In the latter part of 1870 or early in 1871, while giving recitations at Platt’s Hall and elsewhere in San Francisco, his attention was attracted by an exceptionally handsome girl,—whom he has described as one “all compact of sweetness,”—who occupied a front seat on every occasion of his appearance. This young lady (she was little more than a child, being then only fifteen years old) was Miss Cecilia Loverich. After some time he was fortunate enough to obtain an introduction to her, at a private house where he had been engaged to give some recitations, and the acquaintance thus formed, and earnestly pursued by the romantic youth, soon ripened into a serious attachment. “I was nobody,” said Belasco to me, “and she was a beauty, of wealthy family, and,—young as she was,—already much followed. I did not have much hope at first; but I didn’t despair altogether, either. If I was only a struggling

beginner on the stage, a sort of strolling spouter, still she found my performances worth coming to see, over and over again!” The lover’s suit was not impaired by the fact that presently he suffered a serious physical injury, the rupture of a vein in one of his feet, which took a course so unfavorable there was danger that amputation would be necessary: a dark-haired, pale, dreamy-eyed, romantic youth sometimes becomes more than usually interesting to a gentle, compassionate young woman when he is hurt and suffering. Although incapacitated for several weeks, during which time Miss Loverich paid him many delicate attentions, Belasco finally recovered, after a minor operation,—though, from his account of this episode, I surmise he came near dying under an anÆsthetic. For a while he was compelled to use crutches, but ultimately he resumed his professional labor. The marriage of David Belasco and Cecilia Loverich was solemnized, August 26, 1873, at the home of his parents, No. 174 Clara Street, San Francisco,—Rabbi Neustader performing the ceremony. At that time the actor was employed at Shiels’ Opera House: during about a year after their marriage his wife travelled with him on some of his various barnstorming expeditions—and that was the happiest experience of his life.

The engagement of the Chapman Sisters at the Metropolitan Theatre was ended on April 27, 1873, with a representation of “Cinderella” (produced there April 23),—in which Belasco probably participated,—that being the last regular theatrical performance given there. During several weeks immediately sequent to that event Belasco travelled with the Chapman Sisters, under the management of Woodard, playing in Sacramento (May 3) and in many other California and Pacific Coast cities and towns. By about the middle of June, however, he had returned to San Francisco; and, not being able to obtain immediate employment in the theatres, he worked for about two months as amanuensis for an old actor, James H. Le Roy, who had turned his attention to playwrighting. On June 30 Belasco was present at the opening of Shiels’ Opera House (afterward the Opera House, Gray’s Opera House, etc.), when Bella Pateman (1844-1908) made her first appearance in San Francisco,—acting Mariana, in “The Wife,” with Frank Roche as Julian St. Pierre and A. D. Billings as Antonio. “They did three or four more plays at Shiels’,—‘The Marble Heart,’ ’The Lady of Lyons,’ and other well-worn old pieces,”—so Belasco has said to me; “but the business was light and they needed a novelty. I had mentioned Wilkie Collins’ ’The New Magdalen’ [published that year] to Le Roy as containing good material for a play and he had bought a copy of the book and begun to make a dramatization. He told Miss Pateman about it and when she agreed that it would make a fine play for her he hastened his work, dictating to me, and it was brought out soon afterward.” Le Roy’s “dramatization” of Collins’ novel was produced at Shiels’ Opera House on July 14, 1873, and it was the first, or one of the first, stage adaptations of the story to be acted in America: piratical versions of it eventually became so numerous that, at one time, they could be bought for $10! Collins, in the disgraceful state of American copyright law at that time, was helpless to prevent what he designated, in writing to me, as the “larcenous appropriation of my poor ’Magdalen.’” As illustrating the practical value of priority in such matters and an injury often inflicted on authorship, it is significant to recall that Le Roy’s scissored version of the novel and Miss Pateman’s performance in it were much preferred, in San Francisco, to the drama made by Collins, as it was acted there, at the California Theatre, by Carlotta Leclercq (1838-1893), September 22, 1873.—This was the cast of the principal parts at Shiels’:

Writing about the production of Le Roy’s “larcenous appropriation,” Belasco has said: “When it was ready it represented a week of pasting, cutting, and putting together.... It proved to be one of the greatest successes San Francisco ever had.... As for the actress, Bella Pateman, she was a wonderful woman of tears, always emotionally true, and she became the idol of the hour, for her Mercy Merrick showed her to be an artist of great worth.” Miss Pateman was an accomplished actress (her professional merit was much extolled in conversation with me by both Edwin Booth and Lawrence Barrett), and she became an exceptional public favorite in San Francisco. Her first engagement in that city continued until August 16, and, after July 14, it was devoted on all but four nights to repetitions of “The New Magdalen.”

Belasco’s association with Le Roy brought him into contact with persons influential in management of Shiels’ Opera House and he was fortunate enough to be engaged as a member of a stock company which was organized to succeed Miss Pateman there. The first star to appear with that company was Joseph Murphy, in a revival, made August 18, of

“Maum Cre,” which held the stage for one week and in which Belasco acted the small part of Bloater. On August 25, the night before his wedding, he played with Murphy as Bob Rackett, in “Help,” and on September 1 as Baldwin, in “Ireland and America.” Murphy’s engagement ended September 7. The next night Frederick Lyster made his first appearance at Shiels’ (of which A. M. Gray had become “sole proprietor”) in “The Rising Moon,” and I believe that Belasco played in it, though I have not found a record of his doing so. On September 10 Laura Alberta was the star, in “Out at Sea,” Belasco playing with her as Harvey. During the next six weeks he acted at Shiels’—personating Sambo, in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” and Major Hershner, in “Twice Saved; or, Bertha the Midget,” with Miss Alberta; Spada, in “The Woman in Red,” with Fanny Cathcart, and Darley, in “Dark Deeds,” with Miss Cathcart and George Darrell. Other plays presented at Shiels’ during the period indicated include “More Blunders Than One,” “Little Katy; or, The Hot Corn Girl,” “The Stage Struck Chamber-Maid,” “Man and Wife” (Darrell’s version), “The Mexican Tigress,” and “Evenings at Home.” It is probable that Belasco appeared in all or most of those plays, but I have not been able to find programmes or other records showing that he did so. On October 18 he participated in a benefit for James Dunbar at Gray’s Opera House (that name was first used on October 3), playing Mons. Voyage, in the Third Act of “Ireland As It Was.”