Sam Colville’s Saloon Failed But His Show Went On

 

Immigrating from Ireland as a boy, Samuel Colville arrived in California in 1849 and in 1851 opened a Sacramento saloon he called “The Oriental.”  His attractions to this drinking establishment included stage performances by women wearing “bloomers,’ considered scandalous by many.  Within a  year, apparently having failed to make a profit, he sold out.  As a showman, however, Colville persisted and in time came to be known as the “Napoleon” of the New York theater scene.

Born on Christmas Day 1824, in Castle Cary, Donegal, Colville arrived on these shores at age 15.  His initial occupation is said to have been working in dry goods store in New York, gradually working his way west.  Drawn to California during the Gold Fever of 1849,  he soon may have decided that rather than hacking at the earth it was easier to “mine the miners” for their gold.  According to  promotional materials the Oriental was “fitted up with the most splendid and costly manner altogether with a view to the comfort of its patrons.”  The saloon featured a cigar stand, a billiard table, four bowling alleys and, most important, a stage where entertainment was provided.

The Oriental under Colville became known for featuring women parading about in  a radically new mode of female dress that fitted just above the waist and pantaloons that hung three or four inches below the knee, as shown here.  Called “bloomers” they were controversial.   For the lonely miners of Sacramento the chance to view female legs, even if covered in cloth, must have been enticing.  Despite this unique attraction, the Oriental did not do well and was sold about a year later.  The experience left Colville an important lesson:  In stage productions “sex sells.”

The next few years found Colville moving from place to place, honing his skills as an impresario in San Francisco and then in Melbourne, Australia, before taking over the National Theater in Cincinnati, left, bringing to that city America’s most noted actors and actresses.  Recognizing that New York was the center of the nation’s theatre scene, about 1868 Colville moved to The Big Apple.  With partner George Wood they operated “Wood’s Museum” (later, Daly’s Theatre). They scored a great commercial success by featuring Lydia Thompson, shown below, and her British Blondes, an English burlesque act that had New York theatre folk abuzz.

Thompson’s show was filled with double-entendre songs and, although no bloomers were in sight, featured artfully posed beautiful women clad in gauzy material.   One critic observed that from the standpoint of talent the ladies “really had nothing to offer but their persons.”  Nonetheless the show under Coville’s sponsorship toured the U.S. for six years and took in more than $1 million at the box office—equivalent to $24 million today.  

Taking advantage of his growing wealth, Colville launched multiple theatrical companies.  His Coville’s Folly Company traveled the nation presenting early musical comedies.  The Colville Opera Company brought Americans early operettas.  He also ran the Colville Burlesque Opera Company that offered travesties of popular operettas and plays.  “Many of the productions staged for these companies were instrumental in the evolution of musical theater and provided experience and opportunity.”

The impresario was noted for introducing to the Broadway stage and on tour actresses and actors who would become celebrities of the times.  Among them was  Alice Oates, left below, an American performer in light operas and burlesques, who made her New York debut in 1870 under Colville’s auspices.  Another was British actress Julia Mathews, right, known for playing female leads in comic operas.  While on tour, she unfortunately died of malaria in St. Louis at the age of 33.

In addition to staging these productions, Colville was writing for the theatre.  Among his plays was one called “Taken from Life,” that had its debut at Wallace’s’s Theatre in New York.  Advertised widely, the cast included “Comet,” billed as “the great racehorse.”  Coville’s ads called his Burlesque Opera Company:  “The most complete organization on earth for the representation of light entertainment combining musical culture of the highest order of merit with mirth of the most hilarious character governed by refinement.”

Amid his multiple theatrical enterprises, Colville was having a personal life.  Unfortunately, despite diligent searching, I have been unable to find any photo or illustration of him.  A passport application when he was 42 provides these details:  Colville was five feet, nine and one half inches tall, had black curly hair, hazel eyes and a “short & full” face.  He apparently was married three times.   His first wife was Mary Provost with whom he had a daughter Violetta, born in 1844.  His second was Elizabeth Ure Ferguson.  That union produced a son, David.  The record appears to be silent on the fate of these women.

This brings us to Emeline Rosenquest.  Born in New York City in 1843 and married at 22 to Isaac B. Reed, Emaline, known by her stage name as “Eme Rosenau” became the star of Colville theatricals.  Although the critics were not always kind, a musical and drama critic of the St. Louis Republican named Garrett opined:  “M’lle Eme Roseau…as a singer is a genuine surprise to every audience. Nobody expects to hear such pure, artistic vocalism and refined manners in burlesque.  Roseau comes upon the scene like a new and sweet spirit from the tone world, her voice strikes a sympathetic cord at once, and her refined presence gives the key-note to the whole performance.”

An occupational association eventually bloomed into romance.  Sam and Emeline were married in July 1883 in a quiet ceremony conducted by a Presbyterian minister in Philadelphia, far away from the lights of Broadway.  Sam was 60; Emeline was 40.  Further evidence of the couples’ desire for privacy, only one of the few attendees was a show business figure.  

That same year Colville, with a partner, purchased the theater shown here. Located at 107 West 14th Street, this venue had opened in 1866 as the Theatre Francais, dedicated to staging French language dramas and operas.  By the mid-1880s, it had become simply the 14th Street Theatre.  Under Colville’s direction it became the primary site for his productions.  At his death the building passed to Emeline who with her brother turned it into a profitable motion picture house.  The building was demolished in 1938.

As he aged, Colville was troubled with heart problems.  Those worsened in early September of 1886.  For several days he had complained of feeling ill, had seen a doctor and received treatment.  His business agent dropped by the Colville home in New York as he was convalescing and the two took a carriage ride in Central Park, apparently believing the fresh air would do Sam good.  They had barely returned when the impresario slumped dead in a parlor chair.  Colville was 63 years old.

The funeral was held at Manhattan’s “Little Church Around the Corner” where the Colville had been a friend of the pastor.  The services were well attended, with many mourners from the entertainment industry.  He was buried in Brooklyn’s Cemetery of the Evergreens.  Emaline would join him there 28 years later.  Their joint headstones are shown here.

The reading of Colville’s will indicated that the immigrant Irish boy had become a wealthy man during his lifetime.  It also sprung several surprises.  In addition to the 14th Street theater property, Sam left a flat $30,000 in cash to Emeline.  The bulk of the estate, including real estate and personal property was left to David Colville, his son from Elizabeth Ferguson.  Violetta, his eldest child from Mary Provost, received no mention.  At the official reading Emeline and David both waived all rights to contest the will. 

Addendum:  In addition to Colville’s work in theatre, he is remembered in Sacramento for having published an early city directory, dated 1853-1854.  Reprinted with a facsimile of the original cover in 1997 by the California State Library Foundation, the volume contained a history of Sacramento, a map, and a

list of residents, including address, occupation, and place of origin.  Strangely, Colville’s name is not among those listed.  An ad, shown below, appears there for the Oriental Saloon under its new ownership.

Notes:  I was brought to the story of Sam Colville by a brief mention of him in a book prepared by the staff of Special Collections at the Sacramento Public Library called “Sacramento’s Gold Rush Saloons:  El Dorado in a Shot Glass,” The History Press, Charleston, 2014.  From there the Internet provided more than ample resources describing Colville’s rise from saloonkeeper to famed 19th Century American theatre mogul.