The Canadian Kings of Repertoire. Michael V. Taylor

“Variety” program was, at this time, being phased out by a more socially acceptable form of entertainment – vaudeville, and it was to this genre that the Emma Wells Concert Company turned its talents. The American theatrical phenomenon, vaudeville, originated in 1883 at Boston, Massachusetts, where a former circus employee, Benjamin Franklin Keith, opened a small museum and show in a vacant candy store next to the old Adams house on Washington Street, called the Gaiety Museum.

      Determined to preserve the general plan of the variety show and at the same time give it refinement and even distinction, Keith went after the best available stage talent. He encouraged women and children to patronize his small theatre and began to advertise and describe his show as “vaudeville.” He put into operation the idea of continuous performances and was soon able to pay his performers more money that they had been paid in variety, and thus began to command the best talent available. In 1885, Edward F. Albee joined Keith, both of whom would have extensive dealings with R.W. in later years. Together, they organized the Gaiety Opera Company to present, at the lowest popular prices, the new and sensational Gilbert and Sullivan light operas.

      When Keith died in 1911, vaudeville was already the most readily attended form of stage entertainment. There were by 1928, approximately one thousand vaudeville theatres entertaining a daily aggregate of two million people by means of well-chosen acts, feature motion pictures and newsreels in every state of the USA and every province of Canada. In 1905, Keith and F.F. Proctor, another vaudeville magnate, joined forces to establish the United Booking Office, which became the official clearing house and engagement bureau for the employment and booking of American vaudeville acts and artists. In 1916, the National Vaudeville Artists Association Incorporated was formed. By 1928, this organization listed about 15,000 artists.¹

      In adopting the vaudeville format as laid out by Keith, which for the most part was in line with his own convictions, R.W. secured the continued success of not only the Emma Wells Concert Company, but also the other Marks Brothers’ companies which would one day appear on the horizon.

      Within months of relocating to Renfrew, R.W., who was acting as manager and business agent for the four-member partnership, increased his hold on the organization by acquiring the controlling share. Whether the takeover was of design or necessity has little relevance today, but the acquisition gave R.W. a stronger grip on the company and allowed him greater flexibility and freedom in choosing both material and personnel. With a commanding personality in control, the troupe was able to provide the intelligent citizenry with a varied and consistent array of talent that included dancers, musicians, comedians, acrobats, specialty performers and, of course, melodrama. The availability of orchestras nearly always posed a problem for touring companies in some communities, as proficient musicians were as scarce as a good five-cent cigar. It was, therefore, necessary for troupes to carry their own musicians. R.W. took this one step further and brought along his own piano, a practice he maintained for many years.

      R.W.’s shrewd business sense and ability to provide audiences with what they wanted, combined with his professionalism and affability, and with a production format that centred around wholesome, family-orientated entertainment proved to the ticket to fame and fortune for the Emma Wells Concert Company. During the ensuing years this standard of excellence was strictly maintained. Mediocrity found no favour with R.W. It would, in fact, have rung a death knell for the troupe which was now facing stiff competition from the slick and polished American companies that were slipping across the border in ever increasing numbers in search of greener and more lucrative pastures.

      Ontario, due in part to its proximity to New York City, the entertainment hub of North America, and coupled with its greater population and growing economic base, was the natural destination for The Nashville Singers, billed as a troupe of coloured entertainers, The Holman Opera Company, the E.T. Goodrich Company and The Tennesseans. The Shaughraun Company, under the management of E.A. McDowell, was also a popular attraction throughout Ontario at this time; in fact, his company had been playing the Perth circuit: Almonte, Carleton Place, Smiths Falls, Arnprior and towns along the St. Lawrence River since 1880. McDowell, it will be remembered, had performed at Winnipeg in 1879, just prior to the arrival of R.W. and King Kennedy.

      It is quite likely the Emma Wells Concert Company met with a certain degree of success during the 1883 touring season, but it would seem that the troupe had been largely ignored by local newspapers, as reviews from the time are hard to come by. It was not until October 1884 that a written account of the company’s merits appeared in area journals:

      “The Emma Wells Concert Company has been giving a series of their popular entertainments in the Town Hall here [Arnprior] this week under the auspices of the Arnprior Band to well-filled houses. The program given each night is varied and entertaining, consisting of songs, farces and light comedy sketches which afford opportunities for the different members of the company to produce their specialties in a pleasing manner. Miss Emma Wells is an actress of rare merit and in her exhibitions of four-voiced vocalisms receives hearty encores. Messrs. R.W. and Tom Marks are clever artistes, and in their impressions of Dutch, Irish and Negro characters fairly ‘bring down the house.”²