{{Short description|American actor and playwright (1874–1932)}} {{for-multi|the Scottish footballer|William Hodge (footballer)|the American politician|William C. Hodge}} {{infobox person | name = William T. Hodge | image = William Hodge 001.jpg | image_upright = 0.80 | caption = William Hodge 1909 | birth_name = William Thomas Hodge | birth_date = {{Birth date|1874|11|01}} | birth_place = Albion, New York, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1932|01|30|1874|11|01}} | death_place = Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S. | resting_place = | other_names = William T. Hodge<br/>Lawrence Whitman | occupation = Actor, playwright, producer | years_active = 1899–1930 | known_for = ''The Man from Home'' | spouse = {{ubl | {{marriage|Helen Perley Cogswell|1909|1932}} }} | children = 3 | relatives = }}
'''William Thomas Hodge''' (November 1, 1874 – January 30, 1932) was an American actor, playwright, and theatrical producer.
Active on stage from his late teens, he began performing on Broadway in 1899 with ''A Reign of Error'' and ''Sag Harbor'', appeared in the hits ''Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch'' (1903) and ''Dream City'' (1906), and became a star with ''The Man from Home'' (1908), which ran for over a year on Broadway, and which he took on the road for four seasons. From 1913 on, he wrote his own plays, at first using the name '''Lawrence Whitman''', which he abandoned after 1918. The most successful of these was ''For All of Us'' (1923), which ran for over 200 performances on Broadway. He was a proponent of touring, having his own "William Hodge public" that would attend his plays around the country. His last performances were with his own work, ''The Old Rascal'', in 1930.
==Early years== He was born on November 1, 1874, in Albion, New York.<ref name="bde013032">{{cite news |title=William Hodge, Noted Actor, Is Dead At 57 |work= Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=January 30, 1932 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=1 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> His parents were Irish immigrants Thomas Hodge and Mary Anderson. William Hodge was the third of four children. His father was first a teamster, then a stone mason.<ref name="US1880">1880 United States Federal Census for William Hodge, New York > Orleans > Albion > 142, retrieved from Ancestry.com</ref><ref name="US1900">1900 United States Federal Census for William Hodge, New York > Monroe > Rochester Ward 20 > District 123, retrieved from Ancestry.com.</ref>
Hodge attended public schools in Albion, and later joined as a property man the same theatrical company as his older brother Joseph.<ref name="bde013032" />
==Career== ===Broadway beginnings=== [[File:A scene from "Mrs Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch" (SAYRE 12707).jpg|left|thumb|upright=0.60|Helen Lowell, Hodge, Madge Carr Cook]] Hodge first performed on Broadway during spring 1899 as a Brazilian heavy in a musical comedy called ''A Reign of Error''.<ref name="bde013032" /> Though he was a bit player, "a thirty-five dollar a week man", James A. Herne noticed Hodge in this Rogers Brothers comedy.<ref name="tf150-1">Tyler and Furnas, pp.150,151</ref> Herne wanted him for his new play, ''Sag Harbor'', but as he was under contract to Klaw and Erlanger,<ref name="dc091299">{{cite news |title=Announcements |work=Democrat and Chronicle |date=September 12, 1899 |location=Rochester, New York |page=11 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> Herne's producer-manager George C. Tyler persuaded Abe Erlanger to loan out Hodge. Tyler said it mystified Erlanger as to why the fuss over a bit player,<ref name="tf150-1" /> but Herne's instinct was sound. Hodge proved to be very popular in ''Sag Harbor'', ''The New York Times'' reviewer calling his performance "the best in the piece".<ref name="nyt092800">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1900/09/28/archives/dramatic-and-musical-mr-hammersteins-new-theatre-republic-opened.html?searchResultPosition=5|date=September 28, 1900|page=5|work=The New York Times|title=Hammerstein's New Theatre Republic Opened Last Night}}</ref>
After touring in ''Sag Harbor'' and doing two short-lived Broadway plays, George C. Tyler again cast Hodge in ''Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch''. He played a character named Stubbins, a mail-order groom and souse who turned into a lucrative catch for the spinster Miss Hazy (Helen Lowell). This character role was popular with audiences, if not critics, and Hodge was in the production, on Broadway and touring, from 1903 to 1905. Hodge then played in a musical, and a successful operetta, ''Dream City'', through 1907.
===''The Man from Home''=== {{main|The Man from Home (play)}} [[File:The Man from Home Act II Pike and Ethel.jpg|thumb|upright=0.50|Hodge and Olive Wyndham]] Booth Tarkington and Harry Leon Wilson wrote ''The Man from Home'' while visiting Europe in 1907. Wilson told producer George C. Tyler that the lead character was built around Hodge playing it.<ref name="pi051907">{{cite news |title=Footlight Flashes |work= The Philadelphia Inquirer |date=May 19, 1907 |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |page=11 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> Hodge had been hoping for a starring role,<ref name="kcs052007">{{cite news |title=Hodge in a Tarkington Play |work= The Kansas City Star |date=May 20, 1907 |location=Kansas City, Missouri |page=7 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> and so accepted Tyler's offer to play the part.<ref name="pi051907" />{{refn|Tarkington had an ulterior motive for this casting. The play's central character, a Kokomo, Indiana, attorney named Daniel Pike, was based on Tarkington's rival, George Ade, who had once parodied Tarkington in a play. Hodge bore a marked resemblance to Ade, a connection obvious to audiences of the time.<ref name="nyt081608">{{cite news |title=Mr. Tarkington's Revenge |work= The New York Times |date=August 16, 1908 |location=New York, New York |page=54 |via = NYTimes.com}}</ref>|group=fn}} With ''The Man from Home'', Hodge finally had an appealing leading part to play rather than a quirky supporting character.
For its initial run in Chicago, ''The Man from Home'' set a dramatic record of 316 performances during 1907–1908.<ref name="ct060108">{{cite news |last=Mantle |first=Burns |title="Man from Home" Departs |work= Chicago Tribune |date=June 1, 1908 |location=Chicago, Illinois |page= |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> It premiered on Broadway during August 1908 and ran through November 1909 for nearly 500 performances, before starting a national tour. Hodge enjoyed playing on the road, saying he regarded Broadway as no different than Ann Arbor or Schenectady. His road appeal gave rise to the Broadway term "The William Hodge public", meaning his performances were sure to draw anywhere in the country, regardless of how they played in New York.<ref name="nyt013132">{{cite news |title=William Hodge, Noted Actor, Dead |work= The New York Times |date=January 31, 1932 |location=New York, New York |page=7 |via = NYTimes.com}}</ref>
While still performing on Broadway in ''The Man from Home'' and living at The Lambs Club, Hodge married Helen Perley Cogswell in June 1909.<ref name="nyml">William Thomas Hodge in the New York, New York, Index to Marriage Licenses, 1908–1910, retrieved from Ancestry.com.</ref> She was an actress under the stage name Helen Hale, who performed on Broadway from 1901 through 1909.<ref name="bc061609">{{cite news |title=Manhattan Stage Notes |work= Brooklyn Citizen |date=June 16, 1909 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=4 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>
===Playwright=== Hodge's early successes on stage had been under the auspices of George C. Tyler's management for Liebler & Company. However, in January 1913, Hodge signed with Lee Shubert for a play called ''The Road to Happiness'', by Lawrence Whitman.<ref name="sdn012913">{{cite news |title=Theatrical Activities |work= The Springfield Daily News |date=January 29, 1913 |location=Springfield, Massachusetts |page=9 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> "Lawrence Whitman" was a nom de plume for Hodge himself. Hodge performed in this to great success on the road, though when it finally went to Broadway in 1915, it lasted only a month.
Shubert bought two more plays by Lawrence Whitman. ''The New York Times'' called ''Fixing Sister'' (1916) a faint but amusing copy of ''The Man from Home'', and openly stated it was Hodge's own work.<ref name="nyt100516">{{cite news |title=William Hodge in 'Fixing Sister' |work= The New York Times |date=October 5, 1916 |location=New York, New York |page=9 |via = NYTimes.com}}</ref> ''A Cure for Curables'' (1918) had Earl Derr Biggers as the primary co-author. It was a comedy set in a sanitarium, with Hodge as a physician charged to cure ten patients in as many days.<ref name="ts022618">{{cite news |title=Wm. Hodge Amuses with Dry Humor |work= The Sun |date=February 26, 1918 |location=New York, New York |page=9 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>
By 1919, Hodge had abandoned the alias, selling ''The Guest of Honor'' to Shubert under his own name. Alexander Woollcott wondered why Hodge bothered bringing his plays to New York when they were already so successful on the road, which was the point of playing on Broadway. He thought serious playgoers would regard it "as a pretty terrible piece of bosh", "the kind of play in which a child is referred to as a tot".<ref name="nyt092120">{{cite news|author-link =Alexander Woollcott |last=Woollcott |first=Alexander |title=The Play |work= The New York Times |date=September 21, 1920 |location=New York, New York |page=12 |via = NYTimes.com}}</ref> Heywood Broun concurred, calling it "one of those tot plays", and saying "it was exactly the same bag of tricks which he has unpacked before on many occasions".<ref name="tr092120">{{cite news | author-link = Heywood Broun |last=Broun |first=Heywood |title=New Hodge Piece Is Just One of Those Tot Plays |work= New-York Tribune |date=September 21, 1920 |location=New York, New York |page=8 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>
''Beware of Dogs'' (1921) has Hodge as a Greenwich, Connecticut, kennel owner much put upon by his charges and their owners, who eventually unloads on them all. It was a more satirical role than he usually played.<ref name="nyh100421">{{cite news |title=William Hodge Is Satirical in 'Beware of Dogs' |work= The New York Herald |date=October 4, 1921 |location=New York, New York |page=9 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> It reached its 100th performance on December 14, 1921,<ref name="bc121421">{{cite news |title=The Stage |work= Brooklyn Citizen |date=December 14, 1921 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=7 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> but closed three nights later.<ref name="dn121821">{{cite news |title=Passed On |work= Daily News |date=December 18, 1921 |location=New York, New York |page=20 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>
The most successful of plays Hodge wrote, at least by Broadway standards of longevity, was ''For All of Us'', which premiered in October 1923. This work was pure sentiment, with Hodge playing an Irish laborer, incarcerated in Sing Sing, who has been redeemed through the gift of a bible.<ref name="bde101623">{{cite news |author=L. de C. |title="For All of Us" |work= Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=October 16, 1923 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=14 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> Moving between several Shubert-owned venues in the theater district, ''For All of Us'' reached its 200th performance in early April 1924,<ref name="dn033124">{{cite news |title=Simone to Be Feted by Equity Players |work= Daily News |date=March 31, 1924 |location=New York, New York |page=50 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> closing two weeks later.<ref name="dn041924">{{cite news |title=Ending Run |work= Daily News |date=April 19, 1924 |location=New York, New York |page=20 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>
===Producer=== Since 1913, Lee Shubert had produced Hodge's plays. ''The Judge's Husband'', which Hodge wrote, staged, and starred in would be the last time for this sponsorship. The play was a three-act farce, in which a rural Connecticut judge (Gladys Hanson) is forced to preside over her own divorce from her attorney husband (Hodge). A reviewer, noting Hodge's dedicated fan base, suggested it would last on Broadway only as long as people wanted to see the actor Hodge, for the playwright had let the audience down.<ref name="bde092726">{{cite news |title=Mr. Hodges' Play [sic] |work= The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=September 27, 1926 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=34 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> There was demand enough for Hodge the actor that the play ran over three months, through January 1, 1927.<ref name="vn010127">{{cite news |title=As We Go to Press |work= The Vaudeville News |date=January 1, 1927 |location=New York, New York |page=5 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>
Hodge produced his own next play, ''Straight Through the Door'' (1928), but left the direction to Maurice Barrett. It was a mystery comedy, in which Hodge plays an actor suspected of murder, who exposes the real villain at the end. Critic Rowland Field said it was not a good play, and the acting support was weak, but thought Hodge's "loyal followers" would be pleased.<ref name="bdt100528">{{cite news |last=Field |first=Rowland |title=The New Play |work= The Brooklyn Daily Times |date=October 5, 1928 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=8 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>
''Inspector Kennedy'' (1929) was the only play Hodge performed in after 1913 that he did not write. Milton Herbert Gropper and Edna Sherry did a fair job writing the play, according to Burns Mantle, who also felt the supporting performers were not very good, save for Henry Herbert.<ref name="dn122129">{{cite news |last=Mantle |first=Burns |title="Inspector Kennedy" Hodge Podge |work= Daily News |date=December 21, 1929 |location=New York, New York |page=241 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> It ended a month later, and Hodge quickly produced another work, ''The Old Rascal'', at the same venue, as it turned out, his final play and performance. Maurice Barrett again directed, with Hodge playing a wealthy old judge from California who outwits "city slickers" trying out a badger game on him.<ref name="dn032530">{{cite news |title=William Hodge's "Old Rascal" |work= Daily News |date=March 25, 1930 |location=New York, New York |page=304 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> It closed on Broadway after two months,.<ref name="bdt052530">{{cite news |title=Theatre Notes |work= The Brooklyn Daily Times |date=May 25, 1930 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=56 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>
==Death== [[File:Signed drawing of William Hodge by Manuel Rosenberg for Cincinnati Post 1920 01.jpg|thumb|upright=0.60|William Hodge by Manuel Rosenberg 1920]] Hodge had been sick for three days before he died of lobar pneumonia at his home in the Round Hill community of Greenwich, Connecticut, on January 30, 1932. He was survived by his wife Helen Cogswell Hodge; his daughters, Genevieve Hodge Law and Martha Hodge; and son, William Hodge Jr.<ref name="btu013032">{{cite news |title=William Hodge, Actor, Is Dead |work= Brooklyn Times Union |date=January 30, 1932 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=15 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> A simple service was held at his home the next day, and his body was then cremated.<ref name="di020132">{{cite news |title=Simple Services Conducted for Famous Actor |work= The Daily Item |date=February 1, 1932 |location=Port Chester, New York |page=1 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>
==Plays== * ''The Road to Happiness'' (1912) – written as Lawrence Whitman * ''Fixing Sister'' (1916) – written as Lawrence Whitman * ''A Cure for Curables'' (1918) – written as Lawrence Whitman with Earl Derr Biggers, from a short story by Corra Harris * ''The Guest of Honor'' (1919) * ''Beware of Dogs'' (1921) * ''For All of Us'' (1923) * ''The Judge's Husband'' (1926) * ''Straight Through the Door'' (1928) * ''The Old Rascal'' (1930)
==Stage credits== {| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="font-size: 90%" |+ Stage performances by year of Hodge's first involvement. |- ! scope="col" | Year ! scope="col" | Play ! scope="col" | Role ! scope="col" | Venue ! scope="col" | Notes/Sources |- |rowspan=3|1899 |''Heart of Chicago'' | | People's Theatre | ''The New York Times'' said this was his New York, but not Broadway, debut, though a typo gave the year as 1889.<ref name="nyt013132" /> |- |''A Reign of Error'' | (Bit player) | New Victoria Theatre | Hodge had an uncredited bit part as a Brazilian "heavy".<ref name="bde013032" /> |- |''Sag Harbor'' | Freeman Whitmarsh | Touring company<br />Theatre Republic | His supporting character, a gossipy tradesman, was praised by critics.<ref name="nyt092800" /> |- |1901 |''Up York State'' | Lem Yarrington | Fourteenth Street Theatre | Playwrights David Higgins and Georgia Waldron were the leads, Hodge a supporting Adirondack rustic.<ref name="nyt091701">{{cite news |title=A New Rural Drama |work= The New York Times |date=September 17, 1901 |location=New York, New York |page=6 |via = NYTimes.com}}</ref> |- |1902 |''Sky Farm'' | Stephen Tully | Garrick Theatre | Rustic melodrama by Edward E. Kidder had Hodge as a country type in love.<ref name="nyt031802">{{cite news |title=Sky Farm |work= The New York Times |date=March 18, 1902 |location=New York, New York |page=5 |via = NYTimes.com}}</ref> |- |1903 |''Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch'' | Hiram Stubbins | Touring company<br />Savoy Theatre | <ref name="bde090504">{{cite news |title="Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch" |work= Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=October 5, 1904 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=5 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> |- |1905 |''The White Cat'' | Jonah the Thirteenth | New Amsterdam Theatre | A dull musical fantasy; a critic said Hodge should hurry away "for his professional health".<ref name="ew110305">{{cite news |last=Darnton |first=Charles |title=The New Plays |work= The World |date=November 3, 1905 |location=New York, New York |page=19 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> |- |1906 |''Dream City'' | Seth Hubbs | Weber's Music Hall | Joe Weber wrestles Hodge to see if "he has a whole shirt on his back".<ref name="ts122506">{{cite news |title=Joe Weber's "Dream City" |work= The Sun |date=December 25, 1906 |location=New York, New York |page=7 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> |- |1907 |''The Man from Home'' | Daniel Voorhees Pike | Touring company<br />Astor Theatre | After the Broadway run finished in 1909, Hodge spent four years touring with this play. |- |1913 |''The Road to Happiness'' | Jim Whitman<ref group=fn>His character name suggests Hodge was not too secretive about his playwriting alias.</ref> | Touring company<br />Shubert Theatre | The first play Hodge wrote as Lawrence Whitman was a sentimental melodrama.<ref name="bdt083115">{{cite news |title=William Hodge returns |work= The Brooklyn Daily Times |date=August 31, 1915 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=4 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> |- |1916 |''Fixing Sister'' | John Otis | Touring company<br />Maxine Elliott's Theatre | ''The New York Times'' said Hodge was the whole play.<ref name="nyt100516" /> |- |1918 |''A Cure for Curables'' | Dr. James Pendergrass | Touring company<br />39th Street Theatre | Four-act comic melodrama co-written by Earl Derr Biggers and Hodge.<ref name="ts022618" /> |- |1919 |''The Guest of Honor'' | John Weatherbee | Touring company<br />Broadhurst Theatre | Hodge toured in this for a year before bringing it to Broadway in 1920.<ref name="nyt092120" /> |- |1921 |''Beware of Dogs'' | George Oliver | Touring company<br />Broadhurst Theatre<br />39th Street Theatre | Three-act satirical comedy has Hodge as a kennel owner.<ref name="nyh100421" /> |- |1923 |''For All of Us'' | Tom Griswold | Touring company<br />49th Street Theatre<br />Ambassador Theatre<br />Lyric Theatre | <ref name="bde101623" /> |- |1926 |''The Judge's Husband'' | Joe Kirby | Touring company<br />49th Street Theatre | <ref name="bde092726" /> |- |1928 |''Straight Through the Door'' | Eugene Thomas | Touring company<br />49th Street Theatre | Hodge produced as well as wrote this murder mystery.<ref name="bdt100528" /> |- |1929 |''Inspector Kennedy'' | Inspector Kennedy | Touring company<br />Bijou Theatre | Three-act mystery had Hodge playing a professional detective.<ref name="dn122129" /> |- |1930 |''The Old Rascal'' | Joe Adams | Touring company<br />Bijou Theatre | Hodge, famous for "clean" plays, had a badger game bedroom scene in his final work.<ref name="dn032530" /> |- |}
==Notes== {{reflist|group=fn}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography== * George C. Tyler and J. C. Furnas. ''Whatever Goes Up''. Bobbs Merrill, 1934.
==External links== *{{Commons category-inline}} *{{IBDB name|9145}} *{{IBDB name|67820|Credits as William T. Hodge}} *{{IBDB name |7182|Credits as Lawrence Whitman}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hodge, William}} Category:1874 births Category:1932 deaths Category:20th-century American businesspeople Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights Category:20th-century American male actors Category:20th-century people from Connecticut Category:20th-century people from New York (state) Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers Category:American comedy writers Category:American male dramatists and playwrights Category:American male stage actors Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American theatre managers and producers Category:Broadway theatre producers Category:Businesspeople from Greenwich, Connecticut Category:Deaths from pneumonia in Connecticut Category:Male actors from Greenwich, Connecticut Category:Male actors from Manhattan Category:People from Albion, Orleans County, New York Category:Writers from Greenwich, Connecticut Category:Writers from Manhattan