New-York tribune., 1922-10-29
Is
Swanped W itll
PLAY Ideas
They're All Answers to
the Question He Asked
Recently Over the Aadio

ttl 2AfSAS ASVpWVVus WnC5S play
aWhy Men Leave Home now is at the
Gerosco Theater, dropped into 8 radio
distributing station the other day and
ganmed up a couple of bedtime
stories. or weather reports, or iullabies.
Or whatever they were filling the air
vsth that day, and yelled down the airy
,horoughfares of the world, "Well, why
10 men leave home?" hasn't anything
se do with this article.
The point is that Mr.. Hopwood had
{ the nerve to ask the question. And
! TIT only that, but he has received at
list reports 5,T52 answers-all differ
sni. lNo responsibility is taken for
She enuraeration Of the answers. Mr..
Hcpwood feels as if he had received
million.)
Mail, telegraph and telephone brought
DIR. Hopwood his responses. It's fjg-
ured he got enough of 'em to write
eighteen more plays about. He had
said over the radio that men leave
bone because their wives, technically,
e not actually, leave home first That
10, the wives don't comfort and care for
their husbands properly, and things
Ike that. We'll, while Mr.. Hopwood
emphasized that he only referred to
minority of wives, you should take n
look at the answers he got. One, for
instance, came from farmers wife in
Enid, Okla. She wrote:
81 listened in to your talk the other
sight, and agree with every word you
said. Right here among my neighbors
] see men working hard in the fields
all day, and their wives sit with radio
receivers clamped to their ears, or play
the photograph or go joy-riding in the
aivyer. Then when the supper bell
fails to ring the wives say they forgot
and blame it on daylight saving. No
wonder those men leave home. I've
been married for thirty three years and
my man hasn't had to go without his
supper one day. j guess he isn't think
ing of leaving me yet
Then there was another note. This
was from an economically independent
wife. She told how she worked during
the day, met her husband each eve
ming after working hours were over,
had dinner in restaurant and played
bridge three nights a week with him.
She didn't believe MIR. Hopwood at all.
Not bit of it.
"Oh, Mr.. Hopwood," she wrote, "what
joker you are! Don't you know that
IN Just look for an excuse to break
ay from home. And when they have
no excuse they break away anyway.
"And, Mr.. Hopwood, how you must
have laughed to yourself when you
..oto that men leave home to seek
Intellectual companionship from an
ot'ter woman. Of course, you know the
in ellectual status of the other woman.
Oh, you joker!"
The men?
Well, for example, there was one
rho wrote:
"I have been driving private taxi
cab for two years. l know Of at least
fifty married women who seem to wait
only until their husbands are outside
the door before they fix the table for
dinner, put the cold meat and bread
and butter in place and then send for
mt TO take them-well, it is none of my
business where. But, Mr.. Hopwood, be-
Il We me, if you will sit down and talk
things that will let sou write another
play and call it why Men Should
Leave Home"
Another man wrote:
You're wrong-all wrong, Mr.. Hop
wood. Guess you don't mix it UP much
with the boys. II you did you'd soon
find out that no matter what woman
does, her husband just can't be on the
level with her.
"Why, half the time the men in our
Office are working for the boss and the
rest Of the time they are trying to fix
up good excuses to give their wives to
get out for time. The fellows know
cont want their wives to have children
because they figure it would cut in too
deep on their spending money. And
shey want their better halves to be the
best dressed women in town, even
though they don't give them enough to
buy bungalow apron: Write new
play, Mr.. Playwright, and call it why
Women Should Leave Home and you'll
tind you've hit on a mighty popular
idea"
This may result in a series of Hop
wood plays that will ultimately prove
e the satisfaction of everyone that So
long as there is many place like
fonie, why bother to have home at
all!