The Drunkard
The Drunkard; or, The Fallen Saved is an American temperance play first performed in 1844.[1] A drama in five acts, it was perhaps the most popular play produced in the United States before the dramatization of Uncle Tom's Cabin [2] in the 1850s. In New York City, P.T. Barnum presented it at his American Museum in a run of over 100 performances.[3] It was among the first of the American temperance plays, and remained the most popular of them until it was eclipsed in 1858 by T. S. Arthur's Ten Nights in a Bar-Room.[2]
The primary writer of the play was William H. Smith, who also directed and starred in the original production in Boston in the 1844–45 season.[1][2] Smith was the stage manager at Moses Kimball's Boston Museum and a recovered alcoholic.[2] An anonymous collaborator, believed to have been Unitarian minister John Pierpont, co-wrote the script.[2]
In the 20th century, the dated melodrama of Smith's play made it a target of parody. In 1934, a production of The Drunkard was featured to comic effect in the W. C. Fields film The Old Fashioned Way.[4] The following year, James Murray and Clara Kimball Young starred in a film called The Drunkard, a comedy-drama in which two theatrical producers present the play as a farce with their needy relatives in the cast.[5][6] In 1940, Buster Keaton starred in another film parody, The Villain Still Pursued Her.[7]
A version of the play adapted by Richard Mansfield Dickinson has been performed every Saturday night beginning in 1953 at the Spotlight Theatre in Tulsa, Oklahoma.[8]
[edit] References
- Notes
- ^ a b "The Drunkard: Author's preface (1850 edition) in Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture: A Multi-media Archive on the University of Virginia website
- ^ a b c d e "The Drunkard" in Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture: A Multi-media Archive on the University of Virginia website
- ^ Burrows, Edwin G. & Wallace, Mike (1999). Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195116348. p.815
- ^ The Old Fashioned Way at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ Box Office, June 8, 1935: p. 29 seen at issuu.com
- ^ The Drunkard (1935) at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ Mitchell, C. (2004). Filmography of Social Issues: A Reference Guide. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313320373. p. 4.
- ^ "History of the building" on the Tulsa Spotlight Theatre website
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