Poster for the 1907 run of The Girl of the Golden West
The Girl of the Golden West is a theatrical play written, produced and directed by David Belasco, set in the California Gold Rush. The four-act melodrama opened at the old Belasco Theatre in New York on November 14, 1905 and ran for 224 performances. Blanche Bates originated the role of The Girl, Robert C. Hilliard played Dick Johnson, and Frank Keenan played Jack Rance. Bates was joined by Charles Millward and Cuyler Hastings for two-week Broadway runs in 1907 and 1908.[1]William Furst composed the play's incidental music. The play toured throughout the US for several years.[2]
The play has been adapted numerous times, most notably as the 1910 opera La fanciulla del West by Giacomo Puccini. It was also made into four films, all titled The Girl of the Golden West, in 1915, 1923, 1930 and 1938.[3] In 1911, Belasco wrote a novel based on the play.
Characters
Blanche Bates in the original Broadway production of The Girl of the Golden West (1905)Blanche Bates and Frank Keenan in the original Broadway production of The Girl of the Golden West (1905)Blanche Bates in The Girl of the Golden West (1905)
The Girl (Minnie)
Jack Rance, gambler and Sheriff
Dick Johnson, a stranger
Sonora Slim
Trinidad Joe
Nick, bartender at The Polka
The Sidney Duck, a faro-dealer
Jim Larkens
Handsome Charlie
Happy Halliday
Deputy Sheriff
Ashby, a Wells-Fargo agent
José Castro, member of Ramerrez's band
Rider of the Pony Express
Jack Wallace, a traveling camp minstrel
Bucking Billy, from Watson's
The Lookout
A Faro-dealer
The Boy from the Ridge
Joe, Concertina Player
Citizens of the Camp and Boys of the Ridge
Wowkle, the fox, Billy Jackrabbit's squaw
Footnotes
↑ Mantle and Sherwood, The Best Plays of 1899-1909, p. 500-501.
American Film Institute, Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Feature Films, 1911-1920, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1988.
American Film Institute, Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Feature Films, 1921-1930, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1971.
American Film Institute, Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Feature Films, 1931-1940, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1993.
La fanciulla del West is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini, based on the 1905 play The Girl of the Golden West by the American author David Belasco. Fanciulla followed Madama Butterfly, which was also based on a Belasco play. The opera has fewer of the show-stopping highlights that characterize Puccini's other works, but is admired for its impressive orchestration and for a score that is more melodically integrated than is typical of his previous work. Fanciulla displays influences from composers Claude Debussy and Richard Strauss, without being in any way imitative. Similarities between the libretto and the work of Richard Wagner have also been found though some attribute this more to the original plot of the play, and have asserted that the opera remains quintessentially Italian.
David Belasco was an American theatrical producer, impresario, director, and playwright. He was the first writer to adapt the short story Madame Butterfly for the stage. He launched the theatrical career of many actors, including James O'Neill, Mary Pickford, Lenore Ulric, and Barbara Stanwyck. Belasco pioneered many innovative new forms of stage lighting and special effects in order to create realism and naturalism.
The Easiest Way is a 1931 American pre-Code MGM drama film directed by Jack Conway. Adapted from the 1909 play of the same name written by Eugene Walter and directed by David Belasco, the film stars Constance Bennett, Adolphe Menjou, Robert Montgomery, Marjorie Rambeau, Anita Page, and Clark Gable
Good News is a 1930 American pre-Code musical film directed by Nick Grinde, and starring Bessie Love, Cliff Edwards, and Penny Singleton. The film was shot in black-and-white, although the finale was in multicolor.
Stuart Armstrong Walker was an American director and producer in theatre and motion pictures.
The Girl of the Golden West is a surviving 1915 American Western silent black-and-white film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. It was based on the 1905 play The Girl of the Golden West by David Belasco. Prints of the film survive in the Library of Congress film archive. It was the first of four film adaptations that have been made of the play.
The Girl of the Golden West is a 1938 American musical Western film adapted from the 1905 play of the same name by David Belasco, better known for providing the plot of the opera La fanciulla del West by Giacomo Puccini. A frontier woman falls in love with an outlaw.
The AFI Catalog of Feature Films, also known as the AFI Catalog, is an ongoing project by the American Film Institute (AFI) to catalog all commercially-made and theatrically exhibited American motion pictures from the birth of cinema in 1893 to the present. It began as a series of hardcover books known as The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures, and subsequently became an exclusively online film database.
The Music Master was a theatrical play written by Charles Klein, and produced and directed by David Belasco.
Stranded is a 1916 American silent drama film produced by Fine Arts Film Company and distributed by Triangle Film Corporation. The film stars DeWolf Hopper with newcomer Bessie Love in a supporting role. The film is considered lost.
Nina, the Flower Girl is a lost American 1917 silent drama film produced by D. W. Griffith through his Fine Arts Film Company and distributed by Triangle Film Corporation. The film starred Bessie Love, an up-and-coming ingenue actress. It also marked the final acting role for Elmer Clifton, who was by then moving on to directing full-time.
The Girl of the Golden West is a 1930 American Pre-Code Western film produced and distributed by First National Pictures, a subsidiary of Warner Bros., directed by John Francis Dillon and starring actress Ann Harding and James Rennie. Harding's then-husband, Harry Bannister, plays the villain Jack Rance. David Belasco wrote, directed, and produced the original play in 1905 which starred Blanche Bates.
Thundering Dawn is a 1923 American silent film directed and produced by Harry Garson. The story was originally written by John Blackwood and was adapted by Universal City scenario editor, Raymond L. Schrock. Lenore Coffee and John F. Goodrich are also credited for working on the screenplay. The film stars J. Warren Kerrigan, Anna Q. Nilsson, and Thomas Santschi. It was released on November 5, 1923. Before settling on Thundering Dawn, the film had two working titles; Havoc and The Bond of the Ring.
The Girl of the Golden West is a 1923 American silent Western film directed and produced by Edwin Carewe and starring Sylvia Breamer, J. Warren Kerrigan, and Russell Simpson. It was distributed through Associated First National Pictures. It is based on the 1905 David Belasco play The Girl of the Golden West.
For Love or Money is a 1920 American silent drama film directed by Burton L. King and starring Virginia Lee, Harry Benham and L. Rogers Lytton. J. W. Film Corp. acquired the film and re-released it in 1921 as The Road to Arcady.
Daring Deeds is a 1927 American silent comedy film directed by Duke Worne and starring Billy Sullivan, Molly Malone and Earl Metcalfe.
The Man Who Waited is a 1922 American silent Western film directed by Edward Ludwig and starring Jay Morley, Vonda Phelps and Milla Davenport.
The Saddle King is a 1929 American silent Western film directed by Ben F. Wilson and starring Cliff Lyons, Neva Gerber and Al Ferguson.
The Great Shadow is a 1920 American silent drama film directed by Harley Knoles and starring Tyrone Power Sr., Donald Hall and Dorothy Bernard.
Edith Katharine Sessions Tupper was an American journalist, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and screenwriter.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
