MRS. LESLIE CARTER AS ZAZA
and demolish the furniture, be to act greatly, then Mrs. Carter’s Zaza was a great piece of acting; not otherwise. Her popularity was unequivocal, and it constituted a triumph for Belasco even more remarkable than for her.
This was the original cast of “Zaza,” at the Garrick Theatre, New York, January 9, 1899:
| Bernard Dufrène | Charles A. Stevenson. |
| Duc de Brissac | Albert Bruning. |
| Cascart | Mark Smith (Jr.). |
| Jacques Rigault | Hugo Toland. |
| Chamblay, Jr | Gilmore Scott. |
| Hector | Lester Gruner. |
| Blac | Harold Howard. |
| Brigard | W. B. Murray. |
| Mounet-Pombla | Gerard Anderson. |
| Joly | Herbert Millward. |
| Carvallo Bros. (acrobats) | Leona and Master Bimbi. |
| Jabowski | Walter Stuart. |
| Adolphe | Lawrence Reeves. |
| Coachman | Alfred Hollingsworth. |
| Criquet | Edgar Hart. |
| Rosa Bonné | Marie Bates. |
| Madame Dufrène | Mabel Howard. |
| Divonne | Lizzie DuRoy. |
| Lizette | Emma Chase. |
| Toto | Helen Thill. |
| Florianne | Anne Sutherland. |
| Alice Morel | Maude Winter. |
| Lolotte | Marie Thill. |
| Juliette | Eleanor Stuart. |
| Niniche | Elizabeth Belknap. |
| Leonie | Corah Adams. |
| Clairette | Helma Horneman. |
| Adele | Aurelia A. Granville. |
| Flower Girl | Louisa Burnham. |
| Nathalie | Helen Tracy. |
| Zaza | Mrs. Leslie Carter. |
| (Mem. When “Zaza” was revived, in 1905, a minor character calledLisvon was added: it was played by Amelia G. Granville.) | |
DEATH OF BELASCO’S MOTHER.—“CAN THE DEAD COME BACK?”—A STRANGE EXPERIENCE.
The instant and immense popular success of “Zaza” was embittered for Belasco by close association with a loss and sorrow that time has not lightened,—the death of his beloved mother, which befell on January 11, 1899, at No. 174 Clara Street, San Francisco. During rehearsals of his play and its presentments in Washington Belasco, so he has told me, “had felt that she was ill,” but had no thought that her condition was critical. Writing about her death, he gives the following interesting account of a strange experience:
“Ever since my boyhood I have been interested in the subject of spiritualism. For many years I have asked myself the question: ’Can the dead come back?’... One morning, after a late rehearsal, I reached home at three o’clock, completely fagged out. No sooner had I fallen asleep than I seemed to waken, and there stood my mother beside my bed. ’Davie, Davie, Davie,’ she said three times, smiled, and bending over kissed me good-bye. She said other things—told me she was happy—not to grieve. I could not stir, but kept my eyes fixed upon her as she moved towards the door and disappeared. How long I lay staring into the darkness I do not know, but at last I managed to collect myself, put on my dressing-gown, and, still dazed, went downstairs to a little sitting-room. My family heard me. ’What are you doing downstairs?’ my youngest child, Augusta, asked, and she tried to coax me back to bed. I went to my room, but I could not sleep. When I told my family of my vision, and that I believed my mother was dead, they suggested that I was overwrought and tired and had seen my mother in a dream.
“I went to rehearsal the next morning, and during an interval had luncheon at Churchill’s—then a small coffeehouse—with a member of the theatre staff. I sat there, much troubled, thinking of the figure of my mother as she appeared in the dawn. My companion noticed my silence, and, when I told him of my experience, tried to reassure me. As we rose to go he handed me some letters and telegrams he had found in the box-office. Among the telegrams was one telling me the sad news of my mother’s death. Later I found that she died at the exact time she appeared at my bedside. At the very moment I saw her she was passing out of the world. Several years after, when I paid a visit to San Francisco, my brothers and sisters told me my mother smiled and murmured my name three times before she died.... I do not know that the dead do come back. I do know that at the time of passing the spirit sends a thought through space, and this thought is so powerful that the receiver can see the sender. This was proved by my dear mother. She came to me no more, however.”