WEBVTT - Augustin Daly 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:02.320 Hey, Tracy, before we get into the show today, do 0:00:02.320 --> 0:00:05.040 you want to do a little bit of thrilling housekeeping? 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:10.160 I sure, do we have. We have adventures on the horizon. 0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:14.280 We do, we do. It's very exciting. Yeah. Do you 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:16.600 want to tell everybody where we are going for our stuff? 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:19.120 You missed in history class? Trip? This year? We are 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:24.280 going to Barcelona. I feel like I said that like 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:30.560 I was saying a new car bar Salona. I mean, 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:32.680 it feels like getting a new car. It's very exciting. 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:36.640 We're going from November second to the ninth this year, 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:40.960 twenty twenty three, which should be an absolutely beautiful time. Yeah, 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:43.560 if you live in the US, which I'm guessing most 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:45.479 of the folks who might come with us would be, 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:49.280 that does follow over election day. I'll just be voting 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:51.680 ahead of time so that i can go to Spain. 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:58.640 This is through Defined Destinations, which is the same company 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:01.600 that has handled our previous year European tours. We're going 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:03.640 to get to see so much good stuff. There's a 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:07.800 nice balance of like personal time that's not scheduled and 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:11.720 tours and exciting stuff that's scheduled. Yes, of course, we're 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:14.920 going to Sagrada Familia. Yeah. That was really one of 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:17.440 the big things that drew us to Barcelona because we 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:20.200 talked about a lot of different places to go, some 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:24.080 in Europe, some not. And I think since we did 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:29.080 that episode on Goudy way back, yeah, years ago, like 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:31.200 both of us have just been like, when can we 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:36.559 see this in person? And the answer is later this year. Yeah, yes, 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:39.119 And I mean there are a million other things we're doing. 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:42.480 There are going to be some city tours of Barcelona. 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:47.040 We are going to do some sangria and tap us tasting. 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:50.760 There is piea in my future which I can eat 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:53.720 my weight in piea. We're going to go to the 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:57.920 Picasso Museum. There are tons of really really just like 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:01.320 thrilling fun things that were going to do in addition 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:03.680 to getting some some leisure time where we can just 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:07.560 explore stuff on our own. Yeah yeah, or lie around 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:10.440 and take a minute to just catch the breath. Let's right, breast, 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:13.639 little little nap, Little nap, I'm a big fan of. 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:16.519 On all of our previous trips, I usually try to find, 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:20.440 oh a watering hole near our hotel and people are 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:22.280 always welcome to join if they want to hang out 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:25.640 and have cocktails in the evening and just kind of 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:27.840 rest because we're usually all exhausted at the end of 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:30.320 every day because there is so much to do and 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:32.440 a lot of it. You know, we often do some walking. 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:35.280 Even if we're not walking and we're like on a 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:37.520 bus or something, it's still tiring. We're ready to just 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:40.320 sit and hang out. So plenty of fun to come. 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:43.080 If you are interested in want to learn more, you 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:48.239 can go to Defined Destinations dot com slash Barcelona Dash 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.280 twenty twenty three. You can also just go to Define 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:55.000 Destinations dot com, click on their tours tab and go 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:57.840 to the one that says Barcelona twenty twenty three and 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:03.320 you'll get all of the scoop on our hire trip. Yeah, yeah, 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:07.640 I am very excited about it. Me too. We're gonna 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:09.200 have a great time, so we hope you're with us 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:13.800 for it. Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:24.000 a production of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:28.120 I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. We are 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:32.760 going to do a little bit of US theatrical history today. 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:37.760 Augustine Day is often described as a foundational figure of 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:41.760 the US theater, and that is not unwarranted. He wrote, adapted, 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:45.120 and produced dozens of plays in the nineteenth century, like 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:49.200 Heading Up into the Triple digits, and he created a 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:52.280 theater company that produced a lot of stars of the 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:55.320 New York stage in that time. And he also was 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:58.279 a man who was undeniably, in my opinion, a workaholic 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:01.960 by today's standards. But every account you read of him 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:05.680 in his own time, all the contemporary accounts just talk 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:09.720 about how very passionate he was. But he didn't seem 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:15.160 to ever take a day off. And he may have 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:17.719 worked himself to death, which we will talk about. Yet, 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:22.320 unlike a lot of Holly's other picks recently, there it's 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:26.680 no one's it's not a murder episode. Pretty benign, Yeah, so. 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:30.359 John Augustin Daly was born in Plymouth, North Carolina, on 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:35.479 July twentieth, eighteen thirty eight. His mother, Elizabeth Duffy Daly, 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:38.880 was from an English family who had gone to Jamaica 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:44.719 when Augustine's grandfather's military career took him there. His father, 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:48.880 Captain Dennis Daly, was an Irish sailor who met Elizabeth 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:52.800 when his ship stopped in Foulmouth, Jamaica. At the same time, 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:56.119 that she was visiting friends there. The two of them 0:04:56.240 --> 0:04:59.279 sailed with members of Elizabeth's family to New York, where 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:03.640 Elizabeth Dennis were married on July thirty first, eighteen thirty four. 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:07.800 The newlyweds eventually then moved to Plymouth, North Carolina. That 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:12.360 is where Dennis started a lumber business. After Augustine was born. 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:16.720 They had another son, Joseph Francis, in eighteen forty Although 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:19.400 Captain Daly had given up his life at sea to 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:22.320 stay with the family, and he kind of managed ships 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:25.200 that were going out with his lumber business. In September 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:27.919 of eighteen forty one, a ship called the Union was 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:30.560 in desperate need of a commander when the scheduled captain 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:33.520 became too sick to make the voyage, and so Dennis 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:37.400 Daily stepped in to cover the home. Captain Daily contracted 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:39.719 an illness while he was at sea, and he died 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:43.159 from it. Elizabeth moved with her sons at that point 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:47.040 to Norfolk, Virginia, and there, according to an account written 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:50.000 by her son Joseph, two years later, the two boys 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:54.080 saw their first theatrical performances at the Avon Theater. They 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:57.480 each saw a different play. Augustine's first experience was at 0:05:57.480 --> 0:05:59.960 a production of Rookwood, based on a novel by William 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:04.520 Harrison Ainsworth. Augustine was instantly enthralled with the theater, and 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:09.080 he immediately started devising his own productions, which he performed 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:12.440 for the neighborhood children in the family Woodhouse and a 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:17.680 bit of fortuitous happenstance, Elizabeth decided not long after Augustine 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:20.400 had fallen in love with theater to move to New 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:23.480 York City. She did this at the urging of her sister, 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:27.800 Mary Ann Woodgate. Elizabeth took sewing jobs to support herself 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:32.320 and her sons, and Augustine started taking clerking jobs anywhere 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:35.240 that needed that kind of assistance, while also going to 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:39.680 night school to finish his education. Augustine also started joining 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:44.680 various amateur theatrical societies. His brother Joseph later recounted that 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:47.120 Augustine was one of the few people in such circles 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:49.920 who just had no interest in acting. He was far 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:53.000 more fascinated with how theaters were run and how plays 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:57.520 were staged. But Elizabeth, their mother, was not enthused about 0:06:57.520 --> 0:06:59.960 any of this, because theaters and the people who were 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.880 worked in them were considered immoral and certain to run 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:06.680 a young man into ruin. Joseph Daley referred to this 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:10.560 time as quote the day of the talented Drunkard. But 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:15.000 that reputation also led Augustine, as he matured and continued 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:17.560 to follow a career in theater, to put rules in 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:20.400 place for his own businesses and productions that did not 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:23.840 allow many of the behaviors that had given the theatrical 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:27.720 professions such a bad reputation for so many years. Just 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:30.800 as he had back in Plymouth, Augustine started putting on 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:34.840 backyard plays with his peers in New York. He wrote 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:39.120 original material for them as early as age sixteen. By 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:42.520 the time he was eighteen, his ideas had become grander. 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:45.320 He wanted to rent a real theater and put on 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:48.880 a play. The only space available to them was a 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:52.320 small theater on the third floor of a building in Brooklyn, 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:55.520 and there Augustine and his friends put on an evening's 0:07:55.640 --> 0:08:01.120 entertainment that consisted of a farce called Poor Piccadilly, as 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:04.640 well as the second act of Macbeth, a comic song, 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:07.320 and then two acts of one of the kids doing 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:10.600 his version of a popular character known as mister Tootles. 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:13.720 Apparently there were a handful of paying customers that went 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:18.000 to that that evening. At the age of twenty one, 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:22.040 Daily started writing as a drama critic. This came about 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:25.400 in a kind of low key but straightforward manner. He 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:28.280 wrote up several articles about things that had been happening 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:30.680 around Brooklyn, and then he carried those articles in his 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:34.280 pocket to the offices of the Sunday Courier. He walked 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:37.439 into the editor's office and started talking to him. By 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:39.520 the time he walked out, he had a new job 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:42.760 as a general writer, which was a salaried position, and 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:45.280 when the drama critic for the Courier left just several 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:50.319 weeks later, Day just stepped into that position. It's interesting 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:54.080 because he didn't really know any other journalists. He certainly 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:57.080 didn't know any other drama critics. He was only twenty 0:08:57.080 --> 0:08:59.480 one and he was suddenly thrust into this group of 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:02.360 professional colleagues who were a lot older than him and 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:04.760 had no idea who he was or how he had 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:08.800 suddenly become one of them. But he really rose to 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:13.000 the challenge of the situation. His approach to writing reviews 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:15.760 of theater in the city was direct. It was less 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:19.200 flowery than his professional peers, and that difference in tone 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:24.079 really felt very fresh to readers, and he became very popular. 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:27.400 His insights were also pretty fresh, and soon he was 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:31.199 writing reviews for multiple papers in New York. It's worth 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:35.360 noting that this transition to a career in theater journalism 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:39.240 was happening when that position came with some conflict. The 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:44.080 relationship between theater and critic was often contentious, and theaters 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:46.960 would pull advertisements from a paper if they thought a 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:50.600 critic had been overly harsh in their assessment of a production. 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:55.040 Daily was also working in this role when the eighteen 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:59.679 sixty three Draft riots happened in New York. Previous hosts 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:02.720 of the show, Sarah and Dablina, covered the Draft riots 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:05.560 in twenty eleven, and then we re ran that episode 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:09.520 as a Saturday Classic in July of twenty eighteen. At 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:14.079 one point, Daley was mistaken for an abolitionist rabble rouser, 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:17.080 which to a lot of men meant that he was 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:20.520 part of the war's cause, and he was attacked by 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:24.240 a mob but managed to get away from them. During 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:26.880 these events, he was also warned that he might be 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:30.920 mistaken for a draft officer because he was apparently dressed 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:33.920 in a similar style. People told him he needed to 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.880 keep a low profile, so it was more of a 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:40.640 difficult time. Yeah, there's one story about how he got 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:42.319 out of a building that he thought was going to 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:45.120 be set on fire, and then the next guy he talked, 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:46.920 he was like, and also, take off your coat on 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:49.000 your way home, because everyone is going to come after you. 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:52.320 And now he just wanted up his coat under his arm, 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:53.959 and even though it was cold out, he just kind 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:56.920 of toddled home in the cold with no outer garment on. 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:01.319 Though Augustine had been right since he was a teenager 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.120 and had put on some ambitious for his age and 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:08.320 means style productions. In eighteen sixty two he had his 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:11.840 first real success in professional theater with a play he 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:15.679 wrote and stage titled Leah the Forsaken. This was an 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:19.160 adaptation of an eighteen forty nine German language play by 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:23.719 Salomon Hermann Mosenthal titled Debrah, and The plot features an 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:26.720 Austrian magistrate's son who falls in love with a Jewish 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:31.679 woman the titular Leah, and conflict unfolds as their relationship 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:35.000 is jeered at by the people of the male protagonist community. 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:38.080 It is in the style that was popular at the time, 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:43.280 meaning it is a dramatic writing about a twenty seventeen 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:47.600 staging of Daily's adaptation, New York Times critic Ken Jaworowski 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:50.200 described the style of this play in this way, quote 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:53.760 to be sure, Augustine Daily, the playwright was generous with 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:59.360 the melodrama, characters deliver expositional soliloquies, and emotions run deep, 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:03.920 and Sarah b The play made its first run in Boston, Massachusetts, 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:07.280 in December of eighteen sixty two, before moving on to 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:10.520 the New York stage in January of the following year. 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:13.960 The role of Leo was played by an actor named 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:16.440 Kate Bateman, who had been a stage actor since she 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:19.600 was a child. After New York, the play went on 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:23.360 to London and ran there for several years. While critics 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:25.920 were not exactly in love with the show, it was 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:29.400 obviously extremely popular and one of the roles that Bateman 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:33.520 was associated with for her entire career. She even wrote 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:37.439 a memoir about playing Leah. But though Daily was very 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:41.400 friendly with Kate Bateman, her father, who was also her manager, 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:45.079 was really another matter. The two of them quarreled about 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:48.959 the way money from the production was split. This escalated 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:52.520 to the point that Hezekiah Bateman sued Daily over it. 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:57.000 Augustine won the court battle, though, yeah, there are lots 0:12:57.000 --> 0:13:00.960 of court battles. We'll talk about some others, but litigious life. 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:05.000 The success of Leah the Versaken meant that Daily became 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:08.480 sought after to create more plays, and he had already 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:11.680 slowed his output of journalism work, and over time he 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.440 ended up stepping away from it entirely so that he 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:17.400 could pursue a theatrical career full time. But he did 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:21.120 write as a theater critic for about eight to ten years. 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:24.920 The Olympic Theater asked Daily to provide a comedy script 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:28.360 for production, and for that he adapted Victor Yann Sautdu's 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:32.440 play Le Papillon that became Taming the Butterfly, which opened 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:35.480 in eighteen sixty four. And coming up, we're going to 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:38.640 talk about the original play that really put Daily on 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:41.080 the map as a playwright, But first we will pause 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:53.760 for a word from our sponsors. Augustine Daily premiered his 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:56.760 play Under the Gas Light in eighteen sixty seven, and 0:13:56.840 --> 0:14:00.600 it became one of his most lasting accomplishments. This play 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:04.600 makes his realism and melodrama to tell stories around New York, 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:07.400 and the play's action is set in motion due to 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:11.600 a socialite's life seeming to fall apart in rapid fashion. 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:15.680 Her betrothed finds out that his beloved is not a 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:19.400 high society girl by birth, but a woman born in 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:23.800 poverty who was adopted by wealthy parents. That secret was 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:27.040 exposed in the play by a mysterious figure who appeared 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:29.760 in all black and turned out to be from her past. 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:35.520 So obviously this entire thing is pretty melodramatic by today's standards. 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:38.880 As the young woman runs away, distraught that the truth 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:41.880 of her origin has caused so much pain, she sets 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:43.800 off a chain of events that plays out in the 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:47.840 streets of New York, encountering a variety of characters who 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:52.680 represent many social classes and moral viewpoints. It's part morality play, 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:57.000 part social commentary, and it was completely unique among the 0:14:57.040 --> 0:15:01.000 plays of the day. You have probably seen that very 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:04.960 common trope in older films or even modern pieces satirizing 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:08.920 them of a mustache twirling villain tying someone to a 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:12.400 railroad track and then that person being rescued at the 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:15.600 very end. You can thank Augustin Daly for that and 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:19.440 it appeared in Under the Gaslight first, and Under the 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:23.960 Gaslight was very very popular, so much so that it 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:28.520 invited imitation, but Daily was not having it. In eighteen 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:32.960 sixty eight, the year after the play premiered, another play 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:37.080 titled After Dark, used the exact same convention of a 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:39.560 person tied to the train tracks by a villain with 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:43.840 a daring last minute escape, and Daly, who had copyrighted 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:47.200 his play, filed an injunction against the managers of the 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:51.720 theater where After Dark was running, wanted to prevent performance 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:55.520 of the play. The filing against After Dark was reported 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:57.600 in the New York Times, and the write up is 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:01.200 a pretty charming description of the scene quote. The particular 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:05.040 cause of such success Daily's play is what was commonly 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:09.120 called after such public performance, the railroad scene, at the 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:11.280 end of the third scene in the fourth act, in 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:14.440 which one of the characters is represented as secured by 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:18.440 another and laid helpless upon the rails of a railroad 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:21.680 track in such manner and with the presumed intent that 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:26.160 the railroad train momentarily expected shall run him down and 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:29.040 kill him, and just at the moment when such a 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:33.400 fate seems inevitable, another of the characters contrives to reach 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:37.600 the intended victim and to drag him from the track 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:40.640 as the train rushes in and passes over the spot 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:44.920 that this incident and scene was entirely novel and unlike 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:48.800 any dramatic incident known to have been heretofore represented on 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:53.360 any stage or invented by any author before the plaintiff 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:58.160 so composed, produced and represented the same. Yeah. The interesting 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:01.360 note in that is that Daily his original version is 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:04.000 actually kind of the opposite of the way we often 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:06.960 have seen it. The heroine is not the one that 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:08.919 is tied to the tracks. It is the hero, and 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:11.520 the heroine is the one who saves him. Normally, you 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:13.919 see the woman in distress on the train tracks in 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:15.920 a lot of films, but that was not how Daily 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:19.399 wrote it. Daily incidentally won his case, and it was 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:22.360 the first of many legal battles that he would have 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:27.000 while ardently protecting his copyrights. He did not shy away 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:30.040 from a lawsuit, and even when people in distant states 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:33.160 tried to stage one of his plays without paying a royalty, 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:35.800 or thought they might be able to sneak a scene 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.840 into one of their productions that borrowed heavily from Daily's work, 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:42.439 Augustine Daly always seemed to hear about it, and he 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:45.840 always took legal action to stop it. Daly was still 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:49.040 on an upswing of success when he married Mary Duff 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:52.960 on January ninth, eighteen sixty nine. Mary was the daughter 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:56.760 of a business peer of Daily's, John A. Duff. John 0:17:56.840 --> 0:18:01.159 Duff's Olympic Theater was the most successful and profitable entertainment 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:04.200 venue in New York at the time. The couple lived 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:07.639 at two fourteen West twenty fifth Street, where Augustine's brother 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:11.800 and mother also lived. The following year, the couple welcomed 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:14.760 their first son, Leonard, and they had a second son 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:19.080 named Francis Augustine, who went by Austin. In eighteen seventy three, 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:23.200 two years after Under the Gas Light became popular, Augustine 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:26.720 Daily formed his own theater company, the Fifth Avenue Theater 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:30.080 on twenty fourth Street. This theater building had its own 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:34.000 rich and sometimes sortid history. It started as an opera 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:37.520 house and then became a burlesque theater. After a murder 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:40.119 in which a show manager killed a colleague, the theater 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:43.480 shut down for a year. It reopened as a venue 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:46.719 for French operettas before Daily took it over and for 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:50.320 almost four years, from eighteen sixty nine to eighteen seventy three, 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:53.800 Daily staged his productions there, but on New Year's Day 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:57.520 of eighteen seventy three, it burned down. While that level 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:01.680 of loss would be deeply stressful, Daily seemed to manage 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:05.200 all right. Three weeks later he opened his theater company 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:08.480 again at a new location he had leased. He also 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:12.960 called this Daily's Fifth Avenue Theater. Daily's theater company was 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:16.240 really well known for its core of actors. He would 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:19.679 select actors and develop them rather than chasing after the 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:23.960 big names, and a lot of successful stage careers started 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:27.640 with Daily. He didn't only cast to type, as most 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:31.440 theaters did, with actors playing one sort of character all 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:35.080 the time. He urged actors to develop a range that 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:40.280 could include everything from broad comedy to serious drama. One 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:42.960 of the plays that Augustine Daily produced before the first 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:45.920 Fifth Avenue Theater burned was a show that he wrote 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:50.679 titled Horizon, an original drama of contemporary New Society and 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:54.760 of American Frontier perrols. This play is considered one of 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:58.399 the early instances of literature that focuses on stories and 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:03.280 themes about North America and the United States rather than Europeans, 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:07.240 but it also, unsurprisingly has a lot of very awkward 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:11.920 and outdated language about indigenous people. He also wrote Divorce 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:15.439 in eighteen seventy one that opened on September fifth of 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:18.560 that year, and it had a successful two hundred night run. 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:22.440 The play unpacks the topic of divorce, which was becoming 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:26.239 more and more common in the nineteenth century. Playwrights in 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:29.920 Europe had been using the topic for dramatic purposes already, 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:33.359 but Daily's play is considered the first US play to 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:37.479 cover it. Daily's script was kind of didactic, showing that 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:41.439 selfishness is often the seed that leads to discord in 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:45.600 a marriage. In eighteen seventy seven, Daily was continuing to 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:48.320 find new ways to draw crowds with his skill as 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:51.800 a writer, his ability to shepherd talent into stardom, and 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:55.960 sometimes by simply innovating the space that he staged his work. 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:59.840 In that year, air conditioning was installed in the Fifth, 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:02.639 a new theater on West twenty eighth Street, making it 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:06.399 the first US theater to offer that luxury. In eighteen 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:10.520 seventy nine, Daily opened another Daily's Theater location in New 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:14.199 York City. This time at Broadway in thirtieth Once the 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:17.520 Second New York Theater was opened, Daily found he couldn't 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:20.840 keep cranking out original works and managed all of his 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:25.560 other businesses, so he started to focus exclusively on adaptations, 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:28.959 which he was quite good at. He adapted numerous works 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:33.320 from French and German literature into stage place. Late in 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:38.280 eighteen eighty four, Daily, who professionally was experiencing so much prosperity, 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:42.679 suffered a huge personal loss. His sons, Leonard and Austin, 0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:45.760 who were fourteen and eleven at the time, both developed 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:49.160 dipsyria during the Christmas season, and in the new year 0:21:49.240 --> 0:21:53.000 things only got worse. On January fifth, eighteen eighty five, 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:55.800 the two boys died within half an hour of each other. 0:21:56.680 --> 0:22:01.080 Daily's brother, Joseph, described his brother as to help any 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:05.000 and every child he encountered. After the deaths of his sons, 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:08.440 he wrote quote, he seemed now to behold in all 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:12.679 the young, and especially in little wanderers his own. I 0:22:12.760 --> 0:22:15.080 have seen him stop a crying child in the street 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:18.239 to inquire its trouble, take it by the hand, and 0:22:18.320 --> 0:22:21.920 restore it to its home. In countless ways he sought 0:22:21.960 --> 0:22:25.880 to help the helpless because of the prominence of Daily's 0:22:25.960 --> 0:22:29.160 name in New York, condolences really flooded into the family. 0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:32.760 But though he grieved very deeply, Daily was right back 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:36.479 to work, probably finding some comfort in the familiar and 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:39.840 busy pace of the theater. Coming up, we are going 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:43.639 to talk about Daily's theatrical adventures into Europe, but before 0:22:43.640 --> 0:22:47.760 we do that, we will pause for a little sponsor break. 0:22:55.840 --> 0:22:59.240 Beginning in the eighteen eighties, Augustine Daily took his style 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:03.160 of theater historians have described as really setting the standard 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:06.320 for the US stage, and he toured Europe with it. 0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:09.679 When Daily's Troop debuted, she would and she would not. 0:23:09.840 --> 0:23:13.439 In England, it was a huge success. That play is 0:23:13.440 --> 0:23:15.879 a comedy that was written in seventeen o two by 0:23:15.880 --> 0:23:19.400 a popular entertainer of the day named Collie Sibber. It 0:23:19.440 --> 0:23:22.280 was merely the start of several years of tours that 0:23:22.320 --> 0:23:25.080 took Daily in his company to Germany and France, as 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:28.520 well as England. There is a certain fun turnabout in 0:23:28.600 --> 0:23:31.520 this success of his tours, as Daily made his name 0:23:31.840 --> 0:23:35.400 in the US theater scene, combining his adaptation of European 0:23:35.480 --> 0:23:39.000 plays with his original work, building on the traditions of 0:23:39.040 --> 0:23:42.800 the countries that he eventually toured while also creating something new. 0:23:43.840 --> 0:23:47.359 Joseph Daily wrote of his brother's earliest tours in Germany, quote, 0:23:47.640 --> 0:23:50.199 it was to be expected that the American manner and 0:23:50.280 --> 0:23:53.560 speech would be found strange, and that the transformation of 0:23:53.640 --> 0:23:58.600 German into foreign types might occasion discontent. The Americans were, 0:23:58.640 --> 0:24:02.359 in fact allowed to be fascinating, but declared not true 0:24:02.400 --> 0:24:06.199 to life. In eighteen eighty eight, Daily and his company 0:24:06.240 --> 0:24:09.760 of performers, fresh off of a European tour, prepared for 0:24:09.800 --> 0:24:12.600 a new season. The play that opened the season was 0:24:12.680 --> 0:24:15.600