Ad for Lottery of Life Philadelphia Daily Evening Telegraph 19 Dec 1867

''The Lottery of Life'' is an 1867 play by

John Brougham John Brougham (9 May 1814 – 7 June 1880) was an Irish-American actor and dramatist. Biography He was born at Dublin. His father was an amateur painter, and died young. His mother was the daughter of a Huguenot, whom political adversity had f ...

, one of his more popular works.

Original run

The play debuted at the

Howard Athenaeum The Howard Athenæum (1845–1953), also known as Old Howard Theatre, in Boston, Massachusetts, was one of the most famous theaters in Boston history. Founded in 1845, it remained an institution of culture and learning for most of its years, final ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

in September 1867,(21 October 1867)
John Brougham's New Play
''Sacramento Daily Union'' and had a four week run at the

Walnut Street Theatre The Walnut Street Theatre, founded in 1809 at 825 Walnut Street, on the corner of S. 9th Street in the Washington Square West neighborhood of Philadelphia, is the oldest operating theatre in the United States. The venue is operated by the Walnut ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in November-December 1867.(19 December 1867)
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''Evening Telegraph'' (Philadelphia) It also played in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

at the National Theatre in January 1868,(14 January 1868)
The National Theatre
''

National Republican The National Republican Party, also known as the Anti-Jacksonian Party or simply Republicans, was a political party in the United States that evolved from a conservative-leaning faction of the Democratic-Republican Party that supported John Qu ...

'' played for two weeks in San Francisco, and played in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

in February 1868, among other places.(3 February 1868)
Amusements
''Daily Dispatch''(9 March 1968)
Amusements
''New York Herald'' By early March 1868, the play's success on the road dictated it would get a run in New York.(19 March 1868)
Musical and Dramatic Gossip
''Charleston Daily News'' The play had its New York debut 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 ...

on June 8, 1868, to open their "summer season," and ran for nine weeks.Life, Stories, and Poems of John Brougham
p. 103 (1881) Brougham played the role of Irish immigrant to New York, Terence O'Halloran, who leaves a life of crime to become an amateur detective.Daly, Nicholas
The Demographic Imagination and the Nineteenth-Century City
p. 72 (2015) His nemesis is the anti-Semitic depiction of counterfeiter Mordie Solomons (played by Charles Fisher).Ben-Joseph, Eli
Aesthetic Persuasion: Henry James, the Jews, and Race
p. 9-10 (1996) "Coal Oil Tommy" was a popular song from the play.

Original Broadway cast

*Terry by

*Bob Mawley by Edward Lamb *Sir William Downe by T.J. Hind *Oil Tommy by Benjamin T. RinggoldThompson, Leslie (21 February 2018)
Millie Ringgold and "Coal Oil Johnny"

Sid Richardson Museum The Sid Richardson Museum is located in historic Sundance Square in Fort Worth, Texas, and features permanent and special exhibitions of paintings by Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell, as well as other late 19th and early 20th-century art ...

*Dodges by W.J. Leonard *Dummy Dennis by J. Quiqley *Duffy by E. Cashin *Hawkeye by E. Menturn *Sam by G. White *Mordie Solomons by Charles Fisher *Robert Mordaunt by C.H. Rockwell *Frank by James McGee *Polly by

Effie Germon Mary Euphemia "Effie" Germon (June 13, 1845 – March 6, 1914) was an American stage actress of the late 19th century from Augusta, Georgia, a descendant of the Germons of Baltimore who were an old theatrical family. She excelled as a soubrette. ...

*Miss Tartar by Fanny Morant *Judy by George Holland *Emily by Miss M. Barrett *Marx by Mis F. Carman *Biddy by Miss C. Carman *Lucy by Miss E. Monell *Jenny by Miss J. Day.Brown, T. Allston
A History of the New York Stage, Vol. 2
p. 267 (1903)

Origin and reception

In 1877, Brougham wrote that ''The Lottery of Life'' had been the "most profitable" of his plays. He noted that it was "originally written as a burlesque upon the sensation of the time," where he "exaggerated the sensational parts of it, and it was something which I expected would be horrifying," yet "I found it was taken in perfect earnest." Thus, he altered the play somewhat into "a not altogether impossible, though somewhat improbable piece." He opined that the play "is not good enough to win the success it has achieved, and not bad enough to receive the animadversions of the hypercritical."Matthews, Brander & Laurence Hutton (eds.
Actors and Actresses of Great Britain and the United States:/books?id=FusLAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA288#v=onepage&q&f=false
pp. 288-89 (1886) Upon receiving criticism in Philadelphia, Brougham announced from the stage before a performance that he had written the play not to please critics, but the public who was demanding plays of this type, and that his aim was to make money. The ''

New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the ''New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. His ...

'' received the play positively in New York, though with no illusions: "According to the legitimate drama of the day this is a first rate plot, especially as it abounds in the latest sensations from beginning to end." It also complimented the New York scenery of the play, and quoted a departing patron as stating "this thing ought to succeed and will succeed, for it is really the legitimate drama of 1868, with all the modern improvements--pretty waiter girls, negro minstrels and all."(9 June 1868)
Wallack's Theatre
''

'' By August 1868, the ''

Philadelphia Evening Telegraph The Philadelphia ''Evening Telegraph'' was a newspaper published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1864 to 1918. The paper was started on January 4, 1864, by James Barclay Harding and Charles Edward Warburton. Warburton served as publisher unti ...

'' reported that "Brougham has already made $1700 out of the piece of trash called "The Lottery of Life." "(14 August 1868)
Col. 2
''

'' Nevertheless, Brougham also converted the play into his first novel, which commenced a run in ''Fireside Companion'' that same month, and netted him an additional $2,000.(19 August 1868)
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''New York Herald''(10 September 1868)
Miscellaneous
''New York Herald'' (rightmost column, "John Brougham receives $2,000 for his 'Novel' version of the 'Lottery of Life.") The play saw performances around the United States into the 1890s.(4 March 1888)
The Drama
''Los Angeles Daily Herald'' ("Charles A. Mestayer has secured the rights to John Brougham's ''Lottery of Life'', and will play it in the chief theaters.")(12 April 1884)
The Lottery of Life
''Daily Dispatch'' (

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

)(21 November 1893)
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''Morning Call''(21 December 1901)
The Theatres
''The Butter Inter Mountain'' To the extent the play gets any attention in the modern day, it is about the stereotyped Jewish villain of the play, who was also called upon to wear a "false Jewish nose."Erdman, Harley
M. B. Curtis and the Making of the American Stage Jew
''Journal of American Ethnic History'', Vol. 15, No. 1 (Fall, 1995), pp. 28-45Harap, Louis
The Image of the Jew in American Literature
p. 212 (2003 ed.)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lottery of Life, The Broadway plays 1867 plays