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The Temperamental Journey

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The Temperamental Journey
Richie Ling and Leo Ditrichstein
Written byLeo Ditrichstein
Based onPour Vivre Heureux by André Rivoire and Yves Mirande
Directed byLeo Ditrichstein
Date premieredSeptember 4, 1913
Place premieredBelasco Theatre
Original languageEnglish
SubjectArtist mortality brings commercial success
GenreComedy
SettingThe Italian Inn, a Greenwich Village studio, the Shepherd's home.

The Temperamental Journey, originally titled Such Is Life, is a 1913 play by Leo Ditrichstein, adapted from Pour Vivre Heureux by André Rivoire and Yves Mirande. It is a three-act comedy with three settings and twenty characters. The story concerns an unhappy artist who fails to commit suicide but is assumed to have really died, and finds the commercial success in "death" that escaped him in life.

The play was produced by David Belasco, staged by Ditrichstein who also starred, with Isabel Irving, Josephine Victor, Richie Ling, and Cora Witherspoon in support. It had a tryout in San Francisco under its original name in June 1913, and another in Rochester, New York in late August 1913, before it's Broadway premiere in September 1913. It ran through December 1913 for 123 performances, started on tour in Brooklyn, but closed down when Ditrichstein fell seriously ill.

The play was never revived on Broadway, nor adapted for other media.

Characters

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Characters are listed in order of appearance within their scope.

Lead

  • Jacques Dupont is a landscape artist, who eschews commercialism for individuality in his painting.[fn 1]

Supporting

  • Vernon Neil is a successful dauber without artistic vision, who is having an affair with Delphine.
  • Billy Shepherd is Jacques' friend and confidant, a composer who shares his studio space.
  • Delphine Dupont is nagging wife to Jacques, and his former model. She is crass and materialistic.
  • Maria Tamburri is a kind and cheerful Italian-American girl with whom Jacques is in love.
  • Fanny Lamont is Billy's practical fiancée, who will wait to marry him until they can afford it.

Featured

  • Prof Babcock Roland
  • Dorval is a picture dealer who bought low from Dupont and sells high after his "death".
  • Howard Locke[fn 2]
  • Carrington McLiss is an Associated Press reporter covering the funeral, whose French is erratic.
  • Tamburri is Marie's father, who owns the Italian Inn on the Connecticut shore of Long Island Sound.
  • Roy is a young painter.
  • Max is an art tutor.
  • Edna is an art student.
  • Eleanor
  • Marjorie
  • Lina
  • Teresa is a waitress at the Italian Inn.

Bit Players

  • Maid
  • Messenger

Synopsis

[edit]

The play was never published; this synopsis is compiled from contemporaneous newspaper and magazine reviews.

Act I (Front patio of the Italian Inn, late afternoon.) Jacques Dupont is discouraged when Dorval, who has purchased some of his prior works at very low prices, decides not to buy any more. His supposed friend Vernon Neil urges him to paint in a more popular style, but Jacques refuses to compromise. Maria Tamburri momentarily lifts his spirits when she gives him $285 from "a gentleman in a motor car" who bought two of his paintings. But Billy Shepherd accidentally reveals there was no sale; Maria gave Jacques her savings and the two paintings are in her room. Jacques gives Maria her money back but tells her to keep the pictures. Hungry, he goes to eat his supper at the inn, but finds that Delphine has already eaten both dinners. She nags him about his inability to sell canvases, comparing him unfavorably to Neil. Depressed, with evening dark approaching, Jacques wanders down to the pier where he leaves his hat and coat, the latter with a suicide note in it. He walks off the pier into the water. (Curtain)

Act II (The Greenwich Village studio shared by Dupont and Shepherd, two weeks later.) A body having been found, Delphine has identified it as her husband. Now that he is dead, public opinion on Jacques Dupont's work has reversed. His paintings are esteemed and command high prices. Dorval now regrets not buying the last two works offered him, but Maria refuses to sell them. Billy Shepherd is too sorrowful to attend the funeral, so Fanny Lamont will go instead. The funeral cortège includes an art museum director and other notables. A wreath with the message "Rest in Peace" is in the studio. Delphine asks Fanny to have the florist add a postscript: "Until I Come". Left alone in the studio at last, Billy is surprised to hear someone come in from the bath: It is Jacques! Dupont explains that once in the water he started swimming and couldn't stop. A passing yacht rescued him on its way to Halifax, Nova Scotia. It took Jacques two weeks to make his return to Manhattan. As Billy and Jacques watch the funeral from the studio window, Jacques wants to reveal himself. But when he sees his widow embracing Neil, he decides to stay "dead". He leaves for France instead. (Curtain)

Act III (The drawing room of the Shepherd's new home, three years later.) Billy having made a success with composing music, he and Fanny have married and bought a house in Manhattan. Wearing a disguise and calling himself "M. Lenoire", an art collector, Jacques has brought thirty original Dupont canvases to America. He visits the Shepherds, who previously alerted, have assembled some wealthy art patrons to view them, and invited Maria. However, Delphine and her new husband Neil crash the private showing. She has six of Neil's paintings upon which she has forged Dupont's signature. Outraged, Jacques reveals himself, and chaos ensues. The practical Fanny and calm Billy broker a peace agreement: Jacques and Delphine will get a quiet divorce, he will give her some money, then he and Maria will marry and return to France. (Curtain)

Original production

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Background

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Pour Vivre Heureux by André Rivoire and Yves Mirande had its premiere at the Théâtre de la Renaissance in Paris, on January 16, 1912.[1] David Belasco "secured the American rights to the play immediately after the first performance".[2] He entrusted its adaptation for the American stage to Leo Ditrichstein, who had a proven track record in successfully adapting European stage works, such as Are You a Mason? (1901) and The Concert (1910).

The Great Adventure by Arnold Bennett had premiered in London during March 1913, and was still running there when The Temperamental Journey was in rehearsals. This play concerned an artist, already famous, who takes the place of his recently deceased valet. The artist gets some peace and quiet, the valet gets a state funeral. But when the artist needs to raise some money, he encounters difficulty selling his own new work, and so seeks to reclaim his own identity.

Because the original tryout for The Temperamental Journey was done in California under the title Such Is Life, New York newspaper theatrical departments weren't aware of it. An article in The New York Times suggested the play was as yet unnamed, had been prepared in secrecy, and leaned on Bennett's work.[3] A Broadway version of The Great Adventure was due to premiere in October 1913, leading to questions of similarities in the two plays. David Belasco wrote an open letter to The New York Times, explaining the chronology of his production,[2] but was countered by publisher George H. Doran who pointed out Bennett's play was based on his own novel Buried Alive, a book published by Doran's company in 1908.[4]

Cast

[edit]
Principal cast during the tryouts and the Broadway run. Production on hiatus from June 30 through August 28, 1913.
Role Actor Dates Notes and sources
Jacques Dupont Leo Ditrichstein Jun 23, 1913 - Dec 20, 1913
Vernon Neil Kernan Cripps Jun 23, 1913 - Jun 29, 1913
Frank Connor Aug 29, 1913 - Dec 20, 1913
Billy Shepherd John A. Butler Jun 23, 1913 - Jun 29, 1913
Richie Ling Aug 29, 1913 - Dec 20, 1913
Delphine Dupont Isabel Irving Jun 23, 1913 - Dec 20, 1913
Maria Tamburri Madge West Jun 23, 1913 - Jun 29, 1913 She was a member of Ditrichstein's company, along with Irving and Witherspoon.[5]
Josephine Victor Aug 29, 1913 - Dec 20, 1913
Fanny Lamont Cora Witherspoon Jun 23, 1913 - Dec 20, 1913
Prof Babcock Roland John Ellicot Jun 23, 1913 - Jun 29, 1913
Henry Bergman Aug 29, 1913 - Dec 20, 1913
Dorval Burt Wesner Jun 23, 1913 - Jun 29, 1913
Edouard Durand Aug 29, 1913 - Dec 20, 1913
Howard Locke Julian Little Aug 29, 1913 - Dec 20, 1913 Little was a member of Newport society whom Belasco recruited for the stage.[6]
Carrington McLiss Lee Millar Jun 23, 1913 - Dec 20, 1913 Millar was one of two Alcazar Stock Company actors brought East for this play.
Tamburri Roy Clements Jun 23, 1913 - Jun 29, 1913
Daniel Schatts Aug 29, 1913 - Dec 20, 1913
Roy Edmund Lowe Jun 23, 1913 - Jun 29, 1913
Edwin R. Wolfe Aug 29, 1913 - Dec 20, 1913
Max Louis Bennison Jun 23, 1913 - Jun 29, 1913
Earl W. Grant Aug 29, 1913 - Dec 20, 1913
Edna Alice Patek Jun 23, 1913 - Jun 29, 1913
Carrie Clark Aug 29, 1913 - Dec 20, 1913
Eleanor Anne McNaughton Jun 23, 1913 - Dec 20, 1913 McNaughton was the other Alcazar Stock Company member to go to Broadway.
Marjorie Ethel McFarland Jun 23, 1913 - Jun 29, 1913
Dorothy Ellis Aug 29, 1913 - Dec 20, 1913
Lina TBD Jun 23, 1913 - Jun 29, 1913 Played by an actress from the Alcazar Theatre Stock Company.
Annette Tyler Aug 29, 1913 - Dec 20, 1913
Teresa Anne Livingston Jun 23, 1913 - Jun 29, 1913 Livingston was also a member of Ditrichstein's own company.[5]
Gertrud Morsini Aug 29, 1913 - Dec 20, 1913

Tryouts

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The play was first performed as Such Is Life at the Alcazar Theatre in San Francisco on June 23, 1913.[7] It was one of four plays by Leo Ditrichstein presented that month, the others being revivals of The Concert, Before and After, and Are You a Mason?. Ditrichstein produced and staged Such Is Life with the permission and financial backing of David Belasco, who owned the American rights to Pour Vivre Heureux. Ditrichstein used four performers of his own company for the play: Isabel Irving, Cora Witherspoon, Madge West, and Anne Livingston. The rest of the cast were members of the Alcazar Stock Company.[5] It was reported that if the play was successful in its week-long presentation, that Belasco would produce it on Broadway during the Fall.[8]

Local critics in San Francisco were enthusiastic about the play,[7] though Neill Wilson of The San Francisco Examiner was prescient about a renaming: "There persists a feeling that Such Is Life, after it has been David Belascoed for its New York premiere, will face the theatrical season under a title made of sterner stuff". Wilson also credited Ditrichstein for providing most of the play over a French skeleton, and for the stage direction.[9]

Following the San Francisco tryout, the production went on hiatus until August, when it started rehearsals at the Belasco Theatre, with many new cast members. A new character, Howard Locke, was written in for neophyte actor Julian Little, a recent Belasco discovery.[6] The retitled and revised production then had another tryout at the Lyceum Theater in Rochester, New York, starting August 28, 1913. Though now The Temperamental Journey, the leading character played by Leo Ditrichstein was still named Stephen Blake. The play was generously received by the audience, while the local critic complimented Ditrichstein, Isabel Irving, Richie Ling, Josephine Victor, Cora Witherspoon, and Frank Conner for their performances.[10]

Broadway premiere and reception

[edit]

The Temperamental Journey had its Broadway premiere at the Belasco Theatre on September 4, 1913. By this time the main character had been renamed Jacques Dupont.[fn 3] The judgement of The New York Times reviewer was that aside from the idea of an artist faking their death, there was little in common between Arnold Bennett's The Great Adventure and The Temperamental Journey.[12] Matthew White Jr. in Munsey's Magazine said "...the surprise in The Temperamental Journey is not that it is so similar to The Great Adventure, but so different from it".[13]

The reviewer for The Brooklyn Daily Eagle acknowledged the novelty of the main situation, but said the play "is thin, superficial and utterly unreal". What saves it as entertainment are "some charming incidental bits of character, comedy and sentiment".[14] The New-York Tribune critic was positive about the play: "a thoroughly amusing comedy, ingenuously invented, well constructed, soundly and cleverly written, well acted and mounted".[15] Charles Darnton in The Evening World was emphatic about The Temperamental Journey having little in common with The Great Adventure. He awarded the acting honors to Isabel Irving, but also mentioned Richie Ling "did the best acting of his life".[16]

Change of venue and strike

[edit]

The production moved from the Belasco Theatre to the Theatre Republic on September 29, 1913, to make way for David Warfield in a revival of The Auctioneer. Warfield was Belasco's discovery, and his first success had come in 1901 with The Auctioneer.[17]

However, David Belasco created a labor issue by taking the stage hands from the Belasco Theatre, who were familiar with the setup for The Temperamental Journey, and switching them to the Republic, replacing them at the Belasco with the Republic stage hands. Though the distance was just four blocks, representatives of the Stage Hands Union insisted that by contract The Temperamental Journey was now a "road show", and must hire a new set of stage hands. Two union officials forced their way into the Republic and called out the stage hands. Belasco responded by pulling all the lobby and office personnel backstage, where he directed and joined them in shifting sets.[18] The problem was quickly resolved the next day, and both productions were able to continue.[19]

Broadway closing and abortive tour

[edit]

The play reached its 100th performance on Monday night, December 1, 1913.[20] It was still drawing crowds,[21] but Belasco wanted to replace it with a silent film called Traffic in Souls.[22] The Temperamental Journey closed at the Theatre Republic on Saturday, December 20, 1913, after 123 performances, and started its tour at the Broadway Theatre in Brooklyn the following Monday.[23] However, within a week, Leo Ditrichstein fell ill, and the play was temporarily shutdown.[24] As time passed, Ditrichstein's condition was found to be more serious than thought, leading Belasco to cancel the tour and close the production.[25]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ The tryouts had this character's name as Stephen Blake.
  2. ^ This small part was added for the Rochester tryout and Broadway.
  3. ^ The reason for the switch may have been complaints in tryout reviews that Leo Ditrichstein was having enunciation trouble. He was not a native English speaker; Willa Cather in a later article pointed out how his accent in The Concert was identical to that in The Temperamental Journey.[11]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "David Belasco's Plans". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, New York. August 26, 1913. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ a b Belasco, David (August 26, 1913). "Mr. Belasco's New Play". The New York Times. New York, New York. p. 8 – via NYTimes.com.
  3. ^ "Belasco Surprise for Coming Season". The New York Times. New York, New York. August 25, 1913. p. 5 – via NYTimes.com.
  4. ^ Doran, George H. (August 27, 1913). "Corrects Mr. Belasco". The New York Times. New York, New York. p. 6 – via NYTimes.com.
  5. ^ a b c "Notes of the Theater". San Francisco Bulletin. San Francisco, California. June 14, 1913. p. 15 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ a b "Two Translations On New York Stage". The Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. September 6, 1913. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ a b "Ditrichstein Wins Plaudits In Farce". The San Francisco Call. San Francisco, California. June 24, 1913. p. 27 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Ditrichstein in a New Play Opens at Alcazar". San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco, California. June 23, 1913. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ Wilson, Neill (June 25, 1913). "Leo Ditrichstein Is Whole Show in Himself". The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. p. 9 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Amusements: Lyceum Theater". Democrat and Chronicle. Rochester, New York. August 29, 1913. p. 17 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ Cather, Willa Sibert (February 1914). "New Types of Acting". McClure's Magazine. Vol. XLII, no. 4. New York, New York: S. S. McClure. pp. 41, 49.
  12. ^ "Belasco Provides Exquisite Comedy". The New York Times. New York, New York. September 5, 1913. p. 9 – via NYTimes.com.
  13. ^ White, Matthew (November 1, 1913). "The Stage". Munsey's Magazine. Vol. I, no. 2. New York, New York: Frank A. Munsey Company (published November 1913). pp. 285, 294.
  14. ^ "Ditrichstein Play Unreal, But Amusing". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, New York. September 5, 1913. p. 26 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Belasco Theatre". New-York Tribune. New York, New York. September 5, 1913. p. 9 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ Darnton, Charles (September 5, 1913). "The New Plays". The Evening World. New York, New York. p. 17 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Big Week For New York Theaters". The Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. September 29, 1913. p. 11 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "Stage Hands Strike In Belasco Theatre". The New York Times. New York, New York. September 30, 1913. p. 1 – via NYTimes.com.
  19. ^ "Stage Strike Called Off". The New York Times. New York, New York. October 1, 1913. p. 9 – via NYTimes.com.
  20. ^ ""Temperamental Journey"". Brooklyn Citizen. Brooklyn, New York. December 1, 1913. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ "Amusement Notes". The Daily Standard Union. Brooklyn, New York. December 11, 1913. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ^ "Vice Play Pictures for Republic". The New York Times. New York, New York. December 10, 1913. p. 13 – via NYTimes.com.
  23. ^ "Belasco Plays End Long Runs". New-York Tribune. New York, New York. December 21, 1913. p. 11 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ Bell, Archie (January 1, 1914). "New Year's New Plays". The Plain Dealer. Cleveland, Ohio. p. 14 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ "Actor's Illness Grave". The Oregonian. Portland, Oregon. February 2, 1914. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
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