This colored print depicts a table with the words "Things that the Deacon swears by" printed on the side of a red tablecloth. The objects on the table include a Bible, a pitcher labeled "Cold Water," and a straw hat. A chair is drawn up to the table. In addition to the title “Deacon Crankett by John Habberton,” the poster contains the additional words “Author of Helen’s Babies” at the top. Across the bottom is a daybill or label containing the date and location of the performance. This one proclaims “Park Theatre / Two Nights Only / Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 1 & 2.”
The Park Theater was built in 1798 on Park Row in Manhattan and was New York City’s premiere performance space in the early 19th Century. It attracted a diverse audience with various groups of people sitting in distinct sections of the theater. Working class men sat in the pit; members of the upper class and women in the boxes; and the least affluent sat or stood in the balcony. This included immigrants, people of color, and prostitutes.
<i>Deacon Crankett</i> was a successful play described as both a “domestic drama” and “comic amusement.” The reviews in the New York Times mentioned it was a simplistic presentation “of weak morality and absurd situations.” The original name of the play was Joe Thatcher’s Revenge and Joe, the main character was first played at Haverly’s Fourteenth Steet Theater in the fall of 1880 by James O’Neill with Harry Lee as the understudy. It supposedly was performed over 500 times between 1880-1892.
The play was the creation of by American dramatist, novelist, and literary critic John Habberton (1842-1921). Habberton was born in New York and grew up in Illinois. After serving in the Civil War, he worked for the publisher Harper & Brothers. He later became the literary editor of the <i>Christian Union</i> and then a literary critic for the New York Herald. He was best known for his 1876 novel <i>Helen's Babies</i>, which was part of the Ruby Books series for boys and girls. The book's comic account of a bachelor salesman babysitting two small children was popular with readers of all ages, including Rudyard Kipling. A silent film version of Helen's Babies was released in 1924. John Habberton also wrote a series of stories about early California life, many of which were collected in his 1880 book, <i>Romance of California Life: Illustrated by Pacific Slope Stories, Thrilling, Pathetic and Humorous. </i>
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