The strongest elements of his entertainments were an almost-jingoistic brand of United States patriotism and a strong commitment to attracting a "mixed-gender" audience, the latter being something revolutionary in the male-oriented variety halls of the mid-century.

A collection of his papers is maintained at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas in Austin,[2] and in the archives of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Pastor became a celebrated singing clown at a time when circus performances typically concluded with a variety revue.

[12] Pastor sang for the Union cause throughout the Civil War, then started his own variety show which went on tour for around five months before settling in New York City.

With shows that appealed to women and children as well as the traditional male audience, his theater and touring companies quickly became popular with the middle classes and were soon being imitated.

The theater district was moving uptown to Union Square, however, and in 1881 Pastor took a lease on the former Germania Theatre on 14th Street in the same building that housed Tammany Hall.

[13] His theater featured performers such as Ben Harney presenting a new style called "ragtime" as well as other up-and-coming talents such as Weber and Fields, George M. Cohan, Sophie Tucker, Lillian Russell, Buster Keaton, Gus Edwards, Eva Tanguay, Blossom Seeley, Benny Fields, May Irwin and Eddie Leonard.

[14] In the musical Hello, Dolly!, the song "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" includes the line, "We'll join the Astors at Tony Pastor's".

[citation needed] Tony Pastor died in Elmhurst, Queens County, New York, on August 26, 1908, and was interred in the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn.

Fighting against the monopolies for the rights of individual local showmen was an undertaking that marked the last years of his life, earning him the nickname of "Little Man Tony".

[10] (and other theaters around town) According to the humor of the time, Pastor wrote several songs that negatively portrayed ethnic stereotypes, such as "The Contraband's Adventures", the story of a freed slave.

After the slave is set free by Union soldiers, he attends an anti-slavery meeting where the abolitionists try to scrub off his dark pigment.