It’s not likely to stage a comeback. Among our collection of John Paul Jones’ oddities is the libretto and score to the comic operetta “Paul Jones.” The famous captain is played by Miss Agnes Huntington. The rest of the “dramatis personae” appear to be pulled wholly from the imaginations of author HB Farnie and composer Robert Planquette. The list reads like Gilbert and Sullivan gone bad – naval officer Rufino de Martinez, Spanish governor Don Trocadero, the old smuggler Bouillabaisse, and his wife Chopinette.
The play takes place in St. Malo, France, and winds up at the island of Estrella near the Mosquito Shore. From as early as 1778, Paul Jones has been the inspiration for tunes, beginning with ballads and chanteys extolling his heroism or condemning his piracy. Our collection includes sheet music from a World War I Navy song, a couple of piano arrangements of the popular ballroom dance “The Paul Jones,” and the original soundtrack to the 1959 Jones film starring Robert Stack.
And the comic opera would have stayed in an obscure drawer had we not stumbled upon a 1890 copy of “The Illustrated America” featuring an article about Miss Huntington’s performance as the heroic Mr. Jones at the Broadway Theater in New York. The play was imported from London, but the actress was American. According to the magazine, Huntington was a smash in London, but quarreled with the manager and left the play “Paul Jones” only to reprise her role in the United States.
“In person, Miss Huntington is fair, very fair and well proportioned,” the article reports. “Her voice is a contralto, pure in tone and full of expression…Miss Huntington’s triumph in Paul Jones is all the more a personal work for her as the work is not very strong…It was not a success when first produced in Paris in 1887 under the title Surcouf.”
The Illustrated America adds that there is almost no plot to the operetta “Paul Jones,” and the book that it is based on is unremarkable. And yet the play was a hit with popular audiences.
Copyright J. Dennis Robinson
READER FOLLOWUP:
Dennis…enjoyed reading about AGNES and her role as JOHN PAUL JONES. I have a complete stand-up lady’s victorian album of Agnes dressed for various roles…photographers from Boston/Chicago/N.Y.. some signed as shown in enclosed photo.
Thom Hindle, Images of the Past Gallery, Dover, NH
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