''The County Chairman'' is a 1903 comedy play by

George Ade George Ade (February 9, 1866 – May 16, 1944) was an American writer, syndicated newspaper columnist, and playwright who gained national notoriety at the turn of the 20th century with his "Stories of the Streets and of the Town", a column that ...

, which was one of his greatest successes. Produced by Henry W. Savage, it played for 222 performances on Broadway at

Wallack's Theatre Three New York City playhouses named Wallack's Theatre played an important part in the history of American theater, as the successive homes of the Repertory theatre, stock company managed by actors James William Wallack, James W. Wallack and hi ...

. It was also adapted to film in 1914 and 1935.

Play

''The County Chairman'' was Ade's first attempt at non-musical comedy. The play was first performed at the Auditorium in

South Bend, Indiana South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 United S ...

, on August 29, 1903, and also played for a number of weeks at the

Studebaker Theatre The ten-story Fine Arts Building, also known as the Studebaker Building, is located at 410 S Michigan Avenue across from Grant Park in Chicago in the Chicago Landmark Historic Michigan Boulevard District. It was built for the Studebaker comp ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

.Playbill
(October 1903) It opened on Broadway on Tuesday, November 24, 1903, and played for 222 performances. The reviews of the play were also positive.(5 December 1903
Wallack's
''

New York Clipper The ''New York Clipper'', also known as ''The Clipper'', was a weekly entertainment newspaper published in New York City from 1853 to 1924. It covered many topics, including circuses, dance, music, the outdoors, sports, and theatre. It had a ...

Maclyn Arbuckle Maclyn Arbuckle (July 9, 1866 – March 31, 1931) was an American screen and stage actor. He was the brother of actor Andrew Arbuckle and cousin of comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Early life Arbuckle was born in San Antonio, Texas, on July ...

, playing the local politician Jim Hackler, starred both on Broadway and on the road, playing the role for four years.Hischak, Thomas S
Enter the Players: New York Stage Actors in the Twentieth Century
p. 11 (2003)Burt, Daniel S
The Chronology of American Literature
p. 307 (2004)The Oxford Companion to American Theatre
p. 151 (2004)(22 November 1903
People of Stageland
''New-York Tribune'' (photograph of Maclyn Arbuckle as Hon. Jim Hackler)(25 November 1903)
'County Chairman' Carries the City
''Evening World''(26 November 1903)
Gossip of Theatre Land
''The Sun''(25 November 1903)
The County Chairman A Hit
''The Sun''(25 November 1903)
George Ade in Comedy
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''(1 September 1903)
George Ade's New Play
''

'' Reviewers also praised Willis P. Sweatnam's blackface role. Sweatnam was an old minstrel performer who Ade worked into the play after finding he had fallen on hard times. (Black actor

Stepin Fetchit Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry (May 30, 1902 – November 19, 1985), better known by the stage name Stepin Fetchit, was an American vaudevillian, comedian, and film actor of Jamaican and Bahamian descent, considered to be the first black a ...

played the former blackface role in the 1935 film.) The play closed for the season at Wallack's on June 4, 1904, but returned for 44 more performances in the fall before going on the road. It was also revived in 1936 for eight performances at the National Theatre, with

Charles Coburn Charles Douville Coburn (June 19, 1877 – August 30, 1961) was an American actor and theatrical producer. He was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award three times – in ''The Devil and Miss Jones'' (1941), ''The More the Me ...

playing Hackler, but did not draw large audiences. Ade later recounted that he took the names of many of play's characters from a list of tax delinquents posted in the courthouse of

Vicksburg, Mississippi Vicksburg is a historic city in Warren County, Mississippi, United States. It is the county seat, and the population at the 2010 census was 23,856. Located on a high bluff on the east bank of the Mississippi River across from Louisiana, Vic ...

, a "grand roster of good old Anglo-Saxon names" which fit the "undiluted American 'types' to be found in Antioch", the location of the play. ''The County Chairman'' was included in

Burns Mantle Robert Burns Mantle (December 23, 1873February 9, 1948) was an American theater critic. He founded the ''Best Plays'' annual publication in 1920.Chansky, Dorothy (2011)"Burns Mantle and the American Theatregoing Public" in ''Theatre History Stu ...

's ''Best Plays of 1899-1909'' volume published in 1944.Mantle, Burns & Garrison P. Sherman, ''Best Plays of 1899-1909'' (1944) A study of Ade's work published in 1964 concluded that ''The County Chairman'' had been "largely ignored in histories of American drama," despite being "the worthiest of Ade's plays."Coyle, Lee
George Ade: A Critical Study
p. 70 (1964)

Original Broadway cast

* The Honorable Jim Hackler ...

* Tillford Wheeler ... Earle Browne * Elias Rigby ... Charles Fisher * Riley Cleaver ... Fred Bock * Wilson Prewitt ... Harry Holman * Jupiter Pettaway ... George Ricketts * Sassafras Livingston ... Willis P. Sweatnam * Jefferson Briscoe ... Edward Chapman * Uncle Eck Millbury ... W.J. Gross * Vance Jimmison ... J. Sydney Macy * Joe Whittaker ... E.R. Phillips * Cal Barcus ... Claude C. Boyer * "Chub" Tolliver ...

Fred Santley Fred Santley (November 20, 1887 – May 14, 1953), also known variously as Freddie Santley, Fredric Santley, Frederick Santley, Frederic Santley, and Fredric M. Santley, was an American character actor of the silent and sound film eras, as well ...

* Amos Whitney ... Roy Richards * Clabe Overton ... Howard Cuyler * Dawson Montgomery ... John J. Meehan * Lucy Rigby ...

Miriam Nesbitt Miriam Nesbitt (September 14, 1873 in Chicago – August 11, 1954 in Hollywood) was an American stage and film actress. Biography Born Miriam Schanke or Skanke, she studied at the Stanhope-Wheatcroft Dramatic School, before landing a part in Da ...

* Mrs. Elias Rigby ... Christine Blessing * Mrs. Jefferson Briscoe ...

Rose Beaudet Rose Beaudet (born Eliza Lang; 1862–1947) was an American actress and opera singer of the late 19th and early 20th century who regularly appeared in musical theatre. She was born as Eliza Lang, the daughter of Councilman Lewis H. Lang (1 ...

* Lorena Watkins ... Grace Fisher * "Chick" Elzey ... Anna Buckley * Tilly .... Nina Ainscoe

Adaptations

The play first adapted to a film of the same name in 1914, with Arbuckle and Sweatnam returning to their original roles. It was again adapted to film in 1935.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:County Chairman, The 1903 plays American plays adapted into films Broadway plays Plays set in the 19th century