My Official Wife

My Official Wife

Cover for 1892 English edition
Author Richard Henry Savage
Country United States
Language English
Publisher Home Publishing (United States); Routledge (United Kingdom)
Publication date
 May 1891[1]
Media type Print (hardcover) (231 p.)

My Official Wife is an 1891 novel by Richard Henry Savage, popular in its day, soon after adapted for the stage, and for silent films in 1914 and 1926, and a German-language film in 1936.

Book

Savage wrote the first draft of his first novel in 1890, while recovering in New York after being struck by illness in Honduras. Encouraged by friends who lauded his five-chapter tale of adventure set in contemporary Russia, Savage was inspired to rewrite and expand the story into a novel. First published by Archibald Clavering Gunter's Home Publishing Company in May 1891, it was a quick best-seller, and was translated into multiple languages,[2] but not Russian, as it was reportedly banned in Russia.[3][4] Though not every review was so glowing,[5][6] The Times in London notably called it "a wonderful and clever tour de force, in which improbabilities and impossibilities disappear, under an air that is irresistible."[7] Buoyed by the novel's success, Savage began producing more books at a rapid rate, about three a year.

In 1913, the Bookman noted that while few Americans may know Pushkin, Chehkov, or Korolenko, "very many Americans have, at some time in their lives, dipped into the pages of Colonel Savage's perfectly trivial story."[8]

An 1896 synopsis of the novel:

This clever skit is permeated by a Russian atmosphere, in which visions of the secret police, the Nihilists, and social life in St. Petersburg, are blended like the vague fancies of a trouble dream.

Colonel Arthur Lenox, with passports made out for himself and wife, meets at the Russian frontier a strikingly beautiful woman whom he is induced to pass over the border as his own wife, who has remained in Paris.

At St. Petersburg, Helene, the "official wife", receives mail addressed to Mrs. Lenox, shares the Colonel's apartments, and is introduced everywhere as his wife. But he has learned that she is a prominent and dangerous Nihilist, and is in daily fear of discovery and punishment.

Lenox frustrates her design to assassinate the Emperor; after which Helene escapes by the aid of a Russian officer whom she has beguiled. Meantime the real wife has come on from Paris, and endless complications with the police ensue. The Colonel secures his wife's release by threatening the chief of police that otherwise he inform the Tsar of the inefficiency of the police department, in not unearthing the scheme for his assassination.[9]

Many claims were made regarding the basis for the novel's heroine, all of which Savage denied.[4] For example, some papers reported that a Sophie Gunsberg, executed in 1891 in Russia, was the inspiration.[10]

Play

My Official Wife
Written by Archibald Clavering Gunter, from Savage novel
Date premiered 23 January 1893 (Broadway)
Place premiered Standard Theatre
Original language English

The novel was adapted for the stage by Gunter, and under the management of Frank W. Sanger, first performed in Utica, New York on November 7, 1892.[11][12] After out of town warm-ups,[13] its Broadway debut occurred at the Standard Theatre on January 23, 1893. Minnie Seligman starred as Helene, and her wealthy husband but novice actor Robert L. Cutting, Jr. also played a role. While the overflow crowd at the debut "enjoyed themselves immensely," it was not well-regarded by the critics.[14][15] Cutting's very poor acting was especially noted.[16][17] The play ran on Broadway for about three weeks.[18]

In 1896, the New York Times commented that the play "was a pretty bad play, very badly acted except as regards the title role," yet that did not stop Die Officielle Frau, based on the German translation from Hans Olden, from appearing at the Irving Place Theatre.[19] The German play was censored in Vienna, which drew more attention to it when performed in Munich at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz.[20]

The authors of the 1895 English play The Passport, B. C. Stephenson and William Yardley, also gave credit to the novel for inspiration.[21]

1914 film

My Official Wife
Directed by James Young
Written by Marguerite Bertsch
Richard Henry Savage
Starring Clara Kimball Young, Earle Williams
Cinematography Robert A. Stuart
Production
company
Distributed by General Film Company
Release dates
  • July 13, 1914 (1914-07-13)

[22]

Running time
 5 reels
Country United States
Language Silent
English intertitles
Clara Kimball Young, star of 1914 silent film, with extra once claimed to be Leon Trotsky.

The novel was first adapted to film in 1914 by Vitagraph Studios, starring Clara Kimball Young and Earle Williams, and directed by Young's husband James Young. The movie opened on July 13, 1914.[23][24][25][26][27] Sime Silverman's review for Variety was mixed on the film, concluding that five-reels was too long, though he admitted that the scene of a boat being torpedoed at the end might go over well with audiences. Though the story is set in Russia, Silverman noted that the film "never dares go into the open because it was made so far away from any place even resembling the land of the Czar that the studio posing and setting becomes extraordinarily obvious."[28]

Clara Kimball Young later estimated she had appeared in more than 100 films before My Official Wife, but this was the film that launched her as a star. When Motion Picture Magazine conducted a popularity contest in 1914, Earle Williams finished first and Young came in second. (Mary Pickford came in third).[29][30] Young credited Vitagraph founder J. Stuart Blackton's supervision as responsible for the success of her emotional portrayal in the film.[31] But now a hot commodity, Young soon signed with Lewis J. Selznick.[32]

Based on its prior success, Vitagraph re-issued the film in late 1916.[33]

Speculation once abounded that Leon Trotsky appeared in the film as an extra, based in part on a shot of Young with a bearded man with a resemblance to the man. Though this claim started appearing as early as 1918 and was vouched for by actors in the film, and was often repeated,[34][35][36][37] the story was always specious and has been discredited.[38] Trotsky was not in the United States in 1914, and he denied reports made during his life about alleged film appearances.[39] The film also possibly had a young Rudolf Valentino as an uncredited extra, though this claim cannot be verified, as Vitagraph Studios head Albert E. Smith made a number of claims that later caused skepticism.[40]

Though the full movie is now lost, two short clips were compiled in the 1931 Vitaphone short The Movie Album and still survive. One of the clips includes "Trotsky", which was played up in the press promotion for the release.[41]

1914 film cast

1926 film

My Official Wife

Title card
Directed by Paul L. Stein
Written by Gunter; Graham Baker (scenario)
Starring Irene Rich, Conway Tearle
Cinematography David Abel
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. (as Warner Brothers Production)
Release dates
  • October 16, 1926 (1926-10-16)

[42]

Running time
 7,846 feet[43]
Country United States
Language Silent
English intertitles
Irene Rich, lead actress for 1926 silent film

My Official Wife was again filmed in 1926, directed by Paul L. Stein (his first American film), and starring Irene Rich[44] and Conway Tearle.[45] The storyline was updated to include World War I.[46][43][47]

Film Daily compiled newspaper review quotes upon the film's release (as it did for many releases), citing the New York American as stating it was "repulsive ... players are badly miscast." The Daily News called it "worth going to see ... well acted, well directed and nicely dressed up bit of screen hokum." The Evening World called it a "matinee picture for unhurried chocolate munchers ... too long and too slow moving," and the Morning Telegraph dubbed it "first rate entertainment ... our interest never for one moment lagged."[48]

1926 film cast

Eskapade (1936 film)

The German language film Eskapade (alternate titles: Seine Offizielle Frau and Gehemagentin Helene) based on the novel was released in 1936, starring Renate Müller, Georg Alexander, and Walter Franck. It was directed by Erich Waschneck.[49]

References

  1. ↑ (17 May 1891). Current Literate, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, col. 2. (noting new publication)
  2. ↑ Vollmer, Clement. The American Novel in Germany, 1871-1913, p. 26 (1918) (German translation is Meine offizielle Frau, which "became well known and cherished by German readers in the following years.")
  3. ↑ (5 July 1891). Literature, The Morning Call, col. 3
  4. 1 2 Mathes, George P. (July 1894). Won Sudden Fame, The Bookseller's Friend, p.15
  5. ↑ (7 September 1891). New Books (review), The New York Times (this review ran in September 1891, when the book had been out a few months, and was described as "wild, rough in part, and slangy, but for all that no means wanting in effectiveness .... The dramatic elements in Russia are not wanting; they are overwhelming.")
  6. ↑ (13 July 1891). With the Books, St. Paul Daily Globe, p. 4, col. 6 ("one of the most entertaining of the lighter books of the season ... just the book for hammock weather")
  7. ↑ Current Opinion, p. 177. Current Literature Pub. Co, 1891
  8. ↑ About the Continent in One Hundred Novels, The Bookman (August 1913)
  9. ↑ Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Volume 44, pp. 263-64 (1896)
  10. ↑ (18 October 1891). Literature, The Morning Call
  11. ↑ (8 November 1892). "My Official Wife" In Utica, The New York Times
  12. ↑ Chatterjee, Choi. The Russian Romance in American Popular Culture 1890-1939, pp. 91-92, in Americans Experience Russia: Encountering the Enigma, 1917 to the Present (2013)
  13. ↑ (8 January 1893). The Chicago Playhouses, The New York Times (played at the Schiller Theater in Chicago)
  14. ↑ (28 January 1893). My Official Wife (play review), Evening World ("Sossher is played by Mr. Robert L. Cutting, junior -- exceedingly junior ... Manager Sanger, when he goes to the Standard Theatre, should blush with shame.")
  15. ↑ (24 January 1893). My Official Wife (opening night review), The New York Times
  16. ↑ Elsmere, Jr., Bob (January 1899)(As to The Cuttings, Broadway Magazine]], Vol. II, no. 10, p. 738
  17. ↑ (24 January 1893). The Plays Last Night (review), New York Press
  18. ↑ (12 February 1893). The Theatrical Week, The New York Times (reporting a well-attended matinee on February 11, 1893; but The Sportsman debuted on February 14)
  19. ↑ Die Officielle Fraud. A New Season, a New Policy, and Semi-New Play in Irving Place, The New York Times
  20. ↑ (1 September 1896). Echoes from The Green Room, The Theatre, p. 172
  21. ↑ (4 May 1895). Dramatic Family Likenss, Punch, p. 205.
  22. ↑ (1 August 1914)Live News of the Week, Motion Picture News, p. 54, col. 1-2 (noting that on Monday July 13, new features were offered at the Vitagraph Theatre in New York City, including My Official Wife).
  23. ↑ (14 July 1914). Two new film plays are shown, The New York Times
  24. ↑ (11 April 1914). Live News of the Week, Motion Picture News, p. 33, col. 2.
  25. ↑ Andrews, William Ressman (8 August 1914). "My Official Wife" Review, Motion Picture News, p. 68
  26. ↑ (August 1914). My Official Wife (story based on movie, with film stills), Motion Picture Magazine, pp. 67-75.
  27. ↑ (25 July 1914). New Bill At Vitagraph Theatre, The Moving Picture World, p. 552.
  28. 1 2 Silverman, Sime (17 July 1914). Film Reviews, Variety, p. 17
  29. ↑ (October 1914). The Great Artist Contest: First Honors Go to Earle Williams and Clara Kimball Young, Motion Picture Magazine
  30. ↑ Slide, Anthony & Edward Wagenknecht. Fifty Great American Silent Films, 1912-1920: A Pictorial Survey, p. 110 (1980)
  31. ↑ Lowrey, Carolyn. The First One Hundred Noted Men and Women of the Screen, p. 200 (1920)
  32. ↑ Beauchamp, Cari. Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood, p. 59 (1997)
  33. ↑ Shorey, George N. (16 December 1916). My Official Wife, Motion Picture News
  34. ↑ (16 January 1918). Trotsky in Movies! But He Did Not Star, Seattle Star
  35. ↑ (8 June 1918). Untitled, Colonist (New Zealand) ("Leon Trotsky, now so prominent in Russian politics, was at one time, it is said, a moving picture actor in America. He appeared in a film entitled "My Official Wife," and his salary is stated to have been just five dollars a day.")
  36. ↑ Segrave, Kerry. Extras of Early Hollywood: A History of the Crowd, 1913-1945, p. 116 (2013) (citing 1932 Washington Post account of alleged "Trotzky" appearance for $7 per day)
  37. ↑ (22 February 1937). Travels of Leon Trotsky, Life
  38. ↑ Shull, Michael Slade. Radicalism in American Silent Films, 1909-1929: A Filmography and History, p. 182 (2000)
  39. ↑ Rice, Cyrus F. (1 August 1954). Town Talent, Milwaukee Sentinel
  40. ↑ Ellenberger, Allan R. The Valentino Mystique: The Death and Afterlife of the Silent Film Idol, p. 236 (Alfred E. Smith of Vitagraph Studios claims that Valentino approached him and was cast as an extra, however it should be noted that a number of Smith's claims have met with skepticism from researchers)
  41. ↑ (28 February 1932). LEON TROTSKY REVEALED IN OLD FILM PLAY WITH CLARA KIMBALL YOUNG, source unclear
  42. ↑ (23 October 1926). Stein's Next for Warner's Will be "Matinee Ladies", Motion Picture News, p. 1582 (nothing release date of October 16, 1926)
  43. 1 2 (17 October 1926). My Official Wife, Film Daily
  44. ↑ Kobal, John, ed. Publicity Shot of Rich for film, in Hollywood Glamor Portraits: 145 Photos of Stars, 1926-1949, p. 15 (1976)
  45. ↑ (7 March 1927). Elmwood - My Official Wife, Buffalo Courier-Express, p. 4, col. 4
  46. ↑ Kennedy, Thomas C. (23 October 1926). My Official Wife: Love and Romance in Imperial Russia, Motion Picture News, p. 1594.
  47. ↑ (12 November 1926). When All Dukes Were Grand One, Greenpoint Weekly Star
  48. ↑ (3 November 1926). Newspaper Opinions, Film Daily
  49. ↑ Goble, Alan (ed.) The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film, p. 409 (1999)

External links

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