Garden, others who had come as adventurers had found the fortunes they sought, and an important element of the population was that strain of Huguenot blood from which Calvinism had not eradicated the joie de vivre inherent in the Frenchman.
William Dunlap, the first and most pains-*taking of the historians of the American stage, states that the first dramatic performance ever given in America was in Williamsburg, Va., where a theatre was opened on September 5, 1752, and this date was generally accepted as correct, and the centennial of the introduction of the drama in America was celebrated with all the honors at Castle Garden, New York, a hundred years later.
Later investigators claim that New York was treated to a performance by professionals in September, 1732, and that Addison's Cato was rendered in Philadelphia by a regular company as early as 1749. The South Carolina Gazette for January 18, 1734, has the following advertisement:
"On Friday, the 24th instant, in the Court Room,
will be attempted a tragedy called 'The Orphan or the
Unhappy Marriage.' Tickets will be delivered out on
Tuesday next, at Mr Shepheard's at 40s each."
