Christopher Haverly

Background

Christopher Haverly was born on June 30, 1837, at Boiling Springs (now Axemann) near Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, the son of Christopher and Eliza (Steel) Haverly.

Career

Christopher Haverly began his career in 1864 by the purchase of a variety theatre in Toledo, Ohio, where he remained for two years. His first minstrel show opened at Adrian, Michigan, on August 1, 1864, and played about four weeks. Burgess and Haverly's Minstrels were inaugurated on October 8, 1864, at Toronto, Canada, but by the end of the month Burgess had withdrawn and the troupe was again Haverly’s Minstrels. In 1866 his troupe toured with that of Dick Sands; the following years he took over the management of Billy Arlington’s Minstrels. He became manager of Cal Wagner’s Minstrels in 1870.

During the next several years Haverly purchased interests in other minstrel troupes and acquired theatres. He secured from Tom Maguire an interest in Emerson’s Minstrels in 1875 and became part owner of the New Orleans Minstrels in 1876 and of Callender’s Colored Minstrels two years later. He bought the old Adelphi Theatre in Chicago in 1876 and quickly came to own or control more than a dozen theatres in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.

From 1878 to 1884 Haverly toured with Mastodon Minstrels in England and Germany, where for a time he was in danger of arrest for fraud, because he presented his company of white entertainers as a troupe of negro minstrels. In May 1884 Haverly opened in London at the Drury Lane Theatre with his Mastodon Minstrels, the most brilliant company he had ever assembled, but a prolonged heat wave and the competition of Callender’s All-Colored Minstrels made this venture a financial failure. When he returned to New York in August, his fortune was Sone, for during his absence abroad his affairs had become involved. Haverly, whose income had once been between ten and twenty thousand dollars a day, was reduced to running a small and unsuccessful museum in Brooklyn.

During his career Haverly is said to have won and lost five fortunes. Under the guidance of John Cudahy he speculated in pork and in an attempt to gain control of the New York stock exchange one of his fortunes crashed. During the last three years of his life he was engaged in mining in the West. Although he is considered to have been the greatest minstrel manager in America his name was unknown when he died of typhoid fever in Salt Lake City in 1901. He published in 1879 Haverly’s Genuine Georgia Colored Minstrels’ Songster, a collection of jubilee and camp-meeting songs and hymns. Negro Minstrels (1902), a collection of recitations and stories attributed to him, was chiefly the work of an enterprising publisher.

Achievements

• Christopher Haverly managed to create an entertainment empire centered on his minstrel troupes, particularly Haverly's United Mastodon Minstrels and Haverly's Colored Minstrels. Under his guidance, these troupes grew to impressive sizes and featured elaborate sets and costumes. They toured widely, enlarging minstrelsy's audience to encompass the entire United States as well as England. Haverly's methods sparked a revolution in minstrelsy as other troupes scrambled to compete. As the costs of minstrelsy increased, many troupes went out of business.

Interests

• Haverly was a constant poker player and a daring speculator in mining stocks.

Connections

Haverly was twice married - to the Duval (Hechinger) Sisters, vocalists. Sara, whom he married first, died at Toledo, Ohio, in March 1867, but Eliza, his second wife, survived him.

Spouse:

Eliza Duval (Hechinger) Haverly

Spouse:

Sarah Duval (Hechinger) Haverly