Trains, Canals, and Uncle Tom's Cabin (The Rooted Stage, Part 4)
Recap
During the first 75 years of theater in America:
- Companies were independent, semi-permanent, self-contained units;
- They were managed by the leading actor, who chose the plays that were done, when and how long they would be done, and who in the company would play the roles;
- Company members were paid a share of the profits;
- They played standard English fare, especially Shakespeare, in rotating repertoire;
- The theater building was either owned by the company, or were leased long-term;
- The company played in a particular community, but would go on short tours each year; actors in stock companies normally led stable, settled lives and enjoyed working conditions comparable to workers in other fields;
- By the 1820s, a star actor from Europe or, eventually, America would come to town and perform plays with the resident company members before moving on to another town. This practice, known as the “star system,” was the first step toward the dissolution of the resident theater companies.
Canals and Railroads
Touring stars (and anyone else, for that matter) in the first half of the 19th century had a tough go. Wikipedia: “For the common person in the early 1800s, transportation was often traveled by horse or stagecoach. The network of trails along which coaches navigated were riddled with ditches, potholes, and stones. This made travel fairly uncomfortable. Adding to injury, coaches were cramped with little leg room.” The fact that actors would regularly come from Europe to tour under these conditions is an indication of how lucrative it could be. As the popularity of touring stars increased, so did ticket prices, and so did the amount that was demanded by the star. Eventually, the amount paid to the stars became so great that the resident company was taking a loss to bring them in.
Not only was the touring star receiving a larger and larger cut of the box office receipts, but the conditions of travel were vastly improved as the railroad system began to be built out. Wikipedia (again): “Travel by train offered a new style. Locomotives proved themselves a smooth, headache free ride with plenty of room to move around. Some passenger trains offered meals in the spacious dining car followed by a good night sleep in the private sleeping quarters.” This allowed the touring star to bring along a second actor to play opposite them, with the actors of the stock company becoming supporting players at best.
Still, it took many years for the railway to be built out. In 1850, only 9000 miles of track had been laid in the nation; by the end of the Civil War, there was over 52,000 miles, and in 1869 the transcontinental railroad was completed. That, as well as stronger and faster trains, made a coast-to-coast tour a possibility. (Do you see why 1870 ends up being an important year?)
The trains connected the major cities across the country, but while train speed had increased from its starting point of 15-20 mph, the distance between cities was large enough that it was financially beneficial to stop in small towns between the cities to do one performance to make some money–and thus the birth of the one-night stand. (This is important to remember when we start talking about how the Theatrical Syndicate took over the road starting in 1896.)
[This, by the way, is a good example of how theater took advantage of technological change, contra Baumol and Bowen and their “cost disease” argument outlined well by Michael Rushton. The same will be true of film, radio, and television in the future, all of which provide new outlets for theater skills. To see these new media as competition rather than an extension of theater is, in my opinion, a mistake. They are not “the same” as theater, but rather separate outlets for theater artists.]
So obviously the railroads provided new opportunities for touring, but canals???
The Erie Canal
The Erie Canal was completed in 1825 and was the first waterway to connect the Hudson River to the Great Lakes and, according to Wikipedia (my go to information source), “vastly reduc[ed] the costs of transporting people and goods across the Appalachians. The Erie Canal accelerated the settlement of the Great Lakes region, the westward expansion of the United States, and the economic ascendancy of New York state.”
At the same time, the number of immigrants to the US began to soar, and because of the Erie Canal, New York City suddenly found itself the main port of entry for goods being shipped across the country and for people migrating from Europe. As a result, New York became a boom town and population increased very quickly:
- 1820: 123,706
- 1830: 202,589
- 1840: 312,710
- 1850: 515,547
- 1860: 813,669
- 1870: 942,292
The increase in New York’s population led to a surge in demand for entertainment, and so the number of theater companies increased, most of which were initially run on the resident stock model. But soon this began to change. As noted in part 2 of this series, as more and more stars began to tour, local stock company actors began played second fiddle to the stars, and the opportunity to develop one’s career became more difficult. Thus, many of the most ambitious actors headed to New York City to join existing companies, or form their own.
Audiences began to demand a steady stream of stars, and as a result the actor/manager’s job began to change: their primary responsibility became making contractual arrangements with the stars’s representatives in New York. Nevertheless, even as stars began to gain greater control, the actor/managers still retained decision-making power over their seasons, and their success relied on their understanding of the tastes of their local audience. They also continued to own their own theaters. The balance of power, however, was starting to tilt toward the stars.
By 1852, when the population of New York City topped half a million people, an important new wrinkle appeared in theater’s business model: the long run. Prior to this, audience demand for a specific play rarely was strong enough to justify a long run–in 1844, for instance, the temperance play The Drunkard ran for 140 successive nights in Boston and 198 nights in New York. But it was not until 1852 that “the long run was generally recognized as the formula for Broadway success.” The play that made that happen? Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which ran for 100 performances in Troy, NY where it opened, and then transferred to New York City where it ran for 300 more performances. (Who says political plays can’t be popular?) “By the end of the 1850s,” writes Christopher Bigsby in volume 2 of The Cambridge History of American Theatre, “the phenomenon popularized by these two productions had become established practice for managers seeking maximum profits from their investments.” [italics added for reference in later posts]
Touring these productions in the usual way, however, posed a problem. Because a hit new play on Broadway could stay in one theater for a long run, elaborate spectacle became increasingly common (does this sound familiar?), which posed problems for touring to theaters that lacked the stage and wing space, and the budgets, necessary to accommodate the production. Consequently, the stock settings of the resident companies could not be used, making it impossible for the leading actor or two to follow up their Broadway run with a tour of the country.
All of these problems were solved when the train system made it possible to take an entire production–cast, scenery, costumes, and all–on the road. This was the birth of the Combination Company, which we’ll discuss next.
Yes, we’ve finally gotten to oft-promised and much-anticipated 1870!