History of the Philadelphia Stage, Between the Years 1749 and 1855. By Charles Durang. Volume 6. Arranged and illustrated by Thompson Westcott, 1868
Date:
1868
Description:
Volume VI includes the final 38 chapters (XCIX to CXXXVI) of the third series of Durang’s history, for a total of 110 pages of text. These installments appeared in the Dispatch between June 15, 1862 (Vol. XV, No. 8) and April 19, 1863 (Vol. XV, No. 52). Here Durang discusses the theatrical seasons of several city institutions, such as the Chestnut Street Theatre, the Walnut Street Theatre, the Arch Street Theatre, the Musical Fund Hall, and Welch’s National Circus, Theatre, and Hippodrome, up to the closure of the second Chestnut Street Theatre in 1855. Prominent events include the Italian opera season at the Chestnut Street Theatre, under the management of impresario Max Maretzek, and the parallel programming of Jenny Lind’s performances at the Musical Fund Hall. A biographical sketch of Jenny Lind, complete with a description of her career in the United States, is provided. The volume also includes other clippings concerning the closing of the second Chestnut Street Theatre in 1855, the opening of the third Chestnut Street Theatre in 1862, and the renovation of the Arch Street Theatre in 1861, after Louisa Lane Drew assumed the management of the theater. A brief article by L. G. Thomas, originally published in the Sunday Dispatch and titled "Reminiscences of Private Dramatic Associations," is also found in the final part of the scrapbook. A wide number of artists, impresarios, and theatrical figures are portrayed in the images added by Westcott to the volume. Among them are Philip Rohr, William Warren, Harriet Waylett, Joseph Jefferson, Ephraim Horn, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, William F. Wallet, Giovanni Battista Belletti, Marie Taglioni, George John Bennett, Virginia Howard, John Brougham, John Henderson, Junius Brutus Booth, Edwin Booth, John Philip Kemble, Phineas Taylor Barnum, Jenny Lind, Teresa Parodi, John Gilbert, Mary Amelia Warner, James Edward Murdoch, Laura Keene, William Henry Don, John Drew, Gustavus Vaughan Brooke, Lola Montez, Julia Bennett Barrow, Edwin Forrest, Laura Addison, Jean Margaret Davenport (Mrs. Lander), Peter Richings, Max Maretzek, Mary Anne Stirling, Lizzie Weston, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, George E. Locke, Lester Wallack, Gabriel Ravel, Henriette Sontag, Cora De Wilhorst, Charles William Macready, Thomas Potter Cooke, Isabella Glyn, William Dowton, John Edward Owens, Kate Josephine Bateman, William Farren, John Liston, Louisa Pyne, Giulia Grisi, McKean Buchanan, Adeliaide Phillipps, Susanna Centlivre, Charlotte Thompson, Edwin Pearce Christy, Charles Walter Couldock, Marietta Alboni, and George Frederick Cooke. A list of “maiden and married names of actresses” is located at the beginning of the volume, and offers researchers a useful research tool as they reconstruct the career of famous female performers. The scrapbook also contains images of numerous theaters and cultural institutions, both in Philadelphia and in other U.S. cities, such as the Philadelphia Academy of Music, the Walnut Street Theatre, the City Museum of Callowhill Street, and Welch's National Circus (at the National Theatre) in Philadelphia, Astor Place Opera House, Castle Garden Theatre, Pike's Opera House, Booth’s New Theatre, and Brougham’s Theatre in New York City, and the New National Theatre and the People’s Theatre in Cincinnati, OH. Finally, the volume comprises a small number of autograph letters, including one by theater manager John Sefton, and another one by actor and theater manager John Drew.
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