‘Drove Miss Ulmar home O’
21 September, 1885
Sent Miss U. some toothache stuff – Raging toothache. Hope she will be all right for Thursday.
It’s 1885. The Mikado has been playing in London since 14 March, and it shows every sign of being Gilbert & Sullivan’s biggest hit show so far. Richard Carte, Gilbert, and Sullivan want to produce it in New York, and they do whatever they can legally to prevent pirate companies presenting it in America. Carte has sold the exclusive rights to the show to producer John Stetson. Rival producer James C. Duff has vowed to mount a production of his own, on the grounds that the publication of The Mikado‘s libretto and vocal score gives him, and everyone else, the right to perform the opera in America.
Sullivan, Carte, and a company of D’Oyly Carte Opera Co. players have sailed to New York. Their goal is to show New York and America that the absolutely best Mikado comes from the source. But for some reason—unknown to me at present—they bring no soprano for the lead soprano role of Yum-Yum. Instead, Richard Carte asks Sullivan to audition an American soprano from Boston, called Geraldine Ulmar.
Who is Geraldine Ulmar?
In August 1879 Ulmar sang the part of Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore, in Boston, for an audience of reportedly 6,000-7,000 persons, on a vessel fifty feet long, in a lake, with the orchestra stationed in the ship’s forecastle. Little Buttercup literally rowed to the ship. Since then Ulmar has performed continually in many cities with the Boston Ideal Company, singing roles as varied as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance to Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro. Her reviews are splendid.
She is also known to John Stetson; perhaps that is her connection. Or Helen Lenoir, the future Mrs D’Oyly Carte, could have known about Ulmar because Helen is currently Carte’s representative in America. Whatever the connection, on July 11 Ulmar took a boat from Boston to New York to meet with Sullivan:
Miss Ulmar arr: at 10; a pretty and very intelligent girl, sang several things – very sweet, refined & sympathetic voice and style, not very powerful – wired & wrote to Stetson & cabled Carte, expressing satisfaction with her, as they want her for “Yum Yum”.
[…]
Took Miss Ulmar back to the boat to return to Boston. Dined with Suydam [Grant] at [Delmonico’s] & went with him afterwards to some friends at 528 Seventh Av: remained there some time & ..
then returned home.
Note how Sullivan writes “they want her [Ulmar] for Yum Yum”. In the future, Sullivan will throw fits whenever he feels someone is pushing him into a casting decision. But here it appears his approval is but a last formality before hiring her. Also note that Sullivan spent that evening at “528 Seventh Av:”. I will have more to say about that in a future post. Sullivan’s treatment of Ulmar is slightly out of character. He auditions many women over the years and almost never drives them anywhere afterwards.
Soon after this audition, Sullivan left for an epic train journey from New York to California. On 13 August, in Los Angeles, he records receiving a letter from Miss Ulmar. His mistress Fanny Ronalds is sailing from England to New York; she arrives on 22 August. Still in California, on 25 August Sullivan receives wires from Ulmar and Ronalds. He replies to Ulmar. The next day, he writes Ulmar a letter. On 29 August he sets off by train to return to New York, which he reaches on 9 September.
On 10 September he attends the New York production of The Mikado, which he has not before seen. For the next few days he takes over the musical rehearsal of the cast. Fanny Ronalds, he discovers, is in Chicopee, Massachusetts.
On 13 September, “Miss Ulmar came to go through [her? new?] song” (these diary entries are written in pencil and can be difficult to read). On 17 September Sullivan and Ronalds are reunited, for the first time since 19 June.
Which finally brings us up to this entry, 21 September. “Hope she will be all right for Thursday.” On Thursday there will be a special edition performance of The Mikado—with increased ticket prices and Sullivan conducting. Perhaps that is why he is taking special care of Ulmar. But this behavior is a bit out of character for Sullivan. More often than paying attention to any one cast member, he makes grand gestures to them all. The performance goes well, and Sullivan makes a cringy speech to the audience.
And here the story of Geraldine Ulmar takes a twist.
On a lovely Sunday, 27 September, in a grand gesture, Sullivan takes the entire Mikado company—55 people—on a cruise up the Hudson river. At the end of the day, he “arrives home [his hotel] at 8.30”. Then, “Drove Miss Ulmar home O”.
Then, that same evening, Sullivan goes to the home of Mr. & Mrs. Charles Betts, where Fanny is staying. There, she shows him:
a disgusting [paragraph] about me & Miss U. in the Morning Journal. I was furiously angry. Mr Pulitzer is the proprietor & editor – that scoundrel Byrne wrote the paragraph principally.
The next day it’s clear that Fanny is not happy. Sullivan “walked a little with Mrs R. who was a little bitter.” [The word ‘bitter’ might be ‘better’, but either way …]
What was the disgusting paragraph? It was syndicated all over the country:
Mr Pulitzer was probably Albert Pulitzer, younger brother of Joseph and founder of the Morning Journal. On 29 September Pulitzer visits Sullivan, apparently to make amends. Sullivan writes “Pulitzer came to shake hands with me & I refused – cut him dead”.
Who is “that scoundrel Byrne”? I’ll deal with him in another post.