In , Uncle Tom's Cabin was the novel of the day, with , copies in print. It was a highly inflammatory novel and was soon turned into a highly inflammatory play. In August of that year, the first adaptation with a newly devised happy ending appeared at the National Theater.
Though raged against by the press as, "an insult to the south", and a vehicle that would, "poison the minds of our youth with the pestilential principles of abolition", it ran well and was revived a few times during the season. In the following year, at the same theater, another production was mounted which followed the original story line. The cast was led by a five-year-old child prodigy, Miss Cordelia Howard, and included most of her family. The play was an instant success and a great part of that must be attributed to the child star.
The National Theater and Uncle Tom's Cabin provided Broadway with its first matinee performances, and the child appeared in 12 performances a week. So much for 19th Century Child Welfare laws. In the same year, another controversial play arrived on the ]American scene.
In , Miss Jean Davenport adapted and starred in Camille, or, the Fate of a Coquette , the Dumas drama which had received lauds from the Parisian aud- iences the year before. Knowing the mind of America, Miss Davenport had altered the story line such, that one critic reported that, "divested of all the immoral, objectionable features", it was, "an entertainment of virtuous instruction.
Other performers also produced their versions after copious changes to the story line, but there were always pockets of objection to the moral tone of the play. In , Miss Matilda Heron presented her adaptation on Broadway.
Having seen a production in Paris, Miss Heron changed nothing. La Dame aux Camelias presented to Broadway a production with "startling realism in acting", and a "problem play of contemporary 'real life'.
Why were there so many "adaptations"? It was common for an actor or producer to write dramatizations of popular works or re-write scenes of plays to show-case the performer or merely refit the part to the available casting. Along with Miss Davenport's there were several other "sanitized" versions of Camille being presented during this decade.
America didn't always rate high in world literacy tests, and the stage brought a good part of the population its introduction to books and authors. The first copyright law protecting playwrights wasn't passed until It gave the playwright sole right, "to print, publish, or perform, or represent the same".
It was rather difficult to enforce, though it was a start, and provided a means for demanding royalties. Still, it was largely ignored, and the "dramatization" of literature went on. In , Junius Booth refused to appear on Broadway feigning illness. He sent as his stand-in, his eighteen-year-old son, Edwin. The performance was applauded, and a new star was in ascendancy.
He returned to Broadway as a star in his own right in He had made a name as an example of the new "realism" on stage. Unlike Forrest after whom, he was named and the generation that preceded him, Booth didn't "stand and deliver" his lines, but moved on the stage and with, "intonation, gesture, and posture", he introduced to theater- goers, "a nervous embodiment of all the passions.
In , Forrest, who was nearly 60, and Booth dueled it out on Broadway. Forrest at Niblo's Garden, and Booth at the Winter Garden were giving the audiences two interpretations of the same roles.
It seems that Booth was winning. The Civil War disrupted this and Booth went to England. He studied theater in England and France and returned to the fray in After a year of personal tragedy, Booth mounted a production of Julius Caesar in the Winter Garden on November 25, Edwin played Brutus, His brother, Junius Jr. It was the only time they were ever to act together.
The Minskoff on 45th, Marquis on 46th street, the Palace on 47th, the Winter Garden on 50th, and the Broadway on 53rd. The street Broadway runs the entire length of Manhattan, through the Bronx and ends 18 miles north of the city past Sleepy Hollow.
Broadway is the oldest north-south main road in NYC and dates back to the first New Amsterdam settlement. Broadway was one of the first electrically lit streets in the US. In almost a mile of Broadway was illuminated by Brush Arc lamps. Cart 0. Images by Bryan Berrios. Theatergoers in the United States were once a rowdy lot, interrupting performances and occasionally rioting if productions did not meet their taste.
The theater district in New York City is particularly famous for its musicals, and the history of campy melodrama and musical productions in the United States is almost as old as the Great White Way itself.
The term is commonly credited to a review in a edition of the New York Evening Telegram , one of the many newspapers that thrived in New York around the turn of the 20th century. Visitors to New York City can see a number of sites along the Great White Way during the day, and can visit theaters to arrange for tickets if they have not already booked tickets by phone or online.
As early as , Broadway signage dazzled visitors and the street soon became known throughout the world as the Great White Way. For then on every wall, above every cornice, in every nook and cranny, blossom and dance the electric advertising signs.
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