If you were an actor in the 1860s to 1880s, you spent a lot of time in Union Square.
This was the city’s theater district. The Union Square Theatre, Academy of Music (below right), and other spaces attracted big evening crowds.
Photo studios, play publishers, costume shops, and other theater-focused businesses thrived during the day.
Desperate, out-of-work actors congregated here too, in a section of 14th Street deemed the “slave market,” where managers and theater agents went to fill their casts for an upcoming show.
“Until the 1880s, the south side of Union Square on 14th Street was called the Rialto, after the name of the busy commercial district in Venice,” writes Irving Lewis Allen in City in Slang.
“In the 1860s, actors lounged around the base of the great equestrian statue of George Washington, and there they had what they and passersby called the slave market for those seeking employment through the casting offices in the area.”
A New York Times article from 1921 also explains that the south and east sides of Union Square came to be known as “The Slave Mart”:
“An actor out of engagement would stand around waiting, as the saying was, to ‘sign up’ for the next season. As soon as he had ‘signed up’ he would convey the tidings to his associates and then would be seen no more—until the next season.”
The slave market disappeared when the theater district moved uptown . . . and booking agencies took over the task of filling casts. Out-of-work actors, however, are still plentiful in New York City.
Tags: 14th Street Union Square, Academy of Music 14th Street, Actors Slave Market, Old New York Theater, slave market New York City, Slave Market Union Square, Union Square history, Union Square NYC, Union Square Theater
Ephemeral New York 
October 25, 2012 at 1:13 pm |
[…] Ephemeral New York recalls “a section of 14th Street deemed the ‘slave market,’ where managers and theater agents went to fill their casts for an upcoming show.” […]
October 25, 2012 at 5:34 pm |
This is so interesting. Now instead of a “slave market” we have “cattle calls!”
October 26, 2012 at 12:24 am |
[…] Late 19th-century life of actors at Union Square (Ephemeral New York) […]
November 11, 2012 at 10:38 pm |
Interesting that on 14th Street, a block and a half west of Union Square, above where the the Guitar Center is now, was a group of really grungy employment agencies that were called the “slave market.” They existed, I think, into the 90s.
October 20, 2013 at 3:57 pm |
[…] Late 19th-century life of actors at Union Square (Ephemeral New York) […]
February 2, 2015 at 6:13 am |
[…] statue has yet to arrive in at the southeast corner of Union Square (that comes in 1856), and the theaters and music halls that made 14th Street the city’s entertainment district are a decade or so […]
June 25, 2015 at 2:54 am |
[…] The 19th century “slave market” at Union Square In “Music, art, theater” […]