David Belasco

David Belasco (July 25, 1853 – May 14, 1931) was an American theatrical producer, impresario, director, and playwright.[1] He was the first writer to adapt the short story Madame Butterfly for the stage. He launched the theatrical career of many actors, including James O'Neill, Mary Pickford, Lenore Ulric, and Barbara Stanwyck. Belasco pioneered many innovative new forms of stage lighting and special effects in order to create realism and naturalism.[2][3]

David Belasco is also the name of his uncle, David James (actor, born 1839)

David J. Belasco
Belasco in 1909
Born(1853-07-25)July 25, 1853
San Francisco, California, U.S.
DiedMay 14, 1931(1931-05-14) (aged 77)
New York City, U.S.
Occupation(s)Theatrical producer, director, playwright
Years active1884 to 1930
Known forBelasco Theatre; pioneer of modern stage lighting and stage effects; stage naturalism
Notable creditMadame Butterfly
Spouse
Cecilia Loverich
​
​
(m. 1873; died 1926)​
Signature

Early years

David Belasco was born in 1853 in San Francisco, California, the son of Abraham H. Belasco (1830–1911) and Reyna Belasco (née Nunes, 1830–1899), Sephardic Jews who had immigrated to the United States from London's Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community during the California Gold Rush.[3]: 13  He began working as a youth in a San Francisco theater doing a variety of routine jobs, such as call boy, script copier, or as an extra in small parts.[3]: 14  He received his first experience as a stage manager while on the road. He said, "We used to play in any place we could hire or get into—a hall, a big dining room, an empty barn; any place that would take us."[3]: 14 

From late 1873 to early 1874, he worked as an actor, director, and secretary at Piper's Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada, where he found "more reckless women and desperadoes to the square foot…than anywhere else in the world". His developmental years as a supporting player in Virginia City colored his thoughts and eventually helped him to conceive realistic stage settings.[4] He said that while working there, seeing "people die under such peculiar circumstances" made him

"all the more particular in regard to the psychology of dying on the stage. I think I was one of the first to bring naturalness to bear in death scenes, and my varied Virginia City experiences did much to help me toward this. Later I was to go deeper into such studies."

His recollections of that time were published in Hearst's Magazine in 1914.[5]

By March 1874, he was back at work in San Francisco, eventually managing Thomas Maguire's Baldwin Theater. When Maguire lost the theater in 1882, Belasco relocated to the East Coast, bringing his practical western experiences with him. The West allowed him to develop his talents as not only a performer, but in progressive production design and execution.[6]

A gifted playwright, Belasco went to New York City in 1882. He worked as stage manager for the Madison Square Theatre (starting with Young Mrs. Winthrop), and then the old Lyceum Theatre, while also writing original plays. By 1895, he was so successful that he was considered America's most distinguished playwright and producer.

Career
Belasco in 1873

During his long creative career, stretching between 1884 and 1930, Belasco either wrote, directed, or produced more than 100 Broadway plays, including Hearts of Oak, The Heart of Maryland, and Du Barry, making him the most powerful personality on the New York City theater scene. He also helped establish careers for dozens of notable stage performers, many of whom went on to work in films.

Among them were Leslie Carter, dubbed "The American Sarah Bernhardt,"[7] whose association with Belasco skyrocketed her to theatrical fame after her roles in Zaza (1898) and Madame Du Barry (1901).[7] Ina Claire's lead in Polly with a Past (1917) and The Gold Diggers (1919) similarly propelled her career.[7] Belasco wrote a lead part for 18-year-old Maude Adams in his new play Men and Women (1890), which ran for 200 performances.[7]

Other stars whose careers he helped launch included Jeanne Eagels, who would later achieve immortality as Sadie Thompson in Rain (1923), which played for 340 performances.[8] Belasco discovered and managed the careers of Lenore Ulric[9] and David Warfield, both of whom became major stars on Broadway. He launched the career of Barbara Stanwyck, and was responsible for changing her name.[7]

Belasco is perhaps most famous for two works that were adapted as highly popular operas. He adapted the short story Madame Butterfly as a play with the same name. He also wrote the play The Girl of the Golden West. Both of these works were adapted as operas by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini (Madama Butterfly 1904—twice, after revision) and La fanciulla del West (1910).

In other adaptations, more than forty motion pictures have been made from the many plays that Belasco wrote.

To me, David Belasco was like the King of England, Julius Caesar and Napoleon rolled into one.

Mary Pickford[7]

Many prominent performers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries sought the opportunity to work with Belasco; among them were D. W. Griffith, Helen Hayes, Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford[7] and Cecil B. DeMille.[7] DeMille's father had been close friends with Belasco. After DeMille graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, he began his stage career under Belasco's guidance.[10] DeMille's later methods of handling actors, using dramatic lighting and directing films, were modeled after Belasco's staging techniques.[7]

Pickford appeared in his plays The Warrens of Virginia at the first Belasco Theatre in 1907 and A Good Little Devil in 1913. The two remained in touch after Pickford began working in Hollywood; Belasco appeared with her in the 1914 film adaptation of A Good Little Devil. He is credited as giving Pickford her stage name as well. He also worked with Lionel Barrymore, who starred in his play Laugh, Clown, Laugh opposite Lucille Kahn, whose Broadway career Belasco launched. Belasco was a member of The Lambs from 1893 to 1931.

Marriage

David Belasco was married to Cecilia Loverich for over fifty years. They had two daughters, Reina (who later married producer Morris Gest) and Augusta.

Death

Belasco died in 1931 at the age of 77 in Manhattan.[1] He was interred in the Linden Hill Jewish Cemetery on Metropolitan Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens.[11][12]

Influence on American theatre
Poster for The Heart of Maryland with Maurice Barrymore and Mrs. Leslie Carter

Belasco demanded a natural acting style, and to complement that, he developed stage settings with authentic lighting effects to enhance his plays. His productions inspired several generations of theatre lighting designers.[13]: 29 

Belasco's contributions to modern stage and lighting techniques were originally not appreciated as much as those of his European counterparts, such as André Antoine and Constantin Stanislavski. But today he is regarded as "one of the first significant directorial figures in the history of the American theatre," writes theatre historian Lise-Lone Marker.[3]: xi 

Belasco's monogram

He brought a new standard of naturalism to the American stage as the first to develop modern stage lighting, along with the use of colored lights, via motorized color changing wheels, to evoke mood and setting.[3]: xi [13] America's earliest stage lighting manufacturer, Kliegl Brothers, began by serving the specialized needs of producers and directors such as Belasco and Florenz Ziegfeld.[13]: 157  With regard to these modern lighting effects, Belasco is best remembered for his production of Girl of the Golden West (1905), with the play opening to a spectacular sunset that lasted five minutes before any dialogue started.[13]: 29 

Belasco became one of the first directors to eschew the use of traditional footlights in favor of lights concealed below floor level, thereby hidden from the audience. His lighting assistant, Louis Hartmann, realized Belasco's design ideas.[13]: 29  He also used 'follow spots' to further create realism and often tailored his lighting configurations to complement the complexions and hair color of the actors.[13]: 135  He ordered a specially made 1000-watt lamp developed just for his own productions. He was the only director to have one for the first two years after its introduction (1914–1915).[13]: 135 

In his own theatres, the dressing rooms were equipped with lamps of several colors, allowing the performers to see how their makeup looked under different lighting conditions.

Belasco was said to put appropriate scents to set scenes in the ventilation systems of the theaters, while his sets were highly detailed and sometimes spilled out into the audience area. In one play, for instance, an operational laundromat was built onstage. The Governor's Lady had a reproduction of a Childs Restaurant kitchen, where actors cooked and prepared food during the play.

Childs Restaurant Scene in The Governor's Lady

In his 1919 book The Theatre through Its Stage Door, Belasco relates the following incident:

When I produced The Easiest Way I found myself in a dlimma. I planned one of its scenes to be an exact counterpart of a little hall bedroom in a cheap theatrical boarding-house in New York. We tried to build the scene in my shops, but, somehow, we could not make it look shabby enough. So I went to the meanest theatrical lodging-house I could find in the Tenderloin district and bought the entire interior of one of its most dilapidated rooms—patched furniture, threadbare carpet, tarnished and broken gas fixtures, tumble-down cupboards, dingy doors and window-casings, and even the faded paper on the walls.[14]

Belasco's original scripts were often filled with long, specific descriptions of props and set dressings. He has not been noted for producing unusually naturalistic scenarios.

Belasco both embraced existing theatre technology and sought to expand on it. Both of Belasco's New York theatres were built on the cutting edge of their era's technology. When Belasco took over the Republic Theatre, he drilled a new basement level to accommodate his machinery. He had the Stuyvesant Theatre specially constructed with great amounts of flyspace, hydraulics systems and lighting rigs. The basement of the Stuyvesant contained a working machine shop, where Belasco and his team experimented with lighting and other special effects. Many of the innovations developed in the Belasco shop were sold to other producers.

F. Scott Fitzgerald refers to Belasco's reputation for realism in his novel The Great Gatsby (1925). A drunken visitor in the library of Gatsby's mansion exclaims in amazement that the books are genuine: "See!" he cried triumphantly. "It's a bona-fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella's a regular Belasco. It's a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too—didn't cut the pages."[15]

Theatres
See also: Belasco Theatre

New York

The first Belasco Theatre in New York was located at 229 West 42nd Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues, in the Times Square district of Manhattan. Belasco took over management of the theater and completely remodeled it in 1902, only two years after it was constructed as the Theatre Republic by Oscar Hammerstein (the grandfather of the famous lyricist). He gave up the theater in 1910 and it was renamed the Republic. Under various owners, it went through a tumultuous period as a burlesque venue, hosted second-run and, eventually, pornographic films and fell into a period of neglect before being rehabilitated and reopened as the New Victory Theater in 1995.

The second Belasco Theatre is located at 111 West 44th Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues, only a few blocks away from the New Victory. It was constructed in 1907 as the Stuyvesant Theatre and renamed after Belasco in 1910. The theater was built to Belasco's wishes, with Tiffany lighting and ceiling panels, rich woodwork and murals. His business office and private apartment were also housed there. The Belasco is still in operation as a Broadway venue with much of the original decor intact. In 2010 it underwent a massive US $14.5 million restoration, which strove to renovate and restore the theater to the condition it was in when David Belasco was alive.[16]

Other cities

Belasco Theatres also existed in several other cities.

In Los Angeles, the first Belasco Theatre was located at 337 S. Main St. The theater, which hosted the Belasco Stock Company, opened in 1904 and was operated by David Belasco's brother, Frederick. This theater was renamed twice: as the Republic in about 1913 and as the Follies, circa 1919. The theater eventually became a burlesque venue in the 1940s, fell into sharp decline, and was demolished in May 1974.[17][18]

The second, and perhaps more well known theatre in Los Angeles, The Belasco is located at 1050 S. Hill St in Downtown Los Angeles. The theatre, which was built by Morgan, Walls & Clements, opened in 1926, and was managed by Edward Belasco, another of David's brothers. Many Hollywood stars with theatrical roots, as well as Broadway stars who were visiting the West Coast, appeared at the theatre.[19] The theater declined after the death of Edward Belasco in 1937. After closing altogether in the early 1950s, the theater was used as a church for several decades.[20] In 2010 - 2011, the theater underwent an extensive restoration, and is currently in operation as a nightclub and convention venue.[21]

The Shubert-Belasco Theatre, located in Washington, D.C., was purchased by Belasco in September 1905. Originally built in 1895 as the Lafayette Square Opera House, at 717 Madison Place, across from the White House, the theater was razed in 1962 and replaced by the U.S. Court of Claims building.[22]

Selected plays

Filmography

Producer

Films about David Belasco

See also

References
  1. "David Belasco Dies. Dean Of Theatre, 76, Had Long Been Ill. Stage Genius Who Is Dead At 76". The New York Times. May 15, 1931.
  2. Osnes, Beth, and Gill, Sam. Acting: An International Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO (2001) p. 34
  3. Marker, Lise-Lone, David Belasco: Naturalism in the American Theater, Princeton Univ. Press (1975)
  4. Eichin, Carolyn Grattan, From San Francisco Eastward: Victorian Theater in the American West, (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2020), 181
  5. Belasco, David. Gala Days of Piper's Opera House and the California Theater. 1914. Sparks, NV: Falcon Hill Press, 1991: v–vi, 18, 42
  6. Eichin, Carolyn Grattan. (2020), From San Francisco Eastward, pp.180-182
  7. Wilson, Victoria. A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940, Simon and Schuster (2013) ebook
  8. Botto, Louis; Viagas, Robert. At this Theatre: 100 Years of Broadway Shows, Stories and Stars, Hal Leonard Corp. (2002) p. 28
  9. "Lenore Ulric, Broadway Star of Belasco Era, Is Dead at 78", The New York Times, December 31, 1970
  10. Wallace, David. Lost Hollywood, Macmillan (2001) p. 21
  11. "Throng At Funeral Of David Belasco". The New York Times. May 18, 1931.
  12. "Actors Eulogize Belasco. At Meeting of Jewish Guild Frohman Recalls Early Days". The New York Times. May 20, 1931.
  13. Cox, Jim. Sold on Radio: Advertisers in the Golden Age of Broadcasting. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2008; reprint 2013. ISBN 9780786433919.
  14. Belasco, David (1969). "The Theatre through Its Stage Door". Benjamin Blom. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
  15. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1925, chapter 3.
  16. Isherwood, Charles (August 24, 2010). "Belasco Theater Is Burnished, and Back". The New York Times. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  17. "Follies Theatre". Historic Los Angeles Theatres - Downtown.
  18. "Follies Theatre". Cinema Treasures.
  19. "Belasco Theatre". Historic Los Angeles Theatres - Downtown.
  20. "Historic Belasco Theater Awaits Its Next Act". blogdowntown.com.
  21. "Bringing Back the Belasco". Los Angeles Downtown News.
  22. "White House Area - Sites on the East side of Lafayette Park". Library.thinkquest.org. Archived from the original on October 15, 2012. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  23. "Belasco, David, 1853-1931". Snacooperative. Social Networks and Archival Context. Retrieved July 18, 2020.
  24. "David Belasco Broadway and Theatre Credits". broadwayworld. Wisdom Digital Media. Retrieved July 18, 2020.
  25. David Belasco Presents David Warfield in a Grand Army Man, a New American Play by David Belasco, Pauline Phelps and Marion Short. F.V. Strauss. 1908.

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