[D8420H0], Letter from Harry Hill to Heber Chase Robinson, February 1884
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Title
[D8420H0], Letter from Harry Hill to Heber Chase Robinson, February 1884
Editor's Notes
Invitation to "Harry Hill's Grand Fancy Dress Ball inauguration of the Edison Electric Lights, Tuesday evening, Feb. 13. Mr Edison and friends will be present." [printed] "Mr Robinson-- As a personal friend of Mr Edison you are specially invited to be present-- H.H." pasted on a piece of paper docketed "March 6. E" date not in TAE hand, E might be; conjectured as Heber C. Robinson regarding Harry Hill: In New York City, an Englishman named Harry Hill opens a concert saloon at 25 East Houston Street. Although prizefights were illegal in New York, Harry Hill’s nightly shows included boxing and wrestling acts. Most pugilists were male -- both William Muldoon and John L. Sullivan started at Harry Hill’s – but could be female. In 1876, for instance, Nell Saunders boxed (and beat) Rose Harland for the prize of a silver butter dish. A drawing published in the National Police Gazette on November 22, 1879, shows Harry Hill’s female boxers wearing T-shirts, knickers, and buttoned shoes, and showing a scandalous amount of arm and thigh. Harry Hill’s had two entrances. The main entrance was for men, who paid 25¢ admission. The side door was for women, who paid nothing. Hill’s drinks were over-priced and the air was a cloud of tobacco smoke. Other than that, Hill ran a respectable house, and his boxers circulated among the crowd to keep it that way. Reform politicians finally caused Harry Hill’s to close in 1886. From http://www.collectionscanada.ca/eppp-archive/100/201/300/ejmas/kronos/2001/03-01/NewHist1700-1859.htm (Kronos: A Chronological History of the Martial Arts and Combative Sports 1700-1859 (rev 01/01) Copyright © 2000-2001 Joseph R. Svinth All rights reserved) also see index entries for Hill, Harry in Encyclopedia of NY; http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Police/Sins/UpHill.html (excerpt from Sins of New York based on Police Gazette; The New York Concert Saloon: The Devil's Own Nights. By Brooks McNamara, from review in Theatre Journal "The sixth chapter considers the related forms of beer gardens and dance halls, with an extended section on Harry Hill's, a dance hall of lasting infamy." An account from a history of NYC with images: http://www.ashlandelks.org/history/corks/environs/harry_hills.html also discussed in The Cradle of Variety: The Concert Saloon by Parker R. Zellers in Educational Theatre Journal, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Dec., 1968), pp. 578-585
Supplied month
Author
Recipient
Date
1884-02-00
Type
Subject
Folder/Volume ID
D8420-F
Microfilm ID
72:880
Document ID
D8420H0
Publisher
Thomas A. Edison Papers, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University