Curiosities of the American Stage Part 6

The Lyceum was opened on the 23d of December, 1850, with "an occasional rigmarole ent.i.tled _Brougham, and Co._," which introduced the entire company to the public. The next absurdity was _A Row at the Lyceum_, with Mr. Florence in the gallery, Mr. Brougham himself in the pit, and the rest of the _dramatis personae_ upon the stage; and shortly before the abrupt close of Mr. Brougham's management he presented _What Shall We Do for Something New?_ in which Mrs. Brougham appeared as Rudolpho, Mrs. Skerrett as Elvino, and Mr. Johnstone as Amina, in a travesty upon _La Sonnambula_.

Upon the same stage, on Christmas Eve, 1855, but under the management of the elder Wallack, Brougham produced his "Original, Aboriginal, Erratic, Operatic, Semi-civilized, and Demi-savage Extravaganza of _Pocahontas_."

The scenery, as announced, was painted from daguerreotypes and other authentic doc.u.ments, the costumes were cut from original plates, and the music was dislocated and reset, by the heads of the different departments of the theatre. Charles Walcot played John Smith, "according to this story, but somewhat in variance with his story"; Miss Hodson played the t.i.tular part, and Mr. Brougham represented "Pow-Ha-Tan I., King of the Tuscaroras--a Crotchety Monarch, in fact a Semi-Brave." At the close of the opening song (to the air of "Hoky-poky-winky-wum") he thus addressed his people:

"Well roared, indeed, my jolly Tuscaroras.

Most loyal corps, your King encores your chorus;"

and until the fall of the curtain, at the end of the second and last act, the scintillations of wit and the thunder of puns were incessant and startling. "May I ask," says Col-o-gog (J. H. Stoddart), "in the word _lie_, what vowel do you use, sir, _i_ or _y_?"

"Y, sir, or I, sir, search the vowels through, And find the one most consonant to you."

Later the King cries:

"Sergeant-at-arms, say, what alarms the crowd; Loud noise annoys us; why is it allowed?"

And Captain Smith, describing his first introduction at the royal court, says:

"I visited his Majesty's abode, A portly savage, plump and pigeon-toed; Like Metamora, both in feet and feature, I never met-a-more-a-musing creature."

[Ill.u.s.tration: HARRY BECKETT AS THE WIDOW Tw.a.n.kEY, IN "ALADDIN."]

In a more serious but not less happy vein is the apostrophe to tobacco, by the smoking, joking Powhatan, as follows:

"While other joys one sense alone can measure, This to all senses gives ecstatic pleasure.

You _feel_ the radiance of the glowing bowl, _Hear_ the soft murmurs of the kindling coal, _Smell_ the sweet fragrance of the honey-dew, _Taste_ its strong pungency the palate through, _See_ the blue cloudlets circling to the dome, Imprisoned skies up-floating to their home-- I like a dhudeen myself!"

And so he joked and smoked his way into a popularity which no stage monarch has enjoyed before or since. _Pocahontas_ ran for many weeks, and was frequently repeated for many years. The story of the sudden departure of the original Pocahontas one night without a word of warning, and the successful performance of the piece by Brougham and Walcot, with no one to play the t.i.tular part at all, is as familiar in the theatrical annals as the sadder stories of Woffington's last appearance, and the death of Palmer on the stage; and no doubt it will be remembered long after _Pocahontas_ itself, despite its cleverness, is quite forgotten.

"_Columbus el Filibustero_, a New and Audaciously Original, Historico-plagiaristic, Ante-national, Pre-patriotic, and Omni-local Confusion of Circ.u.mstances. Running through Two Acts and Four Centuries,"

was first performed at Burton's Theatre (Broadway, opposite Bond Street, afterwards the Winter Garden) on the 31st of December, 1857; Mark Smith playing Ferdinand, Lawrence Barrett Talavera, Miss Lizzie Weston Davenport Columbia, and Mr. Brougham himself Columbus. It is a more serious production than _Pocahontas_; the satire is more subtle, and the thought more delicate. It contains no play upon words, is not filled with startling absurdities, and is pathetic rather than uproariously funny.

While _Pocahontas_ inspires nothing but laughter, _Columbus_ excites sympathy, and oftentimes he has moved his audiences to the verge of tears.

He is a much-abused, simple, honest old man, full of sublime ideas, and long ahead of his times. He dreams prophetic dreams, and in his visions he

"sees a land Where Nature seems to frame with practised hand Her last most wondrous work. Before him rise Mountains of solid rock that rift the skies, Imperial valleys with rich verdure crowned For leagues illimitable smile around, While through them subject seas for rivers run From ice-bound tracks to where the tropic sun Breeds in the teeming ooze strange monstrous things.

He sees, upswelling from exhaustless springs, Great lakes appear, upon whose surface wide The banded navies of the earth may ride.

He sees tremendous cataracts emerge From cloud-aspiring heights, whose slippery verge Tremendous oceans momently roll o'er, a.s.saulting with unmitigated roar The stunned and shattered ear of trembling day, That, wounded, weeps in glistening tears of spray."

[Ill.u.s.tration: JAMES LEWIS AS SYNTAX, IN "CINDERELLA AT SCHOOL."]

In short, he sees so much that is beyond the comprehension of the ordinary play-goer, that for thirty years he has been left in absolute retirement in that Forrest Home for good old plays which is styled _French's Minor Drama_.

One of Brougham's last burlesque productions was his _Much Ado About a Merchant of Venice_, presented March 8, 1869, at the little theatre on Twenty-fourth Street, New York, which has since borne so many names, and now, rebuilt, is known as the Madison Square. He played Shylock, Miss Effie Germon Lorenzo, and Mrs. J. J. Prior Portia. This was his final effort at theatrical management. He appeared in _Pocahontas_ as late as 1876, but Shylock was his last original burlesque part which is worthy of serious mention.

Francis Talfourd's _Shylock; or, The Merchant of Venice Preserved, a Jerusalem Hearty Joke_, is a much older production than Brougham's travesty of the same play, with which it should not be confounded.

Frederic Robson was the original Shylock in London, Tom Johnstone in New York (at Burton's, October 9, 1853). M. W. Leffingwell gave an admirable performance of Talfourd's _Shylock_ in September, 1867, on the stage of this same little Twenty-fourth Street theatre, a.s.sisted by Miss Lina Edwin as Jessica. Mr. Leffingwell was a very versatile actor although he excelled in burlesque and broadly extravagant parts. He will be remembered as Romeo Jaffier Jenkins, in _Too Much for Good Nature_, and in travesties of _Cinderella_ and _Fra Diavolo_. In the last absurdity, as Beppo, made up in very clever imitation of Forrest as the Gladiator, and enormously padded, he strutted about the stage for many moments, entirely unconscious of a large carving-fork stuck into the sawdust which formed the calf of his gladiatorial leg. His look of agony and his roar of anguish--perfect reflections of Forrest's voice and action--when his attention was called to his physical suffering, made one of the most ludicrous scenes in the whole history of American burlesque. Mr. Forrest is said to have remarked of a lithograph of Leffingwell in this part, that while the portrait of himself was not so bad, the characteristics were somewhat exaggerated!

Leffingwell was, no doubt, the original of the full length, life-sized effigy of Forrest which serves as the sign for a cigar store on one of the leading thoroughfares of New York to-day.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GEORGE L. FOX AS HAMLET.]

Madame Tostee, in 1867, with the _Grand d.u.c.h.ess_, and Miss Lydia Thompson, the next season, with _Ixion_--although neither of these can be considered American burlesques--gave new life to burlesque in America; and for a number of years burlesque was rampant upon the American stage; many leading comedians of later days, who will hardly be a.s.sociated with that style of performance by the theatre-goers of the present generation, devoting themselves to travestie and extravaganza. Among the most successful of these may be mentioned William J. Florence, Stuart Robson, James Lewis, and Harry Beckett. The last gentleman was exceedingly comic, and at the same time always refined and artistic in such parts as Minerva in _Ixion_, Ha.s.sarac in _The Forty Thieves_, the Widow Tw.a.n.key in _Aladdin_, Maid Marian in _Robin Hood_, and Queen Elizabeth in _Kenilworth_ long before he became the established low comedian of Mr.

Lester Wallack's company, and won such well-merited popularity by his clever representations of characters as divergent as Tony Lumpkin, Harvey Duff, in _The Shaughraun_, and Mark Meddle.

In January, 1869, Mr. and Mrs. Florence played an engagement of extravaganza at Wood's Museum--now Daly's Theatre--on Broadway, near Thirtieth Street, presenting _The Field of the Cloth of Gold_, in which Mr. Florence a.s.sumed the character of Francis First, Louis Mestayer Henry Eighth, Mrs. Florence Lady Constance, Miss Lillie Eldridge La Sieur de Boissy, and Miss Rose Ma.s.sey (her first appearance in America) Lord Darnley. The feature of this performance, naturally, was the grand tournament upon the plain between Ardres and Guisnes, in which the rival monarchs fought for the international champions.h.i.+p with boxing gloves in the roped arena, and according to the rules of the prize-ring, the police finally breaking up the match and carrying both combatants into the ignominious lockup. Older play-goers will remember Mr. Florence years before this as Eily O'Conner, in a burlesque of _The Colleen Bawn_, and as Beppo "a very Heavy Villain of the Bowery Drama in Kirby's days," in _Fra Diavolo_, Mrs. Florence making a marvellous Danny Mann in the former piece.

While Mr. Florence was taking gross liberties with the personality of Francis First at Wood's, Mr. Lewis was doing cruel injustice to the character of Lucretia Borgia at the Waverley Theatre, 720 Broadway, under the management of Miss Elise Holt, who played Gennaro. The palace of the Borgias was "set" as a modern apothecary's shop, where poison was sold in large or small quant.i.ties, and Mr. Lewis excited roars of laughter as a quack doctress, with great capabilities of advertising herself and her nostrums. During the same engagement Mr. Lewis played Rebecca in _Ivanhoe_, and Oenone in _Paris_; but he joined Mr. Daly's company a few months later, and the legitimate has since marked him for its own.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LYDIA THOMPSON AS SINDBAD.]

At the Fifth Avenue Theatre, and afterwards at Wallack's, in this same summer of 1869, Stuart Robson made a great hit as Captain Crosstree, in F.

C. Burnand's travesty of _Black-eyed Susan_, a part originally played in this country during the previous season by Mark Smith. Mr. Robson had the support of Harry Pearson as Doggra.s.s, of Miss Kitty Blanchard as William, and of Miss Mary Cary as Susan. The entertainment, as a whole, was unusually good, full of exquisite drollery and grotesque fancy, although Captain Crosstree eclipsed every other feature. His "make up" was a marvel of absurdity, his naturally slight figure was literally blown to an enormous size, the contrast between his immense physical rotundity and his thin, inimitably squeaky little voice being exceedingly ludicrous.

During this season the Lydia Thompson troupe was in the full tide of its success; William Horace Lingard and Miss Alice Dunning were playing _Pluto_ and _Orpheus in New York_; every negro minstrel and variety performer was burlesquing some person or some thing every night in the week, and opera-bouffe had taken possession of half of the theatres in the land.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WILLIAM H. CRANE AS LE BLANC, IN EVANGELINE.]

The most successful burlesque of those times, and the entertainment which is most fresh in the memory, was "The New Version of Shakspere's Masterpiece of _Hamlet_, as arranged by T. C. De Leon, of Mobile, for George L. Fox," and first presented in New York at the Olympic (formerly Laura Keene's) Theatre, on Broadway, February 14, 1870. Although not an improvement upon the original acting version of the tragedy, it was an improvement upon the general run of burlesques of its generation; it did not depend upon lime-lights or upon anatomical display, and it did not harrow up the young blood of its auditors by its horrible plays upon unoffending words. It followed the text of Shakspere closely enough to preserve the plot of the story; it contained, as well, a great deal that was ludicrous and bright, and it never sank into imbecility or indelicacy, which is saying much for a burlesque. Mr. Fox, one of the few really funny men of his day upon the American stage, was at his best in this travesty of _Hamlet_. Quite out of the line of the pantomimic clown by which he is now remembered, it was as supremely absurd, as expressed upon his face and in his action, as was his _Humpty Dumpty_. It was perhaps more a burlesque of Edwin Booth--after whom in the character he played and dressed--than of Hamlet, and probably no one enjoyed this more thoroughly, or laughed at it more heartily, than did Mr. Booth himself. While Fox at times was wonderfully like Booth in att.i.tude, look, and voice, he would suddenly a.s.sume the accent and expression of Fechter, whom he counterfeited admirably, and again give a most intense pa.s.sage in the wonderfully deep tones of Studley, at the Bowery. To see Mr. Fox pacing the platform before the Castle of Elsinore, protected against the eager and the nipping air of the night by a fur cap and collar, and with mittens and arctic overshoes, over the traditional costume of Hamlet; to see the woful melancholy of his face as he spoke the most absurd of lines; to watch the horror expressed upon his countenance when the Ghost appeared; to hear his familiar conversation with that Ghost, and his untraditional profanity when commanded by the Ghost to "swear"--all expressed, now in the style of Fechter, now of Studley, now of Booth--was as thoroughly and ridiculously enjoyable as any piece of acting our stage has seen since Burton and Mitch.e.l.l were at their funniest, so many years before. He was startling in his recommendation of a brewery as a place of refuge for Ophelia, and in the church-yard his "business" was new and quite original, particularly the apostrophe to the skull of Yorick, who, he seemed to think, was laughing now on the wrong side of his face. Fox was one of the earliest Hamlets to realize that the skull even of a jester, when it has lain in the earth three-and-twenty years, is not a pleasant object to touch or smell, although very interesting in itself to point a moral, or for its a.s.sociation's sake; and the expression of his face, as he threw the skull of the dead jester at the quick head of the First Grave-digger, was more suggestive to the close observer of the base uses to which we may all return than any "Alas, poor Yorick!" ever uttered.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STUART ROBSON AS CAPTAIN CROSSTREE.]

_Hamlet_ at the Olympic was played for ten consecutive weeks. The general cast was not particularly strong or remarkable, except in the Ophelia of Miss Belle Howett. She was serious, and surprisingly effective in the mad scene, and often the superior of many of the representatives of Ophelia in the original tragedy, who unwittingly have burlesqued what the burlesque actress, perhaps as unwittingly, played conscientiously and well.

The travesty of _Hamlet_ by Mr. Fox is dwelt upon particularly here as being in many respects one of the best the American stage has ever seen, and as giving the present writer an opportunity of paying just tribute to the memory of an actor who, like so many of his professional brethren, was never properly appreciated during his life, and who never before--not even in William Winter's usually complete _Brief Chronicles_--has received more than a pa.s.sing notice in the long records of the stage he did so much to adorn.

George L. Fox was not always the clown and pantomimist of the _Humpty Dumpty_ absurdity in which he is now remembered. He excelled in burlesque, as his Hamlet and Richelieu and Macbeth have shown. As a Shaksperean comedian his Bottom ranks among the best within the memory of men still living, while in standard low comedy, melodramatic, and even in tragedy parts, he had no little experience and some decided success. He made his first appearance in 1830 at the Tremont Street Theatre, in Boston, when he was but five years of age. The play was _The Children of the Alps_, and the occasion a benefit to Charles Kean. He played Phineas Fletcher, in the drama of _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, during its famous run of so many nights at the National Theatre, New York, in 1853-54. He excelled as Mark Meddle, as Trip, as Jacques Strop, in _Robert Macaire_, as Tom Tape, in _Sketches in India_, as Box, as c.o.x, and as Sundown Bowse, in _Horizon_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HARRY HUNTER AS THE LONE FISHERMAN.]

Bottom was his most finished and artistic a.s.sumption, Hamlet probably his most amusing, and Humpty Dumpty his most successful. He played the latter part some fifteen hundred times in New York and elsewhere. It was the last part he ever attempted to play, and only as a clown does he exist in the minds of the men of to-day who think of him at all. He first appeared in New York at the National Theatre, in 1850; he was last seen at Booth's Theatre on the 25th of November, 1875--the saddest clown who ever chalked his face. After twenty years of constant, faithful service as public jester--shattered in health, broken in spirit, shaken in mind--he disappeared forever from public view. Alas, poor Yorick!

One of the most popular as well as the longest lived of the contemporary burlesques is _Evangeline_, in the construction or reconstruction of which Mr. Brougham is known to have had a share. As a travesty upon a purely American subject, originally treated, of course, in all seriousness by an ill.u.s.trious American, Mr. Longfellow, and at the suggestion of an American equally ill.u.s.trious, Mr. Hawthorne, _Evangeline_ may surely claim to be an aboriginal production; it merits its success, and with a certain degree of national pride it may be recorded here that it has been repeated upon the American stage over five thousand times. In it, at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, in Twenty-eighth Street, New York, during the summer of 1877, Miss Eliza Weathersby, as Gabrielle, made a pleasant impression, William H. Crane appeared as Le Blanc, George H. Knight gave a series of wonderful imitations of the Hero of New Orleans, N. C. Goodwin came prominently before the public, and Harry Hunter, although not the original in the part, created a decided sensation as the Lone Fisherman, one of the drollest dramatic conceptions of modern times. He had no connection whatever with the play, had not a word to say, was entirely unnoticed by his fellow-players, paid no attention to anybody, but was always present--the first to enter, the last to leave every scene. With his ridiculous costume, his palm-leaf fan, his fis.h.i.+ng-rod, his camp-stool, he pervaded everything, was ever prominent, never obtrusive, and exceedingly mirth-provoking. It may be added that Henry Dixey, whose Adonis is one of the best of modern burlesque performances, made, during the long run of _Evangeline_, his New York _debut_ as the fore-legs of the heifer!

Amus.e.m.e.nt seekers in the metropolis will remember with pleasure Willie Edouin, Mrs. James Oates, and scores of other burlesque actors, excellent in many ways, whom it will not be possible even to mention here. N. C.

Goodwin burlesqued a burlesque at Harrigan and Hart's first theatre, when he played Captain Stuart Robson-Crosstree to the Dame Hadley of Mr.

Harrigan and the Black-eyed Susan of Mr. Hart; at the same house G. K.

Fortescue played Lousqueeze to Mr. Hart's Hungry-Yet and Mr. Harrigan's Pierre, in a play styled _The Two Awfuls_. The San Francisco Minstrels at the same time presented _The Four Orphans and the Big Banana_, a burlesque upon two dramas of great popularity and no little merit.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FRANCIS WILSON IN THE "OOLAH."]

The subject of American burlesque can hardly be dismissed here without some brief allusion to a number of very clever parodies seen of late years upon the amateur stage. The poets of the various college a.s.sociations have turned their muse in the direction of travesty, and with considerable success; one of the best and most popular of the entertainments of the Hasty Pudding Club, the _Dido and aeneas_ of Owen Wister, the grandson of f.a.n.n.y Kemble, being a production worthy of professional talent. John K.

Bangs has written for amateur companies _Katherine_, _The Story of the Shrew_, and _Mephistopheles, a Profanation_. In the first the tamer of Shakspere finds the tables turned, and is himself tamed; while in the latter Faust's mother-in-law, the good fairy of the piece, outwits the evil genius and frustrates his designs; a power of invention on the part of Mr. Bangs which proves him to be, perhaps, the only true son of the Father of Burlesque, Hipponax himself.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MR. JEFFERSON AND MRS. WOOD IN "IVANHOE."]

But to return to the "palmy days of burlesque," before the period of opera-bouffe, and the coming of the English blondes. When stock companies were the rule, and Mitch.e.l.l and Burton controlled the stock, singing and dancing were as much a part of every actor's education as elocution and gesture; and it was not considered beneath the dignity of the Rip Van Winkle or the Hamlet of one night to travesty parts equally serious the next. Mr. Booth, early in his career, appeared in such entertainments as _Blue Beard_; and Mr. Jefferson was enormously popular as Beppo, Hiawatha, Pan (in _Midas_), the Tyc.o.o.n, and Mazeppa--old play-bills recording his appearance as Granby Gag to the Jenny Lind of Mrs. John Wood, "with his original grape-vine twist and burlesque break-down." His performance of Mazeppa at the Winter Garden in 1861 is still a pleasant memory in many minds. In it he sang "his celebrated aria, 'The Victim of Despair'"; and his daring act upon the bare back of the wild rocking-horse of the toy-shops was, perhaps, the most remarkable performance of its kind ever witnessed by a danger-loving public. During his several engagements at the Winter Garden Mr. Jefferson was supported by Mrs. John Wood (particularly as Ivanhoe to his Sir Brian), one of the best burlesque actresses our stage has known. Her Pocahontas was never excelled. She played it at Niblo's to the Powhatan of Mark Smith in March, 1872; and almost her last appearance upon the New York stage was made at the Grand Opera-house in November of the same year, in John Brougham's burlesque _King Carrot_, when that humorist remarked, although not of Mrs. Wood, that he was supported by vegetable "supes."

[Ill.u.s.tration: JAMES T. POWERS AS BRIOLET, IN "THE MARQUIS."]

That burlesque "came natural" to Mr. Jefferson is shown in the wonderful successes of his half-brother, Charles Burke, in burlesque parts. Mr.

Burke's admirers, even at the end of thirty-five years, still speak enthusiastically of his comic Iago, of his Clod Meddlenot (in _The Lady of the Lions_), of his Mr. MacGreedy (Mr. Macready), of his Kazrac (in _Aladdin_), and of his Met-a-roarer, in which he gave absurd imitations of Mr. Forrest as the Last of the Wampanoags.