#Maclyn Arbuckle

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Some Additional Arbuckles

Having already written about such Fatty Arbuckle-adjacent figures as nephew Al St. John, wife Minta Durfee, ill-fated associate Virginia Rappe, and countless of his professional colleagues (Mack Sennett, Buster Keaton, Mabel Normand etc etc) one might think it safe to assume the Arbuckle-orbit fairly exhausted. But there’s always more. July 9 happens to have been the birthday of Maclyn Arbuckle…

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DADDY DUMPLINS

1920

Daddy Dumplins is a play in three acts by George Barr McCutcheon and Earl Carroll based on McCutcheon’s novel. It was originally produced and staged by Earl Carroll starring Macylyn Arbuckle.��

The play takes place at Mr. Dumplins' country estate and his New York apartment.

Henry Daniel ‘Daddy’ Dumplins has been left a big fortune by a distant relative. To bring pleasure and happiness to others, he has adopted  seven children, making an addition to his family every two years. The huge fortune keeps them in comfort until the will is declared void and the money is given over to another heir. Daddy Dumplins is left without a cent and the children are returned to an orphanage. Christmas dinner is prepared in his now humble home where he has been able to have the children again for the holiday. All ends happily when the oldest child arrives with news that her real father has left her a fortune! 

Maclyn Arbuckle (1866–1931) was the brother of actor Andrew Arbuckle and cousin of silent screen comic Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. He performed on Broadway between 1899 and 1924 and also appeared in silent films. He was an attorney for a year before giving up the law to become an actor. 

In an unusual move, the play premiered in Canada by the Edward H. Robbins Players of Toronto. For this international opening, the title role was played by Thomas A. Wise.

Between the Toronto production and the US premiere, the leading role was recast with Maclyn Arbuckle for an October production on Broadway.   

“Maclyn Arbuckle is studying his role at his home at Waddington-on-the-St. Lawrence. There he uses his barn for a stage, with a life preserver to represent the leading lady, a keg of nails for the heavy man, a rocking chair for the old woman, and an old saddle for the child, who figures so prominently in the play.”  ~ NEW YORK TRIBUNE

In mid-August, Abruckle started studying his script in advance of September rehearsals in Manhattan. 

Daddy Dumplins had its American premiere at the Rochester NY Lyceum on September 27, 1920. From there, the play moved to Wilkes-Barre PA for one performance at the Grand on October 4th.  

For the Wilkes-Barre engagement, a local drug store named a sundae after the play!  On October 5th and 6th the play performed at the Rajah Theatre in Reading PA. Next stop, Atlantic City!

It is said that Atlantic City was Earl Carroll’s favorite working environment and playground. Daddy Dumplins followed his play The Lady of the Lamp, which opened in Atlantic City in August 1920. His iconic revues The Earl Carroll Vanities were nearly all tried out in Atlantic City before moving to Broadway. For several years he also judged the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City. 

The play opened in Atlantic City at the Woods Theatre on October 7, 1920. Although this was Carroll’s first solo producing effort, he rented the Boardwalk theatre of his former producing partner, A.H. Woods.  At age 27, Carroll was declared the youngest producer working in the theatre. 

Carroll wrote the play while staying at the Traymore Hotel in Atlantic City during the winter of 1920.  The Traymore began as a small boarding house in 1879 and expanded and to become one of the city's premier resorts. By the early 1970s the hotel was abandoned and severely run down. It was imploded and demolished in 1972, a full four years before legalized gambling came to Atlantic City.

When the play opened in Atlantic City, he again stayed at the Traymore, registering the nine children (ages 3 to 13) cast members and understudies, as well as their attending nursemaids and stage mothers.  

Not only did the play feature children, it also featured a dog! Rags was rescued from the pound and incorporated into the play. 

Child actor Elizabeth Gulick was paid $75 a week for speaking 59 words, eight times a week making her the highest paid speaker in America! 

After AC, and before NYC, Daddy Dumplins visited the City of Brotherly Love at the Lyric, the Nation’s capitol at Poli’s, where a free school matinee was performed on November 4th.  Just before moving to the Big Apple, it played Stamford CT.

Daddy Dumplins opened on Broadway at the Theatre Republic (now the New Victory) on 42nd Street on November 20, 1920, and played through January 1921, closing after 64 performances. 

“Do your Christmas theatre shopping early with this play and take your handkerchief along." ~ NEW YORK HERALD

Elizabeth Gulick donated a toy to underprivileged children’s auction - to great publicity. 

The children of the cast also to involved in the NY Daily News’ new shoes drive for underprivileged kids. 

After finishing their engagement at the Republic in mid-January 1921, the play moved to Brooklyn at the Majestic, then to the Lyric in Bridgeport CT and Yonkers NY. 

After Yonkers, Arbuckle left the play and was replaced by Louis Mann. Carroll took the opportunity to re-write the script and re-titled the play to the grim moniker The Final Decision. That title was met with dismay, so Carroll instead chose the more apt His Sweethearts. Mann’s more svelte frame would require him to pad his costumes to conform with the image of the paunchy ‘Santa Claus-like’ figure of lore. Like his movie star cousin Roscoe (aka ‘Fatty’), Maclyn was known for his girth. 

But before the curtain could rise on Mann’s reinterpretation, the production was postponed. Instead, the title reverted to Daddy Dumplins and the original script was licensed for stock and amateur performances. 

In January 1921, as Daddy Dumplins was wrapping up on the East coast, Maclyn Arbuckle’s cousin Fatty starred in the silent film Brewster’s Millions, which also had a story written by George Barr McCutcheon, the author of Daddy Dumplins. While not exactly the same plot, the two scripts dealt with a man who inherits a fortune from a relative - with consequences. Brewster replaces Dumplins children with prospective brides. In reality, Brewster’s success led to McCutcheon writing Dumplins. 

The film opened in Atlantic City at the Virginia Theatre on the Boardwalk on March 22, 1921. It inspired remakes in 1926, 1935, 1945, 1985, 2018, and one now (2022) in pre-production from Nasser Entertainment.  

The story had also been a Broadway play in 1906. It tried out at the Apollo Theatre in Atlantic City, but that’s another blog!  

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The Arbuckle Archive: A Fatty Finding Aid

For the birthday of slapstick screen comedian Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, a little aid to navigating his posts on Travalanche: People Main Biographical Post on Arbuckle Minta Durfee (wife) Al St. John (nephew) On Virginia Rappe, the Woman at the Center of His Scandal Maclyn Arbuckle (cousin, pending July) Keystone Movies The Rounders (1914) The Knockout (1914) Tango Tangles (1914) Miss…

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HE AND SHE / THE HERFORDS

1911-12 / 1917 / 1919-1920

He and She is a play in three acts by Rachel Crothers. Written in 1909, it was first produced in 1911, then again in 1912 under the title The Herfords, but did not appear on Broadway until late 1919 reverting to the title He and She.  

‘He and She’ is about a husband and wife who are both trying to have careers as sculptors. They both submit work to a competition, and the wife wins over the the husband, which he does not take well. The wife ultimately decides to leave her work in order to take care of her teenage daughter who is having issues.

The play was given a reading in Carruthers hometown of Bloomington IL in the summer of 1911. 

The first staging of the play premiered in Albany New York in mid-November 1911. From there, it moved to Poli’s Theatre in Meriden CT.  

The play was scheduled to tour, with no Broadway aspirations, but by the end of the year, star Viola Allen was cast to take the role (She) originated by Emma Dunn. With Allen, the play now had the requisite prestige and an opening at Broadway’s Maxine Elliott’s Theatre was rumored imminent. 

Just after the first of the year, the play was reported to be back in rehearsal at Daly’s Theatre in NYC produced by Liebler & Co. 

By January 9th the play was headed to the Plymouth, not Maxine Elliott’s. This is when the title was changed to The Herfords, after the surnames of the he and she of the previous title. 

By January 22nd, The Herfords had been diverted to Boston, opening on March 1, 1912.  It then moved on to tour in other cities, as far afield as Oregon.  

By the end of 1912, Crothers had moved onto to new plays: Young Wisdom, and Ourselves, both of which reached Broadway, placing He and She / The Herefords in cold storage. Broadway saw three more Crothers plays before He and She resurfaced in mid 1917.  

On June 25, 1917, the "new” production premiered in Atlantic City at Nixon’s Apollo Theatre on the Boardwalk. It was produced by Harris and Cohen and starred Effie Shannon and Maclyn Arbuckle in the title roles. Several New York managers pronounced it “a fine success.” Cohan and Harris placed the play back in rehearsals with thoughts of an October Broadway opening. In early August Maclyn Arbuckle suddenly withdrew from the cast, taking an opportunity to perform with William Faversham in Shaw’s Misalliance. 

Maclyn made a shrewd move because the Crothers play on Broadway in October was titled Mother Carey’s Chickens, not He and She.  In November 1917 a new Crothers play premiered in Atlantic City titled Once Upon a Time. It, too, moved to Broadway and once again, He and She fell by the wayside.

In June 1919, the play resurfaced again - Crothers’ resume considerably bolstered. She now wished to act as well as write. Interestingly, the play had already been released for stock and amateur performances some time earlier.

At the start of the 1919-20 season the Shuberts announced their intention to produce He and She for Broadway, calling it a “new play.” In this production, Crothers herself took the role of Mrs. Herford (aka She), and Cyril Keightley played Mr. Herford (He), with film star Faire Binney in the mix.  The role of Mrs. Herford was supposedly based on Carruthers’ mother. The play launched a pre-Broadway tryout tour in Baltimore in June 1919. 

On its way to Broadway, the play stopped (again) in Atlantic City at the Globe Theatre on the Boardwalk on February 9, 1920.  It moved immediately (24 hours later), to Broadway. 

He and She (finally) opened on Broadway on February 12, 1920 at the Little Theatre (now the Hayes) 240 West 44th Street, Broadway’s smallest and most intimate venue

“Miss Crothers herself played pert of the artist's wife. Under strain of being author and leading lady too she was visibly nervous. In her quieter scenes she was excellent but when was called upon to played the tenser moments she played hard and hammered her lines with rather disturbing vehemence. Cyril Keightley gave an excellent performance, but the rest of the cast was not very good.” ~ HEYWOOD BRAUN

“The authoress acts well, although in the more exciting moments she is crude and overplays."  ~ BROOKLYN TIMES UNION

” The staleness of some of the sentiments might justify the rumor of the play's age, but It would not have been enlivening at any period.” ~ THE SUN & NEW YORK HERALD

“’He and She' seems peopled less with folks than with embodied points of view, and the play seems less a dramatic story than a symposium." ~ ALEXANDER WOOLCOT

On March 21, 1920, Crothers wrote a letter to the editor of The Tribune to take issue with the manipulation of an interview she gave with the newspaper. She claimed the author characterized her unfairly and manipulated her words about the New York critics. 

He and She closed on Broadway after just 28 performances. Crothers continued to write and direct on Broadway until 1943, scoring more than a dozen more new plays but she never acted on Broadway again.