Touring Patterns on California's Theatrical Frontier, 1849–1859

Abstract

From its beginning, America was a frontier. Initially, the Eastern Seaboard was a frontier for Europe, and this was still true in 1750 when professional theatre began to be a regular feature of American life. Within a century the variables changed, but were still bound together in the frontier equation. By 1850 the trans-Mississippi West had become a frontier for urban centers in the East. In particular, the North-Central region of California sprang into popular consciousness: here was the ultimate undeveloped area to which one could migrate in the search for economic competence. As America's first major mining frontier it offered a prospect of sudden wealth which was far more appealing than the slow seasonal accumulation of agriculture, and which did not require the large initial investment of industry.