The New York herald., 1921-12-12
Dapid BeLdScO
HOnOred at Dinner
by 1000 Friends
Says His Work Is His Play and
Love Is Only Thing That
Counts.

Memories OF all that David Belaseo
has done for the American theatre
since he came TO New York forty years
ago, a hunger pinched boy who could
afford no better lodgings than a shabby
little garret in Fourteenth street. were
brought back last night at the Biltlnore,
where nearly 900 of his friends In and
Out of the theatre met al dinner TO honor
him, his genius and his achievements.
The dinner was arranged by the So
niety of Arts and Sciences. Notables
srom virtually every profession were
present. Speakers referred 10 MIR. Be
1asco's idealism. the dignity of his
TASTE, his kindliness. his comprehensive
3lnowledge of stagecraft and his sure
mess of touch in dealing with human
emotions And at the end Mr Belasco
said:
I'm all these years ii stands to reason
that / must have learned something,
and it is this-it takes only moment
10 say it: Love is the only thing that
matters, the one thing that counts.
out of the depths of my experience
can say that the longer l live the
more l despise the so-called material
things and the more l see that love is
the really big thing, the important eter-
nal thing.
Another thing | have learned in my
experience in New York has grown to
be my creed: believe that God made
s7ls to work. But l believe He made us
10 love our work so much that We might
play at II, find real and profound pleas
nre in 1t, and so labor OH until, tired
out, we might sleep like little children
at the end of each day.
People say to me, the doctors and
my friends: You work too hard
say No; ] play little hard perhaps.
My work is my play And it is such
good sport that l love it more and
more and since nothing is wasted our
love Is the one real thing in the work
we leave. The man who does not love
his work, who finds no pleasure in il
who cannot toll at it till he drops. is a
slave"
Otis Skinner was POSTMASTER. Speak
ers included Charming Pollock, Janet
-beecher, Thomas Hobson Quinn, Charles
,. Whitman Miss Rose Coghlan F'rsder-
ick A. Wallis, Louis V. De Foe. Miss
Frances Starr, Augustus Thomas and
Otto H. Kahn
'Idealism." said Mr. Kahn, lis a pre-
dominant American trait, whether it is
The idealsm of Theodore Roosevelt.
practical and direct; the aloof and spir-
jtual quality of Woodrow Wilson's IDEAL
asm; the idealsm of clear vision which
Charles Evans Hughes is demonstrating
in Washington; the idealism of Morris
Gest, who is willing to give all and who
cannot keep out of any great project
which appeals to his theatrical senses:
the idealism of Henry Ford, which has
heen turned into a mania by the arro-
gance of ignorance coupled with great
wealth, or the idealism of Eugene Debs.
which turned into treason to his country.
No man is particularly American unless
he has that color of idealism in his ma
ture. And Mr.. Belasco is a wise old
tdealistlc bird"
Claiming Pollock. by way of taking
dig at certain contemporary producers,
said:
THE policy of They want it, so give it
10 EN- puts the theatre on the level of
The old corner saloon. 1t is the policy
which led to the stopping OF the con-
VITALITY of the dinner party to end the
degeneracy of the dives. And when
censorship comes into our theatre
drama goes out of it."
Among the guests were Daniel Froh-
man, David Werield, Miss Leonore
Elrich. the Misses Alma and Olive Tell
Darwin p. Kingsley, Miss Marie Doro
Louis Mann, Lawrence Reamer, Dom
Barber. Frank Gilmore, Miss Marjorie
Rambeau. Frank Reicher, Miss Ruth
Shepley, Morris Gest, Feodor Chaliapine.
Clinton T. Brainard, Mrs. c. V. Brokaw,
John Nee. Bowman and Justice Charles
j.. Guy.