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The New York Reign of "Blood and Thunder" Melodramas
This book recounts the personal and professional life of Thomas Souness Hamblin (1800-1853), Shakespearean actor and Bowery Theatre manager. Primarily responsible for the popularity of "blood and thunder" melodramas with working class audiences in New York City, Hamblin discovered, trained and promoted many young actors and, especially, actresses who later became famous in their own right. He also epitomized the "sporting man" of mid-nineteenth century life, conducting a scandalous series of affairs and visits to Manhattan brothels, which cost him his marriage to Elizabeth Blanchard Hamblin (1799-1849) and made him the brunt of moralist, religious and journalistic crusades, notably that of James Gordon Bennett's New York Herald. His machinations and perseverance through trying challenges, including several destructions of the Bowery Theatre by fire, extensive financial and legal complications, and the untimely deaths of several young protégées, earned him equal measures of admiration and opprobrium.
1. "He is yet very young, both in years and practice" (1800-25) -- 2. "Let those who view this sad example know/ What fate attends the broken marriage vow" (1825-30) -- 3. "We girls always patronize the Bowery" (1830-31) -- 4. "Throw not the pearl of Shakespeare's wit before the swine of the Bowery pit" (1831-33) -- 5. "Down with the British bastard!" (1833-35) -- 6. "Circumstances never satisfactorily explained" (1835-36) -- 7. "Marius brooding over the ruins of Carthage" (1837-38) -- 8. "The public have only themselves to blame for the reign of melodrama" (1838-40) -- 9. "The sanity of all the parties are at par value" (1840-42) -- 10. "We are not dead yet, boys!" (1842-48) -- 11. "The noblest Roman of them all" (1848-51) -- 12. "Blessings and benedictions" (1851-53).
Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History