William Mitchell

Background

William Mitchell was born at Billquay in the County of Durham, England.

Career

After fifteen years as actor and stage manager in the provincial and in London theatres, Mitchell came to America with his family in 1836, making his American début at the National Theatre, New York, on August 29, as Grimes in The Man with the Carpet Bag and as Jem Baggs in The Wandering Minstrel, the latter a play in which he had been received with great favor in London. Both of these plays were given as afterpieces to a performance of The Merchant of Venice, with Junius Brutus Booth as Shylock. He continued to act in New York with varying degrees of popularity until on December 9, 1839, he took over the management of the hitherto unlucky Olympic Theatre on Broadway between Howard and Grand Streets, and then began what was to prove one of the most amazing series of seasons of managerial triumphs in the history of the New York, and indeed of the American, stage. His opening pieces were His First Champagne, No! and High Life Below Stairs, and thenceforth for almost ten years the words Mitchell's Olympic represented a diversified form of theatrical entertainment that has never been duplicated. His preliminary announcement read that his purpose was the production of "vaudevilles, burlettas, extravaganzas, farces, etc. , the evening performances beginning at seven o'clock, and the prices being extremely low, 50 cents for the boxes, and 25 cents for pit seats. "

Mitchell's Olympic was a fashionable resort as well as a place of popular entertainment, but as inevitably happens its patronage eventually decreased, and its eleventh and last season came to a sudden close on March 9, 1850, when Mitchell retired permanently from its management and from public life. He left a gap in the New York theatre, for the position and reputation of Mitchell's Olympic rightly deserved to be described as unique. Little is remembered, however, of Mitchell as an actor, so completely is his fame eclipsed by his theatre and his part in its direction. It was not simply the Olympic Theatre, it was Mitchell's Olympic. Since his object was the laughter of the moment, and since he invariably portrayed grotesque characters, there was doubtless more rough comedy than artistic finesse in his impersonations. A long period of ill health intervened between his retirement from management and his death six years afterward.

Achievements

• As manager and actor, Mitchell seemed to know exactly what the public of his day liked. Contemporary records testify to his great popularity, and permanent chronicles of the theatre emphasize and record it in phrases that would seem to be exaggerative were they not unanimous. Among the most sensational of his productions was a burlesque of Hamlet, with Mitchell himself singing comic songs in the title character; and a burlesque of Fanny Elssler, who was then all the rage, was extremely popular.

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• Odell records the fact that "Mitchell is one of the most interesting figures in our stage history; the world today laughs at his antics, in sheer envy of those who were fortunate enough to have laughed with him. "
  
  Ireland says that "Mitchell's various amusing burlesques and travesties, and his inimitable personation of Dickens's Manager Crummles raised him to the very summit of popular favor and insured for him an extraordinary patronage for several years".
  
  Joseph Jefferson describes him as "a manager of rare ability, " but says nothing of his acting.

References

• The Autobiography of Joseph Jefferson
• A History of the Theatre in America From its Beginnings to the Present Time: V.2
• A History of the New York Stage, Vol. 1 of 3: From the First Performance in 1732 to 1901 (Classic Reprint)