April 14 Sunday – With William Dean Howells and Daniel Frohman and 800 children, Sam attended a matinee performance of P&P by The Educational Alliance, Children’s Theatre, N.Y.C. and gave a curtain speech. The New York Times, p.9, “Mark Twain Tells of Being an Actor” reported:
MARK TWAIN TELLS OF BEING AN ACTOR
He Sees His Own “The Prince and the Pauper,” and Relates Story of 22 Years Ago.
——— ——— ———
STAGE SPEECH CUT SHORT
He Managed to Narrate, However,
That Once He Played Miles Hendon—Sees Educational Alliance Show.
Samuel L. Clemens—“Mark Twain”—in his white suit, sat in the audience that witnessed yesterday afternoon the Educational Alliance’s performance of the play made from his book, “The Prince and the Pauper,” in the theatre of the Alliance Building in East Broadway. Beside him was William Dean Howells, and nearby Daniel Frohman, and Miss Clemens. The rest of the audience, some 800 in all, was composed largely of the children of the neighborhood.
After the second act, the curtain was raised to disclose Mr. Clemens in his white suit. He made a speech in which he referred to his own playing of the role of Miles Hendon, and complimented the Alliance on its theatre. He was about to tell a story which he said had been told by his friend Kate Douglas Wiggin, when from the players, looking out at him from the wings and entrances to he set, applause came. Mr. Clemens looked about, puzzled for a moment, when a young woman, entering by the left upper entrance into full view of the audience, went quite close to him and began to talk to him in an undertone.
“I must apologize,” said Mr. Clemens.
Again the young woman said something in a tone not audible to those in front.
Anxious to Tell His Story.
“I only want to tell this story and then I’ll stop,” Mr. Clemens said to her.
After he had told a story about a Negro who had got a marriage license with the wrong woman’s name on it, and had then decided to marry that woman rather than pay two dollars for a new license “as there wasn’t two dollars’ difference between the two women,” he left the stage and the curtain was lowered.
The speech that had been interrupted began in a vein of family reminiscence.
“I have not enjoyed a play so much, so heartily, and so thoroughly,” said the author, “since I played Miles Hendon twenty-two years ago. I used to play in this piece with my children, who, twenty-two years ago, were little youngsters. One of my daughters was the Prince, and a neighbor’s daughter was the Pauper, and the children of other neighbors played other parts. But we never gave such a performance as we have seen here today. It would have been beyond us.
“My late wife was the dramatist and stage manager. Our coachman was the stage manager, second in command. We used to play it in this simple way, and the one who used to bring in the crown on a cushion—he was a little fellow then—is now a clergyman way up high—six or seven feet high—and growing higher all the time. We played it well, but not as well as you see it here, for you see it done by practically trained professionals.
Never Remembered His Part.
“I was especially interested in the scene which we have just had, for Miles Hendon was my part. I did it as well as a person could who never remembered his part. The children all knew their parts. They did not mind if I did not know mine. I could thread a needle nearly as well as the player did whom you saw today. The words of my part I could supply on the spot. The words of the song that Miles Hendon sang here I did not catch. But I was great in that song.”
Theatres Public Education
“If we had forty theaters of this kind in this city of 4,000,000, how they would educate and elevate! We should have a body of educated theater-goers.
“It would make better citizens, honest citizens. One of the best gifts a millionaire could make would be a theater here and a theater there. It would make of you a real Republic, and bring about an educational level.
Then Mr. Clemens went on to quote from a speech of Kate Douglas Wiggin, when he was interrupted.
…. ….
Alice Minnie Herts, in her 1911 reminiscence, recalled the event:
When “The Prince and the Pauper” neared production members of the second, third, and fourth casts who attended rehearsals found the play so interesting that they suggested an invitation be sent to Mr. Clemens, asking him to come and see what had been done to make his story live. An invitation was sent, to which Mr. Clemens responded at once, saying he would come, and asking the privilege of purchasing tickets for several friends, in whose company he attended the first matinee performance.
His deep interest was immediate and unbounded, and, moreover, his broad, sympathetic mind quickly grasped the fact that the play had grown to be only the final expression of the deep, underlying educational principle, which its production adequately enunciated.
After seeing his play he responded enthusiastically to a request of the players to give a special evening performance for his friends, in the hope that some wealthy person or persons might be interested to suitably subsidize this unique and practical method of providing the best means of entertainment for young men, women, and children.
In the hope of playing at this invitation performance, vast numbers of people worked steadily during the summer of 1908 [1907], and the performance was given on the evening of November 19th of that year.
At the termination of the first performance of “The Prince and the Pauper” Mr. William Dean Howells, who accompanied Mr. Clemens to see the play, was asked how he enjoyed it. He replied, “The play behind the footlights was admirably well done, yet I believe I enjoyed the play in front qute as well” [60, 72-3].
Zwick also writes about Clemens and the Children’s Theater:
Mark Twain’s involvement with the Children’s Theater is particularly interesting in relation to his deterministic “private philosophy,” What Is Man? In that work and other shorter writings published in his last ten years, Twain described the roles of “inborn disposition,” “environment,” “influences,” and “training.” Although his writings on those topics have been described as pessimistic and fatalistic, Twain only sw the “inborn disposition” as unchangeable.
In support of the Children’s Theater, he put his “private philosophy” to work by focusing on he “influences” and “training” that might determine which parts of the “inborn disposition” would become dominant [“Mark Twain and the Children’s Theater” http://wenku.baidu.com]. Note: Zwick also states that after seeing this matinee performance, Clemens “offered to organize a benefit performance, and on Nov. 19, 1907, the children performed before an audience of some of the most prominent people of the day.” See Nov. 19 entry.
Alice Minnie Herts wrote on Children’s Theatre Educational Alliance stationery to thank Sam for his visit at their performance of P&P [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Prince & Pauper. Mrs. Sallie for dinner” [MTP TS 53]. Note: “Mrs. Sallie” was Mrs. Collier, perhaps a nickname. See Dec. 5, 1908 Guestbook entry.
J.M. Diven wrote from Peoria, Ill. to Sam after reading of his billiard skills in the NAR Auto. segment. Diven enclosed a diagram for a trick shot and told how he’d been able to beat experts at it [MTP].
Mary Thacher Higginson (Mrs. Thomas Wentworth Higginson) wrote from Cambridge, Mass. to Sam to thank him for her copy of CS with her name written in it. She was sorry they wouldn’t see him in Dublin this summer [MTP].
Julia Langdon Loomis wrote from NYC to thank Sam “for this most delightful and remarkable afternoon. You were very dear to make room for Edward and I. The Hoffmans are very charming and Mr Hoffman is the man of whom I told you a year ago, the young Editor of “Tales,” and a person who would much rather meet you for a half-hour’s talk than go ‘round the world or to Heaven” [MTP].
Note: The National Arbitration and Peace Congress met from Apr. 14 to 17 at Carnegie Hall. Many foreign delegates attended, including C.F. Moberly Bell, manager of the London Times. Sam had expressed little interest in joining world peace movements before (see Vienna entries for Bertha von Suttner, founder of the Austrian Friends of Peace), but he may have attended. No record was found, however; no mention in Miss Lyon’s journal. It was during or shortly after this Congress that the New York Times gave a luncheon for Bell that Sam did attend. It was there that he answered Bell’s query about when he might return to London with the seed that may have led to his honorary Oxford degree: “When Oxford bestows its degree upon me!” [Hill 166].