New-York tribune., 1910-01-16
MAGAZINE FOR JANUARY 1910
When the Show Closes
Continued Jyum page
Continued from page Z

one company and we all three closed there.
Furthermore the company didn't come
home to Broadway in Pullmans, with their sal
aries paid and all at the managers expense,
eitheri
A NY old kind of manager could take out any
old kind of show in those palmy days.
There was a chap who used to perform miracles
of the sort, mostly through New England. He'd
be knocking around Boston, say, and meet
couple of old actors. This would give him an
idea, and, buttonholing them, he'd say:
WANT to go down to Brockton tonight
and play Polonius in Z" Hamlet And you
Johnny, how about you for Laertes''
All right the hams would say, and he'd
tell EN- to be at the Old Colony station at SIX
o'clock Then he'd collect the rest of the COM
pany and give them the same orders In the
meantime he'd send his brother down to Brock
ton to hire the opera house and rush out some
printed hand bills announcing the Great BOs-
ton Museum and Boston Theater Combined
Stock Companies in a Mammoth Revival of the
Immortal Tragedy of . Hamlet"
The company would collect at the train.
and Mr. Manager would get them aboard,
after he had touched some member of the
troupe for the fares. Once knew him to bor-
row the brooch off poor old lady in the crowd
who thought she could play Ophelia, to whom
he had promised the part. and pawn it across
the street for Just enough to land the company
in the town they going to.
Once aboard the train, if he hadn't collected
cast big enough for Hamlet, or changed his
mind for any reason, he'd shift the bill.
40 We don't play " Hamlet - he'd go around
telling the crowd. BY special request we're
going to put on "A Celebrated Case
But some one would complain, L don't
know anything about the play
That's all right he would reply You've
played Louise in " The Two Orphans" haven't
you?'
YES: but
"'Speak those lines
Somebody else would complain that he or
she hadn't any costumes, whereupOn hed fix
up some way of turning up his trousers or cut
ting Oft a coat tail, or changing a hat hind side
to, or-or something You couldn't stop him.
Arrived at Brockton. he'd take the COM
Pany over to the nearest hotel and jolly the
landlord into giving them all supper, saying the
trunks would be over at once, and that if bust
ness was as good as it looked, and if Mr. Field
OF the Boston Museum could spare them, he'd
keep the company there week And he'd
call the company by the names of the reipnine
boston tavorites, such as William Warren and
Mrs Vincent, and Dion BOucicaut or Sadie
Martinot Oh, it didn't make any odds to Mr.
ShOwman
LAS rule his brother would have secured
pretty fair house, and the show would be given
Mr. Manager would make a speech apologizing
for the nonarrival of the scenery and explain.
ing the necessity of changing the bill and then
the show would begin
Awful? What do Won suDDosep An,,-
where else but in peaceful New England they'd
nave lynched him and his troupe; but they'd
let let HIM get through the performance, and then
he d go over to the hotel, jolly the landlord into
letting him take the company back to Boston.
Jolly the conductor of the train into transport
ing them free, and divide up the money. Hvp-
notlSm? If he wasn't hypnotiSt. | never saw
one.
| CAN look back on personal experiences that
to-day seem funny; but at the time they
looked pretty serious. Once, in the verv town
we've Just left Chicago the irresponsible owner
OF a show had left me with it while he did his
usual trick of skipping back to New York or
some place to borrow money for us. | should
have known-indeed. l suSpected-that he
would never come back; but had no fear of
not being able to get to our next stand. which
was milwaukee, But Saturday night. lust be-
fore the second act opened, and as was count
ing up out IN the office, got bump. A man
rushed out from the stage to tell me that a
Sheriff had attached the show for a debt our
NICE little manager had owed bank for some
time.
went back. The Sheriff was there all
right, and the scenery of the first and third acts
OF the piece was already plaStered with his
handbillS. What was there TO do2 I corIdp't