Bringing the Show to Town
from the Sunday, May 4, 1902, New York Tribune
“The time of year has arrived when the managers of the theatres which are to keep their doors open during the Summer put forward entertainments of a frivolous order suitable for warm weather. At the Knickerbocker Theatre last night one of those entertainments, entitled “The Wild Rose” was produced”
- The New York Times, May 6, 1902
The Knickerbocker Theatre
from the New York Public Library Digital Archives
Photo from the first act of “The Wild Rose”
from the Museum of the City of New York
While “The Wild Rose” only had a short run at the Knickerbocker (the last show was August 20, 1902) and the reviews were, well:
“No one in the possession of his senses would take such a production seriously.” (The New York Times, May, 6, 1902)
There was one Newport couple who were taken by the production. Cornelius Vanderbilt III and his wife Grace Graham Vanderbilt were fascinated by the performance and came up with a bold plan for Newport’s 1902 summer season. They would buy out the entire night’s performance at the Knickerbocker Theatre (which cost them roughly $4000, according to the New York Times), on August 25 and put the whole production on a train to Newport where parts of the production would be performed on a stage built on the lawn of their home Beaulieu.
Beaulieu
from the Providence Public Library Digital Archives
from the August 14, 1902, San Francisco Chronicle
There were a number of other musical numbers mixed into the night’s festivities. One number was “Returned, A Negro Ballad” composed by Will Marion Cook (1869-1944.) The Wild Rose does contain music composed by Cook, but this ballad was not one of them. Cook published the ballad himself and highlighted the performance at Beaulieu.
from the New York Public Library Digital Archives
Hear a modern recording of this beautiful ballad.
How did the night go? We will let the front page of “The Washington Times” tell us:
from the August 26, 1902, Washington Times, Page 1
from the August 26, 1902, Washington Times, Page 1
from the August 26, 1902, Washington Time, Page 2