William DeWolf Hopper was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

, singer, comedian

Comedian

A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...

, and theatrical producer. Although a star of the musical stage

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

, he was best-known for performing the popular baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 poem Casey at the Bat

Casey at the Bat

"Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888" is a baseball poem written in 1888 by Ernest Thayer. First published in The San Francisco Examiner on June 3, 1888, it was later popularized by DeWolf Hopper in many vaudeville performances.The poem was originally published...

.

Biography

Hopper was born in New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, the son of John Hopper (born 1815) and Rosalie De Wolf (born 1827). His father was a wealth

Wealth

Wealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word wealth is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem...

y Quaker

Religious Society of Friends

The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...

 lawyer

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

 and his mother came from a noted Colonial family. Though his parents insisted he become a lawyer, Hopper did not enjoy that profession.

He made his stage debut in New Haven, Connecticut

New Haven, Connecticut

New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...

, October 2, 1878. Originally, he wanted to be a serious actor, but at 6' 5" (196 cm) and 230 pounds, he was too large for most dramatic roles. He had a loud bass

Bass (voice type)

A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...

 singing voice, however, and made his mark in musicals, beginning in Harrigan and Hart's company. He achieved the status of leading man

Leading man

Leading man or leading gentleman is an informal term for the actor who plays a love interest to the leading actress in a film or play. A leading man is usually an all rounder; capable of singing, dancing, and acting at a professional level, but never outshining his female co-star...

 in The Black Hussar (1885) and appeared in the hit Erminie

Erminie

Erminie is a comic opera in two acts composed by Edward Jakobowski with a libretto by Claxson Bellamy and Harry Paulton, based loosely on Charles Selby's 1834 Robert Macaire...

in 1887. Eventually, he starred in more than thirty Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 musicals, including Castles in the Air (1890), Wang (1891)

Wang (musical)

Wang is a musical with music by Woolson Morse and book and lyrics by J. Cheever Goodwin. It was first produced in New York in 1891 by DeWolf Hopper and his company and featured Della Fox....

, Panjandrum (1893)

Panjandrum (musical)

Panjandrum is a musical with music by Woolson Morse, words by J. Cheever Goodwin, written for and produced by De Wolf Hopper and his Opera Company. It opened on May 1, 1893 at the Broadway Theater in New York and closed at the end of September 1893.Described as an "olla podrida" in two acts,...

, and John Phillip Sousa's El Capitan

El Capitan (operetta)

El Capitan is an operetta in three acts by John Philip Sousa and has a libretto by Charles Klein . The piece was Sousa's first successful operetta and his most successful stage work....

(1896). The role that he remembered with greatest pleasure was Old Bill in The Better 'Ole

The Better 'Ole

The Better 'Ole, also called The Romance of Old Bill, is an Edwardian musical comedy with a book by Bruce Bairnsfather and Arthur Elliott, music by Herman Darewski, and lyrics by Percival Knight and James Heard, based on the cartoon character Old Bill, an infantryman, drawn by Bairnsfather...

(1919).
Known for his comic talents, Hopper popularized many comic songs and appeared in a number of Gilbert and Sullivan

Gilbert and Sullivan

Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...

 comic "patter" roles from 1921 to 1925, including The Mikado

The Mikado

The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...

, Patience, and H.M.S. Pinafore

HMS Pinafore

H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...

.

A lifelong baseball enthusiast and New York Giants

San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....

 fan, he first performed Ernest Thayer

Ernest Thayer

Ernest Lawrence Thayer was an American writer and poet who wrote "Casey at the Bat".-Biography:Thayer was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts and raised in Worcester. He graduated magna cum laude in philosophy from Harvard in 1885, where he was editor of the Harvard Lampoon...

's then-unknown poem Casey at the Bat to the Giants and Chicago Cubs

Chicago Cubs

The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...

 the day his friend, Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Tim Keefe

Tim Keefe

Timothy John "Tim" Keefe , nicknamed "Smiling Tim" and "Sir Timothy", was an American Major League Baseball pitcher. He was one of the most dominating pitchers of the 19th century and posted impressive statistics in one category or another for almost every season he pitched...

 had his record 19 game winning streak stopped, August 14, 1888. Hopper helped make the comic poem famous and was often called upon to give his colorful, melodramatic recitation, which he did about 10,000 times in his booming voice, reciting it during performances and as part of curtain calls, and on radio

Radio programming

Radio programming is the Broadcast programming of a Radio format or content that is organized for Commercial broadcasting and Public broadcasting radio stations....

. He released a recorded version on phonograph record in 1906, and recited the poem in a short film made in the Phonofilm

Phonofilm

In 1919, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patent on a sound-on-film process, DeForest Phonofilm, which recorded sound directly onto film as parallel lines. These parallel lines photographically recorded electrical waveforms from a microphone, which were translated back...

 sound-on-film process in 1923.

It was in The Black Hussar that Hopper first incorporated a baseball theme that drew notice in the sporting press. To accompany a song with a baseball stanza, "Mr. Hopper enacts [sic] the pitcher, Mr. [Digby] Bell, with a bird cage on his head and boxing gloves on his hands, plays catcher, while Mme. [Mathilde] Cottrelly handles a diminutive bat as striker and endeavors to make a 'home run.'"

In 1889, Hopper became founding president of the Actors' Amateur Athletic Association of America. Back in 1886, besides organizing a regular ball team among actors, he played in a benefit game for a demented playwright. The following year, he helped organize an actor’s benefit for a sick young actress. In the first inning, someone presented him with an eight-inch sunflower.

Also as of 1889, Bell, Hopper and fellow McCaull Comic Opera Company

McCaull Comic Opera Company

McCaull Comic Opera Company, sometimes called the McCaull Opera Comique Company, was founded by Colonel John A. McCaull in 1880. The company produced operetta, comic opera and musical theatre in New York City and on tour in the eastern and midwestern U.S. and Canada until McCaull's death in 1894...

 actor Jefferson De Angelis were doing the following skit for their third encore in Boccaccio. Bell returns "with a bat in his hand, followed by De Wolf Hopper and De Angelis. The latter has a ball, and as Hopper takes the bat in hand and Bell acts as catcher the former goes through the customary contortion act in pitching, and as Hopper hits the ball he runs off the stage, as if running the bases, and presently returns chased by De Angelis, who passes the ball to Bell as catcher just as Hopper makes a big slide for home base [sic]. The slider tumbles Bell, and when he rises from the somersault all three yell out to the audience for judgment [a ruling], and go off kicking like Anson and [New York captain Buck] Ewing. It is a rich gag and takes immediately," the Brooklyn Eagle said.

That year, Bell called Hopper "the biggest baseball crank that ever lived. Physically, of course, he is a corker, but when I say big I mean big morally and intellectually. Why, he goes up to the baseball [Polo] grounds at One Hundred and Fifty-fifth [sic] street after the matinees on Saturday, and he travels this six miles simply to see, perhaps, the two final innings, and any one [sic] can imagine the rapidity with which he must scrape off the makeup and get into his street clothes in order to secure even this much. But he says the Garrison finishes are worth it, and he is perfectly right. Hopper always was a baseball crank, long before the public knew anything about it."

Bald from childhood (he had alopecia

Alopecia

Alopecia means loss of hair from the head or body. Alopecia can mean baldness, a term generally reserved for pattern alopecia or androgenic alopecia. Compulsive pulling of hair can also produce hair loss. Hairstyling routines such as tight ponytails or braids may induce Traction alopecia. Both...

), Hopper wore wigs both on and offstage. In later years, a reaction to harsh medicines that he took for throat problems made his skin have a bluish tinge. Regardless, his powerful voice and great sense of humor seemed an attraction to women all his life. With an insatiable appetite for young actresses, he left a long trail of six wives and countless mistresses in his wake—he became known by the nickname

Nickname

A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....

 "The Husband of His Country."

Hopper also appeared in several silent

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 motion pictures

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

, one of them a 1915 version of Don Quixote. Hopper also appeared in a few short sound film

Sound film

A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...

s, including him reciting Casey at the Bat (1923) in an experimental film in Lee De Forest

Lee De Forest

Lee De Forest was an American inventor with over 180 patents to his credit. De Forest invented the Audion, a vacuum tube that takes relatively weak electrical signals and amplifies them. De Forest is one of the fathers of the "electronic age", as the Audion helped to usher in the widespread use...

's Phonofilm

Phonofilm

In 1919, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patent on a sound-on-film process, DeForest Phonofilm, which recorded sound directly onto film as parallel lines. These parallel lines photographically recorded electrical waveforms from a microphone, which were translated back...

 process.

He made a Broadway appearance in White Lilacs (1928). He then did Radio City Music Hall Inaugural (1932), and played Dr. Gustave Ziska in The Monster (1933). At the time of his death, he was in Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

, making a radio appearance.

His autobiography, "Once a Clown, Always a Clown," written with the assistance of Wesley W. Stout, was published in 1927.

Death

De Wolf Hopper died of a heart attack at age 77 in a hospital in Kansas City. His ashes are interred in Green-Wood Cemetery

Green-Wood Cemetery

Green-Wood Cemetery was founded in 1838 as a rural cemetery in Brooklyn, Kings County , New York. It was granted National Historic Landmark status in 2006 by the U.S. Department of the Interior.-History:...

 in the Brooklyn section of New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.

Marriages

• His first wife was Ella Gardiner and they divorced.
• His second wife was Ida Mosher, they had one son and divorced.
• 1893-1898: His third wife was Edna Wallace
  Edna Wallace Hopper
  Edna Wallace Hopper , was an American actress on stage and in silent films.- Early life :Born Edna Wallace in San Francisco, California to Waller Wallace and Josephine...
  
  , they divorced in 1898. She later married the Wall Street broker O. Brown.
• 1899-1913: His fourth wife was Nella Bergen, whom he married in London in 1899. She was born a Reardon and was divorced from actor James Bergen.
• 1913-1922: His fifth wife was Hedda Hopper
  Hedda Hopper
  Hedda Hopper was an American actress and gossip columnist, whose long-running feud with friend turned arch-rival Louella Parsons became at least as notorious as many of Hopper's columns.-Early life:...
  
  ; they had one son, William Hopper
  William Hopper
  William Hopper, born DeWolf Hopper, Jr. was an American actor. He is best-remembered for playing Paul Drake on television's Perry Mason.-Early life:...
  
  .
• 1925-1935: His sixth wife was Lulu Glaser, whose real name was Lillian. She was previously married to a California
  California
  California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
  
   dentist, Dr. Glaser.

Anecdotes

• Hopper's favorite dessert was a dish called "brown betty", but his favorite New York restaurant did not serve it. In Bennett Cerf
  Bennett Cerf
  Bennett Alfred Cerf was a publisher and co-founder of Random House. Cerf was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearances lecturing across the United States, and for his television appearances in the panel game show What's My Line?.-Biography:Bennett Cerf...
  
  's book Try and Stop Me, Cerf claims that the restaurant's manager offered to feature the dish if Hopper could produce a demand for it. On the first night when brown betty was featured on the menu, Hopper introduced himself to the diners at every table in the restaurant, and urged them to try the brown betty. Hopper then seated himself at his reserved table and gave his meal order to the waitress, climaxing in a double order of brown betty. "I'm sorry, sir," she told him. "We're fresh out."

DeWolf Hopper Opera Company productions

The Charlatan [Original, Musical, Comedy, Opera]

Dec 5, 1889 - Jun 17, 1899

Mr. Pickwick [Original, Musical]

Jan 19, 1903 - May 1903

DeWolf Hopper stage roles

Lorraine [Original, Musical, Comedy, Opera]

Feb 28, 1887 - Mar 12, 1887, Gaspard de Chateauvieux

The Begum [Original, Musical, Comedy, Opera]

Sep 21, 1887 - Dec 10, 1887, Howja-Dhu

Casey at the Bat [Original, Special, Poem, Solo]

Aug 14, 1888 - Aug 14, 1888, Himself

The Charlatan [Original, Musical, Comedy, Opera]

Dec 5, 1889 - Jun 17, 1899, Demidoff

Wang [Original, Musical, Comedy, Operetta]

May 4, 1891 - Oct 3, 1891, Wang

Fiddle-dee-dee [Original, Musical, Burlesque, Extravaganza]

Sep 6, 1900 - Apr 20, 1901

Fiddle-dee-dee, Hoffman Barr

Quo Vass Iss?, Petrolius

Arizona, Henry Cannedbeef

Exhibit II, The Gay Lord Quex

Hoity Toity [Original, Musical, Burlesque]

Sep 5, 1901 - Apr 19, 1902

Hoity Toity , General Steele

Depleurisy, Countess Zicka

A Man From Mars, An A.D.T. Man from Mars

The Curl and the Judge, Judge Charges

DuHurry

Mr. Pickwick [Original, Musical]

Jan 19, 1903 - May 1903, Pickwick

Wang [Revival, Musical, Comedy, Operetta]

Apr 18, 1904 - Jun 4, 1904, Wang

Happyland [Original, Musical, Comedy, Opera]

Oct 2, 1905 - Jun 2, 1906, Ecstaticus

The Pied Piper [Original, Musical, Comedy]

Dec 3, 1908 - Jan 16, 1909, The Pied Piper

A Matinee Idol [Original, Musical, Comedy]

Apr 28, 1910 - May 1911, Medford Griffin

H.M.S. Pinafore [Revival, Musical, Operetta]

May 29, 1911 - Jul 8, 1911, Performer

Patience [Revival, Musical, Operetta]

May 6, 1912 - Jun 1, 1912, Reginald Bunthorne

The Pirates of Penzance [Revival, Musical, Operetta]

Jun 3, 1912 - Jun 26, 1912, Edward

H.M.S. Pinafore [Revival, Musical, Operetta]

Jun 27, 1912 - Jun 28, 1912, Dick Deadeye

The Mikado [Revival, Musical, Operetta]

Jun 29, 1912 - Jun 29, 1912, Ko-Ko

The Beggar Student [Revival, Musical, Comedy, Opera]

Mar 22, 1913 , General Ollendorf

The Mikado [Revival, Musical, Operetta]

Apr 21, 1913 - May 3, 1913, Ko-Ko

H.M.S. Pinafore [Revival, Musical, Operetta]

May 5, 1913 - May 10, 1913, Dick Deadeye

Iolanthe [Revival, Musical, Comedy, Operetta]

May 12, 1913 - Jun 14, 1913, The Lord Chancellor

Lieber Augustin [Original, Musical, Operetta]

Sep 3, 1913 - Oct 4, 1913, Bogumil

Hop o' My Thumb [Original, Play, Pantomime]

Nov 26, 1913 - Jan 3, 1914, King Mnemonica

H.M.S. Pinafore [Revival, Musical, Operetta]

Apr 19, 1915 - Jun 19, 1915, Dick Deadeye

Trial by Jury [Revival, Musical, Operetta]

Apr 19, 1915 - Jun 19, 1915, The Learned Judge

The Yeomen of the Guard [Revival, Musical, Operetta]

Apr 19, 1915 - May 8, 1915, Jack Point

The Mikado [Revival, Musical, Operetta]

May 10, 1915 - Jun 19, 1915, Ko-Ko

The Sorcerer [Revival, Musical, Comedy, Operetta]

May 24, 1915 - Jun 5, 1915, John Wellington Wells

The Pirates of Penzance [Revival, Musical, Operetta]

Jun 7, 1915 - Jun 18, 1915, Major General Stanley

Iolanthe [Revival, Musical, Comedy, Operetta]

Jun 10, 1915 - Jun 17, 1915, The Lord Chancellor

The Passing Show of 1917 [Original, Musical, Revue]

Apr 26, 1917 - Oct 13, 1917, Performer

Everything [Original, Musical, Revue, Spectacle]

Aug 22, 1918 - May 17, 1919, Performer

Erminie [Revival, Musical, Comedy, Opera]

Jan 3, 1921 - Feb 26, 1921, Ravennes

Snapshots of 1921 [Original, Musical, Revue]

Jun 2, 1921 - Aug 6, 1921, Performer

Some Party [Original, Musical, Revue]

Apr 15, 1922 - Apr 29, 1922, Producer and Performer

White Lilacs [Original, Musical, Operetta, Romance]

Sep 10, 1928 - Jan 12, 1929, Dubusson

Radio City Music Hall Inaugural Program [Original, Special]

Dec 27, 1932 - Dec 27, 1932, Himself

The Monster [Revival, Play, Drama]

Feb 10, 1933 - Mar 1933, Dr. Gustave Ziska

Movies

• Don Quixote (1915), Alonso Quijano / Don Quixote
• Rough Knight (1916)
• Mr. Goode, Samaritan (1916), Alphonse Irving Goode
• Sunshine Dad (1916), Alonzo Evergreen
• Casey at the Bat (1916), Casey
• Stranded (1916), H. Ulysses Watts
• Puppets (1916), Pantaloon
• At the Round Table (1930)
• The March of Time (1930), Himself, Old Timer Sequence
• Casey at the Bat (1922), Himself
• Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916), (uncredited) Extra
• Ladies Not Allowed (1932)

External links

• Info on Hopper from the comprehensive musicals 101 site
• "Casey at the Bat" website
• Links to a recording by Hopper of "Casey at the Bat"
• DeWolf Hopper Photograph part of the Nineteenth Century Notables Digital Collection at Gettysburg College
• Hopper reciting "Casey at the Bat" in 1909
• De Wolf Hopper portrait gallery at New York Public Library(Billy Rose Collection)
• Collected Works of DeWolf Hopper at archive.org
• portrait of DeWolf Hopper late in his life