Red Lodge daily news combined with Carbon County news., 1933-08-16
UncR I'm ana LITTLE Enz

The first dramatization of the book was made
by George L. Aiken while the story was running
serially In the National Era. On September 2,
1852. Aiken's play had its premiere In the Mu-
scum at Troy, N. T., and from that time dates
the immense popularity of Uncle Toms Cab
In" As a matter of fact this was not the first
stage production of the show, but 1t was the
first successful one.
A certain Charles w. Taylor had also drama
tized the book and in August, 1852, q month be-
fore the Troy production, he presented a play
running only an hour, as one Item on the eve
ming bill at Purdy's National theater In New
York City. But-fatal error The left both Topsy
and Little Eva out of his story SO his play was
a failure, being withdrawn after q run Of only
IL nights.
The Troy production was largely a family af-
fair. The manager OF the Troy museum, George
c. Howard, played both "Uncle Tom and "St
Clare" His wife played both "Topsy' and
"Chloe." Mrs. Towards brother, Charles Fox,
played both 'Phineas Fletcher and "Gumption
Cute and Mrs. Fox played @Ophelia." George
L. Aiken, the dramatist and a cousin Of Howard,
doubled as SHELBY" and 'George Harris" and
his brother, Frank Aiken. played Marks" And
finally the part OF Little Eva was played by
Cordelia Howard, the four-year-old daughter of
the Towards who thus had the distinction often
claimed by others of being ''the first Little Eva"
She played that role for eight years, then at
the age Of twelve she left the stage never to re-
turn. In the year which marks definitely the
| decline of the Tom shows, she was still living at
the age of nearly eighty, q recluse who refused to
see anyone or to talk OF her career as "the first
Little Eva"
The Howards' production Of the play, with
just seven people carrying the eleven roles, was
an instantaneous success. 1t not only carried the
country by storm but 1t crossed the Atlantic.
In 1853 a curious English version Of II, filed with
WAL, I calculate" and similar supposed Yankee
isms, was produced at the Theater Royal In
Manchester, England. Arthur Ruhl. writing In
| the New York Herald Tribune, about the cur
rent revival reviews Its early history as follows
"La Case de rOncle Tom 'Onkle Toms
Huette,' La Cabana del Tic Tomas'-the thing
swept like a prairie fire into every language In
the western world. 1t ran Town into Africa 1t.
self, was devoured by the Armenians and other
Near Fasteners, and little Slavs, in a Russia
which still had Its serfs, wept over 'Hata Djada
Toma' or something that sounded more or less
like that. Letters from everybody of conse
quence-from Macaulay, Dickens. Charles Kings
lev. statesmen and political leaders. the great
George Sand, German pundits, even the mockinl
HeIne was stirred"
And Otis Skinner, who plays Uncle Tom In
the revival, a role which be first played In 1871
In a stock company at the Philadelphia Museum
writing In the New York Times recently. con
tributes this bit Of history:
I'm August, 1878, Jarrett & Palmer, an enter
prising Arm Of New York managers, made a small
fortune by taking the play overseas to England
| Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Holland. II
the company were Marie Bates. who is still re
membered as playing long and prominently will
David Warfeld In The Auctioneer.' and Harr,
Hawk. who was on the stage of Ford's theate
In Washington at the moment that Lincoln wa
shot In the box above him by John Wilkes Booth
Another In that company was Harold Eos
burg, q gorgeous specimen of the old-time heav.
man Harold was OF the stage stacy he seeme'
to think In the terms of melodrama and blanl
) verse. While the troupe was exhibiting In Ger
many bis delight was to parade through tn
streets of Berlin and other cities dressed In tn