John A. Ellsler
| John A. Ellsler | |
|---|---|
Ohio, The Future Great State, 1875
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| Born |
John Adam Ellsler, Jr. September 21, 1821 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania |
| Died | August 22, 1903 (aged 81) New York City |
| Occupation | Actor, Theatre Manager and Acting Instructor |
| Children | Effie Ellsler |
John A. Ellsler (September 21, 1821 – August 22, 1903) was an American actor, theatre manager and acting instructor who helped make Cleveland, Ohio one of the more important theatre towns in post Civil War America. Ellsler was instrumental in starting the careers of several well known actors of that period including his daughter's, and had once been a friend and business partner of the assassin, John Wilkes Booth.
John Adam Ellsler, Jr. was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and later moved with his family to Baltimore, Maryland. He first became acquainted with the theatre as a delivery boy for a firm that printed theatrical programs and posters. He later returned to Philadelphia where by 1846 Ellsler was employed as assistant treasurer, property man and bit player at Peale's Museum. The next year he joined William E. Burton's company at the Arch Street Opera House, and then after three seasons moved on to New York City to play leading roles at Chatham Theatre. After an engagement at Charleston,. South Carolina, Ellsler became co- manager with Joseph Jefferson on a two-year road tour of the Southern American States. For two seasons in the early 1850s Ellsler managed the Utica Museum, Utica, New York.
Ellsler came to Cleveland in 1853 where his management saved the Cleveland Theatre (later known as the Academy of Music) from bankruptcy. In 1858 he began a two year tenure as manager of Woods's Theater, Cincinnati before returning to the Cleveland where over the following two decades he turned the Academy of Music into one of the more prestigious theatres and acting schools in America. At one time or another nearly every major actor of that period appeared at the Academy of Music, including Clara Morris, “Jimmie” Lewis, Joseph Whiting, Joseph Haworth, James O'Neill, Roland Reed and daughter Effie Ellsler, actors who had received their early training there. John Edward McCullough, Laura Don and Lawrence Barrett were relative unknowns before joining Ellsler’s company in the early 1870s.
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