Hi jetwingx.
Thank you for your question.
A Broadway Legend
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pickford/peopleevents/e_beforemovies.html
"Broadway theater was the pinnacle of entertainment for the wealthy --
and the career ambition of every actor. David Belasco worked his way
through the ranks of stage manager and playwright to become one of
Broadway's elite producers. Belasco's career began when he was hired
to manage the Madison Square Theater in 1882. He also co-wrote hit
plays with Henry C. De Mille. He would later mentor De Mille's sons,
William C. and Cecil B., in playwriting and the art of drama. Belasco
was known for the physical and emotional tests he would force upon his
actors: he would strike an actor to provoke a reaction, and in fits of
rage over a performance, he would tear his watch off and smash it with
his heel. Often his displays were calculated: he was known to wear a
fake watch. Some of his productions were "The Girl I Left Behind Me"
(1893), "Heart of Maryland" (1895), "Zaza" (1899), and "Madame
Butterfly" (1900)."
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The Drama, 1860?1918 David Belasco
http://www.bartleby.com/227/1115.html
The only manager who, early in the nineties, seems to have had faith
in the native product was David Belasco, and his belief was founded on
faith in himself. His early training, as secretary to Dion Boucicault,
as manager and stock-dramatist at the San Francisco Baldwin?s Theatre;
his ability to work over material supplied by others at the Madison
Square Theatre?all served him to excellent account when he finally
began for himself and fought against the Trust which did not care for
his independence and grudged him his success. In his long and useful
career we find his interest as a manager prompting his ability as a
writer;"
[edit]
"His love of the West suggested The Girl of the Golden West and
prompted his acceptance of Richard Walton Tully?s The Rose of the
Rancho (27 November, 1906)?a collaboration which left Tully with a
love for the spectacular, apparent in his own independent dramas, The
Bird of Paradise (Daly?s Theatre, 8 January, 1912) and Omar, the Tent
Maker (Lyric Theatre, 13 January, 1914). In all of his productions, as
a manager, Belasco has held the guiding hand. Though John Luther Long
gave him the central materials for Madame Butterfly, The Darling of
the Gods, and Adrea, the Belasco touch brought them to flower."
[edit]
"Had Belasco not been a manager, the effect on his own work might have
been different. As it is, he has sought variety, he has followed the
changing times. His interest in emotion, in picturesque situation, in
unusual atmosphere, in modern realism, is evident in the long list of
plays by himself, and in other dramas he has produced. Sentiment for
the past encouraged him to further the career of William C. De Mille,
son of his early associate."
[edit]
"The entire history of the American theatre within the past quarter of
a century has been the continued struggle between the dramatist and
the manager, resulting in the complete surrender of the former to the
dictates of the latter. The native plays given us have been variously
pruned and patched until, like fashion patterns, they have fitted a
particular ?star,? or until the goods have become salable, dependent
on box-office demand. When the play became a reading as well as an
acting ?thing,? the dramatist first sensed that it was incumbent on
him to turn out a literary product, enriched by style, and marked by
conviction."
=========
Belasco, David [bulas'ko]
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0806826.html
"Belasco, David , 1853?1931, American theatrical manager and producer,
b. San Francisco. He was actively connected with the theater from his
youth, and while associated with Dion Boucicault in Virginia City,
Nev., he was first exposed to scenic realism. At 19 he became stage
manager of the Baldwin Theatre in San Francisco. His first venture as
a playwright was when, in 1880, in association with James A. Herne, he
toured the country in Hearts of Oak, a play adapted by them from an
old melodrama. Connections with the Frohmans brought him to New York
City in association (1882?84) with the Madison Square Theatre and
later (1886?90) as stage manager of the Lyceum. He became an
independent producer in 1895. Known for his minutely detailed and
spectacular stage settings, Belasco showed inventiveness in his use of
stage lighting. A creator of stars, he was lucratively associated with
Mrs. Leslie Carter, David Warfield, Blanche Bates, Frances Starr, Ina
Claire, and Lenore Ulric. His plays, mostly adaptations, were vehicles
for his actors and for his lavish settings. His most successful
writing combinations were with Herne, Franklyn Fyles, Henry C. De
Mille, and John Luther Long. In 1907 he built the Stuyvesant Theater,
later known as the Belasco, during his fight against the Theatrical
Syndicate of the 1890s. The New York Public Library has his collection
of theatrical materials. He wrote The Theatre through Its Stage Door
(1919, repr. 1969)."
=========
THE DAVID BELASCO PAGE - Remembering "The Bishop of Broadway"
A Journey Through His Stage Door
http://classiclit.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=classiclit&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fangelfire.com%2Fny%2Fdavidbelasco%2F
"Belasco grew up in San Francisco and Victoria, British Columbia. He
had some experience as a child actor, and from the early 1870s on
worked in a number of San Francisco theatres as everything from call
boy and script copier to actor, stage manager, and playwright."
[edit]
"Theatrical manager Daniel Frohman brought Belasco to New York City in
1882, hiring him to work as stage manager for the Madison Square
Theatre. A few years later, when Frohman left the Madison Square for
the new Lyceum Theatre, he took Belasco along as stage manager and
house playwright. While at the Lyceum Belasco cowrote several hit
plays--among them The Charity Ball and Lord Chumley--with playwright
(and good friend) Henry C. De Mille. In later years Belasco would
serve as mentor to De Mille's two sons, playwright William C. and
Hollywood legend Cecil B. De Mille. Belasco also taught at the
Lyceum's school of acting, a successful and highly regarded enterprise
that eventually became the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
In 1895 Belasco had his first smash hit as playwright, director, and
independent manager. His Civil War melodrama The Heart of Maryland
became a runaway success in New York, in London, and on tour across
the U.S. Belasco wrote the play as a showcase for the particular
talents of a fledgling actress who would be the first in a long line
of "Belasco stars"--a notorious, flame-haired society divorcee named
Mrs. Leslie Carter. Working closely with her for several arduous
years, Belasco had taught Mrs. Carter everything there was to know
about acting. The two of them soon became known as an inseparable
theatrical duo. She was America's greatest "emotional actress"--and he
was whispered to be her Svengali, dragging her across the floor by her
hair to bring out the fire and pathos in her acting. (Both Belasco and
Carter would later deny the hair-dragging stories; in the meantime,
however, they sold lots of newspapers--and helped fill theatre seats.)
In her sixteen years with Belasco, Mrs. Carter starred in such plays
as Zaza, DuBarry, and Adrea.
In 1902 Belasco leased the Theatre Republic on 42nd Street from Oscar
Hammerstein. Belasco rebuilt and redecorated the theatre as a showcase
for his increasingly lavish productions, installing elaborate stage
machinery and lighting equipment and renaming the house after himself.
In 1906 Belasco realized a long-time dream when ground was broken in
44th Street for a brand-new theatre, the Stuyvesant: a
state-of-the-art playhouse built largely to Belasco's own designs. At
the time of its gala opening in October 1907, the Stuyvesant was the
most technically advanced theatre in New York; it may well have been
the most advanced in the world."
=========
David Belasco And The Psychology Of The Switchboard
http://www.oldandsold.com/articles32n/drama-7.shtml
=========
David Belasco (photo)
http://www.mander-and-mitchenson.co.uk/playwrights3.htm
"David Belasco (right) was probably as comprehensive a theatre
practitioner as could be ? actor, stage manager, pioneer of stage
lighting, director, playwright, manager ? Belasco did them all. He
also discovered Mary Pickford."
=========
Belasco
http://www.wiu.edu/users/mfwc/wiu/g3balasco.html
?David Belasco was a Portuguese-Jewish actor, playwright and manager
who found his earliest successes as a stage manager for "realistic"
drama in New York City and San Francisco. He was well-known at the
turn of the century, was regarded as conveing a flamboyant personality
and having a flair for "total theatricity." Noted as a "pioneer of
realism," he often used the most current of technologies in his stage
direction.?
=========
Internet Movie Database - David Belasco
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0067584/#writer1900
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David Belasco Biography
http://www.bookrags.com/biography-david-belasco/
=========
Answers.com David Belasco
http://www.answers.com/topic/belasco-david
(scroll to Works)
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Walter Belasco - Brother of David Belasco
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0067591/
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keyword search:
David Belasco career manager managed
David Belasco biography
David Belasco actor playwright manager
David Belasco American theatre
=========
Best regards,
tlspiegel |
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