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Harry Joseph Powers (1859-1941)
was co-manager with Will J. Davis of the Iroquois
Theatre in Chicago, as well as owning a portion of
the Iroquois with the theater syndicate. Born
in Ireland, Harry had come to Chicago with his
parents as a young child.
In 1885 he married Mary Frances Deegan (1862 - 1939)
from Nova Scotia, and they had three children.
(Mary's parents were Patrick Deegan and Mary
Elizabeth B. O'Rourke, both from Ireland.) Mary is
buried in the Calvary Cemetery in Evanston, IL.
Powers' theater career began and ended at Hooley's
Theatre in Chicago. He started there as an
eighteen-year-old usher and rose through the ranks.
Five years after Richard M. Hooley's 1893 death,
Powers leased the location for ten years. The Hooley
family wanted more for the continued use of the
Hooley name than Powers wanted to pay, so he renamed
it: Powers Theatre.
Powers refurbished the theater to lower the orchestra pit, replace seats
with wider ones, and add exits. The new Powers
Theatre opened in August 1898, performing Clyde
Fitch's play "The Moth and the Flame," played by
Herbert Kelcey and Effie Shannon.
Powers had also been a director in the Davis-Hayman
theater company that preceded the Iroquois.
The Powers family lived at 4843 Grand Blvd., nearby
Will J. Davis home at 4740 Grand Blvd. Both men
were devout Catholics, but while Davis was a
Republican, Powers was an Independent. After the
Iroquois Theatre fire, Powers' star rose within the
theater syndicate and in Chicago. In 1913 Powers was
appointed by the Illinois governor and Chicago mayor
to the board of directors for Bell Telephone.
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The day of the Iroquois Theater fire
On Dec 30, 1903, Powers' theater was running John
Drew staring in "Captain Dieppe."
An hour before the Iroquois Theater fire started,
Powers was there with a newspaper reporter
discussing ticket scalping. I'm curious why he
didn't join Iroquois Theater manager Will J. Davis
at the funeral of actor
Jerome Sykes.
Mary Powers had planned a large theater party for
her daughters, Josephine Mary Powers (b.1886) and
Rosina Marie Powers (1888-1989) for Saturday, Jan 2,
1904. Presumably, the party was canceled after the
fire.
The Powers lived comfortably. In 1910 their
household included two servants and a chauffeur.
Daughter Rosina would live to one hundred years of
age, raise nine children, and campaign for Al Smith
at the 1932 Democratic convention — while her father
in law, former Chicago mayor and Illinois governor,
Edward F. Dunne, campaigned for Smith's opponent and
winner of the party's nomination — Franklin D.
Roosevelt. Harry's son, Harry J. Powers Jr., died in
September 1941 at Miami Beach.
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