Los Angeles County
Biographies
HENRY CLAY WYATT
WYATT, HENRY CLAY,
(Deceased), Theatrical Manager, Los Angeles, California, was born at Richmond,
Va., June 29, 1849, the son of William A. Wyatt and Lucy
(Downey) Wyatt. He was a member of a family prominent in Virginia for many
generations, his father’s ancestors having been English while his mother was of
Irish descent. He married at Richmond, Va., about 1872. They had four children,
one son and three daughters, of whom one son and one daughter are living.
Mr. Wyatt received his education in private schools of
Virginia, but abandoned his studies when he was about fifteen years of age and
offered his services to the Confederate cause. He enlisted at Richmond in the
First Virginia Regiment, as a drummer boy and was attached to Kemper’s Brigade
in Pickett’s Division. He saw one year of active service and then was mustered
out with his regiment following Lee’s surrender.
Two years after the war’s close Mr. Wyatt, then only about
eighteen years of age, began his theatrical career, in which he was to achieve
note later, as Treasurer of the old Richmond Theater in Richmond, Va. He
continued in this capacity until 1870, when he resigned and embarked in
business for himself as the proprietor of a music house known as the Richmond
Music Emporium.
He continued his interest in theatrical affairs and in
1874, in company with Col. John McCaull, of
opera fame, and John F. Allen, opened the Mozart Hall of Richmond, he
having the management of the institution. Soon he became identified with other
theatrical enterprises and in addition to his Richmond business, managed
theaters in Petersburg, Norfolk and several smaller Virginia towns. His success
in the handling of these several houses caused Mr. Wyatt to be chosen by
John T. Ford, the famous theatrical magnate of Baltimore, in whose
Washington theater President Lincoln was shot by Booth, as Manager of the tour
of the Emma Thursby Concert Company, made up of
Miss Thursby, Will T. Carleton, baritone;
Alfred Pease, pianist; Emil Toedt, violinist, and
George W. Calby, accompanist.
Mr. Wyatt received on this tour one of the largest
salaries ever paid to a manager up to that time and upon the completion
organized the original Mendelssohn Quintette Club,
which he had on tour for about a year. He next managed the concert tour of the
great Wilhelmj and Guster Satter, a noted pianist.
Mr. Wyatt then managed Steinway Hall in New York City for
a time, and, being possessed of a rich tenor voice, organized “The California
Quartette,” which attained distinction in theatrical circles. This marked
Mr. Wyatt’s advent into California, the quartette, after four weeks with
Emerson’s San Francisco Minstrels, being re-engaged for eighty weeks.
Mr. Wyatt, singing first tenor, won a splendid reputation with these
minstrels, which were headed by the famous Billy
Emerson, and at the conclusion of the eighty weeks’ engagement, organized the
H. C. Wyatt, Courtright & Hawkins
Minstrels, playing on the Pacific Coast a year. He wound up an engagement of
eleven weeks at the Bush St. Theater, San Francisco, then
went to Los Angeles, where the company was reorganized as the Wyatt, Arlington
& Gerard Minstrels.
Determining to make his permanent home in Los Angeles,
Mr. Wyatt, in the early part of 1886, gave up playing and obtained the
management of the Grand Opera House of Los Angeles. Later he added to this the
management of the Los Angeles Theater, and then took over the management of
theaters of Riverside, Pasadena, San Bernardino, and San Diego, forming a
complete Southern California circuit. In his numerous houses he played the Klaw & Erlanger attractions, having been the
representative of that noted syndicate, in Southern California since 1882.
During the season of 1888, Mr. Wyatt managed H. C. Wyatt’s
English Opera Company over the Southern California circuit, but from that time
forward devoted himself exclusively to the management of the several theaters
in which he was interested.
Realizing the necessity for a larger and more modern
theater in Los Angeles, Mr. Wyatt, in 1903, induced John Mason, a Los
Angeles capitalist, to build the Mason Opera House, he aiding in its design and
planning. Upon the completion of the house, which was at that time the finest
theater in California, Mr. Wyatt became sole lessee and manager, occupying this
position until his death, which occurred after a brief illness, on
July 25, 1910. Since that time his theatrical interests have been
under the management of his son, W. C. Wyatt, who had been his father’s
assistant.
Mr. Wyatt, considered the dean of theatrical managers in
Southern California, was President of the Los Angeles Theatrical Managers’
Association, and for many years prior to his death represented the Actors’ Fund
of America in Los Angeles. He was a man of many talents, a composer and
musician of ability. He was a member of the United Confederate Veterans and of
the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and was one of the founders of
Lodge 99, B. P. O. Elks, of Los Angeles. He also belonged
to the Jonathan Club of Los Angeles, the Friars’ Club of New York, and the Los
Angeles Humane Society. He was a life member of the Elks.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
15 May 2011.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 663,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston,
Atlanta. 1913.
© 2011 Marie Hassard.
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