¹ Editor's note: Louis Napoleon Parker (1852–1944) was the author of more than fifty plays produced in England and the United States. During the 1910–1911 season he had three plays running simultaneously on Broadway: Pomader Walk, Chantecler (adapted from Rostand and starring Maude Adams), and Sire (adapted from Lavedan). His most famous play, Disraeli, was the hit of the 1911–1912 New York season and brought fame to its star, George Arliss. Joseph and his Brethren ran for 121 performances in New York before its road tour. The play also received a London production at His Majesty's later in the 1912–1913 season. See Parker, John, Who's Who in the Theatre, 4th rev. ed. (Boston, 1922), pp. 632–633Google Scholar and Mantle, Burns and Sherwood, Garrison P., eds., The Best Plays of 1909–1919 (New York, 1933), passimGoogle Scholar.

² Editor's note: The house Morley knew as the Century had opened, with great expectations, as the New Theatre in 1909. Conceived as a showplace for stage classics and the finest of the new drama, the New Theatre assembled a prestigious repertory company under the direction of Winthrop Ames. John Corbin was the literary advisor, Lee Schubert was the business manager, and J.P. Morgan, J.J. Astor and several Vanderbilts were among its financiers. The details of its brief, ill-fated history are well-known. See Hewitt, Barnard, Theatre U.S.A. 1668–1957 (New York, 1959), pp. 302–306Google Scholar and Morehouse, Ward, Matinee Tomorrow (New York, 1949), pp. 93–95Google Scholar.

³ Editor's note: Morley's admiration of O'Neill at the age of sixty-four is interesting and serves as a reminder that a thorough assessment of James O'Neill's career has yet to appear. Except for an inept project of the WPA Writers' Program and parts of Louis Scheaffer's admirable O'Neill: Son and Playwright (Boston, 1968)Google Scholar, I know of no published work which gives more than passing mention to the impact of the elder O'Neill on his contemporary theatre. Even Scheaffer's treatment is thrown somewhat out of focus by his special perspective: “James O'Neill's playing of Monte Cristo more than a quarter-century, on and off, would be of no interest today save for one thing: it left an enduring mark not only on himself but on his playwright son” (p. 37). But surely it can be argued that the singular association of this actor with his role left its mark on the American theatre, in that it helped to keep alive both an archaic school of playwriting and an old school of romantic acting.

⁴ Editor's note: O'Neill made his hit with Monte Cristo in 1883, the same year that brought national fame to two other romantic actors: Richard Mansfield (as Baron Chevrial in A Parisian Romance) and Robert Mantell (as Loris Ipanoff in Fedora). In contrast to O'Neill, both Mansfield and Mantell subsequently expanded their repertories to achieve popular success in Shakespearean drama. O'Neill's struggle to do so is recorded, but began even earlier than the year 1888 suggested by Scheaffer, op. cit., p. 41. O'Neill told the New York Dramatic Mirror on February 27, 1886, that he intended to produce the entire Fechter repertory, including The Duke's Motto, Black and White and The Corsican Brothers. He reported that he had hired Fechter's former stage manager, Arthur LeClerq, and would stage the plays as Fechter had staged them.

⁵ Editor's note: De Cordoba was a holdover from the New Theatre repertory company.

⁶ Joseph and his Brethren opened on January 11, 1913. Malcolm Morley played continuously until it closed for the season on April 26, 1913.

⁷ Editor's note: Pangborn later achieved considerable fame as a character actor in the motion pictures.

⁸ Morley played Gad and Ansu, Leslie Palmer's two parts, February 6–10, 1913, and again from February 24 until the end of the run.

⁹ Editor's note: Eugene O'Neill was in the Gaylord sanatorium from December 24, 1912, to June 3, 1913, except for a few days in late February when, according to Scheaffer, “instead of visiting his family in New York, he spent the time in New London ” (p. 249). While it is possible that Morley's memory has failed him, the story of the meeting has the ring of truth.

¹⁰ Editor's note: If the meeting actually took place at this time, Morley's recollections document O'Neill's earliest revelation of his playwriting aspirations. While Scheaffer (p. 252) suggests that “it was at Gaylord that Eugene O'Neill decided to write for the theatre,” he gives no indication that O'Neill had revealed his decision to anyone before the late summer of 1913. Eugene O'Neill and Morley were to meet again when the latter joined Professor Baker's English 47—see Scheaffer, op. cit., p. 309.

¹¹ Laurence Houseman's version of Lysistrata was first produced at the Little Theatre, London. Two performances were given at the Maxine Elliott Theatre on February 17–18, 1913, under the auspices of the Women's Political Union.

¹² Hamilton Deane returned to England, where he established his own repertory company, running seasons for twenty years in leading cities of the British Isles. His adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, first given in 1927, was a remarkable success and led to many film versions. He later created the title role in his own version of Frankenstein. He died in 1958.