Drunkard, the; or, the Fallen Saved

Drunkard, the; or, the Fallen Saved (1844), a play by W. H. Smith. The villainous Lawyer Cribbs has long held a grudge against the Middleton family, even though he has served as their attorney. When young Edward Middleton's father dies, Cribbs attempts to persuade Edward to dispossess a poor mother and daughter who are Middleton's tenants. Instead, Edward falls in love with the daughter, Mary, and marries her. But Edward has a weakness: drink. Cribbs insidiously encourages Edward's weakness, until Edward, ashamed and seemingly impoverished, flees to the degradation of New York's Five Points district. Cribbs follows him there and attempts to turn him into a forger, but Edward's better nature prevails. Edward's foster‐brother William and a rich philanthropist, Arden Rencelaw, seek him out, rehabilitate him, and reunite him with his wife and young daughter. Cribbs is forced to reveal that he has hidden Edward's grandfather's will and that Edward is really still a wealthy man. The melodrama was first presented, as part of a temperance crusade, in Boston in 1844, and within a year it had been played there a hundred times, including performances at the Tremont Temple and at the Boston Museum. The play was offered by a temperance group in New York in 1844 but failed to cause a stir. However, in 1850 it was revived by several New York theatres, most notably at Barnum's American Museum, where its run of one hundred consecutive performances set a long‐run record for the time. A revival in 1933 in a small Los Angeles theatre was played for laughs but ran twenty years, chalking up an American record of 7,510 performances; only the musical The Fantasticks has run longer in this country. Corson Walton CLARKE (1814–67), who played Edward at Barnum's, was ever afterward identified with the role and was known popularly as “Drunkard Clarke.” Born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, he made his debut in 1838 under the elder James Wallack. After playing several seasons with Wallack and elsewhere, he moved to Barnum's American Museum. W[illiam] H[enry] [Sedley] SMITH (1806–72), the son of a British army officer, was born in Wales and came to America to perform at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia in 1827, making his debut as the sponging Jeremy Diddler in Raising the Wind. He also played in New York and Boston before joining the Boston Museum in 1843 as actor and stage manager. In later years Smith managed the California Theatre for Barrett and McCullough as Barnum's director of amusements.