[Broadside] Courtney-Morgan Co. in "A Fair Rebel." Monday Evening, Sept 5, 1898

Courtney-Morgan Co. Courtney-Morgan Co. in "A Fair Rebel." Monday Evening, Sept 5, 1898. [MI?]: Courier Print, 1898. 10-3/4" x 5." Printed in black on the recto; verso blank. Minor soiling and age toning; trivial edgewear; some faint, salmon-colored discoloration on the verso that is faintly visible on the recto. A well-preserved broadside advertisement. 

"A Fair Rebel," a melodrama by Harry P. Mawson, was a remarkably popular play. It was loosely based on an actual 1864 escape from the Confederate Libby Prison in Richmond and follows a typical trope for the era, a romanticized depiction of love that crosses military and political lines. The play premiered on Broadway in 1891 and was performed around the country from the Midwest to the South throughout the 1890s. Its popularity extended into the 20th century with a 30-minute silent film version appearing in 1914. Here, the full Courtney-Morgan Co. cast of nearly 20 actors is printed along with synopses of each act.

The Courtney-Morgan Co.—almost certainly managed by the two leads in the play, Courtenay Morgan and H. B. Morgan—is somewhat more elusive. While the broadside announcing the performance is dated, there is no location. This elusiveness is compounded by a sufficiently generic imprint: "The Courier Print." We have identified the Courtney-Morgan Co. as having been active in Cheboygan, MI in the spring of 1898 performing a half dozen plays including a promise to replay the bombardment of Havana Harbor and the blowing up of the Maine—a piece of news that was scarcely a few weeks old! And incidentally, a performance that did not come off without injury to one among the cast! The few additional mentions of the company in newspapers of this era (and as late as 1908) find them exclusively in Michigan: Cheboygan; Osceola County; Marquette; etc. suggesting that the Courtney-Morgan Co. was likely a Michigan acting company. On a related note, we find an advertisement for a performance of "A Fair Rebel" at the Ann Arbor Grand Opera House the week after the Cheboygan performances. While no acting company is noted in the advertisement for this Ann Arbor performance, it is possible the Courtney-Morgan Co. was the performing troupe. All of this suggests that this broadside is likely for a Michigan performance. A rare, unrecorded broadside of a little remembered acting troupe. Ridge, Patricia Lin. History of the Cheboygan Opera House, Cheboygan, Michigan from 1891-1920. p. 29-30.