Refers to Augustin Daly as her "fast friend" for arranging the details of her voyage to Europe "in just twelve hours from the time I had settled to go" (95).
Describes how Daly, dramatic critic for the New York "Evening Express," took over the lease of the New York Theatre as his "third venture into theatrical business" (111).
Eytinge refers to conversations with Daly's mother in which she learned that "he had always been a manager" (112). As a child, he "would organise his comrades into a stock company and manage them. He never attempted to act himself, but . . . he cast his pieces and handled his company with the single-mindedness that characterised him afterward" (112).
Daly began his management of the New York Theatre with a production of "Griffith Gaunt" and Eytinge describes his difficulty finding the right actress to play the heroine Kate Peyton (112-3). Upon meeting Eytinge and discussing the story and the character with her, Daly, "with one of those gusts of sudden resolution to which he was addicted, . . . asked me if I would play the part" (113). Describing Daly as a "serious-eyed, intensely earnest young manager," Eytinge was impressed when he was able to convince Lester Wallack to add a provision to her contract that allowed her to act in "Griffith Gaunt" (113-4).
Eytinge reports a conflict with Daly during the first rehearsal for "Griffith Gaunt." As she rehearsed, he interrupted her with instructions and made her "nervous and uncertain in [her] work" (114). However, she also comments on how agreeable he was. When she "begged that he would allow me to struggle through the part uninterrupted . . . he promptly and amiably assented" (114-5).
Daly read his play "Under a Gaslight" to Eytinge and she agreed to play the part of Laura Courtland. She describes how "even then his artistic aspirations and longings were struggling for expression . . . everywhere there were evidences of his reaching out after a literary and artistic atmosphere" (115).
Daly is commended by Eytinge for the good acting companies he put together for his plays. She tells an anecdote about how he attempted to control joking among the actors by threatening to discharge them. Once he found that this tactic did not work, he "fairly and frankly gave up the fight" (117). Eytinge explains that this "magnanimous action of our young manager had the effect of making us all feel heartily ashamed of ourselves, and from that night, by unanimous decision, there was no more guying" (117).
Eytinge describes Daly and herself as "good comrades" (117). She often accompanied him to plays at several theaters in one evening so that he could review these performances in his role as theater critic (117). She also notes that Daly accompanied her to acting engagements in Newark and Washington as her producer (119).
Eytinge attributes her return to the stage in 1873 in part to Daly. She refers to him as one of America's leading managers. While Daly and Lester Wallack made her "tempting offers," she decided to work for Shook & Palmer upon the recommendation of Thurlow Weed (215).
Explaining her first ill-equipped venture into the business side of acting, Eytinge makes reference to Augustin Daly. She writes in appreciation of how he always took care of the business details when she worked with him and allowed her to focus on acting (241-2).
The Vault at Pfaff's