Melville Collins
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Melville Collins (December 4, 1878 — April 1, 1924) was an American musical theatre actor, baritone in light operas, composer, and pianist. After beginning his stage career as a baritone with The Bostonians, he made his Broadway debut in 1900 as Louis XI in the original cast of Julian Edwards and Kirke La Shelle's operetta The Princess Chic. He then starred as Ned Royster in the 1902-1903 national tour of Reginald de Koven's Foxy Quiller and as Wakeful M. Jones in the 1903-1904 tour of Alfred G. Wathall and George Ade's The Sultan of Sulu.
In 1905 Collins starred in the Broadway musical The Sambo Girl with the actress Eva Tanguay as his romantic co-star. This began a longterm professional partnership between Collins and Tanguay, with Collins serving as her permanent accompanist in vaudeville for many years and also her manager on a periodic basis. Collins composed the music to the 1906 musical A Good Fellow which was created as a starring vehicle for Tanguay. He also wrote several songs for her, including the 1907 hit tune "Get Happy". According to Tanquay researcher and journalist Wes Eichenwald, Tanquay was deeply in love with Collins but he never returned her feelings. Collins married Tanquay's niece Lillian M Skelding in 1914. He died in 1924 at the age of 45. In 1947 an urn containing his ashes was placed inside Tanquay's casket and they were buried together.
The son of Stanford and Elizabeth Collins, Melville Stanley Collins was born on December 4, 1878, in Middletown, Ohio.[1] In his early career he worked as a baritone with The Bostonians.[2] In 1900 he starred as Louis XI in the original cast of Julian Edwards and Kirke La Shelle's operetta The Princess Chic for performances at the Lafayette Square Opera House in Washington D. C.,[3] the Columbia Theatre in Boston,[4][5] and Broadway's Casino Theatre.[6]
In 1901 Collins was a principal actor in a revival of William Gill and Richard Golden's play Old Jed Prouty at the Walnut Theatre in Cincinnati, Ohio with Golden in the title role.[7] He starred alongside Golden again in the 1902-1903 national tour of Reginald de Koven's Foxy Quiller in the role of the sailor Ned Royster.[8] Some of the stops on this tour included performances at the Victoria Theatre in Victoria, British Columbia,[9] the Myers Opera House in Janesville, Wisconsin,[2] the Faurot Opera House in Lima, Ohio,[10] the Broadway Theater in Denver, Colorado,[8] the Grand Opera House in St. Louis[11] and the Great Northern Theatre in Chicago.[12]
Collins starred as Wakeful M. Jones in Alfred G. Wathall and George Ade's The Sultan of Sulu;[13] touring in that show to Wallack's Theatre (1903),[14] the Harlem Opera House (1903),[14] and Chicago's Studebaker Theater (1904).[13] With fellow The Sultan of Sulu castmate Walter Lawrence, he co-authored a book on stage calisthenics that was published by Macmillan Publishers in October 1903.[15]