Ben-Hur on Stage and in Moving Pictures

Jon Solomon (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)

Ben-Hur’s popularity in the 1880s almost immediately inspired a number of independent amateur performers to develop pantomime and balletic representations of the novel’s story. The author, General Lew Wallace, who made it clear in his autobiography as well as in contemporary lectures and correspondence that his respect for the sanctity of the Christ was paramount, was reluctant to sanction any dramatization of Ben-Hur that portrayed Jesus. He denied permission to the well-known Lawrence Barrett, to whom Wallace himself had sent a copy of his own Commodus, Alexander Salvini, the son of the even more internationally renowned actor, Tommaso Salvini, and even the Kiralfy Brothers who wanted to recreate the chariot race in an outdoor spectacular on Staten Island. He wrote that he was concerned about maintaining “the proper spirit of reverence.” But when he signed in 1888 an agreement with David W. Cox and Walter C. Clark to form “The Ben-Hur Tableaux Production Agency,” he along with Harper & Bros. set into motion a mechanism which would serve as a model for future novelists and publishing companies. Previous authors, most notably Harriett Beecher Stowe, had been careless about lending out their artistic property for dramatization, while Wallace and Harper guarded their copyright vigorously. In sponsoring the Cox & Clark enterprise, Wallace scripted their libretto, shared in the profits for the next nine years, and changed forever the relationship between author, publisher, and dramatic entrepreneur.

At the time there was a considerable variety of dramatic genres and mechanical formats with which to portray a narrative. In 1896 the Riley Brothers of Bradford, England, brought their magic lantern presentation of 72 painted slides to New York and registered “The Stereopticon Illustrator of ‘Ben-Hur’: A Tale of the Christ” at the Library of Congress in January. To the great concern of Wallace, who obtained a set of the slides, #61 and #62 illustrated the Raising of the Cross and the Crucifixion. But when Wallace notified Harper, Harper in response warned Wallace that Riley Brothers was a significant, international commercial enterprise that could indeed make inroads into the Ben-Hur market with impunity. In 1898 Harper did succeed in issuing a restraining order preventing Riley from selling copies of the novel or even epitomes to American customers, but their stereopticon presentations flourished for a decade.

These ventures were followed by the hugely spectacular and financially successful dramatic production of Ben-Hur produced by Klaw & Erlanger. This 1899 production ran for twenty-one years and earned $10 million. Wallace almost brought the production to a halt by demanding twice as much royalty as had ever been paid to an author, but ultimately he won the negotiations and again revolutionized the commercial applications and possibilities of popular art.

Meanwhile, Sidney Olcott of Kalem filmed the first cinematic version of Ben-Hur in 1907, one of the longest and most ambitious films ever produced at that point in the development of the young genre. He did not obtain permission from Wallace[‘s estate] nor from Harper nor from Klaw & Erlanger. Kalem was sued by all three interests, and the appeals reached the U. S. Supreme Court in 1911. The “Ben-Hur Case” consequently established the precedent, still cited today, for copyright arrangements between authors, publishers, and filmmakers. When Henry Wallace subsequent was asked to sell the film rights to his father’s novel for an authorized version, he resisted until he received $1 million, by far the largest sum ever paid through most of the twentieth century. Clearly, Ben-Hur was an exemplary, enduring popular artistic product that was unparalleled in the development of popular culture in the United States.