The San Francisco call., 1909-08-22
DREAM OF YEARS IS
NEAR FULFILLMENT
Manager SeeIy Tells How He
Conceived and Executed Plan
for Vaudeville Circuit
Having Raised S2,5OO,OOO for
Morris Enterprise He Pre-
poses TO Build Theater

poses 10 DulIu INcdtSI
cia is polite. Mrs Fiske has played
there. Two minutes after I had signed
with Mr. Seely the whole front of the
theater was alive with our paper and
ads were in the papers. Then ] got
an answer binding the bargain we TWO
had struck"
What are you going 10 do If You
secure the Shubert shows permanent
Iv2~ ] asked "Tll build another the
ater" said Seely There's plenty of
money ia the town and plenty of room,
TOO. The Shuberts built a tleater for
Mrs Fiske TO appear in at Seattle and
completed il in seven weeks. We can
do the same here. When Morris comes
I'm October this thester viii be here for
him II Shubert wants 10 close with
me. I'll have one for him. too. Per
haps in that ease the Shubert shows
would play here and the vaudeville
would play down town. It's too soon
70 say. We've only just started
1<I HAVE been told" said I. that
you are no theatrical manager"
Perhaps I'm not" said he, unruf-
fed. You know there are mighty
few theatrical managers in the world.
Most Of them are managed But 1
think ] have proved that I'm busi-
nessman.
when I left san Francisco to go to
New York and close with Morris for his
attractions over a circuit 10 parallel
the Orpheums. the entire task WAS be-
fore ne But il was the outcome of
TWO years and more Of dreaming and
planning When I came back from New
York / had engaged on bona hde con-
tracts for the expenditure or the in
vestment Of s25O0 goo, commencing at
Omaha. on TO Denver. Salt Lake. Los
Angeles san Francisco. Portland. Seat
lie. Vancouver. Spokane. MissOula and
Butte. In every one of these places
there viii be a house standing open Z"
house a Morris attraction beginning at
Omaha early in September. ] do not
say that that is the work OF a theatre
cal manager. 1t looks like pretty lalr
fnanciering. though doesn't ite
said yes" while recovering from
tie shock Of the sound Of so much
money gathered in so little time, for
s25O0.0O0 is good deal of money TO
sew up quickly, ! imagine. That IS
the sum represented in the buildings
and land bought or leased by the Viii
liam Morris Western. which corpora
tion is the tangible evidence of Seely's
dream.
IT started, it seems, some time before
the fire. Most things did. On the
day prior to the uncomfortably hot
one SeeIy organized a company and
lad 1t Incorporated II included him
self. J. Charles Green and Thomas H
p. Narney and offices were leased in
the Mona6nOck building. The incorpo-
ration was 10 devote itself TO the pro-
noting, building and leasing Of thea
tiers. But the fire, ANONYMOUSLY. cooled
Seely's ambitions and wiped the cor
poration out Of consecutive activity for
some time. but not seeiy's plans.
EELYS association with Green came
about in a peculiar way 1t was
a few years ago, when. Green at
tackled Seely who was manager for a
life insurance company in this city
Green wanted Seely to advertise
through the medium of his bill posting
enterprise They had not met until
Green introduced himself in Seelys Of
fee. Whereupon Seely proceeded 10
sell him ? policy. He succeeded so
well that he hooked Green up for a
fine. fat premium. before the latter
could 'holler help"
NVFHEN the Valencia theater was
NJ built. seely had no thought of
assuming active management of
the playhouse. He, had never been a
show man.
Il hired a manager" said Seely. and
sent him to Los Angeles, and thence
70 New York to get players and PLAYS
for me. When he reached the big city
he must have stepped on chute, for
he disappeared from sight Nobody
knew where he was; meantime. this
theater was being completed as fast as
] gathered the money to go on with
the work. Where was my manager?
] got the Pinkertons on his trail, and
they located him; frightened him into
sobriety. I guess. and then with splen-
did audacity he hired the detective as
second man for my company He had
tied US up to some strange PROPOSE
tions, but getting the Pinkerton detec-
tive as second man was the limit. /
called him off.
There was nothing left for me TO
10 but TO jump in at that juncture and
become a theatrical manager myself
ON August Z, prior to the advertised
opening of the Valencia. September s.
we had neither plays to play nor play
ers TO play them. took the overland
limited on the night of August s, went
10 Denver. where 1 got Warwick; then
went 70 Chicago. New York, Baltimore
Philadelphia. Buffalo and Providence
and got the company assembled and
the plays for them TO appear in. on
my way back wire from Warwick
overlook me. Said he: I do not care
Tor the engagement If Willette Ker-
shaw is to be the leading woman. ]
shall cancel
Ny answer was something to the
effect that he could cancel and be -
,. but I've forgotten just what ]
did say. So I stopped over at Buffalo
10 look another leading man over-you
see I was learning to be manager
when Warwick wired me again that
lie was on his way west. He subse-
quently changed his mind with refer
ence TO Miss Kershaw."
n ct all the while that the Valencia
theater was running its stock per-
formances Seely was having
visions Of this rival vaudeville circuit
The possibilities of vaudeville have
only just been opened up a little bit
Particularly in the west il is the fax-or.