Omaha daily bee., 1885-01-01
DRAaATIzING DON'T PAY.
Some of the Initiated Relate Their
Experience in Play Making
as n Busineas.

Under the influence Of o New Yorl
star mesmerist, BARLEY Campbell anC
other drsmatists we're recently forced t,
divulge some Of the cold facts about theii
calling. Barley said:
IL began in Chicago"
That was sad"
~ had been an editor, a reporter, CIV.
erything bad, and | sank lower. l wrote
a play. 1t was The Virglniana.' l
made, all told, out of 1t, $780, but |
coaxed the manager to say he paid me
$1,000 for 1t. He made $50, 600 in ear
nest though. AT the end of tho run he
was rich and l was poorer than ever; for
| mad learned to drink wine instead of
beer, and smoke 25-cent cigars instead of
a pipe"
"But you kept on w~ritingl"
"0h, yes; l wrote and wrote. But
most of my plays remained on my hands.
One day l sold n to Louis AldIich and
Charley Parsloe for $500 cash and $25 a
night for two years, the accrued sum
during that time to make up the pur-
chase money, and give the purchasers the
ownership of the work."
bad terms"
"On the contrary. 1 was short and
the sale seemed heavenly. The play was
My Partner 1t made a hit, ana people
began to want my dramas. l hunted out
all the old mes and began to sell them.
Still l remained poor, and the purchasers
grew rich. My Partner coined $780,
600 for the actors who bought 1t, and l,
who created II, got only a beggarly
5000, doled out to me piecemeal. i
dropped"
1.-The business2"
"No; to the racket. 1t was the man.
ager-the purchaser-who Realised the
Doodle; not the writer. When [ realized
this / began to realize the proftr."
"HowY'
81 began managing my own plays on
the road. 1t is as manager, who has to
pay no petty royalties even for his plays,
that l prospered-not as a mere scribbler
of dramas. Faugh! There's nothing in
It'll One would be robbed and would
statve at it, Don't call me n dramatist.
Call me a manager"
"rrue, said Cazauran, "plays pay man
agers-not authors. I've written and
adapted many, but I've been smart enough
to do it for a salary. Look at me. What
do | own outside of my salary, while the
plays l have made are going the rounds OF
the dramatic circuits, making fortunes for
spectators and poor actors who don't
know enough to go in when it rains, and
therefoteremain out and encounter golden
showers through pure jackass luck"
"Thete's Bronson Howard, though
said Cleo:
"He began by writing Saratoga for
DAILY nearly eighteen years ago." said
Caz. cit was a paraphrase of an old
farce, Il owe in All CoIners,' and it was
forced to go. His pay was a light
royalty, and wouldn't support him. He
took to the law for his bread and butter.
The play was afterward sold to Charley
Wyndham, i'll London, for another trifle,
and he plays it under the title Brighton.
Then Bronson wrote 'Lillian's Fist
Love- and had it played in Chicago; but
it wasn't much of a 90. Palmer got ii
cheap for the Union Square afterward,
| was commissioned to write it up, and
we played it under the title of The
Bankers Daughter Howard has beer
gnawing his moustache for six years ovel
the fact that his little royalty was running
out and the managers were making in
creasing fortunes every season out of hi'
sacrificed property"
"And yet he was well paid2"
"Of course, he wouldn't acknowledge
he hadn't been. It's to his interest tt
make the public believe he gets the in,
come of q Vanderbilt out of his brair
work. But he doesn't, all the same.
There's Dawn, now. He figures as a mar
with an income of 5000 a day from act
ing dramas, but he doesn't touch thai
sum In a month"
snake it six, Caz-make 1t six" sug
gested the abnormaliy truthful play
wright.
"But are there no successful
dramatists2" querled the lutheran
cheese man.
"Of course there are. Lots of them,
said Dan Frohman. "There's Dave
Belauco over there"
True, l wrote one drama in duplicate
-'Hearts of Oak and May Blossom,
which is the same thing paraphrased
But at the same time you remark l make
myself solid by being employed as E
stage director on q salary"
"Then you wouldn't like to be con-
demned to earn your living as adramatist
~alone2"
"You bet 1 wouldn't" said truthful,
Dave. 81 wasn't born yesterday"
Then there is no money in dramatic
writng7"
Eyes, there Is p%lenty-in the adver
tisements and the photographic chat O.
the pspers-but not in the pockets o.
the dramatists. Look around, fol
instance, and see the dramatists who
live on square meals and who are no
something else beside dramatists."
blow about Steele Mackaye?"
ellis most successful play was Haze
Kirke,' and he has been Kicking for five
years because he got a comparative
pittance according to contract. and
failed to get his fingers on the big profits
of the play"
"Dld it make much"
"For the managers who bought it
Yes. Over 500, 000."
Sand the authot2"
she got about three or four thousand
all told, In weekly payments"
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