Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-04-28
THE PASSION PLAY
Anton Lang Offered $l,OOO,0OO to go
Into the Movies as ChriStuS.
COMMERCIAL idea ABHORRENT TO Rim

Famous Pageant Is to Be Held Agar
In Little Bavarian Village This Sum
mer-cost to Visitors for Admission
Two Nights Lodging and Five Meals
WEI BE S12Scharaeter Sketches oi
Principal Actors.
1t will cost the American visitor to
the Passion Play this summer writes
Aksel Faber from Oberammergau,
something less than $1.25. This in
cludes the price of the ticket, lodging
for two nights, and five mountain
meals. The price has been fixed at 400
marks, everything included, and 400
marks are right now worth less than
s1.25. There is no knowing how little
they may be worth by the time the
first performance is given on May IA.
The town of Oberammergau is in
danger of running itself in its insist
ence OF asking as little as possible OF
the thousands of visitors who Will
come to their quaint mountain village
this summer. They want above all
things to avoid the slightest suspicion
Of trying to make money out OF the
pageant in honor Of Christ which they
have performed as nearly as possible
every ten years since they vowed to
do so following the great plague, OF
1888. This was always easy to do IN
the years before the war, when money
had a fixed value but with the value
of the German mark changing from day
to day and the price Of living con-
stantly increasing, it Is going to be an
expensive business to feed the quarter
of a million visitors they are sure to
have this summer. Then there is the
question Of renewing the scenery and
the costuning, in which the village
has already invested a million marks.
They Are Not Worldly.
Hence the money question is really
beginning to worry these simple, ide-
alistic people, as have learned chief
ly from private conversations dur
ing the few delightful days L nave
been here in their pure, religious
atmosphere. Curiously enough, l nave
heard great deal about money mat
ters--not that the Oberammergau
neople want to know about or think
about worldly questions, but because
they are constantly having the dis
agreeable matter showed in front or
them. Perhaps it is the oft-repeatea
scene of Christ driving the money
changers from the Temple that has
given them disgust for money, or
perhaps 1t is the crude way thelr
idealism has been shaken by theatrl-
cal and movie managers eager to put
them on the boards and make a for
tune out of them. Incidentally most
of these offers have come from
America.
e.! A Million to Film it.
For instance, Anton Lang, the VII
lage potter, who has entered the soul
and broadened the religious con-
seriousness Of hundreds Of thousands
Of spectators of the Passion Play by
his presentation of Christ, told me he
had been offered 100000 by Ameri-
can film producers to stage the Pas-
sion Play for them. The sum struck
me as so large that I could not nave
believed such an offer had been made
II 7 had not had it from Lang himself
He also told me there was a second
offer of 100000 German marks
which was something near $l,Ooo,ooo
at the time the offer was made. A
German film company made the more
modest offer of 100000 German
marks to film the performance.
Langs attitude toward all these
money offers is one Of annoyance
When talked to him the other morn
ing at breakfast over the coffee ana
lam he shared with me, he happened
to have his mind turned that way.
II have just received letter from
an American bishop" he said, whlch
appreciate very much. The bishop
begs me by no means and under no
consideration to be tempted py the
fortune held out for movie picture
rights. Don't let anyone induce you
to make money from the PASSION
Play.' he writes. 1t stands out as a
great religious festival, something SO
far above and remote from mere mon
ey that there is no price.
Even. before the war l was made
offers to produce the Passion Play
elsewhere. One offer years ago, re-
member, was $4,000. 1t astonished me
at the time, but it is only since we de-
cided to renew our VOW this year that
the offers have been persistent.
A .Grs tefuI American.
"You can imagine how distressing
such offers are to me. But nave peen
compensated by other offers Of money
of a very different kind. l have here a
letter from an American who writes
Offering to build a crucifix in the vii
lage in compensation for the great
spiritual Joy he experienced while
watching the Passion Play here in
1910. He wrote that he had been so
moved by the spectacle that it has
made a lasting impression on his life.
and he only hopes he will have enough
! strength this year to come to see II