The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-04-27
In New York
By PAUL HARRISON

NeW 1Ork-FrODdDly IA0 OHiy Simon-pure idealist with whom
 your correspondent is acquainted
 is MT Butler Davenport, who now
 is celebrating, very inexpensively,
 his twentieth anniversary as own CT, manager, director and principal
 performer of the Free Theater. Davenport is a tallish, middle aged and surprisingly cheerful man. Born on Manhattan's East Side, and never having been abroad, he has one of the finest accents ever heard on this side
 of the Atlantic. His theater, also
 born on the East Side, still. lives there in a building which success
 sively has bee ma Baptish church
 and spirtiualist meeting hall. It is the only theater in New York that doesn't charge admis- sion, and 1t always is filled. These facts are offered by MT Daven- port as proof that commercialism is running the American theater. He started his enterprise in 1915 as school where ambitious youngsters might learn the rudi- ments of acting. He is great stickler for rudiments, and during intermissions appears before the curtain with sheet wrapped around him as he tells of his aims for the theater. Members of the, audience ask questions about the dray-ma, and he answers them. Then a collection basket is passed along the 250 seats, and a few people contribute-usually a total from $6 to $8.
 Box Office Flop
 That sounds like a pretty mean average, but actually 1t Is bet ter than selling tickets. Three years ago Davenport became rather desperate and tried to get all his patrons to pay. They were insulted and stayed away en
 masse, so he gave up the idea. Most of the plays are by Shake- speare, Moliere and Pinero. "The Bells" is the play bringing in the
 largest collections, but Hamlet is MT Davenport's favorite, with
 himself in the title role. His sup
 porting actors are recruits from the neighborhood and from among the drama students who attend his school of histrionics. A good
 many of his people, incidentally, have gone on to some prominence in the Broadway theater and the
 movies. Gene Raymond, Gertrude Flynn, Lloyd Cough, and the most famous of Negro actresses, Rose McClendon, have been among
 his pupils.
 MT Davenport has a stock joke relating to his struggles. For 20 years have been living with the wolf," he says, "and have al- most starved him to death." He admits he was very lucky ever to have been able to buy the build ing which his Free Theater occu- pies. One evening seventeen years ago he presented Difference in Gods," a play dealing with di-
 vorce. It happened that a wealthy couple whose minds were on di- vorce attended that evening and became reconciled. Tn apprecia- tion, they gave Davenport $10,- 900, and with that he bought the old church and remodeled 1t.
 Slimp In Deals
 What wanted to point out,
 several paragraphs ago, was that there are mighty few genu- inc idealists extant. Poets sing of cosmetics, whiskies and cor
 sets Gertrude Stein writes utter gibberish, and is unable to explain
 what it's all aBout-except that publishers buy it. For years
 George Bernard Shaw found 1t profitable to be sassy and sardon- ic, and only recently have large
 numbers of people begun to find
 hi ma bore.
 am acquainted with several
 artists and a couple of sculptars
 who like to remind each other
 that they must b efired by high purpose, else they never could en- dure the privations of Greenwich Village garrets. Phooey! They
 live very well, glory in their pre- tensions of martyrdom, are past masters of drawing-room panhan- ding and would rather starve than work. Boondogglers; that's | what they are. One man is 8 "modernist," daubing in outland- l fish colors and impossible perspec- l tives, because he is incapable of more literal reproduction.
 Some critics seem no more sin- | cere than artists. There have been embarrassing instances in which prizes were awarded surrealist painting hung upside down. Only recently a well known critic visit ed an exhibition at the Morton Galleries and said of an artist
 named Everett Shinn: Obviously
 he is a very young man anxious
 to make an impression. Experi-
 ence and recognition doubtless
 will give him steadier base for
 working ... Yet Shinn is scarcely
 a young man. He was q magazine
 illustrator before the turn of the| century. And for 2B yeags heI
 has been . front-rank magazine' arfiaf.