truth: it was of no consequence, possessed practically no merit
whatever, except as a vehicle for the actor. [The character of _Colonel
Sellers_ is presented by the dramatist in only a few of the aspects
available for its exposition and is attached to the play by only a
slender thread. Raymond, nevertheless, by means of thorough
personification, made the character so conspicuous that it dominated the
whole action of the play. The common notion that words are indispensable
to the expression of character is unfounded. Character shows itself in
personality, which is the emanation of it, and which finds expression in
countless ways with which words are not associated. Personality was the
potent charm of Raymond’s embodiment of _Colonel Sellers_,--a
personality compounded of vigorous animal spirits, quaintness, rich
humor, amiability, recklessness, a chronic propensity for sport, a
sensitive temperament, and an ingenuous mind. The actor made the
character lovable not less than amusing, by the spontaneous suggestion
of innate goodness and by various scarcely definable sweetly winning
traits and ways. His grave inquiry as to the raw turnips, “Do you _like_
the fruit?” was irresistibly droll. His buoyant, confident
ejaculation,--closing each discourse on some visionary scheme of
profit,--“There’s _millions_ in it!” (which Raymond’s utterance made a
byword throughout America) completely expressed the spirit of the
sanguine speculator and was not less potently humorous because of a
certain vague ruefulness in the tone of it. In acting _Colonel Sellers_
Raymond did something that was new, did it in an individual way, was
original without being bizarre, and, possessing the humor which is akin
to pathos, he could cause the laugh that is close to the tear.--W.W. in
“The Wallet of Time.”] “The Gilded Age” was first acted in New York,
September 16, 1874, at the Park Theatre.
At about the time of the first San Francisco production of “The Gilded
Age” Belasco appears to have been employed by William Horace Lingard,
and it is practically certain that he was a member of Lingard’s
company,--though I have not ascertained in what capacity,--on the
occasion of “the grand opening of Maguire’s New Theatre” (which was the
old Alhambra Theatre, rebuilt and altered), on May 4, when “Creatures of
Impulse,” “Mr. and Mrs. Peter White,” and a miscellaneous entertainment
were presented there.
During the summer of 1874 Belasco worked as a secretary and copyist for
Barton Hill, at the California Theatre, and also he performed, in a
minor position, as an actor, at Maguire’s New Theatre. He was thus
associated with, among others, Sallie Hinckley, in a revival of “The New
Magdalen”; Charles Fechter and Lizzie V. Price in a repertory which
comprehended “Ruy Blas,” “Don Cæsar de Bazan,” “The Lady of Lyons,”
“Hamlet,” and “Love’s Penance”; Miss Jeffreys-Lewis and Charles Edwards
in “School,” Boucicault’s “The Willow Copse” and “The Unequal Match”;
William J. Coggswell in “Nick o’ the Woods”; Samuel W. Piercy in
“Hamlet,” and Charles Wheatleigh in a dramatization of “Notre Dame” and
in other plays. For Piercy Belasco has ever cherished extreme admiration
and a pitiful memory of his untimely death, which,--caused by
smallpox,--befell, in Boston, in 1882. During the summer of 1874
Belasco also made various brief and unimportant “barnstorming” ventures
in small towns and camps of California, Oregon, and Washington;
likewise, he was associated, as stage director, with several groups of
amateur actors in San Francisco. On August 31 a revival of Augustin
Daly’s play of “Divorce” was effected at Maguire’s,--James A. Herne (his
name billed without the “A.”) and Miss Jeffreys-Lewis playing the
principal parts in it. Whether or not Belasco was then in the company at
Maguire’s is uncertain, but I believe that he was. At any rate, when
Mlle. Marie Zoe,--designated as “The Cuban Sylph,”--began an engagement
there, September 14, in the course of which she appeared in “The French
Spy,” “The Pretty Housebreaker,” “Nita; or, Woman’s Constancy” (and
“Mazeppa”?), Belasco was employed to co-operate with her in sword
combats on the stage: he also served Mlle. Zoe, during her stay in San
Francisco, as a sort of secretary.
From October 1 to the latter part of December, 1874, Belasco continued
in employment at Maguire’s New Theatre, officiating not only as an actor
of small parts but as stage manager, as a hack playwright, and as
secretary for Maguire. On October 12 he played the _Dwarf_ (one of the
_Phantom Crew_ of _Hendrick Hudson_), in “Rip Van Winkle,” Herne
personating _Rip_ and Alice Vane appearing as _Gertrude_. On October 21
he participated in a representation of “The People’s Lawyer” (playing
_Lawyer Tripper_?), in which Herne acted as _Solon Shingle_. On the next
night “Alphonse” was acted at Maguire’s, but Belasco seems not to have
been in the bill, because he is positive that he attended the first
production in San Francisco, made that night at the California Theatre,
of Frank Mayo’s dramatization of Charles Reade’s powerful and painful
novel of “Griffith Gaunt.” “I made a version of that book,” Belasco has
told me, “and it was a good one, as I remember it; but it passed out of
my control soon after it was written: I sold it--to James McCabe, I
think,--for a few dollars. I know it was much played in the interior
[meaning the small towns of California, Nevada, etc.]. About the same
time that I made my version of ’Griffith Gaunt,’--which, of course, was
prompted by seeing Mayo’s,--we brought out a new play at Maguire’s,
called ’Lady Madge,’ by J. H. Le Roy. I don’t recall what it was about.
I remember that it was written expressly for Adele Leighton, a rich
novice, and that I did some work on it for Le Roy and made him a clean
script and set of the parts. Herne, Sydney Cowell, and Thomas Whiffen
were in the cast.” “Lady Madge” was acted at Maguire’s November 3, and
did not hold the stage for more than a week. On the 11th of that month a
dramatization of Lever’s “Charles O’Malley,” made by Herne, was brought
out, Herne appearing in it as _Mickey Free_ and Sydney Cowell as _Mary
Brady_. On November 16 Annette Ince and Ella Kemble acted at Maguire’s,
supported by Herne and Whiffen, in “The Sphinx,” and on the 26th a
notably successful revival was made of “Oliver Twist,”--a more or less
rehashed version of the dramatic epitome of the novel which had been
made known throughout our country by E. L. Davenport and James W.
Wallack, the Younger, being used. Herne played _Sikes_; Annette Ince,
_Nancy_; Ella Kemble, _Rosa Maylie_, and---- Lindsay, _Fagin_. On
December 1 “Carlotta! Queen of the Arena” was brought out, with Miss
Ince as _Carlotta_ and Herne as _Bambuno_. I have been able to find only
one other definite record of a performance at Maguire’s, prior to March
1, 1875; that record is of a presentment there of the old musical play
of “The Enchantress,” on December 24, with Amy Bennett in the principal
female part: Belasco directed the production (ostensibly under the stage
management of Herne) and appeared in the prologue as _Pietro_ and in the
drama as _Galeas_. “I did a lot of hard work on ’The Enchantress’ for
Miss Bennett’s appearance in it,--in fact, I rewrote most of the
dialogue,” Belasco has declared to me.
RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.--1875.
In Pinero’s capital farce of “The Magistrate” _Mrs. Posket_, solicitous
to conceal her age, addresses to her friend _Colonel Lukyn_ an earnest
adjuration relative to an impending interview with her husband: “Don’t
give him _dates_; keep anything like _dates_ away from him!” Belasco’s
aversion to fixed facts fully equals that of the distressed lady,
though, in his case, it is temperamental instead of secretive. “The
vagabond,” he writes, “always says ’at this time,’ whether it be to-day
or to-morrow, and, like Omar, he ’lets the credit go.’ The incidents
that now come to mind are a little confused as to their chronological
order, but what does it matter, if the _impression_ is true!” It
“matters,” unfortunately, much,--because confusion and apparent
contradiction which result from lack of accuracy and order sometimes
tend to create an unjust belief that related incidents, actually
authentic, are untrue. It has, moreover, rendered protracted and tedious
almost beyond patience the work of compiling and arranging a clear,
sequent, authoritative account of Belasco’s long and extraordinary
career. I have ascertained divers particulars of his early experiences
and alliances (verifying them as _facts_ by diligent search and inquiry
in many directions), which, however, I have not invariably been able to
place in exact chronological order and which may conveniently be
summarized here.
Perhaps the most important single event of the first decade of Belasco’s
theatrical life was his employment in a responsible position at
Baldwin’s Academy of Music. But during about a year and a half prior to
his first engagement there, and also during about the same length of
time subsequent to it, he gained much valuable knowledge, in association
with various players, acting in “the lumber districts” of Oregon and
Washington; in Victoria and Nevada, and in many California towns,
including Oakland, Sacramento, Petaluma, Stockton, Marysville, San José,
etc. Wandering stars, of varying magnitude, with whom he thus appeared
include Sallie Hinckley and Mrs. Frank Mark Bates (respectively, aunt
and mother of Blanche Bates), Amy Stone, Ellie Wilton, Charles R.
Thorne, Sr., Mary Watson, Annie Pixley, Fanny Morgan Phelps, Frank I.
Fayne, Gertrude Granville, Laura Alberta, Katie Pell, and the old
California minstrel, “Jake” Wallace. With Miss Pell and Wallace he
appeared in the smaller towns of California
[Illustration:
From a rare old photograph. The Albert Davis Collection.
GERTRUDE GRANVILLE]
[Illustration:
From a photograph by Sarony. Belasco’s Collection.
ANNIE PIXLEY AS _M’LISS_]
and Nevada, and he has afforded me the following interesting bit of
random recollection. “Wallace was held dear in every Western mining
camp. He was a banjoist, and when the miners heard him coming down the
road, singing the old ’49 songs, there used to be a general cry of ’Here
comes Wallace!’ and work would stop for the day. In ’The Girl of the
Golden West’ [1905] I introduced a character in memory of the ’Jake’
Wallace of long ago; I gave him the same name, made him sing the same
songs, and enter the poker-saloon to be greeted in the same old hearty
manner. When negotiations were under way between the great composer
Puccini and myself for ’The Girl of the Golden West’ to be set to music,
I took him to see a performance of the play. As we sat there, I could
feel no perceptible enthusiasm from him until _Jake Wallace_ came in,
singing his ’49 songs. ’Ah!’ exclaimed Puccini, ’_there_ is my theme at
last!’”
Of Mrs. Bates and her ill-fated husband he gives this reminiscence:
“Both Mrs. Bates and her husband were sterling actors [they were players
of respectable talent, well trained in the Old School--W.W.]. Mrs. Bates
was a slight little woman, full of romance and for the greater part of
our acquaintance much given to melancholy. I look back on her prime, and
I know of no actress who gave a more satisfactory interpretation of
_Camille_ than she did. Her _Marie Antoinette_ was also very impressive.
Mr. and Mrs. Bates soon left for Australia, but before they went, as a
token of friendship, I was given many manuscript plays and costumes
which the two would not need. Soon after Mr. Bates was mysteriously
murdered. Many months passed, and I heard that Mrs. Bates was again in
San Francisco, staying at the Occidental Hotel. So I called upon her. ’I
only have Blanche to live for now,’ she said, and while we sat there she
called for her little daughter to come to her. That was my first meeting
with my future star. Thereafter little Blanche was put to school, and I
went on the road with Mrs. Bates, playing _Armand Duval_ to her
_Camille_. Then I lost sight of her for some time until at last one day
I was walking with ’Jimmie’ Barrows, when he began to tell me of a
famous actress who was boarding at his house. ’Her name is Mrs. Bates,’
declared ’Jimmie,’ and when I went home with him I found my old friend
again. Blanche had pulled out, like a fast growing flower, blithesome
and gay; but her mother seemed to have parted with the last drop in the
cup of her happiness, and during our entire tour showed the nervous
strain she had experienced during the awful times in Australia. ’It is
so difficult for me to go back to the different theatres and tread the
stages we played on so often together,’ she would say. ’I seem to see
Frank’s face everywhere, in the shadows of the wings and out in the cold
empty spaces of the auditorium when we are rehearsing. I wonder who
struck him down.’
“I felt a great sympathy for her, and she and I became almost like
brother and sister. Never shall I forget those days and the long walks
we used to take under skies that held all the warmth and splendor of
southern Europe, along roads that wound their tree-embowered way through
the hills to the little monastery nestling above. At night we could hear
the ringing of far-away bells, and sometimes through the stilly air the
sound of voices was wafted to us across the silence. In this atmosphere
Mrs. Bates would sit and talk to me of the East, and I would dream
dreams of things to be. There was a popular song of the time in San
Francisco called ’Castles in the Air,’ and invariably our talks would
end with a laugh and by my humming that tune.
“It was Mrs. Bates’ ambition to see Blanche doing literary work; for she
did not want her to enter the theatrical profession, but later she said:
’I fear the child will go on the stage after all, and what is more, I
feel that she is going to have a future. Perhaps, who knows, some day
you may be able to do something for her,’ and I promised her that I
would, if luck ever came my way.”
Writing to me about other actors of that far-off time, Belasco has
mentioned: “I remember, with special pleasure and admiration, John E.
Owens, though I don’t remember that I ever acted with him. He produced a
play at the Bush Street Theatre [error: more probably at the
California?], the name of which I have forgotten, but it was all about
’a barrel o’ apple sass’ [strange that Belasco should have forgotten the
title,--“The People’s Lawyer,” sometimes billed as “Solon
Shingle,”--because he several times acted in it, with Herne and others],
and I was so impressed that I wrote a play for him, called ’The Yankee.’
Owens very kindly listened to my reading of it, but told me he had no
intention of putting aside a long tried success. However, he liked some
of the speeches in my piece and paid me $25 for them.”
“One of my most valued teachers,” he also writes, “was ’old man Thorne’
[Charles R. Thorne, Sr.]. I did much work for him as copyist, prompter,
etc., and attended to all sorts of details,--hiring of wigs, arms,
costumes, etc., for the minor parts and for supers in productions which
he put on,--so that often he used to say to me, ’My dear Davie, I don’t
know what I should do without you!’ Once, when Thorne produced ’King
Richard III.,’ in a tent, in Howard Street, I took part and fought a
sword combat with him on horseback. He was always very kind to me,
taught me much and gave me pieces of wardrobe, feathers, belts, swords,
&c. Another early favorite of mine was Mary Gladstane. I copied parts
and scripts for her, at the Metropolitan and elsewhere, and whenever she
played _Mary Warner_ in San Francisco I cried over her performance so
much that she was delighted and gave me a copy of the prompt book. There
were no streetcars in those days, and often I walked with her to and
from the theatre.”
Belasco was absent from San Francisco from about the middle of January,
1875, until the following May. A Miss Rogers, who had been a school
teacher, who is described as having been “very beautiful,” and who
became infected with ambition to shine as a dramatic luminary, obtained
sufficient financial support to undertake a starring tour and Belasco
was employed by her as an agent, stage manager, and actor. The tour
appears to have begun, auspiciously, in (Portland?), Oregon, and to have
been continued, with declining prosperity, in small towns along the Big
Bear and Little Bear rivers. The repertory presented comprised “East
Lynne,” “Camille,” “Frou-Frou,” etc., and “Robert Macaire.” “I always
liked to play _Macaire_,” Belasco has told me, “and whenever I got a
chance to make up a repertory I included that piece in it.” The tour
lasted as long as the financial support was continued: then the company
was ignominiously disbanded. Belasco and Miss Rogers, however, continued
to act together for several weeks, presenting a number of one-act
plays--such as “A Conjugal Lesson,” “A Happy Pair,” “Mr. and Mrs. Peter
White,” etc.,--which require only two performers. Belasco also gave
recitations. “One of my ’specialties,’” he has told me, “was ’The Antics
of a Clown,’ in which I gave imitations of opera singers and ballet
dancers--using a slack rope instead of a taut wire. I also gave
imitations of all the well-known actors, and I had a ’ventriloquist
act,’ with dummies. I made my own wigs and costumes and, altogether, I
worked pretty hard for a living!”
On February 15, 1875, Augustin Daly produced his authorized adaptation
of Gustav von Moser’s “Ultimo,” at the second Fifth Avenue Theatre, New
York, under the name--once known throughout our country--of “The Big
Bonanza.” Its success was instant and extraordinary. R. H. Hooley, of
Chicago, presently employed Bartley Campbell (1844-1888) to make another
version of that play,
[Illustration: DAVID BELASCO AS _ROBERT MACAIRE_
_Strop._ Suppose he should _wake_?
_Macaire_. He _won’t_ wake!
Photograph by Bradley & Rulofson, San Francisco.
Original loaned by Mrs. David Belasco.]
“specially localized and adapted for San Francisco.” Campbell fulfilled
his commission, passing several weeks in the Western metropolis in order
to provide “local atmosphere.” Belasco was still “barnstorming” when he
learned of the appearance of Hooley’s Comedy Company in San
Francisco,--May 10, at the Opera House, in Campbell’s “Peril; or, Love
at Long Branch,”--and he immediately ended his uncertain connection with
Miss Rogers in order to return home, so that he might witness the
performances of Hooley’s company and, if possible, become a member of
it. “I was much impressed by the reputation of ’Hooley’s Combination,’”
he writes in a note to me; “and I wanted particularly to see William H.
Crane and M. A. Kennedy. Crane’s big, wholesome method made a great
success, and the whole company was popular.” Belasco seems not to have
reached home until about the end of the second week of the Hooley
engagement: soon after that he contrived to obtain employment at the
Opera House as assistant prompter and to play what used to be styled
“small utility business.” His note to me continues: “Because I had
played many big parts, out of town, some of my theatrical friends
thought my willingness to do _any work_ that would give me valuable
experience was beneath my ’dignity’ and that I was thereby losing
’caste.’ I never saw it that way. ’Haven’t you any pride?’ they used to
say; and I used to answer ’No, I expect to be obliged to spend a certain
amount of time in the cellar before I’m allowed to walk into the
parlor!’” And in conversation with me on this subject he has said, “Why,
I would do _anything_ in those days, to learn or get a chance: I once
worked as a dresser for J. K. Emmet, because I couldn’t get into his
company any other way,--but it wasn’t long before I was playing parts
with him.”
In his “Story” Belasco mentions that Daly came to San Francisco at about
the same time as Hooley and that when the latter brought out “Ultimo,”
and Daly produced “The Big Bonanza,” “strange as it is to relate, the
productions were almost equally successful.” That is an error: Hooley’s
production was made on June 7 and, though distinctly inferior to
Daly’s,--made on July 19,--priority had its usual effect and the wind
was completely taken out of Daly’s sails: “The Big Bonanza” was acted in
San Francisco by Daly’s company less than half-a-dozen times, while
“Ultimo” was played for several weeks and also was several times
revived.
Belasco’s relation with the Hooley company lasted until July (11?), on
which date its season was ended at the Opera House,--a tour of Pacific
Slope towns beginning the next week. Belasco, remaining in San
Francisco, endeavored to attach himself to Daly’s company, but failed to
do so,--partly, it is probable, because of his intimate connection with
Maguire, who was both friendly to Hooley and inimical to Daly, whom he
had striven to exclude from San Francisco by refusing to rent him a
theatre. Daly, however, hired Platt’s Hall and, July 13, presented his
company there, in “London Assurance,” so successfully that Maguire
decided to withdraw his opposition and share the profits of success.
Daly’s company, accordingly, was transferred to the Opera House on July
15, making its first appearance there in “Divorce,” with Belasco as one
of the auditors.
During the remainder of 1875 Belasco labored in much the same desultory
and precarious way. When no other employment could be procured by him he
worked as a salesman in an outfitting shop. “One thing I did,” he
gleefully relates, “for which I was much looked down upon--whenever I
went into the country towns I peddled a ’patent medicine,’ as I called
it; a gargle made from a receipt of my mother’s, and it was a good one,
too; I know because I not only sold it but I _used_ it! And I coaxed all
my theatrical friends to use it and write testimonials for me.” His
chief business, However, when not regularly engaged in the theatres, was
the collection and compilation of a library of plays. Between 1875 and
1880 he prepared prompt books of almost every play that was successfully
produced in San Francisco--altering and rearranging many of them,--and
in frequent instances supplying them to travelling companies or stars.
His friend Mrs. Bates, speaking to me (1903) about him and about the
facility he developed as an adapter and playwright, said: “He was a
marvel! In ’the old days’ I have known a star to give Belasco an
_outline_ of a plot, with three or four situations, on a Thursday
night--and we _acted the play_ on the next Monday!”
Among dramatizations that he made in this year, or the next, are “Bleak
House,”--prompted by the success of Mme. Janauschek, who had presented a
version at the California Theatre, June 7,--“David Copperfield,” “Dombey
& Son,” “Struck Blind,” and “The New Magdalen.” The latter was a variant
of Le Roy’s version, which he made for his friend Ellie Wilton, and
which was first acted at the California on August 7, 1875. On the 27th
of that month “Lost in London” was acted at Maguire’s New Theatre,
according to a prompt book made by Belasco, and on the 30th Reade’s
“Dora” was brought out there,--“under my stage direction,” says Belasco,
and adds: “I also did some work on the [prompt] book, so as to make the
part of _Farmer Allen_ more suitable for James O’Neill.” On November 1
J. A. Sawtell made his first appearance in San Francisco, in one of
Murphy’s many revivals of “Maum Cre.” “I recall _that_ night,
perfectly,” writes Belasco, “because I then first met Sawtell, with whom
I afterward travelled in many capacities. When I produced ’The Girl of
the Golden West’ (1905), Sawtell asked me for an engagement--just so he
’could be doing something,’ as he put it--and I remember that he came up
to me on the stage one night and said: ‘“Davy,” I was a big star in
California and you were my boy assistant; now here you are with your own
theatre and I’m playing a small part in it! How did you do it?’”
About the end of November Belasco left Maguire’s employment and took a
place as assistant stage manager, prompter, and general helper under
Charles R. Thorne, Sr., who, on December 13, opened Thorne’s Palace
Theatre (it had previously been Wilson’s Amphitheatre), at the corner of
Montgomery and Market Streets, San Francisco. That engagement lasted for
about three weeks--Thorne closing his theatre on December 31, without
warning. Belasco’s delight in acquiring experience was gratified in this
venture, but it was not otherwise profitable to him, as Thorne was
unable to pay more than a small part of his salary. Besides discharging
his other duties Belasco acted, in this engagement, _Santo_, in
“Gaspardo; or, The Three Banished Men of Milan”; _Signor Meteo_, in “The
Miser’s Daughter,” and _Gilbert Gates_, in “The Dawn of Freedom.” “The
Fool’s Revenge,”--Thorne as _Bertuccio_ and Kate Denin as
_Fiordelisa_,--“The Forty Thieves,” “Who Killed Cock Robin?” and
“Faustus, a Romantic Spectacle,” were also produced, and, in one
capacity or another, Belasco took part in all those productions; but I
have not been able to find programmes. On January 7, 1876, the house was
reopened, as the Palace Theatre, under the management of Col. J. H.
Wood, presenting Frank Jones, in “The Black Hand; or, The Lost Will,” in
which Belasco performed as _Bob, a Policeman_. Jones’ engagement lasted
for about three weeks: thereafter Belasco drifted back into the
employment of Maguire.
BALDWIN’S ACADEMY AND BARRY SULLIVAN.