Ben Teal

Teal was born January 19, 1857, in Eugene, Oregon.{{sfn|Luce|1910|p=167}}{{efn|A childhood photograph of Teal in the Oregon Historical Society's Cartes-de-Visite collection has the inscription: "Ben Teal, son of Joseph Teal, in his boyhood. Born in Eugene, Jan. 19, 1857."{{cite web|work=Oregon Historical Society|url=https://digitalcollections.ohs.org/teal-ben|title=Teal, Ben|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200313001225/https://digitalcollections.ohs.org/teal-ben|archive-date=March 13, 2020|url-status=live}}}} He spent his early life in San Francisco, and made his first stage appearance at four or five years old.{{cite news|work=The Boston Globe|location=Boston, Massachusetts|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46594752/the-boston-globe/|title=Ben Teal, Famous Stage Manager, Dead|date=April 20, 1917|page=12|via=Newspapers.com}} As an adult, Teal began his career as a stage director in California, before relocating to New York City in the latter part of the century.

He married Mary Blackburn, a native of Sacramento, California, in New York City on June 27, 1887."[https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:243W-R6D New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1940]" (February 10, 2018). Ben Teal and Mary Blackburn, 27 Jun 1887; citing Marriage, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York City Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,571,005. {{closed access}} He later remarried to Portland, Oregon, native Elinor Toomey Gilman in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 9, 1906."[https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N486-4X6 Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915]" (May 25, 2018). Ben Teal and Elinor M Toomey Gilman, 9 Oct 1906; citing Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States, State Archives, Boston; FHL microfilm 2,315,298. {{closed access}}

Teal gained notoriety for his directing of the original Broadway production of Ben-Hur (1899–1900), in which he successfully arranged an elaborate chariot race sequence on stage.{{cite news|work=The Leavenworth Times|location=Leavenworth, Kansas|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46595343/the-leavenworth-times/|title=Death of Man Who Staged Chariot Race in "Ben-Hur"|date=April 24, 1917|page=18|via=Newspapers.com}} He staged over thirty plays on Broadway between 1897 and 1916. Teal was known for his brusque stage direction and interaction with cast members, though he was noted for being "without peer in his ability to move large numbers of extras around onstage."{{sfn|Wilmeth|Bigsby|1998|p=524}} Writer Edward Jewett Luce noted in 1910: "Ben Teal—the very mention of whose name suggest stage management with a vengeance—is known all over the world as the strictest, yet the most conscientious of stage directors."{{sfn|Luce|1910|p=166}}

Teal died in a New York City sanitarium of an unspecified disease on April 20, 1917.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46594585/the-sandusky-star-journal/|work=The Sandusky Star-Journal|location=Sandusky, Ohio|date=April 21, 1917|page=11|via=Newspapers.com|title=Broadway Mourns Dave Montgomery}} He is interred in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx."New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949" (February 10, 2018). [https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WC6-5JY Benjamin Teal, 20 Apr 1917]; citing Death, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,322,407. {{closed access}}

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{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book|last=Luce|first=Edward Jewett|year=1910|title=The Mechanics Lien Law of New Jersey|chapter=IX: In the Amusement World|pages=164–188|publisher=Soney and Sage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hd46AQAAIAAJ}}
• {{cite book|editor1-last=Wilmeth|editor1-first=Don B.|editor2-last=Bigsby|editor2-first=Christopher|year=1998|title=The Cambridge History of American Theatre|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, England|isbn= 978-0-521-65179-0}}

• {{cite book|last=Shelton|first=Lewis E.|year=2005|title=Ideas of Theatre: The Five Directorial Perspectives of the American Stage|chapter=Ben Teal and the Authoritarian Perspective of Directing|location=Bethesda, Maryland|publisher=Academica Press|isbn= 978-1-933-14604-1}}

{{Commons category|Ben Teal}}

• {{IBDB name|4469}}

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Category:1857 births

Category:1917 deaths

Category:American male child actors

Category:American male stage actors

Category:American musical theatre directors

Category:American theatre directors

Category:Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)

Category:Male actors from Eugene, Oregon

Category:Writers from Eugene, Oregon

Category:Writers from San Francisco