New Britain herald., 1922-01-14

did not seem to let me out, l said I
 would speak on Behind the Scenes"
 The speaker proceeded to advise his hearers never to go behind the scenes
 of the theater if they could help it. He described the details of this Hand of disiIl,islonment" in his humorous
 way, telling of the thin legs of the
 poor young men who, lying on their backs hidden from the sight of the ! spectators, kicked with their feet over
 their heads to make the canvas bill
 lows of the sea in Ben Hur" seem realistic.
 Illustrating his point, MT. Woolcott
 narrated the tale of how Charles Han son Towne, noted American poet, had
 longed for twenty years to meet Mrs.
 'iske, the famous actress. but had
 been unable to do so. One evening
 Mrs. Fiske appeared at war benefit performance. Mr. Towne, a member
 of the benefit committee, stood in the wings at the side of the stage where the electrician is posted. At the end of Mrs. Fiskes recitation, Mir. Towne stepped forward as she left the stage,
 greeted her, and poured forth from his poetic heart the admiration he had felt for her and her ability for so many years. When 'he ceased, after ten minutes of such fervent or atory, Mrs. Fiske remarked sweetly: Thank you-thank you so much, Mir. Electrician" Mir. Towne bushes to- day when addressed as Mir. Electric ian.
 But to take his hearers behind the actual scenes of the stage was not Mr. Woollcott's avowed purpose, he declared. It was his desire to tell of the stories that lay back of the writ ing or the presenting of some of the plays of the hour with the belief that were those tales, sometimes of trag- edy, sometimes of sentiment, some times of dire need, but known to the audience, the value and the enjoy ment of the play would be multiplied many times
 MT. Woollcott told the story of the coming together of J. M. Barrie and Maude Adams-a long tale of the struggling young Scotch playwright and the almost unknown actress; how Barrie had refused to dramatize "The Little Minister" until one day, through chance sight of Miss Adams in Rosemary" he saw for the first time the actress who was in fact, his ideal of the lady "Babbie" of the story.
 The tale back of Alias Jimmy Val entine" brought out how attempts had been made to get 0. Henry to write a play; how nothing would induce him to do so: how he had written little story which had contained in marked degree the dramatic quality characteristic of all o. Henry's stories, and how that story had been handed to Paul Armstrong by pro- ducer with the urgent request that he write a play from it as quickly as pos sible It was done in a week and produced twelve weeks thereafter From it o. Henry received nothing more than the $500 given him for the dramatic rights, but Armstrong re- ceived over $75,000.
 The most affecting story "back of the achievements" of the stage, told by MT. Woollcott, was that of Franc Craven, author of "The First Year" Craven had been without work, in hard luck, for a long time He had been making daily visits in New York to his mother, dying slowly in a hotel, from one of the windows of which she and her son could look down upon the theater in which Craven later made his first great hit as the s14 a week shipping clerk in Bought and Paid For.' They used to talk there by that window, mother and son, speaking of the day when the son would be a star--the son who, despite his apparent happiness at the mo- ment, was in great distress of mind.
 Craven had at last found a pro-