The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-08-11
HOME GROWN PLAYS
in GREATER DEMAND
lChica 90 Trihune.l

(Chicago Tribune.)
Not one of the plays announced for
production by Charles Dillingham; this
season is of foreign origin. Every piece
in the lot is American-made. George
Tyler, the executive head of Liebler &
Co. says that he has added no i'm
ported attractions to his list. Chiefly
concerned is he with the forthcoming
production of THE Man From Home, ;"
which Booth Harrington and Harry
Leon Wilson have written for him, and
i'm which he will star Will Hodge.
Henry Miller has decided not to en-
bark as heavily in the imported line as
it was thought he would.
With all the American play factories
working full time and many of them
working overtime, there is no chance
that the cessation of the flood of Eu-
ropean plays will cause a famine in
the theatres in this country. 1t is a
matter of record that last winter saw
the production of more successful
home grown plays in New York than
that outpost of American civilization
has witnessed in several years.
Edwin Booth struck a note long ago
which has been examined and found to
be good by many actors that have fol-
lowed him. He said that in the thea
tire in the United States there exists
an alertneSs of appreciation that the
actor does not find abroad. As George
NJ. COhan would say. IF that runs for
the actor it runs for the author, too"
As matter of fact it does. American
audiences are the best audiences on
that Henry Arthur Jones has at this
late day shifted his producing ground
from London to New York
X X
No tariff affects the influx of plays
made in Germany. England. France
or any other country into the United
States. The home manufacturer of
plays is not protected, but, judging by
the speed which ne has struck lately
he does not need much protection.
The case of Arnold DAILY is a pretty
good proof of the fact that more and
better goods can be bought in the
American market just now than it
used to be possible to secure there
DAILY has come back from a trip to Eu-
rope and has brought with him rep
ertory of plays which he is to put on
at a small theatre in New York. Most
of them are like the little one-act plays
which made the fortune of the Theatre
Antoine in Paris, which theatre raised
its founder a shopman's apprentice
with taste for amateur acting, to the
position OF one OF the strongest man.
ayers in all France.
Daily always has had an affection for
plays that come over the water He
was made by Bernard Shaw, and some
of the most successful shorter efforts
have been made in plays with the
Partisan label upon them. But now
that he says he intends to run thea
tire without press agents. advertising
or a box Office. a theatre in which the
audience viii be supplied by subscrip-
ton. he has found that he does not
have to cross the ocean to get the
wares he is going to sell. He has ac-
cepted for production several one-act
plays that have been written by Amer
leans.
The dictatOrial attitude which is an
inseparable adjunct of that profound
parsonage known as a London actor
manager has exercised a bad influence
upon the drama This influence can
work in this country in only a minor
degree. American dramatists are not
under compulsiOn to make a middle
aged gentleman of irreproachable man
ners the central figure in their plays
If such a character is not in the play
submitted to the middle-aged London
actor-managers the play has small
chance of being accepted
Although some OF the American
writer's have gone abroad for study
and observation at the theatres over
there. that work which they have done
closest to the soil in their own country
is the work which is most worthy of
them.
American melodramas have sup
planted the Old Drury Lane melo-
dramas which used to form the staple
in that line of theatrical entertainment
in this country. Augustin DAILY set the
pace in giving elaborate productions in
this country of melodramas written in
England Now Theodore Kremer.
Langdon Mccormick, Hal Reid. and
the rest of the American school of
are supplying about all
of that stock that Teally is needed.
The poetic dramas of Percy Mackaye
and Professor Moody are approximate
ly at least as effective as those 81 Ste
phen Phillips. At any rate, the Amer
lean grown poetic drama is not balder-
dash such as much Of il used 10 be.
American farces, even though they
be hung upon 4 thread that was made
in France or in. Germany. have become
so Amerieanized that they are really
American plays. John J. McNally, who
used to write all the Rogers brothers
musical comedies. has earned several
large fees Americanizing musical COM
edies made on the other side. and
which were wanted for American pres
entation by American managers.
Richard Carrie put ''The Spring
Chicken" into the America Ian