The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-05-25


was unfortunate and we were always
poor
Il put in a terrible winter. I carried
papers Tor 80 cents a week. slept in a
hve-cent lodging house and came near
starving At last I made up my mind
to beat my way on freight trains to san
Francisco and got as far as North
Platte I nearly froze there and beat
my way back again to Omaha
while / was train boy got q
chance to act one night with an amateur
dramatic club in San Francisco. The
play was Under the Gaslight' Thomas
A. Wise, who now has the leading part
in Are You a Mason was in the cast
David BelascO's brother was the juve-
nile man. One Of the company was
taken sick and 7 got his part. That
gave me my taste for the stage, al
though I'd always had leaning that
way
when I was thirteen years old, here
in New York I managed a boys show
in the basement Of No. IL Division
street under millinery store kept by
a Mrs ROsenbaum- We charged one
cent admission Arthur Dunn, who IS
leading man in "a Runaway Girl was
one of the boy actors in that basement.
So was Sam Bernard. So was Henry
Lee. So were Weber and Fields.
But to 60 back to Frisco. When I
lost my Job as train boy / made up
my mind to become an actor. BARLEY
lowing week with his New York COM
pany in The White Slave Siberia and
other plays. i heard that he needed some
actors for small parts, and I decided to
apply to him
Il met him in the street and stopped
him I had seen him often in the Press
club in New York, and I recalled myself
to him.
:. What are you doing here?' he asked.
:" 4 am an actor, said.
Indeed! said Campbell. What
parts do you play2'
Oh. pretty much anything I an
swered, vaguely. I'd like to join your
company here
# Well said he, II need a man to play
Jack Hazleton and double with Count
Strain DO you think you could
Just in my Incl said, and he told
me to come to rehearsal the next day at
the California theater.
AT rehearsal all the actors out of
work were there looking for a chance
to do something My part>was given to
me and they gasped- They all knew the
train boy. One Of them recovered suffi-
GENTLY to call Max Freeman. the stage
manager, aside and tell him who I was.
Freeman came up to me, took my part
out of my hand and said:
i guess there has been some mis-
take, Mr. Brady. You won't do
In 1888 I started out with my own
company / was tWenty-three years old
and thought i knew it all. The COM
pany was called the Webster Brady
company, and we had fifteen plays.
Some of them Ne owned-and some we
didn't
AT that time Rider HaggardsS she
was all the rage. I read it, and one
afternoon in Reno. New, I dramatized
it. 1t took me four hours, with the aid
Of a stenographer, and I still think it
was every bit as good as any dramatiZa-
ton I've seen in New York this season.
Three weeks later we produced it in
Los Angeles. 1t was a big hlt Our re-
ceipts jumped at once from $50 to $500
a night. I Immediately bought ten
tickets for the east and announced my
intention of swooping down on New
York
advance there, and I ran up against
a man named NcGeachy who had been
sent out by Charles F'rohman, Al Hay
man and William Gillette to head me off
and drive me out Of business They had
a big She company and didn't want any
rivals
''NcGeachy prepared a big advertise
ment for the St. Paul papers, and said
we were transformers and had a fake
show. I wrote an advertisement just
twice as big, and they were printed to-
gether. The house was packed at the
opening and we did a big business. 7
had McGeachy jailed for criminal libel
too. We got as far as Chicago, and thea
went back to San Francisco.
In 1890 / bought After Dark from
Dion Boucicault for 81. 600. I bought a
lawsuit with it. but didn't know that
until afterward. I opened with it at
the Peoples theater on the Bowery, and
Augustin DAILY got out an injunction be-
cause he claimed the railroad scene was
his.
I'VE fought that suit for eleven years.
and it was only finally decided after
DAILY died lost and paid his estate
a judgment of 1850 The litigation
cost me in all about $4,000, but made
$4,000 out of the play the first season
After that / came to the front pretty
rapidly. Corbett was playing in sAaAe-
Dark at a salary of $175 a week. I took
him and challenged the world with him
I had lost nearly all my money, and
when Sullivan accepted the challenge 1
put I'D about all had for the first for
felt moneys, 500. I paid Corbett's
ten for him as champion Of the world.
The play was billed in Birmingham,
Ala, before the fight came off, Septem-
Der z, 1892. / made 100000 as my share
in the first year, and made great deal
of money later with Corbett. I did about
the same thing with Jeffries-made I'm
champion of the world and took 100000
profit in a year.
But I found plenty Of ways to lose
my money again, and all 1 made from
the fighters slipped away from me. I
have made 5000, 900 this year out of my
Way Down East companies. Uncle
Toms Cabin paid 900 the first week.
The Lovers Lane production is a mon
ey-malSer, too. It was rejected by half
the managers in New York So was
Way Down East and it has made
more money this year than any two dra-
matte attractions barring Ben Hur.' -
And what Of the future2"
My aim in life now is to bring my
wife, Grace George, to the front as a
great star I know she has the talent.
and it is my ambition to make the pub
lie know it. I viii succeed. She viii ap-
pear next season at the Theater Repub-
lie for three months I have three plays
which have been written for ner-one of
them by the foremost American dra-
matist.
..Arr- q n, fitinra A. "a M ra h. q ire