John A. Arneaux billed himself as "The Black Booth" and starred in a one-night all-Black production of Shakespeare's "Richard III' at Philadelphia's prestigious Academy of Music in January 1887. Who was he, where had he come from, and why had he chosen Philadelphia for this audacious feat? We explore his fascinating story in the first of our two episodes about him.

There are THREE blog posts about this episode on our webpage! www.AITHpodcast.com

The first post has images of Edwin Booth as Richard III: https://www.aithpodcast.com/blog/edwin-booth-and-richard-iii-in-philadelphia/ 

In the second, we reproduce the entirely of the chapter about Arneaux in William Simmons' 1887 book Men of Mark: https://www.aithpodcast.com/blog/j-a-arneaux-a-man-of-mark/

In the third, we have the sheet music for "Jumbo the Elephant King", as well as some other interesting items we discovered about Arneaux in the newspapers of the day. 
https://www.aithpodcast.com/blog/the-elephant-king-at-the-cosmopolitan-more-material-about-episode-25-the-black-booth-part-one/

Want to know even more great stuff about Philly theater history and can't wait for the next episode? We post stories every day on our Facebook page and our Twitter feed. Follow us there for a daily dose of Philly theater!

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