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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Charles Frohman: Manager and Man, by Isaac
+Frederick Marcosson and Daniel Frohman, et al
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Charles Frohman: Manager and Man
+
+
+Author: Isaac Frederick Marcosson and Daniel Frohman
+
+
+
+Release Date: July 29, 2008  [eBook #26146]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES FROHMAN: MANAGER AND MAN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Robert Cicconetti, Chuck Greif, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 26146-h.htm or 26146-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/1/4/26146/26146-h/26146-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/1/4/26146/26146-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+CHARLES FROHMAN: MANAGER AND MAN
+
+by
+
+ISAAC F. MARCOSSON and DANIEL FROHMAN
+
+With an Appreciation by James M. Barrie
+
+Illustrated with Portraits
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York and London
+Harper & Brothers
+M.C.M.X.V.I
+
+Charles Frohman: Manager and Man
+Copyright, 1916, by Harper & Brothers
+Copyright, 1915, 1916, by
+International Magazine Company (Cosmopolitan Magazine)
+Printed in the United States of America
+Published October, 1916
+
+
+
+_To
+
+The Theater
+
+That Charles Frohman
+
+Loved and Served_
+
+_Nought I did in hate but all in honor!_
+
+HAMLET
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+       CHARLES FROHMAN: AN APPRECIATION
+
+    I. A CHILD AMID THE THEATER
+
+   II. EARLY HARDSHIPS ON THE ROAD
+
+  III. PICTURESQUE DAYS AS MINSTREL MANAGER
+
+   IV. IN THE NEW YORK THEATRICAL WHIRLPOOL
+
+    V. BOOKING-AGENT AND BROADWAY PRODUCER
+
+   VI. "SHENANDOAH" AND THE FIRST STOCK COMPANY
+
+  VII. JOHN DREW AND THE EMPIRE THEATER
+
+ VIII. MAUDE ADAMS AS STAR
+
+   IX. THE BIRTH OF THE SYNDICATE
+
+    X. THE RISE OF ETHEL BARRYMORE
+
+   XI. THE CONQUEST OF THE LONDON STAGE
+
+  XII. BARRIE AND THE ENGLISH FRIENDSHIPS
+
+ XIII. A GALAXY OF STARS
+
+  XIV. STAR-MAKING AND AUDIENCES
+
+   XV. PLAYS AND PLAYERS
+
+  XVI. "C. F." AT REHEARSALS
+
+ XVII. HUMOR AND ANECDOTE
+
+XVIII. THE MAN FROHMAN
+
+  XIX. "WHY FEAR DEATH?"
+
+       APPENDIX A--THE LETTERS OF CHARLES
+
+       APPENDIX B--COMPLETE CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE FROHMAN
+       PRODUCTIONS
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations
+
+
+CHARLES FROHMAN--Frontispiece
+
+VIOLA ALLEN
+
+WILLIAM GILLETTE
+
+JOHN DREW
+
+CLYDE FITCH
+
+HENRY ARTHUR JONES
+
+W. LESTOCQ
+
+CHARLES DILLINGHAM
+
+MAUDE ADAMS
+
+MAUDE ADAMS
+
+FRANCIS WILSON
+
+WILLIAM COLLIER
+
+MARGARET ANGLIN
+
+ANNIE RUSSELL
+
+WILLIAM FAVERSHAM
+
+HENRY MILLER
+
+WILLIAM H. CRANE
+
+AUGUSTUS THOMAS
+
+SIR ARTHUR WING PINERO
+
+ETHEL BARRYMORE
+
+JULIA MARLOWE
+
+E. H. SOTHERN
+
+ELSIE FERGUSON
+
+EDNA MAY
+
+BILLIE BURKE
+
+PAULINE CHASE
+
+JAMES M. BARRIE
+
+PAUL POTTER
+
+HADDON CHAMBERS
+
+OTIS SKINNER
+
+MARIE DORO
+
+JULIA SANDERSON
+
+ANN MURDOCK
+
+CHARLES FROHMAN AND DAVID BELASCO
+
+MARIE TEMPEST
+
+MME. NAZIMOVA
+
+CHARLES FROHMAN'S OFFICE IN THE EMPIRE THEATER
+
+CHARLES FROHMAN ON BOARD SHIP
+
+
+
+
+Charles Frohman: an Appreciation
+
+By James M. Barrie
+
+
+The man who never broke his word. There was a great deal more to him,
+but every one in any land who has had dealings with Charles Frohman will
+sign that.
+
+I would rather say a word of the qualities that to his friends were his
+great adornment than about his colossal enterprises or the energy with
+which he heaved them into being; his energy that was like a force of
+nature, so that if he had ever "retired" from the work he loved (a thing
+incredible) companies might have been formed, in the land so skilful at
+turning energy to practical account, for exploiting the vitality of this
+Niagara of a man. They could have lit a city with it.
+
+He loved his schemes. They were a succession of many-colored romances to
+him, and were issued to the world not without the accompaniment of the
+drum, but you would never find him saying anything of himself. He pushed
+them in front of him, always taking care that they were big enough to
+hide him. When they were able to stand alone he stole out in the dark to
+have a look at them, and then if unobserved his bosom swelled. I have
+never known any one more modest and no one quite so shy. Many actors
+have played for him for years and never spoken to him, have perhaps seen
+him dart up a side street because they were approaching. They may not
+have known that it was sheer shyness, but it was. I have seen him
+ordered out of his own theater by subordinates who did not know him, and
+he went cheerfully away. "Good men, these; they know their business,"
+was all his comment. Afterward he was shy of going back lest they should
+apologize.
+
+At one time he had several theaters here and was renting others, the
+while he had I know not how many in America; he was not always sure how
+many himself. Latterly the great competition at home left him no time to
+look after more than one in London. But only one anywhere seemed a
+little absurd to him. He once contemplated having a few theaters in
+Paris, but on discovering that French law forbids your having more than
+one he gave up the scheme in disgust.
+
+A sense of humor sat with him through every vicissitude like a faithful
+consort.
+
+"How is it going?" a French author cabled to him on the first night of a
+new play.
+
+"It has gone," he genially cabled back.
+
+Of a Scotch play of my own that he was about to produce in New York, I
+asked him what the Scotch would be like.
+
+"You wouldn't know it was Scotch," he replied, "but the American public
+will know."
+
+He was very dogged. I had only one quarrel with him, but it lasted all
+the sixteen years I knew him. He wanted me to be a playwright and I
+wanted to be a novelist. All those years I fought him on that. He always
+won, but not because of his doggedness; only because he was so lovable
+that one had to do as he wanted. He also threatened, if I stopped, to
+reproduce the old plays and print my name in large electric letters over
+the entrance of the theater.
+
+* * *
+
+A very distinguished actress under his management wanted to produce a
+play of mine of which he had no high opinion. He was in despair, as he
+had something much better for her. She was obdurate. He came to me for
+help, said nothing could move her unless I could. Would not I tell her
+what a bad play it was and how poor her part was and how much better the
+other parts were and how absolutely it fell to pieces after the first
+act? Of course I did as I was bid, and I argued with the woman for
+hours, and finally got her round, the while he sat cross-legged, after
+his fashion, on a deep chair and implored me with his eyes to do my
+worst. It happened long ago, and I was so obsessed with the desire to
+please him that the humor of the situation strikes me only now.
+
+For money he did not care at all; it was to him but pieces of paper with
+which he could make practical the enterprises that teemed in his brain.
+They were all enterprises of the theater. Having once seen a theater, he
+never afterward saw anything else except sites for theaters. This
+passion began when he was a poor boy staring wistfully at portals out of
+which he was kept by the want of a few pence. I think when he first saw
+a theater he clapped his hand to his heart, and certainly he was true
+to his first love. Up to the end it was still the same treat to him to
+go in; he still thrilled when the band struck up, as if that boy had
+hold of his hand.
+
+* * *
+
+In a sense he had no illusions about the theater, knew its tawdriness as
+he knew the nails on his stages (he is said to have known every one). He
+would watch the performance of a play in some language of which he did
+not know a word and at the end tell you not only the whole story, but
+what the characters had been saying to one another; indeed, he could
+usually tell what was to happen in any act as soon as he saw the
+arrangement of the furniture. But this did not make him _blasé_--a
+strange word, indeed, to apply to one who seemed to be born afresh each
+morning. It was not so much that all the world was a stage to him as
+that his stage was a world, a world of the "artistic temperament"--that
+is to say, a very childish world of which he was occasionally the stern
+but usually indulgent father.
+
+His innumerable companies were as children to him; he chided them as
+children, soothed them, forgave them, and certainly loved them as
+children. He exulted in those who became great names in that world and
+gave them beautiful toys to play with; but, great as was their devotion
+to him, it is not they who will miss him most, but rather the far
+greater number who never "made a hit," but set off like the rest to do
+it and fell by the way. He was of so sympathetic a nature, he understood
+so well the dismalness to them of being "failures," that he saw them as
+children with their knuckles to their eyes, and then he sat back
+cross-legged on his chair with his knuckles, as it were, to his eyes,
+and life had lost its flavor for him until he invented a scheme for
+giving them another chance.
+
+* * *
+
+Authors of to-day sometimes discuss with one another what great writer
+of the past they would like most to spend an evening with if the shades
+were willing to respond, and I believe (and hope) that the choice most
+often falls on Johnson or Charles Lamb. Lamb was fond of the theater,
+and I think, of all those connected with it that I have known, Mr.
+Frohman is the one with whom he would most have liked to spend an
+evening. Not because of Mr. Frohman's ability, though he had the biggest
+brain I have met with on the stage, but because of his humor and charity
+and gentle chivalry and his most romantic mind. One can conceive him as
+often, sitting at ease, far back in his chair, cross-legged,
+occasionally ringing for another ice, for he was so partial to sweets
+that he could never get them sweet enough, and sometimes he mixed two in
+the hope that this would make them sweeter.
+
+I hear him telling stories of the stage as only he could tell them,
+rising now and roaming the floor as he shows how the lady of the play
+receives the declaration, and perhaps forgetting that you are the author
+of the play and telling you the whole story of it with superb gesture
+and gleaming eyes. Then back again cross-legged to the chair. What an
+essay Elia might have made of that night, none of it about the stories
+told, all about the man in the chair, the humorous, gentle, roughly
+educated, very fine American gentleman in the chair!
+
+J. M. BARRIE.
+
+LONDON, 1915.
+
+
+
+
+_Charles Frohman_
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+A CHILD AMID THE THEATER
+
+
+One evening, toward the close of the 'sixties, a plump, rosy-cheeked lad
+in his eighth year stood enthralled in the gallery of the old Niblo's
+Garden down on lower Broadway in New York. Far below him on the stage
+"The Black Crook"--the extravaganza that held all New York--unfolded
+itself in fascinating glitter and feminine loveliness. Deaf to his
+brother's entreaties to leave, and risking a parental scolding and
+worse, the boy remained transfixed until the final curtain. When he
+reached home he was not in the least disturbed by the uproar his absence
+had caused. Quite the contrary. His face beamed, his eyes shone. All he
+could say was:
+
+"I have seen a play. It's wonderful!"
+
+The boy was Charles Frohman, and such was his first actual experience in
+the theater--the institution that he was to dominate in later years with
+far-flung authority.
+
+* * *
+
+To write of the beginnings of his life is to become almost immediately
+the historian of some phase of amusement. He came from a family in whom
+the love of mimic art was as innate as the desire for sustenance.
+
+About his parents was the glamour of a romance as tender as any he
+disclosed to delighted audiences in the world of make-believe. His
+father, Henry Frohman, was both idealist and dreamer. Born on the
+pleasant countryside that encircles the town of Darmstadt in Germany, he
+grew up amid an appreciation of the best in German literature. He was a
+buoyant and imaginative boy who preferred reading plays to poring over
+tiresome school-books.
+
+One day he went for a walk in the woods. He passed a young girl of rare
+and appealing beauty. Their eyes met; they paused a moment, irresistibly
+drawn to each other. Then they went their separate ways. He inquired her
+name and found that she was Barbara Strauss and lived not far away. He
+sought an introduction, but before it could be brought about he left
+home to make his fortune in the New World.
+
+He was eighteen when he stepped down the gang-plank of a steamer in New
+York in 1845. He had mastered no trade; he was practically without
+friends, so he took to the task which so many of his co-religionists had
+found profitable. He invested his modest financial nest-egg in a supply
+of dry goods and notions and, shouldering a pack, started up the Hudson
+Valley to peddle his wares.
+
+Henry Frohman had a magnetic and fascinating personality. A ready story
+was always on his lips; a smile shone constantly on his face. It was
+said of him that he could hypnotize the most unresponsive housewife into
+buying articles she never needed. Up and down the highways he trudged,
+unmindful of wind, rain, or hardship.
+
+New York was his headquarters. There was his home and there he
+replenished his stocks. He made friends quickly. With them he often went
+to the German theater. On one of these occasions he heard of a family
+named Strauss that had just arrived from Germany. They had been
+shipwrecked near the Azores, had endured many trials, and had lost
+everything but their lives.
+
+"Have they a daughter named Barbara?" asked Frohman.
+
+"Yes," was the reply.
+
+Henry Frohman's heart gave a leap. There came back to his mind the
+picture of that day in the German woods.
+
+"Where do they come from?" he continued, eagerly.
+
+On being told that it was Darmstadt, he cried, "I must meet her."
+
+He gave his friend no peace until that end had been brought about. He
+found her the same lovely girl who had thrilled him at first sight; he
+wooed her with ardor and they were betrothed.
+
+He now yearned for a stable business that would enable him to marry.
+Meanwhile his affairs had grown. The peddler's pack expanded to the
+proportion of a wagon-load. Then, as always, the great West held a lure
+for the youthful. In some indescribable way he got the idea that
+Kentucky was the Promised Land of business. Telling his fiancée that he
+would send for her as soon as he had settled somewhere, he set out.
+
+But Kentucky did not prove to be the golden country. He was advised to
+go to Ohio, and it was while driving across the country with his line of
+goods that he came upon Sandusky. The little town on the shores of a
+smiling lake appealed to him strongly. It reminded him of the home
+country, and he remained there.
+
+He found himself at once in a congenial place. There was a considerable
+German population; his ready wit and engaging manner made him welcome
+everywhere. The road lost its charm; he turned about for an occupation
+that was permanent. Having picked up a knowledge of cigar-making, he
+established a small factory which was successful from the start.
+
+This fact assured, his next act was to send to New York for Miss
+Strauss, who joined him at once, and they were married. These were the
+forebears of Charles Frohman--the exuberant, optimistic, pleasure-loving
+father; the serene, gentle-eyed, and spacious-hearted woman who was to
+have such a strong influence in the shaping of his character.
+
+The Frohmans settled in a little frame house on Lawrence Street that
+stood apart from the dusty road. It did not even have a porch.
+Unpretentious as it was, it became a center of artistic life in
+Sandusky.
+
+Henry Frohman had always aspired to be an actor. One of the first things
+he did after settling in Sandusky was to organize an amateur theatrical
+company, composed entirely of people of German birth or descent. The
+performances were given in the Turner Hall, in the German tongue, on a
+makeshift stage with improvised scenery. Frohman became the directing
+force in the production of Schiller's and other classic German plays,
+comic as well as tragic.
+
+Nor was he half-hearted in his histrionic work. One night he died so
+realistically on the stage that his eldest son, who sat in the audience,
+became so terrified that he screamed out in terror, and would not be
+pacified until his parent appeared smilingly before the curtain and
+assured him that he was still very much alive.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman's business prospered. He began to build up trade in the
+adjoining country. With a load of samples strapped behind his buggy, he
+traveled about. He usually took one of his older sons along. While he
+drove, the boy often held a prompt-book and the father would rehearse
+his parts. Out across those quiet Ohio fields would come the thrilling
+words of "The Robbers," "Ingomar," "Love and Intrigue," or any of the
+many plays that the amateur company performed in Sandusky.
+
+He even mixed the drama with business. Frequently after selling a bill
+of goods he would be requested by a customer, who knew of his ability,
+to recite or declaim a speech from one of the well-known German plays.
+
+It was on his return from one of these expeditions that Henry Frohman
+was greeted with the tidings that a third son had come to bear his name.
+When he entered that little frame house the infantile Charles had made
+his first entrance on the stage of life. It was June 17, 1860, a time
+fateful in the history of the country, for already the storm-clouds of
+the Civil War were brooding. It was pregnant with meaning for the
+American theater, too, because this lusty baby was to become its
+Napoleon.
+
+Almost before Charles was able to walk his wise and far-seeing mother,
+with a pride and responsibility that maintained the best traditions of
+the mothers in Israel, began to realize the restrictions and limitations
+of the Sandusky life.
+
+"These boys of ours," she said to the husband, "have no future here.
+They must be educated in New York. Their careers lie there."
+
+Strong-willed and resolute, she sent the two older sons, one at a time,
+on to the great city to be educated and make their way. The eldest,
+Daniel, went first, soon followed by Gustave. In 1864, and largely due
+to her insistent urging, the remainder of the family, which included the
+youthful Charles, packed up their belongings and, with the proceeds of
+the sale of the cigar factory, started on their eventful journey to New
+York.
+
+They first settled in one of the original tenement houses of New York,
+on Rivington Street, subsequently moving to Eighth Street and Avenue D.
+Before long they moved over to Third Street, while their fourth
+residence was almost within the shadow of some of the best-known city
+theaters.
+
+Henry Frohman had, as was later developed in his son Charles, a peculiar
+disregard of money values. Generous to a fault, his resources were
+constantly at the call of the needy. His first business venture in New
+York--a small soap factory on East Broadway--failed. Later he became
+part owner of a distillery near Hoboken, which was destroyed by fire.
+With the usual Frohman financial heedlessness, he had failed to renew
+all his insurance policies, and the result was that he was left with but
+a small surplus. Adversity, however, seemed to trickle from him like
+water. Serene and smiling, he emerged from his misfortune.
+
+The only business he knew was the cigar business. With the assistance of
+a few friends he was able to start a retail cigar-store at what was then
+708 Broadway. It was below Eighth Street and, whether by accident or
+design, was located in the very heart of the famous theatrical district
+which gave the American stage some of its greatest traditions.
+
+To the north, and facing on Union Square, was the Rialto of the day,
+hedged in by the old Academy of Music and the Union Square Theater. Down
+Broadway, and commencing at Thirteenth Street with Wallack's Theater,
+was a succession of more or less historic playhouses. At Eighth Street
+was the Old New York Theater; a few doors away was Lina Edwins's; almost
+flanking the cigar-store and ranging toward the south were the Olympic,
+Niblo's Garden, and the San Francisco Minstrel Hall. Farther down was
+the Broadway Theater, while over on the Bowery Tony Pastor held forth.
+
+Thus the little store stood in an atmosphere that thought, breathed, and
+talked of the theater. It became the rendezvous of the well-known
+theatrical figures of the period. The influence of the playhouses
+extended even to the shop next door, which happened to be the original
+book-store founded by August Brentano. It was the only clearing-house in
+New York for foreign theatrical papers, and to it came Augustin Daly,
+William Winter, Nym Crinkle, and all the other important managers and
+critics to get the news of the foreign stage.
+
+It was amid an environment touching the theater at every point that
+Charles Frohman's boyhood was spent. He was an impulsive, erratic,
+restless child. His mother had great difficulty in keeping him at
+school. His whole instinct was for action.
+
+Gustave, who had dabbled in the theatrical business almost before he was
+in his teens, naturally became his mentor. To Charles, Gustave was
+invested with a rare fascination because he had begun to sell books of
+the opera in the old Academy of Music on Fourteenth Street, the
+forerunner of the gilded Metropolitan Opera House. Every night the
+chubby Charles saw him forge forth with a mysterious bundle, and return
+with money jingling in his pocket. One night, just before Gustave
+started out, the lad said to him:
+
+"Gus, how can I make money like you?"
+
+"I'll show you some night if you can slip away from mother," was the
+brother's reply.
+
+Unrest immediately filled the heart of Charles. Gustave had no peace
+until he made good his promise. A week later he stole away after supper
+with his little brother. They walked to the Academy, where the old
+Italian opera, "The Masked Ball," was being sung. With wondering eyes
+and beating heart Charles saw Gustave hawk his books in the lobby, and
+actually sell a few. From the inside came the strains of music, and
+through the door a glimpse of a fashionable audience. But it was a
+forbidden land that he could not enter.
+
+Fearful of the maternal scolding that he knew was in store, Gustave
+hurried his brother home, even indulging in the unwonted luxury of
+riding on the street-car, where he found a five-dollar bill. The mother
+was up and awake, and immediately began to upbraid him for taking out
+his baby brother at night, whereupon Gustave quieted the outburst by
+permitting Charles to hand over the five-dollar bill as a peace
+offering.
+
+From that hour life had a new meaning for Charles Frohman. He had seen
+his brother earn money in the theater; he wanted to go and do likewise.
+The opportunity was denied, and he chafed under the restraint.
+
+In the afternoon, when he was through with the school that he hated, the
+boy went down to his father's store and took his turn behind the
+counter. Irksome as was this work, it was not without a thrilling
+compensation, because into the shop came many of the theatrical
+personages of the time to buy their cigars. They included Tony Pastor,
+whose name was then a household word, McKee Rankin, J. K. Mortimer, a
+popular Augustin Daly leading man, and the comedians and character
+actors of the near-by theaters.
+
+Here the magnetic personality of the boy asserted itself. His ready
+smile and his quick tongue made him a favorite with the customers. More
+than one actor, on entering the shop, asked the question: "Where is
+Charley? I want him to wait on me."
+
+In those days much of the theatrical advertising was done by posters
+displayed in shop-windows. To get these posters in the most conspicuous
+places passes were given to the shopkeepers, a custom which still holds.
+The Frohman store had a large window, and it was constantly plastered
+with play-bills, which meant that the family was abundantly supplied
+with free admission to most of the theaters in the district. The whole
+family shared in this dispensation, none more so than Henry Frohman
+himself, who could now gratify his desire for contact with the theater
+and its people to an almost unlimited extent. His greatest delight was
+to distribute these passes among his boys. They were offered as rewards
+for good conduct. Charles frequently accompanied his father to matinées
+at Tony Pastor's and the other theaters. Pastor and the elder Frohman
+were great pals. They called each other by their first names, and the
+famous old music-hall proprietor was a frequent visitor at the shop.
+
+But Charles became quite discriminating. Every Saturday night he went
+down to the old Théâtre Comique, where Harrigan and Hart were serving
+their apprenticeship for the career which made them the most famous
+Irish team of their time. The next morning at breakfast he kept the
+family roaring with laughter with his imitations of what he had seen and
+heard. Curiously enough, Tony Hart later became the first star to be
+presented by Charles Frohman.
+
+All the while the boy's burning desire was to earn money in the theater.
+He nagged at Gustave to give him a chance. One day Gustave saw some
+handsome souvenir books of "The Black Crook," which was then having its
+sensational run at Niblo's Garden. He found that he could buy them for
+thirty-three cents by the half-dozen, so he made a small investment,
+hoping to sell them for fifty cents in the lobby of the theater. That
+evening he showed his new purchases to Charles.
+
+Immediately the boy's eyes sparkled. "Let me see if I can sell one of
+them!"
+
+"All right," replied Gustave; "I will take you down to Niblo's to-night
+and give you a chance."
+
+The boy could scarcely eat his supper, so eager was he to be off.
+Promptly at seven o'clock the two lads (Charles was only eight) took
+their stand in the lobby, but despite their eager cries each was able to
+sell only a single copy. Gustave consoled himself with the fact that the
+price was too high, while Charles, with an optimism that never forsook
+him, answered, "Well, we have each sold one, anyhow, and that is
+something."
+
+Charles's profit on this venture was precisely seventeen cents, which
+may be regarded as the first money he ever earned out of the theater.
+
+But this night promised a sensation even greater. As the crowd in the
+lobby thinned, the strains of the overture crashed out. Through the open
+door the little boy saw the curtain rise on a scene that to him
+represented the glitter and the glory of fairyland. Beautiful ladies
+danced and sang and the light flashed on brilliant costumes. With their
+unsold books in their hands, the two boys gazed wistfully inside.
+Charles, always the aggressor, fixed the doorkeeper with one of his
+winning smiles, and the doorkeeper succumbed. "You boys can slip in," he
+said, "but you've got to go up in the balcony." Up they rushed, and
+there Charles stood delighted, his eyes sparkling and his whole face
+transfigured.
+
+During the middle of the second act Gustave tugged at his sleeve,
+saying: "We'll have to go now. You follow me down."
+
+With this he disappeared and hurried home. When he arrived he found the
+home in an uproar because Charles had not come back. Gustave ran to the
+theater, but the play was over, the crowd had dispersed, and the
+building was deserted. With beating heart and fearful of disaster to his
+charge, he rushed back to see Charles, all animation and excitement, in
+the midst of the family group, regaling them with the story of his first
+play. He had remained to the end.
+
+That thrilling night at "The Black Crook," his daily contact with the
+actors who came into the store, his frequent visits to the adjoining
+playhouses, fed the fire of his theatrical interest. The theater got
+into his very blood.
+
+A great event was impending. Almost within stone's-throw of the little
+cigar-store where he sold stogies to Tony Pastor was the Old New York
+Theater, which, after the fashion of that time, had undergone the
+evolution of many names, beginning with the Athenæum, and continuing
+until it had come under the control of the three famous Worrell
+sisters, who tacked their name to it. Shortly after the New Year of 1869
+they produced the extravaganza "The Field of the Cloth of Gold," in
+which two of them, Sophie and Jane, together with Pauline Markham, one
+of the classic beauties of the time, appeared. Charles had witnessed
+part of this extravaganza one afternoon. It kindled his memories of "The
+Black Crook," for it was full of sparkle and color. Charles and Gustave
+had made the acquaintance of Owen, the doorkeeper. One afternoon they
+walked over to the theater and stood in the lobby listening to a
+rehearsal.
+
+Owen, who knew the boys' intense love of the theater, spoke up, saying:
+"We need an extra page to-night. How would you like to go on?"
+
+Both youngsters stood expectant. They loved each other dearly, yet here
+was one moment where self-interest must prevail. Charles fixed the
+doorkeeper with his hypnotic smile, and he was chosen. Almost without
+hearing the injunction to report at seven o'clock, Charles ran back to
+the store, well-nigh breathless with expectancy over the coming event.
+With that family feeling which has marked the Frohmans throughout their
+whole life, Gustave hurried down-town to notify their eldest brother to
+be on hand for the grand occasion.
+
+Charles ate no supper, and was at the stage-door long before seven.
+Rigged up in a faded costume, he carried a banner during the
+performance. His two elder brothers sat in the gallery. All they saw in
+the entire brilliant spectacle was the little Charles and his faded
+flag.
+
+Charles got twenty-five cents for his evening's work, and brought it
+home bubbling with pride. To his great consternation he received a
+rebuke from his mother and the strong injunction never to appear on the
+stage again.
+
+This was Charles Frohman's first and only appearance on any stage. In
+the years to come, although he controlled and directed hundreds of
+productions, gave employment to thousands of actors in this country,
+England, and France, and ruled the destinies of scores of theaters, he
+never appeared in a single performance. Nor had he a desire to appear.
+
+* * *
+
+It will be recalled that in one way or another a great many passes for
+the theater found their way into the hands of the elder Frohman, who, in
+his great generosity of heart, frequently took many of the neighboring
+children along. He was the type of man who loves to bestow pleasure. But
+this made no difference with Charles. He was usually able to wring an
+extra pass from the bill-poster or some of the actors who frequented the
+store. Hence came about his first contract, and in this fashion: At that
+time Gustave Frohman was a famous cyclist. He was the first man to keep
+a wheel stationary, and he won prizes for doing so. He had purchased his
+bicycle with savings out of the theatrical earnings, and his bicycle and
+his riding became a source of great envy to Charles, who asked him one
+night if he would teach him how to ride.
+
+"Yes," replied Gustave, "I'll teach you if you will make a contract with
+me to provide five dollars' worth of passes in return."
+
+"Good!" said Charles, and the deal was closed.
+
+Gustave kept his word, and down in Washington Place, in front of the
+residence of old Commodore Vanderbilt, Charles learned to ride. He kept
+his part of the contract, too, and delivered five dollars' worth of
+passes ahead of schedule time.
+
+One of Gustave's cycling companions was the son of George Vandenhoff,
+the famous reader. Through him he met the father, who engaged him to
+post his placards for his series of lectures on Dickens. Charles
+accompanied Gustave on these expeditions, and got his first contact with
+theatrical advertising. Frequently he held the ladder while Gustave
+climbed up to hang a placard. Charles often employed his arts to induce
+an obdurate shopkeeper to permit a placard in his window. These cards
+were not as attractive as those of the regular theaters and it took much
+persuasion to secure their display. Charles sometimes sat in the
+box-office of Association Hall, where the Vandenhoff lectures were given
+and where Gustave sold tickets. It was here that Charles got his
+introduction to the finance of the theater.
+
+These days in the early 'seventies were picturesque and carefree for
+Charles. The boy was growing up in an atmosphere that, unconsciously,
+was shaping his whole future life. In the afternoon he continued his
+service behind the counter, hearing the actors tell stories of their
+triumphs and hardships. Often he slipped next door to Brentano's, where
+he was a welcome visitor and where he pored over the illustrations in
+the theatrical journals.
+
+Life at the store was not without incident. Among those who came in to
+buy cigars were the Guy brothers, famous minstrels of their time. They
+were particular chums of Gustave, and they likewise became great
+admirers of the little Charles. At the boys' request they would step
+into the little reception-room behind the store and practise their
+latest steps to a small but appreciative audience. This was Charles
+Frohman's first contact with minstrelsy, in which he was to have such
+an active part later on.
+
+Strangely enough, music and moving color always fascinated Charles
+Frohman. At that time, for it was scarcely more than a decade after the
+Civil War, there were many parades in New York, and all of them passed
+the little Broadway cigar-store. To get a better view, Charles
+frequently climbed up on the roof and there beheld the marching hosts
+with all their tumult and blare. Here it was, as he often later
+admitted, that he got his first impressions of street-display and
+brass-band effects that he used to such good advantage.
+
+A picturesque friendship of those early days was with the clock-painter
+Washburn, perhaps the foremost worker of that kind in this country. He
+painted the faces of all the clocks that hung in front of the jewelers'
+shops in the big city. He always painted the time at 8.17-1/2 o'clock,
+and it became the precedent which most clock-painters have followed ever
+since.
+
+Charles watched Washburn at work. One reason for his interest was that
+it dealt with gilt. The old painter took such a fancy to the lad that he
+wanted him to become his apprentice and succeed him as the first
+clock-face painter of his time. But this work seemed too slow for the
+future magnate.
+
+* * *
+
+Now came the first business contact of a Frohman with the theater, and
+here one encounters an example of that team-work among the Frohman
+brothers by which one of them invariably assisted another whenever
+opportunity arose. Frequently they created this opportunity themselves.
+To Gustave came the distinction of being the first in the business, and
+also the privilege of bringing into it both of his brothers. Having
+hovered so faithfully and persistently about the edges of theatricals,
+Gustave now landed inside.
+
+It was at the time of the high-tide of minstrelsy in this country--1870
+to 1880. Dozens of minstrel companies, ranging from bands of real
+negroes recruited in the South to aggregations of white men who blacked
+their faces, traveled about the country. The minstrel was the direct
+product of the slave-time singer and entertainer. His fame was
+recognized the world over. The best audiences at home, and royalty
+abroad, paid tribute to his talents. Out of the minstrel ranks of those
+days emerged some of the best known of our modern stars--men like
+Francis Wilson, Nat Goodwin, Henry E. Dixey, Montgomery and Stone,
+William H. Crane, and scores of others.
+
+One of the most famous organizations of the time was Charles Callender's
+Original Georgia Minstrels, hailing from Macon, Georgia, composed
+entirely of negroes and headed by the famous Billy Kersands. Ahead of
+this show was a mulatto advance-agent, Charles Hicks. He did very well
+in the North, but when he got down South he faced the inevitable
+prejudice against doing business with a negro. Callender needed some one
+to succeed him. A man whom Gustave Frohman had once befriended, knowing
+of his intense desire to enter the profession, recommended him for the
+position, and he got it.
+
+All was excitement in the Frohman family. At last the fortunes of one
+member were definitely committed to the theater, and although it was a
+negro minstrel show, it meant a definite connection with public
+entertainment.
+
+No one, not even Gustave himself, felt the enthusiasm so keenly as did
+little Charles, then twelve years old. He buzzed about the fortunate
+brother.
+
+"Do you think you can get me a job as programmer with your show?" he
+asked.
+
+"No," answered the new advance-agent. "Don't start in the business until
+you can be an agent or manager."
+
+On August 2, 1872, Gustave Frohman started to Buffalo to go ahead of the
+Callender Minstrels. Charles followed his brother's career with eager
+interest, and he longed for the time when he would have some connection
+with the business that held such thrall for him.
+
+Life now lagged more than ever for Charles. He chafed at the service in
+the store; he detested school; his one great desire was to earn money
+and share in the support of the family. His father urged him to prepare
+for the law.
+
+"No," he said, "I won't be a lawyer. I want to deal with lots of
+people."
+
+Charles frequently referred to Tony Pastor. "He's a big man," he would
+often say. "I would like to do what he is doing."
+
+A seething but unformed aspiration seemed to stir his youthful breast.
+Once he heard his eldest brother recite some stanzas of Alexander Pope,
+in which the following line occurs:
+
+_The whole, the boundless continent is ours._
+
+This line impressed the lad immensely. It became his favorite motto; he
+wrote it in his sister's autograph-album; he spouted it on every
+occasion; it is still to be found in his first scrap-book framed in
+round, boyish hand.
+
+Now the singular thing about this sentiment is that he never quoted it
+correctly. It was a life-long failing. His version--and it was strangely
+prophetic of his coming career--was:
+
+_The whole--the boundless earth--is mine._
+
+Meanwhile, Daniel Frohman had gone from _The Tribune_ to work in the
+office of _The New York Graphic_, down in Park Place near Church Street.
+_The Graphic_ was the aristocrat of newspapers--the first illustrated
+daily ever published anywhere. With the usual family team-work, Daniel
+got Charles a position with him in 1874. He was put in the circulation
+department at a salary of ten dollars a week, his first regular wage. It
+was a position with which personality had much to do, for one of the
+boy's chief tasks was to select a high type of newsboy equipped to sell
+a five-cent daily. His genial manner won the boys to him and they became
+his loyal co-workers.
+
+With amazing facility he mastered his task. Among other things, he had
+to count newspapers. It was before the day of the machine enumerator,
+and the work had to be done by hand. Charles developed such
+extraordinary swiftness that patrons in the office often stopped to
+watch him. In throwing papers over the counter it was necessary to be
+accurate and positive, and here came the first manifestation of his
+dogged determination. He never lost his cunning in counting papers, and
+sometimes, when he was rich and famous, he would take a bundle of
+newspapers, to help a newsboy in the street, and run through them with
+all his old skill and speed.
+
+* * *
+
+Though his fingers were in the newspapers, his heart yearned for the
+theater. This ambition was heightened by the fact that his brother
+Daniel, having heeded the lure of Gustave, joined the Callender
+Minstrels as advance-agent, while Gustave remained back with the show.
+Slowly but surely the theater was annexing the Frohman boys. In the
+summer of 1874 Charles was drawn into its charmed circle, and in a
+picturesque fashion.
+
+It was the custom for minstrel companies and other theatrical
+combinations to rent theaters outright during the dull summer months.
+The playhouses were glad to get the rental, and the organizations could
+remain intact during what would otherwise be a period of disorganization
+and loss. Gustave, therefore, took Hooley's Theater in Brooklyn for
+summer minstrel headquarters, and on a memorable morning in July Charles
+was electrified to receive the following letter from him:
+
+     _You can begin your theatrical career in the box-office of Hooley's
+     Theater in Brooklyn. Take a ferry and look at the theater. Hooley
+     is going to rent it to us for the summer. Your work will begin as
+     ticket-seller. You will have to sell 25, 50, and 75 cent tickets,
+     and they will all be hard tickets, that is, no reserved seats. Get
+     some pasteboard slips or a pack of cards and practise handling
+     them. Your success will lie in the swiftness with which you can
+     hand them out. With these rehearsals you will be able to do your
+     work well and look like a professional._
+
+Charles immediately bought a pack of the thickest playing-cards he could
+find and began to practise with them. Soon he became an expert shuffler.
+Often he used his father's cigar counter for a make-believe box-office
+sill, and across it he handed out the pasteboards to imaginary patrons.
+A dozen times he went over to Brooklyn and gazed with eager expectancy
+at the old theater, destined, by reason of his association with it, to
+be a historic landmark in the annals of American amusement.
+
+He wrote Gustave almost immediately:
+
+_I will be ready when the time comes._
+
+That great moment arrived the first Monday in August, 1874. Charles
+could scarcely contain his impatience. So well had the publicity work
+for the performance been done by the new advance-agent that when the boy
+(he was just fourteen) raised the window of the box-office at seven
+o'clock there was a long line waiting to buy tickets. The final word of
+injunction from Gustave was:
+
+"Remember, Charley, you must be careful, because you will be personally
+responsible for any shortage in cash when you balance up."
+
+The house was sold out. When Gustave asked him, after the count-up, if
+he was short, the eager-faced lad replied:
+
+"I am not short--I am fifty cents over!"
+
+"Then you can keep that as a reward for your good work," said Gustave.
+
+Callender was on hand the opening night. He watched the boy in the
+box-office with, an amused and lively interest. When Charles had
+finished selling tickets, Callender stepped up to him with a smile on
+his face and said:
+
+"Young fellow, I like your looks and your ways. You and I will be doing
+business some day."
+
+During this engagement, and with the customary spirit of family
+co-operation, Gustave said to Charles:
+
+"You can give your sister Rachel all the pennies that come in at the
+Wednesday matinée." At this engagement very little was expected in the
+way of receipts at a midweek matinée.
+
+But Gustave did not reckon with Charles. With an almost uncanny sense of
+exploitation which afterward enabled him to attract millions of
+theater-goers, the boy kept the brass-band playing outside the theater
+half an hour longer than usual. This drew many children just home from
+school, and they paid their way in pennies. The receipts, therefore,
+were unexpectedly large. When sister Rachel came over that day her
+beaming brother filled her bag with coppers.
+
+The summer of 1874 was a strenuous one for Charles Frohman. By day he
+worked in _The Graphic_ office, only getting off for the matinées; at
+night he was in the box-office at Hooley's in Brooklyn, his smiling face
+beaming like a moon through the window. He was in his element at last
+and supremely happy. When the season ended the Callender Minstrels
+resumed their tour on the road and Charles went back to the routine of
+_The Graphic_ undisturbed by the thrill of the theater.
+
+He was developing rapidly. Daily he became more efficient. The following
+year he was put in charge of a branch office established by _The
+Graphic_ in Philadelphia. Now came his second business contact with the
+theater. Callender's Minstrels played an engagement at Wood's Museum,
+and Daniel came on ahead to bill the show. Charles immediately offered
+his services. His advice about the location of favorite "stands" was of
+great service in getting posters displayed to the best advantage. It
+was the initial expression of what later amounted to a positive genius
+in the art of well-directed bill-board posting.
+
+While prowling around Philadelphia in search of amusement novelty--a
+desire that remained with him all his life--Charles encountered a unique
+form of public entertainment which had considerable vogue. It was
+Pepper's "Ghost Show," and was being shown in a small hall in Chestnut
+Street.
+
+The "Ghost Show" was an illusion. The actors seemed to be on the stage.
+In reality, they were under the stage, and their reflection was sent up
+by refracting mirrors. This enabled them (in the sight of the audience)
+to appear and disappear in the most extraordinary fashion. People
+apparently walked through one another, had their heads cut off, were
+shown with daggers plunged in their breasts. The whole effect was weird
+and thrilling.
+
+This show impressed Charles greatly, as the unusual invariably did. It
+gave him an idea. When Charles Callender joined his minstrel show at
+Philadelphia, young Frohman went to him with this proposition:
+
+"I believe," he said with great earnestness, "that there is money in the
+'Ghost Show.' The trouble with it now is that it is not being properly
+advertised. If you will let me have a hundred dollars, I will take
+charge of it and I think we can make some money out of it. It won't
+interfere with my work with _The Graphic_."
+
+Charles, who seldom left anything to chance, had already made an
+arrangement with the manager of the show to become his advertising
+agent.
+
+Callender, who liked the boy immensely, readily consented and gave him
+the required money, thus embarking Charles on his first venture with
+any sort of capital.
+
+Unfortunately, the show failed. Charles maintained that the
+Philadelphians lacked imagination, but with his usual optimism he was
+certain that it would succeed on the road. When he approached Callender
+again and offered to take it out on the road the minstrel magnate
+slapped him on the shoulder and said:
+
+"All right, my boy. If you say so, I believe you. You can take the show
+out and I'll back you."
+
+Charles counseled with Gustave, who continued as his theatrical monitor.
+Eagerly he said:
+
+"I've got a great chance. Callender is going to back me on the road with
+the 'Ghost Show.'"
+
+"No," said Gustave, firmly, "your time has not come. Wait, as I told you
+before, until you can go out ahead of a show as agent."
+
+Bitter as was the ordeal, Charles took his brother's advice, and the
+"Ghost Show" was abandoned to its fate.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+EARLY HARDSHIPS ON THE ROAD
+
+
+The Christmas of 1876 was not a particularly merry one for Charles
+Frohman. The ardent boy, whose brief experience in Hooley's box-office
+had fastened the germ of the theater in his system, chafed at the
+restraint that kept him at a routine task. But his deliverance was at
+hand.
+
+Shortly before the close of the old year Gustave quit the Callender
+Minstrels. With a capital of fifty-seven dollars he remained in Chicago,
+waiting for something to turn up. One day as he sat in the lobby of the
+old Sherman House he was accosted by J. H. Wallick, an actor-manager who
+had just landed in town with a theatrical combination headed by John
+Dillon, a well-known Western comedian of the time. They were stranded
+and looking for a backer.
+
+"Will you take charge of the company?" asked Wallick.
+
+"I've only got fifty-seven dollars," said Gustave, "but I'll take a
+chance."
+
+Between them they raised a little capital and started on a tour of the
+Middle West that was destined to play a significant part in shaping the
+career of Charles. In the company besides John Dillon were his wife,
+Louise Dillon (afterward the ingénue of Daniel Frohman's Lyceum
+Company); George W. Stoddart, brother of J. H. Stoddart of A. M.
+Palmer's Company, his wife and his daughter, Polly Stoddart, who married
+Neil Burgess; John F. Germon; Mrs. E. M. Post, and Wesley Sisson. Their
+repertory consisted of two well-worn but always amusing plays, "Our
+Boys" and "Married Life."
+
+Gustave was to remain with the company until they reached Clinton, Iowa.
+After that he was to go ahead while Wallick was to remain with the
+company. When Gustave was about to leave, the company protested. He had
+won their confidence, and they threatened to strike. What to do with
+Wallick was the problem.
+
+"Why not make him stage-manager?" suggested Dillon.
+
+"All right," said Gustave, "but who is to go ahead of the show?"
+
+The company was gathered on the stage of the Davis Opera House. Gustave
+scratched his head. Then he turned quickly on the group of stage folk
+and said:
+
+"I've got some one for you. I'll wire my brother Charles to come on and
+be advance-agent."
+
+Thus it came about that from a little Iowa town there flashed back to
+New York on a memorable morning in January, 1877, the following telegram
+from Gustave to Charles Frohman:
+
+     _Your time has come at last. Am wiring money for ticket to St.
+     Paul, where you begin as agent for John Dillon. Will meet you 2
+     A.M. at Winona, where you change cars and where I will instruct._
+
+Charles happened to be at home when this telegram came. It was the first
+he had ever received. With trembling hands he tore it open, his rosy
+face broke into a seraphic smile, and the tears came into his eyes. He
+rushed to his mother, threw his arms around her, and gasped:
+
+"At last I'm in the business!"
+
+He lost no time in starting. With a single grip-sack, which contained
+his modest wardrobe, the eager boy started on his first railroad journey
+of any length into the great West. It was the initial step of what, from
+this time on, was to be a continuous march of ever-widening importance.
+
+Begrimed but radiant, the boy stepped from a day-coach at two o'clock in
+the morning at Winona. No scene could have been more desolate. Save for
+the station-master and a solitary brakeman there was only one other
+person on hand, and that individual was the faithful Gustave, who
+advanced swiftly through the gloom and greeted his brother
+enthusiastically.
+
+Charles was all excitement. He had not slept a wink. It was perhaps the
+longest and most irksome journey he ever took. He was bubbling with the
+desire to get to work.
+
+The two brothers went to a hotel where Gustave had a room, and there
+they sat for four hours. It is a picture well worth keeping in mind: the
+pleased older boy, eager to get his brother started right; the younger
+lad all ears, and his eyes big with wonder and anticipation. There was
+no thought of food or rest. Gustave was enthusiastic about the company.
+He said to his brother:
+
+"Why, Charley, we've got real New York actors, and our leading lady,
+Louise Dillon, has a genuine sealskin coat. That coat will get us out of
+any town. You've got no 'Ghost Show' amateurs to handle now, but real
+actors and actresses."
+
+Then came an announcement that startled the boy, for Gustave continued:
+
+"Your salary is to be twenty-five dollars a week and hotel bills, but
+you must not spend more than one dollar and a half a day for meals and
+room."
+
+In this dingy room of an obscure hotel in a country town Charles Frohman
+got his first instructions in practical theatrical work. Perhaps the
+most important of this related to bill-posting. In those days it was a
+tradition in theatrical advertising that whoever did the most effective
+bill-posting in a town got the audience. Most of the publicity was done
+with posters. An advance-agent had to be a practical bill-poster
+himself. To get the most conspicuous sites for bills and to keep those
+bills up until the attraction played became the chief task of the
+advance-agent. The provincial bill-posters were fickle and easily
+swayed. The agent with the most persuasive personality, sometimes with
+the greatest drinking capacity, won the day.
+
+All this advice, and much more, was poured by Gustave into the willing
+ears of the youthful Charles. No injunction laid on that keen-eyed boy
+in the gray dawn of that historic morning back in the 'seventies was
+more significant than these words from his elder brother:
+
+"Your success in handling the bill-poster does not lie through a barroom
+door. Give him all the passes he wants, but never buy him a drink."
+
+That those words sank deeply into Charles Frohman is shown by the fact
+that he seldom drank liquor. His chief tipple through all the coming
+crowded years was never stronger than sarsaparilla, soda-water, or
+lemonade.
+
+The task ahead of Charles would have staggered any but the most
+dauntless enthusiasm. Among other things, as Gustave discovered, there
+was no route for the company after St. Paul, which was to be played the
+following week.
+
+"You must discover new towns and bill them," he said. "Get what printing
+you want. The printers have been instructed to fill orders from you."
+
+The hours sped on. Charles asked a thousand questions, and Gustave
+filled him with facts as dawn broke and day came. It was nearly seven
+o'clock, time for his train for St. Paul to leave. Charles would not
+hear of having breakfast. He was too full of desire to get to work.
+
+Among other things, Charles carried a letter from Gustave to Wallick,
+who was temporarily ahead of the show, which said:
+
+     _This is my brother Charles, who will take the advance in your
+     place._
+
+The first word that came from the young advance-agent announced action,
+for he wired:
+
+     _All right with Wallick. Have discovered River Falls._
+
+River Falls, it happened, had been "discovered" before and abandoned,
+but Charles thought he was making route history.
+
+Charles immediately set to work with the extraordinary energy that
+always characterized him. The chief bill-poster in St. Paul was named
+Haines. Charles captured him with his engaging smile, and he became a
+willing slave. It was Haines who taught him how to post bills. Later on
+when Gustave arrived with the show, he spoke of the boy with intense
+pride. He said:
+
+"I have taught your brother Charley how to post bills. He took to it
+like a duck to water. He didn't mind how much paste he spattered over
+himself. His one desire was to know how to do the job thoroughly. I am
+going to make him the greatest theatrical agent in the world."
+
+Curiously enough, Haines lived to be a very old man, and in the later
+years of his life he was able to stick up the twenty-eight-sheet stands
+that bore in large type the name of the little chubby protégé he had
+introduced to the art of bill-posting back in the long ago.
+
+At St. Paul Charles had opposition--a big musical event at Ingersoll
+Hall--and this immediately tested his resource. He got his printing
+posted in the best places, went around to the newspaper offices and got
+such good notices that John Dillon was inspired to remark that he had
+never had such efficient advance work. It is interesting to remember
+that at this time Charles Frohman was not yet eighteen years old.
+
+Now came the first evidence of that initiative which was such a
+conspicuous trait in the young man. He had come back to see the
+performances of his company, and had watched them with swelling pride.
+Several times he said, and with pardonable importance:
+
+"What _we_ need is a new play. _We_ must have something fresh to
+advertise."
+
+The net result of this suggestion was that his brother obtained the
+manuscript of "Lemons," a comedy that, under the title of "Wedlock for
+Seven," had been first produced at Augustin Daly's New Fifth Avenue
+Theater in New York. A copy of the play was sent on to Charles to
+enable him to prepare the presswork for it, and it was the first play
+manuscript he ever read. "Lemons" vindicated Charles's suggestion,
+because it added to the strength of the repertory and brought
+considerable new business.
+
+Charles took an infinite pride in his work. He was eager for
+suggestions, he worked early and late, and when the season closed at the
+end of June he was a full-fledged and experienced advance-agent. With
+his brother he reached Chicago July 4th. In the lobby of Hooley's
+Theater he was introduced to R. M. Hooley, who, after various hardships,
+again controlled the theater which bore his name, now Powers' Theater.
+Out of that chance meeting came a long friendship and a connection that
+helped in later years to give Charles Frohman his first spectacular
+success, for it was Mr. Hooley who helped to back "Shenandoah."
+
+On July 5th, six months after he had left the East for his first start,
+Charles appeared at his mother's home in New York, none the worse for
+his first experience on the road.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles was soon eager for the next season. Gustave had signed a
+contract with John Dillon to take him out again, this time as part owner
+of the company. He and George Stoddart agreed to put up two hundred and
+fifty dollars each to launch the tour of the Stoddart Comedy Company
+with John Dillon as star. Charles was to continue as advance-agent.
+
+It was a long summer for the boy. When August arrived and the time came
+to start west there was a financial council of war. Gustave counted on
+getting his capital from members of the family, but no money was
+forthcoming. Daniel had received no salary from Callender, and the great
+road project seemed on the verge of failure. Charles was disconsolate.
+But the mother of the boys, ever mindful of their interest, said, in her
+serene way:
+
+"I can get enough money to send you to Chicago and I will put up some
+lunches for you."
+
+Charles was eagerly impatient to start. He nagged at his brother:
+
+"Gus, when do we start for Chicago? Do we walk?"
+
+He was sent down-town to find out the cheapest route, and he returned in
+great excitement, saying:
+
+"The cheapest way is over the Baltimore & Ohio, second class, but it is
+the longest ride. We can ride in the day-coach, and even if we have no
+place to wash we will get to Chicago, and that is the main thing."
+
+When they reached Chicago the first of the long chain of disasters that
+was to attend them on this enterprise developed.
+
+Stoddart was penniless. The two hundred and fifty dollars that he
+expected to contribute to the capital of the new combination was swept
+away in the failure of the Fidelity Bank. He had looked forward to
+Gustave for help, and all the while Gustave, on that long, toilsome
+journey west, was hoping that his partner would provide the first
+railroad fares. So they sat down and pooled their woes, wondering how
+they could start their tour, with Charles as an interested listener.
+
+Every now and then he would chirp up with the question:
+
+"How do I get out of town?"
+
+Finally Gustave, always resourceful, said:
+
+"You don't need any money, Charley. I've got railroad passes for you,
+and you can give the hotels orders on me for your board and lodging."
+
+It was a custom in those days for advance-agents to give orders for
+their obligations--hotel, rent of hall, bill-posting, and baggage--upon
+the company that followed. Hotels in particular were willing to accept
+orders on the treasurer of a theatrical company about to play a date,
+because, in the event of complete failure, there was always baggage to
+seize and hold.
+
+So, armed with passes and with the optimism of youth and anticipation,
+Charles set forth on what became in many respects the most memorable
+road experience in his life. The first town he billed was Streator,
+Illinois. Then he hurried on to Ottawa and Peoria, where they were to
+play during fair week, which was the big week of the year. Misfortune
+descended at Streator, for despite the lavish display of posters and the
+ample advance notice that Charles lured the local editors into
+publishing, the total receipts on the first night were seventy-seven
+dollars. This, and more, had already been pledged before the curtain
+went up, and Gustave was not even able to pay John Dillon his seven
+dollars and seventy cents, which represented his ten per cent, of the
+gross receipts.
+
+By "traveling on their baggage," which was one of the expedients of the
+time and a custom which has not entirely passed out of use, the company
+got to Ottawa, where Charles joined them. Here, in a comic circumstance,
+he first developed the amazing influence that he was able to exert on
+people.
+
+Although an admirable actor with a large following and the most
+delightful and companionable of men, John Dillon had one unfortunate
+failing. He was addicted to drink, and, regardless of consequences, he
+would periodically succumb to this weakness. At Ottawa, the town crowded
+with visitors for the annual fair, Dillon fell from grace. The bill for
+the evening was "Lemons," and there was every indication that the house
+would be sold out. The receipts were badly needed, too.
+
+Late in the afternoon came the terrifying news that Dillon lay stupefied
+from liquor in his room. Everybody save Charles was in despair. Dillon
+had conceived a great fancy for Charles, and he was deputized to take
+the actor in hand, get him to the theater, and coerce him through the
+play.
+
+Charles responded nobly. He aroused the star, took him to the theater in
+a carriage, and stood in the wings throughout the whole performance,
+coaching and inspiring his intoxicated star. By an amusing circumstance,
+Dillon was required to play a drunken scene in "Lemons." He performed
+this part with so much realism that the audience gave him a great
+ovation. The real savior of that performance was the chubby lad who
+stood in the wings with beating heart, fearful every moment that Dillon
+would succumb.
+
+* * *
+
+New and heavier responsibilities now faced Charles Frohman. The company
+was booked to play a week in Memphis, Tennessee, the longest and most
+important stand of the tour. In those days the printers who supplied the
+traveling companies with advertising matter were powers to be reckoned
+with. When the supply of printing was cut off the company was helpless.
+
+Charles H. McConnell, of the National Printing Company, who supplied the
+Stoddart Company with paper, was none too confident of the success of
+that organization. When he heard of the Memphis engagement he insisted
+that Gustave, who was older and more experienced, be sent ahead to pave
+the way. Charles was sent back to manage the company, and now came his
+first attempt at handling actors. He rose to the emergency with all his
+characteristic ingenuity.
+
+He began at Champaign, Illinois. The first test of his resource came at
+a one-night stand--Waupaca, Iowa--where "Lemons" was billed as a
+feature. The prospects for a big house were good. Board and railroad
+fare seemed assured, when just before supper-time John F. Germon, one of
+the company, approached Charles in great perturbation.
+
+"We can't play to-night. Mrs. Post is sick."
+
+Mrs. Post played the part of the old woman in the play, and it was a
+very important rôle.
+
+Charles Frohman only smiled, as he always did in an emergency. Then he
+said to Germon:
+
+"You're a member of the well-known Germon family, aren't you? Then live
+up to its reputation and play the part yourself."
+
+"But how about my mustache?" asked Germon.
+
+"I will pay for having it shaved off," replied Frohman.
+
+The net result was that Germon sacrificed his mustache, played the part
+acceptably without any one in the audience discovering that he was a man
+masquerading as an old woman. Charles put Wallick, who was acting as
+stage-manager, in Germon's part. Thus the house was saved and the
+company was able to proceed.
+
+With his attractive ways and eternal thoughtfulness Charles captivated
+the company. He supplied the women with candy and bought peanuts for the
+men. On that trip he developed his fondness for peanuts that never
+forsook him. He almost invariably carried a bag in his pocket. When he
+could not get peanuts he took to candy.
+
+A great friendship struck up between Frohman and Stoddart, who, in a
+way, was a character. He played the violin, and when business was bad
+and the company got in the dumps Stoddart added to their misfortunes by
+playing doleful tunes on his fiddle. But that fiddle had a virtue not to
+be despised, because it was Stoddart's bank. In its hollow box he
+secreted his modest savings, and in more than one emergency they were
+drawn on for company bed and board. When the organization reached
+Memphis Charles had so completely won the affections of the company that
+they urged him to stay on with them. But business was business, and he
+had to go on in advance.
+
+Charles now went ahead to "bill" Texas. The reason for the expedition
+was this:
+
+In Memphis business was so bad that the manager of the theater there
+advised Gustave to send the company through Texas, where, he assured
+them, there would be no opposition, and they would have the state to
+themselves. This advice proved to be only too true, for the company not
+only had the state to itself, but the state for a time held the company
+fast--in the unwilling bonds of financial misfortune.
+
+The plan was to play the best towns in Texas and then go back through
+the Middle West, where John Dillon had a strong following, and where it
+was hoped the season could close with full pockets. Up to this time the
+company had received salaries with some degree of regularity. But from
+this time on they were to have a constantly diminishing acquaintance
+with money, for hard luck descended upon them the moment they crossed
+the frontiers of the Lone Star State.
+
+It was about this time that Charles Callender, at the solicitation of
+Gustave, purchased an interest in the Stoddart Comedy Company for a
+hundred-dollar bill. This bill was given to Charles as a "prop." In
+those days the financial integrity of the legitimate theatrical
+combination was sometimes questioned by hard-hearted hotel-keepers. The
+less esthetic "variety" troupes, minstrel shows, and circuses enjoyed a
+much higher credit. An advance-agent like Charles sometimes found
+difficulty in persuading the hotel people to accept orders on the
+company's treasurer.
+
+With characteristic enterprise Charles used the hundred-dollar bill as a
+symbol of solvency. He flashed it on hotel-keepers and railway agents in
+the careless way that inspired confidence, and, what was more to the
+point, credit. He carried this hundred-dollar bill for nearly a month.
+Often when asked to pay his board bill he would produce the note and ask
+for change. Before the startled clerk could draw his breath he would
+add:
+
+"Perhaps it might be best if I gave you an order on the treasurer."
+
+This always served to get him out of town without spending cash for
+hotel bills.
+
+Texas was still a rough country, and Charles's reckless display of the
+hundred-dollar bill once gave him a narrow escape from possible death.
+He had made the usual careless display of wealth at a small hotel in
+Calvert. The bad man of the town witnessed the performance and
+immediately began to shadow the young advance-agent. When Charles
+retired to his room he found, to his dismay, that there was no lock on
+the door. He had a distinct feeling that a robbery would be attempted,
+so he quietly left the hotel and spent the night riding back and forth
+on the train between Calvert and Dallas. This cost him nothing, for he
+had a pass.
+
+At Galveston occurred an unexpected meeting. Daniel Frohman, who was
+ahead of Callender's Minstrels, had arrived in town by boat from New
+Orleans (there being no railway connection then) to book his show for
+the next week. On arriving at the Tremont Opera House he was surprised
+to see Charles writing press notices in the box-office.
+
+"What are you doing here?" he asked. "I thought you were in Tennessee."
+
+Charles walked to the window and said, with great pride, "We play here
+all next week."
+
+"Have you got the whole week?" asked Daniel.
+
+"Yes," was the reply.
+
+"But can't you give me Monday or Tuesday night?" asked Daniel.
+
+"Impossible," replied Charles, haughtily.
+
+"All right," said Daniel, in friendly rivalry, "then I will have to hire
+Turner Hall and knock you out for two nights with our brass-band
+parade."
+
+Charles then came out into the lobby and confessed that his company was
+up against it, and that it meant bread and butter and possibly the whole
+future of the company if he could only play Galveston.
+
+"We are coming here on our trunks," he said, "and we've got to get some
+money."
+
+Daniel immediately relented. He arranged with the railroad to delay the
+train and thus make a connection which would carry his company on
+through to the interior. He booked Galveston for the second week
+following. This left the week in question free to Charles, who breathed
+easier.
+
+Charles now went on and billed Sherman, Houston, and Dallas. At Dallas
+the hard luck that had gripped the company the moment it left Memphis
+descended more vigorously than before. Dillon not only fell from grace
+again, but disappeared. Gustave Frohman had vowed that he would
+discharge him if he went on another spree, and he kept his word. They
+were in a real predicament, with star gone, business bad, and
+practically stranded a thousand miles from home.
+
+Charles, who frequently came back to join the company, was the one
+bright spot of those precarious days, for he never lost his optimism or
+his smile.
+
+"What we need," he said at a council of war in Dallas, "is a new play. I
+have been reading in the _New York Clipper_ about one called 'Pink
+Dominoes.' I think it is just the thing for us to do. In fact, I have
+already sent for a copy of it."
+
+The play arrived the next day, and when George Stoddart read it to him
+the young agent bubbled with laughter and said:
+
+"It's bound to be a big success."
+
+It was decided to put on "Pink Dominoes" at Houston. Charles remained
+behind and watched the rehearsals, the first of the kind he had ever
+seen. Contrary to all expectations, Houston was shocked by the play. The
+audience literally "walked out" and the run of one night ended.
+
+Misfortunes now crowded thick and fast. Salaries had ceased entirely,
+and it was with the utmost difficulty that the company proceeded on its
+way. As a crowning hardship, Callender repented of his bargain and
+withdrew the much-used and treasured hundred-dollar bill.
+
+When Charles met Gustave in Seguin he said: "We're up against a hard
+proposition. The people want John Dillon. It's hard to book an
+attraction without a star."
+
+In this statement Charles Frohman expressed a truth that he afterward
+made one of his theatrical axioms, for he became the leading exponent of
+the star system, and developed, in fact, into the king of the
+star-makers.
+
+Charles rose supreme over the hardships that filled his colleagues with
+gloom. Many a night, in order to save hotel bills, he slept on a train
+as it shunted back and forth between small towns. He always turned up in
+the morning smiling and serene, with cheer for his now discouraged and
+almost disgruntled colleagues.
+
+Louise Dillon's sealskin sack rendered heroic service during these
+precarious days. It was almost literally worn out as collateral. As
+Gustave had predicted, it got the company out of town on more than one
+occasion. A little incident will indicate some of the ordeals of that
+stage of the tour. At Hempstead a "norther" struck the town and the
+temperature dropped. Wesley Sisson caught a hard cold and concluded to
+get what he called "a good sweat." He had scarcely made his preparations
+and settled himself in bed when he heard a rap at the door and a voice
+said, "Open up."
+
+"Who's that?" asked Sisson.
+
+"Charley," was the reply. "Let me in. There isn't a spare bed in this
+house and I am freezing to death."
+
+"All right," said Sisson, "but you don't want to come in here, because I
+am trying to sweat to death."
+
+"Great Scott!" yelled Frohman, "that's what I want to do."
+
+Sisson let him in and he remained all night.
+
+* * *
+
+Everywhere Charles Frohman drew people to him. The first time he booked
+Houston he made friends with Colonel McPherson, who owned the Perkins
+Opera House and the inevitable saloon alongside. The old manager--a
+rather rough customer who had killed his man--was a great casino-player,
+and Charles beguiled several hours with him one night at a game while
+waiting for a train.
+
+In one of the company's darkest hours he said to Stoddart:
+
+"I've got an idea. Let's play Houston."
+
+"But we've just been there," said Stoddart.
+
+"Never mind," said Charles. "I'll fix it."
+
+The next day he turned up at Houston and went to Colonel McPherson.
+
+"What, you here again?" he asked.
+
+"We've come back," replied Charles with ready resource, "to play a
+special benefit for your School Teachers' Association."
+
+The old man chuckled. "Well, if you can get 'em in the house you are all
+right."
+
+Charles was already planning a series of benefits for volunteer firemen
+and widows and orphans in future towns. It was a case of "anything to
+get a crowd." He hesitated a moment, then faced the old man with his
+winning smile and said:
+
+"Colonel, I wish you would let me have fifty dollars to send back to the
+company."
+
+"All right, my boy; there's the safe. Help yourself. Hurry up. Let us
+have a game of casino."
+
+Charles wired the much-needed money to his brother, then came back and
+dutifully played the game. But neither trumped-up benefits for the most
+worthy of causes nor the unfailing good-humor of the boyish
+advance-agent could stem the tide of adversity. Things went from bad to
+worse. Louise Dillon, all hope of salary gone, gave her little remaining
+capital to Gustave, saving only enough for her railway fare, and went
+back to her home in Cincinnati. Stoddart now played more dolefully than
+ever on his violin, ransacked its recesses, and turned over his last
+cent for the common good.
+
+"We've got to get back North," said Gustave.
+
+With the utmost effort, and by pawning jewelry and clothes, the company
+gladly saw the last trace of Texas disappear over the horizon.
+
+It was a hard journey back. At Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Charles had to wait
+for the company because he did not have enough cash to go on ahead. Here
+the whole company was stranded until several of the members succeeded in
+getting enough money from home by wire to send them on.
+
+Memphis proved to be a life-saver. Here the company took a steamboat
+down the Arkansas. It is notable because thus early Charles showed that
+eagerness to take a chance which eventually caused his death, for, on
+this trip, as on the _Lusitania_, he had been warned not to sail.
+
+The river was low and the pilot was reckless. Whenever the boat groaned
+over a bar Charles would say, "That's great," although the other members
+of the company shivered with apprehension.
+
+By using every device and resource known to the traveling company of
+those days, the Stoddart Comedy Company finally reached Richmond,
+Kentucky. It had left a trail of baggage behind; there was not a watch
+in the whole aggregation. Charles went on ahead to Cincinnati to book
+and bill the adjacent towns.
+
+At Richmond Gustave had an inspiration. Then, as always, "Uncle Tom's
+Cabin" was the great life-saver of the harassed and needy theatrical
+organization. The play was always accessible and it almost invariably
+drew an audience.
+
+"Why not have a real negro play Uncle Tom?" said Gustave.
+
+So he wired Charles as follows:
+
+     _Get me an Eva and send her down with Sam Lucas. Be sure to tell
+     Sam to bring his diamonds._
+
+Sam Lucas was a famous negro minstrel who had been with the Callender
+company. He sported a collection of diamonds that made him the envy and
+admiration of his colleagues. Gustave knew that these jewels, like
+Louise Dillon's sealskin sack, meant a meal ticket for the company and
+transportation in an emergency.
+
+Charles engaged Sallie Cohen (now Mrs. John C. Rice), and sent her down
+with Lucas, who, by the way, provided the money for the trip. Charles
+then proceeded to cover his "Lemons" posters with "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
+printing which he hastily acquired, and awaited results.
+
+"Uncle Tom's Cabin" was played to a packed house at Richmond, and the
+company was able to get out of Kentucky. Gustave now had visions of big
+business in Ohio, and especially at Wilmington, which was Sam Lucas's
+home town. But the result was the usual experience with home patronage
+of home talent, and only a handful of people came to see the play.
+Sallie Cohen, despairing of getting her salary, had quit the company,
+and on this night Polly Stoddart, who was a tall, well-developed woman,
+had to play Little Eva. When she sat on the lap of Wesley Sisson, who
+played her father, she not only hid him from sight, but almost crushed
+him to earth.
+
+Wilmington proved to be the last despairing gasp of the Stoddart Comedy
+Company, for the trouble-studded tour now ended. Some of Lucas's
+diamonds were pawned to get the company back to Cincinnati.
+
+The sad news was telegraphed to Charles, who was billing Newport,
+Kentucky, which is just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. He
+received the message while standing on a step-ladder with a paste-brush
+in his hand. Now came an early evidence of his humor and equanimity. He
+calmly went on posting the bill for the show that he knew would never
+appear. Afterward in reciting the incident he made this explanation:
+
+"I didn't want to tell the bill-poster that the company was closed,
+because he had just made a fresh bucket of paste and I didn't want him
+to waste it. Besides, he had become enthusiastic at the prospect of
+seeing a real negro Uncle Tom, and I had just given him some passes for
+the show. I didn't want all his disappointments to come at one time."
+
+After all the hardships of the previous months, and with salaries
+unpaid, the company now found itself stranded in the spring of 1878 at
+the Walnut Street Hotel in Cincinnati. Gustave's problem was to get his
+people home. Fortunately, most of them lived in the Middle West. By
+pawning some of his clothes and making other sacrifices he was able to
+get them off. Only Frank Hartwell and Charles were left behind.
+
+Gustave got a pass to Baltimore, where he borrowed enough money from
+Callender, then in his decline, to take care of Hartwell. Charles was
+left behind as security for the whole Frohman bill at the Walnut Street
+Hotel. Although Charles was amiable and smiling, the hotel thought that
+his cheerful demeanor was an unsatisfactory return for board and
+lodging, so he was asked to vacate his room after a few days. He now
+spent his time walking about the streets and eating one meal a day. At
+night he sat in the summer-gardens "across the Rhine," listening to the
+music, and then seeking out a place where he could get a bed for a
+quarter.
+
+By giving an I O U to the same Pennsylvania ticket-agent who had staked
+Gustave, and with five dollars telegraphed by the indefatigable brother
+back in New York, he got as far as Philadelphia. He landed there without
+a cent in his pocket.
+
+"I must get home," he said.
+
+He got on a day-coach of a New York train without the vestige of a
+ticket and still penniless. In those days the cars were heated by
+stoves, and near each stove was a large coal-box.
+
+When Charles heard the conductor's cry, "Tickets, please!" he hid
+himself in the coal-box and remained there until the awful personage
+passed by. Being small, he could pull the lid of the box down and be
+completely hidden from sight. After the conductor passed, he scrambled
+out and resumed his seat. He had to repeat this performance several
+times on the trip. Afterward in speaking of it he said:
+
+"I wasn't a bit frightened for myself. I knew I would suffer no harm. My
+chief concern was for a kind-hearted old man who sat in the seat next
+to the coal-box. He was much more agitated than I was."
+
+On a bright May afternoon Charles turned up, sooty but smiling, at 250
+East Seventy-eighth Street, where the Frohman family then lived. He had
+walked all the way up-town from the ferry. His first greeting to Gustave
+was:
+
+"Well, when do we start again?"
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+PICTURESQUE DAYS AS MINSTREL MANAGER
+
+
+Instead of discouraging him, Charles Frohman's baptism of hardship with
+the John Dillon companies only filled him with a renewed ardor for the
+theatrical business. The hunger for the road was strong in him. Again it
+was Gustave who proved to be the good angel, and who now led him to a
+picturesque experience.
+
+During the summer of 1878 J. H. (Jack) Haverly acquired the Callender
+Original Georgia Minstrels, and Gustave, who had an important hand in
+the negotiation, was retained as manager. He started for the Pacific
+coast with his dusky aggregation, and in Chicago fell in with his new
+employer.
+
+Haverly was then at the high tide of his extraordinary career. He was in
+many respects the amusement dictator of his time. Beginning as owner of
+a small variety theater in Toledo, Ohio, he had risen to be the manager
+of half a dozen important theaters in New York, Chicago, and
+Philadelphia. Not less than ten traveling companies bore his name.
+
+By instinct a plunger, his daring deals became the theatrical talk of
+the country. He was a dashing and conspicuous figure; his spacious
+shirt-front shone with diamonds, and he wore a large flat-crowned stiff
+hat in which he carried all his correspondence and private papers.
+
+Haverly specialized in minstrels, for he was a genius at capitalizing
+the enthusiasm of the theater-going public. Just at this time he was
+launching the greatest of all his traveling enterprises. To meet the
+competition of the newly formed Barlow, Wilson, Primrose and West
+minstrels he decided to merge all his white minstrel companies into the
+Haverly Mastodons. It was to include forty star performers, more than
+had ever before been assembled in a minstrel organization. So proud was
+Haverly of this total that the advertising slogan of the company, which
+was echoed from coast to coast, and which became a popular theatrical
+phrase everywhere, was "Forty--Count 'Em--Forty."
+
+Gustave found Haverly in the throes of Mastodon-making. Always
+solicitous of the family interest, he asked him if he had engaged a
+treasurer. When Haverly replied that he had not, Gustave immediately
+spoke up:
+
+"Why don't you hire my brother Charley? He has had experience on the
+road."
+
+"All right, Gus," he replied. "I've got two Frohmans with me now. If
+Charley is as good as they are, he is all right."
+
+Thus it came about that for the first time the three Frohman brothers
+were associated under the same employer.
+
+Gustave wired the good news and transportation to the eager and
+impatient Charles, who had irked under the inactivity of a hot summer in
+New York. Gustave added ten dollars and instructed his brother to buy a
+new suit, for the Frohman family funds were in a more or less sad way.
+
+Henry Frohman's generosity and his absolute inability to press the
+payment of debts due him had brought the father to a state of financial
+embarrassment, and the burden of the family support fell upon the sons.
+
+In a few days Charles showed up smiling in Chicago, but he had suffered
+disaster on the way. The ten-dollar "hand-me-down" suit had faded
+overnight, and when Charles appeared it was a sad sight.
+
+"You can't meet Jack Haverly in that suit," said Gustave.
+
+"All right," said Charley, "I will go to a tailor and have it fixed in
+some way."
+
+The tailor, apparently, worked a miracle with the clothes, for Charles
+became presentable and was introduced to the great man, who, like most
+other people, readily succumbed to the boy's winning manner.
+
+"You and I will work the public, all right," he said to Charles. What
+was more important, Haverly informed him that he was to act as treasurer
+of the Mastodons at a salary of ten dollars a week, with an allowance of
+one dollar and a half a day for board and lodging.
+
+A serious complication now faced the boy. It was in the middle of July;
+the company was not to start until August, and he could draw no salary
+until the engagement began. With the assistance of Gustave he rented a
+two-dollar-a-week room and existed on a meal-ticket good for twenty-two
+fifteen-cent meals that he had bought for three dollars.
+
+Charles sat at rehearsals with Haverly. He had a genius for stage
+effects and made many practical suggestions. The big brass-band, an
+all-important adjunct of the minstrel show, fascinated him. When the
+season opened with a flourish the receipts amazed him.
+
+For the first time he came in contact with real money. The gross income
+of the Dillon company had never exceeded a thousand dollars a week; now
+he was handling more than that sum every night.
+
+After a brief engagement at the Adelphi Theater in Chicago, which
+Haverly owned, the "Forty--Count 'Em--Forty" started on their long tour
+which rounded out the amusement apprenticeship of Charles Frohman.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles now made his first real appearance before the public, and in
+spectacular fashion. It was the custom of a minstrel company to parade
+each day. With their record-breaking organization the Mastodons gave
+this feature of minstrelsy perhaps its greatest traditions. Wearing
+shining silk hats, frock-coats, and lavender trousers, and headed by
+"the world's greatest minstrel band," the "Forty--Count 'Em--Forty"
+swayed the heart and moved the imagination of admiring multitudes
+wherever they went.
+
+Charles, who to the end of his days despised a silk hat, now wore one
+for the first time, but under protest. However, he manfully took his
+place in the front set of fours with the ranking officers of the
+organization, and marched many a weary mile. So great was his dislike
+for a silk hat even then that he invariably carried a cap in his pocket
+and the moment the parade was over the abhorred headpiece was removed.
+
+The first stop of the Mastodons was at Toledo, Ohio. A great crowd
+assembled around the theater, and the treasurer, a weak little man,
+seemed afraid to raise the window. "They'll run over me," he whined.
+
+"All right," said Charles. "I'll take the window and sell the tickets."
+
+Up to this time his only box-office experience had been as a mere lad at
+Hooley's Theater in Brooklyn, but he handled that big crowd with such
+skill and speed that even "Big Bill" Foote, who was the manager of the
+company, patted him on the back and said a kind word.
+
+Foote, who was Charles's superior officer on this trip, was a type of
+the big, loud, blustering theatrical man of the time. He was six feet
+tall, and he towered over his youthful assistant, who was his exact
+opposite in manner and speech. Yet between these two men of strange
+contrast there developed a close kinship. The little, plump,
+rosy-cheeked treasurer could handle the big, bluff, noisy manager at
+will. Such was Charles Frohman's experience with men always.
+
+The first tour was replete with stirring incident. When the company
+reached Bradford, Pennsylvania, they found the town in the throes of oil
+excitement. Oil was on everybody's tongue and ankle-deep in some of the
+streets. A great multitude collected at the theater. After the first
+part of the show the gallery, which was full of people, creaked and
+settled a few inches, creating a near panic. While this was being
+subdued an oil-warehouse on the outskirts of the town burst into flames.
+Most of the volunteer firemen were in the theater watching the
+minstrels. When an agitated individual out on the sidewalk yelled
+"Fire!" a real panic started inside the theater and there was a mad rush
+for the door.
+
+Charles had just finished taking the tickets and stood with the
+ticket-box in his hand, trying to calm the crowd, but he was as a straw
+in the wind. The maddened people ran over him. When the excitement
+cleared away he was found almost buried in mud, mire, and oil outside,
+his clothes torn to shreds, but he still grasped the precious box in his
+hand.
+
+Now began a comradeship that was unique in the history of theatricals.
+The Mastodons, destined for long and continuous association, became a
+sort of traveling club. It was really a fine group of men, and the
+favorite of the organization was the rosy little treasurer who day by
+day fastened himself more firmly in the hearts of his colleagues.
+
+Nor was this due to the fact that he was "Haverly's pocket-book," as the
+men affectionately called him, and their first aid in all financial
+need. He was the friend, confidant, and repository of all their
+troubles. With characteristic humor he gave each member of the company a
+day on which he could relate his hardships. He had a willing ear and an
+open hand.
+
+When he could not give them the relief they sought he invariably said
+with that constant smile, "Well, I sympathize with you, anyhow."
+
+Frohman was custodian of the company funds. One day in Denver four
+members of the company found themselves without a cent. Charles had
+tided them over so many difficulties that they hesitated to ask him
+again. As they talked their troubles over they saw him coming down the
+street. Instantly all four went down on their knees and held up their
+hands in supplication. When Charles saw them he said, "How much do you
+want?" And they got it.
+
+He was always playing some practical joke. With half a dozen members of
+the company he formed a little club which often had supper after the
+play. This club was the fountain-head of a thousand jests and pranks. On
+one occasion Charles suggested that for the sake of the novelty of the
+thing every member of the club have his head shaved. The group went to a
+barber-shop. Only one chair was vacant, however, and Charles Cushman
+got that chair. While his dome was being shorn of every vestige of hair
+Charles nudged the others and they crept away. When Cushman emerged,
+bald as a babe, he found himself alone. The joke was on him.
+
+In his joke Charles was usually aided and abetted by Johnnie Rice, one
+of the many famous minstrels of that name. Rice could never resist the
+temptation to stroke long whiskers. Whenever the house was unusually big
+Charles took Rice out of the company for the first part and got him to
+assist him with the ticket-taking. Any spectator with a long facial
+hirsute growth was sure to have it caressed to the accompaniment of
+"Ticket, please."
+
+Sometimes the men in the company, knowing of Rice's eccentricity, often
+watched the gallery for such a performance, and it invariably made them
+laugh. Once while the Mastodons were playing an engagement at the
+Olympic in St. Louis they were surprised to find Rice sitting in a front
+orchestra seat, wearing a long pair of Dundreary whiskers. He looked so
+solemn that every one on the stage burst into laughter. It almost broke
+up the performance. Charles had provided the whiskers.
+
+* * *
+
+It was on this minstrel tour that Charles Frohman gave the first real
+expression to his talents for publicity. Everything about a minstrel
+company was showy and flashy. So Charles originated a unique idea of
+establishing a reputation for solvency. He bought a small iron safe
+about three feet high. On it were painted in large gilt letters,
+"Treasurer, Haverly's Mastodon Minstrels."
+
+In reality there was very little need for this safe, because "Jack"
+Haverly's constant and insistent demands for cash kept the company
+coffers stripped of surplus.
+
+Charles saw in this safe a spectacular means of advertising. It was put
+conspicuously on the top of the first load of baggage that went to the
+hotel. He always engaged at least four men to unload it from the truck.
+It was then placed in a conspicuous position in the hotel lobby and
+invariably drew a comment like this:
+
+"Gee whiz! That Haverly show has got so much money that it is carrying a
+safe to hold it."
+
+This was precisely the response that Charles desired. No sooner was the
+safe unloaded in the lobby than Charles approached it with great
+ceremony, holding a bunch of one-dollar bills in his hand. This
+immediately attracted a crowd. With an admiring gallery, he would stow
+away the money. Just as soon as the crowd dispersed he would be back on
+the job removing this "prop" capital to where it was needed.
+
+He was always alert to publicity possibilities. Among other things he
+organized a drum corps composed of volunteers who were only too glad to
+serve him. He inspired this corps to such proficiency that its marching
+and counter-marching became a feature of the parades. By diverting the
+drum corps to one part of the town and the parade to another, having
+them unite later on, he was able to attract two big street crowds and
+then bring them together at a common point.
+
+All the while the boy was growing in responsibility. Without a murmur he
+assumed practically all the duties of manager. He arranged the parades,
+visited the newspaper offices, devised new numbers for the company,
+handled the money, and always remained serene, undisturbed, smiling, and
+optimistic.
+
+Now came evidence of his initiative. While his first desire was to build
+up the attractiveness of his bill, he combined with it a genuine desire
+to develop his associates. Frequently he would say to men like the three
+Gorman brothers--George, James, and John--who were among his prime pals
+in the company:
+
+"Why don't you rehearse some new steps? I'll go on and watch you at
+rehearsals and we can put it in the bill."
+
+Out of such incidents as this came a dozen new features.
+
+* * *
+
+During this tour Charles displayed on many occasions what amounted to a
+reckless disregard of danger. He had proved on the Dillon tour that he
+was always willing to take a chance.
+
+Once while climbing a steep incline on the way to Grass Valley in
+California their special train stopped. When he asked what the trouble
+was he was told that they would have to wait on a switch while another
+train came down the single track. He was afraid he would miss the
+evening's performance, so he asked the engineer if he could beat the
+down train to the double track. On being told that there was a chance,
+he said:
+
+"Take it and go as fast as you can." He made his town in time.
+
+Again in Colorado his train was stopped by a slight fire on a bridge. He
+urged the conductor to go across, and was so insistent that the man
+yielded, and the train got over just before the flames leaped up and the
+structure began to crackle.
+
+What would have been an ordinary theatrical season waned. A minstrel
+company, however, seldom closed for the summer, so the tour continued.
+For the first time Charles Frohman crossed the continent. Despite its
+high-sounding name and the glitter and splash that marked its
+spectacular progress from place to place, the long trip of the Mastodons
+was not without its hardships, for business was often bad. Nor did it
+lack interesting episodes.
+
+Once while making an over-Sunday jump from St. Paul to Omaha the train
+broke down somewhere in Iowa, and at seven o'clock the company was four
+hours from its destination. The house had been sold out. Charles
+immediately began to send optimistic and encouraging telegrams.
+
+"Hold the crowd," he wired. "We are on the way. Tell them we will give
+them a double show."
+
+From every station he sent on some cheering message. When the train was
+half an hour from Omaha he sought out Sam Devere, the prize banjoist of
+the company and a great fun-maker.
+
+"Go into the baggage-car and black up," he said to Sam. "I want to rush
+you on to the theater as soon as we get to town."
+
+They reached Omaha at eleven-fifteen o'clock. Charles hustled Devere up
+to the opera-house in a hack. The comedian went before the curtain and
+entertained the audience until midnight. When the company arrived not
+twenty people had left. The final curtain dropped at two-thirty o'clock
+before a delighted but weary crowd. The telegrams from the treasurer
+which were read to the audience had saved the day--and the receipts.
+
+In the early stages of this long journey of the Mastodons came an
+episode that made an indelible impress upon the memory of young Charles.
+In view of the later history of the two actors in it, it is both
+picturesque and historic.
+
+It was in Cleveland, and the day was hot. The Mastodons had just
+finished their parade, and Charles, weary, perspiring, and wearing the
+abhorred silk hat, entered the box-office of the Opera House on
+Cleveland Avenue. Sitting in the treasurer's seat at the window he saw a
+sturdy lad fingering a pile of silver dollars. He slipped them in and
+out with an amazing dexterity. Hearing a noise, he looked up and beheld
+young Frohman with the tile tilted back on his head.
+
+The boys' eyes met. Into each came a wistful look.
+
+"I wish I had that silk hat of yours," said the boy at the window.
+
+"I wish I could do what you are doing with that money," was the response
+from the envied one.
+
+Such was the first meeting between Charles Frohman and A. L. Erlanger.
+
+Here is another episode of those early days that resulted in a life-long
+and significant friendship. In a Philadelphia newspaper office Charles
+met a rangy, keen-eyed young man named Alf Hayman, who was advance-agent
+for Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Florence. When Hayman and Charles had concluded
+their business they started out for a walk. The Colonnade Hotel, at the
+corner of Fifteenth and Chestnut streets, was then the fashionable hotel
+of the city. In the course of this walk the two boys (they were each
+scarcely twenty) stopped in front of the hostelry, and Charles said:
+
+"Some day I hope to have enough money to stop at the Colonnade."
+
+He never forgot this, and whenever he met Hayman in Philadelphia he
+would always insist upon walking over to the hotel and recalling the
+conversation. Hayman afterward became general manager of all the Charles
+Frohman forces and remained until the end perhaps the closest of all the
+business associates of the manager.
+
+* * *
+
+Thus passed the years 1878 and 1879. Charles was growing in authority
+and experience until he was really doing all of "Big Bill" Foote's work
+and his own. Now came a great and thrilling experience.
+
+Haverly sent the Mastodons on their first trip to England, and Charles
+naturally went along. It was the first of the many trips he was to make
+to the country which in time he was to annex to his own amusement
+kingdom.
+
+In July, 1880, the company sailed on the _Canada_, and their arrival in
+London created a sensation. The men, headed by "Big Bill" Foote and
+Charles Frohman--"The Long and the Short of It," as they were
+called--marched with their hat-boxes to the old Helvetia Hotel in Soho.
+
+Overnight their printing--the first colored paper ever used on an
+English bill-board--was posted, and it startled the staid Londoners. It
+made them realize that a wide-awake aggregation was in town. Charles
+knew that a real opportunity confronted him, and he rose to the
+occasion.
+
+The engagement opened on July 30th at Her Majesty's Theater. The sacred
+precincts that Patti, Neilson, Gerster, and Campanini had adorned now
+resounded with the jokes and rang with the old-time plantation melodies
+of the American negro. The début was an enormous success and the
+prosperity of the engagement was insured.
+
+Before long came a request from the royal household to make ready the
+royal box. The fun-loving Prince of Wales, afterward King Edward VII.,
+wanted to see an American minstrel show.
+
+But it was the wide-awake Charles who had started the machinery that led
+to this royal dictate. He realized soon after his arrival how important
+a royal visit would be. He got in touch with the right people, and the
+net result was that on a certain night in December the red canopy and
+carpet that betoken the royal visit were spread before Her Majesty's
+Theater.
+
+By virtue of his rank "Big Bill" Foote should have received the royal
+party on behalf of the company. But Foote fled from the responsibility,
+and Charles, wearing his much-hated evening clothes and the equally
+despised silk hat, did the honors. The royal party included Edward, his
+wife, Alexandra (now the Queen Mother), his brother Clarence (now dead),
+and a troop of royal children old enough to stay up late at nights.
+
+With his usual foresight Frohman had prepared himself for all the
+formalities that attended a royal visit to the theater. Among other
+things he found out that precedent decreed that the entire performance
+must be directed toward the royal box. With much effort he carefully
+impressed this fact upon the company. He even had a rehearsal the
+morning of the royal night and all eyes were ordered to be "dressed"
+toward the big, canopied box.
+
+But these well-laid plans miscarried, for this is what happened:
+
+The curtain had risen on the assembled fun-makers; their swinging
+opening chorus had given the show a rousing start, and the interlocutor
+had said those well-known introductory minstrel words, "Gentlemen, be
+seated." The royal party was well bestowed in its place and every
+gleaming eyeball on the stage was centered on the glittering
+representatives of the reigning house of Britain. Just at that moment a
+flutter ran through the theater. The only remaining vacant box, and
+opposite to the one used by the royal family, was suddenly occupied by
+the most entrancing and radiant feminine vision that these American
+minstrels had ever seen. It was Lily Langtry, then in the full tide of
+her marvelous beauty, and wearing an extremely low-cut evening gown.
+
+The Mastodons were only human. They had never beheld such loveliness, to
+say nothing of a gown cut so low. They forgot all the careful coaching
+of Frohman and fixed their eyes on the beauty-show in the box.
+
+Charles stood anxiously in the back of the house, fearing that the royal
+displeasure would be aroused. But his fears were groundless. The
+hypnotized minstrels on the stage were only part of an admiring host
+that had for its most distinguished head the Prince of Wales himself.
+
+The "Forty--Count 'Em--Forty" now became the vogue in London. Royalty
+had set the stamp of its approval, and aristocracy flocked. One night in
+the momentary absence of the chief usher, Charles, who was always on the
+job, escorted a distinguished group of nobility to a box. After bowing
+them in a member of the party slipped a shilling into his hand, which
+Frohman, of course, refused.
+
+"Take it, you beggar," said the peer, with some irritation, throwing the
+coin at him.
+
+"Thank you, sir," responded Frohman, picking it up and slipping it into
+his pocket. He kept it as a lucky-piece for twenty years, often telling
+the story of how he got it.
+
+On Christmas Day, 1880, came a concrete evidence of the affection in
+which Charles was held by his minstrel colleagues. They assembled on the
+stage of Her Majesty's Theater and presented him with a gold watch and
+chain. The charm was a tiny reproduction of the famous safe that Charles
+had introduced into the company, and which was his inseparable
+companion. Charles never carried a watch, and this timepiece, together
+with many other similar gifts, was put away among his treasures.
+
+One day, accompanied by Robert Filkins, the advance-agent, Charles had
+occasion to see Col. M. B. Leavitt, who was a notable theatrical figure
+of the time, with extensive interests in this country and abroad. After
+Leavitt had regaled the younger men with an account of his varied
+activities, Charles suddenly exclaimed to him:
+
+"Gee! But you've got London by the neck, haven't you?"
+
+Many years later Leavitt again met Charles Frohman in London. The
+encounter this time took place on the Strand, in front of the Savoy,
+where Frohman was installed in his usual luxurious suite. He now
+controlled half a dozen theaters in the British metropolis and he was a
+world theatrical figure. Leavitt, whose memory is one of the wonders of
+the amusement business, clapped the magnate on the shoulder and repeated
+the words spoken to him so long ago:
+
+"Gee! Frohman, _you'_ve got London by the neck, haven't you?"
+
+After a tour of the provinces the company returned home and opened in
+Brooklyn.
+
+* * *
+
+With the return to America came the first realization of one of Charles
+Frohman's earlier dreams. "Big Bill" Foote, fascinated by the lure of
+English life, bought a small hotel near London and settled down. This
+left the managership of the company vacant. Although Charles had
+practically done all the work for nearly a year, he was, so far as title
+was concerned, treasurer.
+
+Immediately there was a scramble for the position of manager. Among
+those who sought it were Robert Filkins, William S. Strickland, and a
+number of other mature and experienced men.
+
+But when the company heard that an outsider sought the position to which
+Charles was entitled there was great indignation. A meeting of protest,
+instigated by the Gorman brothers and Eddie Quinn, was held on the stage
+in Brooklyn, and a round-robin, signed by every member of the company,
+was despatched to Jack Haverly, insisting that Charles Frohman be made
+the manager.
+
+A little later Charles walked back on the stage after the night's
+performance and quietly remarked:
+
+"Boys, I am your new manager."
+
+A great shout of delight went up. The rosy, boyish youth (for he had
+scarcely entered his twenties) was lifted to the shoulders of half a
+dozen men and to the words of a favorite minstrel song, "Hear Those
+Bells," a triumphant march was made around the stage. None of the many
+honors that came to him in his later years touched him quite so deeply
+as that affectionate demonstration.
+
+It was now 1881, and once more the "Forty--Count 'Em--Forty" set forth
+to rediscover America, with Charles Frohman as manager. His name now
+appeared at the head of the bill, and to celebrate the great event Eddy
+Brooke wrote a "Frohman March," which had a conspicuous place on the
+program.
+
+Strangely prophetic of the circumstances which brought about his
+untimely death was an incident which occurred while the company was
+going by boat from New York to New London. It was a bitter cold night
+when the aggregation boarded the old _John B. Starin_. The decks were
+piled with waste, cord, and jute for the New England mills.
+
+"What a fine night for a fire on board!" remarked Frohman as he led his
+"soldiers," as he always called the Mastodons, aboard. Everybody retired
+early. At two o'clock in the morning there was great excitement. Men
+rushed frantically about; there were calls for hose, and the Mastodons,
+most of them clad in their night-clothes and trousers, rushed,
+frightened, on deck. They found a fire raging aft.
+
+Immediately panic reigned. The coolest man aboard was the smallest.
+Here, there, and everywhere went Charles, urging everybody to be quiet.
+
+"There is no danger," he said. "Let us all go in the cabin and wait."
+
+Under his direction the passengers assembled in the water-soaked saloon
+and there waited until the flames were subdued. Here was evidence of the
+equanimity with which he faced disaster and which marked him on that
+ill-starred day when he was plunged to his death in the Irish Sea.
+
+On through the summer of 1881 the Mastodons went their way. Charles was
+now able to watch the minstrel parade from the sidewalk, but he was
+still the friend, philosopher, and guide of the company to which he was
+now bound by nearly three years of constant association.
+
+They played Washington during the Garfield inaugural week. Charles
+realized that here was a great opportunity for spectacular publicity.
+First of all he took his now famous band down to the Willard Hotel and
+serenaded the new executive. A vast crowd gathered; the President-elect
+appeared at the window, smiled and bowed, and then sent for the little
+manager, to whom he expressed his personal thanks. Then a heaven-born
+opportunity literally fell into his hands.
+
+To the same hotel came the Massachusetts Phalanx, of Lowell, which had
+secured a conspicuous place in the inaugural parade. Their arrangement
+committee had seen the Haverly parade, and the members were so greatly
+impressed with the band that they asked if its services could be
+secured.
+
+"Certainly," said Frohman. "You can have not only the band, but the
+whole company will escort you in the parade."
+
+Thus it came about that the Haverly Mastodon Minstrels headed the third
+division of the Garfield inaugural parade. Ever mindful and proud of his
+men, Frohman, at his personal expense, bought a buttonhole bouquet for
+every member for the occasion and fastened it on their coats himself. On
+the sidewalk he followed with admiring eye and flushed face the progress
+of his company.
+
+By a curious coincidence the Haverly Mastodons played Washington during
+the week of the Garfield funeral, and the band marched in the funeral
+parade to the station, playing "Nearer, My God, to Thee."
+
+A happier sequel of the inaugural episode came when the minstrels next
+played Lowell, where they were received by the Phalanx in full uniform,
+paraded through the town, with Charles marching proudly at the head. The
+Phalanx was host at a banquet given at the armory after the performance.
+
+The Mastodons were now making their way to the Pacific coast. At the
+same time Gustave Frohman was in San Francisco with the Number One
+"Hazel Kirke" Company, direct from the Madison Square Theater in New
+York, which was playing at the California Theater.
+
+One morning in May, 1881, he received the following telegram from
+Charles, dated Salt Lake City:
+
+     _Am stranded here with the "Big Forty." So is Frank Sanger with "A
+     Bunch of Keys." Theater management has failed to send railroad
+     fares. Wire me what you can. Will return amount out of receipts
+     Bush Street Theater._
+
+The manager of the Bush Street Theater, in San Francisco, had agreed to
+provide railroad transportation for the company from Salt Lake City to
+San Francisco and had not kept his agreement. The receipts in the former
+city did not leave a sufficient surplus to negotiate this jump.
+
+Gustave wired the needed cash, and Charles showed up on time in San
+Francisco. For the second and only other time in his theatrical career
+Charles was somewhat downcast. Despite his effective services during the
+preceding years, Haverly had only raised his salary to twenty-five
+dollars a week. The boy had handled hundreds of thousands of dollars
+and had helped in no small way to give to the organization its prestige
+and its _esprit de corps_. He was now, in the phraseology of his
+associates, "the whole show." His word was law with the company, and the
+men adored him.
+
+He met Gustave at the Palace Hotel and said to him, "I suppose the time
+has come for me to quit Haverly."
+
+"All right," said Gustave, still the good angel. "I'll put you out ahead
+of our Number Two 'Hazel Kirke' Company at a salary of seventy-five
+dollars a week. You can start out right away. What do you say?"
+
+Charles thought a moment, and then said: "Well, Gus, it's pretty tough
+to go ahead of a Number Two company even at seventy-five dollars a week
+when you have been manager of Haverly's Mastodons. The money doesn't
+mean anything to me. I like the minstrel boys and they like me."
+
+He still hesitated and walked up and down the room two or three times,
+as was his habit. Finally he came over to his brother and said,
+decisively:
+
+"I'll take it."
+
+During this memorable visit to San Francisco occurred another event that
+had large influence on the whole future life of the young man. One night
+in a famous ratheskeller on Kearney Street he saw an artistic-looking
+youth with curly hair and dreamy eyes sitting in the midst of a group of
+actors. This youth was David Belasco, who had passed from actor to
+author-stage-manager and whose melodrama, "American Born," was running
+at the Baldwin Theater. Frohman had seen this play and was much
+impressed with it. Thrillers had interested him from the start.
+
+Gustave, who was with Belasco, said to him: "There's my brother Charley.
+You ought to know him."
+
+Simultaneously Belasco was pointed out to Charles. They glanced up at
+the same time, nodded smilingly across the space between, and later on
+when they were introduced Charles expressed his great admiration for
+"American Born." Belasco had just received the offer from Daniel Frohman
+to come to the Madison Square Theater in New York as stage-manager.
+
+Out of this contact came the association between Charles Frohman and
+David Belasco that added much to their achievements.
+
+Charles gave Haverly notice, and at Indianapolis he left the Mastodons.
+He slipped away without farewells, and when his absence became known a
+gloom settled down on the company. Unconsciously the rosy-cheeked boy
+had become its inspiration. For weeks the performances lacked their
+customary zip and enthusiasm.
+
+His minstrel days over, save for two brief intervals, Charles was now
+about to begin his connection with the Madison Square Theater. It was to
+mark, because of the men with whom he now became associated and the
+revolution in theatrical methods which he brought about, the first
+really significant epoch in his crowded career.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+IN THE NEW YORK THEATRICAL WHIRLPOOL
+
+
+When Charles Frohman went to the Madison Square Theater in 1881 the
+three Frohman brothers were literally installed for the first time under
+the same managerial roof. From this hour on the affairs of Charles were
+bound up in large theatrical conduct.
+
+Since the Madison Square Theater thus becomes the background of his real
+activities, the shell out of which he emerged as a full-fledged manager,
+the institution, and its significance in dramatic history, are well
+worth recording here.
+
+The little Madison Square Theater, located back of the old Fifth Avenue
+Hotel, on Twenty-fourth Street near Broadway, was established at a time
+when a new force was hovering over the New York stage. This playhouse,
+destined to figure so prominently in the fortunes of all the Frohmans,
+and especially Charles, grew out of the somewhat radical convictions of
+Steele Mackaye, one of the most brilliant and erratic characters of his
+time. He was actor, lecturer, and playwright, and he taught the art of
+acting on lines laid down by Delsarte. Dr. George Mallory, editor of
+_The Churchman_, became interested in his views and regarded Mackaye as
+a man with a distinct mission. He induced his brother, Marshall Mallory,
+to build the Madison Square Theater.
+
+Steele Mackaye was the first director, and, with the active co-operation
+of the Mallorys, launched its career. Dr. Mallory believed that the
+drama needed reform; that the way to reform it was to play reformed
+drama. So the place was dedicated to healthy plays. "A wholesome place
+for wholesome amusement" became the slogan. Contracts for plays were
+made only with American authors. Here were produced the earlier triumphs
+of Steele Mackaye, Bronson Howard, William Gillette, H. H. Boyessen, and
+Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett. In this house, in "May Blossom," De Wolf
+Hopper first appeared in a stock company, afterward going into musical
+comedy. Among the actors seen on its boards during the Frohman régime
+were Agnes Booth, Viola Allen, Effie Ellsler, Georgia Cayvan, Mrs.
+Whiffen, Marie Burroughs, Annie Russell, George Clarke, Jeffreys Lewis,
+C. W. Couldock, Thomas Whiffen, Dominick Murray, and Eben Plympton. Rose
+Coghlan was also a member of the company, but had no opportunity of
+playing.
+
+The house had certain unique and attractive qualities. It had been
+charmingly decorated by Louis C. Tiffany, and one of its principal
+features was a double stage, which enabled the scenery for one act to be
+set while another was being played before the audience. Thus long waits
+were avoided.
+
+The name of Frohman was associated with this theater from the very
+start, because its first manager was Daniel Frohman. It opened in
+February, 1880, with Steele Mackaye's play "Hazel Kirke," which was an
+instantaneous success. The little theater, with its novel stage,
+intimate atmosphere, admirable company, and a policy that was definite
+and original, became one of the most popular in America. "Hazel Kirke"
+ran four hundred and eighty-six nights in New York City without
+interruption, which was a record run up to that time. In the original
+cast were Effie Ellsler, Eben Plympton, Mr. and Mrs. Whiffen, and
+Charles W. Couldock.
+
+* * *
+
+The Madison Square Theater was also an important factor in New York
+dramatic life and began to rival the prestige of the Wallack, Palmer,
+and Daly institutions. Its fame, due to the record-breaking "Hazel
+Kirke" success, became nation-wide.
+
+Now began an activity under its auspices that established a whole new
+era in the conduct of the theater. It was the dawn of a "big business"
+development that sent the Madison Square successes throughout the
+country, and Charles Frohman was one of its sponsors.
+
+Gustave Frohman had been engaged as director of the traveling companies.
+He engaged Charles as an associate. The work of the Frohmans was
+carefully mapped out. It was Daniel's business to select the casts,
+organize and rehearse the companies in New York; Gustave took general
+charge of the road equipment; while Charles arranged and booked the road
+tours.
+
+It was after the phenomenal first season's run of "Hazel Kirke" that
+Charles Frohman hung up his hat in the little "back office" of the
+Madison Square Theater to begin the work that was to project his name
+and his talents prominently for the first time. New York sizzled through
+the hottest summer it had ever known; Garfield lay dying, and the whole
+country was in a state of unrest. Charles sweltered in his little
+cubbyhole, but he was enthusiastic and optimistic about his new job.
+
+Gustave and Charles had complete charge of all the traveling companies
+that developed out of the series of "runs" at the theater. They
+inaugurated a whole new and brilliant theatrical activity in towns and
+cities removed from theatrical centers, regarding which the other big
+managers in New York were ignorant.
+
+With the organization of these Madison Square companies the "Number Two
+Company" idea was born. It was a distinct innovation. A play like "Hazel
+Kirke," for example, was played by as many as five companies at one
+time, each company being adjusted financially to the type of town to
+which it was sent. "Hazel Kirke" appeared simultaneously in New York
+City at three different theaters, each with a separate and distinct type
+of audience.
+
+Under the direction of Gustave and Charles, the outside business of the
+Madison Square Theater spread so rapidly that in a short time fourteen
+road companies carried the name of the establishment to all parts of the
+United States. Despite their youth, the three Frohmans had had a very
+extensive experience over the whole country.
+
+In those days the booking of road attractions was not made through
+syndicates. Applications for time had to be made individually to every
+manager direct, even in the case of the most obscure one-night stand.
+The big New York managers only concerned themselves with the larger
+cities in which their companies made annual appearances. The smaller
+towns had to trust to chance to get attractions outside the standard
+"road shows."
+
+Charles realized this lack of booking facilities, and dedicated his
+talents and experience to remedying it. His seasons on the road with
+John Dillon and the Haverly Minstrels had equipped him admirably. He
+not only displayed remarkable judgment in routing companies, but he was
+now able to express his genius for publicity. He always believed in the
+value of big printing.
+
+"Give them pictures," he said.
+
+He urged a liberal policy in this respect, and the Madison Square
+Theater backed his judgment to the extent of more than one hundred
+thousand dollars a year for picture posters and elaborate printing of
+all kinds. The gospel of Madison Square Theater art and its enterprises
+was thus spread broadcast, not with ordinary cheap-picture advertising,
+but with artistic lithographs. In fact, here began the whole process of
+expensive and elaborate bill-posting, and Charles Frohman was really the
+father of it.
+
+Under his direction the first "flashlights" ever taken of a theatrical
+company for advertising purposes were made at the Madison Square
+Theater.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles was now director of nearly a score of agents who traveled about
+with the various companies. He vitalized them with his enthusiasm. In
+order to expedite their work, Charles and his brothers rented and
+furnished a large house on Twenty-fourth Street near the theater. It was
+in reality a sort of club, for a dining-room was maintained, and there
+were a number of bedrooms. When the agents came to town they lodged
+here. Charles, Gustave, and Daniel also had rooms in this house. A
+dressmaking department was established on the premises where many of the
+costumes for the road companies were made.
+
+During these days Charles gave frequent evidence of his tact and
+persuasiveness. Often when matters of policy had to be fixed and
+discussed, the managers of out-of-town theaters would be called to New
+York. It was Charles's business to take them in hand and straighten out
+their troubles. They would leave, feeling that they had got the best
+"time" for their theaters and that they had made a friend in the
+optimistic little man who was then giving evidence of that uncanny
+instinct for road management that stood him in such good stead later on.
+
+With his usual energy Charles was interested in every phase of the
+Madison Square Theater. Frequently, accompanied by Wesley Sisson, who
+succeeded Daniel Frohman during the latter's occasional absences from
+the theater, he would slip into the balcony and watch rehearsals. He sat
+with one leg curled under him, following the scenes with keenest
+interest. More than once his sharp, swift criticism helped to smooth
+away a rough spot.
+
+He impressed his personality and capacity upon all who came in contact
+with him. It was said of him then, as it was said later on, that he
+could sit in his little office and make out a forty weeks' tour for a
+company without recourse to a map. In fact, he carried the whole
+theatrical map of the country under his hat.
+
+* * *
+
+In the strenuous life of those Madison Square days came some of Charles
+Frohman's closest and longest friendships.
+
+The first was with Marc Klaw. It grew out of play piracy, the inevitable
+result of the theater's successes. Throughout the country local managers
+began to steal the Madison Square plays and put them on with
+"fly-by-night" companies. Since they were unable to get manuscripts of
+the play, the pirates sent stenographers to the theater to copy the
+parts. These stenographers had to sit in the dark and write
+surreptitiously. In many instances, in order to keep the lines of their
+notes straight, they stretched strings across their note-books.
+
+Gustave Frohman happened to be in Louisville with the Number One "Hazel
+Kirke" Company. He was looking about for a lawyer who could investigate
+and prosecute the piracy of the Madison Square plays. He made inquiry of
+John T. Macauley, manager of Macauley's Theater, who said:
+
+"There's a young lawyer here named Marc Klaw who is itching to get into
+the theatrical business. Why don't you give him a chance?"
+
+Frohman immediately engaged Klaw to do some legal work for the Madison
+Square Theater, and he successfully combated the play pirates in the
+South. The copyright laws then were inadequate, however, and Klaw was
+ordered to New York, where, after a short preliminary training, he was
+sent out as manager of the Number Two "Hazel Kirke" Company of which
+Charles Frohman was advance-agent. In this way the meeting between the
+two men, each destined to wield far-flung theatrical authority, came
+about.
+
+Charles resented going out with a "Number Two" Company, so to placate
+his pride and to give distinction to the enterprise, Daniel put Georgia
+Cayvan, leading lady of the Madison Square Theater, at the head of the
+cast.
+
+There was good business method in putting out Miss Cayvan on this tour,
+because she was a New-Englander, born at Bath, Maine, and Bath was
+included in this tour. When Charles reached Bath ahead of the show he
+rode on the front seat of the stage to the hotel. He told the driver
+that he was coming with a big New York show, and said:
+
+"I've got a big sensation for Bath."
+
+"What's that?" said the driver.
+
+"We have Miss Cayvan as the leading lady," answered Frohman.
+
+"Miss Who?" asked the driver.
+
+"Miss Cayvan--Miss Georgia Cayvan, leading woman of the Madison Square
+Theater," answered Frohman, with a great flourish.
+
+"Oh," replied the driver, "you mean our little Georgie. We heard tell
+that she was acting on the stage, and now I guess some folks will be
+right smart glad to see her."
+
+Charles was so much interested in Miss Cayvan's appearance in her home
+town that he came back and joined the company on its arrival and was
+present at the station when Marc Klaw brought the company in.
+
+Quite a delegation of home people were on hand to meet Miss Cayvan, and
+she immediately assumed the haughty airs of a prima donna.
+
+Charles was much amused, and decided to "take her down" in an amiable
+way. So he stepped up to her with great solemnity, removed his hat, and
+said, after the manner of his old minstrel days:
+
+"Miss Cayvan, we parade at eleven."
+
+Miss Cayvan saw the humor of the situation, took the hint, and got down
+off her high horse. In the company with Miss Cayvan at that time were
+Maude Stuart, Charles Wheatleigh, Frank Burbeck, W. H. Crompton, and
+Mrs. E. L. Davenport, the mother of Fanny Davenport.
+
+* * *
+
+While Charles was impressing his personality and talents at the Madison
+Square Theater and really finding himself for the first time, Gustave
+Frohman met Jack Haverly on the street one day. The old magnate said,
+with emphasis:
+
+"Gus, I've got to have Charles back."
+
+"You can't have him," said Gustave.
+
+"But I must," said Haverly.
+
+"Well, if you pay him one hundred and forty-six dollars a week (one
+hundred and twenty-five dollars salary and twenty-one dollars for hotel
+bills) you can have him for a limited time."
+
+"All right," said Haverly.
+
+Charles went back to the Mastodons, where he received a royal welcome.
+But his heart had become attuned to the real theater--to the hum of its
+shifting life, to the swift tumult of its tears and laughter. The
+excitement of the drama, and all the speculation that it involved (and
+he was a born speculator), were in his blood. He heeded the call and
+went back to the Madison Square Theater.
+
+But the minstrel field was to claim him again and for the last time.
+Gustave conceived a plan to send the Callender Minstrels on a
+spectacular tour across the continent. The nucleus of the old
+organization, headed by the famous Billy Kersands, was playing in
+England under the name of Haverly's European Minstrels, Haverly having
+acquired the company some years before. Charles was sent over to get the
+pick of the Europeans for the new aggregation. Accompanied by Howard
+Spear, he sailed on June 7, 1882, on the _Wyoming_.
+
+He encountered some difficulty in getting the leading members, so with
+characteristic enterprise he bought the whole company from Haverly and
+brought it back to the United States, where it was put on the road as
+Callender's Consolidated Spectacular Colored Minstrels. On all the bills
+appeared the inscription "Gustave and Charles Frohman, Proprietors." As
+a matter of fact, Charles had very little to do with the company,
+although he made a number of its contracts. His financial interest was
+trivial. Gustave used his name because Charles had been prominently
+associated with the Mastodons and he had achieved some eminence as a
+minstrel promoter.
+
+Having launched the Callender aggregation, he went on to Chicago, where
+Gustave was putting on David Belasco's play "American Born," with the
+author himself as producer. Charles joined his brother in promoting the
+enterprise.
+
+Now began the real friendship between Charles Frohman and David Belasco.
+The chance contact in San Francisco a few years before was now succeeded
+by a genuine introduction. The men took to each other instinctively and
+with a profound understanding. They shared the same room and had most of
+their meals together. Then, as throughout his whole life, Charles
+consumed large portions of pie (principally apple, lemon meringue, and
+pumpkin) and drank large quantities of lemonade or sarsaparilla. One day
+while they were having lunch together Frohman said to Belasco:
+
+"You and I must do things together. I mean to have my own theater in
+Broadway and you will write the plays for it."
+
+"Very well," replied the ever-ready Belasco. "I will make a contract
+with you now."
+
+"There will never be need of a contract between us," replied Frohman,
+who expressed then the conviction that guided him all the rest of his
+life when he engaged the greatest stars in the world and spent millions
+on productions without a scrap of paper to show for the negotiation.
+
+Charles worked manfully for "American Born." It was in reality his first
+intimate connection with a big production. At the outset his ingenuity
+saved the enterprise from threatened destruction. Harry Petit, a local
+manager, announced a rival melodrama called "Taken From Life" at
+McVicker's Theater, and had set his opening date one night before the
+inaugural of "American Born."
+
+Charles scratched his head and said, "We must beat them to it."
+
+He announced the "American Born" opening for a certain night and then
+opened three nights earlier, which beat the opposition by one night.
+
+Belasco's play was spectacular in character and included, among other
+things, a realistic fire scene. When the time came for rehearsal the
+manager of the theater said that it could not be done, because the fire
+laws would be violated.
+
+"I'll fix that," said Charles.
+
+He went down to the City Hall, had a personal interview with the mayor,
+and not only got permission for the scene, but a detail of real firemen
+to act in it.
+
+While in Chicago, Belasco accepted Daniel Frohman's offer to come to
+New York as stage-manager of the Madison Square Theater. Charles and
+Belasco came east together, and the intimacy of this trip tightened the
+bond between them. The train that carried them was speeding each to a
+great career.
+
+With Belasco installed as stage-manager there began a daily contact
+between the two. Belasco went to Frohman with all his troubles. In
+Frohman's bedroom he wrote part of "May Blossom," in which he scored his
+first original success at the Madison Square. Charles was enormously
+interested in this play, and after it was finished carried a copy about
+in his pocket, reading it or having it read wherever he thought it could
+find a friendly ear.
+
+So great was Belasco's gratitude that he gave Charles a half-interest in
+it, which was probably the first ownership that Charles Frohman ever had
+in a play.
+
+During those days at the Madison Square, when both Frohman and Belasco
+were seeing the vision of coming things, they often went at night to
+O'Neil's Oyster House on Sixth Avenue near Twenty-second Street. The
+day's work over, they had a bite of supper, in Frohman's case mostly pie
+and sarsaparilla, and talked about the things they were going to do.
+
+Charles Frohman's ambition for a New York theater obsessed him. One
+night as they were walking up Broadway they passed the Fifth Avenue
+Hotel. A big man in his shirt-sleeves sat tilted back in his chair in
+front of the hotel. The two young men were just across the street from
+him. Frohman stopped Belasco, pointed to the man, and said:
+
+"David, there is John Stetson, manager of the Fifth Avenue Theater.
+Well, some day I am going to be as big a man as he is and have my own
+theater on Broadway."
+
+* * *
+
+Those were crowded days. Charles not only picked and "routed" the
+companies, but he kept a watchful eye on them. This meant frequent
+traveling. For months he lived in a suit-case. At noon he would say to
+his stenographer, "We leave for Chicago this afternoon," and he was off
+in a few hours. At that time "Hazel Kirke," "The Professor,"
+"Esmeralda," "Young Mrs. Winthrop," and "May Blossom" were all being
+played by road companies in various parts of the United States, and it
+was a tremendous task to keep a watchful eye on them. It was his habit
+to go to a town where a company was playing and not appear at the
+theater until the curtain had risen. The company had no warning of his
+coming, and he could make a good appraisal of their average work.
+
+On one of the many trips that he made about this time he gave evidence
+of his constant humor.
+
+He went out to Columbus, Ohio, to see a "Hazel Kirke" company. He
+arrived at the theater just before matinée, and as he started across the
+stage he was met by a newly appointed stage-manager who was full of
+authority.
+
+"Where are you going?" asked the man.
+
+"To Mr. Hagan's dressing-room."
+
+"I'll take the message," said the stage-director.
+
+"No, I want to see him personally."
+
+"But you can't. I am in charge behind the curtain."
+
+Frohman left without a word, went out to the box-office and wrote a
+letter, discharging the stage-director. Then he sat through the
+performance. Directly the curtain fell the man came to him in a great
+state of mind.
+
+"Why did you discharge me, Mr. Frohman?"
+
+Frohman smiled and said: "Well, it was the only way that I could get
+back to see my actors. If you will promise to be good I will re-engage
+you." And he did.
+
+* * *
+
+It was on a trip of this same kind that Charles had one of his many
+narrow escapes from death. During the spring of 1883 he went out to Ohio
+with Daniel to visit some of the road companies. Daniel left him at
+Cleveland to go over and see a performance of "The Professor" at
+Newcastle, while Charles went on to join Gustave at Cincinnati.
+
+Charles was accompanied by Frank Guthrie, who was a sort of confidential
+secretary to all the Frohmans at the theater. Shortly before the train
+reached Galion, Charles, who sat at the aisle, asked his companion to
+change places. Ten minutes later the train was wrecked. Guthrie, who sat
+on the aisle seat, was hurled through the window and instantly killed,
+while Charles escaped unhurt.
+
+Daniel heard of the wreck, rushed to the scene on a relief train,
+expecting to find his brother dead, for there had been a report that he
+was killed. Instead he found Charles bemoaning the death of his
+secretary.
+
+A month afterward Charles and Marc Klaw were riding in the elevator at
+the Monongahela House in Pittsburg when the cable broke and the car
+dropped four stories. It had just been equipped with an air cushion, and
+the men escaped without a scratch.
+
+* * *
+
+Along toward the middle of 1883 there were signs of a break at the
+Madison Square Theater. Steele Mackaye had quarreled with the Mallorys
+and had left, taking Gustave with him to launch the new Lyceum Theater
+on Fourth Avenue and Twenty-third Street. Daniel was becoming ambitious
+to strike out for himself, while Charles was chafing under the necessity
+of being a subordinate. He yearned to be his own master. "I must have a
+New York production," he said. The wish in his case meant the deed, for
+he now set about to produce his first play.
+
+Naturally, he turned to Belasco for advice and co-operation. Both were
+still identified with the Madison Square Theater, which made their
+negotiations easy.
+
+In San Francisco Charles had seen a vivid melodrama called "The
+Stranglers of Paris," which Belasco had written from Adolphe Belot's
+story and produced with some success. Osmond Tearle, then leading man
+for Lester Wallack and New York's leading matinée idol, had played in
+the West the part of Jagon, who was physically one of the ugliest
+characters in the play.
+
+"'The Stranglers of Paris' is the play for me," said Frohman to Belasco.
+
+"All right," said David; "you shall have it."
+
+The original dramatization was a melodrama without a spark of humor. In
+rewriting it for New York, Belasco injected considerable comedy here and
+there.
+
+Frohman, whose vision and ideas were always big, said:
+
+"We've got to get a great cast. I will not be satisfied with anybody but
+Tearle."
+
+To secure Tearle, Frohman went to see Lester Wallack for the first time.
+Wallack was then the enthroned theatrical king and one of the most
+inaccessible of men. Frohman finally contrived to see him and made the
+proposition for the release of Tearle. Ordinarily Wallack would have
+treated such an offer with scorn. Frohman's convincing manner, however,
+led him to explain, for he said:
+
+"Mr. Tearle is the handsomest man in New York, and if I loaned him to
+you to play the ugliest man ever put on the stage he would lose his
+drawing power for me. I am sorry I can't accommodate you, Mr. Frohman.
+Come and see me again."
+
+Out of that meeting came a friendship with Lester Wallack that developed
+large activities for Charles, as will be seen later on.
+
+Unable to get Tearle, Belasco and Frohman secured Henry Lee, a brilliant
+and dashing leading actor who had succeeded Eben Plympton in the cast of
+"Hazel Kirke." The leading woman was Agnes Booth, a well-known stage
+figure. She was the sister-in-law of Edwin Booth, and an actress of
+splendid quality.
+
+Unfortunately for him, the leading theaters were all occupied. There
+were only a few playhouses in New York then, a mere handful compared
+with the enormous number to-day. But a little thing like that did not
+disturb Charles Frohman.
+
+Up at the northwest corner of Thirty-fifth Street and Broadway was an
+old barnlike structure that had been successively aquarium, menagerie,
+and skating-rink. It had a roof and four walls and at one end there was
+a rude stage.
+
+One night at midnight Charles, accompanied by Belasco, went up to look
+at the sorry spectacle. As a theater it was about the most unpromising
+structure in New York.
+
+"This is all I can get, David," said Charles, "and it must do."
+
+"But, Charley, it is not a theater," said Belasco.
+
+"Never mind," said Frohman. "I will have it made into one."
+
+The old building was under the control of Hyde & Behman, who were
+planning to convert it into a vaudeville house. Frohman went to see them
+and persuaded them to turn it into a legitimate theater. Just about this
+time the Booth Theater at Twenty-third Street and Sixth Avenue was about
+to be torn down. Under Charles's prompting Hyde & Behman bought the
+inside of that historic structure, proscenium arch, stage, boxes, and
+all, and transported them to the Thirty-fifth Street barn. What had been
+a bare hall became the New Park Theater, destined to go down in history
+as the playhouse that witnessed many important productions, as well as
+the first that Charles Frohman made on any stage. Years afterward this
+theater was renamed the Herald Square.
+
+Charles Frohman now had a play, a theater, and a cast. With
+characteristic lavishness he said to Belasco:
+
+"We must have the finest scenic production ever made in New York."
+
+He had no capital, but he had no trouble in getting credit. Every one
+seemed willing to help him. He got out handsome printing and advertised
+extensively. He spared nothing in scenic effects, which were elaborate.
+He devoted every spare moment to attending rehearsals.
+
+Among the supernumeraries was a fat boy with a comical face. At one of
+the rehearsals he sat in a boat and reached out for something. In doing
+this he fell overboard. He fell so comically that Belasco made his fall
+a part of the regular business. His ability got him a few lines, which
+were taken from another actor. This fat-faced, comical boy was John
+Bunny, who became the best-known moving-picture star in the United
+States, and who to the end of his days never forgot that he appeared in
+Charles Frohman's first production. He often spoke of it with pride.
+
+The autumn of 1883 was a strenuous one, for Charles had staked a good
+deal on "The Stranglers of Paris." Yet when the curtain rose on the
+evening of November 10, 1883, he was the same smiling, eager, but
+imperturbable boy who years before had uttered the wish that some day he
+would put on a play himself in the great city. He now saw that dream
+come true. He was just twenty-three.
+
+"The Stranglers of Paris" made quite a sensation. The scenic effects
+were highly praised, and especially the ship scene, which showed
+convicts in their cages, their revolt, the sinking of the vessel,
+Jagon's struggle in the water, his escape from death, and his dramatic
+appeal to Heaven. Lee scored a great success and dated his popularity
+from this appearance.
+
+Many of the lines in the piece were widely quoted, one of them in
+particular. It was in substance, "Money has power to open prison gates,
+and no questions asked."
+
+It was the time of sensational graft revelations, and theater-goers
+thought that it fitted the New York situation.
+
+[Illustration: _VIOLA ALLEN_]
+
+"The Stranglers of Paris" ran at the New Park Theater until December 9,
+when it was taken on the road. It continued on tour for a considerable
+period, playing most of the principal cities of the East, but the
+production was so expensive that it made no money. In fact, Charles lost
+on the enterprise, but it did not in the least dash his spirits. He
+was supremely content because at last he had produced a play.
+
+* * *
+
+"The Stranglers of Paris" filled the budding manager with a renewed zeal
+to be a producer. He was still enthusiastic about the melodrama, so he
+secured a vivid piece by R. G. Morris, a New York newspaper man, called
+"The Pulse of New York," which he produced at the Star Theater,
+Thirteenth Street and Broadway, which had been originally Wallack's
+Theater.
+
+In the cast was a handsome, painstaking young woman named Viola Allen,
+whom Charles had singled out because of her admirable work in a play
+that he had seen, and who was headed for a big place in the annals of
+the American theater. The youthful manager encouraged her and did much
+to aid her progress.
+
+Others in the cast were Caroline Hill, A. S. Lipman, Edward S. Coleman,
+L. F. Massen, Frank Lane, Henry Tarbon, W. L. Denison, George Clarke, H.
+D. Clifton, Ada Deaves, Max Freeman, Edward Pancoast, Frank Green,
+Gerald Eyre, Nick Long, Frederick Barry, Oscar Todd, John March, Charles
+Frew, Richard Fox, James Maxwell, J. C. Arnold, Stanley Macy, Lida Lacy,
+George Mathews, and William Rose.
+
+"The Pulse of New York" was produced May 10, 1884, but ran only three
+weeks. Once more Charles faced a loss, but he met this as he met the
+misfortunes of later years, with smiling equanimity.
+
+Now came a characteristic act. He was still in the employ of the Madison
+Square Theater and had a guarantee of one hundred dollars a week.
+Although he had devoted considerable time to his two previous
+productions, he was an invaluable asset to the establishment. He now
+felt that the time had come for him to choose between remaining at the
+Madison Square under a guarantee and striking out for himself on the
+precarious sea of independent theatrical management. He chose the
+latter, and launched a third enterprise.
+
+In his wanderings about New York theaters Charles saw a serious-eyed
+young actress named Minnie Maddern. He said to Daniel:
+
+"I have great confidence in that young woman. Will you help me put her
+out in a piece?"
+
+"All right," replied his brother.
+
+The net result was Miss Maddern in "Caprice."
+
+In view of subsequent stage history this company was somewhat historic.
+Miss Maddern's salary was seventy-five dollars a week. Her leading man,
+who had been a general-utility actor at the Lyceum, and who also
+received seventy-five dollars a week, was Henry Miller. A handsome young
+lad named Cyril Scott played a very small part and got fifteen dollars a
+week. The total week's salary of the company amounted to only six
+hundred and ninety dollars.
+
+"Caprice" opened at Indianapolis November 6, 1884, and subsequently
+played Chicago, St. Louis, Evansville, Dayton, and Baltimore, with a
+week at the Grand Opera House in New York, where its season closed. It
+made no money, but it did a great deal toward advancing the career of
+Miss Maddern, who afterward became known to millions of theater-goers as
+Mrs. Fiske.
+
+Charles had now made three productions on his own hook and began to
+impress his courage and his personality on the theatrical world. He had
+definitely committed himself to a career of independent management, and
+from this time on he went it alone.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+Booking-Agent and Broadway Producer
+
+
+The season of 1883-84 had seen Charles Frohman launched as independent
+manager. He had at its conclusion cut his managerial teeth on the last
+of three productions which, while not financially successful, had shown
+the remarkable quality of his ability. People now began to talk about
+the nervy, energetic young man who could go from failure to failure with
+a smile on his face. It is a tradition in theatrical management that
+successful starts almost invariably mean disastrous finishes. An
+auspicious beginning usually leads to extravagance and lack of balance.
+Failure at the outset provokes caution. Charles, therefore, had enough
+early hard jolts to make him careful.
+
+He always admired big names. Thus it came about that his next venture
+was associated with a name and a prestige that meant much and, later on,
+cost much. Just about that time he met a handsome young English actor
+named E. H. Sothern, who had come to this country with his sister and
+who had appeared for a short time with John McCullough, the tragedian.
+Sothern had returned to New York and was looking for an engagement.
+
+In those days actors usually secured engagements by running down rumors
+of productions that were afloat on the Rialto. In this way Sothern heard
+that Charles Frohman was about to send out an English play called
+"Nita's First," which had been produced at Wallack's Theater. Sothern
+called on Frohman and asked to be engaged.
+
+"What salary do you want?" asked Frohman.
+
+Sothern said he wanted fifty dollars.
+
+"All right," said Frohman. "The part is worth seventy-five dollars, and
+I'll pay it."
+
+Twenty years later the manager paid this same actor a salary of one
+hundred thousand dollars for a season of forty weeks in Shakespearian
+rôles.
+
+"Nita's First," however, ran for only two weeks on the road, and Charles
+ended the engagement. The reason was that he had conceived what he
+considered a brilliant idea.
+
+Lester Wallack and the Wallack Theater Company almost dominated the New
+York dramatic situation. The company, headed by Wallack himself,
+included Rose Coghlan, Osmond Tearle, John Gilbert, and a whole galaxy
+of brilliant people. The Wallack Theater plays were the talk of the
+town. Frohman had an inspiration which he communicated one day to Lester
+Wallack's son, Arthur, whom he knew. To Arthur he said:
+
+"What do you think about my taking the Wallack successes out on the
+road? It is a shame not to capitalize the popular interest in them while
+it is hot. Look at what the Madison Square Theater has been doing. Will
+you speak to your father about it?"
+
+Arthur spoke to his father, who was not averse to the idea, and Charles
+was bidden to the great presence. He had met Lester Wallack before when
+he tried to engage Osmond Tearle for "The Stranglers of Paris." Now came
+the real meeting. After Frohman had stated his case with all his
+persuasion, he added:
+
+"I am sure I can make you rich. You have overlooked a great chance to
+make money."
+
+Lester Wallack said, "It is a good idea, Mr. Frohman, but your company
+must reflect credit upon the theater, and your leading woman must be of
+the same type as my leading woman, Rose Coghlan."
+
+Charles immediately said, "The company shall be worthy of you and the
+name it bears."
+
+Lester Wallack agreed to rehearse the company and to permit his name to
+be used in connection with it. After Charles left, Lester Wallack said
+to his son:
+
+"Watch that young man, Arthur. He is going to make his mark."
+
+Arthur Wallack was about to take a trip to England, and Charles
+commissioned him to engage the leading people. He therefore engaged
+Sophie Eyre, who had been leading woman at the Drury Lane Theater, and
+W. H. Denny.
+
+Charles himself selected the remaining members of the company, who were
+Newton Gotthold; C. B. Wells; Charles Wheatleigh; Max Freeman; Rowland
+Buckstone; Henry Talbot; Sam Dubois; George Clarke; Fred Corbett; Louise
+Dillon, who had been with him in the precarious Stoddart Comedy days;
+Kate Denin Wilson; Agnes Elliot; and Grace Wilson.
+
+At the time he engaged the Wallack Theater Company Charles had no
+office. He was then living at the Coleman House on Broadway, just
+opposite the then celebrated Gilsey House. Most of the engagements were
+made as he sat in a big leather chair in the lobby, with one foot thrown
+over an arm of it.
+
+The principal capital that Charles had for this venture was five
+thousand dollars put up by Daniel J. Bernstein, who became treasurer of
+the company. Alf Hayman, whom Frohman had met in Philadelphia, was
+engaged as advance-agent.
+
+It was a courageous undertaking even for a seasoned and well-financed
+theatrical veteran. Although Lester Wallack was well known, his theater
+and its successes were not familiar to the great mass of people outside
+New York. In those days theatrical publicity was not as widespread as
+now. No wonder, then, that the daring of a young manager of twenty-five
+in taking out a company whose weekly salary list was nearly thirteen
+hundred dollars was commented on.
+
+Charles called his aggregation the Wallack Theater Company. The
+repertoire consisted mainly of "Victor Durand," a play by Henry Guy
+Carleton which had been produced at Wallack's on December 13, 1884.
+Subsequently the company also played "Moths," "Lady Clare," "Diplomacy,"
+and Belasco's "La Belle Russe."
+
+This tour, which was to write itself indelibly on the career of Charles
+Frohman, began in Chicago and was continued through the South to New
+Orleans, where a stay of six weeks was made at the St. Charles Theater.
+Belasco joined them here for a week to put on "The World," which had
+been produced at Wallack's a short time before.
+
+In New Orleans occurred one of those encounters in Charles Frohman's
+life that led to life-long friendship. Two years before, while playing a
+Madison Square company at one of the theaters in St. Louis, he had met a
+bright young man in the box-office named Augustus Thomas. Thomas was
+then a newspaper man and was beginning to write plays. He told Charles
+that he had just made a short play out of Frances Hodgson Burnett's
+story, "Editha's Burglar."
+
+In New Orleans Charles discovered that young Thomas was playing in his
+own play at a near-by theater and went over to see him. After the
+performance he visited him in his dressing-room, renewed his
+acquaintance, and said to him with the optimism of youth:
+
+"Mr. Thomas, I hope that some day you will write a play for me."
+
+* * *
+
+The company now made a tour of Texas, where the troubles began. Business
+declined, but Frohman succeeded in landing the company in Chicago after
+a series of misfortunes. Here Sophie Eyre retired and was succeeded by
+Louise Dillon as leading woman. Charles, of course, had no money with
+which to buy costumes, so she pawned her jewels and used the proceeds.
+Sadie Bigelow took her place as ingénue.
+
+Charles now started his famous tour of the Northwest which rivaled the
+Stoddart days in hardship and in humor. The Northern Pacific Railroad
+had just been opened to the coast, and Charles followed the new route. A
+series of tragic, dramatic, and comic experiences began. The tour was
+through the heart of the old cow country. One night, when the train was
+stalled by the wrecking of a bridge near Miles City, Montana, a group of
+cowboys started to "shoot up" the train. Frohman, with ready resource,
+singled out the leader and said:
+
+"We've got a theatrical company here and we will give you a
+performance."
+
+He got Rowland Buckstone to stand out on the prairie and recite "The
+Smuggler's Life," "The Execution," and "The Sanguinary Pirate" by the
+light of a big bonfire which was built while the show was going on.
+This tickled the cowboys and brought salvos of shots and shouts of
+laughter.
+
+At Miles City occurred what might have been a serious episode. When the
+company reached the hotel at about eleven in the morning Charles
+Wheatleigh, the "first old man," asked the hotel-keeper what time
+breakfast was served. When he replied "Eight-thirty o'clock," Wheatleigh
+pounded the desk and said:
+
+"That is for farmers. When do artists eat?"
+
+The clerk was a typical Westerner, and thought this was an insult. He
+made a lunge for Wheatleigh, when Frohman stepped in and settled the
+difficulty in his usual suave and smiling way.
+
+At Butte came another characteristic example of the Frohman enterprise
+and resource. It was necessary at all hazards to get an audience. When
+Charles got there he found that the wife of the leading gambler had
+died. He expressed so much sympathy for the bereaved man that he was
+made a pall-bearer, and this act created such an impression on the
+townspeople that they flocked to the theater at night.
+
+At Missoula, Montana, Charles went out ahead of the show for a week.
+Approaching the treasurer at the box-office, he said:
+
+"Will you please let me have a hundred dollars on account of the show?"
+
+"I can't," replied the man. "We haven't sold a single seat for any of
+your performances."
+
+Frohman thought a moment and walked out of the lobby. All afternoon
+orders for seats began to come in to the box-office. Late in the
+afternoon, when Frohman got back, the agent smiled and said:
+
+"Mr. Frohman, I can let you have that hundred dollars now. We are
+beginning to have quite an advance sale."
+
+Frohman had gone down-town and sent in the orders for the seats himself.
+He used fictitious names.
+
+Now began a summer of hardships. With the utmost difficulty the company
+got to Portland, Oregon, where Charles established a sort of
+headquarters. From this point he sent the company on short tours. But
+business continued to be bad.
+
+He started a series of "farewell" performances, as he did in Texas, and
+placarded the city with the bills announcing "positively" closing
+performances. These bills were typical of the publicity talents of
+Charles Frohman. He headed them "Good-by Engagements," and added the
+words, "A Long, Lingering Farewell." Under "Favorites' Farewell" he
+printed the names of the members of the company with the titles or parts
+in which they were known. "Good-by, Louise Dillon, our Esmeralda";
+"Good-by, Kate Denin Wilson, Pretty Lady Dolly"; "Good-by, Charles B.
+Wells, Faithful Dave Hardy"; "Good-by, Rowland Buckstone, Some Other
+Man"--were typical illustrations of his attempt to make a strong appeal
+for business.
+
+Actual money in the company was a novelty. Bernstein's five thousand
+dollars had long since vanished. When a member of the company wanted
+some cash it had to be extracted from the treasurer in one-dollar
+instalments.
+
+Despite the hardships, the utmost good humor and feeling prevailed. Most
+of the members of the company were young; there was no bickering. They
+knew that Frohman's struggle was with and for them. They called him
+"The Governor," and he always referred to them as his "nice little
+company." All looked forward confidently to better days, and in this
+belief they were supported and inspired by the cheery philosophy of the
+manager.
+
+Charles's resource was tested daily. He had booked a near-by town for
+fair week, which always meant good business. At last he had money in
+sight. The local manager, however, insisted upon a great display of
+fancy printing. Charles was in a dilemma because he owed his printer a
+big bill and he had no more lithographs on hand. A friend who was in
+advance of William Gillette's play, "The Private Secretary," came along
+with a lot of his own paper. Charles borrowed a quantity of it and also
+from the "Whose Baby Are You?" company, covered over these two titles
+with slips containing the words "Lady Clare," the piece he was going to
+present. He billed the town with great success and was able to keep
+going.
+
+During the Portland sojourn Charles sent the company on to Salem,
+Oregon. While there, six members had their photographs taken with a
+disconsolate look on their faces and with Buckstone holding a dollar in
+his hand. They sent the picture to Frohman with the inscription:
+
+"From your nice little company waiting for its salary."
+
+At Portland, Oregon, A. D. Charlton, who was passenger agent of the
+Northern Pacific Railroad, and who had been of great service to Charles
+in extricating him from various financial difficulties, said to him one
+day:
+
+"Frohman, I want you to meet a very promising little actress who is out
+here with her mother."
+
+Frohman said he would be glad, and, accompanying Charlton to his office,
+was introduced to Annie Adams, a well-known actress from Salt Lake City,
+and her wistful-eyed little daughter, Maude. They were both members of
+the John McGuire Company. This was Charles Frohman's first meeting with
+Maude Adams.
+
+At Portland Frohman added "Two Orphans" and "Esmeralda" to the company's
+repertoire. But it barely got them out of town at the really and truly
+"farewell."
+
+* * *
+
+Now began a return journey from Portland that was even more precarious
+than the trip out. Baggage had to be sacrificed; there was scarcely any
+scenery. One "back drop" showing the interior of a cathedral was used
+for every kind of scene, from a gambling-house to a ball-room. To the
+financial hardship of the homeward trip was added real physical trial.
+Frohman showed in towns wherever there was the least prospect of any
+kind of a house. The company therefore played in skating-rinks,
+school-houses, even barns. In some places the members of the company had
+to take the oil-lamps that served as footlights back in the makeshift
+dressing-rooms while they dressed.
+
+At Bozeman, Montana, occurred an incident which showed both the humor
+and the precariousness of the situation. Frohman assembled the company
+in the waiting-room of the station and, stepping up to the
+ticket-office, laid down one hundred and thirty dollars in cash.
+
+"Where do you want to go?" asked the agent.
+
+Shoving the money at him, Frohman said, "How far will this take us?"
+
+The agent looked out of the window, counted up the company, and said,
+"To Billings."
+
+Turning to the company, Frohman said, with a smile, "Ladies and
+gentlemen, we play Billings next."
+
+Just then he received a telegram from Alf Hayman, who was on ahead of
+the company:
+
+     _What town shall I bill?_
+
+Frohman wired back:
+
+     _Bill Billings._
+
+Hayman again wired:
+
+     _Have no printing and can get no credit. What shall I do?_
+
+Frohman's resource came into stead, for he telegraphed:
+
+     _Notify theaters that we are a high-class company from Wallack's
+     Theater in New York and use no ordinary printing. We employ only
+     newspapers and dodgers._
+
+At Missoula, Montana, on their way back, a member of the company became
+dissatisfied and stood with his associates at the station where two
+trains met, one for the east and one for the west. As the train for the
+east slowed up the actor rushed toward it and, calling to the members of
+the company, said:
+
+"I am leaving you for good. You'll never get anywhere with Frohman."
+
+The company, however, elected to stay with Frohman. In later years this
+actor fell into hardship. Frohman singled him out, and from that time
+on until Frohman's death he had a good engagement every year in a
+Frohman company.
+
+At Bismarck, North Dakota, the company gave "Moths." In this play the
+spurned hero, a singer, has a line which reads, "There are many
+marquises, but very few _tenors_."
+
+Money had been so scarce for months that this remark was the last straw,
+so the company burst into laughter, and the performance was nearly
+broken up. Frohman, who stood in the back of the house, enjoyed it as
+much as the rest.
+
+Through all these hardships Frohman remained serene and smiling. His
+unfailing optimism tided over the dark days. The end came at Winona,
+Minnesota. The company had sacrificed everything it could possibly
+sacrifice. Frohman borrowed a considerable sum from the railroad agent
+to go to Chicago, where he obtained six hundred dollars from Frank
+Sanger. With this he paid the friendly agent and brought the company
+back to New York.
+
+Even the last lap of this disastrous journey was not without its humor.
+The men were all assembled in the smoking-car on the way from Albany to
+New York. Frohman for once sat silent. When somebody asked him why he
+looked so glum, he said, "I'm thinking of what I have got to face
+to-morrow."
+
+Up spoke Wheatleigh, whose marital troubles were well known. He slapped
+Frohman on the back and said:
+
+"Charley, your troubles are slight. Think of me. I've got to face my
+wife to-morrow."
+
+It was characteristic of Frohman's high sense of integrity that he gave
+his personal note to each member of the company for back salary in
+full, and before five years passed had discharged every debt.
+
+* * *
+
+On arriving in New York Charles had less than a dollar in his pocket,
+his clothes were worn, and he looked generally much the worse for wear.
+On the street he met Belasco. They pooled their finances and went to
+"Beefsteak John's," where they had a supper of kidney stew, pie, and
+tea. They renewed the old experiences at O'Neil's restaurant and talked
+about what they were going to do.
+
+The next day Frohman was standing speculatively in front of the Coleman
+House when he met Jack Rickaby, a noted theatrical figure of the time.
+Rickaby slapped the young man on the back and said:
+
+"Frohman, I am glad you have had a good season. You're going to be a big
+man in this profession."
+
+He shook Frohman's hand warmly and walked away.
+
+It was the first cheering word that Frohman had heard. The news of his
+disastrous trip had not become known. Always proud, he was glad of it.
+After Rickaby had shaken his hand he felt something in it, and on
+looking he saw that the big-hearted manager had placed a hundred-dollar
+bill there. Rickaby had known all along the story of the Wallack tour
+hardships, and it was his way of expressing sympathy. Frohman afterward
+said it was the most touching moment in his life. Speaking of this once,
+he said:
+
+"That hundred-dollar bill looked bigger than any sum of money I have
+ever had since."
+
+* * *
+
+It was late in 1885 when Charles returned from the disastrous Wallack's
+Theater tour, bankrupt in finance but almost over-capitalized in
+courage and plans for the future. Up to that time he had no regular
+office. Like many of the managers of the day, his office was in his hat.
+Now, for the first time, he set up an establishment of his own. It
+required no capital to embark in the booking business in those days.
+Nerve and resiliency were the two principal requisites.
+
+The first Frohman offices were at 1215 Broadway, in the same building
+that housed Daly's Theater. In two small rooms on the second floor
+Charles Frohman laid the corner-stone of what in later years became a
+chain of offices and interests that reached wherever the English
+language was spoken on the stage. The interesting contrast here was that
+while Augustin Daly, then in the heyday of his great success, was
+creating theatrical history on the stage below him, Charles Frohman was
+beginning his real managerial career up-stairs.
+
+Frohman's first associate was W. W. Randall, a San Francisco newspaper
+man whom he had met in the Haverly's Minstrel days, in the mean time
+manager of "The Private Secretary" and several of the Madison Square
+companies on the road. He was alert and aggressive and knew the
+technique of the theatrical business.
+
+Charles Frohman's policy was always pretentious, so he set up two
+distinct firms. One was the "Randall's Theatrical Bureau, Charles
+Frohman and W. W. Randall, Managers," which was under Randall's
+direction and which booked attractions for theaters throughout the
+country on a fee basis. The other was called "Frohman & Randall, General
+Theatrical Managers." Its function was to produce plays and was directly
+under Charles's supervision. The two firm names were emblazoned on the
+door and business was started. Their first employee was Julius Cahn.
+
+These offices have an historic interest aside from the fact that they
+were the first to be occupied by Charles Frohman. Out of them grew
+really the whole modern system of booking attractions. Up to that era
+theatrical booking methods were different from those of the present
+time; there were no great centralized agencies to book attractions for
+strings of theaters covering the entire country. Union Square was the
+Rialto, the heart and center of the booking business. The out-of-town
+manager came there to fill his time for the season. Much of the booking
+was done in a haphazard way on the sidewalk, and whole seasons were
+booked on the curb, merely noted in pocket note-books. Two methods of
+booking were then in vogue: one by the manager of a company who wrote
+from New York to the towns for time; the other through an agent of
+out-of-town house managers located in New York. It was this latter
+system that Frohman and Randall began to develop in a scientific
+fashion. Charles's extensive experience on the road and his knowledge of
+the theatrical status of the different towns made him a valuable agent.
+
+Frohman and Randall at that time practically had the field to
+themselves. Brooks & Dickson, an older firm which included the
+well-known Joseph Brooks of later managerial fame, had conducted the
+first booking-office of any consequence, but had now retired. H. S.
+Taylor had just established on Fourteenth Street Taylor's Theatrical
+Exchange, destined to figure in theatrical history as the forerunner of
+the Klaw & Erlanger business.
+
+Despite the high-sounding titles on the door, the Frohman offices were
+unpretentious. Frohman and Randall had a desk apiece, and there was a
+second-hand iron safe in the corner. When Frohman was asked, one day
+soon after the shingle had been hung out, what the safe was for, he
+replied, with his characteristic humor:
+
+"We keep the coal-scuttle in it."
+
+As a matter of fact there was more truth than poetry in this remark,
+because the office assets were so low that during the winter the firm
+had to burn gas all day to keep warm. When asked the reason for this,
+Frohman said, jocularly:
+
+"We can get more credit if we use gas, because the gas bill has to be
+paid only once a month. Coal is cash."
+
+Indeed, the office was so cold during that season that it came to be
+known in the profession as the "Cave of the Winds," and this title was
+no reflection on the vocal qualities of the proprietors.
+
+It was during those early and precarious days when Frohman was still
+saddled with the debts of the Wallack's tour that one of the most
+amusing incidents of his life happened. One morning he was served with
+the notice of a supplementary proceeding which had been instituted
+against him. He was always afraid of the courts, and he was much
+alarmed. He rushed across the street to the Gilsey House and consulted
+Henry E. Dixey, the actor, who was living there. Dixey's advice was to
+get a lawyer. Together they returned to the Daly's Theater Building,
+where Frohman knew a lawyer was installed on the top floor. They found
+the lawyer blacking that portion of his white socks that appeared
+through the holes in his shoes.
+
+Frohman stated his case, which the lawyer accepted. He then demanded a
+two-dollar fee. Frohman had only one dollar in his pocket and borrowed
+the other dollar from Dixey.
+
+"This money," said the lawyer, "is to be paid into the court. How about
+my fee?"
+
+Frohman fumbled in his pocket and produced a ten-cent piece. He handed
+it to the lawyer, saying: "I will pay you later on. Here is your
+car-fare. Be sure to get to court before it opens."
+
+Frohman and Dixey left. Frohman was much agitated. They walked around
+the block several times. When he heard the clock strike ten he said to
+Dixey:
+
+"Now the lawyer is in the court-room and the matter is being settled."
+In his expansive relief he said: "I have credit at Browne's Chop House.
+Let us go over and have breakfast."
+
+At the restaurant they ordered a modest meal. As Frohman looked up from
+his table he saw a man sitting directly opposite whose face was hid
+behind a newspaper. In front of him was a pile of wheat-cakes about a
+foot high.
+
+"Gee whiz!" said Frohman. "I wish I had enough money to buy a stack of
+wheat-cakes that high."
+
+As he said this to Dixey the man opposite happened to lower his paper
+and revealed himself to be the lawyer Frohman had just engaged. He was
+having a breakfast spree himself with the two dollars extracted from his
+two recent clients.
+
+* * *
+
+Business began to pick up with the new year. The first, and what
+afterward proved to be the most profitable, clients of the
+booking-office were the Baldwin and California theaters in San
+Francisco. They were dominated by Al Hayman, brother of Alf, a man who
+now came intimately into Charles Frohman's life and remained so until
+the end. He was a Philadelphian who had conducted various traveling
+theatrical enterprises in Australia and had met Frohman for the first
+time in London when the latter went over with the Haverly Mastodons.
+Hayman admired Frohman very much and soon made him general Eastern
+representative of all his extensive Pacific coast interests.
+
+Hayman was developing into a magnate of importance. With his assistance
+Charles was able to book a company all the way from New York to San
+Francisco. Charles made himself responsible for the time between New
+York and Kansas City, while Hayman would guarantee the company's time
+from Kansas City or Omaha to the coast.
+
+Frohman and Randall made a good team, and they soon acquired a chain of
+more than three hundred theaters, ranging from music-halls in small
+towns that booked the ten-twenty-thirty-cent dramas up to the palatial
+houses like Hooley's in Chicago, the Hollis in Boston, and the Baldwin
+in San Francisco.
+
+It was a happy-go-lucky time. If Frohman had ten dollars in his pocket
+to spare he considered himself rich. Money then, as always, meant very
+little to him. It came and went easily.
+
+* * *
+
+While the booking business waxed in volume the production end of the
+establishment did not fare so well. Charles had this activity of the
+office as his particular domain, and with the instinct of the plunger
+now began to put on plays right and left.
+
+Just before the association with Randall, Frohman had become manager of
+Neil Burgess, the actor, and had booked him for a tour in a play called
+"Vim." A disagreement followed, and Frohman turned him over to George W.
+Lederer, who took the play out to the coast.
+
+A year after this episode came the first of the many opportunities for
+fortune that Charles Frohman turned down in the course of his eventful
+life. This is the way it happened:
+
+Burgess, who was quite an inventive person, had patented the treadmill
+mechanism to represent horse-racing on the stage, a device which was
+afterward used with such great effect in "Ben-Hur." He was so much
+impressed with it that he had a play written around it called "The
+County Fair."
+
+Burgess, who liked Frohman immensely, tried to get him to take charge of
+this piece, but Frohman would not listen to the proposition about the
+mechanical device. He was unhappy over his experience about "Vim," and
+whenever Burgess tried to talk "The County Fair" and its machine Frohman
+would put him off.
+
+Burgess finally went elsewhere, and, as most people know, "The County
+Fair" almost rivaled "The Old Homestead" in money-making ability. The
+horse-racing scene became the most-talked-of episode on the stage at the
+time, and Burgess cleared more than a quarter of a million dollars out
+of the enterprise. Charles Frohman afterward admitted that his prejudice
+against Burgess and his machine had cost his office at least one hundred
+thousand dollars.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman and Randall now launched an important venture. McKee Rankin, who
+was one of the best-known players of the time, induced them to become
+his managers in a piece called "The Golden Giant," by Clay M. Greene.
+Charles, however, agreed to the proposition on the condition that Rankin
+would put his wife, Kitty Blanchard, in the cast. They had been
+estranged, and Frohman, with his natural shrewdness, believed that the
+stage reunion of Mr. and Mrs. McKee Rankin would be a great drawing-card
+for the play. Rankin made the arrangements, and the Fifth Avenue Theater
+was booked for two weeks, commencing Easter Monday, 1886.
+
+The theater was then under the management of John Stetson, of Boston,
+and both Frohman and Rankin looked forward to doing a great business. In
+this cast Robert Hilliard, who had been a clever amateur actor in
+Brooklyn, made his first professional appearance. Charles supervised the
+rehearsals and had rosy visions of a big success. At four o'clock,
+however, on the afternoon of the opening night, Charles went to the
+box-office and discovered the advance sale had been only one hundred
+dollars.
+
+"I tell you what to do, Randall," quickly thought out Frohman, "if
+Stetson will stand for it we will paper the house to the doors. We must
+open to a capacity audience."
+
+When Frohman put the matter before Stetson he said he did not believe in
+"second-hand reconciliations," but assented to the plan. Frohman gave
+Randall six hundred seats, and the latter put them into good hands. The
+_première_ of "The Golden Giant," to all intents and purposes, took
+place before a crowded and paying house. In reality there was exactly
+two hundred and eighty-eight dollars in the box-office. Business picked
+up, however, and the two weeks' engagement proved prosperous. The play
+failed on the road, however, and the Frohman offices lost over five
+thousand dollars on the venture. Rankin had agreed to pay Frohman forty
+per cent. of the losses. That agreement remained in force all his life,
+for it was never paid.
+
+In Charles's next venture he launched his first star. Curiously enough,
+the star was Tony Hart, a member of the famous Irish team of Harrigan
+and Hart, who had delighted the boyhood of Frohman when he used to slip
+away on Saturday nights and revel in a show.
+
+Tony Hart, during the interim, had separated from Harrigan, and in some
+way Charles obtained the manuscript of a farce-comedy by William Gill
+called "A Toy Pistol."
+
+Charles had never lost his admiration for Hart, and when he saw that the
+leading character had to impersonate an Italian, a young Hebrew, an
+Irishwoman, and a Chinaman, Frohman said, "Tony Hart was the very
+person."
+
+Accordingly, he engaged Hart and a company which included J. B. Mackey,
+F. R. Jackson, T. J. Cronin, D. G. Longworth, Annie Adams, Annie
+Alliston, Mattie Ferguson, Bertie Amberg, Eva Grenville, Vera Wilson,
+Minnie Williams, and Lena Merville.
+
+This production had an influence on Charles Frohman's life far greater
+than the association with his first star, for Annie Adams now began a
+more or less continuous connection with Charles Frohman's companies. Her
+daughter, the little girl whom Charles had met casually years before,
+was now about to make her first New York appearance as member of a
+traveling company in "The Paymaster." Already the energetic mother was
+importuning Charles to engage the daughter. His answer was, "I'll give
+her a chance as soon as I can." He little dreamed that this wisp of a
+girl was to become in later years his most profitable and best-known
+star.
+
+Charles was, of course, keenly interested in "A Toy Pistol." He
+conducted the rehearsals, and on February 20, 1886, produced it at what
+was then called the New York Comedy Theater. It failed, however. The New
+York Comedy Theater was originally a large billiard-hall in the Gilsey
+Building, on Broadway between Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth streets,
+and had been first named the San Francisco Minstrel Hall. It became
+successively Haverly's Comedy Theater and the New York Comedy Theater.
+Subsequently, it was known as Hermann's Theater, and was the scene of
+many of the earlier Charles Frohman productions.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles now became immersed in productions. About this time Archibald
+Clavering Gunter, who had scored a sensational success with his books,
+especially "Mr. Barnes of New York," had written a play called "A Wall
+Street Bandit," which had been produced with great success in San
+Francisco. Frohman booked it for four weeks at the old Standard Theater,
+afterward the Manhattan, on a very generous royalty basis, and plunged
+in his usual lavish style. He got together a magnificent cast, which
+included Georgia Cayvan, W. J. Ferguson, Robert McWade, Charles Bowser,
+Charles Wheatleigh, and Sadie Bigelow. The play opened to capacity and
+the indications were that the engagement would be a success; but it
+suddenly fizzled out. On Sunday morning, when Charles read the papers
+with their reviews of the week, he said to Randall, with his usual
+philosophy:
+
+"We've got a magnificent frost, but it was worth doing."
+
+This production cost the youthful manager ten thousand dollars.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman still had control of "time" at the Standard, so he now put on a
+play, translated by Henri Rochefort, called "A Daughter of Ireland," in
+which Georgia Cayvan had the title rôle. Here he scored another failure,
+but his ardor remained undampened and he went on to what looked at that
+moment to be the biggest thing he had yet tried.
+
+Dion Boucicault was one of the great stage figures of his period. He was
+both actor and author, and wrote or adapted several hundred plays,
+including such phenomenal successes as "Colleen Bawn," "Shaughraun,"
+which ran for a year simultaneously in London, New York, and Melbourne,
+and "London Assurance." There was much talk of his latest comedy, "The
+Jilt." Frohman, who always wanted to be associated with big names, now
+arranged by cable to produce this play at the Standard. Once more he
+plunged on an expensive company which included, among others, Fritz
+Williams, Louise Thorndyke, and Helen Bancroft.
+
+For four weeks he cleared a thousand a week. Then he put the company on
+the road, where it did absolutely nothing. Charles, who had an uncanny
+sense of analysis of play failures, now declared that the reason for the
+failure was that theater-goers resented Boucicault's treatment of his
+first wife, Agnes Robertson. Boucicault had declared that he was not the
+father of her child, and when she sued him in England the courts gave
+her the verdict. Meanwhile Boucicault married, and in the eyes of the
+world he was a bigamist. This experience, it is interesting to add,
+taught Charles Frohman never to engage stars on whom there was the
+slightest smirch of scandal or disrepute.
+
+At Montreal Boucicault refused to continue the tour, and this
+engagement, like so many of its predecessors, left Charles in a
+financial hole. Despite all these reverses he was able to make a
+livelihood out of the booking end of the office, which thrived and grew
+with each month. Nor was he without his sense of humor in those days.
+
+One day he met a certain manager who had lost a great deal of money in
+comic opera. Frohman said to him that he heard that there was much money
+in the comic-opera end of the business.
+
+"So there is," replied the manager.
+
+"You ought to know," responded Frohman, "for you have put enough into
+it."
+
+This remark, often attributed to others, is said to have originated
+here.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman was now an established producer, and although the tide of
+fortune had not gone altogether happily with him, he had a Micawber-like
+conviction that the big thing would eventually turn up. Now came his
+first contact with Bronson Howard, who, a few years later, was to be the
+first mile-stone in his journey to fame and fortune.
+
+Howard's name was one to conjure with. He had produced "Young Mrs.
+Winthrop," "The Banker's Daughter," "Saratoga," and other great
+successes. Charles Frohman, yielding, as usual, to the lure of big
+names, now put on Howard's play, "Baron Rudolph," for which George
+Knight had paid the author three thousand dollars to rewrite. Knight
+gave Frohman a free hand in the matter of casting the production, and it
+was put on at the Fourteenth Street Theater in an elaborate fashion. The
+company included various people who later on were to become widely
+known. Among them were George Knight and his wife, George Fawcett,
+Charles Bowser, and a very prepossessing young man named Henry Woodruff.
+
+"Baron Rudolph" proved to be a failure, and it broke Knight's heart, for
+shortly afterward he was committed to an insane asylum from which he
+never emerged alive. It was found that while the play was well written
+there was no sympathy for a ragged tramp.
+
+Whether he thought it would change his luck or not, Charles now turned
+to a different sort of enterprise. He had read in the newspapers about
+the astonishing mind-reading feats in England of Washington Irving
+Bishop. Always on the lookout for something novel, he started a
+correspondence with Bishop which ended in a contract by which he agreed
+to present Bishop in the United States in 1887.
+
+Bishop came over and Frohman sponsored his first appearance in New York
+on February 27, 1887, at Wallack's Theater. With his genius for
+publicity, Frohman got an extraordinary amount of advertising out of
+this engagement. Among other things he got Bishop to drive around New
+York blindfolded. He invited well-known men to come and witness his
+marvelous gift in private. All of which attracted a great deal of
+attention, but very little money to the box-office. Frohman and Bishop
+differed about the conduct of the tour that was to follow, and M. B.
+Leavitt assumed the management.
+
+While at 1215 Broadway Charles Frohman established another of his many
+innovations by getting out what was probably the first stylographic
+press sheet. This sheet, which contained news of the various attractions
+that Frohman booked, was sent to the leading newspapers throughout the
+country and was the forerunner of the avalanche of press matter that
+to-day is hurled at dramatic editors everywhere.
+
+* * *
+
+The booking business had now grown so extensively that the office force
+was increased. First came Julius Cahn, who assisted Randall with the
+booking. Al Hayman took a desk in Frohman's office, which, because of
+Hayman's extensive California enterprises, had a virtual monopoly on all
+Western booking.
+
+Now developed a curious episode. Charles, with his devotion to big
+names, used the words "Daly's Theater Building" on his letter-heads.
+This so infuriated Daly that he sent a peremptory message to the
+landlord insisting that Frohman vacate the building. Frohman and Randall
+thereupon moved their offices up the block to 1267 Broadway.
+
+Charles Frohman made every possible capitalization of this change. Among
+other things he issued a broadside, announcing the removal to new
+offices, and making the following characteristic statement:
+
+     _Our agency, we are pleased to state, has been an established
+     success from the very start. We now represent every important
+     theater in the United States and Canada, as an inspection of our
+     list will show, and we will always keep up the high standard of
+     attractions that have been booked through this office, and we want
+     the business of no others. Mr. E. E. Rice, the well-known manager
+     and author, will have adjoining offices with us, and his
+     attractions will be booked through our offices. We transact a
+     general theatrical business (excepting that pertaining to a
+     dramatic or actor's agency), and are in competition with no other
+     exchange, booking agency, or dramatic concern. Neither do we have
+     any desk-room to let, reserving all the space of our office for our
+     own use._
+
+Attached to this announcement was a list of theaters that he
+represented, which was a foot long. He was also representing Archibald
+Clavering Gunter, who had followed up "A Wall Street Bandit" with
+"Prince Karl," and Robert Buchanan, author of "Lady Clare" and "Alone in
+London."
+
+Frohman and Randall stayed at 1267 Broadway for a year. Shortly before
+the next change Randall, who had become extensively interested in
+outside enterprises, retired from the firm. His successor as close
+associate with Charles Frohman was Harry Rockwood, ablest of the early
+Frohman lieutenants.
+
+Rockwood was a distinguished-looking man and a tireless worker. The way
+he came to be associated with Charles Frohman was interesting. His real
+name was H. Rockwood Hewitt, and he was related to ex-Mayor Abram S.
+Hewitt of New York. He had had some experience in Wall Street, but
+became infected with the theatrical virus.
+
+One day in 1888 a well-groomed young man approached Gustave Frohman at
+the Fourteenth Street Theater. He introduced himself as Harry Hewitt.
+He said to Frohman:
+
+"My name is Hewitt. I would like to get into the theatrical business."
+
+Gustave invited him to come around to the Madison Square Theater the
+next day, and asked him what he would like to do.
+
+"Oh, I should like to do anything."
+
+Frohman then gave him an imaginary house to "count up."
+
+Rockwood, who was an expert accountant, did the job with amazing
+swiftness. Whereupon Gustave Frohman telephoned to Charles Frohman as
+follows:
+
+"I've got the greatest treasurer in the world for you. Send for him."
+
+Charles engaged him for a Madison Square Company, and in this way
+Rockwood's theatrical career started. It was the fashion of many people
+of that time interested in the theatrical business to change their
+names, so he became Harry Rockwood. In the same way Harry Hayman,
+brother of Al and Alf Hayman, changed his name to Harry Mann.
+
+In 1889 came the separation between Randall and Frohman. Randall set up
+an establishment of his own at 1145 Broadway, while Charles, who was now
+an accredited and established personage in the theatrical world, took a
+suite at 1127 Broadway, adjoining the old St. James Hotel. In making
+this change he reached a crucial point in his career, for in these
+offices he conceived and put into execution the spectacular enterprises
+that linked his name for the first time with brilliant success.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+"SHENANDOAH" AND THE FIRST STOCK COMPANY
+
+
+With his installation in the new offices at 1127 Broadway there began an
+important epoch in the life of Charles Frohman. The Nemesis which had
+seemed to pursue his productions now took flight. The plump little man,
+not yet thirty, who had already lived a lifetime of strenuous and varied
+endeavor, sat at a desk in a big room on the second floor, dreaming and
+planning great things that were soon to be realized.
+
+Although staggering under a burden of debt that would have discouraged
+most people, Frohman, with his optimistic philosophy, felt that the hour
+had come at last when the tide would turn. And it did. At this time his
+financial complications were at their worst. Some of them dated back to
+the disastrous Wallack Company tour; others resulted from his impulsive
+generosity in indorsing his friends' notes. He was so involved that he
+could not do business under his own name, and for a period the firm went
+on as Al Hayman & Company.
+
+[Illustration: _WILLIAM GILLETTE_]
+
+One of the very first enterprises in the new offices cemented the
+friendship of Charles Frohman and William Gillette. While at the Madison
+Square Theater he had booked Gillette's plays, "The Professor" and "The
+Private Secretary." Frohman, with Al Hayman as partner, induced Gillette
+to make a dramatization of Rider Haggard's "She," which was put on at
+Niblo's Garden in New York with considerable success. Wilton Lackaye and
+Loie Fuller were in the cast.
+
+Gillette now tried his hand at a war play called "Held by the Enemy,"
+which Frohman booked on the road. Frohman was strangely interested in
+"Held by the Enemy." It had all the thrill and tumult of war and it lent
+itself to more or less spectacular production. When the road tour ended,
+Frohman, on his own hook, took the piece and the company, which was
+headed by Gillette, for an engagement at the Baldwin Theater in San
+Francisco. He transported all the original scenery, which included,
+among other things, some massive wooden cannon.
+
+The San Francisco critics, however, slated the piece unmercifully. The
+morning after the opening Gillette stood in the lobby of the Palace
+Hotel with the newspapers in his hand and feeling very disconsolate. Up
+bustled Frohman in his usual cheery fashion.
+
+"Look what the critics have done to us," said Gillette, gloomily.
+
+"But we've got all the best of it," replied Frohman, with animation.
+
+"How's that?" asked Gillette, somewhat puzzled.
+
+"_They've_ got to stay here."
+
+This little episode shows the buoyant way in which Frohman always met
+misfortune. His irresistible humor was the oil that he invariably spread
+upon the troubled waters of discord and discouragement.
+
+It was while selecting one of the casts of "Held by the Enemy," which
+was revived many times, that Charles Frohman made two more life-long
+connections.
+
+At the same boarding-house with Julius Cahn lived an ambitious young
+man who had had some experience as an actor. He was out of a position,
+so Cahn said to him one day:
+
+"Come over to our offices and Charles Frohman will give you a job."
+
+The young man came over, and Cahn introduced him to Frohman. Soon he
+came out, apparently very indignant. When Cahn asked him what was the
+matter he said:
+
+"That man Frohman offered me the part of a nigger, _Uncle Rufus_, in
+that play. I was born in the South, and I will not play a nigger. I
+would rather starve."
+
+Cahn said, "You will play it, and your salary will be forty dollars a
+week."
+
+The young man reluctantly accepted the engagement and proved to be not
+only a satisfactory actor, but a man gifted with a marvelous instinct as
+stage-director. His name was Joseph Humphreys, and he became in a few
+years the general stage-director for Charles Frohman, the most
+distinguished position of its kind in the country, which he held until
+his death.
+
+About this time Charles Frohman renewed his acquaintance with Augustus
+Thomas. Thomas walked into the office one day and Rockwood said to him:
+
+"You are the very man we want to play in 'Held by the Enemy.'"
+
+Thomas immediately went in to see Frohman, who offered him the position
+of _General Stamburg_, but Thomas had an engagement in his own play,
+"The Burglar," which was the expanded "Editha's Burglar," and could not
+accept. Before he left, however, Frohman, whose mind was always full of
+projects for the future, renewed the offer made in New Orleans, for he
+said:
+
+"Thomas, I still want you to write that play for me."
+
+* * *
+
+With "Held by the Enemy" Charles Frohman seemed to have found a magic
+touchstone. It was both patriotic and profitable, for it was nothing
+less than the American flag. Having raised it in one production, he now
+turned to the enterprise which unfurled his success to the winds in
+brilliant and stirring fashion.
+
+Early in 1889 R. M. Field put on a new military play called
+"Shenandoah," by Bronson Howard, at the Boston Museum. Howard was then
+the most important writer in the dramatic profession. He had three big
+successes, "Young Mrs. Winthrop," "Saratoga," and "The Banker's
+Daughter," to his credit, and he had put an immense amount of work and
+hope into the stirring military drama that was to have such an important
+bearing on the career of Charles Frohman. The story of Frohman's
+connection with this play is one of the most picturesque and romantic in
+the whole history of modern theatrical successes. He found it a
+Cinderella of the stage; he proved to be its Prince Charming.
+
+Oddly enough, "Shenandoah" was a failure in Boston. Three eminent
+managers, A. M. Palmer, T. Henry French, and Henry E. Abbey, in
+succession had had options on the play, and they were a unit in
+believing that it would not go.
+
+Daniel Frohman had seen the piece at Boston with a view to considering
+it for the Lyceum. He told his brother Charles of the play, and advised
+him to go up and see it, adding that it was too big and melodramatic for
+the somewhat intimate scope of the small Lyceum stage.
+
+So Charles went to Boston. On the day of the night on which he started
+he met Joseph Brooks on Broadway and told him he was going to Boston to
+try to get "Shenandoah."
+
+"Why, Charley, you are crazy! It is a failure! Why throw away your money
+on it? Nobody wants it."
+
+"I may be crazy," replied Frohman, "but I am going to try my best to get
+'Shenandoah.'"
+
+Before going to Boston he arranged with Al Hayman to take a
+half-interest in the play. When he reached Boston he went out to the
+house of Isaac B. Rich, who was then associated with William Harris in
+the conduct of the Howard Athenæum and the Hollis Street Theater. Rich
+was a character in his way. He had been a printer in Bangor, Maine, had
+sold tickets in a New Orleans theater, and had already amassed a fortune
+in his Boston enterprises. He was an ardent spiritualist, and financed
+and gave much time to a spiritualistic publication of Boston called _The
+Banner of Light_. One of his theatrical associates at that time, John
+Stetson, owned _The Police Gazette_.
+
+Rich conceived a great admiration for Frohman, whom he had met with
+Harris in booking plays for his Boston houses. He always maintained that
+Frohman was the counterpart of Napoleon, and called him Napoleon.
+
+On this memorable day in Boston Frohman dined with Rich at his house and
+took him to see "Shenandoah." When it was over Frohman asked him what he
+thought of it.
+
+"I'll take any part of it that you say," replied Rich.
+
+"If I were alone," answered Frohman, "I would take you in, but I have
+already given Al Hayman half of it."
+
+Frohman was very much impressed with "Shenandoah," although he did not
+believe the play was yet in shape for success. After the performance he
+asked Mr. Field if he could get the rights. Field replied:
+
+"Abbey, French, and Palmer have options on it. If they don't want it you
+can have it."
+
+Frohman returned to New York the next day, and even before he had seen
+Bronson Howard he looked up his friend Charles Burnham, then manager of
+the Star Theater, and asked him to save him some time.
+
+Frohman now went to see Howard, who then lived at Stamford. He expressed
+his great desire for the play and then went on to say:
+
+"You are a very great dramatist, Mr. Howard, and I am only a theatrical
+manager, but I think I can see where a possible improvement might be
+made in the play. For one thing, I think two acts should be merged into
+one, and I don't think you have made enough out of Sheridan's ride."
+
+When he had finished, Howard spoke up warmly and said, "Mr. Frohman, you
+are right, and I shall be very glad to adopt your suggestions."
+
+The very changes that Howard made in the play were the ones that helped
+to make it a great success, as he was afterward frank enough to admit.
+
+Frohman now made a contract for the play and went to Burnham to book
+time. Burnham, meanwhile, had been to Boston to see the play, and he
+said:
+
+"I saved six weeks for you at the Star for Shenandoah.'"
+
+From the very beginning of his association with "Shenandoah" Charles
+Frohman had an instinct that the play would be a success. He now
+dedicated himself to its production with characteristic energy.
+
+Scarcely had he signed the contract for "Shenandoah" than occurred one
+of the many curious pranks of fate that were associated with this
+enterprise. Al Hayman, who had a half-interest in the piece, was
+stricken with typhoid fever in Chicago on his way to the coast. He
+thought he was going to die, and, not having an extraordinary amount of
+confidence in "Shenandoah," he sold half of his half-interest to R. M.
+Hooley, who owned theaters bearing his name in Chicago and Brooklyn.
+
+With his usual determination to do things in splendid fashion, Frohman
+engaged a magnificent cast. Now came one of the many evidences of the
+integrity of his word. Years before, when he had first seen Henry Miller
+act in San Francisco he said to him:
+
+"When I get a theater in New York and have a big Broadway production you
+will be my leading man."
+
+He had not yet acquired the theater, but he did have the big Broadway
+production, so the first male character that he filled was that of
+_Colonel West_, and he did it with Miller.
+
+This cast included not less than half a dozen people who were then
+making their way toward future stardom. He engaged Wilton Lackaye to
+play _General Haverill_; Viola Allen played _Gertrude Ellingham_;
+Nanette Comstock was the original _Madeline West_; Effie Shannon
+portrayed _Jennie Buckthorn_; while Dorothy Dorr played _Mrs. Haverill_.
+Other actors in the company who later became widely known were John E.
+Kellard, Harry Harwood, Morton Selten, and Harry Thorn.
+
+Charles determined that the public should not lose sight of
+"Shenandoah." All his genius for publicity was concentrated to this end.
+Among the ingenious agencies that he created for arousing suspense and
+interest was a rumor that the manuscript of the third act had been lost.
+He put forth the news that Mr. Howard's copy was mislaid, and a
+city-wide search was instituted. All the while that the company was
+rehearsing the other acts the anxiety about the missing act grew. A week
+before the production Frohman announced, with great effect, that the
+missing manuscript had been found.
+
+When the doors of the Star Theater were opened on the evening of
+September 9, 1889, for the first performance of "Shenandoah," the
+outlook was not very auspicious. Rain poured in torrents. It was almost
+impossible to get a cab. Al Hayman, one of the owners of the play, who
+lived at the Hotel Majestic, on West Seventy-second Street, was
+rainbound and could not even see the _première_ of the piece.
+
+However, a good audience swam through the deluge, for the gross receipts
+of this opening night, despite the inclement conditions outside, were
+nine hundred and seventy-two dollars. This was considered a very good
+house at the standard prices of the day, which ranged from twenty-five
+cents to one dollar and a half.
+
+The play was an immense success, for at no time during the rest of the
+engagement did the receipts at any performance go below one thousand
+dollars. The average gross receipts for each week were ten thousand
+dollars.
+
+Charles Frohman watched the _première_ from the rear of the house with a
+beating heart. The crash of applause after the first act made him feel
+that he had scored at last. After the sensational ending of the third
+act, which was Sheridan's famous ride, he rushed back to the stage,
+shook Henry Miller warmly by the hand, and said: "Henry, we've got it.
+The horse is yours!"
+
+He meant the horse that the general rode in the play.
+
+This horse, by the way, was named Black Bess. It got so accustomed to
+its cue that it knew when it had to gallop across the stage. One night
+during the third act this cue was given as usual. Its rider, however,
+was not ready, and the horse galloped riderless across the stage.
+
+"Shenandoah" led to a picturesque friendship in Charles Frohman's life.
+On the opening night a grizzled, military-looking man sat in the
+audience. He watched the play with intense interest and applauded
+vigorously. On the way out he met a friend in the lobby. He stopped him
+and said, "This is the most interesting war play I have ever seen."
+
+The friend knew Charles Frohman, who was standing with smiling face
+watching the crowd go out. He called the little manager over and said:
+"Mr. Frohman, I want you to meet a man who really knows something about
+the Civil War. This is General William T. Sherman."
+
+Sherman and Frohman became great friends, and throughout the engagement
+of "Shenandoah" the old soldier was a frequent visitor at the theater.
+He then lived at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and often he brought over his
+war-time comrades.
+
+Not only did "Shenandoah" mark the epoch of the first real success in
+Frohman's life, but it raised his whole standard of living, as the
+following incident will show.
+
+When "Shenandoah" opened, Frohman and Henry Miller, and sometimes other
+members of the company, went around to O'Neil's on Sixth Avenue, scene
+of the old foregatherings with Belasco, and had supper. As the piece
+grew in prosperity and success, the supper party gradually moved up-town
+to more expensive restaurants, until finally they were supping at
+Delmonico's. "We are going up in the world," said Frohman, with his
+usual humor. At their first suppers they smoked ten-cent cigars; now
+they regaled themselves with twenty-five-cent Perfectos.
+
+Unfortunately the successful run of "Shenandoah" at the Star had to be
+terminated on October 12th because the Jefferson & Florence Company,
+which had a previous contract with the theater and could not be disposed
+of elsewhere, came to play their annual engagement in "The Rivals."
+Frohman transferred the play to Proctor's Twenty-third Street Theater,
+which was from this time on to figure extensively in his fortunes, and
+the successful run of the play continued there. Wilton Lackaye retired
+from the cast and was succeeded by Frank Burbeck, whose wife, Nanette
+Comstock, succeeded Miss Shannon in the rôle of _Jenny Buckthorn_.
+
+Frohman was now able to capitalize his brilliant road-company
+experience. The success of the play now assured, he immediately
+organized a road company, in which appeared such prominent actors as
+Joseph Holland, Frank Carlyle, and Percy Haswell. He established an
+innovation on October 26th by having this company come over from
+Philadelphia, where it was playing, to act in the New York house.
+
+The two-hundred-and-fiftieth performance occurred on April 19, 1890,
+when the run ended. It was a memorable night. Katherine Grey and Odette
+Tyler meanwhile had joined the company. The theater was draped in
+flags, and General Sherman made a speech in which he praised the
+accuracy of the production.
+
+With his usual enterprise and resource, Charles Frohman introduced a
+distinct novelty on this occasion. He had double and triple relays of
+characters for the farewell performance. Both Lilla Vane and Odette
+Tyler, for example, acted the part of _Gertrude Ellingham_; Wilton
+Lackaye, Frank Burbeck, and George Osborne played _General Haverill_;
+Alice Haines and Nanette Comstock did _Jenny Buckthorn_; while Morton
+Selten and R. A. Roberts doubled as _Captain Heartsease_.
+
+Frohman now put the original "Shenandoah" company on the road. Its first
+engagement was at McVicker's Theater in Chicago. Frohman went along and
+took Bronson Howard with him.
+
+Most of the Chicago critics liked "Shenandoah." But there was one
+exception, a brilliant Irishman on _The Tribune_. Paul Potter, whose
+play, "The City Directory," was about to be produced in Chicago, was a
+close friend of Howard. He wanted to do something for the Howard play,
+so he got permission from Robert W. Patterson, editor in chief of _The
+Tribune_, to write a Sunday page article about "Shenandoah." Frohman was
+immensely pleased, and through this he met Potter, who became one of his
+intimates.
+
+Then came the opening of Potter's play at the Chicago Opera House.
+Although Potter knew most of the critics, there was a feeling that they
+would forget all friendship and do their worst. Five minutes after the
+curtain went up the piece seemed doomed.
+
+But an extraordinary thing happened. From a stage box suddenly came
+sounds of uncontrollable mirth. The audience, and especially the
+critics, looked to see who was enjoying the play so strenuously, and
+they beheld Charles Frohman and Bronson Howard. The critics were
+puzzled. Here was a great playwright in the flush of an enormous success
+and a rising young manager evidently enjoying the performance. The
+mentors of public taste were so impressed that they praised the farce
+and started "The City Directory" on a career of remarkable success.
+Frohman and Howard were repaying the good turn that Potter had done for
+"Shenandoah."
+
+* * *
+
+Charles Frohman now had a money-making success. "Shenandoah" was the
+dramatic talk of the whole country; it did big business everywhere, and
+its courageous young producer came in for praise and congratulation on
+all sides.
+
+The manager might well have netted what was in those days a huge fortune
+out of this enterprise, but his unswerving sense of honor led him to
+immediately discharge all his obligations. He wiped out the Wallack's
+tour debts, and he eventually took up notes aggregating forty-two
+thousand dollars that he had given to a well-known Chicago printer who
+had befriended him in years gone by. What was most important, he was now
+free to unfurl his name to the breezes and to do business "on his own."
+
+* * *
+
+Charles immediately launched himself on another sea of productions. The
+most important was Gillette's "All the Comforts of Home," which he put
+on at Proctor's Twenty-third Street Theater. Frohman had just acquired
+the lease of this theater. Already a big idea was simmering in his mind,
+and the leasehold was essential to its consummation. On May 8, 1890, he
+produced the new Gillette play, which scored a success.
+
+This production marked another one of the many significant epochs in
+Frohman's life because it witnessed the first appearance of little Maude
+Adams under the Charles Frohman management.
+
+Frohman had seen Miss Adams in "The Paymaster" down at Niblo's and had
+been much taken with her work. He had been unable, however, to find a
+part for her, so it was reserved for his brother Daniel to give her the
+first Frohman engagement at thirty-five dollars a week in "Lord
+Chumley." Subsequently Daniel released her so that she could appear in
+the same cast with her mother in Hoyt's "The Midnight Bell."
+
+While trying "All the Comforts of Home" on the road there occurred an
+amusing episode. Frohman, who had been watching the rehearsals very
+carefully, said to Henry Miller, who was leading man:
+
+"Henry, you are something of a matinée idol. I think it would help the
+play if you had a love scene with Miss Adams."
+
+Accompanied by Rockwood, Frohman visited Gillette at his home at
+Hartford, got him to write the love scene, and then went on to
+Springfield, Massachusetts, for the "try-out."
+
+That night the three assembled in the bleak drawing-room of the hotel.
+Frohman ordered a little supper of ham sandwiches and sarsaparilla,
+after which he rehearsed the love scene, which simply consisted of a
+tender little parting in a doorway. It served to bring out the wistful
+and appealing tenderness that is one of Maude Adams's great qualities.
+
+"All the Comforts of Home" ran in Proctor's Theater until October 18th.
+When the theater reopened it disclosed a venture that linked the name of
+Charles Frohman with high and artistic effort--his first stock company.
+With this organization he hoped to maintain the traditions established
+by Augustin Daly, A. M. Palmer, Lester Wallack, and the Madison Square
+Company.
+
+He projected the Charles Frohman Stock Company in his usual lavish way.
+He engaged De Mille and Belasco to write the opening play. This was a
+very natural procedure: first, because of his intimate friendship with
+Belasco, and, second, because De Mille and Belasco had proved their
+skill as collaborators at Daniel Frohman's Lyceum Theater with such
+successes as "The Wife," "The Charity Ball," and "Lord Chumley." The
+result of their new endeavors was "Men and Women."
+
+In this play the authors wrote in the part _Dora_ especially for Maude
+Adams. They also created a rôle for Mrs. Annie Adams.
+
+The cast of "Men and Women," like that of "Shenandoah," was a striking
+one, and it contained many names already established, or destined to
+figure prominently in theatrical history. Henry Miller had been engaged
+for leading man, but he retired during the rehearsals, and his place was
+taken by William Morris, who had appeared in the Charles Frohman
+production of "She" and in the road company of "Held by the Enemy." In
+the company that Frohman selected were Frederick de Belleville, who
+played _Israel Cohen_, one of the finest, if not the finest, Jewish
+characters ever put on the stage; Orrin Johnson; Frank Mordaunt; Emmet
+Corrigan; J. C. Buckstone; and C. Leslie Allen, brother of Viola Allen.
+
+In addition to Maude Adams were Sydney Armstrong, who was the leading
+woman; Odette Tyler; and Etta Hawkins, who became the wife of William
+Morris during this engagement.
+
+At the dress rehearsal of "Men and Women" occurred a characteristic
+Charles Frohman incident. When the curtain had gone down Frohman hurried
+back to William Morris's dressing-room and said, "Will, that dress-suit
+of yours doesn't look right."
+
+"It's a brand-new suit, 'C. F.,'" he replied.
+
+Frohman thought a moment and said: "Can you be at my office to-morrow
+morning at eight o'clock? I've got a good tailor."
+
+Promptly at eight the next day they went over to Frohman's tailor, whom
+Frohman addressed as follows:
+
+"I want you to make a dress-suit for William Morris by eight o'clock
+to-morrow night."
+
+"Impossible!" said the man.
+
+"Nothing is impossible," said Frohman. "If that dress-suit is not in Mr.
+Morris's dressing-room at eight o'clock you won't get paid for it."
+
+The dress-suit showed up on time, and in it was a card, saying, "With
+Charles Frohman's compliments."
+
+Charles inaugurated his first stock season at Proctor's on October 21,
+1890. Although the notices were uniformly good, the start into public
+favor was a trifle slow. One reason was that a big bank failure had just
+shaken Wall Street, and there was considerable apprehension all over the
+city. By a curious coincidence there was a bank failure in the play. By
+clever publicity this fact was capitalized; the piece found its stride
+and ran for two hundred consecutive performances, when it was sent on
+the road with great success.
+
+For this tour Charles also introduced another one of the many novelties
+that he put into theatrical conduct. He ordered a private car for the
+company, and they used it throughout the tour. It was considered an
+extravagance, but it was merely part of the Charles Frohman policy to
+make his people comfortable. With this private car he established a
+precedent that was observed in most of his traveling organizations.
+
+* * *
+
+With the stock company on tour in "Men and Women," the manager now
+organized the Charles Frohman Comedy Company to fill in the time at
+Proctor's. Once more he collected a brilliant aggregation of players,
+for they included Henrietta Crosman, Joseph Holland, Frederick Bond, and
+Thomas Wise. Each one became a star in the course of the next ten years.
+
+The opening bill for the comedy company was Gillette's "Mr. Wilkinson's
+Widows," and was presented on March 30th, immediately following the run
+of "Men and Women." Henrietta Crosman subsequently withdrew from the
+cast, and Esther Lyons took her place.
+
+Charles Frohman reopened the theater on August 27th with a revival of
+this play, in which Georgia Drew Barrymore, the mother of Ethel,
+appeared as _Mrs. Perrin_. Emily Bancker, afterward a star in "Our
+Flat," and Mattie Ferguson were in the cast.
+
+On October 5th the company did Sardou's big drama of "Thermidor" for the
+first time on any stage, with another one of the casts for which Charles
+Frohman was beginning to become famous. It included a thin, gaunt
+Englishman whose name in the bill was simply J. F. Robertson, and who
+had just come from an engagement with John Hare in London. Subsequently
+the J. F. in his name came to be known as Johnston Forbes, because the
+man was Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson.
+
+In this company was Elsie De Wolfe, who later became a star and who
+years after left the theater to become an interior decorator. Among the
+male members of the company, besides Forbes-Robertson, was Jamison Lee
+Finney, who had graduated from the amateur ranks and who became one of
+the best-known comedians in the country.
+
+In the mean time Charles had commissioned Henry C. De Mille to furnish a
+play for his stock company which was now on its way back from the coast.
+This play was "The Lost Paradise," which the American had adapted from
+Ludwig Fulda's drama. De Mille joined the company in Denver and
+rehearsals were begun there. By the time the company reached New York
+they were almost letter-perfect, and the opening at Proctor's on
+November 16th was a brilliant success. The play ran consecutively until
+March 1st.
+
+The cast was practically the same as "Men and Women," with the addition
+of Cyril Scott, Odette Tyler, and Bijou Fernandez.
+
+In "The Lost Paradise" Maude Adams scored the biggest success that she
+had made up to that time in New York. She played the part of _Nell_, the
+consumptive factory girl. This character, with its delicate and haunting
+interpretation, made an irresistible appeal to the audience.
+
+"There's big talent in that girl," said Frohman in speaking of Miss
+Adams. He began to see the vision of what the years would hold for her.
+
+* * *
+
+By this time Charles Frohman had begun to make his annual visit to
+London. Out of one of the earliest journeys came still another success
+of the many that now seemed to crowd upon him.
+
+He had taken desk space with Abbey, Schoeffel & Grau in Henrietta Street
+in London. On the trip in question Belasco accompanied him. One night
+Frohman said:
+
+"There is a little comedy around the corner called 'Jane.' Let's go and
+see it."
+
+Frohman was convulsed with laughter, and the very next day sought out
+the author, William Lestocq, from whom he purchased the American rights.
+Out of this connection came another one of the life-long friendships of
+Frohman. Lestocq, a few years later, became his principal English
+representative and remained so until the end.
+
+Frohman was now in a whirlpool of projects. Although he was occupying
+himself with both the comedy and stock companies at Proctor's, he put on
+"Jane" as a midsummer attraction at the Madison Square Theater with a
+cast that included Katherine Grey, Johnstone Bennett, Jennie Weathersby,
+and Paul Arthur.
+
+"Jane" became such an enormous success that Charles put out two road
+companies at once. In connection with "Jane" it may be said that his
+first real fortune--that is, the first money that he actually kept for a
+time--was made with this comedy.
+
+Production after production now marked the Frohman career. Charles had
+always admired Henry E. Dixey, so he launched him as star in "The
+Solicitor" at Hermann's Theater, on September 8, 1891. It was the first
+time that the famous "Charles Frohman Presents" was used. In this
+company were Burr McIntosh, Sidney Drew, and Joseph Humphreys. It was
+the failure of "The Solicitor" that led Frohman to put Dixey out again
+as star in a piece called "The Man with a Hundred Heads" at the Star
+Theater. This also failed, so he ventured with "The Junior Partner" at
+the same theater with a cast that included E. J. Ratcliffe, Mrs. McKee
+Rankin, Henrietta Crosman, and Louise Thorndyke-Boucicault.
+
+Early the following year he tried his luck at Hermann's with "Gloriana,"
+in which May Robson and E. J. Henley appeared. Hermann's Theater,
+however, seemed to be a sort of hoodoo, so Frohman returned to the Star,
+which had been his mascot, and made his first joint production with
+David Belasco in a musical piece called "Miss Helyett." Frohman had seen
+the play in Paris, and proceeded at once to buy the American rights from
+Charles Wyndham. This production not only marked the first joint
+presentation of Belasco and Charles, but it was the début of Mrs. Leslie
+Carter, who had become a protégée of Mr. Belasco. When the piece was
+moved to the Standard early in January, 1892, Mrs. Carter was starred
+for the first time.
+
+* * *
+
+By this time Charles Frohman was a personage to be reckoned with.
+"Shenandoah," the two stock companies, "Jane," and all the other
+enterprises both successful and otherwise, had made his name a big one
+in the theater. He now began to reach out for authors.
+
+The first author to be approached was Augustus Thomas. He gave Charles a
+play called "Surrender." It was put on in Boston. The original idea in
+Thomas's mind was to write a satire on the war plays that had been so
+successful, like "Shenandoah" and "Held by the Enemy." "Surrender"
+began as a farce, but Charles Frohman and Eugene Presbrey, who produced
+it, wanted to make it serious.
+
+The cast was a very notable one, including Clement Bainbridge, E. M.
+Holland, Burr McIntosh, Harry Woodruff, H. D. Blackmore, Louis Aldrich,
+Maude Bancks, Miriam O'Leary, Jessie Busley, and Rose Eytinge.
+
+The rehearsals of "Surrender" were marked by many amusing episodes.
+Maude Bancks, for example, who was playing the part of a Northern girl
+in a Southern town, had to wear a red sash to indicate her Northern
+proclivities. This she refused to put on at the dress rehearsal because
+it did not match her costume. Bainbridge, an actor who played a Southern
+general, had a speech that he regarded as treason to his adopted
+country, and quit. But all these troubles were bridged over and the play
+was produced with some artistic success. It lasted sixteen weeks on the
+road.
+
+After he had closed "Surrender" Frohman was telling a friend in New York
+that he had lost twenty-eight thousand dollars on this piece.
+
+"But why did you permit yourself to lose so much money on a play that
+seemed bound to fail?"
+
+"I believe in Gus Thomas. That is the reason," replied Frohman.
+
+* * *
+
+Although immersed in a multitude of enterprises, Frohman's activities
+now took a new and significant tack. Through all these crowded years his
+friendship for William Harris had been growing. Harris, who had
+graduated from minstrelsy to theatrical management and was the partner
+of Isaac B. Rich in the conduct of the Howard Athenæum and the Hollis
+Street Theater in Boston, now added the Columbia Theater in that city to
+his string of houses. Charles at once secured an interest in this lease,
+and it was his first out-of-town theater. Quick to capitalize the
+opportunity, he put one of the "Jane" road companies in it for a run and
+called it the Charles Frohman Boston Stock Company.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+JOHN DREW AND THE EMPIRE THEATER
+
+
+The year 1892 not only found Charles Frohman established as an important
+play-producing manager, but in addition he was reaching out for
+widespread theater management. It was to register a memorable epoch in
+the life of Charles and to record, through him, a significant era in the
+history of the American theater. From this time on his life-story was to
+be the narrative of the larger development of the drama and its people.
+
+With the acquisition of his first big star, John Drew, he laid the
+corner-stone of what is the so-called modern starring system, which
+brought about a revolution in theatrical conduct. The story of Charles's
+conquest in securing the management of Drew, with all its attendant
+dramatic and sensational features, illustrates the resource and vision
+of the one-time minstrel manager who now began to come into his own as a
+real Napoleon of the stage.
+
+Charles always attached importance and value to big names. He had paid
+dearly in the past for this proclivity with the Lester Wallack Company.
+Undaunted, he now turned to another investment in name that was to be
+more successful.
+
+About this time John Drew had made his way to a unique eminence on the
+American stage. A member of a distinguished Philadelphia theatrical
+family, he had scored an instantaneous success on his first appearance
+at home and had become the leading man of Augustin Daly's famous stock
+company. He was one of "The Big Four" of that distinguished
+organization, which included Ada Rehan, Mrs. G. H. Gilbert, and James
+Lewis. They were known as such in America and England. Drew was regarded
+as the finest type of the so-called modern actor interpreting the
+gentleman in the modern play. He shone in the drawing-room drama; he had
+a distinct following, and was therefore an invaluable asset. The general
+impression was that he was wedded to the environment that had proved so
+successful and was so congenial.
+
+Charles knew Drew quite casually. Their first meeting was
+characteristic. It happened during the great "Shenandoah" run. Henry
+Miller and Drew were old friends. It was Frohman's custom in those days
+to have after-theater suppers on Saturday nights at his rooms in the old
+Hoffman House, and sometimes a friendly game of cards.
+
+One Saturday Miller called Frohman up and asked him if he could bring
+Drew down for supper.
+
+"Certainly; with pleasure," said Frohman.
+
+That night after the play Miller picked Drew up at Daly's and took him
+to the Hoffman House. Knowing the way to the Frohman rooms, he started
+for them unannounced, when he was stopped by a bell-boy, who said, "Mr.
+Frohman is expecting you in here," opening the door and ushering the
+guests into a magnificent private suite that Frohman had engaged for the
+occasion. It was the first step in the campaign for Drew.
+
+[Illustration: _JOHN DREW_]
+
+Although Frohman was eager to secure Drew, he made no effort to lure
+the actor away from what he believed was a very satisfactory connection.
+
+As the friendship between the men grew, however, he discovered that Drew
+was becoming dissatisfied with his arrangement at Daly's. Up to that
+time "The Big Four" shared in the profits of the theater. Daly canceled
+this arrangement, and Drew suddenly realized that what seemed to be a
+most attractive alliance really held out no future for him.
+
+Drew's dissatisfaction was heightened by his realization that Augustin
+Daly's greatest work and achievements were behind him. The famous old
+manager was undergoing that cycle of experience which comes to all of
+his kind when the flood-tide of their success begins to ebb.
+
+Drew was speculating about his future when Frohman heard of his state of
+mind. He now felt that he would not be violating the ethics of the
+profession in making overtures looking to an alliance. He did not make a
+direct offer, but sent a mutual friend, Frank Bennett, once a member of
+the Daly company, who was then conducting the Arlington Hotel in
+Washington. Through him Frohman made a proposition to Drew to become a
+star. The actor accepted the offer, and a three-year contract was
+signed.
+
+The capture of John Drew by Charles Frohman was more than a mere
+business stroke. Frohman never forgot that the great Daly had succeeded
+in ousting him from his first booking-offices in the Daly Theater
+Building. He found not a little humor in pre-empting the services of the
+Daly leading man as a sort of reciprocal stroke.
+
+When Drew told Daly that he had signed a contract with Frohman the then
+dictator of the American stage could scarcely find words to express his
+astonishment. He assured Drew that he was making the mistake of his
+life, because he regarded Frohman as an unlicensed interloper. Yet this
+"interloper," from the moment of the Drew contract, began a new career
+of brilliant and artistic development.
+
+Frohman's starring arrangement with Drew created a sensation, both among
+the public and in the profession. It broke up "The Big Four," for Drew
+left a gap at Daly's that could not be filled.
+
+There was also a widespread feeling that while Drew had succeeded in a
+congenial environment, and with an actress (Miss Rehan) who was
+admirably suited to him, he might not duplicate this success amid new
+scenes. Hence arose much speculation about his leading woman. A dozen
+names were bruited about.
+
+Charles Frohman remained silent. He was keenly sensitive to the
+sensation he was creating, and was biding his time to launch another. It
+came when he announced Maude Adams as John Drew's leading woman. He had
+watched her development with eager and interested eye. She had made good
+wherever he had placed her. Now he gave her what was up to this time her
+biggest chance. The moment her name became bracketed with Drew's there
+was a feeling of satisfaction over the choice. How wise Charles Frohman
+was in the whole Drew venture was about to be abundantly proved.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles Frohman not only made John Drew a star, but the nucleus of a
+whole system. It was a time of rebirth for the whole American stage.
+Nearly all the old stars were gone or were passing from view. Forrest,
+McCullough, Cushman, Janauschek were gone; Modjeska's power was waning;
+Clara Morris was soon to leave the stage world; Lawrence Barrett and
+W.J. Florence were dead; Edwin Booth had retired.
+
+Frohman realized that with the passing of these stars there also passed
+the system that had created them. He knew that the public--the new
+generation--wanted younger people, popular names--somebody to talk
+about. He realized further that the public adored personality and that
+the strongest prop that a play could get was a fascinating and magnetic
+human being, whether male or female. The old stars had made
+themselves--risen from the ranks after years of service. Frohman saw the
+opportunity to accelerate this advance by providing swift and
+spectacular recognition. The new stars that were now to blossom into
+life under him owed their being to the initiative and the vision of some
+one else. Thus he became the first of the star-makers.
+
+Charles was now all excitement. He had the making of his first big star,
+and he proceeded to launch him in truly magnificent fashion.
+
+A play was needed that would bring out all those qualities that had made
+Drew shine in the drawing-room drama. The very play itself was destined
+to mark an epoch in the life of a man in the theater. Through Elizabeth
+Marbury, who had just launched herself as play-broker in a little office
+on Twenty-fourth Street, around the corner from Charles Frohman's, his
+attention was called to a French farcical comedy called "The Masked
+Ball," by Alexandre Bisson and Albert Carre. Frohman liked the story and
+wanted it adapted for American production. It was the beginning of his
+long patronage of French plays.
+
+"I know a brilliant young man who could do this job for you very well,"
+said Miss Marbury.
+
+"What's his name?" asked Frohman.
+
+"Clyde Fitch, and I believe he is going to have a great career," was the
+answer of his sponsor.
+
+Fitch was given the commission. He did a most successful piece of
+adaptation, and in this Way began the long and close relationship
+between the author of "Beau Brummel" (his first play) and the man who,
+more than any other, did so much to advance his career.
+
+For Drew's début under his management Charles spared no expense. In
+addition to Maude Adams, the company included Harry Harwood (who was
+then coming into his own as a forceful and versatile character actor),
+C. Leslie Allen, Mrs. Annie Adams, and Frank E. Lamb.
+
+With his usual desire to do everything in a splendid way, Frohman
+arranged for Drew's début at Palmer's Theater, the old Lester Wallack
+playhouse which was now under the management of A. M. Palmer, then one
+of the shining figures in the American drama, and located opposite
+Drew's former scenes of activity. Thus Drew's first stellar appearance
+was on a stage rich with tradition.
+
+"The Masked Ball" opened October 3, 1892, in the presence of a
+representative audience. It was an instantaneous success. Drew played
+with brilliancy and distinction, and Frohman's confidence in him was
+amply justified.
+
+[Illustration: _CLYDE FITCH_]
+
+[Illustration: _HENRY ARTHUR JONES_]
+
+The performance, however, had a human interest apart from the star.
+Maude Adams, for the first time in her career, had a real Broadway
+opportunity, and she made the most of it in such a fashion as to
+convince Frohman and every one else that before many years were past
+she, too, would have her name up in electric lights. She played the part
+of _Zuzanne Blondet_, a more or less frivolous person, and it was in
+distinct contrast with the character that she had just abandoned, that
+of _Nell_, the consumptive factory-girl in "The Lost Paradise."
+
+[Illustration: A CHARACTERISTIC FROHMAN BLUE PENCIL SKETCH]
+
+As _Zuzanne_ in "The Masked Ball," Miss Adams went to a ball and
+assumed tipsiness in order to influence her dissipated husband and
+achieve his ultimate reformation. The way she prepared for this part was
+characteristic of the woman. She wore a hat with a long feather, and she
+determined to make it a "tipsy feather." This feature became one of the
+comedy hits of the play, but in order to achieve it she worked for days
+and days to bring about the desired effect. The result of all this
+painstaking preparation was a brilliant performance. When the curtain
+went down on that memorable night at Palmer's Theater the general
+impression was:
+
+"Maude Adams will be the next Frohman star."
+
+The morning after the opening Frohman went to John Drew and said: "Well,
+John, you don't need me any more now. You're made."
+
+"No, Charles; I shall need you always," was the reply.
+
+Out of this engagement came the long and intimate friendship between
+Drew and Frohman. The first contract, signed and sealed on that
+precarious day when Frohman was seeing the vision of the modern star
+system, was the last formal bond between them. Though their negotiations
+involved hundreds of thousands of dollars in the years that passed,
+there was never another scrap of paper between them.
+
+Seldom in the history of the American theater has another event been so
+productive of far-reaching consequence as "The Masked Ball." It brought
+Clyde Fitch into contact with the man who was to be his real sponsor; it
+made John Drew a star; it carried Maude Adams to the frontiers of the
+stellar realm; it gave Charles Frohman a whole new and distinguished
+place in the theater.
+
+Frohman was quick to follow up this success. With Drew he had made his
+first real bid for what was known in those days as "the carriage
+trade"--that is, the patronage of the socially elect. He hastened to
+clinch this with another stunning production at Palmer's. It was Bronson
+Howard's play, "Aristocracy."
+
+The play, produced on November 14, 1893, was done in Frohman's usual
+lavish way. The company included not less than half a dozen people who
+were then making their way toward stardom--Wilton Lackaye, Viola Allen,
+Blanche Walsh, William Faversham, Frederick Bond, Bruce McRae, Paul
+Arthur, W. H. Thompson, J. W. Piggott. "Aristocracy" was Bronson
+Howard's reversion to the serenity of the society drama after the
+spectacle of war. The first night's audience was fashionable. The
+distinction of the cast lent much to the success of the occasion.
+
+* * *
+
+When John Drew called on Charles Frohman for the first time at his
+offices at 1127 Broadway, his way was impeded by a bright-eyed, alert
+young office-boy who bore the unromantic name of Peter Daly. He
+incarnated every ill to which his occupation seems to be heir. Without
+troubling himself to find out if Mr. Frohman was in, he immediately
+said, after the grand fashion of theatrical office-boys:
+
+"Mr. Frohman is out and I don't know when he will return."
+
+"But I have an engagement with Mr. Frohman," said Drew.
+
+"You will have to wait," said the boy.
+
+Drew cooled his heels outside while Frohman waited impatiently inside
+for him. When he emerged at lunchtime he was surprised to find his man
+about to depart.
+
+Daly was immediately discharged by Julius Cahn, who was office manager,
+but was promptly reinstated the next day by Frohman, who had been
+greatly impressed with the boy's quick wit and intelligence.
+
+This office-boy, it is interesting to relate, became Arnold Daly, the
+actor. No experience of his life was perhaps more amusing or picturesque
+than the crowded year when he manned the outside door of Charles
+Frohman's office. Instead of attending to business, he spent most of his
+time writing burlesques on contemporary plays, which he solemnly
+submitted to Harry Rockwood, the bookkeeper.
+
+During these days occurred a now famous episode. Young Daly was
+luxuriously reclining in the most comfortable chair in the
+reception-room one day when Louise Closser Hale, the actress, entered
+and asked to see Charles Frohman.
+
+"He is out," said Daly.
+
+"May I wait for him?" asked the visitor.
+
+"Yes," answered Daly, and the woman sat down.
+
+After three hours had passed she asked Daly, "Where is Mr. Frohman?"
+
+"He's in London," was the reply.
+
+Afterward Daly became "dresser" for John Drew, the virus of the theater
+got into his system, and before long he was an actor.
+
+Thus even Charles Frohman's office-boys became stars.
+
+* * *
+
+Epochal as had been 1892, witnessing the first big Frohman star and a
+great artistic expansion, the new year that now dawned realized another
+and still greater dream of Charles Frohman, for it brought the
+dedication of his own New York theater at last, the famous Empire.
+
+Ever since he had been launched in the metropolitan theatrical
+whirlpool, Frohman wanted a New York theater. As a boy he had witnessed
+the glories of the Union Square Theater under Palmer; as a road manager
+he had a part in the success of the Madison Square Theater activities;
+in his early managerial days he had been associated with the Lester
+Wallack organization; he had watched the later triumphs of the Lyceum
+Theater Company at home and on the road. Quite naturally he came to the
+conviction that he was ready to operate and control a big theater of his
+own.
+
+The way toward its consummation was this:
+
+One day toward the end of the 'eighties, William Harris came to New York
+to see Frohman about the booking of some attractions. He said:
+
+"Charley, I want a theater in New York, and I know that you want one.
+Let's combine."
+
+"All right," said Frohman. "You can get the Union Square. The lease is
+on the market."
+
+"Very well," said Harris.
+
+On the way down-stairs he met Al Hayman, who asked him where he was
+going.
+
+"I am going over to lease the Union Square Theater," he replied.
+
+"That's foolish," said Hayman. "Everything theatrical is going up-town."
+
+"Well," answered Harris, "C. F. wants a theater, and I am determined
+that he shall have it, so I am going over to get the Union Square."
+
+"If you and Frohman want a theater that badly, I will build one for
+you," he responded.
+
+"Where?" asked Harris.
+
+"I've got some lots at Fortieth and Broadway, and it's a good site, even
+if it is away up-town."
+
+They went back to Frohman's office, and here was hatched the plan for
+the Empire Theater.
+
+"I can't go ahead on this matter without Rich," said Harris.
+
+"All right," said Frohman. "Wire Rich."
+
+Rich came down next day, and the final details were concluded for the
+building of the Empire. Frank Sanger came in as a partner; thus the
+builders were Al Hayman, Frank Sanger, and William Harris. Without the
+formality of a contract they turned it over to Charles Frohman with the
+injunction that he could do with it as he pleased.
+
+Frohman was in his element. He could now embark on another one of the
+favorite dream-enterprises.
+
+He was like a child during the building of the theater. Every moment
+that he could spare from his desk he would walk up the street and watch
+the demolition of the old houses that were to make way for this
+structure. Often he would get Belasco and take him up the street to note
+the progress. One night as they stood before the skeleton of the theater
+that stood gaunt and gray in the gloom Charles said to his friend:
+
+"David, just think; the great dream is coming true, and yet it's only a
+few years since we sat at 'Beefsteak John's' with only forty-two cents
+between us."
+
+Naturally, Frohman turned to Belasco for the play to open the Empire.
+His old friend was then at work on "The Heart of Maryland" for Mrs.
+Leslie Carter. He explained the situation to Frohman. As soon as Mrs.
+Carter heard of it she went to Frohman and told him that she would
+waive her appearance and that Belasco must go ahead on the Empire play,
+which he did.
+
+Just what kind of play to produce was the problem. Frohman still clung
+to the mascot of war. The blue coat and brass buttons had turned the
+tide for him with "Shenandoah," and he was superstitious in wanting
+another stirring and martial piece. Belasco had become interested in
+Indians, but he also wanted to introduce the evening-clothes feature.
+Hence came the inspiration of a ball at an army post in the far West
+during the Indian-fighting days. This episode proved to be the big
+dramatic situation of the new piece.
+
+Then came the night when Belasco read the play to Frohman, who walked up
+and down the floor. When the author finished, Frohman rushed up to him
+with a brilliant smile on his face and said:
+
+"David, you've done the whole business! You've got pepper and salt,
+soup, entrée, roast, salad, dessert, coffee; it's a real play, and I
+know it will be a success."
+
+Having finished the work, which Belasco wrote in collaboration with
+Franklin Fyles, then dramatic editor of the New York _Sun_, they needed
+a striking name. So they sent the manuscript to Daniel, down at the
+Lyceum, for Charles always declared he had been happy in the selection
+of play titles. Back came the manuscript with his approval of the work,
+and with the title "The Girl I Left Behind Me." This they eagerly
+adopted.
+
+Long before "The Girl I Left Behind Me" manuscript was ready to leave
+Belasco's hands, Frohman was assembling his company. Instead of having a
+star, he decided to have an all-round stock company. The success of this
+kind of institution had been amply proved at Daly's, Wallack's, the
+Madison Square, and the Lyceum. Hence the Charles Frohman Stock Company,
+which had scored so heavily with "Men and Women" and "The Lost Paradise"
+at Proctor's Twenty-third Street Theater, now became the famous Empire
+Theater Stock Company and incidentally the greatest of all star
+factories. William Morris was retained as the first leading man, and the
+company included Orrin Johnson, Cyril Scott, W. H. Thompson, Theodore
+Roberts, Sydney Armstrong, Odette Tyler, and Edna Wallace. The child in
+the play was a precocious youngster called "Wally" Eddinger, who is the
+familiar Wallace Eddinger of the present-day stage.
+
+The rehearsals for "The Girl I Left Behind Me" were held in the Standard
+Theater, which Frohman had already booked for productions, and were
+supervised by Belasco. Frohman, however, was always on hand, and his
+suggestions were invaluable.
+
+"The Girl I Left Behind Me" was tried out for a week at Washington. The
+company arrived there on Sunday afternoon, but was unable to get the
+stage until midnight because Robert G. Ingersoll was delivering a
+lecture there. At the outset of this rehearsal Belasco became ill and
+had to retire to his bed, and Frohman took up the direction of this
+final rehearsal and worked with the company until long after dawn.
+
+The week in Washington rounded out the play thoroughly, and the company
+returned to New York on the morning of January 25, 1893. Now came a
+characteristic example of Frohman's resource. At noon it was discovered
+that the new electric-light installation was not yet complete. Added to
+this was the disconcerting fact that the paint on the chairs was
+scarcely dry. Sanger, Harris, and Rich urged Frohman to postpone the
+opening. "It will be useless to open under these conditions," they said.
+
+"The Empire must open to-night," said Frohman, "if we have to open it by
+candle-light."
+
+In saying this Charles Frohman emphasized what was one of his iron-clad
+rules, for he never postponed an announced opening.
+
+That January night was a memorable one in the life of Frohman. He sat on
+a low chair in the wings, and alongside of him sat Belasco. His face
+beamed, yet he was very nervous, as he always was on openings. At the
+end of the third act, when the audience made insistent calls for
+speeches, Belasco tried to drag Frohman out, but he would not go. "You
+go, David," he said. And Belasco went out and made a speech.
+
+"The Girl I Left Behind Me" was a complete success, and played two
+hundred and eighty-eight consecutive performances.
+
+The opening of the Empire Theater strengthened Charles Frohman's
+position immensely. More than this, it established a whole new
+theatrical district in New York. When it was opened there was only one
+up-town theater, the Broadway. Within a few years other playhouses
+followed the example of the Empire, and camped in its environs. Thus
+again Charles Frohman was a pioneer.
+
+The Empire Theater now became the nerve-center of the Charles Frohman
+interests. He established his offices on the third floor, and there they
+remained until his death. He practically occupied the whole building,
+for his booking interests, which had now grown to great proportions, and
+which were in charge of Julius Cahn, occupied a whole suite of offices.
+He now had his own New York theater, a star of the first magnitude, and
+a stock company with a national reputation.
+
+When the Empire Stock Company began its second season in the August of
+1893, in R. C. Carton's play, "Liberty Hall," Charles Frohman was able
+to keep the promise he had made to Henry Miller back in the 'eighties in
+San Francisco. That handsome and dashing young actor now succeeded
+William Morris as leading man of the stock company, Viola Allen became
+leading woman, and May Robson also joined the company. "Liberty Hall"
+ran until the end of October, when David Belasco's play, "The Younger
+Son," was put on. This added William Faversham to the ranks, and thus
+another star possibility came under the sway of the Star-Maker.
+
+The Empire became the apple of Charles Frohman's eye, and remained so
+until his death. No star and no play was too good for it. On it he
+lavished wealth and genuine affection. To appear with the Empire Stock
+Company was to be decorated with the Order of Theatrical Merit. To it in
+turn came Robert Edison, Ethel Barrymore, Elita Proctor Otis, Jameson
+Lee Finney, Elsie De Wolfe, W. J. Ferguson, Ferdinand Gottschalk, J. E.
+Dodson, Margaret Anglin, J. Henry Benrimo, Ida Conquest, and Arthur
+Byron.
+
+The Empire Stock Company became an accredited institution. A new play by
+it was a distinct event, its annual tour to the larger cities an
+occasion that was eagerly awaited. To have a play produced by it was the
+goal of the ambitious playwright, both here and abroad.
+
+Through the playing of the Empire Company Frohman introduced Oscar Wilde
+to America, and with the stock-company opportunities he developed such
+playwrights as Henry Arthur Jones, Haddon Chambers, Sydney Grundy,
+Louis N. Parker, Madeline Lucette Ryley, Henry Guy Carleton, Clyde
+Fitch, Jerome K. Jerome, and Arthur Wing Pinero.
+
+Having firmly established the Empire Theater, Charles now turned to a
+myriad of enterprises. He acquired the lease of the Standard Theater
+(afterward the Manhattan) and began there a series of productions that
+was to have significant effect on his fortunes.
+
+In May, 1893, he produced a comedy called "Fanny," by George R. Sims, of
+London, in which W. J. Ferguson, Frank Burbeck, and Johnston Bennett
+appeared. It was a very dismal failure, but it produced one of the
+famous Frohman epigrams. Sims sent Frohman the following telegram a few
+days after the opening:
+
+     _How is Fanny going?_
+
+Whereupon Frohman sent this laconic reply:
+
+     _Gone._
+
+Now came another historic episode in Frohman's career. He was making his
+annual visit to London. The lure and love of the great city was in him
+and it grew with each succeeding pilgrimage. He had learned to select
+successful English plays, as the case of "Jane" had proved. Now he was
+to go further and capture one of his rarest prizes.
+
+Just about this time Brandon Thomas's farce, "Charley's Aunt," had been
+played at the Globe Theater as a Christmas attraction and was staggering
+along in great uncertainty. W. S. Penley, who owned the rights, played
+the leading part.
+
+Suddenly it became a success, and the "managerial Yankee birds," as they
+called the American theatrical magnates, began to roost in London. All
+had their claws set for "Charley's Aunt."
+
+Frohman had established an office in London at 4 Henrietta Street, in
+the vicinity of Covent Garden. His friendship with W. Lestocq, the
+author of "Jane," developed. Lestocq, who was the son of a publisher,
+and had graduated from a clever amateur actor into a professional,
+conceived a great liking for Frohman. While all the American managers
+were angling for "Charley's Aunt," he went to Penley, who was his
+friend, and said:
+
+"Frohman has done so well with 'Jane' in America, he is the man to do
+'Charley's Aunt.'"
+
+Penley agreed to hold up all his negotiations for the play until Frohman
+arrived. A conference was held, and, through the instrumentality of
+Lestocq, Frohman secured the American rights to "Charley's Aunt."
+
+At the end of this meeting Lestocq said in jest, "What do I get out of
+this?"
+
+"I'll show you," said Frohman. "You shall represent me in London
+hereafter."
+
+Out of this conference came one of the longest and most loyal
+associations in Charles's career, because from that hour until the day
+of his death Lestocq represented Charles Frohman in England with a
+fidelity of purpose and a devotion of interest that were characteristic
+of the men who knew and worked with Charles Frohman.
+
+[Illustration: THE DOVER STUDIOS. LONDON
+
+_W. LESTOCQ_]
+
+Frohman now returned to America to produce "Charley's Aunt." In spite of
+the success of the Empire, Frohman had "plunged" in various ways, and
+had reached one of the numerous financial crises in his life. He
+looked upon "Charley's Aunt" as the agency that was to again redeem him.
+For the American production he imported Etienne Girardot, who had played
+the leading rôle in the English production. He surrounded Girardot with
+an admirable cast, including W. J. Ferguson, Frank Burbeck, Henry
+Woodruff, Nanette Comstock, and Jessie Busley.
+
+Frohman personally rehearsed "Charley's Aunt." He tried it out first at
+Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where the reception was not particularly
+cordial. He returned to New York in a great state of apprehension,
+although his good spirits were never dampened. On October 2, 1893, he
+produced the play at the Standard, and it was an immediate success. As
+the curtain went down on the first night's performance he assembled the
+company on the stage and made a short speech, thanking them for their
+co-operation. It was the first time in his career that he had done this,
+and it showed how keenly concerned he was. It was another "Shenandoah,"
+because it recouped his purse, depleted from numerous outside ventures,
+inspired him with a fresh zeal, and enabled him to proceed with fresh
+enterprises. It ran for two hundred nights, and then duplicated its New
+York success on the road.
+
+While gunning for "Charley's Aunt," Charles Frohman made his first
+London production with "The Lost Paradise." He put it on in partnership
+with the Gattis, at the Adelphi Theater in the Strand. It was a failure,
+however, and it discouraged him from producing in England for some
+little time.
+
+These were the years when Frohman was making the few intimate
+friendships that would mean so much to him until the closing hours of
+his life. That of Charles Dillingham is an important one.
+
+Dillingham had been a newspaper man in Chicago at a time when George
+Ade, Peter Dunne, and Frank Vanderlip (now president of the National
+City Bank) were his co-workers. He became secretary to Senator Squire,
+and at Washington wrote a play called "Twelve P.M." A manager named
+Frank Williams produced it in the old Bijou Theater, New York, just
+about the time that Charles Frohman was presenting John Drew across the
+street in "The Masked Ball." Dillingham had previously come on to New
+York, and his hopes, naturally, were in the play. "Twelve P.M." was a
+dismal failure, but it brought two unusual men together who became bosom
+friends. It came about in this extraordinary way:
+
+During the second (and last) week of the engagement of "Twelve P.M." at
+the Bijou, Dillingham, who came every night to see his play, noticed a
+short, stout, but important-looking man pass into the playhouse.
+
+"Who is that man?" he asked.
+
+He was told it was Charles Frohman.
+
+A few days later he received a letter from Frohman, which said:
+
+     _Your play lacks all form and construction, but I like the lines
+     very much. Would you like to adapt a French farce for me?_
+
+Dillingham accepted this commission and thus met Frohman. Dillingham was
+then dramatic editor of the New York _Evening Sun_. One day he called on
+Frohman and asked him to send him out with a show.
+
+"When do you want to go?"
+
+"Right away."
+
+"Very well," said Frohman, who would always have his little joke. "You
+can go to-morrow. I would like to get you off that paper, anyhow. You
+write too many bad notices of my plays."
+
+Dillingham first went out ahead of the Empire Stock Company and
+afterward in advance of John Drew, in "That Imprudent Young Couple." He
+left the job, however, and soon returned to Frohman, seeking other work.
+
+"What would you like to do?" asked Frohman.
+
+"Take my yacht and go to England," said Dillingham, facetiously.
+
+"All right," said Frohman. "We sail Saturday," and handed him fifty
+thousand dollars in stage money that happened to be lying on his desk.
+Dillingham thought at first he was joking, but he was not. They sailed
+on the _St. Paul_. Frohman had just established his first offices in
+Henrietta Street. There was not much business to transact, and the pair
+spent most of their time seeing plays. Dillingham acted as a sort of
+secretary to Frohman.
+
+One day a haughty Englishman came up to the offices and asked Dillingham
+to take in his card.
+
+"I have no time," said Dillingham, whose sense of humor is proverbial.
+
+"What have you to do?" asked the man.
+
+"I've got to wash the office windows first," was the reply.
+
+The Englishman became enraged, strode in to Frohman, and told him what
+Dillingham had said. Frohman laughed so heartily that he almost rolled
+out of his chair. After the Englishman left he went out and
+congratulated Dillingham on his jest. From that day dated a Damon and
+Pythias friendship between the two men. They were almost inseparable
+companions.
+
+The time was at hand for another big star to twinkle in the Frohman
+heaven. During all these years William Gillette had developed in
+prestige and authority, both as actor and as playwright. The quiet,
+thoughtful, scholarly-looking young actor who had knocked at the doors
+of the Madison Square Theater with the manuscript of "The Professor,"
+where it was produced after "Hazel Kirke," and whose road tours had been
+booked by Charles Frohman in his early days as route-maker, now came
+into his own. Curiously enough, his career was to be linked closely with
+that of the little man he first knew in his early New York days.
+
+Frohman, who had booked and produced Gillette's play "Held By the
+Enemy," now regarded Gillette as star material of the first rank.
+Combined with admiration for Gillette as artist was a strong personal
+friendship. Gillette now wrote a play, a capital farce called "Too Much
+Johnson," which Frohman produced with the author as star. In connection
+with this opening was a typical Frohman incident.
+
+The play was first put on at Waltham, Massachusetts. The house was small
+and the notices bad. Frohman joined the company next day at Springfield.
+Gillette was much depressed, and he met Frohman in this mood.
+
+"This is terrible, isn't it? I'm afraid the play is a failure."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Frohman. "I have booked it for New York and for a long
+tour afterward."
+
+"Why?" asked Gillette in astonishment.
+
+"I saw your performance," was the reply.
+
+[Illustration: _CHARLES DILLINGHAM_]
+
+Frohman's confidence was vindicated, for when the play was put on at the
+Standard Theater in November, 1894, it went splendidly and put another
+rivet in Gillette's reputation.
+
+Frohman now had two big stars, John Drew and William Gillette. A
+half-dozen others were in the making, chief among them the wistful-eyed
+little Maude Adams, who was now approaching the point in her career
+where she was to establish a new tradition for the American stage and
+give Charles Frohman a unique distinction.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+MAUDE ADAMS AS STAR
+
+
+When Charles Frohman put Maude Adams opposite John Drew in "The Masked
+Ball" he laid the foundation of what is, in many respects, his most
+remarkable achievement. The demure little girl, who had made her way
+from child actress through the perils of vivid melodrama to a Broadway
+success, now set foot on the real highway to a stardom that is unique in
+the annals of the theater.
+
+Brilliant as was his experience with the various men and women whom he
+raised from obscurity to fame and fortune, the case of Maude Adams
+stands out with peculiar distinctness. It is the one instance where
+Charles Frohman literally manufactured a star's future.
+
+Yet no star ever served so rigorous or so distinguished an
+apprenticeship. Her five years as leading woman with John Drew tried all
+her resource. After her brilliant performance as _Zuzanne Blondet_ in
+"The Masked Ball," she appeared in "The Butterflies," by Henry Guy
+Carleton. She had a much better part in "The Bauble Shop," which
+followed the next year.
+
+John Drew's vehicle in 1895 was "That Imprudent Young Couple," by Henry
+Guy Carleton. This play not only advanced Miss Adams materially, but
+first served to bring forward John Drew's niece, Ethel Barrymore, a
+graceful slip of a girl, who developed a great friendship with Miss
+Adams. Following her appearance in the Carleton play came "Christopher
+Jr.," written by Madeline Lucette Ryley, in which Miss Adams scored the
+biggest hit of her career up to this time.
+
+It remained for Louis N. Parker's charming play, "Rosemary," which was
+produced at the Empire Theater in 1896, to put Miss Adams into the path
+of the man who, after Charles Frohman, did more than any other person in
+the world to give her the prominence that she occupies to-day.
+
+"Rosemary" was an exquisite comedy, and packed with sentiment. Maude
+Adams played the part of _Dorothy Cruikshank_, a character of quaint and
+appealing sweetness. It touched the hidden springs of whimsical humor
+and thrilling tenderness, qualities which soon proved to be among her
+chief assets.
+
+Just about that time a little Scot, James M. Barrie by name, already a
+distinguished literary figure who had blossomed forth as a playwright
+with "Walker London" and "The Professor's Love Story," came to America
+for the first time. For three people destined from this time on to be
+inseparably entwined in career and fortune, it was a memorable trip. For
+Barrie it meant the meeting with Charles Frohman, who was to be his
+greatest American friend and producer; for Miss Adams it was to open the
+way to her real career, and for Frohman himself it was to witness the
+beginning of an intimacy that was perhaps the closest of his life.
+
+Barrie's book, "The Little Minister," had been a tremendous success,
+and, not having acquired the formality of a copyright in America, the
+play pirates were busy with it. Frohman, after having seen the
+performance of "The Professor's Love Story," had cabled Barrie, asking
+him to make a play out of the charming Scotch romance. Barrie at first
+declined. Frohman, as usual, was insistent. Then followed the
+Scotchman's trip to America.
+
+Under Frohman's influence he had begun to consider a dramatization of
+"The Little Minister," but the real stimulus was lacking because, as he
+expressed it to Frohman, he did not see any one who could play the part
+of _Babbie_.
+
+Now came one of those many unexpected moments that shape lives. On a
+certain day Barrie dropped into the Empire Theater to see Frohman, who
+was out.
+
+"Why don't you stop in down-stairs and see 'Rosemary'?" said Frohman's
+secretary.
+
+"All right," said Barrie.
+
+So he went down into the Empire and took a seat in the last row. An hour
+afterward he came rushing back to Frohman's office, found his friend in,
+and said to him, as excitedly as his Scotch nature would permit:
+
+"Frohman, I have found the woman to play _Babbie_ in 'The Little
+Minister'! I am going to try to dramatize it myself."
+
+"Who is it?" asked Frohman, with a twinkle in his eye, for he knew
+without asking.
+
+"It is that little Miss Adams who plays _Dorothy_."
+
+"Fine!" said Frohman. "I hope you will go ahead now and do the play."
+
+The moment toward which Frohman had looked for years was now at hand. He
+might have launched Miss Adams at any time during the preceding four or
+five seasons. But he desired her to have a better equipment, and he
+wanted the American theater-going public to know the woman in whose
+talents he felt such an extraordinary confidence. He announced with a
+suddenness that was startling, but which in reality conveyed no surprise
+to the few people who had watched Miss Adams's career up to this time,
+that he was going to launch her as star.
+
+[Illustration: COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY CHARLES FROHMAN
+
+_MAUDE ADAMS_]
+
+Some of his friends, however, objected.
+
+"Why split and separate a good acting combination?" was their comment,
+meaning the combination of John Drew and Miss Adams. To this objection
+Frohman made reply:
+
+"I'll show you the wisdom of it. I'll put them both on Broadway at the
+same time."
+
+He therefore launched Miss Adams in "The Little Minister" at the Empire
+and booked John Drew at Wallack's in "A Marriage of Convenience." His
+decision was amply vindicated, for both scored successes.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles Frohman now proceeded to present Miss Adams with his usual
+lavishness. First of all he surrounded her with a superb company. It was
+headed by Robert Edeson, who played the title rôle, and included Guy
+Standing, George Fawcett, William H. Thompson, R. Peyton Carter, and
+Wilfred Buckland.
+
+With "The Little Minister" Charles Frohman gave interesting evidence of
+a masterful manipulation to make circumstances meet his own desires. He
+realized that the masculine title of the play might possibly detract
+from Miss Adams's prestige, so he immediately began to adapt several
+important scenes which might have been dominated by _Gavin Dishart_, the
+little minister, into strong scenes for his new luminary. These changes
+were made, of course, with Barrie's consent, and added much to the
+strength of the rôle of _Lady Babbie_.
+
+To the mastery of the part of _Lady Babbie_ Maude Adams now consecrated
+herself with a fidelity of purpose which was very characteristic of her.
+Then, as always, she asked herself the question:
+
+"What will this character mean to the people who see it?"
+
+In other words, here, as throughout all her career, she put herself in
+the position of her audience. She devoted many weeks to a study of
+Scotch dialect. She fairly lived in a Scotch atmosphere. One of her
+friends of that time accused her of subsisting on a diet of Scotch
+broth.
+
+As was his custom, Frohman gave the piece an out-of-town try-out. It
+opened on September 13, 1897, a date memorable in the Charles Frohman
+narrative, in the La Fayette Square Opera House in Washington. It was an
+intolerably hot night, and, added to the discomfort of the heat, there
+was considerable uncertainty about the success of the venture itself.
+This was not due to a lack of confidence in Miss Adams, but to the
+feeling that the play was excessively Scotch. A brilliant audience,
+including many people prominent in public life, witnessed the début and
+seemed most friendly.
+
+Miss Adams regarded the first night as a failure. Financially the play
+limped along for a week, for the gross receipts were only $3,500. Yet
+when the play opened in New York two weeks later it was a spectacular
+success from the start.
+
+Here is another curious example of the importance of the New York
+verdict. "Hazel Kirke," which became one of the historic successes of
+the American stage, tottered along haltingly for weeks in Philadelphia,
+Washington, and Baltimore. In the Quaker City, "Barbara Fritchie," with
+Julia Marlowe in the title rôle, came dangerously near closing because
+of discouraging business. Yet she came to New York, and with the
+exception of "When Knighthood was in Flower," registered the greatest
+popular triumph she has ever known. This was now the case with "The
+Little Minister."
+
+Miss Adams was irresistible as _Lady Babbie_. As the quaint, slyly
+humorous, make-believe gipsy, she found full play for all her talents,
+and she captured her audience almost with her first speech.
+
+Charles Frohman sat nervously in the wings during the performance. When
+the curtain went down his new star said to him:
+
+"How did it go?"
+
+"Splendidly," was his laconic comment.
+
+"The Little Minister" ran at the Empire for three hundred consecutive
+performances, two hundred and eighty-nine of which were to "standing
+room only." The total gross receipts for the engagement were $370,000--a
+record for that time.
+
+On the last night of the run Miss Adams received the following cablegram
+from Barrie:
+
+     _Thank you, thank you all for your brilliant achievement. "What a
+     glory to our kirk."_
+
+     BARRIE.
+
+Maude Adams was now launched as a profitable and successful star. Like
+many other conscientious and idealistic interpreters of the drama, she
+had a great reverence for Shakespeare, and she burned with a desire to
+play in one of the great bard's plays. Charles Frohman knew this. Then,
+as always, one of his supreme ambitions in life was to gratify her every
+wish, so he announced that he would present her in a special all-star
+production of "Romeo and Juliet."
+
+Charles Frohman himself was always frank enough to say that he had no
+great desire to produce Shakespeare. He lived in the dramatic activities
+of his day. It was shortly before this time that his brother Daniel,
+entering his office one day, found him reading.
+
+"I am reading a new book," he said; "that is, new to me."
+
+"What is that?" was the query?
+
+"'Romeo and Juliet,'" he replied.
+
+When Maude Adams dropped the rôle of _Babbie_ to assume that of _Juliet_
+some people thought the transfer a daring one, to say the least. Even
+Miss Adams was a little nervous. Not so Frohman. To him Shakespeare was
+simply a playwright like Clyde Fitch or Augustus Thomas, with the
+additional advantage that he was dead, and therefore, as there were no
+royalties to pay, he could put the money into the production.
+
+When Frohman went to rehearsal one day he noticed that the company
+seemed a trifle nervous.
+
+"What's up?" he asked, abruptly.
+
+Some one told him that the players were fearful lest all the details of
+the costume and play should not be carried out in strict accordance with
+history.
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Frohman. "Who's Shakespeare? He was just a man. He
+won't hurt you. I don't see any Shakespeare. Just imagine you're looking
+at a soldier, home from the Cuban war, making love to a giggling
+school-girl on a balcony. That's all I see, and that's the way I want it
+played. Dismiss all idea of costume. Be modern."
+
+The production of "Romeo and Juliet" was supervised by William Seymour.
+It was rehearsed in two sections. One half of the cast was in New York,
+with Faversham and Hackett; the other was on tour with Miss Adams in
+"The Little Minister." Seymour divided his time between the two wings,
+with the omnipresent spirit of Frohman over it all.
+
+Miss Adams had made an exhaustive study of the part. After his first
+conference with her, Seymour wrote to Frohman as follows:
+
+     _I thought I knew my Shakespeare, but Miss Adams has opened up a
+     new and most wonderful field. An hour with her has given me more
+     inspiration and ideas than twenty years of personal experience with
+     it._
+
+As usual, Frohman surrounded Miss Adams with a magnificent cast. William
+Faversham played _Romeo_; James K. Hackett was _Mercutio_; W. H.
+Thompson was _Friar Lawrence_; Orrin Johnson played _Paris_; R. Peyton
+Carter was _Peter_. Others in the company were Campbell Gollan and
+Eugene Jepson.
+
+"Romeo and Juliet" was produced at the Empire Theater May 8, 1899, and
+was a distinguished artistic success. Miss Adams's _Juliet_ was
+appealing, romantic, lovely. It touched the chords of all her gentle
+womanliness and gave the character, so far as the American stage was
+concerned, a new tradition of youthful charm.
+
+A unique feature of the first night's performance of "Romeo and Juliet"
+was the presence of Mary Anderson. This distinguished actress, who had
+just arrived from London for a brief visit, expressed a desire to see
+the new _Juliet_, and to feel once more the thrill of a Broadway first
+night. Miss Anderson herself had, of course, achieved great distinction
+as _Juliet_. She was regarded, in her day, as the physical and romantic
+ideal of the rôle.
+
+When her desire to see the play was communicated to Charles, it was
+found that every box had been sold except the one reserved for his
+sisters. He therefore purchased this from them with a check for $200.
+
+At the conclusion of the performance Miss Anderson was introduced to
+Miss Adams, and congratulated her on her success.
+
+* * *
+
+It was in 1900 that Miss Adams first played the part of a boy, a type of
+character that, before many years would pass, was to give her a great
+success. Her début as a lad, however, was under the most brilliantly
+artistic circumstances, because it was in Edmond Rostand's "L'Aiglon,"
+adapted in English by Louis N. Parker. As the young Eaglet, son of the
+great Napoleon, she had fresh opportunity to display her versatility. It
+was a character in which romance, pathos, and tragedy were curiously
+entwined. Bernhardt had done it successfully in Paris, but Miss Adams
+brought to it the fidelity and brilliancy of youth. In "L'Aiglon" she
+was supported by Edwin Arden, Oswald Yorke, Eugene Jepson, J. H.
+Gilmour, and R. Peyton Carter.
+
+* * *
+
+When Charles Frohman put Miss Adams into "Romeo and Juliet" she received
+a whimsical letter from J. M. Barrie, saying, among other things:
+
+     _Are you going to take Willie Shakespeare by the arm and l'ave me?_
+
+The time was now at hand when she once more took the fascinating Scot by
+the arm. She now appeared in his "Quality Street," a new play with the
+real Barrie charm, in which she took the part of an exquisite English
+girl whose betrothed goes to the Napoleonic wars. She thinks he has
+forgotten her, and allows herself to externally fade into spinsterhood.
+When he comes back he does not recognize her. Then she suddenly blooms
+into exquisite youth--radiant and beguiling--and he discovers that it is
+his old love.
+
+"Quality Street" was tried out in Toledo, Ohio, early in the season of
+1901. On the opening night an incident occurred which showed Frohman's
+attitude toward new plays. The third act dragged somewhat toward the
+end, evidently on account of an anti-climax. On the following day
+Frohman asked his business manager to sit with him during the third act,
+saying:
+
+"Last night Miss Adams played this act as Barrie wrote it. This
+afternoon she will play it as I want it."
+
+The act went much more effectively, and it was never changed after that
+matinée performance.
+
+"Quality Street" was another of what came to be known as a typical
+"Adams success."
+
+For her next starring vehicle, Charles presented Maude Adams in "The
+Pretty Sister of José," a play which Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett made
+of her well-known story. She was supported by Harry Ainley, at that time
+England's great matinée idol. Here Miss Adams encountered for the first
+time something that resembled failure, because she was not adapted to
+the fiery, passionate character of the impetuous Spanish girl. The play,
+however, made its usual tour after the local season, and with much
+financial success.
+
+The tour ended, Miss Adams suddenly disappeared from sight. There were
+even rumors that she had left the stage. As a matter of fact, she had
+retired to the seclusion of a convent at Tours, in France. There were
+two definite reasons for her retirement. One was that she wanted time
+for convalescence from an operation for appendicitis; the other, that
+she wished to perfect her French in order to fulfil a long-cherished
+desire to play _Juliet_ to Sarah Bernhardt's _Romeo_. Unfortunately,
+this plan was never consummated, but it gave Miss Adams a very rare
+experience, for she lived with the simple French nuns for months. Later,
+when they were driven from France, she found them quarters near
+Birmingham, in England, saw to their comfort, and got them buyers for
+their lace.
+
+* * *
+
+Brilliant as had been Miss Adams's success up to this time, the moment
+was now at hand when she was to appear in the rôle that, more than all
+her other parts combined, would complete her conquest of the American
+heart. Once more she became a boy, this time the irresistible _Peter
+Pan_.
+
+As _Peter Pan_ she literally flew into a new fame. This play of Barrie's
+provided Frohman with one of the many sensations he loved, and perhaps
+no production of the many hundreds that he made in his long career as
+manager gave him quite so much pleasure as the presentation of the
+fascinating little Boy Who Never Would Grow Up.
+
+The very beginning of "Peter Pan," so far as the stage presentation was
+concerned, was full of romantic interest. Barrie had agreed to write a
+play for Frohman, and met him at dinner one night at the Garrick Club in
+London. Barrie seemed nervous and ill at ease.
+
+"What's the matter?" said Charles.
+
+"Simply this," said Barrie. "You know I have an agreement to deliver you
+the manuscript of a play?"
+
+"Yes," said Frohman.
+
+"Well, I have it, all right," said Barrie, "but I am sure it will not be
+a commercial success. But it is a dream-child of mine, and I am so
+anxious to see it on the stage that I have written another play which I
+will be glad to give you and which will compensate you for any loss on
+the one I am so eager to see produced."
+
+"Don't bother about that," said Frohman. "I will produce both plays."
+
+Now the extraordinary thing about this episode is that the play about
+whose success Barrie was so doubtful was "Peter Pan," which made several
+fortunes. The manuscript he offered Frohman to indemnify him from loss
+was "Alice-Sit-By-The-Fire," which lasted only a season. Such is the
+estimate that the author often puts on his own work!
+
+When Frohman first read "Peter Pan" he was so entranced that he could
+not resist telling all his friends about it. He would stop them in the
+street and act out the scenes. Yet it required the most stupendous
+courage and confidence to put on a play that, from the manuscript,
+sounded like a combination of circus and extravaganza; a play in which
+children flew in and out of rooms, crocodiles swallowed alarm-clocks, a
+man exchanged places with his dog in its kennel, and various other
+seemingly absurd and ridiculous things happened.
+
+But Charles believed in Barrie. He had gone to an extraordinary expense
+to produce "Peter Pan" in England. He duplicated it in the United
+States. No other character in all her repertory made such a swift appeal
+to Miss Adams as _Peter Pan_. She saw in him the idealization of
+everything that was wonderful and wistful in childhood.
+
+The way she prepared for the part was characteristic of her attitude
+toward her work. She took the manuscript with her up to the Catskills.
+She isolated herself for a month; she walked, rode, communed with
+nature, but all the while she was studying and absorbing the character
+which was to mean so much to her career. In the great friendly open
+spaces in which little _Peter_ himself delighted, and where he was king,
+she found her inspiration for interpretation of the wondrous boy.
+
+The try-out was made in Washington at the old National Theater. It went
+with considerable success, although the first-night audience was
+somewhat mystified and did not know exactly what to say or do.
+
+It was when the play was launched on November 6, 1905, at the Empire
+Theater in New York, that little _Peter_ really came into his own. The
+human birds, the droll humor, the daring allegory, above all the
+appealing, almost tragic, spectacle of _Peter_ playing his pipe up in
+the tree-tops of the Never-Never Land, all contributed to an event that
+was memorable in more ways than one.
+
+On this night developed the remarkable and thrilling feature in "Peter
+Pan" which made the adorable dream-child the best beloved of all
+American children. It came when _Peter_ rushed forward to the footlights
+in the frantic attempt to save the life of his devoted little _Tinker
+Bell_, and asked:
+
+"Do you believe in fairies?"
+
+It registered a whole new and intimate relation between actress and
+audience, and had the play possessed no other distinctive feature, this
+alone would have at once lifted it to a success that was all its own.
+
+[Illustration: _MAUDE ADAMS_]
+
+This episode became one of the many marvelous features of the memorable
+run of "Peter Pan" at the Empire. Nearly every child in New York--and
+subsequently, on the long and successful tours that Miss Adams made in
+"Peter Pan," their brothers everywhere--became acquainted with the
+episode and longed impatiently to have a part in it. On one occasion,
+fully fifteen minutes before Miss Adams made her appeal, a little child
+rose in a box at the Empire and said: "_I_ believe in fairies."
+
+"Peter Pan" recorded the longest single engagement in the history of the
+Empire. It ran from November 6, 1905, until June 9, 1906.
+
+But "Peter Pan" did more than give Miss Adams her most popular part. It
+became a nation-wide vogue. Children were named after the fascinating
+little lad Who Never Would Grow Up; articles of wearing-apparel were
+labeled with his now familiar title; the whole country talked and loved
+the unforgettable little character who now became not merely a stage
+figure, but a real personal friend of the American theater-going people.
+
+It was on a road tour of "Peter Pan" that occurred one of those rare
+anecdotes in which Miss Adams figures. Frohman always had a curious
+prejudice against the playing of matinées by his stars, especially Maude
+Adams. A matinée was booked at Altoona, Pennsylvania. Frohman
+immediately had it marked off his contract. The advance-agent of the
+company, however, ordered the matinée played at the urgent request of
+the local manager, but he did not notify the office in New York. When
+Charles got the telegram announcing the receipts, he was most indignant.
+"I'll discharge the person responsible for this matinée," he said.
+
+In answer to his telegraphed inquiry he received the following wire:
+
+     _The matinée was played at my request. I preferred to work rather
+     than spend the whole day in a bad hotel._
+
+     MAUDE ADAMS.
+
+In connection with "Peter Pan" is a curious and tragic coincidence. Of
+all the Barrie plays that Charles produced he loved "Peter Pan" the
+best. Curiously enough, it was little _Peter_ himself who gave him the
+cue for his now historic farewell as he stood on the sinking deck of the
+_Lusitania_.
+
+At the end of one of the acts in "Peter Pan" the little boy says:
+
+     _To die will be an awfully big adventure._
+
+These words had always made a deep impression on Frohman. They came to
+his mind as he stood on that fateful deck and said:
+
+     _Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure in life._
+
+Having made such an enormous success with "Peter Pan," Miss Adams now
+turned to her third boy's part. It was that of "Chicot, the Jester,"
+John Raphael's adaptation of Miguel Zamaceis's play "The Jesters." This
+was a very delightful sort of Prince Charming play, fragile and
+artistic. The opposite part was played by Consuelo Bailey. It was a
+great triumph for Miss Adams, but not a very great financial success.
+
+Now came the first of her open-air performances. During the season of
+"The Jesters" she appeared at Yale and Harvard as _Viola_ in "Twelfth
+Night." She gave a charming and graceful performance of the rôle.
+
+* * *
+
+But Maude Adams could not linger long from the lure that was Barrie's.
+After what amounted to the failure of "The Jesters" she turned to her
+fourth Barrie play, which proved to be a triumph.
+
+For over a year Barrie had been at work on a play for her. It came forth
+in his whimsical satire, "What Every Woman Knows." Afterward, in
+speaking of this play, he said that he had written it because "there was
+a Maude Adams in the world." Then he added, "I could see her dancing
+through every page of my manuscript."
+
+Indeed, "What Every Woman Knows" was really written around Miss Adams.
+It was a dramatization of the roguish humor and exquisite womanliness
+that are her peculiar gifts.
+
+As _Maggie Wylie_ she created a character that was a worthy colleague of
+_Lady Babbie_. Here she had opportunity for her wide range of gifts. The
+rôle opposite her, that of _John Shand_, the poor Scotch boy who
+literally stole knowledge, was extraordinarily interesting. As most
+people may recall, the play involves the marriage between _Maggie_ and
+_John_, according to an agreement entered into between the girl's
+brothers and the boy. The brothers agree to educate him, and in return
+he weds the sister. _Maggie_ becomes _John's_ inspiration, although he
+refuses to realize or admit it. He is absolutely without humor. He
+thinks he can do without her, only to find when it is almost too late
+that she has been the very prop of his success.
+
+At the end of this play _Maggie_ finally makes her husband laugh when
+she tells him:
+
+     _I tell you what every woman knows: that Eve wasn't made from the
+     rib of Adam, but from his funny-bone._
+
+This speech had a wide vogue and was quoted everywhere.
+
+Curiously enough, in "What Every Woman Knows" Miss Adams has a speech in
+which she unconsciously defines the one peculiar and elusive gift which
+gives her such rare distinction. In the play she is supposed to be the
+girl "who has no charm." In reality she is all charm. But in discussing
+this quality with her brothers she makes this statement:
+
+     _Charm is the bloom upon a woman. If you have it you don't have to
+     have anything else. If you haven't it, all else won't do you any
+     good._
+
+"What Every Woman Knows" was an enormous success, in which Richard
+Bennett, who played _John Shand_, shared honors with the star. Miss
+Adams's achievement in this play emphasized the rare affinity between
+her and Barrie's delightful art. They formed a unique and lovable
+combination, irresistible in its appeal to the public. Commenting on
+this, Barrie himself has said:
+
+     _Miss Adams knows my characters and understands them. She really
+     needs no directions. I love to write for her and see her in my
+     work._
+
+Nor could there be any more delightful comment on Miss Adams's
+appreciation of all that Barrie has meant to her than to quote a remark
+she made not so very long ago when she said:
+
+     _Wherever I act, I always feel that there is one unseen spectator,
+     James M. Barrie._
+
+Maude Adams was now in what most people, both in and out of the
+theatrical profession, would think the very zenith of her career. She
+was the best beloved of American actresses, the idol of the American
+child. She was without doubt the best box-office attraction in the
+country. Yet she had made her way to this eminence by an industry and a
+concentration that were well-nigh incredible.
+
+People began to say, "What marvelous things Charles Frohman has done for
+Miss Adams."
+
+As a matter of fact, the career of Miss Adams emphasizes what a very
+great author once said, which, summed up, was that neither nature nor
+man did anything for any human being that he could not do for himself.
+
+Miss Adams paid the penalty of her enormous success by an almost
+complete isolation. She concentrated on her work--all else was
+subsidiary.
+
+Charles Frohman had an enormous ambition for Miss Adams, and that
+ambition now took form in what was perhaps his most remarkable effort in
+connection with her. It was the production of "Joan of Arc" at the
+Harvard Stadium. It started in this way:
+
+John D. Williams, for many years business manager for Charles Frohman,
+is a Harvard alumnus. Realizing that the business with which he was
+associated had been labeled with the "commercial" brand, he had an
+ambition to associate it with something which would be considered
+genuinely esthetic. The pageant idea had suddenly come into vogue. "Why
+not give a magnificent pageant?" he said to himself.
+
+One morning he went into Charles Frohman's office and put the idea to
+him, adding that he thought Miss Adams as _Joan of Arc_ would provide
+the proper medium for such a spectacle. Frohman was about to go to
+Europe. With a quick wave of the hand and a swift "All right," he
+assented to what became one of the most distinguished events in the
+history of the American stage.
+
+Schiller's great poem, "The Maid of Orléans," was selected. In
+suggesting the battle heroine of France, Williams touched upon one of
+Maude Adams's great admirations. For years she had studied the character
+of Joan. To her Joan was the very idealization of all womanhood.
+Bernhardt, Davenport, and others had tried to dramatize this most
+appealing of all tragedies in the history of France, and had practically
+failed. It remained for slight, almost fragile, Maude Adams to vivify
+and give the character an enduring interpretation.
+
+"Joan of Arc," as the pageant was called, was projected on a stupendous
+scale. Fifteen hundred supernumeraries were employed. John W. Alexander,
+the famous artist, was employed to design the costumes. A special
+electric-lighting plant was installed in the stadium.
+
+Miss Adams concentrated herself upon the preparations with a fidelity
+and energy that were little short of amazing. One detail will
+illustrate. As most people know, Miss Adams had to appear mounted
+several times during the play and ride at the head of her charging army.
+
+This equestrianism gave Charles Frohman the greatest solicitude. He
+feared that she would be injured in some way, and he kept cabling
+warnings to her, and to her associates who were responsible for her
+safety, to be careful.
+
+Miss Adams, however, determined to be a good horsewoman, and for more
+than a month she practised every afternoon in a riding-academy in New
+York. Since the horse had to carry the trappings of clanging armor, amid
+all the tumult of battle, she rehearsed every day with all sorts of
+noisy apparatus hanging about him. Shots were fired, colored banners and
+flags were flaunted about her, and pieces of metal were fastened to her
+riding-skirt so that the steed would be accustomed to the constant
+contact of a sword.
+
+Although the preparations for her own part were most exacting and
+onerous, Miss Adams exercised a supervising direction over the whole
+production, which was done in the most lavish fashion. She had every
+resource of the Charles Frohman organization at her command, and it was
+employed to the very last detail.
+
+"Joan of Arc" was presented on the evening of June 22, 1909, in the
+presence of over fifteen thousand people. It was a magnificent success,
+and proved to be unquestionably the greatest theatrical pageant ever
+staged in this country. The elaborate settings were handled
+mechanically. Forests dissolved into regal courts; fields melted into
+castles. A hidden orchestra played the superb music of Beethoven's
+"Eroica," which accentuated the noble poetry of Schiller.
+
+The first scene showed the maid of Domremy wandering in the twilight
+with her vision; the last revealed her dying of her wounds at the
+spring, soon to be buried under the shields of her captains.
+
+The battle scene was an inspiring feature. It had been arranged that
+Miss Adams's riding-master should change places with her at the head of
+the charging troops and ride in their magnificent sweep down the field.
+It was feared that some mishap might befall her. When the charge was
+over and the stage-manager rushed up to congratulate the supposed
+riding-master on his admirable make-up, he was surprised to hear Miss
+Adams's voice issue forth from the armor, saying, "How did it go?"
+Strapped to her horse, she had led the charge herself and had seen the
+performance through.
+
+"Joan of Arc" netted $15,000, which Charles Frohman turned over to
+Harvard University to do with as it pleased. There was unconscious irony
+in this, for the performance aroused great admiration in Germany, and
+the proceeds were devoted to the Germanic Museum in the university; in
+the end, the Germans were responsible for his death.
+
+Accentuating this irony was the fact that Charles Frohman had made a
+magnificent vellum album containing the complete photographic record of
+the play, and sent it to the German Kaiser with the following
+inscription:
+
+     _To His Majesty the German Emperor. This photographic record of the
+     first English performance in America of Friedrich von Schiller's
+     dramatic poem, "Jungfrau von Orleans," given for the Building Fund
+     of the Germanic Museum of Harvard University under the auspices of
+     the German Department in the Stadium, Tuesday, twenty-second of
+     June, 1909, is respectfully presented by Charles Frohman._
+
+There is no doubt that "Joan of Arc" was the supreme effort of Miss
+Adams's career. She was the living, breathing incarnation of the Maid.
+When she was told that Charles Frohman had refused an offer of $50,000
+for the motion-picture rights, she said:
+
+     _Of course it was refused. This performance is all poetry and
+     solemnity._
+
+The following June, in the Greek Theater of the University of
+California, at Berkeley, Miss Adams made her first and only appearance
+as _Rosalind_ in "As You Like It." Ten thousand people saw the
+performance. Her achievement illustrates the extraordinary and
+indefatigable quality of her work. She rehearsed "As You Like It" during
+her transcontinental tour of "What Every Woman Knows," which extended
+from sea to sea and lasted thirty-nine weeks.
+
+* * *
+
+Most managers would have been content to rest with the laurel that such
+a performance as "Joan of Arc" had won. Not so with Charles Frohman.
+Every stupendous feat that he achieved merely whetted his desire for
+something greater. He delighted in sensation. Now he came to the point
+in his life where he projected what was in many respects the most unique
+and original of all his efforts, the presentation of Rostand's classic,
+"Chantecler."
+
+It was on March 30, 1910, that Charles crossed over from London to Paris
+to see this play. It thrilled and stirred him, and he bought it
+immediately. He realized that it would either be a tremendous success or
+a colossal failure, and he was willing to stand or fall by it. In Paris
+the title rôle, originally written for the great Coquelin, had been
+played by Guitry. It was essentially a man's part. But Frohman, with
+that sense of the spectacular which so often characterized him,
+immediately cast Miss Adams for it.
+
+When he announced that the elf-like girl--the living _Peter Pan_ to
+millions of theater-goers--was to assume the feathers and strut of the
+barnyard Romeo, there was a widespread feeling that he was making a
+great mistake, and that he was putting Miss Adams into a rôle, admirable
+artist that she was, to which she was absolutely unsuited. A storm of
+criticism arose. But Frohman was absolutely firm. Opposition only made
+him hold his ground all the stronger. When people asked him why he
+insisted upon casting Miss Adams for this almost impossible part he
+always said:
+
+     _"Chantecler" is a play with a soul, and the soul of a play is its
+     moral. This is the secret of "Peter Pan"; this is why Miss Adams is
+     to play the leading part._
+
+Miss Adams was in Chicago when Frohman bought the play, and he cabled
+her that she was to do the title part. She afterward declared that this
+news changed the dull, dreary, soggy day into one that was brilliant and
+dazzling. "To play _Chantecler_," she said, "is an honor international
+in its glory."
+
+The preparations for "Chantecler" were carried on with the usual Frohman
+magnificence. A fortune was spent on it. The costumes were made in
+Paris; John W. Alexander supervised the scenic effects.
+
+The casting of the parts was in itself an enormous task. Frohman amused
+himself by having what he called "casting parties." For example, he
+would call up Miss Adams by long-distance telephone and say:
+
+     _I've got ten minutes before my train starts for Atlantic City. Can
+     you cast a peacock for me?_
+
+Whereupon Miss Adams would say:
+
+     _Ten minutes is too short._
+
+Never, perhaps, in the history of the American stage was the advent of a
+play so long heralded. The name "Chantecler" was on every tongue. Long
+before the piece was launched hats had been named after it,
+controversies had arisen over its Anglicized spelling and pronunciation.
+All the genius of publicity which was the peculiar heritage of Charles
+Frohman was turned loose to pave the way for this extraordinary
+production. It was a nation-wide sensation.
+
+For the first time in his life Charles had to postpone an opening. It
+was originally set for the 13th of January, 1911, but the first night
+did not come until the 23d. This added to the suspense and expectancy of
+the public.
+
+The demand for seats was unprecedented. A line began to form at four
+o'clock in the afternoon preceding the day the sale opened. Within
+twenty-four hours after the window was raised at the box-office as high
+as $200 was offered in vain for a seat on the opening night.
+
+The Empire stage was too small, so the play was produced at the
+Knickerbocker Theater. A brilliant and highly wrought-up audience was
+present. Extraordinary interest centered about Miss Adams's performance
+as _Chantecler_. "Will she be able to do it?" was the question on every
+tongue. On that memorable opening-night Frohman, as usual, sat in the
+back seat in the gallery and had the supreme satisfaction of seeing his
+star distinguish herself in a performance that in many respects revealed
+Miss Adams as she had never been revealed before. She was recalled
+twenty-two times.
+
+_Chantecler_ literally crowed and conquered!
+
+Just how much "Chantecler" meant to Charles Frohman is attested by a
+remark he made soon after its inaugural. A friend was discussing
+epitaphs with him.
+
+"What would you like to have written about you, C. F.?" asked the man.
+
+The brilliant smile left Frohman's face for a moment, and then he said,
+solemnly:
+
+"All that I would ask is this: 'He gave "Peter Pan" to the world and
+"Chantecler" to America.' It is enough for any man."
+
+The last original production that Charles Frohman made with Maude Adams
+was "The Legend of Leonora," in which she returned once more to Barrie's
+exquisite and fanciful satire, devoted this time to the woman question.
+In England it had been produced under the title of "The Adored One."
+
+It was in the part of _Leonora_ that James M. Barrie saw Maude Adams act
+for the first time in one of his plays. He had come to America for a
+brief visit to Frohman, and during this period Miss Adams was having her
+annual engagement at the Empire Theater.
+
+Of course, Barrie had Miss Adams in mind for the American production,
+and it is a very interesting commentary on his admiration for the
+American star that about the only instructions he attached to the
+manuscript of the play was this:
+
+     _Leonora is an unspeakable darling, and this is all the guidance
+     that can be given to the lady playing her._
+
+On her last starring tour under the personal direction of Charles
+Frohman, Miss Adams combined with a revival of "Quality Street" a clever
+skit by Barrie called "The Ladies' Shakespeare," the subtitle being,
+"One Woman's Reading of 'The Taming of the Shrew.'" With an occasional
+appearance in Barrie's "Rosalind," it rounded out her stellar career
+under him.
+
+Charles Frohman lived to see Maude Adams realize his highest desire for
+her success. She justified his confidence and it gave him infinite
+satisfaction.
+
+Miss Adams's career as a star unfolds a panorama of artistic and
+practical achievement unequaled in the life of any American star. It
+likewise reveals a paradox all its own. While millions of people have
+seen and admired her, only a handful of people know her. The aloofness
+of the woman in her personal attitude toward the public represents
+Charles Frohman's own ideal of what stage artistry and conduct should
+be.
+
+It is illustrated in what was perhaps the keenest epigram he ever made.
+He was talking about people of the stage who constantly air themselves
+and their views to secure personal publicity. It moved him to this
+remark:
+
+"Some people prefer mediocrity in the lime-light to greatness in the
+dark."
+
+Herein he summed up the reason why Miss Adams has been an elusive and
+almost mysterious figure. By tremendous reading, solitary thinking, and
+extraordinary personal application she rose to her great eminence. With
+her it has always been a creed of career first. Like Charles Frohman,
+she has hidden behind her activities, and they form a worthy rampart.
+
+The history of the stage records no more interesting parallel than the
+one afforded by these two people--each a recluse, yet each known to the
+multitudes.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+THE BIRTH OF THE SYNDICATE
+
+
+Charles Frohman's talents and energies were very much like those of E.
+H. Harriman in that they found their largest and best expression when
+dedicated to a multitude of enterprises. Like Harriman, too, he did
+things in a wholesale way, for he had a contempt for small sums and
+small ventures.
+
+Going back a little in point of time from the close of the preceding
+chapter, the final years of the last century found Frohman geared up to
+a myriad of activities. He had already assumed the rôle of Star-Maker,
+for Drew and Gillette were on his roster, and Maude Adams was about to
+be launched; the Empire Stock Company was an accredited institution with
+a national influence; he had started a chain of theaters; his booking
+interests in the West had assumed the proportions of an immense
+business; he had begun to make his presence felt in London. Yet no event
+of these middle 'nineties was more momentous in its relation to the
+future of the whole American theater than one which was about to
+transpire--one in which Charles Frohman had an important hand.
+
+Despite the efforts made by the booking offices conducted by Charles
+Frohman and Klaw & Erlanger, the making of routes for theatrical
+attractions in the United States was in a most disorganized and
+economically unsound condition. The local manager was still more or less
+at the mercy of the booking free-lance in New York. The booking agent
+himself only represented a comparatively few theaters and could not book
+a complete season for a traveling attraction.
+
+In New York the manager was an autocrat who frequently dictated
+unbelievable terms to the traveling companies. Immense losses resulted
+from small traveling companies being pitted against one another in
+provincial towns that could only support one first-class attraction.
+Most theatrical contracts were not worth the paper they were written on.
+
+Charles Frohman had first counted the cost of this theatrical
+demoralization when his great "Shenandoah" run at the old Star Theater
+had to be interrupted while playing to capacity because another
+attraction had been booked into that theater. He and all his
+representative colleagues in the business realized that some steps must
+be taken to rectify the situation. Piled on this was the general
+business depression that had followed the panic of 1893.
+
+One day in 1896 a notable group of theatrical magnates met by chance at
+a luncheon at the Holland House in New York. They included Charles
+Frohman, whose offices booked attractions for a chain of Western
+theaters extending to the coast; A. L. Erlanger and Marc Klaw, who, as
+Klaw & Erlanger, controlled attractions for practically the entire
+South; Nixon & Zimmerman, of Philadelphia, who were conducting a group
+of the leading theaters of that city, and Al Hayman, one of the owners
+of the Empire Theater.
+
+These men naturally discussed the chaos in the theatrical business.
+They decided that its only economic hope was in a centralization of
+booking interests, and they acted immediately on this decision. Within a
+few weeks they had organized all the theaters they controlled or
+represented into one national chain, and the open time was placed on
+file in the offices of Klaw & Erlanger. It now became possible for the
+manager of a traveling company to book a consecutive tour at the least
+possible expense. In a word, booking suddenly became standardized.
+
+This was the beginning of the famous Theatrical Syndicate which, in a
+brief time, dominated the theatrical business of the whole country. It
+marked a real epoch in the history of the American theater because
+within a year a complete revolution had been effected in the business.
+The booking of attractions was emancipated from curb and café; a
+theatrical contract became an accredited and licensed instrument. The
+Syndicate became a clearing-house for the theatrical manager and the
+play-producer, and the medium through which they did business with each
+other. Charles Frohman contributed his growing chain of theaters to the
+organization and secured a one-sixth interest in it which he retained up
+to the time of his death.
+
+* * *
+
+Once launched, the Syndicate proceeded to ride the tempest, for the
+biggest storm in all American theatrical history soon began to develop.
+Out of the long turmoil came a whole new line-up in the business. It
+affected Charles Frohman less than any of his immediate associates in
+the big combination because, first of all, he was a passive member, and,
+second, he had a kingdom all his own. Yet the story of these turbulent
+years is so inseparably linked up with the development of the drama in
+this country that it is well worth rehearsing.
+
+Although the Syndicate standardized the theatrical contract and made
+efficient and economical booking possible, it did not immediately secure
+the willing co-operation of some of the best-known traveling stars of
+the day. They included Mrs. Fiske, Richard Mansfield, Joseph Jefferson,
+Nat C. Goodwin, Francis Wilson (then in comic opera), and James A.
+Herne. They were great popular favorites and had been accustomed to
+appear at stated intervals in certain theaters in various parts of the
+country. They booked their own "time" and had a more or less personal
+relation with the lessees and managers of the theaters in which they
+appeared.
+
+The Syndicate began to book these stars as it saw fit and as they could
+be best fitted into the country-wide scheme. A scale of terms was
+arranged that was regarded as equitable both to the attraction and the
+local manager.
+
+These stars, however, refused to be booked in this way. They denied the
+right of the new organization to say when and where they should play.
+Out of this denial came the famous revolt against the Syndicate which
+blazed intermittently for more than two decades.
+
+[Illustration: _FRANCIS WILSON_]
+
+[Illustration: _WILLIAM COLLIER_]
+
+Chief among the insurgents was Mrs. Fiske, who had returned to the stage
+in "Tess of the D'Urbervilles," a dramatization of Thomas Hardy's great
+novel. Her husband and manager, Harrison Gray Fiske, was editor and
+publisher of _The Dramatic Mirror_, which became the voice of protest.
+Mrs. Fiske refused to appear in Syndicate theaters, and she hired
+independent houses all over the country. Such places were few and far
+between in those days, and she was forced to play in public halls,
+even skating-rinks.
+
+Mansfield became one of the leaders of the opposition to the Syndicate.
+He made speeches before the curtain, denouncing its methods. His lead
+was followed by Francis Wilson, and subsequently by James K. Hackett,
+David Belasco, and Henry W. Savage. The fight on the huge combination
+became a matter of nation-wide interest.
+
+All the while the Syndicate was growing in power and authority.
+Gradually the revolutionists returned to the fold because desirable
+terms were made for them. Only Mrs. Fiske remained outside the ranks. In
+order to secure a New York City stage for her Mr. Fiske leased the
+Manhattan Theater for a long term.
+
+It was during these strenuous years, and as one indirect result of the
+Syndicate fight, that a whole new theatrical dynasty sprang up. It took
+shape and centered in the growing importance of three then obscure
+brothers, Lee, Sam, and Jacob J. Shubert by name, who lived in Syracuse,
+New York. They were born in humble circumstances, and early in life had
+been forced to become breadwinners. The first to get into the theatrical
+business was Sam, the second son, who, as a youngster barely in his
+teens, became program boy and later on assistant in the box-office of
+the Grand Opera House in his native town. At seventeen he was treasurer
+of the Weiting Opera House there, and from that time until his death in
+a railroad accident in 1905 he was an increasingly powerful figure in
+the business.
+
+Before Sam Shubert was twenty he controlled a chain of theaters with
+stock companies in up-state New York cities and had taken his two
+brothers into partnership with him. In 1900 he subleased the Herald
+Square Theater in New York City and thus laid the corner-stone of what
+came to be known as the "Independent Movement" throughout the country.
+He had initiative and enterprise. Gradually he and his brothers and
+their associates controlled a line of theaters from coast to coast. In
+these theaters they offered attractive bookings to the managers who were
+outside the Syndicate. The Shuberts also became producers and
+encouragers of productions on a large scale.
+
+For the first time the Syndicate now had real opposition. A warfare
+developed that was almost as bitter and costly in its way as was the old
+disorganized method in vogue before the business was put on a commercial
+basis. It naturally led to over-production and to a surplus of theaters.
+Towns that in reality could only support one first-class playhouse were
+compelled to have a "regular" and an "independent" theater. Attractions
+of a similar nature, such as two musical comedies, were pitted against
+each other. In dividing the local patronage both sides suffered loss.
+
+During the last year of Charles Frohman's life the Syndicate and the
+Shuberts, wisely realizing that such an uneconomic procedure could only
+spell disaster in a large way for the whole theatrical business, buried
+their differences. A harmonious working agreement was entered into that
+put an end to the destructive strife. Theatrical booking became an open
+field, and the producer can now play his attractions in both Syndicate
+and Shubert theaters.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles Frohman's activities were now nation-wide. Just as Harriman
+built up a transcontinental railroad system, so did the rotund little
+manager now set up an empire all his own. The building of the Empire
+Theater had given him a closer link with Rich and Harris. Through them
+he acquired an interest in the Columbia Theater, in Boston, and
+subsequently he became part owner of the Hollis Street Theater in that
+city. His third theater in Boston was the Park. By this time the firm
+name for Boston operation was Rich, Harris, and Charles Frohman. Their
+next venture was the construction of the magnificent Colonial Theater,
+on the site of the old Boston Public Library, which was opened with
+"Ben-Hur." With the acquisition of the Boston and Tremont playhouses,
+the firm controlled the situation at Boston.
+
+Up to this time Frohman had controlled only one theater in New York--the
+Empire. In 1896 he saw an opportunity to acquire control of the Garrick
+in Thirty-fifth Street. He wrote to William Harris, saying, "I will take
+it if you will come on and run it." Harris assented, and the Garrick
+passed under the banner of Charles Frohman, who inaugurated his régime
+with John Drew in "The Squire of Dames." He put some of his biggest
+successes into this theater and some of his favorite stars, among them
+Maude Adams and William Gillette. To the chain of Charles Frohman
+controlled theaters in New York were added in quick order the Criterion,
+the Savoy, the Garden, and a part interest in the Knickerbocker.
+
+During his early tenancy of the Garrick occurred an incident which
+showed Frohman's resource. He produced a play called "The Liars," by
+Henry Arthur Jones, in which he was very much interested. In the
+out-of-town try-out up-state Frohman heard that the critic of one of the
+most important New York newspapers had expressed great disapproval of
+the piece on account of some personal prejudice. He did not want this
+prejudice to interfere with the New York verdict, so he went to Charles
+Dillingham one day shortly before the opening and said:
+
+"Can you get me some loud laughers?"
+
+Dillingham said he could.
+
+"All right," said Frohman; "I want you to plant one on either side of
+Mr. Blank," referring to the critic who had a prejudice against the
+play.
+
+This was done, and on the opening night the "prop" laughers made such a
+noisy demonstration that the critic said it was the funniest farce in
+years.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles Frohman's first foreign star, who paved the way for so many, was
+Olga Nethersole. His management of her came about in a curious way. A
+difference had arisen between Augustin Daly and Ada Rehan, his leading
+woman. Miss Rehan had decided to withdraw from the company, and in
+casting about quickly for a successor had decided upon Olga Nethersole,
+then one of the most prominent of the younger English actresses. While
+the deal was being consummated Daly and Miss Rehan adjusted their
+differences, and the arrangements for Miss Nethersole's appearance in
+America were abrogated.
+
+Miss Nethersole was left without an American manager. Daniel Frohman,
+then manager of the Lyceum Theater, stepped in and became her American
+sponsor, forming a partnership with his brother Charles to handle her
+interests. Jointly they now conducted an elaborate tour for her covering
+two years, in which she appeared in "Denise," "Frou-Frou," "Camille,"
+and "Carmen."
+
+[Illustration: _MARGARET ANGLIN_]
+
+[Illustration: _ANNIE RUSSELL_]
+
+The sensational episode of her tour was the production of "Carmen." The
+fiery, impetuous, emotional, and sensuous character of the Spanish
+heroine appealed to Miss Nethersole's vivid imagination, and she gave a
+realistic portrayal of the rôle that became popular and spectacular. In
+all parts of the country the "Carmen Kiss" became a byword. The play, in
+addition to its own merits as a striking drama, and its vogue at the
+opera through Madame Calvé's performance of the leading rôle, became a
+very successful vehicle for Miss Nethersole's two tours. Miss Nethersole
+was the first star outside of Charles Frohman's own force who appeared
+at the Empire Theater, where she played a brief engagement with
+"Camille" and "Carmen."
+
+* * *
+
+From his earliest theatrical day Charles believed implicitly in
+melodrama. His first production on any stage was a thriller. The play
+that turned the tide in his fortunes was a spine-stirrer. He now turned
+to his favorite form of play by producing "The Fatal Card," by Haddon
+Chambers and B. C. Stephenson, at Palmer's Theater. He did it with an
+admirable cast that included May Robson, Agnes Miller, Amy Busby, E. J.
+Ratcliffe, William H. Thompson, J. H. Stoddart, and W. J. Ferguson.
+
+A big melodrama now became part of his regular season. He leased the old
+Academy of Music at Fourteenth Street and Irving Place in New York,
+where, as a boy, he had seen his brother Gustave sell opera librettos,
+and where he became fired with the ambition to make money. Here he
+produced a notable series of melodramas in lavish fashion. The first was
+"The Sporting Duchess." This piece, which was produced in England as
+"The Derby Winner," was a sure-enough thriller. The cast included E. J.
+Ratcliffe, Francis Carlyle, J. H. Stoddart, Alice Fischer, Cora Tanner,
+Agnes Booth, and Jessie Busley.
+
+Charles Frohman's next melodrama at the Academy was the famous "Two
+Little Vagrants," adapted from the French by Charles Klein. In this cast
+he brought forward a notable group destined to shine in the drama, for
+among them were Dore Davidson, Minnie Dupree, Annie Irish, George
+Fawcett, and William Farnum, the last named then just beginning to
+strike his theatrical stride.
+
+Still another famous melodrama that Charles introduced to the United
+States at the famous old playhouse was "The White Heather," in which he
+featured Rose Coghlan, and in which Amelia Bingham made one of her first
+successes. With this piece Charles emphasized one of the customs he
+helped to bring to the American stage. He always paid for the actresses'
+clothes. He told Miss Coghlan to spare no expense on her gowns, and she
+spent several thousand dollars on them. When she saw Frohman after the
+opening, which was a huge success, she said:
+
+"I am almost ashamed to see you."
+
+"Why?" he asked.
+
+"Because I spent so much money on my gowns."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Frohman. "You did very wisely. You and the gowns are
+the hit of the piece."
+
+Frohman here established a new tradition for the production of melodrama
+in the United States. Up to his era the producer depended upon thrill
+rather than upon accessory. Frohman lavished a fortune on each
+production. Any competition with him had to be on the same elaborate
+scale.
+
+Fully a year before Maude Adams made her stellar début Frohman put forth
+his first woman star in Annie Russell. This gifted young Englishwoman,
+who had appeared on the stage at the age of seven in "Pinafore," had
+made a great success in "Esmeralda," at the Madison Square Theater.
+Frohman, who was then beginning his managerial career, was immediately
+taken with her talent. She appeared in some of his earlier companies. He
+now starred her in a play by Bret Harte called "Sue." He presented her
+both in New York and in London.
+
+Under Frohman, Miss Russell had a long series of starring successes.
+When she appeared in "Catherine," at the Garrick Theater, in her support
+was Ethel Barrymore, who was just beginning to emerge from the obscurity
+of playing "bits." In succession Miss Russell did "Miss Hobbs," "The
+Royal Family," "The Girl and the Judge," "Jinny the Carrier," and "Mice
+and Men."
+
+In connection with "Mice and Men" is a characteristic Frohman story.
+Charles ordered this play written from Madeleine Lucette Ryley for Maude
+Adams. When he read the manuscript he sent it back to Miss Ryley with
+the laconic comment, "Worse yet." She showed it to Gertrude Elliott, who
+bought it for England. When Charles heard of this he immediately
+accepted the play, and it proved to be a success. The moment a play was
+in demand it became valuable to him.
+
+Spectacular success seemed to have taken up its abode with Charles. It
+now found expression in the production of "Secret Service," the most
+picturesque and profitable of all the Gillette enterprises. The way it
+came to be written is a most interesting story.
+
+Frohman was about to sail for Europe when Gillette sent him the first
+act of this stirring military play. Frohman read it at once, sent for
+the author and said:
+
+"This is great, Gillette. Let me see the second act."
+
+Gillette produced this act forthwith, and Frohman's enthusiasm increased
+to such an extent that he postponed his sailing until he received the
+complete play. Frohman's interest in "Secret Service" was heightened by
+the fact that he had scored two tremendous triumphs with military plays,
+"Held by the Enemy" and "Shenandoah." He felt that the talisman of the
+brass button was still his, and he plunged heavily on "Secret Service."
+
+It was first put on in Philadelphia. Even at that time there obtained
+the superstition widely felt in the theatrical business that what fails
+out of town must succeed in New York. Frohman, who shared this
+superstition, was really eager not to register successfully in the
+Quaker capital.
+
+But "Secret Service" smashed this superstition, because it scored
+heavily in Philadelphia and then had an enormous run at the Garrick
+Theater in New York. In "Secret Service" Maurice Barrymore had the
+leading part, and he played it with a distinction of bearing and a dash
+of manner that were almost irresistible.
+
+William Gillette always proved to be one of Charles Frohman's mascots.
+Practically whatever he touched turned to gold. He and Frohman had now
+become close friends, and the actor-author frequently accompanied the
+manager on his trips to London.
+
+During their visit in 1899, "Sherlock Holmes" had become the literary
+rage. Everybody was talking about the masterful detective of Baker
+Street.
+
+"We must get those Doyle stories," said Frohman to Gillette.
+
+"All right," said the author.
+
+Frohman personally went to see Conan Doyle and made a bid for the
+rights.
+
+"Certainly, Mr. Frohman," replied Doyle, "but I shall make one
+stipulation. There must be no love business in 'Sherlock Holmes.'"
+
+"All right," said Frohman; "your wishes shall be respected."
+
+Frohman now engaged Gillette to make the adaptation, but he said
+absolutely nothing about the condition that Doyle had made. Gillette, as
+most American theater-goers know, wove a love interest into the
+strenuous life of the famous detective.
+
+A year later, Gillette and Frohman again were in England, Gillette to
+read the manuscript of the play to Doyle. The famous author liked the
+play immensely and made no objection whatever to the sentimental
+interest. In fact, his only comment when Gillette finished reading the
+manuscript was:
+
+"It's good to see the old chap again."
+
+He referred, of course, to _Sherlock Holmes_, who, up to this time, had
+already met his death on four or five occasions.
+
+"Sherlock Holmes" proved to be another "Secret Service" in every way.
+Gillette made an enormous success in the title rôle, and after a long
+run at the Garrick went on the road. Frohman revived it again and again
+until it had almost as many "farewells" as Adelina Patti. The last
+business detail that Charles discussed with Gillette before sailing on
+the fatal trip in 1915 was for a revival of this play at the Empire.
+
+The Frohman Star Factory was now working full time. Next in output came
+William Faversham. This brilliant young Englishman had started with
+Daniel Frohman's company at the Lyceum in a small part. At a rehearsal
+of "The Highest Bidder" Charles singled him out.
+
+"Where did you get your cockney dialect?" he asked.
+
+"Riding on the top of London 'buses," was the reply.
+
+"Well," answered Charles, "I want to do that myself some day."
+
+This was the first contact between two men who became intimate friends
+and who were closely bound up in each other's fortunes.
+
+During his Lyceum engagement Faversham wanted to widen his activities.
+He read in the papers one day that Charles was producing a number of
+plays, so he made up his mind he would try to get into one of them. He
+went to Frohman's office every morning at half-past nine and asked to
+see him or Al Hayman. Sometimes he would arrive before Frohman, and the
+manager had to pass him as he went into his office. He invariably looked
+up, smiled at the waiting actor, and passed on. Faversham kept this up
+for weeks. One day Alf Hayman asked him what he wanted there.
+
+"I am tired of hanging round the Lyceum with nothing to do. I want a
+better engagement," was the answer.
+
+Hayman evidently communicated this to Frohman and Al Hayman, but they
+made no change in their attitude. Every day they passed the waiting
+Faversham as they arrived in the morning and went out to lunch, and
+always Frohman smiled at him.
+
+[Illustration: _WILLIAM FAVERSHAM_]
+
+Finally one morning Charles came to the door, looked intently at
+Faversham, puffed out his cheeks as was his fashion, and smiled all
+over his face. Turning to Al Hayman, who was with him, he said:
+
+"Al, we've got to give this fellow something to do or we won't be able
+to go in and out of here much longer."
+
+In a few moments Frohman emerged again, asked Faversham how tall he was.
+When he was told, he invited Faversham into his office and inquired of
+him if he could study a long part and play it in two days. Faversham
+said he could. The result was his engagement for Rider Haggard's "She."
+Such was the unusual beginning of the long and close association between
+Faversham and Charles Frohman.
+
+Faversham became leading man of the Empire Stock Company, and his
+distinguished career was a matter of the greatest pride to Charles. He
+now was caught up in the Frohman star machine and made his first
+appearance under the banner of "Charles Frohman Presents," in "A Royal
+Rival," at the Criterion in August, 1901.
+
+Charles not only made Faversham a star, but provided him with a wife,
+and a very charming one, too. In the spring of 1901 an exquisite young
+girl, Julie Opp by name, was playing at the St. James Theater in London.
+Frohman sent for her and asked her if she could go to the United States
+to act as leading woman for William Faversham.
+
+"I have been to America once," she said, "and I want to go back as a
+star."
+
+When Frohman let loose the powers of his persuasiveness, Miss Opp began
+to waver.
+
+"I don't want to leave my nice London flat and my English maid," she
+protested.
+
+"Take the maid with you," said Frohman. "We can't box the flat and take
+that to New York, but we have flats in New York that you can hire."
+
+"I hate to leave all my friends," continued Miss Opp.
+
+"Well, I can't take over all your friends," replied Frohman, "but you
+will have plenty of new admirers in New York."
+
+Miss Opp asked what she thought were unreasonable terms. Frohman said
+nothing, but sent Charles Dillingham to see her next day. He said
+Frohman wanted to know if she was joking about her price. "Of course,"
+he said, "if you are not joking he will pay it anyhow, because when he
+makes up his mind to have anybody he is going to have him."
+
+This shamed Miss Opp. She asked a reasonable fee, went to the United
+States, and not only became Faversham's leading woman, but his wife.
+Frohman always took infinite delight in teasing the Favershams about
+having been their matchmaker.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles, who loved to create a sensation in a big way, was now able to
+gratify one of his favorite emotions with the production of "The
+Conquerors." Like many of the Frohman achievements, it began in a
+picturesque way.
+
+During the summer of 1897, Frohman and Paul Potter, being in Paris,
+dropped in at that chamber of horrors, the Grand Guignol, in the Rue
+Chaptal. There they saw "Mademoiselle Fifi," a playlet lasting less than
+half an hour, adapted by the late Oscar Metenier from Guy de
+Maupassant's short story. It was the tale of a young Prussian officer
+who gets into a French country house during the war of 1870, abuses the
+aristocrats who live there, shoots out the eyes of the family
+portraits, entertains at supper a number of loose French girls from
+Rouen, and is shot by one of the girls for vilifying Frenchwomen.
+Frohman was deeply impressed.
+
+"Why can't you make it into a long play?" said Frohman.
+
+"I can," said Potter.
+
+"How?" queried Frohman.
+
+"By showing what happened to the French aristocrats while the Prussian
+officer was shooting up the place," answered the author.
+
+"Do it," said Frohman, "and I'll open the season of the Empire Stock
+Company in this drama, and get George Alexander interested for London."
+
+As "The Conquerors" the play went into rehearsal about Christmas. Mrs.
+Dazian, wife of Henry Dazian, the costumier, was watching a scene in
+which William Faversham plans the ruin of Viola Allen, the leading
+woman.
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Dazian, "if New York will stand for that it will stand
+for anything."
+
+Frohman jumped up in excitement. "What is wrong with it?" he cried. "The
+manuscript was shown to a dozen people of the cleanest minds. They found
+nothing wrong. I've done the scene a dozen times. I have it up-stairs on
+my shelves at this moment in 'The Sporting Duchess.'"
+
+Mrs. Dazian was obdurate. "It is awful," she said.
+
+The first night approached. Potter was to sail for Europe next day.
+Frohman had provided him with sumptuous cabin quarters on the _New
+York_. After the dress rehearsal, Potter appeared on the Empire stage,
+where he found Frohman. The latter was worried.
+
+"Paul," said he, "the first three acts are fine; the last is rotten.
+You must stay and rewrite the last act."
+
+Potter had to postpone his trip. At ten next morning the new act was
+handed in; the company learned and rehearsed it by three in the
+afternoon, and that night Frohman and the author stood in the box-office
+watching the audience file in.
+
+"How's the house, Tommy?" demanded Frohman of Thomas Shea, his house
+manager.
+
+"Over seventeen hundred dollars already," said Shea.
+
+"You can go to Europe, Paul," said Frohman. "Your last act is all right.
+We don't want you any more."
+
+The American public agreed with Mrs. Dazian. They thought the play
+excruciatingly wicked, but they were just as eager to see it on the
+Fourth of July as they had been six months earlier.
+
+A dozen details combined to make "The Conquerors" a storm-center. First
+of all it was attacked because of its alleged immorality. In the second
+place the author was charged with having appropriated some of Sardou's
+"La Haine." In the third place, this play marked the first stage
+appearance of Mrs. Clara Bloodgood, wife of "Jack" Bloodgood, one of the
+best-known men about town in New York. Mr. Bloodgood became desperately
+ill during rehearsals, and his wife divided her time between watching at
+his bedside and going to the theater. Of course, the newspapers were
+filled with the account of the event which was agitating all society,
+and it added greatly to popular interest in the play.
+
+[Illustration: _HENRY MILLER_]
+
+"The Conquerors" not only brought Paul Potter and Frohman a great
+success, but it sped William Faversham on to the time when he was to
+become a star. The cast was one of the most distinguished that
+Frohman had ever assembled, and it included among its women five
+future stars--Viola Allen, Blanche Walsh, Ida Conquest, Clara Bloodgood,
+and May Robson.
+
+* * *
+
+By this time Henry Miller had left the Empire Stock Company and had gone
+on the road with a play called "Heartsease," by Charles Klein and J. I.
+C. Clark. It failed in Cincinnati, and Miller wrote Frohman about it. A
+week later the men met on Broadway. Miller still believed in
+"Heartsease" and asked Frohman if he could read it to him.
+
+"All right," replied Frohman; "come to-morrow and let me hear it."
+
+Miller showed up the next morning and left Klein and Clark, who had
+accompanied him, in a lower office. Frohman locked the door, as was his
+custom, curled himself up on a settee, lighted a cigar, and asked for
+the manuscript.
+
+"I didn't bring it. I will act it out for you."
+
+Miller knew the whole production of the play depended upon his
+performance. He improvised whole scenes and speeches as he went along,
+and he made a deep impression. When he finished, Frohman sat still for a
+few moments. Then he rang a bell and Alf Hayman appeared. To him he
+said, quietly:
+
+"We are going to do 'Heartsease.'"
+
+Miller rushed down-stairs to where Klein and Clark were waiting, and
+told them to get to work revising the manuscript.
+
+When the play went into rehearsal, Frohman, who sat in front, spoke to
+Miller from time to time, asking, "Where is that line you spoke in my
+office?"
+
+This incident is cited to show Charles's amazing memory. Miller, of
+course, had improvised constantly during his personal performance of the
+play, and Frohman recognized that these improvisations were missing when
+the piece came into rehearsal.
+
+Charles now added a third star to his constellation in Henry Miller. He
+first produced "Heartsease" in New Haven. Charles Dillingham sat with
+him during the performance. When the curtain went down on a big scene,
+and the audience was in a tumult, demanding star and author, Frohman
+leaned over to speak to his friend. Dillingham thought he was about to
+make a historic remark, inspired by the enormous success of the play
+before him. Instead, Frohman whispered:
+
+"Charley, I wonder if they have any more of that famous apple-pie over
+at Hueblein's?"
+
+He was referring to a famous article of food that had added almost as
+much glory to New Haven as had its historic university, and for which
+Frohman had an inordinate love.
+
+Henry Miller now became an established Frohman star. After "Heartsease"
+had had several successful road seasons, Frohman presented Miller in
+"The Only Way," an impressive dramatization of Charles Dickens's great
+story, "A Tale of Two Cities."
+
+* * *
+
+Charles Dillingham's friendship with Frohman had now become one of the
+closest of his life. He always accompanied Frohman to England, and was
+regarded as his right-hand man. Frohman had always urged his friend to
+branch out for himself. The result was that Dillingham assumed the
+managership of Julia Marlowe.
+
+Dillingham presented Miss Marlowe at the Knickerbocker Theater in New
+York in "The Countess Valeska." Frohman liked the play so much that he
+became interested in the management of Miss Marlowe, and together they
+produced "Colinette," adapted from the French by Henry Guy Carleton, at
+this theater. "Colinette" inspired one of the many examples of Frohman's
+quick retort.
+
+The "try-out" was at Bridgeport, and Dillingham had engaged a private
+chair car for the company. When Frohman tried to get on this car at
+Grand Central Station the porter turned him down, saying:
+
+"This is the Marlowe car."
+
+Whereupon Frohman spoke up quickly and said: "I am Mr. Marlowe," and
+stepped aboard.
+
+The production of "Colinette" marked the beginning of another one of
+Frohman's intimate associations. He engaged William Seymour to rehearse
+and produce the play. Seymour later directed some of the greatest
+Frohman undertakings and eventually became general stage-manager for his
+chief. Frohman was now actively interested in Miss Marlowe's career.
+Under the joint Frohman-Dillingham management she played in "As You Like
+It" and "Ingomar."
+
+By this time Clyde Fitch had steadily made his way to the point where
+Frohman had ceased to regard him as a "pink tea" author, but as a really
+big playwright. They became great friends. He gave Fitch every possible
+encouragement. The time was at hand when Fitch was to reward that
+encouragement, and in splendid fashion.
+
+Once more the Civil War proved a Charles Frohman mascot, for Fitch now
+wrote "Barbara Fritchie," founded on John G. Whittier's famous war poem.
+He surrounded the star with a cast that included W. J. Lemoyne, Arnold
+Daly, Dodson Mitchel, and J. H. Gilmour. The play opened at the Broad
+Street Theater in Philadelphia. At the dress rehearsal began an incident
+which showed Charles's ready resource.
+
+In the second act the business of the play required that Miss Marlowe
+take a gun and shoot a man. No gun was at hand. It was decided to send
+the late Byron Ongley, assistant stage-manager of the company, to the
+Stratford Hotel, where the star lived, with a gun and show her how to
+use it there.
+
+When Frohman, who came to see the rehearsal, heard of this he had an
+inspiration for a fine piece of publicity.
+
+"Why can't Ongley pretend to be a crank and appear to be making an
+attempt on Miss Marlowe's life?"
+
+He liked Ongley, and he really conceived the idea more to play one of
+his numerous practical jokes than to capitalize the event.
+
+Without saying a word to Ongley, Dillingham notified the Stratford
+management that Miss Marlowe had received a threatening letter from a
+crank who might possibly appear and make an attempt on her life. When
+Ongley entered the hotel lobby innocently carrying the gun he was beset
+by four huge porters and borne to the ground. The police were summoned
+and he was hauled off to jail, where he spent twenty-four hours. The
+newspapers made great capital of the event, and it stimulated interest
+in the performance.
+
+[Illustration: _WILLIAM H. CRANE_]
+
+When "Barbara Fritchie" opened at the Criterion Theater in New York,
+which had passed under the Frohman control, it scored an immediate
+success. It ran for four months. Not only was Miss Marlowe put into the
+front rank of paying stars, but the success of the play gave Clyde
+Fitch an enormous prestige, for it was his first big triumph as an
+original playwright. From this time on his interest was closely linked
+with that of Charles Frohman, who became his sponsor.
+
+In connection with Julia Marlowe is a characteristic Frohman story. The
+manager always refused to accept the new relation when one of his women
+stars married. This incident grew out of Julia Marlowe's marriage to
+Robert Taber.
+
+One day his office-boy brought in word that Mrs. Taber would like to see
+him.
+
+"I don't know her."
+
+After an interval of a few moments a dulcet voice came through the door,
+saying, "Won't you see me?"
+
+"Who are you?"
+
+"Mrs. Taber."
+
+"I don't know Mrs. Taber, but Julia Marlowe can come in."
+
+* * *
+
+Charles was now in a whirlwind of activities. He was not only making
+stars, but also, as the case of Clyde Fitch proved, developing
+playwrights. In the latter connection he had a peculiar distinction.
+
+One day some years before, Madeline Lucette Ryley came to see him. She
+was a charming English _ingénue_ who had been a singing soubrette in
+musical comedies at the famous old Casino, the home of musical comedies,
+where Francis Wilson, De Wolf Hopper, Jefferson De Angelis, and Pauline
+Hall had achieved fame as comic-opera stars. She had also appeared in a
+number of serious plays.
+
+Mrs. Ryley made application for a position. Frohman said to her:
+
+"I don't need actresses, but I need plays. Go home and write me one."
+
+Mrs. Ryley up to that time had written plays only as an amateur. She
+went home and wrote "Christopher Jr." and it started her on a notably
+successful career as a playwright. In fact, she was perhaps the first of
+the really successful women playwrights.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles Frohman celebrated the opening theatrical season of the new
+twentieth century by annexing a new star and a fortune at the same time.
+It was William H. Crane in "David Harum" who accomplished this.
+
+Again history repeated itself in a picturesque approach to a Frohman
+success. One morning, at the time when both had apartments at Sherry's,
+Frohman and Charles Dillingham emerged from the building after
+breakfast. On the sidewalk they met Denman Thompson, the old actor.
+Frohman engaged him in conversation. Suddenly Thompson began to chuckle.
+
+"What are you laughing at?" asked Frohman.
+
+"I was thinking of a book I read last night, called 'David Harum,'"
+replied Thompson.
+
+"Was it interesting?"
+
+"The best American story I ever read," said the actor.
+
+Frohman's eyes suddenly sparkled. He winked at Dillingham, who hailed a
+cab and made off. Frohman engaged Thompson in conversation until he
+returned. In his pocket he carried a copy of "David Harum."
+
+Frohman read the book that day, made a contract for its dramatization,
+and from the venture he cleared nearly half a million dollars.
+
+Frohman considered four men for the part of _David Harum_. They were
+Denman Thompson, James A. Hearne, Sol Smith Russell, and Crane. Thompson
+was too old, Hearne had been associated too long with the "Shore Acres"
+type to adapt himself to the Westcott hero, and Sol Smith Russell did
+not meet the requirements. Frohman regarded Crane as ideal.
+
+His negotiations with Crane for this part were typical of his business
+arrangements. It took exactly five minutes to discuss them. When the
+terms had been agreed upon, Frohman said to Crane:
+
+"Are you sure this is perfectly satisfactory to you?"
+
+"Perfectly," replied Crane.
+
+Frohman reached over from his desk and shook his new star by the hand.
+It was his way of ratifying a contract that was never put on paper, and
+over which no word of disagreement ever arose. Crane's connection with
+Charles Frohman lasted for nine years.
+
+Frohman personally rehearsed "David Harum." Much of its extraordinary
+success was due to his marvelous energy. It was Frohman, and not the
+dramatist, who introduced the rain-storm scene at the close of the
+second act which made one of the biggest hits of the performance.
+Throughout the play there were many evidences of Frohman's skill and
+craftsmanship.
+
+* * *
+
+It was just about this time that the real kinship with Augustus Thomas
+began. Frohman, after his first meeting with Thomas years before in the
+box-office of a St. Louis theater, had produced his play "Surrender,"
+and had engaged him to remodel "Sue." Now he committed the first of the
+amazing quartet of errors of judgment with regard to the Thomas plays
+that forms one of the curious chapters in his friendship with this
+distinguished American playwright.
+
+Thomas had conceived the idea of a cycle of American plays, based on the
+attitude toward women in certain sections of the country. The first of
+these plays had been "Alabama," the second "In Mizzoura." Thomas now
+wrote "Arizona" in this series. When he offered the play to Frohman, the
+manager said:
+
+"I like this play, Gus, but I have one serious objection to it. I don't
+see any big situation to use the American flag. Perhaps I am
+superstitious about it. I have had such immense luck with the flag in
+'Shenandoah' and 'Held by the Enemy' that I have an instinct that I
+ought not to do this play, much as I would like to."
+
+As everybody knows, the play went elsewhere and was one of the great
+successes of the American stage.
+
+Frohman now realized his mistake. He sent for Thomas and said: "I want
+you to write me another one of those rough plays."
+
+The result was "Colorado," which Frohman put on at the Grand Opera House
+in New York with Wilton Lackaye in the leading rôle, but it was not a
+success.
+
+A few years later Frohman made another of the now famous mistakes with
+Thomas. Thomas had seen Lawrence D'Orsay doing his usual "silly ass"
+part in a play. He also observed that the play lagged unless D'Orsay was
+on the stage. He therefore wrote a play called "The Earl of Pawtucket,"
+with D'Orsay in mind, and Frohman accepted it. When the time came to
+select the cast, Thomas suggested D'Orsay for the leading part.
+
+"Impossible!" said Frohman. "He can't do it."
+
+[Illustration: _AUGUSTUS THOMAS_]
+
+[Illustration: _SIR ARTHUR WING PINERO_]
+
+Thomas was so convinced that D'Orsay was the ideal man that Frohman made
+this characteristic concession:
+
+"I think well of your play, and it will probably be a success," he
+said, "but I do not believe that D'Orsay is the man for it. If you can
+get another manager to do it I will turn back the play to you, and if
+you insist upon having D'Orsay I will release him from his contract with
+me."
+
+Kirk La Shelle took the play and it was another "Arizona."
+
+Frohman produced a whole series of Thomas successes, notably "The Other
+Girl," "Mrs. Leffingwell's Boots," and "De Lancey." To the end of his
+days the warmest and most intimate friendship existed between the men.
+It was marked by the usual humor that characterized Frohman's relations.
+Here is an example:
+
+Thomas conducted the rehearsals of "The Other Girl" alone. Frohman, who
+was up-stairs in his offices at the Empire, sent him a note on a yellow
+pad, written with the blue pencil that he always used:
+
+"How are you getting along at rehearsals without me?"
+
+"Great!" scribbled Thomas.
+
+The next day when he went up-stairs to Frohman's office, he found the
+note pinned on the wall.
+
+Such was the mood of the man who had risen from obscurity to one of
+commanding authority in the whole English-speaking theater.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+THE RISE OF ETHEL BARRYMORE
+
+
+While the star of Maude Adams rose high in the theatrical heaven,
+another lovely luminary was about to appear over the horizon. The moment
+was at hand when Charles Frohman was to reveal another one of his
+protégés, this time the young and beautiful Ethel Barrymore. It is an
+instance of progressive and sympathetic Frohman sponsorship that gave
+the American stage one of its most fascinating favorites. Some stars are
+destined for the stage; others are born in the theater. Ethel Barrymore
+is one of the latter. Two generations of eminent theatrical achievement
+heralded her advent, for she is the granddaughter of Mrs. John Drew,
+mistress of the famous Arch Street Theater Company of Philadelphia, and
+herself, in later years, the greatest _Mrs. Malaprop_ of her day. Miss
+Barrymore's father was the brilliant and gifted Maurice Barrymore; her
+mother the no less witty and talented Georgia Drew, while, among other
+family distinctions, she came into the world as the niece of John Drew.
+
+Despite the royalty of her theatrical birth, no star in America had to
+labor harder or win her way by more persistent and conscientious effort.
+At fourteen she was playing child's parts with her grandmother. A few
+years later she came to New York to get a start. Though she bore one of
+the most distinguished and honored names in the profession, she sat
+around in agents' offices for six months, beating vainly at the door of
+opportunity. Finally she got a chance to understudy Elsie De Wolfe, who
+was playing with John Drew, in "The Bauble Shop," at the Empire. One day
+when that actress became ill this seventeen-year-old child played the
+part of a thirty-two-year-old woman with great success. Understudies
+then became her fate for several years. While playing a part on the road
+with her uncle in "The Squire of Dames," Charles Frohman saw her for the
+first time. He looked at her sharply, but said nothing. Later, during
+this engagement, she met the man who was to shape her career.
+
+About this time Miss Barrymore went to London. Charles had accepted
+Haddon Chambers's play "The Tyranny of Tears," in which John Drew was to
+star in America. She got the impression that she would be cast for one
+of the two female parts in this play, and she studied the costuming and
+other details. With eager expectancy she called on Frohman in London.
+Much to her surprise Frohman said:
+
+"Well, Ethel, what can I do for you?"
+
+"Won't I play with Uncle John?" she said.
+
+"No, I am sorry to say you will not," replied Frohman.
+
+This was a tragic blow. It was in London that Miss Barrymore received
+this first great disappointment, and it was in London that she made her
+first success. Charles Frohman, who from this time on became much
+impressed with her appealing charm and beauty, gave her a small rôle
+with the company he sent over with Gillette to play "Secret Service" in
+the British capital. Odette Tyler played the leading comedy part. One
+night when Miss Barrymore was standing in the wings the stage-manager
+rushed up to her and said, excitedly:
+
+"You will have to play Miss Tyler's part."
+
+"But I don't know her lines," said Miss Barrymore.
+
+"That makes no difference; you will have to play. She's gone home sick."
+
+"How about her costume?" said Miss Barrymore.
+
+"Miss Tyler was so ill that we could not ask her to change her costume.
+She wore it away with her," was the reply.
+
+Dressed as she was, Miss Barrymore, who had watched the play carefully,
+and who has an extremely good memory, walked on, played the part, and
+made a hit.
+
+When the "Secret Service" company returned to America, Miss Barrymore
+remained in London. She lived in a small room alone. Her funds were low
+and she had only one evening gown. But she had the Barrymore wit and
+charm, her own beauty, and was in much social demand. By the time she
+prepared to quit England the one gown had seen its best days. She had
+arranged to sail for home on a certain Saturday. The night before
+sailing she was invited to a supper at the home of Anthony Hope. Just as
+she was about to dress she received a telegram from Ellen Terry, who was
+playing at the Lyceum Theater, saying:
+
+    _Do come and say good-by before you go._
+
+When she arrived at the Lyceum, the first thing that Miss Terry said
+was, "Sir Henry wants to say good-by to you."
+
+On going into the adjoining dressing-room the great actor said to her:
+
+"Wouldn't you like to stay in England?"
+
+"Of course," said Miss Barrymore.
+
+"Would you like to play with me?" he asked.
+
+Coining at her hour of discouragement and despair, it was like manna
+from heaven. Her knees quaked, but she managed to say, "Y-e-s."
+
+"All right," said Sir Henry. "Go down-stairs. Loveday has a contract
+that is ready for you to sign."
+
+With this precious contract stuffed into her bosom, Miss Barrymore now
+rode in triumph to the Hope supper-party.
+
+"What a pity that you have got to leave England," said Sir Herbert
+Beerbohm Tree.
+
+"But I am going to stay," said Miss Barrymore.
+
+A gasp ran around the table.
+
+"And with whom?" asked Tree.
+
+"With Sir Henry and Miss Terry," was the proud response.
+
+Miss Barrymore played that whole season most acceptably with Irving and
+Terry in "The Bells" and "Waterloo," and afterward with Henry B. Irving
+in "Peter the Great."
+
+When she returned to America in 1898 she had a new interest for Charles
+Frohman. Yet the Nemesis of the Understudy, which had pursued her in
+America, still held her in its grip, for she was immediately cast as
+understudy for Ida Conquest in a play called "Catherine" that Frohman
+was about to produce at the Garrick Theater. She had several
+opportunities, however, to play the leading part, and at her every
+appearance she was greeted most enthusiastically. Her youth and
+appealing beauty never failed to get over the footlights.
+
+Frohman was always impressed by this sort of thing. It was about this
+time that he said to a friend of his.
+
+"There is going to be a big development in one of my companies before
+long. There's a daughter of 'Barry' [meaning Maurice Barrymore] who gets
+a big reception wherever she goes. She has got the real stuff in her."
+
+Miss Barrymore's first genuine opportunity came when Charles cast her
+for the part of _Stella De Gex_ in Marshall's delightful comedy "His
+Excellency the Governor," which was first put on at the Empire in May,
+1899. The grace and sprightliness that were later to bloom so
+delightfully in Miss Barrymore now found their first real expression.
+Both in New York and on the road she made a big success.
+
+While rehearsing "His Excellency the Governor," Charles sat in the
+darkened auditorium of the Empire one day. When the performance was over
+he walked back on the stage and, patting Miss Barrymore on the shoulder,
+said:
+
+"You're so much like your mother, Ethel. You're all right."
+
+Frohman was not the type of man to lag in interest. He realized what the
+girl's possibilities were, so early in 1901 he sent for Miss Barrymore
+and said to her:
+
+"Ethel, I have a nice part for you at last."
+
+It was the rôle of _Madame Trentoni_ in Clyde Fitch's charming play of
+old New York, "Captain Jinks." Now came one of those curious freaks of
+theatrical fortune. "Captain Jinks" opened at the Walnut Street Theater
+in Philadelphia, and seemed to be a complete failure from the start.
+Although the Quakers did not like the play, they evinced an enormous
+interest in the lovely leading woman. From the gallery they cried down:
+
+"We loved your grandmother, Ethel, and we love you."
+
+It was a tribute to the place that Mrs. John Drew had in the affections
+of those staid theater-goers.
+
+Despite the bad start in Philadelphia, Charles believed in Miss
+Barrymore, and he had confidence in "Captain Jinks." He brought the play
+into New York at the Garrick. The expectation was that it might possibly
+run two weeks. Instead, it remained there for seven months and then
+played a complete season on the road.
+
+Now came the turn in the tide of Ethel Barrymore's fortunes. She was
+living very modestly on the top floor of a theatrical boarding-house in
+Thirty-second Street. With the success of "Captain Jinks" she moved down
+to a larger room on the second floor. But a still greater event in her
+life was now to be consummated.
+
+During the third week of the engagement she walked over from
+Thirty-second Street to the theater. As she passed along Sixth Avenue
+she happened to look up, and there, in huge, blazing electric lights,
+she saw the name "Ethel Barrymore." She stood still, and the tears came
+to her eyes. She knew that at last she had become a star.
+
+Charles had said absolutely nothing about it to her. It was his
+unexpected way of giving her the surprise of arriving at the goal of her
+ambition.
+
+The next day she went to Frohman and said, "It was a wonderful thing for
+you to do."
+
+Whereupon Frohman replied, very simply, "It was the only thing to do."
+
+Ethel Barrymore was now a star, and from this time on her stage career
+became one cycle of ripening art and expanding success. A new luminary
+had entered the Frohman heaven, and it was to twinkle with increasing
+brilliancy.
+
+Her next appearance was in a double bill, "A Country Mouse" and
+"Carrots," at the Savoy Theater, in October, 1902. Here came one of the
+first evidences of her versatility. "A Country Mouse" was a comedy;
+"Carrots," on the other hand, was impregnated with the deepest tragedy.
+Miss Barrymore played the part of a sad little boy, and she did it with
+such depth of feeling that discriminating people began to realize that
+she had great emotional possibilities.
+
+Her appearance in "Cousin Kate" the next year was a return to comedy. In
+this play Bruce McRae made his first appearance with her as leading man,
+and he filled this position for a number of years. He was as perfect an
+opposite to her as was John Drew to Ada Rehan. Together they made a
+combination that was altogether delightful.
+
+It was while playing in a piece called "Sunday" that Miss Barrymore
+first read Ibsen's "A Doll's House." She was immensely thrilled by the
+character. She said to Frohman at once: "I must do this part. May I?"
+
+"Of course," he said.
+
+Here was another revelation of the Barrymore versatility, for she
+invested this strange, weird expression of Ibsen's genius with a range
+of feeling and touch of character that made a deep impression.
+
+Charles now secured the manuscript of "Alice-Sit-By-The-Fire." He was
+immensely taken with this play, not only because it was by his friend
+Barrie, but because he saw in it large possibilities. Miss Barrymore was
+with him in London at this time. Frohman told her the story of the play
+in his rooms at the Savoy, acting it out as he always did with his
+plays. There were two important women characters: the mother, played in
+London by Ellen Terry, who philosophically accepts the verdict of the
+years, and the daughter, played by the popular leading woman Irene
+Vanbrugh, who steps into her place.
+
+"Would you like to play in 'Alice'?" asked Frohman.
+
+"Yes," said Miss Barrymore.
+
+"Which part?"
+
+"I would rather have you say," said Miss Barrymore.
+
+Just then the telephone-bell rang. Barrie had called up Frohman to find
+out if he had cast the play.
+
+"I was just talking it over with Miss Barrymore," he replied.
+
+Then there was a pause. Suddenly Frohman turned from the telephone and
+said:
+
+"Barrie wants you to play the mother."
+
+"Fine!" said Miss Barrymore. "That is just the part I wanted to do."
+
+In "Alice-Sit-By-The-Fire" Miss Barrymore did a very daring thing. Here
+was an exquisite young woman who was perfectly willing to play the part
+of the mother of a boy of eighteen rather than the younger rôle, and she
+did it with such artistic distinction that Barrie afterward said of her:
+
+"I knew I was right when I wanted her to play the mother. I felt that
+she would understand the part."
+
+"Alice-Sit-By-The-Fire" was done as a double bill with "Pantaloon," in
+which Miss Barrymore's brother, John Barrymore, who was now coming to be
+recognized as a very gifted young actor, scored a big success. Later
+another brother, Lionel, himself a brilliant son of his father, appeared
+with her.
+
+The theater-going world was now beginning to look upon Ethel Barrymore
+as one of the really charming fixtures of the stage. What impressed
+every one, most of all Charles Frohman, was the extraordinary ease with
+which she fairly leaped from lightsome comedy to deep and haunting
+pathos. Her work in "The Silver Box," by John Galsworthy, was a
+conspicuous example of this talent. Frohman gave the manuscript of the
+play to Miss Barrymore to read and she was deeply moved by it.
+
+"Can't we do it?" she said.
+
+"It is very tragic," said Frohman.
+
+"I don't mind," said Miss Barrymore. "I want to do it so much!"
+
+In "The Silver Box" she took the part of a charwoman whose life moves in
+piteous tragedy. It registered what, up to that time, was the most
+poignant note that this gifted young woman had uttered. Yet the very
+next season she turned to a typical Clyde Fitch play, "Her Sister," and
+disported herself in charming frocks and smart drawing-room
+conversation.
+
+* * *
+
+Miss Barrymore's career justified every confidence that Charles had felt
+for her. It remained, however, for Pinero's superb if darksome play
+"Midchannel" to give her her largest opportunity.
+
+When Frohman told her about this play he said: "Ethel, I have a big
+play, but it is dark and sad. I don't think you want to do it."
+
+After she had heard the story she said, impulsively: "You are wrong. I
+want to play this part very much."
+
+"All right," said Frohman. "Go ahead."
+
+[Illustration: _ETHEL BARRYMORE_]
+
+As _Zoe Blundell_ she had a triumph. In this character she was
+artistically reborn. The sweetness and girlishness now stood aside in
+the presence of a somber and haunting tragedy that was real. Miss
+Barrymore literally made the critics sit up. It recorded a distinct
+epoch in her career, and, as in other instances with a Pinero play, the
+American success far exceeded its English popularity.
+
+When Miss Barrymore did "The Twelve-Pound Look," by Barrie, the
+following year, she only added to the conviction that she was in many
+respects the most versatile and gifted of the younger American
+actresses. Frohman loved "The Twelve-Pound Look" as he loved few plays.
+Its only rival in his regard was "Peter Pan." He went to every
+rehearsal, he saw it at every possible opportunity. Like most others, he
+realized that into this one act of intense life was crowded all the
+human drama, all the human tragedy.
+
+Miss Barrymore now sped from grave to gay. When the time came for her to
+rehearse Barrie's fascinating skit, "A Slice of Life," Frohman was ill
+at the Knickerbocker Hotel. He was very much interested in this little
+play, so the rehearsals were held in his rooms at the hotel. There were
+only three people in the cast--Miss Barrymore, her brother John, and
+Hattie Williams. It was so excruciatingly funny that Frohman would often
+call up the Empire and say:
+
+"Send Ethel over to rehearse. I want to forget my pains."
+
+Charles Frohman lived to see his great expectations of Ethel Barrymore
+realized. He found her the winsome slip of a fascinating girl; he last
+beheld her in the full flower of her maturing art. He was very much
+interested in her transition from the seriousness of "The Shadow" into
+the wholesome humor and womanliness of "Our Mrs. McChesney," a part he
+had planned for her before his final departure. It was one of the many
+swift changes that Miss Barrymore has made, and had he lived he would
+have found still another cause for infinite satisfaction with her.
+
+* * *
+
+Another star now swam into the Frohman ken. This was the way of it:
+
+Paul Potter was making a periodical visit to New York in 1901. David
+Belasco came to see him at the Holland House.
+
+"Paul," said he, "C. F. and I want you to make us a version of Ouida's
+'Under Two Flags' for Blanche Bates."
+
+"I never read the novel," said Potter.
+
+"You can dramatize it without reading it," remarked Belasco, and in a
+month he was sitting in Frohman's rooms at Sherry's and Potter was
+reading to them his dramatization of "Under Two Flags," throwing in, for
+good measure, a ride from "Mazeppa" and a snow-storm from "The Queen of
+Sheba."
+
+"I like all but the last scene," said Frohman. "When _Cigarette_ rides
+up those mountains with her lover's pardon, the pardon is, to all
+intents and purposes, delivered. The actual delivery is an anti-climax.
+What the audience want to see is a return to the garret where the lovers
+lived and were happy."
+
+As they walked home that night Belasco said to Potter:
+
+"That was a great point which C. F. made. What remarkable intuition he
+has!"
+
+Frohman and Potter used to watch Belasco at work, teaching the actors to
+act, the singers to sing, the dancers to dance.
+
+Then came a hitch.
+
+"Gros, our scene-painter," said Frohman, "maintains that _Cigarette_
+couldn't ride up any mountains near the Algerian coast, for the nearest
+mountains are the Atlas Mountains, eight hundred miles away."
+
+He undertook to convert Mr. Gros. Fortunately for him the author of the
+play stood in the Garden Theater while Belasco was rehearsing a dance.
+
+"Oh," said he, "if it's a comic opera you can have all the mountains you
+please. I thought it was a serious drama."
+
+Then Frohman ventured to criticize the mountain torrent.
+
+"What's the matter with the torrent?" called Belasco, while _Cigarette_
+and her horse stood on the slope.
+
+"It doesn't look like water at all," said Frohman.
+
+Just then the horse plunged his nose into the torrent and licked it
+furiously. Criticism was silenced. The play was a big, popular success,
+and with it Blanche Bates arrived as star.
+
+One day, a year later, Frohman remarked to Potter in Paris, "What do you
+say to paying Ouida a visit in Florence?"
+
+He and Belasco had paid her considerable royalties. He thought she would
+be gratified by a friendly call. Frohman and Potter obtained letters of
+introduction from bankers, consuls, and Florentine notables, and sent
+them in advance to Ouida. The landlord of the inn gave them a
+resplendent two-horse carriage, with a liveried coachman and a footman.
+Frohman objected to the footman as undemocratic. The landlord insisted
+that it was Florentine etiquette, and shrugged his shoulders when they
+departed, seeming to think that they were bound on a perilous journey.
+
+Through the perfumed, flower-laden hills they climbed, the Arno
+gleaming below. The footman took in their cards to the villa of Mlle. de
+la Ramée. He promptly returned.
+
+"The signora is indisposed," he remarked.
+
+The visitors sent him back to ask if they might come some other day.
+Again he returned.
+
+"The signora is indisposed," was the only answer he could get.
+
+Potter and Frohman drove away. Frohman was hurt. He did not try to
+conceal it.
+
+"That's the first author," he said, "who ever turned me down. Anyway,
+the pancakes at lunch were delicious." He met rebuff--as he met
+loss--with infinite humor.
+
+* * *
+
+Stars now crowded quick and fast into the Frohman firmament. Next came
+Virginia Harned. Daniel Frohman had seen her in a traveling company at
+the Fourteenth Street Theater and engaged her to support E. H. Sothern.
+She later came under Charles's control, and he presented her as star in
+"Alice of Old Vincennes," "Iris," and "The Light that Lies in Woman's
+Eyes."
+
+Effie Shannon and Herbert Kelcey followed. Their first venture with him,
+"Manon Lescaut," was a direful failure, but it was followed up with "My
+Lady Dainty," which was a success.
+
+Charles Frohman had various formulas for making stars. Some he
+discovered outright, others he developed. Here is an example of his
+Christopher Columbus proclivities:
+
+One day he heard that there was a very brilliant young Hungarian actor
+playing a small part down at the Irving Place German Theater in New York
+City. He went to see him, was very much impressed with his ability, sent
+for him, and said:
+
+"If you will study English I will agree to take care of you on the
+English-speaking stage."
+
+[Illustration: _JULIA MARLOWE_]
+
+The man assented, and Frohman paid him a salary all the while he was
+studying English. Before many years he was a well-known star. His name
+was Leo Ditrichstein.
+
+Frohman now got Ditrichstein to adapt "Are You a Mason?" from the
+German, put it on at Wallack's Theater, and it was a huge success.
+Besides Ditrichstein, this cast, which was a very notable one, included
+John C. Rice, Thomas W. Wise, May Robson, Arnold Daly, Cecil De Mille,
+and Sallie Cohen, who had played Topsy in the stranded "Uncle Tom's
+Cabin" Company, whose advance fortunes Frohman had piloted in his
+precarious days on the road.
+
+Just as Frohman led the American invasion in England, so did he now
+bring about the English invasion of America. He had inaugurated it with
+Olga Nethersole. He now introduced to American theater-goers such
+artists as Charles Hawtrey, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Charles Warner, Sir
+Charles Wyndham, Mary Moore, Marie Tempest, and Fay Davis, in whose
+career he was enormously interested. He starred Miss Davis in a group of
+plays ranging from "Lady Rose's Daughter" to "The House of Mirth."
+
+In connection with Mrs. Campbell's first tour occurred another one of
+the famous Frohman examples of quick retort. He was rehearsing this
+highly temperamental lady, and made a constructive criticism which
+nettled her very much. She became indignant, called him to the
+footlights, and said:
+
+"I want you to know that I am an artist?"
+
+Frohman, with solemn face, instantly replied:
+
+"Madam, I will keep your secret."
+
+One of the early English importations revealed Frohman's utterly
+uncommercialized attitude toward the theater. He was greatly taken with
+the miracle play "Everyman," and brought over Edith Wynne Mathison and
+Charles Rann Kennedy to do it. He was unable to get a theater, so he put
+them in Mendelssohn Hall.
+
+"You'll make no money with them there," said a friend to him.
+
+"I don't expect to make any," replied Frohman, "but I want the American
+people to see this fine and worthy thing."
+
+The play drew small audiences for some time. Then, becoming the talk of
+the town, it went on tour and repaid him with a profit on his early
+loss.
+
+* * *
+
+One of the happiest of Charles Frohman's theatrical associations now
+developed. In 1903, when the famous Weber and Fields organization seemed
+to be headed toward dissolution, Charles Dillingham suggested to Willie
+Collier that he go under the Frohman management. Collier went to the
+Empire Theater and was ushered into Frohman's office.
+
+"It took you a long time to get up here," said the magnate. "How would
+you like to go under my management?"
+
+"Well," replied Collier, with his usual humor, "I didn't come up here to
+buy a new hat."
+
+The result was that Collier became a Frohman star and remained one for
+eleven years. He and Frohman were constantly exchanging witty telegrams
+and letters. Frohman sent Collier to Australia. At San Francisco the
+star encountered the famous earthquake. He wired Frohman:
+
+"San Francisco has just had the biggest opening in its history."
+
+Whereupon Frohman, who had not yet learned the full extent of the
+calamity, wired back:
+
+"Don't like openings with so many 'dead-heads.'"
+
+* * *
+
+All the while, William Gillette had been thriving as a Frohman star.
+Like many other serious actors, he had an ambition to play _Hamlet_.
+With Frohman the wishes of his favorite stars were commands, so he
+proceeded to make ready a production. Suddenly Barrie's remarkable play
+"The Admirable Crichton" fell into his hands. He sent for Gillette and
+said:
+
+"Gillette, I am perfectly willing that you should play _Hamlet_, but I
+have just got from Barrie the ideal play for you."
+
+When Gillette read "The Admirable Crichton," he agreed with Frohman, and
+out of it developed one of his biggest successes. "Hamlet," with its
+elaborate production, still awaits Gillette.
+
+* * *
+
+In presenting Clara Bloodgood as star in Clyde Fitch's play "The Girl
+with the Green Eyes," Frohman achieved another one of his many
+sensations. The smart, charming girl who had made her début under
+sensational circumstances in "The Conquerors," now saw her name up in
+electric lights for the first time. Frohman's confidence in her, as in
+many of his protégés, was more than fulfilled.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles Frohman, who loved to dazzle the world with his Napoleonic
+coups, launched what was up to this time, and which will long remain,
+the most spectacular of theatrical deals. He greatly admired E. H.
+Sothern, who had been associated with him in some of his early ventures.
+The years that Julia Marlowe had played under his joint management had
+endeared her to him. One day he had an inspiration. There had been no
+big Shakespearian revival for some time, so he said:
+
+"Why not unite Sothern and Marlowe and tour the country in a series of
+magnificent Shakespearian productions?"
+
+At that time Julia Marlowe had reverted to the control of Charles
+Dillingham, while Sothern was still under the management of Daniel
+Frohman. Charles now brought the stars together, offered them a
+guarantee of $5,000 a week for a forty weeks' engagement and for three
+seasons. In other words, he pledged these two stars the immense sum of
+$200,000 for each season, which was beyond doubt the largest guarantee
+of the kind ever made in the history of the American theater.
+
+It was just about this time that Joseph Humphreys, Frohman's seasoned
+general stage-manager, succumbed to the terrific strain under which he
+had worked all these years, as both actor and producer. William Seymour
+stepped into his shoes, and has retained that position ever since.
+
+Charles was constantly bringing about revolutions. Through him Francis
+Wilson, for example, departed from musical comedy, in which he had made
+a great success, and took up straight plays. He began with Clyde Fitch's
+French adaptation of "Cousin Billy," and thus commenced a connection
+under Charles Frohman that lasted many years. With him, as with all his
+other stars, there was never a scrap of paper.
+
+[Illustration: _E. H. SOTHERN_]
+
+Frohman and Wilson met at the Savoy Hotel in London one day. Frohman
+had often urged him to quit musical comedy, and he now said he was ready
+to make the plunge.
+
+"All right," said Frohman. "I will give you so much a week and a
+percentage of the profits."
+
+"It's done," said Wilson.
+
+"Do you want a contract?" asked Frohman.
+
+"No."
+
+This was about all that ever happened in the way of arrangements between
+Frohman and his stars, to some of whom he paid fortunes.
+
+During these years Charles had watched with growing interest the
+development of a young girl from Bloomington, Illinois, Margaret
+Illington by name. She had appeared successfully in the old Lyceum Stock
+Company when it was transferred by Daniel Frohman to Daly's, and had
+played with James K. Hackett and E. H. Sothern. Charles now cast her in
+Pinero's play "A Wife Without a Smile." Afterward she appeared in
+Augustus Thomas's piece "Mrs. Leffingwell's Boots," and made such a
+strong impression that Frohman made her leading woman with John Drew in
+Pinero's "His House in Order."
+
+Just about this time Charles, whose interest in French plays had
+constantly increased through the years, singled out Henri Bernstein as
+the foremost of the younger French playwrights. He secured his
+remarkable play "The Thief" for America. He now produced this play at
+the Lyceum with Miss Illington and Kyrle Bellew as co-stars, and it
+proved to be an enormous success, continuing there for a whole season,
+and then duplicating its triumph on the road, where Frohman at one time
+had four companies playing it in various parts of the country.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+THE CONQUEST OF THE LONDON STAGE
+
+
+Great as were Charles Frohman's achievements in America, they were more
+than matched in many respects by his activities in England. He was the
+one American manager who made an impress on the British drama; he led
+the so-called "American invasion." As a matter of fact, he _was_ the
+invasion. No phase of his fascinatingly crowded and adventurous career
+reflects so much of the genius of the man, or reveals so many of his
+finer qualities, as his costly attempt to corner the British stage.
+Here, as in no other work, he showed himself in really Napoleonic
+proportions.
+
+Behind Charles's tremendous operations in London were three definite
+motives. First of all, he really loved England. He felt that the theater
+there had a dignity and a distinction far removed from theatrical
+production in America. There was no sneer of "commercialism" about it.
+To be identified with the stage in England was something to be proud of.
+He often said that he would rather make fifteen pounds in London than
+fifteen thousand dollars in America. It summed up his whole attitude
+toward the theater in Great Britain.
+
+In the second place, he knew that a strong footing in England was
+absolutely necessary to a mastery of the situation in America. Just as
+important as any of his other reasons was the conviction in his own mind
+that to produce the best English-speaking plays in the United States he
+must know English playwrights and English authors on their own ground,
+and to produce, if possible, their own works on their home stages.
+
+This latter desire led him to the long and brilliant series of
+productions that he made in London, and which amounted to what later
+became an almost complete monopoly on British dramatic output for the
+United States.
+
+The net result was that he became a sort of Colossus of the
+English-speaking theater. Figuratively, he stood astride the mighty sea
+in which he was to meet his death, with one foot planted securely in
+England and the other in New York.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles's first visits to England were made in the most unostentatious
+way, largely to look over the ground and see what he could pick up for
+America. His first offices in Henrietta Street were very modest rooms.
+Unpretentious as they were, they represented a somewhat historic step,
+because Frohman was absolutely the first American manager to set up a
+business in England. Augustin Daly had taken over a company, but he
+allied himself in no general way with British theatrical interests.
+
+When Frohman first engaged W. Lestocq as his English manager, as has
+already been recorded, he made a significant remark:
+
+"You know I am coming into London to produce plays. But I am coming in
+by the back door. I shall get to the front door, however, and you shall
+come with me."
+
+No sooner had he set foot in London than his productive activities were
+turned loose. With A. and S. Gatti he put on one of his New York
+successes, "The Lost Paradise," at the Adelphi Theater. In this instance
+he merely furnished the play. It failed, however. Far from discouraging
+Frohman, it only filled him with a desire to do something big.
+
+This play marked the beginning of one of his most important English
+connections. The Gattis, as they were known in England, were prominent
+figures in the British theater. They were Swiss-Italians who had begun
+life in England as waiters, had established a small eating-house, and
+had risen to become the most important restaurateurs of the British
+capital. They became large realty-owners, spread out to the theater, and
+acquired the Adelphi and the Vaudeville.
+
+Charles Frohman's arrangement with them was typical of all his business
+transactions. Some years afterward a well-known English playwright asked
+Stephen Gatti:
+
+"What is your contract with Frohman?"
+
+"We have none. When we want an agreement from Charles Frohman about a
+business transaction it is time to stop," was his reply.
+
+With the production of a French farce called "A Night Out," which was
+done at the Vaudeville Theater in 1896, Frohman began his long and
+intimate association with George Edwardes. This man's name was
+synonymous with musical comedy throughout the amusement world. As
+managing director of the London Gaiety Theater, the most famous musical
+theater anywhere, he occupied a unique position. Charles was the
+principal American importer of the Gaiety shows, and through this and
+various other connections he had much to do with Edwardes.
+
+Frohman and Edwardes were the joint producers of "A Night Out," and it
+brought to Charles his first taste of London success. This was the only
+play in London in which he ever sold his interest. Out of this sale grew
+a curious example of Frohman's disregard of money. For his share he
+received a check of four figures. He carried it around in his pocket for
+weeks. After it had become all crumpled up, Lestocq persuaded him to
+deposit it in the bank. Only when the check was almost reduced to shreds
+did he consent to open an account with it.
+
+* * *
+
+It remained for an American play, presenting an American star, to give
+Charles his first real triumph in London. With the production of "Secret
+Service," in 1897, at the Adelphi Theater, he became the real envoy from
+the New World of plays to the Old. It was an ambassadorship that gave
+him an infinite pride, for it brought fame and fortune to the American
+playwright and the American actor abroad. Frohman's envoyship was as
+advantageous to England as it was to the United States, because he was
+the instrument through which the best of the modern English plays and
+the most brilliant of the modern English actors found their hearing on
+this side of the water.
+
+Frohman was immensely interested in the English production of "Secret
+Service." Gillette himself headed the company. Both he and Frohman were
+in a great state of expectancy. The play hung fire until the third act.
+When the big scene came British reserve melted and there was a great
+ovation. It was an immediate success and had a long run.
+
+One feature of the play that amused the critics and theater-goers
+generally in London was the fact that the spy in "Secret Service," who
+was supposed to be the bad man of the play, received all the sympathy
+and the applause, while the hero was arrested and always had the worst
+of it, even when he was denouncing the spy. Gillette's quiet but
+forceful style of acting was a revelation to the Londoners.
+
+It was during this engagement that an intimate friend said to Terriss,
+the great English actor who was distinguished for his impulsiveness:
+
+"Chain yourself to a seat at the Adelphi some night and learn artistic
+repose from Gillette."
+
+Concerning the first night of "Secret Service" is another one of the
+many Frohman stories. When a London newspaper man asked the American
+manager about the magnificent celebration that he was sure had been held
+to commemorate Gillette's triumph, Frohman said:
+
+"There was nothing of the sort. Mr. Dillingham, my manager, and I joined
+Mr. Gillette in his rooms at the Savoy. We had some sandwiches and wine
+and then played 'hearts' for several hours."
+
+This episode inspired Frohman to give utterance to what was the very
+key-note of his philosophy about an actor and his work. Talking with a
+friend in England shortly after the opening of "Secret Service," about
+the modest way in which Gillette regarded his success, he said:
+
+"Nothing so kills the healthy growth of an actor and brings his
+usefulness to an end so soon, as the idea that social enjoyment is a
+means to public success, and that industrious labor to improve himself
+is no longer necessary."
+
+[Illustration: _ELSIE FERGUSON_]
+
+Frohman always regarded the success of "Secret Service" as the
+corner-stone of his great achievements in England. Once, in speaking of
+this star's hit, he said:
+
+"You know, what tickles me is the fact that it was left for England to
+discover that Gillette is a great actor. It's one on America."
+
+* * *
+
+A few years later, Frohman made his first Paris production with "Secret
+Service." The masterful little man always regarded the world as his
+field; hence the annexation of Paris. He had a version made by Paul de
+Decourcelle, and the play was put on at the Renaissance Theater. Guitry,
+the great French actor, played Gillette's part. A very brilliant
+audience saw the opening performance, but the French did not get the
+atmosphere of the play. They could not determine whether it was serious
+or comic. The character of _General Nelson_ was almost entirely omitted
+in the play because the actors themselves could not tell whether it was
+humor or tragedy. Besides, the French actors wanted to do it their own
+way.
+
+Dillingham, who had charge of the production in Paris, realizing on the
+opening night that it would be a failure, and knowing that he had to
+send Frohman some sort of telegram, cabled, with his customary humor,
+the following:
+
+     _The tomb of Napoleon looks beautiful in the moonlight._
+
+As was the case in England, Charles was the only American manager who
+made any impression upon the French drama. From his earliest producing
+days he had a weakness for producing adapted French plays. From France
+came some of his hugest successes, especially those of Bernstein. He
+"bulled" the French market on prices. The French playwright hailed him
+with joy, for he always left a small fortune behind him.
+
+Having established a precedent with Gillette, he now presented his first
+American woman star in England. It was Annie Russell in Bret Harte's
+story "Sue." He was very fond of this play, having already produced it
+in the United States, and he was very proud of the impression that Miss
+Russell made in London.
+
+* * *
+
+Up to this time Frohman had made his English productions in conjunction
+with the Gattis or George Edwardes at the Adelphi, the Vaudeville, or
+the Garrick theaters. This would have satisfied most people. But
+Frohman, who wanted to do things in a big way, naturally desired his own
+English theater, where he could unfurl his own banner and do as he
+pleased.
+
+Early in 1897, therefore, he took what was up to that time his biggest
+English step, for he leased the Duke of York's Theater for nineteen
+years. His name went over the doorway and from that time on this theater
+was the very nerve-center, if not the soul, of Charles Frohman's English
+operations. It was one of the best known and the most substantial of
+British playhouses, located in St. Martin's Lane, in the very heart of
+the theatrical district. He took a vast pride in his control of it. He
+even emblazoned the announcement of his London management on the walls
+of the Empire on Broadway in New York. In his affections it was in
+England what the Empire was to him in America. It was destined to be the
+background of his distinguished artistic endeavors, perhaps the most
+distinguished.
+
+Charles now embarked on a sea of lavish productions. Typical of his
+attitude was his employment of the best-known and highest-salaried
+producer in London. This man was Dion Boucicault, son of the famous
+playwright of the same name, who was himself a very finished and
+versatile actor. He gave the Frohman productions a touch of genuine
+distinction, and his wife, the accomplished Irene Vanbrugh, added much
+to the attractiveness of the Frohman ventures.
+
+The Frohman sponsorship of the Duke of York's was celebrated with a
+magnificent production of Anthony Hope's "The Adventure of Lady Ursula,"
+which had been a success in New York with E. H. Sothern. It ran the
+entire season. The play was put on in the usual Frohman way, so much so
+that the British critics said that "the production, from first to last,
+was correct down to a coat-button."
+
+Until the end of his life the Duke of York's Theater had a large place
+in his heart. At the back of private box F, which was his own box, and
+which was also used for royalty when it visited the play, was a
+comfortable retiring-room, charmingly decorated in red. Here Frohman
+loved to sit and entertain his friends, especially such close intimates
+as Sir James M. Barrie, Haddon Chambers, Sir Arthur Pinero, Henry Arthur
+Jones, Michael Morton, and other English playwrights.
+
+These busy days at the Duke of York's furnished Frohman with many
+amusing episodes. On one occasion he was caught in the self-operating
+elevator of the theater and was kept a prisoner in it for over an hour.
+His employees were in consternation. When he was finally extricated they
+began to apologize most profusely.
+
+"Nonsense!" said Frohman. "I am glad I got stuck. It's the first
+vacation I have had in two years."
+
+The lobby of the Duke of York's illustrates one of Charles's distinctive
+ideas. Instead of ornamenting it with pictures of dead dramatic heroes
+like Shakespeare and Garrick, he filled it with photographs of his live
+American stars. The English theater-goers who went there saw huge
+portraits of Maude Adams, Ethel Barrymore, Marie Doro, John Drew, Otis
+Skinner, and William Gillette.
+
+On one occasion he was held up at the entrance of the Duke of York's by
+a new doorkeeper who asked for his ticket.
+
+"I am Frohman," said the manager.
+
+"Can't help it, sir; you've got to have a ticket."
+
+"You're quite right," said Frohman, who went to the box-office and
+bought himself a stall seat. When the house-manager, James W. Matthews,
+threatened to discharge the doorkeeper, Frohman said:
+
+"Certainly not. The man was obeying orders. If he had done otherwise you
+should have discharged him."
+
+Frohman so loved the Duke of York's that he would go back to it and
+witness the same play twenty times. During his last visit to England,
+when his right knee was troubling him, he telephoned down one night to
+have his box reserved. Matthews, to spare him any trouble, had a little
+platform built so that he would not have to walk up the steps. Two weeks
+later, Frohman again telephoned that he wanted the box held, and added:
+
+"I am better now. Don't bother to build a theater for me."
+
+Curiously enough, the first failure that Charles had at the Duke of
+York's was "The Christian," which had scored such an enormous success in
+America. But failure only spurred him on to further efforts. When an
+English friend condoled with him about his loss on this occasion he
+said:
+
+"Forget it. Don't let's revive the past. Let's get busy and pulverize
+the future."
+
+* * *
+
+To the average mind the extent of Frohman's London productions is
+amazing. When the simple fact is stated that he made one hundred and
+twenty-five of these, one obtains at a glance the immense scope of the
+man's operations there. Many of them stand out brilliantly. Early among
+them was the Frohman-Belasco presentation of Mrs. Leslie Carter in two
+of her greatest successes at the Garrick Theater.
+
+The first was "The Heart of Maryland." It was during this engagement
+that Charles bought the English rights to "Zaza," then a sensational
+success in Paris. It was his original intention to star Julia Marlowe in
+this play. When Belasco heard of the play he immediately saw it was an
+ideal vehicle for Mrs. Carter, and Frohman generously turned it over to
+him. After its great triumph in the United States, Frohman and Belasco
+produced "Zaza" in London.
+
+It was a huge success and made the kind of sensation in which Frohman
+delighted. There was much question as to its propriety, so much so that
+the Lord Chamberlain himself, who supervised the censorship, came and
+witnessed the performance. He made no objection, however.
+
+An amusing incident, which shows the extraordinary devotion of Charles
+Frohman's friends, occurred on the first night. While attending the
+rehearsals at the Garrick, Frohman caught cold and went to bed with a
+slight attack of pneumonia. On the inaugural night he lay bedridden. He
+was so eager for news of the play that he said to Dillingham:
+
+"Send me all the news you can."
+
+Dillingham organized a bicycle service, and every fifteen minutes sent
+encouraging and cheering bulletins to Frohman, who was so elated that he
+was able to emerge from bed the next morning a well man.
+
+Now the interesting thing about this episode is that Dillingham
+fabricated most of the messages, because, until the end of the play and
+for several days thereafter, its success was very much in doubt. Indeed,
+it took more than a week for it to "catch on."
+
+Charles followed up "Zaza" with a superb production of "Madame
+Butterfly," in which he used Belasco's beautiful equipment. This
+production put the artistic seal on Frohman's achievement as a London
+manager. Up to this time there were some who believed that, despite the
+lavishness of his policy, there was the germ of the commercial in him.
+"Madame Butterfly" removed this, but if there had been any doubt
+remaining, it would have been wiped out by his exquisite presentation of
+"The First Born." Associated with this play is a story that shows
+Frohman's dogged determination and resource.
+
+Belasco had made the production of "The First Born" in America in lavish
+fashion. He brought to it all his love and knowledge of Chinese art.
+
+[Illustration: _EDNA MAY_]
+
+A rival manager, W. A. Brady, wishing to emulate the success of "The
+First Born," got together a production of "The Cat and the Cherub,"
+another Chinese play, and secured time in London, hoping to beat
+Frohman out. It now became a race between Frohman and Brady for the
+first presentation in London. Both managers were in America. Brady got
+his production off first. When Frohman heard of it he said:
+
+"We must be in London first."
+
+"But there are no sailings for a week," said one of his staff.
+
+"Then we will hire a boat," was his retort.
+
+However, there proved to be no need for this enterprise, because a
+regular sailing developed.
+
+"The Cat and the Cherub" won the race across the Atlantic and was
+produced first. It took the edge off the novelty of "The First Born,"
+which was a failure, but its fine quality gave Charles the premier place
+as an artistic producer in England, and he never regretted having made
+the attempt despite the loss.
+
+Frohman became immersed in a multitude of things. In September, 1901,
+for example, he was interested in five English playhouses--the Aldwych,
+the Shaftesbury, the Vaudeville, and the Criterion, as well as the Duke
+of York's. He had five different plays going at the same time--"Sherlock
+Holmes," "Are You a Mason?" "Bluebell in Fairyland," "The Twin Sister,"
+and "The Girl from Maxim's." This situation was typical of his English
+activities from that time until his death.
+
+* * *
+
+The picturesqueness of detail which seemed to mark the beginning of so
+many of Charles Frohman's personal and professional friendships attended
+him in England, as the case of his first experience with Edna May shows.
+
+One hot night late in the summer season of 1900 Frohman was having
+supper alone on his little private balcony at the Savoy Hotel
+overlooking the Thames. It was before the Strand wing of the hostelry
+had been built. As he sat there, clad only in pajamas and smoking a
+large black cigar, he heard a terrific din on the street below. There
+was cheering, shouting, and clapping of hands. Summoning a waiter, he
+asked:
+
+"What's all that noise about?"
+
+"Oh, it's only Miss Edna May coming to supper, sir."
+
+"Why all this fuss?" continued Frohman.
+
+"Well, you see, sir," answered the servant, "they are bringing her back
+in triumph."
+
+When Frohman made investigation he found that the doctors and nurses at
+the Middlesex Hospital in London, where Edna May frequently sang for the
+patients, had engaged the whole gallery of the Shaftesbury Theater where
+she was singing in "The American Beauty," and attended in a body. After
+the play they had surrounded her at the stage entrance, unhitched the
+horse from her little brougham, and hauled her through the streets to
+the Savoy.
+
+This episode made a tremendous impression on Frohman. He was always
+drawn to the people who could create a stir. He had heard that Edna May
+was nearing the end of her contract with George Lederer, so he entered
+into negotiations with her, and that autumn she passed under his
+management and remained so until she retired in 1907.
+
+In the case of Edna May there could be no star-making. The spectacular
+rise of this charming girl from the chorus to the most-talked-of musical
+comedy rôle in the English-speaking world--that of the Salvation Army
+girl in "The Belle of New York"--had given her a great reputation.
+Frohman now capitalized that reputation in his usual elaborate fashion.
+He first presented Miss May in "The Girl from Up There."
+
+She appeared under his management in various pieces, both in New York
+and in London. Her company in New York included Montgomery and Stone,
+Dan Daly, and Virginia Earle. When he presented Miss May at the Duke of
+York's in "The Girl from Up There" the result was the biggest business
+that the theater had known up to that time. In succession followed
+"Kitty Gray," which ran a year in London, "Three Little Maids," and "La
+Poupée."
+
+All the while there was being written for Miss May a musical piece in
+which she was to achieve one of her greatest successes, and which was to
+bring Charles into contact with another one of his future stars. It was
+"The School Girl," which Frohman first did in May, 1903, in London, and
+afterward put on with great success at Daly's in New York.
+
+In the English production of this play was a petite, red-haired little
+girl named Billie Burke, who sang a song called "Put Me in My Little
+Canoe," which became one of the hits of the play. Frohman was immensely
+attracted by this girl, and afterward took her under his patronage and
+she became one of his best-known stars.
+
+Edna May, under Frohman's direction, was now perhaps the best known of
+the musical comedy stars in England and America. He took keen delight in
+her success. In "The Catch of the Season," which he did at Daly's in New
+York in August, 1905, she practically bade farewell to the American
+stage. Henceforth Frohman kept her in England. In "The Belle of Mayfair"
+she was succeeded by Miss Burke in the leading part. Frohman's
+production of "Nelly Neil" at the Aldwych Theater in 1907 was one of the
+most superb musical comedy presentations ever made. For this Frohman
+imported Joseph Coyne from America to do the leading juvenile rôle. He
+became such a great favorite that he has remained in England ever since.
+
+Just as Edna May had bidden farewell to America in "The Catch of the
+Season," so she now bade farewell to the English stage in "Nelly Neil."
+She had become engaged to Oscar Lewisohn, who insisted on an early
+marriage. About this time Frohman and George Edwardes secured the
+English rights to "The Merry Widow." They both urged Miss May to
+postpone her marriage and appear in it. Miss May was now compelled to
+decide between matrimony and what would have been perhaps her greatest
+success, and she chose matrimony.
+
+Her good-by appearance on the stage, May 1, 1907, was one of the most
+extraordinary events in the history of the English theater. This lovely,
+unassuming American girl had so completely endeared herself to the
+hearts of the London theater-goers that she was made the center of a
+tumultuous farewell. The day the seat-sale opened there was a queue
+several blocks long. During the opening performance Charles sat in his
+box alone. When some friends entered he was in tears. He had a genuine
+personal affection for Miss May, and her retirement touched him very
+deeply.
+
+[Illustration: _BILLIE BURKE_]
+
+In connection with "Nelly Neil" there is a little story which
+illustrates Charles's attitude toward his productions. He had spent a
+fortune on "Nelly Neil," and it was not a financial success. After
+giving it every chance he instructed Lestocq to put up the two weeks'
+notice. Lestocq remarked that it was a shame to end such a
+magnificent presentation. Whereupon Frohman turned around quickly and
+said:
+
+"Shut up, or I'll run it another month. You know, Lestocq, if I don't
+keep a hand on myself sometimes my sentiment will be the ruin of me."
+
+* * *
+
+By this time Frohman and James M. Barrie had become close friends. The
+manager had produced "Quality Street" at the Vaudeville Theater with
+great success. He now approached a Barrie production which gave him
+perhaps more pleasure than anything he did in his whole stage life. The
+advent of "Peter Pan" was at hand. The remarkable story of how Charles
+got the manuscript of "Peter Pan" has already been told in this
+biography.
+
+The original title that Barrie gave the play was "The Great White
+Father," which Frohman liked. Just as soon as Barrie suggested that it
+be named after its principal character, Frohman fairly overflowed with
+enthusiasm. In preparing for "Peter Pan" in England, Charles was like a
+child with a toy. Money was spent lavishly; whole scenes were made and
+never used. He regarded it as a great and rollicking adventure.
+
+The first production of the Barrie masterpiece on any stage took place
+at the Duke of York's Theater, London, on December 27, 1904. Frohman was
+then in America. At his country place up at White Plains, only his close
+friend, Paul Potter, with him, he eagerly awaited the verdict. It was a
+bitterly cold night, and a snow-storm was raging. Frohman's secretary in
+the office in New York had arranged to telephone the news of the play's
+reception which Lestocq was expected to cable from London. On account of
+the storm the message was delayed.
+
+Frohman was nervous. He kept on saying, "Will it never come?" His heart
+was bound up in the fortunes of this beloved fairy play. While he waited
+with Potter, Frohman acted out the whole play, getting down on all-fours
+to illustrate the dog and crocodile. He told it as _Wendy_ would have
+told it, for _Wendy_ was one of his favorites. Finally at midnight the
+telephone-bell rang. Potter took down the receiver. Frohman jumped up
+from his chair, saying, eagerly, "What's the verdict?" Potter listened a
+moment, then turned, and with beaming face repeated Lestocq's cablegram:
+
+     _Peter Pan all right. Looks like a big success._
+
+This was one of the happiest nights in Frohman's life.
+
+The first _Peter_ in England was Nina Boucicault, who played the part
+with great wistfulness and charm. She was the first of a quartet which
+included Cissy Loftus, Pauline Chase, and Madge Titheradge.
+
+Charles so adored "Peter Pan" that he produced it in Paris, June 1,
+1909, at the Vaudeville Theater, with an all-English cast headed by
+Pauline Chase. Robb Harwood was _Captain Hook_, and Sibyl Carlisle
+played _Mrs. Darling_. It was produced under the direction of Dion
+Boucicault. The first presentation was a great hit, and the play ran for
+five weeks. On the opening night Barrie and Frohman each had a box.
+Frohman was overjoyed at its success, and Barrie, naturally, could not
+repress his delight. What pleased them most was the spectacle of row
+after row of little French kiddies, who, while not understanding a word
+of the narrative, seemed to be having the time of their lives.
+
+From the date of its first production until his death, "Peter Pan"
+became a fixed annual event in the English life of Charles Frohman. He
+revived it every year at holiday-time. No occasion in his calendar was
+more important than the annual appearance of the fascinating boy who had
+twined himself about the American manager's heart.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles was now a conspicuous and prominent figure in English theatrical
+life. The great were his friends and his opinion was much quoted. In
+addition to his sole control of the Duke of York's, he had interests in
+a dozen other playhouses. He liked the English way of doing business.
+Yet, despite what many people believed to be a strong pro-British
+tendency, he was always deeply and patriotically American, and he lost
+several fortunes in pioneering the American play and the American actor
+in England.
+
+To name the American plays that he produced in London would be to give
+almost a complete catalogue of American drama revealed to English eyes.
+Curiously enough, at least two plays, "The Lion and the Mouse" and "Paid
+in Full," that had made enormous successes in America, failed utterly in
+England under his direction. He gave England such typically American
+dramas as "The Great Divide," "Brewster's Millions," "Alias Jimmy
+Valentine," "Years of Discretion," "A Woman's Way," "On the Quiet," and
+"The Dictator."
+
+In addition to Gillette he presented Billie Burke in "Love Watches,"
+William Collier in "The Dictator" and "On the Quiet," and Ethel
+Barrymore in "Cynthia."
+
+With his presentation of Collier he did one of his characteristic
+strokes of enterprise. Marie Tempest was playing at the Comedy in
+London. He had always been anxious to try Collier's unctuous American
+humor on the British, so the American comedian swapped engagements with
+Miss Tempest. She came over to the Criterion in New York to do "The
+Freedom of Suzanne," while Collier took her time at the Comedy in "The
+Dictator." He scored a great success and remained nearly a year.
+
+* * *
+
+The time was now ripe for the most brilliant of all the Charles Frohman
+achievements in England. Had he done nothing else than the Repertory
+Theater he would have left for himself an imperishable monument of
+artistic endeavor. The extraordinary feature of this undertaking was
+that it was left for an American to finance and promote in the very
+cradle of the British drama the highest and finest attempt yet made to
+encourage that drama. The Repertory Theater would have proclaimed any
+manager the open-handed patron of drama for drama's sake.
+
+The National or Repertory Theater idea, which was the antidote for the
+long run, the agency for the production of plays that had no sustained
+box-office virtue, which took the speculative feature out of production,
+had been preached in England for some time. Granville Barker had tried
+it at the Court Theater, where the Shaw plays had been produced
+originally. The movement lagged; it needed energy and money.
+
+Barrie had been a disciple of the Repertory Theater from the start. He
+knew that there was only one man in the world who could make the attempt
+in the right way. One day in 1909 he said to Frohman:
+
+"Why don't you establish a Repertory Theater?"
+
+Then he explained in a few words what he had in mind.
+
+Without a moment's hesitation Frohman said, briskly:
+
+"All right, I'll do it."
+
+With these few words he committed himself to an enterprise that cost him
+a fortune. But it was an enterprise that revealed, perhaps as nothing in
+his career had revealed, the depths of his artistic nature.
+
+With his marvelous grasp of things, Frohman swiftly got at the heart of
+the Repertory proposition. When he launched the enterprise at the Duke
+of York's he said:
+
+     _Repertory companies are usually associated in the public mind with
+     the revival of old masterpieces, but if you want to know the
+     character of my repertory project at the Duke of York's, I should
+     describe it as the production of new plays by living authors.
+     Whatever it accomplishes, it will represent the combined resources
+     of actor and playwright working with each other, a combination that
+     seems to me to represent the most necessary foundation of any
+     theatrical success._
+
+Frohman stopped at nothing in carrying out the Repertory Theater idea.
+He engaged Granville Barker to produce most of the plays. Barker in turn
+surrounded himself with a superb group of players. The most brilliant of
+the stage scenic artists in England, headed by Norman Wilkinson, were
+engaged to design the scenes. Every possible detail that money could buy
+was lavished on this project.
+
+The result was a series of plays that set a new mark for English
+production, that put stimulus behind the so-called "unappreciated" play,
+and gave the English-speaking drama something to talk about--and to
+remember. The mere unadorned list of the plays produced is impressive.
+They were "Justice," by John Galsworthy; "Misalliance," by Bernard Shaw;
+"Old Friends" and the "The Twelve-Pound Look," by James M. Barrie; "The
+Sentimentalists," by George Meredith; "Madras House," by Granville
+Barker; "Chains," by Elizabeth Baker; "Prunella," by Lawrence Housman
+and Granville Barker; "Helena's Path," by Anthony Hope and Cosmo Gordon
+Lenox, and a revival of "Trelawney of the Wells," by Sir Arthur Pinero.
+
+The way "The Twelve-Pound Look" came to be produced is interesting. When
+the repertory for the theater was being discussed one day by Barrie and
+Barker at the former's flat in Adelphi Terrace House, Barker said:
+
+"Haven't you got a one-act play that we could do?"
+
+Barrie thought a moment, scratched his head, and said:
+
+"I think I wrote one about six months ago when I was recovering from
+malaria. You might find it somewhere in that desk." He pointed toward
+the flat-top table affair on which he had written "The Little Minister"
+and "Peter Pan."
+
+Barker rummaged around through the drawers and finally found a
+manuscript written in Barrie's hieroglyphic hand. It was "The
+Twelve-Pound Look."
+
+[Illustration: _PAULINE CHASE_]
+
+The production of "Justice" was generally regarded in England as the
+finest example of stage production that has been made within the last
+twenty-five years. Despite the expense, and the fact that Frohman
+insisted upon making each play a splendid production, the Repertory
+Theater prospered. It ran from February 21, 1910, until the middle of
+May. Its run was temporarily terminated by the death of King Edward
+VII., and it was impossible to revive the project successfully after
+the formal period of mourning closed.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman's constantly widening activities in London made it necessary for
+him to have more spacious quarters. The story of his offices really
+tells the story of his work, for they increased in scope as his
+operations widened. When he leased the Aldwych Theater he set up his
+headquarters there. With the acquisition of the Globe he needed more
+room, and this theater became the seat of his managerial operations. In
+1913, and with characteristic lavishness, he engaged what is perhaps the
+finest suite of theatrical offices in London. They were in a marble
+structure known as Trafalgar House, in Waterloo Place, one of the
+choicest and most expensive locations in the city.
+
+Here he had a suite of six rooms. Like the man himself, his own personal
+quarters were very simple. There was a long, high-ceiled room, with a
+roll-top desk, which was never used, at one end, and a low morris-chair
+at the other. From this morris-chair and from his rooms at the Savoy
+Hotel he ruled his English realm.
+
+Charles's love for his stars never lagged, and wherever it was possible
+for him to surround himself with their pictures he did so. As a result,
+the visitor to his London rooms found him surrounded by the familiar
+faces of Maude Adams, Ethel Barrymore, Ann Murdock, Marie Doro, Julia
+Sanderson, William Gillette, and John Drew. On the roll-top desk, side
+by side, were the pictures of his two _Peter Pans_, Miss Adams and
+Pauline Chase.
+
+Charles's last London production, strangely enough, consisted of two
+plays by his closest friend, Barrie. This double bill was "The New
+Word," a fireside scene, which was followed by "Rosy Rapture."
+
+By a strange coincidence his first English venture was a failure, and so
+was his last. Yet the long and brilliant journey between these two dates
+was a highway that any man might have trod with pride. The
+English-speaking drama received an impetus and a standard that it never
+would have had without his unflagging zeal and his generous purse. He
+left an influence upon the English stage that will last.
+
+What endeared him perhaps more than anything else to England was the
+smiling serenity with which he met criticism and loss. There may have
+been times when the English resented his desire for monopoly, but they
+forgot it in tremendous admiration for his courage and his resource. He
+revolutionized the economics of the British stage; he invested it with
+life, energy, action; he established a whole new relation between author
+and producer. Here, as in America, he was the pioneer and the builder.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+BARRIE AND THE ENGLISH FRIENDSHIPS
+
+
+The fortunes of Charles Frohman's English productions ebbed and flowed;
+actors and actresses came and went; to him it was all part of a big and
+fascinating game. What really counted and became permanent were the
+man's friendships, often made in the theatrical world of make-believe,
+but always cemented in the domain of very sincere reality. In England
+were some of his dearest personal bonds.
+
+They grew out of the fact that Charles had the rare genius of inspiring
+loyal friendship. He gave much and he got much. Yet, like Stevenson, it
+was a case of "a few friends, but these without capitulation."
+
+In England he seemed to be a different human being. The inaccessibility
+that hedged him about in America vanished. He emerged from his unsocial
+shell; he gave out interviews; he relaxed and renewed his youth in jaunt
+and jest. His annual trip abroad, therefore, was like a joyous
+adventure. It mattered little if he made or lost a fortune each time.
+
+Frohman was happy in London. He liked the soft, gray tones of the somber
+city. "It's so restful," he always said. Even the "bobbie" delighted
+him. He would watch the stolid policeman from the curb and say,
+admiringly: "He is wonderful; he raises his hand and all London stops."
+He was greatly interested in the traffic regulations.
+
+Although he had elaborate offices, his real London headquarters were in
+the Savoy Hotel. Here, in the same suite that he had year after year,
+and where he was known to all employees from manager to page, he
+literally sat enthroned, for his favorite fashion was to curl up on a
+settee with his feet doubled under him. More than one visitor who saw
+him thus ensconced called him a "beaming Buddha."
+
+From his informal eminence he ruled his world. Around him assembled the
+Knights of the Dramatic Round Table. Wherever Frohman sat became the
+unofficial capitol of a large part of the English-speaking stage. In
+those Savoy rooms there was made much significant theatrical history. To
+the little American came Barrie, Pinero, Chambers, Jones, Sutro,
+Maugham, Morton, with their plays; Alexander, Tree, Maude, Hicks,
+Barker, Bouchier, with their projects.
+
+Like Charles Lamb, Frohman loved to ramble about London. Often he would
+stop in the midst of his work, hail a taxi, and go for a drive in the
+green parks. The Zoological Gardens always delighted him. He frequently
+stopped to watch the animals. The English countryside always lured him,
+especially the long green hedges, which held a peculiar fascination. He
+walked considerably in the country and in town, and he took great
+delight in peering in shop windows.
+
+[Illustration: _JAMES M. BARRIE_]
+
+In London, as in New York, the theater was his life and inspiration.
+Almost without exception he went to a performance of some kind every
+evening. At most of the London theaters he was always given the royal
+box whenever possible. He liked the atmosphere of the British
+playhouse. He always said it was more like a drawing-room than a place
+of amusement.
+
+* * *
+
+To Charles, London meant J. M. Barrie, and to be with the man who wrote
+"Peter Pan" was one of his supreme delights. The devotion between these
+two men of such widely differing temperaments constitutes one of the
+really great friendships of modern times. Character of an unusual kind,
+on both sides, was essential to such a communion of interest and
+affection. Both possessed it to a remarkable degree.
+
+No two people could have been more opposite. Frohman was quick, nervous,
+impulsive, bubbling with optimism; Barrie was the quiet, canny Scot,
+reserved, repressed, and elusive. Yet they had two great traits in
+common--shyness and humor. As Barrie says:
+
+"Because we were the two shyest men in the world, we got on so well and
+understood each other so perfectly."
+
+There was another bond between these two men in the fact that each
+adored his mother. In Charles's case he was the pride and the joy of the
+maternal heart; with Barrie the root and inspiration of all his life and
+work was the revered "Margaret Ogilvy." He is the only man in all the
+world who ever wrote a life of his mother.
+
+There was still another and more tangible community of interest between
+these two remarkable men. Each detested the silk hat. Frohman had never
+worn one since the Haverly Minstrel days, when he had to don the tile
+for the daily street parade. Barrie, in all his life, has had only one
+silk hat. It is of the vintage of the early 'seventies. The only
+occasion when he wears the much-detested headgear is at the first
+rehearsal of the companies that do his plays. Then he attires himself in
+morning clothes, goes to the theater, nervously holds the hat in his
+hand while he is introduced to the actors and actresses. Just as Charles
+used to hide his silk hat as soon as the minstrel parade was over and
+put on a cap, so does Barrie send the objectionable headgear home as
+soon as these formalities are over and welcome his more comfortable
+bowler as an old friend.
+
+Curiously enough, Frohman and Barrie did not drift together at once.
+When the little Scotchman made his first visit to America in 1896 and
+"discovered" Maude Adams as the inspired person to act _Lady Babbie_, he
+met the man who was to be his great friend in a casual business way
+only. The negotiations for "The Little Minister" from England were
+conducted through an agent.
+
+But when Frohman went abroad the following year the kinship between the
+men started, and continued with increasing intimacy. The men became
+great pals. They would wander about London, Barrie smoking a short,
+black pipe, Frohman swinging his stick. On many of these strolls they
+walked for hours without saying a word to each other. Each had the great
+gift of silence--the rare sense of understanding.
+
+Barrie and his pipe are inseparable, as the world knows. There is a
+legend in London theatrical lore that Frohman wanted to drive to
+Barrie's flat one night. He was in his usual merry mood, so the
+instruction he gave was this:
+
+"Drive to the Strand, go down to Adelphi Terrace, and stop at the first
+smell of pipe smoke."
+
+Frohman never tired of asking Barrie about "Peter Pan." It was a
+curious commentary on the man's tenacity of interest and purpose that,
+although he made nearly seven hundred productions in his life, the play
+of the "Boy Who Would Never Grow Up" tugged most at his heart. Nor did
+Barrie ever weary of telling him how the play began as a nursery tale
+for children; how their insistent demand to "tell us more" made it the
+"longest story in the world"; how, when one pirate had been killed,
+little Peter (the original of the character, now a soldier in the great
+war) excitedly said: "One man isn't enough; let's kill a lot of them."
+
+No one will be surprised to know that in connection with "Peter Pan" is
+one of the most sweetly gracious acts in Frohman's life. The original of
+_Peter_ was sick in bed at his home when the play was produced in
+London. The little lad was heartsick because he could not see it. When
+Frohman came to London Barrie told him about it.
+
+"If the boy can't come to the play, we will take the play to the boy,"
+he said.
+
+Frohman sent his company out to the boy's home with as many "props" as
+could be jammed into the sick-room. While the delighted and excited
+child sat propped up in bed the wonders of the fairy play were unfolded
+before him. It is probably the only instance where a play was done
+before a child in his home.
+
+As most people know, Barrie, at his own expense, erected a statue of
+_Peter Pan_ in Kensington Gardens as his gift to the children of London
+who so adored his play. It was done as a surprise, for the statue stood
+revealed one May Day morning, having been set up during the night.
+
+When he planned this statue Barrie mentioned it casually to Frohman, and
+said nothing more about it. Frohman never visited the park to see it,
+but when the model was put on exhibition at the Academy he said to
+Lestocq one day:
+
+"Where is that _Peter Pan_ model?" When he was told he said: "I want to
+see it, but do I have to look at anything else in the gallery?" On being
+assured that he did not, he said, "All right."
+
+Frohman went to the Academy, bolted straight for the sculpture-room, and
+stood for a quarter of an hour gazing intently at the graceful figure of
+_Peter_ playing his pipe. Then he walked out again, without stopping to
+look at any of the lovely things about him. It was characteristic of
+Frohman to do just the thing he had in mind to do and nothing else.
+
+Frohman and Barrie seldom wrote to each other. When they did it was a
+mere scrawl that no other human being in the world could read. The only
+cablegram that Barrie ever sent Frohman was about "What Every Woman
+Knows." Hilda Trevelyan played _Maggie Wylie_. Barrie liked her work so
+much that he cabled Frohman about it on the opening night. When the
+actress went down to breakfast the next morning to read what the
+newspapers said about her she found on her plate a cable from Frohman
+doubling her salary. It was Frohman's answer to Barrie.
+
+Frohman's faith in Barrie was marvelous. It was often said in jest in
+London that if Barrie had asked Frohman to produce a dramatization of
+the Telephone Directory he would smile and say with enthusiasm:
+
+"Fine! Who shall we have in the cast?"
+
+One of the great Frohman-Barrie adventures was in Paris. It illustrates
+so completely the relation between these men that it is worth giving in
+detail.
+
+Frohman was in Paris, and after much telegraphic insistence persuaded
+his friend to come over on his first visit to the French capital.
+Frohman was aglow with anticipation. He wanted to give Barrie the time
+of his life.
+
+"What would a literary man like to do in Paris?" was the question he
+asked himself.
+
+In his usual generous way he planned the first night, for Barrie was to
+arrive in the afternoon. He was then living at the Hôtel Meurice, in the
+Rue Royale, so he engaged a magnificent suite for his guest. He ordered
+a sumptuous dinner at the Café de Paris, bought a box at the Théâtre
+Français, and engaged a smart victoria for the evening.
+
+Barrie was dazed at the splendor of the Meurice suite, but he survived
+it. When Frohman spoke of the Café de Paris dinner he said he would
+rather dine quietly at the hotel, so the elaborate meal was given up.
+
+"Now what would you like to do this evening?" asked his host.
+
+"Are there any of those country fairs around here, where they have side
+shows and you can throw balls at things?" asked Barrie.
+
+Frohman, who had box seats for the most classic of all Continental
+theaters in his pocket, said:
+
+"Yes, there is one in Neuilly."
+
+"All right," said Barrie, "let's go there."
+
+"We'll drive out in a victoria," meekly suggested Frohman.
+
+"No," said Barrie, "I think it would be more fun to go on a 'bus."
+
+With the unused tickets for the Théâtre Français in his waistcoat, and
+the smart little victoria still waiting in front of the Meurice (for
+Frohman forgot to order the man home), the two friends started for the
+country fair, where they spent the whole evening throwing balls at what
+the French call "Aunt Sally." It is much like the old-fashioned
+side-show at an American county fair. A negro pokes his head through a
+hole in the canvas, and every time the thrower hits the head he gets a
+knife. When Frohman and Barrie returned to the Meurice that night they
+had fifty knives between them. The next night they repeated this
+performance until they had knives enough to start a hardware-store. This
+was the simple and childlike way that these two men, each a genius in
+his own way, disported themselves on a holiday.
+
+One more incident will show the amazing accord between Frohman and
+Barrie. They were constantly playing jokes on each other, like two
+youngsters. One day they were talking in Frohman's rooms at the Savoy
+when a certain actress was announced.
+
+"I would like to know what this woman really thinks of me," said Barrie.
+"I have never met her."
+
+"All right," said Frohman, "you pretend to be my secretary."
+
+The woman came up and had a long talk with Frohman, during which she
+gave her impressions, not very flattering, of British playwrights in
+general and Barrie in particular. All the while the little Scot sat
+solemnly at a near-by desk, sorting papers and occasionally handing one
+to Frohman to sign. When the woman left they nearly exploded with
+laughter.
+
+One of Frohman's delights when in England was to go to Barrie's flat in
+London, overlooking the Victoria Embankment. He liked this place, first
+of all, because it was Barrie's. Then, too, he could sit curled up in
+the corner on a settee, smoking a fat, black cigar, and look out on the
+historic Thames. Here he knew he would not have to talk. It was the
+place of Silence and Understanding. He was in an atmosphere he loved. In
+the flat above lives John Galsworthy; down-stairs dwells Granville
+Barker; while just across the street is the domicile of Bernard Shaw,
+whose windows face Barrie's.
+
+When Barrie wanted to notify Shaw that Frohman was with him, he would
+throw bread-crusts against Shaw's window-panes. In a few moments the
+sash would fly up and the familiar, grinning, bearded face would pop
+out. On one of the occasions Shaw yelled across:
+
+"Are you inviting me to a feast, Barrie--are you casting bread upon the
+troubled waters or is it just Frohman?"
+
+In view of Frohman's perfect adoration of Barrie--and it amounted to
+nothing else--it is interesting, as a final glimpse of the relation
+between these men, to see what the American thought of his friend's
+work. In analyzing Barrie's work once, Frohman said:
+
+"Barrie's distinctive note is humanity. There is rich human blood in
+everything he writes. He is a satirist whose arrows are never barbed
+with vitriol, but with the milk of human kindness; a humanist who never
+surfeits our senses, but leaves much for our willing imagination; an
+optimist whose message is as compelling for its reasonableness as it is
+welcome for its gentleness."
+
+* * *
+
+Through Barrie and "Peter Pan" came another close and devoted friendship
+in Charles Frohman's life--the one with Pauline Chase. This American
+girl had been engaged by one of Frohman's stage-managers for a small
+part with Edna May in "The Girl from Up There." Frohman did not even
+know her in those days. After she made her great success as the Pink
+Pajama girl in "Liberty Belles," at the Madison Square Theater, Frohman
+engaged her and sent her to England, where, with the exception of one
+visit to the United States in "Our Mrs. Gibbs," she has remained ever
+since.
+
+It was not until she played "Peter Pan" that the Frohman-Chase
+friendship really began. The way in which Miss Chase came to play the
+part is interesting. Cissie Loftus, who had been playing Peter, became
+ill, and Miss Chase, who had been playing one of the twins, and was her
+understudy, went on to do the more important part at a matinée in
+Liverpool. Frohman said to her:
+
+"Barrie and I are coming down to see you act. If we like you well enough
+to play _Peter_, I will send you back a sheet of paper with a cross mark
+on it after the play."
+
+At the end of the first act an usher rapped on Miss Chase's
+dressing-room door and handed her the much-desired slip with the cross.
+Frohman sent word that he could not wait until the end of the play,
+because he and Barrie were taking a train back to London. In this
+unusual way Pauline Chase secured the part which helped to endear her to
+the man who was her friend and sponsor.
+
+Frohman, Barrie, and Miss Chase formed a trio who went about together a
+great deal and had much in common, aside from the kinship of the
+theater. It was for Miss Chase that Barrie wrote "Pantaloon," in which
+she appeared in conjunction with "Peter Pan," and which gave her a
+considerable reputation in England.
+
+When Pauline Chase was confirmed in the little church in
+Marlow-on-the-Thames, Barrie was her godfather and Miss Ellen Terry was
+her godmother. Frohman attended this ceremony, and it made a tremendous
+impression on him. He saw the spectacular side of the ceremony, and the
+spiritual meaning was not lost on him.
+
+The personal comradeship with Pauline Chase was one of the really
+beautiful episodes in Frohman's life. He was genuinely interested in
+this girl's career, and in tribute to her confidence in him she made
+him, in conjunction with Barrie, her father confessor. Here is an
+episode that is tenderly appealing, and which shows another of the many
+sides of his character:
+
+Frohman and Barrie were both afraid that Miss Chase would marry without
+telling them about it, so a compact was made by the three that the two
+men should be her mentors. There were many applicants for the hand of
+this lovely American girl. The successful suitor eventually was Alec
+Drummond, member of a distinguished English family, who went to the
+front when the war began.
+
+One reason for Miss Chase's devotion to Charles lay in the fact that the
+American manager had the body of her mother removed from its
+resting-place in Washington to the dreamy little churchyard at
+Marlow-on-the-Thames. It is near Marlow that Miss Chase lived through
+all the years of the Frohman-Barrie comradeship. Her little cottage at
+Tree Tops, Farnham Common, five miles from Marlow, was one of the places
+he loved to visit. On the vine-embowered porch he liked to sit and
+smoke. On the lawn he indulged in his only exercise, croquet, frequently
+with Barrie or Captain Scott, who died in the Antarctic, and Haddon
+Chambers, who lived near by. Often he went with his hostess to feed the
+chickens.
+
+But wherever he went he carried plays. No matter how late he retired to
+his room, he read a manuscript before he went to bed. He probably read
+more plays than any other manager in the world.
+
+Frohman went to Marlow nearly every Saturday in summer. His custom was
+to alight from the train at Slough, where Miss Chase would meet him in
+her car and drive him over to Marlow, where they lunched at The Compleat
+Angler, a charming inn on the river.
+
+Miss Chase sometimes playfully performed the office of manicure for
+Frohman. Once when she was in Paris he sent her this telegram:
+
+     _Nails._
+
+Whereupon she wired back:
+
+     _I am afraid you will have to bite them._
+
+Frohman then sent her the telegram by mail, and under it wrote:
+
+     _I have._
+
+Of all spots in England, and for that matter in all the world, Charles
+loved Marlow best. It is typical of the many contrasts in his crowded
+life that he would seek peace and sanctuary in this drowsy English town
+that nestled between green hills on the banks of the Thames. He always
+said that it framed the loveliest memories of his life.
+
+[Illustration: _PAUL POTTER_]
+
+[Illustration: _HADDON CHAMBERS_]
+
+When Miss Chase wrote Frohman that she was to be confirmed in the little
+church in Marlow, she got the following reply from him, which showed how
+dear the drowsy place was in his affection:
+
+     _Dear Pauline:--I am glad about Marlow. That little church is the
+     only one in the world I care for--that one across the river at
+     Marlow. Whenever I see it I want to die and stay there.
+
+     And Marlow with its long street and nobody on it is fine._
+
+It was Haddon Chambers who first took Frohman to Marlow. It came about
+in a natural way, because Maidenhead, which is a very popular resort in
+England (much frequented by theatrical people) is only a short distance
+away. One day Chambers, who was with Frohman at Maidenhead, said, "There
+is a lovely, quiet village called Marlow not far away. Let's go over
+there." So they went.
+
+On this trip occurred one of the many humorous adventures that were
+always happening when Frohman and Chambers were together. Chambers had
+the tickets and went on ahead. When he reached the train he found that
+Frohman was not there. On returning he found his friend held up by the
+gateman, who demanded a ticket. Quick as a flash Chambers said to him:
+
+"Why do you keep His Grace waiting?"
+
+The gateman immediately became flurried and excited and made apologies.
+In the mean time Frohman, who took in the situation with his usual
+quickness, looked solemn and dignified and then passed in like a peer of
+the realm.
+
+Chambers rented a cottage at Marlow each summer, and one of the things
+to which Frohman looked forward most eagerly was a visit with him there.
+Frequent visits to Marlow made the manager known to the whole town. The
+simplicity of his manner and his keen interest, humor, and sympathy won
+him many friends. His arrival was always more or less of an event in the
+little township.
+
+It is a one-street place, with many fascinating old shops. Frohman loved
+to prowl around, look in the shop windows, and talk to the tradesmen,
+who came to know and love him and look forward to his advent with the
+keenest interest. To them he was not the great American theatrical
+magnate, but a simple, kindly, interested human being who inquired about
+their babies and who had a big and generous nature.
+
+Frohman once made this remark about the Marlow antique shops: "They're
+great. When I buy things the proprietor always tells me whether they are
+real or only fake stuff. That's because I'm one of his friends." It was
+typical of the man that he was as proud of this friendship as with that
+of a prince.
+
+On the tramps through Marlow he was often accompanied by Miss Chase and
+Haddon Chambers. He had three particular friends in the town. One was
+Muriel Kilby, daughter of the keeper of The Compleat Angler. When
+Frohman first went to Marlow she was a slip of a child. He watched her
+grow up with an increasing pride. This great and busy man found time in
+New York to write her notes full of friendly affection. A few days
+before the _Lusitania_ went down she received a note from him saying
+that he was soon to sail, and looked forward with eagerness to his usual
+stay at Marlow.
+
+Through Miss Kilby Frohman became more intimately a part of the local
+life of Marlow. She was head of the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society,
+which gave an amateur play every year. Frohman became a member, paid the
+five shillings annual dues, and whenever it was possible he went to
+their performances. As a matter of fact, the Marlow Dramatic Society has
+probably the most distinguished non-resident membership in the world,
+for besides Frohman (and through him) it includes Barrie, Haddon
+Chambers, Pauline Chase, Marie Lohr, William Gillette, and Marc Klaw.
+Frohman always took his close American friends to Marlow. One of the
+prices they paid was membership in the amateur dramatic society.
+
+Like every really great man, Charles Frohman was tremendously simple, as
+his friendship with W. R. Clark, the Marlow butcher, shows. Clark is a
+big, ruddy, John Bull sort of man, whose shop is one of the main sights
+of High Street in the village. Frohman regarded his day at Marlow
+incomplete without a visit to Clark. One day he met Clark dressed up in
+his best clothes. He asked Clark where he was going.
+
+"I am going to visit my pigs," replied the butcher. Frohman thought this
+a great joke, and never tired of telling it.
+
+Once when Frohman gave out an interview about his friends in Marlow, he
+sent the clipping to his friend Clark, who wrote him a letter, which
+contained, among other things:
+
+     _I can assure you I quite appreciate your kindness in sending the
+     cutting to me. When the township of Marlow has obtained from His
+     Majesty King George the necessary charter to become a county
+     borough, and you offer yourself for the position of Mayor, I will
+     give you my whole-hearted support and influence to secure your
+     election._
+
+Then, too, there was Jones, the Marlow barber, who shaved Frohman for a
+penny because he was a regular customer.
+
+"Jones is a great man," Frohman used to say. "He never charges me more
+than a penny for a shave because I am one of his regular customers.
+Otherwise it would be twopence. I always give his boy a sixpence,
+however, but Jones doesn't know that."
+
+Indeed, the people of Marlow looked upon Frohman as their very own. He
+always said that he wanted to be buried in the churchyard by the river.
+This churchyard had a curious interest for him. He used to wander around
+in it and struck up quite an acquaintance with the wife of the sexton.
+She was always depressed because times were so bad and no one was dying.
+Then an artist died and was buried there, and the old woman cheered up
+considerably. Frohman used to tell her that the only funeral that he
+expected to attend was his own.
+
+"And mark you," he said, for he could never resist a jest, "you must
+take precious good care of my grave."
+
+His wish to lie in Marlow was not attained, but in tribute to the love
+he had for it the memorial that his friends in England have raised to
+him--a fountain--stands to-day at the head of High Street in the little
+town where he loved to roam, the place in which he felt, perhaps, more
+at home than any other spot on earth. Had he made the choice himself he
+would have preferred this simple, sincere tribute, in the midst of
+simple, unaffected people who knew him and loved him, to stained glass
+in the stateliest of cathedrals.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles cared absolutely nothing for honors. He was content to hide
+behind the mask of his activities. He would never even appear before an
+audience. Almost unwillingly he was the recipient of the greatest
+compliment ever paid an American theatrical man in England. It happened
+in this way:
+
+One season when Frohman had lost an unusual amount of money, Sir John
+Hare gathered together some of his colleagues.
+
+"Frohman has done big things," Hare said to them. "He loses his money
+like a gentleman. Let us make him feel that he is not just an American,
+but one of us."
+
+A dinner was planned in his honor at the Garrick Club. He is the only
+American theatrical manager to be elected to membership in this
+exclusive club. When Frohman was apprised of the dinner project he
+shrank from it.
+
+"I don't like that sort of thing," he said. "Besides, I can't make a
+speech."
+
+"But you won't have to make a speech," said Sir Arthur Pinero, who
+headed the committee.
+
+Frohman tried in every possible way to evade this dinner. Finally he
+accepted on the condition that when the time came for him to respond he
+was merely to get up, bow his acknowledgment, and say, "Thank you." This
+he managed to do.
+
+At this dinner, over which Sir John Hare presided, Frohman was presented
+with a massive silver cigarette-box, on which was engraved the
+facsimile signatures of every one present. These signatures comprise the
+"Who's Who" of the British theater. These princes of the drama were
+proud and glad to call themselves "A few of his friends," as the
+inscription on the box read.
+
+The signers were, among others, Sir Arthur Pinero, Sir Charles Wyndham,
+Sir John Hare, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Sir James M. Barrie, Alfred
+Sutro, Cyril Maude, H. B. Irving, Lawrence Irving, Louis N. Parker,
+Anthony Hope, A. E. W. Mason, Seymour Hicks, Robert Marshall, W. Comyns
+Carr, Weedon Grossmith, Gerald Du Maurier, Eric Lewis, Dion Boucicault,
+A. E. Matthews, Arthur Bouchier, Cosmo Hamilton, Allan Aynesworth, R. C.
+Carton, Sam Sothern, and C. Aubrey Smith.
+
+* * *
+
+Nothing gave Charles more satisfaction in England perhaps than his
+encouragement of the British playwright. He inherited Pinero from his
+brother Daniel, and remained his steadfast friend and producer until his
+death. Pinero would not think of submitting a play to any other American
+manager without giving Frohman the first call. In all the years of their
+relations, during which Charles paid Pinero a large fortune, there was
+not a sign of contract between them.
+
+Frohman practically made Somerset Maugham in America. His first
+association with this gifted young Englishman was typical of the man's
+method of doing business. Maugham had written a play called "Mrs. Dot,"
+in which Marie Tempest was to appear. Frederick Harrison, of the
+Haymarket Theater, had an option on it, which had just expired. Another
+manager wanted the play. Frohman heard of it, and asked to be allowed
+to read it. Maugham then said:
+
+"It must be decided to-night."
+
+It was then dinner-time.
+
+"Give me three hours," said Frohman.
+
+At one o'clock in the morning he called up Maugham at his house and
+accepted the play, which was probably the quickest reading and
+acceptance on record in England.
+
+Another experience with Maugham shows how Frohman really inspired plays.
+
+He was riding on the train with the playwright when he suddenly said to
+him:
+
+"I want a new play from you."
+
+"All right," said Maugham.
+
+Frohman thought a moment, and suddenly flashed out:
+
+"Why not rewrite 'The Taming of the Shrew' with a new background?"
+
+"All right," said Maugham.
+
+The result was Maugham's play "The Land of Promise," which was really
+built around Frohman's idea.
+
+Frohman produced all of Maugham's plays in America, and most of them
+were great successes. He also did the great majority of them in England.
+Maugham waxed so prosperous that he was able to buy a charming old
+residence in Chesterfield Street which he remodeled in elaborate
+fashion. On its completion his first dinner guest was Charles Frohman.
+When Maugham sent him the invitation it read:
+
+     _Will you come and see the house that Frohman built?_
+
+In the same way he developed men like Michael Morton. He would see a
+French farce in the Paris theaters, and, although he could not
+understand a word of French, he got the spirit and the meaning through
+its action. He would buy the play, go to London with the manuscript, and
+get Morton or Paul Potter to adapt it for American consumption.
+
+* * *
+
+Life in London to Charles Frohman was one series of adventures. Like
+Harun-al-Rashid in the _Arabian Nights_, he delighted to wander about,
+often with Barrie, sometimes with Lestocq, seeking out strange and
+picturesque places in which to eat.
+
+These adventures began in his earliest days in England. Here is a
+characteristic experience:
+
+One day Madeline Lucette Ryley, the playwright, came to see him in his
+office in Henrietta Street. A battered old man was hanging around the
+door.
+
+"Did you see that man outside?" asked Frohman.
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Ryley. "Is he the bailiff?"
+
+"Oh no," said Frohman, "he is a Maidenhead cabby." This is the story of
+how he came there.
+
+The day before Frohman had been down to Maidenhead alone for luncheon.
+At the station he hailed a cabby who was driving a battered old fly.
+
+"Where to, Governor?" asked the man.
+
+"Number 5 Henrietta Street," said Frohman.
+
+"No such place in Maidenhead," said the driver.
+
+"Oh, I mean the place opposite Covent Garden in London."
+
+The old cabby wasn't a bit flustered, but he said, "I will have to get a
+new horse."
+
+He changed horses and they made the long way to London, arriving there
+considerably after nightfall. When Frohman asked for his bill the old
+man said, with some hesitation:
+
+"I'm afraid it will cost you five pounds."
+
+"That's all right," said Frohman, and paid the bill.
+
+To his great surprise, the cabby showed up next morning, saying: "I like
+London. I think I'll stay here." It was with the greatest difficulty
+that Frohman got rid of him. When the cabby finally started to go he
+said:
+
+"Well, Governor, if you want to go back to Maidenhead I'll do it for
+half-price."
+
+A short time after this incident Frohman, whose purse was none too full
+then, asked some people to dine with him at the Hotel Cecil. By some
+mistake he and his party were shown into a room that had been arranged
+for a very elaborate dinner. Before he realized it the waiter began to
+serve the meal. He soon knew that it was not the menu he had ordered,
+and was costing twenty times more. But he was game and stuck to it. It
+was midwinter, and when the fresh peaches came on he said to the woman
+on his right:
+
+"This will break me, I know, but we might as well have a good time."
+
+Frohman almost invariably took one of his American friends to England
+with him. It was usually Charles Dillingham, Paul Potter, or William
+Gillette.
+
+On one of Gillette's many trips with him Frohman got up an elaborate
+supper for Mark Twain at the Savoy and invited a brilliant group of
+celebrities, including all three of the Irvings, Beerbohm Tree, Chauncey
+M. Depew, Sir Charles Wyndham, Haddon Chambers, Nat Goodwin, and Arthur
+Bouchier. In his inconspicuous way, however, he made it appear that
+Gillette was giving the supper.
+
+Midnight arrived, and Twain had not shown up. It was before the days of
+taxis, so Dillingham was sent after him in a hansom. After going to the
+wrong address, he finally located the humorist in Chelsea. He found Mark
+Twain sitting in his dressing-gown, smoking a Pittsburg stogie and
+reading a book.
+
+"Did you forget all about the supper?" asked Dillingham.
+
+"No," was the drawling reply, "but I didn't know where the blamed thing
+was. I had a notion that some one of you would come for me."
+
+Mark Twain and Frohman were great friends. They were often together in
+London. Their favorite diversion was to play "hearts."
+
+The great humorist once drew a picture of Charles, and under it wrote:
+
+     _N. B. I cannot make a good mouth. Therefore leave it out. There is
+     enough without it, anyway. Done with the best ink.
+
+     M. T._
+
+Underneath this inscription he wrote:
+
+     _To Charles Frohman, Master of Hearts._
+
+Few things in England pleased Frohman more than to play a joke on
+Gillette, for the author of "Secret Service," like his great friend,
+relaxed when he was on the other side. When Frohman produced "Sue" in
+England an amusing incident happened.
+
+[Illustration: _OTIS SKINNER_]
+
+Frohman had brought over Annie Russell and Ida Conquest for his piece.
+The actresses were very much excited before the first night, and went
+without dinner. After the play they were very hungry. On going to the
+Savoy they encountered the English prohibition against serving women at
+night when unaccompanied by men. After trying at several places they
+went to their lodging in Langham Place almost famished.
+
+In desperation they telephoned to Dillingham, who was playing "hearts"
+at the Savoy with Frohman and Gillette. He hurriedly got some food
+together in a basket, and with his two friends drove to where the young
+women were staying. The house was dark; fruitless pulls at the door-bell
+showed that it was broken. It was impossible to raise any one.
+
+Dillingham knew that the actresses were occupying rooms on the second
+floor front. He had five large English copper pennies in his pocket, and
+so he started to throw them up to the window to attract their attention.
+He threw four, and each fell short.
+
+"This is the last copper," he said to Frohman. "If we can't reach the
+girls with this they will have to go hungry."
+
+Whereupon Frohman said: "Let Gillette throw it. He can make a penny go
+further than any man in the world."
+
+* * *
+
+Such was Charles Frohman's English life. It was joyous, almost
+rollicking, and pervaded with the spirit of adventure. Yet behind all
+the humor was something deep, searching, and significant, because in
+England, as in America, this man was a vital and constructive force, and
+where he went, whether in laughter or in seriousness, he left his
+impress.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+A GALAXY OF STARS
+
+
+The last decade of Charles Frohman's life was one of continuous
+star-making linked with far-flung enterprise. He now had a chain of
+theaters that reached from Boston by way of Chicago to Seattle; his
+productions at home kept on apace; his prestige abroad widened.
+
+Frohman had watched the development of Otis Skinner with great interest.
+That fine and representative American actor had thrived under his own
+management. Early in the season of 1905 he revived his first starring
+vehicle, a costume play by Clyde Fitch, called "His Grace de Grammont."
+It failed, however, and Skinner looked about for another piece. He heard
+that Frohman, who had a corner on French plays for America, owned the
+rights to Lavedan's play "The Duel," which had scored a big success in
+Paris. He knew that the leading rôle ideally fitted his talent and
+temperament.
+
+Skinner went to Frohman and asked him if he could produce "The Duel" in
+America.
+
+"Why don't you do it under my management?" asked the manager.
+
+"All right," replied the actor, "I will."
+
+With these few remarks began the connection between Charles Frohman and
+Otis Skinner.
+
+It was during the closing years of Frohman's life that his genius for
+singling out gifted young women for eminence found its largest
+expression. Typical of them was Marie Doro, a Dresden-doll type of girl
+who made her first stage appearance, as did Billie Burke and Elsie
+Ferguson, in musical comedy.
+
+Charles Frohman saw her in a play called "The Billionaire" at Daly's
+Theater in New York, in which she sang and danced. He had an unerring
+eye for beauty and talent. With her, as with others that he transported
+from musical pieces to straight drama, he had an uncanny perception. He
+engaged her and featured her in a slender little play called
+"Friquette."
+
+Miss Doro made such an impression on her first appearance that Frohman
+now put her in "Clarice," written by William Gillette, in which he also
+appeared. Her success swept her nearer to stardom, for she next appeared
+in a Frohman production which, curiously enough, reflected one of
+Frohman's sentimental moods.
+
+For many years Mrs. G. H. Gilbert was a famous figure on the American
+stage. She had been one of the "Big Four" of Augustin Daly's company for
+many years, and remained with Daly until his death. She was the beloved
+first old woman of the dramatic profession. When the Daly company
+disbanded Mrs. Gilbert did not prepare to retire. She was hearty and
+active.
+
+Frohman realized what a warm place this grand old woman had in the
+affection of theater-goers after all the years of faithful labor, so he
+said to himself:
+
+"Here is a wonderful old woman who has never been a star. She must have
+this great experience before she dies."
+
+He engaged Clyde Fitch to write a play called "Granny," in which Mrs.
+Gilbert was starred. It made her very happy, and she literally died in
+the part.
+
+In the cast of "Granny" Miss Doro's youthful and exquisite beauty shone
+anew. Her success with the press and the public was little short of
+phenomenal. Charles now saw Miss Doro as star. He held youth, beauty,
+and talent to be the great assets, and he seldom made a mistake. It was
+no vanity that made him feel that if an artist pleased him she would
+likewise please the public.
+
+Frohman now starred Miss Doro in the stage adaptation of William J.
+Locke's charming story, "The Morals of Marcus." She became one of his
+pet protégées. With her, as with the other young women, he delighted to
+nurse talent. He conducted their rehearsals with a view of developing
+all their resources, and to show every facet of their temperaments.
+Failure never daunted him so long as he had confidence in his ward. This
+was especially the case with Miss Doro, who was unfortunate in a long
+string of unsuccessful plays. Frohman's faith in her, however, was at
+last justified, when she played _Dora_ in Sardou's great play,
+"Diplomacy," with brilliant success a year in London and later in New
+York.
+
+* * *
+
+With the exception of Maude Adams and Ann Murdock, no Frohman star had
+so swift or spectacular a rise as Billie Burke. Her story is one of the
+real romances of the Frohman star-making.
+
+[Illustration: _MARIE DORO_]
+
+Billie Burke was the daughter of a humble circus clown in America. From
+him she probably inherited her mimetic gifts. At the beginning of her
+career she had obscure parts in American musical pieces.
+
+It was in London, however, that she first came under the observation of
+Charles. She had graduated from the chorus to a part in Edna May's great
+success, "The School Girl." She had a song called "Put Me in My Little
+Canoe," which made a great hit. Frohman became so much interested that
+he thought of sending Miss Burke to America in the piece. He transferred
+the song to Miss May, which left Miss Burke with scarcely any
+opportunity. Subsequently she was put in "The Belle of Mayfair," and
+afterward replaced Miss May when she retired.
+
+Louis N. Parker saw her in this piece and agreed with Frohman that the
+girl had possibilities as a serious actress. She was cast for her first
+dramatic part in "The Honorable George," the play he was then producing
+in London.
+
+When Michael Morton adapted a very beguiling French play called "My
+Wife," Frohman saw that here was Miss Burke's opportunity for America.
+He secured her release from the Gattis, who controlled her English
+appearances, and made her John Drew's leading woman. She met his
+confidence by adapting herself to the rôle with great brilliancy and
+effect. Indeed, with Miss Burke, Frohman introduced a distinct and
+piquant reddish-blond type of beauty to the American stage. It became
+known as the "Billie Burke type." Realizing this, Frohman was very
+careful to adapt her personal appearance, humor, and temperament to her
+plays. He literally had plays written about her peculiar gifts.
+
+Miss Burke's great success in "My Wife" projected her into the Frohman
+stellar heaven. She was launched as a star in "Love Watches," an
+adaptation from the French, securely established herself in the favor
+of theater-goers, and from that time on her appearance in a _chic_,
+smart play became one of the distinct features of the annual Frohman
+season. Her most distinguished success was with Pinero's play "Mind the
+Paint Girl," in which Frohman was greatly interested.
+
+Few of Frohman's "discoveries" justified his confidence with lovelier
+success than Julia Sanderson. Her first public appearance on the stage
+had been in vaudeville. When Frohman sought a comedienne with a certain
+dainty, lady-like quality for the English musical play called "The
+Dairymaids," which he produced at the Criterion in 1907, his attention
+was called to this charming girl, then doing musical numbers in a New
+York vaudeville theater. Frohman went to see her, and was fascinated by
+her beauty and charm. He noted, most of all, a certain gentle quality in
+her personality, and with his peculiar genius in adapting plays to
+people and people to plays, she fairly bloomed under his persuasive and
+sympathetic sponsorship.
+
+Frohman now obtained "The Arcadians," in which Miss Sanderson was
+featured. Of all the musical plays that he produced, this was perhaps
+his favorite. He liked it so much that he told Miss Sanderson one day
+during rehearsal:
+
+"If the public does not like 'The Arcadians,' then I am finished with
+light opera."
+
+"The Arcadians," however, proved to be a gratifying success, and
+Frohman's confidence was vindicated. Frohman was undergoing his long and
+almost fatal illness at the Knickerbocker Hotel when "The Arcadians" was
+being rehearsed. He was so fond of the music that whenever possible the
+rehearsals in which Miss Sanderson sang were conducted in his rooms at
+the hotel. He always said that he could see the whole performance in
+her singing. In rehearsing her he always seemed to well-nigh break her
+heart, but it was his way, as he afterward admitted, of provoking her
+emotional temperament.
+
+[Illustration: _JULIA SANDERSON_]
+
+He next gave her a strong part in "The Siren," and subsequently made her
+a co-star with Donald Brian in "The Sunshine Girl," which brought out to
+the fullest advantage, so far, her exquisite and alluring qualities.
+
+* * *
+
+The last star to twinkle into life under the Frohman wand was Ann
+Murdock. Here is presented an extraordinary example of the way that
+Charles literally "made" stars, for seldom, if ever, before has a young
+actress been so quickly raised from obscurity to eminence. Almost
+overnight he lifted her into fame.
+
+Miss Murdock, who was born in New York, and had spent her childhood in
+Port Washington, Long Island, was not a stage-struck girl. She went on
+the stage because she made up her mind that she wanted more nice frocks
+than she was having. She rode over to New York one day and went to Henry
+B. Harris's office to get a position. As she sat waiting among a score
+of applicants, Harris came out. He was so much taken with her striking
+Titian beauty and unaffected girlish charm that he immediately asked her
+to come in ahead of the rest, and gave her a small part in one of "The
+Lion and the Mouse" road companies. When Harris saw her act he took her
+out of the cast and put her in a new production that he was making in
+New York.
+
+At the end of the season she wanted to get under Charles Frohman's
+management, so she went to the Empire Theater to try her luck. There she
+met William Gillette, who was making one of his numerous revivals of
+"Secret Service." The moment he saw this fresh, appealing young girl he
+immediately cast her in his mind for the part of the young Southern
+girl. After he had talked with her, however, he said:
+
+"I think it would be best if I wrote a part for you. I am now working on
+a play, and I think you had better go in that."
+
+Miss Murdock now appeared in Gillette's new play, "Electricity," in
+which Marie Doro was starred. Charles Frohman saw her at the opening
+rehearsal for the first time.
+
+"Electricity" was a failure. Instead of following up her connection with
+the Frohman office, she went to the cast of "A Pair of Sixes," in which
+she played for a whole season on Broadway, displaying qualities which
+brought her conspicuously before the public and to the notice of the man
+who was to do so much for her.
+
+One night Charles stopped in to see this farce. He had never forgotten
+the lovely young girl who had played in "Electricity." The next day he
+sent for Miss Murdock, offered her an engagement, and made another of
+those simple arrangements, for he said to her:
+
+"You are with me for life."
+
+This was Frohman's way of telling an actor or actress that, without the
+formality of a contract, they were to look to him each season for
+employment and that they need not worry about engagements.
+
+From this time on Frohman took an earnest interest in Miss Murdock's
+career. He saw in her, as he had seen in only a few of his women stars,
+an immense opportunity to create a new and distinct type.
+
+[Illustration: _ANN MURDOCK_]
+
+Just about this time he became very much interested in the English
+adaptation of a French play which he called "The Beautiful Adventure,"
+which was, curiously enough, one of the plays uppermost in his mind on
+the day he went to his death.
+
+He now did a daring but characteristic Frohman thing. He believed
+implicitly in Miss Murdock's talents; he felt that the part of the
+ingenuous young girl in this play was ideally suited to her pleading
+personality, so, in conjunction with Mrs. Thomas Whiffen and Charles
+Cherry, he featured her in the cast. Miss Murdock's characterization
+amply justified Frohman's confidence, but the play failed in New York
+and on the road. He wrote to Miss Murdock:
+
+     _I am afraid our little play is too gentle for the West. Come back.
+     I have something else for you._
+
+He now put Miss Murdock into Porter Emerson Browne's play "A Girl of
+To-day," which had its first presentation in Washington. Frohman, Miss
+Murdock, and her mother were riding from the station in Washington to
+the Shoreham Hotel. As they passed the New National Theater, where the
+young actress was to appear, Miss Murdock suddenly looked out of the cab
+and saw the following inscription in big type on the bill:
+
+     _Charles Frohman presents Ann Murdock in "A Girl of To-day."_
+
+It was the first intimation that she had been made a star, and she burst
+into tears. In this episode Frohman had repeated what he had done in the
+case of Ethel Barrymore ten years before.
+
+Frohman had predicted great things for Miss Murdock, for at the time of
+his death there was no doubt of the fact that she was destined, in his
+mind, for a very remarkable career.
+
+* * *
+
+But those last years of Frohman's life were not confined exclusively to
+the pleasant and grateful task of making lovely women stars. The men
+also had a chance, as the case of Donald Brian shows. Frohman had been
+much impressed with his success in "The Merry Widow," so he put him
+under his management and starred him in "The Dollar Princess," which was
+the first of a series of Brian successes.
+
+Frohman saw that Brian had youth, charm, and pleasing appearance. He was
+an unusually good singer and an expert dancer. He was equipped to give
+distinction to the musical play Frohman wanted to present. He had
+watched the interest of his audiences, and saw that young Brian was a
+distinct favorite with women as well as men, and his success as star
+justified all these plans.
+
+While Frohman was making new stars, older ones came under his control in
+swift succession, among them Madame Nazimova, William Courtnay, James K.
+Hackett, Kyrle Bellew, Mrs. Fiske, Charles Cherry, John Mason, Martha
+Hedman, Alexandra Carlisle, William Courtleigh, Nat Goodwin, Blanche
+Bates, Hattie Williams, Gertrude Elliott, Constance Collier, Richard
+Carle, and Cyril Maude.
+
+Frohman now reached the very apex of his career. At one time he had
+twenty-eight stars under his management; and in addition fully as many
+more companies bore his name throughout the country. To be a Frohman
+star was the acme of stage ambition, for it not only meant professional
+distinction, but equitable and honorable treatment.
+
+* * *
+
+The year 1915 dawned with fateful significance for Charles Frohman. With
+its advent began a chain of happenings that, in the light of later
+events, seemed almost prophetic of the fatal hour which was now closing
+in.
+
+Perhaps the most picturesque and significant of these events was the
+reconciliation with his old friend David Belasco. Twelve years before,
+through an apparently trivial thing, a breach had developed between
+these two men whose fortunes had been so intimately entwined. They had
+launched their careers in New York together; the old Madison Square
+Theater had housed their first theatrical ambition; they had kept pace
+on the road to fame; their joint productions had been features of the
+New York stage. Yet for twelve years they had not spoken.
+
+Frohman became ill, and lay stricken at the Knickerbocker Hotel. That he
+had thought much of his old comrade, so long estranged, was evident. A
+remarkable coincidence resulted. It was like an act in any one of the
+many plays they had produced.
+
+One afternoon Belasco, who had heard of the serious plight of Frohman,
+sat in his studio on the top floor of the Belasco Theater. There, amid
+his Old World curios, he pondered over the past.
+
+"'C. F.' is lying ill at the Knickerbocker," he said to himself. "He may
+die. I must see him. This quarrel of ours is a great mistake."
+
+He started to write a note to his old friend, when the telephone-bell
+rang. It was his business manager, Benjamin Roeder, who said:
+
+"I have just had a telephone message from Charles Frohman. He wants to
+see you."
+
+When Belasco told Roeder that he was just in the act of writing to
+Frohman to tell him that he wanted to see him, both men were amazed at
+the coincidence.
+
+That night, when the few friends who gathered each evening at Frohman's
+bedside had gone, Belasco entered the sick-room at the Knickerbocker.
+Frohman was so weak that he could hardly raise his hand. Belasco went to
+him, took his right hand in both of his, and the old comrades put
+together again the thread of their friendship just where it had been
+broken twelve years before.
+
+They talked over the old days. Frohman, whose mind was always on the
+theater, suddenly said:
+
+"Let's do a play together, David."
+
+"All right," said Belasco.
+
+"You name the play. I will get the cast, and we will rehearse it
+together," added Frohman.
+
+Out of this reconciliation came the magnificent revival of "A Celebrated
+Case," by D'Ennery and Cormon. The cast included Nat Goodwin, Otis
+Skinner, Ann Murdock, Helen Ware, Florence Reed, and Robert Warwick. On
+Frohman's recovery he undertook the rehearsals. Belasco came in at the
+end, but he had little to do.
+
+[Illustration: COPYRIGHT BY UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD
+
+_CHARLES FROHMAN and DAVID BELASCO_
+
+_A photograph taken in Boston April 3, 1915, just after the two had
+renewed their partnership, ending a separation of twenty years._]
+
+Frohman and Belasco not only resumed their joint production of plays,
+but they resumed part of their old life together. Now began again their
+favorite diet of pumpkin and meringue pie and tea after the day's work
+was done. Night after night they met after the theater, just as they had
+done in the old Madison Square days when they went to O'Neil's, on Sixth
+Avenue, for their frugal repast, dreaming and planning their futures.
+Now each man had become a great personage. Frohman was the amusement
+dictator of two worlds; Belasco, the acknowledged stage wizard of his
+time.
+
+After a week in Boston the all-star cast in "A Celebrated Case" opened
+at the Empire Theater in New York. History repeated itself. Frohman and
+Belasco sat in the same place in the wings where they sat twenty-two
+years before at the launching of "The Girl I Left Behind Me," which
+dedicated the Empire. Now, as then, there were tumultuous calls for the
+producers. Again David tried to induce Charles to go out, but he said:
+
+"No, you go, David, and speak for me. Stand where you did twenty-two
+years ago."
+
+In 1915, as in 1893, Belasco went out and spoke Frohman's thanks and his
+own.
+
+The revival of "A Celebrated Case" not only brought Frohman and Belasco
+together, but led to an agreement between them to do a production
+together every year.
+
+* * *
+
+There was a tragic hint of the fate which was shaping Charles Frohman's
+end in his last production on any stage. It was a war play called "The
+Hyphen," by Justus Miles Forman, the novelist. The scenes were laid in
+Pennsylvania, and the story dealt with the various attempts to unsettle
+the loyalty of German-Americans through secret agencies. The whole
+problem of the hyphenated citizen, which had complicated the American
+position in the great war, was set forth.
+
+Even in his unconscious stage farewell, Charles was the pioneer, because
+the acceptance of "The Hyphen" and the prompt organization of the
+company established a new record in play-producing. Up to a certain
+Saturday morning Charles Frohman had never heard of the play. That
+afternoon the manuscript was put into his hands and he read it. A
+messenger was sent off post-haste to find the author. In the mean time,
+Frohman engaged W. H. Thompson, Gail Kane, and a notable group of
+players for the cast, and gave orders for the construction of the
+scenery. Late that afternoon Mr. Forman called on Charles, whom he had
+never met. Without any further ado the manager said to the
+playwright-author:
+
+"I am going to produce your play. We have nothing to discuss. A manager
+often discusses at great length the play that he does not intend to
+produce. Therefore all that I have to tell you is that your play is
+accepted. I have already engaged the chief actors needed, and the
+scenery was ordered two hours ago. I am glad to produce a play on this
+timely subject, but I am especially glad that it is an American who
+wrote it."
+
+Charles was greatly interested in "The Hyphen." It was American to the
+core; it flouted treachery to the country of adoption; it appealed to
+his big sense of patriotism. He felt, with all the large enthusiasm of
+his nature, that he was doing a distinct national service in producing
+the piece. He personally supervised every rehearsal. He talked glowingly
+to his friends about it. At fifty-five he displayed the same bubbling
+optimism with regard to it that he had shown about his first independent
+venture.
+
+Now began the last of the chain of dramatic events which ended in death.
+As soon as "The Hyphen" was announced, Frohman began to get threatening
+letters warning him that it would be a mistake to produce so sensational
+a play in the midst of such an acute international situation.
+Pro-Germans of incendiary tendency especially resented it. To all these
+intimations Frohman merely shrugged his shoulders and smiled. It made
+him all the more determined.
+
+"The Hyphen" was produced April 19th at the Knickerbocker Theater before
+a hostile audience. Unpatriotic pro-Germans had packed the theater.
+During the progress of the play the dynamite explosions in the Broadway
+subway construction outside were misinterpreted for bombs, and there was
+suppressed excitement throughout the whole performance.
+
+The play was a failure. Yet Frohman's confidence in it was unimpaired.
+He went to see it nearly every night of its short life in New York. He
+even sent it to Boston for a second verdict, but Boston agreed with New
+York. Like every production that bore the Charles Frohman stamp, he gave
+it every chance. Reluctantly he ordered up the notice to close.
+
+Frohman became greatly attached to Forman. With his usual generosity he
+invited the author to accompany him on his approaching trip to England.
+
+"I want you to come with me and meet Barrie and know some of my other
+English friends," Charles said, little dreaming that the invitation to a
+holiday was the beckoning hand of death to both.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+STAR-MAKING AND AUDIENCES
+
+
+During all these busy years Frohman had reigned supreme as king of
+star-makers. Under his persuasive sponsorship more men and women rose to
+stellar eminence than with all his fellow-managers combined. It was the
+very instinct of his life to develop talent, and it gave him an
+extraordinary satisfaction to see the artist emerge from the background
+into fame.
+
+His attitude in the matter of star-making was never better expressed
+than in one of his many playful moods with the pencil. Like Caruso, he
+was a caricaturist. Few things gave him more delight than to make a
+hasty sketch of one of his friends on any scrap of paper that lay near
+at hand. He usually made these sketches just as he wrote most of his
+personal letters, with a heavy blue pencil.
+
+On one occasion he was talking with Pauline Chase about making stars. A
+smile suddenly burst over his face; he seized pencil and paper and made
+a sketch of himself walking along at night and pointing to the moon with
+his stick. Under the picture he wrote, as if addressing the moon:
+
+    _Watch out, or I'll make a star out of you._
+
+Once he said to Billie Burke, in discussing this familiar star
+subject:
+
+"A star has a unique value in a play. It concentrates interest. In some
+respects a play is like a dinner. To be a success, no matter how
+splendidly served, the menu should always have one unique and striking
+dish that, despite its elaborate gastronomic surroundings, must long be
+remembered. This is one reason why you need a star in a play."
+
+[Illustration: _MARIE TEMPEST_]
+
+[Illustration: _MME. NAZIMOVA_]
+
+Despite the fact, as the case of Ann Murdock shows, that Charles could
+literally lift a girl from the ranks almost overnight, he generally
+regarded the approach to stardom as a difficult and hard-won path. Just
+before the great European war, he made this comment to a well-known
+English journalist, who asked him how he made stars:
+
+"Each of my stars has earned his or her position through honest
+advancement. If the President of the United States wants to reward a
+soldier he says to him, 'I will make you a general.' By the same process
+I say to an actor, 'I will make you a star.'
+
+"All the stars under my management owe their eminence to their own
+ability and industry, and also to the fact that the American is an
+individual-loving public. In America we regard the workman first and the
+work second. Our imaginations are fired not nearly so much by great
+deeds as by great doers. There are stars in every walk of American life.
+It has always been so with democracies. Cæsar, Cicero, and the rest were
+public stars when Rome was at her best, just as in our day Roosevelt and
+others shine.
+
+"Far from fostering it, the star system as such has simply meant for me
+that when one of my stars finishes with a play, that play goes
+permanently on the shelf, no one ever hoping to muster together an
+audience for it without the original actor or actress in the star part.
+
+"Vital acting in plays of consequence is the foundation of theatrical
+success. You have only to enumerate the plays to realize the drain even
+one management can make upon what is, after all, a limited supply of
+capable leading actors. This is because the American stage is short of
+leaders. There is a world of actors, but too few leading actors."
+
+"What do you mean by leading actor?" he was asked.
+
+"I mean that if in casting a play you can find an actor who looks the
+part you have in mind for him, be thankful; if you can find an actor who
+can act the part, be very thankful; and if you can find an actor who can
+look and act the part, _get down on your knees and thank God!_"
+
+Frohman had a very definite idea about star material. He was once
+talking with a well-known American publisher who mentioned that a
+certain very rich woman had announced her determination to go on the
+stage. The manager made one of his quick and impatient gestures, and
+said:
+
+"She will never do."
+
+"Why?" asked his friend.
+
+"Because," replied Frohman, "in all my experience with the making of
+stars I have seldom known of a very rich girl who made a finished
+success on the stage. The reason is that the daughters of the rich are
+taught to repress their emotions. In other words, they don't seem to be
+able to let go their feelings. Give me the common clay, the kind that
+has suffered and even hungered. It makes the best star material."
+
+There is no doubt that Frohman liked to "make" careers. He wanted to
+see people develop under his direction. To indulge in this diversion was
+often a very costly thing, as this incident shows:
+
+Chauncey Olcott, who had been associated with him in his minstrel days,
+and become one of the most profitable stars in the country, once sent a
+message to Frohman saying that he would like to come under his
+management. To the intermediary Olcott said:
+
+"Tell Mr. Frohman that I make one hundred thousand dollars a year. He
+can name his own percentage of this income."
+
+Frohman sent back this message:
+
+"I greatly appreciate the offer, but I don't care to manage Olcott. He
+is _made_. I like to _make_ stars."
+
+One reason that lay behind Frohman's success as star-maker was the fact
+that he wove a great deal of himself into the character of the stars. In
+other words, the personal element counted a great deal. When somebody
+once remonstrated with him about giving up so much of his valuable time
+to what seemed to be inconsequential talks with his women stars, he
+said:
+
+"It is not a waste of time. I have often helped those young women to
+take a brighter view of things, and it makes me feel that I am not just
+their manager, but their friend."
+
+Indeed, as Barrie so well put it, he regarded his women stars as his
+children. If they were playing in New York they were expected to call on
+him and talk personalities three or four times a week. On the road they
+sent him daily telegrams; these were placed on his desk every morning,
+and were dealt with in person before any other business of the day. He
+had the names of his stars printed in large type on his business
+envelopes. These were so placed on his table that as he sat and wrote
+or talked he could see their names ranked before him.
+
+When his women stars played in New York he always tried to visit them at
+night at the theater before the curtain went up. He always said of this
+that it was like seeing his birds tucked safely in their nests. Then he
+would go back to his office or his rooms and read manuscripts until
+late.
+
+One phase of Charles's great success in life was revealed in this
+attitude toward his women stars. He succeeded because he mixed sentiment
+with business. He was not all sentiment and he was not all business, but
+he was an extraordinarily happy blend of each of these qualities, and
+they endeared him to the people who worked for him.
+
+The attitude of the great star toward Frohman is best explained perhaps
+by Sir Henry Irving. Once, when the time came for his usual American
+tour, he said to his long-time manager, Bram Stoker, who was about to
+start for New York:
+
+"When you get to America just tell Frohman--you need not bother to write
+him--that I want to come under his management. He always understands. He
+is always so fair."
+
+One detail will illustrate Frohman's feeling about stars, and it is
+this: He never wanted them, male or female, to make themselves
+conspicuous or to do commonplace things. He was sensitive about what
+they said or did. For example, he did not like to see John Drew walk up
+and down Broadway. He spent a fortune sheltering Maude Adams from all
+kinds of intrusion. With her especially he exhausted every resource to
+keep her aloof and secluded. He preferred that she be known through her
+work and not through her personal self. It was so with himself.
+
+Frohman was one of the most generous-minded of men in his feeling about
+his co-workers. On one occasion when he was rehearsing "The Dictator,"
+William Collier suggested a whole new scene. The next night Frohman took
+a friend to see it. Afterward, accompanied by his guest, he went back on
+the stage to congratulate his star. He slapped Collier on the back and,
+turning to his companion, said:
+
+"Wasn't that a bully scene that Willie put into the play?"
+
+He was always willing to admit that his success came from those who
+worked for him. Once he was asked the question:
+
+"If you had your life to live over again would you be a theatrical
+manager?"
+
+Quick as a flash Frohman replied:
+
+"If I could be surrounded by the same actors and writers who have made
+_me_--yes. Otherwise, no."
+
+This feeling led him to say once:
+
+"I believe a manager's success does not come so much from the public as
+from his players. When they are ready to march with him without regard
+to results, then he has indeed succeeded. This is my success. My
+ambition frankly centers in the welfare of the actor. The day's work
+holds out to me no finer gratification than to see intelligent, earnest,
+deserving actors go into the fame and fortune of being stars."
+
+Nothing could down his immense pride in his stars. Once he was making
+his annual visit to England with Dillingham. At that time Olga
+Nethersole, who had been playing "Carmen," was under his management.
+She was also on the boat. The passenger-list included many other
+celebrities, among them Madame Emma Calvé, the opera-singer, who had
+just made her great success in the opera "Carmen" at the Metropolitan
+Opera House. Naturally there was some rivalry between the two _Carmens_.
+
+At the usual ship's concert both Nethersole and Calvé inscribed their
+names on programs which were auctioned off for the benefit of the
+disabled sailors' fund. Competition was brisk. The card that Calvé
+signed fetched nine hundred dollars. When Nethersole's program was put
+up Frohman led the bidding and drove it up to a thousand dollars, which
+he paid himself. It was all the money he had with him. Dillingham
+remonstrated for what seemed a foolish extravagance.
+
+"I wanted my star to get the best of it, and she did," was the reply.
+
+Frohman, as is well known, would never make a contract with his stars.
+When some one urged him to make written agreements, he said:
+
+"No, I won't do it. I want them to be in a position so that if they ever
+become dissatisfied they know they are free to leave me."
+
+Like all his other stars, William Collier had no contract with Charles,
+merely a verbal understanding extending over a period of years. After
+this agreement expired and another year and a half had gone by, Collier
+one day asked Frohman if he realized that their original agreement had
+run out. Frohman looked up with a start and said:
+
+"Is that so? Well, it's all right, Willie, you know."
+
+"Of course," said Collier, and that ended it.
+
+The next Saturday when Collier got his pay-envelope he found inside a
+very charming letter from Frohman, which said:
+
+     _I'm sorry that I overlooked the expiration of our agreement. I
+     hope that you will find a little increase in your salary
+     satisfactory._
+
+There was an advance of one hundred dollars a week.
+
+Frohman literally loved the word "star," and he delighted in the
+so-called "all-star casts." He had great respect for the big names of
+the profession; for those who had achieved success. He liked to do
+business with them.
+
+In speaking about "all-star casts," he once said to his brother:
+
+"I have to look after so many enterprises that I have no time to conduct
+a theatrical kindergarten in developing actors or playwrights save where
+the play of the unknown author or the exceptional talents of the unknown
+actor or actress appeal to me strongly. There is an element of safety in
+considering work by experts, because the theaters I represent need quick
+results."
+
+In reply to the oft-repeated question as to why he took his American
+stars to London when they could play to larger audiences and make more
+money at home, he said:
+
+"In the first place, such exchanges constitute the finest medium for the
+development of actress or actor and the liberalizing of the public. Face
+to face with an English audience the American actress finds herself
+confronted by new tastes, new appreciations, new demands. She must meet
+them all or fail. What does this result in? Versatility, flexibility,
+and, in the end, a firmer and more comprehensive hold upon her art."
+
+When Frohman was asked to define success in theatrical management he
+made this answer:
+
+"The terms of success in the theater seem to me to be the co-operating
+abilities of playwright and actor with the principal burden on the
+actor. In other words, the play is not altogether 'the thing.' The right
+player in the right play is the thing."
+
+The shaping of William Gillette's career is a good example of Frohman's
+definition of a successful theatrical manager, whose best skill and
+talents are employed largely in the matter of manipulating a hard-minded
+person to mutual advantage.
+
+The relationship between stars and audiences is of necessity a very
+close one. The Frohman philosophy, however, was not the generally
+accepted theory that audiences make stars.
+
+On one of those very rare occasions in his life when he wrote for
+publication, he made the following illuminating statement:
+
+     _No star or manager should feel grateful to any audience for the
+     success of a play in which he has figured. A play succeeds because
+     it is a living, vital thing--and that is why it has got upon the
+     stage at all. There is life in it and it does not, and will not,
+     die. It keeps itself alive until the opportunity comes along. Often
+     a kind of instinct makes the opportunity._
+
+     _It is instinct also that prompts an audience to applaud when it is
+     pleased, laugh when it is amused, weep when it is moved, hiss when
+     it is dissatisfied. No actor should feel indebted to an audience
+     for the recognition of good work, because that same audience that
+     appears to be so friendly, at another time, when one character or
+     play does not please it, will resent both actor and play. This is
+     as it should be. The loyalty of English audiences to their old
+     favorites is fine, but it is bad for the old favorites. It is
+     stagnating._
+
+     _The various expressions of approval and disapproval that come from
+     the spectators at a play are involuntary on the part of the
+     spectators. They are hypnotized by the play and the acting. Who
+     ever, on coming out of the theater after seeing a play that has
+     pleased him, has felt a sense of happiness that his pleasure had
+     also pleased the actor, or the author of the play, or the
+     management of the production? Loyalty, generosity, and
+     encouragement, as applied to audiences, are so many empty words.
+     Play-goers who apply them to themselves cheat themselves. Miss
+     Maude Adams is the only stage personage within my experience who
+     has a distinct public following, loyal and encouraging to her in
+     whatever she does._
+
+Audiences interested Frohman immensely. He liked to be a part of them.
+He had a perfectly definite reason for sitting in the last row of the
+gallery on the first nights of his productions, which he once explained
+as follows:
+
+"The best index to the probable career of any play is the back of the
+head of an auditor who does not know that he is being watched. The
+play-goer in an orchestra stall is always half-conscious that what he
+says or does may be observed. But the gallery gods and goddesses have
+never thought of anything except what is happening on the stage. They
+may yield the time before the rise of the curtain to watching the
+audience entering the theater, but once the lights are up and the stage
+is revealed they have no eyes or thoughts for anything except the life
+unfolded by the actors. These people in the upper part of the theater
+represent the masses. They are worth watching, for they are the people
+who make stage successes."
+
+Frohman had his own theories about audiences, too. Concerning them he
+declared:
+
+"An American at the theater feels first and thinks afterward. A European
+at a play thinks first and feels afterward. In conversation a German
+discusses things sitting down; a Frenchman talks standing up. But the
+American discusses things walking about. Therefore each must have his
+play built accordingly."
+
+Once Frohman made this discriminating difference between English and
+American audiences:
+
+"In England the pit and the gallery of the audience come to the theater,
+turn in their hard-earned shillings, and demand much. Failing to get
+what they expect, the theater is filled with boos and cat-calls at the
+end of the play. This does not mean that the play has failed. It more
+nearly means that the less a man pays to get into a theater the more he
+demands of the play.
+
+"An American audience is different, because it has a fine sense of
+humor. When an American pays his money through the box-office window he
+feels that it is gone forever. Anything he receives after that--the
+lights, the pictures on the walls, the music of the orchestra, the sight
+of a few or many smiling faces--is so much to the good. So keen is the
+American play-goer's sense of humor that often when a play is
+wretchedly bad it comes to the rescue, and the applause is terrifically
+loud. This does not mean that the play has succeeded. It means rather
+that the play will die, a victim of the deadliest of all possible
+criticisms--ridicule."
+
+Nor was Frohman often deceived about a first-night verdict. He always
+said, "Wait for the box-office statement on the second night."
+
+One of his characteristic epigrammatic statements about the failure of
+plays was this:
+
+"In America the question with a failure is, 'How soon can we get it off
+the stage?' In London they say, 'How long will the play run even though
+it is a failure?'"
+
+Indeed, Frohman's whole attitude about openings was characteristic of
+his deep and generous philosophy about life. He summed up his whole
+creed as follows:
+
+"A producer of plays, assuming that he is a man of experience, never
+feels comfortable after a great reception has been given his play on a
+first night. He knows that the reception in the theater does not always
+correspond to the feelings of future audiences. Every thinking manager
+knows that his play, in order to succeed, must send its audience away
+possessed of some distinct feeling. A successful play is a play that
+_reflects_, whatever the feeling it reflects.
+
+"The great successes of the stage are plays that are played outside of
+the theater: over the breakfast-table; in a man's office; to his
+business associates; in a club, as one member tells the thrilling story
+of the previous night's experience to another. Great successes upon the
+stage are plays of such a sort that one audience can play them over to
+another prospective audience, and so make an endless chain of attendance
+at the theater.
+
+"I have never in all my experience felt a success on the opening night.
+I have only felt my failures.
+
+"I invariably leave the theater after a first-night performance knowing
+full well that neither my friends nor I know anything at all as to the
+ultimate fortune of the play we have seen."
+
+It is a matter of record that Frohman always viewed his first nights
+with great nervousness. Although he attached but little importance, save
+on very rare occasions, to tumultuous applause on first nights, he was
+sometimes deceived by the reception that was given his productions.
+
+He never tired of telling of one experience. He had left the theater on
+the first night, as he expressed it, "with the other mourners." He
+returned to his office immediately to cast a new play for the company.
+Yet he lived to see this play run successfully for a whole season. This
+led him to say:
+
+"There's nothing more deluding to the player and the manager than
+enthusiastic applause. The fine, inspired work of a star actor often
+makes an audience enthusiastic to such a boisterous extent that one
+forgets that it is an individual and not the play that has succeeded."
+
+Here, as elsewhere in the Frohman outlook on life and work, one finds
+clear-headed logic and reason behind the bubbling optimism.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+PLAYS AND PLAYERS
+
+
+One day not long before he sailed on the voyage that was to take him to
+his death, Charles was talking with a celebrated English playwright in
+his office at the Empire Theater. The conversation suddenly turned to a
+discussion of life achievement.
+
+"What do you consider the biggest thing that you have done?" asked the
+visitor.
+
+Frohman rose and pointed with his stick at the rows of book-shelves
+about him that held the bound copies of the plays he had produced. Then
+he said with a smile:
+
+"That is what I have done. Don't you think it is a pretty good life's
+work?"
+
+He was not overstepping the mark when he pointed with pride at that army
+of plays. This list is the greatest monument, perhaps, to his boundless
+ambition and energy, for it contains the four hundred original
+productions he made in America, besides the one hundred and twenty-five
+plays he put on in London. That Charles should have produced so many
+plays is not surprising. He adored the theater; it was his very being.
+To him, in truth, all the world was a stage.
+
+Everything that he saw as he walked the streets or rode in a cab or
+viewed from a railway train he re-visualized and considered in the terms
+of the playhouse. If he saw an impressive bit of scenery he would say,
+"Wouldn't that make a fine background?" If he heard certain murmurs in
+the country or the tumult of a crowd on the highway, he instinctively
+said, "How fine it would be to reproduce that sound."
+
+He only read books with a view of their adaptability to plays. Where
+other men found diversion and recreation in golfing, motoring, or
+walking, Charles sought entertainment in reading manuscripts. He was
+never without a play; when he traveled he carried dozens.
+
+In the matter of plays Frohman had what was little less than a contempt
+for the avowedly academic. He refused to be drawn into discussions of
+the so-called "high brow" drama. When some one asked him to name the
+greatest of English dramatists he replied, quick as a flash:
+
+"The one who writes the last great play."
+
+"Whom do you consider the greatest American dramatist?" was the question
+once put to him. His smiling answer was:
+
+"The one whose play the greatest number of good Americans go to see."
+
+On this same occasion he was asked, "What seat in the theater do you
+consider the best to view a drama or a musical comedy from?"
+
+"The paid one," he retorted.
+
+Back in Charles's mind was a definite and well-ordered policy about
+plays. His first production on any stage was a melodrama, and, though in
+later years he ran the whole range from grave to gay, he was always true
+to his first love. This is one reason why Sardou's "Diplomacy" was, in
+many respects, his ideal of a play. It has thrills, suspense, love
+interests, and emotion. He revived it again and again, and it never
+failed to give him a certain pleasure.
+
+Once in London Frohman unbosomed himself about play requirements, and
+this is what he said:
+
+"I start out by asking certain requirements of every piece. If it be a
+drama, it must have healthfulness and comedy as well as seriousness. We
+are a young people, but only in the sense of healthy-mindedness. There
+is no real taste among us for the erotic or the decadent. It is foreign
+to us because, as a people, we have not felt the corroding touch of
+decadence. Nor is life here all drab. Hence I expect lights as well as
+shadows in every play I accept.
+
+"Naturally, I am also influenced by the fitness of the chief parts for
+my chief stars, but I often purchase the manuscript at once on learning
+its central idea. I commissioned Clyde Fitch and Cosmo Gordon-Lennox to
+go to work on 'Her Sister' after half an hour's account of the main
+idea. Ethel Barrymore's work in that play is the best instance that I
+can give of the artistic growth of that actress. The particular skill
+she had obtained--and this is the test of an actress worth
+remembering--is the art of acting scenes essentially melodramatic in an
+unmelodramatic manner. After all, what is melodrama? Life itself is
+melodrama, and life put upon the stage only seems untrue when it is
+acted melodramatically--that is, unnaturally."
+
+The foremost quality that Frohman sought in his plays was human
+interest. His appraisal of a dramatic product was often influenced by
+his love for a single character or for certain sentimental or emotional
+speeches. He would almost invariably discuss these plays with his
+intimates. Often he would act out the whole piece in a vivid and
+graphic manner and enlarge upon the situations that appealed to his
+special interest.
+
+Plays thus described by him were found to be extremely entertaining and
+diverting to his friends, but when presented on the stage to a
+dispassionate audience they did not always fare so well. A notable
+example was "The Hyphen." The big, patriotic speech of the old
+German-American in the third act made an immense impression on Frohman
+when he read the play. It led him to produce the piece in record time.
+He recited it to every caller; he almost lost sight of the rest of the
+play in his admiration for the central effort. But the audience and the
+critics only saw this speech as part of a long play.
+
+What Charles lacked in his study of plays in manuscript was the
+analytical quality. He could feel that certain scenes and speeches would
+have an emotional appeal, but he could not probe down beneath the
+surface for the why and the wherefore. For analysis, as for details, he
+had scant time. He accepted plays mainly for their general effect.
+
+He was very susceptible to any charm that a play held out. If he found
+the characters sympathetic, attractive, and lovable, that would outweigh
+any objections made on technical grounds. When once he determined to
+produce a play, only a miracle could prevent him. The more his
+associates argued to the contrary, the more dogged he became. He had
+superb confidence in his judgment; yet he invariably accepted failure
+with serenity and good spirit. He always assumed the responsibility. He
+listened sometimes to suggestions, but his views were seldom colored by
+them.
+
+His association with men like J. M. Barrie, Haddon Chambers, Paul
+Potter, William Gillette, Arthur Wing Pinero, and Augustus Thomas gave
+him a loftier insight into the workings of the drama. He was quick to
+absorb ideas, and he had a strong and retentive memory for details.
+
+Frohman loved to present farce. He enjoyed this type of play himself
+because it appealed to his immense sense of humor. He delighted in
+rehearsing the many complications and entanglements which arise in such
+plays. The enthusiasm with which French audiences greeted their native
+plays often misled him. He felt that American theater-goers would be
+equally uproarious. But often they failed him.
+
+The same thing frequently happened with English plays. He would be swept
+off his feet by a British production; he was at once sure that it would
+be a success in New York. But New York, more than once, upset this
+belief. The reason was that Frohman saw these plays as an Englishman. He
+had the cosmopolitan point of view that the average play-goer in America
+lacked.
+
+This leads to the interesting subject of "locality" in plays. Frohman
+once summed up this whole question:
+
+"As I go back and forth, crossing and recrossing the Atlantic, the
+audiences on both sides seem more and more like one. Always, of course,
+each has his own particular viewpoint, according to the side of the
+Atlantic I happen to be on. But often they think the same, each from its
+own angle.
+
+"You bring your English play to America. Nobody is at all disturbed by
+the mention of Park Lane or Piccadilly Circus. If there is drama in the
+play, if in itself it interests and holds the audience, nobody pays any
+attention to its locality or localisms.
+
+"But an English audience sitting before an American play hears mention
+of West Twenty-third Street or Washington Square, and while it is
+wondering just where and what these localities are an important incident
+in the dramatic action slips by unnoticed. Not that English audiences
+are at all prejudiced against American plays. They take them in the same
+general way that Americans take English plays. Each public asks, 'What
+have you got?' As soon as it hears that the play is good it is
+interested.
+
+"English audiences, for example, were quick to discover the fun in 'The
+Dictator' when Mr. Collier acted it in London, though it was full of the
+local color of New York, both in the central character and in the
+subject. Somehow the type and the speeches seemed to have a sort of
+universal humor. I tried it first on Barrie. He marked in the manuscript
+the places that he could understand. The piece never went better in
+America.
+
+"On the other hand, one reason why 'Brewster's Millions' did not go well
+in London was because the severely logical British mind took it all as a
+business proposition. The problem was sedately figured out on the theory
+that the young man did not spend the inherited millions.
+
+"If the locality of an American play happens to be a mining village, it
+is better to change its scenes to a similar village in Australia when
+you take the play to London. Then the audience is sure to understand.
+The public of London gave 'The Lion and the Mouse' an enthusiastic first
+night, but it turned out that they had not comprehended the play. It
+was unthinkable to them that a judge should be disgraced and disbarred
+by a political 'ring.'"
+
+The ideal play for Charles Frohman was always the one that he had in
+mind for a particular star. His special desire, however, was for strong
+and emotional love as the dominant force in the drama. He felt that all
+humanity was interested in love, and he believed it established a
+congenial point of contact between the stage and the audience.
+
+Although he did not especially aspire to Shakespearian production, he
+used the great bard's works as models for appraising other plays.
+"Shakespeare invented farce comedy," he once said, "and whenever I
+consider the purchase of such a thing I compare its scenes with the most
+famous of all farces, 'The Taming of the Shrew.' It goes without saying
+that when it comes to the stage of the production, my aim is to imbue
+the performance with a spirit akin to that contained in Shakespeare's
+humorous masterpiece."
+
+Frohman often "went wrong" on plays. He merely accepted these mistakes
+as part of the big human hazard and went on to something new. His
+amazing series of errors of judgment with plays by Augustus Thomas is
+one of the traditions of the American theater. The reader already knows
+how he refused "Arizona" and "The Earl of Pawtucket," and how they made
+fortunes for other managers.
+
+One of the most extraordinary of these Thomas mistakes was with "The
+Witching Hour." It was about the only time that he permitted his own
+decision to be swayed by outside influence, and it cost him dearly.
+
+The author read the play to Frohman on a torrid night in midsummer.
+Frohman, as usual, sat cross-legged on a divan and sipped orangeade
+incessantly.
+
+Thomas, who has all the art and eloquence of a finished actor, read his
+work with magnetic effect. When he finished Frohman sat absolutely still
+for nearly five minutes. It seemed hours to the playwright, who awaited
+the decision with tense interest. Finally Frohman said in a whisper:
+
+"That is almost too beautiful to bear."
+
+A pause followed. Then he said, eagerly:
+
+"When shall we do it; whom do you want for star?"
+
+"I'd like to have Gillette," replied Thomas.
+
+"You can't have him," responded Frohman. "He's engaged for something
+else."
+
+With this the session ended. Frohman seemed strangely under the spell of
+the play. It made him silent and meditative.
+
+The next day he gave the manuscript to some of his close associates to
+read. They thought it was too psychological for a concrete dramatic
+success. To their great surprise he agreed with them.
+
+"The Witching Hour" was produced by another manager and it ran a whole
+season in New York, and then duplicated its success on the road. This
+experience made Frohman all the more determined to keep his own counsel
+and follow his instincts with regard to plays thereafter, and he did.
+
+Charles regarded play-producing just as he regarded life--as a huge
+adventure. An amusing thing happened during the production of "The Other
+Girl," a play by Augustus Thomas, in which a pugilist has a prominent
+rôle.
+
+Lionel Barrymore was playing the part of the prize-fighter, who was
+generally supposed to be a stage replica of "Kid" McCoy, then in the
+very height of his fistic powers. In the piece the fighter warns his
+friends not to bet on a certain fight. The lines, in substance, were:
+
+"You have been pretty loyal to me, but I am giving you a tip not to put
+any money down on that 'go' in October."
+
+One day Frohman found Barrymore pacing nervously up and down in front of
+his office.
+
+"What's the matter, Lionel?" he asked.
+
+"Well," was the reply, "I am very much disturbed about something. I made
+a promise to 'Kid' McCoy, and I don't know how to keep it. You know I
+have a line in the play in which the prize-fighter warns his friends not
+to bet on him in a certain fight in October. The 'Kid,' who has been at
+the play nearly every night since we opened, now has a real fight on for
+October, and he is afraid it will give people the idea that it is a
+'frame-up.'"
+
+"You mean to say that you want me to change Mr. Thomas's lines?" asked
+Frohman, seriously.
+
+"I can't ask you to do that," answered Barrymore. "But I promised the
+'Kid' to speak to you about it, and I have kept my word."
+
+Frohman thought a moment. Then he said, gravely:
+
+"All right, Lionel, I'll postpone the date of the fight in the play
+until November, even December, but not a day later."
+
+Frohman was not without his sense of imitation. He was quick to follow
+up a certain type or mood whether it was in the vogue of an actor or the
+character of a play. This story will illustrate:
+
+One night early in February, 1895, Frohman sat in his wonted corner at
+Delmonico's, then on Broadway and Twenty-sixth Street. He had "The Fatal
+Card," by Chambers and Stephenson, on the boards at Palmer's Theater; he
+also had A. M. Palmer's Stock Company on the road in Sydney Grundy's
+play "The New Woman." This naturally gave him a lively interest in Mr.
+Palmer's productions.
+
+Paul Potter, who was then house dramatist at Palmer's, bustled into the
+restaurant with the plot of a new novel which had been brought to his
+attention by the news-stand boy at the Waldorf. Frohman listened to his
+recital with interest.
+
+"What is the name of the book?" he asked.
+
+"Trilby," replied Potter.
+
+"Well," he continued, "it ought to be called after that conjurer chap,
+Bengali, or whatever his name is. However, go ahead. Get Lackaye back
+from 'The District Attorney' company to which Palmer has lent him.
+Engage young Ditrichstein by all means for one of your Bohemians. Call
+in Virginia Harned and the rest of the stock company. And there you
+are."
+
+With uncanny precision he had cast the leading rôles perfectly and on
+the impulse of the moment.
+
+During the fortnight of the incubation of the play Potter saw Frohman
+nightly, for they were now fast friends. Frohman was curiously
+fascinated by "Bengali," as he insisted upon calling Svengali.
+
+"We do it next Monday in Boston," said Potter, "and I count on your
+coming to see it."
+
+Frohman went to Boston to see the second performance. After the play he
+and Potter walked silently across the Common to the Thorndyke Hotel. In
+his room Frohman broke into speech:
+
+"They are roasting it awfully in New York," he began. "Yet Joe Jefferson
+says it will go around the world." Then he added, "They say you have cut
+out all the Bohemian stuff."
+
+"Nevertheless," replied Potter, "W. A. Brady has gone to New York
+to-night to offer Mr. Palmer ten thousand dollars on account for the
+road rights."
+
+"Well," said Frohman, showing his hand at last, "Jefferson and Brady are
+right, and if Palmer will let me in I'll go half and half, or, if he
+prefers, I'll take it all."
+
+At supper after the first performance at the Garden Theater in New York,
+Frohman advised Sir Herbert Tree to capture the play for London.
+Henceforth, wherever he traveled, "Trilby" seemed to pursue him.
+
+"I've seen your old 'Bengali,'" he wrote Potter, "in Rome, Vienna,
+Berlin, everywhere. It haunts me. And, as you cut out the good Bohemian
+stuff, I'll use it myself at the Empire."
+
+He did so in Clyde Fitch's version of "La Vie de Bohème," which was
+called "Bohemia."
+
+"How did it go?" Potter wrote him from Switzerland.
+
+"Pretty well," replied Frohman. "Unfortunately we left out 'Bengali.'"
+
+On more than one occasion Frohman produced a play for the mere pleasure
+of doing it. He put on a certain little dramatic fantasy. It was
+foredoomed to failure and held the boards only a week.
+
+"Why did you do this play?" asked William H. Crane.
+
+"Because I wanted to see it played," answered Frohman. "I knew it would
+not be successful, but I simply had to do it. I saw every performance
+and I liked it better every time I saw it."
+
+Often Frohman would make a contract with a playwright for a play, and
+long before the first night he would realize that it had no chance. Yet
+he kept his word with the author, and it was always produced.
+
+The case of "The Heart of a Thief," by the late Paul Armstrong, is
+typical. Frohman paid him an advance of fifteen hundred dollars. After a
+week of rehearsals every one connected with the play except Armstrong
+realized that it was impossible.
+
+Frohman, however, gave it an out-of-town opening and brought it to the
+Hudson Theater in New York, where it ran for one week. When he decided
+to close it he called the company together and said:
+
+"You've done the best you could. It's all my fault. I thought it was a
+good play. I was mistaken."
+
+Frohman took vast pride in the "clean quality" of his plays, as he often
+phrased it. His whole theatrical career was a rebuke to the salacious.
+He originally owned Edward Sheldon's dramatization of Suderman's "The
+Song of Songs." On its production in Philadelphia it was assailed by the
+press as immoral. Frohman immediately sold it to A. H. Woods, who
+presented it with enormous financial success in New York.
+
+He was scrupulous to the last degree in his business relations with
+playwrights. Once a well-known English author, who was in great
+financial need, cabled to his agent in America that he would sell
+outright for two thousand dollars all the dramatic rights to a certain
+play of his that Frohman and an associate had on the road at that time.
+The associate thought it was a fine opportunity and personally cabled
+the money through the agent. Then he went to Frohman and said, with
+great satisfaction:
+
+"I've made some money for us to-day."
+
+"How's that?" asked Frohman.
+
+Then his associate told the story of the author's predicament and what
+he had done. He stood waiting for commendation. Instead, Frohman's face
+darkened; he rang a bell, and when his secretary appeared he said:
+
+"Please wire Blank [mentioning the playwright's name] that the money
+cabled him to-day was an advance on future royalties."
+
+Then he turned to his associate and said:
+
+"Never, so long as you work with me or are associated with me in any
+enterprise, take advantage of the distress of author or actor. This
+man's play was good enough for us to produce; it is still good enough to
+earn money. When it makes money for us it also makes money for him."
+
+* * *
+
+By the force of his magnetic personality Charles amiably coerced more
+than one unwilling playwright into submission to his will. An experience
+with Margaret Mayo will illustrate.
+
+Miss Mayo returned on the same steamer with him when he made his last
+trip from London to the United States. As they walked up the gang-plank
+at Liverpool the manager told the author that he had a play he wished
+her to adapt.
+
+"But I have decided to adapt no more plays," said Miss Mayo.
+
+"Never mind," replied Frohman. "We will see about that."
+
+Needless to say, by the time the ship reached New York the play was in
+Miss Mayo's trunk and the genial tyrant had exacted a promise for the
+adaptation.
+
+Miss Mayo immediately went to her country house up the Hudson. For a
+week she reproached herself for having fallen a victim to the Frohman
+beguilements. In this state of mind she could do no work on the
+manuscript.
+
+With his astonishing intuition Frohman divined that the author was
+making no progress, so he sent her a note asking her to come to town,
+and adding, "I have something to show you."
+
+Miss Mayo entered the office at the Empire determined to throw herself
+upon the managerial mercy and beg to be excused from the commission. But
+before she could say a word Frohman said, cheerily:
+
+"I've found the right title for our play."
+
+Then he rang a bell, and a boy appeared holding a tightly rolled poster
+in his hand. At a signal he unfolded it, and the astonished playwright
+beheld these words in large red and white letters:
+
+      _Charles Frohman_
+
+         _Presents_
+
+    _I DIDN'T WANT TO DO IT_
+
+    _A Farce in Three Acts_
+
+     _By Margaret Mayo_
+
+Of course the usual thing happened. No one could resist such an attack.
+Miss Mayo went back to the country without protest and she finished the
+play. It was destined, however, to be produced by some other hand than
+Frohman's.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman always sought seclusion when he wanted to work out the plans for
+a production. He sometimes went to extreme lengths to achieve
+aloofness. An incident related by Goodwin will illustrate this.
+
+During the run of "Nathan Hale" in New York Goodwin entered his
+dressing-room one night, turned on the electric light, and was amazed to
+see Charles sitting huddled up in a corner.
+
+"What are you doing here, Charley?" asked Goodwin.
+
+"I am casting a new play, and came here to get some inspiration. Good
+night," was the reply. With that he walked out.
+
+* * *
+
+There was one great secret in Charles Frohman's life. It is natural that
+it should center about the writing of a play; it is natural, too, that
+this most intimate of incidents in the career of the great manager
+should be told by his devoted friend and colleague of many years, Paul
+Potter.
+
+Here it is as set down by Mr. Potter:
+
+We had hired a rickety cab at the Place Saint-François in Lausanne, and
+had driven along the lake of Geneva to Morges, where, sitting on the
+terrace of the Hôtel du Mont Blanc, we were watching the shore of Savoy
+across the lake, and the gray old villages of Thonon and Evian, and the
+mountains, rising ridge upon ridge, behind them. And Frohman, being in
+lyric mood, fell to quoting "The Blue Hills Far Away," for Owen
+Meredith's song was one of the few bits of verse that clung in his
+memory.
+
+"Odd," said he, relapsing into prose, "that a chap should climb hill
+after hill, thinking he had reached his goal, and should forever find
+the blue hills farther and farther away."
+
+While he was ruminating the clouds lifted, and there, in a gap of the
+hills, was the crest of Mont Blanc, with its image of Napoleon lying
+asleep in the snow.
+
+I have seen Frohman in most of the critical moments of his life, but I
+never saw him utterly awe-stricken till then.
+
+"Gee," said he, at length, "what a mountain to climb!"
+
+"It is sixty miles away," I ventured to suggest.
+
+"Well," he remarked, "I'll climb it some day. As John Russell plastered
+the Rocky Mountains with 'The City Directory,' so I'll hang a shingle
+from the top of Mont Blanc: 'Ambition: a comedy in four acts by Charles
+Frohman.'" And as we went home to Ouchy he told me the secret desire of
+his heart.
+
+He wanted to write a play.
+
+"Isn't it enough to be a theatrical manager?" I asked.
+
+"No," said he, "a theatrical manager is a joke. The public thinks he
+spends his days in writing checks and his nights in counting the
+receipts. Why, when I wanted to become a depositor at the Union Bank in
+London, the cashier asked me my profession. 'Theatrical manager,' I
+replied. 'Humph!' said the cashier, taken aback. 'Well, never mind, Mr.
+Frohman; we'll put you down as 'a gentleman.'"
+
+"But is a playwright," I asked, "more highly reputed than a theatrical
+manager?"
+
+"Not in America," said Frohman. "Most Americans think that the actors
+and actresses write their own parts. I was on the Long Branch boat the
+other day and met a well-known Empire first-nighter. 'What are you going
+to give us next season, Frohman?' he said.
+
+"'I open with a little thing by Sardou,' I replied.
+
+"'Sardou!' he cried. 'Who in thunder is Sardou?'
+
+"All the same," Frohman continued, "I mean to be a playwright. Didn't
+Lester Wallack write 'Rosedale' and 'The Veteran'? Didn't Augustin Daly
+make splendid adaptations of German farces? Doesn't Belasco turn out
+first-class dramas? Then why not I? I mean to learn the game. Don't give
+me away, but watch my progress in play-making as we jog along through
+life."
+
+He got his first tip from Pinero. "When I have sketched out a play,"
+observed the author of "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray," "I go and live among
+the characters."
+
+Frohman had no characters of his own, but he held in his brain a
+fabulous store of other people's plays. And whenever they had a
+historical or a literary origin he ran these origins to their lair. At
+Ferney, on the Lake of Geneva, he cared nothing about Voltaire; he
+wanted to see the place where the free-thinkers gathered in A. M.
+Palmer's production of "Daniel Rochat." At Geneva he was not concerned
+with Calvin, but with memories of a Union Square melodrama, "The Geneva
+Cross." At Lyons he expected the ghosts of _Claude Melnotte_ and
+_Pauline_ to meet him at the station. In Paris he allowed Napoleon to
+slumber unnoticed in the Invalides while he hunted the Faubourg
+Saint-Antoine for traces of "The Tale of Two Cities," and the Place de
+la Concorde for the site of the guillotine on which _Sidney Carton_
+died, and the Latin Quarter haunts of _Mimi_ and _Musette_, and the Bal
+Bullier where _Trilby_ danced, and the Concert des Ambassadeurs where
+_Zaza_ bade her lover good-by.
+
+Any production was an excuse for these expeditions. Sir Herbert Tree had
+staged "Colonel Newcome"; we had ourselves plotted a dramatization of
+"Pendennis"; Mrs. Fiske had given "Vanity Fair"; so off we went, down
+the Boulevard Saint-Germain, searching for the place, duly placarded,
+where Thackeray lunched in the days of the "Paris Sketch-book" and the
+"Ballad of Bouillabaisse."
+
+In the towns of Kent we got on the trail of Dickens with the enthusiasm
+of a Hopkinson Smith; in London, between Drury Lane and Wardour Street,
+we hunted for the Old Curiosity Shop; in Yarmouth we discovered the
+place where Peggotty's boat-hut might have lain on the sands. With
+William Seymour, who knew every street from his study of "The Rivals,"
+we listened to the abbey bells of Bath. And when "Romeo and Juliet" was
+to be revived with Sothern and Marlowe, Frohman even proposed that we
+should visit Verona. He only abandoned the idea on discovering that the
+Veronese had no long-distance telephones, and that, while wandering
+among the tombs of the Montagus and Capulets, he would be cut off from
+his London office.
+
+Having thus steeped himself in the atmosphere of his work, he set forth
+to learn the rules of the game. I met him in Paris on his return from
+New York. "How go the rules?" I asked.
+
+"Rotten," said he. "Our American playwrights say there are no rules;
+with them it is all inspiration. The Englishmen say that rules exist,
+but what the rules are they either don't know or won't tell."
+
+We went to the Concert Rouge. Those were the happy days when there were
+no frills; when the price of admission was charged with what you drank;
+when Saint-Saëns accompanied his "Samson and Delilah" with an imaginary
+flute obligato on a walking-stick; when Massenet, with his librettist,
+Henri Cain, dozed quietly through the meditation of "Thaïs"; when the
+students and their girls forgot frivolity under the spell of
+"L'Arlesienne."
+
+In a smoky corner sat a group of well-known French playwrights, headed
+by G. A. Caillavet, afterward famous as author of "Le Roi." They were
+indulging in a heated but whispered discussion. They welcomed Frohman
+cordially, then returned to the debate.
+
+"What are they talking about?" asked Frohman.
+
+"The rules of the drama," said I.
+
+"Then there are rules!" cried the manager, eagerly.
+
+"Ask Caillavet," said I.
+
+"Rules?" exclaimed Caillavet, who spoke English. "Are there rules of
+painting, sculpture, music? Why, the drama is a mass of rules! It is
+nothing but rules."
+
+"And how long," faltered Frohman, thinking of his play--"how long would
+it take to learn them?"
+
+"A lifetime at the very least," answered Caillavet. Disconsolate,
+Frohman led me out into the Rue de Tournon. Heartbroken, he convoyed me
+into Foyot's, and drowned his sorrows in a grenadine.
+
+From that hour he was a changed man. He apparently put aside all thought
+of the drama whose name was to be stenciled on the summit of Mont Blanc;
+yet, nevertheless, he applied himself assiduously to learning the
+principles on which the theater was based.
+
+Another winter had passed before we sat side by side on the terrace of
+the Café Napolitain.
+
+"I have asked Harry Pettitt, the London melodramatist," Frohman said,
+"to write me a play. 'I warn you, Frohman,' he replied, 'that I have
+only one theme--the Persecuted Woman.' Dion Boucicault, who was
+present, said, 'Add the Persecuted Girl.' Joseph Jefferson was with us,
+and Jefferson remarked, 'Add the Persecuted Man.' So was Henry Irving,
+who said: 'Pity is the trump card; but be Aristotelian, my boy; throw in
+a little Terror; with Pity I can generally go through a season, as with
+'Charles the First' or 'Olivia'; with Terror and Pity combined I am
+liable to have something that will outlast my life." And Irving
+mentioned "The Bells" and "The Lyons Mail."
+
+"But who will write you your Terror and Pity?" I asked Frohman.
+
+"If Terror means 'thrill,'" said Frohman, "I can count on Belasco and
+Gillette. If Pity means 'sympathy,' the Englishmen do it pretty well. So
+does Fitch. So do the French, who used to be masters of the game."
+
+"You don't expect," I said, "to pick up another 'Two Orphans,' a second
+'Ticket of Leave Man'?"
+
+"I'm not such a fool," said Frohman. "But I've got hold of something now
+that will help me to feed my stock company in New York." And off we went
+with Dillingham to see "The Girl from Maxim's" at the Nouveautés.
+
+When we got home to the Ritz Frohman discussed the play after his
+manner: "Do you know," he said, "I find the element of pity quite as
+strongly developed in these French farces as in the Ambigu melodramas.
+The truant husband leaves home, goes out for a good time, gets buffeted
+and bastinadoed for his pains, and when the compassionate audience says,
+'He has had enough; let up,' he comes humbly home to the bosom of his
+family and is forgiven. Where can you find a more human theme than
+that?"
+
+"Then you hold," said I, "that even in a French farce the events should
+be reasonable?"
+
+"I wouldn't buy one," he replied, "if I didn't consider its basis
+thoroughly human. Dion Boucicault told me long ago that farce, like
+tragedy, must be founded on granite. 'Farce, well done,' said he, 'is
+the most difficult form of dramatic composition. That is why, if
+successful, it is far the most remunerative.'"
+
+Years went by. The stock company was dead. "Charles Frohman's Comedians"
+had disappeared. The "stars" had supplanted them. Frohman was at the
+zenith of his career. American papers called him "the Napoleon of the
+Drama." Prime Ministers courted him in the grill-room of the London
+Savoy. The Paris _Figaro_ announced the coming of "the celebrated
+impresario." I heard him call my name in the crowd at the Gare du Nord
+and we bundled into a cab.
+
+"So you're a great man now," I said.
+
+"Am I?" he remarked. "There's one thing you can bet on. If they put me
+on a throne to-day they are liable to yank me off to-morrow."
+
+"And how's your own play getting along?"
+
+"Don't!" he winced. "Let us go to the Snail."
+
+In the cozy recesses of the Escargot d'Or, near the Central Markets, he
+unraveled the mysteries of the "star system" which had made him famous.
+
+"It's the opposite of all we ever believed," he said, while the mussels
+and shell-fish were being heaped up before him. "Good-by to Caillavet
+and his rules. Good-by, Terror and Pity. Good-by, dear French farce.
+Give me a pretty girl with a smile, an actor with charm, and I will defy
+our old friend Aristotle."
+
+"Is it as easy as that?" I asked, in amazement.
+
+"No," said he, "it's confoundedly difficult to find the girl with the
+smile and the actor with charm. It is pure accident. There are players
+of international reputation who can't draw a dollar. There are chits of
+chorus-girls who can play a night of sixteen hundred dollars in
+Youngstown, Ohio."
+
+"And the play doesn't matter?" I inquired.
+
+"There you've got me," said Frohman, as the crêpes Suzette arrived in
+their chafing-dish. "My interest makes me pretend that the play's the
+thing. I congratulate foreign authors on a week of fourteen thousand
+dollars in Chicago, and they go away delighted. But I know, all the
+time, that of this sum the star drew thirteen thousand nine hundred
+dollars, and the author the rest."
+
+"To what do you attribute such a state of affairs?"
+
+"Feminine curiosity. God bless the women."
+
+"Are there no men in your audiences?" I asked.
+
+"Only those whom the women take," said Frohman. "The others go to
+musical shows. Have some more crêpes Suzette."
+
+"But what do the critics say?" I persisted.
+
+"My dear Paul," said Frohman, solemnly, "they call me a 'commercial
+manager' because I won't play Ibsen or Maeterlinck. They didn't help me
+when I tried for higher game. I had years of poverty, years of
+privation. To-day I take advantage of a general feminine desire to view
+Miss Tottie Coughdrop; and, to the critics, I'm a mere Bulgarian, a
+'commercial manager.' So was Lester Wallack when he admitted 'The World'
+to his classic theater. So was Augustin Daly when he banished
+Shakespeare in favor of 'The Great Ruby.' If the critics want to reform
+the stage, let them begin by reforming the public."
+
+In his cabin on the _Lusitania_ he showed me a mass of yellow
+manuscript, scribbled over with hieroglyphics in blue pencil.
+
+"That's my play," he said, very simply.
+
+"Shall I take it home and read it?" I asked.
+
+"No," he replied. "I will try it on Barrie and bring it back in better
+shape."
+
+So he shook hands and sailed with his cherished drama, which reposes
+to-day, not on the summit of Mont Blanc, but at the bottom of the Irish
+Sea.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+"C. F." AT REHEARSALS
+
+
+The real Charles Frohman emerged at rehearsals. The shy, sensitive man
+who shunned the outside world here stood revealed as a dynamic force.
+Yet he ruled by personality, because he believed in personality. He did
+every possible thing to bring out the personal element in the men and
+women in his companies.
+
+In rehearsing he showed one of the most striking of his traits. It was a
+method of speech that was little short of extraordinary. It grew out of
+the fact that his vocabulary could not express his enormous imagination.
+Instead of words he made motions. It was, as Augustus Thomas expressed
+it, "an exalted pantomime." Those who worked with him interpreted these
+gestures, for between him and his stars existed the finest kinship.
+
+Frohman seldom finished a sentence, yet those who knew him always
+understood the unuttered part. Even when he would give a star the first
+intimation of a new rôle he made it a piece of pantomime interspersed
+with short, jerky sentences.
+
+William Faversham had complained about having two very bad parts. When
+he went to see Frohman to hear about the third, this is the way the
+manager expressed it to him:
+
+"New play--see?... Fine part.--First act--_you_ know--romantic--light
+through the window ... nice deep tones of your voice, you see?... Then,
+audience say 'Ah!'--then the girl--see?--In the room ... you ... one
+of those big scenes--then, all subdued--light--coming through
+window.--See?--And then--curtain--audience say 'Great!' ... Now,
+second act ... all that tremolo business--you know?--Then you get
+down to work ... a tremendous scene ... let your voice go.... Great
+climax ... (Oh, a great play this--a great part!) ... Now, last
+act--simple--nice--lovable--refined ... sad tones in your voice--and,
+well, you know--and then you make a big hit.... Well, now we will
+rehearse this in about a week--and you will be tickled to death.... This
+is a great play--fine part.... Now, you see Humphreys--he will arrange
+everything."
+
+Of course Faversham went away feeling that he was about forty-four feet
+tall, that he was a great actor, and had a wonderful part.
+
+Like the soldier who thrills at the sound of battle, Frohman became
+galvanized when he began to work in the theater. He forgot time, space,
+and all other things save the task at hand. To him it was as the breath
+of life.
+
+One reason was that the theater was his world; the other that Charles
+was, first and foremost, a director and producer. His sensibility and
+force, his feeling and authority, his intelligence and comprehension in
+matters of dramatic artistry were best, almost solely, known to his
+players and immediate associates. No stage-director of his day was more
+admired and desired than he.
+
+At rehearsal the announcement, "C. F. is in front," meant for every one
+in the cast an eager enthusiasm and a desire to do something unusually
+good to merit his commendation. His enormous energy, aided by his
+diplomacy and humor, inspired the player to highest performance.
+
+Such expressions as, "But, Mr. Frohman, this is my way of doing it," or
+"I feel it this way," and like manifestations of actors' conceit or
+argument would never be met with ridicule or contempt. Sometimes he
+would say, "Try it my way first," or "Do you like that?" or "Does this
+give you a better feeling?" He never said, "You _must_ do thus and so."
+He was alert to every suggestion. As a result he got the very best out
+of his people. It was part of his policy of developing the personal
+element.
+
+The genial human side of the man always softened his loudest tones,
+although he was seldom vehement. So gentle was his speech at rehearsals
+that the actors often came down to the footlights to hear his friendly
+yet earnest direction.
+
+Frohman had that first essential of a great dramatic director--a
+psychologic mind in the study of the various human natures of his actors
+and of the ideas they attempted to portray.
+
+He was an engaging and fascinating figure, too, as he molded speech and
+shaped the play. An old friend who saw him in action thus describes the
+picture:
+
+"Here a comedian laughs aloud with the comic quaintness of the director.
+There a little lady, new to the stage, is made to feel at home and
+confident. The proud old-timer is sufficiently ameliorated to approve of
+the change suggested. The leading lady trembles with the shock of
+realization imparted by the stout little man with chubby smile who,
+seated alone in the darkened auditorium, conveys his meaning as with
+invisible wires, quietly, quaintly, simply, and rationally, so as to
+stir the actors' souls to new sensibilities, awaken thought, and
+viviby(?) glow of passion, sentiment, or humor."
+
+At rehearsals Frohman usually sat alone about the tenth row back. He
+rarely rose from his seat, but by voice and gesture indicated the moves
+on his dramatic chess-board. When it became necessary for him to go on
+the stage he did so with alacrity. He suggested, by marvelously simple
+indications and quick transitions, the significance of the scene or the
+manner of the presentation.
+
+There was a curious similarity, in one respect, between the rehearsing
+methods of Charles Frohman and Augustin Daly. This comparison is
+admirably made by Frohman's life-long friend Franklin H. Sargent,
+Director of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Empire School
+of Acting, in which Frohman was greatly interested and which he helped
+in every possible way. He said:
+
+"Like a great painter with a few stray significant lines of drawing,
+Frohman revealed the spirit and the idea. In this respect he resembled
+Augustin Daly, who could furnish much dramatic intuition by a grunt and
+a thumb-joint. Both men used similar methods and possessed equal
+keenness of intelligence and sense of humor, except that Frohman was
+rarely sarcastic. Daly usually was. Frohman's demeanor and relationship
+to his actors was kindly and considerate. Rules, and all strictly
+enforced, were in Daly's policy of theater management. Frohman did not
+resort to rules. He regulated his theaters on broad principles, but with
+firm decision when necessary. In Daly's theater there was obedience; in
+Frohman's theater there was a willing co-operation. The chief interest
+of both managers was comedy--comedy of two opposite kinds. Daly's jest
+was the artificial German farce and Shakespearian refinement. Frohman's
+tastes ranged between the French school--Sardou's 'Diplomacy' and the
+modern realities--and the pure sentiments of Barrie's 'The Little
+Minister.' Frohman was never traditional in an artificial sense, though
+careful to retain the fundamental original treatment of imported foreign
+plays.
+
+"The verities, the humanities, the joys of life always existed and grew
+with him as with a good landscape architect who keeps in nature's ways.
+His departures into the classicism of Stephen Phillips, the romanticism
+of Shakespeare, or the exotic French society drama were never as
+valuable and delightful as his treatment of modern sentiment and
+comedy."
+
+In this respect a comparison with the workmanship of another genius of
+the American theater, David Belasco, is inevitable. Belasco, the great
+designer and painter of theatrical pictures, holds quite a different
+point of view and possesses different abilities from those of Charles
+Frohman. Belasco revels in the technique of the actor. Frohman's
+_métier_ was the essentials. The two men were in many ways complements
+of each other and per force admirers of each other and friends. In
+brief, Belasco is the technicist; Frohman was the humanitarian.
+
+Charles usually left details of scenery, lighting, and minor matters to
+his stage-manager. "Look after the little things," he would say, in
+business as in art, for he himself was interested only in the larger
+themes. The lesser people of the play, the early rehearsing of involved
+business, was shaped by his subordinates. The smaller faults and the
+mannerisms of the actor did not trouble him, provided the main thought
+and feeling were there. He would merely laugh at a suggestion to
+straighten out the legs and walk, to lengthen the drawl, or to heighten
+the cockney accent of a prominent member of his company, saying:
+
+"The public likes him for these natural things."
+
+Frohman's ear was musically sensitive. The intonations, inflections, the
+tone colors of voice, orchestral and incidental music, found him an
+exacting critic.
+
+To plays he gave thought, study, and preparation. The author received
+much advice and direction from him. He himself possessed the expert
+knowledge and abilities of a playwright, as is always true of every good
+stage-director. Each new play was planned, written, cast, and revised
+completely under his guidance and supervision. His stage-manager had
+been instructed in advance in the "plotting" of its treatment. The first
+rehearsals were usually left in charge of this assistant.
+
+At the first rehearsals Frohman made little or no comments. He watched
+and studied in silence. Thereafter his master-mind would reveal itself
+in reconstruction of lines and scenes, re-accentuation of the high and
+low lights of the story involved, and improvement of the acting and
+representation. Frohman consulted with his authors, artists, and
+assistants more in his office than in actual rehearsal. In the theater
+he was sole auditor and judge. His stage-manager would rarely make
+suggestions during rehearsals unless beckoned to and asked by his
+manager. When the office-boy came in at rehearsal on some important
+business errand, he got a curt dismissal, or at most a brief
+consideration of the despatch, contract, or message.
+
+Here is a vivid view of Frohman at rehearsal by one who often sat under
+the magic of his direction:
+
+"In the dim theater he sits alone, the stage-manager being at a
+respectable distance. If by chance there are one or two others present
+directly concerned in the production, they all sit discreetly in the
+extreme rear. The company is grouped in the wings, never in the front.
+The full stage lights throw into prominence the actors in the scene in
+rehearsal. Occasionally the voice of Mr. Frohman calls from the
+auditorium, and the direction is sometimes repeated more loudly by the
+stage-manager. Everybody is listening and watching.
+
+"The wonderfully responsive and painstaking nature of Maude Adams is
+fully alive, alert, and interested in Mr. Frohman's directions even in
+the scenes in which she has no personal part, during which, very likely,
+she will half recline on the floor near the proscenium--all eyes and
+ears.
+
+"Or perhaps it is a strong emotional scene in which Margaret Anglin is
+the central character. At the theatrically most effective point in the
+acting the voice breaks in, Miss Anglin stops, hastens to the
+footlights, and listens intently to a few simple, quiet words. Over her
+face pass shadow and storm, and in her eyes tears form. Again she begins
+the scene, and yet again, with cumulative passion. Each time, with each
+new incitement from the sympathetic director, new power, deeper feeling,
+keener thought develop, until a great glow of meaning and of might fills
+the stage and the theater with its radiance. Mr. Frohman is at last
+satisfied, and so the play moves on."
+
+Just as Frohman loved humor in life, so did he have a rare gift for
+comedy rehearsal. William Faversham pays him this tribute:
+
+"I think Charles Frohman was the greatest comedy stage-manager that I
+have known. I do not think there was a comedy ever written that he could
+not rehearse and get more out of than any other stage-director I have
+ever seen--and I have seen a good many. If he had devoted himself, as
+director, entirely to one company, I think he would have produced the
+greatest organization of comedians that Europe or America ever saw. I
+don't suppose there is a comedy scene that he couldn't rehearse and play
+better than any of the actors who were engaged to play the parts. The
+subtle touches that he put into 'Lord and Lady Algy' were extraordinary.
+The same with 'The Counsellor's Wife,' with 'Bohemia,' and again with a
+play of H. V. Esmond's called 'Imprudence,' which we did. He seemed to
+love this play, and I never saw a piece grow so in all my life as it did
+under his direction. All the successes made by the actors and actresses
+in that play were entirely through the work of Charles Frohman.
+
+"He had a keen sense of sound, a tremendous ear for tones of comedy. He
+could get ten or twelve inflections out of a speech of about four lines;
+he had a wonderful method of getting the actors to accept and project
+these tones over the footlights. He got what he wanted from them in the
+most extraordinary way. With his disjointed, pantomimic method of
+instruction he was able to transfer to them, as if by telepathy, what he
+wanted.
+
+"For instance, he would say: 'Now, you go over there ... then, just as
+he is looking at you ... see?--say--then ... that's it! you know?' And
+simply by this telepathy you _did know_."
+
+His terse summing up of scenes and facts was never better illustrated
+than when he compressed the instructions of a whole sentimental act into
+this simple sentence to E. H. Sothern:
+
+"Court--kiss--curtain."
+
+In one detail he differed from all the other great producers of his
+time. Most managers liked to nurse a play after its production and build
+it up with new scenes or varied changes. With Frohman it was different.
+"I am interested in a production until it has been made, and then I
+don't care for it any more," he said. This is generally true, although
+some of his productions he could never see often enough.
+
+Frohman's perception about a play was little short of uncanny. An
+incident that happened during the rehearsal of the Maude Adams all-star
+revival of "Romeo and Juliet" will illustrate. James K. Hackett was cast
+for _Mercutio_. He had worked for a month on the Queen Mab speech. He
+had elaborated and polished it, and thought he had it letter and tone
+perfect.
+
+Frohman sat down near the front and listened with rapt attention while
+this fine actor declaimed the speech. When he finished Charles said, in
+his jerky, epigrammatic way:
+
+"Hackett, that's fine, but just in there somewhere--you know what I
+mean."
+
+As a matter of fact, Hackett, with all his elaborate preparation, had
+slipped up on one line, and it was a very essential one. Frohman had
+never read "Romeo and Juliet" until he cast this production, yet he
+caught the omission with his extraordinary intuition.
+
+Charles was the most indefatigable of workers. At one time, on arriving
+in Boston at midnight, he had to stage a new act of "Peter Pan." He
+worked over it with carpenters, actors, and electricians until three in
+the morning. Then he made an appointment with the acting manager to take
+a walk on the Common "in the morning."
+
+The manager took "in the morning" to mean nine o'clock. When he reached
+the hotel Frohman was just returning from his walk, and handed the man a
+bunch of cables to send, telegrams to acknowledge, and memoranda of
+information desired. At ten o'clock Frohman was conducting the rehearsal
+of a new comedy by Haddon Chambers, which he finished at four. At five
+he was on a train speeding back to New York, where he probably read
+manuscripts of plays until two in the morning. This was one of the
+typical "C. F." days.
+
+* * *
+
+Occasionally a single detail would fascinate him in a play. "The Waltz
+Dream" that he did at the Hicks Theater in London in 1908 was typical.
+Miss Gertie Millar, who sang the leading part, had an important song.
+Frohman did not like the way she sang it, so he worked on it for two
+weeks until it reached the perfection of expression that he desired. But
+that song made the play and became the most-talked-of feature in it.
+This led him to say:
+
+"I am willing to give as much time to a single song as to the rehearsal
+of a whole play."
+
+Frohman had a phrase that he often used with his actors and directors.
+It was:
+
+"Never get a 'falling curtain.'"
+
+By this he meant a curtain that did not leave interest or emotion
+subdued or declining. He wanted the full sweep of rage, terror, pity,
+suspense, or anger alive with the end of the act.
+
+He always said, "A man who sees a play must feel that he is in the
+presence of an act." It was his way of putting forth the idea that any
+acted effort, no matter how humble, must have the ring of sincerity and
+conviction.
+
+Charles had an almost weird instinct for what was right on the stage.
+Once at rehearsals he pointed to a heavy candelabrum that stood on a
+table.
+
+"I want that thing on the mantelpiece," he said.
+
+"You mean the candelabrum?" asked one of his assistants.
+
+"I don't know what it is, but I know that it belongs on the
+mantelpiece." And it did.
+
+* * *
+
+Many of Frohman's rehearsals were held out of town. He was particularly
+fond of "pointing up" a production in a strange environment. Then the
+stage-director would ask the local manager for an absolutely empty
+theater--"a clear auditorium."
+
+"Peter Pan" was to be "finished off" at Washington. The call was issued,
+the company assembled--everybody was present except Frohman. "Strange,"
+was the thought in all minds, for he was usually so prompt. Ten minutes,
+fifteen minutes passed until the stage-manager left the theater in
+search of the manager. He was found at the front entrance of the
+theater, unsuccessfully arguing with a German door-tender who, not
+knowing him and immensely amused at the idea that he was pretending to
+be Charles Frohman, refused to admit him until reassured by the company
+stage-manager. Later, when the man came to apologize, Frohman's only
+comment was:
+
+"Oh! I forgot that an hour ago."
+
+Few people knew the Frohman of rehearsals so well as William Seymour,
+for many years his general stage-director. His illuminating picture of
+the Little Chief he served so long is as follows:
+
+"At rehearsals Charles Frohman was completely wrapped up in the play and
+the players. His mind, however, traveled faster than we did. He often
+stopped me to make a change in a line or in the business which to me was
+not at all clear. You could not always grasp, at once, just what he was
+aiming at. But once understood, the idea became illuminative, and
+extended into the next, or even to succeeding acts of the play. He could
+detect a weak spot quicker than any one I ever knew, and could remedy or
+straighten it out just as quickly.
+
+"After the rehearsal of a new play he would think of it probably all the
+evening and night, and the next morning he had the solutions of the
+several vague points at his fingers' ends. He was also very positive and
+firm in what he wanted done, and how he thought it should be done. But
+what he thought was right, he believed to be right, and he soon made you
+see it that way.
+
+"I confess to having had many differences of opinion and arguments,
+sometimes even disagreements, with him. In some instances he came round
+to my way of thinking, but he often said:
+
+"'I believe you are right--I am sure you are right--but I intend doing
+it my way.'
+
+"It was his great and wonderful self-confidence, and it was rarely
+overestimated.
+
+"To his actors in a new play, after a week's 'roughing out' of the lines
+and business, the announcement that 'C. F. will be here to-morrow' would
+cause a flutter, some consternation, and to the newer members a great
+fear. To those who had been with him before he was like a sheet-anchor
+in a storm. They knew him and trusted and loved him. He was all
+sympathy, all comfort, all encouragement--if anything, too indulgent and
+overkind. But he won the confidence and affection of his people at the
+outset, and I have rarely met a player who would not have done his
+slightest bidding."
+
+* * *
+
+One of Frohman's characteristic hobbies was that he would never allow
+the leading man or the leading woman of his theater, or anybody in the
+company, no matter what position he or she held, to presume upon that
+position and bully the property man, or the assistant stage-manager, or
+any person in a menial position in the theater. He was invariably on the
+side of the smaller people.
+
+Very often he would say, "The smallest member of this organization, be
+he of the staff or in the company, has as much right to his 'say' in an
+argument as the biggest member has."
+
+On one occasion a certain actor, who was rather fond of issuing his
+wishes and instructions in a very loud voice, made his exit through a
+door up the center of the stage which was very difficult to open and
+shut. It had not worked well, and this had happened, quite by accident,
+on several occasions during the run of the play. The actor had spoken
+rather sharply to the carpenter about it instead of going, as he should
+have done, to the stage-manager. He always called the carpenter
+"Charley." The carpenter was a rather dignified person named Charles
+Heimley.
+
+On the night in question this actor had had the usual trouble with the
+door. Heimley was not in sight, for he was evidently down in his
+carpenter-shop under the stage. The actor leaned over the balustrade and
+called out: "Charley! Charley!"
+
+Frohman, who was just walking through the side door on his way to
+William Faversham's dressing-room, turned to the star and said:
+
+"Who is calling? Does he want me?"
+
+"Oh no, he is calling the carpenter," replied Faversham.
+
+Frohman tapped the noisy actor on the shoulder with his stick, and said,
+"You mean _Mr. Heimley_, don't you?" He wanted the carpenter's position
+to be respected.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+HUMOR AND ANECDOTE
+
+
+The most distinctive quality in Charles Frohman's make-up was his sense
+of humor. He mixed jest with life, and it enabled him to meet crisis and
+disaster with unflagging spirit and smiling equanimity. Like Lincoln, he
+often resorted to anecdote and story to illustrate his point. He summed
+up his whole theory of life one day when he said to Augustus Thomas:
+
+"I am satisfied if the day gives me one good laugh."
+
+He had a brilliancy of retort that suggested Wilde or Whistler. Once he
+was asked this question:
+
+"What is the difference between metropolitan and out-of-town audiences?"
+
+"Fifty cents," he replied.
+
+* * *
+
+Haddon Chambers was writing a note in Frohman's rooms at the Savoy.
+
+"Do you spell high-ball with a hyphen?" he asked.
+
+"No, with a siphon," responded Frohman.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles Dillingham, when in Frohman's employ, was ordered to hurry back
+to New York. From a small town up New York state he wired:
+
+     _Wash-out on line. Will return as soon as possible._
+
+Frohman promptly sent the following reply:
+
+     _Never mind your wash. Buy a new shirt and come along at once._
+
+That he could also meet failure with a joke is shown by the following
+incident:
+
+He was producing a play at Atlantic City that seemed doomed from the
+start. In writing to a member of his family he said:
+
+     _I never saw the waves so high and the receipts so low._
+
+Frohman and Pinero were dining in the Carleton grill-room one night when
+a noisy person rushed up to them, slapped each on the shoulder, and
+said:
+
+"Hello, 'C. F.'! Hello, 'Pin.'! I'm Hopkins."
+
+Frohman looked up gravely and said:
+
+"Ah, Mr. Hopkins, I can't say that I remember your name or your face,
+but your manner is familiar."
+
+* * *
+
+When Edna May married Oscar Lewisohn she gave a reception on her return
+from the honeymoon. She sent Charles one of the conventional engraved
+cards that read:
+
+     "_At home Thursday from four to six._"
+
+Frohman immediately sent back the card, on which he had written, "So am
+I."
+
+* * *
+
+Once when Frohman and Dillingham were crossing to Europe on the
+_Oceanic_ they had as fellow-passenger a mutual friend, Henry Dazian,
+the theatrical costumer, on whom Charles delighted to play pranks. On
+the first day out Dillingham came rushing back to Frohman with this
+exclamation:
+
+"There are a couple of card-sharks on board and Dazian is playing with
+them. Don't you think we had better warn him?"
+
+"No," replied Frohman. "Warn the sharks."
+
+* * *
+
+Some years ago Frohman sent a young actor named John Brennan out on the
+road in the South in "Too Much Johnson." Brennan was a Southerner, and
+he believed that he could do a big business in his home country. Frohman
+then went to London, and, when playing hearts at the Savoy one night
+with Dillingham, a page brought a cablegram. It was from Brennan,
+saying:
+
+     _Unless I get two hundred dollars by next Saturday night I can't
+     close._
+
+Whereupon Frohman wired him:
+
+     _Keep going._
+
+Frohman delighted to play jokes on his close friends. In 1900,
+Dillingham opened the New Jersey Academy of Music with Julia Marlowe,
+and it was a big event. This was before the day of the tubes under the
+Hudson connecting New Jersey and New York. When Dillingham went down to
+the ferry to cross over for the opening night he found a basket of
+flowers from Frohman marked, "Bon voyage."
+
+* * *
+
+Nor could Frohman be lacking in the graceful reply. During a return
+engagement of "The Man from Mexico," in the Garrick Theater, William
+Collier became very ill with erysipelas and had to go to a hospital.
+The day the engagement was resumed happened to be Frohman's birthday,
+and Collier sent him the following cablegram:
+
+     _Many happy returns from all your box offices._
+
+He received the following answer from Frohman:
+
+     _My happiest return is your return to the Garrick._
+
+Behind all of Frohman's jest and humor was a serious outlook on life. It
+was mixed with big philosophy, too, as this incident will show:
+
+He was visiting Sir George Alexander at his country house in Kent.
+Alexander, who is a great dog fancier, asked Frohman to accompany him
+while he chained up his animals. Frohman watched the performance with
+great interest. Then he turned to the actor-manager and said:
+
+"I have got a lot of dogs out at my country place in America, but I
+never tie them up."
+
+"Why?" asked Alexander.
+
+"Let other people tie up the dogs. You let them out and they will always
+like you."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman was known to his friends as a master of epigram. Some of his
+distinctive sayings are these:
+
+"The best seat at a theater is the paid one."
+
+"An ounce of imagination is worth a pound of practicality."
+
+"The man who makes up his mind to corner things generally gets
+cornered."
+
+"You cannot monopolize theaters while there are bricks and mortar."
+
+"When I hear of another theater being built I try to build another
+author."
+
+"No successful theatrical producer ever died rich. He must make money
+for everybody but himself."
+
+"Great stage successes are the plays that take hold of the masses, not
+the classes."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman could always reach the heart of a situation with a pithy phrase
+or reply. On one of the rare occasions when he attended a public dinner
+he sat at the Metropolitan Club in New York with a group of men
+representing a variety of interests. He condemned a certain outrageously
+immodest Oriental dancer, who, at the moment, was shocking New York.
+
+"She must have a nasty mind to dance like that," said Frohman.
+
+"Don't be too hard on her," responded a playwright who sat near by.
+"Consider how young she is."
+
+"I deny that she is as young as you imply," retorted Frohman. "But I am
+bound to admit that she is certainly a _stripling_."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman's mind worked with amazing swiftness. Here is an example:
+
+At the formation of a London society called the West End Managers
+Association, Sir Charles Wyndham gave a luncheon at the Hyde Park Hotel
+to discuss and arrange preliminaries. Most of the London managers were
+present, including Frohman. There was a discussion as to what should be
+the entrance fee for each member. Various sums were discussed from £100
+downward. Twenty-five pounds seemed to be the most generally accepted,
+when one manager said:
+
+"Why should we not each give one night's receipts."
+
+This was discussed for a little while, when Sir Charles said, "What do
+you say, Frohman?"
+
+The American replied, "I would sooner give a night's receipts than £25."
+
+There was a short silence, then everybody seemed to remember that he had
+at that moment a failure at his theater. The humor of it was hailed with
+a shout of laughter.
+
+* * *
+
+Just as he mixed sentiment in business so did Frohman infuse wit into
+most of his relations. He once instructed W. Lestocq, his London
+manager, to conduct certain negotiations for a new play with a
+Scotchwoman whose first play had made an enormous success in America,
+and whose head had been turned by it. The woman's terms were ten
+thousand dollars in advance and a fifteen-per-cent. royalty. When
+Lestocq told Frohman these terms over the telephone, all he said was
+this:
+
+"Did you tell her not to slam the door?"
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman would always have his joke in London, as this incident shows:
+
+He had just arrived in town and went to a bank in Charing Cross with a
+letter of credit, which he deposited. When he emerged he was smiling all
+over.
+
+"I got one on that young man behind the counter," he said.
+
+"How's that?" asked Lestocq, who was waiting for him.
+
+"Well," he replied, "the young man bade me good morning and asked me if
+I have brought over anything good this time. I replied, 'Yes, a letter
+of credit on your bank, and I am waiting to see if _it_ is any good.'"
+
+A manager, who for present purposes must be named Smith, called on
+Frohman to secure the services of a star at that time under contract to
+the latter. His plan was to drop in on Frohman at a busy hour, quickly
+state the case, and, getting an affirmative answer, leave without
+talking terms at all. Later he knew it would be enough to recall the
+affirmative answer that had been given without qualification. The
+transaction took but a moment, just as the manager wished.
+
+"Well, then, I may have him?" said Smith.
+
+"Er-m-ah-er-yes--I will let you have him," replied Frohman, at the same
+time running over a paper before him. The visitor was already at the
+door.
+
+"By the way, Smith," called out Frohman, "how much do you want me to pay
+you for taking him off my hands?"
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman was as playful as a child. Once he was riding in a _petite
+voiture_ in Paris. It was a desperately hot night. The old _cocher_ took
+his hat off, hung it on the lamp, and wiped his forehead. Frohman took
+the hat and hid it under his seat. When the driver looked for his hat it
+was gone. He stopped the horse and ran back two or three blocks before
+he could be stopped. Then he went on without it, muttering and cursing,
+and turning around every few moments. Watching his opportunity, Frohman
+slipped the hat back on the lamp, and there was the expected climax that
+he thoroughly enjoyed.
+
+On one of his trips to Paris he was accompanied by Dillingham. Knowing
+Frohman's fondness for rich food, his friend decided to take him to dine
+at Durand's famous restaurant opposite the Madeleine. He even went to
+the café in the afternoon and told the proprietor that he was going to
+bring the great American manager. Great anticipation prevailed in the
+establishment.
+
+That night when they got to the restaurant Frohman gave Dillingham the
+shock of his life by saying:
+
+"I want to be a real American to-night. All I want is an oyster stew."
+
+Dillingham instructed the chef how to make the stew. After long delay
+there was a commotion. In strode the chef, followed by two assistants,
+bearing aloft a gigantic silver tureen which was placed on the table and
+opened with great ceremony. Inside was a huge quantity of consommé with
+two lonely oysters floating on top.
+
+Frohman regarded it as a great joke, and ever afterward when he met
+anybody in Paris that he did not like, he would say to them:
+
+"If you want the finest oyster stew in the world, go to Durand's."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman, who was always playing jokes on his friends, was sometimes the
+victim himself. He was crossing the ocean with Haddon Chambers when the
+latter was accosted by two enterprising young men who were arranging the
+ship's concert. Chambers was asked to take part, but declined. Then he
+had an inspiration.
+
+"We have on board the greatest American singer of coon songs known to
+the stage."
+
+"Who is that?" asked the men.
+
+"It's Charles Frohman."
+
+The men gasped.
+
+"Of course we knew him as a great manager, but we never knew he could
+sing."
+
+"Oh yes," said Chambers. "He is a great singer."
+
+He pointed out Frohman and hid behind a lifeboat to await the result.
+Soon he heard a sputter and a shriek of rage, and the two men came
+racing down the boat as if pursued by some terror. Up came Frohman, his
+face livid with rage.
+
+"What do you think?" he said to Chambers, who stood innocently by.
+"Those men had the nerve to ask me to sing a coon song. I have never
+been so insulted in all my life."
+
+He was so enraged that he wrote a letter to the steamship line about it
+and withdrew his patronage from the company for several years in
+consequence.
+
+* * *
+
+Here is another instance when the joke was on Frohman. No one viewed the
+manager's immense success with keener pride or pleasure than his father,
+Henry Frohman. As theater after theater came under the son's direction
+the parent could gratify his great passion for giving people free passes
+to its fullest extent. He would appear at the offices at the Empire
+Theater with his pockets bulging with home-made cigars. The men in the
+office always accepted the cigars, but never smoked them. But they gave
+him all the passes he wanted.
+
+One day the father stopped in to see Charles. It was a raw spring day.
+Charles remarked that the overcoat Henry wore was too thin.
+
+"Go to my tailor and get an overcoat," he said.
+
+"Not much," said the father. "Your tailor is too expensive. He robs you.
+He wouldn't make one under seventy-five dollars, and I never pay more
+than twenty dollars."
+
+Charles's eye twinkled. He said, quickly:
+
+"You are mistaken. My tailor will make you a coat for twenty dollars. Go
+down and get one."
+
+Father went down to the fashionable Fifth Avenue tailor. Meanwhile
+Frohman called him up and gave instructions to make a coat for his
+father at a very low price and have the difference charged to him.
+
+In an hour Henry Frohman came back all excitement. "I am a real business
+man," he said. "I persuaded that tailor of yours to make me an overcoat
+for twenty dollars."
+
+Charles immediately gave him the twenty dollars and sent the tailor a
+check for the difference between that and the real price, which was
+ninety-five dollars. He dismissed the matter from his mind.
+
+A few days later Charles had another visit from his father. This time he
+was in high glee. He could hardly wait to tell the great news.
+
+"You've often said I wasn't a good business man," he told his son.
+"Well, I can prove to you that I am. The other night one of my friends
+admired my new overcoat so much that I sold it to him for thirty-five
+dollars."
+
+Charles said nothing, but had to pay for another
+one-hundred-and-fifteen-dollar overcoat because he did not want to
+shatter his father's illusion.
+
+* * *
+
+Here is still another. When Frohman got back to New York from a trip few
+things interested him so much as a good dinner. It always wiped out the
+memory of hard times or unpleasant experiences. Once he returned from a
+costly visit to the West. On Broadway he met an old-time comedian who
+had been in one of his companies. His greeting was cordial.
+
+"And now, 'C. F.,'" said the comedian, "you've got to come to dinner
+with me. We have a new club, for actors only, and we have the best roast
+beef in town. We make a specialty of a substantial, homelike dinner.
+Come right along."
+
+The club rooms were over a saloon on the west side of Broadway, between
+Thirty-first and Thirty-second streets. The two went up to the room and
+sat down. The actor ordered dinner for two. The waiter went away and
+Frohman's spirits began to rise.
+
+"It's the best roast beef in New York, I tell you," said the host, by
+way of an appetizer.
+
+Then the waiter reappeared, but not with the food. He was visibly
+embarrassed.
+
+"Sorry, sir," he said to the comedian, "but the steward tells me that
+you can't have dinner to-night. He says you were posted to-day, and that
+you can't be served again until everything is settled."
+
+Charles used to tell this story and say that he never had such an
+appetite for roast beef as he did when he rose from that club table to
+go out again into Broadway.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman was always interested in mechanical things. When the phonograph
+was first put on the market he had one in his office at 1127 Broadway.
+Once in London he found a mechanical tiger that growled, walked, and
+even clawed. He enjoyed watching it crouch and spring.
+
+He took it with him on the steamer back to New York, and played with it
+on the deck. One day Richard Croker, who was a fellow-passenger, came
+along and became interested in the toy, whereupon Frohman showed him how
+it worked.
+
+Frohman told of this episode with great satisfaction. He would always
+end his description by saying:
+
+"Fancy showing the boss of Tammany Hall how to work a tiger!"
+
+* * *
+
+The extraordinary affinity that existed between Frohman and a small
+group of intimates was shown by an incident that occurred on shipboard.
+He and Dillingham were on their way to Europe. They were playing
+checkers in the smoking-room when an impertinent, pushing American came
+up and half hung himself over the table. Frohman said nothing, but made
+a very ridiculous move. Dillingham followed suit.
+
+"What chumps you are!" said the interloper, and went away.
+
+Frohman wanted to get rid of the man without saying anything. This was
+his way of doing it, and it succeeded.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman was always having queer adventures out of which he spun the most
+amazing yarns. This is an experience that he liked to recount:
+
+When Augustus Thomas had an apartment in Paris he received a visit from
+Frohman. The flat was five flights up, but there was an elevator that
+worked by pushing a button.
+
+There was a ring at the bell of the Thomas apartment. When the
+playwright opened the door he found Frohman gasping for breath, and he
+sank exhausted on a settee.
+
+"I walked up," he managed to say. When he was able to talk Thomas said
+to him:
+
+"Why in Heaven's name didn't you use the elevator?"
+
+Frohman replied:
+
+"I couldn't make the woman down-stairs understand what I wanted. She
+made motions and showed me a little door, but I thought she had designs
+on my life, so I preferred to walk."
+
+* * *
+
+That Charles Frohman had the happy faculty of saying the right thing and
+saying it gracefully is well illustrated by the following:
+
+When the beautiful Scala Theater in London was opened it made such a
+sensation that Frohman asked Lestocq if he could not inspect it. The
+proprietor, Dr. Distin Maddick, being an old friend of Lestocq, the
+latter called informally with Frohman. While they were admiring the
+white stone and brass interior, Maddick was suddenly called away. He
+returned in a few minutes to say that a manager friend from Edinburgh,
+hearing that Frohman was in the theater, had come in and asked to be
+introduced. Of course Frohman acquiesced. After a little talk the
+gentleman said:
+
+"We have no beautiful theater like this in Edinburgh."
+
+Quickly Frohman replied, with his fascinating smile, "No, but you have
+Edinburgh."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman hated exercise. In this he had a great community of interest
+with Mark Twain.
+
+On Sunday mornings, when he was out at his farm at White Plains, he
+would read all the dramatic news in the papers, and then he searched
+them carefully for items about people who had died from over-exertion.
+When he found one he was greatly pleased, and always sent it to Mark
+Twain.
+
+In order to get him to exercise Dillingham once took him for a stroll
+and pretended to be lost. The second time he tried this, however,
+Frohman discovered the subterfuge and refused to go walking.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman could pack a world of meaning in a word or a sentence. As Sir
+Herbert Beerbohm Tree once expressed it, "he was witty with a dry form
+of humor that takes your breath away with its suddenness." He gave an
+example of this with Tree one day in London. They were discussing French
+plays for America. The question of American taste came up. Frohman
+described certain primitive effects which delighted our audiences.
+
+"Ah," said Tree, "America can stand that sort of thing. It is a new
+country."
+
+"_Was_," came the laconic reply.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman's retiring disposition and dislike for putting himself forward
+was one of his chief traits. An illustration occurred when he controlled
+the Garden Theater. It was during the presentation of Stephen Phillips's
+play "Ulysses." There was a new man on the door one night when Frohman
+dropped into the theater for a few minutes' look at the play. The
+doorkeeper did not know the producer, his own employer, and would not
+allow him to enter without a ticket. Instead of storming about the
+lobby, Frohman simply walked quickly out of the door, around to the
+stage entrance and through the theater. At the end of the act he walked
+out of the main entrance. The doorkeeper, recognizing him as the man he
+had "turned down," was about to ask him how he got in when the manager
+of the house interposed.
+
+* * *
+
+He liked surprise and contrast. On one occasion his old chum, Anson
+Pond, wanted to talk over business matters with him.
+
+"Let's go to a quiet place," said Frohman.
+
+They went to a Childs restaurant. Before their luncheon was served an
+intoxicated man came in, ordered a plate of beans, and then exploded a
+package of fire-crackers on it.
+
+When he went to pay his check Frohman's comment was:
+
+"I didn't know they had changed the date of the Fourth of July."
+
+* * *
+
+No other theatrical manager in New York had a better news sense than
+Frohman. He knew just what a paper wanted, and all the matter sent out
+from his offices was short, newsy, and direct. He knew how to shape a
+big "story," and could offhand dictate an interview that was all "meat."
+While he had little time in New York to greet newspaper men personally,
+he was especially cordial to all that came to see him on the road. He
+never went out of town without visiting some of the older critics he had
+known throughout his career, men like George P. Goodale of _The Detroit
+Free Press_, and Montgomery Phister of _The Commercial Tribune_ in
+Cincinnati. When in Baltimore he invariably gave an hour for a long
+interview to Walter E. McCann, the critic of The News of that city.
+
+Frohman knew a newspaper's wants and limitations as far as theatrical
+matter was concerned. He knew just how far his press representative
+could be expected to go, and what his obstacles were.
+
+On one occasion in Cleveland, when he was producing a play by Clyde
+Fitch for the late Clara Bloodgood, the chief press representative from
+the New York office was taken along to look after the work. The press
+agent sent stories to all of the papers for Saturday morning's
+publication, and to his dismay not a line was used. Feeling that Frohman
+would be hurt about it (for Charles was hurt and not angered by the
+failure of any of his men), he wrote a note to his chief, stating that
+he was sorry nothing had been used in print and did not understand it.
+
+At lunch that day Frohman remarked to the agent:
+
+"Why did you send me that note about the papers?"
+
+"Because," replied the young man, "I feared that you would think I had
+not attended to my work."
+
+"Well," said Frohman, "you sent matter to all the papers, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes," said the agent, "all of them, of course."
+
+"Then," said the manager, "what else could you do? You are not running
+the papers."
+
+It was not only an evidence of Frohman's fairness, but an instance of
+his knowledge of newspapers.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman had a remarkable memory. One night during Collier's London
+engagement he asked the actor to meet him at the Savoy the next morning
+at nine o'clock. Collier, who had been playing bridge until dawn, showed
+up at the appointed time, whereupon Frohman said:
+
+"How did you do it?"
+
+"I sat up for it," said Collier.
+
+Five years later Frohman asked Collier one night to meet him at nine
+o'clock the next morning. Then he added, quickly:
+
+"You can sit up for it."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman got much amusement out of a butler named Max who was employed at
+his house at White Plains. One of the most original episodes in which
+this man figured happened on the opening night of "Catherine" at the
+Garrick Theater.
+
+The play was a little thin, and the whole action depended on a love
+scene in the third act, in which the hero, a young swell played by J. M.
+Holland, on telling his mother that he loved a humble girl, gets the
+unexpected admonition to go and be happy with her. Dillingham had two
+seats well down in the orchestra. Frohman was to sit in the back of a
+box. Just before the curtain went up Frohman said to Dillingham, who
+then had a house on Twenty-fourth Street, "Let us have some of those
+nice little lamb chops and peas down at your house after the play."
+
+"All right," said Dillingham, and he telephoned the instructions to Max,
+who had been drafted for town service.
+
+The curtain went up, the first two acts went off all right, and the
+house was dark for the third act. The seat alongside Dillingham was
+vacated, so Frohman came down and occupied it. The curtain went up and
+the action of the play progressed. The great scene which was to carry it
+was about to begin when Dillingham heard a loud thump, thump, thump down
+the aisle. Frohman turned to Dillingham and said:
+
+"What in the name of Heaven is that? The play is ruined!"
+
+The thump, thump, thump continued, coming nearer. Just in the middle of
+the act a German voice spoke up and said:
+
+"Oxkuse me, Meester Dillingham, dere ain't a lam' chop in der house."
+
+It was Max, the butler, who, worried over what seemed the imminent
+failure of the midnight repast, had come to report to headquarters for
+further instructions. Fortunately the interruption passed unnoticed and
+the play made quite a hit.
+
+* * *
+
+On one occasion Nat C. Goodwin invited him to the Goodwin residence in
+West End Avenue, New York. The comedian wanted to place himself under
+the management of his guest. Goodwin stated the case, and Frohman then
+asked how remunerative his last season had been. The host produced his
+books. After a careful examination Frohman remarked, with a smile:
+
+"My dear boy, you don't require a manager. What you need is a lawyer."
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+THE MAN FROHMAN
+
+
+Great as producer, star-maker, and conqueror of two stage-worlds,
+Charles Frohman was greater as a human being. Like Roosevelt, whom he
+greatly admired, he was more than a man--he was an institution. His
+quiet courage, his unaffected simplicity, his rare understanding, his
+ripe philosophy, his uncanny penetration--above all, his abundant
+humor--made him a figure of fascinating and incessant interest.
+
+No trait of Charles Frohman was more highly developed than his shyness.
+He was known as "The Great Unphotographed." The only time during the
+last twenty-five years of his life that he sat for a photograph was when
+he had to get a picture for his passport, and this picture went to a
+watery grave with him. Behind his prejudice against being photographed
+was a perfectly definite reason, which he once explained as follows:
+
+"I once knew a theatrical manager whose prospects were very bright. He
+became a victim of the camera. Fine pictures of him were made and stuck
+up on the walls everywhere. He used to spend more time looking at these
+pictures of himself than he did attending to his business. He made a
+miserable failure. I was quite a young man when I heard of this, but it
+made a great impression on me. I resolved then never to have my
+photograph taken if I could help it."
+
+Once when Frohman and A. L. Erlanger were in London he received the
+usual request to be photographed by a newspaper camera man. The two
+magnates looked something alike in that they had a more or less
+Napoleonic cast of face. Frohman, who always saw a joke in everything,
+hatched a scheme by which Erlanger was to be photographed for him. The
+plan worked admirably, and pictures of Erlanger suddenly began to appear
+all over London labeled "Charles Frohman."
+
+He could be gracious, however, in his refusal to be photographed. One
+bright afternoon he was watching the races at Henley when he was
+approached by R. W. MacFarlane, of New York, who had been on the Frohman
+staff. MacFarlane asked if he could take a photograph of Frohman and
+give it to his niece, who was traveling with him.
+
+"No," said the manager, "but you can take a picture of your niece and I
+will pose her for it."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman's shyness led to what is in many respects the most remarkable of
+the countless anecdotes about him. It grew out of his illness. In 1913
+he had a severe attack of neuritis in London. Although his friends urged
+him to go and see a doctor, he steadfastly refused. He dreaded
+physicians just as he dreaded photographers.
+
+One day Barrie came to see him at his rooms at the Savoy. Frohman was in
+such intense pain that the Scotch author said:
+
+"Frohman, it is absurd for you not to see a doctor. You simply must have
+medical attention. As a matter of fact, I have already made an
+engagement for you to see Robson-Roose, the great nerve specialist, at
+four o'clock to-morrow afternoon."
+
+Frohman, who accepted whatever Barrie said, acquiesced. Next day, when
+half-past three o'clock came, the manager was almost in a state of
+panic. He said to Dillingham, who was with him:
+
+"Dillingham, you know how I hate to go to see doctors. You also know
+what is the matter with me. Why don't you go as my understudy and tell
+the doctor what is the matter with you? He will give you a nice little
+prescription or advise you to go to the Riviera or Carlsbad."
+
+"All right," said Dillingham, who adored his friend. "I'll do what you
+say."
+
+Promptly at four o'clock Dillingham showed up at the great
+specialist's office and said he was Frohman. He underwent a drastic
+cross-examination. After which he was asked to remove his clothes, was
+subjected to the most strenuous massage treatment, and, to cap it all,
+was given an electric bath that reduced him almost to a wreck. He had
+entered the doctor's office in the best of health, He emerged from it
+worn and weary.
+
+When he staggered into Frohman's rooms two hours later and told his tale
+of woe, Frohman laughed so heartily over the episode that he was a well
+man the next day.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman had a great fund of pithy sayings, remarkable for their brevity.
+With these he indicated his wishes to his associates. His charm of
+manner, his quick insight into a situation, and his influence over the
+minds of others were great factors in the accomplishment of his end,
+often attaining the obviously impossible.
+
+For example, when he would tell his business manager to negotiate a
+business matter with a man, and it would come to a point where there
+would be a deadlock, he would say:
+
+"I will see him. Ask him to come down to my hotel."
+
+The next morning he would walk into the office with a smile on his face,
+and the first thing he would say perhaps would be:
+
+"I fixed it up all right yesterday; it is going your way."
+
+"You are a wonder!" his associates would exclaim.
+
+"Oh no! I just talked to him," was the reply.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman disliked formality. He wanted to go straight to the heart of a
+thing and have it over with. Somebody once asked him why he did not join
+the Masonic order. He said:
+
+"I would like to very much if I could just write a check and not bother
+with all the ceremony."
+
+* * *
+
+Although he never spoke of his great power in the profession,
+occasionally there was a glimpse of how he felt about it as this
+incident shows:
+
+Once, when Frohman and Paul Potter were coming back from Atlantic City,
+Potter picked up a theatrical paper and said:
+
+"Shall I read you the theatrical news?"
+
+"No," said Frohman. "I _make_ theatrical news."
+
+* * *
+
+In that supreme test of a man's character--his attitude toward money--he
+shone. Though his enterprises involved millions, Frohman had an
+extraordinary disregard of money. He felt its power, but he never
+idolized it. To him it was a means to an end. He summed up his whole
+attitude one day when he said:
+
+"My work is to produce plays that succeed, so that I can produce plays
+that will not succeed. That is why I must have money.
+
+"What I would really like to do is to produce a wonderful something to
+which I would only go myself. My pleasure would be in seeing a
+remarkable performance that nobody else could see. But I can't do that.
+The next best thing is to produce something for the few critical people.
+That is what I'm trying for. I have to work through the commercial--it
+is the white heat through which the artistic in me has to come." It was
+his answer to the oft-made charge of "commercialism."
+
+No one, perhaps, has summed up this money attitude of Frohman's better
+than George Bernard Shaw, who said of him:
+
+"There is a prevalent impression that Charles Frohman is a hard-headed
+American man of business who would not look at anything that is not
+likely to pay. On the contrary, he is the most wildly romantic and
+adventurous man of my acquaintance. As Charles XII. became an excellent
+soldier because of his passion for putting himself in the way of being
+killed, so Charles Frohman became a famous manager through his passion
+for putting himself in the way of being ruined."
+
+In many respects Frohman's feeling about money was almost childlike. He
+left all financial details to his subordinates. All he wanted to do was
+to produce plays and be let alone. Yet he had an infinite respect for
+the man to whom he had to pay a large sum. He felt that the actor or
+author who could command it was invested with peculiar significance.
+Upon himself he spent little. He once said:
+
+"All I want is a good meal, a good cigar, good clothes, a good bed to
+sleep in, and freedom to produce whatever plays I like."
+
+He was a magnificent loser. Failure never disturbed him. When he saw
+that a piece was doomed he indulged in no obituary talk. "Let's go to
+the next," he said, and on he went.
+
+He lost in the same princely way that he spent. The case of "Thermidor"
+will illustrate. He spent not less than thirty thousand dollars on this
+production. Yet the moment the curtain went down he realized it was a
+failure. He stood at one side of the wings and Miss Marbury, who had
+induced him to put the play on, was at the other. With the fall of the
+curtain Frohman moved smilingly among his actors with no trace of
+disappointment on his face. But when he met Miss Marbury on the other
+side of the stage he said:
+
+"Well, I suppose we have got a magnificent frost. We'll just write this
+off and forget it."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman played with the theater as if it were a huge game. Like life
+itself, it was a great adventure. In the parlance of Wall Street, he was
+a "bull," for he was always raising salaries and royalties. Somebody
+once said of him:
+
+"What a shame that Frohman works so hard! He never had a day's fun in
+his life."
+
+"You are very much mistaken," said one of his friends. "His whole life
+is full of it. He gets his chief fun out of his work." Indeed, work and
+humor were in reality the great things with him.
+
+One of the best epigrams ever made about Frohman's extravagance was
+this:
+
+"Give Charles Frohman a check-book and he will lose money on any
+production."
+
+To say that his word was his bond is to repeat one of the trite tributes
+to him. But it was nevertheless very true. Often in discussing a
+business arrangement with his representatives he would say:
+
+"Did I say that?" On being told that he did, he would invariably reply,
+"Then it must stand at that."
+
+On one of these occasions he said:
+
+"I have only one thing of value to me, and that is my word. I will keep
+that until I am broke and then I'll jump overboard."
+
+* * *
+
+In starting a new venture his method was first to ascertain not how much
+it would enrich him, but how much it would cost. Thus fortified, he
+entered into it with enthusiasm, and if he lost he never murmured.
+Having settled a thing, for good or ill, he would never refer to the
+negotiations or anything that might have led up to the culmination of
+that business, either for or against. If his attention was afterward
+called to it, he would quietly say, "That's yesterday," and in this way
+indicate that he did not wish the matter referred to again.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman's great desire was to make money for other people. One of his
+young authors had had a bad failure in London and was very much
+depressed. Frohman finally worked out a plan to revive his spirits and
+recoup his finances. He took Alfred Sutro in his confidence and invited
+the young man to dine. He was like a child, eager to do something good
+and pleasing. All through the dinner he chaffed the young man, who
+visibly grew more despondent. Finally he said:
+
+"I have decided to revive a very good play, and I have booked an
+American tour for it." Then he told the young man that this play was his
+first success.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles Frohman's ignorance of money matters was proverbial. One day
+just as he was about to take the train for Washington a friend stopped
+him and said:
+
+"I've got a great investment for you."
+
+"No," said Frohman, "I never invest in anything except theaters."
+
+"But this is the real thing. The only possible fact that can spoil it is
+war, and we are widely remote from war."
+
+In order to get rid of the man Frohman consented to a modest investment.
+When he got to Washington the first thing that greeted him was the
+announcement that we were on the verge of war with Mexico.
+
+* * *
+
+William Harris once gently remonstrated with Frohman for such lavish
+expenditure of money.
+
+"It's simply awful, Charley, the way you spend money," he said.
+
+Frohman smiled and said:
+
+"It would be awful if I lost a finger or a foot, but spending money on
+the things that you want to do and enjoy doing is never money wasted."
+
+* * *
+
+At one time he owed a great deal of money to actors and printers, but he
+always scorned all suggestions that he go through bankruptcy and wipe
+these claims out. He said he would pay in full some day, and he did,
+with interest. An actor to whom he owed some four hundred dollars came
+to him and offered to settle the claim for one hundred dollars. Frohman
+said he did not believe in taking advantage of a man like that. He
+advanced the actor one hundred dollars, and eventually paid the other
+three hundred dollars.
+
+* * *
+
+Like every great man, Frohman's tastes were simple. He always wore
+clothes of one pattern, and the style seldom varied. He wore no jewelry
+except a Napoleonic ring on his little finger.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman never married. A friend once asked him why he had chosen to be a
+bachelor.
+
+"My dear fellow," he answered, "had I possessed a wife and family I
+could never have taken the risks which, as a theatrical manager, I am
+constantly called upon to do."
+
+He lived, in truth, for and by the theater; it was his world. His heart
+was in his profession, and no enterprise was too daring, no venture too
+perilous, to prevent him from boldly facing it if he believed the step
+was expected of him.
+
+* * *
+
+To his intimates Frohman was always known as "C. F." These were the
+magic initials that opened or shut the doors to theatrical fame and
+fortune.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman loved sweet things to eat. Pies were his particular fondness,
+and he never traveled without a box of candy. As he read plays he
+munched chocolates. He ate with a sort of Johnsonian avidity. When he
+went to Europe some of his friends, who knew his tastes well, sent him
+crates of pies instead of flowers or books.
+
+He shared this fondness for sweets with Clyde Fitch. They did not dare
+to eat as much pastry as they liked before others, so they often retired
+to Frohman's rooms at Sherry's or to Fitch's house on Fortieth Street,
+in New York, and had a dessert orgy.
+
+Frohman almost invariably ate as he worked in his office. When people
+saw sandwiches piled upon his table, he would say:
+
+"A rehearsal accompanied by a sandwich is progress, but a rehearsal
+interrupted by a meal is delay."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman's letters to his intimates were characteristic. He always wrote
+them with a blue pencil, and on whatever scrap of paper happened to be
+at hand. Often it was a sheet of yellow scratch-paper, sometimes the
+back of an envelope. He wrote as he talked, in quick, epigrammatic
+sentences. Like Barrie, he wrote one of the most indecipherable of
+hands. Frequently, instead of a note, he drew a picture to express a
+sentiment or convey an invitation. One reason for this was that the man
+saw all life in terms of the theater. It was a series of scenes.
+
+* * *
+
+With regard to home life, Frohman had none. He always dwelt in
+apartments in New York. The only two places where he really relaxed were
+at Marlow, in England, and at his country place near White Plains in
+Westchester County, New York. He shared the ownership of this
+establishment with Dillingham. It entered largely into his plans. Here
+his few intimates, like Paul Potter, Haddon Chambers, William Gillette,
+and Augustus Thomas, came and talked over plays and productions. Here,
+too, he kept vigil on the snowy night when London was to pass judgment
+on the first production of "Peter Pan" on any stage.
+
+The way he came to acquire an interest in the White Plains house is
+typical of the man and his methods. Dillingham had bought the place. One
+day Frohman and Gillette lunched with him there. Frohman was immensely
+taken with the establishment. He liked the lawn, the garden, the trees,
+and the aloofness. The three men sat at a round table. Frohman beamed
+and said:
+
+"This is the place for me. I want to sit at the head of this table." It
+was his way of saying that he wanted to acquire an ownership in it, and
+from that time on he was a co-proprietor.
+
+With characteristic generosity he insisted upon paying two-thirds of the
+expenses. Then, in his usual lavish fashion, he had it remodeled. He
+wanted a porch built. Instead of engaging the village carpenter, who
+could have done it very well, he employed the most famous architects in
+the country and spent thirty thousand dollars. It was the Frohman way.
+
+Out of the Frohman ownership of the White Plains house came one of the
+many Frohman jests. Its conduct was so expensive that Frohman one day
+said to Dillingham, "Let's rent a theater and make it pay for the
+maintenance of the house."
+
+Frohman then leased the Garrick, but instead of making money on it he
+lost heavily.
+
+The factotum at White Plains was the German Max, whom Dillingham had
+brought over from the Savoy in London, where he was a waiter. Max
+became the center of many amusing incidents. One has already been
+related.
+
+One night Max secured some fine watermelons. As he came through the door
+with one of them he slipped and dropped it. He repeated this performance
+with the second melon. Frohman regarded it as a great joke, and roared
+with laughter. Just then Gillette was announced.
+
+"Now," said Frohman, quietly, to Dillingham, "we will have Max bring in
+a watermelon, but I want him to drop it." In order to insure the success
+of the trick they stretched a string at the door so that Max would be
+sure to fall. Then they ordered the melon, and Max appeared, bearing it
+aloft. He fell, however, before he got to the string, and the joke was
+saved.
+
+All this jest and joke was part of the game of life as Frohman played
+it. Whatever the cost, there is no doubt that the charming
+white-and-green cottage up in the Westchester valley gave him hours of
+relaxation and ease that were among the pleasantest of his life.
+
+This house at White Plains was indirectly the means through which
+Dillingham branched out as an independent manager. At this time he was
+in Frohman's employ. One day he said to himself:
+
+"This establishment is costing so much that I will have to send out some
+companies of my own."
+
+He thereupon got "The Red Mill," acquired Montgomery and Stone, and thus
+began a new and brilliant managerial career. No one rejoiced over
+Dillingham's success more than Frohman. When Dillingham opened his Globe
+Theater in New York Frohman addressed a cable to "Charles Dillingham,
+Globe Theater, U. S. A."
+
+It is a curious fact about Charles Frohman that though he had millions
+of dollars at stake, he was never a defendant in litigation. Yet through
+him foreign authors were enabled to protect their plays from the
+customary piracy by the memorization of parts. It used to be accepted
+that if a man went to a play and memorized its speeches he could produce
+it without paying royalty. N. S. Wood did this with a play called "The
+World," that Frohman produced. He took the matter to court as a test
+case and won.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles was not good at remembering people's names or their addresses.
+This is why he was much dependent upon his stenographers. His secretary
+in England, Miss Frances Slater, was so extraordinary in anticipating
+his words that he always called her "The Wonder." He used to say:
+
+"Miss Slater, I want to write to the man around the corner," which
+turned out to be Arthur Bouclier, the manager of the Garrick Theater,
+which was not really around the corner; but when the subject of the
+letter came to be dictated, Miss Slater knew whom he meant. He would
+never express any surprise on these occasions when the letter handed him
+to sign contained the right name and address. He seemed to take it as a
+matter of course.
+
+* * *
+
+One day Frohman entered his London office and said to Lestocq:
+
+"You would never guess where I have just come from. I have been to your
+Westminster Abbey."
+
+[Illustration: COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY CHARLES FROHMAN
+
+_CHARLES FROHMAN'S OFFICE IN THE EMPIRE THEATER_]
+
+Lestocq expressed surprise, whereupon Frohman continued:
+
+"Yes, I just walked in and spoke to a man in a gown and said, 'Where is
+Mr. Irving buried?' He showed me, and I stood there for a few minutes,
+said a couple of things, and came on here."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman's office at the Empire Theater was characteristic of the man
+himself. It was a room of considerable proportions, with the atmosphere
+of a study. It was lined with rather low book-shelves, on which stood
+the bound copies of the plays he had produced. Interspersed was a
+complete set of Lincoln's speeches and letters.
+
+On one side was a large stone fireplace; in a corner stood a grand
+piano; the center was dominated by a simple, flat-topped desk, across
+which much of the traffic of the American theater passed.
+
+Near at hand was a low and luxurious couch. Here Frohman sat
+cross-legged and listened to plays. This performance was a sort of
+sacred rite, and was always observed behind locked doors. No Frohman
+employee would think of intruding upon his chief at such a time.
+
+Here, as in London, Frohman was surrounded by pictures of his stars.
+Dominating them was J. W. Alexander's fine painting of Miss Adams in
+"L'Aiglon." On a shelf stood a bust of John Drew. There were portraits
+of playwrights, too. A photograph of Clyde Fitch had this inscription:
+
+"To C. F. from c. f."
+
+There was only one real art object in the office, a magnificent marble
+bust of Napoleon, whom Frohman greatly admired. He was always pleased
+when he was told that he looked like the Man of Destiny.
+
+His sense of personal modesty was a very genuine thing. Shortly before
+he sailed on the fatal trip he had a request from a magazine writer who
+wanted to write the story of his life. He sent back a vigorous refusal
+to co-operate, saying, among other things:
+
+"It is most obnoxious to me in every way. It is forcing oneself on the
+public so far as I am concerned, and I don't want that, and, besides,
+they are not interested. It is only for the great men of our country. It
+is not for me. It looks like cheek and presumption on my part, because
+_it is_, and I ask you not to go on with it."
+
+* * *
+
+He believed in system. One day he said:
+
+"We must have on file in our office the complete record of every
+first-class theater in the United States, together with the name of
+every dramatic editor and bill-poster." Out of this grew the famous
+"Theatrical Guide" compiled by Julius Cahn.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles always provided special sleepers for his company when they had
+to leave early in the morning. He felt that it was an imposition to make
+the people go to bed late after a play and rise at five or six to get a
+train. It not only expressed his kindness, but also his good business
+sense in keeping his people satisfied and efficient.
+
+* * *
+
+One of Frohman's eccentricities was that he never carried a watch. On
+being asked why he never carried a timepiece, he replied, tersely,
+"Everybody else carries a watch," meaning that if he wanted to find out
+the time of day he could do it more quickly by inquiring of his
+personal or business associates than by looking for a watch that he may
+have forgotten to wind up.
+
+"Frohman," said a friend, "made it a rule in life not to do anything
+that he could hire somebody else to do, thus leaving himself all the
+time possible for those things that he alone could do. He probably
+figured it out that if he carried a watch he would be obliged to spend a
+certain amount of time each day winding it.
+
+"And on the same principle he refused to worry as to whether he left his
+umbrella behind or not, by simply not carrying one. If he couldn't get a
+cab--a rare occurrence, doubtless, considering the beaten track of his
+travel--he preferred to walk in the rain."
+
+Some time before his death Frohman said to a distinguished dramatist who
+is one of his closest friends:
+
+"Whenever I make a rule I never violate it."
+
+A visitor to his place at White Plains came away after spending a night
+there, and declared that the "real Charles Frohman had three
+dissipations--he smokes all day, he reads plays all night, and--" He
+stopped.
+
+"What is it?" was the breathless query.
+
+"He plays croquet."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman had a rare gift for publicity. More than once he turned what
+seemed to be a complete failure into success. An experience with "Jane"
+will reveal this side of his versatility.
+
+The bright little comedy hung fire for a while. One reason was that
+newspaper criticism in New York had been rather unfavorable. Conspicuous
+among the unfriendly notices was one in the _Herald_ which was headed,
+"Jane Won't Go."
+
+Frohman immediately capitalized this line. He had thousands of dodgers
+stuck up all over New York. They contained three sentences, which read:
+
+    "_Jane won't go._"
+    _Of course not._
+    _She's come to stay._
+
+From that time on the piece grew in popularity and receipts and became a
+success.
+
+* * *
+
+In summing up the qualities that made Frohman great, one finds, in the
+last analysis, that he had two in common with J. P. Morgan and the other
+dynamic leaders of men. One was an incisive, almost uncanny, ability to
+probe into the hearts of men, strip away the superficial, and find the
+real substance.
+
+His experience with Clyde Fitch emphasized this to a remarkable degree.
+Personally no two men could have been more opposite. One was the product
+of democracy, buoyant and self-made, while the other represented an
+intellectual, almost effeminate, aristocracy. Yet nearly from the start
+Frohman perceived the bigness of vision and the profound understanding
+that lurked behind Fitch's almost superficial exterior.
+
+In common, too, with Morgan, Roosevelt, and others of the same type,
+Frohman had an extraordinary quality of unconscious hypnotism. Men who
+came to him in anger went away in satisfied peace. They succumbed to
+what was an overwhelming and compelling personality.
+
+He proved this in the handling of his women stars. They combined a group
+of varied and conflicting temperaments. Each wanted a separate and
+distinct place in his affections, and each got it. It was part of the
+genius of the man to make each of his close associates feel that he or
+she had a definite niche apart. His was the perfecting understanding,
+and no one better expressed it than Ethel Barrymore, who said, "To try
+to explain something to Charles Frohman was to insult him."
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+"WHY FEAR DEATH?"
+
+
+And now the final phase.
+
+The last years of Charles Frohman's life were racked with physical pain
+that strained his courageous philosophy to the utmost. Yet he faced this
+almost incessant travail just as he had faced all other
+emergencies--with composure.
+
+One day in 1912 he fell on the porch of the house at White Plains and
+hurt his right knee. It gave him considerable trouble. At first he
+believed that it was only a bad bruise. In a few days articular
+rheumatism developed. It affected all of his joints, and it held him in
+a thrall of agony until the end of his life.
+
+Shortly after his return to the city (he now lived at the Hotel
+Knickerbocker) he was compelled to take to his bed. For over six months
+he was a prisoner in his apartment, suffering tortures. Yet from this
+pain-racked post he tried to direct his large affairs. There was a
+telephone at his bedside, and he used it until weakness prevented him
+from holding the receiver.
+
+He could not go to the theater, so the theater was brought to him. More
+than one preliminary rehearsal was held in his drawing-room. This was
+particularly true of musical pieces. The music distracted him from his
+pain.
+
+Though prostrate with pain, his dogged determination to keep on doing
+things held. Barrie sent him the manuscript of a skit called "A Slice of
+Life." It was a brilliant satire on the modern play. Frohman picked
+Ethel Barrymore (who was then playing in "Cousin Kate" at the Empire),
+John Barrymore, and Hattie Williams to do it, and the rehearsals were
+held in the manager's rooms at the Knickerbocker.
+
+Frohman was as much interested in this one-act piece as if it had been a
+five-act drama. His absorption in it helped to divert his mind from the
+pain that had sadly reduced the once rotund body.
+
+With "A Slice of Life" he introduced another one of the many innovations
+that he brought to the stage. The play was projected as a surprise. No
+announcement of title was made. The advertisements simply stated that
+Charles Frohman would present "A Novelty" at the Empire Theater at eight
+o'clock on a certain evening.
+
+Frohman was unable to attend the opening performance, so he wrote a
+little speech which was spoken by William Seymour. The speech was
+rehearsed as carefully as the play. A dozen times the stage-director
+delivered it before his chief, who indicated the various phrases to be
+emphasized.
+
+It was during the era of the New Theater when the so-called "advanced
+drama" was much exploited. Frohman had little patience with this sort of
+dramatic thing. The little speech conveys something of his satirical
+feeling about the millionaire-endowed theatrical project which was then
+agitating New York.
+
+Here is the speech as Frohman wrote it:
+
+     _Ladies and Gentlemen:--My appearance here to-night is by way of
+     apology. I am here representing Mr. Charles Frohman--you may have
+     heard of him--the manager of this theater, the Empire._
+
+     _His idea in announcing a novelty in connection with Miss
+     Barrymore's play, "Cousin Kate," was really for the purpose of
+     getting you here once in time for the ringing up of the curtain.
+     This will be a special performance of a play to be given by a few
+     rising members of the School of Acting connected with this theater,
+     the Empire, of which he is proud--very proud. It is not an old
+     modern play, but what is called to-day "The Advanced Drama," made
+     possible here to-night by the momentary holiday of the New Theater,
+     and it is called "A Slice of Life."_
+
+During those desperate days when, like Heinrich Heine, he seemed to be
+lying in a "mattress grave," his dauntless humor never forsook him, as
+this little incident will show: Some years previous, Gillette suffered a
+breakdown from overwork. When the actor-playwright went to his home at
+Hartford to recuperate his sister remonstrated with him.
+
+"You must stop work for a long while," she said. "That man Frohman is
+killing you." Gillette afterward told Frohman about it.
+
+Frohman now lay on a bed of agony, and Gillette came to see him. The
+sick man remembered the episode of the long ago, and said, weakly, to
+his visitor:
+
+"Gillette, tell your sister that _you_ are killing me."
+
+With the martyrdom of incessant pain came a ripening of the man's
+character. Frohman developed a great admiration for Lincoln. Often he
+would ask Gillette to read him the famous "Gettysburg Address." Simple,
+haunting melodies like "The Lost Chord" took hold of him. Marie Doro was
+frequently summoned to play it for him on the piano. Although his
+courage did not falter, he looked upon men and events with a larger and
+deeper philosophy.
+
+During that first critical stage of the rheumatism he sank very low. His
+two devoted friends, Dillingham and Paul Potter, came to him daily. Each
+had his regular watch. Dillingham came in the morning and read and
+talked with the invalid for hours. He managed to bring a new story or a
+fresh joke every day.
+
+Potter reported at nine in the evening and remained until two o'clock in
+the morning, or at whatever hour sleep came to the relief of the sick
+man. One of the compensations of those long vigils was the phonograph.
+Frohman was very fond of a tune called "Alexander's Rag-Time Band." The
+nurse would put this record in the machine and then leave. When it ran
+out, Potter, who never could learn how to renew the instrument, simply
+turned the crank again. There were many nights when Frohman listened to
+this famous rag-time song not less than twenty times. But he did not
+mind it.
+
+In his illness Frohman was like a child. He was afraid of the night. He
+begged Potter to tell him stories, and the author of so many plays spun
+and unfolded weird and wonderful tales of travel and adventure. Like a
+child, too, Frohman kept on saying, "More, more," and often Potter went
+on talking into the dawn.
+
+Potter, like all his comrades in that small and devoted group of Frohman
+intimates, did his utmost to shield his friend from hurt. When Frohman
+launched a new play during those bedridden days Potter would wait until
+the so-called "bull-dog" editions of the morning papers (the very
+earliest ones) were out. Then he would go down to the street and get
+them. If the notice was favorable he would read it to Frohman. If it was
+unfriendly Potter would say that the paper was not yet out, preferring
+that the manager read the bad news when it was broad daylight and it
+could not interfere with his sleep.
+
+The humor and comradeship which always marked Frohman's close personal
+relations were not lacking in those nights when the life of the valiant
+little man hung by a thread. When all other means of inducing sleep
+failed, Potter found a sure cure for insomnia.
+
+"Just as soon as I talked to Frohman about my own dramatic projects," he
+says, "he would fall asleep. So, when the night grew long and the travel
+stories failed, and even 'Alexander's Rag-Time Band' grew stale, I would
+start off by saying: 'I have a new play in mind. This is the way the
+plot goes.' Then Frohman's eyes would close; before long he would be
+asleep, and I crept noiselessly out."
+
+Occasionally during those long conflicts with pain Frohman saw through
+the glass darkly. His intense and constant suffering, for the time, put
+iron into his well-nigh indomitable soul.
+
+"I'm all in," he would say to Potter. "The luck is against me. The star
+system has killed my judgment. I no longer know a good play from a bad.
+The sooner they 'scrap' me the better."
+
+His thin fingers tapped on the bedspread, and, like Colonel Newcome, he
+awaited the Schoolmaster's final call.
+
+"You and I," he would continue, "have seen our period out. What comes
+next on the American stage? Cheap prices, I suppose. Best seats
+everywhere for a dollar, or even fifty cents; with musical shows alone
+excepted. Authors' royalties cut to ribbons; actors' salaries pared to
+nothing. Popular drama, bloody, murderous, ousting drawing-room comedy.
+Crook plays, shop-girl plays, slangy American farces, nude women
+invading the auditorium as in Paris."
+
+"And then?" asked Potter.
+
+"Chaos," said he. "Fortunately you and I won't live to see it. Turn on
+the phonograph and let 'Alexander's Rag-time Band' cheer us up."
+
+He got well enough to walk around with a stick, and with movement came a
+return of the old enthusiasm. A man of less indomitable will would have
+succumbed and become a permanent invalid. Not so with Frohman. He even
+got humor out of his misfortune, because he called his cane his "wife."
+He became a familiar sight on that part of Broadway between the
+Knickerbocker Hotel and the Empire Theater as he walked to and fro. It
+was about all the walking he could do.
+
+He kept on producing plays, and despite the physical hardships under
+which he labored he attended and conducted rehearsals. With the pain
+settling in him more and more, he believed himself incurable. Yet less
+than four people knew that he felt that the old titanic power was gone,
+never to return.
+
+The great war, on whose stupendous altar he was to be an innocent
+victim, affected him strangely. The horror, the tragedy, the wantonness
+of it all touched him mightily. Indeed, it seemed to be an obsession
+with him, and he talked about it constantly, unmindful of the fact that
+the cruel destiny that was shaping its bloody course had also marked him
+for death.
+
+Early during the war he saw some verses that made a deep impression on
+him. They were called "In the Ambulance," and related to the experience
+of a wounded soldier. He learned them by heart, and he never tired of
+repeating them. They ran like this:
+
+    "_Two rows of cabbages;
+      Two of curly greens;
+    Two rows of early peas;
+      Two of kidney-beans._"
+
+    _That's what he's muttering,
+      Making such a song,
+    Keeping all the chaps awake
+      The whole night long._
+
+    _Both his legs are shot away,
+      And his head is light,
+    So he keeps on muttering
+      All the blessed night:_
+
+    "_Two rows of cabbages;
+      Two of curly greens;
+    Two rows of early peas,
+      And two of kidney-beans._"
+
+It was Frohman's intense feeling about the war, that led him to produce
+"The Hyphen." Its rejection by the public hurt him unspeakably. Yet he
+regarded the fate of the play as just one more phase of the big game of
+life. He smiled and went his way.
+
+The rheumatism still oppressed him, but he turned his face resolutely
+toward the future. War or peace, pain or relief, he was not to be
+deprived of his annual trip to England. He was involved in some
+litigation that required his presence in London. Besides, the city by
+the Thames called to him, and behind this call was the appeal of old and
+loved associations. With all his wonted enthusiasm he wrote to his
+friends at Marlow telling them that he was coming over and that he would
+soon be in their midst.
+
+Frohman now made ready for this trip. When he announced that he was
+going on the _Lusitania_ his friends and associates made vigorous
+protest, which he derided with a smile. Thus, in the approach to death,
+just as in the path to great success, opposition only made him all the
+more decided. With regard to his sailing on the _Lusitania_, this
+tenacity of purpose was his doom.
+
+Whether he had a premonition or not, the fact remains that he said and
+did things during the days before he sailed which uncannily suggested
+that the end was not unexpected. For one thing, he dictated his whole
+program for the next season before he started. It was something that he
+had never done before.
+
+When Marie Doro came to his office to say good-by he pulled out a little
+red pocket note-book in which he jotted down many things and suddenly
+said:
+
+"Queer, but the little book is full. There is no room for anything
+else."
+
+Just as he was warned not to produce "The Hyphen," so was he now
+cautioned by anonymous correspondents (and even by mysterious telephone
+messages) not to take the _Lusitania_. But all this merely tightened his
+purpose.
+
+He met the danger with his usual jest. On the day before he sailed he
+went up to bid his old friend and colleague, Al Hayman, good-by. Hayman,
+like all his associates, warned him not to go on the _Lusitania_.
+
+"Do you think there is any danger?" asked Frohman.
+
+"Yes, I do," replied Hayman.
+
+"Well, I am going, anyhow," was the answer.
+
+After he had shaken hands he stopped at the door and said, smilingly:
+
+"Well, Al, if you want to write to me just address the letter care of
+the German Submarine U 4."
+
+Those last days ashore were filled with a strange mellowness. Ethel
+Barrymore came down from Boston to see him. They had an intimate talk
+about the old days. When she left him she saw tears in his eyes. That
+night, just as she was about to go on in "The Shadow" in Boston, she
+received this telegram from him:
+
+     _Nice talk, Ethel. Good-by. C. F._
+
+The _Lusitania_ sailed at ten o'clock on Saturday morning, May 1, 1915.
+Even at the dock Frohman could not resist his little joke. When Paul
+Potter, who saw him off, said to him:
+
+"Aren't you afraid of the U boats, C. F.?"
+
+"No, I am only afraid of the I O U's," was the reply.
+
+[Illustration: COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY DANIEL FROHMAN
+
+_CHARLES FROHMAN ON BOARD SHIP_]
+
+In his farewell steamer letter to Dillingham, written as the huge ship
+was plowing her way down the bay, he drew a picture of a submarine
+attacking a transatlantic liner. The last lines he wrote on the boat
+were prophetic of his fate. Ann Murdock had sent him a large steamer
+basket in the shape of a ship. The lines to her, brought back by the
+ship's pilot, were:
+
+    _The little ship you sent is more wonderful
+    than the big one that takes me away from you._
+
+Like most of his distinguished fellow-voyagers, and they included
+Charles Klein, Elbert Hubbard, Justus Miles Forman, and Alfred G.
+Vanderbilt, Frohman had frequently traveled on the _Lusitania_. By a
+curious coincidence he had once planned to use her sister ship, the
+_Mauretania_, for one of his daring innovations. He had a transatlantic
+theater in mind. In other words, he proposed to produce whole plays on
+shipboard. He took over a small company headed by Marie Doro to try out
+the experiment. Early on the voyage Miss Doro succumbed to seasickness
+and the project was abandoned.
+
+The last journey of the _Lusitania_ was uneventful until that final
+fateful day. Frohman had kept to his cabin during the greater part of
+the trip. He was still suffering great pain in his right knee, and
+walked the deck with difficulty. Occasionally he appeared in the
+smoking-room, and was present at the ship's concert on the night before
+the end.
+
+At 2.33 o'clock on the afternoon of May 7th the great vessel rode to her
+death. Eight miles off the Head of Kinsale, and within sight of the
+Irish coast, she was torpedoed by a German submarine. She sank in half
+an hour, with frightful loss of life, including more than a hundred
+Americans.
+
+Frohman's hour was at hand, and he met it with the smiling equanimity
+and unflinching courage with which he had faced every other crisis in
+his life. When the crash came he was on the upper promenade deck. He had
+just come from his luncheon and was talking with George Vernon, the
+brother-in-law of Rita Jolivet, the actress, who was also on board. They
+were now joined by Captain Scott, an Englishman on his way from India to
+enlist. When Miss Jolivet reached them Frohman was smoking a cigar and
+was calm and apparently undisturbed.
+
+Scott went below to get some life-belts. He returned with only two. He
+had started up with three, but gave one to a woman on the way. Miss
+Jolivet had provided herself with a belt.
+
+Scott started to put one of the life-preservers on Frohman, who
+protested. Finally, with great reluctance, he acquiesced. There was no
+belt left for Scott. Frohman insisted that he get one, whereupon the
+soldier said:
+
+"If you must die, it is only for once."
+
+There was a responsive look and a whimsical smile on Frohman's face at
+this remark. He kept on smoking. Then he started to talk about the
+Germans. "I didn't think they would do it," he said. He was apparently
+the most unruffled person on the ship.
+
+The great liner began to lurch. Frohman now said to Miss Jolivet:
+
+"You had better hold on the rail and save your strength."
+
+The ship's list became greater; huge waves rolled up, carrying wreckage
+and bodies on their crest. Then, with all the terror of destruction
+about him, Frohman said to his associates, with the serene smile still
+on his face:
+
+"Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure of life."
+
+Instinctively the four people moved closer together, they joined hands
+by a common impulse, and stood awaiting the end.
+
+The ship gave a sudden lurch; once more a mighty green cliff of water
+came rushing up, bearing its tide of dead and debris; again Frohman
+started to say the speech that was to be his valedictory. He had hardly
+repeated the first three words--"Why fear death?"--when the group was
+engulfed and all sank beneath the surface of the sea.
+
+No situation of the thousands that he had created in the theater was so
+vividly or so unaffectedly dramatic as the great manager's own exit from
+the stage of life. Smilingly he had made his way through innumerable
+difficulties; smilingly and with the highest heroism he met his fate.
+
+The only survivor of the quartet that stood hand in hand on those
+death-cluttered decks was Miss Jolivet, and it was she who told the
+story of those last thrilling minutes.
+
+Charles Frohman's body was recovered the next day and brought to
+Queenstown. A fortnight later it reached New York. On the casket was the
+American flag that the dead man had loved so well. Though princes of
+capital, famous playwrights, and international authorities on law and
+art went down with him, the loss of Frohman overshadowed all others. In
+the eyes of the world, the loss of the _Lusitania_ was the loss of
+Charles Frohman.
+
+His noble and eloquent final words, so rich with courageous philosophy,
+not only joined the category of the great farewells of all time, but
+wherever read or uttered will give humanity a fresher faith with which
+to meet the inevitable. In a supreme moment of the most colossal drama
+that human passion ever staged, fate literally hurled him into the
+universal lime-light to enact a part that gave him an undying glory.
+The shyest of men became the world's observed.
+
+The last tribute to Charles Frohman was the most remarkable
+demonstration of sorrow in the history of the theater. The one-time
+barefoot boy of Sandusky, Ohio, who had projected so many people into
+eminence and who had himself hidden behind the rampart of his own
+activities, was widely mourned.
+
+The principal funeral services were held at the Temple Emanu-El in New
+York. Here gathered a notable assemblage that took reverent toll of all
+callings and creeds. It was proud to do honor to the man who had
+achieved so much and who had died so heroically.
+
+At the bier Augustus Thomas delivered an eloquent address that fittingly
+summed up the life and purpose of the greatest force that the
+English-speaking theater has yet known. Among other things he said:
+
+"A wise man counseled, 'Look into your heart and write': 'C. F.' looked
+into his heart and listened. He had that quoted quality of genius that
+made him believe his own thought, made him know that what was true for
+him in his private heart was true for all mankind. That was the secret
+of his power. It was the golden key to both his understanding and
+expression.
+
+"He was a fettered and a prisoned poet, often in his finest moments
+inarticulate. Working in the theater with his companies and stars, with
+the women and the men who knew and loved him, he accomplished less by
+word than by a radiating vital force that brought them into his
+intensity of feeling. In his social intercourse and comradeship, telling
+a dramatic or a comic story, at a certain pressure of its progress where
+other men depend on paragraphs and phrases he coined a near-word and a
+sign, and by a graphic and exalted pantomime ambushed and captured our
+emotions.
+
+"His mind was clear and tranquil as a mountain lake, its quiet depths
+reflecting all the varied beauty of the bending skies. He had the gift
+of epitome. The men who knew him best valued his estimate, not only of
+the things in his own profession, but of any notable event or deed or
+tendency. Often his spontaneous comment on a cabled utterance or act
+laid stress upon the word or moment that next day served as captions for
+the significant review. The printed thought of the leading statesman,
+the outlook of the financier, the decision of the commanding soldier, or
+the vision of the poet found kinship in his sympathy, not because he
+strove tiptoe to apprehend its elevation, but because his spirit was
+native to that plane."
+
+Coincident with the New York funeral, services were held at Los Angeles
+at the instigation of Maude Adams; at San Francisco under the
+sponsorship of John Drew; at Tacoma at the behest of Billie Burke; at
+Providence under the direction of Julia Sanderson, Donald Brian, and
+Joseph Cawthorn. Thus a nation-wide chain of grief linked the stars of
+the Frohman heaven.
+
+Nor did foreign lands fail to render homage to the memory of Charles
+Frohman. A memorial was held at St.-Martins-in-the-Fields, in London,
+almost within stone's-throw of the Duke of York's Theater, in which he
+took so much pride. In the presence of a distinguished company that
+included the chivalry and flower of the British theater, the sub-deacon
+of St. Paul's conducted services for the self-made American who had
+risen from advance-agent to be the theatrical master of his times.
+
+In Paris the French Society of Authors eulogized the man who had been
+their sympathetic envoy and sincere sponsor at the throne of American
+appreciation.
+
+Thus fell the curtain on Charles Frohman. As in life he had joined two
+continents by the bonds of his daring and courageous enterprise, so on
+his death did those two worlds unite to do him honor. He had not lived
+in vain.
+
+    _Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
+    So clear in his great office, that his virtues
+    Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
+    The deep damnation of his taking off._
+
+    --"Macbeth," I, vii.
+
+
+
+
+_Appendix A_
+
+THE LETTERS OF CHARLES FROHMAN
+
+
+Unlike many men of achievement, Charles Frohman was not a prolific
+letter-writer. He avoided letter-writing whenever it was possible. When
+he could not convey his message orally he resorted to the telegraph.
+Letters were the last resort.
+
+He had a sort of constitutional objection to long letters. The only
+lengthy epistles that ever came from him were dictated and referred to
+matters of business. They all have one quality in common. As soon as he
+had concluded the discussion of the topic in mind he would immediately
+tell about the fortunes of his plays. He seldom failed to make a
+reference to the business that Maude Adams was doing (for her immense
+success was very dear to his heart), and he always commented on his own
+strenuous activities. He liked to talk about the things he was doing.
+
+The really intimate Frohman letters were always written by hand on
+scraps of paper, and were short, jerky, and epigrammatic. Most of these
+were written, or rather scratched, to intimates like James M. Barrie,
+Paul Potter, and Haddon Chambers.
+
+As indicated in one of the chapters of this book, Frohman delighted in
+caricature. To a few of his friends he would send a humorous cartoon
+instead of a letter. He caricatured whatever he saw, whether riding on
+trains or eating in restaurants. If he wanted a friend to dine with him
+he would sketch a rough head and mark it "Me"; then he would draw
+another head and label it "You." Between these heads he would make a
+picture of a table, and under it scrawl, "Knickerbocker, Friday, 7
+o'clock."
+
+Frohman seldom used pen and ink. Most of his letters were written with
+the heavy blue editorial pencil that he liked to use. He wrote an
+atrocious hand. His only competitor in this way was his close friend
+Barrie. The general verdict among the people who have read the writing
+of both men is that Frohman took the palm for illegible chirography.
+
+Frohman could pack a world of meaning into his letters. To a
+fellow-manager who had written to Boston to ask if he had seen a certain
+actress play, he replied: "No, I have had the great pleasure of _not_
+seeing her act."
+
+His letters reflect his moods and throw intimate light on his character.
+He would always have his joke. To William Collier, who had sent him a
+box for a play that he was doing in New York, he once wrote: "I do not
+think I will have any difficulty in finding your theater, although a
+great many new theaters have gone up. Many old ones have 'gone up' too."
+
+His swift jugglery with words is always manifest. To Alfred Sutro he
+sent this sentence notifying him that his play was to go into rehearsal:
+"The die is cast--but not the play."
+
+Through his letters there shines his uncompromising rule of life.
+Writing to W. Lestocq, his agent in London, in reference to the English
+failure of "Years of Discretion," he said: "It is a failure, and that is
+the end of it. You can't get around failure, so we must go on to
+something else."
+
+* * *
+
+The number of available Frohman letters is not large. The following,
+gathered from various sources, will serve to indicate something of their
+character:
+
+_To an English author whose play, a weak one, was rapidly failing:_
+
+     No; it is not the war that is affecting your business. It is the
+     play--nothing else.
+
+_To Cyril Maude, whose penmanship is notably indecipherable:_
+
+     I can't read your handwriting very well; but I wonder if you can
+     read my typewriting. Just pretend I typed this myself.... Speaking
+     of hits, Granville Barker arrived yesterday, and the city suddenly
+     became terribly cold--awful weather. Barker will do well.
+
+_To Haddon Chambers:_
+
+     Last night we produced "Driven" against your judgment. The press
+     not favorable. But still I'm hoping.
+
+_To a colleague:_
+
+     I announced "Driven" as a comedy. Next day I called it a play. But
+     soon I may call it off.
+
+_To W. Lestocq:_
+
+     The American actors over here are worried about so many English
+     actors in our midst. I employ both kinds--that is, I want good
+     actors only.
+
+_To an English author:_
+
+     As to conditions here being bad for good plays; that is a joke. The
+     distressful business is for the bad plays that I and other managers
+     sometimes produce.
+
+_To one of his managers:_
+
+     Do not use the line "The World-Famous Tri-Star Combination." Just
+     say "The Great Three-Star Combination." It is easier to understand.
+     And all will be well.
+
+_To one of his managers who spoke of the superiority of an actress who
+had replaced another about to retire to private life:_
+
+     But now that her stage life is over we should remember her years of
+     good work. She had a simple, childish, fairy-like appeal. I write
+     this to you to express my feeling for one who has left our work for
+     good, and I can think now only of pleasant memories. I want you to
+     feel the same.
+
+_To an English author, January, 1915:_
+
+     Over here they say the real heroes of the year are the managers
+     that dare produce new plays.
+
+_To a business colleague about a singing comedian who was laid up with a
+serious illness:_
+
+     I am sorry he is sick. But that was a rotten thing for him to
+     do--to steal our song. I suppose he is better. Only the good die
+     young.
+
+_To Marie Doro:_
+
+     I saw you in the picture play. It and you were fine. What a lot of
+     money you make! When I return from London I'm going to see if I can
+     earn $10 a day to play in some of the screens. We are all going up
+     to the Atlantic Ocean Island to see them taking you in the "White
+     Pearl" pictures.
+
+_Refusing to go to a public banquet:_
+
+     That's the first free thing that has been offered me this year. But
+     there are three things my physician forbids me from doing--to eat,
+     drink, or talk.
+
+_To a manager:_
+
+     There are no bad towns--only bad plays!
+
+_On hearing that an actress in his employ had reflected on his
+management:_
+
+     In this message I am charged with neglecting your interests. This
+     is a shock to me, because when one neglects his trust, he is
+     dishonest. This is the first time I have ever been so accused, and
+     I am wondering if you inspired the message. I think it important
+     that you should know.
+
+_Being adjured by one of the family to take more exercise:_
+
+     I drove out to Richmond. Then I walked a mile. Now I hope you'll be
+     satisfied.
+
+_To his sisters (he lived then at the Waldorf, but joined the family at
+a weekly dinner up-town):_
+
+     I am sending you a cook-book by Oscar of this hotel. You may find
+     some use for it.
+
+When he came to the next weekly dinner he was offered several choice
+dishes prepared from Oscar's recipes. "I see my mistake," he said. "I
+wanted my usual home dinner. You give me what I receive all the time at
+the hotel."
+
+_To Alfred Sutro, in London:_
+
+     Give us something full of situations, and we will give you a bully
+     time again in America.
+
+_To William Seymour, his stage-manager, about a performance of one of
+his plays:_
+
+     When you rehearse to-day will you try and get the old woman out of
+     too much crying; get some smiles, and stop her screwing up her face
+     every time she speaks. Of course, it's nervousness, but it looks as
+     if she were ill.
+
+_To one of his associates:_
+
+     Miss Adams's receipts last week in Boston were the largest in the
+     history of Boston theaters or anywhere--$23,000. But I had some
+     others which I won't tell you about.
+
+_To an English author in 1913:_
+
+     At present the taste is "down with light plays, down with literary
+     plays." They want plays with dramatic situations, intrigue, sex
+     conflict. There is no use in giving the public what it does not
+     want and what they ought to have. I am just finding that out, with
+     much cost.
+
+_To a French agent:_
+
+     It seems a little reckless to be asked to pay $2,500 for the
+     privilege of reading a new French play. The author seems to want to
+     get rich quickly. I would be willing to add to his wealth if he has
+     something that can be produced without such a preliminary penalty.
+
+_To W. Lestocq:_
+
+     When one talks to an English author about "Diplomacy," he says,
+     "Oh, that's a theatrical play!" I wish I could get another like it.
+
+_To an English manager:_
+
+     A hundred theaters here are a few too many. Houses have closed on a
+     Saturday night without any warning. Boston, Chicago, and
+     Philadelphia have been better. You see we have this wonderful
+     country to fall back on, which makes it different from London.
+
+_To an author in London:_
+
+     What you say is quite true; a good play is a good play; but the
+     difficulty I find is to ascertain through the public and the
+     box-office what _they_ think is a good play. Our opinion is only
+     good for ourselves. But give me a dramatic play and I'll put it at
+     once to the test.
+
+_To Hubert Henry Davies, the dramatist, during an interim of that
+author's activities:_
+
+     It grieves me when I can't get your material going, especially as I
+     want to come over as soon as I can and get one of those nice
+     lunches in your nice apartment.
+
+_To the manager of an up-state New York theater regarding an impending
+first-night performance:_
+
+     I hope we shall draw a representative audience the first night. I
+     know audiences with you are sometimes a little reluctant about
+     first nights. I can't understand this myself. In my opinion there
+     is an extra thrill for them in the experience of a first
+     performance, as it is a special event.
+
+_To Granville Barker, January, 1913:_
+
+     I am very jealous of the Barrie plays, and I do want them for my
+     own theater for revivals.... I hear such good reports about your
+     Shakespearian work that I am awfully pleased. I have had a Marconi
+     from Shakespeare himself, in which he speaks highly of what you
+     have done for his work. I am sure this will be as gratifying to you
+     as it is to me.
+
+_Alluding to his painful rheumatism in a letter to George Edwardes, the
+producer, in England, January, 1913:_
+
+     I can't run twelve yards, but I can drink a lot of that bottled
+     lemonade of yours when I get over. In fact, at the moment I think
+     that is the best thing running in London.
+
+_In February, 1913, Frohman made frequent trips to Baltimore to rehearse
+and superintend the production of his plays in that city. He has this to
+say of Baltimore in a letter to Tunis F. Dean, manager of a theater
+there:_
+
+     I was glad to have an opportunity of seeing your fine theater, for
+     I have decided on a very important production with one of our
+     leading stars there next season. So that I shall spend a week in
+     Baltimore. I like that. There is no one living in Baltimore that
+     has a greater regard for that fine, dignified city. I have had it
+     for years, and with the beautiful theater and my feeling for
+     Baltimore and you at the head of that theater, I am looking forward
+     with pleasure to coming to you next season.
+
+_Frohman was simple, direct, and forcible in his criticism of plays. In
+rejecting a French play, he wrote to Michael Morton in defense of his
+judgment, New York, February, 1913:_
+
+     I was awfully glad you made arrangements for the play, the one I
+     don't like, and I hope the other fellow is right. These
+     three-cornered French plays are going to have a hard time over here
+     in the future unless they contain something that is pretty big,
+     novel, or human. The guilty wife is a joke here now, and they have
+     lots of fun when they play these scenes in these plays. The
+     American and English play is different. They get there quicker in a
+     different manner instead of the old-fashioned scheme. Of course,
+     French plays, as you say, may be laid in England and in America. I
+     understand that. But even then it seems to be about the same as if
+     they were in France.
+
+_His brief, epigrammatic style of criticism is evident in a letter to
+Charles B. Dillingham, wherein he speaks of a certain play under
+consideration:_
+
+     I think the end of the play is not good. It is that old-time
+     stand-around-with-a-glass-of-wine-in-your-hand and wish success to
+     the happy people.
+
+_Extracts from an interview with Frohman which he wrote for the London
+papers, March, 1913:_
+
+     There will be no change in my work of producing for the London
+     stage. I shall continue to do so at my own theaters or with other
+     London managers just as long as I am producing on any stage, and I
+     fear that will be for a long time yet, as I am younger now than I
+     was twenty years ago.
+
+_Prior to his departure for England he wrote the following to John Drew
+in March, 1913:_
+
+     Thanks for your fine letter. It is like this, John: I hope to get
+     off next week, but I don't seem to be able to get the
+     accommodations I want on either one of the steamers that I should
+     like to travel on, and that sail next week. I need a little special
+     accommodation on account of my leg, which still refuses to answer
+     my call and requires the big stick.
+
+_To Alfred Sutro, in January, 1913, on the current taste in plays:_
+
+     These American plays with thieves, burglars, detectives, and
+     pistols seem to be the real things over here just now. None of them
+     has failed.
+
+_Memorandum for his office-boy, Peter, for a week's supply of his
+favorite drinks:_
+
+     Get me plenty of orange-juice, lemon soda, ginger ale,
+     sarsaparilla, buttermilk.
+
+_To Alfred Sutro, 1913:_
+
+     Haddon Chambers sails to-day. You may see him before you see this.
+     He leaves behind him what I think will give him many happy returns
+     (box-office) of the season, as Miss Barrymore is doing so well with
+     his "Tante."
+
+_To W. Lestocq, concerning one of his leading London actresses:_
+
+     Miss Titheridge is all right, as I wrote Morton, if her emotions
+     can be kept down, and if she can try to make the audience act more,
+     and act less herself.
+
+_To Michael Morton regarding an actress:_
+
+     She needs to be told that real acting is not to act, but to make
+     the audience feel, and not feel so much herself.
+
+_To the editor of a popular monthly magazine upon its first birthday:_
+
+     I understand that your September issue will be made to mark ----'s
+     first birthday. Judging from your paper your birthday plans miss
+     the issue; because---- becomes a year younger every September. I do
+     _not_ congratulate you even upon this fact; because you cannot help
+     it. I do _not_ congratulate your readers because they get your
+     paper so very cheap. I _do_ congratulate myself, however, for
+     calling attention to these wonderful facts.
+
+_To W. Lestocq, referring to a statement made by R. C. Carton, the
+dramatist:_
+
+     I don't quite understand what he means by "holding up" the play.
+     Over here it is a desperate expression--one that means pistols and
+     murder, and all that. I presume it means something different in
+     London, where Carton lives.
+
+_To Mrs. C. C. Cushing, the playwright, declining an invitation:_
+
+     It is impossible to come and see you because I haven't got Cottage
+     No. 4, but I've got Cell No. 3 on the stage of the Empire Theater,
+     where I am passing the summer months.
+
+_Even Frohman's cablegrams reflected his humor. In 1913 Billie Burke was
+ill at Carlsbad, so he cabled her some cheering message nearly every
+day. Here is a sample:_
+
+     Drove past your house to-day and ran over a dog. Your brother
+     glared at me.
+
+_When Blanche Bates's first baby was born (she was at her country house
+near Ossining at the time), Frohman sent her this message:_
+
+     Ossining has now taken its real place among the communities of the
+     country. Congratulations.
+
+_To Alfred Sutro, January, 1913:_
+
+     I was glad to hear from you. First let me strongly advise you to
+     take the comedy side for the Alexander play. I honestly believe,
+     unless it is something enormous, and for big stars and all that,
+     the other side is no good any more. For the present, anyway, I
+     speak of my own country. The usual serious difficulties between a
+     husband and wife of that class--really they laugh at here now,
+     instead of touching their emotions. They have gone along so
+     rapidly. Take my advice in this matter, do! I am glad you have
+     dropped that scene from the third act of your Du Maurier play.
+
+     Now that I am back to town I intended writing you about it. I
+     assure you I had a jolly good time for the first two acts of that
+     farce, and I can see Gerald Du Maurier all through it. The third
+     act worries me for this country, as I wrote you. But the
+     performance may change all this. It is so difficult to judge
+     farcical work where it is so thoroughly English in its scene that I
+     speak of to get any idea from the reading of it for this country.
+     Everything is going along splendidly.
+
+_To Haddon Chambers, March, 1913:_
+
+     I propose, and the troupes dispose! We had a lot of floods and
+     things here which keep us on the move, or keep our troupes moving
+     so much that I am compelled to postpone my sailing until April 12th
+     on the _Olympic_, which makes it just a little later when I have
+     the joy of seeing you. My best regards.
+
+_To Richard Harding Davis, July, 1913:_
+
+     All right, we'll fix the title. I am glad they are asking about it.
+     About people, they all seem to want Collier salaries. As you have
+     chiefly character parts, and they are so good, I think it would be
+     a good idea for us to create a few new stars through you, and
+
+     Yours truly,
+
+     CHARLES FROHMAN.
+
+_To George Edwardes, July, 1913:_
+
+     First, I am glad to hear that you are away giving your heart a
+     chance. I am back here trying to give my pocket-book a chance.
+
+_To William Collier, September, 1913:_
+
+     All right, all arranged, Thursday night in New York; Monday and
+     Tuesday in Springfield, Massachusetts. I shall leave here Monday
+     ready to meet the performance and anything else! I hope all is
+     well.
+
+_To Viola Allen, September, 1913:_
+
+     I was awfully glad to get your letter. First let me say you had
+     better come to see "Much Ado About Nothing" this Saturday, because
+     it is the last week. We withdraw it to-morrow night and produce a
+     new program at once. "Much Ado" wouldn't do for more than two
+     weeks. After that it fell. Of course I find on Broadway it is quite
+     impossible to run Shakespeare to satisfying "star" receipts. So
+     come along to-morrow if you can. It would be fine to have you, and
+     fine to have some of the original members of the Empire company to
+     play in this house, and I should like it beyond words. I don't,
+     however, believe in that sex-against-sex play. In these great days
+     of the superiority of woman over mere man I don't think it would
+     do.
+
+_Referring to a young actress he wished to secure, he writes to Col.
+Henry W. Savage in January, 1913:_
+
+     My dear Colonel: I want to enter on your works in this way. You
+     have a girl called----. I know she is very good, because I have
+     never seen her act, but I understand she is not acting just as you
+     want her to, and therefore not playing, either because she is
+     laying off, or that you have stopped her from playing. I have a
+     part for which I could use this girl. Will you let me have her, and
+     in that way do another great wrong by doing me a favor? If she
+     doesn't, or you do not wish her to play, perhaps it would be as
+     much satisfaction to you if you thought you were doing me a favor
+     and let her play in my company as if she were not playing at all.
+     My best regards, and I hope this letter will not add much to the
+     many pangs of the season to you.
+
+_To Sir James M. Barrie, October, 1913:_
+
+     As I wrote you, I felt we had a good opportunity here under the
+     conditions here, and I produced your "The Dramatists Get What They
+     Want" last night. It went splendidly with the audiences, and has
+     very good press. Of course the class of first-night audience that
+     we had last night understood it. The censor is a new thing over
+     here. The general public don't understand it, and it may on that
+     account not make so strong an impression on further audiences.
+     However, that is all right. I am delighted with the way it went,
+     and you would have been delighted had you been present. I think the
+     press was very good when you consider the subject is so new to us.
+     The three plays have all, I assure you, been nicely done, well
+     produced and cast, and you would be pleased with them as I am
+     pleased in having had them to produce. It helped considerably with
+     plays that would not have made much of an impression without them.
+     It has helped the general business of these plays, which, although
+     it is not great, is good, and makes a fair average every week. It
+     is chiefly what you would call "stall" business. "The Will" has
+     been a fine thing for John Drew, and he is very happy in it. He has
+     made a very deep impression indeed. I think the part with the
+     changes of character as played by him has made it really a star
+     part. If you have any more of them, send them along.
+
+_To W. Somerset Maugham, October, 1913:_
+
+     Regarding the first act of "The Land of Promise," this is what I
+     think, and maybe you will think the same, and, if you do, give me a
+     good speech. Send it as soon as you can. I think that we should
+     have a different ending to the first act, uplifting the ending.
+     After the girl tells about her brother being married, wouldn't it
+     be a good idea for her to say something like this, in your own
+     language, of course: "Canada! Canada! You are right." (Turning to
+     Miss Pringle), "England, why should I stay in England? I'm young, I
+     want gaiety, new life. Then why not go to a young country where all
+     is life and gaiety and sunshine and joy and youth--the land of
+     promise, the land for me?" Remember, in the last act she speaks of
+     all she expected to find and how different the realization. This
+     new idea of the end of the first act will help this speech, I
+     think. And besides uplifting the ending, gives the great contrast
+     we want to show in the play and is driven into the minds of the
+     audience at the end of the first act. Give the girl a good
+     uplifting speech at the end of the first act, instead of a downward
+     one. That is what I mean. Then after that we get the contrast of
+     the countries. I hope this is clear and you will understand what I
+     mean.
+
+_To J. E. Dodson, October, 1913:_
+
+     My greatest regret is that my profession takes me to Baltimore on
+     the day that you are giving the dinner at the Lotus Club to my
+     friend Cyril Maude. It would give me the greatest pleasure to eat
+     his health with you. I rejoice that you are giving recognition on
+     his first arrival here in New York to such a sincere actor and such
+     a real man. He belongs to all countries.
+
+_To Haddon Chambers, June, 1911:_
+
+     Had a fine trip over. Found it hot here. Started in building your
+     scenery. Am only dropping you a line because I want to ask you,
+     while I think of it, if you will get a copy of that special morning
+     dress that Gerald wears at the beginning of the second act, for
+     Richard Bennett. I think it would be a good idea to bring it over.
+     Bennett is not quite as tall as Du Maurier and just a bit thicker,
+     and as it is a sort of loose dress there will be no difficulty in
+     fitting it here.
+
+     Now our cast is in good shape for your play, and I am very pleased
+     with it. We have an asylum full of children awaiting your selection
+     on your arrival.
+
+_To Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, August, 1911:_
+
+     The man I selected to produce your play is Charles Frohman. He is
+     not only good at producing plays that have never been staged
+     before, but he likes your play thoroughly. He has made such a
+     careful study of it that he believes that he knows it in every
+     detail. He feels confident of his ability to handle it and to make
+     the changes you have made just as he thinks you and your public
+     over here would like to have it done.
+
+_To Sir James M. Barrie, London, September, 1911:_
+
+     This will be signed for me, as I am still confined to my
+     bed--fighting rheumatism. I thought I would not write you until you
+     return to London. All goes well here. So far my new productions
+     have met with success. Miss Barrymore began in Mason's play last
+     night in Trenton, New Jersey. The play was well received before a
+     large audience. Miss Adams begins the new season in Buffalo next
+     Monday night. I am hoping within the next two weeks to be able to
+     get out on crutches. I have been to many rehearsals. They carry me
+     in a Bath chair to and from the theater.
+
+_To Somerset Maugham, September, 1911:_
+
+     Thanks for yours. I am still down with rheumatism--partly on
+     account of the weather, but more especially because you are not
+     doing any work.
+
+_To a New York critic, October, 1911:_
+
+     I hope in two or three weeks to be able to see myself as other good
+     critics, like you, would see me--well and about again in my various
+     theaters.
+
+_To Sir James M. Barrie, November, 1911:_
+
+     Your letter was a delight, and it will be fine news for Miss Adams.
+     I hope you will send the material as soon as you can. Here I am
+     dictating to you from bed; so I will be brief. My foot is now tied
+     to a rope which is tied to the bed with weights. They are trying to
+     stretch the leg. I am hoping that in three or four weeks I may be
+     able to sit around. Five months on one's back is not good for much
+     more than watching aeroplanes.
+
+_To Sir James M. Barrie, December, 1911:_
+
+     I was very glad to get your letter. I am still in bed, so that I am
+     obliged to dictate this letter to you. The manuscript arrived, but
+     found me out of condition to read it. I sent it on at once to Maude
+     Adams. She telegraphed me how delighted she is with it, and I have
+     had a letter from her telling me what a remarkable piece of work it
+     is. When she gets back to town I shall read the manuscript. Any
+     plan you work out for London will be fine. I should judge, without
+     knowing, that your idea for matinées is the best.
+
+     I am hoping that in another month I will be out; I am living on
+     that hope. Then I will commence to think about coming over to you.
+     I dare not think of it until I once more get out, I am afraid. All
+     this has naturally disturbed my London season. I am happy in the
+     thought that we will soon have "Peter" on again in London. What a
+     difference your plays made to my London season!
+
+     I shall write you again soon. "Peter and Wendy" is fine. My most
+     affectionate remembrances.
+
+_To Sir James M. Barrie, January, 1912:_
+
+     I cabled you on receiving your letter because my voice was leaving
+     me rapidly. It was a case of a bad throat, and I wanted to get some
+     reply to you quickly. My throat is better now. I have had about
+     everything, and I fear I shall have to keep to my rooms for some
+     time to come. I hope to see you around the end of March.
+
+     I think your Shakespearian play is a most wonderful work. I quite
+     appreciate all you say about its chances. I rather felt that a
+     Shakespearian novelty of this kind would be most striking if
+     produced by Tree on top of his newspaper claim of having lost over
+     40,000 pounds on Shakespeare.
+
+     I am all bungled up here. I don't know quite what to do about
+     London this season. As I understood what you wanted, I replied as I
+     did. You know how I hate to lose any of your work for anybody or
+     anywhere. Now you understand. That is splendid about the Phillpotts
+     play, and I thank you. I am hoping about the Pinero play. I shall
+     be glad to see you.
+
+     This is all the voice I have left for dictation; so I end with my
+     best regards.
+
+_To David Belasco, February, 1912:_
+
+     This is written for me. I am still confined to my rooms, and,
+     although able to sit up during the day for work, I do not get out
+     in the evening. I was glad to hear from you, and I hope you will
+     telephone that you will come round any old night that suits you.
+
+     I wish you could play "Peter Grimm" up here; I'd like to see it.
+
+_To Sir James M. Barrie, February, 1912:_
+
+     I haven't written you because lately I have been having a lot of
+     pain. I sent you papers which will tell you how wonderfully your
+     fine play--"A Slice of Life"--has been received. It has caused a
+     tremendous lot of talk; but I just want to tell you that there is
+     absolutely no comparison, in performance, as the play is given here
+     and the way it was given in London. Fine actors, although the
+     London cast had, my people here seem to have a better grasp of what
+     you wanted. They have brought it out with a sincerity and
+     intelligence of stroke that is quite remarkable. Ethel Barrymore
+     never did better work. Her emotional breakdown, tears, her
+     humiliation--when she confesses to her husband that she had been a
+     good woman even before she met him, all this is managed in a keener
+     fashion, and with even a finer display of stage pathos than she
+     showed in her fine performance in "Mid-Channel."
+
+     As the husband, Jack Barrymore is every inch a John Drew. He feels,
+     and makes the audience feel, the humiliation of his position. When
+     he confesses, it is a terrible confession. Hattie Williams, in her
+     odd manner, imitated Nazimova--as Nazimova would play a butler.
+
+     So these artists step out into the light--before a houseful of
+     great laughter; one feels that they have struck the true note of
+     what you meant your play should have. I think the impossible
+     seriousness of triangle scenes in modern plays has been swept off
+     the stage here--and "A Slice of Life" has done it....
+
+     The effect of "A Slice of Life" is even greater and more general
+     than "The Twelve-Pound Look." All agree that each year you have
+     given our stage the real novelty of its theatrical season. And the
+     fine thing about it is that you have given me the opportunity of
+     putting these before the public.
+
+     I am getting along very slowly. I am able to do my work in my rooms
+     and go on crutches for a couple of hours at rehearsals. But always
+     I am in great pain. I hope to see you by the end of March. I don't
+     know whether you will shake my hand or my crutch. But I expect to
+     be there. We can take up the matters of "A Slice of Life," etc.,
+     then.
+
+     I am so delighted about "Peter Pan" this season. I am wondering if
+     you have done anything about that Shakespeare play, which I believe
+     would be another big novelty.
+
+_To Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, March, 1912:_
+
+     Perhaps this will reach you on your return from the Continent. I
+     hope you have made a good trip and that you are happy.
+
+     I hope to give you for the "Mind the Paint Girl" Miss Billie Burke,
+     who is an enormous attraction here. She played in her little piece
+     from the French last week in St. Louis to $15,700. All the way
+     along the line her houses are sold out completely before her
+     appearance. Her play is only a slight thing--an adaptation from the
+     French, but play-goers seem to have gone wild over her. Besides
+     this, she is not only handsome, but every inch the very
+     personification of the "Paint Girl." Moreover, she is a genuinely
+     human actress. It will be a big combination for me to make--the
+     large cast required for the "Paint Girl," together with this
+     valuable star and your great play.
+
+_To John Drew, March, 1912:_
+
+     I am glad to hear from you and to know that you are having
+     freezingly cold weather in the South. The joke is on the people
+     here. They think you are having such nice warm weather.
+
+     I am getting along pretty well. I am about the same as when you
+     left me except that there is great excitement among my doctors
+     because I can now move my small toe.
+
+_To Sir James M. Barrie, September, 1913:_
+
+     "Half an Hour" has been going splendidly and had a fine reception
+     the first night. The majority of the press were splendid indeed,
+     one or two felt an awakening to see the change in the work that you
+     have been doing. I am awfully pleased the way it came out. I am
+     delighted to see that you have added another act to the "Adored
+     One." That makes it a splendid program for Miss Adams. Making it a
+     three-act play is fine for this side, as I cabled you. All the
+     Americans coming home who have seen your play are delighted with it
+     in every way. Hope all is going well. I am leaving to-morrow to
+     meet Maude Adams and see the piece that she is now playing called
+     "Peter Pan." I shall be away from New York for perhaps a week, and
+     on my return I will write you again fully.
+
+_To Alfred Sutro, September, 1911:_
+
+     You know how happy your success has made me. You know how I longed
+     for it. You know all that so thoroughly that words were not
+     necessary. My illness prevented me from reading the play. I shall
+     read it in eight or ten days. But it is all understood, and when I
+     get up and out I shall fix up all the business.
+
+     John Drew, who is now free of worry concerning his new production,
+     is to read "The Perplexed Husband" next week. I shall write you
+     then. But the main thing is, we have the success and can take care
+     of it. And I am extremely happy over it.
+
+_To J. A. E. Malone, the London manager, regarding the American
+presentation of "The Girl from Utah" and its instantaneous success:_
+
+     Believe me that the success is due entirely to the _American_
+     members, the _American_ work, and, of course, the _American_
+     stars.... The English numbers went for nothing. In short, the
+     American numbers caught on.
+
+_To Haddon Chambers, in London in 1914:_
+
+     There have been a number of failures already, but they would have
+     failed if every day was a holiday. There has been just now a new
+     departure here in play-writing--a great success--"On Trial." This
+     is by a boy twenty-one years of age. The scenes are laid in the
+     court-room, and as the witness gets to the dramatic part of the
+     story the scene changes and the characters are shown to act out the
+     previous incidents of the story that is told in court, and then
+     they go back to the court and work that way through the play. It
+     has been a great sensation and is doing great business.
+
+_Concerning one of his English productions in London, he writes Dion
+Boucicault:_
+
+     I want on my side to have you understand, however, that as far as I
+     am concerned I am keeping the theater open for the company and the
+     employees, and not for myself. I should have closed positively if I
+     had not my people in mind. That was my only reason....
+
+_To Dion Boucicault:_
+
+     It seems to me that there are too many English actors coming over
+     here, and I fear some of them will be in distress, because there
+     don't seem to be positions enough for all that are coming, and
+     people are wondering why so many are coming instead of enlisting.
+     It might be well for you to inform some of these actors that the
+     chances are not so great now, because there are so many here on the
+     waiting-list. I use a great _many_, but I also use a great _many_
+     Americans, as merit is the chief thing.
+
+_To Otis Skinner:_
+
+     I felt all that you now feel about the vision effect when I saw the
+     dress rehearsal. It looked to me like a magic-lantern scene that
+     would be given in the cellar of a Sunday-school.
+
+_To Dion Boucicault, October, 1914:_
+
+     I am despondent as to what to do in London. I'd rather close. I
+     don't want to put on things at losses, because I do not wish to
+     send money to cover losses to London now. The rates of exchange are
+     something terrific, and therefore I don't want to be burdened with
+     this extra expense. Twelve pounds on every hundred pounds is too
+     much for any business man to handle. Over here we are feeling the
+     effects of the war, but the big things (and I am glad to say I am
+     in some of them) are all right.
+
+_To an English actor about to enlist in the army:_
+
+     I have your letter. I am awfully sorry, but I haven't anything to
+     offer. So therefore I congratulate the army on securing your
+     services.
+
+_Declining an invitation for a public dinner:_
+
+     I thank you very much for your very nice invitation to be present
+     at the dinner, but I regret that, first, I do not speak at dinners,
+     and, next, I do not attend dinners.
+
+_One of the lines that Frohman wrote very often, and which came to be
+somewhat hackneyed, was to his general manager, Alf Hayman. It was:_
+
+     Send me a thousand pounds to London.
+
+_To W. Lestocq, in 1914, regarding another manager:_
+
+     I notice that Mr. Z---- has a man who can sign for royalties I send
+     him. I wonder why he can't find some one to sign for royalties that
+     are due me!
+
+_Of a production waiting to come to New York:_
+
+     Broadway may throw things when we play the piece here, still I have
+     failed before on Broadway.
+
+_To James B. Fagan, in London, December, 1912, referring to his
+production of "Bella Donna" in this country:_
+
+     Mr. Bryant is giving an exceptionally good performance of the part,
+     and is so much taken with my theater and company that I have the
+     newspapers' word that he married my star (Nazimova).
+
+_To Alfred Sutro, November, 1914:_
+
+     It seems to me that a strong human play, with good characters (and
+     clean), is the thing over here; and now, my dear Sutro, I do
+     believe that throughout the United States a play really requires a
+     star artist, man or woman--woman for choice....
+
+_To W. Lestocq, in November, 1914:_
+
+     I have just returned from Chicago, where Miss Adams has a very
+     happy and delightful program in "Leonora" and "The Ladies'
+     Shakespeare." "The Ladies' Shakespeare" is delightful, but very
+     slight. The little scenes that Barrie has written that are spoken
+     before the curtain are awfully well received, but the scenes from
+     Shakespeare's play when they are acted are very short and the whole
+     thing is played in less than an hour. Miss Adams, of course, is
+     delightful in it, and it goes with a sparkle with her; and as it is
+     so slight and so much Shakespeare and so little Barrie, although
+     the Barrie part in front of the curtain is fine, I cannot say how
+     it would go with your audiences [referring to the London public]. I
+     am happy in the thought, however, that Barrie has furnished Miss
+     Adams with a program that will last her all through the season and
+     well into the summer.
+
+_To Haddon Chambers:_
+
+     Hubert Henry Davies's "Outcast" has made a hit, but he really has a
+     wonderful woman--I should say the best young emotional actress on
+     the stage--in Miss Ferguson. So he is in for a good thing.
+
+_To Cyril Maude, in Boston, November, 1914:_
+
+     Yours to Chicago has just reached me here in New York. As soon as I
+     heard that you were going to write me to Chicago I immediately left
+     for New York.
+
+     I am glad you are doing so very big in Boston. They say you are
+     going to stay all season. Things are terrible with me in London,
+     and the interests I had outside of London have been shocking. I am
+     hoping and believing, however, that all will be well again on the
+     little island--the island that I am so devoted to.
+
+In this letter, it is worth adding, Frohman made one of his very rare
+confessions of bad business. He only liked to write about his affairs
+when they were booming.
+
+_To Margaret Mayo Selwyn, New York, November 30, 1914:_
+
+     I was glad to receive your letter. I have been thinking about the
+     revival of the play you mentioned. In fact, the thought has been a
+     long one--three years--but I haven't reached it yet. I have been
+     thinking more about the new play you are writing for me. I know you
+     now have a lot of theaters, a lot of managers, and a lot of
+     husbands and things like that, but, all the same, I _want_ that
+     play. My best regards.
+
+_Frohman loved sweets. He went to considerable trouble sometimes to get
+the particular candy he wanted. Here is a letter that he wrote to
+William Newman, then manager of the Maude Adams Company, in care of the
+Metropolitan Opera House, St. Paul:_
+
+     Will you go to George Smith's Chocolate Works, 6th and Robert
+     Streets, St. Paul, and get four packages of Smith's Delicious Cream
+     Patties and send them to me to the Knickerbocker Hotel, New York?
+
+_Frohman had his own way of acknowledging courtesies. A London friend,
+Reginald Nicholson, circulation manager of the Times, sent him some
+flowers to the Savoy. He received this reply from the manager, scrawled
+with blue pencil on a sheet of hotel paper:_
+
+     A lot of thanks from Savoy Court 81.
+
+Frohman's apartment for years at the Savoy Hotel was Savoy Court 81.
+
+_To Paul Potter, written from the Blackstone, Chicago, in February,
+1915:_
+
+Dear Paul:
+
+     I received your telegram, and was glad to get it. The sun is
+     shining here and all is well. I hope to see you Saturday night at
+     the Knickerbocker.
+
+C. F.
+
+This is in every way a typical Charles Frohman personal note. He usually
+had one thing to say and said it in the fewest possible words.
+
+_One day Frohman sent a certain play to his brother Daniel for
+criticism. On receiving an unfavorable estimate of the work he wrote him
+the following memorandum:_
+
+     Who are you and who am I that can decide the financial value of
+     this play? The most extraordinary plays succeed, and many that
+     deserve a better fate fail; so how are we to know until after we
+     test a play before the public?
+
+_In reply to Charles Burnham's invitation to attend the Theatrical
+Managers' dinner, he wrote:_
+
+     Thank you very much, but my condition is still such that my game
+     leg would require at least four seats, and as we now have at least
+     several managers to every theater, and several theaters in every
+     block, I haven't the heart to accept the needed room, and thus
+     deprive them of any.
+
+_Writing to E. H. Sothern and Julia Marlowe, in April, 1915, he said:_
+
+     I wonder why you don't both sail with me May 1 (_Lusitania_). As
+     far as I am concerned, when you consider all the stars I have
+     managed, mere submarines make me smile. But most affectionate
+     regards to you both.
+
+_Writing to John Drew, who was willing to prolong his touring season in
+1915, he says:_
+
+     All right. Why a young man like you cares to continue on his long
+     tours, I don't know. I hope to get away on May 1st and to return
+     shortly after you reach New York. Am in quest of something for you.
+     Our last talk before you left gave me much happiness.
+
+_Refusing to book his attractions in a city for a week where three
+nights were sufficient, he said:_
+
+     My stars like week stands, but they don't like weak business.
+
+_To Haddon Chambers, in London:_
+
+     I am hoping to get off on the _Lusitania_. It seems to be the best
+     ship to sail on. I shall be glad to see you.
+
+_Writing to S. F. Nixon, a business colleague, regarding Miss Barrymore
+in "The Shadow":_
+
+     You are quite right as to the play being terribly somber. I thought
+     it a good idea to show what a representative American actress of
+     serious parts she was; so that next season we will offer a
+     contrast, and make the audiences laugh so much that they will be
+     compelled to crowd the theater. She will play then as humorous a
+     part ("Our Mrs. McChesney") as she did so earnestly a serious one.
+
+_To J. C. O'Laughlin, of the Chicago_ Herald:
+
+     We managers have certain ideas about plays. We produce a play and
+     find our ideas and opinions often wrong. Our opinions are only
+     sound, I think, as far as the question of a play being actable is
+     concerned. My sympathetic feeling for all writers makes it very
+     hard to venture an opinion detrimental to their work, especially as
+     we find we are frequently wrong.
+
+_To one of his leading women, April, 1915:_
+
+     I appreciate the expression of your affection. It almost makes me
+     turn westward instead of eastward. However, we must do our jobs,
+     and so I do mine. I am sailing Saturday (per _Lusitania_). Heaven
+     only will know where I am in July. I cannot tell this year anything
+     about anything.
+
+_To Booth Tarkington:_
+
+     I don't suppose you have any idea of coming to New York. There are
+     a lot of fine things here worth your while, including myself.
+
+_Concerning Hubert Henry Davies, the author of "Outcast," Miss Elsie
+Ferguson's very successful vehicle:_
+
+     He is a delightful, charming, simple, splendid fellow. You will be
+     delighted with him, and Miss Ferguson will be more than delighted
+     with him, because he will be so delighted with her. It is a fine
+     thing to have so nice a man as Davies arrive, and entirely
+     misunderstanding the person he is to rehearse because the surprise
+     will be all the greater. It pleases me, knowing what a fine
+     emotional (one of the very best in the world) young actress our
+     star is.
+
+_To Harry Powers, manager of Powers Theater, Chicago, where his play
+"The Beautiful Adventure," with Ann Murdock, was then running:_
+
+     Regarding "The Beautiful Adventure," if I am doing wrong in making
+     a clean situation out of one that is not clean, I am going to do
+     wrong. The theater-going public in the cities may not always get a
+     good play from me, but they trust me, and I shall try and retain
+     that trust. We may not get the same amount of money, but if we can
+     live through it we will get a lot more satisfaction for those we
+     like and for ourselves.
+
+_Some of the last letters written by Frohman were filled with a curious
+tenderness and affection. In the light of what happened after he sailed
+they seem to be overcast with a strange foreboding of his doom. The most
+striking example of this is furnished in a letter he wrote to Henry
+Miller on April 29th, a few days before he went aboard the_ Lusitania.
+_He had not written to Miller for a year, yet this is what he said:_
+
+     Dear Henry: I am going to London Saturday A.M. I want to say
+     good-by to you with this--and tell you how glad I am you've had a
+     good season.
+
+Affectionately,
+C. F.
+
+Miller was immensely touched by this communication. He wired to his son
+Gilbert to find out what steamer Frohman was taking, and send him a
+wireless. This message was probably the last ever received by Frohman,
+for no other similar telegram was sent him in care of the _Lusitania_.
+
+_The last letter written by Frohman, before leaving the Hotel
+Knickerbocker on the morning the_ Lusitania _sailed, was to his intimate
+friend and companion Paul Potter. Potter, who had telephoned that he
+expected to meet him at the steamer, was much depressed, which explains
+one of the sentences in Frohman's letter:_
+
+Saturday A.M., May 1, 1915.
+
+     Dear Paul: We had a fine time this winter. I hope all will go well
+     with you. And I think luck is coming to you. I hope another
+     "Trilby." It's fine of you to come to the steamer with all these
+     dark, sad conditions.
+
+C. F.
+
+On his way to the _Lusitania_ Frohman stopped for a moment at his office
+in the Empire Theater. There he dictated a note to Porter Emerson
+Browne, the playwright. It was his last dictation. The note merely said,
+"Good-by. Keep me posted." He referred to a new play that Browne was
+writing for him.
+
+
+
+
+
+_Appendix B_
+
+COMPLETE CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE FROHMAN PRODUCTIONS
+
+
+Altogether Charles Frohman produced more than five hundred plays--a
+greater number than any other manager of his time. The list of his
+productions, therefore, is really a large part of the record of the
+English-speaking stage during the last quarter of a century.
+
+In the list which follows, the name of the star or stars appear
+immediately after the title of the piece. Except when otherwise
+indicated, the theater mentioned is in New York.
+
+Here is the complete list of Frohman's productions in chronological
+order:
+
+I
+
+PRODUCTIONS IN AMERICA
+
+_1883_
+
+PLAY                                DATE          THEATER
+
+_The Stranglers of Paris_           November 12   New Park
+
+
+_1884_
+
+
+_The Pulse of New York_             May 10        Star
+
+_Caprice_ (Minnie Maddern)          November 6    Indianapolis
+
+
+_1885_
+
+
+_Victor Durand Road tour with Wallack's Theater_ Co.
+
+_Moths_         "         "         "
+
+_Lady Clare_    "         "         "
+
+_Diplomacy_     "         "         "
+
+_La Belle Russe_"         "         "
+
+_The World_     "         "         "
+
+
+_1886_
+
+
+_The Golden Giant_                  April 11      Fifth Avenue (McKee Rankin)
+
+_A Toy Pistol_
+(Tony Hart)                         February 20   New York Comedy
+
+_A Wall Street Bandit_              September 20  Standard
+
+_A Daughter of Ireland_             October 18    Standard (Georgia Cayvan)
+
+_The Jilt_ (Dion Boucicault)        October 29    Standard
+
+
+_1887_
+
+
+_Baron Rudolph_                     October 24    Fourteenth Street
+
+_She_                               November 29   Niblo's Garden
+
+
+_1888_
+
+
+_Held by the Enemy_                 Road tour
+
+
+_1889_
+
+
+_Shenandoah_                        September 9   Star
+
+
+_1890_
+
+
+_The Private Secretary_             August 26     Grand Opera House
+
+_All the Comforts of Home_          September 8   Proctor's 23d Street
+
+_Men and Women_                     October 20    Lyceum
+
+
+_1891_
+
+
+_Mr. Wilkinson's Widows_            March 30      Proctor's 23d Street
+
+_Diplomacy_                         June 12       Los Angeles, Cal.
+
+_Jane_                              August 3      Madison Square
+
+_The Solicitor_
+(Henry E. Dixey)                    September 8   Hermann's
+
+_Thermidor_                         October 12    Proctor's 23d Street
+
+_The Man with a Hundred Heads_      November 2    Hermann's (Henry E. Dixey)
+
+_Miss Helyett_ (Mrs. Leslie Carter) November 3    Star
+
+_The Lost Paradise_                 November 16   Proctor's 23d Street
+
+_The Junior Partner_                December 8    Hermann's
+
+
+
+_1892_
+
+
+_Glorianna_                         February 15   Hermann's
+
+_Settled Out of Court_              August 8      Hermann's
+
+_The Masked Ball_ (John Drew)       October 3     Palmer's
+
+
+_1893_
+
+
+_The Girl I Left Behind Me_         January 25    Empire
+
+_Ninety Days_                       February 6    Broadway
+
+_Liberty Hall_                      August 21     Empire
+
+_Fanny_                             September 4   Standard
+
+_The Other Man_                     September 4   Garden
+
+_Lady Windermere's Fan_             October       Road tour
+
+_Charley's Aunt_                    October 2     Standard
+
+_The Younger Son_                   October 20    Empire
+
+_The Councillor's Wife_             November 6    Empire
+
+_Aristocracy_                       November 14   Palmer's
+
+
+_1894_
+
+
+_Sowing the Wind_                   January 2     Empire
+
+_Poor Girls_                        January 22    American
+
+_The Butterflies_ (John Drew)       February 5    Palmer's
+
+_Gudgeons_ and
+
+
+_The Luck of Roaring Camp_          May 14        Empire
+
+_The Bauble Shop_ (John Drew)       September 11  Empire
+
+_The New Boy_                       September 17  Standard
+
+_Too Much Johnson_                  November 26   Standard
+
+_The Masqueraders_ (John Drew)      December 3    Empire
+
+_The Fatal Card_                    December 31   Palmer's
+
+
+_1895_
+
+
+_The Foundling_                     February 25   Hoyt's
+
+_John A'Dreams_                     March 18      Empire
+
+_The Importance of Being Earnest_   April 22      Empire
+
+_The Sporting Duchess_              August 29     Academy of Music
+
+_The City of Pleasure_              September 2   Empire
+
+_That Imprudent Young Couple_       September 22  Empire
+  (John Drew)
+
+_The Gay Parisians_                 September 23  Hoyt's
+
+_Christopher Jr._ (John Drew)       October 7     Empire
+
+_Denise_ (Olga Nethersole)          December 2    Empire
+
+_Frou Frou_ (Olga Nethersole)       December 5    Empire
+
+_Camille_ (Olga Nethersole)         December 9    Empire
+
+_Carmen_ (Olga Nethersole)          December 24   Empire
+
+
+_1896_
+
+
+_Michael and His Lost Angel_        January 15    Empire
+
+_The Squire of Dames_ (John Drew)   January 20    Empire
+
+_A Woman's Reason_                  January 27    Empire
+
+_A Social Highwayman_               February 3    Garrick
+  (E. M. and Joseph Holland)
+
+_Marriage_                          February 17   Empire
+
+_Bohemia_                           March 9       Empire
+
+_Thoroughbred_                      April 20      Garrick
+
+_Rosemary_ (John Drew)              August 31     Empire
+
+_The Liars_                         September 7   Hoyt's
+
+_Albert Chevalier_                  September 7   Garrick
+
+_Sue_ (Annie Russell)               September 15  Hoyt's
+
+_Secret Service_                    October 5     Garrick
+
+_Honors Are Easy_                   November 9    Montauk, Brooklyn
+
+_Two Little Vagrants_               November 23   Academy of Music
+
+_Under the Red Robe_                December 28   Empire
+
+
+_1897_
+
+
+_Heartsease_ (Henry Miller)         January 11    Garden
+
+_Spiritissime_                      February 22   Knickerbocker
+
+_Never Again_                       March 8       Garrick
+
+_Courted Into Court_                August 30     Newark, N. J.
+
+_The Little Minister_ (Maude Adams) September 27  Empire
+
+_The Proper Caper_                  October 4     Hoyt's
+
+_The First Born_ and
+_A Night Session_                   October 5     Manhattan
+
+_A Marriage of Convenience_         November 8    Empire
+  (John Drew)
+
+_The White Heather_                 November 22   Academy of Music
+
+
+_1898_
+
+
+_Salt of the Earth_                 January 3     Wallack's
+
+_The Conquerors_                    January 4     Empire
+
+_The Circus Girl_                   January 17    Columbia, Brooklyn
+
+_Oh, Susannah_                      February 7    Hoyt's
+
+_One Summer's Day_ (John Drew)      February 14   Wallack's
+
+_The Master_ (Henry Miller)         February 15   Garden
+
+_Little Miss Nobody_                September 5   Philadelphia
+
+_A Brace of Partridges_             September 7   Madison Square
+
+_The Countess Valeska_              September 26  Troy, N. Y.
+  (Julia Marlowe)
+
+_On and Off_                        October 17    Madison Square
+
+_Catherine_ (Annie Russell)         October 24    Garrick
+
+_As You Like It_ (Julia Marlowe)    November 7    Omaha, Nebraska
+
+_Phroso_                            December 26   Empire
+
+_Ingomar_ (Julia Marlowe)           December 26   Indianapolis
+
+
+_1899_
+
+
+_Because She Loved Him So_          January 16    Madison Square
+
+_Her Atonement_                     February 13   Academy of Music
+
+_Lord and Lady Algy_                February 14   Empire
+
+_The Cuckoo_                        April 3       Wallack's
+
+_Colinette_ (Julia Marlowe)         April 10      Knickerbocker
+
+_Romeo and Juliet_ (Maude Adams)    May 8         Empire
+
+_His Excellency the Governor_       May 22        Empire
+
+_Hamlet_ (Henry Miller)             August 1      San Francisco
+
+_The Girl from Maxim's_             August 29     Criterion
+
+_Miss Hobbs_ (Annie Russell)        September 7   Lyceum
+
+_The Tyranny of Tears_ (John Drew)  September 11  Empire
+
+_The Only Way_ (Henry Miller)       September 16  Herald Square
+
+_Barbara Fritchie_ (Julia Marlowe)  October 23    Criterion
+
+_Sherlock Holmes_                   November 6    Garrick
+  (William Gillette)
+
+_Make Way for the Ladies_           November 13   Madison Square
+
+_My Lady's Lord_                    December 25   Empire
+
+
+_1900_
+
+
+_Brother Officers_                  January 15    Empire
+
+_The Surprises of Love_             January 22    Lyceum
+
+_Coralie & Co., Dressmakers_        February 5    Madison Square
+
+_Hearts Are Trumps_                 February 21   Garden
+
+_My Daughter-in-Law_                February 26   Lyceum
+
+_A Man and His Wife_ and
+
+
+_The Bugle Call_                    April 2       Empire
+
+_The Tree of Knowledge_             July 2        San Francisco
+  (Henry Miller)
+
+_A Royal Family_ (Annie Russell)    September 5   Lyceum
+
+_The Rose of Persia_                September 6   Daly's
+
+_The Husband of Leontine_           September 8   Madison Square
+
+_Richard Carvel_ (John Drew)        September 11  Empire
+
+_David Harum_ (W. H. Crane)         October 1     Garrick
+
+_Self and Lady_                     October 8     Madison Square
+
+_L'Aiglon_ (Maude Adams)            October 22    Knickerbocker
+
+
+_1901_
+
+
+_Mrs. Dane's Defense_               January 7     Empire
+
+_The Girl from Up There_            January 8     Herald Square
+  (Edna May)
+
+_My Lady Dainty_                    January 8     Madison Square
+  (Herbert Kelcey and Effie Shannon)
+
+_Captain Jinks_ (Ethel Barrymore)   February 4    Garrick
+
+_Under Two Flags_                   February 5    Garden
+
+_The Lash of a Whip_                February 25   Lyceum
+
+_To Have and To Hold_               March 4       Knickerbocker
+
+_Manon Lescaut_                     March 19      Wallack's
+  (Kelcey and Shannon)
+
+_Are You a Mason?_                  April 1       Wallack's
+
+_A Royal Rival_                     August 26     Criterion
+  (William Faversham)
+
+_The Second in Command_             September 2   Empire
+  (John Drew)
+
+_A Message from Mars_               October 7     Garrick
+  (Charles Hawtrey)
+
+_Eben Holden_                       October 28    Savoy
+
+_Quality Street_ (Maude Adams)      November 11   Knickerbocker
+
+_Alice of Old Vincennes_            December 2    Garden
+  (Virginia Harned)
+
+_The Girl and the Judge_            December 4    Lyceum
+  (Annie Russell)
+
+_The Wilderness_                    December 23   Empire
+
+_Sweet and Twenty_                  December 30   Madison Square
+
+
+_1902_
+
+
+_Colorado_                          January 12    Grand Opera House
+
+_The Twin Sister_                   March 3       Empire
+
+_Sky Farm_                          March 17      Garrick
+
+_The New Clown_                     August 25     Garrick
+
+_The Mummy and the Humming-Bird_    September 4   Empire
+  (John Drew)
+
+_There's Many a Slip_               September 15  Garrick
+
+_Aunt Jeanne_                       September 16  Garden
+  (Mrs. Patrick Campbell)
+
+_Iris_ (Virginia Harned)            September 22  Criterion
+
+_Two Schools_                       September 29  Madison Square
+
+_The Second Mrs. Tanqueray_         October 6     Garden
+  (Mrs. Patrick Campbell)
+
+_A Country Mouse_ and
+_Carrots_                           October 6     Savoy
+(Ethel Barrymore)
+
+_Everyman_                          October 12    Mendelssohn Hall
+  (Edith Wynne Mathison and Charles Rann Kennedy)
+
+_The Joy of Living_                 October 23    Garden
+  (Mrs. Patrick Campbell)
+
+_Imprudence_ (William Faversham)    November 7    Lyceum
+
+_The Girl with the Green Eyes_      December 25   Savoy
+  (Clara Bloodgood)
+
+
+_1903_
+
+
+_A Bird in the Cage_                January 12    Bijou
+
+_The Unforeseen_                    January 12    Empire
+
+_Mice and Men_ (Annie Russell)      January 19    Garrick
+
+_Three Little Maids_ (G. P. Huntley) August 31    Daly's
+
+_Ulysses_                           September 14  Garden
+
+_Drink_ (Charles Warner)            September 14  Academy of Music
+
+_The Man from Blankley's_           September 14  Criterion
+  (Charles Hawtrey)
+
+_Captain Dieppe_ (John Drew)        September 14  Herald Square
+
+_Lady Rose's Daughter_              September 24  Garrick
+  (Fay Davis)
+
+_The Spenders_ (W. H. Crane)        October 5     Savoy
+
+_The Best of Friends_               October 19    Academy of Music
+
+_Cousin Kate_ (Ethel Barrymore)     October 19    Hudson
+
+_Charlotte Wiehe_ (French Players)  October 21    Vaudeville
+
+_The Girl from Kay's_               November 2    Herald Square
+  (Sam Bernard)
+
+_The Pretty Sister of José_         November 9    Empire
+  (Maude Adams)
+
+_The Admirable Crichton_            November 16   Lyceum
+  (William Gillette)
+
+_Elizabeth's Prisoner_              November 23   Criterion
+  (William Faversham)
+
+_Whitewashing Julia_                December 2    Garrick
+  (Fay Davis)
+
+_The Other Girl_                    December 23   Criterion
+
+_Glad of It_ (Millie James)         December 28   Savoy
+
+
+_1904_
+
+
+_My Lady Molly_ (Andrew Mack)       January 4     Daly's
+
+_The Light that Lies in Woman's Eyes_
+ (Virginia Harned)                  January 25    Criterion
+
+_The Younger Mrs. Parling_          January 25    Garrick
+  (Annie Russell)
+
+_Man Proposes_ (Henry Miller)       March 14      Hudson
+
+_The Dictator_ (William Collier)    April 4       Criterion
+
+_Saucy Sally_ (Charles Hawtrey)     April 4       Lyceum
+
+_Camille_                           April 18      Hudson
+  (Margaret Anglin and Henry Miller)
+
+_When Knighthood Was in Flower_     May 2         Empire
+  (Julia Marlowe)
+
+_Yvette_ (Hattie Williams)          May 12        Knickerbocker
+
+_Ben Greet Players_                 October 5
+
+_The School Girl_ (Edna May)        September 1   Daly's
+
+_The Duke of Killiecrankie_         September 5   Empire
+  (John Drew)
+
+_Letty_ (William Faversham)         September 12  Hudson
+
+_Business is Business_              September 19  Hudson
+  (W. H. Crane)
+
+_The Coronet of the Duchess_        September 21  Garrick
+  (Clara Bloodgood)
+
+_The Sorceress_                     October 10    New Amsterdam
+  (Mrs. Patrick Campbell)
+
+_Joseph Entangled_ (Henry Miller)   October 10    Garrick
+
+_Shakespearian Repertory_           October 17    Knickerbocker
+  (Julia Marlowe and E. H. Sothern)
+
+_Granny_ (Mrs. G. H. Gilbert)       October 24    Lyceum
+
+_David Garrick_                     November 14   Lyceum
+  (Charles Wyndham)
+
+_The Rich Mrs. Repton_              November 14   Criterion
+  (Fay Davis)
+
+_Sunday_ (Ethel Barrymore)          November 14   Hudson
+
+_Brother Jacques_ (Annie Russell)   December 5    Garrick
+
+_Mrs. Goringe's Necklace_           December 12   Lyceum
+  (Charles Wyndham)
+
+_A Wife Without a Smile_            December 19   Criterion
+  (Margaret Illington)
+
+
+_1905_
+
+
+_Cousin Billy_ (Francis Wilson)     January 2     Criterion
+
+_The Case of Rebellious Susan_      January 9     Lyceum
+  (Charles Wyndham)
+
+_Mrs. Leffingwell's Boots_          January 11    Savoy
+
+_Friquet_ (Marie Doro)              January 30    Savoy
+
+_'Op o' My Thumb_                   February 6    Empire
+  (Maude Adams)
+
+_Jinny the Carrier_ (Annie Russell) April 10      Criterion
+
+_The Freedom of Suzanne_            April 17      Empire
+ (Marie Tempest)
+
+_The Rollicking Girl_               May 1         Herald Square
+  (Sam Bernard)
+
+_A Doll's House_                    May 2         Lyceum
+  (Ethel Barrymore)
+
+_The Catch of the Season_           August 28     Daly's
+  (Edna May)
+
+_De Lancey_ (John Drew)             September 4   Empire
+
+_The Beauty and the Barge_          September 6   Lyceum
+  (Nat C. Goodwin)
+
+_Just Out of College_               September 27  Lyceum
+  (Joseph Wheelock)
+
+_Shakespearian Repertory_           October 16    Knickerbocker
+  (Julia Marlowe and E. H. Sothern)
+
+_Wolfville_ (Nat C. Goodwin)        October 20    Philadelphia
+
+_Peter Pan_ (Maude Adams)           November 6    Empire
+
+_On the Quiet_ (William Collier)    November 27   Criterion
+
+_La Belle Marseillaise_             November 27   Knickerbocker
+  (Virginia Harned)
+
+_Alice Sit By the Fire_ and
+_Pantaloon_                         December 25   Criterion
+  (Ethel Barrymore)
+
+
+_1906_
+
+
+_Mispah_                            January 22   Baltimore
+
+_The Duel_ (Otis Skinner)           February 12   Criterion
+
+_The Mountain Climber_              March 5       Criterion
+  (Francis Wilson)
+
+_The American Lord_ (W. H. Crane)   April 16      Hudson
+
+_The Little Father of the Wilderness_ April 16    Criterion
+  (Francis Wilson)
+
+_The Little Cherub_                 August 6      Criterion
+  (Hattie Williams)
+
+_The Price of Money_                August 29     Garrick
+  (W. H. Crane)
+
+_The Hypocrites_                    August 30     Hudson
+  (Doris Keane and Richard Bennett)
+
+_The Judge and Jury_                September 1   Wallack's
+
+_His House in Order_ (John Drew)    September 3   Empire
+
+_Clarice_ (William Gillette)        October 15    Garrick
+
+_The House of Mirth_ (Fay Davis)    October 22    Savoy
+  (William Collier)
+
+_The Rich Mr. Hoggenheimer_         October 22    Wallack's
+  (Sam Bernard)
+
+_Caught in the Rain_                December 31   Garrick
+
+
+_1907_
+
+
+_The Truth_ (Clara Bloodgood)       January 7     Criterion
+
+_Captain Brassbound's Conversion_   January 28    Empire
+  (Ellen Terry)
+
+_Good Hope and Nance Oldfield_      February 11   Empire
+  (Ellen Terry)
+
+_The Silver Box_ (Ethel Barrymore)  March 18      Empire
+
+_When Knights Were Bold_            August 20     Garrick
+  (Francis Wilson)
+
+_The Dairymaids_                    August 26     Criterion
+  (Julia Sanderson and G. P. Huntley)
+
+_My Wife_ (John Drew)               August 31     Empire
+
+_The Thief_                         September 9   Lyceum
+  (Margaret Illington and Kyrle Bellew)
+
+_The Morals of Marcus_              November 18   Criterion
+  (Marie Doro)
+
+_The Toymaker of Nuremberg_         November 25   Garrick
+
+_Her Sister_ (Ethel Barrymore)      December 25   Hudson
+
+_Miss Hook of Holland_              December 31   Criterion
+  (Thomas Wise)
+
+
+_1908_
+
+
+_The Jesters_ (Maude Adams)         January 13    Empire
+
+_Twenty Days in the Shade_          January 20    Savoy
+  (Pauline Frederick and Richard Bennett)
+
+_The Honor of the Family_           February 17   Hudson
+  (Otis Skinner)
+
+_The Irish Players_                 February 17   Savoy
+
+_Father and the Boys_ (W. H. Crane) March 2       Empire
+
+_Toddles_ (John Barrymore)          March 16      Garrick
+
+_Love Watches_ (Billie Burke)       August 27     Lyceum
+
+_The Mollusc_                       September 2   Garrick
+  (Alexandra Carlisle and Joseph Coyne)
+
+_The Girls of Gottenberg_           September 2   Knickerbocker
+  (Gertie Millar)
+
+_Diana of Bobson's_                 September 5   Savoy
+  (Carlotta Nilsson)
+
+_Fluffy Ruffles_ (Hattie Williams)  September 7   Criterion
+
+_Jack Straw_ (John Drew)            September 14  Empire
+
+_Miss Hook of Holland_              October 2     Albany
+  (Frank Daniels)
+
+_Samson_ (William Gillette)         October 19    Criterion
+
+_Lady Frederick_ (Ethel Barrymore)  November 9    Hudson
+
+_The Patriot_ (William Collier)     November 23   Garrick
+
+The Sicilian Players                November 23   Broadway
+
+_What Every Woman Knows_            December 23   Empire
+  (Maude Adams)
+
+
+_1909_
+
+
+_Kitty Grey_ (G. P. Huntley)        January 25    New Amsterdam
+
+_The Richest Girl_ (Marie Doro)     March 1       Criterion
+
+_An Englishman's Home_              March 23      Criterion
+
+_The Happy Marriage_                April 12      Garrick
+  (Doris Keane and Edwin Arden)
+
+_The Mollusc_                       June 7        Empire
+  (Sir Charles Wyndham and Mary Moore)
+
+Isadora Duncan in Classical Dances  August 18     Criterion
+
+_Detective Sparkes_                 August 23     Garrick
+  (Hattie Williams)
+
+_Arsène Lupin_ (William Courtnay)   August 26     Lyceum
+
+_The Flag Lieutenant_               August 30     Criterion
+  (Bruce McRae)
+
+_The Dollar Princess_               September 6   Knickerbocker
+  (Donald Brian)
+
+_Inconstant George_ (John Drew)     September 20  Empire
+
+_Samson_ (James K. Hackett)         October 1     Atlantic City
+
+_The Harvest Moon_ (George Nash)    October 15    Garrick
+
+_Israel_ (Constance Collier)        October 25    Criterion
+
+_A Builder of Bridges_              October 26    Hudson
+  (Kyrle Bellew)
+
+_Penelope_ (Marie Tempest)          December 13   Lyceum
+
+_The Bachelor's Baby_               December 27   Criterion
+  (Francis Wilson)
+
+_Fires of Fate_                     December 28   Liberty
+
+
+_1910_
+
+
+_Your Humble Servant_               January 3     Garrick
+  (Otis Skinner)
+
+_The Arcadians_ (Julia Sanderson)   January 17    Liberty
+
+_A Lucky Star_ (William Collier)    January 18    Hudson
+
+_Mrs. Dot_ (Billie Burke)           January 24    Lyceum
+
+_Mid-Channel_ (Ethel Barrymore)     January 31    Empire
+
+_Caste_                             April 25      Empire
+  (Marie Tempest, Elsie Ferguson, G. P. Huntley, Edwin Arden)
+
+_Love Among the Lions_              August 8      Garrick
+  (A. E. Matthews)
+
+_The Brass Bottle_                  August 11     Lyceum
+
+_Our Miss Gibbs_ (Pauline Chase)    August 29     Knickerbocker
+
+_Smith_ (John Drew)                 September 5   Empire
+
+_Decorating Clementine_             September 19  Lyceum
+  (Hattie Williams and G. P. Huntley)
+
+_A Thief in the Night_              September 30  Atlantic City
+  (Marie Tempest)
+
+_The Scandal_ (Kyrle Bellew)        October 17    Garrick
+
+_Electricity_ (Marie Doro)          October 31    Lyceum
+
+_Raffles_ (Kyrle Bellew)            November 1    Garrick
+
+_The Speckled Band_                 November 21   Garrick
+  (Edwin Stevens)
+
+_The Foolish Virgin_                December 19   Knickerbocker
+  (Mrs. Patrick Campbell)
+
+_Suzanne_ (Billie Burke)            December 26   Lyceum
+
+_United States Minister Bedloe_     December 28   Trenton, N. J.
+  (W. H. Crane)
+
+
+_1911_
+
+
+_The Philosopher in the Apple Orchard_
+  (Billie Burke)                    January 20    Lyceum
+
+_Chantecler_ (Maude Adams)          January 23    Knickerbocker
+
+_Sire_ (Otis Skinner)               January 24    Criterion
+
+_The Twelve-Pound Look_             February 13   Empire
+  (Ethel Barrymore)
+
+_The Zebra_                         February 13   Garrick
+
+William Gillette in Repertory       March 13      Empire
+
+_The Siren_ (Donald Brian)          August 28     Knickerbocker
+
+_A Single Man_ (John Drew)          September 4   Empire
+
+_The Mollusc_ (Kyrle Bellew)        September 11  Buffalo
+
+_Passers-By_ (Richard Bennett)      September 14  Criterion
+
+_The Other Mary_                    September 21  Utica
+  (Madame Nazimova)
+
+_The Runaway_ (Billie Burke)        October 9     Lyceum
+
+_The Butterfly on the Wheel_        October 26    Atlantic City
+  (Marie Doro)
+
+_The Marionettes_                   December 3    Lyceum
+  (Madame Nazimova)
+
+_The Witness for the Defense_       December 4    Empire
+  (Ethel Barrymore)
+
+_Kismet_--with Klaw & Erlanger      December 25   Knickerbocker
+  (Otis Skinner)
+
+
+_1912_
+
+
+_A Slice of Life_                   January 29    Empire
+  (Ethel Barrymore, Hattie Williams, and John Barrymore)
+
+_Lady Patricia_ (Mrs. Fiske)        February 26   Empire
+
+_Preserving Mr. Panmure_            February 27   Lyceum
+  (Gertrude Elliott)
+
+_Oliver Twist_                      March 25      Empire
+  (Nat C. Goodwin, Marie Doro, Constance Collier, and Lyn Harding)
+
+_The Girl from Montmartre_          August 5      Criterion
+  (Hattie Williams and Richard Carle)
+
+_The Model_ (William Courtleigh)    August 31     Harris
+
+_The Perplexed Husband_             September 2   Empire
+  (John Drew)
+
+_Mind the Paint Girl_ (Billie Burke) September 9  Lyceum
+
+_Passers-by_ (Charles Cherry)       September 19  Utica
+
+_The Attack_ (John Mason)           September 23  Garrick
+
+_Bella Donna_ (Madame Nazimova)     November 11   Empire
+
+_The Conspiracy_ (John Emerson)     December 23   Garrick
+
+
+_1913_
+
+
+_The Spy_ (Edith Wynne Mathison)    January 13    Empire
+
+_The New Secretary_                 January 27    Lyceum
+  (Marie Doro and Charles Cherry)
+
+_The Sunshine Girl_                 February 3    Knickerbocker
+  (Julia Sanderson)
+
+_Liberty Hall_ (John Mason)         March 11      Empire
+
+_The Witness for the Defense_       March 27      Poughkeepsie, N. Y.
+  (Blanche Bates)
+
+_The Amazons_ (Billie Burke)        April 28      Empire
+
+_The Doll Girl_                     August 23     Globe
+  (Hattie Williams and Richard Carle)
+
+_Much Ado About Nothing_            September 1   Empire
+    (John Drew)
+
+_Who's Who?_ (William Collier)      September 15  Criterion
+
+_The Marriage Market_               September 22  Knickerbocker
+  (Donald Brian)
+
+_The Will_ (John Drew)              September 29  Empire
+
+_The Tyranny of Tears_ (John Drew)  September 29  Empire
+
+_The Younger Generation_            September 29  Lyceum
+
+_Half an Hour_ (Grace George)       September 29  Lyceum
+
+_The Dramatists Get What They Want_ October 12    Globe
+  (Williams and Carle)
+
+_Indian Summer_ (John Mason)        October 27    Criterion
+
+_Tante_ (Ethel Barrymore)           October 28    Empire
+
+_The Land of Promise_ (Billie Burke) December 25  Lyceum
+
+
+_1914_
+
+
+_A Little Water on the Side_        January 5     Hudson
+  (William Collier)
+
+_The Legend of Leonora_             January 5     Empire
+  (Maude Adams)
+
+_Half an Hour_ (Blanche Bates)      January 25    Vaudeville
+
+_The Laughing Husband_              February 2    Knickerbocker
+  (Curtice Pounds)
+
+_Jerry_ (Billie Burke)              March 30      Lyceum
+
+_A Scrap of Paper_                  May 11        Empire
+  (Ethel Barrymore and John Drew)
+
+_The Girl from Utah_                August 24     Knickerbocker
+  (Julia Sanderson, Donald Brian, and Joseph Cawthorn)
+
+_A Slice of Life_                   September 6   Vaudeville
+  (Richard Carle and Hattie Williams)
+
+_The Prodigal Husband_ (John Drew)  September 7   Empire
+
+_The Beautiful Adventure_           September 7   Lyceum
+  (Charles Cherry, Ann Murdock, and Mrs. Thomas Whiffen)
+
+_The Heart of a Thief_              October 5     Hudson
+  (Martha Hedman)
+
+_Rosalind_ (Maude Adams)            October 12    Syracuse
+
+_Diplomacy_                         October 19    Empire
+  (William Gillette, Blanche Bates, and Marie Doro)
+
+_The Ladies' Shakespeare_           October 26    Hamilton, Ont.
+  (Maude Adams)
+
+_The Song of Songs_                 October 29    Atlantic City
+
+_Outcast_--with Klaw & Erlanger     November 2    Lyceum
+  (Elsie Ferguson)
+
+_Driven_ (Alexandra Carlisle)       December 14   Empire
+
+_The Silent Voice_ (Otis Skinner)   December 29   Liberty
+
+
+_1915_
+
+
+_Rosemary_ (John Drew)              January 11    Empire
+
+_The Shadow_ (Ethel Barrymore)      January 25    Empire
+
+_A Girl of To-day_ (Ann Murdock)    February 8    Washington
+
+_A Celebrated Case_
+--with David Belasco                April 7       Empire
+  (Nat C. Goodwin, Ann Murdock, Otis Skinner,
+   Helen Ware, Florence Reed, and Robert Warwick)
+
+_The Hyphen_                        April 19      Knickerbocker
+  (W. H. Thompson and Gail Kane)
+
+
+The following productions were arranged by Charles Frohman before he
+sailed on the
+
+_Lusitania_ and were staged, just as he planned them,
+after his death:
+
+
+_1915_
+
+
+_The Duke of Killiecrankie and Rosalind_
+ (Marie Tempest)                    September 6   Lyceum
+
+_Grumpy_ (Cyril Maude)              September 13  Empire
+
+_Sherlock Holmes_ (William Gillette) October 11   Empire
+
+_Our Mrs. McChesney_                October 19    Lyceum
+  (Ethel Barrymore)
+
+_Secret Service_ (William Gillette) November 8    Empire
+
+_The Chief_ (John Drew)             November 22   Empire
+
+_Peter Pan_ (Maude Adams)           December 22   Empire
+
+_Cock o' the Walk_ (Otis Skinner)   December 27   Cohan
+
+
+_1916_
+
+
+_Sibyl_                             January 10    Liberty
+  (Julia Sanderson, Donald Brian, and Joseph Cawthorn)
+
+_The Little Minister_               January 11    Empire
+  (Maude Adams)
+
+_Margaret Schiller_
+--with Klaw & Erlanger
+--(Elsie Ferguson)                  January 31    New Amsterdam
+
+_The Heart of Wetona_
+--with David Belasco                February 29   Lyceum
+
+
+II
+
+PRODUCTIONS IN ENGLAND
+
+The following is the complete list of productions made by Charles
+Frohman in England, either alone or in collaboration with other
+managers, such as the Gattis, George Edwardes, Seymour Hicks, Sir
+Charles Wyndham, David Belasco, and Arthur Bourchier:
+
+
+_1892_
+
+PLAY                                DATE          THEATER
+
+_The Lost Paradise_                 December 22   Adelphi
+
+
+_1896_
+
+
+_A Night Out_                       April 29      Vaudeville
+
+
+_1897_
+
+
+_My Friend the Prince_              February 13   Garrick
+
+_Secret Service_ (William Gillette) May 15        Adelphi
+
+_Never Again_                       October 11    Vaudeville
+
+
+_1898_
+
+
+_The Heart of Maryland_             April 8       Adelphi
+  (Mrs. Leslie Carter)
+
+_Too Much Johnson_                  April 19      Garrick
+
+_Sue_                               June 10       Garrick
+
+_Adventures of Lady Ursula_         October 11    Duke of York's
+
+_On and Off_                        December 1    Vaudeville
+
+
+_1899_
+
+
+_My Daughter-in-Law_                September 27  Criterion
+
+_The Christian_                     October 16    Duke of York's
+
+_Miss Hobbs_                        December 18   Duke of York's
+
+
+_1900_
+
+
+_The Masked Ball_                   January 6     Criterion
+
+_Zaza_ (Mrs. Leslie Carter)         April 16      Garrick
+
+_Madame Butterfly_                  April 28      Duke of York's
+
+_Kitty Grey_                        September 7   Apollo
+
+_Self and Lady_                     September 19  Vaudeville
+
+_The Lackey's Carnival_             September 28  Duke of York's
+
+_The Swashbuckler_                  November 17   Duke of York's
+
+_Alice in Wonderland_               December 19   Vaudeville
+
+
+_1901_
+
+
+_The Girl from Up There_ (Edna May) April 23      Duke of York's
+
+_Sweet and Twenty_                  April 24      Vaudeville
+
+_Sherlock Holmes_                   September 9   Lyceum
+
+_Are You a Mason?_                  September 12  Shaftesbury
+
+_Bluebell in Fairyland_             December 8    Vaudeville
+
+
+_1902_
+
+
+_The Twin Sister_                   January 1     Duke of York's
+
+_The Girl from Maxim's_             March 20      Criterion
+
+_All on Account of Eliza_           April 3       Shaftesbury
+
+_Three Little Maids_ (Edna May)     May 10        Apollo
+
+_The Marriage of Kitty_             August 19     Duke of York's
+
+_Quality Street_                    September 17  Vaudeville
+
+
+_1903_
+
+
+_The School Girl_ (Edna May)        May 9         Duke of York's
+
+_Billy's Little Love Affair_        September 2   Criterion
+
+_Little Mary_                       September 24  Wyndham's
+
+_Letty_                             October 8     Duke of York's
+
+_The Cherry Girl_                   December 21   Vaudeville
+
+_Madame Sherry_                     December 23   Apollo
+
+
+_1904_
+
+
+_Love in a Cottage_                 January 27    Terry's
+
+_Captain Dieppe_                    February 15   Duke of York's
+
+_The Duke of Killiecrankie_         January 20    Criterion
+
+_The Rich Mrs. Repton_              April 20      Duke of York's
+
+_Cynthia_                           May 16        Wyndham's
+
+_Merely Mary Ann_                   September 8   Duke of York's
+
+_The Catch of the Season_           September 9   Vaudeville
+
+_The Wife Without a Smile_          October 12    Wyndham's
+
+_The Freedom of Suzanne_            November 15   Criterion
+
+_Peter Pan_                         December 27   Duke of York's
+
+
+_1905_
+
+
+_The Lady of Leeds_                 February 9    Wyndham's
+
+_Alice Sit By The Fire_             April 5       Duke of York's
+
+_Leah Kleschna_                     May 2         New
+
+_The Dictator_ (William Collier)    May 3         Comedy
+
+_Clarice_                           September 13  Duke of York's
+
+_On the Quiet_ (William Collier)    September 27  Comedy
+
+_The Mountain Climber_              November 21   Comedy
+
+
+_1906_
+
+
+_The Alabaster Staircase_           February 21   Comedy
+
+_All of a Sudden Peggy_             February 27   Duke of York's
+
+_The Beauty of Bath_                March 19      Aldwych
+
+_Punch and Josephine_               April 5       Comedy
+
+_The Belle of Mayfair_ (Edna May)   April 11      Vaudeville
+
+_Fascinating Mr. Vandervelt_        April 26      Garrick
+
+_Raffles_                           May 12        Comedy
+
+_The Lion and the Mouse_            May 22        Duke of York's
+
+_Toddles_                           December 3    Duke of York's
+
+
+_1907_
+
+
+_Nelly Neil_ (Edna May)             January 10    Aldwych
+
+_My Darling_                        March 2       Hicks'
+
+_The Great Conspiracy_              March 4       Duke of York's
+
+_The Truth_                         April 6       Comedy
+
+_Brewster's Millions_               May 1         Hicks'
+
+_The Hypocrites_                    August 27     Hicks'
+
+_The Barrier_                       October 10    Comedy
+
+_Miquette_                          October 26    Duke of York's
+
+_Angela_                            December 4    Comedy
+
+
+_1908_
+
+
+_Lady Barbarity_                    February 27   Comedy
+
+_The Admirable Crichton_            March 2       Duke of York's
+
+_A Waltz Dream_                     March 7       Hicks'
+
+_Mrs. Dot_                          April 27      Comedy
+
+_What Every Woman Knows_            September 3   Duke of York's
+
+_Paid in Full_                      September 26  Aldwych
+
+_Sir Anthony_                       November 28   Wyndham's
+
+
+_1909_
+
+
+_Penelope_                          January 9     Comedy
+
+_Samson_                            February 3    Garrick
+
+_The Dashing Little Duke_           February 17   Hicks'
+
+_Strife_                            March 29      Duke of York's
+
+_Bevis_                             April 1       Haymarket
+
+_Love Watches_                      May 11        Haymarket
+
+_Arsène Lupin_                      August 30     Duke of York's
+
+_Madame X_                          September 1   Globe
+
+_The Great Divide_                  September 15  Adelphi
+
+_Smith_                             September 30  Comedy
+
+_A Servant in the House_            October 25    Adelphi
+
+_Great Mrs. Alloway_                November 1    Globe
+
+
+_1910_
+
+
+_Justice_                           February 21   Duke of York's
+
+_Misalliance_                       February 23   Duke of York's
+
+_The Tenth Man_                     February 24   Globe
+
+_Old Friends_                       March 1       Duke of York's
+
+_The Sentimentalists_               March 1       Duke of York's
+
+_Madras House_                      March 9       Duke of York's
+
+_Trelawney of the Wells_            April 5       Duke of York's
+
+_The Twelve-Pound Look_             May 3         Duke of York's
+
+_Helena's Path_                     May 3         Duke of York's
+
+_Parasites_                         May 5         Garrick
+
+_Chains_                            May 17        Duke of York's
+
+_Alias_ Jimmy Valentine             June 7        Comedy
+
+_A Slice of Life_                   June 7        Duke of York's
+
+_A Bolt from the Blue_              September 6   Duke of York's
+
+_A Woman's Way_                     September 14  Comedy
+
+_Grace_                             October 15    Duke of York's
+
+_Decorating Clementine_             November 28   Globe
+
+
+_1911_
+
+
+_Preserving Mr. Panmure_            January 19    Comedy
+
+_Loaves and Fishes_                 February 24   Duke of York's
+
+_The Concert_                       August 28     Duke of York's
+
+_Dad_                               November 4    Playhouse
+
+
+_1912_
+
+
+_Mind the Paint Girl_               February 17   Duke of York's
+
+_The Amazons_                       June 14       Duke of York's
+
+_Rosalind_                          October 14    Duke of York's
+
+_Widow of Wasdale Head_             October 14    Duke of York's
+
+_Overruled_                         October 14    Duke of York's
+
+
+_1913_
+
+
+_The Adored One_                    September 4   Duke of York's
+
+_The Will_                          September 4   Duke of York's
+
+_Years of Discretion_               September 8   Globe
+
+
+_1914_
+
+
+_The Land of Promise_               February 28   Duke of York's
+
+_The Little Minister_               September 3   Duke of York's
+
+
+_1915_
+
+
+_Rosy Rapture_                      March 22      Duke of York's
+
+_The New Word_                      March 22      Duke of York's
+
+III
+
+Charles Frohman's productions in Paris were these:
+
+
+_Secret Service_                    May 25, 1900  Théâtre Renaissance
+
+_Peter Pan_                         June 1, 1909  Vaudeville
+
+_Peter Pan_                         June 2, 1910  Vaudeville
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES FROHMAN: MANAGER AND MAN***
+
+
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Charles Frohman: Manager and Man, by Isaac
+Frederick Marcosson and Daniel Frohman, et al</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Charles Frohman: Manager and Man</p>
+<p>Author: Isaac Frederick Marcosson and Daniel Frohman</p>
+<p>Release Date: July 29, 2008  [eBook #26146]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES FROHMAN: MANAGER AND MAN***</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Robert Cicconetti, Chuck Greif,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="CF" id="CF"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-frontise.png" width="500" height="639" alt="CHARLES FROHMAN" title="CHARLES FROHMAN" />
+<span class="caption1">COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY DANIEL FROHMAN</span>&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />
+<span class="caption">CHARLES FROHMAN</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="c"><i><span class="letter1">C</span><span class="letter2">harles</span>
+<span class="letter1">F</span><span class="letter2">rohman:</span><br />
+<span class="letter2">M</span>
+<span class="letter3">anager</span></i>
+<span class="letter4"> &nbsp;and &nbsp;</span>
+<i><span class="letter2">M</span>
+<span class="letter3">an</span></i><br />
+<span class="letter4">by &nbsp;</span>
+<i><span class="letter2">I</span><span class="letter3">saac</span>
+<span class="letter2">F. M</span><span class="letter3">arcosson</span></i><br />
+<span class="letter4"> &nbsp;and &nbsp;</span>
+<i><span class="letter2">D</span><span class="letter3">aniel</span>
+<span class="letter2">F</span><span class="letter3">rohman</span></i><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><i><span class="letter1">W</span><span style="margin-left: -1.0em;">ith</span> an</i> Appreciation</p>
+<p class="c" style="margin-top:-1.75em;"><i>by James M. Barrie</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c top5"><i>Illustrated<br />
+with<br />
+Portraits</i></p>
+
+<p class="image"><img src="images/ill-001.png"  alt="logo"
+style="border:none;" /></p>
+
+<p class="c"><i>New York and London<br />
+<span class="letter3">H</span><span class="letter4">arper</span> &amp;
+<span class="letter3">B</span><span class="letter4">rothers</span><br />
+M . C . M . X . V . I</i></p>
+
+<p class="c top5">
+<span class="smcap">Charles Frohman: Manager and Man</span><br />
+&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+Copyright, 1916, by Harper &amp; Brothers<br />
+Copyright, 1915, 1916, by<br />
+International Magazine Company (Cosmopolitan Magazine)<br />
+Printed in the United States of America<br />
+Published October, 1916<br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="c top15">
+<span class="letter3"><i>To</i></span><br />
+<span class="letter2"><i>The Theater</i></span><br />
+<span class="letter2"><i>That Charles Frohman</i></span><br />
+<span class="letter2"><i>Loved and Served</i></span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Nought I did in hate but all in honor!</i></p>
+<p class="r"><span class="smcap">Hamlet</span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+<p class="c top15"><span class="letter3"><i>Contents</i></span></p>
+
+
+
+<table summary="toc" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="4">
+<tr><td>Chap.</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td><a href="#CF"><i>CHARLES FROHMAN: AN APPRECIATION</i></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#I">I.</a></td><td><i>A CHILD AMID THE THEATER</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#II">II.</a></td><td><i>EARLY HARDSHIPS ON THE ROAD</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#III">III.</a></td><td><i>PICTURESQUE DAYS AS MINSTREL MANAGER</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#IV">IV.</a></td><td><i>IN THE NEW YORK THEATRICAL WHIRLPOOL</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#V">V.</a></td><td><i>BOOKING-AGENT AND BROADWAY PRODUCER</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#VI">VI.</a></td><td><i>"SHENANDOAH" AND THE FIRST STOCK COMPANY</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#VII">VII.</a></td><td><i>JOHN DREW AND THE EMPIRE THEATER</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#VIII">VIII.</a></td><td><i>MAUDE ADAMS AS STAR</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#IX">IX.</a></td><td><i>THE BIRTH OF THE SYNDICATE</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#X">X.</a></td><td><i>THE RISE OF ETHEL BARRYMORE</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#XI">XI.</a></td><td><i>THE CONQUEST OF THE LONDON STAGE</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#XII">XII.</a></td><td><i>BARRIE AND THE ENGLISH FRIENDSHIPS</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#XIII">XIII.</a></td><td><i>A GALAXY OF STARS</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#XIV">XIV.</a></td><td><i>STAR-MAKING AND AUDIENCES</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#XV">XV.</a></td><td><i>PLAYS AND PLAYERS</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#XVI">XVI.</a></td><td><i>"C. F." AT REHEARSALS</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#XVII">XVII.</a></td><td><i>HUMOR AND ANECDOTE</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#XVIII">XVIII.</a></td><td><i>THE MAN FROHMAN</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#XIX">XIX.</a></td><td><i>"WHY FEAR DEATH?"</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="left"><a href="#Appendix_A"><i>APPENDIX A&mdash;THE LETTERS OF CHARLES</i></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2"><a href="#Appendix_B"><i>APPENDIX B&mdash;COMPLETE CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE FROHMAN PRODUCTIONS</i></a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+
+
+<p class="c top15"><span class="letter3">Illustrations</span></p>
+
+<ul>
+<li><i><a href="#CF">CHARLES FROHMAN&mdash;Frontispiece</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#VIOLA">VIOLA ALLEN</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#GILLETTE">WILLIAM GILLETTE</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#DREW">JOHN DREW</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#FITCH">CLYDE FITCH</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#FITCH">HENRY ARTHUR JONES</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#LESTOCQ">W. LESTOCQ</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#DILLINGHAM">CHARLES DILLINGHAM</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#ADAMS">MAUDE ADAMS</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#ADAMS2">MAUDE ADAMS</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#WILSON">FRANCIS WILSON</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#WILSON">WILLIAM COLLIER</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#ANGLIN">MARGARET ANGLIN</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#ANGLIN">ANNIE RUSSELL</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#FAVERSHAM">WILLIAM FAVERSHAM</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#MILLER">HENRY MILLER</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#CRANE">WILLIAM H. CRANE</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#THOMAS">AUGUSTUS THOMAS</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#THOMAS">SIR ARTHUR WING PINERO</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#BARRYMORE">ETHEL BARRYMORE</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#MARLOWE">JULIA MARLOWE</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#SOTHERN">E. H. SOTHERN</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#FERGUSON">ELSIE FERGUSON</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#MAY">EDNA MAY</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#BURKE">BILLIE BURKE</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#CHASE">PAULINE CHASE</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#BARRIE">JAMES M. BARRIE</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#POTTER">PAUL POTTER</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#POTTER">HADDON CHAMBERS</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#SKINNER">OTIS SKINNER</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#DORO">MARIE DORO</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#SANDERSON">JULIA SANDERSON</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#MURDOCK">ANN MURDOCK</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#FROHMANBELASCO">CHARLES FROHMAN AND DAVID BELASCO</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#TEMPEST">MARIE TEMPEST</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#TEMPEST">MME. NAZIMOVA</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#OFFICE">CHARLES FROHMAN'S OFFICE IN THE EMPIRE THEATER</a></i></li>
+<li><i><a href="#SHIP">CHARLES FROHMAN ON BOARD SHIP</a></i></li>
+</ul>
+
+<p class="c top15">
+<i><span class="letter1">C</span><span class="letter2">harles</span>
+<span class="letter1">F</span><span class="letter2">rohman</span></i>:<br />
+<span class="letter3">an<br />
+<i>Appreciation</i></span></p>
+
+<p class="c"><i><b>By James M. Barrie</b></i></p>
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> man who never broke his word. There was a great deal more to him,
+but every one in any land who has had dealings with Charles Frohman will
+sign that.</p>
+
+<p>I would rather say a word of the qualities that to his friends were his
+great adornment than about his colossal enterprises or the energy with
+which he heaved them into being; his energy that was like a force of
+nature, so that if he had ever "retired" from the work he loved (a thing
+incredible) companies might have been formed, in the land so skilful at
+turning energy to practical account, for exploiting the vitality of this
+Niagara of a man. They could have lit a city with it.</p>
+
+<p>He loved his schemes. They were a succession of many-colored romances to
+him, and were issued to the world not without the accompaniment of the
+drum, but you would never find him saying anything of himself. He pushed
+them in front of him, always taking care that they were big enough to
+hide him. When they were able to stand alone he stole out in the dark to
+have a look at them, and then if unobserved his bosom swelled. I have
+never known any one more modest and no one quite so shy. Many actors
+have played for him for years and never spoken to him, have perhaps seen
+him dart up a side street because they were approaching. They may not
+have known that it was sheer shyness, but it was. I have seen him
+ordered out of his own theater by subordinates who did not know him, and
+he went cheerfully away. "Good men, these; they know their business,"
+was all his comment. Afterward he was shy of going back lest they should
+apologize.</p>
+
+<p>At one time he had several theaters here and was renting others, the
+while he had I know not how many in America; he was not always sure how
+many himself. Latterly the great competition at home left him no time to
+look after more than one in London. But only one anywhere seemed a
+little absurd to him. He once contemplated having a few theaters in
+Paris, but on discovering that French law forbids your having more than
+one he gave up the scheme in disgust.</p>
+
+<p>A sense of humor sat with him through every vicissitude like a faithful
+consort.</p>
+
+<p>"How is it going?" a French author cabled to him on the first night of a
+new play.</p>
+
+<p>"It has gone," he genially cabled back.</p>
+
+<p>Of a Scotch play of my own that he was about to produce in New York, I
+asked him what the Scotch would be like.</p>
+
+<p>"You wouldn't know it was Scotch," he replied, "but the American public
+will know."</p>
+
+<p>He was very dogged. I had only one quarrel with him, but it lasted all
+the sixteen years I knew him. He wanted me to be a playwright and I
+wanted to be a novelist. All those years I fought him on that. He always
+won, but not because of his doggedness; only because he was so lovable
+that one had to do as he wanted. He also threatened, if I stopped, to
+reproduce the old plays and print my name in large electric letters over
+the entrance of the theater.</p>
+
+<p class="space n"><span class="ll2">A</span> <span class="smcap">very</span> distinguished actress under his management wanted to produce a
+play of mine of which he had no high opinion. He was in despair, as he
+had something much better for her. She was obdurate. He came to me for
+help, said nothing could move her unless I could. Would not I tell her
+what a bad play it was and how poor her part was and how much better the
+other parts were and how absolutely it fell to pieces after the first
+act? Of course I did as I was bid, and I argued with the woman for
+hours, and finally got her round, the while he sat cross-legged, after
+his fashion, on a deep chair and implored me with his eyes to do my
+worst. It happened long ago, and I was so obsessed with the desire to
+please him that the humor of the situation strikes me only now.</p>
+
+<p>For money he did not care at all; it was to him but pieces of paper with
+which he could make practical the enterprises that teemed in his brain.
+They were all enterprises of the theater. Having once seen a theater, he
+never afterward saw anything else except sites for theaters. This
+passion began when he was a poor boy staring wistfully at portals out of
+which he was kept by the want of a few pence. I think when he first saw
+a theater he clapped his hand to his heart, and certainly he was true
+to his first love. Up to the end it was still the same treat to him to
+go in; he still thrilled when the band struck up, as if that boy had
+hold of his hand.</p>
+
+
+<p class="space n"><span class="ll2">I</span> <span class="smcap">n</span>
+a sense he had no illusions about the theater, knew its tawdriness as
+he knew the nails on his stages (he is said to have known every one). He
+would watch the performance of a play in some language of which he did
+not know a word and at the end tell you not only the whole story, but
+what the characters had been saying to one another; indeed, he could
+usually tell what was to happen in any act as soon as he saw the
+arrangement of the furniture. But this did not make him <i>blas&eacute;</i>&mdash;a
+strange word, indeed, to apply to one who seemed to be born afresh each
+morning. It was not so much that all the world was a stage to him as
+that his stage was a world, a world of the "artistic temperament"&mdash;that
+is to say, a very childish world of which he was occasionally the stern
+but usually indulgent father.</p>
+
+<p>His innumerable companies were as children to him; he chided them as
+children, soothed them, forgave them, and certainly loved them as
+children. He exulted in those who became great names in that world and
+gave them beautiful toys to play with; but, great as was their devotion
+to him, it is not they who will miss him most, but rather the far
+greater number who never "made a hit," but set off like the rest to do
+it and fell by the way. He was of so sympathetic a nature, he understood
+so well the dismalness to them of being "failures," that he saw them as
+children with their knuckles to their eyes, and then he sat back
+cross-legged on his chair with his knuckles, as it were, to his eyes,
+and life had lost its flavor for him until he invented a scheme for
+giving them another chance.</p>
+
+
+<p class="space n"><span class="ll2">A</span> <span class="smcap">uthors</span>
+of to-day sometimes discuss with one another what great writer
+of the past they would like most to spend an evening with if the shades
+were willing to respond, and I believe (and hope) that the choice most
+often falls on Johnson or Charles Lamb. Lamb was fond of the theater,
+and I think, of all those connected with it that I have known, Mr.
+Frohman is the one with whom he would most have liked to spend an
+evening. Not because of Mr. Frohman's ability, though he had the biggest
+brain I have met with on the stage, but because of his humor and charity
+and gentle chivalry and his most romantic mind. One can conceive him as
+often, sitting at ease, far back in his chair, cross-legged,
+occasionally ringing for another ice, for he was so partial to sweets
+that he could never get them sweet enough, and sometimes he mixed two in
+the hope that this would make them sweeter.</p>
+
+<p>I hear him telling stories of the stage as only he could tell them,
+rising now and roaming the floor as he shows how the lady of the play
+receives the declaration, and perhaps forgetting that you are the author
+of the play and telling you the whole story of it with superb gesture
+and gleaming eyes. Then back again cross-legged to the chair. What an
+essay Elia might have made of that night, none of it about the stories
+told, all about the man in the chair, the humorous, gentle, roughly
+educated, very fine American gentleman in the chair!</p>
+
+<p class="r"><span class="smcap">J. M. Barrie.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">London, 1915.</span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<p class="c top15"><i><span class="letter1">C</span><span class="letter2">harles</span>
+<span class="letter1">F</span><span class="letter2">rohman</span></i></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h3>
+
+<p class="head">A CHILD AMID THE THEATER</p>
+
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">O</span><span class="smcap">ne</span> evening, toward the close of the 'sixties, a plump, rosy-cheeked lad
+in his eighth year stood enthralled in the gallery of the old Niblo's
+Garden down on lower Broadway in New York. Far below him on the stage
+"The Black Crook"&mdash;the extravaganza that held all New York&mdash;unfolded
+itself in fascinating glitter and feminine loveliness. Deaf to his
+brother's entreaties to leave, and risking a parental scolding and
+worse, the boy remained transfixed until the final curtain. When he
+reached home he was not in the least disturbed by the uproar his absence
+had caused. Quite the contrary. His face beamed, his eyes shone. All he
+could say was:</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen a play. It's wonderful!"</p>
+
+<p>The boy was Charles Frohman, and such was his first actual experience in
+the theater&mdash;the institution that he was to dominate in later years with
+far-flung authority.</p>
+
+<p class="space">To write of the beginnings of his life is to become almost immediately
+the historian of some phase of amusement. He came from a family in whom
+the love of mimic art was as innate as the desire for sustenance.</p>
+
+<p>About his parents was the glamour of a romance as tender as any he
+disclosed to delighted audiences in the world of make-believe. His
+father, Henry Frohman, was both idealist and dreamer. Born on the
+pleasant countryside that encircles the town of Darmstadt in Germany, he
+grew up amid an appreciation of the best in German literature. He was a
+buoyant and imaginative boy who preferred reading plays to poring over
+tiresome school-books.</p>
+
+<p>One day he went for a walk in the woods. He passed a young girl of rare
+and appealing beauty. Their eyes met; they paused a moment, irresistibly
+drawn to each other. Then they went their separate ways. He inquired her
+name and found that she was Barbara Strauss and lived not far away. He
+sought an introduction, but before it could be brought about he left
+home to make his fortune in the New World.</p>
+
+<p>He was eighteen when he stepped down the gang-plank of a steamer in New
+York in 1845. He had mastered no trade; he was practically without
+friends, so he took to the task which so many of his co-religionists had
+found profitable. He invested his modest financial nest-egg in a supply
+of dry goods and notions and, shouldering a pack, started up the Hudson
+Valley to peddle his wares.</p>
+
+<p>Henry Frohman had a magnetic and fascinating personality. A ready story
+was always on his lips; a smile shone constantly on his face. It was
+said of him that he could hypnotize the most unresponsive housewife into
+buying articles she never needed. Up and down the highways he trudged,
+unmindful of wind, rain, or hardship.</p>
+
+<p>New York was his headquarters. There was his home and there he
+replenished his stocks. He made friends quickly. With them he often went
+to the German theater. On one of these occasions he heard of a family
+named Strauss that had just arrived from Germany. They had been
+shipwrecked near the Azores, had endured many trials, and had lost
+everything but their lives.</p>
+
+<p>"Have they a daughter named Barbara?" asked Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>Henry Frohman's heart gave a leap. There came back to his mind the
+picture of that day in the German woods.</p>
+
+<p>"Where do they come from?" he continued, eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>On being told that it was Darmstadt, he cried, "I must meet her."</p>
+
+<p>He gave his friend no peace until that end had been brought about. He
+found her the same lovely girl who had thrilled him at first sight; he
+wooed her with ardor and they were betrothed.</p>
+
+<p>He now yearned for a stable business that would enable him to marry.
+Meanwhile his affairs had grown. The peddler's pack expanded to the
+proportion of a wagon-load. Then, as always, the great West held a lure
+for the youthful. In some indescribable way he got the idea that
+Kentucky was the Promised Land of business. Telling his fianc&eacute;e that he
+would send for her as soon as he had settled somewhere, he set out.</p>
+
+<p>But Kentucky did not prove to be the golden country. He was advised to
+go to Ohio, and it was while driving across the country with his line of
+goods that he came upon Sandusky. The little town on the shores of a
+smiling lake appealed to him strongly. It reminded him of the home
+country, and he remained there.</p>
+
+<p>He found himself at once in a congenial place. There was a considerable
+German population; his ready wit and engaging manner made him welcome
+everywhere. The road lost its charm; he turned about for an occupation
+that was permanent. Having picked up a knowledge of cigar-making, he
+established a small factory which was successful from the start.</p>
+
+<p>This fact assured, his next act was to send to New York for Miss
+Strauss, who joined him at once, and they were married. These were the
+forebears of Charles Frohman&mdash;the exuberant, optimistic, pleasure-loving
+father; the serene, gentle-eyed, and spacious-hearted woman who was to
+have such a strong influence in the shaping of his character.</p>
+
+<p>The Frohmans settled in a little frame house on Lawrence Street that
+stood apart from the dusty road. It did not even have a porch.
+Unpretentious as it was, it became a center of artistic life in
+Sandusky.</p>
+
+<p>Henry Frohman had always aspired to be an actor. One of the first things
+he did after settling in Sandusky was to organize an amateur theatrical
+company, composed entirely of people of German birth or descent. The
+performances were given in the Turner Hall, in the German tongue, on a
+makeshift stage with improvised scenery. Frohman became the directing
+force in the production of Schiller's and other classic German plays,
+comic as well as tragic.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was he half-hearted in his histrionic work. One night he died so
+realistically on the stage that his eldest son, who sat in the audience,
+became so terrified that he screamed out in terror, and would not be
+pacified until his parent appeared smilingly before the curtain and
+assured him that he was still very much alive.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman's business prospered. He began to build up trade in the
+adjoining country. With a load of samples strapped behind his buggy, he
+traveled about. He usually took one of his older sons along. While he
+drove, the boy often held a prompt-book and the father would rehearse
+his parts. Out across those quiet Ohio fields would come the thrilling
+words of "The Robbers," "Ingomar," "Love and Intrigue," or any of the
+many plays that the amateur company performed in Sandusky.</p>
+
+<p>He even mixed the drama with business. Frequently after selling a bill
+of goods he would be requested by a customer, who knew of his ability,
+to recite or declaim a speech from one of the well-known German plays.</p>
+
+<p>It was on his return from one of these expeditions that Henry Frohman
+was greeted with the tidings that a third son had come to bear his name.
+When he entered that little frame house the infantile Charles had made
+his first entrance on the stage of life. It was June 17, 1860, a time
+fateful in the history of the country, for already the storm-clouds of
+the Civil War were brooding. It was pregnant with meaning for the
+American theater, too, because this lusty baby was to become its
+Napoleon.</p>
+
+<p>Almost before Charles was able to walk his wise and far-seeing mother,
+with a pride and responsibility that maintained the best traditions of
+the mothers in Israel, began to realize the restrictions and limitations
+of the Sandusky life.</p>
+
+<p>"These boys of ours," she said to the husband, "have no future here.
+They must be educated in New York. Their careers lie there."</p>
+
+<p>Strong-willed and resolute, she sent the two older sons, one at a time,
+on to the great city to be educated and make their way. The eldest,
+Daniel, went first, soon followed by Gustave. In 1864, and largely due
+to her insistent urging, the remainder of the family, which included the
+youthful Charles, packed up their belongings and, with the proceeds of
+the sale of the cigar factory, started on their eventful journey to New
+York.</p>
+
+<p>They first settled in one of the original tenement houses of New York,
+on Rivington Street, subsequently moving to Eighth Street and Avenue D.
+Before long they moved over to Third Street, while their fourth
+residence was almost within the shadow of some of the best-known city
+theaters.</p>
+
+<p>Henry Frohman had, as was later developed in his son Charles, a peculiar
+disregard of money values. Generous to a fault, his resources were
+constantly at the call of the needy. His first business venture in New
+York&mdash;a small soap factory on East Broadway&mdash;failed. Later he became
+part owner of a distillery near Hoboken, which was destroyed by fire.
+With the usual Frohman financial heedlessness, he had failed to renew
+all his insurance policies, and the result was that he was left with but
+a small surplus. Adversity, however, seemed to trickle from him like
+water. Serene and smiling, he emerged from his misfortune.</p>
+
+<p>The only business he knew was the cigar business. With the assistance of
+a few friends he was able to start a retail cigar-store at what was then
+708 Broadway. It was below Eighth Street and, whether by accident or
+design, was located in the very heart of the famous theatrical district
+which gave the American stage some of its greatest traditions.</p>
+
+<p>To the north, and facing on Union Square, was the Rialto of the day,
+hedged in by the old Academy of Music and the Union Square Theater. Down
+Broadway, and commencing at Thirteenth Street with Wallack's Theater,
+was a succession of more or less historic playhouses. At Eighth Street
+was the Old New York Theater; a few doors away was Lina Edwins's; almost
+flanking the cigar-store and ranging toward the south were the Olympic,
+Niblo's Garden, and the San Francisco Minstrel Hall. Farther down was
+the Broadway Theater, while over on the Bowery Tony Pastor held forth.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the little store stood in an atmosphere that thought, breathed, and
+talked of the theater. It became the rendezvous of the well-known
+theatrical figures of the period. The influence of the playhouses
+extended even to the shop next door, which happened to be the original
+book-store founded by August Brentano. It was the only clearing-house in
+New York for foreign theatrical papers, and to it came Augustin Daly,
+William Winter, Nym Crinkle, and all the other important managers and
+critics to get the news of the foreign stage.</p>
+
+<p>It was amid an environment touching the theater at every point that
+Charles Frohman's boyhood was spent. He was an impulsive, erratic,
+restless child. His mother had great difficulty in keeping him at
+school. His whole instinct was for action.</p>
+
+<p>Gustave, who had dabbled in the theatrical business almost before he was
+in his teens, naturally became his mentor. To Charles, Gustave was
+invested with a rare fascination because he had begun to sell books of
+the opera in the old Academy of Music on Fourteenth Street, the
+forerunner of the gilded Metropolitan Opera House. Every night the
+chubby Charles saw him forge forth with a mysterious bundle, and return
+with money jingling in his pocket. One night, just before Gustave
+started out, the lad said to him:</p>
+
+<p>"Gus, how can I make money like you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll show you some night if you can slip away from mother," was the
+brother's reply.</p>
+
+<p>Unrest immediately filled the heart of Charles. Gustave had no peace
+until he made good his promise. A week later he stole away after supper
+with his little brother. They walked to the Academy, where the old
+Italian opera, "The Masked Ball," was being sung. With wondering eyes
+and beating heart Charles saw Gustave hawk his books in the lobby, and
+actually sell a few. From the inside came the strains of music, and
+through the door a glimpse of a fashionable audience. But it was a
+forbidden land that he could not enter.</p>
+
+<p>Fearful of the maternal scolding that he knew was in store, Gustave
+hurried his brother home, even indulging in the unwonted luxury of
+riding on the street-car, where he found a five-dollar bill. The mother
+was up and awake, and immediately began to upbraid him for taking out
+his baby brother at night, whereupon Gustave quieted the outburst by
+permitting Charles to hand over the five-dollar bill as a peace
+offering.</p>
+
+<p>From that hour life had a new meaning for Charles Frohman. He had seen
+his brother earn money in the theater; he wanted to go and do likewise.
+The opportunity was denied, and he chafed under the restraint.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon, when he was through with the school that he hated, the
+boy went down to his father's store and took his turn behind the
+counter. Irksome as was this work, it was not without a thrilling
+compensation, because into the shop came many of the theatrical
+personages of the time to buy their cigars. They included Tony Pastor,
+whose name was then a household word, McKee Rankin, J. K. Mortimer, a
+popular Augustin Daly leading man, and the comedians and character
+actors of the near-by theaters.</p>
+
+<p>Here the magnetic personality of the boy asserted itself. His ready
+smile and his quick tongue made him a favorite with the customers. More
+than one actor, on entering the shop, asked the question: "Where is
+Charley? I want him to wait on me."</p>
+
+<p>In those days much of the theatrical advertising was done by posters
+displayed in shop-windows. To get these posters in the most conspicuous
+places passes were given to the shopkeepers, a custom which still holds.
+The Frohman store had a large window, and it was constantly plastered
+with play-bills, which meant that the family was abundantly supplied
+with free admission to most of the theaters in the district. The whole
+family shared in this dispensation, none more so than Henry Frohman
+himself, who could now gratify his desire for contact with the theater
+and its people to an almost unlimited extent. His greatest delight was
+to distribute these passes among his boys. They were offered as rewards
+for good conduct. Charles frequently accompanied his father to matin&eacute;es
+at Tony Pastor's and the other theaters. Pastor and the elder Frohman
+were great pals. They called each other by their first names, and the
+famous old music-hall proprietor was a frequent visitor at the shop.</p>
+
+<p>But Charles became quite discriminating. Every Saturday night he went
+down to the old Th&eacute;&acirc;tre Comique, where Harrigan and Hart were serving
+their apprenticeship for the career which made them the most famous
+Irish team of their time. The next morning at breakfast he kept the
+family roaring with laughter with his imitations of what he had seen and
+heard. Curiously enough, Tony Hart later became the first star to be
+presented by Charles Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>All the while the boy's burning desire was to earn money in the theater.
+He nagged at Gustave to give him a chance. One day Gustave saw some
+handsome souvenir books of "The Black Crook," which was then having its
+sensational run at Niblo's Garden. He found that he could buy them for
+thirty-three cents by the half-dozen, so he made a small investment,
+hoping to sell them for fifty cents in the lobby of the theater. That
+evening he showed his new purchases to Charles.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately the boy's eyes sparkled. "Let me see if I can sell one of
+them!"</p>
+
+<p>"All right," replied Gustave; "I will take you down to Niblo's to-night
+and give you a chance."</p>
+
+<p>The boy could scarcely eat his supper, so eager was he to be off.
+Promptly at seven o'clock the two lads (Charles was only eight) took
+their stand in the lobby, but despite their eager cries each was able to
+sell only a single copy. Gustave consoled himself with the fact that the
+price was too high, while Charles, with an optimism that never forsook
+him, answered, "Well, we have each sold one, anyhow, and that is
+something."</p>
+
+<p>Charles's profit on this venture was precisely seventeen cents, which
+may be regarded as the first money he ever earned out of the theater.</p>
+
+<p>But this night promised a sensation even greater. As the crowd in the
+lobby thinned, the strains of the overture crashed out. Through the open
+door the little boy saw the curtain rise on a scene that to him
+represented the glitter and the glory of fairyland. Beautiful ladies
+danced and sang and the light flashed on brilliant costumes. With their
+unsold books in their hands, the two boys gazed wistfully inside.
+Charles, always the aggressor, fixed the doorkeeper with one of his
+winning smiles, and the doorkeeper succumbed. "You boys can slip in," he
+said, "but you've got to go up in the balcony." Up they rushed, and
+there Charles stood delighted, his eyes sparkling and his whole face
+transfigured.</p>
+
+<p>During the middle of the second act Gustave tugged at his sleeve,
+saying: "We'll have to go now. You follow me down."</p>
+
+<p>With this he disappeared and hurried home. When he arrived he found the
+home in an uproar because Charles had not come back. Gustave ran to the
+theater, but the play was over, the crowd had dispersed, and the
+building was deserted. With beating heart and fearful of disaster to his
+charge, he rushed back to see Charles, all animation and excitement, in
+the midst of the family group, regaling them with the story of his first
+play. He had remained to the end.</p>
+
+<p>That thrilling night at "The Black Crook," his daily contact with the
+actors who came into the store, his frequent visits to the adjoining
+playhouses, fed the fire of his theatrical interest. The theater got
+into his very blood.</p>
+
+<p>A great event was impending. Almost within stone's-throw of the little
+cigar-store where he sold stogies to Tony Pastor was the Old New York
+Theater, which, after the fashion of that time, had undergone the
+evolution of many names, beginning with the Athen&aelig;um, and continuing
+until it had come under the control of the three famous Worrell
+sisters, who tacked their name to it. Shortly after the New Year of 1869
+they produced the extravaganza "The Field of the Cloth of Gold," in
+which two of them, Sophie and Jane, together with Pauline Markham, one
+of the classic beauties of the time, appeared. Charles had witnessed
+part of this extravaganza one afternoon. It kindled his memories of "The
+Black Crook," for it was full of sparkle and color. Charles and Gustave
+had made the acquaintance of Owen, the doorkeeper. One afternoon they
+walked over to the theater and stood in the lobby listening to a
+rehearsal.</p>
+
+<p>Owen, who knew the boys' intense love of the theater, spoke up, saying:
+"We need an extra page to-night. How would you like to go on?"</p>
+
+<p>Both youngsters stood expectant. They loved each other dearly, yet here
+was one moment where self-interest must prevail. Charles fixed the
+doorkeeper with his hypnotic smile, and he was chosen. Almost without
+hearing the injunction to report at seven o'clock, Charles ran back to
+the store, well-nigh breathless with expectancy over the coming event.
+With that family feeling which has marked the Frohmans throughout their
+whole life, Gustave hurried down-town to notify their eldest brother to
+be on hand for the grand occasion.</p>
+
+<p>Charles ate no supper, and was at the stage-door long before seven.
+Rigged up in a faded costume, he carried a banner during the
+performance. His two elder brothers sat in the gallery. All they saw in
+the entire brilliant spectacle was the little Charles and his faded
+flag.</p>
+
+<p>Charles got twenty-five cents for his evening's work, and brought it
+home bubbling with pride. To his great consternation he received a
+rebuke from his mother and the strong injunction never to appear on the
+stage again.</p>
+
+<p>This was Charles Frohman's first and only appearance on any stage. In
+the years to come, although he controlled and directed hundreds of
+productions, gave employment to thousands of actors in this country,
+England, and France, and ruled the destinies of scores of theaters, he
+never appeared in a single performance. Nor had he a desire to appear.</p>
+
+<p class="space">It will be recalled that in one way or another a great many passes for
+the theater found their way into the hands of the elder Frohman, who, in
+his great generosity of heart, frequently took many of the neighboring
+children along. He was the type of man who loves to bestow pleasure. But
+this made no difference with Charles. He was usually able to wring an
+extra pass from the bill-poster or some of the actors who frequented the
+store. Hence came about his first contract, and in this fashion: At that
+time Gustave Frohman was a famous cyclist. He was the first man to keep
+a wheel stationary, and he won prizes for doing so. He had purchased his
+bicycle with savings out of the theatrical earnings, and his bicycle and
+his riding became a source of great envy to Charles, who asked him one
+night if he would teach him how to ride.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied Gustave, "I'll teach you if you will make a contract with
+me to provide five dollars' worth of passes in return."</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" said Charles, and the deal was closed.</p>
+
+<p>Gustave kept his word, and down in Washington Place, in front of the
+residence of old Commodore Vanderbilt, Charles learned to ride. He kept
+his part of the contract, too, and delivered five dollars' worth of
+passes ahead of schedule time.</p>
+
+<p>One of Gustave's cycling companions was the son of George Vandenhoff,
+the famous reader. Through him he met the father, who engaged him to
+post his placards for his series of lectures on Dickens. Charles
+accompanied Gustave on these expeditions, and got his first contact with
+theatrical advertising. Frequently he held the ladder while Gustave
+climbed up to hang a placard. Charles often employed his arts to induce
+an obdurate shopkeeper to permit a placard in his window. These cards
+were not as attractive as those of the regular theaters and it took much
+persuasion to secure their display. Charles sometimes sat in the
+box-office of Association Hall, where the Vandenhoff lectures were given
+and where Gustave sold tickets. It was here that Charles got his
+introduction to the finance of the theater.</p>
+
+<p>These days in the early 'seventies were picturesque and carefree for
+Charles. The boy was growing up in an atmosphere that, unconsciously,
+was shaping his whole future life. In the afternoon he continued his
+service behind the counter, hearing the actors tell stories of their
+triumphs and hardships. Often he slipped next door to Brentano's, where
+he was a welcome visitor and where he pored over the illustrations in
+the theatrical journals.</p>
+
+<p>Life at the store was not without incident. Among those who came in to
+buy cigars were the Guy brothers, famous minstrels of their time. They
+were particular chums of Gustave, and they likewise became great
+admirers of the little Charles. At the boys' request they would step
+into the little reception-room behind the store and practise their
+latest steps to a small but appreciative audience. This was Charles
+Frohman's first contact with minstrelsy, in which he was to have such
+an active part later on.</p>
+
+<p>Strangely enough, music and moving color always fascinated Charles
+Frohman. At that time, for it was scarcely more than a decade after the
+Civil War, there were many parades in New York, and all of them passed
+the little Broadway cigar-store. To get a better view, Charles
+frequently climbed up on the roof and there beheld the marching hosts
+with all their tumult and blare. Here it was, as he often later
+admitted, that he got his first impressions of street-display and
+brass-band effects that he used to such good advantage.</p>
+
+<p>A picturesque friendship of those early days was with the clock-painter
+Washburn, perhaps the foremost worker of that kind in this country. He
+painted the faces of all the clocks that hung in front of the jewelers'
+shops in the big city. He always painted the time at 8.17&frac12; o'clock,
+and it became the precedent which most clock-painters have followed ever
+since.</p>
+
+<p>Charles watched Washburn at work. One reason for his interest was that
+it dealt with gilt. The old painter took such a fancy to the lad that he
+wanted him to become his apprentice and succeed him as the first
+clock-face painter of his time. But this work seemed too slow for the
+future magnate.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Now came the first business contact of a Frohman with the theater, and
+here one encounters an example of that team-work among the Frohman
+brothers by which one of them invariably assisted another whenever
+opportunity arose. Frequently they created this opportunity themselves.
+To Gustave came the distinction of being the first in the business, and
+also the privilege of bringing into it both of his brothers. Having
+hovered so faithfully and persistently about the edges of theatricals,
+Gustave now landed inside.</p>
+
+<p>It was at the time of the high-tide of minstrelsy in this country&mdash;1870
+to 1880. Dozens of minstrel companies, ranging from bands of real
+negroes recruited in the South to aggregations of white men who blacked
+their faces, traveled about the country. The minstrel was the direct
+product of the slave-time singer and entertainer. His fame was
+recognized the world over. The best audiences at home, and royalty
+abroad, paid tribute to his talents. Out of the minstrel ranks of those
+days emerged some of the best known of our modern stars&mdash;men like
+Francis Wilson, Nat Goodwin, Henry E. Dixey, Montgomery and Stone,
+William H. Crane, and scores of others.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most famous organizations of the time was Charles Callender's
+Original Georgia Minstrels, hailing from Macon, Georgia, composed
+entirely of negroes and headed by the famous Billy Kersands. Ahead of
+this show was a mulatto advance-agent, Charles Hicks. He did very well
+in the North, but when he got down South he faced the inevitable
+prejudice against doing business with a negro. Callender needed some one
+to succeed him. A man whom Gustave Frohman had once befriended, knowing
+of his intense desire to enter the profession, recommended him for the
+position, and he got it.</p>
+
+<p>All was excitement in the Frohman family. At last the fortunes of one
+member were definitely committed to the theater, and although it was a
+negro minstrel show, it meant a definite connection with public
+entertainment.</p>
+
+<p>No one, not even Gustave himself, felt the enthusiasm so keenly as did
+little Charles, then twelve years old. He buzzed about the fortunate
+brother.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think you can get me a job as programmer with your show?" he
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered the new advance-agent. "Don't start in the business until
+you can be an agent or manager."</p>
+
+<p>On August 2, 1872, Gustave Frohman started to Buffalo to go ahead of the
+Callender Minstrels. Charles followed his brother's career with eager
+interest, and he longed for the time when he would have some connection
+with the business that held such thrall for him.</p>
+
+<p>Life now lagged more than ever for Charles. He chafed at the service in
+the store; he detested school; his one great desire was to earn money
+and share in the support of the family. His father urged him to prepare
+for the law.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said, "I won't be a lawyer. I want to deal with lots of
+people."</p>
+
+<p>Charles frequently referred to Tony Pastor. "He's a big man," he would
+often say. "I would like to do what he is doing."</p>
+
+<p>A seething but unformed aspiration seemed to stir his youthful breast.
+Once he heard his eldest brother recite some stanzas of Alexander Pope,
+in which the following line occurs:</p>
+
+<p class="c"><i>The whole, the boundless continent is ours.</i></p>
+
+<p>This line impressed the lad immensely. It became his favorite motto; he
+wrote it in his sister's autograph-album; he spouted it on every
+occasion; it is still to be found in his first scrap-book framed in
+round, boyish hand.</p>
+
+<p>Now the singular thing about this sentiment is that he never quoted it
+correctly. It was a life-long failing. His version&mdash;and it was strangely
+prophetic of his coming career&mdash;was:</p>
+
+<p class="c"><i>The whole&mdash;the boundless earth&mdash;is mine.</i></p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Daniel Frohman had gone from <i>The Tribune</i> to work in the
+office of <i>The New York Graphic</i>, down in Park Place near Church Street.
+<i>The Graphic</i> was the aristocrat of newspapers&mdash;the first illustrated
+daily ever published anywhere. With the usual family team-work, Daniel
+got Charles a position with him in 1874. He was put in the circulation
+department at a salary of ten dollars a week, his first regular wage. It
+was a position with which personality had much to do, for one of the
+boy's chief tasks was to select a high type of newsboy equipped to sell
+a five-cent daily. His genial manner won the boys to him and they became
+his loyal co-workers.</p>
+
+<p>With amazing facility he mastered his task. Among other things, he had
+to count newspapers. It was before the day of the machine enumerator,
+and the work had to be done by hand. Charles developed such
+extraordinary swiftness that patrons in the office often stopped to
+watch him. In throwing papers over the counter it was necessary to be
+accurate and positive, and here came the first manifestation of his
+dogged determination. He never lost his cunning in counting papers, and
+sometimes, when he was rich and famous, he would take a bundle of
+newspapers, to help a newsboy in the street, and run through them with
+all his old skill and speed.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Though his fingers were in the newspapers, his heart yearned for the
+theater. This ambition was heightened by the fact that his brother
+Daniel, having heeded the lure of Gustave, joined the Callender
+Minstrels as advance-agent, while Gustave remained back with the show.
+Slowly but surely the theater was annexing the Frohman boys. In the
+summer of 1874 Charles was drawn into its charmed circle, and in a
+picturesque fashion.</p>
+
+<p>It was the custom for minstrel companies and other theatrical
+combinations to rent theaters outright during the dull summer months.
+The playhouses were glad to get the rental, and the organizations could
+remain intact during what would otherwise be a period of disorganization
+and loss. Gustave, therefore, took Hooley's Theater in Brooklyn for
+summer minstrel headquarters, and on a memorable morning in July Charles
+was electrified to receive the following letter from him:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>You can begin your theatrical career in the box-office of Hooley's
+Theater in Brooklyn. Take a ferry and look at the theater. Hooley
+is going to rent it to us for the summer. Your work will begin as
+ticket-seller. You will have to sell 25, 50, and 75 cent tickets,
+and they will all be hard tickets, that is, no reserved seats. Get
+some pasteboard slips or a pack of cards and practise handling
+them. Your success will lie in the swiftness with which you can
+hand them out. With these rehearsals you will be able to do your
+work well and look like a professional.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Charles immediately bought a pack of the thickest playing-cards he could
+find and began to practise with them. Soon he became an expert shuffler.
+Often he used his father's cigar counter for a make-believe box-office
+sill, and across it he handed out the pasteboards to imaginary patrons.
+A dozen times he went over to Brooklyn and gazed with eager expectancy
+at the old theater, destined, by reason of his association with it, to
+be a historic landmark in the annals of American amusement.</p>
+
+<p>He wrote Gustave almost immediately:</p>
+
+<p class="c"><i>I will be ready when the time comes.</i></p>
+
+<p>That great moment arrived the first Monday in August, 1874. Charles
+could scarcely contain his impatience. So well had the publicity work
+for the performance been done by the new advance-agent that when the boy
+(he was just fourteen) raised the window of the box-office at seven
+o'clock there was a long line waiting to buy tickets. The final word of
+injunction from Gustave was:</p>
+
+<p>"Remember, Charley, you must be careful, because you will be personally
+responsible for any shortage in cash when you balance up."</p>
+
+<p>The house was sold out. When Gustave asked him, after the count-up, if
+he was short, the eager-faced lad replied:</p>
+
+<p>"I am not short&mdash;I am fifty cents over!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you can keep that as a reward for your good work," said Gustave.</p>
+
+<p>Callender was on hand the opening night. He watched the boy in the
+box-office with, an amused and lively interest. When Charles had
+finished selling tickets, Callender stepped up to him with a smile on
+his face and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Young fellow, I like your looks and your ways. You and I will be doing
+business some day."</p>
+
+<p>During this engagement, and with the customary spirit of family
+co-operation, Gustave said to Charles:</p>
+
+<p>"You can give your sister Rachel all the pennies that come in at the
+Wednesday matin&eacute;e." At this engagement very little was expected in the
+way of receipts at a midweek matin&eacute;e.</p>
+
+<p>But Gustave did not reckon with Charles. With an almost uncanny sense of
+exploitation which afterward enabled him to attract millions of
+theater-goers, the boy kept the brass-band playing outside the theater
+half an hour longer than usual. This drew many children just home from
+school, and they paid their way in pennies. The receipts, therefore,
+were unexpectedly large. When sister Rachel came over that day her
+beaming brother filled her bag with coppers.</p>
+
+<p>The summer of 1874 was a strenuous one for Charles Frohman. By day he
+worked in <i>The Graphic</i> office, only getting off for the matin&eacute;es; at
+night he was in the box-office at Hooley's in Brooklyn, his smiling face
+beaming like a moon through the window. He was in his element at last
+and supremely happy. When the season ended the Callender Minstrels
+resumed their tour on the road and Charles went back to the routine of
+<i>The Graphic</i> undisturbed by the thrill of the theater.</p>
+
+<p>He was developing rapidly. Daily he became more efficient. The following
+year he was put in charge of a branch office established by <i>The
+Graphic</i> in Philadelphia. Now came his second business contact with the
+theater. Callender's Minstrels played an engagement at Wood's Museum,
+and Daniel came on ahead to bill the show. Charles immediately offered
+his services. His advice about the location of favorite "stands" was of
+great service in getting posters displayed to the best advantage. It
+was the initial expression of what later amounted to a positive genius
+in the art of well-directed bill-board posting.</p>
+
+<p>While prowling around Philadelphia in search of amusement novelty&mdash;a
+desire that remained with him all his life&mdash;Charles encountered a unique
+form of public entertainment which had considerable vogue. It was
+Pepper's "Ghost Show," and was being shown in a small hall in Chestnut
+Street.</p>
+
+<p>The "Ghost Show" was an illusion. The actors seemed to be on the stage.
+In reality, they were under the stage, and their reflection was sent up
+by refracting mirrors. This enabled them (in the sight of the audience)
+to appear and disappear in the most extraordinary fashion. People
+apparently walked through one another, had their heads cut off, were
+shown with daggers plunged in their breasts. The whole effect was weird
+and thrilling.</p>
+
+<p>This show impressed Charles greatly, as the unusual invariably did. It
+gave him an idea. When Charles Callender joined his minstrel show at
+Philadelphia, young Frohman went to him with this proposition:</p>
+
+<p>"I believe," he said with great earnestness, "that there is money in the
+'Ghost Show.' The trouble with it now is that it is not being properly
+advertised. If you will let me have a hundred dollars, I will take
+charge of it and I think we can make some money out of it. It won't
+interfere with my work with <i>The Graphic</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Charles, who seldom left anything to chance, had already made an
+arrangement with the manager of the show to become his advertising
+agent.</p>
+
+<p>Callender, who liked the boy immensely, readily consented and gave him
+the required money, thus embarking Charles on his first venture with
+any sort of capital.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, the show failed. Charles maintained that the
+Philadelphians lacked imagination, but with his usual optimism he was
+certain that it would succeed on the road. When he approached Callender
+again and offered to take it out on the road the minstrel magnate
+slapped him on the shoulder and said:</p>
+
+<p>"All right, my boy. If you say so, I believe you. You can take the show
+out and I'll back you."</p>
+
+<p>Charles counseled with Gustave, who continued as his theatrical monitor.
+Eagerly he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I've got a great chance. Callender is going to back me on the road with
+the 'Ghost Show.'"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Gustave, firmly, "your time has not come. Wait, as I told you
+before, until you can go out ahead of a show as agent."</p>
+
+<p>Bitter as was the ordeal, Charles took his brother's advice, and the
+"Ghost Show" was abandoned to its fate.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h3>
+
+<p class="head">EARLY HARDSHIPS ON THE ROAD</p>
+
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">T</span> <span class="smcap">he</span> Christmas of 1876 was not a particularly merry one for Charles
+Frohman. The ardent boy, whose brief experience in Hooley's box-office
+had fastened the germ of the theater in his system, chafed at the
+restraint that kept him at a routine task. But his deliverance was at
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly before the close of the old year Gustave quit the Callender
+Minstrels. With a capital of fifty-seven dollars he remained in Chicago,
+waiting for something to turn up. One day as he sat in the lobby of the
+old Sherman House he was accosted by J. H. Wallick, an actor-manager who
+had just landed in town with a theatrical combination headed by John
+Dillon, a well-known Western comedian of the time. They were stranded
+and looking for a backer.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you take charge of the company?" asked Wallick.</p>
+
+<p>"I've only got fifty-seven dollars," said Gustave, "but I'll take a
+chance."</p>
+
+<p>Between them they raised a little capital and started on a tour of the
+Middle West that was destined to play a significant part in shaping the
+career of Charles. In the company besides John Dillon were his wife,
+Louise Dillon (afterward the ing&eacute;nue of Daniel Frohman's Lyceum
+Company); George W. Stoddart, brother of J. H. Stoddart of A. M.
+Palmer's Company, his wife and his daughter, Polly Stoddart, who married
+Neil Burgess; John F. Germon; Mrs. E. M. Post, and Wesley Sisson. Their
+repertory consisted of two well-worn but always amusing plays, "Our
+Boys" and "Married Life."</p>
+
+<p>Gustave was to remain with the company until they reached Clinton, Iowa.
+After that he was to go ahead while Wallick was to remain with the
+company. When Gustave was about to leave, the company protested. He had
+won their confidence, and they threatened to strike. What to do with
+Wallick was the problem.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not make him stage-manager?" suggested Dillon.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Gustave, "but who is to go ahead of the show?"</p>
+
+<p>The company was gathered on the stage of the Davis Opera House. Gustave
+scratched his head. Then he turned quickly on the group of stage folk
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I've got some one for you. I'll wire my brother Charles to come on and
+be advance-agent."</p>
+
+<p>Thus it came about that from a little Iowa town there flashed back to
+New York on a memorable morning in January, 1877, the following telegram
+from Gustave to Charles Frohman:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Your time has come at last. Am wiring money for ticket to St.
+Paul, where you begin as agent for John Dillon. Will meet you 2
+A.M. at Winona, where you change cars and where I will instruct.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Charles happened to be at home when this telegram came. It was the first
+he had ever received. With trembling hands he tore it open, his rosy
+face broke into a seraphic smile, and the tears came into his eyes. He
+rushed to his mother, threw his arms around her, and gasped:</p>
+
+<p>"At last I'm in the business!"</p>
+
+<p>He lost no time in starting. With a single grip-sack, which contained
+his modest wardrobe, the eager boy started on his first railroad journey
+of any length into the great West. It was the initial step of what, from
+this time on, was to be a continuous march of ever-widening importance.</p>
+
+<p>Begrimed but radiant, the boy stepped from a day-coach at two o'clock in
+the morning at Winona. No scene could have been more desolate. Save for
+the station-master and a solitary brakeman there was only one other
+person on hand, and that individual was the faithful Gustave, who
+advanced swiftly through the gloom and greeted his brother
+enthusiastically.</p>
+
+<p>Charles was all excitement. He had not slept a wink. It was perhaps the
+longest and most irksome journey he ever took. He was bubbling with the
+desire to get to work.</p>
+
+<p>The two brothers went to a hotel where Gustave had a room, and there
+they sat for four hours. It is a picture well worth keeping in mind: the
+pleased older boy, eager to get his brother started right; the younger
+lad all ears, and his eyes big with wonder and anticipation. There was
+no thought of food or rest. Gustave was enthusiastic about the company.
+He said to his brother:</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Charley, we've got real New York actors, and our leading lady,
+Louise Dillon, has a genuine sealskin coat. That coat will get us out of
+any town. You've got no 'Ghost Show' amateurs to handle now, but real
+actors and actresses."</p>
+
+<p>Then came an announcement that startled the boy, for Gustave continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Your salary is to be twenty-five dollars a week and hotel bills, but
+you must not spend more than one dollar and a half a day for meals and
+room."</p>
+
+<p>In this dingy room of an obscure hotel in a country town Charles Frohman
+got his first instructions in practical theatrical work. Perhaps the
+most important of this related to bill-posting. In those days it was a
+tradition in theatrical advertising that whoever did the most effective
+bill-posting in a town got the audience. Most of the publicity was done
+with posters. An advance-agent had to be a practical bill-poster
+himself. To get the most conspicuous sites for bills and to keep those
+bills up until the attraction played became the chief task of the
+advance-agent. The provincial bill-posters were fickle and easily
+swayed. The agent with the most persuasive personality, sometimes with
+the greatest drinking capacity, won the day.</p>
+
+<p>All this advice, and much more, was poured by Gustave into the willing
+ears of the youthful Charles. No injunction laid on that keen-eyed boy
+in the gray dawn of that historic morning back in the 'seventies was
+more significant than these words from his elder brother:</p>
+
+<p>"Your success in handling the bill-poster does not lie through a barroom
+door. Give him all the passes he wants, but never buy him a drink."</p>
+
+<p>That those words sank deeply into Charles Frohman is shown by the fact
+that he seldom drank liquor. His chief tipple through all the coming
+crowded years was never stronger than sarsaparilla, soda-water, or
+lemonade.</p>
+
+<p>The task ahead of Charles would have staggered any but the most
+dauntless enthusiasm. Among other things, as Gustave discovered, there
+was no route for the company after St. Paul, which was to be played the
+following week.</p>
+
+<p>"You must discover new towns and bill them," he said. "Get what printing
+you want. The printers have been instructed to fill orders from you."</p>
+
+<p>The hours sped on. Charles asked a thousand questions, and Gustave
+filled him with facts as dawn broke and day came. It was nearly seven
+o'clock, time for his train for St. Paul to leave. Charles would not
+hear of having breakfast. He was too full of desire to get to work.</p>
+
+<p>Among other things, Charles carried a letter from Gustave to Wallick,
+who was temporarily ahead of the show, which said:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>This is my brother Charles, who will take the advance in your
+place.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>The first word that came from the young advance-agent announced action,
+for he wired:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>All right with Wallick. Have discovered River Falls.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>River Falls, it happened, had been "discovered" before and abandoned,
+but Charles thought he was making route history.</p>
+
+<p>Charles immediately set to work with the extraordinary energy that
+always characterized him. The chief bill-poster in St. Paul was named
+Haines. Charles captured him with his engaging smile, and he became a
+willing slave. It was Haines who taught him how to post bills. Later on
+when Gustave arrived with the show, he spoke of the boy with intense
+pride. He said:</p>
+
+<p>"I have taught your brother Charley how to post bills. He took to it
+like a duck to water. He didn't mind how much paste he spattered over
+himself. His one desire was to know how to do the job thoroughly. I am
+going to make him the greatest theatrical agent in the world."</p>
+
+<p>Curiously enough, Haines lived to be a very old man, and in the later
+years of his life he was able to stick up the twenty-eight-sheet stands
+that bore in large type the name of the little chubby prot&eacute;g&eacute; he had
+introduced to the art of bill-posting back in the long ago.</p>
+
+<p>At St. Paul Charles had opposition&mdash;a big musical event at Ingersoll
+Hall&mdash;and this immediately tested his resource. He got his printing
+posted in the best places, went around to the newspaper offices and got
+such good notices that John Dillon was inspired to remark that he had
+never had such efficient advance work. It is interesting to remember
+that at this time Charles Frohman was not yet eighteen years old.</p>
+
+<p>Now came the first evidence of that initiative which was such a
+conspicuous trait in the young man. He had come back to see the
+performances of his company, and had watched them with swelling pride.
+Several times he said, and with pardonable importance:</p>
+
+<p>"What <i>we</i> need is a new play. <i>We</i> must have something fresh to
+advertise."</p>
+
+<p>The net result of this suggestion was that his brother obtained the
+manuscript of "Lemons," a comedy that, under the title of "Wedlock for
+Seven," had been first produced at Augustin Daly's New Fifth Avenue
+Theater in New York. A copy of the play was sent on to Charles to
+enable him to prepare the presswork for it, and it was the first play
+manuscript he ever read. "Lemons" vindicated Charles's suggestion,
+because it added to the strength of the repertory and brought
+considerable new business.</p>
+
+<p>Charles took an infinite pride in his work. He was eager for
+suggestions, he worked early and late, and when the season closed at the
+end of June he was a full-fledged and experienced advance-agent. With
+his brother he reached Chicago July 4th. In the lobby of Hooley's
+Theater he was introduced to R. M. Hooley, who, after various hardships,
+again controlled the theater which bore his name, now Powers' Theater.
+Out of that chance meeting came a long friendship and a connection that
+helped in later years to give Charles Frohman his first spectacular
+success, for it was Mr. Hooley who helped to back "Shenandoah."</p>
+
+<p>On July 5th, six months after he had left the East for his first start,
+Charles appeared at his mother's home in New York, none the worse for
+his first experience on the road.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles was soon eager for the next season. Gustave had signed a
+contract with John Dillon to take him out again, this time as part owner
+of the company. He and George Stoddart agreed to put up two hundred and
+fifty dollars each to launch the tour of the Stoddart Comedy Company
+with John Dillon as star. Charles was to continue as advance-agent.</p>
+
+<p>It was a long summer for the boy. When August arrived and the time came
+to start west there was a financial council of war. Gustave counted on
+getting his capital from members of the family, but no money was
+forthcoming. Daniel had received no salary from Callender, and the great
+road project seemed on the verge of failure. Charles was disconsolate.
+But the mother of the boys, ever mindful of their interest, said, in her
+serene way:</p>
+
+<p>"I can get enough money to send you to Chicago and I will put up some
+lunches for you."</p>
+
+<p>Charles was eagerly impatient to start. He nagged at his brother:</p>
+
+<p>"Gus, when do we start for Chicago? Do we walk?"</p>
+
+<p>He was sent down-town to find out the cheapest route, and he returned in
+great excitement, saying:</p>
+
+<p>"The cheapest way is over the Baltimore &amp; Ohio, second class, but it is
+the longest ride. We can ride in the day-coach, and even if we have no
+place to wash we will get to Chicago, and that is the main thing."</p>
+
+<p>When they reached Chicago the first of the long chain of disasters that
+was to attend them on this enterprise developed.</p>
+
+<p>Stoddart was penniless. The two hundred and fifty dollars that he
+expected to contribute to the capital of the new combination was swept
+away in the failure of the Fidelity Bank. He had looked forward to
+Gustave for help, and all the while Gustave, on that long, toilsome
+journey west, was hoping that his partner would provide the first
+railroad fares. So they sat down and pooled their woes, wondering how
+they could start their tour, with Charles as an interested listener.</p>
+
+<p>Every now and then he would chirp up with the question:</p>
+
+<p>"How do I get out of town?"</p>
+
+<p>Finally Gustave, always resourceful, said:</p>
+
+<p>"You don't need any money, Charley. I've got railroad passes for you,
+and you can give the hotels orders on me for your board and lodging."</p>
+
+<p>It was a custom in those days for advance-agents to give orders for
+their obligations&mdash;hotel, rent of hall, bill-posting, and baggage&mdash;upon
+the company that followed. Hotels in particular were willing to accept
+orders on the treasurer of a theatrical company about to play a date,
+because, in the event of complete failure, there was always baggage to
+seize and hold.</p>
+
+<p>So, armed with passes and with the optimism of youth and anticipation,
+Charles set forth on what became in many respects the most memorable
+road experience in his life. The first town he billed was Streator,
+Illinois. Then he hurried on to Ottawa and Peoria, where they were to
+play during fair week, which was the big week of the year. Misfortune
+descended at Streator, for despite the lavish display of posters and the
+ample advance notice that Charles lured the local editors into
+publishing, the total receipts on the first night were seventy-seven
+dollars. This, and more, had already been pledged before the curtain
+went up, and Gustave was not even able to pay John Dillon his seven
+dollars and seventy cents, which represented his ten per cent, of the
+gross receipts.</p>
+
+<p>By "traveling on their baggage," which was one of the expedients of the
+time and a custom which has not entirely passed out of use, the company
+got to Ottawa, where Charles joined them. Here, in a comic circumstance,
+he first developed the amazing influence that he was able to exert on
+people.</p>
+
+<p>Although an admirable actor with a large following and the most
+delightful and companionable of men, John Dillon had one unfortunate
+failing. He was addicted to drink, and, regardless of consequences, he
+would periodically succumb to this weakness. At Ottawa, the town crowded
+with visitors for the annual fair, Dillon fell from grace. The bill for
+the evening was "Lemons," and there was every indication that the house
+would be sold out. The receipts were badly needed, too.</p>
+
+<p>Late in the afternoon came the terrifying news that Dillon lay stupefied
+from liquor in his room. Everybody save Charles was in despair. Dillon
+had conceived a great fancy for Charles, and he was deputized to take
+the actor in hand, get him to the theater, and coerce him through the
+play.</p>
+
+<p>Charles responded nobly. He aroused the star, took him to the theater in
+a carriage, and stood in the wings throughout the whole performance,
+coaching and inspiring his intoxicated star. By an amusing circumstance,
+Dillon was required to play a drunken scene in "Lemons." He performed
+this part with so much realism that the audience gave him a great
+ovation. The real savior of that performance was the chubby lad who
+stood in the wings with beating heart, fearful every moment that Dillon
+would succumb.</p>
+
+<p class="space">New and heavier responsibilities now faced Charles Frohman. The company
+was booked to play a week in Memphis, Tennessee, the longest and most
+important stand of the tour. In those days the printers who supplied the
+traveling companies with advertising matter were powers to be reckoned
+with. When the supply of printing was cut off the company was helpless.</p>
+
+<p>Charles H. McConnell, of the National Printing Company, who supplied the
+Stoddart Company with paper, was none too confident of the success of
+that organization. When he heard of the Memphis engagement he insisted
+that Gustave, who was older and more experienced, be sent ahead to pave
+the way. Charles was sent back to manage the company, and now came his
+first attempt at handling actors. He rose to the emergency with all his
+characteristic ingenuity.</p>
+
+<p>He began at Champaign, Illinois. The first test of his resource came at
+a one-night stand&mdash;Waupaca, Iowa&mdash;where "Lemons" was billed as a
+feature. The prospects for a big house were good. Board and railroad
+fare seemed assured, when just before supper-time John F. Germon, one of
+the company, approached Charles in great perturbation.</p>
+
+<p>"We can't play to-night. Mrs. Post is sick."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Post played the part of the old woman in the play, and it was a
+very important r&ocirc;le.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Frohman only smiled, as he always did in an emergency. Then he
+said to Germon:</p>
+
+<p>"You're a member of the well-known Germon family, aren't you? Then live
+up to its reputation and play the part yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"But how about my mustache?" asked Germon.</p>
+
+<p>"I will pay for having it shaved off," replied Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>The net result was that Germon sacrificed his mustache, played the part
+acceptably without any one in the audience discovering that he was a man
+masquerading as an old woman. Charles put Wallick, who was acting as
+stage-manager, in Germon's part. Thus the house was saved and the
+company was able to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>With his attractive ways and eternal thoughtfulness Charles captivated
+the company. He supplied the women with candy and bought peanuts for the
+men. On that trip he developed his fondness for peanuts that never
+forsook him. He almost invariably carried a bag in his pocket. When he
+could not get peanuts he took to candy.</p>
+
+<p>A great friendship struck up between Frohman and Stoddart, who, in a
+way, was a character. He played the violin, and when business was bad
+and the company got in the dumps Stoddart added to their misfortunes by
+playing doleful tunes on his fiddle. But that fiddle had a virtue not to
+be despised, because it was Stoddart's bank. In its hollow box he
+secreted his modest savings, and in more than one emergency they were
+drawn on for company bed and board. When the organization reached
+Memphis Charles had so completely won the affections of the company that
+they urged him to stay on with them. But business was business, and he
+had to go on in advance.</p>
+
+<p>Charles now went ahead to "bill" Texas. The reason for the expedition
+was this:</p>
+
+<p>In Memphis business was so bad that the manager of the theater there
+advised Gustave to send the company through Texas, where, he assured
+them, there would be no opposition, and they would have the state to
+themselves. This advice proved to be only too true, for the company not
+only had the state to itself, but the state for a time held the company
+fast&mdash;in the unwilling bonds of financial misfortune.</p>
+
+<p>The plan was to play the best towns in Texas and then go back through
+the Middle West, where John Dillon had a strong following, and where it
+was hoped the season could close with full pockets. Up to this time the
+company had received salaries with some degree of regularity. But from
+this time on they were to have a constantly diminishing acquaintance
+with money, for hard luck descended upon them the moment they crossed
+the frontiers of the Lone Star State.</p>
+
+<p>It was about this time that Charles Callender, at the solicitation of
+Gustave, purchased an interest in the Stoddart Comedy Company for a
+hundred-dollar bill. This bill was given to Charles as a "prop." In
+those days the financial integrity of the legitimate theatrical
+combination was sometimes questioned by hard-hearted hotel-keepers. The
+less esthetic "variety" troupes, minstrel shows, and circuses enjoyed a
+much higher credit. An advance-agent like Charles sometimes found
+difficulty in persuading the hotel people to accept orders on the
+company's treasurer.</p>
+
+<p>With characteristic enterprise Charles used the hundred-dollar bill as a
+symbol of solvency. He flashed it on hotel-keepers and railway agents in
+the careless way that inspired confidence, and, what was more to the
+point, credit. He carried this hundred-dollar bill for nearly a month.
+Often when asked to pay his board bill he would produce the note and ask
+for change. Before the startled clerk could draw his breath he would
+add:</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it might be best if I gave you an order on the treasurer."</p>
+
+<p>This always served to get him out of town without spending cash for
+hotel bills.</p>
+
+<p>Texas was still a rough country, and Charles's reckless display of the
+hundred-dollar bill once gave him a narrow escape from possible death.
+He had made the usual careless display of wealth at a small hotel in
+Calvert. The bad man of the town witnessed the performance and
+immediately began to shadow the young advance-agent. When Charles
+retired to his room he found, to his dismay, that there was no lock on
+the door. He had a distinct feeling that a robbery would be attempted,
+so he quietly left the hotel and spent the night riding back and forth
+on the train between Calvert and Dallas. This cost him nothing, for he
+had a pass.</p>
+
+<p>At Galveston occurred an unexpected meeting. Daniel Frohman, who was
+ahead of Callender's Minstrels, had arrived in town by boat from New
+Orleans (there being no railway connection then) to book his show for
+the next week. On arriving at the Tremont Opera House he was surprised
+to see Charles writing press notices in the box-office.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you doing here?" he asked. "I thought you were in Tennessee."</p>
+
+<p>Charles walked to the window and said, with great pride, "We play here
+all next week."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you got the whole week?" asked Daniel.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>"But can't you give me Monday or Tuesday night?" asked Daniel.</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible," replied Charles, haughtily.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Daniel, in friendly rivalry, "then I will have to hire
+Turner Hall and knock you out for two nights with our brass-band
+parade."</p>
+
+<p>Charles then came out into the lobby and confessed that his company was
+up against it, and that it meant bread and butter and possibly the whole
+future of the company if he could only play Galveston.</p>
+
+<p>"We are coming here on our trunks," he said, "and we've got to get some
+money."</p>
+
+<p>Daniel immediately relented. He arranged with the railroad to delay the
+train and thus make a connection which would carry his company on
+through to the interior. He booked Galveston for the second week
+following. This left the week in question free to Charles, who breathed
+easier.</p>
+
+<p>Charles now went on and billed Sherman, Houston, and Dallas. At Dallas
+the hard luck that had gripped the company the moment it left Memphis
+descended more vigorously than before. Dillon not only fell from grace
+again, but disappeared. Gustave Frohman had vowed that he would
+discharge him if he went on another spree, and he kept his word. They
+were in a real predicament, with star gone, business bad, and
+practically stranded a thousand miles from home.</p>
+
+<p>Charles, who frequently came back to join the company, was the one
+bright spot of those precarious days, for he never lost his optimism or
+his smile.</p>
+
+<p>"What we need," he said at a council of war in Dallas, "is a new play. I
+have been reading in the <i>New York Clipper</i> about one called 'Pink
+Dominoes.' I think it is just the thing for us to do. In fact, I have
+already sent for a copy of it."</p>
+
+<p>The play arrived the next day, and when George Stoddart read it to him
+the young agent bubbled with laughter and said:</p>
+
+<p>"It's bound to be a big success."</p>
+
+<p>It was decided to put on "Pink Dominoes" at Houston. Charles remained
+behind and watched the rehearsals, the first of the kind he had ever
+seen. Contrary to all expectations, Houston was shocked by the play. The
+audience literally "walked out" and the run of one night ended.</p>
+
+<p>Misfortunes now crowded thick and fast. Salaries had ceased entirely,
+and it was with the utmost difficulty that the company proceeded on its
+way. As a crowning hardship, Callender repented of his bargain and
+withdrew the much-used and treasured hundred-dollar bill.</p>
+
+<p>When Charles met Gustave in Seguin he said: "We're up against a hard
+proposition. The people want John Dillon. It's hard to book an
+attraction without a star."</p>
+
+<p>In this statement Charles Frohman expressed a truth that he afterward
+made one of his theatrical axioms, for he became the leading exponent of
+the star system, and developed, in fact, into the king of the
+star-makers.</p>
+
+<p>Charles rose supreme over the hardships that filled his colleagues with
+gloom. Many a night, in order to save hotel bills, he slept on a train
+as it shunted back and forth between small towns. He always turned up in
+the morning smiling and serene, with cheer for his now discouraged and
+almost disgruntled colleagues.</p>
+
+<p>Louise Dillon's sealskin sack rendered heroic service during these
+precarious days. It was almost literally worn out as collateral. As
+Gustave had predicted, it got the company out of town on more than one
+occasion. A little incident will indicate some of the ordeals of that
+stage of the tour. At Hempstead a "norther" struck the town and the
+temperature dropped. Wesley Sisson caught a hard cold and concluded to
+get what he called "a good sweat." He had scarcely made his preparations
+and settled himself in bed when he heard a rap at the door and a voice
+said, "Open up."</p>
+
+<p>"Who's that?" asked Sisson.</p>
+
+<p>"Charley," was the reply. "Let me in. There isn't a spare bed in this
+house and I am freezing to death."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Sisson, "but you don't want to come in here, because I
+am trying to sweat to death."</p>
+
+<p>"Great Scott!" yelled Frohman, "that's what I want to do."</p>
+
+<p>Sisson let him in and he remained all night.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Everywhere Charles Frohman drew people to him. The first time he booked
+Houston he made friends with Colonel McPherson, who owned the Perkins
+Opera House and the inevitable saloon alongside. The old manager&mdash;a
+rather rough customer who had killed his man&mdash;was a great casino-player,
+and Charles beguiled several hours with him one night at a game while
+waiting for a train.</p>
+
+<p>In one of the company's darkest hours he said to Stoddart:</p>
+
+<p>"I've got an idea. Let's play Houston."</p>
+
+<p>"But we've just been there," said Stoddart.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind," said Charles. "I'll fix it."</p>
+
+<p>The next day he turned up at Houston and went to Colonel McPherson.</p>
+
+<p>"What, you here again?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"We've come back," replied Charles with ready resource, "to play a
+special benefit for your School Teachers' Association."</p>
+
+<p>The old man chuckled. "Well, if you can get 'em in the house you are all
+right."</p>
+
+<p>Charles was already planning a series of benefits for volunteer firemen
+and widows and orphans in future towns. It was a case of "anything to
+get a crowd." He hesitated a moment, then faced the old man with his
+winning smile and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Colonel, I wish you would let me have fifty dollars to send back to the
+company."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, my boy; there's the safe. Help yourself. Hurry up. Let us
+have a game of casino."</p>
+
+<p>Charles wired the much-needed money to his brother, then came back and
+dutifully played the game. But neither trumped-up benefits for the most
+worthy of causes nor the unfailing good-humor of the boyish
+advance-agent could stem the tide of adversity. Things went from bad to
+worse. Louise Dillon, all hope of salary gone, gave her little remaining
+capital to Gustave, saving only enough for her railway fare, and went
+back to her home in Cincinnati. Stoddart now played more dolefully than
+ever on his violin, ransacked its recesses, and turned over his last
+cent for the common good.</p>
+
+<p>"We've got to get back North," said Gustave.</p>
+
+<p>With the utmost effort, and by pawning jewelry and clothes, the company
+gladly saw the last trace of Texas disappear over the horizon.</p>
+
+<p>It was a hard journey back. At Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Charles had to wait
+for the company because he did not have enough cash to go on ahead. Here
+the whole company was stranded until several of the members succeeded in
+getting enough money from home by wire to send them on.</p>
+
+<p>Memphis proved to be a life-saver. Here the company took a steamboat
+down the Arkansas. It is notable because thus early Charles showed that
+eagerness to take a chance which eventually caused his death, for, on
+this trip, as on the <i>Lusitania</i>, he had been warned not to sail.</p>
+
+<p>The river was low and the pilot was reckless. Whenever the boat groaned
+over a bar Charles would say, "That's great," although the other members
+of the company shivered with apprehension.</p>
+
+<p>By using every device and resource known to the traveling company of
+those days, the Stoddart Comedy Company finally reached Richmond,
+Kentucky. It had left a trail of baggage behind; there was not a watch
+in the whole aggregation. Charles went on ahead to Cincinnati to book
+and bill the adjacent towns.</p>
+
+<p>At Richmond Gustave had an inspiration. Then, as always, "Uncle Tom's
+Cabin" was the great life-saver of the harassed and needy theatrical
+organization. The play was always accessible and it almost invariably
+drew an audience.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not have a real negro play Uncle Tom?" said Gustave.</p>
+
+<p>So he wired Charles as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Get me an Eva and send her down with Sam Lucas. Be sure to tell
+Sam to bring his diamonds.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Sam Lucas was a famous negro minstrel who had been with the Callender
+company. He sported a collection of diamonds that made him the envy and
+admiration of his colleagues. Gustave knew that these jewels, like
+Louise Dillon's sealskin sack, meant a meal ticket for the company and
+transportation in an emergency.</p>
+
+<p>Charles engaged Sallie Cohen (now Mrs. John C. Rice), and sent her down
+with Lucas, who, by the way, provided the money for the trip. Charles
+then proceeded to cover his "Lemons" posters with "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
+printing which he hastily acquired, and awaited results.</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle Tom's Cabin" was played to a packed house at Richmond, and the
+company was able to get out of Kentucky. Gustave now had visions of big
+business in Ohio, and especially at Wilmington, which was Sam Lucas's
+home town. But the result was the usual experience with home patronage
+of home talent, and only a handful of people came to see the play.
+Sallie Cohen, despairing of getting her salary, had quit the company,
+and on this night Polly Stoddart, who was a tall, well-developed woman,
+had to play Little Eva. When she sat on the lap of Wesley Sisson, who
+played her father, she not only hid him from sight, but almost crushed
+him to earth.</p>
+
+<p>Wilmington proved to be the last despairing gasp of the Stoddart Comedy
+Company, for the trouble-studded tour now ended. Some of Lucas's
+diamonds were pawned to get the company back to Cincinnati.</p>
+
+<p>The sad news was telegraphed to Charles, who was billing Newport,
+Kentucky, which is just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. He
+received the message while standing on a step-ladder with a paste-brush
+in his hand. Now came an early evidence of his humor and equanimity. He
+calmly went on posting the bill for the show that he knew would never
+appear. Afterward in reciting the incident he made this explanation:</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't want to tell the bill-poster that the company was closed,
+because he had just made a fresh bucket of paste and I didn't want him
+to waste it. Besides, he had become enthusiastic at the prospect of
+seeing a real negro Uncle Tom, and I had just given him some passes for
+the show. I didn't want all his disappointments to come at one time."</p>
+
+<p>After all the hardships of the previous months, and with salaries
+unpaid, the company now found itself stranded in the spring of 1878 at
+the Walnut Street Hotel in Cincinnati. Gustave's problem was to get his
+people home. Fortunately, most of them lived in the Middle West. By
+pawning some of his clothes and making other sacrifices he was able to
+get them off. Only Frank Hartwell and Charles were left behind.</p>
+
+<p>Gustave got a pass to Baltimore, where he borrowed enough money from
+Callender, then in his decline, to take care of Hartwell. Charles was
+left behind as security for the whole Frohman bill at the Walnut Street
+Hotel. Although Charles was amiable and smiling, the hotel thought that
+his cheerful demeanor was an unsatisfactory return for board and
+lodging, so he was asked to vacate his room after a few days. He now
+spent his time walking about the streets and eating one meal a day. At
+night he sat in the summer-gardens "across the Rhine," listening to the
+music, and then seeking out a place where he could get a bed for a
+quarter.</p>
+
+<p>By giving an I O U to the same Pennsylvania ticket-agent who had staked
+Gustave, and with five dollars telegraphed by the indefatigable brother
+back in New York, he got as far as Philadelphia. He landed there without
+a cent in his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"I must get home," he said.</p>
+
+<p>He got on a day-coach of a New York train without the vestige of a
+ticket and still penniless. In those days the cars were heated by
+stoves, and near each stove was a large coal-box.</p>
+
+<p>When Charles heard the conductor's cry, "Tickets, please!" he hid
+himself in the coal-box and remained there until the awful personage
+passed by. Being small, he could pull the lid of the box down and be
+completely hidden from sight. After the conductor passed, he scrambled
+out and resumed his seat. He had to repeat this performance several
+times on the trip. Afterward in speaking of it he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I wasn't a bit frightened for myself. I knew I would suffer no harm. My
+chief concern was for a kind-hearted old man who sat in the seat next
+to the coal-box. He was much more agitated than I was."</p>
+
+<p>On a bright May afternoon Charles turned up, sooty but smiling, at 250
+East Seventy-eighth Street, where the Frohman family then lived. He had
+walked all the way up-town from the ferry. His first greeting to Gustave
+was:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, when do we start again?"</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h3>
+
+<p class="head">PICTURESQUE DAYS AS MINSTREL MANAGER</p>
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">I</span> <span class="smcap">nstead</span>
+of discouraging him, Charles Frohman's baptism of hardship with
+the John Dillon companies only filled him with a renewed ardor for the
+theatrical business. The hunger for the road was strong in him. Again it
+was Gustave who proved to be the good angel, and who now led him to a
+picturesque experience.</p>
+
+<p>During the summer of 1878 J. H. (Jack) Haverly acquired the Callender
+Original Georgia Minstrels, and Gustave, who had an important hand in
+the negotiation, was retained as manager. He started for the Pacific
+coast with his dusky aggregation, and in Chicago fell in with his new
+employer.</p>
+
+<p>Haverly was then at the high tide of his extraordinary career. He was in
+many respects the amusement dictator of his time. Beginning as owner of
+a small variety theater in Toledo, Ohio, he had risen to be the manager
+of half a dozen important theaters in New York, Chicago, and
+Philadelphia. Not less than ten traveling companies bore his name.</p>
+
+<p>By instinct a plunger, his daring deals became the theatrical talk of
+the country. He was a dashing and conspicuous figure; his spacious
+shirt-front shone with diamonds, and he wore a large flat-crowned stiff
+hat in which he carried all his correspondence and private papers.</p>
+
+<p>Haverly specialized in minstrels, for he was a genius at capitalizing
+the enthusiasm of the theater-going public. Just at this time he was
+launching the greatest of all his traveling enterprises. To meet the
+competition of the newly formed Barlow, Wilson, Primrose and West
+minstrels he decided to merge all his white minstrel companies into the
+Haverly Mastodons. It was to include forty star performers, more than
+had ever before been assembled in a minstrel organization. So proud was
+Haverly of this total that the advertising slogan of the company, which
+was echoed from coast to coast, and which became a popular theatrical
+phrase everywhere, was "Forty&mdash;Count 'Em&mdash;Forty."</p>
+
+<p>Gustave found Haverly in the throes of Mastodon-making. Always
+solicitous of the family interest, he asked him if he had engaged a
+treasurer. When Haverly replied that he had not, Gustave immediately
+spoke up:</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you hire my brother Charley? He has had experience on the
+road."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Gus," he replied. "I've got two Frohmans with me now. If
+Charley is as good as they are, he is all right."</p>
+
+<p>Thus it came about that for the first time the three Frohman brothers
+were associated under the same employer.</p>
+
+<p>Gustave wired the good news and transportation to the eager and
+impatient Charles, who had irked under the inactivity of a hot summer in
+New York. Gustave added ten dollars and instructed his brother to buy a
+new suit, for the Frohman family funds were in a more or less sad way.</p>
+
+<p>Henry Frohman's generosity and his absolute inability to press the
+payment of debts due him had brought the father to a state of financial
+embarrassment, and the burden of the family support fell upon the sons.</p>
+
+<p>In a few days Charles showed up smiling in Chicago, but he had suffered
+disaster on the way. The ten-dollar "hand-me-down" suit had faded
+overnight, and when Charles appeared it was a sad sight.</p>
+
+<p>"You can't meet Jack Haverly in that suit," said Gustave.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Charley, "I will go to a tailor and have it fixed in
+some way."</p>
+
+<p>The tailor, apparently, worked a miracle with the clothes, for Charles
+became presentable and was introduced to the great man, who, like most
+other people, readily succumbed to the boy's winning manner.</p>
+
+<p>"You and I will work the public, all right," he said to Charles. What
+was more important, Haverly informed him that he was to act as treasurer
+of the Mastodons at a salary of ten dollars a week, with an allowance of
+one dollar and a half a day for board and lodging.</p>
+
+<p>A serious complication now faced the boy. It was in the middle of July;
+the company was not to start until August, and he could draw no salary
+until the engagement began. With the assistance of Gustave he rented a
+two-dollar-a-week room and existed on a meal-ticket good for twenty-two
+fifteen-cent meals that he had bought for three dollars.</p>
+
+<p>Charles sat at rehearsals with Haverly. He had a genius for stage
+effects and made many practical suggestions. The big brass-band, an
+all-important adjunct of the minstrel show, fascinated him. When the
+season opened with a flourish the receipts amazed him.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time he came in contact with real money. The gross income
+of the Dillon company had never exceeded a thousand dollars a week; now
+he was handling more than that sum every night.</p>
+
+<p>After a brief engagement at the Adelphi Theater in Chicago, which
+Haverly owned, the "Forty&mdash;Count 'Em&mdash;Forty" started on their long tour
+which rounded out the amusement apprenticeship of Charles Frohman.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles now made his first real appearance before the public, and in
+spectacular fashion. It was the custom of a minstrel company to parade
+each day. With their record-breaking organization the Mastodons gave
+this feature of minstrelsy perhaps its greatest traditions. Wearing
+shining silk hats, frock-coats, and lavender trousers, and headed by
+"the world's greatest minstrel band," the "Forty&mdash;Count 'Em&mdash;Forty"
+swayed the heart and moved the imagination of admiring multitudes
+wherever they went.</p>
+
+<p>Charles, who to the end of his days despised a silk hat, now wore one
+for the first time, but under protest. However, he manfully took his
+place in the front set of fours with the ranking officers of the
+organization, and marched many a weary mile. So great was his dislike
+for a silk hat even then that he invariably carried a cap in his pocket
+and the moment the parade was over the abhorred headpiece was removed.</p>
+
+<p>The first stop of the Mastodons was at Toledo, Ohio. A great crowd
+assembled around the theater, and the treasurer, a weak little man,
+seemed afraid to raise the window. "They'll run over me," he whined.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Charles. "I'll take the window and sell the tickets."</p>
+
+<p>Up to this time his only box-office experience had been as a mere lad at
+Hooley's Theater in Brooklyn, but he handled that big crowd with such
+skill and speed that even "Big Bill" Foote, who was the manager of the
+company, patted him on the back and said a kind word.</p>
+
+<p>Foote, who was Charles's superior officer on this trip, was a type of
+the big, loud, blustering theatrical man of the time. He was six feet
+tall, and he towered over his youthful assistant, who was his exact
+opposite in manner and speech. Yet between these two men of strange
+contrast there developed a close kinship. The little, plump,
+rosy-cheeked treasurer could handle the big, bluff, noisy manager at
+will. Such was Charles Frohman's experience with men always.</p>
+
+<p>The first tour was replete with stirring incident. When the company
+reached Bradford, Pennsylvania, they found the town in the throes of oil
+excitement. Oil was on everybody's tongue and ankle-deep in some of the
+streets. A great multitude collected at the theater. After the first
+part of the show the gallery, which was full of people, creaked and
+settled a few inches, creating a near panic. While this was being
+subdued an oil-warehouse on the outskirts of the town burst into flames.
+Most of the volunteer firemen were in the theater watching the
+minstrels. When an agitated individual out on the sidewalk yelled
+"Fire!" a real panic started inside the theater and there was a mad rush
+for the door.</p>
+
+<p>Charles had just finished taking the tickets and stood with the
+ticket-box in his hand, trying to calm the crowd, but he was as a straw
+in the wind. The maddened people ran over him. When the excitement
+cleared away he was found almost buried in mud, mire, and oil outside,
+his clothes torn to shreds, but he still grasped the precious box in his
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>Now began a comradeship that was unique in the history of theatricals.
+The Mastodons, destined for long and continuous association, became a
+sort of traveling club. It was really a fine group of men, and the
+favorite of the organization was the rosy little treasurer who day by
+day fastened himself more firmly in the hearts of his colleagues.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was this due to the fact that he was "Haverly's pocket-book," as the
+men affectionately called him, and their first aid in all financial
+need. He was the friend, confidant, and repository of all their
+troubles. With characteristic humor he gave each member of the company a
+day on which he could relate his hardships. He had a willing ear and an
+open hand.</p>
+
+<p>When he could not give them the relief they sought he invariably said
+with that constant smile, "Well, I sympathize with you, anyhow."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman was custodian of the company funds. One day in Denver four
+members of the company found themselves without a cent. Charles had
+tided them over so many difficulties that they hesitated to ask him
+again. As they talked their troubles over they saw him coming down the
+street. Instantly all four went down on their knees and held up their
+hands in supplication. When Charles saw them he said, "How much do you
+want?" And they got it.</p>
+
+<p>He was always playing some practical joke. With half a dozen members of
+the company he formed a little club which often had supper after the
+play. This club was the fountain-head of a thousand jests and pranks. On
+one occasion Charles suggested that for the sake of the novelty of the
+thing every member of the club have his head shaved. The group went to a
+barber-shop. Only one chair was vacant, however, and Charles Cushman
+got that chair. While his dome was being shorn of every vestige of hair
+Charles nudged the others and they crept away. When Cushman emerged,
+bald as a babe, he found himself alone. The joke was on him.</p>
+
+<p>In his joke Charles was usually aided and abetted by Johnnie Rice, one
+of the many famous minstrels of that name. Rice could never resist the
+temptation to stroke long whiskers. Whenever the house was unusually big
+Charles took Rice out of the company for the first part and got him to
+assist him with the ticket-taking. Any spectator with a long facial
+hirsute growth was sure to have it caressed to the accompaniment of
+"Ticket, please."</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes the men in the company, knowing of Rice's eccentricity, often
+watched the gallery for such a performance, and it invariably made them
+laugh. Once while the Mastodons were playing an engagement at the
+Olympic in St. Louis they were surprised to find Rice sitting in a front
+orchestra seat, wearing a long pair of Dundreary whiskers. He looked so
+solemn that every one on the stage burst into laughter. It almost broke
+up the performance. Charles had provided the whiskers.</p>
+
+<p class="space">It was on this minstrel tour that Charles Frohman gave the first real
+expression to his talents for publicity. Everything about a minstrel
+company was showy and flashy. So Charles originated a unique idea of
+establishing a reputation for solvency. He bought a small iron safe
+about three feet high. On it were painted in large gilt letters,
+"Treasurer, Haverly's Mastodon Minstrels."</p>
+
+<p>In reality there was very little need for this safe, because "Jack"
+Haverly's constant and insistent demands for cash kept the company
+coffers stripped of surplus.</p>
+
+<p>Charles saw in this safe a spectacular means of advertising. It was put
+conspicuously on the top of the first load of baggage that went to the
+hotel. He always engaged at least four men to unload it from the truck.
+It was then placed in a conspicuous position in the hotel lobby and
+invariably drew a comment like this:</p>
+
+<p>"Gee whiz! That Haverly show has got so much money that it is carrying a
+safe to hold it."</p>
+
+<p>This was precisely the response that Charles desired. No sooner was the
+safe unloaded in the lobby than Charles approached it with great
+ceremony, holding a bunch of one-dollar bills in his hand. This
+immediately attracted a crowd. With an admiring gallery, he would stow
+away the money. Just as soon as the crowd dispersed he would be back on
+the job removing this "prop" capital to where it was needed.</p>
+
+<p>He was always alert to publicity possibilities. Among other things he
+organized a drum corps composed of volunteers who were only too glad to
+serve him. He inspired this corps to such proficiency that its marching
+and counter-marching became a feature of the parades. By diverting the
+drum corps to one part of the town and the parade to another, having
+them unite later on, he was able to attract two big street crowds and
+then bring them together at a common point.</p>
+
+<p>All the while the boy was growing in responsibility. Without a murmur he
+assumed practically all the duties of manager. He arranged the parades,
+visited the newspaper offices, devised new numbers for the company,
+handled the money, and always remained serene, undisturbed, smiling, and
+optimistic.</p>
+
+<p>Now came evidence of his initiative. While his first desire was to build
+up the attractiveness of his bill, he combined with it a genuine desire
+to develop his associates. Frequently he would say to men like the three
+Gorman brothers&mdash;George, James, and John&mdash;who were among his prime pals
+in the company:</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you rehearse some new steps? I'll go on and watch you at
+rehearsals and we can put it in the bill."</p>
+
+<p>Out of such incidents as this came a dozen new features.</p>
+
+<p class="space">During this tour Charles displayed on many occasions what amounted to a
+reckless disregard of danger. He had proved on the Dillon tour that he
+was always willing to take a chance.</p>
+
+<p>Once while climbing a steep incline on the way to Grass Valley in
+California their special train stopped. When he asked what the trouble
+was he was told that they would have to wait on a switch while another
+train came down the single track. He was afraid he would miss the
+evening's performance, so he asked the engineer if he could beat the
+down train to the double track. On being told that there was a chance,
+he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Take it and go as fast as you can." He made his town in time.</p>
+
+<p>Again in Colorado his train was stopped by a slight fire on a bridge. He
+urged the conductor to go across, and was so insistent that the man
+yielded, and the train got over just before the flames leaped up and the
+structure began to crackle.</p>
+
+<p>What would have been an ordinary theatrical season waned. A minstrel
+company, however, seldom closed for the summer, so the tour continued.
+For the first time Charles Frohman crossed the continent. Despite its
+high-sounding name and the glitter and splash that marked its
+spectacular progress from place to place, the long trip of the Mastodons
+was not without its hardships, for business was often bad. Nor did it
+lack interesting episodes.</p>
+
+<p>Once while making an over-Sunday jump from St. Paul to Omaha the train
+broke down somewhere in Iowa, and at seven o'clock the company was four
+hours from its destination. The house had been sold out. Charles
+immediately began to send optimistic and encouraging telegrams.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold the crowd," he wired. "We are on the way. Tell them we will give
+them a double show."</p>
+
+<p>From every station he sent on some cheering message. When the train was
+half an hour from Omaha he sought out Sam Devere, the prize banjoist of
+the company and a great fun-maker.</p>
+
+<p>"Go into the baggage-car and black up," he said to Sam. "I want to rush
+you on to the theater as soon as we get to town."</p>
+
+<p>They reached Omaha at eleven-fifteen o'clock. Charles hustled Devere up
+to the opera-house in a hack. The comedian went before the curtain and
+entertained the audience until midnight. When the company arrived not
+twenty people had left. The final curtain dropped at two-thirty o'clock
+before a delighted but weary crowd. The telegrams from the treasurer
+which were read to the audience had saved the day&mdash;and the receipts.</p>
+
+<p>In the early stages of this long journey of the Mastodons came an
+episode that made an indelible impress upon the memory of young Charles.
+In view of the later history of the two actors in it, it is both
+picturesque and historic.</p>
+
+<p>It was in Cleveland, and the day was hot. The Mastodons had just
+finished their parade, and Charles, weary, perspiring, and wearing the
+abhorred silk hat, entered the box-office of the Opera House on
+Cleveland Avenue. Sitting in the treasurer's seat at the window he saw a
+sturdy lad fingering a pile of silver dollars. He slipped them in and
+out with an amazing dexterity. Hearing a noise, he looked up and beheld
+young Frohman with the tile tilted back on his head.</p>
+
+<p>The boys' eyes met. Into each came a wistful look.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I had that silk hat of yours," said the boy at the window.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could do what you are doing with that money," was the response
+from the envied one.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the first meeting between Charles Frohman and A. L. Erlanger.</p>
+
+<p>Here is another episode of those early days that resulted in a life-long
+and significant friendship. In a Philadelphia newspaper office Charles
+met a rangy, keen-eyed young man named Alf Hayman, who was advance-agent
+for Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Florence. When Hayman and Charles had concluded
+their business they started out for a walk. The Colonnade Hotel, at the
+corner of Fifteenth and Chestnut streets, was then the fashionable hotel
+of the city. In the course of this walk the two boys (they were each
+scarcely twenty) stopped in front of the hostelry, and Charles said:</p>
+
+<p>"Some day I hope to have enough money to stop at the Colonnade."</p>
+
+<p>He never forgot this, and whenever he met Hayman in Philadelphia he
+would always insist upon walking over to the hotel and recalling the
+conversation. Hayman afterward became general manager of all the Charles
+Frohman forces and remained until the end perhaps the closest of all the
+business associates of the manager.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Thus passed the years 1878 and 1879. Charles was growing in authority
+and experience until he was really doing all of "Big Bill" Foote's work
+and his own. Now came a great and thrilling experience.</p>
+
+<p>Haverly sent the Mastodons on their first trip to England, and Charles
+naturally went along. It was the first of the many trips he was to make
+to the country which in time he was to annex to his own amusement
+kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>In July, 1880, the company sailed on the <i>Canada</i>, and their arrival in
+London created a sensation. The men, headed by "Big Bill" Foote and
+Charles Frohman&mdash;"The Long and the Short of It," as they were
+called&mdash;marched with their hat-boxes to the old Helvetia Hotel in Soho.</p>
+
+<p>Overnight their printing&mdash;the first colored paper ever used on an
+English bill-board&mdash;was posted, and it startled the staid Londoners. It
+made them realize that a wide-awake aggregation was in town. Charles
+knew that a real opportunity confronted him, and he rose to the
+occasion.</p>
+
+<p>The engagement opened on July 30th at Her Majesty's Theater. The sacred
+precincts that Patti, Neilson, Gerster, and Campanini had adorned now
+resounded with the jokes and rang with the old-time plantation melodies
+of the American negro. The d&eacute;but was an enormous success and the
+prosperity of the engagement was insured.</p>
+
+<p>Before long came a request from the royal household to make ready the
+royal box. The fun-loving Prince of Wales, afterward King Edward VII.,
+wanted to see an American minstrel show.</p>
+
+<p>But it was the wide-awake Charles who had started the machinery that led
+to this royal dictate. He realized soon after his arrival how important
+a royal visit would be. He got in touch with the right people, and the
+net result was that on a certain night in December the red canopy and
+carpet that betoken the royal visit were spread before Her Majesty's
+Theater.</p>
+
+<p>By virtue of his rank "Big Bill" Foote should have received the royal
+party on behalf of the company. But Foote fled from the responsibility,
+and Charles, wearing his much-hated evening clothes and the equally
+despised silk hat, did the honors. The royal party included Edward, his
+wife, Alexandra (now the Queen Mother), his brother Clarence (now dead),
+and a troop of royal children old enough to stay up late at nights.</p>
+
+<p>With his usual foresight Frohman had prepared himself for all the
+formalities that attended a royal visit to the theater. Among other
+things he found out that precedent decreed that the entire performance
+must be directed toward the royal box. With much effort he carefully
+impressed this fact upon the company. He even had a rehearsal the
+morning of the royal night and all eyes were ordered to be "dressed"
+toward the big, canopied box.</p>
+
+<p>But these well-laid plans miscarried, for this is what happened:</p>
+
+<p>The curtain had risen on the assembled fun-makers; their swinging
+opening chorus had given the show a rousing start, and the interlocutor
+had said those well-known introductory minstrel words, "Gentlemen, be
+seated." The royal party was well bestowed in its place and every
+gleaming eyeball on the stage was centered on the glittering
+representatives of the reigning house of Britain. Just at that moment a
+flutter ran through the theater. The only remaining vacant box, and
+opposite to the one used by the royal family, was suddenly occupied by
+the most entrancing and radiant feminine vision that these American
+minstrels had ever seen. It was Lily Langtry, then in the full tide of
+her marvelous beauty, and wearing an extremely low-cut evening gown.</p>
+
+<p>The Mastodons were only human. They had never beheld such loveliness, to
+say nothing of a gown cut so low. They forgot all the careful coaching
+of Frohman and fixed their eyes on the beauty-show in the box.</p>
+
+<p>Charles stood anxiously in the back of the house, fearing that the royal
+displeasure would be aroused. But his fears were groundless. The
+hypnotized minstrels on the stage were only part of an admiring host
+that had for its most distinguished head the Prince of Wales himself.</p>
+
+<p>The "Forty&mdash;Count 'Em&mdash;Forty" now became the vogue in London. Royalty
+had set the stamp of its approval, and aristocracy flocked. One night in
+the momentary absence of the chief usher, Charles, who was always on the
+job, escorted a distinguished group of nobility to a box. After bowing
+them in a member of the party slipped a shilling into his hand, which
+Frohman, of course, refused.</p>
+
+<p>"Take it, you beggar," said the peer, with some irritation, throwing the
+coin at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, sir," responded Frohman, picking it up and slipping it into
+his pocket. He kept it as a lucky-piece for twenty years, often telling
+the story of how he got it.</p>
+
+<p>On Christmas Day, 1880, came a concrete evidence of the affection in
+which Charles was held by his minstrel colleagues. They assembled on the
+stage of Her Majesty's Theater and presented him with a gold watch and
+chain. The charm was a tiny reproduction of the famous safe that Charles
+had introduced into the company, and which was his inseparable
+companion. Charles never carried a watch, and this timepiece, together
+with many other similar gifts, was put away among his treasures.</p>
+
+<p>One day, accompanied by Robert Filkins, the advance-agent, Charles had
+occasion to see Col. M. B. Leavitt, who was a notable theatrical figure
+of the time, with extensive interests in this country and abroad. After
+Leavitt had regaled the younger men with an account of his varied
+activities, Charles suddenly exclaimed to him:</p>
+
+<p>"Gee! But you've got London by the neck, haven't you?"</p>
+
+<p>Many years later Leavitt again met Charles Frohman in London. The
+encounter this time took place on the Strand, in front of the Savoy,
+where Frohman was installed in his usual luxurious suite. He now
+controlled half a dozen theaters in the British metropolis and he was a
+world theatrical figure. Leavitt, whose memory is one of the wonders of
+the amusement business, clapped the magnate on the shoulder and repeated
+the words spoken to him so long ago:</p>
+
+<p>"Gee! Frohman, <i>you'</i>ve got London by the neck, haven't you?"</p>
+
+<p>After a tour of the provinces the company returned home and opened in
+Brooklyn.</p>
+
+<p class="space">With the return to America came the first realization of one of Charles
+Frohman's earlier dreams. "Big Bill" Foote, fascinated by the lure of
+English life, bought a small hotel near London and settled down. This
+left the managership of the company vacant. Although Charles had
+practically done all the work for nearly a year, he was, so far as title
+was concerned, treasurer.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately there was a scramble for the position of manager. Among
+those who sought it were Robert Filkins, William S. Strickland, and a
+number of other mature and experienced men.</p>
+
+<p>But when the company heard that an outsider sought the position to which
+Charles was entitled there was great indignation. A meeting of protest,
+instigated by the Gorman brothers and Eddie Quinn, was held on the stage
+in Brooklyn, and a round-robin, signed by every member of the company,
+was despatched to Jack Haverly, insisting that Charles Frohman be made
+the manager.</p>
+
+<p>A little later Charles walked back on the stage after the night's
+performance and quietly remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"Boys, I am your new manager."</p>
+
+<p>A great shout of delight went up. The rosy, boyish youth (for he had
+scarcely entered his twenties) was lifted to the shoulders of half a
+dozen men and to the words of a favorite minstrel song, "Hear Those
+Bells," a triumphant march was made around the stage. None of the many
+honors that came to him in his later years touched him quite so deeply
+as that affectionate demonstration.</p>
+
+<p>It was now 1881, and once more the "Forty&mdash;Count 'Em&mdash;Forty" set forth
+to rediscover America, with Charles Frohman as manager. His name now
+appeared at the head of the bill, and to celebrate the great event Eddy
+Brooke wrote a "Frohman March," which had a conspicuous place on the
+program.</p>
+
+<p>Strangely prophetic of the circumstances which brought about his
+untimely death was an incident which occurred while the company was
+going by boat from New York to New London. It was a bitter cold night
+when the aggregation boarded the old <i>John B. Starin</i>. The decks were
+piled with waste, cord, and jute for the New England mills.</p>
+
+<p>"What a fine night for a fire on board!" remarked Frohman as he led his
+"soldiers," as he always called the Mastodons, aboard. Everybody retired
+early. At two o'clock in the morning there was great excitement. Men
+rushed frantically about; there were calls for hose, and the Mastodons,
+most of them clad in their night-clothes and trousers, rushed,
+frightened, on deck. They found a fire raging aft.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately panic reigned. The coolest man aboard was the smallest.
+Here, there, and everywhere went Charles, urging everybody to be quiet.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no danger," he said. "Let us all go in the cabin and wait."</p>
+
+<p>Under his direction the passengers assembled in the water-soaked saloon
+and there waited until the flames were subdued. Here was evidence of the
+equanimity with which he faced disaster and which marked him on that
+ill-starred day when he was plunged to his death in the Irish Sea.</p>
+
+<p>On through the summer of 1881 the Mastodons went their way. Charles was
+now able to watch the minstrel parade from the sidewalk, but he was
+still the friend, philosopher, and guide of the company to which he was
+now bound by nearly three years of constant association.</p>
+
+<p>They played Washington during the Garfield inaugural week. Charles
+realized that here was a great opportunity for spectacular publicity.
+First of all he took his now famous band down to the Willard Hotel and
+serenaded the new executive. A vast crowd gathered; the President-elect
+appeared at the window, smiled and bowed, and then sent for the little
+manager, to whom he expressed his personal thanks. Then a heaven-born
+opportunity literally fell into his hands.</p>
+
+<p>To the same hotel came the Massachusetts Phalanx, of Lowell, which had
+secured a conspicuous place in the inaugural parade. Their arrangement
+committee had seen the Haverly parade, and the members were so greatly
+impressed with the band that they asked if its services could be
+secured.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," said Frohman. "You can have not only the band, but the
+whole company will escort you in the parade."</p>
+
+<p>Thus it came about that the Haverly Mastodon Minstrels headed the third
+division of the Garfield inaugural parade. Ever mindful and proud of his
+men, Frohman, at his personal expense, bought a buttonhole bouquet for
+every member for the occasion and fastened it on their coats himself. On
+the sidewalk he followed with admiring eye and flushed face the progress
+of his company.</p>
+
+<p>By a curious coincidence the Haverly Mastodons played Washington during
+the week of the Garfield funeral, and the band marched in the funeral
+parade to the station, playing "Nearer, My God, to Thee."</p>
+
+<p>A happier sequel of the inaugural episode came when the minstrels next
+played Lowell, where they were received by the Phalanx in full uniform,
+paraded through the town, with Charles marching proudly at the head. The
+Phalanx was host at a banquet given at the armory after the performance.</p>
+
+<p>The Mastodons were now making their way to the Pacific coast. At the
+same time Gustave Frohman was in San Francisco with the Number One
+"Hazel Kirke" Company, direct from the Madison Square Theater in New
+York, which was playing at the California Theater.</p>
+
+<p>One morning in May, 1881, he received the following telegram from
+Charles, dated Salt Lake City:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Am stranded here with the "Big Forty." So is Frank Sanger with "A
+Bunch of Keys." Theater management has failed to send railroad
+fares. Wire me what you can. Will return amount out of receipts
+Bush Street Theater.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>The manager of the Bush Street Theater, in San Francisco, had agreed to
+provide railroad transportation for the company from Salt Lake City to
+San Francisco and had not kept his agreement. The receipts in the former
+city did not leave a sufficient surplus to negotiate this jump.</p>
+
+<p>Gustave wired the needed cash, and Charles showed up on time in San
+Francisco. For the second and only other time in his theatrical career
+Charles was somewhat downcast. Despite his effective services during the
+preceding years, Haverly had only raised his salary to twenty-five
+dollars a week. The boy had handled hundreds of thousands of dollars
+and had helped in no small way to give to the organization its prestige
+and its <i>esprit de corps</i>. He was now, in the phraseology of his
+associates, "the whole show." His word was law with the company, and the
+men adored him.</p>
+
+<p>He met Gustave at the Palace Hotel and said to him, "I suppose the time
+has come for me to quit Haverly."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Gustave, still the good angel. "I'll put you out ahead
+of our Number Two 'Hazel Kirke' Company at a salary of seventy-five
+dollars a week. You can start out right away. What do you say?"</p>
+
+<p>Charles thought a moment, and then said: "Well, Gus, it's pretty tough
+to go ahead of a Number Two company even at seventy-five dollars a week
+when you have been manager of Haverly's Mastodons. The money doesn't
+mean anything to me. I like the minstrel boys and they like me."</p>
+
+<p>He still hesitated and walked up and down the room two or three times,
+as was his habit. Finally he came over to his brother and said,
+decisively:</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take it."</p>
+
+<p>During this memorable visit to San Francisco occurred another event that
+had large influence on the whole future life of the young man. One night
+in a famous ratheskeller on Kearney Street he saw an artistic-looking
+youth with curly hair and dreamy eyes sitting in the midst of a group of
+actors. This youth was David Belasco, who had passed from actor to
+author-stage-manager and whose melodrama, "American Born," was running
+at the Baldwin Theater. Frohman had seen this play and was much
+impressed with it. Thrillers had interested him from the start.</p>
+
+<p>Gustave, who was with Belasco, said to him: "There's my brother Charley.
+You ought to know him."</p>
+
+<p>Simultaneously Belasco was pointed out to Charles. They glanced up at
+the same time, nodded smilingly across the space between, and later on
+when they were introduced Charles expressed his great admiration for
+"American Born." Belasco had just received the offer from Daniel Frohman
+to come to the Madison Square Theater in New York as stage-manager.</p>
+
+<p>Out of this contact came the association between Charles Frohman and
+David Belasco that added much to their achievements.</p>
+
+<p>Charles gave Haverly notice, and at Indianapolis he left the Mastodons.
+He slipped away without farewells, and when his absence became known a
+gloom settled down on the company. Unconsciously the rosy-cheeked boy
+had become its inspiration. For weeks the performances lacked their
+customary zip and enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>His minstrel days over, save for two brief intervals, Charles was now
+about to begin his connection with the Madison Square Theater. It was to
+mark, because of the men with whom he now became associated and the
+revolution in theatrical methods which he brought about, the first
+really significant epoch in his crowded career.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h3>
+
+<p class="head">IN THE NEW YORK THEATRICAL WHIRLPOOL</p>
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">W</span> <span class="smcap">hen</span>
+Charles Frohman went to the Madison Square Theater in 1881 the
+three Frohman brothers were literally installed for the first time under
+the same managerial roof. From this hour on the affairs of Charles were
+bound up in large theatrical conduct.</p>
+
+<p>Since the Madison Square Theater thus becomes the background of his real
+activities, the shell out of which he emerged as a full-fledged manager,
+the institution, and its significance in dramatic history, are well
+worth recording here.</p>
+
+<p>The little Madison Square Theater, located back of the old Fifth Avenue
+Hotel, on Twenty-fourth Street near Broadway, was established at a time
+when a new force was hovering over the New York stage. This playhouse,
+destined to figure so prominently in the fortunes of all the Frohmans,
+and especially Charles, grew out of the somewhat radical convictions of
+Steele Mackaye, one of the most brilliant and erratic characters of his
+time. He was actor, lecturer, and playwright, and he taught the art of
+acting on lines laid down by Delsarte. Dr. George Mallory, editor of
+<i>The Churchman</i>, became interested in his views and regarded Mackaye as
+a man with a distinct mission. He induced his brother, Marshall Mallory,
+to build the Madison Square Theater.</p>
+
+<p>Steele Mackaye was the first director, and, with the active co-operation
+of the Mallorys, launched its career. Dr. Mallory believed that the
+drama needed reform; that the way to reform it was to play reformed
+drama. So the place was dedicated to healthy plays. "A wholesome place
+for wholesome amusement" became the slogan. Contracts for plays were
+made only with American authors. Here were produced the earlier triumphs
+of Steele Mackaye, Bronson Howard, William Gillette, H. H. Boyessen, and
+Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett. In this house, in "May Blossom," De Wolf
+Hopper first appeared in a stock company, afterward going into musical
+comedy. Among the actors seen on its boards during the Frohman r&eacute;gime
+were Agnes Booth, Viola Allen, Effie Ellsler, Georgia Cayvan, Mrs.
+Whiffen, Marie Burroughs, Annie Russell, George Clarke, Jeffreys Lewis,
+C. W. Couldock, Thomas Whiffen, Dominick Murray, and Eben Plympton. Rose
+Coghlan was also a member of the company, but had no opportunity of
+playing.</p>
+
+<p>The house had certain unique and attractive qualities. It had been
+charmingly decorated by Louis C. Tiffany, and one of its principal
+features was a double stage, which enabled the scenery for one act to be
+set while another was being played before the audience. Thus long waits
+were avoided.</p>
+
+<p>The name of Frohman was associated with this theater from the very
+start, because its first manager was Daniel Frohman. It opened in
+February, 1880, with Steele Mackaye's play "Hazel Kirke," which was an
+instantaneous success. The little theater, with its novel stage,
+intimate atmosphere, admirable company, and a policy that was definite
+and original, became one of the most popular in America. "Hazel Kirke"
+ran four hundred and eighty-six nights in New York City without
+interruption, which was a record run up to that time. In the original
+cast were Effie Ellsler, Eben Plympton, Mr. and Mrs. Whiffen, and
+Charles W. Couldock.</p>
+
+<p class="space">The Madison Square Theater was also an important factor in New York
+dramatic life and began to rival the prestige of the Wallack, Palmer,
+and Daly institutions. Its fame, due to the record-breaking "Hazel
+Kirke" success, became nation-wide.</p>
+
+<p>Now began an activity under its auspices that established a whole new
+era in the conduct of the theater. It was the dawn of a "big business"
+development that sent the Madison Square successes throughout the
+country, and Charles Frohman was one of its sponsors.</p>
+
+<p>Gustave Frohman had been engaged as director of the traveling companies.
+He engaged Charles as an associate. The work of the Frohmans was
+carefully mapped out. It was Daniel's business to select the casts,
+organize and rehearse the companies in New York; Gustave took general
+charge of the road equipment; while Charles arranged and booked the road
+tours.</p>
+
+<p>It was after the phenomenal first season's run of "Hazel Kirke" that
+Charles Frohman hung up his hat in the little "back office" of the
+Madison Square Theater to begin the work that was to project his name
+and his talents prominently for the first time. New York sizzled through
+the hottest summer it had ever known; Garfield lay dying, and the whole
+country was in a state of unrest. Charles sweltered in his little
+cubbyhole, but he was enthusiastic and optimistic about his new job.</p>
+
+<p>Gustave and Charles had complete charge of all the traveling companies
+that developed out of the series of "runs" at the theater. They
+inaugurated a whole new and brilliant theatrical activity in towns and
+cities removed from theatrical centers, regarding which the other big
+managers in New York were ignorant.</p>
+
+<p>With the organization of these Madison Square companies the "Number Two
+Company" idea was born. It was a distinct innovation. A play like "Hazel
+Kirke," for example, was played by as many as five companies at one
+time, each company being adjusted financially to the type of town to
+which it was sent. "Hazel Kirke" appeared simultaneously in New York
+City at three different theaters, each with a separate and distinct type
+of audience.</p>
+
+<p>Under the direction of Gustave and Charles, the outside business of the
+Madison Square Theater spread so rapidly that in a short time fourteen
+road companies carried the name of the establishment to all parts of the
+United States. Despite their youth, the three Frohmans had had a very
+extensive experience over the whole country.</p>
+
+<p>In those days the booking of road attractions was not made through
+syndicates. Applications for time had to be made individually to every
+manager direct, even in the case of the most obscure one-night stand.
+The big New York managers only concerned themselves with the larger
+cities in which their companies made annual appearances. The smaller
+towns had to trust to chance to get attractions outside the standard
+"road shows."</p>
+
+<p>Charles realized this lack of booking facilities, and dedicated his
+talents and experience to remedying it. His seasons on the road with
+John Dillon and the Haverly Minstrels had equipped him admirably. He
+not only displayed remarkable judgment in routing companies, but he was
+now able to express his genius for publicity. He always believed in the
+value of big printing.</p>
+
+<p>"Give them pictures," he said.</p>
+
+<p>He urged a liberal policy in this respect, and the Madison Square
+Theater backed his judgment to the extent of more than one hundred
+thousand dollars a year for picture posters and elaborate printing of
+all kinds. The gospel of Madison Square Theater art and its enterprises
+was thus spread broadcast, not with ordinary cheap-picture advertising,
+but with artistic lithographs. In fact, here began the whole process of
+expensive and elaborate bill-posting, and Charles Frohman was really the
+father of it.</p>
+
+<p>Under his direction the first "flashlights" ever taken of a theatrical
+company for advertising purposes were made at the Madison Square
+Theater.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles was now director of nearly a score of agents who traveled about
+with the various companies. He vitalized them with his enthusiasm. In
+order to expedite their work, Charles and his brothers rented and
+furnished a large house on Twenty-fourth Street near the theater. It was
+in reality a sort of club, for a dining-room was maintained, and there
+were a number of bedrooms. When the agents came to town they lodged
+here. Charles, Gustave, and Daniel also had rooms in this house. A
+dressmaking department was established on the premises where many of the
+costumes for the road companies were made.</p>
+
+<p>During these days Charles gave frequent evidence of his tact and
+persuasiveness. Often when matters of policy had to be fixed and
+discussed, the managers of out-of-town theaters would be called to New
+York. It was Charles's business to take them in hand and straighten out
+their troubles. They would leave, feeling that they had got the best
+"time" for their theaters and that they had made a friend in the
+optimistic little man who was then giving evidence of that uncanny
+instinct for road management that stood him in such good stead later on.</p>
+
+<p>With his usual energy Charles was interested in every phase of the
+Madison Square Theater. Frequently, accompanied by Wesley Sisson, who
+succeeded Daniel Frohman during the latter's occasional absences from
+the theater, he would slip into the balcony and watch rehearsals. He sat
+with one leg curled under him, following the scenes with keenest
+interest. More than once his sharp, swift criticism helped to smooth
+away a rough spot.</p>
+
+<p>He impressed his personality and capacity upon all who came in contact
+with him. It was said of him then, as it was said later on, that he
+could sit in his little office and make out a forty weeks' tour for a
+company without recourse to a map. In fact, he carried the whole
+theatrical map of the country under his hat.</p>
+
+<p class="space">In the strenuous life of those Madison Square days came some of Charles
+Frohman's closest and longest friendships.</p>
+
+<p>The first was with Marc Klaw. It grew out of play piracy, the inevitable
+result of the theater's successes. Throughout the country local managers
+began to steal the Madison Square plays and put them on with
+"fly-by-night" companies. Since they were unable to get manuscripts of
+the play, the pirates sent stenographers to the theater to copy the
+parts. These stenographers had to sit in the dark and write
+surreptitiously. In many instances, in order to keep the lines of their
+notes straight, they stretched strings across their note-books.</p>
+
+<p>Gustave Frohman happened to be in Louisville with the Number One "Hazel
+Kirke" Company. He was looking about for a lawyer who could investigate
+and prosecute the piracy of the Madison Square plays. He made inquiry of
+John T. Macauley, manager of Macauley's Theater, who said:</p>
+
+<p>"There's a young lawyer here named Marc Klaw who is itching to get into
+the theatrical business. Why don't you give him a chance?"</p>
+
+<p>Frohman immediately engaged Klaw to do some legal work for the Madison
+Square Theater, and he successfully combated the play pirates in the
+South. The copyright laws then were inadequate, however, and Klaw was
+ordered to New York, where, after a short preliminary training, he was
+sent out as manager of the Number Two "Hazel Kirke" Company of which
+Charles Frohman was advance-agent. In this way the meeting between the
+two men, each destined to wield far-flung theatrical authority, came
+about.</p>
+
+<p>Charles resented going out with a "Number Two" Company, so to placate
+his pride and to give distinction to the enterprise, Daniel put Georgia
+Cayvan, leading lady of the Madison Square Theater, at the head of the
+cast.</p>
+
+<p>There was good business method in putting out Miss Cayvan on this tour,
+because she was a New-Englander, born at Bath, Maine, and Bath was
+included in this tour. When Charles reached Bath ahead of the show he
+rode on the front seat of the stage to the hotel. He told the driver
+that he was coming with a big New York show, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I've got a big sensation for Bath."</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?" said the driver.</p>
+
+<p>"We have Miss Cayvan as the leading lady," answered Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Who?" asked the driver.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Cayvan&mdash;Miss Georgia Cayvan, leading woman of the Madison Square
+Theater," answered Frohman, with a great flourish.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," replied the driver, "you mean our little Georgie. We heard tell
+that she was acting on the stage, and now I guess some folks will be
+right smart glad to see her."</p>
+
+<p>Charles was so much interested in Miss Cayvan's appearance in her home
+town that he came back and joined the company on its arrival and was
+present at the station when Marc Klaw brought the company in.</p>
+
+<p>Quite a delegation of home people were on hand to meet Miss Cayvan, and
+she immediately assumed the haughty airs of a prima donna.</p>
+
+<p>Charles was much amused, and decided to "take her down" in an amiable
+way. So he stepped up to her with great solemnity, removed his hat, and
+said, after the manner of his old minstrel days:</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Cayvan, we parade at eleven."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Cayvan saw the humor of the situation, took the hint, and got down
+off her high horse. In the company with Miss Cayvan at that time were
+Maude Stuart, Charles Wheatleigh, Frank Burbeck, W. H. Crompton, and
+Mrs. E. L. Davenport, the mother of Fanny Davenport.</p>
+
+<p class="space">While Charles was impressing his personality and talents at the Madison
+Square Theater and really finding himself for the first time, Gustave
+Frohman met Jack Haverly on the street one day. The old magnate said,
+with emphasis:</p>
+
+<p>"Gus, I've got to have Charles back."</p>
+
+<p>"You can't have him," said Gustave.</p>
+
+<p>"But I must," said Haverly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you pay him one hundred and forty-six dollars a week (one
+hundred and twenty-five dollars salary and twenty-one dollars for hotel
+bills) you can have him for a limited time."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Haverly.</p>
+
+<p>Charles went back to the Mastodons, where he received a royal welcome.
+But his heart had become attuned to the real theater&mdash;to the hum of its
+shifting life, to the swift tumult of its tears and laughter. The
+excitement of the drama, and all the speculation that it involved (and
+he was a born speculator), were in his blood. He heeded the call and
+went back to the Madison Square Theater.</p>
+
+<p>But the minstrel field was to claim him again and for the last time.
+Gustave conceived a plan to send the Callender Minstrels on a
+spectacular tour across the continent. The nucleus of the old
+organization, headed by the famous Billy Kersands, was playing in
+England under the name of Haverly's European Minstrels, Haverly having
+acquired the company some years before. Charles was sent over to get the
+pick of the Europeans for the new aggregation. Accompanied by Howard
+Spear, he sailed on June 7, 1882, on the <i>Wyoming</i>.</p>
+
+<p>He encountered some difficulty in getting the leading members, so with
+characteristic enterprise he bought the whole company from Haverly and
+brought it back to the United States, where it was put on the road as
+Callender's Consolidated Spectacular Colored Minstrels. On all the bills
+appeared the inscription "Gustave and Charles Frohman, Proprietors." As
+a matter of fact, Charles had very little to do with the company,
+although he made a number of its contracts. His financial interest was
+trivial. Gustave used his name because Charles had been prominently
+associated with the Mastodons and he had achieved some eminence as a
+minstrel promoter.</p>
+
+<p>Having launched the Callender aggregation, he went on to Chicago, where
+Gustave was putting on David Belasco's play "American Born," with the
+author himself as producer. Charles joined his brother in promoting the
+enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>Now began the real friendship between Charles Frohman and David Belasco.
+The chance contact in San Francisco a few years before was now succeeded
+by a genuine introduction. The men took to each other instinctively and
+with a profound understanding. They shared the same room and had most of
+their meals together. Then, as throughout his whole life, Charles
+consumed large portions of pie (principally apple, lemon meringue, and
+pumpkin) and drank large quantities of lemonade or sarsaparilla. One day
+while they were having lunch together Frohman said to Belasco:</p>
+
+<p>"You and I must do things together. I mean to have my own theater in
+Broadway and you will write the plays for it."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," replied the ever-ready Belasco. "I will make a contract
+with you now."</p>
+
+<p>"There will never be need of a contract between us," replied Frohman,
+who expressed then the conviction that guided him all the rest of his
+life when he engaged the greatest stars in the world and spent millions
+on productions without a scrap of paper to show for the negotiation.</p>
+
+<p>Charles worked manfully for "American Born." It was in reality his first
+intimate connection with a big production. At the outset his ingenuity
+saved the enterprise from threatened destruction. Harry Petit, a local
+manager, announced a rival melodrama called "Taken From Life" at
+McVicker's Theater, and had set his opening date one night before the
+inaugural of "American Born."</p>
+
+<p>Charles scratched his head and said, "We must beat them to it."</p>
+
+<p>He announced the "American Born" opening for a certain night and then
+opened three nights earlier, which beat the opposition by one night.</p>
+
+<p>Belasco's play was spectacular in character and included, among other
+things, a realistic fire scene. When the time came for rehearsal the
+manager of the theater said that it could not be done, because the fire
+laws would be violated.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll fix that," said Charles.</p>
+
+<p>He went down to the City Hall, had a personal interview with the mayor,
+and not only got permission for the scene, but a detail of real firemen
+to act in it.</p>
+
+<p>While in Chicago, Belasco accepted Daniel Frohman's offer to come to
+New York as stage-manager of the Madison Square Theater. Charles and
+Belasco came east together, and the intimacy of this trip tightened the
+bond between them. The train that carried them was speeding each to a
+great career.</p>
+
+<p>With Belasco installed as stage-manager there began a daily contact
+between the two. Belasco went to Frohman with all his troubles. In
+Frohman's bedroom he wrote part of "May Blossom," in which he scored his
+first original success at the Madison Square. Charles was enormously
+interested in this play, and after it was finished carried a copy about
+in his pocket, reading it or having it read wherever he thought it could
+find a friendly ear.</p>
+
+<p>So great was Belasco's gratitude that he gave Charles a half-interest in
+it, which was probably the first ownership that Charles Frohman ever had
+in a play.</p>
+
+<p>During those days at the Madison Square, when both Frohman and Belasco
+were seeing the vision of coming things, they often went at night to
+O'Neil's Oyster House on Sixth Avenue near Twenty-second Street. The
+day's work over, they had a bite of supper, in Frohman's case mostly pie
+and sarsaparilla, and talked about the things they were going to do.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Frohman's ambition for a New York theater obsessed him. One
+night as they were walking up Broadway they passed the Fifth Avenue
+Hotel. A big man in his shirt-sleeves sat tilted back in his chair in
+front of the hotel. The two young men were just across the street from
+him. Frohman stopped Belasco, pointed to the man, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"David, there is John Stetson, manager of the Fifth Avenue Theater.
+Well, some day I am going to be as big a man as he is and have my own
+theater on Broadway."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Those were crowded days. Charles not only picked and "routed" the
+companies, but he kept a watchful eye on them. This meant frequent
+traveling. For months he lived in a suit-case. At noon he would say to
+his stenographer, "We leave for Chicago this afternoon," and he was off
+in a few hours. At that time "Hazel Kirke," "The Professor,"
+"Esmeralda," "Young Mrs. Winthrop," and "May Blossom" were all being
+played by road companies in various parts of the United States, and it
+was a tremendous task to keep a watchful eye on them. It was his habit
+to go to a town where a company was playing and not appear at the
+theater until the curtain had risen. The company had no warning of his
+coming, and he could make a good appraisal of their average work.</p>
+
+<p>On one of the many trips that he made about this time he gave evidence
+of his constant humor.</p>
+
+<p>He went out to Columbus, Ohio, to see a "Hazel Kirke" company. He
+arrived at the theater just before matin&eacute;e, and as he started across the
+stage he was met by a newly appointed stage-manager who was full of
+authority.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going?" asked the man.</p>
+
+<p>"To Mr. Hagan's dressing-room."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take the message," said the stage-director.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I want to see him personally."</p>
+
+<p>"But you can't. I am in charge behind the curtain."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman left without a word, went out to the box-office and wrote a
+letter, discharging the stage-director. Then he sat through the
+performance. Directly the curtain fell the man came to him in a great
+state of mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you discharge me, Mr. Frohman?"</p>
+
+<p>Frohman smiled and said: "Well, it was the only way that I could get
+back to see my actors. If you will promise to be good I will re-engage
+you." And he did.</p>
+
+<p class="space">It was on a trip of this same kind that Charles had one of his many
+narrow escapes from death. During the spring of 1883 he went out to Ohio
+with Daniel to visit some of the road companies. Daniel left him at
+Cleveland to go over and see a performance of "The Professor" at
+Newcastle, while Charles went on to join Gustave at Cincinnati.</p>
+
+<p>Charles was accompanied by Frank Guthrie, who was a sort of confidential
+secretary to all the Frohmans at the theater. Shortly before the train
+reached Galion, Charles, who sat at the aisle, asked his companion to
+change places. Ten minutes later the train was wrecked. Guthrie, who sat
+on the aisle seat, was hurled through the window and instantly killed,
+while Charles escaped unhurt.</p>
+
+<p>Daniel heard of the wreck, rushed to the scene on a relief train,
+expecting to find his brother dead, for there had been a report that he
+was killed. Instead he found Charles bemoaning the death of his
+secretary.</p>
+
+<p>A month afterward Charles and Marc Klaw were riding in the elevator at
+the Monongahela House in Pittsburg when the cable broke and the car
+dropped four stories. It had just been equipped with an air cushion, and
+the men escaped without a scratch.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Along toward the middle of 1883 there were signs of a break at the
+Madison Square Theater. Steele Mackaye had quarreled with the Mallorys
+and had left, taking Gustave with him to launch the new Lyceum Theater
+on Fourth Avenue and Twenty-third Street. Daniel was becoming ambitious
+to strike out for himself, while Charles was chafing under the necessity
+of being a subordinate. He yearned to be his own master. "I must have a
+New York production," he said. The wish in his case meant the deed, for
+he now set about to produce his first play.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally, he turned to Belasco for advice and co-operation. Both were
+still identified with the Madison Square Theater, which made their
+negotiations easy.</p>
+
+<p>In San Francisco Charles had seen a vivid melodrama called "The
+Stranglers of Paris," which Belasco had written from Adolphe Belot's
+story and produced with some success. Osmond Tearle, then leading man
+for Lester Wallack and New York's leading matin&eacute;e idol, had played in
+the West the part of Jagon, who was physically one of the ugliest
+characters in the play.</p>
+
+<p>"'The Stranglers of Paris' is the play for me," said Frohman to Belasco.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said David; "you shall have it."</p>
+
+<p>The original dramatization was a melodrama without a spark of humor. In
+rewriting it for New York, Belasco injected considerable comedy here and
+there.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman, whose vision and ideas were always big, said:</p>
+
+<p>"We've got to get a great cast. I will not be satisfied with anybody but
+Tearle."</p>
+
+<p>To secure Tearle, Frohman went to see Lester Wallack for the first time.
+Wallack was then the enthroned theatrical king and one of the most
+inaccessible of men. Frohman finally contrived to see him and made the
+proposition for the release of Tearle. Ordinarily Wallack would have
+treated such an offer with scorn. Frohman's convincing manner, however,
+led him to explain, for he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Tearle is the handsomest man in New York, and if I loaned him to
+you to play the ugliest man ever put on the stage he would lose his
+drawing power for me. I am sorry I can't accommodate you, Mr. Frohman.
+Come and see me again."</p>
+
+<p>Out of that meeting came a friendship with Lester Wallack that developed
+large activities for Charles, as will be seen later on.</p>
+
+<p>Unable to get Tearle, Belasco and Frohman secured Henry Lee, a brilliant
+and dashing leading actor who had succeeded Eben Plympton in the cast of
+"Hazel Kirke." The leading woman was Agnes Booth, a well-known stage
+figure. She was the sister-in-law of Edwin Booth, and an actress of
+splendid quality.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately for him, the leading theaters were all occupied. There
+were only a few playhouses in New York then, a mere handful compared
+with the enormous number to-day. But a little thing like that did not
+disturb Charles Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>Up at the northwest corner of Thirty-fifth Street and Broadway was an
+old barnlike structure that had been successively aquarium, menagerie,
+and skating-rink. It had a roof and four walls and at one end there was
+a rude stage.</p>
+
+<p>One night at midnight Charles, accompanied by Belasco, went up to look
+at the sorry spectacle. As a theater it was about the most unpromising
+structure in New York.</p>
+
+<p>"This is all I can get, David," said Charles, "and it must do."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Charley, it is not a theater," said Belasco.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind," said Frohman. "I will have it made into one."</p>
+
+<p>The old building was under the control of Hyde &amp; Behman, who were
+planning to convert it into a vaudeville house. Frohman went to see them
+and persuaded them to turn it into a legitimate theater. Just about this
+time the Booth Theater at Twenty-third Street and Sixth Avenue was about
+to be torn down. Under Charles's prompting Hyde &amp; Behman bought the
+inside of that historic structure, proscenium arch, stage, boxes, and
+all, and transported them to the Thirty-fifth Street barn. What had been
+a bare hall became the New Park Theater, destined to go down in history
+as the playhouse that witnessed many important productions, as well as
+the first that Charles Frohman made on any stage. Years afterward this
+theater was renamed the Herald Square.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Frohman now had a play, a theater, and a cast. With
+characteristic lavishness he said to Belasco:</p>
+
+<p>"We must have the finest scenic production ever made in New York."</p>
+
+<p>He had no capital, but he had no trouble in getting credit. Every one
+seemed willing to help him. He got out handsome printing and advertised
+extensively. He spared nothing in scenic effects, which were elaborate.
+He devoted every spare moment to attending rehearsals.</p>
+
+<p>Among the supernumeraries was a fat boy with a comical face. At one of
+the rehearsals he sat in a boat and reached out for something. In doing
+this he fell overboard. He fell so comically that Belasco made his fall
+a part of the regular business. His ability got him a few lines, which
+were taken from another actor. This fat-faced, comical boy was John
+Bunny, who became the best-known moving-picture star in the United
+States, and who to the end of his days never forgot that he appeared in
+Charles Frohman's first production. He often spoke of it with pride.</p>
+
+<p>The autumn of 1883 was a strenuous one, for Charles had staked a good
+deal on "The Stranglers of Paris." Yet when the curtain rose on the
+evening of November 10, 1883, he was the same smiling, eager, but
+imperturbable boy who years before had uttered the wish that some day he
+would put on a play himself in the great city. He now saw that dream
+come true. He was just twenty-three.</p>
+
+<p>"The Stranglers of Paris" made quite a sensation. The scenic effects
+were highly praised, and especially the ship scene, which showed
+convicts in their cages, their revolt, the sinking of the vessel,
+Jagon's struggle in the water, his escape from death, and his dramatic
+appeal to Heaven. Lee scored a great success and dated his popularity
+from this appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the lines in the piece were widely quoted, one of them in
+particular. It was in substance, "Money has power to open prison gates,
+and no questions asked."</p>
+
+<p>It was the time of sensational graft revelations, and theater-goers
+thought that it fitted the New York situation.</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="VIOLA" id="VIOLA"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-084.png" width="500" height="780" alt="VIOLA ALLEN" title="VIOLA ALLEN" />
+<span class="caption">VIOLA ALLEN</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"The Stranglers of Paris" ran at the New Park Theater until December 9,
+when it was taken on the road. It continued on tour for a considerable
+period, playing most of the principal cities of the East, but the
+production was so expensive that it made no money. In fact, Charles lost
+on the enterprise, but it did not in the least dash his spirits. He
+was supremely content because at last he had produced a play.</p>
+
+<p class="space">"The Stranglers of Paris" filled the budding manager with a renewed zeal
+to be a producer. He was still enthusiastic about the melodrama, so he
+secured a vivid piece by R. G. Morris, a New York newspaper man, called
+"The Pulse of New York," which he produced at the Star Theater,
+Thirteenth Street and Broadway, which had been originally Wallack's
+Theater.</p>
+
+<p>In the cast was a handsome, painstaking young woman named Viola Allen,
+whom Charles had singled out because of her admirable work in a play
+that he had seen, and who was headed for a big place in the annals of
+the American theater. The youthful manager encouraged her and did much
+to aid her progress.</p>
+
+<p>Others in the cast were Caroline Hill, A. S. Lipman, Edward S. Coleman,
+L. F. Massen, Frank Lane, Henry Tarbon, W. L. Denison, George Clarke, H.
+D. Clifton, Ada Deaves, Max Freeman, Edward Pancoast, Frank Green,
+Gerald Eyre, Nick Long, Frederick Barry, Oscar Todd, John March, Charles
+Frew, Richard Fox, James Maxwell, J. C. Arnold, Stanley Macy, Lida Lacy,
+George Mathews, and William Rose.</p>
+
+<p>"The Pulse of New York" was produced May 10, 1884, but ran only three
+weeks. Once more Charles faced a loss, but he met this as he met the
+misfortunes of later years, with smiling equanimity.</p>
+
+<p>Now came a characteristic act. He was still in the employ of the Madison
+Square Theater and had a guarantee of one hundred dollars a week.
+Although he had devoted considerable time to his two previous
+productions, he was an invaluable asset to the establishment. He now
+felt that the time had come for him to choose between remaining at the
+Madison Square under a guarantee and striking out for himself on the
+precarious sea of independent theatrical management. He chose the
+latter, and launched a third enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>In his wanderings about New York theaters Charles saw a serious-eyed
+young actress named Minnie Maddern. He said to Daniel:</p>
+
+<p>"I have great confidence in that young woman. Will you help me put her
+out in a piece?"</p>
+
+<p>"All right," replied his brother.</p>
+
+<p>The net result was Miss Maddern in "Caprice."</p>
+
+<p>In view of subsequent stage history this company was somewhat historic.
+Miss Maddern's salary was seventy-five dollars a week. Her leading man,
+who had been a general-utility actor at the Lyceum, and who also
+received seventy-five dollars a week, was Henry Miller. A handsome young
+lad named Cyril Scott played a very small part and got fifteen dollars a
+week. The total week's salary of the company amounted to only six
+hundred and ninety dollars.</p>
+
+<p>"Caprice" opened at Indianapolis November 6, 1884, and subsequently
+played Chicago, St. Louis, Evansville, Dayton, and Baltimore, with a
+week at the Grand Opera House in New York, where its season closed. It
+made no money, but it did a great deal toward advancing the career of
+Miss Maddern, who afterward became known to millions of theater-goers as
+Mrs. Fiske.</p>
+
+<p>Charles had now made three productions on his own hook and began to
+impress his courage and his personality on the theatrical world. He had
+definitely committed himself to a career of independent management, and
+from this time on he went it alone.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h3>
+
+<p class="head">Booking-Agent and Broadway Producer</p>
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">T</span> <span class="smcap">he</span>
+season of 1883-84 had seen Charles Frohman launched as independent
+manager. He had at its conclusion cut his managerial teeth on the last
+of three productions which, while not financially successful, had shown
+the remarkable quality of his ability. People now began to talk about
+the nervy, energetic young man who could go from failure to failure with
+a smile on his face. It is a tradition in theatrical management that
+successful starts almost invariably mean disastrous finishes. An
+auspicious beginning usually leads to extravagance and lack of balance.
+Failure at the outset provokes caution. Charles, therefore, had enough
+early hard jolts to make him careful.</p>
+
+<p>He always admired big names. Thus it came about that his next venture
+was associated with a name and a prestige that meant much and, later on,
+cost much. Just about that time he met a handsome young English actor
+named E. H. Sothern, who had come to this country with his sister and
+who had appeared for a short time with John McCullough, the tragedian.
+Sothern had returned to New York and was looking for an engagement.</p>
+
+<p>In those days actors usually secured engagements by running down rumors
+of productions that were afloat on the Rialto. In this way Sothern heard
+that Charles Frohman was about to send out an English play called
+"Nita's First," which had been produced at Wallack's Theater. Sothern
+called on Frohman and asked to be engaged.</p>
+
+<p>"What salary do you want?" asked Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>Sothern said he wanted fifty dollars.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Frohman. "The part is worth seventy-five dollars, and
+I'll pay it."</p>
+
+<p>Twenty years later the manager paid this same actor a salary of one
+hundred thousand dollars for a season of forty weeks in Shakespearian
+r&ocirc;les.</p>
+
+<p>"Nita's First," however, ran for only two weeks on the road, and Charles
+ended the engagement. The reason was that he had conceived what he
+considered a brilliant idea.</p>
+
+<p>Lester Wallack and the Wallack Theater Company almost dominated the New
+York dramatic situation. The company, headed by Wallack himself,
+included Rose Coghlan, Osmond Tearle, John Gilbert, and a whole galaxy
+of brilliant people. The Wallack Theater plays were the talk of the
+town. Frohman had an inspiration which he communicated one day to Lester
+Wallack's son, Arthur, whom he knew. To Arthur he said:</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think about my taking the Wallack successes out on the
+road? It is a shame not to capitalize the popular interest in them while
+it is hot. Look at what the Madison Square Theater has been doing. Will
+you speak to your father about it?"</p>
+
+<p>Arthur spoke to his father, who was not averse to the idea, and Charles
+was bidden to the great presence. He had met Lester Wallack before when
+he tried to engage Osmond Tearle for "The Stranglers of Paris." Now came
+the real meeting. After Frohman had stated his case with all his
+persuasion, he added:</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure I can make you rich. You have overlooked a great chance to
+make money."</p>
+
+<p>Lester Wallack said, "It is a good idea, Mr. Frohman, but your company
+must reflect credit upon the theater, and your leading woman must be of
+the same type as my leading woman, Rose Coghlan."</p>
+
+<p>Charles immediately said, "The company shall be worthy of you and the
+name it bears."</p>
+
+<p>Lester Wallack agreed to rehearse the company and to permit his name to
+be used in connection with it. After Charles left, Lester Wallack said
+to his son:</p>
+
+<p>"Watch that young man, Arthur. He is going to make his mark."</p>
+
+<p>Arthur Wallack was about to take a trip to England, and Charles
+commissioned him to engage the leading people. He therefore engaged
+Sophie Eyre, who had been leading woman at the Drury Lane Theater, and
+W. H. Denny.</p>
+
+<p>Charles himself selected the remaining members of the company, who were
+Newton Gotthold; C. B. Wells; Charles Wheatleigh; Max Freeman; Rowland
+Buckstone; Henry Talbot; Sam Dubois; George Clarke; Fred Corbett; Louise
+Dillon, who had been with him in the precarious Stoddart Comedy days;
+Kate Denin Wilson; Agnes Elliot; and Grace Wilson.</p>
+
+<p>At the time he engaged the Wallack Theater Company Charles had no
+office. He was then living at the Coleman House on Broadway, just
+opposite the then celebrated Gilsey House. Most of the engagements were
+made as he sat in a big leather chair in the lobby, with one foot thrown
+over an arm of it.</p>
+
+<p>The principal capital that Charles had for this venture was five
+thousand dollars put up by Daniel J. Bernstein, who became treasurer of
+the company. Alf Hayman, whom Frohman had met in Philadelphia, was
+engaged as advance-agent.</p>
+
+<p>It was a courageous undertaking even for a seasoned and well-financed
+theatrical veteran. Although Lester Wallack was well known, his theater
+and its successes were not familiar to the great mass of people outside
+New York. In those days theatrical publicity was not as widespread as
+now. No wonder, then, that the daring of a young manager of twenty-five
+in taking out a company whose weekly salary list was nearly thirteen
+hundred dollars was commented on.</p>
+
+<p>Charles called his aggregation the Wallack Theater Company. The
+repertoire consisted mainly of "Victor Durand," a play by Henry Guy
+Carleton which had been produced at Wallack's on December 13, 1884.
+Subsequently the company also played "Moths," "Lady Clare," "Diplomacy,"
+and Belasco's "La Belle Russe."</p>
+
+<p>This tour, which was to write itself indelibly on the career of Charles
+Frohman, began in Chicago and was continued through the South to New
+Orleans, where a stay of six weeks was made at the St. Charles Theater.
+Belasco joined them here for a week to put on "The World," which had
+been produced at Wallack's a short time before.</p>
+
+<p>In New Orleans occurred one of those encounters in Charles Frohman's
+life that led to life-long friendship. Two years before, while playing a
+Madison Square company at one of the theaters in St. Louis, he had met a
+bright young man in the box-office named Augustus Thomas. Thomas was
+then a newspaper man and was beginning to write plays. He told Charles
+that he had just made a short play out of Frances Hodgson Burnett's
+story, "Editha's Burglar."</p>
+
+<p>In New Orleans Charles discovered that young Thomas was playing in his
+own play at a near-by theater and went over to see him. After the
+performance he visited him in his dressing-room, renewed his
+acquaintance, and said to him with the optimism of youth:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Thomas, I hope that some day you will write a play for me."</p>
+
+<p class="space">The company now made a tour of Texas, where the troubles began. Business
+declined, but Frohman succeeded in landing the company in Chicago after
+a series of misfortunes. Here Sophie Eyre retired and was succeeded by
+Louise Dillon as leading woman. Charles, of course, had no money with
+which to buy costumes, so she pawned her jewels and used the proceeds.
+Sadie Bigelow took her place as ing&eacute;nue.</p>
+
+<p>Charles now started his famous tour of the Northwest which rivaled the
+Stoddart days in hardship and in humor. The Northern Pacific Railroad
+had just been opened to the coast, and Charles followed the new route. A
+series of tragic, dramatic, and comic experiences began. The tour was
+through the heart of the old cow country. One night, when the train was
+stalled by the wrecking of a bridge near Miles City, Montana, a group of
+cowboys started to "shoot up" the train. Frohman, with ready resource,
+singled out the leader and said:</p>
+
+<p>"We've got a theatrical company here and we will give you a
+performance."</p>
+
+<p>He got Rowland Buckstone to stand out on the prairie and recite "The
+Smuggler's Life," "The Execution," and "The Sanguinary Pirate" by the
+light of a big bonfire which was built while the show was going on.
+This tickled the cowboys and brought salvos of shots and shouts of
+laughter.</p>
+
+<p>At Miles City occurred what might have been a serious episode. When the
+company reached the hotel at about eleven in the morning Charles
+Wheatleigh, the "first old man," asked the hotel-keeper what time
+breakfast was served. When he replied "Eight-thirty o'clock," Wheatleigh
+pounded the desk and said:</p>
+
+<p>"That is for farmers. When do artists eat?"</p>
+
+<p>The clerk was a typical Westerner, and thought this was an insult. He
+made a lunge for Wheatleigh, when Frohman stepped in and settled the
+difficulty in his usual suave and smiling way.</p>
+
+<p>At Butte came another characteristic example of the Frohman enterprise
+and resource. It was necessary at all hazards to get an audience. When
+Charles got there he found that the wife of the leading gambler had
+died. He expressed so much sympathy for the bereaved man that he was
+made a pall-bearer, and this act created such an impression on the
+townspeople that they flocked to the theater at night.</p>
+
+<p>At Missoula, Montana, Charles went out ahead of the show for a week.
+Approaching the treasurer at the box-office, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Will you please let me have a hundred dollars on account of the show?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't," replied the man. "We haven't sold a single seat for any of
+your performances."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman thought a moment and walked out of the lobby. All afternoon
+orders for seats began to come in to the box-office. Late in the
+afternoon, when Frohman got back, the agent smiled and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Frohman, I can let you have that hundred dollars now. We are
+beginning to have quite an advance sale."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman had gone down-town and sent in the orders for the seats himself.
+He used fictitious names.</p>
+
+<p>Now began a summer of hardships. With the utmost difficulty the company
+got to Portland, Oregon, where Charles established a sort of
+headquarters. From this point he sent the company on short tours. But
+business continued to be bad.</p>
+
+<p>He started a series of "farewell" performances, as he did in Texas, and
+placarded the city with the bills announcing "positively" closing
+performances. These bills were typical of the publicity talents of
+Charles Frohman. He headed them "Good-by Engagements," and added the
+words, "A Long, Lingering Farewell." Under "Favorites' Farewell" he
+printed the names of the members of the company with the titles or parts
+in which they were known. "Good-by, Louise Dillon, our Esmeralda";
+"Good-by, Kate Denin Wilson, Pretty Lady Dolly"; "Good-by, Charles B.
+Wells, Faithful Dave Hardy"; "Good-by, Rowland Buckstone, Some Other
+Man"&mdash;were typical illustrations of his attempt to make a strong appeal
+for business.</p>
+
+<p>Actual money in the company was a novelty. Bernstein's five thousand
+dollars had long since vanished. When a member of the company wanted
+some cash it had to be extracted from the treasurer in one-dollar
+instalments.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the hardships, the utmost good humor and feeling prevailed. Most
+of the members of the company were young; there was no bickering. They
+knew that Frohman's struggle was with and for them. They called him
+"The Governor," and he always referred to them as his "nice little
+company." All looked forward confidently to better days, and in this
+belief they were supported and inspired by the cheery philosophy of the
+manager.</p>
+
+<p>Charles's resource was tested daily. He had booked a near-by town for
+fair week, which always meant good business. At last he had money in
+sight. The local manager, however, insisted upon a great display of
+fancy printing. Charles was in a dilemma because he owed his printer a
+big bill and he had no more lithographs on hand. A friend who was in
+advance of William Gillette's play, "The Private Secretary," came along
+with a lot of his own paper. Charles borrowed a quantity of it and also
+from the "Whose Baby Are You?" company, covered over these two titles
+with slips containing the words "Lady Clare," the piece he was going to
+present. He billed the town with great success and was able to keep
+going.</p>
+
+<p>During the Portland sojourn Charles sent the company on to Salem,
+Oregon. While there, six members had their photographs taken with a
+disconsolate look on their faces and with Buckstone holding a dollar in
+his hand. They sent the picture to Frohman with the inscription:</p>
+
+<p>"From your nice little company waiting for its salary."</p>
+
+<p>At Portland, Oregon, A. D. Charlton, who was passenger agent of the
+Northern Pacific Railroad, and who had been of great service to Charles
+in extricating him from various financial difficulties, said to him one
+day:</p>
+
+<p>"Frohman, I want you to meet a very promising little actress who is out
+here with her mother."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman said he would be glad, and, accompanying Charlton to his office,
+was introduced to Annie Adams, a well-known actress from Salt Lake City,
+and her wistful-eyed little daughter, Maude. They were both members of
+the John McGuire Company. This was Charles Frohman's first meeting with
+Maude Adams.</p>
+
+<p>At Portland Frohman added "Two Orphans" and "Esmeralda" to the company's
+repertoire. But it barely got them out of town at the really and truly
+"farewell."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Now began a return journey from Portland that was even more precarious
+than the trip out. Baggage had to be sacrificed; there was scarcely any
+scenery. One "back drop" showing the interior of a cathedral was used
+for every kind of scene, from a gambling-house to a ball-room. To the
+financial hardship of the homeward trip was added real physical trial.
+Frohman showed in towns wherever there was the least prospect of any
+kind of a house. The company therefore played in skating-rinks,
+school-houses, even barns. In some places the members of the company had
+to take the oil-lamps that served as footlights back in the makeshift
+dressing-rooms while they dressed.</p>
+
+<p>At Bozeman, Montana, occurred an incident which showed both the humor
+and the precariousness of the situation. Frohman assembled the company
+in the waiting-room of the station and, stepping up to the
+ticket-office, laid down one hundred and thirty dollars in cash.</p>
+
+<p>"Where do you want to go?" asked the agent.</p>
+
+<p>Shoving the money at him, Frohman said, "How far will this take us?"</p>
+
+<p>The agent looked out of the window, counted up the company, and said,
+"To Billings."</p>
+
+<p>Turning to the company, Frohman said, with a smile, "Ladies and
+gentlemen, we play Billings next."</p>
+
+<p>Just then he received a telegram from Alf Hayman, who was on ahead of
+the company:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>What town shall I bill?</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Frohman wired back:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Bill Billings.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Hayman again wired:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Have no printing and can get no credit. What shall I do?</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Frohman's resource came into stead, for he telegraphed:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Notify theaters that we are a high-class company from Wallack's
+Theater in New York and use no ordinary printing. We employ only
+newspapers and dodgers.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>At Missoula, Montana, on their way back, a member of the company became
+dissatisfied and stood with his associates at the station where two
+trains met, one for the east and one for the west. As the train for the
+east slowed up the actor rushed toward it and, calling to the members of
+the company, said:</p>
+
+<p>"I am leaving you for good. You'll never get anywhere with Frohman."</p>
+
+<p>The company, however, elected to stay with Frohman. In later years this
+actor fell into hardship. Frohman singled him out, and from that time
+on until Frohman's death he had a good engagement every year in a
+Frohman company.</p>
+
+<p>At Bismarck, North Dakota, the company gave "Moths." In this play the
+spurned hero, a singer, has a line which reads, "There are many
+marquises, but very few <i>tenors</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Money had been so scarce for months that this remark was the last straw,
+so the company burst into laughter, and the performance was nearly
+broken up. Frohman, who stood in the back of the house, enjoyed it as
+much as the rest.</p>
+
+<p>Through all these hardships Frohman remained serene and smiling. His
+unfailing optimism tided over the dark days. The end came at Winona,
+Minnesota. The company had sacrificed everything it could possibly
+sacrifice. Frohman borrowed a considerable sum from the railroad agent
+to go to Chicago, where he obtained six hundred dollars from Frank
+Sanger. With this he paid the friendly agent and brought the company
+back to New York.</p>
+
+<p>Even the last lap of this disastrous journey was not without its humor.
+The men were all assembled in the smoking-car on the way from Albany to
+New York. Frohman for once sat silent. When somebody asked him why he
+looked so glum, he said, "I'm thinking of what I have got to face
+to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Up spoke Wheatleigh, whose marital troubles were well known. He slapped
+Frohman on the back and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Charley, your troubles are slight. Think of me. I've got to face my
+wife to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>It was characteristic of Frohman's high sense of integrity that he gave
+his personal note to each member of the company for back salary in
+full, and before five years passed had discharged every debt.</p>
+
+<p class="space">On arriving in New York Charles had less than a dollar in his pocket,
+his clothes were worn, and he looked generally much the worse for wear.
+On the street he met Belasco. They pooled their finances and went to
+"Beefsteak John's," where they had a supper of kidney stew, pie, and
+tea. They renewed the old experiences at O'Neil's restaurant and talked
+about what they were going to do.</p>
+
+<p>The next day Frohman was standing speculatively in front of the Coleman
+House when he met Jack Rickaby, a noted theatrical figure of the time.
+Rickaby slapped the young man on the back and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Frohman, I am glad you have had a good season. You're going to be a big
+man in this profession."</p>
+
+<p>He shook Frohman's hand warmly and walked away.</p>
+
+<p>It was the first cheering word that Frohman had heard. The news of his
+disastrous trip had not become known. Always proud, he was glad of it.
+After Rickaby had shaken his hand he felt something in it, and on
+looking he saw that the big-hearted manager had placed a hundred-dollar
+bill there. Rickaby had known all along the story of the Wallack tour
+hardships, and it was his way of expressing sympathy. Frohman afterward
+said it was the most touching moment in his life. Speaking of this once,
+he said:</p>
+
+<p>"That hundred-dollar bill looked bigger than any sum of money I have
+ever had since."</p>
+
+<p class="space">It was late in 1885 when Charles returned from the disastrous Wallack's
+Theater tour, bankrupt in finance but almost over-capitalized in
+courage and plans for the future. Up to that time he had no regular
+office. Like many of the managers of the day, his office was in his hat.
+Now, for the first time, he set up an establishment of his own. It
+required no capital to embark in the booking business in those days.
+Nerve and resiliency were the two principal requisites.</p>
+
+<p>The first Frohman offices were at 1215 Broadway, in the same building
+that housed Daly's Theater. In two small rooms on the second floor
+Charles Frohman laid the corner-stone of what in later years became a
+chain of offices and interests that reached wherever the English
+language was spoken on the stage. The interesting contrast here was that
+while Augustin Daly, then in the heyday of his great success, was
+creating theatrical history on the stage below him, Charles Frohman was
+beginning his real managerial career up-stairs.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman's first associate was W. W. Randall, a San Francisco newspaper
+man whom he had met in the Haverly's Minstrel days, in the mean time
+manager of "The Private Secretary" and several of the Madison Square
+companies on the road. He was alert and aggressive and knew the
+technique of the theatrical business.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Frohman's policy was always pretentious, so he set up two
+distinct firms. One was the "Randall's Theatrical Bureau, Charles
+Frohman and W. W. Randall, Managers," which was under Randall's
+direction and which booked attractions for theaters throughout the
+country on a fee basis. The other was called "Frohman &amp; Randall, General
+Theatrical Managers." Its function was to produce plays and was directly
+under Charles's supervision. The two firm names were emblazoned on the
+door and business was started. Their first employee was Julius Cahn.</p>
+
+<p>These offices have an historic interest aside from the fact that they
+were the first to be occupied by Charles Frohman. Out of them grew
+really the whole modern system of booking attractions. Up to that era
+theatrical booking methods were different from those of the present
+time; there were no great centralized agencies to book attractions for
+strings of theaters covering the entire country. Union Square was the
+Rialto, the heart and center of the booking business. The out-of-town
+manager came there to fill his time for the season. Much of the booking
+was done in a haphazard way on the sidewalk, and whole seasons were
+booked on the curb, merely noted in pocket note-books. Two methods of
+booking were then in vogue: one by the manager of a company who wrote
+from New York to the towns for time; the other through an agent of
+out-of-town house managers located in New York. It was this latter
+system that Frohman and Randall began to develop in a scientific
+fashion. Charles's extensive experience on the road and his knowledge of
+the theatrical status of the different towns made him a valuable agent.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman and Randall at that time practically had the field to
+themselves. Brooks &amp; Dickson, an older firm which included the
+well-known Joseph Brooks of later managerial fame, had conducted the
+first booking-office of any consequence, but had now retired. H. S.
+Taylor had just established on Fourteenth Street Taylor's Theatrical
+Exchange, destined to figure in theatrical history as the forerunner of
+the Klaw &amp; Erlanger business.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the high-sounding titles on the door, the Frohman offices were
+unpretentious. Frohman and Randall had a desk apiece, and there was a
+second-hand iron safe in the corner. When Frohman was asked, one day
+soon after the shingle had been hung out, what the safe was for, he
+replied, with his characteristic humor:</p>
+
+<p>"We keep the coal-scuttle in it."</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact there was more truth than poetry in this remark,
+because the office assets were so low that during the winter the firm
+had to burn gas all day to keep warm. When asked the reason for this,
+Frohman said, jocularly:</p>
+
+<p>"We can get more credit if we use gas, because the gas bill has to be
+paid only once a month. Coal is cash."</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, the office was so cold during that season that it came to be
+known in the profession as the "Cave of the Winds," and this title was
+no reflection on the vocal qualities of the proprietors.</p>
+
+<p>It was during those early and precarious days when Frohman was still
+saddled with the debts of the Wallack's tour that one of the most
+amusing incidents of his life happened. One morning he was served with
+the notice of a supplementary proceeding which had been instituted
+against him. He was always afraid of the courts, and he was much
+alarmed. He rushed across the street to the Gilsey House and consulted
+Henry E. Dixey, the actor, who was living there. Dixey's advice was to
+get a lawyer. Together they returned to the Daly's Theater Building,
+where Frohman knew a lawyer was installed on the top floor. They found
+the lawyer blacking that portion of his white socks that appeared
+through the holes in his shoes.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman stated his case, which the lawyer accepted. He then demanded a
+two-dollar fee. Frohman had only one dollar in his pocket and borrowed
+the other dollar from Dixey.</p>
+
+<p>"This money," said the lawyer, "is to be paid into the court. How about
+my fee?"</p>
+
+<p>Frohman fumbled in his pocket and produced a ten-cent piece. He handed
+it to the lawyer, saying: "I will pay you later on. Here is your
+car-fare. Be sure to get to court before it opens."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman and Dixey left. Frohman was much agitated. They walked around
+the block several times. When he heard the clock strike ten he said to
+Dixey:</p>
+
+<p>"Now the lawyer is in the court-room and the matter is being settled."
+In his expansive relief he said: "I have credit at Browne's Chop House.
+Let us go over and have breakfast."</p>
+
+<p>At the restaurant they ordered a modest meal. As Frohman looked up from
+his table he saw a man sitting directly opposite whose face was hid
+behind a newspaper. In front of him was a pile of wheat-cakes about a
+foot high.</p>
+
+<p>"Gee whiz!" said Frohman. "I wish I had enough money to buy a stack of
+wheat-cakes that high."</p>
+
+<p>As he said this to Dixey the man opposite happened to lower his paper
+and revealed himself to be the lawyer Frohman had just engaged. He was
+having a breakfast spree himself with the two dollars extracted from his
+two recent clients.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Business began to pick up with the new year. The first, and what
+afterward proved to be the most profitable, clients of the
+booking-office were the Baldwin and California theaters in San
+Francisco. They were dominated by Al Hayman, brother of Alf, a man who
+now came intimately into Charles Frohman's life and remained so until
+the end. He was a Philadelphian who had conducted various traveling
+theatrical enterprises in Australia and had met Frohman for the first
+time in London when the latter went over with the Haverly Mastodons.
+Hayman admired Frohman very much and soon made him general Eastern
+representative of all his extensive Pacific coast interests.</p>
+
+<p>Hayman was developing into a magnate of importance. With his assistance
+Charles was able to book a company all the way from New York to San
+Francisco. Charles made himself responsible for the time between New
+York and Kansas City, while Hayman would guarantee the company's time
+from Kansas City or Omaha to the coast.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman and Randall made a good team, and they soon acquired a chain of
+more than three hundred theaters, ranging from music-halls in small
+towns that booked the ten-twenty-thirty-cent dramas up to the palatial
+houses like Hooley's in Chicago, the Hollis in Boston, and the Baldwin
+in San Francisco.</p>
+
+<p>It was a happy-go-lucky time. If Frohman had ten dollars in his pocket
+to spare he considered himself rich. Money then, as always, meant very
+little to him. It came and went easily.</p>
+
+<p class="space">While the booking business waxed in volume the production end of the
+establishment did not fare so well. Charles had this activity of the
+office as his particular domain, and with the instinct of the plunger
+now began to put on plays right and left.</p>
+
+<p>Just before the association with Randall, Frohman had become manager of
+Neil Burgess, the actor, and had booked him for a tour in a play called
+"Vim." A disagreement followed, and Frohman turned him over to George W.
+Lederer, who took the play out to the coast.</p>
+
+<p>A year after this episode came the first of the many opportunities for
+fortune that Charles Frohman turned down in the course of his eventful
+life. This is the way it happened:</p>
+
+<p>Burgess, who was quite an inventive person, had patented the treadmill
+mechanism to represent horse-racing on the stage, a device which was
+afterward used with such great effect in "Ben-Hur." He was so much
+impressed with it that he had a play written around it called "The
+County Fair."</p>
+
+<p>Burgess, who liked Frohman immensely, tried to get him to take charge of
+this piece, but Frohman would not listen to the proposition about the
+mechanical device. He was unhappy over his experience about "Vim," and
+whenever Burgess tried to talk "The County Fair" and its machine Frohman
+would put him off.</p>
+
+<p>Burgess finally went elsewhere, and, as most people know, "The County
+Fair" almost rivaled "The Old Homestead" in money-making ability. The
+horse-racing scene became the most-talked-of episode on the stage at the
+time, and Burgess cleared more than a quarter of a million dollars out
+of the enterprise. Charles Frohman afterward admitted that his prejudice
+against Burgess and his machine had cost his office at least one hundred
+thousand dollars.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman and Randall now launched an important venture. McKee Rankin, who
+was one of the best-known players of the time, induced them to become
+his managers in a piece called "The Golden Giant," by Clay M. Greene.
+Charles, however, agreed to the proposition on the condition that Rankin
+would put his wife, Kitty Blanchard, in the cast. They had been
+estranged, and Frohman, with his natural shrewdness, believed that the
+stage reunion of Mr. and Mrs. McKee Rankin would be a great drawing-card
+for the play. Rankin made the arrangements, and the Fifth Avenue Theater
+was booked for two weeks, commencing Easter Monday, 1886.</p>
+
+<p>The theater was then under the management of John Stetson, of Boston,
+and both Frohman and Rankin looked forward to doing a great business. In
+this cast Robert Hilliard, who had been a clever amateur actor in
+Brooklyn, made his first professional appearance. Charles supervised the
+rehearsals and had rosy visions of a big success. At four o'clock,
+however, on the afternoon of the opening night, Charles went to the
+box-office and discovered the advance sale had been only one hundred
+dollars.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you what to do, Randall," quickly thought out Frohman, "if
+Stetson will stand for it we will paper the house to the doors. We must
+open to a capacity audience."</p>
+
+<p>When Frohman put the matter before Stetson he said he did not believe in
+"second-hand reconciliations," but assented to the plan. Frohman gave
+Randall six hundred seats, and the latter put them into good hands. The
+<i>premi&egrave;re</i> of "The Golden Giant," to all intents and purposes, took
+place before a crowded and paying house. In reality there was exactly
+two hundred and eighty-eight dollars in the box-office. Business picked
+up, however, and the two weeks' engagement proved prosperous. The play
+failed on the road, however, and the Frohman offices lost over five
+thousand dollars on the venture. Rankin had agreed to pay Frohman forty
+per cent. of the losses. That agreement remained in force all his life,
+for it was never paid.</p>
+
+<p>In Charles's next venture he launched his first star. Curiously enough,
+the star was Tony Hart, a member of the famous Irish team of Harrigan
+and Hart, who had delighted the boyhood of Frohman when he used to slip
+away on Saturday nights and revel in a show.</p>
+
+<p>Tony Hart, during the interim, had separated from Harrigan, and in some
+way Charles obtained the manuscript of a farce-comedy by William Gill
+called "A Toy Pistol."</p>
+
+<p>Charles had never lost his admiration for Hart, and when he saw that the
+leading character had to impersonate an Italian, a young Hebrew, an
+Irishwoman, and a Chinaman, Frohman said, "Tony Hart is the very
+person."</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, he engaged Hart and a company which included J. B. Mackey,
+F. R. Jackson, T. J. Cronin, D. G. Longworth, Annie Adams, Annie
+Alliston, Mattie Ferguson, Bertie Amberg, Eva Grenville, Vera Wilson,
+Minnie Williams, and Lena Merville.</p>
+
+<p>This production had an influence on Charles Frohman's life far greater
+than the association with his first star, for Annie Adams now began a
+more or less continuous connection with Charles Frohman's companies. Her
+daughter, the little girl whom Charles had met casually years before,
+was now about to make her first New York appearance as member of a
+traveling company in "The Paymaster." Already the energetic mother was
+importuning Charles to engage the daughter. His answer was, "I'll give
+her a chance as soon as I can." He little dreamed that this wisp of a
+girl was to become in later years his most profitable and best-known
+star.</p>
+
+<p>Charles was, of course, keenly interested in "A Toy Pistol." He
+conducted the rehearsals, and on February 20, 1886, produced it at what
+was then called the New York Comedy Theater. It failed, however. The New
+York Comedy Theater was originally a large billiard-hall in the Gilsey
+Building, on Broadway between Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth streets,
+and had been first named the San Francisco Minstrel Hall. It became
+successively Haverly's Comedy Theater and the New York Comedy Theater.
+Subsequently, it was known as Hermann's Theater, and was the scene of
+many of the earlier Charles Frohman productions.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles now became immersed in productions. About this time Archibald
+Clavering Gunter, who had scored a sensational success with his books,
+especially "Mr. Barnes of New York," had written a play called "A Wall
+Street Bandit," which had been produced with great success in San
+Francisco. Frohman booked it for four weeks at the old Standard Theater,
+afterward the Manhattan, on a very generous royalty basis, and plunged
+in his usual lavish style. He got together a magnificent cast, which
+included Georgia Cayvan, W. J. Ferguson, Robert McWade, Charles Bowser,
+Charles Wheatleigh, and Sadie Bigelow. The play opened to capacity and
+the indications were that the engagement would be a success; but it
+suddenly fizzled out. On Sunday morning, when Charles read the papers
+with their reviews of the week, he said to Randall, with his usual
+philosophy:</p>
+
+<p>"We've got a magnificent frost, but it was worth doing."</p>
+
+<p>This production cost the youthful manager ten thousand dollars.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman still had control of "time" at the Standard, so he now put on a
+play, translated by Henri Rochefort, called "A Daughter of Ireland," in
+which Georgia Cayvan had the title r&ocirc;le. Here he scored another failure,
+but his ardor remained undampened and he went on to what looked at that
+moment to be the biggest thing he had yet tried.</p>
+
+<p>Dion Boucicault was one of the great stage figures of his period. He was
+both actor and author, and wrote or adapted several hundred plays,
+including such phenomenal successes as "Colleen Bawn," "Shaughraun,"
+which ran for a year simultaneously in London, New York, and Melbourne,
+and "London Assurance." There was much talk of his latest comedy, "The
+Jilt." Frohman, who always wanted to be associated with big names, now
+arranged by cable to produce this play at the Standard. Once more he
+plunged on an expensive company which included, among others, Fritz
+Williams, Louise Thorndyke, and Helen Bancroft.</p>
+
+<p>For four weeks he cleared a thousand a week. Then he put the company on
+the road, where it did absolutely nothing. Charles, who had an uncanny
+sense of analysis of play failures, now declared that the reason for the
+failure was that theater-goers resented Boucicault's treatment of his
+first wife, Agnes Robertson. Boucicault had declared that he was not the
+father of her child, and when she sued him in England the courts gave
+her the verdict. Meanwhile Boucicault married, and in the eyes of the
+world he was a bigamist. This experience, it is interesting to add,
+taught Charles Frohman never to engage stars on whom there was the
+slightest smirch of scandal or disrepute.</p>
+
+<p>At Montreal Boucicault refused to continue the tour, and this
+engagement, like so many of its predecessors, left Charles in a
+financial hole. Despite all these reverses he was able to make a
+livelihood out of the booking end of the office, which thrived and grew
+with each month. Nor was he without his sense of humor in those days.</p>
+
+<p>One day he met a certain manager who had lost a great deal of money in
+comic opera. Frohman said to him that he heard that there was much money
+in the comic-opera end of the business.</p>
+
+<p>"So there is," replied the manager.</p>
+
+<p>"You ought to know," responded Frohman, "for you have put enough into
+it."</p>
+
+<p>This remark, often attributed to others, is said to have originated
+here.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman was now an established producer, and although the tide of
+fortune had not gone altogether happily with him, he had a Micawber-like
+conviction that the big thing would eventually turn up. Now came his
+first contact with Bronson Howard, who, a few years later, was to be the
+first mile-stone in his journey to fame and fortune.</p>
+
+<p>Howard's name was one to conjure with. He had produced "Young Mrs.
+Winthrop," "The Banker's Daughter," "Saratoga," and other great
+successes. Charles Frohman, yielding, as usual, to the lure of big
+names, now put on Howard's play, "Baron Rudolph," for which George
+Knight had paid the author three thousand dollars to rewrite. Knight
+gave Frohman a free hand in the matter of casting the production, and it
+was put on at the Fourteenth Street Theater in an elaborate fashion. The
+company included various people who later on were to become widely
+known. Among them were George Knight and his wife, George Fawcett,
+Charles Bowser, and a very prepossessing young man named Henry Woodruff.</p>
+
+<p>"Baron Rudolph" proved to be a failure, and it broke Knight's heart, for
+shortly afterward he was committed to an insane asylum from which he
+never emerged alive. It was found that while the play was well written
+there was no sympathy for a ragged tramp.</p>
+
+<p>Whether he thought it would change his luck or not, Charles now turned
+to a different sort of enterprise. He had read in the newspapers about
+the astonishing mind-reading feats in England of Washington Irving
+Bishop. Always on the lookout for something novel, he started a
+correspondence with Bishop which ended in a contract by which he agreed
+to present Bishop in the United States in 1887.</p>
+
+<p>Bishop came over and Frohman sponsored his first appearance in New York
+on February 27, 1887, at Wallack's Theater. With his genius for
+publicity, Frohman got an extraordinary amount of advertising out of
+this engagement. Among other things he got Bishop to drive around New
+York blindfolded. He invited well-known men to come and witness his
+marvelous gift in private. All of which attracted a great deal of
+attention, but very little money to the box-office. Frohman and Bishop
+differed about the conduct of the tour that was to follow, and M. B.
+Leavitt assumed the management.</p>
+
+<p>While at 1215 Broadway Charles Frohman established another of his many
+innovations by getting out what was probably the first stylographic
+press sheet. This sheet, which contained news of the various attractions
+that Frohman booked, was sent to the leading newspapers throughout the
+country and was the forerunner of the avalanche of press matter that
+to-day is hurled at dramatic editors everywhere.</p>
+
+<p class="space">The booking business had now grown so extensively that the office force
+was increased. First came Julius Cahn, who assisted Randall with the
+booking. Al Hayman took a desk in Frohman's office, which, because of
+Hayman's extensive California enterprises, had a virtual monopoly on all
+Western booking.</p>
+
+<p>Now developed a curious episode. Charles, with his devotion to big
+names, used the words "Daly's Theater Building" on his letter-heads.
+This so infuriated Daly that he sent a peremptory message to the
+landlord insisting that Frohman vacate the building. Frohman and Randall
+thereupon moved their offices up the block to 1267 Broadway.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Frohman made every possible capitalization of this change. Among
+other things he issued a broadside, announcing the removal to new
+offices, and making the following characteristic statement:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Our agency, we are pleased to state, has been an established
+success from the very start. We now represent every important
+theater in the United States and Canada, as an inspection of our
+list will show, and we will always keep up the high standard of
+attractions that have been booked through this office, and we want
+the business of no others. Mr. E. E. Rice, the well-known manager
+and author, will have adjoining offices with us, and his
+attractions will be booked through our offices. We transact a
+general theatrical business (excepting that pertaining to a
+dramatic or actor's agency), and are in competition with no other
+exchange, booking agency, or dramatic concern. Neither do we have
+any desk-room to let, reserving all the space of our office for our
+own use.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Attached to this announcement was a list of theaters that he
+represented, which was a foot long. He was also representing Archibald
+Clavering Gunter, who had followed up "A Wall Street Bandit" with
+"Prince Karl," and Robert Buchanan, author of "Lady Clare" and "Alone in
+London."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman and Randall stayed at 1267 Broadway for a year. Shortly before
+the next change Randall, who had become extensively interested in
+outside enterprises, retired from the firm. His successor as close
+associate with Charles Frohman was Harry Rockwood, ablest of the early
+Frohman lieutenants.</p>
+
+<p>Rockwood was a distinguished-looking man and a tireless worker. The way
+he came to be associated with Charles Frohman was interesting. His real
+name was H. Rockwood Hewitt, and he was related to ex-Mayor Abram S.
+Hewitt of New York. He had had some experience in Wall Street, but
+became infected with the theatrical virus.</p>
+
+<p>One day in 1888 a well-groomed young man approached Gustave Frohman at
+the Fourteenth Street Theater. He introduced himself as Harry Hewitt.
+He said to Frohman:</p>
+
+<p>"My name is Hewitt. I would like to get into the theatrical business."</p>
+
+<p>Gustave invited him to come around to the Madison Square Theater the
+next day, and asked him what he would like to do.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I should like to do anything."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman then gave him an imaginary house to "count up."</p>
+
+<p>Rockwood, who was an expert accountant, did the job with amazing
+swiftness. Whereupon Gustave Frohman telephoned to Charles Frohman as
+follows:</p>
+
+<p>"I've got the greatest treasurer in the world for you. Send for him."</p>
+
+<p>Charles engaged him for a Madison Square Company, and in this way
+Rockwood's theatrical career started. It was the fashion of many people
+of that time interested in the theatrical business to change their
+names, so he became Harry Rockwood. In the same way Harry Hayman,
+brother of Al and Alf Hayman, changed his name to Harry Mann.</p>
+
+<p>In 1889 came the separation between Randall and Frohman. Randall set up
+an establishment of his own at 1145 Broadway, while Charles, who was now
+an accredited and established personage in the theatrical world, took a
+suite at 1127 Broadway, adjoining the old St. James Hotel. In making
+this change he reached a crucial point in his career, for in these
+offices he conceived and put into execution the spectacular enterprises
+that linked his name for the first time with brilliant success.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h3>
+
+<p class="head">"SHENANDOAH" AND THE FIRST STOCK COMPANY</p>
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">W</span> <span class="smcap">ith</span>
+his installation in the new offices at 1127 Broadway there began an
+important epoch in the life of Charles Frohman. The Nemesis which had
+seemed to pursue his productions now took flight. The plump little man,
+not yet thirty, who had already lived a lifetime of strenuous and varied
+endeavor, sat at a desk in a big room on the second floor, dreaming and
+planning great things that were soon to be realized.</p>
+
+<p>Although staggering under a burden of debt that would have discouraged
+most people, Frohman, with his optimistic philosophy, felt that the hour
+had come at last when the tide would turn. And it did. At this time his
+financial complications were at their worst. Some of them dated back to
+the disastrous Wallack Company tour; others resulted from his impulsive
+generosity in indorsing his friends' notes. He was so involved that he
+could not do business under his own name, and for a period the firm went
+on as Al Hayman &amp; Company.</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="GILLETTE" id="GILLETTE"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-114.png" width="500" height="802" alt="WILLIAM GILLETTE" title="WILLIAM GILLETTE" />
+<span class="caption">WILLIAM GILLETTE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>One of the very first enterprises in the new offices cemented the
+friendship of Charles Frohman and William Gillette. While at the Madison
+Square Theater he had booked Gillette's plays, "The Professor" and "The
+Private Secretary." Frohman, with Al Hayman as partner, induced Gillette
+to make a dramatization of Rider Haggard's "She," which was put on at
+Niblo's Garden in New York with considerable success. Wilton Lackaye and
+Loie Fuller were in the cast.</p>
+
+<p>Gillette now tried his hand at a war play called "Held by the Enemy,"
+which Frohman booked on the road. Frohman was strangely interested in
+"Held by the Enemy." It had all the thrill and tumult of war and it lent
+itself to more or less spectacular production. When the road tour ended,
+Frohman, on his own hook, took the piece and the company, which was
+headed by Gillette, for an engagement at the Baldwin Theater in San
+Francisco. He transported all the original scenery, which included,
+among other things, some massive wooden cannon.</p>
+
+<p>The San Francisco critics, however, slated the piece unmercifully. The
+morning after the opening Gillette stood in the lobby of the Palace
+Hotel with the newspapers in his hand and feeling very disconsolate. Up
+bustled Frohman in his usual cheery fashion.</p>
+
+<p>"Look what the critics have done to us," said Gillette, gloomily.</p>
+
+<p>"But we've got all the best of it," replied Frohman, with animation.</p>
+
+<p>"How's that?" asked Gillette, somewhat puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>They've</i> got to stay here."</p>
+
+<p>This little episode shows the buoyant way in which Frohman always met
+misfortune. His irresistible humor was the oil that he invariably spread
+upon the troubled waters of discord and discouragement.</p>
+
+<p>It was while selecting one of the casts of "Held by the Enemy," which
+was revived many times, that Charles Frohman made two more life-long
+connections.</p>
+
+<p>At the same boarding-house with Julius Cahn lived an ambitious young
+man who had had some experience as an actor. He was out of a position,
+so Cahn said to him one day:</p>
+
+<p>"Come over to our offices and Charles Frohman will give you a job."</p>
+
+<p>The young man came over, and Cahn introduced him to Frohman. Soon he
+came out, apparently very indignant. When Cahn asked him what was the
+matter he said:</p>
+
+<p>"That man Frohman offered me the part of a nigger, <i>Uncle Rufus</i>, in
+that play. I was born in the South, and I will not play a nigger. I
+would rather starve."</p>
+
+<p>Cahn said, "You will play it, and your salary will be forty dollars a
+week."</p>
+
+<p>The young man reluctantly accepted the engagement and proved to be not
+only a satisfactory actor, but a man gifted with a marvelous instinct as
+stage-director. His name was Joseph Humphreys, and he became in a few
+years the general stage-director for Charles Frohman, the most
+distinguished position of its kind in the country, which he held until
+his death.</p>
+
+<p>About this time Charles Frohman renewed his acquaintance with Augustus
+Thomas. Thomas walked into the office one day and Rockwood said to him:</p>
+
+<p>"You are the very man we want to play in 'Held by the Enemy.'"</p>
+
+<p>Thomas immediately went in to see Frohman, who offered him the position
+of <i>General Stamburg</i>, but Thomas had an engagement in his own play,
+"The Burglar," which was the expanded "Editha's Burglar," and could not
+accept. Before he left, however, Frohman, whose mind was always full of
+projects for the future, renewed the offer made in New Orleans, for he
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Thomas, I still want you to write that play for me."</p>
+
+<p class="space">With "Held by the Enemy" Charles Frohman seemed to have found a magic
+touchstone. It was both patriotic and profitable, for it was nothing
+less than the American flag. Having raised it in one production, he now
+turned to the enterprise which unfurled his success to the winds in
+brilliant and stirring fashion.</p>
+
+<p>Early in 1889 R. M. Field put on a new military play called
+"Shenandoah," by Bronson Howard, at the Boston Museum. Howard was then
+the most important writer in the dramatic profession. He had three big
+successes, "Young Mrs. Winthrop," "Saratoga," and "The Banker's
+Daughter," to his credit, and he had put an immense amount of work and
+hope into the stirring military drama that was to have such an important
+bearing on the career of Charles Frohman. The story of Frohman's
+connection with this play is one of the most picturesque and romantic in
+the whole history of modern theatrical successes. He found it a
+Cinderella of the stage; he proved to be its Prince Charming.</p>
+
+<p>Oddly enough, "Shenandoah" was a failure in Boston. Three eminent
+managers, A. M. Palmer, T. Henry French, and Henry E. Abbey, in
+succession had had options on the play, and they were a unit in
+believing that it would not go.</p>
+
+<p>Daniel Frohman had seen the piece at Boston with a view to considering
+it for the Lyceum. He told his brother Charles of the play, and advised
+him to go up and see it, adding that it was too big and melodramatic for
+the somewhat intimate scope of the small Lyceum stage.</p>
+
+<p>So Charles went to Boston. On the day of the night on which he started
+he met Joseph Brooks on Broadway and told him he was going to Boston to
+try to get "Shenandoah."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Charley, you are crazy! It is a failure! Why throw away your money
+on it? Nobody wants it."</p>
+
+<p>"I may be crazy," replied Frohman, "but I am going to try my best to get
+'Shenandoah.'"</p>
+
+<p>Before going to Boston he arranged with Al Hayman to take a
+half-interest in the play. When he reached Boston he went out to the
+house of Isaac B. Rich, who was then associated with William Harris in
+the conduct of the Howard Athen&aelig;um and the Hollis Street Theater. Rich
+was a character in his way. He had been a printer in Bangor, Maine, had
+sold tickets in a New Orleans theater, and had already amassed a fortune
+in his Boston enterprises. He was an ardent spiritualist, and financed
+and gave much time to a spiritualistic publication of Boston called <i>The
+Banner of Light</i>. One of his theatrical associates at that time, John
+Stetson, owned <i>The Police Gazette</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Rich conceived a great admiration for Frohman, whom he had met with
+Harris in booking plays for his Boston houses. He always maintained that
+Frohman was the counterpart of Napoleon, and called him Napoleon.</p>
+
+<p>On this memorable day in Boston Frohman dined with Rich at his house and
+took him to see "Shenandoah." When it was over Frohman asked him what he
+thought of it.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take any part of it that you say," replied Rich.</p>
+
+<p>"If I were alone," answered Frohman, "I would take you in, but I have
+already given Al Hayman half of it."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman was very much impressed with "Shenandoah," although he did not
+believe the play was yet in shape for success. After the performance he
+asked Mr. Field if he could get the rights. Field replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Abbey, French, and Palmer have options on it. If they don't want it you
+can have it."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman returned to New York the next day, and even before he had seen
+Bronson Howard he looked up his friend Charles Burnham, then manager of
+the Star Theater, and asked him to save him some time.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman now went to see Howard, who then lived at Stamford. He expressed
+his great desire for the play and then went on to say:</p>
+
+<p>"You are a very great dramatist, Mr. Howard, and I am only a theatrical
+manager, but I think I can see where a possible improvement might be
+made in the play. For one thing, I think two acts should be merged into
+one, and I don't think you have made enough out of Sheridan's ride."</p>
+
+<p>When he had finished, Howard spoke up warmly and said, "Mr. Frohman, you
+are right, and I shall be very glad to adopt your suggestions."</p>
+
+<p>The very changes that Howard made in the play were the ones that helped
+to make it a great success, as he was afterward frank enough to admit.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman now made a contract for the play and went to Burnham to book
+time. Burnham, meanwhile, had been to Boston to see the play, and he
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"I saved six weeks for you at the Star for Shenandoah.'"</p>
+
+<p>From the very beginning of his association with "Shenandoah" Charles
+Frohman had an instinct that the play would be a success. He now
+dedicated himself to its production with characteristic energy.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had he signed the contract for "Shenandoah" than occurred one
+of the many curious pranks of fate that were associated with this
+enterprise. Al Hayman, who had a half-interest in the piece, was
+stricken with typhoid fever in Chicago on his way to the coast. He
+thought he was going to die, and, not having an extraordinary amount of
+confidence in "Shenandoah," he sold half of his half-interest to R. M.
+Hooley, who owned theaters bearing his name in Chicago and Brooklyn.</p>
+
+<p>With his usual determination to do things in splendid fashion, Frohman
+engaged a magnificent cast. Now came one of the many evidences of the
+integrity of his word. Years before, when he had first seen Henry Miller
+act in San Francisco he said to him:</p>
+
+<p>"When I get a theater in New York and have a big Broadway production you
+will be my leading man."</p>
+
+<p>He had not yet acquired the theater, but he did have the big Broadway
+production, so the first male character that he filled was that of
+<i>Colonel West</i>, and he did it with Miller.</p>
+
+<p>This cast included not less than half a dozen people who were then
+making their way toward future stardom. He engaged Wilton Lackaye to
+play <i>General Haverill</i>; Viola Allen played <i>Gertrude Ellingham</i>;
+Nanette Comstock was the original <i>Madeline West</i>; Effie Shannon
+portrayed <i>Jennie Buckthorn</i>; while Dorothy Dorr played <i>Mrs. Haverill</i>.
+Other actors in the company who later became widely known were John E.
+Kellard, Harry Harwood, Morton Selten, and Harry Thorn.</p>
+
+<p>Charles determined that the public should not lose sight of
+"Shenandoah." All his genius for publicity was concentrated to this end.
+Among the ingenious agencies that he created for arousing suspense and
+interest was a rumor that the manuscript of the third act had been lost.
+He put forth the news that Mr. Howard's copy was mislaid, and a
+city-wide search was instituted. All the while that the company was
+rehearsing the other acts the anxiety about the missing act grew. A week
+before the production Frohman announced, with great effect, that the
+missing manuscript had been found.</p>
+
+<p>When the doors of the Star Theater were opened on the evening of
+September 9, 1889, for the first performance of "Shenandoah," the
+outlook was not very auspicious. Rain poured in torrents. It was almost
+impossible to get a cab. Al Hayman, one of the owners of the play, who
+lived at the Hotel Majestic, on West Seventy-second Street, was
+rainbound and could not even see the <i>premi&egrave;re</i> of the piece.</p>
+
+<p>However, a good audience swam through the deluge, for the gross receipts
+of this opening night, despite the inclement conditions outside, were
+nine hundred and seventy-two dollars. This was considered a very good
+house at the standard prices of the day, which ranged from twenty-five
+cents to one dollar and a half.</p>
+
+<p>The play was an immense success, for at no time during the rest of the
+engagement did the receipts at any performance go below one thousand
+dollars. The average gross receipts for each week were ten thousand
+dollars.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Frohman watched the <i>premi&egrave;re</i> from the rear of the house with a
+beating heart. The crash of applause after the first act made him feel
+that he had scored at last. After the sensational ending of the third
+act, which was Sheridan's famous ride, he rushed back to the stage,
+shook Henry Miller warmly by the hand, and said: "Henry, we've got it.
+The horse is yours!"</p>
+
+<p>He meant the horse that the general rode in the play.</p>
+
+<p>This horse, by the way, was named Black Bess. It got so accustomed to
+its cue that it knew when it had to gallop across the stage. One night
+during the third act this cue was given as usual. Its rider, however,
+was not ready, and the horse galloped riderless across the stage.</p>
+
+<p>"Shenandoah" led to a picturesque friendship in Charles Frohman's life.
+On the opening night a grizzled, military-looking man sat in the
+audience. He watched the play with intense interest and applauded
+vigorously. On the way out he met a friend in the lobby. He stopped him
+and said, "This is the most interesting war play I have ever seen."</p>
+
+<p>The friend knew Charles Frohman, who was standing with smiling face
+watching the crowd go out. He called the little manager over and said:
+"Mr. Frohman, I want you to meet a man who really knows something about
+the Civil War. This is General William T. Sherman."</p>
+
+<p>Sherman and Frohman became great friends, and throughout the engagement
+of "Shenandoah" the old soldier was a frequent visitor at the theater.
+He then lived at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and often he brought over his
+war-time comrades.</p>
+
+<p>Not only did "Shenandoah" mark the epoch of the first real success in
+Frohman's life, but it raised his whole standard of living, as the
+following incident will show.</p>
+
+<p>When "Shenandoah" opened, Frohman and Henry Miller, and sometimes other
+members of the company, went around to O'Neil's on Sixth Avenue, scene
+of the old foregatherings with Belasco, and had supper. As the piece
+grew in prosperity and success, the supper party gradually moved up-town
+to more expensive restaurants, until finally they were supping at
+Delmonico's. "We are going up in the world," said Frohman, with his
+usual humor. At their first suppers they smoked ten-cent cigars; now
+they regaled themselves with twenty-five-cent Perfectos.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately the successful run of "Shenandoah" at the Star had to be
+terminated on October 12th because the Jefferson &amp; Florence Company,
+which had a previous contract with the theater and could not be disposed
+of elsewhere, came to play their annual engagement in "The Rivals."
+Frohman transferred the play to Proctor's Twenty-third Street Theater,
+which was from this time on to figure extensively in his fortunes, and
+the successful run of the play continued there. Wilton Lackaye retired
+from the cast and was succeeded by Frank Burbeck, whose wife, Nanette
+Comstock, succeeded Miss Shannon in the r&ocirc;le of <i>Jenny Buckthorn</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman was now able to capitalize his brilliant road-company
+experience. The success of the play now assured, he immediately
+organized a road company, in which appeared such prominent actors as
+Joseph Holland, Frank Carlyle, and Percy Haswell. He established an
+innovation on October 26th by having this company come over from
+Philadelphia, where it was playing, to act in the New York house.</p>
+
+<p>The two-hundred-and-fiftieth performance occurred on April 19, 1890,
+when the run ended. It was a memorable night. Katherine Grey and Odette
+Tyler meanwhile had joined the company. The theater was draped in
+flags, and General Sherman made a speech in which he praised the
+accuracy of the production.</p>
+
+<p>With his usual enterprise and resource, Charles Frohman introduced a
+distinct novelty on this occasion. He had double and triple relays of
+characters for the farewell performance. Both Lilla Vane and Odette
+Tyler, for example, acted the part of <i>Gertrude Ellingham</i>; Wilton
+Lackaye, Frank Burbeck, and George Osborne played <i>General Haverill</i>;
+Alice Haines and Nanette Comstock did <i>Jenny Buckthorn</i>; while Morton
+Selten and R. A. Roberts doubled as <i>Captain Heartsease</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman now put the original "Shenandoah" company on the road. Its first
+engagement was at McVicker's Theater in Chicago. Frohman went along and
+took Bronson Howard with him.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the Chicago critics liked "Shenandoah." But there was one
+exception, a brilliant Irishman on <i>The Tribune</i>. Paul Potter, whose
+play, "The City Directory," was about to be produced in Chicago, was a
+close friend of Howard. He wanted to do something for the Howard play,
+so he got permission from Robert W. Patterson, editor in chief of <i>The
+Tribune</i>, to write a Sunday page article about "Shenandoah." Frohman was
+immensely pleased, and through this he met Potter, who became one of his
+intimates.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the opening of Potter's play at the Chicago Opera House.
+Although Potter knew most of the critics, there was a feeling that they
+would forget all friendship and do their worst. Five minutes after the
+curtain went up the piece seemed doomed.</p>
+
+<p>But an extraordinary thing happened. From a stage box suddenly came
+sounds of uncontrollable mirth. The audience, and especially the
+critics, looked to see who was enjoying the play so strenuously, and
+they beheld Charles Frohman and Bronson Howard. The critics were
+puzzled. Here was a great playwright in the flush of an enormous success
+and a rising young manager evidently enjoying the performance. The
+mentors of public taste were so impressed that they praised the farce
+and started "The City Directory" on a career of remarkable success.
+Frohman and Howard were repaying the good turn that Potter had done for
+"Shenandoah."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles Frohman now had a money-making success. "Shenandoah" was the
+dramatic talk of the whole country; it did big business everywhere, and
+its courageous young producer came in for praise and congratulation on
+all sides.</p>
+
+<p>The manager might well have netted what was in those days a huge fortune
+out of this enterprise, but his unswerving sense of honor led him to
+immediately discharge all his obligations. He wiped out the Wallack's
+tour debts, and he eventually took up notes aggregating forty-two
+thousand dollars that he had given to a well-known Chicago printer who
+had befriended him in years gone by. What was most important, he was now
+free to unfurl his name to the breezes and to do business "on his own."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles immediately launched himself on another sea of productions. The
+most important was Gillette's "All the Comforts of Home," which he put
+on at Proctor's Twenty-third Street Theater. Frohman had just acquired
+the lease of this theater. Already a big idea was simmering in his mind,
+and the leasehold was essential to its consummation. On May 8, 1890, he
+produced the new Gillette play, which scored a success.</p>
+
+<p>This production marked another one of the many significant epochs in
+Frohman's life because it witnessed the first appearance of little Maude
+Adams under the Charles Frohman management.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman had seen Miss Adams in "The Paymaster" down at Niblo's and had
+been much taken with her work. He had been unable, however, to find a
+part for her, so it was reserved for his brother Daniel to give her the
+first Frohman engagement at thirty-five dollars a week in "Lord
+Chumley." Subsequently Daniel released her so that she could appear in
+the same cast with her mother in Hoyt's "The Midnight Bell."</p>
+
+<p>While trying "All the Comforts of Home" on the road there occurred an
+amusing episode. Frohman, who had been watching the rehearsals very
+carefully, said to Henry Miller, who was leading man:</p>
+
+<p>"Henry, you are something of a matin&eacute;e idol. I think it would help the
+play if you had a love scene with Miss Adams."</p>
+
+<p>Accompanied by Rockwood, Frohman visited Gillette at his home at
+Hartford, got him to write the love scene, and then went on to
+Springfield, Massachusetts, for the "try-out."</p>
+
+<p>That night the three assembled in the bleak drawing-room of the hotel.
+Frohman ordered a little supper of ham sandwiches and sarsaparilla,
+after which he rehearsed the love scene, which simply consisted of a
+tender little parting in a doorway. It served to bring out the wistful
+and appealing tenderness that is one of Maude Adams's great qualities.</p>
+
+<p>"All the Comforts of Home" ran in Proctor's Theater until October 18th.
+When the theater reopened it disclosed a venture that linked the name of
+Charles Frohman with high and artistic effort&mdash;his first stock company.
+With this organization he hoped to maintain the traditions established
+by Augustin Daly, A. M. Palmer, Lester Wallack, and the Madison Square
+Company.</p>
+
+<p>He projected the Charles Frohman Stock Company in his usual lavish way.
+He engaged De Mille and Belasco to write the opening play. This was a
+very natural procedure: first, because of his intimate friendship with
+Belasco, and, second, because De Mille and Belasco had proved their
+skill as collaborators at Daniel Frohman's Lyceum Theater with such
+successes as "The Wife," "The Charity Ball," and "Lord Chumley." The
+result of their new endeavors was "Men and Women."</p>
+
+<p>In this play the authors wrote in the part <i>Dora</i> especially for Maude
+Adams. They also created a r&ocirc;le for Mrs. Annie Adams.</p>
+
+<p>The cast of "Men and Women," like that of "Shenandoah," was a striking
+one, and it contained many names already established, or destined to
+figure prominently in theatrical history. Henry Miller had been engaged
+for leading man, but he retired during the rehearsals, and his place was
+taken by William Morris, who had appeared in the Charles Frohman
+production of "She" and in the road company of "Held by the Enemy." In
+the company that Frohman selected were Frederick de Belleville, who
+played <i>Israel Cohen</i>, one of the finest, if not the finest, Jewish
+characters ever put on the stage; Orrin Johnson; Frank Mordaunt; Emmet
+Corrigan; J. C. Buckstone; and C. Leslie Allen, brother of Viola Allen.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to Maude Adams were Sydney Armstrong, who was the leading
+woman; Odette Tyler; and Etta Hawkins, who became the wife of William
+Morris during this engagement.</p>
+
+<p>At the dress rehearsal of "Men and Women" occurred a characteristic
+Charles Frohman incident. When the curtain had gone down Frohman hurried
+back to William Morris's dressing-room and said, "Will, that dress-suit
+of yours doesn't look right."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a brand-new suit, 'C. F.,'" he replied.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman thought a moment and said: "Can you be at my office to-morrow
+morning at eight o'clock? I've got a good tailor."</p>
+
+<p>Promptly at eight the next day they went over to Frohman's tailor, whom
+Frohman addressed as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to make a dress-suit for William Morris by eight o'clock
+to-morrow night."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible!" said the man.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing is impossible," said Frohman. "If that dress-suit is not in Mr.
+Morris's dressing-room at eight o'clock you won't get paid for it."</p>
+
+<p>The dress-suit showed up on time, and in it was a card, saying, "With
+Charles Frohman's compliments."</p>
+
+<p>Charles inaugurated his first stock season at Proctor's on October 21,
+1890. Although the notices were uniformly good, the start into public
+favor was a trifle slow. One reason was that a big bank failure had just
+shaken Wall Street, and there was considerable apprehension all over the
+city. By a curious coincidence there was a bank failure in the play. By
+clever publicity this fact was capitalized; the piece found its stride
+and ran for two hundred consecutive performances, when it was sent on
+the road with great success.</p>
+
+<p>For this tour Charles also introduced another one of the many novelties
+that he put into theatrical conduct. He ordered a private car for the
+company, and they used it throughout the tour. It was considered an
+extravagance, but it was merely part of the Charles Frohman policy to
+make his people comfortable. With this private car he established a
+precedent that was observed in most of his traveling organizations.</p>
+
+<p class="space">With the stock company on tour in "Men and Women," the manager now
+organized the Charles Frohman Comedy Company to fill in the time at
+Proctor's. Once more he collected a brilliant aggregation of players,
+for they included Henrietta Crosman, Joseph Holland, Frederick Bond, and
+Thomas Wise. Each one became a star in the course of the next ten years.</p>
+
+<p>The opening bill for the comedy company was Gillette's "Mr. Wilkinson's
+Widows," and was presented on March 30th, immediately following the run
+of "Men and Women." Henrietta Crosman subsequently withdrew from the
+cast, and Esther Lyons took her place.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Frohman reopened the theater on August 27th with a revival of
+this play, in which Georgia Drew Barrymore, the mother of Ethel,
+appeared as <i>Mrs. Perrin</i>. Emily Bancker, afterward a star in "Our
+Flat," and Mattie Ferguson were in the cast.</p>
+
+<p>On October 5th the company did Sardou's big drama of "Thermidor" for the
+first time on any stage, with another one of the casts for which Charles
+Frohman was beginning to become famous. It included a thin, gaunt
+Englishman whose name in the bill was simply J. F. Robertson, and who
+had just come from an engagement with John Hare in London. Subsequently
+the J. F. in his name came to be known as Johnston Forbes, because the
+man was Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson.</p>
+
+<p>In this company was Elsie De Wolfe, who later became a star and who
+years after left the theater to become an interior decorator. Among the
+male members of the company, besides Forbes-Robertson, was Jamison Lee
+Finney, who had graduated from the amateur ranks and who became one of
+the best-known comedians in the country.</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time Charles had commissioned Henry C. De Mille to furnish a
+play for his stock company which was now on its way back from the coast.
+This play was "The Lost Paradise," which the American had adapted from
+Ludwig Fulda's drama. De Mille joined the company in Denver and
+rehearsals were begun there. By the time the company reached New York
+they were almost letter-perfect, and the opening at Proctor's on
+November 16th was a brilliant success. The play ran consecutively until
+March 1st.</p>
+
+<p>The cast was practically the same as "Men and Women," with the addition
+of Cyril Scott, Odette Tyler, and Bijou Fernandez.</p>
+
+<p>In "The Lost Paradise" Maude Adams scored the biggest success that she
+had made up to that time in New York. She played the part of <i>Nell</i>, the
+consumptive factory girl. This character, with its delicate and haunting
+interpretation, made an irresistible appeal to the audience.</p>
+
+<p>"There's big talent in that girl," said Frohman in speaking of Miss
+Adams. He began to see the vision of what the years would hold for her.</p>
+
+<p class="space">By this time Charles Frohman had begun to make his annual visit to
+London. Out of one of the earliest journeys came still another success
+of the many that now seemed to crowd upon him.</p>
+
+<p>He had taken desk space with Abbey, Schoeffel &amp; Grau in Henrietta Street
+in London. On the trip in question Belasco accompanied him. One night
+Frohman said:</p>
+
+<p>"There is a little comedy around the corner called 'Jane.' Let's go and
+see it."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman was convulsed with laughter, and the very next day sought out
+the author, William Lestocq, from whom he purchased the American rights.
+Out of this connection came another one of the life-long friendships of
+Frohman. Lestocq, a few years later, became his principal English
+representative and remained so until the end.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman was now in a whirlpool of projects. Although he was occupying
+himself with both the comedy and stock companies at Proctor's, he put on
+"Jane" as a midsummer attraction at the Madison Square Theater with a
+cast that included Katherine Grey, Johnstone Bennett, Jennie Weathersby,
+and Paul Arthur.</p>
+
+<p>"Jane" became such an enormous success that Charles put out two road
+companies at once. In connection with "Jane" it may be said that his
+first real fortune&mdash;that is, the first money that he actually kept for a
+time&mdash;was made with this comedy.</p>
+
+<p>Production after production now marked the Frohman career. Charles had
+always admired Henry E. Dixey, so he launched him as star in "The
+Solicitor" at Hermann's Theater, on September 8, 1891. It was the first
+time that the famous "Charles Frohman Presents" was used. In this
+company were Burr McIntosh, Sidney Drew, and Joseph Humphreys. It was
+the failure of "The Solicitor" that led Frohman to put Dixey out again
+as star in a piece called "The Man with a Hundred Heads" at the Star
+Theater. This also failed, so he ventured with "The Junior Partner" at
+the same theater with a cast that included E. J. Ratcliffe, Mrs. McKee
+Rankin, Henrietta Crosman, and Louise Thorndyke-Boucicault.</p>
+
+<p>Early the following year he tried his luck at Hermann's with "Gloriana,"
+in which May Robson and E. J. Henley appeared. Hermann's Theater,
+however, seemed to be a sort of hoodoo, so Frohman returned to the Star,
+which had been his mascot, and made his first joint production with
+David Belasco in a musical piece called "Miss Helyett." Frohman had seen
+the play in Paris, and proceeded at once to buy the American rights from
+Charles Wyndham. This production not only marked the first joint
+presentation of Belasco and Charles, but it was the d&eacute;but of Mrs. Leslie
+Carter, who had become a prot&eacute;g&eacute;e of Mr. Belasco. When the piece was
+moved to the Standard early in January, 1892, Mrs. Carter was starred
+for the first time.</p>
+
+<p class="space">By this time Charles Frohman was a personage to be reckoned with.
+"Shenandoah," the two stock companies, "Jane," and all the other
+enterprises both successful and otherwise, had made his name a big one
+in the theater. He now began to reach out for authors.</p>
+
+<p>The first author to be approached was Augustus Thomas. He gave Charles a
+play called "Surrender." It was put on in Boston. The original idea in
+Thomas's mind was to write a satire on the war plays that had been so
+successful, like "Shenandoah" and "Held by the Enemy." "Surrender"
+began as a farce, but Charles Frohman and Eugene Presbrey, who produced
+it, wanted to make it serious.</p>
+
+<p>The cast was a very notable one, including Clement Bainbridge, E. M.
+Holland, Burr McIntosh, Harry Woodruff, H. D. Blackmore, Louis Aldrich,
+Maude Bancks, Miriam O'Leary, Jessie Busley, and Rose Eytinge.</p>
+
+<p>The rehearsals of "Surrender" were marked by many amusing episodes.
+Maude Bancks, for example, who was playing the part of a Northern girl
+in a Southern town, had to wear a red sash to indicate her Northern
+proclivities. This she refused to put on at the dress rehearsal because
+it did not match her costume. Bainbridge, an actor who played a Southern
+general, had a speech that he regarded as treason to his adopted
+country, and quit. But all these troubles were bridged over and the play
+was produced with some artistic success. It lasted sixteen weeks on the
+road.</p>
+
+<p>After he had closed "Surrender" Frohman was telling a friend in New York
+that he had lost twenty-eight thousand dollars on this piece.</p>
+
+<p>"But why did you permit yourself to lose so much money on a play that
+seemed bound to fail?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe in Gus Thomas. That is the reason," replied Frohman.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Although immersed in a multitude of enterprises, Frohman's activities
+now took a new and significant tack. Through all these crowded years his
+friendship for William Harris had been growing. Harris, who had
+graduated from minstrelsy to theatrical management and was the partner
+of Isaac B. Rich in the conduct of the Howard Athen&aelig;um and the Hollis
+Street Theater in Boston, now added the Columbia Theater in that city to
+his string of houses. Charles at once secured an interest in this lease,
+and it was his first out-of-town theater. Quick to capitalize the
+opportunity, he put one of the "Jane" road companies in it for a run and
+called it the Charles Frohman Boston Stock Company.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h3>
+
+<p class="head">JOHN DREW AND THE EMPIRE THEATER</p>
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">T</span> <span class="smcap">he</span>
+year 1892 not only found Charles Frohman established as an important
+play-producing manager, but in addition he was reaching out for
+widespread theater management. It was to register a memorable epoch in
+the life of Charles and to record, through him, a significant era in the
+history of the American theater. From this time on his life-story was to
+be the narrative of the larger development of the drama and its people.</p>
+
+<p>With the acquisition of his first big star, John Drew, he laid the
+corner-stone of what is the so-called modern starring system, which
+brought about a revolution in theatrical conduct. The story of Charles's
+conquest in securing the management of Drew, with all its attendant
+dramatic and sensational features, illustrates the resource and vision
+of the one-time minstrel manager who now began to come into his own as a
+real Napoleon of the stage.</p>
+
+<p>Charles always attached importance and value to big names. He had paid
+dearly in the past for this proclivity with the Lester Wallack Company.
+Undaunted, he now turned to another investment in name that was to be
+more successful.</p>
+
+<p>About this time John Drew had made his way to a unique eminence on the
+American stage. A member of a distinguished Philadelphia theatrical
+family, he had scored an instantaneous success on his first appearance
+at home and had become the leading man of Augustin Daly's famous stock
+company. He was one of "The Big Four" of that distinguished
+organization, which included Ada Rehan, Mrs. G. H. Gilbert, and James
+Lewis. They were known as such in America and England. Drew was regarded
+as the finest type of the so-called modern actor interpreting the
+gentleman in the modern play. He shone in the drawing-room drama; he had
+a distinct following, and was therefore an invaluable asset. The general
+impression was that he was wedded to the environment that had proved so
+successful and was so congenial.</p>
+
+<p>Charles knew Drew quite casually. Their first meeting was
+characteristic. It happened during the great "Shenandoah" run. Henry
+Miller and Drew were old friends. It was Frohman's custom in those days
+to have after-theater suppers on Saturday nights at his rooms in the old
+Hoffman House, and sometimes a friendly game of cards.</p>
+
+<p>One Saturday Miller called Frohman up and asked him if he could bring
+Drew down for supper.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly; with pleasure," said Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>That night after the play Miller picked Drew up at Daly's and took him
+to the Hoffman House. Knowing the way to the Frohman rooms, he started
+for them unannounced, when he was stopped by a bell-boy, who said, "Mr.
+Frohman is expecting you in here," opening the door and ushering the
+guests into a magnificent private suite that Frohman had engaged for the
+occasion. It was the first step in the campaign for Drew.</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="DREW" id="DREW"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-136.png" width="500" height="708" alt="JOHN DREW" title="JOHN DREW" />
+<span class="caption">JOHN DREW</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Although Frohman was eager to secure Drew, he made no effort to lure
+the actor away from what he believed was a very satisfactory connection.</p>
+
+<p>As the friendship between the men grew, however, he discovered that Drew
+was becoming dissatisfied with his arrangement at Daly's. Up to that
+time "The Big Four" shared in the profits of the theater. Daly canceled
+this arrangement, and Drew suddenly realized that what seemed to be a
+most attractive alliance really held out no future for him.</p>
+
+<p>Drew's dissatisfaction was heightened by his realization that Augustin
+Daly's greatest work and achievements were behind him. The famous old
+manager was undergoing that cycle of experience which comes to all of
+his kind when the flood-tide of their success begins to ebb.</p>
+
+<p>Drew was speculating about his future when Frohman heard of his state of
+mind. He now felt that he would not be violating the ethics of the
+profession in making overtures looking to an alliance. He did not make a
+direct offer, but sent a mutual friend, Frank Bennett, once a member of
+the Daly company, who was then conducting the Arlington Hotel in
+Washington. Through him Frohman made a proposition to Drew to become a
+star. The actor accepted the offer, and a three-year contract was
+signed.</p>
+
+<p>The capture of John Drew by Charles Frohman was more than a mere
+business stroke. Frohman never forgot that the great Daly had succeeded
+in ousting him from his first booking-offices in the Daly Theater
+Building. He found not a little humor in pre-empting the services of the
+Daly leading man as a sort of reciprocal stroke.</p>
+
+<p>When Drew told Daly that he had signed a contract with Frohman the then
+dictator of the American stage could scarcely find words to express his
+astonishment. He assured Drew that he was making the mistake of his
+life, because he regarded Frohman as an unlicensed interloper. Yet this
+"interloper," from the moment of the Drew contract, began a new career
+of brilliant and artistic development.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman's starring arrangement with Drew created a sensation, both among
+the public and in the profession. It broke up "The Big Four," for Drew
+left a gap at Daly's that could not be filled.</p>
+
+<p>There was also a widespread feeling that while Drew had succeeded in a
+congenial environment, and with an actress (Miss Rehan) who was
+admirably suited to him, he might not duplicate this success amid new
+scenes. Hence arose much speculation about his leading woman. A dozen
+names were bruited about.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Frohman remained silent. He was keenly sensitive to the
+sensation he was creating, and was biding his time to launch another. It
+came when he announced Maude Adams as John Drew's leading woman. He had
+watched her development with eager and interested eye. She had made good
+wherever he had placed her. Now he gave her what was up to this time her
+biggest chance. The moment her name became bracketed with Drew's there
+was a feeling of satisfaction over the choice. How wise Charles Frohman
+was in the whole Drew venture was about to be abundantly proved.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles Frohman not only made John Drew a star, but the nucleus of a
+whole system. It was a time of rebirth for the whole American stage.
+Nearly all the old stars were gone or were passing from view. Forrest,
+McCullough, Cushman, Janauschek were gone; Modjeska's power was waning;
+Clara Morris was soon to leave the stage world; Lawrence Barrett and
+W.J. Florence were dead; Edwin Booth had retired.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman realized that with the passing of these stars there also passed
+the system that had created them. He knew that the public&mdash;the new
+generation&mdash;wanted younger people, popular names&mdash;somebody to talk
+about. He realized further that the public adored personality and that
+the strongest prop that a play could get was a fascinating and magnetic
+human being, whether male or female. The old stars had made
+themselves&mdash;risen from the ranks after years of service. Frohman saw the
+opportunity to accelerate this advance by providing swift and
+spectacular recognition. The new stars that were now to blossom into
+life under him owed their being to the initiative and the vision of some
+one else. Thus he became the first of the star-makers.</p>
+
+<p>Charles was now all excitement. He had the making of his first big star,
+and he proceeded to launch him in truly magnificent fashion.</p>
+
+<p>A play was needed that would bring out all those qualities that had made
+Drew shine in the drawing-room drama. The very play itself was destined
+to mark an epoch in the life of a man in the theater. Through Elizabeth
+Marbury, who had just launched herself as play-broker in a little office
+on Twenty-fourth Street, around the corner from Charles Frohman's, his
+attention was called to a French farcical comedy called "The Masked
+Ball," by Alexandre Bisson and Albert Carre. Frohman liked the story and
+wanted it adapted for American production. It was the beginning of his
+long patronage of French plays.</p>
+
+<p>"I know a brilliant young man who could do this job for you very well,"
+said Miss Marbury.</p>
+
+<p>"What's his name?" asked Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>"Clyde Fitch, and I believe he is going to have a great career," was the
+answer of his sponsor.</p>
+
+<p>Fitch was given the commission. He did a most successful piece of
+adaptation, and in this Way began the long and close relationship
+between the author of "Beau Brummel" (his first play) and the man who,
+more than any other, did so much to advance his career.</p>
+
+<p>For Drew's d&eacute;but under his management Charles spared no expense. In
+addition to Maude Adams, the company included Harry Harwood (who was
+then coming into his own as a forceful and versatile character actor),
+C. Leslie Allen, Mrs. Annie Adams, and Frank E. Lamb.</p>
+
+<p>With his usual desire to do everything in a splendid way, Frohman
+arranged for Drew's d&eacute;but at Palmer's Theater, the old Lester Wallack
+playhouse which was now under the management of A. M. Palmer, then one
+of the shining figures in the American drama, and located opposite
+Drew's former scenes of activity. Thus Drew's first stellar appearance
+was on a stage rich with tradition.</p>
+
+<p>"The Masked Ball" opened October 3, 1892, in the presence of a
+representative audience. It was an instantaneous success. Drew played
+with brilliancy and distinction, and Frohman's confidence in him was
+amply justified.</p>
+
+
+<table summary="CLYDE" class="space" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="white-space:nowrap;text-align:center;">
+<tr><td><a name="FITCH" id="FITCH"></a><img src="images/illo-140a.png" width="250" height="313" alt="CLYDE FITCH" title="CLYDE FITCH" />
+</td><td style="padding-left:10%;"><img src="images/illo-140b.png" width="250" height="313" alt="HENRY ARTHUR JONES" title="HENRY ARTHUR JONES" /></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="caption">CLYDE FITCH</span></td><td style="padding-left:10%;"><span class="caption">HENRY ARTHUR JONES</span></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The performance, however, had a human interest apart from the star.
+Maude Adams, for the first time in her career, had a real Broadway
+opportunity, and she made the most of it in such a fashion as to
+convince Frohman and every one else that before many years were past
+she, too, would have her name up in electric lights. She played the part
+of <i>Zuzanne Blondet</i>, a more or less frivolous person, and it was in
+distinct contrast with the character that she had just abandoned, that
+of <i>Nell</i>, the consumptive factory-girl in "The Lost Paradise."</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/ill-moon.png" width="550" height="582" alt="A CHARACTERISTIC FROHMAN BLUE PENCIL SKETCH" title="A CHARACTERISTIC FROHMAN BLUE PENCIL SKETCH" />
+<span class="caption smcap">A CHARACTERISTIC FROHMAN BLUE PENCIL SKETCH</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>As <i>Zuzanne</i> in "The Masked Ball," Miss Adams went to a ball and
+assumed tipsiness in order to influence her dissipated husband and
+achieve his ultimate reformation. The way she prepared for this part was
+characteristic of the woman. She wore a hat with a long feather, and she
+determined to make it a "tipsy feather." This feature became one of the
+comedy hits of the play, but in order to achieve it she worked for days
+and days to bring about the desired effect. The result of all this
+painstaking preparation was a brilliant performance. When the curtain
+went down on that memorable night at Palmer's Theater the general
+impression was:</p>
+
+<p>"Maude Adams will be the next Frohman star."</p>
+
+<p>The morning after the opening Frohman went to John Drew and said: "Well,
+John, you don't need me any more now. You're made."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Charles; I shall need you always," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>Out of this engagement came the long and intimate friendship between
+Drew and Frohman. The first contract, signed and sealed on that
+precarious day when Frohman was seeing the vision of the modern star
+system, was the last formal bond between them. Though their negotiations
+involved hundreds of thousands of dollars in the years that passed,
+there was never another scrap of paper between them.</p>
+
+<p>Seldom in the history of the American theater has another event been so
+productive of far-reaching consequence as "The Masked Ball." It brought
+Clyde Fitch into contact with the man who was to be his real sponsor; it
+made John Drew a star; it carried Maude Adams to the frontiers of the
+stellar realm; it gave Charles Frohman a whole new and distinguished
+place in the theater.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman was quick to follow up this success. With Drew he had made his
+first real bid for what was known in those days as "the carriage
+trade"&mdash;that is, the patronage of the socially elect. He hastened to
+clinch this with another stunning production at Palmer's. It was Bronson
+Howard's play, "Aristocracy."</p>
+
+<p>The play, produced on November 14, 1893, was done in Frohman's usual
+lavish way. The company included not less than half a dozen people who
+were then making their way toward stardom&mdash;Wilton Lackaye, Viola Allen,
+Blanche Walsh, William Faversham, Frederick Bond, Bruce McRae, Paul
+Arthur, W. H. Thompson, J. W. Piggott. "Aristocracy" was Bronson
+Howard's reversion to the serenity of the society drama after the
+spectacle of war. The first night's audience was fashionable. The
+distinction of the cast lent much to the success of the occasion.</p>
+
+<p class="space">When John Drew called on Charles Frohman for the first time at his
+offices at 1127 Broadway, his way was impeded by a bright-eyed, alert
+young office-boy who bore the unromantic name of Peter Daly. He
+incarnated every ill to which his occupation seems to be heir. Without
+troubling himself to find out if Mr. Frohman was in, he immediately
+said, after the grand fashion of theatrical office-boys:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Frohman is out and I don't know when he will return."</p>
+
+<p>"But I have an engagement with Mr. Frohman," said Drew.</p>
+
+<p>"You will have to wait," said the boy.</p>
+
+<p>Drew cooled his heels outside while Frohman waited impatiently inside
+for him. When he emerged at lunchtime he was surprised to find his man
+about to depart.</p>
+
+<p>Daly was immediately discharged by Julius Cahn, who was office manager,
+but was promptly reinstated the next day by Frohman, who had been
+greatly impressed with the boy's quick wit and intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>This office-boy, it is interesting to relate, became Arnold Daly, the
+actor. No experience of his life was perhaps more amusing or picturesque
+than the crowded year when he manned the outside door of Charles
+Frohman's office. Instead of attending to business, he spent most of his
+time writing burlesques on contemporary plays, which he solemnly
+submitted to Harry Rockwood, the bookkeeper.</p>
+
+<p>During these days occurred a now famous episode. Young Daly was
+luxuriously reclining in the most comfortable chair in the
+reception-room one day when Louise Closser Hale, the actress, entered
+and asked to see Charles Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>"He is out," said Daly.</p>
+
+<p>"May I wait for him?" asked the visitor.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Daly, and the woman sat down.</p>
+
+<p>After three hours had passed she asked Daly, "Where is Mr. Frohman?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's in London," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>Afterward Daly became "dresser" for John Drew, the virus of the theater
+got into his system, and before long he was an actor.</p>
+
+<p>Thus even Charles Frohman's office-boys became stars.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Epochal as had been 1892, witnessing the first big Frohman star and a
+great artistic expansion, the new year that now dawned realized another
+and still greater dream of Charles Frohman, for it brought the
+dedication of his own New York theater at last, the famous Empire.</p>
+
+<p>Ever since he had been launched in the metropolitan theatrical
+whirlpool, Frohman wanted a New York theater. As a boy he had witnessed
+the glories of the Union Square Theater under Palmer; as a road manager
+he had a part in the success of the Madison Square Theater activities;
+in his early managerial days he had been associated with the Lester
+Wallack organization; he had watched the later triumphs of the Lyceum
+Theater Company at home and on the road. Quite naturally he came to the
+conviction that he was ready to operate and control a big theater of his
+own.</p>
+
+<p>The way toward its consummation was this:</p>
+
+<p>One day toward the end of the 'eighties, William Harris came to New York
+to see Frohman about the booking of some attractions. He said:</p>
+
+<p>"Charley, I want a theater in New York, and I know that you want one.
+Let's combine."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Frohman. "You can get the Union Square. The lease is
+on the market."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Harris.</p>
+
+<p>On the way down-stairs he met Al Hayman, who asked him where he was
+going.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going over to lease the Union Square Theater," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"That's foolish," said Hayman. "Everything theatrical is going up-town."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," answered Harris, "C. F. wants a theater, and I am determined
+that he shall have it, so I am going over to get the Union Square."</p>
+
+<p>"If you and Frohman want a theater that badly, I will build one for
+you," he responded.</p>
+
+<p>"Where?" asked Harris.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got some lots at Fortieth and Broadway, and it's a good site, even
+if it is away up-town."</p>
+
+<p>They went back to Frohman's office, and here was hatched the plan for
+the Empire Theater.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't go ahead on this matter without Rich," said Harris.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Frohman. "Wire Rich."</p>
+
+<p>Rich came down next day, and the final details were concluded for the
+building of the Empire. Frank Sanger came in as a partner; thus the
+builders were Al Hayman, Frank Sanger, and William Harris. Without the
+formality of a contract they turned it over to Charles Frohman with the
+injunction that he could do with it as he pleased.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman was in his element. He could now embark on another one of the
+favorite dream-enterprises.</p>
+
+<p>He was like a child during the building of the theater. Every moment
+that he could spare from his desk he would walk up the street and watch
+the demolition of the old houses that were to make way for this
+structure. Often he would get Belasco and take him up the street to note
+the progress. One night as they stood before the skeleton of the theater
+that stood gaunt and gray in the gloom Charles said to his friend:</p>
+
+<p>"David, just think; the great dream is coming true, and yet it's only a
+few years since we sat at 'Beefsteak John's' with only forty-two cents
+between us."</p>
+
+<p>Naturally, Frohman turned to Belasco for the play to open the Empire.
+His old friend was then at work on "The Heart of Maryland" for Mrs.
+Leslie Carter. He explained the situation to Frohman. As soon as Mrs.
+Carter heard of it she went to Frohman and told him that she would
+waive her appearance and that Belasco must go ahead on the Empire play,
+which he did.</p>
+
+<p>Just what kind of play to produce was the problem. Frohman still clung
+to the mascot of war. The blue coat and brass buttons had turned the
+tide for him with "Shenandoah," and he was superstitious in wanting
+another stirring and martial piece. Belasco had become interested in
+Indians, but he also wanted to introduce the evening-clothes feature.
+Hence came the inspiration of a ball at an army post in the far West
+during the Indian-fighting days. This episode proved to be the big
+dramatic situation of the new piece.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the night when Belasco read the play to Frohman, who walked up
+and down the floor. When the author finished, Frohman rushed up to him
+with a brilliant smile on his face and said:</p>
+
+<p>"David, you've done the whole business! You've got pepper and salt,
+soup, entr&eacute;e, roast, salad, dessert, coffee; it's a real play, and I
+know it will be a success."</p>
+
+<p>Having finished the work, which Belasco wrote in collaboration with
+Franklin Fyles, then dramatic editor of the New York <i>Sun</i>, they needed
+a striking name. So they sent the manuscript to Daniel, down at the
+Lyceum, for Charles always declared he had been happy in the selection
+of play titles. Back came the manuscript with his approval of the work,
+and with the title "The Girl I Left Behind Me." This they eagerly
+adopted.</p>
+
+<p>Long before "The Girl I Left Behind Me" manuscript was ready to leave
+Belasco's hands, Frohman was assembling his company. Instead of having a
+star, he decided to have an all-round stock company. The success of this
+kind of institution had been amply proved at Daly's, Wallack's, the
+Madison Square, and the Lyceum. Hence the Charles Frohman Stock Company,
+which had scored so heavily with "Men and Women" and "The Lost Paradise"
+at Proctor's Twenty-third Street Theater, now became the famous Empire
+Theater Stock Company and incidentally the greatest of all star
+factories. William Morris was retained as the first leading man, and the
+company included Orrin Johnson, Cyril Scott, W. H. Thompson, Theodore
+Roberts, Sydney Armstrong, Odette Tyler, and Edna Wallace. The child in
+the play was a precocious youngster called "Wally" Eddinger, who is the
+familiar Wallace Eddinger of the present-day stage.</p>
+
+<p>The rehearsals for "The Girl I Left Behind Me" were held in the Standard
+Theater, which Frohman had already booked for productions, and were
+supervised by Belasco. Frohman, however, was always on hand, and his
+suggestions were invaluable.</p>
+
+<p>"The Girl I Left Behind Me" was tried out for a week at Washington. The
+company arrived there on Sunday afternoon, but was unable to get the
+stage until midnight because Robert G. Ingersoll was delivering a
+lecture there. At the outset of this rehearsal Belasco became ill and
+had to retire to his bed, and Frohman took up the direction of this
+final rehearsal and worked with the company until long after dawn.</p>
+
+<p>The week in Washington rounded out the play thoroughly, and the company
+returned to New York on the morning of January 25, 1893. Now came a
+characteristic example of Frohman's resource. At noon it was discovered
+that the new electric-light installation was not yet complete. Added to
+this was the disconcerting fact that the paint on the chairs was
+scarcely dry. Sanger, Harris, and Rich urged Frohman to postpone the
+opening. "It will be useless to open under these conditions," they said.</p>
+
+<p>"The Empire must open to-night," said Frohman, "if we have to open it by
+candle-light."</p>
+
+<p>In saying this Charles Frohman emphasized what was one of his iron-clad
+rules, for he never postponed an announced opening.</p>
+
+<p>That January night was a memorable one in the life of Frohman. He sat on
+a low chair in the wings, and alongside of him sat Belasco. His face
+beamed, yet he was very nervous, as he always was on openings. At the
+end of the third act, when the audience made insistent calls for
+speeches, Belasco tried to drag Frohman out, but he would not go. "You
+go, David," he said. And Belasco went out and made a speech.</p>
+
+<p>"The Girl I Left Behind Me" was a complete success, and played two
+hundred and eighty-eight consecutive performances.</p>
+
+<p>The opening of the Empire Theater strengthened Charles Frohman's
+position immensely. More than this, it established a whole new
+theatrical district in New York. When it was opened there was only one
+up-town theater, the Broadway. Within a few years other playhouses
+followed the example of the Empire, and camped in its environs. Thus
+again Charles Frohman was a pioneer.</p>
+
+<p>The Empire Theater now became the nerve-center of the Charles Frohman
+interests. He established his offices on the third floor, and there they
+remained until his death. He practically occupied the whole building,
+for his booking interests, which had now grown to great proportions, and
+which were in charge of Julius Cahn, occupied a whole suite of offices.
+He now had his own New York theater, a star of the first magnitude, and
+a stock company with a national reputation.</p>
+
+<p>When the Empire Stock Company began its second season in the August of
+1893, in R. C. Carton's play, "Liberty Hall," Charles Frohman was able
+to keep the promise he had made to Henry Miller back in the 'eighties in
+San Francisco. That handsome and dashing young actor now succeeded
+William Morris as leading man of the stock company, Viola Allen became
+leading woman, and May Robson also joined the company. "Liberty Hall"
+ran until the end of October, when David Belasco's play, "The Younger
+Son," was put on. This added William Faversham to the ranks, and thus
+another star possibility came under the sway of the Star-Maker.</p>
+
+<p>The Empire became the apple of Charles Frohman's eye, and remained so
+until his death. No star and no play was too good for it. On it he
+lavished wealth and genuine affection. To appear with the Empire Stock
+Company was to be decorated with the Order of Theatrical Merit. To it in
+turn came Robert Edison, Ethel Barrymore, Elita Proctor Otis, Jameson
+Lee Finney, Elsie De Wolfe, W. J. Ferguson, Ferdinand Gottschalk, J. E.
+Dodson, Margaret Anglin, J. Henry Benrimo, Ida Conquest, and Arthur
+Byron.</p>
+
+<p>The Empire Stock Company became an accredited institution. A new play by
+it was a distinct event, its annual tour to the larger cities an
+occasion that was eagerly awaited. To have a play produced by it was the
+goal of the ambitious playwright, both here and abroad.</p>
+
+<p>Through the playing of the Empire Company Frohman introduced Oscar Wilde
+to America, and with the stock-company opportunities he developed such
+playwrights as Henry Arthur Jones, Haddon Chambers, Sydney Grundy,
+Louis N. Parker, Madeline Lucette Ryley, Henry Guy Carleton, Clyde
+Fitch, Jerome K. Jerome, and Arthur Wing Pinero.</p>
+
+<p>Having firmly established the Empire Theater, Charles now turned to a
+myriad of enterprises. He acquired the lease of the Standard Theater
+(afterward the Manhattan) and began there a series of productions that
+was to have significant effect on his fortunes.</p>
+
+<p>In May, 1893, he produced a comedy called "Fanny," by George R. Sims, of
+London, in which W. J. Ferguson, Frank Burbeck, and Johnston Bennett
+appeared. It was a very dismal failure, but it produced one of the
+famous Frohman epigrams. Sims sent Frohman the following telegram a few
+days after the opening:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>How is Fanny going?</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Whereupon Frohman sent this laconic reply:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Gone.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Now came another historic episode in Frohman's career. He was making his
+annual visit to London. The lure and love of the great city was in him
+and it grew with each succeeding pilgrimage. He had learned to select
+successful English plays, as the case of "Jane" had proved. Now he was
+to go further and capture one of his rarest prizes.</p>
+
+<p>Just about this time Brandon Thomas's farce, "Charley's Aunt," had been
+played at the Globe Theater as a Christmas attraction and was staggering
+along in great uncertainty. W. S. Penley, who owned the rights, played
+the leading part.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly it became a success, and the "managerial Yankee birds," as they
+called the American theatrical magnates, began to roost in London. All
+had their claws set for "Charley's Aunt."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman had established an office in London at 4 Henrietta Street, in
+the vicinity of Covent Garden. His friendship with W. Lestocq, the
+author of "Jane," developed. Lestocq, who was the son of a publisher,
+and had graduated from a clever amateur actor into a professional,
+conceived a great liking for Frohman. While all the American managers
+were angling for "Charley's Aunt," he went to Penley, who was his
+friend, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Frohman has done so well with 'Jane' in America, he is the man to do
+'Charley's Aunt.'"</p>
+
+<p>Penley agreed to hold up all his negotiations for the play until Frohman
+arrived. A conference was held, and, through the instrumentality of
+Lestocq, Frohman secured the American rights to "Charley's Aunt."</p>
+
+<p>At the end of this meeting Lestocq said in jest, "What do I get out of
+this?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll show you," said Frohman. "You shall represent me in London
+hereafter."</p>
+
+<p>Out of this conference came one of the longest and most loyal
+associations in Charles's career, because from that hour until the day
+of his death Lestocq represented Charles Frohman in England with a
+fidelity of purpose and a devotion of interest that were characteristic
+of the men who knew and worked with Charles Frohman.</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;">
+<a name="LESTOCQ" id="LESTOCQ"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-152.png" width="500" height="697" alt="W. LESTOCQ" title="W. LESTOCQ" />
+<span class="caption">W. LESTOCQ</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Frohman now returned to America to produce "Charley's Aunt." In spite of
+the success of the Empire, Frohman had "plunged" in various ways, and
+had reached one of the numerous financial crises in his life. He
+looked upon "Charley's Aunt" as the agency that was to again redeem him.
+For the American production he imported Etienne Girardot, who had played
+the leading r&ocirc;le in the English production. He surrounded Girardot with
+an admirable cast, including W. J. Ferguson, Frank Burbeck, Henry
+Woodruff, Nanette Comstock, and Jessie Busley.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman personally rehearsed "Charley's Aunt." He tried it out first at
+Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where the reception was not particularly
+cordial. He returned to New York in a great state of apprehension,
+although his good spirits were never dampened. On October 2, 1893, he
+produced the play at the Standard, and it was an immediate success. As
+the curtain went down on the first night's performance he assembled the
+company on the stage and made a short speech, thanking them for their
+co-operation. It was the first time in his career that he had done this,
+and it showed how keenly concerned he was. It was another "Shenandoah,"
+because it recouped his purse, depleted from numerous outside ventures,
+inspired him with a fresh zeal, and enabled him to proceed with fresh
+enterprises. It ran for two hundred nights, and then duplicated its New
+York success on the road.</p>
+
+<p>While gunning for "Charley's Aunt," Charles Frohman made his first
+London production with "The Lost Paradise." He put it on in partnership
+with the Gattis, at the Adelphi Theater in the Strand. It was a failure,
+however, and it discouraged him from producing in England for some
+little time.</p>
+
+<p>These were the years when Frohman was making the few intimate
+friendships that would mean so much to him until the closing hours of
+his life. That of Charles Dillingham is an important one.</p>
+
+<p>Dillingham had been a newspaper man in Chicago at a time when George
+Ade, Peter Dunne, and Frank Vanderlip (now president of the National
+City Bank) were his co-workers. He became secretary to Senator Squire,
+and at Washington wrote a play called "Twelve P.M." A manager named
+Frank Williams produced it in the old Bijou Theater, New York, just
+about the time that Charles Frohman was presenting John Drew across the
+street in "The Masked Ball." Dillingham had previously come on to New
+York, and his hopes, naturally, were in the play. "Twelve P.M." was a
+dismal failure, but it brought two unusual men together who became bosom
+friends. It came about in this extraordinary way:</p>
+
+<p>During the second (and last) week of the engagement of "Twelve P.M." at
+the Bijou, Dillingham, who came every night to see his play, noticed a
+short, stout, but important-looking man pass into the playhouse.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is that man?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>He was told it was Charles Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later he received a letter from Frohman, which said:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Your play lacks all form and construction, but I like the lines
+very much. Would you like to adapt a French farce for me?</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Dillingham accepted this commission and thus met Frohman. Dillingham was
+then dramatic editor of the New York <i>Evening Sun</i>. One day he called on
+Frohman and asked him to send him out with a show.</p>
+
+<p>"When do you want to go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Right away."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Frohman, who would always have his little joke. "You
+can go to-morrow. I would like to get you off that paper, anyhow. You
+write too many bad notices of my plays."</p>
+
+<p>Dillingham first went out ahead of the Empire Stock Company and
+afterward in advance of John Drew, in "That Imprudent Young Couple." He
+left the job, however, and soon returned to Frohman, seeking other work.</p>
+
+<p>"What would you like to do?" asked Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>"Take my yacht and go to England," said Dillingham, facetiously.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Frohman. "We sail Saturday," and handed him fifty
+thousand dollars in stage money that happened to be lying on his desk.
+Dillingham thought at first he was joking, but he was not. They sailed
+on the <i>St. Paul</i>. Frohman had just established his first offices in
+Henrietta Street. There was not much business to transact, and the pair
+spent most of their time seeing plays. Dillingham acted as a sort of
+secretary to Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>One day a haughty Englishman came up to the offices and asked Dillingham
+to take in his card.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no time," said Dillingham, whose sense of humor is proverbial.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you to do?" asked the man.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got to wash the office windows first," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>The Englishman became enraged, strode in to Frohman, and told him what
+Dillingham had said. Frohman laughed so heartily that he almost rolled
+out of his chair. After the Englishman left he went out and
+congratulated Dillingham on his jest. From that day dated a Damon and
+Pythias friendship between the two men. They were almost inseparable
+companions.</p>
+
+<p>The time was at hand for another big star to twinkle in the Frohman
+heaven. During all these years William Gillette had developed in
+prestige and authority, both as actor and as playwright. The quiet,
+thoughtful, scholarly-looking young actor who had knocked at the doors
+of the Madison Square Theater with the manuscript of "The Professor,"
+where it was produced after "Hazel Kirke," and whose road tours had been
+booked by Charles Frohman in his early days as route-maker, now came
+into his own. Curiously enough, his career was to be linked closely with
+that of the little man he first knew in his early New York days.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman, who had booked and produced Gillette's play "Held By the
+Enemy," now regarded Gillette as star material of the first rank.
+Combined with admiration for Gillette as artist was a strong personal
+friendship. Gillette now wrote a play, a capital farce called "Too Much
+Johnson," which Frohman produced with the author as star. In connection
+with this opening was a typical Frohman incident.</p>
+
+<p>The play was first put on at Waltham, Massachusetts. The house was small
+and the notices bad. Frohman joined the company next day at Springfield.
+Gillette was much depressed, and he met Frohman in this mood.</p>
+
+<p>"This is terrible, isn't it? I'm afraid the play is a failure."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" said Frohman. "I have booked it for New York and for a long
+tour afterward."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" asked Gillette in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw your performance," was the reply.</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="DILLINGHAM" id="DILLINGHAM"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-156.png" width="500" height="781" alt="CHARLES DILLINGHAM" title="CHARLES DILLINGHAM" />
+<span class="caption">CHARLES DILLINGHAM</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Frohman's confidence was vindicated, for when the play was put on at the
+Standard Theater in November, 1894, it went splendidly and put another
+rivet in Gillette's reputation.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman now had two big stars, John Drew and William Gillette. A
+half-dozen others were in the making, chief among them the wistful-eyed
+little Maude Adams, who was now approaching the point in her career
+where she was to establish a new tradition for the American stage and
+give Charles Frohman a unique distinction.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h3>
+
+<p class="head">MAUDE ADAMS AS STAR</p>
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">W</span> <span class="smcap">hen</span>
+Charles Frohman put Maude Adams opposite John Drew in "The Masked
+Ball" he laid the foundation of what is, in many respects, his most
+remarkable achievement. The demure little girl, who had made her way
+from child actress through the perils of vivid melodrama to a Broadway
+success, now set foot on the real highway to a stardom that is unique in
+the annals of the theater.</p>
+
+<p>Brilliant as was his experience with the various men and women whom he
+raised from obscurity to fame and fortune, the case of Maude Adams
+stands out with peculiar distinctness. It is the one instance where
+Charles Frohman literally manufactured a star's future.</p>
+
+<p>Yet no star ever served so rigorous or so distinguished an
+apprenticeship. Her five years as leading woman with John Drew tried all
+her resource. After her brilliant performance as <i>Zuzanne Blondet</i> in
+"The Masked Ball," she appeared in "The Butterflies," by Henry Guy
+Carleton. She had a much better part in "The Bauble Shop," which
+followed the next year.</p>
+
+<p>John Drew's vehicle in 1895 was "That Imprudent Young Couple," by Henry
+Guy Carleton. This play not only advanced Miss Adams materially, but
+first served to bring forward John Drew's niece, Ethel Barrymore, a
+graceful slip of a girl, who developed a great friendship with Miss
+Adams. Following her appearance in the Carleton play came "Christopher
+Jr.," written by Madeline Lucette Ryley, in which Miss Adams scored the
+biggest hit of her career up to this time.</p>
+
+<p>It remained for Louis N. Parker's charming play, "Rosemary," which was
+produced at the Empire Theater in 1896, to put Miss Adams into the path
+of the man who, after Charles Frohman, did more than any other person in
+the world to give her the prominence that she occupies to-day.</p>
+
+<p>"Rosemary" was an exquisite comedy, and packed with sentiment. Maude
+Adams played the part of <i>Dorothy Cruikshank</i>, a character of quaint and
+appealing sweetness. It touched the hidden springs of whimsical humor
+and thrilling tenderness, qualities which soon proved to be among her
+chief assets.</p>
+
+<p>Just about that time a little Scot, James M. Barrie by name, already a
+distinguished literary figure who had blossomed forth as a playwright
+with "Walker London" and "The Professor's Love Story," came to America
+for the first time. For three people destined from this time on to be
+inseparably entwined in career and fortune, it was a memorable trip. For
+Barrie it meant the meeting with Charles Frohman, who was to be his
+greatest American friend and producer; for Miss Adams it was to open the
+way to her real career, and for Frohman himself it was to witness the
+beginning of an intimacy that was perhaps the closest of his life.</p>
+
+<p>Barrie's book, "The Little Minister," had been a tremendous success,
+and, not having acquired the formality of a copyright in America, the
+play pirates were busy with it. Frohman, after having seen the
+performance of "The Professor's Love Story," had cabled Barrie, asking
+him to make a play out of the charming Scotch romance. Barrie at first
+declined. Frohman, as usual, was insistent. Then followed the
+Scotchman's trip to America.</p>
+
+<p>Under Frohman's influence he had begun to consider a dramatization of
+"The Little Minister," but the real stimulus was lacking because, as he
+expressed it to Frohman, he did not see any one who could play the part
+of <i>Babbie</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Now came one of those many unexpected moments that shape lives. On a
+certain day Barrie dropped into the Empire Theater to see Frohman, who
+was out.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you stop in down-stairs and see 'Rosemary'?" said Frohman's
+secretary.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Barrie.</p>
+
+<p>So he went down into the Empire and took a seat in the last row. An hour
+afterward he came rushing back to Frohman's office, found his friend in,
+and said to him, as excitedly as his Scotch nature would permit:</p>
+
+<p>"Frohman, I have found the woman to play <i>Babbie</i> in 'The Little
+Minister'! I am going to try to dramatize it myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is it?" asked Frohman, with a twinkle in his eye, for he knew
+without asking.</p>
+
+<p>"It is that little Miss Adams who plays <i>Dorothy</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Fine!" said Frohman. "I hope you will go ahead now and do the play."</p>
+
+<p>The moment toward which Frohman had looked for years was now at hand. He
+might have launched Miss Adams at any time during the preceding four or
+five seasons. But he desired her to have a better equipment, and he
+wanted the American theater-going public to know the woman in whose
+talents he felt such an extraordinary confidence. He announced with a
+suddenness that was startling, but which in reality conveyed no surprise
+to the few people who had watched Miss Adams's career up to this time,
+that he was going to launch her as star.</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="ADAMS" id="ADAMS"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-160.png" width="500" height="782" alt="MAUDE ADAMS" title="MAUDE ADAMS" />
+<span class="caption1">COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY CHARLES FROHMAN</span>&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />
+<span class="caption">MAUDE ADAMS</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Some of his friends, however, objected.</p>
+
+<p>"Why split and separate a good acting combination?" was their comment,
+meaning the combination of John Drew and Miss Adams. To this objection
+Frohman made reply:</p>
+
+<p>"I'll show you the wisdom of it. I'll put them both on Broadway at the
+same time."</p>
+
+<p>He therefore launched Miss Adams in "The Little Minister" at the Empire
+and booked John Drew at Wallack's in "A Marriage of Convenience." His
+decision was amply vindicated, for both scored successes.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles Frohman now proceeded to present Miss Adams with his usual
+lavishness. First of all he surrounded her with a superb company. It was
+headed by Robert Edeson, who played the title r&ocirc;le, and included Guy
+Standing, George Fawcett, William H. Thompson, R. Peyton Carter, and
+Wilfred Buckland.</p>
+
+<p>With "The Little Minister" Charles Frohman gave interesting evidence of
+a masterful manipulation to make circumstances meet his own desires. He
+realized that the masculine title of the play might possibly detract
+from Miss Adams's prestige, so he immediately began to adapt several
+important scenes which might have been dominated by <i>Gavin Dishart</i>, the
+little minister, into strong scenes for his new luminary. These changes
+were made, of course, with Barrie's consent, and added much to the
+strength of the r&ocirc;le of <i>Lady Babbie</i>.</p>
+
+<p>To the mastery of the part of <i>Lady Babbie</i> Maude Adams now consecrated
+herself with a fidelity of purpose which was very characteristic of her.
+Then, as always, she asked herself the question:</p>
+
+<p>"What will this character mean to the people who see it?"</p>
+
+<p>In other words, here, as throughout all her career, she put herself in
+the position of her audience. She devoted many weeks to a study of
+Scotch dialect. She fairly lived in a Scotch atmosphere. One of her
+friends of that time accused her of subsisting on a diet of Scotch
+broth.</p>
+
+<p>As was his custom, Frohman gave the piece an out-of-town try-out. It
+opened on September 13, 1897, a date memorable in the Charles Frohman
+narrative, in the La Fayette Square Opera House in Washington. It was an
+intolerably hot night, and, added to the discomfort of the heat, there
+was considerable uncertainty about the success of the venture itself.
+This was not due to a lack of confidence in Miss Adams, but to the
+feeling that the play was excessively Scotch. A brilliant audience,
+including many people prominent in public life, witnessed the d&eacute;but and
+seemed most friendly.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Adams regarded the first night as a failure. Financially the play
+limped along for a week, for the gross receipts were only $3,500. Yet
+when the play opened in New York two weeks later it was a spectacular
+success from the start.</p>
+
+<p>Here is another curious example of the importance of the New York
+verdict. "Hazel Kirke," which became one of the historic successes of
+the American stage, tottered along haltingly for weeks in Philadelphia,
+Washington, and Baltimore. In the Quaker City, "Barbara Fritchie," with
+Julia Marlowe in the title r&ocirc;le, came dangerously near closing because
+of discouraging business. Yet she came to New York, and with the
+exception of "When Knighthood was in Flower," registered the greatest
+popular triumph she has ever known. This was now the case with "The
+Little Minister."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Adams was irresistible as <i>Lady Babbie</i>. As the quaint, slyly
+humorous, make-believe gipsy, she found full play for all her talents,
+and she captured her audience almost with her first speech.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Frohman sat nervously in the wings during the performance. When
+the curtain went down his new star said to him:</p>
+
+<p>"How did it go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Splendidly," was his laconic comment.</p>
+
+<p>"The Little Minister" ran at the Empire for three hundred consecutive
+performances, two hundred and eighty-nine of which were to "standing
+room only." The total gross receipts for the engagement were $370,000&mdash;a
+record for that time.</p>
+
+<p>On the last night of the run Miss Adams received the following cablegram
+from Barrie:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Thank you, thank you all for your brilliant achievement. "What a
+glory to our kirk."</i><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 70%;"><span class="smcap">Barrie.</span></span></p></div>
+
+<p>Maude Adams was now launched as a profitable and successful star. Like
+many other conscientious and idealistic interpreters of the drama, she
+had a great reverence for Shakespeare, and she burned with a desire to
+play in one of the great bard's plays. Charles Frohman knew this. Then,
+as always, one of his supreme ambitions in life was to gratify her every
+wish, so he announced that he would present her in a special all-star
+production of "Romeo and Juliet."</p>
+
+<p>Charles Frohman himself was always frank enough to say that he had no
+great desire to produce Shakespeare. He lived in the dramatic activities
+of his day. It was shortly before this time that his brother Daniel,
+entering his office one day, found him reading.</p>
+
+<p>"I am reading a new book," he said; "that is, new to me."</p>
+
+<p>"What is that?" was the query?</p>
+
+<p>"'Romeo and Juliet,'" he replied.</p>
+
+<p>When Maude Adams dropped the r&ocirc;le of <i>Babbie</i> to assume that of <i>Juliet</i>
+some people thought the transfer a daring one, to say the least. Even
+Miss Adams was a little nervous. Not so Frohman. To him Shakespeare was
+simply a playwright like Clyde Fitch or Augustus Thomas, with the
+additional advantage that he was dead, and therefore, as there were no
+royalties to pay, he could put the money into the production.</p>
+
+<p>When Frohman went to rehearsal one day he noticed that the company
+seemed a trifle nervous.</p>
+
+<p>"What's up?" he asked, abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>Some one told him that the players were fearful lest all the details of
+the costume and play should not be carried out in strict accordance with
+history.</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" exclaimed Frohman. "Who's Shakespeare? He was just a man. He
+won't hurt you. I don't see any Shakespeare. Just imagine you're looking
+at a soldier, home from the Cuban war, making love to a giggling
+school-girl on a balcony. That's all I see, and that's the way I want it
+played. Dismiss all idea of costume. Be modern."</p>
+
+<p>The production of "Romeo and Juliet" was supervised by William Seymour.
+It was rehearsed in two sections. One half of the cast was in New York,
+with Faversham and Hackett; the other was on tour with Miss Adams in
+"The Little Minister." Seymour divided his time between the two wings,
+with the omnipresent spirit of Frohman over it all.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Adams had made an exhaustive study of the part. After his first
+conference with her, Seymour wrote to Frohman as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>I thought I knew my Shakespeare, but Miss Adams has opened up a
+new and most wonderful field. An hour with her has given me more
+inspiration and ideas than twenty years of personal experience with
+it.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>As usual, Frohman surrounded Miss Adams with a magnificent cast. William
+Faversham played <i>Romeo</i>; James K. Hackett was <i>Mercutio</i>; W. H.
+Thompson was <i>Friar Lawrence</i>; Orrin Johnson played <i>Paris</i>; R. Peyton
+Carter was <i>Peter</i>. Others in the company were Campbell Gollan and
+Eugene Jepson.</p>
+
+<p>"Romeo and Juliet" was produced at the Empire Theater May 8, 1899, and
+was a distinguished artistic success. Miss Adams's <i>Juliet</i> was
+appealing, romantic, lovely. It touched the chords of all her gentle
+womanliness and gave the character, so far as the American stage was
+concerned, a new tradition of youthful charm.</p>
+
+<p>A unique feature of the first night's performance of "Romeo and Juliet"
+was the presence of Mary Anderson. This distinguished actress, who had
+just arrived from London for a brief visit, expressed a desire to see
+the new <i>Juliet</i>, and to feel once more the thrill of a Broadway first
+night. Miss Anderson herself had, of course, achieved great distinction
+as <i>Juliet</i>. She was regarded, in her day, as the physical and romantic
+ideal of the r&ocirc;le.</p>
+
+<p>When her desire to see the play was communicated to Charles, it was
+found that every box had been sold except the one reserved for his
+sisters. He therefore purchased this from them with a check for $200.</p>
+
+<p>At the conclusion of the performance Miss Anderson was introduced to
+Miss Adams, and congratulated her on her success.</p>
+
+<p class="space">It was in 1900 that Miss Adams first played the part of a boy, a type of
+character that, before many years would pass, was to give her a great
+success. Her d&eacute;but as a lad, however, was under the most brilliantly
+artistic circumstances, because it was in Edmond Rostand's "L'Aiglon,"
+adapted in English by Louis N. Parker. As the young Eaglet, son of the
+great Napoleon, she had fresh opportunity to display her versatility. It
+was a character in which romance, pathos, and tragedy were curiously
+entwined. Bernhardt had done it successfully in Paris, but Miss Adams
+brought to it the fidelity and brilliancy of youth. In "L'Aiglon" she
+was supported by Edwin Arden, Oswald Yorke, Eugene Jepson, J. H.
+Gilmour, and R. Peyton Carter.</p>
+
+<p class="space">When Charles Frohman put Miss Adams into "Romeo and Juliet" she received
+a whimsical letter from J. M. Barrie, saying, among other things:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Are you going to take Willie Shakespeare by the arm and l'ave me?</i></p></div>
+
+<p>The time was now at hand when she once more took the fascinating Scot by
+the arm. She now appeared in his "Quality Street," a new play with the
+real Barrie charm, in which she took the part of an exquisite English
+girl whose betrothed goes to the Napoleonic wars. She thinks he has
+forgotten her, and allows herself to externally fade into spinsterhood.
+When he comes back he does not recognize her. Then she suddenly blooms
+into exquisite youth&mdash;radiant and beguiling&mdash;and he discovers that it is
+his old love.</p>
+
+<p>"Quality Street" was tried out in Toledo, Ohio, early in the season of
+1901. On the opening night an incident occurred which showed Frohman's
+attitude toward new plays. The third act dragged somewhat toward the
+end, evidently on account of an anti-climax. On the following day
+Frohman asked his business manager to sit with him during the third act,
+saying:</p>
+
+<p>"Last night Miss Adams played this act as Barrie wrote it. This
+afternoon she will play it as I want it."</p>
+
+<p>The act went much more effectively, and it was never changed after that
+matin&eacute;e performance.</p>
+
+<p>"Quality Street" was another of what came to be known as a typical
+"Adams success."</p>
+
+<p>For her next starring vehicle, Charles presented Maude Adams in "The
+Pretty Sister of Jos&eacute;," a play which Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett made
+of her well-known story. She was supported by Harry Ainley, at that time
+England's great matin&eacute;e idol. Here Miss Adams encountered for the first
+time something that resembled failure, because she was not adapted to
+the fiery, passionate character of the impetuous Spanish girl. The play,
+however, made its usual tour after the local season, and with much
+financial success.</p>
+
+<p>The tour ended, Miss Adams suddenly disappeared from sight. There were
+even rumors that she had left the stage. As a matter of fact, she had
+retired to the seclusion of a convent at Tours, in France. There were
+two definite reasons for her retirement. One was that she wanted time
+for convalescence from an operation for appendicitis; the other, that
+she wished to perfect her French in order to fulfil a long-cherished
+desire to play <i>Juliet</i> to Sarah Bernhardt's <i>Romeo</i>. Unfortunately,
+this plan was never consummated, but it gave Miss Adams a very rare
+experience, for she lived with the simple French nuns for months. Later,
+when they were driven from France, she found them quarters near
+Birmingham, in England, saw to their comfort, and got them buyers for
+their lace.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Brilliant as had been Miss Adams's success up to this time, the moment
+was now at hand when she was to appear in the r&ocirc;le that, more than all
+her other parts combined, would complete her conquest of the American
+heart. Once more she became a boy, this time the irresistible <i>Peter
+Pan</i>.</p>
+
+<p>As <i>Peter Pan</i> she literally flew into a new fame. This play of Barrie's
+provided Frohman with one of the many sensations he loved, and perhaps
+no production of the many hundreds that he made in his long career as
+manager gave him quite so much pleasure as the presentation of the
+fascinating little Boy Who Never Would Grow Up.</p>
+
+<p>The very beginning of "Peter Pan," so far as the stage presentation was
+concerned, was full of romantic interest. Barrie had agreed to write a
+play for Frohman, and met him at dinner one night at the Garrick Club in
+London. Barrie seemed nervous and ill at ease.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter?" said Charles.</p>
+
+<p>"Simply this," said Barrie. "You know I have an agreement to deliver you
+the manuscript of a play?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I have it, all right," said Barrie, "but I am sure it will not be
+a commercial success. But it is a dream-child of mine, and I am so
+anxious to see it on the stage that I have written another play which I
+will be glad to give you and which will compensate you for any loss on
+the one I am so eager to see produced."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't bother about that," said Frohman. "I will produce both plays."</p>
+
+<p>Now the extraordinary thing about this episode is that the play about
+whose success Barrie was so doubtful was "Peter Pan," which made several
+fortunes. The manuscript he offered Frohman to indemnify him from loss
+was "Alice-Sit-By-The-Fire," which lasted only a season. Such is the
+estimate that the author often puts on his own work!</p>
+
+<p>When Frohman first read "Peter Pan" he was so entranced that he could
+not resist telling all his friends about it. He would stop them in the
+street and act out the scenes. Yet it required the most stupendous
+courage and confidence to put on a play that, from the manuscript,
+sounded like a combination of circus and extravaganza; a play in which
+children flew in and out of rooms, crocodiles swallowed alarm-clocks, a
+man exchanged places with his dog in its kennel, and various other
+seemingly absurd and ridiculous things happened.</p>
+
+<p>But Charles believed in Barrie. He had gone to an extraordinary expense
+to produce "Peter Pan" in England. He duplicated it in the United
+States. No other character in all her repertory made such a swift appeal
+to Miss Adams as <i>Peter Pan</i>. She saw in him the idealization of
+everything that was wonderful and wistful in childhood.</p>
+
+<p>The way she prepared for the part was characteristic of her attitude
+toward her work. She took the manuscript with her up to the Catskills.
+She isolated herself for a month; she walked, rode, communed with
+nature, but all the while she was studying and absorbing the character
+which was to mean so much to her career. In the great friendly open
+spaces in which little <i>Peter</i> himself delighted, and where he was king,
+she found her inspiration for interpretation of the wondrous boy.</p>
+
+<p>The try-out was made in Washington at the old National Theater. It went
+with considerable success, although the first-night audience was
+somewhat mystified and did not know exactly what to say or do.</p>
+
+<p>It was when the play was launched on November 6, 1905, at the Empire
+Theater in New York, that little <i>Peter</i> really came into his own. The
+human birds, the droll humor, the daring allegory, above all the
+appealing, almost tragic, spectacle of <i>Peter</i> playing his pipe up in
+the tree-tops of the Never-Never Land, all contributed to an event that
+was memorable in more ways than one.</p>
+
+<p>On this night developed the remarkable and thrilling feature in "Peter
+Pan" which made the adorable dream-child the best beloved of all
+American children. It came when <i>Peter</i> rushed forward to the footlights
+in the frantic attempt to save the life of his devoted little <i>Tinker
+Bell</i>, and asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you believe in fairies?"</p>
+
+<p>It registered a whole new and intimate relation between actress and
+audience, and had the play possessed no other distinctive feature, this
+alone would have at once lifted it to a success that was all its own.</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="ADAMS2" id="ADAMS2"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-170.png" width="500" height="684" alt="MAUDE ADAMS" title="MAUDE ADAMS" />
+<span class="caption">MAUDE ADAMS</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>This episode became one of the many marvelous features of the memorable
+run of "Peter Pan" at the Empire. Nearly every child in New York&mdash;and
+subsequently, on the long and successful tours that Miss Adams made in
+"Peter Pan," their brothers everywhere&mdash;became acquainted with the
+episode and longed impatiently to have a part in it. On one occasion,
+fully fifteen minutes before Miss Adams made her appeal, a little child
+rose in a box at the Empire and said: "<i>I</i> believe in fairies."</p>
+
+<p>"Peter Pan" recorded the longest single engagement in the history of the
+Empire. It ran from November 6, 1905, until June 9, 1906.</p>
+
+<p>But "Peter Pan" did more than give Miss Adams her most popular part. It
+became a nation-wide vogue. Children were named after the fascinating
+little lad Who Never Would Grow Up; articles of wearing-apparel were
+labeled with his now familiar title; the whole country talked and loved
+the unforgettable little character who now became not merely a stage
+figure, but a real personal friend of the American theater-going people.</p>
+
+<p>It was on a road tour of "Peter Pan" that occurred one of those rare
+anecdotes in which Miss Adams figures. Frohman always had a curious
+prejudice against the playing of matin&eacute;es by his stars, especially Maude
+Adams. A matin&eacute;e was booked at Altoona, Pennsylvania. Frohman
+immediately had it marked off his contract. The advance-agent of the
+company, however, ordered the matin&eacute;e played at the urgent request of
+the local manager, but he did not notify the office in New York. When
+Charles got the telegram announcing the receipts, he was most indignant.
+"I'll discharge the person responsible for this matin&eacute;e," he said.</p>
+
+<p>In answer to his telegraphed inquiry he received the following wire:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>The matin&eacute;e was played at my request. I preferred to work rather
+than spend the whole day in a bad hotel.</i><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 70%;"><span class="smcap">Maude Adams.</span></span></p></div>
+
+<p>In connection with "Peter Pan" is a curious and tragic coincidence. Of
+all the Barrie plays that Charles produced he loved "Peter Pan" the
+best. Curiously enough, it was little <i>Peter</i> himself who gave him the
+cue for his now historic farewell as he stood on the sinking deck of the
+<i>Lusitania</i>.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of one of the acts in "Peter Pan" the little boy says:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>To die will be an awfully big adventure.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>These words had always made a deep impression on Frohman. They came to
+his mind as he stood on that fateful deck and said:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure in life.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Having made such an enormous success with "Peter Pan," Miss Adams now
+turned to her third boy's part. It was that of "Chicot, the Jester,"
+John Raphael's adaptation of Miguel Zamaceis's play "The Jesters." This
+was a very delightful sort of Prince Charming play, fragile and
+artistic. The opposite part was played by Consuelo Bailey. It was a
+great triumph for Miss Adams, but not a very great financial success.</p>
+
+<p>Now came the first of her open-air performances. During the season of
+"The Jesters" she appeared at Yale and Harvard as <i>Viola</i> in "Twelfth
+Night." She gave a charming and graceful performance of the r&ocirc;le.</p>
+
+<p class="space">But Maude Adams could not linger long from the lure that was Barrie's.
+After what amounted to the failure of "The Jesters" she turned to her
+fourth Barrie play, which proved to be a triumph.</p>
+
+<p>For over a year Barrie had been at work on a play for her. It came forth
+in his whimsical satire, "What Every Woman Knows." Afterward, in
+speaking of this play, he said that he had written it because "there was
+a Maude Adams in the world." Then he added, "I could see her dancing
+through every page of my manuscript."</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, "What Every Woman Knows" was really written around Miss Adams.
+It was a dramatization of the roguish humor and exquisite womanliness
+that are her peculiar gifts.</p>
+
+<p>As <i>Maggie Wylie</i> she created a character that was a worthy colleague of
+<i>Lady Babbie</i>. Here she had opportunity for her wide range of gifts. The
+r&ocirc;le opposite her, that of <i>John Shand</i>, the poor Scotch boy who
+literally stole knowledge, was extraordinarily interesting. As most
+people may recall, the play involves the marriage between <i>Maggie</i> and
+<i>John</i>, according to an agreement entered into between the girl's
+brothers and the boy. The brothers agree to educate him, and in return
+he weds the sister. <i>Maggie</i> becomes <i>John's</i> inspiration, although he
+refuses to realize or admit it. He is absolutely without humor. He
+thinks he can do without her, only to find when it is almost too late
+that she has been the very prop of his success.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of this play <i>Maggie</i> finally makes her husband laugh when
+she tells him:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>I tell you what every woman knows: that Eve wasn't made from the
+rib of Adam, but from his funny-bone.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>This speech had a wide vogue and was quoted everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>Curiously enough, in "What Every Woman Knows" Miss Adams has a speech in
+which she unconsciously defines the one peculiar and elusive gift which
+gives her such rare distinction. In the play she is supposed to be the
+girl "who has no charm." In reality she is all charm. But in discussing
+this quality with her brothers she makes this statement:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Charm is the bloom upon a woman. If you have it you don't have to
+have anything else. If you haven't it, all else won't do you any
+good.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>"What Every Woman Knows" was an enormous success, in which Richard
+Bennett, who played <i>John Shand</i>, shared honors with the star. Miss
+Adams's achievement in this play emphasized the rare affinity between
+her and Barrie's delightful art. They formed a unique and lovable
+combination, irresistible in its appeal to the public. Commenting on
+this, Barrie himself has said:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Miss Adams knows my characters and understands them. She really
+needs no directions. I love to write for her and see her in my
+work.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Nor could there be any more delightful comment on Miss Adams's
+appreciation of all that Barrie has meant to her than to quote a remark
+she made not so very long ago when she said:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Wherever I act, I always feel that there is one unseen spectator,
+James M. Barrie.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Maude Adams was now in what most people, both in and out of the
+theatrical profession, would think the very zenith of her career. She
+was the best beloved of American actresses, the idol of the American
+child. She was without doubt the best box-office attraction in the
+country. Yet she had made her way to this eminence by an industry and a
+concentration that were well-nigh incredible.</p>
+
+<p>People began to say, "What marvelous things Charles Frohman has done for
+Miss Adams."</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, the career of Miss Adams emphasizes what a very
+great author once said, which, summed up, was that neither nature nor
+man did anything for any human being that he could not do for himself.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Adams paid the penalty of her enormous success by an almost
+complete isolation. She concentrated on her work&mdash;all else was
+subsidiary.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Frohman had an enormous ambition for Miss Adams, and that
+ambition now took form in what was perhaps his most remarkable effort in
+connection with her. It was the production of "Joan of Arc" at the
+Harvard Stadium. It started in this way:</p>
+
+<p>John D. Williams, for many years business manager for Charles Frohman,
+is a Harvard alumnus. Realizing that the business with which he was
+associated had been labeled with the "commercial" brand, he had an
+ambition to associate it with something which would be considered
+genuinely esthetic. The pageant idea had suddenly come into vogue. "Why
+not give a magnificent pageant?" he said to himself.</p>
+
+<p>One morning he went into Charles Frohman's office and put the idea to
+him, adding that he thought Miss Adams as <i>Joan of Arc</i> would provide
+the proper medium for such a spectacle. Frohman was about to go to
+Europe. With a quick wave of the hand and a swift "All right," he
+assented to what became one of the most distinguished events in the
+history of the American stage.</p>
+
+<p>Schiller's great poem, "The Maid of Orl&eacute;ans," was selected. In
+suggesting the battle heroine of France, Williams touched upon one of
+Maude Adams's great admirations. For years she had studied the character
+of Joan. To her Joan was the very idealization of all womanhood.
+Bernhardt, Davenport, and others had tried to dramatize this most
+appealing of all tragedies in the history of France, and had practically
+failed. It remained for slight, almost fragile, Maude Adams to vivify
+and give the character an enduring interpretation.</p>
+
+<p>"Joan of Arc," as the pageant was called, was projected on a stupendous
+scale. Fifteen hundred supernumeraries were employed. John W. Alexander,
+the famous artist, was employed to design the costumes. A special
+electric-lighting plant was installed in the stadium.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Adams concentrated herself upon the preparations with a fidelity
+and energy that were little short of amazing. One detail will
+illustrate. As most people know, Miss Adams had to appear mounted
+several times during the play and ride at the head of her charging army.</p>
+
+<p>This equestrianism gave Charles Frohman the greatest solicitude. He
+feared that she would be injured in some way, and he kept cabling
+warnings to her, and to her associates who were responsible for her
+safety, to be careful.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Adams, however, determined to be a good horsewoman, and for more
+than a month she practised every afternoon in a riding-academy in New
+York. Since the horse had to carry the trappings of clanging armor, amid
+all the tumult of battle, she rehearsed every day with all sorts of
+noisy apparatus hanging about him. Shots were fired, colored banners and
+flags were flaunted about her, and pieces of metal were fastened to her
+riding-skirt so that the steed would be accustomed to the constant
+contact of a sword.</p>
+
+<p>Although the preparations for her own part were most exacting and
+onerous, Miss Adams exercised a supervising direction over the whole
+production, which was done in the most lavish fashion. She had every
+resource of the Charles Frohman organization at her command, and it was
+employed to the very last detail.</p>
+
+<p>"Joan of Arc" was presented on the evening of June 22, 1909, in the
+presence of over fifteen thousand people. It was a magnificent success,
+and proved to be unquestionably the greatest theatrical pageant ever
+staged in this country. The elaborate settings were handled
+mechanically. Forests dissolved into regal courts; fields melted into
+castles. A hidden orchestra played the superb music of Beethoven's
+"Eroica," which accentuated the noble poetry of Schiller.</p>
+
+<p>The first scene showed the maid of Domremy wandering in the twilight
+with her vision; the last revealed her dying of her wounds at the
+spring, soon to be buried under the shields of her captains.</p>
+
+<p>The battle scene was an inspiring feature. It had been arranged that
+Miss Adams's riding-master should change places with her at the head of
+the charging troops and ride in their magnificent sweep down the field.
+It was feared that some mishap might befall her. When the charge was
+over and the stage-manager rushed up to congratulate the supposed
+riding-master on his admirable make-up, he was surprised to hear Miss
+Adams's voice issue forth from the armor, saying, "How did it go?"
+Strapped to her horse, she had led the charge herself and had seen the
+performance through.</p>
+
+<p>"Joan of Arc" netted $15,000, which Charles Frohman turned over to
+Harvard University to do with as it pleased. There was unconscious irony
+in this, for the performance aroused great admiration in Germany, and
+the proceeds were devoted to the Germanic Museum in the university; in
+the end, the Germans were responsible for his death.</p>
+
+<p>Accentuating this irony was the fact that Charles Frohman had made a
+magnificent vellum album containing the complete photographic record of
+the play, and sent it to the German Kaiser with the following
+inscription:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>To His Majesty the German Emperor. This photographic record of the
+first English performance in America of Friedrich von Schiller's
+dramatic poem, "Jungfrau von Orleans," given for the Building Fund
+of the Germanic Museum of Harvard University under the auspices of
+the German Department in the Stadium, Tuesday, twenty-second of
+June, 1909, is respectfully presented by Charles Frohman.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>There is no doubt that "Joan of Arc" was the supreme effort of Miss
+Adams's career. She was the living, breathing incarnation of the Maid.
+When she was told that Charles Frohman had refused an offer of $50,000
+for the motion-picture rights, she said:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Of course it was refused. This performance is all poetry and
+solemnity.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>The following June, in the Greek Theater of the University of
+California, at Berkeley, Miss Adams made her first and only appearance
+as <i>Rosalind</i> in "As You Like It." Ten thousand people saw the
+performance. Her achievement illustrates the extraordinary and
+indefatigable quality of her work. She rehearsed "As You Like It" during
+her transcontinental tour of "What Every Woman Knows," which extended
+from sea to sea and lasted thirty-nine weeks.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Most managers would have been content to rest with the laurel that such
+a performance as "Joan of Arc" had won. Not so with Charles Frohman.
+Every stupendous feat that he achieved merely whetted his desire for
+something greater. He delighted in sensation. Now he came to the point
+in his life where he projected what was in many respects the most unique
+and original of all his efforts, the presentation of Rostand's classic,
+"Chantecler."</p>
+
+<p>It was on March 30, 1910, that Charles crossed over from London to Paris
+to see this play. It thrilled and stirred him, and he bought it
+immediately. He realized that it would either be a tremendous success or
+a colossal failure, and he was willing to stand or fall by it. In Paris
+the title r&ocirc;le, originally written for the great Coquelin, had been
+played by Guitry. It was essentially a man's part. But Frohman, with
+that sense of the spectacular which so often characterized him,
+immediately cast Miss Adams for it.</p>
+
+<p>When he announced that the elf-like girl&mdash;the living <i>Peter Pan</i> to
+millions of theater-goers&mdash;was to assume the feathers and strut of the
+barnyard Romeo, there was a widespread feeling that he was making a
+great mistake, and that he was putting Miss Adams into a r&ocirc;le, admirable
+artist that she was, to which she was absolutely unsuited. A storm of
+criticism arose. But Frohman was absolutely firm. Opposition only made
+him hold his ground all the stronger. When people asked him why he
+insisted upon casting Miss Adams for this almost impossible part he
+always said:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>"Chantecler" is a play with a soul, and the soul of a play is its
+moral. This is the secret of "Peter Pan"; this is why Miss Adams is
+to play the leading part.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Miss Adams was in Chicago when Frohman bought the play, and he cabled
+her that she was to do the title part. She afterward declared that this
+news changed the dull, dreary, soggy day into one that was brilliant and
+dazzling. "To play <i>Chantecler</i>," she said, "is an honor international
+in its glory."</p>
+
+<p>The preparations for "Chantecler" were carried on with the usual Frohman
+magnificence. A fortune was spent on it. The costumes were made in
+Paris; John W. Alexander supervised the scenic effects.</p>
+
+<p>The casting of the parts was in itself an enormous task. Frohman amused
+himself by having what he called "casting parties." For example, he
+would call up Miss Adams by long-distance telephone and say:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>I've got ten minutes before my train starts for Atlantic City. Can
+you cast a peacock for me?</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Whereupon Miss Adams would say:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Ten minutes is too short.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Never, perhaps, in the history of the American stage was the advent of a
+play so long heralded. The name "Chantecler" was on every tongue. Long
+before the piece was launched hats had been named after it,
+controversies had arisen over its Anglicized spelling and pronunciation.
+All the genius of publicity which was the peculiar heritage of Charles
+Frohman was turned loose to pave the way for this extraordinary
+production. It was a nation-wide sensation.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time in his life Charles had to postpone an opening. It
+was originally set for the 13th of January, 1911, but the first night
+did not come until the 23d. This added to the suspense and expectancy of
+the public.</p>
+
+<p>The demand for seats was unprecedented. A line began to form at four
+o'clock in the afternoon preceding the day the sale opened. Within
+twenty-four hours after the window was raised at the box-office as high
+as $200 was offered in vain for a seat on the opening night.</p>
+
+<p>The Empire stage was too small, so the play was produced at the
+Knickerbocker Theater. A brilliant and highly wrought-up audience was
+present. Extraordinary interest centered about Miss Adams's performance
+as <i>Chantecler</i>. "Will she be able to do it?" was the question on every
+tongue. On that memorable opening-night Frohman, as usual, sat in the
+back seat in the gallery and had the supreme satisfaction of seeing his
+star distinguish herself in a performance that in many respects revealed
+Miss Adams as she had never been revealed before. She was recalled
+twenty-two times.</p>
+
+<p><i>Chantecler</i> literally crowed and conquered!</p>
+
+<p>Just how much "Chantecler" meant to Charles Frohman is attested by a
+remark he made soon after its inaugural. A friend was discussing
+epitaphs with him.</p>
+
+<p>"What would you like to have written about you, C. F.?" asked the man.</p>
+
+<p>The brilliant smile left Frohman's face for a moment, and then he said,
+solemnly:</p>
+
+<p>"All that I would ask is this: 'He gave "Peter Pan" to the world and
+"Chantecler" to America.' It is enough for any man."</p>
+
+<p>The last original production that Charles Frohman made with Maude Adams
+was "The Legend of Leonora," in which she returned once more to Barrie's
+exquisite and fanciful satire, devoted this time to the woman question.
+In England it had been produced under the title of "The Adored One."</p>
+
+<p>It was in the part of <i>Leonora</i> that James M. Barrie saw Maude Adams act
+for the first time in one of his plays. He had come to America for a
+brief visit to Frohman, and during this period Miss Adams was having her
+annual engagement at the Empire Theater.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, Barrie had Miss Adams in mind for the American production,
+and it is a very interesting commentary on his admiration for the
+American star that about the only instructions he attached to the
+manuscript of the play was this:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Leonora is an unspeakable darling, and this is all the guidance
+that can be given to the lady playing her.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>On her last starring tour under the personal direction of Charles
+Frohman, Miss Adams combined with a revival of "Quality Street" a clever
+skit by Barrie called "The Ladies' Shakespeare," the subtitle being,
+"One Woman's Reading of 'The Taming of the Shrew.'" With an occasional
+appearance in Barrie's "Rosalind," it rounded out her stellar career
+under him.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Frohman lived to see Maude Adams realize his highest desire for
+her success. She justified his confidence and it gave him infinite
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Adams's career as a star unfolds a panorama of artistic and
+practical achievement unequaled in the life of any American star. It
+likewise reveals a paradox all its own. While millions of people have
+seen and admired her, only a handful of people know her. The aloofness
+of the woman in her personal attitude toward the public represents
+Charles Frohman's own ideal of what stage artistry and conduct should
+be.</p>
+
+<p>It is illustrated in what was perhaps the keenest epigram he ever made.
+He was talking about people of the stage who constantly air themselves
+and their views to secure personal publicity. It moved him to this
+remark:</p>
+
+<p>"Some people prefer mediocrity in the lime-light to greatness in the
+dark."</p>
+
+<p>Herein he summed up the reason why Miss Adams has been an elusive and
+almost mysterious figure. By tremendous reading, solitary thinking, and
+extraordinary personal application she rose to her great eminence. With
+her it has always been a creed of career first. Like Charles Frohman,
+she has hidden behind her activities, and they form a worthy rampart.</p>
+
+<p>The history of the stage records no more interesting parallel than the
+one afforded by these two people&mdash;each a recluse, yet each known to the
+multitudes.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h3>
+
+<p class="head">THE BIRTH OF THE SYNDICATE</p>
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">C</span> <span class="smcap">harles
+Frohman's</span> talents and energies were very much like those of E.
+H. Harriman in that they found their largest and best expression when
+dedicated to a multitude of enterprises. Like Harriman, too, he did
+things in a wholesale way, for he had a contempt for small sums and
+small ventures.</p>
+
+<p>Going back a little in point of time from the close of the preceding
+chapter, the final years of the last century found Frohman geared up to
+a myriad of activities. He had already assumed the r&ocirc;le of Star-Maker,
+for Drew and Gillette were on his roster, and Maude Adams was about to
+be launched; the Empire Stock Company was an accredited institution with
+a national influence; he had started a chain of theaters; his booking
+interests in the West had assumed the proportions of an immense
+business; he had begun to make his presence felt in London. Yet no event
+of these middle 'nineties was more momentous in its relation to the
+future of the whole American theater than one which was about to
+transpire&mdash;one in which Charles Frohman had an important hand.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the efforts made by the booking offices conducted by Charles
+Frohman and Klaw &amp; Erlanger, the making of routes for theatrical
+attractions in the United States was in a most disorganized and
+economically unsound condition. The local manager was still more or less
+at the mercy of the booking free-lance in New York. The booking agent
+himself only represented a comparatively few theaters and could not book
+a complete season for a traveling attraction.</p>
+
+<p>In New York the manager was an autocrat who frequently dictated
+unbelievable terms to the traveling companies. Immense losses resulted
+from small traveling companies being pitted against one another in
+provincial towns that could only support one first-class attraction.
+Most theatrical contracts were not worth the paper they were written on.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Frohman had first counted the cost of this theatrical
+demoralization when his great "Shenandoah" run at the old Star Theater
+had to be interrupted while playing to capacity because another
+attraction had been booked into that theater. He and all his
+representative colleagues in the business realized that some steps must
+be taken to rectify the situation. Piled on this was the general
+business depression that had followed the panic of 1893.</p>
+
+<p>One day in 1896 a notable group of theatrical magnates met by chance at
+a luncheon at the Holland House in New York. They included Charles
+Frohman, whose offices booked attractions for a chain of Western
+theaters extending to the coast; A. L. Erlanger and Marc Klaw, who, as
+Klaw &amp; Erlanger, controlled attractions for practically the entire
+South; Nixon &amp; Zimmerman, of Philadelphia, who were conducting a group
+of the leading theaters of that city, and Al Hayman, one of the owners
+of the Empire Theater.</p>
+
+<p>These men naturally discussed the chaos in the theatrical business.
+They decided that its only economic hope was in a centralization of
+booking interests, and they acted immediately on this decision. Within a
+few weeks they had organized all the theaters they controlled or
+represented into one national chain, and the open time was placed on
+file in the offices of Klaw &amp; Erlanger. It now became possible for the
+manager of a traveling company to book a consecutive tour at the least
+possible expense. In a word, booking suddenly became standardized.</p>
+
+<p>This was the beginning of the famous Theatrical Syndicate which, in a
+brief time, dominated the theatrical business of the whole country. It
+marked a real epoch in the history of the American theater because
+within a year a complete revolution had been effected in the business.
+The booking of attractions was emancipated from curb and caf&eacute;; a
+theatrical contract became an accredited and licensed instrument. The
+Syndicate became a clearing-house for the theatrical manager and the
+play-producer, and the medium through which they did business with each
+other. Charles Frohman contributed his growing chain of theaters to the
+organization and secured a one-sixth interest in it which he retained up
+to the time of his death.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Once launched, the Syndicate proceeded to ride the tempest, for the
+biggest storm in all American theatrical history soon began to develop.
+Out of the long turmoil came a whole new line-up in the business. It
+affected Charles Frohman less than any of his immediate associates in
+the big combination because, first of all, he was a passive member, and,
+second, he had a kingdom all his own. Yet the story of these turbulent
+years is so inseparably linked up with the development of the drama in
+this country that it is well worth rehearsing.</p>
+
+<p>Although the Syndicate standardized the theatrical contract and made
+efficient and economical booking possible, it did not immediately secure
+the willing co-operation of some of the best-known traveling stars of
+the day. They included Mrs. Fiske, Richard Mansfield, Joseph Jefferson,
+Nat C. Goodwin, Francis Wilson (then in comic opera), and James A.
+Herne. They were great popular favorites and had been accustomed to
+appear at stated intervals in certain theaters in various parts of the
+country. They booked their own "time" and had a more or less personal
+relation with the lessees and managers of the theaters in which they
+appeared.</p>
+
+<p>The Syndicate began to book these stars as it saw fit and as they could
+be best fitted into the country-wide scheme. A scale of terms was
+arranged that was regarded as equitable both to the attraction and the
+local manager.</p>
+
+<p>These stars, however, refused to be booked in this way. They denied the
+right of the new organization to say when and where they should play.
+Out of this denial came the famous revolt against the Syndicate which
+blazed intermittently for more than two decades.</p>
+
+
+<table summary="WILSON" class="space" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="white-space:nowrap;text-align:center;">
+<tr><td><a name="WILSON" id="WILSON"></a><img src="images/illo-188a.png" width="250" height="315"
+alt="FRANCIS WILSON" title="FRANCIS WILSON" /></td>
+<td style="padding-left:10%;"><img src="images/illo-188b.png" width="250" height="315"
+alt="WILLIAM COLLIER" title="WILLIAM COLLIER" /></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="caption">FRANCIS WILSON</span></td>
+<td style="padding-left:10%;"><span class="caption">WILLIAM COLLIER</span></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Chief among the insurgents was Mrs. Fiske, who had returned to the stage
+in "Tess of the D'Urbervilles," a dramatization of Thomas Hardy's great
+novel. Her husband and manager, Harrison Gray Fiske, was editor and
+publisher of <i>The Dramatic Mirror</i>, which became the voice of protest.
+Mrs. Fiske refused to appear in Syndicate theaters, and she hired
+independent houses all over the country. Such places were few and far
+between in those days, and she was forced to play in public halls,
+even skating-rinks.</p>
+
+<p>Mansfield became one of the leaders of the opposition to the Syndicate.
+He made speeches before the curtain, denouncing its methods. His lead
+was followed by Francis Wilson, and subsequently by James K. Hackett,
+David Belasco, and Henry W. Savage. The fight on the huge combination
+became a matter of nation-wide interest.</p>
+
+<p>All the while the Syndicate was growing in power and authority.
+Gradually the revolutionists returned to the fold because desirable
+terms were made for them. Only Mrs. Fiske remained outside the ranks. In
+order to secure a New York City stage for her Mr. Fiske leased the
+Manhattan Theater for a long term.</p>
+
+<p>It was during these strenuous years, and as one indirect result of the
+Syndicate fight, that a whole new theatrical dynasty sprang up. It took
+shape and centered in the growing importance of three then obscure
+brothers, Lee, Sam, and Jacob J. Shubert by name, who lived in Syracuse,
+New York. They were born in humble circumstances, and early in life had
+been forced to become breadwinners. The first to get into the theatrical
+business was Sam, the second son, who, as a youngster barely in his
+teens, became program boy and later on assistant in the box-office of
+the Grand Opera House in his native town. At seventeen he was treasurer
+of the Weiting Opera House there, and from that time until his death in
+a railroad accident in 1905 he was an increasingly powerful figure in
+the business.</p>
+
+<p>Before Sam Shubert was twenty he controlled a chain of theaters with
+stock companies in up-state New York cities and had taken his two
+brothers into partnership with him. In 1900 he subleased the Herald
+Square Theater in New York City and thus laid the corner-stone of what
+came to be known as the "Independent Movement" throughout the country.
+He had initiative and enterprise. Gradually he and his brothers and
+their associates controlled a line of theaters from coast to coast. In
+these theaters they offered attractive bookings to the managers who were
+outside the Syndicate. The Shuberts also became producers and
+encouragers of productions on a large scale.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time the Syndicate now had real opposition. A warfare
+developed that was almost as bitter and costly in its way as was the old
+disorganized method in vogue before the business was put on a commercial
+basis. It naturally led to over-production and to a surplus of theaters.
+Towns that in reality could only support one first-class playhouse were
+compelled to have a "regular" and an "independent" theater. Attractions
+of a similar nature, such as two musical comedies, were pitted against
+each other. In dividing the local patronage both sides suffered loss.</p>
+
+<p>During the last year of Charles Frohman's life the Syndicate and the
+Shuberts, wisely realizing that such an uneconomic procedure could only
+spell disaster in a large way for the whole theatrical business, buried
+their differences. A harmonious working agreement was entered into that
+put an end to the destructive strife. Theatrical booking became an open
+field, and the producer can now play his attractions in both Syndicate
+and Shubert theaters.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles Frohman's activities were now nation-wide. Just as Harriman
+built up a transcontinental railroad system, so did the rotund little
+manager now set up an empire all his own. The building of the Empire
+Theater had given him a closer link with Rich and Harris. Through them
+he acquired an interest in the Columbia Theater, in Boston, and
+subsequently he became part owner of the Hollis Street Theater in that
+city. His third theater in Boston was the Park. By this time the firm
+name for Boston operation was Rich, Harris, and Charles Frohman. Their
+next venture was the construction of the magnificent Colonial Theater,
+on the site of the old Boston Public Library, which was opened with
+"Ben-Hur." With the acquisition of the Boston and Tremont playhouses,
+the firm controlled the situation at Boston.</p>
+
+<p>Up to this time Frohman had controlled only one theater in New York&mdash;the
+Empire. In 1896 he saw an opportunity to acquire control of the Garrick
+in Thirty-fifth Street. He wrote to William Harris, saying, "I will take
+it if you will come on and run it." Harris assented, and the Garrick
+passed under the banner of Charles Frohman, who inaugurated his r&eacute;gime
+with John Drew in "The Squire of Dames." He put some of his biggest
+successes into this theater and some of his favorite stars, among them
+Maude Adams and William Gillette. To the chain of Charles Frohman
+controlled theaters in New York were added in quick order the Criterion,
+the Savoy, the Garden, and a part interest in the Knickerbocker.</p>
+
+<p>During his early tenancy of the Garrick occurred an incident which
+showed Frohman's resource. He produced a play called "The Liars," by
+Henry Arthur Jones, in which he was very much interested. In the
+out-of-town try-out up-state Frohman heard that the critic of one of the
+most important New York newspapers had expressed great disapproval of
+the piece on account of some personal prejudice. He did not want this
+prejudice to interfere with the New York verdict, so he went to Charles
+Dillingham one day shortly before the opening and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Can you get me some loud laughers?"</p>
+
+<p>Dillingham said he could.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Frohman; "I want you to plant one on either side of
+Mr. Blank," referring to the critic who had a prejudice against the
+play.</p>
+
+<p>This was done, and on the opening night the "prop" laughers made such a
+noisy demonstration that the critic said it was the funniest farce in
+years.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles Frohman's first foreign star, who paved the way for so many, was
+Olga Nethersole. His management of her came about in a curious way. A
+difference had arisen between Augustin Daly and Ada Rehan, his leading
+woman. Miss Rehan had decided to withdraw from the company, and in
+casting about quickly for a successor had decided upon Olga Nethersole,
+then one of the most prominent of the younger English actresses. While
+the deal was being consummated Daly and Miss Rehan adjusted their
+differences, and the arrangements for Miss Nethersole's appearance in
+America were abrogated.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Nethersole was left without an American manager. Daniel Frohman,
+then manager of the Lyceum Theater, stepped in and became her American
+sponsor, forming a partnership with his brother Charles to handle her
+interests. Jointly they now conducted an elaborate tour for her covering
+two years, in which she appeared in "Denise," "Frou-Frou," "Camille,"
+and "Carmen."</p>
+
+
+<table summary="ANGLIN" class="space" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="white-space:nowrap;text-align:center;">
+<tr><td><a name="ANGLIN" id="ANGLIN"></a><img src="images/illo-192a.png" width="250" height="320" alt="MARGARET ANGLIN"
+title="MARGARET ANGLIN" /></td>
+<td style="padding-left:10%;"><img src="images/illo-192b.png" width="250" height="320"
+alt="ANNIE RUSSELL" title="ANNIE RUSSELL" /></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="caption">MARGARET ANGLIN</span></td>
+<td style="padding-left:10%;"><span class="caption">ANNIE RUSSELL</span></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<p>The sensational episode of her tour was the production of "Carmen." The
+fiery, impetuous, emotional, and sensuous character of the Spanish
+heroine appealed to Miss Nethersole's vivid imagination, and she gave a
+realistic portrayal of the r&ocirc;le that became popular and spectacular. In
+all parts of the country the "Carmen Kiss" became a byword. The play, in
+addition to its own merits as a striking drama, and its vogue at the
+opera through Madame Calv&eacute;'s performance of the leading r&ocirc;le, became a
+very successful vehicle for Miss Nethersole's two tours. Miss Nethersole
+was the first star outside of Charles Frohman's own force who appeared
+at the Empire Theater, where she played a brief engagement with
+"Camille" and "Carmen."</p>
+
+<p class="space">From his earliest theatrical day Charles believed implicitly in
+melodrama. His first production on any stage was a thriller. The play
+that turned the tide in his fortunes was a spine-stirrer. He now turned
+to his favorite form of play by producing "The Fatal Card," by Haddon
+Chambers and B. C. Stephenson, at Palmer's Theater. He did it with an
+admirable cast that included May Robson, Agnes Miller, Amy Busby, E. J.
+Ratcliffe, William H. Thompson, J. H. Stoddart, and W. J. Ferguson.</p>
+
+<p>A big melodrama now became part of his regular season. He leased the old
+Academy of Music at Fourteenth Street and Irving Place in New York,
+where, as a boy, he had seen his brother Gustave sell opera librettos,
+and where he became fired with the ambition to make money. Here he
+produced a notable series of melodramas in lavish fashion. The first was
+"The Sporting Duchess." This piece, which was produced in England as
+"The Derby Winner," was a sure-enough thriller. The cast included E. J.
+Ratcliffe, Francis Carlyle, J. H. Stoddart, Alice Fischer, Cora Tanner,
+Agnes Booth, and Jessie Busley.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Frohman's next melodrama at the Academy was the famous "Two
+Little Vagrants," adapted from the French by Charles Klein. In this cast
+he brought forward a notable group destined to shine in the drama, for
+among them were Dore Davidson, Minnie Dupree, Annie Irish, George
+Fawcett, and William Farnum, the last named then just beginning to
+strike his theatrical stride.</p>
+
+<p>Still another famous melodrama that Charles introduced to the United
+States at the famous old playhouse was "The White Heather," in which he
+featured Rose Coghlan, and in which Amelia Bingham made one of her first
+successes. With this piece Charles emphasized one of the customs he
+helped to bring to the American stage. He always paid for the actresses'
+clothes. He told Miss Coghlan to spare no expense on her gowns, and she
+spent several thousand dollars on them. When she saw Frohman after the
+opening, which was a huge success, she said:</p>
+
+<p>"I am almost ashamed to see you."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I spent so much money on my gowns."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" said Frohman. "You did very wisely. You and the gowns are
+the hit of the piece."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman here established a new tradition for the production of melodrama
+in the United States. Up to his era the producer depended upon thrill
+rather than upon accessory. Frohman lavished a fortune on each
+production. Any competition with him had to be on the same elaborate
+scale.</p>
+
+<p>Fully a year before Maude Adams made her stellar d&eacute;but Frohman put forth
+his first woman star in Annie Russell. This gifted young Englishwoman,
+who had appeared on the stage at the age of seven in "Pinafore," had
+made a great success in "Esmeralda," at the Madison Square Theater.
+Frohman, who was then beginning his managerial career, was immediately
+taken with her talent. She appeared in some of his earlier companies. He
+now starred her in a play by Bret Harte called "Sue." He presented her
+both in New York and in London.</p>
+
+<p>Under Frohman, Miss Russell had a long series of starring successes.
+When she appeared in "Catherine," at the Garrick Theater, in her support
+was Ethel Barrymore, who was just beginning to emerge from the obscurity
+of playing "bits." In succession Miss Russell did "Miss Hobbs," "The
+Royal Family," "The Girl and the Judge," "Jinny the Carrier," and "Mice
+and Men."</p>
+
+<p>In connection with "Mice and Men" is a characteristic Frohman story.
+Charles ordered this play written from Madeleine Lucette Ryley for Maude
+Adams. When he read the manuscript he sent it back to Miss Ryley with
+the laconic comment, "Worse yet." She showed it to Gertrude Elliott, who
+bought it for England. When Charles heard of this he immediately
+accepted the play, and it proved to be a success. The moment a play was
+in demand it became valuable to him.</p>
+
+<p>Spectacular success seemed to have taken up its abode with Charles. It
+now found expression in the production of "Secret Service," the most
+picturesque and profitable of all the Gillette enterprises. The way it
+came to be written is a most interesting story.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman was about to sail for Europe when Gillette sent him the first
+act of this stirring military play. Frohman read it at once, sent for
+the author and said:</p>
+
+<p>"This is great, Gillette. Let me see the second act."</p>
+
+<p>Gillette produced this act forthwith, and Frohman's enthusiasm increased
+to such an extent that he postponed his sailing until he received the
+complete play. Frohman's interest in "Secret Service" was heightened by
+the fact that he had scored two tremendous triumphs with military plays,
+"Held by the Enemy" and "Shenandoah." He felt that the talisman of the
+brass button was still his, and he plunged heavily on "Secret Service."</p>
+
+<p>It was first put on in Philadelphia. Even at that time there obtained
+the superstition widely felt in the theatrical business that what fails
+out of town must succeed in New York. Frohman, who shared this
+superstition, was really eager not to register successfully in the
+Quaker capital.</p>
+
+<p>But "Secret Service" smashed this superstition, because it scored
+heavily in Philadelphia and then had an enormous run at the Garrick
+Theater in New York. In "Secret Service" Maurice Barrymore had the
+leading part, and he played it with a distinction of bearing and a dash
+of manner that were almost irresistible.</p>
+
+<p>William Gillette always proved to be one of Charles Frohman's mascots.
+Practically whatever he touched turned to gold. He and Frohman had now
+become close friends, and the actor-author frequently accompanied the
+manager on his trips to London.</p>
+
+<p>During their visit in 1899, "Sherlock Holmes" had become the literary
+rage. Everybody was talking about the masterful detective of Baker
+Street.</p>
+
+<p>"We must get those Doyle stories," said Frohman to Gillette.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said the author.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman personally went to see Conan Doyle and made a bid for the
+rights.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, Mr. Frohman," replied Doyle, "but I shall make one
+stipulation. There must be no love business in 'Sherlock Holmes.'"</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Frohman; "your wishes shall be respected."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman now engaged Gillette to make the adaptation, but he said
+absolutely nothing about the condition that Doyle had made. Gillette, as
+most American theater-goers know, wove a love interest into the
+strenuous life of the famous detective.</p>
+
+<p>A year later, Gillette and Frohman again were in England, Gillette to
+read the manuscript of the play to Doyle. The famous author liked the
+play immensely and made no objection whatever to the sentimental
+interest. In fact, his only comment when Gillette finished reading the
+manuscript was:</p>
+
+<p>"It's good to see the old chap again."</p>
+
+<p>He referred, of course, to <i>Sherlock Holmes</i>, who, up to this time, had
+already met his death on four or five occasions.</p>
+
+<p>"Sherlock Holmes" proved to be another "Secret Service" in every way.
+Gillette made an enormous success in the title r&ocirc;le, and after a long
+run at the Garrick went on the road. Frohman revived it again and again
+until it had almost as many "farewells" as Adelina Patti. The last
+business detail that Charles discussed with Gillette before sailing on
+the fatal trip in 1915 was for a revival of this play at the Empire.</p>
+
+<p>The Frohman Star Factory was now working full time. Next in output came
+William Faversham. This brilliant young Englishman had started with
+Daniel Frohman's company at the Lyceum in a small part. At a rehearsal
+of "The Highest Bidder" Charles singled him out.</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you get your cockney dialect?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Riding on the top of London 'buses," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," answered Charles, "I want to do that myself some day."</p>
+
+<p>This was the first contact between two men who became intimate friends
+and who were closely bound up in each other's fortunes.</p>
+
+<p>During his Lyceum engagement Faversham wanted to widen his activities.
+He read in the papers one day that Charles was producing a number of
+plays, so he made up his mind he would try to get into one of them. He
+went to Frohman's office every morning at half-past nine and asked to
+see him or Al Hayman. Sometimes he would arrive before Frohman, and the
+manager had to pass him as he went into his office. He invariably looked
+up, smiled at the waiting actor, and passed on. Faversham kept this up
+for weeks. One day Alf Hayman asked him what he wanted there.</p>
+
+<p>"I am tired of hanging round the Lyceum with nothing to do. I want a
+better engagement," was the answer.</p>
+
+<p>Hayman evidently communicated this to Frohman and Al Hayman, but they
+made no change in their attitude. Every day they passed the waiting
+Faversham as they arrived in the morning and went out to lunch, and
+always Frohman smiled at him.</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="FAVERSHAM" id="FAVERSHAM"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-198.png" width="500" height="768" alt="WILLIAM FAVERSHAM" title="WILLIAM FAVERSHAM" />
+<span class="caption">WILLIAM FAVERSHAM</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Finally one morning Charles came to the door, looked intently at
+Faversham, puffed out his cheeks as was his fashion, and smiled all
+over his face. Turning to Al Hayman, who was with him, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Al, we've got to give this fellow something to do or we won't be able
+to go in and out of here much longer."</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments Frohman emerged again, asked Faversham how tall he was.
+When he was told, he invited Faversham into his office and inquired of
+him if he could study a long part and play it in two days. Faversham
+said he could. The result was his engagement for Rider Haggard's "She."
+Such was the unusual beginning of the long and close association between
+Faversham and Charles Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>Faversham became leading man of the Empire Stock Company, and his
+distinguished career was a matter of the greatest pride to Charles. He
+now was caught up in the Frohman star machine and made his first
+appearance under the banner of "Charles Frohman Presents," in "A Royal
+Rival," at the Criterion in August, 1901.</p>
+
+<p>Charles not only made Faversham a star, but provided him with a wife,
+and a very charming one, too. In the spring of 1901 an exquisite young
+girl, Julie Opp by name, was playing at the St. James Theater in London.
+Frohman sent for her and asked her if she could go to the United States
+to act as leading woman for William Faversham.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been to America once," she said, "and I want to go back as a
+star."</p>
+
+<p>When Frohman let loose the powers of his persuasiveness, Miss Opp began
+to waver.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to leave my nice London flat and my English maid," she
+protested.</p>
+
+<p>"Take the maid with you," said Frohman. "We can't box the flat and take
+that to New York, but we have flats in New York that you can hire."</p>
+
+<p>"I hate to leave all my friends," continued Miss Opp.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I can't take over all your friends," replied Frohman, "but you
+will have plenty of new admirers in New York."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Opp asked what she thought were unreasonable terms. Frohman said
+nothing, but sent Charles Dillingham to see her next day. He said
+Frohman wanted to know if she was joking about her price. "Of course,"
+he said, "if you are not joking he will pay it anyhow, because when he
+makes up his mind to have anybody he is going to have him."</p>
+
+<p>This shamed Miss Opp. She asked a reasonable fee, went to the United
+States, and not only became Faversham's leading woman, but his wife.
+Frohman always took infinite delight in teasing the Favershams about
+having been their matchmaker.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles, who loved to create a sensation in a big way, was now able to
+gratify one of his favorite emotions with the production of "The
+Conquerors." Like many of the Frohman achievements, it began in a
+picturesque way.</p>
+
+<p>During the summer of 1897, Frohman and Paul Potter, being in Paris,
+dropped in at that chamber of horrors, the Grand Guignol, in the Rue
+Chaptal. There they saw "Mademoiselle Fifi," a playlet lasting less than
+half an hour, adapted by the late Oscar Metenier from Guy de
+Maupassant's short story. It was the tale of a young Prussian officer
+who gets into a French country house during the war of 1870, abuses the
+aristocrats who live there, shoots out the eyes of the family
+portraits, entertains at supper a number of loose French girls from
+Rouen, and is shot by one of the girls for vilifying Frenchwomen.
+Frohman was deeply impressed.</p>
+
+<p>"Why can't you make it into a long play?" said Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>"I can," said Potter.</p>
+
+<p>"How?" queried Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>"By showing what happened to the French aristocrats while the Prussian
+officer was shooting up the place," answered the author.</p>
+
+<p>"Do it," said Frohman, "and I'll open the season of the Empire Stock
+Company in this drama, and get George Alexander interested for London."</p>
+
+<p>As "The Conquerors" the play went into rehearsal about Christmas. Mrs.
+Dazian, wife of Henry Dazian, the costumier, was watching a scene in
+which William Faversham plans the ruin of Viola Allen, the leading
+woman.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Mrs. Dazian, "if New York will stand for that it will stand
+for anything."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman jumped up in excitement. "What is wrong with it?" he cried. "The
+manuscript was shown to a dozen people of the cleanest minds. They found
+nothing wrong. I've done the scene a dozen times. I have it up-stairs on
+my shelves at this moment in 'The Sporting Duchess.'"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dazian was obdurate. "It is awful," she said.</p>
+
+<p>The first night approached. Potter was to sail for Europe next day.
+Frohman had provided him with sumptuous cabin quarters on the <i>New
+York</i>. After the dress rehearsal, Potter appeared on the Empire stage,
+where he found Frohman. The latter was worried.</p>
+
+<p>"Paul," said he, "the first three acts are fine; the last is rotten.
+You must stay and rewrite the last act."</p>
+
+<p>Potter had to postpone his trip. At ten next morning the new act was
+handed in; the company learned and rehearsed it by three in the
+afternoon, and that night Frohman and the author stood in the box-office
+watching the audience file in.</p>
+
+<p>"How's the house, Tommy?" demanded Frohman of Thomas Shea, his house
+manager.</p>
+
+<p>"Over seventeen hundred dollars already," said Shea.</p>
+
+<p>"You can go to Europe, Paul," said Frohman. "Your last act is all right.
+We don't want you any more."</p>
+
+<p>The American public agreed with Mrs. Dazian. They thought the play
+excruciatingly wicked, but they were just as eager to see it on the
+Fourth of July as they had been six months earlier.</p>
+
+<p>A dozen details combined to make "The Conquerors" a storm-center. First
+of all it was attacked because of its alleged immorality. In the second
+place the author was charged with having appropriated some of Sardou's
+"La Haine." In the third place, this play marked the first stage
+appearance of Mrs. Clara Bloodgood, wife of "Jack" Bloodgood, one of the
+best-known men about town in New York. Mr. Bloodgood became desperately
+ill during rehearsals, and his wife divided her time between watching at
+his bedside and going to the theater. Of course, the newspapers were
+filled with the account of the event which was agitating all society,
+and it added greatly to popular interest in the play.</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="MILLER" id="MILLER"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-202.png" width="500" height="767" alt="HENRY MILLER" title="HENRY MILLER" />
+<span class="caption">HENRY MILLER</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"The Conquerors" not only brought Paul Potter and Frohman a great
+success, but it sped William Faversham on to the time when he was to
+become a star. The cast was one of the most distinguished that
+Frohman had ever assembled, and it included among its women five
+future stars&mdash;Viola Allen, Blanche Walsh, Ida Conquest, Clara Bloodgood,
+and May Robson.</p>
+
+<p class="space">By this time Henry Miller had left the Empire Stock Company and had gone
+on the road with a play called "Heartsease," by Charles Klein and J. I.
+C. Clark. It failed in Cincinnati, and Miller wrote Frohman about it. A
+week later the men met on Broadway. Miller still believed in
+"Heartsease" and asked Frohman if he could read it to him.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," replied Frohman; "come to-morrow and let me hear it."</p>
+
+<p>Miller showed up the next morning and left Klein and Clark, who had
+accompanied him, in a lower office. Frohman locked the door, as was his
+custom, curled himself up on a settee, lighted a cigar, and asked for
+the manuscript.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't bring it. I will act it out for you."</p>
+
+<p>Miller knew the whole production of the play depended upon his
+performance. He improvised whole scenes and speeches as he went along,
+and he made a deep impression. When he finished, Frohman sat still for a
+few moments. Then he rang a bell and Alf Hayman appeared. To him he
+said, quietly:</p>
+
+<p>"We are going to do 'Heartsease.'"</p>
+
+<p>Miller rushed down-stairs to where Klein and Clark were waiting, and
+told them to get to work revising the manuscript.</p>
+
+<p>When the play went into rehearsal, Frohman, who sat in front, spoke to
+Miller from time to time, asking, "Where is that line you spoke in my
+office?"</p>
+
+<p>This incident is cited to show Charles's amazing memory. Miller, of
+course, had improvised constantly during his personal performance of the
+play, and Frohman recognized that these improvisations were missing when
+the piece came into rehearsal.</p>
+
+<p>Charles now added a third star to his constellation in Henry Miller. He
+first produced "Heartsease" in New Haven. Charles Dillingham sat with
+him during the performance. When the curtain went down on a big scene,
+and the audience was in a tumult, demanding star and author, Frohman
+leaned over to speak to his friend. Dillingham thought he was about to
+make a historic remark, inspired by the enormous success of the play
+before him. Instead, Frohman whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"Charley, I wonder if they have any more of that famous apple-pie over
+at Hueblein's?"</p>
+
+<p>He was referring to a famous article of food that had added almost as
+much glory to New Haven as had its historic university, and for which
+Frohman had an inordinate love.</p>
+
+<p>Henry Miller now became an established Frohman star. After "Heartsease"
+had had several successful road seasons, Frohman presented Miller in
+"The Only Way," an impressive dramatization of Charles Dickens's great
+story, "A Tale of Two Cities."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles Dillingham's friendship with Frohman had now become one of the
+closest of his life. He always accompanied Frohman to England, and was
+regarded as his right-hand man. Frohman had always urged his friend to
+branch out for himself. The result was that Dillingham assumed the
+managership of Julia Marlowe.</p>
+
+<p>Dillingham presented Miss Marlowe at the Knickerbocker Theater in New
+York in "The Countess Valeska." Frohman liked the play so much that he
+became interested in the management of Miss Marlowe, and together they
+produced "Colinette," adapted from the French by Henry Guy Carleton, at
+this theater. "Colinette" inspired one of the many examples of Frohman's
+quick retort.</p>
+
+<p>The "try-out" was at Bridgeport, and Dillingham had engaged a private
+chair car for the company. When Frohman tried to get on this car at
+Grand Central Station the porter turned him down, saying:</p>
+
+<p>"This is the Marlowe car."</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon Frohman spoke up quickly and said: "I am Mr. Marlowe," and
+stepped aboard.</p>
+
+<p>The production of "Colinette" marked the beginning of another one of
+Frohman's intimate associations. He engaged William Seymour to rehearse
+and produce the play. Seymour later directed some of the greatest
+Frohman undertakings and eventually became general stage-manager for his
+chief. Frohman was now actively interested in Miss Marlowe's career.
+Under the joint Frohman-Dillingham management she played in "As You Like
+It" and "Ingomar."</p>
+
+<p>By this time Clyde Fitch had steadily made his way to the point where
+Frohman had ceased to regard him as a "pink tea" author, but as a really
+big playwright. They became great friends. He gave Fitch every possible
+encouragement. The time was at hand when Fitch was to reward that
+encouragement, and in splendid fashion.</p>
+
+<p>Once more the Civil War proved a Charles Frohman mascot, for Fitch now
+wrote "Barbara Fritchie," founded on John G. Whittier's famous war poem.
+He surrounded the star with a cast that included W. J. Lemoyne, Arnold
+Daly, Dodson Mitchel, and J. H. Gilmour. The play opened at the Broad
+Street Theater in Philadelphia. At the dress rehearsal began an incident
+which showed Charles's ready resource.</p>
+
+<p>In the second act the business of the play required that Miss Marlowe
+take a gun and shoot a man. No gun was at hand. It was decided to send
+the late Byron Ongley, assistant stage-manager of the company, to the
+Stratford Hotel, where the star lived, with a gun and show her how to
+use it there.</p>
+
+<p>When Frohman, who came to see the rehearsal, heard of this he had an
+inspiration for a fine piece of publicity.</p>
+
+<p>"Why can't Ongley pretend to be a crank and appear to be making an
+attempt on Miss Marlowe's life?"</p>
+
+<p>He liked Ongley, and he really conceived the idea more to play one of
+his numerous practical jokes than to capitalize the event.</p>
+
+<p>Without saying a word to Ongley, Dillingham notified the Stratford
+management that Miss Marlowe had received a threatening letter from a
+crank who might possibly appear and make an attempt on her life. When
+Ongley entered the hotel lobby innocently carrying the gun he was beset
+by four huge porters and borne to the ground. The police were summoned
+and he was hauled off to jail, where he spent twenty-four hours. The
+newspapers made great capital of the event, and it stimulated interest
+in the performance.</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="CRANE" id="CRANE"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-206.png" width="500" height="803" alt="WILLIAM H. CRANE" title="WILLIAM H. CRANE" />
+<span class="caption">WILLIAM H. CRANE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>When "Barbara Fritchie" opened at the Criterion Theater in New York,
+which had passed under the Frohman control, it scored an immediate
+success. It ran for four months. Not only was Miss Marlowe put into the
+front rank of paying stars, but the success of the play gave Clyde
+Fitch an enormous prestige, for it was his first big triumph as an
+original playwright. From this time on his interest was closely linked
+with that of Charles Frohman, who became his sponsor.</p>
+
+<p>In connection with Julia Marlowe is a characteristic Frohman story. The
+manager always refused to accept the new relation when one of his women
+stars married. This incident grew out of Julia Marlowe's marriage to
+Robert Taber.</p>
+
+<p>One day his office-boy brought in word that Mrs. Taber would like to see
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know her."</p>
+
+<p>After an interval of a few moments a dulcet voice came through the door,
+saying, "Won't you see me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Taber."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know Mrs. Taber, but Julia Marlowe can come in."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles was now in a whirlwind of activities. He was not only making
+stars, but also, as the case of Clyde Fitch proved, developing
+playwrights. In the latter connection he had a peculiar distinction.</p>
+
+<p>One day some years before, Madeline Lucette Ryley came to see him. She
+was a charming English <i>ing&eacute;nue</i> who had been a singing soubrette in
+musical comedies at the famous old Casino, the home of musical comedies,
+where Francis Wilson, De Wolf Hopper, Jefferson De Angelis, and Pauline
+Hall had achieved fame as comic-opera stars. She had also appeared in a
+number of serious plays.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Ryley made application for a position. Frohman said to her:</p>
+
+<p>"I don't need actresses, but I need plays. Go home and write me one."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Ryley up to that time had written plays only as an amateur. She
+went home and wrote "Christopher Jr." and it started her on a notably
+successful career as a playwright. In fact, she was perhaps the first of
+the really successful women playwrights.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles Frohman celebrated the opening theatrical season of the new
+twentieth century by annexing a new star and a fortune at the same time.
+It was William H. Crane in "David Harum" who accomplished this.</p>
+
+<p>Again history repeated itself in a picturesque approach to a Frohman
+success. One morning, at the time when both had apartments at Sherry's,
+Frohman and Charles Dillingham emerged from the building after
+breakfast. On the sidewalk they met Denman Thompson, the old actor.
+Frohman engaged him in conversation. Suddenly Thompson began to chuckle.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you laughing at?" asked Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>"I was thinking of a book I read last night, called 'David Harum,'"
+replied Thompson.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it interesting?"</p>
+
+<p>"The best American story I ever read," said the actor.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman's eyes suddenly sparkled. He winked at Dillingham, who hailed a
+cab and made off. Frohman engaged Thompson in conversation until he
+returned. In his pocket he carried a copy of "David Harum."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman read the book that day, made a contract for its dramatization,
+and from the venture he cleared nearly half a million dollars.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman considered four men for the part of <i>David Harum</i>. They were
+Denman Thompson, James A. Hearne, Sol Smith Russell, and Crane. Thompson
+was too old, Hearne had been associated too long with the "Shore Acres"
+type to adapt himself to the Westcott hero, and Sol Smith Russell did
+not meet the requirements. Frohman regarded Crane as ideal.</p>
+
+<p>His negotiations with Crane for this part were typical of his business
+arrangements. It took exactly five minutes to discuss them. When the
+terms had been agreed upon, Frohman said to Crane:</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure this is perfectly satisfactory to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly," replied Crane.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman reached over from his desk and shook his new star by the hand.
+It was his way of ratifying a contract that was never put on paper, and
+over which no word of disagreement ever arose. Crane's connection with
+Charles Frohman lasted for nine years.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman personally rehearsed "David Harum." Much of its extraordinary
+success was due to his marvelous energy. It was Frohman, and not the
+dramatist, who introduced the rain-storm scene at the close of the
+second act which made one of the biggest hits of the performance.
+Throughout the play there were many evidences of Frohman's skill and
+craftsmanship.</p>
+
+<p class="space">It was just about this time that the real kinship with Augustus Thomas
+began. Frohman, after his first meeting with Thomas years before in the
+box-office of a St. Louis theater, had produced his play "Surrender,"
+and had engaged him to remodel "Sue." Now he committed the first of the
+amazing quartet of errors of judgment with regard to the Thomas plays
+that forms one of the curious chapters in his friendship with this
+distinguished American playwright.</p>
+
+<p>Thomas had conceived the idea of a cycle of American plays, based on the
+attitude toward women in certain sections of the country. The first of
+these plays had been "Alabama," the second "In Mizzoura." Thomas now
+wrote "Arizona" in this series. When he offered the play to Frohman, the
+manager said:</p>
+
+<p>"I like this play, Gus, but I have one serious objection to it. I don't
+see any big situation to use the American flag. Perhaps I am
+superstitious about it. I have had such immense luck with the flag in
+'Shenandoah' and 'Held by the Enemy' that I have an instinct that I
+ought not to do this play, much as I would like to."</p>
+
+<p>As everybody knows, the play went elsewhere and was one of the great
+successes of the American stage.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman now realized his mistake. He sent for Thomas and said: "I want
+you to write me another one of those rough plays."</p>
+
+<p>The result was "Colorado," which Frohman put on at the Grand Opera House
+in New York with Wilton Lackaye in the leading r&ocirc;le, but it was not a
+success.</p>
+
+<p>A few years later Frohman made another of the now famous mistakes with
+Thomas. Thomas had seen Lawrence D'Orsay doing his usual "silly ass"
+part in a play. He also observed that the play lagged unless D'Orsay was
+on the stage. He therefore wrote a play called "The Earl of Pawtucket,"
+with D'Orsay in mind, and Frohman accepted it. When the time came to
+select the cast, Thomas suggested D'Orsay for the leading part.</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible!" said Frohman. "He can't do it."</p>
+
+<table summary="THOMAS" class="space" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="white-space:nowrap;text-align:center;">
+<tr>
+<td><a name="THOMAS" id="THOMAS"></a><img src="images/illo-210a.png" width="250" height="313" alt="AUGUSTUS THOMAS" title="AUGUSTUS THOMAS" />
+</td><td style="padding-left:10%;">
+<img src="images/illo-210b.png" width="250" height="313" alt="SIR ARTHUR WING PINERO" title="SIR ARTHUR WING PINERO" />
+</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="caption">AUGUSTUS THOMAS</span></td>
+<td style="padding-left:10%;"><span class="caption">SIR ARTHUR WING PINERO</span></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Thomas was so convinced that D'Orsay was the ideal man that Frohman made
+this characteristic concession:</p>
+
+<p>"I think well of your play, and it will probably be a success," he
+said, "but I do not believe that D'Orsay is the man for it. If you can
+get another manager to do it I will turn back the play to you, and if
+you insist upon having D'Orsay I will release him from his contract with
+me."</p>
+
+<p>Kirk La Shelle took the play and it was another "Arizona."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman produced a whole series of Thomas successes, notably "The Other
+Girl," "Mrs. Leffingwell's Boots," and "De Lancey." To the end of his
+days the warmest and most intimate friendship existed between the men.
+It was marked by the usual humor that characterized Frohman's relations.
+Here is an example:</p>
+
+<p>Thomas conducted the rehearsals of "The Other Girl" alone. Frohman, who
+was up-stairs in his offices at the Empire, sent him a note on a yellow
+pad, written with the blue pencil that he always used:</p>
+
+<p>"How are you getting along at rehearsals without me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Great!" scribbled Thomas.</p>
+
+<p>The next day when he went up-stairs to Frohman's office, he found the
+note pinned on the wall.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the mood of the man who had risen from obscurity to one of
+commanding authority in the whole English-speaking theater.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h3>
+
+<p class="head">THE RISE OF ETHEL BARRYMORE</p>
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">W</span> <span class="smcap">hile</span>
+the star of Maude Adams rose high in the theatrical heaven,
+another lovely luminary was about to appear over the horizon. The moment
+was at hand when Charles Frohman was to reveal another one of his
+prot&eacute;g&eacute;s, this time the young and beautiful Ethel Barrymore. It is an
+instance of progressive and sympathetic Frohman sponsorship that gave
+the American stage one of its most fascinating favorites. Some stars are
+destined for the stage; others are born in the theater. Ethel Barrymore
+is one of the latter. Two generations of eminent theatrical achievement
+heralded her advent, for she is the granddaughter of Mrs. John Drew,
+mistress of the famous Arch Street Theater Company of Philadelphia, and
+herself, in later years, the greatest <i>Mrs. Malaprop</i> of her day. Miss
+Barrymore's father was the brilliant and gifted Maurice Barrymore; her
+mother the no less witty and talented Georgia Drew, while, among other
+family distinctions, she came into the world as the niece of John Drew.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the royalty of her theatrical birth, no star in America had to
+labor harder or win her way by more persistent and conscientious effort.
+At fourteen she was playing child's parts with her grandmother. A few
+years later she came to New York to get a start. Though she bore one of
+the most distinguished and honored names in the profession, she sat
+around in agents' offices for six months, beating vainly at the door of
+opportunity. Finally she got a chance to understudy Elsie De Wolfe, who
+was playing with John Drew, in "The Bauble Shop," at the Empire. One day
+when that actress became ill this seventeen-year-old child played the
+part of a thirty-two-year-old woman with great success. Understudies
+then became her fate for several years. While playing a part on the road
+with her uncle in "The Squire of Dames," Charles Frohman saw her for the
+first time. He looked at her sharply, but said nothing. Later, during
+this engagement, she met the man who was to shape her career.</p>
+
+<p>About this time Miss Barrymore went to London. Charles had accepted
+Haddon Chambers's play "The Tyranny of Tears," in which John Drew was to
+star in America. She got the impression that she would be cast for one
+of the two female parts in this play, and she studied the costuming and
+other details. With eager expectancy she called on Frohman in London.
+Much to her surprise Frohman said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Ethel, what can I do for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Won't I play with Uncle John?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I am sorry to say you will not," replied Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>This was a tragic blow. It was in London that Miss Barrymore received
+this first great disappointment, and it was in London that she made her
+first success. Charles Frohman, who from this time on became much
+impressed with her appealing charm and beauty, gave her a small r&ocirc;le
+with the company he sent over with Gillette to play "Secret Service" in
+the British capital. Odette Tyler played the leading comedy part. One
+night when Miss Barrymore was standing in the wings the stage-manager
+rushed up to her and said, excitedly:</p>
+
+<p>"You will have to play Miss Tyler's part."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't know her lines," said Miss Barrymore.</p>
+
+<p>"That makes no difference; you will have to play. She's gone home sick."</p>
+
+<p>"How about her costume?" said Miss Barrymore.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Tyler was so ill that we could not ask her to change her costume.
+She wore it away with her," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>Dressed as she was, Miss Barrymore, who had watched the play carefully,
+and who has an extremely good memory, walked on, played the part, and
+made a hit.</p>
+
+<p>When the "Secret Service" company returned to America, Miss Barrymore
+remained in London. She lived in a small room alone. Her funds were low
+and she had only one evening gown. But she had the Barrymore wit and
+charm, her own beauty, and was in much social demand. By the time she
+prepared to quit England the one gown had seen its best days. She had
+arranged to sail for home on a certain Saturday. The night before
+sailing she was invited to a supper at the home of Anthony Hope. Just as
+she was about to dress she received a telegram from Ellen Terry, who was
+playing at the Lyceum Theater, saying:</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Do come and say good-by before you go.</i>
+
+When she arrived at the Lyceum, the first thing that Miss Terry said
+was, "Sir Henry wants to say good-by to you."</p>
+
+<p>On going into the adjoining dressing-room the great actor said to her:</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't you like to stay in England?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said Miss Barrymore.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you like to play with me?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Coining at her hour of discouragement and despair, it was like manna
+from heaven. Her knees quaked, but she managed to say, "Y-e-s."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Sir Henry. "Go down-stairs. Loveday has a contract
+that is ready for you to sign."</p>
+
+<p>With this precious contract stuffed into her bosom, Miss Barrymore now
+rode in triumph to the Hope supper-party.</p>
+
+<p>"What a pity that you have got to leave England," said Sir Herbert
+Beerbohm Tree.</p>
+
+<p>"But I am going to stay," said Miss Barrymore.</p>
+
+<p>A gasp ran around the table.</p>
+
+<p>"And with whom?" asked Tree.</p>
+
+<p>"With Sir Henry and Miss Terry," was the proud response.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barrymore played that whole season most acceptably with Irving and
+Terry in "The Bells" and "Waterloo," and afterward with Henry B. Irving
+in "Peter the Great."</p>
+
+<p>When she returned to America in 1898 she had a new interest for Charles
+Frohman. Yet the Nemesis of the Understudy, which had pursued her in
+America, still held her in its grip, for she was immediately cast as
+understudy for Ida Conquest in a play called "Catherine" that Frohman
+was about to produce at the Garrick Theater. She had several
+opportunities, however, to play the leading part, and at her every
+appearance she was greeted most enthusiastically. Her youth and
+appealing beauty never failed to get over the footlights.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman was always impressed by this sort of thing. It was about this
+time that he said to a friend of his.</p>
+
+<p>"There is going to be a big development in one of my companies before
+long. There's a daughter of 'Barry' [meaning Maurice Barrymore] who gets
+a big reception wherever she goes. She has got the real stuff in her."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barrymore's first genuine opportunity came when Charles cast her
+for the part of <i>Stella De Gex</i> in Marshall's delightful comedy "His
+Excellency the Governor," which was first put on at the Empire in May,
+1899. The grace and sprightliness that were later to bloom so
+delightfully in Miss Barrymore now found their first real expression.
+Both in New York and on the road she made a big success.</p>
+
+<p>While rehearsing "His Excellency the Governor," Charles sat in the
+darkened auditorium of the Empire one day. When the performance was over
+he walked back on the stage and, patting Miss Barrymore on the shoulder,
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"You're so much like your mother, Ethel. You're all right."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman was not the type of man to lag in interest. He realized what the
+girl's possibilities were, so early in 1901 he sent for Miss Barrymore
+and said to her:</p>
+
+<p>"Ethel, I have a nice part for you at last."</p>
+
+<p>It was the r&ocirc;le of <i>Madame Trentoni</i> in Clyde Fitch's charming play of
+old New York, "Captain Jinks." Now came one of those curious freaks of
+theatrical fortune. "Captain Jinks" opened at the Walnut Street Theater
+in Philadelphia, and seemed to be a complete failure from the start.
+Although the Quakers did not like the play, they evinced an enormous
+interest in the lovely leading woman. From the gallery they cried down:</p>
+
+<p>"We loved your grandmother, Ethel, and we love you."</p>
+
+<p>It was a tribute to the place that Mrs. John Drew had in the affections
+of those staid theater-goers.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the bad start in Philadelphia, Charles believed in Miss
+Barrymore, and he had confidence in "Captain Jinks." He brought the play
+into New York at the Garrick. The expectation was that it might possibly
+run two weeks. Instead, it remained there for seven months and then
+played a complete season on the road.</p>
+
+<p>Now came the turn in the tide of Ethel Barrymore's fortunes. She was
+living very modestly on the top floor of a theatrical boarding-house in
+Thirty-second Street. With the success of "Captain Jinks" she moved down
+to a larger room on the second floor. But a still greater event in her
+life was now to be consummated.</p>
+
+<p>During the third week of the engagement she walked over from
+Thirty-second Street to the theater. As she passed along Sixth Avenue
+she happened to look up, and there, in huge, blazing electric lights,
+she saw the name "Ethel Barrymore." She stood still, and the tears came
+to her eyes. She knew that at last she had become a star.</p>
+
+<p>Charles had said absolutely nothing about it to her. It was his
+unexpected way of giving her the surprise of arriving at the goal of her
+ambition.</p>
+
+<p>The next day she went to Frohman and said, "It was a wonderful thing for
+you to do."</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon Frohman replied, very simply, "It was the only thing to do."</p>
+
+<p>Ethel Barrymore was now a star, and from this time on her stage career
+became one cycle of ripening art and expanding success. A new luminary
+had entered the Frohman heaven, and it was to twinkle with increasing
+brilliancy.</p>
+
+<p>Her next appearance was in a double bill, "A Country Mouse" and
+"Carrots," at the Savoy Theater, in October, 1902. Here came one of the
+first evidences of her versatility. "A Country Mouse" was a comedy;
+"Carrots," on the other hand, was impregnated with the deepest tragedy.
+Miss Barrymore played the part of a sad little boy, and she did it with
+such depth of feeling that discriminating people began to realize that
+she had great emotional possibilities.</p>
+
+<p>Her appearance in "Cousin Kate" the next year was a return to comedy. In
+this play Bruce McRae made his first appearance with her as leading man,
+and he filled this position for a number of years. He was as perfect an
+opposite to her as was John Drew to Ada Rehan. Together they made a
+combination that was altogether delightful.</p>
+
+<p>It was while playing in a piece called "Sunday" that Miss Barrymore
+first read Ibsen's "A Doll's House." She was immensely thrilled by the
+character. She said to Frohman at once: "I must do this part. May I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Here was another revelation of the Barrymore versatility, for she
+invested this strange, weird expression of Ibsen's genius with a range
+of feeling and touch of character that made a deep impression.</p>
+
+<p>Charles now secured the manuscript of "Alice-Sit-By-The-Fire." He was
+immensely taken with this play, not only because it was by his friend
+Barrie, but because he saw in it large possibilities. Miss Barrymore was
+with him in London at this time. Frohman told her the story of the play
+in his rooms at the Savoy, acting it out as he always did with his
+plays. There were two important women characters: the mother, played in
+London by Ellen Terry, who philosophically accepts the verdict of the
+years, and the daughter, played by the popular leading woman Irene
+Vanbrugh, who steps into her place.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you like to play in 'Alice'?" asked Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Miss Barrymore.</p>
+
+<p>"Which part?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would rather have you say," said Miss Barrymore.</p>
+
+<p>Just then the telephone-bell rang. Barrie had called up Frohman to find
+out if he had cast the play.</p>
+
+<p>"I was just talking it over with Miss Barrymore," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>Then there was a pause. Suddenly Frohman turned from the telephone and
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Barrie wants you to play the mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Fine!" said Miss Barrymore. "That is just the part I wanted to do."</p>
+
+<p>In "Alice-Sit-By-The-Fire" Miss Barrymore did a very daring thing. Here
+was an exquisite young woman who was perfectly willing to play the part
+of the mother of a boy of eighteen rather than the younger r&ocirc;le, and she
+did it with such artistic distinction that Barrie afterward said of her:</p>
+
+<p>"I knew I was right when I wanted her to play the mother. I felt that
+she would understand the part."</p>
+
+<p>"Alice-Sit-By-The-Fire" was done as a double bill with "Pantaloon," in
+which Miss Barrymore's brother, John Barrymore, who was now coming to be
+recognized as a very gifted young actor, scored a big success. Later
+another brother, Lionel, himself a brilliant son of his father, appeared
+with her.</p>
+
+<p>The theater-going world was now beginning to look upon Ethel Barrymore
+as one of the really charming fixtures of the stage. What impressed
+every one, most of all Charles Frohman, was the extraordinary ease with
+which she fairly leaped from lightsome comedy to deep and haunting
+pathos. Her work in "The Silver Box," by John Galsworthy, was a
+conspicuous example of this talent. Frohman gave the manuscript of the
+play to Miss Barrymore to read and she was deeply moved by it.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't we do it?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"It is very tragic," said Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mind," said Miss Barrymore. "I want to do it so much!"</p>
+
+<p>In "The Silver Box" she took the part of a charwoman whose life moves in
+piteous tragedy. It registered what, up to that time, was the most
+poignant note that this gifted young woman had uttered. Yet the very
+next season she turned to a typical Clyde Fitch play, "Her Sister," and
+disported herself in charming frocks and smart drawing-room
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Miss Barrymore's career justified every confidence that Charles had felt
+for her. It remained, however, for Pinero's superb if darksome play
+"Midchannel" to give her her largest opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>When Frohman told her about this play he said: "Ethel, I have a big
+play, but it is dark and sad. I don't think you want to do it."</p>
+
+<p>After she had heard the story she said, impulsively: "You are wrong. I
+want to play this part very much."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Frohman. "Go ahead."</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="BARRYMORE" id="BARRYMORE"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-220.png" width="500" height="815" alt="ETHEL BARRYMORE" title="ETHEL BARRYMORE" />
+<span class="caption">ETHEL BARRYMORE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>As <i>Zoe Blundell</i> she had a triumph. In this character she was
+artistically reborn. The sweetness and girlishness now stood aside in
+the presence of a somber and haunting tragedy that was real. Miss
+Barrymore literally made the critics sit up. It recorded a distinct
+epoch in her career, and, as in other instances with a Pinero play, the
+American success far exceeded its English popularity.</p>
+
+<p>When Miss Barrymore did "The Twelve-Pound Look," by Barrie, the
+following year, she only added to the conviction that she was in many
+respects the most versatile and gifted of the younger American
+actresses. Frohman loved "The Twelve-Pound Look" as he loved few plays.
+Its only rival in his regard was "Peter Pan." He went to every
+rehearsal, he saw it at every possible opportunity. Like most others, he
+realized that into this one act of intense life was crowded all the
+human drama, all the human tragedy.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barrymore now sped from grave to gay. When the time came for her to
+rehearse Barrie's fascinating skit, "A Slice of Life," Frohman was ill
+at the Knickerbocker Hotel. He was very much interested in this little
+play, so the rehearsals were held in his rooms at the hotel. There were
+only three people in the cast&mdash;Miss Barrymore, her brother John, and
+Hattie Williams. It was so excruciatingly funny that Frohman would often
+call up the Empire and say:</p>
+
+<p>"Send Ethel over to rehearse. I want to forget my pains."</p>
+
+<p>Charles Frohman lived to see his great expectations of Ethel Barrymore
+realized. He found her the winsome slip of a fascinating girl; he last
+beheld her in the full flower of her maturing art. He was very much
+interested in her transition from the seriousness of "The Shadow" into
+the wholesome humor and womanliness of "Our Mrs. McChesney," a part he
+had planned for her before his final departure. It was one of the many
+swift changes that Miss Barrymore has made, and had he lived he would
+have found still another cause for infinite satisfaction with her.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Another star now swam into the Frohman ken. This was the way of it:</p>
+
+<p>Paul Potter was making a periodical visit to New York in 1901. David
+Belasco came to see him at the Holland House.</p>
+
+<p>"Paul," said he, "C. F. and I want you to make us a version of Ouida's
+'Under Two Flags' for Blanche Bates."</p>
+
+<p>"I never read the novel," said Potter.</p>
+
+<p>"You can dramatize it without reading it," remarked Belasco, and in a
+month he was sitting in Frohman's rooms at Sherry's and Potter was
+reading to them his dramatization of "Under Two Flags," throwing in, for
+good measure, a ride from "Mazeppa" and a snow-storm from "The Queen of
+Sheba."</p>
+
+<p>"I like all but the last scene," said Frohman. "When <i>Cigarette</i> rides
+up those mountains with her lover's pardon, the pardon is, to all
+intents and purposes, delivered. The actual delivery is an anti-climax.
+What the audience want to see is a return to the garret where the lovers
+lived and were happy."</p>
+
+<p>As they walked home that night Belasco said to Potter:</p>
+
+<p>"That was a great point which C. F. made. What remarkable intuition he
+has!"</p>
+
+<p>Frohman and Potter used to watch Belasco at work, teaching the actors to
+act, the singers to sing, the dancers to dance.</p>
+
+<p>Then came a hitch.</p>
+
+<p>"Gros, our scene-painter," said Frohman, "maintains that <i>Cigarette</i>
+couldn't ride up any mountains near the Algerian coast, for the nearest
+mountains are the Atlas Mountains, eight hundred miles away."</p>
+
+<p>He undertook to convert Mr. Gros. Fortunately for him the author of the
+play stood in the Garden Theater while Belasco was rehearsing a dance.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said he, "if it's a comic opera you can have all the mountains you
+please. I thought it was a serious drama."</p>
+
+<p>Then Frohman ventured to criticize the mountain torrent.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter with the torrent?" called Belasco, while <i>Cigarette</i>
+and her horse stood on the slope.</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't look like water at all," said Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>Just then the horse plunged his nose into the torrent and licked it
+furiously. Criticism was silenced. The play was a big, popular success,
+and with it Blanche Bates arrived as star.</p>
+
+<p>One day, a year later, Frohman remarked to Potter in Paris, "What do you
+say to paying Ouida a visit in Florence?"</p>
+
+<p>He and Belasco had paid her considerable royalties. He thought she would
+be gratified by a friendly call. Frohman and Potter obtained letters of
+introduction from bankers, consuls, and Florentine notables, and sent
+them in advance to Ouida. The landlord of the inn gave them a
+resplendent two-horse carriage, with a liveried coachman and a footman.
+Frohman objected to the footman as undemocratic. The landlord insisted
+that it was Florentine etiquette, and shrugged his shoulders when they
+departed, seeming to think that they were bound on a perilous journey.</p>
+
+<p>Through the perfumed, flower-laden hills they climbed, the Arno
+gleaming below. The footman took in their cards to the villa of Mlle. de
+la Ram&eacute;e. He promptly returned.</p>
+
+<p>"The signora is indisposed," he remarked.</p>
+
+<p>The visitors sent him back to ask if they might come some other day.
+Again he returned.</p>
+
+<p>"The signora is indisposed," was the only answer he could get.</p>
+
+<p>Potter and Frohman drove away. Frohman was hurt. He did not try to
+conceal it.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the first author," he said, "who ever turned me down. Anyway,
+the pancakes at lunch were delicious." He met rebuff&mdash;as he met
+loss&mdash;with infinite humor.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Stars now crowded quick and fast into the Frohman firmament. Next came
+Virginia Harned. Daniel Frohman had seen her in a traveling company at
+the Fourteenth Street Theater and engaged her to support E. H. Sothern.
+She later came under Charles's control, and he presented her as star in
+"Alice of Old Vincennes," "Iris," and "The Light that Lies in Woman's
+Eyes."</p>
+
+<p>Effie Shannon and Herbert Kelcey followed. Their first venture with him,
+"Manon Lescaut," was a direful failure, but it was followed up with "My
+Lady Dainty," which was a success.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Frohman had various formulas for making stars. Some he
+discovered outright, others he developed. Here is an example of his
+Christopher Columbus proclivities:</p>
+
+<p>One day he heard that there was a very brilliant young Hungarian actor
+playing a small part down at the Irving Place German Theater in New York
+City. He went to see him, was very much impressed with his ability, sent
+for him, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"If you will study English I will agree to take care of you on the
+English-speaking stage."</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="MARLOWE" id="MARLOWE"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-224.png" width="500" height="810" alt="JULIA MARLOWE" title="JULIA MARLOWE" />
+<span class="caption">JULIA MARLOWE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The man assented, and Frohman paid him a salary all the while he was
+studying English. Before many years he was a well-known star. His name
+was Leo Ditrichstein.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman now got Ditrichstein to adapt "Are You a Mason?" from the
+German, put it on at Wallack's Theater, and it was a huge success.
+Besides Ditrichstein, this cast, which was a very notable one, included
+John C. Rice, Thomas W. Wise, May Robson, Arnold Daly, Cecil De Mille,
+and Sallie Cohen, who had played Topsy in the stranded "Uncle Tom's
+Cabin" Company, whose advance fortunes Frohman had piloted in his
+precarious days on the road.</p>
+
+<p>Just as Frohman led the American invasion in England, so did he now
+bring about the English invasion of America. He had inaugurated it with
+Olga Nethersole. He now introduced to American theater-goers such
+artists as Charles Hawtrey, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Charles Warner, Sir
+Charles Wyndham, Mary Moore, Marie Tempest, and Fay Davis, in whose
+career he was enormously interested. He starred Miss Davis in a group of
+plays ranging from "Lady Rose's Daughter" to "The House of Mirth."</p>
+
+<p>In connection with Mrs. Campbell's first tour occurred another one of
+the famous Frohman examples of quick retort. He was rehearsing this
+highly temperamental lady, and made a constructive criticism which
+nettled her very much. She became indignant, called him to the
+footlights, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to know that I am an artist?"</p>
+
+<p>Frohman, with solemn face, instantly replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Madam, I will keep your secret."</p>
+
+<p>One of the early English importations revealed Frohman's utterly
+uncommercialized attitude toward the theater. He was greatly taken with
+the miracle play "Everyman," and brought over Edith Wynne Mathison and
+Charles Rann Kennedy to do it. He was unable to get a theater, so he put
+them in Mendelssohn Hall.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll make no money with them there," said a friend to him.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't expect to make any," replied Frohman, "but I want the American
+people to see this fine and worthy thing."</p>
+
+<p>The play drew small audiences for some time. Then, becoming the talk of
+the town, it went on tour and repaid him with a profit on his early
+loss.</p>
+
+<p class="space">One of the happiest of Charles Frohman's theatrical associations now
+developed. In 1903, when the famous Weber and Fields organization seemed
+to be headed toward dissolution, Charles Dillingham suggested to Willie
+Collier that he go under the Frohman management. Collier went to the
+Empire Theater and was ushered into Frohman's office.</p>
+
+<p>"It took you a long time to get up here," said the magnate. "How would
+you like to go under my management?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," replied Collier, with his usual humor, "I didn't come up here to
+buy a new hat."</p>
+
+<p>The result was that Collier became a Frohman star and remained one for
+eleven years. He and Frohman were constantly exchanging witty telegrams
+and letters. Frohman sent Collier to Australia. At San Francisco the
+star encountered the famous earthquake. He wired Frohman:</p>
+
+<p>"San Francisco has just had the biggest opening in its history."</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon Frohman, who had not yet learned the full extent of the
+calamity, wired back:</p>
+
+<p>"Don't like openings with so many 'dead-heads.'"</p>
+
+<p class="space">All the while, William Gillette had been thriving as a Frohman star.
+Like many other serious actors, he had an ambition to play <i>Hamlet</i>.
+With Frohman the wishes of his favorite stars were commands, so he
+proceeded to make ready a production. Suddenly Barrie's remarkable play
+"The Admirable Crichton" fell into his hands. He sent for Gillette and
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Gillette, I am perfectly willing that you should play <i>Hamlet</i>, but I
+have just got from Barrie the ideal play for you."</p>
+
+<p>When Gillette read "The Admirable Crichton," he agreed with Frohman, and
+out of it developed one of his biggest successes. "Hamlet," with its
+elaborate production, still awaits Gillette.</p>
+
+<p class="space">In presenting Clara Bloodgood as star in Clyde Fitch's play "The Girl
+with the Green Eyes," Frohman achieved another one of his many
+sensations. The smart, charming girl who had made her d&eacute;but under
+sensational circumstances in "The Conquerors," now saw her name up in
+electric lights for the first time. Frohman's confidence in her, as in
+many of his prot&eacute;g&eacute;s, was more than fulfilled.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles Frohman, who loved to dazzle the world with his Napoleonic
+coups, launched what was up to this time, and which will long remain,
+the most spectacular of theatrical deals. He greatly admired E. H.
+Sothern, who had been associated with him in some of his early ventures.
+The years that Julia Marlowe had played under his joint management had
+endeared her to him. One day he had an inspiration. There had been no
+big Shakespearian revival for some time, so he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Why not unite Sothern and Marlowe and tour the country in a series of
+magnificent Shakespearian productions?"</p>
+
+<p>At that time Julia Marlowe had reverted to the control of Charles
+Dillingham, while Sothern was still under the management of Daniel
+Frohman. Charles now brought the stars together, offered them a
+guarantee of $5,000 a week for a forty weeks' engagement and for three
+seasons. In other words, he pledged these two stars the immense sum of
+$200,000 for each season, which was beyond doubt the largest guarantee
+of the kind ever made in the history of the American theater.</p>
+
+<p>It was just about this time that Joseph Humphreys, Frohman's seasoned
+general stage-manager, succumbed to the terrific strain under which he
+had worked all these years, as both actor and producer. William Seymour
+stepped into his shoes, and has retained that position ever since.</p>
+
+<p>Charles was constantly bringing about revolutions. Through him Francis
+Wilson, for example, departed from musical comedy, in which he had made
+a great success, and took up straight plays. He began with Clyde Fitch's
+French adaptation of "Cousin Billy," and thus commenced a connection
+under Charles Frohman that lasted many years. With him, as with all his
+other stars, there was never a scrap of paper.</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="SOTHERN" id="SOTHERN"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-228.png" width="500" height="687" alt="E. H. SOTHERN" title="E. H. SOTHERN" />
+<span class="caption">E. H. SOTHERN</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Frohman and Wilson met at the Savoy Hotel in London one day. Frohman
+had often urged him to quit musical comedy, and he now said he was ready
+to make the plunge.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Frohman. "I will give you so much a week and a
+percentage of the profits."</p>
+
+<p>"It's done," said Wilson.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you want a contract?" asked Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>This was about all that ever happened in the way of arrangements between
+Frohman and his stars, to some of whom he paid fortunes.</p>
+
+<p>During these years Charles had watched with growing interest the
+development of a young girl from Bloomington, Illinois, Margaret
+Illington by name. She had appeared successfully in the old Lyceum Stock
+Company when it was transferred by Daniel Frohman to Daly's, and had
+played with James K. Hackett and E. H. Sothern. Charles now cast her in
+Pinero's play "A Wife Without a Smile." Afterward she appeared in
+Augustus Thomas's piece "Mrs. Leffingwell's Boots," and made such a
+strong impression that Frohman made her leading woman with John Drew in
+Pinero's "His House in Order."</p>
+
+<p>Just about this time Charles, whose interest in French plays had
+constantly increased through the years, singled out Henri Bernstein as
+the foremost of the younger French playwrights. He secured his
+remarkable play "The Thief" for America. He now produced this play at
+the Lyceum with Miss Illington and Kyrle Bellew as co-stars, and it
+proved to be an enormous success, continuing there for a whole season,
+and then duplicating its triumph on the road, where Frohman at one time
+had four companies playing it in various parts of the country.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h3>
+
+<p class="head">THE CONQUEST OF THE LONDON STAGE</p>
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">G</span> <span class="smcap">reat</span>
+as were Charles Frohman's achievements in America, they were more
+than matched in many respects by his activities in England. He was the
+one American manager who made an impress on the British drama; he led
+the so-called "American invasion." As a matter of fact, he <i>was</i> the
+invasion. No phase of his fascinatingly crowded and adventurous career
+reflects so much of the genius of the man, or reveals so many of his
+finer qualities, as his costly attempt to corner the British stage.
+Here, as in no other work, he showed himself in really Napoleonic
+proportions.</p>
+
+<p>Behind Charles's tremendous operations in London were three definite
+motives. First of all, he really loved England. He felt that the theater
+there had a dignity and a distinction far removed from theatrical
+production in America. There was no sneer of "commercialism" about it.
+To be identified with the stage in England was something to be proud of.
+He often said that he would rather make fifteen pounds in London than
+fifteen thousand dollars in America. It summed up his whole attitude
+toward the theater in Great Britain.</p>
+
+<p>In the second place, he knew that a strong footing in England was
+absolutely necessary to a mastery of the situation in America. Just as
+important as any of his other reasons was the conviction in his own mind
+that to produce the best English-speaking plays in the United States he
+must know English playwrights and English authors on their own ground,
+and to produce, if possible, their own works on their home stages.</p>
+
+<p>This latter desire led him to the long and brilliant series of
+productions that he made in London, and which amounted to what later
+became an almost complete monopoly on British dramatic output for the
+United States.</p>
+
+<p>The net result was that he became a sort of Colossus of the
+English-speaking theater. Figuratively, he stood astride the mighty sea
+in which he was to meet his death, with one foot planted securely in
+England and the other in New York.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles's first visits to England were made in the most unostentatious
+way, largely to look over the ground and see what he could pick up for
+America. His first offices in Henrietta Street were very modest rooms.
+Unpretentious as they were, they represented a somewhat historic step,
+because Frohman was absolutely the first American manager to set up a
+business in England. Augustin Daly had taken over a company, but he
+allied himself in no general way with British theatrical interests.</p>
+
+<p>When Frohman first engaged W. Lestocq as his English manager, as has
+already been recorded, he made a significant remark:</p>
+
+<p>"You know I am coming into London to produce plays. But I am coming in
+by the back door. I shall get to the front door, however, and you shall
+come with me."</p>
+
+<p>No sooner had he set foot in London than his productive activities were
+turned loose. With A. and S. Gatti he put on one of his New York
+successes, "The Lost Paradise," at the Adelphi Theater. In this instance
+he merely furnished the play. It failed, however. Far from discouraging
+Frohman, it only filled him with a desire to do something big.</p>
+
+<p>This play marked the beginning of one of his most important English
+connections. The Gattis, as they were known in England, were prominent
+figures in the British theater. They were Swiss-Italians who had begun
+life in England as waiters, had established a small eating-house, and
+had risen to become the most important restaurateurs of the British
+capital. They became large realty-owners, spread out to the theater, and
+acquired the Adelphi and the Vaudeville.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Frohman's arrangement with them was typical of all his business
+transactions. Some years afterward a well-known English playwright asked
+Stephen Gatti:</p>
+
+<p>"What is your contract with Frohman?"</p>
+
+<p>"We have none. When we want an agreement from Charles Frohman about a
+business transaction it is time to stop," was his reply.</p>
+
+<p>With the production of a French farce called "A Night Out," which was
+done at the Vaudeville Theater in 1896, Frohman began his long and
+intimate association with George Edwardes. This man's name was
+synonymous with musical comedy throughout the amusement world. As
+managing director of the London Gaiety Theater, the most famous musical
+theater anywhere, he occupied a unique position. Charles was the
+principal American importer of the Gaiety shows, and through this and
+various other connections he had much to do with Edwardes.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman and Edwardes were the joint producers of "A Night Out," and it
+brought to Charles his first taste of London success. This was the only
+play in London in which he ever sold his interest. Out of this sale grew
+a curious example of Frohman's disregard of money. For his share he
+received a check of four figures. He carried it around in his pocket for
+weeks. After it had become all crumpled up, Lestocq persuaded him to
+deposit it in the bank. Only when the check was almost reduced to shreds
+did he consent to open an account with it.</p>
+
+<p class="space">It remained for an American play, presenting an American star, to give
+Charles his first real triumph in London. With the production of "Secret
+Service," in 1897, at the Adelphi Theater, he became the real envoy from
+the New World of plays to the Old. It was an ambassadorship that gave
+him an infinite pride, for it brought fame and fortune to the American
+playwright and the American actor abroad. Frohman's envoyship was as
+advantageous to England as it was to the United States, because he was
+the instrument through which the best of the modern English plays and
+the most brilliant of the modern English actors found their hearing on
+this side of the water.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman was immensely interested in the English production of "Secret
+Service." Gillette himself headed the company. Both he and Frohman were
+in a great state of expectancy. The play hung fire until the third act.
+When the big scene came British reserve melted and there was a great
+ovation. It was an immediate success and had a long run.</p>
+
+<p>One feature of the play that amused the critics and theater-goers
+generally in London was the fact that the spy in "Secret Service," who
+was supposed to be the bad man of the play, received all the sympathy
+and the applause, while the hero was arrested and always had the worst
+of it, even when he was denouncing the spy. Gillette's quiet but
+forceful style of acting was a revelation to the Londoners.</p>
+
+<p>It was during this engagement that an intimate friend said to Terriss,
+the great English actor who was distinguished for his impulsiveness:</p>
+
+<p>"Chain yourself to a seat at the Adelphi some night and learn artistic
+repose from Gillette."</p>
+
+<p>Concerning the first night of "Secret Service" is another one of the
+many Frohman stories. When a London newspaper man asked the American
+manager about the magnificent celebration that he was sure had been held
+to commemorate Gillette's triumph, Frohman said:</p>
+
+<p>"There was nothing of the sort. Mr. Dillingham, my manager, and I joined
+Mr. Gillette in his rooms at the Savoy. We had some sandwiches and wine
+and then played 'hearts' for several hours."</p>
+
+<p>This episode inspired Frohman to give utterance to what was the very
+key-note of his philosophy about an actor and his work. Talking with a
+friend in England shortly after the opening of "Secret Service," about
+the modest way in which Gillette regarded his success, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing so kills the healthy growth of an actor and brings his
+usefulness to an end so soon, as the idea that social enjoyment is a
+means to public success, and that industrious labor to improve himself
+is no longer necessary."</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="FERGUSON" id="FERGUSON"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-234.png" width="500" height="718" alt="ELSIE FERGUSON" title="ELSIE FERGUSON" />
+<span class="caption">ELSIE FERGUSON</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Frohman always regarded the success of "Secret Service" as the
+corner-stone of his great achievements in England. Once, in speaking of
+this star's hit, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"You know, what tickles me is the fact that it was left for England to
+discover that Gillette is a great actor. It's one on America."</p>
+
+<p class="space">A few years later, Frohman made his first Paris production with "Secret
+Service." The masterful little man always regarded the world as his
+field; hence the annexation of Paris. He had a version made by Paul de
+Decourcelle, and the play was put on at the Renaissance Theater. Guitry,
+the great French actor, played Gillette's part. A very brilliant
+audience saw the opening performance, but the French did not get the
+atmosphere of the play. They could not determine whether it was serious
+or comic. The character of <i>General Nelson</i> was almost entirely omitted
+in the play because the actors themselves could not tell whether it was
+humor or tragedy. Besides, the French actors wanted to do it their own
+way.</p>
+
+<p>Dillingham, who had charge of the production in Paris, realizing on the
+opening night that it would be a failure, and knowing that he had to
+send Frohman some sort of telegram, cabled, with his customary humor,
+the following:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>The tomb of Napoleon looks beautiful in the moonlight.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>As was the case in England, Charles was the only American manager who
+made any impression upon the French drama. From his earliest producing
+days he had a weakness for producing adapted French plays. From France
+came some of his hugest successes, especially those of Bernstein. He
+"bulled" the French market on prices. The French playwright hailed him
+with joy, for he always left a small fortune behind him.</p>
+
+<p>Having established a precedent with Gillette, he now presented his first
+American woman star in England. It was Annie Russell in Bret Harte's
+story "Sue." He was very fond of this play, having already produced it
+in the United States, and he was very proud of the impression that Miss
+Russell made in London.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Up to this time Frohman had made his English productions in conjunction
+with the Gattis or George Edwardes at the Adelphi, the Vaudeville, or
+the Garrick theaters. This would have satisfied most people. But
+Frohman, who wanted to do things in a big way, naturally desired his own
+English theater, where he could unfurl his own banner and do as he
+pleased.</p>
+
+<p>Early in 1897, therefore, he took what was up to that time his biggest
+English step, for he leased the Duke of York's Theater for nineteen
+years. His name went over the doorway and from that time on this theater
+was the very nerve-center, if not the soul, of Charles Frohman's English
+operations. It was one of the best known and the most substantial of
+British playhouses, located in St. Martin's Lane, in the very heart of
+the theatrical district. He took a vast pride in his control of it. He
+even emblazoned the announcement of his London management on the walls
+of the Empire on Broadway in New York. In his affections it was in
+England what the Empire was to him in America. It was destined to be the
+background of his distinguished artistic endeavors, perhaps the most
+distinguished.</p>
+
+<p>Charles now embarked on a sea of lavish productions. Typical of his
+attitude was his employment of the best-known and highest-salaried
+producer in London. This man was Dion Boucicault, son of the famous
+playwright of the same name, who was himself a very finished and
+versatile actor. He gave the Frohman productions a touch of genuine
+distinction, and his wife, the accomplished Irene Vanbrugh, added much
+to the attractiveness of the Frohman ventures.</p>
+
+<p>The Frohman sponsorship of the Duke of York's was celebrated with a
+magnificent production of Anthony Hope's "The Adventure of Lady Ursula,"
+which had been a success in New York with E. H. Sothern. It ran the
+entire season. The play was put on in the usual Frohman way, so much so
+that the British critics said that "the production, from first to last,
+was correct down to a coat-button."</p>
+
+<p>Until the end of his life the Duke of York's Theater had a large place
+in his heart. At the back of private box F, which was his own box, and
+which was also used for royalty when it visited the play, was a
+comfortable retiring-room, charmingly decorated in red. Here Frohman
+loved to sit and entertain his friends, especially such close intimates
+as Sir James M. Barrie, Haddon Chambers, Sir Arthur Pinero, Henry Arthur
+Jones, Michael Morton, and other English playwrights.</p>
+
+<p>These busy days at the Duke of York's furnished Frohman with many
+amusing episodes. On one occasion he was caught in the self-operating
+elevator of the theater and was kept a prisoner in it for over an hour.
+His employees were in consternation. When he was finally extricated they
+began to apologize most profusely.</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" said Frohman. "I am glad I got stuck. It's the first
+vacation I have had in two years."</p>
+
+<p>The lobby of the Duke of York's illustrates one of Charles's distinctive
+ideas. Instead of ornamenting it with pictures of dead dramatic heroes
+like Shakespeare and Garrick, he filled it with photographs of his live
+American stars. The English theater-goers who went there saw huge
+portraits of Maude Adams, Ethel Barrymore, Marie Doro, John Drew, Otis
+Skinner, and William Gillette.</p>
+
+<p>On one occasion he was held up at the entrance of the Duke of York's by
+a new doorkeeper who asked for his ticket.</p>
+
+<p>"I am Frohman," said the manager.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't help it, sir; you've got to have a ticket."</p>
+
+<p>"You're quite right," said Frohman, who went to the box-office and
+bought himself a stall seat. When the house-manager, James W. Matthews,
+threatened to discharge the doorkeeper, Frohman said:</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not. The man was obeying orders. If he had done otherwise you
+should have discharged him."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman so loved the Duke of York's that he would go back to it and
+witness the same play twenty times. During his last visit to England,
+when his right knee was troubling him, he telephoned down one night to
+have his box reserved. Matthews, to spare him any trouble, had a little
+platform built so that he would not have to walk up the steps. Two weeks
+later, Frohman again telephoned that he wanted the box held, and added:</p>
+
+<p>"I am better now. Don't bother to build a theater for me."</p>
+
+<p>Curiously enough, the first failure that Charles had at the Duke of
+York's was "The Christian," which had scored such an enormous success in
+America. But failure only spurred him on to further efforts. When an
+English friend condoled with him about his loss on this occasion he
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Forget it. Don't let's revive the past. Let's get busy and pulverize
+the future."</p>
+
+<p class="space">To the average mind the extent of Frohman's London productions is
+amazing. When the simple fact is stated that he made one hundred and
+twenty-five of these, one obtains at a glance the immense scope of the
+man's operations there. Many of them stand out brilliantly. Early among
+them was the Frohman-Belasco presentation of Mrs. Leslie Carter in two
+of her greatest successes at the Garrick Theater.</p>
+
+<p>The first was "The Heart of Maryland." It was during this engagement
+that Charles bought the English rights to "Zaza," then a sensational
+success in Paris. It was his original intention to star Julia Marlowe in
+this play. When Belasco heard of the play he immediately saw it was an
+ideal vehicle for Mrs. Carter, and Frohman generously turned it over to
+him. After its great triumph in the United States, Frohman and Belasco
+produced "Zaza" in London.</p>
+
+<p>It was a huge success and made the kind of sensation in which Frohman
+delighted. There was much question as to its propriety, so much so that
+the Lord Chamberlain himself, who supervised the censorship, came and
+witnessed the performance. He made no objection, however.</p>
+
+<p>An amusing incident, which shows the extraordinary devotion of Charles
+Frohman's friends, occurred on the first night. While attending the
+rehearsals at the Garrick, Frohman caught cold and went to bed with a
+slight attack of pneumonia. On the inaugural night he lay bedridden. He
+was so eager for news of the play that he said to Dillingham:</p>
+
+<p>"Send me all the news you can."</p>
+
+<p>Dillingham organized a bicycle service, and every fifteen minutes sent
+encouraging and cheering bulletins to Frohman, who was so elated that he
+was able to emerge from bed the next morning a well man.</p>
+
+<p>Now the interesting thing about this episode is that Dillingham
+fabricated most of the messages, because, until the end of the play and
+for several days thereafter, its success was very much in doubt. Indeed,
+it took more than a week for it to "catch on."</p>
+
+<p>Charles followed up "Zaza" with a superb production of "Madame
+Butterfly," in which he used Belasco's beautiful equipment. This
+production put the artistic seal on Frohman's achievement as a London
+manager. Up to this time there were some who believed that, despite the
+lavishness of his policy, there was the germ of the commercial in him.
+"Madame Butterfly" removed this, but if there had been any doubt
+remaining, it would have been wiped out by his exquisite presentation of
+"The First Born." Associated with this play is a story that shows
+Frohman's dogged determination and resource.</p>
+
+<p>Belasco had made the production of "The First Born" in America in lavish
+fashion. He brought to it all his love and knowledge of Chinese art.</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="MAY" id="MAY"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-240.png" width="500" height="762" alt="EDNA MAY" title="EDNA MAY" />
+<span class="caption">EDNA MAY</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>A rival manager, W. A. Brady, wishing to emulate the success of "The
+First Born," got together a production of "The Cat and the Cherub,"
+another Chinese play, and secured time in London, hoping to beat
+Frohman out. It now became a race between Frohman and Brady for the
+first presentation in London. Both managers were in America. Brady got
+his production off first. When Frohman heard of it he said:</p>
+
+<p>"We must be in London first."</p>
+
+<p>"But there are no sailings for a week," said one of his staff.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we will hire a boat," was his retort.</p>
+
+<p>However, there proved to be no need for this enterprise, because a
+regular sailing developed.</p>
+
+<p>"The Cat and the Cherub" won the race across the Atlantic and was
+produced first. It took the edge off the novelty of "The First Born,"
+which was a failure, but its fine quality gave Charles the premier place
+as an artistic producer in England, and he never regretted having made
+the attempt despite the loss.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman became immersed in a multitude of things. In September, 1901,
+for example, he was interested in five English playhouses&mdash;the Aldwych,
+the Shaftesbury, the Vaudeville, and the Criterion, as well as the Duke
+of York's. He had five different plays going at the same time&mdash;"Sherlock
+Holmes," "Are You a Mason?" "Bluebell in Fairyland," "The Twin Sister,"
+and "The Girl from Maxim's." This situation was typical of his English
+activities from that time until his death.</p>
+
+<p class="space">The picturesqueness of detail which seemed to mark the beginning of so
+many of Charles Frohman's personal and professional friendships attended
+him in England, as the case of his first experience with Edna May shows.</p>
+
+<p>One hot night late in the summer season of 1900 Frohman was having
+supper alone on his little private balcony at the Savoy Hotel
+overlooking the Thames. It was before the Strand wing of the hostelry
+had been built. As he sat there, clad only in pajamas and smoking a
+large black cigar, he heard a terrific din on the street below. There
+was cheering, shouting, and clapping of hands. Summoning a waiter, he
+asked:</p>
+
+<p>"What's all that noise about?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's only Miss Edna May coming to supper, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Why all this fuss?" continued Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you see, sir," answered the servant, "they are bringing her back
+in triumph."</p>
+
+<p>When Frohman made investigation he found that the doctors and nurses at
+the Middlesex Hospital in London, where Edna May frequently sang for the
+patients, had engaged the whole gallery of the Shaftesbury Theater where
+she was singing in "The American Beauty," and attended in a body. After
+the play they had surrounded her at the stage entrance, unhitched the
+horse from her little brougham, and hauled her through the streets to
+the Savoy.</p>
+
+<p>This episode made a tremendous impression on Frohman. He was always
+drawn to the people who could create a stir. He had heard that Edna May
+was nearing the end of her contract with George Lederer, so he entered
+into negotiations with her, and that autumn she passed under his
+management and remained so until she retired in 1907.</p>
+
+<p>In the case of Edna May there could be no star-making. The spectacular
+rise of this charming girl from the chorus to the most-talked-of musical
+comedy r&ocirc;le in the English-speaking world&mdash;that of the Salvation Army
+girl in "The Belle of New York"&mdash;had given her a great reputation.
+Frohman now capitalized that reputation in his usual elaborate fashion.
+He first presented Miss May in "The Girl from Up There."</p>
+
+<p>She appeared under his management in various pieces, both in New York
+and in London. Her company in New York included Montgomery and Stone,
+Dan Daly, and Virginia Earle. When he presented Miss May at the Duke of
+York's in "The Girl from Up There" the result was the biggest business
+that the theater had known up to that time. In succession followed
+"Kitty Gray," which ran a year in London, "Three Little Maids," and "La
+Poup&eacute;e."</p>
+
+<p>All the while there was being written for Miss May a musical piece in
+which she was to achieve one of her greatest successes, and which was to
+bring Charles into contact with another one of his future stars. It was
+"The School Girl," which Frohman first did in May, 1903, in London, and
+afterward put on with great success at Daly's in New York.</p>
+
+<p>In the English production of this play was a petite, red-haired little
+girl named Billie Burke, who sang a song called "Put Me in My Little
+Canoe," which became one of the hits of the play. Frohman was immensely
+attracted by this girl, and afterward took her under his patronage and
+she became one of his best-known stars.</p>
+
+<p>Edna May, under Frohman's direction, was now perhaps the best known of
+the musical comedy stars in England and America. He took keen delight in
+her success. In "The Catch of the Season," which he did at Daly's in New
+York in August, 1905, she practically bade farewell to the American
+stage. Henceforth Frohman kept her in England. In "The Belle of Mayfair"
+she was succeeded by Miss Burke in the leading part. Frohman's
+production of "Nelly Neil" at the Aldwych Theater in 1907 was one of the
+most superb musical comedy presentations ever made. For this Frohman
+imported Joseph Coyne from America to do the leading juvenile r&ocirc;le. He
+became such a great favorite that he has remained in England ever since.</p>
+
+<p>Just as Edna May had bidden farewell to America in "The Catch of the
+Season," so she now bade farewell to the English stage in "Nelly Neil."
+She had become engaged to Oscar Lewisohn, who insisted on an early
+marriage. About this time Frohman and George Edwardes secured the
+English rights to "The Merry Widow." They both urged Miss May to
+postpone her marriage and appear in it. Miss May was now compelled to
+decide between matrimony and what would have been perhaps her greatest
+success, and she chose matrimony.</p>
+
+<p>Her good-by appearance on the stage, May 1, 1907, was one of the most
+extraordinary events in the history of the English theater. This lovely,
+unassuming American girl had so completely endeared herself to the
+hearts of the London theater-goers that she was made the center of a
+tumultuous farewell. The day the seat-sale opened there was a queue
+several blocks long. During the opening performance Charles sat in his
+box alone. When some friends entered he was in tears. He had a genuine
+personal affection for Miss May, and her retirement touched him very
+deeply.</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="BURKE" id="BURKE"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-244.png" width="500" height="817" alt="BILLIE BURKE" title="BILLIE BURKE" />
+<span class="caption">BILLIE BURKE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>In connection with "Nelly Neil" there is a little story which
+illustrates Charles's attitude toward his productions. He had spent a
+fortune on "Nelly Neil," and it was not a financial success. After
+giving it every chance he instructed Lestocq to put up the two weeks'
+notice. Lestocq remarked that it was a shame to end such a
+magnificent presentation. Whereupon Frohman turned around quickly and
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Shut up, or I'll run it another month. You know, Lestocq, if I don't
+keep a hand on myself sometimes my sentiment will be the ruin of me."</p>
+
+<p class="space">By this time Frohman and James M. Barrie had become close friends. The
+manager had produced "Quality Street" at the Vaudeville Theater with
+great success. He now approached a Barrie production which gave him
+perhaps more pleasure than anything he did in his whole stage life. The
+advent of "Peter Pan" was at hand. The remarkable story of how Charles
+got the manuscript of "Peter Pan" has already been told in this
+biography.</p>
+
+<p>The original title that Barrie gave the play was "The Great White
+Father," which Frohman liked. Just as soon as Barrie suggested that it
+be named after its principal character, Frohman fairly overflowed with
+enthusiasm. In preparing for "Peter Pan" in England, Charles was like a
+child with a toy. Money was spent lavishly; whole scenes were made and
+never used. He regarded it as a great and rollicking adventure.</p>
+
+<p>The first production of the Barrie masterpiece on any stage took place
+at the Duke of York's Theater, London, on December 27, 1904. Frohman was
+then in America. At his country place up at White Plains, only his close
+friend, Paul Potter, with him, he eagerly awaited the verdict. It was a
+bitterly cold night, and a snow-storm was raging. Frohman's secretary in
+the office in New York had arranged to telephone the news of the play's
+reception which Lestocq was expected to cable from London. On account of
+the storm the message was delayed.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman was nervous. He kept on saying, "Will it never come?" His heart
+was bound up in the fortunes of this beloved fairy play. While he waited
+with Potter, Frohman acted out the whole play, getting down on all-fours
+to illustrate the dog and crocodile. He told it as <i>Wendy</i> would have
+told it, for <i>Wendy</i> was one of his favorites. Finally at midnight the
+telephone-bell rang. Potter took down the receiver. Frohman jumped up
+from his chair, saying, eagerly, "What's the verdict?" Potter listened a
+moment, then turned, and with beaming face repeated Lestocq's cablegram:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Peter Pan all right. Looks like a big success.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>This was one of the happiest nights in Frohman's life.</p>
+
+<p>The first <i>Peter</i> in England was Nina Boucicault, who played the part
+with great wistfulness and charm. She was the first of a quartet which
+included Cissy Loftus, Pauline Chase, and Madge Titheradge.</p>
+
+<p>Charles so adored "Peter Pan" that he produced it in Paris, June 1,
+1909, at the Vaudeville Theater, with an all-English cast headed by
+Pauline Chase. Robb Harwood was <i>Captain Hook</i>, and Sibyl Carlisle
+played <i>Mrs. Darling</i>. It was produced under the direction of Dion
+Boucicault. The first presentation was a great hit, and the play ran for
+five weeks. On the opening night Barrie and Frohman each had a box.
+Frohman was overjoyed at its success, and Barrie, naturally, could not
+repress his delight. What pleased them most was the spectacle of row
+after row of little French kiddies, who, while not understanding a word
+of the narrative, seemed to be having the time of their lives.</p>
+
+<p>From the date of its first production until his death, "Peter Pan"
+became a fixed annual event in the English life of Charles Frohman. He
+revived it every year at holiday-time. No occasion in his calendar was
+more important than the annual appearance of the fascinating boy who had
+twined himself about the American manager's heart.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles was now a conspicuous and prominent figure in English theatrical
+life. The great were his friends and his opinion was much quoted. In
+addition to his sole control of the Duke of York's, he had interests in
+a dozen other playhouses. He liked the English way of doing business.
+Yet, despite what many people believed to be a strong pro-British
+tendency, he was always deeply and patriotically American, and he lost
+several fortunes in pioneering the American play and the American actor
+in England.</p>
+
+<p>To name the American plays that he produced in London would be to give
+almost a complete catalogue of American drama revealed to English eyes.
+Curiously enough, at least two plays, "The Lion and the Mouse" and "Paid
+in Full," that had made enormous successes in America, failed utterly in
+England under his direction. He gave England such typically American
+dramas as "The Great Divide," "Brewster's Millions," "Alias Jimmy
+Valentine," "Years of Discretion," "A Woman's Way," "On the Quiet," and
+"The Dictator."</p>
+
+<p>In addition to Gillette he presented Billie Burke in "Love Watches,"
+William Collier in "The Dictator" and "On the Quiet," and Ethel
+Barrymore in "Cynthia."</p>
+
+<p>With his presentation of Collier he did one of his characteristic
+strokes of enterprise. Marie Tempest was playing at the Comedy in
+London. He had always been anxious to try Collier's unctuous American
+humor on the British, so the American comedian swapped engagements with
+Miss Tempest. She came over to the Criterion in New York to do "The
+Freedom of Suzanne," while Collier took her time at the Comedy in "The
+Dictator." He scored a great success and remained nearly a year.</p>
+
+<p class="space">The time was now ripe for the most brilliant of all the Charles Frohman
+achievements in England. Had he done nothing else than the Repertory
+Theater he would have left for himself an imperishable monument of
+artistic endeavor. The extraordinary feature of this undertaking was
+that it was left for an American to finance and promote in the very
+cradle of the British drama the highest and finest attempt yet made to
+encourage that drama. The Repertory Theater would have proclaimed any
+manager the open-handed patron of drama for drama's sake.</p>
+
+<p>The National or Repertory Theater idea, which was the antidote for the
+long run, the agency for the production of plays that had no sustained
+box-office virtue, which took the speculative feature out of production,
+had been preached in England for some time. Granville Barker had tried
+it at the Court Theater, where the Shaw plays had been produced
+originally. The movement lagged; it needed energy and money.</p>
+
+<p>Barrie had been a disciple of the Repertory Theater from the start. He
+knew that there was only one man in the world who could make the attempt
+in the right way. One day in 1909 he said to Frohman:</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you establish a Repertory Theater?"</p>
+
+<p>Then he explained in a few words what he had in mind.</p>
+
+<p>Without a moment's hesitation Frohman said, briskly:</p>
+
+<p>"All right, I'll do it."</p>
+
+<p>With these few words he committed himself to an enterprise that cost him
+a fortune. But it was an enterprise that revealed, perhaps as nothing in
+his career had revealed, the depths of his artistic nature.</p>
+
+<p>With his marvelous grasp of things, Frohman swiftly got at the heart of
+the Repertory proposition. When he launched the enterprise at the Duke
+of York's he said:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Repertory companies are usually associated in the public mind with
+the revival of old masterpieces, but if you want to know the
+character of my repertory project at the Duke of York's, I should
+describe it as the production of new plays by living authors.
+Whatever it accomplishes, it will represent the combined resources
+of actor and playwright working with each other, a combination that
+seems to me to represent the most necessary foundation of any
+theatrical success.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Frohman stopped at nothing in carrying out the Repertory Theater idea.
+He engaged Granville Barker to produce most of the plays. Barker in turn
+surrounded himself with a superb group of players. The most brilliant of
+the stage scenic artists in England, headed by Norman Wilkinson, were
+engaged to design the scenes. Every possible detail that money could buy
+was lavished on this project.</p>
+
+<p>The result was a series of plays that set a new mark for English
+production, that put stimulus behind the so-called "unappreciated" play,
+and gave the English-speaking drama something to talk about&mdash;and to
+remember. The mere unadorned list of the plays produced is impressive.
+They were "Justice," by John Galsworthy; "Misalliance," by Bernard Shaw;
+"Old Friends" and the "The Twelve-Pound Look," by James M. Barrie; "The
+Sentimentalists," by George Meredith; "Madras House," by Granville
+Barker; "Chains," by Elizabeth Baker; "Prunella," by Lawrence Housman
+and Granville Barker; "Helena's Path," by Anthony Hope and Cosmo Gordon
+Lenox, and a revival of "Trelawney of the Wells," by Sir Arthur Pinero.</p>
+
+<p>The way "The Twelve-Pound Look" came to be produced is interesting. When
+the repertory for the theater was being discussed one day by Barrie and
+Barker at the former's flat in Adelphi Terrace House, Barker said:</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't you got a one-act play that we could do?"</p>
+
+<p>Barrie thought a moment, scratched his head, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I think I wrote one about six months ago when I was recovering from
+malaria. You might find it somewhere in that desk." He pointed toward
+the flat-top table affair on which he had written "The Little Minister"
+and "Peter Pan."</p>
+
+<p>Barker rummaged around through the drawers and finally found a
+manuscript written in Barrie's hieroglyphic hand. It was "The
+Twelve-Pound Look."</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="CHASE" id="CHASE"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-250.png" width="500" height="843" alt="PAULINE CHASE" title="PAULINE CHASE" />
+<span class="caption">PAULINE CHASE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The production of "Justice" was generally regarded in England as the
+finest example of stage production that has been made within the last
+twenty-five years. Despite the expense, and the fact that Frohman
+insisted upon making each play a splendid production, the Repertory
+Theater prospered. It ran from February 21, 1910, until the middle of
+May. Its run was temporarily terminated by the death of King Edward
+VII., and it was impossible to revive the project successfully after
+the formal period of mourning closed.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman's constantly widening activities in London made it necessary for
+him to have more spacious quarters. The story of his offices really
+tells the story of his work, for they increased in scope as his
+operations widened. When he leased the Aldwych Theater he set up his
+headquarters there. With the acquisition of the Globe he needed more
+room, and this theater became the seat of his managerial operations. In
+1913, and with characteristic lavishness, he engaged what is perhaps the
+finest suite of theatrical offices in London. They were in a marble
+structure known as Trafalgar House, in Waterloo Place, one of the
+choicest and most expensive locations in the city.</p>
+
+<p>Here he had a suite of six rooms. Like the man himself, his own personal
+quarters were very simple. There was a long, high-ceiled room, with a
+roll-top desk, which was never used, at one end, and a low morris-chair
+at the other. From this morris-chair and from his rooms at the Savoy
+Hotel he ruled his English realm.</p>
+
+<p>Charles's love for his stars never lagged, and wherever it was possible
+for him to surround himself with their pictures he did so. As a result,
+the visitor to his London rooms found him surrounded by the familiar
+faces of Maude Adams, Ethel Barrymore, Ann Murdock, Marie Doro, Julia
+Sanderson, William Gillette, and John Drew. On the roll-top desk, side
+by side, were the pictures of his two <i>Peter Pans</i>, Miss Adams and
+Pauline Chase.</p>
+
+<p>Charles's last London production, strangely enough, consisted of two
+plays by his closest friend, Barrie. This double bill was "The New
+Word," a fireside scene, which was followed by "Rosy Rapture."</p>
+
+<p>By a strange coincidence his first English venture was a failure, and so
+was his last. Yet the long and brilliant journey between these two dates
+was a highway that any man might have trod with pride. The
+English-speaking drama received an impetus and a standard that it never
+would have had without his unflagging zeal and his generous purse. He
+left an influence upon the English stage that will last.</p>
+
+<p>What endeared him perhaps more than anything else to England was the
+smiling serenity with which he met criticism and loss. There may have
+been times when the English resented his desire for monopoly, but they
+forgot it in tremendous admiration for his courage and his resource. He
+revolutionized the economics of the British stage; he invested it with
+life, energy, action; he established a whole new relation between author
+and producer. Here, as in America, he was the pioneer and the builder.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h3>
+
+<p class="head">BARRIE AND THE ENGLISH FRIENDSHIPS</p>
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">T</span> <span class="smcap">he</span>
+fortunes of Charles Frohman's English productions ebbed and flowed;
+actors and actresses came and went; to him it was all part of a big and
+fascinating game. What really counted and became permanent were the
+man's friendships, often made in the theatrical world of make-believe,
+but always cemented in the domain of very sincere reality. In England
+were some of his dearest personal bonds.</p>
+
+<p>They grew out of the fact that Charles had the rare genius of inspiring
+loyal friendship. He gave much and he got much. Yet, like Stevenson, it
+was a case of "a few friends, but these without capitulation."</p>
+
+<p>In England he seemed to be a different human being. The inaccessibility
+that hedged him about in America vanished. He emerged from his unsocial
+shell; he gave out interviews; he relaxed and renewed his youth in jaunt
+and jest. His annual trip abroad, therefore, was like a joyous
+adventure. It mattered little if he made or lost a fortune each time.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman was happy in London. He liked the soft, gray tones of the somber
+city. "It's so restful," he always said. Even the "bobbie" delighted
+him. He would watch the stolid policeman from the curb and say,
+admiringly: "He is wonderful; he raises his hand and all London stops."
+He was greatly interested in the traffic regulations.</p>
+
+<p>Although he had elaborate offices, his real London headquarters were in
+the Savoy Hotel. Here, in the same suite that he had year after year,
+and where he was known to all employees from manager to page, he
+literally sat enthroned, for his favorite fashion was to curl up on a
+settee with his feet doubled under him. More than one visitor who saw
+him thus ensconced called him a "beaming Buddha."</p>
+
+<p>From his informal eminence he ruled his world. Around him assembled the
+Knights of the Dramatic Round Table. Wherever Frohman sat became the
+unofficial capitol of a large part of the English-speaking stage. In
+those Savoy rooms there was made much significant theatrical history. To
+the little American came Barrie, Pinero, Chambers, Jones, Sutro,
+Maugham, Morton, with their plays; Alexander, Tree, Maude, Hicks,
+Barker, Bouchier, with their projects.</p>
+
+<p>Like Charles Lamb, Frohman loved to ramble about London. Often he would
+stop in the midst of his work, hail a taxi, and go for a drive in the
+green parks. The Zoological Gardens always delighted him. He frequently
+stopped to watch the animals. The English countryside always lured him,
+especially the long green hedges, which held a peculiar fascination. He
+walked considerably in the country and in town, and he took great
+delight in peering in shop windows.</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="BARRIE" id="BARRIE"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-254.png" width="500" height="674" alt="JAMES M. BARRIE" title="JAMES M. BARRIE" />
+<span class="caption">JAMES M. BARRIE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>In London, as in New York, the theater was his life and inspiration.
+Almost without exception he went to a performance of some kind every
+evening. At most of the London theaters he was always given the royal
+box whenever possible. He liked the atmosphere of the British
+playhouse. He always said it was more like a drawing-room than a place
+of amusement.</p>
+
+<p class="space">To Charles, London meant J. M. Barrie, and to be with the man who wrote
+"Peter Pan" was one of his supreme delights. The devotion between these
+two men of such widely differing temperaments constitutes one of the
+really great friendships of modern times. Character of an unusual kind,
+on both sides, was essential to such a communion of interest and
+affection. Both possessed it to a remarkable degree.</p>
+
+<p>No two people could have been more opposite. Frohman was quick, nervous,
+impulsive, bubbling with optimism; Barrie was the quiet, canny Scot,
+reserved, repressed, and elusive. Yet they had two great traits in
+common&mdash;shyness and humor. As Barrie says:</p>
+
+<p>"Because we were the two shyest men in the world, we got on so well and
+understood each other so perfectly."</p>
+
+<p>There was another bond between these two men in the fact that each
+adored his mother. In Charles's case he was the pride and the joy of the
+maternal heart; with Barrie the root and inspiration of all his life and
+work was the revered "Margaret Ogilvy." He is the only man in all the
+world who ever wrote a life of his mother.</p>
+
+<p>There was still another and more tangible community of interest between
+these two remarkable men. Each detested the silk hat. Frohman had never
+worn one since the Haverly Minstrel days, when he had to don the tile
+for the daily street parade. Barrie, in all his life, has had only one
+silk hat. It is of the vintage of the early 'seventies. The only
+occasion when he wears the much-detested headgear is at the first
+rehearsal of the companies that do his plays. Then he attires himself in
+morning clothes, goes to the theater, nervously holds the hat in his
+hand while he is introduced to the actors and actresses. Just as Charles
+used to hide his silk hat as soon as the minstrel parade was over and
+put on a cap, so does Barrie send the objectionable headgear home as
+soon as these formalities are over and welcome his more comfortable
+bowler as an old friend.</p>
+
+<p>Curiously enough, Frohman and Barrie did not drift together at once.
+When the little Scotchman made his first visit to America in 1896 and
+"discovered" Maude Adams as the inspired person to act <i>Lady Babbie</i>, he
+met the man who was to be his great friend in a casual business way
+only. The negotiations for "The Little Minister" from England were
+conducted through an agent.</p>
+
+<p>But when Frohman went abroad the following year the kinship between the
+men started, and continued with increasing intimacy. The men became
+great pals. They would wander about London, Barrie smoking a short,
+black pipe, Frohman swinging his stick. On many of these strolls they
+walked for hours without saying a word to each other. Each had the great
+gift of silence&mdash;the rare sense of understanding.</p>
+
+<p>Barrie and his pipe are inseparable, as the world knows. There is a
+legend in London theatrical lore that Frohman wanted to drive to
+Barrie's flat one night. He was in his usual merry mood, so the
+instruction he gave was this:</p>
+
+<p>"Drive to the Strand, go down to Adelphi Terrace, and stop at the first
+smell of pipe smoke."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman never tired of asking Barrie about "Peter Pan." It was a
+curious commentary on the man's tenacity of interest and purpose that,
+although he made nearly seven hundred productions in his life, the play
+of the "Boy Who Would Never Grow Up" tugged most at his heart. Nor did
+Barrie ever weary of telling him how the play began as a nursery tale
+for children; how their insistent demand to "tell us more" made it the
+"longest story in the world"; how, when one pirate had been killed,
+little Peter (the original of the character, now a soldier in the great
+war) excitedly said: "One man isn't enough; let's kill a lot of them."</p>
+
+<p>No one will be surprised to know that in connection with "Peter Pan" is
+one of the most sweetly gracious acts in Frohman's life. The original of
+<i>Peter</i> was sick in bed at his home when the play was produced in
+London. The little lad was heartsick because he could not see it. When
+Frohman came to London Barrie told him about it.</p>
+
+<p>"If the boy can't come to the play, we will take the play to the boy,"
+he said.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman sent his company out to the boy's home with as many "props" as
+could be jammed into the sick-room. While the delighted and excited
+child sat propped up in bed the wonders of the fairy play were unfolded
+before him. It is probably the only instance where a play was done
+before a child in his home.</p>
+
+<p>As most people know, Barrie, at his own expense, erected a statue of
+<i>Peter Pan</i> in Kensington Gardens as his gift to the children of London
+who so adored his play. It was done as a surprise, for the statue stood
+revealed one May Day morning, having been set up during the night.</p>
+
+<p>When he planned this statue Barrie mentioned it casually to Frohman, and
+said nothing more about it. Frohman never visited the park to see it,
+but when the model was put on exhibition at the Academy he said to
+Lestocq one day:</p>
+
+<p>"Where is that <i>Peter Pan</i> model?" When he was told he said: "I want to
+see it, but do I have to look at anything else in the gallery?" On being
+assured that he did not, he said, "All right."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman went to the Academy, bolted straight for the sculpture-room, and
+stood for a quarter of an hour gazing intently at the graceful figure of
+<i>Peter</i> playing his pipe. Then he walked out again, without stopping to
+look at any of the lovely things about him. It was characteristic of
+Frohman to do just the thing he had in mind to do and nothing else.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman and Barrie seldom wrote to each other. When they did it was a
+mere scrawl that no other human being in the world could read. The only
+cablegram that Barrie ever sent Frohman was about "What Every Woman
+Knows." Hilda Trevelyan played <i>Maggie Wylie</i>. Barrie liked her work so
+much that he cabled Frohman about it on the opening night. When the
+actress went down to breakfast the next morning to read what the
+newspapers said about her she found on her plate a cable from Frohman
+doubling her salary. It was Frohman's answer to Barrie.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman's faith in Barrie was marvelous. It was often said in jest in
+London that if Barrie had asked Frohman to produce a dramatization of
+the Telephone Directory he would smile and say with enthusiasm:</p>
+
+<p>"Fine! Who shall we have in the cast?"</p>
+
+<p>One of the great Frohman-Barrie adventures was in Paris. It illustrates
+so completely the relation between these men that it is worth giving in
+detail.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman was in Paris, and after much telegraphic insistence persuaded
+his friend to come over on his first visit to the French capital.
+Frohman was aglow with anticipation. He wanted to give Barrie the time
+of his life.</p>
+
+<p>"What would a literary man like to do in Paris?" was the question he
+asked himself.</p>
+
+<p>In his usual generous way he planned the first night, for Barrie was to
+arrive in the afternoon. He was then living at the H&ocirc;tel Meurice, in the
+Rue Royale, so he engaged a magnificent suite for his guest. He ordered
+a sumptuous dinner at the Caf&eacute; de Paris, bought a box at the Th&eacute;&acirc;tre
+Fran&ccedil;ais, and engaged a smart victoria for the evening.</p>
+
+<p>Barrie was dazed at the splendor of the Meurice suite, but he survived
+it. When Frohman spoke of the Caf&eacute; de Paris dinner he said he would
+rather dine quietly at the hotel, so the elaborate meal was given up.</p>
+
+<p>"Now what would you like to do this evening?" asked his host.</p>
+
+<p>"Are there any of those country fairs around here, where they have side
+shows and you can throw balls at things?" asked Barrie.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman, who had box seats for the most classic of all Continental
+theaters in his pocket, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, there is one in Neuilly."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Barrie, "let's go there."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll drive out in a victoria," meekly suggested Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Barrie, "I think it would be more fun to go on a 'bus."</p>
+
+<p>With the unused tickets for the Th&eacute;&acirc;tre Fran&ccedil;ais in his waistcoat, and
+the smart little victoria still waiting in front of the Meurice (for
+Frohman forgot to order the man home), the two friends started for the
+country fair, where they spent the whole evening throwing balls at what
+the French call "Aunt Sally." It is much like the old-fashioned
+side-show at an American county fair. A negro pokes his head through a
+hole in the canvas, and every time the thrower hits the head he gets a
+knife. When Frohman and Barrie returned to the Meurice that night they
+had fifty knives between them. The next night they repeated this
+performance until they had knives enough to start a hardware-store. This
+was the simple and childlike way that these two men, each a genius in
+his own way, disported themselves on a holiday.</p>
+
+<p>One more incident will show the amazing accord between Frohman and
+Barrie. They were constantly playing jokes on each other, like two
+youngsters. One day they were talking in Frohman's rooms at the Savoy
+when a certain actress was announced.</p>
+
+<p>"I would like to know what this woman really thinks of me," said Barrie.
+"I have never met her."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Frohman, "you pretend to be my secretary."</p>
+
+<p>The woman came up and had a long talk with Frohman, during which she
+gave her impressions, not very flattering, of British playwrights in
+general and Barrie in particular. All the while the little Scot sat
+solemnly at a near-by desk, sorting papers and occasionally handing one
+to Frohman to sign. When the woman left they nearly exploded with
+laughter.</p>
+
+<p>One of Frohman's delights when in England was to go to Barrie's flat in
+London, overlooking the Victoria Embankment. He liked this place, first
+of all, because it was Barrie's. Then, too, he could sit curled up in
+the corner on a settee, smoking a fat, black cigar, and look out on the
+historic Thames. Here he knew he would not have to talk. It was the
+place of Silence and Understanding. He was in an atmosphere he loved. In
+the flat above lives John Galsworthy; down-stairs dwells Granville
+Barker; while just across the street is the domicile of Bernard Shaw,
+whose windows face Barrie's.</p>
+
+<p>When Barrie wanted to notify Shaw that Frohman was with him, he would
+throw bread-crusts against Shaw's window-panes. In a few moments the
+sash would fly up and the familiar, grinning, bearded face would pop
+out. On one of the occasions Shaw yelled across:</p>
+
+<p>"Are you inviting me to a feast, Barrie&mdash;are you casting bread upon the
+troubled waters or is it just Frohman?"</p>
+
+<p>In view of Frohman's perfect adoration of Barrie&mdash;and it amounted to
+nothing else&mdash;it is interesting, as a final glimpse of the relation
+between these men, to see what the American thought of his friend's
+work. In analyzing Barrie's work once, Frohman said:</p>
+
+<p>"Barrie's distinctive note is humanity. There is rich human blood in
+everything he writes. He is a satirist whose arrows are never barbed
+with vitriol, but with the milk of human kindness; a humanist who never
+surfeits our senses, but leaves much for our willing imagination; an
+optimist whose message is as compelling for its reasonableness as it is
+welcome for its gentleness."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Through Barrie and "Peter Pan" came another close and devoted friendship
+in Charles Frohman's life&mdash;the one with Pauline Chase. This American
+girl had been engaged by one of Frohman's stage-managers for a small
+part with Edna May in "The Girl from Up There." Frohman did not even
+know her in those days. After she made her great success as the Pink
+Pajama girl in "Liberty Belles," at the Madison Square Theater, Frohman
+engaged her and sent her to England, where, with the exception of one
+visit to the United States in "Our Mrs. Gibbs," she has remained ever
+since.</p>
+
+<p>It was not until she played "Peter Pan" that the Frohman-Chase
+friendship really began. The way in which Miss Chase came to play the
+part is interesting. Cissie Loftus, who had been playing Peter, became
+ill, and Miss Chase, who had been playing one of the twins, and was her
+understudy, went on to do the more important part at a matin&eacute;e in
+Liverpool. Frohman said to her:</p>
+
+<p>"Barrie and I are coming down to see you act. If we like you well enough
+to play <i>Peter</i>, I will send you back a sheet of paper with a cross mark
+on it after the play."</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the first act an usher rapped on Miss Chase's
+dressing-room door and handed her the much-desired slip with the cross.
+Frohman sent word that he could not wait until the end of the play,
+because he and Barrie were taking a train back to London. In this
+unusual way Pauline Chase secured the part which helped to endear her to
+the man who was her friend and sponsor.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman, Barrie, and Miss Chase formed a trio who went about together a
+great deal and had much in common, aside from the kinship of the
+theater. It was for Miss Chase that Barrie wrote "Pantaloon," in which
+she appeared in conjunction with "Peter Pan," and which gave her a
+considerable reputation in England.</p>
+
+<p>When Pauline Chase was confirmed in the little church in
+Marlow-on-the-Thames, Barrie was her godfather and Miss Ellen Terry was
+her godmother. Frohman attended this ceremony, and it made a tremendous
+impression on him. He saw the spectacular side of the ceremony, and the
+spiritual meaning was not lost on him.</p>
+
+<p>The personal comradeship with Pauline Chase was one of the really
+beautiful episodes in Frohman's life. He was genuinely interested in
+this girl's career, and in tribute to her confidence in him she made
+him, in conjunction with Barrie, her father confessor. Here is an
+episode that is tenderly appealing, and which shows another of the many
+sides of his character:</p>
+
+<p>Frohman and Barrie were both afraid that Miss Chase would marry without
+telling them about it, so a compact was made by the three that the two
+men should be her mentors. There were many applicants for the hand of
+this lovely American girl. The successful suitor eventually was Alec
+Drummond, member of a distinguished English family, who went to the
+front when the war began.</p>
+
+<p>One reason for Miss Chase's devotion to Charles lay in the fact that the
+American manager had the body of her mother removed from its
+resting-place in Washington to the dreamy little churchyard at
+Marlow-on-the-Thames. It is near Marlow that Miss Chase lived through
+all the years of the Frohman-Barrie comradeship. Her little cottage at
+Tree Tops, Farnham Common, five miles from Marlow, was one of the places
+he loved to visit. On the vine-embowered porch he liked to sit and
+smoke. On the lawn he indulged in his only exercise, croquet, frequently
+with Barrie or Captain Scott, who died in the Antarctic, and Haddon
+Chambers, who lived near by. Often he went with his hostess to feed the
+chickens.</p>
+
+<p>But wherever he went he carried plays. No matter how late he retired to
+his room, he read a manuscript before he went to bed. He probably read
+more plays than any other manager in the world.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman went to Marlow nearly every Saturday in summer. His custom was
+to alight from the train at Slough, where Miss Chase would meet him in
+her car and drive him over to Marlow, where they lunched at The Compleat
+Angler, a charming inn on the river.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Chase sometimes playfully performed the office of manicure for
+Frohman. Once when she was in Paris he sent her this telegram:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Nails.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Whereupon she wired back:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>I am afraid you will have to bite them.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Frohman then sent her the telegram by mail, and under it wrote:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>I have.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Of all spots in England, and for that matter in all the world, Charles
+loved Marlow best. It is typical of the many contrasts in his crowded
+life that he would seek peace and sanctuary in this drowsy English town
+that nestled between green hills on the banks of the Thames. He always
+said that it framed the loveliest memories of his life.</p>
+
+
+<table summary="POTTER" class="space" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="white-space:nowrap;text-align:center;">
+<tr><td><a name="POTTER" id="POTTER"></a><img src="images/illo-264a.png" width="250" height="317" alt="PAUL POTTER" title="PAUL POTTER" /></td>
+<td style="padding-left:10%;"><img src="images/illo-264b.png" width="250" height="317" alt="HADDON CHAMBERS" title="HADDON CHAMBERS" />
+</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="caption">PAUL POTTER</span></td><td style="padding-left:10%;"><span class="caption">HADDON CHAMBERS</span></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>When Miss Chase wrote Frohman that she was to be confirmed in the little
+church in Marlow, she got the following reply from him, which showed how
+dear the drowsy place was in his affection:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Dear Pauline:&mdash;I am glad about Marlow. That little church is the
+only one in the world I care for&mdash;that one across the river at
+Marlow. Whenever I see it I want to die and stay there.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>And Marlow with its long street and nobody on it is fine.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>It was Haddon Chambers who first took Frohman to Marlow. It came about
+in a natural way, because Maidenhead, which is a very popular resort in
+England (much frequented by theatrical people) is only a short distance
+away. One day Chambers, who was with Frohman at Maidenhead, said, "There
+is a lovely, quiet village called Marlow not far away. Let's go over
+there." So they went.</p>
+
+<p>On this trip occurred one of the many humorous adventures that were
+always happening when Frohman and Chambers were together. Chambers had
+the tickets and went on ahead. When he reached the train he found that
+Frohman was not there. On returning he found his friend held up by the
+gateman, who demanded a ticket. Quick as a flash Chambers said to him:</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you keep His Grace waiting?"</p>
+
+<p>The gateman immediately became flurried and excited and made apologies.
+In the mean time Frohman, who took in the situation with his usual
+quickness, looked solemn and dignified and then passed in like a peer of
+the realm.</p>
+
+<p>Chambers rented a cottage at Marlow each summer, and one of the things
+to which Frohman looked forward most eagerly was a visit with him there.
+Frequent visits to Marlow made the manager known to the whole town. The
+simplicity of his manner and his keen interest, humor, and sympathy won
+him many friends. His arrival was always more or less of an event in the
+little township.</p>
+
+<p>It is a one-street place, with many fascinating old shops. Frohman loved
+to prowl around, look in the shop windows, and talk to the tradesmen,
+who came to know and love him and look forward to his advent with the
+keenest interest. To them he was not the great American theatrical
+magnate, but a simple, kindly, interested human being who inquired about
+their babies and who had a big and generous nature.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman once made this remark about the Marlow antique shops: "They're
+great. When I buy things the proprietor always tells me whether they are
+real or only fake stuff. That's because I'm one of his friends." It was
+typical of the man that he was as proud of this friendship as with that
+of a prince.</p>
+
+<p>On the tramps through Marlow he was often accompanied by Miss Chase and
+Haddon Chambers. He had three particular friends in the town. One was
+Muriel Kilby, daughter of the keeper of The Compleat Angler. When
+Frohman first went to Marlow she was a slip of a child. He watched her
+grow up with an increasing pride. This great and busy man found time in
+New York to write her notes full of friendly affection. A few days
+before the <i>Lusitania</i> went down she received a note from him saying
+that he was soon to sail, and looked forward with eagerness to his usual
+stay at Marlow.</p>
+
+<p>Through Miss Kilby Frohman became more intimately a part of the local
+life of Marlow. She was head of the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society,
+which gave an amateur play every year. Frohman became a member, paid the
+five shillings annual dues, and whenever it was possible he went to
+their performances. As a matter of fact, the Marlow Dramatic Society has
+probably the most distinguished non-resident membership in the world,
+for besides Frohman (and through him) it includes Barrie, Haddon
+Chambers, Pauline Chase, Marie Lohr, William Gillette, and Marc Klaw.
+Frohman always took his close American friends to Marlow. One of the
+prices they paid was membership in the amateur dramatic society.</p>
+
+<p>Like every really great man, Charles Frohman was tremendously simple, as
+his friendship with W. R. Clark, the Marlow butcher, shows. Clark is a
+big, ruddy, John Bull sort of man, whose shop is one of the main sights
+of High Street in the village. Frohman regarded his day at Marlow
+incomplete without a visit to Clark. One day he met Clark dressed up in
+his best clothes. He asked Clark where he was going.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to visit my pigs," replied the butcher. Frohman thought this
+a great joke, and never tired of telling it.</p>
+
+<p>Once when Frohman gave out an interview about his friends in Marlow, he
+sent the clipping to his friend Clark, who wrote him a letter, which
+contained, among other things:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>I can assure you I quite appreciate your kindness in sending the
+cutting to me. When the township of Marlow has obtained from His
+Majesty King George the necessary charter to become a county
+borough, and you offer yourself for the position of Mayor, I will
+give you my whole-hearted support and influence to secure your
+election.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Then, too, there was Jones, the Marlow barber, who shaved Frohman for a
+penny because he was a regular customer.</p>
+
+<p>"Jones is a great man," Frohman used to say. "He never charges me more
+than a penny for a shave because I am one of his regular customers.
+Otherwise it would be twopence. I always give his boy a sixpence,
+however, but Jones doesn't know that."</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, the people of Marlow looked upon Frohman as their very own. He
+always said that he wanted to be buried in the churchyard by the river.
+This churchyard had a curious interest for him. He used to wander around
+in it and struck up quite an acquaintance with the wife of the sexton.
+She was always depressed because times were so bad and no one was dying.
+Then an artist died and was buried there, and the old woman cheered up
+considerably. Frohman used to tell her that the only funeral that he
+expected to attend was his own.</p>
+
+<p>"And mark you," he said, for he could never resist a jest, "you must
+take precious good care of my grave."</p>
+
+<p>His wish to lie in Marlow was not attained, but in tribute to the love
+he had for it the memorial that his friends in England have raised to
+him&mdash;a fountain&mdash;stands to-day at the head of High Street in the little
+town where he loved to roam, the place in which he felt, perhaps, more
+at home than any other spot on earth. Had he made the choice himself he
+would have preferred this simple, sincere tribute, in the midst of
+simple, unaffected people who knew him and loved him, to stained glass
+in the stateliest of cathedrals.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles cared absolutely nothing for honors. He was content to hide
+behind the mask of his activities. He would never even appear before an
+audience. Almost unwillingly he was the recipient of the greatest
+compliment ever paid an American theatrical man in England. It happened
+in this way:</p>
+
+<p>One season when Frohman had lost an unusual amount of money, Sir John
+Hare gathered together some of his colleagues.</p>
+
+<p>"Frohman has done big things," Hare said to them. "He loses his money
+like a gentleman. Let us make him feel that he is not just an American,
+but one of us."</p>
+
+<p>A dinner was planned in his honor at the Garrick Club. He is the only
+American theatrical manager to be elected to membership in this
+exclusive club. When Frohman was apprised of the dinner project he
+shrank from it.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like that sort of thing," he said. "Besides, I can't make a
+speech."</p>
+
+<p>"But you won't have to make a speech," said Sir Arthur Pinero, who
+headed the committee.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman tried in every possible way to evade this dinner. Finally he
+accepted on the condition that when the time came for him to respond he
+was merely to get up, bow his acknowledgment, and say, "Thank you." This
+he managed to do.</p>
+
+<p>At this dinner, over which Sir John Hare presided, Frohman was presented
+with a massive silver cigarette-box, on which was engraved the
+facsimile signatures of every one present. These signatures comprise the
+"Who's Who" of the British theater. These princes of the drama were
+proud and glad to call themselves "A few of his friends," as the
+inscription on the box read.</p>
+
+<p>The signers were, among others, Sir Arthur Pinero, Sir Charles Wyndham,
+Sir John Hare, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Sir James M. Barrie, Alfred
+Sutro, Cyril Maude, H. B. Irving, Lawrence Irving, Louis N. Parker,
+Anthony Hope, A. E. W. Mason, Seymour Hicks, Robert Marshall, W. Comyns
+Carr, Weedon Grossmith, Gerald Du Maurier, Eric Lewis, Dion Boucicault,
+A. E. Matthews, Arthur Bouchier, Cosmo Hamilton, Allan Aynesworth, R. C.
+Carton, Sam Sothern, and C. Aubrey Smith.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Nothing gave Charles more satisfaction in England perhaps than his
+encouragement of the British playwright. He inherited Pinero from his
+brother Daniel, and remained his steadfast friend and producer until his
+death. Pinero would not think of submitting a play to any other American
+manager without giving Frohman the first call. In all the years of their
+relations, during which Charles paid Pinero a large fortune, there was
+not a sign of contract between them.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman practically made Somerset Maugham in America. His first
+association with this gifted young Englishman was typical of the man's
+method of doing business. Maugham had written a play called "Mrs. Dot,"
+in which Marie Tempest was to appear. Frederick Harrison, of the
+Haymarket Theater, had an option on it, which had just expired. Another
+manager wanted the play. Frohman heard of it, and asked to be allowed
+to read it. Maugham then said:</p>
+
+<p>"It must be decided to-night."</p>
+
+<p>It was then dinner-time.</p>
+
+<p>"Give me three hours," said Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>At one o'clock in the morning he called up Maugham at his house and
+accepted the play, which was probably the quickest reading and
+acceptance on record in England.</p>
+
+<p>Another experience with Maugham shows how Frohman really inspired plays.</p>
+
+<p>He was riding on the train with the playwright when he suddenly said to
+him:</p>
+
+<p>"I want a new play from you."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Maugham.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman thought a moment, and suddenly flashed out:</p>
+
+<p>"Why not rewrite 'The Taming of the Shrew' with a new background?"</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Maugham.</p>
+
+<p>The result was Maugham's play "The Land of Promise," which was really
+built around Frohman's idea.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman produced all of Maugham's plays in America, and most of them
+were great successes. He also did the great majority of them in England.
+Maugham waxed so prosperous that he was able to buy a charming old
+residence in Chesterfield Street which he remodeled in elaborate
+fashion. On its completion his first dinner guest was Charles Frohman.
+When Maugham sent him the invitation it read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Will you come and see the house that Frohman built?</i></p></div>
+
+<p>In the same way he developed men like Michael Morton. He would see a
+French farce in the Paris theaters, and, although he could not
+understand a word of French, he got the spirit and the meaning through
+its action. He would buy the play, go to London with the manuscript, and
+get Morton or Paul Potter to adapt it for American consumption.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Life in London to Charles Frohman was one series of adventures. Like
+Harun-al-Rashid in the <i>Arabian Nights</i>, he delighted to wander about,
+often with Barrie, sometimes with Lestocq, seeking out strange and
+picturesque places in which to eat.</p>
+
+<p>These adventures began in his earliest days in England. Here is a
+characteristic experience:</p>
+
+<p>One day Madeline Lucette Ryley, the playwright, came to see him in his
+office in Henrietta Street. A battered old man was hanging around the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you see that man outside?" asked Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Ryley. "Is he the bailiff?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no," said Frohman, "he is a Maidenhead cabby." This is the story of
+how he came there.</p>
+
+<p>The day before Frohman had been down to Maidenhead alone for luncheon.
+At the station he hailed a cabby who was driving a battered old fly.</p>
+
+<p>"Where to, Governor?" asked the man.</p>
+
+<p>"Number 5 Henrietta Street," said Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>"No such place in Maidenhead," said the driver.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I mean the place opposite Covent Garden in London."</p>
+
+<p>The old cabby wasn't a bit flustered, but he said, "I will have to get a
+new horse."</p>
+
+<p>He changed horses and they made the long way to London, arriving there
+considerably after nightfall. When Frohman asked for his bill the old
+man said, with some hesitation:</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid it will cost you five pounds."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right," said Frohman, and paid the bill.</p>
+
+<p>To his great surprise, the cabby showed up next morning, saying: "I like
+London. I think I'll stay here." It was with the greatest difficulty
+that Frohman got rid of him. When the cabby finally started to go he
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Governor, if you want to go back to Maidenhead I'll do it for
+half-price."</p>
+
+<p>A short time after this incident Frohman, whose purse was none too full
+then, asked some people to dine with him at the Hotel Cecil. By some
+mistake he and his party were shown into a room that had been arranged
+for a very elaborate dinner. Before he realized it the waiter began to
+serve the meal. He soon knew that it was not the menu he had ordered,
+and was costing twenty times more. But he was game and stuck to it. It
+was midwinter, and when the fresh peaches came on he said to the woman
+on his right:</p>
+
+<p>"This will break me, I know, but we might as well have a good time."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman almost invariably took one of his American friends to England
+with him. It was usually Charles Dillingham, Paul Potter, or William
+Gillette.</p>
+
+<p>On one of Gillette's many trips with him Frohman got up an elaborate
+supper for Mark Twain at the Savoy and invited a brilliant group of
+celebrities, including all three of the Irvings, Beerbohm Tree, Chauncey
+M. Depew, Sir Charles Wyndham, Haddon Chambers, Nat Goodwin, and Arthur
+Bouchier. In his inconspicuous way, however, he made it appear that
+Gillette was giving the supper.</p>
+
+<p>Midnight arrived, and Twain had not shown up. It was before the days of
+taxis, so Dillingham was sent after him in a hansom. After going to the
+wrong address, he finally located the humorist in Chelsea. He found Mark
+Twain sitting in his dressing-gown, smoking a Pittsburg stogie and
+reading a book.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you forget all about the supper?" asked Dillingham.</p>
+
+<p>"No," was the drawling reply, "but I didn't know where the blamed thing
+was. I had a notion that some one of you would come for me."</p>
+
+<p>Mark Twain and Frohman were great friends. They were often together in
+London. Their favorite diversion was to play "hearts."</p>
+
+<p>The great humorist once drew a picture of Charles, and under it wrote:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>N. B. I cannot make a good mouth. Therefore leave it out. There is
+enough without it, anyway. Done with the best ink.</i></p>
+
+<p class="r"><i>M. T.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Underneath this inscription he wrote:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>To Charles Frohman, Master of Hearts.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Few things in England pleased Frohman more than to play a joke on
+Gillette, for the author of "Secret Service," like his great friend,
+relaxed when he was on the other side. When Frohman produced "Sue" in
+England an amusing incident happened.</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="SKINNER" id="SKINNER"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-274.png" width="500" height="775" alt="OTIS SKINNER" title="OTIS SKINNER" />
+<span class="caption">OTIS SKINNER</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Frohman had brought over Annie Russell and Ida Conquest for his piece.
+The actresses were very much excited before the first night, and went
+without dinner. After the play they were very hungry. On going to the
+Savoy they encountered the English prohibition against serving women at
+night when unaccompanied by men. After trying at several places they
+went to their lodging in Langham Place almost famished.</p>
+
+<p>In desperation they telephoned to Dillingham, who was playing "hearts"
+at the Savoy with Frohman and Gillette. He hurriedly got some food
+together in a basket, and with his two friends drove to where the young
+women were staying. The house was dark; fruitless pulls at the door-bell
+showed that it was broken. It was impossible to raise any one.</p>
+
+<p>Dillingham knew that the actresses were occupying rooms on the second
+floor front. He had five large English copper pennies in his pocket, and
+so he started to throw them up to the window to attract their attention.
+He threw four, and each fell short.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the last copper," he said to Frohman. "If we can't reach the
+girls with this they will have to go hungry."</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon Frohman said: "Let Gillette throw it. He can make a penny go
+further than any man in the world."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Such was Charles Frohman's English life. It was joyous, almost
+rollicking, and pervaded with the spirit of adventure. Yet behind all
+the humor was something deep, searching, and significant, because in
+England, as in America, this man was a vital and constructive force, and
+where he went, whether in laughter or in seriousness, he left his
+impress.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII</h3>
+
+<p class="head">A GALAXY OF STARS</p>
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">T</span> <span class="smcap">he</span>
+last decade of Charles Frohman's life was one of continuous
+star-making linked with far-flung enterprise. He now had a chain of
+theaters that reached from Boston by way of Chicago to Seattle; his
+productions at home kept on apace; his prestige abroad widened.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman had watched the development of Otis Skinner with great interest.
+That fine and representative American actor had thrived under his own
+management. Early in the season of 1905 he revived his first starring
+vehicle, a costume play by Clyde Fitch, called "His Grace de Grammont."
+It failed, however, and Skinner looked about for another piece. He heard
+that Frohman, who had a corner on French plays for America, owned the
+rights to Lavedan's play "The Duel," which had scored a big success in
+Paris. He knew that the leading r&ocirc;le ideally fitted his talent and
+temperament.</p>
+
+<p>Skinner went to Frohman and asked him if he could produce "The Duel" in
+America.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you do it under my management?" asked the manager.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," replied the actor, "I will."</p>
+
+<p>With these few remarks began the connection between Charles Frohman and
+Otis Skinner.</p>
+
+<p>It was during the closing years of Frohman's life that his genius for
+singling out gifted young women for eminence found its largest
+expression. Typical of them was Marie Doro, a Dresden-doll type of girl
+who made her first stage appearance, as did Billie Burke and Elsie
+Ferguson, in musical comedy.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Frohman saw her in a play called "The Billionaire" at Daly's
+Theater in New York, in which she sang and danced. He had an unerring
+eye for beauty and talent. With her, as with others that he transported
+from musical pieces to straight drama, he had an uncanny perception. He
+engaged her and featured her in a slender little play called
+"Friquette."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Doro made such an impression on her first appearance that Frohman
+now put her in "Clarice," written by William Gillette, in which he also
+appeared. Her success swept her nearer to stardom, for she next appeared
+in a Frohman production which, curiously enough, reflected one of
+Frohman's sentimental moods.</p>
+
+<p>For many years Mrs. G. H. Gilbert was a famous figure on the American
+stage. She had been one of the "Big Four" of Augustin Daly's company for
+many years, and remained with Daly until his death. She was the beloved
+first old woman of the dramatic profession. When the Daly company
+disbanded Mrs. Gilbert did not prepare to retire. She was hearty and
+active.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman realized what a warm place this grand old woman had in the
+affection of theater-goers after all the years of faithful labor, so he
+said to himself:</p>
+
+<p>"Here is a wonderful old woman who has never been a star. She must have
+this great experience before she dies."</p>
+
+<p>He engaged Clyde Fitch to write a play called "Granny," in which Mrs.
+Gilbert was starred. It made her very happy, and she literally died in
+the part.</p>
+
+<p>In the cast of "Granny" Miss Doro's youthful and exquisite beauty shone
+anew. Her success with the press and the public was little short of
+phenomenal. Charles now saw Miss Doro as star. He held youth, beauty,
+and talent to be the great assets, and he seldom made a mistake. It was
+no vanity that made him feel that if an artist pleased him she would
+likewise please the public.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman now starred Miss Doro in the stage adaptation of William J.
+Locke's charming story, "The Morals of Marcus." She became one of his
+pet prot&eacute;g&eacute;es. With her, as with the other young women, he delighted to
+nurse talent. He conducted their rehearsals with a view of developing
+all their resources, and to show every facet of their temperaments.
+Failure never daunted him so long as he had confidence in his ward. This
+was especially the case with Miss Doro, who was unfortunate in a long
+string of unsuccessful plays. Frohman's faith in her, however, was at
+last justified, when she played <i>Dora</i> in Sardou's great play,
+"Diplomacy," with brilliant success a year in London and later in New
+York.</p>
+
+<p class="space">With the exception of Maude Adams and Ann Murdock, no Frohman star had
+so swift or spectacular a rise as Billie Burke. Her story is one of the
+real romances of the Frohman star-making.</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="DORO" id="DORO"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-278.png" width="500" height="788" alt="MARIE DORO" title="MARIE DORO" />
+<span class="caption">MARIE DORO</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Billie Burke was the daughter of a humble circus clown in America. From
+him she probably inherited her mimetic gifts. At the beginning of her
+career she had obscure parts in American musical pieces.</p>
+
+<p>It was in London, however, that she first came under the observation of
+Charles. She had graduated from the chorus to a part in Edna May's great
+success, "The School Girl." She had a song called "Put Me in My Little
+Canoe," which made a great hit. Frohman became so much interested that
+he thought of sending Miss Burke to America in the piece. He transferred
+the song to Miss May, which left Miss Burke with scarcely any
+opportunity. Subsequently she was put in "The Belle of Mayfair," and
+afterward replaced Miss May when she retired.</p>
+
+<p>Louis N. Parker saw her in this piece and agreed with Frohman that the
+girl had possibilities as a serious actress. She was cast for her first
+dramatic part in "The Honorable George," the play he was then producing
+in London.</p>
+
+<p>When Michael Morton adapted a very beguiling French play called "My
+Wife," Frohman saw that here was Miss Burke's opportunity for America.
+He secured her release from the Gattis, who controlled her English
+appearances, and made her John Drew's leading woman. She met his
+confidence by adapting herself to the r&ocirc;le with great brilliancy and
+effect. Indeed, with Miss Burke, Frohman introduced a distinct and
+piquant reddish-blond type of beauty to the American stage. It became
+known as the "Billie Burke type." Realizing this, Frohman was very
+careful to adapt her personal appearance, humor, and temperament to her
+plays. He literally had plays written about her peculiar gifts.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Burke's great success in "My Wife" projected her into the Frohman
+stellar heaven. She was launched as a star in "Love Watches," an
+adaptation from the French, securely established herself in the favor
+of theater-goers, and from that time on her appearance in a <i>chic</i>,
+smart play became one of the distinct features of the annual Frohman
+season. Her most distinguished success was with Pinero's play "Mind the
+Paint Girl," in which Frohman was greatly interested.</p>
+
+<p>Few of Frohman's "discoveries" justified his confidence with lovelier
+success than Julia Sanderson. Her first public appearance on the stage
+had been in vaudeville. When Frohman sought a comedienne with a certain
+dainty, lady-like quality for the English musical play called "The
+Dairymaids," which he produced at the Criterion in 1907, his attention
+was called to this charming girl, then doing musical numbers in a New
+York vaudeville theater. Frohman went to see her, and was fascinated by
+her beauty and charm. He noted, most of all, a certain gentle quality in
+her personality, and with his peculiar genius in adapting plays to
+people and people to plays, she fairly bloomed under his persuasive and
+sympathetic sponsorship.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman now obtained "The Arcadians," in which Miss Sanderson was
+featured. Of all the musical plays that he produced, this was perhaps
+his favorite. He liked it so much that he told Miss Sanderson one day
+during rehearsal:</p>
+
+<p>"If the public does not like 'The Arcadians,' then I am finished with
+light opera."</p>
+
+<p>"The Arcadians," however, proved to be a gratifying success, and
+Frohman's confidence was vindicated. Frohman was undergoing his long and
+almost fatal illness at the Knickerbocker Hotel when "The Arcadians" was
+being rehearsed. He was so fond of the music that whenever possible the
+rehearsals in which Miss Sanderson sang were conducted in his rooms at
+the hotel. He always said that he could see the whole performance in
+her singing. In rehearsing her he always seemed to well-nigh break her
+heart, but it was his way, as he afterward admitted, of provoking her
+emotional temperament.</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="SANDERSON" id="SANDERSON"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-280.png" width="500" height="795" alt="JULIA SANDERSON" title="JULIA SANDERSON" />
+<span class="caption">JULIA SANDERSON</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>He next gave her a strong part in "The Siren," and subsequently made her
+a co-star with Donald Brian in "The Sunshine Girl," which brought out to
+the fullest advantage, so far, her exquisite and alluring qualities.</p>
+
+<p class="space">The last star to twinkle into life under the Frohman wand was Ann
+Murdock. Here is presented an extraordinary example of the way that
+Charles literally "made" stars, for seldom, if ever, before has a young
+actress been so quickly raised from obscurity to eminence. Almost
+overnight he lifted her into fame.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Murdock, who was born in New York, and had spent her childhood in
+Port Washington, Long Island, was not a stage-struck girl. She went on
+the stage because she made up her mind that she wanted more nice frocks
+than she was having. She rode over to New York one day and went to Henry
+B. Harris's office to get a position. As she sat waiting among a score
+of applicants, Harris came out. He was so much taken with her striking
+Titian beauty and unaffected girlish charm that he immediately asked her
+to come in ahead of the rest, and gave her a small part in one of "The
+Lion and the Mouse" road companies. When Harris saw her act he took her
+out of the cast and put her in a new production that he was making in
+New York.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the season she wanted to get under Charles Frohman's
+management, so she went to the Empire Theater to try her luck. There she
+met William Gillette, who was making one of his numerous revivals of
+"Secret Service." The moment he saw this fresh, appealing young girl he
+immediately cast her in his mind for the part of the young Southern
+girl. After he had talked with her, however, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I think it would be best if I wrote a part for you. I am now working on
+a play, and I think you had better go in that."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Murdock now appeared in Gillette's new play, "Electricity," in
+which Marie Doro was starred. Charles Frohman saw her at the opening
+rehearsal for the first time.</p>
+
+<p>"Electricity" was a failure. Instead of following up her connection with
+the Frohman office, she went to the cast of "A Pair of Sixes," in which
+she played for a whole season on Broadway, displaying qualities which
+brought her conspicuously before the public and to the notice of the man
+who was to do so much for her.</p>
+
+<p>One night Charles stopped in to see this farce. He had never forgotten
+the lovely young girl who had played in "Electricity." The next day he
+sent for Miss Murdock, offered her an engagement, and made another of
+those simple arrangements, for he said to her:</p>
+
+<p>"You are with me for life."</p>
+
+<p>This was Frohman's way of telling an actor or actress that, without the
+formality of a contract, they were to look to him each season for
+employment and that they need not worry about engagements.</p>
+
+<p>From this time on Frohman took an earnest interest in Miss Murdock's
+career. He saw in her, as he had seen in only a few of his women stars,
+an immense opportunity to create a new and distinct type.</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="MURDOCK" id="MURDOCK"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-282.png" width="500" height="713" alt="ANN MURDOCK" title="ANN MURDOCK" />
+<span class="caption">ANN MURDOCK</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Just about this time he became very much interested in the English
+adaptation of a French play which he called "The Beautiful Adventure,"
+which was, curiously enough, one of the plays uppermost in his mind on
+the day he went to his death.</p>
+
+<p>He now did a daring but characteristic Frohman thing. He believed
+implicitly in Miss Murdock's talents; he felt that the part of the
+ingenuous young girl in this play was ideally suited to her pleading
+personality, so, in conjunction with Mrs. Thomas Whiffen and Charles
+Cherry, he featured her in the cast. Miss Murdock's characterization
+amply justified Frohman's confidence, but the play failed in New York
+and on the road. He wrote to Miss Murdock:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>I am afraid our little play is too gentle for the West. Come back.
+I have something else for you.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>He now put Miss Murdock into Porter Emerson Browne's play "A Girl of
+To-day," which had its first presentation in Washington. Frohman, Miss
+Murdock, and her mother were riding from the station in Washington to
+the Shoreham Hotel. As they passed the New National Theater, where the
+young actress was to appear, Miss Murdock suddenly looked out of the cab
+and saw the following inscription in big type on the bill:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Charles Frohman presents Ann Murdock in "A Girl of To-day."</i></p></div>
+
+<p>It was the first intimation that she had been made a star, and she burst
+into tears. In this episode Frohman had repeated what he had done in the
+case of Ethel Barrymore ten years before.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman had predicted great things for Miss Murdock, for at the time of
+his death there was no doubt of the fact that she was destined, in his
+mind, for a very remarkable career.</p>
+
+<p class="space">But those last years of Frohman's life were not confined exclusively to
+the pleasant and grateful task of making lovely women stars. The men
+also had a chance, as the case of Donald Brian shows. Frohman had been
+much impressed with his success in "The Merry Widow," so he put him
+under his management and starred him in "The Dollar Princess," which was
+the first of a series of Brian successes.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman saw that Brian had youth, charm, and pleasing appearance. He was
+an unusually good singer and an expert dancer. He was equipped to give
+distinction to the musical play Frohman wanted to present. He had
+watched the interest of his audiences, and saw that young Brian was a
+distinct favorite with women as well as men, and his success as star
+justified all these plans.</p>
+
+<p>While Frohman was making new stars, older ones came under his control in
+swift succession, among them Madame Nazimova, William Courtnay, James K.
+Hackett, Kyrle Bellew, Mrs. Fiske, Charles Cherry, John Mason, Martha
+Hedman, Alexandra Carlisle, William Courtleigh, Nat Goodwin, Blanche
+Bates, Hattie Williams, Gertrude Elliott, Constance Collier, Richard
+Carle, and Cyril Maude.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman now reached the very apex of his career. At one time he had
+twenty-eight stars under his management; and in addition fully as many
+more companies bore his name throughout the country. To be a Frohman
+star was the acme of stage ambition, for it not only meant professional
+distinction, but equitable and honorable treatment.</p>
+
+<p class="space">The year 1915 dawned with fateful significance for Charles Frohman. With
+its advent began a chain of happenings that, in the light of later
+events, seemed almost prophetic of the fatal hour which was now closing
+in.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the most picturesque and significant of these events was the
+reconciliation with his old friend David Belasco. Twelve years before,
+through an apparently trivial thing, a breach had developed between
+these two men whose fortunes had been so intimately entwined. They had
+launched their careers in New York together; the old Madison Square
+Theater had housed their first theatrical ambition; they had kept pace
+on the road to fame; their joint productions had been features of the
+New York stage. Yet for twelve years they had not spoken.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman became ill, and lay stricken at the Knickerbocker Hotel. That he
+had thought much of his old comrade, so long estranged, was evident. A
+remarkable coincidence resulted. It was like an act in any one of the
+many plays they had produced.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon Belasco, who had heard of the serious plight of Frohman,
+sat in his studio on the top floor of the Belasco Theater. There, amid
+his Old World curios, he pondered over the past.</p>
+
+<p>"'C. F.' is lying ill at the Knickerbocker," he said to himself. "He may
+die. I must see him. This quarrel of ours is a great mistake."</p>
+
+<p>He started to write a note to his old friend, when the telephone-bell
+rang. It was his business manager, Benjamin Roeder, who said:</p>
+
+<p>"I have just had a telephone message from Charles Frohman. He wants to
+see you."</p>
+
+<p>When Belasco told Roeder that he was just in the act of writing to
+Frohman to tell him that he wanted to see him, both men were amazed at
+the coincidence.</p>
+
+<p>That night, when the few friends who gathered each evening at Frohman's
+bedside had gone, Belasco entered the sick-room at the Knickerbocker.
+Frohman was so weak that he could hardly raise his hand. Belasco went to
+him, took his right hand in both of his, and the old comrades put
+together again the thread of their friendship just where it had been
+broken twelve years before.</p>
+
+<p>They talked over the old days. Frohman, whose mind was always on the
+theater, suddenly said:</p>
+
+<p>"Let's do a play together, David."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Belasco.</p>
+
+<p>"You name the play. I will get the cast, and we will rehearse it
+together," added Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>Out of this reconciliation came the magnificent revival of "A Celebrated
+Case," by D'Ennery and Cormon. The cast included Nat Goodwin, Otis
+Skinner, Ann Murdock, Helen Ware, Florence Reed, and Robert Warwick. On
+Frohman's recovery he undertook the rehearsals. Belasco came in at the
+end, but he had little to do.</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="FROHMANBELASCO" id="FROHMANBELASCO"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-286.png" width="500" height="701" alt="CHARLES FROHMAN and DAVID BELASCO"
+title="CHARLES FROHMAN and DAVID BELASCO" />
+<span class="caption1">COPYRIGHT BY UNDERWOOD &amp; UNDERWOOD</span>&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />
+<span class="caption">CHARLES FROHMAN and DAVID BELASCO</span>
+<p>A photograph taken in Boston April 3, 1915, just after the two had
+renewed their partnership, ending a separation of twenty years.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Frohman and Belasco not only resumed their joint production of plays,
+but they resumed part of their old life together. Now began again their
+favorite diet of pumpkin and meringue pie and tea after the day's work
+was done. Night after night they met after the theater, just as they had
+done in the old Madison Square days when they went to O'Neil's, on Sixth
+Avenue, for their frugal repast, dreaming and planning their futures.
+Now each man had become a great personage. Frohman was the amusement
+dictator of two worlds; Belasco, the acknowledged stage wizard of his
+time.</p>
+
+<p>After a week in Boston the all-star cast in "A Celebrated Case" opened
+at the Empire Theater in New York. History repeated itself. Frohman and
+Belasco sat in the same place in the wings where they sat twenty-two
+years before at the launching of "The Girl I Left Behind Me," which
+dedicated the Empire. Now, as then, there were tumultuous calls for the
+producers. Again David tried to induce Charles to go out, but he said:</p>
+
+<p>"No, you go, David, and speak for me. Stand where you did twenty-two
+years ago."</p>
+
+<p>In 1915, as in 1893, Belasco went out and spoke Frohman's thanks and his
+own.</p>
+
+<p>The revival of "A Celebrated Case" not only brought Frohman and Belasco
+together, but led to an agreement between them to do a production
+together every year.</p>
+
+<p class="space">There was a tragic hint of the fate which was shaping Charles Frohman's
+end in his last production on any stage. It was a war play called "The
+Hyphen," by Justus Miles Forman, the novelist. The scenes were laid in
+Pennsylvania, and the story dealt with the various attempts to unsettle
+the loyalty of German-Americans through secret agencies. The whole
+problem of the hyphenated citizen, which had complicated the American
+position in the great war, was set forth.</p>
+
+<p>Even in his unconscious stage farewell, Charles was the pioneer, because
+the acceptance of "The Hyphen" and the prompt organization of the
+company established a new record in play-producing. Up to a certain
+Saturday morning Charles Frohman had never heard of the play. That
+afternoon the manuscript was put into his hands and he read it. A
+messenger was sent off post-haste to find the author. In the mean time,
+Frohman engaged W. H. Thompson, Gail Kane, and a notable group of
+players for the cast, and gave orders for the construction of the
+scenery. Late that afternoon Mr. Forman called on Charles, whom he had
+never met. Without any further ado the manager said to the
+playwright-author:</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to produce your play. We have nothing to discuss. A manager
+often discusses at great length the play that he does not intend to
+produce. Therefore all that I have to tell you is that your play is
+accepted. I have already engaged the chief actors needed, and the
+scenery was ordered two hours ago. I am glad to produce a play on this
+timely subject, but I am especially glad that it is an American who
+wrote it."</p>
+
+<p>Charles was greatly interested in "The Hyphen." It was American to the
+core; it flouted treachery to the country of adoption; it appealed to
+his big sense of patriotism. He felt, with all the large enthusiasm of
+his nature, that he was doing a distinct national service in producing
+the piece. He personally supervised every rehearsal. He talked glowingly
+to his friends about it. At fifty-five he displayed the same bubbling
+optimism with regard to it that he had shown about his first independent
+venture.</p>
+
+<p>Now began the last of the chain of dramatic events which ended in death.
+As soon as "The Hyphen" was announced, Frohman began to get threatening
+letters warning him that it would be a mistake to produce so sensational
+a play in the midst of such an acute international situation.
+Pro-Germans of incendiary tendency especially resented it. To all these
+intimations Frohman merely shrugged his shoulders and smiled. It made
+him all the more determined.</p>
+
+<p>"The Hyphen" was produced April 19th at the Knickerbocker Theater before
+a hostile audience. Unpatriotic pro-Germans had packed the theater.
+During the progress of the play the dynamite explosions in the Broadway
+subway construction outside were misinterpreted for bombs, and there was
+suppressed excitement throughout the whole performance.</p>
+
+<p>The play was a failure. Yet Frohman's confidence in it was unimpaired.
+He went to see it nearly every night of its short life in New York. He
+even sent it to Boston for a second verdict, but Boston agreed with New
+York. Like every production that bore the Charles Frohman stamp, he gave
+it every chance. Reluctantly he ordered up the notice to close.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman became greatly attached to Forman. With his usual generosity he
+invited the author to accompany him on his approaching trip to England.</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to come with me and meet Barrie and know some of my other
+English friends," Charles said, little dreaming that the invitation to a
+holiday was the beckoning hand of death to both.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV</h3>
+
+<p class="head">STAR-MAKING AND AUDIENCES</p>
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">D</span> <span class="smcap">uring</span>
+all these busy years Frohman had reigned supreme as king of
+star-makers. Under his persuasive sponsorship more men and women rose to
+stellar eminence than with all his fellow-managers combined. It was the
+very instinct of his life to develop talent, and it gave him an
+extraordinary satisfaction to see the artist emerge from the background
+into fame.</p>
+
+<p>His attitude in the matter of star-making was never better expressed
+than in one of his many playful moods with the pencil. Like Caruso, he
+was a caricaturist. Few things gave him more delight than to make a
+hasty sketch of one of his friends on any scrap of paper that lay near
+at hand. He usually made these sketches just as he wrote most of his
+personal letters, with a heavy blue pencil.</p>
+
+<p>On one occasion he was talking with Pauline Chase about making stars. A
+smile suddenly burst over his face; he seized pencil and paper and made
+a sketch of himself walking along at night and pointing to the moon with
+his stick. Under the picture he wrote, as if addressing the moon:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Watch out, or I'll make a star out of you.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Once he said to Billie Burke, in discussing this familiar star
+subject:</p>
+
+<p>"A star has a unique value in a play. It concentrates interest. In some
+respects a play is like a dinner. To be a success, no matter how
+splendidly served, the menu should always have one unique and striking
+dish that, despite its elaborate gastronomic surroundings, must long be
+remembered. This is one reason why you need a star in a play."</p>
+
+
+
+<table summary="TEMPEST" class="space" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="white-space:nowrap;text-align:center;">
+<tr><td><a name="TEMPEST" id="TEMPEST"></a><img src="images/illo-290a.png" width="250" height="312" alt="MARIE TEMPEST" title="MARIE TEMPEST" /></td>
+<td style="padding-left:10%;"><img src="images/illo-290b.png" width="250" height="312" alt="MME. NAZIMOVA" title="MME. NAZIMOVA" /></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="caption">MARIE TEMPEST</span></td><td style="padding-left:10%;"><span class="caption">MME. NAZIMOVA</span></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Despite the fact, as the case of Ann Murdock shows, that Charles could
+literally lift a girl from the ranks almost overnight, he generally
+regarded the approach to stardom as a difficult and hard-won path. Just
+before the great European war, he made this comment to a well-known
+English journalist, who asked him how he made stars:</p>
+
+<p>"Each of my stars has earned his or her position through honest
+advancement. If the President of the United States wants to reward a
+soldier he says to him, 'I will make you a general.' By the same process
+I say to an actor, 'I will make you a star.'</p>
+
+<p>"All the stars under my management owe their eminence to their own
+ability and industry, and also to the fact that the American is an
+individual-loving public. In America we regard the workman first and the
+work second. Our imaginations are fired not nearly so much by great
+deeds as by great doers. There are stars in every walk of American life.
+It has always been so with democracies. C&aelig;sar, Cicero, and the rest were
+public stars when Rome was at her best, just as in our day Roosevelt and
+others shine.</p>
+
+<p>"Far from fostering it, the star system as such has simply meant for me
+that when one of my stars finishes with a play, that play goes
+permanently on the shelf, no one ever hoping to muster together an
+audience for it without the original actor or actress in the star part.</p>
+
+<p>"Vital acting in plays of consequence is the foundation of theatrical
+success. You have only to enumerate the plays to realize the drain even
+one management can make upon what is, after all, a limited supply of
+capable leading actors. This is because the American stage is short of
+leaders. There is a world of actors, but too few leading actors."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by leading actor?" he was asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean that if in casting a play you can find an actor who looks the
+part you have in mind for him, be thankful; if you can find an actor who
+can act the part, be very thankful; and if you can find an actor who can
+look and act the part, <i>get down on your knees and thank God!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Frohman had a very definite idea about star material. He was once
+talking with a well-known American publisher who mentioned that a
+certain very rich woman had announced her determination to go on the
+stage. The manager made one of his quick and impatient gestures, and
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"She will never do."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" asked his friend.</p>
+
+<p>"Because," replied Frohman, "in all my experience with the making of
+stars I have seldom known of a very rich girl who made a finished
+success on the stage. The reason is that the daughters of the rich are
+taught to repress their emotions. In other words, they don't seem to be
+able to let go their feelings. Give me the common clay, the kind that
+has suffered and even hungered. It makes the best star material."</p>
+
+<p>There is no doubt that Frohman liked to "make" careers. He wanted to
+see people develop under his direction. To indulge in this diversion was
+often a very costly thing, as this incident shows:</p>
+
+<p>Chauncey Olcott, who had been associated with him in his minstrel days,
+and become one of the most profitable stars in the country, once sent a
+message to Frohman saying that he would like to come under his
+management. To the intermediary Olcott said:</p>
+
+<p>"Tell Mr. Frohman that I make one hundred thousand dollars a year. He
+can name his own percentage of this income."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman sent back this message:</p>
+
+<p>"I greatly appreciate the offer, but I don't care to manage Olcott. He
+is <i>made</i>. I like to <i>make</i> stars."</p>
+
+<p>One reason that lay behind Frohman's success as star-maker was the fact
+that he wove a great deal of himself into the character of the stars. In
+other words, the personal element counted a great deal. When somebody
+once remonstrated with him about giving up so much of his valuable time
+to what seemed to be inconsequential talks with his women stars, he
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"It is not a waste of time. I have often helped those young women to
+take a brighter view of things, and it makes me feel that I am not just
+their manager, but their friend."</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, as Barrie so well put it, he regarded his women stars as his
+children. If they were playing in New York they were expected to call on
+him and talk personalities three or four times a week. On the road they
+sent him daily telegrams; these were placed on his desk every morning,
+and were dealt with in person before any other business of the day. He
+had the names of his stars printed in large type on his business
+envelopes. These were so placed on his table that as he sat and wrote
+or talked he could see their names ranked before him.</p>
+
+<p>When his women stars played in New York he always tried to visit them at
+night at the theater before the curtain went up. He always said of this
+that it was like seeing his birds tucked safely in their nests. Then he
+would go back to his office or his rooms and read manuscripts until
+late.</p>
+
+<p>One phase of Charles's great success in life was revealed in this
+attitude toward his women stars. He succeeded because he mixed sentiment
+with business. He was not all sentiment and he was not all business, but
+he was an extraordinarily happy blend of each of these qualities, and
+they endeared him to the people who worked for him.</p>
+
+<p>The attitude of the great star toward Frohman is best explained perhaps
+by Sir Henry Irving. Once, when the time came for his usual American
+tour, he said to his long-time manager, Bram Stoker, who was about to
+start for New York:</p>
+
+<p>"When you get to America just tell Frohman&mdash;you need not bother to write
+him&mdash;that I want to come under his management. He always understands. He
+is always so fair."</p>
+
+<p>One detail will illustrate Frohman's feeling about stars, and it is
+this: He never wanted them, male or female, to make themselves
+conspicuous or to do commonplace things. He was sensitive about what
+they said or did. For example, he did not like to see John Drew walk up
+and down Broadway. He spent a fortune sheltering Maude Adams from all
+kinds of intrusion. With her especially he exhausted every resource to
+keep her aloof and secluded. He preferred that she be known through her
+work and not through her personal self. It was so with himself.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman was one of the most generous-minded of men in his feeling about
+his co-workers. On one occasion when he was rehearsing "The Dictator,"
+William Collier suggested a whole new scene. The next night Frohman took
+a friend to see it. Afterward, accompanied by his guest, he went back on
+the stage to congratulate his star. He slapped Collier on the back and,
+turning to his companion, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't that a bully scene that Willie put into the play?"</p>
+
+<p>He was always willing to admit that his success came from those who
+worked for him. Once he was asked the question:</p>
+
+<p>"If you had your life to live over again would you be a theatrical
+manager?"</p>
+
+<p>Quick as a flash Frohman replied:</p>
+
+<p>"If I could be surrounded by the same actors and writers who have made
+<i>me</i>&mdash;yes. Otherwise, no."</p>
+
+<p>This feeling led him to say once:</p>
+
+<p>"I believe a manager's success does not come so much from the public as
+from his players. When they are ready to march with him without regard
+to results, then he has indeed succeeded. This is my success. My
+ambition frankly centers in the welfare of the actor. The day's work
+holds out to me no finer gratification than to see intelligent, earnest,
+deserving actors go into the fame and fortune of being stars."</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could down his immense pride in his stars. Once he was making
+his annual visit to England with Dillingham. At that time Olga
+Nethersole, who had been playing "Carmen," was under his management.
+She was also on the boat. The passenger-list included many other
+celebrities, among them Madame Emma Calv&eacute;, the opera-singer, who had
+just made her great success in the opera "Carmen" at the Metropolitan
+Opera House. Naturally there was some rivalry between the two <i>Carmens</i>.</p>
+
+<p>At the usual ship's concert both Nethersole and Calv&eacute; inscribed their
+names on programs which were auctioned off for the benefit of the
+disabled sailors' fund. Competition was brisk. The card that Calv&eacute;
+signed fetched nine hundred dollars. When Nethersole's program was put
+up Frohman led the bidding and drove it up to a thousand dollars, which
+he paid himself. It was all the money he had with him. Dillingham
+remonstrated for what seemed a foolish extravagance.</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted my star to get the best of it, and she did," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman, as is well known, would never make a contract with his stars.
+When some one urged him to make written agreements, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"No, I won't do it. I want them to be in a position so that if they ever
+become dissatisfied they know they are free to leave me."</p>
+
+<p>Like all his other stars, William Collier had no contract with Charles,
+merely a verbal understanding extending over a period of years. After
+this agreement expired and another year and a half had gone by, Collier
+one day asked Frohman if he realized that their original agreement had
+run out. Frohman looked up with a start and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Is that so? Well, it's all right, Willie, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said Collier, and that ended it.</p>
+
+<p>The next Saturday when Collier got his pay-envelope he found inside a
+very charming letter from Frohman, which said:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>I'm sorry that I overlooked the expiration of our agreement. I
+hope that you will find a little increase in your salary
+satisfactory.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>There was an advance of one hundred dollars a week.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman literally loved the word "star," and he delighted in the
+so-called "all-star casts." He had great respect for the big names of
+the profession; for those who had achieved success. He liked to do
+business with them.</p>
+
+<p>In speaking about "all-star casts," he once said to his brother:</p>
+
+<p>"I have to look after so many enterprises that I have no time to conduct
+a theatrical kindergarten in developing actors or playwrights save where
+the play of the unknown author or the exceptional talents of the unknown
+actor or actress appeal to me strongly. There is an element of safety in
+considering work by experts, because the theaters I represent need quick
+results."</p>
+
+<p>In reply to the oft-repeated question as to why he took his American
+stars to London when they could play to larger audiences and make more
+money at home, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"In the first place, such exchanges constitute the finest medium for the
+development of actress or actor and the liberalizing of the public. Face
+to face with an English audience the American actress finds herself
+confronted by new tastes, new appreciations, new demands. She must meet
+them all or fail. What does this result in? Versatility, flexibility,
+and, in the end, a firmer and more comprehensive hold upon her art."</p>
+
+<p>When Frohman was asked to define success in theatrical management he
+made this answer:</p>
+
+<p>"The terms of success in the theater seem to me to be the co-operating
+abilities of playwright and actor with the principal burden on the
+actor. In other words, the play is not altogether 'the thing.' The right
+player in the right play is the thing."</p>
+
+<p>The shaping of William Gillette's career is a good example of Frohman's
+definition of a successful theatrical manager, whose best skill and
+talents are employed largely in the matter of manipulating a hard-minded
+person to mutual advantage.</p>
+
+<p>The relationship between stars and audiences is of necessity a very
+close one. The Frohman philosophy, however, was not the generally
+accepted theory that audiences make stars.</p>
+
+<p>On one of those very rare occasions in his life when he wrote for
+publication, he made the following illuminating statement:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>No star or manager should feel grateful to any audience for the
+success of a play in which he has figured. A play succeeds because
+it is a living, vital thing&mdash;and that is why it has got upon the
+stage at all. There is life in it and it does not, and will not,
+die. It keeps itself alive until the opportunity comes along. Often
+a kind of instinct makes the opportunity.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>It is instinct also that prompts an audience to applaud when it is
+pleased, laugh when it is amused, weep when it is moved, hiss when
+it is dissatisfied. No actor should feel indebted to an audience
+for the recognition of good work, because that same audience that
+appears to be so friendly, at another time, when one character or
+play does not please it, will resent both actor and play. This is
+as it should be. The loyalty of English audiences to their old
+favorites is fine, but it is bad for the old favorites. It is
+stagnating.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>The various expressions of approval and disapproval that come from
+the spectators at a play are involuntary on the part of the
+spectators. They are hypnotized by the play and the acting. Who
+ever, on coming out of the theater after seeing a play that has
+pleased him, has felt a sense of happiness that his pleasure had
+also pleased the actor, or the author of the play, or the
+management of the production? Loyalty, generosity, and
+encouragement, as applied to audiences, are so many empty words.
+Play-goers who apply them to themselves cheat themselves. Miss
+Maude Adams is the only stage personage within my experience who
+has a distinct public following, loyal and encouraging to her in
+whatever she does.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Audiences interested Frohman immensely. He liked to be a part of them.
+He had a perfectly definite reason for sitting in the last row of the
+gallery on the first nights of his productions, which he once explained
+as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"The best index to the probable career of any play is the back of the
+head of an auditor who does not know that he is being watched. The
+play-goer in an orchestra stall is always half-conscious that what he
+says or does may be observed. But the gallery gods and goddesses have
+never thought of anything except what is happening on the stage. They
+may yield the time before the rise of the curtain to watching the
+audience entering the theater, but once the lights are up and the stage
+is revealed they have no eyes or thoughts for anything except the life
+unfolded by the actors. These people in the upper part of the theater
+represent the masses. They are worth watching, for they are the people
+who make stage successes."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman had his own theories about audiences, too. Concerning them he
+declared:</p>
+
+<p>"An American at the theater feels first and thinks afterward. A European
+at a play thinks first and feels afterward. In conversation a German
+discusses things sitting down; a Frenchman talks standing up. But the
+American discusses things walking about. Therefore each must have his
+play built accordingly."</p>
+
+<p>Once Frohman made this discriminating difference between English and
+American audiences:</p>
+
+<p>"In England the pit and the gallery of the audience come to the theater,
+turn in their hard-earned shillings, and demand much. Failing to get
+what they expect, the theater is filled with boos and cat-calls at the
+end of the play. This does not mean that the play has failed. It more
+nearly means that the less a man pays to get into a theater the more he
+demands of the play.</p>
+
+<p>"An American audience is different, because it has a fine sense of
+humor. When an American pays his money through the box-office window he
+feels that it is gone forever. Anything he receives after that&mdash;the
+lights, the pictures on the walls, the music of the orchestra, the sight
+of a few or many smiling faces&mdash;is so much to the good. So keen is the
+American play-goer's sense of humor that often when a play is
+wretchedly bad it comes to the rescue, and the applause is terrifically
+loud. This does not mean that the play has succeeded. It means rather
+that the play will die, a victim of the deadliest of all possible
+criticisms&mdash;ridicule."</p>
+
+<p>Nor was Frohman often deceived about a first-night verdict. He always
+said, "Wait for the box-office statement on the second night."</p>
+
+<p>One of his characteristic epigrammatic statements about the failure of
+plays was this:</p>
+
+<p>"In America the question with a failure is, 'How soon can we get it off
+the stage?' In London they say, 'How long will the play run even though
+it is a failure?'"</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, Frohman's whole attitude about openings was characteristic of
+his deep and generous philosophy about life. He summed up his whole
+creed as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"A producer of plays, assuming that he is a man of experience, never
+feels comfortable after a great reception has been given his play on a
+first night. He knows that the reception in the theater does not always
+correspond to the feelings of future audiences. Every thinking manager
+knows that his play, in order to succeed, must send its audience away
+possessed of some distinct feeling. A successful play is a play that
+<i>reflects</i>, whatever the feeling it reflects.</p>
+
+<p>"The great successes of the stage are plays that are played outside of
+the theater: over the breakfast-table; in a man's office; to his
+business associates; in a club, as one member tells the thrilling story
+of the previous night's experience to another. Great successes upon the
+stage are plays of such a sort that one audience can play them over to
+another prospective audience, and so make an endless chain of attendance
+at the theater.</p>
+
+<p>"I have never in all my experience felt a success on the opening night.
+I have only felt my failures.</p>
+
+<p>"I invariably leave the theater after a first-night performance knowing
+full well that neither my friends nor I know anything at all as to the
+ultimate fortune of the play we have seen."</p>
+
+<p>It is a matter of record that Frohman always viewed his first nights
+with great nervousness. Although he attached but little importance, save
+on very rare occasions, to tumultuous applause on first nights, he was
+sometimes deceived by the reception that was given his productions.</p>
+
+<p>He never tired of telling of one experience. He had left the theater on
+the first night, as he expressed it, "with the other mourners." He
+returned to his office immediately to cast a new play for the company.
+Yet he lived to see this play run successfully for a whole season. This
+led him to say:</p>
+
+<p>"There's nothing more deluding to the player and the manager than
+enthusiastic applause. The fine, inspired work of a star actor often
+makes an audience enthusiastic to such a boisterous extent that one
+forgets that it is an individual and not the play that has succeeded."</p>
+
+<p>Here, as elsewhere in the Frohman outlook on life and work, one finds
+clear-headed logic and reason behind the bubbling optimism.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV</h3>
+
+<p class="head">PLAYS AND PLAYERS</p>
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">O</span> <span class="smcap">ne</span>
+day not long before he sailed on the voyage that was to take him to
+his death, Charles was talking with a celebrated English playwright in
+his office at the Empire Theater. The conversation suddenly turned to a
+discussion of life achievement.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you consider the biggest thing that you have done?" asked the
+visitor.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman rose and pointed with his stick at the rows of book-shelves
+about him that held the bound copies of the plays he had produced. Then
+he said with a smile:</p>
+
+<p>"That is what I have done. Don't you think it is a pretty good life's
+work?"</p>
+
+<p>He was not overstepping the mark when he pointed with pride at that army
+of plays. This list is the greatest monument, perhaps, to his boundless
+ambition and energy, for it contains the four hundred original
+productions he made in America, besides the one hundred and twenty-five
+plays he put on in London. That Charles should have produced so many
+plays is not surprising. He adored the theater; it was his very being.
+To him, in truth, all the world was a stage.</p>
+
+<p>Everything that he saw as he walked the streets or rode in a cab or
+viewed from a railway train he re-visualized and considered in the terms
+of the playhouse. If he saw an impressive bit of scenery he would say,
+"Wouldn't that make a fine background?" If he heard certain murmurs in
+the country or the tumult of a crowd on the highway, he instinctively
+said, "How fine it would be to reproduce that sound."</p>
+
+<p>He only read books with a view of their adaptability to plays. Where
+other men found diversion and recreation in golfing, motoring, or
+walking, Charles sought entertainment in reading manuscripts. He was
+never without a play; when he traveled he carried dozens.</p>
+
+<p>In the matter of plays Frohman had what was little less than a contempt
+for the avowedly academic. He refused to be drawn into discussions of
+the so-called "high brow" drama. When some one asked him to name the
+greatest of English dramatists he replied, quick as a flash:</p>
+
+<p>"The one who writes the last great play."</p>
+
+<p>"Whom do you consider the greatest American dramatist?" was the question
+once put to him. His smiling answer was:</p>
+
+<p>"The one whose play the greatest number of good Americans go to see."</p>
+
+<p>On this same occasion he was asked, "What seat in the theater do you
+consider the best to view a drama or a musical comedy from?"</p>
+
+<p>"The paid one," he retorted.</p>
+
+<p>Back in Charles's mind was a definite and well-ordered policy about
+plays. His first production on any stage was a melodrama, and, though in
+later years he ran the whole range from grave to gay, he was always true
+to his first love. This is one reason why Sardou's "Diplomacy" was, in
+many respects, his ideal of a play. It has thrills, suspense, love
+interests, and emotion. He revived it again and again, and it never
+failed to give him a certain pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>Once in London Frohman unbosomed himself about play requirements, and
+this is what he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I start out by asking certain requirements of every piece. If it be a
+drama, it must have healthfulness and comedy as well as seriousness. We
+are a young people, but only in the sense of healthy-mindedness. There
+is no real taste among us for the erotic or the decadent. It is foreign
+to us because, as a people, we have not felt the corroding touch of
+decadence. Nor is life here all drab. Hence I expect lights as well as
+shadows in every play I accept.</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally, I am also influenced by the fitness of the chief parts for
+my chief stars, but I often purchase the manuscript at once on learning
+its central idea. I commissioned Clyde Fitch and Cosmo Gordon-Lennox to
+go to work on 'Her Sister' after half an hour's account of the main
+idea. Ethel Barrymore's work in that play is the best instance that I
+can give of the artistic growth of that actress. The particular skill
+she had obtained&mdash;and this is the test of an actress worth
+remembering&mdash;is the art of acting scenes essentially melodramatic in an
+unmelodramatic manner. After all, what is melodrama? Life itself is
+melodrama, and life put upon the stage only seems untrue when it is
+acted melodramatically&mdash;that is, unnaturally."</p>
+
+<p>The foremost quality that Frohman sought in his plays was human
+interest. His appraisal of a dramatic product was often influenced by
+his love for a single character or for certain sentimental or emotional
+speeches. He would almost invariably discuss these plays with his
+intimates. Often he would act out the whole piece in a vivid and
+graphic manner and enlarge upon the situations that appealed to his
+special interest.</p>
+
+<p>Plays thus described by him were found to be extremely entertaining and
+diverting to his friends, but when presented on the stage to a
+dispassionate audience they did not always fare so well. A notable
+example was "The Hyphen." The big, patriotic speech of the old
+German-American in the third act made an immense impression on Frohman
+when he read the play. It led him to produce the piece in record time.
+He recited it to every caller; he almost lost sight of the rest of the
+play in his admiration for the central effort. But the audience and the
+critics only saw this speech as part of a long play.</p>
+
+<p>What Charles lacked in his study of plays in manuscript was the
+analytical quality. He could feel that certain scenes and speeches would
+have an emotional appeal, but he could not probe down beneath the
+surface for the why and the wherefore. For analysis, as for details, he
+had scant time. He accepted plays mainly for their general effect.</p>
+
+<p>He was very susceptible to any charm that a play held out. If he found
+the characters sympathetic, attractive, and lovable, that would outweigh
+any objections made on technical grounds. When once he determined to
+produce a play, only a miracle could prevent him. The more his
+associates argued to the contrary, the more dogged he became. He had
+superb confidence in his judgment; yet he invariably accepted failure
+with serenity and good spirit. He always assumed the responsibility. He
+listened sometimes to suggestions, but his views were seldom colored by
+them.</p>
+
+<p>His association with men like J. M. Barrie, Haddon Chambers, Paul
+Potter, William Gillette, Arthur Wing Pinero, and Augustus Thomas gave
+him a loftier insight into the workings of the drama. He was quick to
+absorb ideas, and he had a strong and retentive memory for details.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman loved to present farce. He enjoyed this type of play himself
+because it appealed to his immense sense of humor. He delighted in
+rehearsing the many complications and entanglements which arise in such
+plays. The enthusiasm with which French audiences greeted their native
+plays often misled him. He felt that American theater-goers would be
+equally uproarious. But often they failed him.</p>
+
+<p>The same thing frequently happened with English plays. He would be swept
+off his feet by a British production; he was at once sure that it would
+be a success in New York. But New York, more than once, upset this
+belief. The reason was that Frohman saw these plays as an Englishman. He
+had the cosmopolitan point of view that the average play-goer in America
+lacked.</p>
+
+<p>This leads to the interesting subject of "locality" in plays. Frohman
+once summed up this whole question:</p>
+
+<p>"As I go back and forth, crossing and recrossing the Atlantic, the
+audiences on both sides seem more and more like one. Always, of course,
+each has his own particular viewpoint, according to the side of the
+Atlantic I happen to be on. But often they think the same, each from its
+own angle.</p>
+
+<p>"You bring your English play to America. Nobody is at all disturbed by
+the mention of Park Lane or Piccadilly Circus. If there is drama in the
+play, if in itself it interests and holds the audience, nobody pays any
+attention to its locality or localisms.</p>
+
+<p>"But an English audience sitting before an American play hears mention
+of West Twenty-third Street or Washington Square, and while it is
+wondering just where and what these localities are an important incident
+in the dramatic action slips by unnoticed. Not that English audiences
+are at all prejudiced against American plays. They take them in the same
+general way that Americans take English plays. Each public asks, 'What
+have you got?' As soon as it hears that the play is good it is
+interested.</p>
+
+<p>"English audiences, for example, were quick to discover the fun in 'The
+Dictator' when Mr. Collier acted it in London, though it was full of the
+local color of New York, both in the central character and in the
+subject. Somehow the type and the speeches seemed to have a sort of
+universal humor. I tried it first on Barrie. He marked in the manuscript
+the places that he could understand. The piece never went better in
+America.</p>
+
+<p>"On the other hand, one reason why 'Brewster's Millions' did not go well
+in London was because the severely logical British mind took it all as a
+business proposition. The problem was sedately figured out on the theory
+that the young man did not spend the inherited millions.</p>
+
+<p>"If the locality of an American play happens to be a mining village, it
+is better to change its scenes to a similar village in Australia when
+you take the play to London. Then the audience is sure to understand.
+The public of London gave 'The Lion and the Mouse' an enthusiastic first
+night, but it turned out that they had not comprehended the play. It
+was unthinkable to them that a judge should be disgraced and disbarred
+by a political 'ring.'"</p>
+
+<p>The ideal play for Charles Frohman was always the one that he had in
+mind for a particular star. His special desire, however, was for strong
+and emotional love as the dominant force in the drama. He felt that all
+humanity was interested in love, and he believed it established a
+congenial point of contact between the stage and the audience.</p>
+
+<p>Although he did not especially aspire to Shakespearian production, he
+used the great bard's works as models for appraising other plays.
+"Shakespeare invented farce comedy," he once said, "and whenever I
+consider the purchase of such a thing I compare its scenes with the most
+famous of all farces, 'The Taming of the Shrew.' It goes without saying
+that when it comes to the stage of the production, my aim is to imbue
+the performance with a spirit akin to that contained in Shakespeare's
+humorous masterpiece."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman often "went wrong" on plays. He merely accepted these mistakes
+as part of the big human hazard and went on to something new. His
+amazing series of errors of judgment with plays by Augustus Thomas is
+one of the traditions of the American theater. The reader already knows
+how he refused "Arizona" and "The Earl of Pawtucket," and how they made
+fortunes for other managers.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most extraordinary of these Thomas mistakes was with "The
+Witching Hour." It was about the only time that he permitted his own
+decision to be swayed by outside influence, and it cost him dearly.</p>
+
+<p>The author read the play to Frohman on a torrid night in midsummer.
+Frohman, as usual, sat cross-legged on a divan and sipped orangeade
+incessantly.</p>
+
+<p>Thomas, who has all the art and eloquence of a finished actor, read his
+work with magnetic effect. When he finished Frohman sat absolutely still
+for nearly five minutes. It seemed hours to the playwright, who awaited
+the decision with tense interest. Finally Frohman said in a whisper:</p>
+
+<p>"That is almost too beautiful to bear."</p>
+
+<p>A pause followed. Then he said, eagerly:</p>
+
+<p>"When shall we do it; whom do you want for star?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to have Gillette," replied Thomas.</p>
+
+<p>"You can't have him," responded Frohman. "He's engaged for something
+else."</p>
+
+<p>With this the session ended. Frohman seemed strangely under the spell of
+the play. It made him silent and meditative.</p>
+
+<p>The next day he gave the manuscript to some of his close associates to
+read. They thought it was too psychological for a concrete dramatic
+success. To their great surprise he agreed with them.</p>
+
+<p>"The Witching Hour" was produced by another manager and it ran a whole
+season in New York, and then duplicated its success on the road. This
+experience made Frohman all the more determined to keep his own counsel
+and follow his instincts with regard to plays thereafter, and he did.</p>
+
+<p>Charles regarded play-producing just as he regarded life&mdash;as a huge
+adventure. An amusing thing happened during the production of "The Other
+Girl," a play by Augustus Thomas, in which a pugilist has a prominent
+r&ocirc;le.</p>
+
+<p>Lionel Barrymore was playing the part of the prize-fighter, who was
+generally supposed to be a stage replica of "Kid" McCoy, then in the
+very height of his fistic powers. In the piece the fighter warns his
+friends not to bet on a certain fight. The lines, in substance, were:</p>
+
+<p>"You have been pretty loyal to me, but I am giving you a tip not to put
+any money down on that 'go' in October."</p>
+
+<p>One day Frohman found Barrymore pacing nervously up and down in front of
+his office.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter, Lionel?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," was the reply, "I am very much disturbed about something. I made
+a promise to 'Kid' McCoy, and I don't know how to keep it. You know I
+have a line in the play in which the prize-fighter warns his friends not
+to bet on him in a certain fight in October. The 'Kid,' who has been at
+the play nearly every night since we opened, now has a real fight on for
+October, and he is afraid it will give people the idea that it is a
+'frame-up.'"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean to say that you want me to change Mr. Thomas's lines?" asked
+Frohman, seriously.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't ask you to do that," answered Barrymore. "But I promised the
+'Kid' to speak to you about it, and I have kept my word."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman thought a moment. Then he said, gravely:</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Lionel, I'll postpone the date of the fight in the play
+until November, even December, but not a day later."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman was not without his sense of imitation. He was quick to follow
+up a certain type or mood whether it was in the vogue of an actor or the
+character of a play. This story will illustrate:</p>
+
+<p>One night early in February, 1895, Frohman sat in his wonted corner at
+Delmonico's, then on Broadway and Twenty-sixth Street. He had "The Fatal
+Card," by Chambers and Stephenson, on the boards at Palmer's Theater; he
+also had A. M. Palmer's Stock Company on the road in Sydney Grundy's
+play "The New Woman." This naturally gave him a lively interest in Mr.
+Palmer's productions.</p>
+
+<p>Paul Potter, who was then house dramatist at Palmer's, bustled into the
+restaurant with the plot of a new novel which had been brought to his
+attention by the news-stand boy at the Waldorf. Frohman listened to his
+recital with interest.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the name of the book?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Trilby," replied Potter.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he continued, "it ought to be called after that conjurer chap,
+Bengali, or whatever his name is. However, go ahead. Get Lackaye back
+from 'The District Attorney' company to which Palmer has lent him.
+Engage young Ditrichstein by all means for one of your Bohemians. Call
+in Virginia Harned and the rest of the stock company. And there you
+are."</p>
+
+<p>With uncanny precision he had cast the leading r&ocirc;les perfectly and on
+the impulse of the moment.</p>
+
+<p>During the fortnight of the incubation of the play Potter saw Frohman
+nightly, for they were now fast friends. Frohman was curiously
+fascinated by "Bengali," as he insisted upon calling Svengali.</p>
+
+<p>"We do it next Monday in Boston," said Potter, "and I count on your
+coming to see it."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman went to Boston to see the second performance. After the play he
+and Potter walked silently across the Common to the Thorndyke Hotel. In
+his room Frohman broke into speech:</p>
+
+<p>"They are roasting it awfully in New York," he began. "Yet Joe Jefferson
+says it will go around the world." Then he added, "They say you have cut
+out all the Bohemian stuff."</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless," replied Potter, "W. A. Brady has gone to New York
+to-night to offer Mr. Palmer ten thousand dollars on account for the
+road rights."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Frohman, showing his hand at last, "Jefferson and Brady are
+right, and if Palmer will let me in I'll go half and half, or, if he
+prefers, I'll take it all."</p>
+
+<p>At supper after the first performance at the Garden Theater in New York,
+Frohman advised Sir Herbert Tree to capture the play for London.
+Henceforth, wherever he traveled, "Trilby" seemed to pursue him.</p>
+
+<p>"I've seen your old 'Bengali,'" he wrote Potter, "in Rome, Vienna,
+Berlin, everywhere. It haunts me. And, as you cut out the good Bohemian
+stuff, I'll use it myself at the Empire."</p>
+
+<p>He did so in Clyde Fitch's version of "La Vie de Boh&egrave;me," which was
+called "Bohemia."</p>
+
+<p>"How did it go?" Potter wrote him from Switzerland.</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty well," replied Frohman. "Unfortunately we left out 'Bengali.'"</p>
+
+<p>On more than one occasion Frohman produced a play for the mere pleasure
+of doing it. He put on a certain little dramatic fantasy. It was
+foredoomed to failure and held the boards only a week.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you do this play?" asked William H. Crane.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I wanted to see it played," answered Frohman. "I knew it would
+not be successful, but I simply had to do it. I saw every performance
+and I liked it better every time I saw it."</p>
+
+<p>Often Frohman would make a contract with a playwright for a play, and
+long before the first night he would realize that it had no chance. Yet
+he kept his word with the author, and it was always produced.</p>
+
+<p>The case of "The Heart of a Thief," by the late Paul Armstrong, is
+typical. Frohman paid him an advance of fifteen hundred dollars. After a
+week of rehearsals every one connected with the play except Armstrong
+realized that it was impossible.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman, however, gave it an out-of-town opening and brought it to the
+Hudson Theater in New York, where it ran for one week. When he decided
+to close it he called the company together and said:</p>
+
+<p>"You've done the best you could. It's all my fault. I thought it was a
+good play. I was mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman took vast pride in the "clean quality" of his plays, as he often
+phrased it. His whole theatrical career was a rebuke to the salacious.
+He originally owned Edward Sheldon's dramatization of Suderman's "The
+Song of Songs." On its production in Philadelphia it was assailed by the
+press as immoral. Frohman immediately sold it to A. H. Woods, who
+presented it with enormous financial success in New York.</p>
+
+<p>He was scrupulous to the last degree in his business relations with
+playwrights. Once a well-known English author, who was in great
+financial need, cabled to his agent in America that he would sell
+outright for two thousand dollars all the dramatic rights to a certain
+play of his that Frohman and an associate had on the road at that time.
+The associate thought it was a fine opportunity and personally cabled
+the money through the agent. Then he went to Frohman and said, with
+great satisfaction:</p>
+
+<p>"I've made some money for us to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"How's that?" asked Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>Then his associate told the story of the author's predicament and what
+he had done. He stood waiting for commendation. Instead, Frohman's face
+darkened; he rang a bell, and when his secretary appeared he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Please wire Blank [mentioning the playwright's name] that the money
+cabled him to-day was an advance on future royalties."</p>
+
+<p>Then he turned to his associate and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Never, so long as you work with me or are associated with me in any
+enterprise, take advantage of the distress of author or actor. This
+man's play was good enough for us to produce; it is still good enough to
+earn money. When it makes money for us it also makes money for him."</p>
+
+<p class="space">By the force of his magnetic personality Charles amiably coerced more
+than one unwilling playwright into submission to his will. An experience
+with Margaret Mayo will illustrate.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mayo returned on the same steamer with him when he made his last
+trip from London to the United States. As they walked up the gang-plank
+at Liverpool the manager told the author that he had a play he wished
+her to adapt.</p>
+
+<p>"But I have decided to adapt no more plays," said Miss Mayo.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind," replied Frohman. "We will see about that."</p>
+
+<p>Needless to say, by the time the ship reached New York the play was in
+Miss Mayo's trunk and the genial tyrant had exacted a promise for the
+adaptation.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mayo immediately went to her country house up the Hudson. For a
+week she reproached herself for having fallen a victim to the Frohman
+beguilements. In this state of mind she could do no work on the
+manuscript.</p>
+
+<p>With his astonishing intuition Frohman divined that the author was
+making no progress, so he sent her a note asking her to come to town,
+and adding, "I have something to show you."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mayo entered the office at the Empire determined to throw herself
+upon the managerial mercy and beg to be excused from the commission. But
+before she could say a word Frohman said, cheerily:</p>
+
+<p>"I've found the right title for our play."</p>
+
+<p>Then he rang a bell, and a boy appeared holding a tightly rolled poster
+in his hand. At a signal he unfolded it, and the astonished playwright
+beheld these words in large red and white letters:</p>
+
+<p class="c"><i>Charles Frohman</i><br />
+<i>Presents</i><br />
+<i>I DIDN'T WANT TO DO IT</i><br />
+<i>A Farce in Three Acts</i><br />
+<i>By Margaret Mayo</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>Of course the usual thing happened. No one could resist such an attack.
+Miss Mayo went back to the country without protest and she finished the
+play. It was destined, however, to be produced by some other hand than
+Frohman's.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman always sought seclusion when he wanted to work out the plans for
+a production. He sometimes went to extreme lengths to achieve
+aloofness. An incident related by Goodwin will illustrate this.</p>
+
+<p>During the run of "Nathan Hale" in New York Goodwin entered his
+dressing-room one night, turned on the electric light, and was amazed to
+see Charles sitting huddled up in a corner.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you doing here, Charley?" asked Goodwin.</p>
+
+<p>"I am casting a new play, and came here to get some inspiration. Good
+night," was the reply. With that he walked out.</p>
+
+<p class="space">There was one great secret in Charles Frohman's life. It is natural that
+it should center about the writing of a play; it is natural, too, that
+this most intimate of incidents in the career of the great manager
+should be told by his devoted friend and colleague of many years, Paul
+Potter.</p>
+
+<p>Here it is as set down by Mr. Potter:</p>
+
+<p>We had hired a rickety cab at the Place Saint-Fran&ccedil;ois in Lausanne, and
+had driven along the lake of Geneva to Morges, where, sitting on the
+terrace of the H&ocirc;tel du Mont Blanc, we were watching the shore of Savoy
+across the lake, and the gray old villages of Thonon and Evian, and the
+mountains, rising ridge upon ridge, behind them. And Frohman, being in
+lyric mood, fell to quoting "The Blue Hills Far Away," for Owen
+Meredith's song was one of the few bits of verse that clung in his
+memory.</p>
+
+<p>"Odd," said he, relapsing into prose, "that a chap should climb hill
+after hill, thinking he had reached his goal, and should forever find
+the blue hills farther and farther away."</p>
+
+<p>While he was ruminating the clouds lifted, and there, in a gap of the
+hills, was the crest of Mont Blanc, with its image of Napoleon lying
+asleep in the snow.</p>
+
+<p>I have seen Frohman in most of the critical moments of his life, but I
+never saw him utterly awe-stricken till then.</p>
+
+<p>"Gee," said he, at length, "what a mountain to climb!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is sixty miles away," I ventured to suggest.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he remarked, "I'll climb it some day. As John Russell plastered
+the Rocky Mountains with 'The City Directory,' so I'll hang a shingle
+from the top of Mont Blanc: 'Ambition: a comedy in four acts by Charles
+Frohman.'" And as we went home to Ouchy he told me the secret desire of
+his heart.</p>
+
+<p>He wanted to write a play.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it enough to be a theatrical manager?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said he, "a theatrical manager is a joke. The public thinks he
+spends his days in writing checks and his nights in counting the
+receipts. Why, when I wanted to become a depositor at the Union Bank in
+London, the cashier asked me my profession. 'Theatrical manager,' I
+replied. 'Humph!' said the cashier, taken aback. 'Well, never mind, Mr.
+Frohman; we'll put you down as 'a gentleman.'"</p>
+
+<p>"But is a playwright," I asked, "more highly reputed than a theatrical
+manager?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not in America," said Frohman. "Most Americans think that the actors
+and actresses write their own parts. I was on the Long Branch boat the
+other day and met a well-known Empire first-nighter. 'What are you going
+to give us next season, Frohman?' he said.</p>
+
+<p>"'I open with a little thing by Sardou,' I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"'Sardou!' he cried. 'Who in thunder is Sardou?'</p>
+
+<p>"All the same," Frohman continued, "I mean to be a playwright. Didn't
+Lester Wallack write 'Rosedale' and 'The Veteran'? Didn't Augustin Daly
+make splendid adaptations of German farces? Doesn't Belasco turn out
+first-class dramas? Then why not I? I mean to learn the game. Don't give
+me away, but watch my progress in play-making as we jog along through
+life."</p>
+
+<p>He got his first tip from Pinero. "When I have sketched out a play,"
+observed the author of "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray," "I go and live among
+the characters."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman had no characters of his own, but he held in his brain a
+fabulous store of other people's plays. And whenever they had a
+historical or a literary origin he ran these origins to their lair. At
+Ferney, on the Lake of Geneva, he cared nothing about Voltaire; he
+wanted to see the place where the free-thinkers gathered in A. M.
+Palmer's production of "Daniel Rochat." At Geneva he was not concerned
+with Calvin, but with memories of a Union Square melodrama, "The Geneva
+Cross." At Lyons he expected the ghosts of <i>Claude Melnotte</i> and
+<i>Pauline</i> to meet him at the station. In Paris he allowed Napoleon to
+slumber unnoticed in the Invalides while he hunted the Faubourg
+Saint-Antoine for traces of "The Tale of Two Cities," and the Place de
+la Concorde for the site of the guillotine on which <i>Sidney Carton</i>
+died, and the Latin Quarter haunts of <i>Mimi</i> and <i>Musette</i>, and the Bal
+Bullier where <i>Trilby</i> danced, and the Concert des Ambassadeurs where
+<i>Zaza</i> bade her lover good-by.</p>
+
+<p>Any production was an excuse for these expeditions. Sir Herbert Tree had
+staged "Colonel Newcome"; we had ourselves plotted a dramatization of
+"Pendennis"; Mrs. Fiske had given "Vanity Fair"; so off we went, down
+the Boulevard Saint-Germain, searching for the place, duly placarded,
+where Thackeray lunched in the days of the "Paris Sketch-book" and the
+"Ballad of Bouillabaisse."</p>
+
+<p>In the towns of Kent we got on the trail of Dickens with the enthusiasm
+of a Hopkinson Smith; in London, between Drury Lane and Wardour Street,
+we hunted for the Old Curiosity Shop; in Yarmouth we discovered the
+place where Peggotty's boat-hut might have lain on the sands. With
+William Seymour, who knew every street from his study of "The Rivals,"
+we listened to the abbey bells of Bath. And when "Romeo and Juliet" was
+to be revived with Sothern and Marlowe, Frohman even proposed that we
+should visit Verona. He only abandoned the idea on discovering that the
+Veronese had no long-distance telephones, and that, while wandering
+among the tombs of the Montagus and Capulets, he would be cut off from
+his London office.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus steeped himself in the atmosphere of his work, he set forth
+to learn the rules of the game. I met him in Paris on his return from
+New York. "How go the rules?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Rotten," said he. "Our American playwrights say there are no rules;
+with them it is all inspiration. The Englishmen say that rules exist,
+but what the rules are they either don't know or won't tell."</p>
+
+<p>We went to the Concert Rouge. Those were the happy days when there were
+no frills; when the price of admission was charged with what you drank;
+when Saint-Sa&euml;ns accompanied his "Samson and Delilah" with an imaginary
+flute obligato on a walking-stick; when Massenet, with his librettist,
+Henri Cain, dozed quietly through the meditation of "Tha&iuml;s"; when the
+students and their girls forgot frivolity under the spell of
+"L'Arlesienne."</p>
+
+<p>In a smoky corner sat a group of well-known French playwrights, headed
+by G. A. Caillavet, afterward famous as author of "Le Roi." They were
+indulging in a heated but whispered discussion. They welcomed Frohman
+cordially, then returned to the debate.</p>
+
+<p>"What are they talking about?" asked Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>"The rules of the drama," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Then there are rules!" cried the manager, eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Ask Caillavet," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Rules?" exclaimed Caillavet, who spoke English. "Are there rules of
+painting, sculpture, music? Why, the drama is a mass of rules! It is
+nothing but rules."</p>
+
+<p>"And how long," faltered Frohman, thinking of his play&mdash;"how long would
+it take to learn them?"</p>
+
+<p>"A lifetime at the very least," answered Caillavet. Disconsolate,
+Frohman led me out into the Rue de Tournon. Heartbroken, he convoyed me
+into Foyot's, and drowned his sorrows in a grenadine.</p>
+
+<p>From that hour he was a changed man. He apparently put aside all thought
+of the drama whose name was to be stenciled on the summit of Mont Blanc;
+yet, nevertheless, he applied himself assiduously to learning the
+principles on which the theater was based.</p>
+
+<p>Another winter had passed before we sat side by side on the terrace of
+the Caf&eacute; Napolitain.</p>
+
+<p>"I have asked Harry Pettitt, the London melodramatist," Frohman said,
+"to write me a play. 'I warn you, Frohman,' he replied, 'that I have
+only one theme&mdash;the Persecuted Woman.' Dion Boucicault, who was
+present, said, 'Add the Persecuted Girl.' Joseph Jefferson was with us,
+and Jefferson remarked, 'Add the Persecuted Man.' So was Henry Irving,
+who said: 'Pity is the trump card; but be Aristotelian, my boy; throw in
+a little Terror; with Pity I can generally go through a season, as with
+'Charles the First' or 'Olivia'; with Terror and Pity combined I am
+liable to have something that will outlast my life." And Irving
+mentioned "The Bells" and "The Lyons Mail."</p>
+
+<p>"But who will write you your Terror and Pity?" I asked Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>"If Terror means 'thrill,'" said Frohman, "I can count on Belasco and
+Gillette. If Pity means 'sympathy,' the Englishmen do it pretty well. So
+does Fitch. So do the French, who used to be masters of the game."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't expect," I said, "to pick up another 'Two Orphans,' a second
+'Ticket of Leave Man'?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not such a fool," said Frohman. "But I've got hold of something now
+that will help me to feed my stock company in New York." And off we went
+with Dillingham to see "The Girl from Maxim's" at the Nouveaut&eacute;s.</p>
+
+<p>When we got home to the Ritz Frohman discussed the play after his
+manner: "Do you know," he said, "I find the element of pity quite as
+strongly developed in these French farces as in the Ambigu melodramas.
+The truant husband leaves home, goes out for a good time, gets buffeted
+and bastinadoed for his pains, and when the compassionate audience says,
+'He has had enough; let up,' he comes humbly home to the bosom of his
+family and is forgiven. Where can you find a more human theme than
+that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you hold," said I, "that even in a French farce the events should
+be reasonable?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't buy one," he replied, "if I didn't consider its basis
+thoroughly human. Dion Boucicault told me long ago that farce, like
+tragedy, must be founded on granite. 'Farce, well done,' said he, 'is
+the most difficult form of dramatic composition. That is why, if
+successful, it is far the most remunerative.'"</p>
+
+<p>Years went by. The stock company was dead. "Charles Frohman's Comedians"
+had disappeared. The "stars" had supplanted them. Frohman was at the
+zenith of his career. American papers called him "the Napoleon of the
+Drama." Prime Ministers courted him in the grill-room of the London
+Savoy. The Paris <i>Figaro</i> announced the coming of "the celebrated
+impresario." I heard him call my name in the crowd at the Gare du Nord
+and we bundled into a cab.</p>
+
+<p>"So you're a great man now," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I?" he remarked. "There's one thing you can bet on. If they put me
+on a throne to-day they are liable to yank me off to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"And how's your own play getting along?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't!" he winced. "Let us go to the Snail."</p>
+
+<p>In the cozy recesses of the Escargot d'Or, near the Central Markets, he
+unraveled the mysteries of the "star system" which had made him famous.</p>
+
+<p>"It's the opposite of all we ever believed," he said, while the mussels
+and shell-fish were being heaped up before him. "Good-by to Caillavet
+and his rules. Good-by, Terror and Pity. Good-by, dear French farce.
+Give me a pretty girl with a smile, an actor with charm, and I will defy
+our old friend Aristotle."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it as easy as that?" I asked, in amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said he, "it's confoundedly difficult to find the girl with the
+smile and the actor with charm. It is pure accident. There are players
+of international reputation who can't draw a dollar. There are chits of
+chorus-girls who can play a night of sixteen hundred dollars in
+Youngstown, Ohio."</p>
+
+<p>"And the play doesn't matter?" I inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"There you've got me," said Frohman, as the cr&ecirc;pes Suzette arrived in
+their chafing-dish. "My interest makes me pretend that the play's the
+thing. I congratulate foreign authors on a week of fourteen thousand
+dollars in Chicago, and they go away delighted. But I know, all the
+time, that of this sum the star drew thirteen thousand nine hundred
+dollars, and the author the rest."</p>
+
+<p>"To what do you attribute such a state of affairs?"</p>
+
+<p>"Feminine curiosity. God bless the women."</p>
+
+<p>"Are there no men in your audiences?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Only those whom the women take," said Frohman. "The others go to
+musical shows. Have some more cr&ecirc;pes Suzette."</p>
+
+<p>"But what do the critics say?" I persisted.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Paul," said Frohman, solemnly, "they call me a 'commercial
+manager' because I won't play Ibsen or Maeterlinck. They didn't help me
+when I tried for higher game. I had years of poverty, years of
+privation. To-day I take advantage of a general feminine desire to view
+Miss Tottie Coughdrop; and, to the critics, I'm a mere Bulgarian, a
+'commercial manager.' So was Lester Wallack when he admitted 'The World'
+to his classic theater. So was Augustin Daly when he banished
+Shakespeare in favor of 'The Great Ruby.' If the critics want to reform
+the stage, let them begin by reforming the public."</p>
+
+<p>In his cabin on the <i>Lusitania</i> he showed me a mass of yellow
+manuscript, scribbled over with hieroglyphics in blue pencil.</p>
+
+<p>"That's my play," he said, very simply.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I take it home and read it?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he replied. "I will try it on Barrie and bring it back in better
+shape."</p>
+
+<p>So he shook hands and sailed with his cherished drama, which reposes
+to-day, not on the summit of Mont Blanc, but at the bottom of the Irish
+Sea.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI</h3>
+
+<p class="head">"C. F." AT REHEARSALS</p>
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">T</span> <span class="smcap">he</span>
+real Charles Frohman emerged at rehearsals. The shy, sensitive man
+who shunned the outside world here stood revealed as a dynamic force.
+Yet he ruled by personality, because he believed in personality. He did
+every possible thing to bring out the personal element in the men and
+women in his companies.</p>
+
+<p>In rehearsing he showed one of the most striking of his traits. It was a
+method of speech that was little short of extraordinary. It grew out of
+the fact that his vocabulary could not express his enormous imagination.
+Instead of words he made motions. It was, as Augustus Thomas expressed
+it, "an exalted pantomime." Those who worked with him interpreted these
+gestures, for between him and his stars existed the finest kinship.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman seldom finished a sentence, yet those who knew him always
+understood the unuttered part. Even when he would give a star the first
+intimation of a new r&ocirc;le he made it a piece of pantomime interspersed
+with short, jerky sentences.</p>
+
+<p>William Faversham had complained about having two very bad parts. When
+he went to see Frohman to hear about the third, this is the way the
+manager expressed it to him:</p>
+
+<p>"New play&mdash;see?... Fine part.&mdash;First act&mdash;<i>you</i> know&mdash;romantic&mdash;light
+through the window ... nice deep tones of your voice, you see?... Then,
+audience say 'Ah!'&mdash;then the girl&mdash;see?&mdash;In the room ... you ... one of
+those big scenes&mdash;then, all subdued&mdash;light&mdash;coming through
+window.&mdash;See?&mdash;And then&mdash;curtain&mdash;audience say 'Great!' ... Now, second
+act ... all that tremolo business&mdash;you know?&mdash;Then you get down to work
+... a tremendous scene ... let your voice go.... Great climax ... (Oh, a
+great play this&mdash;a great part!) ... Now, last
+act&mdash;simple&mdash;nice&mdash;lovable&mdash;refined ... sad tones in your voice&mdash;and,
+well, you know&mdash;and then you make a big hit.... Well, now we will
+rehearse this in about a week&mdash;and you will be tickled to death.... This
+is a great play&mdash;fine part.... Now, you see Humphreys&mdash;he will arrange
+everything."</p>
+
+<p>Of course Faversham went away feeling that he was about forty-four feet
+tall, that he was a great actor, and had a wonderful part.</p>
+
+<p>Like the soldier who thrills at the sound of battle, Frohman became
+galvanized when he began to work in the theater. He forgot time, space,
+and all other things save the task at hand. To him it was as the breath
+of life.</p>
+
+<p>One reason was that the theater was his world; the other that Charles
+was, first and foremost, a director and producer. His sensibility and
+force, his feeling and authority, his intelligence and comprehension in
+matters of dramatic artistry were best, almost solely, known to his
+players and immediate associates. No stage-director of his day was more
+admired and desired than he.</p>
+
+<p>At rehearsal the announcement, "C. F. is in front," meant for every one
+in the cast an eager enthusiasm and a desire to do something unusually
+good to merit his commendation. His enormous energy, aided by his
+diplomacy and humor, inspired the player to highest performance.</p>
+
+<p>Such expressions as, "But, Mr. Frohman, this is my way of doing it," or
+"I feel it this way," and like manifestations of actors' conceit or
+argument would never be met with ridicule or contempt. Sometimes he
+would say, "Try it my way first," or "Do you like that?" or "Does this
+give you a better feeling?" He never said, "You <i>must</i> do thus and so."
+He was alert to every suggestion. As a result he got the very best out
+of his people. It was part of his policy of developing the personal
+element.</p>
+
+<p>The genial human side of the man always softened his loudest tones,
+although he was seldom vehement. So gentle was his speech at rehearsals
+that the actors often came down to the footlights to hear his friendly
+yet earnest direction.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman had that first essential of a great dramatic director&mdash;a
+psychologic mind in the study of the various human natures of his actors
+and of the ideas they attempted to portray.</p>
+
+<p>He was an engaging and fascinating figure, too, as he molded speech and
+shaped the play. An old friend who saw him in action thus describes the
+picture:</p>
+
+<p>"Here a comedian laughs aloud with the comic quaintness of the director.
+There a little lady, new to the stage, is made to feel at home and
+confident. The proud old-timer is sufficiently ameliorated to approve of
+the change suggested. The leading lady trembles with the shock of
+realization imparted by the stout little man with chubby smile who,
+seated alone in the darkened auditorium, conveys his meaning as with
+invisible wires, quietly, quaintly, simply, and rationally, so as to
+stir the actors' souls to new sensibilities, awaken thought, and
+viviby(?) glow of passion, sentiment, or humor."</p>
+
+<p>At rehearsals Frohman usually sat alone about the tenth row back. He
+rarely rose from his seat, but by voice and gesture indicated the moves
+on his dramatic chess-board. When it became necessary for him to go on
+the stage he did so with alacrity. He suggested, by marvelously simple
+indications and quick transitions, the significance of the scene or the
+manner of the presentation.</p>
+
+<p>There was a curious similarity, in one respect, between the rehearsing
+methods of Charles Frohman and Augustin Daly. This comparison is
+admirably made by Frohman's life-long friend Franklin H. Sargent,
+Director of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Empire School
+of Acting, in which Frohman was greatly interested and which he helped
+in every possible way. He said:</p>
+
+<p>"Like a great painter with a few stray significant lines of drawing,
+Frohman revealed the spirit and the idea. In this respect he resembled
+Augustin Daly, who could furnish much dramatic intuition by a grunt and
+a thumb-joint. Both men used similar methods and possessed equal
+keenness of intelligence and sense of humor, except that Frohman was
+rarely sarcastic. Daly usually was. Frohman's demeanor and relationship
+to his actors was kindly and considerate. Rules, and all strictly
+enforced, were in Daly's policy of theater management. Frohman did not
+resort to rules. He regulated his theaters on broad principles, but with
+firm decision when necessary. In Daly's theater there was obedience; in
+Frohman's theater there was a willing co-operation. The chief interest
+of both managers was comedy&mdash;comedy of two opposite kinds. Daly's jest
+was the artificial German farce and Shakespearian refinement. Frohman's
+tastes ranged between the French school&mdash;Sardou's 'Diplomacy' and the
+modern realities&mdash;and the pure sentiments of Barrie's 'The Little
+Minister.' Frohman was never traditional in an artificial sense, though
+careful to retain the fundamental original treatment of imported foreign
+plays.</p>
+
+<p>"The verities, the humanities, the joys of life always existed and grew
+with him as with a good landscape architect who keeps in nature's ways.
+His departures into the classicism of Stephen Phillips, the romanticism
+of Shakespeare, or the exotic French society drama were never as
+valuable and delightful as his treatment of modern sentiment and
+comedy."</p>
+
+<p>In this respect a comparison with the workmanship of another genius of
+the American theater, David Belasco, is inevitable. Belasco, the great
+designer and painter of theatrical pictures, holds quite a different
+point of view and possesses different abilities from those of Charles
+Frohman. Belasco revels in the technique of the actor. Frohman's
+<i>m&eacute;tier</i> was the essentials. The two men were in many ways complements
+of each other and per force admirers of each other and friends. In
+brief, Belasco is the technicist; Frohman was the humanitarian.</p>
+
+<p>Charles usually left details of scenery, lighting, and minor matters to
+his stage-manager. "Look after the little things," he would say, in
+business as in art, for he himself was interested only in the larger
+themes. The lesser people of the play, the early rehearsing of involved
+business, was shaped by his subordinates. The smaller faults and the
+mannerisms of the actor did not trouble him, provided the main thought
+and feeling were there. He would merely laugh at a suggestion to
+straighten out the legs and walk, to lengthen the drawl, or to heighten
+the cockney accent of a prominent member of his company, saying:</p>
+
+<p>"The public likes him for these natural things."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman's ear was musically sensitive. The intonations, inflections, the
+tone colors of voice, orchestral and incidental music, found him an
+exacting critic.</p>
+
+<p>To plays he gave thought, study, and preparation. The author received
+much advice and direction from him. He himself possessed the expert
+knowledge and abilities of a playwright, as is always true of every good
+stage-director. Each new play was planned, written, cast, and revised
+completely under his guidance and supervision. His stage-manager had
+been instructed in advance in the "plotting" of its treatment. The first
+rehearsals were usually left in charge of this assistant.</p>
+
+<p>At the first rehearsals Frohman made little or no comments. He watched
+and studied in silence. Thereafter his master-mind would reveal itself
+in reconstruction of lines and scenes, re-accentuation of the high and
+low lights of the story involved, and improvement of the acting and
+representation. Frohman consulted with his authors, artists, and
+assistants more in his office than in actual rehearsal. In the theater
+he was sole auditor and judge. His stage-manager would rarely make
+suggestions during rehearsals unless beckoned to and asked by his
+manager. When the office-boy came in at rehearsal on some important
+business errand, he got a curt dismissal, or at most a brief
+consideration of the despatch, contract, or message.</p>
+
+<p>Here is a vivid view of Frohman at rehearsal by one who often sat under
+the magic of his direction:</p>
+
+<p>"In the dim theater he sits alone, the stage-manager being at a
+respectable distance. If by chance there are one or two others present
+directly concerned in the production, they all sit discreetly in the
+extreme rear. The company is grouped in the wings, never in the front.
+The full stage lights throw into prominence the actors in the scene in
+rehearsal. Occasionally the voice of Mr. Frohman calls from the
+auditorium, and the direction is sometimes repeated more loudly by the
+stage-manager. Everybody is listening and watching.</p>
+
+<p>"The wonderfully responsive and painstaking nature of Maude Adams is
+fully alive, alert, and interested in Mr. Frohman's directions even in
+the scenes in which she has no personal part, during which, very likely,
+she will half recline on the floor near the proscenium&mdash;all eyes and
+ears.</p>
+
+<p>"Or perhaps it is a strong emotional scene in which Margaret Anglin is
+the central character. At the theatrically most effective point in the
+acting the voice breaks in, Miss Anglin stops, hastens to the
+footlights, and listens intently to a few simple, quiet words. Over her
+face pass shadow and storm, and in her eyes tears form. Again she begins
+the scene, and yet again, with cumulative passion. Each time, with each
+new incitement from the sympathetic director, new power, deeper feeling,
+keener thought develop, until a great glow of meaning and of might fills
+the stage and the theater with its radiance. Mr. Frohman is at last
+satisfied, and so the play moves on."</p>
+
+<p>Just as Frohman loved humor in life, so did he have a rare gift for
+comedy rehearsal. William Faversham pays him this tribute:</p>
+
+<p>"I think Charles Frohman was the greatest comedy stage-manager that I
+have known. I do not think there was a comedy ever written that he could
+not rehearse and get more out of than any other stage-director I have
+ever seen&mdash;and I have seen a good many. If he had devoted himself, as
+director, entirely to one company, I think he would have produced the
+greatest organization of comedians that Europe or America ever saw. I
+don't suppose there is a comedy scene that he couldn't rehearse and play
+better than any of the actors who were engaged to play the parts. The
+subtle touches that he put into 'Lord and Lady Algy' were extraordinary.
+The same with 'The Counsellor's Wife,' with 'Bohemia,' and again with a
+play of H. V. Esmond's called 'Imprudence,' which we did. He seemed to
+love this play, and I never saw a piece grow so in all my life as it did
+under his direction. All the successes made by the actors and actresses
+in that play were entirely through the work of Charles Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>"He had a keen sense of sound, a tremendous ear for tones of comedy. He
+could get ten or twelve inflections out of a speech of about four lines;
+he had a wonderful method of getting the actors to accept and project
+these tones over the footlights. He got what he wanted from them in the
+most extraordinary way. With his disjointed, pantomimic method of
+instruction he was able to transfer to them, as if by telepathy, what he
+wanted.</p>
+
+<p>"For instance, he would say: 'Now, you go over there ... then, just as
+he is looking at you ... see?&mdash;say&mdash;then ... that's it! you know?' And
+simply by this telepathy you <i>did know</i>."</p>
+
+<p>His terse summing up of scenes and facts was never better illustrated
+than when he compressed the instructions of a whole sentimental act into
+this simple sentence to E. H. Sothern:</p>
+
+<p>"Court&mdash;kiss&mdash;curtain."</p>
+
+<p>In one detail he differed from all the other great producers of his
+time. Most managers liked to nurse a play after its production and build
+it up with new scenes or varied changes. With Frohman it was different.
+"I am interested in a production until it has been made, and then I
+don't care for it any more," he said. This is generally true, although
+some of his productions he could never see often enough.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman's perception about a play was little short of uncanny. An
+incident that happened during the rehearsal of the Maude Adams all-star
+revival of "Romeo and Juliet" will illustrate. James K. Hackett was cast
+for <i>Mercutio</i>. He had worked for a month on the Queen Mab speech. He
+had elaborated and polished it, and thought he had it letter and tone
+perfect.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman sat down near the front and listened with rapt attention while
+this fine actor declaimed the speech. When he finished Charles said, in
+his jerky, epigrammatic way:</p>
+
+<p>"Hackett, that's fine, but just in there somewhere&mdash;you know what I
+mean."</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, Hackett, with all his elaborate preparation, had
+slipped up on one line, and it was a very essential one. Frohman had
+never read "Romeo and Juliet" until he cast this production, yet he
+caught the omission with his extraordinary intuition.</p>
+
+<p>Charles was the most indefatigable of workers. At one time, on arriving
+in Boston at midnight, he had to stage a new act of "Peter Pan." He
+worked over it with carpenters, actors, and electricians until three in
+the morning. Then he made an appointment with the acting manager to take
+a walk on the Common "in the morning."</p>
+
+<p>The manager took "in the morning" to mean nine o'clock. When he reached
+the hotel Frohman was just returning from his walk, and handed the man a
+bunch of cables to send, telegrams to acknowledge, and memoranda of
+information desired. At ten o'clock Frohman was conducting the rehearsal
+of a new comedy by Haddon Chambers, which he finished at four. At five
+he was on a train speeding back to New York, where he probably read
+manuscripts of plays until two in the morning. This was one of the
+typical "C. F." days.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Occasionally a single detail would fascinate him in a play. "The Waltz
+Dream" that he did at the Hicks Theater in London in 1908 was typical.
+Miss Gertie Millar, who sang the leading part, had an important song.
+Frohman did not like the way she sang it, so he worked on it for two
+weeks until it reached the perfection of expression that he desired. But
+that song made the play and became the most-talked-of feature in it.
+This led him to say:</p>
+
+<p>"I am willing to give as much time to a single song as to the rehearsal
+of a whole play."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman had a phrase that he often used with his actors and directors.
+It was:</p>
+
+<p>"Never get a 'falling curtain.'"</p>
+
+<p>By this he meant a curtain that did not leave interest or emotion
+subdued or declining. He wanted the full sweep of rage, terror, pity,
+suspense, or anger alive with the end of the act.</p>
+
+<p>He always said, "A man who sees a play must feel that he is in the
+presence of an act." It was his way of putting forth the idea that any
+acted effort, no matter how humble, must have the ring of sincerity and
+conviction.</p>
+
+<p>Charles had an almost weird instinct for what was right on the stage.
+Once at rehearsals he pointed to a heavy candelabrum that stood on a
+table.</p>
+
+<p>"I want that thing on the mantelpiece," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean the candelabrum?" asked one of his assistants.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what it is, but I know that it belongs on the
+mantelpiece." And it did.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Many of Frohman's rehearsals were held out of town. He was particularly
+fond of "pointing up" a production in a strange environment. Then the
+stage-director would ask the local manager for an absolutely empty
+theater&mdash;"a clear auditorium."</p>
+
+<p>"Peter Pan" was to be "finished off" at Washington. The call was issued,
+the company assembled&mdash;everybody was present except Frohman. "Strange,"
+was the thought in all minds, for he was usually so prompt. Ten minutes,
+fifteen minutes passed until the stage-manager left the theater in
+search of the manager. He was found at the front entrance of the
+theater, unsuccessfully arguing with a German door-tender who, not
+knowing him and immensely amused at the idea that he was pretending to
+be Charles Frohman, refused to admit him until reassured by the company
+stage-manager. Later, when the man came to apologize, Frohman's only
+comment was:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I forgot that an hour ago."</p>
+
+<p>Few people knew the Frohman of rehearsals so well as William Seymour,
+for many years his general stage-director. His illuminating picture of
+the Little Chief he served so long is as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"At rehearsals Charles Frohman was completely wrapped up in the play and
+the players. His mind, however, traveled faster than we did. He often
+stopped me to make a change in a line or in the business which to me was
+not at all clear. You could not always grasp, at once, just what he was
+aiming at. But once understood, the idea became illuminative, and
+extended into the next, or even to succeeding acts of the play. He could
+detect a weak spot quicker than any one I ever knew, and could remedy or
+straighten it out just as quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"After the rehearsal of a new play he would think of it probably all the
+evening and night, and the next morning he had the solutions of the
+several vague points at his fingers' ends. He was also very positive and
+firm in what he wanted done, and how he thought it should be done. But
+what he thought was right, he believed to be right, and he soon made you
+see it that way.</p>
+
+<p>"I confess to having had many differences of opinion and arguments,
+sometimes even disagreements, with him. In some instances he came round
+to my way of thinking, but he often said:</p>
+
+<p>"'I believe you are right&mdash;I am sure you are right&mdash;but I intend doing
+it my way.'</p>
+
+<p>"It was his great and wonderful self-confidence, and it was rarely
+overestimated.</p>
+
+<p>"To his actors in a new play, after a week's 'roughing out' of the lines
+and business, the announcement that 'C. F. will be here to-morrow' would
+cause a flutter, some consternation, and to the newer members a great
+fear. To those who had been with him before he was like a sheet-anchor
+in a storm. They knew him and trusted and loved him. He was all
+sympathy, all comfort, all encouragement&mdash;if anything, too indulgent and
+overkind. But he won the confidence and affection of his people at the
+outset, and I have rarely met a player who would not have done his
+slightest bidding."</p>
+
+<p class="space">One of Frohman's characteristic hobbies was that he would never allow
+the leading man or the leading woman of his theater, or anybody in the
+company, no matter what position he or she held, to presume upon that
+position and bully the property man, or the assistant stage-manager, or
+any person in a menial position in the theater. He was invariably on the
+side of the smaller people.</p>
+
+<p>Very often he would say, "The smallest member of this organization, be
+he of the staff or in the company, has as much right to his 'say' in an
+argument as the biggest member has."</p>
+
+<p>On one occasion a certain actor, who was rather fond of issuing his
+wishes and instructions in a very loud voice, made his exit through a
+door up the center of the stage which was very difficult to open and
+shut. It had not worked well, and this had happened, quite by accident,
+on several occasions during the run of the play. The actor had spoken
+rather sharply to the carpenter about it instead of going, as he should
+have done, to the stage-manager. He always called the carpenter
+"Charley." The carpenter was a rather dignified person named Charles
+Heimley.</p>
+
+<p>On the night in question this actor had had the usual trouble with the
+door. Heimley was not in sight, for he was evidently down in his
+carpenter-shop under the stage. The actor leaned over the balustrade and
+called out: "Charley! Charley!"</p>
+
+<p>Frohman, who was just walking through the side door on his way to
+William Faversham's dressing-room, turned to the star and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Who is calling? Does he want me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, he is calling the carpenter," replied Faversham.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman tapped the noisy actor on the shoulder with his stick, and said,
+"You mean <i>Mr. Heimley</i>, don't you?" He wanted the carpenter's position
+to be respected.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>XVII</h3>
+
+<p class="head">HUMOR AND ANECDOTE</p>
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">T</span> <span class="smcap">he</span>
+most distinctive quality in Charles Frohman's make-up was his sense
+of humor. He mixed jest with life, and it enabled him to meet crisis and
+disaster with unflagging spirit and smiling equanimity. Like Lincoln, he
+often resorted to anecdote and story to illustrate his point. He summed
+up his whole theory of life one day when he said to Augustus Thomas:</p>
+
+<p>"I am satisfied if the day gives me one good laugh."</p>
+
+<p>He had a brilliancy of retort that suggested Wilde or Whistler. Once he
+was asked this question:</p>
+
+<p>"What is the difference between metropolitan and out-of-town audiences?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fifty cents," he replied.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Haddon Chambers was writing a note in Frohman's rooms at the Savoy.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you spell high-ball with a hyphen?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No, with a siphon," responded Frohman.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles Dillingham, when in Frohman's employ, was ordered to hurry back
+to New York. From a small town up New York state he wired:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Wash-out on line. Will return as soon as possible.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Frohman promptly sent the following reply:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Never mind your wash. Buy a new shirt and come along at once.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>That he could also meet failure with a joke is shown by the following
+incident:</p>
+
+<p>He was producing a play at Atlantic City that seemed doomed from the
+start. In writing to a member of his family he said:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>I never saw the waves so high and the receipts so low.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Frohman and Pinero were dining in the Carleton grill-room one night when
+a noisy person rushed up to them, slapped each on the shoulder, and
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, 'C. F.'! Hello, 'Pin.'! I'm Hopkins."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman looked up gravely and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Mr. Hopkins, I can't say that I remember your name or your face,
+but your manner is familiar."</p>
+
+<p class="space">When Edna May married Oscar Lewisohn she gave a reception on her return
+from the honeymoon. She sent Charles one of the conventional engraved
+cards that read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>At home Thursday from four to six.</i>"</p></div>
+
+<p>Frohman immediately sent back the card, on which he had written, "So am
+I."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Once when Frohman and Dillingham were crossing to Europe on the
+<i>Oceanic</i> they had as fellow-passenger a mutual friend, Henry Dazian,
+the theatrical costumer, on whom Charles delighted to play pranks. On
+the first day out Dillingham came rushing back to Frohman with this
+exclamation:</p>
+
+<p>"There are a couple of card-sharks on board and Dazian is playing with
+them. Don't you think we had better warn him?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," replied Frohman. "Warn the sharks."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Some years ago Frohman sent a young actor named John Brennan out on the
+road in the South in "Too Much Johnson." Brennan was a Southerner, and
+he believed that he could do a big business in his home country. Frohman
+then went to London, and, when playing hearts at the Savoy one night
+with Dillingham, a page brought a cablegram. It was from Brennan,
+saying:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Unless I get two hundred dollars by next Saturday night I can't
+close.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Whereupon Frohman wired him:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Keep going.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Frohman delighted to play jokes on his close friends. In 1900,
+Dillingham opened the New Jersey Academy of Music with Julia Marlowe,
+and it was a big event. This was before the day of the tubes under the
+Hudson connecting New Jersey and New York. When Dillingham went down to
+the ferry to cross over for the opening night he found a basket of
+flowers from Frohman marked, "Bon voyage."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Nor could Frohman be lacking in the graceful reply. During a return
+engagement of "The Man from Mexico," in the Garrick Theater, William
+Collier became very ill with erysipelas and had to go to a hospital.
+The day the engagement was resumed happened to be Frohman's birthday,
+and Collier sent him the following cablegram:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Many happy returns from all your box offices.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>He received the following answer from Frohman:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>My happiest return is your return to the Garrick.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Behind all of Frohman's jest and humor was a serious outlook on life. It
+was mixed with big philosophy, too, as this incident will show:</p>
+
+<p>He was visiting Sir George Alexander at his country house in Kent.
+Alexander, who is a great dog fancier, asked Frohman to accompany him
+while he chained up his animals. Frohman watched the performance with
+great interest. Then he turned to the actor-manager and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I have got a lot of dogs out at my country place in America, but I
+never tie them up."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" asked Alexander.</p>
+
+<p>"Let other people tie up the dogs. You let them out and they will always
+like you."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman was known to his friends as a master of epigram. Some of his
+distinctive sayings are these:</p>
+
+<p>"The best seat at a theater is the paid one."</p>
+
+<p>"An ounce of imagination is worth a pound of practicality."</p>
+
+<p>"The man who makes up his mind to corner things generally gets
+cornered."</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot monopolize theaters while there are bricks and mortar."</p>
+
+<p>"When I hear of another theater being built I try to build another
+author."</p>
+
+<p>"No successful theatrical producer ever died rich. He must make money
+for everybody but himself."</p>
+
+<p>"Great stage successes are the plays that take hold of the masses, not
+the classes."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman could always reach the heart of a situation with a pithy phrase
+or reply. On one of the rare occasions when he attended a public dinner
+he sat at the Metropolitan Club in New York with a group of men
+representing a variety of interests. He condemned a certain outrageously
+immodest Oriental dancer, who, at the moment, was shocking New York.</p>
+
+<p>"She must have a nasty mind to dance like that," said Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be too hard on her," responded a playwright who sat near by.
+"Consider how young she is."</p>
+
+<p>"I deny that she is as young as you imply," retorted Frohman. "But I am
+bound to admit that she is certainly a <i>stripling</i>."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman's mind worked with amazing swiftness. Here is an example:</p>
+
+<p>At the formation of a London society called the West End Managers
+Association, Sir Charles Wyndham gave a luncheon at the Hyde Park Hotel
+to discuss and arrange preliminaries. Most of the London managers were
+present, including Frohman. There was a discussion as to what should be
+the entrance fee for each member. Various sums were discussed from &pound;100
+downward. Twenty-five pounds seemed to be the most generally accepted,
+when one manager said:</p>
+
+<p>"Why should we not each give one night's receipts."</p>
+
+<p>This was discussed for a little while, when Sir Charles said, "What do
+you say, Frohman?"</p>
+
+<p>The American replied, "I would sooner give a night's receipts than &pound;25."</p>
+
+<p>There was a short silence, then everybody seemed to remember that he had
+at that moment a failure at his theater. The humor of it was hailed with
+a shout of laughter.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Just as he mixed sentiment in business so did Frohman infuse wit into
+most of his relations. He once instructed W. Lestocq, his London
+manager, to conduct certain negotiations for a new play with a
+Scotchwoman whose first play had made an enormous success in America,
+and whose head had been turned by it. The woman's terms were ten
+thousand dollars in advance and a fifteen-per-cent. royalty. When
+Lestocq told Frohman these terms over the telephone, all he said was
+this:</p>
+
+<p>"Did you tell her not to slam the door?"</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman would always have his joke in London, as this incident shows:</p>
+
+<p>He had just arrived in town and went to a bank in Charing Cross with a
+letter of credit, which he deposited. When he emerged he was smiling all
+over.</p>
+
+<p>"I got one on that young man behind the counter," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"How's that?" asked Lestocq, who was waiting for him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he replied, "the young man bade me good morning and asked me if
+I have brought over anything good this time. I replied, 'Yes, a letter
+of credit on your bank, and I am waiting to see if <i>it</i> is any good.'"</p>
+
+<p>A manager, who for present purposes must be named Smith, called on
+Frohman to secure the services of a star at that time under contract to
+the latter. His plan was to drop in on Frohman at a busy hour, quickly
+state the case, and, getting an affirmative answer, leave without
+talking terms at all. Later he knew it would be enough to recall the
+affirmative answer that had been given without qualification. The
+transaction took but a moment, just as the manager wished.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, I may have him?" said Smith.</p>
+
+<p>"Er-m-ah-er-yes&mdash;I will let you have him," replied Frohman, at the same
+time running over a paper before him. The visitor was already at the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, Smith," called out Frohman, "how much do you want me to pay
+you for taking him off my hands?"</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman was as playful as a child. Once he was riding in a <i>petite
+voiture</i> in Paris. It was a desperately hot night. The old <i>cocher</i> took
+his hat off, hung it on the lamp, and wiped his forehead. Frohman took
+the hat and hid it under his seat. When the driver looked for his hat it
+was gone. He stopped the horse and ran back two or three blocks before
+he could be stopped. Then he went on without it, muttering and cursing,
+and turning around every few moments. Watching his opportunity, Frohman
+slipped the hat back on the lamp, and there was the expected climax that
+he thoroughly enjoyed.</p>
+
+<p>On one of his trips to Paris he was accompanied by Dillingham. Knowing
+Frohman's fondness for rich food, his friend decided to take him to dine
+at Durand's famous restaurant opposite the Madeleine. He even went to
+the caf&eacute; in the afternoon and told the proprietor that he was going to
+bring the great American manager. Great anticipation prevailed in the
+establishment.</p>
+
+<p>That night when they got to the restaurant Frohman gave Dillingham the
+shock of his life by saying:</p>
+
+<p>"I want to be a real American to-night. All I want is an oyster stew."</p>
+
+<p>Dillingham instructed the chef how to make the stew. After long delay
+there was a commotion. In strode the chef, followed by two assistants,
+bearing aloft a gigantic silver tureen which was placed on the table and
+opened with great ceremony. Inside was a huge quantity of consomm&eacute; with
+two lonely oysters floating on top.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman regarded it as a great joke, and ever afterward when he met
+anybody in Paris that he did not like, he would say to them:</p>
+
+<p>"If you want the finest oyster stew in the world, go to Durand's."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman, who was always playing jokes on his friends, was sometimes the
+victim himself. He was crossing the ocean with Haddon Chambers when the
+latter was accosted by two enterprising young men who were arranging the
+ship's concert. Chambers was asked to take part, but declined. Then he
+had an inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>"We have on board the greatest American singer of coon songs known to
+the stage."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is that?" asked the men.</p>
+
+<p>"It's Charles Frohman."</p>
+
+<p>The men gasped.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course we knew him as a great manager, but we never knew he could
+sing."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes," said Chambers. "He is a great singer."</p>
+
+<p>He pointed out Frohman and hid behind a lifeboat to await the result.
+Soon he heard a sputter and a shriek of rage, and the two men came
+racing down the boat as if pursued by some terror. Up came Frohman, his
+face livid with rage.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think?" he said to Chambers, who stood innocently by.
+"Those men had the nerve to ask me to sing a coon song. I have never
+been so insulted in all my life."</p>
+
+<p>He was so enraged that he wrote a letter to the steamship line about it
+and withdrew his patronage from the company for several years in
+consequence.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Here is another instance when the joke was on Frohman. No one viewed the
+manager's immense success with keener pride or pleasure than his father,
+Henry Frohman. As theater after theater came under the son's direction
+the parent could gratify his great passion for giving people free passes
+to its fullest extent. He would appear at the offices at the Empire
+Theater with his pockets bulging with home-made cigars. The men in the
+office always accepted the cigars, but never smoked them. But they gave
+him all the passes he wanted.</p>
+
+<p>One day the father stopped in to see Charles. It was a raw spring day.
+Charles remarked that the overcoat Henry wore was too thin.</p>
+
+<p>"Go to my tailor and get an overcoat," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Not much," said the father. "Your tailor is too expensive. He robs you.
+He wouldn't make one under seventy-five dollars, and I never pay more
+than twenty dollars."</p>
+
+<p>Charles's eye twinkled. He said, quickly:</p>
+
+<p>"You are mistaken. My tailor will make you a coat for twenty dollars. Go
+down and get one."</p>
+
+<p>Father went down to the fashionable Fifth Avenue tailor. Meanwhile
+Frohman called him up and gave instructions to make a coat for his
+father at a very low price and have the difference charged to him.</p>
+
+<p>In an hour Henry Frohman came back all excitement. "I am a real business
+man," he said. "I persuaded that tailor of yours to make me an overcoat
+for twenty dollars."</p>
+
+<p>Charles immediately gave him the twenty dollars and sent the tailor a
+check for the difference between that and the real price, which was
+ninety-five dollars. He dismissed the matter from his mind.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later Charles had another visit from his father. This time he
+was in high glee. He could hardly wait to tell the great news.</p>
+
+<p>"You've often said I wasn't a good business man," he told his son.
+"Well, I can prove to you that I am. The other night one of my friends
+admired my new overcoat so much that I sold it to him for thirty-five
+dollars."</p>
+
+<p>Charles said nothing, but had to pay for another
+one-hundred-and-fifteen-dollar overcoat because he did not want to
+shatter his father's illusion.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Here is still another. When Frohman got back to New York from a trip few
+things interested him so much as a good dinner. It always wiped out the
+memory of hard times or unpleasant experiences. Once he returned from a
+costly visit to the West. On Broadway he met an old-time comedian who
+had been in one of his companies. His greeting was cordial.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, 'C. F.,'" said the comedian, "you've got to come to dinner
+with me. We have a new club, for actors only, and we have the best roast
+beef in town. We make a specialty of a substantial, homelike dinner.
+Come right along."</p>
+
+<p>The club rooms were over a saloon on the west side of Broadway, between
+Thirty-first and Thirty-second streets. The two went up to the room and
+sat down. The actor ordered dinner for two. The waiter went away and
+Frohman's spirits began to rise.</p>
+
+<p>"It's the best roast beef in New York, I tell you," said the host, by
+way of an appetizer.</p>
+
+<p>Then the waiter reappeared, but not with the food. He was visibly
+embarrassed.</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry, sir," he said to the comedian, "but the steward tells me that
+you can't have dinner to-night. He says you were posted to-day, and that
+you can't be served again until everything is settled."</p>
+
+<p>Charles used to tell this story and say that he never had such an
+appetite for roast beef as he did when he rose from that club table to
+go out again into Broadway.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman was always interested in mechanical things. When the phonograph
+was first put on the market he had one in his office at 1127 Broadway.
+Once in London he found a mechanical tiger that growled, walked, and
+even clawed. He enjoyed watching it crouch and spring.</p>
+
+<p>He took it with him on the steamer back to New York, and played with it
+on the deck. One day Richard Croker, who was a fellow-passenger, came
+along and became interested in the toy, whereupon Frohman showed him how
+it worked.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman told of this episode with great satisfaction. He would always
+end his description by saying:</p>
+
+<p>"Fancy showing the boss of Tammany Hall how to work a tiger!"</p>
+
+<p class="space">The extraordinary affinity that existed between Frohman and a small
+group of intimates was shown by an incident that occurred on shipboard.
+He and Dillingham were on their way to Europe. They were playing
+checkers in the smoking-room when an impertinent, pushing American came
+up and half hung himself over the table. Frohman said nothing, but made
+a very ridiculous move. Dillingham followed suit.</p>
+
+<p>"What chumps you are!" said the interloper, and went away.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman wanted to get rid of the man without saying anything. This was
+his way of doing it, and it succeeded.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman was always having queer adventures out of which he spun the most
+amazing yarns. This is an experience that he liked to recount:</p>
+
+<p>When Augustus Thomas had an apartment in Paris he received a visit from
+Frohman. The flat was five flights up, but there was an elevator that
+worked by pushing a button.</p>
+
+<p>There was a ring at the bell of the Thomas apartment. When the
+playwright opened the door he found Frohman gasping for breath, and he
+sank exhausted on a settee.</p>
+
+<p>"I walked up," he managed to say. When he was able to talk Thomas said
+to him:</p>
+
+<p>"Why in Heaven's name didn't you use the elevator?"</p>
+
+<p>Frohman replied:</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't make the woman down-stairs understand what I wanted. She
+made motions and showed me a little door, but I thought she had designs
+on my life, so I preferred to walk."</p>
+
+<p class="space">That Charles Frohman had the happy faculty of saying the right thing and
+saying it gracefully is well illustrated by the following:</p>
+
+<p>When the beautiful Scala Theater in London was opened it made such a
+sensation that Frohman asked Lestocq if he could not inspect it. The
+proprietor, Dr. Distin Maddick, being an old friend of Lestocq, the
+latter called informally with Frohman. While they were admiring the
+white stone and brass interior, Maddick was suddenly called away. He
+returned in a few minutes to say that a manager friend from Edinburgh,
+hearing that Frohman was in the theater, had come in and asked to be
+introduced. Of course Frohman acquiesced. After a little talk the
+gentleman said:</p>
+
+<p>"We have no beautiful theater like this in Edinburgh."</p>
+
+<p>Quickly Frohman replied, with his fascinating smile, "No, but you have
+Edinburgh."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman hated exercise. In this he had a great community of interest
+with Mark Twain.</p>
+
+<p>On Sunday mornings, when he was out at his farm at White Plains, he
+would read all the dramatic news in the papers, and then he searched
+them carefully for items about people who had died from over-exertion.
+When he found one he was greatly pleased, and always sent it to Mark
+Twain.</p>
+
+<p>In order to get him to exercise Dillingham once took him for a stroll
+and pretended to be lost. The second time he tried this, however,
+Frohman discovered the subterfuge and refused to go walking.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman could pack a world of meaning in a word or a sentence. As Sir
+Herbert Beerbohm Tree once expressed it, "he was witty with a dry form
+of humor that takes your breath away with its suddenness." He gave an
+example of this with Tree one day in London. They were discussing French
+plays for America. The question of American taste came up. Frohman
+described certain primitive effects which delighted our audiences.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said Tree, "America can stand that sort of thing. It is a new
+country."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Was</i>," came the laconic reply.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman's retiring disposition and dislike for putting himself forward
+was one of his chief traits. An illustration occurred when he controlled
+the Garden Theater. It was during the presentation of Stephen Phillips's
+play "Ulysses." There was a new man on the door one night when Frohman
+dropped into the theater for a few minutes' look at the play. The
+doorkeeper did not know the producer, his own employer, and would not
+allow him to enter without a ticket. Instead of storming about the
+lobby, Frohman simply walked quickly out of the door, around to the
+stage entrance and through the theater. At the end of the act he walked
+out of the main entrance. The doorkeeper, recognizing him as the man he
+had "turned down," was about to ask him how he got in when the manager
+of the house interposed.</p>
+
+<p class="space">He liked surprise and contrast. On one occasion his old chum, Anson
+Pond, wanted to talk over business matters with him.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's go to a quiet place," said Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>They went to a Childs restaurant. Before their luncheon was served an
+intoxicated man came in, ordered a plate of beans, and then exploded a
+package of fire-crackers on it.</p>
+
+<p>When he went to pay his check Frohman's comment was:</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't know they had changed the date of the Fourth of July."</p>
+
+<p class="space">No other theatrical manager in New York had a better news sense than
+Frohman. He knew just what a paper wanted, and all the matter sent out
+from his offices was short, newsy, and direct. He knew how to shape a
+big "story," and could offhand dictate an interview that was all "meat."
+While he had little time in New York to greet newspaper men personally,
+he was especially cordial to all that came to see him on the road. He
+never went out of town without visiting some of the older critics he had
+known throughout his career, men like George P. Goodale of <i>The Detroit
+Free Press</i>, and Montgomery Phister of <i>The Commercial Tribune</i> in
+Cincinnati. When in Baltimore he invariably gave an hour for a long
+interview to Walter E. McCann, the critic of The News of that city.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman knew a newspaper's wants and limitations as far as theatrical
+matter was concerned. He knew just how far his press representative
+could be expected to go, and what his obstacles were.</p>
+
+<p>On one occasion in Cleveland, when he was producing a play by Clyde
+Fitch for the late Clara Bloodgood, the chief press representative from
+the New York office was taken along to look after the work. The press
+agent sent stories to all of the papers for Saturday morning's
+publication, and to his dismay not a line was used. Feeling that Frohman
+would be hurt about it (for Charles was hurt and not angered by the
+failure of any of his men), he wrote a note to his chief, stating that
+he was sorry nothing had been used in print and did not understand it.</p>
+
+<p>At lunch that day Frohman remarked to the agent:</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you send me that note about the papers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because," replied the young man, "I feared that you would think I had
+not attended to my work."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Frohman, "you sent matter to all the papers, didn't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the agent, "all of them, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said the manager, "what else could you do? You are not running
+the papers."</p>
+
+<p>It was not only an evidence of Frohman's fairness, but an instance of
+his knowledge of newspapers.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman had a remarkable memory. One night during Collier's London
+engagement he asked the actor to meet him at the Savoy the next morning
+at nine o'clock. Collier, who had been playing bridge until dawn, showed
+up at the appointed time, whereupon Frohman said:</p>
+
+<p>"How did you do it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I sat up for it," said Collier.</p>
+
+<p>Five years later Frohman asked Collier one night to meet him at nine
+o'clock the next morning. Then he added, quickly:</p>
+
+<p>"You can sit up for it."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman got much amusement out of a butler named Max who was employed at
+his house at White Plains. One of the most original episodes in which
+this man figured happened on the opening night of "Catherine" at the
+Garrick Theater.</p>
+
+<p>The play was a little thin, and the whole action depended on a love
+scene in the third act, in which the hero, a young swell played by J. M.
+Holland, on telling his mother that he loved a humble girl, gets the
+unexpected admonition to go and be happy with her. Dillingham had two
+seats well down in the orchestra. Frohman was to sit in the back of a
+box. Just before the curtain went up Frohman said to Dillingham, who
+then had a house on Twenty-fourth Street, "Let us have some of those
+nice little lamb chops and peas down at your house after the play."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Dillingham, and he telephoned the instructions to Max,
+who had been drafted for town service.</p>
+
+<p>The curtain went up, the first two acts went off all right, and the
+house was dark for the third act. The seat alongside Dillingham was
+vacated, so Frohman came down and occupied it. The curtain went up and
+the action of the play progressed. The great scene which was to carry it
+was about to begin when Dillingham heard a loud thump, thump, thump down
+the aisle. Frohman turned to Dillingham and said:</p>
+
+<p>"What in the name of Heaven is that? The play is ruined!"</p>
+
+<p>The thump, thump, thump continued, coming nearer. Just in the middle of
+the act a German voice spoke up and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Oxkuse me, Meester Dillingham, dere ain't a lam' chop in der house."</p>
+
+<p>It was Max, the butler, who, worried over what seemed the imminent
+failure of the midnight repast, had come to report to headquarters for
+further instructions. Fortunately the interruption passed unnoticed and
+the play made quite a hit.</p>
+
+<p class="space">On one occasion Nat C. Goodwin invited him to the Goodwin residence in
+West End Avenue, New York. The comedian wanted to place himself under
+the management of his guest. Goodwin stated the case, and Frohman then
+asked how remunerative his last season had been. The host produced his
+books. After a careful examination Frohman remarked, with a smile:</p>
+
+<p>"My dear boy, you don't require a manager. What you need is a lawyer."</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>XVIII</h3>
+
+<p class="head">THE MAN FROHMAN</p>
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">G</span> <span class="smcap">reat</span>
+as producer, star-maker, and conqueror of two stage-worlds,
+Charles Frohman was greater as a human being. Like Roosevelt, whom he
+greatly admired, he was more than a man&mdash;he was an institution. His
+quiet courage, his unaffected simplicity, his rare understanding, his
+ripe philosophy, his uncanny penetration&mdash;above all, his abundant
+humor&mdash;made him a figure of fascinating and incessant interest.</p>
+
+<p>No trait of Charles Frohman was more highly developed than his shyness.
+He was known as "The Great Unphotographed." The only time during the
+last twenty-five years of his life that he sat for a photograph was when
+he had to get a picture for his passport, and this picture went to a
+watery grave with him. Behind his prejudice against being photographed
+was a perfectly definite reason, which he once explained as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"I once knew a theatrical manager whose prospects were very bright. He
+became a victim of the camera. Fine pictures of him were made and stuck
+up on the walls everywhere. He used to spend more time looking at these
+pictures of himself than he did attending to his business. He made a
+miserable failure. I was quite a young man when I heard of this, but it
+made a great impression on me. I resolved then never to have my
+photograph taken if I could help it."</p>
+
+<p>Once when Frohman and A. L. Erlanger were in London he received the
+usual request to be photographed by a newspaper camera man. The two
+magnates looked something alike in that they had a more or less
+Napoleonic cast of face. Frohman, who always saw a joke in everything,
+hatched a scheme by which Erlanger was to be photographed for him. The
+plan worked admirably, and pictures of Erlanger suddenly began to appear
+all over London labeled "Charles Frohman."</p>
+
+<p>He could be gracious, however, in his refusal to be photographed. One
+bright afternoon he was watching the races at Henley when he was
+approached by R. W. MacFarlane, of New York, who had been on the Frohman
+staff. MacFarlane asked if he could take a photograph of Frohman and
+give it to his niece, who was traveling with him.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said the manager, "but you can take a picture of your niece and I
+will pose her for it."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman's shyness led to what is in many respects the most remarkable of
+the countless anecdotes about him. It grew out of his illness. In 1913
+he had a severe attack of neuritis in London. Although his friends urged
+him to go and see a doctor, he steadfastly refused. He dreaded
+physicians just as he dreaded photographers.</p>
+
+<p>One day Barrie came to see him at his rooms at the Savoy. Frohman was in
+such intense pain that the Scotch author said:</p>
+
+<p>"Frohman, it is absurd for you not to see a doctor. You simply must have
+medical attention. As a matter of fact, I have already made an
+engagement for you to see Robson-Roose, the great nerve specialist, at
+four o'clock to-morrow afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman, who accepted whatever Barrie said, acquiesced. Next day, when
+half-past three o'clock came, the manager was almost in a state of
+panic. He said to Dillingham, who was with him:</p>
+
+<p>"Dillingham, you know how I hate to go to see doctors. You also know
+what is the matter with me. Why don't you go as my understudy and tell
+the doctor what is the matter with you? He will give you a nice little
+prescription or advise you to go to the Riviera or Carlsbad."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Dillingham, who adored his friend. "I'll do what you
+say."</p>
+
+<p>Promptly at four o'clock Dillingham showed up at the great specialist's
+office and said he was Frohman. He underwent a drastic
+cross-examination. After which he was asked to remove his clothes, was
+subjected to the most strenuous massage treatment, and, to cap it all,
+was given an electric bath that reduced him almost to a wreck. He had
+entered the doctor's office in the best of health, He emerged from it
+worn and weary.</p>
+
+<p>When he staggered into Frohman's rooms two hours later and told his tale
+of woe, Frohman laughed so heartily over the episode that he was a well
+man the next day.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman had a great fund of pithy sayings, remarkable for their brevity.
+With these he indicated his wishes to his associates. His charm of
+manner, his quick insight into a situation, and his influence over the
+minds of others were great factors in the accomplishment of his end,
+often attaining the obviously impossible.</p>
+
+<p>For example, when he would tell his business manager to negotiate a
+business matter with a man, and it would come to a point where there
+would be a deadlock, he would say:</p>
+
+<p>"I will see him. Ask him to come down to my hotel."</p>
+
+<p>The next morning he would walk into the office with a smile on his face,
+and the first thing he would say perhaps would be:</p>
+
+<p>"I fixed it up all right yesterday; it is going your way."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a wonder!" his associates would exclaim.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no! I just talked to him," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman disliked formality. He wanted to go straight to the heart of a
+thing and have it over with. Somebody once asked him why he did not join
+the Masonic order. He said:</p>
+
+<p>"I would like to very much if I could just write a check and not bother
+with all the ceremony."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Although he never spoke of his great power in the profession,
+occasionally there was a glimpse of how he felt about it as this
+incident shows:</p>
+
+<p>Once, when Frohman and Paul Potter were coming back from Atlantic City,
+Potter picked up a theatrical paper and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I read you the theatrical news?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Frohman. "I <i>make</i> theatrical news."</p>
+
+<p class="space">In that supreme test of a man's character&mdash;his attitude toward money&mdash;he
+shone. Though his enterprises involved millions, Frohman had an
+extraordinary disregard of money. He felt its power, but he never
+idolized it. To him it was a means to an end. He summed up his whole
+attitude one day when he said:</p>
+
+<p>"My work is to produce plays that succeed, so that I can produce plays
+that will not succeed. That is why I must have money.</p>
+
+<p>"What I would really like to do is to produce a wonderful something to
+which I would only go myself. My pleasure would be in seeing a
+remarkable performance that nobody else could see. But I can't do that.
+The next best thing is to produce something for the few critical people.
+That is what I'm trying for. I have to work through the commercial&mdash;it
+is the white heat through which the artistic in me has to come." It was
+his answer to the oft-made charge of "commercialism."</p>
+
+<p>No one, perhaps, has summed up this money attitude of Frohman's better
+than George Bernard Shaw, who said of him:</p>
+
+<p>"There is a prevalent impression that Charles Frohman is a hard-headed
+American man of business who would not look at anything that is not
+likely to pay. On the contrary, he is the most wildly romantic and
+adventurous man of my acquaintance. As Charles XII. became an excellent
+soldier because of his passion for putting himself in the way of being
+killed, so Charles Frohman became a famous manager through his passion
+for putting himself in the way of being ruined."</p>
+
+<p>In many respects Frohman's feeling about money was almost childlike. He
+left all financial details to his subordinates. All he wanted to do was
+to produce plays and be let alone. Yet he had an infinite respect for
+the man to whom he had to pay a large sum. He felt that the actor or
+author who could command it was invested with peculiar significance.
+Upon himself he spent little. He once said:</p>
+
+<p>"All I want is a good meal, a good cigar, good clothes, a good bed to
+sleep in, and freedom to produce whatever plays I like."</p>
+
+<p>He was a magnificent loser. Failure never disturbed him. When he saw
+that a piece was doomed he indulged in no obituary talk. "Let's go to
+the next," he said, and on he went.</p>
+
+<p>He lost in the same princely way that he spent. The case of "Thermidor"
+will illustrate. He spent not less than thirty thousand dollars on this
+production. Yet the moment the curtain went down he realized it was a
+failure. He stood at one side of the wings and Miss Marbury, who had
+induced him to put the play on, was at the other. With the fall of the
+curtain Frohman moved smilingly among his actors with no trace of
+disappointment on his face. But when he met Miss Marbury on the other
+side of the stage he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I suppose we have got a magnificent frost. We'll just write this
+off and forget it."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman played with the theater as if it were a huge game. Like life
+itself, it was a great adventure. In the parlance of Wall Street, he was
+a "bull," for he was always raising salaries and royalties. Somebody
+once said of him:</p>
+
+<p>"What a shame that Frohman works so hard! He never had a day's fun in
+his life."</p>
+
+<p>"You are very much mistaken," said one of his friends. "His whole life
+is full of it. He gets his chief fun out of his work." Indeed, work and
+humor were in reality the great things with him.</p>
+
+<p>One of the best epigrams ever made about Frohman's extravagance was
+this:</p>
+
+<p>"Give Charles Frohman a check-book and he will lose money on any
+production."</p>
+
+<p>To say that his word was his bond is to repeat one of the trite tributes
+to him. But it was nevertheless very true. Often in discussing a
+business arrangement with his representatives he would say:</p>
+
+<p>"Did I say that?" On being told that he did, he would invariably reply,
+"Then it must stand at that."</p>
+
+<p>On one of these occasions he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I have only one thing of value to me, and that is my word. I will keep
+that until I am broke and then I'll jump overboard."</p>
+
+<p class="space">In starting a new venture his method was first to ascertain not how much
+it would enrich him, but how much it would cost. Thus fortified, he
+entered into it with enthusiasm, and if he lost he never murmured.
+Having settled a thing, for good or ill, he would never refer to the
+negotiations or anything that might have led up to the culmination of
+that business, either for or against. If his attention was afterward
+called to it, he would quietly say, "That's yesterday," and in this way
+indicate that he did not wish the matter referred to again.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman's great desire was to make money for other people. One of his
+young authors had had a bad failure in London and was very much
+depressed. Frohman finally worked out a plan to revive his spirits and
+recoup his finances. He took Alfred Sutro in his confidence and invited
+the young man to dine. He was like a child, eager to do something good
+and pleasing. All through the dinner he chaffed the young man, who
+visibly grew more despondent. Finally he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I have decided to revive a very good play, and I have booked an
+American tour for it." Then he told the young man that this play was his
+first success.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles Frohman's ignorance of money matters was proverbial. One day
+just as he was about to take the train for Washington a friend stopped
+him and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I've got a great investment for you."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Frohman, "I never invest in anything except theaters."</p>
+
+<p>"But this is the real thing. The only possible fact that can spoil it is
+war, and we are widely remote from war."</p>
+
+<p>In order to get rid of the man Frohman consented to a modest investment.
+When he got to Washington the first thing that greeted him was the
+announcement that we were on the verge of war with Mexico.</p>
+
+<p class="space">William Harris once gently remonstrated with Frohman for such lavish
+expenditure of money.</p>
+
+<p>"It's simply awful, Charley, the way you spend money," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman smiled and said:</p>
+
+<p>"It would be awful if I lost a finger or a foot, but spending money on
+the things that you want to do and enjoy doing is never money wasted."</p>
+
+<p class="space">At one time he owed a great deal of money to actors and printers, but he
+always scorned all suggestions that he go through bankruptcy and wipe
+these claims out. He said he would pay in full some day, and he did,
+with interest. An actor to whom he owed some four hundred dollars came
+to him and offered to settle the claim for one hundred dollars. Frohman
+said he did not believe in taking advantage of a man like that. He
+advanced the actor one hundred dollars, and eventually paid the other
+three hundred dollars.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Like every great man, Frohman's tastes were simple. He always wore
+clothes of one pattern, and the style seldom varied. He wore no jewelry
+except a Napoleonic ring on his little finger.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman never married. A friend once asked him why he had chosen to be a
+bachelor.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear fellow," he answered, "had I possessed a wife and family I
+could never have taken the risks which, as a theatrical manager, I am
+constantly called upon to do."</p>
+
+<p>He lived, in truth, for and by the theater; it was his world. His heart
+was in his profession, and no enterprise was too daring, no venture too
+perilous, to prevent him from boldly facing it if he believed the step
+was expected of him.</p>
+
+<p class="space">To his intimates Frohman was always known as "C. F." These were the
+magic initials that opened or shut the doors to theatrical fame and
+fortune.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman loved sweet things to eat. Pies were his particular fondness,
+and he never traveled without a box of candy. As he read plays he
+munched chocolates. He ate with a sort of Johnsonian avidity. When he
+went to Europe some of his friends, who knew his tastes well, sent him
+crates of pies instead of flowers or books.</p>
+
+<p>He shared this fondness for sweets with Clyde Fitch. They did not dare
+to eat as much pastry as they liked before others, so they often retired
+to Frohman's rooms at Sherry's or to Fitch's house on Fortieth Street,
+in New York, and had a dessert orgy.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman almost invariably ate as he worked in his office. When people
+saw sandwiches piled upon his table, he would say:</p>
+
+<p>"A rehearsal accompanied by a sandwich is progress, but a rehearsal
+interrupted by a meal is delay."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman's letters to his intimates were characteristic. He always wrote
+them with a blue pencil, and on whatever scrap of paper happened to be
+at hand. Often it was a sheet of yellow scratch-paper, sometimes the
+back of an envelope. He wrote as he talked, in quick, epigrammatic
+sentences. Like Barrie, he wrote one of the most indecipherable of
+hands. Frequently, instead of a note, he drew a picture to express a
+sentiment or convey an invitation. One reason for this was that the man
+saw all life in terms of the theater. It was a series of scenes.</p>
+
+<p class="space">With regard to home life, Frohman had none. He always dwelt in
+apartments in New York. The only two places where he really relaxed were
+at Marlow, in England, and at his country place near White Plains in
+Westchester County, New York. He shared the ownership of this
+establishment with Dillingham. It entered largely into his plans. Here
+his few intimates, like Paul Potter, Haddon Chambers, William Gillette,
+and Augustus Thomas, came and talked over plays and productions. Here,
+too, he kept vigil on the snowy night when London was to pass judgment
+on the first production of "Peter Pan" on any stage.</p>
+
+<p>The way he came to acquire an interest in the White Plains house is
+typical of the man and his methods. Dillingham had bought the place. One
+day Frohman and Gillette lunched with him there. Frohman was immensely
+taken with the establishment. He liked the lawn, the garden, the trees,
+and the aloofness. The three men sat at a round table. Frohman beamed
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"This is the place for me. I want to sit at the head of this table." It
+was his way of saying that he wanted to acquire an ownership in it, and
+from that time on he was a co-proprietor.</p>
+
+<p>With characteristic generosity he insisted upon paying two-thirds of the
+expenses. Then, in his usual lavish fashion, he had it remodeled. He
+wanted a porch built. Instead of engaging the village carpenter, who
+could have done it very well, he employed the most famous architects in
+the country and spent thirty thousand dollars. It was the Frohman way.</p>
+
+<p>Out of the Frohman ownership of the White Plains house came one of the
+many Frohman jests. Its conduct was so expensive that Frohman one day
+said to Dillingham, "Let's rent a theater and make it pay for the
+maintenance of the house."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman then leased the Garrick, but instead of making money on it he
+lost heavily.</p>
+
+<p>The factotum at White Plains was the German Max, whom Dillingham had
+brought over from the Savoy in London, where he was a waiter. Max
+became the center of many amusing incidents. One has already been
+related.</p>
+
+<p>One night Max secured some fine watermelons. As he came through the door
+with one of them he slipped and dropped it. He repeated this performance
+with the second melon. Frohman regarded it as a great joke, and roared
+with laughter. Just then Gillette was announced.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said Frohman, quietly, to Dillingham, "we will have Max bring in
+a watermelon, but I want him to drop it." In order to insure the success
+of the trick they stretched a string at the door so that Max would be
+sure to fall. Then they ordered the melon, and Max appeared, bearing it
+aloft. He fell, however, before he got to the string, and the joke was
+saved.</p>
+
+<p>All this jest and joke was part of the game of life as Frohman played
+it. Whatever the cost, there is no doubt that the charming
+white-and-green cottage up in the Westchester valley gave him hours of
+relaxation and ease that were among the pleasantest of his life.</p>
+
+<p>This house at White Plains was indirectly the means through which
+Dillingham branched out as an independent manager. At this time he was
+in Frohman's employ. One day he said to himself:</p>
+
+<p>"This establishment is costing so much that I will have to send out some
+companies of my own."</p>
+
+<p>He thereupon got "The Red Mill," acquired Montgomery and Stone, and thus
+began a new and brilliant managerial career. No one rejoiced over
+Dillingham's success more than Frohman. When Dillingham opened his Globe
+Theater in New York Frohman addressed a cable to "Charles Dillingham,
+Globe Theater, U. S. A."</p>
+
+<p>It is a curious fact about Charles Frohman that though he had millions
+of dollars at stake, he was never a defendant in litigation. Yet through
+him foreign authors were enabled to protect their plays from the
+customary piracy by the memorization of parts. It used to be accepted
+that if a man went to a play and memorized its speeches he could produce
+it without paying royalty. N. S. Wood did this with a play called "The
+World," that Frohman produced. He took the matter to court as a test
+case and won.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles was not good at remembering people's names or their addresses.
+This is why he was much dependent upon his stenographers. His secretary
+in England, Miss Frances Slater, was so extraordinary in anticipating
+his words that he always called her "The Wonder." He used to say:</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Slater, I want to write to the man around the corner," which
+turned out to be Arthur Bouclier, the manager of the Garrick Theater,
+which was not really around the corner; but when the subject of the
+letter came to be dictated, Miss Slater knew whom he meant. He would
+never express any surprise on these occasions when the letter handed him
+to sign contained the right name and address. He seemed to take it as a
+matter of course.</p>
+
+<p class="space">One day Frohman entered his London office and said to Lestocq:</p>
+
+<p>"You would never guess where I have just come from. I have been to your
+Westminster Abbey."</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 600px;"><a name="OFFICE" id="OFFICE"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-370.png" width="600" height="430" alt="CHARLES FROHMAN&#39;S OFFICE IN THE EMPIRE THEATER" title="CHARLES FROHMAN&#39;S OFFICE IN THE EMPIRE THEATER" />
+<span class="caption1">COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY CHARLES FROHMAN</span>&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />
+<span class="caption">CHARLES FROHMAN&#39;S OFFICE IN THE EMPIRE THEATER</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Lestocq expressed surprise, whereupon Frohman continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I just walked in and spoke to a man in a gown and said, 'Where is
+Mr. Irving buried?' He showed me, and I stood there for a few minutes,
+said a couple of things, and came on here."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman's office at the Empire Theater was characteristic of the man
+himself. It was a room of considerable proportions, with the atmosphere
+of a study. It was lined with rather low book-shelves, on which stood
+the bound copies of the plays he had produced. Interspersed was a
+complete set of Lincoln's speeches and letters.</p>
+
+<p>On one side was a large stone fireplace; in a corner stood a grand
+piano; the center was dominated by a simple, flat-topped desk, across
+which much of the traffic of the American theater passed.</p>
+
+<p>Near at hand was a low and luxurious couch. Here Frohman sat
+cross-legged and listened to plays. This performance was a sort of
+sacred rite, and was always observed behind locked doors. No Frohman
+employee would think of intruding upon his chief at such a time.</p>
+
+<p>Here, as in London, Frohman was surrounded by pictures of his stars.
+Dominating them was J. W. Alexander's fine painting of Miss Adams in
+"L'Aiglon." On a shelf stood a bust of John Drew. There were portraits
+of playwrights, too. A photograph of Clyde Fitch had this inscription:</p>
+
+<p>"To C. F. from c. f."</p>
+
+<p>There was only one real art object in the office, a magnificent marble
+bust of Napoleon, whom Frohman greatly admired. He was always pleased
+when he was told that he looked like the Man of Destiny.</p>
+
+<p>His sense of personal modesty was a very genuine thing. Shortly before
+he sailed on the fatal trip he had a request from a magazine writer who
+wanted to write the story of his life. He sent back a vigorous refusal
+to co-operate, saying, among other things:</p>
+
+<p>"It is most obnoxious to me in every way. It is forcing oneself on the
+public so far as I am concerned, and I don't want that, and, besides,
+they are not interested. It is only for the great men of our country. It
+is not for me. It looks like cheek and presumption on my part, because
+<i>it is</i>, and I ask you not to go on with it."</p>
+
+<p class="space">He believed in system. One day he said:</p>
+
+<p>"We must have on file in our office the complete record of every
+first-class theater in the United States, together with the name of
+every dramatic editor and bill-poster." Out of this grew the famous
+"Theatrical Guide" compiled by Julius Cahn.</p>
+
+<p class="space">Charles always provided special sleepers for his company when they had
+to leave early in the morning. He felt that it was an imposition to make
+the people go to bed late after a play and rise at five or six to get a
+train. It not only expressed his kindness, but also his good business
+sense in keeping his people satisfied and efficient.</p>
+
+<p class="space">One of Frohman's eccentricities was that he never carried a watch. On
+being asked why he never carried a timepiece, he replied, tersely,
+"Everybody else carries a watch," meaning that if he wanted to find out
+the time of day he could do it more quickly by inquiring of his
+personal or business associates than by looking for a watch that he may
+have forgotten to wind up.</p>
+
+<p>"Frohman," said a friend, "made it a rule in life not to do anything
+that he could hire somebody else to do, thus leaving himself all the
+time possible for those things that he alone could do. He probably
+figured it out that if he carried a watch he would be obliged to spend a
+certain amount of time each day winding it.</p>
+
+<p>"And on the same principle he refused to worry as to whether he left his
+umbrella behind or not, by simply not carrying one. If he couldn't get a
+cab&mdash;a rare occurrence, doubtless, considering the beaten track of his
+travel&mdash;he preferred to walk in the rain."</p>
+
+<p>Some time before his death Frohman said to a distinguished dramatist who
+is one of his closest friends:</p>
+
+<p>"Whenever I make a rule I never violate it."</p>
+
+<p>A visitor to his place at White Plains came away after spending a night
+there, and declared that the "real Charles Frohman had three
+dissipations&mdash;he smokes all day, he reads plays all night, and&mdash;" He
+stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" was the breathless query.</p>
+
+<p>"He plays croquet."</p>
+
+<p class="space">Frohman had a rare gift for publicity. More than once he turned what
+seemed to be a complete failure into success. An experience with "Jane"
+will reveal this side of his versatility.</p>
+
+<p>The bright little comedy hung fire for a while. One reason was that
+newspaper criticism in New York had been rather unfavorable. Conspicuous
+among the unfriendly notices was one in the <i>Herald</i> which was headed,
+"Jane Won't Go."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman immediately capitalized this line. He had thousands of dodgers
+stuck up all over New York. They contained three sentences, which read:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"<i>Jane won't go.</i>"</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Of course not.</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>She's come to stay.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>From that time on the piece grew in popularity and receipts and became a
+success.</p>
+
+<p class="space">In summing up the qualities that made Frohman great, one finds, in the
+last analysis, that he had two in common with J. P. Morgan and the other
+dynamic leaders of men. One was an incisive, almost uncanny, ability to
+probe into the hearts of men, strip away the superficial, and find the
+real substance.</p>
+
+<p>His experience with Clyde Fitch emphasized this to a remarkable degree.
+Personally no two men could have been more opposite. One was the product
+of democracy, buoyant and self-made, while the other represented an
+intellectual, almost effeminate, aristocracy. Yet nearly from the start
+Frohman perceived the bigness of vision and the profound understanding
+that lurked behind Fitch's almost superficial exterior.</p>
+
+<p>In common, too, with Morgan, Roosevelt, and others of the same type,
+Frohman had an extraordinary quality of unconscious hypnotism. Men who
+came to him in anger went away in satisfied peace. They succumbed to
+what was an overwhelming and compelling personality.</p>
+
+<p>He proved this in the handling of his women stars. They combined a group
+of varied and conflicting temperaments. Each wanted a separate and
+distinct place in his affections, and each got it. It was part of the
+genius of the man to make each of his close associates feel that he or
+she had a definite niche apart. His was the perfecting understanding,
+and no one better expressed it than Ethel Barrymore, who said, "To try
+to explain something to Charles Frohman was to insult him."</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>XIX</h3>
+
+<p class="head">"WHY FEAR DEATH?"</p>
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">A</span> <span class="smcap">nd</span>
+now the final phase.</p>
+
+<p>The last years of Charles Frohman's life were racked with physical pain
+that strained his courageous philosophy to the utmost. Yet he faced this
+almost incessant travail just as he had faced all other
+emergencies&mdash;with composure.</p>
+
+<p>One day in 1912 he fell on the porch of the house at White Plains and
+hurt his right knee. It gave him considerable trouble. At first he
+believed that it was only a bad bruise. In a few days articular
+rheumatism developed. It affected all of his joints, and it held him in
+a thrall of agony until the end of his life.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after his return to the city (he now lived at the Hotel
+Knickerbocker) he was compelled to take to his bed. For over six months
+he was a prisoner in his apartment, suffering tortures. Yet from this
+pain-racked post he tried to direct his large affairs. There was a
+telephone at his bedside, and he used it until weakness prevented him
+from holding the receiver.</p>
+
+<p>He could not go to the theater, so the theater was brought to him. More
+than one preliminary rehearsal was held in his drawing-room. This was
+particularly true of musical pieces. The music distracted him from his
+pain.</p>
+
+<p>Though prostrate with pain, his dogged determination to keep on doing
+things held. Barrie sent him the manuscript of a skit called "A Slice of
+Life." It was a brilliant satire on the modern play. Frohman picked
+Ethel Barrymore (who was then playing in "Cousin Kate" at the Empire),
+John Barrymore, and Hattie Williams to do it, and the rehearsals were
+held in the manager's rooms at the Knickerbocker.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman was as much interested in this one-act piece as if it had been a
+five-act drama. His absorption in it helped to divert his mind from the
+pain that had sadly reduced the once rotund body.</p>
+
+<p>With "A Slice of Life" he introduced another one of the many innovations
+that he brought to the stage. The play was projected as a surprise. No
+announcement of title was made. The advertisements simply stated that
+Charles Frohman would present "A Novelty" at the Empire Theater at eight
+o'clock on a certain evening.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman was unable to attend the opening performance, so he wrote a
+little speech which was spoken by William Seymour. The speech was
+rehearsed as carefully as the play. A dozen times the stage-director
+delivered it before his chief, who indicated the various phrases to be
+emphasized.</p>
+
+<p>It was during the era of the New Theater when the so-called "advanced
+drama" was much exploited. Frohman had little patience with this sort of
+dramatic thing. The little speech conveys something of his satirical
+feeling about the millionaire-endowed theatrical project which was then
+agitating New York.</p>
+
+<p>Here is the speech as Frohman wrote it:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Ladies and Gentlemen:&mdash;My appearance here to-night is by way of
+apology. I am here representing Mr. Charles Frohman&mdash;you may have
+heard of him&mdash;the manager of this theater, the Empire.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>His idea in announcing a novelty in connection with Miss
+Barrymore's play, "Cousin Kate," was really for the purpose of
+getting you here once in time for the ringing up of the curtain.
+This will be a special performance of a play to be given by a few
+rising members of the School of Acting connected with this theater,
+the Empire, of which he is proud&mdash;very proud. It is not an old
+modern play, but what is called to-day "The Advanced Drama," made
+possible here to-night by the momentary holiday of the New Theater,
+and it is called "A Slice of Life."</i></p></div>
+
+<p>During those desperate days when, like Heinrich Heine, he seemed to be
+lying in a "mattress grave," his dauntless humor never forsook him, as
+this little incident will show: Some years previous, Gillette suffered a
+breakdown from overwork. When the actor-playwright went to his home at
+Hartford to recuperate his sister remonstrated with him.</p>
+
+<p>"You must stop work for a long while," she said. "That man Frohman is
+killing you." Gillette afterward told Frohman about it.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman now lay on a bed of agony, and Gillette came to see him. The
+sick man remembered the episode of the long ago, and said, weakly, to
+his visitor:</p>
+
+<p>"Gillette, tell your sister that <i>you</i> are killing me."</p>
+
+<p>With the martyrdom of incessant pain came a ripening of the man's
+character. Frohman developed a great admiration for Lincoln. Often he
+would ask Gillette to read him the famous "Gettysburg Address." Simple,
+haunting melodies like "The Lost Chord" took hold of him. Marie Doro was
+frequently summoned to play it for him on the piano. Although his
+courage did not falter, he looked upon men and events with a larger and
+deeper philosophy.</p>
+
+<p>During that first critical stage of the rheumatism he sank very low. His
+two devoted friends, Dillingham and Paul Potter, came to him daily. Each
+had his regular watch. Dillingham came in the morning and read and
+talked with the invalid for hours. He managed to bring a new story or a
+fresh joke every day.</p>
+
+<p>Potter reported at nine in the evening and remained until two o'clock in
+the morning, or at whatever hour sleep came to the relief of the sick
+man. One of the compensations of those long vigils was the phonograph.
+Frohman was very fond of a tune called "Alexander's Rag-Time Band." The
+nurse would put this record in the machine and then leave. When it ran
+out, Potter, who never could learn how to renew the instrument, simply
+turned the crank again. There were many nights when Frohman listened to
+this famous rag-time song not less than twenty times. But he did not
+mind it.</p>
+
+<p>In his illness Frohman was like a child. He was afraid of the night. He
+begged Potter to tell him stories, and the author of so many plays spun
+and unfolded weird and wonderful tales of travel and adventure. Like a
+child, too, Frohman kept on saying, "More, more," and often Potter went
+on talking into the dawn.</p>
+
+<p>Potter, like all his comrades in that small and devoted group of Frohman
+intimates, did his utmost to shield his friend from hurt. When Frohman
+launched a new play during those bedridden days Potter would wait until
+the so-called "bull-dog" editions of the morning papers (the very
+earliest ones) were out. Then he would go down to the street and get
+them. If the notice was favorable he would read it to Frohman. If it was
+unfriendly Potter would say that the paper was not yet out, preferring
+that the manager read the bad news when it was broad daylight and it
+could not interfere with his sleep.</p>
+
+<p>The humor and comradeship which always marked Frohman's close personal
+relations were not lacking in those nights when the life of the valiant
+little man hung by a thread. When all other means of inducing sleep
+failed, Potter found a sure cure for insomnia.</p>
+
+<p>"Just as soon as I talked to Frohman about my own dramatic projects," he
+says, "he would fall asleep. So, when the night grew long and the travel
+stories failed, and even 'Alexander's Rag-Time Band' grew stale, I would
+start off by saying: 'I have a new play in mind. This is the way the
+plot goes.' Then Frohman's eyes would close; before long he would be
+asleep, and I crept noiselessly out."</p>
+
+<p>Occasionally during those long conflicts with pain Frohman saw through
+the glass darkly. His intense and constant suffering, for the time, put
+iron into his well-nigh indomitable soul.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm all in," he would say to Potter. "The luck is against me. The star
+system has killed my judgment. I no longer know a good play from a bad.
+The sooner they 'scrap' me the better."</p>
+
+<p>His thin fingers tapped on the bedspread, and, like Colonel Newcome, he
+awaited the Schoolmaster's final call.</p>
+
+<p>"You and I," he would continue, "have seen our period out. What comes
+next on the American stage? Cheap prices, I suppose. Best seats
+everywhere for a dollar, or even fifty cents; with musical shows alone
+excepted. Authors' royalties cut to ribbons; actors' salaries pared to
+nothing. Popular drama, bloody, murderous, ousting drawing-room comedy.
+Crook plays, shop-girl plays, slangy American farces, nude women
+invading the auditorium as in Paris."</p>
+
+<p>"And then?" asked Potter.</p>
+
+<p>"Chaos," said he. "Fortunately you and I won't live to see it. Turn on
+the phonograph and let 'Alexander's Rag-time Band' cheer us up."</p>
+
+<p>He got well enough to walk around with a stick, and with movement came a
+return of the old enthusiasm. A man of less indomitable will would have
+succumbed and become a permanent invalid. Not so with Frohman. He even
+got humor out of his misfortune, because he called his cane his "wife."
+He became a familiar sight on that part of Broadway between the
+Knickerbocker Hotel and the Empire Theater as he walked to and fro. It
+was about all the walking he could do.</p>
+
+<p>He kept on producing plays, and despite the physical hardships under
+which he labored he attended and conducted rehearsals. With the pain
+settling in him more and more, he believed himself incurable. Yet less
+than four people knew that he felt that the old titanic power was gone,
+never to return.</p>
+
+<p>The great war, on whose stupendous altar he was to be an innocent
+victim, affected him strangely. The horror, the tragedy, the wantonness
+of it all touched him mightily. Indeed, it seemed to be an obsession
+with him, and he talked about it constantly, unmindful of the fact that
+the cruel destiny that was shaping its bloody course had also marked him
+for death.</p>
+
+<p>Early during the war he saw some verses that made a deep impression on
+him. They were called "In the Ambulance," and related to the experience
+of a wounded soldier. He learned them by heart, and he never tired of
+repeating them. They ran like this:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"<i>Two rows of cabbages;</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>Two of curly greens;</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Two rows of early peas;</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>Two of kidney-beans.</i>"</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>That's what he's muttering,</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>Making such a song,</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Keeping all the chaps awake</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>The whole night long.</i></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Both his legs are shot away,</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>And his head is light,</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>So he keeps on muttering</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>All the blessed night:</i></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"<i>Two rows of cabbages;</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>Two of curly greens;</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Two rows of early peas,</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>And two of kidney-beans.</i>"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>It was Frohman's intense feeling about the war, that led him to produce
+"The Hyphen." Its rejection by the public hurt him unspeakably. Yet he
+regarded the fate of the play as just one more phase of the big game of
+life. He smiled and went his way.</p>
+
+<p>The rheumatism still oppressed him, but he turned his face resolutely
+toward the future. War or peace, pain or relief, he was not to be
+deprived of his annual trip to England. He was involved in some
+litigation that required his presence in London. Besides, the city by
+the Thames called to him, and behind this call was the appeal of old and
+loved associations. With all his wonted enthusiasm he wrote to his
+friends at Marlow telling them that he was coming over and that he would
+soon be in their midst.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman now made ready for this trip. When he announced that he was
+going on the <i>Lusitania</i> his friends and associates made vigorous
+protest, which he derided with a smile. Thus, in the approach to death,
+just as in the path to great success, opposition only made him all the
+more decided. With regard to his sailing on the <i>Lusitania</i>, this
+tenacity of purpose was his doom.</p>
+
+<p>Whether he had a premonition or not, the fact remains that he said and
+did things during the days before he sailed which uncannily suggested
+that the end was not unexpected. For one thing, he dictated his whole
+program for the next season before he started. It was something that he
+had never done before.</p>
+
+<p>When Marie Doro came to his office to say good-by he pulled out a little
+red pocket note-book in which he jotted down many things and suddenly
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Queer, but the little book is full. There is no room for anything
+else."</p>
+
+<p>Just as he was warned not to produce "The Hyphen," so was he now
+cautioned by anonymous correspondents (and even by mysterious telephone
+messages) not to take the <i>Lusitania</i>. But all this merely tightened his
+purpose.</p>
+
+<p>He met the danger with his usual jest. On the day before he sailed he
+went up to bid his old friend and colleague, Al Hayman, good-by. Hayman,
+like all his associates, warned him not to go on the <i>Lusitania</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think there is any danger?" asked Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I do," replied Hayman.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I am going, anyhow," was the answer.</p>
+
+<p>After he had shaken hands he stopped at the door and said, smilingly:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Al, if you want to write to me just address the letter care of
+the German Submarine U 4."</p>
+
+<p>Those last days ashore were filled with a strange mellowness. Ethel
+Barrymore came down from Boston to see him. They had an intimate talk
+about the old days. When she left him she saw tears in his eyes. That
+night, just as she was about to go on in "The Shadow" in Boston, she
+received this telegram from him:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Nice talk, Ethel. Good-by. C. F.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>The <i>Lusitania</i> sailed at ten o'clock on Saturday morning, May 1, 1915.
+Even at the dock Frohman could not resist his little joke. When Paul
+Potter, who saw him off, said to him:</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't you afraid of the U boats, C. F.?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I am only afraid of the I O U's," was the reply.</p>
+
+<div class="image" style="width: 500px;"><a name="SHIP" id="SHIP"></a>
+<img src="images/illo-384.png" width="500" height="780" alt="CHARLES FROHMAN ON BOARD SHIP" title="CHARLES FROHMAN ON BOARD SHIP" />
+<span class="caption1">COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY DANIEL FROHMAN</span>&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />
+<span class="caption">CHARLES FROHMAN ON BOARD SHIP</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>In his farewell steamer letter to Dillingham, written as the huge ship
+was plowing her way down the bay, he drew a picture of a submarine
+attacking a transatlantic liner. The last lines he wrote on the boat
+were prophetic of his fate. Ann Murdock had sent him a large steamer
+basket in the shape of a ship. The lines to her, brought back by the
+ship's pilot, were:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>The little ship you sent is more wonderful
+than the big one that takes me away from you.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Like most of his distinguished fellow-voyagers, and they included
+Charles Klein, Elbert Hubbard, Justus Miles Forman, and Alfred G.
+Vanderbilt, Frohman had frequently traveled on the <i>Lusitania</i>. By a
+curious coincidence he had once planned to use her sister ship, the
+<i>Mauretania</i>, for one of his daring innovations. He had a transatlantic
+theater in mind. In other words, he proposed to produce whole plays on
+shipboard. He took over a small company headed by Marie Doro to try out
+the experiment. Early on the voyage Miss Doro succumbed to seasickness
+and the project was abandoned.</p>
+
+<p>The last journey of the <i>Lusitania</i> was uneventful until that final
+fateful day. Frohman had kept to his cabin during the greater part of
+the trip. He was still suffering great pain in his right knee, and
+walked the deck with difficulty. Occasionally he appeared in the
+smoking-room, and was present at the ship's concert on the night before
+the end.</p>
+
+<p>At 2.33 o'clock on the afternoon of May 7th the great vessel rode to her
+death. Eight miles off the Head of Kinsale, and within sight of the
+Irish coast, she was torpedoed by a German submarine. She sank in half
+an hour, with frightful loss of life, including more than a hundred
+Americans.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman's hour was at hand, and he met it with the smiling equanimity
+and unflinching courage with which he had faced every other crisis in
+his life. When the crash came he was on the upper promenade deck. He had
+just come from his luncheon and was talking with George Vernon, the
+brother-in-law of Rita Jolivet, the actress, who was also on board. They
+were now joined by Captain Scott, an Englishman on his way from India to
+enlist. When Miss Jolivet reached them Frohman was smoking a cigar and
+was calm and apparently undisturbed.</p>
+
+<p>Scott went below to get some life-belts. He returned with only two. He
+had started up with three, but gave one to a woman on the way. Miss
+Jolivet had provided herself with a belt.</p>
+
+<p>Scott started to put one of the life-preservers on Frohman, who
+protested. Finally, with great reluctance, he acquiesced. There was no
+belt left for Scott. Frohman insisted that he get one, whereupon the
+soldier said:</p>
+
+<p>"If you must die, it is only for once."</p>
+
+<p>There was a responsive look and a whimsical smile on Frohman's face at
+this remark. He kept on smoking. Then he started to talk about the
+Germans. "I didn't think they would do it," he said. He was apparently
+the most unruffled person on the ship.</p>
+
+<p>The great liner began to lurch. Frohman now said to Miss Jolivet:</p>
+
+<p>"You had better hold on the rail and save your strength."</p>
+
+<p>The ship's list became greater; huge waves rolled up, carrying wreckage
+and bodies on their crest. Then, with all the terror of destruction
+about him, Frohman said to his associates, with the serene smile still
+on his face:</p>
+
+<p>"Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure of life."</p>
+
+<p>Instinctively the four people moved closer together, they joined hands
+by a common impulse, and stood awaiting the end.</p>
+
+<p>The ship gave a sudden lurch; once more a mighty green cliff of water
+came rushing up, bearing its tide of dead and debris; again Frohman
+started to say the speech that was to be his valedictory. He had hardly
+repeated the first three words&mdash;"Why fear death?"&mdash;when the group was
+engulfed and all sank beneath the surface of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>No situation of the thousands that he had created in the theater was so
+vividly or so unaffectedly dramatic as the great manager's own exit from
+the stage of life. Smilingly he had made his way through innumerable
+difficulties; smilingly and with the highest heroism he met his fate.</p>
+
+<p>The only survivor of the quartet that stood hand in hand on those
+death-cluttered decks was Miss Jolivet, and it was she who told the
+story of those last thrilling minutes.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Frohman's body was recovered the next day and brought to
+Queenstown. A fortnight later it reached New York. On the casket was the
+American flag that the dead man had loved so well. Though princes of
+capital, famous playwrights, and international authorities on law and
+art went down with him, the loss of Frohman overshadowed all others. In
+the eyes of the world, the loss of the <i>Lusitania</i> was the loss of
+Charles Frohman.</p>
+
+<p>His noble and eloquent final words, so rich with courageous philosophy,
+not only joined the category of the great farewells of all time, but
+wherever read or uttered will give humanity a fresher faith with which
+to meet the inevitable. In a supreme moment of the most colossal drama
+that human passion ever staged, fate literally hurled him into the
+universal lime-light to enact a part that gave him an undying glory.
+The shyest of men became the world's observed.</p>
+
+<p>The last tribute to Charles Frohman was the most remarkable
+demonstration of sorrow in the history of the theater. The one-time
+barefoot boy of Sandusky, Ohio, who had projected so many people into
+eminence and who had himself hidden behind the rampart of his own
+activities, was widely mourned.</p>
+
+<p>The principal funeral services were held at the Temple Emanu-El in New
+York. Here gathered a notable assemblage that took reverent toll of all
+callings and creeds. It was proud to do honor to the man who had
+achieved so much and who had died so heroically.</p>
+
+<p>At the bier Augustus Thomas delivered an eloquent address that fittingly
+summed up the life and purpose of the greatest force that the
+English-speaking theater has yet known. Among other things he said:</p>
+
+<p>"A wise man counseled, 'Look into your heart and write': 'C. F.' looked
+into his heart and listened. He had that quoted quality of genius that
+made him believe his own thought, made him know that what was true for
+him in his private heart was true for all mankind. That was the secret
+of his power. It was the golden key to both his understanding and
+expression.</p>
+
+<p>"He was a fettered and a prisoned poet, often in his finest moments
+inarticulate. Working in the theater with his companies and stars, with
+the women and the men who knew and loved him, he accomplished less by
+word than by a radiating vital force that brought them into his
+intensity of feeling. In his social intercourse and comradeship, telling
+a dramatic or a comic story, at a certain pressure of its progress where
+other men depend on paragraphs and phrases he coined a near-word and a
+sign, and by a graphic and exalted pantomime ambushed and captured our
+emotions.</p>
+
+<p>"His mind was clear and tranquil as a mountain lake, its quiet depths
+reflecting all the varied beauty of the bending skies. He had the gift
+of epitome. The men who knew him best valued his estimate, not only of
+the things in his own profession, but of any notable event or deed or
+tendency. Often his spontaneous comment on a cabled utterance or act
+laid stress upon the word or moment that next day served as captions for
+the significant review. The printed thought of the leading statesman,
+the outlook of the financier, the decision of the commanding soldier, or
+the vision of the poet found kinship in his sympathy, not because he
+strove tiptoe to apprehend its elevation, but because his spirit was
+native to that plane."</p>
+
+<p>Coincident with the New York funeral, services were held at Los Angeles
+at the instigation of Maude Adams; at San Francisco under the
+sponsorship of John Drew; at Tacoma at the behest of Billie Burke; at
+Providence under the direction of Julia Sanderson, Donald Brian, and
+Joseph Cawthorn. Thus a nation-wide chain of grief linked the stars of
+the Frohman heaven.</p>
+
+<p>Nor did foreign lands fail to render homage to the memory of Charles
+Frohman. A memorial was held at St.-Martins-in-the-Fields, in London,
+almost within stone's-throw of the Duke of York's Theater, in which he
+took so much pride. In the presence of a distinguished company that
+included the chivalry and flower of the British theater, the sub-deacon
+of St. Paul's conducted services for the self-made American who had
+risen from advance-agent to be the theatrical master of his times.</p>
+
+<p>In Paris the French Society of Authors eulogized the man who had been
+their sympathetic envoy and sincere sponsor at the throne of American
+appreciation.</p>
+
+<p>Thus fell the curtain on Charles Frohman. As in life he had joined two
+continents by the bonds of his daring and courageous enterprise, so on
+his death did those two worlds unite to do him honor. He had not lived
+in vain.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<i>Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been</i><br />
+<i>So clear in his great office, that his virtues</i><br />
+<i>Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against</i><br />
+<i>The deep damnation of his taking off.</i><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 15em;">&mdash;"Macbeth," I, vii.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="Appendix_A" id="Appendix_A"></a><i>Appendix A</i></h3>
+
+<p class="head">THE LETTERS OF CHARLES FROHMAN</p>
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">U</span> <span class="smcap">nlike</span>
+many men of achievement, Charles Frohman was not a prolific
+letter-writer. He avoided letter-writing whenever it was possible. When
+he could not convey his message orally he resorted to the telegraph.
+Letters were the last resort.</p>
+
+<p>He had a sort of constitutional objection to long letters. The only
+lengthy epistles that ever came from him were dictated and referred to
+matters of business. They all have one quality in common. As soon as he
+had concluded the discussion of the topic in mind he would immediately
+tell about the fortunes of his plays. He seldom failed to make a
+reference to the business that Maude Adams was doing (for her immense
+success was very dear to his heart), and he always commented on his own
+strenuous activities. He liked to talk about the things he was doing.</p>
+
+<p>The really intimate Frohman letters were always written by hand on
+scraps of paper, and were short, jerky, and epigrammatic. Most of these
+were written, or rather scratched, to intimates like James M. Barrie,
+Paul Potter, and Haddon Chambers.</p>
+
+<p>As indicated in one of the chapters of this book, Frohman delighted in
+caricature. To a few of his friends he would send a humorous cartoon
+instead of a letter. He caricatured whatever he saw, whether riding on
+trains or eating in restaurants. If he wanted a friend to dine with him
+he would sketch a rough head and mark it "Me"; then he would draw
+another head and label it "You." Between these heads he would make a
+picture of a table, and under it scrawl, "Knickerbocker, Friday, 7
+o'clock."</p>
+
+<p>Frohman seldom used pen and ink. Most of his letters were written with
+the heavy blue editorial pencil that he liked to use. He wrote an
+atrocious hand. His only competitor in this way was his close friend
+Barrie. The general verdict among the people who have read the writing
+of both men is that Frohman took the palm for illegible chirography.</p>
+
+<p>Frohman could pack a world of meaning into his letters. To a
+fellow-manager who had written to Boston to ask if he had seen a certain
+actress play, he replied: "No, I have had the great pleasure of <i>not</i>
+seeing her act."</p>
+
+<p>His letters reflect his moods and throw intimate light on his character.
+He would always have his joke. To William Collier, who had sent him a
+box for a play that he was doing in New York, he once wrote: "I do not
+think I will have any difficulty in finding your theater, although a
+great many new theaters have gone up. Many old ones have 'gone up' too."</p>
+
+<p>His swift jugglery with words is always manifest. To Alfred Sutro he
+sent this sentence notifying him that his play was to go into rehearsal:
+"The die is cast&mdash;but not the play."</p>
+
+<p>Through his letters there shines his uncompromising rule of life.
+Writing to W. Lestocq, his agent in London, in reference to the English
+failure of "Years of Discretion," he said: "It is a failure, and that is
+the end of it. You can't get around failure, so we must go on to
+something else."</p>
+
+<p class="space">The number of available Frohman letters is not large. The following,
+gathered from various sources, will serve to indicate something of their
+character:</p>
+
+<p><i>To an English author whose play, a weak one, was rapidly failing:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>No; it is not the war that is affecting your business. It is the
+play&mdash;nothing else.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Cyril Maude, whose penmanship is notably indecipherable:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I can't read your handwriting very well; but I wonder if you can
+read my typewriting. Just pretend I typed this myself.... Speaking
+of hits, Granville Barker arrived yesterday, and the city suddenly
+became terribly cold&mdash;awful weather. Barker will do well.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Haddon Chambers:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Last night we produced "Driven" against your judgment. The press
+not favorable. But still I'm hoping.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To a colleague:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I announced "Driven" as a comedy. Next day I called it a play. But
+soon I may call it off.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To W. Lestocq:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>The American actors over here are worried about so many English
+actors in our midst. I employ both kinds&mdash;that is, I want good
+actors only.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To an English author:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>As to conditions here being bad for good plays; that is a joke. The
+distressful business is for the bad plays that I and other managers
+sometimes produce.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To one of his managers:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Do not use the line "The World-Famous Tri-Star Combination." Just
+say "The Great Three-Star Combination." It is easier to understand.
+And all will be well.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To one of his managers who spoke of the superiority of an actress who
+had replaced another about to retire to private life:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>But now that her stage life is over we should remember her years of
+good work. She had a simple, childish, fairy-like appeal. I write
+this to you to express my feeling for one who has left our work for
+good, and I can think now only of pleasant memories. I want you to
+feel the same.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To an English author, January, 1915:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Over here they say the real heroes of the year are the managers
+that dare produce new plays.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To a business colleague about a singing comedian who was laid up with a
+serious illness:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I am sorry he is sick. But that was a rotten thing for him to
+do&mdash;to steal our song. I suppose he is better. Only the good die
+young.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Marie Doro:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I saw you in the picture play. It and you were fine. What a lot of
+money you make! When I return from London I'm going to see if I can
+earn $10 a day to play in some of the screens. We are all going up
+to the Atlantic Ocean Island to see them taking you in the "White
+Pearl" pictures.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Refusing to go to a public banquet:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>That's the first free thing that has been offered me this year. But
+there are three things my physician forbids me from doing&mdash;to eat,
+drink, or talk.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To a manager:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>There are no bad towns&mdash;only bad plays!</p></div>
+
+<p><i>On hearing that an actress in his employ had reflected on his
+management:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>In this message I am charged with neglecting your interests. This
+is a shock to me, because when one neglects his trust, he is
+dishonest. This is the first time I have ever been so accused, and
+I am wondering if you inspired the message. I think it important
+that you should know.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Being adjured by one of the family to take more exercise:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I drove out to Richmond. Then I walked a mile. Now I hope you'll be
+satisfied.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To his sisters (he lived then at the Waldorf, but joined the family at
+a weekly dinner up-town):</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I am sending you a cook-book by Oscar of this hotel. You may find
+some use for it.</p></div>
+
+<p>When he came to the next weekly dinner he was offered several choice
+dishes prepared from Oscar's recipes. "I see my mistake," he said. "I
+wanted my usual home dinner. You give me what I receive all the time at
+the hotel."</p>
+
+<p><i>To Alfred Sutro, in London:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Give us something full of situations, and we will give you a bully
+time again in America.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To William Seymour, his stage-manager, about a performance of one of
+his plays:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>When you rehearse to-day will you try and get the old woman out of
+too much crying; get some smiles, and stop her screwing up her face
+every time she speaks. Of course, it's nervousness, but it looks as
+if she were ill.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To one of his associates:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Miss Adams's receipts last week in Boston were the largest in the
+history of Boston theaters or anywhere&mdash;$23,000. But I had some
+others which I won't tell you about.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To an English author in 1913:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>At present the taste is "down with light plays, down with literary
+plays." They want plays with dramatic situations, intrigue, sex
+conflict. There is no use in giving the public what it does not
+want and what they ought to have. I am just finding that out, with
+much cost.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To a French agent:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>It seems a little reckless to be asked to pay $2,500 for the
+privilege of reading a new French play. The author seems to want to
+get rich quickly. I would be willing to add to his wealth if he has
+something that can be produced without such a preliminary penalty.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To W. Lestocq:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>When one talks to an English author about "Diplomacy," he says,
+"Oh, that's a theatrical play!" I wish I could get another like it.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To an English manager:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>A hundred theaters here are a few too many. Houses have closed on a
+Saturday night without any warning. Boston, Chicago, and
+Philadelphia have been better. You see we have this wonderful
+country to fall back on, which makes it different from London.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To an author in London:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>What you say is quite true; a good play is a good play; but the
+difficulty I find is to ascertain through the public and the
+box-office what <i>they</i> think is a good play. Our opinion is only
+good for ourselves. But give me a dramatic play and I'll put it at
+once to the test.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Hubert Henry Davies, the dramatist, during an interim of that
+author's activities:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>It grieves me when I can't get your material going, especially as I
+want to come over as soon as I can and get one of those nice
+lunches in your nice apartment.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To the manager of an up-state New York theater regarding an impending
+first-night performance:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I hope we shall draw a representative audience the first night. I
+know audiences with you are sometimes a little reluctant about
+first nights. I can't understand this myself. In my opinion there
+is an extra thrill for them in the experience of a first
+performance, as it is a special event.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Granville Barker, January, 1913:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I am very jealous of the Barrie plays, and I do want them for my
+own theater for revivals.... I hear such good reports about your
+Shakespearian work that I am awfully pleased. I have had a Marconi
+from Shakespeare himself, in which he speaks highly of what you
+have done for his work. I am sure this will be as gratifying to you
+as it is to me.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Alluding to his painful rheumatism in a letter to George Edwardes, the
+producer, in England, January, 1913:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I can't run twelve yards, but I can drink a lot of that bottled
+lemonade of yours when I get over. In fact, at the moment I think
+that is the best thing running in London.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>In February, 1913, Frohman made frequent trips to Baltimore to rehearse
+and superintend the production of his plays in that city. He has this to
+say of Baltimore in a letter to Tunis F. Dean, manager of a theater
+there:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I was glad to have an opportunity of seeing your fine theater, for
+I have decided on a very important production with one of our
+leading stars there next season. So that I shall spend a week in
+Baltimore. I like that. There is no one living in Baltimore that
+has a greater regard for that fine, dignified city. I have had it
+for years, and with the beautiful theater and my feeling for
+Baltimore and you at the head of that theater, I am looking forward
+with pleasure to coming to you next season.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Frohman was simple, direct, and forcible in his criticism of plays. In
+rejecting a French play, he wrote to Michael Morton in defense of his
+judgment, New York, February, 1913:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I was awfully glad you made arrangements for the play, the one I
+don't like, and I hope the other fellow is right. These
+three-cornered French plays are going to have a hard time over here
+in the future unless they contain something that is pretty big,
+novel, or human. The guilty wife is a joke here now, and they have
+lots of fun when they play these scenes in these plays. The
+American and English play is different. They get there quicker in a
+different manner instead of the old-fashioned scheme. Of course,
+French plays, as you say, may be laid in England and in America. I
+understand that. But even then it seems to be about the same as if
+they were in France.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>His brief, epigrammatic style of criticism is evident in a letter to
+Charles B. Dillingham, wherein he speaks of a certain play under
+consideration:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I think the end of the play is not good. It is that old-time
+stand-around-with-a-glass-of-wine-in-your-hand and wish success to
+the happy people.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Extracts from an interview with Frohman which he wrote for the London
+papers, March, 1913:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>There will be no change in my work of producing for the London
+stage. I shall continue to do so at my own theaters or with other
+London managers just as long as I am producing on any stage, and I
+fear that will be for a long time yet, as I am younger now than I
+was twenty years ago.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Prior to his departure for England he wrote the following to John Drew
+in March, 1913:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Thanks for your fine letter. It is like this, John: I hope to get
+off next week, but I don't seem to be able to get the
+accommodations I want on either one of the steamers that I should
+like to travel on, and that sail next week. I need a little special
+accommodation on account of my leg, which still refuses to answer
+my call and requires the big stick.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Alfred Sutro, in January, 1913, on the current taste in plays:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>These American plays with thieves, burglars, detectives, and
+pistols seem to be the real things over here just now. None of them
+has failed.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Memorandum for his office-boy, Peter, for a week's supply of his
+favorite drinks:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Get me plenty of orange-juice, lemon soda, ginger ale,
+sarsaparilla, buttermilk.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Alfred Sutro, 1913:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Haddon Chambers sails to-day. You may see him before you see this.
+He leaves behind him what I think will give him many happy returns
+(box-office) of the season, as Miss Barrymore is doing so well with
+his "Tante."</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To W. Lestocq, concerning one of his leading London actresses:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Miss Titheridge is all right, as I wrote Morton, if her emotions
+can be kept down, and if she can try to make the audience act more,
+and act less herself.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Michael Morton regarding an actress:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>She needs to be told that real acting is not to act, but to make
+the audience feel, and not feel so much herself.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To the editor of a popular monthly magazine upon its first birthday:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I understand that your September issue will be made to mark &mdash;&mdash;'s
+first birthday. Judging from your paper your birthday plans miss
+the issue; because&mdash;&mdash; becomes a year younger every September. I do
+<i>not</i> congratulate you even upon this fact; because you cannot help
+it. I do <i>not</i> congratulate your readers because they get your
+paper so very cheap. I <i>do</i> congratulate myself, however, for
+calling attention to these wonderful facts.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To W. Lestocq, referring to a statement made by R. C. Carton, the
+dramatist:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I don't quite understand what he means by "holding up" the play.
+Over here it is a desperate expression&mdash;one that means pistols and
+murder, and all that. I presume it means something different in
+London, where Carton lives.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Mrs. C. C. Cushing, the playwright, declining an invitation:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>It is impossible to come and see you because I haven't got Cottage
+No. 4, but I've got Cell No. 3 on the stage of the Empire Theater,
+where I am passing the summer months.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Even Frohman's cablegrams reflected his humor. In 1913 Billie Burke was
+ill at Carlsbad, so he cabled her some cheering message nearly every
+day. Here is a sample:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Drove past your house to-day and ran over a dog. Your brother
+glared at me.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>When Blanche Bates's first baby was born (she was at her country house
+near Ossining at the time), Frohman sent her this message:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Ossining has now taken its real place among the communities of the
+country. Congratulations.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Alfred Sutro, January, 1913:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I was glad to hear from you. First let me strongly advise you to
+take the comedy side for the Alexander play. I honestly believe,
+unless it is something enormous, and for big stars and all that,
+the other side is no good any more. For the present, anyway, I
+speak of my own country. The usual serious difficulties between a
+husband and wife of that class&mdash;really they laugh at here now,
+instead of touching their emotions. They have gone along so
+rapidly. Take my advice in this matter, do! I am glad you have
+dropped that scene from the third act of your Du Maurier play.</p>
+
+<p>Now that I am back to town I intended writing you about it. I
+assure you I had a jolly good time for the first two acts of that
+farce, and I can see Gerald Du Maurier all through it. The third
+act worries me for this country, as I wrote you. But the
+performance may change all this. It is so difficult to judge
+farcical work where it is so thoroughly English in its scene that I
+speak of to get any idea from the reading of it for this country.
+Everything is going along splendidly.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Haddon Chambers, March, 1913:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I propose, and the troupes dispose! We had a lot of floods and
+things here which keep us on the move, or keep our troupes moving
+so much that I am compelled to postpone my sailing until April 12th
+on the <i>Olympic</i>, which makes it just a little later when I have
+the joy of seeing you. My best regards.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Richard Harding Davis, July, 1913:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>All right, we'll fix the title. I am glad they are asking about it.
+About people, they all seem to want Collier salaries. As you have
+chiefly character parts, and they are so good, I think it would be
+a good idea for us to create a few new stars through you, and<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 60%;">Yours truly,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 70%;"><span class="smcap">Charles Frohman</span>.</span></p></div>
+
+<p><i>To George Edwardes, July, 1913:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>First, I am glad to hear that you are away giving your heart a
+chance. I am back here trying to give my pocket-book a chance.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To William Collier, September, 1913:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>All right, all arranged, Thursday night in New York; Monday and
+Tuesday in Springfield, Massachusetts. I shall leave here Monday
+ready to meet the performance and anything else! I hope all is
+well.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Viola Allen, September, 1913:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I was awfully glad to get your letter. First let me say you had
+better come to see "Much Ado About Nothing" this Saturday, because
+it is the last week. We withdraw it to-morrow night and produce a
+new program at once. "Much Ado" wouldn't do for more than two
+weeks. After that it fell. Of course I find on Broadway it is quite
+impossible to run Shakespeare to satisfying "star" receipts. So
+come along to-morrow if you can. It would be fine to have you, and
+fine to have some of the original members of the Empire company to
+play in this house, and I should like it beyond words. I don't,
+however, believe in that sex-against-sex play. In these great days
+of the superiority of woman over mere man I don't think it would
+do.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Referring to a young actress he wished to secure, he writes to Col.
+Henry W. Savage in January, 1913:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>My dear Colonel: I want to enter on your works in this way. You
+have a girl called&mdash;&mdash;. I know she is very good, because I have
+never seen her act, but I understand she is not acting just as you
+want her to, and therefore not playing, either because she is
+laying off, or that you have stopped her from playing. I have a
+part for which I could use this girl. Will you let me have her, and
+in that way do another great wrong by doing me a favor? If she
+doesn't, or you do not wish her to play, perhaps it would be as
+much satisfaction to you if you thought you were doing me a favor
+and let her play in my company as if she were not playing at all.
+My best regards, and I hope this letter will not add much to the
+many pangs of the season to you.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Sir James M. Barrie, October, 1913:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>As I wrote you, I felt we had a good opportunity here under the
+conditions here, and I produced your "The Dramatists Get What They
+Want" last night. It went splendidly with the audiences, and has
+very good press. Of course the class of first-night audience that
+we had last night understood it. The censor is a new thing over
+here. The general public don't understand it, and it may on that
+account not make so strong an impression on further audiences.
+However, that is all right. I am delighted with the way it went,
+and you would have been delighted had you been present. I think the
+press was very good when you consider the subject is so new to us.
+The three plays have all, I assure you, been nicely done, well
+produced and cast, and you would be pleased with them as I am
+pleased in having had them to produce. It helped considerably with
+plays that would not have made much of an impression without them.
+It has helped the general business of these plays, which, although
+it is not great, is good, and makes a fair average every week. It
+is chiefly what you would call "stall" business. "The Will" has
+been a fine thing for John Drew, and he is very happy in it. He has
+made a very deep impression indeed. I think the part with the
+changes of character as played by him has made it really a star
+part. If you have any more of them, send them along.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To W. Somerset Maugham, October, 1913:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Regarding the first act of "The Land of Promise," this is what I
+think, and maybe you will think the same, and, if you do, give me a
+good speech. Send it as soon as you can. I think that we should
+have a different ending to the first act, uplifting the ending.
+After the girl tells about her brother being married, wouldn't it
+be a good idea for her to say something like this, in your own
+language, of course: "Canada! Canada! You are right." (Turning to
+Miss Pringle), "England, why should I stay in England? I'm young, I
+want gaiety, new life. Then why not go to a young country where all
+is life and gaiety and sunshine and joy and youth&mdash;the land of
+promise, the land for me?" Remember, in the last act she speaks of
+all she expected to find and how different the realization. This
+new idea of the end of the first act will help this speech, I
+think. And besides uplifting the ending, gives the great contrast
+we want to show in the play and is driven into the minds of the
+audience at the end of the first act. Give the girl a good
+uplifting speech at the end of the first act, instead of a downward
+one. That is what I mean. Then after that we get the contrast of
+the countries. I hope this is clear and you will understand what I
+mean.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To J. E. Dodson, October, 1913:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>My greatest regret is that my profession takes me to Baltimore on
+the day that you are giving the dinner at the Lotus Club to my
+friend Cyril Maude. It would give me the greatest pleasure to eat
+his health with you. I rejoice that you are giving recognition on
+his first arrival here in New York to such a sincere actor and such
+a real man. He belongs to all countries.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Haddon Chambers, June, 1911:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Had a fine trip over. Found it hot here. Started in building your
+scenery. Am only dropping you a line because I want to ask you,
+while I think of it, if you will get a copy of that special morning
+dress that Gerald wears at the beginning of the second act, for
+Richard Bennett. I think it would be a good idea to bring it over.
+Bennett is not quite as tall as Du Maurier and just a bit thicker,
+and as it is a sort of loose dress there will be no difficulty in
+fitting it here.</p>
+
+<p>Now our cast is in good shape for your play, and I am very pleased
+with it. We have an asylum full of children awaiting your selection
+on your arrival.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, August, 1911:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>The man I selected to produce your play is Charles Frohman. He is
+not only good at producing plays that have never been staged
+before, but he likes your play thoroughly. He has made such a
+careful study of it that he believes that he knows it in every
+detail. He feels confident of his ability to handle it and to make
+the changes you have made just as he thinks you and your public
+over here would like to have it done.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Sir James M. Barrie, London, September, 1911:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>This will be signed for me, as I am still confined to my
+bed&mdash;fighting rheumatism. I thought I would not write you until you
+return to London. All goes well here. So far my new productions
+have met with success. Miss Barrymore began in Mason's play last
+night in Trenton, New Jersey. The play was well received before a
+large audience. Miss Adams begins the new season in Buffalo next
+Monday night. I am hoping within the next two weeks to be able to
+get out on crutches. I have been to many rehearsals. They carry me
+in a Bath chair to and from the theater.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Somerset Maugham, September, 1911:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Thanks for yours. I am still down with rheumatism&mdash;partly on
+account of the weather, but more especially because you are not
+doing any work.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To a New York critic, October, 1911:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I hope in two or three weeks to be able to see myself as other good
+critics, like you, would see me&mdash;well and about again in my various
+theaters.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Sir James M. Barrie, November, 1911:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Your letter was a delight, and it will be fine news for Miss Adams.
+I hope you will send the material as soon as you can. Here I am
+dictating to you from bed; so I will be brief. My foot is now tied
+to a rope which is tied to the bed with weights. They are trying to
+stretch the leg. I am hoping that in three or four weeks I may be
+able to sit around. Five months on one's back is not good for much
+more than watching aeroplanes.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Sir James M. Barrie, December, 1911:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I was very glad to get your letter. I am still in bed, so that I am
+obliged to dictate this letter to you. The manuscript arrived, but
+found me out of condition to read it. I sent it on at once to Maude
+Adams. She telegraphed me how delighted she is with it, and I have
+had a letter from her telling me what a remarkable piece of work it
+is. When she gets back to town I shall read the manuscript. Any
+plan you work out for London will be fine. I should judge, without
+knowing, that your idea for matin&eacute;es is the best.</p>
+
+<p>I am hoping that in another month I will be out; I am living on
+that hope. Then I will commence to think about coming over to you.
+I dare not think of it until I once more get out, I am afraid. All
+this has naturally disturbed my London season. I am happy in the
+thought that we will soon have "Peter" on again in London. What a
+difference your plays made to my London season!</p>
+
+<p>I shall write you again soon. "Peter and Wendy" is fine. My most
+affectionate remembrances.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Sir James M. Barrie, January, 1912:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I cabled you on receiving your letter because my voice was leaving
+me rapidly. It was a case of a bad throat, and I wanted to get some
+reply to you quickly. My throat is better now. I have had about
+everything, and I fear I shall have to keep to my rooms for some
+time to come. I hope to see you around the end of March.</p>
+
+<p>I think your Shakespearian play is a most wonderful work. I quite
+appreciate all you say about its chances. I rather felt that a
+Shakespearian novelty of this kind would be most striking if
+produced by Tree on top of his newspaper claim of having lost over
+40,000 pounds on Shakespeare.</p>
+
+<p>I am all bungled up here. I don't know quite what to do about
+London this season. As I understood what you wanted, I replied as I
+did. You know how I hate to lose any of your work for anybody or
+anywhere. Now you understand. That is splendid about the Phillpotts
+play, and I thank you. I am hoping about the Pinero play. I shall
+be glad to see you.</p>
+
+<p>This is all the voice I have left for dictation; so I end with my
+best regards.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To David Belasco, February, 1912:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>This is written for me. I am still confined to my rooms, and,
+although able to sit up during the day for work, I do not get out
+in the evening. I was glad to hear from you, and I hope you will
+telephone that you will come round any old night that suits you.</p>
+
+<p>I wish you could play "Peter Grimm" up here; I'd like to see it.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Sir James M. Barrie, February, 1912:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I haven't written you because lately I have been having a lot of
+pain. I sent you papers which will tell you how wonderfully your
+fine play&mdash;"A Slice of Life"&mdash;has been received. It has caused a
+tremendous lot of talk; but I just want to tell you that there is
+absolutely no comparison, in performance, as the play is given here
+and the way it was given in London. Fine actors, although the
+London cast had, my people here seem to have a better grasp of what
+you wanted. They have brought it out with a sincerity and
+intelligence of stroke that is quite remarkable. Ethel Barrymore
+never did better work. Her emotional breakdown, tears, her
+humiliation&mdash;when she confesses to her husband that she had been a
+good woman even before she met him, all this is managed in a keener
+fashion, and with even a finer display of stage pathos than she
+showed in her fine performance in "Mid-Channel."</p>
+
+<p>As the husband, Jack Barrymore is every inch a John Drew. He feels,
+and makes the audience feel, the humiliation of his position. When
+he confesses, it is a terrible confession. Hattie Williams, in her
+odd manner, imitated Nazimova&mdash;as Nazimova would play a butler.</p>
+
+<p>So these artists step out into the light&mdash;before a houseful of
+great laughter; one feels that they have struck the true note of
+what you meant your play should have. I think the impossible
+seriousness of triangle scenes in modern plays has been swept off
+the stage here&mdash;and "A Slice of Life" has done it....</p>
+
+<p>The effect of "A Slice of Life" is even greater and more general
+than "The Twelve-Pound Look." All agree that each year you have
+given our stage the real novelty of its theatrical season. And the
+fine thing about it is that you have given me the opportunity of
+putting these before the public.</p>
+
+<p>I am getting along very slowly. I am able to do my work in my rooms
+and go on crutches for a couple of hours at rehearsals. But always
+I am in great pain. I hope to see you by the end of March. I don't
+know whether you will shake my hand or my crutch. But I expect to
+be there. We can take up the matters of "A Slice of Life," etc.,
+then.</p>
+
+<p>I am so delighted about "Peter Pan" this season. I am wondering if
+you have done anything about that Shakespeare play, which I believe
+would be another big novelty.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, March, 1912:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Perhaps this will reach you on your return from the Continent. I
+hope you have made a good trip and that you are happy.</p>
+
+<p>I hope to give you for the "Mind the Paint Girl" Miss Billie Burke,
+who is an enormous attraction here. She played in her little piece
+from the French last week in St. Louis to $15,700. All the way
+along the line her houses are sold out completely before her
+appearance. Her play is only a slight thing&mdash;an adaptation from the
+French, but play-goers seem to have gone wild over her. Besides
+this, she is not only handsome, but every inch the very
+personification of the "Paint Girl." Moreover, she is a genuinely
+human actress. It will be a big combination for me to make&mdash;the
+large cast required for the "Paint Girl," together with this
+valuable star and your great play.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To John Drew, March, 1912:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I am glad to hear from you and to know that you are having
+freezingly cold weather in the South. The joke is on the people
+here. They think you are having such nice warm weather.</p>
+
+<p>I am getting along pretty well. I am about the same as when you
+left me except that there is great excitement among my doctors
+because I can now move my small toe.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Sir James M. Barrie, September, 1913:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Half an Hour" has been going splendidly and had a fine reception
+the first night. The majority of the press were splendid indeed,
+one or two felt an awakening to see the change in the work that you
+have been doing. I am awfully pleased the way it came out. I am
+delighted to see that you have added another act to the "Adored
+One." That makes it a splendid program for Miss Adams. Making it a
+three-act play is fine for this side, as I cabled you. All the
+Americans coming home who have seen your play are delighted with it
+in every way. Hope all is going well. I am leaving to-morrow to
+meet Maude Adams and see the piece that she is now playing called
+"Peter Pan." I shall be away from New York for perhaps a week, and
+on my return I will write you again fully.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Alfred Sutro, September, 1911:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>You know how happy your success has made me. You know how I longed
+for it. You know all that so thoroughly that words were not
+necessary. My illness prevented me from reading the play. I shall
+read it in eight or ten days. But it is all understood, and when I
+get up and out I shall fix up all the business.</p>
+
+<p>John Drew, who is now free of worry concerning his new production,
+is to read "The Perplexed Husband" next week. I shall write you
+then. But the main thing is, we have the success and can take care
+of it. And I am extremely happy over it.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To J. A. E. Malone, the London manager, regarding the American
+presentation of "The Girl from Utah" and its instantaneous success:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Believe me that the success is due entirely to the <i>American</i>
+members, the <i>American</i> work, and, of course, the <i>American</i>
+stars.... The English numbers went for nothing. In short, the
+American numbers caught on.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Haddon Chambers, in London in 1914:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>There have been a number of failures already, but they would have
+failed if every day was a holiday. There has been just now a new
+departure here in play-writing&mdash;a great success&mdash;"On Trial." This
+is by a boy twenty-one years of age. The scenes are laid in the
+court-room, and as the witness gets to the dramatic part of the
+story the scene changes and the characters are shown to act out the
+previous incidents of the story that is told in court, and then
+they go back to the court and work that way through the play. It
+has been a great sensation and is doing great business.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Concerning one of his English productions in London, he writes Dion
+Boucicault:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I want on my side to have you understand, however, that as far as I
+am concerned I am keeping the theater open for the company and the
+employees, and not for myself. I should have closed positively if I
+had not my people in mind. That was my only reason....</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Dion Boucicault:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>It seems to me that there are too many English actors coming over
+here, and I fear some of them will be in distress, because there
+don't seem to be positions enough for all that are coming, and
+people are wondering why so many are coming instead of enlisting.
+It might be well for you to inform some of these actors that the
+chances are not so great now, because there are so many here on the
+waiting-list. I use a great <i>many</i>, but I also use a great <i>many</i>
+Americans, as merit is the chief thing.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Otis Skinner:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I felt all that you now feel about the vision effect when I saw the
+dress rehearsal. It looked to me like a magic-lantern scene that
+would be given in the cellar of a Sunday-school.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Dion Boucicault, October, 1914:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I am despondent as to what to do in London. I'd rather close. I
+don't want to put on things at losses, because I do not wish to
+send money to cover losses to London now. The rates of exchange are
+something terrific, and therefore I don't want to be burdened with
+this extra expense. Twelve pounds on every hundred pounds is too
+much for any business man to handle. Over here we are feeling the
+effects of the war, but the big things (and I am glad to say I am
+in some of them) are all right.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To an English actor about to enlist in the army:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I have your letter. I am awfully sorry, but I haven't anything to
+offer. So therefore I congratulate the army on securing your
+services.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Declining an invitation for a public dinner:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I thank you very much for your very nice invitation to be present
+at the dinner, but I regret that, first, I do not speak at dinners,
+and, next, I do not attend dinners.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>One of the lines that Frohman wrote very often, and which came to be
+somewhat hackneyed, was to his general manager, Alf Hayman. It was:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Send me a thousand pounds to London.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To W. Lestocq, in 1914, regarding another manager:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I notice that Mr. Z&mdash;&mdash; has a man who can sign for royalties I send
+him. I wonder why he can't find some one to sign for royalties that
+are due me!</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Of a production waiting to come to New York:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Broadway may throw things when we play the piece here, still I have
+failed before on Broadway.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To James B. Fagan, in London, December, 1912, referring to his
+production of "Bella Donna" in this country:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Mr. Bryant is giving an exceptionally good performance of the part,
+and is so much taken with my theater and company that I have the
+newspapers' word that he married my star (Nazimova).</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Alfred Sutro, November, 1914:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>It seems to me that a strong human play, with good characters (and
+clean), is the thing over here; and now, my dear Sutro, I do
+believe that throughout the United States a play really requires a
+star artist, man or woman&mdash;woman for choice....</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To W. Lestocq, in November, 1914:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I have just returned from Chicago, where Miss Adams has a very
+happy and delightful program in "Leonora" and "The Ladies'
+Shakespeare." "The Ladies' Shakespeare" is delightful, but very
+slight. The little scenes that Barrie has written that are spoken
+before the curtain are awfully well received, but the scenes from
+Shakespeare's play when they are acted are very short and the whole
+thing is played in less than an hour. Miss Adams, of course, is
+delightful in it, and it goes with a sparkle with her; and as it is
+so slight and so much Shakespeare and so little Barrie, although
+the Barrie part in front of the curtain is fine, I cannot say how
+it would go with your audiences [referring to the London public]. I
+am happy in the thought, however, that Barrie has furnished Miss
+Adams with a program that will last her all through the season and
+well into the summer.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Haddon Chambers:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Hubert Henry Davies's "Outcast" has made a hit, but he really has a
+wonderful woman&mdash;I should say the best young emotional actress on
+the stage&mdash;in Miss Ferguson. So he is in for a good thing.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Cyril Maude, in Boston, November, 1914:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Yours to Chicago has just reached me here in New York. As soon as I
+heard that you were going to write me to Chicago I immediately left
+for New York.</p>
+
+<p>I am glad you are doing so very big in Boston. They say you are
+going to stay all season. Things are terrible with me in London,
+and the interests I had outside of London have been shocking. I am
+hoping and believing, however, that all will be well again on the
+little island&mdash;the island that I am so devoted to.</p></div>
+
+<p>In this letter, it is worth adding, Frohman made one of his very rare
+confessions of bad business. He only liked to write about his affairs
+when they were booming.</p>
+
+<p><i>To Margaret Mayo Selwyn, New York, November 30, 1914:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I was glad to receive your letter. I have been thinking about the
+revival of the play you mentioned. In fact, the thought has been a
+long one&mdash;three years&mdash;but I haven't reached it yet. I have been
+thinking more about the new play you are writing for me. I know you
+now have a lot of theaters, a lot of managers, and a lot of
+husbands and things like that, but, all the same, I <i>want</i> that
+play. My best regards.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Frohman loved sweets. He went to considerable trouble sometimes to get
+the particular candy he wanted. Here is a letter that he wrote to
+William Newman, then manager of the Maude Adams Company, in care of the
+Metropolitan Opera House, St. Paul:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Will you go to George Smith's Chocolate Works, 6th and Robert
+Streets, St. Paul, and get four packages of Smith's Delicious Cream
+Patties and send them to me to the Knickerbocker Hotel, New York?</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Frohman had his own way of acknowledging courtesies. A London friend,
+Reginald Nicholson, circulation manager of the Times, sent him some
+flowers to the Savoy. He received this reply from the manager, scrawled
+with blue pencil on a sheet of hotel paper:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>A lot of thanks from Savoy Court 81.</p></div>
+
+<p>Frohman's apartment for years at the Savoy Hotel was Savoy Court 81.</p>
+
+<p><i>To Paul Potter, written from the Blackstone, Chicago, in February,
+1915:</i></p>
+
+<p>
+Dear Paul:<br />
+</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I received your telegram, and was glad to get it. The sun is
+shining here and all is well. I hope to see you Saturday night at
+the Knickerbocker.</p></div>
+
+<p>
+C. F.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>This is in every way a typical Charles Frohman personal note. He usually
+had one thing to say and said it in the fewest possible words.</p>
+
+<p><i>One day Frohman sent a certain play to his brother Daniel for
+criticism. On receiving an unfavorable estimate of the work he wrote him
+the following memorandum:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Who are you and who am I that can decide the financial value of
+this play? The most extraordinary plays succeed, and many that
+deserve a better fate fail; so how are we to know until after we
+test a play before the public?</p></div>
+
+<p><i>In reply to Charles Burnham's invitation to attend the Theatrical
+Managers' dinner, he wrote:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Thank you very much, but my condition is still such that my game
+leg would require at least four seats, and as we now have at least
+several managers to every theater, and several theaters in every
+block, I haven't the heart to accept the needed room, and thus
+deprive them of any.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Writing to E. H. Sothern and Julia Marlowe, in April, 1915, he said:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I wonder why you don't both sail with me May 1 (<i>Lusitania</i>). As
+far as I am concerned, when you consider all the stars I have
+managed, mere submarines make me smile. But most affectionate
+regards to you both.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Writing to John Drew, who was willing to prolong his touring season in
+1915, he says:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>All right. Why a young man like you cares to continue on his long
+tours, I don't know. I hope to get away on May 1st and to return
+shortly after you reach New York. Am in quest of something for you.
+Our last talk before you left gave me much happiness.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Refusing to book his attractions in a city for a week where three
+nights were sufficient, he said:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>My stars like week stands, but they don't like weak business.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Haddon Chambers, in London:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I am hoping to get off on the <i>Lusitania</i>. It seems to be the best
+ship to sail on. I shall be glad to see you.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Writing to S. F. Nixon, a business colleague, regarding Miss Barrymore
+in "The Shadow":</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>You are quite right as to the play being terribly somber. I thought
+it a good idea to show what a representative American actress of
+serious parts she was; so that next season we will offer a
+contrast, and make the audiences laugh so much that they will be
+compelled to crowd the theater. She will play then as humorous a
+part ("Our Mrs. McChesney") as she did so earnestly a serious one.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To J. C. O'Laughlin, of the Chicago</i> Herald:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>We managers have certain ideas about plays. We produce a play and
+find our ideas and opinions often wrong. Our opinions are only
+sound, I think, as far as the question of a play being actable is
+concerned. My sympathetic feeling for all writers makes it very
+hard to venture an opinion detrimental to their work, especially as
+we find we are frequently wrong.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To one of his leading women, April, 1915:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I appreciate the expression of your affection. It almost makes me
+turn westward instead of eastward. However, we must do our jobs,
+and so I do mine. I am sailing Saturday (per <i>Lusitania</i>). Heaven
+only will know where I am in July. I cannot tell this year anything
+about anything.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Booth Tarkington:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I don't suppose you have any idea of coming to New York. There are
+a lot of fine things here worth your while, including myself.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Concerning Hubert Henry Davies, the author of "Outcast," Miss Elsie
+Ferguson's very successful vehicle:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>He is a delightful, charming, simple, splendid fellow. You will be
+delighted with him, and Miss Ferguson will be more than delighted
+with him, because he will be so delighted with her. It is a fine
+thing to have so nice a man as Davies arrive, and entirely
+misunderstanding the person he is to rehearse because the surprise
+will be all the greater. It pleases me, knowing what a fine
+emotional (one of the very best in the world) young actress our
+star is.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>To Harry Powers, manager of Powers Theater, Chicago, where his play
+"The Beautiful Adventure," with Ann Murdock, was then running:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Regarding "The Beautiful Adventure," if I am doing wrong in making
+a clean situation out of one that is not clean, I am going to do
+wrong. The theater-going public in the cities may not always get a
+good play from me, but they trust me, and I shall try and retain
+that trust. We may not get the same amount of money, but if we can
+live through it we will get a lot more satisfaction for those we
+like and for ourselves.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Some of the last letters written by Frohman were filled with a curious
+tenderness and affection. In the light of what happened after he sailed
+they seem to be overcast with a strange foreboding of his doom. The most
+striking example of this is furnished in a letter he wrote to Henry
+Miller on April 29th, a few days before he went aboard the</i> Lusitania.
+<i>He had not written to Miller for a year, yet this is what he said:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Henry: I am going to London Saturday A.M. I want to say
+good-by to you with this&mdash;and tell you how glad I am you've had a
+good season.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 60%;">Affectionately,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 80%;">C. F.</span><br />
+</p></div>
+
+<p>Miller was immensely touched by this communication. He wired to his son
+Gilbert to find out what steamer Frohman was taking, and send him a
+wireless. This message was probably the last ever received by Frohman,
+for no other similar telegram was sent him in care of the <i>Lusitania</i>.</p>
+
+<p><i>The last letter written by Frohman, before leaving the Hotel
+Knickerbocker on the morning the</i> Lusitania <i>sailed, was to his intimate
+friend and companion Paul Potter. Potter, who had telephoned that he
+expected to meet him at the steamer, was much depressed, which explains
+one of the sentences in Frohman's letter:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="r">Saturday <span class="smcap">A.M., May 1, 1915.</span></p>
+
+<p>Dear Paul: We had a fine time this winter. I hope all will go well
+with you. And I think luck is coming to you. I hope another
+"Trilby." It's fine of you to come to the steamer with all these
+dark, sad conditions.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 80%;">C. F.</span></p></div>
+
+<p>On his way to the <i>Lusitania</i> Frohman stopped for a moment at his office
+in the Empire Theater. There he dictated a note to Porter Emerson
+Browne, the playwright. It was his last dictation. The note merely said,
+"Good-by. Keep me posted." He referred to a new play that Browne was
+writing for him.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="Appendix_B" id="Appendix_B"></a><i>Appendix B</i></h3>
+
+<p class="head">COMPLETE CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE FROHMAN PRODUCTIONS</p>
+
+<p class="n"><span class="ll">A</span> <span class="smcap">ltogether</span>
+Charles Frohman produced more than five hundred plays&mdash;a
+greater number than any other manager of his time. The list of his
+productions, therefore, is really a large part of the record of the
+English-speaking stage during the last quarter of a century.</p>
+
+<p>In the list which follows, the name of the star or stars appear
+immediately after the title of the piece. Except when otherwise
+indicated, the theater mentioned is in New York.</p>
+
+<p>Here is the complete list of Frohman's productions in chronological
+order:</p>
+
+
+<table summary="productions" cellspacing="5" cellpadding="0">
+<tr><td colspan="3" align="center">&nbsp;<br /><span class="letter4">I</span></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td colspan="3" align="center" class="smcaps">PRODUCTIONS IN AMERICA</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1883</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class="smcaps">
+<td>&nbsp; &nbsp; PLAY</td>
+<td>&nbsp; &nbsp; DATE</td>
+<td>THEATER</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Stranglers of Paris</i></td>
+<td>November 12</td>
+<td>New Park</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1884</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Pulse of New York</i></td>
+<td>May 10</td>
+<td>Star</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Caprice</i> (Minnie Maddern)</td>
+<td>November 6</td>
+<td>Indianapolis</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="date" colspan="3">1885</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Victor Durand</i></td><td colspan="2" align="center" style="white-space:nowrap;">Road tour with Wallack's Theater Co.</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Moths</i></td><td colspan="2" align="center">"</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Lady Clare</i></td><td colspan="2" align="center">"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Diplomacy</i></td><td colspan="2" align="center">"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>La Belle Russe</i></td><td colspan="2" align="center">"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The World</i></td><td colspan="2" align="center">"</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1886</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Golden Giant</i></td>
+<td>April 11</td>
+<td>Fifth Avenue</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(McKee Rankin)</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Toy Pistol</i> (Tony Hart)</td>
+<td>February 20</td>
+<td>New York Comedy</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Wall Street Bandit</i></td>
+<td>September 20</td>
+<td>Standard</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Daughter of Ireland</i></td>
+<td>October 18</td>
+<td>Standard (Georgia Cayvan)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Jilt</i> (Dion Boucicault)</td>
+<td>October 29</td>
+<td>Standard</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1887</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Baron Rudolph</i></td>
+<td>October 24</td>
+<td>Fourteenth Street</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>She</i></td>
+<td>November 29</td>
+<td>Niblo's Garden</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1888</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Held by the Enemy</i></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Road tour</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1889</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Shenandoah</i></td>
+<td>September 9</td>
+<td>Star</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1890</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Private Secretary</i></td>
+<td>August 26</td>
+<td>Grand Opera House</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>All the Comforts of Home</i></td>
+<td>September 8</td>
+<td>Proctor's 23d Street</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Men and Women</i></td>
+<td>October 20</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1891</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Mr. Wilkinson's Widows</i></td>
+<td>March 30</td>
+<td>Proctor's 23d Street</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Diplomacy</i></td>
+<td>June 12</td>
+<td>Los Angeles, Cal.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Jane</i></td>
+<td>August 3</td>
+<td>Madison Square</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Solicitor (Henry E. Dixey)</i></td>
+<td>September 8</td>
+<td>Hermann's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Thermidor</i></td>
+<td>October 12</td>
+<td>Proctor's 23d Street</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Man with a Hundred Heads</i></td>
+<td>November 2</td>
+<td>Hermann's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Henry E. Dixey)</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Miss Helyett</i> (Mrs. Leslie Carter)</td>
+<td>November 3</td>
+<td>Star</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Lost Paradise</i></td>
+<td>November 16</td>
+<td>Proctor's 23d Street</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Junior Partner</i></td>
+<td>December 8</td>
+<td>Hermann's</td>
+</tr>
+
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1892</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Glorianna</i></td>
+<td>February 15</td>
+<td>Hermann's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Settled Out of Court</i></td>
+<td>August 8</td>
+<td>Hermann's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Masked Ball</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>October 3</td>
+<td>Palmer's</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1893</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Girl I Left Behind Me</i></td>
+<td>January 25</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Ninety Days</i></td>
+<td>February 6</td>
+<td>Broadway</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Liberty Hall</i></td>
+<td>August 21</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Fanny</i></td>
+<td>September 4</td>
+<td>Standard</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Other Man</i></td>
+<td>September 4</td>
+<td>Garden</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Lady Windermere's Fan</i></td>
+<td>October</td>
+<td>Road tour</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Charley's Aunt</i></td>
+<td>October 2</td>
+<td>Standard</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Younger Son</i></td>
+<td>October 20</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Councillor's Wife</i></td>
+<td>November 6</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Aristocracy</i></td>
+<td>November 14</td>
+<td>Palmer's</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1894</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Sowing the Wind</i></td>
+<td>January 2</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Poor Girls</i></td>
+<td>January 22</td>
+<td>American</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Butterflies</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>February 5</td>
+<td>Palmer's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr valign="top">
+<td><i>Gudgeons</i> and<br />
+<i>The Luck of Roaring Camp</i></td>
+<td>May 14</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Bauble Shop</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>September 11</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The New Boy</i></td>
+<td>September 17</td>
+<td>Standard</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Too Much Johnson</i></td>
+<td>November 26</td>
+<td>Standard</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Masqueraders</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>December 3</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Fatal Card</i></td>
+<td>December 31</td>
+<td>Palmer's</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1895</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Foundling</i></td>
+<td>February 25</td>
+<td>Hoyt's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>John A'Dreams</i></td>
+<td>March 18</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Importance of Being Earnest</i></td>
+<td>April 22</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Sporting Duchess</i></td>
+<td>August 29</td>
+<td>Academy of Music</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The City of Pleasure</i></td>
+<td>September 2</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>That Imprudent Young Couple</i></td>
+<td>September 22</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(John Drew)</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Gay Parisians</i></td>
+<td>September 23</td>
+<td>Hoyt's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Christopher Jr.</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>October 7</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Denise</i> (Olga Nethersole)</td>
+<td>December 2</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Frou Frou</i> (Olga Nethersole)</td>
+<td>December 5</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Camille</i> (Olga Nethersole)</td>
+<td>December 9</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Carmen</i> (Olga Nethersole)</td>
+<td>December 24</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1896</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Michael and His Lost Angel</i></td>
+<td>January 15</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Squire of Dames</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>January 20</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Woman's Reason</i></td>
+<td>January 27</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Social Highwayman</i></td>
+<td>February 3</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(E. M. and Joseph Holland)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Marriage</i></td>
+<td>February 17</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Bohemia</i></td>
+<td>March 9</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Thoroughbred</i></td>
+<td>April 20</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Rosemary</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>August 31</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Liars</i></td>
+<td>September 7</td>
+<td>Hoyt's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Albert Chevalier</i></td>
+<td>September 7</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Sue</i> (Annie Russell)</td>
+<td>September 15</td>
+<td>Hoyt's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Secret Service</i></td>
+<td>October 5</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Honors Are Easy</i></td>
+<td>November 9</td>
+<td>Montauk, Brooklyn</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Two Little Vagrants</i></td>
+<td>November 23</td>
+<td>Academy of Music</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Under the Red Robe</i></td>
+<td>December 28</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1897</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Heartsease</i> (Henry Miller)</td>
+<td>January 11</td>
+<td>Garden</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Spiritissime</i></td>
+<td>February 22</td>
+<td>Knickerbocker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Never Again</i></td>
+<td>March 8</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Courted Into Court</i></td>
+<td>August 30</td>
+<td>Newark, N. J.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Little Minister</i> (Maude Adams)</td>
+<td>September 27</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Proper Caper</i></td>
+<td>October 4</td>
+<td>Hoyt's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The First Born</i> and <i>A Night Session</i></td>
+<td>October 5</td>
+<td>Manhattan</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Marriage of Convenience</i></td>
+<td>November 8</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(John Drew)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The White Heather</i></td>
+<td>November 22</td>
+<td>Academy of Music</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1898</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Salt of the Earth</i></td>
+<td>January 3</td>
+<td>Wallack's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Conquerors</i></td>
+<td>January 4</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Circus Girl</i></td>
+<td>January 17</td>
+<td>Columbia, Brooklyn</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Oh, Susannah</i></td>
+<td>February 7</td>
+<td>Hoyt's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>One Summer's Day</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>February 14</td>
+<td>Wallack's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Master</i> (Henry Miller)</td>
+<td>February 15</td>
+<td>Garden</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Little Miss Nobody</i></td>
+<td>September 5</td>
+<td>Philadelphia</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Brace of Partridges</i></td>
+<td>September 7</td>
+<td>Madison Square</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Countess Valeska</i></td>
+<td>September 26</td>
+<td>Troy, N. Y.</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Julia Marlowe)</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>On and Off</i></td>
+<td>October 17</td>
+<td>Madison Square</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Catherine</i> (Annie Russell)</td>
+<td>October 24</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>As You Like It</i> (Julia Marlowe)</td>
+<td>November 7</td>
+<td>Omaha, Nebraska</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Phroso</i></td>
+<td>December 26</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Ingomar</i> (Julia Marlowe)</td>
+<td>December 26</td>
+<td>Indianapolis</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1899</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Because She Loved Him So</i></td>
+<td>January 16</td>
+<td>Madison Square</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Her Atonement</i></td>
+<td>February 13</td>
+<td>Academy of Music</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Lord and Lady Algy</i></td>
+<td>February 14</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Cuckoo</i></td>
+<td>April 3</td>
+<td>Wallack's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Colinette</i> (Julia Marlowe)</td>
+<td>April 10</td>
+<td>Knickerbocker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Romeo and Juliet</i> (Maude Adams)</td>
+<td>May 8</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>His Excellency the Governor</i></td>
+<td>May 22</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Hamlet</i> (Henry Miller)</td>
+<td>August 1</td>
+<td>San Francisco</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Girl from Maxim's</i></td>
+<td>August 29</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Miss Hobbs</i> (Annie Russell)</td>
+<td>September 7</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Tyranny of Tears</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>September 11</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Only Way</i> (Henry Miller)</td>
+<td>September 16</td>
+<td>Herald Square</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Barbara Fritchie</i> (Julia Marlowe)</td>
+<td>October 23</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Sherlock Holmes</i></td>
+<td>November 6</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(William Gillette)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Make Way for the Ladies</i></td>
+<td>November 13</td>
+<td>Madison Square</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>My Lady's Lord</i></td>
+<td>December 25</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1900</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Brother Officers</i></td>
+<td>January 15</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Surprises of Love</i></td>
+<td>January 22</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Coralie &amp; Co., Dressmakers</i></td>
+<td>February 5</td>
+<td>Madison Square</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Hearts Are Trumps</i></td>
+<td>February 21</td>
+<td>Garden</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>My Daughter-in-Law</i></td>
+<td>February 26</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Man and His Wife</i> and <i>The Bugle Call</i></td>
+<td>April 2</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Tree of Knowledge</i></td>
+<td>July 2</td>
+<td>San Francisco</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Henry Miller)</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Royal Family</i> (Annie Russell)</td>
+<td>September 5</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Rose of Persia</i></td>
+<td>September 6</td>
+<td>Daly's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Husband of Leontine</i></td>
+<td>September 8</td>
+<td>Madison Square</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Richard Carvel</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>September 11</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>David Harum</i> (W. H. Crane)</td>
+<td>October 1</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Self and Lady</i></td>
+<td>October 8</td>
+<td>Madison Square</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>L'Aiglon</i> (Maude Adams)</td>
+<td>October 22</td>
+<td>Knickerbocker</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1901</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Mrs. Dane's Defense</i></td>
+<td>January 7</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Girl from Up There</i></td>
+<td>January 8</td>
+<td>Herald Square</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Edna May)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>My Lady Dainty</i></td>
+<td>January 8</td>
+<td>Madison Square</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Herbert Kelcey and Effie Shannon)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Captain Jinks</i> (Ethel Barrymore)</td>
+<td>February 4</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Under Two Flags</i></td>
+<td>February 5</td>
+<td>Garden</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Lash of a Whip</i></td>
+<td>February 25</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>To Have and To Hold</i></td>
+<td>March 4</td>
+<td>Knickerbocker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Manon Lescaut</i></td>
+<td>March 19</td>
+<td>Wallack's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Kelcey and Shannon)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Are You a Mason?</i></td>
+<td>April 1</td>
+<td>Wallack's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Royal Rival</i></td>
+<td>August 26</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(William Faversham)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Second in Command</i></td>
+<td>September 2</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(John Drew)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Message from Mars</i></td>
+<td>October 7</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Charles Hawtrey)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Eben Holden</i></td>
+<td>October 28</td>
+<td>Savoy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Quality Street</i> (Maude Adams)</td>
+<td>November 11</td>
+<td>Knickerbocker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Alice of Old Vincennes</i></td>
+<td>December 2</td>
+<td>Garden</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Virginia Harned)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Girl and the Judge</i></td>
+<td>December 4</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Annie Russell)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Wilderness</i></td>
+<td>December 23</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Sweet and Twenty</i></td>
+<td>December 30</td>
+<td>Madison Square</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1902</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Colorado</i></td>
+<td>January 12</td>
+<td>Grand Opera House</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Twin Sister</i></td>
+<td>March 3</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Sky Farm</i></td>
+<td>March 17</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The New Clown</i></td>
+<td>August 25</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Mummy and the Humming-Bird</i></td>
+<td>September 4</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(John Drew)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>There's Many a Slip</i></td>
+<td>September 15</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Aunt Jeanne</i></td>
+<td>September 16</td>
+<td>Garden</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Mrs. Patrick Campbell)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Iris</i> (Virginia Harned)</td>
+<td>September 22</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Two Schools</i></td>
+<td>September 29</td>
+<td>Madison Square</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Second Mrs. Tanqueray</i></td>
+<td>October 6</td>
+<td>Garden</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Mrs. Patrick Campbell)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Country Mouse</i> and</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Carrots</i></td>
+<td>October 6</td>
+<td>Savoy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Ethel Barrymore)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Everyman</i></td>
+<td>October 12</td>
+<td>Mendelssohn Hall</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Edith Wynne Mathison and Charles Rann Kennedy)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Joy of Living</i></td>
+<td>October 23</td>
+<td>Garden</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Mrs. Patrick Campbell)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Imprudence</i> (William Faversham)</td>
+<td>November 7</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Girl with the Green Eyes</i></td>
+<td>December 25</td>
+<td>Savoy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Clara Bloodgood)</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1903</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Bird in the Cage</i></td>
+<td>January 12</td>
+<td>Bijou</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Unforeseen</i></td>
+<td>January 12</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Mice and Men</i> (Annie Russell)</td>
+<td>January 19</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Three Little Maids</i> (G. P. Huntley)</td>
+<td>August 31</td>
+<td>Daly's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Ulysses</i></td>
+<td>September 14</td>
+<td>Garden</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Drink</i> (Charles Warner)</td>
+<td>September 14</td>
+<td>Academy of Music</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Man from Blankley's</i></td>
+<td>September 14</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Charles Hawtrey)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Captain Dieppe</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>September 14</td>
+<td>Herald Square</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Lady Rose's Daughter</i></td>
+<td>September 24</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Fay Davis)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Spenders</i> (W. H. Crane)</td>
+<td>October 5</td>
+<td>Savoy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Best of Friends</i></td>
+<td>October 19</td>
+<td>Academy of Music</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Cousin Kate</i> (Ethel Barrymore)</td>
+<td>October 19</td>
+<td>Hudson</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Charlotte Wiehe</i> (French Players)</td>
+<td>October 21</td>
+<td>Vaudeville</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Girl from Kay's</i></td>
+<td>November 2</td>
+<td>Herald Square</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Sam Bernard)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Pretty Sister of José</i></td>
+<td>November 9</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Maude Adams)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Admirable Crichton</i> November 16</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(William Gillette)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Elizabeth's Prisoner</i></td>
+<td>November 23</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(William Faversham)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Whitewashing Julia</i></td>
+<td>December 2</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Fay Davis)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Other Girl</i></td>
+<td>December 23</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Glad of It</i> (Millie James)</td>
+<td>December 28</td>
+<td>Savoy</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1904</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>My Lady Molly</i> (Andrew Mack)</td>
+<td>January 4</td>
+<td>Daly's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Light that Lies in Woman's Eyes</i> (Virginia Harned)</td>
+<td>January 25</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Younger Mrs. Parling</i></td>
+<td>January 25</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Annie Russell)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Man Proposes</i> (Henry Miller)</td>
+<td>March 14</td>
+<td>Hudson</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Dictator</i> (William Collier)</td>
+<td>April 4</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Saucy Sally</i> (Charles Hawtrey)</td>
+<td>April 4</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Camille</i></td>
+<td>April 18</td>
+<td>Hudson</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Margaret Anglin and Henry Miller)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>When Knighthood Was in Flower</i></td>
+<td>May 2</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Julia Marlowe)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Yvette</i> (Hattie Williams)</td>
+<td>May 12</td>
+<td>Knickerbocker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Ben Greet Players</i></td>
+<td>October 5</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The School Girl</i> (Edna May)</td>
+<td>September 1</td>
+<td>Daly's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Duke of Killiecrankie</i></td>
+<td>September 5</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(John Drew)</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Letty</i> (William Faversham)</td>
+<td>September 12</td>
+<td>Hudson</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Business is Business</i></td>
+<td>September 19</td>
+<td>Hudson</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(W. H. Crane)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Coronet of the Duchess</i></td>
+<td>September 21</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Clara Bloodgood)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Sorceress</i></td>
+<td>October 10</td>
+<td>New Amsterdam</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Mrs. Patrick Campbell)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Joseph Entangled</i> (Henry Miller)</td>
+<td>October 10</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Shakespearian Repertory</i></td>
+<td>October 17</td>
+<td>Knickerbocker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Julia Marlowe and E. H. Sothern)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Granny</i> (Mrs. G. H. Gilbert)</td>
+<td>October 24</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>David Garrick</i></td>
+<td>November 14</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Charles Wyndham)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Rich Mrs. Repton</i></td>
+<td>November 14</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Fay Davis)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Sunday</i> (Ethel Barrymore)</td>
+<td>November 14</td>
+<td>Hudson</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Brother Jacques</i> (Annie Russell)</td>
+<td>December 5</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Mrs. Goringe's Necklace</i></td>
+<td>December 12</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Charles Wyndham)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Wife Without a Smile</i></td>
+<td>December 19</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Margaret Illington)</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1905</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Cousin Billy</i> (Francis Wilson)</td>
+<td>January 2</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Case of Rebellious Susan</i></td>
+<td>January 9</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Charles Wyndham)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Mrs. Leffingwell's Boots</i></td>
+<td>January 11</td>
+<td>Savoy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Friquet</i> (Marie Doro)</td>
+<td>January 30</td>
+<td>Savoy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>'Op o' My Thumb</i></td>
+<td>February 6</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Maude Adams)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Jinny the Carrier</i> (Annie Russell)</td>
+<td>April 10</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Freedom of Suzanne</i></td>
+<td>April 17</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Marie Tempest)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Rollicking Girl</i></td>
+<td>May 1</td>
+<td>Herald Square</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Sam Bernard)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Doll's House</i></td>
+<td>May 2</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Ethel Barrymore)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Catch of the Season</i></td>
+<td>August 28</td>
+<td>Daly's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Edna May)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>De Lancey</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>September 4</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Beauty and the Barge</i></td>
+<td>September 6</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Nat C. Goodwin)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Just Out of College</i></td>
+<td>September 27</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Joseph Wheelock)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Shakespearian Repertory</i></td>
+<td>October 16</td>
+<td>Knickerbocker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Julia Marlowe and E. H. Sothern)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Wolfville</i> (Nat C. Goodwin)</td>
+<td>October 20</td>
+<td>Philadelphia</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Peter Pan</i> (Maude Adams)</td>
+<td>November 6</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>On the Quiet</i> (William Collier)</td>
+<td>November 27</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>La Belle Marseillaise</i></td>
+<td>November 27</td>
+<td>Knickerbocker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Virginia Harned)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Alice Sit By the Fire</i> and</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Pantaloon</i></td>
+<td>December 25</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Ethel Barrymore)</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1906</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Mispah</i></td>
+<td>January 22</td>
+<td>Baltimore</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Duel</i> (Otis Skinner)</td>
+<td>February 12</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Mountain Climber</i></td>
+<td>March 5</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Francis Wilson)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The American Lord</i> (W. H. Crane)</td>
+<td>April 16</td>
+<td>Hudson</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Little Father of the Wilderness</i></td>
+<td>April 16</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Francis Wilson)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Little Cherub</i></td>
+<td>August 6</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Hattie Williams)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Price of Money</i></td>
+<td>August 29</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(W. H. Crane)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Hypocrites</i></td>
+<td>August 30</td>
+<td>Hudson</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Doris Keane and Richard Bennett)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Judge and Jury</i></td>
+<td>September 1</td>
+<td>Wallack's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>His House in Order</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>September 3</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Clarice</i> (William Gillette)</td>
+<td>October 15</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The House of Mirth</i> (Fay Davis)</td>
+<td>October 22</td>
+<td>Savoy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(William Collier)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Rich Mr. Hoggenheimer</i></td>
+<td>October 22</td>
+<td>Wallack's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Sam Bernard)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Caught in the Rain</i></td>
+<td>December 31</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1907</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Truth</i> (Clara Bloodgood)</td>
+<td>January 7</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Captain Brassbound's Conversion</i></td>
+<td>January 28</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Ellen Terry)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Good Hope and Nance Oldfield</i></td>
+<td>February 11</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Ellen Terry)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Silver Box</i> (Ethel Barrymore)</td>
+<td>March 18</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>When Knights Were Bold</i></td>
+<td>August 20</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Francis Wilson)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Dairymaids</i></td>
+<td>August 26</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Julia Sanderson and G. P. Huntley)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>My Wife</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>August 31</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Thief</i></td>
+<td>September 9 ... Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Margaret Illington and Kyrle Bellew)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Morals of Marcus</i></td>
+<td>November 18</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Marie Doro)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Toymaker of Nuremberg</i></td>
+<td>November 25</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Her Sister</i> (Ethel Barrymore)</td>
+<td>December 25</td>
+<td>Hudson</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Miss Hook of Holland</i></td>
+<td>December 31</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Thomas Wise)</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1908</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Jesters</i> (Maude Adams)</td>
+<td>January 13</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Twenty Days in the Shade</i></td>
+<td>January 20</td>
+<td>Savoy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Pauline Frederick and Richard Bennett)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Honor of the Family</i></td>
+<td>February 17</td>
+<td>Hudson</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Otis Skinner)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Irish Players</i></td>
+<td>February 17</td>
+<td>Savoy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Father and the Boys</i> (W. H. Crane)</td>
+<td>March 2</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Toddles</i> (John Barrymore)</td>
+<td>March 16</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Love Watches</i> (Billie Burke)</td>
+<td>August 27</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Mollusc</i></td>
+<td>September 2</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Alexandra Carlisle and Joseph Coyne)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Girls of Gottenberg</i></td>
+<td>September 2</td>
+<td>Knickerbocker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Gertie Millar)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Diana of Bobson's</i></td>
+<td>September 5</td>
+<td>Savoy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Carlotta Nilsson)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Fluffy Ruffles</i> (Hattie Williams)</td>
+<td>September 7</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Jack Straw</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>September 14</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Miss Hook of Holland</i></td>
+<td>October 2</td>
+<td>Albany</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Frank Daniels)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Samson</i> (William Gillette)</td>
+<td>October 19</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Lady Frederick</i> (Ethel Barrymore)</td>
+<td>November 9</td>
+<td>Hudson</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Patriot</i> (William Collier)</td>
+<td>November 23</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>The Sicilian Players</td>
+<td>November 23</td>
+<td>Broadway</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>What Every Woman Knows</i></td>
+<td>December 23</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Maude Adams)</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1909</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Kitty Grey</i> (G. P. Huntley)</td>
+<td>January 25</td>
+<td>New Amsterdam</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Richest Girl</i> (Marie Doro)</td>
+<td>March 1</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>An Englishman's Home</i></td>
+<td>March 23</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Happy Marriage</i></td>
+<td>April 12</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Doris Keane and Edwin Arden)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Mollusc</i></td>
+<td>June 7</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Sir Charles Wyndham and Mary Moore)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Isadora Duncan in Classical Dances</td>
+<td>August 18</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Detective Sparkes</i></td>
+<td>August 23</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Hattie Williams)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Arsène Lupin</i> (William Courtnay)</td>
+<td>August 26</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Flag Lieutenant</i></td>
+<td>August 30</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Bruce McRae)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Dollar Princess</i></td>
+<td>September 6</td>
+<td>Knickerbocker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Donald Brian)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Inconstant George</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>September 20</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Samson</i> (James K. Hackett)</td>
+<td>October 1</td>
+<td>Atlantic City</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Harvest Moon</i> (George Nash)</td>
+<td>October 15</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Israel</i> (Constance Collier)</td>
+<td>October 25</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Builder of Bridges</i></td>
+<td>October 26</td>
+<td>Hudson</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Kyrle Bellew)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Penelope</i> (Marie Tempest)</td>
+<td>December 13</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Bachelor's Baby</i></td>
+<td>December 27</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Francis Wilson)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Fires of Fate</i></td>
+<td>December 28</td>
+<td>Liberty</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1910</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Your Humble Servant</i></td>
+<td>January 3</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Otis Skinner)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Arcadians</i> (Julia Sanderson)</td>
+<td>January 17</td>
+<td>Liberty</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Lucky Star</i> (William Collier)</td>
+<td>January 18</td>
+<td>Hudson</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Mrs. Dot</i> (Billie Burke)</td>
+<td>January 24</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Mid-Channel</i> (Ethel Barrymore)</td>
+<td>January 31</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Caste</i></td>
+<td>April 25</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Marie Tempest, Elsie Ferguson, G. P. Huntley, Edwin Arden)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Love Among the Lions</i></td>
+<td>August 8</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(A. E. Matthews)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Brass Bottle</i></td>
+<td>August 11</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Our Miss Gibbs</i> (Pauline Chase)</td>
+<td>August 29</td>
+<td>Knickerbocker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Smith</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>September 5</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Decorating Clementine</i></td>
+<td>September 19</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Hattie Williams and G. P. Huntley)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Thief in the Night</i></td>
+<td>September 30</td>
+<td>Atlantic City</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Marie Tempest)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Scandal</i> (Kyrle Bellew)</td>
+<td>October 17</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Electricity</i> (Marie Doro)</td>
+<td>October 31</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Raffles</i> (Kyrle Bellew)</td>
+<td>November 1</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Speckled Band</i></td>
+<td>November 21</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Edwin Stevens)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Foolish Virgin</i></td>
+<td>December 19</td>
+<td>Knickerbocker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Mrs. Patrick Campbell)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Suzanne</i> (Billie Burke)</td>
+<td>December 26</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>United States Minister Bedloe</i></td>
+<td>December 28</td>
+<td>Trenton, N. J.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(W. H. Crane)</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1911</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Philosopher in the Apple Orchard</i> (Billie Burke)</td>
+<td>January 20</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Chantecler</i> (Maude Adams)</td>
+<td>January 23</td>
+<td>Knickerbocker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Sire</i> (Otis Skinner)</td>
+<td>January 24</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Twelve-Pound Look</i></td>
+<td>February 13</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Ethel Barrymore)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Zebra</i></td>
+<td>February 13</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>William Gillette in Repertory</td>
+<td>March 13</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Siren</i> (Donald Brian)</td>
+<td>August 28</td>
+<td>Knickerbocker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Single Man</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>September 4</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Mollusc</i> (Kyrle Bellew)</td>
+<td>September 11</td>
+<td>Buffalo</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Passers-By</i> (Richard Bennett)</td>
+<td>September 14</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Other Mary</i></td>
+<td>September 21</td>
+<td>Utica</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Madame Nazimova)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Runaway</i> (Billie Burke)</td>
+<td>October 9</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Butterfly on the Wheel</i></td>
+<td>October 26</td>
+<td>Atlantic City</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Marie Doro)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Marionettes</i></td>
+<td>December 3</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Madame Nazimova)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Witness for the Defense</i></td>
+<td>December 4</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Ethel Barrymore)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Kismet</i>--with Klaw &amp; Erlanger</td>
+<td>December 25</td>
+<td>Knickerbocker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Otis Skinner)</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1912</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Slice of Life</i></td>
+<td>January 29</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Ethel Barrymore, Hattie Williams, and John Barrymore)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Lady Patricia</i> (Mrs. Fiske)</td>
+<td>February 26</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Preserving Mr. Panmure</i></td>
+<td>February 27</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Gertrude Elliott)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Oliver Twist</i></td>
+<td>March 25</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td colspan="3" align="left">(Nat C. Goodwin, Marie Doro, Constance Collier, and Lyn Harding)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Girl from Montmartre</i></td>
+<td>August 5</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Hattie Williams and Richard Carle)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Model</i> (William Courtleigh)</td>
+<td>August 31</td>
+<td>Harris</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Perplexed Husband</i></td>
+<td>September 2</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(John Drew)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Mind the Paint Girl</i> (Billie Burke)</td>
+<td>September 9</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Passers-by</i> (Charles Cherry)</td>
+<td>September 19</td>
+<td>Utica</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Attack</i> (John Mason)</td>
+<td>September 23</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Bella Donna</i> (Madame Nazimova)</td>
+<td>November 11</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Conspiracy</i> (John Emerson)</td>
+<td>December 23</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1913</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Spy</i> (Edith Wynne Mathison)</td>
+<td>January 13</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The New Secretary</i></td>
+<td>January 27</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Marie Doro and Charles Cherry)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Sunshine Girl</i></td>
+<td>February 3</td>
+<td>Knickerbocker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Julia Sanderson)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Liberty Hall</i> (John Mason)</td>
+<td>March 11</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Witness for the Defense</i></td>
+<td>March 27</td>
+<td>Poughkeepsie, N. Y.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Blanche Bates)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Amazons</i> (Billie Burke)</td>
+<td>April 28</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Doll Girl</i></td>
+<td>August 23</td>
+<td>Globe</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Hattie Williams and Richard Carle)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Much Ado About Nothing</i></td>
+<td>September 1</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(John Drew)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Who's Who?</i> (William Collier)</td>
+<td>September 15</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Marriage Market</i></td>
+<td>September 22</td>
+<td>Knickerbocker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Donald Brian)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Will</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>September 29</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Tyranny of Tears</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>September 29</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Younger Generation</i></td>
+<td>September 29</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Half an Hour</i> (Grace George)</td>
+<td>September 29</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Dramatists Get What They Want</i></td>
+<td>October 12</td>
+<td>Globe</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Williams and Carle)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Indian Summer</i> (John Mason)</td>
+<td>October 27</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Tante</i> (Ethel Barrymore)</td>
+<td>October 28</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Land of Promise</i> (Billie Burke)</td>
+<td>December 25</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1914</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Little Water on the Side</i></td>
+<td>January 5</td>
+<td>Hudson</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(William Collier)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Legend of Leonora</i></td>
+<td>January 5</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Maude Adams)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Half an Hour</i> (Blanche Bates)</td>
+<td>January 25</td>
+<td>Vaudeville</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Laughing Husband</i></td>
+<td>February 2</td>
+<td>Knickerbocker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Curtice Pounds)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Jerry</i> (Billie Burke)</td>
+<td>March 30</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Scrap of Paper</i></td>
+<td>May 11</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Ethel Barrymore and John Drew)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Girl from Utah</i></td>
+<td>August 24</td>
+<td>Knickerbocker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Julia Sanderson, Donald Brian, and Joseph Cawthorn)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Slice of Life</i></td>
+<td>September 6</td>
+<td>Vaudeville</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Richard Carle and Hattie Williams)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Prodigal Husband</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>September 7</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Beautiful Adventure</i></td>
+<td>September 7</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Charles Cherry, Ann Murdock, and Mrs. Thomas Whiffen)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Heart of a Thief</i></td>
+<td>October 5</td>
+<td>Hudson</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Martha Hedman)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Rosalind</i> (Maude Adams)</td>
+<td>October 12</td>
+<td>Syracuse</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Diplomacy</i></td>
+<td>October 19</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(William Gillette, Blanche Bates, and Marie Doro)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Ladies' Shakespeare</i></td>
+<td>October 26</td>
+<td>Hamilton, Ont.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Maude Adams)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Song of Songs</i></td>
+<td>October 29</td>
+<td>Atlantic City</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Outcast</i>--with Klaw &amp; Erlanger</td>
+<td>November 2</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Elsie Ferguson)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Driven</i> (Alexandra Carlisle)</td>
+<td>December 14</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Silent Voice</i> (Otis Skinner)</td>
+<td>December 29</td>
+<td>Liberty</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1915</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Rosemary</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>January 11</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Shadow</i> (Ethel Barrymore)</td>
+<td>January 25</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Girl of To-day</i> (Ann Murdock)</td>
+<td>February 8</td>
+<td>Washington</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Celebrated Case</i>--with David Belasco</td>
+<td>April 7</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Nat C. Goodwin, Ann Murdock,<br />
+Otis Skinner, Helen Ware, Florence Reed,<br />
+and Robert Warwick)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Hyphen</i></td>
+<td>April 19</td>
+<td>Knickerbocker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(W. H. Thompson and Gail Kane)</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td colspan="3" align="center">&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />The following productions were arranged by Charles Frohman before he
+sailed on the <i>Lusitania</i> and were staged, just as he planned them,
+after his death:
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1915</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Duke of Killiecrankie and Rosalind</i> (Marie Tempest)</td>
+<td>September 6</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Grumpy</i> (Cyril Maude)</td>
+<td>September 13</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Sherlock Holmes</i> (William Gillette)</td>
+<td>October 11</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Our Mrs. McChesney</i></td>
+<td>October 19</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Ethel Barrymore)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Secret Service</i> (William Gillette)</td>
+<td>November 8</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Chief</i> (John Drew)</td>
+<td>November 22</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Peter Pan</i> (Maude Adams)</td>
+<td>December 22</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Cock o' the Walk</i> (Otis Skinner)</td>
+<td>December 27</td>
+<td>Cohan</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1916</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Sibyl</i></td>
+<td>January 10</td>
+<td>Liberty</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Julia Sanderson, Donald Brian, and Joseph Cawthorn)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Little Minister</i></td>
+<td>January 11</td>
+<td>Empire</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Maude Adams)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Margaret Schiller</i>--with Klaw &amp; Erlanger--(Elsie Ferguson)</td>
+<td>January 31</td>
+<td>New Amsterdam</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Heart of Wetona</i>--with David Belasco</td>
+<td>February 29</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td colspan="3" align="center">&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br /><span class="letter4">II</span></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td colspan="3" align="center" class="smcaps">&nbsp;<br />PRODUCTIONS IN ENGLAND</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td colspan="3" align="center">&nbsp;<br />The following is the complete list of productions made by Charles
+Frohman in England, either alone or in collaboration with other
+managers, such as the Gattis, George Edwardes, Seymour Hicks, Sir
+Charles Wyndham, David Belasco, and Arthur Bourchier:</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1892</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class="smcaps">
+<td>&nbsp; &nbsp; PLAY</td>
+<td>&nbsp; &nbsp; DATE</td>
+<td>THEATER</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Lost Paradise</i></td>
+<td>December 22</td>
+<td>Adelphi</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1896</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Night Out</i></td>
+<td>April 29</td>
+<td>Vaudeville</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1897</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>My Friend the Prince</i></td>
+<td>February 13</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Secret Service</i> (William Gillette)</td>
+<td>May 15</td>
+<td>Adelphi</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Never Again</i></td>
+<td>October 11</td>
+<td>Vaudeville</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1898</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Heart of Maryland</i></td>
+<td>April 8</td>
+<td>Adelphi</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="name" colspan="3">(Mrs. Leslie Carter)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Too Much Johnson</i></td>
+<td>April 19</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Sue</i></td>
+<td>June 10</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Adventures of Lady Ursula</i></td>
+<td>October 11</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>On and Off</i></td>
+<td>December 1</td>
+<td>Vaudeville</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1899</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>My Daughter-in-Law</i></td>
+<td>September 27</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Christian</i></td>
+<td>October 16</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Miss Hobbs</i></td>
+<td>December 18</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1900</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Masked Ball</i></td>
+<td>January 6</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Zaza</i> (Mrs. Leslie Carter)</td>
+<td>April 16</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Madame Butterfly</i></td>
+<td>April 28</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Kitty Grey</i></td>
+<td>September 7</td>
+<td>Apollo</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Self and Lady</i></td>
+<td>September 19</td>
+<td>Vaudeville</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Lackey's Carnival</i></td>
+<td>September 28</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Swashbuckler</i></td>
+<td>November 17</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Alice in Wonderland</i></td>
+<td>December 19</td>
+<td>Vaudeville</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1901</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Girl from Up There</i> (Edna May)</td>
+<td>April 23</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Sweet and Twenty</i></td>
+<td>April 24</td>
+<td>Vaudeville</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Sherlock Holmes</i></td>
+<td>September 9</td>
+<td>Lyceum</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Are You a Mason?</i></td>
+<td>September 12</td>
+<td>Shaftesbury</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Bluebell in Fairyland</i></td>
+<td>December 8</td>
+<td>Vaudeville</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1902</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Twin Sister</i></td>
+<td>January 1</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Girl from Maxim's</i></td>
+<td>March 20</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>All on Account of Eliza</i></td>
+<td>April 3</td>
+<td>Shaftesbury</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Three Little Maids</i> (Edna May)</td>
+<td>May 10</td>
+<td>Apollo</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Marriage of Kitty</i></td>
+<td>August 19</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Quality Street</i></td>
+<td>September 17</td>
+<td>Vaudeville</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1903</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The School Girl</i> (Edna May)</td>
+<td>May 9</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Billy's Little Love Affair</i></td>
+<td>September 2</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Little Mary</i></td>
+<td>September 24</td>
+<td>Wyndham's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Letty</i></td>
+<td>October 8</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Cherry Girl</i></td>
+<td>December 21</td>
+<td>Vaudeville</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Madame Sherry</i></td>
+<td>December 23</td>
+<td>Apollo</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1904</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Love in a Cottage</i></td>
+<td>January 27</td>
+<td>Terry's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Captain Dieppe</i></td>
+<td>February 15</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Duke of Killiecrankie</i></td>
+<td>January 20</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Rich Mrs. Repton</i></td>
+<td>April 20</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Cynthia</i></td>
+<td>May 16</td>
+<td>Wyndham's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Merely Mary Ann</i></td>
+<td>September 8</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Catch of the Season</i></td>
+<td>September 9</td>
+<td>Vaudeville</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Wife Without a Smile</i></td>
+<td>October 12</td>
+<td>Wyndham's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Freedom of Suzanne</i></td>
+<td>November 15</td>
+<td>Criterion</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Peter Pan</i></td>
+<td>December 27</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1905</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Lady of Leeds</i></td>
+<td>February 9</td>
+<td>Wyndham's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Alice Sit By The Fire</i></td>
+<td>April 5</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Leah Kleschna</i></td>
+<td>May 2</td>
+<td>New</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Dictator</i> (William Collier)</td>
+<td>May 3</td>
+<td>Comedy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Clarice</i></td>
+<td>September 13</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>On the Quiet</i> (William Collier)</td>
+<td>September 27</td>
+<td>Comedy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Mountain Climber</i></td>
+<td>November 21</td>
+<td>Comedy</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1906</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Alabaster Staircase</i></td>
+<td>February 21</td>
+<td>Comedy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>All of a Sudden Peggy</i></td>
+<td>February 27</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Beauty of Bath</i></td>
+<td>March 19</td>
+<td>Aldwych</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Punch and Josephine</i></td>
+<td>April 5</td>
+<td>Comedy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Belle of Mayfair</i> (Edna May)</td>
+<td>April 11</td>
+<td>Vaudeville</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Fascinating Mr. Vandervelt</i></td>
+<td>April 26</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Raffles</i></td>
+<td>May 12</td>
+<td>Comedy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Lion and the Mouse</i></td>
+<td>May 22</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Toddles</i></td>
+<td>December 3</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1907</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Nelly Neil</i> (Edna May)</td>
+<td>January 10</td>
+<td>Aldwych</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>My Darling</i></td>
+<td>March 2</td>
+<td>Hicks'</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Great Conspiracy</i></td>
+<td>March 4</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Truth</i></td>
+<td>April 6</td>
+<td>Comedy</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Brewster's Millions</i></td>
+<td>May 1</td>
+<td>Hicks'</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Hypocrites</i></td>
+<td>August 27</td>
+<td>Hicks'</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Barrier</i></td>
+<td>October 10</td>
+<td>Comedy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Miquette</i></td>
+<td>October 26</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Angela</i></td>
+<td>December 4</td>
+<td>Comedy</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1908</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Lady Barbarity</i></td>
+<td>February 27</td>
+<td>Comedy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Admirable Crichton</i></td>
+<td>March 2</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Waltz Dream</i></td>
+<td>March 7</td>
+<td>Hicks'</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Mrs. Dot</i></td>
+<td>April 27</td>
+<td>Comedy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>What Every Woman Knows</i></td>
+<td>September 3</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Paid in Full</i></td>
+<td>September 26</td>
+<td>Aldwych</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Sir Anthony</i></td>
+<td>November 28</td>
+<td>Wyndham's</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1909</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Penelope</i></td>
+<td>January 9</td>
+<td>Comedy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Samson</i></td>
+<td>February 3</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Dashing Little Duke</i></td>
+<td>February 17</td>
+<td>Hicks'</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Strife</i></td>
+<td>March 29</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Bevis</i></td>
+<td>April 1</td>
+<td>Haymarket</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Love Watches</i></td>
+<td>May 11</td>
+<td>Haymarket</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Arsène Lupin</i></td>
+<td>August 30</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Madame X</i></td>
+<td>September 1</td>
+<td>Globe</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Great Divide</i></td>
+<td>September 15</td>
+<td>Adelphi</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Smith</i></td>
+<td>September 30</td>
+<td>Comedy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Servant in the House</i></td>
+<td>October 25</td>
+<td>Adelphi</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Great Mrs. Alloway</i></td>
+<td>November 1</td>
+<td>Globe</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1910</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Justice</i></td>
+<td>February 21</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Misalliance</i></td>
+<td>February 23</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Tenth Man</i></td>
+<td>February 24</td>
+<td>Globe</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Old Friends</i></td>
+<td>March 1</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Sentimentalists</i></td>
+<td>March 1</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Madras House</i></td>
+<td>March 9</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Trelawney of the Wells</i></td>
+<td>April 5</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Twelve-Pound Look</i></td>
+<td>May 3</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Helena's Path</i></td>
+<td>May 3</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Parasites</i></td>
+<td>May 5</td>
+<td>Garrick</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Chains</i></td>
+<td>May 17</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Alias</i> Jimmy Valentine</td>
+<td>June 7</td>
+<td>Comedy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Slice of Life</i></td>
+<td>June 7</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Bolt from the Blue</i></td>
+<td>September 6</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>A Woman's Way</i></td>
+<td>September 14</td>
+<td>Comedy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Grace</i></td>
+<td>October 15</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Decorating Clementine</i></td>
+<td>November 28</td>
+<td>Globe</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1911</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Preserving Mr. Panmure</i></td>
+<td>January 19</td>
+<td>Comedy</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Loaves and Fishes</i></td>
+<td>February 24</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Concert</i></td>
+<td>August 28</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Dad</i></td>
+<td>November 4</td>
+<td>Playhouse</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1912</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Mind the Paint Girl</i></td>
+<td>February 17</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Amazons</i></td>
+<td>June 14</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Rosalind</i></td>
+<td>October 14</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Widow of Wasdale Head</i></td>
+<td>October 14</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Overruled</i></td>
+<td>October 14</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1913</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Adored One</i></td>
+<td>September 4</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Will</i></td>
+<td>September 4</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Years of Discretion</i></td>
+<td>September 8</td>
+<td>Globe</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1914</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Land of Promise</i></td>
+<td>February 28</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The Little Minister</i></td>
+<td>September 3</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class="date" colspan="3">1915</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Rosy Rapture</i></td>
+<td>March 22</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>The New Word</i></td>
+<td>March 22</td>
+<td>Duke of York's</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td colspan="3" align="center">&nbsp;<br /><span class="letter4">&nbsp;<br />III</span></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td colspan="3" align="center">&nbsp;<br />Charles Frohman's productions in Paris were these:</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Secret Service</i></td>
+<td>May 25, 1900</td>
+<td>Théâtre Renaissance</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Peter Pan</i></td>
+<td>June 1, 1909</td>
+<td>Vaudeville</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><i>Peter Pan</i></td>
+<td>June 2, 1910</td>
+<td>Vaudeville</td>
+</tr>
+
+</table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES FROHMAN: MANAGER AND MAN***</p>
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+</pre>
+</body>
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@@ -0,0 +1,15691 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Charles Frohman: Manager and Man, by Isaac
+Frederick Marcosson and Daniel Frohman, et al
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Charles Frohman: Manager and Man
+
+
+Author: Isaac Frederick Marcosson and Daniel Frohman
+
+
+
+Release Date: July 29, 2008  [eBook #26146]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES FROHMAN: MANAGER AND MAN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Robert Cicconetti, Chuck Greif, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 26146-h.htm or 26146-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/1/4/26146/26146-h/26146-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/1/4/26146/26146-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+CHARLES FROHMAN: MANAGER AND MAN
+
+by
+
+ISAAC F. MARCOSSON and DANIEL FROHMAN
+
+With an Appreciation by James M. Barrie
+
+Illustrated with Portraits
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York and London
+Harper & Brothers
+M.C.M.X.V.I
+
+Charles Frohman: Manager and Man
+Copyright, 1916, by Harper & Brothers
+Copyright, 1915, 1916, by
+International Magazine Company (Cosmopolitan Magazine)
+Printed in the United States of America
+Published October, 1916
+
+
+
+_To
+
+The Theater
+
+That Charles Frohman
+
+Loved and Served_
+
+_Nought I did in hate but all in honor!_
+
+HAMLET
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+       CHARLES FROHMAN: AN APPRECIATION
+
+    I. A CHILD AMID THE THEATER
+
+   II. EARLY HARDSHIPS ON THE ROAD
+
+  III. PICTURESQUE DAYS AS MINSTREL MANAGER
+
+   IV. IN THE NEW YORK THEATRICAL WHIRLPOOL
+
+    V. BOOKING-AGENT AND BROADWAY PRODUCER
+
+   VI. "SHENANDOAH" AND THE FIRST STOCK COMPANY
+
+  VII. JOHN DREW AND THE EMPIRE THEATER
+
+ VIII. MAUDE ADAMS AS STAR
+
+   IX. THE BIRTH OF THE SYNDICATE
+
+    X. THE RISE OF ETHEL BARRYMORE
+
+   XI. THE CONQUEST OF THE LONDON STAGE
+
+  XII. BARRIE AND THE ENGLISH FRIENDSHIPS
+
+ XIII. A GALAXY OF STARS
+
+  XIV. STAR-MAKING AND AUDIENCES
+
+   XV. PLAYS AND PLAYERS
+
+  XVI. "C. F." AT REHEARSALS
+
+ XVII. HUMOR AND ANECDOTE
+
+XVIII. THE MAN FROHMAN
+
+  XIX. "WHY FEAR DEATH?"
+
+       APPENDIX A--THE LETTERS OF CHARLES
+
+       APPENDIX B--COMPLETE CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE FROHMAN
+       PRODUCTIONS
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations
+
+
+CHARLES FROHMAN--Frontispiece
+
+VIOLA ALLEN
+
+WILLIAM GILLETTE
+
+JOHN DREW
+
+CLYDE FITCH
+
+HENRY ARTHUR JONES
+
+W. LESTOCQ
+
+CHARLES DILLINGHAM
+
+MAUDE ADAMS
+
+MAUDE ADAMS
+
+FRANCIS WILSON
+
+WILLIAM COLLIER
+
+MARGARET ANGLIN
+
+ANNIE RUSSELL
+
+WILLIAM FAVERSHAM
+
+HENRY MILLER
+
+WILLIAM H. CRANE
+
+AUGUSTUS THOMAS
+
+SIR ARTHUR WING PINERO
+
+ETHEL BARRYMORE
+
+JULIA MARLOWE
+
+E. H. SOTHERN
+
+ELSIE FERGUSON
+
+EDNA MAY
+
+BILLIE BURKE
+
+PAULINE CHASE
+
+JAMES M. BARRIE
+
+PAUL POTTER
+
+HADDON CHAMBERS
+
+OTIS SKINNER
+
+MARIE DORO
+
+JULIA SANDERSON
+
+ANN MURDOCK
+
+CHARLES FROHMAN AND DAVID BELASCO
+
+MARIE TEMPEST
+
+MME. NAZIMOVA
+
+CHARLES FROHMAN'S OFFICE IN THE EMPIRE THEATER
+
+CHARLES FROHMAN ON BOARD SHIP
+
+
+
+
+Charles Frohman: an Appreciation
+
+By James M. Barrie
+
+
+The man who never broke his word. There was a great deal more to him,
+but every one in any land who has had dealings with Charles Frohman will
+sign that.
+
+I would rather say a word of the qualities that to his friends were his
+great adornment than about his colossal enterprises or the energy with
+which he heaved them into being; his energy that was like a force of
+nature, so that if he had ever "retired" from the work he loved (a thing
+incredible) companies might have been formed, in the land so skilful at
+turning energy to practical account, for exploiting the vitality of this
+Niagara of a man. They could have lit a city with it.
+
+He loved his schemes. They were a succession of many-colored romances to
+him, and were issued to the world not without the accompaniment of the
+drum, but you would never find him saying anything of himself. He pushed
+them in front of him, always taking care that they were big enough to
+hide him. When they were able to stand alone he stole out in the dark to
+have a look at them, and then if unobserved his bosom swelled. I have
+never known any one more modest and no one quite so shy. Many actors
+have played for him for years and never spoken to him, have perhaps seen
+him dart up a side street because they were approaching. They may not
+have known that it was sheer shyness, but it was. I have seen him
+ordered out of his own theater by subordinates who did not know him, and
+he went cheerfully away. "Good men, these; they know their business,"
+was all his comment. Afterward he was shy of going back lest they should
+apologize.
+
+At one time he had several theaters here and was renting others, the
+while he had I know not how many in America; he was not always sure how
+many himself. Latterly the great competition at home left him no time to
+look after more than one in London. But only one anywhere seemed a
+little absurd to him. He once contemplated having a few theaters in
+Paris, but on discovering that French law forbids your having more than
+one he gave up the scheme in disgust.
+
+A sense of humor sat with him through every vicissitude like a faithful
+consort.
+
+"How is it going?" a French author cabled to him on the first night of a
+new play.
+
+"It has gone," he genially cabled back.
+
+Of a Scotch play of my own that he was about to produce in New York, I
+asked him what the Scotch would be like.
+
+"You wouldn't know it was Scotch," he replied, "but the American public
+will know."
+
+He was very dogged. I had only one quarrel with him, but it lasted all
+the sixteen years I knew him. He wanted me to be a playwright and I
+wanted to be a novelist. All those years I fought him on that. He always
+won, but not because of his doggedness; only because he was so lovable
+that one had to do as he wanted. He also threatened, if I stopped, to
+reproduce the old plays and print my name in large electric letters over
+the entrance of the theater.
+
+* * *
+
+A very distinguished actress under his management wanted to produce a
+play of mine of which he had no high opinion. He was in despair, as he
+had something much better for her. She was obdurate. He came to me for
+help, said nothing could move her unless I could. Would not I tell her
+what a bad play it was and how poor her part was and how much better the
+other parts were and how absolutely it fell to pieces after the first
+act? Of course I did as I was bid, and I argued with the woman for
+hours, and finally got her round, the while he sat cross-legged, after
+his fashion, on a deep chair and implored me with his eyes to do my
+worst. It happened long ago, and I was so obsessed with the desire to
+please him that the humor of the situation strikes me only now.
+
+For money he did not care at all; it was to him but pieces of paper with
+which he could make practical the enterprises that teemed in his brain.
+They were all enterprises of the theater. Having once seen a theater, he
+never afterward saw anything else except sites for theaters. This
+passion began when he was a poor boy staring wistfully at portals out of
+which he was kept by the want of a few pence. I think when he first saw
+a theater he clapped his hand to his heart, and certainly he was true
+to his first love. Up to the end it was still the same treat to him to
+go in; he still thrilled when the band struck up, as if that boy had
+hold of his hand.
+
+* * *
+
+In a sense he had no illusions about the theater, knew its tawdriness as
+he knew the nails on his stages (he is said to have known every one). He
+would watch the performance of a play in some language of which he did
+not know a word and at the end tell you not only the whole story, but
+what the characters had been saying to one another; indeed, he could
+usually tell what was to happen in any act as soon as he saw the
+arrangement of the furniture. But this did not make him _blase_--a
+strange word, indeed, to apply to one who seemed to be born afresh each
+morning. It was not so much that all the world was a stage to him as
+that his stage was a world, a world of the "artistic temperament"--that
+is to say, a very childish world of which he was occasionally the stern
+but usually indulgent father.
+
+His innumerable companies were as children to him; he chided them as
+children, soothed them, forgave them, and certainly loved them as
+children. He exulted in those who became great names in that world and
+gave them beautiful toys to play with; but, great as was their devotion
+to him, it is not they who will miss him most, but rather the far
+greater number who never "made a hit," but set off like the rest to do
+it and fell by the way. He was of so sympathetic a nature, he understood
+so well the dismalness to them of being "failures," that he saw them as
+children with their knuckles to their eyes, and then he sat back
+cross-legged on his chair with his knuckles, as it were, to his eyes,
+and life had lost its flavor for him until he invented a scheme for
+giving them another chance.
+
+* * *
+
+Authors of to-day sometimes discuss with one another what great writer
+of the past they would like most to spend an evening with if the shades
+were willing to respond, and I believe (and hope) that the choice most
+often falls on Johnson or Charles Lamb. Lamb was fond of the theater,
+and I think, of all those connected with it that I have known, Mr.
+Frohman is the one with whom he would most have liked to spend an
+evening. Not because of Mr. Frohman's ability, though he had the biggest
+brain I have met with on the stage, but because of his humor and charity
+and gentle chivalry and his most romantic mind. One can conceive him as
+often, sitting at ease, far back in his chair, cross-legged,
+occasionally ringing for another ice, for he was so partial to sweets
+that he could never get them sweet enough, and sometimes he mixed two in
+the hope that this would make them sweeter.
+
+I hear him telling stories of the stage as only he could tell them,
+rising now and roaming the floor as he shows how the lady of the play
+receives the declaration, and perhaps forgetting that you are the author
+of the play and telling you the whole story of it with superb gesture
+and gleaming eyes. Then back again cross-legged to the chair. What an
+essay Elia might have made of that night, none of it about the stories
+told, all about the man in the chair, the humorous, gentle, roughly
+educated, very fine American gentleman in the chair!
+
+J. M. BARRIE.
+
+LONDON, 1915.
+
+
+
+
+_Charles Frohman_
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+A CHILD AMID THE THEATER
+
+
+One evening, toward the close of the 'sixties, a plump, rosy-cheeked lad
+in his eighth year stood enthralled in the gallery of the old Niblo's
+Garden down on lower Broadway in New York. Far below him on the stage
+"The Black Crook"--the extravaganza that held all New York--unfolded
+itself in fascinating glitter and feminine loveliness. Deaf to his
+brother's entreaties to leave, and risking a parental scolding and
+worse, the boy remained transfixed until the final curtain. When he
+reached home he was not in the least disturbed by the uproar his absence
+had caused. Quite the contrary. His face beamed, his eyes shone. All he
+could say was:
+
+"I have seen a play. It's wonderful!"
+
+The boy was Charles Frohman, and such was his first actual experience in
+the theater--the institution that he was to dominate in later years with
+far-flung authority.
+
+* * *
+
+To write of the beginnings of his life is to become almost immediately
+the historian of some phase of amusement. He came from a family in whom
+the love of mimic art was as innate as the desire for sustenance.
+
+About his parents was the glamour of a romance as tender as any he
+disclosed to delighted audiences in the world of make-believe. His
+father, Henry Frohman, was both idealist and dreamer. Born on the
+pleasant countryside that encircles the town of Darmstadt in Germany, he
+grew up amid an appreciation of the best in German literature. He was a
+buoyant and imaginative boy who preferred reading plays to poring over
+tiresome school-books.
+
+One day he went for a walk in the woods. He passed a young girl of rare
+and appealing beauty. Their eyes met; they paused a moment, irresistibly
+drawn to each other. Then they went their separate ways. He inquired her
+name and found that she was Barbara Strauss and lived not far away. He
+sought an introduction, but before it could be brought about he left
+home to make his fortune in the New World.
+
+He was eighteen when he stepped down the gang-plank of a steamer in New
+York in 1845. He had mastered no trade; he was practically without
+friends, so he took to the task which so many of his co-religionists had
+found profitable. He invested his modest financial nest-egg in a supply
+of dry goods and notions and, shouldering a pack, started up the Hudson
+Valley to peddle his wares.
+
+Henry Frohman had a magnetic and fascinating personality. A ready story
+was always on his lips; a smile shone constantly on his face. It was
+said of him that he could hypnotize the most unresponsive housewife into
+buying articles she never needed. Up and down the highways he trudged,
+unmindful of wind, rain, or hardship.
+
+New York was his headquarters. There was his home and there he
+replenished his stocks. He made friends quickly. With them he often went
+to the German theater. On one of these occasions he heard of a family
+named Strauss that had just arrived from Germany. They had been
+shipwrecked near the Azores, had endured many trials, and had lost
+everything but their lives.
+
+"Have they a daughter named Barbara?" asked Frohman.
+
+"Yes," was the reply.
+
+Henry Frohman's heart gave a leap. There came back to his mind the
+picture of that day in the German woods.
+
+"Where do they come from?" he continued, eagerly.
+
+On being told that it was Darmstadt, he cried, "I must meet her."
+
+He gave his friend no peace until that end had been brought about. He
+found her the same lovely girl who had thrilled him at first sight; he
+wooed her with ardor and they were betrothed.
+
+He now yearned for a stable business that would enable him to marry.
+Meanwhile his affairs had grown. The peddler's pack expanded to the
+proportion of a wagon-load. Then, as always, the great West held a lure
+for the youthful. In some indescribable way he got the idea that
+Kentucky was the Promised Land of business. Telling his fiancee that he
+would send for her as soon as he had settled somewhere, he set out.
+
+But Kentucky did not prove to be the golden country. He was advised to
+go to Ohio, and it was while driving across the country with his line of
+goods that he came upon Sandusky. The little town on the shores of a
+smiling lake appealed to him strongly. It reminded him of the home
+country, and he remained there.
+
+He found himself at once in a congenial place. There was a considerable
+German population; his ready wit and engaging manner made him welcome
+everywhere. The road lost its charm; he turned about for an occupation
+that was permanent. Having picked up a knowledge of cigar-making, he
+established a small factory which was successful from the start.
+
+This fact assured, his next act was to send to New York for Miss
+Strauss, who joined him at once, and they were married. These were the
+forebears of Charles Frohman--the exuberant, optimistic, pleasure-loving
+father; the serene, gentle-eyed, and spacious-hearted woman who was to
+have such a strong influence in the shaping of his character.
+
+The Frohmans settled in a little frame house on Lawrence Street that
+stood apart from the dusty road. It did not even have a porch.
+Unpretentious as it was, it became a center of artistic life in
+Sandusky.
+
+Henry Frohman had always aspired to be an actor. One of the first things
+he did after settling in Sandusky was to organize an amateur theatrical
+company, composed entirely of people of German birth or descent. The
+performances were given in the Turner Hall, in the German tongue, on a
+makeshift stage with improvised scenery. Frohman became the directing
+force in the production of Schiller's and other classic German plays,
+comic as well as tragic.
+
+Nor was he half-hearted in his histrionic work. One night he died so
+realistically on the stage that his eldest son, who sat in the audience,
+became so terrified that he screamed out in terror, and would not be
+pacified until his parent appeared smilingly before the curtain and
+assured him that he was still very much alive.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman's business prospered. He began to build up trade in the
+adjoining country. With a load of samples strapped behind his buggy, he
+traveled about. He usually took one of his older sons along. While he
+drove, the boy often held a prompt-book and the father would rehearse
+his parts. Out across those quiet Ohio fields would come the thrilling
+words of "The Robbers," "Ingomar," "Love and Intrigue," or any of the
+many plays that the amateur company performed in Sandusky.
+
+He even mixed the drama with business. Frequently after selling a bill
+of goods he would be requested by a customer, who knew of his ability,
+to recite or declaim a speech from one of the well-known German plays.
+
+It was on his return from one of these expeditions that Henry Frohman
+was greeted with the tidings that a third son had come to bear his name.
+When he entered that little frame house the infantile Charles had made
+his first entrance on the stage of life. It was June 17, 1860, a time
+fateful in the history of the country, for already the storm-clouds of
+the Civil War were brooding. It was pregnant with meaning for the
+American theater, too, because this lusty baby was to become its
+Napoleon.
+
+Almost before Charles was able to walk his wise and far-seeing mother,
+with a pride and responsibility that maintained the best traditions of
+the mothers in Israel, began to realize the restrictions and limitations
+of the Sandusky life.
+
+"These boys of ours," she said to the husband, "have no future here.
+They must be educated in New York. Their careers lie there."
+
+Strong-willed and resolute, she sent the two older sons, one at a time,
+on to the great city to be educated and make their way. The eldest,
+Daniel, went first, soon followed by Gustave. In 1864, and largely due
+to her insistent urging, the remainder of the family, which included the
+youthful Charles, packed up their belongings and, with the proceeds of
+the sale of the cigar factory, started on their eventful journey to New
+York.
+
+They first settled in one of the original tenement houses of New York,
+on Rivington Street, subsequently moving to Eighth Street and Avenue D.
+Before long they moved over to Third Street, while their fourth
+residence was almost within the shadow of some of the best-known city
+theaters.
+
+Henry Frohman had, as was later developed in his son Charles, a peculiar
+disregard of money values. Generous to a fault, his resources were
+constantly at the call of the needy. His first business venture in New
+York--a small soap factory on East Broadway--failed. Later he became
+part owner of a distillery near Hoboken, which was destroyed by fire.
+With the usual Frohman financial heedlessness, he had failed to renew
+all his insurance policies, and the result was that he was left with but
+a small surplus. Adversity, however, seemed to trickle from him like
+water. Serene and smiling, he emerged from his misfortune.
+
+The only business he knew was the cigar business. With the assistance of
+a few friends he was able to start a retail cigar-store at what was then
+708 Broadway. It was below Eighth Street and, whether by accident or
+design, was located in the very heart of the famous theatrical district
+which gave the American stage some of its greatest traditions.
+
+To the north, and facing on Union Square, was the Rialto of the day,
+hedged in by the old Academy of Music and the Union Square Theater. Down
+Broadway, and commencing at Thirteenth Street with Wallack's Theater,
+was a succession of more or less historic playhouses. At Eighth Street
+was the Old New York Theater; a few doors away was Lina Edwins's; almost
+flanking the cigar-store and ranging toward the south were the Olympic,
+Niblo's Garden, and the San Francisco Minstrel Hall. Farther down was
+the Broadway Theater, while over on the Bowery Tony Pastor held forth.
+
+Thus the little store stood in an atmosphere that thought, breathed, and
+talked of the theater. It became the rendezvous of the well-known
+theatrical figures of the period. The influence of the playhouses
+extended even to the shop next door, which happened to be the original
+book-store founded by August Brentano. It was the only clearing-house in
+New York for foreign theatrical papers, and to it came Augustin Daly,
+William Winter, Nym Crinkle, and all the other important managers and
+critics to get the news of the foreign stage.
+
+It was amid an environment touching the theater at every point that
+Charles Frohman's boyhood was spent. He was an impulsive, erratic,
+restless child. His mother had great difficulty in keeping him at
+school. His whole instinct was for action.
+
+Gustave, who had dabbled in the theatrical business almost before he was
+in his teens, naturally became his mentor. To Charles, Gustave was
+invested with a rare fascination because he had begun to sell books of
+the opera in the old Academy of Music on Fourteenth Street, the
+forerunner of the gilded Metropolitan Opera House. Every night the
+chubby Charles saw him forge forth with a mysterious bundle, and return
+with money jingling in his pocket. One night, just before Gustave
+started out, the lad said to him:
+
+"Gus, how can I make money like you?"
+
+"I'll show you some night if you can slip away from mother," was the
+brother's reply.
+
+Unrest immediately filled the heart of Charles. Gustave had no peace
+until he made good his promise. A week later he stole away after supper
+with his little brother. They walked to the Academy, where the old
+Italian opera, "The Masked Ball," was being sung. With wondering eyes
+and beating heart Charles saw Gustave hawk his books in the lobby, and
+actually sell a few. From the inside came the strains of music, and
+through the door a glimpse of a fashionable audience. But it was a
+forbidden land that he could not enter.
+
+Fearful of the maternal scolding that he knew was in store, Gustave
+hurried his brother home, even indulging in the unwonted luxury of
+riding on the street-car, where he found a five-dollar bill. The mother
+was up and awake, and immediately began to upbraid him for taking out
+his baby brother at night, whereupon Gustave quieted the outburst by
+permitting Charles to hand over the five-dollar bill as a peace
+offering.
+
+From that hour life had a new meaning for Charles Frohman. He had seen
+his brother earn money in the theater; he wanted to go and do likewise.
+The opportunity was denied, and he chafed under the restraint.
+
+In the afternoon, when he was through with the school that he hated, the
+boy went down to his father's store and took his turn behind the
+counter. Irksome as was this work, it was not without a thrilling
+compensation, because into the shop came many of the theatrical
+personages of the time to buy their cigars. They included Tony Pastor,
+whose name was then a household word, McKee Rankin, J. K. Mortimer, a
+popular Augustin Daly leading man, and the comedians and character
+actors of the near-by theaters.
+
+Here the magnetic personality of the boy asserted itself. His ready
+smile and his quick tongue made him a favorite with the customers. More
+than one actor, on entering the shop, asked the question: "Where is
+Charley? I want him to wait on me."
+
+In those days much of the theatrical advertising was done by posters
+displayed in shop-windows. To get these posters in the most conspicuous
+places passes were given to the shopkeepers, a custom which still holds.
+The Frohman store had a large window, and it was constantly plastered
+with play-bills, which meant that the family was abundantly supplied
+with free admission to most of the theaters in the district. The whole
+family shared in this dispensation, none more so than Henry Frohman
+himself, who could now gratify his desire for contact with the theater
+and its people to an almost unlimited extent. His greatest delight was
+to distribute these passes among his boys. They were offered as rewards
+for good conduct. Charles frequently accompanied his father to matinees
+at Tony Pastor's and the other theaters. Pastor and the elder Frohman
+were great pals. They called each other by their first names, and the
+famous old music-hall proprietor was a frequent visitor at the shop.
+
+But Charles became quite discriminating. Every Saturday night he went
+down to the old Theatre Comique, where Harrigan and Hart were serving
+their apprenticeship for the career which made them the most famous
+Irish team of their time. The next morning at breakfast he kept the
+family roaring with laughter with his imitations of what he had seen and
+heard. Curiously enough, Tony Hart later became the first star to be
+presented by Charles Frohman.
+
+All the while the boy's burning desire was to earn money in the theater.
+He nagged at Gustave to give him a chance. One day Gustave saw some
+handsome souvenir books of "The Black Crook," which was then having its
+sensational run at Niblo's Garden. He found that he could buy them for
+thirty-three cents by the half-dozen, so he made a small investment,
+hoping to sell them for fifty cents in the lobby of the theater. That
+evening he showed his new purchases to Charles.
+
+Immediately the boy's eyes sparkled. "Let me see if I can sell one of
+them!"
+
+"All right," replied Gustave; "I will take you down to Niblo's to-night
+and give you a chance."
+
+The boy could scarcely eat his supper, so eager was he to be off.
+Promptly at seven o'clock the two lads (Charles was only eight) took
+their stand in the lobby, but despite their eager cries each was able to
+sell only a single copy. Gustave consoled himself with the fact that the
+price was too high, while Charles, with an optimism that never forsook
+him, answered, "Well, we have each sold one, anyhow, and that is
+something."
+
+Charles's profit on this venture was precisely seventeen cents, which
+may be regarded as the first money he ever earned out of the theater.
+
+But this night promised a sensation even greater. As the crowd in the
+lobby thinned, the strains of the overture crashed out. Through the open
+door the little boy saw the curtain rise on a scene that to him
+represented the glitter and the glory of fairyland. Beautiful ladies
+danced and sang and the light flashed on brilliant costumes. With their
+unsold books in their hands, the two boys gazed wistfully inside.
+Charles, always the aggressor, fixed the doorkeeper with one of his
+winning smiles, and the doorkeeper succumbed. "You boys can slip in," he
+said, "but you've got to go up in the balcony." Up they rushed, and
+there Charles stood delighted, his eyes sparkling and his whole face
+transfigured.
+
+During the middle of the second act Gustave tugged at his sleeve,
+saying: "We'll have to go now. You follow me down."
+
+With this he disappeared and hurried home. When he arrived he found the
+home in an uproar because Charles had not come back. Gustave ran to the
+theater, but the play was over, the crowd had dispersed, and the
+building was deserted. With beating heart and fearful of disaster to his
+charge, he rushed back to see Charles, all animation and excitement, in
+the midst of the family group, regaling them with the story of his first
+play. He had remained to the end.
+
+That thrilling night at "The Black Crook," his daily contact with the
+actors who came into the store, his frequent visits to the adjoining
+playhouses, fed the fire of his theatrical interest. The theater got
+into his very blood.
+
+A great event was impending. Almost within stone's-throw of the little
+cigar-store where he sold stogies to Tony Pastor was the Old New York
+Theater, which, after the fashion of that time, had undergone the
+evolution of many names, beginning with the Athenaeum, and continuing
+until it had come under the control of the three famous Worrell
+sisters, who tacked their name to it. Shortly after the New Year of 1869
+they produced the extravaganza "The Field of the Cloth of Gold," in
+which two of them, Sophie and Jane, together with Pauline Markham, one
+of the classic beauties of the time, appeared. Charles had witnessed
+part of this extravaganza one afternoon. It kindled his memories of "The
+Black Crook," for it was full of sparkle and color. Charles and Gustave
+had made the acquaintance of Owen, the doorkeeper. One afternoon they
+walked over to the theater and stood in the lobby listening to a
+rehearsal.
+
+Owen, who knew the boys' intense love of the theater, spoke up, saying:
+"We need an extra page to-night. How would you like to go on?"
+
+Both youngsters stood expectant. They loved each other dearly, yet here
+was one moment where self-interest must prevail. Charles fixed the
+doorkeeper with his hypnotic smile, and he was chosen. Almost without
+hearing the injunction to report at seven o'clock, Charles ran back to
+the store, well-nigh breathless with expectancy over the coming event.
+With that family feeling which has marked the Frohmans throughout their
+whole life, Gustave hurried down-town to notify their eldest brother to
+be on hand for the grand occasion.
+
+Charles ate no supper, and was at the stage-door long before seven.
+Rigged up in a faded costume, he carried a banner during the
+performance. His two elder brothers sat in the gallery. All they saw in
+the entire brilliant spectacle was the little Charles and his faded
+flag.
+
+Charles got twenty-five cents for his evening's work, and brought it
+home bubbling with pride. To his great consternation he received a
+rebuke from his mother and the strong injunction never to appear on the
+stage again.
+
+This was Charles Frohman's first and only appearance on any stage. In
+the years to come, although he controlled and directed hundreds of
+productions, gave employment to thousands of actors in this country,
+England, and France, and ruled the destinies of scores of theaters, he
+never appeared in a single performance. Nor had he a desire to appear.
+
+* * *
+
+It will be recalled that in one way or another a great many passes for
+the theater found their way into the hands of the elder Frohman, who, in
+his great generosity of heart, frequently took many of the neighboring
+children along. He was the type of man who loves to bestow pleasure. But
+this made no difference with Charles. He was usually able to wring an
+extra pass from the bill-poster or some of the actors who frequented the
+store. Hence came about his first contract, and in this fashion: At that
+time Gustave Frohman was a famous cyclist. He was the first man to keep
+a wheel stationary, and he won prizes for doing so. He had purchased his
+bicycle with savings out of the theatrical earnings, and his bicycle and
+his riding became a source of great envy to Charles, who asked him one
+night if he would teach him how to ride.
+
+"Yes," replied Gustave, "I'll teach you if you will make a contract with
+me to provide five dollars' worth of passes in return."
+
+"Good!" said Charles, and the deal was closed.
+
+Gustave kept his word, and down in Washington Place, in front of the
+residence of old Commodore Vanderbilt, Charles learned to ride. He kept
+his part of the contract, too, and delivered five dollars' worth of
+passes ahead of schedule time.
+
+One of Gustave's cycling companions was the son of George Vandenhoff,
+the famous reader. Through him he met the father, who engaged him to
+post his placards for his series of lectures on Dickens. Charles
+accompanied Gustave on these expeditions, and got his first contact with
+theatrical advertising. Frequently he held the ladder while Gustave
+climbed up to hang a placard. Charles often employed his arts to induce
+an obdurate shopkeeper to permit a placard in his window. These cards
+were not as attractive as those of the regular theaters and it took much
+persuasion to secure their display. Charles sometimes sat in the
+box-office of Association Hall, where the Vandenhoff lectures were given
+and where Gustave sold tickets. It was here that Charles got his
+introduction to the finance of the theater.
+
+These days in the early 'seventies were picturesque and carefree for
+Charles. The boy was growing up in an atmosphere that, unconsciously,
+was shaping his whole future life. In the afternoon he continued his
+service behind the counter, hearing the actors tell stories of their
+triumphs and hardships. Often he slipped next door to Brentano's, where
+he was a welcome visitor and where he pored over the illustrations in
+the theatrical journals.
+
+Life at the store was not without incident. Among those who came in to
+buy cigars were the Guy brothers, famous minstrels of their time. They
+were particular chums of Gustave, and they likewise became great
+admirers of the little Charles. At the boys' request they would step
+into the little reception-room behind the store and practise their
+latest steps to a small but appreciative audience. This was Charles
+Frohman's first contact with minstrelsy, in which he was to have such
+an active part later on.
+
+Strangely enough, music and moving color always fascinated Charles
+Frohman. At that time, for it was scarcely more than a decade after the
+Civil War, there were many parades in New York, and all of them passed
+the little Broadway cigar-store. To get a better view, Charles
+frequently climbed up on the roof and there beheld the marching hosts
+with all their tumult and blare. Here it was, as he often later
+admitted, that he got his first impressions of street-display and
+brass-band effects that he used to such good advantage.
+
+A picturesque friendship of those early days was with the clock-painter
+Washburn, perhaps the foremost worker of that kind in this country. He
+painted the faces of all the clocks that hung in front of the jewelers'
+shops in the big city. He always painted the time at 8.17-1/2 o'clock,
+and it became the precedent which most clock-painters have followed ever
+since.
+
+Charles watched Washburn at work. One reason for his interest was that
+it dealt with gilt. The old painter took such a fancy to the lad that he
+wanted him to become his apprentice and succeed him as the first
+clock-face painter of his time. But this work seemed too slow for the
+future magnate.
+
+* * *
+
+Now came the first business contact of a Frohman with the theater, and
+here one encounters an example of that team-work among the Frohman
+brothers by which one of them invariably assisted another whenever
+opportunity arose. Frequently they created this opportunity themselves.
+To Gustave came the distinction of being the first in the business, and
+also the privilege of bringing into it both of his brothers. Having
+hovered so faithfully and persistently about the edges of theatricals,
+Gustave now landed inside.
+
+It was at the time of the high-tide of minstrelsy in this country--1870
+to 1880. Dozens of minstrel companies, ranging from bands of real
+negroes recruited in the South to aggregations of white men who blacked
+their faces, traveled about the country. The minstrel was the direct
+product of the slave-time singer and entertainer. His fame was
+recognized the world over. The best audiences at home, and royalty
+abroad, paid tribute to his talents. Out of the minstrel ranks of those
+days emerged some of the best known of our modern stars--men like
+Francis Wilson, Nat Goodwin, Henry E. Dixey, Montgomery and Stone,
+William H. Crane, and scores of others.
+
+One of the most famous organizations of the time was Charles Callender's
+Original Georgia Minstrels, hailing from Macon, Georgia, composed
+entirely of negroes and headed by the famous Billy Kersands. Ahead of
+this show was a mulatto advance-agent, Charles Hicks. He did very well
+in the North, but when he got down South he faced the inevitable
+prejudice against doing business with a negro. Callender needed some one
+to succeed him. A man whom Gustave Frohman had once befriended, knowing
+of his intense desire to enter the profession, recommended him for the
+position, and he got it.
+
+All was excitement in the Frohman family. At last the fortunes of one
+member were definitely committed to the theater, and although it was a
+negro minstrel show, it meant a definite connection with public
+entertainment.
+
+No one, not even Gustave himself, felt the enthusiasm so keenly as did
+little Charles, then twelve years old. He buzzed about the fortunate
+brother.
+
+"Do you think you can get me a job as programmer with your show?" he
+asked.
+
+"No," answered the new advance-agent. "Don't start in the business until
+you can be an agent or manager."
+
+On August 2, 1872, Gustave Frohman started to Buffalo to go ahead of the
+Callender Minstrels. Charles followed his brother's career with eager
+interest, and he longed for the time when he would have some connection
+with the business that held such thrall for him.
+
+Life now lagged more than ever for Charles. He chafed at the service in
+the store; he detested school; his one great desire was to earn money
+and share in the support of the family. His father urged him to prepare
+for the law.
+
+"No," he said, "I won't be a lawyer. I want to deal with lots of
+people."
+
+Charles frequently referred to Tony Pastor. "He's a big man," he would
+often say. "I would like to do what he is doing."
+
+A seething but unformed aspiration seemed to stir his youthful breast.
+Once he heard his eldest brother recite some stanzas of Alexander Pope,
+in which the following line occurs:
+
+_The whole, the boundless continent is ours._
+
+This line impressed the lad immensely. It became his favorite motto; he
+wrote it in his sister's autograph-album; he spouted it on every
+occasion; it is still to be found in his first scrap-book framed in
+round, boyish hand.
+
+Now the singular thing about this sentiment is that he never quoted it
+correctly. It was a life-long failing. His version--and it was strangely
+prophetic of his coming career--was:
+
+_The whole--the boundless earth--is mine._
+
+Meanwhile, Daniel Frohman had gone from _The Tribune_ to work in the
+office of _The New York Graphic_, down in Park Place near Church Street.
+_The Graphic_ was the aristocrat of newspapers--the first illustrated
+daily ever published anywhere. With the usual family team-work, Daniel
+got Charles a position with him in 1874. He was put in the circulation
+department at a salary of ten dollars a week, his first regular wage. It
+was a position with which personality had much to do, for one of the
+boy's chief tasks was to select a high type of newsboy equipped to sell
+a five-cent daily. His genial manner won the boys to him and they became
+his loyal co-workers.
+
+With amazing facility he mastered his task. Among other things, he had
+to count newspapers. It was before the day of the machine enumerator,
+and the work had to be done by hand. Charles developed such
+extraordinary swiftness that patrons in the office often stopped to
+watch him. In throwing papers over the counter it was necessary to be
+accurate and positive, and here came the first manifestation of his
+dogged determination. He never lost his cunning in counting papers, and
+sometimes, when he was rich and famous, he would take a bundle of
+newspapers, to help a newsboy in the street, and run through them with
+all his old skill and speed.
+
+* * *
+
+Though his fingers were in the newspapers, his heart yearned for the
+theater. This ambition was heightened by the fact that his brother
+Daniel, having heeded the lure of Gustave, joined the Callender
+Minstrels as advance-agent, while Gustave remained back with the show.
+Slowly but surely the theater was annexing the Frohman boys. In the
+summer of 1874 Charles was drawn into its charmed circle, and in a
+picturesque fashion.
+
+It was the custom for minstrel companies and other theatrical
+combinations to rent theaters outright during the dull summer months.
+The playhouses were glad to get the rental, and the organizations could
+remain intact during what would otherwise be a period of disorganization
+and loss. Gustave, therefore, took Hooley's Theater in Brooklyn for
+summer minstrel headquarters, and on a memorable morning in July Charles
+was electrified to receive the following letter from him:
+
+     _You can begin your theatrical career in the box-office of Hooley's
+     Theater in Brooklyn. Take a ferry and look at the theater. Hooley
+     is going to rent it to us for the summer. Your work will begin as
+     ticket-seller. You will have to sell 25, 50, and 75 cent tickets,
+     and they will all be hard tickets, that is, no reserved seats. Get
+     some pasteboard slips or a pack of cards and practise handling
+     them. Your success will lie in the swiftness with which you can
+     hand them out. With these rehearsals you will be able to do your
+     work well and look like a professional._
+
+Charles immediately bought a pack of the thickest playing-cards he could
+find and began to practise with them. Soon he became an expert shuffler.
+Often he used his father's cigar counter for a make-believe box-office
+sill, and across it he handed out the pasteboards to imaginary patrons.
+A dozen times he went over to Brooklyn and gazed with eager expectancy
+at the old theater, destined, by reason of his association with it, to
+be a historic landmark in the annals of American amusement.
+
+He wrote Gustave almost immediately:
+
+_I will be ready when the time comes._
+
+That great moment arrived the first Monday in August, 1874. Charles
+could scarcely contain his impatience. So well had the publicity work
+for the performance been done by the new advance-agent that when the boy
+(he was just fourteen) raised the window of the box-office at seven
+o'clock there was a long line waiting to buy tickets. The final word of
+injunction from Gustave was:
+
+"Remember, Charley, you must be careful, because you will be personally
+responsible for any shortage in cash when you balance up."
+
+The house was sold out. When Gustave asked him, after the count-up, if
+he was short, the eager-faced lad replied:
+
+"I am not short--I am fifty cents over!"
+
+"Then you can keep that as a reward for your good work," said Gustave.
+
+Callender was on hand the opening night. He watched the boy in the
+box-office with, an amused and lively interest. When Charles had
+finished selling tickets, Callender stepped up to him with a smile on
+his face and said:
+
+"Young fellow, I like your looks and your ways. You and I will be doing
+business some day."
+
+During this engagement, and with the customary spirit of family
+co-operation, Gustave said to Charles:
+
+"You can give your sister Rachel all the pennies that come in at the
+Wednesday matinee." At this engagement very little was expected in the
+way of receipts at a midweek matinee.
+
+But Gustave did not reckon with Charles. With an almost uncanny sense of
+exploitation which afterward enabled him to attract millions of
+theater-goers, the boy kept the brass-band playing outside the theater
+half an hour longer than usual. This drew many children just home from
+school, and they paid their way in pennies. The receipts, therefore,
+were unexpectedly large. When sister Rachel came over that day her
+beaming brother filled her bag with coppers.
+
+The summer of 1874 was a strenuous one for Charles Frohman. By day he
+worked in _The Graphic_ office, only getting off for the matinees; at
+night he was in the box-office at Hooley's in Brooklyn, his smiling face
+beaming like a moon through the window. He was in his element at last
+and supremely happy. When the season ended the Callender Minstrels
+resumed their tour on the road and Charles went back to the routine of
+_The Graphic_ undisturbed by the thrill of the theater.
+
+He was developing rapidly. Daily he became more efficient. The following
+year he was put in charge of a branch office established by _The
+Graphic_ in Philadelphia. Now came his second business contact with the
+theater. Callender's Minstrels played an engagement at Wood's Museum,
+and Daniel came on ahead to bill the show. Charles immediately offered
+his services. His advice about the location of favorite "stands" was of
+great service in getting posters displayed to the best advantage. It
+was the initial expression of what later amounted to a positive genius
+in the art of well-directed bill-board posting.
+
+While prowling around Philadelphia in search of amusement novelty--a
+desire that remained with him all his life--Charles encountered a unique
+form of public entertainment which had considerable vogue. It was
+Pepper's "Ghost Show," and was being shown in a small hall in Chestnut
+Street.
+
+The "Ghost Show" was an illusion. The actors seemed to be on the stage.
+In reality, they were under the stage, and their reflection was sent up
+by refracting mirrors. This enabled them (in the sight of the audience)
+to appear and disappear in the most extraordinary fashion. People
+apparently walked through one another, had their heads cut off, were
+shown with daggers plunged in their breasts. The whole effect was weird
+and thrilling.
+
+This show impressed Charles greatly, as the unusual invariably did. It
+gave him an idea. When Charles Callender joined his minstrel show at
+Philadelphia, young Frohman went to him with this proposition:
+
+"I believe," he said with great earnestness, "that there is money in the
+'Ghost Show.' The trouble with it now is that it is not being properly
+advertised. If you will let me have a hundred dollars, I will take
+charge of it and I think we can make some money out of it. It won't
+interfere with my work with _The Graphic_."
+
+Charles, who seldom left anything to chance, had already made an
+arrangement with the manager of the show to become his advertising
+agent.
+
+Callender, who liked the boy immensely, readily consented and gave him
+the required money, thus embarking Charles on his first venture with
+any sort of capital.
+
+Unfortunately, the show failed. Charles maintained that the
+Philadelphians lacked imagination, but with his usual optimism he was
+certain that it would succeed on the road. When he approached Callender
+again and offered to take it out on the road the minstrel magnate
+slapped him on the shoulder and said:
+
+"All right, my boy. If you say so, I believe you. You can take the show
+out and I'll back you."
+
+Charles counseled with Gustave, who continued as his theatrical monitor.
+Eagerly he said:
+
+"I've got a great chance. Callender is going to back me on the road with
+the 'Ghost Show.'"
+
+"No," said Gustave, firmly, "your time has not come. Wait, as I told you
+before, until you can go out ahead of a show as agent."
+
+Bitter as was the ordeal, Charles took his brother's advice, and the
+"Ghost Show" was abandoned to its fate.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+EARLY HARDSHIPS ON THE ROAD
+
+
+The Christmas of 1876 was not a particularly merry one for Charles
+Frohman. The ardent boy, whose brief experience in Hooley's box-office
+had fastened the germ of the theater in his system, chafed at the
+restraint that kept him at a routine task. But his deliverance was at
+hand.
+
+Shortly before the close of the old year Gustave quit the Callender
+Minstrels. With a capital of fifty-seven dollars he remained in Chicago,
+waiting for something to turn up. One day as he sat in the lobby of the
+old Sherman House he was accosted by J. H. Wallick, an actor-manager who
+had just landed in town with a theatrical combination headed by John
+Dillon, a well-known Western comedian of the time. They were stranded
+and looking for a backer.
+
+"Will you take charge of the company?" asked Wallick.
+
+"I've only got fifty-seven dollars," said Gustave, "but I'll take a
+chance."
+
+Between them they raised a little capital and started on a tour of the
+Middle West that was destined to play a significant part in shaping the
+career of Charles. In the company besides John Dillon were his wife,
+Louise Dillon (afterward the ingenue of Daniel Frohman's Lyceum
+Company); George W. Stoddart, brother of J. H. Stoddart of A. M.
+Palmer's Company, his wife and his daughter, Polly Stoddart, who married
+Neil Burgess; John F. Germon; Mrs. E. M. Post, and Wesley Sisson. Their
+repertory consisted of two well-worn but always amusing plays, "Our
+Boys" and "Married Life."
+
+Gustave was to remain with the company until they reached Clinton, Iowa.
+After that he was to go ahead while Wallick was to remain with the
+company. When Gustave was about to leave, the company protested. He had
+won their confidence, and they threatened to strike. What to do with
+Wallick was the problem.
+
+"Why not make him stage-manager?" suggested Dillon.
+
+"All right," said Gustave, "but who is to go ahead of the show?"
+
+The company was gathered on the stage of the Davis Opera House. Gustave
+scratched his head. Then he turned quickly on the group of stage folk
+and said:
+
+"I've got some one for you. I'll wire my brother Charles to come on and
+be advance-agent."
+
+Thus it came about that from a little Iowa town there flashed back to
+New York on a memorable morning in January, 1877, the following telegram
+from Gustave to Charles Frohman:
+
+     _Your time has come at last. Am wiring money for ticket to St.
+     Paul, where you begin as agent for John Dillon. Will meet you 2
+     A.M. at Winona, where you change cars and where I will instruct._
+
+Charles happened to be at home when this telegram came. It was the first
+he had ever received. With trembling hands he tore it open, his rosy
+face broke into a seraphic smile, and the tears came into his eyes. He
+rushed to his mother, threw his arms around her, and gasped:
+
+"At last I'm in the business!"
+
+He lost no time in starting. With a single grip-sack, which contained
+his modest wardrobe, the eager boy started on his first railroad journey
+of any length into the great West. It was the initial step of what, from
+this time on, was to be a continuous march of ever-widening importance.
+
+Begrimed but radiant, the boy stepped from a day-coach at two o'clock in
+the morning at Winona. No scene could have been more desolate. Save for
+the station-master and a solitary brakeman there was only one other
+person on hand, and that individual was the faithful Gustave, who
+advanced swiftly through the gloom and greeted his brother
+enthusiastically.
+
+Charles was all excitement. He had not slept a wink. It was perhaps the
+longest and most irksome journey he ever took. He was bubbling with the
+desire to get to work.
+
+The two brothers went to a hotel where Gustave had a room, and there
+they sat for four hours. It is a picture well worth keeping in mind: the
+pleased older boy, eager to get his brother started right; the younger
+lad all ears, and his eyes big with wonder and anticipation. There was
+no thought of food or rest. Gustave was enthusiastic about the company.
+He said to his brother:
+
+"Why, Charley, we've got real New York actors, and our leading lady,
+Louise Dillon, has a genuine sealskin coat. That coat will get us out of
+any town. You've got no 'Ghost Show' amateurs to handle now, but real
+actors and actresses."
+
+Then came an announcement that startled the boy, for Gustave continued:
+
+"Your salary is to be twenty-five dollars a week and hotel bills, but
+you must not spend more than one dollar and a half a day for meals and
+room."
+
+In this dingy room of an obscure hotel in a country town Charles Frohman
+got his first instructions in practical theatrical work. Perhaps the
+most important of this related to bill-posting. In those days it was a
+tradition in theatrical advertising that whoever did the most effective
+bill-posting in a town got the audience. Most of the publicity was done
+with posters. An advance-agent had to be a practical bill-poster
+himself. To get the most conspicuous sites for bills and to keep those
+bills up until the attraction played became the chief task of the
+advance-agent. The provincial bill-posters were fickle and easily
+swayed. The agent with the most persuasive personality, sometimes with
+the greatest drinking capacity, won the day.
+
+All this advice, and much more, was poured by Gustave into the willing
+ears of the youthful Charles. No injunction laid on that keen-eyed boy
+in the gray dawn of that historic morning back in the 'seventies was
+more significant than these words from his elder brother:
+
+"Your success in handling the bill-poster does not lie through a barroom
+door. Give him all the passes he wants, but never buy him a drink."
+
+That those words sank deeply into Charles Frohman is shown by the fact
+that he seldom drank liquor. His chief tipple through all the coming
+crowded years was never stronger than sarsaparilla, soda-water, or
+lemonade.
+
+The task ahead of Charles would have staggered any but the most
+dauntless enthusiasm. Among other things, as Gustave discovered, there
+was no route for the company after St. Paul, which was to be played the
+following week.
+
+"You must discover new towns and bill them," he said. "Get what printing
+you want. The printers have been instructed to fill orders from you."
+
+The hours sped on. Charles asked a thousand questions, and Gustave
+filled him with facts as dawn broke and day came. It was nearly seven
+o'clock, time for his train for St. Paul to leave. Charles would not
+hear of having breakfast. He was too full of desire to get to work.
+
+Among other things, Charles carried a letter from Gustave to Wallick,
+who was temporarily ahead of the show, which said:
+
+     _This is my brother Charles, who will take the advance in your
+     place._
+
+The first word that came from the young advance-agent announced action,
+for he wired:
+
+     _All right with Wallick. Have discovered River Falls._
+
+River Falls, it happened, had been "discovered" before and abandoned,
+but Charles thought he was making route history.
+
+Charles immediately set to work with the extraordinary energy that
+always characterized him. The chief bill-poster in St. Paul was named
+Haines. Charles captured him with his engaging smile, and he became a
+willing slave. It was Haines who taught him how to post bills. Later on
+when Gustave arrived with the show, he spoke of the boy with intense
+pride. He said:
+
+"I have taught your brother Charley how to post bills. He took to it
+like a duck to water. He didn't mind how much paste he spattered over
+himself. His one desire was to know how to do the job thoroughly. I am
+going to make him the greatest theatrical agent in the world."
+
+Curiously enough, Haines lived to be a very old man, and in the later
+years of his life he was able to stick up the twenty-eight-sheet stands
+that bore in large type the name of the little chubby protege he had
+introduced to the art of bill-posting back in the long ago.
+
+At St. Paul Charles had opposition--a big musical event at Ingersoll
+Hall--and this immediately tested his resource. He got his printing
+posted in the best places, went around to the newspaper offices and got
+such good notices that John Dillon was inspired to remark that he had
+never had such efficient advance work. It is interesting to remember
+that at this time Charles Frohman was not yet eighteen years old.
+
+Now came the first evidence of that initiative which was such a
+conspicuous trait in the young man. He had come back to see the
+performances of his company, and had watched them with swelling pride.
+Several times he said, and with pardonable importance:
+
+"What _we_ need is a new play. _We_ must have something fresh to
+advertise."
+
+The net result of this suggestion was that his brother obtained the
+manuscript of "Lemons," a comedy that, under the title of "Wedlock for
+Seven," had been first produced at Augustin Daly's New Fifth Avenue
+Theater in New York. A copy of the play was sent on to Charles to
+enable him to prepare the presswork for it, and it was the first play
+manuscript he ever read. "Lemons" vindicated Charles's suggestion,
+because it added to the strength of the repertory and brought
+considerable new business.
+
+Charles took an infinite pride in his work. He was eager for
+suggestions, he worked early and late, and when the season closed at the
+end of June he was a full-fledged and experienced advance-agent. With
+his brother he reached Chicago July 4th. In the lobby of Hooley's
+Theater he was introduced to R. M. Hooley, who, after various hardships,
+again controlled the theater which bore his name, now Powers' Theater.
+Out of that chance meeting came a long friendship and a connection that
+helped in later years to give Charles Frohman his first spectacular
+success, for it was Mr. Hooley who helped to back "Shenandoah."
+
+On July 5th, six months after he had left the East for his first start,
+Charles appeared at his mother's home in New York, none the worse for
+his first experience on the road.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles was soon eager for the next season. Gustave had signed a
+contract with John Dillon to take him out again, this time as part owner
+of the company. He and George Stoddart agreed to put up two hundred and
+fifty dollars each to launch the tour of the Stoddart Comedy Company
+with John Dillon as star. Charles was to continue as advance-agent.
+
+It was a long summer for the boy. When August arrived and the time came
+to start west there was a financial council of war. Gustave counted on
+getting his capital from members of the family, but no money was
+forthcoming. Daniel had received no salary from Callender, and the great
+road project seemed on the verge of failure. Charles was disconsolate.
+But the mother of the boys, ever mindful of their interest, said, in her
+serene way:
+
+"I can get enough money to send you to Chicago and I will put up some
+lunches for you."
+
+Charles was eagerly impatient to start. He nagged at his brother:
+
+"Gus, when do we start for Chicago? Do we walk?"
+
+He was sent down-town to find out the cheapest route, and he returned in
+great excitement, saying:
+
+"The cheapest way is over the Baltimore & Ohio, second class, but it is
+the longest ride. We can ride in the day-coach, and even if we have no
+place to wash we will get to Chicago, and that is the main thing."
+
+When they reached Chicago the first of the long chain of disasters that
+was to attend them on this enterprise developed.
+
+Stoddart was penniless. The two hundred and fifty dollars that he
+expected to contribute to the capital of the new combination was swept
+away in the failure of the Fidelity Bank. He had looked forward to
+Gustave for help, and all the while Gustave, on that long, toilsome
+journey west, was hoping that his partner would provide the first
+railroad fares. So they sat down and pooled their woes, wondering how
+they could start their tour, with Charles as an interested listener.
+
+Every now and then he would chirp up with the question:
+
+"How do I get out of town?"
+
+Finally Gustave, always resourceful, said:
+
+"You don't need any money, Charley. I've got railroad passes for you,
+and you can give the hotels orders on me for your board and lodging."
+
+It was a custom in those days for advance-agents to give orders for
+their obligations--hotel, rent of hall, bill-posting, and baggage--upon
+the company that followed. Hotels in particular were willing to accept
+orders on the treasurer of a theatrical company about to play a date,
+because, in the event of complete failure, there was always baggage to
+seize and hold.
+
+So, armed with passes and with the optimism of youth and anticipation,
+Charles set forth on what became in many respects the most memorable
+road experience in his life. The first town he billed was Streator,
+Illinois. Then he hurried on to Ottawa and Peoria, where they were to
+play during fair week, which was the big week of the year. Misfortune
+descended at Streator, for despite the lavish display of posters and the
+ample advance notice that Charles lured the local editors into
+publishing, the total receipts on the first night were seventy-seven
+dollars. This, and more, had already been pledged before the curtain
+went up, and Gustave was not even able to pay John Dillon his seven
+dollars and seventy cents, which represented his ten per cent, of the
+gross receipts.
+
+By "traveling on their baggage," which was one of the expedients of the
+time and a custom which has not entirely passed out of use, the company
+got to Ottawa, where Charles joined them. Here, in a comic circumstance,
+he first developed the amazing influence that he was able to exert on
+people.
+
+Although an admirable actor with a large following and the most
+delightful and companionable of men, John Dillon had one unfortunate
+failing. He was addicted to drink, and, regardless of consequences, he
+would periodically succumb to this weakness. At Ottawa, the town crowded
+with visitors for the annual fair, Dillon fell from grace. The bill for
+the evening was "Lemons," and there was every indication that the house
+would be sold out. The receipts were badly needed, too.
+
+Late in the afternoon came the terrifying news that Dillon lay stupefied
+from liquor in his room. Everybody save Charles was in despair. Dillon
+had conceived a great fancy for Charles, and he was deputized to take
+the actor in hand, get him to the theater, and coerce him through the
+play.
+
+Charles responded nobly. He aroused the star, took him to the theater in
+a carriage, and stood in the wings throughout the whole performance,
+coaching and inspiring his intoxicated star. By an amusing circumstance,
+Dillon was required to play a drunken scene in "Lemons." He performed
+this part with so much realism that the audience gave him a great
+ovation. The real savior of that performance was the chubby lad who
+stood in the wings with beating heart, fearful every moment that Dillon
+would succumb.
+
+* * *
+
+New and heavier responsibilities now faced Charles Frohman. The company
+was booked to play a week in Memphis, Tennessee, the longest and most
+important stand of the tour. In those days the printers who supplied the
+traveling companies with advertising matter were powers to be reckoned
+with. When the supply of printing was cut off the company was helpless.
+
+Charles H. McConnell, of the National Printing Company, who supplied the
+Stoddart Company with paper, was none too confident of the success of
+that organization. When he heard of the Memphis engagement he insisted
+that Gustave, who was older and more experienced, be sent ahead to pave
+the way. Charles was sent back to manage the company, and now came his
+first attempt at handling actors. He rose to the emergency with all his
+characteristic ingenuity.
+
+He began at Champaign, Illinois. The first test of his resource came at
+a one-night stand--Waupaca, Iowa--where "Lemons" was billed as a
+feature. The prospects for a big house were good. Board and railroad
+fare seemed assured, when just before supper-time John F. Germon, one of
+the company, approached Charles in great perturbation.
+
+"We can't play to-night. Mrs. Post is sick."
+
+Mrs. Post played the part of the old woman in the play, and it was a
+very important role.
+
+Charles Frohman only smiled, as he always did in an emergency. Then he
+said to Germon:
+
+"You're a member of the well-known Germon family, aren't you? Then live
+up to its reputation and play the part yourself."
+
+"But how about my mustache?" asked Germon.
+
+"I will pay for having it shaved off," replied Frohman.
+
+The net result was that Germon sacrificed his mustache, played the part
+acceptably without any one in the audience discovering that he was a man
+masquerading as an old woman. Charles put Wallick, who was acting as
+stage-manager, in Germon's part. Thus the house was saved and the
+company was able to proceed.
+
+With his attractive ways and eternal thoughtfulness Charles captivated
+the company. He supplied the women with candy and bought peanuts for the
+men. On that trip he developed his fondness for peanuts that never
+forsook him. He almost invariably carried a bag in his pocket. When he
+could not get peanuts he took to candy.
+
+A great friendship struck up between Frohman and Stoddart, who, in a
+way, was a character. He played the violin, and when business was bad
+and the company got in the dumps Stoddart added to their misfortunes by
+playing doleful tunes on his fiddle. But that fiddle had a virtue not to
+be despised, because it was Stoddart's bank. In its hollow box he
+secreted his modest savings, and in more than one emergency they were
+drawn on for company bed and board. When the organization reached
+Memphis Charles had so completely won the affections of the company that
+they urged him to stay on with them. But business was business, and he
+had to go on in advance.
+
+Charles now went ahead to "bill" Texas. The reason for the expedition
+was this:
+
+In Memphis business was so bad that the manager of the theater there
+advised Gustave to send the company through Texas, where, he assured
+them, there would be no opposition, and they would have the state to
+themselves. This advice proved to be only too true, for the company not
+only had the state to itself, but the state for a time held the company
+fast--in the unwilling bonds of financial misfortune.
+
+The plan was to play the best towns in Texas and then go back through
+the Middle West, where John Dillon had a strong following, and where it
+was hoped the season could close with full pockets. Up to this time the
+company had received salaries with some degree of regularity. But from
+this time on they were to have a constantly diminishing acquaintance
+with money, for hard luck descended upon them the moment they crossed
+the frontiers of the Lone Star State.
+
+It was about this time that Charles Callender, at the solicitation of
+Gustave, purchased an interest in the Stoddart Comedy Company for a
+hundred-dollar bill. This bill was given to Charles as a "prop." In
+those days the financial integrity of the legitimate theatrical
+combination was sometimes questioned by hard-hearted hotel-keepers. The
+less esthetic "variety" troupes, minstrel shows, and circuses enjoyed a
+much higher credit. An advance-agent like Charles sometimes found
+difficulty in persuading the hotel people to accept orders on the
+company's treasurer.
+
+With characteristic enterprise Charles used the hundred-dollar bill as a
+symbol of solvency. He flashed it on hotel-keepers and railway agents in
+the careless way that inspired confidence, and, what was more to the
+point, credit. He carried this hundred-dollar bill for nearly a month.
+Often when asked to pay his board bill he would produce the note and ask
+for change. Before the startled clerk could draw his breath he would
+add:
+
+"Perhaps it might be best if I gave you an order on the treasurer."
+
+This always served to get him out of town without spending cash for
+hotel bills.
+
+Texas was still a rough country, and Charles's reckless display of the
+hundred-dollar bill once gave him a narrow escape from possible death.
+He had made the usual careless display of wealth at a small hotel in
+Calvert. The bad man of the town witnessed the performance and
+immediately began to shadow the young advance-agent. When Charles
+retired to his room he found, to his dismay, that there was no lock on
+the door. He had a distinct feeling that a robbery would be attempted,
+so he quietly left the hotel and spent the night riding back and forth
+on the train between Calvert and Dallas. This cost him nothing, for he
+had a pass.
+
+At Galveston occurred an unexpected meeting. Daniel Frohman, who was
+ahead of Callender's Minstrels, had arrived in town by boat from New
+Orleans (there being no railway connection then) to book his show for
+the next week. On arriving at the Tremont Opera House he was surprised
+to see Charles writing press notices in the box-office.
+
+"What are you doing here?" he asked. "I thought you were in Tennessee."
+
+Charles walked to the window and said, with great pride, "We play here
+all next week."
+
+"Have you got the whole week?" asked Daniel.
+
+"Yes," was the reply.
+
+"But can't you give me Monday or Tuesday night?" asked Daniel.
+
+"Impossible," replied Charles, haughtily.
+
+"All right," said Daniel, in friendly rivalry, "then I will have to hire
+Turner Hall and knock you out for two nights with our brass-band
+parade."
+
+Charles then came out into the lobby and confessed that his company was
+up against it, and that it meant bread and butter and possibly the whole
+future of the company if he could only play Galveston.
+
+"We are coming here on our trunks," he said, "and we've got to get some
+money."
+
+Daniel immediately relented. He arranged with the railroad to delay the
+train and thus make a connection which would carry his company on
+through to the interior. He booked Galveston for the second week
+following. This left the week in question free to Charles, who breathed
+easier.
+
+Charles now went on and billed Sherman, Houston, and Dallas. At Dallas
+the hard luck that had gripped the company the moment it left Memphis
+descended more vigorously than before. Dillon not only fell from grace
+again, but disappeared. Gustave Frohman had vowed that he would
+discharge him if he went on another spree, and he kept his word. They
+were in a real predicament, with star gone, business bad, and
+practically stranded a thousand miles from home.
+
+Charles, who frequently came back to join the company, was the one
+bright spot of those precarious days, for he never lost his optimism or
+his smile.
+
+"What we need," he said at a council of war in Dallas, "is a new play. I
+have been reading in the _New York Clipper_ about one called 'Pink
+Dominoes.' I think it is just the thing for us to do. In fact, I have
+already sent for a copy of it."
+
+The play arrived the next day, and when George Stoddart read it to him
+the young agent bubbled with laughter and said:
+
+"It's bound to be a big success."
+
+It was decided to put on "Pink Dominoes" at Houston. Charles remained
+behind and watched the rehearsals, the first of the kind he had ever
+seen. Contrary to all expectations, Houston was shocked by the play. The
+audience literally "walked out" and the run of one night ended.
+
+Misfortunes now crowded thick and fast. Salaries had ceased entirely,
+and it was with the utmost difficulty that the company proceeded on its
+way. As a crowning hardship, Callender repented of his bargain and
+withdrew the much-used and treasured hundred-dollar bill.
+
+When Charles met Gustave in Seguin he said: "We're up against a hard
+proposition. The people want John Dillon. It's hard to book an
+attraction without a star."
+
+In this statement Charles Frohman expressed a truth that he afterward
+made one of his theatrical axioms, for he became the leading exponent of
+the star system, and developed, in fact, into the king of the
+star-makers.
+
+Charles rose supreme over the hardships that filled his colleagues with
+gloom. Many a night, in order to save hotel bills, he slept on a train
+as it shunted back and forth between small towns. He always turned up in
+the morning smiling and serene, with cheer for his now discouraged and
+almost disgruntled colleagues.
+
+Louise Dillon's sealskin sack rendered heroic service during these
+precarious days. It was almost literally worn out as collateral. As
+Gustave had predicted, it got the company out of town on more than one
+occasion. A little incident will indicate some of the ordeals of that
+stage of the tour. At Hempstead a "norther" struck the town and the
+temperature dropped. Wesley Sisson caught a hard cold and concluded to
+get what he called "a good sweat." He had scarcely made his preparations
+and settled himself in bed when he heard a rap at the door and a voice
+said, "Open up."
+
+"Who's that?" asked Sisson.
+
+"Charley," was the reply. "Let me in. There isn't a spare bed in this
+house and I am freezing to death."
+
+"All right," said Sisson, "but you don't want to come in here, because I
+am trying to sweat to death."
+
+"Great Scott!" yelled Frohman, "that's what I want to do."
+
+Sisson let him in and he remained all night.
+
+* * *
+
+Everywhere Charles Frohman drew people to him. The first time he booked
+Houston he made friends with Colonel McPherson, who owned the Perkins
+Opera House and the inevitable saloon alongside. The old manager--a
+rather rough customer who had killed his man--was a great casino-player,
+and Charles beguiled several hours with him one night at a game while
+waiting for a train.
+
+In one of the company's darkest hours he said to Stoddart:
+
+"I've got an idea. Let's play Houston."
+
+"But we've just been there," said Stoddart.
+
+"Never mind," said Charles. "I'll fix it."
+
+The next day he turned up at Houston and went to Colonel McPherson.
+
+"What, you here again?" he asked.
+
+"We've come back," replied Charles with ready resource, "to play a
+special benefit for your School Teachers' Association."
+
+The old man chuckled. "Well, if you can get 'em in the house you are all
+right."
+
+Charles was already planning a series of benefits for volunteer firemen
+and widows and orphans in future towns. It was a case of "anything to
+get a crowd." He hesitated a moment, then faced the old man with his
+winning smile and said:
+
+"Colonel, I wish you would let me have fifty dollars to send back to the
+company."
+
+"All right, my boy; there's the safe. Help yourself. Hurry up. Let us
+have a game of casino."
+
+Charles wired the much-needed money to his brother, then came back and
+dutifully played the game. But neither trumped-up benefits for the most
+worthy of causes nor the unfailing good-humor of the boyish
+advance-agent could stem the tide of adversity. Things went from bad to
+worse. Louise Dillon, all hope of salary gone, gave her little remaining
+capital to Gustave, saving only enough for her railway fare, and went
+back to her home in Cincinnati. Stoddart now played more dolefully than
+ever on his violin, ransacked its recesses, and turned over his last
+cent for the common good.
+
+"We've got to get back North," said Gustave.
+
+With the utmost effort, and by pawning jewelry and clothes, the company
+gladly saw the last trace of Texas disappear over the horizon.
+
+It was a hard journey back. At Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Charles had to wait
+for the company because he did not have enough cash to go on ahead. Here
+the whole company was stranded until several of the members succeeded in
+getting enough money from home by wire to send them on.
+
+Memphis proved to be a life-saver. Here the company took a steamboat
+down the Arkansas. It is notable because thus early Charles showed that
+eagerness to take a chance which eventually caused his death, for, on
+this trip, as on the _Lusitania_, he had been warned not to sail.
+
+The river was low and the pilot was reckless. Whenever the boat groaned
+over a bar Charles would say, "That's great," although the other members
+of the company shivered with apprehension.
+
+By using every device and resource known to the traveling company of
+those days, the Stoddart Comedy Company finally reached Richmond,
+Kentucky. It had left a trail of baggage behind; there was not a watch
+in the whole aggregation. Charles went on ahead to Cincinnati to book
+and bill the adjacent towns.
+
+At Richmond Gustave had an inspiration. Then, as always, "Uncle Tom's
+Cabin" was the great life-saver of the harassed and needy theatrical
+organization. The play was always accessible and it almost invariably
+drew an audience.
+
+"Why not have a real negro play Uncle Tom?" said Gustave.
+
+So he wired Charles as follows:
+
+     _Get me an Eva and send her down with Sam Lucas. Be sure to tell
+     Sam to bring his diamonds._
+
+Sam Lucas was a famous negro minstrel who had been with the Callender
+company. He sported a collection of diamonds that made him the envy and
+admiration of his colleagues. Gustave knew that these jewels, like
+Louise Dillon's sealskin sack, meant a meal ticket for the company and
+transportation in an emergency.
+
+Charles engaged Sallie Cohen (now Mrs. John C. Rice), and sent her down
+with Lucas, who, by the way, provided the money for the trip. Charles
+then proceeded to cover his "Lemons" posters with "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
+printing which he hastily acquired, and awaited results.
+
+"Uncle Tom's Cabin" was played to a packed house at Richmond, and the
+company was able to get out of Kentucky. Gustave now had visions of big
+business in Ohio, and especially at Wilmington, which was Sam Lucas's
+home town. But the result was the usual experience with home patronage
+of home talent, and only a handful of people came to see the play.
+Sallie Cohen, despairing of getting her salary, had quit the company,
+and on this night Polly Stoddart, who was a tall, well-developed woman,
+had to play Little Eva. When she sat on the lap of Wesley Sisson, who
+played her father, she not only hid him from sight, but almost crushed
+him to earth.
+
+Wilmington proved to be the last despairing gasp of the Stoddart Comedy
+Company, for the trouble-studded tour now ended. Some of Lucas's
+diamonds were pawned to get the company back to Cincinnati.
+
+The sad news was telegraphed to Charles, who was billing Newport,
+Kentucky, which is just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. He
+received the message while standing on a step-ladder with a paste-brush
+in his hand. Now came an early evidence of his humor and equanimity. He
+calmly went on posting the bill for the show that he knew would never
+appear. Afterward in reciting the incident he made this explanation:
+
+"I didn't want to tell the bill-poster that the company was closed,
+because he had just made a fresh bucket of paste and I didn't want him
+to waste it. Besides, he had become enthusiastic at the prospect of
+seeing a real negro Uncle Tom, and I had just given him some passes for
+the show. I didn't want all his disappointments to come at one time."
+
+After all the hardships of the previous months, and with salaries
+unpaid, the company now found itself stranded in the spring of 1878 at
+the Walnut Street Hotel in Cincinnati. Gustave's problem was to get his
+people home. Fortunately, most of them lived in the Middle West. By
+pawning some of his clothes and making other sacrifices he was able to
+get them off. Only Frank Hartwell and Charles were left behind.
+
+Gustave got a pass to Baltimore, where he borrowed enough money from
+Callender, then in his decline, to take care of Hartwell. Charles was
+left behind as security for the whole Frohman bill at the Walnut Street
+Hotel. Although Charles was amiable and smiling, the hotel thought that
+his cheerful demeanor was an unsatisfactory return for board and
+lodging, so he was asked to vacate his room after a few days. He now
+spent his time walking about the streets and eating one meal a day. At
+night he sat in the summer-gardens "across the Rhine," listening to the
+music, and then seeking out a place where he could get a bed for a
+quarter.
+
+By giving an I O U to the same Pennsylvania ticket-agent who had staked
+Gustave, and with five dollars telegraphed by the indefatigable brother
+back in New York, he got as far as Philadelphia. He landed there without
+a cent in his pocket.
+
+"I must get home," he said.
+
+He got on a day-coach of a New York train without the vestige of a
+ticket and still penniless. In those days the cars were heated by
+stoves, and near each stove was a large coal-box.
+
+When Charles heard the conductor's cry, "Tickets, please!" he hid
+himself in the coal-box and remained there until the awful personage
+passed by. Being small, he could pull the lid of the box down and be
+completely hidden from sight. After the conductor passed, he scrambled
+out and resumed his seat. He had to repeat this performance several
+times on the trip. Afterward in speaking of it he said:
+
+"I wasn't a bit frightened for myself. I knew I would suffer no harm. My
+chief concern was for a kind-hearted old man who sat in the seat next
+to the coal-box. He was much more agitated than I was."
+
+On a bright May afternoon Charles turned up, sooty but smiling, at 250
+East Seventy-eighth Street, where the Frohman family then lived. He had
+walked all the way up-town from the ferry. His first greeting to Gustave
+was:
+
+"Well, when do we start again?"
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+PICTURESQUE DAYS AS MINSTREL MANAGER
+
+
+Instead of discouraging him, Charles Frohman's baptism of hardship with
+the John Dillon companies only filled him with a renewed ardor for the
+theatrical business. The hunger for the road was strong in him. Again it
+was Gustave who proved to be the good angel, and who now led him to a
+picturesque experience.
+
+During the summer of 1878 J. H. (Jack) Haverly acquired the Callender
+Original Georgia Minstrels, and Gustave, who had an important hand in
+the negotiation, was retained as manager. He started for the Pacific
+coast with his dusky aggregation, and in Chicago fell in with his new
+employer.
+
+Haverly was then at the high tide of his extraordinary career. He was in
+many respects the amusement dictator of his time. Beginning as owner of
+a small variety theater in Toledo, Ohio, he had risen to be the manager
+of half a dozen important theaters in New York, Chicago, and
+Philadelphia. Not less than ten traveling companies bore his name.
+
+By instinct a plunger, his daring deals became the theatrical talk of
+the country. He was a dashing and conspicuous figure; his spacious
+shirt-front shone with diamonds, and he wore a large flat-crowned stiff
+hat in which he carried all his correspondence and private papers.
+
+Haverly specialized in minstrels, for he was a genius at capitalizing
+the enthusiasm of the theater-going public. Just at this time he was
+launching the greatest of all his traveling enterprises. To meet the
+competition of the newly formed Barlow, Wilson, Primrose and West
+minstrels he decided to merge all his white minstrel companies into the
+Haverly Mastodons. It was to include forty star performers, more than
+had ever before been assembled in a minstrel organization. So proud was
+Haverly of this total that the advertising slogan of the company, which
+was echoed from coast to coast, and which became a popular theatrical
+phrase everywhere, was "Forty--Count 'Em--Forty."
+
+Gustave found Haverly in the throes of Mastodon-making. Always
+solicitous of the family interest, he asked him if he had engaged a
+treasurer. When Haverly replied that he had not, Gustave immediately
+spoke up:
+
+"Why don't you hire my brother Charley? He has had experience on the
+road."
+
+"All right, Gus," he replied. "I've got two Frohmans with me now. If
+Charley is as good as they are, he is all right."
+
+Thus it came about that for the first time the three Frohman brothers
+were associated under the same employer.
+
+Gustave wired the good news and transportation to the eager and
+impatient Charles, who had irked under the inactivity of a hot summer in
+New York. Gustave added ten dollars and instructed his brother to buy a
+new suit, for the Frohman family funds were in a more or less sad way.
+
+Henry Frohman's generosity and his absolute inability to press the
+payment of debts due him had brought the father to a state of financial
+embarrassment, and the burden of the family support fell upon the sons.
+
+In a few days Charles showed up smiling in Chicago, but he had suffered
+disaster on the way. The ten-dollar "hand-me-down" suit had faded
+overnight, and when Charles appeared it was a sad sight.
+
+"You can't meet Jack Haverly in that suit," said Gustave.
+
+"All right," said Charley, "I will go to a tailor and have it fixed in
+some way."
+
+The tailor, apparently, worked a miracle with the clothes, for Charles
+became presentable and was introduced to the great man, who, like most
+other people, readily succumbed to the boy's winning manner.
+
+"You and I will work the public, all right," he said to Charles. What
+was more important, Haverly informed him that he was to act as treasurer
+of the Mastodons at a salary of ten dollars a week, with an allowance of
+one dollar and a half a day for board and lodging.
+
+A serious complication now faced the boy. It was in the middle of July;
+the company was not to start until August, and he could draw no salary
+until the engagement began. With the assistance of Gustave he rented a
+two-dollar-a-week room and existed on a meal-ticket good for twenty-two
+fifteen-cent meals that he had bought for three dollars.
+
+Charles sat at rehearsals with Haverly. He had a genius for stage
+effects and made many practical suggestions. The big brass-band, an
+all-important adjunct of the minstrel show, fascinated him. When the
+season opened with a flourish the receipts amazed him.
+
+For the first time he came in contact with real money. The gross income
+of the Dillon company had never exceeded a thousand dollars a week; now
+he was handling more than that sum every night.
+
+After a brief engagement at the Adelphi Theater in Chicago, which
+Haverly owned, the "Forty--Count 'Em--Forty" started on their long tour
+which rounded out the amusement apprenticeship of Charles Frohman.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles now made his first real appearance before the public, and in
+spectacular fashion. It was the custom of a minstrel company to parade
+each day. With their record-breaking organization the Mastodons gave
+this feature of minstrelsy perhaps its greatest traditions. Wearing
+shining silk hats, frock-coats, and lavender trousers, and headed by
+"the world's greatest minstrel band," the "Forty--Count 'Em--Forty"
+swayed the heart and moved the imagination of admiring multitudes
+wherever they went.
+
+Charles, who to the end of his days despised a silk hat, now wore one
+for the first time, but under protest. However, he manfully took his
+place in the front set of fours with the ranking officers of the
+organization, and marched many a weary mile. So great was his dislike
+for a silk hat even then that he invariably carried a cap in his pocket
+and the moment the parade was over the abhorred headpiece was removed.
+
+The first stop of the Mastodons was at Toledo, Ohio. A great crowd
+assembled around the theater, and the treasurer, a weak little man,
+seemed afraid to raise the window. "They'll run over me," he whined.
+
+"All right," said Charles. "I'll take the window and sell the tickets."
+
+Up to this time his only box-office experience had been as a mere lad at
+Hooley's Theater in Brooklyn, but he handled that big crowd with such
+skill and speed that even "Big Bill" Foote, who was the manager of the
+company, patted him on the back and said a kind word.
+
+Foote, who was Charles's superior officer on this trip, was a type of
+the big, loud, blustering theatrical man of the time. He was six feet
+tall, and he towered over his youthful assistant, who was his exact
+opposite in manner and speech. Yet between these two men of strange
+contrast there developed a close kinship. The little, plump,
+rosy-cheeked treasurer could handle the big, bluff, noisy manager at
+will. Such was Charles Frohman's experience with men always.
+
+The first tour was replete with stirring incident. When the company
+reached Bradford, Pennsylvania, they found the town in the throes of oil
+excitement. Oil was on everybody's tongue and ankle-deep in some of the
+streets. A great multitude collected at the theater. After the first
+part of the show the gallery, which was full of people, creaked and
+settled a few inches, creating a near panic. While this was being
+subdued an oil-warehouse on the outskirts of the town burst into flames.
+Most of the volunteer firemen were in the theater watching the
+minstrels. When an agitated individual out on the sidewalk yelled
+"Fire!" a real panic started inside the theater and there was a mad rush
+for the door.
+
+Charles had just finished taking the tickets and stood with the
+ticket-box in his hand, trying to calm the crowd, but he was as a straw
+in the wind. The maddened people ran over him. When the excitement
+cleared away he was found almost buried in mud, mire, and oil outside,
+his clothes torn to shreds, but he still grasped the precious box in his
+hand.
+
+Now began a comradeship that was unique in the history of theatricals.
+The Mastodons, destined for long and continuous association, became a
+sort of traveling club. It was really a fine group of men, and the
+favorite of the organization was the rosy little treasurer who day by
+day fastened himself more firmly in the hearts of his colleagues.
+
+Nor was this due to the fact that he was "Haverly's pocket-book," as the
+men affectionately called him, and their first aid in all financial
+need. He was the friend, confidant, and repository of all their
+troubles. With characteristic humor he gave each member of the company a
+day on which he could relate his hardships. He had a willing ear and an
+open hand.
+
+When he could not give them the relief they sought he invariably said
+with that constant smile, "Well, I sympathize with you, anyhow."
+
+Frohman was custodian of the company funds. One day in Denver four
+members of the company found themselves without a cent. Charles had
+tided them over so many difficulties that they hesitated to ask him
+again. As they talked their troubles over they saw him coming down the
+street. Instantly all four went down on their knees and held up their
+hands in supplication. When Charles saw them he said, "How much do you
+want?" And they got it.
+
+He was always playing some practical joke. With half a dozen members of
+the company he formed a little club which often had supper after the
+play. This club was the fountain-head of a thousand jests and pranks. On
+one occasion Charles suggested that for the sake of the novelty of the
+thing every member of the club have his head shaved. The group went to a
+barber-shop. Only one chair was vacant, however, and Charles Cushman
+got that chair. While his dome was being shorn of every vestige of hair
+Charles nudged the others and they crept away. When Cushman emerged,
+bald as a babe, he found himself alone. The joke was on him.
+
+In his joke Charles was usually aided and abetted by Johnnie Rice, one
+of the many famous minstrels of that name. Rice could never resist the
+temptation to stroke long whiskers. Whenever the house was unusually big
+Charles took Rice out of the company for the first part and got him to
+assist him with the ticket-taking. Any spectator with a long facial
+hirsute growth was sure to have it caressed to the accompaniment of
+"Ticket, please."
+
+Sometimes the men in the company, knowing of Rice's eccentricity, often
+watched the gallery for such a performance, and it invariably made them
+laugh. Once while the Mastodons were playing an engagement at the
+Olympic in St. Louis they were surprised to find Rice sitting in a front
+orchestra seat, wearing a long pair of Dundreary whiskers. He looked so
+solemn that every one on the stage burst into laughter. It almost broke
+up the performance. Charles had provided the whiskers.
+
+* * *
+
+It was on this minstrel tour that Charles Frohman gave the first real
+expression to his talents for publicity. Everything about a minstrel
+company was showy and flashy. So Charles originated a unique idea of
+establishing a reputation for solvency. He bought a small iron safe
+about three feet high. On it were painted in large gilt letters,
+"Treasurer, Haverly's Mastodon Minstrels."
+
+In reality there was very little need for this safe, because "Jack"
+Haverly's constant and insistent demands for cash kept the company
+coffers stripped of surplus.
+
+Charles saw in this safe a spectacular means of advertising. It was put
+conspicuously on the top of the first load of baggage that went to the
+hotel. He always engaged at least four men to unload it from the truck.
+It was then placed in a conspicuous position in the hotel lobby and
+invariably drew a comment like this:
+
+"Gee whiz! That Haverly show has got so much money that it is carrying a
+safe to hold it."
+
+This was precisely the response that Charles desired. No sooner was the
+safe unloaded in the lobby than Charles approached it with great
+ceremony, holding a bunch of one-dollar bills in his hand. This
+immediately attracted a crowd. With an admiring gallery, he would stow
+away the money. Just as soon as the crowd dispersed he would be back on
+the job removing this "prop" capital to where it was needed.
+
+He was always alert to publicity possibilities. Among other things he
+organized a drum corps composed of volunteers who were only too glad to
+serve him. He inspired this corps to such proficiency that its marching
+and counter-marching became a feature of the parades. By diverting the
+drum corps to one part of the town and the parade to another, having
+them unite later on, he was able to attract two big street crowds and
+then bring them together at a common point.
+
+All the while the boy was growing in responsibility. Without a murmur he
+assumed practically all the duties of manager. He arranged the parades,
+visited the newspaper offices, devised new numbers for the company,
+handled the money, and always remained serene, undisturbed, smiling, and
+optimistic.
+
+Now came evidence of his initiative. While his first desire was to build
+up the attractiveness of his bill, he combined with it a genuine desire
+to develop his associates. Frequently he would say to men like the three
+Gorman brothers--George, James, and John--who were among his prime pals
+in the company:
+
+"Why don't you rehearse some new steps? I'll go on and watch you at
+rehearsals and we can put it in the bill."
+
+Out of such incidents as this came a dozen new features.
+
+* * *
+
+During this tour Charles displayed on many occasions what amounted to a
+reckless disregard of danger. He had proved on the Dillon tour that he
+was always willing to take a chance.
+
+Once while climbing a steep incline on the way to Grass Valley in
+California their special train stopped. When he asked what the trouble
+was he was told that they would have to wait on a switch while another
+train came down the single track. He was afraid he would miss the
+evening's performance, so he asked the engineer if he could beat the
+down train to the double track. On being told that there was a chance,
+he said:
+
+"Take it and go as fast as you can." He made his town in time.
+
+Again in Colorado his train was stopped by a slight fire on a bridge. He
+urged the conductor to go across, and was so insistent that the man
+yielded, and the train got over just before the flames leaped up and the
+structure began to crackle.
+
+What would have been an ordinary theatrical season waned. A minstrel
+company, however, seldom closed for the summer, so the tour continued.
+For the first time Charles Frohman crossed the continent. Despite its
+high-sounding name and the glitter and splash that marked its
+spectacular progress from place to place, the long trip of the Mastodons
+was not without its hardships, for business was often bad. Nor did it
+lack interesting episodes.
+
+Once while making an over-Sunday jump from St. Paul to Omaha the train
+broke down somewhere in Iowa, and at seven o'clock the company was four
+hours from its destination. The house had been sold out. Charles
+immediately began to send optimistic and encouraging telegrams.
+
+"Hold the crowd," he wired. "We are on the way. Tell them we will give
+them a double show."
+
+From every station he sent on some cheering message. When the train was
+half an hour from Omaha he sought out Sam Devere, the prize banjoist of
+the company and a great fun-maker.
+
+"Go into the baggage-car and black up," he said to Sam. "I want to rush
+you on to the theater as soon as we get to town."
+
+They reached Omaha at eleven-fifteen o'clock. Charles hustled Devere up
+to the opera-house in a hack. The comedian went before the curtain and
+entertained the audience until midnight. When the company arrived not
+twenty people had left. The final curtain dropped at two-thirty o'clock
+before a delighted but weary crowd. The telegrams from the treasurer
+which were read to the audience had saved the day--and the receipts.
+
+In the early stages of this long journey of the Mastodons came an
+episode that made an indelible impress upon the memory of young Charles.
+In view of the later history of the two actors in it, it is both
+picturesque and historic.
+
+It was in Cleveland, and the day was hot. The Mastodons had just
+finished their parade, and Charles, weary, perspiring, and wearing the
+abhorred silk hat, entered the box-office of the Opera House on
+Cleveland Avenue. Sitting in the treasurer's seat at the window he saw a
+sturdy lad fingering a pile of silver dollars. He slipped them in and
+out with an amazing dexterity. Hearing a noise, he looked up and beheld
+young Frohman with the tile tilted back on his head.
+
+The boys' eyes met. Into each came a wistful look.
+
+"I wish I had that silk hat of yours," said the boy at the window.
+
+"I wish I could do what you are doing with that money," was the response
+from the envied one.
+
+Such was the first meeting between Charles Frohman and A. L. Erlanger.
+
+Here is another episode of those early days that resulted in a life-long
+and significant friendship. In a Philadelphia newspaper office Charles
+met a rangy, keen-eyed young man named Alf Hayman, who was advance-agent
+for Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Florence. When Hayman and Charles had concluded
+their business they started out for a walk. The Colonnade Hotel, at the
+corner of Fifteenth and Chestnut streets, was then the fashionable hotel
+of the city. In the course of this walk the two boys (they were each
+scarcely twenty) stopped in front of the hostelry, and Charles said:
+
+"Some day I hope to have enough money to stop at the Colonnade."
+
+He never forgot this, and whenever he met Hayman in Philadelphia he
+would always insist upon walking over to the hotel and recalling the
+conversation. Hayman afterward became general manager of all the Charles
+Frohman forces and remained until the end perhaps the closest of all the
+business associates of the manager.
+
+* * *
+
+Thus passed the years 1878 and 1879. Charles was growing in authority
+and experience until he was really doing all of "Big Bill" Foote's work
+and his own. Now came a great and thrilling experience.
+
+Haverly sent the Mastodons on their first trip to England, and Charles
+naturally went along. It was the first of the many trips he was to make
+to the country which in time he was to annex to his own amusement
+kingdom.
+
+In July, 1880, the company sailed on the _Canada_, and their arrival in
+London created a sensation. The men, headed by "Big Bill" Foote and
+Charles Frohman--"The Long and the Short of It," as they were
+called--marched with their hat-boxes to the old Helvetia Hotel in Soho.
+
+Overnight their printing--the first colored paper ever used on an
+English bill-board--was posted, and it startled the staid Londoners. It
+made them realize that a wide-awake aggregation was in town. Charles
+knew that a real opportunity confronted him, and he rose to the
+occasion.
+
+The engagement opened on July 30th at Her Majesty's Theater. The sacred
+precincts that Patti, Neilson, Gerster, and Campanini had adorned now
+resounded with the jokes and rang with the old-time plantation melodies
+of the American negro. The debut was an enormous success and the
+prosperity of the engagement was insured.
+
+Before long came a request from the royal household to make ready the
+royal box. The fun-loving Prince of Wales, afterward King Edward VII.,
+wanted to see an American minstrel show.
+
+But it was the wide-awake Charles who had started the machinery that led
+to this royal dictate. He realized soon after his arrival how important
+a royal visit would be. He got in touch with the right people, and the
+net result was that on a certain night in December the red canopy and
+carpet that betoken the royal visit were spread before Her Majesty's
+Theater.
+
+By virtue of his rank "Big Bill" Foote should have received the royal
+party on behalf of the company. But Foote fled from the responsibility,
+and Charles, wearing his much-hated evening clothes and the equally
+despised silk hat, did the honors. The royal party included Edward, his
+wife, Alexandra (now the Queen Mother), his brother Clarence (now dead),
+and a troop of royal children old enough to stay up late at nights.
+
+With his usual foresight Frohman had prepared himself for all the
+formalities that attended a royal visit to the theater. Among other
+things he found out that precedent decreed that the entire performance
+must be directed toward the royal box. With much effort he carefully
+impressed this fact upon the company. He even had a rehearsal the
+morning of the royal night and all eyes were ordered to be "dressed"
+toward the big, canopied box.
+
+But these well-laid plans miscarried, for this is what happened:
+
+The curtain had risen on the assembled fun-makers; their swinging
+opening chorus had given the show a rousing start, and the interlocutor
+had said those well-known introductory minstrel words, "Gentlemen, be
+seated." The royal party was well bestowed in its place and every
+gleaming eyeball on the stage was centered on the glittering
+representatives of the reigning house of Britain. Just at that moment a
+flutter ran through the theater. The only remaining vacant box, and
+opposite to the one used by the royal family, was suddenly occupied by
+the most entrancing and radiant feminine vision that these American
+minstrels had ever seen. It was Lily Langtry, then in the full tide of
+her marvelous beauty, and wearing an extremely low-cut evening gown.
+
+The Mastodons were only human. They had never beheld such loveliness, to
+say nothing of a gown cut so low. They forgot all the careful coaching
+of Frohman and fixed their eyes on the beauty-show in the box.
+
+Charles stood anxiously in the back of the house, fearing that the royal
+displeasure would be aroused. But his fears were groundless. The
+hypnotized minstrels on the stage were only part of an admiring host
+that had for its most distinguished head the Prince of Wales himself.
+
+The "Forty--Count 'Em--Forty" now became the vogue in London. Royalty
+had set the stamp of its approval, and aristocracy flocked. One night in
+the momentary absence of the chief usher, Charles, who was always on the
+job, escorted a distinguished group of nobility to a box. After bowing
+them in a member of the party slipped a shilling into his hand, which
+Frohman, of course, refused.
+
+"Take it, you beggar," said the peer, with some irritation, throwing the
+coin at him.
+
+"Thank you, sir," responded Frohman, picking it up and slipping it into
+his pocket. He kept it as a lucky-piece for twenty years, often telling
+the story of how he got it.
+
+On Christmas Day, 1880, came a concrete evidence of the affection in
+which Charles was held by his minstrel colleagues. They assembled on the
+stage of Her Majesty's Theater and presented him with a gold watch and
+chain. The charm was a tiny reproduction of the famous safe that Charles
+had introduced into the company, and which was his inseparable
+companion. Charles never carried a watch, and this timepiece, together
+with many other similar gifts, was put away among his treasures.
+
+One day, accompanied by Robert Filkins, the advance-agent, Charles had
+occasion to see Col. M. B. Leavitt, who was a notable theatrical figure
+of the time, with extensive interests in this country and abroad. After
+Leavitt had regaled the younger men with an account of his varied
+activities, Charles suddenly exclaimed to him:
+
+"Gee! But you've got London by the neck, haven't you?"
+
+Many years later Leavitt again met Charles Frohman in London. The
+encounter this time took place on the Strand, in front of the Savoy,
+where Frohman was installed in his usual luxurious suite. He now
+controlled half a dozen theaters in the British metropolis and he was a
+world theatrical figure. Leavitt, whose memory is one of the wonders of
+the amusement business, clapped the magnate on the shoulder and repeated
+the words spoken to him so long ago:
+
+"Gee! Frohman, _you'_ve got London by the neck, haven't you?"
+
+After a tour of the provinces the company returned home and opened in
+Brooklyn.
+
+* * *
+
+With the return to America came the first realization of one of Charles
+Frohman's earlier dreams. "Big Bill" Foote, fascinated by the lure of
+English life, bought a small hotel near London and settled down. This
+left the managership of the company vacant. Although Charles had
+practically done all the work for nearly a year, he was, so far as title
+was concerned, treasurer.
+
+Immediately there was a scramble for the position of manager. Among
+those who sought it were Robert Filkins, William S. Strickland, and a
+number of other mature and experienced men.
+
+But when the company heard that an outsider sought the position to which
+Charles was entitled there was great indignation. A meeting of protest,
+instigated by the Gorman brothers and Eddie Quinn, was held on the stage
+in Brooklyn, and a round-robin, signed by every member of the company,
+was despatched to Jack Haverly, insisting that Charles Frohman be made
+the manager.
+
+A little later Charles walked back on the stage after the night's
+performance and quietly remarked:
+
+"Boys, I am your new manager."
+
+A great shout of delight went up. The rosy, boyish youth (for he had
+scarcely entered his twenties) was lifted to the shoulders of half a
+dozen men and to the words of a favorite minstrel song, "Hear Those
+Bells," a triumphant march was made around the stage. None of the many
+honors that came to him in his later years touched him quite so deeply
+as that affectionate demonstration.
+
+It was now 1881, and once more the "Forty--Count 'Em--Forty" set forth
+to rediscover America, with Charles Frohman as manager. His name now
+appeared at the head of the bill, and to celebrate the great event Eddy
+Brooke wrote a "Frohman March," which had a conspicuous place on the
+program.
+
+Strangely prophetic of the circumstances which brought about his
+untimely death was an incident which occurred while the company was
+going by boat from New York to New London. It was a bitter cold night
+when the aggregation boarded the old _John B. Starin_. The decks were
+piled with waste, cord, and jute for the New England mills.
+
+"What a fine night for a fire on board!" remarked Frohman as he led his
+"soldiers," as he always called the Mastodons, aboard. Everybody retired
+early. At two o'clock in the morning there was great excitement. Men
+rushed frantically about; there were calls for hose, and the Mastodons,
+most of them clad in their night-clothes and trousers, rushed,
+frightened, on deck. They found a fire raging aft.
+
+Immediately panic reigned. The coolest man aboard was the smallest.
+Here, there, and everywhere went Charles, urging everybody to be quiet.
+
+"There is no danger," he said. "Let us all go in the cabin and wait."
+
+Under his direction the passengers assembled in the water-soaked saloon
+and there waited until the flames were subdued. Here was evidence of the
+equanimity with which he faced disaster and which marked him on that
+ill-starred day when he was plunged to his death in the Irish Sea.
+
+On through the summer of 1881 the Mastodons went their way. Charles was
+now able to watch the minstrel parade from the sidewalk, but he was
+still the friend, philosopher, and guide of the company to which he was
+now bound by nearly three years of constant association.
+
+They played Washington during the Garfield inaugural week. Charles
+realized that here was a great opportunity for spectacular publicity.
+First of all he took his now famous band down to the Willard Hotel and
+serenaded the new executive. A vast crowd gathered; the President-elect
+appeared at the window, smiled and bowed, and then sent for the little
+manager, to whom he expressed his personal thanks. Then a heaven-born
+opportunity literally fell into his hands.
+
+To the same hotel came the Massachusetts Phalanx, of Lowell, which had
+secured a conspicuous place in the inaugural parade. Their arrangement
+committee had seen the Haverly parade, and the members were so greatly
+impressed with the band that they asked if its services could be
+secured.
+
+"Certainly," said Frohman. "You can have not only the band, but the
+whole company will escort you in the parade."
+
+Thus it came about that the Haverly Mastodon Minstrels headed the third
+division of the Garfield inaugural parade. Ever mindful and proud of his
+men, Frohman, at his personal expense, bought a buttonhole bouquet for
+every member for the occasion and fastened it on their coats himself. On
+the sidewalk he followed with admiring eye and flushed face the progress
+of his company.
+
+By a curious coincidence the Haverly Mastodons played Washington during
+the week of the Garfield funeral, and the band marched in the funeral
+parade to the station, playing "Nearer, My God, to Thee."
+
+A happier sequel of the inaugural episode came when the minstrels next
+played Lowell, where they were received by the Phalanx in full uniform,
+paraded through the town, with Charles marching proudly at the head. The
+Phalanx was host at a banquet given at the armory after the performance.
+
+The Mastodons were now making their way to the Pacific coast. At the
+same time Gustave Frohman was in San Francisco with the Number One
+"Hazel Kirke" Company, direct from the Madison Square Theater in New
+York, which was playing at the California Theater.
+
+One morning in May, 1881, he received the following telegram from
+Charles, dated Salt Lake City:
+
+     _Am stranded here with the "Big Forty." So is Frank Sanger with "A
+     Bunch of Keys." Theater management has failed to send railroad
+     fares. Wire me what you can. Will return amount out of receipts
+     Bush Street Theater._
+
+The manager of the Bush Street Theater, in San Francisco, had agreed to
+provide railroad transportation for the company from Salt Lake City to
+San Francisco and had not kept his agreement. The receipts in the former
+city did not leave a sufficient surplus to negotiate this jump.
+
+Gustave wired the needed cash, and Charles showed up on time in San
+Francisco. For the second and only other time in his theatrical career
+Charles was somewhat downcast. Despite his effective services during the
+preceding years, Haverly had only raised his salary to twenty-five
+dollars a week. The boy had handled hundreds of thousands of dollars
+and had helped in no small way to give to the organization its prestige
+and its _esprit de corps_. He was now, in the phraseology of his
+associates, "the whole show." His word was law with the company, and the
+men adored him.
+
+He met Gustave at the Palace Hotel and said to him, "I suppose the time
+has come for me to quit Haverly."
+
+"All right," said Gustave, still the good angel. "I'll put you out ahead
+of our Number Two 'Hazel Kirke' Company at a salary of seventy-five
+dollars a week. You can start out right away. What do you say?"
+
+Charles thought a moment, and then said: "Well, Gus, it's pretty tough
+to go ahead of a Number Two company even at seventy-five dollars a week
+when you have been manager of Haverly's Mastodons. The money doesn't
+mean anything to me. I like the minstrel boys and they like me."
+
+He still hesitated and walked up and down the room two or three times,
+as was his habit. Finally he came over to his brother and said,
+decisively:
+
+"I'll take it."
+
+During this memorable visit to San Francisco occurred another event that
+had large influence on the whole future life of the young man. One night
+in a famous ratheskeller on Kearney Street he saw an artistic-looking
+youth with curly hair and dreamy eyes sitting in the midst of a group of
+actors. This youth was David Belasco, who had passed from actor to
+author-stage-manager and whose melodrama, "American Born," was running
+at the Baldwin Theater. Frohman had seen this play and was much
+impressed with it. Thrillers had interested him from the start.
+
+Gustave, who was with Belasco, said to him: "There's my brother Charley.
+You ought to know him."
+
+Simultaneously Belasco was pointed out to Charles. They glanced up at
+the same time, nodded smilingly across the space between, and later on
+when they were introduced Charles expressed his great admiration for
+"American Born." Belasco had just received the offer from Daniel Frohman
+to come to the Madison Square Theater in New York as stage-manager.
+
+Out of this contact came the association between Charles Frohman and
+David Belasco that added much to their achievements.
+
+Charles gave Haverly notice, and at Indianapolis he left the Mastodons.
+He slipped away without farewells, and when his absence became known a
+gloom settled down on the company. Unconsciously the rosy-cheeked boy
+had become its inspiration. For weeks the performances lacked their
+customary zip and enthusiasm.
+
+His minstrel days over, save for two brief intervals, Charles was now
+about to begin his connection with the Madison Square Theater. It was to
+mark, because of the men with whom he now became associated and the
+revolution in theatrical methods which he brought about, the first
+really significant epoch in his crowded career.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+IN THE NEW YORK THEATRICAL WHIRLPOOL
+
+
+When Charles Frohman went to the Madison Square Theater in 1881 the
+three Frohman brothers were literally installed for the first time under
+the same managerial roof. From this hour on the affairs of Charles were
+bound up in large theatrical conduct.
+
+Since the Madison Square Theater thus becomes the background of his real
+activities, the shell out of which he emerged as a full-fledged manager,
+the institution, and its significance in dramatic history, are well
+worth recording here.
+
+The little Madison Square Theater, located back of the old Fifth Avenue
+Hotel, on Twenty-fourth Street near Broadway, was established at a time
+when a new force was hovering over the New York stage. This playhouse,
+destined to figure so prominently in the fortunes of all the Frohmans,
+and especially Charles, grew out of the somewhat radical convictions of
+Steele Mackaye, one of the most brilliant and erratic characters of his
+time. He was actor, lecturer, and playwright, and he taught the art of
+acting on lines laid down by Delsarte. Dr. George Mallory, editor of
+_The Churchman_, became interested in his views and regarded Mackaye as
+a man with a distinct mission. He induced his brother, Marshall Mallory,
+to build the Madison Square Theater.
+
+Steele Mackaye was the first director, and, with the active co-operation
+of the Mallorys, launched its career. Dr. Mallory believed that the
+drama needed reform; that the way to reform it was to play reformed
+drama. So the place was dedicated to healthy plays. "A wholesome place
+for wholesome amusement" became the slogan. Contracts for plays were
+made only with American authors. Here were produced the earlier triumphs
+of Steele Mackaye, Bronson Howard, William Gillette, H. H. Boyessen, and
+Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett. In this house, in "May Blossom," De Wolf
+Hopper first appeared in a stock company, afterward going into musical
+comedy. Among the actors seen on its boards during the Frohman regime
+were Agnes Booth, Viola Allen, Effie Ellsler, Georgia Cayvan, Mrs.
+Whiffen, Marie Burroughs, Annie Russell, George Clarke, Jeffreys Lewis,
+C. W. Couldock, Thomas Whiffen, Dominick Murray, and Eben Plympton. Rose
+Coghlan was also a member of the company, but had no opportunity of
+playing.
+
+The house had certain unique and attractive qualities. It had been
+charmingly decorated by Louis C. Tiffany, and one of its principal
+features was a double stage, which enabled the scenery for one act to be
+set while another was being played before the audience. Thus long waits
+were avoided.
+
+The name of Frohman was associated with this theater from the very
+start, because its first manager was Daniel Frohman. It opened in
+February, 1880, with Steele Mackaye's play "Hazel Kirke," which was an
+instantaneous success. The little theater, with its novel stage,
+intimate atmosphere, admirable company, and a policy that was definite
+and original, became one of the most popular in America. "Hazel Kirke"
+ran four hundred and eighty-six nights in New York City without
+interruption, which was a record run up to that time. In the original
+cast were Effie Ellsler, Eben Plympton, Mr. and Mrs. Whiffen, and
+Charles W. Couldock.
+
+* * *
+
+The Madison Square Theater was also an important factor in New York
+dramatic life and began to rival the prestige of the Wallack, Palmer,
+and Daly institutions. Its fame, due to the record-breaking "Hazel
+Kirke" success, became nation-wide.
+
+Now began an activity under its auspices that established a whole new
+era in the conduct of the theater. It was the dawn of a "big business"
+development that sent the Madison Square successes throughout the
+country, and Charles Frohman was one of its sponsors.
+
+Gustave Frohman had been engaged as director of the traveling companies.
+He engaged Charles as an associate. The work of the Frohmans was
+carefully mapped out. It was Daniel's business to select the casts,
+organize and rehearse the companies in New York; Gustave took general
+charge of the road equipment; while Charles arranged and booked the road
+tours.
+
+It was after the phenomenal first season's run of "Hazel Kirke" that
+Charles Frohman hung up his hat in the little "back office" of the
+Madison Square Theater to begin the work that was to project his name
+and his talents prominently for the first time. New York sizzled through
+the hottest summer it had ever known; Garfield lay dying, and the whole
+country was in a state of unrest. Charles sweltered in his little
+cubbyhole, but he was enthusiastic and optimistic about his new job.
+
+Gustave and Charles had complete charge of all the traveling companies
+that developed out of the series of "runs" at the theater. They
+inaugurated a whole new and brilliant theatrical activity in towns and
+cities removed from theatrical centers, regarding which the other big
+managers in New York were ignorant.
+
+With the organization of these Madison Square companies the "Number Two
+Company" idea was born. It was a distinct innovation. A play like "Hazel
+Kirke," for example, was played by as many as five companies at one
+time, each company being adjusted financially to the type of town to
+which it was sent. "Hazel Kirke" appeared simultaneously in New York
+City at three different theaters, each with a separate and distinct type
+of audience.
+
+Under the direction of Gustave and Charles, the outside business of the
+Madison Square Theater spread so rapidly that in a short time fourteen
+road companies carried the name of the establishment to all parts of the
+United States. Despite their youth, the three Frohmans had had a very
+extensive experience over the whole country.
+
+In those days the booking of road attractions was not made through
+syndicates. Applications for time had to be made individually to every
+manager direct, even in the case of the most obscure one-night stand.
+The big New York managers only concerned themselves with the larger
+cities in which their companies made annual appearances. The smaller
+towns had to trust to chance to get attractions outside the standard
+"road shows."
+
+Charles realized this lack of booking facilities, and dedicated his
+talents and experience to remedying it. His seasons on the road with
+John Dillon and the Haverly Minstrels had equipped him admirably. He
+not only displayed remarkable judgment in routing companies, but he was
+now able to express his genius for publicity. He always believed in the
+value of big printing.
+
+"Give them pictures," he said.
+
+He urged a liberal policy in this respect, and the Madison Square
+Theater backed his judgment to the extent of more than one hundred
+thousand dollars a year for picture posters and elaborate printing of
+all kinds. The gospel of Madison Square Theater art and its enterprises
+was thus spread broadcast, not with ordinary cheap-picture advertising,
+but with artistic lithographs. In fact, here began the whole process of
+expensive and elaborate bill-posting, and Charles Frohman was really the
+father of it.
+
+Under his direction the first "flashlights" ever taken of a theatrical
+company for advertising purposes were made at the Madison Square
+Theater.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles was now director of nearly a score of agents who traveled about
+with the various companies. He vitalized them with his enthusiasm. In
+order to expedite their work, Charles and his brothers rented and
+furnished a large house on Twenty-fourth Street near the theater. It was
+in reality a sort of club, for a dining-room was maintained, and there
+were a number of bedrooms. When the agents came to town they lodged
+here. Charles, Gustave, and Daniel also had rooms in this house. A
+dressmaking department was established on the premises where many of the
+costumes for the road companies were made.
+
+During these days Charles gave frequent evidence of his tact and
+persuasiveness. Often when matters of policy had to be fixed and
+discussed, the managers of out-of-town theaters would be called to New
+York. It was Charles's business to take them in hand and straighten out
+their troubles. They would leave, feeling that they had got the best
+"time" for their theaters and that they had made a friend in the
+optimistic little man who was then giving evidence of that uncanny
+instinct for road management that stood him in such good stead later on.
+
+With his usual energy Charles was interested in every phase of the
+Madison Square Theater. Frequently, accompanied by Wesley Sisson, who
+succeeded Daniel Frohman during the latter's occasional absences from
+the theater, he would slip into the balcony and watch rehearsals. He sat
+with one leg curled under him, following the scenes with keenest
+interest. More than once his sharp, swift criticism helped to smooth
+away a rough spot.
+
+He impressed his personality and capacity upon all who came in contact
+with him. It was said of him then, as it was said later on, that he
+could sit in his little office and make out a forty weeks' tour for a
+company without recourse to a map. In fact, he carried the whole
+theatrical map of the country under his hat.
+
+* * *
+
+In the strenuous life of those Madison Square days came some of Charles
+Frohman's closest and longest friendships.
+
+The first was with Marc Klaw. It grew out of play piracy, the inevitable
+result of the theater's successes. Throughout the country local managers
+began to steal the Madison Square plays and put them on with
+"fly-by-night" companies. Since they were unable to get manuscripts of
+the play, the pirates sent stenographers to the theater to copy the
+parts. These stenographers had to sit in the dark and write
+surreptitiously. In many instances, in order to keep the lines of their
+notes straight, they stretched strings across their note-books.
+
+Gustave Frohman happened to be in Louisville with the Number One "Hazel
+Kirke" Company. He was looking about for a lawyer who could investigate
+and prosecute the piracy of the Madison Square plays. He made inquiry of
+John T. Macauley, manager of Macauley's Theater, who said:
+
+"There's a young lawyer here named Marc Klaw who is itching to get into
+the theatrical business. Why don't you give him a chance?"
+
+Frohman immediately engaged Klaw to do some legal work for the Madison
+Square Theater, and he successfully combated the play pirates in the
+South. The copyright laws then were inadequate, however, and Klaw was
+ordered to New York, where, after a short preliminary training, he was
+sent out as manager of the Number Two "Hazel Kirke" Company of which
+Charles Frohman was advance-agent. In this way the meeting between the
+two men, each destined to wield far-flung theatrical authority, came
+about.
+
+Charles resented going out with a "Number Two" Company, so to placate
+his pride and to give distinction to the enterprise, Daniel put Georgia
+Cayvan, leading lady of the Madison Square Theater, at the head of the
+cast.
+
+There was good business method in putting out Miss Cayvan on this tour,
+because she was a New-Englander, born at Bath, Maine, and Bath was
+included in this tour. When Charles reached Bath ahead of the show he
+rode on the front seat of the stage to the hotel. He told the driver
+that he was coming with a big New York show, and said:
+
+"I've got a big sensation for Bath."
+
+"What's that?" said the driver.
+
+"We have Miss Cayvan as the leading lady," answered Frohman.
+
+"Miss Who?" asked the driver.
+
+"Miss Cayvan--Miss Georgia Cayvan, leading woman of the Madison Square
+Theater," answered Frohman, with a great flourish.
+
+"Oh," replied the driver, "you mean our little Georgie. We heard tell
+that she was acting on the stage, and now I guess some folks will be
+right smart glad to see her."
+
+Charles was so much interested in Miss Cayvan's appearance in her home
+town that he came back and joined the company on its arrival and was
+present at the station when Marc Klaw brought the company in.
+
+Quite a delegation of home people were on hand to meet Miss Cayvan, and
+she immediately assumed the haughty airs of a prima donna.
+
+Charles was much amused, and decided to "take her down" in an amiable
+way. So he stepped up to her with great solemnity, removed his hat, and
+said, after the manner of his old minstrel days:
+
+"Miss Cayvan, we parade at eleven."
+
+Miss Cayvan saw the humor of the situation, took the hint, and got down
+off her high horse. In the company with Miss Cayvan at that time were
+Maude Stuart, Charles Wheatleigh, Frank Burbeck, W. H. Crompton, and
+Mrs. E. L. Davenport, the mother of Fanny Davenport.
+
+* * *
+
+While Charles was impressing his personality and talents at the Madison
+Square Theater and really finding himself for the first time, Gustave
+Frohman met Jack Haverly on the street one day. The old magnate said,
+with emphasis:
+
+"Gus, I've got to have Charles back."
+
+"You can't have him," said Gustave.
+
+"But I must," said Haverly.
+
+"Well, if you pay him one hundred and forty-six dollars a week (one
+hundred and twenty-five dollars salary and twenty-one dollars for hotel
+bills) you can have him for a limited time."
+
+"All right," said Haverly.
+
+Charles went back to the Mastodons, where he received a royal welcome.
+But his heart had become attuned to the real theater--to the hum of its
+shifting life, to the swift tumult of its tears and laughter. The
+excitement of the drama, and all the speculation that it involved (and
+he was a born speculator), were in his blood. He heeded the call and
+went back to the Madison Square Theater.
+
+But the minstrel field was to claim him again and for the last time.
+Gustave conceived a plan to send the Callender Minstrels on a
+spectacular tour across the continent. The nucleus of the old
+organization, headed by the famous Billy Kersands, was playing in
+England under the name of Haverly's European Minstrels, Haverly having
+acquired the company some years before. Charles was sent over to get the
+pick of the Europeans for the new aggregation. Accompanied by Howard
+Spear, he sailed on June 7, 1882, on the _Wyoming_.
+
+He encountered some difficulty in getting the leading members, so with
+characteristic enterprise he bought the whole company from Haverly and
+brought it back to the United States, where it was put on the road as
+Callender's Consolidated Spectacular Colored Minstrels. On all the bills
+appeared the inscription "Gustave and Charles Frohman, Proprietors." As
+a matter of fact, Charles had very little to do with the company,
+although he made a number of its contracts. His financial interest was
+trivial. Gustave used his name because Charles had been prominently
+associated with the Mastodons and he had achieved some eminence as a
+minstrel promoter.
+
+Having launched the Callender aggregation, he went on to Chicago, where
+Gustave was putting on David Belasco's play "American Born," with the
+author himself as producer. Charles joined his brother in promoting the
+enterprise.
+
+Now began the real friendship between Charles Frohman and David Belasco.
+The chance contact in San Francisco a few years before was now succeeded
+by a genuine introduction. The men took to each other instinctively and
+with a profound understanding. They shared the same room and had most of
+their meals together. Then, as throughout his whole life, Charles
+consumed large portions of pie (principally apple, lemon meringue, and
+pumpkin) and drank large quantities of lemonade or sarsaparilla. One day
+while they were having lunch together Frohman said to Belasco:
+
+"You and I must do things together. I mean to have my own theater in
+Broadway and you will write the plays for it."
+
+"Very well," replied the ever-ready Belasco. "I will make a contract
+with you now."
+
+"There will never be need of a contract between us," replied Frohman,
+who expressed then the conviction that guided him all the rest of his
+life when he engaged the greatest stars in the world and spent millions
+on productions without a scrap of paper to show for the negotiation.
+
+Charles worked manfully for "American Born." It was in reality his first
+intimate connection with a big production. At the outset his ingenuity
+saved the enterprise from threatened destruction. Harry Petit, a local
+manager, announced a rival melodrama called "Taken From Life" at
+McVicker's Theater, and had set his opening date one night before the
+inaugural of "American Born."
+
+Charles scratched his head and said, "We must beat them to it."
+
+He announced the "American Born" opening for a certain night and then
+opened three nights earlier, which beat the opposition by one night.
+
+Belasco's play was spectacular in character and included, among other
+things, a realistic fire scene. When the time came for rehearsal the
+manager of the theater said that it could not be done, because the fire
+laws would be violated.
+
+"I'll fix that," said Charles.
+
+He went down to the City Hall, had a personal interview with the mayor,
+and not only got permission for the scene, but a detail of real firemen
+to act in it.
+
+While in Chicago, Belasco accepted Daniel Frohman's offer to come to
+New York as stage-manager of the Madison Square Theater. Charles and
+Belasco came east together, and the intimacy of this trip tightened the
+bond between them. The train that carried them was speeding each to a
+great career.
+
+With Belasco installed as stage-manager there began a daily contact
+between the two. Belasco went to Frohman with all his troubles. In
+Frohman's bedroom he wrote part of "May Blossom," in which he scored his
+first original success at the Madison Square. Charles was enormously
+interested in this play, and after it was finished carried a copy about
+in his pocket, reading it or having it read wherever he thought it could
+find a friendly ear.
+
+So great was Belasco's gratitude that he gave Charles a half-interest in
+it, which was probably the first ownership that Charles Frohman ever had
+in a play.
+
+During those days at the Madison Square, when both Frohman and Belasco
+were seeing the vision of coming things, they often went at night to
+O'Neil's Oyster House on Sixth Avenue near Twenty-second Street. The
+day's work over, they had a bite of supper, in Frohman's case mostly pie
+and sarsaparilla, and talked about the things they were going to do.
+
+Charles Frohman's ambition for a New York theater obsessed him. One
+night as they were walking up Broadway they passed the Fifth Avenue
+Hotel. A big man in his shirt-sleeves sat tilted back in his chair in
+front of the hotel. The two young men were just across the street from
+him. Frohman stopped Belasco, pointed to the man, and said:
+
+"David, there is John Stetson, manager of the Fifth Avenue Theater.
+Well, some day I am going to be as big a man as he is and have my own
+theater on Broadway."
+
+* * *
+
+Those were crowded days. Charles not only picked and "routed" the
+companies, but he kept a watchful eye on them. This meant frequent
+traveling. For months he lived in a suit-case. At noon he would say to
+his stenographer, "We leave for Chicago this afternoon," and he was off
+in a few hours. At that time "Hazel Kirke," "The Professor,"
+"Esmeralda," "Young Mrs. Winthrop," and "May Blossom" were all being
+played by road companies in various parts of the United States, and it
+was a tremendous task to keep a watchful eye on them. It was his habit
+to go to a town where a company was playing and not appear at the
+theater until the curtain had risen. The company had no warning of his
+coming, and he could make a good appraisal of their average work.
+
+On one of the many trips that he made about this time he gave evidence
+of his constant humor.
+
+He went out to Columbus, Ohio, to see a "Hazel Kirke" company. He
+arrived at the theater just before matinee, and as he started across the
+stage he was met by a newly appointed stage-manager who was full of
+authority.
+
+"Where are you going?" asked the man.
+
+"To Mr. Hagan's dressing-room."
+
+"I'll take the message," said the stage-director.
+
+"No, I want to see him personally."
+
+"But you can't. I am in charge behind the curtain."
+
+Frohman left without a word, went out to the box-office and wrote a
+letter, discharging the stage-director. Then he sat through the
+performance. Directly the curtain fell the man came to him in a great
+state of mind.
+
+"Why did you discharge me, Mr. Frohman?"
+
+Frohman smiled and said: "Well, it was the only way that I could get
+back to see my actors. If you will promise to be good I will re-engage
+you." And he did.
+
+* * *
+
+It was on a trip of this same kind that Charles had one of his many
+narrow escapes from death. During the spring of 1883 he went out to Ohio
+with Daniel to visit some of the road companies. Daniel left him at
+Cleveland to go over and see a performance of "The Professor" at
+Newcastle, while Charles went on to join Gustave at Cincinnati.
+
+Charles was accompanied by Frank Guthrie, who was a sort of confidential
+secretary to all the Frohmans at the theater. Shortly before the train
+reached Galion, Charles, who sat at the aisle, asked his companion to
+change places. Ten minutes later the train was wrecked. Guthrie, who sat
+on the aisle seat, was hurled through the window and instantly killed,
+while Charles escaped unhurt.
+
+Daniel heard of the wreck, rushed to the scene on a relief train,
+expecting to find his brother dead, for there had been a report that he
+was killed. Instead he found Charles bemoaning the death of his
+secretary.
+
+A month afterward Charles and Marc Klaw were riding in the elevator at
+the Monongahela House in Pittsburg when the cable broke and the car
+dropped four stories. It had just been equipped with an air cushion, and
+the men escaped without a scratch.
+
+* * *
+
+Along toward the middle of 1883 there were signs of a break at the
+Madison Square Theater. Steele Mackaye had quarreled with the Mallorys
+and had left, taking Gustave with him to launch the new Lyceum Theater
+on Fourth Avenue and Twenty-third Street. Daniel was becoming ambitious
+to strike out for himself, while Charles was chafing under the necessity
+of being a subordinate. He yearned to be his own master. "I must have a
+New York production," he said. The wish in his case meant the deed, for
+he now set about to produce his first play.
+
+Naturally, he turned to Belasco for advice and co-operation. Both were
+still identified with the Madison Square Theater, which made their
+negotiations easy.
+
+In San Francisco Charles had seen a vivid melodrama called "The
+Stranglers of Paris," which Belasco had written from Adolphe Belot's
+story and produced with some success. Osmond Tearle, then leading man
+for Lester Wallack and New York's leading matinee idol, had played in
+the West the part of Jagon, who was physically one of the ugliest
+characters in the play.
+
+"'The Stranglers of Paris' is the play for me," said Frohman to Belasco.
+
+"All right," said David; "you shall have it."
+
+The original dramatization was a melodrama without a spark of humor. In
+rewriting it for New York, Belasco injected considerable comedy here and
+there.
+
+Frohman, whose vision and ideas were always big, said:
+
+"We've got to get a great cast. I will not be satisfied with anybody but
+Tearle."
+
+To secure Tearle, Frohman went to see Lester Wallack for the first time.
+Wallack was then the enthroned theatrical king and one of the most
+inaccessible of men. Frohman finally contrived to see him and made the
+proposition for the release of Tearle. Ordinarily Wallack would have
+treated such an offer with scorn. Frohman's convincing manner, however,
+led him to explain, for he said:
+
+"Mr. Tearle is the handsomest man in New York, and if I loaned him to
+you to play the ugliest man ever put on the stage he would lose his
+drawing power for me. I am sorry I can't accommodate you, Mr. Frohman.
+Come and see me again."
+
+Out of that meeting came a friendship with Lester Wallack that developed
+large activities for Charles, as will be seen later on.
+
+Unable to get Tearle, Belasco and Frohman secured Henry Lee, a brilliant
+and dashing leading actor who had succeeded Eben Plympton in the cast of
+"Hazel Kirke." The leading woman was Agnes Booth, a well-known stage
+figure. She was the sister-in-law of Edwin Booth, and an actress of
+splendid quality.
+
+Unfortunately for him, the leading theaters were all occupied. There
+were only a few playhouses in New York then, a mere handful compared
+with the enormous number to-day. But a little thing like that did not
+disturb Charles Frohman.
+
+Up at the northwest corner of Thirty-fifth Street and Broadway was an
+old barnlike structure that had been successively aquarium, menagerie,
+and skating-rink. It had a roof and four walls and at one end there was
+a rude stage.
+
+One night at midnight Charles, accompanied by Belasco, went up to look
+at the sorry spectacle. As a theater it was about the most unpromising
+structure in New York.
+
+"This is all I can get, David," said Charles, "and it must do."
+
+"But, Charley, it is not a theater," said Belasco.
+
+"Never mind," said Frohman. "I will have it made into one."
+
+The old building was under the control of Hyde & Behman, who were
+planning to convert it into a vaudeville house. Frohman went to see them
+and persuaded them to turn it into a legitimate theater. Just about this
+time the Booth Theater at Twenty-third Street and Sixth Avenue was about
+to be torn down. Under Charles's prompting Hyde & Behman bought the
+inside of that historic structure, proscenium arch, stage, boxes, and
+all, and transported them to the Thirty-fifth Street barn. What had been
+a bare hall became the New Park Theater, destined to go down in history
+as the playhouse that witnessed many important productions, as well as
+the first that Charles Frohman made on any stage. Years afterward this
+theater was renamed the Herald Square.
+
+Charles Frohman now had a play, a theater, and a cast. With
+characteristic lavishness he said to Belasco:
+
+"We must have the finest scenic production ever made in New York."
+
+He had no capital, but he had no trouble in getting credit. Every one
+seemed willing to help him. He got out handsome printing and advertised
+extensively. He spared nothing in scenic effects, which were elaborate.
+He devoted every spare moment to attending rehearsals.
+
+Among the supernumeraries was a fat boy with a comical face. At one of
+the rehearsals he sat in a boat and reached out for something. In doing
+this he fell overboard. He fell so comically that Belasco made his fall
+a part of the regular business. His ability got him a few lines, which
+were taken from another actor. This fat-faced, comical boy was John
+Bunny, who became the best-known moving-picture star in the United
+States, and who to the end of his days never forgot that he appeared in
+Charles Frohman's first production. He often spoke of it with pride.
+
+The autumn of 1883 was a strenuous one, for Charles had staked a good
+deal on "The Stranglers of Paris." Yet when the curtain rose on the
+evening of November 10, 1883, he was the same smiling, eager, but
+imperturbable boy who years before had uttered the wish that some day he
+would put on a play himself in the great city. He now saw that dream
+come true. He was just twenty-three.
+
+"The Stranglers of Paris" made quite a sensation. The scenic effects
+were highly praised, and especially the ship scene, which showed
+convicts in their cages, their revolt, the sinking of the vessel,
+Jagon's struggle in the water, his escape from death, and his dramatic
+appeal to Heaven. Lee scored a great success and dated his popularity
+from this appearance.
+
+Many of the lines in the piece were widely quoted, one of them in
+particular. It was in substance, "Money has power to open prison gates,
+and no questions asked."
+
+It was the time of sensational graft revelations, and theater-goers
+thought that it fitted the New York situation.
+
+[Illustration: _VIOLA ALLEN_]
+
+"The Stranglers of Paris" ran at the New Park Theater until December 9,
+when it was taken on the road. It continued on tour for a considerable
+period, playing most of the principal cities of the East, but the
+production was so expensive that it made no money. In fact, Charles lost
+on the enterprise, but it did not in the least dash his spirits. He
+was supremely content because at last he had produced a play.
+
+* * *
+
+"The Stranglers of Paris" filled the budding manager with a renewed zeal
+to be a producer. He was still enthusiastic about the melodrama, so he
+secured a vivid piece by R. G. Morris, a New York newspaper man, called
+"The Pulse of New York," which he produced at the Star Theater,
+Thirteenth Street and Broadway, which had been originally Wallack's
+Theater.
+
+In the cast was a handsome, painstaking young woman named Viola Allen,
+whom Charles had singled out because of her admirable work in a play
+that he had seen, and who was headed for a big place in the annals of
+the American theater. The youthful manager encouraged her and did much
+to aid her progress.
+
+Others in the cast were Caroline Hill, A. S. Lipman, Edward S. Coleman,
+L. F. Massen, Frank Lane, Henry Tarbon, W. L. Denison, George Clarke, H.
+D. Clifton, Ada Deaves, Max Freeman, Edward Pancoast, Frank Green,
+Gerald Eyre, Nick Long, Frederick Barry, Oscar Todd, John March, Charles
+Frew, Richard Fox, James Maxwell, J. C. Arnold, Stanley Macy, Lida Lacy,
+George Mathews, and William Rose.
+
+"The Pulse of New York" was produced May 10, 1884, but ran only three
+weeks. Once more Charles faced a loss, but he met this as he met the
+misfortunes of later years, with smiling equanimity.
+
+Now came a characteristic act. He was still in the employ of the Madison
+Square Theater and had a guarantee of one hundred dollars a week.
+Although he had devoted considerable time to his two previous
+productions, he was an invaluable asset to the establishment. He now
+felt that the time had come for him to choose between remaining at the
+Madison Square under a guarantee and striking out for himself on the
+precarious sea of independent theatrical management. He chose the
+latter, and launched a third enterprise.
+
+In his wanderings about New York theaters Charles saw a serious-eyed
+young actress named Minnie Maddern. He said to Daniel:
+
+"I have great confidence in that young woman. Will you help me put her
+out in a piece?"
+
+"All right," replied his brother.
+
+The net result was Miss Maddern in "Caprice."
+
+In view of subsequent stage history this company was somewhat historic.
+Miss Maddern's salary was seventy-five dollars a week. Her leading man,
+who had been a general-utility actor at the Lyceum, and who also
+received seventy-five dollars a week, was Henry Miller. A handsome young
+lad named Cyril Scott played a very small part and got fifteen dollars a
+week. The total week's salary of the company amounted to only six
+hundred and ninety dollars.
+
+"Caprice" opened at Indianapolis November 6, 1884, and subsequently
+played Chicago, St. Louis, Evansville, Dayton, and Baltimore, with a
+week at the Grand Opera House in New York, where its season closed. It
+made no money, but it did a great deal toward advancing the career of
+Miss Maddern, who afterward became known to millions of theater-goers as
+Mrs. Fiske.
+
+Charles had now made three productions on his own hook and began to
+impress his courage and his personality on the theatrical world. He had
+definitely committed himself to a career of independent management, and
+from this time on he went it alone.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+Booking-Agent and Broadway Producer
+
+
+The season of 1883-84 had seen Charles Frohman launched as independent
+manager. He had at its conclusion cut his managerial teeth on the last
+of three productions which, while not financially successful, had shown
+the remarkable quality of his ability. People now began to talk about
+the nervy, energetic young man who could go from failure to failure with
+a smile on his face. It is a tradition in theatrical management that
+successful starts almost invariably mean disastrous finishes. An
+auspicious beginning usually leads to extravagance and lack of balance.
+Failure at the outset provokes caution. Charles, therefore, had enough
+early hard jolts to make him careful.
+
+He always admired big names. Thus it came about that his next venture
+was associated with a name and a prestige that meant much and, later on,
+cost much. Just about that time he met a handsome young English actor
+named E. H. Sothern, who had come to this country with his sister and
+who had appeared for a short time with John McCullough, the tragedian.
+Sothern had returned to New York and was looking for an engagement.
+
+In those days actors usually secured engagements by running down rumors
+of productions that were afloat on the Rialto. In this way Sothern heard
+that Charles Frohman was about to send out an English play called
+"Nita's First," which had been produced at Wallack's Theater. Sothern
+called on Frohman and asked to be engaged.
+
+"What salary do you want?" asked Frohman.
+
+Sothern said he wanted fifty dollars.
+
+"All right," said Frohman. "The part is worth seventy-five dollars, and
+I'll pay it."
+
+Twenty years later the manager paid this same actor a salary of one
+hundred thousand dollars for a season of forty weeks in Shakespearian
+roles.
+
+"Nita's First," however, ran for only two weeks on the road, and Charles
+ended the engagement. The reason was that he had conceived what he
+considered a brilliant idea.
+
+Lester Wallack and the Wallack Theater Company almost dominated the New
+York dramatic situation. The company, headed by Wallack himself,
+included Rose Coghlan, Osmond Tearle, John Gilbert, and a whole galaxy
+of brilliant people. The Wallack Theater plays were the talk of the
+town. Frohman had an inspiration which he communicated one day to Lester
+Wallack's son, Arthur, whom he knew. To Arthur he said:
+
+"What do you think about my taking the Wallack successes out on the
+road? It is a shame not to capitalize the popular interest in them while
+it is hot. Look at what the Madison Square Theater has been doing. Will
+you speak to your father about it?"
+
+Arthur spoke to his father, who was not averse to the idea, and Charles
+was bidden to the great presence. He had met Lester Wallack before when
+he tried to engage Osmond Tearle for "The Stranglers of Paris." Now came
+the real meeting. After Frohman had stated his case with all his
+persuasion, he added:
+
+"I am sure I can make you rich. You have overlooked a great chance to
+make money."
+
+Lester Wallack said, "It is a good idea, Mr. Frohman, but your company
+must reflect credit upon the theater, and your leading woman must be of
+the same type as my leading woman, Rose Coghlan."
+
+Charles immediately said, "The company shall be worthy of you and the
+name it bears."
+
+Lester Wallack agreed to rehearse the company and to permit his name to
+be used in connection with it. After Charles left, Lester Wallack said
+to his son:
+
+"Watch that young man, Arthur. He is going to make his mark."
+
+Arthur Wallack was about to take a trip to England, and Charles
+commissioned him to engage the leading people. He therefore engaged
+Sophie Eyre, who had been leading woman at the Drury Lane Theater, and
+W. H. Denny.
+
+Charles himself selected the remaining members of the company, who were
+Newton Gotthold; C. B. Wells; Charles Wheatleigh; Max Freeman; Rowland
+Buckstone; Henry Talbot; Sam Dubois; George Clarke; Fred Corbett; Louise
+Dillon, who had been with him in the precarious Stoddart Comedy days;
+Kate Denin Wilson; Agnes Elliot; and Grace Wilson.
+
+At the time he engaged the Wallack Theater Company Charles had no
+office. He was then living at the Coleman House on Broadway, just
+opposite the then celebrated Gilsey House. Most of the engagements were
+made as he sat in a big leather chair in the lobby, with one foot thrown
+over an arm of it.
+
+The principal capital that Charles had for this venture was five
+thousand dollars put up by Daniel J. Bernstein, who became treasurer of
+the company. Alf Hayman, whom Frohman had met in Philadelphia, was
+engaged as advance-agent.
+
+It was a courageous undertaking even for a seasoned and well-financed
+theatrical veteran. Although Lester Wallack was well known, his theater
+and its successes were not familiar to the great mass of people outside
+New York. In those days theatrical publicity was not as widespread as
+now. No wonder, then, that the daring of a young manager of twenty-five
+in taking out a company whose weekly salary list was nearly thirteen
+hundred dollars was commented on.
+
+Charles called his aggregation the Wallack Theater Company. The
+repertoire consisted mainly of "Victor Durand," a play by Henry Guy
+Carleton which had been produced at Wallack's on December 13, 1884.
+Subsequently the company also played "Moths," "Lady Clare," "Diplomacy,"
+and Belasco's "La Belle Russe."
+
+This tour, which was to write itself indelibly on the career of Charles
+Frohman, began in Chicago and was continued through the South to New
+Orleans, where a stay of six weeks was made at the St. Charles Theater.
+Belasco joined them here for a week to put on "The World," which had
+been produced at Wallack's a short time before.
+
+In New Orleans occurred one of those encounters in Charles Frohman's
+life that led to life-long friendship. Two years before, while playing a
+Madison Square company at one of the theaters in St. Louis, he had met a
+bright young man in the box-office named Augustus Thomas. Thomas was
+then a newspaper man and was beginning to write plays. He told Charles
+that he had just made a short play out of Frances Hodgson Burnett's
+story, "Editha's Burglar."
+
+In New Orleans Charles discovered that young Thomas was playing in his
+own play at a near-by theater and went over to see him. After the
+performance he visited him in his dressing-room, renewed his
+acquaintance, and said to him with the optimism of youth:
+
+"Mr. Thomas, I hope that some day you will write a play for me."
+
+* * *
+
+The company now made a tour of Texas, where the troubles began. Business
+declined, but Frohman succeeded in landing the company in Chicago after
+a series of misfortunes. Here Sophie Eyre retired and was succeeded by
+Louise Dillon as leading woman. Charles, of course, had no money with
+which to buy costumes, so she pawned her jewels and used the proceeds.
+Sadie Bigelow took her place as ingenue.
+
+Charles now started his famous tour of the Northwest which rivaled the
+Stoddart days in hardship and in humor. The Northern Pacific Railroad
+had just been opened to the coast, and Charles followed the new route. A
+series of tragic, dramatic, and comic experiences began. The tour was
+through the heart of the old cow country. One night, when the train was
+stalled by the wrecking of a bridge near Miles City, Montana, a group of
+cowboys started to "shoot up" the train. Frohman, with ready resource,
+singled out the leader and said:
+
+"We've got a theatrical company here and we will give you a
+performance."
+
+He got Rowland Buckstone to stand out on the prairie and recite "The
+Smuggler's Life," "The Execution," and "The Sanguinary Pirate" by the
+light of a big bonfire which was built while the show was going on.
+This tickled the cowboys and brought salvos of shots and shouts of
+laughter.
+
+At Miles City occurred what might have been a serious episode. When the
+company reached the hotel at about eleven in the morning Charles
+Wheatleigh, the "first old man," asked the hotel-keeper what time
+breakfast was served. When he replied "Eight-thirty o'clock," Wheatleigh
+pounded the desk and said:
+
+"That is for farmers. When do artists eat?"
+
+The clerk was a typical Westerner, and thought this was an insult. He
+made a lunge for Wheatleigh, when Frohman stepped in and settled the
+difficulty in his usual suave and smiling way.
+
+At Butte came another characteristic example of the Frohman enterprise
+and resource. It was necessary at all hazards to get an audience. When
+Charles got there he found that the wife of the leading gambler had
+died. He expressed so much sympathy for the bereaved man that he was
+made a pall-bearer, and this act created such an impression on the
+townspeople that they flocked to the theater at night.
+
+At Missoula, Montana, Charles went out ahead of the show for a week.
+Approaching the treasurer at the box-office, he said:
+
+"Will you please let me have a hundred dollars on account of the show?"
+
+"I can't," replied the man. "We haven't sold a single seat for any of
+your performances."
+
+Frohman thought a moment and walked out of the lobby. All afternoon
+orders for seats began to come in to the box-office. Late in the
+afternoon, when Frohman got back, the agent smiled and said:
+
+"Mr. Frohman, I can let you have that hundred dollars now. We are
+beginning to have quite an advance sale."
+
+Frohman had gone down-town and sent in the orders for the seats himself.
+He used fictitious names.
+
+Now began a summer of hardships. With the utmost difficulty the company
+got to Portland, Oregon, where Charles established a sort of
+headquarters. From this point he sent the company on short tours. But
+business continued to be bad.
+
+He started a series of "farewell" performances, as he did in Texas, and
+placarded the city with the bills announcing "positively" closing
+performances. These bills were typical of the publicity talents of
+Charles Frohman. He headed them "Good-by Engagements," and added the
+words, "A Long, Lingering Farewell." Under "Favorites' Farewell" he
+printed the names of the members of the company with the titles or parts
+in which they were known. "Good-by, Louise Dillon, our Esmeralda";
+"Good-by, Kate Denin Wilson, Pretty Lady Dolly"; "Good-by, Charles B.
+Wells, Faithful Dave Hardy"; "Good-by, Rowland Buckstone, Some Other
+Man"--were typical illustrations of his attempt to make a strong appeal
+for business.
+
+Actual money in the company was a novelty. Bernstein's five thousand
+dollars had long since vanished. When a member of the company wanted
+some cash it had to be extracted from the treasurer in one-dollar
+instalments.
+
+Despite the hardships, the utmost good humor and feeling prevailed. Most
+of the members of the company were young; there was no bickering. They
+knew that Frohman's struggle was with and for them. They called him
+"The Governor," and he always referred to them as his "nice little
+company." All looked forward confidently to better days, and in this
+belief they were supported and inspired by the cheery philosophy of the
+manager.
+
+Charles's resource was tested daily. He had booked a near-by town for
+fair week, which always meant good business. At last he had money in
+sight. The local manager, however, insisted upon a great display of
+fancy printing. Charles was in a dilemma because he owed his printer a
+big bill and he had no more lithographs on hand. A friend who was in
+advance of William Gillette's play, "The Private Secretary," came along
+with a lot of his own paper. Charles borrowed a quantity of it and also
+from the "Whose Baby Are You?" company, covered over these two titles
+with slips containing the words "Lady Clare," the piece he was going to
+present. He billed the town with great success and was able to keep
+going.
+
+During the Portland sojourn Charles sent the company on to Salem,
+Oregon. While there, six members had their photographs taken with a
+disconsolate look on their faces and with Buckstone holding a dollar in
+his hand. They sent the picture to Frohman with the inscription:
+
+"From your nice little company waiting for its salary."
+
+At Portland, Oregon, A. D. Charlton, who was passenger agent of the
+Northern Pacific Railroad, and who had been of great service to Charles
+in extricating him from various financial difficulties, said to him one
+day:
+
+"Frohman, I want you to meet a very promising little actress who is out
+here with her mother."
+
+Frohman said he would be glad, and, accompanying Charlton to his office,
+was introduced to Annie Adams, a well-known actress from Salt Lake City,
+and her wistful-eyed little daughter, Maude. They were both members of
+the John McGuire Company. This was Charles Frohman's first meeting with
+Maude Adams.
+
+At Portland Frohman added "Two Orphans" and "Esmeralda" to the company's
+repertoire. But it barely got them out of town at the really and truly
+"farewell."
+
+* * *
+
+Now began a return journey from Portland that was even more precarious
+than the trip out. Baggage had to be sacrificed; there was scarcely any
+scenery. One "back drop" showing the interior of a cathedral was used
+for every kind of scene, from a gambling-house to a ball-room. To the
+financial hardship of the homeward trip was added real physical trial.
+Frohman showed in towns wherever there was the least prospect of any
+kind of a house. The company therefore played in skating-rinks,
+school-houses, even barns. In some places the members of the company had
+to take the oil-lamps that served as footlights back in the makeshift
+dressing-rooms while they dressed.
+
+At Bozeman, Montana, occurred an incident which showed both the humor
+and the precariousness of the situation. Frohman assembled the company
+in the waiting-room of the station and, stepping up to the
+ticket-office, laid down one hundred and thirty dollars in cash.
+
+"Where do you want to go?" asked the agent.
+
+Shoving the money at him, Frohman said, "How far will this take us?"
+
+The agent looked out of the window, counted up the company, and said,
+"To Billings."
+
+Turning to the company, Frohman said, with a smile, "Ladies and
+gentlemen, we play Billings next."
+
+Just then he received a telegram from Alf Hayman, who was on ahead of
+the company:
+
+     _What town shall I bill?_
+
+Frohman wired back:
+
+     _Bill Billings._
+
+Hayman again wired:
+
+     _Have no printing and can get no credit. What shall I do?_
+
+Frohman's resource came into stead, for he telegraphed:
+
+     _Notify theaters that we are a high-class company from Wallack's
+     Theater in New York and use no ordinary printing. We employ only
+     newspapers and dodgers._
+
+At Missoula, Montana, on their way back, a member of the company became
+dissatisfied and stood with his associates at the station where two
+trains met, one for the east and one for the west. As the train for the
+east slowed up the actor rushed toward it and, calling to the members of
+the company, said:
+
+"I am leaving you for good. You'll never get anywhere with Frohman."
+
+The company, however, elected to stay with Frohman. In later years this
+actor fell into hardship. Frohman singled him out, and from that time
+on until Frohman's death he had a good engagement every year in a
+Frohman company.
+
+At Bismarck, North Dakota, the company gave "Moths." In this play the
+spurned hero, a singer, has a line which reads, "There are many
+marquises, but very few _tenors_."
+
+Money had been so scarce for months that this remark was the last straw,
+so the company burst into laughter, and the performance was nearly
+broken up. Frohman, who stood in the back of the house, enjoyed it as
+much as the rest.
+
+Through all these hardships Frohman remained serene and smiling. His
+unfailing optimism tided over the dark days. The end came at Winona,
+Minnesota. The company had sacrificed everything it could possibly
+sacrifice. Frohman borrowed a considerable sum from the railroad agent
+to go to Chicago, where he obtained six hundred dollars from Frank
+Sanger. With this he paid the friendly agent and brought the company
+back to New York.
+
+Even the last lap of this disastrous journey was not without its humor.
+The men were all assembled in the smoking-car on the way from Albany to
+New York. Frohman for once sat silent. When somebody asked him why he
+looked so glum, he said, "I'm thinking of what I have got to face
+to-morrow."
+
+Up spoke Wheatleigh, whose marital troubles were well known. He slapped
+Frohman on the back and said:
+
+"Charley, your troubles are slight. Think of me. I've got to face my
+wife to-morrow."
+
+It was characteristic of Frohman's high sense of integrity that he gave
+his personal note to each member of the company for back salary in
+full, and before five years passed had discharged every debt.
+
+* * *
+
+On arriving in New York Charles had less than a dollar in his pocket,
+his clothes were worn, and he looked generally much the worse for wear.
+On the street he met Belasco. They pooled their finances and went to
+"Beefsteak John's," where they had a supper of kidney stew, pie, and
+tea. They renewed the old experiences at O'Neil's restaurant and talked
+about what they were going to do.
+
+The next day Frohman was standing speculatively in front of the Coleman
+House when he met Jack Rickaby, a noted theatrical figure of the time.
+Rickaby slapped the young man on the back and said:
+
+"Frohman, I am glad you have had a good season. You're going to be a big
+man in this profession."
+
+He shook Frohman's hand warmly and walked away.
+
+It was the first cheering word that Frohman had heard. The news of his
+disastrous trip had not become known. Always proud, he was glad of it.
+After Rickaby had shaken his hand he felt something in it, and on
+looking he saw that the big-hearted manager had placed a hundred-dollar
+bill there. Rickaby had known all along the story of the Wallack tour
+hardships, and it was his way of expressing sympathy. Frohman afterward
+said it was the most touching moment in his life. Speaking of this once,
+he said:
+
+"That hundred-dollar bill looked bigger than any sum of money I have
+ever had since."
+
+* * *
+
+It was late in 1885 when Charles returned from the disastrous Wallack's
+Theater tour, bankrupt in finance but almost over-capitalized in
+courage and plans for the future. Up to that time he had no regular
+office. Like many of the managers of the day, his office was in his hat.
+Now, for the first time, he set up an establishment of his own. It
+required no capital to embark in the booking business in those days.
+Nerve and resiliency were the two principal requisites.
+
+The first Frohman offices were at 1215 Broadway, in the same building
+that housed Daly's Theater. In two small rooms on the second floor
+Charles Frohman laid the corner-stone of what in later years became a
+chain of offices and interests that reached wherever the English
+language was spoken on the stage. The interesting contrast here was that
+while Augustin Daly, then in the heyday of his great success, was
+creating theatrical history on the stage below him, Charles Frohman was
+beginning his real managerial career up-stairs.
+
+Frohman's first associate was W. W. Randall, a San Francisco newspaper
+man whom he had met in the Haverly's Minstrel days, in the mean time
+manager of "The Private Secretary" and several of the Madison Square
+companies on the road. He was alert and aggressive and knew the
+technique of the theatrical business.
+
+Charles Frohman's policy was always pretentious, so he set up two
+distinct firms. One was the "Randall's Theatrical Bureau, Charles
+Frohman and W. W. Randall, Managers," which was under Randall's
+direction and which booked attractions for theaters throughout the
+country on a fee basis. The other was called "Frohman & Randall, General
+Theatrical Managers." Its function was to produce plays and was directly
+under Charles's supervision. The two firm names were emblazoned on the
+door and business was started. Their first employee was Julius Cahn.
+
+These offices have an historic interest aside from the fact that they
+were the first to be occupied by Charles Frohman. Out of them grew
+really the whole modern system of booking attractions. Up to that era
+theatrical booking methods were different from those of the present
+time; there were no great centralized agencies to book attractions for
+strings of theaters covering the entire country. Union Square was the
+Rialto, the heart and center of the booking business. The out-of-town
+manager came there to fill his time for the season. Much of the booking
+was done in a haphazard way on the sidewalk, and whole seasons were
+booked on the curb, merely noted in pocket note-books. Two methods of
+booking were then in vogue: one by the manager of a company who wrote
+from New York to the towns for time; the other through an agent of
+out-of-town house managers located in New York. It was this latter
+system that Frohman and Randall began to develop in a scientific
+fashion. Charles's extensive experience on the road and his knowledge of
+the theatrical status of the different towns made him a valuable agent.
+
+Frohman and Randall at that time practically had the field to
+themselves. Brooks & Dickson, an older firm which included the
+well-known Joseph Brooks of later managerial fame, had conducted the
+first booking-office of any consequence, but had now retired. H. S.
+Taylor had just established on Fourteenth Street Taylor's Theatrical
+Exchange, destined to figure in theatrical history as the forerunner of
+the Klaw & Erlanger business.
+
+Despite the high-sounding titles on the door, the Frohman offices were
+unpretentious. Frohman and Randall had a desk apiece, and there was a
+second-hand iron safe in the corner. When Frohman was asked, one day
+soon after the shingle had been hung out, what the safe was for, he
+replied, with his characteristic humor:
+
+"We keep the coal-scuttle in it."
+
+As a matter of fact there was more truth than poetry in this remark,
+because the office assets were so low that during the winter the firm
+had to burn gas all day to keep warm. When asked the reason for this,
+Frohman said, jocularly:
+
+"We can get more credit if we use gas, because the gas bill has to be
+paid only once a month. Coal is cash."
+
+Indeed, the office was so cold during that season that it came to be
+known in the profession as the "Cave of the Winds," and this title was
+no reflection on the vocal qualities of the proprietors.
+
+It was during those early and precarious days when Frohman was still
+saddled with the debts of the Wallack's tour that one of the most
+amusing incidents of his life happened. One morning he was served with
+the notice of a supplementary proceeding which had been instituted
+against him. He was always afraid of the courts, and he was much
+alarmed. He rushed across the street to the Gilsey House and consulted
+Henry E. Dixey, the actor, who was living there. Dixey's advice was to
+get a lawyer. Together they returned to the Daly's Theater Building,
+where Frohman knew a lawyer was installed on the top floor. They found
+the lawyer blacking that portion of his white socks that appeared
+through the holes in his shoes.
+
+Frohman stated his case, which the lawyer accepted. He then demanded a
+two-dollar fee. Frohman had only one dollar in his pocket and borrowed
+the other dollar from Dixey.
+
+"This money," said the lawyer, "is to be paid into the court. How about
+my fee?"
+
+Frohman fumbled in his pocket and produced a ten-cent piece. He handed
+it to the lawyer, saying: "I will pay you later on. Here is your
+car-fare. Be sure to get to court before it opens."
+
+Frohman and Dixey left. Frohman was much agitated. They walked around
+the block several times. When he heard the clock strike ten he said to
+Dixey:
+
+"Now the lawyer is in the court-room and the matter is being settled."
+In his expansive relief he said: "I have credit at Browne's Chop House.
+Let us go over and have breakfast."
+
+At the restaurant they ordered a modest meal. As Frohman looked up from
+his table he saw a man sitting directly opposite whose face was hid
+behind a newspaper. In front of him was a pile of wheat-cakes about a
+foot high.
+
+"Gee whiz!" said Frohman. "I wish I had enough money to buy a stack of
+wheat-cakes that high."
+
+As he said this to Dixey the man opposite happened to lower his paper
+and revealed himself to be the lawyer Frohman had just engaged. He was
+having a breakfast spree himself with the two dollars extracted from his
+two recent clients.
+
+* * *
+
+Business began to pick up with the new year. The first, and what
+afterward proved to be the most profitable, clients of the
+booking-office were the Baldwin and California theaters in San
+Francisco. They were dominated by Al Hayman, brother of Alf, a man who
+now came intimately into Charles Frohman's life and remained so until
+the end. He was a Philadelphian who had conducted various traveling
+theatrical enterprises in Australia and had met Frohman for the first
+time in London when the latter went over with the Haverly Mastodons.
+Hayman admired Frohman very much and soon made him general Eastern
+representative of all his extensive Pacific coast interests.
+
+Hayman was developing into a magnate of importance. With his assistance
+Charles was able to book a company all the way from New York to San
+Francisco. Charles made himself responsible for the time between New
+York and Kansas City, while Hayman would guarantee the company's time
+from Kansas City or Omaha to the coast.
+
+Frohman and Randall made a good team, and they soon acquired a chain of
+more than three hundred theaters, ranging from music-halls in small
+towns that booked the ten-twenty-thirty-cent dramas up to the palatial
+houses like Hooley's in Chicago, the Hollis in Boston, and the Baldwin
+in San Francisco.
+
+It was a happy-go-lucky time. If Frohman had ten dollars in his pocket
+to spare he considered himself rich. Money then, as always, meant very
+little to him. It came and went easily.
+
+* * *
+
+While the booking business waxed in volume the production end of the
+establishment did not fare so well. Charles had this activity of the
+office as his particular domain, and with the instinct of the plunger
+now began to put on plays right and left.
+
+Just before the association with Randall, Frohman had become manager of
+Neil Burgess, the actor, and had booked him for a tour in a play called
+"Vim." A disagreement followed, and Frohman turned him over to George W.
+Lederer, who took the play out to the coast.
+
+A year after this episode came the first of the many opportunities for
+fortune that Charles Frohman turned down in the course of his eventful
+life. This is the way it happened:
+
+Burgess, who was quite an inventive person, had patented the treadmill
+mechanism to represent horse-racing on the stage, a device which was
+afterward used with such great effect in "Ben-Hur." He was so much
+impressed with it that he had a play written around it called "The
+County Fair."
+
+Burgess, who liked Frohman immensely, tried to get him to take charge of
+this piece, but Frohman would not listen to the proposition about the
+mechanical device. He was unhappy over his experience about "Vim," and
+whenever Burgess tried to talk "The County Fair" and its machine Frohman
+would put him off.
+
+Burgess finally went elsewhere, and, as most people know, "The County
+Fair" almost rivaled "The Old Homestead" in money-making ability. The
+horse-racing scene became the most-talked-of episode on the stage at the
+time, and Burgess cleared more than a quarter of a million dollars out
+of the enterprise. Charles Frohman afterward admitted that his prejudice
+against Burgess and his machine had cost his office at least one hundred
+thousand dollars.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman and Randall now launched an important venture. McKee Rankin, who
+was one of the best-known players of the time, induced them to become
+his managers in a piece called "The Golden Giant," by Clay M. Greene.
+Charles, however, agreed to the proposition on the condition that Rankin
+would put his wife, Kitty Blanchard, in the cast. They had been
+estranged, and Frohman, with his natural shrewdness, believed that the
+stage reunion of Mr. and Mrs. McKee Rankin would be a great drawing-card
+for the play. Rankin made the arrangements, and the Fifth Avenue Theater
+was booked for two weeks, commencing Easter Monday, 1886.
+
+The theater was then under the management of John Stetson, of Boston,
+and both Frohman and Rankin looked forward to doing a great business. In
+this cast Robert Hilliard, who had been a clever amateur actor in
+Brooklyn, made his first professional appearance. Charles supervised the
+rehearsals and had rosy visions of a big success. At four o'clock,
+however, on the afternoon of the opening night, Charles went to the
+box-office and discovered the advance sale had been only one hundred
+dollars.
+
+"I tell you what to do, Randall," quickly thought out Frohman, "if
+Stetson will stand for it we will paper the house to the doors. We must
+open to a capacity audience."
+
+When Frohman put the matter before Stetson he said he did not believe in
+"second-hand reconciliations," but assented to the plan. Frohman gave
+Randall six hundred seats, and the latter put them into good hands. The
+_premiere_ of "The Golden Giant," to all intents and purposes, took
+place before a crowded and paying house. In reality there was exactly
+two hundred and eighty-eight dollars in the box-office. Business picked
+up, however, and the two weeks' engagement proved prosperous. The play
+failed on the road, however, and the Frohman offices lost over five
+thousand dollars on the venture. Rankin had agreed to pay Frohman forty
+per cent. of the losses. That agreement remained in force all his life,
+for it was never paid.
+
+In Charles's next venture he launched his first star. Curiously enough,
+the star was Tony Hart, a member of the famous Irish team of Harrigan
+and Hart, who had delighted the boyhood of Frohman when he used to slip
+away on Saturday nights and revel in a show.
+
+Tony Hart, during the interim, had separated from Harrigan, and in some
+way Charles obtained the manuscript of a farce-comedy by William Gill
+called "A Toy Pistol."
+
+Charles had never lost his admiration for Hart, and when he saw that the
+leading character had to impersonate an Italian, a young Hebrew, an
+Irishwoman, and a Chinaman, Frohman said, "Tony Hart was the very
+person."
+
+Accordingly, he engaged Hart and a company which included J. B. Mackey,
+F. R. Jackson, T. J. Cronin, D. G. Longworth, Annie Adams, Annie
+Alliston, Mattie Ferguson, Bertie Amberg, Eva Grenville, Vera Wilson,
+Minnie Williams, and Lena Merville.
+
+This production had an influence on Charles Frohman's life far greater
+than the association with his first star, for Annie Adams now began a
+more or less continuous connection with Charles Frohman's companies. Her
+daughter, the little girl whom Charles had met casually years before,
+was now about to make her first New York appearance as member of a
+traveling company in "The Paymaster." Already the energetic mother was
+importuning Charles to engage the daughter. His answer was, "I'll give
+her a chance as soon as I can." He little dreamed that this wisp of a
+girl was to become in later years his most profitable and best-known
+star.
+
+Charles was, of course, keenly interested in "A Toy Pistol." He
+conducted the rehearsals, and on February 20, 1886, produced it at what
+was then called the New York Comedy Theater. It failed, however. The New
+York Comedy Theater was originally a large billiard-hall in the Gilsey
+Building, on Broadway between Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth streets,
+and had been first named the San Francisco Minstrel Hall. It became
+successively Haverly's Comedy Theater and the New York Comedy Theater.
+Subsequently, it was known as Hermann's Theater, and was the scene of
+many of the earlier Charles Frohman productions.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles now became immersed in productions. About this time Archibald
+Clavering Gunter, who had scored a sensational success with his books,
+especially "Mr. Barnes of New York," had written a play called "A Wall
+Street Bandit," which had been produced with great success in San
+Francisco. Frohman booked it for four weeks at the old Standard Theater,
+afterward the Manhattan, on a very generous royalty basis, and plunged
+in his usual lavish style. He got together a magnificent cast, which
+included Georgia Cayvan, W. J. Ferguson, Robert McWade, Charles Bowser,
+Charles Wheatleigh, and Sadie Bigelow. The play opened to capacity and
+the indications were that the engagement would be a success; but it
+suddenly fizzled out. On Sunday morning, when Charles read the papers
+with their reviews of the week, he said to Randall, with his usual
+philosophy:
+
+"We've got a magnificent frost, but it was worth doing."
+
+This production cost the youthful manager ten thousand dollars.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman still had control of "time" at the Standard, so he now put on a
+play, translated by Henri Rochefort, called "A Daughter of Ireland," in
+which Georgia Cayvan had the title role. Here he scored another failure,
+but his ardor remained undampened and he went on to what looked at that
+moment to be the biggest thing he had yet tried.
+
+Dion Boucicault was one of the great stage figures of his period. He was
+both actor and author, and wrote or adapted several hundred plays,
+including such phenomenal successes as "Colleen Bawn," "Shaughraun,"
+which ran for a year simultaneously in London, New York, and Melbourne,
+and "London Assurance." There was much talk of his latest comedy, "The
+Jilt." Frohman, who always wanted to be associated with big names, now
+arranged by cable to produce this play at the Standard. Once more he
+plunged on an expensive company which included, among others, Fritz
+Williams, Louise Thorndyke, and Helen Bancroft.
+
+For four weeks he cleared a thousand a week. Then he put the company on
+the road, where it did absolutely nothing. Charles, who had an uncanny
+sense of analysis of play failures, now declared that the reason for the
+failure was that theater-goers resented Boucicault's treatment of his
+first wife, Agnes Robertson. Boucicault had declared that he was not the
+father of her child, and when she sued him in England the courts gave
+her the verdict. Meanwhile Boucicault married, and in the eyes of the
+world he was a bigamist. This experience, it is interesting to add,
+taught Charles Frohman never to engage stars on whom there was the
+slightest smirch of scandal or disrepute.
+
+At Montreal Boucicault refused to continue the tour, and this
+engagement, like so many of its predecessors, left Charles in a
+financial hole. Despite all these reverses he was able to make a
+livelihood out of the booking end of the office, which thrived and grew
+with each month. Nor was he without his sense of humor in those days.
+
+One day he met a certain manager who had lost a great deal of money in
+comic opera. Frohman said to him that he heard that there was much money
+in the comic-opera end of the business.
+
+"So there is," replied the manager.
+
+"You ought to know," responded Frohman, "for you have put enough into
+it."
+
+This remark, often attributed to others, is said to have originated
+here.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman was now an established producer, and although the tide of
+fortune had not gone altogether happily with him, he had a Micawber-like
+conviction that the big thing would eventually turn up. Now came his
+first contact with Bronson Howard, who, a few years later, was to be the
+first mile-stone in his journey to fame and fortune.
+
+Howard's name was one to conjure with. He had produced "Young Mrs.
+Winthrop," "The Banker's Daughter," "Saratoga," and other great
+successes. Charles Frohman, yielding, as usual, to the lure of big
+names, now put on Howard's play, "Baron Rudolph," for which George
+Knight had paid the author three thousand dollars to rewrite. Knight
+gave Frohman a free hand in the matter of casting the production, and it
+was put on at the Fourteenth Street Theater in an elaborate fashion. The
+company included various people who later on were to become widely
+known. Among them were George Knight and his wife, George Fawcett,
+Charles Bowser, and a very prepossessing young man named Henry Woodruff.
+
+"Baron Rudolph" proved to be a failure, and it broke Knight's heart, for
+shortly afterward he was committed to an insane asylum from which he
+never emerged alive. It was found that while the play was well written
+there was no sympathy for a ragged tramp.
+
+Whether he thought it would change his luck or not, Charles now turned
+to a different sort of enterprise. He had read in the newspapers about
+the astonishing mind-reading feats in England of Washington Irving
+Bishop. Always on the lookout for something novel, he started a
+correspondence with Bishop which ended in a contract by which he agreed
+to present Bishop in the United States in 1887.
+
+Bishop came over and Frohman sponsored his first appearance in New York
+on February 27, 1887, at Wallack's Theater. With his genius for
+publicity, Frohman got an extraordinary amount of advertising out of
+this engagement. Among other things he got Bishop to drive around New
+York blindfolded. He invited well-known men to come and witness his
+marvelous gift in private. All of which attracted a great deal of
+attention, but very little money to the box-office. Frohman and Bishop
+differed about the conduct of the tour that was to follow, and M. B.
+Leavitt assumed the management.
+
+While at 1215 Broadway Charles Frohman established another of his many
+innovations by getting out what was probably the first stylographic
+press sheet. This sheet, which contained news of the various attractions
+that Frohman booked, was sent to the leading newspapers throughout the
+country and was the forerunner of the avalanche of press matter that
+to-day is hurled at dramatic editors everywhere.
+
+* * *
+
+The booking business had now grown so extensively that the office force
+was increased. First came Julius Cahn, who assisted Randall with the
+booking. Al Hayman took a desk in Frohman's office, which, because of
+Hayman's extensive California enterprises, had a virtual monopoly on all
+Western booking.
+
+Now developed a curious episode. Charles, with his devotion to big
+names, used the words "Daly's Theater Building" on his letter-heads.
+This so infuriated Daly that he sent a peremptory message to the
+landlord insisting that Frohman vacate the building. Frohman and Randall
+thereupon moved their offices up the block to 1267 Broadway.
+
+Charles Frohman made every possible capitalization of this change. Among
+other things he issued a broadside, announcing the removal to new
+offices, and making the following characteristic statement:
+
+     _Our agency, we are pleased to state, has been an established
+     success from the very start. We now represent every important
+     theater in the United States and Canada, as an inspection of our
+     list will show, and we will always keep up the high standard of
+     attractions that have been booked through this office, and we want
+     the business of no others. Mr. E. E. Rice, the well-known manager
+     and author, will have adjoining offices with us, and his
+     attractions will be booked through our offices. We transact a
+     general theatrical business (excepting that pertaining to a
+     dramatic or actor's agency), and are in competition with no other
+     exchange, booking agency, or dramatic concern. Neither do we have
+     any desk-room to let, reserving all the space of our office for our
+     own use._
+
+Attached to this announcement was a list of theaters that he
+represented, which was a foot long. He was also representing Archibald
+Clavering Gunter, who had followed up "A Wall Street Bandit" with
+"Prince Karl," and Robert Buchanan, author of "Lady Clare" and "Alone in
+London."
+
+Frohman and Randall stayed at 1267 Broadway for a year. Shortly before
+the next change Randall, who had become extensively interested in
+outside enterprises, retired from the firm. His successor as close
+associate with Charles Frohman was Harry Rockwood, ablest of the early
+Frohman lieutenants.
+
+Rockwood was a distinguished-looking man and a tireless worker. The way
+he came to be associated with Charles Frohman was interesting. His real
+name was H. Rockwood Hewitt, and he was related to ex-Mayor Abram S.
+Hewitt of New York. He had had some experience in Wall Street, but
+became infected with the theatrical virus.
+
+One day in 1888 a well-groomed young man approached Gustave Frohman at
+the Fourteenth Street Theater. He introduced himself as Harry Hewitt.
+He said to Frohman:
+
+"My name is Hewitt. I would like to get into the theatrical business."
+
+Gustave invited him to come around to the Madison Square Theater the
+next day, and asked him what he would like to do.
+
+"Oh, I should like to do anything."
+
+Frohman then gave him an imaginary house to "count up."
+
+Rockwood, who was an expert accountant, did the job with amazing
+swiftness. Whereupon Gustave Frohman telephoned to Charles Frohman as
+follows:
+
+"I've got the greatest treasurer in the world for you. Send for him."
+
+Charles engaged him for a Madison Square Company, and in this way
+Rockwood's theatrical career started. It was the fashion of many people
+of that time interested in the theatrical business to change their
+names, so he became Harry Rockwood. In the same way Harry Hayman,
+brother of Al and Alf Hayman, changed his name to Harry Mann.
+
+In 1889 came the separation between Randall and Frohman. Randall set up
+an establishment of his own at 1145 Broadway, while Charles, who was now
+an accredited and established personage in the theatrical world, took a
+suite at 1127 Broadway, adjoining the old St. James Hotel. In making
+this change he reached a crucial point in his career, for in these
+offices he conceived and put into execution the spectacular enterprises
+that linked his name for the first time with brilliant success.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+"SHENANDOAH" AND THE FIRST STOCK COMPANY
+
+
+With his installation in the new offices at 1127 Broadway there began an
+important epoch in the life of Charles Frohman. The Nemesis which had
+seemed to pursue his productions now took flight. The plump little man,
+not yet thirty, who had already lived a lifetime of strenuous and varied
+endeavor, sat at a desk in a big room on the second floor, dreaming and
+planning great things that were soon to be realized.
+
+Although staggering under a burden of debt that would have discouraged
+most people, Frohman, with his optimistic philosophy, felt that the hour
+had come at last when the tide would turn. And it did. At this time his
+financial complications were at their worst. Some of them dated back to
+the disastrous Wallack Company tour; others resulted from his impulsive
+generosity in indorsing his friends' notes. He was so involved that he
+could not do business under his own name, and for a period the firm went
+on as Al Hayman & Company.
+
+[Illustration: _WILLIAM GILLETTE_]
+
+One of the very first enterprises in the new offices cemented the
+friendship of Charles Frohman and William Gillette. While at the Madison
+Square Theater he had booked Gillette's plays, "The Professor" and "The
+Private Secretary." Frohman, with Al Hayman as partner, induced Gillette
+to make a dramatization of Rider Haggard's "She," which was put on at
+Niblo's Garden in New York with considerable success. Wilton Lackaye and
+Loie Fuller were in the cast.
+
+Gillette now tried his hand at a war play called "Held by the Enemy,"
+which Frohman booked on the road. Frohman was strangely interested in
+"Held by the Enemy." It had all the thrill and tumult of war and it lent
+itself to more or less spectacular production. When the road tour ended,
+Frohman, on his own hook, took the piece and the company, which was
+headed by Gillette, for an engagement at the Baldwin Theater in San
+Francisco. He transported all the original scenery, which included,
+among other things, some massive wooden cannon.
+
+The San Francisco critics, however, slated the piece unmercifully. The
+morning after the opening Gillette stood in the lobby of the Palace
+Hotel with the newspapers in his hand and feeling very disconsolate. Up
+bustled Frohman in his usual cheery fashion.
+
+"Look what the critics have done to us," said Gillette, gloomily.
+
+"But we've got all the best of it," replied Frohman, with animation.
+
+"How's that?" asked Gillette, somewhat puzzled.
+
+"_They've_ got to stay here."
+
+This little episode shows the buoyant way in which Frohman always met
+misfortune. His irresistible humor was the oil that he invariably spread
+upon the troubled waters of discord and discouragement.
+
+It was while selecting one of the casts of "Held by the Enemy," which
+was revived many times, that Charles Frohman made two more life-long
+connections.
+
+At the same boarding-house with Julius Cahn lived an ambitious young
+man who had had some experience as an actor. He was out of a position,
+so Cahn said to him one day:
+
+"Come over to our offices and Charles Frohman will give you a job."
+
+The young man came over, and Cahn introduced him to Frohman. Soon he
+came out, apparently very indignant. When Cahn asked him what was the
+matter he said:
+
+"That man Frohman offered me the part of a nigger, _Uncle Rufus_, in
+that play. I was born in the South, and I will not play a nigger. I
+would rather starve."
+
+Cahn said, "You will play it, and your salary will be forty dollars a
+week."
+
+The young man reluctantly accepted the engagement and proved to be not
+only a satisfactory actor, but a man gifted with a marvelous instinct as
+stage-director. His name was Joseph Humphreys, and he became in a few
+years the general stage-director for Charles Frohman, the most
+distinguished position of its kind in the country, which he held until
+his death.
+
+About this time Charles Frohman renewed his acquaintance with Augustus
+Thomas. Thomas walked into the office one day and Rockwood said to him:
+
+"You are the very man we want to play in 'Held by the Enemy.'"
+
+Thomas immediately went in to see Frohman, who offered him the position
+of _General Stamburg_, but Thomas had an engagement in his own play,
+"The Burglar," which was the expanded "Editha's Burglar," and could not
+accept. Before he left, however, Frohman, whose mind was always full of
+projects for the future, renewed the offer made in New Orleans, for he
+said:
+
+"Thomas, I still want you to write that play for me."
+
+* * *
+
+With "Held by the Enemy" Charles Frohman seemed to have found a magic
+touchstone. It was both patriotic and profitable, for it was nothing
+less than the American flag. Having raised it in one production, he now
+turned to the enterprise which unfurled his success to the winds in
+brilliant and stirring fashion.
+
+Early in 1889 R. M. Field put on a new military play called
+"Shenandoah," by Bronson Howard, at the Boston Museum. Howard was then
+the most important writer in the dramatic profession. He had three big
+successes, "Young Mrs. Winthrop," "Saratoga," and "The Banker's
+Daughter," to his credit, and he had put an immense amount of work and
+hope into the stirring military drama that was to have such an important
+bearing on the career of Charles Frohman. The story of Frohman's
+connection with this play is one of the most picturesque and romantic in
+the whole history of modern theatrical successes. He found it a
+Cinderella of the stage; he proved to be its Prince Charming.
+
+Oddly enough, "Shenandoah" was a failure in Boston. Three eminent
+managers, A. M. Palmer, T. Henry French, and Henry E. Abbey, in
+succession had had options on the play, and they were a unit in
+believing that it would not go.
+
+Daniel Frohman had seen the piece at Boston with a view to considering
+it for the Lyceum. He told his brother Charles of the play, and advised
+him to go up and see it, adding that it was too big and melodramatic for
+the somewhat intimate scope of the small Lyceum stage.
+
+So Charles went to Boston. On the day of the night on which he started
+he met Joseph Brooks on Broadway and told him he was going to Boston to
+try to get "Shenandoah."
+
+"Why, Charley, you are crazy! It is a failure! Why throw away your money
+on it? Nobody wants it."
+
+"I may be crazy," replied Frohman, "but I am going to try my best to get
+'Shenandoah.'"
+
+Before going to Boston he arranged with Al Hayman to take a
+half-interest in the play. When he reached Boston he went out to the
+house of Isaac B. Rich, who was then associated with William Harris in
+the conduct of the Howard Athenaeum and the Hollis Street Theater. Rich
+was a character in his way. He had been a printer in Bangor, Maine, had
+sold tickets in a New Orleans theater, and had already amassed a fortune
+in his Boston enterprises. He was an ardent spiritualist, and financed
+and gave much time to a spiritualistic publication of Boston called _The
+Banner of Light_. One of his theatrical associates at that time, John
+Stetson, owned _The Police Gazette_.
+
+Rich conceived a great admiration for Frohman, whom he had met with
+Harris in booking plays for his Boston houses. He always maintained that
+Frohman was the counterpart of Napoleon, and called him Napoleon.
+
+On this memorable day in Boston Frohman dined with Rich at his house and
+took him to see "Shenandoah." When it was over Frohman asked him what he
+thought of it.
+
+"I'll take any part of it that you say," replied Rich.
+
+"If I were alone," answered Frohman, "I would take you in, but I have
+already given Al Hayman half of it."
+
+Frohman was very much impressed with "Shenandoah," although he did not
+believe the play was yet in shape for success. After the performance he
+asked Mr. Field if he could get the rights. Field replied:
+
+"Abbey, French, and Palmer have options on it. If they don't want it you
+can have it."
+
+Frohman returned to New York the next day, and even before he had seen
+Bronson Howard he looked up his friend Charles Burnham, then manager of
+the Star Theater, and asked him to save him some time.
+
+Frohman now went to see Howard, who then lived at Stamford. He expressed
+his great desire for the play and then went on to say:
+
+"You are a very great dramatist, Mr. Howard, and I am only a theatrical
+manager, but I think I can see where a possible improvement might be
+made in the play. For one thing, I think two acts should be merged into
+one, and I don't think you have made enough out of Sheridan's ride."
+
+When he had finished, Howard spoke up warmly and said, "Mr. Frohman, you
+are right, and I shall be very glad to adopt your suggestions."
+
+The very changes that Howard made in the play were the ones that helped
+to make it a great success, as he was afterward frank enough to admit.
+
+Frohman now made a contract for the play and went to Burnham to book
+time. Burnham, meanwhile, had been to Boston to see the play, and he
+said:
+
+"I saved six weeks for you at the Star for Shenandoah.'"
+
+From the very beginning of his association with "Shenandoah" Charles
+Frohman had an instinct that the play would be a success. He now
+dedicated himself to its production with characteristic energy.
+
+Scarcely had he signed the contract for "Shenandoah" than occurred one
+of the many curious pranks of fate that were associated with this
+enterprise. Al Hayman, who had a half-interest in the piece, was
+stricken with typhoid fever in Chicago on his way to the coast. He
+thought he was going to die, and, not having an extraordinary amount of
+confidence in "Shenandoah," he sold half of his half-interest to R. M.
+Hooley, who owned theaters bearing his name in Chicago and Brooklyn.
+
+With his usual determination to do things in splendid fashion, Frohman
+engaged a magnificent cast. Now came one of the many evidences of the
+integrity of his word. Years before, when he had first seen Henry Miller
+act in San Francisco he said to him:
+
+"When I get a theater in New York and have a big Broadway production you
+will be my leading man."
+
+He had not yet acquired the theater, but he did have the big Broadway
+production, so the first male character that he filled was that of
+_Colonel West_, and he did it with Miller.
+
+This cast included not less than half a dozen people who were then
+making their way toward future stardom. He engaged Wilton Lackaye to
+play _General Haverill_; Viola Allen played _Gertrude Ellingham_;
+Nanette Comstock was the original _Madeline West_; Effie Shannon
+portrayed _Jennie Buckthorn_; while Dorothy Dorr played _Mrs. Haverill_.
+Other actors in the company who later became widely known were John E.
+Kellard, Harry Harwood, Morton Selten, and Harry Thorn.
+
+Charles determined that the public should not lose sight of
+"Shenandoah." All his genius for publicity was concentrated to this end.
+Among the ingenious agencies that he created for arousing suspense and
+interest was a rumor that the manuscript of the third act had been lost.
+He put forth the news that Mr. Howard's copy was mislaid, and a
+city-wide search was instituted. All the while that the company was
+rehearsing the other acts the anxiety about the missing act grew. A week
+before the production Frohman announced, with great effect, that the
+missing manuscript had been found.
+
+When the doors of the Star Theater were opened on the evening of
+September 9, 1889, for the first performance of "Shenandoah," the
+outlook was not very auspicious. Rain poured in torrents. It was almost
+impossible to get a cab. Al Hayman, one of the owners of the play, who
+lived at the Hotel Majestic, on West Seventy-second Street, was
+rainbound and could not even see the _premiere_ of the piece.
+
+However, a good audience swam through the deluge, for the gross receipts
+of this opening night, despite the inclement conditions outside, were
+nine hundred and seventy-two dollars. This was considered a very good
+house at the standard prices of the day, which ranged from twenty-five
+cents to one dollar and a half.
+
+The play was an immense success, for at no time during the rest of the
+engagement did the receipts at any performance go below one thousand
+dollars. The average gross receipts for each week were ten thousand
+dollars.
+
+Charles Frohman watched the _premiere_ from the rear of the house with a
+beating heart. The crash of applause after the first act made him feel
+that he had scored at last. After the sensational ending of the third
+act, which was Sheridan's famous ride, he rushed back to the stage,
+shook Henry Miller warmly by the hand, and said: "Henry, we've got it.
+The horse is yours!"
+
+He meant the horse that the general rode in the play.
+
+This horse, by the way, was named Black Bess. It got so accustomed to
+its cue that it knew when it had to gallop across the stage. One night
+during the third act this cue was given as usual. Its rider, however,
+was not ready, and the horse galloped riderless across the stage.
+
+"Shenandoah" led to a picturesque friendship in Charles Frohman's life.
+On the opening night a grizzled, military-looking man sat in the
+audience. He watched the play with intense interest and applauded
+vigorously. On the way out he met a friend in the lobby. He stopped him
+and said, "This is the most interesting war play I have ever seen."
+
+The friend knew Charles Frohman, who was standing with smiling face
+watching the crowd go out. He called the little manager over and said:
+"Mr. Frohman, I want you to meet a man who really knows something about
+the Civil War. This is General William T. Sherman."
+
+Sherman and Frohman became great friends, and throughout the engagement
+of "Shenandoah" the old soldier was a frequent visitor at the theater.
+He then lived at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and often he brought over his
+war-time comrades.
+
+Not only did "Shenandoah" mark the epoch of the first real success in
+Frohman's life, but it raised his whole standard of living, as the
+following incident will show.
+
+When "Shenandoah" opened, Frohman and Henry Miller, and sometimes other
+members of the company, went around to O'Neil's on Sixth Avenue, scene
+of the old foregatherings with Belasco, and had supper. As the piece
+grew in prosperity and success, the supper party gradually moved up-town
+to more expensive restaurants, until finally they were supping at
+Delmonico's. "We are going up in the world," said Frohman, with his
+usual humor. At their first suppers they smoked ten-cent cigars; now
+they regaled themselves with twenty-five-cent Perfectos.
+
+Unfortunately the successful run of "Shenandoah" at the Star had to be
+terminated on October 12th because the Jefferson & Florence Company,
+which had a previous contract with the theater and could not be disposed
+of elsewhere, came to play their annual engagement in "The Rivals."
+Frohman transferred the play to Proctor's Twenty-third Street Theater,
+which was from this time on to figure extensively in his fortunes, and
+the successful run of the play continued there. Wilton Lackaye retired
+from the cast and was succeeded by Frank Burbeck, whose wife, Nanette
+Comstock, succeeded Miss Shannon in the role of _Jenny Buckthorn_.
+
+Frohman was now able to capitalize his brilliant road-company
+experience. The success of the play now assured, he immediately
+organized a road company, in which appeared such prominent actors as
+Joseph Holland, Frank Carlyle, and Percy Haswell. He established an
+innovation on October 26th by having this company come over from
+Philadelphia, where it was playing, to act in the New York house.
+
+The two-hundred-and-fiftieth performance occurred on April 19, 1890,
+when the run ended. It was a memorable night. Katherine Grey and Odette
+Tyler meanwhile had joined the company. The theater was draped in
+flags, and General Sherman made a speech in which he praised the
+accuracy of the production.
+
+With his usual enterprise and resource, Charles Frohman introduced a
+distinct novelty on this occasion. He had double and triple relays of
+characters for the farewell performance. Both Lilla Vane and Odette
+Tyler, for example, acted the part of _Gertrude Ellingham_; Wilton
+Lackaye, Frank Burbeck, and George Osborne played _General Haverill_;
+Alice Haines and Nanette Comstock did _Jenny Buckthorn_; while Morton
+Selten and R. A. Roberts doubled as _Captain Heartsease_.
+
+Frohman now put the original "Shenandoah" company on the road. Its first
+engagement was at McVicker's Theater in Chicago. Frohman went along and
+took Bronson Howard with him.
+
+Most of the Chicago critics liked "Shenandoah." But there was one
+exception, a brilliant Irishman on _The Tribune_. Paul Potter, whose
+play, "The City Directory," was about to be produced in Chicago, was a
+close friend of Howard. He wanted to do something for the Howard play,
+so he got permission from Robert W. Patterson, editor in chief of _The
+Tribune_, to write a Sunday page article about "Shenandoah." Frohman was
+immensely pleased, and through this he met Potter, who became one of his
+intimates.
+
+Then came the opening of Potter's play at the Chicago Opera House.
+Although Potter knew most of the critics, there was a feeling that they
+would forget all friendship and do their worst. Five minutes after the
+curtain went up the piece seemed doomed.
+
+But an extraordinary thing happened. From a stage box suddenly came
+sounds of uncontrollable mirth. The audience, and especially the
+critics, looked to see who was enjoying the play so strenuously, and
+they beheld Charles Frohman and Bronson Howard. The critics were
+puzzled. Here was a great playwright in the flush of an enormous success
+and a rising young manager evidently enjoying the performance. The
+mentors of public taste were so impressed that they praised the farce
+and started "The City Directory" on a career of remarkable success.
+Frohman and Howard were repaying the good turn that Potter had done for
+"Shenandoah."
+
+* * *
+
+Charles Frohman now had a money-making success. "Shenandoah" was the
+dramatic talk of the whole country; it did big business everywhere, and
+its courageous young producer came in for praise and congratulation on
+all sides.
+
+The manager might well have netted what was in those days a huge fortune
+out of this enterprise, but his unswerving sense of honor led him to
+immediately discharge all his obligations. He wiped out the Wallack's
+tour debts, and he eventually took up notes aggregating forty-two
+thousand dollars that he had given to a well-known Chicago printer who
+had befriended him in years gone by. What was most important, he was now
+free to unfurl his name to the breezes and to do business "on his own."
+
+* * *
+
+Charles immediately launched himself on another sea of productions. The
+most important was Gillette's "All the Comforts of Home," which he put
+on at Proctor's Twenty-third Street Theater. Frohman had just acquired
+the lease of this theater. Already a big idea was simmering in his mind,
+and the leasehold was essential to its consummation. On May 8, 1890, he
+produced the new Gillette play, which scored a success.
+
+This production marked another one of the many significant epochs in
+Frohman's life because it witnessed the first appearance of little Maude
+Adams under the Charles Frohman management.
+
+Frohman had seen Miss Adams in "The Paymaster" down at Niblo's and had
+been much taken with her work. He had been unable, however, to find a
+part for her, so it was reserved for his brother Daniel to give her the
+first Frohman engagement at thirty-five dollars a week in "Lord
+Chumley." Subsequently Daniel released her so that she could appear in
+the same cast with her mother in Hoyt's "The Midnight Bell."
+
+While trying "All the Comforts of Home" on the road there occurred an
+amusing episode. Frohman, who had been watching the rehearsals very
+carefully, said to Henry Miller, who was leading man:
+
+"Henry, you are something of a matinee idol. I think it would help the
+play if you had a love scene with Miss Adams."
+
+Accompanied by Rockwood, Frohman visited Gillette at his home at
+Hartford, got him to write the love scene, and then went on to
+Springfield, Massachusetts, for the "try-out."
+
+That night the three assembled in the bleak drawing-room of the hotel.
+Frohman ordered a little supper of ham sandwiches and sarsaparilla,
+after which he rehearsed the love scene, which simply consisted of a
+tender little parting in a doorway. It served to bring out the wistful
+and appealing tenderness that is one of Maude Adams's great qualities.
+
+"All the Comforts of Home" ran in Proctor's Theater until October 18th.
+When the theater reopened it disclosed a venture that linked the name of
+Charles Frohman with high and artistic effort--his first stock company.
+With this organization he hoped to maintain the traditions established
+by Augustin Daly, A. M. Palmer, Lester Wallack, and the Madison Square
+Company.
+
+He projected the Charles Frohman Stock Company in his usual lavish way.
+He engaged De Mille and Belasco to write the opening play. This was a
+very natural procedure: first, because of his intimate friendship with
+Belasco, and, second, because De Mille and Belasco had proved their
+skill as collaborators at Daniel Frohman's Lyceum Theater with such
+successes as "The Wife," "The Charity Ball," and "Lord Chumley." The
+result of their new endeavors was "Men and Women."
+
+In this play the authors wrote in the part _Dora_ especially for Maude
+Adams. They also created a role for Mrs. Annie Adams.
+
+The cast of "Men and Women," like that of "Shenandoah," was a striking
+one, and it contained many names already established, or destined to
+figure prominently in theatrical history. Henry Miller had been engaged
+for leading man, but he retired during the rehearsals, and his place was
+taken by William Morris, who had appeared in the Charles Frohman
+production of "She" and in the road company of "Held by the Enemy." In
+the company that Frohman selected were Frederick de Belleville, who
+played _Israel Cohen_, one of the finest, if not the finest, Jewish
+characters ever put on the stage; Orrin Johnson; Frank Mordaunt; Emmet
+Corrigan; J. C. Buckstone; and C. Leslie Allen, brother of Viola Allen.
+
+In addition to Maude Adams were Sydney Armstrong, who was the leading
+woman; Odette Tyler; and Etta Hawkins, who became the wife of William
+Morris during this engagement.
+
+At the dress rehearsal of "Men and Women" occurred a characteristic
+Charles Frohman incident. When the curtain had gone down Frohman hurried
+back to William Morris's dressing-room and said, "Will, that dress-suit
+of yours doesn't look right."
+
+"It's a brand-new suit, 'C. F.,'" he replied.
+
+Frohman thought a moment and said: "Can you be at my office to-morrow
+morning at eight o'clock? I've got a good tailor."
+
+Promptly at eight the next day they went over to Frohman's tailor, whom
+Frohman addressed as follows:
+
+"I want you to make a dress-suit for William Morris by eight o'clock
+to-morrow night."
+
+"Impossible!" said the man.
+
+"Nothing is impossible," said Frohman. "If that dress-suit is not in Mr.
+Morris's dressing-room at eight o'clock you won't get paid for it."
+
+The dress-suit showed up on time, and in it was a card, saying, "With
+Charles Frohman's compliments."
+
+Charles inaugurated his first stock season at Proctor's on October 21,
+1890. Although the notices were uniformly good, the start into public
+favor was a trifle slow. One reason was that a big bank failure had just
+shaken Wall Street, and there was considerable apprehension all over the
+city. By a curious coincidence there was a bank failure in the play. By
+clever publicity this fact was capitalized; the piece found its stride
+and ran for two hundred consecutive performances, when it was sent on
+the road with great success.
+
+For this tour Charles also introduced another one of the many novelties
+that he put into theatrical conduct. He ordered a private car for the
+company, and they used it throughout the tour. It was considered an
+extravagance, but it was merely part of the Charles Frohman policy to
+make his people comfortable. With this private car he established a
+precedent that was observed in most of his traveling organizations.
+
+* * *
+
+With the stock company on tour in "Men and Women," the manager now
+organized the Charles Frohman Comedy Company to fill in the time at
+Proctor's. Once more he collected a brilliant aggregation of players,
+for they included Henrietta Crosman, Joseph Holland, Frederick Bond, and
+Thomas Wise. Each one became a star in the course of the next ten years.
+
+The opening bill for the comedy company was Gillette's "Mr. Wilkinson's
+Widows," and was presented on March 30th, immediately following the run
+of "Men and Women." Henrietta Crosman subsequently withdrew from the
+cast, and Esther Lyons took her place.
+
+Charles Frohman reopened the theater on August 27th with a revival of
+this play, in which Georgia Drew Barrymore, the mother of Ethel,
+appeared as _Mrs. Perrin_. Emily Bancker, afterward a star in "Our
+Flat," and Mattie Ferguson were in the cast.
+
+On October 5th the company did Sardou's big drama of "Thermidor" for the
+first time on any stage, with another one of the casts for which Charles
+Frohman was beginning to become famous. It included a thin, gaunt
+Englishman whose name in the bill was simply J. F. Robertson, and who
+had just come from an engagement with John Hare in London. Subsequently
+the J. F. in his name came to be known as Johnston Forbes, because the
+man was Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson.
+
+In this company was Elsie De Wolfe, who later became a star and who
+years after left the theater to become an interior decorator. Among the
+male members of the company, besides Forbes-Robertson, was Jamison Lee
+Finney, who had graduated from the amateur ranks and who became one of
+the best-known comedians in the country.
+
+In the mean time Charles had commissioned Henry C. De Mille to furnish a
+play for his stock company which was now on its way back from the coast.
+This play was "The Lost Paradise," which the American had adapted from
+Ludwig Fulda's drama. De Mille joined the company in Denver and
+rehearsals were begun there. By the time the company reached New York
+they were almost letter-perfect, and the opening at Proctor's on
+November 16th was a brilliant success. The play ran consecutively until
+March 1st.
+
+The cast was practically the same as "Men and Women," with the addition
+of Cyril Scott, Odette Tyler, and Bijou Fernandez.
+
+In "The Lost Paradise" Maude Adams scored the biggest success that she
+had made up to that time in New York. She played the part of _Nell_, the
+consumptive factory girl. This character, with its delicate and haunting
+interpretation, made an irresistible appeal to the audience.
+
+"There's big talent in that girl," said Frohman in speaking of Miss
+Adams. He began to see the vision of what the years would hold for her.
+
+* * *
+
+By this time Charles Frohman had begun to make his annual visit to
+London. Out of one of the earliest journeys came still another success
+of the many that now seemed to crowd upon him.
+
+He had taken desk space with Abbey, Schoeffel & Grau in Henrietta Street
+in London. On the trip in question Belasco accompanied him. One night
+Frohman said:
+
+"There is a little comedy around the corner called 'Jane.' Let's go and
+see it."
+
+Frohman was convulsed with laughter, and the very next day sought out
+the author, William Lestocq, from whom he purchased the American rights.
+Out of this connection came another one of the life-long friendships of
+Frohman. Lestocq, a few years later, became his principal English
+representative and remained so until the end.
+
+Frohman was now in a whirlpool of projects. Although he was occupying
+himself with both the comedy and stock companies at Proctor's, he put on
+"Jane" as a midsummer attraction at the Madison Square Theater with a
+cast that included Katherine Grey, Johnstone Bennett, Jennie Weathersby,
+and Paul Arthur.
+
+"Jane" became such an enormous success that Charles put out two road
+companies at once. In connection with "Jane" it may be said that his
+first real fortune--that is, the first money that he actually kept for a
+time--was made with this comedy.
+
+Production after production now marked the Frohman career. Charles had
+always admired Henry E. Dixey, so he launched him as star in "The
+Solicitor" at Hermann's Theater, on September 8, 1891. It was the first
+time that the famous "Charles Frohman Presents" was used. In this
+company were Burr McIntosh, Sidney Drew, and Joseph Humphreys. It was
+the failure of "The Solicitor" that led Frohman to put Dixey out again
+as star in a piece called "The Man with a Hundred Heads" at the Star
+Theater. This also failed, so he ventured with "The Junior Partner" at
+the same theater with a cast that included E. J. Ratcliffe, Mrs. McKee
+Rankin, Henrietta Crosman, and Louise Thorndyke-Boucicault.
+
+Early the following year he tried his luck at Hermann's with "Gloriana,"
+in which May Robson and E. J. Henley appeared. Hermann's Theater,
+however, seemed to be a sort of hoodoo, so Frohman returned to the Star,
+which had been his mascot, and made his first joint production with
+David Belasco in a musical piece called "Miss Helyett." Frohman had seen
+the play in Paris, and proceeded at once to buy the American rights from
+Charles Wyndham. This production not only marked the first joint
+presentation of Belasco and Charles, but it was the debut of Mrs. Leslie
+Carter, who had become a protegee of Mr. Belasco. When the piece was
+moved to the Standard early in January, 1892, Mrs. Carter was starred
+for the first time.
+
+* * *
+
+By this time Charles Frohman was a personage to be reckoned with.
+"Shenandoah," the two stock companies, "Jane," and all the other
+enterprises both successful and otherwise, had made his name a big one
+in the theater. He now began to reach out for authors.
+
+The first author to be approached was Augustus Thomas. He gave Charles a
+play called "Surrender." It was put on in Boston. The original idea in
+Thomas's mind was to write a satire on the war plays that had been so
+successful, like "Shenandoah" and "Held by the Enemy." "Surrender"
+began as a farce, but Charles Frohman and Eugene Presbrey, who produced
+it, wanted to make it serious.
+
+The cast was a very notable one, including Clement Bainbridge, E. M.
+Holland, Burr McIntosh, Harry Woodruff, H. D. Blackmore, Louis Aldrich,
+Maude Bancks, Miriam O'Leary, Jessie Busley, and Rose Eytinge.
+
+The rehearsals of "Surrender" were marked by many amusing episodes.
+Maude Bancks, for example, who was playing the part of a Northern girl
+in a Southern town, had to wear a red sash to indicate her Northern
+proclivities. This she refused to put on at the dress rehearsal because
+it did not match her costume. Bainbridge, an actor who played a Southern
+general, had a speech that he regarded as treason to his adopted
+country, and quit. But all these troubles were bridged over and the play
+was produced with some artistic success. It lasted sixteen weeks on the
+road.
+
+After he had closed "Surrender" Frohman was telling a friend in New York
+that he had lost twenty-eight thousand dollars on this piece.
+
+"But why did you permit yourself to lose so much money on a play that
+seemed bound to fail?"
+
+"I believe in Gus Thomas. That is the reason," replied Frohman.
+
+* * *
+
+Although immersed in a multitude of enterprises, Frohman's activities
+now took a new and significant tack. Through all these crowded years his
+friendship for William Harris had been growing. Harris, who had
+graduated from minstrelsy to theatrical management and was the partner
+of Isaac B. Rich in the conduct of the Howard Athenaeum and the Hollis
+Street Theater in Boston, now added the Columbia Theater in that city to
+his string of houses. Charles at once secured an interest in this lease,
+and it was his first out-of-town theater. Quick to capitalize the
+opportunity, he put one of the "Jane" road companies in it for a run and
+called it the Charles Frohman Boston Stock Company.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+JOHN DREW AND THE EMPIRE THEATER
+
+
+The year 1892 not only found Charles Frohman established as an important
+play-producing manager, but in addition he was reaching out for
+widespread theater management. It was to register a memorable epoch in
+the life of Charles and to record, through him, a significant era in the
+history of the American theater. From this time on his life-story was to
+be the narrative of the larger development of the drama and its people.
+
+With the acquisition of his first big star, John Drew, he laid the
+corner-stone of what is the so-called modern starring system, which
+brought about a revolution in theatrical conduct. The story of Charles's
+conquest in securing the management of Drew, with all its attendant
+dramatic and sensational features, illustrates the resource and vision
+of the one-time minstrel manager who now began to come into his own as a
+real Napoleon of the stage.
+
+Charles always attached importance and value to big names. He had paid
+dearly in the past for this proclivity with the Lester Wallack Company.
+Undaunted, he now turned to another investment in name that was to be
+more successful.
+
+About this time John Drew had made his way to a unique eminence on the
+American stage. A member of a distinguished Philadelphia theatrical
+family, he had scored an instantaneous success on his first appearance
+at home and had become the leading man of Augustin Daly's famous stock
+company. He was one of "The Big Four" of that distinguished
+organization, which included Ada Rehan, Mrs. G. H. Gilbert, and James
+Lewis. They were known as such in America and England. Drew was regarded
+as the finest type of the so-called modern actor interpreting the
+gentleman in the modern play. He shone in the drawing-room drama; he had
+a distinct following, and was therefore an invaluable asset. The general
+impression was that he was wedded to the environment that had proved so
+successful and was so congenial.
+
+Charles knew Drew quite casually. Their first meeting was
+characteristic. It happened during the great "Shenandoah" run. Henry
+Miller and Drew were old friends. It was Frohman's custom in those days
+to have after-theater suppers on Saturday nights at his rooms in the old
+Hoffman House, and sometimes a friendly game of cards.
+
+One Saturday Miller called Frohman up and asked him if he could bring
+Drew down for supper.
+
+"Certainly; with pleasure," said Frohman.
+
+That night after the play Miller picked Drew up at Daly's and took him
+to the Hoffman House. Knowing the way to the Frohman rooms, he started
+for them unannounced, when he was stopped by a bell-boy, who said, "Mr.
+Frohman is expecting you in here," opening the door and ushering the
+guests into a magnificent private suite that Frohman had engaged for the
+occasion. It was the first step in the campaign for Drew.
+
+[Illustration: _JOHN DREW_]
+
+Although Frohman was eager to secure Drew, he made no effort to lure
+the actor away from what he believed was a very satisfactory connection.
+
+As the friendship between the men grew, however, he discovered that Drew
+was becoming dissatisfied with his arrangement at Daly's. Up to that
+time "The Big Four" shared in the profits of the theater. Daly canceled
+this arrangement, and Drew suddenly realized that what seemed to be a
+most attractive alliance really held out no future for him.
+
+Drew's dissatisfaction was heightened by his realization that Augustin
+Daly's greatest work and achievements were behind him. The famous old
+manager was undergoing that cycle of experience which comes to all of
+his kind when the flood-tide of their success begins to ebb.
+
+Drew was speculating about his future when Frohman heard of his state of
+mind. He now felt that he would not be violating the ethics of the
+profession in making overtures looking to an alliance. He did not make a
+direct offer, but sent a mutual friend, Frank Bennett, once a member of
+the Daly company, who was then conducting the Arlington Hotel in
+Washington. Through him Frohman made a proposition to Drew to become a
+star. The actor accepted the offer, and a three-year contract was
+signed.
+
+The capture of John Drew by Charles Frohman was more than a mere
+business stroke. Frohman never forgot that the great Daly had succeeded
+in ousting him from his first booking-offices in the Daly Theater
+Building. He found not a little humor in pre-empting the services of the
+Daly leading man as a sort of reciprocal stroke.
+
+When Drew told Daly that he had signed a contract with Frohman the then
+dictator of the American stage could scarcely find words to express his
+astonishment. He assured Drew that he was making the mistake of his
+life, because he regarded Frohman as an unlicensed interloper. Yet this
+"interloper," from the moment of the Drew contract, began a new career
+of brilliant and artistic development.
+
+Frohman's starring arrangement with Drew created a sensation, both among
+the public and in the profession. It broke up "The Big Four," for Drew
+left a gap at Daly's that could not be filled.
+
+There was also a widespread feeling that while Drew had succeeded in a
+congenial environment, and with an actress (Miss Rehan) who was
+admirably suited to him, he might not duplicate this success amid new
+scenes. Hence arose much speculation about his leading woman. A dozen
+names were bruited about.
+
+Charles Frohman remained silent. He was keenly sensitive to the
+sensation he was creating, and was biding his time to launch another. It
+came when he announced Maude Adams as John Drew's leading woman. He had
+watched her development with eager and interested eye. She had made good
+wherever he had placed her. Now he gave her what was up to this time her
+biggest chance. The moment her name became bracketed with Drew's there
+was a feeling of satisfaction over the choice. How wise Charles Frohman
+was in the whole Drew venture was about to be abundantly proved.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles Frohman not only made John Drew a star, but the nucleus of a
+whole system. It was a time of rebirth for the whole American stage.
+Nearly all the old stars were gone or were passing from view. Forrest,
+McCullough, Cushman, Janauschek were gone; Modjeska's power was waning;
+Clara Morris was soon to leave the stage world; Lawrence Barrett and
+W.J. Florence were dead; Edwin Booth had retired.
+
+Frohman realized that with the passing of these stars there also passed
+the system that had created them. He knew that the public--the new
+generation--wanted younger people, popular names--somebody to talk
+about. He realized further that the public adored personality and that
+the strongest prop that a play could get was a fascinating and magnetic
+human being, whether male or female. The old stars had made
+themselves--risen from the ranks after years of service. Frohman saw the
+opportunity to accelerate this advance by providing swift and
+spectacular recognition. The new stars that were now to blossom into
+life under him owed their being to the initiative and the vision of some
+one else. Thus he became the first of the star-makers.
+
+Charles was now all excitement. He had the making of his first big star,
+and he proceeded to launch him in truly magnificent fashion.
+
+A play was needed that would bring out all those qualities that had made
+Drew shine in the drawing-room drama. The very play itself was destined
+to mark an epoch in the life of a man in the theater. Through Elizabeth
+Marbury, who had just launched herself as play-broker in a little office
+on Twenty-fourth Street, around the corner from Charles Frohman's, his
+attention was called to a French farcical comedy called "The Masked
+Ball," by Alexandre Bisson and Albert Carre. Frohman liked the story and
+wanted it adapted for American production. It was the beginning of his
+long patronage of French plays.
+
+"I know a brilliant young man who could do this job for you very well,"
+said Miss Marbury.
+
+"What's his name?" asked Frohman.
+
+"Clyde Fitch, and I believe he is going to have a great career," was the
+answer of his sponsor.
+
+Fitch was given the commission. He did a most successful piece of
+adaptation, and in this Way began the long and close relationship
+between the author of "Beau Brummel" (his first play) and the man who,
+more than any other, did so much to advance his career.
+
+For Drew's debut under his management Charles spared no expense. In
+addition to Maude Adams, the company included Harry Harwood (who was
+then coming into his own as a forceful and versatile character actor),
+C. Leslie Allen, Mrs. Annie Adams, and Frank E. Lamb.
+
+With his usual desire to do everything in a splendid way, Frohman
+arranged for Drew's debut at Palmer's Theater, the old Lester Wallack
+playhouse which was now under the management of A. M. Palmer, then one
+of the shining figures in the American drama, and located opposite
+Drew's former scenes of activity. Thus Drew's first stellar appearance
+was on a stage rich with tradition.
+
+"The Masked Ball" opened October 3, 1892, in the presence of a
+representative audience. It was an instantaneous success. Drew played
+with brilliancy and distinction, and Frohman's confidence in him was
+amply justified.
+
+[Illustration: _CLYDE FITCH_]
+
+[Illustration: _HENRY ARTHUR JONES_]
+
+The performance, however, had a human interest apart from the star.
+Maude Adams, for the first time in her career, had a real Broadway
+opportunity, and she made the most of it in such a fashion as to
+convince Frohman and every one else that before many years were past
+she, too, would have her name up in electric lights. She played the part
+of _Zuzanne Blondet_, a more or less frivolous person, and it was in
+distinct contrast with the character that she had just abandoned, that
+of _Nell_, the consumptive factory-girl in "The Lost Paradise."
+
+[Illustration: A CHARACTERISTIC FROHMAN BLUE PENCIL SKETCH]
+
+As _Zuzanne_ in "The Masked Ball," Miss Adams went to a ball and
+assumed tipsiness in order to influence her dissipated husband and
+achieve his ultimate reformation. The way she prepared for this part was
+characteristic of the woman. She wore a hat with a long feather, and she
+determined to make it a "tipsy feather." This feature became one of the
+comedy hits of the play, but in order to achieve it she worked for days
+and days to bring about the desired effect. The result of all this
+painstaking preparation was a brilliant performance. When the curtain
+went down on that memorable night at Palmer's Theater the general
+impression was:
+
+"Maude Adams will be the next Frohman star."
+
+The morning after the opening Frohman went to John Drew and said: "Well,
+John, you don't need me any more now. You're made."
+
+"No, Charles; I shall need you always," was the reply.
+
+Out of this engagement came the long and intimate friendship between
+Drew and Frohman. The first contract, signed and sealed on that
+precarious day when Frohman was seeing the vision of the modern star
+system, was the last formal bond between them. Though their negotiations
+involved hundreds of thousands of dollars in the years that passed,
+there was never another scrap of paper between them.
+
+Seldom in the history of the American theater has another event been so
+productive of far-reaching consequence as "The Masked Ball." It brought
+Clyde Fitch into contact with the man who was to be his real sponsor; it
+made John Drew a star; it carried Maude Adams to the frontiers of the
+stellar realm; it gave Charles Frohman a whole new and distinguished
+place in the theater.
+
+Frohman was quick to follow up this success. With Drew he had made his
+first real bid for what was known in those days as "the carriage
+trade"--that is, the patronage of the socially elect. He hastened to
+clinch this with another stunning production at Palmer's. It was Bronson
+Howard's play, "Aristocracy."
+
+The play, produced on November 14, 1893, was done in Frohman's usual
+lavish way. The company included not less than half a dozen people who
+were then making their way toward stardom--Wilton Lackaye, Viola Allen,
+Blanche Walsh, William Faversham, Frederick Bond, Bruce McRae, Paul
+Arthur, W. H. Thompson, J. W. Piggott. "Aristocracy" was Bronson
+Howard's reversion to the serenity of the society drama after the
+spectacle of war. The first night's audience was fashionable. The
+distinction of the cast lent much to the success of the occasion.
+
+* * *
+
+When John Drew called on Charles Frohman for the first time at his
+offices at 1127 Broadway, his way was impeded by a bright-eyed, alert
+young office-boy who bore the unromantic name of Peter Daly. He
+incarnated every ill to which his occupation seems to be heir. Without
+troubling himself to find out if Mr. Frohman was in, he immediately
+said, after the grand fashion of theatrical office-boys:
+
+"Mr. Frohman is out and I don't know when he will return."
+
+"But I have an engagement with Mr. Frohman," said Drew.
+
+"You will have to wait," said the boy.
+
+Drew cooled his heels outside while Frohman waited impatiently inside
+for him. When he emerged at lunchtime he was surprised to find his man
+about to depart.
+
+Daly was immediately discharged by Julius Cahn, who was office manager,
+but was promptly reinstated the next day by Frohman, who had been
+greatly impressed with the boy's quick wit and intelligence.
+
+This office-boy, it is interesting to relate, became Arnold Daly, the
+actor. No experience of his life was perhaps more amusing or picturesque
+than the crowded year when he manned the outside door of Charles
+Frohman's office. Instead of attending to business, he spent most of his
+time writing burlesques on contemporary plays, which he solemnly
+submitted to Harry Rockwood, the bookkeeper.
+
+During these days occurred a now famous episode. Young Daly was
+luxuriously reclining in the most comfortable chair in the
+reception-room one day when Louise Closser Hale, the actress, entered
+and asked to see Charles Frohman.
+
+"He is out," said Daly.
+
+"May I wait for him?" asked the visitor.
+
+"Yes," answered Daly, and the woman sat down.
+
+After three hours had passed she asked Daly, "Where is Mr. Frohman?"
+
+"He's in London," was the reply.
+
+Afterward Daly became "dresser" for John Drew, the virus of the theater
+got into his system, and before long he was an actor.
+
+Thus even Charles Frohman's office-boys became stars.
+
+* * *
+
+Epochal as had been 1892, witnessing the first big Frohman star and a
+great artistic expansion, the new year that now dawned realized another
+and still greater dream of Charles Frohman, for it brought the
+dedication of his own New York theater at last, the famous Empire.
+
+Ever since he had been launched in the metropolitan theatrical
+whirlpool, Frohman wanted a New York theater. As a boy he had witnessed
+the glories of the Union Square Theater under Palmer; as a road manager
+he had a part in the success of the Madison Square Theater activities;
+in his early managerial days he had been associated with the Lester
+Wallack organization; he had watched the later triumphs of the Lyceum
+Theater Company at home and on the road. Quite naturally he came to the
+conviction that he was ready to operate and control a big theater of his
+own.
+
+The way toward its consummation was this:
+
+One day toward the end of the 'eighties, William Harris came to New York
+to see Frohman about the booking of some attractions. He said:
+
+"Charley, I want a theater in New York, and I know that you want one.
+Let's combine."
+
+"All right," said Frohman. "You can get the Union Square. The lease is
+on the market."
+
+"Very well," said Harris.
+
+On the way down-stairs he met Al Hayman, who asked him where he was
+going.
+
+"I am going over to lease the Union Square Theater," he replied.
+
+"That's foolish," said Hayman. "Everything theatrical is going up-town."
+
+"Well," answered Harris, "C. F. wants a theater, and I am determined
+that he shall have it, so I am going over to get the Union Square."
+
+"If you and Frohman want a theater that badly, I will build one for
+you," he responded.
+
+"Where?" asked Harris.
+
+"I've got some lots at Fortieth and Broadway, and it's a good site, even
+if it is away up-town."
+
+They went back to Frohman's office, and here was hatched the plan for
+the Empire Theater.
+
+"I can't go ahead on this matter without Rich," said Harris.
+
+"All right," said Frohman. "Wire Rich."
+
+Rich came down next day, and the final details were concluded for the
+building of the Empire. Frank Sanger came in as a partner; thus the
+builders were Al Hayman, Frank Sanger, and William Harris. Without the
+formality of a contract they turned it over to Charles Frohman with the
+injunction that he could do with it as he pleased.
+
+Frohman was in his element. He could now embark on another one of the
+favorite dream-enterprises.
+
+He was like a child during the building of the theater. Every moment
+that he could spare from his desk he would walk up the street and watch
+the demolition of the old houses that were to make way for this
+structure. Often he would get Belasco and take him up the street to note
+the progress. One night as they stood before the skeleton of the theater
+that stood gaunt and gray in the gloom Charles said to his friend:
+
+"David, just think; the great dream is coming true, and yet it's only a
+few years since we sat at 'Beefsteak John's' with only forty-two cents
+between us."
+
+Naturally, Frohman turned to Belasco for the play to open the Empire.
+His old friend was then at work on "The Heart of Maryland" for Mrs.
+Leslie Carter. He explained the situation to Frohman. As soon as Mrs.
+Carter heard of it she went to Frohman and told him that she would
+waive her appearance and that Belasco must go ahead on the Empire play,
+which he did.
+
+Just what kind of play to produce was the problem. Frohman still clung
+to the mascot of war. The blue coat and brass buttons had turned the
+tide for him with "Shenandoah," and he was superstitious in wanting
+another stirring and martial piece. Belasco had become interested in
+Indians, but he also wanted to introduce the evening-clothes feature.
+Hence came the inspiration of a ball at an army post in the far West
+during the Indian-fighting days. This episode proved to be the big
+dramatic situation of the new piece.
+
+Then came the night when Belasco read the play to Frohman, who walked up
+and down the floor. When the author finished, Frohman rushed up to him
+with a brilliant smile on his face and said:
+
+"David, you've done the whole business! You've got pepper and salt,
+soup, entree, roast, salad, dessert, coffee; it's a real play, and I
+know it will be a success."
+
+Having finished the work, which Belasco wrote in collaboration with
+Franklin Fyles, then dramatic editor of the New York _Sun_, they needed
+a striking name. So they sent the manuscript to Daniel, down at the
+Lyceum, for Charles always declared he had been happy in the selection
+of play titles. Back came the manuscript with his approval of the work,
+and with the title "The Girl I Left Behind Me." This they eagerly
+adopted.
+
+Long before "The Girl I Left Behind Me" manuscript was ready to leave
+Belasco's hands, Frohman was assembling his company. Instead of having a
+star, he decided to have an all-round stock company. The success of this
+kind of institution had been amply proved at Daly's, Wallack's, the
+Madison Square, and the Lyceum. Hence the Charles Frohman Stock Company,
+which had scored so heavily with "Men and Women" and "The Lost Paradise"
+at Proctor's Twenty-third Street Theater, now became the famous Empire
+Theater Stock Company and incidentally the greatest of all star
+factories. William Morris was retained as the first leading man, and the
+company included Orrin Johnson, Cyril Scott, W. H. Thompson, Theodore
+Roberts, Sydney Armstrong, Odette Tyler, and Edna Wallace. The child in
+the play was a precocious youngster called "Wally" Eddinger, who is the
+familiar Wallace Eddinger of the present-day stage.
+
+The rehearsals for "The Girl I Left Behind Me" were held in the Standard
+Theater, which Frohman had already booked for productions, and were
+supervised by Belasco. Frohman, however, was always on hand, and his
+suggestions were invaluable.
+
+"The Girl I Left Behind Me" was tried out for a week at Washington. The
+company arrived there on Sunday afternoon, but was unable to get the
+stage until midnight because Robert G. Ingersoll was delivering a
+lecture there. At the outset of this rehearsal Belasco became ill and
+had to retire to his bed, and Frohman took up the direction of this
+final rehearsal and worked with the company until long after dawn.
+
+The week in Washington rounded out the play thoroughly, and the company
+returned to New York on the morning of January 25, 1893. Now came a
+characteristic example of Frohman's resource. At noon it was discovered
+that the new electric-light installation was not yet complete. Added to
+this was the disconcerting fact that the paint on the chairs was
+scarcely dry. Sanger, Harris, and Rich urged Frohman to postpone the
+opening. "It will be useless to open under these conditions," they said.
+
+"The Empire must open to-night," said Frohman, "if we have to open it by
+candle-light."
+
+In saying this Charles Frohman emphasized what was one of his iron-clad
+rules, for he never postponed an announced opening.
+
+That January night was a memorable one in the life of Frohman. He sat on
+a low chair in the wings, and alongside of him sat Belasco. His face
+beamed, yet he was very nervous, as he always was on openings. At the
+end of the third act, when the audience made insistent calls for
+speeches, Belasco tried to drag Frohman out, but he would not go. "You
+go, David," he said. And Belasco went out and made a speech.
+
+"The Girl I Left Behind Me" was a complete success, and played two
+hundred and eighty-eight consecutive performances.
+
+The opening of the Empire Theater strengthened Charles Frohman's
+position immensely. More than this, it established a whole new
+theatrical district in New York. When it was opened there was only one
+up-town theater, the Broadway. Within a few years other playhouses
+followed the example of the Empire, and camped in its environs. Thus
+again Charles Frohman was a pioneer.
+
+The Empire Theater now became the nerve-center of the Charles Frohman
+interests. He established his offices on the third floor, and there they
+remained until his death. He practically occupied the whole building,
+for his booking interests, which had now grown to great proportions, and
+which were in charge of Julius Cahn, occupied a whole suite of offices.
+He now had his own New York theater, a star of the first magnitude, and
+a stock company with a national reputation.
+
+When the Empire Stock Company began its second season in the August of
+1893, in R. C. Carton's play, "Liberty Hall," Charles Frohman was able
+to keep the promise he had made to Henry Miller back in the 'eighties in
+San Francisco. That handsome and dashing young actor now succeeded
+William Morris as leading man of the stock company, Viola Allen became
+leading woman, and May Robson also joined the company. "Liberty Hall"
+ran until the end of October, when David Belasco's play, "The Younger
+Son," was put on. This added William Faversham to the ranks, and thus
+another star possibility came under the sway of the Star-Maker.
+
+The Empire became the apple of Charles Frohman's eye, and remained so
+until his death. No star and no play was too good for it. On it he
+lavished wealth and genuine affection. To appear with the Empire Stock
+Company was to be decorated with the Order of Theatrical Merit. To it in
+turn came Robert Edison, Ethel Barrymore, Elita Proctor Otis, Jameson
+Lee Finney, Elsie De Wolfe, W. J. Ferguson, Ferdinand Gottschalk, J. E.
+Dodson, Margaret Anglin, J. Henry Benrimo, Ida Conquest, and Arthur
+Byron.
+
+The Empire Stock Company became an accredited institution. A new play by
+it was a distinct event, its annual tour to the larger cities an
+occasion that was eagerly awaited. To have a play produced by it was the
+goal of the ambitious playwright, both here and abroad.
+
+Through the playing of the Empire Company Frohman introduced Oscar Wilde
+to America, and with the stock-company opportunities he developed such
+playwrights as Henry Arthur Jones, Haddon Chambers, Sydney Grundy,
+Louis N. Parker, Madeline Lucette Ryley, Henry Guy Carleton, Clyde
+Fitch, Jerome K. Jerome, and Arthur Wing Pinero.
+
+Having firmly established the Empire Theater, Charles now turned to a
+myriad of enterprises. He acquired the lease of the Standard Theater
+(afterward the Manhattan) and began there a series of productions that
+was to have significant effect on his fortunes.
+
+In May, 1893, he produced a comedy called "Fanny," by George R. Sims, of
+London, in which W. J. Ferguson, Frank Burbeck, and Johnston Bennett
+appeared. It was a very dismal failure, but it produced one of the
+famous Frohman epigrams. Sims sent Frohman the following telegram a few
+days after the opening:
+
+     _How is Fanny going?_
+
+Whereupon Frohman sent this laconic reply:
+
+     _Gone._
+
+Now came another historic episode in Frohman's career. He was making his
+annual visit to London. The lure and love of the great city was in him
+and it grew with each succeeding pilgrimage. He had learned to select
+successful English plays, as the case of "Jane" had proved. Now he was
+to go further and capture one of his rarest prizes.
+
+Just about this time Brandon Thomas's farce, "Charley's Aunt," had been
+played at the Globe Theater as a Christmas attraction and was staggering
+along in great uncertainty. W. S. Penley, who owned the rights, played
+the leading part.
+
+Suddenly it became a success, and the "managerial Yankee birds," as they
+called the American theatrical magnates, began to roost in London. All
+had their claws set for "Charley's Aunt."
+
+Frohman had established an office in London at 4 Henrietta Street, in
+the vicinity of Covent Garden. His friendship with W. Lestocq, the
+author of "Jane," developed. Lestocq, who was the son of a publisher,
+and had graduated from a clever amateur actor into a professional,
+conceived a great liking for Frohman. While all the American managers
+were angling for "Charley's Aunt," he went to Penley, who was his
+friend, and said:
+
+"Frohman has done so well with 'Jane' in America, he is the man to do
+'Charley's Aunt.'"
+
+Penley agreed to hold up all his negotiations for the play until Frohman
+arrived. A conference was held, and, through the instrumentality of
+Lestocq, Frohman secured the American rights to "Charley's Aunt."
+
+At the end of this meeting Lestocq said in jest, "What do I get out of
+this?"
+
+"I'll show you," said Frohman. "You shall represent me in London
+hereafter."
+
+Out of this conference came one of the longest and most loyal
+associations in Charles's career, because from that hour until the day
+of his death Lestocq represented Charles Frohman in England with a
+fidelity of purpose and a devotion of interest that were characteristic
+of the men who knew and worked with Charles Frohman.
+
+[Illustration: THE DOVER STUDIOS. LONDON
+
+_W. LESTOCQ_]
+
+Frohman now returned to America to produce "Charley's Aunt." In spite of
+the success of the Empire, Frohman had "plunged" in various ways, and
+had reached one of the numerous financial crises in his life. He
+looked upon "Charley's Aunt" as the agency that was to again redeem him.
+For the American production he imported Etienne Girardot, who had played
+the leading role in the English production. He surrounded Girardot with
+an admirable cast, including W. J. Ferguson, Frank Burbeck, Henry
+Woodruff, Nanette Comstock, and Jessie Busley.
+
+Frohman personally rehearsed "Charley's Aunt." He tried it out first at
+Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where the reception was not particularly
+cordial. He returned to New York in a great state of apprehension,
+although his good spirits were never dampened. On October 2, 1893, he
+produced the play at the Standard, and it was an immediate success. As
+the curtain went down on the first night's performance he assembled the
+company on the stage and made a short speech, thanking them for their
+co-operation. It was the first time in his career that he had done this,
+and it showed how keenly concerned he was. It was another "Shenandoah,"
+because it recouped his purse, depleted from numerous outside ventures,
+inspired him with a fresh zeal, and enabled him to proceed with fresh
+enterprises. It ran for two hundred nights, and then duplicated its New
+York success on the road.
+
+While gunning for "Charley's Aunt," Charles Frohman made his first
+London production with "The Lost Paradise." He put it on in partnership
+with the Gattis, at the Adelphi Theater in the Strand. It was a failure,
+however, and it discouraged him from producing in England for some
+little time.
+
+These were the years when Frohman was making the few intimate
+friendships that would mean so much to him until the closing hours of
+his life. That of Charles Dillingham is an important one.
+
+Dillingham had been a newspaper man in Chicago at a time when George
+Ade, Peter Dunne, and Frank Vanderlip (now president of the National
+City Bank) were his co-workers. He became secretary to Senator Squire,
+and at Washington wrote a play called "Twelve P.M." A manager named
+Frank Williams produced it in the old Bijou Theater, New York, just
+about the time that Charles Frohman was presenting John Drew across the
+street in "The Masked Ball." Dillingham had previously come on to New
+York, and his hopes, naturally, were in the play. "Twelve P.M." was a
+dismal failure, but it brought two unusual men together who became bosom
+friends. It came about in this extraordinary way:
+
+During the second (and last) week of the engagement of "Twelve P.M." at
+the Bijou, Dillingham, who came every night to see his play, noticed a
+short, stout, but important-looking man pass into the playhouse.
+
+"Who is that man?" he asked.
+
+He was told it was Charles Frohman.
+
+A few days later he received a letter from Frohman, which said:
+
+     _Your play lacks all form and construction, but I like the lines
+     very much. Would you like to adapt a French farce for me?_
+
+Dillingham accepted this commission and thus met Frohman. Dillingham was
+then dramatic editor of the New York _Evening Sun_. One day he called on
+Frohman and asked him to send him out with a show.
+
+"When do you want to go?"
+
+"Right away."
+
+"Very well," said Frohman, who would always have his little joke. "You
+can go to-morrow. I would like to get you off that paper, anyhow. You
+write too many bad notices of my plays."
+
+Dillingham first went out ahead of the Empire Stock Company and
+afterward in advance of John Drew, in "That Imprudent Young Couple." He
+left the job, however, and soon returned to Frohman, seeking other work.
+
+"What would you like to do?" asked Frohman.
+
+"Take my yacht and go to England," said Dillingham, facetiously.
+
+"All right," said Frohman. "We sail Saturday," and handed him fifty
+thousand dollars in stage money that happened to be lying on his desk.
+Dillingham thought at first he was joking, but he was not. They sailed
+on the _St. Paul_. Frohman had just established his first offices in
+Henrietta Street. There was not much business to transact, and the pair
+spent most of their time seeing plays. Dillingham acted as a sort of
+secretary to Frohman.
+
+One day a haughty Englishman came up to the offices and asked Dillingham
+to take in his card.
+
+"I have no time," said Dillingham, whose sense of humor is proverbial.
+
+"What have you to do?" asked the man.
+
+"I've got to wash the office windows first," was the reply.
+
+The Englishman became enraged, strode in to Frohman, and told him what
+Dillingham had said. Frohman laughed so heartily that he almost rolled
+out of his chair. After the Englishman left he went out and
+congratulated Dillingham on his jest. From that day dated a Damon and
+Pythias friendship between the two men. They were almost inseparable
+companions.
+
+The time was at hand for another big star to twinkle in the Frohman
+heaven. During all these years William Gillette had developed in
+prestige and authority, both as actor and as playwright. The quiet,
+thoughtful, scholarly-looking young actor who had knocked at the doors
+of the Madison Square Theater with the manuscript of "The Professor,"
+where it was produced after "Hazel Kirke," and whose road tours had been
+booked by Charles Frohman in his early days as route-maker, now came
+into his own. Curiously enough, his career was to be linked closely with
+that of the little man he first knew in his early New York days.
+
+Frohman, who had booked and produced Gillette's play "Held By the
+Enemy," now regarded Gillette as star material of the first rank.
+Combined with admiration for Gillette as artist was a strong personal
+friendship. Gillette now wrote a play, a capital farce called "Too Much
+Johnson," which Frohman produced with the author as star. In connection
+with this opening was a typical Frohman incident.
+
+The play was first put on at Waltham, Massachusetts. The house was small
+and the notices bad. Frohman joined the company next day at Springfield.
+Gillette was much depressed, and he met Frohman in this mood.
+
+"This is terrible, isn't it? I'm afraid the play is a failure."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Frohman. "I have booked it for New York and for a long
+tour afterward."
+
+"Why?" asked Gillette in astonishment.
+
+"I saw your performance," was the reply.
+
+[Illustration: _CHARLES DILLINGHAM_]
+
+Frohman's confidence was vindicated, for when the play was put on at the
+Standard Theater in November, 1894, it went splendidly and put another
+rivet in Gillette's reputation.
+
+Frohman now had two big stars, John Drew and William Gillette. A
+half-dozen others were in the making, chief among them the wistful-eyed
+little Maude Adams, who was now approaching the point in her career
+where she was to establish a new tradition for the American stage and
+give Charles Frohman a unique distinction.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+MAUDE ADAMS AS STAR
+
+
+When Charles Frohman put Maude Adams opposite John Drew in "The Masked
+Ball" he laid the foundation of what is, in many respects, his most
+remarkable achievement. The demure little girl, who had made her way
+from child actress through the perils of vivid melodrama to a Broadway
+success, now set foot on the real highway to a stardom that is unique in
+the annals of the theater.
+
+Brilliant as was his experience with the various men and women whom he
+raised from obscurity to fame and fortune, the case of Maude Adams
+stands out with peculiar distinctness. It is the one instance where
+Charles Frohman literally manufactured a star's future.
+
+Yet no star ever served so rigorous or so distinguished an
+apprenticeship. Her five years as leading woman with John Drew tried all
+her resource. After her brilliant performance as _Zuzanne Blondet_ in
+"The Masked Ball," she appeared in "The Butterflies," by Henry Guy
+Carleton. She had a much better part in "The Bauble Shop," which
+followed the next year.
+
+John Drew's vehicle in 1895 was "That Imprudent Young Couple," by Henry
+Guy Carleton. This play not only advanced Miss Adams materially, but
+first served to bring forward John Drew's niece, Ethel Barrymore, a
+graceful slip of a girl, who developed a great friendship with Miss
+Adams. Following her appearance in the Carleton play came "Christopher
+Jr.," written by Madeline Lucette Ryley, in which Miss Adams scored the
+biggest hit of her career up to this time.
+
+It remained for Louis N. Parker's charming play, "Rosemary," which was
+produced at the Empire Theater in 1896, to put Miss Adams into the path
+of the man who, after Charles Frohman, did more than any other person in
+the world to give her the prominence that she occupies to-day.
+
+"Rosemary" was an exquisite comedy, and packed with sentiment. Maude
+Adams played the part of _Dorothy Cruikshank_, a character of quaint and
+appealing sweetness. It touched the hidden springs of whimsical humor
+and thrilling tenderness, qualities which soon proved to be among her
+chief assets.
+
+Just about that time a little Scot, James M. Barrie by name, already a
+distinguished literary figure who had blossomed forth as a playwright
+with "Walker London" and "The Professor's Love Story," came to America
+for the first time. For three people destined from this time on to be
+inseparably entwined in career and fortune, it was a memorable trip. For
+Barrie it meant the meeting with Charles Frohman, who was to be his
+greatest American friend and producer; for Miss Adams it was to open the
+way to her real career, and for Frohman himself it was to witness the
+beginning of an intimacy that was perhaps the closest of his life.
+
+Barrie's book, "The Little Minister," had been a tremendous success,
+and, not having acquired the formality of a copyright in America, the
+play pirates were busy with it. Frohman, after having seen the
+performance of "The Professor's Love Story," had cabled Barrie, asking
+him to make a play out of the charming Scotch romance. Barrie at first
+declined. Frohman, as usual, was insistent. Then followed the
+Scotchman's trip to America.
+
+Under Frohman's influence he had begun to consider a dramatization of
+"The Little Minister," but the real stimulus was lacking because, as he
+expressed it to Frohman, he did not see any one who could play the part
+of _Babbie_.
+
+Now came one of those many unexpected moments that shape lives. On a
+certain day Barrie dropped into the Empire Theater to see Frohman, who
+was out.
+
+"Why don't you stop in down-stairs and see 'Rosemary'?" said Frohman's
+secretary.
+
+"All right," said Barrie.
+
+So he went down into the Empire and took a seat in the last row. An hour
+afterward he came rushing back to Frohman's office, found his friend in,
+and said to him, as excitedly as his Scotch nature would permit:
+
+"Frohman, I have found the woman to play _Babbie_ in 'The Little
+Minister'! I am going to try to dramatize it myself."
+
+"Who is it?" asked Frohman, with a twinkle in his eye, for he knew
+without asking.
+
+"It is that little Miss Adams who plays _Dorothy_."
+
+"Fine!" said Frohman. "I hope you will go ahead now and do the play."
+
+The moment toward which Frohman had looked for years was now at hand. He
+might have launched Miss Adams at any time during the preceding four or
+five seasons. But he desired her to have a better equipment, and he
+wanted the American theater-going public to know the woman in whose
+talents he felt such an extraordinary confidence. He announced with a
+suddenness that was startling, but which in reality conveyed no surprise
+to the few people who had watched Miss Adams's career up to this time,
+that he was going to launch her as star.
+
+[Illustration: COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY CHARLES FROHMAN
+
+_MAUDE ADAMS_]
+
+Some of his friends, however, objected.
+
+"Why split and separate a good acting combination?" was their comment,
+meaning the combination of John Drew and Miss Adams. To this objection
+Frohman made reply:
+
+"I'll show you the wisdom of it. I'll put them both on Broadway at the
+same time."
+
+He therefore launched Miss Adams in "The Little Minister" at the Empire
+and booked John Drew at Wallack's in "A Marriage of Convenience." His
+decision was amply vindicated, for both scored successes.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles Frohman now proceeded to present Miss Adams with his usual
+lavishness. First of all he surrounded her with a superb company. It was
+headed by Robert Edeson, who played the title role, and included Guy
+Standing, George Fawcett, William H. Thompson, R. Peyton Carter, and
+Wilfred Buckland.
+
+With "The Little Minister" Charles Frohman gave interesting evidence of
+a masterful manipulation to make circumstances meet his own desires. He
+realized that the masculine title of the play might possibly detract
+from Miss Adams's prestige, so he immediately began to adapt several
+important scenes which might have been dominated by _Gavin Dishart_, the
+little minister, into strong scenes for his new luminary. These changes
+were made, of course, with Barrie's consent, and added much to the
+strength of the role of _Lady Babbie_.
+
+To the mastery of the part of _Lady Babbie_ Maude Adams now consecrated
+herself with a fidelity of purpose which was very characteristic of her.
+Then, as always, she asked herself the question:
+
+"What will this character mean to the people who see it?"
+
+In other words, here, as throughout all her career, she put herself in
+the position of her audience. She devoted many weeks to a study of
+Scotch dialect. She fairly lived in a Scotch atmosphere. One of her
+friends of that time accused her of subsisting on a diet of Scotch
+broth.
+
+As was his custom, Frohman gave the piece an out-of-town try-out. It
+opened on September 13, 1897, a date memorable in the Charles Frohman
+narrative, in the La Fayette Square Opera House in Washington. It was an
+intolerably hot night, and, added to the discomfort of the heat, there
+was considerable uncertainty about the success of the venture itself.
+This was not due to a lack of confidence in Miss Adams, but to the
+feeling that the play was excessively Scotch. A brilliant audience,
+including many people prominent in public life, witnessed the debut and
+seemed most friendly.
+
+Miss Adams regarded the first night as a failure. Financially the play
+limped along for a week, for the gross receipts were only $3,500. Yet
+when the play opened in New York two weeks later it was a spectacular
+success from the start.
+
+Here is another curious example of the importance of the New York
+verdict. "Hazel Kirke," which became one of the historic successes of
+the American stage, tottered along haltingly for weeks in Philadelphia,
+Washington, and Baltimore. In the Quaker City, "Barbara Fritchie," with
+Julia Marlowe in the title role, came dangerously near closing because
+of discouraging business. Yet she came to New York, and with the
+exception of "When Knighthood was in Flower," registered the greatest
+popular triumph she has ever known. This was now the case with "The
+Little Minister."
+
+Miss Adams was irresistible as _Lady Babbie_. As the quaint, slyly
+humorous, make-believe gipsy, she found full play for all her talents,
+and she captured her audience almost with her first speech.
+
+Charles Frohman sat nervously in the wings during the performance. When
+the curtain went down his new star said to him:
+
+"How did it go?"
+
+"Splendidly," was his laconic comment.
+
+"The Little Minister" ran at the Empire for three hundred consecutive
+performances, two hundred and eighty-nine of which were to "standing
+room only." The total gross receipts for the engagement were $370,000--a
+record for that time.
+
+On the last night of the run Miss Adams received the following cablegram
+from Barrie:
+
+     _Thank you, thank you all for your brilliant achievement. "What a
+     glory to our kirk."_
+
+     BARRIE.
+
+Maude Adams was now launched as a profitable and successful star. Like
+many other conscientious and idealistic interpreters of the drama, she
+had a great reverence for Shakespeare, and she burned with a desire to
+play in one of the great bard's plays. Charles Frohman knew this. Then,
+as always, one of his supreme ambitions in life was to gratify her every
+wish, so he announced that he would present her in a special all-star
+production of "Romeo and Juliet."
+
+Charles Frohman himself was always frank enough to say that he had no
+great desire to produce Shakespeare. He lived in the dramatic activities
+of his day. It was shortly before this time that his brother Daniel,
+entering his office one day, found him reading.
+
+"I am reading a new book," he said; "that is, new to me."
+
+"What is that?" was the query?
+
+"'Romeo and Juliet,'" he replied.
+
+When Maude Adams dropped the role of _Babbie_ to assume that of _Juliet_
+some people thought the transfer a daring one, to say the least. Even
+Miss Adams was a little nervous. Not so Frohman. To him Shakespeare was
+simply a playwright like Clyde Fitch or Augustus Thomas, with the
+additional advantage that he was dead, and therefore, as there were no
+royalties to pay, he could put the money into the production.
+
+When Frohman went to rehearsal one day he noticed that the company
+seemed a trifle nervous.
+
+"What's up?" he asked, abruptly.
+
+Some one told him that the players were fearful lest all the details of
+the costume and play should not be carried out in strict accordance with
+history.
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Frohman. "Who's Shakespeare? He was just a man. He
+won't hurt you. I don't see any Shakespeare. Just imagine you're looking
+at a soldier, home from the Cuban war, making love to a giggling
+school-girl on a balcony. That's all I see, and that's the way I want it
+played. Dismiss all idea of costume. Be modern."
+
+The production of "Romeo and Juliet" was supervised by William Seymour.
+It was rehearsed in two sections. One half of the cast was in New York,
+with Faversham and Hackett; the other was on tour with Miss Adams in
+"The Little Minister." Seymour divided his time between the two wings,
+with the omnipresent spirit of Frohman over it all.
+
+Miss Adams had made an exhaustive study of the part. After his first
+conference with her, Seymour wrote to Frohman as follows:
+
+     _I thought I knew my Shakespeare, but Miss Adams has opened up a
+     new and most wonderful field. An hour with her has given me more
+     inspiration and ideas than twenty years of personal experience with
+     it._
+
+As usual, Frohman surrounded Miss Adams with a magnificent cast. William
+Faversham played _Romeo_; James K. Hackett was _Mercutio_; W. H.
+Thompson was _Friar Lawrence_; Orrin Johnson played _Paris_; R. Peyton
+Carter was _Peter_. Others in the company were Campbell Gollan and
+Eugene Jepson.
+
+"Romeo and Juliet" was produced at the Empire Theater May 8, 1899, and
+was a distinguished artistic success. Miss Adams's _Juliet_ was
+appealing, romantic, lovely. It touched the chords of all her gentle
+womanliness and gave the character, so far as the American stage was
+concerned, a new tradition of youthful charm.
+
+A unique feature of the first night's performance of "Romeo and Juliet"
+was the presence of Mary Anderson. This distinguished actress, who had
+just arrived from London for a brief visit, expressed a desire to see
+the new _Juliet_, and to feel once more the thrill of a Broadway first
+night. Miss Anderson herself had, of course, achieved great distinction
+as _Juliet_. She was regarded, in her day, as the physical and romantic
+ideal of the role.
+
+When her desire to see the play was communicated to Charles, it was
+found that every box had been sold except the one reserved for his
+sisters. He therefore purchased this from them with a check for $200.
+
+At the conclusion of the performance Miss Anderson was introduced to
+Miss Adams, and congratulated her on her success.
+
+* * *
+
+It was in 1900 that Miss Adams first played the part of a boy, a type of
+character that, before many years would pass, was to give her a great
+success. Her debut as a lad, however, was under the most brilliantly
+artistic circumstances, because it was in Edmond Rostand's "L'Aiglon,"
+adapted in English by Louis N. Parker. As the young Eaglet, son of the
+great Napoleon, she had fresh opportunity to display her versatility. It
+was a character in which romance, pathos, and tragedy were curiously
+entwined. Bernhardt had done it successfully in Paris, but Miss Adams
+brought to it the fidelity and brilliancy of youth. In "L'Aiglon" she
+was supported by Edwin Arden, Oswald Yorke, Eugene Jepson, J. H.
+Gilmour, and R. Peyton Carter.
+
+* * *
+
+When Charles Frohman put Miss Adams into "Romeo and Juliet" she received
+a whimsical letter from J. M. Barrie, saying, among other things:
+
+     _Are you going to take Willie Shakespeare by the arm and l'ave me?_
+
+The time was now at hand when she once more took the fascinating Scot by
+the arm. She now appeared in his "Quality Street," a new play with the
+real Barrie charm, in which she took the part of an exquisite English
+girl whose betrothed goes to the Napoleonic wars. She thinks he has
+forgotten her, and allows herself to externally fade into spinsterhood.
+When he comes back he does not recognize her. Then she suddenly blooms
+into exquisite youth--radiant and beguiling--and he discovers that it is
+his old love.
+
+"Quality Street" was tried out in Toledo, Ohio, early in the season of
+1901. On the opening night an incident occurred which showed Frohman's
+attitude toward new plays. The third act dragged somewhat toward the
+end, evidently on account of an anti-climax. On the following day
+Frohman asked his business manager to sit with him during the third act,
+saying:
+
+"Last night Miss Adams played this act as Barrie wrote it. This
+afternoon she will play it as I want it."
+
+The act went much more effectively, and it was never changed after that
+matinee performance.
+
+"Quality Street" was another of what came to be known as a typical
+"Adams success."
+
+For her next starring vehicle, Charles presented Maude Adams in "The
+Pretty Sister of Jose," a play which Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett made
+of her well-known story. She was supported by Harry Ainley, at that time
+England's great matinee idol. Here Miss Adams encountered for the first
+time something that resembled failure, because she was not adapted to
+the fiery, passionate character of the impetuous Spanish girl. The play,
+however, made its usual tour after the local season, and with much
+financial success.
+
+The tour ended, Miss Adams suddenly disappeared from sight. There were
+even rumors that she had left the stage. As a matter of fact, she had
+retired to the seclusion of a convent at Tours, in France. There were
+two definite reasons for her retirement. One was that she wanted time
+for convalescence from an operation for appendicitis; the other, that
+she wished to perfect her French in order to fulfil a long-cherished
+desire to play _Juliet_ to Sarah Bernhardt's _Romeo_. Unfortunately,
+this plan was never consummated, but it gave Miss Adams a very rare
+experience, for she lived with the simple French nuns for months. Later,
+when they were driven from France, she found them quarters near
+Birmingham, in England, saw to their comfort, and got them buyers for
+their lace.
+
+* * *
+
+Brilliant as had been Miss Adams's success up to this time, the moment
+was now at hand when she was to appear in the role that, more than all
+her other parts combined, would complete her conquest of the American
+heart. Once more she became a boy, this time the irresistible _Peter
+Pan_.
+
+As _Peter Pan_ she literally flew into a new fame. This play of Barrie's
+provided Frohman with one of the many sensations he loved, and perhaps
+no production of the many hundreds that he made in his long career as
+manager gave him quite so much pleasure as the presentation of the
+fascinating little Boy Who Never Would Grow Up.
+
+The very beginning of "Peter Pan," so far as the stage presentation was
+concerned, was full of romantic interest. Barrie had agreed to write a
+play for Frohman, and met him at dinner one night at the Garrick Club in
+London. Barrie seemed nervous and ill at ease.
+
+"What's the matter?" said Charles.
+
+"Simply this," said Barrie. "You know I have an agreement to deliver you
+the manuscript of a play?"
+
+"Yes," said Frohman.
+
+"Well, I have it, all right," said Barrie, "but I am sure it will not be
+a commercial success. But it is a dream-child of mine, and I am so
+anxious to see it on the stage that I have written another play which I
+will be glad to give you and which will compensate you for any loss on
+the one I am so eager to see produced."
+
+"Don't bother about that," said Frohman. "I will produce both plays."
+
+Now the extraordinary thing about this episode is that the play about
+whose success Barrie was so doubtful was "Peter Pan," which made several
+fortunes. The manuscript he offered Frohman to indemnify him from loss
+was "Alice-Sit-By-The-Fire," which lasted only a season. Such is the
+estimate that the author often puts on his own work!
+
+When Frohman first read "Peter Pan" he was so entranced that he could
+not resist telling all his friends about it. He would stop them in the
+street and act out the scenes. Yet it required the most stupendous
+courage and confidence to put on a play that, from the manuscript,
+sounded like a combination of circus and extravaganza; a play in which
+children flew in and out of rooms, crocodiles swallowed alarm-clocks, a
+man exchanged places with his dog in its kennel, and various other
+seemingly absurd and ridiculous things happened.
+
+But Charles believed in Barrie. He had gone to an extraordinary expense
+to produce "Peter Pan" in England. He duplicated it in the United
+States. No other character in all her repertory made such a swift appeal
+to Miss Adams as _Peter Pan_. She saw in him the idealization of
+everything that was wonderful and wistful in childhood.
+
+The way she prepared for the part was characteristic of her attitude
+toward her work. She took the manuscript with her up to the Catskills.
+She isolated herself for a month; she walked, rode, communed with
+nature, but all the while she was studying and absorbing the character
+which was to mean so much to her career. In the great friendly open
+spaces in which little _Peter_ himself delighted, and where he was king,
+she found her inspiration for interpretation of the wondrous boy.
+
+The try-out was made in Washington at the old National Theater. It went
+with considerable success, although the first-night audience was
+somewhat mystified and did not know exactly what to say or do.
+
+It was when the play was launched on November 6, 1905, at the Empire
+Theater in New York, that little _Peter_ really came into his own. The
+human birds, the droll humor, the daring allegory, above all the
+appealing, almost tragic, spectacle of _Peter_ playing his pipe up in
+the tree-tops of the Never-Never Land, all contributed to an event that
+was memorable in more ways than one.
+
+On this night developed the remarkable and thrilling feature in "Peter
+Pan" which made the adorable dream-child the best beloved of all
+American children. It came when _Peter_ rushed forward to the footlights
+in the frantic attempt to save the life of his devoted little _Tinker
+Bell_, and asked:
+
+"Do you believe in fairies?"
+
+It registered a whole new and intimate relation between actress and
+audience, and had the play possessed no other distinctive feature, this
+alone would have at once lifted it to a success that was all its own.
+
+[Illustration: _MAUDE ADAMS_]
+
+This episode became one of the many marvelous features of the memorable
+run of "Peter Pan" at the Empire. Nearly every child in New York--and
+subsequently, on the long and successful tours that Miss Adams made in
+"Peter Pan," their brothers everywhere--became acquainted with the
+episode and longed impatiently to have a part in it. On one occasion,
+fully fifteen minutes before Miss Adams made her appeal, a little child
+rose in a box at the Empire and said: "_I_ believe in fairies."
+
+"Peter Pan" recorded the longest single engagement in the history of the
+Empire. It ran from November 6, 1905, until June 9, 1906.
+
+But "Peter Pan" did more than give Miss Adams her most popular part. It
+became a nation-wide vogue. Children were named after the fascinating
+little lad Who Never Would Grow Up; articles of wearing-apparel were
+labeled with his now familiar title; the whole country talked and loved
+the unforgettable little character who now became not merely a stage
+figure, but a real personal friend of the American theater-going people.
+
+It was on a road tour of "Peter Pan" that occurred one of those rare
+anecdotes in which Miss Adams figures. Frohman always had a curious
+prejudice against the playing of matinees by his stars, especially Maude
+Adams. A matinee was booked at Altoona, Pennsylvania. Frohman
+immediately had it marked off his contract. The advance-agent of the
+company, however, ordered the matinee played at the urgent request of
+the local manager, but he did not notify the office in New York. When
+Charles got the telegram announcing the receipts, he was most indignant.
+"I'll discharge the person responsible for this matinee," he said.
+
+In answer to his telegraphed inquiry he received the following wire:
+
+     _The matinee was played at my request. I preferred to work rather
+     than spend the whole day in a bad hotel._
+
+     MAUDE ADAMS.
+
+In connection with "Peter Pan" is a curious and tragic coincidence. Of
+all the Barrie plays that Charles produced he loved "Peter Pan" the
+best. Curiously enough, it was little _Peter_ himself who gave him the
+cue for his now historic farewell as he stood on the sinking deck of the
+_Lusitania_.
+
+At the end of one of the acts in "Peter Pan" the little boy says:
+
+     _To die will be an awfully big adventure._
+
+These words had always made a deep impression on Frohman. They came to
+his mind as he stood on that fateful deck and said:
+
+     _Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure in life._
+
+Having made such an enormous success with "Peter Pan," Miss Adams now
+turned to her third boy's part. It was that of "Chicot, the Jester,"
+John Raphael's adaptation of Miguel Zamaceis's play "The Jesters." This
+was a very delightful sort of Prince Charming play, fragile and
+artistic. The opposite part was played by Consuelo Bailey. It was a
+great triumph for Miss Adams, but not a very great financial success.
+
+Now came the first of her open-air performances. During the season of
+"The Jesters" she appeared at Yale and Harvard as _Viola_ in "Twelfth
+Night." She gave a charming and graceful performance of the role.
+
+* * *
+
+But Maude Adams could not linger long from the lure that was Barrie's.
+After what amounted to the failure of "The Jesters" she turned to her
+fourth Barrie play, which proved to be a triumph.
+
+For over a year Barrie had been at work on a play for her. It came forth
+in his whimsical satire, "What Every Woman Knows." Afterward, in
+speaking of this play, he said that he had written it because "there was
+a Maude Adams in the world." Then he added, "I could see her dancing
+through every page of my manuscript."
+
+Indeed, "What Every Woman Knows" was really written around Miss Adams.
+It was a dramatization of the roguish humor and exquisite womanliness
+that are her peculiar gifts.
+
+As _Maggie Wylie_ she created a character that was a worthy colleague of
+_Lady Babbie_. Here she had opportunity for her wide range of gifts. The
+role opposite her, that of _John Shand_, the poor Scotch boy who
+literally stole knowledge, was extraordinarily interesting. As most
+people may recall, the play involves the marriage between _Maggie_ and
+_John_, according to an agreement entered into between the girl's
+brothers and the boy. The brothers agree to educate him, and in return
+he weds the sister. _Maggie_ becomes _John's_ inspiration, although he
+refuses to realize or admit it. He is absolutely without humor. He
+thinks he can do without her, only to find when it is almost too late
+that she has been the very prop of his success.
+
+At the end of this play _Maggie_ finally makes her husband laugh when
+she tells him:
+
+     _I tell you what every woman knows: that Eve wasn't made from the
+     rib of Adam, but from his funny-bone._
+
+This speech had a wide vogue and was quoted everywhere.
+
+Curiously enough, in "What Every Woman Knows" Miss Adams has a speech in
+which she unconsciously defines the one peculiar and elusive gift which
+gives her such rare distinction. In the play she is supposed to be the
+girl "who has no charm." In reality she is all charm. But in discussing
+this quality with her brothers she makes this statement:
+
+     _Charm is the bloom upon a woman. If you have it you don't have to
+     have anything else. If you haven't it, all else won't do you any
+     good._
+
+"What Every Woman Knows" was an enormous success, in which Richard
+Bennett, who played _John Shand_, shared honors with the star. Miss
+Adams's achievement in this play emphasized the rare affinity between
+her and Barrie's delightful art. They formed a unique and lovable
+combination, irresistible in its appeal to the public. Commenting on
+this, Barrie himself has said:
+
+     _Miss Adams knows my characters and understands them. She really
+     needs no directions. I love to write for her and see her in my
+     work._
+
+Nor could there be any more delightful comment on Miss Adams's
+appreciation of all that Barrie has meant to her than to quote a remark
+she made not so very long ago when she said:
+
+     _Wherever I act, I always feel that there is one unseen spectator,
+     James M. Barrie._
+
+Maude Adams was now in what most people, both in and out of the
+theatrical profession, would think the very zenith of her career. She
+was the best beloved of American actresses, the idol of the American
+child. She was without doubt the best box-office attraction in the
+country. Yet she had made her way to this eminence by an industry and a
+concentration that were well-nigh incredible.
+
+People began to say, "What marvelous things Charles Frohman has done for
+Miss Adams."
+
+As a matter of fact, the career of Miss Adams emphasizes what a very
+great author once said, which, summed up, was that neither nature nor
+man did anything for any human being that he could not do for himself.
+
+Miss Adams paid the penalty of her enormous success by an almost
+complete isolation. She concentrated on her work--all else was
+subsidiary.
+
+Charles Frohman had an enormous ambition for Miss Adams, and that
+ambition now took form in what was perhaps his most remarkable effort in
+connection with her. It was the production of "Joan of Arc" at the
+Harvard Stadium. It started in this way:
+
+John D. Williams, for many years business manager for Charles Frohman,
+is a Harvard alumnus. Realizing that the business with which he was
+associated had been labeled with the "commercial" brand, he had an
+ambition to associate it with something which would be considered
+genuinely esthetic. The pageant idea had suddenly come into vogue. "Why
+not give a magnificent pageant?" he said to himself.
+
+One morning he went into Charles Frohman's office and put the idea to
+him, adding that he thought Miss Adams as _Joan of Arc_ would provide
+the proper medium for such a spectacle. Frohman was about to go to
+Europe. With a quick wave of the hand and a swift "All right," he
+assented to what became one of the most distinguished events in the
+history of the American stage.
+
+Schiller's great poem, "The Maid of Orleans," was selected. In
+suggesting the battle heroine of France, Williams touched upon one of
+Maude Adams's great admirations. For years she had studied the character
+of Joan. To her Joan was the very idealization of all womanhood.
+Bernhardt, Davenport, and others had tried to dramatize this most
+appealing of all tragedies in the history of France, and had practically
+failed. It remained for slight, almost fragile, Maude Adams to vivify
+and give the character an enduring interpretation.
+
+"Joan of Arc," as the pageant was called, was projected on a stupendous
+scale. Fifteen hundred supernumeraries were employed. John W. Alexander,
+the famous artist, was employed to design the costumes. A special
+electric-lighting plant was installed in the stadium.
+
+Miss Adams concentrated herself upon the preparations with a fidelity
+and energy that were little short of amazing. One detail will
+illustrate. As most people know, Miss Adams had to appear mounted
+several times during the play and ride at the head of her charging army.
+
+This equestrianism gave Charles Frohman the greatest solicitude. He
+feared that she would be injured in some way, and he kept cabling
+warnings to her, and to her associates who were responsible for her
+safety, to be careful.
+
+Miss Adams, however, determined to be a good horsewoman, and for more
+than a month she practised every afternoon in a riding-academy in New
+York. Since the horse had to carry the trappings of clanging armor, amid
+all the tumult of battle, she rehearsed every day with all sorts of
+noisy apparatus hanging about him. Shots were fired, colored banners and
+flags were flaunted about her, and pieces of metal were fastened to her
+riding-skirt so that the steed would be accustomed to the constant
+contact of a sword.
+
+Although the preparations for her own part were most exacting and
+onerous, Miss Adams exercised a supervising direction over the whole
+production, which was done in the most lavish fashion. She had every
+resource of the Charles Frohman organization at her command, and it was
+employed to the very last detail.
+
+"Joan of Arc" was presented on the evening of June 22, 1909, in the
+presence of over fifteen thousand people. It was a magnificent success,
+and proved to be unquestionably the greatest theatrical pageant ever
+staged in this country. The elaborate settings were handled
+mechanically. Forests dissolved into regal courts; fields melted into
+castles. A hidden orchestra played the superb music of Beethoven's
+"Eroica," which accentuated the noble poetry of Schiller.
+
+The first scene showed the maid of Domremy wandering in the twilight
+with her vision; the last revealed her dying of her wounds at the
+spring, soon to be buried under the shields of her captains.
+
+The battle scene was an inspiring feature. It had been arranged that
+Miss Adams's riding-master should change places with her at the head of
+the charging troops and ride in their magnificent sweep down the field.
+It was feared that some mishap might befall her. When the charge was
+over and the stage-manager rushed up to congratulate the supposed
+riding-master on his admirable make-up, he was surprised to hear Miss
+Adams's voice issue forth from the armor, saying, "How did it go?"
+Strapped to her horse, she had led the charge herself and had seen the
+performance through.
+
+"Joan of Arc" netted $15,000, which Charles Frohman turned over to
+Harvard University to do with as it pleased. There was unconscious irony
+in this, for the performance aroused great admiration in Germany, and
+the proceeds were devoted to the Germanic Museum in the university; in
+the end, the Germans were responsible for his death.
+
+Accentuating this irony was the fact that Charles Frohman had made a
+magnificent vellum album containing the complete photographic record of
+the play, and sent it to the German Kaiser with the following
+inscription:
+
+     _To His Majesty the German Emperor. This photographic record of the
+     first English performance in America of Friedrich von Schiller's
+     dramatic poem, "Jungfrau von Orleans," given for the Building Fund
+     of the Germanic Museum of Harvard University under the auspices of
+     the German Department in the Stadium, Tuesday, twenty-second of
+     June, 1909, is respectfully presented by Charles Frohman._
+
+There is no doubt that "Joan of Arc" was the supreme effort of Miss
+Adams's career. She was the living, breathing incarnation of the Maid.
+When she was told that Charles Frohman had refused an offer of $50,000
+for the motion-picture rights, she said:
+
+     _Of course it was refused. This performance is all poetry and
+     solemnity._
+
+The following June, in the Greek Theater of the University of
+California, at Berkeley, Miss Adams made her first and only appearance
+as _Rosalind_ in "As You Like It." Ten thousand people saw the
+performance. Her achievement illustrates the extraordinary and
+indefatigable quality of her work. She rehearsed "As You Like It" during
+her transcontinental tour of "What Every Woman Knows," which extended
+from sea to sea and lasted thirty-nine weeks.
+
+* * *
+
+Most managers would have been content to rest with the laurel that such
+a performance as "Joan of Arc" had won. Not so with Charles Frohman.
+Every stupendous feat that he achieved merely whetted his desire for
+something greater. He delighted in sensation. Now he came to the point
+in his life where he projected what was in many respects the most unique
+and original of all his efforts, the presentation of Rostand's classic,
+"Chantecler."
+
+It was on March 30, 1910, that Charles crossed over from London to Paris
+to see this play. It thrilled and stirred him, and he bought it
+immediately. He realized that it would either be a tremendous success or
+a colossal failure, and he was willing to stand or fall by it. In Paris
+the title role, originally written for the great Coquelin, had been
+played by Guitry. It was essentially a man's part. But Frohman, with
+that sense of the spectacular which so often characterized him,
+immediately cast Miss Adams for it.
+
+When he announced that the elf-like girl--the living _Peter Pan_ to
+millions of theater-goers--was to assume the feathers and strut of the
+barnyard Romeo, there was a widespread feeling that he was making a
+great mistake, and that he was putting Miss Adams into a role, admirable
+artist that she was, to which she was absolutely unsuited. A storm of
+criticism arose. But Frohman was absolutely firm. Opposition only made
+him hold his ground all the stronger. When people asked him why he
+insisted upon casting Miss Adams for this almost impossible part he
+always said:
+
+     _"Chantecler" is a play with a soul, and the soul of a play is its
+     moral. This is the secret of "Peter Pan"; this is why Miss Adams is
+     to play the leading part._
+
+Miss Adams was in Chicago when Frohman bought the play, and he cabled
+her that she was to do the title part. She afterward declared that this
+news changed the dull, dreary, soggy day into one that was brilliant and
+dazzling. "To play _Chantecler_," she said, "is an honor international
+in its glory."
+
+The preparations for "Chantecler" were carried on with the usual Frohman
+magnificence. A fortune was spent on it. The costumes were made in
+Paris; John W. Alexander supervised the scenic effects.
+
+The casting of the parts was in itself an enormous task. Frohman amused
+himself by having what he called "casting parties." For example, he
+would call up Miss Adams by long-distance telephone and say:
+
+     _I've got ten minutes before my train starts for Atlantic City. Can
+     you cast a peacock for me?_
+
+Whereupon Miss Adams would say:
+
+     _Ten minutes is too short._
+
+Never, perhaps, in the history of the American stage was the advent of a
+play so long heralded. The name "Chantecler" was on every tongue. Long
+before the piece was launched hats had been named after it,
+controversies had arisen over its Anglicized spelling and pronunciation.
+All the genius of publicity which was the peculiar heritage of Charles
+Frohman was turned loose to pave the way for this extraordinary
+production. It was a nation-wide sensation.
+
+For the first time in his life Charles had to postpone an opening. It
+was originally set for the 13th of January, 1911, but the first night
+did not come until the 23d. This added to the suspense and expectancy of
+the public.
+
+The demand for seats was unprecedented. A line began to form at four
+o'clock in the afternoon preceding the day the sale opened. Within
+twenty-four hours after the window was raised at the box-office as high
+as $200 was offered in vain for a seat on the opening night.
+
+The Empire stage was too small, so the play was produced at the
+Knickerbocker Theater. A brilliant and highly wrought-up audience was
+present. Extraordinary interest centered about Miss Adams's performance
+as _Chantecler_. "Will she be able to do it?" was the question on every
+tongue. On that memorable opening-night Frohman, as usual, sat in the
+back seat in the gallery and had the supreme satisfaction of seeing his
+star distinguish herself in a performance that in many respects revealed
+Miss Adams as she had never been revealed before. She was recalled
+twenty-two times.
+
+_Chantecler_ literally crowed and conquered!
+
+Just how much "Chantecler" meant to Charles Frohman is attested by a
+remark he made soon after its inaugural. A friend was discussing
+epitaphs with him.
+
+"What would you like to have written about you, C. F.?" asked the man.
+
+The brilliant smile left Frohman's face for a moment, and then he said,
+solemnly:
+
+"All that I would ask is this: 'He gave "Peter Pan" to the world and
+"Chantecler" to America.' It is enough for any man."
+
+The last original production that Charles Frohman made with Maude Adams
+was "The Legend of Leonora," in which she returned once more to Barrie's
+exquisite and fanciful satire, devoted this time to the woman question.
+In England it had been produced under the title of "The Adored One."
+
+It was in the part of _Leonora_ that James M. Barrie saw Maude Adams act
+for the first time in one of his plays. He had come to America for a
+brief visit to Frohman, and during this period Miss Adams was having her
+annual engagement at the Empire Theater.
+
+Of course, Barrie had Miss Adams in mind for the American production,
+and it is a very interesting commentary on his admiration for the
+American star that about the only instructions he attached to the
+manuscript of the play was this:
+
+     _Leonora is an unspeakable darling, and this is all the guidance
+     that can be given to the lady playing her._
+
+On her last starring tour under the personal direction of Charles
+Frohman, Miss Adams combined with a revival of "Quality Street" a clever
+skit by Barrie called "The Ladies' Shakespeare," the subtitle being,
+"One Woman's Reading of 'The Taming of the Shrew.'" With an occasional
+appearance in Barrie's "Rosalind," it rounded out her stellar career
+under him.
+
+Charles Frohman lived to see Maude Adams realize his highest desire for
+her success. She justified his confidence and it gave him infinite
+satisfaction.
+
+Miss Adams's career as a star unfolds a panorama of artistic and
+practical achievement unequaled in the life of any American star. It
+likewise reveals a paradox all its own. While millions of people have
+seen and admired her, only a handful of people know her. The aloofness
+of the woman in her personal attitude toward the public represents
+Charles Frohman's own ideal of what stage artistry and conduct should
+be.
+
+It is illustrated in what was perhaps the keenest epigram he ever made.
+He was talking about people of the stage who constantly air themselves
+and their views to secure personal publicity. It moved him to this
+remark:
+
+"Some people prefer mediocrity in the lime-light to greatness in the
+dark."
+
+Herein he summed up the reason why Miss Adams has been an elusive and
+almost mysterious figure. By tremendous reading, solitary thinking, and
+extraordinary personal application she rose to her great eminence. With
+her it has always been a creed of career first. Like Charles Frohman,
+she has hidden behind her activities, and they form a worthy rampart.
+
+The history of the stage records no more interesting parallel than the
+one afforded by these two people--each a recluse, yet each known to the
+multitudes.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+THE BIRTH OF THE SYNDICATE
+
+
+Charles Frohman's talents and energies were very much like those of E.
+H. Harriman in that they found their largest and best expression when
+dedicated to a multitude of enterprises. Like Harriman, too, he did
+things in a wholesale way, for he had a contempt for small sums and
+small ventures.
+
+Going back a little in point of time from the close of the preceding
+chapter, the final years of the last century found Frohman geared up to
+a myriad of activities. He had already assumed the role of Star-Maker,
+for Drew and Gillette were on his roster, and Maude Adams was about to
+be launched; the Empire Stock Company was an accredited institution with
+a national influence; he had started a chain of theaters; his booking
+interests in the West had assumed the proportions of an immense
+business; he had begun to make his presence felt in London. Yet no event
+of these middle 'nineties was more momentous in its relation to the
+future of the whole American theater than one which was about to
+transpire--one in which Charles Frohman had an important hand.
+
+Despite the efforts made by the booking offices conducted by Charles
+Frohman and Klaw & Erlanger, the making of routes for theatrical
+attractions in the United States was in a most disorganized and
+economically unsound condition. The local manager was still more or less
+at the mercy of the booking free-lance in New York. The booking agent
+himself only represented a comparatively few theaters and could not book
+a complete season for a traveling attraction.
+
+In New York the manager was an autocrat who frequently dictated
+unbelievable terms to the traveling companies. Immense losses resulted
+from small traveling companies being pitted against one another in
+provincial towns that could only support one first-class attraction.
+Most theatrical contracts were not worth the paper they were written on.
+
+Charles Frohman had first counted the cost of this theatrical
+demoralization when his great "Shenandoah" run at the old Star Theater
+had to be interrupted while playing to capacity because another
+attraction had been booked into that theater. He and all his
+representative colleagues in the business realized that some steps must
+be taken to rectify the situation. Piled on this was the general
+business depression that had followed the panic of 1893.
+
+One day in 1896 a notable group of theatrical magnates met by chance at
+a luncheon at the Holland House in New York. They included Charles
+Frohman, whose offices booked attractions for a chain of Western
+theaters extending to the coast; A. L. Erlanger and Marc Klaw, who, as
+Klaw & Erlanger, controlled attractions for practically the entire
+South; Nixon & Zimmerman, of Philadelphia, who were conducting a group
+of the leading theaters of that city, and Al Hayman, one of the owners
+of the Empire Theater.
+
+These men naturally discussed the chaos in the theatrical business.
+They decided that its only economic hope was in a centralization of
+booking interests, and they acted immediately on this decision. Within a
+few weeks they had organized all the theaters they controlled or
+represented into one national chain, and the open time was placed on
+file in the offices of Klaw & Erlanger. It now became possible for the
+manager of a traveling company to book a consecutive tour at the least
+possible expense. In a word, booking suddenly became standardized.
+
+This was the beginning of the famous Theatrical Syndicate which, in a
+brief time, dominated the theatrical business of the whole country. It
+marked a real epoch in the history of the American theater because
+within a year a complete revolution had been effected in the business.
+The booking of attractions was emancipated from curb and cafe; a
+theatrical contract became an accredited and licensed instrument. The
+Syndicate became a clearing-house for the theatrical manager and the
+play-producer, and the medium through which they did business with each
+other. Charles Frohman contributed his growing chain of theaters to the
+organization and secured a one-sixth interest in it which he retained up
+to the time of his death.
+
+* * *
+
+Once launched, the Syndicate proceeded to ride the tempest, for the
+biggest storm in all American theatrical history soon began to develop.
+Out of the long turmoil came a whole new line-up in the business. It
+affected Charles Frohman less than any of his immediate associates in
+the big combination because, first of all, he was a passive member, and,
+second, he had a kingdom all his own. Yet the story of these turbulent
+years is so inseparably linked up with the development of the drama in
+this country that it is well worth rehearsing.
+
+Although the Syndicate standardized the theatrical contract and made
+efficient and economical booking possible, it did not immediately secure
+the willing co-operation of some of the best-known traveling stars of
+the day. They included Mrs. Fiske, Richard Mansfield, Joseph Jefferson,
+Nat C. Goodwin, Francis Wilson (then in comic opera), and James A.
+Herne. They were great popular favorites and had been accustomed to
+appear at stated intervals in certain theaters in various parts of the
+country. They booked their own "time" and had a more or less personal
+relation with the lessees and managers of the theaters in which they
+appeared.
+
+The Syndicate began to book these stars as it saw fit and as they could
+be best fitted into the country-wide scheme. A scale of terms was
+arranged that was regarded as equitable both to the attraction and the
+local manager.
+
+These stars, however, refused to be booked in this way. They denied the
+right of the new organization to say when and where they should play.
+Out of this denial came the famous revolt against the Syndicate which
+blazed intermittently for more than two decades.
+
+[Illustration: _FRANCIS WILSON_]
+
+[Illustration: _WILLIAM COLLIER_]
+
+Chief among the insurgents was Mrs. Fiske, who had returned to the stage
+in "Tess of the D'Urbervilles," a dramatization of Thomas Hardy's great
+novel. Her husband and manager, Harrison Gray Fiske, was editor and
+publisher of _The Dramatic Mirror_, which became the voice of protest.
+Mrs. Fiske refused to appear in Syndicate theaters, and she hired
+independent houses all over the country. Such places were few and far
+between in those days, and she was forced to play in public halls,
+even skating-rinks.
+
+Mansfield became one of the leaders of the opposition to the Syndicate.
+He made speeches before the curtain, denouncing its methods. His lead
+was followed by Francis Wilson, and subsequently by James K. Hackett,
+David Belasco, and Henry W. Savage. The fight on the huge combination
+became a matter of nation-wide interest.
+
+All the while the Syndicate was growing in power and authority.
+Gradually the revolutionists returned to the fold because desirable
+terms were made for them. Only Mrs. Fiske remained outside the ranks. In
+order to secure a New York City stage for her Mr. Fiske leased the
+Manhattan Theater for a long term.
+
+It was during these strenuous years, and as one indirect result of the
+Syndicate fight, that a whole new theatrical dynasty sprang up. It took
+shape and centered in the growing importance of three then obscure
+brothers, Lee, Sam, and Jacob J. Shubert by name, who lived in Syracuse,
+New York. They were born in humble circumstances, and early in life had
+been forced to become breadwinners. The first to get into the theatrical
+business was Sam, the second son, who, as a youngster barely in his
+teens, became program boy and later on assistant in the box-office of
+the Grand Opera House in his native town. At seventeen he was treasurer
+of the Weiting Opera House there, and from that time until his death in
+a railroad accident in 1905 he was an increasingly powerful figure in
+the business.
+
+Before Sam Shubert was twenty he controlled a chain of theaters with
+stock companies in up-state New York cities and had taken his two
+brothers into partnership with him. In 1900 he subleased the Herald
+Square Theater in New York City and thus laid the corner-stone of what
+came to be known as the "Independent Movement" throughout the country.
+He had initiative and enterprise. Gradually he and his brothers and
+their associates controlled a line of theaters from coast to coast. In
+these theaters they offered attractive bookings to the managers who were
+outside the Syndicate. The Shuberts also became producers and
+encouragers of productions on a large scale.
+
+For the first time the Syndicate now had real opposition. A warfare
+developed that was almost as bitter and costly in its way as was the old
+disorganized method in vogue before the business was put on a commercial
+basis. It naturally led to over-production and to a surplus of theaters.
+Towns that in reality could only support one first-class playhouse were
+compelled to have a "regular" and an "independent" theater. Attractions
+of a similar nature, such as two musical comedies, were pitted against
+each other. In dividing the local patronage both sides suffered loss.
+
+During the last year of Charles Frohman's life the Syndicate and the
+Shuberts, wisely realizing that such an uneconomic procedure could only
+spell disaster in a large way for the whole theatrical business, buried
+their differences. A harmonious working agreement was entered into that
+put an end to the destructive strife. Theatrical booking became an open
+field, and the producer can now play his attractions in both Syndicate
+and Shubert theaters.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles Frohman's activities were now nation-wide. Just as Harriman
+built up a transcontinental railroad system, so did the rotund little
+manager now set up an empire all his own. The building of the Empire
+Theater had given him a closer link with Rich and Harris. Through them
+he acquired an interest in the Columbia Theater, in Boston, and
+subsequently he became part owner of the Hollis Street Theater in that
+city. His third theater in Boston was the Park. By this time the firm
+name for Boston operation was Rich, Harris, and Charles Frohman. Their
+next venture was the construction of the magnificent Colonial Theater,
+on the site of the old Boston Public Library, which was opened with
+"Ben-Hur." With the acquisition of the Boston and Tremont playhouses,
+the firm controlled the situation at Boston.
+
+Up to this time Frohman had controlled only one theater in New York--the
+Empire. In 1896 he saw an opportunity to acquire control of the Garrick
+in Thirty-fifth Street. He wrote to William Harris, saying, "I will take
+it if you will come on and run it." Harris assented, and the Garrick
+passed under the banner of Charles Frohman, who inaugurated his regime
+with John Drew in "The Squire of Dames." He put some of his biggest
+successes into this theater and some of his favorite stars, among them
+Maude Adams and William Gillette. To the chain of Charles Frohman
+controlled theaters in New York were added in quick order the Criterion,
+the Savoy, the Garden, and a part interest in the Knickerbocker.
+
+During his early tenancy of the Garrick occurred an incident which
+showed Frohman's resource. He produced a play called "The Liars," by
+Henry Arthur Jones, in which he was very much interested. In the
+out-of-town try-out up-state Frohman heard that the critic of one of the
+most important New York newspapers had expressed great disapproval of
+the piece on account of some personal prejudice. He did not want this
+prejudice to interfere with the New York verdict, so he went to Charles
+Dillingham one day shortly before the opening and said:
+
+"Can you get me some loud laughers?"
+
+Dillingham said he could.
+
+"All right," said Frohman; "I want you to plant one on either side of
+Mr. Blank," referring to the critic who had a prejudice against the
+play.
+
+This was done, and on the opening night the "prop" laughers made such a
+noisy demonstration that the critic said it was the funniest farce in
+years.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles Frohman's first foreign star, who paved the way for so many, was
+Olga Nethersole. His management of her came about in a curious way. A
+difference had arisen between Augustin Daly and Ada Rehan, his leading
+woman. Miss Rehan had decided to withdraw from the company, and in
+casting about quickly for a successor had decided upon Olga Nethersole,
+then one of the most prominent of the younger English actresses. While
+the deal was being consummated Daly and Miss Rehan adjusted their
+differences, and the arrangements for Miss Nethersole's appearance in
+America were abrogated.
+
+Miss Nethersole was left without an American manager. Daniel Frohman,
+then manager of the Lyceum Theater, stepped in and became her American
+sponsor, forming a partnership with his brother Charles to handle her
+interests. Jointly they now conducted an elaborate tour for her covering
+two years, in which she appeared in "Denise," "Frou-Frou," "Camille,"
+and "Carmen."
+
+[Illustration: _MARGARET ANGLIN_]
+
+[Illustration: _ANNIE RUSSELL_]
+
+The sensational episode of her tour was the production of "Carmen." The
+fiery, impetuous, emotional, and sensuous character of the Spanish
+heroine appealed to Miss Nethersole's vivid imagination, and she gave a
+realistic portrayal of the role that became popular and spectacular. In
+all parts of the country the "Carmen Kiss" became a byword. The play, in
+addition to its own merits as a striking drama, and its vogue at the
+opera through Madame Calve's performance of the leading role, became a
+very successful vehicle for Miss Nethersole's two tours. Miss Nethersole
+was the first star outside of Charles Frohman's own force who appeared
+at the Empire Theater, where she played a brief engagement with
+"Camille" and "Carmen."
+
+* * *
+
+From his earliest theatrical day Charles believed implicitly in
+melodrama. His first production on any stage was a thriller. The play
+that turned the tide in his fortunes was a spine-stirrer. He now turned
+to his favorite form of play by producing "The Fatal Card," by Haddon
+Chambers and B. C. Stephenson, at Palmer's Theater. He did it with an
+admirable cast that included May Robson, Agnes Miller, Amy Busby, E. J.
+Ratcliffe, William H. Thompson, J. H. Stoddart, and W. J. Ferguson.
+
+A big melodrama now became part of his regular season. He leased the old
+Academy of Music at Fourteenth Street and Irving Place in New York,
+where, as a boy, he had seen his brother Gustave sell opera librettos,
+and where he became fired with the ambition to make money. Here he
+produced a notable series of melodramas in lavish fashion. The first was
+"The Sporting Duchess." This piece, which was produced in England as
+"The Derby Winner," was a sure-enough thriller. The cast included E. J.
+Ratcliffe, Francis Carlyle, J. H. Stoddart, Alice Fischer, Cora Tanner,
+Agnes Booth, and Jessie Busley.
+
+Charles Frohman's next melodrama at the Academy was the famous "Two
+Little Vagrants," adapted from the French by Charles Klein. In this cast
+he brought forward a notable group destined to shine in the drama, for
+among them were Dore Davidson, Minnie Dupree, Annie Irish, George
+Fawcett, and William Farnum, the last named then just beginning to
+strike his theatrical stride.
+
+Still another famous melodrama that Charles introduced to the United
+States at the famous old playhouse was "The White Heather," in which he
+featured Rose Coghlan, and in which Amelia Bingham made one of her first
+successes. With this piece Charles emphasized one of the customs he
+helped to bring to the American stage. He always paid for the actresses'
+clothes. He told Miss Coghlan to spare no expense on her gowns, and she
+spent several thousand dollars on them. When she saw Frohman after the
+opening, which was a huge success, she said:
+
+"I am almost ashamed to see you."
+
+"Why?" he asked.
+
+"Because I spent so much money on my gowns."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Frohman. "You did very wisely. You and the gowns are
+the hit of the piece."
+
+Frohman here established a new tradition for the production of melodrama
+in the United States. Up to his era the producer depended upon thrill
+rather than upon accessory. Frohman lavished a fortune on each
+production. Any competition with him had to be on the same elaborate
+scale.
+
+Fully a year before Maude Adams made her stellar debut Frohman put forth
+his first woman star in Annie Russell. This gifted young Englishwoman,
+who had appeared on the stage at the age of seven in "Pinafore," had
+made a great success in "Esmeralda," at the Madison Square Theater.
+Frohman, who was then beginning his managerial career, was immediately
+taken with her talent. She appeared in some of his earlier companies. He
+now starred her in a play by Bret Harte called "Sue." He presented her
+both in New York and in London.
+
+Under Frohman, Miss Russell had a long series of starring successes.
+When she appeared in "Catherine," at the Garrick Theater, in her support
+was Ethel Barrymore, who was just beginning to emerge from the obscurity
+of playing "bits." In succession Miss Russell did "Miss Hobbs," "The
+Royal Family," "The Girl and the Judge," "Jinny the Carrier," and "Mice
+and Men."
+
+In connection with "Mice and Men" is a characteristic Frohman story.
+Charles ordered this play written from Madeleine Lucette Ryley for Maude
+Adams. When he read the manuscript he sent it back to Miss Ryley with
+the laconic comment, "Worse yet." She showed it to Gertrude Elliott, who
+bought it for England. When Charles heard of this he immediately
+accepted the play, and it proved to be a success. The moment a play was
+in demand it became valuable to him.
+
+Spectacular success seemed to have taken up its abode with Charles. It
+now found expression in the production of "Secret Service," the most
+picturesque and profitable of all the Gillette enterprises. The way it
+came to be written is a most interesting story.
+
+Frohman was about to sail for Europe when Gillette sent him the first
+act of this stirring military play. Frohman read it at once, sent for
+the author and said:
+
+"This is great, Gillette. Let me see the second act."
+
+Gillette produced this act forthwith, and Frohman's enthusiasm increased
+to such an extent that he postponed his sailing until he received the
+complete play. Frohman's interest in "Secret Service" was heightened by
+the fact that he had scored two tremendous triumphs with military plays,
+"Held by the Enemy" and "Shenandoah." He felt that the talisman of the
+brass button was still his, and he plunged heavily on "Secret Service."
+
+It was first put on in Philadelphia. Even at that time there obtained
+the superstition widely felt in the theatrical business that what fails
+out of town must succeed in New York. Frohman, who shared this
+superstition, was really eager not to register successfully in the
+Quaker capital.
+
+But "Secret Service" smashed this superstition, because it scored
+heavily in Philadelphia and then had an enormous run at the Garrick
+Theater in New York. In "Secret Service" Maurice Barrymore had the
+leading part, and he played it with a distinction of bearing and a dash
+of manner that were almost irresistible.
+
+William Gillette always proved to be one of Charles Frohman's mascots.
+Practically whatever he touched turned to gold. He and Frohman had now
+become close friends, and the actor-author frequently accompanied the
+manager on his trips to London.
+
+During their visit in 1899, "Sherlock Holmes" had become the literary
+rage. Everybody was talking about the masterful detective of Baker
+Street.
+
+"We must get those Doyle stories," said Frohman to Gillette.
+
+"All right," said the author.
+
+Frohman personally went to see Conan Doyle and made a bid for the
+rights.
+
+"Certainly, Mr. Frohman," replied Doyle, "but I shall make one
+stipulation. There must be no love business in 'Sherlock Holmes.'"
+
+"All right," said Frohman; "your wishes shall be respected."
+
+Frohman now engaged Gillette to make the adaptation, but he said
+absolutely nothing about the condition that Doyle had made. Gillette, as
+most American theater-goers know, wove a love interest into the
+strenuous life of the famous detective.
+
+A year later, Gillette and Frohman again were in England, Gillette to
+read the manuscript of the play to Doyle. The famous author liked the
+play immensely and made no objection whatever to the sentimental
+interest. In fact, his only comment when Gillette finished reading the
+manuscript was:
+
+"It's good to see the old chap again."
+
+He referred, of course, to _Sherlock Holmes_, who, up to this time, had
+already met his death on four or five occasions.
+
+"Sherlock Holmes" proved to be another "Secret Service" in every way.
+Gillette made an enormous success in the title role, and after a long
+run at the Garrick went on the road. Frohman revived it again and again
+until it had almost as many "farewells" as Adelina Patti. The last
+business detail that Charles discussed with Gillette before sailing on
+the fatal trip in 1915 was for a revival of this play at the Empire.
+
+The Frohman Star Factory was now working full time. Next in output came
+William Faversham. This brilliant young Englishman had started with
+Daniel Frohman's company at the Lyceum in a small part. At a rehearsal
+of "The Highest Bidder" Charles singled him out.
+
+"Where did you get your cockney dialect?" he asked.
+
+"Riding on the top of London 'buses," was the reply.
+
+"Well," answered Charles, "I want to do that myself some day."
+
+This was the first contact between two men who became intimate friends
+and who were closely bound up in each other's fortunes.
+
+During his Lyceum engagement Faversham wanted to widen his activities.
+He read in the papers one day that Charles was producing a number of
+plays, so he made up his mind he would try to get into one of them. He
+went to Frohman's office every morning at half-past nine and asked to
+see him or Al Hayman. Sometimes he would arrive before Frohman, and the
+manager had to pass him as he went into his office. He invariably looked
+up, smiled at the waiting actor, and passed on. Faversham kept this up
+for weeks. One day Alf Hayman asked him what he wanted there.
+
+"I am tired of hanging round the Lyceum with nothing to do. I want a
+better engagement," was the answer.
+
+Hayman evidently communicated this to Frohman and Al Hayman, but they
+made no change in their attitude. Every day they passed the waiting
+Faversham as they arrived in the morning and went out to lunch, and
+always Frohman smiled at him.
+
+[Illustration: _WILLIAM FAVERSHAM_]
+
+Finally one morning Charles came to the door, looked intently at
+Faversham, puffed out his cheeks as was his fashion, and smiled all
+over his face. Turning to Al Hayman, who was with him, he said:
+
+"Al, we've got to give this fellow something to do or we won't be able
+to go in and out of here much longer."
+
+In a few moments Frohman emerged again, asked Faversham how tall he was.
+When he was told, he invited Faversham into his office and inquired of
+him if he could study a long part and play it in two days. Faversham
+said he could. The result was his engagement for Rider Haggard's "She."
+Such was the unusual beginning of the long and close association between
+Faversham and Charles Frohman.
+
+Faversham became leading man of the Empire Stock Company, and his
+distinguished career was a matter of the greatest pride to Charles. He
+now was caught up in the Frohman star machine and made his first
+appearance under the banner of "Charles Frohman Presents," in "A Royal
+Rival," at the Criterion in August, 1901.
+
+Charles not only made Faversham a star, but provided him with a wife,
+and a very charming one, too. In the spring of 1901 an exquisite young
+girl, Julie Opp by name, was playing at the St. James Theater in London.
+Frohman sent for her and asked her if she could go to the United States
+to act as leading woman for William Faversham.
+
+"I have been to America once," she said, "and I want to go back as a
+star."
+
+When Frohman let loose the powers of his persuasiveness, Miss Opp began
+to waver.
+
+"I don't want to leave my nice London flat and my English maid," she
+protested.
+
+"Take the maid with you," said Frohman. "We can't box the flat and take
+that to New York, but we have flats in New York that you can hire."
+
+"I hate to leave all my friends," continued Miss Opp.
+
+"Well, I can't take over all your friends," replied Frohman, "but you
+will have plenty of new admirers in New York."
+
+Miss Opp asked what she thought were unreasonable terms. Frohman said
+nothing, but sent Charles Dillingham to see her next day. He said
+Frohman wanted to know if she was joking about her price. "Of course,"
+he said, "if you are not joking he will pay it anyhow, because when he
+makes up his mind to have anybody he is going to have him."
+
+This shamed Miss Opp. She asked a reasonable fee, went to the United
+States, and not only became Faversham's leading woman, but his wife.
+Frohman always took infinite delight in teasing the Favershams about
+having been their matchmaker.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles, who loved to create a sensation in a big way, was now able to
+gratify one of his favorite emotions with the production of "The
+Conquerors." Like many of the Frohman achievements, it began in a
+picturesque way.
+
+During the summer of 1897, Frohman and Paul Potter, being in Paris,
+dropped in at that chamber of horrors, the Grand Guignol, in the Rue
+Chaptal. There they saw "Mademoiselle Fifi," a playlet lasting less than
+half an hour, adapted by the late Oscar Metenier from Guy de
+Maupassant's short story. It was the tale of a young Prussian officer
+who gets into a French country house during the war of 1870, abuses the
+aristocrats who live there, shoots out the eyes of the family
+portraits, entertains at supper a number of loose French girls from
+Rouen, and is shot by one of the girls for vilifying Frenchwomen.
+Frohman was deeply impressed.
+
+"Why can't you make it into a long play?" said Frohman.
+
+"I can," said Potter.
+
+"How?" queried Frohman.
+
+"By showing what happened to the French aristocrats while the Prussian
+officer was shooting up the place," answered the author.
+
+"Do it," said Frohman, "and I'll open the season of the Empire Stock
+Company in this drama, and get George Alexander interested for London."
+
+As "The Conquerors" the play went into rehearsal about Christmas. Mrs.
+Dazian, wife of Henry Dazian, the costumier, was watching a scene in
+which William Faversham plans the ruin of Viola Allen, the leading
+woman.
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Dazian, "if New York will stand for that it will stand
+for anything."
+
+Frohman jumped up in excitement. "What is wrong with it?" he cried. "The
+manuscript was shown to a dozen people of the cleanest minds. They found
+nothing wrong. I've done the scene a dozen times. I have it up-stairs on
+my shelves at this moment in 'The Sporting Duchess.'"
+
+Mrs. Dazian was obdurate. "It is awful," she said.
+
+The first night approached. Potter was to sail for Europe next day.
+Frohman had provided him with sumptuous cabin quarters on the _New
+York_. After the dress rehearsal, Potter appeared on the Empire stage,
+where he found Frohman. The latter was worried.
+
+"Paul," said he, "the first three acts are fine; the last is rotten.
+You must stay and rewrite the last act."
+
+Potter had to postpone his trip. At ten next morning the new act was
+handed in; the company learned and rehearsed it by three in the
+afternoon, and that night Frohman and the author stood in the box-office
+watching the audience file in.
+
+"How's the house, Tommy?" demanded Frohman of Thomas Shea, his house
+manager.
+
+"Over seventeen hundred dollars already," said Shea.
+
+"You can go to Europe, Paul," said Frohman. "Your last act is all right.
+We don't want you any more."
+
+The American public agreed with Mrs. Dazian. They thought the play
+excruciatingly wicked, but they were just as eager to see it on the
+Fourth of July as they had been six months earlier.
+
+A dozen details combined to make "The Conquerors" a storm-center. First
+of all it was attacked because of its alleged immorality. In the second
+place the author was charged with having appropriated some of Sardou's
+"La Haine." In the third place, this play marked the first stage
+appearance of Mrs. Clara Bloodgood, wife of "Jack" Bloodgood, one of the
+best-known men about town in New York. Mr. Bloodgood became desperately
+ill during rehearsals, and his wife divided her time between watching at
+his bedside and going to the theater. Of course, the newspapers were
+filled with the account of the event which was agitating all society,
+and it added greatly to popular interest in the play.
+
+[Illustration: _HENRY MILLER_]
+
+"The Conquerors" not only brought Paul Potter and Frohman a great
+success, but it sped William Faversham on to the time when he was to
+become a star. The cast was one of the most distinguished that
+Frohman had ever assembled, and it included among its women five
+future stars--Viola Allen, Blanche Walsh, Ida Conquest, Clara Bloodgood,
+and May Robson.
+
+* * *
+
+By this time Henry Miller had left the Empire Stock Company and had gone
+on the road with a play called "Heartsease," by Charles Klein and J. I.
+C. Clark. It failed in Cincinnati, and Miller wrote Frohman about it. A
+week later the men met on Broadway. Miller still believed in
+"Heartsease" and asked Frohman if he could read it to him.
+
+"All right," replied Frohman; "come to-morrow and let me hear it."
+
+Miller showed up the next morning and left Klein and Clark, who had
+accompanied him, in a lower office. Frohman locked the door, as was his
+custom, curled himself up on a settee, lighted a cigar, and asked for
+the manuscript.
+
+"I didn't bring it. I will act it out for you."
+
+Miller knew the whole production of the play depended upon his
+performance. He improvised whole scenes and speeches as he went along,
+and he made a deep impression. When he finished, Frohman sat still for a
+few moments. Then he rang a bell and Alf Hayman appeared. To him he
+said, quietly:
+
+"We are going to do 'Heartsease.'"
+
+Miller rushed down-stairs to where Klein and Clark were waiting, and
+told them to get to work revising the manuscript.
+
+When the play went into rehearsal, Frohman, who sat in front, spoke to
+Miller from time to time, asking, "Where is that line you spoke in my
+office?"
+
+This incident is cited to show Charles's amazing memory. Miller, of
+course, had improvised constantly during his personal performance of the
+play, and Frohman recognized that these improvisations were missing when
+the piece came into rehearsal.
+
+Charles now added a third star to his constellation in Henry Miller. He
+first produced "Heartsease" in New Haven. Charles Dillingham sat with
+him during the performance. When the curtain went down on a big scene,
+and the audience was in a tumult, demanding star and author, Frohman
+leaned over to speak to his friend. Dillingham thought he was about to
+make a historic remark, inspired by the enormous success of the play
+before him. Instead, Frohman whispered:
+
+"Charley, I wonder if they have any more of that famous apple-pie over
+at Hueblein's?"
+
+He was referring to a famous article of food that had added almost as
+much glory to New Haven as had its historic university, and for which
+Frohman had an inordinate love.
+
+Henry Miller now became an established Frohman star. After "Heartsease"
+had had several successful road seasons, Frohman presented Miller in
+"The Only Way," an impressive dramatization of Charles Dickens's great
+story, "A Tale of Two Cities."
+
+* * *
+
+Charles Dillingham's friendship with Frohman had now become one of the
+closest of his life. He always accompanied Frohman to England, and was
+regarded as his right-hand man. Frohman had always urged his friend to
+branch out for himself. The result was that Dillingham assumed the
+managership of Julia Marlowe.
+
+Dillingham presented Miss Marlowe at the Knickerbocker Theater in New
+York in "The Countess Valeska." Frohman liked the play so much that he
+became interested in the management of Miss Marlowe, and together they
+produced "Colinette," adapted from the French by Henry Guy Carleton, at
+this theater. "Colinette" inspired one of the many examples of Frohman's
+quick retort.
+
+The "try-out" was at Bridgeport, and Dillingham had engaged a private
+chair car for the company. When Frohman tried to get on this car at
+Grand Central Station the porter turned him down, saying:
+
+"This is the Marlowe car."
+
+Whereupon Frohman spoke up quickly and said: "I am Mr. Marlowe," and
+stepped aboard.
+
+The production of "Colinette" marked the beginning of another one of
+Frohman's intimate associations. He engaged William Seymour to rehearse
+and produce the play. Seymour later directed some of the greatest
+Frohman undertakings and eventually became general stage-manager for his
+chief. Frohman was now actively interested in Miss Marlowe's career.
+Under the joint Frohman-Dillingham management she played in "As You Like
+It" and "Ingomar."
+
+By this time Clyde Fitch had steadily made his way to the point where
+Frohman had ceased to regard him as a "pink tea" author, but as a really
+big playwright. They became great friends. He gave Fitch every possible
+encouragement. The time was at hand when Fitch was to reward that
+encouragement, and in splendid fashion.
+
+Once more the Civil War proved a Charles Frohman mascot, for Fitch now
+wrote "Barbara Fritchie," founded on John G. Whittier's famous war poem.
+He surrounded the star with a cast that included W. J. Lemoyne, Arnold
+Daly, Dodson Mitchel, and J. H. Gilmour. The play opened at the Broad
+Street Theater in Philadelphia. At the dress rehearsal began an incident
+which showed Charles's ready resource.
+
+In the second act the business of the play required that Miss Marlowe
+take a gun and shoot a man. No gun was at hand. It was decided to send
+the late Byron Ongley, assistant stage-manager of the company, to the
+Stratford Hotel, where the star lived, with a gun and show her how to
+use it there.
+
+When Frohman, who came to see the rehearsal, heard of this he had an
+inspiration for a fine piece of publicity.
+
+"Why can't Ongley pretend to be a crank and appear to be making an
+attempt on Miss Marlowe's life?"
+
+He liked Ongley, and he really conceived the idea more to play one of
+his numerous practical jokes than to capitalize the event.
+
+Without saying a word to Ongley, Dillingham notified the Stratford
+management that Miss Marlowe had received a threatening letter from a
+crank who might possibly appear and make an attempt on her life. When
+Ongley entered the hotel lobby innocently carrying the gun he was beset
+by four huge porters and borne to the ground. The police were summoned
+and he was hauled off to jail, where he spent twenty-four hours. The
+newspapers made great capital of the event, and it stimulated interest
+in the performance.
+
+[Illustration: _WILLIAM H. CRANE_]
+
+When "Barbara Fritchie" opened at the Criterion Theater in New York,
+which had passed under the Frohman control, it scored an immediate
+success. It ran for four months. Not only was Miss Marlowe put into the
+front rank of paying stars, but the success of the play gave Clyde
+Fitch an enormous prestige, for it was his first big triumph as an
+original playwright. From this time on his interest was closely linked
+with that of Charles Frohman, who became his sponsor.
+
+In connection with Julia Marlowe is a characteristic Frohman story. The
+manager always refused to accept the new relation when one of his women
+stars married. This incident grew out of Julia Marlowe's marriage to
+Robert Taber.
+
+One day his office-boy brought in word that Mrs. Taber would like to see
+him.
+
+"I don't know her."
+
+After an interval of a few moments a dulcet voice came through the door,
+saying, "Won't you see me?"
+
+"Who are you?"
+
+"Mrs. Taber."
+
+"I don't know Mrs. Taber, but Julia Marlowe can come in."
+
+* * *
+
+Charles was now in a whirlwind of activities. He was not only making
+stars, but also, as the case of Clyde Fitch proved, developing
+playwrights. In the latter connection he had a peculiar distinction.
+
+One day some years before, Madeline Lucette Ryley came to see him. She
+was a charming English _ingenue_ who had been a singing soubrette in
+musical comedies at the famous old Casino, the home of musical comedies,
+where Francis Wilson, De Wolf Hopper, Jefferson De Angelis, and Pauline
+Hall had achieved fame as comic-opera stars. She had also appeared in a
+number of serious plays.
+
+Mrs. Ryley made application for a position. Frohman said to her:
+
+"I don't need actresses, but I need plays. Go home and write me one."
+
+Mrs. Ryley up to that time had written plays only as an amateur. She
+went home and wrote "Christopher Jr." and it started her on a notably
+successful career as a playwright. In fact, she was perhaps the first of
+the really successful women playwrights.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles Frohman celebrated the opening theatrical season of the new
+twentieth century by annexing a new star and a fortune at the same time.
+It was William H. Crane in "David Harum" who accomplished this.
+
+Again history repeated itself in a picturesque approach to a Frohman
+success. One morning, at the time when both had apartments at Sherry's,
+Frohman and Charles Dillingham emerged from the building after
+breakfast. On the sidewalk they met Denman Thompson, the old actor.
+Frohman engaged him in conversation. Suddenly Thompson began to chuckle.
+
+"What are you laughing at?" asked Frohman.
+
+"I was thinking of a book I read last night, called 'David Harum,'"
+replied Thompson.
+
+"Was it interesting?"
+
+"The best American story I ever read," said the actor.
+
+Frohman's eyes suddenly sparkled. He winked at Dillingham, who hailed a
+cab and made off. Frohman engaged Thompson in conversation until he
+returned. In his pocket he carried a copy of "David Harum."
+
+Frohman read the book that day, made a contract for its dramatization,
+and from the venture he cleared nearly half a million dollars.
+
+Frohman considered four men for the part of _David Harum_. They were
+Denman Thompson, James A. Hearne, Sol Smith Russell, and Crane. Thompson
+was too old, Hearne had been associated too long with the "Shore Acres"
+type to adapt himself to the Westcott hero, and Sol Smith Russell did
+not meet the requirements. Frohman regarded Crane as ideal.
+
+His negotiations with Crane for this part were typical of his business
+arrangements. It took exactly five minutes to discuss them. When the
+terms had been agreed upon, Frohman said to Crane:
+
+"Are you sure this is perfectly satisfactory to you?"
+
+"Perfectly," replied Crane.
+
+Frohman reached over from his desk and shook his new star by the hand.
+It was his way of ratifying a contract that was never put on paper, and
+over which no word of disagreement ever arose. Crane's connection with
+Charles Frohman lasted for nine years.
+
+Frohman personally rehearsed "David Harum." Much of its extraordinary
+success was due to his marvelous energy. It was Frohman, and not the
+dramatist, who introduced the rain-storm scene at the close of the
+second act which made one of the biggest hits of the performance.
+Throughout the play there were many evidences of Frohman's skill and
+craftsmanship.
+
+* * *
+
+It was just about this time that the real kinship with Augustus Thomas
+began. Frohman, after his first meeting with Thomas years before in the
+box-office of a St. Louis theater, had produced his play "Surrender,"
+and had engaged him to remodel "Sue." Now he committed the first of the
+amazing quartet of errors of judgment with regard to the Thomas plays
+that forms one of the curious chapters in his friendship with this
+distinguished American playwright.
+
+Thomas had conceived the idea of a cycle of American plays, based on the
+attitude toward women in certain sections of the country. The first of
+these plays had been "Alabama," the second "In Mizzoura." Thomas now
+wrote "Arizona" in this series. When he offered the play to Frohman, the
+manager said:
+
+"I like this play, Gus, but I have one serious objection to it. I don't
+see any big situation to use the American flag. Perhaps I am
+superstitious about it. I have had such immense luck with the flag in
+'Shenandoah' and 'Held by the Enemy' that I have an instinct that I
+ought not to do this play, much as I would like to."
+
+As everybody knows, the play went elsewhere and was one of the great
+successes of the American stage.
+
+Frohman now realized his mistake. He sent for Thomas and said: "I want
+you to write me another one of those rough plays."
+
+The result was "Colorado," which Frohman put on at the Grand Opera House
+in New York with Wilton Lackaye in the leading role, but it was not a
+success.
+
+A few years later Frohman made another of the now famous mistakes with
+Thomas. Thomas had seen Lawrence D'Orsay doing his usual "silly ass"
+part in a play. He also observed that the play lagged unless D'Orsay was
+on the stage. He therefore wrote a play called "The Earl of Pawtucket,"
+with D'Orsay in mind, and Frohman accepted it. When the time came to
+select the cast, Thomas suggested D'Orsay for the leading part.
+
+"Impossible!" said Frohman. "He can't do it."
+
+[Illustration: _AUGUSTUS THOMAS_]
+
+[Illustration: _SIR ARTHUR WING PINERO_]
+
+Thomas was so convinced that D'Orsay was the ideal man that Frohman made
+this characteristic concession:
+
+"I think well of your play, and it will probably be a success," he
+said, "but I do not believe that D'Orsay is the man for it. If you can
+get another manager to do it I will turn back the play to you, and if
+you insist upon having D'Orsay I will release him from his contract with
+me."
+
+Kirk La Shelle took the play and it was another "Arizona."
+
+Frohman produced a whole series of Thomas successes, notably "The Other
+Girl," "Mrs. Leffingwell's Boots," and "De Lancey." To the end of his
+days the warmest and most intimate friendship existed between the men.
+It was marked by the usual humor that characterized Frohman's relations.
+Here is an example:
+
+Thomas conducted the rehearsals of "The Other Girl" alone. Frohman, who
+was up-stairs in his offices at the Empire, sent him a note on a yellow
+pad, written with the blue pencil that he always used:
+
+"How are you getting along at rehearsals without me?"
+
+"Great!" scribbled Thomas.
+
+The next day when he went up-stairs to Frohman's office, he found the
+note pinned on the wall.
+
+Such was the mood of the man who had risen from obscurity to one of
+commanding authority in the whole English-speaking theater.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+THE RISE OF ETHEL BARRYMORE
+
+
+While the star of Maude Adams rose high in the theatrical heaven,
+another lovely luminary was about to appear over the horizon. The moment
+was at hand when Charles Frohman was to reveal another one of his
+proteges, this time the young and beautiful Ethel Barrymore. It is an
+instance of progressive and sympathetic Frohman sponsorship that gave
+the American stage one of its most fascinating favorites. Some stars are
+destined for the stage; others are born in the theater. Ethel Barrymore
+is one of the latter. Two generations of eminent theatrical achievement
+heralded her advent, for she is the granddaughter of Mrs. John Drew,
+mistress of the famous Arch Street Theater Company of Philadelphia, and
+herself, in later years, the greatest _Mrs. Malaprop_ of her day. Miss
+Barrymore's father was the brilliant and gifted Maurice Barrymore; her
+mother the no less witty and talented Georgia Drew, while, among other
+family distinctions, she came into the world as the niece of John Drew.
+
+Despite the royalty of her theatrical birth, no star in America had to
+labor harder or win her way by more persistent and conscientious effort.
+At fourteen she was playing child's parts with her grandmother. A few
+years later she came to New York to get a start. Though she bore one of
+the most distinguished and honored names in the profession, she sat
+around in agents' offices for six months, beating vainly at the door of
+opportunity. Finally she got a chance to understudy Elsie De Wolfe, who
+was playing with John Drew, in "The Bauble Shop," at the Empire. One day
+when that actress became ill this seventeen-year-old child played the
+part of a thirty-two-year-old woman with great success. Understudies
+then became her fate for several years. While playing a part on the road
+with her uncle in "The Squire of Dames," Charles Frohman saw her for the
+first time. He looked at her sharply, but said nothing. Later, during
+this engagement, she met the man who was to shape her career.
+
+About this time Miss Barrymore went to London. Charles had accepted
+Haddon Chambers's play "The Tyranny of Tears," in which John Drew was to
+star in America. She got the impression that she would be cast for one
+of the two female parts in this play, and she studied the costuming and
+other details. With eager expectancy she called on Frohman in London.
+Much to her surprise Frohman said:
+
+"Well, Ethel, what can I do for you?"
+
+"Won't I play with Uncle John?" she said.
+
+"No, I am sorry to say you will not," replied Frohman.
+
+This was a tragic blow. It was in London that Miss Barrymore received
+this first great disappointment, and it was in London that she made her
+first success. Charles Frohman, who from this time on became much
+impressed with her appealing charm and beauty, gave her a small role
+with the company he sent over with Gillette to play "Secret Service" in
+the British capital. Odette Tyler played the leading comedy part. One
+night when Miss Barrymore was standing in the wings the stage-manager
+rushed up to her and said, excitedly:
+
+"You will have to play Miss Tyler's part."
+
+"But I don't know her lines," said Miss Barrymore.
+
+"That makes no difference; you will have to play. She's gone home sick."
+
+"How about her costume?" said Miss Barrymore.
+
+"Miss Tyler was so ill that we could not ask her to change her costume.
+She wore it away with her," was the reply.
+
+Dressed as she was, Miss Barrymore, who had watched the play carefully,
+and who has an extremely good memory, walked on, played the part, and
+made a hit.
+
+When the "Secret Service" company returned to America, Miss Barrymore
+remained in London. She lived in a small room alone. Her funds were low
+and she had only one evening gown. But she had the Barrymore wit and
+charm, her own beauty, and was in much social demand. By the time she
+prepared to quit England the one gown had seen its best days. She had
+arranged to sail for home on a certain Saturday. The night before
+sailing she was invited to a supper at the home of Anthony Hope. Just as
+she was about to dress she received a telegram from Ellen Terry, who was
+playing at the Lyceum Theater, saying:
+
+    _Do come and say good-by before you go._
+
+When she arrived at the Lyceum, the first thing that Miss Terry said
+was, "Sir Henry wants to say good-by to you."
+
+On going into the adjoining dressing-room the great actor said to her:
+
+"Wouldn't you like to stay in England?"
+
+"Of course," said Miss Barrymore.
+
+"Would you like to play with me?" he asked.
+
+Coining at her hour of discouragement and despair, it was like manna
+from heaven. Her knees quaked, but she managed to say, "Y-e-s."
+
+"All right," said Sir Henry. "Go down-stairs. Loveday has a contract
+that is ready for you to sign."
+
+With this precious contract stuffed into her bosom, Miss Barrymore now
+rode in triumph to the Hope supper-party.
+
+"What a pity that you have got to leave England," said Sir Herbert
+Beerbohm Tree.
+
+"But I am going to stay," said Miss Barrymore.
+
+A gasp ran around the table.
+
+"And with whom?" asked Tree.
+
+"With Sir Henry and Miss Terry," was the proud response.
+
+Miss Barrymore played that whole season most acceptably with Irving and
+Terry in "The Bells" and "Waterloo," and afterward with Henry B. Irving
+in "Peter the Great."
+
+When she returned to America in 1898 she had a new interest for Charles
+Frohman. Yet the Nemesis of the Understudy, which had pursued her in
+America, still held her in its grip, for she was immediately cast as
+understudy for Ida Conquest in a play called "Catherine" that Frohman
+was about to produce at the Garrick Theater. She had several
+opportunities, however, to play the leading part, and at her every
+appearance she was greeted most enthusiastically. Her youth and
+appealing beauty never failed to get over the footlights.
+
+Frohman was always impressed by this sort of thing. It was about this
+time that he said to a friend of his.
+
+"There is going to be a big development in one of my companies before
+long. There's a daughter of 'Barry' [meaning Maurice Barrymore] who gets
+a big reception wherever she goes. She has got the real stuff in her."
+
+Miss Barrymore's first genuine opportunity came when Charles cast her
+for the part of _Stella De Gex_ in Marshall's delightful comedy "His
+Excellency the Governor," which was first put on at the Empire in May,
+1899. The grace and sprightliness that were later to bloom so
+delightfully in Miss Barrymore now found their first real expression.
+Both in New York and on the road she made a big success.
+
+While rehearsing "His Excellency the Governor," Charles sat in the
+darkened auditorium of the Empire one day. When the performance was over
+he walked back on the stage and, patting Miss Barrymore on the shoulder,
+said:
+
+"You're so much like your mother, Ethel. You're all right."
+
+Frohman was not the type of man to lag in interest. He realized what the
+girl's possibilities were, so early in 1901 he sent for Miss Barrymore
+and said to her:
+
+"Ethel, I have a nice part for you at last."
+
+It was the role of _Madame Trentoni_ in Clyde Fitch's charming play of
+old New York, "Captain Jinks." Now came one of those curious freaks of
+theatrical fortune. "Captain Jinks" opened at the Walnut Street Theater
+in Philadelphia, and seemed to be a complete failure from the start.
+Although the Quakers did not like the play, they evinced an enormous
+interest in the lovely leading woman. From the gallery they cried down:
+
+"We loved your grandmother, Ethel, and we love you."
+
+It was a tribute to the place that Mrs. John Drew had in the affections
+of those staid theater-goers.
+
+Despite the bad start in Philadelphia, Charles believed in Miss
+Barrymore, and he had confidence in "Captain Jinks." He brought the play
+into New York at the Garrick. The expectation was that it might possibly
+run two weeks. Instead, it remained there for seven months and then
+played a complete season on the road.
+
+Now came the turn in the tide of Ethel Barrymore's fortunes. She was
+living very modestly on the top floor of a theatrical boarding-house in
+Thirty-second Street. With the success of "Captain Jinks" she moved down
+to a larger room on the second floor. But a still greater event in her
+life was now to be consummated.
+
+During the third week of the engagement she walked over from
+Thirty-second Street to the theater. As she passed along Sixth Avenue
+she happened to look up, and there, in huge, blazing electric lights,
+she saw the name "Ethel Barrymore." She stood still, and the tears came
+to her eyes. She knew that at last she had become a star.
+
+Charles had said absolutely nothing about it to her. It was his
+unexpected way of giving her the surprise of arriving at the goal of her
+ambition.
+
+The next day she went to Frohman and said, "It was a wonderful thing for
+you to do."
+
+Whereupon Frohman replied, very simply, "It was the only thing to do."
+
+Ethel Barrymore was now a star, and from this time on her stage career
+became one cycle of ripening art and expanding success. A new luminary
+had entered the Frohman heaven, and it was to twinkle with increasing
+brilliancy.
+
+Her next appearance was in a double bill, "A Country Mouse" and
+"Carrots," at the Savoy Theater, in October, 1902. Here came one of the
+first evidences of her versatility. "A Country Mouse" was a comedy;
+"Carrots," on the other hand, was impregnated with the deepest tragedy.
+Miss Barrymore played the part of a sad little boy, and she did it with
+such depth of feeling that discriminating people began to realize that
+she had great emotional possibilities.
+
+Her appearance in "Cousin Kate" the next year was a return to comedy. In
+this play Bruce McRae made his first appearance with her as leading man,
+and he filled this position for a number of years. He was as perfect an
+opposite to her as was John Drew to Ada Rehan. Together they made a
+combination that was altogether delightful.
+
+It was while playing in a piece called "Sunday" that Miss Barrymore
+first read Ibsen's "A Doll's House." She was immensely thrilled by the
+character. She said to Frohman at once: "I must do this part. May I?"
+
+"Of course," he said.
+
+Here was another revelation of the Barrymore versatility, for she
+invested this strange, weird expression of Ibsen's genius with a range
+of feeling and touch of character that made a deep impression.
+
+Charles now secured the manuscript of "Alice-Sit-By-The-Fire." He was
+immensely taken with this play, not only because it was by his friend
+Barrie, but because he saw in it large possibilities. Miss Barrymore was
+with him in London at this time. Frohman told her the story of the play
+in his rooms at the Savoy, acting it out as he always did with his
+plays. There were two important women characters: the mother, played in
+London by Ellen Terry, who philosophically accepts the verdict of the
+years, and the daughter, played by the popular leading woman Irene
+Vanbrugh, who steps into her place.
+
+"Would you like to play in 'Alice'?" asked Frohman.
+
+"Yes," said Miss Barrymore.
+
+"Which part?"
+
+"I would rather have you say," said Miss Barrymore.
+
+Just then the telephone-bell rang. Barrie had called up Frohman to find
+out if he had cast the play.
+
+"I was just talking it over with Miss Barrymore," he replied.
+
+Then there was a pause. Suddenly Frohman turned from the telephone and
+said:
+
+"Barrie wants you to play the mother."
+
+"Fine!" said Miss Barrymore. "That is just the part I wanted to do."
+
+In "Alice-Sit-By-The-Fire" Miss Barrymore did a very daring thing. Here
+was an exquisite young woman who was perfectly willing to play the part
+of the mother of a boy of eighteen rather than the younger role, and she
+did it with such artistic distinction that Barrie afterward said of her:
+
+"I knew I was right when I wanted her to play the mother. I felt that
+she would understand the part."
+
+"Alice-Sit-By-The-Fire" was done as a double bill with "Pantaloon," in
+which Miss Barrymore's brother, John Barrymore, who was now coming to be
+recognized as a very gifted young actor, scored a big success. Later
+another brother, Lionel, himself a brilliant son of his father, appeared
+with her.
+
+The theater-going world was now beginning to look upon Ethel Barrymore
+as one of the really charming fixtures of the stage. What impressed
+every one, most of all Charles Frohman, was the extraordinary ease with
+which she fairly leaped from lightsome comedy to deep and haunting
+pathos. Her work in "The Silver Box," by John Galsworthy, was a
+conspicuous example of this talent. Frohman gave the manuscript of the
+play to Miss Barrymore to read and she was deeply moved by it.
+
+"Can't we do it?" she said.
+
+"It is very tragic," said Frohman.
+
+"I don't mind," said Miss Barrymore. "I want to do it so much!"
+
+In "The Silver Box" she took the part of a charwoman whose life moves in
+piteous tragedy. It registered what, up to that time, was the most
+poignant note that this gifted young woman had uttered. Yet the very
+next season she turned to a typical Clyde Fitch play, "Her Sister," and
+disported herself in charming frocks and smart drawing-room
+conversation.
+
+* * *
+
+Miss Barrymore's career justified every confidence that Charles had felt
+for her. It remained, however, for Pinero's superb if darksome play
+"Midchannel" to give her her largest opportunity.
+
+When Frohman told her about this play he said: "Ethel, I have a big
+play, but it is dark and sad. I don't think you want to do it."
+
+After she had heard the story she said, impulsively: "You are wrong. I
+want to play this part very much."
+
+"All right," said Frohman. "Go ahead."
+
+[Illustration: _ETHEL BARRYMORE_]
+
+As _Zoe Blundell_ she had a triumph. In this character she was
+artistically reborn. The sweetness and girlishness now stood aside in
+the presence of a somber and haunting tragedy that was real. Miss
+Barrymore literally made the critics sit up. It recorded a distinct
+epoch in her career, and, as in other instances with a Pinero play, the
+American success far exceeded its English popularity.
+
+When Miss Barrymore did "The Twelve-Pound Look," by Barrie, the
+following year, she only added to the conviction that she was in many
+respects the most versatile and gifted of the younger American
+actresses. Frohman loved "The Twelve-Pound Look" as he loved few plays.
+Its only rival in his regard was "Peter Pan." He went to every
+rehearsal, he saw it at every possible opportunity. Like most others, he
+realized that into this one act of intense life was crowded all the
+human drama, all the human tragedy.
+
+Miss Barrymore now sped from grave to gay. When the time came for her to
+rehearse Barrie's fascinating skit, "A Slice of Life," Frohman was ill
+at the Knickerbocker Hotel. He was very much interested in this little
+play, so the rehearsals were held in his rooms at the hotel. There were
+only three people in the cast--Miss Barrymore, her brother John, and
+Hattie Williams. It was so excruciatingly funny that Frohman would often
+call up the Empire and say:
+
+"Send Ethel over to rehearse. I want to forget my pains."
+
+Charles Frohman lived to see his great expectations of Ethel Barrymore
+realized. He found her the winsome slip of a fascinating girl; he last
+beheld her in the full flower of her maturing art. He was very much
+interested in her transition from the seriousness of "The Shadow" into
+the wholesome humor and womanliness of "Our Mrs. McChesney," a part he
+had planned for her before his final departure. It was one of the many
+swift changes that Miss Barrymore has made, and had he lived he would
+have found still another cause for infinite satisfaction with her.
+
+* * *
+
+Another star now swam into the Frohman ken. This was the way of it:
+
+Paul Potter was making a periodical visit to New York in 1901. David
+Belasco came to see him at the Holland House.
+
+"Paul," said he, "C. F. and I want you to make us a version of Ouida's
+'Under Two Flags' for Blanche Bates."
+
+"I never read the novel," said Potter.
+
+"You can dramatize it without reading it," remarked Belasco, and in a
+month he was sitting in Frohman's rooms at Sherry's and Potter was
+reading to them his dramatization of "Under Two Flags," throwing in, for
+good measure, a ride from "Mazeppa" and a snow-storm from "The Queen of
+Sheba."
+
+"I like all but the last scene," said Frohman. "When _Cigarette_ rides
+up those mountains with her lover's pardon, the pardon is, to all
+intents and purposes, delivered. The actual delivery is an anti-climax.
+What the audience want to see is a return to the garret where the lovers
+lived and were happy."
+
+As they walked home that night Belasco said to Potter:
+
+"That was a great point which C. F. made. What remarkable intuition he
+has!"
+
+Frohman and Potter used to watch Belasco at work, teaching the actors to
+act, the singers to sing, the dancers to dance.
+
+Then came a hitch.
+
+"Gros, our scene-painter," said Frohman, "maintains that _Cigarette_
+couldn't ride up any mountains near the Algerian coast, for the nearest
+mountains are the Atlas Mountains, eight hundred miles away."
+
+He undertook to convert Mr. Gros. Fortunately for him the author of the
+play stood in the Garden Theater while Belasco was rehearsing a dance.
+
+"Oh," said he, "if it's a comic opera you can have all the mountains you
+please. I thought it was a serious drama."
+
+Then Frohman ventured to criticize the mountain torrent.
+
+"What's the matter with the torrent?" called Belasco, while _Cigarette_
+and her horse stood on the slope.
+
+"It doesn't look like water at all," said Frohman.
+
+Just then the horse plunged his nose into the torrent and licked it
+furiously. Criticism was silenced. The play was a big, popular success,
+and with it Blanche Bates arrived as star.
+
+One day, a year later, Frohman remarked to Potter in Paris, "What do you
+say to paying Ouida a visit in Florence?"
+
+He and Belasco had paid her considerable royalties. He thought she would
+be gratified by a friendly call. Frohman and Potter obtained letters of
+introduction from bankers, consuls, and Florentine notables, and sent
+them in advance to Ouida. The landlord of the inn gave them a
+resplendent two-horse carriage, with a liveried coachman and a footman.
+Frohman objected to the footman as undemocratic. The landlord insisted
+that it was Florentine etiquette, and shrugged his shoulders when they
+departed, seeming to think that they were bound on a perilous journey.
+
+Through the perfumed, flower-laden hills they climbed, the Arno
+gleaming below. The footman took in their cards to the villa of Mlle. de
+la Ramee. He promptly returned.
+
+"The signora is indisposed," he remarked.
+
+The visitors sent him back to ask if they might come some other day.
+Again he returned.
+
+"The signora is indisposed," was the only answer he could get.
+
+Potter and Frohman drove away. Frohman was hurt. He did not try to
+conceal it.
+
+"That's the first author," he said, "who ever turned me down. Anyway,
+the pancakes at lunch were delicious." He met rebuff--as he met
+loss--with infinite humor.
+
+* * *
+
+Stars now crowded quick and fast into the Frohman firmament. Next came
+Virginia Harned. Daniel Frohman had seen her in a traveling company at
+the Fourteenth Street Theater and engaged her to support E. H. Sothern.
+She later came under Charles's control, and he presented her as star in
+"Alice of Old Vincennes," "Iris," and "The Light that Lies in Woman's
+Eyes."
+
+Effie Shannon and Herbert Kelcey followed. Their first venture with him,
+"Manon Lescaut," was a direful failure, but it was followed up with "My
+Lady Dainty," which was a success.
+
+Charles Frohman had various formulas for making stars. Some he
+discovered outright, others he developed. Here is an example of his
+Christopher Columbus proclivities:
+
+One day he heard that there was a very brilliant young Hungarian actor
+playing a small part down at the Irving Place German Theater in New York
+City. He went to see him, was very much impressed with his ability, sent
+for him, and said:
+
+"If you will study English I will agree to take care of you on the
+English-speaking stage."
+
+[Illustration: _JULIA MARLOWE_]
+
+The man assented, and Frohman paid him a salary all the while he was
+studying English. Before many years he was a well-known star. His name
+was Leo Ditrichstein.
+
+Frohman now got Ditrichstein to adapt "Are You a Mason?" from the
+German, put it on at Wallack's Theater, and it was a huge success.
+Besides Ditrichstein, this cast, which was a very notable one, included
+John C. Rice, Thomas W. Wise, May Robson, Arnold Daly, Cecil De Mille,
+and Sallie Cohen, who had played Topsy in the stranded "Uncle Tom's
+Cabin" Company, whose advance fortunes Frohman had piloted in his
+precarious days on the road.
+
+Just as Frohman led the American invasion in England, so did he now
+bring about the English invasion of America. He had inaugurated it with
+Olga Nethersole. He now introduced to American theater-goers such
+artists as Charles Hawtrey, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Charles Warner, Sir
+Charles Wyndham, Mary Moore, Marie Tempest, and Fay Davis, in whose
+career he was enormously interested. He starred Miss Davis in a group of
+plays ranging from "Lady Rose's Daughter" to "The House of Mirth."
+
+In connection with Mrs. Campbell's first tour occurred another one of
+the famous Frohman examples of quick retort. He was rehearsing this
+highly temperamental lady, and made a constructive criticism which
+nettled her very much. She became indignant, called him to the
+footlights, and said:
+
+"I want you to know that I am an artist?"
+
+Frohman, with solemn face, instantly replied:
+
+"Madam, I will keep your secret."
+
+One of the early English importations revealed Frohman's utterly
+uncommercialized attitude toward the theater. He was greatly taken with
+the miracle play "Everyman," and brought over Edith Wynne Mathison and
+Charles Rann Kennedy to do it. He was unable to get a theater, so he put
+them in Mendelssohn Hall.
+
+"You'll make no money with them there," said a friend to him.
+
+"I don't expect to make any," replied Frohman, "but I want the American
+people to see this fine and worthy thing."
+
+The play drew small audiences for some time. Then, becoming the talk of
+the town, it went on tour and repaid him with a profit on his early
+loss.
+
+* * *
+
+One of the happiest of Charles Frohman's theatrical associations now
+developed. In 1903, when the famous Weber and Fields organization seemed
+to be headed toward dissolution, Charles Dillingham suggested to Willie
+Collier that he go under the Frohman management. Collier went to the
+Empire Theater and was ushered into Frohman's office.
+
+"It took you a long time to get up here," said the magnate. "How would
+you like to go under my management?"
+
+"Well," replied Collier, with his usual humor, "I didn't come up here to
+buy a new hat."
+
+The result was that Collier became a Frohman star and remained one for
+eleven years. He and Frohman were constantly exchanging witty telegrams
+and letters. Frohman sent Collier to Australia. At San Francisco the
+star encountered the famous earthquake. He wired Frohman:
+
+"San Francisco has just had the biggest opening in its history."
+
+Whereupon Frohman, who had not yet learned the full extent of the
+calamity, wired back:
+
+"Don't like openings with so many 'dead-heads.'"
+
+* * *
+
+All the while, William Gillette had been thriving as a Frohman star.
+Like many other serious actors, he had an ambition to play _Hamlet_.
+With Frohman the wishes of his favorite stars were commands, so he
+proceeded to make ready a production. Suddenly Barrie's remarkable play
+"The Admirable Crichton" fell into his hands. He sent for Gillette and
+said:
+
+"Gillette, I am perfectly willing that you should play _Hamlet_, but I
+have just got from Barrie the ideal play for you."
+
+When Gillette read "The Admirable Crichton," he agreed with Frohman, and
+out of it developed one of his biggest successes. "Hamlet," with its
+elaborate production, still awaits Gillette.
+
+* * *
+
+In presenting Clara Bloodgood as star in Clyde Fitch's play "The Girl
+with the Green Eyes," Frohman achieved another one of his many
+sensations. The smart, charming girl who had made her debut under
+sensational circumstances in "The Conquerors," now saw her name up in
+electric lights for the first time. Frohman's confidence in her, as in
+many of his proteges, was more than fulfilled.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles Frohman, who loved to dazzle the world with his Napoleonic
+coups, launched what was up to this time, and which will long remain,
+the most spectacular of theatrical deals. He greatly admired E. H.
+Sothern, who had been associated with him in some of his early ventures.
+The years that Julia Marlowe had played under his joint management had
+endeared her to him. One day he had an inspiration. There had been no
+big Shakespearian revival for some time, so he said:
+
+"Why not unite Sothern and Marlowe and tour the country in a series of
+magnificent Shakespearian productions?"
+
+At that time Julia Marlowe had reverted to the control of Charles
+Dillingham, while Sothern was still under the management of Daniel
+Frohman. Charles now brought the stars together, offered them a
+guarantee of $5,000 a week for a forty weeks' engagement and for three
+seasons. In other words, he pledged these two stars the immense sum of
+$200,000 for each season, which was beyond doubt the largest guarantee
+of the kind ever made in the history of the American theater.
+
+It was just about this time that Joseph Humphreys, Frohman's seasoned
+general stage-manager, succumbed to the terrific strain under which he
+had worked all these years, as both actor and producer. William Seymour
+stepped into his shoes, and has retained that position ever since.
+
+Charles was constantly bringing about revolutions. Through him Francis
+Wilson, for example, departed from musical comedy, in which he had made
+a great success, and took up straight plays. He began with Clyde Fitch's
+French adaptation of "Cousin Billy," and thus commenced a connection
+under Charles Frohman that lasted many years. With him, as with all his
+other stars, there was never a scrap of paper.
+
+[Illustration: _E. H. SOTHERN_]
+
+Frohman and Wilson met at the Savoy Hotel in London one day. Frohman
+had often urged him to quit musical comedy, and he now said he was ready
+to make the plunge.
+
+"All right," said Frohman. "I will give you so much a week and a
+percentage of the profits."
+
+"It's done," said Wilson.
+
+"Do you want a contract?" asked Frohman.
+
+"No."
+
+This was about all that ever happened in the way of arrangements between
+Frohman and his stars, to some of whom he paid fortunes.
+
+During these years Charles had watched with growing interest the
+development of a young girl from Bloomington, Illinois, Margaret
+Illington by name. She had appeared successfully in the old Lyceum Stock
+Company when it was transferred by Daniel Frohman to Daly's, and had
+played with James K. Hackett and E. H. Sothern. Charles now cast her in
+Pinero's play "A Wife Without a Smile." Afterward she appeared in
+Augustus Thomas's piece "Mrs. Leffingwell's Boots," and made such a
+strong impression that Frohman made her leading woman with John Drew in
+Pinero's "His House in Order."
+
+Just about this time Charles, whose interest in French plays had
+constantly increased through the years, singled out Henri Bernstein as
+the foremost of the younger French playwrights. He secured his
+remarkable play "The Thief" for America. He now produced this play at
+the Lyceum with Miss Illington and Kyrle Bellew as co-stars, and it
+proved to be an enormous success, continuing there for a whole season,
+and then duplicating its triumph on the road, where Frohman at one time
+had four companies playing it in various parts of the country.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+THE CONQUEST OF THE LONDON STAGE
+
+
+Great as were Charles Frohman's achievements in America, they were more
+than matched in many respects by his activities in England. He was the
+one American manager who made an impress on the British drama; he led
+the so-called "American invasion." As a matter of fact, he _was_ the
+invasion. No phase of his fascinatingly crowded and adventurous career
+reflects so much of the genius of the man, or reveals so many of his
+finer qualities, as his costly attempt to corner the British stage.
+Here, as in no other work, he showed himself in really Napoleonic
+proportions.
+
+Behind Charles's tremendous operations in London were three definite
+motives. First of all, he really loved England. He felt that the theater
+there had a dignity and a distinction far removed from theatrical
+production in America. There was no sneer of "commercialism" about it.
+To be identified with the stage in England was something to be proud of.
+He often said that he would rather make fifteen pounds in London than
+fifteen thousand dollars in America. It summed up his whole attitude
+toward the theater in Great Britain.
+
+In the second place, he knew that a strong footing in England was
+absolutely necessary to a mastery of the situation in America. Just as
+important as any of his other reasons was the conviction in his own mind
+that to produce the best English-speaking plays in the United States he
+must know English playwrights and English authors on their own ground,
+and to produce, if possible, their own works on their home stages.
+
+This latter desire led him to the long and brilliant series of
+productions that he made in London, and which amounted to what later
+became an almost complete monopoly on British dramatic output for the
+United States.
+
+The net result was that he became a sort of Colossus of the
+English-speaking theater. Figuratively, he stood astride the mighty sea
+in which he was to meet his death, with one foot planted securely in
+England and the other in New York.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles's first visits to England were made in the most unostentatious
+way, largely to look over the ground and see what he could pick up for
+America. His first offices in Henrietta Street were very modest rooms.
+Unpretentious as they were, they represented a somewhat historic step,
+because Frohman was absolutely the first American manager to set up a
+business in England. Augustin Daly had taken over a company, but he
+allied himself in no general way with British theatrical interests.
+
+When Frohman first engaged W. Lestocq as his English manager, as has
+already been recorded, he made a significant remark:
+
+"You know I am coming into London to produce plays. But I am coming in
+by the back door. I shall get to the front door, however, and you shall
+come with me."
+
+No sooner had he set foot in London than his productive activities were
+turned loose. With A. and S. Gatti he put on one of his New York
+successes, "The Lost Paradise," at the Adelphi Theater. In this instance
+he merely furnished the play. It failed, however. Far from discouraging
+Frohman, it only filled him with a desire to do something big.
+
+This play marked the beginning of one of his most important English
+connections. The Gattis, as they were known in England, were prominent
+figures in the British theater. They were Swiss-Italians who had begun
+life in England as waiters, had established a small eating-house, and
+had risen to become the most important restaurateurs of the British
+capital. They became large realty-owners, spread out to the theater, and
+acquired the Adelphi and the Vaudeville.
+
+Charles Frohman's arrangement with them was typical of all his business
+transactions. Some years afterward a well-known English playwright asked
+Stephen Gatti:
+
+"What is your contract with Frohman?"
+
+"We have none. When we want an agreement from Charles Frohman about a
+business transaction it is time to stop," was his reply.
+
+With the production of a French farce called "A Night Out," which was
+done at the Vaudeville Theater in 1896, Frohman began his long and
+intimate association with George Edwardes. This man's name was
+synonymous with musical comedy throughout the amusement world. As
+managing director of the London Gaiety Theater, the most famous musical
+theater anywhere, he occupied a unique position. Charles was the
+principal American importer of the Gaiety shows, and through this and
+various other connections he had much to do with Edwardes.
+
+Frohman and Edwardes were the joint producers of "A Night Out," and it
+brought to Charles his first taste of London success. This was the only
+play in London in which he ever sold his interest. Out of this sale grew
+a curious example of Frohman's disregard of money. For his share he
+received a check of four figures. He carried it around in his pocket for
+weeks. After it had become all crumpled up, Lestocq persuaded him to
+deposit it in the bank. Only when the check was almost reduced to shreds
+did he consent to open an account with it.
+
+* * *
+
+It remained for an American play, presenting an American star, to give
+Charles his first real triumph in London. With the production of "Secret
+Service," in 1897, at the Adelphi Theater, he became the real envoy from
+the New World of plays to the Old. It was an ambassadorship that gave
+him an infinite pride, for it brought fame and fortune to the American
+playwright and the American actor abroad. Frohman's envoyship was as
+advantageous to England as it was to the United States, because he was
+the instrument through which the best of the modern English plays and
+the most brilliant of the modern English actors found their hearing on
+this side of the water.
+
+Frohman was immensely interested in the English production of "Secret
+Service." Gillette himself headed the company. Both he and Frohman were
+in a great state of expectancy. The play hung fire until the third act.
+When the big scene came British reserve melted and there was a great
+ovation. It was an immediate success and had a long run.
+
+One feature of the play that amused the critics and theater-goers
+generally in London was the fact that the spy in "Secret Service," who
+was supposed to be the bad man of the play, received all the sympathy
+and the applause, while the hero was arrested and always had the worst
+of it, even when he was denouncing the spy. Gillette's quiet but
+forceful style of acting was a revelation to the Londoners.
+
+It was during this engagement that an intimate friend said to Terriss,
+the great English actor who was distinguished for his impulsiveness:
+
+"Chain yourself to a seat at the Adelphi some night and learn artistic
+repose from Gillette."
+
+Concerning the first night of "Secret Service" is another one of the
+many Frohman stories. When a London newspaper man asked the American
+manager about the magnificent celebration that he was sure had been held
+to commemorate Gillette's triumph, Frohman said:
+
+"There was nothing of the sort. Mr. Dillingham, my manager, and I joined
+Mr. Gillette in his rooms at the Savoy. We had some sandwiches and wine
+and then played 'hearts' for several hours."
+
+This episode inspired Frohman to give utterance to what was the very
+key-note of his philosophy about an actor and his work. Talking with a
+friend in England shortly after the opening of "Secret Service," about
+the modest way in which Gillette regarded his success, he said:
+
+"Nothing so kills the healthy growth of an actor and brings his
+usefulness to an end so soon, as the idea that social enjoyment is a
+means to public success, and that industrious labor to improve himself
+is no longer necessary."
+
+[Illustration: _ELSIE FERGUSON_]
+
+Frohman always regarded the success of "Secret Service" as the
+corner-stone of his great achievements in England. Once, in speaking of
+this star's hit, he said:
+
+"You know, what tickles me is the fact that it was left for England to
+discover that Gillette is a great actor. It's one on America."
+
+* * *
+
+A few years later, Frohman made his first Paris production with "Secret
+Service." The masterful little man always regarded the world as his
+field; hence the annexation of Paris. He had a version made by Paul de
+Decourcelle, and the play was put on at the Renaissance Theater. Guitry,
+the great French actor, played Gillette's part. A very brilliant
+audience saw the opening performance, but the French did not get the
+atmosphere of the play. They could not determine whether it was serious
+or comic. The character of _General Nelson_ was almost entirely omitted
+in the play because the actors themselves could not tell whether it was
+humor or tragedy. Besides, the French actors wanted to do it their own
+way.
+
+Dillingham, who had charge of the production in Paris, realizing on the
+opening night that it would be a failure, and knowing that he had to
+send Frohman some sort of telegram, cabled, with his customary humor,
+the following:
+
+     _The tomb of Napoleon looks beautiful in the moonlight._
+
+As was the case in England, Charles was the only American manager who
+made any impression upon the French drama. From his earliest producing
+days he had a weakness for producing adapted French plays. From France
+came some of his hugest successes, especially those of Bernstein. He
+"bulled" the French market on prices. The French playwright hailed him
+with joy, for he always left a small fortune behind him.
+
+Having established a precedent with Gillette, he now presented his first
+American woman star in England. It was Annie Russell in Bret Harte's
+story "Sue." He was very fond of this play, having already produced it
+in the United States, and he was very proud of the impression that Miss
+Russell made in London.
+
+* * *
+
+Up to this time Frohman had made his English productions in conjunction
+with the Gattis or George Edwardes at the Adelphi, the Vaudeville, or
+the Garrick theaters. This would have satisfied most people. But
+Frohman, who wanted to do things in a big way, naturally desired his own
+English theater, where he could unfurl his own banner and do as he
+pleased.
+
+Early in 1897, therefore, he took what was up to that time his biggest
+English step, for he leased the Duke of York's Theater for nineteen
+years. His name went over the doorway and from that time on this theater
+was the very nerve-center, if not the soul, of Charles Frohman's English
+operations. It was one of the best known and the most substantial of
+British playhouses, located in St. Martin's Lane, in the very heart of
+the theatrical district. He took a vast pride in his control of it. He
+even emblazoned the announcement of his London management on the walls
+of the Empire on Broadway in New York. In his affections it was in
+England what the Empire was to him in America. It was destined to be the
+background of his distinguished artistic endeavors, perhaps the most
+distinguished.
+
+Charles now embarked on a sea of lavish productions. Typical of his
+attitude was his employment of the best-known and highest-salaried
+producer in London. This man was Dion Boucicault, son of the famous
+playwright of the same name, who was himself a very finished and
+versatile actor. He gave the Frohman productions a touch of genuine
+distinction, and his wife, the accomplished Irene Vanbrugh, added much
+to the attractiveness of the Frohman ventures.
+
+The Frohman sponsorship of the Duke of York's was celebrated with a
+magnificent production of Anthony Hope's "The Adventure of Lady Ursula,"
+which had been a success in New York with E. H. Sothern. It ran the
+entire season. The play was put on in the usual Frohman way, so much so
+that the British critics said that "the production, from first to last,
+was correct down to a coat-button."
+
+Until the end of his life the Duke of York's Theater had a large place
+in his heart. At the back of private box F, which was his own box, and
+which was also used for royalty when it visited the play, was a
+comfortable retiring-room, charmingly decorated in red. Here Frohman
+loved to sit and entertain his friends, especially such close intimates
+as Sir James M. Barrie, Haddon Chambers, Sir Arthur Pinero, Henry Arthur
+Jones, Michael Morton, and other English playwrights.
+
+These busy days at the Duke of York's furnished Frohman with many
+amusing episodes. On one occasion he was caught in the self-operating
+elevator of the theater and was kept a prisoner in it for over an hour.
+His employees were in consternation. When he was finally extricated they
+began to apologize most profusely.
+
+"Nonsense!" said Frohman. "I am glad I got stuck. It's the first
+vacation I have had in two years."
+
+The lobby of the Duke of York's illustrates one of Charles's distinctive
+ideas. Instead of ornamenting it with pictures of dead dramatic heroes
+like Shakespeare and Garrick, he filled it with photographs of his live
+American stars. The English theater-goers who went there saw huge
+portraits of Maude Adams, Ethel Barrymore, Marie Doro, John Drew, Otis
+Skinner, and William Gillette.
+
+On one occasion he was held up at the entrance of the Duke of York's by
+a new doorkeeper who asked for his ticket.
+
+"I am Frohman," said the manager.
+
+"Can't help it, sir; you've got to have a ticket."
+
+"You're quite right," said Frohman, who went to the box-office and
+bought himself a stall seat. When the house-manager, James W. Matthews,
+threatened to discharge the doorkeeper, Frohman said:
+
+"Certainly not. The man was obeying orders. If he had done otherwise you
+should have discharged him."
+
+Frohman so loved the Duke of York's that he would go back to it and
+witness the same play twenty times. During his last visit to England,
+when his right knee was troubling him, he telephoned down one night to
+have his box reserved. Matthews, to spare him any trouble, had a little
+platform built so that he would not have to walk up the steps. Two weeks
+later, Frohman again telephoned that he wanted the box held, and added:
+
+"I am better now. Don't bother to build a theater for me."
+
+Curiously enough, the first failure that Charles had at the Duke of
+York's was "The Christian," which had scored such an enormous success in
+America. But failure only spurred him on to further efforts. When an
+English friend condoled with him about his loss on this occasion he
+said:
+
+"Forget it. Don't let's revive the past. Let's get busy and pulverize
+the future."
+
+* * *
+
+To the average mind the extent of Frohman's London productions is
+amazing. When the simple fact is stated that he made one hundred and
+twenty-five of these, one obtains at a glance the immense scope of the
+man's operations there. Many of them stand out brilliantly. Early among
+them was the Frohman-Belasco presentation of Mrs. Leslie Carter in two
+of her greatest successes at the Garrick Theater.
+
+The first was "The Heart of Maryland." It was during this engagement
+that Charles bought the English rights to "Zaza," then a sensational
+success in Paris. It was his original intention to star Julia Marlowe in
+this play. When Belasco heard of the play he immediately saw it was an
+ideal vehicle for Mrs. Carter, and Frohman generously turned it over to
+him. After its great triumph in the United States, Frohman and Belasco
+produced "Zaza" in London.
+
+It was a huge success and made the kind of sensation in which Frohman
+delighted. There was much question as to its propriety, so much so that
+the Lord Chamberlain himself, who supervised the censorship, came and
+witnessed the performance. He made no objection, however.
+
+An amusing incident, which shows the extraordinary devotion of Charles
+Frohman's friends, occurred on the first night. While attending the
+rehearsals at the Garrick, Frohman caught cold and went to bed with a
+slight attack of pneumonia. On the inaugural night he lay bedridden. He
+was so eager for news of the play that he said to Dillingham:
+
+"Send me all the news you can."
+
+Dillingham organized a bicycle service, and every fifteen minutes sent
+encouraging and cheering bulletins to Frohman, who was so elated that he
+was able to emerge from bed the next morning a well man.
+
+Now the interesting thing about this episode is that Dillingham
+fabricated most of the messages, because, until the end of the play and
+for several days thereafter, its success was very much in doubt. Indeed,
+it took more than a week for it to "catch on."
+
+Charles followed up "Zaza" with a superb production of "Madame
+Butterfly," in which he used Belasco's beautiful equipment. This
+production put the artistic seal on Frohman's achievement as a London
+manager. Up to this time there were some who believed that, despite the
+lavishness of his policy, there was the germ of the commercial in him.
+"Madame Butterfly" removed this, but if there had been any doubt
+remaining, it would have been wiped out by his exquisite presentation of
+"The First Born." Associated with this play is a story that shows
+Frohman's dogged determination and resource.
+
+Belasco had made the production of "The First Born" in America in lavish
+fashion. He brought to it all his love and knowledge of Chinese art.
+
+[Illustration: _EDNA MAY_]
+
+A rival manager, W. A. Brady, wishing to emulate the success of "The
+First Born," got together a production of "The Cat and the Cherub,"
+another Chinese play, and secured time in London, hoping to beat
+Frohman out. It now became a race between Frohman and Brady for the
+first presentation in London. Both managers were in America. Brady got
+his production off first. When Frohman heard of it he said:
+
+"We must be in London first."
+
+"But there are no sailings for a week," said one of his staff.
+
+"Then we will hire a boat," was his retort.
+
+However, there proved to be no need for this enterprise, because a
+regular sailing developed.
+
+"The Cat and the Cherub" won the race across the Atlantic and was
+produced first. It took the edge off the novelty of "The First Born,"
+which was a failure, but its fine quality gave Charles the premier place
+as an artistic producer in England, and he never regretted having made
+the attempt despite the loss.
+
+Frohman became immersed in a multitude of things. In September, 1901,
+for example, he was interested in five English playhouses--the Aldwych,
+the Shaftesbury, the Vaudeville, and the Criterion, as well as the Duke
+of York's. He had five different plays going at the same time--"Sherlock
+Holmes," "Are You a Mason?" "Bluebell in Fairyland," "The Twin Sister,"
+and "The Girl from Maxim's." This situation was typical of his English
+activities from that time until his death.
+
+* * *
+
+The picturesqueness of detail which seemed to mark the beginning of so
+many of Charles Frohman's personal and professional friendships attended
+him in England, as the case of his first experience with Edna May shows.
+
+One hot night late in the summer season of 1900 Frohman was having
+supper alone on his little private balcony at the Savoy Hotel
+overlooking the Thames. It was before the Strand wing of the hostelry
+had been built. As he sat there, clad only in pajamas and smoking a
+large black cigar, he heard a terrific din on the street below. There
+was cheering, shouting, and clapping of hands. Summoning a waiter, he
+asked:
+
+"What's all that noise about?"
+
+"Oh, it's only Miss Edna May coming to supper, sir."
+
+"Why all this fuss?" continued Frohman.
+
+"Well, you see, sir," answered the servant, "they are bringing her back
+in triumph."
+
+When Frohman made investigation he found that the doctors and nurses at
+the Middlesex Hospital in London, where Edna May frequently sang for the
+patients, had engaged the whole gallery of the Shaftesbury Theater where
+she was singing in "The American Beauty," and attended in a body. After
+the play they had surrounded her at the stage entrance, unhitched the
+horse from her little brougham, and hauled her through the streets to
+the Savoy.
+
+This episode made a tremendous impression on Frohman. He was always
+drawn to the people who could create a stir. He had heard that Edna May
+was nearing the end of her contract with George Lederer, so he entered
+into negotiations with her, and that autumn she passed under his
+management and remained so until she retired in 1907.
+
+In the case of Edna May there could be no star-making. The spectacular
+rise of this charming girl from the chorus to the most-talked-of musical
+comedy role in the English-speaking world--that of the Salvation Army
+girl in "The Belle of New York"--had given her a great reputation.
+Frohman now capitalized that reputation in his usual elaborate fashion.
+He first presented Miss May in "The Girl from Up There."
+
+She appeared under his management in various pieces, both in New York
+and in London. Her company in New York included Montgomery and Stone,
+Dan Daly, and Virginia Earle. When he presented Miss May at the Duke of
+York's in "The Girl from Up There" the result was the biggest business
+that the theater had known up to that time. In succession followed
+"Kitty Gray," which ran a year in London, "Three Little Maids," and "La
+Poupee."
+
+All the while there was being written for Miss May a musical piece in
+which she was to achieve one of her greatest successes, and which was to
+bring Charles into contact with another one of his future stars. It was
+"The School Girl," which Frohman first did in May, 1903, in London, and
+afterward put on with great success at Daly's in New York.
+
+In the English production of this play was a petite, red-haired little
+girl named Billie Burke, who sang a song called "Put Me in My Little
+Canoe," which became one of the hits of the play. Frohman was immensely
+attracted by this girl, and afterward took her under his patronage and
+she became one of his best-known stars.
+
+Edna May, under Frohman's direction, was now perhaps the best known of
+the musical comedy stars in England and America. He took keen delight in
+her success. In "The Catch of the Season," which he did at Daly's in New
+York in August, 1905, she practically bade farewell to the American
+stage. Henceforth Frohman kept her in England. In "The Belle of Mayfair"
+she was succeeded by Miss Burke in the leading part. Frohman's
+production of "Nelly Neil" at the Aldwych Theater in 1907 was one of the
+most superb musical comedy presentations ever made. For this Frohman
+imported Joseph Coyne from America to do the leading juvenile role. He
+became such a great favorite that he has remained in England ever since.
+
+Just as Edna May had bidden farewell to America in "The Catch of the
+Season," so she now bade farewell to the English stage in "Nelly Neil."
+She had become engaged to Oscar Lewisohn, who insisted on an early
+marriage. About this time Frohman and George Edwardes secured the
+English rights to "The Merry Widow." They both urged Miss May to
+postpone her marriage and appear in it. Miss May was now compelled to
+decide between matrimony and what would have been perhaps her greatest
+success, and she chose matrimony.
+
+Her good-by appearance on the stage, May 1, 1907, was one of the most
+extraordinary events in the history of the English theater. This lovely,
+unassuming American girl had so completely endeared herself to the
+hearts of the London theater-goers that she was made the center of a
+tumultuous farewell. The day the seat-sale opened there was a queue
+several blocks long. During the opening performance Charles sat in his
+box alone. When some friends entered he was in tears. He had a genuine
+personal affection for Miss May, and her retirement touched him very
+deeply.
+
+[Illustration: _BILLIE BURKE_]
+
+In connection with "Nelly Neil" there is a little story which
+illustrates Charles's attitude toward his productions. He had spent a
+fortune on "Nelly Neil," and it was not a financial success. After
+giving it every chance he instructed Lestocq to put up the two weeks'
+notice. Lestocq remarked that it was a shame to end such a
+magnificent presentation. Whereupon Frohman turned around quickly and
+said:
+
+"Shut up, or I'll run it another month. You know, Lestocq, if I don't
+keep a hand on myself sometimes my sentiment will be the ruin of me."
+
+* * *
+
+By this time Frohman and James M. Barrie had become close friends. The
+manager had produced "Quality Street" at the Vaudeville Theater with
+great success. He now approached a Barrie production which gave him
+perhaps more pleasure than anything he did in his whole stage life. The
+advent of "Peter Pan" was at hand. The remarkable story of how Charles
+got the manuscript of "Peter Pan" has already been told in this
+biography.
+
+The original title that Barrie gave the play was "The Great White
+Father," which Frohman liked. Just as soon as Barrie suggested that it
+be named after its principal character, Frohman fairly overflowed with
+enthusiasm. In preparing for "Peter Pan" in England, Charles was like a
+child with a toy. Money was spent lavishly; whole scenes were made and
+never used. He regarded it as a great and rollicking adventure.
+
+The first production of the Barrie masterpiece on any stage took place
+at the Duke of York's Theater, London, on December 27, 1904. Frohman was
+then in America. At his country place up at White Plains, only his close
+friend, Paul Potter, with him, he eagerly awaited the verdict. It was a
+bitterly cold night, and a snow-storm was raging. Frohman's secretary in
+the office in New York had arranged to telephone the news of the play's
+reception which Lestocq was expected to cable from London. On account of
+the storm the message was delayed.
+
+Frohman was nervous. He kept on saying, "Will it never come?" His heart
+was bound up in the fortunes of this beloved fairy play. While he waited
+with Potter, Frohman acted out the whole play, getting down on all-fours
+to illustrate the dog and crocodile. He told it as _Wendy_ would have
+told it, for _Wendy_ was one of his favorites. Finally at midnight the
+telephone-bell rang. Potter took down the receiver. Frohman jumped up
+from his chair, saying, eagerly, "What's the verdict?" Potter listened a
+moment, then turned, and with beaming face repeated Lestocq's cablegram:
+
+     _Peter Pan all right. Looks like a big success._
+
+This was one of the happiest nights in Frohman's life.
+
+The first _Peter_ in England was Nina Boucicault, who played the part
+with great wistfulness and charm. She was the first of a quartet which
+included Cissy Loftus, Pauline Chase, and Madge Titheradge.
+
+Charles so adored "Peter Pan" that he produced it in Paris, June 1,
+1909, at the Vaudeville Theater, with an all-English cast headed by
+Pauline Chase. Robb Harwood was _Captain Hook_, and Sibyl Carlisle
+played _Mrs. Darling_. It was produced under the direction of Dion
+Boucicault. The first presentation was a great hit, and the play ran for
+five weeks. On the opening night Barrie and Frohman each had a box.
+Frohman was overjoyed at its success, and Barrie, naturally, could not
+repress his delight. What pleased them most was the spectacle of row
+after row of little French kiddies, who, while not understanding a word
+of the narrative, seemed to be having the time of their lives.
+
+From the date of its first production until his death, "Peter Pan"
+became a fixed annual event in the English life of Charles Frohman. He
+revived it every year at holiday-time. No occasion in his calendar was
+more important than the annual appearance of the fascinating boy who had
+twined himself about the American manager's heart.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles was now a conspicuous and prominent figure in English theatrical
+life. The great were his friends and his opinion was much quoted. In
+addition to his sole control of the Duke of York's, he had interests in
+a dozen other playhouses. He liked the English way of doing business.
+Yet, despite what many people believed to be a strong pro-British
+tendency, he was always deeply and patriotically American, and he lost
+several fortunes in pioneering the American play and the American actor
+in England.
+
+To name the American plays that he produced in London would be to give
+almost a complete catalogue of American drama revealed to English eyes.
+Curiously enough, at least two plays, "The Lion and the Mouse" and "Paid
+in Full," that had made enormous successes in America, failed utterly in
+England under his direction. He gave England such typically American
+dramas as "The Great Divide," "Brewster's Millions," "Alias Jimmy
+Valentine," "Years of Discretion," "A Woman's Way," "On the Quiet," and
+"The Dictator."
+
+In addition to Gillette he presented Billie Burke in "Love Watches,"
+William Collier in "The Dictator" and "On the Quiet," and Ethel
+Barrymore in "Cynthia."
+
+With his presentation of Collier he did one of his characteristic
+strokes of enterprise. Marie Tempest was playing at the Comedy in
+London. He had always been anxious to try Collier's unctuous American
+humor on the British, so the American comedian swapped engagements with
+Miss Tempest. She came over to the Criterion in New York to do "The
+Freedom of Suzanne," while Collier took her time at the Comedy in "The
+Dictator." He scored a great success and remained nearly a year.
+
+* * *
+
+The time was now ripe for the most brilliant of all the Charles Frohman
+achievements in England. Had he done nothing else than the Repertory
+Theater he would have left for himself an imperishable monument of
+artistic endeavor. The extraordinary feature of this undertaking was
+that it was left for an American to finance and promote in the very
+cradle of the British drama the highest and finest attempt yet made to
+encourage that drama. The Repertory Theater would have proclaimed any
+manager the open-handed patron of drama for drama's sake.
+
+The National or Repertory Theater idea, which was the antidote for the
+long run, the agency for the production of plays that had no sustained
+box-office virtue, which took the speculative feature out of production,
+had been preached in England for some time. Granville Barker had tried
+it at the Court Theater, where the Shaw plays had been produced
+originally. The movement lagged; it needed energy and money.
+
+Barrie had been a disciple of the Repertory Theater from the start. He
+knew that there was only one man in the world who could make the attempt
+in the right way. One day in 1909 he said to Frohman:
+
+"Why don't you establish a Repertory Theater?"
+
+Then he explained in a few words what he had in mind.
+
+Without a moment's hesitation Frohman said, briskly:
+
+"All right, I'll do it."
+
+With these few words he committed himself to an enterprise that cost him
+a fortune. But it was an enterprise that revealed, perhaps as nothing in
+his career had revealed, the depths of his artistic nature.
+
+With his marvelous grasp of things, Frohman swiftly got at the heart of
+the Repertory proposition. When he launched the enterprise at the Duke
+of York's he said:
+
+     _Repertory companies are usually associated in the public mind with
+     the revival of old masterpieces, but if you want to know the
+     character of my repertory project at the Duke of York's, I should
+     describe it as the production of new plays by living authors.
+     Whatever it accomplishes, it will represent the combined resources
+     of actor and playwright working with each other, a combination that
+     seems to me to represent the most necessary foundation of any
+     theatrical success._
+
+Frohman stopped at nothing in carrying out the Repertory Theater idea.
+He engaged Granville Barker to produce most of the plays. Barker in turn
+surrounded himself with a superb group of players. The most brilliant of
+the stage scenic artists in England, headed by Norman Wilkinson, were
+engaged to design the scenes. Every possible detail that money could buy
+was lavished on this project.
+
+The result was a series of plays that set a new mark for English
+production, that put stimulus behind the so-called "unappreciated" play,
+and gave the English-speaking drama something to talk about--and to
+remember. The mere unadorned list of the plays produced is impressive.
+They were "Justice," by John Galsworthy; "Misalliance," by Bernard Shaw;
+"Old Friends" and the "The Twelve-Pound Look," by James M. Barrie; "The
+Sentimentalists," by George Meredith; "Madras House," by Granville
+Barker; "Chains," by Elizabeth Baker; "Prunella," by Lawrence Housman
+and Granville Barker; "Helena's Path," by Anthony Hope and Cosmo Gordon
+Lenox, and a revival of "Trelawney of the Wells," by Sir Arthur Pinero.
+
+The way "The Twelve-Pound Look" came to be produced is interesting. When
+the repertory for the theater was being discussed one day by Barrie and
+Barker at the former's flat in Adelphi Terrace House, Barker said:
+
+"Haven't you got a one-act play that we could do?"
+
+Barrie thought a moment, scratched his head, and said:
+
+"I think I wrote one about six months ago when I was recovering from
+malaria. You might find it somewhere in that desk." He pointed toward
+the flat-top table affair on which he had written "The Little Minister"
+and "Peter Pan."
+
+Barker rummaged around through the drawers and finally found a
+manuscript written in Barrie's hieroglyphic hand. It was "The
+Twelve-Pound Look."
+
+[Illustration: _PAULINE CHASE_]
+
+The production of "Justice" was generally regarded in England as the
+finest example of stage production that has been made within the last
+twenty-five years. Despite the expense, and the fact that Frohman
+insisted upon making each play a splendid production, the Repertory
+Theater prospered. It ran from February 21, 1910, until the middle of
+May. Its run was temporarily terminated by the death of King Edward
+VII., and it was impossible to revive the project successfully after
+the formal period of mourning closed.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman's constantly widening activities in London made it necessary for
+him to have more spacious quarters. The story of his offices really
+tells the story of his work, for they increased in scope as his
+operations widened. When he leased the Aldwych Theater he set up his
+headquarters there. With the acquisition of the Globe he needed more
+room, and this theater became the seat of his managerial operations. In
+1913, and with characteristic lavishness, he engaged what is perhaps the
+finest suite of theatrical offices in London. They were in a marble
+structure known as Trafalgar House, in Waterloo Place, one of the
+choicest and most expensive locations in the city.
+
+Here he had a suite of six rooms. Like the man himself, his own personal
+quarters were very simple. There was a long, high-ceiled room, with a
+roll-top desk, which was never used, at one end, and a low morris-chair
+at the other. From this morris-chair and from his rooms at the Savoy
+Hotel he ruled his English realm.
+
+Charles's love for his stars never lagged, and wherever it was possible
+for him to surround himself with their pictures he did so. As a result,
+the visitor to his London rooms found him surrounded by the familiar
+faces of Maude Adams, Ethel Barrymore, Ann Murdock, Marie Doro, Julia
+Sanderson, William Gillette, and John Drew. On the roll-top desk, side
+by side, were the pictures of his two _Peter Pans_, Miss Adams and
+Pauline Chase.
+
+Charles's last London production, strangely enough, consisted of two
+plays by his closest friend, Barrie. This double bill was "The New
+Word," a fireside scene, which was followed by "Rosy Rapture."
+
+By a strange coincidence his first English venture was a failure, and so
+was his last. Yet the long and brilliant journey between these two dates
+was a highway that any man might have trod with pride. The
+English-speaking drama received an impetus and a standard that it never
+would have had without his unflagging zeal and his generous purse. He
+left an influence upon the English stage that will last.
+
+What endeared him perhaps more than anything else to England was the
+smiling serenity with which he met criticism and loss. There may have
+been times when the English resented his desire for monopoly, but they
+forgot it in tremendous admiration for his courage and his resource. He
+revolutionized the economics of the British stage; he invested it with
+life, energy, action; he established a whole new relation between author
+and producer. Here, as in America, he was the pioneer and the builder.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+BARRIE AND THE ENGLISH FRIENDSHIPS
+
+
+The fortunes of Charles Frohman's English productions ebbed and flowed;
+actors and actresses came and went; to him it was all part of a big and
+fascinating game. What really counted and became permanent were the
+man's friendships, often made in the theatrical world of make-believe,
+but always cemented in the domain of very sincere reality. In England
+were some of his dearest personal bonds.
+
+They grew out of the fact that Charles had the rare genius of inspiring
+loyal friendship. He gave much and he got much. Yet, like Stevenson, it
+was a case of "a few friends, but these without capitulation."
+
+In England he seemed to be a different human being. The inaccessibility
+that hedged him about in America vanished. He emerged from his unsocial
+shell; he gave out interviews; he relaxed and renewed his youth in jaunt
+and jest. His annual trip abroad, therefore, was like a joyous
+adventure. It mattered little if he made or lost a fortune each time.
+
+Frohman was happy in London. He liked the soft, gray tones of the somber
+city. "It's so restful," he always said. Even the "bobbie" delighted
+him. He would watch the stolid policeman from the curb and say,
+admiringly: "He is wonderful; he raises his hand and all London stops."
+He was greatly interested in the traffic regulations.
+
+Although he had elaborate offices, his real London headquarters were in
+the Savoy Hotel. Here, in the same suite that he had year after year,
+and where he was known to all employees from manager to page, he
+literally sat enthroned, for his favorite fashion was to curl up on a
+settee with his feet doubled under him. More than one visitor who saw
+him thus ensconced called him a "beaming Buddha."
+
+From his informal eminence he ruled his world. Around him assembled the
+Knights of the Dramatic Round Table. Wherever Frohman sat became the
+unofficial capitol of a large part of the English-speaking stage. In
+those Savoy rooms there was made much significant theatrical history. To
+the little American came Barrie, Pinero, Chambers, Jones, Sutro,
+Maugham, Morton, with their plays; Alexander, Tree, Maude, Hicks,
+Barker, Bouchier, with their projects.
+
+Like Charles Lamb, Frohman loved to ramble about London. Often he would
+stop in the midst of his work, hail a taxi, and go for a drive in the
+green parks. The Zoological Gardens always delighted him. He frequently
+stopped to watch the animals. The English countryside always lured him,
+especially the long green hedges, which held a peculiar fascination. He
+walked considerably in the country and in town, and he took great
+delight in peering in shop windows.
+
+[Illustration: _JAMES M. BARRIE_]
+
+In London, as in New York, the theater was his life and inspiration.
+Almost without exception he went to a performance of some kind every
+evening. At most of the London theaters he was always given the royal
+box whenever possible. He liked the atmosphere of the British
+playhouse. He always said it was more like a drawing-room than a place
+of amusement.
+
+* * *
+
+To Charles, London meant J. M. Barrie, and to be with the man who wrote
+"Peter Pan" was one of his supreme delights. The devotion between these
+two men of such widely differing temperaments constitutes one of the
+really great friendships of modern times. Character of an unusual kind,
+on both sides, was essential to such a communion of interest and
+affection. Both possessed it to a remarkable degree.
+
+No two people could have been more opposite. Frohman was quick, nervous,
+impulsive, bubbling with optimism; Barrie was the quiet, canny Scot,
+reserved, repressed, and elusive. Yet they had two great traits in
+common--shyness and humor. As Barrie says:
+
+"Because we were the two shyest men in the world, we got on so well and
+understood each other so perfectly."
+
+There was another bond between these two men in the fact that each
+adored his mother. In Charles's case he was the pride and the joy of the
+maternal heart; with Barrie the root and inspiration of all his life and
+work was the revered "Margaret Ogilvy." He is the only man in all the
+world who ever wrote a life of his mother.
+
+There was still another and more tangible community of interest between
+these two remarkable men. Each detested the silk hat. Frohman had never
+worn one since the Haverly Minstrel days, when he had to don the tile
+for the daily street parade. Barrie, in all his life, has had only one
+silk hat. It is of the vintage of the early 'seventies. The only
+occasion when he wears the much-detested headgear is at the first
+rehearsal of the companies that do his plays. Then he attires himself in
+morning clothes, goes to the theater, nervously holds the hat in his
+hand while he is introduced to the actors and actresses. Just as Charles
+used to hide his silk hat as soon as the minstrel parade was over and
+put on a cap, so does Barrie send the objectionable headgear home as
+soon as these formalities are over and welcome his more comfortable
+bowler as an old friend.
+
+Curiously enough, Frohman and Barrie did not drift together at once.
+When the little Scotchman made his first visit to America in 1896 and
+"discovered" Maude Adams as the inspired person to act _Lady Babbie_, he
+met the man who was to be his great friend in a casual business way
+only. The negotiations for "The Little Minister" from England were
+conducted through an agent.
+
+But when Frohman went abroad the following year the kinship between the
+men started, and continued with increasing intimacy. The men became
+great pals. They would wander about London, Barrie smoking a short,
+black pipe, Frohman swinging his stick. On many of these strolls they
+walked for hours without saying a word to each other. Each had the great
+gift of silence--the rare sense of understanding.
+
+Barrie and his pipe are inseparable, as the world knows. There is a
+legend in London theatrical lore that Frohman wanted to drive to
+Barrie's flat one night. He was in his usual merry mood, so the
+instruction he gave was this:
+
+"Drive to the Strand, go down to Adelphi Terrace, and stop at the first
+smell of pipe smoke."
+
+Frohman never tired of asking Barrie about "Peter Pan." It was a
+curious commentary on the man's tenacity of interest and purpose that,
+although he made nearly seven hundred productions in his life, the play
+of the "Boy Who Would Never Grow Up" tugged most at his heart. Nor did
+Barrie ever weary of telling him how the play began as a nursery tale
+for children; how their insistent demand to "tell us more" made it the
+"longest story in the world"; how, when one pirate had been killed,
+little Peter (the original of the character, now a soldier in the great
+war) excitedly said: "One man isn't enough; let's kill a lot of them."
+
+No one will be surprised to know that in connection with "Peter Pan" is
+one of the most sweetly gracious acts in Frohman's life. The original of
+_Peter_ was sick in bed at his home when the play was produced in
+London. The little lad was heartsick because he could not see it. When
+Frohman came to London Barrie told him about it.
+
+"If the boy can't come to the play, we will take the play to the boy,"
+he said.
+
+Frohman sent his company out to the boy's home with as many "props" as
+could be jammed into the sick-room. While the delighted and excited
+child sat propped up in bed the wonders of the fairy play were unfolded
+before him. It is probably the only instance where a play was done
+before a child in his home.
+
+As most people know, Barrie, at his own expense, erected a statue of
+_Peter Pan_ in Kensington Gardens as his gift to the children of London
+who so adored his play. It was done as a surprise, for the statue stood
+revealed one May Day morning, having been set up during the night.
+
+When he planned this statue Barrie mentioned it casually to Frohman, and
+said nothing more about it. Frohman never visited the park to see it,
+but when the model was put on exhibition at the Academy he said to
+Lestocq one day:
+
+"Where is that _Peter Pan_ model?" When he was told he said: "I want to
+see it, but do I have to look at anything else in the gallery?" On being
+assured that he did not, he said, "All right."
+
+Frohman went to the Academy, bolted straight for the sculpture-room, and
+stood for a quarter of an hour gazing intently at the graceful figure of
+_Peter_ playing his pipe. Then he walked out again, without stopping to
+look at any of the lovely things about him. It was characteristic of
+Frohman to do just the thing he had in mind to do and nothing else.
+
+Frohman and Barrie seldom wrote to each other. When they did it was a
+mere scrawl that no other human being in the world could read. The only
+cablegram that Barrie ever sent Frohman was about "What Every Woman
+Knows." Hilda Trevelyan played _Maggie Wylie_. Barrie liked her work so
+much that he cabled Frohman about it on the opening night. When the
+actress went down to breakfast the next morning to read what the
+newspapers said about her she found on her plate a cable from Frohman
+doubling her salary. It was Frohman's answer to Barrie.
+
+Frohman's faith in Barrie was marvelous. It was often said in jest in
+London that if Barrie had asked Frohman to produce a dramatization of
+the Telephone Directory he would smile and say with enthusiasm:
+
+"Fine! Who shall we have in the cast?"
+
+One of the great Frohman-Barrie adventures was in Paris. It illustrates
+so completely the relation between these men that it is worth giving in
+detail.
+
+Frohman was in Paris, and after much telegraphic insistence persuaded
+his friend to come over on his first visit to the French capital.
+Frohman was aglow with anticipation. He wanted to give Barrie the time
+of his life.
+
+"What would a literary man like to do in Paris?" was the question he
+asked himself.
+
+In his usual generous way he planned the first night, for Barrie was to
+arrive in the afternoon. He was then living at the Hotel Meurice, in the
+Rue Royale, so he engaged a magnificent suite for his guest. He ordered
+a sumptuous dinner at the Cafe de Paris, bought a box at the Theatre
+Francais, and engaged a smart victoria for the evening.
+
+Barrie was dazed at the splendor of the Meurice suite, but he survived
+it. When Frohman spoke of the Cafe de Paris dinner he said he would
+rather dine quietly at the hotel, so the elaborate meal was given up.
+
+"Now what would you like to do this evening?" asked his host.
+
+"Are there any of those country fairs around here, where they have side
+shows and you can throw balls at things?" asked Barrie.
+
+Frohman, who had box seats for the most classic of all Continental
+theaters in his pocket, said:
+
+"Yes, there is one in Neuilly."
+
+"All right," said Barrie, "let's go there."
+
+"We'll drive out in a victoria," meekly suggested Frohman.
+
+"No," said Barrie, "I think it would be more fun to go on a 'bus."
+
+With the unused tickets for the Theatre Francais in his waistcoat, and
+the smart little victoria still waiting in front of the Meurice (for
+Frohman forgot to order the man home), the two friends started for the
+country fair, where they spent the whole evening throwing balls at what
+the French call "Aunt Sally." It is much like the old-fashioned
+side-show at an American county fair. A negro pokes his head through a
+hole in the canvas, and every time the thrower hits the head he gets a
+knife. When Frohman and Barrie returned to the Meurice that night they
+had fifty knives between them. The next night they repeated this
+performance until they had knives enough to start a hardware-store. This
+was the simple and childlike way that these two men, each a genius in
+his own way, disported themselves on a holiday.
+
+One more incident will show the amazing accord between Frohman and
+Barrie. They were constantly playing jokes on each other, like two
+youngsters. One day they were talking in Frohman's rooms at the Savoy
+when a certain actress was announced.
+
+"I would like to know what this woman really thinks of me," said Barrie.
+"I have never met her."
+
+"All right," said Frohman, "you pretend to be my secretary."
+
+The woman came up and had a long talk with Frohman, during which she
+gave her impressions, not very flattering, of British playwrights in
+general and Barrie in particular. All the while the little Scot sat
+solemnly at a near-by desk, sorting papers and occasionally handing one
+to Frohman to sign. When the woman left they nearly exploded with
+laughter.
+
+One of Frohman's delights when in England was to go to Barrie's flat in
+London, overlooking the Victoria Embankment. He liked this place, first
+of all, because it was Barrie's. Then, too, he could sit curled up in
+the corner on a settee, smoking a fat, black cigar, and look out on the
+historic Thames. Here he knew he would not have to talk. It was the
+place of Silence and Understanding. He was in an atmosphere he loved. In
+the flat above lives John Galsworthy; down-stairs dwells Granville
+Barker; while just across the street is the domicile of Bernard Shaw,
+whose windows face Barrie's.
+
+When Barrie wanted to notify Shaw that Frohman was with him, he would
+throw bread-crusts against Shaw's window-panes. In a few moments the
+sash would fly up and the familiar, grinning, bearded face would pop
+out. On one of the occasions Shaw yelled across:
+
+"Are you inviting me to a feast, Barrie--are you casting bread upon the
+troubled waters or is it just Frohman?"
+
+In view of Frohman's perfect adoration of Barrie--and it amounted to
+nothing else--it is interesting, as a final glimpse of the relation
+between these men, to see what the American thought of his friend's
+work. In analyzing Barrie's work once, Frohman said:
+
+"Barrie's distinctive note is humanity. There is rich human blood in
+everything he writes. He is a satirist whose arrows are never barbed
+with vitriol, but with the milk of human kindness; a humanist who never
+surfeits our senses, but leaves much for our willing imagination; an
+optimist whose message is as compelling for its reasonableness as it is
+welcome for its gentleness."
+
+* * *
+
+Through Barrie and "Peter Pan" came another close and devoted friendship
+in Charles Frohman's life--the one with Pauline Chase. This American
+girl had been engaged by one of Frohman's stage-managers for a small
+part with Edna May in "The Girl from Up There." Frohman did not even
+know her in those days. After she made her great success as the Pink
+Pajama girl in "Liberty Belles," at the Madison Square Theater, Frohman
+engaged her and sent her to England, where, with the exception of one
+visit to the United States in "Our Mrs. Gibbs," she has remained ever
+since.
+
+It was not until she played "Peter Pan" that the Frohman-Chase
+friendship really began. The way in which Miss Chase came to play the
+part is interesting. Cissie Loftus, who had been playing Peter, became
+ill, and Miss Chase, who had been playing one of the twins, and was her
+understudy, went on to do the more important part at a matinee in
+Liverpool. Frohman said to her:
+
+"Barrie and I are coming down to see you act. If we like you well enough
+to play _Peter_, I will send you back a sheet of paper with a cross mark
+on it after the play."
+
+At the end of the first act an usher rapped on Miss Chase's
+dressing-room door and handed her the much-desired slip with the cross.
+Frohman sent word that he could not wait until the end of the play,
+because he and Barrie were taking a train back to London. In this
+unusual way Pauline Chase secured the part which helped to endear her to
+the man who was her friend and sponsor.
+
+Frohman, Barrie, and Miss Chase formed a trio who went about together a
+great deal and had much in common, aside from the kinship of the
+theater. It was for Miss Chase that Barrie wrote "Pantaloon," in which
+she appeared in conjunction with "Peter Pan," and which gave her a
+considerable reputation in England.
+
+When Pauline Chase was confirmed in the little church in
+Marlow-on-the-Thames, Barrie was her godfather and Miss Ellen Terry was
+her godmother. Frohman attended this ceremony, and it made a tremendous
+impression on him. He saw the spectacular side of the ceremony, and the
+spiritual meaning was not lost on him.
+
+The personal comradeship with Pauline Chase was one of the really
+beautiful episodes in Frohman's life. He was genuinely interested in
+this girl's career, and in tribute to her confidence in him she made
+him, in conjunction with Barrie, her father confessor. Here is an
+episode that is tenderly appealing, and which shows another of the many
+sides of his character:
+
+Frohman and Barrie were both afraid that Miss Chase would marry without
+telling them about it, so a compact was made by the three that the two
+men should be her mentors. There were many applicants for the hand of
+this lovely American girl. The successful suitor eventually was Alec
+Drummond, member of a distinguished English family, who went to the
+front when the war began.
+
+One reason for Miss Chase's devotion to Charles lay in the fact that the
+American manager had the body of her mother removed from its
+resting-place in Washington to the dreamy little churchyard at
+Marlow-on-the-Thames. It is near Marlow that Miss Chase lived through
+all the years of the Frohman-Barrie comradeship. Her little cottage at
+Tree Tops, Farnham Common, five miles from Marlow, was one of the places
+he loved to visit. On the vine-embowered porch he liked to sit and
+smoke. On the lawn he indulged in his only exercise, croquet, frequently
+with Barrie or Captain Scott, who died in the Antarctic, and Haddon
+Chambers, who lived near by. Often he went with his hostess to feed the
+chickens.
+
+But wherever he went he carried plays. No matter how late he retired to
+his room, he read a manuscript before he went to bed. He probably read
+more plays than any other manager in the world.
+
+Frohman went to Marlow nearly every Saturday in summer. His custom was
+to alight from the train at Slough, where Miss Chase would meet him in
+her car and drive him over to Marlow, where they lunched at The Compleat
+Angler, a charming inn on the river.
+
+Miss Chase sometimes playfully performed the office of manicure for
+Frohman. Once when she was in Paris he sent her this telegram:
+
+     _Nails._
+
+Whereupon she wired back:
+
+     _I am afraid you will have to bite them._
+
+Frohman then sent her the telegram by mail, and under it wrote:
+
+     _I have._
+
+Of all spots in England, and for that matter in all the world, Charles
+loved Marlow best. It is typical of the many contrasts in his crowded
+life that he would seek peace and sanctuary in this drowsy English town
+that nestled between green hills on the banks of the Thames. He always
+said that it framed the loveliest memories of his life.
+
+[Illustration: _PAUL POTTER_]
+
+[Illustration: _HADDON CHAMBERS_]
+
+When Miss Chase wrote Frohman that she was to be confirmed in the little
+church in Marlow, she got the following reply from him, which showed how
+dear the drowsy place was in his affection:
+
+     _Dear Pauline:--I am glad about Marlow. That little church is the
+     only one in the world I care for--that one across the river at
+     Marlow. Whenever I see it I want to die and stay there.
+
+     And Marlow with its long street and nobody on it is fine._
+
+It was Haddon Chambers who first took Frohman to Marlow. It came about
+in a natural way, because Maidenhead, which is a very popular resort in
+England (much frequented by theatrical people) is only a short distance
+away. One day Chambers, who was with Frohman at Maidenhead, said, "There
+is a lovely, quiet village called Marlow not far away. Let's go over
+there." So they went.
+
+On this trip occurred one of the many humorous adventures that were
+always happening when Frohman and Chambers were together. Chambers had
+the tickets and went on ahead. When he reached the train he found that
+Frohman was not there. On returning he found his friend held up by the
+gateman, who demanded a ticket. Quick as a flash Chambers said to him:
+
+"Why do you keep His Grace waiting?"
+
+The gateman immediately became flurried and excited and made apologies.
+In the mean time Frohman, who took in the situation with his usual
+quickness, looked solemn and dignified and then passed in like a peer of
+the realm.
+
+Chambers rented a cottage at Marlow each summer, and one of the things
+to which Frohman looked forward most eagerly was a visit with him there.
+Frequent visits to Marlow made the manager known to the whole town. The
+simplicity of his manner and his keen interest, humor, and sympathy won
+him many friends. His arrival was always more or less of an event in the
+little township.
+
+It is a one-street place, with many fascinating old shops. Frohman loved
+to prowl around, look in the shop windows, and talk to the tradesmen,
+who came to know and love him and look forward to his advent with the
+keenest interest. To them he was not the great American theatrical
+magnate, but a simple, kindly, interested human being who inquired about
+their babies and who had a big and generous nature.
+
+Frohman once made this remark about the Marlow antique shops: "They're
+great. When I buy things the proprietor always tells me whether they are
+real or only fake stuff. That's because I'm one of his friends." It was
+typical of the man that he was as proud of this friendship as with that
+of a prince.
+
+On the tramps through Marlow he was often accompanied by Miss Chase and
+Haddon Chambers. He had three particular friends in the town. One was
+Muriel Kilby, daughter of the keeper of The Compleat Angler. When
+Frohman first went to Marlow she was a slip of a child. He watched her
+grow up with an increasing pride. This great and busy man found time in
+New York to write her notes full of friendly affection. A few days
+before the _Lusitania_ went down she received a note from him saying
+that he was soon to sail, and looked forward with eagerness to his usual
+stay at Marlow.
+
+Through Miss Kilby Frohman became more intimately a part of the local
+life of Marlow. She was head of the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society,
+which gave an amateur play every year. Frohman became a member, paid the
+five shillings annual dues, and whenever it was possible he went to
+their performances. As a matter of fact, the Marlow Dramatic Society has
+probably the most distinguished non-resident membership in the world,
+for besides Frohman (and through him) it includes Barrie, Haddon
+Chambers, Pauline Chase, Marie Lohr, William Gillette, and Marc Klaw.
+Frohman always took his close American friends to Marlow. One of the
+prices they paid was membership in the amateur dramatic society.
+
+Like every really great man, Charles Frohman was tremendously simple, as
+his friendship with W. R. Clark, the Marlow butcher, shows. Clark is a
+big, ruddy, John Bull sort of man, whose shop is one of the main sights
+of High Street in the village. Frohman regarded his day at Marlow
+incomplete without a visit to Clark. One day he met Clark dressed up in
+his best clothes. He asked Clark where he was going.
+
+"I am going to visit my pigs," replied the butcher. Frohman thought this
+a great joke, and never tired of telling it.
+
+Once when Frohman gave out an interview about his friends in Marlow, he
+sent the clipping to his friend Clark, who wrote him a letter, which
+contained, among other things:
+
+     _I can assure you I quite appreciate your kindness in sending the
+     cutting to me. When the township of Marlow has obtained from His
+     Majesty King George the necessary charter to become a county
+     borough, and you offer yourself for the position of Mayor, I will
+     give you my whole-hearted support and influence to secure your
+     election._
+
+Then, too, there was Jones, the Marlow barber, who shaved Frohman for a
+penny because he was a regular customer.
+
+"Jones is a great man," Frohman used to say. "He never charges me more
+than a penny for a shave because I am one of his regular customers.
+Otherwise it would be twopence. I always give his boy a sixpence,
+however, but Jones doesn't know that."
+
+Indeed, the people of Marlow looked upon Frohman as their very own. He
+always said that he wanted to be buried in the churchyard by the river.
+This churchyard had a curious interest for him. He used to wander around
+in it and struck up quite an acquaintance with the wife of the sexton.
+She was always depressed because times were so bad and no one was dying.
+Then an artist died and was buried there, and the old woman cheered up
+considerably. Frohman used to tell her that the only funeral that he
+expected to attend was his own.
+
+"And mark you," he said, for he could never resist a jest, "you must
+take precious good care of my grave."
+
+His wish to lie in Marlow was not attained, but in tribute to the love
+he had for it the memorial that his friends in England have raised to
+him--a fountain--stands to-day at the head of High Street in the little
+town where he loved to roam, the place in which he felt, perhaps, more
+at home than any other spot on earth. Had he made the choice himself he
+would have preferred this simple, sincere tribute, in the midst of
+simple, unaffected people who knew him and loved him, to stained glass
+in the stateliest of cathedrals.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles cared absolutely nothing for honors. He was content to hide
+behind the mask of his activities. He would never even appear before an
+audience. Almost unwillingly he was the recipient of the greatest
+compliment ever paid an American theatrical man in England. It happened
+in this way:
+
+One season when Frohman had lost an unusual amount of money, Sir John
+Hare gathered together some of his colleagues.
+
+"Frohman has done big things," Hare said to them. "He loses his money
+like a gentleman. Let us make him feel that he is not just an American,
+but one of us."
+
+A dinner was planned in his honor at the Garrick Club. He is the only
+American theatrical manager to be elected to membership in this
+exclusive club. When Frohman was apprised of the dinner project he
+shrank from it.
+
+"I don't like that sort of thing," he said. "Besides, I can't make a
+speech."
+
+"But you won't have to make a speech," said Sir Arthur Pinero, who
+headed the committee.
+
+Frohman tried in every possible way to evade this dinner. Finally he
+accepted on the condition that when the time came for him to respond he
+was merely to get up, bow his acknowledgment, and say, "Thank you." This
+he managed to do.
+
+At this dinner, over which Sir John Hare presided, Frohman was presented
+with a massive silver cigarette-box, on which was engraved the
+facsimile signatures of every one present. These signatures comprise the
+"Who's Who" of the British theater. These princes of the drama were
+proud and glad to call themselves "A few of his friends," as the
+inscription on the box read.
+
+The signers were, among others, Sir Arthur Pinero, Sir Charles Wyndham,
+Sir John Hare, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Sir James M. Barrie, Alfred
+Sutro, Cyril Maude, H. B. Irving, Lawrence Irving, Louis N. Parker,
+Anthony Hope, A. E. W. Mason, Seymour Hicks, Robert Marshall, W. Comyns
+Carr, Weedon Grossmith, Gerald Du Maurier, Eric Lewis, Dion Boucicault,
+A. E. Matthews, Arthur Bouchier, Cosmo Hamilton, Allan Aynesworth, R. C.
+Carton, Sam Sothern, and C. Aubrey Smith.
+
+* * *
+
+Nothing gave Charles more satisfaction in England perhaps than his
+encouragement of the British playwright. He inherited Pinero from his
+brother Daniel, and remained his steadfast friend and producer until his
+death. Pinero would not think of submitting a play to any other American
+manager without giving Frohman the first call. In all the years of their
+relations, during which Charles paid Pinero a large fortune, there was
+not a sign of contract between them.
+
+Frohman practically made Somerset Maugham in America. His first
+association with this gifted young Englishman was typical of the man's
+method of doing business. Maugham had written a play called "Mrs. Dot,"
+in which Marie Tempest was to appear. Frederick Harrison, of the
+Haymarket Theater, had an option on it, which had just expired. Another
+manager wanted the play. Frohman heard of it, and asked to be allowed
+to read it. Maugham then said:
+
+"It must be decided to-night."
+
+It was then dinner-time.
+
+"Give me three hours," said Frohman.
+
+At one o'clock in the morning he called up Maugham at his house and
+accepted the play, which was probably the quickest reading and
+acceptance on record in England.
+
+Another experience with Maugham shows how Frohman really inspired plays.
+
+He was riding on the train with the playwright when he suddenly said to
+him:
+
+"I want a new play from you."
+
+"All right," said Maugham.
+
+Frohman thought a moment, and suddenly flashed out:
+
+"Why not rewrite 'The Taming of the Shrew' with a new background?"
+
+"All right," said Maugham.
+
+The result was Maugham's play "The Land of Promise," which was really
+built around Frohman's idea.
+
+Frohman produced all of Maugham's plays in America, and most of them
+were great successes. He also did the great majority of them in England.
+Maugham waxed so prosperous that he was able to buy a charming old
+residence in Chesterfield Street which he remodeled in elaborate
+fashion. On its completion his first dinner guest was Charles Frohman.
+When Maugham sent him the invitation it read:
+
+     _Will you come and see the house that Frohman built?_
+
+In the same way he developed men like Michael Morton. He would see a
+French farce in the Paris theaters, and, although he could not
+understand a word of French, he got the spirit and the meaning through
+its action. He would buy the play, go to London with the manuscript, and
+get Morton or Paul Potter to adapt it for American consumption.
+
+* * *
+
+Life in London to Charles Frohman was one series of adventures. Like
+Harun-al-Rashid in the _Arabian Nights_, he delighted to wander about,
+often with Barrie, sometimes with Lestocq, seeking out strange and
+picturesque places in which to eat.
+
+These adventures began in his earliest days in England. Here is a
+characteristic experience:
+
+One day Madeline Lucette Ryley, the playwright, came to see him in his
+office in Henrietta Street. A battered old man was hanging around the
+door.
+
+"Did you see that man outside?" asked Frohman.
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Ryley. "Is he the bailiff?"
+
+"Oh no," said Frohman, "he is a Maidenhead cabby." This is the story of
+how he came there.
+
+The day before Frohman had been down to Maidenhead alone for luncheon.
+At the station he hailed a cabby who was driving a battered old fly.
+
+"Where to, Governor?" asked the man.
+
+"Number 5 Henrietta Street," said Frohman.
+
+"No such place in Maidenhead," said the driver.
+
+"Oh, I mean the place opposite Covent Garden in London."
+
+The old cabby wasn't a bit flustered, but he said, "I will have to get a
+new horse."
+
+He changed horses and they made the long way to London, arriving there
+considerably after nightfall. When Frohman asked for his bill the old
+man said, with some hesitation:
+
+"I'm afraid it will cost you five pounds."
+
+"That's all right," said Frohman, and paid the bill.
+
+To his great surprise, the cabby showed up next morning, saying: "I like
+London. I think I'll stay here." It was with the greatest difficulty
+that Frohman got rid of him. When the cabby finally started to go he
+said:
+
+"Well, Governor, if you want to go back to Maidenhead I'll do it for
+half-price."
+
+A short time after this incident Frohman, whose purse was none too full
+then, asked some people to dine with him at the Hotel Cecil. By some
+mistake he and his party were shown into a room that had been arranged
+for a very elaborate dinner. Before he realized it the waiter began to
+serve the meal. He soon knew that it was not the menu he had ordered,
+and was costing twenty times more. But he was game and stuck to it. It
+was midwinter, and when the fresh peaches came on he said to the woman
+on his right:
+
+"This will break me, I know, but we might as well have a good time."
+
+Frohman almost invariably took one of his American friends to England
+with him. It was usually Charles Dillingham, Paul Potter, or William
+Gillette.
+
+On one of Gillette's many trips with him Frohman got up an elaborate
+supper for Mark Twain at the Savoy and invited a brilliant group of
+celebrities, including all three of the Irvings, Beerbohm Tree, Chauncey
+M. Depew, Sir Charles Wyndham, Haddon Chambers, Nat Goodwin, and Arthur
+Bouchier. In his inconspicuous way, however, he made it appear that
+Gillette was giving the supper.
+
+Midnight arrived, and Twain had not shown up. It was before the days of
+taxis, so Dillingham was sent after him in a hansom. After going to the
+wrong address, he finally located the humorist in Chelsea. He found Mark
+Twain sitting in his dressing-gown, smoking a Pittsburg stogie and
+reading a book.
+
+"Did you forget all about the supper?" asked Dillingham.
+
+"No," was the drawling reply, "but I didn't know where the blamed thing
+was. I had a notion that some one of you would come for me."
+
+Mark Twain and Frohman were great friends. They were often together in
+London. Their favorite diversion was to play "hearts."
+
+The great humorist once drew a picture of Charles, and under it wrote:
+
+     _N. B. I cannot make a good mouth. Therefore leave it out. There is
+     enough without it, anyway. Done with the best ink.
+
+     M. T._
+
+Underneath this inscription he wrote:
+
+     _To Charles Frohman, Master of Hearts._
+
+Few things in England pleased Frohman more than to play a joke on
+Gillette, for the author of "Secret Service," like his great friend,
+relaxed when he was on the other side. When Frohman produced "Sue" in
+England an amusing incident happened.
+
+[Illustration: _OTIS SKINNER_]
+
+Frohman had brought over Annie Russell and Ida Conquest for his piece.
+The actresses were very much excited before the first night, and went
+without dinner. After the play they were very hungry. On going to the
+Savoy they encountered the English prohibition against serving women at
+night when unaccompanied by men. After trying at several places they
+went to their lodging in Langham Place almost famished.
+
+In desperation they telephoned to Dillingham, who was playing "hearts"
+at the Savoy with Frohman and Gillette. He hurriedly got some food
+together in a basket, and with his two friends drove to where the young
+women were staying. The house was dark; fruitless pulls at the door-bell
+showed that it was broken. It was impossible to raise any one.
+
+Dillingham knew that the actresses were occupying rooms on the second
+floor front. He had five large English copper pennies in his pocket, and
+so he started to throw them up to the window to attract their attention.
+He threw four, and each fell short.
+
+"This is the last copper," he said to Frohman. "If we can't reach the
+girls with this they will have to go hungry."
+
+Whereupon Frohman said: "Let Gillette throw it. He can make a penny go
+further than any man in the world."
+
+* * *
+
+Such was Charles Frohman's English life. It was joyous, almost
+rollicking, and pervaded with the spirit of adventure. Yet behind all
+the humor was something deep, searching, and significant, because in
+England, as in America, this man was a vital and constructive force, and
+where he went, whether in laughter or in seriousness, he left his
+impress.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+A GALAXY OF STARS
+
+
+The last decade of Charles Frohman's life was one of continuous
+star-making linked with far-flung enterprise. He now had a chain of
+theaters that reached from Boston by way of Chicago to Seattle; his
+productions at home kept on apace; his prestige abroad widened.
+
+Frohman had watched the development of Otis Skinner with great interest.
+That fine and representative American actor had thrived under his own
+management. Early in the season of 1905 he revived his first starring
+vehicle, a costume play by Clyde Fitch, called "His Grace de Grammont."
+It failed, however, and Skinner looked about for another piece. He heard
+that Frohman, who had a corner on French plays for America, owned the
+rights to Lavedan's play "The Duel," which had scored a big success in
+Paris. He knew that the leading role ideally fitted his talent and
+temperament.
+
+Skinner went to Frohman and asked him if he could produce "The Duel" in
+America.
+
+"Why don't you do it under my management?" asked the manager.
+
+"All right," replied the actor, "I will."
+
+With these few remarks began the connection between Charles Frohman and
+Otis Skinner.
+
+It was during the closing years of Frohman's life that his genius for
+singling out gifted young women for eminence found its largest
+expression. Typical of them was Marie Doro, a Dresden-doll type of girl
+who made her first stage appearance, as did Billie Burke and Elsie
+Ferguson, in musical comedy.
+
+Charles Frohman saw her in a play called "The Billionaire" at Daly's
+Theater in New York, in which she sang and danced. He had an unerring
+eye for beauty and talent. With her, as with others that he transported
+from musical pieces to straight drama, he had an uncanny perception. He
+engaged her and featured her in a slender little play called
+"Friquette."
+
+Miss Doro made such an impression on her first appearance that Frohman
+now put her in "Clarice," written by William Gillette, in which he also
+appeared. Her success swept her nearer to stardom, for she next appeared
+in a Frohman production which, curiously enough, reflected one of
+Frohman's sentimental moods.
+
+For many years Mrs. G. H. Gilbert was a famous figure on the American
+stage. She had been one of the "Big Four" of Augustin Daly's company for
+many years, and remained with Daly until his death. She was the beloved
+first old woman of the dramatic profession. When the Daly company
+disbanded Mrs. Gilbert did not prepare to retire. She was hearty and
+active.
+
+Frohman realized what a warm place this grand old woman had in the
+affection of theater-goers after all the years of faithful labor, so he
+said to himself:
+
+"Here is a wonderful old woman who has never been a star. She must have
+this great experience before she dies."
+
+He engaged Clyde Fitch to write a play called "Granny," in which Mrs.
+Gilbert was starred. It made her very happy, and she literally died in
+the part.
+
+In the cast of "Granny" Miss Doro's youthful and exquisite beauty shone
+anew. Her success with the press and the public was little short of
+phenomenal. Charles now saw Miss Doro as star. He held youth, beauty,
+and talent to be the great assets, and he seldom made a mistake. It was
+no vanity that made him feel that if an artist pleased him she would
+likewise please the public.
+
+Frohman now starred Miss Doro in the stage adaptation of William J.
+Locke's charming story, "The Morals of Marcus." She became one of his
+pet protegees. With her, as with the other young women, he delighted to
+nurse talent. He conducted their rehearsals with a view of developing
+all their resources, and to show every facet of their temperaments.
+Failure never daunted him so long as he had confidence in his ward. This
+was especially the case with Miss Doro, who was unfortunate in a long
+string of unsuccessful plays. Frohman's faith in her, however, was at
+last justified, when she played _Dora_ in Sardou's great play,
+"Diplomacy," with brilliant success a year in London and later in New
+York.
+
+* * *
+
+With the exception of Maude Adams and Ann Murdock, no Frohman star had
+so swift or spectacular a rise as Billie Burke. Her story is one of the
+real romances of the Frohman star-making.
+
+[Illustration: _MARIE DORO_]
+
+Billie Burke was the daughter of a humble circus clown in America. From
+him she probably inherited her mimetic gifts. At the beginning of her
+career she had obscure parts in American musical pieces.
+
+It was in London, however, that she first came under the observation of
+Charles. She had graduated from the chorus to a part in Edna May's great
+success, "The School Girl." She had a song called "Put Me in My Little
+Canoe," which made a great hit. Frohman became so much interested that
+he thought of sending Miss Burke to America in the piece. He transferred
+the song to Miss May, which left Miss Burke with scarcely any
+opportunity. Subsequently she was put in "The Belle of Mayfair," and
+afterward replaced Miss May when she retired.
+
+Louis N. Parker saw her in this piece and agreed with Frohman that the
+girl had possibilities as a serious actress. She was cast for her first
+dramatic part in "The Honorable George," the play he was then producing
+in London.
+
+When Michael Morton adapted a very beguiling French play called "My
+Wife," Frohman saw that here was Miss Burke's opportunity for America.
+He secured her release from the Gattis, who controlled her English
+appearances, and made her John Drew's leading woman. She met his
+confidence by adapting herself to the role with great brilliancy and
+effect. Indeed, with Miss Burke, Frohman introduced a distinct and
+piquant reddish-blond type of beauty to the American stage. It became
+known as the "Billie Burke type." Realizing this, Frohman was very
+careful to adapt her personal appearance, humor, and temperament to her
+plays. He literally had plays written about her peculiar gifts.
+
+Miss Burke's great success in "My Wife" projected her into the Frohman
+stellar heaven. She was launched as a star in "Love Watches," an
+adaptation from the French, securely established herself in the favor
+of theater-goers, and from that time on her appearance in a _chic_,
+smart play became one of the distinct features of the annual Frohman
+season. Her most distinguished success was with Pinero's play "Mind the
+Paint Girl," in which Frohman was greatly interested.
+
+Few of Frohman's "discoveries" justified his confidence with lovelier
+success than Julia Sanderson. Her first public appearance on the stage
+had been in vaudeville. When Frohman sought a comedienne with a certain
+dainty, lady-like quality for the English musical play called "The
+Dairymaids," which he produced at the Criterion in 1907, his attention
+was called to this charming girl, then doing musical numbers in a New
+York vaudeville theater. Frohman went to see her, and was fascinated by
+her beauty and charm. He noted, most of all, a certain gentle quality in
+her personality, and with his peculiar genius in adapting plays to
+people and people to plays, she fairly bloomed under his persuasive and
+sympathetic sponsorship.
+
+Frohman now obtained "The Arcadians," in which Miss Sanderson was
+featured. Of all the musical plays that he produced, this was perhaps
+his favorite. He liked it so much that he told Miss Sanderson one day
+during rehearsal:
+
+"If the public does not like 'The Arcadians,' then I am finished with
+light opera."
+
+"The Arcadians," however, proved to be a gratifying success, and
+Frohman's confidence was vindicated. Frohman was undergoing his long and
+almost fatal illness at the Knickerbocker Hotel when "The Arcadians" was
+being rehearsed. He was so fond of the music that whenever possible the
+rehearsals in which Miss Sanderson sang were conducted in his rooms at
+the hotel. He always said that he could see the whole performance in
+her singing. In rehearsing her he always seemed to well-nigh break her
+heart, but it was his way, as he afterward admitted, of provoking her
+emotional temperament.
+
+[Illustration: _JULIA SANDERSON_]
+
+He next gave her a strong part in "The Siren," and subsequently made her
+a co-star with Donald Brian in "The Sunshine Girl," which brought out to
+the fullest advantage, so far, her exquisite and alluring qualities.
+
+* * *
+
+The last star to twinkle into life under the Frohman wand was Ann
+Murdock. Here is presented an extraordinary example of the way that
+Charles literally "made" stars, for seldom, if ever, before has a young
+actress been so quickly raised from obscurity to eminence. Almost
+overnight he lifted her into fame.
+
+Miss Murdock, who was born in New York, and had spent her childhood in
+Port Washington, Long Island, was not a stage-struck girl. She went on
+the stage because she made up her mind that she wanted more nice frocks
+than she was having. She rode over to New York one day and went to Henry
+B. Harris's office to get a position. As she sat waiting among a score
+of applicants, Harris came out. He was so much taken with her striking
+Titian beauty and unaffected girlish charm that he immediately asked her
+to come in ahead of the rest, and gave her a small part in one of "The
+Lion and the Mouse" road companies. When Harris saw her act he took her
+out of the cast and put her in a new production that he was making in
+New York.
+
+At the end of the season she wanted to get under Charles Frohman's
+management, so she went to the Empire Theater to try her luck. There she
+met William Gillette, who was making one of his numerous revivals of
+"Secret Service." The moment he saw this fresh, appealing young girl he
+immediately cast her in his mind for the part of the young Southern
+girl. After he had talked with her, however, he said:
+
+"I think it would be best if I wrote a part for you. I am now working on
+a play, and I think you had better go in that."
+
+Miss Murdock now appeared in Gillette's new play, "Electricity," in
+which Marie Doro was starred. Charles Frohman saw her at the opening
+rehearsal for the first time.
+
+"Electricity" was a failure. Instead of following up her connection with
+the Frohman office, she went to the cast of "A Pair of Sixes," in which
+she played for a whole season on Broadway, displaying qualities which
+brought her conspicuously before the public and to the notice of the man
+who was to do so much for her.
+
+One night Charles stopped in to see this farce. He had never forgotten
+the lovely young girl who had played in "Electricity." The next day he
+sent for Miss Murdock, offered her an engagement, and made another of
+those simple arrangements, for he said to her:
+
+"You are with me for life."
+
+This was Frohman's way of telling an actor or actress that, without the
+formality of a contract, they were to look to him each season for
+employment and that they need not worry about engagements.
+
+From this time on Frohman took an earnest interest in Miss Murdock's
+career. He saw in her, as he had seen in only a few of his women stars,
+an immense opportunity to create a new and distinct type.
+
+[Illustration: _ANN MURDOCK_]
+
+Just about this time he became very much interested in the English
+adaptation of a French play which he called "The Beautiful Adventure,"
+which was, curiously enough, one of the plays uppermost in his mind on
+the day he went to his death.
+
+He now did a daring but characteristic Frohman thing. He believed
+implicitly in Miss Murdock's talents; he felt that the part of the
+ingenuous young girl in this play was ideally suited to her pleading
+personality, so, in conjunction with Mrs. Thomas Whiffen and Charles
+Cherry, he featured her in the cast. Miss Murdock's characterization
+amply justified Frohman's confidence, but the play failed in New York
+and on the road. He wrote to Miss Murdock:
+
+     _I am afraid our little play is too gentle for the West. Come back.
+     I have something else for you._
+
+He now put Miss Murdock into Porter Emerson Browne's play "A Girl of
+To-day," which had its first presentation in Washington. Frohman, Miss
+Murdock, and her mother were riding from the station in Washington to
+the Shoreham Hotel. As they passed the New National Theater, where the
+young actress was to appear, Miss Murdock suddenly looked out of the cab
+and saw the following inscription in big type on the bill:
+
+     _Charles Frohman presents Ann Murdock in "A Girl of To-day."_
+
+It was the first intimation that she had been made a star, and she burst
+into tears. In this episode Frohman had repeated what he had done in the
+case of Ethel Barrymore ten years before.
+
+Frohman had predicted great things for Miss Murdock, for at the time of
+his death there was no doubt of the fact that she was destined, in his
+mind, for a very remarkable career.
+
+* * *
+
+But those last years of Frohman's life were not confined exclusively to
+the pleasant and grateful task of making lovely women stars. The men
+also had a chance, as the case of Donald Brian shows. Frohman had been
+much impressed with his success in "The Merry Widow," so he put him
+under his management and starred him in "The Dollar Princess," which was
+the first of a series of Brian successes.
+
+Frohman saw that Brian had youth, charm, and pleasing appearance. He was
+an unusually good singer and an expert dancer. He was equipped to give
+distinction to the musical play Frohman wanted to present. He had
+watched the interest of his audiences, and saw that young Brian was a
+distinct favorite with women as well as men, and his success as star
+justified all these plans.
+
+While Frohman was making new stars, older ones came under his control in
+swift succession, among them Madame Nazimova, William Courtnay, James K.
+Hackett, Kyrle Bellew, Mrs. Fiske, Charles Cherry, John Mason, Martha
+Hedman, Alexandra Carlisle, William Courtleigh, Nat Goodwin, Blanche
+Bates, Hattie Williams, Gertrude Elliott, Constance Collier, Richard
+Carle, and Cyril Maude.
+
+Frohman now reached the very apex of his career. At one time he had
+twenty-eight stars under his management; and in addition fully as many
+more companies bore his name throughout the country. To be a Frohman
+star was the acme of stage ambition, for it not only meant professional
+distinction, but equitable and honorable treatment.
+
+* * *
+
+The year 1915 dawned with fateful significance for Charles Frohman. With
+its advent began a chain of happenings that, in the light of later
+events, seemed almost prophetic of the fatal hour which was now closing
+in.
+
+Perhaps the most picturesque and significant of these events was the
+reconciliation with his old friend David Belasco. Twelve years before,
+through an apparently trivial thing, a breach had developed between
+these two men whose fortunes had been so intimately entwined. They had
+launched their careers in New York together; the old Madison Square
+Theater had housed their first theatrical ambition; they had kept pace
+on the road to fame; their joint productions had been features of the
+New York stage. Yet for twelve years they had not spoken.
+
+Frohman became ill, and lay stricken at the Knickerbocker Hotel. That he
+had thought much of his old comrade, so long estranged, was evident. A
+remarkable coincidence resulted. It was like an act in any one of the
+many plays they had produced.
+
+One afternoon Belasco, who had heard of the serious plight of Frohman,
+sat in his studio on the top floor of the Belasco Theater. There, amid
+his Old World curios, he pondered over the past.
+
+"'C. F.' is lying ill at the Knickerbocker," he said to himself. "He may
+die. I must see him. This quarrel of ours is a great mistake."
+
+He started to write a note to his old friend, when the telephone-bell
+rang. It was his business manager, Benjamin Roeder, who said:
+
+"I have just had a telephone message from Charles Frohman. He wants to
+see you."
+
+When Belasco told Roeder that he was just in the act of writing to
+Frohman to tell him that he wanted to see him, both men were amazed at
+the coincidence.
+
+That night, when the few friends who gathered each evening at Frohman's
+bedside had gone, Belasco entered the sick-room at the Knickerbocker.
+Frohman was so weak that he could hardly raise his hand. Belasco went to
+him, took his right hand in both of his, and the old comrades put
+together again the thread of their friendship just where it had been
+broken twelve years before.
+
+They talked over the old days. Frohman, whose mind was always on the
+theater, suddenly said:
+
+"Let's do a play together, David."
+
+"All right," said Belasco.
+
+"You name the play. I will get the cast, and we will rehearse it
+together," added Frohman.
+
+Out of this reconciliation came the magnificent revival of "A Celebrated
+Case," by D'Ennery and Cormon. The cast included Nat Goodwin, Otis
+Skinner, Ann Murdock, Helen Ware, Florence Reed, and Robert Warwick. On
+Frohman's recovery he undertook the rehearsals. Belasco came in at the
+end, but he had little to do.
+
+[Illustration: COPYRIGHT BY UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD
+
+_CHARLES FROHMAN and DAVID BELASCO_
+
+_A photograph taken in Boston April 3, 1915, just after the two had
+renewed their partnership, ending a separation of twenty years._]
+
+Frohman and Belasco not only resumed their joint production of plays,
+but they resumed part of their old life together. Now began again their
+favorite diet of pumpkin and meringue pie and tea after the day's work
+was done. Night after night they met after the theater, just as they had
+done in the old Madison Square days when they went to O'Neil's, on Sixth
+Avenue, for their frugal repast, dreaming and planning their futures.
+Now each man had become a great personage. Frohman was the amusement
+dictator of two worlds; Belasco, the acknowledged stage wizard of his
+time.
+
+After a week in Boston the all-star cast in "A Celebrated Case" opened
+at the Empire Theater in New York. History repeated itself. Frohman and
+Belasco sat in the same place in the wings where they sat twenty-two
+years before at the launching of "The Girl I Left Behind Me," which
+dedicated the Empire. Now, as then, there were tumultuous calls for the
+producers. Again David tried to induce Charles to go out, but he said:
+
+"No, you go, David, and speak for me. Stand where you did twenty-two
+years ago."
+
+In 1915, as in 1893, Belasco went out and spoke Frohman's thanks and his
+own.
+
+The revival of "A Celebrated Case" not only brought Frohman and Belasco
+together, but led to an agreement between them to do a production
+together every year.
+
+* * *
+
+There was a tragic hint of the fate which was shaping Charles Frohman's
+end in his last production on any stage. It was a war play called "The
+Hyphen," by Justus Miles Forman, the novelist. The scenes were laid in
+Pennsylvania, and the story dealt with the various attempts to unsettle
+the loyalty of German-Americans through secret agencies. The whole
+problem of the hyphenated citizen, which had complicated the American
+position in the great war, was set forth.
+
+Even in his unconscious stage farewell, Charles was the pioneer, because
+the acceptance of "The Hyphen" and the prompt organization of the
+company established a new record in play-producing. Up to a certain
+Saturday morning Charles Frohman had never heard of the play. That
+afternoon the manuscript was put into his hands and he read it. A
+messenger was sent off post-haste to find the author. In the mean time,
+Frohman engaged W. H. Thompson, Gail Kane, and a notable group of
+players for the cast, and gave orders for the construction of the
+scenery. Late that afternoon Mr. Forman called on Charles, whom he had
+never met. Without any further ado the manager said to the
+playwright-author:
+
+"I am going to produce your play. We have nothing to discuss. A manager
+often discusses at great length the play that he does not intend to
+produce. Therefore all that I have to tell you is that your play is
+accepted. I have already engaged the chief actors needed, and the
+scenery was ordered two hours ago. I am glad to produce a play on this
+timely subject, but I am especially glad that it is an American who
+wrote it."
+
+Charles was greatly interested in "The Hyphen." It was American to the
+core; it flouted treachery to the country of adoption; it appealed to
+his big sense of patriotism. He felt, with all the large enthusiasm of
+his nature, that he was doing a distinct national service in producing
+the piece. He personally supervised every rehearsal. He talked glowingly
+to his friends about it. At fifty-five he displayed the same bubbling
+optimism with regard to it that he had shown about his first independent
+venture.
+
+Now began the last of the chain of dramatic events which ended in death.
+As soon as "The Hyphen" was announced, Frohman began to get threatening
+letters warning him that it would be a mistake to produce so sensational
+a play in the midst of such an acute international situation.
+Pro-Germans of incendiary tendency especially resented it. To all these
+intimations Frohman merely shrugged his shoulders and smiled. It made
+him all the more determined.
+
+"The Hyphen" was produced April 19th at the Knickerbocker Theater before
+a hostile audience. Unpatriotic pro-Germans had packed the theater.
+During the progress of the play the dynamite explosions in the Broadway
+subway construction outside were misinterpreted for bombs, and there was
+suppressed excitement throughout the whole performance.
+
+The play was a failure. Yet Frohman's confidence in it was unimpaired.
+He went to see it nearly every night of its short life in New York. He
+even sent it to Boston for a second verdict, but Boston agreed with New
+York. Like every production that bore the Charles Frohman stamp, he gave
+it every chance. Reluctantly he ordered up the notice to close.
+
+Frohman became greatly attached to Forman. With his usual generosity he
+invited the author to accompany him on his approaching trip to England.
+
+"I want you to come with me and meet Barrie and know some of my other
+English friends," Charles said, little dreaming that the invitation to a
+holiday was the beckoning hand of death to both.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+STAR-MAKING AND AUDIENCES
+
+
+During all these busy years Frohman had reigned supreme as king of
+star-makers. Under his persuasive sponsorship more men and women rose to
+stellar eminence than with all his fellow-managers combined. It was the
+very instinct of his life to develop talent, and it gave him an
+extraordinary satisfaction to see the artist emerge from the background
+into fame.
+
+His attitude in the matter of star-making was never better expressed
+than in one of his many playful moods with the pencil. Like Caruso, he
+was a caricaturist. Few things gave him more delight than to make a
+hasty sketch of one of his friends on any scrap of paper that lay near
+at hand. He usually made these sketches just as he wrote most of his
+personal letters, with a heavy blue pencil.
+
+On one occasion he was talking with Pauline Chase about making stars. A
+smile suddenly burst over his face; he seized pencil and paper and made
+a sketch of himself walking along at night and pointing to the moon with
+his stick. Under the picture he wrote, as if addressing the moon:
+
+    _Watch out, or I'll make a star out of you._
+
+Once he said to Billie Burke, in discussing this familiar star
+subject:
+
+"A star has a unique value in a play. It concentrates interest. In some
+respects a play is like a dinner. To be a success, no matter how
+splendidly served, the menu should always have one unique and striking
+dish that, despite its elaborate gastronomic surroundings, must long be
+remembered. This is one reason why you need a star in a play."
+
+[Illustration: _MARIE TEMPEST_]
+
+[Illustration: _MME. NAZIMOVA_]
+
+Despite the fact, as the case of Ann Murdock shows, that Charles could
+literally lift a girl from the ranks almost overnight, he generally
+regarded the approach to stardom as a difficult and hard-won path. Just
+before the great European war, he made this comment to a well-known
+English journalist, who asked him how he made stars:
+
+"Each of my stars has earned his or her position through honest
+advancement. If the President of the United States wants to reward a
+soldier he says to him, 'I will make you a general.' By the same process
+I say to an actor, 'I will make you a star.'
+
+"All the stars under my management owe their eminence to their own
+ability and industry, and also to the fact that the American is an
+individual-loving public. In America we regard the workman first and the
+work second. Our imaginations are fired not nearly so much by great
+deeds as by great doers. There are stars in every walk of American life.
+It has always been so with democracies. Caesar, Cicero, and the rest were
+public stars when Rome was at her best, just as in our day Roosevelt and
+others shine.
+
+"Far from fostering it, the star system as such has simply meant for me
+that when one of my stars finishes with a play, that play goes
+permanently on the shelf, no one ever hoping to muster together an
+audience for it without the original actor or actress in the star part.
+
+"Vital acting in plays of consequence is the foundation of theatrical
+success. You have only to enumerate the plays to realize the drain even
+one management can make upon what is, after all, a limited supply of
+capable leading actors. This is because the American stage is short of
+leaders. There is a world of actors, but too few leading actors."
+
+"What do you mean by leading actor?" he was asked.
+
+"I mean that if in casting a play you can find an actor who looks the
+part you have in mind for him, be thankful; if you can find an actor who
+can act the part, be very thankful; and if you can find an actor who can
+look and act the part, _get down on your knees and thank God!_"
+
+Frohman had a very definite idea about star material. He was once
+talking with a well-known American publisher who mentioned that a
+certain very rich woman had announced her determination to go on the
+stage. The manager made one of his quick and impatient gestures, and
+said:
+
+"She will never do."
+
+"Why?" asked his friend.
+
+"Because," replied Frohman, "in all my experience with the making of
+stars I have seldom known of a very rich girl who made a finished
+success on the stage. The reason is that the daughters of the rich are
+taught to repress their emotions. In other words, they don't seem to be
+able to let go their feelings. Give me the common clay, the kind that
+has suffered and even hungered. It makes the best star material."
+
+There is no doubt that Frohman liked to "make" careers. He wanted to
+see people develop under his direction. To indulge in this diversion was
+often a very costly thing, as this incident shows:
+
+Chauncey Olcott, who had been associated with him in his minstrel days,
+and become one of the most profitable stars in the country, once sent a
+message to Frohman saying that he would like to come under his
+management. To the intermediary Olcott said:
+
+"Tell Mr. Frohman that I make one hundred thousand dollars a year. He
+can name his own percentage of this income."
+
+Frohman sent back this message:
+
+"I greatly appreciate the offer, but I don't care to manage Olcott. He
+is _made_. I like to _make_ stars."
+
+One reason that lay behind Frohman's success as star-maker was the fact
+that he wove a great deal of himself into the character of the stars. In
+other words, the personal element counted a great deal. When somebody
+once remonstrated with him about giving up so much of his valuable time
+to what seemed to be inconsequential talks with his women stars, he
+said:
+
+"It is not a waste of time. I have often helped those young women to
+take a brighter view of things, and it makes me feel that I am not just
+their manager, but their friend."
+
+Indeed, as Barrie so well put it, he regarded his women stars as his
+children. If they were playing in New York they were expected to call on
+him and talk personalities three or four times a week. On the road they
+sent him daily telegrams; these were placed on his desk every morning,
+and were dealt with in person before any other business of the day. He
+had the names of his stars printed in large type on his business
+envelopes. These were so placed on his table that as he sat and wrote
+or talked he could see their names ranked before him.
+
+When his women stars played in New York he always tried to visit them at
+night at the theater before the curtain went up. He always said of this
+that it was like seeing his birds tucked safely in their nests. Then he
+would go back to his office or his rooms and read manuscripts until
+late.
+
+One phase of Charles's great success in life was revealed in this
+attitude toward his women stars. He succeeded because he mixed sentiment
+with business. He was not all sentiment and he was not all business, but
+he was an extraordinarily happy blend of each of these qualities, and
+they endeared him to the people who worked for him.
+
+The attitude of the great star toward Frohman is best explained perhaps
+by Sir Henry Irving. Once, when the time came for his usual American
+tour, he said to his long-time manager, Bram Stoker, who was about to
+start for New York:
+
+"When you get to America just tell Frohman--you need not bother to write
+him--that I want to come under his management. He always understands. He
+is always so fair."
+
+One detail will illustrate Frohman's feeling about stars, and it is
+this: He never wanted them, male or female, to make themselves
+conspicuous or to do commonplace things. He was sensitive about what
+they said or did. For example, he did not like to see John Drew walk up
+and down Broadway. He spent a fortune sheltering Maude Adams from all
+kinds of intrusion. With her especially he exhausted every resource to
+keep her aloof and secluded. He preferred that she be known through her
+work and not through her personal self. It was so with himself.
+
+Frohman was one of the most generous-minded of men in his feeling about
+his co-workers. On one occasion when he was rehearsing "The Dictator,"
+William Collier suggested a whole new scene. The next night Frohman took
+a friend to see it. Afterward, accompanied by his guest, he went back on
+the stage to congratulate his star. He slapped Collier on the back and,
+turning to his companion, said:
+
+"Wasn't that a bully scene that Willie put into the play?"
+
+He was always willing to admit that his success came from those who
+worked for him. Once he was asked the question:
+
+"If you had your life to live over again would you be a theatrical
+manager?"
+
+Quick as a flash Frohman replied:
+
+"If I could be surrounded by the same actors and writers who have made
+_me_--yes. Otherwise, no."
+
+This feeling led him to say once:
+
+"I believe a manager's success does not come so much from the public as
+from his players. When they are ready to march with him without regard
+to results, then he has indeed succeeded. This is my success. My
+ambition frankly centers in the welfare of the actor. The day's work
+holds out to me no finer gratification than to see intelligent, earnest,
+deserving actors go into the fame and fortune of being stars."
+
+Nothing could down his immense pride in his stars. Once he was making
+his annual visit to England with Dillingham. At that time Olga
+Nethersole, who had been playing "Carmen," was under his management.
+She was also on the boat. The passenger-list included many other
+celebrities, among them Madame Emma Calve, the opera-singer, who had
+just made her great success in the opera "Carmen" at the Metropolitan
+Opera House. Naturally there was some rivalry between the two _Carmens_.
+
+At the usual ship's concert both Nethersole and Calve inscribed their
+names on programs which were auctioned off for the benefit of the
+disabled sailors' fund. Competition was brisk. The card that Calve
+signed fetched nine hundred dollars. When Nethersole's program was put
+up Frohman led the bidding and drove it up to a thousand dollars, which
+he paid himself. It was all the money he had with him. Dillingham
+remonstrated for what seemed a foolish extravagance.
+
+"I wanted my star to get the best of it, and she did," was the reply.
+
+Frohman, as is well known, would never make a contract with his stars.
+When some one urged him to make written agreements, he said:
+
+"No, I won't do it. I want them to be in a position so that if they ever
+become dissatisfied they know they are free to leave me."
+
+Like all his other stars, William Collier had no contract with Charles,
+merely a verbal understanding extending over a period of years. After
+this agreement expired and another year and a half had gone by, Collier
+one day asked Frohman if he realized that their original agreement had
+run out. Frohman looked up with a start and said:
+
+"Is that so? Well, it's all right, Willie, you know."
+
+"Of course," said Collier, and that ended it.
+
+The next Saturday when Collier got his pay-envelope he found inside a
+very charming letter from Frohman, which said:
+
+     _I'm sorry that I overlooked the expiration of our agreement. I
+     hope that you will find a little increase in your salary
+     satisfactory._
+
+There was an advance of one hundred dollars a week.
+
+Frohman literally loved the word "star," and he delighted in the
+so-called "all-star casts." He had great respect for the big names of
+the profession; for those who had achieved success. He liked to do
+business with them.
+
+In speaking about "all-star casts," he once said to his brother:
+
+"I have to look after so many enterprises that I have no time to conduct
+a theatrical kindergarten in developing actors or playwrights save where
+the play of the unknown author or the exceptional talents of the unknown
+actor or actress appeal to me strongly. There is an element of safety in
+considering work by experts, because the theaters I represent need quick
+results."
+
+In reply to the oft-repeated question as to why he took his American
+stars to London when they could play to larger audiences and make more
+money at home, he said:
+
+"In the first place, such exchanges constitute the finest medium for the
+development of actress or actor and the liberalizing of the public. Face
+to face with an English audience the American actress finds herself
+confronted by new tastes, new appreciations, new demands. She must meet
+them all or fail. What does this result in? Versatility, flexibility,
+and, in the end, a firmer and more comprehensive hold upon her art."
+
+When Frohman was asked to define success in theatrical management he
+made this answer:
+
+"The terms of success in the theater seem to me to be the co-operating
+abilities of playwright and actor with the principal burden on the
+actor. In other words, the play is not altogether 'the thing.' The right
+player in the right play is the thing."
+
+The shaping of William Gillette's career is a good example of Frohman's
+definition of a successful theatrical manager, whose best skill and
+talents are employed largely in the matter of manipulating a hard-minded
+person to mutual advantage.
+
+The relationship between stars and audiences is of necessity a very
+close one. The Frohman philosophy, however, was not the generally
+accepted theory that audiences make stars.
+
+On one of those very rare occasions in his life when he wrote for
+publication, he made the following illuminating statement:
+
+     _No star or manager should feel grateful to any audience for the
+     success of a play in which he has figured. A play succeeds because
+     it is a living, vital thing--and that is why it has got upon the
+     stage at all. There is life in it and it does not, and will not,
+     die. It keeps itself alive until the opportunity comes along. Often
+     a kind of instinct makes the opportunity._
+
+     _It is instinct also that prompts an audience to applaud when it is
+     pleased, laugh when it is amused, weep when it is moved, hiss when
+     it is dissatisfied. No actor should feel indebted to an audience
+     for the recognition of good work, because that same audience that
+     appears to be so friendly, at another time, when one character or
+     play does not please it, will resent both actor and play. This is
+     as it should be. The loyalty of English audiences to their old
+     favorites is fine, but it is bad for the old favorites. It is
+     stagnating._
+
+     _The various expressions of approval and disapproval that come from
+     the spectators at a play are involuntary on the part of the
+     spectators. They are hypnotized by the play and the acting. Who
+     ever, on coming out of the theater after seeing a play that has
+     pleased him, has felt a sense of happiness that his pleasure had
+     also pleased the actor, or the author of the play, or the
+     management of the production? Loyalty, generosity, and
+     encouragement, as applied to audiences, are so many empty words.
+     Play-goers who apply them to themselves cheat themselves. Miss
+     Maude Adams is the only stage personage within my experience who
+     has a distinct public following, loyal and encouraging to her in
+     whatever she does._
+
+Audiences interested Frohman immensely. He liked to be a part of them.
+He had a perfectly definite reason for sitting in the last row of the
+gallery on the first nights of his productions, which he once explained
+as follows:
+
+"The best index to the probable career of any play is the back of the
+head of an auditor who does not know that he is being watched. The
+play-goer in an orchestra stall is always half-conscious that what he
+says or does may be observed. But the gallery gods and goddesses have
+never thought of anything except what is happening on the stage. They
+may yield the time before the rise of the curtain to watching the
+audience entering the theater, but once the lights are up and the stage
+is revealed they have no eyes or thoughts for anything except the life
+unfolded by the actors. These people in the upper part of the theater
+represent the masses. They are worth watching, for they are the people
+who make stage successes."
+
+Frohman had his own theories about audiences, too. Concerning them he
+declared:
+
+"An American at the theater feels first and thinks afterward. A European
+at a play thinks first and feels afterward. In conversation a German
+discusses things sitting down; a Frenchman talks standing up. But the
+American discusses things walking about. Therefore each must have his
+play built accordingly."
+
+Once Frohman made this discriminating difference between English and
+American audiences:
+
+"In England the pit and the gallery of the audience come to the theater,
+turn in their hard-earned shillings, and demand much. Failing to get
+what they expect, the theater is filled with boos and cat-calls at the
+end of the play. This does not mean that the play has failed. It more
+nearly means that the less a man pays to get into a theater the more he
+demands of the play.
+
+"An American audience is different, because it has a fine sense of
+humor. When an American pays his money through the box-office window he
+feels that it is gone forever. Anything he receives after that--the
+lights, the pictures on the walls, the music of the orchestra, the sight
+of a few or many smiling faces--is so much to the good. So keen is the
+American play-goer's sense of humor that often when a play is
+wretchedly bad it comes to the rescue, and the applause is terrifically
+loud. This does not mean that the play has succeeded. It means rather
+that the play will die, a victim of the deadliest of all possible
+criticisms--ridicule."
+
+Nor was Frohman often deceived about a first-night verdict. He always
+said, "Wait for the box-office statement on the second night."
+
+One of his characteristic epigrammatic statements about the failure of
+plays was this:
+
+"In America the question with a failure is, 'How soon can we get it off
+the stage?' In London they say, 'How long will the play run even though
+it is a failure?'"
+
+Indeed, Frohman's whole attitude about openings was characteristic of
+his deep and generous philosophy about life. He summed up his whole
+creed as follows:
+
+"A producer of plays, assuming that he is a man of experience, never
+feels comfortable after a great reception has been given his play on a
+first night. He knows that the reception in the theater does not always
+correspond to the feelings of future audiences. Every thinking manager
+knows that his play, in order to succeed, must send its audience away
+possessed of some distinct feeling. A successful play is a play that
+_reflects_, whatever the feeling it reflects.
+
+"The great successes of the stage are plays that are played outside of
+the theater: over the breakfast-table; in a man's office; to his
+business associates; in a club, as one member tells the thrilling story
+of the previous night's experience to another. Great successes upon the
+stage are plays of such a sort that one audience can play them over to
+another prospective audience, and so make an endless chain of attendance
+at the theater.
+
+"I have never in all my experience felt a success on the opening night.
+I have only felt my failures.
+
+"I invariably leave the theater after a first-night performance knowing
+full well that neither my friends nor I know anything at all as to the
+ultimate fortune of the play we have seen."
+
+It is a matter of record that Frohman always viewed his first nights
+with great nervousness. Although he attached but little importance, save
+on very rare occasions, to tumultuous applause on first nights, he was
+sometimes deceived by the reception that was given his productions.
+
+He never tired of telling of one experience. He had left the theater on
+the first night, as he expressed it, "with the other mourners." He
+returned to his office immediately to cast a new play for the company.
+Yet he lived to see this play run successfully for a whole season. This
+led him to say:
+
+"There's nothing more deluding to the player and the manager than
+enthusiastic applause. The fine, inspired work of a star actor often
+makes an audience enthusiastic to such a boisterous extent that one
+forgets that it is an individual and not the play that has succeeded."
+
+Here, as elsewhere in the Frohman outlook on life and work, one finds
+clear-headed logic and reason behind the bubbling optimism.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+PLAYS AND PLAYERS
+
+
+One day not long before he sailed on the voyage that was to take him to
+his death, Charles was talking with a celebrated English playwright in
+his office at the Empire Theater. The conversation suddenly turned to a
+discussion of life achievement.
+
+"What do you consider the biggest thing that you have done?" asked the
+visitor.
+
+Frohman rose and pointed with his stick at the rows of book-shelves
+about him that held the bound copies of the plays he had produced. Then
+he said with a smile:
+
+"That is what I have done. Don't you think it is a pretty good life's
+work?"
+
+He was not overstepping the mark when he pointed with pride at that army
+of plays. This list is the greatest monument, perhaps, to his boundless
+ambition and energy, for it contains the four hundred original
+productions he made in America, besides the one hundred and twenty-five
+plays he put on in London. That Charles should have produced so many
+plays is not surprising. He adored the theater; it was his very being.
+To him, in truth, all the world was a stage.
+
+Everything that he saw as he walked the streets or rode in a cab or
+viewed from a railway train he re-visualized and considered in the terms
+of the playhouse. If he saw an impressive bit of scenery he would say,
+"Wouldn't that make a fine background?" If he heard certain murmurs in
+the country or the tumult of a crowd on the highway, he instinctively
+said, "How fine it would be to reproduce that sound."
+
+He only read books with a view of their adaptability to plays. Where
+other men found diversion and recreation in golfing, motoring, or
+walking, Charles sought entertainment in reading manuscripts. He was
+never without a play; when he traveled he carried dozens.
+
+In the matter of plays Frohman had what was little less than a contempt
+for the avowedly academic. He refused to be drawn into discussions of
+the so-called "high brow" drama. When some one asked him to name the
+greatest of English dramatists he replied, quick as a flash:
+
+"The one who writes the last great play."
+
+"Whom do you consider the greatest American dramatist?" was the question
+once put to him. His smiling answer was:
+
+"The one whose play the greatest number of good Americans go to see."
+
+On this same occasion he was asked, "What seat in the theater do you
+consider the best to view a drama or a musical comedy from?"
+
+"The paid one," he retorted.
+
+Back in Charles's mind was a definite and well-ordered policy about
+plays. His first production on any stage was a melodrama, and, though in
+later years he ran the whole range from grave to gay, he was always true
+to his first love. This is one reason why Sardou's "Diplomacy" was, in
+many respects, his ideal of a play. It has thrills, suspense, love
+interests, and emotion. He revived it again and again, and it never
+failed to give him a certain pleasure.
+
+Once in London Frohman unbosomed himself about play requirements, and
+this is what he said:
+
+"I start out by asking certain requirements of every piece. If it be a
+drama, it must have healthfulness and comedy as well as seriousness. We
+are a young people, but only in the sense of healthy-mindedness. There
+is no real taste among us for the erotic or the decadent. It is foreign
+to us because, as a people, we have not felt the corroding touch of
+decadence. Nor is life here all drab. Hence I expect lights as well as
+shadows in every play I accept.
+
+"Naturally, I am also influenced by the fitness of the chief parts for
+my chief stars, but I often purchase the manuscript at once on learning
+its central idea. I commissioned Clyde Fitch and Cosmo Gordon-Lennox to
+go to work on 'Her Sister' after half an hour's account of the main
+idea. Ethel Barrymore's work in that play is the best instance that I
+can give of the artistic growth of that actress. The particular skill
+she had obtained--and this is the test of an actress worth
+remembering--is the art of acting scenes essentially melodramatic in an
+unmelodramatic manner. After all, what is melodrama? Life itself is
+melodrama, and life put upon the stage only seems untrue when it is
+acted melodramatically--that is, unnaturally."
+
+The foremost quality that Frohman sought in his plays was human
+interest. His appraisal of a dramatic product was often influenced by
+his love for a single character or for certain sentimental or emotional
+speeches. He would almost invariably discuss these plays with his
+intimates. Often he would act out the whole piece in a vivid and
+graphic manner and enlarge upon the situations that appealed to his
+special interest.
+
+Plays thus described by him were found to be extremely entertaining and
+diverting to his friends, but when presented on the stage to a
+dispassionate audience they did not always fare so well. A notable
+example was "The Hyphen." The big, patriotic speech of the old
+German-American in the third act made an immense impression on Frohman
+when he read the play. It led him to produce the piece in record time.
+He recited it to every caller; he almost lost sight of the rest of the
+play in his admiration for the central effort. But the audience and the
+critics only saw this speech as part of a long play.
+
+What Charles lacked in his study of plays in manuscript was the
+analytical quality. He could feel that certain scenes and speeches would
+have an emotional appeal, but he could not probe down beneath the
+surface for the why and the wherefore. For analysis, as for details, he
+had scant time. He accepted plays mainly for their general effect.
+
+He was very susceptible to any charm that a play held out. If he found
+the characters sympathetic, attractive, and lovable, that would outweigh
+any objections made on technical grounds. When once he determined to
+produce a play, only a miracle could prevent him. The more his
+associates argued to the contrary, the more dogged he became. He had
+superb confidence in his judgment; yet he invariably accepted failure
+with serenity and good spirit. He always assumed the responsibility. He
+listened sometimes to suggestions, but his views were seldom colored by
+them.
+
+His association with men like J. M. Barrie, Haddon Chambers, Paul
+Potter, William Gillette, Arthur Wing Pinero, and Augustus Thomas gave
+him a loftier insight into the workings of the drama. He was quick to
+absorb ideas, and he had a strong and retentive memory for details.
+
+Frohman loved to present farce. He enjoyed this type of play himself
+because it appealed to his immense sense of humor. He delighted in
+rehearsing the many complications and entanglements which arise in such
+plays. The enthusiasm with which French audiences greeted their native
+plays often misled him. He felt that American theater-goers would be
+equally uproarious. But often they failed him.
+
+The same thing frequently happened with English plays. He would be swept
+off his feet by a British production; he was at once sure that it would
+be a success in New York. But New York, more than once, upset this
+belief. The reason was that Frohman saw these plays as an Englishman. He
+had the cosmopolitan point of view that the average play-goer in America
+lacked.
+
+This leads to the interesting subject of "locality" in plays. Frohman
+once summed up this whole question:
+
+"As I go back and forth, crossing and recrossing the Atlantic, the
+audiences on both sides seem more and more like one. Always, of course,
+each has his own particular viewpoint, according to the side of the
+Atlantic I happen to be on. But often they think the same, each from its
+own angle.
+
+"You bring your English play to America. Nobody is at all disturbed by
+the mention of Park Lane or Piccadilly Circus. If there is drama in the
+play, if in itself it interests and holds the audience, nobody pays any
+attention to its locality or localisms.
+
+"But an English audience sitting before an American play hears mention
+of West Twenty-third Street or Washington Square, and while it is
+wondering just where and what these localities are an important incident
+in the dramatic action slips by unnoticed. Not that English audiences
+are at all prejudiced against American plays. They take them in the same
+general way that Americans take English plays. Each public asks, 'What
+have you got?' As soon as it hears that the play is good it is
+interested.
+
+"English audiences, for example, were quick to discover the fun in 'The
+Dictator' when Mr. Collier acted it in London, though it was full of the
+local color of New York, both in the central character and in the
+subject. Somehow the type and the speeches seemed to have a sort of
+universal humor. I tried it first on Barrie. He marked in the manuscript
+the places that he could understand. The piece never went better in
+America.
+
+"On the other hand, one reason why 'Brewster's Millions' did not go well
+in London was because the severely logical British mind took it all as a
+business proposition. The problem was sedately figured out on the theory
+that the young man did not spend the inherited millions.
+
+"If the locality of an American play happens to be a mining village, it
+is better to change its scenes to a similar village in Australia when
+you take the play to London. Then the audience is sure to understand.
+The public of London gave 'The Lion and the Mouse' an enthusiastic first
+night, but it turned out that they had not comprehended the play. It
+was unthinkable to them that a judge should be disgraced and disbarred
+by a political 'ring.'"
+
+The ideal play for Charles Frohman was always the one that he had in
+mind for a particular star. His special desire, however, was for strong
+and emotional love as the dominant force in the drama. He felt that all
+humanity was interested in love, and he believed it established a
+congenial point of contact between the stage and the audience.
+
+Although he did not especially aspire to Shakespearian production, he
+used the great bard's works as models for appraising other plays.
+"Shakespeare invented farce comedy," he once said, "and whenever I
+consider the purchase of such a thing I compare its scenes with the most
+famous of all farces, 'The Taming of the Shrew.' It goes without saying
+that when it comes to the stage of the production, my aim is to imbue
+the performance with a spirit akin to that contained in Shakespeare's
+humorous masterpiece."
+
+Frohman often "went wrong" on plays. He merely accepted these mistakes
+as part of the big human hazard and went on to something new. His
+amazing series of errors of judgment with plays by Augustus Thomas is
+one of the traditions of the American theater. The reader already knows
+how he refused "Arizona" and "The Earl of Pawtucket," and how they made
+fortunes for other managers.
+
+One of the most extraordinary of these Thomas mistakes was with "The
+Witching Hour." It was about the only time that he permitted his own
+decision to be swayed by outside influence, and it cost him dearly.
+
+The author read the play to Frohman on a torrid night in midsummer.
+Frohman, as usual, sat cross-legged on a divan and sipped orangeade
+incessantly.
+
+Thomas, who has all the art and eloquence of a finished actor, read his
+work with magnetic effect. When he finished Frohman sat absolutely still
+for nearly five minutes. It seemed hours to the playwright, who awaited
+the decision with tense interest. Finally Frohman said in a whisper:
+
+"That is almost too beautiful to bear."
+
+A pause followed. Then he said, eagerly:
+
+"When shall we do it; whom do you want for star?"
+
+"I'd like to have Gillette," replied Thomas.
+
+"You can't have him," responded Frohman. "He's engaged for something
+else."
+
+With this the session ended. Frohman seemed strangely under the spell of
+the play. It made him silent and meditative.
+
+The next day he gave the manuscript to some of his close associates to
+read. They thought it was too psychological for a concrete dramatic
+success. To their great surprise he agreed with them.
+
+"The Witching Hour" was produced by another manager and it ran a whole
+season in New York, and then duplicated its success on the road. This
+experience made Frohman all the more determined to keep his own counsel
+and follow his instincts with regard to plays thereafter, and he did.
+
+Charles regarded play-producing just as he regarded life--as a huge
+adventure. An amusing thing happened during the production of "The Other
+Girl," a play by Augustus Thomas, in which a pugilist has a prominent
+role.
+
+Lionel Barrymore was playing the part of the prize-fighter, who was
+generally supposed to be a stage replica of "Kid" McCoy, then in the
+very height of his fistic powers. In the piece the fighter warns his
+friends not to bet on a certain fight. The lines, in substance, were:
+
+"You have been pretty loyal to me, but I am giving you a tip not to put
+any money down on that 'go' in October."
+
+One day Frohman found Barrymore pacing nervously up and down in front of
+his office.
+
+"What's the matter, Lionel?" he asked.
+
+"Well," was the reply, "I am very much disturbed about something. I made
+a promise to 'Kid' McCoy, and I don't know how to keep it. You know I
+have a line in the play in which the prize-fighter warns his friends not
+to bet on him in a certain fight in October. The 'Kid,' who has been at
+the play nearly every night since we opened, now has a real fight on for
+October, and he is afraid it will give people the idea that it is a
+'frame-up.'"
+
+"You mean to say that you want me to change Mr. Thomas's lines?" asked
+Frohman, seriously.
+
+"I can't ask you to do that," answered Barrymore. "But I promised the
+'Kid' to speak to you about it, and I have kept my word."
+
+Frohman thought a moment. Then he said, gravely:
+
+"All right, Lionel, I'll postpone the date of the fight in the play
+until November, even December, but not a day later."
+
+Frohman was not without his sense of imitation. He was quick to follow
+up a certain type or mood whether it was in the vogue of an actor or the
+character of a play. This story will illustrate:
+
+One night early in February, 1895, Frohman sat in his wonted corner at
+Delmonico's, then on Broadway and Twenty-sixth Street. He had "The Fatal
+Card," by Chambers and Stephenson, on the boards at Palmer's Theater; he
+also had A. M. Palmer's Stock Company on the road in Sydney Grundy's
+play "The New Woman." This naturally gave him a lively interest in Mr.
+Palmer's productions.
+
+Paul Potter, who was then house dramatist at Palmer's, bustled into the
+restaurant with the plot of a new novel which had been brought to his
+attention by the news-stand boy at the Waldorf. Frohman listened to his
+recital with interest.
+
+"What is the name of the book?" he asked.
+
+"Trilby," replied Potter.
+
+"Well," he continued, "it ought to be called after that conjurer chap,
+Bengali, or whatever his name is. However, go ahead. Get Lackaye back
+from 'The District Attorney' company to which Palmer has lent him.
+Engage young Ditrichstein by all means for one of your Bohemians. Call
+in Virginia Harned and the rest of the stock company. And there you
+are."
+
+With uncanny precision he had cast the leading roles perfectly and on
+the impulse of the moment.
+
+During the fortnight of the incubation of the play Potter saw Frohman
+nightly, for they were now fast friends. Frohman was curiously
+fascinated by "Bengali," as he insisted upon calling Svengali.
+
+"We do it next Monday in Boston," said Potter, "and I count on your
+coming to see it."
+
+Frohman went to Boston to see the second performance. After the play he
+and Potter walked silently across the Common to the Thorndyke Hotel. In
+his room Frohman broke into speech:
+
+"They are roasting it awfully in New York," he began. "Yet Joe Jefferson
+says it will go around the world." Then he added, "They say you have cut
+out all the Bohemian stuff."
+
+"Nevertheless," replied Potter, "W. A. Brady has gone to New York
+to-night to offer Mr. Palmer ten thousand dollars on account for the
+road rights."
+
+"Well," said Frohman, showing his hand at last, "Jefferson and Brady are
+right, and if Palmer will let me in I'll go half and half, or, if he
+prefers, I'll take it all."
+
+At supper after the first performance at the Garden Theater in New York,
+Frohman advised Sir Herbert Tree to capture the play for London.
+Henceforth, wherever he traveled, "Trilby" seemed to pursue him.
+
+"I've seen your old 'Bengali,'" he wrote Potter, "in Rome, Vienna,
+Berlin, everywhere. It haunts me. And, as you cut out the good Bohemian
+stuff, I'll use it myself at the Empire."
+
+He did so in Clyde Fitch's version of "La Vie de Boheme," which was
+called "Bohemia."
+
+"How did it go?" Potter wrote him from Switzerland.
+
+"Pretty well," replied Frohman. "Unfortunately we left out 'Bengali.'"
+
+On more than one occasion Frohman produced a play for the mere pleasure
+of doing it. He put on a certain little dramatic fantasy. It was
+foredoomed to failure and held the boards only a week.
+
+"Why did you do this play?" asked William H. Crane.
+
+"Because I wanted to see it played," answered Frohman. "I knew it would
+not be successful, but I simply had to do it. I saw every performance
+and I liked it better every time I saw it."
+
+Often Frohman would make a contract with a playwright for a play, and
+long before the first night he would realize that it had no chance. Yet
+he kept his word with the author, and it was always produced.
+
+The case of "The Heart of a Thief," by the late Paul Armstrong, is
+typical. Frohman paid him an advance of fifteen hundred dollars. After a
+week of rehearsals every one connected with the play except Armstrong
+realized that it was impossible.
+
+Frohman, however, gave it an out-of-town opening and brought it to the
+Hudson Theater in New York, where it ran for one week. When he decided
+to close it he called the company together and said:
+
+"You've done the best you could. It's all my fault. I thought it was a
+good play. I was mistaken."
+
+Frohman took vast pride in the "clean quality" of his plays, as he often
+phrased it. His whole theatrical career was a rebuke to the salacious.
+He originally owned Edward Sheldon's dramatization of Suderman's "The
+Song of Songs." On its production in Philadelphia it was assailed by the
+press as immoral. Frohman immediately sold it to A. H. Woods, who
+presented it with enormous financial success in New York.
+
+He was scrupulous to the last degree in his business relations with
+playwrights. Once a well-known English author, who was in great
+financial need, cabled to his agent in America that he would sell
+outright for two thousand dollars all the dramatic rights to a certain
+play of his that Frohman and an associate had on the road at that time.
+The associate thought it was a fine opportunity and personally cabled
+the money through the agent. Then he went to Frohman and said, with
+great satisfaction:
+
+"I've made some money for us to-day."
+
+"How's that?" asked Frohman.
+
+Then his associate told the story of the author's predicament and what
+he had done. He stood waiting for commendation. Instead, Frohman's face
+darkened; he rang a bell, and when his secretary appeared he said:
+
+"Please wire Blank [mentioning the playwright's name] that the money
+cabled him to-day was an advance on future royalties."
+
+Then he turned to his associate and said:
+
+"Never, so long as you work with me or are associated with me in any
+enterprise, take advantage of the distress of author or actor. This
+man's play was good enough for us to produce; it is still good enough to
+earn money. When it makes money for us it also makes money for him."
+
+* * *
+
+By the force of his magnetic personality Charles amiably coerced more
+than one unwilling playwright into submission to his will. An experience
+with Margaret Mayo will illustrate.
+
+Miss Mayo returned on the same steamer with him when he made his last
+trip from London to the United States. As they walked up the gang-plank
+at Liverpool the manager told the author that he had a play he wished
+her to adapt.
+
+"But I have decided to adapt no more plays," said Miss Mayo.
+
+"Never mind," replied Frohman. "We will see about that."
+
+Needless to say, by the time the ship reached New York the play was in
+Miss Mayo's trunk and the genial tyrant had exacted a promise for the
+adaptation.
+
+Miss Mayo immediately went to her country house up the Hudson. For a
+week she reproached herself for having fallen a victim to the Frohman
+beguilements. In this state of mind she could do no work on the
+manuscript.
+
+With his astonishing intuition Frohman divined that the author was
+making no progress, so he sent her a note asking her to come to town,
+and adding, "I have something to show you."
+
+Miss Mayo entered the office at the Empire determined to throw herself
+upon the managerial mercy and beg to be excused from the commission. But
+before she could say a word Frohman said, cheerily:
+
+"I've found the right title for our play."
+
+Then he rang a bell, and a boy appeared holding a tightly rolled poster
+in his hand. At a signal he unfolded it, and the astonished playwright
+beheld these words in large red and white letters:
+
+      _Charles Frohman_
+
+         _Presents_
+
+    _I DIDN'T WANT TO DO IT_
+
+    _A Farce in Three Acts_
+
+     _By Margaret Mayo_
+
+Of course the usual thing happened. No one could resist such an attack.
+Miss Mayo went back to the country without protest and she finished the
+play. It was destined, however, to be produced by some other hand than
+Frohman's.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman always sought seclusion when he wanted to work out the plans for
+a production. He sometimes went to extreme lengths to achieve
+aloofness. An incident related by Goodwin will illustrate this.
+
+During the run of "Nathan Hale" in New York Goodwin entered his
+dressing-room one night, turned on the electric light, and was amazed to
+see Charles sitting huddled up in a corner.
+
+"What are you doing here, Charley?" asked Goodwin.
+
+"I am casting a new play, and came here to get some inspiration. Good
+night," was the reply. With that he walked out.
+
+* * *
+
+There was one great secret in Charles Frohman's life. It is natural that
+it should center about the writing of a play; it is natural, too, that
+this most intimate of incidents in the career of the great manager
+should be told by his devoted friend and colleague of many years, Paul
+Potter.
+
+Here it is as set down by Mr. Potter:
+
+We had hired a rickety cab at the Place Saint-Francois in Lausanne, and
+had driven along the lake of Geneva to Morges, where, sitting on the
+terrace of the Hotel du Mont Blanc, we were watching the shore of Savoy
+across the lake, and the gray old villages of Thonon and Evian, and the
+mountains, rising ridge upon ridge, behind them. And Frohman, being in
+lyric mood, fell to quoting "The Blue Hills Far Away," for Owen
+Meredith's song was one of the few bits of verse that clung in his
+memory.
+
+"Odd," said he, relapsing into prose, "that a chap should climb hill
+after hill, thinking he had reached his goal, and should forever find
+the blue hills farther and farther away."
+
+While he was ruminating the clouds lifted, and there, in a gap of the
+hills, was the crest of Mont Blanc, with its image of Napoleon lying
+asleep in the snow.
+
+I have seen Frohman in most of the critical moments of his life, but I
+never saw him utterly awe-stricken till then.
+
+"Gee," said he, at length, "what a mountain to climb!"
+
+"It is sixty miles away," I ventured to suggest.
+
+"Well," he remarked, "I'll climb it some day. As John Russell plastered
+the Rocky Mountains with 'The City Directory,' so I'll hang a shingle
+from the top of Mont Blanc: 'Ambition: a comedy in four acts by Charles
+Frohman.'" And as we went home to Ouchy he told me the secret desire of
+his heart.
+
+He wanted to write a play.
+
+"Isn't it enough to be a theatrical manager?" I asked.
+
+"No," said he, "a theatrical manager is a joke. The public thinks he
+spends his days in writing checks and his nights in counting the
+receipts. Why, when I wanted to become a depositor at the Union Bank in
+London, the cashier asked me my profession. 'Theatrical manager,' I
+replied. 'Humph!' said the cashier, taken aback. 'Well, never mind, Mr.
+Frohman; we'll put you down as 'a gentleman.'"
+
+"But is a playwright," I asked, "more highly reputed than a theatrical
+manager?"
+
+"Not in America," said Frohman. "Most Americans think that the actors
+and actresses write their own parts. I was on the Long Branch boat the
+other day and met a well-known Empire first-nighter. 'What are you going
+to give us next season, Frohman?' he said.
+
+"'I open with a little thing by Sardou,' I replied.
+
+"'Sardou!' he cried. 'Who in thunder is Sardou?'
+
+"All the same," Frohman continued, "I mean to be a playwright. Didn't
+Lester Wallack write 'Rosedale' and 'The Veteran'? Didn't Augustin Daly
+make splendid adaptations of German farces? Doesn't Belasco turn out
+first-class dramas? Then why not I? I mean to learn the game. Don't give
+me away, but watch my progress in play-making as we jog along through
+life."
+
+He got his first tip from Pinero. "When I have sketched out a play,"
+observed the author of "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray," "I go and live among
+the characters."
+
+Frohman had no characters of his own, but he held in his brain a
+fabulous store of other people's plays. And whenever they had a
+historical or a literary origin he ran these origins to their lair. At
+Ferney, on the Lake of Geneva, he cared nothing about Voltaire; he
+wanted to see the place where the free-thinkers gathered in A. M.
+Palmer's production of "Daniel Rochat." At Geneva he was not concerned
+with Calvin, but with memories of a Union Square melodrama, "The Geneva
+Cross." At Lyons he expected the ghosts of _Claude Melnotte_ and
+_Pauline_ to meet him at the station. In Paris he allowed Napoleon to
+slumber unnoticed in the Invalides while he hunted the Faubourg
+Saint-Antoine for traces of "The Tale of Two Cities," and the Place de
+la Concorde for the site of the guillotine on which _Sidney Carton_
+died, and the Latin Quarter haunts of _Mimi_ and _Musette_, and the Bal
+Bullier where _Trilby_ danced, and the Concert des Ambassadeurs where
+_Zaza_ bade her lover good-by.
+
+Any production was an excuse for these expeditions. Sir Herbert Tree had
+staged "Colonel Newcome"; we had ourselves plotted a dramatization of
+"Pendennis"; Mrs. Fiske had given "Vanity Fair"; so off we went, down
+the Boulevard Saint-Germain, searching for the place, duly placarded,
+where Thackeray lunched in the days of the "Paris Sketch-book" and the
+"Ballad of Bouillabaisse."
+
+In the towns of Kent we got on the trail of Dickens with the enthusiasm
+of a Hopkinson Smith; in London, between Drury Lane and Wardour Street,
+we hunted for the Old Curiosity Shop; in Yarmouth we discovered the
+place where Peggotty's boat-hut might have lain on the sands. With
+William Seymour, who knew every street from his study of "The Rivals,"
+we listened to the abbey bells of Bath. And when "Romeo and Juliet" was
+to be revived with Sothern and Marlowe, Frohman even proposed that we
+should visit Verona. He only abandoned the idea on discovering that the
+Veronese had no long-distance telephones, and that, while wandering
+among the tombs of the Montagus and Capulets, he would be cut off from
+his London office.
+
+Having thus steeped himself in the atmosphere of his work, he set forth
+to learn the rules of the game. I met him in Paris on his return from
+New York. "How go the rules?" I asked.
+
+"Rotten," said he. "Our American playwrights say there are no rules;
+with them it is all inspiration. The Englishmen say that rules exist,
+but what the rules are they either don't know or won't tell."
+
+We went to the Concert Rouge. Those were the happy days when there were
+no frills; when the price of admission was charged with what you drank;
+when Saint-Saens accompanied his "Samson and Delilah" with an imaginary
+flute obligato on a walking-stick; when Massenet, with his librettist,
+Henri Cain, dozed quietly through the meditation of "Thais"; when the
+students and their girls forgot frivolity under the spell of
+"L'Arlesienne."
+
+In a smoky corner sat a group of well-known French playwrights, headed
+by G. A. Caillavet, afterward famous as author of "Le Roi." They were
+indulging in a heated but whispered discussion. They welcomed Frohman
+cordially, then returned to the debate.
+
+"What are they talking about?" asked Frohman.
+
+"The rules of the drama," said I.
+
+"Then there are rules!" cried the manager, eagerly.
+
+"Ask Caillavet," said I.
+
+"Rules?" exclaimed Caillavet, who spoke English. "Are there rules of
+painting, sculpture, music? Why, the drama is a mass of rules! It is
+nothing but rules."
+
+"And how long," faltered Frohman, thinking of his play--"how long would
+it take to learn them?"
+
+"A lifetime at the very least," answered Caillavet. Disconsolate,
+Frohman led me out into the Rue de Tournon. Heartbroken, he convoyed me
+into Foyot's, and drowned his sorrows in a grenadine.
+
+From that hour he was a changed man. He apparently put aside all thought
+of the drama whose name was to be stenciled on the summit of Mont Blanc;
+yet, nevertheless, he applied himself assiduously to learning the
+principles on which the theater was based.
+
+Another winter had passed before we sat side by side on the terrace of
+the Cafe Napolitain.
+
+"I have asked Harry Pettitt, the London melodramatist," Frohman said,
+"to write me a play. 'I warn you, Frohman,' he replied, 'that I have
+only one theme--the Persecuted Woman.' Dion Boucicault, who was
+present, said, 'Add the Persecuted Girl.' Joseph Jefferson was with us,
+and Jefferson remarked, 'Add the Persecuted Man.' So was Henry Irving,
+who said: 'Pity is the trump card; but be Aristotelian, my boy; throw in
+a little Terror; with Pity I can generally go through a season, as with
+'Charles the First' or 'Olivia'; with Terror and Pity combined I am
+liable to have something that will outlast my life." And Irving
+mentioned "The Bells" and "The Lyons Mail."
+
+"But who will write you your Terror and Pity?" I asked Frohman.
+
+"If Terror means 'thrill,'" said Frohman, "I can count on Belasco and
+Gillette. If Pity means 'sympathy,' the Englishmen do it pretty well. So
+does Fitch. So do the French, who used to be masters of the game."
+
+"You don't expect," I said, "to pick up another 'Two Orphans,' a second
+'Ticket of Leave Man'?"
+
+"I'm not such a fool," said Frohman. "But I've got hold of something now
+that will help me to feed my stock company in New York." And off we went
+with Dillingham to see "The Girl from Maxim's" at the Nouveautes.
+
+When we got home to the Ritz Frohman discussed the play after his
+manner: "Do you know," he said, "I find the element of pity quite as
+strongly developed in these French farces as in the Ambigu melodramas.
+The truant husband leaves home, goes out for a good time, gets buffeted
+and bastinadoed for his pains, and when the compassionate audience says,
+'He has had enough; let up,' he comes humbly home to the bosom of his
+family and is forgiven. Where can you find a more human theme than
+that?"
+
+"Then you hold," said I, "that even in a French farce the events should
+be reasonable?"
+
+"I wouldn't buy one," he replied, "if I didn't consider its basis
+thoroughly human. Dion Boucicault told me long ago that farce, like
+tragedy, must be founded on granite. 'Farce, well done,' said he, 'is
+the most difficult form of dramatic composition. That is why, if
+successful, it is far the most remunerative.'"
+
+Years went by. The stock company was dead. "Charles Frohman's Comedians"
+had disappeared. The "stars" had supplanted them. Frohman was at the
+zenith of his career. American papers called him "the Napoleon of the
+Drama." Prime Ministers courted him in the grill-room of the London
+Savoy. The Paris _Figaro_ announced the coming of "the celebrated
+impresario." I heard him call my name in the crowd at the Gare du Nord
+and we bundled into a cab.
+
+"So you're a great man now," I said.
+
+"Am I?" he remarked. "There's one thing you can bet on. If they put me
+on a throne to-day they are liable to yank me off to-morrow."
+
+"And how's your own play getting along?"
+
+"Don't!" he winced. "Let us go to the Snail."
+
+In the cozy recesses of the Escargot d'Or, near the Central Markets, he
+unraveled the mysteries of the "star system" which had made him famous.
+
+"It's the opposite of all we ever believed," he said, while the mussels
+and shell-fish were being heaped up before him. "Good-by to Caillavet
+and his rules. Good-by, Terror and Pity. Good-by, dear French farce.
+Give me a pretty girl with a smile, an actor with charm, and I will defy
+our old friend Aristotle."
+
+"Is it as easy as that?" I asked, in amazement.
+
+"No," said he, "it's confoundedly difficult to find the girl with the
+smile and the actor with charm. It is pure accident. There are players
+of international reputation who can't draw a dollar. There are chits of
+chorus-girls who can play a night of sixteen hundred dollars in
+Youngstown, Ohio."
+
+"And the play doesn't matter?" I inquired.
+
+"There you've got me," said Frohman, as the crepes Suzette arrived in
+their chafing-dish. "My interest makes me pretend that the play's the
+thing. I congratulate foreign authors on a week of fourteen thousand
+dollars in Chicago, and they go away delighted. But I know, all the
+time, that of this sum the star drew thirteen thousand nine hundred
+dollars, and the author the rest."
+
+"To what do you attribute such a state of affairs?"
+
+"Feminine curiosity. God bless the women."
+
+"Are there no men in your audiences?" I asked.
+
+"Only those whom the women take," said Frohman. "The others go to
+musical shows. Have some more crepes Suzette."
+
+"But what do the critics say?" I persisted.
+
+"My dear Paul," said Frohman, solemnly, "they call me a 'commercial
+manager' because I won't play Ibsen or Maeterlinck. They didn't help me
+when I tried for higher game. I had years of poverty, years of
+privation. To-day I take advantage of a general feminine desire to view
+Miss Tottie Coughdrop; and, to the critics, I'm a mere Bulgarian, a
+'commercial manager.' So was Lester Wallack when he admitted 'The World'
+to his classic theater. So was Augustin Daly when he banished
+Shakespeare in favor of 'The Great Ruby.' If the critics want to reform
+the stage, let them begin by reforming the public."
+
+In his cabin on the _Lusitania_ he showed me a mass of yellow
+manuscript, scribbled over with hieroglyphics in blue pencil.
+
+"That's my play," he said, very simply.
+
+"Shall I take it home and read it?" I asked.
+
+"No," he replied. "I will try it on Barrie and bring it back in better
+shape."
+
+So he shook hands and sailed with his cherished drama, which reposes
+to-day, not on the summit of Mont Blanc, but at the bottom of the Irish
+Sea.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+"C. F." AT REHEARSALS
+
+
+The real Charles Frohman emerged at rehearsals. The shy, sensitive man
+who shunned the outside world here stood revealed as a dynamic force.
+Yet he ruled by personality, because he believed in personality. He did
+every possible thing to bring out the personal element in the men and
+women in his companies.
+
+In rehearsing he showed one of the most striking of his traits. It was a
+method of speech that was little short of extraordinary. It grew out of
+the fact that his vocabulary could not express his enormous imagination.
+Instead of words he made motions. It was, as Augustus Thomas expressed
+it, "an exalted pantomime." Those who worked with him interpreted these
+gestures, for between him and his stars existed the finest kinship.
+
+Frohman seldom finished a sentence, yet those who knew him always
+understood the unuttered part. Even when he would give a star the first
+intimation of a new role he made it a piece of pantomime interspersed
+with short, jerky sentences.
+
+William Faversham had complained about having two very bad parts. When
+he went to see Frohman to hear about the third, this is the way the
+manager expressed it to him:
+
+"New play--see?... Fine part.--First act--_you_ know--romantic--light
+through the window ... nice deep tones of your voice, you see?... Then,
+audience say 'Ah!'--then the girl--see?--In the room ... you ... one
+of those big scenes--then, all subdued--light--coming through
+window.--See?--And then--curtain--audience say 'Great!' ... Now,
+second act ... all that tremolo business--you know?--Then you get
+down to work ... a tremendous scene ... let your voice go.... Great
+climax ... (Oh, a great play this--a great part!) ... Now, last
+act--simple--nice--lovable--refined ... sad tones in your voice--and,
+well, you know--and then you make a big hit.... Well, now we will
+rehearse this in about a week--and you will be tickled to death.... This
+is a great play--fine part.... Now, you see Humphreys--he will arrange
+everything."
+
+Of course Faversham went away feeling that he was about forty-four feet
+tall, that he was a great actor, and had a wonderful part.
+
+Like the soldier who thrills at the sound of battle, Frohman became
+galvanized when he began to work in the theater. He forgot time, space,
+and all other things save the task at hand. To him it was as the breath
+of life.
+
+One reason was that the theater was his world; the other that Charles
+was, first and foremost, a director and producer. His sensibility and
+force, his feeling and authority, his intelligence and comprehension in
+matters of dramatic artistry were best, almost solely, known to his
+players and immediate associates. No stage-director of his day was more
+admired and desired than he.
+
+At rehearsal the announcement, "C. F. is in front," meant for every one
+in the cast an eager enthusiasm and a desire to do something unusually
+good to merit his commendation. His enormous energy, aided by his
+diplomacy and humor, inspired the player to highest performance.
+
+Such expressions as, "But, Mr. Frohman, this is my way of doing it," or
+"I feel it this way," and like manifestations of actors' conceit or
+argument would never be met with ridicule or contempt. Sometimes he
+would say, "Try it my way first," or "Do you like that?" or "Does this
+give you a better feeling?" He never said, "You _must_ do thus and so."
+He was alert to every suggestion. As a result he got the very best out
+of his people. It was part of his policy of developing the personal
+element.
+
+The genial human side of the man always softened his loudest tones,
+although he was seldom vehement. So gentle was his speech at rehearsals
+that the actors often came down to the footlights to hear his friendly
+yet earnest direction.
+
+Frohman had that first essential of a great dramatic director--a
+psychologic mind in the study of the various human natures of his actors
+and of the ideas they attempted to portray.
+
+He was an engaging and fascinating figure, too, as he molded speech and
+shaped the play. An old friend who saw him in action thus describes the
+picture:
+
+"Here a comedian laughs aloud with the comic quaintness of the director.
+There a little lady, new to the stage, is made to feel at home and
+confident. The proud old-timer is sufficiently ameliorated to approve of
+the change suggested. The leading lady trembles with the shock of
+realization imparted by the stout little man with chubby smile who,
+seated alone in the darkened auditorium, conveys his meaning as with
+invisible wires, quietly, quaintly, simply, and rationally, so as to
+stir the actors' souls to new sensibilities, awaken thought, and
+viviby(?) glow of passion, sentiment, or humor."
+
+At rehearsals Frohman usually sat alone about the tenth row back. He
+rarely rose from his seat, but by voice and gesture indicated the moves
+on his dramatic chess-board. When it became necessary for him to go on
+the stage he did so with alacrity. He suggested, by marvelously simple
+indications and quick transitions, the significance of the scene or the
+manner of the presentation.
+
+There was a curious similarity, in one respect, between the rehearsing
+methods of Charles Frohman and Augustin Daly. This comparison is
+admirably made by Frohman's life-long friend Franklin H. Sargent,
+Director of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Empire School
+of Acting, in which Frohman was greatly interested and which he helped
+in every possible way. He said:
+
+"Like a great painter with a few stray significant lines of drawing,
+Frohman revealed the spirit and the idea. In this respect he resembled
+Augustin Daly, who could furnish much dramatic intuition by a grunt and
+a thumb-joint. Both men used similar methods and possessed equal
+keenness of intelligence and sense of humor, except that Frohman was
+rarely sarcastic. Daly usually was. Frohman's demeanor and relationship
+to his actors was kindly and considerate. Rules, and all strictly
+enforced, were in Daly's policy of theater management. Frohman did not
+resort to rules. He regulated his theaters on broad principles, but with
+firm decision when necessary. In Daly's theater there was obedience; in
+Frohman's theater there was a willing co-operation. The chief interest
+of both managers was comedy--comedy of two opposite kinds. Daly's jest
+was the artificial German farce and Shakespearian refinement. Frohman's
+tastes ranged between the French school--Sardou's 'Diplomacy' and the
+modern realities--and the pure sentiments of Barrie's 'The Little
+Minister.' Frohman was never traditional in an artificial sense, though
+careful to retain the fundamental original treatment of imported foreign
+plays.
+
+"The verities, the humanities, the joys of life always existed and grew
+with him as with a good landscape architect who keeps in nature's ways.
+His departures into the classicism of Stephen Phillips, the romanticism
+of Shakespeare, or the exotic French society drama were never as
+valuable and delightful as his treatment of modern sentiment and
+comedy."
+
+In this respect a comparison with the workmanship of another genius of
+the American theater, David Belasco, is inevitable. Belasco, the great
+designer and painter of theatrical pictures, holds quite a different
+point of view and possesses different abilities from those of Charles
+Frohman. Belasco revels in the technique of the actor. Frohman's
+_metier_ was the essentials. The two men were in many ways complements
+of each other and per force admirers of each other and friends. In
+brief, Belasco is the technicist; Frohman was the humanitarian.
+
+Charles usually left details of scenery, lighting, and minor matters to
+his stage-manager. "Look after the little things," he would say, in
+business as in art, for he himself was interested only in the larger
+themes. The lesser people of the play, the early rehearsing of involved
+business, was shaped by his subordinates. The smaller faults and the
+mannerisms of the actor did not trouble him, provided the main thought
+and feeling were there. He would merely laugh at a suggestion to
+straighten out the legs and walk, to lengthen the drawl, or to heighten
+the cockney accent of a prominent member of his company, saying:
+
+"The public likes him for these natural things."
+
+Frohman's ear was musically sensitive. The intonations, inflections, the
+tone colors of voice, orchestral and incidental music, found him an
+exacting critic.
+
+To plays he gave thought, study, and preparation. The author received
+much advice and direction from him. He himself possessed the expert
+knowledge and abilities of a playwright, as is always true of every good
+stage-director. Each new play was planned, written, cast, and revised
+completely under his guidance and supervision. His stage-manager had
+been instructed in advance in the "plotting" of its treatment. The first
+rehearsals were usually left in charge of this assistant.
+
+At the first rehearsals Frohman made little or no comments. He watched
+and studied in silence. Thereafter his master-mind would reveal itself
+in reconstruction of lines and scenes, re-accentuation of the high and
+low lights of the story involved, and improvement of the acting and
+representation. Frohman consulted with his authors, artists, and
+assistants more in his office than in actual rehearsal. In the theater
+he was sole auditor and judge. His stage-manager would rarely make
+suggestions during rehearsals unless beckoned to and asked by his
+manager. When the office-boy came in at rehearsal on some important
+business errand, he got a curt dismissal, or at most a brief
+consideration of the despatch, contract, or message.
+
+Here is a vivid view of Frohman at rehearsal by one who often sat under
+the magic of his direction:
+
+"In the dim theater he sits alone, the stage-manager being at a
+respectable distance. If by chance there are one or two others present
+directly concerned in the production, they all sit discreetly in the
+extreme rear. The company is grouped in the wings, never in the front.
+The full stage lights throw into prominence the actors in the scene in
+rehearsal. Occasionally the voice of Mr. Frohman calls from the
+auditorium, and the direction is sometimes repeated more loudly by the
+stage-manager. Everybody is listening and watching.
+
+"The wonderfully responsive and painstaking nature of Maude Adams is
+fully alive, alert, and interested in Mr. Frohman's directions even in
+the scenes in which she has no personal part, during which, very likely,
+she will half recline on the floor near the proscenium--all eyes and
+ears.
+
+"Or perhaps it is a strong emotional scene in which Margaret Anglin is
+the central character. At the theatrically most effective point in the
+acting the voice breaks in, Miss Anglin stops, hastens to the
+footlights, and listens intently to a few simple, quiet words. Over her
+face pass shadow and storm, and in her eyes tears form. Again she begins
+the scene, and yet again, with cumulative passion. Each time, with each
+new incitement from the sympathetic director, new power, deeper feeling,
+keener thought develop, until a great glow of meaning and of might fills
+the stage and the theater with its radiance. Mr. Frohman is at last
+satisfied, and so the play moves on."
+
+Just as Frohman loved humor in life, so did he have a rare gift for
+comedy rehearsal. William Faversham pays him this tribute:
+
+"I think Charles Frohman was the greatest comedy stage-manager that I
+have known. I do not think there was a comedy ever written that he could
+not rehearse and get more out of than any other stage-director I have
+ever seen--and I have seen a good many. If he had devoted himself, as
+director, entirely to one company, I think he would have produced the
+greatest organization of comedians that Europe or America ever saw. I
+don't suppose there is a comedy scene that he couldn't rehearse and play
+better than any of the actors who were engaged to play the parts. The
+subtle touches that he put into 'Lord and Lady Algy' were extraordinary.
+The same with 'The Counsellor's Wife,' with 'Bohemia,' and again with a
+play of H. V. Esmond's called 'Imprudence,' which we did. He seemed to
+love this play, and I never saw a piece grow so in all my life as it did
+under his direction. All the successes made by the actors and actresses
+in that play were entirely through the work of Charles Frohman.
+
+"He had a keen sense of sound, a tremendous ear for tones of comedy. He
+could get ten or twelve inflections out of a speech of about four lines;
+he had a wonderful method of getting the actors to accept and project
+these tones over the footlights. He got what he wanted from them in the
+most extraordinary way. With his disjointed, pantomimic method of
+instruction he was able to transfer to them, as if by telepathy, what he
+wanted.
+
+"For instance, he would say: 'Now, you go over there ... then, just as
+he is looking at you ... see?--say--then ... that's it! you know?' And
+simply by this telepathy you _did know_."
+
+His terse summing up of scenes and facts was never better illustrated
+than when he compressed the instructions of a whole sentimental act into
+this simple sentence to E. H. Sothern:
+
+"Court--kiss--curtain."
+
+In one detail he differed from all the other great producers of his
+time. Most managers liked to nurse a play after its production and build
+it up with new scenes or varied changes. With Frohman it was different.
+"I am interested in a production until it has been made, and then I
+don't care for it any more," he said. This is generally true, although
+some of his productions he could never see often enough.
+
+Frohman's perception about a play was little short of uncanny. An
+incident that happened during the rehearsal of the Maude Adams all-star
+revival of "Romeo and Juliet" will illustrate. James K. Hackett was cast
+for _Mercutio_. He had worked for a month on the Queen Mab speech. He
+had elaborated and polished it, and thought he had it letter and tone
+perfect.
+
+Frohman sat down near the front and listened with rapt attention while
+this fine actor declaimed the speech. When he finished Charles said, in
+his jerky, epigrammatic way:
+
+"Hackett, that's fine, but just in there somewhere--you know what I
+mean."
+
+As a matter of fact, Hackett, with all his elaborate preparation, had
+slipped up on one line, and it was a very essential one. Frohman had
+never read "Romeo and Juliet" until he cast this production, yet he
+caught the omission with his extraordinary intuition.
+
+Charles was the most indefatigable of workers. At one time, on arriving
+in Boston at midnight, he had to stage a new act of "Peter Pan." He
+worked over it with carpenters, actors, and electricians until three in
+the morning. Then he made an appointment with the acting manager to take
+a walk on the Common "in the morning."
+
+The manager took "in the morning" to mean nine o'clock. When he reached
+the hotel Frohman was just returning from his walk, and handed the man a
+bunch of cables to send, telegrams to acknowledge, and memoranda of
+information desired. At ten o'clock Frohman was conducting the rehearsal
+of a new comedy by Haddon Chambers, which he finished at four. At five
+he was on a train speeding back to New York, where he probably read
+manuscripts of plays until two in the morning. This was one of the
+typical "C. F." days.
+
+* * *
+
+Occasionally a single detail would fascinate him in a play. "The Waltz
+Dream" that he did at the Hicks Theater in London in 1908 was typical.
+Miss Gertie Millar, who sang the leading part, had an important song.
+Frohman did not like the way she sang it, so he worked on it for two
+weeks until it reached the perfection of expression that he desired. But
+that song made the play and became the most-talked-of feature in it.
+This led him to say:
+
+"I am willing to give as much time to a single song as to the rehearsal
+of a whole play."
+
+Frohman had a phrase that he often used with his actors and directors.
+It was:
+
+"Never get a 'falling curtain.'"
+
+By this he meant a curtain that did not leave interest or emotion
+subdued or declining. He wanted the full sweep of rage, terror, pity,
+suspense, or anger alive with the end of the act.
+
+He always said, "A man who sees a play must feel that he is in the
+presence of an act." It was his way of putting forth the idea that any
+acted effort, no matter how humble, must have the ring of sincerity and
+conviction.
+
+Charles had an almost weird instinct for what was right on the stage.
+Once at rehearsals he pointed to a heavy candelabrum that stood on a
+table.
+
+"I want that thing on the mantelpiece," he said.
+
+"You mean the candelabrum?" asked one of his assistants.
+
+"I don't know what it is, but I know that it belongs on the
+mantelpiece." And it did.
+
+* * *
+
+Many of Frohman's rehearsals were held out of town. He was particularly
+fond of "pointing up" a production in a strange environment. Then the
+stage-director would ask the local manager for an absolutely empty
+theater--"a clear auditorium."
+
+"Peter Pan" was to be "finished off" at Washington. The call was issued,
+the company assembled--everybody was present except Frohman. "Strange,"
+was the thought in all minds, for he was usually so prompt. Ten minutes,
+fifteen minutes passed until the stage-manager left the theater in
+search of the manager. He was found at the front entrance of the
+theater, unsuccessfully arguing with a German door-tender who, not
+knowing him and immensely amused at the idea that he was pretending to
+be Charles Frohman, refused to admit him until reassured by the company
+stage-manager. Later, when the man came to apologize, Frohman's only
+comment was:
+
+"Oh! I forgot that an hour ago."
+
+Few people knew the Frohman of rehearsals so well as William Seymour,
+for many years his general stage-director. His illuminating picture of
+the Little Chief he served so long is as follows:
+
+"At rehearsals Charles Frohman was completely wrapped up in the play and
+the players. His mind, however, traveled faster than we did. He often
+stopped me to make a change in a line or in the business which to me was
+not at all clear. You could not always grasp, at once, just what he was
+aiming at. But once understood, the idea became illuminative, and
+extended into the next, or even to succeeding acts of the play. He could
+detect a weak spot quicker than any one I ever knew, and could remedy or
+straighten it out just as quickly.
+
+"After the rehearsal of a new play he would think of it probably all the
+evening and night, and the next morning he had the solutions of the
+several vague points at his fingers' ends. He was also very positive and
+firm in what he wanted done, and how he thought it should be done. But
+what he thought was right, he believed to be right, and he soon made you
+see it that way.
+
+"I confess to having had many differences of opinion and arguments,
+sometimes even disagreements, with him. In some instances he came round
+to my way of thinking, but he often said:
+
+"'I believe you are right--I am sure you are right--but I intend doing
+it my way.'
+
+"It was his great and wonderful self-confidence, and it was rarely
+overestimated.
+
+"To his actors in a new play, after a week's 'roughing out' of the lines
+and business, the announcement that 'C. F. will be here to-morrow' would
+cause a flutter, some consternation, and to the newer members a great
+fear. To those who had been with him before he was like a sheet-anchor
+in a storm. They knew him and trusted and loved him. He was all
+sympathy, all comfort, all encouragement--if anything, too indulgent and
+overkind. But he won the confidence and affection of his people at the
+outset, and I have rarely met a player who would not have done his
+slightest bidding."
+
+* * *
+
+One of Frohman's characteristic hobbies was that he would never allow
+the leading man or the leading woman of his theater, or anybody in the
+company, no matter what position he or she held, to presume upon that
+position and bully the property man, or the assistant stage-manager, or
+any person in a menial position in the theater. He was invariably on the
+side of the smaller people.
+
+Very often he would say, "The smallest member of this organization, be
+he of the staff or in the company, has as much right to his 'say' in an
+argument as the biggest member has."
+
+On one occasion a certain actor, who was rather fond of issuing his
+wishes and instructions in a very loud voice, made his exit through a
+door up the center of the stage which was very difficult to open and
+shut. It had not worked well, and this had happened, quite by accident,
+on several occasions during the run of the play. The actor had spoken
+rather sharply to the carpenter about it instead of going, as he should
+have done, to the stage-manager. He always called the carpenter
+"Charley." The carpenter was a rather dignified person named Charles
+Heimley.
+
+On the night in question this actor had had the usual trouble with the
+door. Heimley was not in sight, for he was evidently down in his
+carpenter-shop under the stage. The actor leaned over the balustrade and
+called out: "Charley! Charley!"
+
+Frohman, who was just walking through the side door on his way to
+William Faversham's dressing-room, turned to the star and said:
+
+"Who is calling? Does he want me?"
+
+"Oh no, he is calling the carpenter," replied Faversham.
+
+Frohman tapped the noisy actor on the shoulder with his stick, and said,
+"You mean _Mr. Heimley_, don't you?" He wanted the carpenter's position
+to be respected.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+HUMOR AND ANECDOTE
+
+
+The most distinctive quality in Charles Frohman's make-up was his sense
+of humor. He mixed jest with life, and it enabled him to meet crisis and
+disaster with unflagging spirit and smiling equanimity. Like Lincoln, he
+often resorted to anecdote and story to illustrate his point. He summed
+up his whole theory of life one day when he said to Augustus Thomas:
+
+"I am satisfied if the day gives me one good laugh."
+
+He had a brilliancy of retort that suggested Wilde or Whistler. Once he
+was asked this question:
+
+"What is the difference between metropolitan and out-of-town audiences?"
+
+"Fifty cents," he replied.
+
+* * *
+
+Haddon Chambers was writing a note in Frohman's rooms at the Savoy.
+
+"Do you spell high-ball with a hyphen?" he asked.
+
+"No, with a siphon," responded Frohman.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles Dillingham, when in Frohman's employ, was ordered to hurry back
+to New York. From a small town up New York state he wired:
+
+     _Wash-out on line. Will return as soon as possible._
+
+Frohman promptly sent the following reply:
+
+     _Never mind your wash. Buy a new shirt and come along at once._
+
+That he could also meet failure with a joke is shown by the following
+incident:
+
+He was producing a play at Atlantic City that seemed doomed from the
+start. In writing to a member of his family he said:
+
+     _I never saw the waves so high and the receipts so low._
+
+Frohman and Pinero were dining in the Carleton grill-room one night when
+a noisy person rushed up to them, slapped each on the shoulder, and
+said:
+
+"Hello, 'C. F.'! Hello, 'Pin.'! I'm Hopkins."
+
+Frohman looked up gravely and said:
+
+"Ah, Mr. Hopkins, I can't say that I remember your name or your face,
+but your manner is familiar."
+
+* * *
+
+When Edna May married Oscar Lewisohn she gave a reception on her return
+from the honeymoon. She sent Charles one of the conventional engraved
+cards that read:
+
+     "_At home Thursday from four to six._"
+
+Frohman immediately sent back the card, on which he had written, "So am
+I."
+
+* * *
+
+Once when Frohman and Dillingham were crossing to Europe on the
+_Oceanic_ they had as fellow-passenger a mutual friend, Henry Dazian,
+the theatrical costumer, on whom Charles delighted to play pranks. On
+the first day out Dillingham came rushing back to Frohman with this
+exclamation:
+
+"There are a couple of card-sharks on board and Dazian is playing with
+them. Don't you think we had better warn him?"
+
+"No," replied Frohman. "Warn the sharks."
+
+* * *
+
+Some years ago Frohman sent a young actor named John Brennan out on the
+road in the South in "Too Much Johnson." Brennan was a Southerner, and
+he believed that he could do a big business in his home country. Frohman
+then went to London, and, when playing hearts at the Savoy one night
+with Dillingham, a page brought a cablegram. It was from Brennan,
+saying:
+
+     _Unless I get two hundred dollars by next Saturday night I can't
+     close._
+
+Whereupon Frohman wired him:
+
+     _Keep going._
+
+Frohman delighted to play jokes on his close friends. In 1900,
+Dillingham opened the New Jersey Academy of Music with Julia Marlowe,
+and it was a big event. This was before the day of the tubes under the
+Hudson connecting New Jersey and New York. When Dillingham went down to
+the ferry to cross over for the opening night he found a basket of
+flowers from Frohman marked, "Bon voyage."
+
+* * *
+
+Nor could Frohman be lacking in the graceful reply. During a return
+engagement of "The Man from Mexico," in the Garrick Theater, William
+Collier became very ill with erysipelas and had to go to a hospital.
+The day the engagement was resumed happened to be Frohman's birthday,
+and Collier sent him the following cablegram:
+
+     _Many happy returns from all your box offices._
+
+He received the following answer from Frohman:
+
+     _My happiest return is your return to the Garrick._
+
+Behind all of Frohman's jest and humor was a serious outlook on life. It
+was mixed with big philosophy, too, as this incident will show:
+
+He was visiting Sir George Alexander at his country house in Kent.
+Alexander, who is a great dog fancier, asked Frohman to accompany him
+while he chained up his animals. Frohman watched the performance with
+great interest. Then he turned to the actor-manager and said:
+
+"I have got a lot of dogs out at my country place in America, but I
+never tie them up."
+
+"Why?" asked Alexander.
+
+"Let other people tie up the dogs. You let them out and they will always
+like you."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman was known to his friends as a master of epigram. Some of his
+distinctive sayings are these:
+
+"The best seat at a theater is the paid one."
+
+"An ounce of imagination is worth a pound of practicality."
+
+"The man who makes up his mind to corner things generally gets
+cornered."
+
+"You cannot monopolize theaters while there are bricks and mortar."
+
+"When I hear of another theater being built I try to build another
+author."
+
+"No successful theatrical producer ever died rich. He must make money
+for everybody but himself."
+
+"Great stage successes are the plays that take hold of the masses, not
+the classes."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman could always reach the heart of a situation with a pithy phrase
+or reply. On one of the rare occasions when he attended a public dinner
+he sat at the Metropolitan Club in New York with a group of men
+representing a variety of interests. He condemned a certain outrageously
+immodest Oriental dancer, who, at the moment, was shocking New York.
+
+"She must have a nasty mind to dance like that," said Frohman.
+
+"Don't be too hard on her," responded a playwright who sat near by.
+"Consider how young she is."
+
+"I deny that she is as young as you imply," retorted Frohman. "But I am
+bound to admit that she is certainly a _stripling_."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman's mind worked with amazing swiftness. Here is an example:
+
+At the formation of a London society called the West End Managers
+Association, Sir Charles Wyndham gave a luncheon at the Hyde Park Hotel
+to discuss and arrange preliminaries. Most of the London managers were
+present, including Frohman. There was a discussion as to what should be
+the entrance fee for each member. Various sums were discussed from L100
+downward. Twenty-five pounds seemed to be the most generally accepted,
+when one manager said:
+
+"Why should we not each give one night's receipts."
+
+This was discussed for a little while, when Sir Charles said, "What do
+you say, Frohman?"
+
+The American replied, "I would sooner give a night's receipts than L25."
+
+There was a short silence, then everybody seemed to remember that he had
+at that moment a failure at his theater. The humor of it was hailed with
+a shout of laughter.
+
+* * *
+
+Just as he mixed sentiment in business so did Frohman infuse wit into
+most of his relations. He once instructed W. Lestocq, his London
+manager, to conduct certain negotiations for a new play with a
+Scotchwoman whose first play had made an enormous success in America,
+and whose head had been turned by it. The woman's terms were ten
+thousand dollars in advance and a fifteen-per-cent. royalty. When
+Lestocq told Frohman these terms over the telephone, all he said was
+this:
+
+"Did you tell her not to slam the door?"
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman would always have his joke in London, as this incident shows:
+
+He had just arrived in town and went to a bank in Charing Cross with a
+letter of credit, which he deposited. When he emerged he was smiling all
+over.
+
+"I got one on that young man behind the counter," he said.
+
+"How's that?" asked Lestocq, who was waiting for him.
+
+"Well," he replied, "the young man bade me good morning and asked me if
+I have brought over anything good this time. I replied, 'Yes, a letter
+of credit on your bank, and I am waiting to see if _it_ is any good.'"
+
+A manager, who for present purposes must be named Smith, called on
+Frohman to secure the services of a star at that time under contract to
+the latter. His plan was to drop in on Frohman at a busy hour, quickly
+state the case, and, getting an affirmative answer, leave without
+talking terms at all. Later he knew it would be enough to recall the
+affirmative answer that had been given without qualification. The
+transaction took but a moment, just as the manager wished.
+
+"Well, then, I may have him?" said Smith.
+
+"Er-m-ah-er-yes--I will let you have him," replied Frohman, at the same
+time running over a paper before him. The visitor was already at the
+door.
+
+"By the way, Smith," called out Frohman, "how much do you want me to pay
+you for taking him off my hands?"
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman was as playful as a child. Once he was riding in a _petite
+voiture_ in Paris. It was a desperately hot night. The old _cocher_ took
+his hat off, hung it on the lamp, and wiped his forehead. Frohman took
+the hat and hid it under his seat. When the driver looked for his hat it
+was gone. He stopped the horse and ran back two or three blocks before
+he could be stopped. Then he went on without it, muttering and cursing,
+and turning around every few moments. Watching his opportunity, Frohman
+slipped the hat back on the lamp, and there was the expected climax that
+he thoroughly enjoyed.
+
+On one of his trips to Paris he was accompanied by Dillingham. Knowing
+Frohman's fondness for rich food, his friend decided to take him to dine
+at Durand's famous restaurant opposite the Madeleine. He even went to
+the cafe in the afternoon and told the proprietor that he was going to
+bring the great American manager. Great anticipation prevailed in the
+establishment.
+
+That night when they got to the restaurant Frohman gave Dillingham the
+shock of his life by saying:
+
+"I want to be a real American to-night. All I want is an oyster stew."
+
+Dillingham instructed the chef how to make the stew. After long delay
+there was a commotion. In strode the chef, followed by two assistants,
+bearing aloft a gigantic silver tureen which was placed on the table and
+opened with great ceremony. Inside was a huge quantity of consomme with
+two lonely oysters floating on top.
+
+Frohman regarded it as a great joke, and ever afterward when he met
+anybody in Paris that he did not like, he would say to them:
+
+"If you want the finest oyster stew in the world, go to Durand's."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman, who was always playing jokes on his friends, was sometimes the
+victim himself. He was crossing the ocean with Haddon Chambers when the
+latter was accosted by two enterprising young men who were arranging the
+ship's concert. Chambers was asked to take part, but declined. Then he
+had an inspiration.
+
+"We have on board the greatest American singer of coon songs known to
+the stage."
+
+"Who is that?" asked the men.
+
+"It's Charles Frohman."
+
+The men gasped.
+
+"Of course we knew him as a great manager, but we never knew he could
+sing."
+
+"Oh yes," said Chambers. "He is a great singer."
+
+He pointed out Frohman and hid behind a lifeboat to await the result.
+Soon he heard a sputter and a shriek of rage, and the two men came
+racing down the boat as if pursued by some terror. Up came Frohman, his
+face livid with rage.
+
+"What do you think?" he said to Chambers, who stood innocently by.
+"Those men had the nerve to ask me to sing a coon song. I have never
+been so insulted in all my life."
+
+He was so enraged that he wrote a letter to the steamship line about it
+and withdrew his patronage from the company for several years in
+consequence.
+
+* * *
+
+Here is another instance when the joke was on Frohman. No one viewed the
+manager's immense success with keener pride or pleasure than his father,
+Henry Frohman. As theater after theater came under the son's direction
+the parent could gratify his great passion for giving people free passes
+to its fullest extent. He would appear at the offices at the Empire
+Theater with his pockets bulging with home-made cigars. The men in the
+office always accepted the cigars, but never smoked them. But they gave
+him all the passes he wanted.
+
+One day the father stopped in to see Charles. It was a raw spring day.
+Charles remarked that the overcoat Henry wore was too thin.
+
+"Go to my tailor and get an overcoat," he said.
+
+"Not much," said the father. "Your tailor is too expensive. He robs you.
+He wouldn't make one under seventy-five dollars, and I never pay more
+than twenty dollars."
+
+Charles's eye twinkled. He said, quickly:
+
+"You are mistaken. My tailor will make you a coat for twenty dollars. Go
+down and get one."
+
+Father went down to the fashionable Fifth Avenue tailor. Meanwhile
+Frohman called him up and gave instructions to make a coat for his
+father at a very low price and have the difference charged to him.
+
+In an hour Henry Frohman came back all excitement. "I am a real business
+man," he said. "I persuaded that tailor of yours to make me an overcoat
+for twenty dollars."
+
+Charles immediately gave him the twenty dollars and sent the tailor a
+check for the difference between that and the real price, which was
+ninety-five dollars. He dismissed the matter from his mind.
+
+A few days later Charles had another visit from his father. This time he
+was in high glee. He could hardly wait to tell the great news.
+
+"You've often said I wasn't a good business man," he told his son.
+"Well, I can prove to you that I am. The other night one of my friends
+admired my new overcoat so much that I sold it to him for thirty-five
+dollars."
+
+Charles said nothing, but had to pay for another
+one-hundred-and-fifteen-dollar overcoat because he did not want to
+shatter his father's illusion.
+
+* * *
+
+Here is still another. When Frohman got back to New York from a trip few
+things interested him so much as a good dinner. It always wiped out the
+memory of hard times or unpleasant experiences. Once he returned from a
+costly visit to the West. On Broadway he met an old-time comedian who
+had been in one of his companies. His greeting was cordial.
+
+"And now, 'C. F.,'" said the comedian, "you've got to come to dinner
+with me. We have a new club, for actors only, and we have the best roast
+beef in town. We make a specialty of a substantial, homelike dinner.
+Come right along."
+
+The club rooms were over a saloon on the west side of Broadway, between
+Thirty-first and Thirty-second streets. The two went up to the room and
+sat down. The actor ordered dinner for two. The waiter went away and
+Frohman's spirits began to rise.
+
+"It's the best roast beef in New York, I tell you," said the host, by
+way of an appetizer.
+
+Then the waiter reappeared, but not with the food. He was visibly
+embarrassed.
+
+"Sorry, sir," he said to the comedian, "but the steward tells me that
+you can't have dinner to-night. He says you were posted to-day, and that
+you can't be served again until everything is settled."
+
+Charles used to tell this story and say that he never had such an
+appetite for roast beef as he did when he rose from that club table to
+go out again into Broadway.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman was always interested in mechanical things. When the phonograph
+was first put on the market he had one in his office at 1127 Broadway.
+Once in London he found a mechanical tiger that growled, walked, and
+even clawed. He enjoyed watching it crouch and spring.
+
+He took it with him on the steamer back to New York, and played with it
+on the deck. One day Richard Croker, who was a fellow-passenger, came
+along and became interested in the toy, whereupon Frohman showed him how
+it worked.
+
+Frohman told of this episode with great satisfaction. He would always
+end his description by saying:
+
+"Fancy showing the boss of Tammany Hall how to work a tiger!"
+
+* * *
+
+The extraordinary affinity that existed between Frohman and a small
+group of intimates was shown by an incident that occurred on shipboard.
+He and Dillingham were on their way to Europe. They were playing
+checkers in the smoking-room when an impertinent, pushing American came
+up and half hung himself over the table. Frohman said nothing, but made
+a very ridiculous move. Dillingham followed suit.
+
+"What chumps you are!" said the interloper, and went away.
+
+Frohman wanted to get rid of the man without saying anything. This was
+his way of doing it, and it succeeded.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman was always having queer adventures out of which he spun the most
+amazing yarns. This is an experience that he liked to recount:
+
+When Augustus Thomas had an apartment in Paris he received a visit from
+Frohman. The flat was five flights up, but there was an elevator that
+worked by pushing a button.
+
+There was a ring at the bell of the Thomas apartment. When the
+playwright opened the door he found Frohman gasping for breath, and he
+sank exhausted on a settee.
+
+"I walked up," he managed to say. When he was able to talk Thomas said
+to him:
+
+"Why in Heaven's name didn't you use the elevator?"
+
+Frohman replied:
+
+"I couldn't make the woman down-stairs understand what I wanted. She
+made motions and showed me a little door, but I thought she had designs
+on my life, so I preferred to walk."
+
+* * *
+
+That Charles Frohman had the happy faculty of saying the right thing and
+saying it gracefully is well illustrated by the following:
+
+When the beautiful Scala Theater in London was opened it made such a
+sensation that Frohman asked Lestocq if he could not inspect it. The
+proprietor, Dr. Distin Maddick, being an old friend of Lestocq, the
+latter called informally with Frohman. While they were admiring the
+white stone and brass interior, Maddick was suddenly called away. He
+returned in a few minutes to say that a manager friend from Edinburgh,
+hearing that Frohman was in the theater, had come in and asked to be
+introduced. Of course Frohman acquiesced. After a little talk the
+gentleman said:
+
+"We have no beautiful theater like this in Edinburgh."
+
+Quickly Frohman replied, with his fascinating smile, "No, but you have
+Edinburgh."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman hated exercise. In this he had a great community of interest
+with Mark Twain.
+
+On Sunday mornings, when he was out at his farm at White Plains, he
+would read all the dramatic news in the papers, and then he searched
+them carefully for items about people who had died from over-exertion.
+When he found one he was greatly pleased, and always sent it to Mark
+Twain.
+
+In order to get him to exercise Dillingham once took him for a stroll
+and pretended to be lost. The second time he tried this, however,
+Frohman discovered the subterfuge and refused to go walking.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman could pack a world of meaning in a word or a sentence. As Sir
+Herbert Beerbohm Tree once expressed it, "he was witty with a dry form
+of humor that takes your breath away with its suddenness." He gave an
+example of this with Tree one day in London. They were discussing French
+plays for America. The question of American taste came up. Frohman
+described certain primitive effects which delighted our audiences.
+
+"Ah," said Tree, "America can stand that sort of thing. It is a new
+country."
+
+"_Was_," came the laconic reply.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman's retiring disposition and dislike for putting himself forward
+was one of his chief traits. An illustration occurred when he controlled
+the Garden Theater. It was during the presentation of Stephen Phillips's
+play "Ulysses." There was a new man on the door one night when Frohman
+dropped into the theater for a few minutes' look at the play. The
+doorkeeper did not know the producer, his own employer, and would not
+allow him to enter without a ticket. Instead of storming about the
+lobby, Frohman simply walked quickly out of the door, around to the
+stage entrance and through the theater. At the end of the act he walked
+out of the main entrance. The doorkeeper, recognizing him as the man he
+had "turned down," was about to ask him how he got in when the manager
+of the house interposed.
+
+* * *
+
+He liked surprise and contrast. On one occasion his old chum, Anson
+Pond, wanted to talk over business matters with him.
+
+"Let's go to a quiet place," said Frohman.
+
+They went to a Childs restaurant. Before their luncheon was served an
+intoxicated man came in, ordered a plate of beans, and then exploded a
+package of fire-crackers on it.
+
+When he went to pay his check Frohman's comment was:
+
+"I didn't know they had changed the date of the Fourth of July."
+
+* * *
+
+No other theatrical manager in New York had a better news sense than
+Frohman. He knew just what a paper wanted, and all the matter sent out
+from his offices was short, newsy, and direct. He knew how to shape a
+big "story," and could offhand dictate an interview that was all "meat."
+While he had little time in New York to greet newspaper men personally,
+he was especially cordial to all that came to see him on the road. He
+never went out of town without visiting some of the older critics he had
+known throughout his career, men like George P. Goodale of _The Detroit
+Free Press_, and Montgomery Phister of _The Commercial Tribune_ in
+Cincinnati. When in Baltimore he invariably gave an hour for a long
+interview to Walter E. McCann, the critic of The News of that city.
+
+Frohman knew a newspaper's wants and limitations as far as theatrical
+matter was concerned. He knew just how far his press representative
+could be expected to go, and what his obstacles were.
+
+On one occasion in Cleveland, when he was producing a play by Clyde
+Fitch for the late Clara Bloodgood, the chief press representative from
+the New York office was taken along to look after the work. The press
+agent sent stories to all of the papers for Saturday morning's
+publication, and to his dismay not a line was used. Feeling that Frohman
+would be hurt about it (for Charles was hurt and not angered by the
+failure of any of his men), he wrote a note to his chief, stating that
+he was sorry nothing had been used in print and did not understand it.
+
+At lunch that day Frohman remarked to the agent:
+
+"Why did you send me that note about the papers?"
+
+"Because," replied the young man, "I feared that you would think I had
+not attended to my work."
+
+"Well," said Frohman, "you sent matter to all the papers, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes," said the agent, "all of them, of course."
+
+"Then," said the manager, "what else could you do? You are not running
+the papers."
+
+It was not only an evidence of Frohman's fairness, but an instance of
+his knowledge of newspapers.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman had a remarkable memory. One night during Collier's London
+engagement he asked the actor to meet him at the Savoy the next morning
+at nine o'clock. Collier, who had been playing bridge until dawn, showed
+up at the appointed time, whereupon Frohman said:
+
+"How did you do it?"
+
+"I sat up for it," said Collier.
+
+Five years later Frohman asked Collier one night to meet him at nine
+o'clock the next morning. Then he added, quickly:
+
+"You can sit up for it."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman got much amusement out of a butler named Max who was employed at
+his house at White Plains. One of the most original episodes in which
+this man figured happened on the opening night of "Catherine" at the
+Garrick Theater.
+
+The play was a little thin, and the whole action depended on a love
+scene in the third act, in which the hero, a young swell played by J. M.
+Holland, on telling his mother that he loved a humble girl, gets the
+unexpected admonition to go and be happy with her. Dillingham had two
+seats well down in the orchestra. Frohman was to sit in the back of a
+box. Just before the curtain went up Frohman said to Dillingham, who
+then had a house on Twenty-fourth Street, "Let us have some of those
+nice little lamb chops and peas down at your house after the play."
+
+"All right," said Dillingham, and he telephoned the instructions to Max,
+who had been drafted for town service.
+
+The curtain went up, the first two acts went off all right, and the
+house was dark for the third act. The seat alongside Dillingham was
+vacated, so Frohman came down and occupied it. The curtain went up and
+the action of the play progressed. The great scene which was to carry it
+was about to begin when Dillingham heard a loud thump, thump, thump down
+the aisle. Frohman turned to Dillingham and said:
+
+"What in the name of Heaven is that? The play is ruined!"
+
+The thump, thump, thump continued, coming nearer. Just in the middle of
+the act a German voice spoke up and said:
+
+"Oxkuse me, Meester Dillingham, dere ain't a lam' chop in der house."
+
+It was Max, the butler, who, worried over what seemed the imminent
+failure of the midnight repast, had come to report to headquarters for
+further instructions. Fortunately the interruption passed unnoticed and
+the play made quite a hit.
+
+* * *
+
+On one occasion Nat C. Goodwin invited him to the Goodwin residence in
+West End Avenue, New York. The comedian wanted to place himself under
+the management of his guest. Goodwin stated the case, and Frohman then
+asked how remunerative his last season had been. The host produced his
+books. After a careful examination Frohman remarked, with a smile:
+
+"My dear boy, you don't require a manager. What you need is a lawyer."
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+THE MAN FROHMAN
+
+
+Great as producer, star-maker, and conqueror of two stage-worlds,
+Charles Frohman was greater as a human being. Like Roosevelt, whom he
+greatly admired, he was more than a man--he was an institution. His
+quiet courage, his unaffected simplicity, his rare understanding, his
+ripe philosophy, his uncanny penetration--above all, his abundant
+humor--made him a figure of fascinating and incessant interest.
+
+No trait of Charles Frohman was more highly developed than his shyness.
+He was known as "The Great Unphotographed." The only time during the
+last twenty-five years of his life that he sat for a photograph was when
+he had to get a picture for his passport, and this picture went to a
+watery grave with him. Behind his prejudice against being photographed
+was a perfectly definite reason, which he once explained as follows:
+
+"I once knew a theatrical manager whose prospects were very bright. He
+became a victim of the camera. Fine pictures of him were made and stuck
+up on the walls everywhere. He used to spend more time looking at these
+pictures of himself than he did attending to his business. He made a
+miserable failure. I was quite a young man when I heard of this, but it
+made a great impression on me. I resolved then never to have my
+photograph taken if I could help it."
+
+Once when Frohman and A. L. Erlanger were in London he received the
+usual request to be photographed by a newspaper camera man. The two
+magnates looked something alike in that they had a more or less
+Napoleonic cast of face. Frohman, who always saw a joke in everything,
+hatched a scheme by which Erlanger was to be photographed for him. The
+plan worked admirably, and pictures of Erlanger suddenly began to appear
+all over London labeled "Charles Frohman."
+
+He could be gracious, however, in his refusal to be photographed. One
+bright afternoon he was watching the races at Henley when he was
+approached by R. W. MacFarlane, of New York, who had been on the Frohman
+staff. MacFarlane asked if he could take a photograph of Frohman and
+give it to his niece, who was traveling with him.
+
+"No," said the manager, "but you can take a picture of your niece and I
+will pose her for it."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman's shyness led to what is in many respects the most remarkable of
+the countless anecdotes about him. It grew out of his illness. In 1913
+he had a severe attack of neuritis in London. Although his friends urged
+him to go and see a doctor, he steadfastly refused. He dreaded
+physicians just as he dreaded photographers.
+
+One day Barrie came to see him at his rooms at the Savoy. Frohman was in
+such intense pain that the Scotch author said:
+
+"Frohman, it is absurd for you not to see a doctor. You simply must have
+medical attention. As a matter of fact, I have already made an
+engagement for you to see Robson-Roose, the great nerve specialist, at
+four o'clock to-morrow afternoon."
+
+Frohman, who accepted whatever Barrie said, acquiesced. Next day, when
+half-past three o'clock came, the manager was almost in a state of
+panic. He said to Dillingham, who was with him:
+
+"Dillingham, you know how I hate to go to see doctors. You also know
+what is the matter with me. Why don't you go as my understudy and tell
+the doctor what is the matter with you? He will give you a nice little
+prescription or advise you to go to the Riviera or Carlsbad."
+
+"All right," said Dillingham, who adored his friend. "I'll do what you
+say."
+
+Promptly at four o'clock Dillingham showed up at the great
+specialist's office and said he was Frohman. He underwent a drastic
+cross-examination. After which he was asked to remove his clothes, was
+subjected to the most strenuous massage treatment, and, to cap it all,
+was given an electric bath that reduced him almost to a wreck. He had
+entered the doctor's office in the best of health, He emerged from it
+worn and weary.
+
+When he staggered into Frohman's rooms two hours later and told his tale
+of woe, Frohman laughed so heartily over the episode that he was a well
+man the next day.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman had a great fund of pithy sayings, remarkable for their brevity.
+With these he indicated his wishes to his associates. His charm of
+manner, his quick insight into a situation, and his influence over the
+minds of others were great factors in the accomplishment of his end,
+often attaining the obviously impossible.
+
+For example, when he would tell his business manager to negotiate a
+business matter with a man, and it would come to a point where there
+would be a deadlock, he would say:
+
+"I will see him. Ask him to come down to my hotel."
+
+The next morning he would walk into the office with a smile on his face,
+and the first thing he would say perhaps would be:
+
+"I fixed it up all right yesterday; it is going your way."
+
+"You are a wonder!" his associates would exclaim.
+
+"Oh no! I just talked to him," was the reply.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman disliked formality. He wanted to go straight to the heart of a
+thing and have it over with. Somebody once asked him why he did not join
+the Masonic order. He said:
+
+"I would like to very much if I could just write a check and not bother
+with all the ceremony."
+
+* * *
+
+Although he never spoke of his great power in the profession,
+occasionally there was a glimpse of how he felt about it as this
+incident shows:
+
+Once, when Frohman and Paul Potter were coming back from Atlantic City,
+Potter picked up a theatrical paper and said:
+
+"Shall I read you the theatrical news?"
+
+"No," said Frohman. "I _make_ theatrical news."
+
+* * *
+
+In that supreme test of a man's character--his attitude toward money--he
+shone. Though his enterprises involved millions, Frohman had an
+extraordinary disregard of money. He felt its power, but he never
+idolized it. To him it was a means to an end. He summed up his whole
+attitude one day when he said:
+
+"My work is to produce plays that succeed, so that I can produce plays
+that will not succeed. That is why I must have money.
+
+"What I would really like to do is to produce a wonderful something to
+which I would only go myself. My pleasure would be in seeing a
+remarkable performance that nobody else could see. But I can't do that.
+The next best thing is to produce something for the few critical people.
+That is what I'm trying for. I have to work through the commercial--it
+is the white heat through which the artistic in me has to come." It was
+his answer to the oft-made charge of "commercialism."
+
+No one, perhaps, has summed up this money attitude of Frohman's better
+than George Bernard Shaw, who said of him:
+
+"There is a prevalent impression that Charles Frohman is a hard-headed
+American man of business who would not look at anything that is not
+likely to pay. On the contrary, he is the most wildly romantic and
+adventurous man of my acquaintance. As Charles XII. became an excellent
+soldier because of his passion for putting himself in the way of being
+killed, so Charles Frohman became a famous manager through his passion
+for putting himself in the way of being ruined."
+
+In many respects Frohman's feeling about money was almost childlike. He
+left all financial details to his subordinates. All he wanted to do was
+to produce plays and be let alone. Yet he had an infinite respect for
+the man to whom he had to pay a large sum. He felt that the actor or
+author who could command it was invested with peculiar significance.
+Upon himself he spent little. He once said:
+
+"All I want is a good meal, a good cigar, good clothes, a good bed to
+sleep in, and freedom to produce whatever plays I like."
+
+He was a magnificent loser. Failure never disturbed him. When he saw
+that a piece was doomed he indulged in no obituary talk. "Let's go to
+the next," he said, and on he went.
+
+He lost in the same princely way that he spent. The case of "Thermidor"
+will illustrate. He spent not less than thirty thousand dollars on this
+production. Yet the moment the curtain went down he realized it was a
+failure. He stood at one side of the wings and Miss Marbury, who had
+induced him to put the play on, was at the other. With the fall of the
+curtain Frohman moved smilingly among his actors with no trace of
+disappointment on his face. But when he met Miss Marbury on the other
+side of the stage he said:
+
+"Well, I suppose we have got a magnificent frost. We'll just write this
+off and forget it."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman played with the theater as if it were a huge game. Like life
+itself, it was a great adventure. In the parlance of Wall Street, he was
+a "bull," for he was always raising salaries and royalties. Somebody
+once said of him:
+
+"What a shame that Frohman works so hard! He never had a day's fun in
+his life."
+
+"You are very much mistaken," said one of his friends. "His whole life
+is full of it. He gets his chief fun out of his work." Indeed, work and
+humor were in reality the great things with him.
+
+One of the best epigrams ever made about Frohman's extravagance was
+this:
+
+"Give Charles Frohman a check-book and he will lose money on any
+production."
+
+To say that his word was his bond is to repeat one of the trite tributes
+to him. But it was nevertheless very true. Often in discussing a
+business arrangement with his representatives he would say:
+
+"Did I say that?" On being told that he did, he would invariably reply,
+"Then it must stand at that."
+
+On one of these occasions he said:
+
+"I have only one thing of value to me, and that is my word. I will keep
+that until I am broke and then I'll jump overboard."
+
+* * *
+
+In starting a new venture his method was first to ascertain not how much
+it would enrich him, but how much it would cost. Thus fortified, he
+entered into it with enthusiasm, and if he lost he never murmured.
+Having settled a thing, for good or ill, he would never refer to the
+negotiations or anything that might have led up to the culmination of
+that business, either for or against. If his attention was afterward
+called to it, he would quietly say, "That's yesterday," and in this way
+indicate that he did not wish the matter referred to again.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman's great desire was to make money for other people. One of his
+young authors had had a bad failure in London and was very much
+depressed. Frohman finally worked out a plan to revive his spirits and
+recoup his finances. He took Alfred Sutro in his confidence and invited
+the young man to dine. He was like a child, eager to do something good
+and pleasing. All through the dinner he chaffed the young man, who
+visibly grew more despondent. Finally he said:
+
+"I have decided to revive a very good play, and I have booked an
+American tour for it." Then he told the young man that this play was his
+first success.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles Frohman's ignorance of money matters was proverbial. One day
+just as he was about to take the train for Washington a friend stopped
+him and said:
+
+"I've got a great investment for you."
+
+"No," said Frohman, "I never invest in anything except theaters."
+
+"But this is the real thing. The only possible fact that can spoil it is
+war, and we are widely remote from war."
+
+In order to get rid of the man Frohman consented to a modest investment.
+When he got to Washington the first thing that greeted him was the
+announcement that we were on the verge of war with Mexico.
+
+* * *
+
+William Harris once gently remonstrated with Frohman for such lavish
+expenditure of money.
+
+"It's simply awful, Charley, the way you spend money," he said.
+
+Frohman smiled and said:
+
+"It would be awful if I lost a finger or a foot, but spending money on
+the things that you want to do and enjoy doing is never money wasted."
+
+* * *
+
+At one time he owed a great deal of money to actors and printers, but he
+always scorned all suggestions that he go through bankruptcy and wipe
+these claims out. He said he would pay in full some day, and he did,
+with interest. An actor to whom he owed some four hundred dollars came
+to him and offered to settle the claim for one hundred dollars. Frohman
+said he did not believe in taking advantage of a man like that. He
+advanced the actor one hundred dollars, and eventually paid the other
+three hundred dollars.
+
+* * *
+
+Like every great man, Frohman's tastes were simple. He always wore
+clothes of one pattern, and the style seldom varied. He wore no jewelry
+except a Napoleonic ring on his little finger.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman never married. A friend once asked him why he had chosen to be a
+bachelor.
+
+"My dear fellow," he answered, "had I possessed a wife and family I
+could never have taken the risks which, as a theatrical manager, I am
+constantly called upon to do."
+
+He lived, in truth, for and by the theater; it was his world. His heart
+was in his profession, and no enterprise was too daring, no venture too
+perilous, to prevent him from boldly facing it if he believed the step
+was expected of him.
+
+* * *
+
+To his intimates Frohman was always known as "C. F." These were the
+magic initials that opened or shut the doors to theatrical fame and
+fortune.
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman loved sweet things to eat. Pies were his particular fondness,
+and he never traveled without a box of candy. As he read plays he
+munched chocolates. He ate with a sort of Johnsonian avidity. When he
+went to Europe some of his friends, who knew his tastes well, sent him
+crates of pies instead of flowers or books.
+
+He shared this fondness for sweets with Clyde Fitch. They did not dare
+to eat as much pastry as they liked before others, so they often retired
+to Frohman's rooms at Sherry's or to Fitch's house on Fortieth Street,
+in New York, and had a dessert orgy.
+
+Frohman almost invariably ate as he worked in his office. When people
+saw sandwiches piled upon his table, he would say:
+
+"A rehearsal accompanied by a sandwich is progress, but a rehearsal
+interrupted by a meal is delay."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman's letters to his intimates were characteristic. He always wrote
+them with a blue pencil, and on whatever scrap of paper happened to be
+at hand. Often it was a sheet of yellow scratch-paper, sometimes the
+back of an envelope. He wrote as he talked, in quick, epigrammatic
+sentences. Like Barrie, he wrote one of the most indecipherable of
+hands. Frequently, instead of a note, he drew a picture to express a
+sentiment or convey an invitation. One reason for this was that the man
+saw all life in terms of the theater. It was a series of scenes.
+
+* * *
+
+With regard to home life, Frohman had none. He always dwelt in
+apartments in New York. The only two places where he really relaxed were
+at Marlow, in England, and at his country place near White Plains in
+Westchester County, New York. He shared the ownership of this
+establishment with Dillingham. It entered largely into his plans. Here
+his few intimates, like Paul Potter, Haddon Chambers, William Gillette,
+and Augustus Thomas, came and talked over plays and productions. Here,
+too, he kept vigil on the snowy night when London was to pass judgment
+on the first production of "Peter Pan" on any stage.
+
+The way he came to acquire an interest in the White Plains house is
+typical of the man and his methods. Dillingham had bought the place. One
+day Frohman and Gillette lunched with him there. Frohman was immensely
+taken with the establishment. He liked the lawn, the garden, the trees,
+and the aloofness. The three men sat at a round table. Frohman beamed
+and said:
+
+"This is the place for me. I want to sit at the head of this table." It
+was his way of saying that he wanted to acquire an ownership in it, and
+from that time on he was a co-proprietor.
+
+With characteristic generosity he insisted upon paying two-thirds of the
+expenses. Then, in his usual lavish fashion, he had it remodeled. He
+wanted a porch built. Instead of engaging the village carpenter, who
+could have done it very well, he employed the most famous architects in
+the country and spent thirty thousand dollars. It was the Frohman way.
+
+Out of the Frohman ownership of the White Plains house came one of the
+many Frohman jests. Its conduct was so expensive that Frohman one day
+said to Dillingham, "Let's rent a theater and make it pay for the
+maintenance of the house."
+
+Frohman then leased the Garrick, but instead of making money on it he
+lost heavily.
+
+The factotum at White Plains was the German Max, whom Dillingham had
+brought over from the Savoy in London, where he was a waiter. Max
+became the center of many amusing incidents. One has already been
+related.
+
+One night Max secured some fine watermelons. As he came through the door
+with one of them he slipped and dropped it. He repeated this performance
+with the second melon. Frohman regarded it as a great joke, and roared
+with laughter. Just then Gillette was announced.
+
+"Now," said Frohman, quietly, to Dillingham, "we will have Max bring in
+a watermelon, but I want him to drop it." In order to insure the success
+of the trick they stretched a string at the door so that Max would be
+sure to fall. Then they ordered the melon, and Max appeared, bearing it
+aloft. He fell, however, before he got to the string, and the joke was
+saved.
+
+All this jest and joke was part of the game of life as Frohman played
+it. Whatever the cost, there is no doubt that the charming
+white-and-green cottage up in the Westchester valley gave him hours of
+relaxation and ease that were among the pleasantest of his life.
+
+This house at White Plains was indirectly the means through which
+Dillingham branched out as an independent manager. At this time he was
+in Frohman's employ. One day he said to himself:
+
+"This establishment is costing so much that I will have to send out some
+companies of my own."
+
+He thereupon got "The Red Mill," acquired Montgomery and Stone, and thus
+began a new and brilliant managerial career. No one rejoiced over
+Dillingham's success more than Frohman. When Dillingham opened his Globe
+Theater in New York Frohman addressed a cable to "Charles Dillingham,
+Globe Theater, U. S. A."
+
+It is a curious fact about Charles Frohman that though he had millions
+of dollars at stake, he was never a defendant in litigation. Yet through
+him foreign authors were enabled to protect their plays from the
+customary piracy by the memorization of parts. It used to be accepted
+that if a man went to a play and memorized its speeches he could produce
+it without paying royalty. N. S. Wood did this with a play called "The
+World," that Frohman produced. He took the matter to court as a test
+case and won.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles was not good at remembering people's names or their addresses.
+This is why he was much dependent upon his stenographers. His secretary
+in England, Miss Frances Slater, was so extraordinary in anticipating
+his words that he always called her "The Wonder." He used to say:
+
+"Miss Slater, I want to write to the man around the corner," which
+turned out to be Arthur Bouclier, the manager of the Garrick Theater,
+which was not really around the corner; but when the subject of the
+letter came to be dictated, Miss Slater knew whom he meant. He would
+never express any surprise on these occasions when the letter handed him
+to sign contained the right name and address. He seemed to take it as a
+matter of course.
+
+* * *
+
+One day Frohman entered his London office and said to Lestocq:
+
+"You would never guess where I have just come from. I have been to your
+Westminster Abbey."
+
+[Illustration: COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY CHARLES FROHMAN
+
+_CHARLES FROHMAN'S OFFICE IN THE EMPIRE THEATER_]
+
+Lestocq expressed surprise, whereupon Frohman continued:
+
+"Yes, I just walked in and spoke to a man in a gown and said, 'Where is
+Mr. Irving buried?' He showed me, and I stood there for a few minutes,
+said a couple of things, and came on here."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman's office at the Empire Theater was characteristic of the man
+himself. It was a room of considerable proportions, with the atmosphere
+of a study. It was lined with rather low book-shelves, on which stood
+the bound copies of the plays he had produced. Interspersed was a
+complete set of Lincoln's speeches and letters.
+
+On one side was a large stone fireplace; in a corner stood a grand
+piano; the center was dominated by a simple, flat-topped desk, across
+which much of the traffic of the American theater passed.
+
+Near at hand was a low and luxurious couch. Here Frohman sat
+cross-legged and listened to plays. This performance was a sort of
+sacred rite, and was always observed behind locked doors. No Frohman
+employee would think of intruding upon his chief at such a time.
+
+Here, as in London, Frohman was surrounded by pictures of his stars.
+Dominating them was J. W. Alexander's fine painting of Miss Adams in
+"L'Aiglon." On a shelf stood a bust of John Drew. There were portraits
+of playwrights, too. A photograph of Clyde Fitch had this inscription:
+
+"To C. F. from c. f."
+
+There was only one real art object in the office, a magnificent marble
+bust of Napoleon, whom Frohman greatly admired. He was always pleased
+when he was told that he looked like the Man of Destiny.
+
+His sense of personal modesty was a very genuine thing. Shortly before
+he sailed on the fatal trip he had a request from a magazine writer who
+wanted to write the story of his life. He sent back a vigorous refusal
+to co-operate, saying, among other things:
+
+"It is most obnoxious to me in every way. It is forcing oneself on the
+public so far as I am concerned, and I don't want that, and, besides,
+they are not interested. It is only for the great men of our country. It
+is not for me. It looks like cheek and presumption on my part, because
+_it is_, and I ask you not to go on with it."
+
+* * *
+
+He believed in system. One day he said:
+
+"We must have on file in our office the complete record of every
+first-class theater in the United States, together with the name of
+every dramatic editor and bill-poster." Out of this grew the famous
+"Theatrical Guide" compiled by Julius Cahn.
+
+* * *
+
+Charles always provided special sleepers for his company when they had
+to leave early in the morning. He felt that it was an imposition to make
+the people go to bed late after a play and rise at five or six to get a
+train. It not only expressed his kindness, but also his good business
+sense in keeping his people satisfied and efficient.
+
+* * *
+
+One of Frohman's eccentricities was that he never carried a watch. On
+being asked why he never carried a timepiece, he replied, tersely,
+"Everybody else carries a watch," meaning that if he wanted to find out
+the time of day he could do it more quickly by inquiring of his
+personal or business associates than by looking for a watch that he may
+have forgotten to wind up.
+
+"Frohman," said a friend, "made it a rule in life not to do anything
+that he could hire somebody else to do, thus leaving himself all the
+time possible for those things that he alone could do. He probably
+figured it out that if he carried a watch he would be obliged to spend a
+certain amount of time each day winding it.
+
+"And on the same principle he refused to worry as to whether he left his
+umbrella behind or not, by simply not carrying one. If he couldn't get a
+cab--a rare occurrence, doubtless, considering the beaten track of his
+travel--he preferred to walk in the rain."
+
+Some time before his death Frohman said to a distinguished dramatist who
+is one of his closest friends:
+
+"Whenever I make a rule I never violate it."
+
+A visitor to his place at White Plains came away after spending a night
+there, and declared that the "real Charles Frohman had three
+dissipations--he smokes all day, he reads plays all night, and--" He
+stopped.
+
+"What is it?" was the breathless query.
+
+"He plays croquet."
+
+* * *
+
+Frohman had a rare gift for publicity. More than once he turned what
+seemed to be a complete failure into success. An experience with "Jane"
+will reveal this side of his versatility.
+
+The bright little comedy hung fire for a while. One reason was that
+newspaper criticism in New York had been rather unfavorable. Conspicuous
+among the unfriendly notices was one in the _Herald_ which was headed,
+"Jane Won't Go."
+
+Frohman immediately capitalized this line. He had thousands of dodgers
+stuck up all over New York. They contained three sentences, which read:
+
+    "_Jane won't go._"
+    _Of course not._
+    _She's come to stay._
+
+From that time on the piece grew in popularity and receipts and became a
+success.
+
+* * *
+
+In summing up the qualities that made Frohman great, one finds, in the
+last analysis, that he had two in common with J. P. Morgan and the other
+dynamic leaders of men. One was an incisive, almost uncanny, ability to
+probe into the hearts of men, strip away the superficial, and find the
+real substance.
+
+His experience with Clyde Fitch emphasized this to a remarkable degree.
+Personally no two men could have been more opposite. One was the product
+of democracy, buoyant and self-made, while the other represented an
+intellectual, almost effeminate, aristocracy. Yet nearly from the start
+Frohman perceived the bigness of vision and the profound understanding
+that lurked behind Fitch's almost superficial exterior.
+
+In common, too, with Morgan, Roosevelt, and others of the same type,
+Frohman had an extraordinary quality of unconscious hypnotism. Men who
+came to him in anger went away in satisfied peace. They succumbed to
+what was an overwhelming and compelling personality.
+
+He proved this in the handling of his women stars. They combined a group
+of varied and conflicting temperaments. Each wanted a separate and
+distinct place in his affections, and each got it. It was part of the
+genius of the man to make each of his close associates feel that he or
+she had a definite niche apart. His was the perfecting understanding,
+and no one better expressed it than Ethel Barrymore, who said, "To try
+to explain something to Charles Frohman was to insult him."
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+"WHY FEAR DEATH?"
+
+
+And now the final phase.
+
+The last years of Charles Frohman's life were racked with physical pain
+that strained his courageous philosophy to the utmost. Yet he faced this
+almost incessant travail just as he had faced all other
+emergencies--with composure.
+
+One day in 1912 he fell on the porch of the house at White Plains and
+hurt his right knee. It gave him considerable trouble. At first he
+believed that it was only a bad bruise. In a few days articular
+rheumatism developed. It affected all of his joints, and it held him in
+a thrall of agony until the end of his life.
+
+Shortly after his return to the city (he now lived at the Hotel
+Knickerbocker) he was compelled to take to his bed. For over six months
+he was a prisoner in his apartment, suffering tortures. Yet from this
+pain-racked post he tried to direct his large affairs. There was a
+telephone at his bedside, and he used it until weakness prevented him
+from holding the receiver.
+
+He could not go to the theater, so the theater was brought to him. More
+than one preliminary rehearsal was held in his drawing-room. This was
+particularly true of musical pieces. The music distracted him from his
+pain.
+
+Though prostrate with pain, his dogged determination to keep on doing
+things held. Barrie sent him the manuscript of a skit called "A Slice of
+Life." It was a brilliant satire on the modern play. Frohman picked
+Ethel Barrymore (who was then playing in "Cousin Kate" at the Empire),
+John Barrymore, and Hattie Williams to do it, and the rehearsals were
+held in the manager's rooms at the Knickerbocker.
+
+Frohman was as much interested in this one-act piece as if it had been a
+five-act drama. His absorption in it helped to divert his mind from the
+pain that had sadly reduced the once rotund body.
+
+With "A Slice of Life" he introduced another one of the many innovations
+that he brought to the stage. The play was projected as a surprise. No
+announcement of title was made. The advertisements simply stated that
+Charles Frohman would present "A Novelty" at the Empire Theater at eight
+o'clock on a certain evening.
+
+Frohman was unable to attend the opening performance, so he wrote a
+little speech which was spoken by William Seymour. The speech was
+rehearsed as carefully as the play. A dozen times the stage-director
+delivered it before his chief, who indicated the various phrases to be
+emphasized.
+
+It was during the era of the New Theater when the so-called "advanced
+drama" was much exploited. Frohman had little patience with this sort of
+dramatic thing. The little speech conveys something of his satirical
+feeling about the millionaire-endowed theatrical project which was then
+agitating New York.
+
+Here is the speech as Frohman wrote it:
+
+     _Ladies and Gentlemen:--My appearance here to-night is by way of
+     apology. I am here representing Mr. Charles Frohman--you may have
+     heard of him--the manager of this theater, the Empire._
+
+     _His idea in announcing a novelty in connection with Miss
+     Barrymore's play, "Cousin Kate," was really for the purpose of
+     getting you here once in time for the ringing up of the curtain.
+     This will be a special performance of a play to be given by a few
+     rising members of the School of Acting connected with this theater,
+     the Empire, of which he is proud--very proud. It is not an old
+     modern play, but what is called to-day "The Advanced Drama," made
+     possible here to-night by the momentary holiday of the New Theater,
+     and it is called "A Slice of Life."_
+
+During those desperate days when, like Heinrich Heine, he seemed to be
+lying in a "mattress grave," his dauntless humor never forsook him, as
+this little incident will show: Some years previous, Gillette suffered a
+breakdown from overwork. When the actor-playwright went to his home at
+Hartford to recuperate his sister remonstrated with him.
+
+"You must stop work for a long while," she said. "That man Frohman is
+killing you." Gillette afterward told Frohman about it.
+
+Frohman now lay on a bed of agony, and Gillette came to see him. The
+sick man remembered the episode of the long ago, and said, weakly, to
+his visitor:
+
+"Gillette, tell your sister that _you_ are killing me."
+
+With the martyrdom of incessant pain came a ripening of the man's
+character. Frohman developed a great admiration for Lincoln. Often he
+would ask Gillette to read him the famous "Gettysburg Address." Simple,
+haunting melodies like "The Lost Chord" took hold of him. Marie Doro was
+frequently summoned to play it for him on the piano. Although his
+courage did not falter, he looked upon men and events with a larger and
+deeper philosophy.
+
+During that first critical stage of the rheumatism he sank very low. His
+two devoted friends, Dillingham and Paul Potter, came to him daily. Each
+had his regular watch. Dillingham came in the morning and read and
+talked with the invalid for hours. He managed to bring a new story or a
+fresh joke every day.
+
+Potter reported at nine in the evening and remained until two o'clock in
+the morning, or at whatever hour sleep came to the relief of the sick
+man. One of the compensations of those long vigils was the phonograph.
+Frohman was very fond of a tune called "Alexander's Rag-Time Band." The
+nurse would put this record in the machine and then leave. When it ran
+out, Potter, who never could learn how to renew the instrument, simply
+turned the crank again. There were many nights when Frohman listened to
+this famous rag-time song not less than twenty times. But he did not
+mind it.
+
+In his illness Frohman was like a child. He was afraid of the night. He
+begged Potter to tell him stories, and the author of so many plays spun
+and unfolded weird and wonderful tales of travel and adventure. Like a
+child, too, Frohman kept on saying, "More, more," and often Potter went
+on talking into the dawn.
+
+Potter, like all his comrades in that small and devoted group of Frohman
+intimates, did his utmost to shield his friend from hurt. When Frohman
+launched a new play during those bedridden days Potter would wait until
+the so-called "bull-dog" editions of the morning papers (the very
+earliest ones) were out. Then he would go down to the street and get
+them. If the notice was favorable he would read it to Frohman. If it was
+unfriendly Potter would say that the paper was not yet out, preferring
+that the manager read the bad news when it was broad daylight and it
+could not interfere with his sleep.
+
+The humor and comradeship which always marked Frohman's close personal
+relations were not lacking in those nights when the life of the valiant
+little man hung by a thread. When all other means of inducing sleep
+failed, Potter found a sure cure for insomnia.
+
+"Just as soon as I talked to Frohman about my own dramatic projects," he
+says, "he would fall asleep. So, when the night grew long and the travel
+stories failed, and even 'Alexander's Rag-Time Band' grew stale, I would
+start off by saying: 'I have a new play in mind. This is the way the
+plot goes.' Then Frohman's eyes would close; before long he would be
+asleep, and I crept noiselessly out."
+
+Occasionally during those long conflicts with pain Frohman saw through
+the glass darkly. His intense and constant suffering, for the time, put
+iron into his well-nigh indomitable soul.
+
+"I'm all in," he would say to Potter. "The luck is against me. The star
+system has killed my judgment. I no longer know a good play from a bad.
+The sooner they 'scrap' me the better."
+
+His thin fingers tapped on the bedspread, and, like Colonel Newcome, he
+awaited the Schoolmaster's final call.
+
+"You and I," he would continue, "have seen our period out. What comes
+next on the American stage? Cheap prices, I suppose. Best seats
+everywhere for a dollar, or even fifty cents; with musical shows alone
+excepted. Authors' royalties cut to ribbons; actors' salaries pared to
+nothing. Popular drama, bloody, murderous, ousting drawing-room comedy.
+Crook plays, shop-girl plays, slangy American farces, nude women
+invading the auditorium as in Paris."
+
+"And then?" asked Potter.
+
+"Chaos," said he. "Fortunately you and I won't live to see it. Turn on
+the phonograph and let 'Alexander's Rag-time Band' cheer us up."
+
+He got well enough to walk around with a stick, and with movement came a
+return of the old enthusiasm. A man of less indomitable will would have
+succumbed and become a permanent invalid. Not so with Frohman. He even
+got humor out of his misfortune, because he called his cane his "wife."
+He became a familiar sight on that part of Broadway between the
+Knickerbocker Hotel and the Empire Theater as he walked to and fro. It
+was about all the walking he could do.
+
+He kept on producing plays, and despite the physical hardships under
+which he labored he attended and conducted rehearsals. With the pain
+settling in him more and more, he believed himself incurable. Yet less
+than four people knew that he felt that the old titanic power was gone,
+never to return.
+
+The great war, on whose stupendous altar he was to be an innocent
+victim, affected him strangely. The horror, the tragedy, the wantonness
+of it all touched him mightily. Indeed, it seemed to be an obsession
+with him, and he talked about it constantly, unmindful of the fact that
+the cruel destiny that was shaping its bloody course had also marked him
+for death.
+
+Early during the war he saw some verses that made a deep impression on
+him. They were called "In the Ambulance," and related to the experience
+of a wounded soldier. He learned them by heart, and he never tired of
+repeating them. They ran like this:
+
+    "_Two rows of cabbages;
+      Two of curly greens;
+    Two rows of early peas;
+      Two of kidney-beans._"
+
+    _That's what he's muttering,
+      Making such a song,
+    Keeping all the chaps awake
+      The whole night long._
+
+    _Both his legs are shot away,
+      And his head is light,
+    So he keeps on muttering
+      All the blessed night:_
+
+    "_Two rows of cabbages;
+      Two of curly greens;
+    Two rows of early peas,
+      And two of kidney-beans._"
+
+It was Frohman's intense feeling about the war, that led him to produce
+"The Hyphen." Its rejection by the public hurt him unspeakably. Yet he
+regarded the fate of the play as just one more phase of the big game of
+life. He smiled and went his way.
+
+The rheumatism still oppressed him, but he turned his face resolutely
+toward the future. War or peace, pain or relief, he was not to be
+deprived of his annual trip to England. He was involved in some
+litigation that required his presence in London. Besides, the city by
+the Thames called to him, and behind this call was the appeal of old and
+loved associations. With all his wonted enthusiasm he wrote to his
+friends at Marlow telling them that he was coming over and that he would
+soon be in their midst.
+
+Frohman now made ready for this trip. When he announced that he was
+going on the _Lusitania_ his friends and associates made vigorous
+protest, which he derided with a smile. Thus, in the approach to death,
+just as in the path to great success, opposition only made him all the
+more decided. With regard to his sailing on the _Lusitania_, this
+tenacity of purpose was his doom.
+
+Whether he had a premonition or not, the fact remains that he said and
+did things during the days before he sailed which uncannily suggested
+that the end was not unexpected. For one thing, he dictated his whole
+program for the next season before he started. It was something that he
+had never done before.
+
+When Marie Doro came to his office to say good-by he pulled out a little
+red pocket note-book in which he jotted down many things and suddenly
+said:
+
+"Queer, but the little book is full. There is no room for anything
+else."
+
+Just as he was warned not to produce "The Hyphen," so was he now
+cautioned by anonymous correspondents (and even by mysterious telephone
+messages) not to take the _Lusitania_. But all this merely tightened his
+purpose.
+
+He met the danger with his usual jest. On the day before he sailed he
+went up to bid his old friend and colleague, Al Hayman, good-by. Hayman,
+like all his associates, warned him not to go on the _Lusitania_.
+
+"Do you think there is any danger?" asked Frohman.
+
+"Yes, I do," replied Hayman.
+
+"Well, I am going, anyhow," was the answer.
+
+After he had shaken hands he stopped at the door and said, smilingly:
+
+"Well, Al, if you want to write to me just address the letter care of
+the German Submarine U 4."
+
+Those last days ashore were filled with a strange mellowness. Ethel
+Barrymore came down from Boston to see him. They had an intimate talk
+about the old days. When she left him she saw tears in his eyes. That
+night, just as she was about to go on in "The Shadow" in Boston, she
+received this telegram from him:
+
+     _Nice talk, Ethel. Good-by. C. F._
+
+The _Lusitania_ sailed at ten o'clock on Saturday morning, May 1, 1915.
+Even at the dock Frohman could not resist his little joke. When Paul
+Potter, who saw him off, said to him:
+
+"Aren't you afraid of the U boats, C. F.?"
+
+"No, I am only afraid of the I O U's," was the reply.
+
+[Illustration: COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY DANIEL FROHMAN
+
+_CHARLES FROHMAN ON BOARD SHIP_]
+
+In his farewell steamer letter to Dillingham, written as the huge ship
+was plowing her way down the bay, he drew a picture of a submarine
+attacking a transatlantic liner. The last lines he wrote on the boat
+were prophetic of his fate. Ann Murdock had sent him a large steamer
+basket in the shape of a ship. The lines to her, brought back by the
+ship's pilot, were:
+
+    _The little ship you sent is more wonderful
+    than the big one that takes me away from you._
+
+Like most of his distinguished fellow-voyagers, and they included
+Charles Klein, Elbert Hubbard, Justus Miles Forman, and Alfred G.
+Vanderbilt, Frohman had frequently traveled on the _Lusitania_. By a
+curious coincidence he had once planned to use her sister ship, the
+_Mauretania_, for one of his daring innovations. He had a transatlantic
+theater in mind. In other words, he proposed to produce whole plays on
+shipboard. He took over a small company headed by Marie Doro to try out
+the experiment. Early on the voyage Miss Doro succumbed to seasickness
+and the project was abandoned.
+
+The last journey of the _Lusitania_ was uneventful until that final
+fateful day. Frohman had kept to his cabin during the greater part of
+the trip. He was still suffering great pain in his right knee, and
+walked the deck with difficulty. Occasionally he appeared in the
+smoking-room, and was present at the ship's concert on the night before
+the end.
+
+At 2.33 o'clock on the afternoon of May 7th the great vessel rode to her
+death. Eight miles off the Head of Kinsale, and within sight of the
+Irish coast, she was torpedoed by a German submarine. She sank in half
+an hour, with frightful loss of life, including more than a hundred
+Americans.
+
+Frohman's hour was at hand, and he met it with the smiling equanimity
+and unflinching courage with which he had faced every other crisis in
+his life. When the crash came he was on the upper promenade deck. He had
+just come from his luncheon and was talking with George Vernon, the
+brother-in-law of Rita Jolivet, the actress, who was also on board. They
+were now joined by Captain Scott, an Englishman on his way from India to
+enlist. When Miss Jolivet reached them Frohman was smoking a cigar and
+was calm and apparently undisturbed.
+
+Scott went below to get some life-belts. He returned with only two. He
+had started up with three, but gave one to a woman on the way. Miss
+Jolivet had provided herself with a belt.
+
+Scott started to put one of the life-preservers on Frohman, who
+protested. Finally, with great reluctance, he acquiesced. There was no
+belt left for Scott. Frohman insisted that he get one, whereupon the
+soldier said:
+
+"If you must die, it is only for once."
+
+There was a responsive look and a whimsical smile on Frohman's face at
+this remark. He kept on smoking. Then he started to talk about the
+Germans. "I didn't think they would do it," he said. He was apparently
+the most unruffled person on the ship.
+
+The great liner began to lurch. Frohman now said to Miss Jolivet:
+
+"You had better hold on the rail and save your strength."
+
+The ship's list became greater; huge waves rolled up, carrying wreckage
+and bodies on their crest. Then, with all the terror of destruction
+about him, Frohman said to his associates, with the serene smile still
+on his face:
+
+"Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure of life."
+
+Instinctively the four people moved closer together, they joined hands
+by a common impulse, and stood awaiting the end.
+
+The ship gave a sudden lurch; once more a mighty green cliff of water
+came rushing up, bearing its tide of dead and debris; again Frohman
+started to say the speech that was to be his valedictory. He had hardly
+repeated the first three words--"Why fear death?"--when the group was
+engulfed and all sank beneath the surface of the sea.
+
+No situation of the thousands that he had created in the theater was so
+vividly or so unaffectedly dramatic as the great manager's own exit from
+the stage of life. Smilingly he had made his way through innumerable
+difficulties; smilingly and with the highest heroism he met his fate.
+
+The only survivor of the quartet that stood hand in hand on those
+death-cluttered decks was Miss Jolivet, and it was she who told the
+story of those last thrilling minutes.
+
+Charles Frohman's body was recovered the next day and brought to
+Queenstown. A fortnight later it reached New York. On the casket was the
+American flag that the dead man had loved so well. Though princes of
+capital, famous playwrights, and international authorities on law and
+art went down with him, the loss of Frohman overshadowed all others. In
+the eyes of the world, the loss of the _Lusitania_ was the loss of
+Charles Frohman.
+
+His noble and eloquent final words, so rich with courageous philosophy,
+not only joined the category of the great farewells of all time, but
+wherever read or uttered will give humanity a fresher faith with which
+to meet the inevitable. In a supreme moment of the most colossal drama
+that human passion ever staged, fate literally hurled him into the
+universal lime-light to enact a part that gave him an undying glory.
+The shyest of men became the world's observed.
+
+The last tribute to Charles Frohman was the most remarkable
+demonstration of sorrow in the history of the theater. The one-time
+barefoot boy of Sandusky, Ohio, who had projected so many people into
+eminence and who had himself hidden behind the rampart of his own
+activities, was widely mourned.
+
+The principal funeral services were held at the Temple Emanu-El in New
+York. Here gathered a notable assemblage that took reverent toll of all
+callings and creeds. It was proud to do honor to the man who had
+achieved so much and who had died so heroically.
+
+At the bier Augustus Thomas delivered an eloquent address that fittingly
+summed up the life and purpose of the greatest force that the
+English-speaking theater has yet known. Among other things he said:
+
+"A wise man counseled, 'Look into your heart and write': 'C. F.' looked
+into his heart and listened. He had that quoted quality of genius that
+made him believe his own thought, made him know that what was true for
+him in his private heart was true for all mankind. That was the secret
+of his power. It was the golden key to both his understanding and
+expression.
+
+"He was a fettered and a prisoned poet, often in his finest moments
+inarticulate. Working in the theater with his companies and stars, with
+the women and the men who knew and loved him, he accomplished less by
+word than by a radiating vital force that brought them into his
+intensity of feeling. In his social intercourse and comradeship, telling
+a dramatic or a comic story, at a certain pressure of its progress where
+other men depend on paragraphs and phrases he coined a near-word and a
+sign, and by a graphic and exalted pantomime ambushed and captured our
+emotions.
+
+"His mind was clear and tranquil as a mountain lake, its quiet depths
+reflecting all the varied beauty of the bending skies. He had the gift
+of epitome. The men who knew him best valued his estimate, not only of
+the things in his own profession, but of any notable event or deed or
+tendency. Often his spontaneous comment on a cabled utterance or act
+laid stress upon the word or moment that next day served as captions for
+the significant review. The printed thought of the leading statesman,
+the outlook of the financier, the decision of the commanding soldier, or
+the vision of the poet found kinship in his sympathy, not because he
+strove tiptoe to apprehend its elevation, but because his spirit was
+native to that plane."
+
+Coincident with the New York funeral, services were held at Los Angeles
+at the instigation of Maude Adams; at San Francisco under the
+sponsorship of John Drew; at Tacoma at the behest of Billie Burke; at
+Providence under the direction of Julia Sanderson, Donald Brian, and
+Joseph Cawthorn. Thus a nation-wide chain of grief linked the stars of
+the Frohman heaven.
+
+Nor did foreign lands fail to render homage to the memory of Charles
+Frohman. A memorial was held at St.-Martins-in-the-Fields, in London,
+almost within stone's-throw of the Duke of York's Theater, in which he
+took so much pride. In the presence of a distinguished company that
+included the chivalry and flower of the British theater, the sub-deacon
+of St. Paul's conducted services for the self-made American who had
+risen from advance-agent to be the theatrical master of his times.
+
+In Paris the French Society of Authors eulogized the man who had been
+their sympathetic envoy and sincere sponsor at the throne of American
+appreciation.
+
+Thus fell the curtain on Charles Frohman. As in life he had joined two
+continents by the bonds of his daring and courageous enterprise, so on
+his death did those two worlds unite to do him honor. He had not lived
+in vain.
+
+    _Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
+    So clear in his great office, that his virtues
+    Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
+    The deep damnation of his taking off._
+
+    --"Macbeth," I, vii.
+
+
+
+
+_Appendix A_
+
+THE LETTERS OF CHARLES FROHMAN
+
+
+Unlike many men of achievement, Charles Frohman was not a prolific
+letter-writer. He avoided letter-writing whenever it was possible. When
+he could not convey his message orally he resorted to the telegraph.
+Letters were the last resort.
+
+He had a sort of constitutional objection to long letters. The only
+lengthy epistles that ever came from him were dictated and referred to
+matters of business. They all have one quality in common. As soon as he
+had concluded the discussion of the topic in mind he would immediately
+tell about the fortunes of his plays. He seldom failed to make a
+reference to the business that Maude Adams was doing (for her immense
+success was very dear to his heart), and he always commented on his own
+strenuous activities. He liked to talk about the things he was doing.
+
+The really intimate Frohman letters were always written by hand on
+scraps of paper, and were short, jerky, and epigrammatic. Most of these
+were written, or rather scratched, to intimates like James M. Barrie,
+Paul Potter, and Haddon Chambers.
+
+As indicated in one of the chapters of this book, Frohman delighted in
+caricature. To a few of his friends he would send a humorous cartoon
+instead of a letter. He caricatured whatever he saw, whether riding on
+trains or eating in restaurants. If he wanted a friend to dine with him
+he would sketch a rough head and mark it "Me"; then he would draw
+another head and label it "You." Between these heads he would make a
+picture of a table, and under it scrawl, "Knickerbocker, Friday, 7
+o'clock."
+
+Frohman seldom used pen and ink. Most of his letters were written with
+the heavy blue editorial pencil that he liked to use. He wrote an
+atrocious hand. His only competitor in this way was his close friend
+Barrie. The general verdict among the people who have read the writing
+of both men is that Frohman took the palm for illegible chirography.
+
+Frohman could pack a world of meaning into his letters. To a
+fellow-manager who had written to Boston to ask if he had seen a certain
+actress play, he replied: "No, I have had the great pleasure of _not_
+seeing her act."
+
+His letters reflect his moods and throw intimate light on his character.
+He would always have his joke. To William Collier, who had sent him a
+box for a play that he was doing in New York, he once wrote: "I do not
+think I will have any difficulty in finding your theater, although a
+great many new theaters have gone up. Many old ones have 'gone up' too."
+
+His swift jugglery with words is always manifest. To Alfred Sutro he
+sent this sentence notifying him that his play was to go into rehearsal:
+"The die is cast--but not the play."
+
+Through his letters there shines his uncompromising rule of life.
+Writing to W. Lestocq, his agent in London, in reference to the English
+failure of "Years of Discretion," he said: "It is a failure, and that is
+the end of it. You can't get around failure, so we must go on to
+something else."
+
+* * *
+
+The number of available Frohman letters is not large. The following,
+gathered from various sources, will serve to indicate something of their
+character:
+
+_To an English author whose play, a weak one, was rapidly failing:_
+
+     No; it is not the war that is affecting your business. It is the
+     play--nothing else.
+
+_To Cyril Maude, whose penmanship is notably indecipherable:_
+
+     I can't read your handwriting very well; but I wonder if you can
+     read my typewriting. Just pretend I typed this myself.... Speaking
+     of hits, Granville Barker arrived yesterday, and the city suddenly
+     became terribly cold--awful weather. Barker will do well.
+
+_To Haddon Chambers:_
+
+     Last night we produced "Driven" against your judgment. The press
+     not favorable. But still I'm hoping.
+
+_To a colleague:_
+
+     I announced "Driven" as a comedy. Next day I called it a play. But
+     soon I may call it off.
+
+_To W. Lestocq:_
+
+     The American actors over here are worried about so many English
+     actors in our midst. I employ both kinds--that is, I want good
+     actors only.
+
+_To an English author:_
+
+     As to conditions here being bad for good plays; that is a joke. The
+     distressful business is for the bad plays that I and other managers
+     sometimes produce.
+
+_To one of his managers:_
+
+     Do not use the line "The World-Famous Tri-Star Combination." Just
+     say "The Great Three-Star Combination." It is easier to understand.
+     And all will be well.
+
+_To one of his managers who spoke of the superiority of an actress who
+had replaced another about to retire to private life:_
+
+     But now that her stage life is over we should remember her years of
+     good work. She had a simple, childish, fairy-like appeal. I write
+     this to you to express my feeling for one who has left our work for
+     good, and I can think now only of pleasant memories. I want you to
+     feel the same.
+
+_To an English author, January, 1915:_
+
+     Over here they say the real heroes of the year are the managers
+     that dare produce new plays.
+
+_To a business colleague about a singing comedian who was laid up with a
+serious illness:_
+
+     I am sorry he is sick. But that was a rotten thing for him to
+     do--to steal our song. I suppose he is better. Only the good die
+     young.
+
+_To Marie Doro:_
+
+     I saw you in the picture play. It and you were fine. What a lot of
+     money you make! When I return from London I'm going to see if I can
+     earn $10 a day to play in some of the screens. We are all going up
+     to the Atlantic Ocean Island to see them taking you in the "White
+     Pearl" pictures.
+
+_Refusing to go to a public banquet:_
+
+     That's the first free thing that has been offered me this year. But
+     there are three things my physician forbids me from doing--to eat,
+     drink, or talk.
+
+_To a manager:_
+
+     There are no bad towns--only bad plays!
+
+_On hearing that an actress in his employ had reflected on his
+management:_
+
+     In this message I am charged with neglecting your interests. This
+     is a shock to me, because when one neglects his trust, he is
+     dishonest. This is the first time I have ever been so accused, and
+     I am wondering if you inspired the message. I think it important
+     that you should know.
+
+_Being adjured by one of the family to take more exercise:_
+
+     I drove out to Richmond. Then I walked a mile. Now I hope you'll be
+     satisfied.
+
+_To his sisters (he lived then at the Waldorf, but joined the family at
+a weekly dinner up-town):_
+
+     I am sending you a cook-book by Oscar of this hotel. You may find
+     some use for it.
+
+When he came to the next weekly dinner he was offered several choice
+dishes prepared from Oscar's recipes. "I see my mistake," he said. "I
+wanted my usual home dinner. You give me what I receive all the time at
+the hotel."
+
+_To Alfred Sutro, in London:_
+
+     Give us something full of situations, and we will give you a bully
+     time again in America.
+
+_To William Seymour, his stage-manager, about a performance of one of
+his plays:_
+
+     When you rehearse to-day will you try and get the old woman out of
+     too much crying; get some smiles, and stop her screwing up her face
+     every time she speaks. Of course, it's nervousness, but it looks as
+     if she were ill.
+
+_To one of his associates:_
+
+     Miss Adams's receipts last week in Boston were the largest in the
+     history of Boston theaters or anywhere--$23,000. But I had some
+     others which I won't tell you about.
+
+_To an English author in 1913:_
+
+     At present the taste is "down with light plays, down with literary
+     plays." They want plays with dramatic situations, intrigue, sex
+     conflict. There is no use in giving the public what it does not
+     want and what they ought to have. I am just finding that out, with
+     much cost.
+
+_To a French agent:_
+
+     It seems a little reckless to be asked to pay $2,500 for the
+     privilege of reading a new French play. The author seems to want to
+     get rich quickly. I would be willing to add to his wealth if he has
+     something that can be produced without such a preliminary penalty.
+
+_To W. Lestocq:_
+
+     When one talks to an English author about "Diplomacy," he says,
+     "Oh, that's a theatrical play!" I wish I could get another like it.
+
+_To an English manager:_
+
+     A hundred theaters here are a few too many. Houses have closed on a
+     Saturday night without any warning. Boston, Chicago, and
+     Philadelphia have been better. You see we have this wonderful
+     country to fall back on, which makes it different from London.
+
+_To an author in London:_
+
+     What you say is quite true; a good play is a good play; but the
+     difficulty I find is to ascertain through the public and the
+     box-office what _they_ think is a good play. Our opinion is only
+     good for ourselves. But give me a dramatic play and I'll put it at
+     once to the test.
+
+_To Hubert Henry Davies, the dramatist, during an interim of that
+author's activities:_
+
+     It grieves me when I can't get your material going, especially as I
+     want to come over as soon as I can and get one of those nice
+     lunches in your nice apartment.
+
+_To the manager of an up-state New York theater regarding an impending
+first-night performance:_
+
+     I hope we shall draw a representative audience the first night. I
+     know audiences with you are sometimes a little reluctant about
+     first nights. I can't understand this myself. In my opinion there
+     is an extra thrill for them in the experience of a first
+     performance, as it is a special event.
+
+_To Granville Barker, January, 1913:_
+
+     I am very jealous of the Barrie plays, and I do want them for my
+     own theater for revivals.... I hear such good reports about your
+     Shakespearian work that I am awfully pleased. I have had a Marconi
+     from Shakespeare himself, in which he speaks highly of what you
+     have done for his work. I am sure this will be as gratifying to you
+     as it is to me.
+
+_Alluding to his painful rheumatism in a letter to George Edwardes, the
+producer, in England, January, 1913:_
+
+     I can't run twelve yards, but I can drink a lot of that bottled
+     lemonade of yours when I get over. In fact, at the moment I think
+     that is the best thing running in London.
+
+_In February, 1913, Frohman made frequent trips to Baltimore to rehearse
+and superintend the production of his plays in that city. He has this to
+say of Baltimore in a letter to Tunis F. Dean, manager of a theater
+there:_
+
+     I was glad to have an opportunity of seeing your fine theater, for
+     I have decided on a very important production with one of our
+     leading stars there next season. So that I shall spend a week in
+     Baltimore. I like that. There is no one living in Baltimore that
+     has a greater regard for that fine, dignified city. I have had it
+     for years, and with the beautiful theater and my feeling for
+     Baltimore and you at the head of that theater, I am looking forward
+     with pleasure to coming to you next season.
+
+_Frohman was simple, direct, and forcible in his criticism of plays. In
+rejecting a French play, he wrote to Michael Morton in defense of his
+judgment, New York, February, 1913:_
+
+     I was awfully glad you made arrangements for the play, the one I
+     don't like, and I hope the other fellow is right. These
+     three-cornered French plays are going to have a hard time over here
+     in the future unless they contain something that is pretty big,
+     novel, or human. The guilty wife is a joke here now, and they have
+     lots of fun when they play these scenes in these plays. The
+     American and English play is different. They get there quicker in a
+     different manner instead of the old-fashioned scheme. Of course,
+     French plays, as you say, may be laid in England and in America. I
+     understand that. But even then it seems to be about the same as if
+     they were in France.
+
+_His brief, epigrammatic style of criticism is evident in a letter to
+Charles B. Dillingham, wherein he speaks of a certain play under
+consideration:_
+
+     I think the end of the play is not good. It is that old-time
+     stand-around-with-a-glass-of-wine-in-your-hand and wish success to
+     the happy people.
+
+_Extracts from an interview with Frohman which he wrote for the London
+papers, March, 1913:_
+
+     There will be no change in my work of producing for the London
+     stage. I shall continue to do so at my own theaters or with other
+     London managers just as long as I am producing on any stage, and I
+     fear that will be for a long time yet, as I am younger now than I
+     was twenty years ago.
+
+_Prior to his departure for England he wrote the following to John Drew
+in March, 1913:_
+
+     Thanks for your fine letter. It is like this, John: I hope to get
+     off next week, but I don't seem to be able to get the
+     accommodations I want on either one of the steamers that I should
+     like to travel on, and that sail next week. I need a little special
+     accommodation on account of my leg, which still refuses to answer
+     my call and requires the big stick.
+
+_To Alfred Sutro, in January, 1913, on the current taste in plays:_
+
+     These American plays with thieves, burglars, detectives, and
+     pistols seem to be the real things over here just now. None of them
+     has failed.
+
+_Memorandum for his office-boy, Peter, for a week's supply of his
+favorite drinks:_
+
+     Get me plenty of orange-juice, lemon soda, ginger ale,
+     sarsaparilla, buttermilk.
+
+_To Alfred Sutro, 1913:_
+
+     Haddon Chambers sails to-day. You may see him before you see this.
+     He leaves behind him what I think will give him many happy returns
+     (box-office) of the season, as Miss Barrymore is doing so well with
+     his "Tante."
+
+_To W. Lestocq, concerning one of his leading London actresses:_
+
+     Miss Titheridge is all right, as I wrote Morton, if her emotions
+     can be kept down, and if she can try to make the audience act more,
+     and act less herself.
+
+_To Michael Morton regarding an actress:_
+
+     She needs to be told that real acting is not to act, but to make
+     the audience feel, and not feel so much herself.
+
+_To the editor of a popular monthly magazine upon its first birthday:_
+
+     I understand that your September issue will be made to mark ----'s
+     first birthday. Judging from your paper your birthday plans miss
+     the issue; because---- becomes a year younger every September. I do
+     _not_ congratulate you even upon this fact; because you cannot help
+     it. I do _not_ congratulate your readers because they get your
+     paper so very cheap. I _do_ congratulate myself, however, for
+     calling attention to these wonderful facts.
+
+_To W. Lestocq, referring to a statement made by R. C. Carton, the
+dramatist:_
+
+     I don't quite understand what he means by "holding up" the play.
+     Over here it is a desperate expression--one that means pistols and
+     murder, and all that. I presume it means something different in
+     London, where Carton lives.
+
+_To Mrs. C. C. Cushing, the playwright, declining an invitation:_
+
+     It is impossible to come and see you because I haven't got Cottage
+     No. 4, but I've got Cell No. 3 on the stage of the Empire Theater,
+     where I am passing the summer months.
+
+_Even Frohman's cablegrams reflected his humor. In 1913 Billie Burke was
+ill at Carlsbad, so he cabled her some cheering message nearly every
+day. Here is a sample:_
+
+     Drove past your house to-day and ran over a dog. Your brother
+     glared at me.
+
+_When Blanche Bates's first baby was born (she was at her country house
+near Ossining at the time), Frohman sent her this message:_
+
+     Ossining has now taken its real place among the communities of the
+     country. Congratulations.
+
+_To Alfred Sutro, January, 1913:_
+
+     I was glad to hear from you. First let me strongly advise you to
+     take the comedy side for the Alexander play. I honestly believe,
+     unless it is something enormous, and for big stars and all that,
+     the other side is no good any more. For the present, anyway, I
+     speak of my own country. The usual serious difficulties between a
+     husband and wife of that class--really they laugh at here now,
+     instead of touching their emotions. They have gone along so
+     rapidly. Take my advice in this matter, do! I am glad you have
+     dropped that scene from the third act of your Du Maurier play.
+
+     Now that I am back to town I intended writing you about it. I
+     assure you I had a jolly good time for the first two acts of that
+     farce, and I can see Gerald Du Maurier all through it. The third
+     act worries me for this country, as I wrote you. But the
+     performance may change all this. It is so difficult to judge
+     farcical work where it is so thoroughly English in its scene that I
+     speak of to get any idea from the reading of it for this country.
+     Everything is going along splendidly.
+
+_To Haddon Chambers, March, 1913:_
+
+     I propose, and the troupes dispose! We had a lot of floods and
+     things here which keep us on the move, or keep our troupes moving
+     so much that I am compelled to postpone my sailing until April 12th
+     on the _Olympic_, which makes it just a little later when I have
+     the joy of seeing you. My best regards.
+
+_To Richard Harding Davis, July, 1913:_
+
+     All right, we'll fix the title. I am glad they are asking about it.
+     About people, they all seem to want Collier salaries. As you have
+     chiefly character parts, and they are so good, I think it would be
+     a good idea for us to create a few new stars through you, and
+
+     Yours truly,
+
+     CHARLES FROHMAN.
+
+_To George Edwardes, July, 1913:_
+
+     First, I am glad to hear that you are away giving your heart a
+     chance. I am back here trying to give my pocket-book a chance.
+
+_To William Collier, September, 1913:_
+
+     All right, all arranged, Thursday night in New York; Monday and
+     Tuesday in Springfield, Massachusetts. I shall leave here Monday
+     ready to meet the performance and anything else! I hope all is
+     well.
+
+_To Viola Allen, September, 1913:_
+
+     I was awfully glad to get your letter. First let me say you had
+     better come to see "Much Ado About Nothing" this Saturday, because
+     it is the last week. We withdraw it to-morrow night and produce a
+     new program at once. "Much Ado" wouldn't do for more than two
+     weeks. After that it fell. Of course I find on Broadway it is quite
+     impossible to run Shakespeare to satisfying "star" receipts. So
+     come along to-morrow if you can. It would be fine to have you, and
+     fine to have some of the original members of the Empire company to
+     play in this house, and I should like it beyond words. I don't,
+     however, believe in that sex-against-sex play. In these great days
+     of the superiority of woman over mere man I don't think it would
+     do.
+
+_Referring to a young actress he wished to secure, he writes to Col.
+Henry W. Savage in January, 1913:_
+
+     My dear Colonel: I want to enter on your works in this way. You
+     have a girl called----. I know she is very good, because I have
+     never seen her act, but I understand she is not acting just as you
+     want her to, and therefore not playing, either because she is
+     laying off, or that you have stopped her from playing. I have a
+     part for which I could use this girl. Will you let me have her, and
+     in that way do another great wrong by doing me a favor? If she
+     doesn't, or you do not wish her to play, perhaps it would be as
+     much satisfaction to you if you thought you were doing me a favor
+     and let her play in my company as if she were not playing at all.
+     My best regards, and I hope this letter will not add much to the
+     many pangs of the season to you.
+
+_To Sir James M. Barrie, October, 1913:_
+
+     As I wrote you, I felt we had a good opportunity here under the
+     conditions here, and I produced your "The Dramatists Get What They
+     Want" last night. It went splendidly with the audiences, and has
+     very good press. Of course the class of first-night audience that
+     we had last night understood it. The censor is a new thing over
+     here. The general public don't understand it, and it may on that
+     account not make so strong an impression on further audiences.
+     However, that is all right. I am delighted with the way it went,
+     and you would have been delighted had you been present. I think the
+     press was very good when you consider the subject is so new to us.
+     The three plays have all, I assure you, been nicely done, well
+     produced and cast, and you would be pleased with them as I am
+     pleased in having had them to produce. It helped considerably with
+     plays that would not have made much of an impression without them.
+     It has helped the general business of these plays, which, although
+     it is not great, is good, and makes a fair average every week. It
+     is chiefly what you would call "stall" business. "The Will" has
+     been a fine thing for John Drew, and he is very happy in it. He has
+     made a very deep impression indeed. I think the part with the
+     changes of character as played by him has made it really a star
+     part. If you have any more of them, send them along.
+
+_To W. Somerset Maugham, October, 1913:_
+
+     Regarding the first act of "The Land of Promise," this is what I
+     think, and maybe you will think the same, and, if you do, give me a
+     good speech. Send it as soon as you can. I think that we should
+     have a different ending to the first act, uplifting the ending.
+     After the girl tells about her brother being married, wouldn't it
+     be a good idea for her to say something like this, in your own
+     language, of course: "Canada! Canada! You are right." (Turning to
+     Miss Pringle), "England, why should I stay in England? I'm young, I
+     want gaiety, new life. Then why not go to a young country where all
+     is life and gaiety and sunshine and joy and youth--the land of
+     promise, the land for me?" Remember, in the last act she speaks of
+     all she expected to find and how different the realization. This
+     new idea of the end of the first act will help this speech, I
+     think. And besides uplifting the ending, gives the great contrast
+     we want to show in the play and is driven into the minds of the
+     audience at the end of the first act. Give the girl a good
+     uplifting speech at the end of the first act, instead of a downward
+     one. That is what I mean. Then after that we get the contrast of
+     the countries. I hope this is clear and you will understand what I
+     mean.
+
+_To J. E. Dodson, October, 1913:_
+
+     My greatest regret is that my profession takes me to Baltimore on
+     the day that you are giving the dinner at the Lotus Club to my
+     friend Cyril Maude. It would give me the greatest pleasure to eat
+     his health with you. I rejoice that you are giving recognition on
+     his first arrival here in New York to such a sincere actor and such
+     a real man. He belongs to all countries.
+
+_To Haddon Chambers, June, 1911:_
+
+     Had a fine trip over. Found it hot here. Started in building your
+     scenery. Am only dropping you a line because I want to ask you,
+     while I think of it, if you will get a copy of that special morning
+     dress that Gerald wears at the beginning of the second act, for
+     Richard Bennett. I think it would be a good idea to bring it over.
+     Bennett is not quite as tall as Du Maurier and just a bit thicker,
+     and as it is a sort of loose dress there will be no difficulty in
+     fitting it here.
+
+     Now our cast is in good shape for your play, and I am very pleased
+     with it. We have an asylum full of children awaiting your selection
+     on your arrival.
+
+_To Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, August, 1911:_
+
+     The man I selected to produce your play is Charles Frohman. He is
+     not only good at producing plays that have never been staged
+     before, but he likes your play thoroughly. He has made such a
+     careful study of it that he believes that he knows it in every
+     detail. He feels confident of his ability to handle it and to make
+     the changes you have made just as he thinks you and your public
+     over here would like to have it done.
+
+_To Sir James M. Barrie, London, September, 1911:_
+
+     This will be signed for me, as I am still confined to my
+     bed--fighting rheumatism. I thought I would not write you until you
+     return to London. All goes well here. So far my new productions
+     have met with success. Miss Barrymore began in Mason's play last
+     night in Trenton, New Jersey. The play was well received before a
+     large audience. Miss Adams begins the new season in Buffalo next
+     Monday night. I am hoping within the next two weeks to be able to
+     get out on crutches. I have been to many rehearsals. They carry me
+     in a Bath chair to and from the theater.
+
+_To Somerset Maugham, September, 1911:_
+
+     Thanks for yours. I am still down with rheumatism--partly on
+     account of the weather, but more especially because you are not
+     doing any work.
+
+_To a New York critic, October, 1911:_
+
+     I hope in two or three weeks to be able to see myself as other good
+     critics, like you, would see me--well and about again in my various
+     theaters.
+
+_To Sir James M. Barrie, November, 1911:_
+
+     Your letter was a delight, and it will be fine news for Miss Adams.
+     I hope you will send the material as soon as you can. Here I am
+     dictating to you from bed; so I will be brief. My foot is now tied
+     to a rope which is tied to the bed with weights. They are trying to
+     stretch the leg. I am hoping that in three or four weeks I may be
+     able to sit around. Five months on one's back is not good for much
+     more than watching aeroplanes.
+
+_To Sir James M. Barrie, December, 1911:_
+
+     I was very glad to get your letter. I am still in bed, so that I am
+     obliged to dictate this letter to you. The manuscript arrived, but
+     found me out of condition to read it. I sent it on at once to Maude
+     Adams. She telegraphed me how delighted she is with it, and I have
+     had a letter from her telling me what a remarkable piece of work it
+     is. When she gets back to town I shall read the manuscript. Any
+     plan you work out for London will be fine. I should judge, without
+     knowing, that your idea for matinees is the best.
+
+     I am hoping that in another month I will be out; I am living on
+     that hope. Then I will commence to think about coming over to you.
+     I dare not think of it until I once more get out, I am afraid. All
+     this has naturally disturbed my London season. I am happy in the
+     thought that we will soon have "Peter" on again in London. What a
+     difference your plays made to my London season!
+
+     I shall write you again soon. "Peter and Wendy" is fine. My most
+     affectionate remembrances.
+
+_To Sir James M. Barrie, January, 1912:_
+
+     I cabled you on receiving your letter because my voice was leaving
+     me rapidly. It was a case of a bad throat, and I wanted to get some
+     reply to you quickly. My throat is better now. I have had about
+     everything, and I fear I shall have to keep to my rooms for some
+     time to come. I hope to see you around the end of March.
+
+     I think your Shakespearian play is a most wonderful work. I quite
+     appreciate all you say about its chances. I rather felt that a
+     Shakespearian novelty of this kind would be most striking if
+     produced by Tree on top of his newspaper claim of having lost over
+     40,000 pounds on Shakespeare.
+
+     I am all bungled up here. I don't know quite what to do about
+     London this season. As I understood what you wanted, I replied as I
+     did. You know how I hate to lose any of your work for anybody or
+     anywhere. Now you understand. That is splendid about the Phillpotts
+     play, and I thank you. I am hoping about the Pinero play. I shall
+     be glad to see you.
+
+     This is all the voice I have left for dictation; so I end with my
+     best regards.
+
+_To David Belasco, February, 1912:_
+
+     This is written for me. I am still confined to my rooms, and,
+     although able to sit up during the day for work, I do not get out
+     in the evening. I was glad to hear from you, and I hope you will
+     telephone that you will come round any old night that suits you.
+
+     I wish you could play "Peter Grimm" up here; I'd like to see it.
+
+_To Sir James M. Barrie, February, 1912:_
+
+     I haven't written you because lately I have been having a lot of
+     pain. I sent you papers which will tell you how wonderfully your
+     fine play--"A Slice of Life"--has been received. It has caused a
+     tremendous lot of talk; but I just want to tell you that there is
+     absolutely no comparison, in performance, as the play is given here
+     and the way it was given in London. Fine actors, although the
+     London cast had, my people here seem to have a better grasp of what
+     you wanted. They have brought it out with a sincerity and
+     intelligence of stroke that is quite remarkable. Ethel Barrymore
+     never did better work. Her emotional breakdown, tears, her
+     humiliation--when she confesses to her husband that she had been a
+     good woman even before she met him, all this is managed in a keener
+     fashion, and with even a finer display of stage pathos than she
+     showed in her fine performance in "Mid-Channel."
+
+     As the husband, Jack Barrymore is every inch a John Drew. He feels,
+     and makes the audience feel, the humiliation of his position. When
+     he confesses, it is a terrible confession. Hattie Williams, in her
+     odd manner, imitated Nazimova--as Nazimova would play a butler.
+
+     So these artists step out into the light--before a houseful of
+     great laughter; one feels that they have struck the true note of
+     what you meant your play should have. I think the impossible
+     seriousness of triangle scenes in modern plays has been swept off
+     the stage here--and "A Slice of Life" has done it....
+
+     The effect of "A Slice of Life" is even greater and more general
+     than "The Twelve-Pound Look." All agree that each year you have
+     given our stage the real novelty of its theatrical season. And the
+     fine thing about it is that you have given me the opportunity of
+     putting these before the public.
+
+     I am getting along very slowly. I am able to do my work in my rooms
+     and go on crutches for a couple of hours at rehearsals. But always
+     I am in great pain. I hope to see you by the end of March. I don't
+     know whether you will shake my hand or my crutch. But I expect to
+     be there. We can take up the matters of "A Slice of Life," etc.,
+     then.
+
+     I am so delighted about "Peter Pan" this season. I am wondering if
+     you have done anything about that Shakespeare play, which I believe
+     would be another big novelty.
+
+_To Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, March, 1912:_
+
+     Perhaps this will reach you on your return from the Continent. I
+     hope you have made a good trip and that you are happy.
+
+     I hope to give you for the "Mind the Paint Girl" Miss Billie Burke,
+     who is an enormous attraction here. She played in her little piece
+     from the French last week in St. Louis to $15,700. All the way
+     along the line her houses are sold out completely before her
+     appearance. Her play is only a slight thing--an adaptation from the
+     French, but play-goers seem to have gone wild over her. Besides
+     this, she is not only handsome, but every inch the very
+     personification of the "Paint Girl." Moreover, she is a genuinely
+     human actress. It will be a big combination for me to make--the
+     large cast required for the "Paint Girl," together with this
+     valuable star and your great play.
+
+_To John Drew, March, 1912:_
+
+     I am glad to hear from you and to know that you are having
+     freezingly cold weather in the South. The joke is on the people
+     here. They think you are having such nice warm weather.
+
+     I am getting along pretty well. I am about the same as when you
+     left me except that there is great excitement among my doctors
+     because I can now move my small toe.
+
+_To Sir James M. Barrie, September, 1913:_
+
+     "Half an Hour" has been going splendidly and had a fine reception
+     the first night. The majority of the press were splendid indeed,
+     one or two felt an awakening to see the change in the work that you
+     have been doing. I am awfully pleased the way it came out. I am
+     delighted to see that you have added another act to the "Adored
+     One." That makes it a splendid program for Miss Adams. Making it a
+     three-act play is fine for this side, as I cabled you. All the
+     Americans coming home who have seen your play are delighted with it
+     in every way. Hope all is going well. I am leaving to-morrow to
+     meet Maude Adams and see the piece that she is now playing called
+     "Peter Pan." I shall be away from New York for perhaps a week, and
+     on my return I will write you again fully.
+
+_To Alfred Sutro, September, 1911:_
+
+     You know how happy your success has made me. You know how I longed
+     for it. You know all that so thoroughly that words were not
+     necessary. My illness prevented me from reading the play. I shall
+     read it in eight or ten days. But it is all understood, and when I
+     get up and out I shall fix up all the business.
+
+     John Drew, who is now free of worry concerning his new production,
+     is to read "The Perplexed Husband" next week. I shall write you
+     then. But the main thing is, we have the success and can take care
+     of it. And I am extremely happy over it.
+
+_To J. A. E. Malone, the London manager, regarding the American
+presentation of "The Girl from Utah" and its instantaneous success:_
+
+     Believe me that the success is due entirely to the _American_
+     members, the _American_ work, and, of course, the _American_
+     stars.... The English numbers went for nothing. In short, the
+     American numbers caught on.
+
+_To Haddon Chambers, in London in 1914:_
+
+     There have been a number of failures already, but they would have
+     failed if every day was a holiday. There has been just now a new
+     departure here in play-writing--a great success--"On Trial." This
+     is by a boy twenty-one years of age. The scenes are laid in the
+     court-room, and as the witness gets to the dramatic part of the
+     story the scene changes and the characters are shown to act out the
+     previous incidents of the story that is told in court, and then
+     they go back to the court and work that way through the play. It
+     has been a great sensation and is doing great business.
+
+_Concerning one of his English productions in London, he writes Dion
+Boucicault:_
+
+     I want on my side to have you understand, however, that as far as I
+     am concerned I am keeping the theater open for the company and the
+     employees, and not for myself. I should have closed positively if I
+     had not my people in mind. That was my only reason....
+
+_To Dion Boucicault:_
+
+     It seems to me that there are too many English actors coming over
+     here, and I fear some of them will be in distress, because there
+     don't seem to be positions enough for all that are coming, and
+     people are wondering why so many are coming instead of enlisting.
+     It might be well for you to inform some of these actors that the
+     chances are not so great now, because there are so many here on the
+     waiting-list. I use a great _many_, but I also use a great _many_
+     Americans, as merit is the chief thing.
+
+_To Otis Skinner:_
+
+     I felt all that you now feel about the vision effect when I saw the
+     dress rehearsal. It looked to me like a magic-lantern scene that
+     would be given in the cellar of a Sunday-school.
+
+_To Dion Boucicault, October, 1914:_
+
+     I am despondent as to what to do in London. I'd rather close. I
+     don't want to put on things at losses, because I do not wish to
+     send money to cover losses to London now. The rates of exchange are
+     something terrific, and therefore I don't want to be burdened with
+     this extra expense. Twelve pounds on every hundred pounds is too
+     much for any business man to handle. Over here we are feeling the
+     effects of the war, but the big things (and I am glad to say I am
+     in some of them) are all right.
+
+_To an English actor about to enlist in the army:_
+
+     I have your letter. I am awfully sorry, but I haven't anything to
+     offer. So therefore I congratulate the army on securing your
+     services.
+
+_Declining an invitation for a public dinner:_
+
+     I thank you very much for your very nice invitation to be present
+     at the dinner, but I regret that, first, I do not speak at dinners,
+     and, next, I do not attend dinners.
+
+_One of the lines that Frohman wrote very often, and which came to be
+somewhat hackneyed, was to his general manager, Alf Hayman. It was:_
+
+     Send me a thousand pounds to London.
+
+_To W. Lestocq, in 1914, regarding another manager:_
+
+     I notice that Mr. Z---- has a man who can sign for royalties I send
+     him. I wonder why he can't find some one to sign for royalties that
+     are due me!
+
+_Of a production waiting to come to New York:_
+
+     Broadway may throw things when we play the piece here, still I have
+     failed before on Broadway.
+
+_To James B. Fagan, in London, December, 1912, referring to his
+production of "Bella Donna" in this country:_
+
+     Mr. Bryant is giving an exceptionally good performance of the part,
+     and is so much taken with my theater and company that I have the
+     newspapers' word that he married my star (Nazimova).
+
+_To Alfred Sutro, November, 1914:_
+
+     It seems to me that a strong human play, with good characters (and
+     clean), is the thing over here; and now, my dear Sutro, I do
+     believe that throughout the United States a play really requires a
+     star artist, man or woman--woman for choice....
+
+_To W. Lestocq, in November, 1914:_
+
+     I have just returned from Chicago, where Miss Adams has a very
+     happy and delightful program in "Leonora" and "The Ladies'
+     Shakespeare." "The Ladies' Shakespeare" is delightful, but very
+     slight. The little scenes that Barrie has written that are spoken
+     before the curtain are awfully well received, but the scenes from
+     Shakespeare's play when they are acted are very short and the whole
+     thing is played in less than an hour. Miss Adams, of course, is
+     delightful in it, and it goes with a sparkle with her; and as it is
+     so slight and so much Shakespeare and so little Barrie, although
+     the Barrie part in front of the curtain is fine, I cannot say how
+     it would go with your audiences [referring to the London public]. I
+     am happy in the thought, however, that Barrie has furnished Miss
+     Adams with a program that will last her all through the season and
+     well into the summer.
+
+_To Haddon Chambers:_
+
+     Hubert Henry Davies's "Outcast" has made a hit, but he really has a
+     wonderful woman--I should say the best young emotional actress on
+     the stage--in Miss Ferguson. So he is in for a good thing.
+
+_To Cyril Maude, in Boston, November, 1914:_
+
+     Yours to Chicago has just reached me here in New York. As soon as I
+     heard that you were going to write me to Chicago I immediately left
+     for New York.
+
+     I am glad you are doing so very big in Boston. They say you are
+     going to stay all season. Things are terrible with me in London,
+     and the interests I had outside of London have been shocking. I am
+     hoping and believing, however, that all will be well again on the
+     little island--the island that I am so devoted to.
+
+In this letter, it is worth adding, Frohman made one of his very rare
+confessions of bad business. He only liked to write about his affairs
+when they were booming.
+
+_To Margaret Mayo Selwyn, New York, November 30, 1914:_
+
+     I was glad to receive your letter. I have been thinking about the
+     revival of the play you mentioned. In fact, the thought has been a
+     long one--three years--but I haven't reached it yet. I have been
+     thinking more about the new play you are writing for me. I know you
+     now have a lot of theaters, a lot of managers, and a lot of
+     husbands and things like that, but, all the same, I _want_ that
+     play. My best regards.
+
+_Frohman loved sweets. He went to considerable trouble sometimes to get
+the particular candy he wanted. Here is a letter that he wrote to
+William Newman, then manager of the Maude Adams Company, in care of the
+Metropolitan Opera House, St. Paul:_
+
+     Will you go to George Smith's Chocolate Works, 6th and Robert
+     Streets, St. Paul, and get four packages of Smith's Delicious Cream
+     Patties and send them to me to the Knickerbocker Hotel, New York?
+
+_Frohman had his own way of acknowledging courtesies. A London friend,
+Reginald Nicholson, circulation manager of the Times, sent him some
+flowers to the Savoy. He received this reply from the manager, scrawled
+with blue pencil on a sheet of hotel paper:_
+
+     A lot of thanks from Savoy Court 81.
+
+Frohman's apartment for years at the Savoy Hotel was Savoy Court 81.
+
+_To Paul Potter, written from the Blackstone, Chicago, in February,
+1915:_
+
+Dear Paul:
+
+     I received your telegram, and was glad to get it. The sun is
+     shining here and all is well. I hope to see you Saturday night at
+     the Knickerbocker.
+
+C. F.
+
+This is in every way a typical Charles Frohman personal note. He usually
+had one thing to say and said it in the fewest possible words.
+
+_One day Frohman sent a certain play to his brother Daniel for
+criticism. On receiving an unfavorable estimate of the work he wrote him
+the following memorandum:_
+
+     Who are you and who am I that can decide the financial value of
+     this play? The most extraordinary plays succeed, and many that
+     deserve a better fate fail; so how are we to know until after we
+     test a play before the public?
+
+_In reply to Charles Burnham's invitation to attend the Theatrical
+Managers' dinner, he wrote:_
+
+     Thank you very much, but my condition is still such that my game
+     leg would require at least four seats, and as we now have at least
+     several managers to every theater, and several theaters in every
+     block, I haven't the heart to accept the needed room, and thus
+     deprive them of any.
+
+_Writing to E. H. Sothern and Julia Marlowe, in April, 1915, he said:_
+
+     I wonder why you don't both sail with me May 1 (_Lusitania_). As
+     far as I am concerned, when you consider all the stars I have
+     managed, mere submarines make me smile. But most affectionate
+     regards to you both.
+
+_Writing to John Drew, who was willing to prolong his touring season in
+1915, he says:_
+
+     All right. Why a young man like you cares to continue on his long
+     tours, I don't know. I hope to get away on May 1st and to return
+     shortly after you reach New York. Am in quest of something for you.
+     Our last talk before you left gave me much happiness.
+
+_Refusing to book his attractions in a city for a week where three
+nights were sufficient, he said:_
+
+     My stars like week stands, but they don't like weak business.
+
+_To Haddon Chambers, in London:_
+
+     I am hoping to get off on the _Lusitania_. It seems to be the best
+     ship to sail on. I shall be glad to see you.
+
+_Writing to S. F. Nixon, a business colleague, regarding Miss Barrymore
+in "The Shadow":_
+
+     You are quite right as to the play being terribly somber. I thought
+     it a good idea to show what a representative American actress of
+     serious parts she was; so that next season we will offer a
+     contrast, and make the audiences laugh so much that they will be
+     compelled to crowd the theater. She will play then as humorous a
+     part ("Our Mrs. McChesney") as she did so earnestly a serious one.
+
+_To J. C. O'Laughlin, of the Chicago_ Herald:
+
+     We managers have certain ideas about plays. We produce a play and
+     find our ideas and opinions often wrong. Our opinions are only
+     sound, I think, as far as the question of a play being actable is
+     concerned. My sympathetic feeling for all writers makes it very
+     hard to venture an opinion detrimental to their work, especially as
+     we find we are frequently wrong.
+
+_To one of his leading women, April, 1915:_
+
+     I appreciate the expression of your affection. It almost makes me
+     turn westward instead of eastward. However, we must do our jobs,
+     and so I do mine. I am sailing Saturday (per _Lusitania_). Heaven
+     only will know where I am in July. I cannot tell this year anything
+     about anything.
+
+_To Booth Tarkington:_
+
+     I don't suppose you have any idea of coming to New York. There are
+     a lot of fine things here worth your while, including myself.
+
+_Concerning Hubert Henry Davies, the author of "Outcast," Miss Elsie
+Ferguson's very successful vehicle:_
+
+     He is a delightful, charming, simple, splendid fellow. You will be
+     delighted with him, and Miss Ferguson will be more than delighted
+     with him, because he will be so delighted with her. It is a fine
+     thing to have so nice a man as Davies arrive, and entirely
+     misunderstanding the person he is to rehearse because the surprise
+     will be all the greater. It pleases me, knowing what a fine
+     emotional (one of the very best in the world) young actress our
+     star is.
+
+_To Harry Powers, manager of Powers Theater, Chicago, where his play
+"The Beautiful Adventure," with Ann Murdock, was then running:_
+
+     Regarding "The Beautiful Adventure," if I am doing wrong in making
+     a clean situation out of one that is not clean, I am going to do
+     wrong. The theater-going public in the cities may not always get a
+     good play from me, but they trust me, and I shall try and retain
+     that trust. We may not get the same amount of money, but if we can
+     live through it we will get a lot more satisfaction for those we
+     like and for ourselves.
+
+_Some of the last letters written by Frohman were filled with a curious
+tenderness and affection. In the light of what happened after he sailed
+they seem to be overcast with a strange foreboding of his doom. The most
+striking example of this is furnished in a letter he wrote to Henry
+Miller on April 29th, a few days before he went aboard the_ Lusitania.
+_He had not written to Miller for a year, yet this is what he said:_
+
+     Dear Henry: I am going to London Saturday A.M. I want to say
+     good-by to you with this--and tell you how glad I am you've had a
+     good season.
+
+Affectionately,
+C. F.
+
+Miller was immensely touched by this communication. He wired to his son
+Gilbert to find out what steamer Frohman was taking, and send him a
+wireless. This message was probably the last ever received by Frohman,
+for no other similar telegram was sent him in care of the _Lusitania_.
+
+_The last letter written by Frohman, before leaving the Hotel
+Knickerbocker on the morning the_ Lusitania _sailed, was to his intimate
+friend and companion Paul Potter. Potter, who had telephoned that he
+expected to meet him at the steamer, was much depressed, which explains
+one of the sentences in Frohman's letter:_
+
+Saturday A.M., May 1, 1915.
+
+     Dear Paul: We had a fine time this winter. I hope all will go well
+     with you. And I think luck is coming to you. I hope another
+     "Trilby." It's fine of you to come to the steamer with all these
+     dark, sad conditions.
+
+C. F.
+
+On his way to the _Lusitania_ Frohman stopped for a moment at his office
+in the Empire Theater. There he dictated a note to Porter Emerson
+Browne, the playwright. It was his last dictation. The note merely said,
+"Good-by. Keep me posted." He referred to a new play that Browne was
+writing for him.
+
+
+
+
+
+_Appendix B_
+
+COMPLETE CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE FROHMAN PRODUCTIONS
+
+
+Altogether Charles Frohman produced more than five hundred plays--a
+greater number than any other manager of his time. The list of his
+productions, therefore, is really a large part of the record of the
+English-speaking stage during the last quarter of a century.
+
+In the list which follows, the name of the star or stars appear
+immediately after the title of the piece. Except when otherwise
+indicated, the theater mentioned is in New York.
+
+Here is the complete list of Frohman's productions in chronological
+order:
+
+I
+
+PRODUCTIONS IN AMERICA
+
+_1883_
+
+PLAY                                DATE          THEATER
+
+_The Stranglers of Paris_           November 12   New Park
+
+
+_1884_
+
+
+_The Pulse of New York_             May 10        Star
+
+_Caprice_ (Minnie Maddern)          November 6    Indianapolis
+
+
+_1885_
+
+
+_Victor Durand Road tour with Wallack's Theater_ Co.
+
+_Moths_         "         "         "
+
+_Lady Clare_    "         "         "
+
+_Diplomacy_     "         "         "
+
+_La Belle Russe_"         "         "
+
+_The World_     "         "         "
+
+
+_1886_
+
+
+_The Golden Giant_                  April 11      Fifth Avenue (McKee Rankin)
+
+_A Toy Pistol_
+(Tony Hart)                         February 20   New York Comedy
+
+_A Wall Street Bandit_              September 20  Standard
+
+_A Daughter of Ireland_             October 18    Standard (Georgia Cayvan)
+
+_The Jilt_ (Dion Boucicault)        October 29    Standard
+
+
+_1887_
+
+
+_Baron Rudolph_                     October 24    Fourteenth Street
+
+_She_                               November 29   Niblo's Garden
+
+
+_1888_
+
+
+_Held by the Enemy_                 Road tour
+
+
+_1889_
+
+
+_Shenandoah_                        September 9   Star
+
+
+_1890_
+
+
+_The Private Secretary_             August 26     Grand Opera House
+
+_All the Comforts of Home_          September 8   Proctor's 23d Street
+
+_Men and Women_                     October 20    Lyceum
+
+
+_1891_
+
+
+_Mr. Wilkinson's Widows_            March 30      Proctor's 23d Street
+
+_Diplomacy_                         June 12       Los Angeles, Cal.
+
+_Jane_                              August 3      Madison Square
+
+_The Solicitor_
+(Henry E. Dixey)                    September 8   Hermann's
+
+_Thermidor_                         October 12    Proctor's 23d Street
+
+_The Man with a Hundred Heads_      November 2    Hermann's (Henry E. Dixey)
+
+_Miss Helyett_ (Mrs. Leslie Carter) November 3    Star
+
+_The Lost Paradise_                 November 16   Proctor's 23d Street
+
+_The Junior Partner_                December 8    Hermann's
+
+
+
+_1892_
+
+
+_Glorianna_                         February 15   Hermann's
+
+_Settled Out of Court_              August 8      Hermann's
+
+_The Masked Ball_ (John Drew)       October 3     Palmer's
+
+
+_1893_
+
+
+_The Girl I Left Behind Me_         January 25    Empire
+
+_Ninety Days_                       February 6    Broadway
+
+_Liberty Hall_                      August 21     Empire
+
+_Fanny_                             September 4   Standard
+
+_The Other Man_                     September 4   Garden
+
+_Lady Windermere's Fan_             October       Road tour
+
+_Charley's Aunt_                    October 2     Standard
+
+_The Younger Son_                   October 20    Empire
+
+_The Councillor's Wife_             November 6    Empire
+
+_Aristocracy_                       November 14   Palmer's
+
+
+_1894_
+
+
+_Sowing the Wind_                   January 2     Empire
+
+_Poor Girls_                        January 22    American
+
+_The Butterflies_ (John Drew)       February 5    Palmer's
+
+_Gudgeons_ and
+
+
+_The Luck of Roaring Camp_          May 14        Empire
+
+_The Bauble Shop_ (John Drew)       September 11  Empire
+
+_The New Boy_                       September 17  Standard
+
+_Too Much Johnson_                  November 26   Standard
+
+_The Masqueraders_ (John Drew)      December 3    Empire
+
+_The Fatal Card_                    December 31   Palmer's
+
+
+_1895_
+
+
+_The Foundling_                     February 25   Hoyt's
+
+_John A'Dreams_                     March 18      Empire
+
+_The Importance of Being Earnest_   April 22      Empire
+
+_The Sporting Duchess_              August 29     Academy of Music
+
+_The City of Pleasure_              September 2   Empire
+
+_That Imprudent Young Couple_       September 22  Empire
+  (John Drew)
+
+_The Gay Parisians_                 September 23  Hoyt's
+
+_Christopher Jr._ (John Drew)       October 7     Empire
+
+_Denise_ (Olga Nethersole)          December 2    Empire
+
+_Frou Frou_ (Olga Nethersole)       December 5    Empire
+
+_Camille_ (Olga Nethersole)         December 9    Empire
+
+_Carmen_ (Olga Nethersole)          December 24   Empire
+
+
+_1896_
+
+
+_Michael and His Lost Angel_        January 15    Empire
+
+_The Squire of Dames_ (John Drew)   January 20    Empire
+
+_A Woman's Reason_                  January 27    Empire
+
+_A Social Highwayman_               February 3    Garrick
+  (E. M. and Joseph Holland)
+
+_Marriage_                          February 17   Empire
+
+_Bohemia_                           March 9       Empire
+
+_Thoroughbred_                      April 20      Garrick
+
+_Rosemary_ (John Drew)              August 31     Empire
+
+_The Liars_                         September 7   Hoyt's
+
+_Albert Chevalier_                  September 7   Garrick
+
+_Sue_ (Annie Russell)               September 15  Hoyt's
+
+_Secret Service_                    October 5     Garrick
+
+_Honors Are Easy_                   November 9    Montauk, Brooklyn
+
+_Two Little Vagrants_               November 23   Academy of Music
+
+_Under the Red Robe_                December 28   Empire
+
+
+_1897_
+
+
+_Heartsease_ (Henry Miller)         January 11    Garden
+
+_Spiritissime_                      February 22   Knickerbocker
+
+_Never Again_                       March 8       Garrick
+
+_Courted Into Court_                August 30     Newark, N. J.
+
+_The Little Minister_ (Maude Adams) September 27  Empire
+
+_The Proper Caper_                  October 4     Hoyt's
+
+_The First Born_ and
+_A Night Session_                   October 5     Manhattan
+
+_A Marriage of Convenience_         November 8    Empire
+  (John Drew)
+
+_The White Heather_                 November 22   Academy of Music
+
+
+_1898_
+
+
+_Salt of the Earth_                 January 3     Wallack's
+
+_The Conquerors_                    January 4     Empire
+
+_The Circus Girl_                   January 17    Columbia, Brooklyn
+
+_Oh, Susannah_                      February 7    Hoyt's
+
+_One Summer's Day_ (John Drew)      February 14   Wallack's
+
+_The Master_ (Henry Miller)         February 15   Garden
+
+_Little Miss Nobody_                September 5   Philadelphia
+
+_A Brace of Partridges_             September 7   Madison Square
+
+_The Countess Valeska_              September 26  Troy, N. Y.
+  (Julia Marlowe)
+
+_On and Off_                        October 17    Madison Square
+
+_Catherine_ (Annie Russell)         October 24    Garrick
+
+_As You Like It_ (Julia Marlowe)    November 7    Omaha, Nebraska
+
+_Phroso_                            December 26   Empire
+
+_Ingomar_ (Julia Marlowe)           December 26   Indianapolis
+
+
+_1899_
+
+
+_Because She Loved Him So_          January 16    Madison Square
+
+_Her Atonement_                     February 13   Academy of Music
+
+_Lord and Lady Algy_                February 14   Empire
+
+_The Cuckoo_                        April 3       Wallack's
+
+_Colinette_ (Julia Marlowe)         April 10      Knickerbocker
+
+_Romeo and Juliet_ (Maude Adams)    May 8         Empire
+
+_His Excellency the Governor_       May 22        Empire
+
+_Hamlet_ (Henry Miller)             August 1      San Francisco
+
+_The Girl from Maxim's_             August 29     Criterion
+
+_Miss Hobbs_ (Annie Russell)        September 7   Lyceum
+
+_The Tyranny of Tears_ (John Drew)  September 11  Empire
+
+_The Only Way_ (Henry Miller)       September 16  Herald Square
+
+_Barbara Fritchie_ (Julia Marlowe)  October 23    Criterion
+
+_Sherlock Holmes_                   November 6    Garrick
+  (William Gillette)
+
+_Make Way for the Ladies_           November 13   Madison Square
+
+_My Lady's Lord_                    December 25   Empire
+
+
+_1900_
+
+
+_Brother Officers_                  January 15    Empire
+
+_The Surprises of Love_             January 22    Lyceum
+
+_Coralie & Co., Dressmakers_        February 5    Madison Square
+
+_Hearts Are Trumps_                 February 21   Garden
+
+_My Daughter-in-Law_                February 26   Lyceum
+
+_A Man and His Wife_ and
+
+
+_The Bugle Call_                    April 2       Empire
+
+_The Tree of Knowledge_             July 2        San Francisco
+  (Henry Miller)
+
+_A Royal Family_ (Annie Russell)    September 5   Lyceum
+
+_The Rose of Persia_                September 6   Daly's
+
+_The Husband of Leontine_           September 8   Madison Square
+
+_Richard Carvel_ (John Drew)        September 11  Empire
+
+_David Harum_ (W. H. Crane)         October 1     Garrick
+
+_Self and Lady_                     October 8     Madison Square
+
+_L'Aiglon_ (Maude Adams)            October 22    Knickerbocker
+
+
+_1901_
+
+
+_Mrs. Dane's Defense_               January 7     Empire
+
+_The Girl from Up There_            January 8     Herald Square
+  (Edna May)
+
+_My Lady Dainty_                    January 8     Madison Square
+  (Herbert Kelcey and Effie Shannon)
+
+_Captain Jinks_ (Ethel Barrymore)   February 4    Garrick
+
+_Under Two Flags_                   February 5    Garden
+
+_The Lash of a Whip_                February 25   Lyceum
+
+_To Have and To Hold_               March 4       Knickerbocker
+
+_Manon Lescaut_                     March 19      Wallack's
+  (Kelcey and Shannon)
+
+_Are You a Mason?_                  April 1       Wallack's
+
+_A Royal Rival_                     August 26     Criterion
+  (William Faversham)
+
+_The Second in Command_             September 2   Empire
+  (John Drew)
+
+_A Message from Mars_               October 7     Garrick
+  (Charles Hawtrey)
+
+_Eben Holden_                       October 28    Savoy
+
+_Quality Street_ (Maude Adams)      November 11   Knickerbocker
+
+_Alice of Old Vincennes_            December 2    Garden
+  (Virginia Harned)
+
+_The Girl and the Judge_            December 4    Lyceum
+  (Annie Russell)
+
+_The Wilderness_                    December 23   Empire
+
+_Sweet and Twenty_                  December 30   Madison Square
+
+
+_1902_
+
+
+_Colorado_                          January 12    Grand Opera House
+
+_The Twin Sister_                   March 3       Empire
+
+_Sky Farm_                          March 17      Garrick
+
+_The New Clown_                     August 25     Garrick
+
+_The Mummy and the Humming-Bird_    September 4   Empire
+  (John Drew)
+
+_There's Many a Slip_               September 15  Garrick
+
+_Aunt Jeanne_                       September 16  Garden
+  (Mrs. Patrick Campbell)
+
+_Iris_ (Virginia Harned)            September 22  Criterion
+
+_Two Schools_                       September 29  Madison Square
+
+_The Second Mrs. Tanqueray_         October 6     Garden
+  (Mrs. Patrick Campbell)
+
+_A Country Mouse_ and
+_Carrots_                           October 6     Savoy
+(Ethel Barrymore)
+
+_Everyman_                          October 12    Mendelssohn Hall
+  (Edith Wynne Mathison and Charles Rann Kennedy)
+
+_The Joy of Living_                 October 23    Garden
+  (Mrs. Patrick Campbell)
+
+_Imprudence_ (William Faversham)    November 7    Lyceum
+
+_The Girl with the Green Eyes_      December 25   Savoy
+  (Clara Bloodgood)
+
+
+_1903_
+
+
+_A Bird in the Cage_                January 12    Bijou
+
+_The Unforeseen_                    January 12    Empire
+
+_Mice and Men_ (Annie Russell)      January 19    Garrick
+
+_Three Little Maids_ (G. P. Huntley) August 31    Daly's
+
+_Ulysses_                           September 14  Garden
+
+_Drink_ (Charles Warner)            September 14  Academy of Music
+
+_The Man from Blankley's_           September 14  Criterion
+  (Charles Hawtrey)
+
+_Captain Dieppe_ (John Drew)        September 14  Herald Square
+
+_Lady Rose's Daughter_              September 24  Garrick
+  (Fay Davis)
+
+_The Spenders_ (W. H. Crane)        October 5     Savoy
+
+_The Best of Friends_               October 19    Academy of Music
+
+_Cousin Kate_ (Ethel Barrymore)     October 19    Hudson
+
+_Charlotte Wiehe_ (French Players)  October 21    Vaudeville
+
+_The Girl from Kay's_               November 2    Herald Square
+  (Sam Bernard)
+
+_The Pretty Sister of Jose_         November 9    Empire
+  (Maude Adams)
+
+_The Admirable Crichton_            November 16   Lyceum
+  (William Gillette)
+
+_Elizabeth's Prisoner_              November 23   Criterion
+  (William Faversham)
+
+_Whitewashing Julia_                December 2    Garrick
+  (Fay Davis)
+
+_The Other Girl_                    December 23   Criterion
+
+_Glad of It_ (Millie James)         December 28   Savoy
+
+
+_1904_
+
+
+_My Lady Molly_ (Andrew Mack)       January 4     Daly's
+
+_The Light that Lies in Woman's Eyes_
+ (Virginia Harned)                  January 25    Criterion
+
+_The Younger Mrs. Parling_          January 25    Garrick
+  (Annie Russell)
+
+_Man Proposes_ (Henry Miller)       March 14      Hudson
+
+_The Dictator_ (William Collier)    April 4       Criterion
+
+_Saucy Sally_ (Charles Hawtrey)     April 4       Lyceum
+
+_Camille_                           April 18      Hudson
+  (Margaret Anglin and Henry Miller)
+
+_When Knighthood Was in Flower_     May 2         Empire
+  (Julia Marlowe)
+
+_Yvette_ (Hattie Williams)          May 12        Knickerbocker
+
+_Ben Greet Players_                 October 5
+
+_The School Girl_ (Edna May)        September 1   Daly's
+
+_The Duke of Killiecrankie_         September 5   Empire
+  (John Drew)
+
+_Letty_ (William Faversham)         September 12  Hudson
+
+_Business is Business_              September 19  Hudson
+  (W. H. Crane)
+
+_The Coronet of the Duchess_        September 21  Garrick
+  (Clara Bloodgood)
+
+_The Sorceress_                     October 10    New Amsterdam
+  (Mrs. Patrick Campbell)
+
+_Joseph Entangled_ (Henry Miller)   October 10    Garrick
+
+_Shakespearian Repertory_           October 17    Knickerbocker
+  (Julia Marlowe and E. H. Sothern)
+
+_Granny_ (Mrs. G. H. Gilbert)       October 24    Lyceum
+
+_David Garrick_                     November 14   Lyceum
+  (Charles Wyndham)
+
+_The Rich Mrs. Repton_              November 14   Criterion
+  (Fay Davis)
+
+_Sunday_ (Ethel Barrymore)          November 14   Hudson
+
+_Brother Jacques_ (Annie Russell)   December 5    Garrick
+
+_Mrs. Goringe's Necklace_           December 12   Lyceum
+  (Charles Wyndham)
+
+_A Wife Without a Smile_            December 19   Criterion
+  (Margaret Illington)
+
+
+_1905_
+
+
+_Cousin Billy_ (Francis Wilson)     January 2     Criterion
+
+_The Case of Rebellious Susan_      January 9     Lyceum
+  (Charles Wyndham)
+
+_Mrs. Leffingwell's Boots_          January 11    Savoy
+
+_Friquet_ (Marie Doro)              January 30    Savoy
+
+_'Op o' My Thumb_                   February 6    Empire
+  (Maude Adams)
+
+_Jinny the Carrier_ (Annie Russell) April 10      Criterion
+
+_The Freedom of Suzanne_            April 17      Empire
+ (Marie Tempest)
+
+_The Rollicking Girl_               May 1         Herald Square
+  (Sam Bernard)
+
+_A Doll's House_                    May 2         Lyceum
+  (Ethel Barrymore)
+
+_The Catch of the Season_           August 28     Daly's
+  (Edna May)
+
+_De Lancey_ (John Drew)             September 4   Empire
+
+_The Beauty and the Barge_          September 6   Lyceum
+  (Nat C. Goodwin)
+
+_Just Out of College_               September 27  Lyceum
+  (Joseph Wheelock)
+
+_Shakespearian Repertory_           October 16    Knickerbocker
+  (Julia Marlowe and E. H. Sothern)
+
+_Wolfville_ (Nat C. Goodwin)        October 20    Philadelphia
+
+_Peter Pan_ (Maude Adams)           November 6    Empire
+
+_On the Quiet_ (William Collier)    November 27   Criterion
+
+_La Belle Marseillaise_             November 27   Knickerbocker
+  (Virginia Harned)
+
+_Alice Sit By the Fire_ and
+_Pantaloon_                         December 25   Criterion
+  (Ethel Barrymore)
+
+
+_1906_
+
+
+_Mispah_                            January 22   Baltimore
+
+_The Duel_ (Otis Skinner)           February 12   Criterion
+
+_The Mountain Climber_              March 5       Criterion
+  (Francis Wilson)
+
+_The American Lord_ (W. H. Crane)   April 16      Hudson
+
+_The Little Father of the Wilderness_ April 16    Criterion
+  (Francis Wilson)
+
+_The Little Cherub_                 August 6      Criterion
+  (Hattie Williams)
+
+_The Price of Money_                August 29     Garrick
+  (W. H. Crane)
+
+_The Hypocrites_                    August 30     Hudson
+  (Doris Keane and Richard Bennett)
+
+_The Judge and Jury_                September 1   Wallack's
+
+_His House in Order_ (John Drew)    September 3   Empire
+
+_Clarice_ (William Gillette)        October 15    Garrick
+
+_The House of Mirth_ (Fay Davis)    October 22    Savoy
+  (William Collier)
+
+_The Rich Mr. Hoggenheimer_         October 22    Wallack's
+  (Sam Bernard)
+
+_Caught in the Rain_                December 31   Garrick
+
+
+_1907_
+
+
+_The Truth_ (Clara Bloodgood)       January 7     Criterion
+
+_Captain Brassbound's Conversion_   January 28    Empire
+  (Ellen Terry)
+
+_Good Hope and Nance Oldfield_      February 11   Empire
+  (Ellen Terry)
+
+_The Silver Box_ (Ethel Barrymore)  March 18      Empire
+
+_When Knights Were Bold_            August 20     Garrick
+  (Francis Wilson)
+
+_The Dairymaids_                    August 26     Criterion
+  (Julia Sanderson and G. P. Huntley)
+
+_My Wife_ (John Drew)               August 31     Empire
+
+_The Thief_                         September 9   Lyceum
+  (Margaret Illington and Kyrle Bellew)
+
+_The Morals of Marcus_              November 18   Criterion
+  (Marie Doro)
+
+_The Toymaker of Nuremberg_         November 25   Garrick
+
+_Her Sister_ (Ethel Barrymore)      December 25   Hudson
+
+_Miss Hook of Holland_              December 31   Criterion
+  (Thomas Wise)
+
+
+_1908_
+
+
+_The Jesters_ (Maude Adams)         January 13    Empire
+
+_Twenty Days in the Shade_          January 20    Savoy
+  (Pauline Frederick and Richard Bennett)
+
+_The Honor of the Family_           February 17   Hudson
+  (Otis Skinner)
+
+_The Irish Players_                 February 17   Savoy
+
+_Father and the Boys_ (W. H. Crane) March 2       Empire
+
+_Toddles_ (John Barrymore)          March 16      Garrick
+
+_Love Watches_ (Billie Burke)       August 27     Lyceum
+
+_The Mollusc_                       September 2   Garrick
+  (Alexandra Carlisle and Joseph Coyne)
+
+_The Girls of Gottenberg_           September 2   Knickerbocker
+  (Gertie Millar)
+
+_Diana of Bobson's_                 September 5   Savoy
+  (Carlotta Nilsson)
+
+_Fluffy Ruffles_ (Hattie Williams)  September 7   Criterion
+
+_Jack Straw_ (John Drew)            September 14  Empire
+
+_Miss Hook of Holland_              October 2     Albany
+  (Frank Daniels)
+
+_Samson_ (William Gillette)         October 19    Criterion
+
+_Lady Frederick_ (Ethel Barrymore)  November 9    Hudson
+
+_The Patriot_ (William Collier)     November 23   Garrick
+
+The Sicilian Players                November 23   Broadway
+
+_What Every Woman Knows_            December 23   Empire
+  (Maude Adams)
+
+
+_1909_
+
+
+_Kitty Grey_ (G. P. Huntley)        January 25    New Amsterdam
+
+_The Richest Girl_ (Marie Doro)     March 1       Criterion
+
+_An Englishman's Home_              March 23      Criterion
+
+_The Happy Marriage_                April 12      Garrick
+  (Doris Keane and Edwin Arden)
+
+_The Mollusc_                       June 7        Empire
+  (Sir Charles Wyndham and Mary Moore)
+
+Isadora Duncan in Classical Dances  August 18     Criterion
+
+_Detective Sparkes_                 August 23     Garrick
+  (Hattie Williams)
+
+_Arsene Lupin_ (William Courtnay)   August 26     Lyceum
+
+_The Flag Lieutenant_               August 30     Criterion
+  (Bruce McRae)
+
+_The Dollar Princess_               September 6   Knickerbocker
+  (Donald Brian)
+
+_Inconstant George_ (John Drew)     September 20  Empire
+
+_Samson_ (James K. Hackett)         October 1     Atlantic City
+
+_The Harvest Moon_ (George Nash)    October 15    Garrick
+
+_Israel_ (Constance Collier)        October 25    Criterion
+
+_A Builder of Bridges_              October 26    Hudson
+  (Kyrle Bellew)
+
+_Penelope_ (Marie Tempest)          December 13   Lyceum
+
+_The Bachelor's Baby_               December 27   Criterion
+  (Francis Wilson)
+
+_Fires of Fate_                     December 28   Liberty
+
+
+_1910_
+
+
+_Your Humble Servant_               January 3     Garrick
+  (Otis Skinner)
+
+_The Arcadians_ (Julia Sanderson)   January 17    Liberty
+
+_A Lucky Star_ (William Collier)    January 18    Hudson
+
+_Mrs. Dot_ (Billie Burke)           January 24    Lyceum
+
+_Mid-Channel_ (Ethel Barrymore)     January 31    Empire
+
+_Caste_                             April 25      Empire
+  (Marie Tempest, Elsie Ferguson, G. P. Huntley, Edwin Arden)
+
+_Love Among the Lions_              August 8      Garrick
+  (A. E. Matthews)
+
+_The Brass Bottle_                  August 11     Lyceum
+
+_Our Miss Gibbs_ (Pauline Chase)    August 29     Knickerbocker
+
+_Smith_ (John Drew)                 September 5   Empire
+
+_Decorating Clementine_             September 19  Lyceum
+  (Hattie Williams and G. P. Huntley)
+
+_A Thief in the Night_              September 30  Atlantic City
+  (Marie Tempest)
+
+_The Scandal_ (Kyrle Bellew)        October 17    Garrick
+
+_Electricity_ (Marie Doro)          October 31    Lyceum
+
+_Raffles_ (Kyrle Bellew)            November 1    Garrick
+
+_The Speckled Band_                 November 21   Garrick
+  (Edwin Stevens)
+
+_The Foolish Virgin_                December 19   Knickerbocker
+  (Mrs. Patrick Campbell)
+
+_Suzanne_ (Billie Burke)            December 26   Lyceum
+
+_United States Minister Bedloe_     December 28   Trenton, N. J.
+  (W. H. Crane)
+
+
+_1911_
+
+
+_The Philosopher in the Apple Orchard_
+  (Billie Burke)                    January 20    Lyceum
+
+_Chantecler_ (Maude Adams)          January 23    Knickerbocker
+
+_Sire_ (Otis Skinner)               January 24    Criterion
+
+_The Twelve-Pound Look_             February 13   Empire
+  (Ethel Barrymore)
+
+_The Zebra_                         February 13   Garrick
+
+William Gillette in Repertory       March 13      Empire
+
+_The Siren_ (Donald Brian)          August 28     Knickerbocker
+
+_A Single Man_ (John Drew)          September 4   Empire
+
+_The Mollusc_ (Kyrle Bellew)        September 11  Buffalo
+
+_Passers-By_ (Richard Bennett)      September 14  Criterion
+
+_The Other Mary_                    September 21  Utica
+  (Madame Nazimova)
+
+_The Runaway_ (Billie Burke)        October 9     Lyceum
+
+_The Butterfly on the Wheel_        October 26    Atlantic City
+  (Marie Doro)
+
+_The Marionettes_                   December 3    Lyceum
+  (Madame Nazimova)
+
+_The Witness for the Defense_       December 4    Empire
+  (Ethel Barrymore)
+
+_Kismet_--with Klaw & Erlanger      December 25   Knickerbocker
+  (Otis Skinner)
+
+
+_1912_
+
+
+_A Slice of Life_                   January 29    Empire
+  (Ethel Barrymore, Hattie Williams, and John Barrymore)
+
+_Lady Patricia_ (Mrs. Fiske)        February 26   Empire
+
+_Preserving Mr. Panmure_            February 27   Lyceum
+  (Gertrude Elliott)
+
+_Oliver Twist_                      March 25      Empire
+  (Nat C. Goodwin, Marie Doro, Constance Collier, and Lyn Harding)
+
+_The Girl from Montmartre_          August 5      Criterion
+  (Hattie Williams and Richard Carle)
+
+_The Model_ (William Courtleigh)    August 31     Harris
+
+_The Perplexed Husband_             September 2   Empire
+  (John Drew)
+
+_Mind the Paint Girl_ (Billie Burke) September 9  Lyceum
+
+_Passers-by_ (Charles Cherry)       September 19  Utica
+
+_The Attack_ (John Mason)           September 23  Garrick
+
+_Bella Donna_ (Madame Nazimova)     November 11   Empire
+
+_The Conspiracy_ (John Emerson)     December 23   Garrick
+
+
+_1913_
+
+
+_The Spy_ (Edith Wynne Mathison)    January 13    Empire
+
+_The New Secretary_                 January 27    Lyceum
+  (Marie Doro and Charles Cherry)
+
+_The Sunshine Girl_                 February 3    Knickerbocker
+  (Julia Sanderson)
+
+_Liberty Hall_ (John Mason)         March 11      Empire
+
+_The Witness for the Defense_       March 27      Poughkeepsie, N. Y.
+  (Blanche Bates)
+
+_The Amazons_ (Billie Burke)        April 28      Empire
+
+_The Doll Girl_                     August 23     Globe
+  (Hattie Williams and Richard Carle)
+
+_Much Ado About Nothing_            September 1   Empire
+    (John Drew)
+
+_Who's Who?_ (William Collier)      September 15  Criterion
+
+_The Marriage Market_               September 22  Knickerbocker
+  (Donald Brian)
+
+_The Will_ (John Drew)              September 29  Empire
+
+_The Tyranny of Tears_ (John Drew)  September 29  Empire
+
+_The Younger Generation_            September 29  Lyceum
+
+_Half an Hour_ (Grace George)       September 29  Lyceum
+
+_The Dramatists Get What They Want_ October 12    Globe
+  (Williams and Carle)
+
+_Indian Summer_ (John Mason)        October 27    Criterion
+
+_Tante_ (Ethel Barrymore)           October 28    Empire
+
+_The Land of Promise_ (Billie Burke) December 25  Lyceum
+
+
+_1914_
+
+
+_A Little Water on the Side_        January 5     Hudson
+  (William Collier)
+
+_The Legend of Leonora_             January 5     Empire
+  (Maude Adams)
+
+_Half an Hour_ (Blanche Bates)      January 25    Vaudeville
+
+_The Laughing Husband_              February 2    Knickerbocker
+  (Curtice Pounds)
+
+_Jerry_ (Billie Burke)              March 30      Lyceum
+
+_A Scrap of Paper_                  May 11        Empire
+  (Ethel Barrymore and John Drew)
+
+_The Girl from Utah_                August 24     Knickerbocker
+  (Julia Sanderson, Donald Brian, and Joseph Cawthorn)
+
+_A Slice of Life_                   September 6   Vaudeville
+  (Richard Carle and Hattie Williams)
+
+_The Prodigal Husband_ (John Drew)  September 7   Empire
+
+_The Beautiful Adventure_           September 7   Lyceum
+  (Charles Cherry, Ann Murdock, and Mrs. Thomas Whiffen)
+
+_The Heart of a Thief_              October 5     Hudson
+  (Martha Hedman)
+
+_Rosalind_ (Maude Adams)            October 12    Syracuse
+
+_Diplomacy_                         October 19    Empire
+  (William Gillette, Blanche Bates, and Marie Doro)
+
+_The Ladies' Shakespeare_           October 26    Hamilton, Ont.
+  (Maude Adams)
+
+_The Song of Songs_                 October 29    Atlantic City
+
+_Outcast_--with Klaw & Erlanger     November 2    Lyceum
+  (Elsie Ferguson)
+
+_Driven_ (Alexandra Carlisle)       December 14   Empire
+
+_The Silent Voice_ (Otis Skinner)   December 29   Liberty
+
+
+_1915_
+
+
+_Rosemary_ (John Drew)              January 11    Empire
+
+_The Shadow_ (Ethel Barrymore)      January 25    Empire
+
+_A Girl of To-day_ (Ann Murdock)    February 8    Washington
+
+_A Celebrated Case_
+--with David Belasco                April 7       Empire
+  (Nat C. Goodwin, Ann Murdock, Otis Skinner,
+   Helen Ware, Florence Reed, and Robert Warwick)
+
+_The Hyphen_                        April 19      Knickerbocker
+  (W. H. Thompson and Gail Kane)
+
+
+The following productions were arranged by Charles Frohman before he
+sailed on the
+
+_Lusitania_ and were staged, just as he planned them,
+after his death:
+
+
+_1915_
+
+
+_The Duke of Killiecrankie and Rosalind_
+ (Marie Tempest)                    September 6   Lyceum
+
+_Grumpy_ (Cyril Maude)              September 13  Empire
+
+_Sherlock Holmes_ (William Gillette) October 11   Empire
+
+_Our Mrs. McChesney_                October 19    Lyceum
+  (Ethel Barrymore)
+
+_Secret Service_ (William Gillette) November 8    Empire
+
+_The Chief_ (John Drew)             November 22   Empire
+
+_Peter Pan_ (Maude Adams)           December 22   Empire
+
+_Cock o' the Walk_ (Otis Skinner)   December 27   Cohan
+
+
+_1916_
+
+
+_Sibyl_                             January 10    Liberty
+  (Julia Sanderson, Donald Brian, and Joseph Cawthorn)
+
+_The Little Minister_               January 11    Empire
+  (Maude Adams)
+
+_Margaret Schiller_
+--with Klaw & Erlanger
+--(Elsie Ferguson)                  January 31    New Amsterdam
+
+_The Heart of Wetona_
+--with David Belasco                February 29   Lyceum
+
+
+II
+
+PRODUCTIONS IN ENGLAND
+
+The following is the complete list of productions made by Charles
+Frohman in England, either alone or in collaboration with other
+managers, such as the Gattis, George Edwardes, Seymour Hicks, Sir
+Charles Wyndham, David Belasco, and Arthur Bourchier:
+
+
+_1892_
+
+PLAY                                DATE          THEATER
+
+_The Lost Paradise_                 December 22   Adelphi
+
+
+_1896_
+
+
+_A Night Out_                       April 29      Vaudeville
+
+
+_1897_
+
+
+_My Friend the Prince_              February 13   Garrick
+
+_Secret Service_ (William Gillette) May 15        Adelphi
+
+_Never Again_                       October 11    Vaudeville
+
+
+_1898_
+
+
+_The Heart of Maryland_             April 8       Adelphi
+  (Mrs. Leslie Carter)
+
+_Too Much Johnson_                  April 19      Garrick
+
+_Sue_                               June 10       Garrick
+
+_Adventures of Lady Ursula_         October 11    Duke of York's
+
+_On and Off_                        December 1    Vaudeville
+
+
+_1899_
+
+
+_My Daughter-in-Law_                September 27  Criterion
+
+_The Christian_                     October 16    Duke of York's
+
+_Miss Hobbs_                        December 18   Duke of York's
+
+
+_1900_
+
+
+_The Masked Ball_                   January 6     Criterion
+
+_Zaza_ (Mrs. Leslie Carter)         April 16      Garrick
+
+_Madame Butterfly_                  April 28      Duke of York's
+
+_Kitty Grey_                        September 7   Apollo
+
+_Self and Lady_                     September 19  Vaudeville
+
+_The Lackey's Carnival_             September 28  Duke of York's
+
+_The Swashbuckler_                  November 17   Duke of York's
+
+_Alice in Wonderland_               December 19   Vaudeville
+
+
+_1901_
+
+
+_The Girl from Up There_ (Edna May) April 23      Duke of York's
+
+_Sweet and Twenty_                  April 24      Vaudeville
+
+_Sherlock Holmes_                   September 9   Lyceum
+
+_Are You a Mason?_                  September 12  Shaftesbury
+
+_Bluebell in Fairyland_             December 8    Vaudeville
+
+
+_1902_
+
+
+_The Twin Sister_                   January 1     Duke of York's
+
+_The Girl from Maxim's_             March 20      Criterion
+
+_All on Account of Eliza_           April 3       Shaftesbury
+
+_Three Little Maids_ (Edna May)     May 10        Apollo
+
+_The Marriage of Kitty_             August 19     Duke of York's
+
+_Quality Street_                    September 17  Vaudeville
+
+
+_1903_
+
+
+_The School Girl_ (Edna May)        May 9         Duke of York's
+
+_Billy's Little Love Affair_        September 2   Criterion
+
+_Little Mary_                       September 24  Wyndham's
+
+_Letty_                             October 8     Duke of York's
+
+_The Cherry Girl_                   December 21   Vaudeville
+
+_Madame Sherry_                     December 23   Apollo
+
+
+_1904_
+
+
+_Love in a Cottage_                 January 27    Terry's
+
+_Captain Dieppe_                    February 15   Duke of York's
+
+_The Duke of Killiecrankie_         January 20    Criterion
+
+_The Rich Mrs. Repton_              April 20      Duke of York's
+
+_Cynthia_                           May 16        Wyndham's
+
+_Merely Mary Ann_                   September 8   Duke of York's
+
+_The Catch of the Season_           September 9   Vaudeville
+
+_The Wife Without a Smile_          October 12    Wyndham's
+
+_The Freedom of Suzanne_            November 15   Criterion
+
+_Peter Pan_                         December 27   Duke of York's
+
+
+_1905_
+
+
+_The Lady of Leeds_                 February 9    Wyndham's
+
+_Alice Sit By The Fire_             April 5       Duke of York's
+
+_Leah Kleschna_                     May 2         New
+
+_The Dictator_ (William Collier)    May 3         Comedy
+
+_Clarice_                           September 13  Duke of York's
+
+_On the Quiet_ (William Collier)    September 27  Comedy
+
+_The Mountain Climber_              November 21   Comedy
+
+
+_1906_
+
+
+_The Alabaster Staircase_           February 21   Comedy
+
+_All of a Sudden Peggy_             February 27   Duke of York's
+
+_The Beauty of Bath_                March 19      Aldwych
+
+_Punch and Josephine_               April 5       Comedy
+
+_The Belle of Mayfair_ (Edna May)   April 11      Vaudeville
+
+_Fascinating Mr. Vandervelt_        April 26      Garrick
+
+_Raffles_                           May 12        Comedy
+
+_The Lion and the Mouse_            May 22        Duke of York's
+
+_Toddles_                           December 3    Duke of York's
+
+
+_1907_
+
+
+_Nelly Neil_ (Edna May)             January 10    Aldwych
+
+_My Darling_                        March 2       Hicks'
+
+_The Great Conspiracy_              March 4       Duke of York's
+
+_The Truth_                         April 6       Comedy
+
+_Brewster's Millions_               May 1         Hicks'
+
+_The Hypocrites_                    August 27     Hicks'
+
+_The Barrier_                       October 10    Comedy
+
+_Miquette_                          October 26    Duke of York's
+
+_Angela_                            December 4    Comedy
+
+
+_1908_
+
+
+_Lady Barbarity_                    February 27   Comedy
+
+_The Admirable Crichton_            March 2       Duke of York's
+
+_A Waltz Dream_                     March 7       Hicks'
+
+_Mrs. Dot_                          April 27      Comedy
+
+_What Every Woman Knows_            September 3   Duke of York's
+
+_Paid in Full_                      September 26  Aldwych
+
+_Sir Anthony_                       November 28   Wyndham's
+
+
+_1909_
+
+
+_Penelope_                          January 9     Comedy
+
+_Samson_                            February 3    Garrick
+
+_The Dashing Little Duke_           February 17   Hicks'
+
+_Strife_                            March 29      Duke of York's
+
+_Bevis_                             April 1       Haymarket
+
+_Love Watches_                      May 11        Haymarket
+
+_Arsene Lupin_                      August 30     Duke of York's
+
+_Madame X_                          September 1   Globe
+
+_The Great Divide_                  September 15  Adelphi
+
+_Smith_                             September 30  Comedy
+
+_A Servant in the House_            October 25    Adelphi
+
+_Great Mrs. Alloway_                November 1    Globe
+
+
+_1910_
+
+
+_Justice_                           February 21   Duke of York's
+
+_Misalliance_                       February 23   Duke of York's
+
+_The Tenth Man_                     February 24   Globe
+
+_Old Friends_                       March 1       Duke of York's
+
+_The Sentimentalists_               March 1       Duke of York's
+
+_Madras House_                      March 9       Duke of York's
+
+_Trelawney of the Wells_            April 5       Duke of York's
+
+_The Twelve-Pound Look_             May 3         Duke of York's
+
+_Helena's Path_                     May 3         Duke of York's
+
+_Parasites_                         May 5         Garrick
+
+_Chains_                            May 17        Duke of York's
+
+_Alias_ Jimmy Valentine             June 7        Comedy
+
+_A Slice of Life_                   June 7        Duke of York's
+
+_A Bolt from the Blue_              September 6   Duke of York's
+
+_A Woman's Way_                     September 14  Comedy
+
+_Grace_                             October 15    Duke of York's
+
+_Decorating Clementine_             November 28   Globe
+
+
+_1911_
+
+
+_Preserving Mr. Panmure_            January 19    Comedy
+
+_Loaves and Fishes_                 February 24   Duke of York's
+
+_The Concert_                       August 28     Duke of York's
+
+_Dad_                               November 4    Playhouse
+
+
+_1912_
+
+
+_Mind the Paint Girl_               February 17   Duke of York's
+
+_The Amazons_                       June 14       Duke of York's
+
+_Rosalind_                          October 14    Duke of York's
+
+_Widow of Wasdale Head_             October 14    Duke of York's
+
+_Overruled_                         October 14    Duke of York's
+
+
+_1913_
+
+
+_The Adored One_                    September 4   Duke of York's
+
+_The Will_                          September 4   Duke of York's
+
+_Years of Discretion_               September 8   Globe
+
+
+_1914_
+
+
+_The Land of Promise_               February 28   Duke of York's
+
+_The Little Minister_               September 3   Duke of York's
+
+
+_1915_
+
+
+_Rosy Rapture_                      March 22      Duke of York's
+
+_The New Word_                      March 22      Duke of York's
+
+III
+
+Charles Frohman's productions in Paris were these:
+
+
+_Secret Service_                    May 25, 1900  Theatre Renaissance
+
+_Peter Pan_                         June 1, 1909  Vaudeville
+
+_Peter Pan_                         June 2, 1910  Vaudeville
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES FROHMAN: MANAGER AND MAN***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 26146.txt or 26146.zip *******
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