 From the mid-1860s, impresario Tony Pastor, a former singing circus clown who had became a prominent variety theater performer and manager, capitalized on middle class sensibilities and spending power when he began to feature "polite" variety programs in his New York City theatres.Pastor opened his first "Opera House" on the Bowery in 1865, later moving his variety theater operation to Broadway and, finally, to Fourteenth Street near Union Square.He only began to use the term "vaudeville" in place of "variety" in early 1876 .