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New ListingLot Of Tour Guides And Atlantean Marksman Ultimates AD
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The ULTIMATE Autographed STEPHANIE J BLOCK Playbill Collection! COVENANT HOUSE
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LOT OF 5 Ultimate PLAYBILL 3-Ring BINDERS - Sell for $46.99 ea $235 Value
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Sutton Foster SIGNED Programs & Playbills (9) Millie, Little Women, Shrek & More
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FANNY KEMBLE RARE LARGE 1829 ROMEO & JULIET BROADSIDE
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A magnificent original October 16, 1829 Theatre Royal, Covent Garden broadside for the great Fanny Kemble and her father Charles Kemble in Romeo and Juliet. Dimensions thirteen and a half by eight inches. Light wear otherwise good. See Fannny and Charles Kemble's extraordinary biographies below.Ships USPS insured. Shipping discounts for buyers of multiple items. Credit cards accepted with Paypal. Inquiries always welcome. Please visit my other eBay items for more early dance, theatre music and historical autographs, broadsides, photographs and programs and great actor and actress cabinet photos and CDV's. From Anne "Fanny" Kemble (27 November 1809 – 15 January 1893) was a British actress from a theatre family in the early and mid-19th century. She was a well-known and popular writer and abolitionist, whose published works included plays, poetry, eleven volumes of memoirs, travel writing and works about the theatre.In 1834, Kemble married a French man, Pierce Mease Butler, grandson of U.S. Senator Pierce Butler, whom she had met on an American acting tour with her father in 1832. After living in Philadelphia for a time, Butler became heir to the cotton, tobacco and rice plantations of his grandfather on Butler Island, just south of Darien, Georgia, and to the hundreds of slaves who worked them. He made trips to the plantations during the early years of their marriage, but never took Kemble or their children with him. At Kemble's insistence, they finally spent the winter of 1838–1839 there and Kemble kept a diary of her observations, flavored strongly by abolitionist sentiment Butler disapproved of Kemble's outspokenness, forbidding her to publish. The relationship grew abusive, and Kemble eventually returned to England with her two daughters. Butler filed for a divorce in 1847, after they had been separated for some time, citing abandonment and misdeed by Kemble.[1] She returned to the theatre and toured major US cities, giving successful readings of Shakespeare plays. Her memoir circulated in American abolitionist circles, but she waited until 1863, during the American Civil War, to publish her anti-slavery Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838–1839.[2] It has become her best-known work in the United States: she published several other volumes of journals. In 1877, she returned to England with her second daughter and son-in-law. She lived in London and was active in society, befriending the writer Henry James. In 2000, Harvard University Press published an edited compilation from her journals. These included Record of a Girlhood (1878) and Records of Later Life (1882).[3]Youth and acting careerFanny Kemble as a young girlA member of the famous Kemble theatrical family, Fanny was the eldest daughter of the actor Charles Kemble and his Viennese-born wife, the former Marie Therese De Camp. She was a niece of the noted tragedienne Sarah Siddons and of the famous actor John Philip Kemble. Her younger sister was the opera singer Adelaide Kemble.[2] Fanny was born in London and educated chiefly in France [citation needed] In 1821, Fanny Kemble departed to boarding school in Paris to study art and music as befitted the child of the most celebrated artistic family in England at that time. In addition to literature and society, it was at Mrs Lamb's Academy in the Rue d'Angoulême, Champs Elysées, that Fanny received her first real personal exposure to the stage performing staged readings for students' parents during her time at school. As an adolescent, Kemble spent time studying literature and poetry, in particular the work of Lord Byron.[4]One of her teachers was Frances Arabella Rowden (1774 – c. 1840),[5] who had been associated with the Reading Abbey Girls' School since she was 16. Rowden was an engaging teacher, with a particular enthusiasm for the theatre. She was not only a poet, but according to Mary Russell Mitford, "she had a knack of making poetesses of her pupils"[6]In 1827, Kemble wrote her first five-act play, Francis the First. It was met with critical acclaim from multiple quarters. Nineteenth century critics wrote that the script "displays so much spirit and originality, so much of the true qualities which are required in dramatic composition, that it may fairly stand upon its own intrinsic worth, and that the author may fearlessly challenge a comparison with any other modern dramatist [7]On 26 October 1829, at the age of 20, Kemble first appeared on the stage as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet at Covent Garden Theatre, after only three weeks of rehearsals. Her attractive personality at once made her a great favourite, and her popularity enabled her father to recoup his losses as a manager. She played all the principal women's roles of the time, notably Shakespeare's Portia and Beatrice (Much Ado about Nothing), and Lady Teazle in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The School for Scandal.[8][9] Kemble disliked the artificiality of stardom in general, but appreciated the salary which she accepted to help her family in their frequent financial troubles.In 1832, Kemble accompanied her father on a theatrical tour of the United States. While in Boston in 1833, she journeyed to Quincy to witness the revolutionary technology of the first commercial railroad in the United States. She had previously accompanied George Stephenson on a test of the Liverpool and Manchester, prior to its opening in England, and described this in a letter written in early 1830. The Granite Railway was among many sights which she recorded in her journal.Kemble returned to acting as a solo platform performer, beginning her first American tour in 1849. During her readings she rose to focus on presenting edited works of Shakespeare, though unlike others she insisted on representing his entire canon, ultimately building her repertoire to 25 of his plays. She performed in Britain and in the United States, concluding her career as a platform performer in 1868 [10]Marriage and daughtersIn 1834, Kemble retired from the stage to marry on 7 June an American, Pierce Mease Butler.[2] Although they met and lived in Philadelphia, Butler was the grandson of Pierce Butler, a Founding Father and heir to a large fortune in cotton, tobacco, and rice plantations. By the time the couple's daughters, Sarah and Frances, were born, Butler had inherited three of his grandfather's plantations on Butler Island, just south of Darien, Georgia, and the hundreds of people who were enslaved on them.[11]The family visited Georgia during the winter of 1838–1839, where they lived at the plantations at Butler and St. Simons islands, in conditions primitive compared to their house in Philadelphia. Kemble was shocked by the living and working conditions of the slaves and their treatment by the overseers and managers. She tried to improve matters, complaining to her husband about slavery and about the mixed-race slave children attributed to the overseer, Roswell King, Jr.[citation needed]Marital tensions had emerged when the family returned to Philadelphia in the spring of 1839. Apart from their disagreements over slave treatment on Butler's plantations, Kemble was "embittered and embarrassed" by Butler's marital infidelities [12] Butler threatened to deny Kemble access to their daughters if she published any of her observations about the plantations [13] By 1845–1847, the marriage had failed irretrievably and Kemble returned to Europe [2]Separation and divorceIn 1847, Kemble returned to the stage in the United States, as she needed to make a living. Following her father's example, she appeared with success as a Shakespearean reader, rather than acting in plays. She toured the United States. The couple endured a bitter and protracted divorce in 1849, with Butler retaining custody of their two daughters. At that time, with divorce rare, the father was customarily awarded custody in the patriarchal society. Other than brief visits, Kemble was not reunited with her daughters until each came of age at 21.[14]Her ex-husband squandered a fortune estimated at $700,000, but was saved from bankruptcy by a sale on 2–3 March 1859 of 436 people he held in slavery. The Great Slave Auction, at Ten Broeck racetrack outside Savannah, Georgia, was the largest single slave auction in United States history. As such, it was covered by national reporters [15]After the American Civil War, Butler tried to run his plantations with free labour, but failed to make a profit. He died of malaria in Georgia in 1867. Neither Butler nor Kemble remarried [16]Later lifeKemble's success as a Shakespearean reader enabled her to buy a home in Lenox, Massachusetts [17] In 1877, she returned to London to join her younger daughter Frances, who had moved there with her British husband and child. Using her maiden name, Kemble lived there until her death. During this period she was a prominent and popular figure in London society, and became a great friend of the American writer Henry James during her later years. His novel, Washington Square (1880), was based on a story Kemble told him about one of her relatives [18]Literary careerKemble wrote two plays, Francis the First (1832) and The Star of Seville (1837). She also published a volume of poems (1844). She published the first volume of her memoirs, Journal, in 1835, shortly after her marriage. In 1863, she published another volume in both the United States and Great Britain. Entitled Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839, it included her observations of slavery and life on her husband's Southern plantation in the winter of 1838–1839. It contains the earliest-known written use of the word "vegetarian": "The sight and smell of raw meat are especially odious to me, and I have often thought that if I had had to be my own cook, I should inevitably become a vegetarian, probably, indeed, return entirely to my green and salad days."[19]After separating from Butler in the 1840s, Kemble travelled in Italy and wrote a two-volume book on this time, A Year of Consolation (1847).[20]In 1863 Kemble also published a volume of plays, including translations from Alexandre Dumas, père and Friedrich Schiller. These were followed by additional memoirs: Records of a Girlhood (1878); Records of Later Life (1882); Far Away and Long Ago (1889); and Further Records (1891). Her various reminiscences contain much valuable material about the social and theatrical history of the period. She also published Notes on Some of Shakespeare's Plays (1882), based on long experience in acting and reading his works DescendantsKemble s older daughter, Sarah Butler, married Owen Jones Wister, an American doctor. Their one child, Owen Wister, grew up to become a popular American novelist, writing in 1902 a popular 1902 western, The Virginian Fanny s other daughter Frances met James Leigh in Georgia. He was a minister born in England. The couple married in 1871, and their one child, Alice Leigh, was born in 1874. An attempt was made to run Frances's father's plantations there with free labour, but no profit could be made. Leaving Georgia in 1877, they moved permanently to England. Frances Butler Leigh defended her father in the continuing post-war dispute over slavery as an institution. Based on her experience, Leigh published Ten Years on a Georgian Plantation since the War (1883), a rebuttal to her mother's account [14]DeathHer granddaughter Alice Leigh was present when Fanny Kemble died in London in 1893 Controversy[edit]While Kemble's account of the plantations has been criticised, it is seen as notable for voicing the enslaved black people, especially enslaved black women, and has been drawn on by many historians.[21] As noted earlier, her daughter published a rebuttal account. Margaret Davis Cate published a strong critique in the Georgia Historical Quarterly in 1960. In the early 21st century, historians Catherine Clinton[ and Deirdre David studied Kemble's Journal and raised questions[ about her portrayal of Roswell King, father and son, who successively managed Pierce Butler's plantations, and about Kemble's own racial sentiments.On Kemble's racial views, David notes how she would call black slaves stupid, lazy, filthy and ugly, but such views were then common and compatible with opposing slavery and outrage at its cruelties [22]Clinton noted that in 1930, Julia King, granddaughter of Roswell King, Jr., stated that Kemble had falsified her account of him after he spurned her affections.[23] There is little evidence in Kemble's Journal that she encountered Roswell King, Jr., on more than a few occasions, and none that she knew his wife, the former Julia Rebecca Maxwell. But she criticized Maxwell as "a female fiend" because a slave named Sophy told her that Mrs. King had ordered the flogging of Judy and Scylla, "of whose children Mr. K[ing] was the father."[24] Roswell King, Jr., was no longer in the employ of her husband when Pierce Butler and Kemble began their short residency in Georgia. King had resigned due to "growing uneasiness... born of a dispute between the Kings and the Butlers over fees the elder King thought were owed him as co administrator of Major Butler's estate [25]Before arriving in Georgia, Kemble had written, "It is notorious that almost every Southern planter has a family more or less numerous of illegitimate coloured children."[26] Her statements about Roswell King, Sr., and Roswell King, Jr., and their alleged status as white fathers of enslaved mulatto children, are based on what she was told by other slaves. In some cases, individuals relied on hearsay accounts of their paternity, although European ancestry was visible. The mulatto Renty, for example, was "ashamed" to ask his mother about the identity of his father. He believed he was the son of Roswell King, Jr. because "Mr. C[ouper]'s children told me so, and I 'spect they know it."[27] John Couper, the Scottish-born owner of a rival plantation adjacent to Pierce Butler's Hampton Point on St. Simon's Island, had had marked disagreements with the Roswell Kings in the past. Clinton suggests that Kemble favored Couper's accounts [28][BiographiesNumerous books have appeared on Fanny Kemble and her family, including Deirdre David's A Performed Life[9] (2007) and Vanessa Dickerson's passage on Kemble in Dark Victorians (2008). Earlier works were Fanny Kemble (1933) by Leota Stultz Driver, Fanny Kemble: A Passionate Victorian (1939) by Margaret Armstrong,[29] Fanny Kemble: Actress, Author, Abolitionist (1967) by Winifred Wise,[30] and Fanny Kemble: Leading Lady of the Nineteenth century Stage : A Biography (1982) by J.C. Furnas.[31]Some recent biographies that focus on Kemble's role as an abolitionist include Catherine Clinton's Fanny Kemble's Civil Wars: The Story of America's Most Unlikely Abolitionist (2000). Others have studied the theatrical careers of Kemble and her family. One of these, Henry Gibbs' Affectionately Yours, Fanny: Fanny Kemble and the Theatre, appeared in eight editions between 1945 and 1947.Charles Kemble (25 November 1775 – 12 November 1854) was a Welsh-born English actor of a prominent theatre family.[Charles Kemble was one of 13 siblings and the youngest son of English Roman Catholic theatre manager/actor Roger Kemble, and Irish-born actress Sarah Ward. He was the younger brother of, among others, John Philip Kemble, Stephen Kemble and Sarah Siddons. He was born at Brecon in South Wales. Like his brothers he was raised in his father's Catholic faith, while his sisters were raised in their mother's Protestant faith. He and John Philip were educated at Douai School.After returning to England in 1792, he obtained a job in the post office, but soon resigned to go on the stage, making his first recorded appearance at Sheffield as Orlando in As You Like It in that year. During the early part of his career as an actor he slowly gained popularity. For a considerable time he played with his brother and sister, chiefly in secondary parts, and received little attention Charles Kemble, by Henry Perronet Briggs. Oil on canvas, before 1832His first London appearance was on 21 April 1794, as Malcolm to his brother's Macbeth. Ultimately he won independent fame, especially in such characters as Archer in George Farquhar's Beaux' Stratagem, Dorincourt in Hannah Cowley's Belle's Stratagem, Charles Surface and Ranger in Benjamin Hoadley's Suspicious Husband. His Laërtes and Macduff were as accomplished as his brother's Hamlet and Macbeth. His production of Cymbeline in 1827 inaugurated the trend to historical accuracy in stagings of that play that reached a peak with Henry Irving at the turn of the century.In comedy he was ably supported by his wife, Marie Therese De Camp, whom he married on 2 July 1806. His visit, with his daughter Fanny, to America during 1832 and 1834, aroused much enthusiasm. The later part of his career was beset by money troubles in connection with his joint proprietorship of Covent Garden theatre.He formally retired from the stage in December 1836, but his final appearance was on 10 April 1840. From 1836-1840 he held the office of Examiner of Plays.[2] In 1844-45 he gave readings from Shakespeare at Willis's Rooms. Macready regarded his Cassio as incomparable, and summed him up as "a first-rate actor of second-rate parts."

GREAT JAPANESE ACTORS OTOJIRO KAWAKAMI & SADO YACCO RARE 1900 NEW YORK PROGRAM
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A rare original March 1900 Bijou Theatre, New York program clip for the great Japanese actors Otojiro Kawakami & Sado Yacco in Scarlet Snow and Teijo, the Loyal Wife. Dimensions twelve by four and thre quarters inches, mounted to a twelve by nine inch Victorian album page. Light wear otherwise good. See Otojiro Kwakami's extraordinary biography below. Ships first class insured in US and airmail overseas. Shipping discounts for multiple purchases. Inquiries always welcome. Please visit my other eBay items for more early theatre, opera, film, magic, and historical autographs, photographs, programs and broadsides and great actor and actress cabinet photos and CDV's. From Wikipedia: Kawakami Otojir? (?? ???, 8 February 1864 – 11 November 1911) was a Japanese actor and comedian.Early lifeKawakami was born in present-day Hakata-ku, Fukuoka on the island of Kyushu, "the second son of a second son" of a merchant family.[1]: p54 At age eleven his mother died, and when he didn't get along with his stepmother he stowed away on a cargo ship to Osaka.[1]: p54 Taking odd jobs to support himself, at eighteen he became a policeman in Kyoto.[1]: p54 "Shortly after that, fired by the political turmoil and the strident calls for democracy, he had joined Itagaki Taisuke's Liberal party (Liberal Party of Japan (1881)) as a radical, rabble-rousing soshi agitator Soon his scurrilous tongue and subversive speeches were getting him into trouble. He was arrested time and time again- a hundred and eighty times in all, he bragged. At nineteen he was banned from speaking in public in Kyoto for a year and from using the name "Liberty Kid" (????). He also went to prison six times."[1]: pp54-55 was inspired to start his own acting troupe after receiving acting training under a rakugo master [1]: p55 and after seeing the shosei shibai ("student theater" or "amateur theater") of fellow activist Sadanori Sudo, which "aimed at being realistic, just like in the West, and thus could claim to be following government directives to be as Western as possible in every possible way. … Far from being career-driven professionals, like the kabuki actors, they portrayed themselves as romantic, devil-may-care bohemians. Their amateur status freed them from all the constraints and conventions of the traditional theater."[1]: pp55-56 Under the influence of philosopher Chomin Nakae, Kawakami began staging theatre productions as an outlet for his political views.In 1888, Kawakami developed a satirical song that would make him famous.[2] At the end of his troupe's play "The true story of our Itagaki's disaster" (based on a failed 1882 assassination of the aforementioned Itagaki) "a lone figure wearing a jaunty white headband swaggered out and with a flourish knelt in macho samurai-style, his knees spread wide apart, in front of a gold leaf screen...He was wearing a red samurai surcoat with exaggerated pointed shoulders above a plaid men's kimono Flourishing a black fan emblazoned with a red rising sun...while a rhythmic shamisen strummed, he spat out the words in a husky rapid-fire patter, improvising verses as he went along. He sneered at the government, the rich, and the kind of people who dressed in Western clothes, aped Western ways, and spent all their money on geisha....The catchy chorus Oppekepe imitated the sound of a bugle or a trumpet:In these days when the price of rice is rising,You completely ignore the plight of the poor.Covering your eyes with tall hats,Wearing gold rings and watches,You bow to men of influence and positionAnd spend your money on geisha and entertainers. …If you think you can get to ParadiseBy … using a bribe when you encounterThe King of Hades in hell, you'll never make it!Oppekeppe, oppekepeppo, peppoppo.[1]: pp52-53 Impressed by this troupe, then-Prime Minister It? Hirobumi invited them to a private party where he would introduce Kawakami to one of his favorite geisha, the woman her Western fans would later dub Sada Yacco.[1]: pp57-58 From January to May 1893, under the suggestion of a mutual friend Baron Kentaro Kaneko, Otojir? traveled to Paris to study European theater and learn how to improve his troupe's success.[1]: pp62-64 The innovations he instituted on his return, from lighting nothing but the stage and using only electric lights to using only light coatings of makeup and speaking naturally, "could no longer be dismissed as 'student theater.' It was a radical new drama in its own right—New Wave theater, shinpa."[1]: p64 Five months after his return, he and Sada Yacco were married.[1]: p64 "Otojir? had a genius for giving the public what it wanted. He had a string of hits with some spine-tingling melodramas based on contemporary events. … But he could never break free of his money problems. Right in the middle of a successful run his debtors would appear with a demand or bailiffs would come to seize some of his property."[1]: p65 In an attempt to overcome his financial problems, Otojir? decided to construct his own theater the Kamakami-za, "one of Japan's very first modern theaters, designed on the French model with electric lighting throughout and no hanamichi … instead of being open and welcoming like an old-style Japanese theater, with slatted wooden doors that slid out of the way and an upper floor displaying colorful posters of the latest production, it was a hefty three-story brick-and-stone building in the Palladian style with narrow doors, small windows, and a large auditorium. Emblazoned on the proscenium arch above the stage, framed within a frieze of chrysanthemums, was the legend THEATRE KAWAKAMI."[1]: pp68, 72 With a deposit of fifty thousand yen,[1]: p68 it took three years to construct and had its grand opening on June 6, 1896.[1]: pp68, 72 Political campaignDespite their success, the newly named Kawakami Theatre Troupe was still beset with debt. Otojir? thus decided to run for the Japanese Diet. Moving the couple to "a six-sided Western-style house" in the village of Omori,[1]: p78 Kawakami threw a large outdoor campaign celebration and courted the wealthy landowners and geisha of the area, even employing his wife to contact her previous geisha clients.[1]: pp78-79 "The press, however, was implacably hostile. Here was he, a riverbed beggar, an outcast, barely human, daring to think of sullying the purity of parliament with his presence. Even national papers targeted his small local campaign."[1]: p79 The negative press would ultimately lead to Otojir?'s defeat, putting the Kawakamis even deeper in debt.[1]: p80 "Desperately depressed,"[1]: p81 the couple decided to buy a small sailboat and escape to Kobe. At each village they stopped at they would exchange stories for lodging.[1]: p86 The newspapers, catching wind of this, reported on the couple with such furor that upon their arrival in Kobe large crowds gathered to greet them.[1]: p87 Adding to the sensation was Otojir?, who, being "an inveterate self-publicist, sent off letters to the papers reporting their progress and declaring that they were on their way to Korea or possibly Shanghai, to board a ship for Europe."[1]: p86 First overseas tour in Kobe, the couple met Japanese impresario Kushibiki Yumindo, who, hoping to improve his business providing all things Japanese to the West, offered to sponsor their theater troupe on a tour across the United States.[1]: p88 They immediately accepted and gathered a troupe, setting sail for San Francisco April 30, 1899.[1]: p91 Over the next two years, the Kawakami troupe would tour theaters in the United States, London, and Paris, becoming the first Japanese theatre company to ever tour the West.Otojir?, no doubt in consultation with Yakko, had pondered long and hard about what would best suit Western audiences. New Wave drama depended on language and was too tied to current events to travel well. Instead he presented some of the most famous and well-loved scenes from kabuki plays. These were timeless and would be exotic for what he judged to be Western taste. He cut back the dialogue, which, being in Japanese, would be to the audience, and beefed up the visual elements, putting in plenty of dancing, exciting sword fights, and comic interludes.He also simplified the plays and cut them to digestible lengths. When the troupe performed to Japanese audiences, two plays had taken up the entire day. For the Americans he had crammed four into two and a half hours. … Otojir? was later panned for having offered up bastardized kabuki to Western audiences. But his changes, though radical, were not entirely outside the spirit of the traditional theater…. In the past kabuki had been every bit as subversive as Otojir?’s New Wave theater.”[1]: p98 RepertoireIn San Francisco, the troupe performed four pieces:The Duel (Sayaate Clashing Swordhilts") – two samurai, one handsome and heroic and one comic (Otojir?), fight for the attention of the same Yoshiwara courtesan (Yakko)The Royalist (Kusunoki or Kojima Takanori) – a patriotic drama with "vividly realistic fights. It ended with a dramatic battle in which swords flashed and the actors leapt around, performing agile judo throws."[1]: pp99-118 The Maiden at D?j?-ji Temple (Musume D?j?-ji) – a woman (Yakko) is scorned by a monk and, pursuing him to a temple, kills him in her furyDewey Day Celebration on the Pine-Fringed Shores of Miho (Miho no Matsubara) – a series of folk dances celebrating Admiral George Dewey "who had overseen the destruction of a Spanish flotilla in Manila Bay at the start of the War the previous year"[1]: p100 For their first performance in Chicago, the group performed "The Royalist" and "The Maiden" to great success.[1]: pp118-119 By the time the troupe arrived in Boston, they had developed Geisha and the Knight, a pastiche that became a universal success throughout America and Europe. As Sadayakko remembered it, "It was a queer mixture of Japanese plays, but it appealed to the American mind with love, and delighted with our gorgeous costumes."[1]: p125 "The Geisha and the Knight," also billed in mock Japanese as Geisha to Somaray, was the highlight of their repertoire. It was a stroke of genius—a knitting together of The Duel (Sayaate) and the hugely popular Dojoji to make a single drama. The new play embodied all their choreographed fight scenes, humor, split-second costume changes, and gorgeous scenery. Above all it provided the perfect showcase for Yakko's exquisite dancing and spine-tingling death scene.The first act, "The Duel," is set in the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters, before a spectacular backdrop showing a street of wooden teahouses fading in sharp perspective into the distance. Cherry trees laden with brilliant pink blossoms adorn the stage. A beautiful geisha has rejected the advances of a boorish samurai named Banza in favor of her true love, Nagoya. Banza challenges Nagoya, striking his sword hilt. A fierce battle ensues between the two samurai and their bands of retainers, with plenty of energetic sword play, hand-to-hand combat, and acrobatic throws.For the second act, "Dojoji," Yakko's piece de resistance, had been subtly altered so as to merge seamlessly with the first. The backdrop was the temple courtyard with a great bell covered by a tiled roof and mountains in the background. There the geisha has discovered that Nagoya is betrothed to another. He and his bride-to-be have fled into the temple grounds. She dances before the gates, trying to seduce the monks into allowing her to pass. Then the bride-to-be appears and the geisha tries to kill her, but is prevented by the samurai. Loosing her luxuriant waist-length tresses, which fly about like a lion's mane, she turns into a raging fury and dies of a broken heart in her lover's arms.[1]: pp125-126 Second overseas tour and Yakko, eager to tour Europe once again, organized a new acting troupe of twenty actors, including a female actress and four geisha. On April 10, 1901 the troupe set sail for London, arriving on June 4 of the same year.[1]: p184 After touring several cities in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Russia, Italy, Spain, France, and Belgium, the troupe returned to Japan on August 19, 1902.[1]: p203 Later years"In the West the pair had introduced Japanese plays in a palatable form with stunning success. Now they intended to repeat that success at home, by introducing Western plays in a palatable form to Japanese audiences. Having already produced their own Merchant of Venice to surprising acclaim in the West...the couple wanted to make Shakespeare's powerful dramas accessible to everyone. With these startingly new, realistic, and up to the minute plays, they hoped to lure into the theater new audiences, who had been put off by the stylization and old-fashioned forms of kabuki."[1]: pp205-206 Performances included revised versions of Othello[1]: p206 and Hamlet,[1]: p211 as well as the German play The Trial of the Fox for the newly created otogi shibai( fairy tale theater") for children.[1]: p214 When the Russo-Japanese War broke out in 1904, the Kawakami Troupe produced The Battle Report Drama based on what troupe members themselves observed on the front.[1]: p216 "In 1906 Yakko starred in Maurice Maeterlinck's Monna Vanna, the dramatic tragedy of a suffragette-era New Woman. She also played Dona Rafaele in Patrie! (play) by Victorien Sardou, the author of Tosca. Both were parts that Sarah Bernhardt had made her own. Yakko, still Japan's sole actress, was determined to prove herself worthy of her billing as 'the Sarah Bernhardt of Japan.'"[1]: p219 In July 1907, Otojir? and Yakko assembled a group of eight to study in Paris "every aspect of Western theater —theater design, stage management, scenery, props, music, and acting techniques.[1]: pp220-221 Upon their return the next May, the Kawakamis established two new institutions: the Imperial Actress Training Institute, the country's first school of aspiring actresses, and the Imperial Theatre in Osaka to permanently house the troupe,[1]: p224 opening February 15, 1910.[1]: p233 "It was a magnificently playful piece of architecture, like an Edwardian music hall transposed to Japan and embellished with Japanese flourishes. Built of brick and stone, it had decorative mock-Ionic pillars, three imposing arched entranceways topped with balconies, and a motif of the rising sun in white stone splashed across the rounded tops of the windows at either end of the building. Inside there was an area of tatami matting and rows of rather hard wooden benches. The upper circles were narrow, like promenade circles, with swagged velvet drapes reminiscent of the Criterion Theatre, where the troupe had performed in London. The domed ceiling was adorned with curvaceous Art Nouveau motifs. The curtain featured an elaborate portrayal of a Shinto goddess performing an erotic dance, a famous scene from Japanese mythology. The lighting and stage machinery were the very latest Western imports but there was also a hanamichi walkway, a revolving stage, and an orchestra box, as in a kabuki theater. It was Japan's most up to the minute theater."[1]: p233 After a week of dance performances by Sadayakko and her acting institute, the Imperial Theater hosted a loose adaptation of Around the World in Eighty Days, a science fiction piece entitled Star Worlds (to show off the theater's new lighting technology), an adaptation of The Student Prince, and La Dame aux Camelias featuring Yakko as Margeurite.[1]: pp233-234 DeathDuring the summer of 1911 the Kawakami Troupe embarked on a tour of Japan. Upon their return to Osaka, while working on an adaptation of An Enemy of the People, Otojir? began to suffer from a swelling abdomen.[1]: p235 "Complaining of dreadful weakness and nausea," Otojir? was diagnosed with abdominal dropsy with complications from inflammation of his appendix area. (Otojir? had had his appendix removed while performing in Boston, but would suffer from pain and inflammation in that area for many years after.[1]: p233 )Despite abdominal surgery, Otojir? fell into a coma after several days[1]: p237 and it was revealed that the inflammation had spread to his brain.[1]: p237 At 3 AM on November 11, seeming to be on the point of death, Otojir? was carried from the hospital to the Imperial Theatre at Yakko's request.[1]: p237 There on the stage, surrounded by his wife, son Raikichi, relatives, and fellow Kawakami actors, he would die three hours later.[1]: p238 Otojir? was buried at Jotenji, a Zen temple on the outskirts of Hakata.[1]: p243 A lock of his hair was buried at Sengakuji, the Kawakami family temple.[1]: p248 Sengakuji was also to be the site of a near life-size bronze statue Sada had commissioned of him; however, "the local worthies were horrified. They did not want a statue of a 'riverbed beggar' defiling their revered temple. It would be a pernicious influence on children, they protested, who might even think of following the same disgraceful profession [1]: p248 It would not be until September 1914 that the statue would instead be erected at Tokyo's Yanaka Ceemetery,

Ultimate Playbill Binder - Collection of Six (Mint Condition!)
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Lot of 134 PLAYBILL & Other Play Programs (1984-2019): In 6 Binders, Mint/N-mint
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*** 5 DAY AUCTION *** 5 DAY AUCTION *** 5 DAY AUCTION *** This sale is for a lot of 134 play programs which are stored in 6 official “ULTIMATE PLAYBILL BINDERS”. Each program is protected by being stored in custom fit transparent polypropylene sleeve with an acid-free backing board. Also included are 6 empty sleeves with backing boards which are stored at the end of binder number 6. Breakdown of the programs are as follows:83 are PLAYBILL programs. The remaining 51 are from other sources.There are 26 original show tickets inserted into 24 individual programs (see the “ITEMIZED LIST” section below for specific detailss). Oldest program is from 1984 (“Starlight Express” at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London).Newest program is from 2019 (“August Wilson’s Fences” at the Ford’s Theatre). The following are program dates contained in each binder. Binder 1: 1984 through 2008Binder 2: 2009 through July 10, 2013Binder 3: July 2013 through 2014Binder 4: 2015 through 2016Binder 5: 2017 through May 2018Binder 6: July 2018 through 2019 6 Empty sleeves the exception of 9 publications, the condition of each publication is mint with no tears, edge wear, creases, fading, folded corners, or any other signs of wear. The 9 exceptions are as follows: Starlight Rxpress (Binder 1: Overall wear consistent with some use.Hedwig and the Angry Inch: (Binder 1): Vertical crease in center of program.Wicked (Binder 1): Overall wear consistent with some use.Jersey Boys (Binder 1): Overall wear consistent with some use.Wicked (Binder 2): Crease from right edge to bottom.Hedwig and the Angry Inch: (Binder 4, Oct 30-31, 2015): Crease from left to right in center of program American Psycho The Musical (Binder 4): Somewhat wrinkled as if it had been wet.Jersey Boys (Binder 5): Overall wear consistent with some use.Wicked Wizards (Binder 6): Horizontal crease in center of program. BINDERS:All 6 binders are in mint condition with no marks, tears, creases or any other signs of wear or deterioration. The open and closing functions of the 3 rings work perfectly in all binders. ITIMIZED LIST:The following is a complete list of each individual publication which are generally stored from oldest to newest. Column names and their descriptions are as follows: Play Title: Title of the play contained in the publication Publication: The letter “X” indicates program is not a “Playbill” publication Venue: Name of facility hosting the show.Date(s): Date(s) provided in the publication which are either:1. Publication date of the publication (i.e. May 2019).2. Dates the show will be performed at the venue (i.e. Jul 19-22).3. An entry stating “No date(s) listed” could mean the publication is generic for a show being performed in multiple venues.Number of Tickets: Number of show tickets inserted into the publication. PUBLI- NUMBER OF PLAY TITLE CATION VENUE DATE(S) TICKETSBINDER 1Starlight Express, London X Apollo Victoria Theatre Post-It on cover states 1984Cabaret at Studio 54 X Studio 54 Jun 2002La Boheme Curran Theatre, Nov 2002 San FranciscoHedwig and the Angry Inch X General document for show No date(s) listedWicked Curran Theatre, Jun 2003 San FranciscoBeach Blanket Babylon X Club Fugazi San Francisco 2004Lestat Curran Theatre, Dec 2005 San FranciscoMame The Kennedy Center June 2006Wicked San Diego Civic Theatre Aug 2006 1Urinetown the Musical X Performing Arts Center Oct 11-15, 2006 Montgomery CollegeThe Full Monty X Rockville Musical Theatre Oct 27 – Nov 12, 2006Radio City Christmas X Radio City Music Hall Holiday 2006 edition Spectacular – The RockettesThe Passion of the Crawford X Milton Theatre Beginning Feb 7, 2007The Wizard of Oz X Lisner Auditorium, Mar 24-25, 2007 1 George Washington UniversityDames at Sea X Summer Dinner Theatre 2007 June 15 – July 1, 2007 Montgomery CollegeRagtime X Summer Dinner Theatre 2007 July 13 – 29, 2007 Montgomery CollegeJersey Boys San Diego Civic Theatre Oct 2007 1The 25th Annual Putnam The National Theatre Oct 2007 County Spelling Bee Little Shop of Horrors X Performing Arts Center Oct 10-13, 2007 Montgomery CollegeAvenue Q The National Theatre Nov 2007Monty Python’s Spamalot The National Theatre Dec 2007Chicago the Musical X Performing Arts Center Feb 27 – Mar 2, 2008 1 Montgomery Warner Theatre Washington Apr 2008 DCWithout You I’m Nothing X Aaron & Cecile Goldman Sep 9-28, 2008 1 TheatreWest Side Story The National Theatre Dec 2008 BINDER 2Rent Warner Theatre May 2009 Washington D.C.Fiddler on the Roof The National Theatre April 2010Mary Poppins The Kennedy Center August 2010Best Little Whore House X Lisner Auditorium Mar 18-20, 2011 In TexasThe Color Purple The National Theatre April 2011 1Wicked The Kennedy Center Aug 2011Best Little Whore House X Signature Theatre No date(s) listed In TexasXanadu X Signature Theatre The Max No date(s) listedHairspray X Signature Theatre The Max No date(s) listedThe Hollow – The Boy X Signature Theatre The Max No date(s) listed Detective FailsSunset Blvd X Signature Theatre The Max No date(s) listedSweeney Todd X Signature Theatre The Max No date(s) listedPotted Potter X Brochure advertising show 2012Billy Elliott The Kennedy Center Jan 2012La Cage Aux Folles The Kennedy Center Feb 2012Memphis The Kennedy Center Jun 2012The Addams Family The Kennedy Center Jul 2012Jekyll & Hyde The Kennedy Center Nov X Gala Hispanic Theatre at No date(s) listed TivoliHello Dolly X Ford’s Theatre Mar 15 – May 18. 2013Company X Signature Theatre The Max No date(s) listedMiss Saigon X Signature Theatre The Max No date(s) listedShow Boat The Kennedy Center May 2013The Rocky Horror Show X Brochure advertising show Starting Jul 10, 2013BINDER 3Kinky Boots Al Hirschfeld Theatre Jul 2013Once Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre Jul 2013Book of Mormon The Kennedy Center Aug 2013Torch Song Trilogy X Studio Theatre Beginning Sep 4,2013The Laramie Project X Ford’s Theatre Sep 27 – Oct 27, 2013If/Then The National Theatre Nov 2013A Christmas Carol X Ford’s Theatre Nov 21, 2013 – Jan 1, 2014Porgy and Bess The National Theatre Dec 2013 1The Threepenny Opera X Signature Theatre The Max No date(s) listed 1Sunday in the Park with X Signature Theatre The Max No date(s) listed 1 GeorgeAmerican Idiot The National Theatre Feb 2014 1All The Way Neil Simon Theatre May 2014 1Hedwig and the Angry Inch Belasco Theatre May 2014The Lion King On Front Cover: The Kennedy Center Jul 2014 1 Show & Ticket for Side Show A Gentleman’s Guide to Love Walter Kerr Theatre Aug 2014 And MurderHedwig and the Angry Inch Belasco Theatre Aug 2014Pippin The Music Box Aug 2014Hurt Locker the Musical Belasco Theatre No date(s) listedYentl X Aaron & Cecile Goldman Aug 28 – Oct 5, 2014 TheatreDriving Miss Daisy X Ford’s Theatre Sep 25 - Oct 26, 2014 1Evita The Kennedy Center Oct 2014The River Circle in the Square Dec 2014Hedwig and the Angry Inch Belasco Theatre Dec 2014 BINDER 4It’s Only A Play Bernard B Jacobs Theatre Mar 2015The Audience Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre Mar 2015Skylight Golden Theatre Apr 2015Hand to God Booth Theatre Apr 2015Hedwig and the Angry Inch Belasco Theatre Apr 2015Hurt Locker the Musical Belasco Theatre No date(s) listedHedwig and the Angry Inch X Warehouse Theater Oct 30-31, 2015Outside Mullingar Lyceum Theatre Jan 21 – Feb 14, 2016Ragtime the Musical X Spreckels Theatre Feb 5-21, 2016 1The Drowsy Chaperone X Don Powell Theatre, Mar 4-13, 2016The Wizard of Oz San Diego Civic Theatre Mar 2016Fun Home Circle in the Square Apr 2016Blackbird Belasco Theatre May 2016The Curious Incident of the Ethyl Barrymore Theatre May 2016 Dog in the Night TimeAmerican Psycho The Musical Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre May 2016Shuffle Along The Music Box May 2016Sordid Lives X Coronado Playhouse May 27 – Jun 26, 2016San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus: X Balboa Theatre Jul 30-31, 2016 Thriller – The Music of Michael Jackson The Front Page Broadhurst Theatre Oct 2016Hedwig and the Angry Inch San Diego Civic Theatre Dec 2016Shockheaded Peter X Cygnet Theatre Season 2016-2017 BINDER 59 to 5 X Spreckels Theatre Feb 10-26, 2017San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus: X Balboa Theatre Apr 22 & 23, 2017 Broadway NowCharlie and the Chocolate Lunt-Fontanne Theatre May 2017 Factory Jersey Boys San Diego Civic Theatre May 2007 1Come From Away Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre May 2017Sunset Blvd. Palace Theatre May 2017Cats Neil Simon Theatre May 2017 1Miss Saigon The Broadway Theatre May 2017Waitress Brooks Atkinson Theatre May 2017 1The Great Comet 1812 Imperial Theatre May 2017 1Damn Yankees X Spreckels Theatre June 2-18, 2017 1War Paint Nederlander Theatre Sep 2017 1Spelling Bee X Lyceum Theatre Oct 13-29, 2017 1Hand to God X Lyceum Theatre Oct 19 – Nov 12, 2017San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus: X Balboa Theatre Apr 21-22, 2018 Movie NightThe Boys in the Band Booth Theatre May 2018Kinky Boots Al Hirschfeld Theatre May 2018Harry Potter and the Cursed Lyric Theatre May 2018 Child – Part OneHarry Potter and the Cursed Lyric Theatre May 2018 2 Child – Part TwoHello Dolly Sam S. Shubert Theatre May 2018 1Carousel Imperial Theatre May 2018The Band’s Visit Ethyl Barrymore Theatre May 2018Harry Clarke Minetta Lane Theatre May 2018 BINDER 6Avenue Q X New World Stages No date(s) listedWicked Wizards X Turning Tydes Theatre Jul 19-22 2018 CompanySan Diego Gay Men’s Chorus: X Balboa Theatre Jul 28-29, 2018 Abba Greatest HitsOnce on This Island Circle in the Square Oct 2018Beetlejuice National Theatre Oct/Nov 2018Torch Song The Helen Hayes Theatre Oct 2018My Fair Lady Lincoln Center Theatre Oct 2018 at the Vivian BeaumontHedwig and the Angry Inch X Diversionary Legacy 2019 Circle Derren Brown Secret Cort Theatre Nov 2019 2The Play That Goes Wrong New World Stages Nov 2019The Inheritance Ethyl Barrymore Theatre Dec 2019The Sound Inside Studio 54 Dec 2019The Ferryman Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre May 2019The Prom Longacre Theatre May 2019Hillary and Clinton Golden Theatre May 2019Be More Chill Lyceum Theatre May 2019Frankie & Johnny in the Broadhurst Theatre May 2019 1 Clair de LuneAugust Wilson’s Fences X Ford’s Theatre Sep 27 - Oct 27,2019---6 Empty Sleeves--- PICTURES1. All 6 binders2. First publication in binders 1 and 23. First publication in binders 3 and 44. First publication in binders 5 and 6 INDIVIDUAL PUBLICATIONS BINDER SLEEVE SHOW NAME NUMBER NUMBER OLDEST PROGRAM5. Starlight Express 1 1 NEWEST PROGRAM6. Fences 6 18 RANDOMLY SELECTED INDIVIDUAL PROGRAMS7. Wizard of Oz 1 148. Hairspray 1 239. The Color Purple 2 510. The Addams Family 2 1711. Porgy and Bess 2 812. The Lion King 3 1413. Driving Miss Daisey 3 2014. Evita 3 2115. The Wizard of Oz 4 1116. American Psycho The Musical 4 1517. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 5 318. Jersey Boys 5 419. Cats 5 720. Harry Potter Part 1 5 1821. Harry Potter Part 2 5 1922. Hello Dolly 5 2023. Avenue Q 6 124. Darren Brown Secret 6 9 PAYMENT AND box physical parameters:· Dimensions: 10 x 16 x 11 inches· Weight: 35 pounds Due to the size and weight of the box containing the 6 binders, shipping cost will be determined by buyer's location. Originating location is La Mesa, California 91942 which is in the county of San Diego. No international shipping. Immediate payment is requested.

A CONAN DOYLE JAMES O'NEILL CRESTON CLARKE 1903 ADVENTURES OF GERARD PROGRAM
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A rare original program clip circa 1903 for James O'Neill--Eugene O'Neill's father--and Creston Clarke, nephew of Edwin and John Wilkes Booth, in Sherlock Holmes author A. Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Gerard. Laid down to an Edwardian album page. Dimensions seven by four inches. Light wear otherwise good. See the story of Brigadier Gerard and A. Conan Doyle's extraordinary biography below. Shipping discounts for multiple purchases. Inquiries always welcome. Please visit my other eBay items for more early Gilbert and Sullivan items, theatre, opera, film and historical autographs, photographs and programs, and great actor and actress cabinet photos and CDV's. Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle KStJ DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.Doyle was a prolific writer; other than Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the Mary Celeste.His first work featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, A Study in Scarlet, was written in three weeks when he was 27 and was accepted for publication by Ward Lock & Co on 20 November 1886, which gave Doyle £25 (equivalent to £2,900 in 2019) in exchange for all rights to the story. The piece appeared a year later in the Beeton's Christmas Annual and received good reviews in The Scotsman and the Glasgow Herald [9]Holmes was partially modelled on Doyle's former university teacher Joseph Bell. In 1892, in a letter to Bell, Doyle wrote, "It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes ... round the centre of deduction and inference and observation which I have heard you inculcate I have tried to build up a man",[35] and in his 1924 autobiography, he remarked, "It is no wonder that after the study of such a character [viz., Bell] I used and amplified his methods when in later life I tried to build up a scientific detective who solved cases on his own merits and not through the folly of the criminal."[36] Robert Louis Stevenson was able to recognise the strong similarity between Joseph Bell and Sherlock Holmes: "My compliments on your very ingenious and very interesting adventures of Sherlock Holmes. ... can this be my old friend Joe Bell?"[37] Other authors sometimes suggest additional instance, Edgar Allan Poe's character C. Auguste Dupin, who is mentioned, disparagingly, by Holmes in A Study in Scarlet.[38] Dr. (John) Watson owes his surname, but not any other obvious characteristic, to a Portsmouth medical colleague of Doyle's, Dr. James Watson [39]Sherlock Holmes statue in Edinburgh, erected opposite the birthplace of Doyle, which was demolished c. 1970A sequel to A Study in Scarlet was commissioned, and The Sign of the Four appeared in Lippincott's Magazine in February 1890, under agreement with the Ward Lock company. Doyle felt grievously exploited by Ward Lock as an author new to the publishing world, and so, after this, he left them.[9] Short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes were published in the Strand Magazine. Doyle wrote the first five Holmes short stories from his office at 2 Upper Wimpole Street (then known as Devonshire Place), which is now marked by a memorial plaque [40]Doyle s attitude towards his most famous creation was ambivalent.[39] In November 1891, he wrote to his mother: "I think of slaying Holmes, ... and winding him up for good and all. He takes my mind from better things." His mother responded, "You won't! You can't! You mustn't!"[41] In an attempt to deflect publishers' demands for more Holmes stories, he raised his price to a level intended to discourage them, but found they were willing to pay even the large sums he asked.[39] As a result, he became one of the best-paid authors of his time.Statue of Holmes and the English Church in MeiringenIn December 1893, to dedicate more of his time to his historical novels, Doyle had Holmes and Professor Moriarty plunge to their deaths together down the Reichenbach Falls in the story "The Final Problem". Public outcry, however, led him to feature Holmes in 1901 in the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. Holmes's fictional connection with the Reichenbach Falls is celebrated in the nearby town of Meiringen.In 1903, Doyle published his first Holmes short story in ten years, "The Adventure of the Empty House", in which it was explained that only Moriarty had fallen, but since Holmes had other dangerous Colonel Sebastian Moran—he had arranged to make it look as if he too were dead. Holmes was ultimately featured in a total of 56 short stories—the last published in 1927—and four novels by Doyle, and has since appeared in many novels by other authors Brigadier Gerard is the comedic hero of a series of 17 historical short stories, a play, and a major character in a novel by the British writer Arthur Conan Doyle. Brigadier Etienne Gerard is a Hussar officer in the French Army during the Napoleonic Wars. Gerard's most notable attribute is his vanity – he is utterly convinced that he is the bravest soldier, greatest swordsman, most accomplished horseman and most gallant lover in all France. Gerard is not entirely wrong, since he displays notable bravery on many occasions, but his self satisfaction undercuts this quite often. Obsessed with honour and glory, he is always ready with a stirring speech or a gallant remark to a lady.Doyle, in making his hero a vain, and often rather uncomprehending Frenchman, was able to satirise both the stereotypical English view of the French and – by presenting them from Gerard's baffled point of view – English manners and attitudes.The Booth family was an English American theatrical family of the 19th century. Its most known members were Edwin Booth, one of the leading actors of his day, and John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Abraham Lincoln.The patriarch was Junius Brutus Booth, a London-born lawyer's son who eventually became an actor after he attended a production of Othello at the Covent Garden theatre. The prospects of fame, fortune, and freedom were very appealing to young Booth, and he displayed remarkable talent from an early age, deciding on a career in the theatre by the age of 17. He performed roles in several small theaters throughout England, and joined a tour of the Low Countries in 1814, returning the following year to make his London debut.Booth abandoned his wife and their young son in 1821 and ran off to the United States with Mary Ann Holmes, a London flower girl. They settled on some 150 acres in Harford County near Baltimore and started a family; they had 10 children, six of whom survived to adulthood [1][2]Junius Sr. and Edwin toured in California during the Gold Rush.[citation needed] Edwin bought an interest in the Winter Garden Theatre at 667 Broadway in New York City with his brother-in-law John Sleeper Clarke. The brothers John Wilkes, Edwin, and Junius Brutus, Jr. performed there in the play Julius Caesar at a benefit in 1864, the only time they were seen together on a stage, playing Mark Antony, Brutus, and Cassius, respectively [3]MembersThe Booth Family gravesite, Green Mount CemeteryJunius Brutus Booth (1796–1852) brought his mistress Mary Ann Holmes, who bore him 10 children, to the United States.He also wrote many letters in fits of drunken anger and madness to President Andrew Jackson threatening assassination. He requested that two prisoners who had been sentenced to death for piracy, named De Ruiz and De Soto, be pardoned, or else: "I will cut your throat whilst you are sleeping." This letter would later be recanted by Junius, stating, "May god preserve General Jackson and this happy republic [4]Junius Brutus Booth Jr. (1821–1883) was married to Agnes Booth. Junius Jr. never achieved the same fame as his brothers, but his third wife Agnes was popular.Their son Sydney Barton Booth (1877–1937) was an actor well into the era of modern film [5]Edwin Thomas Booth (1833–1893) came to be the foremost American Shakespearean actor of his day. He founded The Players, a New York City actors' club which continues to the present day. His second wife, Mary McVicker, was an actress [6]Edwin s grandson Edwin Booth Grossman was a painter of some note.Asia Frigga Booth (1835–1888) married John Sleeper Clarke, an actor/comedian who was briefly imprisoned in the aftermath of the assassination. They then emigrated to Britain, where he became a successful theatre manager.Creston Clarke[7] and Wilfred Clarke,[8] sons of John and Asia, were noted actors in their day.John Wilkes Booth (1838–1865) was a popular young star in less serious fare than his brothers.A Confederate sympathizer during the American Civil War, during a play attended by Abraham Lincoln, Booth took advantage of his access to the theatre to invade the President's box and assassinate the President. He was killed 12 days later by Union soldier Boston Corbett.Edwina Booth Grossman (1861–1938) daughter of Edwin Booth,[9] and the author of Edwin Booth: Recollections by His Daughter, Edwina Booth Grossman, and Letters to Her and to His Friends (1894).James O'Neill (November 15, 1847 – August 10, 1920) was an Irish-American theatre actor and the father of the American playwright Eugene O'Neill.Early lifeJames O'Neill[1] was born on November 15, 1847, in County Kilkenny, Ireland. His parents were distant cousins, Edward[2] and Mary O'Neill. His father was a farmer. The family emigrated to America in 1851 and settled in Buffalo, New York. In 1857 they moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where James was apprenticed to a machinist [3]CareerPlaque in New Ross, County Wexford recalling his emigration to America in 1851At the age of 21, he made his stage debut in a Cincinnati, Ohio, production of Boucicault's The Colleen Bawn (1867). Also in 1867, Edwin Forrest embarked on a "farewell tour". O'Neill had a minor part in Forrest's Cincinnati production of Virginius, and then joined a travelling repertory company. He played a young sailor in Joseph Jefferson's Rip Van Winkle and for the first time found his brogue a handicap.[3] He also played Macduff to Edwin Booth's Macbeth.The San Francisco Chronicle of August 3, 1879, described James O'Neill as "...a quiet gentleman of medium height, well proportioned figure, square shoulders and stands very erect. He has black hair, black eyes, rather dark complexion, a black mustache, and a fine set of teeth which he knows how to display to advantage."[3] "[4]While in San Francisco, O'Neill became friends with fellow actor, John Elitch. When Elitch opened the Elitch Zoological Gardens in Denver, Colorado, on May 1, 1890, O'Neill attended the opening and promised "I'll come back and play on that stage whenever you say." On May 30, 1897, O'Neill kept his promise and appeared in the opening play, Helene, by Martha Morton.[5]He was considered a promising actor, quickly working his way up the ranks to become a matinee idol. [6]ScandalIn 1874 O'Neill joined Richard M. Hooley's company, and the following year toured San Francisco, Virginia City and Sacramento. He then headed back east to join the Union Square Company.[3]On June 14, 1877, while in New York, James O'Neill married Mary Ellen Quinlan, daughter of Thomas and Bridget Quinlan, at St. Ann's Church on 12th Street. James and Ella had three sons: James (b. 1878), Edmund (b. 1883) and Eugene O'Neill (b. 1888). While James was on tour, Ella often accompanied him, and the boys were placed in boarding school. In the fall of 1877, three months after James' marriage, a woman by the name of Nettie Walsh sued O'Neill, claiming that O'Neill already married her, when she was 15, and he was the father of her three year old son. [4]The couple was in San Francisco on September 10, 1878, when their first son, James O'Neill, Jr. was born in the home of one of O'Neill's friends. While in San Francisco, O'Neill took on the role of Christ in David Belasco's production The Passion for which Belasco rounded up 100 nursing mothers to appear in the tableau "the Massacre of the Innocents". The Board of Supervisors passed a local ordinance prohibiting "profane" dramas, and O'Neill and the rest of the company were arrested. O'Neill pleaded guilty and paid a $50 fine for himself and $5 for each of his co-defendants. About October 30, 1880, O'Neill and his family took a train back to New York where he re-joined the Union Square Company.[3]The Count of Monte CristoPoster for a 1900 theatre production of Monte Cristo, adapted for the stage by Charles Fechter, starring James O'NeillEdmond Dantès (James O'Neill) loosens a stone before making his escape from the Château d'If in The Count of Monte Cristo (1913)As early as 1875, while a stock star at Hooley's Theatre in Chicago, O'Neill played the title role in a stage adaptation of Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo. In early 1883 O'Neill took over the lead role in Monte Cristo at Booth's Theater in New York, after Charles R. Towne died suddenly in the wings after his first performance. O'Neill's interpretation of the part caused a sensation with the theater-going public. A company was immediately set up to take the play on tour. O'Neill bought the rights to the play. The San Francisco News Latter was less appreciative of O'Neill, saying on December 31, 1887 "In his hands the romantic story has degenerated into an extravagant melodrama. ...He is reaping the pecuniary profit of his business sagacity, but it is at the cost of art."[3]O'Neill soon had enough of the Count. His lines came out by rote and his performances became lackadaisical. He tried other plays but The Three Musketeers and Julius Caesar met with indifferent response, and O'Neill was forced to return to Monte Cristo in order to recoup the losses sustained in "artistic successes". Monte Cristo remained a popular favorite and would continue to make its appearance on tour as regular as clockwork. O'Neill could not afford to sacrifice wealth in the face of a growing family. His son Eugene was born in New York on October 16, 1888.[3]He went on to play this role over 6000 times. Some, including Eugene, saw O'Neill's willingness to play the role so many times as selling out; squandering the potential of his art in order to make money.[7] By 1887, The San Francisco Morning Call estimated O'Neill's fortune at a quarter of a million dollars. In March 1894, O'Neill took on the role of Shane O'Neill in the play The Prince of Ulster [3]According to his son, Eugene,My father was really a remarkable actor, but the enormous success of "Monte Cristo" kept him from doing other things. He could go out year after year and clear fifty thousand in a season. He thought that he simply couldn't afford to do anything else. But in his later years he was full of bitter regrets. He felt "Monte Cristo" had ruined his career as an artist.[3]The company toured as far west at St. Louis; Eugene O'Neill who had given up his studies at Princeton, was the assistant treasurer. He left the company to begin his wanderings at sea.[3] O'Neill converted "Monte Cristo" into tabloid form for the vaudeville circuit to accommodate changing taste in theater entertainment O Neill s celebrity and identification with Monte Cristo led Adolph Zukor to engage O'Neill in 1912 to appear in a feature film version of the play as the first production of his Famous Players Film Company. By that time O'Neill had been continuously playing the part for nearly 40 years and was 65 years old. Directed and photographed by Edwin S. Porter and co-starring Nance O'Neil as Mercedes, the film was initially held back in release but finally appeared in late 1913.DeathIn the middle of 1920 James was struck by an automobile in New York City and taken to Lawrence Memorial Hospital in New London, Connecticut. He died, aged 72, on August 11, 1920, from intestinal cancer,[4] at the family summer home, the Monte Cristo Cottage in Connecticut. His funeral at St. Joseph's Church was attended by, among others, O'Neill's sister, Mrs. M. Platt of St. Louis and Edward D. White, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. O'Neill was buried in St. Mary's cemetery [3]LegacyJames O'Neill later became the model for James Tyrone, the frugal, mercurial, unseeing father character in Eugene O'Neill's posthumously published play Long Day's Journey into Night, which tells the story of the Tyrone family, which closely resembles the O'Neill family.

RARE 1904 BROADWAY WIZARD OF OZ STAGE PRODUCION SHEET MUSIC COVER
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An extraordinary original 1904 sheet music cover for the famous Montgomery Stone Broadway and touring production of L. Frank Baum's classic The Wizard of Oz, which differed significantly from the Judy Garland-Billie Burke-Ray Bolger-Jack Haley-Bert Lahr film. Dimensions eleven by eight and a half inches, dated by the buyer November 1904 and featuring a photo of David Montgonery, Anna Laughlin, and Fred Stone. Light wear otherwise good. See the story of the early 1900s Broadway Wizard of Oz below. Buyer pays USPS insured shipping. Reduced postage for buyers of multiple items. Credit cards accepted with Paypal. Inquiries always welcome. Please visit my other eBay auctions and Buy It Now items for more early theatre, opera and historical autographs, photographs, broadsides and programs and great singer, actor and actress cabinet photos and CDV's. From Wikipedia:The Wizard of Oz was a 1902 musical extravaganza based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, which was originally published in 1900. Much of the original music was by Paul Tietjens and has been mostly forgotten, although it was still well-remembered and in discussion at MGM in 1939 when the classic film version of the story was made.[1] Although Baum is the credited bookwriter, Glen MacDonough was hired on as jokewriter after Baum had finished the script.The show premiered at the Chicago Grand Opera House[2] on June 16, 1902 and later moved to the Majestic Theatre on Broadway on January 21, 1903, where it ran for 293 performances until December 31, 1904, followed by traveling tours of the original cast.[3] It starred Anna Laughlin as Dorothy Gale, Fred Stone as the Scarecrow, and David C. Montgomery as the Tin Woodman (who is called Niccolo Chopper in the musical; he had no name in the original book, but would be called Nick Chopper in the sequels). Arthur Hill played the Cowardly Lion, but in this version his role was reduced to a bit part. The Wicked Witch of the West is mentioned but does not appear in this version, and Toto is replaced by a cow named Imogene. An element from the show – the snowfall caused by the Good Witch of the North, which defeats the spell of the poppies that had put Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion to sleep – was later used in the classic 1939 movie. Other new characters in the piece are King Pastoria II and his girlfriend, Trixie Tryfle (a waitress), Cynthia Cynch (a lady lunatic), Sir Dashemoff Daily (the poet laureate), Sir Wiley Gyle, and General Riskitt. Dorothy Gale's surname was introduced in this version. It was not mentioned in the original novel, though it is mentioned in Ozma of Oz(1907).The main plot of the show, as recounted in newspapers of the time, is Pastoria's attempts to regain the throne from the Wizard of Oz. The original protagonists' search for the Wizard puts them on the wrong side of the law.Production and early revivalsIn rewriting Baum's 1901 script, Mitchell hired MacDonough to add topical humor. Baum described MacDonough as a New York joke writer in a letter to The Chicago Record-Herald, responding to criticism that the show "teemed with wild and woolly western puns and forced gags".[5] In a letter to The Chicago Tribune published June 26, 1904, Baum decried rumors that he was "heartbroken and ashamed" with the final product of the musical: "I acknowledge that I was unwise enough to express myself as dissatisfied with the handling of my play on its first production ... few authors of successful books are ever fully satisfied with the dramatization of their work. They discern great gaps in the original story that are probably never noticed by playgoers." He admitted to protesting several innovations, but ultimately concluded: "The people will have what pleases them, and not what the author happens to favor, and I believe that one of the reasons why Julian Mitchell is regarded as a great producer is that he faithfully tries to serve the great mass of playgoers – and usually succeeds [6]Fred Stone as the Scarecrow and David C. Montgomery as the Tin Woodman (1902)Most of the original songs were written by Paul Tietjens on Baum's lyrics, except for three: "The Guardian of the Gate" (although it was attributed to Tietjens), which was cut after only a few performances, "The Different Ways of Making Love" (wooing) and "It Happens Every Day" were composed by Nathaniel D. Mann. Mann later wrote the score for Baum's 1908 film/theatrical presentation, The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays. Most of Baum's songs related to the story in some way, as in operetta, but as performed, the play was more likevaudeville, and new songs by other songwriters were frequently substituted. In fact, the first song interpolated into the musical was "The Traveler and the Pie", a major number for the Scarecrow. Baum and Tietjens had written it for a play called The Octopus; or the Title Trust, which was never produced and possibly never completed. The song stayed in the show. James O'Dea and Edward Hutchinson wrote one of the show's most celebrated songs, "Sammy", in which Tryxie Tryfle sings of a lost love before King Pastoria, though the only surviving recording of the piece was sung by a man (Harry Macdonough).The witches are largely absent in this version; The Good Witch of the North appears, named Locasta, and The Wicked Witch of the East is a special effect. Toto, Dorothy's dog, was replaced by a cow named Imogene. The Wicked Witch of the West does not appear, and Glinda the Good Witch of the South, who had appeared only in Act Three, was written out by Mitchell in 1903. His re-write of that act was set in the Borderland that divides Oz and Glinda's Domain, as Dorothy and her friends try to escape Pastoria [citation needed]New characters include King Pastoria II, Oz's true king working as a Kansas motorman and his girlfriend, Trixie Tryfle, a waitress. There is also Cynthia Cynch, the Lady Lunatic, a prototype for Nimmie Amee, Nick (Niccolo) Chopper's girlfriend. Niccolo Chopper is renowned for his ability on the piccolo, the subject of one of her songs, and he is shown playing a piccolo in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the first Oz film made without Baum's input, which was highly influenced by the popular play. The Wizard was presented as various ethnic stock character stereotypes, depending upon who played him. He was assisted by Sir Wiley Gyle and General Riskitt. David L. Greene and Dick Martin erroneously captioned a picture of General Riskitt as "Sir Wiley Gyle" in The Oz Scrapbook, and Donald Abbott carried this mistake over into his illustrations for How the Wizard Saved Oz.The animals in the play, including the Cowardly Lion, did not speak, based on pantomime tradition. Although the lion costume was realistic, far more so than Bert Lahr's in the MGM film, his main purpose was a bit of comic relief and scaring off the villains on occasion. His quest for courage is completely omitted, much as the other characters' quests are deemphasized in favor of various comic routines. Ultimately, though, their desire to seek the Wizard's aid gets them caught on the wrong side of the revolution, jailed and ultimately scheduled for execution. In a deus ex machina, another tornado arrives to sweep Dorothy home from the chopping block.Many new plot twists are virtually pointless. In addition to a kiss of protection, Dorothy gets three wishes, one of which is wasted on a triviality. The second is used to bring the Scarecrow to life, and the third is used so she can learn the song Sir Dashemoff Daily (a trouser role) has written to his girlfriend, Carrie Barry. This song was written by Baum and Tietjens, but some programs credited the song to Glen MacDonough and A. Baldwin Sloane to make their connection to the play look greater [citation needed]Probably the biggest influence on the 1939 MGM film, aside from making the story into a musical (but not using the score created for the stage version), is the field of poppies sequence that ended Act I. In the novel, Baum imaginatively has a legion of field mice pull a cart with the Cowardly Lion out of the poppy field. This was deemed unfeasible (though the stage version of The Wiz created a variation, with the mice as anthropomorphic vice cops), and Baum, though he included it in the 1901 script, replaced the scene with that of the Snow Queen creating a storm that destroys the poppies, much as Glinda does in the 1939 movie. This concluded Act I with an elaborate dance known as "Winter Jubilation", which James Patrick Doyle plays on synthesizers on the album, Before the Rainbow: The Original Music of Oz.Cast of the production at East Texas State Normal College in 1921Because there were no cast albums in those days, theatre productions, including this production, often exceeded four hours in length because of multiple demands for encores, since many of the attendees knew they would never get to attend again. The most popular songs were often sung multiple times and this was often used to gauge whether a song should be retained or dropped. Two popular routines that were worked in include a sailing routine and a football routine, the latter parodying the level of violence in the sport, which had recently been lessened due to new regulations.The original cast included Anna Laughlin as Dorothy Gale, Fred Stone as the Scarecrow, David C. Montgomery as Nick Chopper (the Tin Man), Helen Byron as Cynthia Cynch, Bessie Wynn as Sir Dashemoff Daily, Gilbert Clayton as King Pastoria II, Bobby Gaylor as Oz, Arthur Hill as the Cowardly Lion, Grace Kimball as Tryxie Tryffle, and Edwin J. Stone as Imogene the cow. The second theatre to house the production was the New York Theatre. It went on the road playing as far away as the Opera House in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas in 1904. By 1905, the New York production had been moved to the Academy of Music at 14th and Irving Place. Montgomery and Stone remained in the cast, but Dorothy was now played by Mona Desmond.[7] Marion Stanley took over the role of Trixie Tryfle, George B. Field played Sir Wiley Gyle, and Charles E. Mitchell became the Wizard. The Snow Queen was played by Bert Dean en travesti.The musical was revived as late as 1934, with Charles H. Pinkham in the role of the Scarecrow ReceptionThe New York Times' critic described the show as "the Darling of Mr. Belasco's Gods".[8] Leone Langdon-Key loved the scenery, but found Baum's script commonplace, commenting that many lines start with, "Well, wouldn't that..." and deplored Tietjens's "fondness for a lack of contrast and rhythms. She also claims that the story of Pastoria trying to regain the lost throne from the Wizard was "as readers of the story remember [9]Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich of Russia gained considerable notoriety by drinking champagne from the satin slipper of one of the chorus girls during a 1902 trip to Chicago.

EDDIE CANTOR FRED & ADEL6E ASTAIRE RARE LARGE 1914 VAUDEVILLE BROADSIDE
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A rare large original 1914 broadside type program for Eddie Cantor with Cantor and Lee and the amazing brother and sister team of Fred and Adele Astaire at the Palace Music Hall. Dimensions fifteen by four inches. Light wear and light folds otherwise good. See Eddie Cantor and Fred Astaire's extraordinary biographies below.Shipping discounts for buyers of multiple items. Credit cards accepted with Paypal. Inquiries always welcome. Please visit my other eBay items for more early theatre and historical autographs, broadsides, photographs and programs and great actor and actress cabinet photos and CDV's. From Wikipedia:Eddie Cantor (born Isidore January 31, 1892 – October 10, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, film producer, screenwriter and author.[3] Familiar to Broadway, radio, movie, and early television audiences, this "Apostle of Pep" was regarded almost as a family member by millions because his top-rated radio shows revealed intimate stories and amusing anecdotes about his wife, Ida, and five daughters. Some of his hits include "Makin' Whoopee", "Ida (Sweet as Apple Cider)", "If You Knew Susie", "Ma! He's Making Eyes at Me", “Mandy”, "My Baby Just Cares for Me”, "Margie", and "How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree)?" He also wrote a few songs, including "Merrily We Roll Along", the Merrie Melodies Warner Bros. cartoon theme.His eye-rolling song-and-dance routines eventually led to his nickname "Banjo Eyes". In 1933, artist Frederick J. Garner caricatured Cantor with large round eyes resembling the drum-like pot of a banjo. Cantor's eyes became his trademark, often exaggerated in illustrations, and leading to his appearance on Broadway in the musical Banjo Eyes (1941).His charity and humanitarian work was extensive. He helped to develop the March of Dimes and is credited with coining its name. Cantor was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1956 for distinguished service to the film industry.Early lifeReports and accounts of Cantor's early life often conflict with one another. What is known is that he was born in New York City, the son of Mechel Iskowitz (also Michael), an amateur violinist, and his wife Meta Kantrowitz Iskowitz (also Maite), a young Jewish couple from Russia.[4] It is generally accepted that he was born in 1892, though the day is subject to debate, with either January 31 or Rosh Hashanah, which was on September 10 or September 11, being reported [5][6][7] Although it was reported Cantor was an orphan, his mother dying in childbirth and his father of pneumonia, official records say otherwise; Meta died from complications of tuberculosis in July 1894 and the fate of Mechel is unclear, as no death certificate exists for him. There is also discrepancy as to his name; both his 1957 autobiography and The New York Times obituary for Cantor report his birth name as Isidore Iskowitch, although some articles published after the 20th century give his birth name as Edward (a nickname given him by his future wife, Ida, in 1913) or Israel Itzkowitz [8][5] His grandmother, Esther Kantrowitz (died January 29, 1917), took custody of him, and referred to him as Izzy and Itchik, both diminutives for Isidor, and his last name, due to a clerical error, was thought to be Kantrowitz and shortened to Kanter.[5] No birth certificate existed for him, though this is not unusual for someone born in New York in the 19th century StageSaloon songs to vaudevilleBy his early teens, Cantor began winning talent contests at local theaters and started appearing on stage. One of his earliest paying jobs was doubling as a waiter and performer, singing for tips at Carey Walsh's Coney Island saloon, where a young Jimmy Durante accompanied him on piano. He made his first public appearance in Vaudeville in 1907 at New York's Clinton Music Hall. In 1912, he was the only performer over the age of 20 to appear in Gus Edwards's Kid Kabaret, where he created his first blackface character "Jefferson". He later toured with Al Lee as the team Cantor and Lee. Critical praise from that show got the attention of Broadway's top producer Florenz Ziegfeld, who gave Cantor a spot in the Ziegfeld rooftop post-show, Midnight Frolic (1917) [5]BroadwayA year later, Cantor made his Broadway debut in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1917. He continued in the Follies until 1927,[9] a period considered the best years of the long-running revue. For several years, Cantor co-starred in an act with pioneer comedian Bert Williams, both appearing in blackface; Cantor played Williams's fresh-talking son. Other co-stars with Cantor during his time in the Follies included Will Rogers, Marilyn Miller, Fanny Brice, and W.C. Fields.[10] He moved on to stardom in book musicals, starting with Kid Boots (1923) and Whoopee! (1928).[9] On tour with Banjo Eyes, he romanced the unknown Jacqueline Susann, who had a small part in the show and who became the best-selling author of Valley of the Dolls. Banjo Eyes successful Broadway run was cut short when Cantor suffered a major heart attack, the first of several that would plague his later years.Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz;[1] May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American actor, dancer, singer, choreographer, and television presenter. He is widely considered the most influential dancer in the history of film.[2]His stage and subsequent film and television careers spanned a total of 76 years. He starred in more than 10 Broadway and West End musicals, made 31 musical films, four television specials, and issued numerous recordings. As a dancer, his most outstanding traits were his uncanny sense of rhythm, perfectionism, and innovation. His most memorable dancing partnership was with Ginger Rogers, with whom he co-starred in a series of ten Hollywood musicals, including Top Hat (1935), Swing Time (1936), and Shall We Dance (1937).[3] Among his other most notable films where Astaire gained popularity and took the genre of tap dancing to a new level include Holiday Inn (1944), Easter Parade (1948), The Band Wagon (1953), Funny Face (1957), and Silk Stockings (1957). The American Film Institute named Astaire the fifth-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood cinema.Fred Astaire was born Frederick Austerlitz on May 10, 1899, in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Johanna "Ann" (née Geilus; 1878–1975) and Friedrich "Fritz" Emanuel Austerlitz, in the US: Frederic Austerlitz (1868–1923) [1][6][7][8] Astaire's mother was born in the US to Lutheran German immigrants from East Prussia and Alsace. Astaire's father was born in Linz, Austria to Roman Catholic parents who had converted from Judaism [1][9][10][11]Astaire s father, Fritz Austerlitz, arrived in New York City at the age of 25 on October 26, 1893, at Ellis Island.[12] Fritz was seeking work in the brewing trade and moved to Omaha, Nebraska, where he was employed by the Storz Brewing Company. Astaire's mother dreamed of escaping Omaha by her children's talents. Astaire's older sister, Adele, was an instinctive dancer and singer early in her childhood. Johanna planned a "brother and sister act", common in vaudeville at the time, for her two children. Although Fred refused dance lessons at first, he easily mimicked his older sister's steps and took up piano, accordion, and clarinet.When their father lost his job, the family moved to New York City in January 1905 to launch the show business careers of the children. They began training at the Alviene Master School of the Theatre and Academy of Cultural Arts.[13] Fred and Adele's mother suggested they change their name to "Astaire", as she felt "Austerlitz" was reminiscent of the Battle of Austerlitz. Family legend attributes the name to an uncle surnamed L Astaire [14]They were taught dance, speaking, and singing in preparation for developing an act. Their first act was called Juvenile Artists Presenting an Electric Musical Toe-Dancing Novelty. Fred wore a top hat and tails in the first half and a lobster outfit in the second. In an interview, Astaire's daughter, Ava Astaire McKenzie, observed that they often put Fred in a top hat to make him look taller.[15] In November 1905, the goofy act debuted in Keyport, New Jersey at a "tryout theater". The local paper wrote, "the Astaires are the greatest child act in vaudeville [16]As a result of their father's salesmanship, Fred and Adele landed a major contract and played the Orpheum Circuit in the Midwest, Western and some Southern cities in the US. Soon Adele grew to at least three inches taller than Fred, and the pair began to look incongruous. The family decided to take a two-year break from show business to let time take its course and to avoid trouble from the Gerry Society and the child labor laws of the time. In 1912, Fred became an Episcopalian [17] The career of the Astaire siblings resumed with mixed fortunes, though with increasing skill and polish, as they began to incorporate tap dancing into their routines. Astaire's dancing was inspired by Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and John "Bubbles" Sublett.[18] From vaudeville dancer Aurelio Coccia, they learned the tango, waltz, and other ballroom dances popularized by Vernon and Irene Castle. Some sources[19] state that the Astaire siblings appeared in a 1915 film titled Fanchon, the Cricket, starring Mary Pickford, but the Astaires have consistently denied this [20][21][22]By age 14, Fred had taken on the musical for their act.[13] He first met George Gershwin, who was working as a song plugger for Jerome H. Remick's music publishing company, in 1916.[23] Fred had already been hunting for new music and dance ideas. Their chance meeting was to affect the careers of both artists profoundly. Astaire was always on the lookout for new steps on the circuit and was starting to demonstrate his ceaseless quest for novelty and perfection 1917–1933: Stage career on Broadway and in LondonFred and Adele Astaire in 1921The Astaires broke into Broadway in 1917 with Over the Top, a patriotic revue, and performed for U.S. and Allied troops at this time as well. They followed up with several more shows. Of their work in The Passing Show of 1918, Heywood Broun wrote: "In an evening in which there was an abundance of good dancing, Fred Astaire stood out ... He and his partner, Adele Astaire, made the show pause early in the evening with a beautiful loose-limbed dance [24]Adele s sparkle and humor drew much of the attention, owing in part to Fred's careful preparation and sharp supporting choreography. She still set the tone of their act. But by this time, Astaire's dancing skill was beginning to outshine his sister's.During the 1920s, Fred and Adele appeared on Broadway and the London stage. They won popular acclaim with the theater crowd on both sides of the Atlantic in shows such as Jerome Kern's The Bunch and Judy (1922), George and Ira Gershwin's Lady, Be Good (1924), and Funny Face (1927) and later in The Band Wagon (1931). Astaire's tap dancing was recognized by then as among the best. For example, Robert Benchley wrote in 1930, "I don't think that I will plunge the nation into war by stating that Fred is the greatest tap-dancer in the world."[25] Whilst in London, Fred studied piano at the Guildhall School of Music alongside his friend and colleague Noël Coward;[26], and in 1926, was one of the judges at the 'Charleston (dance) Championship of the World ' competition at the Royal Albert Hall, where Lew Grade was declared the winner.fter the close of Funny Face, the Astaires went to Hollywood for a screen test (now lost) at Paramount Pictures, but Paramount deemed them unsuitable for films.They split in 1932 when Adele married her first husband, Lord Charles Cavendish, the second son of the 9th Duke of Devonshire. Fred went on to achieve success on his own on Broadway and in London with Gay Divorce (later made into the film The Gay Divorcee) while considering offers from Hollywood. The end of the partnership was traumatic for Astaire but stimulated him to expand his range.Free of the brother-sister constraints of the former pairing and working with new partner Claire Luce, Fred created a romantic partnered dance to Cole Porter's "Night and Day", which had been written for Gay Divorce. Luce stated that she had to encourage him to take a more romantic approach: "Come on, Fred, I'm not your sister, you know."[25]: 6 The success of the stage play was credited to this number, and when recreated in The Gay Divorcee (1934), the film version of the play, it ushered in a new era in filmed dance.[25]: 23, 26, 61 Recently, film footage taken by Fred Stone of Astaire performing in Gay Divorce with Luce's successor, Dorothy Stone, in New York in 1933 was uncovered by dancer and historian Betsy Baytos and now represents the earliest known performance footage of Astaire [27]1933–1939: Astaire and Ginger Rogers at RKOGinger Rogers and Fred Astaire in Top Hat (1935)According to Hollywood folklore, a screen test report on Astaire for RKO Radio Pictures, now lost along with the test, is reported to have read: "Can't sing. Can't act. Balding. Can dance a little." The producer of the pictures, Pandro S. Berman, claimed he had never heard the story in the 1930s and that it only emerged years afterward.[25]: 7 Astaire later clarified, insisting that the report had read: "Can't act. Slightly bald. Also dances."[28] In any case, the test was clearly disappointing, and David O. Selznick, who had signed Astaire to RKO and commissioned the test, stated in a memo, "I am uncertain about the man, but I feel, in spite of his enormous ears and bad chin line, that his charm is so tremendous that it comes through even on this wretched test."[25]: 7 However, this did not affect RKO's plans for Astaire. They lent him for a few days to MGM in 1933 for his significant Hollywood debut in the successful musical film Dancing Lady. In the movie, he appeared as himself dancing with Joan Crawford. On his return to RKO, he got fifth billing after fourth billed Ginger Rogers in the 1933 Dolores del Río vehicle Flying Down to Rio. In a review, Variety magazine attributed its massive success to Astaire's presence:The main point of Flying Down to Rio is the screen promise of Fred Astaire ... He's assuredly a bet after this one, for he's distinctly likable on the screen, the mike is kind to his voice and as a dancer, he remains in a class by himself. The latter observation will be no news to the profession, which has long admitted that Astaire starts dancing where the others stop hoofing [29][25]: 7 Having already been linked to his sister Adele on stage, Astaire was initially very reluctant to become part of another dance team. He wrote his agent, "I don't mind making another picture with her, but as for this 'team' idea, it's 'out!' I've just managed to live down one partnership and I don't want to be bothered with anymore."[25]: 8 However, he was persuaded by the apparent public appeal of the pairing. The partnership, and the choreography of Astaire and Hermes Pan, helped make dancing an important element of the Hollywood film musical.Astaire and Rogers made nine films together at RKO. These included Flying Down to Rio (1933), The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935, in which Astaire also demonstrates his oft-overlooked piano skills with a spirited solo on "I Won't Dance"), Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Swing Time (1936), Shall We Dance (1937), Carefree (1938), and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939). Six out of the nine musicals became the biggest moneymakers for RKO; all of the films brought a certain prestige and artistry that all studios coveted at the time. Their partnership elevated them both to stardom; as Katharine Hepburn reportedly said, "He gives her class and she gives him sex appeal."[30]: 134 Astaire received a percentage of the films' profits, something scarce in actors' contracts at that time InnovationsAstaire revolutionized dance on film by having complete autonomy over its presentation [31] He is credited with two important innovations in early film musicals.[25]: 23, 26 First, he insisted that a closely tracking dolly camera film a dance routine in as few shots as possible, typically with just four to eight cuts, while holding the dancers in full view at all times. This gave the illusion of an almost stationary camera filming an entire dance in a single shot. Astaire famously quipped: "Either the camera will dance, or I will."[25]: 420 Astaire maintained this policy from The Gay Divorcee in 1934 until his last film musical Finian's Rainbow in 1968, when director Francis Ford Coppola overruled him [32]Astaire s style of dance sequences allowed the viewer to follow the dancers and choreography in their entirety. This style differed strikingly from those in the Busby Berkeley musicals. Those musicals' sequences were filled with extravagant aerial shots, dozens of cuts for quick takes, and zooms on areas of the body such as a chorus row of arms or legs [33]Astaire s second innovation involved the context of the dance; he was adamant that all song and dance routines be integral to the plotlines of the film. Instead of using dance as a spectacle as Busby Berkeley did, Astaire used it to move the plot along. Typically, an Astaire picture would include at least three standard dances. One would be a solo performance by Astaire, which he termed his "sock solo". Another would be a partnered comedy dance routine. Finally, he would include a partnered romantic dance routine [34]Assessment of the Rogers partnershipAn RKO publicity still of Astaire and Rogers dancing to "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" in Roberta (1935)Dance commentators Arlene Croce,[30]: 6 Hannah Hyam[35]: 146–147 and John Mueller[25]: 8, 9 consider Rogers to have been Astaire's greatest dance partner, a view shared[36] by Hermes Pan and Stanley Donen.[36] Film critic Pauline Kael adopts a more neutral stance,[37] while Time magazine film critic Richard Schickel writes "The nostalgia surrounding tends to bleach out other partners [38]Mueller sums up Rogers's abilities as follows:Rogers was outstanding among Astaire's partners not because she was superior to others as a dancer, but because, as a skilled, intuitive actress, she was cagey enough to realize that acting did not stop when dancing began ... the reason so many women have fantasized about dancing with Fred Astaire is that Ginger Rogers conveyed the impression that dancing with him is the most thrilling experience imaginable [25]According to Astaire, "Ginger had never danced with a partner before Flying Down to Rio. She faked it an awful lot. She couldn't tap and she couldn't do this and that ... but Ginger had style and talent and improved as she went along. She got so that after a while everyone else who danced with me looked wrong."[39] On p. 162 of his book Ginger: Salute to a Star, author Dick Richards quotes Astaire saying to Raymond Rohauer, curator of the New York Gallery of Modern Art, "Ginger was brilliantly effective. She made everything work for her. Actually, she made things very fine for both of us and she deserves most of the credit for our success."In 1976, British talk-show host Sir Michael Parkinson asked Astaire who his favorite dancing partner was on Parkinson. At first, Astaire refused to answer. But, ultimately, he said "Excuse me, I must say Ginger was certainly, uh, uh, the one. You know, the most effective partner I had. Everyone knows [40]Rogers described Astaire's uncompromising standards extending to the whole production: "Sometimes he'll think of a new line of dialogue or a new angle for the story ... they never know what time of night he'll call up and start ranting about a fresh idea ... No loafing on the job on an Astaire picture, and no cutting corners."[25]: 16 Despite their success, Astaire was unwilling to have his career tied exclusively to any partnership. He negotiated with RKO to strike out on his own with A Damsel in Distress in 1937 with an inexperienced, non-dancing Joan Fontaine, unsuccessfully as it turned out. He returned to make two more films with Rogers, Carefree (1938) and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939). While both films earned respectable gross incomes, they both lost money because of increased production costs,[25]: 410 and Astaire left RKO, after being labeled "box office poison" by the Independent Theatre Owners of America. Astaire was reunited with Rogers in 1949 at MGM for their final outing, The Barkleys of Broadway, the only one of their films together to be shot in Technicolor 1940–1947: Holiday Inn, early left RKO in 1939 to freelance and pursue new film opportunities, with mixed though generally successful outcomes. Throughout this period, Astaire continued to value the input of choreographic collaborators. Unlike the 1930s when he worked almost exclusively with Hermes Pan, he tapped the talents of other choreographers to innovate continually. His first post-Ginger dance partner was the redoubtable Eleanor Powell, considered the most exceptional female tap-dancer of her generation. They starred in Broadway Melody of 1940, in which they performed a celebrated extended dance routine to Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine". In his autobiography Steps in Time, Astaire remarked, "She 'put 'em down' like a man, no ricky ticky sissy stuff with Ellie. She really knocked out a tap dance in a class by herself."[41]He played alongside Bing Crosby in Holiday Inn (1942) and later Blue Skies (1946). But, in spite of the enormous financial success of both, he was reportedly dissatisfied with roles where he lost the girl to Crosby. The former film is memorable for his virtuoso solo dance to "Let's Say it with Firecrackers". The latter film featured "Puttin' On the Ritz", an innovative song-and-dance routine indelibly associated with him. Other partners during this period included Paulette Goddard in Second Chorus (1940), in which he dance-conducted the Artie Shaw orchestra.With Rita Hayworth in You Were Never Lovelier (1942)He made two pictures with Rita Hayworth. The first film, You'll Never Get Rich (1941), catapulted Hayworth to stardom. In the movie, Astaire integrated for the third time Latin American dance idioms into his style (the first being with Ginger Rogers in "The Carioca" number from Flying Down to Rio (1933) and the second, again with Rogers, was the "Dengozo" dance from The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939)). His second film with Hayworth, You Were Never Lovelier (1942), was equally successful. It featured a duet to Kern's "I'm Old Fashioned", which became the centerpiece of Jerome Robbins's 1983 New York City Ballet tribute to Astaire. He next appeared opposite the seventeen year old Joan Leslie in the wartime drama The Sky's the Limit (1943). In it, he introduced Arlen and Mercer's "One for My Baby" while dancing on a bar counter in a dark and troubled routine. Astaire choreographed this film alone and achieved modest box office success. It represented a notable departure for Astaire from his usual charming, happy-go-lucky screen persona, and confused contemporary critics.His next partner, Lucille Bremer, was featured in two lavish vehicles, both directed by Vincente Minnelli. The fantasy Yolanda and the Thief (1945) featured an avant-garde surrealistic ballet. In the musical revue Ziegfeld Follies (1945), Astaire danced with Gene Kelly to the Gershwin song "The Babbit and the Bromide", a song Astaire had introduced with his sister Adele back in 1927. While Follies was a hit, Yolanda bombed at the box office.Always insecure and believing his career was beginning to falter, Astaire surprised his audiences by announcing his retirement during the production of his next film Blue Skies (1946). He nominated "Puttin' on the Ritz" as his farewell dance. After announcing his retirement in 1946, Astaire concentrated on his horse-racing interests and in 1947 founded the Fred Astaire Dance Studios, which he subsequently sold in 1966 1948–1957: MGM films and second retirementIn Daddy Long Legs (1955)Astaire's retirement did not last long. Astaire returned to the big screen to replace an injured Gene Kelly in Easter Parade (1948) opposite Judy Garland, Ann Miller, and Peter Lawford. He followed up with a final reunion with Rogers (replacing Judy Garland) in The Barkleys of Broadway (1949). Both of these films revived Astaire's popularity and in 1950 he starred in two musicals. Three Little Words with Vera-Ellen and Red Skelton was for MGM. Let's Dance with Betty Hutton was on loan-out to Paramount. While Three Little Words did quite well at the box office, Let's Dance was a financial disappointment. Royal Wedding (1951) with Jane Powell and Peter Lawford proved to be very successful, but The Belle of New York (1952) with Vera-Ellen was a critical and box-office disaster. The Band Wagon (1953) received rave reviews from critics and drew huge crowds. But because of its high cost, it failed to make a profit on its first release.Soon after, Astaire, like the other remaining stars at MGM, was let go from his contract because of the advent of television and the downsizing of film production. In 1954, Astaire was about to start work on a new musical, Daddy Long Legs (1955) with Leslie Caron at 20th Century Fox. Then, his wife Phyllis became ill and suddenly died of lung cancer. Astaire was so bereaved that he wanted to shut down the picture and offered to pay the production costs out of his pocket. However, Johnny Mercer, the film's composer, and Fox studio executives convinced him that work would be the best thing for him. Daddy Long Legs only did moderately well at the box office. His next film for Paramount, Funny Face (1957), teamed him with Audrey Hepburn and Kay Thompson. Despite the sumptuousness of the production and the good reviews from critics, it failed to make back its cost. Similarly, Astaire's next project – his final musical at MGM, Silk Stockings (1957), in which he co-starred with Cyd Charisse – also lost money at the box office Afterward Astaire announced that he was retiring from dancing in the film. His legacy at this point was 30 musical films in 25 years.

RARE 1903 BROADWAY WIZARD OF OZ STAGE PROGRAM LAUGHLIN FAUST MONTGOMERY STONE
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An extraordinary original program clip circa 1903 for the famous Montgomery Stone Broadway and touring production of L. Frank Baum's classic The Wizard of Oz, which differed significantly from the Judy Garland-Billie Burke-Ray Bolger-Jack Haley-Bert Lahr film. Dimensions twelve by five and a half inches, trimmed from a larger program and pasted to an twelve and a half by nine inch Edwardian album page. Light wear at top and margins otherwise good. See the story of the early 1900s Broadway Wizard of Oz below. Buyer pays USPS insured shipping. Reduced postage for buyers of multiple items. Credit cards accepted with Paypal. Inquiries always welcome. Please visit my other eBay auctions and Buy It Now items for more early theatre, opera and historical autographs, photographs, broadsides and programs and great singer, actor and actress cabinet photos and CDV's. From Wikipedia:The Wizard of Oz was a 1902 musical extravaganza based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, which was originally published in 1900. Much of the original music was by Paul Tietjens and has been mostly forgotten, although it was still well-remembered and in discussion at MGM in 1939 when the classic film version of the story was made.[1] Although Baum is the credited bookwriter, Glen MacDonough was hired on as jokewriter after Baum had finished the script.The show premiered at the Chicago Grand Opera House[2] on June 16, 1902 and later moved to the Majestic Theatre on Broadway on January 21, 1903, where it ran for 293 performances until December 31, 1904, followed by traveling tours of the original cast.[3] It starred Anna Laughlin as Dorothy Gale, Fred Stone as the Scarecrow, and David C. Montgomery as the Tin Woodman (who is called Niccolo Chopper in the musical; he had no name in the original book, but would be called Nick Chopper in the sequels). Arthur Hill played the Cowardly Lion, but in this version his role was reduced to a bit part. The Wicked Witch of the West is mentioned but does not appear in this version, and Toto is replaced by a cow named Imogene. An element from the show – the snowfall caused by the Good Witch of the North, which defeats the spell of the poppies that had put Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion to sleep – was later used in the classic 1939 movie. Other new characters in the piece are King Pastoria II and his girlfriend, Trixie Tryfle (a waitress), Cynthia Cynch (a lady lunatic), Sir Dashemoff Daily (the poet laureate), Sir Wiley Gyle, and General Riskitt. Dorothy Gale's surname was introduced in this version. It was not mentioned in the original novel, though it is mentioned in Ozma of Oz(1907).The main plot of the show, as recounted in newspapers of the time, is Pastoria's attempts to regain the throne from the Wizard of Oz. The original protagonists' search for the Wizard puts them on the wrong side of the law.Production and early revivalsIn rewriting Baum's 1901 script, Mitchell hired MacDonough to add topical humor. Baum described MacDonough as a New York joke writer in a letter to The Chicago Record-Herald, responding to criticism that the show "teemed with wild and woolly western puns and forced gags".[5] In a letter to The Chicago Tribune published June 26, 1904, Baum decried rumors that he was "heartbroken and ashamed" with the final product of the musical: "I acknowledge that I was unwise enough to express myself as dissatisfied with the handling of my play on its first production ... few authors of successful books are ever fully satisfied with the dramatization of their work. They discern great gaps in the original story that are probably never noticed by playgoers." He admitted to protesting several innovations, but ultimately concluded: "The people will have what pleases them, and not what the author happens to favor, and I believe that one of the reasons why Julian Mitchell is regarded as a great producer is that he faithfully tries to serve the great mass of playgoers – and usually succeeds [6]Fred Stone as the Scarecrow and David C. Montgomery as the Tin Woodman (1902)Most of the original songs were written by Paul Tietjens on Baum's lyrics, except for three: "The Guardian of the Gate" (although it was attributed to Tietjens), which was cut after only a few performances, "The Different Ways of Making Love" (wooing) and "It Happens Every Day" were composed by Nathaniel D. Mann. Mann later wrote the score for Baum's 1908 film/theatrical presentation, The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays. Most of Baum's songs related to the story in some way, as in operetta, but as performed, the play was more likevaudeville, and new songs by other songwriters were frequently substituted. In fact, the first song interpolated into the musical was "The Traveler and the Pie", a major number for the Scarecrow. Baum and Tietjens had written it for a play called The Octopus; or the Title Trust, which was never produced and possibly never completed. The song stayed in the show. James O'Dea and Edward Hutchinson wrote one of the show's most celebrated songs, "Sammy", in which Tryxie Tryfle sings of a lost love before King Pastoria, though the only surviving recording of the piece was sung by a man (Harry Macdonough).The witches are largely absent in this version; The Good Witch of the North appears, named Locasta, and The Wicked Witch of the East is a special effect. Toto, Dorothy's dog, was replaced by a cow named Imogene. The Wicked Witch of the West does not appear, and Glinda the Good Witch of the South, who had appeared only in Act Three, was written out by Mitchell in 1903. His re-write of that act was set in the Borderland that divides Oz and Glinda's Domain, as Dorothy and her friends try to escape Pastoria [citation needed]New characters include King Pastoria II, Oz's true king working as a Kansas motorman and his girlfriend, Trixie Tryfle, a waitress. There is also Cynthia Cynch, the Lady Lunatic, a prototype for Nimmie Amee, Nick (Niccolo) Chopper's girlfriend. Niccolo Chopper is renowned for his ability on the piccolo, the subject of one of her songs, and he is shown playing a piccolo in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the first Oz film made without Baum's input, which was highly influenced by the popular play. The Wizard was presented as various ethnic stock character stereotypes, depending upon who played him. He was assisted by Sir Wiley Gyle and General Riskitt. David L. Greene and Dick Martin erroneously captioned a picture of General Riskitt as "Sir Wiley Gyle" in The Oz Scrapbook, and Donald Abbott carried this mistake over into his illustrations for How the Wizard Saved Oz.The animals in the play, including the Cowardly Lion, did not speak, based on pantomime tradition. Although the lion costume was realistic, far more so than Bert Lahr's in the MGM film, his main purpose was a bit of comic relief and scaring off the villains on occasion. His quest for courage is completely omitted, much as the other characters' quests are deemphasized in favor of various comic routines. Ultimately, though, their desire to seek the Wizard's aid gets them caught on the wrong side of the revolution, jailed and ultimately scheduled for execution. In a deus ex machina, another tornado arrives to sweep Dorothy home from the chopping block.Many new plot twists are virtually pointless. In addition to a kiss of protection, Dorothy gets three wishes, one of which is wasted on a triviality. The second is used to bring the Scarecrow to life, and the third is used so she can learn the song Sir Dashemoff Daily (a trouser role) has written to his girlfriend, Carrie Barry. This song was written by Baum and Tietjens, but some programs credited the song to Glen MacDonough and A. Baldwin Sloane to make their connection to the play look greater [citation needed]Probably the biggest influence on the 1939 MGM film, aside from making the story into a musical (but not using the score created for the stage version), is the field of poppies sequence that ended Act I. In the novel, Baum imaginatively has a legion of field mice pull a cart with the Cowardly Lion out of the poppy field. This was deemed unfeasible (though the stage version of The Wiz created a variation, with the mice as anthropomorphic vice cops), and Baum, though he included it in the 1901 script, replaced the scene with that of the Snow Queen creating a storm that destroys the poppies, much as Glinda does in the 1939 movie. This concluded Act I with an elaborate dance known as "Winter Jubilation", which James Patrick Doyle plays on synthesizers on the album, Before the Rainbow: The Original Music of Oz.Cast of the production at East Texas State Normal College in 1921Because there were no cast albums in those days, theatre productions, including this production, often exceeded four hours in length because of multiple demands for encores, since many of the attendees knew they would never get to attend again. The most popular songs were often sung multiple times and this was often used to gauge whether a song should be retained or dropped. Two popular routines that were worked in include a sailing routine and a football routine, the latter parodying the level of violence in the sport, which had recently been lessened due to new regulations.The original cast included Anna Laughlin as Dorothy Gale, Fred Stone as the Scarecrow, David C. Montgomery as Nick Chopper (the Tin Man), Helen Byron as Cynthia Cynch, Bessie Wynn as Sir Dashemoff Daily, Gilbert Clayton as King Pastoria II, Bobby Gaylor as Oz, Arthur Hill as the Cowardly Lion, Grace Kimball as Tryxie Tryffle, and Edwin J. Stone as Imogene the cow. The second theatre to house the production was the New York Theatre. It went on the road playing as far away as the Opera House in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas in 1904. By 1905, the New York production had been moved to the Academy of Music at 14th and Irving Place. Montgomery and Stone remained in the cast, but Dorothy was now played by Mona Desmond.[7] Marion Stanley took over the role of Trixie Tryfle, George B. Field played Sir Wiley Gyle, and Charles E. Mitchell became the Wizard. The Snow Queen was played by Bert Dean en travesti.The musical was revived as late as 1934, with Charles H. Pinkham in the role of the Scarecrow ReceptionThe New York Times' critic described the show as "the Darling of Mr. Belasco's Gods".[8] Leone Langdon-Key loved the scenery, but found Baum's script commonplace, commenting that many lines start with, "Well, wouldn't that..." and deplored Tietjens's "fondness for a lack of contrast and rhythms. She also claims that the story of Pastoria trying to regain the lost throne from the Wizard was "as readers of the story remember [9]Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich of Russia gained considerable notoriety by drinking champagne from the satin slipper of one of the chorus girls during a 1902 trip to Chicago.

Ultimate Playbill Binders (Lot of 3 - Each w/ 16 sleeves for Broadway Playbills)
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Lot of 4 Ultimate Playbill Binders Official Playbill
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FOLLIES Sondheim Original 1971 & 2001 & 2011 Broadway Opening Night Playbills
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FOLLIES Sondheim Original 1971 Opening Night 2001 and 2011 Broadway Revival Opening Night PlaybillsAlmost 30 years to the day between the first opening nights Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Follies is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The story concerns a reunion in a crumbling Broadway theatre, scheduled for demolition, of the past performers of the "Weismann's Follies", a musical revue (based on the Ziegfeld Follies), that played in that theatre between the World Wars. It focuses on two couples, Buddy and Sally Durant Plummer and Benjamin and Phyllis Rogers Stone, who are attending the reunion. Sally and Phyllis were showgirls in the Follies. Both couples are deeply unhappy with their marriages. Buddy, a traveling salesman, is having an affair with a girl on the road; Sally is still as much in love with Ben as she was years ago; and Ben is so self-absorbed that Phyllis feels emotionally abandoned. Several of the former showgirls perform their old numbers, sometimes accompanied by the ghosts of their former selves. The musical numbers in the show have been interpreted as pastiches of the styles of the leading Broadway composers of the 1920s and 1930s, and sometimes as parodies of specific songs. The Broadway production opened on April 4, 1971, directed by Harold Prince and Michael Bennett, and with choreography by Bennett. The musical was nominated for 11 Tony Awards and won seven. The original production, the second-most costly performed on Broadway to that date, ran for over 500 performances but ultimately lost its entire investment. The musical has had a number of major revivals, and several of its songs have become standards, including "Broadway Baby", "I'm Still Here", "Too Many Mornings", "Could I Leave You?", and "Losing My Mind". 2001 Broadway revival A Broadway revival opened at the Belasco Theatre on April 5, 2001, and closed on July 14, 2001, after 117 performances and 32 previews. This Roundabout Theatre limited engagement had been expected to close on September 30, 2001. Directed by Matthew Warchus with choreography by Kathleen Marshall, it starred Blythe Danner (Phyllis), Judith Ivey (Sally), Treat Williams (Buddy), Gregory Harrison (Ben), Marge Champion, Polly Bergen (Carlotta), Joan Roberts (Laurey from the original Broadway production of Oklahoma!; later replaced by Marni Nixon), Larry Raiken (Roscoe) and an assortment of famous names from the past. Former MGM and onetime Broadway star Betty Garrett, best known to younger audiences for her television work, played Hattie. It was significantly stripped down (earlier productions had featured extravagant sets and costumes) and was not a success critically.

The Ultimate Playbill Binders LOT Set w/ Sleeves Archival Storage for Collection
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THE PENULTIMATE PROBLEM OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, PROGRAM, APR 1981, HUDSON GUILD
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Every purchase will include 2 extra something for free, as a bonus. It's not going to be anything spectacular. It could be a random magnet from a show, it could be show flyer, an understudy slip, it could be a 'second' Playbill that has some damage. It could be something like a brand new Playbill that I just have a lot of. If you ask, I'll send you a picture of a few things and you can pick one! Questions and answers and more answers: A: I'm happy to combine shipping of items.A: If you want multiple items, let me know and we can try to work something out price wise. A: Posters will ship properly, flat, in a plastic sleeve, in a protector, in a large mailer.A: Playbills will ship flat, in a plastic sleeve in a bubble mailerA: Misc. items like cups or oddly sized/shaped items will be shipped as best as I can to make sure it arrives to you in great shape! A: Items labeled Window Card and/or Posters are 14"x22" unless otherwise noted above. Q: What is The Spanky Project?A: Spanky is/was the most amazing dog I ever could have ever asked for, and I didn't even go out looking for a dog, he adopted me. We were together for 15 years. I had to put him down in October of 2021 and I decided I wanted him to be my legacy, to leave his name around, long after I am gone (is the plan). I thought what better way, than to help those that can't help themselves, dogs like him! He was from the pound and I thought helping shelters rescues that are always needing help with supplies to keep themselves going would be a great way to give back and keep his memory alive. He was 17/18ish when I put him down, the hardest choice I have ever had to make. If you have any dogs, please give them some extra loving, because one day you won't be able to. Q: What about cats?A: Not a good show, imo. Q: People?A: I help people too, sometimes. I just prefer to help dogs. I recently bought a man a train ticket for $54 to get him back home because I thought it would be easier than him trying to hitchhike four hours back to Albany on an on-ramp in Buffalo, even drove him to the train station. We tipped the nice server lady at the Waffle House $100 on a $20 bill in October. I will often offer to buy someone asking for money something to eat, surprisingly they don't always take you up on it. I do what I can to help. Q: Why sell Broadway Stuff?A: I freaking love Broadway. I even met my wife in a Broadway fb group. We live Broadway, we love Broadway. I have some leftover shoes/boots and maybe other random stuff I am selling too, but that's for me personally to get rid of. Q: Why are you more expensive than other people selling the same item?A: I don't really know what most of this stuff is worth; have a fair offer, send me a message, let's chat. Q: How do I know you are really donating money to a dog rescue; people lie.A: That is why I help dogs, they don't, lol. You can check out our fb page for proof I do what I say I do. My wife and I donated all of our wedding money to a dog rescue, the proof is there, I am not making this up. I am also donating 10% to Broadway Cares, Equity Fights Aids on almost all of my listings, which is where some of our stuff comes from. Make sure if you do check out the page, search THE Spanky Project. Q: How long will it take for you to ship?A: I will do my best to get your item shipped within a few days Need it shipped urgently, please let me know first, I'll do my best. I just want to set you up for realistic expectations, this is a for charity side hustle, so I do everything when I am able to! Q: What else do I need to know before I possibly pay more for the same item from you?A: There is so much more to say, but please, let me know if you have any questions before you bid/buy. I just want to leave my dent in the world and do as much good as I can to help as many doggos as possible. Thank you for your consideration

WORLD'S GREATEST ACTOR: THE AMAZING EDMUND KEAN (1787-1833) RARE 1817 PROGRAM
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He may have been the greatest actor that ever lived. To see Edmund Kean, wrote Samuel Taylor Coleridge, was like reading Shakespeare "by flashes of lightning." Lord Byron was among his greatest admirers. A rare February 1817 issue of the Drury Lane Theatrical Gazette with attractions at the leading London playhouses featuring the great Edmund Kean as Sir Giles Overreach in A New Way To Pay Old Debts, also a role played by Junius Brutus Booth and his son Edwin. Eight pages. Dimensions eight and a half by five and three quarters inches. Light wear otherwise good. See Edmund Kean's extraordinary biography below.Shipping discounts for buyers of multiple items. Credit cards accepted with Paypal. Inquiries always welcome. Please visit my other eBay items for more early theatre and historical autographs, broadsides, photographs and programs and great actor and actress cabinet photos and CDV's.From Kean (4 November 1787 – 15 May 1833) was celebrated Shakespearean stage actor born in England, who performed in London, Belfast, New York, Quebec, and Paris among other places. He was well known for his short stature, tumultuous personal life, and controversial divorce. He expired of dissipation at the age of 44.Kean was born in Westminster London. His father was probably Edmund Kean (see Ó Catháin), an architect’s clerk, and his mother was an actress, Anne Carey, daughter of the 18th-century composer and playwright Henry Carey.Kean made his first appearance on the stage, aged four, as Cupid in Jean-Georges Noverre’s ballet of Cymon. As a child his vivacity, cleverness and ready affection made him a universal favorite, but his harsh circumstances and lack of discipline, both helped develop self-reliance and fostered wayward tendencies. About 1794 a few benevolent persons paid for him to go to school, where he did well; but finding the restraint intolerable, he shipped as a cabin boy atPortsmouth. Finding life at sea even more restricting, he pretended to be both deaf and lame so skilfully that he deceived the doctors at Madeira.On his return to England, he sought the protection of his uncle, Moses Kean, a mimic, ventriloquist and general entertainer, who, besides continuing his pantomimic studies, introduced him to the study of Shakespeare. At the same time, Miss Charlotte Tidswell, an actress who had been especially kind to him from infancy, taught him the principles of acting.On the death of his uncle, she took charge of him, and he began the systematic study of the principal Shakespearean characters, displaying the peculiar originality of his genius by interpretations entirely different from those of John Philip Kemble, then considered the great exponent of these roles. Kean’s talents and interesting countenance caused a Mrs Clarke to adopt him, but he took offense at the comments of a visitor and suddenly left her house and went back to his old surroundings DiscoverAged fourteen, he obtained an engagement to play leading characters for twenty nights in the York Theatre, appearing as Hamlet, Hastings and Cato.Shortly afterwards, while he was in Richardson's Theatre, a travelling theatre company, the rumor of his abilities reached George III, who commanded him to appear at Windsor Castle. He subsequently joined Saunders’s circus, where in the performance of an equestrian feat he fell and broke both legs—the accident leaving traces of swelling in his insteps throughout his life.About this time, he picked up music from Charles Incledon, dancing from D’Egville, and fencing from Angelo. In 1807, he played leading parts in the Belfast theater with Sarah Siddons, who began by calling him "a horrid little man" and on further experience of his ability said that he "played very, very well," but that "there was too little of him to make a great actor." In 1808, he joined Samuel Butler’s provincial troupe and went on to marry Mary Chambers of Waterford, the leading actress, on 17 July. His wife bore him two sons, one of whom was actor Charles Kean.Drury Lane and New YorkFor several years, his prospects were very gloomy, but in 1814, the committee of Drury Lane Theatre, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, resolved to give him a chance among the "experiments" they were making to win a return of popularity. When the expectation of his first appearance in London was close upon him, he was so feverish that he exclaimed, "If I succeed I shall go mad." Unable to afford medical treatment for some time, his elder son died the day after he signed the three-year Drury Lane contract.His opening at Drury Lane on 26 January 1814 as Shylock roused the audience to almost uncontrollable enthusiasm.[1] Contemporaries recognized that Kean had brought dignity and humanity to his portrayal of the character [2]Successive appearances in Richard III, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and King Lear demonstrated his mastery of the range of tragic emotion. His triumph was so great that he himself said on one occasion, "I could not feel the stage under me."In 1817, a local playwright named Charles Bucke submitted his play The Italians, or; The Fatal Accusation to Drury Lane, for which Kean was to play the lead. The play was well received by both council and actors until Kean seemed to have a change of heart and began to make several offhand remarks that his part was not big enough for him. Then, after a performance where Kean went out of his way to botch the opening night of Switzerland by historical novelist Jane Porterin February 1819, for whom Kean had had a personal dislike, Bucke pulled the play out of contempt for Kean's conduct.[3] After much cajoling to still perform the play by the theater staff, Mr. Bucke then later had it republished with a preface concerning the incident, including excerpts from correspondences between the involved parties, which was later challenged in two books, The Assailant Assailed and A Defense of Edmund Kean, Esq. The result was loss of face on both sides and the play being performed anyway on 3 April 1819 to a disastrous reception thanks to the controversy already surrounding the play and Kean's previous conduct.[4]On 29 November 1820, Kean appeared for the first time in New York, as Richard III. The success of his visit to America was unequivocal, although he fell into a vexatious dispute with the press. In 1821, he appeared in Boston with Mary Ann Duff in The Distrest Mother, by Ambrose Philips, an adaptation of Racine's Andromaque. On 4 June 1821, he returned to England.Kean was the first to restore the tragic ending to Shakespeare's King Lear, which had been replaced on stage since 1681 by Nahum Tate's happy ending adaptation The History of King Lear. Kean had previously acted Tate's Lear, but told his wife that the London audience "have no notion of what I can do till they see me over the dead body of Cordelia."[5] Kean played the tragic Lear for a few performances. They were not well received, though one critic described his dying scene as "deeply affecting",[6] and with regret, he reverted to Tate [7]8]Private lifeKean's lifestyle became a hindrance to his career. As a result of his relationship with Charlotte Cox, the wife of a London city alderman, Kean was sued by Mr Cox for damages for criminal conversation (adultery). Damages of £800 were awarded against him by a jury that had deliberated for just 10 minutes. The Times launched a violent attack on him. The adverse decision in the criminal conversation case of Cox v. Kean on 17 January 1825 caused his wife to leave him, and aroused against him such bitter feeling that he was booed and pelted with fruit when he re-appeared at Drury Lane and nearly compelled to retire permanently into private life. For many years, he lived at Keydell House, Horndean.Second American visitA second visit to America in 1825 was largely a repetition of the persecution which he had suffered in England. Some cities showed him a spirit of charity; many audiences submitted him to insults and even violence. In Quebec City, he was much impressed with the kindness of some Huron Indians who attended his performances, and he was purportedly made an honorary chief of the tribe, receiving the name Alanienouidet [9] Kean’s last appearance in New York was on 5 December 1826 in Richard III, the role in which he was first seen in America.Decline and deathHe returned to England and was ultimately received with favour, but by now he was so dependent on the use of stimulants that the gradual deterioration of his gifts was inevitable. Still, his great powers triumphed during the moments of his inspiration over the absolute wreck of his physical faculties. His appearance in Paris was a failure owing to a fit of drunkenness.His last appearance on the stage was at Covent Garden on 25 March 1833, when he played Othello to the Iago of his son, Charles Kean, who was also an accomplished actor. At the words "Villain, be sure," in scene 3 of act iii, he suddenly broke down, and crying in a faltering voice "O God, I am dying. Speak to them, Charles," fell insensible into his son’s arms. He died at Richmond, Surrey where he had spent his last years as manager of the local theatre, and is commemorated in the Parish Church where there is a floor plaque marking his grave and a wall plaque originally on the outside but moved inside and heavily restored during restoration work in 1904. He is buried in the parish church of All Saints, in the village of Catherington, Hampshire. His last words were alleged to be "dying is easy; comedy is hard."[10] In Dublin, Gustavus Vaughan Brooke took up the part of William Tell vacated by Kean.Artistic legacyIt was in the impersonation of the great creations of Shakespeare’s genius that the varied beauty and grandeur of the acting of Kean were displayed in their highest form, although probably his most powerful character was Sir Giles Overreach in Philip Massinger’s A New Way to Pay Old Debts, the effect of his first performance of which was such that the pit rose en masse, and even the actors and actresses themselves were overcome by the terrific dramatic illusion. His main disadvantage as an actor was his small stature. Coleridge said, "Seeing him act was like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning [11]EccentricityHis eccentricities at the height of his fame were numerous. Sometimes he would ride recklessly on his horse, Shylock, throughout the night. He was presented with a tame lion with which he might be found playing in his drawing room The prize-fighters Mendoza and Richmond the Black were among his visitors. Grattan was his devoted friend.

RARE 1903 BROADWAY WIZARD OF OZ STAGE PROGRAM + ANNA LAUGHLIN & LION PHOTO
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Extraordinary original program clips circa 1903 for the famous Montgomery Stone Broadway and touring production of L. Frank Baum's classic The Wizard of Oz, which differed significantly from the Judy Garland-Billie Burke-Ray Bolger-Jack Haley-Bert Lahr film. With a later print of a photograph of Anna Laughlin as Dorothy with the Lion. Program clip dimensions seven and three quarters by five and three quarters and nine and a half by six inches, trimmed from a larger program and pasted to Edwardian album pages. Edgewear margins otherwise good. See the story of the early 1900s Broadway Wizard of Oz below. Buyer pays USPS insured shipping. Reduced postage for buyers of multiple items. Credit cards accepted with Paypal. Inquiries always welcome. Please visit my other eBay auctions and Buy It Now items for more early theatre, opera and historical autographs, photographs, broadsides and programs and great singer, actor and actress cabinet photos and CDV's. From Wikipedia:The Wizard of Oz was a 1902 musical extravaganza based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, which was originally published in 1900. Much of the original music was by Paul Tietjens and has been mostly forgotten, although it was still well-remembered and in discussion at MGM in 1939 when the classic film version of the story was made.[1] Although Baum is the credited bookwriter, Glen MacDonough was hired on as jokewriter after Baum had finished the script.The show premiered at the Chicago Grand Opera House[2] on June 16, 1902 and later moved to the Majestic Theatre on Broadway on January 21, 1903, where it ran for 293 performances until December 31, 1904, followed by traveling tours of the original cast.[3] It starred Anna Laughlin as Dorothy Gale, Fred Stone as the Scarecrow, and David C. Montgomery as the Tin Woodman (who is called Niccolo Chopper in the musical; he had no name in the original book, but would be called Nick Chopper in the sequels). Arthur Hill played the Cowardly Lion, but in this version his role was reduced to a bit part. The Wicked Witch of the West is mentioned but does not appear in this version, and Toto is replaced by a cow named Imogene. An element from the show – the snowfall caused by the Good Witch of the North, which defeats the spell of the poppies that had put Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion to sleep – was later used in the classic 1939 movie. Other new characters in the piece are King Pastoria II and his girlfriend, Trixie Tryfle (a waitress), Cynthia Cynch (a lady lunatic), Sir Dashemoff Daily (the poet laureate), Sir Wiley Gyle, and General Riskitt. Dorothy Gale's surname was introduced in this version. It was not mentioned in the original novel, though it is mentioned in Ozma of Oz(1907).The main plot of the show, as recounted in newspapers of the time, is Pastoria's attempts to regain the throne from the Wizard of Oz. The original protagonists' search for the Wizard puts them on the wrong side of the law.Production and early revivalsIn rewriting Baum's 1901 script, Mitchell hired MacDonough to add topical humor. Baum described MacDonough as a New York joke writer in a letter to The Chicago Record-Herald, responding to criticism that the show "teemed with wild and woolly western puns and forced gags".[5] In a letter to The Chicago Tribune published June 26, 1904, Baum decried rumors that he was "heartbroken and ashamed" with the final product of the musical: "I acknowledge that I was unwise enough to express myself as dissatisfied with the handling of my play on its first production ... few authors of successful books are ever fully satisfied with the dramatization of their work. They discern great gaps in the original story that are probably never noticed by playgoers." He admitted to protesting several innovations, but ultimately concluded: "The people will have what pleases them, and not what the author happens to favor, and I believe that one of the reasons why Julian Mitchell is regarded as a great producer is that he faithfully tries to serve the great mass of playgoers – and usually succeeds [6]Fred Stone as the Scarecrow and David C. Montgomery as the Tin Woodman (1902)Most of the original songs were written by Paul Tietjens on Baum's lyrics, except for three: "The Guardian of the Gate" (although it was attributed to Tietjens), which was cut after only a few performances, "The Different Ways of Making Love" (wooing) and "It Happens Every Day" were composed by Nathaniel D. Mann. Mann later wrote the score for Baum's 1908 film/theatrical presentation, The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays. Most of Baum's songs related to the story in some way, as in operetta, but as performed, the play was more likevaudeville, and new songs by other songwriters were frequently substituted. In fact, the first song interpolated into the musical was "The Traveler and the Pie", a major number for the Scarecrow. Baum and Tietjens had written it for a play called The Octopus; or the Title Trust, which was never produced and possibly never completed. The song stayed in the show. James O'Dea and Edward Hutchinson wrote one of the show's most celebrated songs, "Sammy", in which Tryxie Tryfle sings of a lost love before King Pastoria, though the only surviving recording of the piece was sung by a man (Harry Macdonough).The witches are largely absent in this version; The Good Witch of the North appears, named Locasta, and The Wicked Witch of the East is a special effect. Toto, Dorothy's dog, was replaced by a cow named Imogene. The Wicked Witch of the West does not appear, and Glinda the Good Witch of the South, who had appeared only in Act Three, was written out by Mitchell in 1903. His re-write of that act was set in the Borderland that divides Oz and Glinda's Domain, as Dorothy and her friends try to escape Pastoria [citation needed]New characters include King Pastoria II, Oz's true king working as a Kansas motorman and his girlfriend, Trixie Tryfle, a waitress. There is also Cynthia Cynch, the Lady Lunatic, a prototype for Nimmie Amee, Nick (Niccolo) Chopper's girlfriend. Niccolo Chopper is renowned for his ability on the piccolo, the subject of one of her songs, and he is shown playing a piccolo in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the first Oz film made without Baum's input, which was highly influenced by the popular play. The Wizard was presented as various ethnic stock character stereotypes, depending upon who played him. He was assisted by Sir Wiley Gyle and General Riskitt. David L. Greene and Dick Martin erroneously captioned a picture of General Riskitt as "Sir Wiley Gyle" in The Oz Scrapbook, and Donald Abbott carried this mistake over into his illustrations for How the Wizard Saved Oz.The animals in the play, including the Cowardly Lion, did not speak, based on pantomime tradition. Although the lion costume was realistic, far more so than Bert Lahr's in the MGM film, his main purpose was a bit of comic relief and scaring off the villains on occasion. His quest for courage is completely omitted, much as the other characters' quests are deemphasized in favor of various comic routines. Ultimately, though, their desire to seek the Wizard's aid gets them caught on the wrong side of the revolution, jailed and ultimately scheduled for execution. In a deus ex machina, another tornado arrives to sweep Dorothy home from the chopping block.Many new plot twists are virtually pointless. In addition to a kiss of protection, Dorothy gets three wishes, one of which is wasted on a triviality. The second is used to bring the Scarecrow to life, and the third is used so she can learn the song Sir Dashemoff Daily (a trouser role) has written to his girlfriend, Carrie Barry. This song was written by Baum and Tietjens, but some programs credited the song to Glen MacDonough and A. Baldwin Sloane to make their connection to the play look greater [citation needed]Probably the biggest influence on the 1939 MGM film, aside from making the story into a musical (but not using the score created for the stage version), is the field of poppies sequence that ended Act I. In the novel, Baum imaginatively has a legion of field mice pull a cart with the Cowardly Lion out of the poppy field. This was deemed unfeasible (though the stage version of The Wiz created a variation, with the mice as anthropomorphic vice cops), and Baum, though he included it in the 1901 script, replaced the scene with that of the Snow Queen creating a storm that destroys the poppies, much as Glinda does in the 1939 movie. This concluded Act I with an elaborate dance known as "Winter Jubilation", which James Patrick Doyle plays on synthesizers on the album, Before the Rainbow: The Original Music of Oz.Cast of the production at East Texas State Normal College in 1921Because there were no cast albums in those days, theatre productions, including this production, often exceeded four hours in length because of multiple demands for encores, since many of the attendees knew they would never get to attend again. The most popular songs were often sung multiple times and this was often used to gauge whether a song should be retained or dropped. Two popular routines that were worked in include a sailing routine and a football routine, the latter parodying the level of violence in the sport, which had recently been lessened due to new regulations.The original cast included Anna Laughlin as Dorothy Gale, Fred Stone as the Scarecrow, David C. Montgomery as Nick Chopper (the Tin Man), Helen Byron as Cynthia Cynch, Bessie Wynn as Sir Dashemoff Daily, Gilbert Clayton as King Pastoria II, Bobby Gaylor as Oz, Arthur Hill as the Cowardly Lion, Grace Kimball as Tryxie Tryffle, and Edwin J. Stone as Imogene the cow. The second theatre to house the production was the New York Theatre. It went on the road playing as far away as the Opera House in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas in 1904. By 1905, the New York production had been moved to the Academy of Music at 14th and Irving Place. Montgomery and Stone remained in the cast, but Dorothy was now played by Mona Desmond.[7] Marion Stanley took over the role of Trixie Tryfle, George B. Field played Sir Wiley Gyle, and Charles E. Mitchell became the Wizard. The Snow Queen was played by Bert Dean en travesti.The musical was revived as late as 1934, with Charles H. Pinkham in the role of the Scarecrow ReceptionThe New York Times' critic described the show as "the Darling of Mr. Belasco's Gods".[8] Leone Langdon-Key loved the scenery, but found Baum's script commonplace, commenting that many lines start with, "Well, wouldn't that..." and deplored Tietjens's "fondness for a lack of contrast and rhythms. She also claims that the story of Pastoria trying to regain the lost throne from the Wizard was "as readers of the story remember [9]Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich of Russia gained considerable notoriety by drinking champagne from the satin slipper of one of the chorus girls during a 1902 trip to Chicago.

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