The Washington herald., 1920-12-19
New York City
Day by Day
BY o. O. MCINTYRE.

NEW YORK, Dec. IS. - Harry
Kemp. famed as a tramp poet. has
reopened his theater down in the
Washington Square section. So far
away Is the theater from the mad
ding throng that Kemp furnishes
prospective patrons with a map SO
that they may find their way.
One must criss-cross a section of
narrow streets and then turn up a
little alley, where, in a tumble
down shed. the theater is situated.
The scenery one must imagine. Each
night Kemp presents three plays, all
written by himself. He appears be-
fore the curtain and explains the
plots before they are presented.
The theater holds twenty persons.
and the admission is s1.10, which in
cludes the war tax. There are eight
or ten performers, and as the total
receipts for a week of crowded
houses totals s12o, It may be easily
understood that there are no highly
paid stars.
On the program, Kemp announces:
Friends and Dramatic Critics are
denied free tickets" In fact, Kemp
does not care to have the critics
They might scoff, and a poet hates
scoffer.
Nina, who sells beads and batik
gowns in a little shop under the
theater, Is the leading lady. She is
an advanced thinker, and cares moth
ing for sordid money. Others in the
company are intellectual giants of
the Greenwich Village inner circle
of serious thinkers.
1t Is the custom of the players.
after the performance, to meet the
udience at a little coffee house
owned by one of the players, and
here they sit around a lamp and
decry the foibles of a mad universe.
Kemp keeps his theater open from
December 1 to February l. and then
he becomes a wanderer and goes OFF
in search of high adventure-per-
haps in China, France or the Far
West. This next year he is said to
be planning a jaunt to the South
Sea Islands.
The rental of Kemp's Theater is
reported to be 81 a week. No stage
hands are needed and Kemp takes
in the tickets at the door and pulls
the curtains. What is left after ex-
penses are paid is equally divided
for even theorists must have a little
bread.
The audience consists mostly of
out-of-town folk who hear of the
Kemp Theater which is well adver-
tised by word of mouth in the Viii
lage waffle shops and coffee houses.
There are no billiard signs or news
paper advertisements.
Kemp is very serious about his
theater as he Is about the great
- y.
fulfilling a certain mission. He
finds time at odd moments to write
a little poetry which he sells to help
maintain the theatrical enterprise.
The Chinese are great gamblers
and that, so the police say, is why
many laundry customers go to their
laundries and find out they have
changed overnight. Often the whole
personnel of a Chinese restaurant
is changed In the same fashion. At
fan-tan II is not unusual for laun-
drymen or restaurateurs to put up
their places of business and trust
to luck.
A Sunday feature writer has
found that the five most popular
books among movie stars in New
York are: Caius Gracious, Potterism,
The Lamp in the Desert, The Rivers
End and Miss Lulu Bett. And this
Is about the time of year the an
nual wheeze about the chorus girls
literary taste bobs up. Maizie
asked a friend what she would give
Maud for Christmas. why not give
her a book?" was the suggestion.
"Oh! was the reply, "she has a
book -