DAZEY, CHARLES TURNER

(1853? 1855?-1938)

   Born in Lima, Ohio, Dazey earned his lasting renown as the author of In Old Kentucky (1893), a melodrama with local color that broke national records by its continuing popularity on the road and in stock. Dazey attended the College of the Arts in Lexington, Kentucky, and Harvard University. When his first play, Rusticana, was produced at college, it led to its professional staging, followed by many more plays on Broadway, including Elsa (1882), For a Brother's Life (1885), The Rival Candidates (1894), The War of Wealth (1895), In Mexico-1848 (1896), The Tarrytown Widow (1898), The Suburban (1903), The American Lord (1906), The Three Lights (1911), and The Stranger (1911). Others were produced on the road. W. H. Thompson made a specialty of performing Dazey's vaudeville sketch The Old Flute Player. Dazey married Lucy Harding, and they had one son, Frank Dazey, a Hollywood screenwriter. Dazey was a member of the Lambs' Club in New York, but made his home in Quincy, Illinois, where he died on 9 February 1938.