Sidney R. Ellis

Poster for Sidney R. Ellis's Bonnie Scotland.

Sidney Robert Ellis, sometimes given as Sydney R. Ellis, (January 12, 1857 – August 31, 1924) was an American playwright, actor, theatrical producer, and talent manager. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he began his career as an actor in stock theatre in his native city in the 1870s. He toured as an actor with a variety of theatre troupes in the late 1870s and 1880s before co-authoring the plays Fatherland (1888) and Captain Karl (1891) with the actor and singer Charles A. Gardner. Ellis managed and produced national tours of these two shows which had Gardner in the lead parts.

Ellis co-authored the play Darkest Russia (1893) with H. Grattan Donnelly which was later adapted into a silent film in 1917. Several of his works were staged on Broadway, including his play Bonnie Scotland (1895) and the play with music The Watch on the Rhine (1900; Broadway in 1905) for which he wrote both book and lyrics. In his later career he spent seventeen years managing the career of the German singing comedian Al Wilson until his retirement in 1918. He was married to the stage actress Eva Byron.

Life and career

Poster for H. Grattan Donnelly and Sidney R. Ellis's Darkest Russia.

The son of Robert Ellis and Nancy Ellis (née Rigdon), Sidney R. Ellis was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on January 12, 1857.[1][2][3] He began his career as an actor with the Pittsburgh National Stock Company.[4] In the 1878–1879 season he toured as a member of Jay Rial and Milt Gotthold's stage production of Uncle Tom's Cabin.[5] In 1879 he performed in John Courtney's Eustice Baudin (re-titled A Man of Mystery) at Hamlin's Theatre in Chicago,[6] and as The Signal Man at Shrewsbury Road in Augustin Daly's Under the Gaslight at Heuck's Opera House in Cincinnati.[7] By 1882 he had joined the theater company of Oliver Doud Byron; performing the part of Thomas Goodwin in Bryon's touring play Across the Continent.[8]

In 1883 Ellis performed in Maggie Mitchell's theatre troupe as the Baron in George F. Fuller's The Little Savage,[9] and remained with her company in 1884 as the Priest in The Pearl of Savoy.[10] In March 1885 he was engaged at the Academy of Music in Buffalo, New York as Patrick Kavanagh in Fred Marsden's Shaun Rhue in a production headlined by Joseph Murphy (1832–1915).[11] In 1886 he performed in Boston at the Howard Athenaeum as the Governor General in Bartley Campbell's Siberia,[12] and portrayed Squire Redmond in William J. Scanlan's Shane-na-Lawn at the Detroit Opera House with the playwright in the title role.[13] He repeated the role of Squire Redmond in return engagements to Detroit,[14] at Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theatre (1887),[15] and Boston's Globe Theatre (1888).[16] In May 1888 he returned to the Buffalo Academy of Music in Marsden's The Irish Minstrel;[17] and subsequently toured in this show to Canada.[18]

With the actor and singer Charles A. Gardner he co-authored the play Fatherland;[19] a show which included music by Gustave H. Kline and featured Gardner in the lead part.[20] It premiered on October 24, 1888, at Peak Hall in Niles, Michigan.[20] Ellis became the manager of the road company of this show which began its tour in Fort Wayne, Indiana in November 1888.[21] The early part of the tour included stops at theaters in Pennsylvania (1888–1889),[22][23] Michigan (1889),[24] Wisconsin (1889),[25] British Columbia, Canada (1889),[26] California (1889),[27] Wyoming (1889),[28] Missouri (1889),[29] and Florida (1889).[30] On January 28, 1890, the theatre troupe was in a bad train accident in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia in which music director Kline and actor William Dell were seriously injured.[31] The company resumed touring in the 1890–1891 season beginning with performances at the Haymarket Theatre in Chicago.[32] The tour then proceeded on to New Orleans (1890),[33] Little Rock, Arkansas (1890),[34] Pottsville, Pennsylvania (1891),[35] and Milwaukee, Minnesota (1891).[36]

Ellis and Gardner's second play, Captain Karl, was given its premiere at the Music Hall in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on October 7, 1891.[37] This show toured under Ellis's management to Philadelphia (1891, Peoples Theatre),[38] Chicago (1891, Haymarket Theatre),[39] St. Louis (1891, Pope's Theatre),[40] New Orleans (1892),[41] and Leavenworth, Kansas (1892).[42] In August 1892 Ellis and Gardner returned to Fatherland for a production staged in New York City at the Union Square Theatre.[43] The show ran there into 1893.[44] His play Darkest Russia (1894, co-authored with H. Gratten Donnelly) was a commentary on the oppressive conditions that existed for people living in the Russian Empire of the 19th century.[45] It was adapted by screenwriter Frances Marion into the 1917 silent film of the same name directed by Travers Vale.[46]

Ellis's play Bonnie Scotland was staged on Broadway at Haverly's 14th Street Theatre in 1895.[47] He wrote the book to the musical The Evil Eye which he directed for its production at the Grand Opera House in Manhattan in 1899.[48] He wrote both the book and lyrics to the musicals A Prince of Tatters (1902, Metropolis Theatre)[49] and The Watch on the Rhine (1905, Murray Hill Theatre;[50] premiered in 1900).[51] He managed the career of the German singing comedian Al Wilson.[52] Their partnership of 17 years ended in 1918.[53] He was married to the stage actress Eva Byron who died in 1919.[54]

Ellis died on August 31, 1924, in Woodcliff, New Jersey.[52][55]

References

Citations

  1. ↑ "Records of Early Church Families; Children of Robert Ellis and Nancy Rigdon". The Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine. 27: 161. January 1936.
  2. ↑ Sidney Robert Ellis in the U.S., Passport Applications, 1795-1925, Certificate Number 50869
  3. ↑ Sidney R. Ellis in the 1880 United States Federal Census
  4. ↑ "John C. Ellis' Brother is Dying; Popular in Theatre". The Day. August 25, 1924. p. 3.
  5. ↑ "Personal". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. July 18, 1879. p. 4.
  6. ↑ "The Stage". Chicago Tribune. September 28, 1879. p. 11.
  7. ↑ "Heuck's Opera House". The Cincinnati Daily Star. October 11, 1879. p. 4.
  8. ↑ "The Drama". Lancaster Daily Intelligencer. January 20, 1882. p. 2.
  9. ↑ "The Little Savage at the Park". Boston Evening Transcript. October 5, 1883. p. 1.
  10. ↑ "Opera House: America's Favorite Maggie Mitchell". Lincoln Journal Star. January 25, 1884. p. 4.
  11. ↑ "Amusements: Academy of Music". The Buffalo Daily Republic. March 10, 1885. p. 4.
  12. ↑ "Siberia at the Howard". The Boston Globe. January 24, 1886. p. 10.
  13. ↑ "Amusements". Detroit Free Press. December 26, 1886. p. 13.
  14. ↑ "The Detroit- W. J. Scanlan". Detroit Free Press. December 6, 1887. p. 3.
  15. ↑ "Scanlan in Shane-na-Lawn". The Philadelphia Inquirer. December 28, 1887. p. 3.
  16. ↑ "Popular Shane Na Lawn". The Boston Globe. February 7, 1888. p. 4.
  17. ↑ "Mid-Week Amusements". Buffalo Courier. May 3, 1888. p. 4.
  18. ↑ "Music and the Drama". The Hamilton Spectator. May 5, 1888. p. 4.
  19. ↑ Marks 1984, p. 46.
  20. 1 2 "Chas A. Gardner in Fatherland a Hit". The Niles Daily Star. October 25, 1888. p. 2.
  21. ↑ "The Company". Fort Wayne Daily News. November 23, 1888. p. 1.
  22. ↑ "Allen's Opera House". New Castle News. December 24, 1888. p. 2.
  23. ↑ "Academy of Music". Pottsville Republican. March 1, 1889. p. 1.
  24. ↑ "Entertainments". Sunday Morning Eagle. March 31, 1889. p. 5.
  25. ↑ "Music and the Drama". The Milwaukee Sentinel. April 21, 1889. p. 10.
  26. ↑ "Fatherland". The Victoria Daily Times. July 10, 1889. p. 4.
  27. ↑ "Among the Chamois-Hunters". The San Francisco Call Bulletin. July 14, 1889. p. 11.
  28. ↑ "Opera House". The Cheyenne Daily Leader. September 15, 1889. p. 3.
  29. ↑ "Toole's Opera House". The St. Joseph Herald. October 12, 1889. p. 2.
  30. ↑ "Opera House". The Pensacola News. November 15, 1889. p. 3.
  31. ↑ "Intercolonial Items". The Lorgnette: A Journal of Amusements. April 5, 1890. p. 3.
  32. ↑ "The Haymarket". Chicago Tribune. August 31, 1890. p. 30.
  33. ↑ "Grand Opera House". New Orleans States. September 21, 1890. p. 8.
  34. ↑ "Capital Theatre". Arkansas Democrat. October 17, 1890. p. 6.
  35. ↑ "Academy of Music". Pottsville Republican. January 29, 1891. p. 4.
  36. ↑ "Academy of Music". The Milwaukee Sentinel. May 29, 1891. p. 8.
  37. ↑ "Music Hall". Wilkes-Barre Times Leader. October 2, 1891. p. 4.
  38. ↑ "Peoples Theatre". The Philadelphia Inquirer. October 18, 1891. p. 5.
  39. ↑ "The Haymarket". Chicago Tribune. November 1, 1891. p. 37.
  40. ↑ "Pope's". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. November 8, 1891. p. 5.
  41. ↑ "Notes". New Orleans States-Item. January 27, 1892. p. 3.
  42. ↑ "A Picture of Saxony". Evening Standard. March 4, 1892. p. 4.
  43. ↑ "The Drama in America". The Era. August 20, 1892. p. 9.
  44. ↑ Adams 1964, p. 493.
  45. ↑ "Darkest Russia". The Moving picture world. April 28, 1917. p. 642.
  46. ↑ Goble 2011, p. 145.
  47. ↑ "Amusements". New York Herald. December 15, 1895. p. 11.
  48. ↑ "Almost a Lost Art". Brooklyn Times Union. January 11, 1899. p. 5.
  49. ↑ Dietz 2022, pp. 131–132.
  50. ↑ Dietz 2022, pp. 279–280.
  51. ↑ "The Watch on the Rhine". The Philadelphia Times. September 18, 1900. p. 9.
  52. 1 2 "Obituary: Sydney R. Ellis". Variety. 76 (3): 18. September 3, 1924.
  53. ↑ "Wilson and Ellis Split". Variety. Vol. 51, no. 1. May 31, 1918. p. 6.
  54. ↑ "Obituaries: Eva Byron". Variety. Vol. 55, no. 2. June 6, 1919.
  55. ↑ "Sidney R. Ellis Dies; Theatrical Producer". Brooklyn Times Union. September 2, 1924. p. 3.

Bibliography

  • Adams, William Davenport (1964). A Dictionary of the Drama: A Guide to the Plays, Playwrights, Players, and Playhouses of the United Kingdom and America, from the Earliest Times to the Present. Vol. I, A-G. Burt Franklin.
  • Dietz, Dan (2022). The Complete Book of 1900s Broadway Musicals. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 9781538168943.
  • Goble, Alan, ed. (2011). "Ellis, Sydney R.". The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Bowker-Saur. ISBN 9783110951943.
  • Marks, Patricia (1984). American Literary and Drama Reviews: An Index to Late Nineteenth Century Periodicals. G.K. Hall. ISBN 9780816184705.
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