(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
William Jermyn Florence, born William Jermyn Conlin, was an American actor, songwriter, and playwright, who was one of the most popular actors of his day.
Background
William J. Florence was born on July 26, 1831, in Albany, New York, of Irish descent, the son of Peter (or Michael) Conlin and Mary Flynn.
Florence grew up in New York in the old Thirteenth Ward. Among East Side boys he was famous for his genius for impersonation, his irrepressible humor, and his phenomenal memory. When a call boy at the Old Bowery Theatre he is said to have reproduced for Chanfrau an entire unpublished one-act piece "out of his head. "
Education
His formal education was cut short by the death of his father, and Florence, at fifteen, had to help support his mother and seven younger children.
Career
Florence contrived, while working as a cub reporter and later in a type foundry, to prepare himself for the stage by rehearsing at night with the gifted amateurs of James E. Murdoch’s Dramatic Association.
His first spoken part was that of Peter in The Stranger with the stock company at the Marshall Theatre, Richmond, Virginia, December 6, 1849.
Florence demonstrated early in his career his ability in Shakespearian roles, but his first Irish part, that of Hallagan in Brougham’s play Home, at Niblo’s Garden in 1850, determined his bent toward dialect impersonation.
In 1851 he scored with Brougham a hit in an eccentric hoax, A Row at the Lyceum, which raised him from the first walking-gentleman class. The season of 1852 saw him supporting a succession of stars at the Broadway Theatre, among whom were Mr. and Mrs. Barney Williams.
In 1853 Florence began a highly successful starring venture in a play of his own, The Irish Boy and the Yankee Girl. After an extensive American tour, he played a fifty-night engagement at Drury Lane followed by triumphs in the provinces. From this time until the coalition with Joseph Jefferson in 1889, Florence enjoyed unbroken success. He confined himself for nearly a decade to Irish-American comedy, varied by burlesque and melodrama.
It was not until 1861 that Florence played the first of the great parts which, according to Winter, established his rank among the leading actors of his time. During almost forty years as a star Florence made not one failure, though his notable triumphs are confined to a few strongly contrasted parts — Captain Cuttle, in Dombey and Son, which won Dickens’s praise; Bob Brierly, in The Ticket-of- Leave Man; Obenreizer, in No Thoroughfare; Bardwell Slote, in The Mighty Dollar, said by Hutton to be his most enduring character; Sir Lucius O’Trigger, in The Rivals; and Zekicl Homespun, in The Heir-at-Law, played at the last with Jefferson. Critics agree that his supreme gifts were his talent for impersonation and his skill in drawing vivid and convincing human types.
Florence has been classed among four leading comedians on the American stage, among six on the English-speaking stage, and was one of the few Americans to win the ribbon of the Société Histoire Dramatique of France. His work with Jefferson was an example of the finest type of artistic team-play. William J. Florence died on November 19, 1891, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. When he died, at the height of his powers, it was said that no other actor save Booth or Jefferson could have been so widely missed.
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
Membership
William J. Florence was a co-founder with Walter M. Fleming of the Shriners, a Masonic Order.
Personality
William J. Florence enriched his personality by travel, study, and by varied human contacts. Wherever he went he gathered about him a brilliant circle of friends of many professions.
Connections
In 1853, William J. Florence married Malvina Pray, a popular danseuse.