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Scarce 1880s cabinet card photo of of J. (James) W. Collier who was the manager of the Union Square Theatre in New York City. He has signed the back of the photo, "Geo Willard - My tried and proven friend I am Ever Yours J. W. Collier." Photographer is McMichael out of Buffalo, New York. I acquired this photo with a grouping of other theatrical cabinet cards. I've attached an article from the May 16, 1898 Philadelphia Times that describes his life after he passed (for reference only). Another obit bio from the May 21, 1898 New York Dramatic Mirror can be found at his findagrave.com page under "James Walter Collier 1838 - 1898." James W. Collier (1838-1898) was a late-19th-century American theatrical manager and producer best known as the partner of theater owner and entrepreneur Sheridan Shook. Together, the firm Shook & Collier managed New York City's historic Union Square Theatre during the 1880s. Collier emerged as a prominent figure in New York's theatrical world in the early 1880s. After the celebrated manager A. M. Palmer left the Union Square Theatre in 1883, management passed to Sheridan Shook and James W. Collier. Under their direction, the theater continued to stage major dramatic productions, although New York's theatrical center was gradually moving northward. Contemporary newspaper accounts referred to the management team as "Messrs. Shook and Collier." In 1884 they commissioned playwright Robert Buchanan to write an American society drama for the Union Square Theatre, illustrating their active role in theatrical production and play development. Collier was sufficiently well known in the theatrical profession that later accounts referred to him as a member of a notable stage family. A 1910 newspaper article identified him as the uncle of actor-playwright William Collier Sr. and noted that he had been associated with the Union Square Theatre through the firm Shook & Collier. Although not as famous today as Palmer or some of the actors who appeared there, James W. Collier was part of the management team that oversaw one of America's most influential theaters during a transitional period in New York theatrical history. The Union Square Theatre had been one of the nation's leading dramatic houses in the 1870s and early 1880s, helping establish New York as the center of American professional theater.
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