Annals of the New York Stage: Volume VII (1857-1865)

Booth returned to New York at age 23 after training in California and Australia. Odell includes reviews of Booth's performances at Burton's from The Herald. Booth was the opening attraction at Burton's in 1857; Odell claims this is before Booth became a historic tragedian.

Booth suffered a minor slump in fame and reviews after Burton's end. Odell notes how Booth was one of the later greats to come forward on the New York stage during the 1856-57 and 1857-58 seasons. Odell reasserts that at that point Booth was not yet the remembered great actor. Odell aslo reprints the reviews of Booth's Hamlet in Winter 1863 from the The Herald.

Edwin Booth co-starred in his younger brother's (John Wilkes Booth) New York stage debut. Edwin Booth also appeared with his brothers John Wilkes and Junius Brutus in Julius Casear on Nov. 24, 1864, in a benefit for the fund to erect a statue to Shakespeare in Central Park. This was the New York performance of John Wilkes Booth.

Edwin Booth went into an immediate retirement when John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln on April 14, 1865 (Edwin Booth was playing Hamlet at the time).

Gave a lecture as part of the lecture series at the Institute in Brooklyn in the 1857-1858 season. Curtis returned to this venue in the 1858-1859 season. His Nov. 30, 1859, lecture was entitled Democracy and Education. Curtis also lectured during 1859-1860 season.

Curtis is listed as one of the few critics who "did justice to the drama" in reviewing Augustin Daly's Deborah. Curtis' review appears in the March 7, 1863, issue of Harper's Weekly (Odell reprints the text). Odell also reprints Curtis' review of J.S. Clarke's acting.

(Not confirmed that this is him)

He may have played the role of Rob Royland in Married for Monday at the Broadway at for the opening show of the 1857-1858 season.

Gayler's The Love of a Prince was performed by Laura Keene's company as part of a benefit for Joseph Jefferson.

Loyalina, or Brigadier-General Fortunio and his Seven Gifted Servants, "adapted and confrmed to Olympic wants, without leave or license from Planche" played April 11, 1864, produced by "Mrs. Wood."

Odell discusses comparisons critics made between her and Miss Cushman; Heron is called "intense, deep, and sensual."

She appeared at Wallack's on the first night of the regular 1857-1858 season (Sept 7) in Fiammina. Heron adapted the play from the French version by Mario Uchard. The show ran for 5 nights.

Heron was known for her "Camille" and played it for several engagements in the 1857-1858 season, including a benefit for herself.

According to T. Allston Brown during the June 10, 1858 performance of Mathilde at what became Laura Keene's theater "it was rumored that a fracas too place in the greenroom between the respective allies of Laura Keene, Matilda Heron, and Mrs.D.P Bowers, and that during the melee Mr. Sothern rushed forward and made the above announcement to prevent an expose." This event ended the season.

Odell claims that Heron was a "fiery" Camille. She received positive reviews for Geraldine for Mrs. Bateman, which was one of the highlights of the 1858-1859 season. Heron also starred in her own version of Lesbia that was put on the stage by Jefferson.

Heron's 1859-1860 season at Niblo's seems to have been very successful. Heron gave her most popular performance of Camille and was also seen in Medea, Bertram, Ingomar and The Stranger.

Odell calls Heron during the 1861-1862 season "emotional." She wrote The Belle of the Season and starred in it at the Winter Garden. The play ran until she resumed the role of Camille. The audience was predictably reduced to tears. Heron played in several other shows at the Winter Garden during this season.

Heron also played several roles in an unspecified-cause benefit in 1862-1863 season at Laura Keene's. With Laura Keene, Heron helped to popularize Brooklyn as a 1-2 night stand for talented and attractive actresses in the 1862-1863 seasons.

Heron's husband, Robert Stoepel, arranged "Hiawatha" to music and Heron recited the poem while other performers did the musical parts (1863-1864 season).

Deland was part of Keene's company's performance of House and Home.

Menken was annouced as coming out of New Orleans in the 1858-1859 season. She was seen by a New York audience for the first time on March 1, 1859 in The Widow Cheerly. Odell says she "has left behind her one of the most intriguing reputations known to the theater, was at the time of her debut here but an untrained girl, revealing no great possiblities for the future" (145). Odell discusses Menken's later international fame and relationships with "poets" and "gilded youths." Odell also makes mention of pictures of "the Menken" taken with the elder Dumas and A.C. Swinburne. Odell quotes an early review of Menken that discusses how she is talented but requires training.

Odell calls Menken "beautiful and erratic" (233) and discusses her first appearance at the Bowery in the 1859-60 season. At this performance, Menken announced herself Mrs. John C. Heenan, identifying herself with the "Benicia Boy" (?)(233). The Bowery performance seems to have endeared her to the crowds. Menken appeared again in this season identified in playbills as Mrs. J.C. Heenan; Odell reprints reviews and lists her roles.

Menken is listed among the readers at Hope Chapel (1859-60) when "mystery-woman, 'disintguished actress and authoress'" read from Shakespeare and modern poets (294). Menkened plays the Canterbury and the Melodeon. She was booked for six nights at the Melodean during the 1860-1 season and failed to appear; she does not seem to have appeared for any of her run. Odell states that "Menken's reputation, savoury and unsavoury, was still in the making" (360).

During the 1861-62 season Odell states that "A great night came in on the 9th of June, when the beautiful, mysterious, daring, and not altogether shrinking Menken began an engagement, performing nine characters in Three Fast Women (409). Odell lists several other credits for Menken for that season, including the title role in Lola Montes.

On June 16, 1862, she appears in Mazeppa. Odell states: "On June 16th, Menken at last appeared in New York in the part associated with her fame, Mazeppa, in which she made the ascents and descents of the perilous scaffoldings of the scenery, on the bare back of the stead, and one might say delicately, on her own bare back - 'a feat never before attempted by any woman'" (409). Odell claims that "this sensation drew the town" and Mazeppa became the closing thrill of her benefits that season (409). Odell states, "The fame of this daring enterprise has come down to our own times, and will doubtless go on" (409).

During the same season, J.C. Heenan wrotes a Nov. 1 letter to The Herald in which he denied being married to Menken. He also responded to allgations that he spent her money (she seems to have filed a suit against him or written allegations that he spent her money in The Herald)(445).

Odell describes Menken's return to the stage in 1862-63 season, her roles, the revival of Mazeppa, and the other plays she performed for benefits. Odell also discusses performances of Mazeppa that do not star Menken and occured when she was "turning the heads of literary Europe" (572).

Montes also gave a series of talks: two autobiographical lectures and two lectures on other topics. Odell also mentions that Montes lectures in 1859-60 season "considerably chastened" (293).

Smith appears to have been relatively well-known. He is mentioned as being onstage at Burton's with Clifton. Smith also appeared with Booth and took part in one of one of Brougham's benefits. Odell mentions Smith's unemployment at the closing of Burton's. Odell also mentions, however, that Smith and his wife were employed at Buckley's in the 1858-59 season.

Odell mentions that Smith is a part of the "light and frivolous" summer season (1862-63) at Wallack's (?) with Emily Thorne. The 1862-63 season closed with a benefit to him (481-482).

Odell mentions that Sothern won much applause in the 1856-57 season for the role of "Armand." He played this role opposite Heron in 1857-58 season.

Sothern was one of the popular actors (including Booth and Jefferson) who firmly fixed their reputation in the 1856-57 and 1857-58 seasons at Wallack's. He made his first appearance at Keene's in a benefit for Jefferson in 1857-58 season. Sothern is listed as the manager of Keene's theater and is often involved in the personality conflicts that seem to have arisen there. Sothern's addition to Keene's company made it possible for Our American Cousin to be a success in the 1858-59 season (39). Keene's 1857-59 company is described as her best ever.

Odell discusses Sothern's versalitily as an actor in addition to the versatility of other members of Keene's company. Sothern seems to have been upset at his casting as Dundreary in Our American Cousin, but that role became his "stepping stone to fortune" (129). The success of Our American Cousin is described as the turning point in his and Jefferson's and Keene's careers.

Sothern was missing from Keene's company at the beginning of 1859-60 season. He later appeared in Gayler's sequel to Our American Cousin entitled Our American Cousin at Home, or, Lord Dundreary Abroad as Lord Dundreary on his travels in America and also as Dundreary's younger brother (319). This play was a mix of "fun and melodrama" and included Dundreary falling in a well, a panorama of the Hudson from NY to Albany with effects of sunset, moonlight, and sunrise, the destruction of Asa's mills, and a grand skating scene with the actors on roller skates. This play seems to have pleased the public in the early days of the Civil War (319-20).

Sothern brought out own his own play, Suspense in the 1860-1861 season.

Strakosch brought distinguished instrumentalists to New York on Feb.13, 1865 for the 1864-65 musical season at Niblo's Saloon.

Taylor gave a lecture at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute Dec. 7, 1858, entitled Moscow. He was also part of the Hamlitonian Literary Association lecture series given at the Odeon, 1959-60, in Brooklyn.

Wallack was a well-known actor and stage manager at Wallacks (run by his family). His salary at Wallack's is noted by Odell on p.19 - Odell includes his weekly salary plus numbers for what he was to receive from benefits and how many benefits he could hold for himself. His salary at the new theater is also listed by Odell.

Wallack became famous slightly earlier than Jefferson, Booth, and Sothern. The Happy Veteran, a "melodrama of glitterning Oriental accoutrements" was credited to him; he also performed in it. This show was also one of the last performances by the elder Wallack. The play was a financial success and ran for 66 nights, unaided by farce or afterpiece (124).

Wallack was part of a benefit for the Mount Vernon Association that also starred many other Pfaff's notables. Wallack was also part of a benefit for the American Dramatic Fund that seems to have brought together several of the important players in NY at the time: Keene, Brougham, and others.

Wallack's theater becames the leading New York (and possibly American) theater in the 1859-60 season. The Romance of a Poor Young Man required Wallack to leap from a tower that caused him an injury and the use of an understudy; however, Wallack was given positive reviews for the role (206).

Wallack claimed authorship of The House with Two Doors, played in Central Park. He was also credited as the author of the stage version of Lady Lee's Widowhood, a claim that is debatable (542).

At the new Wallack's the Rosedale, or the Rifle Ball received 125 performances in the 1863-64 season. For 25 years it became the best known feature of Lester Wallack's repetoire (542).

Wallack stopped acting in the 1864-1865 season. He seems to have been affected by bad health and his father's death(629). Wallack returned to the stage May 9, 1865, after a 4 month absence.

Wallack claimed that Our American Cousin had originally been offered to his father, but there was no actor in the company suitable to play the role of Asa Trenchard, so he advised the play be sent to Keene's as "an admirable medium for exploiting the popular Jefferson" (128).

His play, The Siam Light Guard, was performed Sept. 28, 1857, at Keene's. Wilkins also adapted Henriette. The adaptation of the play was originally billed as "translated from the French, and adapted to the American stage by a gentleman of this city" (308).

Odell also mentions that Wilkins was the dramatic critic for the Herald.

He disputed Gayler's claim that O'Brien wrote Rosedale.