Origins J. C. Williamson was an American leading actor who had toured Australia and just married
Maggie Moore when he read a one-act play called
The Dead, or Five Years Away by Irish miner and amateur playwright Sam Smith. It was originally a one-man piece about John Stofel, similar to
Rip Van Winkle. Williamson bought the play outright for $100, had it rewritten by his friend
Clay M. Greene, and retitled it
Struck Oil. He then took the play to
Salt Lake City where Williamson claims to have re-written the last act himself.
Popularity Williamson and Moore appeared in the play when it made its debut on 23 February 1874. It was a hit and they then took it to Australia where it debuted in Melbourne at the Theatre Royal on 1 August 1874. The play was a great success, ultimately selling 93,000 tickets in a city of 110,000 people, and proved equally popular around the rest of the country. What was meant to be a 12-week tour of Australia ended up lasting for fifteen months and netting Williamson £15,000. Williamson used this money to launch his career as a theatre manager and Maggie Moore became one of the most popular performers on the Australian stage. In 1880
L. M. Bayless, a rival theatre manager, mounted a production of
Struck Oil at the
Academy of Music, Adelaide, but was deterred by Williamson's threat of legal action although he may have been breaking no (South Australian) law. Williamson and Moore toured with the play in India, the US, Europe and Britain, as well as frequently reviving it in Australia. In 1894 Moore left Williamson and formed her own theatre company; they divorced in 1899. Williamson tried to stop her from appearing in the play but was unsuccessful and she continued to revive it throughout her career until her death in 1926. ==The film==