Play List:

1. The Rath Boys

2. The Witchfinder

3. A Madcap Prince

4. Corinne

5. The Queen of Connaught

6. The Nine Days’ Queen

7. The Mormons

8. The Shadow of the Sword

9. Lucy Brandon

10. Storm-Beaten

11. Lady Clare

[Flowers of the Forest]

12. A Sailor and His Lass

13. Bachelors

14. Constance

15. Lottie

16. Agnes

17. Alone in London

18. Sophia

19. Fascination

20. The Blue Bells of Scotland

21. Partners

22. Joseph’s Sweetheart

23. That Doctor Cupid

24. Angelina!

25. The Old Home

26. A Man’s Shadow

27. Theodora

28. Man and the Woman

29. Clarissa

30. Miss Tomboy

31. The Bride of Love

32. Sweet Nancy

33. The English Rose

34. The Struggle for Life

35. The Sixth Commandment

36. Marmion

37. The Gifted Lady

38. The Trumpet Call

39. Squire Kate

40. The White Rose

41. The Lights of Home

42. The Black Domino

43. The Piper of Hamelin

44. The Charlatan

45. Dick Sheridan

46. A Society Butterfly

47. Lady Gladys

48. The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown

49. The Romance of the Shopwalker

50. The Wanderer from Venus

51. The Mariners of England

52. Two Little Maids from School

53. When Knights Were Bold

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Short Plays

Other Plays

Buchanan’s Theatrical Ventures in America

Poetry Readings

ROBERT WILLIAMS BUCHANAN (1841 - 1901)

EDDIE FOY AND “MISS BROWN”

The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown had its American premiere at the Standard Theatre, New York on 2nd December, 1895. When I was trawling the newspaper archives for mentions of the play, I came across occasional mentions of a touring production of the play in America starring Eddie Foy. I’m not sure how well known Eddie Foy is today, especially here in Britain. I know him only from the 1955 Bob Hope film, The Seven Little Foys (which I don’t think I’ve ever sat through in its entirety, but I remember the bit with Jimmy Cagney reprising his Oscar-winning role of George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy) and as the father of Eddie Foy Jr. who appeared in The Pajama Game. However, I then came across this biography of Eddie Foy which seemed to suggest that his ‘Miss Brown’ had nothing to do with the original but was some kind of pirated version of the play.

From Eddie Foy: A Biography of the Early Popular Stage Comedian by Armond Fields (McFarland, 1999), pp. 113-116..

After reading this, I thought it best to ignore Eddie Foy’s version of The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown. Later, when I was adding some more material to the ‘Miss Brown’ pages, I thought I’d have another look at the Eddie Foy version to see if I could find any reviews which mentioned the ‘janitor impersonating a kidnapped socialite’ plot. What I found were reviews of Eddie Foy playing Captain Courtenay and ‘Miss Brown’ as written by Buchanan and ‘Marlowe’. An item in The New York Clipper of 29th February, 1896, stated that William A. Brady had secured the ‘Western rights’ of The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown and had arranged for Eddie Foy to star, opening in St. Louis on March 16th, 1896. The mention in the Foy biography of an opening performance at Hooley’s theatre in Chicago in March, is incorrect. The play was performed at that theatre on 1st March, but it was the regular touring company (presumably with the Eastern rights) featuring R. E. Graham as Capt. Courtenay. So it would seem that Eddie Foy’s version of The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown was not some pirated copy, but was the original version (perhaps altered a little to suit Eddie Foy’s talents), and so I added the reviews from Saint Paul (Minnesota), Lincoln (Nebraska) and San Francisco to the ‘Miss Brown’ pages. However, just in case I’ve missed something, I thought I should also add this page with Armond Fields’ version of events.

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Back to The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown - continued