Sam'l of Posen; or, The Commercial Drummer is a play by the Irish-born dramatist George H. Jessop. [1] Described as a "comic melodrama", the play is regarded as the first work in the history of American theatre to present a positive portrayal of a Jewish character. [2] [3] The character of the Jewish immigrant traveling salesman Samuel Plastrick was created out of a style of humor that originated among Jewish comedians in American music halls, and was the first Jewish character in an English-language play that invited audiences to laugh with a Jewish character rather than at them; a concept which was highly successful in the United States from the play's inception in 1881 but which was ridiculed by critics and audiences when the play was first performed in England. While progressive for its time, the role has also been criticized for introducing a stereotype of a particular type of Jewish character into the literary canon.
The role of Samuel Plastrick brought both fame and fortune to the Jewish-American actor M. B. Curtis whose portrayal of the Jewish pedlar, an occupation known as a "drummer" in 19th century America, was wildly popular with American audiences. After an initial production in New York City, Posen toured in the role successfully for two years before purchasing the rights to the play outright from Jessop. After this, he made several modifications to the work with the assistance of one of his co-stars, the actor and comedian Edward Marble, with whom he transformed the play from a three act work to a four act work. He continued to tour widely in the role for decades.
Sam'l of Posen; or, The Commercial Drummer premiered in New York City at J.H. Haverly's Fourteenth Street Theatre on May 16, 1881. [4] Considered Jessop's best play, [5] the work was a tremendous hit for its star, the actor M. B. Curtis. Curtis portrayed Samuel Plastrick, a Jewish cocksure 'drummer' (a 19th-century slang term for a traveling salesman) originally from Posen, Poland who had immigrated to the United States.
Sam'l of Posen was originally written in 3 Acts. In 1883 Curtis purchased the rights to the play outright from Jessop, after which he made numerous modifications to the work with the aid of the actor and comedian Edward Marble. The largest change to the play was transporting the final scene of the third act into a fourth act in which that scene's length was greatly extended. It is likely this altered version of the play, and not the original, that was published in America's Lost Plays, Vol. IV (2019, Wildside Press).
Curtis went on to make a fortune through touring widely in the part throughout the 1880s. The play also starred Curtis's wife, the actress Albina de Mer. [6]
Sam'l of Posen; or, The Commercial Drummer had a significant influence on the film maker D. W. Griffith and was used as an inspiration for two films he directed in 1908: Romance of a Jewess and Old Isaacs, the Pawnbroker. [7] The cities of Albany, New York and Berkeley, California both have streets named Posen Avenue which are named after Jessop's play; largely in connection to the actor M. B. Curtis's history with those cities. [8]
The Merchant of Venice is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan on behalf of Bassanio, his dear friend, provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock.
The Reichsgau Wartheland was a Nazi German Reichsgau formed from parts of Polish territory annexed in 1939 during World War II. It comprised the region of Greater Poland and adjacent areas. Parts of Warthegau matched the similarly named pre-Versailles Prussian province of Posen. The name was initially derived from the capital city, Posen (Poznań), and later from the main river, Warthe (Warta).
Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel, was a British Liberal politician who was the party leader from 1931 to 1935.
A peddler, in British English pedlar, also known as a chapman, packman, cheapjack, hawker, higler, huckster, (coster)monger, colporteur or solicitor, is a door-to-door and/or travelling vendor of goods. In 19th-century America the word "drummer" was often used to refer to a peddler or traveling salesman; as exemplified in the popular play Sam'l of Posen; or, The Commercial Drummer by George H. Jessop.
Deborah Dash Moore is the former director of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies and a Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor of History and Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Joshua is a given name derived from the Hebrew יְהוֹשֻׁעַ, prominently belonging to Joshua, an early Hebrew leader of the Exodus period who has a major role in several books of the Bible. The name was a common alternative form of the name יֵשׁוּעַ (Yēšūaʿ) which corresponds to the Greek spelling Ἰησοῦς (Iesous), from which, through the Latin Iesus, comes the English spelling Jesus. As a result of the origin of the name, a majority of people before the 17th century who have this name were Jewish. A variant, truncated form of the name, Josh, gained popularity in the United States in the 1920s.
Hillcrest Country Club is a private country club located on the west side of Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1920, it is a historically Jewish country club and was established at a time when Jewish members were excluded from other elite social clubs in the city.
Stereotypes of Jews are generalized representations of Jews, often caricatured and of a prejudiced and antisemitic nature.
Stereotypes of Jews in literature have evolved over the centuries. According to Louis Harap, nearly all European writers prior to the twentieth century projected the Jewish stereotypes in their works. Harap cites Gotthold Lessing's Nathan the Wise (1779) as the first time that Jews were portrayed in the arts as "human beings, with human possibilities and characteristics." Harap writes that, the persistence of the Jewish stereotype over the centuries suggests to some that "the treatment of the Jew in literature was completely static and was essentially unaffected by the changes in the Jewish situation in society as that society itself changed." He contrasts the opposing views presented in the two most comprehensive studies of the Jew in English literature, one by Montagu Frank Modder and the other by Edgar Rosenberg. Modder asserts that writers invariably "reflect the attitude of contemporary society in their presentation of the Jewish character, and that the portrayal changes with the economic and social changes of each decade." In opposition to Modder's "historical rationale", Rosenberg warns that such a perspective "is apt to slight the massive durability of a stereotype". Harap suggests that the recurrence of the Jewish stereotype in literature is itself one indicator of the continued presence of anti-Semitism amongst the readers of that literature.
The Fourteenth Street Theatre was a New York City theatre located at 107 West 14th Street just west of Sixth Avenue.
William Gill, also known as William Bain Gill, William B. Gill, and W. B. Gill, was a British North American born Australian playwright, actor, theatre critic, journalist, and theatre manager. He is most famous for authoring Broadway's first hit musical, Adonis.
Maurice Curtis, stage name M. B. Curtis, was an American stage actor, producer, and real estate developer, at one point tried and acquitted of a policeman's murder. He achieved fame in the title role of George H. Jessop's 1881 play Sam'l of Posen; or, The Commercial Drummer.
George Henry Jessop was an Irish playwright, librettist, journalist, and novelist. Born in Ireland and educated at Trinity College Dublin, Jessop began his career as a writer working for magazines in London before moving to California in 1873. There he worked as both a journalist and newspaper editor for five years before beginning a career as a playwright in the United States. His first play, A Gentleman from Nevada (1879), was a success and had a profitable run at Broadway's Fifth Avenue Theatre. This work was eclipsed by his third play, Sam'l of Posen; or, The Commercial Drummer (1881), which brought both fame and fortune to its star, the actor M. B. Curtis, who purchased the rights to the work outright from Jessop. It was notably the first play in the history of American theatre to present a positive portrayal of a Jewish character.
Jews played a prominent and often leading role in much of the historical development of the film industry in the United States.
The history of the Jews in Guam, a territory of the United States in the western Pacific Ocean, dates back to at least 1899. A high point in Jewish activity in Guam was during the time of World War II. Jews have continued to live there since, although as a small presence. As of 2009, there are approximately 150 Jews in Guam, of which about a third are religiously active.
Shylock is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice. A Venetian Jewish moneylender, Shylock is the play's principal villain. His defeat and conversion to Christianity form the climax of the story.
Sweet Daddies is a 1926 American silent comedy crime film directed by Alfred Santell and starring George Sidney, Charles Murray, and Vera Gordon. The film foregrounds positive relationships between Jewish and Irish American characters, despite the presence of some stereotypes.
Samuel Gordon was an English novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His fiction largely focused on the lives of contemporary English and Russian Jews.