*MELODRAMA: UNDER THE GAS LIGHT RARE 1880 BROADSIDE AUGUSTIN DALY*

Description

A rare original broadside circa 1880 for Augustin Daly's famous melodrama Under the Gas Light. Dimensions eleven and three quarters by four and a half inches. Light wear, a few archival repairs and partial separation at fold otherwise good. See the story of the play below.
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From Wikipedia:
Under the Gaslight
is an 1867 play by
Augustin Daly
. It was his first successful play, and is a primary example of a melodrama, best known for its suspense scene where a person is tied to railroad tracks as a train approaches, only to be saved from death at the last possible moment.
The show had an successful initial run at the
Worrell Sisters'
New York Theatre
in New York, starting on August 12, 1867, and running through October 1, a total of 47 performances.
Rose Eytinge
starred at Laura Courtland.
[3]
It returned for an additional two-month run in December 1867, with the
Worrell Sisters
playing the lead three female roles.
The play is an example of Daly's mixture of realism and melodrama, with authenticity of his depiction of real locations in New York in the play, and in his use of social commentary.
[4]
Though the play introduced the now-clichéd device of the villain tying someone to railroad tracks, it was also a reversal of the usual roles because the hero was tied up, and the heroine saves him.
[5]
In the book
Vagrant Memories,
critic
William Winter
recalls how Daly came up with the device: "He was walking home toward night, thinking intently about the play which he had begun to write, when suddenly the crowning expedient occurred to him and at the same instant he stumbled over a misplaced flagstone, striking his right foot against the edge of the stone and sustaining a severe hurt. "I was near my door," he said, "and I rushed into the house, threw myself into a chair, grasping my injured foot with both hands, for the pain was great, and exclaiming, over and over again, 'I've got it! I've got it! And it beats hot-irons all to pieces!" I wasn't even thinking of the hurt. I had the thought of having my hero tied on a railroad track and rescued by his sweetheart, just in the nick of time, before the swift passage of an express train across a dark stage.
[6]
Some have argued that Daly borrowed the train device from the English play
The Engineer
, which also put a train on the stage though the circumstances of the storyline were not identical.
[1]
Daly was able to successfully get an injunction against
Dion Boucicault
over his 1868 play
After Dark
, which also had a train scene, a case that became an important decision in copyright law.
[7]
[8]
Original cast (New York, August 12, 1867)
Ray Trafford by A.H. (Dolly) Davenport
Snorkey by John K. Mortimer
Byke by John B. Studley
Ed. Demilt by Mr. Newton
Windel by Mr. Reed
Justice Bowling by Welsh Edwards
Counsellor Splinter by Jason Dunn
Bermudas by C.T. Parsloe
Peanuts by Master Shea
Lillywhite by Master Shay
Sam by Mr. Williams
Rafferdi by Mr. Sullivan
The Sergeant of the River Patrol by Mr. Hurley
Policeman 999 by Mr. Sampson
Martin by Mr. Fielding
Peter Rich by Master Willie
The Signal Man at Shrewsbury Road by Mr. H. Ryner
Laura Courtland by
Rose Eytinge
Pearl Courtland by Blanche Grey
Peachblossom by Mrs. Skerrett
Old Judas by Mrs. Wright
Mrs. Van Dam by Miss Lizzie Davey
Sue Earlie by Miss Mason
Lizzie Liston by Miss Macy
[9]
Adaptations and legacy
The play was adapted to a silent film
of the same name
in 1914.
A 1929 revival on Broadway at
Fay's Bowery Theatre
was not successful, only running for three weeks.
[2]
[10]
Unlike the vast majority of 19th century American plays,
Under the Gaslight
has continued to be revived to the modern day.
[2]
Notable revivals include ones in 1993 at the
Soho Repertory Theatre
in New York,
[11]
1995 at the
Laguna Playhouse
in southern California
[12]
and the
Metropolitan Playhouse
in New York in 2009, among others.