The Genesis of Toby: A Folk Hero of the American Theater Author(s): Jere C. Mickel Source: The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 80, No. 318 (Oct. - Dec., 1967), pp. 334-340 Published by: American Folklore Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/537410 Accessed: 22/04/2010 21:29

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http://www.jstor.org JERE C. MICKEL

The Genesisof Toby A Folk Hero of the American Theater

THE VERYNATURE OF FOLKLOREusually precludes any possibility of watching the processof its development.If we know the actualcreator of the work of folk art, this knowledge tends to forbid its classificationas folklore; and in an art of such public natureas the theater,folk activitywould be especiallyinhibited, since theatricaleffect is usuallycontrolled by one or two professionalsor a very small professionalgroup. Yet, paradoxically,in the development of the popular theatricalcharacter "Toby,"we have a full recordof his ancestry,knowledge of his very beginnings in FredWilson's portrayalof Tobe Haxton in Cloudsand Sunshine,and the story of the developmentand modificationof the characterthrough audience response throughoutthe next twentyyears. This extraordinarytale has been noticedand written about for the past thirty- five or forty years in Sundaynewspaper feature articlesand theatricaljournals, but it has been presenteduncritically and inaccurately.Here is Toby's story,told as accuratelyas careful study of the printed recordsand the traditionhanded down orally and throughpersonal correspondence permits. Although theaterhistorians have lately begun to take some notice of the tent repertorycompanies,1 their historyalong with that of the companiesplaying the small-towntheaters or "operahouses" during an earlierperiod, has been gener- ally neglected,and the creationof the Toby charactereither scornedor ignored. This attitudegrew out of the contemptof the cities for the small towns and the resultingprejudice that the only theatricalactivity worth writing aboutwas that of the big cities. Even so, this small-towntheater, with its own traditionsand techniques, flourishedcompletely independent of the metropolitantheater. In time a distinctiveliterature of melodramaand comedybased on the tastes and attitudesof the audiencesdeveloped, and two distinctivecomedy characters orig- inated: the "Toby,"the red-headed,freckle-faced youngster who is smarterthan he looks, and the G-string,the garrulousand officiousold man who is too easily gulled. Nevertheless,both the plays and these two charactershave their roots in generaltheatrical tradition. THE GENESIS OF TOBY 335 These buffoons,both the old and the young, are almost as old as dramaticlit- eratureitself. Each appearsin the comediesof Plautus,the one as the impudent clown slavewho is not so stupidas he looks, and the otheras the tyrannicalfather who is not so clever as he thinks. In any discussionof the prototypesof Toby, William in As You Like It and Abel Drugger in Johnson'sThe Alchemist are alwaysmentioned; but it was not until a little over a hundredyears ago that the characterof Toby in his typical Americanform of comic rube youngsterbegan to develop, and a little over fifty yearsago that Toby finallybecame his nameonce and for all. One of the earliestplays with a proto-Tobyin the cast is the William Pratt version of Ten Nights in a Barroom,2first presentedin Boston in i847, where he is namedSample Switchell. In a twentieth-centuryversion used by the L. Verne Slout Playersof Vermontville,Michigan, he is describedas "Comedy,Toby (or originally) New Englandrube." In the earlierversion of the play he is described as "a Yankeetippler, very much alive." Another proto-Tobyappears on the Americanstage at the BroadwayTheater in New York, March7, I85I-- Toby Twinkles,in a play calledAll That Glitters Is Not Gold by Thomas and J. M. Morton.3The play is of English origin and had had a premiereperformance at the OlympicTheater in London on January 13 of the same year. Toby's entranceis describedthus: "he enterswith his back to the audiencesparring and hitting out violentlywith both hands,"certainly an entrancecharacteristic of the later Toby. His nose has just been brokenin a fight at the mill where he was defending MarthaGibbs, a beautiful but poor mill worker.His costumefor the first act is "blue vest, moleskintrousers, apron and sleeves (Brown Holland), paper cap," but there is no mention of a red wig, for Toby did not acquirethis characteristicuntil Fred Wilson's naturallyred hairestablished the convention. In these and many other plays the conventionalAmerican rube comic was es- tablishedin the Americantheater and had definiteaudience appeal in smalltowns, particularlyin the Midwest.Toby himself, however,with his own nameand char- acteristicsdifferent from the usualrube comic, crystallized from a factualincident. The sudden popularityof Fred Wilson when he first played the conventional countryboy or silly kid began the developmentof the character,and the subse- quent demandof audiencesthat this role be playedwith the actoralways using at least two of the featuresWilson added, red hair and freckles,and alwaysthere- after appearingunder the name of Toby, establishedonce and for all the basic conventionsof this partas futureaudiences knew them. The name Toby comeswithout any doubt from Tobe Haxton, the name of the countryboy comic, or "firstcomedy" as it was alwayscalled by the rep actors,in an old melodrama,Clouds and Sunshine,by W. C. Herman.The generallyac- cepted version of the adoptionof this name is told in TheatreArts,4 by Robert Downing, who says that he did four yearsof research,including personal inter- views with Fred Wilson, in preparationfor his article.In one interviewDowning describesthe incident that promptedthe permanentadoption of Toby as the name for all future silly-kid characters.According to Downing, this happened in Crawley,Louisiana, where Wilson was playing with Murphy'sComedians. Wilson and Horace Murphy,the proprietorof the troupe, were strolling down 336 JERE C. MICKEL the main streetof the town when they were accostedby a ten-year-oldCajun boy, who had seen their show the previousnight. He observedthat Murphywas tak- ing his clown out for a walk. When Murphystopped to talk to him, he found that the youngsterwas puzzled by "the funny man," for he had seen Wilson as Toby Haxton in Clouds and Sunshine on Monday night, on Tuesdaynight as Toby Green in Out of the Fold, but on Wednesdayas Bud in Won by Waiting. This was perplexingto the young fan, for he could see no reasonfor the change in name from Toby to Bud if the actorwas to look, dress,talk, and act the same in all threeparts. Murphywas a man wise in the ways of show business."He and Wilson," says Downing, "appliedToby's name to all silly-kidparts in their repertory"from that time on. Downing dates the storyin I909. This is the legend, and, indeed, it is a legend. The principalitems are without doubt founded on fact, but the details of the story may be inaccurateand the date and place are almost certainlyin- correct.The title page of the copyrightededition of Cloudsand Sunshinein my possessionbears the date 191 I. It camefrom the officeof Alex Byers,proprietor of the Chicago ManuscriptPlay Co., who operatedhis companyduring the early yearsof the centuryin the old PalaceHotel at Clarkand Hubbardstreets in Chi- cago, and who was the firstbig supplierof new playsto the rep shows. The CopyrightOffice of the Libraryof Congressgives the date September5, I9I1.5 Robert L. Sherman in The Drama Cyclopedia6gives I911, but places the performanceat Lafayette,Louisiana. Since no such town as Crawleyis listed in any atlas, probablySherman's citation of Lafayetteas the place of original per- formanceis correct. HoraceMurphy7 also adds a mild correctiveto the storyWilson told to Robert Downing. He says, "regardingthe boy asking about Toby, there was no such incident."When Murphytook Wilson to task for the story,Wilson replied that he had used "author'slicense." Actually, he explained, "it was an old man who met us on the streetand said, 'Hi, Mr. Murphy,I see you have your idiot out for some fresh air.'" When Murphyasked Fred why he had told the story as he did, he replied,"I'd rather be calleda clownthan an idiot." Regardlessof whetherthe questionerwas a boy or an old man, or whetherWil- son was called an idiot or a clown, the incidentis basedon fact. Its significance lies in the first suggestion by a memberof the audiencethat, even though the plays were different,the same name should be given to the characterplayed the same way every night by the same man with never-changingphysical character- istics. Acting on this hint, Murphygave Wilson instructionsto convertall the "first comedy"parts in their shows to the Toby character.Tobe Haxton of Cloudsand Sunshine,whose first name easily and naturallyshifts to Toby, must therefore be consideredthe firstto emergeas Tobyhimself. Most of the popularbills betweenthe latterhalf of the nineteenthcentury and the first ten years of the twentiethcentury had the silly-kid or country-boypart. In Out of the Fold he was BobbyJenkins; in Call of the Woods, Eben Quacken- bush; in Way Down East, Hi Holler; in Lena Rivers,Joel Slocum;and in Won by Waiting, a rewrittenversion of a much older play, MarianGray, he is Bud Fisher. In Over the Hill to the Poorhousehe is namedEben and is listed in the THE GENESISOF TOBY 337 cast as "b. f." or blackfacecomedian. In other plays he is called Si, Zeb, Pete, and Jake. All of these roles were given the name of Toby after Wilson's success as Tobe Haxton, and the actor,no matterwhat his own complexion,was required to wear a red wig and a freckledmake-up. Even in such old and well-established plays as St. Elmo, in which the "firstcomedy" role is known as Van Jiggins, the name was sometimeschanged to Toby and the make-upalmost alwayschanged to red wig and freckles. HoraceMurphy adds that when Alex Byersheard of Wilson's success,he or- dered his staff, which included W. C. Herman, George Leffingwell, and Lem Parker,the firstplaywrights to writeexclusively for small-town,midwestern show- men,8to write plays with a similarcomedy lead. But what was this characterlike, who changedthe namesof all popularcomedy parts to Toby? Fred Wilson's creationof this part was accidental.He says, "I came into this world with a shock of unrulyred hair and later acquireda flock of frecklesthat all the make-upin Stein's laboratorycouldn't have improvedupon. The char- acter was just myself plus a hickoryshirt, patched jeans, boots with run-down heels and a batteredhat."9 Mrs. Evelyn Wilson Barrick,Fred Wilson's daughter,adds, "Dad played a lovable countrybumpkin as you see him every day in every city and town on every streetin the world! He needed no wig-his hair was naturallyred-rarely wore make-up-too busy talking to people and enjoying them to bother, I do believe!"10 Don Melrose,Kansas City actors'agent, in an articleon Wilson in Bill Bruno's Bulletin," says that Fred was a real comedianwho "wowed them every Mon- day night with Toby." Childrenand even a great percentageof the adultsin the audiencesdid not easily rememberthe names of the other charactershe played, but they alwaysremembered Toby. They also rememberedhis two chief character- istics, his red hair and his freckles. WhereverWilson played, no matterwhat part he was playing, he was called Toby. When the boys and girls and even the grown-upssaw him offstage,they would invariablygreet him as Toby. And so Toby's name and personalcharacteristics were stampedupon Fred Wilson for- ever by his audiences. During the yearsfollowing Wilson's first success,whenever the advanceagent arrivedin a town aheadof the Murphyshow he would be askedif Toby was with the show again.Melrose concludes, "In askingabout any play, the questionwould be, 'Is Toby goin' to be in it?' In fact, nearlyall the questionsasked by the cus- tomers were in regardto that 'darn fool TOBY.'" Bill Bruno appends a wry commentto this article,a commentwhich reflectsthe opinion of many showmen after otheractors had badlyabused the role: "Now thatthe crimehas beenpinned on FredWilson, we take up the questionof 'Who was the firstG-string?' Help!" And so Wilson becameknown as Toby not only to the Murphyaudiences but to other actors as well. When Wilson's own companywas playing the Over- holser Theater in OklahomaCity both in I9I4 and I9I8, it was billed as the Toby Wilson Stock Company.12 And Robert L. Shermanin the reference to Clouds and Sunshine in The Drama Cyclopedia lists the comedian as Fred (Toby) Wilson.13 It was not long before Wilson's successbecame known to the whole small- 338 JERE C. MICKEL town show world. Managersbegan to follow Murphy'slead and feature their comediansas Toby, always with the red wig and freckles. Some actorssimply adopted the conventionsestablished by Wilson without any referenceto their originator.Some were more ethical.Mrs. Barricksays, "When a light comedian graduatedto a full-fledgedcomedian, many, many asked Dad if they could use the name Toby. I can recall BarrettNevius thankingmy father.He had written him but wanted to do it in person!Since I had known Barrettas a child, the in- cident stuckwith me!" Tobys proliferatedall over the small-townshow world, and in time Toby, instead of the conventionalleading man, becamethe featuredrole. One of the earliestplays which featuredToby as the most importantcharacter is Sputters, by actorGeorge Crawley, a play in which stutteringis addedto Toby'sother social difficulties. On the other hand, during the great yearsof the tent shows-the period fol- lowing World War I and ending with the beginningof the depressionin 1930- many managers,such as Elwin Strong, Walter Savidge,and Ralph Moody, con- tinued to present what was called the standardrepertory, ignoring the Toby shows. If they did presentone, they alwayschose a Saturdaynight when the show was followed by the taking down and packingof the tent and all the otherequip- ment. Toby shows usually did not requireelaborate production, depending for their successon the abilitiesof the leading comedyactor. The generalopinion of most tent-showpeople coincidedwith Bill Bruno's,for with playing by an un- skilled and conceitedactor the role could become grotesque and unbelievable. But when financialtroubles really hit the shows in I930, they were forced either to go out of businessor presentTobys. Their formeraudiences had desertedthem in favor of talking picturesand the free entertainmentoffered by radio. They turned to the Toby shows in a desperateattempt to attractan audience,but the audiencethis time was one largely unacquaintedwith the living theater.A few of the tent-showpeople were successfulenough to keep their shows alive, and here again it is Toby as a kind of people's hero that makeshim significant.Orig- inally his namehad been appliedto him by the audienceswho watchedFred Wil- son play the character.His red hair and freckleswere accidentalthough original characteristics,but Wilson's popular successcould have quickly disappearedif his characteristicsand those variationsbrought about by his successorshad not representedsomething deeply fundamentalto the thoughtsand feelings of their audiences. Toby came along during a period of crisisin Americansocial life.14The norm of Americanlife as a fundamentallyrural society had been changingrapidly since the Civil War and changedwith even greaterrapidity during the firstthirty years of this century.City life becamethe ideal, attractivebecause of its glamourand its promise of greater financialrewards; progressive people were desertingthe small towns and the countrysidefor the possibilityof adventureand of riches, or at least of more money than they had ever had before. Those who stayedbe- hind felt that they must somehow justify their unprogressiveactions. And so they came to believe in certainmyths-sometimes consciously,sometimes uncon- sciously,sometimes expressed, sometimes unexpressed. These myths that people live by may be defined as "the images, gestures,and symbolswhich would ob- THE GENESISOF TOBY 339 jectify their experience and bring to their lives a simple and comprehensive meaning."15 In all the plays written or contrived for the entertainment of the rural audience one generalization is always understood: that country life is essentially virtuous and that life in the city is essentially wicked. From this generalization others are corollary. The people from the small town or country are homely and unsophis- ticated, but unassailable in their virtue. If any go to the city and make a fortune they are invariably corrupted. The millionaire city banker of rural origin must be brought to his knees in repentance,16 and the farmer's son who becomes a successful city businessman must be brought to see the downright wickedness of his beautiful wife,17 for the beautiful and sophisticated are greedy and unscru- pulous and ought always to be suspected, whereas the homely, even the ugly and unattractive, are diamonds in the rough. Such was Toby. His country-boy prototypes were ugly and unattractive enough, but it was Toby who had the additional homeliness of red hair and freckles. The small-town audiences could identify themselves with him because in comparison with their city cousins they were uncouth and uncultivated. And when Toby tri- umphed (it is a distinct advance in dramaturgy when the playwrights make the denouement depend upon some apparently foolish action of his), they them- selves triumphed, for underneath they felt that in spite of their simplicity some overseeing power would in the end give them victory over a mighty but unjust world. Fred Wilson played Toby as a believable character. Others played him essen- tially for the low comedy element, even sometimes as a grotesque clown. But he had only to wear a red wig and paint large freckles on his face to be recogniz- able. The symbol of the red wig was so well known that Charles Worthan, who ran a successful show in central Illinois for a quarter of a century, had only to mail an advertising publication called The Red Wig to all rural box-holders re- ceiving mail from the town where he had set up his tent for the potential audience to know what was in store for them. The audiences found their esthetic satisfaction in the feelings aroused by the representation of the myth and purged by laughter. Their moral ideas were satis- fied by the assurancethat right had triumphed. The enactment of the plays became a kind of ritual in which the form never changed although the particular words and events varied. The myth was already in the minds of the folk when Toby appeared to personify it. Its re-enactment became a ritual which to the people who saw it was virtual history,18 since it represented what they wanted to believe to be the truth about life. The people had created the myth before Toby appeared. When he did appear, they gave him his name, the natural change from Tobe to Toby, a name associated ever afterward with the character,primarily because of the skilful acting of Fred Wilson. The people sustained the ritual once the plays began to be presented as Toby shows. Their applause from the very beginnings, their eager inquiries about his coming to town, showed their extraordinaryapproval and love for Toby. This approval and love created a popularity so great that he became the one outstanding characterthe rep shows produced and their one original contribution to the Amer- ican theater. 340 JERE C. MICKEL NNOTES 4 T E S I. For instance, Larry Dale Clark, Toby Shows: A Form of American Popular Theatre (University of Illinois Dissertation, I963). 2. (New York, no date). 3. (New York, I889). 4. (November, I964), 653. 5. The notice from the Copyright Office Reads: "CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. By W. C. Her- man. Registered in the name of Alexander Byers, under D25244, following publication Sept. 5, 19 1. No renewal found." 6. Sherman, Io2. 7. Personal letter, April 8, I965. 8. L. H. Wight, personal interview, Chicago, Illinois, April i5, I965. 9. Downing, 653. io. Personal letter, April i6, I965. ii. December 17, I936. I2. Theatre Bulletin, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, December 29, 1917, and Overholser Theatre Program, 1914. 3. Sherman, 102. 14. Albert F. McLean, Jr., American Vaudeville as Ritual (Lexington, Kentucky, 1965), i-i5. 5. McLean, 2. i6. Nelson Compsten and W. C. Herman, Won by Waiting (Chicago, 191o). I7. Charles Harrison, The Awakening of John Slater (Chicago, no date). I8. Susanne K. Langer, Feeling and Form (New York, 1953), 306-325.

Millikin University Decatur,Illinois