The Washington times., 1930-01-04
.GLEANINGS
AND
SCREENINGS
By Andrew r. Kelley

IA One Of the nuisances which
Y Washington is spared-thank
4 Heavens the gouging ticket
speculator. New York is cursed
with the evil and even the few
( managers with sell-out attrac-
tions admit the gasping for
breath legitimate stage has
been helped to it's feeble state
by the heavy hand Of the
{ pasteboard bandits.
Recently there has been mur-
muring Of a rebellion that
u would take the form Of an
/. aggressive newspaper campaign,
reinforced by legal cooperation,
s designed to- eradicate the ex-
4 tortionate ticket agents from
the theatrical scene.
: Whether this contemplated
action inspired it or otherwise,
the fact Is that all Of the in
fluential Broadway managers
met Thursday, afternoon and
the result was a definite move
ment to end the reign Of the
leeches who have been eXacting
from SO to SO a ticket profit
on admissions to the desirable
attractions. We are told that
!. again tickets will actually be
on sale at the box office, that
speculation will be confined to
brokers who will be content
with a 75-cent profit, that the
plan of outright buys by the
ticket agents will be abandoned
and that the managers will
bond their membership and see
that everybody observes the
agreement. They hope to have
it effective by March /.
Only this week one Of this de-
partment's confidantes reported
that being in New York over
the holidays he saw Strictly
Dishonorable," Sweet Adeline"
and Fifty Million Frenchmen."
To satisfy such an appetite for
hit attractions he paid $68 for
six seats. AS near as he could
compute the box office price
for these orchestra Seats-and
the closest was in the fifteenth
row-was $33. In some expert
enced way he Is able to con-
ceal the bandit tax Of $35 In
his expense account and is not
grumbling. But it is such ex-
orbitant extra tariffs as these
which the New York managers
are trying to end. I hope they
succeed.
Over on the opposite page is
a picture of William Gillette,
drawn from life by Frederick
Dorr Steele. the artist who did
the illustrations for the Conan
Doyle stories incorporating the
famous fiction detective, Sher-
lock Holmes.
The current New Yorker de-
scribes carefully how the pic
tured conception of Holmes was
created and, with a bow to
Editor Ross, I am taking the
liberty of quoting it:
IF you saw one Of the Sou-
venir programs got out for Will
liam Gillette's final appearance
as Sherlock Holmes, you prob
ably read Frederick Dorr
Steele's account of how he did
the illustrations for the Conan
Doyle stories, and thus brought
into being the most widely
known fictional character in
the world. One interesting point
Mr., Steele cleared up: Gill
lette's stage appearance as
Holmes was made before Steele
began drawing the great detec-
tive. Many thought Steele's
conception came first. The fact
is, Steele's conception was based
on Gillette's stage portrayal of
the character although the
artist never drew Gillette from
life until a few weeks ago,
when the actor sat for a por-
trait. This was, incidentally,
the first time the two had met
in Is years. Steele worked
from photographs Of Gillette.
He used at various times, how
ever, two living models. One
was Robert King and the other
Frank B. Wilson, an actor who
was once stage manager for
Henry Irving. Both men had
the lean figure and aquiline
countenance described by Doyle
in his stories. But, even when
these men were posing for him,
Steele always had photographs
of Gillette beside him.
Steele Illustrated his first
Sherlock Holmes story in 1908.
Prior to that several other ar
fists had drawn Holmes-Sid-
ney Paget in London and, over
here, w. II. Hyde, who did the
pictures for the Holmes series
which ran in Harper's in the
early eos. Hyde conceived
Holmes as youngiSh, dressy
man. It remained for Steele to
make the character really
striking, and once he had drawn
Holmes he illustrated all but
three of the 80 stories which
Doyle wrote after 1908, the year
Sherlock Holmes returned after
his supposedly fatal fall over
the chff with Prof. Moriarty.
Doyle had thought he was fin
ished with Sherlock Holmes
forever. He believed the public
was tired of the character, and
he. himself, wanted to turn to
writing other things. The ruth
less disposal of Holmes caused
a worldwide public uproar, how.