| Show PROM BEHIND THE CURTAIN Richard Golden relates reates as the ex cx experience of or a Scotchman employed as property man In one of the companies with which the actor was connected an ar amusing instance of forgetfulness The Scotchman was rune prone to drink a little too much occasionally not lug ing a sincere devotion to religious prin principles and a tt perfunctory compliance with his idea of worship and reverence On Op one ana occasion he lie got home among the wee ema hours undressed him solf with some difficulty and went down on his bile knees beside the bed bod where he lie sent forth some incoherent the matter John asked his better halt half Are ya ye no weel wed Am a replied John hut but a canna cauna mind a damned o oma oma ma prayers 4 One day this rather unusual adver advertisement advertisement appeared In the Now York newspapers Wanted a Japanese ac no actor notor tor to support William Collier Apply to William Seymour general stage di director director rector foil Charles Three p T and his lite si a i e on the contract looked like a Li label on a tea box He trill to appear in inOn j jOn On the Quiet The was asked If there were many Japanese ac actors torn tors in this country He lie 8 aid there were vere but most of them had returned home to Join the army As a contributor to the fhe Frisco mag magazine magazine azine of St Louis Loul Homer Bassford Bansford writes of the drama of the past and of the present drawing the conclusion that all aU things stagy sag are in reality working for the betterment of the ate of the drama and the profession of amt act actIng Ing IngMen Men of moans means and Integrity are arenow arenow now engaged in the pursuit of educating educating ing and amusing the people says he heI I use the word educating in advance of the word amusing for the reason I that whether they will or not the pen peo pie are receiving from the stage an ed second in importance only to that which they receive from the print printed ed page dally weekly and monthly Sound ethicS good manners music humor mind and an appreciation of all of these are now taught by our actors and singers Like many teachers and preachers the and singers are not always sound in their own ethics indeed most moat of them are far enough from that prop proper proper er state It is the and music builder who is responsible for what they say eay and do of course but the re results stilts are there and for the greater part they are entirely satisfying The good old nays of which W we L are wont to hear were in fact tile the bad old days when managers Jumped their board bills and later on the actor his homeward way over ovar the unyielding ties Many a player of repute in this year 1905 can tell more than one on true story of how he lie hoofed It back to some center of things after a fairly prosper prosperous Otis ous season in the support pf pi some one whose name is high in the history of theatrical art The late Stuart Hobs Bobson on ononce once told me inc a series of hard luck buck sto stories rios ries that were all but unbelievable evi evidences en dences of the managers care in dealing with truth and hon boa honor or 44 Not long ago I saw one of the numer numerous ous vaudeville teams that are made up of a roughly humorous black man and andI n smoothly graceful yellow girl writes Franklin Fyles His ugliness and her hr prettiness were an extreme contrast and when in their song and dance he kissed her a long loud hiss came from froma a man who looked as though he might be a senator so dignified was he The audience looked hooked at him und tind laughed as he hid behind the drapery of the box In which ha ho sat The kiss kise had shocked him yet the perform performers ers era were husband and wife and the audience as a whole was well enter entertained tamed them David Belasco used a for Mrs Carter to rest her foot on when she he played the luxurious Du flu Barry in inthe Inthe the chamber scene and the little fel fellow fellow low absorbed attention just as a baby or a dog always does on the stage to tIle momentary neglect of the actress when he lie lay down for a footstool When Mrs Carter Cartet was Adrea the tor torturer provided bv by Mr Belasco was inns a a big fellow fallow made hideous with paint and again although realism was achieved that same realism aroused tin extraneous and I thinK detrimental interest Once in Poi Portland Ore my waiter was wasa a negro with a face so black that his white teeth made his erin a agleam gleam like a searchlight In a storm I 1 wont to a theatre to see Robert Man Mantell Mantell tell in a drama batted based on the legend of Prometheus Bound Just as I got In InI I Mantel Mantell was being fastened to the rock to be agonized slowly to death and In Inthe inthe the gigantic torturer scowling fiend as he lie laughed over his work of at prodding the victim with a knife I roe rec recognized my walter waiter He was more emil smil smilingly bland at the table titan before for he of his debut as an actor but m was hurt huit huitt t liT y thoughts of notion and I viewed him with surmises whenever he lie took up tip a knife As an h lie had bad im un impaired unI I paired his value with me as a waiter I The play failed as you saw said I am glad that it created I at least one ohe illusion 4 Hoa Hes not a man has much to sty 1 Just thinks and scribbles night and day 1 He seldom sets gets a big hooray The Tite actor with his wr i Grows more inflated every day Ho talks a lot but naught to tj e sy y Of the author of the lur rho manager so round and gay gar rays fortunes every salary flay dag Inc ino only one ne he lie hates t pay Is tho author of the Mar hr MarTho Tho man who stages plays today Cuts lines linen to give the chorus sway With him the biggest sort of jay Is the author of the ular The scenery painters grand display Is out of keeping every way But hee hes the man that has the say Not the author of the tae play The star who twInkles OH on And spends his Spars spare time in cafe Should spend spond lila his time in and pray For or the author of the slay tsy The fickle nubile shouts hooray And calls for speech at Then leading man his throat sway spray Wheres tim tho author of the tha play pity The treasurer lies has his benefit befit day Then ushers then so on that way For benefit seats etts Id gladly pay J or the author of the play The Tha critic when the plays O 0 K it Will praise the players every way When the play is 1 weak the one hell flay Is the author of the tle alar Georas M Cohan 4 r There Is one other manager in New NewYork NewYork York those these days whose gluttony for hard bard work is phenomenal anti and whose continuance without collapse in the path he lies lias followed for years or more is a matter of amaze amazement meat ment writes Leander Richardson Charles Frohman at the moment of this v writing ha lies twelve companies at rehearsal in Now York ranging all the way from sentimental drama to light musical comedy In several of these theao Mr Frohman Is his own stage director It is his custom to take One organization In charge hi the tue morn morning lag ing another in time the afternoon aft and a third at night so that ho lie gets from nine to twelve hours of actual pres presence presence ence on the stage in every full day At 9 lu In the morning and some sometimes sometimes times earlier Mr Frohman disposes of his correspondence and holds Inter Interviews Interviews views by appointment Thou Then off he lie goes to the theatre and when it is IB IBall all over at 10 or 11 in the even evening lag ing he frequently rounds out the days occupation by reading a manuscript and deciding upon its merit It Is not generally known but it is nevertheless a fact that Mr Frohman personally engages or directs time the en engagement of every solitary man and woman In La his employ even to the cho chorus rus girls of his big musical shows This in itself would an ordinary human being alive to the fact that he was going some but it forms forma an Infinitesimal part of time the diurnal task of this restless and tireless man Mr Frohman once upon a time 33 an wont to take Some little recreation in ina ina a big automobile which he Imported to this country along with u Parisian chauffeur Time The driver of the machine was an epicure and when nhen Mr Frohman stopped for dinner at Claremont or the Country club or any of time the othe outlying resorts It used to 10 take the chauffeur two solid hours to finish his repast the billy for which would run from 6 to 10 The man manager manager ager mind the money but lo stand the expenditure of time and so one night when the tue Frenchman was lippy the impatience of his employer he was abruptly dismissed and a few days dayn later Mr Frohman sold his for about 2 per cent of what it cost him Since then a cab cabor cabor or victoria for his OC Of cours tharo are other heavy workers in hi tIme the amusement lino hino David Belasco is one of thorn tham blum self over to P a new flea play sometimes keeping at it until daylight The night habit has always been Long before he entered the business of management there was a mm light In his window until dawn and when he be actually the dialogue of his different characters he was walking up and down the floor gesticulating stamping his feet wringing his hands and act actIng lug Ing out the scenes which were taking their first firt definable turin form in his mind That is tIme the way Belasco frames his plays going over them times innumerable i able occasionally putting in a solid month upon a single scene This per perhaps perhaps haps is one of the reasons of his un unvarying unvarying varying success as a dramatist There iq ii no shirking or slighting upon any part of a Belasco manuscript a 4 About four years ago when the man management management of time the old Dearborn theatre In Chicago was attempting to convert their playhouse from u a theatre into one of time the they began casting cabling about for a musical comedian who could attract the car carriage carriage trade which in theatrical par parlance parlance lance stands for the people who come caine cometo to time the theatre in carriages and are will willing lug ing to pay the best prices for After considering several players the Dearborn managers finally hit upon Richard Carle who shortly before re returned e turned from London where he lie lied had achieved much popularity In musical plays Mr Carle wa was accordingly en engaged engaged Ho He worked untiringly to at attract attract tract the carriage trade but his ef of efforts forts for a time tinie seemed futile The Dearborn theatre had been catering to toa a 1 clientele for so long bong that it seemed Impassible to reach the better paying class of theatregoers fc a Mr Mi Cane Carle T ivan as finally successful when he lie produced The Tenderfoot Before Beforetime time the unqualified success of this place piece however an aim amusing incident oc occurred occurred It was during time the first three months at the Dearborn and hardly a 0 carriage had drawn up at the entrance throughout time the twelve or thir thirteen thIrteen teen weeks of his engagement One afternoon shortly before a Sat Saturday Saturday matinee Mr Cane Cavie camo caine down tow n and found time the street In front of the street blocked with imposing equip equipage age Not a rig in the lot was the tha optical note he made in passing Pleased beyond power of expression he danced Into a bullet buffet under the tho thea theatre theatre tre and ordered come wine with which to drink his own good fortune Unaccustomed to such prankish hilar hilarity hilarity ity on the part of Mr Clare who ia Is usually of a thoughtful and retiring dis disposition disposition position the tho diplomat the ba bitt remarked su i so early Ui lii the day tt i so mv M J T 1 i i merry exclaimed the actor Just cast your eye along that line of carriages blocking time the street out there Ive been trying for two or three months to land the carriage folk and at last success Look at aLthe the vehicle parade in honor of my matinee people come to your I matinee What that Nan Naw sofa saM the barkeep Theres Theresa a prominent man nian died of a sudden in inthe time the hotel next nast door his tuner funer funeral al at R F D P n was relating several interesting Incidents connected with his bits career as an actor Lawrence Bar Barrett Barrett rett he lie said to Marie B Schrader was a very cold man I called cabled upon him In search sarch of f a position In his corn com company pany His very greeting froze my blood He wanted to know what he lie could do for me inc in that passionless businesslike tone so frequently em emPloyed during the present time I an answered that I thought I had talent for acting und and I was anxious to be b with him bun How old are you he lie asked When I replied Twentysix he lie in informed Informed formed me that I was entirely too old to go on the stage that at that age I should be playing Romeo Borneo instead of starting I never felt so uncomfortable ia in my life I have played everything On earth in the classic line with the exception of and Hamlet I was Mac Macbeth beth with Modjeska I never met Mr Booth but once and then tilen we had a conversation only Mr Booths methods were always quiet although In Iii his iI youth he lie was quite a Thomas Keene who had a widespread reputation as a once thought he would adopt the quiet manner but the attempt proved an utter failure With nIl all his faults Keene possessed lIre fire and this ia is moro more moroto to be desired than some other quail qualities ties After he hi suffered a stroke of paralysis however he lost all that and who was never the same When fu Ip I decided to give up farming ana return to the stage with Charles B 13 Hanford I 1 played Shylock with a rehearsal one even evening Ins ing when Mr Hanford was suddenly taken ill lii I have an excellent memory in lii tills respect At this moment I go on all the stage absolutely certain tain that I Know every line as Orlando Romeo Richard Shylock and others I read time the lines of these s In fifteen years but I r rt member them What you learn before the age of 30 remains with you always but after that time the results ar arvery arr very doubtful For FOI instance I 3 could not now ott my lines in were neither an so long Ions nor so dlf h hm 1 1 rinT T n iti h y rn ii fir fr get But although I played Macbeth over one hundred times with Medics Modjeska ka very recently I attended a pet per performance of this play and failed tu even recognize some of the lines I do not believe in study in art If it does not cone come quickly and naturally it will never come I read reada it a great deal about tIme the vast amount of time devoted by some players to the study of various roles I dont believe In tide this plan Lawrence Bar Barrett Barrett rett was wag a constant student stu lent and his work showed it He lacked Inspirit inspiration tion Nothing could convince me that Edwin Booth was waa a student because his acting was not studied 4 One of Eddie Foys relate tc tm his experiences a a juror It Illus Illustrates the value of concise expression When I wile was on the jury says Foy one of time tho cases I hoard was a 8 laborer against time the employer in whoso whose foundry he lie had been injured Th foreman of the foundry testified and then the attorney for the plaintiff called Michael Shea Jl Mike Inquired the lawyer do you yea know time the gentleman who juat left the stand Sure I do What dose does be he de do at the foundry Hes the foreman 4 What are his duties aa as foremast foreman Well I dont know sor sorI I Surely you ron know what the fore foremans foremans mans duties are said th the You work under him chont you Yes Hes Hec me bos bosWell bosI I Well then He draws pay for fOt be lug your bOss DOES and h he must do sonic some something thing to earn that pay Now what does he do rio doMike Mike scratched his head for a mo me moment ment |
