My Years on the Stage

F r o m a o rtr ait b h m h l e e s p y J o s ep D e C a p i n t e c o l c ti o n of The P lay r .

J OHN D R E W MY YEARS ONTHE STAGE

BY JO H N D R E W

WITH A FOREWORD BY BOOT H TARKINGTON

DU 8: C A E . P . TTON OMP NY 68 1 FIFT H AVENUE C O R GHT 1 2 1 1 22 PY I , 9 , 9 , BY THE C URT I S PUBLISHING C OMPANY

RI HT 1 COPY G , 922,

BY E. P . D UTTON C OMPANY

All Right: R eserved V” TDW R?) D M

m m in the u ni ted S tates o f A merica FOREWORD

since How long ago is it, old schoolmate, two “ ” middlers from Exeter rollicked down to New York

for an Easter vacation, and on an imperishable evening

glamoured their you n g memories permanently with

’ ’ Augustin D aly s comp an y of players at Daly s Theatre

and The Tamino of the S hrew ? What a good and merry town was brown- stone New

st d o f York then, when one oo at the doors the Fifth Avenue Hotel to see the pretty girls from all over the country parading by after the matinee ; when the Avenue was given over to proud horses and graceful women ; when there were n o automobiles and only a

few telephones ; when Ada Rehan w as playing

’ Katherin e at Daly s and when those two Exeter school

boys got the impression that the whole place belonged,

' to Petruchz o who in a general way, the tamed her, John Drew !

The earth must have swung round the sun a few i t mes since then, my schoolmate , for now comes that

’ gay young Petrac hz o before us with his Memoirs ! He vi FOREWORD feels that he has memories to entertain and to enlighten us ; he has now lived long enough to have seen some

o f thing of the stage and the world, it appears . For

one, I am willing to read him . I have listened to him so often since that ancient night at Daly’s and though

’ the words I ve heard him say were words su ggested by

’ some paltry fellow of a playwright, yet I ve had such entertainment of the man, so much humor and delight,

I am even eager to hear him, now that he will speak

o f o f in his own words himself and his life , his art and

. to v to his friends As this last, though, he will ha e select with care ; he could never tell us much Of all his

w M v friends , ere ethuselah from birth to gra e his diligent amanuensis .

What he has played most congenially, and with the

l O f e rOles man iest humor his time , have b en the Of

‘ gentlemen ; and there is a certain thing about his book of which we are already sure before we read it : therein he cannot fail to add one more to the long, ﬁne gallery of portraits of gentlemen he has shown us ; and this o n e must necessarily be the best gentleman of them all .

And it will be the one we have liked best, ever discern

ing it behind the others ; for it was always there, and

’ turned many a playwright s shoddy outline into a ﬁn e FOREWORD

mo e ree fellow . John Drew would play Si n L g into a

v misunderstood gentleman , I belie e .

The reason is a s imple o n e : he was born with a taste for the better side of thin gs and the cleaner surfaces of life . He has found them more interesting and more congenial than mire , and if he should ever deal with mire he would deal with it cleanly . Here was the nature o f the man always present in his acting ; and I think it has been bec ause of that and because o f — his humor - his o wn distinctive humor that he has charmed the best American public throughout so many fortunate years . John Drew has been an actual feature o f A v — the best merican life e er since his youth indeed, he is one of its institutions ; and there is a long grati M tude due him . His emoirs may properly be greeted ,

t e in fact, as we should greet a bir hday spe ch at the ban u e d t we are to o numerous to make for him ; that is, with cheers as he rises to address us . And then as we settle down to listen we may be sure we shall hear o f

o ld - i many an time familiar ﬁgure bes des himself, for John Drew has known “pretty much everybody” Of his generation . His generation still continues , it is pleasant and reassuring to know ; f o r he admits us to the intimac y of this autographical mood of his long FOREWORD

An d e before the ﬁreside years claim him . he may sp ak to us freely, with as good assurance as he has always “ al It IS a had, that whenever he speaks at l mong ” friends . BO O T H TAR KI N GT ON K ennebunkport ,

1 2 1 July, 9 . I LLUS T RAT IONS

E Fro n tis iece 6 JOHN DR W p ’ E F T AP P EARAN C E Pa e PLAYBILL , JOHN DR W S IRS g 3 T H E MOTH ER AN D FATH ER OF JOHN DREW Facing page 6 T H E EARLI E ST PICT URE OF JOHN DRE W 6

F . E SE As A DAGU ERREOT YP E O MRS JOHN DR W , NIOR, OPH ELIA Facing page “ c c u T H E H ERO O F GETTYSBURG H E O ST EET E T E E Pa e T LD ARCH R TH A R , PHILAD LPHIA g

r T H E ST EET E T E E PLAYBILL , ARCH R TH A R , PHILAD LPHIA Page: 24—2 5

TH E ST EET E T E E PLAYBILL , ARCH R TH A R , PHILAD LPHIA Page: 30— 3 1 I JOHN DREW BEFORE H E W EN T ON TH E STAGE Facing page 34 JOHN DREW AT TH E TIM E O F HIS FIRST APP EARANC E Fac ing page 34

' ADA REHAN W H EN S H E APPEARED AT TH E ARCH STREET TH EATRE Facing page 34 ‘G ‘C E E E E JOS PHIN BAK R (MRS . JOHN DR W) 38 ’ JAM ES LEWIS AND JOHN DREW IN AUGUST IN DALY S “ ” PLAY PIQU E Facing page 42 ’ PLAYBILL O F JOHN DR EW s FIRST APP EARANC E IN NEW Y O R K Page 44

. G E T E T J E FFR Y S LE MRS ILB R , MISS DAV NPOR , MISS WIS , E LE T E JAM S WIS , AUGUS IN DALY , AND JOHN DR W, AT TH E EN TRA NCE To T H E CONSOLIDATED VIRGINIA MIN E Facing page 48 FANNY DAVENPORT 48 ” PLAYBILL O F BOOTH IN HAMLET Page 55

ix x ILLUSTRATIONS

AN EARLY PICT URE OF MAURICE BARRYMORE Facing page “ ” ADA REHAN AND JOHN DREW IN DO LLARS AND SENS E Facing page JOHN DREW AND W ILLIAM GILB ERT IN R ED LETT ER ” NIGHTS Facing page ’ ” E T E NEE E PLAYBILL, DALY S TH A R , DL S AND PINS Page

OT S E E E LE . G . H . IS KINN R, ADA R HAN , JAM S WIS , MRS “ G E T E T H E O F ILB R , AND JOHN DR W, IN RAILROAD ” LOVE Fac i n g page a CC ADA REH AN AS KATHERIN E E E As O N ADA R HAN AS ROSALIND, JOHN DR W RLA DO , IN “ ” As Y O U LIKE IT Facing page “ ’ JOHN DREW As TH E KING O F NAVARRE IN LOVE S LA ’ ” BOUR S LOST Faci ng page OT S E T K E IS KINN R, EDI H INGDON , AND JOHN DR W, IN “ ” NANCY AND COMPANY Faci ng page ” JOHN DREW AND ADA REHAN IN T H E SQ UIRE Facing page ’ “ ADA REHAN AND JOHN DREW IN FARQUH AR S T H E RE C RU ITING OFF IC ER Facing page “ JOHN DRE W As PETRUCHIO IN TH E TAMING OF TH E ” SHREW Facing page ” PLAYBILL O F TH E TAMING O F TH E SHREW AT STRAT FORM N-AVON

E . G E T E LE JOHN DR W, MRS ILB R , AND JAM S WIS IN “ ” 7 -20-8 Facing page “ A N T O FF GE M P e PLAYBILL , IGH , IN R ANY ag EDITH KINGDON GOULD As S H E APPEARED WITH TH E DALY COMPANY Facing page ’ JOHN DREW As ROBIN HOOD IN TENNYSON S PLAY “ ’ ” T H E FOR ESTER S Facing page JOHN DREW AND VIRGINIA DREH ER IN TH E COUNTRY GIRL CARTOON FROM PUNCH ILLUSTRATIONS

E E LE E E JOHN DR W , JAM S WIS , ADA R HAN , CHARL S

G H . E T F E V E E . . G ISH R, IRGINIA DR H R, MRS ILB R , “ OT S E I A N T IS KINN R AND MAY RWIN , IN IGH ” O FF

GE E E E T E L E ORGI DR W BARRYMOR WI H ETH L , ION L AND JACK BARRYMORE Facing page ” MAUDE ADAMS AND JOHN DREW IN BUTT ERF LI ES Facing page ELSI E D E W OLF E AND JOHN DREW IN A MARRIAGE ” OF CONVENI ENC E Facing page ART HUR BYRON AND JOHN DREWIN T H E TYRANNY ” OF T EARS Facing page “ ” MAUDE ADAMS AND JOHN DREW IN ROS EMARY Fac ing page E T E MAUD ADAMS , AR HUR BYRON AND JOHN DR W IN “ ROS E MARY Fac ing page E EW T E MAUD ADAMS AND JOHN DR IN CHRIS OPH R ,

“ JR . Facin g page “ E E E PLAYBILL , MAUD ADAMS AND JOHN DR W IN ROS ” MARY Page “ . E S E I A s T H E MRS JOHN DR W, N OR , MRS . MALAPROP IN RIVALS Facin g page ” JOHN DREW AND FRANK LAMB IN T H E LIARS Facing page

' “ ETH E L BARRYMORE AS TH E RUSTIC MAID IN ROS E ” MARY Facin g page E G ST D E JOHN DR W, UY ANDING AND I A CONQU ST IN “ ” T H E S E c e COND IN COMMAND . Fa ing pag ” JOHN DRE W AND BILLI E BURKE IN MY W I F E Fac ing page ’ ” S E E G A E S T C N FROM MAU H M S COM DY , MI H Facing page E E T L JOHN DR W , R GINALD CARRING ON AND ION E L “ BARRYMORE IN T H E MUMMY AND THE HUM ” MING BIR D Fac in g page E AT T T LO JOHN DR W EAS HAMP ON , NG ISLAND Facing page xii ILLUSTRATIONS

’ K E E AT T T YALAMI , JOHN DR W S HOUS EAS HAMP ON Facing page 2 22 PAVLOWA AND JOHN DREW AT TH E TIME OF TH E R E “ ” VIVAL O F ROS E MARY Facing page 2 26 ( C C‘ JOHN DREW MY YEARS ON THE S TAGE

MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

CHAPTER ONE

HAT a dreadful young man ! I wonder what ” u he will be like when he grows p . friendly audience that had come to the theatre o n the occasion Of a beneﬁt for my sister, Georgie

r Drew, was thrilled with me riment when my mother,

The referring to me, interpolated the speech above .

Co o l a: a Cucu mber W B play was , by . lanchard Jer

o n e- m rold , a act farce , and I was for y ﬁrst appearance

Ole o Mr m e r f . lu er Th playing the P p . time was

M 22 1 8 S T arch , 73 ; the place, the Arch treet heatre ,

r o f Philadelphia, then unde the management my mother .

Before my début the Philad elphia I aquif er printed an announcement that I was to appear f o r the ﬁrst time on Saturday night . The article ended

John Drew (my father) belonged to a school of actors that is passing away rapidly and leaving

n o M . . rs copy behind, we fear Of that school m o e r v an d Drew ( y m ther) is a nobl ep resentati e , 2 MY YEARS ON TH E STAGE we would like to hope that her daughter and son M are also representatives O f it . iss Drew has

appeared but two or three times upon the stage , and the impression she then created was favor in ex able . Her worst faults are her youth and

erien c e . p , and both these time will overcome Of u Mr. Drew we know nothing . B t remembering with profound gratitude the pleasure that the mother and father Of these children have given

the public, how great and conscientious an artist

Mrs . Drew is, and John Drew was, we trust for their sakes that the Old playgoers of Philadelphia S will unite on aturday to give the young players , just entering upon the career by which they are

. to live , a substantial , hearty welcome . It may be that for their o wn sakes they deserve such welcome ; but whether this be so or not they de serve it for the sake O f those great artists whose

children they are , and who for so many years gave Of their best to the pleasure and entertainment of

the town . We know of no opportunity so favorable for the public to show its respect for the memory of

the great dead comedian, or gratitude to his wife , W who survives him, as that which ill be presented

o n Saturday night .

The ﬁrst lines that I spoke on any stage give an idea o f the self-possession Of the Character of Plu mp er that

Co o l as a Cu c u mber I played in , even if they do not

o wn - indicate my self possession and conﬁdence . I

o n was ushered by a maid, a part played on that night M . : m by my mother I addressed her y na e , did you

4 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

’ sa ? ! y Oh your master doesn t know my name . I say,

’ you don t keep the stairs very clean in this establish S — ? ment, usan your name is Susan You look like a

Susan . I had approached my ﬁrst performance with a great

o f O deal apprehension, but when the actual time to g o n ff came, I took the whole a air lightly and without the nervousness that accompanies and should acca pany a beginner . In my case this is all the more remarkable since I had never at any time played in

had no t v as bo amateur theatricals, and I , e en a y, played at theatre .

M who o u t y mother, had picked for me the charac

lu m er In ter of P p for my ﬁrst appearance, went on the “ ” o f s S part the maid that Plump er addres ed as usan ,

Sh e just to give me conﬁdence . e was greatly annoy d

he that I took the whole thing So lightly . S said that I

s e . n o t e was too good I could what she meant, but she gave me to understand that I thought to o much of myself.

o f d id As a matter fact, I think at that time though I kept the belief to myself— that Joseph Jef f erso n would have Just about three o r four years more e as a comedian . Hard experience , countless r hearsals

o f v and the playing many parts, in which I was ery

M who e . bad , soon disp lled any such idea y mother, MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 5

had been acting continuously since she was eight, knew

n o t that in the theatre success is easy, though at times

To it may seem a matter of luck . do what she could to save me from my self- esteem she interpolated at my “ expense : What a dreadful young man ! I wonder ” what he will be like when he grows up .

The papers sensed that though the part Of Plu mp er

f o r called coolness, suavity and assurance in all situa tions— not that the situations were so very remarkable

- ﬁ I was a little too con dent, in fact, a little too ” Plump erish.

The hilad el i Mo rnin I n uirer n P pha g q , after sayi g “ o : nice things ab ut the family, recorded He must be

so judged, if at all , as an amateur, and, j udged , his

M lu m er performance o f r . P p was a very respectable M o n e. r If . Drew had been a little more nervous, a

i o f l ttle less sure himself, we would have been better

o ff w o n pleased, but he carried the easily plaudits Of a most friendly and syrrip athetic audience rather too ” j au n tily . The same paper compared my performance to that

C M e Of harles athews, the gr at comedian , who had

o f lum e played the part P p r in the same theatre . I was accused of smiling at my o wn jokes and the comic

i S tuati ons in the part . The Philad elphia Transcript “ : v - said He ne er lost his self possession, and the 6 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

ven n B ulletin C s E i g on idering the circumstances,

- his self poss ession was remarkable . Of course I had known the theatre almost from in

c c n fancy . Early among my recolle tions are o versa tions between my mother and my grandmother about

changed conditions in the theatre , and that what was going o n then at the Arch Street Theatre in Philad el

’ phia and Wallack s in New York w as very different Th fro m the old days . ese conversations between the two actresses would always end with so me such dis

’ ’ cu ssiOn as to whether it was the spring of 29 or 30

had N V n d that they played in atchez, icksburg a other places in the South . This Southern to ur seems to have been made in the

’ 1 82 f o r ' I S spring of, 9 , have a volume of hakespeare s “ plays in which is written on the ﬂy leaf : This v o l

e ume, comprising the entire works of th Immortal d ramatl st 1 8 M , presented to iss Louisa Lane as a feeble, though an app ropriate and sincere testimony of her extraordinary genius and intellectual worth by C .

fﬁn N z M Gri , Of atche , arch,

w as At the time that inscription written my mother,

w lve o n . The T e L uisa Lane, was ni e years old act,

Precisel e see y, which she play d so successfully, ms to have been a protean sketch or skit in which she as s umed ﬁve characters. There is a lithograph published F r o m Thea tr e C o llec ti o n H ar ar d Un i ers ity . , v v

T H E MOT HE R A N D FA T HE R O F JOHN DREW

T H E EARLIE ST PIC T URE O F JOHN DREW

MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 7

in 1 828 M in Boston , which depicts iss Lane , eight

ﬁve w e v c s a e C T l e re i el . years of g , in the haracters in P y Of this performance at the o ld Chestnut Street Thea tre in Philadelphia one Of the newspapers said

This astonishing little creature evinces a talent f o r and a knowledge o f the stage beyond what

we ﬁnd in many experienced performers o f merit . The entertainment Of Tw elv e Precisely is well adapted to the display o f the versatility o f her I rish Girl h powers ; and in the she may, with trut ,

be pronounced inimitably comic . Her bro gue and The Yo un S o ld ier manner are excellent . g was

also admirably assumed .

1 8 28 Albert In February, , Louisa Lane appeared as

’ m he to Edwin Forrest s Willia Tell . T latter seems to have been so pleased that he presented my mother “ with a silver medal o n which is ins cribed : Presented M to . by E . Forrest iss L Lane as a testimonial of his ” admiration for her talents . CHAPTER TW O

WA o 1 8 N S b rn in 53, and my birthday was ovem

— ’ ber 1 3 the same day as Edwin Booth s . I was

’

1 S C . 0 1 8 St. christened January , 54, in tephen s hurch

’ M t This was my mother s birthday . y godfa hers were

who s William Wheatley, was as ociated with my r S T fathe in the management Of the Arch treet heatre,

ed er cks S S . r i and William heridan , who as William F

M o d was the stage manager of the same theatre . y g

M . B O f n rs . . mother was D P owers , one the best know actresses on the American stage and a great friend of

’ . She ad Aud le E ast n n e my mother s played L y y, Ly and Camille through the country with great success . I was born at 2 69 (according to the new numberin g S 0 S T h . 7 9 ) outh enth treet, Philadelp ia Later we

to B S moved uttonwood treet, and when my mother S T took over the management of the Arch treet heatre , which had earlier been managed by my father and

on S William Wheatley, we lived ﬁrst Eighth treet and N then on inth , so that my mother might be near the theatre which was at Sixth and Arch . I v aguely remember the Buttonwood Street house 8

I O MY R ON TH YEA S . E STAGE

’ 3 very necessary part of the actor s equipment, for it was supposed to lend grace to the carriage as well as being necessary in so many o f the plays . In later years

I w o n a fencing champion ship -Of the New York Ath

lctic Club . It is the house at 1 1 9 North Ninth Street that I i associate w th my boyhood . It was a conventional W t Philadelphia house , with hite shut ers and white

steps . We were not in an exceptional or fashionable

o f neighborhood . A great many our neighbors were M T . Quakers . y chief playmate was Isaac Hopp er,

o r hi s . named f grandfather, the great abolitionist N B S ext to us in uttonwood treet had lived the Quaker,

Passmore Williamson, who was much interested in the underground railroad by which slaves were escaping

to Canada . Passmore Williamso n ﬁgured in a sensational case

C . in the late ﬁfties . olonel John H Wheeler, the

S to N United tates minister icaragua , was on a steam

boat at o n e of the Delaware wharves . Three slaves

belonging to him were sitting at his side on the upper

S n s deck . Just as the ignal bell was ringi g Pa smore Williamson went up to the slaves an d told them that

The ho t they were free . slaves did wish to leave their

he master but a negro mob took them ashore . T legal

action and arguments resulting from this con sumed Thea tr e C o llec ti o n H ar ar d Un i ers i t , v v y .

A E T E O G F M R S . E E DA U RRO YP JOHN DR W, S NIOR, AS OPHE LIA

MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 1 1

much time and ﬁlled a v olume . During part o f the time Williamson was defended by Edward Hopper, the father O f my playmate .

’ Yo ung Hopper s mother was a daughter o f Lucretia

M . so ott I remember well that wonderful woman , and how much she impressed me even then . With my play mate I used to visit her country place , which in those C u t o f . days seemed so far o town It was at ity Line, and the Mott place was called Roadside . First there was a long ride in a horse car to the North Pen n syl vania train . Here on one occasion I saw Lord and

who Lady Amberly, were interested in abolition and the reforms to which Lucretia Mott devoted so much time and attention . While I do not recall now any

ve Of the con rsations, I remember that it was very dif f eren t from what I heard at home and most of these “ people ’ talked what the Quakers called the common language . I was taken to hear Wendell Phillips by the Hop pers and the Motts . I was impressed because they were but I was really to o young . One day I came back from Roadside and told my mother and grandmother that I had seen women sew ing o n Sunday . In our own household the toys and books o f my sisters and myself were put away on Su n M day . y grandmother was somewhat surprised that 1 2 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

people would sew on Sunday . Her own idea of Sun

the S irit o M issio ns day occupation was p i , which she

. M r read literally from cover to cover y g andmother,

Mrs . K e inloch, had played in a numb r of theatrical companies in this country and England, and had been

forced to withdraw from a company in New Orleans because she refused to act on Sunday . Sunday per f o rman ces were then as now the cus tom in New 0 1

b can leans . As a very young o y I remember goin g to

’ S t S re . tephen s with my grandmother, who gave the spou ses in a very loud voice which seemed to me the height Of religious ferv or . Before I was ten I went to a school at a place called

V n illage Gree , which was made a military school while

o t I was there . I hated to leave home , but going away g me o u t of o n e difﬁcu lty . I had the greatest trouble with my speech . I talked with that same accent or

o f intonation that Philadelphians, no matter what de

to . gree, always seem have I can remember the extreme annoyance of my grand “ She o : . t mother would protest my mother Louisa, ” n r bo I can ot unde stand a word the y says . I would try and pronounce words as they told me to

. im at home It was no use, and while I probably proved somewhat under the instruction Of these two

n s o f actresses, who had bee trained in the old chool MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 1 3

elocution, I was glad to escape to the street and my playmates . V I spent my tenth birthday at illage Green . I have “ N v a letter from my mother dated Philadelphia, o em

1 2 ber ,

My dear So n : I received yours o f the ninth inst .

. T today omorrow will be your birthday, my — darling yo u are ten years O ld tomorrow . All

your family wish you many, many happy returns ’ o o f the day . I can t send y u any birthday pres S ent, as you are soon to come home . orry that the to o o u shoes are large, but if y can get along till

o u e . y come home, I will get you a pair to ﬁt b tter

Of course you can take your sledge back with yo u . T ake good care of yourself, and as it is cold early ’ n in the morni g, don t waste time in dressing your

self . o All send love . Go d bless y u dear . ff Your a ectionate mother, LO E UISA D R W .

From Village Green I went to another boarding B C . school at Andalusia in ucks ounty, Pennsylvania

to Here four of us had a room together, and we had get up in turn and make the ﬁre in a Franklin stove . I

bo was very young, the youngest y in the school , and particularly poor at ﬁre making . When my turn came I received j ibes and advice from my three schoolmates in their luxurious and warm beds . 1 4 MY YEARS ON TH E STAGE

- T his school was a sectarian one , and a place with some reputation in Philadelphia ; but a friend o f the family, who had boys in the school , thought it did

so not give a good education in the classics, and I was taken out of boarding school and sent to the Episcopal

Academy in Philadelphia . I do not suppose that I

. The was a very good student things I liked, Latin and French, I kept up for years afterward . In arith metic I was shocking . Together with the other boys Of the day,I regarded my teachers as natural enemies . M ost Of the schoolboys were in some cadet corps . The

Older boys were drilling, because they thought they might be called to the colors in a year or two . I was the youngest boy in the corps co mmanded by one Major Eckendorf and there is a picture of me in uni

’ G errno n s r o n form , taken at Photog aph Gallery, C S “ hestnut treet , which has always been called in the “ ” family The Hero of Gettysburg . This was taken

1 86 . in July, 3 , just after the battle Of Gettysburg

My ﬁrst recollection o f an Officer was not Major

Eckendorf, but my uncle , Edward Drew . On his way to the front he came through Philadelphia and stopped

’ Berd an s at our house . He was a captain in sharp C shooters . He wore one of those ivil War uniforms

- - with long, blue frock coat effect, single breasted, with

r brass buttons . He had long side whiske s called Pic

' MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 1 5

d ill D u nd rear c a y weepers, which gave him a sort of y appearance . He showed my father an entirely new sighting device which was then being distributed to his men .

S C v chool was much interrupted in i il War days ,

who and my companions had fathers , older brothers or relatives in the war would dis appear for a day or two an d then come back somewhat subdued and with some

o f evidence mourning .

In a thoughtless way I felt somewhat out of things . One morning I came down to breakfast to ﬁnd my mother and my grandmother in tears . My mother was reading aloud a letter telling of the death of my uncle , h Edward Drew . He ad been killed in action . “ I hurried to school to declare myself in the m ove ” M to o had . ment because I , , lost some one y uncle had seemed to me very smart with his brass buttons and

o O f w nderful whiskers , but the satisfaction being in the “ game” with my companions outweighed the loss S of an uncle that I really did not know . till , the fact that he was killed in action affected me more than the t dea h of my uncle , George Drew, who had been sent

B ff d o f back to u alo, where he ied wounds . The fall of R ichmond meant to us a half-holiday ; an d then o n e morning on my way to school I heard that

Lincoln had been shot . I rushed back to the house to 1 6 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

tell my mother, who had not yet left her room and I k e new that she could not have s en a newspaper . Soon after this a friend of the family took me with two companions to Washington to see the grand review of the Army of the Potomac . Though this trip had

who been planned somewhat in advance, the man took us had not procured places and for a while it looked as though three small boys would not be able to see the so ldiers . Opposite the reviewing stand there w as a

- roped Off inclosure to which we were denied entran ce .

the ffi We pleaded with o cer who stood there , and when he learned that we had co me all the way from Penn

v syl ania he let us inside the ropes, for he was a Penn s ylvan ian also .

s In the grand stand, just acros Pennsylvania Avenue , S sat President Johnson, General heridan and General

he t Sherman . T latter I was o know well later and to see often at the The Players in New York and at

’ Daly s Theatre .

’ I was greatly impressed by Sherman s Army . The

in wonderful alignment, the splendid march g and bright arms were so great a contrast to the tattered uni

v forms O f the men who had seen much ser ice .

One other general I remember that d ay . Sa ne fool , p erso n in the crowd rushed outside the line , well

h was n C guarded t ough it , j ust as Ge eral uster, that MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 1 7

n . The wonderful ﬁgure with his lo g hair, rode past bouquet that was Off ered to the general frightened his

o n B horse, and the general was thrown the elgian

Blocks . He had a reputation o f being o ne Of the best riders in the army, and when he remounted he made his horse caracole just to Show that he was master of the situation . CHAPTER THREE

N these late years, when I have been playing Phila

f n delphia, I have made pilgrimages to the di fere t places that were associated with my youth .

M o ld o n e y school is of them, the Episcopal Acad emy at Juniper and Locust Streets ; the school has moved out into the country towards Haverford, but the building still stands . S I walk to Logan quare, where I attended a fair with my mother in the early days of the Civil War . It was S called a anitary Fair, because it was held under the S auspices of the anitary Commission . I have an album that my mother bought me there . S ’ C T t. S S I go to tephen s hurch , enth treet near

he C . T hestnut, now in a kind of sordid neighborhood church was rehabilitated a comparatively short time h b ago . T e last time I was there I asked to see the ap tismal register and found out that I was christened on

’

1 0 1 8 . my mother s birthday, January , 54 There was a young woman doing some work In the

an d o n church , after I pointed out the entry the regis I 8 ’ MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 1 9

: v r ter, she said Oh, I ha e something that may inte est you . She brought o u t a bo x containing a great many

d . O ds and ends, and from it took a silver plate It brought back memories o f going to Sunday School and then being taken into church afterward and being dis

M s r . K missed by my grandmother , inloch , before the T ’ sermon . hat silver p late had been on my mother s

’

St S . pew in . tephen s for more than sixty years On the “ ” plate was engraved L . Drew . I walk down and look at the front Of the Arch Street

T . heatre , which holds so many memories It has fallen o n ff In di erent days and has been turn a German, a

variety, a Yiddish theatre .

My mother took over the lease O f the Arch S treet

T 1 86 1 heatre in , and the ﬁrst play that I remember

S c o tto - the S c o u t anything at all about is one called , ,

an ephemeral thing that was a concession to the great

interest in the war . I do not know whether o r not this was the ﬁrst play that I saw nor do I know who wrote

It. I imagine that it was hastily fashioned from stock

l So material with a litt e added war interest . far as I

n k ow it was never done in any other theatre . To the usual stock characters o f the day was added the then

prominent General MacD o w ell and a number of 20 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

Another very early play I remember is Peter Wil

i s The l in I sland ers . o k n , or F y g In this my m ther played the part of a boy and engaged in a two-sworded

F ro m Theatr e C o llec tio n H ar ar d n i ers it , v U v y .

H E O D T E E T T E T E E ER E J T L ARCH S R H A R , PHILAD LPHIA, WH OHN ’ DREW MADE H IS F IR ST APPE ARANCE UNDER H IS MOTH ER S DIRE CT ION N combat with a large , powerful man . aturally she

a vanquished him. I was seldom allowed to go b ck

stage, but we often entered the family box from the M stage so as to avoid the crowds in the lobby . y

c grandmother usually a companied us, and Friday

night was o u r theatre night as there was no school on S aturday .

22 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

M in H and And Kni ht o y father also appeared y y, g f

Arva Co n no r the R as h Iris h Emi rant , or , the g and

’ ’ S R o r O M o re o u amuel Lover s y , all successful and p p

‘

o f . lar plays the day He did play other parts, and in the Tallis edition o f Shakespeare there is a picture of — him as Sir And rew in Tw elfthNight a part I was to play many years later in support of Adelaide Neilso n . Bu t it was in the Irish rOles that he made his great

s . to C succe s He went alifornia by way of the Isthmus, and from there he went to Australia and then to Lon

an d . don Ireland I have a letter from him, dated “ M V 1 e : elbourne, ictoria , October 7 , It b gins I went the other day to buy a book for your dear little ‘sister Louisa and among others I found

this . I have cut these leaves out and send them to yo u because they speak o f a little boy named

John Drew .

This is written on the back Of the illustrated rhymes which begin :

e Who would have b lieved it,

If it were not proved true, That so pretty a lad

As was little John Drew, The o f rs pet his siste , The his d hope of d a , Should have such an o bjeetion To washin g and dressing MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 23

These v erses go o n to show ho w the youthful hero of this sad tale degenerated until his clothes looked like a coal sack

His playmates forsook him , What else could they do ?

And at length a man took him, What else could they do ? —Alas ! Johnny Drew U to pon soot bags , sleep,

In a cellar so deep,

And bound him apprentice,

To work as a sweep .

Upo n his world tour my father was accompanied by my elder sister and my aunt . He came back to Phila

1 86 2 delphia early in , played an engagement of sev eral months in his repertoire at the Arch Street Thea

Ma . tre, and in y of that year he died

’ The Freeman s Jo urn al b rin fed , of Du lin, p the fact of his d eath with black rules o r borders around the

r column . He was very popular there and highly e

o garded as an exp nent of the Irish drama, which in thos e days was romantic comedy and nothing like the

Harrigan and Hart Irish plays done in New York at a later period ; n o r were they at all similar to the Irish

T o f G S heatre Lady regory and ynge . I saw a number o f early performances that im pressed me greatly . Three of these were by the greatest “ O W P. A M “ s u n

M ﬂ m u w m a m u m m a m m a l . m m w m

o n Gen a . m u u a mu u m n ea Pd o m 33. C lu m ; M O M M o m q u n n fl M fl-e t T ho m -Ol l m u q u n u fl ' m ‘ t— A ] ! m ax ? I . h q h m d u m h o u d m m m m m. (fl au n M

W S A T A N ’ I N P A R I S 'm ma THE m ar Tl “!

M e! d o Gu i ? FAVORITE I t. ad I n . W .

WHO M NW LY W " ‘ C R O W B E D A UD I E NC IE , wu u m m m er m M D EW IN THREE P IEC ES ! R. R

MRS . DREW AS THE

A ll the C o m a n i n F a v r ite C ha r a c te r s . p y o

O n W ed n e d a E v i b s y e n n g, F e . 2 3 11 , 1 8 5 3 ,

m m ,

h b M Dy GM M M Q M ﬁ . I R I S . “ EEG -R A N T !

n m w u m u n ﬂm m w m u m -m m u m m mm

M W n o mmminw,

P LAYB AR S TREE T T H E T R E P I 1 8 ILL , CH A , H LADE LP HIA, 53 25 26 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

t S T ac ors of the day. At the Walnut treet heatre I

’ R ichelieu Ed win B o o th in saw Edwin Forrest in , and

’ ’ To m T The o o l s R even e C aylor s play, F g , at the hest

S T . . Sir Giles nut treet heatre , and E L Davenport as

’ Overreac M A New Wa to Pa h in assinger s play, y y

Old D ebts saw . I also such popular performances as

Nick o e o o An that of Joseph Proctor in f th W d s . d then there was that ﬁne actor William E . Sheridan in a number of plays with the Chestnut Street Theatre Stock company but I d o not believe that I saw him in

O S nl any important r le. heridan left the stage to e ist and rose to be a captain . He was wounded several times and one of his wounds disabled his hand . Our house in Ninth Street was visited by these men

S u when they were playing in Philadelphia , and nday night there was almost always some one connected with M the theatre for supper . y mother had played in so many companies and had been ii i the theatre so long

B ff s a that the ooths, the Je er ons and m ny others were

the intimately associated with family: ’ I saw both the Prince of Wales an d Charles Dickens “ ” M he o o k A me in the sixties . y grandmot r t to see the

Co n former . He appeared o n the balcony of the old tin en tal Hotel , looking not unlike the present Prince

‘ i T t to o f Wales o n his Ieccn t v is t. here was no hing suggest the rather heavy, bearded man who, in the MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 27

1 Ad a R se f summer of 888, sent for ehan and my l to

b x a T n come to his o in the G iety heatre, Londo , during

m rew a performance o f The Ta ing of the S h . I heard Charles Dickens give a reading from Pick ” wick Papers Ou his second American tour . So great I was the crowd that we were shown to o u r seats through

M o the stage entrance . y mother, grandm ther, sisters R C ’ and obert raig, a young comedian in my mother s

e v ; company, w nt to hear the great no elist

o ld C As I remember, the reading was in the oncert C S M Hall in hestnut treet where , with the otts and

the Hoppers, I had heard Wendell Phillips .

C s o f raig was late by rea on rehearsing, but he ar

riv ed at the reading in time to get what he wanted o f the Dickens mannerisms and intonation and app ear C ance . raig had marvelous powers as a mimic, and he was particularly go od in his imitation o f the nov el N ist . did in the Arch Street Theatre was

‘ quite so pop as the skits he wrote and in whichh e

appeared as Dickens . Upon the i nvi tati on of my mother Charles Dickens visited the Arch Street Theatre and saw a performance

’ o O r T m R f u s . his piece Of To obertso n s was always

’ itwas c s in the repertoire , just as at Walla k , an d was

’ a v m great fa orite of y mother s . In asking Dickens to come to the theatre my mother assured him that his 28 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

k w visit would not be made no n in advance , and that he need not fear that he would be annoyed by cu rious crowds . He wrote her a very gracious and charming letter thanking her .

n As there were no touri g companies in those days,

s u ff M plays were u ally sold for the di erent towns . y

W s mother had an arrangement ith Le ter Wallack, by which she had the ﬁrst choice o f all the plays that he bought from the English authors . When she cons id

i o n e o f New ered do ng these, she would go to York to see the Wallack production and judge it no t only f o r Philadelphia audiences but with an idea as to its sui 't S ability for the Arch treet Theatre co mpany. It was o n on e of these trips to look over a play that

saw New New I ﬁrst York, that is the York of theatres, hotels an d restaurants . Before this I had been brought over to see the Great Eastern on its arrival after its

S n o ld o f the ﬁrst voyage by John efto , an friend fam

’ he w as ily . T boat somewhere in the North River as

I remember . We left Philadelphia early in the mo m S ni . o ing and went back that same ght John eft n, who

c ac ompanied me, had been years in the theatre and in the days before the railroads, when it was necessary

n to cross the mountains in a coach, he had bee a mem ber o f a stock company in Pittsburg. When I visited New York with my mother we

Al t -h i lb ’ﬁ p d W ‘ S H Y L O G K

M M M M CQM M

’ M o o n n W l o c lo c k . W W GI G M

E E T T H EA RE P H LADE PH A 1 864 P LAYB ILL , S TR T , I L I , 3 1 3 2 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

had at one time been leading woman in her CM p any .

This was before I went on the stage . Fechter lived

o n at Quakertown, near Philadelphia, a farm ; and I saw him a number of times both in the theatre and in

the country, but there was nothing to suggest the hand

some young actor who had been the ﬁrst Armand D uval

In my mother’s company was a man named Frank

M to urdoch, a ﬁne actor, who contributed stage his

n D av Cro ckett. tory by writi g that famous play, y

T M r his play, which established Frank ayo as a g eat

z o f favorite, was really not a dramati ation the life of

the hero of the Alamo . The big scene o f the play came

when Mayo as D avy Cro ckett put his arm through the place in the door where an oak bar should have

n the been and kept the howling, hu gry wolves out of

cabin . When I grew older and was allowed to go behind the

an d o f scenes talk to the actors , I saw a great deal

who Louis James, was then a handsome young man, playing leading juvenile and understudying the lead

ing characters . At this time the business in the theatre was all according to very definitely defined rules ; thus there were leadin g men and leading juveniles and first

comedians and second comedians, old men and second

s old men, ﬁrst old women and econd old women, cham MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 33

m d s ber ai , now soubrettes , and leading women and

juven ile women . The ﬁrst old woman might be any

thing, from the duchess to a rag picker , but there was

’ no doubt in anyone s mind as to who would play the

part .

v so When stars tra eled in those days, they did with — B . B out support Edwin ooth , for instance ooth had ,

e a who o n as I r member, stage manager came ahead of the star and told the theatre exactly what was wanted and gave special instructions for the playing o f cer

T th tain scenes . his could easily be done, because e b i o f u smess so . T l nes were well established hen, too,

e o in thos early days, the act rs studied other parts than

The those they were actually required to play . reper toire was standard and made up largely o f the plays

S T o of hakespeare and other classics . here were n so called society plays, and there was very little in the theatre that had an ything to do with contemporary

. To life study any one line of business was, however,

f o r a e an education th t time, and all the actors absorb d a great deal Of the classic drama and the things that pertained to it . CHAPTER FOUR

HEN my mother took over the management of S T the Arch treet heatre , it was all renovated

in and was pretty fair condition for the time, but it had been built in 1 827 and had an unmistakable theatre

smell that was unlike anything else . I do not know whether this came from the gas fumes or the co mbin

as o n ation of the g fumes and the new paint the scenery, f o r there was always fresh paint in the theatre in Spite o f the fact that the scenery was not elaborate in the “ ” s o w as fl sen e of today . A go d deal of it ats which were pushed on fro m both sides and met in the center . One half might be a cottage and the other a green wood . “ Occasionally there was a play that was called a ” n r u a o f e productio , and eq ired, bec use its elaboraten ss,

t S ur a good many ex ra rehearsals . One such, called f,

v i . The w as by Oli e Logan, I remember dist nctly scene

C Ma Philad el at ape y, then a fashionable place for

h B c p ians to go . reakers were made by white otton

d o cloth an d barrels . Just how it was arranged I 34 J E B E R E OHN DR W FO H E WE NT ON J OHN DREW A T T H E T IME O F HE S T T AGE HIS FIRST A PPE A RANCE

ADA RE HAN WHE N S H E APPE ARE D WI T H T H E ARCH ST R E E T T H E

36 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE wond erful production of The Taming o f the S hrew at ’ T Daly s heatre some years later . From that day when she appeared at the age of six

O f S T al teen upon the stage the Arch treet heatre , I ways had the most wholehearted admiration and aff ec

R She tion for Ada ehan . became the conﬁdante of my sister, Georgie , who, though younger than myself, had gone upon the stage before I had . R Ada ehan had a fault, if such it may be termed , which might have been a deterrent and a hindrance to

in abil her success on the stage , and that was her utter ity to keep from laughing if anything seemed at all funny . I remember that in one O f the ﬁrst plays in

’ Kitt O S hiel which we ﬁrst appeared together, y , I was acting a red- coated B ritish Officer of the Third Geo r gian period , and, of course , I wore a white wig . We did not have dress rehears als and when I came up to her on the stage at the performance , she burst o u t laughing and I under my breath tried to control her . When we came o ff the stage I demanded to know what was;the matter . “ ’ She said : I couldn t help it ; but you looked like ” a sheep . Ada Rehan never quite got over this upsetting ten d e c n y and liking f o r the ridiculous at serious times . MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 37

’ Years afterward we were rehearsing at Daly s Thea

T e o res er M id h t s T . a tre F , by ennyson In one scene “ Marian had to say to R o bin H o o d : Your horn is known and feared through the forest .

Each time she would say this I covered my nose up, and it set her laughing .

Daly, who was out in front, was always annoyed

he w e when rehearsals were interrupted . T next time

Maid Marian n un reached this same line, burst i to controllable laughter, and it was some minutes before she gained her equilibrium . This time Daly demanded to know what was funny about this line and, when told that horn and nose were sometimes synonymous, he very emphatically told Ada to cut the line out of her part if she could not give it without laughing . B y that time the amusement that it caused was over, e and it was given in the play . It scarc ly seems a “ f u nn ymen t n o w ; but Ada Rehan was so much a h - v in 1 2 at o n e ealthy, good natured girl , e en 89 , th was apt to laugh with her . Somehow we did not take ourselves very seriously

’ in the days at my mother s theatre . I can remember o n e night— it seems now the humor o f a very youthful — schoolboy ﬁlling the speaking tube which ran from

’ the prompter s bo x to the orchestra leader with face powder . Just as the orchestra was about to play the 38 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE o verture I lured the p rornp ter from his place and then blew through the tube as the leader answered the sig

v nal . A ery pale and much whitened orchestra leader received a great laugh from his men and the people sitting down front . As three or four other young people in the company

‘

s to o wn . The were accu ed in turn, I had up calling down that I got from an infuriated man ager-mother had better be left to the imagination . That same season Fran k Chan f rau came to Phila delphia to play his celebrated character o f Kit in The

Arkansas Trav eler o S T , supp rted by the Arch treet hea

’ C R O Neill tre ompany . Ada ehan, her sister, Hattie ,

' Ch f u Georgie and I all played in this piece . an ra was

M s . related by marriage to Alexina Fisher B aker . r

’ Baker w as a great friend o f my mother s and had also

’ been something of an infant prodigy or, as Dickens “ V ce Cru mmles Mr . in n t would say, an infant phe ” M B n o meno n . y sisters and I had known the aker

S 1 880 a children, Josephine, who in eptember, , bec me

e my wife, and L wis, almost from early childhood , and

M B n e a . rs . aker was naturally i ter sted in my c reer

Kit Chan f rau After the ﬁrst night of , returned to

Mrs B was n . her house , where he stoppi g, and aker asked him how I was. h a re Co llec ti o n H a r ar d n i ers i ty . F r o m T e t , v U v

E JOSE PHIN E BAK E R (MRS . JOHN DR W)

MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 39

v . Oh, ery bad , he answered Each night thereafter she would ask him and he would say Worse .

o n e Finally, night without being questioned , he ex “ T - lo d ed : . p Oh, worse than ever here is a red headed girl that he is making love to so much o f the time ” that he cannot remember his cues .

’ - R ehan s The red headed girl was Ada sister and, while talking to her in the wings , I had missed a very

o M T e Arkansas Trav eler imp rtant cue . y part in h

o rd Fitz o le was that of L f y, one of those preposterous imitations of a traveling Englishman with an equally preposterous valet .

Chan f rau Kit - , as , was in a violent bowie knife ﬁght

M l B o an u e n d . with , the bad man of the piece I was ff to ﬁre the shot from O stage which kills the bad man .

T n o an d here was shot, he was forced to die without it . To record that Chan f rau was annoyed is to put the matter mildly .

The R next season Ada ehan went to Albany to play, N ew . C M and I to York harles orton , the stage mana S T ger of the Arch treet heatre , had written a play,

‘ Wo men o e D th a . called f y In this I had a very ﬁne,

rOle and s to v m light comedy , Daly eems ha e been i 40 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

pressed by my work . His company was playing in

an d Philadelphia at the time , and he wrote my mother asked her if she would allow me to join him . From her he bought the rights to produce Wo men o he D a New f t y in York, and when it was played there

who James Lewis, was later to become my best friend, played my part .

In spite of the attention that this play attracted, it does not seem to have been any considerable success in

Philadelphia, for during the run of the piece the

No rth Amerzcan said :

It is n o t complimentary to the liberal in telli ’ - M gence of the play going public that Mr. orton s new play at the Arch Street Theatre should have ff he met with but indi erent patronage . T author

has written it with much cleverness, and the dia

‘ lo gue is entirely free from any taint of vulgarity . So far as the strength of the company permits the

cast is a strong one, and altogether the perform a ance is thoroughly pleasing . We have alre dy spoken of the excellence of one or two of the to performers , and the list we wish to add the

name of young John Drew . His improvement

within the last year has been very marked , and in his present character we think he shows a de gree of ease and self-possession which give promise of some high rank in his profession The in the future . piece is really worth seeing, M and r. Drew is not the least attractive feature

of it .

CHAPTER FIVE

HEN I joined the company at the Fifth Ave T nue heatre , Augustin Daly was in the late

thirties . He had been in theatrical management about

- thirteen years and had already had a varied, if not U s e . n d er alway successful , care r With his own play, — the Gaslight the ﬁrst play in which a person is tied to the railroad tracks only to be released just as the — locomotive appears o n the stage he had made con

’ b m e sid era le o n y at the Old New York Theatre . In

1 8 75 he was conﬁrmed in his ideas, and he possessed

thecourage o f his convi cti ons to an extraordinary de

gree . He was always willing to ﬁght for the things

he wanted, and he had a determination that seemed

at variance with his slight build .

Even at thi s ti me Daly had adopted the famous

e black hat which he wore upon all occasions . Th . somewhat conical shape of the crown accentua'ted his

. T slimness hese hats seem to have been standardized,

and one followed another without noticeable Change . R ’ ichard, Daly s faithful black servant, who had 42 F ro m Thea tre C o llec ti o n H ar ar d Un i ers i t . , v v y

, J ME E A N D E I N G T A E A S L WIS JOHN DR W AU US IN D LY S PLAY, PIQ U

MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 43 nothing special to d o in the theatre and was seldo m out

o f . it, received the discarded hats Years after Daly was dead I noticed one o f these on a ﬁgure ahead o f R S . me in ixth Avenue It was ichard , and he still held his head v ery proudly .

o f The Bi B o nan z a During the early rehearsals g ,

Daly was often impatient with the actors . He was tireless in the theatre and seldom went elsewhere . He w s o f n ho w a an excellent producer plays, and he k ew

his s re to manage stage , I think that his countles hearsals had much to d o with the smoothnes s of the

o plays, for by the time a play reached pr duction, it wascut and dried and there was n o need for a tryout at Atlantic City or some other place near New York to o u t ﬁnd what the play was like . Jim Lewis used to refer often to a co nversation that he said he had with Daly . “ And where would you be if you weren’t in the ” theatre rehearsing ? the manager was supposed to hav e

’ v Oh, out somewhere enjoying oursel es , was Lewis

s v reply in the conver ation that he had in ented .

o f As a matter fact, we were all young and there was no reason whatever why we should no t have re ’ B hearsed at ten O clock every day . u t if in dealing with us he was not always patient, Daly did have the DAL ’ YS FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE. MR A . UGUSTIN DALY Pr ri n . o p eto r a d Manage r

T W E N T Y - S X T H “I B E X — I 6 th S E A S O N .

FIRST PRODU TION OF AN O RIGINAL SO IETY NOVEL wr C C TY, itten eq ua l ly f or hi s Theatre and t . u nwed

To be presen e af er AREF UL PREPARATION vmh ew b t d t C , N Scene. y I R M S JA ROBERTS and HR. HAR L WITB All New E C ES W. ; rm ‘ Toucan New Furn ture a ls mo d e N ew I n k: DODWOK’ ; i ; M I B . and .

Cas ha nc u es ALI. TB ! FAVORITE RT t t ti l d A ISTS.

Jonathan Cmmllad er Es . Banker ro ker an d o d l , q , , B B n ho d er ; in L ot,

&e. , AG ; in fuct, the represen tati ve of James Lou is

' Bo a le s Ii ht fxom th gg R m g o Big Bom u , thn ﬁm s pp u m eo

Mn Al honsnn Do a s the l - p H se, s cio n of md mt ﬁ mi y d DO Hu m .

e io te be i nin Eug n . her d augh r, hm ine o‘a romm co g n g d the d opot

Vi e her r tin ed sa v rgi , d aughter. he oine of o rom nce g v id i d i ol ing

M TINEE SATERBAY N A . EXT. A T o f THE 38mRENAME

“ ' B o x S ho o t m u v o p e n l b l t e n d a v s a hea d .

R ‘ ‘ ’I E! r L AL GAS L GHTING m m is MR. . BOOA I PA E E TRI I A. l C C e i n o u s l n e s of tid e o m e mp lo y d sq light i ng S mu lta e y m of the o s t th .

‘ J T he B LE B R AT E D D ECK E R ” A 3 0 8 are the on ly Pin e. an d

F ro m Theatr e C o llectio n H arva rd n i ers it , U v y . ’ J OHN DRE W s FIRS T APPE ARANC E I N N EW YORK 44 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 45 interest of his theatre at heart and f o r many years he maintained a standard o f production and acting that

o f has lasted in the minds old theatregoers .

’ A o f The B z B o nanz a fter the ﬁrst day of rehearsal g , my shyness wore o ff somewhat and I felt less lonely .

I B 017 R n er n was cast for ggl , a you g and impecunious

o f lover the heroine , the part to be played by Fanny

Davenport . Daly was disappointed because I could not play the piano . I had taken lessons from one of the women of the Arch Street Theatre Company when

n o t to I was quite young, but I had been encouraged keep up studying, and I never really got beyond the " " When- a- feller-needs- a- friend stage of the B riggs

New t cartoon . In the ﬁrst play in York I went hrough all the motions o f piano playing while some one played ﬂ’ o stage .

The Big B o nanz a turned out to be a bright and

w as amusing play, and a great success . It would seem v o f who ery thin now, this story the aged bookworm gets his market tips from a secondhand bookseller who S “B has a stall in Wall treet . When told to sell ig B onanza, he buys it because he has none to sell . The New York papers were kind to me upon my “ m M s . f The Ti es : r. o début said John Drew , Phila

Ci . delphia, made his ﬁrst appearance in this ty Proof

M n that r. Drew is still a novice was not wanting but a 46 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE agreeable freedom from affectation and a frank and welcome heartiness of style were perceptible in his f ” e fort here and augured well for his future . The

’ “ E v ening Mail s comment was : He acts with intel ligence and energy and although by no means a para ” gon gives promise of marked excellence .

Daly had adapted The Big B o n anz a from the Ger

Ul ima Vo n M t . ha man play , by osher He d made many adaptations from the German, and it was from this source that he got some of his biggest successes

7 e Nano a na Co m an A Ni ht O in lat r years, y p y, g f , and

o o o T The R ailr ad f L v e. his play brought together three of the performers who were later to be associated

Mrs e m in so many plays, . Gilb rt, James Lewis and y

o f a self. With the addition Ada Rehan we later bec me “ ”— what w as jestingly known as The BigFour named

The the v from the railroad . program of Fifth A enue Theatre contained this announcement

The Big B o nanz a is the second of the series o f

contemporaneous comedies with which Mr. Daly e follows his season of old co medy revivals . Th ’ Mr comedy is placed upon the stage under . Daly s e p rsonal superintendence , with new scenery, new

. The toilettes , new furniture , and appointments o n cast embraces the favorite artists of the c mpa y, N w M r and introduces to the e York public . John his Drew, who, aside from own merits , ought to

48 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

at the Occidental , and on July twelfth we opened with

’ L o o Ass ur ce nd n an in Platt s Hall . According to the “ o f was re re playbill that night, this play to be As p sented at the Fifth Avenue Theatre to crowded and

- laughter convulsed audiences . Also from the play “ bill : The new scenery to be unfolded this evening

2— The will be found in Act park, and in Act 3

Oak Hall , Gloucestershire . It turned out that there was little room for all this scenery and after two

’ nights we moved to Emerson s Minstrel Hall .

The Bi B o nanz a s C g was not a succe s here , for rane

’ and James O Neill had already played another ver C sion of the same play . We visited hinatown and saw some of the interminable plays in the Chinese

Theatre , at least we were told that one of the plays that we saw had still some days to go . Outwardly Chinatown was a very diff erent place from the place that I saw on numerous later trips .

S an McC llo u h In Francisco I met John u g , who was running the Califo rnia Theatre on regular stock lines, playing the usual plays that were popular at the

. M time On this ﬁrst trip I met John ackay, the father o f C M Of larence ackay, and James Fair, the celebrated M ’ i O B r en . T mining outﬁt, ackay, Fair, Flood and hey owned the Consolidated Virginia Mine in Virginia C N ity, evada . G A R E M R S . G B E R T M I S S VE T M I S S E R IN T HIS ROUP IL , DA NPOR , J FF YS E E G T E A E U P L EWIS; JAM S L WIS, AU US IN DALY, AND JOHN DR W, M D IN G T E AT T H E E T A E T O T H E S T V I R W ORK IN CLO H S, N R NC CON OLIDA ED GINIA M I N E

Fr o m Thea tr e C o llec tio n H ar ard n i ers it . , v U v y

MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 49

W e Mrs . visited the mine , and there is a picture of M M ff Gilbert, iss Davenport, iss Je rys Lewis , James

Lewis, Augustin Daly and myself at the entrance to

’ - m u wo rkin en s . the mine , all made p in g clothes We

O two went down to the depth f some thousand feet, and then to some lower level on a very small lift . It

v Mr. was ery warm in this big silver mine , and Fair had a man following us with iced champagne and we w stopped to partake n o and then . Virginia City was really impressive to us in those days . It was crude and new, and the streets were crowded with men ; but they were most deferential and respectful to the women of our company . There was

v an Indian reser ation near there , and we saw a ﬁght N between a white man and an Indian . either had any idea Of science, but the crowd did not seem to mind, and the combatants dealt each other horribleblows .

The man v the white ﬁnally o ercame Indian who, we

was were assured, was in no way hostile, and the ﬁght ff purely a personal a air .

On our way back East we played in Salt Lake City .

The theatre , which had been built in the late ﬁfties or

w as ﬁn e early sixties, a very one . I have played in the same house many times since , and it has always been, W as then, well run and ell cared for but in those days

it . had a big, ﬁne green room , which was later changed 5 0 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

into a dressing room . In this theatre , when it was

’ the o M home f a stock company, aude Adams mother, w Kiskad d en hose real name was , played leading women for many years . C uriously enough, the play selected for our opening

’ bill in Salt Lake City was B ronson Howard s S ara

o se n t ga. El where the complicatio s resulting from the

O f B o b S at /f el t pursuit the hero, , by three infatuated women had been considered excruciatingly funny, but

M as B o the ormons, righam Young himself p inted out

’ v S ac/eel t to us, would ha e solved a problem like s so

h . easily t at there would, have been no play

The e M o t Mrs . day after we Op ned, iss Davenp r , w h is Mrs . Gilbert, Jim and Lewis, Daly and I went B to call upon righam Young, who gave us a sort of audience at his Ofﬁcial residence . He seemed a famil iar ﬁgure and looked very much like his pictures, ex cept that he was Older and somewhat feeble, and he had a growth o r goiter that w as said to have been caused by drinking snow water from the mountains .

s Of cour e this must have been false , for the water was perfectly pellucid .

He expressed a great deal O f in terest in our work “ ” o B S arat a . u t and particularly in the play, g why,

r he asked, turning to Lewis, who played the p a t of MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 5 1

‘ o b S acketz v B , the p ursued hero, should the author ha e made such a complication out o f the efforts of your character to get away from the three women who are in love with him

Jim Lewis was somewhat puzzled by the question . ” “ ac/cell d o What else , he asked, could S but try to escape “ ’ M l B . arry them al , was righam Young s answer

H e said this so seriously that none o f us knew

o r whether he meant his solution as a wheeze not, and we talked of other things . He told us that when he was a young man he could speak with such distinctness and with so much volume that he could be heard for great distances . I hesitate

u to guess now what these ﬁg res were , but they were very impressive, even taking into consideration the

iﬁe v B rar d atmosphere . Our isit to righam Young was

so so not proﬁtable in experience, nor did it yield much material as Artemus Ward got out o f his v isit to the

Mormons . The manager o f the hotel in Salt Lake City pro vid ed us with excellent horses , and we rode round on

to v these see the surrounding country . We isited C amp Douglas , which had been established as an army

M v s post when the ormons pro ed rebellious . It wa 5 2 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

S n here that I ﬁrst met General herida , who was then on a tour of inspection .

B The R o u hD iamo nd efore we left we played g , and the Salt Lake City papers made much of a line that

Lewis interpolated . As I looked young for the char

to acter I was play, I made up with a very elaborate beard . As I came on the stage Lewis who had a way o f inter p o latin g lin es naturallyand still letting the audience “ o n : the o f in the joke, said Here comes Prince

w S v had Wales . He who was later Ed ard the e enth mad e the wearing o f a heard the fashion in the early

e s venties and the j est, though feeble, went well in

S alt Lake City .

I remember another occasion , some years afterward,

n S when Lewis, an oyed at having to play on unday

Chim o t in g , ook a great many liberties with the text

he o f his part . T seats down front were all occupied d id h S . by circus people , who not ave to work on unday

T o M R hey had c me to see a former colleague, iss ose S tokes , who appeared in one scene where there was a

M . She e aypole dance had b en a rider, but after an accident had given up the tanbark ring for the stage .

C Old harles Fisher played an man and wore white, mutton chop s id ewhiskers . He was j u st abo ut to make

CHAPTER SIX

N we — Co m October of that year that is , the Daly

— he pany appeared with Edwin Booth . T season

B o had been postponed, as ooth had been thrown fr m

a carriage, and when he ﬁrst appeared at rehearsals his m l . H a let C arm was in a sling In , har es Fisher was

o lo ius Grave D i er P n ; William Davidge , the gg ; Har

Gho st Kin M B ar kins, the ; Hardenberg, the g; aurice

mo re who - in - ry , was soon after to be my brother law,

aertes f O helia L ; Je frys Lewis , p ; and Alice Grey, the

R o e ee . s n crantz Q u n I played . Of my performance the only criticism I can remem “ o f : he ber is that William Winter, who wrote T gen tleman who played R o sencran tz evidently had an en

a emen t g g with a friend after the performance , so hurried was his speech and so evident his desire to get

through with his part . In those days I was very much inclined to speak too rapidly . Of that long cast only Jeffrys Lewis and I are alive

t . The S tra o a er oday A few years ago, when p f P p was T M staged at the Empire heatre, iss Lewis played 54 DALY’S FIFTHAVENUETHEATRE

MR. AUGUSTIN DALY S o le Pro rieto r and Mana e . p g “ B e i n . o r 8 h l o e o m a b e o rd e r ’ g p r ec i s e l y . O rr g y ed ! o r I I o c l o c k .

s 4 th to 9 1 st PE R FOR MANOB .

al has l i Mr. D y p easure in introd uc ng an . EBWEN BOOTH,

Will be presented , after elabo rate

D W N O T H ” ”a s . J I AML E T PR I NC E OF D E NMA RK MR . E I B O , And the following very stro ng d istribution o f the other characters

Mr. D. H. Harkine.

n r The Kin Mr. B ard e be g g a d Mr. W. D vi ge M re r. Maurice Barrymo

Mr. Jo hn Drew

n Moo re . Mr. Joh

r s Lad ies Pa es . Mo nks, Lo d , , g , Etc Lewis

IN HAMLET WIT H B O O TH 56 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE ’ Ol r e. the old woman s In that revival , my niece, Ethel

B S uz an n e ro s er arrymore , was , and I , P p .

1 8 B During this engagement in the fall of 75, ooth

R char II i d . f played I had great pride and satis action,

him because I was on the stage with in the last scene .

It fell to me as Sir Pierce of B osto n to stab him in the back, and I can remember even now my great nervous ness for fear that I might actually stick this great man

o f instead merely pretending to stab him .

In one o f the scenes R ichard calls f o r a mirror and reads ' A brittle glory shineth in this face

As brittle as the glory is the face . Then he throws the glass down and it is supposed to

d . be ashed to pieces On the ﬁrst night, instead of falling ﬂat on the stage, the mirror struck on the side

L o r and ﬂew o u t into the audience . I was playing d

Willo u b a gh y in this scene, doubling this ch racter with

ce o x o No Sir Pier f E t n . one could tell how the thing happened . Booth’s performance was touching and beautiful as

o . this intellectual , but desp ndent and superstitious king Ol With him it was always a favorite r e. It had some times been played by his father and Edmund Kean and Macready gave it occasionally but R ichard II has o n the whole been neglected in the theatre . MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 57

The action being largely political and possessing little o f theatrical eff ectiveness the play did not prove

' popular when the Daly company appeared in it ih support o f Edwin Booth . Writing of this engagement in his biography of his brother, Augustin, Judge Daly records that while H amlet drew average nightly re ceip ts of $ 1 855 ; four performances o f R ichard II aver aged only $73 1

Othell o B o d o In , with ooth, I played the part of L v ic o M B Cassia , aurice arrymore was , Jeffrys Lewis

D esd emo na B Ia o was and as ooth played g , Harkins

O e o was th ll .

o f Ric helieu At the rehearsals , in which I was to play

Fran o is Fra o . n is g , I was extremely nervous g is the character that R ic helieu sends to get the paper con

n Gasto n Orlea taini g the names of the plotters, , ns and

o i the others . Frang s is also the character to whom the famous lines are spoken :

o f s In the lexicon youth, which fate re erves n o For a bright manhood , there is such word “ ” As fail .

When Frango is returns with the impo rtant paper which will confound all those who have plotted against “ n : M the king, he k eels and says y lord, I have not ” “ ”

o : M . failed . F r some reason or other I said y liege

“ ’ ’ ‘ Booth said : Don t say that : it isn t my liege . 58 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE During rehearsals I made the same mistake several

. B as an d times Edwin ooth was , always, gentle kind, and fortunately when the actual performance came I

spoke the line correctly .

e Fran cis The S tran er B . I play d , in g , with ooth “ ” Francis is what is known in the business as a liny B part . y that we mean that the speeches are very

T Of short, broken lines . hey have no semblance con tin u ity and are con stantly interrupted by the other

characters . Almost every actor, particularly the young actor,has had difﬁculties with a part of the sort . When

Francis B I played with ooth I had a good memory,

and I thought that I had mastered the broken speeches .

t During the performance I tripped a number of imes , and when I apo logized to Booth afterwards he was

me . very gentle , very nice . He patted on the shoulder

Evidently he had been through it himself, or perhaps he had seen man y others go wrong in this thankless

rOle.

I thought that I had done with The S tranger for M B ever, but some years after, in London, aurice arry more and I went to Kings Cross Station to take a train

for the country . We were ahead of time and near

the station was a small theatre with alluring bills . We

c to h Walber the Aven er . de ided kill half an hour wit g, g

s e The play was on when we entered, and it eem d MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 59

strangely familiar . It turned out to be the old fash B o n ed The S tran er. i play, g arrymore remembered

that in this piece o n e o f the characters refers to The

ber T S tranger by his right name which was Wal g. he actor playing this character was unusually bad and

’

A W S . suggested the actor in . Gilbert s ballad who ” mouthed and mugged in simulated rage . After the engagement with Booth I played with

Adelaide Neilson in Tw elfth Night and Cymbelin e.

Clo ten In the latter play I was , which is supposed to ’ — be the comedy part : it wasn t as I played it . After my —‘ head is supposed to be cut O ff Imo gen discovers

n o sthu my body and thi king that it is her husband, P m mo us . un co , throws herself upon me It was rather

o rtable f , as my head was covered with some dusty

M d isco mﬁtu re o n grass mats . y was added to the ﬁrst night by the fact that I could tell that Miss Neilso n

was laughing . “ ‘” What was the matter l I asked her immediately

afterwards .

She merely continued to laugh .

S w n Did my head how, or was something ro g with my costume ?”

v Oh, no, e erything was all right, she told me ; “ o lo ten but I once played that scene with a very p rtly C , and when I threw myself upon him I rebounded an d 60 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

bounced . I have never been able to play that scene , m serious though it is, without laughing under y breath . Things had been going very badly with Daly for

s T some time , and he lo t the Fifth Avenue heatre . I

’ Old f played with my mother s friend, Joseph Je ferson,

’ Ri Van Win kle w B T in p for a hile at ooth s heatre ,

- which was at Sixth Avenue an d Twenty third Street .

S eth At ﬁrst I was the innkeeper, , who chalks up drinks for R ip at the beginning of the play an d later I was

H en rich Ved d er , the sailor, who comes in on the fourth

R i . T act, when p has reappeared after his sleep his part is played by a child in the ﬁrst act .

The su Philad el next mmer, with my old friend of B T phia days, Lewis aker, I went abroad . hat was the

the year of exposition at Paris, and all the boats were crowded . We were very much on the cheap and sailed o n an inferior boat of a Scotch line . In London we saw Herman Vez in play a drama “ ” tiz atio n o f The Vicar of Wakeﬁeld called Oliv ia .

V z e in was an American , born in Philadelphia, but he was always identiﬁed with the English stage and

T Ol v i . . v . i a ne er played here his same play, , by W G

r Wills, was later played by Hen y Irving, who was then

The playing his wonderful melodramatic success,

CHAPTER SEVEN

X - in - M NE T went on tour with my brother law, au

rice Barrymore . He an d Frederick Warde had ’ purchased the road rights to the great Wallack s Thea

D o m i l ac . to tre success, p y I was engaged play the

v Al ie a r x . ju enile part, g F i fa As the venture was not

r p oving proﬁtable , Warde and Barrymore, a short time after we had gone on tour, decided to split .

Warde was to take part of the company and go West .

B o f a arrymore was to keep some the actors, eng ge a

S . few additional ones , and play the outhern territory I stayed with Barrymore and from then on played the o f H enr B eau clerc part y , which had, up to this B n . M time, bee played by Warde aurice arrymore

Julian B eauclerc . . played , the younger brother H R ees Davies , an actor of considerable experience, was

o Baro n S tein and Ben Porter played Co un t Orl g.

- n Porter was a good looki g man in the early forties, who had played in the Fu rbish Comp any which did

Div o rce. Co u n tess Zicha for a time the old Daly play, w s C s v a played by Ellen umming , an attracti e young Q F ro m Thea tre C o llec ti o n H ar ar d n i ers i t , v U v y .

AN EARLY P I C T UR E O F MA UR IC E B ARRYMORE

MY YEARS ON THE STAGE . 63 woman who had been in the Louisville Stock Co m

Ad a R pany . In this same company ehan had played f o r a time after the days at the Arch Street Theatre and before her engagement by Augustin Daly . — — a T s Ben It was on this tour t Marshall , exa that

Porter was killed and Barrymore severely wounded . We had played at the Opera House that night in

v o n March, the sixth anni ersary of my appearance the s a k Tex tage, and were waiting for train to ta e us to

n arka a .

S H s We were stopping at the tation otel , and mo t Of us went directly there after the play ; but Barry

M C h ve more, Porter and iss ummings decided to a

n something to eat , and they wentto the only lu ch room

e . that was op n, the one at the station T his lunch room was a sort of bar as well . One man

o a was waiting on b th parts o f the room . A mn named

C o f a Jim urry, an employee the r ilroad and a deputy

f f ve d a e sheri f, began using o fensi language an ffront d M iss Cummings . B arrymore demanded that he stop . “ ” C I can do any of you up , said urry. “ ” o B re h I supp se you could, answered arrymo , wit ” your pistol or kn ife .

“ ’ ’ v I ha en t go t any p istol o r knife . I ll do it with 64 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE C my bunch of ﬁves, said urry, as he proudly displayed a ﬁst like a sledge hammer . “ ” T B O fl ‘ his hen, said arrymore , throwing coat,

“ ’ ” I ll have a go at yOu .

Bu t C B urry did have a gun and he shot arrymore , ’ Wh wounding him in the shoulder . en Porter rushed ’ l to B C . a arrymore s aid, urry shot him Porter died

i a o n o . most immediately, the stat n pl tform

a I he rd the shooting at the hotel , and I ran along the station platform and entered the only place that

As was lighted, the lunch room . I entered , the man with the gun grabbed me. Why he did not shoot I

o f d not know . In another minute o r two the sheri f of

M a arsh ll arrived, took the gun away from his deputy and locked him up . M Ba We stayed on in arshall for some days, till rry more was out o f danger . When the physician showed him the ball that had been cut out of the muscle of his

“ ’ B : v to so n back, arrymore said I ll gi e it my Lionel ” to cut his teeth on . Ou r hotel at the station was some distance from

t w the town itself, and the nex night when I was go g to

’ the druggist s to get a prescription ﬁlled for Barry

the an d said more , train dispatcher called me aside

“ ’ ” You d better take my pistol . MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 6 5'

I did so an d walked along the dark road to the

he town with some little apprehension . T shooting at the lunch roo m had made us rather conspicuous in M arshall . There was only one house lighted along the road and when I was just opposite that a woman called to “ ” me : Where are you going ?

“ ’ : To I told her the druggist s, and then back to

the hotel . She said : When you go back to the station will

’ ” n — you tell my husba d, he s train dispatcher the very — “ man who had given me the gun that there are some

’ tramps hanging around here . They ve been in here ” to demand food .

’ I went on to the druggist s, obtained the medicine " o n and started back the long, dark road , now without

e d a sin gle light . Th pistol gave me conﬁ ence of a

’ o f v sort, but course I didn t want to use it ; I ne er had used one .

un With my hand on the g , which was in my side

o n e o r o pocket, I looked anxiously at the two pers ns

I met on the way . When I returned the p istol to its

’ o f n owner I told him his wife s fears , and he and a other man went up to his house and apprehended two men who were put in j ail . And though I had been anxious 66 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

along the road, happily there were no other casualties M during our visit to arshall .

The T people of exas, to show their detestation of ff the whole a air and their sympathy with the company, off ered us the hospitality o f a number of towns that no touring company would have thought of visiting . I do not suppose these towns would have been espe “ ” cially attractive or proﬁtable for a one -man show at M that time . esquite was one of these, and Eagle Ford another . We were promised good houses ; but of course we could n o t play D iplo macy with two of o u r leading characters mi ssmg.

two We played or three farces, which we studied for the occasion . One of these was an old piece called

T e Lit le Treas re h t u . In this the property man played B ’ a young English fop . He wore clothes of arrymore s

’ - that didn t ﬁt him, and a light yellow wig that slipped badly an d either showed his dark hair at the temple o r “ at the neck in back . This was a sort of town hall ” tonight tour . When there was no theatre, we played

o in a hall and once in the dining r om of a hotel . C urry was twice brought to trial , but acquitted . There were witnesses in court to testify that Curry had

r B - shot Po ter and arrymore in self defense . As a mat

o ter f fact, at the time of the shooting there was no one in the lunch room except the participants and the

68 MY YEARS ON T HE STAGE

B x arrymore took it, thanked the lawyer, e amined

i the gun g ngerly and handed it back . We heard later that Curry was killed in a brawl in

New M exico . B y easy stages the company, which had gone through

T a T so much in ex s , worked its way to exarkana, Pine B ff R to t. Chi lu , and by way of Little ock S Louis . In

cago the Western company, which was headed by

n Warde , joined us, and we managed to give , o ce more ,

o m c some fairly respectable performances of D ipl a y .

Bu t the play was not a great success then, and when we closed there was so little money that I set out for

u n co m Philadelphia i n a smokin g car . It meant two

r abl f o t e days and nights . When we reached Altoona

a telegraph bo y called my name in the smoking car .

M She He had a telegram for me . It was from other .

Off cautioned me to be sure to stop at Philadelphia, for

she had a part f o r me to play the next night . I had no intention o f going any place other than Philad el

phia . I had no money .

’ I arrived at two o clock in the morning and wen t

directly to our house where my mother gave me the

Bro n z le T w as Mr . part I w as to play that night . his y

Wives as The Were and M aid s as in an old comedy, y

. They Are. I sat up all night and studied At ten

’ o clock the next morning I attended rehearsal . At MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 69

eight I appeared in eighteenth century ﬁnery as M r .

Bro nz ley and though I should not call my perform ance either spirited or good, I did know the lines .

I suppo se it was youth, but in those days we all had

z . a capacity f o r memori ing That is, all of us except M B . arrymore y sister, Georgie , could study a part

’ n o in time at all , and she couldn t understand why

Barrymore could n o t commit things to memory easily . She used to hear him say his parts over and over again . While he had a marvelous memory for things he had read, poetry or prose , or anything he had studied W ’ hile he was at Oxford, he couldn t commit his parts easily . This was the end o f my ﬁrst and only experience in

n f o r so a barnstormi g company, I was fortunate as to come into the theatre in the days Of resident companies and to play most of my career under two managements — that o f Augustin Daly and that o f Charles Frohman . When I had rested from this long trip in a smoking car and the difficu lties and fatigues o f this added stunt o f playing a performance with less than twenty- four

’ to hours notice , I went to New York lay siege to the

ffi o f o ce Augustin Daly, who was, I heard, about to

Open a new theatre . CHAPTER EIGHT

T D HILE I was in exas , aly had been abroad, where he bou ght the rights to the play made

’ Z s U from ola s famou book, nder the

o f D rin k C R title , in a version written by harles eade , this play was do ne by Charles Warner f o r ﬁve thou

' "

in . New Yo rk w hen sand nights England In , pilo d u ced T by Daly at the Olympic heatre, it was a com p lete failure and ran only a short time . In the cast

M R . B . T R o were aude Granger, Emily igl , ing ld,

’

R n . Frank Sanger my uncle , Frank Drew ; and Ada eha S e T Gardner, the manager of the Arch tr et heatre , had R recommended Ada ehan to Daly, and in this play she played for the ﬁrst time under his management .

S ur W Olive Logan , who wrote the play f, hich had a record run at the Arch Street Theatre and had also been p roduced by Daly, made the version American fﬁ e ff in all respects, but not su ci ntly di erent to account for the failure here an d the great success when played by Warner . This failure did not discourage Daly o r his chief

uff -ln - o u t backer, John D , his father law, and they set 70

MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 7 1 W to ﬁn d a new theatre early in 1 879 . On the est side of Broadway between Twenty-nin th and Thirtieth

’ streets was an old building which had been B an vard s

’ a exhi and later Wood s Museum . Downst irs was an

bitiou hall which was chiefly famous as the place where

the Cardiff giant was displayed .

The auditorium was up a ﬂight o f steps and very

’ s small . Daly s architect contrived by a series of step some feet apart to give the impression when the place

was made over that the theatre was on the ground f . o f loor As a matter fact, the stage had been lowered B so mewhat and a new proscenium arch made . ecause the building was o ld and so far out o f the theatrical district the rental was lo w . There was great pessi

s v . mi m o er the location of the theatre , so far uptown When he had ﬁnished the physical changes in the theatre and had redecorated the whole , Daly gathered together a company . As in the opening of the Fifth

T . Avenue heatre , he selected mostly young players After some correspondence and a visit o r two I was engaged . I asked for forty dollars a week, but Daly

- ﬁve would only give me thirty . In a letter I had written " him I mentioned that since the Fifth Avenue Theatre days I had had quite a little

c experien e and had improved in my enunciation . He

to wrote me that he was glad hear that I had improved, 7 2 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE but that I should not make him “pay for all the im ”

ro vemen ts . e p A year later when I was marri d, he

voluntarily raised my salary to ﬁfty dollars .

Ada Rehan had wri tten Daly that she had a number k Of offers, but as they would ta e her out of town she would be willing to accept an engagement with him if

She he would pay her forty dollars a week . did not

t feel that she could accept anything less han this sum ,

-ﬁv e but she ﬁnally agreed to take thirty . S alaries were low everywhere in those days , and the only advantage the actor had was that he was engaged by the season and not for o n e part only . We were seldom idle,for if there was a musical piece running, those of us who did not appear in it went on tour .

’ The stage entrance o f Daly s was through the hall way o f a tenement house in Sixth Avenue and into a little courtyard o u t of which the actu al stage door

s T - opened . Later, Daly bought a hou e in wenty ninth

Street and the entrance was through this . Also many o f the dressing rooms were moved over, and the whole arrangement was made more comfortable . In the early days we dressed in small roo ms under the stage which had partitions only part o f the way

. T up here was a green room , of course, for then every T theatre had one . his was not a handsome room, like

ON THE ,74 MY YEARS STAGE

though at night it is light enough . A door opens — into one end of the property- room a place where all sorts of things are kept that are used on the — s tage an d through that we pass out to the stage .

' ’ o en in D al s o f At the time of the p g y theatre was,

u The co rse , lighted by gas . ﬂames were protected by

. L wire netting and the j ets were lighted by spark ater,

when electric lighting was ﬁrst installed , there was no m plant in the theatre, the supply coming fro the city po wer house .

Often the lights would go out, and the explanation

i was always that they were chang ng a belt .

“ It was not very reassuring for the audiences to sit in darkness ; nor was it comfortable for the players, who had come to a complete stands till o n the stage and were waiting for the lights to co me on .

From the beginning Daly was i nsi stent that no o n e should be allowed back stage on ﬁrst nights . As a mat

o f ter fact, it was impossible to get to the stage or dressing rooms at any time,so z ealously was the door to the stage guarded by a large , unlettered, rough, but kindly Hibernian , named Owen Gormley . He seemed very surly ; but of course he was only doing what Daly wanted him to do, and he did keep

Of . people out the theatre Owen could not read, and he regarded everyone who presented a letter or card F r o m Thea tr e C o llec ti o n H a r d i e s i t ar Un r . , v v y

JOHN DR E W AN D W I L L I A M G I L B E R T I N R E D L E T T E R N I GH T S

76 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

. T New o rt Parkes appeared his was followed by p ,

The S wi mmer The S in er and T e i subtitled , g h C p her .

to To m S an d ers o n According the program I was , a

o v e rn as e master bather with an r t rin g secret . The cast was

H O N ET ER O R T E R C L . P P harles eclerc q B E N U . L D H O . O B . William Davidge B E N B O U L GAT E Hart Conway A P T H K ER N G C . C IC I George Parkes TO M SAND E R SO N John Drew CA P TAI N B LAC KW E LL Frank Iredale CR U T C H R EY NO LD S Walter Edmunds N O V B U D Frank . ennett TO GGS Maggie Barnes MIDG ET Laura Thorpe TH O M P SO N Earle S tirling

GI N GE R E . Wilkes F F O IC E R P . Hunting R ET E PO T C ther n e H O N M S . R R ER a i . P Lewis W W M C T H E WIDO ARB O YS rs . harles Poole MI S S B E LL E B LO D E Georgine Flagg CO S ET T E Ann ie Wakeman

In this co medy with songs Olive Logan had at tempted to repeat the success which she had attained with her earlier play about a fashionable summer re

She New o rt r . sort, S u f failed to get from p what she had found in the background of Cape May and the public stayed away from the new theatre .

D o rce cc o f iv , a su ess a few years before , was revived MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 77 as soon as possible and rehearsals begun on a new H w a e . T n play by B ro n so n . o rd called Wiv s his was a

’ ’ M e two L Eco le d es adaptation from oli re s plays,

’ Femmes and L Ec o le d es M aris and so far as I can

Mo lié re n ascertain this is the ﬁrst time that , so Ofte

o o n adapted and borrowed fr m , was given credit an

American playbill .

The cast f o r this ﬁve- act comedy produced October

1 8 1 8 , 79 , was

AR N O L P H E M o f , arquis Fontenoy Charles Fisher S C A NA R E L L E LA M AR RE William Davidge VIC O M T E ARIST E George Morton C H R I S A LD E John Drew H O RA C E D E CH AT EA U R O U X Harry Lacy CA P TA I N Fi ER E MO NT E George Parkes DO R IVA L Hart Conway ALAI N Charles Leclercq E B J A N JA CQ U E S F . ennett AP T A N BA L LA N E W C I D R . Edmunds T H E O M M ARY Mr C ISS . Hunting T H E OT A RY Mr N . Sterling AGN E S Catherine Lewis ISA B E LL E D E N E SLE Ada Rehan LE NO RA D E N ESL E Margaret Lanner LIS ET T E Maggie Harold G EO R G ET T E Sydney Nelson

During this ﬁrst season neither James Lewis nor M rs . o n o t Gilbert was in the c mpany, and it was till 78 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE the following September that we were all cast together

Our First Families in a play called , by Edgar Fawcett .

’ The playbills at Daly s theatre always had a synop

. T An Arabian Ni ht sis with the character hus, in g , I “ M r Alexand er S in kle was . p , a retired broker and ex- Caliph ; a devoted young husband with a fatal pas ” sion for the Arabian Nights . And Ada Rehan was “ M ss Kate S in kle i p , an American girl brought up ”

. The abroad, and astonished at the ways at home In “ Way We Liv e I was Clyd e M o n ograme who lives the ” best way he can since his wife lives for everybody el se . “ R C err M o n o rame who v And Ada ehan was h y g , li es ” in her carriage and makes short calls at home . Both Of these were plays which Daly had adapted from the German . In the ﬁrst I had the sort o f light comedy part that I played so Often in the Daly Theatre and in the second Ada Rehan and I played opposite each other as we were to d o for so many years after ward . At the end o f the season we opened a spring tour in b N Boston with An Ara ian ight. This rather light comedy did not ﬁll the vast spaces o f the Boston

Theatre . On the ﬁrst night a pony that was brought on in one o f the scenes stepped on my foot and cracked

- my patent leather shoe . Otherwise this visit to Boston

o o r was quite uneventful , except that it gave me an pp

80 MY YEARS ON TH E STAGE

’ Bu who were living in Miss Fisher s house . t he felt the d d restraint when he lived there himself . He i not want to keep the o ld lady sitting up for him after the

to . theatre , and he did not want come home on cue CHAPTER NINE

’ o f Tio te HE second season Daly s opened with , a romantic melodrama with the scene laid in

T O ur Wales . It was a prompt failure . hen came

F m lies First a i , which brought together the four play ers who were to be associated through the eighties and early ni neti es .

v o f Mrs . Gilbert was an Old dear . E en in the days “ ” the Fifth Avenue Company we called her Grandma .

She Ada Rehan was handsome and attractive . was

- - o n e o f big, whole hearted , good natured and the most

v o f . Sh v lo able women e had ﬁne, expressi e eyes, which counted much in the theatre .

the Jim Lewis was most companionable of men, and

T n o d I never had a better friend . here is use iscussing T his great talent and his great ability . hat does not

c mean much now , but there is a story oncernin g him which means much to me . The summer before I played R o s emary we were all living together at West — e M Hampton, Long Island the Lewises , H nry iller

his B and family, my mother, the arrymore children and

t an d e my wife, daugh er myself . L wis saw a Sunday 8 1 h r llec tio n H arvard n i ers it . Fro m T eat e Co , U v y

“ A T YPICA L DALY C O M E DY FROM T H E GE RM AN WIT H T H E B IG ” P OUR I N T H E CAST 82

84 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

. ’ Fro m this second season of the new Daly s Ada R D . i ehan was an assured success . E A . thmar at a somewhat later date wrote Miss Ada Rehan has

Of she no lack appreciation and is growing in her art .

Her record belongs to the future ; but it has been inter esting and proﬁtable to watch her artistic work from

Need les an d in s M s R the days of P , in which is ehan as a ki tteni sh girl acted as a mediator in the mature romance of a bald and bashful bachelor and a gushing

M M . r. i rs yet timid spinster, portrayed by Lew s and ” Gilbert .

The plot o f Need les and Pin s was complicated and sentimental , and it was not a play that co uld live any number of years in any theatre , but the comedy scenes

' u i e w ere gen n good fun . I suppose that its most con sp icu o u s merit was that it was unlike anything to be N seen elsewhere in ew York at that time . It belonged to the group of plays that Daly adapted from the S German . ome were better than others , but the stand T ard did not change much . hey were always very

h . pleasing, lig t and clean

The company and the performances were beginning to attract attention and it was somewhere around this time that Mark Twain and other people prominent in literature and art began to come to the theatre . I remember that Mark Twain told me in those early

86 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

’ R ehan s o f v h point iew never changed . S e was always ff e . the same una ected, natural person of the arly days

I felt that I had made quite an impression, and I am

afraid that I conveyed this id ea to Joseph Jeff erson in

a talk that I had with him . He was an old friend of

’ my mother s and I think that he, with the best of good

o f nature, took upon himself the task correcting any false idea I might have about my posi ti on in the

theatre .

To point a moral and to convince me that, however big I might think myself, there was certain to be some W one a little bigger, he told me that hen he had made — his great success with R ip Van Win kle the play that was to immortaliz e him and that he was to do every — ' where f o r years to come he thought himself fairly

important and that everyone knew of his success . At the very least he felt that he had put Washington

Irving o n the map with this Boucicault version o f R ip .

One night, after the theatre , as he was going to his room in the Fifth Avenue Hotel , a stockily built man

z z with a gri ly beard got into the elevator . “ M ff ?” r. Are you playing in town now, Je erson he asked .

J f fﬁ v ef erson, as he replied in the a rmati e , rather p itied the man for his ign orance and his total lack o f understanding o f what w as going on in the world. MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 87

What a simpleton he must be who did not know that R ip was having a record run ! When this man reached his ﬂoor and got out Jeifer “ ” so n asked the elev ator boy : Who was that ? “ bo f r Why, said the y, in his turn pitying Je fe son

“ ’ ” f o r ! his ignorance, that s General Grant CHAPTER TEN

ET onto Jacob Earwig, said James Lewis, who

was stan ding back o f me . He looked over my

- shoulder toward the prompt entrance .

Gru mio o n e v T e He was playing , of my ser ants in h

Tamin o the S hrew g f , but in all the excitement and

s i 8th 1 8 — ten eness of that night, January , 77 the most important ﬁrst night in the history of Daly’s Theatre he was sufficiently calm to call attention to a man in evening dress sitting in the ﬁrst entrance and holding

. o u t - a magniﬁcent, beaten silver ear trumpet .

Later, when I got a chance to look that way I saw

Fu m ess S that it was Horace Howard , the hakespearian

C n o s scholar . He was very deaf . ertainly, for le s a person than Furness would Daly have departed from his rigidly enforced custom of allowing no one behind d id the scenes . I not dare look at Lewis during the

o f r ﬁrst rest the perfo mance for fear that I , in my

s night nervousnes , might laugh and blow up .

As with most actors , Lewis remembered the parts he

s o ld B o o him elf had played, and in an farce called ts 88

96 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

’ ’ rOle bu t w as t man s , there precedent for Daly s pu ting

M . L B Mrs . rs e ru n Gilbert into the part, as a had

played Cu rtis When Clara Morris played Katherin e

“ and LOUIS James P etru c hio at the Academy of Music

o f some years before . In the whole line light comedies

Mr s . Gilbert and Lewis had played opposite each

Curtis - other, and enabled her to play a low comedy s Gru mio o n cene with , which was played by Lewis this

occasi on .

‘ At the end o f the performance Horace Howard

o n w as to Furness , being already the stage , the ﬁrst

R he Ka h . t t reach us He congratulated Ada ehan ,

erin e etru chio . , and me , the P I do not see how he could have heard any of the play even from his vantage

i w as po nt in the ﬁrst entrance, for he so deaf that it

was necessary to shout into his ear trumpet .

K eri e a ath n was th t night , and always remained, the

’ greatest part in Ada R ehan s lon g list of performances .

P etru chio was to me the most grateful rOle that I have played It has everything that the player o f high comedy can desire : telling speeches and effective situa in tions fact, everything that makes for and makes up

e o a great part . Since P tru c hi is a great Shakespearian

w as character, it may be imagined how gratifying it to be told by everyone whose opini on and judgm ent I P ho to . by S ar on y .

AD A RE HAN AS K AT HE RIN E

9 2 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

’ Your honor s players , hearing your amendment, Are come to play a pleasant comedy t For so your doctors hold it very mee , ’ S to o co n eal d eeing much sadness hath g your blood, An d melancholy is the nurse of frenz y ; T herefore, they thought it good you hear a play An d frame your mind to mirth and merriment,

Which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life .

“M S l : . y answers arry, I will ; let them play it By this time they have made Sly believe that he is

. and really a lord He the page, dressed as his lady,

o f sit at the side the stage down left, and then the play T begins . hey are removed after the ﬁrst act and they

n do not appear agai , but the whole action of the play is supposed to be before this tinker and his lady .

After the o n e- hundredth performance of The Tu m ing o f The S hrew there was a supper on the stage of

New Yo rk H erald the theatre . Of this the recorded M ’ r. Augustin Daly s supper, given to his com pany and a few invited guests on the stage of his

theatre yesterday morning, was a remarkable

event in several ways . It commemorated the one hundredth night of a Shakespearian revival of more than usual splendor and it brought to gether

many remarkable men . The company sat down at one - half past twelve

an d rose at ﬁve in the morning . A great circular

table occupied the entire stage . Its center was a n mass of tulips and roses . Arou d its outer edge

sat forty participants . Think of a supper at MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 9 3

S which General herman acted as toastmaster, at which Horace Porter made an unusually clev er M T B H o w speech , ark wain told a story, ronson B M Ad a ard and Wilson arrett spoke , at which iss Rehan made a neat and charming response when

her name was called, at which the ever young Lester Wallack commended in the heartiest w as way the brother manager whose guest he , at which Willie Winter read a poem of home manu to s facture . Imagine all this and add it countles

witty stories that were told around the board, o f think of the wine glasses that clicked , think the o f champagne that bubbled , think the pretty o f u women , think the weird s rroundings (the dark cave - like auditorium and the brillian tly

lighted stage).

The Taming o f the S hrew was the most successful but n o t the ﬁrst of the Shakespearian plays to be p ro

’ d u ce d . 1 during my days at Daly s On October 4 ,

1 886 e The M err o , we had p rformed y Wiv es f Wind s o r with this cast _

S I R JO H N FA L S TA F F Charles Fisher MA S T E R SL E N D E R James Lewis S I R HU GH EV A N S Charles Leclerc q DO C T O R CAIU S William Gilbert H O ST O F T H E GA R T E R IN N Frederick Bond MIS T R E SS PA G E Virginia Dreher T R E K Y M rs . . MIS SS Q UIC L G . H Gilbert FE N T O N - E . Hamilton Bell MA ST E R S H A LLO W John Moore FRA N CIS FO R D John Drew G EO R G E PA G E Otis Skinner 94 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

N E NT T A CI PIS O L Geo . Parkes CO R P O R A L NYM BA H RDO L P H . Roberts RO B I N Bij ou Fernandez SIM P L E William Collier GB Y RU E . P . Wilkes MIST R E SS FO RD Ada Rehan ANNE PAGE Edith Kingdon

T his revival was not especially successful , and it

n o - ﬁ No r had a ru f only thirty v e performances . did

o f the members the company shine in this , except per

S nn i haps Otis ki er, who had recently jo ned the com pany . He had been playing Shakespeare with Law rence Barrett and his Page was a sound performance . Our third Shakespearian performance was A Mid

’ s u mmer Night s D ream which was produced early in

1 B o o m S sand er . 888 . Lewis was tt , Otis kinner was Ly

D m T eseus B e etriu s . h I was Joseph Holland was , ij ou

z u ck R H elena V Fernande was P , Ada ehan was , irginia

H e m ffi i a i Dreher was r ia and E e Shannon was T t n a .

A Mid sum Appropriately enough , we were playing

’ mer Ni ht s D ream M M g on that onday night in arch,

1 z z T 888 . , when the great bli ard occurred here were more people on the stage than there were in the audi

The r e ence . house was sold out for some perfo manc s to come and Daly would not postpone the performance . I walked to the theatre under the Sixth Avenue Ele

96 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

Ja u es B C arles an d Or a o h l nd . g , Hobart osworth, , I was

This was the ﬁrst appearance of Henrietta Cro sman at

’ Daly s Theatre . I had played in a scene from As Yo u

Like It once before and that was at a beneﬁt for Fanny

Davenport at the Fifth Avenue Theatre . On that o c

a Ja u es d e B o is n so n c sion I played q , the seco d of old

o w o T S ir R land d e B is . his is a small part and the char éter o f a only comes on at the end the play. In that

B a u e performance Lawrence arrett was the J g s . After

‘ c ame o v er wards he and talked to me . I had never met him . He had known my father, and he knew my

The following spring we played As Yo u Like It on

arwell the lawn of the F estate at Lake Forest, near

n Chicago . It had been rai ing for many days and the ground was so damp that it was necessary for the

o wo men to wear rubbers . It was f course a daylight

a ho w perform nce , and we did not know to make up ;

-u that is, adapt our regular make p for daylight . We appealed to William Gilbert, who had once been with

Ci o f a rcus, but as he had been a clown his ideas make up were not very helpful to those o f us who were sup posed to be living in the Forest of Arden .

George Clarke suggested that we use some stu ff

- called bo larmen ia. This is a brownish make u p that is

f o r an d used Indian characters, he thought that a little F r o m Thea tre C o llec ti o n H ar ar d n i ers i t . , v U v y

’ A N AS R O SA L I ND J O H N D R E W AS O R L A ND O I N A S Y O U L I K E I T AD A R E H , ,

MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

o ee min ate You l oked like an Indian, she told me afterwards .

M - y long haired wig added to this impression . We found out later that George Clarke had just tried out an experiment on us and that he had not played under s imilar conditions before . In the wrestling scene upon this occasion Hobart

B Charles— Or osworth , who was the the giant that — lan d o throws did not take the ordinary precautions that we took in this scene upon the stage . He thought h that the soft, damp ground would protect him . W en he was thrown he landed on the point of his shoulder, and it was so painful that he uttered a ringing oath .

Fortunately, the distances were so great that he was

- heard only by the actors . Altogether our open air performance was not a happy one .

There was an all- star performance o f the same play — -As Yo u Like I t for some charity given on the property o f Agnes Booth at Manchester on the Massa

e s C chu s tt . R coast one summer rane , obson , Frank M R C ayo, ose oghlan and many other famous people M were in the cast . ayo, who was a great popular

Ja u es . favorite , was the q He had some very long waits and as it was a very warm day, he had walked f over to the hotel for a cooling glass . In the midst o MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 99

v a con ersation with a friend, he was interrupted by a

b . en call o y Jaqu es was wanted . It was his great

i trance into the Forest o f Arden . It was t me for the “

The S o f Man . T n speech , even Ages hi king to save

S . time , he took a hort cut, which led over some fences As he got near where the stage was he began reciting

’ his speech to give the impression that he really wasn t

b o l late but was on the jo all the time . This is an d M dodge , often resorted to in the theatre, but ayo had not calculated his distances very closely and when he

n arrived on the scene, panti g and breathless, his speech , “ ” The o f Man S . even Ages , was all gone

’ ’ L o ve s Labo urs L o st was the last o f the Shake

’ s p earian revivals that I played in at Daly s . After I

R Vio la o rtia had left, Ada ehan played both and P ,

Ka eri but th n e was always her great character .

’ ’ L o ve s Labo ur s L o st had been produced by Daly at

The v T 1 Fifth A enue heatre in 874 and at that time , which must have been one o f the ﬁrst productions of

New v this play in York, Ada Dyas , Fanny Da enport,

v H Da idge , Harkins, Fisher, Louis James and art C onway a ppeared . Though his ﬁrst production o f this little acted play

to v v M was not a success Daly decided re i e it in arch ,

1 8 1 W 9 , ith this cast MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

T H E KI N G O F NAVAR R E John Drew LON GAVI L L E Hobart Bosworth D O N ADR IA NO -D E AR M ADO S idney Herbert S IR NAT H A N I E L C harles Leclercq HO L O F E R N E S Harry Edwards - T H E PR I N C E S S O F FR AN C E Ada R ehan JA C QU E N ETTA Kitty Cheatham C B I R ON Geo . larke BO Y ET Charles Wheatleigh M E R C ADE Wilfred Buckland DU L L William S ampson CO STA RD James Lewis RO SA LI N E Edith Crane MA R IA Adelaide Prince MOT H Flossie Ethel KAT H ERI NE Isabel Irving

C ﬁ Willie ollier, who made his rst appearance on the

In S The I nd uctio n stage hakespeare, as the page in of

The Tamin o the S hrew the g f , came into theatre as

had an e a call boy . Even as a boy he xtraordinary

’ manner o f saying perfectly absurd and ridiculous ‘ L w o i . e rs things with the utm st ser ousness , a comedian

e i C en hims lf, took the greatest del ght in ollier and C c c ed . o u rag him greatly ollier was an ex ellent mimic,

d i i an his im tat on of Daly was uncanny .

One day Collier was talking to Lewis and myself In a M a dressing room and imitating D ly . John oore, the stage manager, was looking for Daly to consult him about something upon which an immediate decision

MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 1 0 1

d ressm was required . He heard Daly talking in our g room . He stood aghast outside the door, for the things that the supposed Daly was saying were unlike any

thing that Daly could po ssibly have said . The matter

i . was urgent, and he had to nterrupt When he knocked

’ and entered and f0und that Daly really wasn t there

he was so dazed that he left the room without a word .

v We ne er heard further from the incident, but we irnp ressed upon Collier that he must keep his imitations o f Daly for o u r ears alone . Lewis enjoyed them so much that he was loath to give them up altogether . We were all very sorry when Willie Collier left the

. so company I was especially , because it broke up our baseball club . He was a capital pitcher and an ex tremely good organizer . We had n o catcher and usually recruited someone from the property room of S the theatre we were playing to ﬁll that position . ome

’ a h C v S times scene s ifter received ollier s deli ery . teve M S urphy, who later, as teve Grattan , played a number of parts at the old Lyceum , was really a good ﬁrst base S man . Otis kinner played second and I played short . W Joe Holland was at third . In right ﬁeld was ood ,

Mrs . o a son of J hn Wood , that splendid comedienne an d a great favorite of the London stage . Frederick

B T - ond was in left ﬁeld and homas Patten, ex Post

ew We master of N York, played center . had great 1 02 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

an d . fun, it kept us all in splendid physical shape When we had no games to play we practiced every u o n a . morning . We played to r with local te ms In

C o n e — o n e hicago, on trip , we had two ﬁne games with the team of the Union Club and the other with a team representing the Board o f Trade .

1 04 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

Ma S us an . y Irwin was , a soubrette Daly had seen T ’ May Irwin at ony Pastor s . As ever in his career, he

to ﬁn d o wn liked his people . What went on in other theatres he considered trivial and always of secondary

’ importance to Daly s . He found May Irwin and she

S usan She j oined the company to play this part of . was an extraordinary hit and very funny in a type of soubrette rﬁle which has almost disappeared from the a n y .

r On the last night o f A Night Oz? a rhymed tag or

o aw cett O ur epil gue, written by Edgar F , the author of

irst amilies o F F , which had ﬁrst served to bring t gether the four players who were most clo sely associated with

’ w as Daly s during the eighties, read by the actors , each on e having a couplet . This ended with some sort of

an introduction of Augus tin Daly . The manager would then come on and make a speech of ackn o wl ed gm en t for the season which had just passed . This

s always happened at the end of the sea on , and Daly never appeared on the ﬁrst night of a new producti on

o r the ﬁrst night of a season .

Sometimes Faw c ett varied this epilogue and one or

two of the players would have something a little longer

than a distich to recite . On one occasion, to make a rhyme or a quantity correct Faw cett referred to Daly “ ” e as the colonel . Daly object d to the rank thus con MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 1 0 5'

“ him n d aw cett so ferred upon , a F changed the lines that “ he should be called the governor . From that time

w e— to on that is , those of us who were close the man — “ ” a . ger always called Daly, governor It would be difﬁcult to imagine a company in which

’ there was greater accord than there was at Daly s .

f so Everything was so ine, and the associations were

N ff e pleasant . o one took o ens if the morning greeting

i It was not as fr endly as should have been ; for we were, in a sense , like a family . Once , playing cricket in

C . e hicago, I hurt my foot very badly I sp nt an eve ning of torture o n the stage trying to disguise my hurt . M R Mrs . Gilbert and iss ehan were devoted in their

B ou t attention during the next few days . oth in and of the theatre each had consideration for the others .

Our relations were more than cordial ; they were aff ec

— - i tio n ate. e so B We wer interested that is, the called g

a n o t Four ; we had an Interest in the the tre . We were partners but every year we received a bonus o r a pres ent . I have a gold cigarette case which Daly gave me

On e year at the end of the season . Inside was a check which represented my share of the proﬁts . This semi partnership gave us a feeling of responsibility, though I am u nwilling to think that the knowledge of that

’ bettered our performance.

’ By the middle eighties ﬁrst nights at Daly s had 1 0 6 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

to ff come be important a airs . As performances they f were in no way di ferent from any other performance . Rehearsals were so constant that ﬁrst nights were as B smooth as later ones . u t the audiences were very

ﬁne and made up of brilliant and prominent people . S M General herman , General Horace Porter, ark

C B n T . . C C wain , H u ner, George William urtis , harles R S C Dudley Warner, Frank . tockton, Edmund larence M S S . . . tedman, tanford White , F D illet, Edwin A Abbey and many others became very closely interested

’ in what went on at Daly s , and they usually tried to be present at the ﬁrst night of a new play or the revival

of an old one . Mark Twain once wrote the theatre asking that tickets be reserved for him for the ﬁrst night of a “ : revival . He ended his letter I have written wonder

fu l “ z t re books, which have revolutioni ed poli ics and

ligio n in the world ; and you might think that this is why my children hold my person to be sacred ; but it

’ isn t so ; It 1 5 because I know Miss Rehan and Mr. ” Drew personally . Many critics thought that o u r best light comedy was

Co m an . a Nancy an d p y . It was clever adaptation of

’ R H albed iohte osen s , with the scenes and characters R transferred to New York . Ada ehan and I played o familiar characters opp site each other .

MY YEARS ON TH E STAGE 1 07

o e o n Cru to es Sid n e Austin In L v h I was y , the anony mous writer o f a sentimental novel and Ada Rehan was

n nie Austin who d isSatisﬁed w A , my wife, is ith her

he home and yearns for a freer existence . S has entered

he into a correspondence with an author . S does not T her . use real name hus , these two young people who believe themselves unhappily married, conduct a secret correspondence with each other in the belief that they

fﬁ The have found their a nities . happy ending is T always in sight. his play, though of little substance , was well acted , and it introduced to Daly audiences M Ed K rs . . ith ingdon , the late George Gould As

M ar er Gw n g y y , she gave a spirited and beautiful comedy performance .

T e R ailro ad o L o ve o ld sohe h f , taken from G ﬁ by R osen, was a light comedy which may not have been

t re an exact picture of American socie y, but it was ceiv ed with enthusiasm and held the stage for some

M Val Os re eu months . iss Rehan was p y and I was Li

e o w Ev ere t nan t H ell tt. Her part was that of a widow experienced in coquetry . The lieutenant was expert

- in the subtle arts of the lady killer .

Di hmar Edward A . t writing at the time described the action of this play as follows

T hey had met brieﬂy before , but the gentleman d id not immediately recogniz e the lady when they 1 08 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

’ V n R ke M rs . a r s he were introduced at y ball . S su remembered vividly, however, and could not p press her smiles when she recalled him in the act of captivating two simple little frauleins in a T German railway carriage . hey ﬂirted, of course .

He employed all his arts , but she outwitted him . Then chance or Cupid favored him and she was

defeated . It was , at ﬁrst, a merry war of wit and bu t mock sentiment, before two days had passed

. T they were desperately in love hen, before they o re fully understood each other, that ven mous p ﬂo w er- tile, Jealousy, had crept across their strewn i i path, and when it had sl nked out of sight aga n the woman had written a letter that had to be recalled before he knew of its existence and she ’ was at her wit s end to accomplish this purpos e . T emo here was a scene , then , full of passion and o tion, which lifted the comedy far ab ve the level The o f frivolous entertainment . picture of Drew and Miss Rehan exchanging soft words from either side of a half- open bo udoir door remains vividly in the memory of folks who saw The R ail

ro ad o L o v e . The f , when it was a new play scene , to o , in which Drew, as the blind slave of Love , sat obediently and patiently bending over an em “ broidery frame and bungling the stitches , one, ” two, three, four, cross , was novel and taking.

This play was typical of a long line of plays . And

the The R ailro ad o L o ve the description of action of f , might almost be substituted for the synopsis of a n u m ber of others . The acting and the direction o f the stage made these plays. The success of the Daly

1 1 0 MY YEAR S ON THE STAGE

’ Hardy s story and this was done in England and at the

U S T New nion quare heatre in York, where Frederick B d de elleville played the lea ing part . Daly was in no wise involved in this suit . In our version Ada

R Kate Verit irn etu o u s v ehan was y and I her p lo er,

e c o Li u tenan t Eri k Th rnd ike.

In D and y D ick I played the caricature rOle of Majo r

Tarv er . T n o t The his play was a real success , nor was R Cabin et Min ister . When Ada ehan heard and read

re the part that was assigned to her in the latter, she Sh . e fused to play it insisted , and with a great deal

’ rOle f of justiﬁcation, that the leading woman s o fered her no opportunities . Isabel Irving played it instead .

The M a istrate When we played g , Pinero came over to superintend the production . Daly wanted to put

Ad a R Cis Farrin d o n ehan into the part of g , the boy whose mother will not allow him to grow up , as this

’ ﬁ d a will x her own age . Daly thought that because A Rehan had m ade a success as a boy in some o f the old comedies she could do this modern boy . Pinero would not have it . He threatened to take his play away from

Daly if the latter were to persist in this casting .

Pinero, himself, brought over from London E . Ham ilton-Bell to play the boy and he was very good in the

B The Tam part . ell later designed the costumes for P ho to . by S ar o n y .

J O H N D R E W A N D AD A R E H A N I N T H E S Q UI R E , A R T H UR W I N G P I NE R O

1 1 2 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

e tain call at the end o f the second act . As he had b en

v ner ous about the whole production, he had absented himself and thought that if there would be any dem o n stratio n for the author it would be at the end of the

in - play, as is the case London . When he got to the theatre and saw the people ﬁling out silently he

thought the play was a failure . He came behind the scenes and shook his head ; It

’ ” o ? didn t g , I suppose We told him that it was a big success and that the

play had gone v ery well . There had been a call for

him . We explained that there seldom is any great

amount o f applause at the end of a play in New

" s York . If a peech is called for from the author it is

a o f o r lmost always at the end the second third act, as the people here always seem to be in so great a hurry

u to get o t o f the building at the end o f the play . The cast for The Magistrate was

MR PO S KET . James Lewis MR B U L LA M Y C . harles Fisher L LU KY N CO . John Drew CAP TAI N VAL E Otis Skinner Is AR RI NG -B C F DO N E . Hamilton ell AC H I L L E B L OND Frederick Bo nd IN S P E C T O R ME S SIT ER Augustus Yorke AGAT H A PO S KET Ada Rehan C H AR L OT T E Virginia Dreher B EAT I E TO M LI N SON Edith Kingdon POP H AM May Irwin MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 1 1 3 M A . . Palmer, produced a great many plays from

the French . Daly in my time in his theatre , found

little inspiration in the French authors . We did do

’ rd o u s O ette . S a d , which was rather grim and somber

It scarcely seemed to ﬁt the Daly repertoire . It was interesting only in that it gave Ada Rehan a chance to O r le. do, with great success , an emotional We also did

’ S ard o u s o l en o w Mar uise G d Wid , which was called q

in the original . I played Ad o lphus D o u bled o t in The L o ttery o f

o T L v e. his play was an adaptation from the French o M M C It In f M B s . . is on, and ars oquelin played this country in French with the original title : Les S ur

o a prises d u D iv rce. Before his season opened he c me

’ to Daly s and saw o u r v ersion . He congratulated Ada Rehan upon her acting in what was a rather' minor rOle , but he said nothing at all to me and I gathered he did not altogether approve of my performance . A short time afterwards he was playing the original play ’ T across the street at Palmer s heatre . : Augustin Daly was fond of the Old comedies , and he

o f spent a great deal time , patience and rehearsal upon

. T f o r he these plays hey were not always successful , f

1 1 had sp r t , in a number of cases, ﬂed long before these

revivals . It was quite impo ssible to breathe life into

’ Faru har s The R ecruitin O c er q g ﬁ . When Daly did this in February o f 1 885 it had not been given in New 1 1 4 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

- York for forty two years . The previous performance

o ld T R o w . was at the Park heatre in Park In , this

S il‘via production my mother acted , the part played at

’ Daly s by Ada Rehan .

New This play is important in the history of York, “ B o f for, according to Allston rown in A History ’ theNew S The R ecru itin O i cer o n e York tage , g ﬁ was

“ o f the l to New . ﬁrst p ays be, given in York It was

1 o performed as early as 734, and it had an imp rtant

' ﬁrst Nassau S T S production at the treet heatre , eptem

' 1 T s 0 0 . . ber .3 , 75 hi was the opening of the season

1 88 Our production was given February 7 , 5 , with the arts d istribu ted : p t as follows

CA P TAI N PL U M E John Drew C B RA E AP T . Z N George Parkes JU S T I C E B A LLA N C E Charles Fisher S E R GEA N T KIT E JameS ‘ Lewis WOR T H Y Otis Skinner B U L L O C K William Gilbert AP P L ET R E E Frederick Bond PEA RM A N Edward Wilks

S T E W AR T . B e W H . e kman MI S T R E S S M E LI N DA Virginia Dreher RO S E M ay Fielding LU C Y May Irwin S Y LVIA Ada Rehan

The revival lasted only abo ut two weeks a n d t hen

S he Wo uld an d S he Wo u ld No t was revived . Colley

MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 1 1 5

Cibber had written this play in imitation of the Sp an

se The ish comedy o f intrigue . As was the ca with

O cer to R ecru iting ﬁ , this play had be shortened and

’ Th rOle o f H o lita edited f o r use at Daly s . e yp , which

M R o f D o n Philli was played by iss ehan , and that p ,

n o which fell to me, were artiﬁcial and by means easy

B o f s to perform . oth these performance gained in

later years by repeti tion .

i ’ T e Co u n tr Girl Garrick s h y , which was adaptation

’ o f W cherl s The Co un tr Wi e y y y f , was still further

’ altered so as to include scenes from Congreve s L o ve

o o R T ri L ve. e t f r In this Ada ehan was P ggy h f , and

’ A R ehan s v B ellen ille. d a I played the leading j u enile ,

e P ggy was a matchless portrayal . Her success in this was so great that she kept the play in her repertoire for many years . Of course o n e o f the ﬁnest o f the o ld comedy pro d uc tio n s The S cho o l o r ca al T was f S nd . his time Daly did n o t make the mistake that he had made at the Fifth T ’ Avenue Theatre . hen he so rearranged Sheridan s co o f the medy as to destroy the continuity scenes . In

the o to his second production text was altered, but n t

. v chan e so great an extent He did, howe er, g the card

’ Lad S neerw ell s v party at y to a dance . I had ne er

Charles S ur ac played the part of f e before , except

in the s creen sc ene which had been done at a beneﬁt 1 1 6 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE performance at the Academy o f Music in Phila

delphia . Th e second Daly rev w al of The S cho o l f o r S cand al was a great success and the cast was :

S I R PE T E R T EAZ L E Charles Wheatleigh S IR LI V E R S R F A C E O U , Harry Edwards S IR B N BAC KB T E ] . I E Sidney Herbert S IR HAR R Y B U M P E R James Macauley M R S . CA D R M rs . N OU G . H . Gilbert LADY S N E E R W E L L Adelaide Prince LADY T EAz L E Ada R ehan JO S E P H S U R F A C E George Clarke C H AR L E S SU R F AC E John Drew C RAB T R E E Charles Leclercq CA R E L ES S H . Bosworth MO S ES James Lewis ROW L EY John Moore TRI P Frederick Bond S NA KE Sidney Bo wkett MARIA Edith Crane

“ R T S o f John anken owse, in his ixty Years the “ T e ‘ heatre , has b en so gracious as to record As

Charles S urface John Drew gave one of the most ar tistic performances of his career . His impersonation

o C was second only to that f harles Coghlan . Espe c ially was it praiseworthy for its artistic restraint in the drinking scene . He was perhaps a triﬂe too cool , insufﬁciently mercurial for the reckless company “ he

ff v m - Charles a ected, but he e idently reme bered that ,

CHAPTER TWELVE

Wilt thou have music ? hark ! Apollo plays

An d e n d o S twenty cag d nighti gales ing .

S HE E words , which were accompanied by a

o f v o ff cu e chorus oices stage , were my general

— 1 s for getting ready that , putting on my wig and the

l -u ﬁna touches of my make p , before going on to the stage as Petru chio in the play prop er o f The Taming o f

e ew T The I n d uctio n th S hr . his speech from is in the h scene m w ich the real lord, dressed as a servant, is

to v S l o n e Christo her Sl trying con ince y that he, p y, is really not a tinker, but a lord .

o f 1 888 On a night in August , when I heard these

lean m o f lines, I was g out of a window a turretlike d ressmg room in the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre

- - S o n . at tratford Avon It was in the long, English summer twilight and an eight came into S ight on the river . As the music which had always been my cue

to a o sounded , the coxswain gave the order ce se r wing, and the eight ﬂoated past the theatre . The rowers were

v appreciati e listeners to the chorus . They did no t 1 1 8 h T eatr e C o llec ti o n H ar ard n i ersi t , v U v y .

J O H N D R E W AS P E T R U C H I O I N T H E T A M I N G O F T H E S H R E W

‘ s memorial mbeatre, S tratf orb on von a ﬁ ,

F rid a E v en in A u u s t s ra 1 y g , g , 8 8 8 .

‘ AUGUSTIN DALY'S COMPANY OF COMEDIANS

S H ESPEARE S COEED IN AK Y, $ 58 g amingall ﬂit El m

PI-0 mm] for the occas ion b AUGUSTIN a ( 1 y DALY)

m u n o n w u n o m m u n

“ ” in h C harac te rs t e I n d u c tio n .

Mr . GEORGE CLARKE

C hr s t o her S l . A d mken Ti nker i p y n Mr . WI LLI AM GILBERT

EUGENE Oun o w

M ' ’ iss Liz z m St. Q UEXI l X

Mess rs R ers MURP H ' . ev , Y, and Fl n ﬂ

Messrs. Box» and WOOI»

P ers o n s in the C o m ed y

’ ’ A rich entleman o I mlutz g f Mr. CHARLES FIS HER

S o» to Vincentco lacin , g Mr. 01 m S KINXE R ’ I u wio en tleman o Verona sui o to athe tn g f , t r K rine Jo mv DR EW

An old entlema» s il t to Mr CHAR g . LES LECLE RQ

oun entleman B ianca M J A y g g r. OSEP II HOLLAND

ld ellow set u esent Vincentio v . 4 n o to re r Mr . . f , p p Jo u WOOD

Bin mlcllo

Mr. FRED ER ICK BOND

Gu es ts 850 b Misses Cam bell Scars Co nro n i slaire Ferrell ooke &c . , y p , , , V , , C ,

Th tr o llec tio n H ar ar d n iversit . F ro m ea e C , v U y

’ A UGUSTI N DALY s M O ST FAMO US P R O DU C TI O N MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 1 2 1 tion to the entire cast for a big Shakespearian produc tion there were Daly, his wife and his brother ; William

Winter ; an American playwright, Henry Dam ; the attendant stage people and all the London co rresp o n dents o f the American newspapers .

n o f S I front the hakespeare House , just as Winter

‘ v to was making his speech , two nati es were attracted h this unusually large crowd , t inking that something

o r had happened , that someone had dropped dead had

o had a ﬁt . They listened a minute t Winter “ B o f Aw , come on , ill , said one them ; ” same old game .

T o n hey had seen American tourists before, and the

’ rest o f our long walk to Anne Hathaway s cottage we attracted little attention .

o n v . w o In the afternoon we rowed the ri er Daly, h

- to always stage managed things , even the seats the minor people were to occupy on trains, arranged us in boats . Otis Skinner and I rowed the boat in which M rs . R Daly and Daly and Ada ehan were seated . At

o f one point one the other boats threatened us . As it

’ o f was part Daly s scheme that he should be ﬁrst, we

to f o were urged new e fort and were so n in the lead .

During o u r stay in Stratford we stopped at the Red

Lion Inn . On the night of o u r arriv al we dined at

C n e Sir s lopton Hall , the reside c of Arthur Hodg on, 1 22 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

o the mayor o f Stratford . The L rd of The I nd uctio n o f

The Taming o f the S hrew is supposed to be the Baro n

’ Clo to n S e p of hakesp are s time , and the hall where the

1 5 to b Christo her Sl play supposed be given efore p y,

the hall in which we were now entertained . The next

Avo nbank day we had luncheon at , the residence of

C R aff the o f harles Flower, and obert L an , headmaster K VI S the ing Edward Grammar chool , entertained us

at tea . The attention that we received on this visit to Strat ford was very d iﬂeren t from the reception that we go t o n our unheralded ﬁrst visit to London in the summer

1 T n s o f . an d 884 he the social eason was over, we were

really to o late to do well . We played in a little thea

’ T K S o ff tre , oole s, in ing William treet, just the

Strand . Before o u r opening Jim Lewis and I went to see

Charles Wyndham and Mary Moore at the Criterion .

T who his graceful comedian , had been a surgeon in the American Civil War and was always a great favorite l in this country, was p aying one of those delightfully done English comedies that he and Mary Moore did for

so many years . Lewis and I came away from this performance

o o glo mily . We did not think that our c mpany could

1 24 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE and if the comedy o f America has hardly as yet taken the highest place, there is little doubt as to its ultimate ” development, inﬂuence and power .

Nan c and Co m an Of our performance in y p y, which “ S aturd a R ev ew : T followed, the y i said here is not now in London , an English company as well chosen ,

o f as well trained , as brilliant in the abilities its indi

o r z vidual members , as well harmoni ed as a whole , as

M . T the admirable company which r Daly directs . hey

C ran aise suggest the omédie F c at its very best, when

iff f b w it is n o t frozen st y its o n chill dignity . Every performance shows that they are controlled by a single mind strong in the knowledge o f its own aim and ” ability . Of course by this time we were very succes sful and had acquired a tremendous following . We were talked o f and asked about a great deal . At a reception a ? woman asked me : Have you seen the D alys “ : The o st The I said Oh, yes, I glanced over P and

Telegraph “

a . T Oh, no, she protested, I me n the Dalys hen she recogniz ed me as one of the players .

o e Henry Lab uch re , that great j ournalist and editor, “ wrote in Tru th: When Daly ﬁrst came to England, l the company was pronounced by our theatrica guides, philosophers and friends as a complete failure . At m Theatr e C o llec ti n H ard n i rs it Fr o o ar e . , v U v y

M —20— 8 T H E F I R ST N R E W R S . GI L B E R T AN D J AM E S L E W I S I N J O H D , , , 7 , ’ P L AY D O NE B Y A UGUS T I N D A L Y S C O M P ANY I N L O ND O N

1 26 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

’ What s he doing over here ?

“ ’ I don t kn ow . They did not let us in on the pu r pose o f his mission .

“ ’ “ I know what he s doing here , said Jim Lewis ; he has come over here from Denmark to collect royalties ” o H n v f o m e fr m e ry Ir ing r Ha l t. CHAPTER THIRTEEN

i 1 886 er N our tr p abroad in , we went to G many

an d B T and played in Hamburg erlin . his was the ﬁrst and only time that an entire American co m

. T r pany v isited Germany his j aunt, which Daly unde

an i o f took as advert sement the company, was really a greater success than might have been supposed . Of course, in neither German city were they particularly

v o f o wn pleased with the adapted ersion their plays ,

- h played by an English speaking company . T e writers

to of these plays were extremely glad see us, as they had made a good thing o u t o f the Daly adaptations

o f and, because the higher royalties paid, they made

’ o u o f more money t the American rights .

In Hamburg six plays were given : L o ve o n

Cru tches A Ni ht 0 Nanc and Co m an A Wo , g 17, y p y,

’ ’ man s Wo n t The Co u n tr G rl e o , y i and S h W uld and

She Wo No uld t. two T e For the English plays, h

Co untry Girl and S he Wo uld and She Wo u ld No t full

u arg ments were printed in the program . It was taken f o r granted that the German farces would be familiar,

‘ and merely the title and author o f the German plays 1 27 1 28 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

o o C c es . ve ru were given It so happened that L n t h , that is to say, the German play from which it was made, had never been given in Hamburg, and the audi ence was as much bewildered as if the play were to

o u t tally foreign . The performance started with a

o go d deal of vivacity, but as scene after scene went by without any appreciation o r laughter the players nat u rally became subdued and a little bewildered .

- B A O T In erlin we opened in Night f . his play had been an enormous success when done in the original

i w as and, wh le it was allowed that our performance

d istin c smooth, the whole was declared to be lacking in tion . The estimate of the players varied “ One critic wrote that Miss Rehan was a “good soubrette” and “M R another that iss ehan, the darling of the company,

3 ) was ridiculous in tasteless gowns . The general opin

Io n seemed to be that Mrs . Gilbert was not funny .

S to o ome critics thought Lewis funny to be n atural , and others found his naturalness astonishing . Skin ner and I got o ff easily and were sai d to give value to our dry humor .

The o ld S he Wo uld and S he Wo uld two comedies,

No t The Co untr Girl and y , were highly praised, espe

N c o m c ially the acting . an y and C pany met a better A Ni O fate than ght ﬁ in which we opened . The orig

n o f o t i al German this had n been successful , and the

1 30 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE critics were shocked to ﬁnd that it was more humorous

ad a tat1o n in the p than in the original .

Of the performance the B erlin er Tageblatt said

hu We see them on their strongest side , an exuberant

all mor which passes bounds, and which our Germans have n o t courage to attempt for fear o f lapsing into ” the coarse .

The English-speaking people all attended o u r per

When we were in Berlin the King of Portugal was v n K isiti g the old aiser, and I saw the whole royal fam

. T U n an d ily here was a great crowd on nter den Linde ,

I asked a policeman what they were waiting for, and he told me that the Kaiser was coming from Potsdam and would be along shortly . The carriage came into

S . o f the ight presently Amid the acclaim the crowd, German emperor touched his helmet in salute with white gloved hand . In the next carriage were Freder

ic K k Wilhelm, then the crown prince , and the ing of

K s Portugal . In the third carriage was this last ai er,

v now in exile . I was told that the old emperor li ed in

s the utmo st implicity, and that he had a camp bed in

c his pala e . When we left London for Hamburg just three mem — bers o f o u r company could speak any German Henry

W o f S idmer, who was in charge our orchestra, Otis kin MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 1 3 1

- ner and myself . Widmer was a German American,

S . kinner knew some German , and I knew a little One other member o f the company claimed to know some

S German, but as he told Lewis that a ign on a car in ” the station Nicht Rauchen (NO Smoking) meant “ ” N R Car ight iding or a Pullman , we lost conﬁdence

in his knowledge of the language . In Hamburg we played at the Thalia Theater and

stayed at the Alster Hotel . One night after the thea

e tre we went to an open air garden . Whil we were

v having our sandwiches and beer, a ery eruptive, rest less child o f about ten was tearing about between the

tables . As I did not think that we should be overheard I

’ said to Lewis : I didn t suppose they would have

such fresh kids over here . The boy stopped and said to me : I can speak En g

’

. i lish as good as you . I know you You re James Lew s ” and John D rew i He told us that he came from New

who o n e o f York and that his father, was sitting at

the tables back of us, had told him that we were actors in the Daly Company that was playing at the Thalia T heater .

B The T In erlin we played at Wallner heater, which

an d was an important theatre , mounted men were sta

tio n ed e in front of it as at the Opera in Paris . Th 1 32 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE M whole theatre was extremely well ordered . aids were

The provided for the women, and dressers for the men .

’ s u dres ers , who were really tailor s helpers or b shelmen, e w re very eﬂic ien t. The dresser who looked after me was so zealous in the p erforman ce o f his jo b that he followed me onto

o n e L o ve o n Cru tc hes the stage night . In there was a scene in - the last act in which Lewis and I stood at the back of the stage, partly concealed from the audience .

M r n o rs . Gilbe t and William Gilbert (he was relation whatever) were playing a scene that was full of laughs before an American audience . On this night before a German audience it was going

’ ‘ “ v ou ery badly . Lewis whispered to me : I ll bet y that Grandma gets the ﬁrst laug

B a efore I could nswer him I got the ﬁrst laugh, for

e just th n my dresser, who had followed me down from

n the dressi groom, pulled up my coat at the neck . He had not been quite satisﬁed with the way the coat set and righted it in full view of the audience . After the performance we went to a garden where we could get so mething to eat and listen to some music: M Mrs . a S Jim Lewis and Lewis, y Irwin , Otis kinner and I sat there under the trees for some time . When

ns it came time to pay our checks, Lewis i isted that he would pay. He suddenly discovered that he had no

MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 1 33

to money . He had taken the precaution change his

to In money his stage clothes early the evening, but had n o t remembered to put it back . He decided to get him w to . it n o . We were wait for

f o r as We sat there an interminable time, and then,

M o u t to rs . Lewis was worried about him, we went w look f o r him . We found him only about t o houses away leaning against the wall . He was exhausted ; he

v had been wandering abo ut e erywhere . “ I asked him : Did you ﬁnd your wad ? ! ’ Find it I couldn t ﬁnd the theatre , he said in “ an injured manner . I met several policemen and they ff ” a ected not to understand me . “ ” What did yo u ask them ?

‘ ’ Why for the Wolmar Theater o f course .

If you pronounced it that way, it is no wonder they

’ ” o u to i couldn t direct y the theatre , both Sk nner and

I protested . Lewis was never convinced that there was any reaso n f o r his n o t getting his money till the next day except a willful failure to understand him o n the part o f the police .

Our happy relations were somewhat straIn ed in Ber lin by the abrupt departure from the company of Edith

Kingdon . Just before we left London she had been

’ called upon with almost n o notice to play Ada Rehan s 1 34 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE A N O i ht . h part in g ﬂ, as the latter was ill S e played

o e o the part very well . In L v n Cru tches she had scored

m New a great co edy success both in York and London .

When she left the compan y on account o f a m1 sun d er V e standing with Daly, irginia Dreher was forc d to

Mar er Gw ffi play g y yn without su cient rehearsal .

1 36 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

so that I might deﬁnitely place him, she said to me “ You may remember his favori te uncle was so fright ” “ fully mangled in the underground last year.

Of James McNeill Whistler we saw a great deal . One time at the house of an English authoress he “ The M showed me his book, Gentle Art of aking Ene ” mies, which I had not seen before . He was on the

an d arm of the sofa on which I was sitting, as I turned

- over the pages he would point our especially the things that seemed good to him . He had a boyish delight in

Showing me the roasts and the slaps .

The Whistlers were always late for dinner . One night we were all at the house of Edwin A . Abbey, the

M z painter . rs . Whistler arrived ﬁrst and apologi ed

She for being late . said that she had been detained

z because their house was on fire . Everyone sympathi ed with her . When Whistler came in sho rtly afterwards he was M . rs . entirely unperturbed Whistler, having forgot ten to tell him that She mean t to use so sensational an “ ” o ff : excuse , tried to tip him Well , Jim, she said , “ how is the fire ?” “ The fire ? What fire ?

The ﬁre at the house, she said .

’ ” “ ’ a : Oh, it s all right, Whistler s id it s burning MY YEARS ON TH E STAGE 1 37 W histler of course thought that Mrs . Whistler

n mea t the ﬁre in the grate .

On e Sunday I went to lunch at the house of George

Bo B ughton, the American painter . oughton was standing before the ﬁre-place with a man who was part l y bald and had whitish hair, white mustache and a small white beard— chin whiskers they are called in

- make u p .

Boughton turned to his companion : Yo u kn ow

’ o u ? John Drew, don t y “ The : No d o n o t small man answered , I ; but I

Mr M have had the pleasu re of seeing . Drew and iss

R The Ta min o the S hrew ehan act in g f , and I am

M o w pleased to tell r. Drew h much I enj oyed the play and how pleased I was with such talent and success

“ ’ I thought to myself : He s going a bit strong . “ I asked Boughton when I got a chance : Who is ” this o ld chap ? “R B obert rowning, he told me somewhat impa tien tly .

o wn so I was puzzled at my stupidity . It seemed silly that I should not recognize the famous poet whose picture I had seen so many times .

o u r Irving we saw frequently during London visits . On my last trip to London with the Daly company in

o the early nineties we did As Y u Like It. Irving had 1 38 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

3 bo x for the opening night, and after the performance he came behind the scenes and congratulated Ada

R o ehan upon her R salind .

to d He turned me, patted me on both shoulders an “ : said Drew, you got away with that wrestling scene

’ wonderfully, but of course you don t want to play ” Orl d o - - an n o o . ; no, no, no, He emphasi z ed this in a fashion that made it seem

a o f a indic tive but the faintest pr ise, and left me in no doubt as to what he thought of my performance .

The Tamin o the S hrew When we did g f in London, no o n e seemed mo re genuinely enthusiastic about the

“ Katherin e of Ada Rehan and my Petruchio than Henry

Irving . He gave a most delightful supper for us at

B C . T S B the eefsteak lub Ellen erry, arah ernhardt, who was then playing in London , Damala, the Greek R S actor , Lord onald Gower, who has a bust of hakes S T peare at tratford , and John enniel , the cartoonist of “ ” u n ch P , and the illustrator of Alice in Wonderland, were all at this supper . B C B One night at the eefsteak lub Frank urnand, the

O f u n ch editor P , and a number of Others were sitting

. T around talking here was a good deal of bantering, and George Grossmith said o f a remark made by o n e

“ ’ of the party : That s like some of the good things ” t a re un ch n . h t a sent to P , Fra k

MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

“ ’

u man d : . B replied Yes, and they don t get in

“ ’ Grossmith answered : I don t know who it is who

’ to u n ch s ends the good things P , but they don t get

In .

’ This created a great laugh at Bu m an d s expense . T ennyson I met at his place in the country, and he

o o f The talked t me the play that he was then writing,

’ o r T F reste s . We did this play later at Daly s heatre ;

o f R o bin H o o d in fact, the part in this was the last new part I played under the management o f Augustin Daly .

I was no longer a member o f the Daly company when B the play was done by them in London . Arthur o u

o chier took my part . The F resters was never a great B ’ success . y reason of Arthur Sullivan s music and

’ ' a Daly s production , the play managed to run for time N w in e York . Swinburne and Hardy were at many of the dinners and suppers that we attended in London, and Hardy wrote a very charming rhymed address that Ada Rehan

’ e read at a b neﬁt for the Actors Dramatic Fund . M eredith I met once in the country . He was stay ing with a friend near where we were at Weybridge in S urrey, and we went over to see him . Some o f the other guests danced in bare feet on the lawn . M I asked eredith if he were not goin g to dance . 1 40 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

I am for other than dancing measures, he said,

As Yo L I quoting from u ike t.

I sat on the porch with h1m In the bright moonlight . He talked of the dancers and he thought them rather s illy, but his comments were not caustic and not nearly so sharp as his descriptions of his characters in his

One night at dinner I was rather = taken aback by

. S . W Gilbert I told him that I had known, learned and loved his B ab Ballads .

’ Oh, they re juvenile indiscretions , he said in a rather incisive way which seemed to po oh- poo h my estimate of the work . He surprised me still more when he told me that

The Wic ked Wo rld his best work was his serious plays ,

C arit and Charity . I had played in h y in the seventies C with the Fifth Avenue ompany, and of the players only Fanny Davenport liked the play at all .

1 42 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

” man repertoire and then had the eff rontery to put B ’ M . . L E e his own name on the work esson , of v n e “ men t , thought that the repertoire was ﬁt only for ” M S boarding schools , and . arcey, the leading critic of “ the day, wrote that the plays might be seen by any o n ” y u g girl . These opinions are interesting because Of some the critics thought the plays too realistic,

c ff oarse and o ensi ve .

No o t all f the criticism was adverse and hostile . S o . M B me of the critics were sympathetic . de lowitz ,

th o nd o n Times the correspondent of e L in Paris, wrote ~ in correspondence to his paper that the failure of the

' Daly Company to win the praise of the critics in Paris was due to the fact that the French writers did not

know English , and that those Frenchmen who under

stood the langu age appreciated the ﬁne acting o f the

company in light comedy .

was a u It very hot in Paris th t s mmer, and the time S we were not rehearsing or playing, Otis kinner and I spent at a swimming bath on the other side of the

he e . S . T eine place was inclos d, but open to the sky

There were dressing rooms all round the sides . We occasioned much talk by going u p on top of these and

I t d n n . ivi g i to the water was not really high , but the other bathers seemed to think it foolhardy and dan gero u s .

1 44 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

Company . This time we gave three plays during an

engagement that lasted six days : Nan cy and Co m

an The R ailro ad o o ve e m o p y, f L and Th Ta ing f the

S hrew .

The critics devoted their attention to Shakespeare . “ A writer in Le Petit J o urn al exclaimed : Pauvre

Shakespeare ! What crimes are committed ‘ in thy

e name, and how fortunate that thou hast b en dead !” M e S . som time . arcey found the comedy illogical He could see n o fun in o n e character hitting another with a leg o f mutton . When I read this criticism to

Daly, he was amused and , though he knew no French,

’ he at once called attention to Moliere s L e M arriage

o roé ff are F , in which stu ed rocks and clubs plied with

n great advantage o the classic French stage . Many o f the critics thought there was too much horse play ; they were shocked when Katherin e boxed

’ o T to o Petruc hi r ears . hey found much violence in the

. T a playing hen, too, the play was co rse and ﬂat and dull .

F aro s I v ig , which di covered that resembled Ir ing, “ : The e n said attitud s, moveme ts , walk, speech and action of these Americans are so different from what we are accustomed to see and hear that there would

is be neither justice n o r proﬁt in criticising them . h

art. another race, another conception, another CHAPTER SIX TEEN

RY different had been the reception given to

The Taming o f the S hrew when we gave it earlier that same summer in London . This was the

ﬁrst performance of a Shakesp earian play given by an

The Times American Company in Europe . said that till this Daly production , it seemed that this comedy

“ ’ was fated to rank as the mo s t despised of the poet s ” “ productions , and that hitherto the play had received — scant justice from the professional interpreters so at least it would appear— in view o f this splendid re viv al o f the comedy, which , sumptuously mounted and i acted w th admirable spirit and point, keeps the house throughout its ﬁve acts in a state o f continuous merri ” ment .

The summer that we were playing The Taming o f the S hrew I S to in London , was going down to andown

— ' see the Eclipse Stakes that w as the year that Bendigo won— and at Waterloo Station my companion bought a copy of P u n c h.

He opened it, laughed and handed the paper to me . ” Look at that, he said . 1 46 MY YEARS ON TH E STAGE

M . It was a cartoon showing Mr. and rs Kendal looking out of a box in the theatre and in the bo x on B the opposite side were the ancrofts . On the stage

R Ka herin e e r c o were Ada ehan as t and myself as P t u hi . We were depicted in the clothes worn in the scene in

o which Petru c hi dresses fantastically . I was suppo sed to be saying to these representatives of the English

“ ’ stage who were seated in the boxes : I guess we ll

- show you how to play your gosh dinged Shakespeare .

The year that Ormonde won the Derby, Daly hired

u - in - a fo r hand and we drove down to Epsom . Daly had wanted to have a matinee that day, but William T erriss , who was associated with Daly in our ﬁrst two

o trips abr ad , refused to have a performance on the ground that nobody would be in town . Daly somewhat reluctantly consented to go to the

u Ter races , in which he was not m ch interested, and riss accompani ed us . Following his usual custom Daly arranged the seating on the drag and reserved the box seat with the driver for himself . “ ’ ” I You can t do that, protested . ‘” Why not Z he asked . ’ ” I It just isn t done, told him ; a woman is always o n the box seat next to the driver . With very bad grace he yielded the seat he had chosen for himself to Ada Rehan .

MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 1 47

We saw one o f the greatest Derbys that had been run for many years . Ormonde , owned by the Duke of Westminster, was a great horse . He was ridden by Fred Archer, the leading English j ockey . Ormonde i was later sold and sent to the Argent ne , and he was

o ld MeD o n eventually bought by my friend , William

C . ough, of alifornia Years after his Epsom victory I

’ M D n u h s saw Ormonde in the stud at c o o g ranch . In London I met some o f the American artists and I — S writers that had not met in this country argent,

B he Henry James and ret Harte . T ﬁrst time that I

B o f 1 888 . met ret Harte was the Fourth July, He had been United States consul in Glasgow and was at the time I met him living in London . That summer there was a cyclorama in London that

v N o o ia ara in nd n . was ery popular, called g L It was the usual entertainment m the conventi onal round building that somewhat resembled the outside o f S ’ h T . T e hakespeare s heatre , the Globe management, C being partly American and anadian , gave a supper in the cyclorama building on the night of the Fourth . B ret Harte , Edward Phelps, who was then our minis

to ter England , and many prominent Americans were there . While we walked around and looked at this con

o f N structed picture iagara, which was not so wonder 1 48 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

to ful us as to the Englishmen present, Lewis and I

to B . v talked ret Harte He was a ery handsome man,

v and he impressed us ery much, though his manner was quite casual .

n After the two national a thems were sung, the sup per room opened and the people ﬂocked in and found seats f o r themselves . Lewis and I were sitting next to an Englishman, who was evidently very hungry and

Mr. very thirsty . Phelps , the American minister, walked into the room and looked about, over the tables . He wore side whiskers and to a chance observer looked

’

a d hOtel . The not unlike a m itre Englishman, not knowing who it was , mistook him for one of the waiters and asked him to bring him a bo ttle of Apollinaris .

H e pointed to a bottle near by that had been opened . Phelps very go odnaturedly took the bottle and put it down in front of the Englishman and started to walk away .

The Englishman was very irate because Phelps had not ﬁlled the glass . He reprimanded him and , as he did so, he stood up and called to the retreating ﬁgure “What do you mean by this ? And who are you “M Phelps turned and answered : y name is Phelps . I

’ ”

J . am the American minister at the court of S t. ames s

The Englishman fell back in his chair so violently that he knocked the chair over backwards .

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

HE most brilliant entertainment given f o r us during o u r many stays in London was the supper C which John Hare gave at the Garrick lub on June 9 ,

1 o f 888 . It was a wonderful list guests and contained — almost everyone prominent in the arts actors, authors, t — M M pain ers, managers illais , Henry James, Du aur m ier, Ambassador Phelps and the Earls of Latho , Lon desborough and Cork and Orrery were all present .

n ah For some reason, k own only to himself, Daly sented himself from this supper . It was believed that he was annoyed that Hare had not submitted to him the l i st o f those members of the Daly Company who

to . were be asked Irving was furious at Daly, and so

’ n o n e was William Wi ter, who was of Daly s closest friends . I When John Hare made a speech, had to respond

o f . I I in place Daly was not very happy, and was a little upset because Hare had used a few of the things that I was going to say . I was so disturbed that at one portion o f my speech I halted like an actor who forgets his lines . I do no t kn ow what happened to me o r what 1 50 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 1 5 1

I n o t v caused the sudden lapse , but could preser e the

v . continui ty of the thing . I knew it was ery bad

I hd Sir S When a ﬁnished Arthur ullivan, who was

- seats sitting a few away from me , came over and shook “ p ) C 0 me by the hand and said : It was ﬁne . apital

C who S v Lord ork, was sitting just beyond ulli an, “ ” also said : Capital ! Capital !

I : o f rt n o t thought it was very good them, but did

to v deceive me . It took me a long time reco er from

my embarrassment .

Charles Wyndham gave a garden party one Sunday . That year he had Pope ’s famous villa at Twickenham R M T . rs . on the hames Lewis,Ada ehan , Gilbert , Daly

I . and went down It rained all day, and we were rather cooped up in the tents where the refreshments

were served .

While the band was playing Wyndham took hold o f

o f B his sister, who was the wife ronson Howard , the

’ American author of Wyndham s successful play

‘ Bri hto n S arai o a g ( g in this country), and rushed her out on the fearfully wet lawn and danced around a few

times . He was determined that there should be danc

ing at his party . He put up an umbrella , and it looked

so ridiculous to see him waltz ing around on the wet lawn one arm holding up the umbrella and the other

arm around his sister . 1152 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

During the run of The Taming o f the S hrew we were asked to play for a dramatic fund beneﬁt at the

Drury Lane Theatre . We played the fourth act of — The Taming o f the S brew the scene m which

Petru c hio trying to frighten and impress Katherin e with his masterfulness, whacks his servants about the “ ” stage with his whip an d a property leg of mutton .

e Gru m o His servants wer played by Lewis as i , Wil C R S M liam ollier, Hamilton evelle and tephen urphy, who afterwards took the name of Stephen Grattan

’ when he went to the Lyceum Theatre in New York . M urphy had a pedantic fashion of speaking, and he took himself and his work very seri ously.

In this fourth-act scene the servants are intensely

’ etru chio s i surprised at P behav or toward them , as they had kn own him always as a kindly master . When

etru chio an d Katherin e P exit, the servant played by “ S M : tephen urphy has to say Peter , didst ever see

’ the like referring to Petruchio s extraordinary be havi or . Murphy was much impressed with the fact that he was about to utter something of the immortal bard in

T Mac the famous Drury Lane heatre where Garrick,

n d K ready a emble had played . At the rehearsal he d C “C sai to ollier in an awed voice ollier, do you

MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 1 53 realize that I am to have the precious priv ilege o f ” Speaking a line of Shakespeare in this sacred fane 2 “ ’ ?” Collier interrupted with , What s a fane M urphy, impatient at the interruption, replied

Fane ? A fane is a convertible term f o r temple . It

is a temple . “ C Oh, yes, said ollier, apparently entirely satisﬁed

with the deﬁnition .

' o f When , in the actual playing the scene, the cue came for Murphy’s great moment Collier came in “ o n : quickly the cue and spoke the line Peter, didst ever see the like ? ” before the outraged Murphy had

a chance to do so .

’ Collier sensed from Murphy s exp ression o f d isap pointment and anger that there would be trouble . In

as v M deed, as soon the scene was o er urphy made a C C . v dash for ollier ollier , being more agile , a oided the rush and was chased all over the stage behind the M scenes by urphy .

I demanded to know from these two fellows what caused the horrible commotion while Ada Rehan and M I were playing the last scene . urphy told me that

Collier had deliberately tried to belittle him ; that he had robbed him o f his great Opportunity to read a line o f Shakespeare in Drury Lane and go down into theat

rical K s Kemb ean les . history with the , and Garrick CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

E years that we did not go to London the Daly

In Company made a tour to the Paciﬁc Coast .

the lobby of the Baldwin Hotel !in S an Fran c 1 sco Jim

i an I o n e Sir S Lew s d summer day met Arthur ullivan,

the co mposer . We had met him often in London .

’ When we s aw him this day he had arriv ed from Aus

ral a ff t i ; in fact he was just o the boat . He greeted us

ff n most e usively, for he had been living for some mo ths

u s in a country where he knew no one . He introduced

to the man who was with him , the captain of the

’

, brhu h C r steamer that had g t him to alifo nia .

’ " T n s he , after a few minutes conver ation, he again

“ “ shook hands warmly and said : We are going to have

-b a drink . Good y . I was amused, but Lewi s was intensely annoyed at

’ “ the casualness of Sullivan s remark . He said : I

’

h d . wouldn t have accepted it, but he mig t have aske us

s A a matter of fact, Lewis never did drink in the

’ I n daytime . While was laughing at Lewis a noyance,

S o l we were j oined by that great favorite of the road,

H o sea H o w e eace ul Valle Smith Russell . His in P f y 1 54

1 56 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

ld h o woman was much incensed . S e seemed to think

’ that a dentist s waiting room was no place to laugh . Russell had persuaded me to accompany him to sustain him morally, and spiritual advice was demanded from

As the Daly Company toured the various cities of

i the country we were much entertained . Somet mes en tertainmen t was thrust upon us when we thought we were in a town where no one knew us . S Otis kinner and I, on our way from the theatre to our hotel in one of the smaller cities of the Middle West,stepped into a small vaudeville theatre which kept open till midnight . We wanted to stand up at the rear of the theatre , but we were not allowed to do so . We were spotted at once and ushered by the man agemen t to seats in the very front of the theatre . As we took our seats someone was clattering away o n the stage with a noisy song and clog dance . We noticed that the door under the stage was opened and a man stuck his head out and handed something written o n a paper to one of the musicians, who in turn handed it to the leader .

The w next act was a singer, kno n in the nineties as e a motto singer . I rememb r nothing about him except that he pointed to Skinn er and myself and sang a song about the poor actor in distress . I do not know this Theatr e C o llec tio n H n i rs it ar ard e . , v U v y

D R E W B A R R YM O R E W I H E H E L L I O N E L A N J A K GE O R GI E T T , , D C B AR R YM O R E

1 58 MY YEARS ON TH E STAGE

v of the reser ed seats is bought up for tomorrow night .

He dropped into the arm chair next to Lewis and con tinu ed : I talked to the manager o f the theatre to

to I night, and we come the conclusion that yours S the best trained troupe that has ever been here since — H u mp ty D in hy

It is needless to say that he referred to the ever p o p u

H am t -t m t lar pantomime performance p y p y, which toured the country for years . I T Lewis groaned , and thought things . his was praise indeed ! The Daly Company was supposed to be the best in the country . We had been allowed to believe by the press and the public that we were the

- best exponents of light comedy acting . Our acting

was supposed to be most finished . We had been re c ei v ed inLondon as perhaps reign company ever has been . We had played cc and Germany .

We had been made much o f by many important people . Enthusiasts had compared our company with the C ~ omédie Francaise .

I do not believe that either Lewis o r I heard any of the rest o f the conversation of o u r newly acquired

friend . CHAPTER NINETEEN

URING a lunch at Delmonico’s early in the winter o f 1 888 the talk shifted occasionally from the subj ect we had met to discuss and Mark

Twain told a story in his inimitable way . I do not remember what the story itself was but while we were “ S : T all laughing, General herman said hat story lost ”

C . nothing in the telling, lemens

“ ’ o f I didn t mean that it should , replied the teller the story . M B A . Edwin ooth, Lawrence Hutton , . Palmer ,

S T o B Harry Edwards , tephen Olin, h mas ailey Ald

B Bis rich , Lawrence arrett, Augustin Daly, William C . S pham, Joseph F Daly, amuel lemens, General S I herman , James Lewis and were sitting round the table . The reason f o r gathering together these men rep re senting the professions was to discuss the founding of h T e Players . The idea to have a club where the p er sons o f the several arts could meet had been discussed

B B on C by ooth , arrett , Hutton and others ommodore

’ B T e O e id a . enedict s yacht, h n I S9 1 60 MY YEARS ON TH E STAGE

After lunch a number of us went down to 1 6 Gram crcy Park to look over the site which had been chosen for The Club .

’ New Ev e 1 888 The On Year s , , Players was for mally opened . It was founded entirely through the generosity of Edwin Booth . He was the ﬁrst Presi dent and upon his death in 1 893 Joseph Jeff erson be came the second . Upon the death of the latter the

v honor was conferred upon me , and ever since I ha e held the ofﬁce so splendidly ﬁlled by those two great men of the profession . As to the ideal and the purpose of this splendid gift to the members of the acting profession , nothing can be better said than it is in those words that Edwin Booth used in his speech of d ed 1 c atio n :

Gentlemen : Although our vocations are v ari

I . ous, greet you all as brother Players At this

supreme moment of my life , it is my happy privi

lege to assume the character of host, to welcome you to the house wherein I hope that we for many

years, and our legitimate successors for at least

a thousand generations , may assemble for friendly intercourse and intellectual recreation! Espe cially for the worthy ones of my profession am I desirous that this association shall be the means o f bringing them , regardless of their theatrical

rank, in communion with those who, ignorant of their personal qualities hidden by the mask and o f motley our calling, know them as actors only .

1 62 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

- present to you by the hands of our vice president, M r . . Daly, your title deeds to this property I o — I Having done so, am no longer your h st resign the rOle with profound thanks for your prompt and generous cooperation in a cause so o f - s dear to me , so worthy all well wi hers of the “ theatre and of the Player who struts and frets ” his hour upon the stage .

- Let us drink from this loving cup , bequeathed by William Warren of loved and honored mem f ory to our no less valued Je ferson , and by him — presented to u s from this cup and this souvenir ’ o f be long ago, my father s ﬂagon , let us now, o f neath his portrait, and on the anniversaries this ’ k : To occupation, drin the Players Perpetual p a Prosperity CHAPTER TWENTY

WAS still playing at Daly’s theatre when I ﬁrst T met Charles Frohman . He then had the wenty

’ S T t n o w third treet hea re , Proctor s , and had produced

’ B n a o f C ronso Howard s famous dr ma the ivil War ,

e and o a m to d o S h n h, which had so uch with the found

ing of his theatrical fortune .

’ ’ i B In the men s café at Delmon co s , then at roadway

T - S I and wenty sixth treet, often saw a little round man K C who I thought was Alfred lein , the brother of harles

K o f The M usio M aster The Lio n lein , the author and

M o u se K o n e o f bro and the . Alfred lein, was three

thers connected with the theatre . He played with

The ro esso r Gillette in P f , and some years afterwards he was the elephant trainer with Dewolf Hopper in

o f H er Ato n e Anson Pond, the writer a play called

“ ’ men t to : , protested me one day Why, that s not

K . T C m i lein hat is harles Froh an, the coming theatr cal ” manager . At that time I was not much interested in other the

atrical . R o f managers Ada ehan, Lewis and the rest 1 63 1 64 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

’ us at Daly s felt that these newer managers were in tru d ers . Daly never thought what happened outside of his theatre was of any importance , and this spirit of his prejudiced us . One ﬁne Sunday Fritz Williams and I rode out to

C S S an laremont . eated at a table near us was Frank I I ger and the man had mistaken for Alfred Klein . had known Frank S anger in Philadelphia . He had been one of the players, though not a conspicuous one, h in t e stock company at the Chestnut Street Theatre . He became night clerk in the Hotel La Pierre one sum

he mer . Later got into theatrical management and made a great deal of money out of Charles Hoyt’s

A B u n c o Ke s . play, h f y With Hayman he built the Empire Theatre for Charles Frohman. At this meeting at Claremon t Sanger and Frohman S joined us . anger turned the conversation , in a rather

i i diplomatic fashion, to the possibil t es of my changing I managements . do not mean to imply that this con versation was exactly prearranged .

“ ' Sanger sai d : John is wedded to Daly as a manager

“ ’

I . I don t know about that, answered

’ S an You re not thinking of changing, are you ger asked . “ ” “ ’ No . , I told him ; but I m not bound as a serf

MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 1 65 One Sunday evening Henry Miller took me to Froh

’ man s apartment in the Hoffman House to play cards .

M I n was iller and met Frohma and Anson Pond , who

e o f . a great fri nd his , in the lobby of the hotel We

I n played poker for a while , and felt, as subseque t

e I to events develop d , that had been allowed win and had not won through my own cleverness o r prowess with the cards . I d o not know whether I was right I about this, but do know that Frohman was a very good card player, as was Pond . We had a very elab “ ” orate terrap in ish supper and went back to card playing.

Co v S r n ersations with ange , which were usually p red ic ated upon the suppos ition of what I would do if I left Daly, and occasional meetings with Frohman went ff on for some time . Finally an o er came through

B who Of o ld Frank ennett, was manager the Arlington H otel in Washington .

' Benn ett who -in - Frank , was the son law of my god M B rs . . . an mother, D P owers, had been actor for a

c time in the Daly company, but he be ame discouraged and gave up the stage . Fortunately f o r him he had

o f to f ew e the keenness perception , given very peopl

n o who want to act, to realize that there was future for him . On one of o u r trips with the Daly company to

W met R e r A n ashington he oselle , p rop ri to of the rli g 1 66 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

who ton Hotel , offered him a job . From this he rose to be manager .

“ ’ ‘ Why don t you get out of your engagement with ?” B I Daly, John ennett asked me on one occasion .

to suppose my manner seemed receptive him, for he ” went on : Frohman is the coming man . Frohman apparently had calculated that I had a drawing power, and in this he seems to have had faith, ff for a most generous o er was made to me by Bennett . I authoriz ed him to make a suggestion or two to Froh man and the thing was accomplished . At the time there was still more than a year of my

to contract with Daly run . I told Daly at once that

I leavm e I was g him at the end of our arrang ment . felt that I was at liberty to go and that there was n o

" moral obligation upon my part to stay with a manager

I o I with whom had been for so many seas ns . felt this because Daly had before this rescinded the agree

Mrs . M R ment that he had with Gilbert, iss ehan,

' Lewis and myself. He had given us a share in the

o u r proﬁts o f the seaso n apart from salaries . It was a s emi-proprietary arrangement similar to that enj oyed C by the actors at the omédie Francaise, that is, the

s o f So cietaire who have all had certain years service . Daly wrote us that “in view of certain contingencies” he had decided that it was inexpedient to continue this

1 68 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

This business association I entered into W i th a“ good deal o f uncertain ty and some little dread . I did not

. I know Frohman, and I had been long with Daly was accustomed to his management and his w ay o f producing plays . I never had cause to regret my change in manage

n e ment . Charles Frohman was o of the fairest and s I in quarest men ever et .

0 1 8 2 On July 3 , 9 , I appeared for the last time under the management of Augustin Daly at Stockwell ’s Thea

S s s A tre in an Franci co . The play wa a revival of

Ni ht 0 I u rOle Jack g 17, and played my c stomary of M b u l erry . On October 3 of the same year I appeared as a star under the management of Charles Frohman at Palmer’s

T B T S . T had heatre , roadway and hirtieth treet his

’ ’ e T be n Lester Wallack s heatre , and after Palmer s

’ management was renamed Wallack s . CHAPTER TWENTY- ONE

o f M Y early impression aude Adams, before it was ﬁnally decided that she was to be my leading woman in my ﬁrst play as a star under the

o f C management harles Frohman , was that she looked to o frail . I had been accustomed to play with Ada

who . Rehan, was so much bigger and stronger

S tronger she was, as was evidenced by the blow on the j aw that as Katherin e she gave me in The Taming of

r w s v the S h e . In the cene, in the acting ersion, where

Petru chio says :

1 t o f Were the forefoot an angry bear,

’ ’ ’ o ff K I d shake it ; but, as it s ate s , I kiss it,

K er n e ath i gives him a sound , ringing blow . The re was a time when it was not considered good art actu ally to hit a person on the stage instead of making as if to hit ; but there was n o make - believe about this

. to stage blow It was indeed real ; in fact, it seems me n o w as I look back that the blow that Katherin e used to give P etru chio might have given the redoubtable

Dempsey a jolt . 1 7 0 MY YEAR S ON THE STAGE Small wonder then that Maude Adams in her girlish slightness seemed to me too fragile for a leading

woman . As a matter of fact she was never ill and

never away from rehearsals in the years She played with me .

Mrs It was . Drew, my wife, who ﬁrst suggested that M M aude Adams become my leading woman . aude

Adams had been on the stage almost from childhood . Her mother was leading woman in the stock company at the Salt Lake Theatre . The family name was Kis M m. r kadde aude, he self, had appeared when quite

’ A Mid n i B el young in Hoyt s play, ght l . After that she left the stage to go to school .

Nell m n As , the consumptive factory girl , in an A e

’ The o st ara can adaptation of Ludwig Fulda s play, L P

d is e . I , she had made a hit saw her ﬁrst, however, as

E vangelin e B en d er in a farce which William Gillette

e All the Co m o rts had adapted from the French , call d f m R ’ o H o e . t f In this Forbes obertson s bro her, Ian ,

. The played an old, deaf fellow two things that I remember abo ut the play are : the delicate charm of Maude Adams and the fact that all the other characters R e yelled at Ian ob rtson .

e in San c M Wh n I was Francis o aude Adams, who

t B was playing at another heatre , came to the aldwin

MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 1 7 1

Hotel to meet me . This appointment was the ﬁrst ff time that I had seen her o the stage . I saw at once

I her alertness and her ntelligence , and that she had a

most expressive face .

The play selected for my ﬁrst appearance under the

new management was The M as ked Ball by Alexandre ’ T Bisson and Albert Carre . his play took its name from

i V N the celebrated carn val , eglione , which is held at ice Th during the winter . e adaptation was made by young

C B eau Bru mmel lyde Fitch, whose play, , had made so great an impression when played by Richard Mansﬁeld .

The cast was :

PA U L B LO N DET John Drew JO S E P H POU LARD Harry Harwood LO U I S MAR T I NO T Harold Russell M B ER GO C M AT . . Leslie Allen

C AS I M I ' R Frank E . Lamb S U ZA NN E B L O ND ET Maude Adams A V MM E . POU L R D irg1n 1 a Buchanan

M M E B ER GO M ' T . A Annie Adams RO S E Lillian Florence

W v hen I left Daly I assured him that, if e er the

to opportunity arose , I should be happy make public

o f acknowledgement all that I felt that I owed him . It seemed to me that it was the only decent thing to — do to p ay so me tribute to the man who had taken so 1 7 2 MY YEARS ON TH E STAGE

much trouble for so many years . Accordingly, on the

The M as ked B all be ﬁrst night of , when I was called

fore the curtain , I said

It is trite and hackneyed, perhaps , to allude to a particular time as the proudest an d happiest ’ moment in one s life, but if ever phrase were apt be for an occasion, I feel that particular one is

” ﬁtting this moment . This splendid welcome ao corded to me by you— kind friends rather than

spectators or auditors , who have with your plau dits and consideration encouraged me for so many — years in the past makes this , indeed, a proud and

happy moment for me . B u t I feel that all these plaudits and this great

greeting might not have been for me , had it not been for one who taught me how to merit and de v ser e them , who from the beginning of my career

has watched and guided my steps, smoothing the

way to success for me , and encouraging me in

moments of trial and discouragement, and, in h ﬁne , striving to make me worthy of t is honor

tonight .

I feel , too, that this poor and halting tribute o f the heart is little to offer after the years of

care and trouble he has bestowed on me , but it is f from the heart that I wish to of er it . I am glad, to o f — , to o fer it before you his friends as well as e mine . I see that I ne d not name him, my friend

Mr. u . and preceptor, Aug stin Daly

Presbre An Eugene y, who was the ﬁrst husband of

ie R e c The Masked n uss ll , dire ted the p roduction of

1 74 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

The who n actor played this part insisted upo saying, ” No ! R , no ubens bore me . “ n I said, thinki g it was a slip of the tongue : Why do you say that ?” “ He said ' Why not ?

Then I gathered he thought I meant by Rubens country j ays .

M r i o a t n t uz an e. Finally, does see S n “ ? ” Did he say that I got tipsy she asks .

’ a o ff Yes, he told me so ; that s the re son I broke ” the engagement .

n Accordingly, at the end of the second act,she feig s tipsiness in order to shock the husband with whom she is really in love . It was admirably done , deliciously

. T done here was nothing vulgar about the scene ; for,

o be in to xi in the ﬁrst place , she was not supp sed to M c ated . aud e Adams did the whole episode daintily

She and with much charm . carried a red rose which m T she would alternately s ell and wave about . his was her own idea, and it was carried out very prettily .

M She The part of S u z an n e established aude Adams . scored a greater success in my company as D o ro thy in

R o semar The Masked y , but after her performance in

B all there was no doubt of her ability and charm . B T efore the Empire heatre was built, the Frohman

fﬁ B o n e o ces were at 1 1 27 roadway. I went there day F r o m T hea tre C o llec ti o n H ar ar d ni rs i t e . , v U v y

M AUD E A DA MS AND J O H N D R E W I N R O S E MAR Y

1 76 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE the house was sold o u t in advance for the ﬁrst night at

N T . the las the ational heatre At . t minute the Presi

M s C v dent and r . le eland decided to attend the per

Mrs R f o rmance . and apley, the wife of the manager

’ o f bo x . the theatre , gave up the manager s Grover Cleveland was one o f the early members o f The Play ers and I often saw him there in the nineties . During this same Washington engagement I te ce v ed Febv re i a letter from Frederick , doyen of the ’ Comedic Fran caise :

Thanks to you and your excellent artists . We passed a charming evening yesterday at The Na

tio n al T a . The he tre piece is extremely light, but

the details are very amusing . There is team play an d accord in your company, and everyone plays

for the whole and n o t for himself .

My sincere compliments to the stage director . The o f scene the ﬂowers in the second act, the e scene of the four young p ople , is graceful and

ingenious . It is exquisite . Mr As for you, dear . Drew, I cannot tell you how much pleasure was given me by your skillful n — beco m playi g correct, amusing without ever

in . R e g exaggerated, in fact, quite Parisian ceive o u r all thanks for your courtesy, my most

S incere felicitations and a cordial handshake.

ebv re who o n o f v F , was a sort vacation or lea e from the C omédie Francaise , was giving very charming little

S i v ketches or colloqu es, with his wife at pri ate enter tainmen ts . I saw them two afternoons in Washington . CHAPTER TWENTY -TWO

HE second play in which I appeared as a star

e e C who was B u tt rﬂi s by Henry Guy arleton,

e Fred eric /e was the ﬁrst editor of Lif . In this I played

Ossian , a heedless young man who is much in love and much in debt . Finally Frederick tries the expedient h o f to . going work, and his love is rewarded In t is ’ T play, which was also produced at Palmer s heatre ,

Maude Adams as Miriam made another hit and Olive

Ma e-E e uz n n e y as S uz an n lis scored greatly . S a was a

- o f broad comedy part, one of the ﬁrst the modern

to slangy young girls and a contrast the heroine, the M m C ’ delicate iria . arleton s play was as great a suc

The Masked Ball f o r cess as , and we played it many months . The cast was

FR ED E RI C K O ssi AN John Drew AN D R E W ST R ON G Lewis Baker HI RA M GR E E N Harry Harwood BAR RI N GT ON Arthur Byron NAT H A NI E L BI LS ER Leslie Allen C DD L E O Frank E . Lamb I 77 1 78 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

S S MR S . O IAN Annie Adams SU ZA N N E - E LIS E Olive May M B EV LY R S . E R S T UA R T -DODGE Kate Meek MIRIAM Maude Adams

’ The year after the World s Fair we were going to

C B u er es Chi alifornia with tt ﬂi . When we got near cago there was a great glare in the sky and we were

’

- told that the World s Fair buildings were burning .

Ch o At Hammond, which is some miles out of icag ,

o we were c mpelled to get out of our Pullman , as there was a Strike at the Pullman works . There was a sym pathetic strike o f the people working on the various w roads , and Pullman cars were not allo ed to go into C hicago .

We rod e into Chicago by trolley . We were going straight to the Coast and not playing Chicago this trip . After we got o ff the trolley we had to takean elevated to get us to a place where we could get carriages to get across to the Northwestern station . In getting on the elevated Maude Adams and the women of the company were nearly crushed to death . Great throngs of people were going to the ﬁre and tak ing the trains right back again . The conges tion was

t shocking . We were so much delayed hat we missed

MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 1 79 our train and had to stay over a whole day until the same time next night .

The s strikers were beginning to riot, and troop were brought down from Fort Sheridan and camped out on ffi the Lake Front . I knew some o f the o cers and spent

o u most o f the day at this temporary camp . On r way West we were held up at different places by the strik

who z il l: ing people and those sympathi ed with them, b

ff We to they did not take our Pu llman car o . had stop at night wherever we were , usually at some sta

v tion we were passin g through. It was ery hot and we arrived at S an Francisco two days late . A familiar ﬁgure round the New York theatres in

o f C those days the middle nineties was harles Hoyt,

o he the writer f many successful farces . T titles of “ ” these invariably began with the article A -A Tem

erant e To w n A Mid ni B ell A Co en ted Wo man p , ght , nt ,

A S r n er N w o t a g in e Y rh. Hoyt was a most amusing

. a person He came from New H mpshire , and he had

an uncompromising Yankee accent . When he died he gave his place in New Hampshire to the Lambs

C so lub in perpetuity, that actors who had no place

to o o else go might g there t stay .

One o f the often- told stori es about him was that on the ﬁrst night that Go o d wm was going to play Clyde 1 80 MY YEAR S ON THE STAGE

’ Nathan H ale Fitch s , Hoyt had tickets for it, and there

o n landed in him some friend from New Hampshire .

He had to entertain the man in some fashion, and he

two said he had tickets for the theatre . “ ” The other man said : What is it ? “ : is Hoyt told him It the opening of a new play, ” N e N athan H al at . , with Goodwin

“ ’ The New Hamps hire friend said : I don t want to

’ ” see . Goodwin I don t like him .

“ ’ ” You don t ? Hoyt asked .

’ ’ ’

N . o . , I don t I don t like him I don t like him as

’ ’ a man ; I don t like him as an actor . I don t like him “ “

But . , Hoyt said, you will like him in this play

“ ’ ” The other fellow said : I won t like him . “ : ou Hoyt said Yes, y will ; they hang him in the ” last act . Nat Goodwin whose personality w as perhaps not genial to everyone was one of the ﬁnest of American

comedians . He was a great mimic and his imitations

ff S e s extrao rd in o f Je erson and J . H . toddart wer mo t

ff S . ary . He even looked like Je erson and toddart Good win got his start as the hind legs of the heifer

f Evan el n e B in the famous production o g i in oston,

where his father had been a gambler . Some years — afterwards Nat came back to Boston he had made considerable o f an impression as an actor and an imi

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

E Empire Theatre which was so clo sely ass o ed with the career of Charles Frohman and so important in my own career, as for so many years my season began there either o n Labor Day or very

in close to that time , had been opened January of

1 893 . The opening play was The Girl I L eft Behind Me

v B T was by Franklin Fyles an d Da id elasco . his just

’ Bo u cicau lt s Jessie Bro wn o r another version of play, ,

The R elie o Luckno w f f , with something of the good

V r v i u . The old classic, gini s performance was gi en by T the Empire heatre stock company, and in the ﬁrst

. T s M cast were W. H homp on, William orris, Orrin

C S T R S d n Johnson, yril cott, heodore oberts, y ey Arm K T . strong, Odette yler and atharine Florence

After my own performance in The Masked Ball at the Standard Theatre at Thirty- third Street an d Broad

v way, where we had mo ed when our time was up at

’ Palmer s, I went up to the Empire to see the last few

’ C ro hman s e minutes of harles F new production, Th

irl I Le t Behind Me G f , in the new theatre . 1 82 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 1 83

About two years after the op ening I played at the

’ Empi re for the ﬁrst time in Henry Arthur Jones play,

o h s The Bau ble S h . T e p argument in this, and it seem

v m i i quite unanswerable, was that the pri ate i moral t es

’ o f a statesman s life may be used by his enemies to

defeat and humiliate him in public life . The play was N w o more successful in e Y rk than London .

V sc o u n Clivehro o ke o f I was i t , the leader the party

o f - in power, a cynical , brilliant statesman forty odd

who v years , indiscreetly falls in lo e with the daughter

- o f J . a tippling toy maker . . E Dodson played the toy maker .

In all these early productions Frank E . Lamb was

W . my stage manager . He had appeared with . J

T e M D o Florence in h ighty llar . He was a son of

a who Ed L mb , played for a long time in a stock com B M B C wh rs . . . o pany in rooklyn, run by F onway, was

M B - rs . . o . . o d the sister of D P owers, my g m ther In — some o f the early Daly plays Ed Lamb had played the

- — low comedy rOIes o n tour the parts which James

Lewis played in the original company .

B The Bau ble S ho R o semar M etween p and y, aude

o f Adams and I appeared in a number plays , There

That Im rud en t Yo un Co u le was p g p , which had been

o f tried out at the end the season before . In this Henry

Guy Carleton tried to repeat the gossamer success o f 1 84 MY YEAR S ON THE STAGE

e . C o Butterﬂi s, T hrist her I r. but failed hen came p , a bright but not altogether logical play by Madeline Lucette Ryley in which the players were

H T H E C LT R C RIS P R J . O O , John Drew C H RI ST P H ER C LT S R . o O O , Harry Harw od B E RT B E LLABY Lewis Baker B ED W AY C . Leslie Allen S I M P S ON Arthur Byron GL I B E Herbert Ayling JO B Joseph Humphreys WH I M P E R Frank Lamb MR S G LI B B . Elsie De Wolfe MR S C LT B . O Anna elmont Maude Adams

’ We did an English v ersion o f L Ami d es Femmes by

he The S u ire Dumas Fils . T adaptation was called g

m R C . C o e . f D a s and was made by arton, the author of

’ o r and Lad Al ad H u n two rths Ex eriment L d y gy , L y p and many other successful plays .

CHAPTER TWENTY- FOUR

HE summer I was rehearsi ng R o semary we were — all living at Westhampton, Long Island the L James ewises, my wife , mother and daughter, the B M three arrymore children , and Henry iller and his

family .

o f R o semar a One day, after a rehearsal y, I was in court of the Racquet Club when I was told that I was

wanted on the telephone . I asked that the message be

to taken, but the servant came back tell me that the

’

person calling would not give the message . I put on

a bathrobe anﬂWent to the telephone .

a w f t Was M who r ( Henry iller was calling f om West

ffamp to n . He told me that James Lewis had had

some trouble with his heart .

“ ’ I asked : Why don t you get a doctor ?

n to to He answered , tryi g break it me gently ” There is n o need for a doctor .

’ n t n W I did t qui e understa d him . hat do you mean ?”

’ He s aid There s nothing the matter with his ” heart now . 1 86 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

James Lewis had been my friend f o r twenty-odd

o ld years, ever since those days at the Fifth Avenue Theatre when I ﬁrst came to New York to play under

’ Daly s management . Much saddened I went o n with the rehearsals of m M R o r T N. se a y . his play by Louis Parker and urray

Carson was one of the greatest successes I had . Only

e a few years ago I reviv d the play, and it was successful then. In the ﬁrst production Maude Adams made a tre me u o o O n d o s D r th . T r le hit as y his , which was the last

w as she played with me, the culminating thing in her

e . T e arly career, and it led to her being starred h next

The i tle Min ister season Frohman produced L t , with bb Maude Adams as Lad y Ba ie. Charles Frohman probably thought that it was a great waste to leave in my company as leadin g woman an actress who had made so great a hit on her o wn S account . uch delicate, almost spiritual , charm could be turned to great advantage in the proper plays .

The R o semar play y is not an extraordinary piece , n but it does co tain a great deal of prop er sentiment,

n . feeli g and sympathy It is gay and pretty, but not without depth .

Sir Jasp er Tho rnd yke lives in his country place with

only an old friend for a comp anion . A chaise contain

1 88 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

ing a runaway couple breaks down directly outside o f

Sir Jas er the place of p , and he takes the youthful

lovers into his house . He falls in love with the girl ,

D o o r th . ro ess o r Jo ram f y P f g , his riend , tries to show

him the folly of his falling in love with someone so J much younger than himself . asper sees her happily

’ E n si n West o rd married to the young lover, g f , and he r ' eturns to his bachelor ways . He outlives them bo th and at the Diamond Jubilee he ﬁnds in the very house

D o ro th C where he had taken y to see the oronation, a f s n o . ouve ir his romance In this last act, which is

' S zr Jas er o n really a monologue, p , who is the verge of

s m t . enility, re inisces at leng h

f o r My niece , Ethel Barrymore, was cast the rustic m riscilla R o s e ar . e maid, P , in y She had a dr ss and shoes which might have made another you ng girl seem

in s m n grotesque . However, spite of this mo t unbeco i g

’ ’ a P rz sozlla attire , her beauty m de a great impression . ,

the maid, was really her ﬁrst appearance in New York,

though she had substituted in my company in The

o w f B au ble . S h p One night hen Elsie De Wol e was ill ,

r Kate Ferzrzell Ethel Bar ymore appeared as , though she

was not announced on the program .

R o sem s When ary had run a hundred night , a silver cup was given as a souvenir ; this custom has long since

been done away with . The cup bore the name of the H ar d n iv ers it . F r om Theatre C o llec ti o n , ar v U y

E V MRS J OHN DREW SENIOR AS MRS . MALAP RO P I N T H RI ALS . , ,

1 90 MY YEARS ON T HE STAGE

Milwaukee engagements o f The R ivals I gave a dinner f o r Th e . m wh the cast at Annex Ethel Barry ore, o was in my company at the time , was present at the dinner .

J ff so e erson and my mother, who had seen much of the t early days of the American theatre, told a grea many stories of the old days .

The following year I was playi ng m Salt Lake City

o f R o semar I in the road tour y, when received word that my mother had died at Larchmont .

i i At the t me, Ethel Barrymore was play ng with L Henry Irving in o ndon . They were rehearsing a new play . She returned to the afternoon rehearsal late, and she told Irving that she had been to send a cable ; her grandmother was dead .

Irving excused her from rehearsal . Mrs . John ” s Drew, he said, was the ﬁnest actre s in her line that ” I have ever seen .

R o semar a After the road tour of y, Is bel Irving played D o ro thy part of the time . I appeared at the

A M rr a e o Co nven ien ce Empire Theatre in a i g f , adapted by Sydney Grundy from Un M ariage s o u s

Lo uis X V. I played the part of the count who falls ! in love with his young wife less than three days after the

a a wedding . Isabel Irving m de her ﬁrst appear nce as my leading lady in New York as the young countess .

’

Of course, I had played with her often before at Daly s , MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 1 9 1 and she had played the leading part oppo s ite me in

e C bin et Min ister to Th a , when Ada Rehan refused

w i i play it. Elsie De olfe played the wa t ng maid in

A Marri age o f Co nv enience.

-A o u t When the Spanish merican War broke , I very

to much wanted go, and I applied in person to Theo

who t dore Roosevelt, was then organizing a regimen

c co m of cavalry . I had known him when he was poli e

ne missioner in New York . I met him at lunch o day

’ at Delmonico s with Richard Harding Davis ; when I joined them they were having a heated bu t friendly

’ o r argument about something other . I don t remember

t c t . wha it was about, but they were both much ex i ed The day I saw Roosevelt at the war department in Washington he told me that both Henry Cabot Lodge

o ld to o f to and I were too think going war, that we knew nothing o f warfare and that I had a wife and child to support . I had not the moral courage to point

to out him that he had four o r ﬁve children . T O mm ’ hen came n e S u er s D ay by Henry V .

Esmond , which was not a great success and was f o l

o n e o f c s lowed by my biggest suc esse , Henry Arthur

’ The L ars i . r Jones play, In this spa kling comedy I

S ir Christo her D eerin o f played p g, the friend every

o f body and the preserver family honor .

the t act Sir Christo her wh t In las p , o has been devo ~ 1 9 2 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE ing his time and ingenuity f o r four days an d four acts to the seemin gly futile attempt to prevent the d ope ment o f his closest friend with the silly young wife o f a common acquaintance , confronts them m his apart

h i . T e s Sir C risto er ment hour late , and h ph is getting

to f o r ready start Africa to rejoin his regiment, the next day . Moreover, he has just asked a charming young

a to H e wom n be his wife . has little time to spare , but in a long speech which is very eff ective he sets facts

two s he Wo n before these , the heedle s man and t vain ma ,

o f and convinces them their folly .

On the ﬁrst night o f The Liars the curtain failed to

a come down after the ﬁrst act . The stage manager s id

the that he had given both warning bell , which means to n get ready, and the seco d bell , which is the signal

ﬂ o f to ring down . The yman in charge the curtain said he heard only the one signal , so did not ring down .

This spoiled the ﬁrst act . In the seco nd act a hand organ is supposed to be

o h played utside, so t at the heroine can get rid of the young man by sending him out to give some money to

he t monkey . When the cue came there was no music h n . T e from the ha d organ property man , wishing to prevent the possibility o f any tampering with the hand o ﬁrst rgan, had removed the handle, and then in his

MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 1 93

night excitement he forgot to come back to turn the handle .

who Lad Jessica Isabel Irving, was playing y , was at a loss for a few seconds but quickly sent Arthur i h o f . No tw t Byron, the young man, for a glass water

standing these two accidents , the play was a great suc

to cess that ﬁrst night and for months come . The cast was

C HRISTOPHER DEERIN G John Drew ‘ EDW ARD FALKN ER Arthur Byron

GILB ERT NEPEAN D . H . Harkins GEORGE NEPEAN Orrin Johnson FREDDIE TATTON Lewis Baker ARC HIBALD COKE Harry Harwood M R S C . RESPIN Marie Derickson BEATRI C E E B ER NO E Blanche Burton DOLLY COOKE Elizabeth Tyree FERRIS Clara Hunter LADY ROSA M OND TATTO N Annie Irish LADY JESSI C A NEPEAN Isabel Irving CHAPTER TWENTY- FIVE

FTER I left the Daly company I saw my old

n w manager o and agam . In the middle ni neties his former program o f light comedies and revivals of

o w as the old comedies had become less p pular, and he

forced to make concessions to the popular taste . One o f The his last successes was an English melodrama,

Grea R b t u y . The last time that I saw Augustin Daly was at the C ontinental Hotel in Paris . Ada Rehan was stopping with the Dalys . My card was sent up and, in the very

o f casual manner French hotels , was left at the Daly apartment . Daly came down ; he was very cordial and L C nice . I had just come from ake omo, and I told

Cad en abbia Daly that I had been to , which is supposed to be the place which Claud e M eln o tte in The Lad y o f Lyo n s describes to Paulin e in the speech that begins : “ a N y , dearest, nay, if thou wouldst have me paint the ” home . I suppose you felt like playing the character ? asked Daly . “ ’ G ’ I m afraid, overnor, that that s about the only 1 94

1 96 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE Henry Irving and Ellen Terry at Delmonico’s I kissed ’ h M G e . S e rs . ilbert s hand as I ent red was not in the bill we were then playing at the theatre, and I had no t seen her for some time . a Irving, probably thinking th t it was rather a formal

who s greeting for people saw each other every day, aid

’ d o ou You don t always do that, y “ ”

h . e No, I usually do t is And I kiss d her on the cheek . This delightful old lady had been “grandma” to us all and had been on the stage many years . During the

r run of G anny she died .

After Augustin Daly died, Ada Rehan played in

’ s S w ee Nell o Old D ru r Paul Kester play, t f y, and with Otis Skinner in revivals of some of the old Daly suc

s f . cesses . I did not ee her in any o these productions The last time I saw her was at her house in Ninety

e third Street . She was ill then and had aged a gr at deal in appearan ce ; but I do n o t believe either of us

o u r thought that it was last meeting . Our conversation was more reminiscent than it had been before . We talked of those youthful days at the Arch Street

Theatre and the very early Daly days . Ada Rehan had a ﬁn e mind ; she was a great actress and she had a sweet soul . CHAPTER TWENTY- SIX

HE season o f 1 899 and 1 9 00 I played that de

The T ran n o Tears C . lightful comedy, y y f , by

T o n e o f H addon Chambers . his was the ﬁnest light

la ed . co medies that I I revived it a few years ago, u p y

Wh re and it was equally successful then . en it was v ived Chambers came over and made certain changes in the play to shorten it somewhat . There were certain scenes that were really unnecessary . In the last act some o f the dialogue between the girl secretary and

’ b r u T Par u y s friend were cut o t. his did not disturb the play o r the continuity o f the action . It was done

’ B arrre s so that I might play the same evening play,

T n The Will . his bill was o e of the mo st attractive

that I ever played .

The réle o f Parbur The T rann y, the novelist, in y y

o Tears ne f was a most grateful o . Isabel Irving was C very good as the wife , and Ida onquest made a great

’ H acin th Wo o d w ard hit as y , the novelist s amanuensis . In the revival Laura Hope Crewes was the wife and

Mary Boland the secretary . I 9 7 1 98 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

The original cast was

PA R B U R Y John Drew GEORGE GU N NIN G Arthur Byron ARM ITA GE Harry Harwood EVAN S Frank Lamb HYA C INTH Ida Conquest M S PA R B U R Y R . Isabel Irving

The n ext year I left light comedy for dramatiz ed

t f o r ﬁc ion . As Frohman did not have a play me , I

R ichard Carv el o f played , a dramatization Winston

’

C . hurchill s book by E E . Rose . “ ”

C . . to to F asked me come up his farm, Hidden

Brook Farm at Mount Kisco . He read me the drama “

iz a o n . t ti . What do you think of that he asked

’ I didn t know ; nor did I know at that time that the

b . play had een written with James K . Hackett in min d Charles Frohman had bribed or caj oled his brother u Dan into giving this thing p to him for me . Hackett would have been ideal for the character . I was never

. o u t o s happy in it It was f my phere, and I was too old for the young hero . The surprising thing o f my tour in this piece is that it made a good deal of money . I suppose this was due to o f the popularity the book, for the play was not a very good o n e. The cast for this dramatiz ation was

2 00 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE Apparently Madame Bernhardt had not a very high regard for the English fashion of speaking French .

i My n ece, Ethel Barrymore, played a few parts in f my company, played with Irving in his amiliar reper

’ torre in Lo ndon and played Jessie Milw ard s part in a

’ road company o f Captain Marshall s play H is E xcel

Go er o r T C - len c he v n . y , t hen harles Frohman decided

’

C Ca tain Jin ks . T to star her in lyde Fitch s play, p his C play of New York life just after the ivil War, with costumes inspired by Godey’s Ladies Book and scenes in B revo o rt the House , made a great impression when it was produced in New York .

to T e Before it came the Garrick heatre, it was tri d o u t T at the Walnut Street heatre in Philadelphia, the oldest theatre In the country . Twenty years ago at

- f al the Walnut there was an old ashioned, regular g

o f lery audience, keen to approve what it liked and

r . f o r quick to voice its disapp oval My niece , playing

rOle the ﬁrst time a long and important , was somewhat nervous and not quite audible . A friendly voice called to her from the gallery

’

- . h . T e Speak up, Ethel You re all right Drews is ” all good actors . s i t F r o m T hea tre C o llec ti o n , H ar var d Un i v er y .

E THEL B ARRY M O RE AS T H E RU STI C NI AI D IN ROSEMARY

202 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

T ’ T heodore Roosevelt s successor, President aft, also

to -u brought me the front of a box in my make p . We

were playing The Perplexed H us ban d by Alfred Sutro T at the Empire heatre in New York, when President H Taft asked me to come into the box . is party had arrived late and was not seen by the audience when

they were ushered into the theatre . The lights were

o n turned , and I appeared in the box just as the audi

ence reco gnized the President . Captain Marshall wrote two very delightful co m

The S eco nd in Co mmand edies in which I played, and

The D u ke o f Killicran /eie. mm The S eco n d in Co an d served me for two seasons . This play was the ﬁrst time that khaki was used on the

stage ; that is, it was the ﬁrst exposition of khaki on

the stage in a military sense . Guy Standing, who was knighted for his services in the British Navy durin g

Co lo n el Ans the recent war, was extremely good as

tru ther. L My nephew, ionel Barrymore , who played the part o f a young ofﬁcer in this play made a pleasing impres sion, but the following season, as the Neapolitan organ grinder in The M u mmy and the H u mmi ng Bird his work was a revelation . The original cast o f The S eco nd in Co mmand was MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 203

CO L LIEUT . . MILES Gu S . . 0 . ANSTRUTHER, D S y tanding MAJOR C HRISTOPHER BIN GHAM ‘ John Drew LI EUTENANT S IR WALTER MAN N ERIN G Oswald Yorke LI EUTENANT BA R KE R Lionel Barrymore M ED E NH E M Reginald Carrington H AR T O P P Robert Schable SE R GEANT George Harcourt COR PORA L Percy Smith ORDE R LY George Ford MR E N W I C K . F Lewis Baker H N TH E O . HILDEB RAND CARSTAIRS Hassard Short TH E DUKE O F HU LL Robert Mackay MU RIE L MAN N ERIN G Ida Conquest LADY H A R B U R GH Ida Vernon NORA H VININ G Caroline Keeler

e D uke o Killicranhie Th f was a very ﬁne , light com edy in which four sharply contrasted characters are T thrown together . hese were played by that famous

t English ac ress, Fannie Brough, Margaret Dale, Ferdi nand Gottschalk and myself . The complete cast was :

TH E DU KE John Drew H EN R Y PITT WELB Y Ferdinand Gottschalk AM BROSE HIC KS Lewis Baker BUTLER Robert Schable ALEXA NDER MAC BAY NE Reginald Carrington 29 4 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

M FOOT A N B . W. Parmenter Co U NT E s s O F PAN GBOURN E Kate Lester LADY HENRIETTA ADDISON Margaret Dale MR S . MU LHOLLAND Fannie Brough M MA C B A YN E RS . Constance Bell

The su mmer before I appeared in Captain D ieppe

the by Anthony Hope and Edward Rose, I met two

. An authors in London We had lunch together, and “ tho n y Hope said to Rme : You tell the story of

: No . Rose replied , I told it the last time

e Finally after some little arguing b tween them , they

o f told me the story this play, and it sounded fairly

reasonable . When it was presented, it did not have

the quality of an Anthony Hope story, and it was not

a success .

’ e who H Elizab th Marbury, was Anthony ope s

e agent, sent him a cable after the ﬁrst p rformance in “ Providence where the play w as tried out . Play ap ”

- p aren tly pleased Providence public . I asked Miss Marbury afterwards whether she thought the allitera tion would have any con vincing power with Anthony

Hope .

’ In that same early season in a play of Clyde Fitch s

Glad o I t called f , in which my nephew, John Barry

MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 20 ;

t t be more, had a small part, here was a conversa ion w tween t o Shop girls . “ t ? Where are you going onight, dearie

J Ca tain D i . Why, to see ohn Drew in p ppy

U to nfortunately for this play, they did not have

' change the line for Glad of It was an even greater

C e failure than aptain D i ppe.

’ The T D e Lance season of Augustus homas s play, y, in which Doris Keane , Walter Hale , Margaret Dale

to and Guy Nichols played with me , we were booked open New Year ’s day at the Hollis Street Theatre in

T n o Boston . here was morning train at that time which we could count on getting us to Boston In time f o r the matinee . Every year on the anniversary of the opening o f The Players— New Year ’s Eve— there is celebrated

’ Founders Night . I very much wished to attend this year, especially as it was the ﬁrst year that I was president o f the club . Through the influence o f a friend in the railroad business I was given p errm ssro n to have a private car — containing my company several o f the men were members of The Players and also wanted to be there — that night attached to the newspaper and mail train that arrives in Boston early in the morning . We had the most uncomfortable train ride and ar 206 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

o u t rived early, far in the yards . We went to our hotels, where we learned that we were not booked to

’ play a holiday matinee . New Year s Day was not at

he that time a holiday in the state of Massachusetts . T company manager had not taken the trouble to consult fﬁ i the Frohman o ce . He took t f o r granted that we were to play a matinee .

208 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

- enormous number of people . It had a corrugated iron roof and when the summer trade winds came up during the matinee they rattled the roof so much that the audi

ence could barely hear what was said on the stage .

My Wife did an enormous bu smess in San Fran

0 500 that year, as it had done everywhere on the road .

h e In all the towns t at we visit d, Billie Burke , who was

in w as my lead g woman , acclaimed as a charming ac tress and a beautiful woman . She played B c atrice e h M w D upr . T e cast for y as

GE RA LD EV E R S LI GH John Drew

TH E H O N . GIBSON GORE Ferd inand Gottschalk CAPTAIN PUTNAM FR EZ B Y Walter Soderling

M . DUPRE Morton Selten BARON GO RA NC L o s Albert Roc cardi VA L B O R E Ma ero n i M . N Mario j

M . POTIN Axel Bruun DAVIES Herbert Budd CROC KER Rex McD o u gal S o ld en e HEADW AITER E . Powell REN E FLANDERS Frank Goldsmith L C . PORTER . Howard BEATRI C E DU PRE Billie Burke MIRIAM HAW THORN E Do rothy Tenant M MRS . DEN HA FAN E Ida Greeley Smith BARON ES GRA N C LO S Hop e Latham S MADAM DU PR E Mrs . Kate Pattison elten MA RIE May Gayler

2 1 0 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

o u t h nese clothes, had given the programs in t e lobby

’ o f T Daly s heatre, and Augustin Daly was greatly pleased with his contract ; but he became very tired of the little Chinaman and got too much of him in his

household and in his employ .

Daly never found a way to get o u t of the arrange?

’ ment which he had made with the boy s parents, and it used to amuse the rest o f us a great deal ; for he never found any difﬁculty in getti ng rid of anyone else

connected with the theatre . He was forced to support r the boy f o the entire period .

t c n Now he s ood before me , re alli g the old days and

C n o wn telling me of hi atown where , from his talk, he

o seemed to be something f a power . “ ” d o o u ? But why y call yourself Daly I asked .

— Ln — I was Daly Lung Daly when I knew you,

and I thought you would remember me that way . Earlier that same season I had been playing in Louis

H . ville the ﬁrst three days of the week, and E .

Sothern was to follow me for the last three . Before

c I left town Sothern arrived, and we met in the orridor

of the hotel . We were j oined by a very digniﬁed old

n . ge tleman , who was evidently a citizen of the town

‘ “ H e . came up, bowed and said to Sothern Mr

’ s to Man ﬁeld, I am very glad see you here, and I m going to be delighted to attend every performance o f MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 2 1 1

to o yo urs during your all brief soj ourn . I have ” watched your career Mr . Mansﬁeld .

The citizen o f Louisville shook hands with Sothern again and walked away .

“ ’ ’ Why, in heaven s name , didn t you say some ” thing ? I asked . “ ” What was there to say ? said Sothern .

’ He doesn t know that Dick Mansﬁeld is dead, I went on .

“ ’ Well , said Sothern , that doesn t hurt me so

’ ’ H e k . much . doesn t now that I m alive CHAPTER TWENTY- NINE

L o P AYED two plays by W . S mmerset Maugham m w m S ith Jac k S tra . S ith and , in which Mary f Boland played the title part , was a success rom the b n i egi n ng .

The cast of Smith was THO M AS FREE M AN John Drew

- HERB ERT DALLAS BAKER K . C . Morton Selten AL GERNON PEPPERC ORN Hassard Short FLETC HER Louis Casson M a R S . DALLAS BAKER Is bel Irving EM ILY C HAP M AN Sibil Thorndike MR S G J L . OTTO ROSEN B ER ane aurel SMITH Mary Boland

Jac /e S traw Smith , which like had a great success , had this cast :

JA C K S T RA w John Drew L AM BROSE HOLLAND Edgar . Davenport LORD SERLO Frank Goldsmith COU NT ADRIAN VO N BRE M ER Mario M ajero n i J G T MR . PARKE EN NIN S Fred yler C Nic an d er VIN ENT , his son Edwin So ld en e R E V L W . . E IS ABBOTT E Powell

MY YEARS ON TH E STAGE 2 1 3

S J G C M R . PARKE EN NIN S Rose oghlan

ETHE L , her daughter Mary Boland LADY WAN LEY Adelaide Prince ROSIE ABBOTT Kate Kimball

MR S . WITHERS Grace Henderson

In the company there were also a number o f ama teu rs who walked on and took places at tables in the restaurant scene . One of the young men had nothing to do except to walk to a table with a young woman, to be told by the head waiter to go to another table, f and then, a ter they had moved , only to be told that

T o they must move again . hey are supposed t be very irate at this . It was all dumb show . When we were on tour we reached the native town of this young man , and the papers in advance had some small notices about him and that he was a mem ber o f my company . “ ’ ” h It s too bad , I told him , t at you are making your ﬁrst appearance in your home town as a mere ” ﬁgu re .

so I wrote him some lines , that this friendly audi ence could see him do something more than merely walk on and so that he could say that he had acted in a play .

The he night of the performance came . T house was f full of his riends , and they gave him a great recep 2 1 4 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

t t tion, so grea hat he forgot all the lines that I had

written for him . He just went through the dumb

show as usual . Sudden loss o f memory in the theatre is n o t u n co m

mo n . , and it is often tragic in its consequences But there is an amusing story of an old actor who had been o u t of a j ob for a long time . Finally, he obtained a

t o f l small par which, for anyone experience, shou d have been easily learned . In the play he had a speech in which he advises his

son to be very diligent and persistent . This fatherly advice ended with the good o ld adage that time is ” money . When he got to this line on the opening night he

“ ’ : i s said Don t forget that t me I He paused, c who oughed and appealed to the prompter, answered “ ” in an audible whisper : Money . “ — The : . old actor Oh, yes time is money

The deduction was that it had been so long since he had had any money that he had forgotten that it

existed .

My daughter, Louise Drew, and I were riding in Central Park o n e afternoon in December o f the year

that I was playing Inco n stant Geo rge at the Empire .

was My mare stumbled and, while I trying to get her

2 1 6 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE standing at the ring watching a man we both knew riding a horse over some hurdles . When this rider passed us I could hear Remington muttering impreca tions under his breath .

“ ’ ” What s the matter with you ? I asked . You

’ ’ ? know Frank very well . Don t you like him

“ ’

f . Of course I like him . He s a ﬁne ellow But I ” to used be able to do that once , Remington said plain i t vel . o y By that time he had bec me quite stout . f A ter some weeks I returned to playing, and I

I n c o n stan t Geo r e opened my season in Boston with g , the play I had been doing bef ore . This adaptation

’ from the French o f L An e de Bu rid an was never so suc c essf u l f in this country as it was a terwards in England, C where harles Hawtrey played the leading part , that of a man of many love aff airs who f alls victim to a young woman at last .

The American cast for I n co nstan t Geo rge was

GEORGE BU LLI N John Drew LU C IAN D EVE R SA N N E S Martin Sabine MORLAND Fred Tilden ADO L P H EU S Rex Mc D o u gal d GIRAND W . So erling BUTLER Bernard Fairf ax PA G E B OY Robert Sc hable MI C HELIN E Mary Boland ODETTE DE VE RSAN N E S Adelaide Prince

2 1 8 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

BEATRI C E Laura Hope Crewes MARGAR ET Florence Harrison URSULA Alice John

Frohman did not care much about the Shakespearian

t comedy, but he was not unwilling hat I should play

B en ed ic /e. I suppose that I had been away from this — style o f comedy to o long more than twenty years ; in any event, the production was not a success , and the acting was not up to the standard set in the Daly pro

u d c tio ns of Shakespeare . This revival was withdrawn

o ld The T ran n o Tears and my success , y y f , with

’ ce The Will Barrie s ﬁne play in three s nes, , used as an afterpiece . C J . oseph H hoate , while ambassador to England, had always been extremely kind and gracious to my niece , Ethel Barrymore , and myself when we were in

London . I always had a lively recollection of this f kindness, and one day when I was walking down Fi th

Avenue I saw before me a somewhat bowed ﬁgure , which I recognized to be that of Choate . “ : I overtook him and said Do you remember me , C ? Mr . hoate He looked at me for a moment and said : Good

’

o u . Mercy, why don t y grow old he asked MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 2 1 9

It was then so me years since o u r meetings In London .

“ ’

: . C t I replied I don t know , Mr hoa e , unless I can

l M m A o u Li e explai n In the words of o d r . Ad a in s Y k

‘ I who : t, says Never in my youth did I apply hot and

’ rebellious liquors in my blood . He loo ked at me qu l z z rcally under his bushy eye “ ” : Is t ? brows and asked Drew, that entirely rue

“ ’

: No . I laughed with him and said , sir , it isn t

’ ” That s what quotations are f o r.

He patted me on the shoulder, and we parted . In these years as a Frohman star I also played

’ His H o use in Ord er n Pinero s ﬁne play, , I which Mar garet Illingto n gave a splendid performance f o r this the cast was :

HILARY JESSO N John Drew J M . . C . . r FIL ER ESSON , M P M Halla d DEREK JESSON Leona Powers S IR DANIE L RIDGE LEY Arthur Elliot PRYC E RIDGELEY Martin Sabine MAJOR MAU R EW ARD E Henry Vibart D R D I L NOT T . Herbert Budd HA RDIN G Gilbert Douglas FO RS H A W Rex McD o u gal SERVANTS Maurice Franklyn Henry Fearing NI NA Margaret Illington LADY RIDGELEY Lena Halliday GERALDIN E RIDGELEY Madge Girdlestone

' ML LE . THOM E Hope Latham 2 20 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE

Then there were The Perplexed H usband by Alfred

The ro d i al H u s band Sutro ; P g , which was adapted from the French ; The Chief by Horace Ann esley Va

A Sin le Man chell and g by Hubert Davies , in which T L Ivan Simpson, Mary Boland , hais awton and my daughter, Louise Drew appeared .

22 2 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE H look o n his face . e put it down by the young woman

“ ’ with us who tasted it and exclaimed : They ve heated ” it .

It turned out afterwards that it had been milked o ut o f a goat in the back yard . My courier was at that time

so downstairs having his drinks, I asked the young prop rietor in Italian for some ice to put in the milk, and he laughed . I thought he was laughing at my “ : bo Italian, but he said Say, , you might as well ask ” me for a gold mine over here . Of co urse consternation and astonishment were reg

s e e i t r d by all o f us . “ I said ' Where did you get that Second Avenue ” East Side English ? “ I lived there, he said . “Aren’t you Italian ?” “ t . Yes , I was ; but I went over there wi h me parents

He had lived all his life o n the East S ide . “ ” I said : What are you doing here ? “ “ Well , he said, me uncle bought this place .

to U His uncle, it seems, had gone the nited States years before and had made some money in a restaurant .

. He had bought this inn when he had made enough

in money to do so . It was rather an historic place a

“ Are you going to stay here ? J O N REW A T EA S MP O O G IS N H D THA T N , L N LA D

’ K Y J ALAMI , OHN D R E W s HO U SE AT EASTHAMP TON

2 24 MY YEARS O N THE STAGE

I know him very well , said Holmes . ” “ S o do I , said the young man ; many a time I seen him act at the Fourteenth Street Theatre .

Never in my whole career have I played there .

We went to Prague in Bohemia, and on our arrival at the Blauen Stern Hotel we also found many win

dows broken but this time not from want of repair . Upon inquiry we found that it had been done by the

z . infuriated citi ens the day before, Sunday All the signs there were in Czech as well as in German . The people had not seen this . They had only seen the Ger

on man name the hotel , and they proceeded to break

all the windows .

We were going to the opera that night, and when we came out of the hotel I saw that the porter was busy putting some other people into a trap ; so I hailed a cab man and told him , in German , to take me to the opera

and then to come back for me .

’ H e looked at me as much as to say : You re a p oor ” boob . By that time the hotel porter had ﬁn ished with the

other people and came over to us . I said to him “What is the matter with this fellow that he doesn’t ” want to take me ? He answered me in English : He speaks no Ger

C . man . He speaks only zech MY YEARS ON TH E STAGE 2 2 5

And he spoke to him in this impossible tongue and

the man took me on my way . I bought a local paper .

- It was the most awful looking thing . It was worse than

n Magyar . It looked as if a dru ken compositor had j ust taken type and hurled it at the sheet . Arthur

so Byron, who was in my company in many plays, was i playing in Chicago at that time . I dec ded since I

could not read the paper to send it to him . I marked a certain portion of it and sent it on with a notation on the side that it was a good notice of me . Byron told me afterwards that he received the paper just as he was coming out of the theatre after long hours of rehearsing . He had been much annoyed by an actor in the company who had been extremely nervous

o f during the rehearsal , as a result unwisely celebrating the night before . “ ’ ?” a What s that the nervous ctor asked . ? ” You know Drew said Byron .

The a e actor gr ed that he did , and Byron handed him

’ ’ : T the paper saying here s a notice of Drew . H e s in

’ ” Germany now . It s splendid .

The a nervous actor took the paper, looked t the mess o f n t ﬂe mea ingless type and wi h a cry, d madly. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Ro semar ' l b N the revival of y, was ooked to appear ” for o n e night In the Metropolitan Theatre at

. R e m M . ochester, Minn sota,the ho e of the ayo brothers When I reached the theatre I found it was a horrible

. hole; The condition of things behind the scenes w as

‘ W m to . e shocking, say the least I was Infuriat d ith y

’ ’ h abo u t the stage manager, because he adn t told me theatre . H e had gone there during the day in time to

n m e have had somethi g done . At least there ight hav

n been some clea ing done . f I wrote to the health o ﬁcer, who happened to be one o f o f s the Mayo brothers , and told him the de perate H condition o f the theatre . e went with the mayor of the town to see the place and ordered the theatre closed i until t should be renovated and cleaned .

I had a feeling that I had not done myself any good, for I had to give my performance, but that I had bet tered the place for the next touring company . I wrote

m the to Charles Froh an about matter , and the last letter I ever received from him informed me that this 226

MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 227

fﬁ theatre was scratched by his o ce, Klaw and Erlanger

and others . I did not see Charles Frohman before he sailed on “ ” A re the Lusitania, but when I was in naconda I c eiv ed a letter from him telling me that he was sailing

who very shortly . Alf Hayman , owned the Empire

Theatre and ran the business aff airs o f the Frohman ffi to . o ces , and I , had tried dissuade him He laughed at us for our fear for him . This last letter of his read :

The Metropolitan , Rochester, Minnesota , _is

ffi 81 E . . Yo u scratched by this o ce , K . , and others o u did it and I am glad . As I telegraphed y I gave that play that I had intended for you a calm reading in my own home and I rather fear it is a

- bit o ld fashioned and to o talky . I have given it

up . You see when one reads these things away from New York it is diff erent and most anything ff is acceptable . It is di erent when you are at home . I know you’ like to be away from New York (I had written Frohman asking that the tour be

ended) . Alf Hayman has just told me how eager o u to L s y are continue after o An geles . If you play a week to cover the railroad fares it will be

all right . Why a young man like you likes to ’ o continue on these tours I don t know . I hope t get away on May ﬁrst and back shortly after you

. f o r reach here I am searching something f o r you . Our last talk before yo u left f o r the West gave n me much happi ess . 228 MY YEARS ON THE STAGE When I received this letter I was days from New

’

to . York, and there wasn t even time write Frohman I t telegraphed and , after wha ever private matters I had to tell him , I said If you get yourself blown up by a submarine ’ I ll never forgive you .

This was my last communication with the man who f o r twenty- three years had been my manager and with whom I had never had the slightest disagreement .

C . f F . had a eeling, almost a superstitious feeling, that as I was his ﬁrst star I must always be regarded

w s and cherished and cosseted . William Gillette a his s econd star, but he had been a star before he came

’ o hm under Fr an s management . “ I was in Vanco uver when I heard that the Lusi ” o f tania had been sunk, but we had no news the people

o n . the boat We were on our way to our next stop,

Everett, Washington ; and there my acting manager and I sat up in the telegraph room o f a small news paper office f o r hours . Here we learned that Charles

Frohman was among those lost.

239 MY YEARS ON TH E STAGE

1 00 Shortly after 9 they were all three on the stage, where practically every member of their family before them had been . John is the only one o f the three Barry

n ot mores who has played in my company . In May,

1 1 9 4, my niece and I appeared at the Empire in Sar

’ c A S cra o a er h dou s omedy, p f P p , with t is cast

PROSPE R CO U RA M O N T John Drew BARON D E LAG L AC I E RE Charles Dalton B R I S E M O U C H E Fuller Mellish ANATOLE Ernest Glen d in mng FRAN C OIS Frank McCo y SU ZAN N E Ethel Barrymore LOUISE D E LAGL AC I ERE Mary Boland MATHILDE Charlotte Ives ZE NO B ff MLLE . I E Je rys Lewis M T MADA E DUPONT Mrs . homas Whiff en PAULIN E Helen Collier

The season that I revived R o semary I received from

Ye h o n e o f J o . i S g , the apanese c mmissioners to the

-Paciﬁc Panama International Exposition, a collection of eighteen character dolls, each one about half an inch high . They are all vividly colored and quaint, some

The grotesque and some serious . letter that came with them was

When I arrived at San Francisco I found that o ne very artistic friend sent me from Japan the P h o to . b Charlo te F i y t a rc hild .

232 MY YEARS ON TH E STAGE

I could not forgive myself f o r not being able to see you in New York . J I am going back to apan in about one month , o u r ff after settling a airs at the Exposition . And I am greatly anxious to have two photo f o n e graphs of yoursel , in stage costume , and one

in which you appear as yourself . f And be ore your photographs , I would tell the o f J o f f young people apan your art ul acting, for which I am certain they would pay you the best

and highest respect .

Though this country has had n o theatrical family which can boast, like the Ichikawa, of two hundred years in the theatre, there have been several families closely identiﬁed with the stage . In an editorial article “ d New Yo rk H erald called Acting Bloo , the a few years ago printed :

The theatrical profession has produced families in which the acting blood ran strong through more The Jeff erso n s than one generation . Booths, and Davenports were notable examples o f inherited o f talent, and still more distinguished , in the eyes o f the present generation playgoers , are the The Drews , now conspicuously in the public eye . f w as J o f founder of the amily ohn Drew, one the s best Irish comedian our stage has known , who

ﬂ e f f . ourish d during the ﬁ ties and whose wi e, Mrs

M M al ro . J rs . a ohn Drew, was a famous p p

L My daughter , ouise Drew, the granddaughter of

o f the two famous actresses American stage , my mother, MY YEARS ON THE STAGE 233

A in the t Louisa Drew, and lex a Fisher Baker, and grea

o f c granddaughter the English actress, Eliza Kinlo h, together with the three children of my sister, Georgie

t Drew Barrymore , herself an actress of ﬁne talen , are carrying on the family tradition and demonstrating the “ ” cti in po ssession of a ng blood the fourth generation .

236 INDEX

B r Ax n Mr . . B . 1 8 . u u n e 20 8 . C o w a s , l , y , F , 3

B an i f r d C o n w a art 6 . u k d W e 1 00 . c l , l , y . H . 7 . 77 . 99 d rb r l as a C u cu mb B u d e e t 208 2 1 . C o o er 1 2 . , H , , 9 , , , 3 a m B u han an ir in ia 1 1 C o o er r n k e b e 2 1 . c , V g , 7 . p , F K l , 7 i 1 1 1 B u n c h o K e s A 1 C o u e n 6 1 1 . f y , , 64 . q l , , 3, 4

. i T 1 1 B u n n er H . C 1 0 C o u n tr G r l he 1 2 , , 6 . y , , 5, 7 , B u rke B i ie 20 8 20 u , ll , , . C o n tr S o r T he 1 . 9 y p t, , 7 5

B u m an d F. C . 1 8 1 . C o u n tr Wi e T h 1 1 , , 3 , 39 y f , e, 5 . B u rto n B an c he 1 C r ai Ro b . ert 2 2 . , l , . 9 3 g, , 5 , 7

B u tter ies 1 1 8 1 8 . C r an e Ed ith ﬂ, 7 , 1 00 1 1 6 . 7 7 , 4 , , , B ro n A r h t u r 1 1 8 1 1 8 C r an e W H . 8 . 8 1 8 . y , , 77 , 4, 9 3, 9 , , , 4 , 9 , 9

1 22 . C rehan A d a 9 9 , 5 , , 33. ‘ B ro n en r . . C rew es Lau ra Ho e 1 y , H y J , 47 , p , 97 , 2 1 7, r i B o n M r . O er Do s v u d 1 8 . y , l , 33. 2 C ro sman H n i e r etta 6 . C , , 9 5, 9 C u mmin s E en 6 g , ll , 2 , 63 . Ca bin et M in is er The 1 t , , 0 , 1 1 0 . C u ster G en era 1 6 1 9 , l , . , 7 mill 8 C a e 0 . , , 3 C u rr im 6 6 66 6 y , J , 3, 4, , 7, 68 . C a ta in D ie e p pp , 204 , 20 . C u rtis Geo r e i iam 5 , g W ll , 1 06 . C a ta in Jin ks p , 200 2 2 . C m eli , 9 y b n e, 59 . C ard iff G ian t 1 , 7 . D C ar eto n en r G u 1 1 8 l , H y y, 77 , 3. C arr m n ai et r C o s 1 0 e 1 . , y , 9 . D l ey , P , 75 C arr a M ar erbert 1 . e aret 20 20 20 . , H , 9 9 D l , g , 3, 4, 5 C arri to n R in d a to n C har es 2 0 n e a . g , g l , 203. D l , l , 3

C arso n M u rr a 1 a A rn o d 1 . , y , 8 6 . D ly , l , 7 5 C arto n a u u stin R . C . 1 8 D l A g . 6 . 0 1 , , 4 y . 33. 3 39 . 4 . 4 C as n i 6 so Lo u s 2 1 2 . 2 0 , , 4 . 4 3. 4 5. 4 . 47 . 4 9 . 5 . 57 C as in a B o o mera n 1 60 6 1 6 0 1 2 t g g, 2 3 . . . 9 . 7 . 7 . 7 . 7 3. 74. 7 s h mb 8 8 8 8 1 2 C a ers C . H ad d o n 1 , , 97 . 4. . 9 . 9 . 9 . 94. 9 s. 9 9 . C han f r au ran k 8 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 , F , 37, 3 . , 3, 4, 5 , , , 3, ha 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 C rit 1 . 2 2 1 y, 4 7 , 40 5, 9 , , 4 , 5, 7, 34, C heatham itt 1 1 1 1 1 6 1 0 1 1 1 1 6 1 00 . , K y , 4 . 4 3. 4 . 5 . 5 . 59 . . i e 1 62 1 6 1 6 1 6 6 1 1 1 C h e T 2 20 . 6 6 8 f , h , , 4 , 5, , 7 , , 1 7 , C ho at s h 1 2 1 1 I e o e H . 1 1 6 1 , J p , 2 8 , 2 9 . 7 , 94 . 9 5. 9 . z o o. 2 0 .

C hris to her Jr 1 8 . a o s e h F. 1 p , . , 4 D ly , J p , 57 , 59 . h r i n t n a Lu u n 0 1 C u c hi W s o 1 8 . D ly , L g, 2 9 , 2 0 . ll , , 9

C arke G o r e a eter. S ee rn o d a l , e g , 9 5, 98 , 1 00 , D ly , P A l D ly . ’ a s Theatre 1 O 1 1 6 . D ly , 7 ( pen ing). D am en r 1 C larke . S . 6 1 . 1 2 . , J , , H y , o ama a 1 8 C a to n , hn 1 1 1 . D l 3 . l y J , , nd D ick 1 m n amu a D a 0 1 1 0 . C l e e s , S el L. S ee M rk y , 9 ,

T ain av en o t E . L . 2 w . D p r , , 4, 2 32 .

an d G o r 1 av en o rt E d ar L 1 2 . C l ev el , r v e , 76. D p , g , 2 2, 32 o h an h av en o rt ann C C arles , 1 1 6 . D p . y . 48 4s. 4 . 49. g l , F 3 7 , C o h an Ro se 8 2 1 . 6 1 0 ° g l , , 9 , 3 9 ) 9 9 ) 4 3

D av Cr o cket 0 . C o ier H e en 2 0 . t, 3 ll , l , 3 y

i ia 1 av id e i iam 6 . C o er, W i m 1 1 00 1 0 D g , W ll , 54 , , , 9 9 ll ll , 9 , 94 , , , 7 77

1 2 1 av ies u bert 2 20 . 5 , 53. D , H ,

C o n u est Id a 1 1 8 1 20 . av ies . R ees 62 . q , , 97 , 9 , 9 9 , 3 D , H , i i a d ard in 1 1 C o n tented Wo ma A 1 . av s R ch r . n, , 79 D , H g, 9 INDEX 237

La 20 . D e ncey, 5

lmo re Herbert 1 . D e , , 2 7

Eas L n n e 8 . eri kso n M arie, 1 . t y , D c , 9 3 o r M a o 1 D e W o f e E s ie 1 8 1 88 1 1 . Ec ken d r . l , l , 4 , , 9 f, j , 4 i - Ed mu n d s a ter W 6 . D ken s C har es 2 26 1 . c , l , 4 , 38, 35 , l , 7 , 77 Ed w a d H arr i lo ma 6 6 6 68 . r s 1 00 1 1 6 D p cy, 2, , , y , , , 1 59 . i tt h D ithmar Ed w ard A . 8 1 0 E o A rt u r 2 1 . , , 4, 7 . ll , , 9 io tt a D iv o rc e 62 6 . E r nk 2 1 , , 7 ll , F , 7 . Em ire h D o d so n E . 1 8 . T eatr o . e enin o f , J , 3 p ( p g ),

o l ars a n d S ens e 1 1 1 82 . D l , 09 , 23. i Eric r d 1 r Mar e 1 . e D o o 2 . , , 9 5 , F , 7 mo n E H . D o t C ar o tta 2 1 . s d . V 1 1 y , l , 7 , , 9 . D o u s G i bert 2 1 Ev an eline 1 80 gl a , l , 9 . g , . h r ir in ia 1 1 2 1 D re e , V g , 93, 94, , 1 4, 1 1 2 31 34

D r Ed ard 1 1 . ew , w , 4 , 5

D rew ran k 2 8 2 0 . , F , , 9 , 7 ai m D rew G eo r e 1 . r a es 8 . , g , 5 F , J , 4 , 4 9 ir ax B D rew G eo r ie 1 2 8 6 a ern ard 2 1 6 . , g , , , 3, 35, 3 , 9 , F f , , Fa m h 2 . r ro t e M od i 33 f d ng Crow d ,

- - D rew o hn 1 6 d b t 6 1 0 . , J , ( e u ) , 2 9 9 - aw cett Ed ar ear re o ec tio n s 2 0 8 1 0 1 0 . ( ly c ll ), 3 4 F , g , 7 , 4, 5 rc h Street Th atre - earin Hen r 2 1 e 2 6 . (A ), 4 4 F g, y , 9 N Yo rk d ebu t - Febv re red erick ew 2 to 1 6 . ( ), 47 5 ( , F , 7 m n ec hter C har es o ast w ith D a C o a 2 0 . c ly p y ) , 54 F , l , 7, 3

w ith B o o th w ith ern an d e B i o u . 59 ( ), 59 ( F z, j , 94 A d e aid N i so n h ie d in M a 1 1 e e 60 w it . l l ), ( F l g, y , 7 5 , 4 ff o n - is h r Am ia e ers 62 68 w ith W ard e e e 80 . J ), ( F , l , 79 , an d B arr mo re 1 - 1 1 the isher C harles 2 2 y ), 7 7 ( F . , 7 . 5 . 54 . 7s. 77. a C o m an - 1 1 2 1 1 D ly p y ), 1 1 8 1 53 (the 9 3. 99 . . 4 . D a C o m an abro ad 1 68 it h C l d e 1 1 1 80 200 20 ly p y ), F c , y , 7 , , , 4 , a t rf o man (l s p e r c e w ith D aly 22 9 . m an - a o r i C o 1 6 2 0 u n d er G e n e 6 . p y ), 9 3 ( Fl gg, g , 7 man a emen t o f C harles ro h o ren e atherin e 1 82 g F Fl c , K , . m an o ren e Li lian 1 1 . ) . Fl c , l , 7 M r o D rew s . o hn 8 1 0 22 1 . ren e W . . 1 8 . , J , 3 , 7 , Fl c , J , 3

D rew o hn S r . 1 2 8 2 1 22 lo w er C har es 1 22 . , J , , , , , 9 , , , F , l , ’ 2 Fo o l s R ev en e T e 3. 34 . 35 g , h , 24 . D r M rs o d o r ew . o hn S r. 1 2 r G e e 20 . , J , , , , 3 , 4 , F , g , 3 6 8 1 1 Fo res ers The 6 1 . 7 . . 3. 9 . 34 . 3s. 40. 1 1 4. t , , 3 , 39 .

1 8 1 0 2 2 2 o rres t Ed w in 2 6 1 1 6 1 . 9. 9 . 3 . 33 F , , 7 , 4 , , D rew o u i a n k n M a i s . Mr o ra u r c 2 1 . S ee s . hn e , L J F ly , , 9

rew S r. red ericks W i iam S . 8 . D , F , ll , D rew Lo u is e 2 1 220 2 2 ro hman C har es 6 1 6 1 6 , , 4, , 3 . F , l , 9 , 3, 4 ,

D rin k 0 . 1 6 1 66 1 6 1 6 8 1 1 1 86 , 7 5, , 7, , 7 3, 7 5 , , D r u H r ce ub t 2 1 . 1 1 8 z o o , e , 7 9 5. 9 . . 20 7 . 20 9. 2 1 8 . 226. D ff o u hn 0 . 2 2 8 , J , 7 7, 2 2 . D u ke Kil i i ro hma n o l cran h e The 20 1 n D a ie 1 8 . f , , , F , l , 9

20 2 20 . u d a Lu d w i 1 0 , 3 F l , g, 7 . d M au ri r u e G . 1 0 . u rn es s Ho rac e o w ard 88 0 . , , 5 F , H , , 9 D a Ad s a . i es ran klin 1 82 . y , , 9 9 F l , F , 238 INDEX

G H a man Alf y , , 227 .

en d erso n G rac e 2 1 . G a er M a 20 8 . H , , 3 y l , y , en d ri k R x c , e f o rd 2 1 . Gi bert M rs . G . H . 0 6 H , 7 l , , 4 , 4 , 49, en ri u M a es d e ain e 2 . 0 8 1 8 8 8 8 8 0 H q , l , 7 5 . 77 . . 3. 4. . 9. 9 . 9 3. H At em er o n en t 1 . 1 0 1 0 1 1 , 63 3 , 5, 1 6 , 1 2 3, 1 2 8, 1 32, 1 5 , rb id n e ert S e 1 00 1 1 6 2 1 . 1 66 1 1 6 . H , y , , , 7 , 9 5 , 9 H is Excellen c T G i be t i iam 6 1 1 1 2 y, he Go v ern o r, l r , W ll , 93, 9 , 4, 3 .

200 . i bert S . 1 G l , W . , 47 , 59 , 40 . His H o us in Or e d er 2 1 . Gi ette i iam 1 6 1 0 2 8 . , 9 ll , W ll , 3, 7 , 2 o d so n Sir rt r g A hu 1 2 1 . Gird esto n e M ad e 2 1 . H , , l , g , 9 o an d Ed a rd 1 ll , w 8 . Gir l I L e B ehin d M e The 1 82 . H , 9 ft , , o an d o s h 1 ll , J ep , 4 , 1 0 1 8 . Glad o I t 20 20 . H 9 , 9 f , 4 , 5 Ho mes B u rto n G en d en n in E rn est 0 l , , l g, , 2 3 . o n tho n pe, A y , 20 . G o ld en Wid o w 1 1 . H 4 , 3 Ho er D f 1 r pp , e W o l 6 . G o d smith ank 20 8 2 1 2 . , 3 l , F , , Ha er E d w ard 1 1 pp , , . G o o d in Nat C . 1 1 80 1 8 1 w , , 7 9, , , Ho er aa T s c . 1 0 . 1 pp , , 89 . I Ho w ard B ro n so n 0 G o ttscha k erd in an d 20 208 . , , 47, 5 , 77, 9 3, l , F , 3, 1 1 1 6 o r Lo rd Ro n a d 1 8 5 , 3. G w e , l , 3 .

o w ard L. C . 20 8. G ran er M au d e 0 . H , , g , , 7 Ho t C har es 1 6 1 0 n n 1 1 y , l , 4 , 1 , 1 80 . Gra y, 9 5, 9 6 . 7 , 79 um hre s o s e h r ant n era p , J p 1 8 . G G e 8 . H y , 4 , l , 7 H n ter C a ra 1 r attan t hen 1 0 1 1 u , l . G S e 1 . , 93 , p , , 52, 53

u ntin P . 6 . Great E as ern The 2 6. H g, , 7 , 77 t , , H tto n La r n u w e e 1 . a u b 1 . , c , 59 Gre t R y , The, 94

Great Un kn o w n The 1 0 . , , 9 I G o rm e O en l y , w , 74 , 7 5 . I ka a 1 2 chi w , 2 3 , 32 . G re ic e . y , Al , 54 in to n M ar are 1 ll g , g t, 2 9 . G riff en C . 6 . I , ,

I n c o ns ta n t G eo r e 1 . G r smith G o r e 1 8 1 g , 2 4 , 2 1 6 o s , e g , 3 , 39 . n a io n a l M atc A n 1 G r n d n 1 I n ter t h, , 09 . u d y , Sy ey , 90 . I red a e r an k 6 l , F , 7 . H rish n n ie 1 . I , A , 93 i I ris h E m ra n t The 22 . am K. 1 8 . g , , H ackett, J es , 9 rv in en r 60 1 26 1 H a e W a ter 20 . I g, H y , , 95 , , 37 , l , l , 5

1 8 1 1 0 1 0 1 6 . M . 1 ard C . 2 , H all , , 9 . 3 44, 5 , 9 , 9 “ rv in s abe 1 o o 1 1 0 1 0 H a id a Len a 2 1 . I g, I l , 9 5, , , 9 , ll y , , 9 1 1 1 8 2 1 2 1 . H a mlet, 54 , 57, 26 9 3, 97 , 9 , I rw in M a 1 0 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 n 2 2 . , H a n d y A d y , , y , 4 , , 4, 3

o r o r e 1 . H arc u t, G e g , 20 3. 7 5

Iv es Charlo tte 2 0. ard en bu r F. . , 3 H g, , 54 ,

H ard Tho mas 1 0 1 . y , , 9 , 39 J are o hn 1 0 . H , J , 5

Jack S traw 2 1 2 . arkin s D H . 1 . , H , . , 54, 57 , 99 , 9 3

ames Hen r 1 1 0 . B r t 1 1 8 . J , y , 47 , 5 H arte, e , 4 7 , 4 i 0 0 1 J ames Lo u s, , , . arro d M a ie . , 3 9 9 9 9 H l , gg , 77 eﬁerso n o s e h 60 86 8 arriso n o ren c e 2 1 8 . J , J p , 4 , , , 7 H , Fl , 2 H arr 1 1 1 1 8 1 1 60 1 62 1 80 , 1 8 , 1 0 , 23 H arw o o d , y , 7 , 77, 4 , 5 5 , , , 9 9

m . 1 . 1 8 1 J ero me J ero e K , 9 5 1 93. 9 . 9 9 ,

hard 1 . erro d W . an H aw tre C har es 2 1 6 . J l Bl c , y , l , ,

ew ett S arah 0 . a an Al 1 6 1 6 . J , , 4 H ym , , 4, 5

mm INDEX

M a O iv e 1 1 8 y , l , 77, 7 , 1 99 . M a o rank 0 8 . y , F , 3 , 9 Od e e 1 1 . M eek ate 1 8 tt , 3 , K , 7 . O in S te hen 1 . M i h u l , p , 59 e s er 2 0 . ll , F ll , 3 M er d ith e Geo r . , ge, 1 39 O v ia . li , 60 M err Wiv s o W y e f ind s o r, 8 8 , 9 3. ’ O Neill attie , , 33, 37 . M id s u mmer Ni h s D rea m H g t , A, 94, ’ O Neill ame , J s, 48 . 9 5 ’ O n e S u mmer a s D y, 1 9 1 . M id n i ht B ell A 1 0 1 g , , 7 , 79 . t O hello , 57 . M i ht o l D l ar T 1 8 . g y , he, 3 O u r First amili 8 F es, 7 , 8 1 , 1 0 , Mi ai 4 s o hn E . ll , J , 1 50 . O u rs , 2 5. Mi er Hen r 8 1 1 1 ll , y , , 65 , 85 . Mi et . S . 1 06 . ll , F , P M i w ard es ie l , J s , 200. Mi nn M a alm r A M. a d ame . 1 1 1 , , 9 . P e , , 3, 59 , 1 6 1 . M is s H b 1 ark r o bs . es G eo e 0 1 , 9 5 P , g . 4 . 4 . 76. 77. 94. M itch ll D 1 1 e , o d s o n, 1 99 . 4 . Mo ier 1 arker Lo u is N 8 e . 1 l , 7 7 , 44 . P , , 6.

Mo o re o hn 1 a m nt . 1 1 r e er B . , J , 4 , 9 3, 00, 1 6. P , W , 204.

Mo o r M ar . 1 2 as to r To n 1 e, y , 2 . P , y , 04 . M o rris C ara 0 1 as s in R e im nt h , l , 9 , 9 . P g g e , T e, 1 09 . Mo r i i iam atten Tho ma r s , W ll , 1 82 . P , s , 1 0 1 . M n h P a l o rto C ar es e ce ul Va l e 1 . , l , 39. f y, 54 M o rto n G eo r e er lexed H u s ba nd Th , g , 77 . P p , e,

Mo rto n Mi a 220 . , ch el , 207 . Mo ter ilkins tt Lu etia 1 Pe W 20. , cr , 1 . , Mo u n et- S u 1 he s Ed w ard 1 1 lly , 6 . P lp , , 47, 48, 1 50,

M u ch Ad o A bo u t N in 1 1 . o th g, 2 1 7 . 5 M u mm a n hi i s en d 1 1 d u m i W e 2 . y the H m ng Bird , P ll p , ll , , 5

The 202. P ickw ic k Pa ers 2 , p , 4 . M u rd h an in ero rthu r in 1 1 o r k 0 . P W 1 0 0 c , F , 3 , A g, 9 , , M u h S 1 1 1 1 r tev e S ee G ratt . 2 . p y , . an , 9

Mu rra R o ss 2 1 . Pla ers T he o un d in o f 1 y , , 7 y , , F g , 59 M us ic M a er 1 6 s t , The, 1 63. 2 . M r M i e 0 o o s . Charles y W f , 2 7 , 20 8 . P l e, , 76. o n d n so n P , A , 1 63, 1 65 .

o o r R elatio n T 1 . P , he, 55 Nan c a nd C o m an 1 o rter B en 6 0 1 0 6 . y p y, 4 , 6, 9 , P , , 62, 3, 64 , 66, 67

1 2 1 2 1 2 8 1 1 1 . o rter G en eral o 4 , 7 , , 4 , 44 P , H race, 93, Na n al 1 tha H e, 80 . 1 06 . ed les a P n S l en Ne nd i s 8 8 o E . 8 1 . w e o , 3, 4, 5, 09 P ll , d e, 208, 2 1 2. N i n d laid e e so e 22 . Po w er T ro n e 1 l , A , , 59 , y , 2 . d n n Ne S e . o w er r a so n P s is 1 . l , y y, 77 , F c , 99 N o 6 o rs Leo n 1 ew p rt, 7 . P w e , a, 2 9. Wa P a l P resbre E u en e 1 New y to y O d D ebts , A, y , g , 7 1 .

2 . Pric e Li ie 2 . 4 , zz , 7 O Ni n d er Ed w m 1 2 rinc e d e aid e 1 1 2 1 ca , , 2 . P , A l , 00, 1 6, 3,

Ni o u . 2 1 6 . ch l s , G y , 20 5 Nick o th W o d s ro to r o s e h f e o , 24 . P c , J p , 24.

Ni h O A 6 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 ro d i a l Hus ba nd 220. g t f , , 4 , , 3, 4, P g , The,

1 0 1 2 1 1 8 1 1 1 8 ro es s o r T 1 . 9 , 3, 27, 2 , 34, 4 , 1 6 . P f , he, 63 INDEX 24 1

ra o a 1 1 1 R S a t g , 47 , 50, 5 , 52 .

S ar e F. 1 1 c y , , 42, 44 . 6 1 0 Railro ad o Lo v e, The, 4 , f , 7 hn S ar en t o S . 1 . g , J , 47 0 1 . 1 08 , 1 9 , 44 S eco nd in C o mmand , The, 202 . R ead e C har es , l , hn Se to n , Jo , 2 6 . O ic The 1 1 1 1 f Recru iting ﬂer, , 3, 4 , t n M r at attiso n 8 . S el e , s . K e P , 20 1 1 5 . to n M o rto n 08 1 Sel , , 2 , 2 2 . Rehan Ad a 2 8 . . 5. 33. 3s. 37 . 3 . 39. - - 7 20 8, 1 2 3 . 6 0 2 8 8 1 8 40. 3. 7 . 7 . 7 s. 7 7 . 7 . . 3. b Ro bert 20 2 1 6 . Scha l e, , 3, 1 00 8 . 4. 9 s. 9 7 . 99. . 4 . 9 3 9 a n a l T e 1 1 S cho o l f o r S c d , h , 6 , 1 5, 1 1 0 6 1 0 1 0 8 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 03, 0 5, , 7 , , , , 1 1 6 . 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1 2 1 1 2 , 3, 4, 5, , , 3, i 8 o C r 1 . Sc tt, y l , 2 1 8 1 x 1 8 1 1 6 1 2 5. 2 . 33. 37 . 3 . 39 . 4 . o o t e S co u 1 . S c tt , h t, 9 1 1 I 1 6 x66 1 6 1 1 1 4 . 5 . 53. 3. . 9. 9 . 9 a T S crap o f P p er, he, 54, 2 30 . 1 9 5. 1 96 im o n I v an 2 20 . S p s , , Remin to n red eri k 2 1 2 1 6 . g , F c , 5, 0. S ingle M an , A , 2 2 R ev e e Hamilto n 1 2 . ll , , 5 Ski n r ti 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 2 n e , O s , 9 3, 94 , , 3, , Ri e ann 1 8 . c , F y , 9 1 1 1 1 8 1 0 1 2 1 1 4 , 1 2 , 23, 2 , 3 , 3 , 33, R ichard C arv el, 1 9 8 . 1 6 1 1 6 . ’ 1 42 , 5 , 57 , 9 Ri har D al s er ant 2. c d , y s v , 4 n n Eﬂi e . han o , , 94 c ard I . Ri h I , 56, 57 hen a n d o ah, 1 6 3. Richelieu 2 . , 4, 57 he Wo u ld an d S he Wo u ld No t R i Em , gl , ily , 70 . 1 1 2 1 2 8 . 1 4 , 1 2 2 , 7, Rin o ld B . T . 0 . g , , 7 h rid an G en era 1 6 2 S e , l , , 5 . Ri Van Winkle 60 86 8 . p , , , 7 r n i i i ia She id a , W ll am. S ee W ll m Riv als The 1 8 1 0 . , , 9, 9 S red ericks . F R o berts Theo d o re 1 82 . , , m h rid an i i a E . 2 . S e , W ll , 4 Ro bertso n I an 1 0 . , , 7 h rman G n era 1 S e , e l , 6, 7 5, 9 3, T o m . R o bertso n , , 2 5 1 . 1 0 6 , 59 s n u a t 8 . R o b o , St r , 9 Sho rt Has s ard 20 2 1 2 . , , 3, R o a d i Albert 208 . cc r , , S mith, 2 1 2 .

R C harles 2 . o ckw ell , , 7 Smith Id a G ree e 20 8 . , l y, l Th o d o r 1 1 0 1 Ro o sev e t, e e, 9 , 2 . Smith er 0 . , P cy, 2 3 ’ R o r O M o re 22 . y , o d r in A ic e 2 1 S e l g, l , 7 . E a d 20 R o se, d w r , 4. So d er in W a lter 208 2 1 6 2 1 . l g, , , , 7 - R o se, E . E . , 1 98 . rn E H . 1 0 1 1 So the , . , 2 , 2 . 8 1 8 1 1 8 1 8 R o s emary, , 3 , 74, 3, 5, i e 1 0 . S q u r e, Th , 9 8 8 1 0 2 6 2 0 2 1 . 1 86, 1 8 , 1 9 , 9 , 2 , 3 , 3 i D a mes The 1 8 . S q u re of , , 4 R o u h D iamo nd The 2 . g , , 47 , 5 in G u 20 2 20 tan d g, y , , 3 . R o a a mil h 1 . y l F y, T e, 9 5 u n C aren e 1 06 . ted man Ed m d l c , , R A n n i 1 2 1 . u ss ell , e, 7 , 95 o rk 1 2 . Stephen s , Y e, 3

R u s s e l Haro d 1 1 . l , l , 7 n Hen r 2 1 . Stephen so , y, 7 s o l mith 1 . R u s ell, S S , 1 54 , 1 5 5, 56 C A . . Stev en so n , . , 79 R le Mad elin e Lu ette 1 8 . y y, c , 4 in E ar e Stirl g, l ,

r n R . 06 . S to ckto n a k , 1 S , F Sto d d art . H . 1 80 . , J ,

Sto ke Ro s e 2 . a in M a in 2 1 6 2 1 . s S b e, rt , , 9 , , 5

- ra n er in New Yo rk A 1 . S aint G au d en s A . 1 . S t , , 79 , , 7 5 g

ra n er The 8 . S am so n Wi iam 1 00 . S t , , 5 , 59 p , ll , g S r A rthu r 1 1 1 S an er ran k 0 1 6 1 6 . S u lliv an i , 39 , 5 , g , F , 7 , 4 , 5 ,

V. 1 1 2 0 . 1 . S ard o u, , 3, 3 54 242 INDEX

S u r 2 0 f , 3 , 7 , 7 6 . W S utro A f red 202 2 , l , , 20 . W a n er R i h r g , c a d 1 4 1 . S w eet Nell o O ld D ru r 1 , f y, 9 6 . W akeman A n n ie 6 . Sw inbu rne A rn o n , , 7 , lge Charles , W a ber T he A v en r 8 l g, ge , 5 . 1 39 . W a es T he rin e o f 2 l , P c , 4, 52, 1 25 . T W a ack Lester ll , , 2 6, 93. Wa n 1 T aber Ro b r 1 g, 63 . , e t, 89 , W ard e red erick 6 T a t Wi iam Ho w ard 2 , , 2 , 68 . 0 . F f , ll , 3 W arn er C har e s 0 . Ta min o the S hr ew T , l , 7 g f , he, 2 5, - W arn er C har es ud e 88 ﬁrst er m , l D l y, 1 06 . 35, 7 5 , 9 3 ( p fo r W arren i iam 1 62 an c e 1 00 1 1 0 1 1 8 1 1 , W ll , 79 , . ), , , , 9 , 1 22 , Wa iv W e L e The 8 . 1 2 1 1 8 1 1 I 1 y , , 7 5. 37 . 3 . 44. 4 5. SZ. 69 . eak o m n T a o r T o m W W e , 47 . y l , , 24 . W heat ei h C har es 1 1 T enn ant D o ro th l g , l , 00 , 1 6. , y , 20 8 . W heat e i iam T en n ie o hn l y , W ll , 8 . l , J , 1 38 . h C o o n W ee er e o hn H . 1 0 T enn so n A r l , l l J , . ed 6 1 . y , lf , 3 , 39 hiﬁ n M rs Tho ma W e . s 2 0 T em era n ce To w n A 1 , , 3 . p , , 79 . Whistler ames Mc Neil] T erris s Wi iam 1 , J , , ll , 46 . 1 T err E en 1 1 37 . y, ll , 38, 96 . W hite Ho rse o f the Pe ers T he Tha I m u d en t Yo u n pp , , t p g C o uple,

2 1 . 1 83. mf o r 1 6 1 White Sta d 0 6 1 . Tho mas A u u stu s , , , , g , 20 5 . ick o W e W rld The 1 . T h m s o n d , , 40 o . 1 8 p , W . H , 2 . mer Hen r 1 1 1 Wid 0 . Tho rn d ike S bi 1 , y , 3 , 3 , y l , 2 2.

i kes E . P . 6 1 1 . Tho r e Lau r a W l , , 7 , 94, 4 p , , 7 6.

Will The 1 2 1 8 . Ti d en r d 1 6 , , 97 , e 2 . l , F , W i iamso n P as smo re 1 0 Tio e 8 1 ll , , . t , . W i iams rit 1 6 T o w s e o hn R an i ll , , 4 . k n 1 1 6 . F z , J ,

Wi s W . G . 60 . Tw ain M ark 8 ll , , , , 7 5, 4 8 5, 93, 1 0 6, , i llia m T l . W el , 7 1 59 .

W i so n ran is 1 8 . Tw e lv e r ecis l l , c , 9 P e 6 . F y, Win ter W i iam 2 1 1 Tw el Ni , ll , 7, 54 , 9 3, 9 , h ht 2 2 . ft g , , 59

1 2 1 1 0 . , 5 T er red 2 1 2 . y l , F ,

Wiv es . T r d e t , 77 e t e 1 8 . y l , O , 2 Wiv As The er e a nd Maid s T n an B ran d o n es y W 1 . y , , 99

A s The Ar e 68 . T ran n o T ar y , e s The 1 2 1 8 . y y f , , 97, ’ ’ W n 1 Wo man s o t A 2 1 1 . T E i t 1 , , 7, 4 ree abe h . y , l z , 93

o m D a 0 . W en of the y, 39, 4

o o d o hn 1 0 1 . W , J , 94 , U r o hn 1 W o o d , M s . J , 0 1 . n d ham harl s 8 1 2 d t as li . C e 2 Un er he G ght, 42 Wy , , 47, 3, , 1 23, 1 51 . V Y Va h Ho ra nn l c ell , ce A es ey, 2 20 . Vern o n I d a 0 2 . Y S . 0 . , , 3 eghi, , 2 3

Ve in Herman 60 . Yo rke u u s tu s 1 1 2 . z , , , A g ,

Vibart Hen r 2 1 . Yo rke O sw a d 2 . , y , 9 , l , 03 i 6 m a ak d T 0 . n i h 0 Vic r o f W ef el , he, Yo u g, B r g a , 5 ,