Rodgers, DE, Heigh, Ho
Before we start an examination of the torturous path that Dearest Enemy took on its way to Broadway, I would like to take a moment to share with you some information about one family, consisting of a father and his three children. Lew Fields was a prominent vaudevillian working under the marque of Weber and Fields. Both Joe Weber and Lew Fields realized that they could not go on forever as comedians and expanded their reach into production. Lew produced over 40 shows between the years of 1904-1916. He had three children, two boys and a girl.
Herb Fields started working on Broadway first, even though Joe was two years older. While Joe was still in Europe, following his stint in WWI, Herb began his career in 1925 with Rodgers and Hart and in all, wrote the libretto for seven of their shows, including A Connecticut Yankee. Herb wrote the libretto for the wonderful Vincent Youmans show, Hit the Deck; and wrote the librettos for seven Cole Porter shows, including Fifty Million Frenchmen and Dubarry Was a Lady. Herb worked with his sister, Dorothy on one Irving Berlin show, Annie Get Your Gun.
Joseph split his time between Hollywood and New York. He started in 1931 writing screenplays for B-movies, before moving back to NY to work with Jerome Chodorov on a number of shows, including My Sister Eileen, Wonderful Town, Anniversary Waltz and The Ponder Heart. He teamed up with Anita Loos and Jule Styne to write the libretto for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and worked with Oscar Hammerstein on the libretto for Flower Drum Song.
Dorothy was the youngest of the three children, born in 1904 and started out writing lyrics for Jimmy McHugh; they wrote three memorable songs together–“I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” “Exactly Like You” and “On the Sunny Side of the Street.” She wrote the lyrics for the two songs added to the 1935 movie version of Jerome Kern’s Roberta (“I Won’t Dance” and “Lovely to Look At”) and wrote the lyrics for the songs in the 1936 movie, Swing Time, with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
What a family!
Now, back to our regularly scheduled history of Dearest Enemy. Here is a draft of Larry Moore’s liner notes on the subject.
In Manhattan, there is a plaque at the corner of Park Avenue and 37th Street, erected by the Mary Murray Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and commemorating Mary Lindley Murray, wife of Robert Murray, for her contribution to the American Revolution by delaying General William Howe and his overwhelming military force from intercepting General Isaiah Putnam’s retreat on Bloomingdale Road to join General George Washington in the Bronx:
This tablet marks the geographic center of the farm known in revolutionary days as “Inclenberg,” owned by Robert Murray whose wife, Mary Lindley Murray (1726-1782), rendered signal service in the Revolutionary War.
The gossipy September 30, 1776, journal entry of James Thacher, a surgeon with the Continental Army, reported that “the British generals…repaired to the house of a Mr. Robert Murray, a Quaker and friend of our cause; Mrs. Murray treated them with cake and wine, and they were induced to tarry two hours or more, Governor Tryon frequently joking her about her American friends. By this happy incident general Putnam, by continuing his march, escaped…It has since become almost a common saying among our officers, that Mrs. Murray saved this part of the American army.”
Further details on the events at the Murray estate on Sept. 15, 1776, are lost to history. How did a request to detain the officers reach Mrs. Murray? Who made the request? Washington or Putnam? What actually happened beyond the cakes and wine? There was gossip that the 50-year-old Mary Lindley Murray used her feminine wiles to detain the officers.
Sources vary on who discovered this plaque in 1923 or 1924: Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, and Herbert Fields as a group, or Lorenz Hart on a solitary walk. There was something in the brief synopsis that gave Hart the thought that there was a musical buried within the events at the Murray estate. One had to simply read between the lines. The eighteenth century setting, the picturesque costumes, and the sexual intrigue appealed to Hart, who would have a chance to evoke eighteenth century English poetry in his lyrics. All that the ambitious team of Fields, Rodgers, and Hart needed to provide was the fictional part of the story, the music, and the lyrics.
Fields’ libretto, perhaps with Hart’s input, made references to Sheridan’s The School For Scandal and Beaumarchais’ Le Mariage de Figaro, along with seventeenth and eighteenth century masques, and the history of the island of Manhattan. The lyrics for “When Love Is Near,” found in the Dearest Enemy archive of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, appears to be from an early version of the libretto. The song was to be sung by Pieter and Peterle, most likely the secondary couple. Their names are not only a reference to Manhattan’s Dutch past as Nieuw Amsterdam but also a reference to Mozart’s secondary couple Papageno and Papagena of Die Zauberflöte.
Looking over the program, the first surprise is that “Here In My Arms,” which became the principal love song in the show was intended for the secondary couple, Janice and Harry. “Old Enough To Love,” “The Hermits,” and “The Three Musketeers” numbers were taken from their 1922 show Winkle Town. According to information that Stanley Green obtained from Richard Rodgers while he was assembling The Rodgers And Hammerstein Fact Book, “The Pipes Of Pansy” was dropped from this show, but the song has never been found in any libretto or programs.
In the Sweet Rebel libretto, Betsy and Jane had different names, but the plot sequence for the first act and the first half of Act Two changed little during the show’s progress. The strange Arabian Nights Pantomime about a possessive caliph, his unfaithful but clever wife, and an amorous intruder may have been Fields’ or Hart’s nod to the masque of seventeenth and eighteenth century drama, but its plot also mirrored the Mikhail Fokine ballet Scheherazade, which Rodgers, Hart, and choreographer George Balanchine, parodied twelve years later in the “La Princesse Zenobia” ballet from On Your Toes. For all we know, Rodgers’ music for “La Princesse Zenobia” may be the deleted Pantomime!
The third act of Sweet Rebel, which took place the next morning before the Murray estate, dealt with the repercussions of Margot’s signal for Putnam to march. Her actions have made her a traitor to the British forces ruling Manhattan; she will face trial and possible execution. To save her, Sir John swears that he is the traitor, and the act centers on Mrs. Murray, Janice, Harry, and Margot looking for loopholes to save his life. The major problem was that the final act, which is traditionally the shortest, sprawled when it needed to resolve the story and unite Margot with Sir John for the happy ending.
It took the writers some time to realize that their plot had become much more serious than the frivolous Sweet Rebel libretto wanted to be. Their decision to place two comedy numbers into the third act proved that they were not yet recognizing this. Fields even gave Mrs. Murray an unfortunately broad scene, hiding under her skirts the stable boy Tony from the British generals. Playing broad comedy around the potential death of a leading character might have worked in 1903 for The Wizard Of Oz, where the characters facing execution by beheading are more concerned with cracking jokes and entertaining the audience, but this was 1924, and the writers were writing modern musical comedy.
It was most likely a copy of this libretto that Herbert Fields handed to actress Helen Ford in the lobby of the Algonquin Hotel where she was then residing. A petite, lyric soprano who had a huge success with the 1922 musical comedy The Gingham Girl, Miss Ford was between jobs and looking for a show. Margot’s entrance wearing nothing but a barrel persuaded Miss Ford that she had to play the role. Richard Rodgers wrote that she came to his parents’ home to hear the score. It may be at this time that Miss Ford helped the authors determine that “Here In My Arms” was too good a song for the secondary characters.
Herbert Fields had told her that a friend was putting up twenty-five thousand dollars but they needed a producer. His father, comedian and producer Lew Fields, had supposedly turned down the show because he believed it was a guaranteed failure. There had been several successful plays based on American historical events, but no successful musical comedy. Victor Herbert’s 1910 operetta Naughty Marietta was set in a picturesque eighteenth century New Orleans, but the libretto made a mess of the musical’s historical accuracy.
Fortunately, Miss Ford’s husband George, whose family owned a chain of theatres, was a producer, and he agreed to produce the show. Raising the money was an entirely different matter, and Miss Ford later claimed that for nearly a year she, Rodgers, Hart, and Fields gave countless auditions, many of them to gangsters moving into the theatre racket. They did find an enthusiastic supporter in director John Murray Anderson, who was willing to direct the production when they had their finances in order.
A surprise meeting in the elevator of the Roosevelt Hotel with the millionaire brother of her husband’s Dartmouth roommate, resulted in Miss Ford’s convincing Robert Jackson to become the show’s principal backer. With the funding in place, it was time for a tryout of the latest version of the show.
Now called Dear Enemy, several changes had been made to the libretto. Margot had become Betsy, and stable boy Tony was now Betsy’s younger brother Tony. Although no libretto of this version of the show appears to exist, the layout of first and second acts appears to be very close to that of Sweet Rebel with one major difference: the second act closed with Sir John’s capture by Morgan’s scouts, and the third act, now an epilogue, occurred seven years later at the end of the war in 1783.
Fields’ libretto was finding its final shape, and Rodgers and Hart had several new numbers for the score. “Ale, Ale, Ale” was written for General Tryon, who was taking much of the comedy away from General Howe and becoming the principal comic role. Sweet Rebel’s “Duet (in the barrel)” became “Dear Me,” a solo for Betsy. It was during this period as well that the moving duet “Bye And Bye” was added to the score.
Taking advantage of Fields’ finding comedy in the differences between eighteenth and twentieth century Manhattan, Rodgers and Hart wrote another duet for Mrs. Murray and General Tryon, “Where The Hudson River Flows.” Feeling quite at home in Little Old New York, Rodgers and Hart delved further into the city’s history to write a number about Nieuw Amsterdam’s governor Pieter Stuyvesant. Perhaps it was during this period that “The Pipes Of Pansy” was written as a possible number for the secondary couple.
Through connections with The Colonial Theatre in Akron, Ohio, as well as the guarantee of Helen Ford’s starring in a week ‘s run of The Gingham Girl for no salary, George Ford managed to present a tryout of the new musical. Employing the resident cast of the Colonial Theatre’s stock company and an orchestra of twelve players, the show was presented for a week, beginning on Monday, July 20, 1925. George Ford’s brother Henry directed. Joseph Mendelsohn, who had played the leading role of Franz Schubert in a tour of Blossom Time, played Sir John. Marguerite Wolfe and Stanley Forde played Mrs. Murray and General Tryon. Publicity stated that they would all be a part of the Broadway production.
It may have been the vocal limitations of the Akron resident company that resulted in no numbers for Jane and Harry and the elimination of Jane from the duet “I’d Like To Hide It.” With “Here In My Arms” settled as the principal romantic motif, it’s most likely that Rodgers gave the first act finale its final shape.
The review in the July 21, 1925, edition of the Akron Beacon Journal was quite positive for the show’s success. The review began “’Dear Enemy,’ with its tuneful melodies and soothing love story, made a triumphant start Monday night in its premiere presentation at the Colonial theater as an added feature of centennial week. Melodies that should live long . . . found ready reception with the crowded house.” The reviewer eloquently praised Miss Ford, Mr. Mendelsohn, Mr. Forde, and Miss Wolfe, claiming that they would all do well when the show opened at Broadway’s Earl Carroll Theatre on September 15.
After the run closed in Akron, changes happened very quickly. There was little time since the show had to be cast and put into rehearsal for its Baltimore opening at Ford’s Theatre on September 7. Perhaps much of it was occurring daily in Akron while the show played out the week, but every change was for the better. Harry and Jane got their Act One duet, “I Beg Your Pardon,” for which Hart took his cue from Harry’s continual use of “I beg your pardon” in his dialogue before the song. “Cheerio!” from Sweet Rebel replaced General Tryon’s “Ale, Ale, Ale” as the first number for the leading man. Most importantly, the addition of a previous Philadelphia encounter between Betsy and Sir John strengthened their romance. Again, names changed as well: Janice Murray’s name was shortened to Jane, and Tony Burke, whose role had changed from the stable boy to Betsy’s brother, became Jimmy Burke.
The second act was overhauled and the Pantomime dropped to make room for the “Yankee Doodle” scene and Betsy’s late night ride to General Putnam’s camp. For their second number, Jane and Harry were given “Sweet Peter,” which replaced the Pantomime as the second act divertissement, with the men in the ensemble dancing on peg legs. Sweet Rebel’s comedy number “The Hermits” was brought back for Mrs. Murray and General Tryon.
Their Akron first act comedy number, “Old Enough To Love,” was moved to the second act and reassigned to Tryon and the girls, making it a similar number to “All The Girlies Call Me Uncle” from Rudolf Friml’s The Firefly. “Where the Hudson River Flows” became a production number for Mrs. Murray, Generals Howe and Tryon, the ensemble, and a solo dancer.
For whatever reasons, Akron cast members Mendelsohn, Forde, and Wolfe were replaced. Baritone star Charles Purcell – who created the leading role in Sigmund Romberg’s Maytime (1917) and Lew Fields’ production of Poor Little Ritz Girl , written by Fields, Rodgers, and Hart(1920) – was cast as Sir John Copeland. Flavia Arcaro, who had created major roles in The Chocolate Soldier (1909) and Jerome Kern’s Have A Heart (1917), was signed to play Mrs. Murray. The major comedy role of General Tryon was offered to Detmar Poppen, who had worked with Miss Arcaro in Reginald deKoven’s operetta The Student King (1906) and with Charles Purcell in the 1921 revival of The Chocolate Soldier.
Besides Miss Ford, the only cast member kept from the Akron performances was H.E. Eldridge, who played General George Washington. The other principal roles to be cast were John D. Seymour as Harry Tryon, Helen Spring as Jane, with Harold Crane, William Evill, and Percy Woodley as Generals Howe, Clinton, and Putnam. James Cushman played Major Aaron Burr, who rescued a wounded soldier during Putnam’s march to the Harlem Heights. Curiously, his role is omitted in the Century Library libretto of Dearest Enemy.
The final change before the Baltimore opening was the title, taking its cue from Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part I, Act Three, Scene Two: “Why, Harry, do I tell thee of my foes, Which art my near’st and dearest enemy?”
John Murray Anderson supervised the production, choreographed by Carl Hemmer, with the book directed by Charles Sinclair and Henry Ford, the producer’s brother who had directed the Akron tryout. Mark Mooring and Hubert Davis designed the Act One costumes, and James Reynolds designed the costumes for Acts Two and Three. Clark Robinson was responsible for the scenery, and the intermission curtain was designed by popular artist Reginald Marsh. Emil Gerstenberger, who had played in John Philip Sousa’s band, did the orchestrations with uncredited help from Harold Sanford, who had worked as an orchestrator and musical assistant to Victor Herbert. Richard Rodgers conducted the orchestra. When he left the show, Augustus Barrett, who may have acted as his assistant on the production, replaced him.
The show played through September 12, and the company returned to Manhattan. The duet “Dear Me,” which may be the same song as “Oh, Dear” from the Akron performances, was dropped. One can speculate that Miss Ford, who had made her entrance carrying a parasol and wearing nothing but a barrel, had no interest in performing a duet and dance in that costume, preferring instead to get through the scene and change costume. It’s possible that this cut duet may have reappeared in 1928 as “Dear, Oh, Dear,” a late addition to the score of the Rodgers, Hart, and Fields show, which also starred Helen Ford. Betsy’s Act Three reprise, according to The Rodgers And Hammerstein Fact Book, was “Here In My Arms.” According to the existing libretto, it was “Bye and Bye.”
Six days later, on September 18, 1925, Dearest Enemy opened at the Knickerbocker Theatre to excellent reviews, particularly for Rodgers and Hart. For the New York Times critic, “it is operetta, with more than a chance flavor of Gilbert and Sullivan . . . Here we have duets, trios, and chorals that blend with the entire production. They are as uncommon as they are beautiful.” Percy Hammond, in the New York Herald Tribune, called it “a baby grand opera . . . a deluxe kindergarten, planned for those who like sweet amusements.”
By the time the October 5, 1925 program was printed, the third act had been changed to an Epilogue, and the change was a permanent one. Around the same time, Harms Music publisher Louis Dreyfus, who a year before had rejected Rodgers and Hart as clients after hearing “Manhattan,” offered them a contract to publish their songs. Five songs from the score were published, “Bye And Bye,” “Cheerio!,” “Here’s A Kiss,” “Here In My Arms,” and “Sweet Peter.” On December 9, 1925, the Victor Light Opera Company recorded “Gems from Dearest Enemy,” a medley of the five published songs.
Let’s listen to the first number from the show, “Heigh-Ho, Lackaday!” It is an all-female chorus, starring Aine Mulvey, Christina Whyte, Sarah Busfield and Kim Criswell, playing Mrs. Murray.