July 31, 2005
The most secret method
In his magnificent study of the seedy underside of nineteenth-century New York, Low Life, Luc Sante notes the long history of the Bowery stage. The neighborhood was once second only to Broadway as a site for legitimate theater in New York. Well before the Bowery had turned into a haven for ethnic theaters (particularly Yiddish theater) and burlesque joints, dime novelist Ned Buntline struck gold with his "Mose cycle". The plays starred Mose, the Bowery Paul Bunyan, a brawling boozing Irish b'hoy who fought whole fire engine companies and drank vats of beer at a go. A certain amount of accuracy to the role was assured casting a neighborhood toguh, Frank Chanfrau, the younger brother of the man who had beaten the real Mose Humphreys in a fight for the first and last time in 1838. Humphreys afterwards quietly decamped for parts unknown, leaving the path clear for Chanfrau to ascend to stardom simply by having the right accent and a certain jaunty way with his hat and cigar. Neighborhood loyalty was assured, and loyalty in the Bowery was no small thing; a few years later, native son actor Edwin Forrest incited the Astor Place riot (22 were killed) after feeling insulted by rival (and, more importantly, British) Shakespearean William Macready, appearing uptown in a rival performance of Macbeth.
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