He had affairs with several up-and-coming actresses at his theatre, and he assaulted at least two newspaper editors who had published unflattering stories about him.

Despite some success he had still not established himself with the London critics [3] when, in 1825, Hamblin and his wife left England for the United States.

Hamblin took the stage at New York's Park Theatre in early November,[4] where he tackled a number of roles: Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, Petruchio, Pierre, Rolla, the Stranger, William Tell, and Virginius.

[6] Theatre historian T. Allston Brown attributed his success to these factors: As an actor, he possessed the valuable accessories of a fine person, a good voice, and careful education.

Deep set eyes as black as jet were surmounted by a lofty brow, crowned by clusters of curling dark hair in such rich profusion as is seldom seen, except in some of the models which have been handed down to us from remote antiquity.

These "Bowery B'hoys" were working class, primarily male, and socially conservative.,[9] and Hamblin accordingly staged blackface performances, circus acts, English farce, American melodrama, and Shakespeare to please them.

[10] Under Hamblin, American working-class theatre, emphasising brilliant spectacle and plot-based narrative, emerged as a form in its own right.

His Bowery featured many big-name talents, including Junius Brutus Booth, Frank Chanfrau, George Washington Dixon, Louisa Lane Drew, Edwin Forrest, Josephine Clifton, Louisa Medina, James B. Phillips, Thomas D. Rice, and Charles W. Taylor.

In the spring of 1834, he began purchasing shares of the theatre from its owners, the New York Association; within 18 months, he owned a majority.

In the 1840s, increased competition in New York City prompted Hamblin to stage even more spectacular melodramas and to book more variety entertainment such as minstrel shows and circus acts.

The Albion reported that The dignity, the finished and elaborated elocution, and the high artistical execution of that school were occasionally brought most vividly to our remembrance in Mr. HAMBLIN's delineation of Hamlet, weakened however at times .

In 1831, his wife filed for divorce after returning from a tour in Europe; this was finalised in 1834 with the condition that Hamblin was not to remarry as long as his ex-wife lived.

[11][16] Hamblin continued his womanising undaunted; he saw a young actress named Naomi Vincent for a time, and she even came to be known as "Mrs.

He got into a barroom brawl in October 1834 and once assaulted the editor of the New York Herald, James Gordon Bennett Sr., in his offices.

[18] In 1838, newspaper editor and blackface performer George Washington Dixon wrote in his Polyanthos that Hamblin was having an affair with a teen-aged starlet at the Bowery named Miss Louisa Missouri Miller.