The Washington herald., 1913-07-27
By ROY BAKER.

III tine course Of no very great number
of years the toll that the man in the
box office Of the theater exacts for his
bits Of Autographed pasteboard will be
greatly reduced, and, by the same token.
in the course Of a few years many Of
the great actors now playing the 'legit"
will be seen on the screens Of the
movie" theaters
This is the prophecy. that came yes
terday from little littered-up room in
Fifteenth Street, near U Street. that is
probably the court Of last resort in
things that relate to the drama in WASH
ington 1t is the workshop of A. I. Mudd,
of the division Of publications, Depart
ment of Agriculture.
In this room there is stored a complete
record of every histrionic performance
that has been given in the Capital from
the times of the old United States Thea
ter, in 1900 up to the present date, and
in Mr.. Mudd's brain Is carefully stored
away the data from which these records
were made And he predicts the decline
Of the box Office prices. and with 1t the
rise of the moving picture business
Every year." said Mr.. Mudd yester-
day, "you see big people who have al
wavs worked on the legitimate stage
leaving it for the moving picture field.
The standard of the picture plays is
higher. and in time this is sure to make
such inroads on the box office receipts
that the managers Of the regular thea
tiers will be forced to reduce the prices
TO meet the pocketbooks OF the people
Dramatic Treasure House.
And coming from the little workshop,
as 1t does, this prophecy bears weight.
That small room at the rear of 1875 Fiji
rAct Go
trove of Washington dramatics. Its floor
is Uttered with scraps of paper, old man
uscripts. tattered pamphlets. books, and
all manner of trash, but on the walls
there are rows and rows OF boxes neatly
labeled and dated that contain the COM
plete history of the playhouses In Wash-
inston There is the record or every
play and concert ever given in the Capi-
tai. and in another compartment is the
material for the making OF history OF
even the circus performances that have
been given here.
The light gray boxes that contain all
this tabulated information are almost
covered with photographs of noted actors
and actresses who have appeared In local
theaters. There are more than 10000. and
5000 of them are catalogued.
That Washington theaterlovers should
have such fund of information at hand
for reference is the result of a lifelong
attendance at the theaters of the city
and of more than thirteen years con-
tinuous work in the little workshop.
Ever since the age of seven Mr.. Mudd
has been going to the playhouses of this
city absorbing the material that was 10
max up the history. Mr.. Mudd has
written thousands of letters TO actors,
collecting pictures and data.
Besides the pages and pages of manu-
script the room contains many treasures.
There is, for instance. the book of the
treasurer of the old Washington Theater,
which later became the Lyceum. Thls
book covers the years 1850 and 1861. and
on its yellow pages there are the names
of Joe jefferson and many other notable
characters in the dramatic world Then
there is a copy of knights edition Oh
Shakespeare's plays that Is more than
seventy-five years old, and scattered
about on the worktables and benches
half buried by piles of old papers, leaf
let's, and scraps. are other relcs Oh past
days.
Photos of Old Actresses.
In one corner there is a family album.
hut instead Of the faces of aunts and
uncIes in the small openings in the pages
there are the pictures of many stage
celebrities who appeared here fifty years
ago, for that is the age of the volume.
In this book there is the photo of Miss
Julia Mortimer. who bore the distinction
of being the first actress to shock WASH
ington by appearing in tights. She Is de-
picted in three colors and dressed in the
breezy costume in which she appeared
durig the early COS at the old Canter-
bury Music Hall, in Louisiana Avenue.
in the play, The Gypsy's Lay" few
pages farther on there is the picture of
Miss Charlotte Cushman, who took
Washington and the rest of the country
by storm, not by virtue of tights. but
because she was one of the finest
actresses of the day.
In spite of the fact that the capacity