65. Holiday Show - 2023

© Podcast text copyright - Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved.

Hello Everyone! Welcome to Adventures in Theater History, where we bring you the best stories about the deep and fascinating history of Theater in the city of Philadelphia. I’m your host, Peter Schmitz, and our original theme music is by Christopher Mark Collucci. In fact, you can hear Chris playing his guitar for us right now, in the background. Chris, I’m very happy to report, is deeply engaged in sound designing and composing for multiple present and upcoming productions with Philadelphia theater companies, and I must say that the 2023-24 local theater season has been a particularly strong one, artistically. I’m all done with working on plays and with teaching classes for the Fall semester. All the student papers have been handed in at last, and I have submitted all the grades to the Registrar. So, being at some relative leisure myself, I’ve taken on the sound editing and engineering myself on this episode. But Chris does send along this musical gift for all our enjoyment.

We are - both of us - very pleased that you are able to relax and spend a little time with us, as 2023 draws to a close. It’s been a rough and challenging year in the larger world, and the future looks - well again, challenging - to say the least. We’re not saying you should ignore all that, but in the spirit of the season, once again we bring you a series of short holiday-themed stories from Philadelphia’s theatrical history to give you a respite and a chance to breathe a bit in the air of bygone theatrical seasons and fascinating stage personalities.  

Some of these stories are bitter, and some are quite sweet, and even if not specifically related to religious festivities or New Years’ celebrations, well, they all took place during the months of December and January - all during different eras. Most of these are based on some of the many explorations dealing with Philadelphia theater history that I have researched, written up and shared over social media. I thought I would select some of these vignettes, and then record them, add some wonderful music, and then put a big red ribbon on them and share them with all of you. So here’s the plan: I’ll read them one by one, and I’ll add a little appropriate music to introduce and accompany each story. 

This Holiday Episode really is a thank you to  you - to all our listeners. This past year we’ve gained so many new subscribers and supporters - and made so many new friends. And we have every intention of keeping things going in 2024, as we continue our Season Three about Philadelphia, the Tryout Town. Many of the stories you’ll hear on this episode are linked to that era, and some are from more recent decades, which will be the focus of our eventual Season Four when we intend to cover Philly theater’s modern evolution, if all things go well! And I think they will. So, all you have to do today is settle in, grab a plate of cookies and a cozy beverage, perhaps, and enjoy this journey into the theaters and performers of the past . .  

All set? Okay, here we go:

December 24, 1917: It looked like there wasn’t going to be a Christmas Eve show at the Lyric Theatre on North Broad Street, after all. Hitchy-Koo, the Intimate Revue was canceled.

Hitchy-Koo was named after the 1912 song which had been a staple of vaudeville circuits and dance bands for almost five years at that point. The lyrics were mostly a jumble of baby-talk, but it was one of the first popular songs to have a peppy uptempo ragtime beat that invited people to get up and dance to it, and it sounded good on those new-fangled gramophones everyone was putting in their parlors back then. “Hitchy-Koo” had been a big seller for Columbia Records, in a rendition by the comic duo of Collins and Harlan. Young folks would gather, crank up the record player, and Hitchy-koo together!

In 1917 the popular Broadway actor and producer Raymond Hitchcock judged that the song was also well suited for a large number of pretty chorines to dance to, flouncing around in the skimpiest costumes possible. He bought the rights, and put it in his new show, adding in a bunch of additional songs by the composer E. Ray Goetz, and assembled a cast of performers including the beautiful Irene Bordoni, the Australian comedian Leon Erroll, and other stage favorites. Actress Frances White was given the coquettish number “Have You Seen the Ducks Go By?” in front of a projection screen showing ever-multiplying water-birds. Hitchcock himself appeared in comic sketches, including one in which he parodied the well-known evangelist Billy Sunday, and another about a small town fire chief carrying the tuba in a parade. In addition, because the United States has recently entered the First World War, the show naturally ended with a big patriotic flag-waving number, led by the singer Grace La Rue. And there were lots of pretty girls throughout, billed as “The Orchid Chorus” due to their “fantastic shapes.”

Hitchcock brought out the show out as a summer entertainment at the Cohan and Harris Theatre, and he was greeted with much praise. “Hitchy-Koo, is the most original and most enjoyable of summer shows,” crowed the Brooklyn Citizen. “It is two acts and nineteen scenes. It has often been said that such entertainments have only the semblance of a plot, but Hitchy-Koo has absolutely no plot, no scenes having even the remotest connection with any other. Many of them are spectacular, some are beautiful and all are worth seeing. ‘An intimate revue,’ it is called and it is all of that.” (By which I think the paper meant it had plenty of sex and oomph - the "chorus makes one go dippy!" said the ads in the newspapers.)

After playing to full houses in New York at Hitchcock's own theater all through the Fall of 1917, it was time to take the show on tour, and Philadelphia was the first stop for a lucrative holiday booking. The Lyric Theatre, the premiere local vaudeville house controlled by the Shubert Brothers, was secured. But then the crisis came: there were not enough trains. The wartime restrictions placed upon commercial railroad traffic by the Woodrow Wilson Administration had in fact been slowly strangling Philadelphia commerce all year, and show business was no exception.

Read the ads hastily placed by the Shuberts in the Amusements sections of the papers. ““NOTICE: DUE TO THE SHORTAGE OF BAGGAGE CARS PREVENTING THE ARRIVAL OF THE SCENERY, THE OPENING OF RAYMOND HITCHCOCK CO. in “HITCHY-KOO” HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL TOMORROW, XMAS NIGHT.” Well, disappointed patrons holding tickets had a choice, they could exchange them for a subsequent performance, or they could take them over to another Shubert-controlled theater, the Chestnut Street Opera House, and see a completely different musical revue, Show of Wonders, starring Marilyn Miller, which had yet another chorus of appealing young ladies in flimsy costumes. But if they wanted to see “Hitchy-Koo,” like expectant children all over the city, audiences were told they would have to wait until Christmas.

But then, ladies and gentlemen, the day was saved! Hitchcock was determined not to miss the boat, as it were, or rather the trucks. He hired a whole fleet of them, piled the scenery, props and costumes into them, and sent them off on the icy New Jersey roads through the night to Philadelphia. [HITCHY-KOO Reprise] By Christmas Eve they had arrived on Broad Street, and stagehands loaded everything into the Lyric. So, the Public Ledger could assure the theatergoing public of Philadelphia, “the performances at the Lyric will be given as usual."

Hitchy-Koo, the Intimate Revue played to full houses of delighted Philadelphians all through the holidays of 1917 into the new year of 1918.

December 31, 1934: On New Year's Eve, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, aka The Savoyards, were presenting Gilbert & Sullivan's operetta Iolanthe at the new Forrest Theatre.

It was the British company's first trans-Atlantic tour since the 1880s. Their initial engagement at the Martin Beck Theatre in New York had gone so well that the Shuberts, who were backing their American travels, expanded the tour to include Boston, New Haven, Baltimore and Philadelphia.

The keepers of the Gilbert & Sullivan Savoy Theatre flame had brought almost the entire G&S repertoire with them for their three-week stay. They had opened on Christmas Day with The Gondoliers, and had trotted out the favorites H.M.S. Pinafore, The Mikado, and The Pirates of Penzance. Lesser-known works like Trial by Jury, Cox and Box, and Patience were also to follow. But for the New Year celebration, they brought out Iolanthe, the fanciful story of some denizens of Fairyland who cross over into the mundane world of Victorian London, and fall in love with members of the British legal profession.

The Savoyards’ leading comedian, Martyn Green, sang the role of the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe. As the person who must adjudicate the dispute between the denizens of Fairy Land and the House of Lords, Martyn Green's interpretations of the songs "When I Went to the Bar" and "The Law Is the True Embodiment" were much admired. In fact, Green took on all the major comic male roles during the run, including the Duke in Gondoliers, Ko-Ko in Mikado, Sir Joseph in Pinafore, and the Judge in Trial by Jury. (And of course he was the model of a modern major-general in The Pirates of Penzance.)

Though the run at the Forrest sold very well, the reporter of "The Call Boy's Chat" column in the Philadelphia Inquirer acknowledged that the G&S operettas were not to everyone’s taste. True, they had their devoted fans - indeed Philadelphia had long had its own amateur Savoy Company which regularly produced the British duo's works every Spring. This, of course was the real thing as you could get in terms of dear old G&S. "It isn't merely that the bona fide and original London company now at the Forrest presents the works with the most scrupulous respect for every detail . . and following the original scores . . what counts is the felicity or the fidelity with which they have captured and conveyed the essential spirit" of Gilbert and Sullivan.

December 16, 1977, the musical Timbuktu! had the first preview of its world premiere run at the Shubert Theatre on Broad Street in Philadelphia. Eartha Kitt starred as Shaleem-La-Lume. Also in the cast were William Marshall, Gilbert Price, Melba Moore, and George Bell. Geoffrey Holder, fresh off his recent success with The Wiz, directed, choreographed, and designed the production. 

Timbuktu! was an adaptation of the 1953 Broadway musical Kismet, which in turn was an adaptation of a 1911 play of the same name - Kismet. That show, created during the High Period of American Theater’s devotion to Exotic Locales, had used the music of Russian composer Alexander Borodin, and reset it in medieval Baghdad. Charles Lederer and Luther Davis had re-written that 1911 play, and the lyrics and musical adaptation had been executed by the team of Robert Wright and George Forrest.

Now, Davis, Wright and Forrest were all part of the creative team of Timbuktu!, along with Holder. Instead of putting it in Baghdad, the setting was now the royal court of the Empire of Mali, and portrayed love and intrigue among the elite of the city of Timbuktu. But of course Borodin’s music was not African in origin, and the show still relied upon such hit standards as the hit song "Stranger in Paradise". There was a new song composed just for the show entitled "In the Beginning, Woman", which was written specifically for Kitt to perform in the first act - as she was carried onstage by an enormous strongman.

Timbuktu! had been created as a star vehicle for Eartha Kitt, who was making her American comeback after a decade-long self-imposed exile. (She had mostly stayed in Europe after making controversial remarks about the Vietnam War at the White House in 1968 - and then had been subjected to a government-run smear campaign.)

In a pre-opening interview in Philadelphia, Kitt stated that "the main reason I'm doing this show is because it's a show that [exhibits] the cultural and intellectual side of brown people that had been neglected before."

In an interview taped for a New York City television station, Geofrrey Holder, for his part, gave his own vision of the show. [CLIP NOT TRANSCRIBED]

Singer and actress Melba Moore was also making her return to the stage in Timbuktu!, after her success in the original productions of Hair and Purlie, and she stated in a Philadelphia Inquirer interview that she was flattered to be playing a 15 year-old girl in ancient Timbuktu, and was also proud that "we are going to try and suggest the wealth and glamour of the that city and that time." Looking at photos and videos of the production, I can see that indeed little had been spared - except, maybe, fabric. Many of the costumes for the show were fairly minimal, giving copious opportunities to display the beauty of the male and female cast. 

At the opening night at the Shubert Theatre in Philadelphia, reviewer William Collins reported that Geoffrey Holder made a pre-show curtain speech stating that he knew the show needed some revision and cuts. The reviewer praised Holder's choreography and costumes, but wished that the entire 'trashy' book (his words) of the musical had been discarded. The show was almost three hours long, after all, and he had to leave the theater before the end just to make his deadline. In January, an audience member, Pat Staton of Cherry Hill, wrote a letter to the Editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, stating that he objected to the way that African culture had been "hideously portrayed". "A culture rich in pride, dignity and respect has been grossly distorted into a circus tent of grass-skirted, half-naked freaks".

After further cuts and revisions - it was a tryout, after all - Timbuktu! did finally make it to Broadway in March of 1978, although the actor William Marshall had been replaced in the company by then. It ran at the Ambassador Theatre until September, it did help to revive Eartha Kitt's career, and then went on an extended national tour. 

December 4, 1990: The Arden Theatre Company inaugurated St. Stephen's Alley, their new home on Ludlow St., with a production of their first Holiday show: Appalachian Ebeneezer.

Appalachian Ebeneezer, as the title suggests, was an adaptation of A Christmas Carol to a small-town American setting. The Dickensian tale of a miser's Christmastime reformation was reset in this production into a Kentucky coal-mining community during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Other productions of the play had already been performed at various regional theater companies farther to the west, so the Arden’s production was billed as the "East Coast Premiere."

After its opening night, Philadelphia Daily News reviewer Sara Lomax had been kindly disposed to the show, and wrote: "Employing a multi-racial, multi-talented cast of 15 actors who range in age and experience, 'Appalachian Ebeneezer' uses history and culture as the foundation on which to build this new story. Banjo picking, square dances and harmonized a capella songs complement the historic references to the abuse coal miners suffered under greedy business owners and the violent opposition union organizers encountered during this era."

The Inquirer's critic William Collins, however, was clearly not feeling the holiday spirit after seeing Appalachian Ebeneezer and was not inclined to raise a glass of cheer to the young striving theater company. "Aaron Posner staged the work with a hurried pace that gives the play hardly time to catch his breath," Collins groused. Furthermore he was not much charmed by the whole transformation of the Dickens classic tale of Victorian London to Kentucky. "The ghosts have become 'haints'. A forceful 'Dagnabbit' is the strongest language in use. And townspeople have an alarming tendency to break suddenly into a song or a hoedown.  . . .But the voice is no longer that of Charles Dickens, and he is sorely missed. Minnie Pearl is not a satisfactory substitute." . . . In other words: Bah humbug, dagnabbit!

One year later - December 4, 1991: Adding to the growing number of small independent theaters in Philadelphia, Deborah Baer Mozes founded Theatre Ariel, a company dedicated to performing plays that embodied the "political, cultural, social, and ritual contribution of the Jewish people."

Noting that though many other cities in America already had a theater company dedicated to performing specifically Jewish works, Mozes felt it was time that the Philadelphia area, with its large Jewish population - many of them enthusiastic theater-goers - also had one of its own.

Beginning Theater Ariel’s season of plays presented in the small Studio Three of the Walnut Street Theatre was Dividends, by Gary Richards, a play "about the relationship between a grandson and his grandfather whose dying wish is to be bar mitzvahed." The plays My Reuven and The Rose of Contention were soon to follow.

In the future, noted Mozes in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, she was open to producing a broad spectrum of plays by Jewish playwrights and on Jewish subjects. "I have a catholic vision of what a Jewish theatre is about," she said.

December 1863: Signor Blitz, the magician and ventriloquist, was giving his annual Christmas show, including a display of his Learned Canary Birds, at the Assembly Building at the corner of Tenth and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia. But while Signor Blitz was in residence there, the Assembly building had been rechristened "The Temple of  Wonders."

"Signor Blitz" of course was a stage name, too. It belonged to Antonio van Zandt, who had been born in England in the year 1810, and had trained as a magician in Germany at the age of 13, but spent his life traveling the world - including many tours of Europe, America, and the Caribbean islands.

Van Zandt settled in Philadelphia a few years previously, and he now lived in the cozy and still semi-rural old Germantown neighborhood in the Northwest of Philadelphia. As we can learn from a poster in the collection of The Library Company of Philadelphia, in “Langstroth’s Hall,” a small venue on the second floor of a building on Chelten Ave in Germantown, he regularly performed what he called “Amusements for Young and Old - Mirth, Happiness, and wonder! Children, take your parents to see the  . . Funny  Bitz, the Amusing Blitz, the Remarkable Blitz, the Popular Blitz, the Blitz who Makes All Happy.”  Cost of admission was 25 cents, and for children 13 cents.

In Part One, the poster promised: “Signor Blitz will introduce many New and Startling Deceptions of Thaumaturgy, Ancient Sorcery and Natural Magic. In Part II, see the Celebrated Learned Canary Birds, who will go through their wonderful performance - including The Dying and the Living Bird! A most beautiful Feat, in which a ring, borrowed from a lady, will disappear from the gentlewoman’s hand. A number of eggs will be produced and handed to the company to inspect, which, upon being broken, will be found to contain a living canary, bearing the ring of the woman attached to its beak. The little bird will then astonish the audience by appearing dead, but, by command, it will return to life!”

Signor Blitz also promised his audiences many other wonders, including The Incomprehensible Snuff Box, the Strange Feat with a Handkerchief, Ventriloquism, and the Dance of the Six Dinner Plates on a Common Table - accompanied by Music.

But although such shows were how Antonio Van Zandt made his simple living, during those dark days of the Civil War in 1863, he also made frequent visits as "Signor Blitz" to the wounded Union soldiers in the many military hospitals that were everywhere throughout the city of Philadelphia, to bring some mirth, happiness and wonder to both the patients and the medical staff there. We can see from photographs taken of these otherwise grim hospitals, that during the Christmas season, the wounded Union soldiers and their nurses would try to decorate the wards with garlands and flags to lighten their hearts, as recover from their many grievous injuries. And one way that they would try to forget their troubles was to ask Signor Blitz to come and do his magic shows for them.

In his later published memoirs, Fifty Years in the Magic Circle, Blitz recalled:

"Constantly I was written to, and personally solicited by the surgeon  and his assistants, or the ladies of the committees, for my services. Occasionally some convalescent patient . . would entreat me personally, on behalf of his comrades, to come and amuse them."

"How the poor fellows loved to laugh, and drive away their pains and cares! It certainly appeared of more advantage to them than medical attendance.  . . The most affecting picture I remember was the anxiety to witness my performance at Twenty-third Street Hospital, where two young men, each deprived of both legs, were present, seated in front of my platform, in easy chairs. Their faces were remarkably beautiful, of a feminine character, with a great delicacy of feature and complexion . . . Apparently in the full enjoyment of mirth, they had forgotten their helpless condition. Their countenances beamed with pleasure, and almost inclined me to wish that even I was not less discounted or aggrieved by misfortune incidental to life.”

[MUSIC - Chris Colucci plays - O COME EMMANUEL]

“I also gave three weeks of labor at the Great Sanitary Fair at Logan Square. Men whose limbs had been amputated but a few days, although forbidden by physicians, begged to be dressed, so that they might attend. . . . Generally these appeals triumphed, and they were carried down in chairs, and, after the recreation, were taken back in a happier state of mind, if not in health.” [MUSIC OUT]

One year later - December 1864: The Civil War was not yet over, but Sanford's Minstrels made little reference to it in their own posters for their theater on Arch Street, where they were featuring the tightrope-walking skills of El Nino Eddie, an eight year-old acrobat, who would perform amazing feats high above the stage on a tightrope.

Eddie Rivers made his tightrope debut at the age of eight in Havana, Cuba, where he had earned the sobriquet “El Niño.” Eddie was also an excellent equestrian, we learn. In 1865 the British agent F. Strange brought the then ten-year-old El Nino Eddie to London and to Paris, advertising him as ‘the American Child Wonder.” 

In a full-color advertising card printed in Philadelphia, which is now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, we can see that El Niño Eddie was hailed as being more amazing than the great Charles Blondin - the Frenchman who had wire-walked over Niagara Falls several times, to everyone’s amazement. This print also shows Nino Eddie walking across the Niagara River, although it’s not clear that Eddie Rivers ever actually did so.

After returning from Europe in the late 1860s, Eddie Rivers kept performing under the name “El Nino Eddie” in various variety shows and circuses for the rest of his career. 

He often performed as a featured act in minstrel shows - which as we mentioned in an earlier episode was a major showplace of all sorts of variety entertainments, even those not working in blackface. But later, as vaudeville theaters became a thriving business in America, he began working in the Keith-Albee circuit. In 1893, now forty years old, he appeared at Keith’s Bijou on Arch Street in Philadelphia, and then he stayed in the city to work a summer gig at Riverside Mansion along the Schuylkill River. On December 31st, 1893 El Nino Eddie was advertised as giving a 12:15 am show at the Star Theatre near Franklin Square in the Tenderloin neighborhood. (New Year's Eve falling on a Sunday that year, it was illegal to present any public entertainment in Philadelphia until after midnight. But the demands of showbiz being remorseless, El Nino Eddie was also required to give an 8:30 am show on New Year’s Day.)

Looking at the archives we can see that as late as 1907 “El Nino Eddie” was touring the Caribbean again, as he had in his actual childhood, with an American circus company. But after he and the rest of the company nearly fell victim to an earthquake in Jamaica, he seems to have finally realized it was time to hang up his tightrope and retire. Eddie Rivers died in 1923, at a home for aged variety performers in Amityville, New York, at the age of 70.

Eddie’s passing prompted Charles Mallory Elmore to write a letter of commemoration which was published in the Hartford Courant. “I remember him first in L.B. Lent’s New York Circus in 1867-68, when he was a handsome, curly-headed lad in his teens, shortly after his return from London and Paris, where he had met with success that was almost phenomenal. His performance at that time was so far above others in the same line that he stood unique in circus-dom. In absolute grace, finish and skill he was supreme in his art.  . . All who saw El Nino Eddie in his prime affirm that he was a wonder.”

And speaking of the Caribbean islands, and El Niño, at last we come to our final holiday story. In our most recent episode we spoke of W.C. Fields’ childhood in some of the more rough neighborhoods of late 19th Century North Philadelphia. Nowadays, that area has become the core Philadelphia community for people whose families originally come from Spanish-speaking Caribbean cultures, including the American territory of Puerto Rico. This last tale does not feature a professional theater at all, in fact, but rather a small elementary school stage, on the day of an important festival. I’m adapting this story slightly, from how it was originally reported by staff writer Yvette Ousley in the Philadelphia Daily News - but I thank her for her work, because it brings to life an aspect of the modern city of Philadelphia we have hardly covered in the podcast, so far. But now, you know - it’s time.

January 6, 2000: Fourth-grader Alex Guzman beamed with excitement as the Three Kings made their way toward the stage at Bayard Taylor Elementary School. The best part, said Alex, age 9, was when the three kings - led by a band playing a Puertorriqueno folk song - began dancing with the audience.

The three wise men - actually two teachers and a non-teaching assistant wearing robes and crowns - were making their annual visit to Taylor Elementary to help celebrate El Dia de los Tres Reyes Magos, or Three Kings Day, the Feast of the Epiphany - the big gift-giving day on the Puerto Rican calendar.

El Día de los Reyes is a state holiday in Puerto Rico. On the eve of the celebration, stores in San Juan and Ponce stay open late so that parents can buy toys. The children there, meanwhile, place shoe boxes filled with grass under their beds. The grass is supposed to become food for the camels that have carried the three wise men across the desert to Bethlehem. In the morning, children wake to discover that the grass is gone, miraculously replaced by toys and other gifts.

The holiday is traditionally marked by food, music, dancing and camaraderie with family and friends. And the celebration at Taylor Elementary was no exception. 

As the band - Los Pleneros del Batey, led by musician Joaquin Rivera - played “Alegra Yendo de la Montaña” more than 700 kindergarten through fourth-grade pupils and teachers were in a festive mood. The principal of the school Karen Kolsky and many special guests - including City Councilman David Ortiz - joined in, dancing and singing together in the aisles, or playing the bongos, maracas, claves or guiro alongside the band. Jenny Rodriguez, another fourth grader, sang along, and even joined in American sign language to lyrics the children had all learned.

 “Happy I come from the mountains, from my cheerful cabin./And to my friends I bring the best flowers of my rosebush.”

The presence of the band and the Three Kings culminated an hour-long program marked by performances by some 300 Taylor Elementary students, singing traditional Christmas songs and Puerto Rican folk songs in English and Spanish. Principal Kolsky presented the children with gifts of books and stars, to symbolize how they shine in the community. 

Later the three kings, Gaspar, Melchior, and Baltazar, followed the band out the door of the school, to join a singing parade throughout the streets of El Barrio, going from door to door to spread the Good News of the Great Day.

And that’s our 2023 Holiday show! If you enjoyed all our stories here about the history of theater and performance and fiestas in the city of Philadelphia, please check out our daily social media posts on Facebook, Instagram, and Mastodon. And if you want, maybe consider sending a little love and financial support our way on Patreon (the links for all of those are in the show notes). That would be a lovely late holiday gift for someone you want to share the fun with, to let them know that there are all sorts of extra benefits and bonus episodes waiting there for them, if you do. 

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Most of all, please join us again in a few weeks time, when we will continue our Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia.

© Podcast text copyright - Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved.