New-York tribune., 1918-02-17
Sinking a Stage U-Boat
A Rsunoe of Melodranau Which .Shous
the Fusillade in "Seven Days Leave"
in Accord With Its Best Traditions
By Alexander Pierce

pay WAS aIterWard done at Haver.
ley's Theatre, at Fourteenth Stree. a..
Sixth Avenue, New York, for the o..
son, and in the cast were such wo,l
known players of those days as Maua
Granger, Emily Rigl, Frank Evans ana
Junius Brutus Booth. Then came n.
same authors story of the old sou,h
called The White Slave This MA.
had the famous boat race scene on H.
Mississippi River between the p.,,.
Creole and the Natchez.
"'The White Slave was FIRST act.t :.
che Fourteenth Street Theatre in Apr;l
1882, and in the cast were Georo;.
Cayvan. Gus Levick and William
Scanlon, who afterward became ths
famous Irish comedian and sipvs-
Marie Bates, who is now and has h..,
for many years. with David Warfe,;
was in the cast, and she is the or,y
survivor of the original company Edith
Kingdom, now the wife of George
Gould, was the Lefty Lee in the frs,
u PoAy ~ Ho Nhlte Slave
while jeffrey Lewis was the frs.
Nance. The hold which The Whit.
Slave has on the public is evidences
by the fact that it is still being plav.d
throughout America, and has. bear
acted throughout the United States and
Canada no less than thirty thousans
times. Probably this is q record
equalled by no other play with the ex.
ception of Uncle Toms Cabin
at was in The White Slave BY tn.
way. that my father wrote his famous
bombastic lines, Rags arc oval raj
ment when worn for Virtues sake |
remember my father telling ME that
when he wrote it he thought it was
too bombastic, and struck il out from
the original manuscript, but put 1t
back at the last moment. That line *
now carved on the granite shaft which
marks the resting place of Bartley
Campbell in his native city of Pitts
burgh. 1t has been given undying
tame by its constant use at the feasts
OF the Gridiron Club, in Washington
and is the favoritc quotation when
anybody wants to be witty and make
fun of melodrama.
During all this time when melo
drama was having its vogue in the first
class theatres of America these same
successes Of Wallack's, the Upm
Square and the Fourteenth Street he.
atres were being reproduced in Boston
at the famous Boston Theatre by Mr.
Eugene Tompkins. in fact, The Silver
King, Youth, 'In the Ranks The Sou.
dan,' THE Lights O. London and Rom.
any Rye all had long runs at the Bos.
ton Theatre. and were toured through.
out New England by the road orcaniza.
tlons which operated from that re-
nowned playhouse. And, speaking OF
'Romany Rye which was by George
R. Sims, the tag of that play is ever
quoted by so-called wags, Never shall
] forget the night We spent with Gerty
Heckett and the Romany Rye
"Just about this time David Belasco
was beginning to loom up out of the
Western sun. In San Francisco he
produced a melodrama under the title
of The Strangers of Paris He brought
this to New York, where it was pre-.
sented at the New Park Theatre, later
known as the Herald Square, while Mn
Augustin DAILY about this time trans
ferred from tho Drury Lane Theatre,
in London, such melodramas by Cecil
Raleigh as The Great Ruby
after the death Of BARLEY Camp.
bell no American playwright sprapg
up in the melodrematic field until
Charles T. Dazey wrote play Of The
South of to-day. It was modern
Southern play with nothing whatever
to do with the institution Of slavery.
He called it in Old Kentucky and the
two features that stood out above ell
else were the heroine, who masquerade
as jockey in the horse race, and the
pickaninny band. This play, In '0ld
Kentucky it has been conseratiyely
stated, has cleared in profits more than
S1,250,0O0.
"Along about 1895 began the de-
cadence OF the melodrama, for thers
came into the game what was know
for many years as the ten, tweut
thirt' theatres. With the birth o.
these cheap theatres in America came
the form of melodrama which can bsS
be described as plays OF impossible ST.
uations, eXaggeration and blood ano
thunder. Among them may be men
toned Across the Pacific done ps
Charles L. Blancy, who WAS once
known as the King of Melodralns.' Dc
then brought out such pieces as 'ins
King of the Opium Ring while SAB
II. Harris and All H. Woods produces
such other thrills as 'Thc Queen Of tne
White Slaves. The Fatal Weddins'
Nellie, the Beautiful Cloak Model>
Bertha. the Sewing Machine Gife
Welded and Parted, and Tony, W.
Bootblack.' These were pictures o.
vicc, showing dens of opium smokers
and all the seamy side of life.
""'Within the Law Bayard VeilIers
wonderful success, was nothing bu'
mclodrama on a small scale and W''
nigh rriced cast. and the same =
really true of Nsv Narcjn's Cheatihs