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Kirke La Shelle

Kirke La Shelle
Kirke La Shelle 1.JPG
Kirke La Shelle c. 1904
Born Martin Kirk LaShells
(1862-09-23)September 23, 1862
Wyoming, Illinois
Died May 16, 1905(1905-05-16) (aged 42)
Bellport, New York
Occupation Journalist, Playwright and Theatrical Producer
Spouse(s) Mazie Elizabeth Nodine (1893-1905)
Children Mazie Marie c. 1898
Kirke c. 1901

Kirke La Shelle (September 23, 1862 – May 16, 1905) was an American journalist, playwright and theatrical producer. He was known for his association with such successful productions as The Wizard of the Nile, The Princess Chic, The Bonnie Brier Bush, Arizona, The Earl of Pawtucket, The Virginian, The Education of Mr. Pipp and The Heir to the Hoorah. La Shelle’s career as a playwright and producer was relatively brief due to an illness that led to his demise at the age of forty-two.

Milton Kirk LaShells was born at Wyoming, Illinois the son of Sarah Williams and James Ralph LaShells. His father, the son of a prominent Philadelphia lawyer, settled in Stark County around 1844 where he farmed and later worked as a tradesman. La Shelle’s mother was a native of Vermont. His father lost his first wife, Harriet, in May 1850 to tuberculosis. The same fate befell La Shelle's mother when he was just seven years old. James LaShells later relocated to Biggs, California where he died in 1888 at the age of 80.

In his early teens La Shelle began his newspaper career as a printer's apprentice with the Wyoming Post Herald.

While still in his teens La Shelle joined the printing department of the Chicago Telegraph and eventually rose to be a foreman with the same division at the Chicago Morning News. La Shelle later became a newspaper reporter, drama critic and would, during the 1880s, go on to hold a number of reporting and editorial positions with several Chicago area newspapers. In the early 1880s La Shelle spent a year or two in Bismarck, Dakota Territory as editor of the Bismarck Tribune and later founding editor of an evening paper called the Daily Advertiser. By 1884 La Shelle returned to Chicago, where he continued working on Chicago papers and at some point composed poetry that appeared in The Ladies Home Journal. In 1891 La Shelle left the dramatic desk of The Chicago Mail to join the English actor E. S. Willard as his business manager and advance man for an upcoming American tour.

From 1892 to 1895 La Shelle served as general manager and director of the Bostonians, a theatrical troupe previously known as the Boston Ideal Opera Company. It was during this period that La Shelle first met with success as a producer when the Bostonians presented the comic opera Robin Hood.


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