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While Sam had been away in San Francisco [May to July of 1863], the impresario Tom Maguire, a former cab driver and gambler, had built a sixteen-hundred-seat theater on D Street near Union in Virginia City patterned after his opulent opera house in San Francisco, and it was routinely crowded with folks eager to see such popular local favorites as Lotta Crabtree, Julia Dean Hayne, and Frank Mayo. Maguire reserved the front row, the ‘printers’ pew,” for reporters, and Mayo was so friendly with the staff of the Enterprise that he later claimed he based “all that is quaint and humorous” in his leading role in Frank H. Murdoch’s frontier melodrama Davy Crockett (1873) on Sam and “all that is sweet, wholesome, and lovable” in the role on Joe Goodman.
The Life of Mark Twain: The Early Years, 1835-1871 page 199
When Maguire's Opera House first opened, in July 1863, Maguire and his representatives sought to cement good relations with the leading Virginia City newspaper, the Enterprise. Joseph Goodman, its editor, was awarded poster and program printing, generous advertising, and a permanently reserved row of seats in the Opera House for the exclusive use of his staff. All was merry, and the quips of the reporters only added to public interest in the fine new theatre. Often the three carefree reporters attended a show en bloc, competing for the honor of reviewing it, or selecting the high points of each man's criticism for one splendid comprehensive article.
When Adah Isaacs Menken was announced at the local Opera House, in March of 1864, Virginia City was eager and boisterous in its desire to view the “naked lady” who had enjoyed such wide publicity and comment in San Francisco. But Goodman, Dan de Quille, and Mark Twain turned capricious: they decided that The Menken was fair game for their best humor, and were determined to take her down several pegs.
Then The Menken appeared at the Opera House and completely captivated her avowed persecutors. Joseph Goodman, as superior in command, preempted the happy task of rhapsodizing over her charms, and the review of her opening performance rang with effusive praise.
Instead of pleasing the Opera House players, this procedure seems to have aroused a certain resentment, which might have sprung from suspicion of a deep irony or even from jealousy. For, after the fashion of the times, the actors took it upon themselves to refer rather familiarly to Goodman and his enthusiastic review in ad lib “gags”—the bane and the delight of the theatre in that day. Angered in turn, the Enterprise reporters demanded a public apology from Charles Graves, Maguire’s manager. The Menken, too, was incensed and, upon Graves’ refusal to comply, she disappointed a huge audience by declining to play with the supporting troupe. The next night, relenting, she is said to have been rewarded by an effusive paean from the pen of Mark Twain. Her engagement ran on, triumphantly, but at its close Graves resorted to punitive measures in an attempt to get the Enterprise in hand—withdrew from that newspaper all printing, advertising, and complimentary theatre tickets.
A feud developed; the Enterprise reporters ignored all activities at the Opera House, except when an opportunity for ridicule seemed to open. The occasional reviews of productions which the critics deigned to attend (and pay to see) were caustic to the point of cruelty, and Virginia City appearances were soon anticipated with fear and trembling by Maguire’s actors. Such stars as Fanny Brown, George Pauncefort, Walter Montgomery, and Emily Thorne turned tail before the storm of abuse dealt them by the Enterprise, and finally the theatre had to be closed. Eventually Graves was transferred by Maguire to less troubled waters and the required apology to the newspaper was forthcoming, But Maguire and the Opera House had suffered financially and in dignity.
For many weeks the house was almost continuously dark. Finally Maguire relinquished it to Max Walter, whose local Music Hall had been destroyed by fire in September 1866. In the early spring of 1867 Maguire sold the fine Virginia City theatre to John Piper for a sum reported “not exceeding $2,500, and this, we believe, to satisfy attachments and mortgages.”"
The disaster may have been hastened by other factors in addition to the caprice of the Enterprise staff; but the sequence has a dramatic character not more amazing than others in the “Napoleon’s” career.
Twain later wrote a note about Menken from New York, May 17th, 1867 (San Francisco Alta California, June 16, 1867). Also found in The Twainian Vol 43 No 4, 1984)
THE MENKEN
A newspaper friend has been showing me some photographs, taken in Paris, of Alexandre Dumas, the novelist, and Adah Isaacs Menken, the poor woman who has got so much money, but not any clothes. In one of them Dumas is sitting down, with head thrown back, and great, gross face, rippled with smiles, and Adah is leaning on his shoulder, and just beaming on him like a moon - beaming on him with the expression of a moon that is no better than it ought to be. In another picture, the eminent mulatto is in his shirt-sleeves, and Adah has her head on his breast, and arms clasping his neck, and this time she is beaming up at him - beaming up at him in a way which is destructive of all moral principle. On the backs of these photographs is written, in French:
"To my dearest love,
"A. DUMAS."
And Menken's note accompanying the pictures betrays that she is extravagantly well pleased with the photographer for publishing and selling thousands and thousands of these pictures to the Parisian public. She knows the value of keeping herself before the world in new and startling situations.
Somehow I begin to regard Menken's conduct as questionable, occasionally. She has a passion for connecting herself with distinguished people, and then discarding them as soon as the world has grown reconciled to the novelty of it and stopped talking about it. Heenan suited her caprice well enough for a while, and then he had to vacate; the same was Orpheus C. Kerr's experience; and the same was the Davenport Brother's; and the same was the experience of some less notorious favorites of hers. And now comes the great Mulatto in the Iron Mask, and he is high chief for the present. But can he hold his position against all comers? Would he stand any chance against a real live gorilla from the wilds of Africa? I don't know. Menken is mighty shaky. Menken can't resist a splendid new astonisher. Menken is a good hearted, free-handed, charitable soul - a woman who does white deeds enough, kindly Christian deeds enough, every day of her life to blot out a swarming multitude of sins; but, Heaven help us, what desperate chances she takes on her reputation!
The latest news is that Dumas is prosecuting the photographer for publishing those pictures, but may be that is only a regular part of the sensation programme. These photographs are to be reproduced here.