2

Descendant d'une famille d'acteurs de théâtre, Joseph Jefferson fait sa première apparition sur les planches, en 1833, alors qu'il n'est âgé que de quatre ans. Il imite, grimé en "blackface", T. D. Rice dans le rôle de "Jim Crow" (T. D. Rice), l'enfant noir.

Thomas Rice jouant le rôle de  Jim Crow grimé en "blackface". Bowery Theatre. New York. 1833 

En 1846, il jour au Mexique dans un camp de l'armée américaine. Il se serait fait remarquer dans son rôle de "Jules César" [1849] dans le Front Street Theatre (Baltimore). Ayant rejoint le Laura Keen's Theatre (Buffalo), il apparaît, pour la première fois, le 29 août 1857, dans le rôle du "Dr. Pangloss" (The Heir at Law, , une interprétation qui rencontre le succès.

Joseph Jefferson dans le rôle de "Dr. Pangloss" Source: University of Illinois	The Buffalo Daily Republic, Buffalo, vendredi 22 avril 1859, p. 2.

En 1860, il adapte pour la scène, Oliver Twist (1837) de Charles Dickens et en novembre de la même année, c'est au tour de la nouvelle de Washington Irving, Rip Van Winkle (1819) et interprète le rôle-titre à l'Holliday Street Theatre de Washington :

RIP VAN WINKLE.-This great comedy, as altered and adopted by Joe Jefferson, with new comic situations, songs, choruses and dances, is to come off at the theatre, to-night, Mr. Jefferson as Rip Van Winkle; and immense, no doubt, will be the laughing that will be done on the occasion. There will of course be an overflowing house, and the main thing is to secure a seat early. The afterpiece is "Lend me Five Shillings," Mr. Jefferson as Mr. Golightly.

---

Evening Star, Washington, mardi 13 novembre 1860, p. 3.

New York, Winter Garden, Rip Van Winkle, 24 décembre 1860.
Source: Université de Virginie.

Après le décès de sa première épouse, Joseph Jefferson entame une tournée de près de cinq ans qui va le conduire en Australie et en Angleterre. À l'occasion de son séjour en Grande-Bretagne, il entreprend une nouvelle adaptation de Rip van Winkle avec la complicité de l'acteur et dramaturge irlandais Dion Boucicault (Dublin, 26/12/1822-New York, 18/09/1890). Dans son autobiographie, Joseph Jefferson évoque cette rencontre et cet épisode de sa carrière :

On my arrival in London I met Dion Boucicault. He asked me if I intended to act ; I told him that I certainly did if I saw an opening offering a fair chance of success.
"What material have you got?" said he.
I replied that I had a great part in an indifferent play, " Rip Van Winkle."
Boucicault did not seem to fancy the selection, thinking the subject stale, but we talked the matter over and soon came to terms. He undertook to rewrite the drama for a consideration agreed upon between us. He never seemed to think much of his own labor in this play ; but I did, and do still, with good reason.
While the work was in progress I made an engagement with Benjamin Webster to act the part at his theater, the Adelphi. I sent to America for my three other children to join me in London, and took up my abode at No. 5 Hanover Street, Hanover Square. [...] . The play was finished in due time, and a day was set for reading it to the company. The time arrived, and I hastened to the theater with some anxiety, for I am always attacked with a nervous fit when I am to meet a new assemblage of actors and actresses. [...] On Monday, September 5, I made my first appearance before a London audience, and was received with a cordial welcome. The play of " Rip Van Winkle " was entirely new to the English public, and its success secured for it a run of one hundred and seventy nights. The company worked with a good will and never flagged in their energy.

---

JEFFERSON: 1889, , p. 302-310.

La première a donc lieu au théâtre Adelphi de Londres le 5 septembre 1865 et la pièce connaît un grand succès dont témoigne les 170 représentations qui en sont données.

Joseph Jefferson as Rip van Winkle in "Rip van Winkle"
London Stereoscopi & Photographic Company. 1869.
© National Portrait Gallery 

Après son mariage avec sa cousine Sarah Isabel Warren, il multiplie ses rôles, entre 1870 et 1880, dans les suivantes pièces :  The Little Church around the Corner, Golightly, Hugh de Brass, The Rivals... En 1889-1890, il publie son autobiographie avant d'obtenir les diplômes de M.A. des universités de Yale (1892) et de Harvard (1895).

Lorsqu'il accepte de jouer le rôle de Rip van Winkle pour l'American Mutoscope Company, la carrière de Joseph Jefferson touche à sa fin. L'adaptation prévoie huit épisodes : Rip's Toast, Rip Meeting the Dwarf, Exit of Rip and Dwarf, Rip Passing over the Mountain, Rip's Toast to Hudson and Crew, Rip's Twenty Years Sleep, Awakening of Rip et Rip Leaving Sleepy Hollow. Le tournage va se déroule au cours de l'été 1896 dans les environs de la propriété de Joseph Jefferson à Buzzards Bay (Massachusetts).

Crow's Nest, Summer Home of the Lade Joseph Jefferson, Buzzards Bay, Mass. (c. 1910)

 
Rip's Toast (1896)

En 1903, un montage de 200 ft est effectué et mis en vente. Le bulletin nº 5 du 14 mai 1903 offre les informations suivantes :

RIP VAN WINKLE
A Magnificent Production in Sprocket Film of America's Greatest and Most Popular Play, with
JOSEPH JEFFERSON
And His Original company
We now have ready for delivery a film in 200-feet length from Joseph Jefferson’s great play “Rip Van Winkle,” with Joseph Jefferson himself in the part which he has made famous the world over. Mr. Jefferson has, at his summer home at Buzzards Bay, arranged a large section of natural rock-work and forestry with a view to the requirements of the play, and here our picture was made, in the midst of wild and mountainous scenery, with costumes accurate to the times, and with even greater care and finish than characterizes the stage production. We have not attempted to show the play in its complete form, but have chosen instead the various dramatic events beginning with Rip’s departure for the mountains, and ending with his awakening from his 20 years’ sleep. The scenes pass from one to the other with dissolving effects. They are arranged in the following order :
1. Rip’s Toast.
2. Rip Meeting the Dwarf.
3. Exit of Rip and the Dwarf.
4. Rip Meeting Hudson and Crew.
5. Rip’s Toast to Hudson and Crew.
6. Rip’s Twenty Years’ Sleep.
7. Rip’s Awakening.
8. Rip Passing over the Mountain.
We have decided not to make a special price on this, but to make the price 12 cents per foot, at which figure we are now selling all standard size sprocket films from Biograph negatives. A new supplement to our large catalogue including all the latest and best foreign subjects is now ready.

---

American Mutoscope & Biograph Company, Bulletin, nº 5, 14 mai 1903.

L'inauguration du film a lieu le 22 septembre 1896 à Philadelphie.

Il fait sa dernière apparition sur les planches, le 7 mai 1904 à Paterson (New Jersey) dans le rôle de Caleb Plummer dans l'adaptation par Boucicault de The Cricket on the Hearth de Dickens et celui de Mr. Golightly dans Lend Me Five Shillings.

Joseph Jefferson à Palm Beach, Floride. 26 septembre 1904.
WILSON, 1906: 326/327.

Outre sa carrière d'acteur, Joseph Jefferson a cultivé sa passion pour la peinture et il laisse une importante collection de tableaux. Il s'éteint à Palm Beach en 1905.

Sources

JEFFERSON Joseph, The Autobiography of Joseph Jefferson, Londres, T. Fisehr Unwin, 1889, 284 p.

WILSON Francis, Joseph Jefferson. Reminiscences of a fellow player, Londres, Chapman and Hall Limited, 1906, 222 p.

3

1896

Rip's Toast

Rip Meeting the Dwarf

Exit of Rip and Dwarf

Rip Passing over the Mountain

Rip's Toast to Hudson and Crew

Rip's Twenty Years Sleep

Awakening of Rip

Rip Leaving Sleepy Hollow

4