Having secured a competent business manager and, apparently, sufficient financial support, it only remained to wait for the play and to improve Mrs. Carter as much as possible as an actress. Mr. Potter soon forwarded the manuscript of his play, which was called “The Ugly Duckling.” On reading that fabrication Belasco,--who seems to have expected much from Mr. Potter,--was chagrined to find it artificial, flimsy, and insufficient. Instead of at once undertaking to rewrite it himself he injudiciously employed for that purpose a person named Archibald C. Gordon, who was commended to his favor as being qualified to perform the required work. This Gordon, however, turned out to be not only a blackguard who could not be tolerated but also to be wholly incompetent as a playwright, and Belasco, in consequence, after much annoyance, was ultimately compelled himself to rectify, as far as possible, the gross inadequacies of the piece. Testifying on this subject, in court, in 1896, he said: “I cut out _everything_ that Mr. Gordon wrote.” Notwithstanding all impediments, delays and vexations, a company was at last engaged, a theatre was secured, rehearsals were effected, and, on November 10, 1890, Mrs. Carter, acting _Kate Graydon_, made her first appearance on the stage, at the Broadway Theatre, New York.
“THE UGLY DUCKLING.”--MRS. CARTER’S DÉBUT.
The play of “The Ugly Duckling” is founded, in part, on the idea of Andersen’s fairy tale, from which its name is taken,--the idea, namely, that the supposedly least promising and least esteemed member of a brood may prove to be the finest and most worthy of admiration. The story relates to domestic tribulations in a prominent New York family, named _Graydon_. The youngest member of that family, _Kate Graydon_, returning home from England, finds her more valued sister, _Hester_, engaged to be married to an Englishman, _Viscount Huntington_, by whom she has herself been courted, in London. She keeps her secret for her sister’s sake, and _Hester_ becomes _Huntington’s_ wife. A vindictive Corsican, _Count Malatesta_, believing that in _Huntington_ he has found the betrayer of his wife, the _Countess Malatesta_, entices _Hester_ to his apartments, and then causes _Huntington_ to be apprised of her presence there. _Kate_, having followed her sister, liberates her from this scandalous situation, at the cost of compromising herself.