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Courted Into Court

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Courted Into Court
Date premieredDecember 29, 1896
Place premieredBijou Theatre
Original languageEnglish
GenrePlay
The cover of sheet music featuring Irwin's coon songs used in this play.

Courted Into Court is a 1896 play by John J. McNally. It was produced by Charles T. Rich and William Harris for a 140 performance run at the Bijou Theatre on Broadway starting on December 29, 1896. [1][2]

Prior to its Broadway debut, it played first on any stage in Omaha, Nebraska, on December 4, 1896,[3][4][5] and then moved to Kansas City.[6] and Chicago.[7]

Star May Irwin sang and helped popularize (the now notorious example) coon song "All Coons Look Alike to Me" by Ernest Hogan in the play, which had an all-white cast.[8] She also sang the coon song, "Mr. Johnson, Turn Me Loose" in the play, a song later remembered in all of Irwin's major obituaries.[9]

Cast

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  • May Irwin at Dottie Dimple
  • John C. Rice as Worthington Best, Sr.
  • Raymond Hitchcock as Worthington Best, Jr.
  • Clara Palmer as Mrs. Worthington Best, Sr.
  • Hattie Williams as Helen Best
  • Ada Lewis as Mademoiselle Nocodi
  • George W. Barnum as Gen. Baron Vladimir Vladistoff
  • Joseph M. Sparks as Judge Jeremiah Geoghan
  • Jacques Kruger as Pop Dooley
  • Sally Cohen as Sylvia Rosebud
  • Roland Carter as Mortimer Morton and Sharp Lawyer
  • Eva Gilroy as Gertie[10]

References

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  1. ^ The Best Plays of 1894-99, p. 189 (1955)
  2. ^ (30 December 1896). Mary Irwin in a New Farcical Vaudeville Play, The Sun
  3. ^ (30 November 1896). Amusements, Omaha Daily Bee
  4. ^ Amusements, Omaha Daily Bee
  5. ^ (6 December 1896). Amusements, Omaha Daily Bee (review of play)
  6. ^ (12 December 1896). Music and the Drama, Kansas City Daily Journal
  7. ^ (30 December 1896). Notes of the Stage, Indianapolis Journal
  8. ^ Lee, Mauren D. Sissieretta Jones: "The Greatest Singer of Her Race," 1868-1933, p. 158 (2012)
  9. ^ Ammen, Sharon. May Irwin: Singing, Shouting, and the Shadow of Minstrelsy, p. 100 (2017)
  10. ^ (6 February 1897). "Courted Into Court", The Illustrated American, p. 204
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