By Tom Collins
On Oct. 19, 1905, the Elks Theatre brought a Broadway comedy to Prescott: "The Man from Mexico," by Henry A. Du Souchet. The Arizona Journal Miner neglected to mention the author's name, the fact that he had lived in Prescott between 1878 and 1879, and his tremendous popularity as an amateur character actor at the Prescott Theatre.
Harry was born in Mt. Vernon, Ind., in 1852 and educated in the public schools of Evansville and New Orleans. In his home state, he learned telegraphy and worked for a time as a train dispatcher. By age 15, he had become a skilled telegraph operator in New Orleans.
Like his father, he had a predilection for amateur theatricals and was associated in his nomadic career as a telegrapher with amateur organizations in New Orleans, Houston, Evansville and San Diego before he arrived in Prescott.
In May 1875, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Signal Service. He served until October 1876 in San Diego before he was assigned to Maricopa Wells, Florence and Wickenburg between October 1876 and June 1878. On June 11, 1878, he was sent to Prescott to serve as assistant operator. Upon obtaining his discharge from the army, he earned a reputation for serving "all persons regardless of race, color or previous condition at the telegraph office in Bitting's Bank Exchange" (Miner, Oct. 19, 1878).
Eventually, he tired of the "tick-tick" of the telegraph key and announced his candidacy for Justice of the Peace. The Miner's editor recommended him as a "first-lass man, able, active and courteous" (Oct. 19). He won the election in November and, in December, became authorized as a Notary Public as well.
In the meantime, Tom Fitch - the silver-tongued orator of the Pacific - and several other members of the bar had formed the Prescott Dramatic Association, an amateur theatre club with lofty artistic goals. Harry joined the troupe in time to perform in their first production, "Helping Hands," on Aug. 12, 1878. At less than 5'6", Harry, at age 26, was a character actor. Fitch cast him as Isaac Wolff, a crafty Jewish fence. While the other players won kudos, it was Harry who "fairly carried off the honors of the evening. This latter gentleman not merely read his part with skill and fidelity, he acted it to the life" (Miner, Aug. 13, 1878).
A string of acting triumphs ensued, including Caleb Plummer, the poor toymaker. in "Cricket on the Hearth," Joe Barlow in "A Hundred Thousand Pounds," Major O'Hara in "Led Astray" and Eccles, the comically drunken father, in "Caste."
Not content to play supporting roles in the Dramatic Club, Harry joined forces with John Starke, a talented soldier who had recently been mustered out at Fort Whipple, to form the Prescott Minstrel Troupe (a.k.a. Prescott Variety Troupe). Harry laid them in the aisles with his renditions of "Happy Uncle Tom" and his comic Dutch characters in August and September 1879. He had reached the zenith of his amateur acting career.
Next week we find that not everything remained rosy in his long writing and acting career.
Tom Collins is the author of "Stage-Struck Settlers in the Sun-Kissed Land: The Amateur Theatre in Territorial Prescott, 1868-1903." He is a retired college professor of theater history and volunteers at the Sharlot Hall Museum Archives.
This article, in an expanded version, and other Days Past articles are available at sharlothallmuseum.org/archives and via RSS e-mail subscription. Mr. Collins has several other Days Past articles posted on the website about theater in old Prescott.
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Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(Leslie’s Weekly) Reuse only bypermission.
Henry A. Du Souchet spent a year and a half on the amateur stage in Prescott (June 1878-December 1879) before embarking on a notable career as actor and playwright.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(Dicks’ Standard Plays acting edition) Reuse only by permission.
Scene from "Nan, the Good-for-nothing" in which Harry failed to memorize his lines causing an embarrassing hash of the performance for the Dramatic Club of Prescott. As a result, Harry, fallen from grace, left Prescott in December of 1879.
Photograph credit: (SHM from "History of Arizona Territory", 1884)
Thomas Fitch, shown here c.1883, was a Republican member of the U.S. Congress, 1869-71 from Nevada. He was instrumental in forming the Prescott Dramatic Association, an amateur theatre troupe, in 1878. Harry Du Souchet quickly joined the group. Interestingly, Thomas Fitch was a lawyer and was the defense lawyer for the Earp brothers after the shooting at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory in 1881. The book, "Murder in Tombstone: The forgotten trial of Wyatt Earp" by Steven Lubet tells the story. The "silver-tongued orator of the Pacific" saved Wyatt Earp’s life!