Volume 1 — AN OPINION BY BRONSON HOWARD.—WALLACK IN THE THIRTIETH STREET HOUSE.

Belasco’s published recollections of the circumstances of Wallack’s removal from the Thirteenth Street house and of the importance to that manager of his presentation of “La Belle Russe” require revision to make them accurate. He says:

“The stage history of ’La Belle Russe’ is interesting. Wallack had opened his theatre with ’Money,’ which had been followed by a play by Pinero. He had met with failure all along the road, and his heart began to question whether he was right in forsaking his old ground on Thirteenth Street and in moving so far up-town. ’La Belle Russe,’ put on hurriedly, as a last forlorn hope, retrieved his fortunes. It called a spade a spade and did not show any reticence, the papers declared, and they flayed it as hard as ever they could. There was one exception, and that was Edward A. Dithmar, of ’The New York Times.’ He said it was a new era among plays, and, although he was not a prophet, he put his finger on the elements that achieved success, and this was long before the day of ’The Second Mrs. Tanqueray.’ Bronson Howard, at the height of his success, declared, in a public lecture, that it was a model of construction, and confessed that he had already seen it seventeen times, each evening discovering some new technical excellence in it. I do not want to appear boastful; the facts of the theatre are no longer personal after they have been made known to the public.”

Bronson Howard was a man of talent, though his plays conclusively show that it was not of a high order and that his command of technical resource in dramatic construction was not remarkable: he may have required seventeen inspections of the drama in order to perceive its many practical merits as an histrionic vehicle: most experienced observers could, and did, discern them at one view. Belasco’s statements with regard to Wallack, above quoted, are not correct. Wallack did not open his Thirtieth Street theatre with “Money”: he opened it, January 4, 1882, with “The School for Scandal”: “Money” was not acted at that theatre till March 23, 1888,—though a play by A. W. Pinero, entitled “The Money Spinner,” was the second acted there, January 21, 1882. Wallack had not “met with failure all along the road.” He closed his theatre at Thirteenth Street with a presentation, under the management of Samuel Colville, of the English melodrama of “The World,” which ran there from April 11 to July 2, 1881, receiving eighty-four performances, and which gained gross receipts to the extent of about $65,000 (at the time, when prices were about half what they are now, an extraordinary profit): he produced another English melodrama, called “Youth,” at his new theatre, February 20, 1882, and this play ran till May 6: “La Belle Russe” was produced by Wallack on May 8, and it ran till the close of the season, June 28. The presentment of it there was a notably handsome one and was distinctly successful. Rose Coghlan was specially excellent in her evincement of agonizing apprehension beneath a forced assumption of calm, and by the denoted prevalence of an indomitable will over mental terror. This was the cast at Wallack’s:

Captain Dudley BrandOsmond Tearle.

Sir Philip CalthorpeGerald Eyre.

Monroe Quilton, Esq.John Gilbert.

RobertsC. E. Edwin.

BartonH. Holliday.

Beatrice (Geraldine)Rose Coghlan.

Lady Elizabeth CalthorpeMme. Ponisi.

Little BeatriceMabel Stephenson.

AgnesCelia Edgerton.

Belasco left New York in the latter part of December, 1881, and he arrived in San Francisco on Christmas Day. “Chispa,” by Clay M. Greene and Slason Thompson, was produced at the Baldwin Theatre on December 26 and it ran there for two weeks,—in the course of which Maguire returned home; the differences between him and Belasco were composed, and the latter was presently reinstalled in his familiar place at the Baldwin. On January 16, 1882, acting Matthias, in “The Bells,” W. E. Sheridan began a season there which lasted for seven weeks, during which he revived “Richelieu,” “Othello,” “Hamlet,” and other plays of the legitimate repertory which he had previously presented in San Francisco (November-December, 1800), and also “King John” and “The Fool’s Revenge.” The last-named tragedy was brought out on March 3, the first performance of it being given for the benefit of Belasco’s old friend and teacher, Mrs. “Nelly” Holbrook.