The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-12-12

3 MISS. INEZ PLUNhER
IN rite BROKEN WING"
4ST ST. THEATRE
'BadMan'S 'Despised
Hero Made Bile
Porter Emerson Brownies Play
at Comedy Theatre Presents
Many Surprises.

One of the surprises of the season Is
1.-THE Bad Man." in which Holbrook
Blinn is starring at the Comedy Theatre.
It is a surprise in part because it sets
forth as it's hero a despised "greaser
and makes him so llkeable that he con-
tributes largely to the plays successes
Then there Is more surprise because
from the play sparkles that thing so
rare in American plays. satire.
And the author, Porter Emerson
Browne, has surprised the theatrical
world Broadway thought of him as
that man who had sent certain type
of lady "vamping" on her way to fame
in "a Fool There Was" the prelude to
Theda Bara and her ilk Then Mr..
Browne had turned out THE Spend
thrift" also a vital" drama which had
enjoyed great commercial success. En-
cept for echoes of these he had not been
heard of in the theatre for years.
Now Mr. Browne is somewhat set
back by such a reception. The reason
Is that he's matter OF fact person VINO
makes no pretensions beyond writins
about what interests him. He does not
an awful past To him they are
merely dramas which he tried TO make
| as workmanlike as possible.
Where Mr.. Browne varied from the
ordinary run of paywrights who score
an early success was that he got away
/ from Broadway and the Broadway
viewpoint. In fact. although his work
centred around writing. throughout his
life Porter Emerson Browne has kept
his interests diverse.
Born in 1879 at Beverly, Mass, with
a father who alternated between bust
ness and writing plays, Mr. Browne
went into newspaper work almost as
soon as he finished school. He served
as a reporter both on the Brooklyn
! Standard Union and the Boston Globe.
Then he went West and after short
sessions on a mine and a ranch worked on
the Denver Republican. Returning to
Boston, he shipped on an antiquated
ferry. which set forth on a voyage to
Florida with a drunken crew. 1t never
got further than Virginia. Young
Browne rambled about there. came up tc
work on the Dramatic Mirror for siN
! months, spent the winter on a ric,
plantation in South Carolina writing
unsuccessfully. went to Europe with a
wealthy friend, and then spent another
winter on the same rice plantation. but
this time with better results. He sold
his first short story, "The Conversion OF
, Blake" to Golfers Weekly. then under
the editorship of Charles Belmont Davis
Quickly thereafter he sold five stories
to the Red Book Maodsine The same
spring-that being 1904-he wrote his
first one-act play. "a Hero" for Mason
and keeler. following with another.
Married for the same pair, in which
they played for four years. Then he
married, settled in Connecticut and
from that time on he turned out maya
zine material OF all sorts, ranging from
verse and essays to society stories and
Irish comedy yarns. He was represented
in practically every magazine OF inn
portance at some time or another.
In 1908 Robert billiard asked Mr..
Browne 10 write for him a play about
Kipling's famous vampire poem, as
Interpreted by Burne-Jones. That same
summer Mr.. Browne turned over to him
this play. "A Fool There Was" Fred
Thompson produced It, and the rest IS
history Next year Mr.. Browne wrote
"The Spendthrift," Fred Thompson pro-
duced that also. and another success
resulted. The playwright by this time
had made up his mind to win tho
friendship OF Charles Frohman. and he
succeeded. The manager produced al
least one OF his plays, but more i'm.
portant TO Mr.. Browne than this was
the happiness that came from personal
association with &C. F."
1t was while Mr.. Browne was. on tn,
Mexican border investigating problems
there that he conceived the idea for q
play which developed this last sprinl
into THE Bad Man" Tried out Ir
Atlantic City. It was brought to New
York in August.