Show I FIRM PICKS A WINNER TEP right up now and make the ac acquaintance STEP S of Lincoln Abraham and Collin CoHin Kemper or Kemper of ot the Astor theatre New York It was this firm Irm which produced Paid In Full Fulland Fulland and now they they have hae another winner In Int InI t I even Days How the manuscript man of ot Paid in Full was rejected by a score of well known managers before it reached Kemper has been told The phe phenomenal phenomenal phenomenal run of or that piece made other managers sit up and take notice of Kemper Komper Now the suc success success success cess of Seven Days has had them all standing on tiptoe Such judgment as this in a field where competition is keen makes these two young men marks of public Interest First as actors and then as man managers managers managers agers they have had load vast experience of or orthe the practical kind then their their partner partnershIp partnership shIp snip has endured for nearly nearl twenty years ears with Mr 11 looking aft att after atter after er the financial end of ot the business and Mr Kemper devoting himself to the producing and stage management Mr Ir is a 11 large dark nervous man who is incessantly smoking a briar pipe or a 11 long black cigar Mr II Kemper is lighter in complexion complex 1011 and in manner The two partners were brought ht together in an odd manner Mr 11 father being a great admirer of Abraham Lin Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln coln decided to name his son after the president Mrs line liKe Abraham for a first name and so they compromised by putting nutting it second and calling him Lincoln Abraham Wagen Wa en hals This occurred in 1870 Mr Kem Kemper Kemper Kemper per appeared a upon the about the same time t me Both men went on the stage Mr made his first appear appearance appearance appearance ance with R n L Downing while Mr Kemper began an apprenticeship to Augustin Daly under whose eye ere he gained the groundwork which has made I him successful as es a producer To use Mr Kemp ls is own words about their first meeting Like all the other actors I read the dramatic papers a great deal and I frequently saw the I name of Lincoln Abraham I In their columns I often wondered what a man with a name like that would look like One night I went to toa toa toa a downtown theatre to see Downing and there was the name large as lire life in the program I made the owners ac acquaintance acQuaintance acquaintance and we became good friends We Ve wanted to become man managers managers managers agers and decided to pool our money and form torm a stock company compan Our part partnership partnership partnership has lasted ever since The first operations of ot the firm were at Binghamton N Y with a stock company which lasted all summer The company consisted of about eighteen actors and the bill was changed twice a week They played everything from The Passing Regiment to As You Like It They went regularly to Binghamton every summer for several years and even oven now whenever a Kemper production visits Binghamton It Is warmly welcomed Like most young oung managers they had their ups and downs owns although the they never had to walk from one ono town TO another as some actors are credited with having been forced to do doThe doThe doThe The nearest we ever over came to a wind windup up Mr Is apt to relate when in a retrospective mood was once when w en we jumped from and arid after the company compan was paid paM and the return tickets to Binghamton bought we found ourselves one Sun Sunday Sunday day morning morn In with between us Everybody had money but the man managers managers managers agers We had hall our railroad tickets however and so we started for Bing Binghamton Binghamton Binghamton hamton We e had to change cars ut at I Fonda and there I suggested lun lunch h The bill b 11 came to and I gave the i J waiter walter a tip There was the firm of Kemper with I nothing in its pockets but the tine lining But when we got back to Binghamton there was a substantial advance sale i for our next performance Guess that I was the mark After the Binghamton experience the firm ran a stock company in Kansas City for tor a couple of seasons with success suc success su cess Then they started out as regular I road managers with Bronson Howards Young Mrs Winthrop |