Victor Herbert: A Theatrical Life

Chapter 13. Act Two: Scene Two

CHAPTER 13 act two: scene two (1906–1912) the red mill Type of work: Musical Comedy Premiere: September 3, 1906 Theater: Star, Buffalo, N.Y. Knickerbocker, New York (September 24, 1906) Cast: (Major Players) ‘‘Con’’ Kidder Fred A. Stone ‘‘Kid’’ Conner David Montgomery Jan Van Borkem Edward Begley Franz Charles Dox Willem David. L. Don Captain Doris Van Damm Joseph M. Ratliff The Governor of Zeeland Neal McCay Joshua Pennefeather Claude Cooper Gretchen Augusta Greenleaf Bertha Alleen Crater Tina Ethel Johnson Countess de la Fere Juliette Dika Major Musical Numbers: ‘‘Mignonette’’; ‘‘The Isle of Our Dreams’’; ‘‘Moonbeams’’; ‘‘The Legend of the Mill’’; ‘‘Every Day Is Ladies’ Day to Me’’; ‘‘Madrigal’’; ‘‘Because You’re You’’; ‘‘The Streets of New York.’’ Plot: Two American vagabonds, stranded in Holland, frustrate the marital ambitions of the Burgomaster and the Governor, and in the process win love and riches for all the juveniles in the cast—and a free trip back home for themselves. Charles Dillingham had an instinct for success. As an assistant to Charles Frohman, he had learned the formula that might lead to winning the Broadway game: hire famous performers, provide them with top-quality 368 material, and frame the whole package with first-class production values. Any one or two of these elements might guarantee a modest success, but for a super-hit all three were essential. The Red Mill is a case in point. It ran for 274 performances on Broadway on its first outing in 1906, and more than doubled that number when it was revived in 1945. It toured, it seemed, forever, and in one form or another it surfaces somewhere almost every season. Whether as a huge extravaganza such as the St. Louis Municipal Opera’s production, featuring an ice-skating ballet with interpolated music (not by Herbert), or in cut-down amateur outings by highschool drama departments, the Mill turns on and on. The stars Dillingham chose for the piece were the comedy duo of David Montgomery and Fred Stone. Their most recent success had been in the first dramatization of The Wizard of Oz, where Montgomery had played the Tin Woodman and Stone the Scarecrow. But before that they had worked together for fifteen years in vaudeville as eccentric cake-walk dancers. Their first big hit was as partners with Edna May in The Girl from Up There, and from that point on they embarked on an international career, a high point of which was a two-year stint in London , capped by a command performance before Edward VII. By 1906 their joint income was said to be ‘‘as large as that of the President of the United States’’1 (the statutory salary, since Teddy Roosevelt took no money for his service). Henry Blossom, who was engaged to create a piece that would showcase the comedians’ special talents, had already collaborated with Herbert on Mlle. Modiste; he was probably Herbert’s best librettist. Glen MacDonough was also gifted, with a talent for fantasy that played to some of Herbert’s strengths, and the ever-ready Harry B. Smith could turn out workmanlike, if uninspired, librettos in his sleep. Blossom was something more; he was a real theater man who knew how to shape a show, and he produced books that were more than excuses to introduce musical numbers . His characters were full-drawn, his situations believable, and the humor of his compositions grew out of the events he created. Of course he could write gags—and did; but they were the tinsel on his tree. The solid structure of the book is characteristic of his librettos. One of Blossom’s letters, written from Paris, where he had gone to seek new material, gives insight into his approach to his job as dramatist. He is responding to a suggestion from a producer that he make an adaptation of his novel Checkers for the stage. a c t t w o : s c e n e t w o 369 40 Avenue Victor Hugo November 27, ’96 My dear Mr. Rhodes— I have your short but interesting communication regarding my alleged dramatization of Checkers—but candour compels me to say that this is the first I have heard of it. I can’t see enough situation and plot in the story to dramatize well and not being familiar with stage lore—business etc.—I doubt if I could make a success of it in any...