Lawrence Patrick Barrett was an American stage actor.
Charlotte Mignon "Lotta" Crabtree, also known mononymously as Lotta, was an American actress, entertainer, comedian, and philanthropist.
Helena Modrzejewska, known professionally as Helena Modjeska, was a Polish actress who specialized in Shakespearean and tragic roles.
John Edward McCullough was an Irish-born American actor.
David Belasco was an American theatrical producer, impresario, director, and playwright. He was the first writer to adapt the short story Madame Butterfly for the stage. He launched the theatrical career of many actors, including James O'Neill, Mary Pickford, Lenore Ulric, and Barbara Stanwyck. Belasco pioneered many innovative new forms of stage lighting and special effects in order to create realism and naturalism.
William Chapman Ralston was a San Francisco businessman and financier, and the founder of the Bank of California.
The Bank of California was opened in San Francisco, California, on July 4, 1864, by William Chapman Ralston and Darius Ogden Mills. It was the first commercial bank in the Western United States, and considered instrumental in developing the American Old West.
Adah Isaacs Menken was an American actress, painter and poet, and was the highest earning actress of her time. She was best known for her performance in the hippodrama Mazeppa, with a climax that featured her apparently nude and riding a horse on stage. After great success for a few years with the play in New York and San Francisco, she appeared in a production in London and Paris, from 1864 to 1866. After a brief trip back to the United States, she returned to Europe. She became ill within two years and died in Paris at the age of 33.
Agnes Booth, born Marian Agnes Land Rookes, was an Australian-born American actress and in-law of Junius Brutus Booth, Edwin Booth, and – arguably the most notable – John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln.
Frank Maguire Mayo was an American actor and comedian, born in Boston, Massachusetts.
Gold Hill is an unincorporated community in Storey County, Nevada, located just south and downhill of Virginia City.
Elizabeth Crocker Bowers was an American stage actress and theatrical manager. She was also known professionally as Mrs. D. P. Bowers.
John Edward Owens was an English-American comedian, born in the Aigburth district of Liverpool, England but taken to the United States when three years old. He began his stage career in 1841 in Philadelphia. In 1844 he was engaged at the Baltimore Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts (BMGFA), and after a three year absence returned to that theatre where he was a frequent performer in the late 1840s. He purchased the BMGFA from P.T. Barnum in 1850, only to sell it a year later to Henry C. Jarrett.
James Clair Flood was an American businessman who made a fortune thanks to the Comstock Lode in Nevada. His mining operations are recounted to this day as an outstanding example of what may be done with a rich ore body and a genius for stock manipulation. Flood piled up millions as one of the famed "Bonanza Kings" and is considered to have been one of the 100 wealthiest Americans, leaving an enormous fortune. He is famous for two mansions, the James C. Flood Mansion at 1000 California St. in San Francisco, and Linden Towers located in Menlo Park, torn down in 1936.
William Shoney O'Brien was an Irish-born American businessman. He formed a business partnership with fellow Irishmen James Graham Fair, James C. Flood, and John William Mackay, the Consolidated Virginia Mining Company. The four dealt in mining stocks and operated silver mines on the Comstock Lode, and in 1873 discovered the great orebody known as the "Big Bonanza" in the Consolidated Virginia and California Mine, an orebody more than 1,200 feet deep, which yielded in March of that year as much as $632 per ton, and in 1877 nearly $190,000,000 altogether. The four-way partnership, although formally called "Flood and O'Brien," was more commonly known as the Bonanza firm.
Joseph Thompson Goodman was an American journalist, writer, and epigrapher. During the Comstock silver boom in Virginia City, Nevada, he was owner and editor of the Territorial Enterprise, one of the largest and most influential newspapers on the West Coast. He hired Samuel Clemens as a reporter for the paper, giving Clemens his "start" as a professional writer. He later became interested in deciphering Maya inscriptions and made significant contributions in the field.
Piper's Opera House is an historic performing arts venue in Virginia City, Storey County, Nevada in the United States. Piper's served as a training facility in 1897 for heavyweight boxing champion Gentleman Jim Corbett, in preparation for his title bout with Bob Fitzsimmons. The current structure was built by entrepreneur John Piper in 1885 to replace his 1878 opera house that had burned down. The 1878 venue, in turn, had been to replace Piper's 1863 venue which was destroyed by the 1875 Great Fire in Virginia City. Mark Twain spoke from the original Piper's stage in 1866, and again a century later in the third venue, as portrayed by Hal Holbrook in his one-man play Mark Twain Tonight! A lynch mob hung a victim from the first venue's rafters in 1871. American theatrical producer David Belasco was stage manager at the second opera house before moving to New York City. Piper's opera houses played host to Shakespearean thespians such as Edwin Booth. Musical performers Lilly Langtry, Al Jolson and John Philip Sousa once performed here. In 1940, Errol Flynn auctioned off historic Piper memorabilia from the opera house stage, during a live NBC broadcast that coincided with the premiere of Flynn's new movie Virginia City.
The Henry Piper House, in Virginia City, Nevada, United States, is a historic house that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). It is operated as a bed and breakfast, the B Street House Bed and Breakfast, and is the only bed and breakfast in an individually-NRHP-listed house in Virginia City. The house was built after the Great Fire of 1875, which destroyed much of Virginia City, and was completed by December. The house was renovated into a bed and breakfast during 2004–2007, and it received a Nevada state historic preservation award for its renovation in 2008. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
James Stark was a British North America-born American actor best known for appearances in tragedy.
Starring Madame Modjeska: On Tour in Poland and America is a 2011 biography by Beth Holmgren about the Polish actress Helena Modjeska. From a young age, Modjeska's interest in performing was shaped by her brothers and by a tutor who introduced the family to the works of great writers. Eventually, Modjeska would be acknowledged as a reigning star in Poland, and be equally celebrated when she toured America. Holmgren is Professor and Chair of the Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies, Duke University. She is also on the faculty of the university's Gender/Sexuality/Feminist Studies, Jewish Studies, and Theater Studies. Prior to the publication of this book, she had written articles on Modjeska for The Polish Review, Indiana Slavic Studies and Theatre Journal.
