The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-05-09

Days Shaw Reveals FINAL
Night of Wallack' s-The
Times-Shubert Fight Fur
ther Developments Coming.
Small Talk.
tunity to tell their readers the truth
about what is offered at the theaters.
The situation is not difficult to under
stand. The producing manager OF today
is primarily a business man, or specu-
lator, who naturally wishes his ventures
to turn out profitably. With the best
intelligence and experience that can be
put into them, theatrical enterprises are
hazardous. Today they call for heavy
investments of capital and are subject to
unusual dangers and intrigues arising
largely from the present monopolistic
control of the theater in America. 1t Is
not strange that the producer resents
honest criticism, because the truth may
rob him of the chance to turn a real
failure into a counterfeit success. The
truth frequently means the instant and
total destruction of heavy investment
which. in the case of a bad loser. in
spires bitterness and resentment against
the nearest cause of the calamity, which
usually in the managerial mind is the
next days adverse criticism.
If the manager could go a little far
Their back, he might he less likely to fight
the critic, or the paper employing the
critic. and more likely to take his own
important self out behind the shed and
give himself a good licking for not hav-
ing more artistic brains. No critic or
set of critics can kill a good production
The intelligent public has its own ways
Of finding out whether an attraction is
really worth seeing. regardless of any
one critic or that impossible thing,
combination of critics.
Further Effect of Fight.
As result Of the feud between the
Times and the Shuberts. the latter have
removed all their advertising from the
newspaper and print at the head of the
programs of their theaters a notice to
that effect This means an annual loss
OF many thousands OF dollars to the
newspaper. Emboldened by their lmme-
date success in the present instance, II
is rumored that the managers propose to
carry their crusade still further and bar
out from their houses any critic who has
the temerity to tell the truth when it is
not favorable to the managers.
In any other American city than New
York a proposition of the kind would be
absurd and impossible of execution
Against such an invasion Of the rights
OF the press there would quickly be
combina ton of newspapers that would
show the managers they had gone too
far. In New York. though. competition
for advertising is so keen that it is i'm
possible to get newspaper publishers to
act together when they are not all SIM
ultaneously exposed to the same kind Of
attack on this source of revenue. There
is also a growing indifference to giving
their readers the benefit of expert opin
ion on the quality of theatrical perform
ances The tendency is to abandon crit
icism and make the noticing of new pro-
auctions a purely reportorial job. In
other words. in New York the newspa-
pers are coming to regard their theatre
cal advertising as Of more Importance
than the right to tell their readers the
truth about the theaters. This may be
good business. but to the onlookers it
seems like far departure from the days
when New York newspapers prided them
selves on their fearlessness.
New Theatrical Interest.
Mr.. Granville Barker bids fair to be-
come an American institution. Having
gained a foothold here by the social and
financial aid of the New York Stage So
ciety. he has entrenched himself by
making contracts to produce classical
dramas during the coming summer at
several colleges and in other places
where such performances can provoke
interest.
The latest development in the projects
Of the English producer is that he has
formed a partnership with Percy Bur-
ton, an experienced and successful Eng
lish manager, for the last few seasons in
charge of the tours of Forhes-Robertson.
Their first venture will be to take on
tour of the American cities the most sue
cessful of the Barker productions in New
York. which was the double bill. includ-
ing The Man Who Married a Dumb
Wife" and Shaw's "Androcles and the
Lion" They have the plays. the settings
and contracts with Lionel Braham. who
played the big doctor in the Anatole
France piece and Phil Dwyer. who was
the inimita BILE lion In 'Androcles." With
these essentials they will have no diff
Guilty in filling in vacancies in the New
York casts and showing the rest OF
America the best that Mr.. Barker has
brought to us.
Chatter.
II is definitely settled that Sarah Bern
hardt is coming to America next season
under the management of Mr.. William
F. Conner. and that she will make her
first appearance in New York on Septem-
Der 30. preparatory to a tour of the prin-
ciral cities. playing a repertory of her
former successes combined with new
plays.
Forbes Robertson. who had intended
to complete his farewell to the stage by
tour. next season. through Australia
and the other outlying British posses
sions. has been obliged to give up the
project owing to conditions consequent
on the war. Instead. he is likely to re-
turn to America and visit cities and
towns where he has not yet appeared.
Week after next he comes to New York
to receive a degree from Columbia Col
lege.
The Herald Square Theater IL no more
Its long and varied career. under various
names, ended with its use as movie
house, and now 1t is in the hands Of the
wreckers.
The latest two objects of managerial
ire are stars who appear In moving pic
lures thus lessening their drawing value
on the speaking stage and the increas-
ing theatrical entertainments in the res