The Unreported Miracle of Paul Robeson and The Miracle

{ 73 } \ The Unreported Miracle of Paul Robeson and The Miracle —Felicia Hardison Londré Miracles are not easily pinned down. What some see as a miracle, others consider mere coincidence. Granted, no violation of the laws of nature complicates the following chain of events from a religious spectacle in 1926 to a momentous moment for African Ameri­ can civil rights in 1942. Yet there is a miracle in it. The Miracle that we can all agree actually happened is the Austrian director Max Reinhardt’s production of a spectacular pantomimic drama about a young nun who goes astray but is redeemed through a miraculous intervention. With music by Engelbert Humperdinck and a scenario by Karl Vollmoeller, The Miracle premiered in 1911 at London’s huge Olympia, which Reinhardt and designer Ernst Stern converted into a cathedral seating eight thousand spectators. Over the next six years,Reinhardt staged The Miracle in sixteen cities:­Vienna in 1912; Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Elberfeld, Breslau, Cologne, Prague, and Frankfurt am Main in 1913; Karlsruhe and Hamburg in 1914; and Stockholm, Göteborg , Malmö, Hälsingborg, and Bucharest in 1917. World War I stymied Ameri­ can arts philanthropist Otto H. Kahn in his initial efforts to get an Ameri­ can production of The Miracle, but it finally happened in New York in 1924. Its 298 performances at the Century Theatre, from January to November, surpassed the combined total for all the European productions . Before the New York Miracle closed, Cleveland arranged for a three-­ week engagement over Christmas 1924. Other cities picked up on the idea, which impresario Morris Gest readily facilitated—to his personal profit of two million dollars.1 The extraordinary cost of transporting forty boxcars of scenery and equipment, transforming a public auditorium into a cathedral, arranging accommodations for the enormous cast, and rehearsing local extras meant that { 74 } Felicia Hardison Londré only cities large enough to guarantee a minimum run of three weeks could book the spectacle. The Miracle played twelve Ameri­ can cities during the five years following its New York success. During those five years, the great African Ameri­ can actor-­ singer Paul Robe­ son was rising to prominence. He performed in two plays by Eugene O’Neill, The Emperor Jones and All God’s Chillun Got Wings, in 1924. In 1925 he began giving concert performances with accompanist Lawrence Brown, and he gained the patronage of Otto Kahn. Despite being refused lodging in hotels and service in restaurants,2 Robeson persevered to achieve his first European concert tour and, in November 1929, a sell-­ out concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall. There is no indication that Robeson ever saw The Miracle. The fact that Kahn boosted both Reinhardt’s Miracle and Robeson’s career is irrelevant to the quasi-­ miraculous happenstance of timing that would give rise to an incident of lasting impact. When Robeson famously interrupted his own concert in Kansas City, Missouri, on February 17, 1942, to speak out against the segregated seating of blacks and whites in the audience, the ensuing national coverage not only contributed to curbing racial determinants in seating policies but also gave blacks a powerful example of how to take a reasoned stand on issues that mattered.3 The origins of that galvanizing moment in 1942 might be traced back to 1926, when The Miracle played Kansas City. Although the cast of The Miracle lacked racial diversity, the production certainly stands as a monument to multiethnic, multinational artistic endeavor. The internationally acclaimed Viennese “genius” director, Max Reinhardt, his Polish assistant, Rudolf Kommer, his Ameri­ can presenter, Morris Gest, and his Maecenas, Otto Kahn, were Jewish, while the story of The Miracle, which begins and ends in a cathedral, is grounded in Catholicism.“The Catholic Church should thank Max Reinhardt for the propaganda” was a comment reported after the London production. The scenario, supposedly based upon a Rhine legend, evoked comparisons to the Oberammergau Passion Play.4 A more obvious source would be the Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck’s play Sister Beatrice, which had premiered in Berlin in 1901, when Reinhardt was working there. Maeterlinck’s Sister Beatrice and Reinhardt’s The Miracle employ the same plot devices, notably, the nun who leaves...