_Ashcroft_ Harry Colton.
_Tom Gray_, “_The Idiot_” George Osborne.
_Joan Gray_ Jean Clara Walters.
_Alice Gray_ Phœbe Davis.
On March 15 Osborne superseded Colton as _Ashcroft_,--his place, as _Tom
Gray_, being taken by Joseph W. Francœur.
THE PASSING OF MAGUIRE.
Maguire’s control of the Baldwin Theatre and Belasco’s career in San
Francisco were now drawing toward an end. The Geistinger Opera Company
came to the Baldwin for a few days, when “The Curse of Cain” was
withdrawn: “The Great Divorce Case” was acted there March 30: then came
Haase, in “Hamlet,” “The Gamester,” and other old plays, which were
performed by him “to a beggarly array of empty benches”: and, on April
11, the Italian tragedian Ernesto Rossi (1829-1896)
[Illustration:
Photograph by (Houseman?). Belasco’s Collection.
THOMAS MAGUIRE]
emerged in his supremely repulsive perversion of Shakespeare’s
_Othello_: Rossi acted in association with Louise Muldener and he played
at the Baldwin for one week,--closing with “Edmund Kean.” Attendance
throughout his engagement was paltry--the treasury was empty--neither
Baldwin nor anybody else would advance more money to Maguire--and the
end had come. To Belasco it came as a relief. “The last year or so at
the Baldwin,” he has declared to me, “was a good deal of a nightmare.
Although Maguire and I had our differences, I liked him, I pitied him,
and I stuck to him till the end. But my salary and my royalties were
often unpaid: we had much trouble with our actors, so that sometimes I
had to bring in amateurs who wanted experience and would play for
nothing, or, sometimes, even pay for an opportunity to go on! I not only
was stage manager, but I painted scenery, played parts when we were left
in the lurch, helped in the front of the house, attended to the
advertising, and even borrowed money for Maguire, whenever I could. But
the Rossi engagement was the last straw. Baldwin’s lawyer notified
Maguire that the theatre was up for lease--and I was glad when it was
all over.”
BELASCO AND GUSTAVE FROHMAN.--THEY REVIVE “THE OCTOROON.”
Nobody, however, seems to have been eager to rush in where so many
others had recently failed, and the Baldwin, except for a couple of
benefits (the first, a performance of “Chispa,” May 18, given for Phœbe
Davis, under direction of J. R. Grismer; the second, given May 27, a
revival of “The New Magdalen,” for the public favorite Mrs. Judah),
remained closed for about two months. During that period Gustave
Frohman, the eldest of three brothers influentially associated with the
American Stage, came to San Francisco, as representative of the
proprietors of the New York Madison Square Theatre, in charge of a
company headed by Charles Walter Couldock and Effie Ellsler, presenting
“Hazel Kirke.” With Gustave Frohman Belasco immediately formed a
friendly acquaintance which vitally affected his subsequent career.
“Hazel Kirke” was brought forward at the California Theatre on May
30--and even before that presentment had been made Belasco had suggested
to Frohman another venture. This was a “sensation revival” of the old
play of “The Octoroon.” Calender’s Colored Minstrels had just concluded
an engagement at Emerson’s Standard Theatre, and it was part of
Belasco’s scheme to employ that negro company and make use of it as
auxiliary to performance of Boucicault’s play. Gustave Frohman acceded
to Belasco’s suggestion, arranged for the proposed appearance of
Callender’s Minstrels, leased the Baldwin Theatre, and there revived
“The Octoroon,” on June 12, at low prices,--twenty-five to seventy-five
cents. This shrewdly conceived enterprise was, because of Belasco’s
felicitous treatment of old material and his skilful direction of the
players, an instant popular success. A contemporaneous commentator
writes about it as follows:
“The present management has engaged the best professional talent
the city affords, and has put it under the direction of a stage
manager who can make the most of it.... Without a single strong
feature in the cast, with possibly the exception of the
_Wah-no-tee_ of George Osborne, there were effects introduced which
give more than their ordinary interest to the performance. The
clever pen of Mr. Belasco had evidently elaborated the auction
scenes, and the scene in which _Salem Scudder_ saves the _Indian_
from the mob....”
This was the cast:
_Jacob McCloskey_ Harry Colton.
_Salem Scudder_ Edward Marble.
_Wah-no-tee_ George Osborne.
_George Peyton_ W. T. Doyle.
“_Uncle_” _Pete_ Edward Barrett.
_Mr. Sunnyside_ R. G. Marsh.
_Lafouche_ Mr. Foster.
_Paul_ Kitty Belmour.
_Ratts_ Joseph W. Francœur.
_Colonel Poindexter_ Thomas Gossman.
_Julius Thibodeaux_ Logan Paul.
_Judge Caillou_ George Galloway.
_Jackson_ George Stevens.
_Solon_ Mr. McIntosh.
_Zoe_, _the Octoroon_ Mrs. F. M. Bates.
_Dora Sunnyside_ Abbie Pierce.
_Mrs. Peyton_ Jean Clara Walters.
_Grace_ Lillie Owen.
_Dido_ Mrs. Weston.
_Minnie_ Kate Foust.
In making this revival of “The Octoroon” Belasco employed the “altered
and retouched” version of it, prepared by him, which had been acted
under his direction at the Baldwin July 8, 1878,--still further varying
and expanding several scenes of the original. The most popular variety
features, dances, “specialties,” and songs of the minstrel show were
deftly interwoven with the fabric of the drama, being utilized with
pleasing effect in an elaborate representation of the slave quarters by
moonlight, and in the first and fourth scenes of the Last Act: in the
latter the slaves were shown, slowly making their way homeward, at
evening, through the cotton fields, singing as they went, and the result
was extraordinarily picturesque and impressive. More than 150 persons,
besides the actors of the chief characters, participated in the
performance, and the slave sale and the burning of the river steamboat
Magnolia were portrayed with notable semblance of actuality. Writing to
me, Belasco says: “I used a panorama, painted on several hundred yards
of canvas, and I introduced drops, changing scenes in the twinkling of
an eye, showing, alternately and in quick succession, pursued and
pursuer,--_Jacob McCloskey_ and the _Indian_,--making their way through
the canebrake and swamp, and ending with the life and death struggle and
the killing of _McCloskey_. I must say the people were wildly
enthusiastic and I was proud of the whole production. _I_ thought the
acting very good.”
“AMERICAN BORN.”
“The Octoroon” was played for two weeks and then, June 26, gave place to
“Caryswold,” an inconsequential play which Belasco
tinkered,--introducing into it a “Fire Scene, showing the destruction of
a Mad-House,” suggested by the terrible passage in Reade’s “Hard Cash,”
descriptive of the burning of an asylum for the insane and the escape of
_Alfred Hardy_. Ada Ward, an English actress, who came from Australia,
acted the principal part in it.
Gustave Frohman’s lease of the Baldwin Theatre expired on July 1, and on
the 3rd Jay Rial, having hired the house for a week, presented “Uncle
Tom’s Cabin” there. On July 10 occurred the last event of the first
period of Belasco’s theatrical life,--the presentment at the Baldwin of
“American Born.” Edward Marble, an actor who had come to San Francisco
as a member of the “Hazel Kirke” company, was advertised as lessee of
the theatre and the play was brought out under the auspices of Gustave
Frohman. It was a free adaptation by Belasco of “British Born,” by Paul
Merritt and Henry Pettitt, and was a wild and whirling, spread-eagle,
bugle-blowing melodrama, in which the heroine, at a climax of desperate
adventure, saves her lover from being shot to death by Bolivian soldiers
by wrapping him in a flag of the United States. Its production was
chiefly remarkable for handsome scenic investiture and a really
impressive portrayal of a volcano in furious eruption. This was the cast
of “American Born”:
_IN THE PROLOGUE._
_Laban Brood_ John W. Jennings.
_George Seymour_ Joseph R. Grismer.
_Fred Faggles_ John Dillon.
_John Hope_ A. D. Bradley.
_Captain Jabez Dolman_ M. A. Kennedy.
_Constable_ George H. McCormack.
_Messenger_ Edgar Wilton.
[Illustration: DAVID BELASCO AS _UNCLE TOM_, IN “UNCLE TOM’S CABIN”
Photograph by Houseworth, San Francisco.
Original loaned by Mrs. David Belasco.]
_Mary Hope_ Ada Ward.
_Nancy Treat_ Ada Gilman.
_IN THE DRAMA._
_Don Andre de Calderone_ George Osborne.
_John Hope_ A. D. Bradley.
_George Seymour_ Joseph R. Grismer.
_Fred Faggles_ John Dillon.
_Sylvester (alias Laban Brood)_ John W. Jennings.
_Juddle (alias Captain Dolman)_ M. A. Kennedy.
_Tom Morris_ Joseph W. Francœur.
_Jumbo_ George H. McCormack.
_Landro_ Edgar Wilton.
_Mary Hope_ Ada Ward.
_Nancy Treat_ Ada Gilman.
FIRST MEETING WITH CHARLES FROHMAN.
Belasco was, during one period of his life, closely allied to Charles
Frohman. Later, after Frohman had, with others, formed the iniquitous
Theatrical Syndicate, he was, for many years, resolutely and rightly,
antagonistic to him. Age and change, however, sometimes wear out
antagonisms, and those estranged friends were reconciled not long before
Frohman’s death in the Lusitania murder: the last production made by
Frohman was a revival, at the Empire Theatre, New York, April 7, 1915,
in association with Belasco, of “A Celebrated Case.” The first meeting
of those managers occurred in San Francisco, while Belasco was
rehearsing “American Born.” He has made this record of that significant
incident:
“Charles Frohman came to San Francisco at the head of the Haverley
Minstrels. Gustave Frohman told me he thought his brother and I
should meet. The artists of the town had a rendezvous at a
Rathskeller at the corner of Kearny and Sutter streets, where we
were in the habit of gathering after the theatre. Gustave Frohman
and I were at a table, when he exclaimed: ’There’s my brother
Charlie!’ I looked at Charles, our eyes met. We bowed. That was our
introduction. We never had a formal one, Charles Frohman and I; we
just knew each other.... He came to see ’American Born,’ was
favorably impressed by it, and conceived the idea of forming a
company and taking the play East. We selected Chicago as the best
starting point for an Eastern tour and set busily to work to
organize our company and arrange details of the business.”
EASTWARD, HO!
While Belasco was thus busily engaged with preparation for the
presentment in Chicago of his drama of “American Born,” a proposal was
made to him by Daniel Frohman, business manager of the Madison Square
Theatre, New York, through his brother, Gustave Frohman, that he should
undertake, on trial, the stage management of that theatre. The
opportunity thus offered was alluring, and, having ascertained that he
might improve it without detriment to his purposed venture in Chicago,
Belasco determined to seek once more for the success in the metropolis
of the country which had long been the chief object of his ambition. He
accepted the proposal, and likewise he accepted an invitation to work
his way eastward as stage manager of the [Gustave] Frohman Dramatic
Company. That company, organized in San Francisco, included Ada Ward,
“Virgie” Emily, Abbie Pierce, “Rellie” Davis, “Jennie” Lamont, Charles
Wheatleigh, M. A. Kennedy, John Dillon, George Osborne, “Harry” Colton,
W. F. Doyle, Joseph W. Francœur, Logan Paul, and Hawley Chapman. It left
San Francisco, on or about July 18, 1882, to perform in towns and cities
of Colorado, and on July 31 began an engagement at Denver, where it
played for two weeks during the Industrial and Mining Exposition held in
that city. The repertory comprised “The Octoroon,” “East Lynne,” “Mary
Warner,” “Our Boys,” “Leah the Forsaken,” “The Woman in Red,”
“Arrah-na-Pogue,” and “American Born.”
At, apparently, about the time when Maguire ceased to be potent in San
Francisco theatrical affairs Belasco received a personal letter from F.
F. Mackaye (himself an excellent stage manager and a severe judge of
achievement in that vocation), which,--because it is representative of
the advice of several friendly admirers in the same period, and because
it had some influence on his decision to accept the Frohman
proposals,--may appropriately be printed here:
(_F. F. Mackaye to David Belasco._)
“Hotel, Pike’s Peak,
“Colorado (date? 1881-82?).
“My dear Belasco:--
“I fear that I hardly appreciated you fully while under your
direction in San Francisco: but I think I have done so since we
have been here, and my daily toil has placed me under the direction
of Mr. S----. He seems a very clever man. Yet his lack of form, of
constructive direction, is very much felt by one who has had the
pleasure of being under your direction at the Baldwin. I sometimes
wonder _why_ you have stayed so long in the West. I know some
people who have been there all their lives think it the greatest
place in the world, but I am sure that if you were to go to New
York, which is really the centre of art in the United States, your
work would be more fully recognized and appreciated. I feel that a
man of your progressive mood should not be content to remain on the
outside of the world when you could just as well be in the middle
of it. I am sure that your final efforts, or, rather, that your
continuous efforts should be made in the city of New York, where
you would be rightly appreciated.
“I wouldn’t say one word in disparagement of the people of San
Francisco: they have treated me splendidly. But I tell you New York
is the place, and I have had long experience. I began this
profession in 1851, and you are the first director that I have met
in that time and felt that he really loved the work he was
doing--and we know very well that, however much a man may know
about any art,
[Illustration:
Photograph by Sarony.
Belasco’s Collection.
F. F. MACKAYE]
[Illustration:
Photograph by Bradley & Rulofson, S. F.
Courtesy of Mrs. Frohman Davidson.
GUSTAVE FROHMAN]
unless he loves the work he is doing there is always a lack of
interest which the public is sure to detect. Don’t for one moment
think that I try to flatter you by these remarks. I say these
things because I love the Art of Acting very much, and I have found
your love and sympathy for it so great that I dearly and sincerely
admire your work. Long may you live to continue in the labor which
is always good for the art and instructive for the public!
“With very sincere regards, and hoping to see you again, I am,
“Yours very sincerely,
“F. F. Mackaye.”
* * * * *
A RETROSPECT.
Belasco was only twenty-nine years old when he brought his career in San
Francisco to an end and embarked on the venture which was at last to
establish him in the Theatre of New York. He had been eleven years on
the stage. A brief retrospect and summary of his early achievement will
be useful here. Throughout his life he had enjoyed the blessing of
family affection, admiration, and sympathy, and he had received
respectable schooling. Otherwise, his experience had been one of
unremitting, strenuous, often anxious, toil; frequent hardship,
injustice, disappointment,--in short, a painfully laborious struggle. He
had been, in childhood, a circus rider, a newsboy, a messenger, a
willing, helpful drudge, a shopboy in a cigar factory and in a
bookstore; then, as he grew older, a scribbler for the newspapers, a
salesman of haberdashery, an itinerant peddler, a strolling player, a
reader and reciter, a mimic, a theatrical manager, an agent “in advance”
of theatrical companies, a teacher of acting, a scene painter, a stage
manager, and a playwright. He had seen much of the best acting of his
period and had been intimately associated with many leaders of the
Stage,--sometimes as student and assistant, sometimes as adviser and
director. He had acted, in all sorts of circumstances and in all sorts
of places, more than 170 parts,--ranging from mere bits to characters of
the highest and most exacting order. He had altered, adapted, rewritten,
or written more than 100 plays and he had been the responsible director
in the production of more than three times that number. A catalogue is
seldom interesting reading; nevertheless, students of the Theatre and of
Belasco’s extraordinary career will do well to ponder the following
significant though incomplete schedule of the plays set upon the stage
under his direction prior to midsummer, 1882:
“Agnes.”
“Aladdin No. 2; or, The Wonderful Scamp.”
“Alixe.”
“Alphonse.”
“American Born.”
“Amy Robsart.”
Apostate,” “The.
“Arrah-na-Pogue.”
“Article 47.”
Assommoir,” “L’.
“As You Like It.”
“Aurora Floyd.”
Ballad Monger,” “The.
Belle Russe,” “La.
Bells,” “The.
“Belphegor.”
“Bianca.”
“Black-Ey’d Susan.”
“Bleak House.”
“Blow for Blow.”
Bold Stroke for a Husband,” “A.
Bull in a China Shop,” “A.
“Camille.”
“Caste.”
Celebrated Case,” “A.
“Checkmate.”
“Cherry and Fair Star.”
Child of the Regiment,” “The.
“Clouds and Sunshine.”
“Colleen Bawn.”
Corsican Brothers,” “The.
“Court and Stage.”
Cricket on the Hearth,” “The.
Curse of Cain,” “The.
“Damon and Pythias.”
“David Copperfield.”
Dead Heart,” “The.
“Dearer than Life.”
“Diplomacy.”
“Divorce.”
Doll Master,” “The.
“Dombey & Son.”
“Don Cæsar de Bazan.”
“Donna Diana.”
“Dora.”
Duke’s Motto,” “The.
“East Lynne.”
“Edmund Kean.”
“Elizabeth, Queen of England.”
Enchantress,” “The.
“Enoch Arden.”
Eviction,” “The.
“False Shame.”
“Fanchette.”
Fast Family,” “A.
“Fire-Fly.”
Fool of the Family,” “The.
Fool’s Revenge,” “The.
“Forget Me Not.”
Forty Thieves,” “The.
French Spy,” “The.
“Frou-Frou.”
Gamester,” “The.
“Green Bushes.”
Green Lanes of England,” “The.
“Guy Mannering.”
“Hamlet.”
Happy Pair,” “A.
“Hearts of Oak.”
Heir-at-Law,” “The.
“Henry Dunbar.”
“He Would and He Would Not!”
Hidden Hand,” “The.
“His Last Legs.”
“Home.”
Honeymoon,” “The.
“How She Loves Him.”
Hunchback,” “The.
“Hunted Down.”
Idiot of the Mountains,” “The.
“Ingomar.”
“Ireland and America.”
“Ireland as It Was.”
“Jack Sheppard.”
“Jane Eyre.”
“Jane Shore.”
Jealous Wife,” “The.
“Jessie Brown; or, The Relief of Lucknow.”
Jibbenainosay,” “The.
“Jones’ Baby.”
“Julius Cæsar.”
“King John.”
“King Louis XI.”
“King Richard III.”
“Lady Audley’s Secret.”
“Lady Madge.”
Lady of Lyons,” “The.
“Leah the Forsaken.”
Little Detective,” “The.
“Little Katy.”
“Loan of a Lover.”
“London Assurance.”
Lone Pine,” “The.
“Lost in London.”
“Love.”
Love Chase,” “The.
“Love’s Sacrifice.”
“Loyal Till Death.”
“Lucretia Borgia.”
“Macbeth.”
Marble Heart,” “The.
“Marie Antoinette.”
“Mary Stuart.”
“Masks and Faces.”
Merchant of Venice,” “The.
Millionaire’s Daughter,” “The.
“Miss Multon.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Peter White.”
“Money.”
Moonlight Marriage,” “The.
“Nan, the Good-for-Nothing.”
New Babylon,” “The.
New Magdalen,” “The.
“Nicholas Nickleby.”
“Nita; or, Woman’s Constancy.”
“Not Guilty.”
“Notre Dame.”
Octoroon,” “The.
“Oliver Twist.”
“Olivia.”
“One Hundred Years Old.”
“Othello.”
“Ours.”
“Out at Sea.”
Passion Play,” “The.
“Paul Arniff.”
Pearl of Savoy,” “The.
People’s Lawyer,” “The.
Pet of the Petticoats,” “The.
“Pique.”
“Proof Positive.”
“Pygmalion and Galatea.”
Regular Fix,” “A.
“Richelieu.”
“Robert Macaire.”
“Romeo and Juliet.”
“Rule a Wife and Have a Wife.”
“Ruy Blas.”
“Sarah’s Young Man.”
“School.”
School for Scandal,” “The.
Scottish Chiefs,” “The.
Scrap of Paper,” “A.
“Seraphine.”
Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing,” “A.
“She Stoops to Conquer.”
Spectre Bridegroom,” “The.
Stranger,” “The.
Stranglers of Paris,” “The.
Streets of New York,” “The.
“Struck Blind.”
“Sylvia’s Lovers.”
Ticket-of-Leave Man,” “The.
Toodles,” “The.
“True to the Core.”
Two Orphans,” “The.
“Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
“Under the Gas-Light.”
Unequal Match,” “The.
Uppercrust,” “The.
“Venice Preserved.”
Wandering Heir,” “The.
“War to the Knife.”
Wicked World,” “The.
“Wild Oats.”
Willing Hand,” “The.
Within an Inch of His Life.”
Woman in Red,” “The.
Woman of the People,” “A.
“Won at Last.”
Wonder,” “The.
Minute exposition of all the early dramatic works of Belasco is not
practicable; a succinct estimate of their quality will suffice here.
Crudity is often obvious in them--as it is in the early works of almost
all writers--and it sometimes is notably visible in the sentiment and
the style. Nevertheless, they display the operation of a mind naturally
prone to the dramatic form of expression, frequently animated by the
vitality of its own experience, steadily if slowly growing in
self-mastery of its faculties, and at once keenly observant of, and
quickly sympathetic with, contrasted aspects of life. Along with
defects,--namely, perverse preoccupation with non-essential details,
occasional verbosity, extravagant premises, and involved
construction,--they exhibit expert inventive ability, perspicacious
sense of character, acute perception of strong dramatic climax, the
faculty of humor, much tenderness of heart, wide knowledge of human
misery and human joy, special sympathy with woman, and the skill to tell
a story in action. Belasco’s dramatic works, before he left San
Francisco, exceed not only in number but in merit and practical utility
those of many other writers produced as the whole labor of a long
lifetime, and the basis of reputation and respect: at least two of his
early plays--“Hearts of Oak” and “La Belle Russe”--were, even before he
came to the East, gaining fortunes--for other persons. And for a long,
long while afterward other persons were to enjoy the chief profit of his
labor: it was not until more than thirteen years later that he was able
to launch a successful play,--“The Heart of Maryland,”--and retain
personal control of it.
* * * * *
A SECOND VENTURE IN CHICAGO.--THE LAST OF “AMERICAN BORN.”
Gustave Frohman (who left San Francisco on August 8, 1882, to join his
brother Charles, in Chicago, relative to a consolidation of Callender’s
and Haverley’s minstrel shows) appears to have disbanded his dramatic
company in Denver. At any rate, I have found no further record of it,
and Belasco’s play of “American Born” was successfully produced at the
Grand Opera House, Chicago, apparently under the joint management of
Gustave and Charles Frohman, on August 16.
I have not been able to ascertain, independently, whether or not Charles
Frohman travelled to the East with his brother’s dramatic company.
According to the “Life of Charles Frohman,” that manager left San
Francisco as agent for Haverley’s Mastodon Minstrels and relinquished
his position in Indianapolis. According to Belasco’s memory, he and
Charles Frohman travelled together coming East from San Francisco, in
which case the latter, probably, was business agent of his brother’s
company. In this biography I have seldom placed reliance on Belasco’s
memory, except when I have verified his recollections by records
contemporary with the incidents discussed,--because I have found that
(as he has several times testified in court) he has “no head for dates.”
In this matter, however, I believe that his remembrance is accurate.
This is his statement of the facts as he recalls them: