Walls of Historic Playhouse Preserved
As 7th and Broad Building Is Remodeled
Many Actors High in Annals of American Stage Appeared There
by Bruce Chesterman
For the second time, the backstage wall of what was the old Richmond Theatre on the southeast corner of Seventh and Broad has escaped ruthless hands. Still standing is the wall which has echoed to the voice of Edwin Booth, John McCullough, Edwin Forest, Lawrence Barrett, Joe Jefferson, Charlotte Cushman and a score of others whose names are foremost in the annals of the American stage.
Twice have workmen, with all sentiment cast to the winds, attacked the walls of the historic playhouse which rose in the midst of the Civil War from the ruins of the Marshall Theatre--the first time to tear down its front and side walls when the theatre was converted into a store building forty years ago, and again within the past few weeks when the Greentree store made extensive alterations, the work on which is now nearing completion.
(Editorial note: The old historic backstage wall of the Richmond Theatre and that entire city square block from 7th and Broad Street to 8th and Grace Street was torn down in July 2004, to build a Federal Court House Building. The 7th and Grace Street YMCA building was demolished as well as the (parking lot) site of the old Capitol Hotel at 8th and Grace Street. ) The buildings that occupied the site of the old Murphy Hotel were demolished by S.B. Cox Demolition Co.)
This writer, who made his first advent upon the scene a decade after the Civil War, or War Between the States, as it is now called, first passed through the portals of the Richmond Theatre at the rather youthful age of 5, and from then until the building was torn down, when he was assigned to write its "obituary," he may be said to have been a "constant visitor." At the still youthful age of 12 he had elbowed his way back stage, having gained access to that realm on the other side of the footlights by reason of a friendship with Squire Lonnie Graves, who lived across the street from him. This was in the days when the theatre was illuminated with gas, and the stage was heated by a big stove close to this same back wall. The players would gather around the stove on very cold nights while they were awaiting their cue.
Important on Theatrical Map
The history of the American stage is closely interwoven with the Richmond Theatre, for in war-time days, and for nearly a score of years after the war, Richmond was an important city on the theatrical map. There is no one living here today whose work made him a part of this life in Richmond's theatrical history in the days prior to the Civil War, during that struggle, and just following it. There are no actual witnesses to the scenes that occurred "behind the scenes," no one was brought in contact with the greatest actors the English speaking stage has ever known.
That which is here related came to me from the lips of the two men who knew the stage of that period, had worked upon it in their youth, and had then grown old in another generation. They were Peter Jackson, who, if he were living today, would be 115 years old, and Squire Lonnie Graves, who was younger, but still a veteran.
The storehouse of theatrical lore of a bygone age, which was meat and drink to Lonnie Graves, had been imparted to me since early boyhood. When too young to be allowed to return home at night alone, following a performance at the Richmond Theatre, I was told to go back stage and wait for Lonnie Graves to escort me back to the paternal roof.
Peter Jackson, who was a familiar figure to the veteran theatre-goer of Richmond a generation ago, began his long years of service in the playhouses of Richmond in 1853 at the Marshall Theatre, where he was employed as stage carpenter, and later was made "captain of the supers," which in the old stock days meant that he had to play small parts, or "bits," as they are called in the vernacular of the stage, a part perhaps with two or three "sides," (pages of the manuscript).
For thirteen years, Peter Jackson played these small parts with members of the stock companies in Richmond, supporting the greatest stars of the American stage. When the Marshall Theatre was destroyed by fire in 1860, the company gave its performances in the "Varieties," a theatre on East Franklin Street, near the Exchange Hotel, and this was its home until the "new" Richmond Theatre was built upon the site of the old Marshall. The new theatre opened in 1863 with "As You Like It" the bill. In the cast at the opening were D'Orsey Ogden, Charles Morton, Ida Vernon, Ella Wrenn (mother of Eugenia Blair), and Sallie Partington, who was known throughout the war as the "Soldiers' Sweetheart." Booth, McCullough, Boniface, Jefferson and Florence were among the stars Peter Jackson played with in the supporting stock company.
There are few living in Richmond today, however, who remember Peter Jackson in those thirteen years of his life when he played minor parts in support of actors whose names are the most brilliant in the history of the American stage, for in 1867 he passed out of the stage door, never again to enter it as a workman, and went on the "front" of the house, where he was destined to take the tickets of Richmond theatre-goers for twenty-eight years. When the Richmond Theatre was torn down he was transferred to the door of the Academy of Music.
But Peter Jackson, whom I had known from my earnest recollection until he died, told me that he could never feel at home on the door of the academy, though his duties were the same. He continued at his post at the academy for nearly five years. Then he came home one Saturday night, "just tired," he said, and his days at the theater were over. He had reached his span of life, and quietly awaited the last call, which soon came.
Becomes Stage Carpenter
Lonnie Graves, or Squire Graves as he was always called, spent the greater part of his life in work at Richmond playhouses, for he started at the early age of 13, when in 1867 he became assistant property boy at the Richmond Theater, and when he had added a little to his stature became the full-fledged property man. In a few years he was given the more important position of stage carpenter. He spent four years on the road in the same capacity, when he traveled with the companies of the great Charlotte Cushman, Kate Claxton, Edwin Adams and Fawcett Rowe.
He became stage manager at the Academy of Music in 1889. But as the years crept on him he was relieved of his work back-stage, and became the doorkeeper of the house.
Squire Graves did not play as many parts as Peter Jackson, but he often had to go on in some minor role in the days of Mrs. Powell's stock company at the Richmond Theater, and he told me a number of times of the very first chance he had to act. This was when he was given the part of the second murderer when the company supported E.L. Davenport in "Macbeth."
Frederick Warde, who in after years became Richmond's favorite Shakespearean actor, appearing here almost every season for a quarter of a century, was first seen here in the support of Edwin Booth when the great tragedian played a week's engagement at the Richmond Theater in 1876, opening in "Hamlet" and closing with "Henry VIII."
Warde for many years was associated with Louis James, the combination being Warde and James, but Warde was far the more popular of the two, and drew just as large audiences in Richmond when he made his appearances without the support of James. The engagement of Warde here was looked forward to annually by theater-goers a generation ago as one of the theatrical events of the season.
Frederick Warde had about him the real spirit of the trouper, and when the familiar old legitimate houses began to flash the names of movie stars, or their walls made room for filling stations or garages, while other actors of the old school sighed for the "road that was dead," Warde, then past the allotted three score and ten, being in his 77th year, went on lecturing tours throughout the country, appearing in college towns, many of which he would have dubbed as "tanks" in the days of his fame. And he chose for his territory the old South, his tour carrying him through the States of Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas.
Talks of Southern Tour
Speaking of this tour, he said: "A few nights ago I was sleeping on a corn-shuck mattress. There was a broken pane of glass in the single window which rattled back and forth all night. When I went down to breakfast they offered me pork. Then I went forty miles over muddy roads, precarious bridges, through woods and up and down hills in a car of exceeding ancient vintage. I finally got to the little college where I was to give my lecture. Then on, under similar conditions, to another little college."
Frederick Warde died at the home of one of his daughters in New York (Brooklyn) Feb. 7, 1935, in the eighty-fourth year of his age.
No one living in Richmond, man or woman at the time I last talked with Lonnie Graves, had seen as many famous players, as many of the greatest impersonations of the American stage, or as many notable productions, as had this veteran of fifty years' service in the theatre. And when he died, there was no one left in Richmond, and few throughout this country, who could speak with the authority of an actual witness of all of these performances.
The greatest impersonations Lonnie Graves had seen in his whole experience, he told me, were as follows: Edwin Forrest as Virginius; Edwin Booth as Hamlet; Joseph Jefferson as Rip Van Winkle; the elder Salvini as Othello; C.W. Couldock as Luke Fielding; J.W. Wallack as Fagin; Charlotte Cushman as Meg Marriles; Mary Anderson as Parthenia; Madame Janauscheck as Mary Stuart; Mrs. D.B. Bowners as Lady Audley, and Sarah Bernhardt as Camille.
Speaking of notable engagements, Squire Graves said that in the season of 1871-'72, Madam Janauscheck gave seven performances at the Richmond Theatre, the receipts being $9,000. She opened Monday night in "Mary Stuart," and closed Saturday evening with "A Winter's Tale." Edwin Booth in the season of 1876 played a week, opening in "Hamlet" and closing with "Henry VIII." Edwin Forrest played a tremendous week's business in October, 1870, closing his engagement by presenting "Damon and Pythias" for the benefit of the Knights of Pythias in Richmond. This was Forrest's last appearance in Richmond. He died at his home in Philadelphia, Dec. 12, 1872.
Frank Mayo first presented "Davy Crockett" here during the season of 1873-'74, being supported by Rose Rand. In 1869 occurred one of the most remarkable engagements in the annals of the theatre in Richmond. The Chappman Sisters and C.B. Bishop, under the management of John T. Ford, played here three weeks, to splendid business during the entire engagement. The largest business ever done by Mrs. Powell's stock company was the second week of the engagement of Frank Chanfrau, when he put on "Kit, the Arkansas Traveler."
Names Famous Artists
In mentioning the first appearance in Richmond of famous artists, and those who afterward became famous, Squire Graves said that Sol Smith Russell was first seen here in 1869, appearing with the Berger Family of Bell Ringers, with which organization he did a monologue "turn." William H. Crane made his first appearance in Richmond in the early seventies, when he was with Alice Oates, presenting operas, among which was "The Grand Duchess." Mary Anderson was first seen here as a star in the early eighties, when she played under the management of John T. Ford. Kate Claxton first appeared in Richmond in 1877, presenting the play in which she became famous, "The Two Orphans." Ristori appeared here in the sixties; Salvina, the elder, in the seventies, and Rossi in the eighties. George L. Fox, of "Humpty Dumpty" fame, dear to every child's heart, first appeared here in the seventies.
It may surprise the Richmond lovers of "Pinafore," which is held to be one of the most popular operas ever sung, to know that when it was first produced herein 1878, when it was presented by the Hollman Opera Company, it proved a failure. "Mascot" was first sung here in the eighties by the Fayette-Templeton Company.
Vivid Recollections
I myself have most vivid recollections of the old Richmond Theatre, as, of course, many have here whose theatre-going dates back forty years. And my own attendance at the theatre began quite some years before that, as it started when my mother, a great lover of the theatre, as was also my father, took me with her to matinees when I was not more than 5 years old. While I have impressions of the theatre itself at that early age, I cannot recall the names of the first plays I saw. The very first one I recall was a "giant," who as a group of children climbed upon him, sang, "I Feel So Awful Jolly I could Eat You Every One." My recollection of that was so hazy that not even Squire Graves could enlighten me when I tried to definitely place it in after years.
My first acquaintance with Peter Jackson began at this time, when in passing him on the door with my mother, he would say to me, "now be good." Very young children were not barred from the theatre then, on account of the likelihood that they would disturb the performance, as they were in later years. My mother often recalled a performance of Mary Anderson when a crying child so disturbed the great actress that she stopped in her lines, and said: "Now what can I do to quiet that child." The mother, with her infant, immediately left the theatre and the play proceeded.
I have a distinct recollection when the lower floor of the Richmond Theatre was not the fashionable part of the house, and was known as the "pit." It was occupied mostly by men, the highest priced seats being in the first gallery then called the "dress circle." It was in the dress circle that as a boy I heard most of the operas of the Boston Ideal Opera Company, the most popular opera organization ever to appear in Richmond.
Used Newspaper Passes
I always had the best seats because they were newspaper passes. At a later period the lower floor, then called the orchestra, was the fashionable part of the house, and the most desirable seats in it were in the "horseshoe circle," which was slightly elevated, affording a better view than the rows in front of it, from which it was separated by a red plush railing.. The theater had three galleries, known as the dress circle -- it always retained that name -- the peanut gallery as the "bubbards' roost." In the peanut gallery were to be found the typical "gallery gods." Each of these three galleries extended the entire length of the auditorium, that the seats at the proscenium end were almost as good as balcony seats, except that they were not exclusive. The galleries made a complete semi-circle of the house. Mrs. Powell had her living quarters on the Broad Street side of the theatre in back of the second gallery. She only had to open her door to get a view of the stage. I thought at the time, as a 12-year old boy, that was a wonderful place in which to live.
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