The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-18
TONY PASTOR TO CELEBRATE.
HAS BEEN A THEATRE MANAGER
For ~ YEARS.
Wm Appear Again on Thursday Night and
Sing Two OF His ola Began
Ems stage Career Mt Eight and Was
nnrahnnk Elher At 0ne IlmC.

Sing Two OF His OLA SO~nSs-Began
Ems stage Career Mt Eight and Was
q Bareback Rider at On Time.
Tony Pastor, whose singing has enter
tanned two generations of New York theatre
Roers, will celebrate on Thursday night
the forty-hrst anniversary Of his career
as a manager by appearing before the
footlights of his own playhouse for the
second time In several years. Tony is
past seventy but he still retains much OF
the jauntiness that made him a favorite
with gallery and orchestra in the days before
bis hair was frosted. He will sing some Of
the old time melodies that he helped to
make popular hereabouts forty years or
moro ago, including "Sarah's Young Man"
and Down in a Coal Nine
Tony's father was a dealer in perfumery
In Greenwich street, and there Tony was
born In May, 1885. He made his first public
appearance when he was six years old,
singing in duet with Christian Woodruff
ut q temperance revival at the Dey street
church. His professional debut as an
'infant prodigy took place when he was
eight, at Barnum's Museum.
At twelve he ven on the road with
Raymond q Warnings circus and menagerie,
doing a blaokface stunt as a singer and
tambourinist in the concert that always
followed the CIRCUS performance at that
period and until some years after the civil
war. He rode in the grand entree' and
also did a tumbling act. When the CIRCUS
oloeed he sang at the Federal Theatre In
Boston. With the advent Of the tentng
season he Joined the circus again.
He had become a Gle YER bareback rider,
and now played the star part OF Pete
Jenkins, the countryman who. comes
staggering into the ring and bets the ring
master that he can ride the horse as well
as the rider in spangles. He took delight
in observing the astonlshment OF the young
people. who seemed to fear that he would
fall of, when they saw him strip oil his
clothing and reveal himself as the crack
aorobatio rider of the show. The ring
master Of the circus died and Tony O
his place, achieving a reputation that got
him the job Of ringmaster in "Franconi's
travelling hippodrome." The next winter
he played Bones in a minstrel show and
also sang in the Bowery Amphitheatre.
He was a clown in pantomime. he said
yesterday, before the famous George l..
Fox had entered the business.
In 1901 he was a singer in the variety
theatre at 444 Broadway. The firing OF
Sumter aroused his patriotism, and he
bought a big American flag and a o
Of the Star Spangled Banner, every stanza
OF which he committed to memory. in
O few hours. He came out that night
waving the flag and singing the anthem.
The audience went wild, and every man
n boy in the house-no women were adj
mitted to variety shows ,then-stood up,
waved his hat and cheered. He invited all
to- DIN in the chorus, and they did Justify.
In 1885 Tony opened an opera house at
Paterson, n. j. 1t was his first attempt
as a manager and it was successful. He
was the first manager to let down the bars
excluding women from variety perform
ances. He says that his Paterson VEN
ture really was the pioneer vaudeville
entertainment, as it is now understood.
He tried the experiment Of admitting women
to his Bowery theatre in August, 1855. He
inaugurated ladies nights when the
women paid nothing if accompanied by
men.
He built up an immense family patron
age by presenting to the women at
matinee performances silk dresses, barrels
Of -four and hand sewing machines.
He gave up his Bowery playhouse to open
at 5S5 Broadway, where Lillian Russell
a name he is credited with inventing, made
her first stage appearance In a "Pinafore"
burlesque, and in 1881 he moved into the
Fourteenth street theatre. Until about
three years ago he sang there almost regu-
larly.
Here are the names OF some American and
English stage folk that Tony says he has
had the honor of introducing to the New
York public: May Irwin, Gus Williams,
Rooney, -Old Hoss" Hoey, Francis Wilson,
William j. Seaman, Lillian Russell. Vesta
Tilley and Bessie Bonehill. Tony has a COL
lection OF programmes in which his name
appears with those of many of the great
ones OF the last sixty years. Many who
have retired from the business will help
swell the audience that will greet the alert
aid nnfnH an Th,,ralnu