| The Sporting Duchess | |
|---|---|
 Advertisement for opening of the play in The New York Sun | |
| Written by | Cecil Raleigh, Henry Hamilton and Augustus Thomas |
| Date premiered | August 29, 1895 (originally played as The Derby Winner before this in London) |
| Place premiered | Academy of Music |
The Sporting Duchess is an 1895 play by Cecil Raleigh, Henry Hamilton and Augustus Thomas. In England it was titled The Derby Winner and played at Drury Lane. [1] [2]
Because Hammerstein's Harlem Opera House opened a play called The Derby Winner in February 1895, the name of the English play had to be changed, with the New York World approving it with "apologies to Sir Gus, that seems to be a much more fascinating title." [3]
Produced by Charles Frohman, it ran for 212 performances in New York at the Academy of Music, debuting on August 29, 1895, and was the second longest Broadway production of the year, after The Heart of Maryland . [4] [5] [6] [2] Twenty horses appeared in the race scene. The show closed on February 29, 1896. [7] Then going on tour, the play's first stop was a successful run at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia.
Alan Dale of The New York World reviewed the play for the melodramatic spectacle it was, writing: " 'The Sporting Duchess' absolutely defies criticism, for its materials have been written about for decades. It doesn't contain one gleam of anything that is new, for it is composed principally of the best bits of other melodramas. Everything is there--mortgages, encumbered estates, the wronged lady who can no longer conceal her condition, the sorrowing popper, who clinches his fist and sets his lip as he talks of poor Mary; the devilish adventuress with the devilish cigarette; the impecunious earl, the trained race horses (oh! hang the cable and trolley that have let them loose; if we must have them let it be in sausages), and last, but not least, the villain who goes about ruining pretty ladies just because tradition says that he has got to do so." Yet, he admitted the play was a "handsome spectacle" with a cast that was "the very best that the market can supply in or out of season." [8]
As the play's run stretched into 1896, the Sun noted it was "now the senior play as to continuous use in town. The reason for this long popularity lies about equally in the excellent acting and the realistic scenes, both being far better than the matter of the drama proper." [9]
The play was adapted into silent films of the same name in 1915, starring Rose Coghlan and Ethel Clayton, and in 1920, starring Alice Joyce.
Maude Ewing Adams Kiskadden, known professionally as Maude Adams, was an American actress who achieved her greatest success as the character Peter Pan, first playing the role in the 1905 Broadway production of Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. Adams's personality appealed to a large audience and helped her become the most successful and highest-paid performer of her day, with a yearly income of more than one million dollars during her peak.
Me and My Girl is a musical with music by Noel Gay and its original book and lyrics by Douglas Furber and L. Arthur Rose. The musical is set in the late 1930s and tells the story of an unapologetically unrefined cockney gentleman named Bill Snibson, who learns that he is the 14th heir to the Earl of Hareford. The action is set in Hampshire, Mayfair, and Lambeth.
The Prince of Wales's Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Ascot over a distance of 1 mile 1 furlong and 212 yards, and it is scheduled to take place each year in June.
The King Edward VII Stakes is a Group 2 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old colts and geldings. It is run at Ascot over a distance of 1 mile 3 furlongs and 211 yards, and it is scheduled to take place each year in June.
Agnes Booth, born Marian Agnes Land Rookes, was an Australian-born American actress and in-law of Junius Brutus Booth, Edwin Booth; and arguably the most notable, John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln.
The Catch of the Season is an Edwardian musical comedy by Seymour Hicks and Cosmo Hamilton, with music by Herbert Haines and Evelyn Baker and lyrics by Charles H. Taylor, based on the fairy tale Cinderella. A debutante is engaged to a young aristocrat but loves a page.
Alison Skipworth was an English stage and screen actress.
Ruth Vincent was an English opera singer and actress, best remembered for her performances in soprano roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in the 1890s and her roles in the West End during the first decade of the 20th century, particularly her role as Sophia in Tom Jones.
Huntley Wright was an English stage and film actor, comedian, dancer and singer, best known for creating roles in many important Edwardian musical comedies.
Virginia Earle was an American stage actress remembered for her work in light operas, Edwardian musical comedies and vaudeville over the decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century.
Elizabeth Tyree was an American actress in Broadway theatrical productions beginning in the mid-1890s. Her married name was Elizabeth Tyree Metcalfe. Professionally she was billed as Bess Tyree.
Halma (1892–1909) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 1895 Kentucky Derby. He is best known for being the first Kentucky Derby winner to sire a Kentucky Derby winner.
Cecil Raleigh was the pseudonym of Abraham Cecil Francis Fothergill Rowlands, an English actor and playwright.
The Garrick Theatre was a 910-seat theatre built in 1890 and located on 67 West 35th Street, New York. Designed by Francis Hatch Kimball, it was commissioned by Edward Harrigan, who also managed the theatre, originally named Harrigan's Theatre, until 1895. Richard Mansfield took over from Harrigan, renaming it the Garrick. Charles Frohman assumed management from 1896 until 1915. The Shuberts bought it in 1916 and leased it to Otto Kahn, who named it Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier, after a theatre in Paris of the same name. Kahn later gave it to the Theatre Guild and it resumed the name Garrick Theatre in 1919. The Shuberts resumed management in 1925 and the theatre closed as a playhouse in 1929. After a short run of burlesque, the building was demolished in 1932.
Marie Louise Anna Beaudet was a Canadian actress, singer and dancer for more than 50 years, starred in stage productions ranging from comic opera to Shakespeare, as well as music-hall and vaudeville, and appeared in 66 silent films.
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 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.
La Dame de chez Maxim is a three-act farce by Georges Feydeau, first produced in Paris in 1899. It depicts the complications ensuing when a respectable citizen becomes mixed up with a Moulin Rouge dancer after drinking too much champagne at Maxim's restaurant.
The Sporting Duchess is a lost 1920 American silent drama film directed by George Terwilliger and starring Alice Joyce. It is based on the 1895 play The Sporting Duchess by Henry Hamilton, Cecil Raleigh, and Augustus Thomas. It was produced and released by the Vitagraph Company of America.
The Sporting Duchess is a lost 1915 silent film drama directed by Barry O'Neil and starring Rose Coghlan and Ethel Clayton. It was produced by the Lubin Manufacturing Company.