Minute exposition of all the early dramatic works of Belasco is not practicable; a succinct estimate of their quality will suffice here. Crudity is often obvious in them—as it is in the early works of almost all writers—and it sometimes is notably visible in the sentiment and the style. Nevertheless, they display the operation of a mind naturally prone to the dramatic form of expression, frequently animated by the vitality of its own experience, steadily if slowly growing in self-mastery of its faculties, and at once keenly observant of, and quickly sympathetic with, contrasted aspects of life. Along with defects,—namely, perverse preoccupation with non-essential details, occasional verbosity, extravagant premises, and involved construction,—they exhibit expert inventive ability, perspicacious sense of character, acute perception of strong dramatic climax, the faculty of humor, much tenderness of heart, wide knowledge of human misery and human joy, special sympathy with woman, and the skill to tell a story in action. Belasco’s dramatic works, before he left San Francisco, exceed not only in number but in merit and practical utility those of many other writers produced as the whole labor of a long lifetime, and the basis of reputation and respect: at least two of his early plays—“Hearts of Oak” and “La Belle Russe”—were, even before he came to the East, gaining fortunes—for other persons. And for a long, long while afterward other persons were to enjoy the chief profit of his labor: it was not until more than thirteen years later that he was able to launch a successful play,—“The Heart of Maryland,”—and retain personal control of it.
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A SECOND VENTURE IN CHICAGO.—THE LAST OF “AMERICAN BORN.”
Gustave Frohman (who left San Francisco on August 8, 1882, to join his brother Charles, in Chicago, relative to a consolidation of Callender’s and Haverley’s minstrel shows) appears to have disbanded his dramatic company in Denver. At any rate, I have found no further record of it, and Belasco’s play of “American Born” was successfully produced at the Grand Opera House, Chicago, apparently under the joint management of Gustave and Charles Frohman, on August 16.
I have not been able to ascertain, independently, whether or not Charles Frohman travelled to the East with his brother’s dramatic company. According to the “Life of Charles Frohman,” that manager left San Francisco as agent for Haverley’s Mastodon Minstrels and relinquished his position in Indianapolis. According to Belasco’s memory, he and Charles Frohman travelled together coming East from San Francisco, in which case the latter, probably, was business agent of his brother’s company. In this biography I have seldom placed reliance on Belasco’s memory, except when I have verified his recollections by records contemporary with the incidents discussed,—because I have found that (as he has several times testified in court) he has “no head for dates.” In this matter, however, I believe that his remembrance is accurate. This is his statement of the facts as he recalls them:
“During the trip to Chicago, where I was to halt for the first performance of ’American Born’ at Hamlin’s Opera House, Charles Frohman and I became fast friends. We instinctively understood each other as though we had been acquainted for years. When we reached Chicago we found that Samuel Colville was about to produce Henry Pettitt’s ’Taken from Life,’ at McVicker’s, and Charles Frohman was quick to see that there would be great rivalry between Colville’s production and ours. A point in our favor was that the people at McVicker’s were no more ready than we. The rival play was to exploit scenery made from English models, and the advertising announced from fifteen to twenty big scenes. We saw that our comparatively modest production would not do, and decided to improve it, working night and day. We strengthened our company by engaging George Clarke, who was at odds with Daly; ’Harry’ Courtaine, who was passing through the West, and Ada Warde, who had just returned from Australia. The race to see which would open first was closely contested. By a shrewd move on the part of ’C. F.’ our play was announced for a certain evening; then we worked like demons to give it three nights sooner. In this way we were ready first. Though we went through the first night without any serious mishaps, ’Harry’ Courtaine was taken ill in the Second Act, and I had to step into his part myself. But we had a great success and astonished our audience with twenty-one scenes, each a sensation!
“After our engagement was finished inducements came to me from all quarters to give up my New York opportunity and continue with ’American Born.’ I knew there was a fortune in the play, but I was loath to come East with the reputation of a writer and producer of highly sensational melodrama. I had an uneasy feeling that it would hurt me with the powers at the Madison Square. Of course I could have kept my interest in ’American Born’ without letting my name appear, but I was going to a new land, practically to begin all over again, and I wanted to enter it free of any possible handicap. So I took the claptrap manuscript and burned it.”
Soon after making that fiery purgation Belasco left Chicago and came to New York to confront Daniel Frohman and negotiate concerning employment under that manager.
THE MADISON SQUARE THEATRE.
The Madison Square Theatre, situated on the south side of Twenty-fourth Street, a little way westward from Madison Square and adjacent to the old Fifth Avenue Hotel, stood on the site of what had been Daly’s first Fifth Avenue Theatre, opened August 17, 1869, and burnt down January 1, 1873. That site had, previous to 1869, been for several years occupied by a building, erected in the Civil War time, by Amos R. Eno, and devoted to public amusements. I remember it as once the professional abode of negro minstrels, and again as a sort of vaudeville theatre conducted by a journalist, then well-known, Thaddeus W. Meighan (1821-18—). In 1868 the notorious James Fisk, Jr., acquired control of it, and, in a much improved condition, it was opened, January 25, 1869, as Brougham’s Theatre, and such it continued to be until the following April 3, when Fisk summarily ousted Brougham and presently installed a company of French performers in opera bouffe, headed by Mlle. Irma. A few weeks later Augustin Daly obtained a lease of the building from Fisk, made extensive alterations in it, and opened it as the Fifth Avenue Theatre. Some time after its destruction by fire, in 1873, it was rebuilt, and presently it was leased by James Steele Mackaye (1842-1894), an actor and manager of rare talent and eccentric character, who named it the Madison Square Theatre, and opened it, April 23, 1879, with a revival (as “Aftermath; or, Won at Last”) of his play which had originally and successfully been produced, as “Won at Last,” December 10, 1877, at Wallack’s Theatre. Later, Mackaye formed an association with the Mallory brothers,—the Rev. Dr. George Mallory, editor of an ecclesiastical newspaper called “The Churchman,” and Marshall H. Mallory, a highly energetic and enterprising man of business,—the Mallorys becoming the proprietors of the theatre and Mackaye the manager. Under this new control great changes were made in the building; the auditorium was newly and richly decorated, a double stage, which could be raised and lowered, thus facilitating changes of scene, was introduced (the device of Mackaye), on a plan somewhat similar to that which had been successfully adopted ten years earlier by Edwin Booth, at Booth’s Theatre; a strong dramatic company was organized, and on February 4, 1880, the house was opened, with a drama by Mackaye, called “Hazel Kirke,” a rehash of an earlier play by him, called “An Iron Will,” which, in turn, had been adapted from a French drama.