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This playbill was printed in Chicago, though it doesn't say where the
performance is. It was pasted onto a page from a ledger dealing with 1869,
which gives us the performance's earliest possible date. Someone has written
"1879" next to the playbill, which is a possible date. It certainly comes from
the 1870s, though more probably from the first half of the decade, the era at which the
popularity of dramatizations of Uncle Tom's Cabin was at its lowest
point. That's what the playbill does make clear. The Galley Slave, apparently a play about social classes and misfortunes, is the main attraction. UTC is only being presented once, as the Saturday matinee, and is advertised specifically to women and children as a "popular favorite" from the past, with reduced-rate tickets. The "Tom Show," featuring large numbers of African American performers, came along in the mid-1870s and the play suddenly became the main attraction again. |