Denman Thompson

Henry Denman Thompson (October 15, 1833 – April 14, 1911) was an American playwright and theatre actor. With his manager George W. Ryer, Thompson co-authored several successful plays which toured and were staged on Broadway; including The Old Homestead, The Two Sisters (1888), The Sunshine of Paradise Alley (1896), and Our New Minister (premiered 1899 but written years earlier).

Biography Rufus Thompson, a carpenter, and his wife Anne Hathaway Baxter moved in 1831 from West Swanzey, New Hampshire to Girard, Pennsylvania, near Erie, where their son Henry Denman Thompson was born. In 1847, they returned to West Swanzey, where he was educated and at nineteen began work as a bookkeeper in Lowell, Massachusetts. While there, he developed an interest in theatre and decided to make it his career. He first went on the professional stage in 1850 at the Howard Athenæum in Boston, where he played a supernumerary in Macbeth. His first speaking role was in 1852 at Lowell, playing Orasman in the military drama, The French Spy. But Thompson had a disregard for serious study or rehearsals, and a manner unsuited for serious drama. With his large, good-natured eyes and thick red hair brushed straight up, audiences might laugh, ruining the gravitas of any scene. So he abandoned tragedy, and by 1862 was in England, performing at the City of London Theatre as a low comedian. This is the only thorough, contemporary account of Thompson and his play.

“In 1887 The Old Homestead was the hottest ticket in New York,” writes Howard Mansfield in Turn & Jump. “The play ran for more than 25 years touring the country, becoming the "greatest popular success of the American stage." From a time before homes were lit by electricity until the time when airplanes were a country fair attraction, Denman Thompson was playing Uncle Josh Whitcomb to packed theaters. Thompson had added a new character to the folklore. Uncle Josh joined Rip Van Winkle, Davey Crockett, and other outsized 19th Century heroes. Uncle Josh was outsized for his wisdom of staying put. He was the maximum country mouse. ‘Dear Old Joshua is the very embodiment of honesty and rural simplicity,’ says his friend in the play.

“Thompson made millions of dollars. Uncle Josh appeared in the earliest Edison movies, and his stories were recorded on phonograph cylinders. He advertised Ivory soap. There was even a ‘Josh Whitcomb’ brand cigar. (‘As good as the play.’)”

Denman Thompson died when aged 77 at his home in West Swanzey; he was survived by two daughters and a son. He is featured on a New Hampshire historical marker (number 22) near New Hampshire Route 32 in Swanzey.