Ziz32 Crorring Ze Joe
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
they
down the curtsi
ST when ready to
Inst
out
ring
time on a classic
from the wings came
“Uncle Tom” and
“Topsy” and “Simon Legree” to
another bow
ing
and
take
Which is by way of say-
this year The Players,
Otis Skinner, Ce
Mayhew, Joanna
Fadward MeNamara and Lols
Shore, revived Tom's Cabin, or Life
Among the Towly” In one of the leading New
Yor’: theaters. It meant that this historic dramn
life to
that early
with such
celia
stars as
Loftus, Kate
Roos, Fay Bainter,
“Uncle
a new lense of
th the laurels which it has already won.
Chief anmtmgz those laurels are these: it is n
play which has had the longest continuous run In
all stage history;
na be startiv: on a add
in it have appeared at one time
or another a greater number of stage luminaries
than in any theatrical
history: It before
American
performed
other play in
has been more
people and has made more money than any play
ever written In and
latter fact no one has ever received any royalties
from it nor did Harriet Beecher Stowe, the au.
thor, penny of profit the
dramatization of her dook: It repre
sentative American and it bears In
the parlance of the stage the most
distinctive name Tom show™: it has In it
the elements of tragedy, comedy, melodrama,
but it defles classifi.
cation under any of these heads, for It is itself
the "Tom
“Uncle Tom's Cabin” had a continuous ran of
mexlern times despite the
ever receive a from
is the most
folk drama
American
the
vaudeville,
farce, yes, even
atone, show.”
70 vears, be
the
insignificance
des which record the lasting quali-
“Abie's Irish Rose” pale
From 1852 to 1928 there
season when at some time day or night
piace In these United that
the whip of * Legree” wasn't whistling
across the Tom™ or “Eliza”
wasn't fleeing across the lee, pursued by a bhay-
ing pack Then
pression came on to give the final blow
administered by other factors In the deeline of
this lassie.
In 1920 a Boston newspaper reported: “There
is not now oun the road in any the
United States or Canada a single company play.
ing that grand old drama ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin’
For the reason that the minstrel
show owners of the country took their shows
from the road, Tom managers found it necessary
to shut up shop. The talking pictures and the
radio have combined to kill both the minstrel
and the Tom shows, There Is not a single book:
ing 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 1021
but in 1932 it was discovered that in a small
town in the West @ home talent company was
producing the play ns a part of Its repertory
of stock plays. And now this year comes the
revival In New York to prove that “Uncle Tom's
Cabin” Is deathless even if there were not great
stage names in the east t6 lend it prestige. With
the apparent return of some measure of pros.
perity to this country, It Is net Improbable that
“Uncle Tom's Cabin” may be off on another con.
tinuous run of 76 vears!
When “Uncle Tom's Cabin” was first printed
in book form ft sold 10,000 coples the first week
and 300.000 In the first year, Half a million cop.
fes had been distributed in the United States
alone in its first five years and It has been
translated Into more than a score of foreign
languages and dialects, The entire sale of the
boos In the years since It was written have ox.
ceeded 12,000,000, about 7.000000 of whieh never
pid any royalties to the author, being sold in
foreign countries before the establishment of In-
ternational copyright law. The copyright, under
the then existing statute, expired a few years
‘previous to Mra, Stowe's death In the late eight
ies, and the last few years of her life, when she
was most In need of money, she was deprived
of this source of Income,
ties of far-famed
into
wasn't a
or in same States
mon
back of “Uncle
of “fierce hloodhounds™ the de.
to those
section of
same
The first dramatiza
by George 1.
serially In
1802,
tion of the book was mad
Alken while the story
the National Era. On
Alken's play had its
seum at Troy, N, Y., and from that
the immense popularity of “Unele 1
in” As a matter of fact this was n
production of show,
Wis r
Son tit gut
Septer
premiere
stage the it was
first
but
success] one,
A certain Charles WW
tized the book
fore the Troy
running only an
ning bill at Purds's National theater In New
York City. But—fatal error!—he left both Topsy
and L Eva out of his story so his play was
a failure, after a run of only
11 nights,
The Troy production was largely a fan
fair. The manager of the Troy museum, Ge
C. Howard both “Unele Tom"
Clare,” His played both
“Chloe,” Mra. Howard's brother,
played both “Phineas Fletcher” and “Gumption
Cute” and Mrs Fox
I. Alken, the dramatist and a cousin of Howard,
doubled as Harris™
his brother, Frank Alken, played “Marka” And
finally part of Little Eva was played hy
Cordelia Howard, the four-year-old daughter of
the Howards 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 re
turn. In the year marks definitely the
decline of the Tom shows, she was still lis ing at
the age of nearly eighty, a recluse who refused to
gee anyone or to talk of her carcer as “the first
Little Eva"
The Howards’ production of the play, with
Just seven people carrying the eleven roles, was
an instantaneous success, It not only carried the
country by form but It crossed the Atlantic,
In 1888 a curious English version of It, filled with
“Waal, I ealenlate” and similar supposed Yankee
was produced at the Theater Royal in
Manchester, England. Arthur Ruhl, writing In
the New York Herald Tribune, about the cur.
rent revival reviews its early history as follows:
“Ia Case de 'Oncle Tom, ‘Onkle Tom's
Huette,! ‘La Cabana del Tio Tomas'—the thing
swept like a prairie fire into every language in
the western world. It ran down Into Africa it
self, was devoured by the Armenians and other
Near Easterners, and little Slavs, In a Russia
which still had its serfs, wept over ‘Hata Djada
Toma’ or something that sounded more or less
like that. Letters from everybody of conse.
quence—from Maecnulay, Dickens, Charles Kings.
ley, statesmen and political leaders, the great
George Sand, German pundits, even the mocking
Heine was stirred.”
And Otis Skinner, who plays “Uncle Tom" in
the revival, a role which he first played in 1878
In a stock company at the Philadelphia Museum,
writing in the New York Times recently, con
tributes this bit of history:
“In August, 1878, Jarrett & Palmer, an enter.
priging firm of New York managers, made a small
fortune by taking the play overseas to England,
Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Holland, In
the company were Marie Bates, who is still re
membered as playing long and prominently with
David Warfield in “The Auctioneer,’ and Harry
Hawk, who was on the stage of Ford's theater
in Washington at the moment that Lincoln was
shot in the box above him by John Wilkes Booth,
“Another in that company was Harold Fos.
burg, a gorgeous specimen of the old-time heavy
man. Harold was of the stage stagy : he seemed
to think in the terms of melodrama and blank
verse. While the troupe was exhibiting In Ger.
many his delight was to parade through the
streets of Berlin and other cities dressed In the
Taylor had also drama.
August, 1852. a month be.
tion, he presented a play
and ir
produ
hour, as one
item on the eve
being withdrawn
and
played
wife
played “Ophelia”
George
Shelby” and “George and
the
which
isms,
ima
and coat of Legree,
gingers from the
od his black
amazement of the
crac
the
play : Joseph Jefferson, iam Warren, George
lL. Fox of ‘Hu memory, John Gil
bert and W who became fa
the and Mary
MeVicker, afterward vif iwin Booth
each of
Terent
‘« appeared In
yor
fies on Now
whom pl va and Topsy on
d occasion the leading mem
bers of every dram:
United States from 1852 until Willlam A. Br
revival i
Roberts
hax
‘
such
John
wmny of record In the
iv's
Theodore
who
fir
g those
» pliaved | ‘nelle Ton ahin® one ds
other notable
MeCull
mond, David Belagco
seil, Mary Pickford, }
ton. Mrs Fiske,
Thorne, John 8 Clarke a
“The part of Top
men records show that
Frank Drew, and Fred
Even Little Eva was once
Seymour.™
The “Sis
there never a
than John L. Sullivan! J. WW.
managed a wagon circus through Connectient and
New York several one
ganized an “Uncie Tom's Cabin™
play theaters throughout the East,
He secured big feature John IL. Sulll
van, whe played Simon Legree and used up In
the course of a few weeks half a dozen “Toms”
who, no matter how much they padded under
the red flannel shirt, could not stand the rough
usage received from the famous pugillst In the
whipping scene. Ern G. Estey of Lynn was play-
Ing “Tem” tn the show and he prohably lasted
longer In the role than any other actor. Ie wore
under his red shirt a that was lined an
inch thick with cotton. his oftentimes was in-
adequate to afford sufficient protection from the
lashings he received some evenings when John
L. had been entertaining friends in his dressing
room and desired to give them a good sceount
of himself as an actor later on. John LL. re
8 Lawrence Barrett,
John T
Adams, Ann
Fay Temple
Charles
ies,
Kay
e Rus
was sometimes acted hy
John Drew's
appeared In It
played by William
uncle,
Stone
Legrees” have been legion, but
wns perhaps unusual
more
Goodrich, who had
one
state for yOars, fall or
company to
as his
vest
was on the road
Mention has been made of the fact that Harriet
from the dramatization of her book.
the playwright who made nse of the material In
the book. More than that, Mrs. Stowe knew very
little about the theater—it wasn't “proper.” yon
see, for the daughter of a New England clergy-
man to have anything to do with such a wicked
Institution ae the stage, She wns greatly sur.
prised when the play proved to be such a sue
cess but she does not seem to have resented
either the dramatization nor the success Once
she made a dramatization of the hook herself
but It wasn't “good theater” so It was never
staged. .
The only profit she ever received from the
dramatization of her book was In the form of
a free box in a theater In Hartford, Conn, where
she was living in her old age. A road show
playing “Uncle Tom” came to town and she
went to see the play for the first time with her
friend, Charles Dudley Warner, the essayist and
novelist. And Warner, sitting beside her in her
free box, had te explain the plot of “Uncle
Tom's Cabin® to Harriet Beecher Stowe, for she
could not understand It as the actors and
Actresses were prosenting her Immortal story!
(® by Western Newspaper Union.)
ALL FOR NOTHING
She watched the door of her new
establishment open to admit her first
client, had staried! A
good Impression must be created
upon him!
Hurriedly
Business
she grasped the tele
nD an animated conversation
an appointment
ranged, she replaced
and, beaming on her customer asked:
“What ean t.do for you, sir?
A moment's pnuse
having been ar
the
and then:
to connect
Tit-Bits.
the telephone !"—London
Theological Mainspring
Two ministers were driving In a
cab to the stat
anxiety le hey shoul nies their
inl some
“In n case 11}
other. “good
have answered
Christian Advoent
DID SHE MEAN HIM?
The Old Coot
I'm afraid I'm no
uy new job
Why, not, dearle?
being pretty but the
d for me looking int
iMrror to see if
ring
the dictionary
id be spelled
{0 see how
Unnecessary
Prof. —Why
in my course?
frambh 36
took
take
dont you
father
this course and | have his notes
Please sir, my
FRANKLY SPEAKING
| The shop-assistant wrapped up the
[customer's parcel and deftly handed
[it to him.
| “There you are, sir.” he sald, “and
if the goods are not just to your lik-
{ing we will cheerfully refund the
cash,”
| Farmer Giles sniffed,
| “Don’t tell
{ man,’ he replied.
| “Eh? Wham?
| sistant, momentarily
| guard.
i “Ye might gi'e me my money back.”
{sald the farmer, “but
{ nature to be cheerful about ir.
{don Answers,
me sech a yarn, young
exclalmmed
the as
taken off bis
taint human
Lon
LIKE MANY OTHERS
“My wife
“Mine
He Couldn't
ot a 54 1 mora
y such
ske my
Ae ov
SALK
Mistaken Encouragement
“1 told a Trier
i
stead of brooding over
lof nn
his troubles.”
“Good advice!”
“1 don’t think so time he
worried now,
uilding has
Every
every
to suffer!”
How It Happened
dows are something
Wit
through,
We Can sew
was the way he wrote it.
are saometl
is the way the
}
I
NE We can see
through linotype op
erator finally made it
Union,
rida Times
Just the Eyes
Gir'—1 have
Will 1 have to be examined all over
again?
Opticlan—No, only your eyes. —Hy-
erybody’s Weekly.
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WNU—4 82-338
%