Blog Posts: Commentary and Images for Every Episode
Above, copy of the bust of Charlotte Cushman by Emma Stebbins, which was a longtime feature of the collection of the Cushman Club in Philadelphia. It was given to the club in 1957 by Stuart Louchheim, then the president of the Academy of Music. It n…
Well, yes he did! Faithful followers of the podcast will remember that we speculated on this topic in Episode #2, but there is proof! In the famous diary of the London resident and Royal Navy administrator Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), we find the foll…
Christian DuComb's "Haunted City"
Above: The cover of Christian DuComb's book Haunted City. Below: Christian Ducomb has himself been a Mummer. He performed as a slice of pizza with the Vaudevillains Comic Club in the 2010 Mummers Parade. (Photo from an 2017 article i…
Above, print of the Academy of Music in 1857 In a very early article about the Academy of Music from the late 1850s, a writer remarked that there was a general effort in Philadelphia to call it "The Broad Street Opera House." This would have fo…
The Riot Act - Blog Post for Episode 21
(Above, a British cartoon showing the O.P. riots in London in 1809. The point of view of the artist is decidedly opposed to the protests, as he shows working class roughnecks assaulting and robbing well-dressed toffs in the pit of the Grand National…
Above, an illustration by white artist Charles Bird King of a War Dance, performed by a delegation of Native American Tribes to Washington DC. The illustration is the frontispiece of Volume One of McKenney's History of the Indian Tribes of North Ame…
Above: An 1863 engraved advertising card for the Arch Street Theatre, with an illustration of the theater's new facade. Collection of the Library Company of Philadelphia Below, an 1868 photograph of the Arch Street Theatre, taken from t…
Here are some photos from the FIRST EVER Adventures in Theater History Walking Tour.I led a walking tour along the streets of Philadelphia on Saturday, October 23rd, 2021. We began at the corner of South and Front Streets in Old City Philadelphia, a…
Louisa Lane Hunt Mossop Jamieson (possibly) Drew - Blog Post and Bibliography for Episode 18
Above, print of Louisa Lane in Twelve Absolutely, 1828. (Collection of the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin)Below, an image of the silver medal that Edwin Forrest presented to little Louisa after she acted the role of his son in…
Above, Fanny Kemble reads Shakespeare aloud at the St. James Theatre in London - from the Illustrated London News, August 10th, 1850. As we detail in the podcast episode, becoming a public 'reader' of Shakespeare's plays gave Fanny both an independe…
