DE WOLF HOPPER.
The following years saw the young actor steadily advancing in his art, but experiencing various ups and downs of fortune, which wound up with the “stranding” of his company, Mitchell’s Pleasure Party, in San Francisco. Next he reappeared in Philadelphia—let us hope that he was not obliged to reach it on foot—as a member of the McCaull troupe, with which he played in his first comic opera, “The Queen’s Lace Handkerchief.”
From this point his career has been one of uncheckered prosperity. He was speedily recognized as a comic opera star of no ordinary luster. In such standard parts as that of Cadeaux in Erminie he achieved a reputation and a popularity that finally led him to organize a company of his own, with which he has even eclipsed his previous successes in “The Oolah” and “The Merry Monarch.”
De Wolf Hopper’s popularity has been won still more rapidly than that of his brother comedian. He is the youngest of our successful actors, as well as one of the most original in his methods, but he has been upon the boards long enough to gain a thorough dramatic training and a varied experience. It was his enthusiasm for private theatricals, and his success in them, that led him upon the professional stage—in spite of the fact that he had been educated for the law. He was only twenty when, in 1880, he appeared as the leading spirit of the Criterion Comedy Company, which had a fair measure of prosperity, presenting such standard plays as “Caste” and “Our Boys.” When it disbanded he was successively with Edward Harrigan in “The Blackbird,” and at the Madison Square Theater under the management of Daniel Frohman. At this latter house, in the parts of Pittacus Green in “Hazel Kirke,” and Oliver Hathaway in “May Blossom,” he gained the approbation of metropolitan theater goers to a degree that was greatly enhanced during the next five years, which he passed as a member of the McCaull opera company. His last season with that organization was marked by a success as Casimir in “Clover” that showed an advance upon anything he had previously done. “Wang,” which was so notably well received at the Broadway Theater during the past summer, was his first independent venture.
MODJESKA AS ROSALIND.
There are those who cherish the idea that the continued success of actors like Messrs. Wilson and Hopper is largely due to the prestige of their reputation and the indulgence shown by the public toward established favorites. They tell us that it matters little what may be the merits of the piece or its staging, the star is sure to have a following sufficient to fill the box office with a golden stream. He might almost as well dispense with the libretto altogether, they say, for as soon as he opens his lips to speak the audience roars with laughter.
