Background Liebler & Company was a partnership between investor T. A. Liebler and producer-manager
George C. Tyler. They had first employed William T. Hodge in
Sag Harbor (1899). He had been discovered by
James Herne as a bit player in a
Rogers Brothers' musical comedy, "a thirty-five dollar a week man". Liebler & Company next used him in
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1903), their most successful play. Hodge left Liebler because he wanted a star role; he was with the
Joe Weber company when Wilson told Tyler that
The Man from Home was built on Hodge playing the lead. Tyler and Wilson were then (May 1907) touring North Africa by motorcar, so Tyler cabled Hodge in America to offer him the part, which he accepted. while Tarkington and Wilson returned in August on board the liner
Nieuw Amsterdam. Tarkington had spent the last two years in Europe, mostly in Paris but also on Capri where he owned a home. His observations of fellow Americans over there had led to this play, according to his public statements. However, another motivation was suggested by an article in
The New York Times, in which Tarkington contrived to put his Indiana rival
George Ade on display in the character of Daniel Pike. The article quoted Tarkington when pressed on the question: "I do not admit that I have any quarrel with George Ade. I will say, however, that he did put me in a play, and I do not mind saying that I may have nursed the hope of revenge at some future time". The critic for the
Chicago Tribune said: "
The Man from Home will be a popular success-- a big one", but doubted it would play well in England. Foreseeing this, Liebler & Company bought the managerial lease for the
Chicago Opera House from Kohl & Castle, who had used it for vaudeville.
The Man from Home then opened there for its 110th performance on December 23, 1907. Daily newspaper ads for the play now carried the number of each performance with the proclamation "Longest Dramatic Run in Chicago's History". By May 31, 1908, when
The Man from Home finally closed at the Chicago Opera House, it had been performed 316 times. Following two weeks in Minneapolis-St. Paul, the production went on hiatus starting June 15, 1908 until the New York premiere.
Broadway premiere The Man from Home had its Broadway premiere on August 17, 1908, at the
Astor Theatre. The reviewer for
The Standard Union noted "an unusually large audience of first-nighters" despite "oppresive heat" had "heartily endorsed the production and pronounced it a fine success". The critic for
The Sun said that "Broadway accepts the verdict rendered in Chicago last winter. The play is distinctly worth while. Both it and the new star made a big audience laugh almost constantly for three hours, display an unusual amount of enthusiasm despite the heat and predict a longer run for the piece here than it had in the Windy City".
The New York Times reviewer thought the play a success even if built on an old pattern, of a native type in foreign surroundings. They esteemed the performance of William Hodge, and Henry Jewett as the Grand Duke, while finding Echlin P. Gayer's Almeric "amusing if occasionally unintelligble". Harry Harmon's Ivanoff was "interesting, if occasionally obscuring the plot", while
Olive Wyndham, Ida Vernon, and
Hassard Short were judged admirable, but "Mr. Glendinning was very noisy". The critic for the
New-York Tribune made many errors in their report: ascribing authorship of the play three times to
George Ade; identifying the character of Almeric as the primary motivator of the marriage plot; and saying the play ends with an Indiana wedding announcement. That of
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle spoke only in broad generalities in their brief review, forgetting to name the theater where it played.
Closing The production closed at the Astor Theatre on November 6, 1909, after 70 weeks and 496 performances. It then moved from Broadway to Brooklyn's Majestic Theatre starting November 15, 1909. Liebler & Company had joined
the Shuberts alliance in their battle against the
Theatrical Syndicate, so all theaters on
The Man from Home tour would be Shubert-owned, with the exception of Boston's
Park Theatre, where a separate booking arrangement had been made with
Charles Frohman. ==Adaptations==