File:Joseph Jefferson (14787370453).jpg

Identifier: playersplaysofla01strauoft (find matches)
Title: Players and plays of the last quarter century; an historical summary of causes and a critical review of conditions as existing in the American theatre at the close of the nineteenth century
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Strang, Lewis Clinton, 1869-1935
Subjects: Theater -- History Theater -- United States Acting and actors
Publisher: Boston, L.C. Page
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
ted any-thing in his life; he knew too much to try.He early tested his abilities as an entertainer.He found them ample, and he thereafter wiselyutilised, for the definite purpose of exploitingthese wonderful qualities of personality andmethod, every part that he ever undertook. Born in Philadelphia on February 20, 1829,the fourth Jefferson in direct line from theone that first made the name famous in Gar-ricks time, Joseph Jefferson made his debuton the stage in Washington, at the age ofthree years, as a miniature Jim Crow at abenefit given to Thomas D. Rice. Jeffersonsyouth and early manhood were passed withbarnstorming companies that wanderedthroughout the South and West. Duringthe Mexican War he shared the fortunes ofGeneral Taylors army, acting wherever nightfound him, and selling coffee and cakes to thesoldiers when acting was not profitable. Afterthat, Jefferson went to Philadelphia, and dur-ing the next ten years, from 1846 to 1856, heworked in New York, Philadelphia, and Rich-
Text Appearing After Image:
JOSEPH JEFFERSON 4 d> I Gilbert, Owens, Jefferson, Florence 263 mond chiefly, sometimes as a stock actor,sometimes as a star, and sometimes as amanager. In 1856, he made his first tripabroad, but did not act. On his return, hebecame the principal comedian of LauraKeenes Theatre, New York, where he playedDoctor Pandoss and Asa Trenchard in OurAmerican Cousin. Next at the Winter Gar-den, he acted Caleb Plummer in The CricketI on the Hearth and Salem Scudder in TheOctoroon, two of Dion Boucicaults dramaticefforts. Jefferson first became interested in Rip VanWinkle in 1859. He had seen Charles Burkeas Rip, and he knew the several versions ofIrvings story that had been presented by Burke,Hackett, and Yates. The first Rip was prob-ably Thomas Flynn (1804-1849), who actedthe part on May 24, 1828. However, all theseplayers simply made the Dutchman a drunkenvagabond. It was Jeffersons idea to elevatethe character and make it half-real, half-unreal,to invest it with fantastic indefiniteness

Note About Images