Richard Golden

The play helped to create and nationalize the genre of Down East humor, and made Golden one of the celebrated comedians of his generation.

Golden's Old Jed Prouty, which he wrote with William Gill, premiered in New York's Union Square Theatre on May 14, 1889, and moved to the Harlem Opera House later that same year.

[5] Prouty was a comedic Maine yankee tavern keeper living in the coastal town of Bucksport, the birthplace of his wife Dora Wiley and not far from Golden's own home-town of Bangor.

[6] With Dora gone, Golden shut down Old Jed Prouty by 1893 and joined the Pauline Hall Opera Company at the Tremont Theatre in Boston.

[9] Through the rest of the 1890s newspapers alternately reported him "critically ill" (usually in a hotel room), and drawing huge and appreciative crowds in a variety of comic roles.