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Witching Hour, The
Witching Hour, The (1907), a play by Augustus Thomas. [Hackett Theatre, 212 perf.] Although Jack Brookfield ( John Mason), a professional gambler, was long ago rejected by Helen Whipple ( Jennie A. Eustace), he remains loyal and loving enough to help her when her son Clay ( Morgan Conan) is convicted of murdering a man who taunted him about his curious fear of cat's‐eye jewels. A retrial is arranged. Brookfield knows that Clay has been railroaded by district attorney Frank Hardmuth ( George Nash), Clay's rival for the hand of Viola Campbell ( Janet Dunbar), so Brookfield releases to the newspapers material to show Hardmuth's complicity in a governor's murder. Believing in the powers of telepathy, Brookfield is sure that the sympathy of readers will be passed on to the jury in Clay's retrial. After Clay is acquitted, Hardmuth attempts to shoot Brookfield, who employs hypnosis to force Hardmuth to drop his gun. The Shubert production was hailed by William Winter as “the most interesting drama in years—the play of the century.” Despite its somewhat preposterous acceptance of the amazing powers of telepathy and instant hypnosis, this is generally acknowledged as Thomas's best play. His interest in the occult grew out of his association with the celebrated mind reader Washington Irving Bishop.
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Cite this article
Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Witching Hour, The." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 31 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Witching Hour, The." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 31, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-WitchingHourThe.html Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Witching Hour, The." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Retrieved May 31, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-WitchingHourThe.html |
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William Whipple
William Whipple 1730–85, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Kittery, Maine. Whipple, who had been a sea captain, was a merchant of Portsmouth, N.H., before he served as a delegate to the Continental Congress from New Hampshire (1776–79) and as commander in the Saratoga campaign (1777). |
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Cite this article
"William Whipple." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 31 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "William Whipple." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 31, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-WhipplW.html "William Whipple." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 31, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-WhipplW.html |
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