The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-02-15

Joe Jefferson or Tom kecne, Fanny
Davenport OF Maud Adams or
Maxine Elliott or Billie Burke and a
lot of them. and Dave Wartield and
Sarah Bernhard, Rose Stahl. J. X.
Hackett and multitude OF them.
They reflect great credit to manhood,
womanhood and TO their profession,
and you can't find a higher type of
manhood or womanhood anywhere
"a Il ea a,ss -.,rrs Il ie e. a. vow
r.GS.a> 7sSs sss,. eSeSyseesy' will ., Isasn&t
that. You can't beat them. say
they reflect great honor upon man.
hood and womanhood and their pro-
fession as we'll
Now. the character of the plays
that they are in is clean and elevat-
Ing, will admit that.
Somebody said to me: What lis
the last play you say you used to
hke?''
Oh, / used to like to see RIP Van
Wrinkle" and Denman Thompson in
The Old Homestead" Those were
my plays-"Rip Van Wrinkle" and
'Old Homestead"
Tom Keene tried his best to get me
to go with him az ain understudy. The
last time l saw him was down there
on Staten Island. When they cut the
streets through up there at 10th
street, where they used to play ball.
down at the old Polo Grounds, we
had to 60 down to Staten Island,
where they had nothing but billy
goats and little shackk
Ever been down there? We had
to go down there to play for couple
Of seasons. He came down there and
triad tn YHa unit MIA wing base
ball. He said: bill. you'd make q
crackerjack of an actor and I'd like
to have you with me-"
said, "Nothinp doing!" to him. I
had no idea then I'd be a preacher. l
thought I'd play baseball, then nrob-
ably get to managing or something,
but the Lord opened up some other
way.
Edwin Booth--no grander man
every old "jim-crack' that comes
along can stick anything he wants to
on the stage, you will do we'll to keep
your daughter away from 1t. Ma
caulex said that when the theatres
were opened in England they became
seminaries.
Not All Stages Bad.
Hayden said nothing but the gem
ius Of William Shakespeare saved the
stage from the denunciation of all.
Not all stages are bad.---certainly not.
Not all actors and actresses are bad.
You can't find any men or women on
earth better than you can find on the
stage. But you can of course lind
some had ones among them. We
have got some preachers that are bad
and some deacons and elders that are
bad And SO, my friends. very
where you go you will find people
who are bad.
A theatre has capital and il has
power In the money: certainly | VIII
admit all that It is estimated that
100000 liz invested in the
movies alone nowadays. Fifteen mil
lion people attend daily the movies
in this country. A million dollars a
day. 1t is estimated. is the most con-
servatiye estimate of the assets taken
in by the movies. Twenty-Five thou
sand thea tres house the -loofers OF
the land.
Certainly there is money in it,
we will admit all that. Salaries are
big. all right, and l don't begrudge
any actor or actress on the stage one
dollar of their salary: l don't be-
grudge any prizefghter dollar or a
baseball player one dollar that he can
get. II a fellow can get $4,000 a
year, then ! wouldn't play for $4,000
if l was a baseball player.-not on
your life, / wouldn't do it,
read a statement the other day
where Billie Burke gets $4,000 a
week All right she's worth it. l
don't begrudge IL. / don't know her,
but | know some of her relatives.
Maude Adams gets $4,000 q week.
All right. there isn't a finer woman
on earth.
Dave Warfield made 100000 in
THE Music Master" All right.
Dawes in a class by himself, so I'm
told He made his manager. Dave
Belasco, a million,--he's in a class by
himself!
All these people are headliners in
their profession. Sarah Bernhard
made $4,000 a month. They say
Sarah is a dandy.-that.s all right.
and I'm glad she got well. They say
Rose Stahl made 100000 in ten
Greene made $4,000 in The Cri-
SIS" which has been dramatized.
Charlie Chaplin pulls down 100000
a year to make you laugh. All right.
he's worth ii, or he wouldn't get the
price. The prizeflghter stands up
and pulls down $4,000. All right.
he's worth 1t. Old Jess Willard
hit me for $4,000, and I'll
tell you that!
A lot of baseball players get eight,
ten and fifteen thousand dollar a
year All right. don't begrudge any
OF them, but II happen to get lit
tie money for preaching--'Tm a
grafterl"
notice the guy that says I'm a
CRATER wouldn't get close enough
to me when he says 1t for me to
reach him! You will notice that
guy never gives ME anything. 1t
isn't the fellow that gives it, II is
the guy that doesn't give 1t. IL is
none of your business what the other
fellow does with his money: 1t isn't
your money, Now that's all right, le.
1t go at that
cyrus Townsend Brady, one OF the
famous authors, went to twenty-one
plays to see how many of them he
could endorse and recommended to his
friends: and he said out Of the twenty
one he couldn't endorse but eight. and
some of them he WAS compelled TO
denounce With our popular grand
operas ne said 1t was almost impos-
sible to find anything decent or pure
in the plot OF the average play.
The church and the theatre seem
to have nothing in common. The
stage gives people what they want.
the church what they need.
Israel ZangwilLr author. Says the.
gets I'D his plays to satisfy