LIBRARY University of California IRVINE The Stage Reminiscences of Mrs. Gilbert STAGE RKMlN'l OF MRS. Gil, HI R I CHARLOTI I- M. MAI ILLi NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIT. M D C C C C I MRS. ANNE HJRTLET GILBERT From a photograph by Sarony New York In the collection of Mrs. Gilbert THE STAGE REMINISCENCES OF MRS. GILBERT^ EDITED BY CHARLOTTE M. MARTIN ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS M DCC CC I 2297 6-5 COPYRIGHT, 1901 BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS Introduction THOSE who have been so fortunate as to know Mrs. Anne Hartley Gilbert well, must have been placed often in the position so familiar to the editor of these pages, of listening to a de- lightful flow of reminiscence, anec- dote, and "good talk." That so much of interest should live only in the memories of her friends has been a real sorrow to many of them, and they have often urged the writing of some sort of autobiography. "But Introduction why?" she would answer. "I've been so long before the public, that everybody knows all about me. Be- sides, I am not at all interesting, just by myself. I have always said that actresses and actors, who are good for anything, give the very best of themselves to their audiences when on the stage. The private life doesn't count." Finally came the almost tearful surrender: "I have never done it for anybody, but I will do it for you. I will tell you all I can remember, if you will put it into shape for me." That work has been a labor of love, the only regret being that no pen could express the quick turns of the head, the bright eyes and Introduction flushed cheeks, the merry little laugh, that have emphasized and punctuated every good story that has come up during our hours together. CHARLOTTE M. MARTIN. List of Illustrations Mrs. Anne Hartley Gilbert . . Frontispiece Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert and their son George /p John Ellsler J7 J. IV. Wallack 41 IV. E. Burton 45 John Brougham 49 Mrs. Gilbert jj as the Tuscarora Schoolmarm and the Dromajab in " Pocabontas " J. Wilkes Booth jp Mrs. John Wood 77 John E. Owens . 73" Programme of Mrs. Gilbert's First Ap- pearance at a New York Theatre . 8 1 List of Illustrations Warren 83 James Lewis 8$ Mrs. Gilbert .... facing page 91 The Worrell Sisters 93 in "La Belle Helene " Madame Ponisi IOI at Lady Macbeth Mrs. Gilbert IO(> William Davidge . . . . . . 7/p The Late Augustin Daly and his Two Boys 123 William Florence 12? Miss Clara Morris 131 Miss Agnes Ethel /JJ Mrs. Gilbert 143 Edwin Booth 149 " Pique " at the Fifth Avenue Theatre 153 Miss Fanny Davenport 7jp Miss Fanny Davenport 165 Mrs. Gilbert /7J James Lewis and John Drew in "Pique" 183 List of Illustrations "James Lewis 189 James Lewis and Mrs. Gilbert in the Comedy of the " Big Bonanza " . . 7pp Mrs. Gilbert and James Lewis in " 7 -20-8 " 207 A Night Off" 213 James Lewis 227 Mrs. Gilbert 243 Silhouette of Mrs. Gilbert Bt Mn. H. C. Banner The Stage Reminiscences of Mrs. Gilbert Mrs. Gilbert From a tintype in the possession of Mrs. Charlotte At. Martin I I WAS born in England, in Rochdale, Lancashire, not far from Manchester. But I couldn't help that, you know. All my professional career, all that I am, really, every inch of me, is American. Why, even my English nephew, when he came to call on me in London, used to stop on the stairs and turn down his trousers. He knew J wouldn't stand such nonsense! I have a copy of a Rochdale paper, printed when I went back to see the The Stage Reminiscences of old place in September, 1899, telling me things about my family that I had not known, myself, before. It is odd, though, how distinct some things of those early days are in my mind. I can see the church chapel they would call it, for my people were strict Wesleyans where they used to take me, three times every Sunday, into the big old pew. There I sat with my grandfather and aunts, though I had much rather have been with the children of the Sunday school. They were very good to me, my aunts, but severe. Once in church, they asked me what I was thinking of, and when I answered, quite honestly: "About my dinner," for I was very hungry, they were im- mensely shocked. And when we got Mrs. Gilbert home from church, I was put to bed without any dinner, to teach me to think of more serious things. I couldn't have been much over five. I am afraid it only taught me to make more clever and less truthful answers. My grandfather, James Hartley, was a well-to-do man, a printer and the founder of a house still doing business in Rochdale. My father, Samuel Hartley, was his second son, and grew up in the printing business, married, and had us three children. I was thinking the other day, it's funny that, with all the people who have questioned me about myself and with all the folks who have inter- viewed me, no one has ever asked me about my mother's family. And 3 The Stage Reminiscences of I owe as much to that strain in my blood as to anything, for on that side I come from the old yeoman stock of England. My mother was a Col- born, and her people were farmers up in the Melton Mowbray district. My uncle Robert, 1 remember, farmed his own land and leased land as well, owned his hunter and rode to hounds with the rest in that fam- ous hunting country. They were a plain-living, hard-riding, open-air race, and their descendants still have the benefit of it all. The site of the house where I was born is now covered by the Town Hall of Rochdale; it was then known as "The Wood Estate." There were differences between my father and his father. It may have been on 4 Mrs. Gilbert religious grounds. I was too little to know. Anyway, my father went up to London to seek his fortune, taking my mother and brother, and leaving my sister and me with our grand- parents. My sister, who was a little older than I, was sent for by our par- ents before very long, but it was sometime before I went to London. Once 1 thought I was going, but found I wasn't. I had been naughty it happened sometimes, for I was both independent and stubborn and my youngest aunt said she would have to pack me off to my mother. I was practical and serious-minded, and believed that she meant it, so I went off and began to gather up my belongings. I can see myself, now, coming down with my arms full of The Stage Reminiscences of little petticoats and night-gowns ready to pack, and it always seems to me a pathetic picture. Some fifteen years ago, when Mr. Daly's company first played in London, we were all out at Sir Henry Irving's he was plain Henry Irving then in Hampstead, and Mr. Toole asked me how I came to be so perfectly natural and easy on the stage. I for- get what I answered, but in the course of conversation I said, some moments later: "You know I was trained as a dancer." "That explains it," cried Mr. Irving. "Explains what? "some- body asked. " Everything. The ease and naturalness and all." I had never thought the dancing responsi- ble for so much, but I do attribute to that early training my splendid health Mrs. Gilbert and spirits, and my long life. You know the famous dancers, Taglioni and the rest, lived to be eighty and over. I was taught in the Ballet School of Her Majesty's in the Hay- market, the old Her Majesty's Thea- tre that was pulled down only a few years ago to make room for Mr. Tree's present theatre, and the new Carlton Hotel. We were taught in return for such services as we could give, "going on" in the crowd from our very beginning. There was plenty of use for children on the stage in those days of real ballets. I think I was about twelve when I be- gan. There was some opposition at home, but my mother finally con- sented, on condition that I neglected none of my home duties. We were The Stage Reminiscences of carefully brought up, and from the first each had some household work to perform. But it was the training at the theatre that I loved. It was a very serious profession, dancing. Beginners were often kept a whole year " at the bar " alone. But that needs explanation. Our work-room was a big hall, its floor sloped like a stage, and at the sides were bars. To these we clung with one hand while we practised our side steps. Some members of the class were always at work in this way. Then, from time to time, the profes- sors and great teachers, like Paul Taglioni, came in, and we children D ' * would go into the centre of the room and do our steps, sometimes singly, sometimes in groups. This exercise Mrs. Gilbert over, there was no sitting down to rest ; we were expected to go back to our practising. This practising began with our waking ; we were taught to cling to our bed-posts the first thing after getting out of bed, and practice side steps, while all our limbs were soft and warm with sleep. So it went on all day, and we were never in first- rate condition, and ready to do our best as dancers, until we were dead tired! Every motion, every step had its name. It was like a drill, done to slow music; the master would call out certain things, and we did them. Everything was so exact that there was no chance of a mistake. Our costume was simple long, rather clinging skirts that came down half- way between knee and ankle, and a 9 The Stage Reminiscences of fluff of under-skirts. The outstand- ing gauze skirt of the modern premiere was unknown, and we would not have stood, for a moment, the various forms of undress of to-day. The dancing costume of my day was more discreet than the present ball- dress. Ours was a regular profession, don't you see, and we knew that if a costume seemed unsuitable to us and we refused to wear it, there was no one else to be found who would. I remember in the grand ballet of "The Corsair," the gauze of the Turkish costume offended us, and the manager had to substitute silk. I danced as child and young wo- man at Her Majesty's and Drury Lane; they were both royal theatres then, and the pupils of the Ballet Mrs. Gilbert School went from one to the other as they were needed. People took their pleasures seriously then in London. The opera would begin at eight, and after that was finished came the grand ballet, often a long play in itself. It was done wholly in pantomime, and the leading dancers had to be masters of that art. There is no one now like that except Madame Cavalazzi at the Empire Music Hall in London. She has the old power, and can express anything with her fingers, face, and toes. I never did anything to make my- self famous in London in the dancing way, but just worked hard, and moved steadily up through the ranks of the ballet to the " second four," and the " first four," the regular stages toward The Stage Reminiscences of being a first or solo dancer. But I never got so high until after my mar- riage to Mr. G. H. Gilbert, when I was twenty-five. Then my husband and I did most of our work, and made our little fortune, in the pro- vinces. Mr. Gilbert's uncle was a famous master of the ballet in London, and he himself was both a capital dancer and a good manager of dancers and dances. We toured through England and Ireland. It was what we used to call " barn-storming ; " we call it so now, but the thing itself is changed a good deal. Those were the days of a real pit and gallery ; the days of the old story of the fight in the gallery when the audience begged the victor not to "waste" his con- Mrs. Gilbert quered opponent, but to " kill a fid- dler with him." They were rough, uproarious days, and perhaps there was more open fighting and drinking than was good to see, but there was real wit, too. I remember once in Dublin we were just going to open our show we were something like the famous Ravel Brothers, only our work would be serious comedy while theirs was farce and we went in to see the performance of " Faust," as actors always will go to the play, when not working themselves. Some- thing went wrong with the trap that should have let Mepbistopbeles down to the under-world. He went half- way down, and then stuck ; they hitched him up a bit, and he went down better, but stuck again. They The Stage Reminiscences of tried two or three times, and then had to lower the curtain with him sticking head and shoulders above the trap. A voice in the gallery shouted out : " Hurrah, boys, hell's full," and the house roared. We made a good living and laid by money, and finally began to talk of emigrating, and taking up a farm, and becoming private people. It was a question of either Australia or America, and we decided finally to come to America in 1849. I have always called myself a "forty-niner." It's strange, but only two years ago, in 1899, I said to Mr. Daly: "I wonder if you know how much this year means to me ? " He didn't understand, and said so. " Why, in '49 I came to this country, and in '69 14 Mrs. Gilbert I joined your company." I did not dream then that his death was going to make '99 another turning-point in my life. We chose America, my husband and I, because of some friends of Mr. Gilbert who had " gone out " a year or so before, and taken up land well beyond Milwaukee. They wrote glowing accounts of their settlement, and we took our tiny fortune and went out to join them. Mr. Gilbert liked these people, believed in them, would have given them his last penny. Well, in the end, they got it. And we had to go to work again but that comes later in my story. In 1849 the world had not yet got over the shock of the loss of the President, the steamer that The Stage Reminiscences of went down in '41, carrying with it Mr. Tyrone Power, the comedian who was such a favorite throughout America. I had an idea that steamers were dangerous, and insisted on com- ing by sailing vessel. We did, and it took us five weeks. We came along- side Staten Island on the morning of my birthday, October 2ist. W T e struck out at once for our Western settlement, making the last of the journey in a regular prairie-wagon. At one point we just escaped a forest fire. The road was very rough, only a few planks and logs laid down over the marshy places, and the wagon bumped and thumped as the horses were whipped up. We were all frightened, and I did not dare say a word. It was only after we were 16 Mrs. Gilbert safe that they told me that if we had not made a certain turning, we should have been caught by the fire. Of course our new home was very different from what we had expected. I cannot even tell where it is to-day, only that it was on the edge of the wilderness, and all beyond us was the then almost unknown " Indian Ter- ritory." As I said, we sunk our little savings there, and then went to work. At least Mr. Gilbert did. I was not able to work, for it was not long before our boy was born. We came east to Milwaukee, travelling for the first twenty-five miles in an open ox-cart, the only thing we could get. After that we got a wagon, and reached Milwaukee all right. There we had two little rooms, and 17 The Stage Reminiscences of made a home for ourselves. I always managed to have a home, no matter how small it was. There the boy was born in 1850, and as soon as I was able I, too, went to work. Mrs. John Drew, in her " Remi- niscences," speaks of the very low salaries that she and her mother re- ceived when they first came to this country sixteen dollars a week for the two. Oddly enough, that is exactly what Mr. Gilbert and I got for our services when we began in Milwaukee. Of course, in those days living was much cheaper all over the country, and in a frontier town, as Milwaukee was then, we could be very comfortable on our eight dollars apiece. Everything was most simple. Our rooms were up an outside stair, 18 Mrs. Gilbert and at the head of the stair was a sort of little wash-up place. All the houses were light frame affairs, and although we were fairly near to the theatre, and so in the centre of the town, there was no pretence of a side- walk beyond a narrow plank walk, and cows and pigs were to be met with on equal terms. We got into the way of carrying a lantern when we went back and forth at night, for those who have never tried can have no idea how huge and terrifying a cow can seem when met suddenly in the dark. We had left our interest in the Western settlement in the hands of our friends. We heard afterward that the property became valuable, but we never got a penny from it. The Stage Reminiscences of It must have been in 1851 that we went first to Chicago. The water- ways were frozen, and we packed our household things on an open cart, and started out in the dead of winter. The rest of our company went by stage, and had ears, noses and fingers well nipped. We fared better in our open cart, although it meant tearing up our blankets and winding the strips round our legs. Chicago was good to us, and I love the big, noisy place now for the sake of the little town of long ago. John B. Rice was the manager of the only theatre in Chicago, and he used to take his company between that place and Milwaukee, traveling generally by water, unless it happened to be midwinter. Mrs. Gilbert We were working at our old pro- fession all this time, Mr. Gilbert arranging the ballets, training the dancers, and dancing himself, while I danced in the big ballets and " be- tween the acts." An evening's enter- tainment was different then. People got their money's worth, and no mis- take. The programme began with the serious piece, a drama or tragedy, then came a dance, or " dance with song," and then the farce. This was the usual order, but it was varied somewhat to suit the various stars. I know when Collins came he was Power's successor as favorite Irish comedian in America there were sometimes three farces in an evening, and I have acted in all of them, and danced in between ! For, while still The Stage Reminiscences of dancing between the plays, I had begun to take small parts, appearing first as the fairy in " The Cricket on the Hearth." I was less frightened about it, because I knew that my dancing alone was worth the money my manager paid me, and if I failed in the other thing it was nobody's loss but my own. As it happened, no one lost by it, and later, when Mr. Gilbert hurt himself by falling through a trap in the "Naiad Queen," and I had to do double work for a time, I was thankful for the double resource of acting and dancing. That was only for a time though. Mr. Gilbert never danced again, but he took to being prompter, and then stage-manager. He was a very good manager, too, his wide experience in Mrs. Gilbert getting up ballets standing him in good stead. We left Chicago and went to Cleveland, then to Cincinnati and Louisville, and back to Cincinnati again. Most of my experience and all of my training was got in those towns. Players used to go from place to place then, engaging them- selves often for the season only, but we travelled less than most, for I early took to doing old women's parts, and folks didn't seem to want new faces in old women as they did in other parts. Then the old women had to take the heavy parts sometimes, and I would take anything. Some nights I would have seventeen lines, and other nights as many " lengths." A " length," by the way, was forty-two lines. The old The Stage Reminiscences of term has died out. One never hears it now. I don't know why; I don't know its origin either. It was good all-round training that we got in those days. We had to take the parts given us and do our best with them. I be- lieve, you know, that an actor who is not willing to try everything, and able to do most of it, is not worth his salt. Sometimes, nowadays, I find young people who want to be stars all at once, and to rush on to the high places without waiting for train- ing and experience, refusing the small parts that are steps by the way. So, when the big parts do come and they come to us all, sooner or later they are overweighted and overbal- anced, and fail. Then they wonder why. 26 Mrs. Gilbert It was in Cincinnati that the little home we always managed to have took the shape of a cosy wooden house not far from the theatre. It was a pretty place, a two-story house set back from the road, behind white pal- ings; white with green blinds, and its narrow front yard paved with bright red bricks. And all this quite in the centre of the town. Mr. Gilbert was ill at this time. It was not long after his accident, and he spent a good many of his days at the place of a friend outside the town, trying to get well. Our house got speckled and grimy with rain as time went on, al- though it had been painted so re- cently that the landlord, who lived next door, would not do anything to it, and only laughed at me when I 27 The Stage Reminiscences of fretted over it. I loved everything to be spotlessly clean, and got into the way of standing across the road with my boy, and studying the house as it grew more and more shabby. Finally I said : " I believe we two could wash it." That was one even- ing, and the next morning we were up long before light and at work with warm water, soap and brushes. We tried the big ladder at first, but that fell down, and once down it was too much for us. So what George could not do with the short ladder, I man- aged to do by reaching out of the bed- room windows. Then we rinsed it off by dashing pails of water up against it. It was all over before the milk- man made his morning rounds. Everybody thought 1 was crazy, and 28 Mrs. Gilbert when Mr. Gilbert came home this was done while he was away, of course he never said a word about the house, but wanted to know why we had not washed the fence ! But, oh, dear, I have not thought of all this for years. In towns like Cincinnati, Chicago and Louisville, they used to keep stock companies in the theatres while the stars traveled from place to place, sometimes alone, sometimes with their leading lady only ; and some- times, as in the case of great men like Edwin Forrest, with their " second man," who took all the business ar- rangements off their shoulders, and played next best parts. Most stars came for a week, some for two, and some for only a few days. The The Stage Reminiscences of money arrangements I don't know much about ; the star usually took a percentage of the profits, I believe. But Friday night was always the star's benefit, when he did his strong- est piece and took as his share one- half of the gross receipts. They all played " in repertory," in regulation pieces ranging from Shakespeare to the popular farces of the day ; and we knew, when a certain man was coming, pretty much what his plays would be. Still, except for the first night of his engagement, we knew exactly what was coming only from day to day. I was what is known as " a quick study ; " one had to be in those days. It was not as bad as it sounds, though, for the same stars came year after year, and we got to Mrs. Gilbert know their plays. Although each of us seldom had the same part for two years in succession, we had seen them all done. It was very rare to have an entirely unfamiliar play "sprung" on us, but that did happen to me once, and its story comes later. The fact that I always had my eyes open made things easier for me. I got in- to the way of watching every part going on around me. To this day I find myself still watching, and I often say to myself: " I wonder if I should do that in just that way, if I were acting that part ? " We would get our Monday part on the Saturday, and that gave us all day Sunday for study ; but for the rest of the week we would get the Tuesday part on the Monday, have 3' The Stage Reminiscences of perhaps a bit of Monday afternoon, and Monday night after the perform- ance, for study, have a rehearsal on Tuesday morning, play the part on Tuesday night, and then begin work on another part for Wednesday night. A different play every night was the rule. " Runs " were unknown ; an entire week of one play was an un- usual success, and possible only in big centres. Sometimes, when we were not quite sure of ourselves, we would take our lines along and study them between the acts, or during our waits. Our call would come, and we would tuck the parts just anywhere, usually under the slender wood-work of the wings ; we called it " winging the parts." Then, if the scene were shifted, the parts would be whisked Mrs. Gilbert out of sight and reach, and there would be a great flutter and outcry. We had to supply our own cos- tumes, and we often made the greater part of them. For a long time I made mine altogether. You can fancy how much time we had for sew- ing, with all the other work. I re- member Mr. Gilbert saying so often : " Do you intend to get to bed to- night at all ? " Whenever I bought a dress, it was with an eye to some particular part ; but beyond that part lay many another to which the gown could be adapted. We were always on the lookout for things, bits of chintz, laces, and what not. Our only guide was the list of costumes printed in the front of the little books of the play. I always liked to follow 33 The Stage Reminiscences of these lists. I know Mr. Gilbert used to laugh at me and say that, if the directions said I was to black the soles of my boots for a certain part, I would do it. And so I would ! Perhaps I would not go quite as far as that, but you may depend upon it that if a thing is printed in the direc- tions it has some reason for being there, and may mean something to the author or audience that we on the stage cannot see. I have always found it safer to follow directions exactly. In the matter of "make-up," we used only powder and rouge in those days, and very little of them, only just enough to prevent our faces tak- ing a ghastly pallor from the unnat- ural glare of the footlights. To this 34 Mrs. Gilbert day, much painting of the face dis- tresses me ; and the excessive black- ening of the eyes, and the little red spot in the corners, affect me most unpleasantly. It looks as if the actor had hurt himself badly. They tell me I never look quite the same in any two parts, but except for this care about detail in costume, which has clung to me always, I do very little to make myself different. Painted age and painted wrinkles never look natural, and I avoided them as much as possible, even when I needed them. I really don't know just what I do ; I suppose the constant thinking my- self into a part ends in giving me an expression that belongs only to the character I am just then personating. I used to have, at home, a big trunk 35 The Stage Reminiscences of that I called my theatre-trunk, and the things I needed for each night were sent down to the theatre, that same day, in a sort of champagne basket. Of course we had to be in- genious, and make things do ; I can even remember playing a character in one costume through every act, and for the best of reasons. The better part of our Western experience was under the manage- ment of either Lewis Baker or John Ellsler. Ellsler had been an actor himself in the East, and knew many of the famous actors of that day ; so, when he came to be a manager in Cleveland and Cincinnati, most of the stars who came to him were his personal friends. William E. Bur- ton was, I know. Mrs. Farren and 36 John Elhler From a photograph by J. F. Ryder, Cleveland, 0. In the collection of E-vert jfansen Wendell^ Esq. 37 Mrs. Gilbert Wallack J. W. Wallack, a cousin of Lester, and a capital actor himself had been playing for a week at Mr. Ellsler's theatre, when Burton came, and it was thought best to keep them on to play in his support, dur- ing the three days of his stay. I had never seen Burton before, nor did I ever see him after, but in those three days he played Aminadab Sleek in " The Serious Family ; " Toodles, Jem Baggs the " Wandering Min- strel," who won't move on under a shilling and Tony Lumpkin, the most wonderful Lumpkin I ever saw. He was always excruciatingly funny, but there was no buffoonery about it. There was one place, I remember, where three of us had to stand facing him, our backs to the audience, and 39 The Stage Reminiscences of we were thankful, for it was impossi- ble to keep our faces straight. I have always made a point of keeping my countenance, for a stageful of gig- gling people upsets an audience. But when I was doing Lady Creamly to Mr. Burton's Sleek I had to bite my lips until they bled. Besides Lady Creamly and Mrs. Toadies, I played Mrs. Hardcastle in Burton's support. Oh, that Mrs. Hardcastle! I had done the others before, but she was new. On the Saturday before the play was given, I went into the green- room to see the cast for Monday, and to find out what my part was. Mrs. Farren was sitting near. I read the heading, " She Stoops to Con- quer ; " I ran my eye down the cast 4 o J. W. Wallack From a photograph by C. D. Fredricks & Co. In the collection of Evert Jansen Wendell, Etq. Mrs. Gilbert and found I was to be Mrs. Hard- castle, an entire stranger to me. " Is she long ? " I asked Mrs. Far- ren. " Long ? " she answered, " she is all through it, and you will have your hands full." They said my face fell a yard. I did not know a line of the part, had never seen it acted, and had no idea how to dress it. That was Saturday. Sunday morning I woke up with a blind, bilious headache. By noon I was able to take a cup of tea and begin to study. All the afternoon, I spent out in the garden learning my lines, and later my husband found me walking up and down our room in the dark. " What are you doing ? " he asked me. " Studying my part," I answered, and so I was. 43 The Stage Reminiscences of Fortunately, Mrs. Mann, who had been doing old women's parts in Mr. Ellsler's theatre, a year or two before, had just returned from a tour in the South with her daughter, Alice Pla- cide, and was boarding opposite us. She was just the one, I thought, to tell me about Mrs. Hardcastle s cos- tume, so I ran across to ask. She gave me the pattern for the necessary cap, and I turned out an old chintz gown from my theatre-trunk. So, by rehearsal on the Monday morn- ing, I was fairly ready. I asked Mr. Burton about the business of the part. I used to make a point of asking the stars about the, business that played up to them. It was really the most important part of it all to them. They did not so much 44 W. E. Burton From a f holograph by Rockwood, New York. In the collection of E-vert Jansen Wendell, Esq. 45 Mrs. Gilbert mind how the supports did their parts as parts. What they wanted was to get their own cues properly given, and to find people on their left when they wanted them there, and not wandering about on their right or at the back of the stage. Mr. Burton was charming and helpful, and kind, very kind to me. He taught me a few little things to do as Mrs. Hardcastle, and also told me the exit that Mrs. Hughes always used in the " swamp scene." She was the leading old woman in his New York theatre, and a clever ac- tress. It was not much in particular, that exit, just a trick of picking up her skirts and running off, but I was glad to use it, and it pleased the au- dience. At rehearsal, Mr. Burton 47 The Stage Reminiscences of said : " Be sure and don't forget the line you are to say as you are going off the stage." 1 was to call " Con- stance," and so give the man on the scene a chance to say something about constancy. " Oh, dear," I said, " why did you tell me ? I shall be sure to forget it." And I did. Or, rather, I put it off so late, that when I finally yelled " Constance," it broke them all up, and the man with the " gag " about constancy could not be heard. Mr. Burton wanted me to go to New York with him and play second to Mrs. Hughes. It was a great compliment, but some years were to pass before I got to New York. My first real hit was in John Brougham's " Pocahontas." I played 4 8 "John Brougham From a photograph by C. D. Frcdricks & Co., taken in 1861. In the collection of Evert jfansen Wendell, Esj. 49 Mrs. Gilbert in it with him often in the West, but only once in New York, when Mr. Daly gave a benefit to him on May 13, 1876, at the second Fifth Ave- nue Theatre. On that particular afternoon we did " The Serious Fam- ily," with Maurice Barrymore, Georgie and John Drew in the cast, and " Pocahontas," with John Broug- ham in his old part of Powhatan. Was he as delightful as he seemed ? Yes, indeed, and ever so much more so. The embodiment of wit and fun, of endless resource and good- humor. Everybody knows the story of the night in New York, while the burlesque was still new, when his Pocahontas^ Henrietta Hodson, failed to appear, and he carried on the play, giving her lines in his own character 5' The Stage Reminiscences of of Powhafan, with a prefatory " as my daughter Poky would say ; " and so getting through the performance until it became absolutely necessary to bestow something upon John Rolfe, for his bride, when he seized a broom from the wings and placed it in the bridegroom's arms with a I* i II ;- S S E MRS. JOU\ WOOD fa aT telebnt-J imt aaaMgaa. taaa-ruartUa tt __ IMnteciaf r Im It 1 1 OD. of woll-k w First appearance of MRS. GK H. GILBERT, Treea ril 0.ra Do... Olieiuattl. First appearance of MISS IiOUIS &. MYERS. Monday Evening, Sept. 19tb, 1864, Will be produced, for the firet time in Amoriei, a new Com-Jy entitled >. fSio.ij b r ike i, t iiri i. mi. . i ; Ik. I.,!,* c-" "d SUilUa' Kill, l.u, ki> k.W. Tie aataeie. Fiat "Tb. Pioloriel Uutoty of la^Uad,* Vol. Till. p^*5>0. Baron Freitenhonan. innntor of Uu Ilizir or Life and derotod to mjuertoui >cienc* Mr. I. H. Stoddart TJr. Bertrand, a French Emigre Mr. W. RoUtoa Jnles D' Artlgnr- on of Doctor Bertrand. the mock epy Mr. B. T. Bingold Captain Mortimer. C.ptain of H. B. H. ehip the Vigilant" Mr. T. B. Be r John Popplcton, an amtuur Sailor Mr. E. Lamb t. Olalr,an Adfenturer..., Mr. T. J. Hind ril'ippi Mr. O. H. Rockwell Barooeu Frelteohorien. jealoue of myetorj aid her huiband Mri. O. H. Gilbert From Pike'i Opera Hoiue. CmcLnnatti. her Grit appearance. tara Brandon, bernie... MUi E. Oooraa Her fir.t appearance. Her fint appeannoe, in whiei ahe will eing ' Come in and abut the Door." Darin, tie Fnt Art. The Tarantella br - .Mlu AmutXna^M Tk* OrDbMtra. during Uw raninc wiD nlar u following entirely Hw Muf'A arranged bj and under tie diraetioa. of Thoc. Baker. 0.,ve Tarl.tr. oap.>alu .Ire leaa. e}el*a~47haaapaA* wltk avrei >! b.f.tlcaUlectl.a loSaia.aot. Hi/.teei Tk. aerioreuaoM will ogeeUde wilk Ike eueleel IWMtt. ealitM JENNY LIND Saxon Bwllitoff B**rr, a SuiaV t eurnam'd the " Cock of the Collegt" Mr. W. DavMg* Bb. Lawrence Leatherlonci. a Tanner. onaTour Mr. T. J. HJwl Mr. Oranbf Oa(. a Undon M .nager in March of . etar Mr. E. Lamb B>rr Scheroot Mr. O. HockwtU Borr Kanuter Mr. O. i Spittoon HerrSolntter... Mr. Otl MlM Jenny teatherlungi. .1," I.md Mn. Jobo Woot) la which aho will gin tier celebrated iuilutlonj of U knon Operatic Artnle: Programme of Airs. Gilbert's First Appearance at a New York Theatre From the collection of Douglas Taylor , Esq. Mrs. Gilbert first submitting it to me. That was pretty good for a beginner. I can't begin to remember the parts I did at the Olympic ; but I know that I began as the Baroness y in "Finesse," on September 19, 1864. It was there, too, that I did Mrs. Gamp,\n " Martin Chuzzlewit," Betsy < Trotwood y in " David Copperfield," and Mrs. Wilfer, in " Our Mu- tual Friend." I was the first woman to do Sairy Gamp, for it had always been considered a man's part. For me to do it was almost as much of a challenge to custom as for a woman to do Ham/el. By the way, although I have never done Hamlet, I have done Osric. That, too, was with Edwin Booth. It is a light, silly part for a man, anyway, and fell 83 The Stage Remini$cences of quite naturally to a woman, when the managers were short of people. But that was long before the Olympic days. Mrs. Gamp was such a ques- tionable role for a woman to take that Mrs. John Gilbert, who saw me for the first time in that part, refused to express any opinion of my acting, saying it was unfair to criticise any woman in such a character ! Later, in speaking of some other perfor- mance of mine, she said : " All I can say, Mrs. Gilbert, is that you did it just as I should have done it myself." The dear lady, she meant it as a great compliment. Her husband ? In his line, he was the most finished artist I ever saw. William Warren, the Boston actor, was the nearest to him. They were both exquisite gentlemen 8 4 William From a photograph by Rit-z, Boston. In the collection of Evert Jansen Wendell, Esy. Mrs. Gilbert of the old school. It used to seem as if Sheridan wrote his plays just for them. It was during my engagement with Mrs. Wood that James Lewis came to the Olympic. His first appearance there was on the night of September 1 8, 1 865, in a little farce called " Your Life's in Danger." He, too, was from the West, from Cleveland, where he had been a great favorite. He did not get on in New York at first, for he was very sensitive, and he felt the strong clique that I had not known enough to fear. Then he was unlucky in this ; he was at his best, at that period, in the old farces, and these were just going out of vogue here. Toward the end of the season " Robert Macaire " was revived, and 87 The Stage Reminiscences of he did Jacques Strop, and although he did it well, the piece did not run long, and he soon went away to Bos- ton. It was four years before he came back to join Daly's company, when it was first formed. Lewis wanted to do just the parts that he knew he could do, and the sympathy of the audience was abso- lutely necessary to him ; he could not work without it. He was what one calls " difficult," in spite of his naturally sweet nature. Still, if he put a high value upon himself and his work, he proved his right to do so. We played opposite parts for nearly thirty years, and I grew to be very fond of him. When he died so sud- denly, I hardly had the heart to take up the old roles again ! None of the 88 James Lewis From a photograph by Bogardus, Nciv fork. In the collection of Evert yanscn Wendell, Esj. Mrs. Gilbert young men who came on in his old parts knew or could ever know the numberless details of business that were so familiar to us two. When Mrs. John Wood gave up the Olympic, and left New York, I rejoined my old manager, George Wood, at the Broadway Theatre. It was New York's second Broadway Theatre, the first one, so famous in theatrical annals, which stood on the east side of Broadway, much farther down town, having been burned. This new house was built about where now is the huge building numbered 483 and 485 Broadway, extending back to Mercer Street, where was the stage entrance. The place had had quite a history, beginning in 1850 as Brougham's Lyceum, and passing 9' The Stage Reminiscences of later under the management of the elder Wallack. He kept it until 1861, when he went up to his new theatre on Thirteenth Street and Broadway, now the poor old Star. From that year until 1864, when George Wood took it, the Broadway had half a score of names, and passed through many hands, with a pretty steady lack of success, growing out of many reasons. It was during Mr. Wood's management that the Worrell sisters produced their extravaganza of " Aladdin." The three sisters, Sophie, Jennie and Irene, were great favor- ites, in their day, and simple, kindly people to work with. 1 remember that they let me introduce a dance that attracted a good bit of attention ; and yet dancing was their own specialty. 92 The Worrell Sisters in "La Belle Helens." From a photograph by Hoivell, New York. In the collection of Evert Jansen Wendell, Esq. Mrs. Gilbert One does not have to be in the pro- fession to realize what that means. Of the three sisters, who were the first to give us opera bouffe in English, two are still living, retired from the stage and settled in the west. Jennie died a year or two ago in Minnea- polis. I played for three years at the Broadway, but the last two were un- der the management of Barney Wil- liams, to whom Mr. Wood transferred the lease of the house ; for although he did fairly well there, he was not sorry to pass it on, and the old place ended its career on the night of April 28, 1869, when Barney Williams gave a . benefit performance to his business manager, William A. Moore. Williams had not intended to give up 95 The Stage Reminiscences of the house, and did not believe the owners were in earnest when they threatened to tear down the old build- ing and put up stores on its site if he refused to pay a higher rent. But he found, later, that they did mean it, and he found himself out of a theatre. It was under his management that " Caste " was first brought out here in 1867. William Davidge did old Eccles^ Mrs. Chanfrau and Mrs. Florence were Esther and Polly, and Mr. Florence was George d'Elroy, while 1 was the Marchioness. By the way, the modern talk about marriage interfering with an actress's popu- larity does not seem to apply to those old days. All of us in this cast were married women, and no one valued our work the less. The Marchioness 9 6 Mrs. Gilbert was the first important character I had created in New York, and she got good notices. I always had real sympathy for the fine old lady, with her long tale from Froissart. It was a pretty play, and had the success it deserved. I always used to say that I played with Forrest in his last engagement in New York. That was at this same Broadway Theatre. But they tell me that he played a short engage- ment at Niblo's Garden afterward ; a few nights only, but just enough to spoil the point of my story! How- ever, he played for six weeks at the Broadway in '67, doing all his great parts, though not with his old vigor, for he had been ill, and seemed broken and old. But his very weak- 97 The Stage Reminiscences of ness added a pathos to his work that it had lacked before, and they say that his King Lear was most touch- ing at this time. I did not act with him in that play, and, indeed, they spared me as much as they could, for my husband had just died, and my boy was still very ill. But I was the Queen in Mr. Forrest's one perform- ance of " Hamlet" during this en- gagement, and I admired his render- ing. In the earlier days his Hamlet was too robust, and it had never been among his great successes. But at the time of which I speak it was quite perfect, to my thinking. He opened this engagement with " Virginius," and I was cast for Servia. As I entered and began my lines at rehearsal, he said, quietly : " That's Mrs. Gilbert right." From him that meant a great deal, for although he did not storm about as much as people say he did, he seldom praised. He wanted intelligence and care from those who supported him, and it was probably stupidity and indifference that caused the rages we have heard so much about. Obstinacy annoyed him beyond everything else. They tell a story of a woman who was to have been the Emelia to his Othello, and who would kneel to the audience, and protest her innocence with her arms in the air in the old-fashioned way, and he could not get her to do it in any other way, or even to look up at him. Now he was a naturalist in his work, one of the first of his profession to step outside the tradi- 99 The Stage Reminiscences of tions, and in this particular case he lost all patience he could use an oath ortwo when he was too much tried and it all ended in his giving the part to someone else. I did Emelia at the Broadway, and strained my voice in the role, and so it came about that they borrowed Madame Ponisi from Wallack to do Lady Macbeth. I forget the order in which Forrest gave his plays, but I think I did nothing after the Emelia, but before that I had done the Widow Cade to his Jack Cade, and the Lady Anne to his Richard III. I had played that role before with Forrest, in my earlier days. He was then at his best physi- cally, and had the name of having a tremendous temper, but I never saw him angry without cause. He was Madame Ponisi as Lady Macbeth From a photograph by C. D. Fredricks & Co., Neiv York. In the collection of Evert Jansen Wendell^ Esy. Mrs. Gilbert very muscular, and could pick a man up and throw him off the stage if he liked. In " Damon and Pythias" he really had to do this, and if the man had been stupid, or had done anything Forrest did not like, he was apt to get a bad tumble. I know it got so that the men did not like to take that part, for it might happen that they would be genuinely pitched off the stage, and they never knew how they would land. It was once in those earlier days that Mr. Forrest had to have some one to do a sword combat with him, and Mr. Gilbert was selected. My hus- band was a very slender man, and what with all the stories of Forrest's temper and strength, we were rather nervous. But everything went off 103 The Stage Reminiscences of all right ; Mr. Gilbert was graceful and agile, and he knew his business. After the performance Mr. Forrest sent for him to his dressing-room and complimented him. It was a most unusual thing for him to do, every- body told us. Yet to us he was kind, always, and his immense vitality was very helpful to those who worked with him. He was perhaps the most famous person all told with whom I ever acted. No, I never acted with Charlotte Cushman, but I met her, and talked with her once in Glasgow. She and her sister Susan, who did "Juliet to her Romeo ^ and was almost as good an actress as the more famous sister, were playing there. Charlotte Cushman told me of her own rendering of Meg Merrilies, one 104 Mrs. Gilbert of her strongest parts. By the way, she always refused to put on the first part of the play, where Meg appears as a young woman, for she maintained that two separate women were needed to show the two stages of Megs life. It was in the earlier stage that Miss Rehan was so charming, when she did the part not so many years ago. But the play was much modified then, and Meg was more the Spanish gypsy than the weird Scottish peas- ant. It was in that production by Mr. Daly that I had my little dance as the Widow McCandlish^ but in the old days I did Meg herself. It was then that I remembered how Char- lotte Cushman told me she had been used to chant the song in the part, for she could not sing a note, and did The Stage Reminiscences of not like to have anyone sing for her behind the scenes. After all, that singing behind the scenes is a very false sort of thing to do, and the audience is never deceived. A certain Englishman, named Bliss, came to star in this country. This was long before my New York days, you understand. Bliss was a famous Dandle Dinmont, and I had to sup- port him as Meg. I could not sing at all, and I was very ambitious to try Miss Cushman's plan of chanting the lines to the accompaniment of a few low chords from the orchestra. Now I am so made that I cannot take a pitch from an orchestra, or from any single instrument ; the only note I can copy is that of the human voice. So I got a girl who had a 106 Mrs. Gilbert musical ear to coach me on the sly, for I knew that my husband, who was stage-manager then, would not like the idea of my challenging com- parison with Charlotte Cushman. But I was forever trying to do the things that were almost beyond my reach, and I suppose it is that which has kept me going. It was not until rehearsal that my husband suspected what I had been plotting. I can see his face now, as he stood on one side, superintending things ; when the or- chestra slowed down for me and he realized what was coming, he turned on his heel and went straight off out of sight. I heard him say under his breath : " My God, she's going to try it ! " I suppose my nervousness added the needed quaver to my voice, 107 Mrs. Gilbert for it certainly sounded like that of a very old woman. When I was fin- ished the fiddlers in the orchestra beat softly on the backs of their in- struments with their bows that is their form of applause and as for me, I went back up the stage, and had a good cry. Mrs. Gilbert Taken in l86j, -when Mrs. Gilbert was with Mrs. jfoAn Wood. from a photograph by Brady, Washing- ton, D. C. In the collection of Mrs. Gilbert. II IT was in 1869 that Mr. Daly opened his first Fifth Avenue Theatre, in Twenty-fourth Street, where now is the Madison Square Theatre. It was in this the- atre that Mr. Daly first showed New York what he could do as a manager. The little hall that had stood there next the Fifth Avenue Hotel had been turned into a theatre by "Jim " Fisk, and taken by John Brougham for his second Lyceum. Brougham was no business man, and Fisk was. The Stage Reminiscences of Some difficulty arose, and the de- lightful old actor walked out of the house, never to return as manager. Mr. Daly stepped into his place to make a success of this second Ly- ceum, as Wallack had made a success out of the failure of the first Ly- ceum, down near Broome Street, nearly twenty years before. Mr. Daly had begun life in this town as a journalist on the staff of the Courier. Even then he was try- ing to write plays, and had to live down the disappointment of having his earliest attempts refused, mislaid in managers' desks, and forgotten al- together. He got his first chance when he adapted " Leah the For- saken " from a German play, for Miss Bateman, who was starring in this Mrs. Gilbert country under her father's manage- ment. It was Mr. Bateman, by the way, whogave to Henry Irving his first opening in London. "Leah" was a success in this country and in England, where Bateman produced it atthe Adel- phi Theatre in 1863. The play is still a favorite, though many have forgotten that it was the first of Mr. Daly's adaptations from the German. He also dramatized Charles Reade's "Griffith Gaunt" for Smith and Baker, who had the New York The- atre on Broadway for a time. Lewis Baker had been my manager in Lou- isville and Cincinnati, and his daugh- ter was to be the present Mrs. John Drew. As for the New York Theatre, we were all to know it better under Mr. "3 The Stage Reminiscences of Daly's own management in 1873. It was in this theatre, by the way, that " Under the Gaslight," Mr. Daly's first original piece, was brought out. It ran for fifty nights, and was revived within a very short time. It not only stood that revival, but many, many others, and is alive to-day. I have been told that it was for this play of " Under the Gaslight " that Mr. Daly invented the modern spectacu- lar theatre poster. He produced his second original play, "A Flash of Lightning," at the Broadway, while I was still at that theatre. That was the first time I ever saw " The Gov- ernor." After all this early experience, Mr. Daly saw his chance to get the Fifth Avenue Theatre for his own, and it 114 Mrs. Gilbert proved the beginning of thirty years of all kinds of managerial work. During those years there was hardly an actress or actor of any note who did not, at one time or another, appear under his direction. He did every- thing, from " handling " big stars to running a stock company and setting up comic operas. The big stars often cost him more than they brought in. Once I know, when he was managing some one very important and very expensive, it so happened that we of the stock company, who were also " on the road," had to pass through the car where Mr. Daly and his star were sitting, to get to our own part of the train, and they made joking pre- tence of not knowing us, and of our being beneath notice anyway. As I The Stage Reminiscences of passed the " Governor " I whispered to him : " You needn't snub us ; we're making more money for you than your star, and you know it." And indeed we were. For my part, I have never believed in the big-star system of modern days. They absorb so much money with their enormous salaries that it is im- possible to support them properly and yet make any money. My first manager, John B. Rice, of Chicago, always refused to have Forrest play in his theatre, although the two men were good friends. He reasoned this way : Forrest drew good money for the week or fortnight of his stay, but he ruined the business of the theatre for weeks after and weeks before his visit. He was so great an actor that 116 Mrs. Gilbert before he came everybody was saving up money to see him ; and after he had gone, it was some time before anyone would pay any money to see an inferior man. Forrest understood the position entirely, and the two men never quarrelled over the fact that each chose to make his fortune in his own way. It is impossible to say when Mr. Daly began to learn his business, but he was always at it, from the days when he organized his brothers and their playmates into a dramatic company, and gave plays in the smoke-house of his early home in North Carolina, and later in the back-parlor of his mother's house in Virginia. Even then he wrote the plays, gave out the parts, and man- 117 The Stage Reminiscences of aged the whole thing with an iron hand. Mr. Daly never told me a word of all this he rarely talked about himself anyway but at our regular New- Year dinners of later years, Judge Daly, his famous bro- ther, often gave us anecdotes of their common childhood. I remember he told us once that Augustin never acted in these boyish plays, but would often rush in among them all and show them how to do things. And often, too, " he would flare up and discharge the lot of us. And we would have to come round to his way of thinking, and eat humble pie, before we could get engaged again," to quote one of Judge Daly's stories. In all their games and plays Augustin was undisputed master, and he rode 118 William Davidge From a photograph by Barony, New York, the collection of Evert jfamen Wendell, Esy. Mrs. Gilbert them all, though he was never will- ing to " be horse " himself. Yet I have seen him on his hands and knees, making a most obedient horse for his own boys. He was devoted to those two boys, planning their future with more care and thought even than he put into the plays on which all their fortunes de- pended. One of the children prom- ised to follow in his father's footsteps, for only the Christmas before he died, he had written a little play that was given at home, with their father and mother in the audience. I have often thought that Mr. Daly would have been a very different man if his boys had lived. But they both died on the same day, one in the morning and one at night. It was malignant The Stage Reminiscences of diphtheria. They were manly little fellows of perhaps eight and ten, or a little older. That was all a long time ago. The first Fifth Avenue Theatre opened with a good piece, Tom Rob- ertson's " Play," and a good com- pany, made up of E. L. Davenport, William Davidge, James Lewis, George Clark, Agnes Ethel, Fanny Davenport, Mrs. Chanfrau, and others famous then and now. " Play " was followed by one or two regulation pieces, and by a starring season of Mrs. Scott-Siddons in Shakespeare and old comedies. I believe " Caste " was revived for a time. " Caste " was not so well done with Daly as with Barney Williams ; many little niceties that would naturally surround The Late Augustin Daly and his Two Boys From a photograph by Sarony, Neiv York. In the collection of Mrs. Gilbert. Mrs. Gilbert the Marchioness were overlooked. Wallack had bought the rights of the play in this country, but Florence produced his version first at the Broadway. A good deal of litigation grew out of it, and Florence claimed that he had memorized the play, line for line, during the performances he had seen in England. He certainly had all the " business," and if anyone had sold or given him the play " under the rose," the secret was kept wonderfully well. In the end the courts here decided in his favor, for there was no copyright law or any- thing like it to protect Wallack, and Florence had been the first to pro- duce the piece, and it was well pro- duced. Florence used to say all the other parts were better done than his. 1*5 The Stage Reminiscences of A remark rather more modest than true. Mr. Daly followed his revival of " Caste " with " Frou-frou." That was his first important adaptation from the French, and it was followed by many others before he again turned to Germany for his originals. I fancy that he read neither French nor Ger- man ; I know that he spoke neither. But he used to have a literal transla- tion made of the play he wished to use, and then he would turn it and twist it about, fitting the parts to the members of his company, and adapt- it all to his audience. In " Frou- frou," for instance, the Baroness de Cambrai, the part I did, was a young woman in the original, only a few years older than Frou-frou herself, but of 1*6 William Florence From a photograph by 1. Gurney, Neiv fork. In (he collection of Evert jfansen Wendell, Esy. Mrs. Gilbert the world worldly. Mr. Daly brought her up more nearly to my real age, while retaining all the worldliness of the character. And he did it so well and so thoroughly that never a word remained in my lines to give a hint of the younger woman. After " Frou-frou " came " Man and Wife," based on Wilkie Collins's novel. Mr. Daly had commissioned Mr. Collins to dramatize the book. .Now Mr. Daly wanted everything just when he wanted it, and would stand no delays, and English people don't work on those lines. At last Mr. Daly got tired of waiting for this particular play, and made one of his own from the book. There was no difficulty with Mr. Collins about it, I believe, for Mr. Daly wrote him 129 The Stage Reminiscences of quite courteously that, if the play or- dered did not come to hand at a cer- tain date, he would be obliged to use his own version. And he did. I suppose that, so far as any contract was concerned, Mr. Collins had broken it, and certainly there was no law in those days to protect his book from being used over here ; but when the piece proved to be a success, Mr. Daly sent him a thousand dollars. Just one little point to show how keen Mr. Daly's sense of dramatic value was. Hester Detbridge, my part in the play, he made as prominent as he possibly could. Indeed, it became the part in the piece, for he saw how much could be done with the weird creature who, in her pretended dumb- ness, never said a word, yet saw and 130 Miss Clara Morris From a photograph by Saron\' t Ne-w ' fort. In the collection of Evert jf arisen Wendell, Esq. Mrs. Gilbert heard everything, and, in a way, con- trolled a good deal of the action of the play. Mr. Collins, on the other hand, left Hester entirely out of his version. "Man and Wife" led to a modifi- cation of our company. Agnes Ethel had become such a favorite in "Frou- frou" that Mr. Daly was anxious to have her take the part of Anne Sylves- ter, the principal emotional character in this new piece ; while Clara Mor- ris, a recent recruit, was put in for the second part what is known as the " comic relief." Miss Ethel's role was that of a young girl, deceived by a Scotch marriage, you know. The general attitude of mind toward all that sort of thing was so different then that her friends and advisers pre- 133 The Stage Reminiscences of vailed upon her to refuse the part, even if it meant her final withdrawal from the company. Miss Morris was at once put in Miss Ethel's place, and Fanny Davenport was given the comic part, making certainly a much more complete cast than that origin- ally intended ; for Clara Morris had in her the real stuff of an emotional actress, and Fanny Davenport had in those days a light, pretty touch in a merry part. Fanny Davenport was with us for several years, and worked her way steadily through what were then the regulation stages from comic cham- bermaid to leading lady. She was the only one of her father's children who inherited his talent to any great extent, though the others have done '34 Miss Agnes Ethel From a photograph by Sarony, New York. In the collection of Evert Janun Wendell, Esq. Mrs. Gilbert good work. E. L. Davenport was a wonderfully interesting man, a curi- ously fine nature, a student and a gen- tleman. He was a wonderfully versatile actor, too, but that by no means follows as a necessary con- clusion. After " Man and Wife " came a star engagement of Charles Mathews, and then another play founded on a novel of Wilkie Collins, " No Name." In the dramatizing of this the author assisted Mr. Daly, so you see there was no ill feeling over the matter of " Man and Wife." Bron- son Howard's rattling comedy, " Sar- atoga," was the first native piece that Mr. Daly produced, and it held the stage for a good many nights. It crossed the ocean, took an English The Stage Reminiscences of name, " Brighton," won Mr. How- ard an English wife, and became a favorite play in Charles Wyndham's repertoire. Indeed, it is only a few years since he revived it with distinct success. But we, who knew it first in its youth, like to think of it as it was before any changes were made. Then came " The Savage and the Maiden," "suggested," as the play-bill said, " by a chapter in * Nicholas Nickleby,'" and I did Ninetta Crum- mies, the Infant Phenomenon, to Lewis's Savage. No one needs to be introduced to the elderly infant of the Crummies company, but few of my friends would recognize me, now, in that low-necked white muslin frock, those pantalettes and ankle-ties, with two long plaits of hair down my back. And "Jimmie" 138 Mrs. Gilbert Lewis as the Savage! I lent him an old wig that I had worn long before, in the performance of " Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp," at the Broad- way, a tremendous affair with two long braids, that had been wired so that they stood high above the head, and then bent forward. I remember that as part of that head-dress Mr. Gilbert and I had taken huge pins, as long as the modern hat-pin, covered their heads with tinsel, and stuck them round like a great halo of gems. I lent those to Lewis, too, and he was an object! Then we did the regula- tion " Nickleby " act Davidge was a perfect Crummies supplemented by my old dances from " Pocahontas " and some new suggestions from Mr. Daly. I know he wanted us to do 139 The Stage Reminiscences of some funny business with a table. When Lewis was chasing me I was to run under it, while Lewis was to get over it. In showing us how he wanted it done the " Governor " was all over the stage, and seemed to be on the table and under it at the same time. It was thorough-going farce, of a kind that seems to have died out. What makes it pathetically comic to me now was that on one night, when we were playing it, my boy, who was a member of the Seventy-first Regi- ment, was called out, with his com- rades, to put down some sort of riot up Harlem way. And while he was in danger of being shot, or at least hurt, at any moment, there was I jig- ging about in a short muslin frock. As soon as I was free I rushed round 140 Mrs. Gilbert to the armory of the regiment it was in Sixth Avenue then but could get no word of him. By the next morning, though, when Fanny Mor- ant came round to comfort me, think- ing that the G. H. Gilbert, who had been shot, was my son, I knew that he was safe. That is my last very distinct recollection of the first Fifth Avenue Theatre, though I know Mr. Daly's original play, "Di- vorce," had a good run there. On the afternoon of January i, 1873, not long after the matinee audience had dispersed, the little theatre was burned out, and we were homeless. By that time we were too success- ful, and too popular, I am glad to say, to be allowed to be idle, and Mr. Daly was not long in finding some The Stage Reminiscences of sort of shelter for us. He took the old New York Theatre on Broad- way, the scene of his own first success as a playwright, and, in sixteen days, had it thoroughly overhauled and put in order for us. It had been a Uni- tarian church, and had passed through many hands and odd fortunes since its congregation had given it up. We used to say, in somewhat disre- spectful fun, that we had to dress in among the gravestones. The old place stood on Broadway, opposite Waverley Place, and the " Old Lon- don Street " was built on its site. I am not sure but that a part of the walls, still standing there, are the walls of the old theatre, and even, perhaps, of the old church. It was numbered 728, and that number re- 142 Mrs. Gilbert From a photograph by H. Robber, Chicago. In the collection of Even jfamcn Wendell, Esy. Mrs. Gilbert mains there. It clings, also, in the memories of all good New Yorkers as the title of one of the prettiest plays brought out in the present Daly's Theatre. We did that same play in London afterward, under its secondary title, " Casting the Boom- erang." The English courts refused to allow Mr. Daly to keep the origi- nal title, since it had already been used in England for another version of the same play that had been pro- duced there with small success. It is only my impression that Mr. Daly got the name for this play from this number, but I guess I am right. He took his names from everywhere, and always had a string of them for plays and characters. We got so that we were all on the lookout for us The Stage Reminiscences of them, as we went through the streets, and would often call out : " There's a queer name, Governor!" He found some very funny ones for " Jimmie " Lewis and me. " Dollars and Sense" was one of his best titles, I think. I know when he was trying to find a name for that particular piece he read a whole list of titles to us once at breakfast, and I said : " Oh, I like that one." Then it was spelled " Dollars and Cents," and it was Judge Daly who suggested the change. " Let the old man keep his dollars," he said, "but the old woman has the sense." We were at the old New York Theatre only from January to June, in 1873. By that time the second Fifth Avenue Theatre, on Broadway 146 Mrs. Gilbert at the corner of Twenty-eighth Street, had been built, or made over, for Mr. Daly. Among the stars at the second Fifth Avenue Theatre, we had Edwin Booth in 1875, not l n g a ^ ter n ' s attempt to run his own theatre had ended so disastrously. He was warmly greeted, and the New York people did their best to show their admiration and sympathy for him. Everyone knows the history of his later professional years too well for me to retell it here, but present play- goers will be interested to know that when Booth did " Hamlet " under Mr. Daly's management at this period, Maurice Barrymore was the Laertes and John Drew the Guilden- stern. Georgie Drew, John's sister, The Stage Reminiscences of and later Barrymore's wife, was also in the company at this time. Charles Coghlan tried to do " Hamlet " at this same theatre, at one of his bene- fits. He was our leading man at one time, and a great favorite, but the very manner and finish, that made him such a success in the modern society pieces of our stock-company, worked against him as Hamlet, and his was a curiously self-controlled, passionless Prince of Denmark. Before Booth, Carlotta Leclercq had been the star for one season, ap- pearing in " Pygmalion and Galatea" and " The Palace of Truth," two plays written by W. S. Gilbert for the Kendals. Carlotta Leclercq had been Fechter's leading lady. It is only a few years now since she died in Lon- 148 Edwin Booth From a photograph by F. Gutekunst, Philadel- phia, Pa. In the collection of Evert Jansen Wendell, Esq. Mrs. Gilbert don, but it is a long time since she appeared on any stage, save for one or two short London engagements. The only other famous name among Mr. Daly's stars at this time is that of Adelaide Neilson, who played her regular repertoire in the theatre in 1877. But the real attraction of these years, from '74 to '77, was the stock- company, and it held good names and did capital work. Why, at one time or another we had Fanny Daven- port, Sara Jewett, Charles Coghlan, Maurice Barrymore, Georgie and John Drew, and James Lewis. By the time " Pique " was put on in '75 Fanny Davenport was leading lady, and in that particular play we all had strong parts. " Pique " was not an The Stage Reminiscences of adaptation, but an entirely original work by Mr. Daly, and it ran two hundred nights, a wonderful run then, and a good run at any time. People forget sometimes that Mr. Daly was a writer of plays, as well as an adapter and manager. He needed the barest outline on which to build a play ; something he had seen in a book or read in a newspaper would give him the idea, and he would fill it in, and work it out with parts to suit us all. It was when " Pique " was nearing the close of its run that trouble began to break out at the second Fifth Ave- nue Theatre, although it took a year or more to bring it to a head. There is no use in reviewing quarrels at this late date, but I have always felt that 152 " /fyw