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| COCAINE a one-act play |
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 NORA:
[sits down on bed and tries to turn him towards her]
Joe, my darling, listen to me. You've been a wonderful boy, and I love you as very few people have ever been loved in this world. Because I had lost everything, you see, when I found you, everything. I had thrown everything away. And you've had to be the whole world for me since. The whole world, you see. There isn't anything else. Pendleton King (1889 - 1919) Pictures in this section: Portrait of the Artist Portrait of the Artist as a very young man, 7 years old, Lindsey's Art Parlors 1897. UNT University Linbraries Postcard Oriel College, circa 1905 Polly Holladay's restaurant circa 1915, home of the Heterodoxy Club and of The Liberal Club Cartoon accompanying "When Players at the Bandbox Really Play," A. Briggs, NY Tribune, Dec. 5, 1915 List of draftees, NY Sun, May 9, 1917 Photo from article, Lieutenant J. Pendleton King to the left, Frank P. Sibley to the right, reporter,The Boston Globe, June 14, 1919 The cover of "Rookie Rhymes." The Sunken Blue Garden, created by Pendleton King, who loved blue plants and flowers, and created the garden  [Ed. Note: Except for the six months King worked in New York, Nov. 1916 through April 1917, his life was lead in relative privacy. Without the internet it would have been onerous to pull together a biography of any substance. And, to the best of our knowledge, in over a hundred years, nobody did. We offer below more personal detail and samples of his other writing than is usual in the Metropolitan Playhouse essays, as befits an artist and a most curious fellow, forgotten since the premiere of his signature work. There is more background to be shared, and it will be added and more fully "citated" in weeks to come.] Early Life and Education John Pendleton King II was born on July 9, 1889, into a wealthy aristocratic Southern family. Pendleton was the only son of Henry Barclay King (1844 - 1931) of Augusta, Georgia. H. B. was a director in the banking and cotton manufacturing companies presided over by his father, the patriarch of the family, John Pendleton King I (1799 - 1888). The first John Pendleton King was an attorney, judge, Georgia U.S. Senator, plantation owner, banker and railroad builder. At sixteen, with money and a horse given him by his father, he set out for Columbia County, Georgia, to visit an uncle. He was sponsored to an education in law and went onto amass large plantation holdings by 1860 and associated manufacturing and railroad operations which sustained him after his support of the Confederacy cost him three million dollars in losses. Known as “Pendleton,” our playwright grew up on the family’s estate, called Sand Hill, in Augusta, GA. He was well-educated as befitted landed Southern gentry, attending Richmond Academy, 1902-5, as did his namesake, and then Sewanee, "The University of the South," 1907-1909 where he was member of the Dramatic Club. In a write-up the next day in the Nashville Banner, he received what was perhaps his first rave review: "... easily the hit of the play. The role was taken by Mr. Pendleton King, who can claim high rank as a female impersonator. His make-up was splendid, and his reading, under the handicap of masculinity, was decidedly good. His every exit was the signal for applause and he was forced to bow his thanks at the conclusion of the third act." He attended Oriel College, Oxford University, 1909-1913, living in the same rooms his father had when he had attended Oxford. Among his Oxford acquaintances was the flamboyant Prince Felip Yusupoff, who allegedly conspired in the assassination of Rasputin, about whom Pendleton later wrote for the New York Times. (New York Times, Sunday Magazine, January 14, 1917: Prince Yusupoff Defended in Rasputin Case; Fellow-Collegian at Oxford Tells of Nobleman's Career There, and Says It Is Impossible to Associate Him with a Murder). It is written with great polish and breeziness, in 1917, in contrast to his demi-monde Cocaine, which was to play later that year at the Provincetown Playhouse: "One of the things I remember most vividly about him [The Prince] was his unbounded admiration for and adoration of his mother. They used to correspond with pages of cablegrams every day. I remember I expostulated with him one day on the extravagance of it, but he said: "No, you see, she wants to know exactly how I am today - not two days ago." And then he told me a strange story. A fortune teller once predicted the sons of Prince Yusupoff would be killed in duels when they reach the age of 26. His elder brother had been killed in a duel at the age of 26. And Felix was then in his twenty-sixth year. Perhaps that was one reason he was sent to college in England, where they don't fight duels."  Through his Oxford years, he would transit between the family summer estate is Asheville, NC, winter holidays on their property in Augusta, GA and the months between, in England and the continent. He made the rounds of Southern society, as guest throughout the season at the weddings, the dinners, the dances, the annual Cotillions, horse shows, golfing, games of 'progressive whist', seaside respits and mountain retreats. Social Season and Amateur Theatricals After his graduation from Oxford, in 1913, among the 'dinners in honor of ' and the 'weekends chaperoned by,' we start to see notes of theatrical events produced, performed and written by Pendleton King. He started exhibition dancing the maurice tango and the castle walk and he put together evenings of comedy, created Circus act in a "Society Vaudeville," gave piano concerts and found occasions to present original sketches and monologues. For example, from August, 1913, a tongue-in-cheek press release written himself: The play to be given this evening in the Manor ball room by Pendleton King and a number of the others of the talented young country club set is entitled "The Divorce Bureau" and gives every evidence of being a most amusing little comedy. The hand bills for the play offer the following inducements. "One of the Greatest Plays of Future Times. Real cigarettes smoked on the stage. No moral. Simply teeming with local talent. One night only ... Peanuts will be confiscated." The star on this occasion is as yet unknown, as is also the author of the play, although it is rumored that this last person is pretty generally suspected of being a popular young member of the country club ... That the play is a clever piece of work suggesting here and there gay scenes of ultra fashionable life is a known fact ... a satire on society or equally well a "Critique on Climbing." Many touches of color from English society life will be introduced by Mr. King, the popular young Oxford graduate who is spending the season here ... and will take the role of "Lord Reginald Venning." In June 1914, an engagement is hinted at in a local paper. In August, 1914, the announcement, in the authoritative Atlanta Constitution, of the engagement of Miss Mary Lou Phinizy and Pendleton King is "one of broad social interest throughout Southern society, and the marriage will unite through two popular young people two of Georgia's notably prominent families." Miss Mary Lou was in Europe at the time of the announcement. Mr. King was visiting her parents in Asheville. There was no date set though it was indicated that it would be some time that fall, upon Miss Mary Lou's return from Europe. There is noting further on the engagement until December, 1914, when the Asheville Gazeette-News reminds the social set that Miss Mary Lou Phinizy has indeed returned from Europe, and her engagement to King was announced during the summer. In January, 1915, Pendleton announces he's leaving for New York. P.S. Miss Mary Lou Phinizy died in 1977 never having married. New York City From the editor of his hometown paper, the Augusta Chronicle, a letter of introduction:  Mr. Pendleton King has decided to tackle New York newspaperdom and to leave in a few days to launch in the calling in that city. Mr. King is gifted with the pen. He writes charmingly and in a most captivating strain. I have seen some of his unpublished work of which any of us in the newspaper press would be proud to be able to produce. Personally, Mr. King is a capital gentleman; cordial, considerate, kindly - a man who makes friends and deserves them. For him in the city of boasted newspaper enterprise and loudly acclaimed perfection in all things journalistic, his well-wishers in Augusta bespeak for Mr. King the best of success. Pendleton had no obvious work on a newspaper for awhile. But he certainly continued his rounds of dinners and weekends, with a circle of new friends scaled up from the monied society of Georgia to an international band of successful writers, actors, well-regarded progressives, and the accomplished scions of the extraordinarily rich. He was aided and abetted in his efforts by his aunt, the "Marchioness of Anglesley." Mary "Minna" Livingston King (1842-1931), his father's sister, who was briefly married to an English peer, the 4th Marquis of Anglesey, lived in Paris, and had befriended Pendleton during his Oxford years. She knew everyone from Queen Victoria to many New York society and cultural figures, including some MacDougal Street scalliwags. A few weeks after heading north, on February 15, 1915, Anne Morgan, J. P.'s daughter (and a friend of the Marchioness) hosted Pendleton at her Adirondak Camp to meet Ida Tarbell, the renown 'muck-raking' journalist. Ida Tarbell was friends with John Reed and Lincoln Steffens, and was a direct connection into the The Liberal Club and MacDougal Street. There was a dinner, at the Connecticut home of Nina Wilcox Putnam, a very successful author and screen writer, and a leading member of Heterodoxy, on MacDougal Street. George Middletown, a Broadway playwright and Dramatist Guild pioneer for playwright's rights, and his wife Fola la Follette, labor organizer, suffragette and celebrated actress, both members of the progressive village community; later that year, off to Palm Beach to visit the niece of Henry Flagler, the head of Standard Oil, who developed Palm Beach into a glamorous resort for very rich Americans. Throughout 1915 and 1916, he would occasionally visit Augusta or Asheville for a social event or a creative project (such as writing an article for the Augusta Chronicle or trying out material in performance at a charity event). MacDougal Str  eet and the
PlayersHe made his way to MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village, where it is noted that he participated in play readings at the Liberal Club (as noted in "Harry Kemp, the Last Bohemian"), the forebear of The Washington Square Players, perhaps in 1915 An early connection with the Players is documented (New York Tribune, dated December 5, 1915) as Pendleton had apparently accompanied the Washington Square Players in their nightly celebration after a performance of Overtones which ran from Oct 04, 1915 - May 20, 1916 at the Bandbox Theatre on 57th St. He is named in the rollicking story by Sarah Addington ("And they jeered the poor girl about her funny dress until she drew off into a corner with a kind-hearted gentleman, Pendleton King ..."). I believe he is caricatured in the illustration above to the left of Helen Westley. And I believe that is Alice Gerstenberg, author of Overtones to his left. Later that month he was reported to have been performing "snatches of verse and ragtime tunes" at Louie's, the oft-raided basement bar along Washington Square South, that notorious strip for carousing and pick-ups. Louie Holladay who owned the establishment, was brother to Polly, who ran a coffee shop on MacDougal Street, next door to the first Provincetown Playhouse, where she hosted The Liberal Club, where Pendleton would have met many of the artists and radicals who were to become Provincetown and Washington Square Players. Polly also hosted the Heterodoxy, a political and sexually diverse "luncheon club" of women that met every two weeks. In October 1916, he was seen with Washington Square Players Henry Meltzer and Frank Conroy (who is in the New York Trib illustration above), among Marcel Duchamp, hula dancers and strategically clad gladiators at one of the famous costume balls at Webster Hall, the Studio 54 of its day. He was reported as hosting his own bi-weekly soirees for uptown society figures mixed with downtown Bohemians at 1 Milligan Place, (neighbor of Provincetown Playhouse founds Susan Glaspell and Jig Cook at 3 Milligan Place). Among his guests, stock brokers, journalists, architects, a Vanderbilt and the notorious Mercedes Da Acosta would rub elbows with Provincetown Players Ida Rauh and Rollo Peters, Washington Square Players Phillip Moeller and Helen Westley; Jack McGrath, fellow cabaret artist from Louie's. "Goulash and mulled wine, the latter a marvelous concoction of "red ink"plus many spices" and the uptowners thought it was rare fun to carry their own food in from the kitchen ... sans waiters." In October 1916, he was seen with Washington Square Players Henry Meltzer and Frank Conroy, among hula dancers and strategically clad gladiators at one of the famous costume balls at Webster Hall, the Studio 54 of its day.  He
was put to work in the fall of 1916 in the theatre
community of progressive Greenwich Village. He
appeared with the Washington Square Players, "The
Altruist," November 1916, and then aligned himself as
writer and actor with the Provincetown Players, "A Long
Time Ago," January, 1917; "The Dollar," January
1917; "Barbarians," February, 1917; "The People,"
March, 1917; He participated in a one night staging of
an anti-war play, "As It Was in the Beginning"
January 28, 1917 with the Stage Society of New York
at the Gaiety; his final appearance on the New
York stage was on April 22, 1917 in an evening of
one-acts with the Morningside Players: "The Home of
the Free"; "One a Day"; and "Markheim" at the Comedy
Theatre. As a writer, along with the
well-received production of Cocaine in March
1917, it was reported that he had begun work at the
New York Tribune. On May 9, he got his draft notice. The 26th Division in France In April 1917, President Woodrow Wilson went before Congress asking it to declare war on Germany. Pendleton King was drafted immediately.  He left for the officers' training camp at the Plattsburgh Training Camp, May 12, 1917. Harper & Brothers published "Rookie Rhymes: The men of the 1st and 2nd Provisional Training Regiments in Plattsburgh, May 15 thru August 15, 1917" in September as the division shipped out. A collection of poems, illustrations and parodies by troops in training, drawn mostly from New England (and the Ivy League). The New York Times Book Review, Sept. 30, 1917, received it well with a special mention of the amusing but macabre "Ballad of Montmorency Gray," by Pendleton, about a brilliant lunatic soldier who did everything perfectly and then wandered away from camp, where he is found far far away: "as meek and mild as a little child, he did not rave or rant, he only cried, until he died: "You ought to, but you can't!"  He received his commission of first lieutenant in the infantry in early August, then off the Cambridge, Massachusetts for training in trench warfare. He sailed for France, Sept. 26, 1917. He was subsequently promoted to Aide de Campe to General Edwards, Division Staff. The promotion had been conferred upon him because he was familiar with English life and his spoke French fluently. The 26th Division was the first division of the American Expeditionary Force to be organized, the first to cross the water as a division, and the first to take the battle line as a division. They saw significant action in battle and between the forays they were able to organize entertainment. Boston Globe correspondent Frank P. Sibley (he is in the picture at the above right, with Pendleton King) embedded with Division 26, the "Yankee Division," and reported about its role in the War. The articles are collected and published as "With the Yankee Division in France (1919 Boston; Little, Brown & Co.)". He takes note of Pendleton King: In the back areas, we ... began to organize a minstrel company. In a month it was going well ; it played continuously for the rest of the time we were in France, except during the hottest of our actions. It came home with the Division, and as soon as discharged went on the road by itself. The performers were selected from all sorts of outfits, the artillery supplying a fairly large number. In every company and every battery in the Division try-out shows were held ; the men who already had had professional experience were chosen for the big show, so far as possible, and were ordered back to Division Headquarters. Rehearsals were held in a barn, and a programme beginning with an old-fashioned minstrel show, a vaudeville bill and a really funny sketch of life in a military company was put together...later ... lieutenant John Pendleton King, a New York playwright, pianist of fine ability, and a Georgian by birth — but a thorough Yankee in spirit, — had the show in his care. He brought it home, in fact. And bring it home he did. March 23, 1919, stateside, he oversaw the performance for U.S. Army general John J. Pershing (1860-1948) commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in Europe during World War I.:  Five acts were put on, lasting just an hour. General Pershing registered every joke and apparently enjoyed himself immensely. In fact, he remained seated after the end, still applauding and afforded a repetition of the final number. When the curtain came down for the second time he assured Lieut. King that it was the best division show he has ever seen ... The thing had gone off neatly, smartly and to a complete success. In 1918, Pendleton King was awarded the Croix de Guerre, a gift of the French army, for distinguished service during the second battle of the Marne. He returned home to Augusta on May 26, 1919 Pendleton King's Death https://www.pendletonkingpark.com/history  From the website of
Pendleton King Park: After he had been home for
about three weeks, he heard screams coming from Lake
Elizabeth on the family property. He discovered
two women drowning; he managed to save one of the women,
but the other drowned. Shortly after the accident,
Pendleton became ill and during a violent paroxysm of
coughing, died of a probable brain aneurysm.
He was only 29 years old. His parents were
heartbroken. The episode on the lake was reported in some detail, with discrepancies from the story above, in the Augusta Chronicle, on May 28, 1919, in that five pupils of Paine College were bathing at a pond on the homeplace of the King family, one of them got out of her depth, began to scream in terror and the others rushed in to save her. Private M. Hamulas of Camp Hancock, was on the grounds, hear d the screams and succeeded in rescuing the drowning girl. However one of the other pupils, Benita Stallwood, who had rushed in to save the first girl, had gotten out of her depth at this time, could not swim and drowned. Lieut. Pendleton, only one day back from service, rushed in to secure the body of the drowned girl. She was dead when taken from the lake but nearly an hour was spent in trying to resuscitate her. The Atlanta Constitution, on May 28th cited the blood poisoning (infection?) from a hand injury received in a car accident caused a coughing spell that resulted in a cerebral hemmorhage. No mention of the drowning accident. Did someone decide, perhaps his doting mother, that the drowning accident was a far more noble cause of death than a car accident? In his will, the elder King designated in his will 64 acres as a park memorial to his son in perpetuity, now known as Pendleton King Park. He also designated 15 acres a mile away for the use and benefit of World War I veterans, which his son had been, and their descendants. Pendleton King Park is a 64-acre bird sanctuary of great topographic diversity with pine forests, sand ridges and marshes. It houses a variety of gardens and natural resources, as well as recreational activities including new playgrounds, an 18-hole disc golf course, nature trails for walking and cycling, waterfalls and wetlands, cross country trtails and open spaces for picnicking and play. One feature of the sanctuary, pictured to the right, the Sunken Blue Gardens, was originally developed by Pendleton, who wanted to create a garden which bloomed in blue, a more unusual color for plantings. One of the poems Pendleton wrote that was not included in the Rookie Rhymes publication, Sept, 1917, was published in his local paper and then widely reprinted. It is an authentic expression a soldier's fears, and it is more chilling that it presages his own death, using an image of a river as the metaphor for end of the road.  Cocaine and The Provincetown
Players
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Cocaine/pbgEAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=inauthor:%22Pendleton+King%22&printsec=frontcover
Pictures below: 133 MacDougal, first New York location of The Provincetown Playhouse Ida Rauh, who was the original
Nora, is pictured here in another
Provincetown Players production
Eugene Lincoln, the original Joe,
pictured here in "In the Zone" at the
Washington Square Players
 Cocaine
was the surprise hit of the Provincetown Players first New
York season (1916-17), the first and only play the Players
performed by Pendleton King, but a play for which they had
much affection. Cocaine was read to
the Provincetown Players, one assumes by King, at the
November 22 meeting and was voted on at the December 3
meeting, “saved from rejection at this time only by the
absentee votes of the Hapgoods.” The play was
not scheduled until March 1917’s Eighth Bill, but King
began to perform as an actor with the Players. The
play was performed March 9 thru 14th, 1917. And
again presented later that month, March 30 thru
April 4. There was note included in the program,
indicating the bill's popularity:Owing to the demand for seats an extra performance will be given Wednesday evening, April 4th. Members may reserve as many tickets as they please by telephoning Spring 1678, between 2.00 and 4.00 P.M., or by enclosing money with request, addressing Provincetown Players, 139 MacDougal Street.  It was brought back again with the same cast on
a review bill, April 25 thru May 1, 1919, a month before
Pendleton's untimely death.From Edna Kenton, the official chronicler of the players: From beginning to end this was an extraordinarily good bill. We were so sure of it that we added an extra night to the run and could have sold out the house for another two or three performances. For to this bill Broadway trooped down, to see what "Freddy" and "Margaret" (Frederic L. Burt and Margaret Wycherly, both well-established Broadwat actors who were directing plays in the bill) were doing with amateurs. ... "Cocaine" was variously described as a masterpiece and as a play inexcusably ugly. Acted by Ida Rauh and Eugene Lincoln, it was listed by several critics among the best cast plays of [the] season.  King’s
upper class upbringing combined with his brief residence
in the Village makes his authorship of Cocaine a
rather surprising feat. (http://www.provincetownplayhouse.com/cocaine.html)The critical response was generally favorable and encouraging for ticket sales: The Stage, June-Sept 1917 Cocaine, by Pendleton King, excited most of the comment [of the 1916-1917 season]. Contrary to what one would expect from the name, the thrill does not come fom dope, of which the characters are short, but from the new angle at which the piece presents the old problem of one law for the man, another for the woman. The man's lnies, in particular, are bitingly natural and the acting by Eugene Lincoln - a salesman, I understand, by day - and Ida Rauh is excellent. The services of the entire company are tendered or love of the work ... From Burns Mantle, syndicated Theatre Critic (later editor of the annual "Ten Best Plays" series) May 1917 Cocaine written by a young man named Pendleton King is a village horror for which no apologies are asked. It is the frank story of a girl of the streets and a cocaine fiend who lives up on her earnings. The villagers are divided as to the merits of the play. They are agreed as to its power, but not as to its ethical or social value. For they do have standards, even in New York's Latin quarter. Naturally to the curious up-towners, the play is not more than ugly bit of realizm, exposing something they can see in no good exposing. But whatever its worth, Cocaine has attracted attention to the Provincetown Players, which unquestionably will inpsire them later to branch out. And ten or twenty years from now writers of the theater will be mentioning them with the other forces that, what the twentieth century was still in its teens, took up the American drama and began to shake it into new activity.  Theatre Arts Magazine, v.1-2 1916-18 Cocaine by Pendleton King in an unpleasant bit of slum-realizm, but so sincerely and forcecefully handled that one cannot but praise its truthfulness and dramatic appeal. The story of two dope-fiends, clinging together in their last extremity, is clearly outside the range of plays for Sunday-School dramatic clubs and "pleasant" little theatres. But for those theatres which do not shrink from tragedy, and from the portrayal of the most disagreeable truths and conditions of life, it will proved to be excellent stage material. It is a notable ahievement in the limited field of stark realism. (Reviewed on the publication of the script by Frank Hay, pictured to the right.) New York Tribune, April 26, 1919 The post-season brought back to view four of the most interesting of their plays ... Of them all Cocaine is the most theatrically effective... It is realism of a stressed, extremely self-conscious sort, but it is written in a mood of bitter irony that carries over smashingly. Lewis Sherwin in Vanity Fair, May 1917 The Provincetown Players ... are developing a school of dramatists that I am sure will eventually be of real influence. ... For them to have turned out in one short season a round half dozen plays really worth while is no mean achievement. This group included Eugene O'Neill ... real vitality and a feeling for drama. A satire by Sausan Glaspell and Goerge Gram Cook .. a delightfully clever piece of humor. But best of them all was a play by Pendleton King called Cocaine. ... thoroughly moved ... by this lurid piece of irony and ludicrous little tragedy. Sordid? Well, yes, Mr. Belasco would call it sordid. But it was real, vital, tremendous. Cocaine https://riveroakstreatment.com/cocaine-treatment/illegal-history-in-america/
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/buyers/socialhistory.html
https://www.history.com/topics/crime/history-of-cocaine
 Alcoholism
and drug abuse were not unknown to the members of the
Provincetown Players with Eugene O'Neill and Edna St.
Vincent Millay, unfortunately, being notable for it. Pendleton King had opportunity to observe addiction among the rich and famous circles in which he traveled. He remarks his observation of a stash of hashish he came across in the rooms of an acquaintance at Oxford. By 1916, the addictive effects of cocaine were well-known and it had been outlawed, but as a boy from Georgia, home of "Coca-Cola", it is quite conceivable that Pendleton had observed the effects of the drug before it was removed from the soft-drink in 1903. Pure cocaine was first isolated in the mid-nineteenth century, but its effects weren't recognized in the medical world until the 1880s. German chemist Albert Nieman isolated cocaine from coca leaves in 1860. He noticed that the powdery white substance made his tongue feel numb. In the 1880 it started to be popularized in the medical community. Dr. Theodor Aschenbrandt, a German army physician, prescribed cocaine to Bavarian soldiers during training to help reduce fatigue. Austrian ophthalmologist Carl Koller experimented with cocaine as a surgical anesthetic. After soaking the eye in a cocaine solution, Koller found that patients no longer flinched when the scalpel touched their eye. 
Sigmund Freud, the Austrian neurologist who founded the
field of psychoanalysis, was fascinated with cocaine.
Early in his career, he began to experiment with the
drug. In In 1884, at the age of 28, Freud wrote a
paper titled “Uber Coca,” (About Coke) which he
described as a “song of praise to this magical
substance.” He overlooked a major downside to
cocaine: addiction. Freud struggled for the next 12
years to break his cocaine habit.Around the same time, French chemist Angelo Mariani concocted a tonic made from Bordeaux wine and coca leaves. He called it Vin Mariani. Advertisements claimed the popular drink could “restore health and vitality” and lead to the drug's popularization in Europe. In 1886, Dr. William Alexander Hammond, the Surgeon-General of the U.S. Army endorsed the medical use of cocaine at a meeting of the New York Neurological Society. Throughout the early 1900s unregulated medicinal "tonics" were sold containing ingredients including cocaine and opium. Pharmaceutical companies soon began marketing cocaine. In 1886 "Doc" John Pemberton, pharmacist, of Atlanta, Georgia began to market "Coca-Cola," a syrup derived from coca leaves and African kola nuts. In 1899, Coca-Cola began selling its drink in bottles. Formerly a wine drink for the middle-class, everyone now had access to the cocaine-infused sugar water. The euphoric and energizing effects on the consumer helped to skyrocket the popularity of Coca-Cola by the turn of the century. From the 1850s to the early 1900s, cocaine and opium-laced elixirs (magical or medicinal potions), tonics and wines were broadly used by people of all social classes. Notable figures who promoted the “miraculous” effects of cocaine tonics and elixirs included inventor Thomas Edison and actress Sarah Bernhardt. The drug became popular in the silent film industry and the pro-cocaine messages coming out of Hollywood at that time influenced millions. Even Sherlock Holmes used cocaine. Cocaine use in society increased and the dangers of the drug gradually became more evident. Public pressure forced the Coca-Cola co  mpany to
remove the cocaine from the soft
drink in 1903.Enthusiasm for anesthetic cocaine quickly waned in the medical community, however, as the number of patients dying of accidental overdoses during surgery soared. By 1902 there were an estimated 200,000 cocaine addicts in the United States, By 1905, it had become popular to snort cocaine and within five years, hospitals and medical literature had started reporting cases of nasal damage resulting from the use of this drug. References
in the Play
http://www.nysonglines.com/grand.htm http://tenant.net/Community/LES/preface.html Picture to the right: Attic rooms at 298-300 Grand Street (just west of Allen) in 1932. From the script: The action takes place in an attic bed room on Grand Street, between Allen and the Bowery, in the late summer of 1916, and occupies the time between four o'clock a.m. and daylight. The 10th Ward is
bounded on the east by Allen St., west by the Bowery,
Grand Street on the north and Division Street to the
south.
 New York City was
divided into wards between 1683 and 1938. These were
used for the election of various municipal offices,
and would later be used to construct the boundaries of
larger electoral districts. Prior to the
formation of the so-called City of Greater New York in
1898, what is now New York City comprised multiple
municipalities that had different histories with wards.
The 10th Ward is the core of what we've come to think of as the immigrant "lower east side." This ward was reported to be the most densely populated place on earth in 1900. According to a survey of New York's tenement houses in that year, the tenth ward contained 1,179 tenement houses in 1900. These houses were home to 15,132 families, comprising a population of 76,073. The bulk of
immigrants who came to New York City in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries came to the Lower East Side,
moving into crowded tenements there. By the
1840s, large numbers of German immigrants settled in
the area, and a large part of it became known as
"Little Germany" or "Kleindeutschland". This was
followed by groups of Italians and Eastern European
Jews, as well as Greeks, Hungarians, Poles, Romanians,
Russians, Slovaks and Ukrainians, each of whom settled
in relatively homogeneous enclaves. By
1920, the Jewish neighborhood was one of the largest
of these ethnic groupings, with 400,000 people,
pushcart vendors prominent on Orchard and Grand
Streets, and numerous Yiddish theatres along Second
Avenue between Houston and 14th Streets.
By the turn of the twentieth century, the neighborhood had become closely associated with radical politics, such as anarchism, socialism and communism, and was also known as a place where many popular performers had grown up, such as the Marx Brothers, Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson, George and Ira Gershwin, Jimmy Durante, and Irving Berlin. Later, more radical artists such as the Beat poets and writers were drawn to the neighborhood – especially the parts which later became the East Village – by the inexpensive housing and cheap food. Founding editor of the Yiddish Forward, the newspaper for the Jewish immigrants, Abraham Cahan observed the prostitution in the area at the turn of the centruy: The most
disgusting area of the city at the time was Allen
Street, which was precisely in the midst of the
Jewish neighborhood,” Cahan wrote in his memoirs in
1894. “At night in the disorderly houses the windows
were lit with red lamps — the source of the
expression ‘red light district’. Allen Street was
the center of the brothel district and owners of
these disorderly houses were known as ‘cadets’ or
‘alphonses,’ as one would call the revolting
creatures who live off the disrepute of the women
they enslave and whom they dominate with unlimited
power. It was literally dangerous to walk down those
streets.”
So little had changed by the turn of the century that Cahan broadened his admonition to Forward readers: “It is better to stay away from Allen, Chrystie and Forsyth Streets, if you go walking with your wife, daughter, or fiancee. There is an official flesh trade in the Jewish quarter. In the window you can see human flesh instead of shoes.” The Elevated
From the script: NORA: The Elevated
sounds like wind. Like a spirit that can't
rest. The spirit of the city, that goes on and
on day and night and never stops and never
will stop, no matter what becomes of you and
me.
Pendleton would have been well aware of the disturbing sounds of a passing elevated train. In 1916, he was living at 85 Washington Square Place, which was right next to the 6th Avenue El, though he elevated train referred to in the play is the Third Avene El. Enjoy the link below
for a ten-minute documentary on the "The Vanishing EL"
New York City's last Elevated train, including footage
that takes the El for a ride in the 1950s:
https://youtu.be/85SoH6cjiOc Below are pictures of the Grand Street Station, Joe and Nora's station, at corner of Bowery and Grand Street; the Elevated tracks along the Bowery and a picture showing the proximity of train cars to bedroom windows.     In 1917, as the play was being performed, the Bronx portion of the Third Avenue El was being completed and connected In 1875, the Rapid Transit Commission granted the New York Elevated Railway Company the right to construct the railway from Battery Park to the Harlem River along the Bowery and Third Avenue. The Third Avenue El opened in 1878, running from South Ferry to 129th Street. The Manhattan Railway assumed operations of the Suburban in 1891 as an extension of the Third Avenue Line, and through service between the Bronx and Manhattan began in 1896. For New York City's transportation system, the project was "a more important engineering feat than the building of the Panama Canal" according to the IRT. The center track of the Bronx portion opened on January 17, 1916; in Manhattan it was opened on July 9, 1917. In the 1930s and 1940s, as part of the integration of the different subway companies in New York City—the IRT along with Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit (BMT) and Independent Subway System (IND)—the Third Avenue elevated and its counterparts on Second, Sixth, and Ninth Avenues came under criticism from New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia and his successors. The elevateds were regarded as blights on their communities and obsolete, since the subways were being built or were planned to replace them. All but the Third Avenue El were closed and demolished by 1942. The Third Avenue elevated was kept open because it was intended to stay in use until the Second Avenue Subway was built to replace it. It might still be there, but for the pressure against the elevated from real estate interests, saying the noise from the elevated "constitutes a menace to health, comfort and peaceable home life." The system was closed in sections from 1950 to 1973. What causes cold sores? https://www.campho.com/what-causes-cold-sores/
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/camphor-oil https://www.healthline.com/health/what-is-camphor#differences From
the
script:
NORA:
... It's
that darn
fever blister.
If I had only
had sense
enough to get
some camphor
that first
day.
 Cold
sores, those
itching,
burning, often
painful
lesions that
appear on the
skin generally
around your
mouth. How did
you get them?
The cause of
cold sores is
relatively
consistent but
the triggers
and how each
of our bodies
deal with them
vary by
individual.
Since it is
estimated that
just under
half of people
in the US aged
14-49 have the
virus that
causes cold
sores, its
important to
understand the
potential
triggers and
treatment
option
availble to
those who
suffer.The source of your cold sore is most likely something you contracted a while ago which may not have caused any symptoms at that time. Most commonly, cold sores are a symptom of the Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 which which is transmitted by close contact (touching & kissing) and thrives in mucosal membranes. After getting your first cold sore, your body produces anti-bodies and many people will never have another outbreak while others will get them repeatedly. You may not suffer an outbreak until up to 20 days of being infected. Nora refers to Camphor as the cure. Indeed Camphor seems good for what ails you. It remains an active ingredient in many over-the-counter cough and cold remedies. Camphor for skin : Lotions and creams containing camphor can be used to relieve skin irritation and itchiness and may help to improve the overall appearance of skin. It has antibacterial and antifungal properties that make it useful in healing infections.
Popular
current
products
containing
camphor
include:
TA
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/5567/where-does-ta-come-from
From the script: JOE: Gee! Ta! NORA: Joe, I wish you wouldn't say "Ta." JOE: ... Common stuff, uhm? Perhaps Pendleton heard "Ta'" on the streets of London when he attended Oxford. In 1916, it was associated with English working class slang. We can hear it in movies, out of the mouths of saucy Cockney characters. It means "Thanks" as a completion of a transaction, more than an expression of gratitude, often used as Americans would use "See you later." It is a familiar expression, very widely in use in England today. What is it doing here on the Bowery? Pendleton uses it to draw a class distinction between Nora and Joe, and also reveals, perhaps, that Nora's attraction to the working-class Joe, a former fighter, has an element of danger for her. The Evening Sun
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/
NORA:
[laughs] Nor a very fine kind of lady. I've told
you all about myself. I did work on the Evening
Sun, and before that I used to live on a farm in
Kentucky. That's all there is.
 The
Evening Sun was the evening edition of The Sun, a
serious newspaper which featured the work of Bret
Harte and Henry James among other American literary
mainstays, suggesting Nora was no slouch. Frank
Simonds was editor of The Evening Sun (1913-14) and
then associate editor of The Tribune (1915-1918) the
newspaper for which Pendleton King had begun working
when he was drafted. Pendleton was of
course raised on a plantation in Georgia, not unlike
Nora on "a farm in Kentucky." The Evening Sun was bought out and merged in 1916, about the time Cocaine was being prepared for production. On September 21, 1897, in response to a letter from eight-year-old reader Virginia O'Hanlon (“Papa says ‘If you see it in The Sun it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?”), the paper published “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” This opinion piece by veteran newspaperman Francis P. Church, insisting that Santa Claus “exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist,” caused an immediate sensation. It became one of the most famous editorials in newspaper publishing history; the Sun would reprint this editorial annually until 1949. The New York Sun debuted on September 3, 1833, becoming the first successful penny daily, popular with the city’s less affluent, working classes. Its publisher, Benjamin H. Day, emphasized local events, police court reports, and sports in his four-page morning newspaper. Advertisements, notably help-wanted ads, were plentiful. By 1834, the Sun had the largest circulation in the United States. Its rising popularity was attributed to its readers’ passion for the Sun's sensational and sometimes fabricated stories and the paper’s exaggerated coverage of sundry scandals. Its success was also the result of the efforts of the city’s ubiquitous newsboys, who the innovative Day had hired to hawk the paper. The Sun added a Saturday edition in 1836. A number of weekly and semiweekly titles were also published, such as the Weekly Sun (1851-69), which shares the same masthead as the Sun with "Weekly" appearing in the title ornament. The paper’s true glory days began in 1868 when Charles A. Dana, former managing editor of the New York Tribune, became part owner and editor. Dana endeavored to apply the art of literary craftsmanship to the news. Under him, the Sun became known as “the newspaperman’s newspaper,” featuring editorials, society news, and human-interest stories. A Sunday edition was added in 1875 and, later, a Saturday supplement appeared, offering book notices, essays, and fictional sketches by Bret Harte, Henry James, and other well-known writers. In the 1880s, the paper’s size increased to eight pages and in 1887 the Evening Sun hit the streets in two editions: Wall Street and Night By 1910 the paper
averaged some 15 pages, with Sunday editions triple
that length. In 1916 entrepreneur Frank A. Munsey
purchased the Sun, and a series of mergers followed.
In July 1916, the Sun briefly became the "Sun and New
York Press" and then reverted to the Sun by the end of
the month. In 1920, the Sun merged with the New York
Herald, and the titles were combined to create the
"Sun and the New York Herald." In October 1920,
the daily was split into the "New York Herald" and
"the Sun," absorbing the "Evening Sun" in the
process. "The Sun" continued until January 5,
1950, when it merged with the "New York
World-Telegram" and became the "New York
World-Telegram and the Sun." In 1966 that title became
part of the "World Journal Tribune"; the latter folded
the following year.
"But now the
white sails of
our ship are
furled,
https://poemanalysis.com/oscar-wilde/my-voice/And spent the lading of our argosy." Nora quotes from Oscar Wilde, indicated her erudition. "My Voice" from 1881. It is a short poem that tells briefly of the pleasures of love that were taken by the speaker and his female partner. It moves quickly from pleasure, to the loss of that love. The poem describes how because the love is gone, the speaker’s cheek have become wan before his time, and Ruin has come for him in his bed. My Voice ends with the speaker mourning the fact that when his lover reminisces on their love she will see and experience it only as a subtle dream, easily put aside. This poem is the companion piece to the longer, Her Voice. In which the female partner tells why she felt their love had to end. My
Voice
Oscar Wilde - 1854-1900 Within the restless, hurried, modern world We took our hearts’ full pleasure—You and I, And now the white sails of our ships are furled, And spent the lading of our argosy. Wherefore my cheeks before their time are wan, For very weeping is my gladness fled, Sorrow hath paled my lip’s vermilion And Ruin draws the curtains of my bed. But all this crowded life has been to thee No more than lyre, or lute, or subtle spell Of viols, or the music of the sea That sleeps, a mimic echo, in the shell. Prepayment Gas Meters The Numismatic Bibliomania Society coinbooks.org. From the script: NORA: [sits up in bed] The meter? But it can't have run out. [A wave of terror comes over her.] Have you been using the gas nights?  Prepaid meters for gas remain popular where there is a
likelihood
that the
tenant will
not pay the
bill, though
the use of
pre-purchased
tokens, or
swipe cards
are used in
place of
coins.
Coins would very likely have been in use in the rooming houses in the sadder sections of New York City at the time. Prepayment Gas Meters were never as popular in the
United States
as in
England.
Below are some
comments on
the net about
the vagaries
of prepaid
meters, which
are much the
same a hundred
years since
the play was
written.
"I used to have one of these things in my house when stationed in Scotland in the late 70s. It took 5 pence/shillings and I forget how much gas I got from a single coin. This created a big problem during the very cold winter of 77-78, because the coin box was a finite size and could only hold so many coins. Between a strike by the British gas workers and my non-conventional work hours, the thing never got emptied. It got to the point where I could not buy any more gas because the mechanism was jammed up. Calls to the gas company were ignored. The situation was resolved by an official complaint through the base and somebody showed up by appointment to empty the thing. The coin box was so full it would not slide out of the housing and the guy ended up bending it so enough coins could be scraped out to permit removal. Since he couldn’t put the coin box back in, he made me promise not to take any coins away after putting them in the machine. I got a whole new meter in the spring when the strike was over, and yes, there was a pile of coins waiting for them." "I remember one well, and it was only 40 years ago. While on vacation in Penzance Cornwall in 1973, the flat we rented had one. It accepted the new 10P coins or the old Florins that coexisted in circulation. I don't recall how much time you got for your 10p or 2 bob, but it was wise to have a stack of them handy for fear of running out in the middle of your cooked dinner or shower. To put things in perspective, the farmers market in town charged 5p (1/-) for a head of lettuce that he went out back to pull out of the garden. We pay about $2.00 for a head of lettuce today making the few minutes of gas we bought worth today about $4.00" "Gas and electricity meters were quite common in the UK when I was a boy, particularly, as you say, in multiply-occupied premises. The shilling was the standard coin used for the purpose, and I can remember visiting some friends in the mid-1960s to find them quite concerned about having got two shilling coins wedged alongside each other in the slot, thus potentially running them out of power without the means of being able, without an engineer's visit, to do anything about it." "Some early power meters were not as sophisticated as current slot machines at being able to detect unauthorised substitutes for the correct coin, and I am told that it was possible to freeze water to the shape of the relevant coin and use the resulting discs instead. This had the advantage that the evidence of the misdemanour evaporated, and the disadvantage of rusting up the machine. The German two pfennig was a very useful substitute for the sixpence at one time, before machines became weight sensitive, but I am not sure what foreign coin was usually favoured in lieu of the shilling. My father's uncle {b.1902} worked for many years for the Cardiff Gas Company and he once said that they had 500,000 cut down British halfpennies in their vaults, all mutilated so as to imitate shillings, which it was not economically viable to shift and scrap. I once heard on the radio that the one county of Glamorgan produced 45% of all the mutilated currency of the UK {Cardiff being its major city}." A Final Thought A cartoon in "Vanity Fair" marks the height of renown
which the 27
year old
writer was to
achieve.
After a season
of numerous
stage
appearances,
and the
enthusiastic
critical
reception of
his stark
play, Cocaine,
and the
beginning of a
journalism
career with
the New York
Tribune, Vanity
Fair
quotes
Pendleton King
as an arbiter
of bohemian
furnishings.
A rich Oxford
educated
Georgian
writes a play
about
prostitution,
drug addiction
and romantic
obsession that
takes place in
an attic
apartment on
the
Bowery?
There is much
more to the
story of this
incongruous
southern
gentleman.
To be
continued ...
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