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NETWORKING THE WAVES: OCEAN LINERS, IMPRESARIOS, AND BROADWAY'S ATLANTIC EXPANSION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 August 2012

Marlis Schweitzer
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Extract

In The Great Wet Way, a humorous account of transatlantic travel, American theatre critic Alan Dale represents ocean liners as sites of transformation, frivolity, and performance. In the passage above, he ponders the peculiar metamorphosis that overtakes him whenever he crosses the Atlantic. Cut off from the hustling world of Broadway and Fifth Avenue, he loses his “real self,” becoming instead an autograph-hunting, bridge-playing, opera-glassing “ship self.” It is as though the ship has remade Dale and the social world around him (Fig. 1). Within this altered world, new sights become old sights, and eccentric clothing or mannerisms come to seem commonplace. Dale recalls seeing a young woman wearing a Panama hat covered with autographs from her fellow passengers. If the woman dared to “walk down Broadway or Fifth Avenue wearing that hideous autograph hat,” he writes, “[s]he would probably be followed by a howling and derisive mob. . . . Yet on board she was unmolested. After the first few days nobody noticed the autograph hat.”

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , September 2012 , pp. 241 - 267
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 2012

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References

Endnotes

1. Dale, Alan, The Great Wet Way (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1909), 21Google Scholar. Dale's real name was Alfred J. Cohen, and he became known for his acerbic, entertaining writing style while in the employ of William Randolph Heart. See Miller, Tice L., “Alan Dale: The Hearst Critic,” Educational Theatre Journal 26.1 (March 1974): 69–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2. Dale, 12.

3. Werry, Margaret, “‘The Greatest Show on Earth’: Political Spectacle, Spectacular Politics, and the American Pacific,” Theatre Journal 57.3 (2005): 355–82, at 355CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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11. Latour, Reassembling the Social, 46.

12. In The Black Atlantic, Paul Gilroy echoes actor-network theory when he describes ships as “the living means by which the points within th[e] Atlantic world were joined . . . mobile elements that stood for the shifting spaces in between the fixed places that they connected.” For this reason, he argues, “they need to be thought of as cultural and political units rather than abstract embodiments of the triangular trade. They were something more—a means to conduct political dissent and possibly a distinct mode of cultural production.” Gilroy, , The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993), 16–17Google Scholar. Gilroy's project is decidedly different from my own—the elegant liners that ferried actors and managers across the Atlantic in the early 1900s can hardly be compared to the slave ships that carried African slaves in the 1700 and 1800s. Nevertheless, his reference to ships as living entities and as cultural and political units acknowledges the agency of the ship as something distinct from a state or city and raises questions about how ocean liners might be interpreted as performers in their own right. Cultural geographer Tim Cresswell similarly draws on Gilroy to emphasize how ships have functioned as sites of political agency and resistance; see Cresswell, , On the Move: Mobility in the Modern Western World (New York: Routledge, 2006), 204–5Google Scholar.

13. Latour quoted in Clarke, 52.

14. See, e.g., Elissa Sartwell, “The Other Side of the Tracks: Railroads, Race, and the Performance of Unity in Nineteenth-Century American Entertainment” (Ph.D. diss., Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, 2006); and Gilette, Kyle, “Upholstered Realism and ‘The Great Futurist Railroad’: Theatrical ‘Train Wrecks’ and the Return of the Repressed,” Performance Research 15.2 (2010): 88–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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22. “Luxurious Ocean Travel,” New York Times (hereafter NYT), 31 July 1907, 6; Wealleans, Anne, Designing Liners: A History of Interior Design Afloat (New York: Routledge, 2006)Google Scholar.

23. “At Last a 25-Knot Liner,” Scientific American 97 (10 August 1907): 94Google Scholar. See also “Greyhounds of the Sea,” Los Angeles Times, 1 September 1907, II: 10.

24. “Rejoicing in London,” NYT, 14 September 1907, 2; “New Greyhounds of the Sea Make Skyscrapers Look Like Pigmy Huts,” Washington Times, 15 September 1907, magazine, 2; “The Lusitania and the Great Pyramid,” New-York Tribune 18 August 1907, 8, image 20.

25. “The Lusitania,” Manchester Guardian, 5 September 1907, 5.

26. Burgess, Douglas R. Jr., Seize the Trident: The Race for Superliner Supremacy and How It Altered the Great War (Camden, ME: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press, 2005), 115Google Scholar; “Sure Lusitania Can Go Even Faster,” NYT, 12 October 1907, 20.

27. “Lusitania on First Voyage: Greatest Atlantic Liner Ever Built Racing against Time,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 8 September 1907, A1; “100,000 Cheer as Lusitania Sails,” NYT, 8 September 1907, 1.

28. “Lusitania on First Voyage,” A1.

29. Latour, Bruno, Science in Action: How to follow scientists and engineers through society (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987), esp. introGoogle Scholar.

30. Law, “Notes on the Theory,” 384–5.

31. Quinlan, Andrea, “Tracing the ‘Messy’ History of Forensic DNA Analysis in Canada,” Studies in Sociology of Science 2.2 (2011): 11–18, at 12Google Scholar.

32. States, Bert O., Great Reckonings in Little Rooms: On the Phenomenology of Theater (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), 34Google Scholar. For theatre scholars, the term “black box” conjures other, non-ANT associations.

33. On the labor of props and “propping up,” see Jackson, Shannon, Social Works: Performing Art, Supporting Publics (New York: Routledge, 2011), esp. IntroGoogle Scholar.

34. “Lusitania Is Making a New Ocean Record,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 11 September 1907, 1.

35. “Lusitania at Pier at 7 A.M. on Friday,” NYT, 11 September 1907, 1; “Lusitania Is Making a New Ocean Record,” 1.

36. “Record from Queenstown,” Boston Globe, 14 September 1907, 1.

37. “No Title: Ready to Greet the Liner,” NYT, 12 September 1907, 1.

38. “Rejoicing in London,” NYT, 14 September 1907, 2.

39. Hughes, Tom, The Blue Riband of the Atlantic (New York: Scribner, 1974), esp. chap 8Google Scholar.

40. Paul Rae, “Performance and Finance Capital,” paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Theatre Research, Montreal, 17–20 November 2011.

41. Burgess, 22. The Hamburg Amerika line was the first company to launch its “trio” of ships: the SS Imperator, the SS Vaterland, and the SS Bismarck.

42. Ibid., 4–5, quote at 5.

43. Zerdy, 37. Margaret Werry has similarly argued that the 1907–8 international tour of the U.S. Navy's “Great White Fleet” simultaneously symbolized and inaugurated the United States' entrance onto the global stage. Werry, “‘Greatest Show on Earth,’” 363–4.

44. Burgess, 22.

45. Law, “Objects and Spaces,” 97.

46. “The Romance of the Modern World Afloat,” NYT, 3 May 1908, 6.

47. Coye, Ray W. and Murphy, Patrick J., “The Golden Age: Service Management on Transatlantic Ocean Liners,” Journal of Management History 13.2 (2007): 172–91, at 174–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

48. “Cabin Rates Cut: But War between Cunard and German Lines Is Denied,” New York Times, 23 August 1907, 3; “Steamship Rate War On: Trans-Atlantic Services Cut Prices on Cabin Tickets,” Washington Post, 23 August 1907, 4.

49. The price of a ticket on a White Star liner traveling from New York to Southampton went from $105 for a first-class cabin ticket to $82, a reduction of 22 percent. “Heavy Cut in Cabin Rates,” NYT, 1 September 1907, 3.

50. Coye and Murphy, 175. See also Brinnin, John Malcolm and Gaulin, Kenneth, Grand Luxe: The Transatlantic Style (London: Bloomsbury, 1988), 11Google Scholar.

51. Coye and Murphy, 175, Table I.

52. On department stores, see Leach, William, Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture (New York: Vintage, 1994)Google Scholar.

53. “Romance of the Modern World Afloat,” 6.

54. Coye and Murphy, 185.

55. On dining halls see Brinnin and Gaulin, 33, 36–7. For a helpful overview of the various interpretations and uses of the word “mobility” within cultural geography and related fields, see Cresswell, esp. 1–24.

56. Coye and Murphy, 178, 180.

57. “Seventy-Seven Thousand by ‘Second Cabin,’” NYT, 1 September 1907, SM7.

58. Law, “Objects and Spaces,” 92.

59. Davis, Tracy C., The Economics of the British Stage, 1800–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 339, 349–53Google Scholar.

60. See, e.g., Roach, Joseph, “Barnumizing Diaspora: The ‘Irish Skylark’ Does New Orleans,” Theatre Journal 50.1 (1998): 39–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

61. Coye and Murphy, 173; Burgess, 110.

62. See Rood, Arnold, “Henry Irving's Tours of North America,” in Theatrical Touring and Founding in North America, ed. Conolly, L.W. (London: Greenwood Press, 1982), 17–29, at 28Google Scholar.

63. Schweitzer, Marlis, When Broadway Was the Runway: Theatre, Fashion, and American Culture (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), 26–34Google Scholar.

64. Dale, n.p.

65. Davis, 341; Kelly, Veronica, “A Complementary Economy? National Markets and International Product in Early Australian Theatre Managements,” New Theatre Quarterly 21.1 (2005): 77–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

66. “Vaudeville Chase All Over Europe,” NYT, 9 June 1908, C2.

67. Frederick Jackson Turner famously declared that the West was closed at the 1893 World's Columbia Exhibition in Chicago. See Turner, , The Significance of the Frontier in American History (New York: Penguin, 2008)Google Scholar.

68. “Frohman to Play in Two Worlds,” New York Journal, 28 June 1897, Charles Frohman Scrapbook, 4, Minnie Maddern Fiske Papers, Library of Congress.

69. “Dramatic World: Charles Frohman to Send Three Companies to London,” Mail & Express, 11 October 1897, Charles Frohman Scrapbook, 8, Minnie Maddern Fiske Papers, Library of Congress.

70. “Can It Be Frohman Said This?” San Francisco Chronicle, 12 October 1897, Charles Frohman Scrapbook, 8, Minnie Maddern Fiske Papers, Library of Congress.

71. “Mr. Frohman Talks,” Mail & Express, 9 December 1897. Charles Frohman Scrapbook, 21, Minnie Maddern Fiske Papers, Library of Congress.

72. Nineteenth-century manager Augustin Daly was the first American to build his own theatre in London, but his untimely death in 1899 kept him from fully realizing his international pursuits.

73. For example, the Shuberts hired Gustav Amberg, who produced German-language plays at the Irving Place Theater in New York, to represent their theatrical interests in Europe. See folder Amberg–Appleton, Shubert General Correspondence, 1908–1909, The Shubert Archive, New York City.

74. “Week's Chat in London,” Baltimore Sun, 21 May 1905, 5.

75. “New York to See English Comedies,” NYT, 10 May 1908, C1.

76. Coye and Murphy, 187, Table IV.

77. Kelly, 88.

78. Burke, Billie (with Cameron Shipp), With a Feather on My Nose (New York: Appleton–Century Crofts, 1949), 36, 45Google Scholar.

79. “Savage May Put on ‘Salome’ in English,” NYT, 27 January 1907, 7.

80. “Plans of Managers,” New York Dramatic Mirror, 6 July 1907, 7.

81. “The Usher,” New York Dramatic Mirror, 27 July 1907, 5.

82. Ibid.

83. “New York May See War of the Dancers,” NYT, 12 July 1908, C1.

84. Law, “Notes on the Theory,” 384.

85. This is clear from the extensive correspondence between the Shuberts and the Marinelli agency. See Marinelli Ltd. files in Box 55A, Folder 2, MARA–MARR, Dec. 1908–Sept. 1909, Shubert Archive.

86. “Plan for Drama on the High Seas,” NYT, 3 October 1907, 9; “A Theatre on the Atlantic,” The Observer (London), 6 February 1910, 9Google Scholar.

87. “Plan for Drama on the High Seas.” See also “Theaters Planned for Ocean Liners,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 27 October 1907, A3.

88. “First Play Afloat on the Mauretania,” NYT, 7 February 1910.

89. Ibid.

90. “Frohman Sails To-day,” NYT, 9 February 1910, 16.

91. “Mr. Frohman's Ocean Theatre,” Manchester Guardian, 4 February 1910, 12. For Max Beerbohm's take on the scheme see “‘Frohmanizing’ the Sea,” The Literary Digest (8 August 1908): 191.

92. “Dramatis Personae,” The Observer, 20 February 1910, 8. Marcosson, Isaac F. and Daniel, Frohman, Charles Frohman: Manager and Man (New York: Meyer Bros. & Co., 1916), 385Google Scholar.

93. Dale, 16–17.

94. Tozier, Josephine, The Travelers' Handbook: A Manual for Transatlantic Travelers (New York and London: Funk & Wagnalls, 1907), 67–8Google Scholar, quote on 67. See also Gregory, Alexis, The Golden Age of Travel: 1880–1929 (London: Cassell, 1999), 192Google Scholar.

95. Dale, 220. Subsequent citations are given parenthetically in the text.

96. “Sure Lusitania Can Go Even Faster.”

97. “She Wouldn't Play,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 21 July 1897, 5.

98. “Chorus Girls Barred Out,” NYT, 14 November 1900, 11.

99. “Feared for Contracts,” NYT, 13 October 1906, 9.

100. “First Play Afloat on the Mauretania.”

101. “Plan For Drama on the High Seas.”

102. “Managers Bring Play Novelties,” NYT, 30 July 1914, 9.

103. “Ocean Circuit for Vaudeville,” NYT, 10 May 1914, C4.

104. Ibid.

105. “The Aquitania: The New Cunarder,” Manchester Guardian, 30 May 1914, 5.

106. “War Holds Stage Folk Needed Here,” NYT, 4 August 1914, 11.

107. “Aquitania Has Mishap,” NYT, 25 August 1914, 1.

108. Latour, Reassembling the Social, 70.

109. quoted in Burgess, 225.

110. Des, Hickey and Smith, Gus, Seven Days to Disaster: The Sinking of the Lusitania (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1982), 18–19Google Scholar.

111. Marcosson and Frohman, 383–4.

112. Ibid., 386.

113. Marcosson and Frohman write that Charles Frohman “was always pleased when he was told that he looked like the Man of Destiny.” Frohman's office in the Empire Theatre featured a “magnificent marble bust of Napoleon.” Marcosson and Frohman, 371.