The Merchant of Power: Sam Insull, Thomas Edison, and the Creation of the Modern Metropolis by John F. Wasik

Author:John F. Wasik
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781250089120
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2015-06-29T14:00:00+00:00

MANAGING THE SPECTACLE

Mid-1920s Scandals

I’ve long respected President Calvin Coolidge. He knew when not to talk and what not to say.

—Charles Walgreen, founder of the drugstore chain.1

Tired of ossifying at home as Mrs. Samuel Insull, Gladys wanted to revive her career. Chappie was fulfilling his role as Samuel Insull, Jr., and learning the basics of his father’s business. Simply known as “Junior” now, he no longer had an interest in an arts career and was seduced by the utilities industry. Insull had a place for him and few questioned that he would inherit the throne. Engaged to Adelaide Pierce, he would officially be out of the nest by July 15, 1926. Gladys was ready to reenter the theater world.

For her reemergence onto the stage, Gladys chose Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s comedy School for Scandal. No longer burdened by the necessity of auditions, contracts, or ticket sales, she had the enthusiastic backing of her husband, who leased the Illinois Theater in downtown Chicago for the production. Gladys had the luxury of knowing that the run would not end prematurely, the house would be full on opening night and few papers dared to give her a bad review, based on the stature and fearsome nature of the producer. She was giddy about the prospect of doing what she loved again. She did not have to travel, could go to sleep in her own bed after the performance, and was free to mount the production as she pleased.

The one slight drawback was that she was now 56 and chose the role of an 18-year-old country maiden named Lady Teazle. Not fearing that the director would recast her, she rehearsed with zeal. Her skin still had a whipped-cream tone to it and her figure was still relatively petite. She had been acting for years on the backyard Hawthorn Farm stage, so she was not entirely divorced from theatrical presentation. The first night the house was packed. Insull had called in every one of his associates, business connections, politicians, and society denizens. Few dared to miss the premiere because it doubled as a benefit for St. Luke’s Hospital.

As the innocent country girl who marries a man old enough to be her grandfather, Gladys was lively and charming, if not noticeably miscast. As she had in her New York acting days, she beguiled her audience and the papers deemed the play a critical success. The night also was a financial success as Insull netted nearly $138,000 for the hospital.

The typically vitriolic Herald & Examiner critic Arthur Meeker, Jr., who said 30 years later he thought Gladys was awful, wrote a gushing review:

I have seen Ellen van Volkenburg, Mary Young and Ethel Barrymore [as Lady Teazle], but none of them could approach Mrs. Insull for delicacy of touch and humor. It is not only that she is the most beautiful of them all; she read the lines with so much archness and grace, and interpreted the varying moods of the character with such a fine sense of values that

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.