Tony Pastor

Tony Pastor c.1837-1908, American theater manager, b. New York City. Pastor appeared on the stage from childhood and became an experienced acrobat, dancer, and singer. He opened his first theater at 444 Broadway, New York City, in 1861. Thereafter he opened two more Broadway theaters, and in 1881 began presenting shows at his best-known playhouse on 14th St. In these establishments Pastor introduced many performers who became famous (notably Lillian Russell) and presented vaudeville suitable for a mixed audience.

Bibliography: See biography by P. Zellers (1971).

Pastor, Tony [ Antonio Pastor] (1837–1908), American vaudeville performer and manager. He made his first appearance as a child with Barnum, and later travelled with circuses and minstrel shows as a singing clown, ring-master, or ‘blackface’ ballad-singer. In 1861 he made his début in variety, which had sunk to a low level of vulgarity. Determined to clean it up, he opened a theatre on Broadway in 1865, moving 10 years later to Buckley's Minstrel Hall, later the Olympic Theatre 3, which he renamed Tony Pastor's Opera House. He banned drinking and smoking and discouraged the more vulgar acts, appearing always in his own shows—he had a rich tenor voice well suited to the popular ballads of the day, of which he himself claimed to have composed over 2,000. In 1881 he presented the first performance of what was later called vaudeville at his newly acquired Fourteenth Street Theatre, which he ran until his death, many famous stars, including Weber and Fields and Lillian Russell, appearing there.