William Clyde Fitch (May 2, 1865 – September 4, 1909) was an American dramatist, the most popular writer for the Broadway stage of his time (c. 1890 – c. 1909).
Born inElmira,New York and educated atHolderness School andAmherst College (class of 1886), William Clyde Fitch wrote over 60 plays, 36 of them original, ranging from social comedies andfarces tomelodrama and historical dramas.[1]
His father, Captain William G. Fitch, a graduate ofWest Point and Union officer in theCivil War, encouraged his son to become an architect or to engage in a career of business; but his mother, Alice Clark, in whose eyes he could do no wrong, always believed in his artistic talent. (For her son's final resting place, she hired the architectural firm ofHunt & Hunt to design the sarcophagus set inside an open Tuscan temple atWoodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.) Fitch graduated from Amherst in 1886, where he was a member of Chi Psi fraternity. As an undergraduate, according to Brooks Atkinson, "he dazzled his fellow students with his flair for dress and his virtuosity as an amateur actor."[2]
Fitch was one of the early American playwrights to publish his plays. His first work of note wasBeau Brummell (1890), set in theEnglish Regency and based onthe life of the historical figure. The play became a lucrative showcase for actorRichard Mansfield (1857–1907), who played the title role for the rest of his life. His 1892 playMasked Ball (an adaption fromAlexandre Bisson'sLe Veglione) was the first time that producerCharles Frohman putMaude Adams withJohn Drew Jr., a pairing that led to many successes. In 1901,Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines made a star ofEthel Barrymore.[3][4] "Fitch had a special talent for writing female characters that female stars could act agreeably," theater critic and historian Brooks Atkinson wrote of him in his history of Broadway.[5]
Fitch was renowned in his time for works such asNathan Hale (1898),The Moth and the Flame (1898),The Climbers (1901),The Girl with the Green Eyes (which ran 108 performances at theSavoy Theatre in 1902 and starredRobert Drouet as John Austin),Her Own Way (1903, starringMaxine Elliott),The Woman in the Case (which starred Drouet and ran for 89 performances at theHerald Square Theatre in 1905),The Truth (1907),The City (1909), andGirls (1910). His works were popular on both sides of the Atlantic. His play based on the heroine ofJohn Greenleaf Whittier's poemBarbara Frietchie met with mixed reviews in 1899 because of the romance he added to the tale, but it was revived successfully many times. In 1896, he wrote the lyrics to a popular song "Love Makes The World Go 'Round", with an arrangement byWilliam Furst.
In December 1905, Fitch visited novelistEdith Wharton in her Park Avenue apartment to discuss collaborating on a dramatization of her novelThe House of Mirth. Wharton was not a fan of Fitch's plays, which she regarded as more commercial than artistic, but knew him to be a consummate professional and the most likely writer to be able to bring Lily Bart's story to the stage. She also enjoyed his ironic sense of humor. (Wharton described her visitor as "a plump showily dressed little man, with his olive complexion and his beautiful Oriental eyes full of wit and understanding.") In the following months, they met in Paris and at the Mount, Wharton's estate in Massachusetts, to work on drafts, with Wharton taking responsibility for the dialogue and Fitch for the plot revisions. At one point, when the work was not going well, Wharton in frustration asked Fitch why he had ever thought her novel could be turned into a successful play. Incredulous, Fitch replied that he never had thought that it was a plausible endeavor. It then became clear, to their amusement, that each had been set up (probably by producer Charles Frohman) to believe that the project had been initiated by the other, and seduced by the thought of working with a famous person in another field, they had each agreed to collaborate. The play was the critical and commercial failure Wharton feared it would be, but the two became good friends.[6]
Fitch's career spanned a brief two decades, but he earned upwards of $250,000 from his plays at a time when a dollar per day was the working wage. He directed a few of his plays and was involved in the production of all of them. He was the first American playwright to be taken seriously, and at one time, managed to have five plays running simultaneously on Broadway. "Once Clyde Fitch got his foot in the door," Brooks Atkinson wrote, "he dominated Broadway drama."[7]
A generous host with an engaging personality, Fitch was renowned as a raconteur. His invitations to Quiet Corner, his estate in Greenwich, Connecticut, were much sought-after. He was a close friend of designerElsie de Wolfe, who helped him find many of the furnishings for his Connecticut mansion, Manhattan townhouse, and other residences. At one point, she said "He knows more about women than most women know about themselves." About his taste for luxury and his work habits, a friend remarked, "He lives like sultan and works like a dock laborer on an eighteen-hour shift."[8]
A dandy by his early teens, Fitch knew that in school he was seen as a sissy, but he said, "I would rather be misunderstood than lose my independence." Correspondence of the time points to a likely relationship, however brief, withOscar Wilde. James Gibbons Huneker, a critic sympathetic to Fitch's wit and sense of the ironic, dropped a few broad hints about the playwright's sexuality in his columns when commenting on his "feminine manner of apprehending meanings of life," his not always believably masculine dialogue, and his reserve when dealing with passion between men and women. Huneker also wrote that, if Fitch slowed down and lived long enough, he might actually turn out a "masterpiece in miniature."[9]
Fitch suffered from attacks of appendicitis but refused his American doctor's recommendation of surgery; instead he trusted the specialists in Europe who assured him that they could effect a cure over time without surgery. He left for Europe in Spring 1909 against his doctor's wishes.
While staying at the Hotel de la Haute Mère de Dieu at Châlons-en-Champagne in France, he suffered what would be a fatal attack. He underwent surgery by a local doctor rather than travel to Paris and died from blood poisoning aged 44. His body was returned from France where it was entombed for a time in the Swan Callendar Mausoleum atWoodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, which belonged to a friend.
In 1910, the body was removed and taken to New Jersey for cremation, and the ashes were returned to the Swan Callendar Mausoleum until the Hunt & Hunt monument was finished. His ashes were placed in a sarcophagus (where his parents' ashes later joined his) in their own mausoleum inWoodlawn Cemetery. A memorial exists at the Clyde Fitch Memorial Room in Converse Hall at Amherst.
Since his death, Fitch has fallen into obscurity, but some of his plays were revived in repertory theaters in the twentieth century or made into films and adapted for television. The Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College holds a collection of his papers.
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