| May Blossom | Georgia Cayvan. |
| Tom Blossom | Benjamin Maginley. |
| Steve Harland | Joseph Wheelock, Sr. |
| Richard Ashcroft | Walden Ramsay. |
| Unca Bartlett | William J. LeMoyne. |
| Owen Hathaway | Thomas Whiffen. |
| Captain Drummond | Henry Talbot. |
| Yank | Master Tommy Russell. |
| Lulu | Little Belle. |
| Deborah | Mrs. Thomas Whiffen. |
| Hank Bluster | King Hedley. |
| Hiram Sloane | Joseph Frankau. |
| Epe | I. N. Long. |
| Millie | Etta Hawkins. |
| Little May | Carrie Elbert. |
Whiffen was succeeded, as Hathaway, in this company, by De Wolf Hopper,—one of the few genuine and intrinsically humorous comedians on our Stage to-day.
FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND.—“CALLED BACK.”
In the summer of 1884 Belasco was sent to London by his employers in order that he might see a performance of a play entitled “Called Back,”—founded on the novel of that name by Hugh Conway,—which those managers had bought for representation in America. He sailed aboard the Alaska, on July 5, making his first voyage across the Atlantic, and it was then our personal acquaintance began,—as I chanced to be a passenger aboard the same ship. He was not, I remember, a good sailor, and for several days he remained in seclusion, but before the end of the voyage we met and had a pleasant conversation, and I found him then, as I have found him since, a singularly original and interesting character and a genial companion. He said that his stay in England would be brief, as indeed it was, for having, on arrival in London, witnessed a representation of “Called Back,” then being acted at the Haymarket Theatre by Beerbohm-Tree and his dramatic company, he came back to New York on the return voyage of the same ship that had carried him over. His task,—which was duly performed,—was to prepare “Called Back” for presentment at the Madison Square, but as “May Blossom” continued to be prosperous there it was decided not to interrupt its successful run, but to produce the new play at another theatre, and that play, accordingly, was brought out, September 1, 1884, under Belasco’s direction, at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, then managed by John Stetson,—the leading parts in it being acted by Robert B. Mantell and Jessie Millward. The work done by Belasco in connection with “Called Back” was, practically, the last that he ever did for the Mallorys. In London the play had been so fashioned that Paolo Macari was the star part, acted by Beerbohm-Tree. Belasco’s task, as adapter, was that of devising minor modifications rendering the play better suited to presentment before American audiences: it was desired that the part of Gilbert Vaughan should be made as conspicuous as possible,—the Mallorys being intent to make the most of the popularity of Mantell, who had been brilliantly successful in “The Romany Rye” and “Fedora” and had become a favorite with the public. Macari, however, remained the principal character in the drama, and William J. Ferguson, by whom it was exceedingly well played, maintained it in its natural place.
CHANGES AT THE MADISON SQUARE.
Material changes, meanwhile, had occurred or were then in progress in the management of the Madison Square. Soon after Steele Mackaye left that house Belasco’s friend Gustave Frohman, one of its attaches, had followed him, to join in management of the new Lyceum. Charles Frohman, who had been employed, at a salary of $100 a week, as a booking agent, to send on tours of the country all plays that the Mallorys had successfully produced, had withdrawn, or was about to do so, to devote himself to ventures of his own. Daniel
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Photograph by Underwood & Underwood. Copyright. Author’s Collection. |
Photograph by Moffet. Belasco’s Collection. | |
| CHARLES FROHMAN | DANIEL FROHMAN |