Tony Pastor saw his opportunity. On July 31, 1865, he opened "Tony
Pastor's Opera House" at 199-201 Bowery, New York. He had a theory
that a vaudeville entertainment from which every objectionable
word and action were taken away, and from which the drinking bar
was excluded, would appeal to women and children as well as men.
He knew that no entertainment that excluded women could long hold
a profitable place in a man's affections. So to draw the whole
family to his new Opera House, Tony Pastor inaugurated clean
vaudeville [1]. Pastor's success was almost instantaneous. It
became the fashion to go to Pastor's Opera House and later when
he moved to Broadway, and then up to Fourteenth Street, next to
Tammany Hall, he carried his clientele with him. And vaudeville,
as a form of entertainment that appealed to every member of the
home circle, was firmly established--for a while.

[1] In the New York Clipper for December 19, 1914, there is an
interesting article: "The Days of Tony Pastor," by Al. Fostelle,
an old-time vaudeville performer, recounting the names of the
famous performers who played for Tony Pastor in the early days.
It reads like a "who's who" of vaudeville history. Mr. Fostelle,
has in his collection a bill of an entertainment given in England
in 1723, consisting of singing, dancing, character impersonations,
with musical accompaniment, tight-rope walking, acrobatic feats,
etc.

For Pastor's success in New York did not at first seem to the
average vaudeville manager something that could be duplicated
everywhere. A large part of the profits of the usual place came
from the sale of drinks and to forego this source of revenue seemed
suicidal. Therefore, vaudeville as a whole continued for years