The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-01-03
DEARTH OF
 LEADING ACTORS


 Charles FrOllman Discussing Theatri-
 cal Conditions As They Exist in
 America Touches the Star System,
 the Scarcity of Leading Actors and
 the significance of, the. Enormous
 Increase in Playwriting.
 Charles Frohman in discussing American theatrical conditions com plains of the dearth of leading actors and comments on the star system. He also notes the significance of the re- cent enormous production of plays most of which are bad. These are some of the topics touched upon in the latest of the interviews to Which he so rarely submits.
 MT. Frohman considers that he has no time to give to interviewers. He cares little about money but of his time he is miserly.' This is the only competitor that he recognizes. For eighteen hours day, year in and year out. it is neck and neck race be- tween them. Meals, sleep, the bar Der and other necessities of life be- come luXuries rarely indulged in Dy him during the days when he is mak- ing plays. Four or five sandwiches,
 
 about the top of a little mahogany portable desk that stands in the light est spot of the theatre auditorium is the sign by which the company knows that MT. Frohman is present at the rehearsal. He has summed up the habit in the saying "A rehearsal ac- companied by a sandwich is progress, but a rehearsal interrupted by meal is delay'' This is the true reason that he, so rarely accords an inter view He is always busy about other things Yet when ne does talk for publication, no man has more to tell or can tell it more directly or more interestingly. He sits at his desk, an old-fashioned. flat topped affair in the office which is the centre of the thea trical world Around the room runs a book case five feet high on the top of which are the photographs of many celebrated men and women in the dra- matic world, Maude Adams, Ethel Barrymore, John Drew. Billie Burke, Marie Tempest, William Gillette and others They are always spoken of by him as my people and they in turn awlays speak of him as "C. F." Be- tween him and them there does not exist as much paper by way of written contract as a two cent postage stamp That shows how his word is regarded.
 The interview, finally accorded, af- ter a preliminary chat he says quick ly in regard to a criticism of the American star system recently expres- sed by a visiting Englishman:
 "I have never created a star in my life All of the stars under my man. agement owe their emlnence largely to their own industry and ability, and largely. too, to the fact that the American is an individual loving pub lie.
 "Over here we regard the workman first and the work second. Our imag1- nations are fired not nearly so much by great deeds as by great doers There are stars in every walk of Amer ican life It has always been so with democraces. Caeser, Cicero, and the rest were public stars when Rome was at her best, just as in oura day Taft. Roosevelt and some Others are stars of a much finer brilliancy than any public service they actually render. "Far from fostering it the star sys- tenn has simply meant for me that when one of my stars finishes with a play that goes permanently on the shelf. no one ever hoping to muster together an audience for it without the original actor or actress Ill the star part. That is, the very popular l ity of Maude Adams in Peter Pan. / makes it impossible to send the play out with anybody else except Maude Adams in the part of Peter. John Drew's success in ''The Duke of Kill | licranckie' made it impossible fol anybody to follow MT. Drew in the | same part. Every play acted by Ethel Barrymore has been locked up perma- nentIy in our cabinet of plays as soon as Miss Barrymore has finished with | it and it is spoken of as one of the Barrymore plays. The same is true 1 of Love Watches" Having seen Bill lie Burke in that no one cares to sec anyone else and the play is practically killed the same is true of the Gil lette plays, Sherlock Holmes" fol example.
 'I expressed the idea to MT. Barrie | once by saying that Maude Adams 1 had killed Peter Pan and at his look | of astonishment explained that I was not out of my mind. but that I meant that unless she played it there wa: no one the public would receive Il | that charming piece"
 The rumor that Mr. Frohman vii live in London at no very distant per iod he answers by saying:
 "I am anxious to settle there to op | crate my Repertoire Theatre at Tn Duke of Yorks, but I have contract ed to do so much here that I am hel( back. I shall probably sail later thi year than I have ever made the tril | before
 And this is because" the inter viewer starts to ask, but gets no fur | ther before the quiet rejoinder:
 "This is because the American stag | is a little out of breath just now lit is short of leaders. There is world of actors but too few leading actors. Vital acting in plays of con sequence is the foundation of theat l rical success. It isn't altogether tn play but the right player in the righ play that is the thing. I have mad, | twelve successful productions this sea | son. I have fourteen more scheduled 1 for production between now and tn l spring. I shouldn't be surprised i | these productions fairly exhaust tn entire field of available leading ac