America on stage; "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by George Aiken

I've. Had a vision in a church in Brunswick. Left the church and began to write her novel was published sparking a national Holocaust. The printer's ink was mixed with blood. Hundred years later and for a hundred the most fabulous book in America came the most fabulous America. Program 8 of America on stage. The character of a

nation as seen through its theater. America on stage is produced by the Wisconsin state broadcasting service under a grant from the Educational Television and Radio Center in cooperation with the National Association of educational broadcasters. Consultant for the series is Jonathan W. Kervyn professor of speech at the University of Wisconsin and a specialist in the American theater. Here to introduce the program Professor Kirkman Harriet Beecher Stowe never intended to write a propaganda novel. But only as she said to set down in words a series of pictures. These pictures would be explicit concrete illustrations of slaveries effects upon slaves and slave owners. She felt that a vivid and truthful representation of human beings could show exactly what slavery was. And with more telling effect than abstract theory or general preaching. My vocation she said is simply that of a painter. There was no arguing with pictures and everybody is impressed by them whether

they mean to be or not. Uncle Tom's Cabin attracted a phenomenal number of readers here and abroad. The book broke all existing sales records. This is still receive complex letters of gratitude from those who declared that until reading it they had never known what slavery really was or pictures it would seem did convey at least some of the real truth. These pictures came almost immediately to life in the theater. This of course is understandable if we allow the stage a special ability to capture reality in terms of actual flesh and blood people. The novels original characters moving against whatever semblance of locales the scene painters could provide. Gained a new dimension on the stage. Whatever liberties the adapter playwrights took with the original story and they took some fantastic ones. Not one of the many dramatic versions of Uncle Tom's Cabin was able to dispel the force of this is still was righteous work all contain speaking

likenesses of her originals. Every a feature story Dar Frale wife of a preacher daughter of a preacher published Uncle Tom's Cabin on March 20th 1850 to a volume of righteous wrathful fire fanned the north and seared the south by the summer possession of the book was a ticket to suicide in South Carolina. By the summer New York money and jewelry were flung in church collection plates to buy freedom for slaves. By the summer Mrs. Dole was an awesome saint. A vicious devil. A symbol of motherhood. A nation's destroyer.

By the summer a playwright anxious to help the fight against slavery asked for permission to dramatize the novel. Harriet Beecher Stowe wife of a preacher daughter of a preacher answered him that summer of 1852. It would not be advisable to make that use of the work which you propose. If the barrier which now keeps young people of Christian families from theatrical entertainments is once broken down by the introduction of respectable in model plays they will be open to all the temptations of those who are not such. And there will be as the world now is five bad plays to one good. However good may be the idea of reforming dramatic entertainments I fear it is wholly impracticable. And as a friend to you should hope that you would not run the risk of so dangerous an experiment. Can the world is not good enough yet for it to succeed by the summer of 1852 eager theater managers saw gold in the passions and in the fire the warmth of a full house. Uncle Tom would wear grease

paint whether the world was good enough or not. In 1852 a copyright did not cover the dramatic rights of production in September. Uncle Tom's Cabin made its bow in the Troy Museum in New York State. There are posters screamed they have it. Turner Knight first months of Uncle Tom's Cabin. An evening's entertainment for ya know that measured 25 cents children half rise. Six hour. Horrible conditions of the slaves in a cabin go across the ice comes back to. Russia lost a piece human finds

dog screen between me and me a shot of the eyes were bam. Great chance of escape to sink beneath the home for me and so when the bomb sneaks upon the trunk of a limb there she is now she's making for the room. Chapter. One of the many that's known. Trying to reach for the average. Was God's curse after all. The next year 1853 Harriet Beecher Stowe life of a preacher

daughter of a preacher raised $20000 in England for the great cause against slavery. Five hundred thousand British women signed an indictment against the evil conditions in the southern states. Three hundred thousand copies of Uncle Tom's Cabin had been sold in the north. A clergyman shouted. Let all men read it. And in Virginia the children saying. And in 1853 the epic of Uncle Tom's Cabin is brought to the Chatham Street Theatre in New York City to play over three hundred nights. Often the people who never were inside their doors before. John Alright I'm but drive them straight for your arm gold poms cabin where you will fairly on fire even know after I know a story can get months tops. The little Slayer.

She's dreadfully dirty and shiftless. I'll tell you a topsy don't know Mrs. house shifters don't you know how old you are. Did anybody ever tell you. Who was your mama. Topsy never never had a mother. Now what do you mean. Now where were you born. Never was wrong. You mustn't answer me in that way I'm not playing with you. Tell me where you was born and who your father and mother were never was nothing. I was raised by aspect for no sushi is taking speculators by the cheap when they're little and getting raised for the market. Well how long have you lived with your master and mistress. I don't know Mrs. Hull ship. Is it a year moron I guess.

I see you don't even know what have you ever heard anything about heaven Topsy. Don't you know who made you you know. I think that growed. The plains of Kansas ran red where the harvest of death after 1850 for Free Staters and slave holders wheeled wildly into the territory the Conestoga wagons rumbled and screeched through the ruts where farmers traders fighters each with a vote to decide if Kansas goes free or slave. In a wagon sat John Brown and his straight top sons. Brown preached with a rifle to the Missourians and the Missourians covered the Virgin Kansas earth over his sons and the voters saw a new moon at midnight in the fires of their houses and

Harriet Beecher Stowe told a friend a solemn secret. I did not write the book. You did not write about Tom's Cabin. No. I only put down what I saw. But you've never been in the south have you. I have not. But it all came before me in visions one after another. God wrote it. I put it down for him. It's cabin opening on the Bowery Theatre January of 0 7 not seen although Tom's Cabin Come want to see the tops. Or capture the top. That's so awful. We keep the Can't nobody do me I used to keep Mrs. sway in the time. Space as

creative in the paps we pass banks on how they despise me because I don't know nothing. I don't think we can but you sure do. But when we didn't have to did he was there on that stands do. You know Robert you're trying. Again but you're not your father. You know me but haven't you known. Never not know me ask me. You.

Think you're wrong do you miss it. I want to hear. Well. But. The finger of fire moved past Kansas and flicked blood into Virginia. John Browne led a group of zealous abolitionists into the government arsenal at Harpers Ferry and waited for the three million slaves to rip off their chains and rebel. None did. The man inside the Arsenal were slaughtered by federal troops and John Brown was tried sentenced and executed. The blood was thicker and the fire was higher. And all across the nation the

crowds warmed the pocketbooks of the theater managers and crowded to see Uncle Tom's Cabin. In Philadelphia Detroit Chicago. The women cried in the darkness and watched the little evil sit in the ample lap of Uncle Tom await their entrance into heaven. John Greenleaf Whittier the popular poet was moved to rhapsodize dry the tears for holy evil. With the blasted angels leave of the form so sweet and give to earth the tender care for the golden locks still Viva let the sunny Southland give her a flower of repose orange blossom and budding roses. Say Uncle Tom's Cabin the point for America. Calm yourself. Bring the family. Cite Samuel very little he was almost

frankly drawn out on the Americans. Read that passage again. Well here he is want me see this is where the Fowler crew would not receive it. I bribed me old. Freddy were suppose. In the clouds you see. I think I see it. Yep it's light and you can see they are.

So he banned spirits bright red beans Bartley's white and was that. What you had to be sure you are one of them yourself you are the brightest spirit I ever saw. Those spirits bright. Where Miss evil spirits. Is just know you are trying to keep nice even here. I have always said so. She got the Lord's mark on your forehead. She

won never like a child likes to live. It was always something deep in a I. Don't you think they are well enough for. You.

The crowd sat through the hours of play and sentimentality and wept and cursed by the literary sophisticates who criticised the wordage of her book of fire Harriet Beecher Stowe had a ready answer. I had no thought of style or literary excellence. Imagine a mother who rushes into the street and cries for help to save her children from a burning house. Does she think of the rhetorician or the elocutionist in 1861 southern forces fired on Fort Sumter and the House of the nation was in total blaze and Uncle Tom marched from one theater to the next. A soldier in the forces of the Republic with song and dance. Six

thirty. A dozen different authors a dozen different versions a dozen different languages. And not a penny profit for Harriet Beecher Stowe wife of a preacher daughter of a preacher. The cost. Come to every drop of blood there is and you had taken one by one to give up mass

if you were sick or in trouble or die and I could save your hide give you my heart's blood and if taken every drop of blood in this poor old body would save your precious soul I'd give him free. Do the worst you came my troubles will be over soon. But if you don't repent yours won't never a day no more I can do I forgive you with all of it was so strange. Well what do you want. I understand that you bought a new name Tom did by such a fellow but a devil of a bargain to head up a tool. I believe he's trying to make it out where he's let me see what that devil rock this bit of paper. I arrest you for the murder of Mr. Sinclair. What do you say to that person.

I read it. Like a sob. Oh dear Uncle Tom too weak to speak once the greedy. Master George Little Master George. Don't you know me George. It's all I want it has been forgotten. Good. Now I shall die I can take. You mustn't think of it. I've come to buy you and take your master Giorgio to me. He's going to take me home. It will kill me and it'll break my heart to think what you've suffered. Poor fellow. Don't call me poor fellow. I have you know. But then they told has gone. I'm right in the door to glory.

George Haven is I've got the victory. The Lord has given it to me. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe the tiny frail wife of a preacher daughter of a preacher who wrote a book of fire and seared a nation in 1862 she went to see President Lincoln. The gaunt giant from Illinois looked at the severely dressed middle aged woman and exclaimed so the little lady who made this big war after the war the crude pious play was performed as a circus and spectacle. But by then ten thousand Uncle Tom's Cabin black ashes in the southern fields and slaves were struggling up while the United States made of the tiny book of fire

a legend of their literature. Here again is Professor Jonathan curve of. The plane. Uncle Tom's Cabin met with less than critical acclaim when it first produced in the 1850s. That is from the professional dramatic critics. They scoff not only at the dramas lack of unity and focus but also it's a flagrant melodrama and sentimentality of the piece. They wrote sarcastically of what they call its exaggerated enormities its bad taste its crudities and its absurdities. So much for the critics. The paying public reacted differently. They stormed the theatres where Uncle Tom was playing. They returned again and again to

shed tears over Little Eva. And here sits Simon Legree. Audiences Furthermore seem to sense behind the obvious hokum of the hack playwrights. A basic truths about the inhumanity of the SOLs peculiar institution I throwing this is still those characters and scenes into a strong even lurid relief. The stage version acted as a powerful propaganda force during the years before the outbreak of the great American conflict. But the extraordinary life of the play after that conflict is even more remarkable. The records show it to have been given a total of some 300000 performances. It maintained at least a sporadic life on the stage as late as the 1940s. Its latest reincarnation appears in the contemporary musical play the King and I know where it is given a delightfully imaginative Siamese treatment. In short Uncle Tom's Cabin became a stage Marvel. Tom

shows as they were called roam the country for years. They played everywhere in small town opera houses and under canvas. Some companies were elaborate. Often boasting to Uncle Toms and to Simon agrees which sounds like an embarrassment of riches. Other Tom troops just managed to get by and then only with an ingenious doubling of roles. Prized above all with the inevitable dogs. Pretending ferocity the chaste allies over the Ohio river ice floes. They were good actors. Sometimes they stole the show from the human performers. The dogs remark one critic at a North Dakota town where poorly supported. On our next program nights in the series America on stage we take note of another native theatrical institution some would say it is the most American of all the minstrel show all. The.

Program eight of America on stage produced and recorded by the Wisconsin state broadcasting service under a grant from the Educational Television Radio Center. The programs are distributed by the National Association of educational broadcasters consulting for the series. Jonathan W. Kervyn professor of speech at the University of Wisconsin heard in the cast were cliff Roberts Tom Grunewald Marge Schott for Tom to teen Vera Ray Stanley packing Marcia Miller and Ken ost music composed and conducted by Don vaguely banjo by Josh Salter script by Julius lamb doll production by Carl Schmidt. Yeah. This is the end he be radio network.