Background
William M. Fleming was born on September 29, 1817, at Danbury, Connecticut.
(In undertaking and performing the work of writing this bo...)
In undertaking and performing the work of writing this book, I have been urged by three leading motives, which will, I think, excuse me in the minds of my readers for obtruding myself upon their notice. First: The early history of so important a portion of the literature of our country as the Drama should not be lost in the obscurity of by-gone years, especially that portion of it which has made such unprecedented advancement toward perfection as may be found at the present day in the great Valley of the Mississippi, As this history should be written, and no one has hitherto published such a record, the writer of these lines has undertaken the task, and will leave behind him a true account of the early Drama of the West and South. This history, founded on a personal knowledge of, and intimate connection with, the subject-matter for sixty-five years, the writer hopes some reliable author may take up and carry forward to a successor ;and that in this way, in the course of time, there may be obtained an entire and complete history of the Drama of the United States of North A merica. A second reason, and one prompting the writer to the work, was the desire to fulfil a promise made, through a mutual friend, to William Dunlap, Esq., author of the History of the American Theatre, published in 1832, that should he continue any considerable length of time among the theatres of the West and South, he would leave behind him some account of them. Third: This book has been written that I may make a statement of facts in a representation made of me by my partner of eighteen years, a short time previous to his death, in a book published by him, wherein he charges me with duplicity in a transaction that took place a year before he and I became partners in theatrical management. (Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.) About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of hist
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William M. Fleming was born on September 29, 1817, at Danbury, Connecticut.
As a young lad, Fleming came to New York City and was engaged in the counting-room of the Commercial Advertiser. After some little experience as an amateur actor he made his first professional appearance on the stage, January 7, 1839, playing Shylock to the Portia of Charlotte Cushman, who at that period was struggling for recognition, and for whom the occasion was a benefit performance. Fleming was billed as "a young gentleman, his first appearance. "
After appearing in the same character in Philadelphia on March 31, 1840, at the Walnut Street Theatre, he joined a troupe of players managed by John Oxley and went to Kingston, Jamaica, but the climate did not agree with him and in six months’ time he returned to the United States.
Fleming was next seen at the Bowery Theatre in 1843, playing the Cloud King in the romantic drama The Bronze Horse. Later he appeared at the same house as Lord Cornwallis in a historical play entitled Putnam, or the Iron Son of ‘76.
During the season of 1845 - 1846, Fleming acted with the companies managed by Ludlow and Smith, at their New Orleans and Mobile theatres. On June 7, 1847, he assumed the management of the Odeon Theatre, Albany, New York, but soon relinquished it.
In December of the next year, he was at the St. Charles Theatre, New Orleans, and here he played Hamlet, Othello, Romeo, and Richelieu, as well as Sergeant Austerlitz in The Maid of Croissey.
In 1853 Fleming became the manager of the National Theatre in Boston. In this position, he persistently denounced the law then existing throughout Massachusetts prohibiting performances on Saturday nights, and took every possible occasion to speak of it as illiberal and a source of vice and disturbance.
On June 30, 1856, Fleming leased for the summer Burton’s Chambers Street Theatre, in New York, for the purpose of presenting his wife to the New York public. He then returned to the National in Boston, where he was seen as Richelieu, but he met with little success.
On February 5 of this year, he produced a new play entitled Palomba of the Carbonari, written for him by Colonel Spencer Wallace Cone of New York, the father of Kate Claxton. Though it was well received, and Fleming in impersonating the leading character was much commended, the play failed to attract much attention.
At the beginning of the Civil War Fleming relinquished his business interests at great financial loss, and entered the army as paymaster on the staff of General William T. Sherman. He was one of those who participated in the famous march to the sea.
William M. Fleming was mustered out of service in March 1866, and died on May 7, 1866, in New York City, New York. He was buried at Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn.
(In undertaking and performing the work of writing this bo...)
In 1852, William M. Fleming married Emily Sophia Chippendale, an actress of the famous English theatrical family of that name.