|
Title |
Peck's Bad Boy Poster [poster] |
|
Date |
Undated |
|
Production |
Peck's Bad Boy |
|
Genre |
Comedy |
|
Item description |
Lithograph poster advertising 'Peck's Bad Boy' by Geo. W. Peck and dramatized by Chas. E. Pidgin. The poster depicts a young man letting a rat loose in a grocery store, much to a female shopper's horror. The caption reads 'Enough Said.' The poster is estimated to be dated from 1890-1910. |
|
Object narrative |
Peck's Bad Boy began as a series of short stories written by George W. Peck, owner of the Sun newspaper in Wisconsin. Peck's Sun was known for being a humorous one, and the stories of Hennery Peck, the bad boy, quickly became favorites among his readers. Hennery Peck was known for pulling pranks on members of the town, but most especially his father, for the pure joy of causing trouble and chaos. Peck began writing these stories, which were turned into books as well, in the early 1880s. 'Peck's Bad Boy' became a household name in the United States. Not long after, Charles E. Pidgin adapted the stories into a stage play, and various companies began performing the play around the country. This poster advertises the play based on these stories, giving credit to Geo. W. Peck, the author, and Charles Albert Shaw, the owner and licensor of the script. The poster depicts Hennery pulling a prank on the grocer and a female shopper by tying a string around a rat's tail and letting it loose. The caption reads Enough Said. The shopper is hysterical in the picture, while a delighted Hennery controls the rat's movements from his hiding place. The grocer was a frequent character in the 'Peck's Bad Boy' stories, as Hennery would come into the store and eat whatever he wanted to. The grocer kept an account of Hennery's eating habits in his father's ledger. In 1891, then teenager and vaudeville actor George M. Cohan toured for thirty-five weeks in the role of Hennery (Henry). After many performances of Peck's Bad Boy he had to fight his way out of the theatre as neighborhood boys would be waiting in alleyways to test their mettle against the illustrious personage of Henry Peck, who ended the play by stating 'I can still lick any kid in town!' Cohan would later become a celebrated Tin Pan Alley songwriter and one of the fathers of American musical theatre, especially in the area of musical comedies. He is said to have invented the book musical, telling stories which inventively connected the songs within a musical. The author, George W. Peck, would become the Governor of Wisconsin from 1891-1895. A silent film was made of Peck's Bad Boy' in 1921. |
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Type |
image |
|
Original format |
posters |
|
Original publisher |
[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified] |
|
Language |
en |
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Contributing institution |
Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries |
|
Source collection |
MSS255 Robert C. Hansen Performing Arts Collection |
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Series/grouping |
9.1: Posters -- Plays/Perfomances |
|
Finding aid link |
http://library.uncg.edu/info/depts/scua/collections/manuscripts/ead/mss255.xml |
|
Preferred citation |
[Identification of item], Robert C. Hansen Performing Arts Collection, 1753-2006 (MSS255), Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA. |
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Rights statement |
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/ |
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Additional rights information |
NO COPYRIGHT - UNITED STATES. This item has been determined to be free of copyright restrictions in the United States. The user is responsible for determing actual copyright status for any reuse of the material. |
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Object ID |
MSS255.P008 |
|
Digital publisher |
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5304 |
|
OCLC number |
872280866 |
