An Interview With Hamilton Deane - The Definition of Terror in the Theatre.

This interview is taken from The Era theatrical newspaper of the 19th February 1930, at this time Deane's stage play version of Frankenstein was playing at the Little Theatre Club in Garrick Yard, London.

Hamilton Deane as Frankenstein's Monster.

I cannot understand the attitude of those who regard as lamentable the public's fondness for horrors in the theatre. Would these super sensitive folk like to scatter the crowds of wide-eyed children who collect in front of Punch and Judy booths?

For, remember, these youthful playgoers are probably enjoying the thrill of seeing Punch beat Judy, throw the baby out of the window, and suffer an ignominious and protracted hanging in retribution.

And do our squeamish friends want to go round at Christmas time breaking up the happily trembling groups who gather at the fireside for the purpose of frightening eachother with ghost stories?

Specialists In The Macabre.

To me, a taste for having one's hair raised and one's blood curdled seems perfectly natural and innocent. Last year I had long talks with two specialists in the macabre, Mr Russell Thorndike (author of the Dr Syn novels) and Mr Todd Slaughter, and I can assure you that there was nothing sinister or unhealthy about them.

Hamilton Deane

Then the other day I met Mr Hamilton Deane, whose speciality for the last three years has been the presentation of a play depicting the peculiar habits of Count Dracula, and who now is spreading consternation every night among audiences at the Little Theatre with his haunting portrayal of the monster in Frankenstein.

He told me that his favourite forms of recreation were camping out in the open air and going to see musical comedies. He laughed at the idea that purveyors  of horror must necessarily be the processors of morbid minds.

"Why, look at Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula!" he said to me, "He was an Irishman like myself, and as big and breezy and bluff a man as you'd meet anywhere."

The Desire to be Horrified.

Mr Hamilton Deane also dismissed the notion that thrillers in the theatre are harmful and degrading. 

"Deep down in everybody's consciousness," he said "is a strange desire to be horrified. This is perhaps stronger today than it has ever been before, for the majority of us lead sheltered, unexciting lives in which nothing occurs to awaken the primordial emotion of terror.

And if one supplies this stimulent in an artificial form, I fail to see that the result is to be deplored. The after effects of a good genuine horrific play cannot possibly be as pernicious as those of a highly salacious French farce."

Deane as Sherlock Holmes

The Art of Staging Thrillers.

"Where did you study the technique of the thriller?" I asked Mr Deane.

"What first got me interested in the manufacture of stage shockers was the Grand Guignol in New York. When I was over there I was a constant visitor at the theatre where it was given. There they put over some of the most amazing thrills I have ever seen. By studying their methods, and particularly those of Mr Holbrook Blinn - well known over here for his work with Martin Harvey - I learned a fair amount about the craft of staging thrillers.

The subtler points of a thriller may not always be appreciated by professional critics; but believe me, the general public responds to them extraordinarily quickly. As an experienced purveyor of 'shockers,' I think I can say emphatically that it is the public which can be best left to produce plays of this type

In touring the provinces and presenting pieces in different towns I have discovered that audiences everywhere react to the same emotions, and that the same patches fail to appeal to their imagination. These, I realise, have no practical value, and they are weeded out."

The Process of Suggestion.

"Members of the audience infect each other with fear and so help to build up the necessary atmosphere for a thriller, don't they?" I asked.

"Exactly. And the best way to get this leaven of terror working in an audience is through a process of suggestion. In Dracula we did nothing actually scarifying on the stage; we merely suggested something horrible, and that suggestion, once it had soaked into the minds of the audience, caused a bigger reaction than the placing of a mechanical thrill before them could have done.

At the beginning of Frankenstein the preparation of the audience for the shock we wish to give them has to be effected gradually. If the inert figure of the monster came to life a few moments after the rise of the curtain, the proper 'punch' would be lacking.

But by using a few of the legitimate tricks of the theatre, of which the chief one is suspense, we manage, I think, to build up that atmosphere in which it is possible to create the maximum sensation."

Deane as Dracula

Cumulative Effects.

I confessed to Mr Hamilton Deane that after two vague forebodings and suspicions of the earlier part of Frankenstein had taken tangible shape in the monster, I expected to lose most of my interest in the play. 

That I had not done so was due, I told him, to his own wonderful acting as the creature which gradually, before our eyes, takes on the more rudimentary human attributes.

He smiled the compliment away and said; "Naturally, you have to sustain your effect once you have reached it. If you lose it for a moment, you would have to begin all over again and prepare for a number of lesser shocks, each one of which would be less startling than the last.

The whole of Frankenstein works up cumulatively to the end of the last act where Henry is killed. That is the climax of the play, and when it comes it is not unexpected. It is very wrong to attempt to fool your audience. If you lead them to expect a certain climax, you must give it to them."

The Thriller of the Future.

"Is it possible to fashion a thrill play out of suggestion alone?" I asked.

"The thriller of the future will be entirely on the mental plain I think." said Mr Deane. "The public taste is for subtler methods.

In the best Grand Guignol, the horror always comes from the minds of the audience, and very seldom from actual happenings on the stage. Scenes of torture, imitation blood, and other clap trap of the Parisian Grand Guignol don't thrill the average intelligent playgoer; they are more inclined to make him laugh.

But get at his imagination, set it working along certain lines, and you stand a better chance of awakening terror within him."

The literature of Fear.

"Have you made a study of the literature of fear?"

"I have always been interested in it. I carried Dracula round with me for twenty years before I made a play of it. And ever since my dramatisation was produced, books of the same type have come pouring in on me from everywhere. Thus I think I must have read every scrap of morbid literature that had ever been written."

During the greater part of this conversation with him - which occured in his dressing room - Mr Deane was making up, with his back to me. When at last he turned round, I nearly jumped out of my seat. Visitors to the Little Theatre will know why.

W.E Holloway - An Australian Count Dracula.

Background.

William Edwyn Crowther Holloway was born in Adelaide, South Australia on the 18th September 1885. 

W.E Holloway.

His parents were famous thespians W. J Holloway and Emily Jennings (stage name Kate Arden).

His father had emigrated from England to Australia with his family in 1856, he became a boilermaker by trade, but in 1862 he began to pursue an acting career. He married Maria McKewen in 1863, they would have three children, but she would sadly die in 1876. 

He married Emily Jennings in 1877, Emily was the widow of a Dr Jennings, she had a daughter from this marriage who would also become a famous actor, Essie Jenyns. Her first professional appearance would be at the Academy Of Music in Launceston, Tasmania, in 1886.

They would also have a son, William Edwyn.

Returning to England with his family in the autumn of 1888, his father joined the ranks of Henry Irving and Ellen Terry at the Lyceum Theatre, his father was so well thought of and talented that he was chosen to be one of Irving's understudies. Through this posting he would also become an acquaintance of Bram Stoker, the famous author mentions him in his book Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving (1906).

By 1910 W.E Holloway was an actor manager with the actor Matheson Lang, with their troupe they toured the provinces extensively, and took Shakespeare to South Africa, India, Burmah and the Philippines.

On the 7th April 1913 his father, W. J, died.

Dracula.

Hamilton Deane

In 1923 actor and playwright Hamilton Deane was granted permission from Bram Stoker's widow Florence, to rewrite the famous novel into a stage production. The play opened on the 15th May 1924 at the Grand Theatre in Derby, and so successful was this play that it toured around the world. It toured the USA in October 1927 with a rewrite by John L. Balderston, and with Bela Lugosi as the Count, that version would be filmed by Universal Studios and released in 1931.

Bela Lugosi as Dracula, 1927.

Talking about the international performances of Dracula, Holloway told a reporter of the Leicester Chronicle; 

"I was taken round the Chinese theatres in Shanghai, and a delightful moment occurred when a very courteous gentleman spoke to my Chinese guide. 'Do you know who that was?' my guide asked me afterwards, to which I replied 'no,' 'That is the chief of the Pickpockets Guild,' I was told."

Holloway began performing the part of Count Dracula in 1927 opposite Hamilton Deane as Professor Van Helsing. Holloway would also direct the play on this 1927 - 1928 season.

As a marketing ploy, a ploy which would extend for decades, a nurse was alleged to be in attendance at performances to tend the patrons of a nervous disposition, as the Oxford Journal humorously put it;

"The power of suggestion knows no limitation. Stories were told of theatre goers who fainted during performances of 'Dracula' in London, and of hospital nurses in attendance. Such stories were repeated at the New Theatre on Monday night, but having sat through the show the audience came to the conclusion that the terrors of the play had been overestimated."

The supernatural strain, while giving it interest, does prevent it from being too nerve wracking, since vampires do not exist, but the fight against such evil powers is full of interest."

As the months and years passed by the cast changed bit by bit, Van Helsing was now played by Serge de Kazarine to great reviews, the Perthshire Advertiser Sept 1929;

Serge de Kazarine.

".....a drama of this kind with a plot and incidents, which are already familiar to the majority of playgoers, depends wholly for its success on the 'persuasiveness' of it's actors....

The heaviest work of all falls to M. Serge de Kazarine as the Dutch scientist, Professor Van Helsing. He throws himself wholly into the part, and the combined force and lucidity with which he expounds his theories temporarily convinces even the most sceptical that they are more than merely plausible.

M. de Kazarine's command of English is perfect, and his accent adds greatly to the artistic distinction of his personation.

Mr W.E Holloway is an admirably sinister and repellent Count Dracula; and Mr A. Edward Spronston shows decided power as the lunatic Renfield. Miss Nan Braunton skillfully differentiates the various stages in the illness of the vampire's victim, Mrs Harker, and impresses by her strong acting in the principle and most thrilling of scenes.

A. Edward Spronston as Renfield.

The Hull Daily Mail;

"Throughout the performance the audience were kept up to a high pitch, and so tense was the atmosphere set up that one felt that it was a pity that there had to be any change in the scenery.

As it always the case with such plays there are scenes which are left entirely to the imagination of the audience, and these are presented in such a vivid fashion as to lend an eerie, and very near terrifying atmosphere to the whole thing.

W.E Holloway, as the vampire Dracula played a remarkably real part. Mr A. Edward Spronston, the lunatic Renfield in the power of the Count, displayed wonderful aptitude and we saw only too little of him.

W.E Holloway as Count Dracula.

The Derbyshire Advertiser and Journal;

"Dracula, with all its horror and superstition, is a very good play, which stands high and alone on the pedestal of sensationalism. Mr Deane himself was as satisfactory as ever in the role of Van Helsing, whilst Dora Mary Patrick retained her part of the pale and listless victim of the vampire. 

The Count Dracula of W.E Holloway secured the acme of effect, and A. Edward Spronston gave a powerful study of the supposed madman, Renfield."

A Press Photo of Holloway as Dracula.

There were many actors that played Count Dracula in the Hamilton Deane Company over the years, Holloway was but one. While Bela Lugosi was treading the boards in the American version of the play, Holloway was doing the same in Britain, by the time the Universal Dracula was released in 1931 Holloway had already hung up his cloak. He would go on to appear in 29 movies and TV movies in his long career, sadly for posterity, none of them was Dracula.

W.E Holloway died at the age of 66 on 30th June 1952.

The Murder Of William Terriss, A Victorian Tragedy.

 

The victim.

William Charles James Lewin was born in St. John's Wood on the 20th February 1847. His parents were George Herbert Lewin and Mary Lewin nee Friend, his father's profession was a barrister.

Always the athlete and adventurer after school and university Lewin first tried his hand at a career in the Merchant Navy, then as a tea planter in Bengal, before returning to England to briefly work in a hospital where his brother was a surgeon, only to move on and become an apprentice engineer.

Having a keen interest in amateur dramatics Lewin wanted to take to the stage as a profession, and in 1868 he got his first chance at the Prince Of Wales Theatre in Birmingham as Chouser in The Flying Scud, at this point he started using the stage name William Terriss.

Terriss married Isabel Lewis in 1870 and in 1871 they had a daughter, Mary Ellaline, she would go on to be a famous actress in her own right. Even with acting roles coming in his restless spirit was not satisfied, and off the family went to South America and on to the Falkland Islands, where Terriss added sheep farming to his skills.

Returning to England, and the stage, Terriss played roles in various plays such as Ivanhoe, Robin Hood and Rebecca in the West End, but it was a different west that beckoned. Wandering off again, this time to the USA, the Terriss family ended up in Kentucky breeding horses. This was a failure, back in England in 1873 Terriss pick up where he left off and was treading the boards again with gusto, playing choice roles all over the West End.

Irving, Terriss and Terry in Henry The Eighth 1892

In 1880 Terris (sometimes known as Breezy Bill) entered the orbit of the great Henry Irving and his Lyceum company. Irving's Lyceum was the height of Victorian Shakespearian performance and melodrama. Playing alongside other famous actors such as Ellen Terry, Genevieve Ward and Gordon Craig, he would become close friends with Irving, his erstwhile secretary Bram Stoker, and George Bernard Shaw.

It was while he was at the Lyceum that Terriss met the 24 year old actress Jessie Millward. The pair would often be cast as lovers on stage, and soon of it too. They would both enjoy roles at the Lyceum and at the Adelphi, as the Lyceum was the place to see  Shakespeare, the Adelphi was the home of melodrama.

The Lyceum company toured America in 1893 - 1894, on their return Terriss joined the Adelphi company, where he enjoyed even greater success. By 1897 Terriss was recognised as one of the great actors of his age, alongside Henry Irving. On the 24th November the Adelphi began it's season of the play Secret Service, in which Terriss would play Lewis Dumont, and Jessie Millward played Edith Varney.

William Terriss and Jessie Millward

The Murderer.

Richard Millar Archer was born in near Dundee, Scotland, on the 11th May 1858. His father was a ploughman and his mother worked in the fields, he claimed his insanity stemmed from his being left in the sun too much while his mother worked.

Richard Archer Prince

Leaving school at 14 Archer started work in the shipyards, but he had a keen interest in amatuer dramatics. In the mid 1870s his parents moved to London, where he joined them keeping up his acting interests. In 1887, he was a jobbing actor playing small roles in various theatres, including the Adelphi, under the names William Archer Flint and the name he was infamously known as, Richard Archer Prince.

By the early 1890s Prince was a well known character in theatreland, he and Terriss were well known to each other. Terriss often got Prince work and helped him out when he was down on his luck. 

Unfortunately during the mid 1890s Prince's luck was mostly bad, he was getting more dependent on alcohol, which certainly did not help his mental state. His life became more erratic and unstable, people began to call him "Mad Archer". It was during this time that Prince was appearing with Terriss in The Harbour Lights, at some point Terriss was angered at something Prince has said about him, and Terriss had Prince dismissed.

Between 1895 and 1897 Prince went back to Dundee now and then to do labouring jobs, when he was back in London Prince would receive small payments from the Actor's Benevolent Fund, these small payments came from Terriss who would also try and find him acting work.

By 1897 Prince was destitute, his alcohol addiction and his failing mental health made him unemployable. On the 13th December Prince was thrown out of the Vaudeville Theatre after using a free pass he was not entitled to. The next night he was seen arguing with Terriss at the Adelphi, Prince was convinced Terriss was stopping him getting work and achieving any success.

A Murder Most Foul.

IPN, 25 December 1897

16th December 1897.

Earlier that day Prince had been to the Actor's Benevolent Fund asking for money, but he had been turned down. His desperation was reaching boiling point, with the little money he had, he bought a butcher's knife.

At 7pm Terriss and his friend Henry Graves pulled up in a carriage on Maiden Lane, just beside the back entrance to the Adelphi theatre. As they walked over to the door Prince rushed out of the doorway he had concealed himself in. 

In his hand was the butcher's knife, which he plunged into Terriss's back, side and chest.

Prince made no effort to escape from the ghastly scene, he was quickly held by passers by and Mr Graves. P.C Bragg, who was on point duty in the Strand, heard the commotion with cries of "murder" and "police" coming from the vicinity of Maiden Lane, and went to investigate. On arrival he saw Prince being restrained by several people, and eventually the body of William Terriss.

Graves apprehends Prince

Doctors were called from Charing Cross hospital, but it was too late, Terriss was pronounced dead just before 8pm.

P.C Bragg, Graves and Prince then walked to Bow Street Station where Prince was booked into custody and his knife was placed into evidence.

The Trial.

The trial was on the 13th January 1898, at the Central Criminal Court.

The Times 14th January 1898.

"Richard Archer Prince, actor, was indicted for the wilful murder of Mr. William Charles James Lewin, otherwise William Terriss. Mr. C. F. Gill and Mr. Horace Avory were counsel for the Crown; Mr. Sands and Mr. Kyd appeared for the prisoner; Mr. Frank Safford watched the case on behalf of the Actors' Benevolent Fund, and Dr. J. D. A. Johnson for other persons.

In reply to the charge, which was read to him by Mr. Mead, the Deputy Clerk of Arraigns, who asked if he pleaded "Guilty" or "Not Guilty," the prisoner said, "Guilty, with great provocation." (Addressing the Judge.) I have a favour to ask you my Lord. I believe it is the law of England to allow me the services of a Queen's Counsel to defend me.

Mr. Sands, interposing, said he was instructed with Mr. Kyd to defend in the matter on instructions coming from friends of the prisoner.

The prisoner - I have no friends. My mother cannot afford a penny to defend me. If counsel are assisting in defending me they must be paid by the people who drove me to commit this crime.

Mr. Justice Channell - You are not entitled by the law to have the services of a Queen's Counsel. On the contrary, if you desire a Queen's Counsel he would have to get a licence to appear for you. You are entitled to be defended by counsel, or to defend yourself.

The prisoner - Thank you, my Lord.

Mr. Justice Channell - Assuming that you are in a position to decide which you will do, you have that choice.

The prisoner - Thank you, my Lord; that will do.

He agreed to be defended by the learned counsel who appeared. In reply to the Clerk of Arraigns as to his plea of "Guilty" or "Not Guilty," the prisoner said, I plead "Guilty, with the greatest provocation."

Mr. Justice Channell - had you not better take the advice of your counsel? You are making a plea unknown to the law. If you insist on pleading "Guilty, with great provocation," I shall consider it as a plea for mercy.

After a consultation with his counsel, the prisoner said, my Lord, I am advised to plead "Not Guilty," and I plead "Not Guilty."

On the cause of death;

The knife Prince used to kill Terriss

Mr. Hayward, senior house surgeon at Charing-cross Hospital, gave evidence as to being called to attend Mr. Terriss on the evening of 16th December. Mr. Terriss was then sinking very fast, and death took place at a few minutes to 8 o'clock. Mr. Terriss was semi-conscious and did not speak. 

Witness afterwards made a post-mortem and found four wounds, one over the spine, one over the left shoulder, a slight superficial wound in the wrist, and the fourth wound, which was the immediate cause of death, was in the chest, penetrating the heart. It must have been caused by very great force. It was such a wound as could have been inflicted with the knife produced."

The trial was an open and shut case, he was obviously guilty, what was really in question was the state of Prince's mind at the time of the murder, was he sane? The trial summed up thus; 

"Mr. Justice Channell -  in summing up the case to the jury, said the question was whether the prisoner was responsible according to law for the act. The crime was of a startling character.

The victim of it was a gentleman well known to a great many personally and to a great many by reputation. The jury must decide the case, not from any preconceived opinion, but entirely by the evidence which had been laid before them. 

If it appeared to them that the prisoner committed the act charged, but was insane, so as not to he responsible for his actions, they must return a special verdict to that effect. There was no doubt that the prisoner committed the act, and there was also evidence that it was premeditated; but premeditation did not prevent a man's being so insane as to be irresponsible at law. 

The whole point was - what was it that made a person responsible or irresponsible at law for crime. The learned judge then referred to the well-known rule of law laid down on the subject in Macnaghten's case (1) by the House of Lords and said it, was clear, according to law, that a person might be insane to a certain extent, and still be responsible. 

Some insane persons were amenable to consideration of punishment and to considerations which showed that, although they had a certain amount of partial insanity, they still could judge an act and, to a certain extent, regulate their conduct. 

Therefore it was that the law had said that the mere fact of insanity was not enough to make a person irresponsible according to law, but what was required to make a person irresponsible was that he must be shown to be, at the time of the committing of the act, labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the true or the quality of the act, or if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing wrong. 

Those were the words in which the law was laid down; by the House of Lords. The learned Judge pointed out that there must be some disease of the mind from which the defect of reason arose. Mere moral deficiency which made a person think a thing right when mankind in general and the law said it was wrong would not be insanity which would prevent him from being responsible. 

It must be a disease of the mind which must go the length of preventing him knowing the nature and quality of the act or that it was wrong. Having referred to the evidence and to the testimony of the medical experts, who had expressed the unanimous and undoubted opinion that the prisoner was insane, the learned Judge concluded: by observing that the questions were, first, whether the jury were satisfied that the prisoner committed the act and, secondly, whether it had been made to appear to them that, at the time be committed it, he was not responsible, according to law, by reason of a disease of the mind.

The jury at 25 minutes to 7 o'clock retired to consider their verdict, and after an absence of half an hour they returned into Court. In reply to Mr. H. K. Avory, the Clerk of arraigns, who asked if they had agreed upon their verdict and if they found the prisoner guilty or not guilty. The Foreman said, 'We find the prisoner Guilty of, wilful murder. We say that he knew what he was doing and to whom he was doing it, but, on the medical evidence, that he was not responsible for his actions. 

Mr. Avory (to the jury). You say that he was insane so as not to be responsible at law for his actions at the time he committed the act?

The Foreman - On the medical evidence, yes.

Mr. Justice Channell said upon that the order of the Court was that the prisoner be detained as a criminal lunatic at Holloway until Her Majesty's pleasure be known. 

The prisoner -  Shall I not be allowed to make a statement of thanks to the Court? I should like to thank all the gentlemen who have assisted in the case.

The prisoner was then removed from the dock."

Prince was removed from Holloway to Broadmoor Asylum, he would be a resident there until his death on the 25th January 1937, aged 78.

His sentence was seen as mild by many, an angry Henry Irving said "Terriss was an actor so his murderer will not be executed."

Madam Tussauds waxwork museum was very quick to modernise their exhibit of William Terriss, by adding a waxwork effigy of Richard Arthur Prince to his tableau.

William Terriss was buried at Brompton Cemetery on the 21st December 1897, a plaque marking the site of the murder was placed on the wall in Maiden Lane next to the stage door of the Adelphi Theatre.

The ghost.

It wouldn't be a Victorian melodrama without a ghost to go with the tragedy. 

The spectral presence of William Terriss has been seen in Covent Garden underground station, even though that station wasn't built at the time of his death, it wouldn't be completed for another ten years. But it was the site of a bakery that he allegedly patronised. 

Maiden Lane, the stage door is in the middle of the large white building

Also in the Adelphi itself, the spirit of Terriss is blamed for various ghostly sightings. In 2022 comedian Jason Manford recorded an interview for the BBC on an experience he had at the theatre in 2012. On a video call to his daughters one of them said she could see a man dressed as a soldier crying behind him, he was in a dressing room positioned above the stage door on Maiden Lane...........

Jason Manford Interview

1. Macnaghten assassinated English civil servant Edward Drummond, mistaking him for the Prime Minister, while suffering from paranoid delusions. The jury retiring, duly returned a verdict of not guilty on the grounds of insanity.  

The Power Of The Cross - The First Touring "Dracula" Play.

Dracula has been a significant cultural fixture throughout the 20th century, and is still going strong. The novel was published on the 26th May 1897, the week before publication a "copyright play" was performed at the Lyceum to shore up the dramatic adaptation rights. Anyone wanting to put the Count on stage would have to tread very carefully indeed, eight years later a play would push those boundaries.

The Power Of The Cross was a play written by George A. De Gray, the play had it's copyright performance at the Royalty Theatre, Chester in May 1905. Towards the end of the year it was taken up by Lingford Carson's Tours of Liverpool, and received rave reviews and full houses all over the UK from December 1905 and well into 1909.

The first performance was at the Queen's Theatre, Keighley, on Saturday the 23rd of December 1905. "The Era" of 6th January 1906 said;

The Era - Saturday 25 November 1899

 "Amongst the dramas produced by Mr Lingford Carson at this theatre, perhaps none has met with so cordial a reception as The Power Of The Cross, and it is pleasing to note a record week's business had been done. The author has composed an original play abounding in startling incidents, and interspersed with humour and abundant pathos."

"The principal character is Baron Woulfe Curzola. To all appearances, he is an ordinary human being, and his entrance in the first act creates no unusual curiosity. Later, however, he assumes satanic shape as the Vampire. He emerges through the trunk of an oak tree, heralded by thunder and lightning. His exits are of a startling nature, and an intense weirdness is added by the hoot of an owl."

Lingford Carson

"The only antidote for Curzola's deadly work being the power of the cross. The heroine is the possessor of that cross, which is a gift from her lover, and visits the Baron's tomb in Dalmatia. Three stabs into the coffin of the last of the Curzolas ends the fearful work of the vampire."

There are several nods to the famous vampire tale by Bram Stoker, the plot is slightly changed, all the names of the characters are different and even the vampires place of origin was changed, instead of Austro-Hungarian Transylvania we are taken instead to Austro-Hungarian Dalmatia. The cross still holds power over the undead, hence the name of the play, he uses hypnotic powers, he is chased to his native land by a group of vampire hunters, and he is killed with a knife plunged through his heart, however, there is no mention of it being a bowie knife and the kukri is omitted.

In 1908 the play headed south to New Zealand and Australia, where it enjoyed a great deal of success playing in theatres all over those countries.

Curzola is not repulsive!

The Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate, Wednesday 8th January 1908 stated;

 "At the Victorian Theatre. The Power Of The Cross is an intensely dramatic creation, which last night held the audience until the curtain descended. It is a mystic story of a superhuman satanic influence, into which tradition has been interwoven. Curzola, the last of his race of human vampires, which lives in a fortress in Hungary, is the centre around which a clever act of incidents has been woven, resulting in a play of unusual merit."

"Curzola conveys the impression of an evil hypnotic power, more by his remarkable gestures and make up than by the text....Curzola introduces a disease baffling to science into English homes, and which, as with the direct power the creature uses, can only be assailed by the power of the cross."

 The Bulletin. Vol. 29 No. 1467, 26th March 1908.

"Burglar's Alley, Whitechapel. (Act III).

Leslie, a refugee from gaol, in the lodgings of Mr and Mrs O'Dowd, his humble though devoted friends. While there, the brilliant young fellow unearths a medical treatise 'translated from the German 100 years ago by the famous Dr Johnson,' which tells the way to out a vampire when you meet him. 'Joy, oh joy!' In the midst of congratulatory hand wringing the lights would die away, a long drawn wail sounds, and Woulfe materialises.

He throws Dr Johnson's invaluable work into the fire. Fortunately O'Dowd plunges forward and salvages the volume. Dreadful things now occur. The vampire is annoyed. He towers, with arms held high and hands drooping, and makes sharp prodding movements in Leslie's direction.

The young physician wilts. He subsides behind a screen. When he emerges his hair is white. Later, Woulfe invades Margaret's boudoir, and towers and prods at her as well; also he vamps her innocent child with fatal results. 

England wearies him, he has now outstayed his welcome, and he returns to his native land. This he does and appears crouching amid the ruins of his ancestral abbey. Hardly had the vampire hunters arrived on the scene than he begins his old tricks. So Leslie's young lady holds up a gold cross, and Rita steps forward with her knife and stabs Woulfe so that he dies. And the popular verdict is that it serves him right."

The play finally ended it's prolonged Australian tour in 1912, in the advertising any pretence to this not being loosely based on Bram Stoker's Dracula went out of the window!

The Age - Saturday 3rd February 1912.

“A long felt want.

Saturday Next, 10th February.

The Mystic Sensational Play.

THE POWER OF THE CROSS.

A Dramatisation by George de Gray of Bram Stoker’s Notable Novel, Dracula, in Four Acts and Twelve Scenes.

MANAGERIAL NOTE - The Melbourne Dramatic Company have taken a long leave of Wirth’s New Hippodrome, which has been converted into a modern theatre, cool and up to date in every particular. In this commodious building - its seating capacity is 3500 - a rapid succession of stirring dramas will be presented, at frequent intervals, at prices to meet the times.

The charges of admission will be from 6d to 2s. There will be nothing cheap about the productions. All who can admire good scenic effects and sound acting will find their wishes amply provided for.

The Opening Piece,

THE POWER OF THE CROSS.

Is a play along approved modern lines. The Author tells a story which is worthwhile. There is a powerful love interest, and sensation after sensation follow one another in logical sequences. In real life tragedy is never far from comedy. Laughter and tears are our common portion, and the playwright has, in this respect, boldly held the mirror up to nature.

Full particulars will be announced from day to day in the metropolitan press.”

The New Hippodrome was part of the Wirth’s Park Circus complex in Melbourne, by 1912 Wirth’s had expanded their business to Sydney, while this was going on they hired out the New Hippodrome in Melbourne for stage performances. Wirth’s Park would become a hospital during the Great War and would finally burn down in 1953.

Wirth's Park, the Hippodrome is top right.

Reviews.

The Herald - Monday, 12th February 1912.

“New Hippodrome

Power Of The Cross.

The Melbourne Dramatic Company’s experiment of providing dramatic entertainment at cheap rates was begun most auspiciously at the New Hippodrome Theatre, Wirth’s Park, on Saturday night.

The Power Of The Cross, a dramatisation by Mr George De Gray of Bram Stoker’s novel ‘Dracula’, was selected as the opening piece, and it was full of sensation, interspersed with some clever comedy. The plot mostly revolves around the doings of Baron Woulfe Curzola, a ‘human vampire,’ who performs all the blood sucking feats popularly attributed to the vampire. The only way in which his evil machinations can be defeated is by exhibiting a cross to him, and from this circumstance the name of the play was derived.

The part of Baron Curzola was taken in a masterly manner by Mr W. Dalgleish, while Mr Robert Inman presented a good characterisation of the weak Gerald Fairfax. As the adventuress prepared to do anything to attain her ends, Miss Ada Guildford could not have been better placed, while Miss Maud Appleton played the sweet ill used heroine with success.

Robert E. Inman

The company was exceedingly well balanced on the whole. In addition to those already mentioned, Misses Marle Greville and Margaret Linden, and Messers W. Vincent, G. Edwards, F. Patey and others in minor parts did all that was required of them, while the comedy element provided by Mr Frank Crossley and Miss Lillian Wiseman was keenly appreciated by the audience.

The Power Of The Cross will be shown for the next fortnight, and will then be replaced by  'The Heart Of A Hero’, for the next piece the company will be further strengthened.”

The Argus - Monday 12th February 1912.

The auditorium is semi circular in form, and covers the entire floor space. Its centre is occupied by stalls and reserved seats, the pit in tiers surrounding them on every side. The stage is a very large one, and the lighting is perfect.

The piece selected for the opening performance is an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, under its modern title the Power Of The Cross, it results in a mystic, exciting melodrama that required just the forceful presentation it received at the hands of the Melbourne Dramatic Company.

The story hinges on a cheque forged by Gerald Fairfax; the murder of a postman who is bringing it to Gerald’s employer by the arch villain of the play; and the conviction, escape from prison, and pursuit of Dr Leslie Fairfax, who wrongly suffers for the forgery and murder.

Mysticism is introduced by a figure, half man, half devil, Baron Woulfe Curzola, who haunts the characters through out and conducts himself in the manner vampires are credited with. In the end the dead past is allowed to bury its dead, all the wrongs that can be are righted, and Curzola meets his well merited doom amidst the ruins of his own abbey, situated in picturesque Dalmatia.

The cast includes many members who are favourably known to Melbourne audiences. Mr Robert Inman play the role of the weak and erring Gerald Fairfax, a man who sins impulsively and seeks oblivion in intemperance. As the adventuress out after wealth, and using any vile methods or accomplice in obtaining it, Miss Ada Guildford is well suited, and in her way discloses herself a fiend quite the equal of Curzola.

Her overreaching husband, who falls easy prey to the confidence tricks of the comic people, is keenly appreciated by Mr Walter Vincent, an actor who makes his points by a quiet, polished, incisive manner and crisp delivery that always tell.

The Power Of The Cross, which has been seen in Melbourne before, is well staged and dressed, a realistic fire scene, in the second act, and the rescue of those in peril drawing rounds of applause. The company, which will be still further augmented by the inclusion of two or three well known actors, will next produce the modern play, The Heart Of A Hero.”

From an advertisement dated 12th February “Thousands have read Bram Stoker’s famous story Dracula…..Hundreds of thousands will come and see the dramatisation entitled ‘The Power Of The Cross.”

Melbourne Punch - Thursday 15th February 1912.

“The play is cast upon sterling and frankly melodramatic lines, and if these are in the main conventional, there is a sufficiency of sensation and excitement in the drama to keep the audience attentive and excited.

Interwoven with the time honoured and ever enduring contest between Virtue and Vice (both with capitals) are some of the mysticism of ‘Faust’ and the blood curdling  attributes of ‘The Face At The Window.’

The drama is founded on Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula,’ and the most important personage in the play is Baron Woulfe Curzola, a cheerful vampire king, who goes about the world literally sucking the blood of all and sundry. He sucks the blood from their veins, and is thus a trifle more gruesome in his methods than his descendants, the mining and other company promoters.

One thing, however, in common with other evil things he cannot stand, and that is the power of the cross. That sends him to grass in each round for his ten seconds, and finally knocks him out altogether.

There are a number of sensational situations in the play, and all are well managed, notably a big fire scene. The acting, as might have been anticipated, is good. It is intended as soon as possible to furnish the patrons with a new and agreeable entr’acte lounge in the shape of a garden in the park, in which, between the acts, the audience so inclined may enjoy fresh air, cool breezes and refreshments.”

Table Talk - Thursday 15th February 1912.

“A notable addition to Melbourne theatrical houses was made on Saturday evening, when Wirths’ transformed Hippodrome was opened as a theatre for melodrama. The play chosen for the opening night, ‘The Power Of The Cross’, is an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’, which in the original is so sensational and creepy, characteristics which it has certainly not lost in the process of dramatisation by Mr George De Gray.

The sensations came thick and fast, among them being murders, forgery, a big realistic fire scene, and the hunting down of the mysterious ghoulish vampire king. The plot moves from England to Dalmatia, which gives scope for picturesque settings.

The character around which the action revolves is the vampire, just as it does around Mephistopheles in ‘Faust,’ indeed, he recalls Mephisto in being only susceptible to the influence of the cross, but he is far more ghoulish in his actions, attacking those he wants to overcome by attacking literally with tooth and nail.

Mr Walter Dalgleish in this role, Baron Woulfe Curzola, came out with flying colours. He acted with dash and vigour, and was such a convincing villain as to be excreted by the audience. Miss Ada Guildford, as his partner in crime and villainy backed him up in the most whole hearted way. These two were particularly dramatic and forceful in their actions.

Miss Maud Appleton, as the heroine, Margaret Seaton, won much favour from the audience, as she endured all her tribulations sweetly and uncomplainingly. Mr Robert Inman, as the weak Gerald Fairfax, whose troubles drive him to intemperance, is the hero.”

Melbourne Punch - Thursday 15th February 1912.

“The Melbourne Dramatic Company, under the joint management of Len Davis and our beaming acquaintance, Michael Joseph, has started a long season of melodrama at Wirths’ Hippodrome, and at present is filling the waste spaces in the papers with extraordinary news of its operations.

The first play submitted to notice was ‘The Power Of The Cross,’ in which, if one remembers rightly , a super demon named Woulfe Curzola has a habit of moaning thrice in a greenish limelight before thirstily sucking his victim’s blud (sic).

Woulfe is a patient, if omniscient monster, and the management is to be congratulated for unchaining him nightly for prices of a fearfully popular character. Fees ranging from 2s to 6d a head are all that are painlessly extracted for the pleasure of observing the awful Woulfe, and considering that almost any sum might be demanded under the circumstances, the moderation of the charges looks like sheer philanthropy.”

From an advertisement dated the 15th February;

“THE POWER OF THE CROSS, comedy, sensation and pathos.

Resume Of The Scenes And Incidents:-

The Lawn, Sunnyside, Kingstone-On-Thames, Curzola’s Kiss, The Downward Path, Burglar’s Alley (Whitechapel), A Terrible Discovery, The Ruins - The Abbey, The Last Of The Curzolas.

The Maitland Daily Mercury - Monday 19th February 1912.

“Sensational Stage Incident.

Actor Stabbed.

Considerable sensation was caused towards the close of the performance of ‘The Power Of The Cross’ at the New Hippodrome, Wirth’s Park, Melbourne, on Saturday evening, by an accident which might have had very serious consequences.

The play works to a climax, in which the adventuress, who is Miss Ada Guildford, in a frenzy of remorse rushes upon the villain (Mr Walter Dalgleish), and stabs him to the heart.

On Saturday evening as Miss Guildford sprang with a dagger in her upraised hand, Mr Dalgleish tripped, and the blade, instead of being cunningly buried in the clothes of the stage victim, struck him above the left eye. Mr Dalgleish, who was visibly affected, exclaimed with more than ordinary feeling, ‘Good heavens, woman, you have stabbed me,’  and the curtain was dropped as he staggered off the stage.

Dr Davis, who happened to be in the audience, was called in attendance. He found that the blade had glanced off the bone. Had it struck a little lower the point of the weapon would have pierced the eye. Mr Dalgleish is not incapacitated through his painful experience." 

On the 20th April 1912 Bram Stoker died, but his Count lives on. After a short revival in the early 1920's the author of the play Mr George A. De Gray, obviously still worried about copyright issues, and following the action Bram's widow Florence took against Prana Films on their release of "Nosferatu" in 1922, who can blame him! On the 26th November 1924 he wrote a letter to "The Era";

The Era - Wednesday 26th November 1924.

"The Power Of The Cross.

Sir, I notice the announcement of a forthcoming tour of 'Dracula.' To avoid any discussion in the future, I should like to draw attention to the fact that on Boxing Day, 1905, at the Queens Theatre, Keighley, in conjunction with the late Lingford Carson. I produced and afterward toured continuously for four years with sensational success, 'The Power Of The Cross,' the Colonial rights of which were secured by the late George Marlow, who ran it for a long period throughout Australia and New Zealand.

This play, which was the first, and so far as I am aware, up to now, the only one to introduce the Dracula type of character to the public, was suggested by an old Austrian legend, published in 'Chambers Journal' in 1874 or 76'. 

As I have been approached by many resident managers with a suggestion that I should revive the piece next spring, and as I do not wish the question to arise in the future as to an infringement of any other rights. I should be greatly obliged if you would find space in your valuable paper for this letter.

Yours faithfully,

George A. De Gray."

Having searched Chambers Journal for the entire 1870s, I still cannot find any "Austrian Legends," the search continues..........