While Belasco was in Washington, with his new play “The Girl of the Golden West,” there befell one of the saddest bereavements and one of the greatest losses the Stage has ever known,—the sudden, pathetic death of that great actor and manager and even greater man Henry Irving, which occurred at Bradford, England, October 13, 1905, immediately after the close of his performance in “Becket.” Belasco, always one of his disciples and most ardent admirers, when informed of his death, paid him this tribute:
“There are no more such masters! The English-speaking, the modern, Stage has lost its greatest inspiration! The name of Henry Irving stood for all that was artistic in the highest sense. He was the loyalest servant of the public; the friend, the champion of the Stage. He belonged to us almost as much as to England. And what is saddest of all, he leaves no one behind him to take his place. He was a great, a marvellous, actor, a dramatic genius; he was the greatest stage director of modern times; he was the prince of managers; and, what was best of all, he was the best and kindest of men and the truest of friends. God rest his great soul! He has died as he would have wished, but we shall not look upon his like again.”
BLANCHE BATES AND “THE GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST.”
Belasco’s stirring play of “The Girl of the Golden West” was first produced at the new Belasco Theatre, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 3, 1905. It is a fabric of situations contrived for the advantageous display of that old, familiar, everlasting, always effective theatrical personage, the Rough Diamond. The Girl was beautiful, intrepid, passionate, vivacious; the soul of innocence; the incarnation of virtue; the blooming rose of vigorous health; and she could swear fluently, play cards, and shoot to kill. She kept a drinking shop, she was adored by all “the boys”; and the fame of her probity and her many fascinations filled the countryside of California, in the halycon days of ’49. That fortunate State, according to the testimony of novelists and bards, was densely populated at that time by girls of this enchanting order; but this particular Girl seems to have transcended all rivals. She was beloved by a picturesque and expeditious outlaw, Dick Johnson, known as Ramirez, who had gained brilliant renown by means of highway robbery, and likewise she was beloved by the local Sheriff, Jack Rance, a grim, obnoxious officer, self-dedicated to the wicked business of causing that outlaw’s arrest and death. Both those lovers were ardent, and, between those two fires, her situation was difficult; but she always rose to the occasion, and when her outlaw was entrapped by his pursuer the ingenuity of her love and the dexterity of her stratagem delivered him from bondage, and, upon his promise of reformation and integrity, launched him upon a new and better career. The most conspicuous display of her passionate devotion and adroit skill occurred on a night when he was captured in her dwelling. The circumstances were essentially dramatic,—because the Girl and her favored swain were storm-bound in a mountain cabin, whither the Sheriff had tracked his prey; and the robber had been shot and wounded, so that there seemed to be no method of escape for him, till the Girl proposed a game of poker with his foe, staking herself against the liberty of her sweetheart, and won it by successful emulation of the Heathen Chinee,—substituting “an ace full” for an empty hand, at the decisive moment.
Photograph by Otto Sarony. Collection of Jefferson Winter.
BLANCHE BATES AS THE GIRL, IN “THE GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST”
There came a time, however, when even Love could do no more; but at that crisis Fate interposed, in the shape of Public Opinion,—that is to say, the friendship of “the boys,”—and the Girl and her lover were united.