St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-06-20

IL Is perfectly true that at least tour.
and perhaps six or seven. men IN the
theatrical business surpaSs Mr.. Palmer
In their possession of actual money, or
the assets representing money that are
easily obtainable.
Perhaps the richest man in the whole
business is Charles Spalding, Of st.
Louis. But the money was not made In
the business by him. He is the son of
an old-tlme circus manager, who worked
the Southern country and invested all
his money i'll ST. Lonis real estate. This
was forty or fifty years ago, when it
could be bought for a song. Now
Charles Spaulding owns some of the
most valuable blocks in the city, and is
e computed to be worth very easily 81, Ooo,-
OOO. he runs two theaterS in st. Louis,
one the Olympic and the other the
Grand opera house, and makes most of
his bookings himself.
Another undoubtedly wealthy man is
L. Henry French, who runs theatrical
publishing business, is the agent for a
large number of foreign authors in this
country, and who manages the Grand
opera house, besides being One-third
proprietor of the new Broadway thea
ter. 1t is hard to say what Mr.. French
| is really worth, but it would not be- an
| eXaggeratiOn to put him down at half a
ceedingly active man and very careful
one for ten or fifteen years past.
| John StetsOn, too, is exceedingly rich.
! Of late years his income from his vari-
Gus ventures has been $4,000 to STE, 900
a year. His Globe theater in Boston is
exceedingly profitable. He made good
deal of money out of the Fifth Avenue
theater here. He is the proprietor of
the Boston Job Print, which turns out
a big amount of work, and he owns the
| Police News of Boston besides. 1t is
estimated that his Job printing estab-
| liShment is worth 100000 or S40O, GOO by
| itself. A year or two ago he set up as
banker in Boston and short time since
| opened cafe there. Four or five years
ago Stetson estimated himself to be
worth about S1,0O0,000. 1t must have
vastly increased Siuce then.
McVicker, of Chicago, is rich man.
/ He was ruined by the fire of 1871, but
| got ACCOMMODATION, rebuilt. his theater
and through being the father-in-law of
| Edwin Booth managed that actor for
several seasons, making good deal of
| money. Mr.. McVicker is worth about
| 100000.
There is another gentleman in Boston
who has been accorded by some the
credit of being the richest manager in
America. He himself strenuously de-
MES anything of the sort. 1t is Isaac B.
Rich, the proprietor of the Hollis street
theater there and also of the Howard
Athen8um, both of them exceedingly
prosperous houses. Mr.. Rich is inter
ested in a dozen other schemes inyoly-
he is worth, perhaps not even himself,
but that he is pretty well off is proven
by the fact that in spite of all his ven
lures he invariably carries in bank
cash balance OF $4,000, sum that has
often been very useful in emergencies.
Mr.. Rich's principal local celebrity is
derived from the fact that he is the
father-in-law of Edwin E. Rice.
There are several other men who may
be put in the rich class, and who doubt
less go beyond Mr.. Palmer. David Bid
John Hamlin, of the Grand opera house
in Chicago. is another. Theodore Moss,
of Wallack's who is estimated to be
worth from $780, 900 to 81 600, 900, largely
invested, however, in real estate.
There are some men indirectly in
tereSted in theaterS, that is, in their pro-
prietOrShip and not their management,
who are much richer than any of these.
Jay Gould owns the Grand opera house,
Henry Hilton owns NiblO's, E. j. Bald
win owns the Baldwin theater in San
francisco, ldDOr. lUe CdlilOTHId HILL
iOnaire, owns the Grand opera house in
Denver.
So it will be seen that Mr.. Palmer is
not among the front rank of rich man
ayers, nor does he claim to be. Though
great deal of money was made in the
Union Square theater from 1871 to 1875
when he assumed sole charge, he made
no more than a living in it. Mr.. Shook
got the profits. Mr.. Palmer says him.
self that all his money was made be-
tween 1878 and 1888. Since then he has
always had good income, but has
made no fortune. He says himself that
he could hardly retire from business to-
day and keep up the style in which he
has been accustomed to live. He owns
house on Madison avenue and beau
tiful place in Stamford, Conn.,, near the
home of the WallackS.