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Theatrical productions of fairy tales were popular in the first decade of the
1900s, beginning in 1901 with Klaw and Erlanger's
Sleeping Beauty & the Beast. Two of the most successful came out of Chicago. In 1902, Fred Hamlin* premiered
The Wizard of Oz
at his family's Grand Opera House on Clark Street.
In September, Oz moved on to Broadway for 292 performances before going on tour. In mid 1903 Hamlin mounted
Babes in Toyland. It went to Broadway for
192 performances that September. Fittingly, Klaw & Erlanger closed the chapter it'd begun, offering and closing
Mother Goose in 1904 and Humpty Dumpty in 1905.
Rather than mount Mr. Bluebeard from scratch, Klaw and Erlanger repeated what it had done successfully with
Sleeping Beauty. They purchased Mr. Bluebeard sets and costumes from London's
Drury Lane Theater.
The music score was rewritten with new tunes and lyrics, celebrity American comedians were added, and the storyline was mauled
to suit.†
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All six fairytale extravaganzas were costly and involved huge casts
with elaborate costumes and lighting. Beauty, Babes and Oz were well received and
financial successes; Bluebeard, Mother Goose and Humpty, not so much.
Mr. Bluebeard had been a successful Christmas
pageant in London in 1902 and did well enough at the Knickerbocker in New York early in
1903. By year-end, however, maybe the public's taste for children's shows was saturated. Or perhaps one of the
most violent of the Grimm brother's tales, even with comedy, was too grim for the Midwest. Whatever the cause, despite an
audience bump during Christmas vacation, shortly before the Iroquois fire, Klaw & Erlanger decided to pull the plug on its pricey
Bluebeard investment. They informed the cast the troupe would be disbanded in mid Jan, 1904, to be replaced by rainmaker
Ben Hur.
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Discrepancies and addendum
* Frederick Rupert Hamlin (1863-1904) and his brother, Harry L. Hamlin (1861-1934), had inherited
Chicago's Grand Opera House (1872-1958) from their father, John A. Hamlin (1837-1908). In
the last year of his life Fred Hamlin partnered with
Lew Fields of the Weber & Field comedy duo.
† There have been many permutations of the
Mr. Bluebeard folk story. The common theme is a wealthy old man who murders multiple
wives and is ultimately punished for it by her relatives.
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