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125 years ago: Harrigan & Hart’s ‘Mulligan’ takes the stage

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

Cleverly written and uproariously funny, the production became an instant success and led to many more “Mulligan” shows over the next six years. Harrigan and Hart not only earned a fortune, but also garnered credit for creating the American musical comedy. Equally important, they portrayed a new and generally positive image of Irish Americans that reflected the their rising status in the late 19th century.
Edward “Ned” Harrigan was born in 1845 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. At the time, much of the area was known as “Little Ireland” as it was home to tens of thousands of Irish immigrants and their offspring (numbers that only rose with the onset of the Famine).
The fine details of Harrigan’s ethnic background remain uncertain, but it is believed that at least one set of his grandparents hailed from County Cork. Growing up on the Lower East Side, with its huge Irish population living cheek by jowl with Germans, Jews, Italians, blacks and Chinese, provided Harrigan with a vast resource of inspiration for the dozens of plays he later wrote, produced and performed in. Harrigan’s mother also played an important role in shaping his work as a performer by instilling in him a love of laughter, dance and music, especially African American folk tunes and dances she had learned growing up in the South and contemporary songs and dances from minstrel shows.
Harrigan left New York at age 22 for San Francisco. He first worked as a ship caulker (a trade learned from his father), but soon tried his hand in the West Coast’s booming minstrel show industry. Harrigan proved a natural and quickly gained a reputation as a talented “stage Irishman,” a common feature in most minstrel and variety shows. The stage Irishman was a lovable drunken fool, quick with a joke or song, ready to fight, averse to work, sentimental about “dear old Ireland” and always searching for a drink. The role allowed Harrigan to hone his dramatic skills, but it also led him to believe that America, especially Irish America, was ready for a new sort of stage Irishman who was hilarious, but also respectable.
Harrigan’s brilliant counterpart was Tony Hart. Born in Worcester, Mass., as Anthony Cannon to Irish immigrants from County Mayo, he grew up a troubled youth. Sent to reform school by the age of 15, he ran away and joined a traveling circus. Forced to take on a variety of roles, Cannon blossomed into a comedic genius capable of playing virtually any role, from a young schoolgirl, to an African American woman, to an elderly German shopkeeper.
Harrigan met the renamed Hart (who was 10 years his junior) in Chicago in 1871. He’d been looking for a performing partner at the time and was immediately impressed by the younger man’s talent and energy. It was the beginning of a 14-year relationship that gave rise to the musical comedy and reshaped the image of the Irish in America.
The two made a perfect creative fit, with Harrigan filling the role of writer, producer and actor and Hart that of unparalleled character actor and scene-stealer. They developed a series of comedic sketches and songs and tested them on the Chicago stage. Audiences reacted with enthusiasm and Harrigan and Hart began a tour of Eastern cities. Continued success led them inevitably to New York City, the Mecca of American theater both high and low. The move proved pivotal in their rise to theatrical prominence because it brought them into contact with David Braham, a talented songwriter and composer who added a crucial new element to their shows. Braham, who later became Harrigan’s father-in-law, helped write more than 200 songs for Harrigan and Hart productions, many of which went on to become national hits. (Much of pop music at the turn of the century derived from New York shows.)
The first song that Harrigan and Braham collaborated on turned out to be the most important. “The Mulligan Guard,” written in 1872, parodied the antics and pretensions of Irish-American men who belonged to private militia companies, most of which focused more on parading and partying than developing military order and discipline.

We shoulder’d arms and march’d and march’d a-way,
From Baxter Street, we march’d to Avenue A,
With drums and fife, how sweetly they did play,
As we march’d, march’d, march’d
in the Mulligan Guard.

The song went on to became the most popular and well-known ditty of Harrigan’s career and led directly, albeit slowly, to the development of the Dan Mulligan musical comedies.
One year later, the song headlined a 10-minute sketch called “The Mulligan Guard.” This marked the debut of the character Dan Mulligan (played by Harrigan) in a hilarious depiction of the makeshift militias formed by working-class immigrants (ostensibly because they were barred from joining the official state militia). The enormous success of this short production earned it a spot in Harrigan and Hart productions for years to come. More important, it convinced them that musical comedy combining realistic scenes of working-class life with brilliant comedic satire would be their ticket to fame and fortune.
Over the next six years “The Mulligan Guard” anchored the increasingly popular Harrigan and Hart shows. Finally, it occurred to them that Dan Mulligan might be strong enough to stand on his own — a full musical comedy production rather than the standard variety of individual sketches. All they needed to do was draw up a supporting cast of characters (Cordelia, Dan’s wife; Lockmuller, Dan’s German antagonist, etc.), develop a storyline, and write a set of songs. The result was “Mulligan’s Grand Ball.”

HIBERNIAN HISTORY WEEK
Jan. 7, 1945: World War II flying ace Maj. Tommy McGuire is shot down over the Pacific. He is later awarded posthumously the Medal of Honor.
Jan. 9, 1903: Frank Farrell and Bill Devery buy a defunct Baltimore baseball team for $18,000 and move them to New York. Known at first as the Highlanders, the team later took the name Yankees.
Jan. 12, 1971: Former priest Philip Berrigan is indicted along with five others for anti-war actions.

HIBERNIAN BIRTHDATES
Jan. 8, 1736: First Bishop and Archbishop of Baltimore, John Carroll, is born in Upper Marlboro, Md.
Jan. 10, 1843: Outlaw Frank James (brother of Jesse) is born in Clay County, Miss.
Jan. 12, 1729: Statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke is born in Dublin.

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