The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-26

l Lady, which ran so long at the Hackett theatre. Up there the girls appeared in negligee bordering on the Eve costume of old. But you couldn't do that down at the Fourteenth Street theatre.
 These audiences go to see melodrama for the honest purpose of seeing virtue triumph over vice. They don't care to see the vice in it's bald form, but Just the vihany that it leads to.
 When l feel that I can get over the footlights the belief that the leading man is good and vrtuous. and that his love for the heroine is so strong that he will sacrifice his very last breath to win her and rescue her from the pitfalls of the wicked world, then I know I have success
 When I know that the primitive emo- tions of my audience has been touched. then I throw in my guns, cannons, horse races, mill wheels, buzz saws, train wrecks, snow storms. boat races and all the other mechanical effects which are known as the 'thrillers.
 Tn order for me to get this heart feel ing 1 must feel it myself, and, strange as it may sound to you I do feel it in- tensely.
 some of my characters I grow to love as if they were the real living presence and were my companions in daily life.
 And let me state right here that feel certain the dramatic critics of this coun- try make the grave mistake of treating the melodrama In a humorous manner. Especially the critics who are on those papers which appeal strongly to the< masses from whom they derive their large circulations
 They miss the vita point in not talk ing into consideration the audience that goes to the melodrama. They love that style of amusement and they idolize the characters created for their amusement They believe in them, and I have known instances where they have modelled their lives after them
 further know that they feel keeniy hurt when they pick up the paper that they swear by, because 1t heralds itself as the champion of the people, and find therein the dramatic critic treating ina play they viewed and considered inspiring to their souls, as a humorous, dscon- neeted lot of thrilling adventures of sta- sey actors. This is wrong
 am a graduate of Harvard univar. sity of the class of '98 in mining enei- heerlng. l am a bachelor of arts and sciences. l have written for all the sci- entihe and literary magazines in this country, and have devoted the last ten years to the writing of plays of all grades
 I flrst came to New York with Greel, plays for production, and went the en- tire length of the long line of managers in this city. They all turned me down. ms went on until I came to the starv- Ing point and I coached football teans Tor my living. I finally got a remark out or manager which ran something like thls: Why don't you write somethina thrilling with strong plain words and nghtlng actionY This was my cue. and I have been turning out these thrillers eyer since. until l love the work and hone to improve conditions of melodrama he fore l quit 1t.
 That there Is good living in 1t can not De denied. I have not been anywhere near the starving point for a very long tlfne Here MT. Davis declined to say what his income was. He did say. how ever, that one of his plays, "The Gam bier of the Vest earned for him s35 0oo last season. MT. Davis has had produced In ten years seventy-six plays and has written so many he forgets the names of them.