SEASON OF '67-'68.
On the first of August, this same year, '67, C. W. Couldock made his
first appearance at the Salt Lake Theatre, supported by Jack Langrishe
and his company from Denver, where they had been running a stock
company. It was an unfavorable time for opening, in the hottest nights
of summer, but there were no resorts in those days and it was not so
hard to get them into the theatre as it would be now. Langrishe had a
full road company and was traveling through to Montana in his own
teams, the Union Pacific Railroad not being nearer than Rawlins at
that time. The company comprised Mr. Couldock and his daughter, Eliza
Couldock, John S. Langrishe and Mrs. Langrishe, Richard C. White (he
of Camp Floyd fame, referred to in a previous chapter). The Langrishe
company played a week, then went to Virginia City, Montana. Couldock
and his daughter returned later and played a long engagement as stock
stars.
On the 5th of September, Amy Stone, supported by her husband, H. F.
Stone, began a stock star engagement which lasted a little more than
four months. Opening the regular fall season on September 5th, by the
time the fall Conference came on, October 6th, the Stones had the
stock company up in a very attractive repertoire of plays to present
to "our country cousins" attending the Conference. Fanchon, Pearl of
Savoy, "Little Barefoot," "French Spy," "Wept of the Wishton Wish,"
were leading favorites in the Stone repertory, and proved to be very
popular, serving to keep the exchequer in a satisfactory condition.
Their engagement lasted until January the 6th, 1868. Amy, if not a
great actress, was at least a fascinating one. She was blessed with a
superb form and an attractive face; she fairly reveled in parts where
she could wear tights and display her shapely form, and it must be
frankly confessed that "the folks" loved to see her in that kind of
attire. She was more at home in it than in an evening dress with a
bothersome train; there was a freedom of movement and a candor of
expression about Amy that was positively refreshing, and we all liked
her and got along with her with very little trouble. "Harry," as her
husband was always called, was not a brilliant but a good, useful
actor, and had a good knowledge of her plays, and could direct the
staging of them. Besides, he attended to the making of engagements,
and the financial end of the business, and as he was devoted to Amy,
they were apparently one of the happiest couples I have ever met in
the theatrical business. The Stones were a very prudent and saving
couple, and by the time they had finished a four months' stock star
engagement, they had a very handsome deposit in the local bank, and
they left Zion feeling a very warm affection for the Saints, and so
went on their way rejoicing.
On the night immediately following the close of the Stones'
engagement, January 7th, Mr. James Stark opened in John Howard Payne's
play of "Brutus, or the Fall of Tarquin." This was the first
presentation of this play in Salt Lake. Mr. Stark made a fine
impression as Brutus. He followed it in quick succession with
Richelieu, Damon, Jack Cade, Alfred Evelyn in "Money." His engagement
lasted two weeks and closed with the play of "Victorine, or Married
for Money." Stark was a very talented tragedian of the Forrest school,
and his engagement proved quite popular and successful. He went to San
Francisco, and played an engagement there, and returned to New York by
the Isthmus, the Overland railroad not yet being completed. Mr. Stark
had a brother, Daniel Stark, a pioneer Mormon, who settled at Provo
among the earliest settlers of that place. James, who had not seen him
for many years, availed himself of the opportunity his Salt Lake
engagement afforded him, and arranged a meeting with his "long lost
brother" (?). He paid Daniel and his family a visit, and was most
hospitably received and entertained. The family made much ado over
him, and Daniel, like his namesake of old, "prophet-like," sought to
show James the error of his ways, pointing out to him the emptiness
and effervescence of dramatic fame, and the poor illusive thing that
was as compared with the real joys and blessings of the Latter-Day
Gospel. "Jim" accepted it all in good part, but he could not see "eye
to eye" with his elder brother Daniel, but he promised to consider
seriously what he had heard and bade them a loving goodbye till they
could meet again. He rather expected to play a return engagement when
he left here, and see the folks again, but he never returned. Stark
died in New York before the close of the year 1868, in his 50th year.
After the Stark engagement, the stock company continued the season,
starting off with a series of annual benefits which by this time were
given the leading actors of the company in addition to salaries.
January the 23rd, D. McKenzie "Benefits," playing "Huguenot Captain,"
with an Olio and a farce to conclude. February 4th, John S. Lindsay
"Benefits" and essays Hamlet for the first time. The farce that
followed Hamlet was "Boots at the Swan;" think of it, "ye modern
school actors." A five-act play and a farce, this meant being in the
theatre from seven o'clock till midnight, but the people stayed to see
it all, and many of them would have stayed till morning, if we could
have kept on playing pieces for them. J. M. Hardie "Benefits" with
"Jack Cade," Miss Colebrook with "Leah," etc., and so the season ran
along without a star from January 23rd till April the 23rd, when the
company was stiffened up again by the accession of Mr. and Mrs. George
B. Waldron, who played up till May 16th. On May the 19th, Madam
Scheller opened in "Pearl of Savoy," gave us "Pauline" in "Lady of
Lyons," "Enoch Arden," "Lorlie," "The Phantom" and "Hamlet." Madam
Scheller was Edwin Booth's "Ophelia" during the one hundred nights'
run of Hamlet at Winter Garden Theatre, in New York.
Very naturally the Salt Lakers conversant with the facts were anxious
to see her in "Ophelia," so Lindsay who had recently played "Hamlet"
for his "benefit," was admonished to prepare himself for another go at
the melancholy Dane with the new "Ophelia;" and in due time we had the
novelty of Scheller's "Ophelia." She was irresistibly charming in it,
in spite of her German accent, which in moments of unusual excitement
was quite pronounced. Madam Scheller proved to be a pleasing and
accomplished actress and filled a long engagement at the Salt Lake
Theatre. She was accompanied by her husband, Mr. Methua, who was a
skillful scenic artist, and put in a lot of new scenes for the theatre
during his wife's engagement. Here was a model couple, courteous and
refined; they left many warm friends in Salt Lake at their departure,
whose best wishes for their success went with them. Unhappy to relate,
this worthy and respected pair died of yellow fever during the deadly
siege of that disease at Memphis in 1878. "United in life, in death
they were not separated."
On January 9th, after playing three weeks Madam Scheller was rested
for a week to give an opening to Charlotte Crampton. Crampton was a
genius and in her younger years had astonished the dramatic world by
her histrionic gymnastics. She affected the male characters almost
exclusively--"Hamlet," "Richard III," "Shylock," "Don Caesar," and in
"Lady Macbeth" and "Meg Merrilles" she rivaled the great Charlotte
Cushman. The writer remembers seeing her when a boy at the old Bates's
Theatre, St. Louis, which was her home. She was erratic as a comet,
and her eccentricities were the town's talk. How often she was married
this deponent saith not, but remembers that at the time he saw her
playing in St. Louis in 1857, she was the wife of a Mr. Istenour. When
she appeared here in Salt Lake City in 1868, she was far past the
meridian of life and was accompanied by her husband, "Mr. Cook," young
enough to be her son. The novelty of a woman essaying those characters
was a strong one, and served to draw out good houses. She played
"Hamlet," "Shylock," "Richard III," and "Don Caesar," which with two
repeats, filled up her week.
Crampton was a woman rather below the medium height, and looked
insignificant dressed up for those male characters, but when she got
animated she made you forget her size, and at times she seemed to fill
not only the center of the stage but the entire stage. She had passed
the zenith of her fame some years before she made this trip to the
coast. She bore all the evidences of an erratic life and premature
age; her sun had nearly set when she played with us here; and after
her departure for the East, we heard but little of her. Charlotte
Crampton's engagement was like the flashing of a meteor across the
dramatic firmament. Like the elder Booth, she was notorious for her
eccentricities, and in genius was akin to him. "How close to madness
great wits are allied."
After the passing of this meteor, the steady star, Madam Scheller,
resumed her reign, reappearing as "Laura Courtland" in "Under the Gas
Light." This was the first production of this play in Salt Lake City,
and it had an unprecedented run, going for an unbroken week to full
houses. As an index to the personnel of the company at this time, June
16th, 1868, we append the cast of "Under the Gas Light."
"UNDER THE GAS LIGHT."
Ray Trafford ............................ John S. Lindsay
De Milt ..................................... Mark Wilton
Wilton ..................................... Bert Merrill
Byke ...................................... Phil Margetts
Joe Snorkey .............................. David McKenzie
Bermudas ................................. John C. Graham
Peanuts ................................... Johnny Matson
Station Man ................................. Mark Wilton
Police Judge ............................... J. M. Hardie
O'Rafferty ................................ John E. Evans
Martin .................................... John B. Kelly
Police Patrol ........................... Richard Mathews
Laura Courtland .......................... Madam Scheller
Pearl Courtland ........................ Miss Annie Adams
Mrs. Van Dam ........................... Nellie Colebrook
Sue Earlie ................................ Alice Clawson
Peachblossom ........................ Miss Sara Alexander
Judas ................................ Mrs. M. A. Clawson
Summer heat had but little affect on the business of the Salt Lake
Theatre in those days of which I am writing. Madam Scheller played
from May 10th to August 1st, excepting the one week allotted to
Charlotte Crampton, all through the hot nights of June and July and
there was no perceptible or serious diminution in the attendance. This
can only be accounted for in the fact that there were no resorts in
those days, and the theatre was the coolest place in the city. We
naturally looked for and expected a rest through August after the long
season we had put in, but there was no respite. On the 4th of August,
Annette Ince opened in "Julia" in the "Hunchback" and gave in rapid
succession "Evadne," "Medea," "Ion," "Mary Stuart," "Elizabeth," "As
You Like It," "Camille," and other pieces filling a three weeks'
engagement. She was followed by E. L. Davenport, who opened on August
the 27th in "Richelieu," supported by Annette Ince as "Julia de
Mauprat," and the full strength of the company. Mr. Davenport gave us
his "Richelieu," "Julian St. Pierre," in "The Wife," "Hamlet,"
"William" in "Black-Eyed Susan," "Rover" in "Wild Oats" and "Sir Giles
Overreach" in "A New Way to Pay Old Debts." Mrs. Davenport (Fanny
Vining) appeared in conjunction with Mr. Davenport in this engagement,
playing the "Queen" in "Hamlet" and kindred parts, and with Miss Ince
in the leading female roles, Mr. Davenport had a supporting company in
every way worthy of him. His engagement was a memorable one, as Mr.
Davenport was thought by many to be our greatest American actor. He
was certainly a worthy rival of Edwin Booth and had he, like that
actor, confined his brilliant talents to the great Shakespearian
roles, he would undoubtedly have made a greater name for himself, but
he was too versatile and he scattered his efforts on the "Williams"
and "Rovers" and the other trifles that he should have dropped as he
advanced in years and concentrated his efforts on a repertory of his
greatest characters only. When he played this Salt Lake engagement he
had declined into "the vale of years." As Hamlet, he looked older than
the "Queen" but he possessed all the fire and animation necessary; as
"St. Pierre" in the "Wife," he was at his best, and fairly lifted the
audience into enthusiastic demonstrations of applause. It was not long
after this that Davenport was pitted against the English tragedian
Barry Sullivan in New York. An exceedingly interesting and able
criticism and comparison of these two great actors appeared in Wilke's
"Spirit of the Times," headed "The Two Rossi." This was Davenport's
last memorable engagement. He was already an old man and failing fast.
He died in 1871.
"Ay, but to die and go, we know not where, to lie in cold
obstruction and to rot,
This sensible warm motion to become a kneaded clod,
And the delighted spirit to bathe in fiery floods,
Or to reside in chilling regions of thick ribbed ice,
To be imprisoned in the viewless winds,
And blown with restless violence about the pendant world.
'Tis too horrible! The weariest and most loathed worldly life,
That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment can lay on nature,
Is paradise to what we fear of death."
It will be observed that there was no summer vacation this year of
1868. The Davenport engagement carried us into September, the time for
opening the season of '68 and '69. Miss Ince's engagement following
the Davenports was really the beginning of the season '68 and '69.