The Washington times., 1923-01-28
THE BAT" CONTINUES
TOWARDS THE GOAL
OF PROSPEROUS AGE
By HAROLD PHILLIPS.

ter, Cordelia, in "Uncle Toms Cabin" IN
Vulnerable battalions Of the st. Clare prcgenl
have assembled heavenwards on protesting Dulleys
enough hound power to drag the Washingtor
monument from its base and put 1t back again
If there were any object in SO doing-has beer
expended. in the pursuit Of 10000 fleet Elias;
and, as for the aggregate tonnage of ice, well
statistics just balk. One could carpet the Arctic
using Glaciers for knot-stones, with any small
!; part of = $50,
In other. words "Uncle Tom" has had q decent
though spasmodc run and one woald surmise that
every intellect and caf in the land had seen IT. vet
there are Jagged reefs on the opera house coast
line wheNe strolling players jazzolthc editions OF
the Vincent Crummles company, still find profit
and kindly reception at each and every perform
ance. Only a week ago playhouse journal
carried urrent, appeal from 'Tom Show No. e.
FOR little Eva v-,.o could double in brass and
supply her own levitation machinery.
Now, 1.-THE Bat tat IMAGINATIVE piece OF
f1esh-pricking by the Rinehart- Hopwood duet. Is
not nearly so old as the Stowe classic, vet we
venture to believe that more people have seen
Che former and its dividends have been fabulously
greater "Lightnin'" was a contender but the
death of Frank Bacon may have spiked its
chances. Until some one writes better, The
Bat continues to do business as the great Aneri-
can play; not that it is the localized. American
play, typical of American life and manners but
because it has exacted great response from q
greater number of people than any other dones-
tic product in mind.
The informal weekly meetings of Mrs. Rine-
hart and Mr. Hopwood to check over royalties
must be ever so pleasant.
my God, how the money rolls in" Mrs.
Rinehart can be imagined as saying-or think
ing.
mo end" says Mr.. Hopwood.
ssWonder when it will all stop?"
..No telling. The thing is young yet. Look
at .Camile;, look again at The Old Homestead,
and at Way Down East, to not dare look at
Hamlet and .Shylock' and Romeo"
YES" agrees Mistress Mary, "and there's
Sophocles' sOedipus,' twenty-five centuries old
and still very popular in France.
aOh, don't believe begins Avery. but
smother revelation from the Burroughs puts end
to speculation.
Specifically, the people who wrote The
Bat" are geniuses of the same mold as
the man who produced Eskimo Pie" and
not whit better, with Difference. of course,
to the excellence of their other literary achieve
ments Imagination, in any field, has always
paid dividends if harnessed like waterfall.
This is why, undoubtedly, so few people make
lots of money. Imitativeness, on the other
hand, is so conspicuously human trait that
initiative and Imagination warp and decay and
most of us remain within earshot of the worlds
yelp.
The one place where imagination could run
rampant with riches-the stages the place
where it is sluggard, idling ten years in the re-
1ected sunshine of the achievements of one.
The Pop" playwEights are just very ordinary
M oof1
lunchroom patron who invariably orders "some
OF tnat, the that" being what the stranger
across the table is devouring
Somebody writes a successful mystery nlav and
the same thing" boys pounce aVidly ON the idea
ceug1ng the stage with hundred patterns where
one would serve. Another writes "Wah-Wah'
song which, automatically is successful. and from
coast to coast the barrage leaps in discordant
bounds. - -
OF such initiative genesis is "The Green Scarab
given before skeptical and ever diminishing
were "The Elton Case;" "The Man on the
Balcony" and others written right off s'The Bat
70 use pun of now ancient coinage. The NOR
taiity among brain children would excite some
pity If their parents took ordinary prenatal care
More wearisome than B. o. timetable and
with less solid matter to commend it, "The
Green Scarab plodded through three acts and
four scenes with less zest than Jiggs viewed the
wonders of the Louvre. With no sense of i'm.
pudent ievity we pass on the verdict of the group
surrounding US, to wit: that Snoozelums, the pet
w, carried OIL hstrionlc honofs because ne
lapologles to our old rhetoric teacher, had no
lines to speak and wasn't concerned with being
anything but natural. The rest of the east re
fnembered to act, faculty not easy to divorce
In this play After the first act, the audito,
could suffer in sympathy with the actor, sensing
twin trepidation each cue brought forth new
insipidities. -
Mr. Stapleton, who wrote this play, may shrive
at the barbs directed against his composition but
In this land of overnight success, he may recover
completely through new efforts. He does know
how to bring people and off the stage and
there is suggestion that he has heard of "slt
uation" without boasting intimacy of acquant
ance. The rebellion, thus, is the more emphatic
and Just from before thebfootlights. If variet,
islspice, copybook logic should sugges THAT when
one pattern woos popularity the extreme of tha
pattern ought likewise do so. Why the writins
folk will cling to the paved road of precedent
when, only beyond the hedge, there is softer so,
to tread, must be blamed on overdevelopment Of
the initiative gland and suppression Of the i'm