Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-12
ing the present summer season attests

| ing the present summer season attests
the effectiveness of the instruction.
OF course, this is not to drape an un-
| willing halo over the head of any man
ager, producing or house. The con-
ditions of the theatrical business itself
put the best check on that business.
In the long run the public is the CEN
sor of producing ethics, as of play
writing ethics. The playwright who
has arrived prefers the producer upon
whose word and established reputation
! he can rely to the f1y-by-night who may
repudiate his pledges at any time for
! temporary financial gain. That is why
| the standing of the local manager of
theater is always its surest asset.
! The patrons of the Auditorium and the
Mason in this city are not guided by
the respective allegiance of those
| houses to the Shuberts or the older
! syndicate. They are guided, next to
the paramount consideration of the
plays and players, by the established
reputation of the local owners and
managers. And more and more they
are coming to judge of the plays them
selves with some degree of confidence
in such temperamentally Independent
producers as Charles Frohman, Mr..
Fiske, George Tyler and David Be-
lasco.
| That is why it appears to me, as an
impartial observer of things theatrical,
that the future is in the hands of such
as these. in fair and mutual agree
ment with the resident managers
throughout the country. 1.-The Open
Door," as principle, every unpreju-
diced student of the situation accepts
as desirable. But 1t should be the open
| door to real drama, not merely to re-
veal the overturning of one stage des-
| pot for the enforcement of another.
! There is no denying the stronger of
the two warning syndicates has helped
| develop the American drama, tyranni-
cally, at times, and always with
| prior view to its own aggrandizement.
| STILL it has done the work. be its mo-
tives what they may. We have reaped
| the benefits of its star system, and
We have suffered it's disadvantages.
But that system is passing and with
it the power of any set Of booking mo-
| guls-either the "ins" or the "outs"-
| to dictate the future of the American
drama. That future rests with Ameri-
can playwrights, American actors and
| American producers.
The Shuberts may win or lose in
their personal fight on the syndicate.
From the standpoint of the public,
that is a matter of small consequence.
/ But their fight itself has revealed to
| the producing managers Of the country
| the power for even-handed justice and
artistic achievement which lies in their
hands. The hoped-for success of the
New theater project in New York win
emphasize that power. An adequate
and national organization of the actors
of America into union after the ira
ditions of the Typographical or the
| Cigarmakers organization would still
further equalize the distribution of
justice And the constant improvement
of the newer generation of stock COM
panies may be depended upon to pro-
4 vide a needed safety valve to a too
rampant individualism either in the art
or the business of the stage.
Altogether, the future is bright with
promise for those who have eyes to
see. And the surest warrant for our
optimism is in the increasing union of
taste and penetration in the theater-
going public. The drama of the twen-
tieth century will be the child of that
wedlock
Clyde Fitch bridged the gulf between
the old and the new in American play
writing. There is a subtle Justice in
calling him the American Sardou. At
his worst he pulled the human heart
strings as the Frenchman tugged at the
wires which manipulated his mines.
At his best he was a valuable, if not
infallible model in technical expert
ness for the headlong generation of
younger drama builders who failed to
dislodge him from his secure coign of
vantage on the scaffold of stage car
pentry.
His knack and facility of compost
ton did not wear out Only a few
months ago he completed "The City,
q drama of which the Shuberts proph-
toux fbfnord Itff xu1foI1 70 ura not
destined TO live to see produced His
point of view was early Victorian and
placidIy conventional. The inequities
Of modern life did not irritate him. He
thought about them without feeling
them. and he wrote good comedy. He
could be pleasantly sentimental, but
rarely heroic and still more seldom