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Speaker 1: The Day in History Class is production of I Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio hi um Eve's Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that reveals a little bit more about history

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Speaker 1: day by day. Today is May tenth, nineteen. The day

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Speaker 1: was May tenth, eighteen forty nine in New York City

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Speaker 1: in front of the Astor Opera House. A theatrical rivalry

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Speaker 1: and class tensions sparked a riot that resulted in the

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Speaker 1: death of more than twenty people in the injury of

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Speaker 1: many more. At the time, theaters were popular hangouts and

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Speaker 1: star actors were comparable to today's celebrities. Theaters often got

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Speaker 1: pretty rowdy in New York and riots were not uncommon.

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Speaker 1: American actor Edwin Forest an English actor William Charles McCready

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Speaker 1: had an intense professional rivalry. Fourth once called McCready's portrayal

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Speaker 1: of Hamlet a quote desecration of the scene, and macready

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Speaker 1: made sure that Forest got lukewarm press coverage when he

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Speaker 1: went overseas, and their supporters hyped up the controversy. But

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Speaker 1: what amplified the rivalry even more was the class division.

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Speaker 1: Many Americans denounced immigrants like the Irish, whom they disliked

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Speaker 1: for bringing down wages in the US and supposedly ruining neighborhoods,

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Speaker 1: and working class New Yorkers despised the English and their

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Speaker 1: haughtiness as they flaunted their wealth and status. Stifled by

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Speaker 1: the richest people in New York City and the influx

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Speaker 1: of immigrants, working class American born folks felt politically disenfranchised.

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Speaker 1: That frustration manifested through rampant nativism and derision of the

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Speaker 1: English upper crust. The Bowery, where Forest had seen a

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Speaker 1: lot of success early on in New York, was a

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Speaker 1: favorite for working class people or Bowery hites. The Astor

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Speaker 1: Place Opera House was on the snobby side, more welcoming

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Speaker 1: to aristocratic types and the so called upper ten or

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Speaker 1: the wealthiest ten thousand residents of New York City. All

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Speaker 1: these factors went into the conflict that went down on

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Speaker 1: May seven, when Forest and McCready each appeared in separate

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Speaker 1: productions of Shakespeare's Macbeth. They were just blocks apart, McCready

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Speaker 1: at the Astor Place Opera House and Forest at the

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Speaker 1: Broadway Theater, but a bunch of working class people had

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Speaker 1: bought tickets to McCready show at Astor Place. The audience

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Speaker 1: booed the actor and threw rotten eggs and pennies at him.

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Speaker 1: McCready proceeded to pantomime to play, but once the audience

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Speaker 1: started throwing chairs into the orchestra and onto the stage,

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Speaker 1: people began to leave, and eventually the performance was called off.

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Speaker 1: McCready was ready to leave America, but his supporters talked

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Speaker 1: him out of it. More than forty prominent New Yorkers,

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Speaker 1: like writers Washington Irving and Herman Melville, wrote a letter

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Speaker 1: to mccre d asking him to perform on May tenth,

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Speaker 1: saying that they would make sure the show went smoothly

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Speaker 1: and that he was protected. So McCready rescheduled his performance

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Speaker 1: of Macbeth. Newly elected Mayor Caleb S. Woodhull assigned the

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Speaker 1: seventh Regiment of the state's militia to be stationed at

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Speaker 1: Washington Square Park, fearing a riot that the police force

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Speaker 1: could not handle. The seventh Regiment was previously the twenty

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Speaker 1: seventh Regiment, which had been deployed at the anti abolitionist

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Speaker 1: riots and Flower Riot in the eighteen thirties, and on

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Speaker 1: May tenth, McCready's show at Astor Place was protected by

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Speaker 1: about two hundred citizens soldiers and hundreds of police. There

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Speaker 1: were mounted troops and light artillery. The windows of the

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Speaker 1: opera house had been boarded up in anticipation of the commotion.

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Speaker 1: By the time the doors opened at seven that evening,

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Speaker 1: thousands of people were gathered at Astor Place. McCready supporters

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Speaker 1: had special identifying marks on the back of their tickets,

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Speaker 1: but the house was oversold and people were being turned away.

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Speaker 1: People trying to bombard the entrances were beaten by police,

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Speaker 1: and by eight pm the crowd was about ten thousand strong.

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Speaker 1: Inside the play had started, but rowdy Boweryites had caused

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Speaker 1: the actors to go into pantomimes. People threw stones through

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Speaker 1: the upper window from outside, smashing the chandelier. As the

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Speaker 1: commotion escalated, the militia was called to the scene. McCready

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Speaker 1: finished his performance then dipped out of the back of

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Speaker 1: the building in a disguise, eventually leaving the city for Boston.

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Speaker 1: But the mob outside of Astra Place had gotten violent,

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Speaker 1: and around nine o'clock the troops fired into the crowd.

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Speaker 1: Somewhere around twenty two people died during the riots and

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Speaker 1: later from wounds. More than one hundred and fifty people

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Speaker 1: were injured, and about one and seventeen, mostly working class people,

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Speaker 1: were arrested, and the damaged opera house declined. In the

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Speaker 1: wake of the bad publicity, The next day, the was

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Speaker 1: a rally in City Hall Park to protest the malicious actions.

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Speaker 1: Timmany Hall. Political organizer Isaiah Renders set the following about

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Speaker 1: the shootings. For what then, was it done to please

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Speaker 1: the aristocracy of the city at the expense of the

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Speaker 1: lives of the inoffending citizens? To please an aristocratic Englishmen

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Speaker 1: backed by a few sycophantic Americans, they would shoot down

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Speaker 1: their brethren and fellow citizens rather than be deprived of

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Speaker 1: the pleasure of seeing him perform. As a result of

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Speaker 1: the riot, class division in New York City had been

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Speaker 1: brought to light. I'm as Jeff Coote, and hopefully you

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Speaker 1: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: If there are any upcoming days in history that you'd

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Speaker 1: really like me to cover on the show, give us

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Speaker 1: a shower on social media at t D I h

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Speaker 1: C podcast. We'll see you here in the same place tomorrow.

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