Omaha daily bee., 1908-10-18
JEROME is wfNN1No WEALTH
New London Plays Bring Bis .Money
to Their Authors.

LONDON. Oct. 7.-(Speciai Correspond
ence)-Eyerybody is talking about the
success which has come so suddenly to
Jerome X. Jerome. Two London plays
both big money makers-have fallen to the
lot OF the British humorist. Perhaps there
Is nobody In the p~lay-writing line more
worthy TO win out after 30 many years of
struggle. II is estimated that his tax
ings' must be something like s2,0Oo a week,
although failure was freely predicted for
his Passing OF the Third Floor Back
and the London critics mostly roasted It.
| met Jerome in the Strand the other
day and asked him how II felt to be
making all that money. He gave me
one OF his most beRming smiles and said
he could do with It," which is an Eng
lish way OF expressing the idea that too
much money would not prove q burden.
jerome is not one of the men, however,
to abuse his good luck. Despite his hu-
morus predictions, he takes a very
serious view OF life. knows a lot about
social problems and deyotes much Of bis
time TO STUDYING the condition Of the Sub
merged In fact his two last plays, par
ticularly The Passing Of the Third Floor
Back are really studies Of social ten
denotes"
The fact that Jerome has struck lie"
proves that there are plenty of fortunes
stl to be made from writing drama de-
spite the recent failure OF one or two
admittedly good plays. Among the most
successful money makers in the play
writing line today are J. M. Barrie and
Hall Caine. After one weeks production
of Barrie's latest play, What Every
Woman Knows" at the Duke of York's
theater, the box office had seat orders
in hand for S5O.(OO. out Of his earlier
play, The Little Minister" Barrie and
his then partner. Cyril Mande. melted the
neat little sum of $4,000 q week. while
Peter Pan Quality Street and "The
Admirable Crichton' brought to their
authors 1850 each weekly for quite a con-
siderable time. Han Game has been net
ting $500 a week from his plays for n
long time now, while the recent Gilbert q
sullivan opera revival has brought Gil
bert nearly s20.0OO.
Among other London playwrights who
have anmessed fortunes might be men
toned Arthur Pinero, who cleared 1900
40 cut OF one play alone-'sWeet Layen-
DER Pinero is actually the highest paid
dramatist i'm England. He gets SlO foI
each performance Of a play, Irrespective
Of a liked sum paid ia advance. By
this arrangement he made another $40.
o3 out Of THE Second Mrs. Tanquerays'
and Is now adding to his income by the
production OF his plays in Paris.
4 is really remarkable how the element
OF luck enters into wealth winning in the
matter Of play writing. The best made
p~lays-like the best laid plahs-do not al
ways pan out. There is no earthly rea-
son why the recent well written paid IN
y Fur should rot have made a fortune
Tor lis suthor in England, as II doubles:
did In America Here again the vicissi-
tudes OF chance must be borne In mind.
In this case bad luck came Ia the form
OF 4 pretty actress who was not suited
10 the heroine's part. Even "Charley's
Aunt" which earned nearly a million fOI
Peniey. was refused several times, and
Brandon Thomas, the author, literally
hawked Il about from manager 20 man
ageF for a long time. He finally. inter
ested a man who put 5000 into II as a
venture and had out OF it within a few
Eyeks SiS5.O0.
Gordon Craig has again broken out In a
fresh place. He Is on his way 20 Moscow
10 study native Russian dramatic art Ia lis
lair. After that, as announced In our last
letter, he will return to London TO help
Tree produce Macbeth" People don't al,
ways return from Moscow. especially when
they hold such bizarre views OF life anC
things" as Gordon Craig. His main objeeI
IN going is 20 study what he says does mo-
exist either IN England OF America. '-rh,
English stage does not produce real life,
he said In the course Of a recent interview