Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1911-05-18
Stories CulIed From Is Years
Experience as a Manager
How Some Noted Stars
Began to Shine.
From the Philadelphia Ledger.


Doubleday. Page & Co. In 1T Mr..
Frohman tells how plays are put into
shape and gives some useful hints to
playwrights; but the greater part of
it is given over to stories of the plays
he has produced, the actors with whom
he has come in contact, and things OF
that sort, all described in light, racy
style.
When Frohman was an ambitious
young advance agent an incident oe-
CURED which gives a curious illustra-
ton of fulfilled ambition:
81 found myself in Philadelphia
William Gillette was then playing
part in play his own. One night
he, Mr.. Bradfoi -Lerr1ll, then thea
trical reporter on the Philadelphia
Press, and / walked about the streets
and talked of our several ambitions.
Each of us expressed the desire that
lay within us. Gillette said his ambi-
ton was to be an actor in his own
plays. Merrill hoped some time to rise
to the dignity of becoming the manag-
ing editor of a metropolitan newspaper.
My ambition was to have a theater and
a company of my own. Some years
later we three met again. Each had
accomplished his wish"
When he acquired the Lyceum
theater in New York he engaged David
Belasco as stage manager and Belasco
seems to have been about the same
then as today, to judge by this anec-
dote:
In his work he showed the same In
tense earnestness that he does now, He
was young, ambitious, always indus
trious, and very hot-tempered. Once,
in a fit of rage, he brought his fist
down with much violence on an iron
safe. He rehearsed with one hand for
some days afterward."
Frohmam's first play at the Lyceum
was 1.-The Highest Bidder" He en-
gagged f. HI. Sothern, then an unknown
young actor, who had applied to him
several times for an engagement Il
little thought then" says Frohman,
that should at later time be paying
him a salary of $4,000 year, and that
he would still later receive, as he did
from Charles Frohman, a. salary of
100000 a year for two years. He
tells this story of the first week of the
plays run:
Zone evening during that week we
were dining at the old Ashland house,
which was located just across from the
theater. Sothern look ed across at the
play house, and pointing, excitedly,
said: Look! isn't 1t bully? There's a
Spectator in front!' Sure enough,
there was q 'hawker' intercepting buy
ers with his offers.
TT was a significant sign. We felt
that success was sure. These birds of
prey always anticipated theatrical sue
ceSses then as they do sometimes now.
A few weeks later. when we were
playing to crowded houses, Sothern
asked one night:
Cant anything be done to stop
those internal spectators?
When THE Highest Bidder" APP
preached it's 18th night Sothern, who
was an artist, made drawings of the
characters, and they were embodied in
q brochure, which was given to the
audience as a souvenir. Then Frohman
hit on the idea N sending a copy to
each of the prominent actor folk in
London.
AT that time the messenger boy
service was in it's infancy. I called up
the head of the district Office and re-
quested him to send me a.reliable boy,
who could be trusted with a. mission to
They sent me one of their young
superintendents, Eugene B. Sanger.
ST gave him his instructions, which
were to deliver so addressed souvenirs,
and bring back by the same steamer
the autographed receipts for each.
These included Henry Irving, Forbes
Robertson, Mary Anderson, Madge and
w. H. Kendall, George Alexander,
Beerbohm Tree, Buffalo Bill and 9TH
ers. The messenger afterward, posi-
bly, inoculated by theatrical germ, &C
quired from this experience, became
an actor and was added to the cast OF
The Highest Bidder He IS now a
prominent stage manager.
Buffalo Bill treated our boy very
we'll. He assembled his entire wild
west show of several hundred persons
and had the boy photographed seated
In the center of this picturesque group, |
with himself on one side and his fidus
Achates, Major Burke, on the other.
These pictures were reproduced in va
rious papers, and the entire enterprise, |
owing to its novelty, received a large
amount of press attention"
One of Frohman's most amusing |
anecdotes is of Charles b. Bishop, a
famous comedian, who appeared with |
Sothern in Lord Chumley."
He told me once of a humorous in |
cident in his life when playing in a |
stock company in Baltimore, in which,
he was popular favorite. In the same |
company was Miss Josephine Parker, |
the soubret of the company. who was
also greatly liked by her audiences.
Bishop married her one day, and the |
news soon spread about the city Many
letters and kilograms came to the |
happy couple at the theater. The man.
Eger of the company gave them the |
day off to celebrate their nuptials
''The next evening they were to ap-
pear again, in a play called The Death |
OF Rollo.' In this drama the hero was
locked in cell for political crime |
He was supposed to be married man, |
having wife he loved and several |
Childr N.
"TIis dearest friend comes to the Jail |
Ir the hope of seeing him. The taller, |
however, had strict orders to admit no |
one. The part of the jailer was played |
by Bishop. The friend pleads with the |
jailer in the name of humanity, but |
without avail. Then the dialogue ran
something as follows:
.tFriend--Are you married?
"Jailer-Yes. "a shout of laughter
from the audience.)
"Friend--Any children?
Galleries; two lovely boys
"Friend-Then, in the name of your
wife and those children
THE rest of the dialogue was not
heard amid the tulnult and laughter
and applause that the significant per-
ional lines unconsciously called FORTH
Here is a characteristic Bernard
Shaw story After Richard Mansfield's
production OF Arms and the Man" he
wrote to Shaw asking for other plays.
shaw says Frohman. replied that
his greatest work was Candida, and
that there was but one woman he knew
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