Michael B. Leavitt

[1] By the 1860s, Leavitt had made the leap to management and, following the precedent set by others, was touring variety show troupes in rural areas, billing them as authentic city entertainment.

Leavitt claimed that in the late 1870s, his six to eight touring burlesque companies required $8,000 to $20,000 worth of lithographs posters each season.

Leavitt then decided to stage the play in Salt Lake City, where the LDS Church had its headquarters, as a publicity stunt.

Herrmann was always a drawing card where ever he played, receiving fifty percent of the gross receipt earning $75,000 a year (about $3 million in today's figures).

Despite his advanced age, show business chronicler Robert Grau described Leavitt as "yet as spry and apparently as youthful as he was in his palmy days".