The San Francisco call., 1903-12-20

on the road. Once you could take any
old thing if it had a New York label
and make good with it. Now you
might bring eighty carloads of seen
cry and you can't do anything with it
without your play is worth some
thing"
What do you think the people
want-besides 11O cents on the dol
lar?"
Musical comedy a good deal now"
he replied. They like music, and
they don't want to think. They've
been thinking all day and they want to
get away from it-that's the biggest
part Of your audience. Bright music,
some little. sense. a little plot, some lit
tie continuity, together with cleanly
fun, and there you are. It's hard
earned money you get with the sugges-
tive point-and not worth having.
You've done a good deal with
farce yourself, haven't you, Mr.. Hart ?"
"Oh. yes. some" he replied, modest
ly businesslike. Girls will be girls,
and 1 wrote, in fact, most of the farces
we used when l was with Mr.. Hallen." ;"
You compose, too?"
"A little. I make up the tunes, some
one else orchestrates them"
I'VE seem to get the best farce mus
ical comedy from over the water"
That's because we are not so care
full here. Things are mostly just
thrown together lightly. The why and
wherefore isn't looked after. Why,
I've seen an actor permitted to leave
a door on one side of the stage and
come back Immediately by an oppo-
site door, and there is a window be-
tween them through which you can
see the ocean! He's been all round
it in two secondsi You can't do things
like that, you know. You must have
a reason for everything"
That, of course, belongs rather to
stage management"
I'm a stage manager myself" mel
ancho1y was uppermOst here. But
those foreign musical comedies now.
There's a half dozen men at the writ
ing of them-one at the book one or
two at the lyrics, another at the songs.
another for the orchestral end and so
on. They don't expect one man to do
it all And they do get results. There's
the Three Little Maids, the success of
they're all good, workmanlike stuff and
i wonder where Mrs. Hart is?'' he
broke off.
Il don't wonder you're uneasy if she's
out shopping"
That's just it," her husband grinned,
and asked: May 1 go to see if she is
in her sisters room? I really want you
to meet her. You know women talk so
much better than men,"
You'd better 60" warned him, and
sat and wondered where 1 had seen
Mr. Hart's like, with the good, blue
eyes. set far apart; the square, good
brow with it's sleek thatch: the good
Jaw and the comical smallish nose and
wide mouth that perhaps determined
him to comedy instead of to commerce
or politics. 1 gave it UP, and fell again
to thinking how hard to jest through
tears for ones bread and butter. For
the comedian. on his sturdy feet or
50 wore black, the tie black, the sleeve
links also black.
He returned still wifeless a moment
later and then began to tell me how
he had run away from home at four
teen to go on the stage-though twas
was lessee of the Boston Theater.
L went with a man named De Lilly,
from Chicago. And he was a lily! 1
was two weeks with him and one night
he said: If there's anything you want
in your trunk you'd better take it out
tonight I'm going home l took my
banjo, and that trunks still on the
border line of Maine somewhere"
You got home, thought"
Yes, at 4 o'clock one morning, with
my banjo under my arm. Mother let
me in I'd never even written to tell
her where ! was. She only said: You
go to bed now, sonny; We'll talk
troupe" in the morning. We did.
But I'd had a taste of it and l never
settled down after that. 1 was in
vaudeville when I was sixteen. 1 even
had a mustache then, Yes, sir. 1 used
to put 1t UP in curlpapers because it
was too soft to stay up by its lonely.
You should have seen it on wet days.
Dick Golden, Nat Goodwin, Henry
Dixey. Francis Wilson. were all in