Speaker 1: Hey, Tracy, before we get into the show today, do
Speaker 1: you want to do a little bit of thrilling housekeeping?
Speaker 1: I sure, do we have. We have adventures on the horizon.
Speaker 1: We do, we do. It's very exciting. Yeah. Do you
Speaker 1: want to tell everybody where we are going for our stuff?
Speaker 1: You missed in history class? Trip? This year? We are
Speaker 1: going to Barcelona. I feel like I said that like
Speaker 1: I was saying a new car bar Salona. I mean,
Speaker 1: it feels like getting a new car. It's very exciting.
Speaker 1: We're going from November second to the ninth this year,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, which should be an absolutely beautiful time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you live in the US, which I'm guessing most
Speaker 1: of the folks who might come with us would be,
Speaker 1: that does follow over election day. I'll just be voting
Speaker 1: ahead of time so that i can go to Spain.
Speaker 1: This is through Defined Destinations, which is the same company
Speaker 1: that has handled our previous year European tours. We're going
Speaker 1: to get to see so much good stuff. There's a
Speaker 1: nice balance of like personal time that's not scheduled and
Speaker 1: tours and exciting stuff that's scheduled. Yes, of course, we're
Speaker 1: going to Sagrada Familia. Yeah. That was really one of
Speaker 1: the big things that drew us to Barcelona because we
Speaker 1: talked about a lot of different places to go, some
Speaker 1: in Europe, some not. And I think since we did
Speaker 1: that episode on Goudy way back, yeah, years ago, like
Speaker 1: both of us have just been like, when can we
Speaker 1: see this in person? And the answer is later this year. Yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: And I mean there are a million other things we're doing.
Speaker 1: There are going to be some city tours of Barcelona.
Speaker 1: We are going to do some sangria and tap us tasting.
Speaker 1: There is piea in my future which I can eat
Speaker 1: my weight in piea. We're going to go to the
Speaker 1: Picasso Museum. There are tons of really really just like
Speaker 1: thrilling fun things that were going to do in addition
Speaker 1: to getting some some leisure time where we can just
Speaker 1: explore stuff on our own. Yeah yeah, or lie around
Speaker 1: and take a minute to just catch the breath. Let's right, breast,
Speaker 1: little little nap, Little nap, I'm a big fan of.
Speaker 1: On all of our previous trips, I usually try to find,
Speaker 1: oh a watering hole near our hotel and people are
Speaker 1: always welcome to join if they want to hang out
Speaker 1: and have cocktails in the evening and just kind of
Speaker 1: rest because we're usually all exhausted at the end of
Speaker 1: every day because there is so much to do and
Speaker 1: a lot of it. You know, we often do some walking.
Speaker 1: Even if we're not walking and we're like on a
Speaker 1: bus or something, it's still tiring. We're ready to just
Speaker 1: sit and hang out. So plenty of fun to come.
Speaker 1: If you are interested in want to learn more, you
Speaker 1: can go to Defined Destinations dot com slash Barcelona Dash
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three. You can also just go to Define
Speaker 1: Destinations dot com, click on their tours tab and go
Speaker 1: to the one that says Barcelona twenty twenty three and
Speaker 1: you'll get all of the scoop on our hire trip. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I am very excited about it. Me too. We're gonna
Speaker 1: have a great time, so we hope you're with us
Speaker 1: for it. Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class,
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. We are
Speaker 1: going to do a little bit of US theatrical history today.
Speaker 1: Augustine Day is often described as a foundational figure of
Speaker 1: the US theater, and that is not unwarranted. He wrote, adapted,
Speaker 1: and produced dozens of plays in the nineteenth century, like
Speaker 1: Heading Up into the Triple digits, and he created a
Speaker 1: theater company that produced a lot of stars of the
Speaker 1: New York stage in that time. And he also was
Speaker 1: a man who was undeniably, in my opinion, a workaholic
Speaker 1: by today's standards. But every account you read of him
Speaker 1: in his own time, all the contemporary accounts just talk
Speaker 1: about how very passionate he was. But he didn't seem
Speaker 1: to ever take a day off. And he may have
Speaker 1: worked himself to death, which we will talk about. Yet,
Speaker 1: unlike a lot of Holly's other picks recently, there it's
Speaker 1: no one's it's not a murder episode. Pretty benign, Yeah, so.
Speaker 1: John Augustin Daly was born in Plymouth, North Carolina, on
Speaker 1: July twentieth, eighteen thirty eight. His mother, Elizabeth Duffy Daly,
Speaker 1: was from an English family who had gone to Jamaica
Speaker 1: when Augustine's grandfather's military career took him there. His father,
Speaker 1: Captain Dennis Daly, was an Irish sailor who met Elizabeth
Speaker 1: when his ship stopped in Foulmouth, Jamaica. At the same time,
Speaker 1: that she was visiting friends there. The two of them
Speaker 1: sailed with members of Elizabeth's family to New York, where
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Dennis were married on July thirty first, eighteen thirty four.
Speaker 1: The newlyweds eventually then moved to Plymouth, North Carolina. That
Speaker 1: is where Dennis started a lumber business. After Augustine was born.
Speaker 1: They had another son, Joseph Francis, in eighteen forty Although
Speaker 1: Captain Daly had given up his life at sea to
Speaker 1: stay with the family, and he kind of managed ships
Speaker 1: that were going out with his lumber business. In September
Speaker 1: of eighteen forty one, a ship called the Union was
Speaker 1: in desperate need of a commander when the scheduled captain
Speaker 1: became too sick to make the voyage, and so Dennis
Speaker 1: Daily stepped in to cover the home. Captain Daily contracted
Speaker 1: an illness while he was at sea, and he died
Speaker 1: from it. Elizabeth moved with her sons at that point
Speaker 1: to Norfolk, Virginia, and there, according to an account written
Speaker 1: by her son Joseph, two years later, the two boys
Speaker 1: saw their first theatrical performances at the Avon Theater. They
Speaker 1: each saw a different play. Augustine's first experience was at
Speaker 1: a production of Rookwood, based on a novel by William
Speaker 1: Harrison Ainsworth. Augustine was instantly enthralled with the theater, and
Speaker 1: he immediately started devising his own productions, which he performed
Speaker 1: for the neighborhood children in the family Woodhouse and a
Speaker 1: bit of fortuitous happenstance, Elizabeth decided not long after Augustine
Speaker 1: had fallen in love with theater to move to New
Speaker 1: York City. She did this at the urging of her sister,
Speaker 1: Mary Ann Woodgate. Elizabeth took sewing jobs to support herself
Speaker 1: and her sons, and Augustine started taking clerking jobs anywhere
Speaker 1: that needed that kind of assistance, while also going to
Speaker 1: night school to finish his education. Augustine also started joining
Speaker 1: various amateur theatrical societies. His brother Joseph later recounted that
Speaker 1: Augustine was one of the few people in such circles
Speaker 1: who just had no interest in acting. He was far
Speaker 1: more fascinated with how theaters were run and how plays
Speaker 1: were staged. But Elizabeth, their mother, was not enthused about
Speaker 1: any of this, because theaters and the people who were
Speaker 1: worked in them were considered immoral and certain to run
Speaker 1: a young man into ruin. Joseph Daley referred to this
Speaker 1: time as quote the day of the talented Drunkard. But
Speaker 1: that reputation also led Augustine, as he matured and continued
Speaker 1: to follow a career in theater, to put rules in
Speaker 1: place for his own businesses and productions that did not
Speaker 1: allow many of the behaviors that had given the theatrical
Speaker 1: professions such a bad reputation for so many years. Just
Speaker 1: as he had back in Plymouth, Augustine started putting on
Speaker 1: backyard plays with his peers in New York. He wrote
Speaker 1: original material for them as early as age sixteen. By
Speaker 1: the time he was eighteen, his ideas had become grander.
Speaker 1: He wanted to rent a real theater and put on
Speaker 1: a play. The only space available to them was a
Speaker 1: small theater on the third floor of a building in Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: and there Augustine and his friends put on an evening's
Speaker 1: entertainment that consisted of a farce called Poor Piccadilly, as
Speaker 1: well as the second act of Macbeth, a comic song,
Speaker 1: and then two acts of one of the kids doing
Speaker 1: his version of a popular character known as mister Tootles.
Speaker 1: Apparently there were a handful of paying customers that went
Speaker 1: to that that evening. At the age of twenty one,
Speaker 1: Daily started writing as a drama critic. This came about
Speaker 1: in a kind of low key but straightforward manner. He
Speaker 1: wrote up several articles about things that had been happening
Speaker 1: around Brooklyn, and then he carried those articles in his
Speaker 1: pocket to the offices of the Sunday Courier. He walked
Speaker 1: into the editor's office and started talking to him. By
Speaker 1: the time he walked out, he had a new job
Speaker 1: as a general writer, which was a salaried position, and
Speaker 1: when the drama critic for the Courier left just several
Speaker 1: weeks later, Day just stepped into that position. It's interesting
Speaker 1: because he didn't really know any other journalists. He certainly
Speaker 1: didn't know any other drama critics. He was only twenty
Speaker 1: one and he was suddenly thrust into this group of
Speaker 1: professional colleagues who were a lot older than him and
Speaker 1: had no idea who he was or how he had
Speaker 1: suddenly become one of them. But he really rose to
Speaker 1: the challenge of the situation. His approach to writing reviews
Speaker 1: of theater in the city was direct. It was less
Speaker 1: flowery than his professional peers, and that difference in tone
Speaker 1: really felt very fresh to readers, and he became very popular.
Speaker 1: His insights were also pretty fresh, and soon he was
Speaker 1: writing reviews for multiple papers in New York. It's worth
Speaker 1: noting that this transition to a career in theater journalism
Speaker 1: was happening when that position came with some conflict. The
Speaker 1: relationship between theater and critic was often contentious, and theaters
Speaker 1: would pull advertisements from a paper if they thought a
Speaker 1: critic had been overly harsh in their assessment of a production.
Speaker 1: Daily was also working in this role when the eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty three Draft riots happened in New York. Previous hosts
Speaker 1: of the show, Sarah and Dablina, covered the Draft riots
Speaker 1: in twenty eleven, and then we re ran that episode
Speaker 1: as a Saturday Classic in July of twenty eighteen. At
Speaker 1: one point, Daley was mistaken for an abolitionist rabble rouser,
Speaker 1: which to a lot of men meant that he was
Speaker 1: part of the war's cause, and he was attacked by
Speaker 1: a mob but managed to get away from them. During
Speaker 1: these events, he was also warned that he might be
Speaker 1: mistaken for a draft officer because he was apparently dressed
Speaker 1: in a similar style. People told him he needed to
Speaker 1: keep a low profile, so it was more of a
Speaker 1: difficult time. Yeah, there's one story about how he got
Speaker 1: out of a building that he thought was going to
Speaker 1: be set on fire, and then the next guy he talked,
Speaker 1: he was like, and also, take off your coat on
Speaker 1: your way home, because everyone is going to come after you.
Speaker 1: And now he just wanted up his coat under his arm,
Speaker 1: and even though it was cold out, he just kind
Speaker 1: of toddled home in the cold with no outer garment on.
Speaker 1: Though Augustine had been right since he was a teenager
Speaker 1: and had put on some ambitious for his age and
Speaker 1: means style productions. In eighteen sixty two he had his
Speaker 1: first real success in professional theater with a play he
Speaker 1: wrote and stage titled Leah the Forsaken. This was an
Speaker 1: adaptation of an eighteen forty nine German language play by
Speaker 1: Salomon Hermann Mosenthal titled Debrah, and The plot features an
Speaker 1: Austrian magistrate's son who falls in love with a Jewish
Speaker 1: woman the titular Leah, and conflict unfolds as their relationship
Speaker 1: is jeered at by the people of the male protagonist community.
Speaker 1: It is in the style that was popular at the time,
Speaker 1: meaning it is a dramatic writing about a twenty seventeen
Speaker 1: staging of Daily's adaptation, New York Times critic Ken Jaworowski
Speaker 1: described the style of this play in this way, quote
Speaker 1: to be sure, Augustine Daily, the playwright was generous with
Speaker 1: the melodrama, characters deliver expositional soliloquies, and emotions run deep,
Speaker 1: and Sarah b The play made its first run in Boston, Massachusetts,
Speaker 1: in December of eighteen sixty two, before moving on to
Speaker 1: the New York stage in January of the following year.
Speaker 1: The role of Leo was played by an actor named
Speaker 1: Kate Bateman, who had been a stage actor since she
Speaker 1: was a child. After New York, the play went on
Speaker 1: to London and ran there for several years. While critics
Speaker 1: were not exactly in love with the show, it was
Speaker 1: obviously extremely popular and one of the roles that Bateman
Speaker 1: was associated with for her entire career. She even wrote
Speaker 1: a memoir about playing Leah. But though Daily was very
Speaker 1: friendly with Kate Bateman, her father, who was also her manager,
Speaker 1: was really another matter. The two of them quarreled about
Speaker 1: the way money from the production was split. This escalated
Speaker 1: to the point that Hezekiah Bateman sued Daily over it.
Speaker 1: Augustine won the court battle, though, yeah, there are lots
Speaker 1: of court battles. We'll talk about some others, but litigious life.
Speaker 1: The success of Leah the Versaken meant that Daily became
Speaker 1: sought after to create more plays, and he had already
Speaker 1: slowed his output of journalism work, and over time he
Speaker 1: ended up stepping away from it entirely so that he
Speaker 1: could pursue a theatrical career full time. But he did
Speaker 1: write as a theater critic for about eight to ten years.
Speaker 1: The Olympic Theater asked Daily to provide a comedy script
Speaker 1: for production, and for that he adapted Victor Yann Sautdu's
Speaker 1: play Le Papillon that became Taming the Butterfly, which opened
Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty four. And coming up, we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about the original play that really put Daily on
Speaker 1: the map as a playwright, But first we will pause
Speaker 1: for a word from our sponsors. Augustine Daily premiered his
Speaker 1: play Under the Gas Light in eighteen sixty seven, and
Speaker 1: it became one of his most lasting accomplishments. This play
Speaker 1: makes his realism and melodrama to tell stories around New York,
Speaker 1: and the play's action is set in motion due to
Speaker 1: a socialite's life seeming to fall apart in rapid fashion.
Speaker 1: Her betrothed finds out that his beloved is not a
Speaker 1: high society girl by birth, but a woman born in
Speaker 1: poverty who was adopted by wealthy parents. That secret was
Speaker 1: exposed in the play by a mysterious figure who appeared
Speaker 1: in all black and turned out to be from her past.
Speaker 1: So obviously this entire thing is pretty melodramatic by today's standards.
Speaker 1: As the young woman runs away, distraught that the truth
Speaker 1: of her origin has caused so much pain, she sets
Speaker 1: off a chain of events that plays out in the
Speaker 1: streets of New York, encountering a variety of characters who
Speaker 1: represent many social classes and moral viewpoints. It's part morality play,
Speaker 1: part social commentary, and it was completely unique among the
Speaker 1: plays of the day. You have probably seen that very
Speaker 1: common trope in older films or even modern pieces satirizing
Speaker 1: them of a mustache twirling villain tying someone to a
Speaker 1: railroad track and then that person being rescued at the
Speaker 1: very end. You can thank Augustin Daly for that and
Speaker 1: it appeared in Under the Gaslight first, and Under the
Speaker 1: Gaslight was very very popular, so much so that it
Speaker 1: invited imitation, but Daily was not having it. In eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty eight, the year after the play premiered, another play
Speaker 1: titled After Dark, used the exact same convention of a
Speaker 1: person tied to the train tracks by a villain with
Speaker 1: a daring last minute escape, and Daly, who had copyrighted
Speaker 1: his play, filed an injunction against the managers of the
Speaker 1: theater where After Dark was running, wanted to prevent performance
Speaker 1: of the play. The filing against After Dark was reported
Speaker 1: in the New York Times, and the write up is
Speaker 1: a pretty charming description of the scene quote. The particular
Speaker 1: cause of such success Daily's play is what was commonly
Speaker 1: called after such public performance, the railroad scene, at the
Speaker 1: end of the third scene in the fourth act, in
Speaker 1: which one of the characters is represented as secured by
Speaker 1: another and laid helpless upon the rails of a railroad
Speaker 1: track in such manner and with the presumed intent that
Speaker 1: the railroad train momentarily expected shall run him down and
Speaker 1: kill him, and just at the moment when such a
Speaker 1: fate seems inevitable, another of the characters contrives to reach
Speaker 1: the intended victim and to drag him from the track
Speaker 1: as the train rushes in and passes over the spot
Speaker 1: that this incident and scene was entirely novel and unlike
Speaker 1: any dramatic incident known to have been heretofore represented on
Speaker 1: any stage or invented by any author before the plaintiff
Speaker 1: so composed, produced and represented the same. Yeah. The interesting
Speaker 1: note in that is that Daily his original version is
Speaker 1: actually kind of the opposite of the way we often
Speaker 1: have seen it. The heroine is not the one that
Speaker 1: is tied to the tracks. It is the hero, and
Speaker 1: the heroine is the one who saves him. Normally, you
Speaker 1: see the woman in distress on the train tracks in
Speaker 1: a lot of films, but that was not how Daily
Speaker 1: wrote it. Daily incidentally won his case, and it was
Speaker 1: the first of many legal battles that he would have
Speaker 1: while ardently protecting his copyrights. He did not shy away
Speaker 1: from a lawsuit, and even when people in distant states
Speaker 1: tried to stage one of his plays without paying a royalty,
Speaker 1: or thought they might be able to sneak a scene
Speaker 1: into one of their productions that borrowed heavily from Daily's work,
Speaker 1: Augustine Daly always seemed to hear about it, and he
Speaker 1: always took legal action to stop it. Daly was still
Speaker 1: on an upswing of success when he married Mary Duff
Speaker 1: on January ninth, eighteen sixty nine. Mary was the daughter
Speaker 1: of a business peer of Daily's, John A. Duff. John
Speaker 1: Duff's Olympic Theater was the most successful and profitable entertainment
Speaker 1: venue in New York at the time. The couple lived
Speaker 1: at two fourteen West twenty fifth Street, where Augustine's brother
Speaker 1: and mother also lived. The following year, the couple welcomed
Speaker 1: their first son, Leonard, and they had a second son
Speaker 1: named Francis Augustine, who went by Austin. In eighteen seventy three,
Speaker 1: two years after Under the Gas Light became popular, Augustine
Speaker 1: Daily formed his own theater company, the Fifth Avenue Theater
Speaker 1: on twenty fourth Street. This theater building had its own
Speaker 1: rich and sometimes sortid history. It started as an opera
Speaker 1: house and then became a burlesque theater. After a murder
Speaker 1: in which a show manager killed a colleague, the theater
Speaker 1: shut down for a year. It reopened as a venue
Speaker 1: for French operettas before Daily took it over and for
Speaker 1: almost four years, from eighteen sixty nine to eighteen seventy three,
Speaker 1: Daily staged his productions there, but on New Year's Day
Speaker 1: of eighteen seventy three, it burned down. While that level
Speaker 1: of loss would be deeply stressful, Daily seemed to manage
Speaker 1: all right. Three weeks later he opened his theater company
Speaker 1: again at a new location he had leased. He also
Speaker 1: called this Daily's Fifth Avenue Theater. Daily's theater company was
Speaker 1: really well known for its core of actors. He would
Speaker 1: select actors and develop them rather than chasing after the
Speaker 1: big names, and a lot of successful stage careers started
Speaker 1: with Daily. He didn't only cast to type, as most
Speaker 1: theaters did, with actors playing one sort of character all
Speaker 1: the time. He urged actors to develop a range that
Speaker 1: could include everything from broad comedy to serious drama. One
Speaker 1: of the plays that Augustine Daily produced before the first
Speaker 1: Fifth Avenue Theater burned was a show that he wrote
Speaker 1: titled Horizon, an original drama of contemporary New Society and
Speaker 1: of American Frontier perrols. This play is considered one of
Speaker 1: the early instances of literature that focuses on stories and
Speaker 1: themes about North America and the United States rather than Europeans,
Speaker 1: but it also, unsurprisingly has a lot of very awkward
Speaker 1: and outdated language about indigenous people. He also wrote Divorce
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy one that opened on September fifth of
Speaker 1: that year, and it had a successful two hundred night run.
Speaker 1: The play unpacks the topic of divorce, which was becoming
Speaker 1: more and more common in the nineteenth century. Playwrights in
Speaker 1: Europe had been using the topic for dramatic purposes already,
Speaker 1: but Daily's play is considered the first US play to
Speaker 1: cover it. Daily's script was kind of didactic, showing that
Speaker 1: selfishness is often the seed that leads to discord in
Speaker 1: a marriage. In eighteen seventy seven, Daily was continuing to
Speaker 1: find new ways to draw crowds with his skill as
Speaker 1: a writer, his ability to shepherd talent into stardom, and
Speaker 1: sometimes by simply innovating the space that he staged his work.
Speaker 1: In that year, air conditioning was installed in the Fifth,
Speaker 1: a new theater on West twenty eighth Street, making it
Speaker 1: the first US theater to offer that luxury. In eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy nine, Daily opened another Daily's Theater location in New
Speaker 1: York City. This time at Broadway in thirtieth Once the
Speaker 1: Second New York Theater was opened, Daily found he couldn't
Speaker 1: keep cranking out original works and managed all of his
Speaker 1: other businesses, so he started to focus exclusively on adaptations,
Speaker 1: which he was quite good at. He adapted numerous works
Speaker 1: from French and German literature into stage place. Late in
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty four, Daily, who professionally was experiencing so much prosperity,
Speaker 1: suffered a huge personal loss. His sons, Leonard and Austin,
Speaker 1: who were fourteen and eleven at the time, both developed
Speaker 1: dipsyria during the Christmas season, and in the new year
Speaker 1: things only got worse. On January fifth, eighteen eighty five,
Speaker 1: the two boys died within half an hour of each other.
Speaker 1: Daily's brother, Joseph, described his brother as to help any
Speaker 1: and every child he encountered. After the deaths of his sons,
Speaker 1: he wrote quote, he seemed now to behold in all
Speaker 1: the young, and especially in little wanderers his own. I
Speaker 1: have seen him stop a crying child in the street
Speaker 1: to inquire its trouble, take it by the hand, and
Speaker 1: restore it to its home. In countless ways he sought
Speaker 1: to help the helpless because of the prominence of Daily's
Speaker 1: name in New York, condolences really flooded into the family.
Speaker 1: But though he grieved very deeply, Daily was right back
Speaker 1: to work, probably finding some comfort in the familiar and
Speaker 1: busy pace of the theater. Coming up, we are going
Speaker 1: to talk about Daily's theatrical adventures into Europe, but before
Speaker 1: we do that, we will pause for a little sponsor break.
Speaker 1: Beginning in the eighteen eighties, Augustine Daily took his style
Speaker 1: of theater historians have described as really setting the standard
Speaker 1: for the US stage, and he toured Europe with it.
Speaker 1: When Daily's Troop debuted, she would and she would not.
Speaker 1: In England, it was a huge success. That play is
Speaker 1: a comedy that was written in seventeen o two by
Speaker 1: a popular entertainer of the day named Collie Sibber. It
Speaker 1: was merely the start of several years of tours that
Speaker 1: took Daily in his company to Germany and France, as
Speaker 1: well as England. There is a certain fun turnabout in
Speaker 1: this success of his tours, as Daily made his name
Speaker 1: in the US theater scene, combining his adaptation of European
Speaker 1: plays with his original work, building on the traditions of
Speaker 1: the countries that he eventually toured while also creating something new.
Speaker 1: Joseph Daily wrote of his brother's earliest tours in Germany, quote,
Speaker 1: it was to be expected that the American manner and
Speaker 1: speech would be found strange, and that the transformation of
Speaker 1: German into foreign types might occasion discontent. The Americans were,
Speaker 1: in fact allowed to be fascinating, but declared not true
Speaker 1: to life. In eighteen eighty eight, Daily and his company
Speaker 1: of performers, fresh off of a European tour, prepared for
Speaker 1: a new season. The play that opened the season was
Speaker 1: titled Lottery of Love, and it was an adaptation of
Speaker 1: a French play titled at a Suprise de Divorce. Daily
Speaker 1: took the opportunity of introducing two new actors to his
Speaker 1: New York audiences with the anticipated play. Those were Sarah
Speaker 1: Chalmers and Kitty Cheetham. Sarah Chalmers was of particular interest
Speaker 1: to Daily's regulars. She had never been on stage anywhere before. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was kind of like saying, here is the next
Speaker 1: great star, and you can see her first performance. The
Speaker 1: New York Times wrote about the anticipation of this new season, quote,
Speaker 1: the opening night will be as it always is at
Speaker 1: Daily's an occasion of note in society circles. Every seat
Speaker 1: in the house had been ordered long before mister Daily returned,
Speaker 1: and the orders called for more places that could be
Speaker 1: furnished in two such theaters. The old and only save
Speaker 1: rule of filling the orders according to the date of
Speaker 1: their receipt has been followed, but this will necessarily disappoint
Speaker 1: a great many whom the management would have been pleased
Speaker 1: to gratify. The singular feature of all this is that
Speaker 1: until the announcement now made, the general public has had
Speaker 1: no actual knowledge of what mister Daily intended to produce
Speaker 1: for his opening play, so that purchasers of seats had
Speaker 1: bought blindly, knowing nothing of what they were to see
Speaker 1: that season. Daily also introduced a subscription plan for Tuesday
Speaker 1: night plays. This was a popular trend in Paris in
Speaker 1: the eighteen eighties, and Daily adopted it for New York audiences,
Speaker 1: so he had what was essentially a season ticket audience
Speaker 1: for nights that would normally be slow. It also let
Speaker 1: him stage encore performances of audience favorites without having to
Speaker 1: work them into the regular season schedule. The subscription also
Speaker 1: gave participants a chance at first class seats at the
Speaker 1: day views of new shows. The subscription plan was not
Speaker 1: the only way that Daily plussed up the eighteen eighty
Speaker 1: eight season. He had taken advantage of the theater having
Speaker 1: no shows to quietly renovate it to be more luxurious
Speaker 1: than ever. There was new carpet, new art and better
Speaker 1: sound baffling, as well as plush new seats and an
Speaker 1: elaborately carved precnium arch. According to the paper, Daily had
Speaker 1: also taken control of a building behind the theater which
Speaker 1: was connected to it, to build out an entirely new
Speaker 1: set of dressing rooms for his players. They're right up
Speaker 1: in the Times concluded quote, Daily's theater when it reopens
Speaker 1: Tuesday will be one of the best appointed houses in
Speaker 1: the world. There's a cute note to that, which is
Speaker 1: it write ups about this renovation which was going on
Speaker 1: while Daily and the Trooper in Europe was so quiet.
Speaker 1: No one in the neighborhood even knew it was happening.
Speaker 1: And I don't know why that was such a point
Speaker 1: of like pride for everyone, but it's very charming. In
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety three, Augustine Daily opened another theater, this time
Speaker 1: in London, England. Daily's theater, which was situated off Leicester Square,
Speaker 1: opened on June twenty seventh, eighteen ninety three. It had
Speaker 1: been custom built for his company, which was different from
Speaker 1: his New York theaters, which he had acquired already existing.
Speaker 1: But even though Daily had been really successful in New
Speaker 1: York running theaters, he just did not have the same
Speaker 1: good fortune in his Cranbourne Street location. After a pretty
Speaker 1: good initial run with Taming of the Shrew and several
Speaker 1: other Shakespearean plays, Daily had companies from Europe play there
Speaker 1: before he returned with his own staging of an adaptation
Speaker 1: called The Railroad of Love. That show didn't do especially well,
Speaker 1: and neither did the next two Shakespearean plays. In eighteen
Speaker 1: ninety five, he turned the theater over to George Edwards,
Speaker 1: a British producer who found great success mounting musicals there.
Speaker 1: The theater itself retained Daily's name, though that had to
Speaker 1: have been painful for him to some degree, and an
Speaker 1: account written after his death, Daily's relationship with his theaters
Speaker 1: was described this way. Quote his theaters he loved his personalities.
Speaker 1: For one, the Fifth Avenue, he had Oliver Wendell Holmes
Speaker 1: pen and address for the opening On another occasion, for
Speaker 1: the opening season of eighteen ninety two, he tried to
Speaker 1: procure the services of Eugene Field for a poetic address.
Speaker 1: Here his sentiment came in again. Yeah, he clearly loved
Speaker 1: those buildings. He would always talk about his houses being
Speaker 1: his home, his houses meaning theater houses. So to have
Speaker 1: one that just didn't work out after he had gone
Speaker 1: to the trouble to have it custom built probably felt
Speaker 1: very jarring. On May thirteenth of eighteen eighty nine, Augustine
Speaker 1: and Mary set sail for Europe, where the Daily Company
Speaker 1: was once again set to give a tour, and where
Speaker 1: Daily was going to settle a financial dispute with George
Speaker 1: Edwards over the split of revenue from the theater. After
Speaker 1: that transition, Augustine felt quite ill on the voyage, but
Speaker 1: he wired his brother on May twenty ninth, quote much better,
Speaker 1: all danger over. On June fifth, papers reported that he
Speaker 1: was just fine. The following ran in the New York
Speaker 1: Times on June sixth, having been wired from London, quote,
Speaker 1: Augustine Day has quite recovered from his recent sickness and
Speaker 1: has gone to Paris for a few days with Missus
Speaker 1: Daly and Missus Ada. Rhian. He will return on June
Speaker 1: twentieth for the hearing of the case against George Edwards,
Speaker 1: resulting from a dispute regarding sharing the profits of Daily's
Speaker 1: London Theater, of which Edwards is the owner and Daily
Speaker 1: the Lessee. Augustine wrote his brother a letter dated May thirtieth,
Speaker 1: in which he described the stress of the theater season
Speaker 1: launch and his impending legal hearings and quote financial anxieties
Speaker 1: having taken its toll on his health. He described being
Speaker 1: very ill even before he boarded the ship bound for London,
Speaker 1: and how a weekend to the trip he had a
Speaker 1: very real crisis, he wrote, quote A combination of pneumonia
Speaker 1: and brain fever were the foes I was fighting, and
Speaker 1: thank god, by Thursday I had conquered both. He assured
Speaker 1: his brother Joseph that the following winter he was going
Speaker 1: to quote let up a bit on the strain and
Speaker 1: devote more time to leisure. But by the time that
Speaker 1: letter arrived, Augustine Daly was dead. His brother and mother
Speaker 1: had already received a telegram that he had died on
Speaker 1: June seventh of eighteen eighty nine, at the age of
Speaker 1: sixty one in the Continental Hotel in Paris, he had
Speaker 1: felt much better, and he had traveled to France, as
Speaker 1: he said, with his wife and actor Ada Rhian, who
Speaker 1: started a lot of his productions, and after getting to
Speaker 1: the Continental Dally just got much worse. And on the seventh,
Speaker 1: as his wife, Mary and Aida had lunch in the suite,
Speaker 1: he called out from the bedroom that he needed a doctor,
Speaker 1: but he died before and he could arrive. Mary Daly
Speaker 1: had Augustine's body shipped back to New York for a
Speaker 1: funeral at Saint Patrick's Cathedral on June eighteenth. One of
Speaker 1: the biggest impacts Daily had on literature and theater in
Speaker 1: the US was not through his own works, but through
Speaker 1: his support an encouragement of other artists. Bronson Howard, who
Speaker 1: was a very successful playwright in the late nineteenth century,
Speaker 1: had three of his four first plays produced by Daily
Speaker 1: before any other theater. Daily is also credited with encouraging
Speaker 1: Mark Twain to start writing for the theater, as well
Speaker 1: as short story author Bret Hart. Yeah, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of other people that he really encouraged to turn
Speaker 1: their pens to playwriting, which is one of the reasons
Speaker 1: he's considered so influential and his obituary read in part quote,
Speaker 1: Never a jester, yet a maker, and a purveyor of
Speaker 1: the most delightful comedy. Al was a man of few words,
Speaker 1: yet singularly successful in the development of the most human
Speaker 1: and social of the arts. Never popular in the common sense,
Speaker 1: yet always respected and admired by his foes and opponents.
Speaker 1: It seems he died much too soon, for his vitality
Speaker 1: had not yet begun to diminish perceptibly, and the shock
Speaker 1: of his sudden going has been keenly felt by thousands
Speaker 1: who knew him only by name, Oh Augustin Day. Some
Speaker 1: of those ones. We don't hear his name very often,
Speaker 1: but he was like it for a long time. Just
Speaker 1: an interesting, interesting dude. Give some listener mail for us,
Speaker 1: Oh I do. It's a listener mail that solves a mystery.
Speaker 1: Oh good. It is from our listener, Carrie, who wrote
Speaker 1: Chicken and Dumblings with lots of exclamation points. Carrie writes, Holly,
Speaker 1: I am a similar experience with chicken and dumplings. What
Speaker 1: you are describing from your childhood is very similar to
Speaker 1: that of my childhood, except my mom slash Grandma would cook,
Speaker 1: slash steam the dough on top of the Chicken. I
Speaker 1: have always wondered why my Chicken and Dumblings was so
Speaker 1: much different than anyone else's. I asked my mom, and
Speaker 1: she said her mom was not one to make up recipe,
Speaker 1: so she decided to check my grandma's old cookbooks. Lo
Speaker 1: and behold, my mom found a recipe in Betty Crocker
Speaker 1: that she thinks is where it came from. It was
Speaker 1: so exciting for me to finally have an answer to
Speaker 1: my family's mystery. Perhaps your recipe has similar origins. I
Speaker 1: am attaching a few photos to show you said recipe.
Speaker 1: You might remember I wrote once years ago to tell
Speaker 1: you how my baby loved hollies laugh, but she would
Speaker 1: always laugh in response to it. That baby is turning
Speaker 1: six on Sunday. Happy birthday, Winnifred. Also, we got a
Speaker 1: new puppy this winter, so I'm including a photo of
Speaker 1: five month old Daisy, a very playful cavapoo. Thank you
Speaker 1: both for all you do for the podcast. I hope
Speaker 1: you can make it to Portland, Oregon someday soon for
Speaker 1: a live show. Me too, Okay, Carrie, thank you, because
Speaker 1: I felt like I was losing my mind because no
Speaker 1: one else made it this way, but she scanned in
Speaker 1: bless her she either scanner took variod photographs this Betty
Speaker 1: Crocker cookbook from nineteen seventy six, and there is a
Speaker 1: photograph of the chicken and dumblings as described. They look
Speaker 1: exactly like the ones that I grew up eating. I
Speaker 1: really thought my mom had just misinterpreted a recipe. It
Speaker 1: was just like, I'm not putting broth in here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that we have that exact Betty Crocker
Speaker 1: cookbook in our home somewhere. Problem. I mean, it was
Speaker 1: very standard, Yeah, homes in the US. Yeah, Like, I
Speaker 1: think we have one that belonged to someone. And then
Speaker 1: I'd like, I'm I for sure remember it in my parents'
Speaker 1: house when I was growing up. Amazing. Also, yes, happy
Speaker 1: birthday to Winnifred. I hope it was wonderful. By now,
Speaker 1: the birthday would have been quite a few weeks back,
Speaker 1: since we were recording a little ahead of the game.
Speaker 1: But that is a very cute dog. I would be
Speaker 1: in danger around that dog because I would give whenever
Speaker 1: it wanted, even if it were something very dangerous. Again,
Speaker 1: I cannot thank you enough. This would have made me
Speaker 1: tell a fib that I thought my mom was just
Speaker 1: making stuff out because she sometimes would nisum, But now
Speaker 1: I know no. Betty Crocker, may mystery solved. If you
Speaker 1: would like to write to us, you could do so
Speaker 1: at History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. You can also
Speaker 1: find us on social media as Missed in History pretty
Speaker 1: much everywhere, and if you haven't subscribed, you can do
Speaker 1: that on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows. Stuff you Missed in History Class is
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.