Among the many stars (or soon-to-be stars) that appeared at the theatre in 1905, one of the biggest names was Minnie Maddern Fiske — frequently billed as Mrs. Fiske. (Above photograph is the 1905 poster advertising Mrs. Fiske appearing at Elitch Theatre in Leah Kleschna, frozen in ice as a centerpiece.)
The season of 1905 had May Buckley and Bruce McRae in the leading roles and numerous supporting cast members, including Cecil B. DeMille, Ernest Truex, Olive Oliver, Eleanor Cary, Theodore Roberts, Charles Dixon, Julia Stuart, Harry Willard, Edward Mackey and J. Henry Kolker. In addition, there were featured players such as Maude Fealy, Minnie Maddern Fiske, Tyrone Power and Edith Crane. In her memoirs, Mary Elitch recalled that:
As the season progressed many new names were added to the roster of my company as some favorites departed to fill other engagements.
With the departure of Miss Buckley, Miss (Maude) Fealy appeared after another successful winter in London. Tyrone Power and his wife, Edith Crane, followed Miss Fealy. It will be recalled that Power’s portrayal of Judas Iscariot in Mary of Magdala, supporting Mrs. Fiske, was rated as the most striking and intense characterization seen in New York for many years. I shall never forget the beauty of his voice nor his first utterance as he entered the Gardens: “I am about to realize a great ambition, and that is to play in the Elitch Gardens Theatre.”
The regular season boasted of numerous plays that included Edwin M. Royle’s My Wife’s Husbands and Paul Kester’s Dorothy Vernon of Hadden Hall. In the Palace of the King, which was among the plays of the 1903 Elitch season, was again selected for the 1905 season. Minnie Maddern Fiske appeared in a pre-season presentation of C.M.S. McClellan’s Leah Kleschna.
[Borrillo, T. A. (2012). Denver’s historic Elitch Theatre: A nostalgic journey (a history of its times). Colorado. p. 63-64, 66-67]
Theatre Staff:
- Mrs. Mary Elitch Long, Proprietor
- Walter Clarke Bellows, Director
Resident Company:
- May Buckley
- Olive Oliver
- Eleanor Carey
- Leon Harrold
- Dora Goldthwait
- Julia Stuart
- Constance Adams
- Elizabeth Ross
- Katherine Field
- Edna Aug
- Bruce McRae
- Charles Dickson
- Theodore Roberts
- Edward Mackay
- Cecil DeMille
- Cary Livingston
- J. Henry Kolker
- Harry Willard
- Emmet Shackelford
- John R. Sumner
- Lloyd Peck
- Charles Mylott.
Productions:
- Week of May 25 (Thursday through Saturday): Leah Kleschna, by C. M. S. McLellan, featuring Mrs. Fiske and the Manhattan Company, including John Mason, George Arliss, William B. Mack and Emily Stevens.
- Week of May 28: My Wife’s Husbands, by Edwin M. Royle.
- Week of June 4: Pretty Peggy, by Frances Aymar Mathews.
- Week of June 11: The Henrietta, by Bronson Howard.
- Week of June 18: A Japanese Nightingale, by William Young.
- Week of June 25: The Manoeuvers of Jane, by Henry Arthur Jones.
- Week of July 2: Hearts Courageous, by Ramsey Morris and Franklin Fyles.
- Week of July 9: As You Like It, by William Shakespeare (Sunday through Wednesday); A Japanese Nightingale (Thursday through Saturday).”
- Week of July 16: Mice and Men, by Madeleine L. Ryley, featuring Maude Fealy.
- Week of July 23: Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall, by Paul Kester, featuring Maude Fealy.
- Week of July 30: Tess of the D’Urbervilles, by Lorimer Stoddard, featuring Tyrone Power and Edith Crane. In the supporting cast were Bruce McRae, Theodore Roberts, Henry Kolker, Cecil DeMille, and Ernest Truex.
- Week of Aug. 6: The Taming of the Shrew, by william Shakespeare, featuring Tyrone Power and Edith Crane.
- Week of Aug. 13: Ingomar, by Maria Lovell, featuring Tyrone Power and Edith Crane
- Week of Aug. 20: Madame Sans-Gene, by Victorien Sardou, featuring Maude Fealy.
- Week of Aug. 27: In the Palace of the King, by F. Marion Crawford, dramatized by Lorimer Stoddard, featuring Maude Fealy.
- Special Matinee, Aug. 31: “Le Scene du Balcon de Romeo et Juliette,” featuring Maude Fealy and John F. Pfeiffer; “Fancy Dances,” by Miss Fealy; and Scenes from Tennyson’s Becket, with Maude Fealy, Mrs. Margaret Fealy Cavallo, Henry Kolker, Edward Mackay, and Walter C. Bellows, Jr. .
- Week of Sept 3: Under Two Flags, by Edward Elsner, featuring Maude Fealy and Eugene Ormonde.
- Special Matinee, Sept. 7: Little Lord Fauntleroy, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, featuring Maude Fealy.
