Copyright © 2019 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
In 1914, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “One scene, 3rd Act, for Henry Miller in ‘Daddy Long Legs.’ It was a very delicate interior, real fabric walls.” The first scene of the play is laid in the dining room in the John Grier home, the second in the girl’s study at college, the third on a picturesque New England farm and the fourth in a library in a New York home (Hartford Courant, 28 September 1914, page 9). Moses painted the exterior setting of a picturesque New England Farm.
“Daddy Longlegs” was a comedy written by Miss Jean Webster (1876-1916) and first presented at Powers’ theater in Chicago on March 16, 1914. Based on the 1912 novel, the “Chicago Tribune” reported, “the love story of a brilliant waif who falls happily in love with her affluent benefactor” (Chicago Tribune, 7 June 1914, page 56). The story was first published as a Ladies’ Home Journal serial (Inter Ocean, 17 March 1914, page 6).
“Daddy Long Legs” centers around orphan Judy Abbot, played by actress Ruth Chatterton. Judy is brought up in an orphanage with a hundred little children. However, instead of being put out to work when she turns fourteen, Judy is allowed to remain and attend high school for four years. This was not a pure gesture of generosity, as Judy becomes the maid, saving the orphanage the expense of having a servant. The head matron berates her daily until Judy finally stands up for herself during a monthly “Trustees Day.” A new, wealthy, and young trustee, Jervis Pendleton, discovered that Judy was different from the other “ cowed, apathetic orphans” and sends her to college (The Pittsburgh Press, 6 Dec. 1914, page 57). His identity remains that of an anonymous benefactor, going by the name of John Smith, with his becoming the “shadow of a father.” Judy is only allowed to see the shadow of Jervis Pendleton, and Judy exclaims, “What funny long legs the shadow has! He is like a spider. I’ll call him my dear old Daddy Long Legs.” As her anonymous benefactor, Pendleton watches Judy grow, falling in love with her and becoming jealous of her attentions toward another young man. At the same time, Judy unknowingly meets her “Daddy Long Legs’ and falls in love, but is too embarrassed of her past to proceed. Pendleton believes that he hesitation is due to her love for another. It is only through a series of letters that Judy writes to Daddy Long Legs that she reveals her true feelings, eventually finding her happy ending.
An interesting article was published in the “Inter Ocean” on 12 April 1914 titled “Accidental Art” (page 32). It described some of the lighting for the production: “When Henry Miller was rehearsing ‘Daddy Long-legs,’ and while the play was in process of formation (for many changes were made during the first rehearsals), he was very anxious to show the shadow of Jervis Pendleton on the walls of the school room. It was his idea that this shadow could be made to explain the reason why pretty Judy nicknamed her benefactor Daddy Long-legs.
“Time after time Mr. Miller experimented with various lights and lighting effects to get the shadow on the wall, but he always found fault with the effect. Many sorts and kinds of automobile lights, spotlights and other devices were used to project the shadow into the room, and not one of them proved effective. In his mind Mr. Miller turned over the problems; thought o silhouettes. Lantern slides and dozens of other ideas, and turned them all down as impractical.
“Finally Miller and his assistants were at their wits’ end. Nothing seemed to answer for the effect desired. The company electrician had given up hope after exhausting all of his ingenuity.
“While the final consultation was ending, a house electrician was removing the various experimental apparatus, and at the end he changed position of an ordinary spotlight used to illuminate the stage for rehearsal. Across the stage swept a straight beam of light, wavered on the side walls and left the stage.
“‘There! You’ve got it!’ cried Mr. Miller. ‘There is the very thing we want! We can’t hope to make a Daddy Long-legs shadow, but we can have a perfect effect of an automobile turning in the drive outside and casting its lights through the window.’
“Since then the motor lights have flashed through the asylum window nightly, a fine stage effect that des not entail any expensive machinery and merely utilizes one of the usual electrical effects with which every theatre is equipped.”
Under the direction of Henry Miller, the 1914 cast included Frederick Truesdell (Jervis Pendleton), Charles Trowbridge (James McBride), Mrs. Jacques Martin (Mrs. Semple), Mrs. Jennie A. Eustace (Miss Prittchard), Miss Ethel Martin (Mrs. Pendleton), Miss Agnes Heron Miller (Julia Pendleton), Miss Cora Witherspoon (Sallie McBride), Miss Margaret Sayres (Mrs. Lippett) and Miss Ruth Chatterton (Judy).
In 1919, “Daddy Long Legs” was made into a silent movie, starring Mary Pickford as Judy and Mahlon Hamilton as Jervis Pendleton. Tomorrow, I will look at the production of Daddy Long Legs dolls to help the war effort during 1914-1915.
To be continued…
