Others became prominent Boston businessmen and professionals. These five men were Harvard grads and the connection to Harvard, Boston publishing, and architecture lasted well into the next century. Thomas Ticknor, the first Footlight Club president, was a scion of the Ticknor publishing family, whose father published Nathaniel Hawthorne and introduced Charles Dickens to America. Ernst was a pioneering bacteriologist and was the first head of that department at Harvard University. Ernst was a lawyer and political reform candidate involved in educational issues and known as "a thorn in the paw of Mayor John 'Honey' Fitzgerald". His brother, Edmund M., an architect of significance in the Boston area, would design the Boston-Cambridge (salt- and pepper-shaker) bridge, Horticultural Hall, and the Harvard Lampoon castle. Wheelwright became a prominent Boston attorney. The men in the Footlight Club were establishing themselves as prominent members of their communities, although in the Wheelwright brothers the club had two men who had already inaugurated a lasting and significant cultural institution by helping to found the Harvard Lampoon several years earlier. Almost half the members came from just four families. The Footlight Club, at its beginning, was a classic Victorian club. Boston theatrical and social history was on its way. By the meeting on January 29th, a hall had been found and rented and by the end of the evening, a name was finally decided upon. By their next meeting on January 19th, however, they had chosen a play and assembled a list of names of friends and neighbors to be asked to become Associate Members (the audience for their productions).īut the members still could not decide on a name for their group, given the choices of "Footlight", "Jamaica Plain" or "Jabberwocky". They had no play, no theater, and no audience. The group committed itself to produce a play by the fourteenth of February. The object of the Club was "to promote friendly and social intercourse, and to furnish pleasant and useful entertainment by the aid of the drama". The twenty-five founders of the Footlight Club were: All but one (Parkman Dexter) lived in Jamaica Plain. The Frothinghams traced themselves to Thomas, who arrived in New England before Boston was established (you don't get much more Brahmin than that). Many were from long-established local families. The founders were well-off, well-connected, educated, and probably had known each other for years. After a thorough discussion, the constitution and bylaws were amended and adopted." The Committee reported that the movement seemed to be well received and justified definite action. The report of the Committee appointed to take into consideration the definite organization of a dramatic club was presented. On January 4th "the meeting was called to order by Mr. In December, Miss Caroline Morse, 19, of Pond Street, at a meeting at her home, proposed starting a theater club of serious intent. The topic had come up around the previous Thanksgiving.
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