Chapter I: Front Matter

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CURIOSITIES OF THE AMERICAN STAGE

by

LAURENCE HUTTON

Author of "Plays and Players" etc., etc.

Illustrated

New York Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square 1891

Copyright, 1890, by Harper & Brothers. All rights reserved.

TO
BRANDER MATTHEWS
_THESE_

_THE ARGUMENT._

This book, as its name implies, is a series of chapters from the annals of the American Theatre; and it considers Plays and Players more particularly in their less familiar aspects. It does not pretend to be critical; and the greatest care has been taken to verify all the facts it contains (many of them here presented for the first time), in order that it may appeal to the small but select band of specialists known as Dramatic Collectors, as well as to those influential members of the community who are glad to call themselves Old Play-goers.

The chapters upon "The American Stage Negro," upon "The American Burlesque," and upon a "A Century of American Hamlets," appeared originally in HARPER'S MAGAZINE; the others have been printed, in part, in other periodicals, but as now published they have all been rewritten, elaborated, and extended.

The portraits with which the volume is enriched are in many instances very rare, and some of them, never engraved before, have been prepared especially for this work. They are from the collections of Mr. J. H. V. Arnold, Dr. B. E. Martin, Mr. Thomas J. McKee, Mr. C. C. Moreau, Mr. Evart Jansen Wendell, and The Players, to all of whom the author here expresses his sincere thanks.

A double Index--personal as well as local--makes the book easily available for reference; and it will lend itself readily to extra illustration. It is intended to instruct as well as to entertain.

LAURENCE HUTTON.

THE PLAYERS, 1890.

_DRAMATIS PERSONAE._

PAGE

Junius Brutus Booth _Frontispiece_

G. W. P. Custis 9

Edwin Forrest 11

John McCullough 15

Major Andre 21

J. H. Hackett 27

Frank Mayo as Davy Crockett 33

William J. Florence as Bardwell Slote 37

John T. Raymond 41

Neil Burgess as the Widow Bedott 45

F. S. Chanfrau as Mose 49

Epes Sargent 55

Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie 61

Edgar Fawcett 73

Brander Matthews 77

Bronson Howard 81

Charles Dibdin as Mungo 91

Ira Aldridge as Othello 95

Old Play-bill 97

Andrew Jackson Allen 103

Barney Williams in _Dandy Jim_ 105

Ralph Keeler 107

P. T. Barnum 109

John B. Gough 113

Thomas D. Rice as Jim Crow 116

Thomas D. Rice 118

James Roberts 120

George Washington Dixon 121

Mr. Dixon as Zip Coon 123

Daniel Emmett 125

Charles White 127

Edwin P. Christy 131

George Christy 133

George Swayne Buckley 137

Eph Horn 139

Jerry Bryant 140

Nelse Seymour 140

Dan Bryant 141

Stephen C. Foster 143

Mrs. Hallam (Mrs. Douglas) 156

Mark Smith as Mrs. Normer 159

William Mitchell as Richard Number Three 161

John Brougham and Georgiana Hodson in _Pocahontas_ 163

Harry Beckett as the Widow Twankey, in _Aladdin_ 167

James Lewis as Syntax, in _Cinderella at School_ 171

George L. Fox as Hamlet 175

Lydia Thompson as Sindbad 179

William H. Crane as Le Blanc, in _Evangeline_ 183

Stuart Robson as Captain Crosstree 186

Harry Hunter as the Lone Fisherman 189

Francis Wilson in the _Oolah_ 193

Mr. Jefferson and Mrs. Wood in _Ivanhoe_ 196

James T. Powers as Briolet, in _The Marquis_ 197

Charles Burke as Kazrac, in _Aladdin_ 200

N. C. Goodwin in _Little Jack Sheppard_ 201

De Wolf Hopper as Juliet, and Marshall P. Wilder as Romeo 203

Henry E. Dixey as the Country Girl in _Adonis_ 205

Munrico Dengremont 211

Josef Hofman 215

Otto Hegner 219

Elsie Leslie 223

Charles Stratton ("Tom Thumb") 227

Lavinia Warren 231

John Howard Payne 233

Blind Tom 235

Master Burke as Hamlet 237

May Haines and Isa Bowman as the two Princes in _King
Richard III._ 239

Edmund Kean 259

William Augustus Conway 263

James William Wallack 267

William C. Macready 271

Charles Kemble 275

Charles Kean 279

Edwin Forrest 283

Edward L. Davenport 287

James Stark 291

Edwin Booth 295

Lawrence Barrett 299

James E. Murdoch 303

Charles Fechter 307

Henry E. Johnstone 311

John Vandenhoff 315

George Jones 319

Augustus A. Addams 323

William Pelby 327