La Belle Russe

Maude Adams was billed as "La Petite Maude"

One of the critics really blasted the play, saying nothing good about it at all except for Maude Adams.

In the story there are twin sisters, one of which is good and one of which is bad. The good one marries and English nobleman but the marriage is opposed by the nobleman's mother. He enters the army and is later is reported as dead.

His mother then tries to find his widow, the good sister. The bad sister, though, shows up and passes herself off as the good sister. She brings along with her a small daughter, Little Ray. The real wife appears with a song and the bad sister and Little Ray have to leave.

"Little Maude Adams made a very pretty and interesting Little Ray."

=====The Heart of Maryland & Other Plays by David Belasco, Glenn Hughes, George Savage; Princeton Univ. Pr., 1941=====

La Belle Russe (1881), David Belasco

LA BELLE RUSSE was first produced at the Baldwin Theatre, San Francisco, July 18-30, 1881, with the author as stage manager. The cast was as follows:

In the composition of La Belle Russe, Belasco borrowed from two plays which had been produced under his stage management: Forget Me Not, by Herman Merivale and F. C. Grove, and The New Magdalen, by Wilkie Collins . He did not, however, announce this fact, but, following the current fashion, advertised the new play as "from the French." Nor did he acknowledge his authorship of the piece until it had been proclaimed a success.

It was Belasco's hope to use La Belle Russe as a spring-board to New York, and with that in mind he had arranged for the engagement at Baldwin's Theatre of two actors from Wallack's Theatre, New York--Osmund Tearle and Gerald Eyre. Shortly after the production of the play he persuaded Thomas Maguire, lessee of Baldwin's Theatre and Belasco's employer, to finance a trip to New York. There Belasco planned to sell the play to Lester Wallack. But Maguire, who claimed a half interest in the piece, proved a stumbling block to the negotiations, and Belasco. ended by selling the rights to Frank L. Goodwin for a modest cash sum. Discouraged at not having succeeded in dealing with the great Wallack, Belasco returned to San Francisco, whereupon Goodwin sold La Belle Russe to Wallack at a considerable profit to himself.

In reviewing the first performance of the play in New York, the Daily Tribune referred to it as being "apparently an adaptation from a sensational French novel," and criticized it as being based on "a set of highly distorted circumstances," as having an exceedingly weak first act, and speeches which are "needlessly long and sometimes tangled." On the other hand it found the play to contain "a most interesting exposition of monstrous feminine wickedness," and to open "a fertile field of reflection as to the infatuation that may be caused by love and carnal beauty." "Furthermore," said the Tribune , "it suggests to the moralist the curious spectacle of hellish depravity stumbling among its own self-justification."

Belasco himself took considerable pride in La Belle Russe, and claimed that it was the production of this play which retrieved the fortunes of Lester Wallack, lost when the latter moved into his new theater. The frankness of the play, said Belasco, made it a forerunner of the realistic dramas of the next decade. And as for its craftsmanship, we have the following statement from William Winter, who had it direct from Belasco: "Bronson Howard, at the height of his success, declared, in a public lecture, that it was a model of construction, and confessed that he had already seen it seventeen times, each evening discovering some new technical excellence in it."

=====The Bishop of Broadway: the Life & Work of David Belasco by Craig Timberlake; Library Publishers, 1954 =====

Tom Maguire had returned to San Francisco in February, 1881. His financial distress was now a matter of common knowledge and the quidnuncs were prophesying his immediate eviction from the Baldwin. In March members of the theater orchestra staged a walkout to further their demands for payment of wages long overdue. Newspaper comment on the venerable Tom took on a prescient note of fatality. In June the Wasp and Examiner announced his dispossession -- somewhat prematurely it appeared. The old lion was not ready to accept this consignment to oblivion. His uneasy truce with Lucky Baldwin was strengthened by the presentation of Belasco new play, La Belle Russe, which was greeted enthusiastically on July 18. Great pains had been taken to insure the success of the production. Jeffreys-Lewis had been engaged as leading lady and Osmond Tearle and Gerald Eyre had been brought on from Wallack's Theater, New York, at the behest of director Belasco who had his eye on the future. The drama was announced as a work of French origin, and its authorship was not revealed until the initial verdict of approval had been rendered. Thereafter it was advertised as "The strongest play of modern times, 'La Belle Russe,' by D. Belasco , author of 'Hearts of Oak.'"

Whatever the shortcomings of The Stranglers of Paris, it was apparent to both Maguire and Belasco that in La Belle Russe they had a palpable hit that might be exploited to their mutual salvation. Osmond Tearle had already reported to Lester Wallack his enthusiasm for the play, and with this entering wedge the co-owners departed for the East in late September. Maguire had received a half interest in La Belle Russe in return for his sponsorship of the original production at the Baldwin and his offer to defray the expense of the trip to New York to market the property. It was Belasco's opinion that a sale to Wallack would confer on his play and himself the greatest possible prestige. He would probably have accomplished this objective at once had not Maguire conceived an attachment for manager John Stetson, with whom he had much in common, including a remarkable capacity for murdering the King's English. According to Belasco, Maguire insisted that Stetson was the man to produce La Belle Russe and, by way of proving his point, withdrew financial support from the recalcitrant playwright.

Belasco had been down and out in the East before and had no intention of repeating the misadventure. He promptly sold his play for $ 1500 and traveling expenses to F. L. Goodwin, Maguire's nephew, whom he erroneously supposed to be acting in behalf of Wallack.

Back in San Francisco these strange goings on were viewed with interest by the press, particularly The Wasp and its editor, Ambrose Bierce, who had succeeded to the post vacated by Salmi Morse. Bitter Bierce possessed the vitriol and venom that the author of The Passion had lacked, and under his heavy hand The Wasp fulfilled its mission of snide commentary. In his "Prattle" column he dwelt sarcastically on the fate of Belasco's play:

There is to be a quadrangular legal fight concerning the ownership of the play La Belle Russe, the parties participant being Messrs. Belasco, Maguire, Stetson and Goodwin. They are all plaintiffs in the case and for cause of action affirm that the play needs advertising. When this contest of intellectual giants has been decided the victor will move immediately upon the stronghold of the literary marauder who wrote and exhibited an exactly similar play some years ago.

Pierce's "quadrangular legal fight" failed to materialize. Belasco returned to San Francisco and was followed soon after by Maguire. Stetson was heard from no more and Frank L. Goodwin sold La Belle Russe to Wallack who presented the play on May 8, 1882 at his new theater, Broadway and Thirtieth Street, as the last production of the season. In the cast were Rose Coghlan, Osmond Tearle and Gerald Eyre, all of whom were warmly commended in the mixed press notices that greeted the play. Critics were quick to note Belasco's indebtedness to Forget Me Not by Herman Merivale and Charles Groves and The New Magdalen by Wilkie Collins. The Herald found that, with the exception of the dialogue, Coghlan and Tearlehad virtually reenacted the best scenes of Forget Me Not which they had performed earlier in the season at Wallack's Thirteenth Street Theater. The Tribune, while lamenting "a set of highly distorted circumstances," prophesied a future for the piece as a vehicle for Rose Coghlan and saluted the cast that had performed so excellently before a "large and brilliant and truly representative audience." The New York Times could not stomach Mr. Belasco's crude contrivances and said as much:

This is the story of an exceedingly audacious woman, known at one time among the gamblers and roués of Europe as "la Belle Russe." Nature -- or the well meaning dramatist who is supposed to represent nature -- provided her with a virtuous sister who happened to be a precise counterpart of her. It is looked upon as an axiom in science that nature makes no two things alike; but, for the special benefit of Mr. David Belasco, who is spoken of as the author of "La Belle Russe," that benignant creature made the resemblance between these two sisters so absolute that a man who is married to one of them accepts the other as his wife. If any one can bring himself to view the starting point of Mr. Belasco's drama with 'complacency, he can probably pass over the rest of its absurdity. . . . The work is one of those unreal, unreasonable things which are not meant to impose upon a sane intelligence; but it has elements of theatrical interest which have lifted many plays, even more unnatural plays than "La Belle Russe" into popular favor.

The severest critique was set forth in Music and Drama, May 13, 1882, by one who signed himself "Seraph" and whose acerbate comments were anything but seraphic:

Who was weak enough to imagine that this California trash and hash would go down at Wallack's? It is a Bowery play; but it would not draw even in the Bowery. The boys have seen it too often before under other names. . . . A long rope and a short shrift await the criminal who has desecrated the elegance of Wallack's New Theatre with this old rubbish. "David Belasco Esq." is described upon the play bills as the author, and "F. L. Goodwin," without an "Esq.," as the proprietor. I don't blame them for selling their California truck if they can find a purchaser. But who bought it for Wallack's? Fetch him out!

"Seraph" proved a poor prophet. La Belle Russe continued successfully at Wallack's until June 28. It was revived in May 1883, sent out on tour in 1885 under the management of Charles Frohman and produced the following year in London at the Pavilion Theater. In 1914 Regent Films produced a movie based on the renowned Belasco's play and in 1919 a second film version made its appearance with William Fox's vampire, Theda Bara, in the title role. Despite its mild success La Belle Russe was a crudely wrought play, abounding in the conceits and devices of early nineteenth century melodrama that made it in its own time seem vinegary vintage of an earlier harvest. It was not the play on which to build a substantial reputation as a budding dramatist, but Belasco won a bittersweet victory in its presentation at Wallack's, a victory that helped establish him within the year as resident director of one of Broadway's leading theaters.

=====A History of the Theatre in America from Its Beginnings to the Present Time Vol. 2 by Arthur Hornblow; J.B. Lippincott Company, 1919=====

His first play to attract any attention was "Hearts of Oak," written with James A. Herne and first produced at Hamlin's Theatre, Chicago, in 1879, Katherine Corcoran (Mrs. Herne) making her first appearance in that city in the rôle of Chrystal. His next play, "La Belle Russe," was first seen at the Baldwin Theatre, San Francisco, in 1881, with Jeffreys Lewis as Beatrice, the beautiful but vicious Englishwoman, and Maude Adams as little Beatrice. The play was seen a year later at Wallack's with Rose Coghlan in the title rôle.

=====French Theatre in New York: A List of Plays, 1899-1939 by Hamilton Mason; Columbia University Press, 1940=====

David Belasco continued for years to adapt French plays, but he was under no illusion as to the value of a play billed "From the French." His experience with La Belle Russe had opened his eyes.

This production was first advertised as from the French, but Belasco claimed authorship as soon as the play established itself as a success.