By Tom Collins
In July 1868 there was big news in Prescott. The “Camp Whipple Dramatic Association” would perform at Elysian Hall. “Messrs. O’Neill and Wortman, leading members of the company, wish us to state that no immoral or indecent word or act will be allowed on stage.” The plays were a light farce, “The Lottery Ticket,” and an opera spoof, “Bombastes Furioso.”
John Marion, editor of the Arizona Miner, was delighted. The previous November he deplored the drunken rowdiness of the soldiers in Prescott and the recent shootings at the fort. He noted that the soldiers of the 14th Infantry at Camp Lincoln were engaged in more peaceful, constructive activity: they were building a theater. “It is much better than the sort of amusement indulged in by a great many of Fort Whipple boys: i.e., getting drunk, shooting one another, and making night hideous with their savage yells.”
So for the less than 600 entertainment-starved inhabitants of the village of Prescott, it was exciting to learn that the Camp Lincoln thespians were transferring to Fort Whipple in the spring of 1868. They welcomed the troupe’s stars: J. B. O’Neill, leading man; Charles LaMonte, lead comedian; and Privates Benjamin Gee, James Thomason, and Fish, leading ladies. Yes, in the U.S. Army tradition, short men played the female roles; tall men played the male roles.
When O’Neill was mustered out, Charles LaMonte became the new Stage Manager—in modern terms, the Director. His biggest hit was “Robert Macaire; or, The Two Murderers.” John Billings—the Fort’s hospital steward—acted the title role and LaMonte played his comic sidekick, Jacques Strop. In this rousing melodrama, Macaire, a hardened criminal who has escaped from prison and eluded the police, meets his doom. Fate brings him to the very village inn where the wife and son he deserted long ago are lodging. The newspaper review tells us that Billings as Macaire “died game and tragically, and several of our bucolic maids and matrons were affected to tears at the death scene.”
Encouraged by enthusiastic crowds, LaMonte and Billings continued with such epics as “Wreck Ashore; or, The Pirate’s Doom,” “The Black Statue; or, Clubs Are Trumps,” “The Masquerade Ball,” “The Happy Man,” and “Rory O’More.” When LaMonte was mustered out, due to incapacity, a new actor named Dan Roth organized a troupe that opened in December 1868 at Elysian Hall. Roth’s most ambitious undertaking was James Pilgrim’s “Robert Emmet, the Martyr of Irish Liberty.” It told the tragic story of the Irish patriot who fought for his country’s liberation from England. The Miner commended the soldiers’ efforts, “though it was not be to presumed that full justice could be done to such a weighty drama, by men who had not sufficient time for rehearsal.”
The comedies and melodramas soon gave way to minstrel shows, performed by the so-called “Varieties Comique,” who played both at Whipple and at Kerr’s Hall in Prescott on the northwest corner of Carleton and Montezuma streets. The soldiers nicknamed Kerr’s Hall “The Academy of Fun.” Private Harry DeWitt of the 12th Infantry was the director and star. The troupe entertained local audiences frequently between August 1869 and August 1870, when DeWitt, after a few too many beers, struck Sergeant George Main “with intent to injure.” He was sentenced to a year of hard labor, and the Varieties Comique disbanded.
When General George Crook took command of Fort Whipple in 1872, his jolly wife, Mary, broke the gender barrier of the all-male military theater by acting the leading role in a farce called “Trying It On” (October 1873). Her performance paved the way for the Fort Whipple Dramatic Association (1876-1878), the pinnacle of amateur military theater in nineteenth-century Prescott.
At 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, January 11, 2014, Tom Collins—Professor Emeritus of Theater and Sharlot Hall Museum volunteer—and his wife Wendy Collins will present “Stage-Struck Soldiers: Military Theatre in Territorial Arizona,” a 30-minute readers theater presentation at the Sharlot Hall Museum Library and Archives. For further information, call the Library & Archives at 928-445-3122, Ext. 14 or email archivesrequest@sharlothallmuseum.org.
Days Past is a collaborative project of the Sharlot Hall Museum and the Prescott Corral of Westerners, International (www.prescottcorral.org). The public is encouraged to submit articles for Days Past consideration. Please contact SHM Library & Archives Reference Desk at 928-445-3122 Ext. 14 or via email atarchivesrequest@sharlothallmuseum.org for information.