(1847-1924)
Although he was born in Coving-ton, Kentucky, "Johnny" Havlin grew up in Cincinnati, where he would hang around the theatres as a child. He rose through local management and borrowed the capital to build the Havlin Theatre (later called Lyceum) in Cincinnati. Soon he expanded to building theatres in St. Louis and managing concessions for the St. Louis World's Fair. He underwrote several circus ventures and backed the first lucrative Hagenbeck Show. Havlin was already experienced in theatre management when he joined with E. D. Stair to form Stair and Havlin, a pioneering organization for booking popular-priced melodrama into their circuit of theatres which extended from the east coast to Kansas City. Havlin eventually returned to Cincinnati to build the Walnut Street Theatre and to manage the Grand Opera House there. According to Robert Grau, Havlin was "noted for his benevolence. His charities knew no bounds" (1910, 175).
The Historical Dictionary of the American Theater. James Fisher.