Gharles Gayler

Background

Charles Gayler was born on April 1, 1820, on Oliver Street, New York. He was the son of C. J. Gayler, a dealer in crockery and hardware and builder of fireproof safes.

Education

After attending for a few years an academy in Suffield, Connecticut, Gayler became at sixteen a school-teacher in Dayton, Ohio, pored over law books in his spare hours, was admitted to practice, and traveled the circuits in Ohio and perhaps in Indiana and Illinois.

Career

Having little knowledge of law or aptitude for it, Gayler soon drifted into politics, obtained several minor positions in Dayton, and became an ardent supporter of Henry Clay, for whom he made stump speeches and wrote campaign songs. Then he turned to journalism for a livelihood, becoming for a short period editor of the Cincinnati Evening Dispatch.

For some reason no longer known his editorial career came to a sudden end; he is said then to have turned actor and to have performed the title roles in Hamlet, Othello, and Richelieu in Ohio theatres on the James W. Bates circuit.

His Bull Run, or The Sacking of Fairfax Courthouse, to take one instance, was produced in New York on August 15, 1861, while some Union survivors of the battle, according to a contemporary joke, were still running. Gayler, encouraged by the success of his first venture into the drama, moved to New York, which he made his headquarters for the remaining half of his life.

At one time or another, he was a theatrical manager; he wrote reviews for the Tribune and the Herald and did miscellaneous literary work for several magazines.

He usually disposed of pieces outright to the producers, his regular price being two hundred dollars a play. His total revenue from this source, he said late in life, was only $35, 000. None of his plays is now remembered.

He died after a long illness at his daughter’s home in Brooklyn and was survived by his wife and four of their eight children. He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery.

Achievements

• Gayler was best known as a playwright. In all, he was reputed to have written nearly four hundred tragedies, comedies, melodramas, and operettas, but the actual number was probably around two hundred. In 1849, his first play, The Buckeye Gold Hunters, was produced by Bates at the National Theatre in Cincinnati and was performed for ten weeks. Its success was due to Gayler’s exploitation of contemporary material, and that remained one of his characteristic devices. During his last years, several benefits were given for him.

Works

More photos

• book

  • French's Standard Drama. No. CLXVIII. The Love of a Prince: Or, the Court of Prussia. A Drama in Three Acts

    ( About the Book The romance novel, which is sometimes te...)

  • The Love of a Prince: Or, the Court of Prussia

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Fritz, the Emigrant: A Story of New York Life, Founded Upon Mr. Ga Drama of Fritz (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Fritz, the Emigrant: A Story of New York Lif...)

  • The Son Of The Night: A Drama In Three Days: And A Prologue. To Which Are Added, A Description Of The Costume, Cast Of The Characters ... And The Whole Of The Stage Business...

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

Personality

Gayler was well liked by his journalistic and theatrical associates; he had no professional jealousy; though by no means rich he was generous to those less fortunate than himself.

He was decidedly handsome, six feet tall, erect and stalwart, with flowing hair and beard. To visitors at Pfaff’s Restaurant, he was sometimes pointed out as Walt Whitman. His home was at Bowsonville, Long Island.

Connections

In 1846, Gayler married Grace Christian.

Father:

C. J. Gayler

Wife:

Grace Christian