- Father of Percy MacKaye, with Medbery.
- Bought New York's Lyceum Theatre in 1885, and made it into the first theatre lit only by electric lights.
- Founded the first American acting school.
- Invented the folding theatre seat.
- Invented the movable stage, used to create the illusion that ships are moving on water and that land vehicles are moving on land.
- Was the first to install overhead lighting in stage design.
- Cousin and childhood friend of famed American painter Winslow Homer.
- Fluent in French.
- A prodigious inventor, Mackaye is credited with over 100 inventions, most of which involved theatrical mechanics. His most lasting contribution, still in use today, is U.S. Patent #295,261 [March 1884]: The Folding Theatre Seat, which Mackaye invented as a component of his fire safety program he incorporated into his theatres.
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