Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-26

quences. But the stage saw the
talkie scooping in coolies OF money,
with but little in the way of art
or talented effort and with, oh,
such funny things as the bait.
The stage producers, OF course,
became moon-eyed and then be-
gan the descent into AvernuS OF
our sacred relic, the theater. Why,
even that splendid actor John
Barrymore, with his gifted brother
Lionel, both of the royal family.
began to tug and strain at his
bearings and finally sent his stage
fame hurtling down the corridors
of time, and all for what-Simply
three times as much money as he
had ever made before, with less
than a thirtieth of the effort.
George ArliSS became SO fasci-
mated that he SwearS he will never
come back-maybe. BritonS don't
often quit good thing. And poor
little Ina Claire, who seems to
have enough of the cinema dust
of all kinds, turns her weary heart
back to where she can see the
audience grin and beat its hands.
A PLYING serious thought to
= the problem, it really doesn't
appear that the cleric section of
the kings horses and the kings
men is at all animated by what
might be termed malicious mill
fancy. Something appears to be
wrong somewhere, and whether
it knows what it is or not, that
department of the kings forces
certainly ought to be up and do
ing. When the stage, hypnotized
by those coolies of money-the life
blood of the box off1ce-next
found itself, it had abandoned
its high ideals, and, on the prin-
ciple that tit for tat is perfectly
fair, it then began Transforming
the American theater into the
show business" with blatant and
alluring, often insulting, publicity
and a series of explorations into
the art of subterfuge, until you
could scarcely tell the result from
it's mother.
Now, however, it is repentant
1t sees its error and wants to get
back into good company. And
surely, no cleric, however austere,
will want to repulse a repentant
sinner. Some miSchievious, if
well meaning busybodieS, how
ever, are messing up matters by
insisting that the clerics have
been shooting at the wrong tar
get. The movie, they insist, is the
father of "the show business" and
it is the movie, they say, rather
fhnotnv CT =
given the works" The ultimate
manifestation of the spirit Of JUS
tice, however, it is believed, will
Straighten out the situation by
an agreement, after conference,
as it were, and all should then
be well in the world.
THEATRICAL art and dramatic
expression are and ever have
been the forte of the theater.
And these are inspired, in the first
instance, by the people of the
times that are portrayed in the
drama. In an honest theater and
by an honest dramatiSt and play
wright the conditions and culture
OF period will be portrayed with
everlasting truth. If that truth
be unsavory, repellant, it would
seem that the people whose lives
are portrayed, and especially those
who by their patronage force the
production of such drama, must
bear the blame. Seeing oursel'S
as itherS see us" sometimes tends
to bring about a reform in which
we ourselves are the prime and
potent motivating force. PSychol-
ogiStS tell us that the recalcitrant
is more amenable to persuasive
influence than to the policeman'S
club. On the other hand, people
of the finer SenSibilitieS may be
shocked and outraged, and they
have the right to be, even though
the drama portrayed be an in
fallible reflex of conditions that
confront them in everyday life.
The remedy here, in part at least,
is to stay away from that sort of
drama and even to endeavor to
persuade others to do likewise.
Lack of patronage will kill bad
theater more quickly than drastic
laws and cenSorS who believe
themselves endowed with a mis-
sion. Education and culture are
needed to develop refinement and
taste in the people who patronize
the theater, but above and behind
it all must ever be spiritual beauty
and truth that are indispensable
to true art. The policeman, it is
humbly submitted, is not the in
Stitution to supply these.