“An oldtime companion of mine at this period was John T. Malone, studying for the Catholic priesthood. But beneath the cassock my friend harbored a great love for the Stage, and among his intimate circle had won quite a reputation as a Shakespearean scholar. I remember the morning he came to the Baldwin Theatre and told me the story of his ambition. I engaged him at once, struck by his personality! ’I’ve been waiting many years,’ said he, and now the time has come.’... Later, he supported Booth and Barrett and his name will ever be associated with that splendid gentleman who founded The Players. As the years passed he became a victim of Time’s revenges; nurtured in the blank verse school, his engagements became fewer and fewer until they utterly dwindled away. Often I picture him as an actor of exceedingly great talent, but it had no outlet for its practical use. His is one of the many sad cases in the theatrical world of ’exits’ marked by poverty and loneliness.”
I know not whether Malone ever studied for the priesthood: I know, however, that he was educated for the profession of law, and that in his young manhood he practised law in San Francisco. He was born in 1854, I believe in that city, and he died in New York, January 15, 1906: he richly merited commemoration. He was a good man and a talented, zealous, reverent servant of the Stage. No actor of our time more dearly loved his profession or more devoutly and unselfishly labored in its support, though his career was not attended with any specially brilliant achievements or extraordinary incidents. He was a careful and thoughtful student of Shakespeare, and his acquaintance with the works of the great dramatist was intricate, extensive, and minute. He wrote much upon that subject, and his contributions to contemporary magazines, in the vein of Shakespearean criticism, are of peculiar interest. In his domestic life he was unfortunate and unhappy, but to the last he retained a philosophical spirit and a genial mind. As a comrade, among intellectual men, he was both loved and admired,—because his nature was noble, his heart was kind, his taste was pure, his mind was rich, and his manners were gentle. It was a pleasure to know him, and the remembrance of him lingers sweetly in the recollection of a few old friends.
“TRUE TO THE CORE.”
On August 18 H. J. Byron’s comedy of “The Upper Crust” was played at the Baldwin, in conjunction with the burlesque opera of “Little Amy Robsart,” and that double bill held the stage for a fortnight. During that time Belasco completed an adaptation of the “prize drama” by T. P. Cooke, entitled “True to the Core,”—first acted at the Bowery Theatre, New York, December 17, 1866. It had been seen in San Francisco twelve years earlier, in its original form. I have been able to find only a mutilated programme of the performance of Belasco’s version, August 30, 1880, which gives part of the cast as follows:
| Truegold | James O’Neill. |
| Geoffrey Dangerfield | Frederic de Belleville. |
| Lord High Admiral of England | A. D. Bradley. |
| Marah | Adelaide Stanhope. |
| Mabel Truegold | Lillian Andrews. |
| Queen Elizabeth | Eva West. |
“True to the Core” is an old-fashioned melodrama, of which the hero, Truegold, is an English pilot who passes through many “moving accidents by flood and field,” being seized by treasonous conspirators, placed on board a vessel of the Spanish Armada, which he pilots upon a rock, instead of into Portsmouth Harbor, and who is in danger, subsequently, of losing his head on the block rather than break his word, but who is followed, served, and ultimately saved by a gypsy woman, Marah, whom he has befriended. It was played for one week to audiences of fair size and was succeeded, in order, by William G. Wills’ “Ninon,”—acted September 6, for the first time in America,—“Aladdin Number Two; or, The Wonderful Scamp,” “Forget Me Not,” Bartley Campbell’s “The Galley Slave,” the same author’s “Fairfax,” and “Golden Game,”—all produced under Belasco’s care, and all, unhappily, performed to lessening receipts.
The next incident of note at the Baldwin was the coming of William E. Sheridan, who opened there November 15, playing King Louis the Eleventh, and whose advent brought back a measure of prosperity to the theatre. Belasco, in his “Story,” records this remembrance and estimate of Sheridan:
A STERLING ACTOR AND AN INTERESTING ESTIMATE:—WILLIAM E. SHERIDAN.
“We were sadly in need of an attraction at this time, and so, when W. E. Sheridan arrived, from Philadelphia, which city pointed to him with much just pride, we engaged him at a nominal salary, and immediately he soared into popularity, being acclaimed one of the most versatile actors who had ever visited the Coast. Three times his engagement was extended, for the people of San Francisco were loath to let him depart. His Othello was a scholarly performance; ’A New Way to Pay Old Debts’ increased his popularity, as did also ’The Fool’s Revenge,’ ’The Lyons Mail,’ and Shylock. He was essentially a virile actor, forceful and with a magnetic voice that was music in the ear. And I have seen many a Louis the Eleventh, but he was the greatest of them all, not even excepting that wonderful genius, Sir Henry Irving. Success found him greatly astonished, for when he left Philadelphia he was practically unknown to any but his townspeople, and now when his name was heralded abroad, the East listened with a certain curiosity. As we played to crowded houses and the applause floated to his dressing-room, he could scarcely credit this sudden fame which had fallen upon him. More than once Sheridan turned to me and said: ’I’ve found it all out now when it is too late.’”