File:Intimate recollections of Joseph Jefferson (1909) (14781733605).jpg

Identifier: intmtrcllc00jeff (find matches)
Title: Intimate recollections of Joseph Jefferson
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Jefferson, Eugâenie Paul
Subjects: Jefferson, Joseph, 1829-1905
Publisher: New York : Dodd, Mead and Co.
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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rson produced a new playcalled A Parish Clerk, by Dion Boucicault.It was quite a delightful little drama, which, inmy opinion—and also I think in Jeffersons—failed chiefly because of the mistaken idea ofhow the leading part should be played. Longafterward at Brighton I happened to mentionthe piece to our dear friend Henry Irving, towhom, at his own request, I briefly outlined theplot. So immensely struck was he with thepossibilities contained in it that he at once tooksteps to secure a copy of the manuscript. ButJefferson had carried it with him to America.And to this day nothing has ever been seen orheard of it. Speaking of the salaries paid to the actors inthose days—over forty years ago—Mrs. Billing-ton continued: At that time I was playing leading parts inthe country with Phelps. I was offered onepound a week to understudy Madame Celesteat the Adelphi, but as I was getting £4 in theprovinces I refused. Later I took 30J. and wasfairly well pleased to get such a sum, for it
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JOSEPH JEFFERSON AT THE ADELPHI THEATRE, LONDON, IN 1865 MRS. BILLINGTON AS GRETCHEN, MISS BUCKSTON AS MEENIE JOSEPH JEFFERSON 141 meant a three-years engagement and regularpayment for fifty-two weeks in every twelvemonths. I was at the Adelphi with Websterfor sixteen weeks, and my weekly salary neverexceeded £5, but I daresay there are manyactresses and actors to-day who would gladlyexchange their £2.5 or £30 a week with the pos-sibility of only earning that sum six or eightweeks in the year for the certainty of £260 perannum. In those days we did not rely upon thestar system. I suppose Jefferson was reallythe first of the kind, although possibly Mr. andMrs. Wigan may be spoken of in this connec-tion. Another vital recollection of Mrs. Billingtonwas that of the last night of the old AdelphiTheatre. A supper was given on the stage,after the performance—the invited company in-cluding some of the most brilliant men of theday. I found myself listening to the conversationof such dis

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