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, and 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.
Minnie Maddern Fiske, but often billed simply as Mrs. Fiske, was one of the leading American actresses of the late 19th and early 20th century. She also spearheaded the fight against the Theatrical Syndicate for the sake of artistic freedom. She was widely considered the most important actress on the American stage in the first quarter of the 20th century. Her performances in several Henrik Ibsen plays widely introduced American audiences to the Norwegian playwright.
Caroline Louise Dudley was an American silent film and stage actress who found fame on Broadway through collaborations with impresario David Belasco. She was a strikingly beautiful and vivacious performer, known as "The American Sarah Bernhardt", who continued to act under her married name, Mrs. Leslie Carter, even after her sensational divorce.
Annie Ellen Russell was a British-American stage actress.
Blanche Whiffen, better known as Mrs. Thomas Whiffen, (1845–1936) was an American actress born in London. Her maiden name was Galton. She was educated in France; made her stage début at the Royalty Theatre, London, in 1865; came to America in 1868; and toured the United States under John Templeton's management. In 1879 she played Buttercup in the first American production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pinafore. She joined Daniel Frohman's stock company at his old Lyceum Theatre, where she appeared in more than 25 plays between 1887 and 1899 including The Wife (1887), The Charity Ball (1889), and Trelawny of the 'Wells' (1898). Later she was part of Charles Frohman's company at the Empire. She became Broadway's resident old lady character player after the death of Mrs. G. H. Gilbert in 1904. Mrs Whiffen in later years appeared in Zira (1905); The Great Divide (1905–07); The Builder of Bridges (1909); The Brass Bottle (1910); Electricity (1910); Cousin Kate (1912); Tante (1913); A Scrap of Paper (1914); Rosemary (1915). She was still active at 70 and a great favorite.
Elizabeth Tyree was an actress in Broadway theatrical productions beginning in the mid-1890s. Her married name was Elizabeth Tyree Metcalfe. Professionally she was billed as Bess Tyree.
Trelawny of the "Wells" is an 1898 comic play by Arthur Wing Pinero. It tells the story of a theatre star who attempts to give up the stage for love, but is unable to fit into conventional society.
William Wallace Furst was an American composer of musical theatre pieces and a music director, best remembered for supplying incidental music to theatrical productions on Broadway.
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. William Furst composed the play's incidental music. The play toured throughout the US for several years.
The Garden Theatre was a major theatre on Madison Avenue and 27th Street in New York City, New York. The theatre opened on September 27, 1890, and closed in 1925. Part of the second Madison Square Garden complex, the theatre presented Broadway plays for two decades and then, as high-end theatres moved uptown to the Times Square area, became a facility for German and Yiddish theatre, motion pictures, lectures, and meetings of trade and political groups.
The Music Master was a theatrical play written by Charles Klein, and produced and directed by David Belasco. The three-act comedy-drama opened at the Belasco Theatre in New York on September 26, 1904. It ran for 124 performances before it was moved to the Bijou Theatre where it ran for another 511 performances over that and the next two seasons, before going on tour. David Warfield originated the title role, Anton Von Barwig, and continued playing it in revivals and on tour for two decades. William Furst composed the play's incidental music.
The Lyceum Theatre was a theatre in New York City located on Fourth Avenue between 23rd and 24th Streets in Manhattan. It was built in 1885 and operated until 1902, when it was torn down to make way for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower. It was replaced by a new Lyceum Theatre on 45th Street. For most of its existence, the theatre was home to Daniel Frohman's Lyceum Theatre Stock Company, which presented many important plays and actors of the day.
The Herald Square Theatre was a Broadway theatre in Manhattan, New York City, built in 1883 and closed in 1914. The site is now a highrise designed by H. Craig Severance.
The Madison Square Theatre was a Broadway theatre in Manhattan, on the south side of 24th Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway It was built in 1863, operated as a theater from 1865 to 1908, and demolished in 1908 to make way for an office building. The Madison Square Theatre was the scene of important developments in stage technology, theatre design, and theatrical tour management. For about half its history it had other names including the Fifth Avenue Theatre, Daly’s Fifth Avenue Theatre, Hoyt’s Madison Square Theatre, and Hoyt’s Theatre.
The Heart of Maryland is a lost 1921 American silent film feature produced and distributed by the Vitagraph Company of America. It is based on David Belasco's 1895 play, The Heart of Maryland.
The Heart of Maryland is a lost 1915 silent film drama directed by Herbert Brenon based on David Belasco's play The Heart of Maryland. Mrs. Leslie Carter, who starred in the original play on Broadway in 1895, makes her appearance in this film as the title character.
Louis "Lou" Payne was an American character actor of the silent and sound film eras, as well as legitimate theater. His acting life began on Broadway in the first decade of the 1900s, when he appeared in the Broadway play, Her Majesty, the Girl Queen of Nordenmark, which ran at the Manhattan Theatre in 1900.
The Broadway Theatre near 41st Street was a Manhattan theatre in operation from 1888 to 1929. It was located at 1445 Broadway.
The Auctioneer is a 1927 American silent comedy drama film directed by Alfred E. Green and starring George Sidney, Marian Nixon and Gareth Hughes. It was originally planned for Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell to appear in supporting roles in the film, before both had become stars by that point and other actors were cast. The film was adapted from a (1901) David Belasco stage play of the same name.
Elizabeth Lee Kirkland was an American actress, writer and arts patron known professionally as Odette Tyler.
