(Entered according to A ct of Congress, in the year 1BS9, ...)
Entered according to A ct of Congress, in the year 1BS9, By Street Smith, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington,
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)
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Denman Thompson was an American playwright and theatre actor.
Background
Dennman was born in a log cabin near Girard, Pa. , the son of Capt. Rufus Thompson and Anna Hathaway (Baxter), daughter of Dr. Henry Baxter of Swanzey, N. H. He was named Henry Denman, but later used only his middle name. His parents had moved to Pennsylvania from Swanzey, where his paternal forebears had been established for some four generations, and during the boy's teens they returned to that place.
Career
In 1850 Denman went to Boston, where he worked first as a chore boy with a circus and later got a job as a super with Charlotte Cushman. During the next few years he drifted to various cities, nearly always in some minor capacity in a theatrical troupe. It was not until the middle of the decade, when he became a member of the Royal Lyceum Company in Toronto, that he secured any worthwhile training. With this company he remained for several seasons, playing a variety of parts, including Uncle Tom in Uncle Tom's Cabin.
In 1862 he went to England, hoping to play Salem Scudder in the London production of The Octoroon, but he failed to secure the rôle and returned to Toronto, where he remained until 1868. During the next seven years he led the wandering life of a minor actor; he had found no place in the theatre which brought him distinction. In 1875, however, he evolved a brief sketch, in two scenes, based on his boyhood observation of rural Yankee types (and, it must be confessed, also on innumerable other Yankee sketches), in which he played the part of an old New Hampshire farmer on a trip to Boston. This sketch was first tried in Pittsburgh, in February 1875, and met success.
In Chicago, J. M. Hill suggested that he expand it into a full-length play. Hill became his manager, and at Haverley's, Chicago, in 1877, a three act comedy was presented called Joshua Whitcomb, after the name of the old farmer. For the next nine years it was acted under that title, undergoing numerous changes, and being worked over by at least one collaborator – George W. Ryer. In September 1878 it was acted at the Lyceum Theatre, New York, and it later ran for two seasons at the Fourteenth Street Theatre. On April 5, 1886, at the Boston Theatre, an augmented version, in four acts, now called The Old Homestead, was presented, and it was this play which Thompson continued to act almost to the end of his life, carrying it all over the country and making it one of the best known dramas on the American stage. Conservative estimates set its earnings at $3, 000, 000. Thompson became completely identified with this play, and never again acted any other character.
His kindly old face as Josh Whitcomb was as familiar to Americans in the nineties as the Statue of Liberty. Asked why he played no new parts, he replied, "My ambition's satisfied, and bein' so, it's gone. " Although it was a crude and sentimental affair, The Old Homestead had a homely flavor of veracity in its leading character, and plenty of broad comedy. The more sophisticated laughed at rather than with the play, but with Thompson acting it its appeal to the masses was enormous.
After his success, he remodeled an old house in West Swanzey, N. H. , where he made his home thenceforth, and where he died. His last appearance in New York was at the City Theatre, in September 1910. Thompson was the author of one or two other plays and sketches, notably The Sunshine of Paradise Alley (with George W. Ryer) in 1896, but it is entirely on The Old Homestead and especially on his impersonation of the old Yankee farmer, Joshua Whitcomb, that his reputation rests.
(Entered according to A ct of Congress, in the year 1BS9, ...)
Personality
In person, he was of medium size, inclined to stoutness in later years, with a round, genial face framed in white hair; he looked at all times far more the shrewd but kindly Yankee farmer than the actor.
Connections
On July 7, 1860, Thompson married Maria Ballou, who died in 1904. They had three children.