Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-26

season as he knows about theirs. Time for
Mr. Frohman and Klaw & Erlanger is
booked exactly as anybody else's is
klaw & Erlanger as producers and
Charles Frohman as q producer are differ
ent entities absolutely from the syndicate
or which they are members.
Business and Art.
One or two disgruntied managers who
have not been able to use the syndicate ex-
actly as they pleased for their own pur-
poses, and who could not get all the time
and all the terms they demanded to the
detriment Of every other attraction have
been crying that the business of the theater
was an art. The performances in a thea
ter may be allied to art or may be artistic
but the business conduct of a theater Is and
must be commercial. The theater itself is
business house exhibiting the pictures OF
lights and most attractive auspices. Just as
the picture dealer has business house in
which he displays the best efforts of the
painters and illustrators. 1t is theirs to
paint and illustrate; his to display the pic
lures to the public.
The accusation that the syndicate gets a
percentage of the gross receipts of theaters
ts lie which has been so often reiterated
that 1t Is hardly worth denying. Unfortu-
nately one or two theatrical men who have
seen fit to attack the syndicate's methods
have freely INDUCED In personalities. or
coQuetted with perjury to maintain their
df6 uHucutS Oue mdn III d magazine article
recently announced that the syndicate per-
secuted Henrietta Crosman because she
produced a play upon the same theme as
one which Miss Ada Rehan was then play
Ing in New York city under the manage
ment of Kiaw & Erlanger. The fact is that
Miss Crosman was booked by Klaw & Err
LANCER In that very play in the city of New
York, and her contract bears the stamp of
klaw & Erlangers Office. Perhaps Mr..
Campbell. Miss Crosman's manager. from
whose eyes the Independent cataract has
now been removed, may testify to this.
This same man. on the opening night of
Miss CrOsman In New York q few years
later, told some newspaper men Of the me-
tropolis with ill-conceaied hints and innu-
endOes that some one had cut the ropes Of
his scenery. thus delaying the entertain
ment that evening. and in an abnormal bid
for martyrdom endeavored to leave the i'm
preston that some enemies had done this.
When the mechanics union took the matter
up and investigated it and it was found
that no ropes of any kind had been cut he
quickly receded from the position and
wrote them a letter-copy OF which I pos
seSs-in which he admitted that nothing of
the kind happened and denied that he had
denied the accusation when 1t appeared in
print in half dozen newspapers.
Dramatic Criticism.
AS for the syndicates attitude toward
dramatic criticism, 1t has none-can have
iioHcs UcSduSC, do L nave Stdtcu OclOEc, IL
produces no plays. But to accuse man.
ayers of an attempt to ''stifie and muzzle"
dramatic criticism is manifestly absurd.
Any manager of experience knows that the
most laudatory criticism cannot save bad
play from failure. His one desire, there
fore, both as a business man and as one
who wishes to deal fairly with the public,
is to keep the standard of dramatic criti-
cism on the highest level. 1t is to his best
interests to have 1t absolutely impartial.
absolutely just and always on the most
dignified plane. Only those newspaper
departed from this standard have been re-
quested to absent themselves by the man
ayers in question from their theaters-
Assuredy there Is justification in pro-
bitterly and scandalously attack pro-
auctions, not In the interests of their
readers, but in that of other man.
ayers; or men who so ridicule the women
In performance as to render them SO hys-
terical and helpless from nervousness that
they are either entirely unable to appear or
appear only at a great disadvantage; or
men who judge a performance, not by its
merits or dement's, but by the religious
faith or nationality of a manager. The
men who are now barred from certain the
aters in New York are barred because they
have many times had the bad taste to COM
NIT specifically the above breaches of de-
corum. and for no other reason. In each
case, save one, there was no attempt to
discriminate against the newspaper. and 1t
was informed that any other representative
except the men SO offending would be ad-
mitted. It was pointed out that the dra-
matte critic, like Caesars wife, should be
above suspicion. And it was hoped that
the newspaper would cooperate with man.
ayers in keeping criticism upon this high
standard. Does this seem an attempt at
muzziing dramatic criticism? One would
think that delicacy would have prompted
the writer's whose methods and character
were questioned to be the first to ask that
others be assigned to criticise the perform
ances in theaters conducted by men who
challenged their good faith. How long
would judge persist In trying case after
his motives were impugned? Not one of
them has ever done so. Each one of these
writers has always tried to shield himself
by declaring an attempt was made to muz-
zle dramatic criticism with as much reason
as physician accused of malpractice might
defend himself by declaring his accusers
were trying to abolish the medical profess
sion.
Some of the adherents of these writers
have charged that while a manager was
permitted to protect himself and the people 4
he employs from personal assaults there
was no hope for the future of the American
drama As matter Of fact, in no country
in the world Is the critic so cordially re-
ceiyed as he is b America. Recently in
England writer was found guilty of libel
and sentenced to Day heavy fine for pro-
ncuncfng certain play a failure. In Ger
manly anu rfdHCSf tuS tWD countries That
have produced the best modern plays-the
law Is even more Strict. No criticism bur
the most dignifed is tolerated. Remember
this, and then remember that in America
the critic is always cordially welcome no
matter how severe his critirue may be IL
he but extends the cour.ts of emitting
personal abuse and of giving the perform
ance dignifed and impartial review.
Ticket Speculation.
We have been waiting for eight years for |
an intelligent attack upon the syndicate |
and its methods, and we have never found |
one based upon truthful premises. I do not |
mean by this to accuse every writer of will |
full Misrepresentation. Perhaps ignorance |
would be more charitable word. One very |
intelligent writer on a weekly magazine has |
lately had something to say about high |
prices and hotel premiums on theater tick |
cts, and this, too. has been laid at the door |
of the syndicate. But the fact remains that 4
the late Augustin DAILY, who was an abso- |
lutely independent manager, was the first |
one to raise prices in New York to 50. and |
that the Knickerboeker. the only syndicate |
theater in New York. has spent more \
money In endeavoring te break up the |
ticket spectators than all the other the /
aters In New York combined. So far as |
the actors and actresses are concerned, the /
syndicate has not disturbed their relations 4
the xnrofeSSior, In SLIGHTEST axpopf IN Il