Transatlantic Broadway: The Infrastructural Politics of Global Performance

266 Pages·2015·2.269 MB·English

by  Marlis Schweitzer (auth.)

Transatlantic Broadway
Transnational Theatre Histories
Series Editors: Christopher Balme, University of Munich, Germany Tracy C.
Davis, Northwestern University, USA Catherine Cole, University of California,
Berkeley, USA
Editorial Advisory Board: Leo C abranes- Grant, Khalid Amine, Temple Haupt-
fl eisch, Laurence Senelick, Veronica Kelly, Rustom Bharucha, Frank Hildy, Margaret
Werry, Mitsuya Mori, Maria Helena Werneck, Catherine Yeh
Transnational Theatre Histories aims to document and theorize the emergence of
theatre as a global phenomenon against the background of imperial expansion
and modernization in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The temporal
range of study spans c. 1850– 1989, and the series aims to engage with current
discussions and research in globalization studies on the one hand, and global
history/transnational history on the other, by asking in what ways theatre was
involved in these processes.
Transnational Theatre Histories
Series Standing Order ISBN 978–1–137–41176–1 (hardback)
978–1–137–41177–8 (paperback)
(outside North America only)
You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a
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Transatlantic Broadway
The Infrastructural Politics of Global
Performance
Marlis Schweitzer
© Marlis Schweitzer 2015
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-43734-1
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
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permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
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may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
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in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2015 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire, RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
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ISBN 978-1-349-49380-7 ISBN 978-1-137-43735-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137437358
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
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A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India.
For C.F., who has haunted this project from the start
&
For my three boys, Dan, Marcus, and Isaac,
who fill my life with joy
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Contents
List of Figures viii
Preface: Transatlantic Crossings xi
Acknowledgments xv
List of Abbreviations xix
Introduction 1
1 Networking the Waves: Ocean Liners, Impresarios, and
Broadway’s Atlantic Expansion 37
2 Along the Wires: Telegraphic Performances and
the Wiring of Broadway 69
3 White Collar Broadway: Performing the Modern Office 103
4 “My Word! How He is Kissing Her”: The Material
Culture of Theatrical Promotion 146
Epilogue: Transatlantic (Re)Crossings 190
Notes 194
Select Bibliography 228
Index 237
vii
List of Figures
Cover F rench dancer/actress Gaby Deslys and performer/
choreographer Harry Pilcer on board an unidentified
ocean liner, c. 1910–15. Photo by the Bain News Service.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Intro. 1 P romotional lithograph for Klaw & Erlanger’s
“Advanced Vaudeville,” 1907. Courtesy of the
Library of Congress 3
Intro. 2 A caricature representing the Theatrical Syndicate as
an octopus, 1897. Courtesy of the Library of Congress 22
1.1 T he Lusitania arrives in New York on her maiden
voyage, September 1907. George Grantham Bain
Collection. Courtesy of the Library of Congress 42
1.2 P assengers in steerage on deck of an ocean liner,
c. 1907. Photo by the Bain News Service. Courtesy
of the Library of Congress 58
1.3 O pera star Mary Garden poses for photographers
on board an unidentified ocean liner, c. 1909.
Photo by the Bain News Service. Courtesy of the
Library of Congress 62
1.4 P hotograph of Charles Frohman on a Cunard liner,
probably the Mauretania, 1914. Photography Collection,
Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and
Photographs, The New York Public Library,
Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations 68
2.1 A page from the Shuberts’ telegram codebook,
c. 1905– 7. Courtesy of the Shubert Archive 90
2.2 A coded (and decoded) telegram from the Shuberts’
foreign representative Gustav Amberg describing a
novel act, c. 1910. Courtesy of the Shubert Archive 97
3.1 I nside the office of Alice Kauser, dramatists’ agent,
1904. Photo by the Byron Company. Courtesy of the
Museum of the City of New York 104
viii
List of Figures ix
3.2 C harles Frohman’s office inside the Empire Theatre.
Photo from Isaac Frederick Marcosson and Daniel
Frohman, Charles Frohman: Manager and Man.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1916 114
3.3 T he private office of theatrical producer
H.W. Savage, 1903. Photo by the Byron Company.
Courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York 116
3.4 T wo Broadway telegraph messengers, 1910. Photo
by Lewis Hine. Courtesy of the Library of Congress 121
3.5 A Broadway messenger posing outside the Liberty
Theatre where the musical comedy The Arcadians
was playing, 1910. Photo by Lewis Hine. Courtesy
of the Library of Congress 122
3.6 T he press representatives’ room in Henry W. Savage’s
office, 1903. Photo by the Byron Company. Courtesy
of the Museum of the City of New York 133
3.7 T he office of Henry W. Savage’s business manager,
1903. Photo by the Byron Company. Courtesy
of the Museum of the City of New York 134
3.8 A waiting room in the offices of Henry W. Savage,
1903. Photo by the Byron Company. Courtesy
of the Museum of the City of New York 135
3.9 S taff working for talent agent H.B. Marinelli Ltd,
1908. Photo by the Byron Company. Courtesy
of the Museum of the City of New York 138
3.10 L etterhead for H.B. Marinelli Ltd. Courtesy of the
Shubert Archive 138
4.1 T itillating promotional postcard for Henry W.
Savage’s road production of The Merry Widow,
1909. Author’s collection 147
4.2 I nside the titillating promotional postcard for
Henry W. Savage’s road production of The Merry Widow,
1909. Author’s collection 148
4.3 B illboard for Dan Godfrey’s British Guards Band
created by the Strobridge Litho. Co., c. 1899.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress 156