Nationality American Role Writer Name Theodore Allen | Occupation Saloon keeper Other names The Allen | |
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Known for Saloon keeper, political "fixer" and underworld figure in New York City during the mid-to late 19th century. Died January 19, 2005, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States Books The Invention of the White Race | ||
Theodore Allen, or known simply as The Allen, (fl. 1880–1890) was an American gambler, political organizer, saloon keeper and head of a criminal family in New York City during the mid-to late 19th century. Born to a devout and prominent Methodist family, he and four of his brothers were notorious underworld figures; Wesley, Martin and William Allen were professional burglars while the fourth brother, John Allen, ran an illegal gambling den.
He was the owner of The American Mabille, named after the Jardin de Mabille in Paris, originally located at a Bleecker Street home. The popular resort included a dance hall and concert saloon, in the basement and first floor respectively, which housed "all classes of the demi-monde from the sun-bleared Cyprian of the Bowery ... to the diamond-bedecked mistress of some sporting man" and where it was said "dissolute women in gaudy tights danced and sang ribald songs". It was also notorious for luring its female working class patrons into prostitution, one journalist claiming that the concert saloon caused "the ruin of more young girls then all the dive keepers in New York". Allen owned half a dozen similar establishments, among them the St. Bernard Hotel at Prince and Mercer Streets, as well as financed gambling dens, brothels and other "places of ill-fame". Closely associated with many criminals and gang chieftains of the period, as well as the principal competitor of Billy McGlory's Armory Hall, he planned and participated in numerous bank and store robberies. He eventually fled the city after killing a gambler and disappeared.