''The Sporting Duchess'' is an 1895 play by Cecil Raleigh, Henry Hamilton and

Augustus Thomas Augustus Thomas (January 8, 1857 – August 12, 1934) was an American playwright. Biography Born in St. Louis, Missouri and son of a doctor, Thomas worked a number of jobs including as a United States House of Representatives Page, page in the 4 ...

. In England it was titled ''The Derby Winner'' and played at

Drury Lane Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster. Notable landmarks ...

.Marcosson, Isaac F. and Daniel Frohman
Charles Frohman: Manager and Man
pp. 193-94 (1916)

Production

Because Hammerstein's

Harlem Opera House Harlem Opera House was a US opera house located at 211 West 125th Street, in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by architect John B. McElfatrick, it was built in 1889 by Oscar Hammerstein; it was his first theater ...

opened a play called ''The Derby Winner'' in February 1895, the name of the English play had to be changed, with the ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publi ...

'' approving it with "apologies to Sir Gus, that seems to be a much more fascinating title."(4 February 1895)
Dramatic News and Notes
''

'' Produced by

Charles Frohman Charles Frohman (July 15, 1856 – May 7, 1915) was an American theater manager and producer, who discovered and promoted many stars of the American stage. Notably, he produced ''Peter Pan'', both in London and the US, the latter production ...

, it ran for 212 performances in New York at the Academy of Music, debuting on August 29, 1895, and was the second longest Broadway production of the year, after '' The Heart of Maryland''.Chapman, John and Garrison P. Sherwood (eds.
The Best Plays of 1894-1899
p. 19 (1955)(21 September 1895)
Plays and Players
''

The Illustrated American ''The Illustrated American'' was a weekly American periodical published from 1890 until 1900. It primarily covered current events (with illustrations), but also contained other miscellaneous content and some fiction.

'', pp. 356-59 Dale, Alan (30 August 1895)
"The Sporting Duchess" (review)
''

''(30 August 1895)
English Horse Drama (review
''

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 ...

'' Twenty horses appeared in the race scene. The show closed on February 29, 1896.(23 February 1896)
This Week On Our Stage
'' The Sun'', col. 2 Then going on tour, the play's first stop was a successful 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 ...

Reception

Alan Dale Alan Hugh Dale (born 6 May 1947) is a New Zealand actor. As a child, Dale enjoyed theatre and rugby. After retiring from the sport, he took on a number of occupations, before deciding to become a professional actor at age 27. Dale subsequentl ...

of ''

The New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under pub ...

'' reviewed the play for the melodramatic spectacle it was, writing: " 'The Sporting Duchess' absolutely defies criticism, for its materials have been written about for decades. It doesn't contain one gleam of anything that is new, for it is composed principally of the best bits of other melodramas. Everything is there--mortgages, encumbered estates, the wronged lady who can no longer conceal her condition, the sorrowing popper, who clinches his fist and sets his lip as he talks of poor Mary; the devilish adventuress with the devilish cigarette; the impecunious earl, the trained race horses (oh! hang the cable and trolley that have let them loose; if we must have them let it be in sausages), and last, but not least, the villain who goes about ruining pretty ladies just because tradition says that he has got to do so." Yet, he admitted the play was a "handsome spectacle" with a cast that was "the very best that the market can supply in or out of season." Dale, Alan (30 August 1895)
"The Sporting Duchess" (review)
''

'', p. 4 As the play's run stretched into 1896, the ''

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

'' noted it was "now the senior play as to continuous use in town. The reason for this long popularity lies about equally in the excellent acting and the realistic scenes, both being far better than the matter of the drama proper."(5 January 1896)
This Week on the Stage
'' The Sun''

Adaptations

The play was adapted into silent films of the same name in

1915 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction". *January 1 ...

, starring

Rose Coghlan Rosamond Marie Coghlan (March 18, 1851 – April 2, 1932) was an English actress. Coghlan was born in Peterborough, England, to author Francis Coghlan, and Anna Marie, ''née'' Kirby. Her elder brother (or half-brother) was the actor Charle ...

and

Ethel Clayton Ethel Clayton (November 8, 1882 – June 6, 1966) was an American actress of the silent film era. Early years Born in Champaign, Illinois, Clayton attended St. Elizabeth's school in Chicago. Career Clayton debuted on stage as a professional ...

, and in

1920 Events January * January 1 ** Polish–Soviet War in 1920: The Russian Red Army increases its troops along the Polish border from 4 divisions to 20. ** Kauniainen, completely surrounded by the city of Espoo, secedes from Espoo as its own ma ...

, starring

Alice Joyce Alice Joyce Brown ( Joyce; October 1, 1890 – October 9, 1955) was an American actress who appeared in more than 200 films during the 1910s and 1920s. She is known for her roles in the 1923 film '' The Green Goddess'' and its 1930 remake of ...

Broadway cast

E. J. Ratcliffe Edward J. Ratcliffe (10 March 1863 – 28 September 1948) was an English actor of stage and screen. He had an established stage career behind him when he came to films in 1915. He then spent nearly twenty years before the cameras before making hi ...

as Earl of Desborough * Roy Richardson as Viscount Fernside * Alfred Fisher as Colonel Donelly * Francis Carlyle as Major Mostyn * W.D. Hanbury as Lord Chisholm * William Harcourt as Rubert Leigh * R.A. Roberts as Cyprian Streatfield * J.H. Stoddart as Joe Aylmer * H.D. Gibbs as Dick Hammond *

Agnes Booth Agnes Booth (October 4, 1843 – January 2, 1910), born Marian Agnes Land Rookes, was an Australian-born American actress and in-law of Junius Brutus Booth, Edwin Booth, and – arguably the most notable – John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abr ...

as Duchess of Milford *

Cora Tanner Cora Tanner (c. 1861–1945) was an American stage actress who was most popular in the mid-1880s through her retirement from the stage in 1902. Biography Tanner was born in Cleveland, Ohio around 1861. She first appeared on stage at McVicker's T ...

as Countess of Desborough * Agnes Proctor as Mrs. Donelly *

Jessie Busley Jessie Busley (1869 – 1950) was an American actress and comedian who performed on stage, screen, and radio for over six decades. Career Jessie starred on stage in over 25 Charles Frohman productions in the first 15 years of her career. ...

as Annette Donelly * Margaret Robinson as Mary Aylmer * Alice Fisher as Vivian Darville

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sporting Duchess, The 1895 plays