The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-03-27
DAY OF THE STAGE STAR.
Last Stock Company at a High CIssa
Theater Soon to Disappear.


With the disappearance of the Empire
Theater Stock company next season
New York will be without a representa-
tive of this kind of troupe in any of its
high class theaters.
Two stock companies giving two rep
reservations daily are prospecting IA
mously at cheap prices; but the stock
company plan seems impossible nova
days at the first class theaters
The public pays higher prices for
novelty today than for anything else
New plays may not be nearly so good
as old ones, but even the persons who
have never seen the old dramas would
rather pay high prices for the new ones.
Thus it happens that the high priced
theaterS all over the country have been
able to hold their own against the cheap
stock companies. In the latter the plavs
may be as wellsacted on nearly as we'll
They are not new, but more or less
familiar The public demand being for
novelty IN the first place, it wants the
new plays even at high prices So the
managers are able to seoSnpete success
fully with the stock companies
But they began to md Il difficult two
years ago to maintain their superiority
so long as they had to depend upon a
play. The play is the thing in the cheap
stock companies, not the star. So the
nigh priced attractions even when they
had good plays began to realize that
they must also have stars.
Then the manufacture of stars hegan
Pretty young women with no particular
talent or experience and young men
who happened to be tall enough and
good looking enough found themselves
stars in plays that they succeeded in
making very popular, whereas if they
had been merely acting one of the roles
in the play they might have made very
little impression.
Even in the case of esta blished stock
companies like the Empire and the Ly-
ceum this need of a star was felt the
minute the actors left the home thea
ter. When Daniel Frohman took his
company on its travels two years ago
he made the leading actress the star.
and the two leading players in the En-
pire company have been stars for seV-
eral seasons whenever the troupe left
the home theater.
The Empire company during the ten
years of its existence included Viola AL
len Henry Miller. William Faversham,
J. Lee Finney. Agnes Miller. Elsie De
Wolfe and Edna Wallace Hopper. THE
Girl I Left Behind Me" Sowing the
Wind" and Under the Red Robe were
about the most successful productions
there Clara Bloodgood made her first
appearance there.
The company was always conducted
in the strict lines of a stock organiza-
ton The parts of a play were dis
tributed among the actors just as they
used TO be in the old days. and Mr.
ter of his company, although he was
/ perfectly willing to do so whenever he
could not find in the ranks of his COM
pany, an actor suited to a special part.
So great was Mr.. Frohmans interest in
this particular one of his theatrical en-
terprises that he was 10th to abandon
it, and he would have kept the stock
company in existence for some years 10
come had not the public shown its in
difference to companies without stars in
way not to be mistaken.
The young actors who are now stars
are quite different from the stars Of
the past Artistically they were motor
iously less qualified Financially they
were much less literally rewarded They
are the sauce for the good play, to
make it especially appetizing when it is
already good and worth eating. The i'm
portance of the star is fairly well shown
today by the comment of a manager a
/ few days ago.
Wei. I'd like to know" compan-
ion remarked. what right that woman
/ has to be 4 star in New York;
As much right as any other man or
woman who can act respectfully, was
the answer, for she has ripping good
play. ard that's what makes the star
I TODAY. New York Sun