68 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



not hesitate to start out with the piece, or at least with an entertainment 

 bearing the name, and earn good money in the prurient back counties of 

 the Mississippi Valley. But what was all the original hue and cry 

 about ? In what did the wickedness of this play consist ? Simply in 

 the fact that The Black Crook introduced the ballet for the first time 

 on the American stage. It should here be stated that the dancing was 

 of the highest degree of excellence. The poetry of motion had never 

 been realized so completely before, as in these bewildering Hungarian 

 ballets. No manager since has surpassed the Kiralfy Brothers in the 

 beauty of the stage setting. The objection to The Black Crook in 

 the sixties was to the short skirts and tights, an objection seldom 

 raised nowadays. Indeed in many a modern musical comedy the 

 hardened theater-goer often sees vulgar dancing, which makes the 

 old ballet divertissement of The Black Crook seem like a lesson in 

 deportment. 



During the eighties in New York Daly's Theater was the favorite 

 resort of people of taste. Augustin Daly, though famous as a producer 

 of Shakespeare and the poetic drama, nevertheless achieved permanent 

 fame by his presentations of wholesome German farce comedies. For 

 many of his most successful plays he was indebted to Franz von 

 Schonthan (1849-). Owing to his complete change of title and scene 

 in many instances, it is difficult to learn from an American theater 

 program, what the original name of the play was, from which Mr. Daly 

 made his adaptation. But in the palmy days of John Drew, Ada Rehan, 

 James Lewis and Mrs. Gilbert, some of Schonthan's plays were given 

 very delightful productions, especially The Lottery of Love, An Inter- 

 national Match, and A Night Off. The last named seems to have won 

 a permanent place in the repertory of stock companies throughout 

 the country. 



Shortly before the advent of Schonthan, a dramatist held sway, whose 

 work ranks high in the realm of comedy, Gustav von Moser (1825-1903.) 

 He is known to us through The Private Secretary (1878), a hilarious 

 farce, adapted to our stage in 1882 by Mr. William Gillette, who played 

 the title role and came prominently into notice at that time. This play 

 too has been given by many stock companies with great success. 



