A Good Little Devil - Scrapbook Page w/ Ticket Stubs, Program Newspaper Magazine Clippings, etc. - 1913

A nice assortment of David Belasco's A Good Little Devil ephemera. These pieces -- including two ticket stubs and program/newspaper/magazine clippings that feature many photos by White NY -- are affixed to both sides of a giant page extracted from an old scrapbook. They were compiled by an unknown theatregoer who was lucky enough to attend the Broadway opening of the play with their mother at the Republic Theatre on Wednesday, January 8, 1913.

Written in ink, among other words, "Mary Pickford (my movie idol) was wonderful." The photographer of this early portrait of Mary is unknown at this time.

Orchestra seat tickets for the Wednesday, January 8, 1913 Broadway opening of Belasco's A Good Little Devil.

The Warrens of Virginia - West End Theatre Program - 1908

After David Belasco's The Warrens of Virginia closed on Broadway at the Stuyvesant Theatre on May 16, 1908*, and after the summer months off, Mary and troupe bounced around from theater to theater touring well into 1909. For the week of October 12, 1908,  The Warrens... was back in NYC, with Mary as Betty Warren, at the West End Theatre in Harlem. The program, with only the cover and one page being shown here, is typical of the time being somewhat plain and consisting mainly of advertising, but as can be seen, Gladys Smith was now officially Mary Pickford.

*Most sources claim The Warrens of Virginia closed on Broadway in October of 1908, however contemporary periodicals indicate its final week was in May. NY newspaper reports about rehearsals picked up in late August,  but then there seems to be silence until late September when the troupe began touring (seemingly starting in Boston in late September.) Until proven otherwise, I believe it closed on Broadway on May 16, 1908.

It is also worth noting that there also seems to be some confusion surrounding the Belasco Theatre. The Warrens of Virginia opened on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre and subsequently moved to the Stuyvesant Theatre. Complicating matters, the Stuyvesant is today known as the Belasco Theatre.

Belasco's A Good Little Devil (1913) Republic Theatre Postcards

Postcard for David Belasco's theatrical performance of A Good Little Devil (1913) at the Republic Theatre in New York. On stage photographs by White Studio. "An interesting scene from David Belasco’s great production of the Rostand fairy play at the Republic Theatre, New York, with Ernest Truex, Mary Pickford and Henry Stanford. Arthur Hill impersonates Rab, the dog."

Postcard for David Belasco's theatrical performance of A Good Little Devil (1913) at the Republic Theatre in New York. On stage photographs by White Studio. "Juliet sits by the wishing-well in her wonderful garden and makes her wish: 'I want to be Charle's wife.' The fairies hear it and smile their approval." --From David Belasco's fairy play triumph at the Republic Theatre, New York." The victorian figures flanking the photo are illustrations by Kate Greenaway. Pictured are Lillian Gish, Wilda Bennett, Claire Burke, Mary Pickford, Peggie Wallace, Georgia Fursman and Edna Griffin.

I've seen at least two other designs out there: One depicting a photograph of “Rosemond Gerard (Madame Edmond Rostand) and her son, Maurice Rostand, authors of ‘A Good Little Devil.’” And the other with “Ernest Truex who plays the boy, Charles MacLance, in David Belasco’s remarkable production of the Rostand fair play for grown-ups.”

While I would have assumed they were issued by the Republic Theatre, as evidenced by the theatre being explicitly noted on one of the designs, I have seen a case where they were given away at the performance at a different theatre in a different city -- meaning perhaps they were generically made by Belasco for the production, or more likely, there were simply overstock left to dispense elsewhere.

Belasco's A Good Little Devil - Republic Theatre Program - March 1913

Republic Theatre program for the week of Monday, March 17, 1913, with only the cover and one page being shown here, for David Belasco's stage production of A Good Little Devil featuring Mary in the role of blind Juliet. Worth noting, by this time Mary's friend Lillian Gish had already left the production and was replaced with Vida Talbot. A program page from the January 3, 1913 Broadway opening (which did feature Gish) can be found here. Gifted from the Pamela Short Collection.

A Good Little Devil - Oversized Photo by White Studio - ca. 1912

An extremely sharp 11"x14" oversized photograph by White Studio depicting a scene from Mary's theatrical performance of David Belasco's A Good Little Devil circa 1912. Pictured are Lillian Gish, Wilda Bennett, Claire Burke, Mary Pickford, Peggie Wallace, Georgia Fursman, Edna Griffin, Sam Goldstein, and Pat Walshe. Gifted from the Pamela Short Collection.