The Pugilist Who Panned the Performance
When legendary heavyweight John L. Sullivan took a turn on the Seattle stage, his performance was less 'histrionic' than 'fighting drunk.'
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
It may not be a nice thing to talk about the departed guest, but when the individual is Sullivan, the public will doubtless forgive the lack of courtesy. It is probably well known that the gentleman from Boston, on the second day of his stay in the city, was decorated by the Puget Sound police; that he proceeded forthwith to celebrate with a vim peculiar to himself. When evening came and the hour arrived at which he was to tread the histrionic boards, he was really fighting drunk. Behind the scenes he swore at the call boy, manager, and leading lady alike, and threw into his scene an emotion and business that was indeed affecting. His speech at the end of the second act was a gem, and the glance which he shot at a boy in the gallery who dared to laugh was the same that struck terror to the soul of Kilrain. In the third act, Moses, the Jew, was doing some funny work and took just a trifle longer at it than Sullivan liked, and in a voice that could be heard in every part of the audience he yelled out 'Come off; come off.' and if friend Moses had not obeyed he would doubtless have been dragged off in realistic style. This is the first time that Mr. Sullivan has figured in the dramatic columns of the Post-Intelligencer. It will probably be the last.
“Size him up fairly and he is simply a gross mountain of flesh and muscle.”
Celebrity culture and the collision between public persona and professional expectations are as relevant to modern Seattle as they were in 1892. Sullivan’s disastrous turn on the stage mirrors the modern fascination with public figures who fail spectacularly in new mediums, a spectacle that persists in the era of viral social media clips.
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