Winning Prestige For The American Stage

Originally Aired: January 6, 1937 Cavalcade of America #64, "Winning Prestige For The American Stage," dramatizes the life of Joseph Jefferson, America's first great comedian, and his struggle to elevate American theatrical entertainment beyond the dominance of English players. The episode opens with young Joseph at age nine, aboard an Erie Canal packet boat with his parents' struggling theatrical troupe. When the company cannot pay their passage after a disastrous Syracuse performance, the boat's captain offers a deal: he'll forgive the debt if someone performs for him privately. The professional actors refuse, considering it beneath their dignity, but young Joseph steps forward to sing and dance "Zip Coon," earning ten dollars and saving the company's costumes from seizure. This early moment of determination foreshadows his future mission. Years later, at twenty-nine, Jefferson remains a respectable but unremarkable stock company actor, far from his dream of stardom. While vacationing with his wife Margaret in a Pennsylvania boarding house, he expresses frustration at his lack of a great comedy role that combines both tears and laughter. As Margaret reads Washington Irving's works aloud, the stage is set for Jefferson to discover the character that will define his career and establish American theater's legitimacy.