Henry Denman Thompson (October 15, 1833 -
April 14, 1911) was an American playwright and theatre
actor.
Denman Thompson's family moved from West Swanzey, New Hampshire, to Girard, Pennsylvania, in 1831 where he would be born two years later. In 1844 they returned to West Swanzey
where he was educated and at age nineteen went to work as a bookkeeper in Lowell, Massachusetts. While there, he developed an interest in theatre and decided to make it his career. In 1854, he moved to Toronto, Canada to train at the Royal Lyceum Theatre. In 1860, he married Maria
Bolton, with whom he had three children, and by 1862 was performing on the stage in
London, England.
Thompson returned to his native United States in 1868,
where he continued to work in theatre. Years later, he was with a vaudeville troupe when he
wrote a short sketch about "Joshua Whitcomb," a New Hampshire "hayseed" who travels to the big city. When Thompson performed the
routine for the first time in Pittsburgh, it was warmly received, and became
quite popular during the next few years. In 1885, he rewrote his sketch into a four act play,
entitled "The Old Homestead." The new play opened in Boston in April of
1886 with Thompson in the lead role, and went on to become a very successful production that made
Thompson a wealthy man. He toured with the play throughout the United States, and debuted with it on Broadway in 1904, and returned as a revival in 1907. In 1915, after his passing, it was made into a motion
picture of the same name by the Famous Players Film Company.
Home of Denman Thompson, West Swanzey, NH in c.
1908
Thompson wrote other plays, including some collaborative efforts with George W. Ryer, of which several were made into motion
pictures. Their 1886 Broadway play became the basis for the 1926 film Sunshine of Paradise
Alley, as was the case with their 1903 Broadway production of "Our New Minister," which
became the basis for the script for the 1913 Kalem Company
film starring Alice Joyce and Tom Moore. In
1914, the Kalem Company also made the highly successful adventure
film serial, The Hazards of
Helen, based on Thompson's work.
Denman Thompson died in 1911 at his home in West Swanzey, New Hampshire.
External links
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