Blood and Shakespeare: The Astor Place Riot of 1849

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Places & Travel, History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.7 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2019

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

EPISODE 289: In old New York, one hundred and seventy years ago, a theatrical rivalry between two leading actors of the day sparked a terrible night of violence — one of the most horrible moments in New York City history. England’s great thespian William Macready mounted the stage of the Astor Place Opera House on May 10, 1849, to perform Shakespeare’s Macbeth, just as he had done hundreds of times before. But this performance would become infamous in later years as the trigger for one of New York City’s most violent events — the Astor Place Riot. Macready, known as one of the world’s greatest Shakespearean stars, was soon rivaled by American actor Edwin Forrest, whose brawny, ragged style of performance endeared the audiences of the Bowery. To many, these two actors embodied many of America’s deepest divides — rich vs. poor, British vs. American, Whig vs. Democrat. On May 10th, these emotions overflowed into an evening of chaotic bloodshed as armed militia shot indiscriminately into an angry mob gathering outside the theater at Astor Place. By the next morning, over two dozen New Yorkers would be murdered, dozens more wounded, and the culture of the city irrevocably changed. boweryboyshistory.com Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Bowry Boys Episode 289, Blood and Shakespeare, the Astro Place Riot of 1849.
0:07.3	Hey, it's The Bowry Boys.
0:08.8	Hey.
0:09.9	Support for The Bowry Boys is provided by our listeners.
0:13.6	Join us for as little as $1 a month by visiting patreon.com slash Bowry Boys.
0:23.5	Hi there, welcome to The Bowry Boys. This is Greg Young.
0:26.0	And this is Tom Myers.
0:27.5	And for today's show, we're revisiting a rather unusual event in New York City history.
0:33.7	And I think something that we always need to remind people who love New York City about.
0:38.8	And that was a deadly theater riot that occurred at Astro Place 170 years ago this year on May 10th, 1849.
0:48.8	Now, this was an actual riot brought about by impassioned supporters of rival Shakespearean actors
0:57.0	who were both performing in the city at the same time.
1:01.4	This already seems probably absurd to many of you who have never heard of this event.
1:06.5	And perhaps something that could even be written off is just some sort of like weird one-off event.
1:12.0	Right, like those crazy old days when there was a Shakespearean rivalry so intense that New York
1:17.6	audiences actually rioted.
1:20.4	And also what's interesting is that Astro Place today is just a rather unlikely location for a
1:28.0	historical riot. I mean, there's all of those coffee shops and listening new glass towers.
1:34.1	Right. But as we're about to explore, the theater riot was actually the culmination of many more
1:41.4	issues. This event was actually the climax of tensions that had been building up around social
1:47.1	class and around money. It was about immigration. It was about ethnicity. And the story, as it turns
1:54.2	out, also stars the two biggest actors of their day, one who was American and one who was British.
	...

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