Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1891-03-19
THE WRITING OF PLAYS.
1t IL More Profitable Than Any Other
Sort of Composition.


Sort of Com Positiea.
Especial Correspondence
NEW YORK, Feb 2.--George Parsons
Latbrop, in speaking a few years ago Of his
play ELAINE" said that the writing of
plays resulted in either feast or fam
inc. He meant by that that a success
brought large profits, and that there was
no middle ground between that and pecu-
mary failure A play either succeeds well
Or doesn't succeed at all, The experiences
of some of our piaywrights show that this
is true. While we do not have professional
playwrights who attain the high social and
literary honors which are bestowed upon
those of France, and while none of our
playwrights has made the fortunes which
have come to Sardou, Dumas, Scribe and
others who have written for the stage in
France, yet within a dozen years some of
our dramatic authors have earned more
money than any writer of books, any edit
or who is not a proprietor, and with very
few exceptions, any member of the legal or
medical professions.
Bronson Howard is called the most sue
cessful Of American playwrights, and this
means that he has written the most popu-
lar plays, and has therefore had the largest
pecuniary returns. His success is not due
to any other genius than that of patience
and self confidence Twenty-Five years ago
Howard was a reporter for The New York
Tribune, and a very good one Even then
he was given to writing plays, and before
he saw any one of them produced he had a
trunk full of dramas, most of them ex-
ceediBgly childish and all of them worth
less, but he kept at it and at last induced
Augustfn DAILY to produce play called
Saratoga" in which there was a display
of brilliant costumes and an attempt to
depict manners and fashions as they then
existed. The play had comparative sue
cess, and in one respect it was Howard s
chief victory, for it conquered the preju-
dices of managers. They were ready after
that to give an honest examination to
manuscript which he submitted.
Yet it was several years before he won
the victory which put him in the front
rank. His play of THE Bankers Daugh-
ter" ran for an entire season Mt the Union
Square, although it has generally been be-
lieved that it was almost entirely recon-
structed by skillful adapter, named Ca
zauran, who was in the employ of Mr.. A.
M Palmer, the manager of that theatre.
That was some fifteen years ago, aud since
then Mr.. Howard has prod oed number
of plays, some of which failed absolutely
and some of which were successful His
most charming and meritorious play is a
brief sketch called cold Love Letters, 4"
but it was never much of money maker
The plays which have brought Mr. How
ard fortune were the last two. These were
''The Henrietta" as played by Robson and
Crane, and Shenandoah" With the ex-
ception of Denman Thompson's "Old
Homestead" and Uncle Toms Cabin, I"
as played by various companies, no drama
written by an American has made the
money that Shenandoah" has Mr..
Howard received for THE Henrietta" only
certain royalties, and while they brought
him a fair income they did not make him
man of fortune as SHENANDOAH has
His experience in playwriting and play
producing taught him that business sa-
gacity had as much to do with bringing
large pecuniary profits to a playwriter as
did skill in playwriting.
Therefore be made an arrangement when
Shenandoah" was produced By which his
share of the profit was to increase accord
ing as the receipts increased. If the re.
ceipts were small his share was trivial, but
If large his proportion was to increase in
something like arithmethical progression.
His business shrewdness served him we'll
and it was announced that at the end Of
the first season of Shenandoah he had
received some seventy-fve thousand dollars
as his share, and this sum promises to be
doubled by the end of the second season.
Mr.. Howard is just in the prime of life,
and is now in Italy writing new play. 1t
is quite likely that he will, before old age
comes, have amassed very large fortune.
Next to Mr. Howard probably Mark
Twain has made the most money out of
plsywriting. His royalties for the play in
which the immortal Mulberry Sellers ap-
pears were 100000, and his other dramatic
ventures have brought him at least s4O,Oo0
more; at least that is the general opinion.
Mrs Frances Hodgson Burnett received
more money five times over for her share
in Little Lord Fauntleroyn than the com
bined sum she received for all the books
she has ever written, and her experience is
such that hereafter she will pay more at
tention to playwriting than to the telling
of stories.
The greatest money maker of all the
plays produced in America is Denman
Thompson's "Old Homestead" The gross
receipts for this play in the four years in
which it has been steadily played in New
York city are estimated to be about mill
ion dollars. That brilliant young dramatic
author, David d. Lloyd, who was also one
of the editors of The New York Tribune,
received, or his heirs have received, more
money for the three plays which he wrote
which were successes THE Senator,
For Congress" and "a Woman Hatert-
than all the other money he ever earned by
literary work or newspaper employment.
Richard Mansfield, who with Clyde Fitch,
WAS the joint author of that great success
Beau Brummelt," has earned a fortune
in one brief season, and Mr.. Mansfield is
now at work upon another play, for here
after be expects TO be not only actor, but
author, as Moliere was. There are many
literary men in New York who think that
the best literary energies in the next few
years will be directed toward dramatic
writing, because the enormous successes OF
few writers show that the prize is a gilt
tering one and is well worth trying for.
T.. j. EDWARDS