Show I 1 ys k h Q 4 10 r jill r 5 9 djs owning ap ae fee L by ELMO SCOTT WATSON when they were getting ready to ring down the curtain for the last time on a classic of the stage out from the wings came those immortals uncle tom and little eva and topsy and simon legree to take another bow which Is by way of saying that early tills this year the players with such stars as otis skinner cecella loftus Lofti is nate kate joanna boos fay bainter edward mcnamara and lols shore revived undo uncle tonis toms cabin or life among the lowly in one of the leading new york theaters it meant that tills this historic drama may be starting on oil a new lease of life to add to tile the laurels which it has already won chief among those laurels are these it Is a play which has had the longest continuous run in all stage history in it have appeared at one time or another a greater number of stage luminaries than in any other play in american theatrical history it has been performed before more people and has made more money than any play ever w written in modern times and despite the latter fact no one hits has ever received any royalties from it nor did harriet beecher stowe the author anthor ever receive a penny of profit from the dramatization of her book it Is the most representative senta tive american folk drama and it bears in the parlance of the american stage the most distinctive name the tom show it has in it the elements of tragedy comedy melodrama farce yes yea even vaudeville but it defies classi classification fl under any of these heads for it Is itself alone the tom show undo uncle tonis toms cabin had a continuous run of 76 years besides which record the lasting qualities of the far filmed famed ables irish hose pate pale into insignificance from ISM to 1028 1928 there a season when tit nt some time day or night or in some place in these united states that tile the whip of Slin simon cin legree whistling across the back of uncle toni tom or TAW Ell rall fleeing across tile the ice purs pursued tied by a baying pack of fierce bloodhounds then the depression came on to give the final blow to those administered by other factors in the decline ot of tills this classic it in 1030 1010 a boston newspaper reported there Is not now on the lie rond road in any section of the united states or canada a single company playing that grand old ola drama uncle toms cabin for he same reason that the minstrel shw show owners of f the country took their shows from the road toni tom managers found it necessary to shut up shop tile the talking pictures and the radio have combined tn in kill both the minstrel and tile TWI toini shows there Is not a single booking agency in new york city which could furnish a route for any one night stand company unless it was willing to sacrifice saturday the best night of the week for the showing of wild west or talking pictures the same statement was probably true in 1931 but in 1932 it was discovered that in a small town in the west a home talent company was producing tile play piny as a a part of its repertory of stock plays and now this year comes the revival in new york to prove that uncle toms cabin Is deathless even if there were not great tinge tange names in the cast to lend it prestige with tile he apparent return of some measure of prosperity to this country it Is not improbable that uncle toms cabin may be oft off on another continuous tint lous run of 70 76 years when undo uncle tonis toms cabin was first printed tit in book form it sold bold copies the first week and in the first year cur a million cop lea ies had been distributed in inthe the united states alone in its first five avo years and it has been translated into more than it scorn score of foreign languages anil dialects the entire sale of tho the book in the since it was written n have exceeded about of which never paid any ally royalties to tile the author being sold in or orrl eign gi co countries u 11 tries before the establishment of in I 1 copyright law the copyright under lip file then existing cristini statute expired a few years to mrs imre stowe stores a death in tile late eighties and ohp ali last few years of her life when sho she was wall llant in need of money sho she was deprived of it tills this isovino of income az CAP 20 aw anict the first dramatization of tile the book was made by gorge george L alken aiken while the story was running Eci serially lally in the national era bra on september 2 1852 aikens play had its premiere in the museum at troy N Y and from that time dates the immense popularity of uncle toms cabin As a matter of fact this was not the first stage production of the show but it was the first successful one A certain charles W taylor had find also dramatized the book and in august 1852 a month before the troy production he presented a play running only an hour as one item on the evening bill at purdys dys national theater in new york city but fatal error I 1 lie he left both topsy and little eva out of Ms his story so his play was a failure being withdrawn after a run of only 11 nights the troy production was largely a family affair the manager of the troy museum george 0 howard played placed both uncle toni tom and st clare ills wife played both kopsi Top syll and chloe mrs towards howards brother charles fox played placed both phineas and gumption cute and mrs fox played ophelia Op lielia george 4 alken aiken the dramatist and a cousin of howard doubled as shelby and george harris and life his brother frank alken aiken played 11 marks If arks 11 and finally the part of little eva was played by cordella cordelia howard the four year old daughter daught er of the Ilo howards wards who thus had the distinction often claimed by others of being the first little eva she played that role for eight years then at the age of twelve she left the stage never to return in the year which marks definitely the decline of the tom shows she was still living at the age of nearly eighty a recluse who refused to see gee anyone or to talk of her career as the first little eva the Ilo howards wards production of the play piny with just seven seen people carrying the eleven roles was an instantaneous success it not only tarried carried the country by storm but it crossed the atlantic in 1853 a curious english version of it filled with waal I 1 calculate and similar supposed yankee isms iams was produced at the theater royal roal in manchester england arthur ruhl writing in the new york If herald eralI tribune about the current revival reviews its early history as follows la case de honcle tom toms bluette la cabana del tio tomas the thing swept like a prairie fire into every language in the western world it ran down into africa itself was devoured by the armenians Armen ians and other near easterners and little slavs in a russia which still had its serfs wept over llata hata deada tomal toma or something that sounded more or less like that thal letters from everybody of consequence from macaulay dickens charles kingsley statesmen and political leaders the great george sand german pundits even tile the mocking heine was stirred and otis oils skinner who plays uncle tom in the revival a role which he first played in 1878 in a stock company at the museum writing in tile the new york times recently to contributes on this bit of history in august 1878 jarrett jarratt palmer an enterprising firm of new york managers man igers made a small fortune by taking the play overseas to england switzerland germany austria and Il holland olland in the company were marle marie bates who Is still remembered as playing long and prominently with david warfield ld in the auctioneer and harry flarry hawk who was on oa the stage of fords theater in washington at the moment that lincoln shot in the box above him by john wilkes booth another in that company was harold foa burg a n gorgeous specimen of the old time heavy man Il aroll was waa of the stage stagy he seemed to think in the terms of melodrama and blank verse while the troupe was exhibiting in germany his delight was to parade through tile of berlin and other cities dressed inthe in alie zaff ava ta boots spurs planters hat and coat of legree followed by two of the negro singers from the cast nt at whom ho he occasionally cracked his blacksnake whip to the profound amazement of the passersby passers by noted actors have at times appeared in the play joseph jefferson william warren george L for of humpty ru memory emory john gilbert and william lemoyne who became favorites on the new york stage lotta and mary mcvicker afterward the wife of edwin booth each of whom played both eva and topsy on different occasions in short the leading members of every dramatic company of record in the united states from 1852 until william A bradys revival of uncle tom in 1901 with theodore roberts and wilton lackaye among those who have played in uncle toms cabin one finds such buch other notable names as lawrence barrett john mccullough louis james john T raymond david belasco edwin adams annie russell mary pickford maude adams fay templeton mrs flake fiske henrietta crosman charles thorne john S clarke and effie shannon tile the part of topsy was sometimes acted by men records show that john drews drewa uncle frank drew and fred stone appeared in it IL even little eva was once played by william seymour the simon Le legreen grees have been legion but there was perhaps never a more unusual one than john L sullivan I 1 J W goodrich who had managed a wagon circus through connecticut and new york state for several years one fall organized an uncle toms cabin company to play theaters throughout the east lie ile secured as his big feature john L sullivan van who played simon legree and used up in the course of a few weeks halt half it a dozen tonis toms who no matter how much they padded under the lie red flannel shirt could not stand the rough usage received from the famous pugilist in the whipping scene ern era G estey of lynn was playing tom in the show nud and he probably lasted longer in the role than any other actor lie ife wore under tits fits red shirt a vest that was lined an inch thick with cotton this oftentimes was inadequate to afford sufficient protection from the lashings he received some evenings when john L had bad been entertaining friends in hla his dressing room and desired to give them a good account of himself as an actor later on john L remained with the goodrich show as long as it was on the road mention has been made of the fact that harriet beeche stowe never made a penny of from the dramatization of her book for there was no copyright law in the and there was no way for the novelist to collect from the playwright who mado made use of the material in the book more than that mrs stowe knew very little about the theater it proper you yon sec gee for tile the daughter of a new england clergyman to have anything to do with such a wicked institution ns as the L stage kage she was greatly surprised when the play proved to be such a success but she does not seem to have resented either the dramatization nor the success once she made a dramatization of the book herself but it good theater so it was never staged the only profit she ever received from the dramatization of her book was waa in tile the form 0 of f it a free box in a theater in hartford conn where she was living in her old age A road show playing undo uncle tom came to town and all sho went to see the play for the first time with her friend diaries charles dudley warner tho the essayist anti and novelist and warner sitting beside her in hop her free box had to explain the plot of uncle toms cabin to beecher stowe for she could not understand it as the actors and actresses were presenting her immortal story I 1 0 toy isy newspaper union |