New-York tribune., 1920-12-05
john Golden, a
Producer of the
American Drama
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that clean. wholesome, humorous thing
that can be told or acted anywhere
without reservation. It is the clean
emotion that touches the mass of thea
tergoers. The mass is essentially a
plain. solid. God-fcaring people that
roots for the right and detcsts the
wrong. Not that they are Puritanical.
But they do have an utter disgust for
the SAVIOR Of moral or personal un-
c'canness. They resent being educated
with the sort Of play that the author
describes as beyond the present-day
audience and they will not honor such
drait upon futurity'
Mr. Golden shares his producing
houors with those who have been asso-
ciated with him. particularly Winchell
Smith. whom he regards as the greatest
producer OF the American theater.
WircheN Smith. as we'll as l. be-
lieves implicitly in the cleanliness of
the theater. He showed this in his
work with Turn to the Right Light
Enin'' Three Wise Fools and lately in
cent. healthy plays with characters
that bring out the roofing element in
the audience, and by this reaction make
lor betterment of the beholdcr.'
With reasonable pride Mr.. Golden
scans his record as producer Out
Of thousands Of scripts ne has read. he
has never turned down q play which
afterward challenged his judgment by
successful production. True. he has
rejected plays that later found pro-
duction in other hands. bu5 none of
them was what Broadway terms sue
cess.
Mr. Golden makes his point about
foreign authors and foreign plays
stronger when he speaks of The First
Year, written by Frank Craven, which
is now playing at the Little Theater
"If any foreigner had written The
First Year and we had had transla-
tion made OF it, your long haired crit
les would have hailed it as a maste--
piece of writing, which l personally
know is to be. No play that | ever
produced got such notices. but only
tNo of the critics recognized that
Frank Craven had written a master
piece Of American drama told in n
humorous, honest, sincere way. 1t is q
tsory OF middle-c class American life as
we live it. The test of Mr.. Craven :
craftsmanship lies in the fact that he
has no more of q story to tell than
IN the first act a young man proposes
to a girl and is accepted. In the sec
ond act they are married and she
leaves HIM and goes home to her
mother In the third act they make up
and she has baby If all the actors
had worn whiskers and had talked with
a Russian accent it would have been
hailed as an epoChmaking drama of
middle class life. and the critics would
have been ct the Little Theater on the
opening night instead of rushing off TO
sec d play because II was written by
John Galsworthy.
Mr.. Golden does not believe in in
ferior road companies. Just because
people do not like what is less than
the best | am firmly opposed to send
ing out on the road a second company
with an inferior cast. Sometimes
play that makes a success in New York
is sent outside with No. , company
or No. or No 4 | do not believe
in il. We do have to form other com
panies for Australia. But if one of
our plays is successful on Broadway
and then goes on tour it is with the
original cast With TWO exceptions: we
sent out Milton Mobiles in Lightnn','
In the first place. because, after almost
1000 performances, there is no indica-
-lon of d tme when Frank Bacon can
be sent out. and second, because Mr..
Mobiles is rrst-rate artist and has
created his own character of Bill Jones,
which many deem just as interesting
as Bacons. The other case in which a
second company was created was in
Chicago, where we were under contract
20 open with Turn to the Right in
the Chicago Grand on certain date
which was prevented by the unexpected
long run on Broadway of the pay As
soon IS the run OF the pay was over
one company was withdrawn from the .
field, and now there is only one Turn
to the Right company on the road It
: IS as near.y the original company as
l could possibly make it,
or MS success as producer Mr. I
Golden gives three reasons. The
thoughts embodied in them have
glsded him in his career Of providing
staee entertainment for the American
''If have been successful' he says
1T IS because, first. I have never /
psocuced a play in which there was an
uDclean line or an unclcan thought; /
second have only produced plays /
winch We're American in locale and /
spirit and last. because have never
produced Il play which was not written |
By an American author, and while the
advocates Of lbsen. Gorky, S-rindberg
md the Little Art theaters may not /
call this helping the American drama
believe that q clean play makes for
uplift hundred times greater than
dry Play by . dirty. foreigner.
-. ~ wis ltAVNuNtH Il pay lIdl
is a bit spicy, a. least he doesn't try to
hide il under the cloak Of art or uplift
Of the theater He frankly labels it
what il is and the person who buys bis
ticket knows in advance what ne il
going TO see. Woods is to be admired
for his sincerity and frankness. but
The producers Of the Spitbox thcaters
with their unclean plays, pretending
that thy are uplifting the ,heater
are parading filth under cloak"
In proof Of his points. Mr. Golden
pointed proudly to the list OF authors,
ali born in America whose plays he
had produced. Headed by Wnchell
Smith, thc list includes John f. Haz-
zard, Austin Strong, Frank Craven.
Salisbury Field, John Tairtor Foote.
Pearl Franklin. Frank Bacon Hale
Hamilton, Luther Reed and Edward
fhilds Carpenter
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