Charles W. Taylor

Charles Western Taylor (often billed as C.W. Taylor) (c. 1800 - April 11, 1874) was a well-known actor and dramatist in the United States in the mid-19th century. He is best known today, though only as a footnote, for writing one of the first stage adaptations of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Biography

Taylor was born in Walsall, England about 1800 and first appeared on stage in Norfolk, Virginia in 1819. He soon after debuted in New York in the Forest Rose. He long acted in parts at the National Theatre on Chatham Street in New York.^[1] He also acted for many years in Albany, New York, and also served as musical director of the Bowery Theatre in New York City under the direction of Thomas Hamblin.^[2]

Taylor wrote the first produced non-comedic stage adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin in the United States. It debuted on 23 August 1852, with Taylor playing Uncle Tom, but only ran for 11 nights after little success.^[3] Taylor's abbreviated play omitted key characters and had a happy ending where Tom gained his freedom.^[4]

His other stage adaptations included a version of the 1854 bestseller Hot Corn.^[5]

Taylor retired from the stage in 1860.^[6] He died in West Farms, New York, on April 11, 1874.^[3][7]

Plays (partial list)

• The Water-Witch; or the Skimmer of the Seas (1831 adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper book) (played for 18 successive performances at the Bowery Theatre in New York, a long run for its time)^[8]
• The Goblet of Death; or, the Road to Ruin (c. 1847) (an 1880 history of theatre in Albany, New York called this "a thrilling temperance drama, with a moral the author would have done better had he heeded it")^[9]
• Uncle Tom's Cabin (adaptation 1852)
• Little Katy or, The Hot Corn Girl (adaptation of Hot Corn stories)(1853)
• Dred; or the Dismal Swamp (adaptation of Stowe's Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp) (1856) (a different version than the one by John Brougham)
• The Drunkard's Warning (1856)^[10]
• The Lord if the Isles, or the Battle of Bannockburn (adaptation of Sir Walter Scott poem) (1856)^[11]
• The Signet Ring of King Solomon (?)

References

1. Wemyss, Francis C. Wemyss'Chronology of the American Stage, from 1752 to 1852, p. 136 (1852)
2. Stone, Henry Dickinson. Personal Recollections of the Drama, pp. 277-80 (1873) (a four page and somewhat colorful biography of Taylor)
3. (3 February 1877). "UNCLE TOM'S CABIN:" ITS EARLY DAYS, AND THE PEOPLE WHO PLAYED IN IT, New York Clipper
4. Miller, Tice L. Entertaining the Nation, p. 100 (2007)
5. Bordman, Gerald & Thomas S. Hischak. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre, p. 317 (3d ed. 2004)
6. Ireland, Joseph Norton. Records of the New York stage: from 1750 to 1860, Volume 1, p. 572 (1866)
7. (27 October 1877). "Ion" in America and England, New York Clipper
8. (31 March 1831). Bowery Theatre (advertisement, New York Morning Courier (advertisement in far right column for tenth performance of the Water Watch, a benefit for C.W. Taylor)
9. Phelps, Henry Pitt. Players of a Century: A Record of the Albany Stage, p. 251 (2d ed. 1880)
10. Frick, John W. Theatre, Culture and Temperance Reform in Nineteenth-Century America, p. 143 (2003)
11. (22 September 1856). Atlantic and European Theatricals, Sacramento Daily Union