A History Of The American Theatre 1700-1950

The author and publisher wish to express their gratitude to the following individuals, companies, and institutions who have made available certain illustrations appearing in this book The Theatre Collection of the New York Public Library, its Curator, George Freedley, and Elizabeth Barrett, for the Frontispiece, the portrait of Edwin Booth, the portrait of Maude Adams, the scene from Desire Under the Elms, and the Boucicault lithograph. The Library of the University of Pennsylvania, and Neda West lake, Rare Book Collection, for The Old South wark Theatre, Philadelphia George Stevens, Managing Editor, J. B. Lippincott Co., for Oldest Known American Playbill, reproduced from Arthur Hornblows A History of the Theatre in America. Little, Brown Co., for The Haymarket Theatre, Boston, 1796, reproduced from Mary Caroline Crawfords The Romance of the American Theatre. The Cooper Union Museum for the Interior of the New Theatre, Philadelphia, 1794. The New-York Historical Society, R. W. G. Vail, Director, for A Society Audience at the Park Theatre, New York, 1822. The Harry T. Peters Estate, New York City, for Wonders of Barnums Museum. Arthur H. Brook and the Yale University Press, for Interior of the St. Charles Theatre, New Orleans, circa 1840, reproduced from The American Stage, by Oral Sumner Coad and Edwin Minis, Jr., Vol. 14 in The Pageant of America. William Van Lennep, Curator, Theatre Collection, Harvard Col lege Library, Cambridge, Mass., for the advertisements of Dalys Under the Gaslight. The Museum of the City of New York, and May Davenport Sey mour of the Theatre Collection, for The Florodora Sextet, 1900. The School of Drama, University of Washington, Seattle, for the exterior andinterior views of The Penthouse Theatre. Gratitude is expressed also to Howard Lindsay, Robert Coleman, and Sawyer Falk for their kindness in reading the book in advance of publication and permitting quotation of their reactions to it. Finally, the author wishes to acknowledge his personal indebted ness to his friend and colleague, Robert S. Gray, for critical assistance, and to Mary Corkins for painstaking typing and indexing. Preface IT will surely he apparent to even a casual observer that a book such as this must depend for most of its information on sec ondary sources. The use of primary sources, such as newspapers arid theatre programs, is the appropriate method for historians of limited periods or regions. Fortunately w c have had in this coun try a number of such patient annalists, and to them the present writer expresses his profound gratitude, as well as his apologies for any possible misinterpretation of their findings. Unfortunately, the number of reference books to which the present volume is indebted is too great for detailed acknowledg ment, though the titles are included in the selected bibliography appended to the volume. I must, however, pay tribute here to the monumental work of the late Professor George C. D. Odell, Annals of the Neiv York Stage, which is the most stupendous theatrical record ever compiled by an individual, and which re flects so remarkably its authors combination of scholarly in dustry and affection for the theatre...