# Q: Trying to remember super popular playwright of 19th century, now forgotten **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 14, 2010, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-trying-to-remember-super-popular-playwright-of-19th-century-now-forgotten/539376 "2010-05-14T01:38:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-trying-to-remember-super-popular-playwright-of-19th-century-now-forgotten/539376/1 "2010-05-14T01:38:09Z")
I read years ago about a 19th century American playwright who was the most popular of the time–late 1800s. His works were popular and critically lauded, but he is totally forgotten now and serves as an example of art not standing the test of time. My google-fu has failed me. Anybody know? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Obeseus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbce88/32.png) [@Obeseus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obeseus)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-trying-to-remember-super-popular-playwright-of-19th-century-now-forgotten/539376/2 "2010-05-14T01:43:45Z")
Charles Hoyt? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-trying-to-remember-super-popular-playwright-of-19th-century-now-forgotten/539376/3 "2010-05-14T02:22:28Z")
How about [Augustin Daly](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin_Daly)? While he is completely forgotten today, he was very popular in his day and is the inventor of one trope that is still well-know today (even if it’s no longer used dramatically): tying someone to the railroad tracks from his play **Under the Gaslight** (though in the play it’s a man whose tied and a woman who rescues him). Daly also supposedly invented the “tie victim to circular saw at a sawmill” trope. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-trying-to-remember-super-popular-playwright-of-19th-century-now-forgotten/539376/4 "2010-05-14T02:40:47Z")
Here’s a list of all US playwrights born from 1766-1878. The list is from [Wikipedia’s list](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_playwrights_by_nationality_and_date_of_birth#United_States): # (1766–1839) William Dunlap # (1784–1842) Samuel Woodworth # (1784–1858) James Nelson Barker # (1806–1854) Robert Montgomery Bird # (1810–1858) Robert Taylor Conrad # (1817–1880) Tom Taylor # (1819–1870) Anna Cora Mowatt # (ca. 1820–1890) Dion Boucicault [Ireland—United States] # (1823–1890) George H. Boker # (1830–1876) George Aiken # (1837–1920) William Dean Howells # (1838–1899) Augustin Daly # (1839–1901) James A. Herne # (1840–1908) Abraham Haim Lipke Goldfaden [Ukraine—Romania—United States] (Hebrew language and Yiddish language) # (1842–1894) Steele MacKaye # (1842–1908) Bronson Howard # (1843–1916) Henry James [United States—England] # (1845–1911) Edward Harrigan # (1853–1909) Jacob Gordin {Yan} [Ukraine—United States] (Russian language and Yiddish language) # (1853–1931) David Belasco # (1855–1937) William Gillette # (1862–1935) Langdon Mitchell # (1865–1909) Clyde Fitch # (1866–1935) George Pierce Baker # (1866–1944) George Ade # (1869–1910) William Vaughn Moody # (1874–1938) Zona Gale # (1874–1956) Owen Davis # (1874–1965) W. Somerset Maugham # (1875–1956) Percy MacKaye # (1876–1962) Jules Eckert Goodman # (1878–1942) George M. Cohan # (1878–1952) Ferenc Molnár [Hungary—United States] (Hungarian language) # (1878–1958) Rachel Crothers Your Google-Fu is no match for my Wiki Claw. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-trying-to-remember-super-popular-playwright-of-19th-century-now-forgotten/539376/5 "2010-05-14T02:42:02Z")
Thanks for both references. I do believe that Hoyt is the man I was after. TY! ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-trying-to-remember-super-popular-playwright-of-19th-century-now-forgotten/539376/6 "2010-05-14T02:58:21Z")
Actually, it could have been Bronson Howard. I think it’s interesting that there’s not a single 19th century play by an American that anyone would put on today. Actually, just about the only playwrights anyone would put on today from that century are Shaw, Wilde, and Ibsen. Right? ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-trying-to-remember-super-popular-playwright-of-19th-century-now-forgotten/539376/7 "2010-05-14T03:11:53Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > Actually, it could have been Bronson Howard. > > I think it’s interesting that there’s not a single 19th century play by an American that anyone would put on today. Actually, just about the only playwrights anyone would put on today from that century are Shaw, Wilde, and Ibsen. Right? I don’t think a week goes by that some theater group somewhere isn’t performing Edmund Rostand’s _Cyrano de’Bergerac_ which was first performed in the 1890s. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-trying-to-remember-super-popular-playwright-of-19th-century-now-forgotten/539376/8 "2010-05-14T03:15:32Z")
If it was a British playwright, the answer would probably be [Edward Bulwer-Lytton](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bulwer-Lytton,_1st_Baron_Lytton) ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-trying-to-remember-super-popular-playwright-of-19th-century-now-forgotten/539376/9 "2010-05-14T03:50:12Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > Actually, it could have been Bronson Howard. > > I think it’s interesting that there’s not a single 19th century play by an American that anyone would put on today. Actually, just about the only playwrights anyone would put on today from that century are Shaw, Wilde, and Ibsen. Right? Wilde does not even appear on Wikipedia’s list. :rolleyes: Nor Hoyt, come to that, though there is an entry for him. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-trying-to-remember-super-popular-playwright-of-19th-century-now-forgotten/539376/10 "2010-05-14T03:56:15Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > If it was a British playwright, the answer would probably be [Edward Bulwer-Lytton](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bulwer-Lytton,_1st_Baron_Lytton) That’s who I was going to say, Mr “It was a dark and stormy night”; he’s the one that I see used most often as an example of once-popular-now-forgotten writer. A man who’s remembered for not being remembered. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-trying-to-remember-super-popular-playwright-of-19th-century-now-forgotten/539376/11 "2010-05-14T11:29:34Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > I don’t think a week goes by that some theater group somewhere isn’t performing Edmund Rostand’s _Cyrano de’Bergerac_ which was first performed in the 1890s. Mais non. He was French, not American. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-trying-to-remember-super-popular-playwright-of-19th-century-now-forgotten/539376/12 "2010-05-14T13:11:26Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > Mais non. He was French, not American. I know he was French, but you didn’t say “just about the only American playwrite”, you said “just about the only playwrite.” ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-trying-to-remember-super-popular-playwright-of-19th-century-now-forgotten/539376/13 "2010-05-14T15:56:18Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > Actually, it could have been Bronson Howard. > > I think it’s interesting that there’s not a single 19th century play by an American that anyone would put on today. Actually, just about the only playwrights anyone would put on today from that century are Shaw, Wilde, and Ibsen. Right? Chekhov checks in right at the tail end of the 19th C.