William Gillette
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William Hooker Gillette (b. July 24, 1853, Hartford, Connecticut; d. April 29, 1937, Hartford, Connecticut) was an American actor, playwright and stage-manager; recognized as one of the greatest actors in the history of the United States.
Possibly best known in his day for embodying the celebrated character of Sherlock Holmes, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (with whom the actor also became a close personal friend), Gillette imposed his cachet forever on the character's stereotype: deerstalker cap, cloak, curved pipe and the phrase: "Oh, this is elementary, my dear Watson."
Also, Gillette wrote, produced and performed a play entitled Sherlock Holmes (adapted from a version originally written by Conan Doyle), hailed by the highest figures of those years. Through this work, he broadly amassed fans all around the world.
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Youth
The town where William Gillette was born, Nook Farm (near Hartford, Connecticut), was a literary and intellectual node, abiding Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe. His father was the wealthy Francis Gillette, A former US Senator with conservative and reformist ideas, such as fighting for abolition, modals and public education, and who constructed most of town's infrastructure. His mother was Elisabeth Daggett Hooker, a descendant of Thomas Hooker, the puritan leader, who founded the town. In the mansion, Gillette grew up with his 5 brothers.
As a student, William Gillette specialized in oratory, acting and engineering. But Mark Twain, his close neighbor, pushed him towards the acting career, which eventually became his real vocation. His last year as a regular student was 1873 (when he was 20 years old). Then Gillette briefly worked for a stock company in New Orleans. Gillette returned to New England, and on Mark Twain's own recommendation, Gillette debuted at the Globe Theater of Boston with Twain's stage-play Guilded Age, in 1875. Afterward, Gillette was a stock actor for six years through Boston, New York and the Midwest.
During these years, William Gillette irregularly attended a spate of institutions, although he never completed their programs: Trinity, Harvard, Yale (1875), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, NYC-College and Boston University. His family warned him regularly against his chosen vocation, and eventually disinherited him.
Playwright, director and actor
In 1881, while performing at Cincinnati, William Gillette was hired as playwright, director and actor, by Gustave and Daniel Frohman. Taken to New York with a salary of $50-week, his first play was The Professor. He debuted in the Madison Square Theater, lasting 151 performances, with a posterior tour through many States (far as St. Louis). That same year, he performed his consecrating piece Esmeralda, written together with Hodgson Burnett.
Ignoring his critics, William Gillette instead strove to fill all the theater's seats. He was committed to catch the spectator by sprightly effects and many improvements on sound systems, stage and illumination, for example the use of sudden blackouts for dramatization, fade-in/fade-out at scenes' beginning, etc. Often, he added large pantomime segments, that were also effective on the audience.
Usually leaning toward cold roles enduring extreme situations, Gillette was also regarded as the "aristocrat of the stage" and an innovator in interpretation. His acute realism was accented by his particular charisma, replacing much dialog with physical action also. This was something he denominated "The Illusion of the First Time in Acting", as mentioned to the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1913).
Indeed, historians have noted that he did "natural acting and not the melodramatic declaiming, proper of the 1800s". In other words, Gillette was an artist based on his personality. It can be considered that all Gillette's traits had historical consequences, as since his time American theater began to reach out the common people.
Career as Sherlock Holmes
Charles Frohman was a young Broadway producer, who had been successful with the exchanging of theater productions between the USA and the UK. After he produced some of Gillette's plays, the two formed a greater partnership. Their productions had great success, sweeping Gillette into London's society spot, which had been historically reluctant to accept American theatre.
In 1897, William Gillette performed his play Secret Service at Adelphi Theater of London, with great success and was praised by the critics also. This was a significant event, particularly because he was spotted by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle then.
Conan Doyle had finished his Sherlock Holmes saga with The Final Problem, published in 1893. After this publication Conan Doyle found himself in need of further income, as he was planning to build a new house. He decided to take his character to stage. While two previous plays had been done by Charles Brookifield, the skit "Under the clock" in 1893, and John Webb, the play "Sherlock Holmes" in 1894, Doyle wrote a new 5-act play nevertheless, with Holmes and Moriarty in their freshmen years as detectives.
After attending Gillette's London performances of 1897, Conan Doyle commented to the press that Gillette was his favorite actor to perform the classic sleuth. He contacted Frohman then, who was in New York, but Conan Doyle canceled the deal when Frohman pretended to own the staging-copyright also.
Conan Doyle the offered the production to Henry Irving and Beerhom Tree. But when they demanded to readapt Holmes to their acting profile, he turned down the deal, considering that this would debase the character.
Noting that Conan Doyle was hopeless and weighing that Gillette could do it, the literary agent A. P. Watt again sent the script to Frohman. Frohman, assessing that this was impossible, traveled to London to meet Conan Doyle nonetheless. There, Frohman suggested the prospect of an adaptation by William Gillette. Conan Doyle endorsed this and Frohman obtained the staging-copyright (1897).
William Gillette, who read the entire collection for first time then, liked the idea and started the piece's outlining in San Francisco, while touring with Secret Service still. Both artists became confident. In one occasion, Gillette referred by telegraph: "May I marry Holmes?" . The unwavering Conan Doyle's responded: "You can marry him, or kill him. Or anything you want."
Coins famous phrase
William Gillette's version consisted of 4 acts. Epitomizing several Conan Doyle's stories, he mainly utilized the plots "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Final Problem". Also, it had elements from "Study in Scarlet", "The Sign of the Four", "The Boscombe Valley" and "The Greek Interpreter".
Different to the only-intellectual original, "a machine rather than a man", William Gillette portrayed Sherlock Holmes as brave and open to express his feelings. He introduced the deerstalker cap on stage, which was originally featured in illustrations by Sidney Paget in the 1890s. Gillette also introduced to Holmes' costume the cloak and the curved pipe, instead the straight one, so Gillette, a great smoker also, could pronounce his lines. Gillette also made use of a magnifying-glass, a violin and a syringe, which were all established as "props" to the Sherlock Holmes character.
Gillette formulated the complete phrase: "Oh, this is elementary, my dear Watson", which was later reused by Clive Brook, the first spoken-cinema Holmes, as: "Elementary, my dear Watson", one of Holmes' well known traits.
Irene Adler, the woman of the series, was replaced by Alice Faulkner, young and beautiful lady who was planning to revenge her sister's murder but eventually falls in love with Holmes.
The tentative title was: "Sherlock Holmes in an Unknown Episode, not Published in the Great Detective's Career, showing his connection with the Weird Ms. Faulkner case". But it was reduced later to: "Sherlock Holmes - A Drama in Four Acts."
After the Baldwin Hotel blaze in San Francisco, in November 1898, both original scripts, Conan Doyle's and Gillette's adaptation, were destroyed. Gillette wrote the piece again nevertheless, in a month and by memory.
Traveling in 1899 to present it to Conan Doyle, they met in Ulster's train station. Gillette showed up disguised as Sherlock Holmes. With the character's posing, he approached slowly and said: "You're the writer, no doubt about it". Conan Doyle approved the script and the two became friends.
Holmes tour
After a pre-debut presentation streak starting October 1899 in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse in New York, and Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in Pennsylvania, Sherlock Holmes debuted in the Garrick Theater of New York in November 6, 1899, performing until June 16, 1900. It was an instant success. Gillette applied all his dazzling special effects over the massive audience.
But he faced sharp, even derisive, criticism from the newspapers, especially about Holmes falling in love. In Conan Doyle's original novels, Holmes was said to have an "aversion to women". As a matter of fact, throughout 34 years, the critics would rarely praise the production.
The company also toured nationally, along the western United States, from October 8, 1900, to March 30, 1901. This was bolstered by another company also, with Cuyler Hastings, through minor cities and Australia.
After a pre-debut week in Liverpool, the company debuted in London (September 9, 1901), at the Lyceum Theater, performing in Duke of York's Theater later.
It was another hit with its audience, despite not convincing the critics. The 12 weeks originally appointed were at full-hall. The production was extended until April 12, 1902 (256 presentations), including a gala for King Edward VII, in February 1. Then, it toured through the British Islands, with two ancillary groups: north (with H.A. Saintsbury) and south (with Julian Royce).
At the same time, the play was produced in foreign countries (such as Australia, Sweden, South Africa). In the USA, Gillette toured again from 1902 to 1903, until November of 1903, when Gillette launched his next play: The Admirable Crichton, requested personally by its author, J.M. Barrie.
Worldwide fame
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In his lifetime, Gillette presented Sherlock Holmes approximately 1,300 times (third in the historical stage-record), before American and English audiences. He was also shown widely, through appearances in many magazines, by way of photographs or illustrated caricatures, and was also well represented on the covers of theater programs.
Meanwhile, around the world, other productions took place, based on Gillette's Sherlock Holmes. These were either satiric, which were very successful, and/or undue; some lasted several seasons. Frohman's lawyers tried to curb the illegal phenomenon exhaustedly, traveling overseas, from court to court.
Even Gillette parodied Holmes once and, ironically, on this one occasion the critic praised the production. The Fearfully, The Harrowing (1905) was a one-act piece, a preamble to the main production, conceived as an homage to Joseph Jefferson Holland, a member of the company who had passed away while touring. It was about Holmes, with his typical pose but not uttering a word, listening to an alienated woman calmly. Gillette repeated the piece in London, while promoting his sentimental drama Clarice (September-October 1905). The juvenile Charles Chaplin portrayed Billy the pageboy there. But, when the production of Clarice became a failure, Gillette replaced Clarice with Sherlock Holmes. Chaplin repeated his role again.
Models for Holmes' portrait
The magazines Collier's Weekly (USA) and The Strand (UK) pushed Conan Doyle avidly, offering to continue Sherlock Holmes series for a generous salary. The new chapters were first published in 1901, first with a prequel and later with Holmes revived definitively (1903). It continued for another quarter-century.
Gillette posed for pictures by the artist Frederic Dorr Steele, which were featured on Collier's Weekly's covers then and reproduced by American media. Additionally, Steele contributed with Conan Doyle's book-covers, Gillette's short stories (Baker Street Irregulars) and, later, doing marketing when Gillette made his farewell performances.
As international copyright did not yet exist, Conan Doyle's series were widely printed throughout the USA, mostly with pictures of William Gillette on-stage. P. F. Collier & Son owned the copyrights of Steel's illustrations and issued drawings in many editions.
Gillette's castle
Gillette announced his retirement many times along his career, despite not actually accomplishing this until just before his death. The first announced retirement took place in 1919, after Gillette purchased the boat Aunt Polly which was 144 feet in length and weighed 200 tons.
In 1912, while sailing the Connecticut river, Gillette spotted a hill, part of the Seven Sisters, over a ferry's pier in Hadlyme. He docked, disembarked and climbed up. He was so amazed by the view that he purchased 115 acres of land, the next month. He decided to build up a castle at this location based on a Norman fortress (Robert the Devil).
During the five years of construction, Gillette lived onboard the Aunt Polly. The material for the castle was carried up by an aerial-trolley designed by him. The castle's walls were 5-feet thick at the base to 3-feet thick at the upper levels. The castle possessed 24 rooms and 47 doors, with puzzled hand-carved locks, which were also devised by Gillette. The main salon measured 30 by 50 feet and was 19 feet in height, featuring a complex mirrored system of surveillance that ended in his bedroom. This was in order "to make great entrances in the opportune moment", as Gillette explained.
The mansion was finished in 1919, at a cost of 1 million US dollars. Gillette called it Seven Sisters. Its small train was his personal pride. The train's layout was 3 miles long, and it travelled all around the property. Gillette also enjoyed strolls on his property in company of his guests, Albert Einstein among them.
Last years and farewell tour
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Naturally, Sherlock Holmes was Gillette's foremost production with 1,300 performances (in 1905, 1906, 1910, 1915 and 1923). While performing on other tours, he was always forced to include at least one extra performance of Sherlock Holmes, by popular demand.
In 1929, at the age of 66, Gillette started the farewell tour of Sherlock Holmes, in Springfield, Massachusetts. Scheduled for two seasons, it was eventually extended into 1932.
In the New Amsterdam Theater of New York, on November 25, 1929, a great ceremony took place. Gillette received a signature book, autographed by 60 different world eminences. There, in his speech, Conan Doyle stated: "I consider the production a personal gratification... My only complaint is that you made the poor hero of the anemic printed page a very limp object as compared with the glamour of your own personality which you infuse into his stage presentment." Former President Calvin Coolidge commented that the production was a "public service". On the same occasion, the critics concurred, praising the performance sentimentally. The definitive farewell appearance took place on March 19, 1932, in Wilmington, Delaware.
Gillette died on April 29, 1937, in Hartford, due to a pulmonary hemorrhage. He was buried in Hooker's family cemetery, at Farmington, Hartford County, Connecticut.
Trivia
- Around June 1903, in one of the shadow companies touring UK, Charles Chaplin (12 years old) was hired to play Billy the pageboy. He was saved from impoverishment then. Repeatedly, years later, at his heyday, Chaplin touched on this anecdote beholdenly when interviewed.
- Orson Welles did an homage adaptation of Gillette's Sherlock Holmes, imitating Gillette's style, in his The Mercury Theater on the Air (September 25, 1938). "It is not enough to say that William Gillette resembles Sherlock Holmes; Sherlock Holmes looks exactly like William Gillette." (Welles)
- Gillette was married for six years, until the death of his wife. He was very depressed for the following five years and never married again. But later, he was regarded as a philanderer since many women were seen at his castle. He corresponded with one of them in particular, for decades.
- Gillette helped to arrange a reunion of The Baker Street Irregulars, on December 7, 1934, in New York. This occasion was later marked and renamed the Gillette Memorial Luncheon. The latter event now celebrates Sherlock Holmes's birthday, by Baker Street's fellows.
- Gillette's Sherlock Holmes was the first radio-drama transmitted in stereo in the UK, on November 15, 1958. It was adapted by Raymond Raikes.
- Gillette had the same butler for 30 years, hired in 1890: Yukitaki Ozaki was a political refugee from Japan. A member of a rich family, Yukitaki was embarrassed in one occasion at his humble job, because they were about to visit the castle. Gillette switched the roles, doing him of butler and Yukitaki of his master. Ozaki was replaced by another Japanese butler, Fakumatsu Tsubone.
- Gillette improved Aunt Polly 's interior, maintaining it for years. Despite his efforts, the boat later ank. Its remains are exhibited inside Gillette's Castle.
- Gillette was also fond of his motorcycle. He used to drive it around the castle. Once, he lost control of the brakes and motorcycle and rider dived into the river. His attempt to quickly rescue the vehicle had to be barred by some onlookers.
- To avoid forclosure on the "Castle," and in order to pay a tax bill, Gillette instead burned a yacht that he had recently purchased, fifty yards from Hadlyme's pier.
- Gillette supported Connecticut Governor Wilbur Cross, advising him on political strategies.
- Visiting Washington D.C., Gillette was invited to the White House.
- The studious journalist Henry Zecher is deemed as one of the "World's foremost authorities on William Gillette".
Bibliography
In his life, Gillette wrote 13 original plays, 7 adaptations and some collaborations, encompassing farce, melodrama and novel adapting. Two pieces about the Civil War highlights: Held by the Enemy (1886) and Secret Service (1896). Particularly, Secret Service was successful with both the public and the praising critics. He reaped 3 million dollars in gaining, great deal of it by copyright.
- 1881, The Professor. Original. Gillette's first play. About an appealing professor coveted by the girls, while grappling with the rude boys.
- 1881, Esmeralda. Adaptation (original by Frances Hodgson Burnett). Light comedy. Starred by Annie Russell. Later by Viola Allen. (Film: 1915)
- 1884, The Private Secretary. Adapted from the German Der Bibliothekar (by Gustav Von Moser). Well Known. Many changes over the original: Rev. Mr. Spaulding became a medium. Also, it had several modifications throughout five years of presentations.
- 1886, Held by the Enemy. Original. Successful. First Gillette's drama in years of the American Civil War. (Film: 1920)
- 1894, Too Much Johnson. Original. Successful. (Films: 1919, 1938)
- 1896, Secret Service. Original. Foremost production until Sherlock Holmes. On Civil-War 's Captain Thorne, Union-spy infiltrated as press correspondent (Lewis Dumont). Performed by Maurice Barrymore (Philadelphia) and William Gillette (Broadway). It lasted a year on stage. (Films: 1919, 1931, 1977 TV)
- 1899, She Loved him So. Original.
- 1899, Sherlock Holmes. (Films: 1916, 1922 UK, 1932, 1939 UK, 1981 TV, 1982 TV)
- She (Fire Goddess). Adaptation (H.R.Ridder Haggard).
- 1903, The Admirable Crichton. First Gillettes's starring role in a play by James M. Barrie.
- 1906, Clarice. Original. Sentimental comedy.
- 1910, Electricity. Original.
- 1918, Dear Brutus. Second Gillette's starring role in a play by James M. Barrie. It included a young Helen Hayes.
In-life editions of Sherlock Holmes
- 1922. First publication by Samuel French. It was based in 1923's reposition.
- 1935. Published by Doubleday, Doran & Co.. It was a pricey edition, containing Gillette's foreword, multi-paged feature on trivial data and illustrations by Frederic Dorr Steele.
Filmography
- The Battle at Fort Laramie (1913). Starring.
- The Delayed Special (1914). Starring.
- In 1916, Gillette starred the first cinema-adaptation of his Sherlock Holmes. Albeit it wasn't the first movie about Holmes. It was a seven-roll silent movie by Essenay Film Manufacturing Co.. Marjorie Kay played Alice Faulkner and Ernest Manpani was Moriarty. The acid critic noted that Gillette was "about to lose his physical strength to perform the character" since then, insisting that he would not be able to repeat it over the 60 years old. No copy of the film has survived.
- In 1922, Goldwyn Pictures filmed another version of Gillette's play. It was directed by Albert Parker and John Barrymore played Holmes.
- Secret Service. 1931. Radio Pictures. 69 minutes. Romantic drama in Civil War. It was directed by J. Walter Ruben and Richard Dix was the Union's spy.
Radio
- In October 20, 1930, Gillette performed the first radio-version of Holmes in history: The Adventure of the Speckled Band. It was an original theater version by Conan Doyle, re-adapted by Edith Meiser. It was transmitted by WEAF-NBC (New York) and sponsored by G. Washington Coffe Co.. It was the pilot of a series actually, performed by several actors along five seasons.
- In November 18, 1935, Gillette (80 years old) performed his own Sherlock Holmes in the WABC radio of New York, re-adapted by Edith Meiser; with Reginald Mason --Watson-- and Charles Bryant --Moriarty--. It's duration was 50 minutes. It was the pilot for a new Holme's series by Lux Radio Theater. New York Times said that Gillette was "still the best, with all his shades and improvisation".
As novelist
William Gillette wrote two novels.
- 1937, The Astounding Crime on Torrington Road. Only mystery novel.
Legacy
Tryon, North Carolina
In 1890, after his first visiting of Tryon, North Carolina, Gillette built the first of his two residences there. Nowadays, in November, is celebrated the William Gillette Festival, around the still surviving house, with personal items on display and souvenir selling.
Gillette's Castle
After Gillette passed away, his will appointed to preclude for his castle any "blithering sap-head who has no conception of where he is or with what surrounded". In 1943, Connecticut's government took the property, re-baptizing it Gillette's Castle and Gillette Castle State Park.
Located in 67 River Road, East Haddam, Connecticut, it was reopened in 2002. After a four years of restoration --costing 11 million dollars--, It includes museum, park and many theatrical celebrations. It receives 100,000 annual visitors, who can do hikes or picnic.
Quotations
- “I want to make money on Holmes quick, so as to be through with it!”
- “What good is a friend if you can't make an enemy of him?”
References
- "Sherlock Holmes: The Published Apocrypha", compiled by Jack Tracy.
- "The Final Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", compiled by Peter Haining.