Actors - Thomas S. Hamblin

Home > Listing Index > Actors > Thomas S. Hamblin

	Actors - Thomas S. Hamblin

Thomas Sowerby Hamblin (14 May 1800 – 8 January 1853) was an English actor and theatre manager. He first took the stage in England, then immigrated to the United States in 1825. He received critical acclaim there, and eventually entered theatre management. During his tenure at New York City's Bowery Theatre he helped establish working-class theatre as a distinct form. His policies preferred American actors and playwrights to British ones, making him an important influence in the development of early American drama.

Although he was known as a fair (if shrewd) businessman, Hamblin's reputation was marred by his well known womanising and brawling. He had affairs with several up-and-coming actresses at his theatre, and he assaulted at least two newspaper editors who had published unflattering stories about him. His behavior eventually cost him his first wife and resulted in one conviction for assault.

Early life and stage career

Hamblin was born in London. He intended to go into business but changed course after a successful performance as Hamlet in a school production. By 1815, he had made his professional debut as a ballet dancer at London's Adelphi Theatre. He toured the British Isles over the next eight years, performing at venues such as the Drury Lane Theatre and Sadler's Wells Theatre. He married Elizabeth Blanchard, a popular actress and daughter of actor/playwright E. L. Blanchard. Hamblin had two children by his first wife: William Hamblin Jr. and Elizabeth Hamblin.

In 1825, Hamblin and his wife left England for the United States. Hamblin took the stage at New York's Park Theatre in early November, where he tackled a number or roles: Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, Petruchio, Pierre, Rolla, the Stranger, William Tell, and Virginius. Later that month, he appeared opposite Edwin Forrest at the Albion Theatre.

Critics praised Hamblin; the Albion calling him "a very excellent actor". Theatre historian T. Allston Brown attributed his success to these factors:

As an actor, he possessed the valuable accessories of a fine person, a good voice, and careful education. . . . In person he was tall and commanding, but so admirably proportioned as in a measure to conceal his almost towering height. Deep set eyes as black as jet were surmounted by a lofty brow, crowned by clusters of curling dark hair in such rich profusion as is seldom seen, except in some of the models which have been handed down to us from remote antiquity. To see him dressed for Brutus, Coriolanus, or Virginius was a study for a painter.

Francis Wemyss disagreed at least in part, saying that Hamblin's acting was "more than balanced by the husky, disagreeable tones of his voice, which always gave the appearance of hard labour to everything he undertook."

The Bowery Theatre

Hamblin began his tenure as manager of New York's Bowery Theatre with partner James H. Hackett in 1830. Hackett left a month later, and Hamblin obtained the lease and rebuilt when the theatre burnt down later that year. Hamblin catered to the tastes of the rowdy audiences of New York's Bowery district. These "Bowery B'hoys" were working class, primarily male, and socially conservative., and Hamblin accordingly staged blackface performances, circus acts, English farce, American melodrama, and Shakespeare to please them. Hamblin himself preferred upper-class entertainments like ballet and opera; nevertheless, he relegated these to infrequent bookings. Under Hamblin, American working-class theatre, emphasising brilliant spectacle and plot-based narrative, emerged as a form in its own right.

Perhaps Hamblin's greatest influence was in his incubation of American talent. He advertised extensively, and he pioneered the concept of allowing productions to run for periods as long as a month. In the spring of 1834, he began purchasing shares of the theatre from its owners, the New York Association; within 18 months, he owned a majority. When the Bowery Theatre burnt down in 1836, it was the most popular playhouse in New York City. Hamblin bought out the remaining shares and rented the property to W. E. Dinneford and Thomas Flynn. They oversaw the theatre's reconstruction while Hamblin acted in various venues and took care of his debts. Hamblin rebuilt yet again after a fire in 1838 and returned to active management with a bigger Bowery in May 1839.

In the 1840s, increased competition in New York City prompted Hamblin to stage even more spectacular melodramas and to book more variety entertainment such as minstrel shows and circus acts. After a fire in 1845, Hamblin tried to build a new theatre on Broadway, but local residents opposed the plan. Instead, he rebuilt the Bowery once more. Tastes were becoming more upscale, and Hamblin turned over active management to A. W. Jackson. He faced health problems, and his acting career stalled as his style became outmoded. The Albion reported that

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Thomas S. Hamblin ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Thomas S. Hamblin; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay