The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-07-29

picking out the tenth n from the
top of the pile and signing a contract
for royalties,
The uncertainty of the game" as
the business men Of the theatre re-
gard it and the enormous financial re-
wards of a successful play, are two
powerful factors in the development of
that star system to which many are
inclined to ascribe the low estate of
the contemporary stage. Even in
gambling the tendency Is always to
look for a winning system" to dis
cover the constant element in the
working of chance. Once the producer
OF the play is convinced that it's sue
cess or failure cannot be predicted on
the basis Of intrinsic merit it is nat
ural that he should look about for
whatever guarantee Of success may be
had outside of the play. This he finds
in the personality of the actor. The
star has his prestige and his follow
ing; and that is a good deal to begin
with. A stars popularity may not al
ways save a hopeless play, but it can
and often does urn the wavering
scales in favor of success. Thus it is
impossible to imagine "Disraeli" a
success without Mr.. Arliss. Chicago
audiences at the beginning were de-
scribed as asking who was Disraeli,
and where was the Suez canal. The
proper answer, as events showed, was
that Disraeli was some one who look
ed like George Arliss and the Suez
didn't matter n was or another. On
the whole, it might be said that the
personality of successful actor lis
probably safe to bank on than the
personality of a successful dramatist.
The uncertainty of the theatrical game
Is illustrated in the frequency with
which the most successful dramatist
will meet disaster. The playwright Is
to a very large extent. a beginner with
every play he writes. Whether Ar
thur Pinero or Augustus Thomas will
hit the hulls-eye or completely miss
the target can never be predicted.
Every play is an experiment. On the
other hand the star is always the
same. This may be a bad thing for
art but it is a good thing for busi-
ness.
But if the star is so often the MAX
ing Of a play he becomes in turn it's
creature. The admiring public SEN
fences him to solitary confinement in
a single part for a term of years pro-
p~ortionate to the magnitude Of his
hit" This autumn Mr.. Arliss will be
playing his fifth e in "Disraeli".
and how many years more no one can
say. Excellent artist though he is,
with a range Of versatility demon
strated in a large number of roles in
which he has revealed the gift Of Gre
alive Imagination, the BELIEF is unes-
capable that Mr.. Arliss is not serving
his talents best by p%etrifying himself
into q single character. If growth is
indeed conditioned by change, here is
| apparently an artist who for half a
decade or more suspends the develop
rnent of his powers. But the pressure
of financial success and of public in
s~istence is ~fearfully hard to withstand
and the more successful an actor lis
under present-day conditions, when
success spells a single play and not a
repertory the harder seems to be the
price he has to pay in his own re-
stricted growth. There ID evidence OF
course on the other side. One would
be bold to say that Joseph Jefferson
suffered as an artist because for more