not one of those dreamers who think themselves commissioned to clutch at
a grasp that proficiency in a most difficult art which scarcely rewards
even the faithful and loving labor of a lifetime. He chose to learn his
profession by study and work--and he did so. His first appearance on
the stage was made at Shrewsbury, and some of his earlier successes were
gained at Glasgow. He came to America in 1827 and appeared at the Walnut
Street Theatre, Philadelphia, as _Jeremy Diddler_, in “Raising the
Wind.” His most valuable repute was won in Boston, where he first
appeared in 1828, at the Tremont Theatre, as _Rolando_, in “The
Honeymoon.” In 1836 he managed Pelby’s National Theatre in that city,
and from 1843 to 1860 he was stage manager of the Boston Museum. He
married, shortly after his arrival in America, Miss Eliza Riddle
(1808?-1861), in her time one of the most sparkling, bewitching, and
popular performers of Comedy that our Stage has known. His first
performance in New York occurred at the Chatham Street Theatre, November
3, 1840, when he acted _Edgar_ to the _King Lear_ of Junius Brutus
Booth. The public also saw him at that time as _Laertes_, _Gratiano_,
and _Marc Antony_. His last professional appearance in New York was made
at the Winter Garden, May 6, 1865, for the benefit of his daughter, Mary
Sedley, known to contemporary playgoers as Mrs. Sol. Smith. Later, he
went to San Francisco, where he immediately became a favorite--and he
deserved his favor and his fame, because his art was intellectual,
truthful, conscientious, significant with thought and purpose, and warm
with emotion. He
[Illustration:
Courtesy Miss Blanche Bates. The Albert Davis Collection.
MRS. FRANK MARK BATES SALLIE HINCKLEY
_From old photographs_]
died, in San Francisco, January 17, 1872, in the sixty-sixth year of his
age, leaving no work undone that he could do and therefore ending in the
fulness of time. He was acquainted with grief, but there was one sorrow
he escaped,--he never knew “how dull it is to pause.”
It is obvious that no influence could have been more helpful to the
eager, ingenuous, stage-struck Belasco than that of this sturdy,
experienced, grand old actor and director, attracted and pleased by the
fervor of a schoolboy seeking ingress to the Theatre. Belasco’s
assurance that he wrote a good hand when he was a boy, however difficult
that may be to believe now, is correct (I have independently ascertained
that he took a prize for penmanship at the Lincoln School), and
Smith,--who was stage manager of the California Theatre,--gave him odd
pieces of work to do making fair copies of prompt-books of plays
produced at the California, and also, from time to time, employed him to
“go on” in the mobs, crowds, etc. To him Belasco confided his ambition
to act _Hamlet_, _Iago_, and romantic characters, and by him he was
advised to throw away ambition of that kind, physical exility making his
success improbable (“you would need to be a head taller,” the veteran
assured him), and to devote himself to what are termed “character parts”
(miscalled by that designation, every part being a _character_ part:
“eccentric” is the quality really meant) and the study of stage
management. If Smith had lived a little longer Belasco probably would
have had better opportunity at the California Theatre, but the old man
died before the youth had been more than about six months embarked on
his professional theatrical career. Nevertheless, he owes much to the
instruction and advice of that wise and kind friend.
ADOPTION OF THE STAGE.
Belasco’s actual adoption of the dramatic calling as a means of
livelihood, as nearly as the fact can be determined, occurred on July
10, 1871, near the close of his eighteenth year, when he acted a minor
part in a play called “Help,” by Frederick G---- Marsden, which was
presented with Joseph Murphy (1832-1915) in its central part. This actor
had been for some time a favorite minstrel and variety performer in San
Francisco, generally billed as “Joe” Murphy (his real name was
Donnelly), and had made his first appearance in this play of “Help,” May
8, 1871, at Wood’s Museum, New York, acting _Ned Daly_, an Irish comedy
character, shown under several aliases and in various amusing and
otherwise effective situations. Murphy’s professional associates at the
Metropolitan, among whom Belasco was thus launched upon actual
theatrical employment, were John R. Woodard, J. H. Hardie, J. C.
McGuire, W. C. Dudley, Frank Rea, H. Swift, George Hinckley, R. A.
Wilson, J. H. Vinson, Mrs. F. M. Bates (mother of that fine actress
Blanche Bates, so widely and rightly popular in our time), Mrs. Frank
Rea, Sallie A. Hinckley, Carrie Lipsis, Jennie Mandeville, Susie Soulé,
and Ada Shattuck. Belasco, at first, was a super, but later he was
provided with a few words. His school days had now come to an end, and
from the time of his appearance in “Help” he continued, irregularly but
persistently, and at last successfully, in the service of the Theatre.
BELASCO’S THEATRICAL NOVITIATE.
Belasco believes that soon after his appearance with Murphy, in “Help,”
he was associated with the Chapman Sisters, but he is again mistaken.
Murphy was at the Metropolitan in July, 1872. There is no record of an
appearance of the Chapman Sisters there between that time and March 5,
1873, on which latter date a “Grand Re-Opening of the Metropolitan
Theatre” occurred, under the direction of John Woodard. That
“re-opening” was announced thus:
“The want of a People’s Theatre having long been felt in this
community, the management has determined to present their patrons a
First Class Theatre with First Class Stars and a First Class
Company, with prices of admission placed within the reach of all.
PRICES:
Dress Circle 75 cents.
Orchestra 50 cents.
Gallery 25 cents.
“The Talented and Beautiful Chapman Sisters will appear in [H. J.]
Byron’s splendid burlesque, ’Little Don Giovanni; or, Leperello and
the Stone Statue.’ Performance to begin with ’Ici on Parle
Français.’”
Belasco was a member of the Metropolitan Company at that time, having
appeared five days earlier, in a performance by way of “A Grand
Complimentary Benefit to Marian Mordaunt,” with, among others, Alice
Harrison, D. C. Anderson, Owen Marlowe, James C. Williamson, Henry
Edwards, Henry Courtaine, John Woodard, and Charles E. Allen,--those
players having been assembled from several companies. The bill included
“A Morning Call,” “The Colleen Bawn,” and the First and Second acts of
“Darling.” Belasco, on the occasion
[Illustration:
From old photographs. Belasco’s Collection.
THE CHAPMAN SISTERS
ELLA CHAPMAN BLANCHE CHAPMAN]
of that benefit, played _Peter Bowbells_, in “The Illustrious Stranger.”
In the opening bill of the Chapman Sisters, “Little Don Giovanni,”
Belasco acted the _First Policeman_. Other plays in which the Chapmans
appeared during that engagement were “Checkmate,” March 21;
“Schermerhorn’s Boy,” April 2; “The Wonderful Scamp; or, Aladdin No. 2,”
and “The Statue Lover,” April 3; “Pluto,” April 15; and “The Beauty and
the Brigands.” In those plays Belasco acted, respectively, _Strale_,
_Reuben_, the _Genius of the Ring_, _Peter True_, the _First Fury_, and
_Mateo, the Landlord_. “A Kiss in the Dark” and “A Happy Pair” were also
played at the Metropolitan at this time, and probably he appeared in
them, but I have not found specification of his doing so. The Chapman
Sisters, Blanche and Ella, were daughters of an English actor, Henry
Chapman (1822-1865), and were handsome and proficient players of
burlesque. One of their most successful vehicles was “The Gold Demon.”
Belasco appeared in it with them (March 18, 1873), as _Prince
Saucilita_, and made up and played in imitation of a local eccentricity,
known as “Emperor” Norton. His performance, practically a caricature,
was considered clever and it elicited considerable commendation. “The
Figaro” critic wrote of him: “D. Belasco took the house by storm with
his make-up for ’Emperor’ Norton, which was quite a feature of the
piece.” Actors have often exhibited theatrical travesties of anomalous
individuals: Samuel Foote (1720-1777), on the old English Stage,
frequently did so: sometimes such exhibitions have proved attractive to
the public and largely remunerative: generally they are trivial and
contemptible. Thomas D. Rice (1808-1860), the actor who carried Joseph
Jefferson, as a child, upon the stage, in 1833,--the first time he was
ever seen there,--gained wealth and popularity by copying the grotesque
behavior of an old negro named “Jim” Crow, who had been a slave and who
was well known to residents of Louisville, Kentucky, about 1828-’29.
Edwin Booth, in his novitiate, made a “hit” in San Francisco, about
1852-’53, by imitating a local notoriety named Plume. It did not,
however, in his case, lead on to fortune,--nor did it in that of young
Belasco as “Emperor” Norton. His remuneration was, for a long time,
extremely small. While employed at the Metropolitan Theatre he earned
six dollars a week, extra, by copying sets of the “parts” of plays, for
the use of actors,--work done after the performance at night. “I wrote a
beautiful hand in those days,” he told me; “almost like engraved
script,--though perhaps you won’t believe it now.”
A THEATRICAL VAGABOND.
Belasco was fortunate in his early days in an acquaintance with an actor
and theatrical agent, James H. McCabe, who loaned him many old plays,
which he studied, and also with R. M. Edwards, a representative in San
Francisco of Samuel French, the New York publisher of French’s Standard
Drama, etc., who provided him with opportunity to augment his knowledge
of theatrical publications and of plays in manuscript. McCabe sometimes
procured professional employment for him, but his occupation was
consistently desultory. He traversed the Pacific Coast, to and fro,
during several years, with various bands of vagabond players, gleaning a
precarious subsistence in a wild and often dangerous country, going
south into Lower California and into Mexico, and going north to Seattle
and to the home of his childhood, Victoria. Sometimes he ventured into
the mountain settlements and mining camps of the inland country,
travelling by stage when it was possible to do so, by wagon when he and
his associates were lucky enough to have one, often on horseback or
muleback, oftener on foot, performing in all sorts of places and glad
and grateful for anything he could earn. His account of that period, as
he has related it to me, is quite as replete with vicissitude,
hardship, squalor, toil, romance, and misery as are the narratives over
which the theatrical student muses, marvels, and saddens when reading
the “Memoirs of Tate Wilkinson,” Ryley’s “Itinerant,” Charlotte Charke’s
miserable narrative, or the story of Edmund Kean. “Many a time,” Belasco
has told me, “I’ve marched into town, banging a big drum or tooting a
cornet. We used to play in any place we could hire or get into,--a hall,
a big dining room, an empty barn; anywhere! I spent much of my second
season on the stage (if it can be called ’on the stage’) roaming the
country, and in that way got my first experience as a stage
manager,--which meant being responsible for everything; and in the years
that followed I had many another such engagement. I’ve interviewed an
angry sheriff ’many a time and oft’ (the sheriffs generally owned the
places we played in), or an angrier hotel-keeper, when we couldn’t pay
our board. I’ve been locked up because I couldn’t pay a dollar or two
for food and a bed; I’ve washed dishes and served as a waiter; I’ve done
pretty much everything, working off such debts; and sometimes I’ve had
the exciting pleasure of running away, sometimes alone, sometimes with
others, before the hotel-keeper got ’on’ that we hadn’t money enough to
[Illustration:
From an old photograph. Belasco’s Collection.
DAVID BELASCO
About 1873-’75]
pay. I acted many parts in my first seasons ’on the road’--among them
_Raphael_, in ’The Marble Heart’; _Mr. Toodle_, in the farce of ’The
Toodles’; _Robert Macaire_; _Hamlet_; _Uncle Tom_; _Modus_, in ’The
Hunchback’; _Marc Antony_, in ’Julius Cæsar’; _Dolly Spanker_, in
’London Assurance’; _Mercutio_, and scores of others I can’t instantly
call to mind.”
After considerable of the nomadic experience thus indicated, Belasco,
returning to San Francisco, obtained, through his friend McCabe, an
engagement in the company of Annie Pixley (Mrs. Robert Fulford,
1858-1893), remembered for her performance of _M’liss_, in a rough
melodrama, by Clay M. Greene, remotely based on Bret Harte’s tenderly
human and touching story bearing that name. For Annie Pixley he made a
serviceable domestic drama on the basis of Tennyson’s “Enoch Arden”
(which poem had been published in 1864), and he acted in it, with her,
as _Philip Ray_. That subject had been brought on the stage in a play by
Mme. Julie de Marguerittes (1814-1866), in which Edwin Adams gained
renown as the unhappy, heroic _Enoch_. For his play on the subject
Belasco received from Fulford $25. Later, he figured as an itinerant
peddler, frequenting fairs at various towns in the neighborhood of San
Francisco. In this character his attire comprised a black coat and
trousers, a “stovepipe” hat, and a wig and whiskers. “I used to buy
goods on credit,” he told me, “and take them along; then I would get a
soap-box or a barrel on the lot, or perhaps on a corner, and recite
until I had a crowd, and then work attention ’round to my goods, which I
generally managed to sell out.”
EMULATION OF WALTER MONTGOMERY.
Belasco, in his youth, entertained an admiration that was almost
idolatrous for Walter Montgomery, an American actor who, coming from
Australia, played in California when the boy was about seventeen years
old. His spirit of emulation was fired by the extraordinary efforts
which were put forth by that fine player to signalize the close of his
engagement in San Francisco. On the night of June 17, 1870, supported by
Barrett, McCullough, and the California Theatre stock company,
Montgomery acted _Shylock_, _Romeo_, _King John_, _Hotspur_, _Hamlet_,
_Benedick_ and _King Louis the Eleventh_, in selected scenes from seven
plays. On the next night he acted _Marc Antony_, in a revival of “Julius
Cæsar,”--that being his last appearance in California as an actor. On
June 20 and 21 the California Theatre was devoted to “Walter Montgomery
in His Celebrated Royal Recitals.” This was his programme on the first
night:
Seven Ages “As You Like It.”
Soliloquy on Death “Hamlet.”
_Hubert_ and _Arthur_ “King John.”
Churchyard Scene “Hamlet.”
“The Bridge of Sighs” Hood.
“The Bells” Poe.
“The Vulgar Boy” Ingoldsby.
“The Bruce” John Brougham.
(Written expressly for Mr. Montgomery.)
“Charge of the Light Brigade” Tennyson.
On the second night he gave:
_Polonius_ to his Son “Hamlet.”
_Wolsey’s_ Farewell “King Henry VIII.”
Dream of _Clarence_ “King Richard III.”
_Benedick’s_ Conversion “Much Ado About Nothing.”
_Brutus’_ Oration “Julius Cæsar.”
_Antony’s_ Oration “Julius Cæsar.”
“The Raven” Poe.
“Ben Battle” Hood.
“The Bloomsbury Christening” Dickens.
As soon as possible after seeing Montgomery’s remarkable display of
talent and versatility Belasco began to give public recitals, arranged
in general upon the model of Montgomery’s, though varied to suit his own
requirements. Chief among his selections were “The Vagabonds,” “The
Maniac,” “Curfew Must Not Ring To-night,” “Bernardo del Carpio,”
_Hubert’s_ scene with _Prince Arthur_, from “King John”; _Marc Antony’s_
Oration, and _Hamlet’s_ Soliloquy on Death. He also gave imitations of
various actors well known to the California public.
A ROMANTIC COURTSHIP.--MARRIAGE.
In the latter part of 1870 or early in 1871, while giving recitations at
Platt’s Hall and elsewhere in San Francisco, his attention was attracted
by an exceptionally handsome girl,--whom he has described as one “all
compact of sweetness,”--who occupied a front seat on every occasion of
his appearance. This young lady (she was little more than a child, being
then only fifteen years old) was Miss Cecilia Loverich. After some time
he was fortunate enough to obtain an introduction to her, at a private
house where he had been engaged to give some recitations, and the
acquaintance thus formed, and earnestly pursued by the romantic youth,
soon ripened into a serious attachment. “I was nobody,” said Belasco to
me, “and she was a beauty, of wealthy family, and,--young as she
was,--already much followed. I did not have much hope at first; but I
didn’t despair altogether, either. If I was only a struggling
[Illustration: CECILIA LOVERICH. MRS. DAVID BELASCO
From a photograph.
Belasco’s Collection.]
beginner on the stage, a sort of strolling spouter, still _she_ found my
performances worth coming to see, over and over again!” The lover’s suit
was not impaired by the fact that presently he suffered a serious
physical injury, the rupture of a vein in one of his feet, which took a
course so unfavorable there was danger that amputation would be
necessary: a dark-haired, pale, dreamy-eyed, romantic youth sometimes
becomes more than usually interesting to a gentle, compassionate young
woman when he is hurt and suffering. Although incapacitated for several
weeks, during which time Miss Loverich paid him many delicate
attentions, Belasco finally recovered, after a minor operation,--though,
from his account of this episode, I surmise he came near dying under an
anæsthetic. For a while he was compelled to use crutches, but ultimately
he resumed his professional labor. The marriage of David Belasco and
Cecilia Loverich was solemnized, August 26, 1873, at the home of his
parents, No. 174 Clara Street, San Francisco,--Rabbi Neustader
performing the ceremony. At that time the actor was employed at Shiels’
Opera House: during about a year after their marriage his wife travelled
with him on some of his various barnstorming expeditions--and that was
the happiest experience of his life.
The engagement of the Chapman Sisters at the Metropolitan Theatre was
ended on April 27, 1873, with a representation of “Cinderella” (produced
there April 23),--in which Belasco probably participated,--that being
the last regular theatrical performance given there. During several
weeks immediately sequent to that event Belasco travelled with the
Chapman Sisters, under the management of Woodard, playing in Sacramento
(May 3) and in many other California and Pacific Coast cities and towns.
By about the middle of June, however, he had returned to San Francisco;
and, not being able to obtain immediate employment in the theatres, he
worked for about two months as amanuensis for an old actor, James H. Le
Roy, who had turned his attention to playwrighting. On June 30 Belasco
was present at the opening of Shiels’ Opera House (afterward the Opera
House, Gray’s Opera House, etc.), when Bella Pateman (1844-1908) made
her first appearance in San Francisco,--acting _Mariana_, in “The Wife,”
with Frank Roche as _Julian St. Pierre_ and A. D. Billings as _Antonio_.
“They did three or four more plays at Shiels’,--‘The Marble Heart,’ ’The
Lady of Lyons,’ and other well-worn old pieces,”--so Belasco has said to
me; “but the business was light and they needed a novelty. I had
mentioned Wilkie Collins’ ’The New Magdalen’ [published that year] to Le
Roy as containing good material for a play and he had bought a copy of
the book and begun to make a dramatization. He told Miss Pateman about
it and when she agreed that it would make a fine play for her he
hastened his work, dictating to me, and it was brought out soon
afterward.” Le Roy’s “dramatization” of Collins’ novel was produced at
Shiels’ Opera House on July 14, 1873, and it was the first, or one of
the first, stage adaptations of the story to be acted in America:
piratical versions of it eventually became so numerous that, at one
time, they could be bought for $10! Collins, in the disgraceful state of
American copyright law at that time, was helpless to prevent what he
designated, in writing to me, as the “larcenous appropriation of my poor
’Magdalen.’” As illustrating the practical value of priority in such
matters and an injury often inflicted on authorship, it is significant
to recall that Le Roy’s scissored version of the novel and Miss
Pateman’s performance in it were much preferred, in San Francisco, to
the drama made by Collins, as it was acted there, at the California
Theatre, by Carlotta Leclercq (1838-1893), September 22, 1873.--This was
the cast of the principal parts at Shiels’:
_Rev. Julian Gray_ Frank Roche.
_Horace Holmcroft_ Charles Edmonds.
_Surgeon Ignatius Wetze_ A. D. Billings.
_Lady Janet Roy_ Mrs. Charles Edmonds.
_Grace Roseberry_ Jean Clara Walters.
_Mercy Merrick_ Bella Pateman.
Writing about the production of Le Roy’s “larcenous appropriation,”
Belasco has said: “When it was ready it represented a week of pasting,
cutting, and putting together.... It proved to be one of the greatest
successes San Francisco ever had.... As for the actress, Bella Pateman,
she was a wonderful woman of tears, always emotionally true, and she
became the idol of the hour, for her _Mercy Merrick_ showed her to be an
artist of great worth.” Miss Pateman was an accomplished actress (her
professional merit was much extolled in conversation with me by both
Edwin Booth and Lawrence Barrett), and she became an exceptional public
favorite in San Francisco. Her first engagement in that city continued
until August 16, and, after July 14, it was devoted on all but four
nights to repetitions of “The New Magdalen.”
Belasco’s association with Le Roy brought him into contact with persons
influential in management of Shiels’ Opera House and he was fortunate
enough to be engaged as a member of a stock company which was organized
to succeed Miss Pateman there. The first star to appear with that
company was Joseph Murphy, in a revival, made August 18, of
[Illustration:
From an old photograph. The Albert Davis Collection.
JOSEPH MURPHY]
[Illustration:
From an old photograph. Courtesy of Mrs. Lou. Devney.
JOHN PIPER]
“Maum Cre,” which held the stage for one week and in which Belasco acted
the small part of _Bloater_. On August 25, the night before his wedding,
he played with Murphy as _Bob Rackett_, in “Help,” and on September 1 as
_Baldwin_, in “Ireland and America.” Murphy’s engagement ended September
7. The next night Frederick Lyster made his first appearance at Shiels’
(of which A. M. Gray had become “sole proprietor”) in “The Rising Moon,”
and I believe that Belasco played in it, though I have not found a
record of his doing so. On September 10 Laura Alberta was the star, in
“Out at Sea,” Belasco playing with her as _Harvey_. During the next six
weeks he acted at Shiels’--personating _Sambo_, in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,”
and _Major Hershner_, in “Twice Saved; or, Bertha the Midget,” with Miss
Alberta; _Spada_, in “The Woman in Red,” with Fanny Cathcart, and
_Darley_, in “Dark Deeds,” with Miss Cathcart and George Darrell. Other
plays presented at Shiels’ during the period indicated include “More
Blunders Than One,” “Little Katy; or, The Hot Corn Girl,” “The Stage
Struck Chamber-Maid,” “Man and Wife” (Darrell’s version), “The Mexican
Tigress,” and “Evenings at Home.” It is probable that Belasco appeared
in all or most of those plays, but I have not been able to find
programmes or other records showing that he did so. On October 18 he
participated in a benefit for James Dunbar at Gray’s Opera House (that
name was first used on October 3), playing _Mons. Voyage_, in the Third
Act of “Ireland As It Was.”
THEATRICAL LIFE IN VIRGINIA CITY.