A History of the Theatre in America from Its Beginnings to the Present Time Vol. 2 by Arthur Hornblow; J.B. Lippincott Company, 1919
Meantime, some interesting attractions appeared at Palmer's, including Mr. and Mrs. Kendal in repertoire, Digby Bell in "Jupiter," Henry E. Dixey in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, Charles Wyndham in "David Garrick," John Drew and Maude Adams in "The Masked Ball," Viola Allen and William Faversham in Bronson Howard "Aristocracy," Edward E. Rice burlesque "1492," Julia Arthur in "Lady Windemere's Fan," E. S. Willard in English melodrama, etc., etc. But the huge barnlike auditorium proved unsuitable for stock performance, and in 1896 Palmer finally gave up the struggle and retired from management.
... Belasco decided that his San Francisco career was ended and came to New York. He was then only twenty-nine years old, with a record of 170 parts acted and 100 plays written, adapted or altered.
His first play to attract any attention was "Hearts of Oak," written with James A. Herne and first produced at Hamlin's Theatre, Chicago, in 1879, Katherine Corcoran (Mrs. Herne) making her first appearance in that city in the role of Chrystal. His next play, "La Belle Russe," was first seen at the Baldwin Theatre, San Francisco, in 1881, with Jeffreys Lewis as Beatrice, the beautiful but vicious Englishwoman, and Maude Adams as little Beatrice.
Now firmly established as a producing manager, Charles Frohman took a lease of Proctor's Twenty third Street Theatre and opened there S September 8, 1890, with a new play by William Gillette called "All the Comforts of Home." In this play, Maude Adams, who played the role of Evangeline Bender, made her first appearance under Charles Frohman's management.
Maude Adams was born in 1872 at Salt Lake City, where her mother, Mrs. Annie Adams, was a member of the local stock company. She went on the stage at a very early age, first with J. K. Emmett, and then as the child in "A Celebrated Case." Later, mother and daughter went to New York, where Maude was engaged to play the part of Moyna Sullivan in "The Paymaster "at the Star Theatre, September 17, 1888. The following year she joined E. H. Sothern's company, playing Louisa in "The Highest Bidder" and Jessie Dean in "Lord Chumley." Shortly afterwards, Charles Hoyt took her for the part of Dot, the young school teacher, in "The Midnight Bell," and on the termination of that engagement she received an offer from Charles Frohman.
Under Frohman's managerial wing, Maude Adams' rise to success was rapid, even phenomenal. She had no marked histrionic gift, there was not a role she attempted that a hundred other actresses could not have done as well or better, yet from the box office point of view she soon became the most popular actress and biggest money-maker on the American stage. Her first season as a star netted her forty thousand dollars and each succeeding season for many years the money poured in until she soon became the richest among living American players.
The secret of Maude Adams' success is not her art, but her personality--an elfish, diaphanous, elusive personality, the charm of which is irresistible and defies all criticism. The public flocked to see her, and the unsophisticated matinee maiden, who liked to regard her as an idealized girlhood, purchased her photographs in such numbers that the supply could not meet the demand. Meantime, Maude Adams was as shy and elusive as her manager. Quite unlike the average player, she shrunk from public notice. She was never seen in places where other actresses are apt to congregate, and her life, never touched by the breath of scandal, was that of a recluse. All this was good advertising which, in this particular case, brought substantial reward.
Maude Adams had such success in this last play that Frohman decided to make her a star, and he secured for her use a dramatization by J. M. Barrie of the latter's own story, "The Little Minister." Produced September 27, 1897, with Maude Adams as Lady Babbie and Robert Edeson as Gavin Dishart, the piece ran at the Empire for 300 consecutive performances, after which Miss Adams went on tour with the piece.
In 1899, Maude Adams essayed the role of Juliet and the following year she was seen for the first time in boy attire as the pathetic little Duc de Reichstadt in Rostand's Napoleonic play, "L'Aiglon." Two charming comedies, "Quality Street " and "The Pretty Sister of José," followed, and then came Barrie's spectacular "Peter Pan," which proved the greatest success of this popular actress' career. In 1911, Charles Frohman presented in America Rostand's sensational barnyard drama, "Chantecler," in which all the characters are birds and beasts, Maude Adams being cast for the role of the crowing rooster. For the first time, Frohman's unerring judgment had failed him. The play, as might easily have been foreseen, was only a success of curiosity, and Miss Adams, a frail, shrinking little woman, was woefully miscast in a role necessarily calling for an exhibition of the most lusty virility
Interesting open-air performances and magnificent pageants have also been given from time to time in the splendid Harvard Stadium at Cambridge, Mass.--notably that of Maude Adams in "Joan of Arc" in 1909--the Yale Bowl, at New Haven, Conn., the Stadium of the College of the City of New York, and the Stadium at Tacoma, Wash. These enormous open-air structures being intended primarily for athletic games, they do not properly belong to the domain of the drama.
Other leading and popular New York theatres include the Empire, built for Charles Frohman and still the headquarters of Maude Adams, Ethel Barrymore and other Frohman stars; the New Amsterdam, Klaw and Erlanger's "house beautiful," a sumptuously appointed theatre, with broad foyers, comfortable seats and nouveau art decorations that were once the sensation of the town; the Hudson, a fine theatre, generous in its lines and chaste in design; the Knickerbocker, a house of heroic proportions where Irving was seen for the last time and Rostand "Chantecler" was first performed in America; the Belasco, a beautiful theatre full of the Belasco atmosphere, with dimmed lights and chiming bells to mark the rise of the curtain; the Lyceum, Daniel Frohman's headquarters; the Manhattan Opera House, built by the energetic Oscar Hammerstein for his campaign against the Metropolitan, and now used for big spectacular productions such as "The Wanderer," "Chu Chin Chow," etc.
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