{"id":2276,"date":"2017-10-16T15:54:39","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T15:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/?p=2276"},"modified":"2017-12-10T01:48:33","modified_gmt":"2017-12-10T01:48:33","slug":"entertainers-followed-the-rivers-west-through-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/?p=2276","title":{"rendered":"Entertainers Followed Rivers West and South"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twelfth in A Series<\/em><\/p>\n

By Matt Chaney, for ChaneysBlog.com<\/p>\n

Posted Monday, October 16, 2017<\/p>\n

Copyright\u00a0\u00a92017 for historical arrangement by Matthew L. Chaney<\/p>\n

Twenty-year-old Noah Ludlow figured he could sneak away from loved ones without informing\u00a0them of his adventurous plan, or foolhardiness.<\/p>\n

It was July of 1815 in Albany, N.Y., and Ludlow\u2019s widowed mother fretted enough already. Her youngest son had left a business apprenticeship upon his father\u2019s death, only to land at\u00a0the local theater<\/em>, of all places, where he pursued \u201ca passion for histrionic fame,\u201d as Ludlow later recalled in memoirs. \u201cMy mother was a very religious woman, of the strictest sect, and my father a man who found no particular pleasure in the so-called amusements of the day; therefore my very early youth had been kept free of such \u2018delusions\u2019 as theatres.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now Ludlow was leaving home to be an actor in the \u201cfar, far West,\u201d having joined a theater troupe bound for Kentucky. Eastern actors with paying jobs had rejected the \u201cwild scheme,\u201d so troupe organizer Samuel Drake, Sr., solicited\u00a0novices like Ludlow. \u201cHe told me very candidly that he was going on a voyage of adventure, which possibly might result disastrously,\u201d Ludlow recounted. \u201cI was too glad of an opportunity to embark in what had become now my entire ambition, to hesitate an hour in giving him an answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ludlow accepted enthusiastically but rued the thought of leaving his mother and young sister, and he told them nothing. Ludlow forwarded baggage\u00a0to the Albany coach office then,\u00a0at daybreak of his departure, crept through the family home. \u201cI quietly walked from my bedroom, and as I passed that of my mother, the door standing ajar, I beheld her on her knees in prayer, and heard her utter these words: \u2018Oh, Father! Be with him in his journey through life, and keep his soul from sin.\u2019 My heart nearly failed me\u2026 I rushed out of the house and saw her no more for 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the first regretful act of my life,\u201d Ludlow later confessed. \u201cReflection soon brought to my mind the anguish of that mother who almost doted on the son that had left her without a parting word, and the thought haunted me like a ghost.\u201d An older brother disavowed Ludlow, calling him a \u201cgenteel vagabond\u201d unworthy of family name.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Ludlow and the rest of Drake\u2019s humble troupers were\u00a0following a destiny\u2014\u201cpioneer actors of the West,\u201d\u00a0by a later pronouncement\u2014for a country yet unfolding. Modern historian Louis Gerteis, specializing in entertainment lineage of St. Louis, observed: \u201cIn\u00a0 a\u00a0 period\u00a0 of\u00a0 American\u00a0 history\u00a0 that\u00a0 textbooks\u00a0 traditionally\u00a0 associate\u00a0 with\u00a0 the \u2018politics of the common man,\u2019 an outburst of theatrical entertainment brought an abrupt end\u00a0 to\u00a0 a\u00a0 long-standing\u00a0 American\u00a0 bias\u00a0 against\u00a0 theatrical\u00a0 entertainment. The period between 1820 and 1850 marked an unprecedented era of\u00a0 theatricality.\u201d<\/p>\n

In summer 1815, the humble Drake company of 11 actors and actresses were harbingers of a movement, \u201ca stream of theatrical migration westward,\u201d observed Gerteis. The troupe traveled\u00a0rural New York, working little theaters, presenting productions of tragedy and comedy interspersed with song. Ludlow\u00a0took the\u00a0stage at Cooperstown, overdoing his villainous character in \u201cdamned bad\u201d fashion, Drake criticized, but novelist James Fenimore Cooper enjoyed the show and encouraged \u201cour pioneer efforts in the cause of the drama,\u201d Ludlow recalled.<\/p>\n

At Canandaigua the group outfitted with a pack wagon, small carriage and three horses for the 150-mile trek southwest, to headwaters of the Allegheny River. Able troupers walked the distance, like Ludlow. The wagons and horses were sold at Olean, N.Y., a river access point\u00a0of few cabins where Drake\u00a0purchased\u00a0a flatboat for transport south to Pittsburgh. The American frontier confronted young Ludlow, born and reared in New York City. \u201cThe men, especially the young ones, were expected to \u2018rough it,\u2019 and rough it we did,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Another traveler joined the Drake party at Olean to complete a dozen for boarding the boat, of adults and teenagers. They were Samuel Drake, Sr., troupe manager, age 46, and his children Samuel, Jr., Alexander, James, Martha, and the youngest, Julia, at 15; Noah M. Ludlow; Frances Ann Denny; Joe Tracy, a stage hand; Mr. and Mrs. J.O. Lewis, with he a carpenter; and the young newcomer, Hull, an army lieutenant during the recent war with England,\u00a0returning\u00a0home to the Mississippi Valley.<\/p>\n

Drake\u2019s flatboat was a small barge of Kentucky \u201cbroadhorn\u201d style, about 25-feet long by 15-feet wide, with sideboards and two compartments for sleeping. A long-stem paddle served as guidance system, mounted at rear, with hardwood poles for emergency maneuvering. The boatload besides people included food provisions, cookware, personal baggage, tools, and stage accessories: a drop curtain, green carpeting, and scenery backdrops, six painted on drapery\u00a0such as a kitchen setting and a garden.<\/p>\n

The party launched for Pittsburgh, 260 miles down the Allegheny, about 10 days by flatboat, and stopped the first night on an island\u2014\u201cfor fear of wild beasts, less likely to visit us there than on the mainland,\u201d Ludlow wrote. Coffee and food were prepared over campfire. \u201cI must say, I never enjoyed a meal more in my entire life than that rural supper. After our evening meal, the men smoked, and the ladies sang, and the time passed delightfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

But daytime in July on the boat deck proved unbearable. The sun was searing amid drought for mountainous western Pennsylvania; the Allegheny stood at low stage with current at a crawl. Heat was miserable on the flatboat,\u00a0and females suffered for their dense garments. A small canopy and umbrellas didn\u2019t shield well enough so a scenery panel was unfurled for cover. Rest was finally possible but the rudderless barge drifted into a mill channel, dammed ahead. Men leapt overboard to halt the heavy flatboat, and they towed\u00a0it back to the river by rope,\u00a0\u00a0walking the bank and\u00a0tugging against current.<\/p>\n

At nightfall wolves yipped and howled along the Allegheny, having frightened the theater group since the overland trails of New York. Wolf packs prowled the river valley, seemingly the only beings after dark for boat travelers\u00a0of remote Pennsylvania. \u201cThe country then was very wild, the buildings small log cabins, and the accommodations very limited,\u201d Ludlow wrote later in memoirs,\u00a0utilizing\u00a0a personal diary of the 1815 trip.<\/p>\n

On most nights the Drake party landed, mooring at a settlement if possible, where beds and food might be procured. The boat compartments slept the married couple in one, teen girls in the other, while everyone else sought a comfortable way to lie down. A barn with hay or straw suited the men, if available. One night the river-weary troupe landed late at a darkened homestead \u201cindicating cleanliness and plenty,\u201d Ludlow wrote. \u201cIt was a substantial Pennsylvania farmhouse, large and well built.\u201d<\/p>\n

The owner came out in greeting, an affluent doctor and farmer who rousted his family to meet the \u201ccomedians.\u201d A 10 o\u2019clock\u00a0supper\u00a0went on in the kitchen while peach brandy was served in the music parlor. Sam Drake, Jr., classically trained in violin, was impressive in \u201cscraping off\u201d a Scottish ballad and English opera melody, accompanied on piano by the doctor\u2019s wife. The army veteran Hull \u201castonished us all\u2026,\u201d Ludlow attested, \u201cby sitting down to the piano and playing one or two marches and some other pieces in a very creditable manner.\u201d Merriment continued\u00a0past midnight, and everyone who needed a bed was accommodated on the estate. The gracious hosts also sent a ham, live chickens and vegetables downriver with the travelers.<\/p>\n

A few nights later the Drake troupe reached headwaters of the Alleghany River, “Three Rivers,” where\u00a0the former met the Monongahela to form the Ohio. \u201cAbout nine o\u2019clock\u2026 to our great delight, the glimmerings of a city broke into our view,\u201d Ludlow recalled of arriving at Pittsburgh. The flatboat docked and the young\u00a0males went downtown in search of lodging and excitement. Even in darkness, the city’s trademark of coal industry was apparent in soot-covered buildings and streets.<\/p>\n

The local theater was sooty too, as the thespians discovered. \u201cIt was situated on the eastern outskirts of the city [and] had been built, I think, by some amateur in theatricals,\u201d Ludlow wrote. \u201cIt contained a pit and one tier of boxes, as they were called… The decorations, if such they might be termed, were of the plainest kind, and every portion bore the Pittsburgh stamp upon it\u2014coal smut.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drake\u2019s troupe cleaned the theater to open a Pittsburgh season of productions, which quickly drew 400 spectators nightly, including miners, boatmen, foundry workers, mechanics and livery drivers. Ludlow would remember \u201cbeautiful ladies\u201d and a formative\u00a0period of his career. \u201cThe success I met with in my first two weeks in a regular theatre, and in a city of no small consequence even at that early day, gave me great hopes that I might ultimately become an actor of some notoriety. In thought, I saw a realization of my youthful daydreams. [Drake] was obliged, owing to the limited number of his company, to give me characters of importance to play, quite beyond my inexperience to do justice… But my ambition was great, and I labored hard to gratify its cravings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The triumphant actors launched from Pittsburgh in a bigger, better flatboat, to float the Ohio southwesterly for 400 miles. Several of the northerners experienced the South for first time, touching down in Virginia then Kentucky, slave-holding states along the great river. At Limestone, Ky., the group unloaded and Drake sold the barge, obtaining more wagons and horses for an overland tour to Lexington, Frankfort and Louisville.<\/p>\n

The Limestone port led into Kentucky where Daniel Boone and frontiersmen had battled Shawnee Indians until the 1790s. Now U.S. territory stretched to the Rocky Mountains, Boone and followers were resettled outside St. Louis,\u00a0and\u00a0native tribes were removed or contained. The new West and South were open for entertainment of actors and musicians.<\/p>\n

The Drakes went on to establish the Louisville City Theatre, an American showcase for drama and music in the Ohio Valley. Historians anointed the Drakes as a first family of popular entertainment in America.<\/p>\n

Noah M. Ludlow opened the first showboat in 1817, a hundred-foot barge without steam power at Natchez on the Mississippi River. Later he co-founded theaters\u00a0in New Orleans, Mobile and St. Louis. Ludlow partnered with Sol Smith, another New York native thespian, as they \u201cdominated the theatrical world in the South and West for nearly two decades and became noted for their fair dealings with performers,\u201d\u00a0according to\u00a0a modern analysis.<\/p>\n

Arthur Hornblow, author of a 1919 history on American theater, saluted Ludlow and the humble Drake troupe of lore: \u201cThe pampered stage favorite of today who gazes idly out of the [train] window, as his private car speeds smoothly across the continent\u2026 can have little idea of the hardships and perils the pioneer actors of the West had to face when they set out a hundred years ago to carry the message of Thespis through the American backwoods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Select References<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bakeless, J. (1939). Daniel Boone: Master of The Wilderness<\/em>. University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln NE.<\/p>\n

C.L. (1881, June 5). An Old Actor’s Memories. New York Times<\/em>, p. 10.<\/p>\n

Dietz, M.M. (1921, May). A History of The Theatre In Louisville<\/em> [MA thesis]. University of Louisville, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences: Louisville KY.<\/p>\n

Gerteis, L. (1995, Spring). St. Louis in the Age of the Original Jim Crow. Gateway Heritage<\/em>, 15 (4), pp. 1-9. Missouri Historical Society: Columbia MO.<\/p>\n

Graham, P. (1951). Showboats:<\/em> The History of an American Institution<\/em>. University of Texas Press: Austin TX.<\/p>\n

Hornblow, A. (1919). A History of the Theatre In America: From Its Beginnings to the Present Time<\/em>. J.B. Lippincott Company: Philadelphia PA and London, England.<\/p>\n

Inge, M.T., & Piacentino, E. [Eds.] (2010). Southern Frontier Humor: An Anthology<\/em>. University of Missouri Press: Columbia MO.<\/p>\n

Ludlow, N.M. (1880). Dramatic Life as I Found It<\/em>. G.I. Jones and Company: St. Louis MO.<\/p>\n

Smith, S. (1868). Theatrical Management in the West and South for Thirty Years<\/em>. Harper & Brothers: New York NY.<\/p>\n

Matt Chaney is a writer and consultant in Missouri, USA. For more information visit\u00a0<\/em>www.fourwallspublishing.com.\u00a0Email:\u00a0<\/em>mattchaney@fourwallspublishing.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twelfth in A Series By Matt Chaney, for ChaneysBlog.com Posted Monday, October 16, 2017 Copyright\u00a0\u00a92017 for historical arrangement by Matthew L. Chaney Twenty-year-old Noah Ludlow figured he could sneak away from loved ones without informing\u00a0them of his adventurous plan, or foolhardiness. It was July of 1815 in Albany, N.Y., and Ludlow\u2019s widowed mother fretted enough … Continue reading Entertainers Followed Rivers West and South<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[283,374],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ywFp-AI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2276"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2276"}],"version-history":[{"count":70,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2460,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2276\/revisions\/2460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}