time Palmer intended to produce the play. The play was to be the
opening attraction at the Herald Square, under joint management.
“But early in the summer Blieman sent for me. ’Whitney has “cold
feet”,’ he remarked, ’and has dropped out.’ ’There are still two of
you left,’ I answered. Several weeks after this Blieman sent for me
again and this time he was in despair. ’Charlie’s dropped out now,’
he said; ’but by---- I believe in the play and I’ll stick....’
“The opening took place in Washington; and as I could not get into
the theatre before Sunday we were not ready to open until the
middle of the week. We practically lived in the theatre. We made a
great sensation on the opening night, but Washington,
unfortunately, was in the grip of a financial panic, and the houses
in consequence were very poor,--so poor, indeed, that Blieman’s
pocket was empty. He was obliged to confess that he had not enough
money left to send the company back to New York. So here we
were,--stranded, billed to open in New York on Monday night and no
money to get there.
“Blieman summoned courage and made a hasty trip to New York to try
to raise some money, and when I saw him in the evening he was all
smiles. ’What do you think,’ he confided to me, ’I’ve just borrowed
fifteen hundred dollars from “Al” Hayman on a picture worth thirty
thousand.’ Here was a boy after my own heart! The fifteen hundred
dollars enabled us to return to New York, and at last the poor old
storm-tossed ’Heart of Maryland’ had its metropolitan opening--on
the strength of a pawned painting!”
“The Heart of Maryland” was acted for the first time anywhere at the
Grand Opera House, Washington, D. C., October 9, 1895; and the first
performance of it in New York occurred on October 22, that year, at the
Herald Square Theatre. It is a meritorious and highly effective
melodrama, and its New York production marks a vital point in the career
of its indefatigible and brilliantly accomplished author. When the
curtain rose on its first performance in the metropolis he had been for
nearly a quarter of a century toiling in the Theatre, working in every
capacity connected with the Stage; he had written and produced, for
others, plays which had received thousands of representations and to see
which several millions of dollars had been paid: yet he was,--through no
fault of his, no improvidence, dissipation, reckless neglect or abuse of
talent,--still a struggling author, without recognized position, without
place or influence in the field of theatrical management, and so poor
that, if the venture failed, he had no better prospect than renewed
drudgery in a subservient place, working for the profit and
aggrandizement of men vastly inferior to himself in every way. Perhaps
the best explanation of and commentary on this fact were supplied,
several years later, when, testifying in court during trial of a lawsuit
of his against the late Joseph Brooks, he said of himself:
“I have long been connected with the theatrical business and know
its customs, but I know more about the stage part of it than I do
about the business side. I have been a manager for twenty-five
years, and have always managed to get the worst of my business
affairs.”
STORY AND PRODUCTION OF “THE HEART OF MARYLAND.”--ITS GREAT SUCCESS.
“The Heart of Maryland” belongs to the class of _post-bellum_ plays
represented in the years immediately
[Illustration:
Photograph by Sarony. Belasco’s Collection.
MRS. LESLIE CARTER, ABOUT 1895]
following the close of the American civil conflict by Boucicault’s
“Belle Lemar” (which was first acted at Booth’s Theatre August 10,
1874), and, more recently, by Howard’s “Shenandoah” and Gillette’s “Held
by the Enemy,”--being much superior to both the latter dramas. The scene
of that play is in and near an old Colonial homestead, called “The
Lilacs,” inhabited by the _Calvert_ family, at Boonsboro, Maryland, in
the Spring of 1863. It is comprised in four acts and six scenes,
requiring five sets of scenery for their display. Its action passes
within about thirty-six hours and implicates about thirty persons, of
whom five are important,--namely _General Hugh Kendrick_, _Colonel Alan
Kendrick_, his son, _Colonel Fulton Thorpe_, _Lloyd Calvert_, and
_Maryland Calvert_. _Maryland_ and _Alan Kendrick_ are lovers and have
been betrothed, but she is passionately devoted to the Southern cause,
while he ardently supports that of the North,--holding rank as a colonel
in the Federal Army,--and their political difference has divided them,
though without lessening their love. In the First Act _Alan_, who has
been captured by the Rebels and imprisoned at Dansville, is exchanged
and, in passing through Boonsboro on the way to the Union lines, he
meets both his sweetheart, _Maryland_, and _Colonel Thorpe_. _Thorpe_, a
Northern spy and a double traitor, whom _Alan_ has publicly flogged for
blackguardly conduct and then caused to be drummed out of his regiment,
holds rank as a colonel in the Rebel Army. In revenge for the
humiliation to which he has been subjected _Thorpe_ expedites the
transport of _Alan_ and other exchanged Federal prisoners, so that they
shall be conveyed immediately to Charlesville,--his purpose being thus
to cause their death along with that of the entire garrison at that
place, which _General Kendrick_, in command of an overwhelming
Confederate army, purposes to surprise by night and utterly to destroy.
_Lloyd Calvert_, unknown to his family, is a Northern spy. He has
learned of _General Kendrick’s_ plan and seeks to warn the Federal
forces at Charlesville. Unable to do so, he informs _Maryland_ of the
projected assault and she, to save her lover, communicates knowledge of
the impending danger to him, thus causing the failure of the surprise
attack.
In the Second Act _Alan_,--supposing that the Confederate Army has moved
away--rashly returns to Boonsboro, desiring to effect reconciliation
with his sweetheart. _Lloyd_, trying to bring about a meeting between
the lovers, speaks, ambiguously, to _Maryland_ about “a Northern friend”
whom he wishes her to meet for him and “detain.” Later, while trying to
make his way to the Union lines with important information, _Lloyd_ is
shot and, dying, is detected as a spy: _Alan_ is, meantime, recaptured,
wearing the hat and overcoat of a Confederate officer, and _Maryland_,
unaware of his identity and thinking to clear her brother’s reputation
as a loyal Southerner, denounces the prisoner to _General Kendrick_ as
the real spy. _Alan_, by order of his father, is then tried by
court-martial and condemned to death.
In the Third Act _Maryland_ makes her way into the Union lines and
obtains from _General Hooker_, there commanding, a letter to _General
Kendrick_ certifying that the presence of his son, _Colonel Kendrick_,
within the Confederate lines, was due to a personal, not a military,
motive,--in short, that _Alan_ is not a spy. Returning with this letter
to her home, which has become Confederate Headquarters, _Maryland_ finds
that _General Kendrick_ has been killed in action and that _Colonel
Thorpe_ is in command. _Thorpe_, whom she visits in his quarters in the
old church of Boonsboro,--part of which is also used for confinement of
military prisoners,--and to whom she appeals for mercy, perceiving that
_Hooker’s_ letter, if it should reach any Confederate officer other than
himself, would imperil his own life, not only refuses a reprieve for
_Alan Kendrick_ but orders that execution of the death sentence be
hastened. Then, half drunken and wholly bestial, he insults the
unfortunate _Alan_, who, pinioned and helpless, is on his way to the
gallows and, in his presence, threatens his sweetheart with outrage.
_Maryland_, in desperation, defending herself, stabs _Thorpe_ with a
bayonet (a weapon ingeniously introduced for this purpose among the
articles accessory to the stage setting, being thrust into a table-top
and used as a candlestick), wounding and disabling him. She then
liberates _Alan_, who makes his escape. _Thorpe_, rallying, orders the
church-bell rung, a prearranged signal warning all sentries that a
prisoner has broken jail; but _Maryland_, making her way to the belfry,
seizes the clapper of the great bell and, thus enacting the devoted
expedient of _Bessie_, in “Curfew Must Not Ring To-night,” prevents the
alarm and enables her lover to make good his escape.
In the Fourth Act _Thorpe’s_ double duplicity has been discovered in the
Rebel capital and he is ordered under arrest by _General Lee_; the
Confederate troops, defeated in a general engagement, are forced to
evacuate Boonsboro, and the play ends with a prospective reconciliation
of the lovers.
“The Heart of Maryland,” though somewhat intricate in its story (only
the main thread of which has been followed in the above recital), is
compact in construction, fluent and cumulative in dramatic movement and
interest, written with profound sincerity and contains passages of
tender feeling and afflicting pathos. The “Curfew” expedient, if, in
cool retrospect, it seems a little artificial, is, in representation, a
thrillingly effective climax to an affecting portrayal of distress and
danger. The first picture, exhibiting the ancestral home of the
_Calvert_ family, an old Colonial mansion, deep-bowered among ancient,
blooming lilac bushes and bathed in the fading glow of late afternoon
and sunset light, was one of truly memorable loveliness. Indeed, the
scenery investment, throughout, was of exceptional beauty and dramatic
appropriateness, and the manifold accessories of military environment,
with all “the proud control of fierce and bloody war,”--the suggested
presence and movement of large bodies of infantry and cavalry; the
denoted passage of heavy artillery; the stirring sounds of martial music
and of desperate battle; the red glare and dun smoke-pall of
conflagration, and the various employment and manipulation of light and
darkness to illustrate and intensify the dramatic theme,--were
extraordinarily deft in devisement and felicitous in effect. Belasco was
also peculiarly fortunate in selection of the actors who performed the
principal parts in his play. The handsome person and picturesque,
romantic mien of Maurice Barrymore, who appeared as _Alan Kendrick_,
were perfectly consonant with that character; John E. Kellerd gave an
impersonation of remarkable artistic merit--true to life and true to the
part--as the despicable yet formidable scoundrel _Thorpe_, and Mrs.
Carter, profiting richly by the zealous schooling of her mentor,
embodied _Maryland Calvert_ at first in a mood of piquant playfulness,
veiling serious feeling, then with genuine, wild and intense passion.
This was the cast in full of the performance at the Herald Square
Theatre:
_General Hugh Kendrick_ Frank Mordaunt.
_Colonel Alan Kendrick_ Maurice Barrymore.
_Colonel Fulton Thorpe_ John E. Kellerd.
_Lieutenant Robert Telfair_ Cyril Scott.
_Provost Sergeant Blount_ Odell Williams.
_Tom Boone_ Henry Weaver, Jr.
_Lloyd Calvert_ Edward J. Morgan.
_The Sexton_ John W. Jennings.
_Uncle Dan’l_ Scott Cooper
_Captain Leighton_ A. Pearson.
_Captain Blair_ A. C. Mora.
_Lieutenant Hayne_ W. H. Foy.
{ Frank Stanwick.
_Aides-de-Camp to General Kendrick_ { Robert McIntyre.
{ William Johnson.
_Corporal Day_ Edwin Meyer.
_Corporal_ H. E. Bostwick.
_Bludsoe_ Edwin F. Mayo.
_Little True Blue_ “Johnny” McKeever.
_O’Hara_ J. H. Hazelton.
_Ruggles_ Thomas Matlock.
_Forbes_ Joseph Maxwell.
_Phil_ Joseph A. Webber.
_Sentry_ E. J. Boyce.
_Scout_ C. H. Robertson.
_Mrs. Clairborne Gordon_ Helen Tracy.
_Maryland Calvert_ Mrs. Leslie Carter.
_Phœbe Yancey_ Georgie Busby.
_Nanny McNair_ Angela McCall.
Popular approval of the representation was immediate and bounteous and
there was little critical cavilling in the press. On the first night in
New York, after the Third Act, the audience many times called the entire
company before the curtain and, at last, Belasco, in an obviously
painful state of nervous excitement, responding to vociferous demands,
made a brief and grateful speech, in the course of which he said:
“It is very difficult for me to speak, to thank you. Your kind and
generous approval to-night means so very, very much to Mrs. Carter
and all the splendid company that has worked so loyally for the
success of this play. It means more to me than any words of mine
can say. This production to-night is the culmination of twenty-five
years of work; of hard, hard work and often bitter disappointment.
I have been a supernumerary, a call boy, an actor, a stage manager
for others, an adapter of plays: now I am encouraged to hope I have
proved myself a dramatist.... It is many long years since I first
dreamed of an independent success in New York--a success I might
keep in my own hands. If this is at last the turning of the tide
that leads on to fortune, I shall never forget my debt to you: I
shall strive, as long as I live, to give you, to give the people of
this great and wonderful city, not only the best there is in me but
the very best the Theatre can give. Thank you from my heart! I
thank you--I thank you!”
It was, indeed, “the turning of the tide.” “The Heart of Maryland” was
played at the Herald Square Theatre for 229 consecutive performances,
and it occupied a large part of Belasco’s time and attention during the
period of about two years which followed its New York production.
The season ended at the Herald Square on May 16, 1896. From about that
date until June 23 Mrs. Carter and Belasco underwent the painful ordeal
incident to trial of his lawsuit against N. K. Fairbank,--which, as
already recorded, terminated on the latter date with a verdict in favor
of the manager. In the course of the next six weeks Belasco made a
revision of Clay M. Greene’s “Under the Polar Star,” which was produced
by William A. Brady, August 20, at the New York Academy of Music. On
October 5, at the Broad Street, Philadelphia, the first tour of “The
Heart of Maryland” was begun, under the personal direction of its
author. That tour was everywhere amply successful and it
[Illustration:
Photograph by Sarony. Belasco’s Collection.
MRS. LESLIE CARTER AS _MARYLAND CALVERT_, IN “THE HEART OF MARYLAND”.]
lasted without special incident,--except that toward its close Belasco
purchased (April, 1897) the interest of Mr. Max Bleiman in the
production,--until the following May 1. The season was ended on that
date at the Grand Opera House, New York, and Belasco soon afterward
visited San Francisco. The third season of “The Heart of Maryland” began
at the scene of so much of his early experience, the Baldwin Theatre, in
that city, August 17, and continued in unabated prosperity for about
seven months.
“THE FIRST BORN.”--A SUCCESS AND A FAILURE.
While Belasco was in San Francisco he witnessed several performances of
a play called “The First Born,” written by Francis Powers, which had
been produced, May 10, under the management of his brother, Frederick
Belasco, at the Alcazar Theatre, and he was so favorably impressed with
its merits that he arranged to present that drama,--which ran for ten
weeks in San Francisco,--in New York, in association with Charles
Frohman. That arrangement was successfully consummated, at the Manhattan
(previously the Standard) Theatre, October 5, 1897. “The First Born” is
a tragic sketch of character and life in the Chinese quarter of old San
Francisco,--a region with which the acquaintance of Belasco was
peculiarly intimate and exact and one of which the mingled squalor and
romance had always strongly attracted him. The posture of circumstances
and experience depicted in that play is simple and direct. _Man Low
Yek_, a rich Chinese merchant, has stolen _Chan Lee_, the wife of _Chan
Wang_, also a Chinese and a dweller in the Chinatown. That ravagement
_Wang_ has borne with equanimity; but when _Chan Lee_, returning to San
Francisco with her paramour, entices _Chan Toy_, their first born and
only son, from him and in her endeavor to steal the child accidentally
causes his death, the unfortunate _Wang_ becomes at first an image of
agonized paternal love and then an embodiment of implacable vengeance.
The play is in two acts. In the first, Chinatown is shown in the bright
light and bustle of a busy noonday and against that setting is displayed
the sudden bereavement and afflicting anguish of the father. In the
second, an alley-end in the same district is shown, with a glimpse of
contiguous gambling hells and opium dens, under the darkening shadows of
evening. There the inexorable avenger lounges, leaning against a door
post,--apparently an idler smoking his evening pipe and talking with a
Chinese girl, who leans from a window; in fact, vigilantly observant of
_Man Low Yek_, visible within a shop, and intent on slaying him. The
alley grows dark and becomes deserted. The neighboring houses are
illumined. The chink of money and the bickering chatter of unseen
gamblers are heard. A police officer saunters by and disappears. _Man
Low Yek_ comes forth from his shop, closing it after him. Then,
suddenly, as he passes, _Wang_, with fearful celerity, leaps upon him
wielding a hatchet, strikes him down, drags the dead body into
convenient concealment, and is back again at his former loitering place,
outwardly placid, before the fire in his pipe has had time to become
extinguished.
Belasco’s presentment of this play in New York was a gem of histrionic
illustration,--the grouping and movement of the players and the many
super-numeraries, the employment of light and sound, every expedient
alike of action and repose, every detail of dress, every accessory of
scenic embellishment, all were so adroitly used and blended as to create
an impression of perfect verisimilitude, and the spectator seemed to
behold two veritable segments of Chinatown life. The acting, especially
that of Mr. Powers as _Chan Wang_ and of May Buckley as _Loey Tsing_, a
Chinese girl who loves him, was exceptionally earnest and effective.
This was the cast:
_Loey Tsing_ May Buckley.
_Chow Pow_ Ellen Cummins.
_Chan Lee_ Carrie E. Powers.
_Dr. Pow Len_ George Osborne.
_Man Low Yek_ Charles Bryant.
_Chan Wang_ Francis Powers.
_Hop Kee_ J. H. Benrimo.
_Chum Woe_ Harry Spear.
_Kwakee_ John Armstrong.
_Duck Low_ George Fullerton.
_Sum Chow_ Harry Levain.
_A Chinese Ragpicker_ Walter Belasco.
_A Provision Dealer_ Fong Get.
_Chan Toy_ Venie Wells.
_Way Get_ Joseph Silverstone.
{ Ysobel Haskins.
_Tourists_ { Florence Haverleigh.
{ L. I. Fuller.
{ Hugo Toland.
“The First Born” was acted at the Manhattan Theatre in association with
“A Night Session,” a farce derived from the French: later, other farces
were performed with the Chinatown tragedy. Its success was decisive and
it was acted in New York until December 11;--at the Manhattan from
October 5 to November 6, and at the Garden Theatre (in association with
an English version, by Benjamin F. Roeder, of “L’Été de St. Martin,” by
Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy) from November 29 onward. Belasco and
Frohman, elated by their American victory with this play, were eager to
repeat it in London. A second company was, accordingly, at once engaged,
rehearsed, and brought forward at the Manhattan,--the original company
sailing for England October 23, and emerging at the Duke of York’s
Theatre, London, November 6. The enterprising manager William A. Brady
had, however, hastened to the British capital before them with another
and similar play, called “The Cat and the Cherub,” which he presented at
the Lyric Theatre, October 30, thus fore-stalling “The First Born” and
causing its flat failure in London. It was withdrawn after one week,
Belasco and Frohman losing about $20,000 on their undertaking.
BELASCO’S SECOND ENGLISH VENTURE.--“THE HEART OF MARYLAND” IN LONDON.
During the dramatic season of 1897-’98 Belasco and Charles Frohman
arranged with the Messrs. Gatti, managers of the Adelphi Theatre,
London, for the production of “The Heart of Maryland” in the British
capital. The expenses of presenting that play were large, but so, also,
was public attendance on its performance, the average gross receipts
amounting to about $11,000 a week: that is, in three seasons the public
had paid a total of about one million and fifty thousand dollars to see
it. Belasco’s share of the profits had set him well forward in the path
of prosperity and he was at last able to formulate definite plans for
ventures which finally enabled him to seize a conspicuous, independent,
and influential place among the foremost theatrical managers of the
world. His expedition into England with Mrs. Carter and “The Heart of
Maryland” was one of the first of those ventures. The utility of his
play as a starring vehicle for that actress in America was practically
exhausted, but he felt strongly assured of further prosperity with it
abroad. Moreover, he knew that Mrs. Carter would be, by an English
success, exalted in the esteem of the American public--which is in some
respects provincial and is always impressed by foreign approval. And,
finally, he hoped that, while in London, he would be able to obtain a
suitable new play for her use. The third season of “The Heart of
Maryland,” accordingly, was closed at Hartford, Conn., March 26, 1898;
on March 30 Mrs. Carter, the other members of the theatrical company
which had been acting in it, and Belasco sailed for England on board the
steamship St. Paul, and on April 8 that play was performed at the
Adelphi Theatre, London. It was, originally, “booked” for a season of
one month, but it was received with such abundant popular favor that it
was acted there, to crowded houses, for twelve weeks,--receiving about
eighty performances. There was some adversity of critical comment in the
press, but only one stricture then made disturbed Belasco’s equanimity
and has rankled in his recollection,--namely, the unwarranted and mean
intimation that he had copied the stirring “mechanical effects” (so
called) used in course of the performance of his play from William
Gillette’s “Secret Service,” which had been brought out in London, May
15, 1897, at the Adelphi. Such gratuitous disparagement is
characteristic of a patronizing and carping spirit frequently
encountered in British journalism. Inquiry as to the facts in this case
at once displays its injustice. Belasco’s “The Heart of Maryland” was
begun in 1890, and the “mechanical effects” employed in it were devised
by its author during the four years that followed; they were,
furthermore, an elaboration and improvement of various contrivances
first used by him in his variant of “Not Guilty,”--San Francisco,
December 24, 1878,--and some of them were used by him in “The Girl I
Left Behind Me,”--January, 1893. Gillette’s “Secret Service” was tried
at the Broad Street Theatre, Philadelphia, May 13, 1895, where it
failed and was at once withdrawn. After having been entirely rewritten
that play was successfully produced at the Garrick Theatre, New York,
October 5, 1896,--one year later than “The Heart of Maryland.” “Secret
Service,” though a useful melodrama, is a hodge-podge fabrication (one
of its most essential situations is conveyed, bodily, from “Don Cæsar de
Bazan”) and is in every way inferior to “The Heart of Maryland”: if the
production of either of those plays owed anything to that of the other,
it is manifest that Belasco’s could not have been the debtor.