The Daily Alaska empire., 1931-05-15

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 As soe,Arro eexss (srnAoss -ptyrossl
 DAVID BELASCO
 that theatre and later held simi- lar positions at the Grand Opera House and the Metropolitan The ater in San Francisco.
 Was Stage Manager
 During those years MT. Belasco came in contact with such stars a. Edwin Booth, John Mccullough, E A. Sothern, Edwin Adams, Ade- aide Nelson and others. Mean while, he had been spending all his Jpare time dra m tizing novels, adapting foreign plays and doing original work. From his position as stage manager, he went with Dion Boucicault, whom he served as pri- vate secretary for time.
 The play, La Belle Russo writ ten by MT. Belasco in 1879, gained recognition for him in New York when it was successfully produced at Wallack's Theatre. Three years later he was induced to go to New York by the Mallory brothers, who engaged him as stage manager and stock dramatist for their Madison Square Theatre. There he began his real climb to fame, continued it as stage manager for Daniel Frohman at the Old Lyceum The ater and eventually struck out to attain his greatest achievement on his own account.
 Early Stage Successes
 One of his early successes was May Blossom" of which he was author and which was produced in 1884. Three years later he pre- sented E. H. Sothern in Lord Chumley," of which MT. Belasco and Henry c. DeMille were CO., authors. Mrs. Leslie Carter reach ed stardom in his "The Heart of Maryland and continued her suc- cess in the Belasco version of "za- za." He collaborated with John Luther Long in Madame Butter fly" and "The Darling of the Gods, the latter being the vehicle which brought fame to Blanche Bates. It was in 1904 that MT Belasco pre- sented David Warfield in The Music Master" which established record for continuous perform ances to that time
 Other Belasco plays which still are familiar to theatre patrons include Andrea" classical trag- edy of the Byzantine period; "The Girl of the Golden West" Rose of the Rancho" "The Grand Army Man." and "The Return of Peter Grimm"
 In recent years the successes which MT. Belasco staged included Ina Claire in "The Gold Diggers;;" Fay Bainter in "The Other Rose;" Robert Lorraine in Tiger Cats" Lenore Uric in "The Harem;" Hol- brook Blinn and Judith Anderson in "The Do~e;" Willard Mack in Canary Dutch" and E. H. Sothern in Accused"
 Stages 400 Plays
 On the 18th anniversary of his birthday, Mir Belasco was at At lantic City directing the production of new play preliminary to put ting it on Broadway. Up to that time it was estimated that he had staged about 400 plays, of which he had written or helped to write l50. He announced then that his production schedule had been plan ned for the ensuing eight years with 37 plays listed for presentation.
 It was not until 1902 that MT Belasco acquired a theatre of his own. He spent six years and near ly s1 100000 in litigation with Klaw and Erlandeer and other theatrical syndicate managers to establish his independence. Later he acquired interests in theatres in many of the principal cities. At his studio over the Belasco Theatre in New York, he maintained for several years a bureau of playwrighting. which was said tc have cost him s20 900 a year. Thousands of aspir- ing playwights submitted manu- scripts, none of which was found
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