Posted By:
Bruce Babcock
I just acquired an N566 Newsboy cabinet of DeWolfe Hopper (1858-1935).
Best-known for performing the most popular baseball poem, "Casey at the Bat." Hopper, a fervent New York Giant fan, first performed the then-unknown poem to the Giants and Chicago Cubs, on the day his friend, Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Tim Keefe had his record 19 game winning streak stopped, August 14, 1888. The dying General William T. Sherman was also in the audience that evening. 2 months later the Giants won New York's first world championship.
Hopper recited Casey for almost 40 years in films, on stage, records, radio etc. Known as the "Husband of His Country" for his 6 marriages. He became totally hairless, with blue-tinged skin from reaction to a patent medicine. (Could have been steroids). Even so, his powerful voice and great sense of humor mesmerized women all his life. One of his wives was the gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. Their son, the white-maned William Hopper, played private investigator Paul Drake on Perry Mason for many years.
Dewolfe is pictured here with his co-star Della Fox in a still from the unfortunately titled Broadway Show "Wang."
"Wang"(1891)starred Hopper as the regent of Siam, who tries to end his country's bankruptcy by marrying a rich foreigner. Because popular comedienne Della Fox appeared in tights and portrayed a male character, the producers billed the show as an "operatic burletta" (burlesque or comic opera. A modest success in its Broadway run, Wang enjoyed extended popularity on tour. Apparently it was a big enough success on Broadway (151 performances) to merit a Newsboy cabinet in 1895.