Augustin Daly, (1838-99) American Regisseur, Playwright
"Autocrat of the Stage"

"Augustin Daly managed a theatre: the rest of us are merely theatrical managers."
--Daniel Frohman

Best known for a thirty year reign as the producer of a "company of stars" at theatres in New York and London, Daly was a strict disciplinarian who achieved very high standards of production in new and standard works and eventually Shakespeare as well. But he was also a prolific playwright adapting plays and writing widely imitated original works, a biographer, and a critic.

The first true American regisseur was born in Plymouth, North Carolina July 20, 1838. His father, a ship owner and ship's captain died when young Augustin was very young. His mother, daughter of a British army officer, took her sons to New York City where they took in the professional theatre that was growing so rapidly during that period and soon became involved in amateur theatricals in such groups as The Murdoch Association and The Burton Association. According to Daly's brother Joseph Francis Daly, who's biography of his brother is regarded as authoritative, young Augustin never had any interest in acting. He was always consumed by the production and creation of plays. Augustin's first "commercial" venture was in 1856 when he hired a hall in Brooklyn and put on a varied program that included scenes from Macbeth and The Toodles. While far from a resounding success, financially or otherwise, the evening gave Daly sufficient encouragement to continue.

At the age of 21, he began a ten year affiliation with the New York Courier as its drama critic, though he wrote occasionally for the Times, the Sun, the Express, and the Citizen. Says William Winter, his lifelong friend, who met him during his stint at the Courier:

At 22, his first play was produced at Boston's Howard Athenaeum. Leah the Forsaken was an adaptation of a translation of Salomon Hermann von Mosenthal's Deborah. The first of many such Daly adaptations of foreign plays, Leah the Forsaken was an immediate success. It moved to Niblo's Garden in New York early in 1863. Writing in Harper's Weekly, G. W. Curtis drew a parallel between the persecution of Jews in the play and the persecution of the Negro in the Confederacy, and, mid-war, he wrote, "Go and see Leah and have the lesson burned in upon your mind, which may help to save the national health and mind." The role became a popular star vehicle for leading ladies and held the stage for the next thirty years. Clara Morris made a sensation in the play in 1875 under the title The New Leah.

Leah's success garnered several commissions for Daly, mostly adaptations of popular French and German plays. By the time he had his own theatre, he adapted a number of such plays for his own use that were hugely successful, including Frou-Frou, L'Article 47, and Pique.

In 1864, he wrote a treatment of the Judith and Holofernes story, Judith. Then, in 1866, he adapted Charles Reade's novel Griffith Gaunt for the managers of the New York Theatre. He wrote the role of Kate Gaunt for Rose Eytinge who was already established as a Star with Lester Wallack. Typical of the sort of bold changes Daly was to make is the theatrically effective alteration he made to the final scene. Kate Gaunt, falsely accused of the murder of her husband and forbidden to seek legal counsel because of 18th Century law, must defend herself. Daly injected into the climactic final trial scene Griffith Gaunt himself. It was a coup de theatre for author and star.

Daly's first play which was not an adaptation from another work was the wildly successful melodrama Under the Gaslight (1867). In the climactic scene, the hero, Snorkey, a wounded veteran of the war, is tied to railroad tracks as a train approaches and Laura, the heroine is locked in a shed that serves as a station next to those tracks where she can see what is about to happen:

Though some see similarities to The Engineer which was produced in London in 1865 (and a copy of which turned up in Daly's papers), Daly's play is much more suspenseful in the climactic scenes and in fact has a very different plot in many particulars. In The Engineer, a portion of the track has been removed so that the danger is to the passengers of the train, but the villain is killed when the train derails. The more personal situation in Daly's scene, however, was copied by the ever-industrious Dion Boucicault in After Dark which came out almost immediately. Daly took him to court and won exclusive U. S. rights to the property.

By 1869, Daly had had a number of successful productions and with the backing of his father-in-law John Duff, and the able assistance of Daniel H. Harkins as his stage manager, Daly began his thirty year career as theatrical manager at the first Fifth Avenue Theatre. He declared:

The first season began on August 16 with T.W. Robertson's Play, and included an astonishing 25 plays of which three were by Shakespeare.

He built what was known as a "company of starts." The members of his troupe developed a following of their own, but many resisted the siren call of starring and remained in his employ to the end. Some stars, like Clara Morris, left the fold, but others, like Ada Rehan, John Drew, and Mrs. Gilbert, and James Lewis stayed with him for years. In many ways, Daly's company was the precursor of the more successful regional reps only one or two of which remain today at Milwaukee, for example, and at Stratford, Ontario.

James Lewis as Touchstone.

Ada Rehan and John Drew as Rosalind and Orlando.

John Drew as Petruchio
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