The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1904-06-18
STAGE DOOR GUARDIANS.
They Are Rigid and Relentless in
Their Attitude Toward Un-
warranted Intrusion.

Writing of "the man who guards the
Stage Door" in the Theater Magazine,
Wells Hawks, one of the principals of
Charles Frohman's managerial staff, &C.
cording to the New York Times, says:
THE man who tends the stage door at
a theater may be old and decrepit, but
he has lodged in every active faculty OF
his Anticipated being one fixed under
standing, and that is that no one shall
pass the door he guards. Often so rigid
is the conscientious Cerebus, that he has
been known to conscientiously refuse
admission to the stage to the man who
owned the theater, through the fact that
he knew him not by face, but only by his
name, printed on the top sheet of the pay
roll. In the well-conducted theater OF
to-day it is the rule that only those
whose business brings then there shall
be admitted. Other rules may be broken,
but this one stands inviolate. The stage
manager is supreme here. Even the
manager of the theater bows to his rule
in regard to the conduct of that part of
the theater back of the curtain.
ut has come to be the custom that the
stage doorkeeper is an old man. He is
generally an old man with a history. He
is either respondent over some melan-
choly fact that if the tide had turned an
other way he might have been success
full manager, or he is full of remin-
iscences of the old days of which he loves
to talk. Day and night throughout the
season he guards his post, knowing and
admitting through his door only the
members of the company and those
other persons he is absolutely sure have
q right to enter there. He is generally
silent and has no argument. If you are
not entitled to admission, there are no
words-he simply shuts the door In
ones face. Stage doorkeepers are quick
to learn the faces of the members of a
company playing at the theater where
they guard the entrance to the stage.
The star is treated with greatest courte-
sy-door held open and frequently hat
in hand. 1t is traditional perquisite for
the stage doorkeeper to receive gen.
erous gift from the exalted parsonage
on the last night of the engagement, and
LncTe Is no stage QOOIheepcI WIZ OOCS
not begin to pave the way for it from
the time of the first arrival of the star to
the last night of the week, or the run, as
the case may be.
Few players ever omit this gift to the
man who guards the door. 1t is he who
receives the mail and hands it to them as
they enter, just as it is he who receives
the flowers and sends them up to the
dressing-room, when remembrance
from friend is most cheerful at crit
ical moment before first-night audi
ence. 1t is he, too, who keeps back that
onslaught of youthful admirers who
linger about the stage door for she who
seems so beautiful in the limelight's
glare, so radiant meath the touch of
rouge and penciled cosmetic. A hun
dred cabs may line up before his door,
and great multitude of genus Johnny,
crush hat and evening suit. adorn the
pavement side, but he is as immovable
as the hills, as impossible as the mine
sunken straits or torpedoed entrance to
the harbor of besieged and beleaguered
! citadel.