The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-05-22
By GILBERT SWAN NEA Service Writer

NEA service Writer
 Just over the stage of his BeIas- co Theater, the most lavish of David Beiasco's productions stands, packed with the extravagant curios of the worlds but strangely empty without It's leading character.
 Here were the far-famed private offices of the great producer and star-maker. This had been the set- ting for hundred emotional scenes, Z wherein had figured the royalty of the theater. Here tempests had brewed, dramas had been born, thousand scripts thumber over, a thousand players selected, score of regulations launched.
 The rooms fairly overfowed with the atmosphere" that "the govern- or' piled about him as his fame rose and his years waned. Not only was '.all the world a stage" but the stage had become all his world. Every thing began to resolve itself into a series of dramas, one overlapping the other. One vanity came on the heels of another.
 Setting The Stage
 And those who associated with him most closely, became like so many stage-setters to this stage world he was creating. Each morn ing would come Miss Ginty, his head secretary, and Miss Cerco, her .as- sistant, who for 20 years had ar- ranged the office scene in prepare tion for the entrance of the Heading man."
 They would place on pretentious lockwood table a half dozen finely shapened pencils and neat pile of paper and a pair of eyeglasses. Soon. 'the governor" would arrive.
 And the same thing would happen day after day: he would impatient ly push the table aside in favor of the rickety old favorite table on which many of his early successes had been penned. So dilapidated was this that strings held the legs together. Belasco was superstitious. He always used it when working on new material.
 Trophies of Q Lifetime
 The entranceway to this ''sanc- tum" was an iron-grilled gate. There was a tiny elevator, less frequently used, by which entrance could be gained from the theater rear. Price less treasures from every land turned the study into sort of mu- scum.
 Art treasures crowded the walls; the mantlepiece dominating the room was faced with tiles which had come from the Alhambra; drapes just above this a little balcony lead- ing to a miniature banquet table that had belonged to his friend. the late Stanford White.
 Here it was, after a successful opening night. that the master and his cast of players would gather. Then there was ''the nook," a rest room where had been collected the rarest Japanese art, and off this the Gothic room, vaulted, baronial hall hung with the banners of the ages, with shields and coats of arm and medieval armor; baubles from many courts, wands, carried by royal jesters--and, hidden behind screen, a scared old desk where manuscripts were dictated.
 Napoleon His Idol
 And behind big painted panels that opened at the. press of . but. ton ,the vast Belasco collection of jade. The collection was begun aft- CT the death of his youngest daugh- ter. She had been fond of jade, and each year he would add to this shrine--one rare piece after anoth- CT, until 1t became one of the worlds greatest jade collections.
 Ana unally Luo interesting N&- poleon collection: Napoleons under glass, Napoleons in stone, and in marble, and in ivory. Here "the governor" would stand for hours. first in front of one replica; then another. Was he not the Napoleon of the theater?
 Yes, Napoleon was the favorite character of both Belasco and the late Charles Frohman.
 Hanging incongruously above this collection was the Charles Frohman painting of Napoleon. sent to Be- lasco as peace present" after the two old friends had been estranged for years-just another of "the gov- ernor's' little feuds. A note came with the painting, saying: This is our mutual deity: and that Is horse he Is riding, though my friends say it's q cross between a COW and an antelope"
 Careers Launched
 Such had been for years "the stage set" in which Belasco spent most of tho hours of his life. What perfect bit of staging in which to