| The County Chairman | |
|---|---|
 Maclyn Arbuckle as Hon. Jim Hackler in the play (circa 1904) | |
| Written by | George Ade |
| Date premiered | 24 November 1903 (Broadway) |
| Place premiered | Wallack's Theatre |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Comedy |
The County Chairman is a 1903 comedy play by George Ade, which was one of his greatest successes. Produced by Henry W. Savage, it played for 222 performances on Broadway at Wallack's Theatre. It was also adapted to film in 1914 and 1935.
The County Chairman was Ade's first attempt at non-musical comedy. The play was first performed at the Auditorium in South Bend, Indiana, on August 29, 1903, and also played for a number of weeks at the Studebaker Theatre in Chicago. [1] It opened on Broadway on Tuesday, November 24, 1903, and played for 222 performances. The reviews of the play were also positive. [2] Maclyn Arbuckle, playing the local politician Jim Hackler, starred both on Broadway and on the road, playing the role for four years. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] Reviewers also praised Willis P. Sweatnam's blackface role. Sweatnam was an old minstrel performer who Ade worked into the play after finding he had fallen on hard times. [12] (Black actor Stepin Fetchit played the former blackface role in the 1935 film.)
The play closed for the season at Wallack's on June 4, 1904, but returned for 44 more performances in the fall before going on the road. [12] It was also revived in 1936 for eight performances at the National Theatre, with Charles Coburn playing Hackler, but did not draw large audiences.
Ade later recounted that he took the names of many of play's characters from a list of tax delinquents posted in the courthouse of Vicksburg, Mississippi, a "grand roster of good old Anglo-Saxon names" which fit the "undiluted American 'types' to be found in Antioch", the location of the play. [12]
The County Chairman was included in Burns Mantle's Best Plays of 1899-1909 volume published in 1944. [13]
A study of Ade's work published in 1964 concluded that The County Chairman had been "largely ignored in histories of American drama," despite being "the worthiest of Ade's plays." [12]
The play first adapted to a film of the same name in 1914, with Arbuckle and Sweatnam returning to their original roles. It was again adapted to film in 1935.
Anne Hartley Gilbert professionally billed as Mrs. G. H. Gilbert was a British actress.
James William Wallack, commonly referred to as J. W. Wallack, was an Anglo-American actor and manager, born in London, and brother of Henry John Wallack.
George Ade was an American writer, syndicated newspaper columnist, and playwright who gained national notoriety at the turn of the 20th century with his "Stories of the Streets and of the Town", a column that used street language and slang to describe daily life in Chicago, and a column of his fables in slang, which were humorous stories that featured vernacular speech and the liberal use of capitalization in his characters' dialog.
Ah, Wilderness! is a comedy by American playwright Eugene O'Neill that premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on October 2, 1933. It differs from a typical O'Neill play in its happy ending for the central character, and depiction of a happy family in turn of the century America. It is O'Neill's only well-known comedy.
Dorothy Heyward was an American playwright.
Maclyn Arbuckle was an American screen and stage actor. He was the brother of actor Andrew Arbuckle and cousin of comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.
Four New York City theaters have borne the name Wallack's Theatre. Each has had other names before or after, or both. All are demolished.
Willis Palmer Sweatnam, Sr. was a Broadway show actor and minstrel show performer.
Mary Jeffreys Lewis known professionally as Jeffreys Lewis was a British-born American actress whose career lasted long after her popularity as a leading lady had faded.
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The County Chairman is a lost 1914 silent film drama directed by Allan Dwan, produced by the Famous Players Film Company and distributed through Paramount Pictures. It is based on the 1903 stage play by George Ade that starred Maclyn Arbuckle, who reprises his role in this film. Also starring alongside Arbuckle is up-and-coming heartthrob Harold Lockwood. The story is typical of the stage plays Adolph Zukor brought to films for his Famous Players Company in its earliest years. This film was remade by Fox in 1935 with Will Rogers.
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The Broadway Theatre, called the Old Broadway Theatre since its demise, was at 326–30 Broadway, between Pearl and Anthony Streets in Lower Manhattan, New York City. With over 4000 seats, it was the largest theater ever built in New York when it opened. During its brief existence, many prominent performers of the era appeared on its stage. It presented plays, opera, ballet, hippodrama, and circus performances in a space that was reconfigured several times. The operators always struggled to make money, however, and after twelve years the Broadway Theatre was replaced by a more profitable building, for the textile trade.
The College Widow is a 1904 American comedic play by George Ade, which was adapted to film multiple times, and also into the popular 1917 musical Leave It to Jane.
Percy Thomas Carne Waram was a British-born stage and film actor who spent much of his career in the United States. His career lasted 55 years on the American stage, and he had memorable roles in The Shanghai Gesture, Elizabeth the Queen, Mary of Scotland, Pride and Prejudice, and Anne of the Thousand Days. He starred in the Chicago production of Life With Father for three years, setting box office and attendance records, after which he took the production on the road for another 38 weeks. He starred in the Broadway production of The Late George Apley for a year, and then spent another 80 weeks with the show's national tour.
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