Some newspaper clippings from 1915 related to The Irish Dragoon. As far as I can tell, a musical play titled The Irish Dragoon and starring Andrew Mack was produced in late 1915, but it was not produced by Klaw and Erlanger (rather E. E. Pidgeon), its book was not by Joseph Herbert (rather Theodore Burt Sayre), and its music doesn’t seem to have been by Sousa (or the reviews would have mentioned it).
Perhaps Sousa abandoned the project and it was sold to Pidgeon; or Pidgeon beat them to market and therefore Klaw and Erlanger abandoned the project. I’m not sure.
See also The Irish Dragoon’s entry in Paul E. Bierley’s The Works of John Philip Sousa (1984).
“Sousa Advocates Woman Suffrage.” In the Birmingham Age-Herald of Sunday, May 16, 1915, page 26.
John Philip Sousa, the famous bandmaster and composer of popular light operas, as well as marches, has expressed himself in a newspaper interview as strongly in favor of woman suffrage. In discussing his recent compositions, Mr. Sousa said to a writer in the Musical Courier that he had recently completed a march entitled “The Pathfinder of Panama,” which he believed would prove as popular with the public as the “Washington Post” and the “Stars and Stripes Forever.” The newspapers throughout the country have given it favorable recognition, and Mr. Sousa believes the music is just as catchy as the “Stars and Stripes Forever,” which has been looked on as his most popular march.
The man who wrote the “Bride-Elect,” which has been classed as the most popular light opera ever written by an American composer, also announced that he had just completed a new light opera entitled, “The Irish Dragoon,” which was founded on an incident in Charles Lever’s novel of the same name. Mr. Sousa says that it is different from most comic operas in that in it there are mainly dramatic incidents. The book was written by Joseph W. Herbert. The leading role was created for Andrew Mack, and there is much comedy in the role, Mr. Sousa says. It will be brought out in New York in October by Klaw and Erlanger and probably Cedar Rapids will hear it late next season.
Sousa and his band are on their way to San Francisco to fill a nine weeks’ engagement at the Panama-Pacific exposition.
Mack’s play is named.
Andrew Mack’s forthcoming starring vehicle has been named “The Irish Dragoon.” The play, which is by Theodore Burt Sayre, is a romantic military drama of the 1812 period. It is a new version of Charles Lever’s novel. There are four acts and fifteen speaking parts. Mr. Mack will tour under the management of E. E. Pidgeon.
“In the Spotlight.” In the Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) of Sunday, October 31, 1915, part 2, page 10.
Yesterday being the sixty-first birthday of John Philip Sousa, Charles Dillingham, in commemoration of the event, made arrangements to have his latest composition, “The New York Hippodrome March,” played simultaneously in every large city of the country at 4:10, when Sousa appeared in “Hip, Hip Hooray,” the ballet of the states, at the Hippodrome. Mr. Sousa is composing the music for “The Irish Dragoon,” a comic opera, the book for which was written by Joseph Herbert.
“ ‘The Irish Dragoon’ Pleasing Diversion.” In the New Britain (Connecticut) Herald of Friday, November 5, 1915, page 2.
Andrew Mack and Good Supporting Cast Score at Lyceum
Andrew Mack, any time he wishes, can take the first act of “The Irish Dragoon,” snatch it bodily, cut out a few unnecessary characters and present a wonderful playlet on the vaudeville stage. The suggestion has probably never been advanced to him before. “The Irish Dragoon” as far as its dramatic merits go ends with the curtain on the first act. Whatever else transpires after that period, whatever takes place in the next three acts could be easily dispensed with. In fact the last three acts are hanging by a slender thread on the good impression created by the climax of the first act.
In this play, presented at the Lyceum last night, Andrew Mack portrays the dashing Irish lover, Charles O’Mally, born of the imagination of Charles Lever. O’Malley is a captain in the English army, poor but jovial company, a roistering companion in the barracks, a gallant wooer of women. He would dare enter where angels fear to tread. In this moood he finds his way to the home of Colonel Dashwood, where a ball is taking place. He is desirous of meeting and making love to the Colonel’s charming daughter, Lucy Dashwood. Chided by his fellow officers he is forced into making a wager that he can find his way into the good graces of the lady without even so much as an introduction and further, that he can even kiss her. It is a big bet O’Malley has undertaken. He meets the daughter of the Colonel and forthwith she rebukes him. Then, hearing that the young lady’s grand-aunt, an old Irish lady with a reputation for her caustic wit, is going to visit the Dashwood home and that she is even then on her way, O’Malley, aided and abetted by the former sweetheart of the expected visitor, impersonates the redoubtable Judy McCann. In the guise of the young lady’s grand-aunt he naturally gets the kiss. He gets more than that,—three kisses. And just as he is in the midst of the feast in walks the real Miss Judy McCann. Curtain. What with all the dueling and intrigues and love affairs that present themselves in the next three acts it is not worth while reviewing them. Suffice it to say that Andrew Mack has surrounded himself with a very capable cast, with able men and pretty women, and what more could an Irish hero want? Gilda Leary, playing opposite Mr. Mack, makes an ideal Colonel’s daughter. Her little friend Josephine Stevens was also well received. Others in the cast were: Gavin Harris, Eric Campbell, George Riddell, Mario Marjaroni, Walter Grey, Nicholas Joy, John Hickey, William Parke, Jr., Mabel Mortimer, Julia Hoy and Emily Thompson.
“Gossip of the Stage.” In the Sunday Telegram (Clarksburg, West Virginia) of Sunday, November 7, 1915, second section, page 5
John Philip Sousa is composing the music of “The Irish Dragoon,” a comic opera, whose book is by Joseph Herbert.
“Music and Musicians.” In the Springfield (Connecticut) Weekly Republican of Thursday, November 25, 1915, page 6.
John Philip Sousa — Known Throughout World — Our Famous Bandmaster
An Interview With the Composer of “Stars and Stripes Forever”
The New York Review declares that if John Philip Sousa had never composed anything else than “The Stars and Stripes” that woudl have been enough to insure his name imperishable fame in generations to come, and a niche alongside of Francis Scott Key and Julia Ward Howe. “The Stars and Stripes” is better known the world over to-day than “Yankee Doodle,” or “The Star-Spangled Banner,” or, even “Dixie.” It is played in every country in the world and is almost as popular in some European countries as it is here.
Mr. Sousa returned to New York this season a little whiter around the temples, but just the same martial figure he always has been, and as full of energy and vigor as he was in the days of his youth. The years have not changed the personality of the remarkable band leader. He is the same kindly, gracious, affable regular “good fellow” he has always been—full of optimism and engrossed in his work and his composition.
“The people of this country,” said Mr. Sousa, “are beginning to understand musical standards and classifications, and insist on having their music served properly.
American Judgment Improving
“I have been obliged to keep this in mind constantly in making up my programs, and I invariably find that everything is judged in respect to the class to which it belongs, not matter whether it is ragtime or a symphony. The public recognizes that ragtime with respect to other ragtime compositions may be very bad, and that each symphony in comparison with other symphonies may be very bad, and that each form should be considered with due regard to its type only.
“I am very hopeful about the prospects of American music. Our composers have shown a harmonic development which is unequaled in any other nation in the world. This is a very good sign. It means musical progress along correct lines and it will only be a question of time before we produce composers who will rank with the greatest in history. I can almost see an American Beethoven or a Wagner looming up in the future now. When the great American composer does come, the public will be ready to appreciate him, I think.
Some of Our Handicaps
“Ours is a cosmopolitan country, and while this presents some advantages in a musical way, it is a great handicap in the development of national music and it makes it difficult for a native composer. We are a people of many races, creeds, tastes and cultures. I do not think that the true American type has yet been fused in the melting pot and the same thing may be said of music. There are manifestations, such as our ragtime, our popular songs, which indicate that musical forces are working and crystalizing certain national characteristics, but representative American music has yet to be born. It will come into existence some day, perhaps in a couple of generations, perhaps it will take longer, but it is on its way.
“I am composing all the time. Just at present I am working on the scores of two operas. One is ‘The Irish Dragoons,’ and the other is ‘Victory,’ which Ella Wheeler Wilcox wrote with Miss Davis. Besides that I am always writing a new march.
About the New Dance Tempi
“The modern dance craze was responsible for a great many new compositions in the various tempi of the new dances, but beyond this tendency there has been nothing new. Of course, there is nothing new in the matter of tempo. Everything that is being written to-day in ragtime and the various syncopated styles has been done before, perhaps, in different tempi, but I do think that there is a new color in our music.
“There is an exulting exhilarating note in most of the American compositions of the day, reflecting our pride in our country. Personally, I do not think that there should be any trenches in music or art. What people want in music is that it should have the quality.
“I made three trips around the world with my band, and in every country I visited I received the same cordial treatment, the same enthusiastic reception and courtesy. ‘The Stars and Stripes’ was just as much appreciated and applauded in Tokio as it was in Berlin. There is certainly no national prejudice, or at least there was none before the great war, in regard to music.
War is Fatal to Music
“The war is a musical calamity. Aside from the fact that hundreds of thousands of musicians are fighting and dying in the armies of the battling nations of Europe and hundreds of young composers have given up their careers to be soldiers, the entire musical movement in European nations is stopped, and will not be revived during our lifetime. The war has killed the musical inspiration of Europe. Modern music is an art which can flourish only in peace and in highly civilized and cultured communities. It has nothing in common with present conditions in Europe.
“We shall have to supply our own music for concert and opera for the next 20 years. This will give our composers the opportunities which they claim have long been denied them, and it will create a market for all kinds of musical composition here such as has never existed before. But, as I said, I do not expect that a genuine representative American school of composition will spring into existence immediately. That is going to take time.
“We are an emotional people; but our emotions as a people are crude, for we are a very young nation. Our national deity is the American flag, and this fact is reflected in hundreds of compositions.
How He Composed His Best-Known Work
“I have never told anyone just what impelled me to compose the ‘Stars and Stripes.’ Would you like to know? Well, it was homesickness—just plain, ordinary, commonplace nostalgia. I had been away from home for almost a year, make a trip with my band around the world. I first visited the Pacific coast of America, then the Orient, then Europe, and finally, England, and was coming home again across the Atlantic on the White Star liner Teutonic, and I do not think that anyone ever longed to get back to America so intensely as I did. The big ship could not steam fast enough for me. I looked at hte bulletin board daily to see how many miles we had run, with bitter disappointment every day that we had not made better time.
“In a kind of dreamy way I used to think over old days at Washington, when I was leader of the Marine band of the United States navy, when we played at all public official functions, and I could see the stars and stripes flying from the flagstaff in the grounds of the White House just as plainly as if I was back there again.
“Then I began to think of all the countries I had visited, of the foreign people I had met, of the vast difference between America and American people and other countries and other peoples, and that flag of ours became glorified, and to my imagination it seemed to be the biggest, grandest thing in the world, and I could not get back under it quick enough.
“It was in this impatient, fretful state of mind that the inspiration to compose ‘The Stars and Stripes Forever’ came to me, and to my imagination it was irresistible, complete, definite, and I could not rest until I had finished the composition. Then I experienced a wonderful sense of relief and relaxation. I was satisfied, delighted with my work after it was done. The feeling of impatience passed away, and I was content to rest peacefully until the ship had docked and I was once more under the folds of the grand old flag of our country.”