The New York herald., 1922-12-10

Hokurning
Continued from Preceding Page.

self, but what am I against some of
the wise" public?"
And. too, there should be change
in the method OF criticizing first per-
formances. l read with great interest
recently that a certain New York news
paper was considering postponing Its
criticisms until the first Sunday after
the premiere. This would give all the
| new plays q chance Of week OF so TO
| go on their own merits. / would like
to see this tried 1t might bring some
remarkable results. (Then again, 1t
mightnt) Dramatic criticism in this
| city never was so fair and honest as 1t
| is to-day. I knew the day when 1t was
otherwise, but even honest men may be
wrong in their judgment of public taste
and a play should be judged by pubic
opinion and not by individuals.
The road OF the producer is hard
one and as an old timer l plead for a
| proper consideration of his plight. In
| old days the road was often q gold mine
for play that failed in New YORK, but
! the road is gone. We used to be able
| to play two seasons outside the large
| cities with a success Now we find that
| the spoken theater is virtually barred
| from such State as Texas, No spoken
play of much Importance has entered
that State in five years. Albany. Lynn,
Lawrence, Lowell, Portland, Me-; Du-
luth. Scranton, Calgary, Vancouver
| Stockton Montgomery, Savannah. Tren-
| ton. Elizabeth, New Brunswick. Evans
Vile and scores Of other moderate
sized cities OF former Importance the
| atrically either have no place Tor the
spoken drama to play or refuse abso-
lutely to support visiting theatrical at
| fractions
The public in these places has for
gotten to great extent there is such
q thing as the spoken theater. The
| cause: Movies presented In magnificent
houses with every modern convenience,
Cheap vaudeville and last but not least
the lack of foresight that was shown
| by the producer, No 2, or COM
panies, old, worn out scenery, bad ac-
tors, careless performances. But the
! movies hurt most of all because they
furnished cheap entertainment In an ex-
pensive setting. And when the native
goes TO the movie to see Fairbanks,
Pickford or Chaplin or any of his screen
pets he sees the real thing. The only
way he can be badly stung is when the
Aim is worn out and the picture people
are too clever to let that happen often
So millions OF movie bugs are being
built up everywhere, while the poor old
theater lies in its dotage.
Another trouble is that there are not
enough actors to go around. The ART
is dying out Young men. when II comes
to choose a profession, hesitate about
putting grease paint on their races The
travelling life does not appeal to them.
Living in one place has an appeal above
that of the life Of the mountebank.
Good artists prefer New York and pre-
fer playing here for smaller salary or
even lying idle the best part OF sea-
son with the hope OF a New York run
the chimera that keeps them here.
A New York run nowadays means
nothing on the road unless 1t Is an
extraordinary run like "Lightnin or
the play itself Is an extraordinary one
that causes considerable discussion
| Under the latter class comes THE
World We Live In" But this spectacle
must run many months in order to have
! something other than a disastrous re-
ception on the road For IL it stayed
| here for but a couple of months It would
be impossible to send 1t on the road at
all. With the usual hokum this is a mat
ter of secondary Importance. If 1t doesn't
go "over" in one city it can move 10 the
next, and the expense in doing so Is COM
paratlvely small. But with an enormous
production such as we have. where 1t
may require a week layoff between
stands to rehearse the production ana
arrange the stage with its appurtenances
we can't move easily. It's like mobile
single man moving around in comparison
to a couple with six children. You've
seen them on trains.
And then with a large production you
| invest 100000 and. upward with the
chance of getting nothing In return.
whereas the hokum dealer has a better
chance of getting return on an Invest
mont one tenth 70 one-fifth that
| My conclusion may sound like an ad-
vertlsoment for 'The World We Live
| In," but It Is a fact that we did nothing
for two weeks-my loss was $4,000 for
that fortnight alone--but since then the
sharp increase in business has proved
my theory that there Is a large class OF
playgoers left In New York who have
stayed away from the theater because
| of conditions. but who will go when
there's something aside from the usual