Charles M. Barras ( – ) was an American actor and playwright best known for writing the book inspiring the hit musical play ''

The Black Crook ''The Black Crook'' is a work of musical theatre first produced in New York City with great success in 1866. Many theatre writers have cautiously identified ''The Black Crook'' as the first popular piece that conforms to the modern notion of a mu ...

''. Early in his life, Barras trained as a carpenter and served for three years in the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. In 1860, he married danseuse and

soubrette A soubrette is a type of operatic soprano voice ''fach'', often cast as a female stock character in opera and theatre. The term arrived in English from Provençal via French, and means "conceited" or "coy". Theatre In theatre, a soubrette is a ...

Sallie St. Clair. In 1861, he was manager of

Pike's Opera House Pike's Opera House, later renamed the Grand Opera House, was a theater in New York City on the northwest corner of 8th Avenue and 23rd Street, in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. It was constructed in 1868, at a cost of a million dollar ...

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, Ohio, when he earned acclaim for his performance of the title character in an adaptation of

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and worl ...

's '' The Imaginary Invalid''. Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1891). "Barras, Charles M." ''

Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography ''Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography'' is a six-volume collection of biographies of notable people involved in the history of the New World. Published between 1887 and 1889, its unsigned articles were widely accepted as authoritative f ...

''. New York: D. Appleton. Barras wrote ''The Black Crook'' (1866) as a standard melodrama, but the piece was transformed by producers

Jarrett & Palmer Jarrett & Palmer was an American theatrical production partnership, prominent and influential in the 1860s and 1870s. The partners were Henry Clay Jarrett (1828–1903) and Harry Palmer (born Henry David Palmer; 1833–1879). The partner ...

, under an agreement with theatre manager

William Wheatley William Wheatley (December 5, 1816 – November 3, 1876) was an American stage actor. Biography He was born in New York City, the son of Frederick Wheatley, once a favorite actor in Baltimore and Philadelphia. His mother was Sarah (Ross) Wh ...

, into a musical

extravaganza An extravaganza is a literary or musical work (often musical theatre) usually containing elements of burlesque, pantomime, music hall and parody in a spectacular production and characterized by freedom of style and structure. It sometimes also ...

. The spectacular success of ''The Black Crook'' earned Barras a fortune of some $250,000 (about $5,000,000 today). Barras built a country house on the

Mianus River The Mianus River is a river in Westchester County, New York, and Fairfield County, Connecticut, in the United States. It begins in the town of North Castle, New York (east of Armonk) in a series of ponds at about altitude. Flowing northeast ...

Cos Cob Cos Cob is a neighborhood and census-designated place in the town of Greenwich, Connecticut. It is located on the Connecticut shoreline in southern Fairfield County. It had a population of 6,770 at the 2010 census. Cos Cob is located on the west ...

, Connecticut, near its railroad station and was a weekly train passenger. On March 31, 1873, while the train was stopped on a

trestle bridge A trestle bridge is a bridge composed of a number of short spans supported by closely spaced frames. A trestle (sometimes tressel) is a rigid frame used as a support, historically a tripod used to support a stool or a pair of isosceles triangl ...

, Barras jumped from the train, but instead of landing on the bridge, he fell through it to the rocks below and died.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Barras, Charles M. Created via preloaddraft 1826 births 1873 deaths American male stage actors American dramatists and playwrights Accidental deaths from falls Accidental deaths in Connecticut