Hirst, Isadore
setName: label: See more items in
content: Henry A. "Buddy" Graf and George Cahill Vaudeville and Burlesque Collections
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Isadore Hirst was born September 5, 1897. He was the owner and manager of three burlesque theaters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Bijou, the Trocadero (his flagship theater), and the Walnut Street
Theater. He was also manager of the I. Hirst Circuit which was a chain of thirty-five burlesque houses in the East and Midwest.  (A circuit or wheel was an association of theater owners all using on a rotating basis the same schedule of shows.) "(Issy or Izzy) Hirst was already turning out burlesque shows on the Columbia by 1923, one half of the Howard and Hirst producing team. After his initial purchase of the Trocadero and the Gayety Theaters in Philadelphia, he began the more formal organization, the Independent Burlesque Circuit, incorporated as the Independent Burlesque Association (or I.B.A.), but mostly referred to as the Hirst Circuit by performers and producers. . . .. Hirst died in 1948 but the circuit survived for another half a decade, under the direction of his widow [Betty Palmer] through the mid-1950s." Hirst died December 28, 1948.

(Source is PHD dissertation by Elisabeth Wellman (Ohio State University) which has a timeline of American burlesque circuits.)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1927-1928, undated
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.1484, Series 19
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: These scripts were either written, performed, or produced in Isadore Hirst's theaters. Materials are arranged alphabetically by title.