Los Angeles herald., 1910-06-12


discovery that a little matter of G16,OOO
due him from a dramatic authors
agency had not been paid to him. He
was not a business man, he said, and
he knew nothing of these things him
self.
1t was not until solicitors looked into
the matter they found the money was
owing and on their representation 1t
was paid. And Mr.. Barrie, modest and
nonchalant, shrugged his shoulders as
though ii were nothing that a mere
trife of e16,000 could be missing from
his earnings without him knowing any
thing of 1t.
The truth is, says London Tit-Bits,
that there is nothing on earth 80 re-
rnunerative as . play which appeals TO
the popular imagination. Novelists
make big fortunes nowadays, with their
quarter million editions, and we are
familiar with their yachts, their castles,
their town houses, their villas on the
Riviera and the rest of 1t; but If the
novelist be only dramatist as well-like
Mr.. Barrie and Hall Caine-he can
amass fortune by his pen to make
him rich beyond the dreams of avarice.
Mr.. Barrie, for instance, is one of the
wealthiest of literary men. AS novel
ist he has made one fortune out of his
books, but when he turned to the stage
he made second and greater pile
The dramatic rights of THE Little
Minister" yielded him 100000 clear,
and the play is not yet exhausted.
What "Peter Pan" has produced can
only be igamined but we should be
surprised If 1t is less than the Scottish
story of the gypsy lass and the sort
hearted minister. Mr.. Barrie, in short,
must be one of the very richest men in
literary circles for he lives in quiet
way in London and has no expensive
hobbies in the shape of castles In Spain
or Mediterranean Yachts.
Coming very close to him is Hall
Caine. 1t Is doubtful IL any novelist
has made more by the sale of his books
than Mr. Caine, but like Mr.. Barrie the
money simply rolled In when ne began
to put them on the stage. The Chrls-
tian" alone Is said to have produced
q100 000 and probably 1.-THE Manxman"
has not ben far behind 1t in revenue
raising qualities. The novelists asso-
citation with the late Wilson Barrett
was a source of profit to both. Barrett,
II is said, made and lost number OF
fortunes He made thousands over
''The silver King" and lost them In the
production of other plays which never
struck oil. One of these was "Pha-
roah," produced at enormous expense
with properties and scenery designed oy
Sir L. Alma-Tadema, but there was
lacking that indefinite quality which
makes play go, and 1t had to come
off the stage.
"The Sign of the Cross" helped Bar
rett to retrieve his fortunes. He pulled
himself straight with 1t, and, though
he had by no means exhausted its pos
sibilities when he died. he left over
e3O 900. amassed almost entirely out
~ of this remarkable play. 1t is curious
10 reflect that "The Silver King and
1.-THE Sign of the Cross" are still on
the road-a tribute to Barretts rare
intuition.
sKipling, in one of his books, indulges
in gibe about falling under the
damnation of the check book but no.
hodv writes for love, and certainly
dramatists don't. Kipling IS more or
n novelist than a playwright, out q
man who has received two shillings
1Tord for a 10 000O-word story, as he
has is obviously we'll to the front or
those to whom literature has been
favoring muse. There are posslDn-
ities before him yet as a dramatlst,
and If he takes them he Will rival
Barrie and Caine as a popular Ia
Vorite. ..
The fact is you can't get wrong
with a really good play. If it "catcnes
on II is bound to yield a fortune:
Who dare say how many hunureu
thousand pounds were netted out OF
the Gilbert & Sullivan operas at tne
Savoy plays which are now sun run. run
ming and bringing in good royaltles'
WIZ If an obscure amateur society
wia6es to play "The Mikado" for a
1veex's charity at the marlborough
town hall they have to pay 32O royal
ty fee! Sir Arthur Sullivan was com
fortably well off when he died, ana ms
coIIaborateur. sir w. S. Gilbert, is
nan of large means. Not long ago,
sneaking of their joint plays. Gilbert
alluded to "Ruddigore" as their most
conspicuous failure" yet in the next
sentence he said that though it only
ran eight months, he made clear
$1,000 out of 1t.
We shall never know what "Charley's
Aunt" yielded. Authorities have put
II at e250 900 sterling Remember that
n ran four years in London, and then
toured the provinces in half dozen
companies. 1t hadn't been on the
stage more than couple of years
when there was law action over the
division of the profits and it came
ont then that Peney's share was over
100000. while a dramatic agency ad-
mitted having made over that sum in
the same period.
The fact is that any thoroughly sue
cessful play is nowadays good for a
pront of anything from e5O'OOO to
100000, and although the number
which realize these figures is necessar-
ily not large, 1t may be taken as
certain that the fortunes made on the
stage today are as great as ever they
were.
American plays are great dollar
catchers. MRS. Wiggs of the Cab
bage Patch" has certainly made more
than $5OOOOO This is eclipsed by the
record Of RIP Van Winkle," in
which Joseph jefferson played over
b000 times. Its earnings were put down
at over G1,000O00. "Colleen Bawn,"
''East Lynne" "Uncle Toms Cabin"
all made six-figure fortunes, and when
''The Private Secretary was at the
height of it's success it was credited
with a total clear profit of 93OO,OOO,
"There is perhaps no subject associ-
ated with the art of dramatic repre-
sentation and Interpretation about
which there is so much more
or less hazy understanding as that
attaching to the word tempera-
ment and all which that word con-
notes." said David Belasco recently in
an interview.
"On the lips of the thoughtless and
ignorant this word has assumed q
meaning utterly foreign to it's real def
inition, and so insidiously has this cor
rupt usage of the term crept into our
common speech that even among the
cultivated and educated we find the
same curious misapplication.
Temperament has come to mean, in
the vulgar parl~nce, anything and
everything in the nature of a depar-