SEASON OF '72-'73.
The season of '72 and '73 opened on August 7th with George Chaplin and
Clara Jean Walters as stock stars. They opened in the classical drama
of "Buffalo Bill." This was a long time before Cody started his wild
west show and probably this play was what put him in the notion of
starting in the show business. Chaplin made a fine Buffalo Bill, and
if Cody saw him in the part it must have made him envious to see
another fellow stealing his thunder. The combination ran two weeks,
when Stetson came in "Neck and Neck" with us and played a week,
presenting also "Daring Dick" and "The Fatal Glass." Chaplin had a
decided objection to supporting male stars of mediocre ability, and
second class repertory, and so he generally laid off on such occasions
as the Stetson engagement; besides it was a matter of economy with the
management; they did not need him, so George laid off during Stetson's
week, and then came with his "Seven Sisters" the following week.
George was immense as the big sister and was just a trifle vain over
the fact that he could outshine all the women in the company in female
apparel.
On September 2nd Ada Gray opened a week's engagement in "Article 47"
and gave besides, "Jezebel" and "Whose Wife." Ada was a pleasing
actress, of fine appearance, but didn't seem to quicken the pulse of
her Salt Lake patrons, after their seeing some of the greater ones.
On the 9th Chaplin and Walters resumed as stock stars and played
continuously up to the 23rd, T. A. Lyne taking a benefit on the 20th
instant and playing "Richelieu." On the 23rd Chaplin dropped out of
the company, closing in "School," and on the 25th the stock company
kept right along with Clara Jean Walters featured through the October
Conference and up to the 12th.
On October 1st W. T. Harris made his initial bow to the Salt Lake
public; he came from one of the Omaha theatres, accompanied by Annie
Ward and Miss Blanche de Bar, a sister of the popular manager and
actor, Ben de Bar. Miss De Bar had already grown old in the
profession, but proved nevertheless a very useful member of the stock
company. She played old women and characters and on more than one
occasion proved her agility in spite of years and gray hairs, by doing
an Irish jig or a "Dolly Varden" lilt. The rag time had not yet come
in vogue or Miss De Bar could have done a cake walk with the best.
"Jimmy" Harris, as he was familiarly called, cut quite a figure in the
future history of the theatre as manager and deserves more than a
passing notice. He was featured on his opening night in an Irish
farce, "That Rascal Pat," and made a very fair impression. Miss Annie
Ward, who accompanied Harris to Salt Lake, and who at first was
supposed to be "Jimmy's" wife or _fiancee_ (from all appearances), was
a young woman who had been beautiful, but her face was now so deeply
pitted with small pox that she invariably in public kept it covered
with a veil, except when on the stage, where she could veil the
blemish under a thick coat of grease paint, and, this artistically
done, she presented as fair a face as one could wish to look at.
"Annie," 'twas said, had been the _fiancee_ of the great African
explorer, Henry Stanley, before he caught the African fever, which
tore him away from her and all his early associations. Annie found
consolation for her bereavement in a close friendship with "Jimmy." So
close was their alliance that on their joining the stock company here
together, everybody judged they were man and wife, or ought to be.
They had taken a room together in old man McDonald's house, just under
the shadow of St. Mark's church, and everything went well for a little
while--but by some inadvertence the good Mr. McDonald discovered that
they had not secured the necessary license for rooming together, and
he very promptly and perhaps rudely gave them notice to vacate. They
thought the old man was a crank and quite unreasonable, to turn them
out of his house for such a slight offense, in a community where many
of the men were living with a plurality of wives. They had an idea it
was a sort of Oneida community here; free love, etc. They secured
another lodging house, but the lady who ran that was a very strict
Mormon also, and so soon as she found out how matters stood she served
them with a notice to quit. "Jimmy" got a "hunch" from some one that
he would have to _marry_ Annie or sever the alliance altogether, as
the Mormons would not stand for anything of this kind. It was even
intimated to him that he might be indicted for _lascivious cohab_,
which so terrified him that he suddenly ceased his relationship with
Annie altogether, and left her to paddle her own canoe. Those who were
acquainted with the circumstances have always blamed Harris for his
treatment of Annie Ward; he should have married her, was their
thought, but he turned away from her in this time of mutual trouble.
His offense was condoned, and gradually he worked himself into favor
until he became quite an object of interest with the ladies about the
theatre, while those same ladies turned up their noses at Miss Ward,
and made it so unpleasant for her, that she was glad to terminate her
engagement long before the season was over, and go back to her former
haunts. Poor girl! She went down hill rapidly after returning and died
wretchedly in St. Louis a year or so later, while Harris remained
here, married one of Brigham Young's daughters and was given the
management of the theatre, which he held for several years. Harris and
his wife went to New York in about '80, where they have resided ever
since. "Jimmy," who has wealthy relatives there, has a good easy
position and raised a nice family of four or five children, to whom he
has bequeathed his real name of Ferguson, that of Harris being merely
adopted to hide him from his relatives while he was a profane stage
player. So runs the wheel of fortune.
Hamlet. I did love you once.
Ophelia. Indeed, my honored lord, you made me believe so.
Hamlet. You should not have believed me; for virtue can not so
inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you
not.
Ophelia. I was the more deceived.
Hamlet. Get thee to a nunnery.
--Shakespeare.
On November 8th Mr. Al Thorne was added to the stock company and made
his first appearance in the play of "Maud's Peril." Al Thorne came to
Utah as a soldier in Johnston's army. He was a member of the Camp
Floyd Theatre company and played with Dick White, Mrs. Tuckett et al.
He contrived in some way to remain in Utah when the Civil War broke
out, instead of following "the uncertain chance of war." He had
married and settled in the north part of the territory, and was
associated with the Richmond Dramatic Company for several years and
now found a place in the Salt Lake stock, where he remained for
several years, doing excellent work in "heavies" and "old men." Thorne
joined the Mormon church and got more family than he could take care
of--two families in fact, which proved his ruin. He became estranged
from them both, and for the last twenty years of his life was
practically an exile, living a solitary life in the mining camps of
Nevada. He died three years ago at De Lamar, Nevada, a prematurely old
man, with no relative near. But Al always had friends, for he was a
good natured, generous hearted man--his own worst enemy. "Requiescat
in pace."
George Chaplin having exhausted his extensive and variegated
repertory, and taken his departure for pastures new, the stock
company, with Clara Jean Walters, played through the October
conference. The very palpable weakness occasioned by Chaplin's
retirement was filled by F. M. Bates, who with his wife and Baby
Blanche had been rusticating in the vicinity ever since their
engagement in the previous May. Bates opened on the 14th of October,
as joint star with Miss Walters, and continued until November 21st,
the only interruption being a three nights' engagement of the
Australian actor, James J. Bartlett, who gave "David Garrick," "New
Magdalen," and "Married for Money."
On November 25th Mrs. Bates opened her second engagement at this
theatre, supported by her husband (Frank), Miss Walters and the stock
company. She played two weeks, repeating mostly her favorite roles,
"Elizabeth," "Lucretia Borgia," "Camille," etc. Mrs. Bates during the
time her husband, Frank, had been playing with the stock company, had
played an engagement with John Piper, the Virginia City manager.
Returning here she sent ahead of her to exploit her return engagement
Mr. John Maguire, who has since made a name as a theatrical manager,
but who was then a very enthusiastic disciple of Thespis, and was
ambitious to make a mark in the histrionic art. Maguire by his own
confession had been educated for the Catholic priesthood, and
certainly a good priest was spoiled when John turned Thespian, but the
stage fever caught him, and struck in so deep that he was irrevocably
lost to a profession which he was capable of adorning, and exposed "to
the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" that are generally in
quiver to be hurled at the unfortunate actor or manager who does not
achieve an unqualified success. At the time of which I write, 1872,
John Maguire was young (about 30, eh, John?), and handsome; he was
often mistaken for Lawrence Barrett, the tragedian, which was a
flattering compliment to John, as he was a very great admirer of
"Larry" Barrett. We don't know just how it came about, but he was cast
in Mrs. Bates' opening performance of "Elizabeth" for the part of the
young Scottish king, James VI, unless it was that he had played it in
Virginia City with the lady, and she thought he looked the part so
well. Any way the company was numerous and the managers let John out
after his performance of King James. The week following the Bates
engagement, there being no star attraction booked, the managers gave
it to the writer, who had not been playing in the stock company that
season. I arranged a repertoire for the week which included "The
Duke's Motto," "Macbeth," "Louis XI," "The Stranger," "Jack Cade," and
"The Three Guardsmen." A very ambitious attempt, as I view it now, but
all parts that I was "up" in, having played them in the company
before. While rehearsing before I opened, Maguire, who was out of a
job and evidently out of money, come to me and in a very friendly and
confidential way informed me that he had just received the bells. "The
bells?" I inquired, "what bells?" "Why Henry Irving's Bells, that has
just completed a year's run in London." "Take my advice, John," said
he, "take down some of those 'old' chestnuts you have billed and put
on 'The Bells' for two nights in their place and you'll be money in by
it." "Oh, that's impossible," I objected, "my plans for the week are
arranged and cast, besides I know nothing about the play of The
Bells.'" Maguire was earnest, however, for he had a point to make, so
he urged me to make a change. "I have two printed copies of the play,"
says he, "and will let you have them and copy the remainder of the
parts for you for $10. I want to get to Pioche; things are booming
there and I am short of money; you can advertise the wonderful run the
play has had in London, and you'll be the first to play it west of New
York, where Studley is playing it now." John arguments prevailed with
me and I took down "Louis XI" and "The Strangers" and put up "The
Bells" for the Wednesday and Thursday nights. Maguire delivered the
goods, got his money and took the stage for Pioche. Bidding me good
bye and good luck, he says, "There's a theatre down there, and if I
can secure it, you will hear from me before long." "The Bells" gave me
the hardest day's study I ever did; playing "Macbeth" the night before
and staying out later than was discreet, I was reading "Mathias" at
rehearsal next morning to play that night, but we got through it
fairly well, and to my surprise the local papers praised the
performance highly next morning, but "The Bells" did not prove the
great drawing card Maguire had so sanguinely predicted, the older and
better known plays drawing better.
On Friday evening, while playing "Jack Cade," a few of my admirers
sent up a request to have me play "Othello" on the following night
instead of "The Guardsmen," with Mr. F. M. Bates as Othello, Mrs.
Bates as Emelia and myself as Iago. I should have promptly decided not
to make the change, but nothing in the way of work seemed too onerous
for me, and too willing to oblige, I sent back word that if they could
get Mr. and Mrs. Bates to volunteer I would make the change. Some of
them waited on the Bateses with the result that Mrs. Bates declined to
be Emelia, and Mr. Bates had never played Othello, but would play Iago
if I would do Othello. I was in Mr. Bates' fix, having played Iago
several times but never Othello. However, I consented to try it and
gave myself another hard day's study to get perfect in Othello. Next
morning Sloan, in the Herald, roasted me for playing a "star" part
like Othello in stock costumes, notwithstanding I had been wearing
stock costumes all the week. He spoke rather favorably of my acting,
however, which was more than I should have expected. I would not be
nearly so accommodating now. This my first "stellar" engagement closed
on December 14th, 1872. The record shows that the farce of "The
Spectre Bridegroom" was played after Othello, with Phil Margetts in
his great part of Diggory. In those "palmy days of the drama," it was
quite usual to have a farce after a five-act tragedy. On benefit
occasions not infrequently there would be a long play, then an olio of
singing and a fancy dance, and a farce to close the "evening's
entertainment."
During this engagement Clara Jean Walters played the leading female
roles, and rendered effective support, as indeed she always did. She
was the most capable and versatile "leading lady" the stock company
ever had and remained with it for several seasons a well-established
favorite.
Carl Bosco, a very clever magician, put in two nights following the
Lindsay engagement, 16th and 17th, and Mrs. Chanfrau opened the 19th
inst. for two nights and appeared in "A Wife's Ordeal" and "The
Honeymoon." On the 26th John T. Raymond opened a two weeks'
engagement, giving "Toodles," "Only a Jew," "Rip Van Winkle," and "The
Cricket on the Hearth." Johnny Allen and Alice Harrison and "Little
Mac" for three nights. These parties put in from January 6th to the
15th. Johnny Allen and Alice Harrison were a great attraction in those
days; how many remember them now? And "Little Mac," that homely dwarf,
what wonderful stunts he could do with those stunted legs of his!--a
circus in himself was Little Mac.
On the 20th of January William J. Cogswell joined the stock as leading
man, Miss Walters still retaining position of leading lady. A Miss
Florence Kent (Mrs. McCabe) had been added to the company, and being
petite and good looking, as well as talented, Miss Walters saw a
chance to gratify a long-cherished ambition, which was to play Romeo.
(She would show some of us men folks how to make love.) So the piece
was put up with Miss Walters as Romeo and Kent as Juliet; they made a
pretty couple. Miss Walters looked very dashing, being a nice size for
Romeo, but making love to one of her own sex was not such an easy task
as she imagined and although it was a very fair "Romeo and Juliet," it
did not make so great a mark as many of her female performances. The
stock with the new leading man, Cogswell, played along till February
3rd, when Yankee Robinson came in for a week in "Sam Patch" and "The
Days of '76," February 3rd to the 8th inst.