AMUSEMENTS.

  Lansing Theatre: The Lansing Theater, on the southwest corner of 13th and P Streets, was built in 1891, displacing the Funke Opera House as the largest and finest theater in Lincoln. The owners were J.F. Lansing (b. 1842), a Lincoln real estate man, and his brother-in-law Henry Oliver (b. 1857); Edward A. Church was the manager. According to the program of the opening week (November 23-28, 1891) the auditorium consisted of the orchestra and parquet seating on the main level, with dress circle at the rear and sides; three tiers of five boxes each and six loges were at the sides. Above were the balcony and the gallery. With standing room, about 2500 people could be present.

The building also housed offices, including that of Cather's friend and fellow reviewer, Dr. Julius H. Tyndale. It was renamed the Oliver Theater in 1898.

The Oliver Theater, Lincoln, Nebraska. The theater was originally named The Lansing Theater.

  Clara Morris: Born Clara Morrison, Morris (1848-1925) made her New York debut in 1870 and was a great success playing passionate, suffering heroines in roles in such plays as Jezebel, Camille (1874), Miss Multon, a version of East Lynne (1876), Jane Eyre (1877), and The New Magdalen (1882). She formed her own company about 1878 and toured the country. She was never famous for her beauty, and her voice was flawed, but the emotional power of her acting overcame these defects. Morris retired in the 1890s as the new kinds of realistic plays of Ibsen and Shaw and Pinero made the older dramas seem old-fashioned and histrionic. In retirement she wrote articles and columns on acting, as well as volumes of reminiscences that show her acting was not so instinctive and unpracticed as Cather supposed.

Image available at the New York Public Library Digital Gallery.

Image available at the University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections.

Clara Morris Clara Morris Clara Morris Clara Morris Clara Morris

  Dr. Giffin: Physician and surgeon Dr. Robert Emmett Giffen (died c. 1919) had his offices in the Lansing building in 1893 and 1894 and lived at 1504 S Street, near Chancellor James Canfield's house at 1522 S. He came to Lincoln in the late 1880s, serving as one of the surgeons at St. Elizabeth Hospital by 1890.Robert Emmett (1778-1803) was an Irish patriot executed by the British for his part in the 1803 rebellion. Robert Emmett Moore of Lincoln employed Charles Cather during the 1890s. Cather named one of the two businessman friends in "Two Friends" (1932) Robert Emmett Dillon.

  Wife: Helena L. Giffen was the wife of Dr. Robert E. Giffen; c. 1907-1913 she had her own business selling hair goods.

  the governor: The governor of Nebraska was then Lorenzo Crounse (1834-1909) of Ft. Calhoun, NE. He was born in New York state, served in the Civil War, and came to Nebraska in 1864. He served in the territorial and state legislatures and in Congress 1873-77. He was appointed Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury in 1891 but resigned to run for governor, and served 1892-95. He declined to run for re-election.

  In full uniform: The governor was ex officio commander-in-chief of the Nebraska National Guard; his staff in that capacity would have consisted of the adjutant general, the quartermaster general, the surgeon general, the commissary general, and their assistants.

  Camille: The English play Camille is based on the play La Dame aux camélias (1852), based on the novel (1848) by Alexandre Dumas the younger (1824-1895). In the play, Armand Duval, a poor young man of a good family, falls in love with a famous courtesan, Camille (named Marguerite Gautier in the original). Skeptical of his love at first, she comes to return it and the two retire to an idyllic life in the country. However, Armand's father comes to her and begs her to set Armand free for the sake of his reputation and for the marriage chances of Armand's young sister. Camille pretends to be tired of Armand and returns to Paris and her old life. She is, however, dying of tuberculosis, and the two are reunited before her death. The role of Camille was also a favorite of Sarah Bernhardt and many other tragic actresses.

Verdi's opera La Traviata (1853) is based on the story of Camille, and the play has been made into films as well, notably one starring Greta Garbo (1936).

  Modjeska: Helena Modjeska (1840 or 1844—sources differ) was born in Cracow, Poland, and went on stage in 1861; the name by which she is best known is a simplified version of her Polish stage name. She was acclaimed as the greatest Polish actress, but emigrated to a ranch in Orange County, California, in 1876 with her husband, Karol Chlapowski, a minor Polish nobleman; the titles of Count and Countess appear to have been bestowed on them later. Modjeska learned English quickly enough to make her American stage debut in 1877 and soon became one of the best known and most respected actresses in the country, known for her historical and Shakespearean roles as well as the modern emotional dramas. She retired in 1907 and died in 1909.

Modjeska appears in Cather's My Mortal Enemy (1926).

Image available at the New York Public Library Digital Gallery and the University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections.

Helena Modjeska as Ophelia Helena Modjeska

  Julia Marlowe: Marlowe (born Sarah Frost in England in 1866) made her stage debut in 1878 and first appeared in New York in 1887. Her beauty and refinement made her immensely popular with audiences, and she toured frequently with her own company, with both her first husband, Robert Taber (married 1894, divorced 1900), and her second, the almost equally well-known actor, E. H. Sothern (married 1911). She was considered a romantic rather than an emotional actress, especially famous in Shakespearean roles. She retired in 1924 and died in 1950. Julia Marlowe Julia Marlowe Julia Marlowe Julia Marlowe

  emotional plays . . . emotional age: Audiences in the Victorian era loved plays in which the characters are dominated by strong emotions in tense, powerful scenes which gave the actors opportunities for thrilling speeches and gestures. The term melodramatic is now often applied to such plays, although melodrama was originally a separate genre.

  never been practiced before a mirror: Morris's memoirs and articles on the art and craft of acting show that she did indeed study how to play her parts, visiting insane asylums, for example, before playing roles in which she went mad. However, critics felt that the key to her power was that she actually felt the emotions her characters were feeling.

  awful: Cather uses the word in its older sense, as something inspiring awe by its grandeur or power.

  Monsieur Duval: The father of Camille's lover, Armand, who separates the lovers by appealing to Camille to give up Armand for his own good and that of his family.

  Armand: Armand Duval, Camille's idealistic lover. When he believes that Camille has tired of him and has returned to her old life, he denounces her at a ball, causing her collapse into her final illness. When he learns why she left him, he returns to her and she dies in his arms.

  Pottgeiser: Major Herman Pottgeiser, "a German-American of a somewhat conventional, but ever-welcome, type recurs with the persistency of a Wagnerian leading motif," and furnished much of the humor of William Hoey's Oh, What a Night, according to the New York Times reviewer (29 December, 1885).

  Loder: No actor of the name of Loder appeared on the New York stage in the 1890s, according to the New York Times dramatic index. He was probably a part of one of the many companies touring the Midwest.

  Oh, What a Night: Gus Williams starred in William Hoey's Oh, What a Night, "a farcical piece with which he has lately delighted rural audiences," when it opened at the Grand Opera House in New York on December 28, 1885; the New York Times reviewer went on to suggest that the play was probably based on foreign sources (29 December, 1885).