Frederick Waldmann was a saloon-keeper turned theater owner and manager, the business for which he is best known. Waldmann was born in Germany in 1832 and came to the U.S. at age 20 with $35 in his pocket. He knocked around the country a bit before settling in Newark after he was wounded in the Civil War. He both ran and owned several Market Street saloons and theaters before opening Waldmann’s Opera House at the corner of Market and Halsey streets in 1880. The theater primarily featured variety shows-some of them productions with dozens of acts-and Waldmann was known to screen all of the in advance and remove anything in them he found objectionable. He died in 1888, leaving the theater’s operation to one of his sons. Research by Guy Sterling.
Woodland 