Part 440: Thomas G. Moses and Nain Grute’s “Man to Man”
Thomas G. Moses recorded creating scenery for “Man to Man” in 1902. This was a “great sensational drama” by Nain Grute that was presented by Butterfield & Bromilow. It opened at the Lyric Theatre in Hoboken on April 3, 1902. Next, the show toured to the Academy in Buffalo (Buffalo Enquirer, 26 April, 1902, page 12). A melodrama in four acts and 6 scenes, the play was copyrighted on August 10, 1902. The show then went to the Star Theatre in New York where it opened on August 25, 1902. It was advertised as “distinctly modern and sensational” (The Buffalo Morning Express and Illustrated Buffalo Express, 24 April 1902, page 9).
Two acts of the shows were placed in the Adirondack mountains, with the other two acts set in New York City. The primary stage settings represented a cave in the Adirondacks mountains; Mrs. Harvey Grant’s New York Home; and a dive under the Brooklyn Bridge (The Reading Times, 9 April 1903, page 2). Another scene depicted a gambling den in New York’s famous “White Light District” (24 April 1902, page 9).
“The Buffalo Courier” described the story of “Man to Man” as follows:
“It concerns the love of a young Harvard graduate, David Morton, for Elsie, the beautiful ward of Jasper Geoffrey, a scheming and cunning miser, who has accumulated a store of diamonds which he worships even above Elsie, whose parents he has parted. Morton, on account of ill-health, has given up his studies and become a guide in the Adirondack mountains, at a hotel owned by Geoffrey; outwardly a summer hotel, but really conducted as a rendezvous by Geoffrey from which to carry on thieving operations. It is not until after Geoffrey attempts to force his attention upon Elsie, and is prevented by Morton, that a plot to do away with him is hatched. He is falsely accused of theft, thrown into a makeshift jail in a mountain village, and that night is kidnapped by Geoffrey and his accomplices who take him to a mountain cave.
The cave is used by Giovanni Lombarda, an intimate friend of Geoffrey, as a bear pen for a trained animal he has brought with him from the Australian diamond fields.
The bear has become cross and unruly, and everything is done to make it appear that Morton escaped from the jail, and unwillingly sought shelter in the cave occupied by the bear. But Elsie who has overheard the plotting of the “gang,” gains entrance to the cave before Morton and is brought to it, cuts his bonds as soon as he is thrust inside, and while Geoffrey and Lombarda are busied in the darkness in closing its entrance with a huge boulder, both escape into the night.
Elsie returns home and Morton now cleared of the charge of theft is given shelter by an old minister on the outskirts of town. From this point on truth and honor triumph, and Geoffrey who attempts to rid himself of Lombarda is stabbed by the Italian in a quarrel. A strong comedy vein, which is carried deftly through the story, revolves around the doings of a country sheriff, a country boy and a chambermaid at the hotel” (27 April 1902, page 28).”
“The Buffalo Express” further detailed, “A realistic battle for life and liberty ensues, the bear fighting unmuzzled” (24 April 1902, page 9). “The Buffalo Commercial” reported, “The most realistic and thrilling situation in the play is a fight between a man and a black mountain bear in a cave in the mountains. A bear standing five feet on his haunches is carried with the production, and has been so well trained that it fights unmuzzled” (The Buffalo Express, 24 April 1902, page 10).
The production company included George Whitman, Eloise Davis, James Young, Lillian Lancaster, William Hunt, George W. Mitchell, Eugene Keith, Keehan Buell, Madge Whyte, Frederick Davis, Phillip O. Irving, Charles D. Moore, and “little Irene Clarke, the very clever child actress, with her whistling cuckoo song and tambourine dance.”
The author, Nain Grute (1863-1929), was a veteran journalist and playwright. His obituary reported, “Born in Youngstown, Ohio, he joined the staff of the Kansas City Star in 1893, and later assisted in establishing the Kansas City World, which has since ceased to exist. In 1897 he joined the staff of the New York Herald, later going to the New York World and still later to the New York Times, where he was employed until his death. He wrote several plays, among them “Man to Man” (Indianapolis Star, 21 Aug 1929, page 3).
Grute also partnered with Wade Mountfortt to write “The Missourians,” a show that also included a spectacular horse race scene with treadmills (The Pittsburgh Press, 27 Nov 1904, page 33).
To be continued…
