None of her relatives were ever able to erect a monument over her remains, and it seems a pity that this exquisite actress of another generation should forever sleep in an unrecorded sepulchre.
Having heard and read that the noble Actors' Fund of New York has caused' many a granite tombstone to be erected over the graves of their worthy comrades, and as Julia Dean was so sweet and accomplished an artiste, I thought that by calling attention to this forgotten and out of the way tomb through the columns of the most powerful of America's dramatic journals, The Dramatic Mirror, it might result in placing a modest memorial stone of granite at the head of the mound under which so peacefully reposes Julia Dean, whose splendid genius Dion Boucicault compared to that of another gifted and beautiful daughter of the drama, the ideal Juliet, Adelaide Neilson, who awaits the final call in distant England, beneath an imposing mortuary memorial, thanks to the influence of the loyal William Winter.
LOVER OF THE STAGE.
CHAPTER VIII.
SEASON OF '66-'67.
After the close of this eventful season, Mr. George Waldron, who had played the leading support to Mrs. Hayne and become an established favorite, drifted away from Salt Lake, going into Montana; returning a year or so later in conjunction with Mrs. Waldron. He had found his mate and brought her to Salt Lake to make her acquainted with his many friends there. George tried very earnestly to get a Salt Lake wife. It looked for a while as if Miss Sarah Alexander was destined to fill that place; she certainly filled George's eye. He was very much enamored of the petite and lithesome Sarah, but the expected union did not materialize, and George sought pastures new, and ere long returned, bringing a beautiful wife with him. Meantime, Sarah had drifted off to the East in company with a literary lady named Lisle Lester. They took with them Sarah's little niece, her dead sister's baby, Baby Finlayson, then but two years old. Miss Finlayson, under her aunt's careful guidance and training, developed into a very clever and capable actress, and for many years now has been holding leading positions in prominent companies and theatres. She is known professionally as Lisle Leigh.
The Waldrons played a short engagement and then bade a long farewell to Salt Lake and the West. At this writing George Waldron has been dead for ten years, his wife, a son and a daughter survive him; all follow the stage successfully.
During the season of '65 and '66, there were few changes in the supporting stock company. Mr. Waldron doing the leads, lightened considerably the labors of the "leading man," Mr. D. McKenzie, who was quite content to escape the onerous study the leading parts would have imposed, and play something easier. Before the beginning of this season, Mr. H. B. Clawson had retired altogether from the field as an actor, although still one of the managers of the house, and Mr. Phil Margetts was the acknowledged premier comedian of the company. Mr. John T. Caine, too, Clawson's associate manager, and also stage manager, yielded up his line of parts to John S. Lindsay and devoted himself exclusively to the duties of stage manager, which in the old "stock" days meant far more than that office means today. "Why, in the elder day to be a 'stage manager' was greater than to be a king," in any of the plays. Briefly enumerated, his duties were: First, to read carefully and then cast all the plays. The casting of a play is a most important affair. It must be done with great care and consideration so as to get the best results, and at the same time each actor his "line" of parts as near as practicable; then he must write out the cast, and hang it up in the case in the green room—write out all "calls" for rehearsals, and hang them up in the case. Then he must direct all rehearsals. To do this, he must study out all the "business" of the play in advance of the rehearsals, so he will be able to direct intelligently. When a "star" is rehearsing, he generally directs the rehearsal, thus relieving the stage manager of a great responsibility; but he must be around, and see what is required for the play in the way of scenery and properties and make out complete and detailed plots for scene-men and property-men, and in this particular case where the theatre furnished the actors with all wardrobes (except modern clothes), the stage manager had also to make out a costume plot. The costumer would then distribute the wardrobe for the play according to his best judgment, and the conceit or fancy of the actor, which often made the costumer's duty a perplexing one, for actors are so full of conceits and fancies that they are a hard lot to please.
In the Salt Lake Theatre a first-class copyist was constantly employed in copying out parts—books were not so easily procured in those days. It took from three to four weeks to get a book from New York, so where the manager had but one book all the parts had to be copied, and the stage manager had to have his plays selected well ahead, so as to give the copyist plenty of time to get parts ready for distribution. Besides these duties, the stage manager had to write out all the "copy" for advertisements and posters and house programs, see to the painting of new scenes, and the making of new properties; also, any new costumes that had to be made. His decision was final in all these matters, so that the stage manager of the "old stock" days was no sinecure. Mr. Caine filled the position with rare ability, and his regime in the Salt Lake Theatre was distinguished for its prompt executive alertness, and the utter absence of any trifling or inattention to business.
One important accession there was to the company just before this engagement, that of Miss Annie Asenith Adams. Miss Adams made her debut on the 25th of July, 1865, (the same night that Julia Dean-Hayne and the Potter Company arrived in Salt Lake), in the character of Grace Otis in the "People's Lawyer," W. C. Dunbar being the "Solon Shingle" on the occasion. Her maiden effort proved very successful and satisfactory to the management, and during Julia Dean's long engagement she proved to be a valuable acquisition to the stock company. She made rapid progress in the dramatic art, and before the close of the season had attained a prominent position in the company which she held with credit to herself and satisfaction to the public until 1874, when the stock company was virtually retired to give place to the "combination" system which then came into vogue.