Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-17
SUNDAY MAGAZINE 1912
TRIALS OF A THEATRICAL MANAGER
Continued from page 10

is @the head of committee who has been
lmplored by "a great body of citizens Gt
is always great body") to get into imme-
date communication with you. You have
the stranger shown in, and he invariably
seeks to lnaugurate spirit of camaradene
between himself and the manager by entering
into a discussion of the weather, how you
slept last night, what you think of Roose-
welt, or how you liked Mrs. So and Sos
latest novel, which, he confidentially assures
you, would make mighty fine play.
After you have politely suggested to him
that just because you are a theatrical mana
ger he must not think you have nothing to
do but deposit money in the bank, he con-
sentS to tell YOU his business His business
is flexible affair.
I'll give you partial list of these "busi-
nesses" as | tabulated them during one sim
gle weeks time not long ago in my office.
Here it is: To get me to prepare data on
the American drama to be used by the caller
in a lecture he was to deliver before a pri-
vate dramatic club; to get my help in advis-
ing his society how to 60 about institutlng
a dramatic censorship; to pay a callers
relative two hundred dollars in advance
royalties on a play | had never seen or
heard of; to make a round of the theaters
with some college student investigators and
determine to what extent the Spectator
nuisance existed; to join a society for the
advancement of billboard art; to SUBJ
scribe one hundred dollars to newly
formed Organization for the reading of
plays of unknown American dramatists';
to write five-thousand-word article to be
read at church sociable the next evening
on "the defects in Our national dramatic ten
dencies"; and to subscribe money to help
out dramatic club in high school in a
small town in Connecticut. There were
many other applicants during this same
week; but 1 have told you enough to allow
you to guess the nature of the rest.
1t is a curious fact that so many persons
believe theatrical manager is q cross be-
tween an information bureau and public
bank. | have never been able to account
for it. And yet it remains that person who
pays two dollars to see one OF your plays
somehow or other imagines he has done you
a personal favor and that you owe him some
of your time and money IN return. The
better the play is and the more he has en-
joyed it, the more he thinks you ought to
take him round the corner and buy him a
meal. 1t is less question of psychology
than of Dementia Audiencia.
REFORE concluding my scenario Of a
= managers trials, tribulations and con-
MANIFESTATIONS, let me dOu a lew WORDS
about another element that goes to make a
theatrical producers life something less
carefree and easy than that of a professional
cotillion leader. l refer to the actor job
hunters. Tammany Hall the morning after
election looks like a deserted island COM
pared to theatrical managers office any
day in the week. For every position in a
managers companies there are something
like one hundred applicants, and the ninety
nine who do not get the job hurry out on
Broadway and begin calling you names at
the top of their voices.
The job hunters try every conceivable
way to get personal hearing with mana
ger. | have known one of them, young
woman, to pretend she had sprained her
ankle in tripping over one of the outer office
rugs, in order that she might thus win a
little sympathy-and mayhap little job
along with it-from me. l have known ac-
tors to lie in wait for a manager for days at
a time, in hotels, theaters, offices, on the L
stations, and elsewhere in order to get his
ear on the subject of a position. Some actors
have waited out in front of my house the
whole night long in order to be able to
catch me as l was coming out early in the
morning.
Inside my breakfast table newspaper next
to the theatrical news, | once discovered a
note from job hunter. l found out later
+bat ba bod mid tho 5a1iyarx, bo,, n dino