Henry C. Miner

An ex-cop from the Bowery (and former employee of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West), Henry Clay Miner opened his first museum and variety hall in Baltimore, Maryland in 1863. This was the height of the Civil War, in a state technically occupied by a foreign army (a slave state, Maryland was occupied by Federal troops), so it is not surprising that the venture was short-lived. Four years later Miner was back on the Bowery, managing a place called Falk’s Volk’s Garden.

From there, he went on to establish the London Theatre, the success of which permitted him three years later to open the establishment that was his greatest legacy: Miner’s Bowery Theatre. It is to Miner’s that posterity owes the invention of “the hook” (as in “Give ‘im da hook!”) The amateur night at Miner’s was popular; the audience, rowdy. A saloon and poolroom adjoined the theatre helping fuel the rambunctious energy, necessitating the use of hired “policemen” to roam the theatre ready to bust the heads of any troublemakers. Somewhere along the line, someone got the bright idea of yanking particularly clueless acts offstage with a shepherd’s crook. The innovation lives on in popular memory, even though Miner’s does not.

Miner, himself deserves to be better known however. In addition to owning his many theatres, he was also a major printer and publisher, pharmacist, and served one term as a U.S. Congressman!

To find out more about the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.