David Belasco
| David Belasco | |
|---|---|
Belasco circa 1915
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| Born |
July 25, 1853 San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Died | May 14, 1931 (aged 77) Manhattan, New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation | Theatrical producer, director, playwright |
| Years active | 1884 to 1930 |
| Known for | Belasco Theatre; Pioneer of modern stage lighting and stage effects; stage naturalism |
| Notable credit(s) | Madame Butterfly |
| Spouse(s) | Cecilia Loverich (m. 1880; her death 1926) |
David Belasco (July 25, 1853 – May 14, 1931) was an American theatrical producer, impresario, director and playwright. He was the first writer to adapt the short story Madame Butterfly for the stage, and he launched the theatrical career of many actors, including Mary Pickford, Lenore Ulric and Barbara Stanwyck. Belasco pioneered many innovative new forms of stage lighting and special effects in order to create realism and naturalism.
David Belasco was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Abraham H. Belasco (1830–1911) and Reyna Belasco, née Nunes (1830–1899), Sephardic Jewish parents who had moved from London England during the California Gold Rush. He began working in a San Francisco theatre doing a variety of routine jobs, such as call boy, script copier or as an extra in small parts. He received his first experience as a stage manager while on the road. He said, "We used to play in any place we could hire or get into—a hall, a big dining room, an empty barn; any place that would take us."
From late 1873 to early 1874, he worked as an actor, director, and secretary at Piper's Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada, where he found "more reckless women and desperadoes to the square foot…than anywhere else in the world". He said that while there, seeing "people die under such peculiar circumstances" made him "all the more particular in regard to the psychology of dying on the stage. I think I was one of the first to bring naturalness to bear in death scenes, and my varied Virginia City experiences did much to help me toward this. Later I was to go deeper into such studies." By March 1874, he was back at work in San Francisco. His recollections of that time were published in Hearst's Magazine in 1914.
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