On the festive day of Christmas in the year 1891, the leading actor of the Irish-themed musical comedy, Mavourneen, in New York fell ill during a matinee show at the Fourteenth Street Theatre. Playing a character from the 18th century in Ireland, William J. Scanlan unexpectedly had a severe episode on the stage. Despite this setback, the veteran actor managed to complete the performance and returned for the evening show after quick recuperation.
However, the following day saw Scanlan’s health deteriorating. His manager, for Scanlan’s well-being, brought him to his home. Scanlan progressively started exhibiting violent tendencies which resulted in his commitment to the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum in White Plains. Tragically, Scanlan passed away at the age of 42, six years after his admission.
Born in Springfield, Massachusetts to Irish parents, Scanlan had a prosperous career in the flourishing scene of New York’s musical theatre until his untimely demise. Starting his career in the Vaudeville, he transitioned into a song composer despite having no formal knowledge of reading music. His song, Peek-a-Boo, reportedly earned him more than $20,000 in royalties in a mere six weeks. Later, Scanlan ventured into musical theatre, emerging as a renowned actor, composer, and songwriter.
The emotional nature of Mavourneen, the musical in which Scanlan was performing during his breakdown, can be discerned from song titles such as The Auld Country, Molly O! and Mrs Reilly’s Party. Mavourneen, an Anglicised version of the Gaelic term mo mhurnín, possibly benefitted from the widespread popularity of the song Kathleen Mavourneen.
The song, credited to English musician Frederick Crouch and poet Marion Crawford and dating back to the 1830s, found a lot of admirers during the Civil War. The song’s moving motif, exploring the pain of lovers separate, really touched audiences dealing with daily partings of families as well as the division of the Union.
The music industry first recognised the song a few years earlier when it was introduced by Catherine Hayes, a soprano hailing from Limerick who was one of the era’s brightest musical talents. Hayes initially performed the song, Kathleen Mavourneen, which was her signature piece, in the United States.
Catherine Hayes had music running through her veins from her birth in 1818 at Patrick Street, due to her father’s profession as a band conductor for the local militia. She managed to make a name for herself in her twenties after getting vocal lessons in Dublin, touring the whole of Ireland and even got the chance to play at a concert of Liszt in the capital in 1841.
In no time, Hayes started performing in France and Italy and by 1845, had made her first performance at the famous Italian opera house, La Scala, in Donizetti’s Linda di Chamounix. As a matter of fact, Hayes was the first Irish lady to grace the stage of La Scala and also holds the same record at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden.
By the late 1840s, Hayes’ incredible talent had won her widespread acknowledgement in Italy, performing quite frequently in many cities including Milan, Florence, Venice and Verona. In Verona on St Stephen’s Day, 1847 she had the honour of performing in the Italian premiere of Verdi’s, I Masnadieri. She got the call for a royal performance for Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace just two years later, where she treated the guests with her signature piece, Kathleen Mavourneen for her encore.
By the middle of the 1850s, Hayes had transformed into a global sensation. In 1851, she appeared in a charity concert on behalf of Fr Mathew, the man who established the Total Abstinence Society in New York City, before setting up a back-breaking US tour which was partly coordinated by the infamous P.T. Barnum. Subsequently, she travelled around South America, Australia, India, Singapore and Java.
Hayes returned to Europe by 1856, but sadness hit her the following year when her husband William A. Bushnell, a promoter from America, passed away due to tuberculosis at the age of 35. Katherine Hayes herself was not spared from tragedy when she suffered a stroke in 1861, possibly due to stress from her career. Her death at the age of 42 was eerily reminiscent of that of William J. Scanlan who died at the same age in Bloomingdale Insane Asylum.
The character of Kathleen managed to live on, becoming the centrepiece of a Dion Boucicault play. The year 1919 saw the release of Kathleen Mavourneen by Fox, which was influenced by Boucicault’s production. It starred Theda Bara, who marked her reputation as the inaugural “vamp” of the movie industry, even earning the nickname “The Vamp” from studio publicists.
Bara had carved out a successful career portraying the “exotic” femme fatale, in stark contrast to Mary Pickford, her contemporary who was known for her innocent allure. However, Bara yearned for a departure from her wicked image and eagerly welcomed the part of the virtuous Kathleen Cavanagh. Little did she know, she would face a xenophobic backlash from the Irish-American community who objected to a Jewish actress taking on the role of an Irish maiden, to the extent of issuing death threats and instigating riots outside movie theatres screening the film. This scandal accelerated the decline of Bara’s career. By the time sound emerged in the cinema world in the late 1920s, one of the silent film era’s luminaries was already lost.