Albert. M. Palmer and the Union Square Theater

Albert Marshall Palmer was born in North Stonington, Connecticut. His father was a Presbyterian minister; he graduated from NYU Law School in 1860, dabbled in politics until 1869 after which he settled in as a librarian at the New York Mercantile Library, where he stayed until 1872 when Sheridan Shook, who controlled the lease, asked him to take over as the manager of the Union Square Theatre.

The Union Square had opened only a year before as a variety house. It was well situated to such a purpose in the middle of the block between Broadway and Fourth Avenue on the south side of Union Square. Its first manager, Robert W. Butler, had offered such variety performers as the mime troupe of Marinetti-Ravel, the dancer Marie Bonfanti, various gymnasts and acrobats, and even Harrigan and Hart, who would go on to greater fame a few years later. The only successful venture of that first year was the introduction of the Vokes family of English comedians.

Though utterly untrained in the theatre, Palmer began an eleven year run as an extraordinarily successful manager. Regarded as a thorough and careful intellectual, he was able to successfully compete with his predecessors at Wallack's, and Daly's. His first production, September 17, 1872, was an immediate success. Agnes Ethel, an already established star with Augustin Daly, deserted Daly to star for Palmer in Victorien Sardou's Andrea which was shrewdly renamed Agnes. The play ran for 100 nights. It was followed by a string of English comedies, including Boucicault's London Assurance, Sheridan's The School for Scandal, and Bulwer's Money. Next came Frou Frou, Caste, Jane Eyre and many others.

The most memorable hit of his management was probably The Two Orphans, which proved to be the biggest money-maker of its time. Its initial run was 180 consecutive performances. (note the poster in the photo of the theatre above) Based on a French melodrama Les Deux Orphelines, the play opened in December with Charles R. Thorne, Jr., (above right)as Maurice de Vaudrey, McKee Rankin (above center) as the brutal Jacques Frochard, Rose Eytinge as Marianne, and Kate Claxton (above left) as the blind orphan. Henry James preferred the original French play, calling the American rendering "the mere gaunt, angular skeleton of the original.... But," he goes on, "the Two Orphans is worth seeing simply for the sake of sitting in one's place and feeling the quality of a couple of good old-fashioned coups de theatre." The audience appeal proved very durable indeed: Kate Claxton, having created an immense sensation in her role, later bought the rights to the piece and played it almost continuously for the next twenty years.

Other memorable productions included Steele Mackaye's Rose Michel, which introduced J. H. Stoddart as the old miser Pierre; Miss Multon with Clara Morris, The Danicheffs with Eugene O'Neill's father James O'Neill, and Charles R. Thorne, Jr., Bronson Howard's The Bankers Daughter, which ran for 137 performances.

In January 1883, Palmer staged A Parisian Romance, which launched the successful career of Richard Mansfield. Later that year, Palmer left the Union Square to travel in Europe. When he returned in 1884, he took on the management of the Madison Square Theatre. It was under his management that William Gillette's The Private Secretary premiered, running for two hundred nights. He also produced Gillette's Held by the Enemy, as well as Bronson Howard's Old Love Letters, and Henry Arthur Jones' Engaged.

In 1888, he took over Wallack's Theatre renaming it "Palmer's." Finally, in 1891, Palmer surrendered the Madison Square Theatre to Charles Hoyt and Augustus Thomas where they rode the popularity of Hoyt's farces like his best known A Trip to Chinatown for a number of years. With the exception of Trilby in 1895, the management of Palmer's proved to be financially unsuccessful, and Palmer finally retired from management in 1896.