Salt Lake Theatre Script collection

These scripts are stamped “Salt Lake Theatre," and come to us via Brigham Young University (BYU). The first script, Love in Livery: An Original Farce in One Act, written by John Pratt (J.P.) Wooler, the shorter of the two scripts, ran seven times between 1862 and 1875. Mr. Wooler wrote numerous “comediettas” and seems to have been very active in the British theatre, though not even a short biographical sketch can be found about him. One reference gives his life span as 1824-1868 while another gives his age at 74 when he died in 1868, which would make his birth year 1794. It also appears he was quite an eccentric man. In a book titled Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft on and off stage, written by themselves, Mrs. Marie Wilton Bancroft writes, “Mr. Wooler a well-known writer of comediettas sent me a one act play, entitled All’s Fair in Love and War... I thought it just suited for a lever de Rideau (curtain raiser)... Mr. (Henry James) Byron and I agreed to accept it, but suggested changing the title, which we thought too long... Mr. Wooler re-christened his piece A Winning Hazard...Mr. Wooler,... came into the green-room one night to express his delight at the successful start of the theatre; he had been dining out, I fancy, for he appeared to be not quite himself (not an unusual occurrence with poor Mr. Wooler!), and he remarked that he liked everything but the first piece, which he condemned as ‘rubbish’. The poor gentleman, having changed the title in a hurry, had forgotten that he was its author, and remarked, ‘you should have accepted All’s Fair in Love and War a much better play.’ After he left I related the little scene to Byron, who was immensely amused: I said, ‘Ah, well, he was full of congratulations!’ to which Byron replied, ‘Full of congratulations! I thought it was liquor!’”

The second script, Armand, as it was billed, rather than with either of the two subtitles, the Child of the People or Peer and Peasant, ran only once in 1868. The author, Anna Cora Ogden Mowatt Ritchie, wrote the play in 1847 in England. There has been much written about her. She wrote books, plays, and periodical articles, and was also widely acclaimed as a popular reader and actress. At age fifteen, she eloped and married James Mowatt (age 29), a wealthy New York lawyer. He encouraged her to write. Of her elopement she wrote, “What could a girl of fifteen know of the sacred duties of a wife? With what eyes could she comprehend the new and important life she was entering? She had known nothing but childhood–had scarcely commenced her girlhood. What could she comprehend of the trials, the cares, the hopes, the responsibilities of womanhood? I thought of none of these things. I had always been lighthearted to the point of frivolity. I usually made a jest of everything–yet I did not look on this matter as a frolic. I only remembered I was keeping a promise. I had perfect faith in the tenderness of him to whom I confided myself. I did not in the least realize the novelty of my situation.” Her best known work is a play titled Fashion, which received rave reviews in 1845. James died in 1851, and she married William Foushee Ritchie in 1853. In 1860, she left him and moved to Europe. In 1865, she moved to England where, in 1870, she died and is buried next to James.

In anticipation of theatre, community leaders in 1861 included in the Articles of Incorporation for Salt Lake City (Utah) the authority "…to license, tax, and regulate theatrical shows and amusements." Within four years of the founding of Salt Lake, the first play was produced. The Latter-day Saints, from Nauvoo days, had enjoyed drama, and on reaching Utah, they staged productions at H. E. Bowring’s makeshift playhouse and at the Social Hall. Neither was adequate. Brigham Young, in a public address in Salt Lake City in 1861, said, "If I were placed on a cannibal island and given the task of civilizing its people, I should straightway build a theatre for the purpose." Brigham Young was the one to announce the building of the Salt Lake Theatre. After being built in 1861, it was thought to be one of the finest theatres west of the Mississippi River, and it maintained its own company of command performers. It was large enough to seat 1,500 and adjustments could be made to accommodate everything from parties, celebrations, and grand balls to political conventions. The Deseret Dramatic Association, while amateur, produced drama with a professional touch, often working in conjunction with visiting acting troupes. The meeting of the railroads in 1869 had an immediate affect on theatre and meant that all traveling stars would be available for engagements at the Salt Lake Theatre. Eventually, the Deseret Dramatic Association gave way to completely professional performances. The theatre was built of such sound pioneer workmanship that razing the building in 1928 required several more months than was originally planned. In its heyday between 1870 and the 1920s, the theatre billed the finest artists in America, from Utah's own Maude Adams to Sarah Bernhardt, Edwin Booth, John Drew, Richard Mansfield, Otis Skinner, George Arliss, Forbes Robertson, the Barrymores, P.T. Barnum, “Buffalo Bill” Cody, and others as noted luminaries.