Burnside, R. H., 1870-1952

Robert H. Burnside (1870-1952) was an American actor, director, producer, composer, and playwright.

He was stage director of the New York Hippodrome from 1908 to 1923. He wrote and staged hundreds of dramas, musicals and theatrical spectacles.

From the description of R.H. Burnside papers, ca. 1890-1950. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122485338

R.H. Burnside, 1870-1952, actor, director, producer, librettist, and lyricist, is remembered chiefly as the stage director of the New York Hippodrome from approximately 1908-1923. He was born in Scotland to a theatrical family - his mother was the English actress Margaret Thorne, and his father managed Glasgow's Gaiety Theatre. Burnside began his career as a child actor. As a young man he worked as an actor and stage manager in London. In 1894 Burnside came to the United States as a stage manager for Lillian Russell, settling here permanently.

During his early years in the United States, Burnside worked as a stage manager for the Jefferson De Angelis Opera Company, for various Shubert productions in New York and on tour, and for other groups. Around 1908 Burnside began as stage director of the Hippodrome, first under the management of Lee and J.J. Shubert, and after 1914, under Charles B. Dillingham. The Hippodrome, which opened in 1905, was located on Sixth Avenue, covering the entire block between 43d and 44th Streets on the eastern edge of New York's theater district. Advertising itself as the “largest playhouse in the world,” it seated 5,200 at each of its two daily performances, employed approximately 400 stagehands, fit casts of up to 400 on its enormous stage, and housed forty horses and four elephants in its stables. The theatrical extravaganzas Burnside staged, and often wrote, for the Hippodrome featured ballets, circus acts, dramas, and musical comedies, all of which provided only “clean enjoyment” for their crowds of spectators. The Hippodrome was famous for the deep water tank under the apron of its stage used for a trick in which forty to sixty chorus girls stepped into the tank and did not reappear. Michel Fokine, Harry Houdini, Anna Pavlova, and John Philip Sousa were among those who contributed to the Hippodrome's productions.

Burnside left the Hippodrome when it was taken over by the B.F. Keith vaudeville chain in 1923 (The building was torn down in 1939, and the office building now standing on the site is called “The Hippodrome.”)

He then went into business as R.H. Burnside Studios, supplying professional advice, and costumes, properties, and whole productions which he had bought from the Hippodrome to amateur groups interested in putting on shows.

Before, during, and after his Hippodrome career, Burnside wrote and/or staged hundreds of dramas, musicals, and theatrical spectacles. He also wrote songs. His collaborators included: Anne Caldwell, John Golden, Raymond Hubbell, Gustave Kerker, Jerome Kern, Manuel Klein, and Austin Strong. Performers and designers he worked with included: Maude Adams, Leon Bakst, Walter Catlett, Gaby Deslys, Della Fox, Eddie Foy, Loie Fuller, De Wolf Hopper, Elsie Janis, Al Jolson, Ann Murdoch, Willy Pogany, and Fred A. Stone. He also staged productions for the Philadelphia Sesquicentennial in 1926; the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair; the Hermits Club, Cleveland; the Pittsburgh Athletic Association; the Rotary Club; and other non-theatrical organizations.

Burnside also worked in the film industry. In 1924 he directed the film Manhattan for Famous Players-Lasky Corporation in its Long Island City, N.Y. studios. (This corporation appears to have been affiliated with Paramount. In 1927 its name was changed to Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation.)

He was less successful in Hollywood, serving, from 1935-1938, as writer and technical advisor for a Universal Studios film Hippodrome which was apparently never produced.

During the late 1930s and 1940s, toward the end of his professional life, Burnside produced Gilbert and Sullivan operettas that toured the United States.

Burnside lived in Ridgewood, New Jersey for many years with his wife Kathryne (Kittie) Hyland Burnside, and daughters Kathryne (1906-1928), Helen (Snookie), and Beatrice (Betty). He was an active member of many theatrical clubs and organizations, including the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), of which he was a charter member, and The Lambs, which he joined in the 1890s. After Kittie's death in 1940, Burnside left the house in Ridgewood to live at The Lambs, remaining there until his death.

From the guide to the R.H. Burnside Papers, 1893-1949, (The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.)