The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-03-24
From the Chicago Record-Herald:

From the Chicago Record Herald:
 ~ oNY PASTOR, "the man of mill
 ((1 lion songs," Is to celebrate next
 Monday an anniversary of some interest to the amusement-loving puohc. If Is not the anniversary of his birtn that be will commemorate. Indeed, Tony is a bit shy about mentioning the exact date of his birth, and if documentary evidence were not available his admirers might De at A loss to know that he has passed the three score and ten mark by year.
 The event that he with his friends will celebrate next Monday Is the rounding out of forty-three years of theatricai managership in New York. The famous little theater in East Fourteenth street which bears his name is being repainted' dusted and furnished and put into the best possible condition to shed glory upon it's owner and founder. Its stan Of vet erans has the august event very much at heart and the public is Joking forward to the possibility of seeing Tony once more on the stage.
 Of late years he has ceased to be the headliner at his own theater, and only on the rarest possible occasions does he con sent to do few stunts in his old style the style that is known to theatre-goers of a former generation all over the coun- try. However, once year at least no appears on his own stage and sings some of the famous old songs that helped to make his name a household word gen. eration ago, and usually on such occa-
 ..t.o Q start by Tony gather at his playhouse to congratulate him. Some of these songs' such as .Down in a Coal Mine, Under meath the Ground" and Ragged Coat,y are allowed to slumber peacefuhy in oblivion from years end to years end until Tony Pastor revives them at his lit- tie anniversaries.
 Although much of his activity for the past forty-three years has been confined to New York, the famous minstrel was once resident of Chicago. That was when he was creating laughs with the North Circus, which made Chicago its permanent home late in the '5Os. The cir GUS occupied a large building in Monroe street. near Clark, and Pastor had cot tage in Jackson street, near Wabash ave- nue, with a lawn about it on all sides, for which accommodation he paid the munificent sum of $15 month rental Pastor lived here for four years. from 1856 to 1860, when he quilted the circus busi- ness permanently.
 At that period it was necessary for a performer to be versatile, and Tony added tumbling and bareback riding to his ac- complishments in the minstrel line. Tony Pastor was born in Gotham. &C., cording to the most reliable information. about 71 years ago. He admits that he is New Yorker, but he doesn't discuss the other part of 1t. As early as 1s45 he made his initial appearance in the role of tenn actor and he followed the tradition. A wave of temperance reform, which was then at it's height, gave him his first op- portunity to appeal to the public. He yearned for more varied fields. however, and soon joined the old Barnum museum force as an end man and learned to jug gle a tambourine. After a short time with Barnum he left for Cincinnati, and as a minstrel went with the Raymond & Waring Menagerie. A year later, after joining the Welsh & Deavan circus, he made his first bow to Chicago audience and when he returned here with the North circus cemented his popularity in the local field.
 The vaudeville stage began to beckon to him, and when he abandoned the circus business it was to become a vaudeville performer His first engagement was at Frank Rivers Melodion theatre in Phila- delphia then the leading variety theatre in the country. After opening a. music