel,
while the horrible perfume of Dutch
pipes, sc!,weitzer kase and garlic,
almost make fellow wish that Castle
Garden had been sunk in the sea, be-
fore it was ever turned into an emf
grant depot.
Coming up Broadway, as we ap-
proach the Park, we look in vain for
some vestige Of the old Park Theatre
Not n sign or symbol remains.
Gloomy stores stand over the site of
this famed temple of Thespis, where
George Frederick Cooke delighted
and amazed our grand mothers, and
where Edmund keeDe electrified the
town, aud where Fanny Elssler
turned the heads of half the young
bucks i'll the city, about forty years
ago. On Church street stood tue
National, managed by Harry Wallack,
the uncle of the present Wallack,
who, at sixty three, still insists on
playing the juvenile lovers. The
National divided honors with the
Park. In 1912 it was destroyed by
fire, and disappeared from the list of
or theatres. A few years later.
James Wallack, the father of the
present Lester Wallack. opened a
theatre on the west side of Broad way:
the company was good, the acting
was nnexceptionable, but it seemed
t,om the first to he IL failure. Mr.
Wallack abandoned it after a very
disastrous experience. It was then
taken by Mrs. Sinclair, the divorced
wife of Edwin Forrest after time
she gave it up, and it's last manager
was the late Barley Williams, after
which it fell prey 10 commerce and
disappeared. The Broadway Theatre.
on the east side of Broadway. after
Il checkered experience of fifteen