RICHARD M. HOOLEY
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New York Times Obituary of Sept. 9, 1893, page 4, column 6.
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RICHARD M. HOOLEY DEAD
The Veteran Theatrical Manager Ends His Career in Chicago.
Chicago, Sept. 8.
Richard M. Hooley, the veteran theatrical manager, died here today. He was
one of Chicago's earliest theatrical managers and his career threads the history of local
management. His birthplace was Ballina, in County Mayo, Ireland, where he was born
April 13, 1822. He was carefully educated in the schools of Manchester England, his
father being a prosperous merchant.
Mr Hooley came to this country in 1844 on a pleasure trip and he liked NYC so well
that he signed a contract to assume the nominal leadership of a minstrel organization with
the famous E. P. Christy, who had heard of his talents as a violinist.
Two years of this life gave Mr. Hooley managerial aspirations of his own, and he
organized a minstrel company in 1848 and took it to England, opening in Her Majesty's
Concert Rooms in Hanover Square, London.
Mr. Hooley returned to America in 1853. In 1855 [shortly after the San
Francisco Gold Rush] he made the overland trip to California where he took the management
of "Tom" Maguire's Opera House in San Francisco. In 1858 he returned to
the East permanently and in 1859 he opened [in] Niblo's Garden, New York City, with his
first manager, E. P. Christy, the combination being known as Hooley & Campbell's
Minstrels. Campbell [T. B. Prendergast] was a beautiful singer and when he died,
Manager Hooley took his little son and reared him as Thomas P. [Prendergast] Hooley, who
worked in the box office of the Chicago house for years and who died here a few years ago.
Brooklyn was the scene of his next managerial venture and with Hooley's Minstrels
he opened there in the Fall of 1862. Manager Hooley came to Chicago in 1867 and
built Hooley's Opera House, where the Grand Opera House now stands, off Clark St..
This was successful until it was destroyed by the great fire of 1871. Mr. Hooley had
retired on a good income two years before the fire. His loss of $180,000 by the fire
compelled him to re-enter active business again and he traded his Clark St. site for the
site of the present [149] Randolph St. house, building Hooley's Theatre and opening in
1872 with the (KIRAIFY BIAUK CROOK?).
He organized Hooley's Stock Co. which included William H. Crane, Nabu [Nate
(Nathan)?] Salesbury, Nelie McIleury, James O' Neill [the father of playwright
Eugene O'Neill], Hovley Hawthorne, Frederick Bock, George Giddens, Neivil Ryan, Sidney
[Sydney] Cowell, and other popular players, produced Man of Bartley Campbell a play in
fine style and met with much success. He maintained his stock co. until the growth
of the combination system made its continuance impossible. In late years Hooley's
has been a "combination" house, but one of the best of its kind. He gave
up his B'klyn Theatre in 1878 to devote his entire time to his Chicago house, which has
just entered upon its twenty fourth season.
Mr Hooley, in 1858 married Miss Rosina Cramer in NYC and their home for many years
was at 17 Delaware Place [Chicago].
His surviving children are Grace and Mary, the latter a widow. Rosina and
Richard died.
-Submitted by Ken Gruschow