This post discusses a play
and its playwright that is in a different category from all the dramas I have
addressed. Walter Ben Hare (1880-1950)
was for over thirty years a professional meteorologist; during these same years
he wrote plays for rural North Americans.
His obituary claims he wrote “200 stage plays”. These plays were performed by high school
students, college students, church affiliated dramatic groups and amateur dramatic
clubs.
His most famous play
written in 1919 is Aaron Slick From
Punkin Crick. In 1938 Life magazine
sent a staff member to Mikado, Michigan to see a “local-talent production of
America’s best loved comedy.”* It was staged by the Mikado Dramatic Club, one
of the 300,000 amateur play producing groups in the United States. At this
time, “Aaron Slick” had been staged over 25,000 times and “Life” reported: “It
has been seen by more people than have seen all Broadway productions for the
last five years.” A film was made in 1952 by Paramount Pictures based on this
play, starring Dinah Shore and Robert Merrill. It was a sure fire success since
the play script had sold more than a million copies and had been produced more
than 28,000 times.
So while Walter Ben Hare
wrote for non-professional theatre and had a day job that was not in theatre,
he earned his wealth from the sale of his scripts, published by Walter H.
Baker & Company of Boston, and from the production of his plays. He had been a professional actor for several
years prior to commencing his work in 1905 as a meteorologist. Throughout his lifetime, in addition to his
playwriting, he continued to stage plays, to give dramatic readings from plays by
Shakespeare as well as to act in productions.
In the Life article, Hare claims he writes for
small town audiences who want “the old, old tale of rural virtues triumphant
and of city vices thwarted—the old farcical situations and action, action,
ACTION.” Hare used two nom de plumes in
addition to his actual name. He assigned the name Lieutenant Beale Cormack, for
plays he claimed to be ashamed of. He
used the name Mary Xodena Burns for religious plays. He used his real name for “the
other stuff”.
In 1919 his play, Over Here was published. The setting is
River Landing, Missouri. Hare was
working as a local weatherman in Springfield Missouri at the time he wrote this
play. Act One is set in the village
square the day that the United States declared war on Germany. Act Two is the same location and it is three
weeks later as fifty local men are leaving for military training. Act Three is
that evening and set in the home of Mr. Eckert.
The first two acts are primarily a recruiting play with a spy subplot
that sustains the third act. When I first read this play in 2005, I noted that
Hare referenced two prior times in the history of United States when citizens
departed for war. The American Civil War
(April, 1861-June, 1865) is memorable for several of the characters as is the
Spanish American War (April, 1898-August, 1898). A few of the play’s characters suffered the
loss of loved ones during one or both wars.
The play is filled with sentiments relating to love of country and service to it. It also contains details supporting the sense
of daily life such as the cost of items—five cents purchased a plug of tobacco.
Ms. Finch was a housekeeper for Mr. Eckert earning fifteen dollars a month plus
room and board. Hare effectively creates small town environment of the time as
well as the thinking of its citizens. He
also stayed true to using city vice thwarted as well as lots of continuous action. Despite the general seriousness of the plot,
there is an element of comedy clearly carried throughout, primarily by Miss
Lornie Davis—a giddy forty year old unmarried woman.
There is an indication in
the printed copy of the script that the play was staged prior to the 1919
publication of the script. Also the topic of the play is truly intended to be
timely for the purpose of recruiting as well as expressing the idea of
patriotism in other ways. So I assume it was written in 1917. I have found no newspaper announcements regarding the
production of the play, therefore I have no knowledge of its production history. I do find it an interesting piece of
Americana.
·
*LIFE, March 14, 1938, page 24.
NOTE:
Many of Hare’s plays are available on-line and may be
downloaded.
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