Reply To: 3×12 – New York City Serenade – Synopsis

Here is some more research about a man named Townsend Walsh, who was a theatrical press agent and business manager who promoted L. Frank Baum’s story “The Wzard of Oz” in the New York theater from 1902-1906:

Throughout his life, Townsend Walsh was involved with the American theatre in a variety of capacities–press agent, business manager, drama critic, playwright, collector, theatre and circus historian and sometime actor. Born in Albany, New York in 1872, to Augustus Henry and Laura Spencer Walsh, Townsend Walsh graduated from the Albany Academy in 1891 and from Harvard University in 1895. While at Harvard, he apparently took George Pierce Baker’s playwriting course, served on the editorial staff of the Harvard Advocate,and was a commencement speaker for his class.

In 1897 Walsh’s play, The Boys of Kilkenny,was produced at the Star Theatre in New York. The next year, 1898, Walsh began work as advance press representative for Mrs. Minnie Maddern Fiske in the production Love Finds A Way, followed by Tess of the D’Ubervilles and Becky Sharpe. This was the beginning of a long and fruitful career as an advance press agent in the theatre. After his work with Mrs. Fiske, Walsh worked for Fred Hamlin of the Grand Opera House with Hamlin’s touring productions of Babes in Toyland, and the Wizard of Oz between 1902 and 1906. (Source)