Boston

Massachusetts


Music Hall

Tuesday, January 31, 1882


The English Renaissance

Verification


Newspaper report

The Paterson Weekly Press, Feb 2, 1882, 2


This was the lecture when about 60 Harvard freshmen occupied the front rows dressed to imitate their aesthetic lecturer. Wilde, having changed his  costume before coming on stage, looked around the hall and said: "Save me from my disciples!" (Harvard Crimson, Feb 1, 1882).


Michèle Mendelssohn posits that Wilde and his management had orchestrated this stunt by the students to redress the damage to Wilde reputation being perpetrated by those with a vested interest in his being used as a figure of ridicule.

Making Oscar Wilde, OUP Oxford (2018) p. 112.

Venue


Music Hall

Music Hall Place, off Winter Street, Boston, MA (now 1 Hamilton Place off Tremont Street)


Built: 1852

Closed: 1900, converted for vaudeville use as the Orpheum Theatre

Substantially rebuilt: 1915 as a movie theater (The Orpheum), Thomas W. Lamb, architect

Building extant

Accommodation


Vendome Hotel

SW corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Dartmouth Street, Boston, MA


Built: 1871 (William G. Preston, architect)

Sold: 1879

Expanded: 1881-82 (J.F. Ober, architect)

Sold: 1971, renovated

Partially destroyed (fire): June 17, 1972*. Subsequently rebuilt

Extant as an office and condominium complex


* In terms of loss of life, the Vendome fire is the worst fire-fighting disaster in Boston history. Nine fire-fighters died when a 40-by-45 foot section of wall collapsed burying a ladder truck (Ladder 15) and seventeen firefighters beneath a two-story pile of debris.

Related:

Short video of historical photographs (YouTube)

Back Bay Houses

Recommended reading:

Ebook cover Oscar Wilde On Dress  by John Cooper
Oscar Wilde On Dress hardback cover by John Cooper
Ebook cover Oscar Wilde On Dress  by John Cooper
Ebook cover Oscar Wilde On Dress  by John Cooper
Ebook cover Oscar Wilde On Dress  by John Cooper

Author | Interview | Sources | Blog | Walking Tour NYC

Oscar Wilde In America | © John Cooper, 2023