Published: July 05, 2008 03:59 pm            

Historical Perspective: Vigo sought diversions following 1913 tornado-flood

TERRE HAUTE — In the months following the devastation wrought by the tornado and flood of March 1913, Vigo County residents sought diversions while they tried to recover from natural calamities that claimed 21 lives.

In April 1913, Terre Haute saloonkeeper Roy Dycus of Dycus Film Co. produced a motion picture which provided “a more comprehensive idea of the extent of the disaster” than personal inspection permitted.

The film was shown at the Fountain Theatre, 422 Wabash Ave., for four days.

It is not clear whether Dycus was both the producer and the photographer. Hollywood movie mogul Grover Jones of West Terre Haute recalled in his reminiscences that a “saloonkeeper named Dykus” advanced him $600 in 1911 to make a movie at the Vigo County Fairgrounds at Brown and Wabash avenues called “A Mother’s Retribution” or “A Boy and the Bandit.”

Commercial photographer Robert W. Nicholson was the cameraman for Jones’ initial cinema experiment.

“The panorama of the path of the tornado from South Ninth street down, taken during a drizzling rain,” wrote Terre Haute Tribune drama critic Mique O’Brien, “is nevertheless clear and sharp and shows some curious capers cut by the wind.

“The flood pictures are better than the Dayton flood pictures recently shown here.

“A view of the power house showing men industriously placing sand bags where they will do the most good is one of the most striking.

“Views of Taylorville taken when the flood was at its worst … showing residents removing furniture from doomed houses with high water marks on the roof showing that the houses had been completely submerged are other pictures that tell more eloquently than word pictures could just what the flood meant to the residents.

“Big Martin Sheets, ‘father of Central Terre Haute,’ who figures prominently in the pictures, watched them intently from the front yesterday afternoon and again last night and declared they were mighty realistic.”

Local theaters also offered an escape from that realism. The Wright Huntington Players, a talented theater repertory company that made Terre Haute its headquarters, returned to the city on April 20, 1913 after 29 consecutive weeks in South Bend.

Though scheduled to end the 1912-13 season at Terre Haute’s Grand Opera House with eight performances of “Alias Jimmy Valentine” in six days followed by a week of “Mr. Spendthrift,” Mr. Huntington chose not to stay for the second week. Allowing some actors to spend a few days at home, the company reassembled in St. Paul, Minn., for the summer.

Managing director Wright Huntington — 48 years old in 1913 — was a cub reporter for a San Francisco newspaper when he was lured by footlights.

His first theater job was with a repertory company managed by Irish matinee idol James O’Neill, father of American playwright Eugene O’Neill. The job paid $15 a week. O’Neill was noted for his interpretation of the title role in “The Count of Monte Cristo.”

Later Huntington succeeded John A. Stevens in the lead role of “The Unknown” in New York. Following that stint, he joined E.J. Henley in “The Louisianans” at Madison Square Garden.

During August 1891, noted producer Daniel Frohman selected Huntington from more than 50 applicants to serve as E.H. Sothern’s chief support in “The Dancing Girl” at the New York’s Lyceum Theatre.

For several years Huntington participated in a series of Klaw and Erlanger vaudeville productions: “Imagination,” “The Capital,” “The Crust of Society” and, significantly, “The Gay Mr. Lightfoot,” written by Louis DeLange and Lee Arthur.

Huntington’s interpretation of the role of Mr. Jerome in “The Gay Mr. Lightfoot,” which debuted in Boston and opened at the Bijou Theater at 1239 Broadway in New York on Dec. 16, 1896, was praised by critics.

After those experiences, he chose to study vaudeville and repertory theater. However, while doing so, he managed to get into trouble. On Feb. 22, 1906, Huntington struck Severin De Deyn, a New York theatrical manager, with his fist in a melee at the intersection of 47th Street and Broadway.

De Dyen allegedly sustained damage to his right eye. The men had been feuding for several months. The incident proved costly to Huntington.

Huntington played a leading role in Rose Coghlan’s New York production of “A Wise Widow” in 1911-12 followed by a marquee role Charles Klein’s “The Gamblers.”

His 1912-13 touring company included actors Guy Durrell, Edna Davis, Henrietta Dickinson, Teddy LeDue, Earl Lee, Mark M. Thomas and his wife, Louise Gerard.

“Alias Jimmy Valentine” was an adaptation by playwright Paul Armstrong of “A Retrieved Reformation,” the short story by O. Henry.

Huntington had a heart attack and died while walking down Vine Street past the New York Public Library on Sept. 21, 1916. At the time his company was performing in “Experience” at the Lyric Theater. He was 51 years old.

While the Wright Huntington Players were playing at the Grand in Terre Haute, Orpheum Theater manager Frank Holland received the news that popular vaudeville star Eva Tanguay chose his song, “I’m Wondering What You Are Thinking About Me,” to include into her act.

Holland was a talented singer, composer and musician. His mother, a resident of Clay County, had retired after many years as a member of the Theodore Thomas Orchestra.

Cal Stewart, who shared the minstrel stage with Paul Dresser during the Terre Haute composer’s days with Hamlin Wizard Oil Medicine Show and once worked as a conductor for the Evansville & Terre Haute Railroad, was a feature attraction at the Terre Haute’s Varieties Theater during the same week.

Stewart is remembered for telling “Uncle Josh Weathersby stories.”

A resident of a New England town “way down east” named Punkin Centre, Uncle Josh was the vehicle for Stewart’s popular comic monologues. Many — including some he performed at the Varieties Theater in Terre Haute 95 years ago — can heard online at www.besmark.com/stewart.htm.

        

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