Palmer, A(lbert) M(arshall)

Palmer, A[lbert] M[arshall] (1838?–1905), producer and manager. Born in North Stonington, Connecticut, he graduated from New York University Law School but never practiced law. Instead he became active in politics, in which he met Sheridan Shook, collector of internal revenue for New York, and became Shook's right‐hand man. Palmer worked as a librarian and an accountant but had little connection with the theatre until Shook made him head bookkeeper, then later manager at the Union Square Theatre, a vaudeville house at the time. Palmer quickly assembled a first‐rate company and turned the theatre into a legitimate playhouse that rivaled Wallack's as well as Daly's flourishing new troupes. Among his successes were The Two Orphans (1874), A Celebrated Case (1878), The Lights o' London (1881), and A Parisian Romance (1883). In 1884 he took over the Madison Square Theatre and four years later took over Wallack's, renaming it Palmer's. His successes in this period included Beau Brummell (1890), Alabama (1891), Lady Windermere's Fan (1893), and Trilby (1895), while performers whose careers he furthered included Maurice Barrymore John Drew, Richard Mansfield, and Clara Morris. Just before the turn of the century both his health and his theatrical judgment began to fail. Palmer's final years were spent first as Mansfield's manager and then as manager of the Herald Square Theatre for Charles Frohman. Although his early success came largely from imported plays and from recruiting established actors from other companies, with time and growing confidence Palmer also presented new works by American authors and employed untested actors.