May 25, 1895: Queen Victoria of Great Britain, having turned 76 the day before, issues her annual "birthday honors," including knighthoods. Actor Henry Irving becomes the 1st entertainer ever to be knighted by a British monarch.
Sir Henry Irving was born John Henry Brodribb on February 6, 1838 in Keinton Mandeville, Somerset, England. He was raised by his mother and her sister, who were intensely religious, and disapproved of his passion for the theatre. He learned his craft in a succession of provincial theatres, and occasionally in London.
In 1870, he established himself as a West End actor with a leading role in a long-running play at the Vaudeville Theatre. The impresario H.L. Bateman, proprietor of the Lyceum, then recruited him and Irving soon made a sensational impression in The Bells, which propelled him into the front rank of English actors. After Bateman died in 1875, his widow took over the company, which she handed over to Irving in 1878.
With Ellen Terry as his leading lady, over the next 23 years, Irving made the Lyceum the most important theatre in London. He became particularly associated with the plays of William Shakespeare, although most of his productions were of modern works. He engaged leading designers and composers, and became known for the lavishness of his productions, which he presented not only at the Lyceum but on tour in Britain and North America.
Despite mannerisms in speech and sometimes ungainly movement, he was known as an intense, magnetic actor who could hold an audience spellbound. He appeared in roles that displayed nobility and goodness, and others that were malign and evil.
For a time, his business manager was the Irish writer Bram Stoker. Allegedly, Stoker told his friends that Irving sapped his personal energies, and thought of vampire legends; and that he also took inspiration from Irving's portrayals of the moneylender Shylock in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, and as Mephistopheles, the Devil character in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's play Faust, to create the character of the Romanian vampire count in his 1897 novel Dracula.
However, Stoker also wrote a biography of Irving, and made no mention of this characterization. And when Stoker adapted Dracula into a stage play, Irving turned the title role down. Maybe it hit a little too close to home.
Overwork and financial difficulties undermined Irving's health, and led to his leaving the Lyceum in 1902, moving to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. On October 13, 1905, he died at his hotel, at the age of 67.
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May 25, 1895 was a Saturday. On this same day, playwright Oscar Wilde was convicted of "gross indecency." I have a separate entry for this event.
An ocean removed from these proceedings in London, these games were played in baseball's National League:
* The New York Giants beat the Cleveland Spiders, 11-8 at League Park in Cleveland. The most familiar version of League Park was built on the same site in 1910.
* The Brooklyn Bridegrooms beat the Louisville Colonels, 9-7 at Eclipse Park in Louisville. The Dodgers-to-be took the "Bridegrooms" name after several players got married in the 1887-88 off-season.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Boston Beaneaters, 1-0 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh. The Beaneaters would go through a few name changes before adopting "Braves" in 1912.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-4 at League Park in Cincinnati.
* The Chicago Colts beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-3 at West Side Park in Chicago. Despite this, the Orioles went on to win the Pennant. In 1903, the Colts took the name by which they have been known ever since: The Chicago Cubs.
* The Washington Senators beat the St. Louis Browns, 5-1 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Both of these teams would later have American League teams named after them. The NL Senators folded after the 1899 season, as did the NL Orioles, the Spiders and the Colonels. The NL Browns became the St. Louis Cardinals in 1900. The most familiar version of Sportsman's Park was built on the same site in 1909.
This was also the birthdate of Dorothea Lange, the photographer famous for her 1936 Migrant Mother photo that became one of the familiar images of the Great Depression.
