Clyde Fitch (1865-1909) Playwright, Regisseur

William Clyde Fitch was, in his brief, twenty year career, the most popular playwright of his era, earning from his plays alone upwards of $250,000.00 a year, in a time when a dollar a day was a working wage. Often dismissed as superficial, or clever rather than deep, he was, a master of light comedy and charming dialogue. Like Dion Boucicault, he apparently had a knack for anticipating what his audience would like. But it would be too easy to dismiss Fitch as a mere theatrical hack; his plays were deeply personal for all their careful Scribean construction. Indeed, Fitch's unique and engaging personality is clearly stamped on virtually all of his plays. Renowned as a raconteur and a gracious host, Fitch was brave enough to set rather than to follow fashion. Boyhood friend, later Yale professor and noted criticWilliam Lyon Phelps called him "the bravest boy in school." A dandy at fourteen, who preferred to stay inside while the other boys played football, he told Phelps years later, "I...was bored to death by all sports; and I did not see why I should do things I hated to do merely to conform to public opinion." He was well aware the other boys regarded him as a sissy, but, he said, "I would rather be misunderstood than lose my independence."

Perhaps, in achieving success early (his first hit was Beau Brummel for Richard Mansfield when Fitch was only 24), he simply had nothing "deep" to say. The feverish pace at which he wrote and staged his plays left him little time for reflection. He was only just coming into his own as a "serious" playwright with something to "say" with his last play, The City, which was produced posthumously. Then again, it might be more accurate to say that Fitch let theatrical effect get in the way of the Truth, but effectiveness in the theatre ensured that his plays were performed and watched and discussed. As Phelps noted, Fitch was always criticized "for striving for theatrical effect, which is to a large extent exactly the thing to strive for in the theatre." And his sense of theatrical effectiveness extended beyond wordsmithery. After the success of The Climbers, managers generally gave him complete control over production details. And his audiences usually loved the realistic portrayal of themselves in his plays and flocked to see them. Or at least in the first two acts of his plays. Said Phelps

But critics rarely buy their own tickets, and playwrights can't eat favorable reviews.

And Fitch's success at the box office has rarely been duplicated. After the early success of Beau Brummel, he turned out popular plays at a breakneck pace (see the complete list below). At one point he had three plays running in New York and one in London all at the same time!

Many of his early plays were historical or at least period pieces: Beau Brummel (1889); Nathan Hale(1898); Barbara Frietchie (1899), starring the incomparable Julia Marlowe (left); Captain Jinx of the Horse Marines (1901) in which Ethel Barrymore made her

Broadway debut (right). Many were "social comedies" portraying contemporary manners and morals. The Climbers, one of his best, deals with men climbing the ladder of buisiness and women who are social climbers. Walter Pritchard Eaton said of his plays that, properly staged and acted, they would give "future generations a better idea of American life from 1890 to 1910 than newspapers or historical records. At least part of his success was due to his ability to hold the mirror up to his audience in recognizable, sometimes theatrically groundbreaking situations. The Girl With the Green Eyes begins at a wedding; The Climbers begins as a family returns from the funeral of the pater familas. Both are among his best work.

He also began early on to write his plays with specific actors in mind. And once he was established as a successful playwright, like Shaw, he always took great care to keep control over who could be cast in his plays. And he often participated in the rehearsal process. Elsie Wolfe is quoted as saying he knew more about women than they knew about themselves. During a rehearsal he interrupted an entrance at a particularly emotional moment, saying, "That isn't the way to walk in order to express your feelings in this scene; I'll show you." And he did. In fact, Fitch took great pains with both casting and fussing over every detail of virtually every production of his plays. Many of his letters are little more than quick notes fussing over production minutiae from the exact color of a wig to the precise shape of a teapot. Shortly before his untimely death, he left an essay "The Play and the Public," based on a lecture given at Yale and Harvard.

He was the first American playwright to publish his plays.

In all he wrote sixty-two plays, of which thirty-six were original, twenty-one adaptations of other plays and five were dramatizations of novels. Rarely performed today, they might bear another look. His influence on the tone of early Hollywood is unmistakable, and his plays might well enjoy a new vogue. The relatively large cast sizes will probably preclude production by any but regional or college theaters for the foreseeable future.

THE PLAYS OF CLYDE FITCH:

1890 17-May Beau Brummel Madison Square Theater New York, starring Richard Mansfield & Beatrice Cameron
1890 29-Dec Betty's Finish Boston Museum Boston with Miriam O'Leary & Charles S. Abbe
1891 22-Apr Frederick Lemaitre (One Act) Daly's Theatre New York starring Felix Morris, Emily Banker & Ferdinand Gottschalk
1891 21-Oct Pamela's Prodigy Royal Court Theater London starring Mrs. John Wood & George Giddens
1892 14-Mar A Modern Match Union Square Theater New York starring Minnie Seligman, Nelson Wheatcroft & William Faversham (Played in London and Dublin by Mr. & Mrs. Kendal with the title Marriage Oct 21 at the Gaiety)
1892 3-Oct The Masked Ball Palmer's Theater New York for Charles Frohman, starring John Drew & Maude Adams Adapted from the French of Bisson and Carre
1893 9-Jan The Social Swim Alvin Theater Chicago starring Marie Wainwright & William Ingersoll; Adapted from the French of Victorien Sardou; opened September 22 at the Harlem Opera House, New York
1893 26-Jan The Harvest (One Act) Theater of Arts and Letters New York starring Grace Henderson, Francis Carlisle & W.B. Smith
1893 30-Jul A Shattered Idol Globe Theater St. Paul, MN starring George Fawcett & Carrie Turner; Adapted from Balzac's Pere Goriot
1893 20-Nov An American Duchess Lyceum Theater New York starring Georgia Cayvan & Herbert Kelcey; Adapted from Maison Neuve by Henri Lavedan
1893 Mrs. Grundy, Jr. starring Henrietta Crosman; Adapted from the French
1894 24-Sep His Grace de Grammont Grand Opera House Chicago starring Otis Skinner & Maud Durbin (Revived in 1905 in Boston with Otis Skinner and Hope Crewes)
1895 22-Feb Gossip Comedy Theatre London starring Mrs. Langtry & Leonard Boyne;
Adapted with Leo Ditrichstein from the French of Jules Claretie (Moved 11-Mar to Palmer's Theater New York starring Mrs. Langtry & Eben Plympton)
1895 15-Oct Mistress Betty Garrick Theater New York starring Madame Modjeska & W. S. Hart
1895 13-Nov April Weather Daly's Theatre New York starring Sol Smith Russell & Minnie Radcliff
1896 9-Mar Bohemia Empire Theatre New York starring Henry Miller, Viola Allen, Ida Conquest, William Faversham, J. E. Dodson & Elsie de Wolf; Adapted from the French of Murger and Theo. Barriere
1896 2-Sep The Liar Madison Square Theater New York starring Fritz Williams & Katherine Florence; Adapted from the French of Bisson
1897 4-Jan A Superfluous Husband Miner's Fifth Avenue Theater New York starring Joseph Holland, E. M. Holland & Blanche Burton; Adapted with Leo Ditrichstein from the German of Ludwig Fulda
1898 11-Apr The Moth and the Flame Lyceum Theater New York starring Herbert Kelcey, Effie Shannon, Bruce McRae & Mr. & Mrs. W. J. Le Moyne
1898 6-Dec The Head of the Family Knickerbocker Theatre New York starring William H. Crane & Ysobel Haskins; Adapted with Leo Ditrichstein from the German
1899 2-Jan Nathan Hale Knickerbocker Theatre New York starring Nat Goodwin, Maxine Elliot & Gertrude Elliot; Previewed in Chicago January 31, 1898
1899 24-Oct Barbara Freitchie Criterion Theatre New York starring Julia Marlowe & J. H. Gilmour
1899 25-Dec The Cowboy and the Lady Knickerbocker Theatre New York starring Nat Goodwin, Maxine Elliot & Gertrude Elliot; Played the Duke of York's Theatre, London 1899
1900 16-Feb Sapho Wallack's Theater New York starring Olga Nethersole & Hamilton Revelle; Adapted from the novel by Alphonse Daudet
1901 21-Jan The Climbers Bijou Theatre New York starring Amelia Bingham & Frank Worthing; Played London Comedy Theatre in 1901 with Lily Hanbury, Sidney Valentine and Reeves-Smith
1901 4-Feb Captain Jinx of the Horse Marines Garrick Theater New York starring Ethel Barrymore & Reeves-Smith
1901 6-Feb Lovers' Lane Manhattan Theatre New York starring Ernest Hastings, Nanette Comstock & Millie James, written for W. A. Brady's company.
1901 24-Oct The Last of the Dandies Her Majesty's Theatre London starring Herbert Beerbohm-Tree & Lily Hanbury
1901 4-Nov The Way of the World Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre New York starring Elsie de Wolfe, Frank Mills & Clara Bloodgood
1901 4-Dec The Girl and the Judge Lyceum Theater New York starring Annie Russell, Mrs. Gilbert & Owen Johnson
1901 The Marriage Game starring Sadie Martinot; Adapted from the French
1902 3-Nov The Stubborness of Geraldine Garrick Theater New York starring Mary Mannering & Arthur Byron; burlesqued by Weber and Fields as The Stickiness of Gelatine.
1902 25-Dec The Girl With the Green Eyes Savoy Theatre New York starring Clara Bloodgood & Robert Drouet
1903 12-Jan The Bird in the Cage Bijou Theatre New York starring Sandol Milliken, Guy Bates Post & Arnold Daly; Adapted from the German of von Wildenbruch
1903 9-Feb The Frisky Mrs. Johnson Princess Theatre New York starring Amelia Bingham & Walter Lackaye; Adapted from the French of Gavault and Beer
1903 28-Sep Her Own Way Garrick Theater New York starring Maxine Elliot & Charles Cherry; Played Lyric Theatre London 1903 and later played the Savoy
1903 11-Nov Major Andre Savoy Theatre New York starring Arthur Byron & Chrystal Herne
1903 28-Dec Glad of It Savoy Theatre New York starring Millie James
1904 4-Sep The Coronet of the Duchess Garrick Theater New York starring Clara Bloodgood & Ernest Lawford
1904 24-Oct Granny Lyceum Theater New York starring Mrs. G. H. Gilbert, Marie Doro & William Lewers; "Freely" adapted from the French of George Michell
1905 2-Jan Cousin Billy Criterion Theatre New York starring Francis Wilson & May Robson; "Freely" adapted from the French of Labiche
1905 20-Jan The Woman in the Case Herald Square Theatre New York starring Blanche Walsh, Robert Drouet & Dorothy Dorr
1905 4-Sep Her Great Match Criterion Theatre New York starring Maxine Elliot & Charles Cherry
1905 20-Oct Wolfville Broad Street Theatre Philadelphia starring Nat Goodwin, Jessie Busley & Phyllis Rankin; With Willis Steell, a dramatization of a story by Alfred Henry Lewis
1905 27-Nov The Toast of the Town Daly's Theatre New York starring Viola Allen & Robert Drouet; A rewrite of Mistress Betty
1906 22-Oct The House of Mirth Knickerbocker Theatre New York starring Fay Davis & Charles Bryant; With Edith Wharton from her novel
1906 4-Dec The Girl Who Has Everything Liberty Theatre New York starring Eleanor Robson & H. B. Warner
1907 7-Jan The Truth Criterion Theatre New York starring Clara Bloodgood & William J. Kelly
1907 24-Dec Her Sister Hudson Theatre New York starring Ethel Barrymore & Arthur Byron; With Cosmo Gordon-Lennox
1908 16-Mar Toddles Garrick Theater New York starring John Barrymore & Sadie Martinot; Adapted from the French of Godferneaux and Bernard
1908 23-Mar Girls Daly's Theatre New York starring Laura Nelson Hall, Ruth Maycliffe, Amy Ricard, Charles Cherry & Leslie Kenyon
1908 10-Nov The Blue Mouse Lyric Theatre New York starring Mabel Barrison, Henry Conor & Zelda Sears
1909 16-Mar The Bachelor Maxine Elliot Theatre New York starring Charles Cherry & Ruth Maycliffe
1909 12-Apr A Happy Marriage Garrick Theater New York starrig Doris Keane & Edwin Arnold
1909 21-Dec The City Lyric Theatre New York starring Walter Hampden, Tully Marshall, Mary Nash & Lucille Watson; Produced posthumously