As the famous English actor William Macready was preparing to go on stage in New York, over 300 police officers were placed in and around the theater. “But the head of the police said, ‘I don’t know that that’s going to be enough people.’”
Karl Kippola’s book is called Acts of Manhood: The Performance of Masculinity on the American Stage, 1828–1865.
Episode transcript will be posted here as soon as it is available.