If indeed imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, The Gilded Age was greatly flattered in February of 1875. The flattery occurred in Salt Lake City—a town on one of the theatre circuits frequented by John T. Raymond. It was an incident by which neither Mr. Raymond nor Mr. Clemens were much flattered. It was an incident which took on the flair of great melodrama in the Salt Lake City press, and which attested to the already national acclaim of Colonel Sellers and his "millions!"
The perpetrator of this "flattery" was an Australian comic named Willie Gill, who was "en route" to England. On February 8th, Mr. Gill was to open as Colonel Sellers in his own adaptation of The Gilded Age, at the SALT LAKE THEATRE. The Salt Lake City Daily Tribune begins this drama on Sunday, February 7th:
We are informed that Mr. John T. Raymond, who is playing an adaptation of Mark Twain's novel of Gilded Age, claims the sole right of playing the piece in this country, and in order to enforce his idea, he has telegraphed for the purpose of endeavoring, by legal process, to prevent Mr. Willie Gill performing the play in this city. If such an idea could be carried into execution, the play-going public would suffer a great loss by being debarred the pleasure of witnessing the embodiment of Twain's great creation of Col. Sellers. Mr. Gill, on the other hand, we are assured, has a perfect right to play a dramatization of the famous novel, and is prepared to "fight it out" on that ground. Those who wish to see this "apple of discord" among the stars, and which by the by may contain "millions" for the lawyers, will do well to attend the theatre on Monday evening.Judging from the cast list and act synopsis in the Monday Desert News, Willie Gill's version of The Gilded Age was substantially different from the one being performed by Raymond, but this was not the issue. The Tuesday morning Tribune proclaimed, "MARK TWAIN IN COURT." "'The Gilded Age' is Stopped by Injunction." "Rights of Intellect Protected by Act of Congress."
