The County Chairman (play)

The County Chairman is a 1903 comedy play by George Ade, which was one of his greatest successes. Produced by Henry W. Savage, it played for 222 performances on Broadway at Wallack's Theatre. It was also adapted to film in 1914 and 1935.

The County Chairman
Maclyn Arbuckle as Hon. Jim Hackler in the play (circa 1904)
Written byGeorge Ade
Date premiered24 November 1903 (Broadway)
Place premieredWallack's Theatre
Original languageEnglish
GenreComedy

Play

The County Chairman was Ade's first attempt at non-musical comedy. The play was first performed at the Auditorium in South Bend, Indiana, on August 29, 1903, and also played for a number of weeks at the Studebaker Theatre in Chicago.[1] It opened on Broadway on Tuesday, November 24, 1903, and played for 222 performances. The reviews of the play were also positive.[2] Maclyn Arbuckle, playing the local politician Jim Hackler, starred both on Broadway and on the road, playing the role for four years.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Reviewers also praised Willis P. Sweatnam's blackface role. Sweatnam was an old minstrel performer who Ade worked into the play after finding he had fallen on hard times.[12] (Black actor Stepin Fetchit played the former blackface role in the 1935 film.)

The play closed for the season at Wallack's on June 4, 1904, but returned for 44 more performances in the fall before going on the road.[12] It was also revived in 1936 for eight performances at the National Theatre, with Charles Coburn playing Hackler, but did not draw large audiences.

Ade later recounted that he took the names of many of play's characters from a list of tax delinquents posted in the courthouse of Vicksburg, Mississippi, a "grand roster of good old Anglo-Saxon names" which fit the "undiluted American 'types' to be found in Antioch", the location of the play.[12]

The County Chairman was included in Burns Mantle's Best Plays of 1899-1909 volume published in 1944.[13]

A study of Ade's work published in 1964 concluded that The County Chairman had been "largely ignored in histories of American drama," despite being "the worthiest of Ade's plays."[12]

Original Broadway cast
Anna Buckley in the role of Chick Elzey
  • The Honorable Jim Hackler ... Maclyn Arbuckle
  • Tillford Wheeler ... Earle Browne
  • Elias Rigby ... Charles Fisher
  • Riley Cleaver ... Fred Bock
  • Wilson Prewitt ... Harry Holman
  • Jupiter Pettaway ... George Ricketts
  • Sassafras Livingston ... Willis P. Sweatnam
  • Jefferson Briscoe ... Edward Chapman
  • Uncle Eck Millbury ... W.J. Gross
  • Vance Jimmison ... J. Sydney Macy
  • Joe Whittaker ... E.R. Phillips
  • Cal Barcus ... Claude C. Boyer
  • "Chub" Tolliver ... Fred Santley
  • Amos Whitney ... Roy Richards
  • Clabe Overton ... Howard Cuyler
  • Dawson Montgomery ... John J. Meehan
  • Lucy Rigby ... Miriam Nesbitt
  • Mrs. Elias Rigby ... Christine Blessing
  • Mrs. Jefferson Briscoe ... Rose Beaudet
  • Lorena Watkins ... Grace Fisher
  • "Chick" Elzey ... Anna Buckley
  • Tilly .... Nina Ainscoe[2]

Adaptations

The play first adapted to a film of the same name in 1914, with Arbuckle and Sweatnam returning to their original roles. It was again adapted to film in 1935.

gollark: Responsible disclosure is, again, a thing.
gollark: People who generally care about things being secure and other people knowing things which might be helpful to them, I suppose.
gollark: You mean?
gollark: Realistically I am unlikely to convince Palaiologos (that is quite hard to type somehow) but I think highlighting the Ominosity™ is important.
gollark: But I agree with them, you see.

References
  1. Playbill (October 1903)
  2. (5 December 1903. Wallack's, New York Clipper
  3. Hischak, Thomas S. Enter the Players: New York Stage Actors in the Twentieth Century, p. 11 (2003)
  4. Burt, Daniel S. The Chronology of American Literature, p. 307 (2004)
  5. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre, p. 151 (2004)
  6. (22 November 1903) People of Stageland, New-York Tribune (photograph of Maclyn Arbuckle as Hon. Jim Hackler)
  7. (25 November 1903). 'County Chairman' Carries the City, Evening World
  8. (26 November 1903). Gossip of Theatre Land, The Sun
  9. (25 November 1903). The County Chairman A Hit, The Sun
  10. (25 November 1903). George Ade in Comedy, The New York Times
  11. (1 September 1903). George Ade's New Play, The New York Times
  12. Coyle, Lee. George Ade: A Critical Study, p. 70 (1964)
  13. Mantle, Burns & Garrison P. Sherman, Best Plays of 1899-1909 (1944)
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