The Wilmington morning star., 1940-12-17
WASHINGTON
DAYBOOK
BY JACK STINNETT

WASHINGTON, Dec. 16-The road - as
Broadway still fondly refers to the theater of
the hinterlands-may be as dead as the Shake
speare school of acting, but not@ 81 far as
Washington is concerned. @
Like a good many small villages who nurse
along a single opera house, the nations cap
|ital has only one legitimate th~eater-the Ma
tional-but I have it on the word of Edmund
Plohn, VIII has been running the place for
years, that Washington still is the outstanding
one-week stand in the country.
In spite Of its name, the National is not a
national theater and the only way your taxes
and mine might contribute to its upkeep is
when Senator Splurge gives. the gang from
home a line party. However, it IS something
OF a national institution, for it has been block.
ing traffic in E street, between 18th and 18th.
Tor lO5 years and was considered a capital
landmark when Ford's theater, where Lincoln
met mis- death, still was a going Baptist church.
l could start thumbing through the pages of
local history and tell you a lot about the Ma
tional-how President Wilson practically never
missed a performance there but on ofweeks
invariably went to Keith's, where he could
catch the vaudeville bill; how President Hoo.
yer practically never set his foot inside the
lobby, caring little or. nothing for the drama:
of the days when Edwin Booth played Shake
speare there and Mrs. Fiske . and the
elder Barrymore.
TESTING GROUND
But that's water under the bridge and most
OF it has washed through every bewhiskered
opera house in every city that dates to the
days tefore movies.
10 get up to modern times. The National
is an outrlgger, in a way, of the Guild theater
III New York, but it plays other than Guild
plays. 1t is, in fact, one of Broadway's testing
grounds and IN a season a score or more hone
1ul dramas will try their wings on a Washinp.
ton audience from the National stage. Ethel
barrymore made such a debut here recently
III The Corn Is Green and rang the bell as
loudly as she did in Times Square. But the
Nauonal also gets its share of plays heading
OUT. The all-time boxoffice record there is
held by such a play-''Victoria Regina" with
Helen Hayes (who, by the way, is a Washing.
ton GRID in the lead.
OFFICIALDOM ON HAND
OF the bigwigs who frequent the National
several are members Of the u. S, supreme
court, including Associate Justice Frankfurt
ter' Murphy and Douglas. Chief Justice Hughes
used never to miss a potentially good show
out IN the last year or so has found his duties
and other obligations too e~xacting. Probably
among the most consistent first-nighters are
secretary OF the Treasury and Mrs. Morgen.
thau, Senate Majority Leader Alben Barklev.
Sen Sc Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., and Mrs. Evelyn
Walsh Mclean, the Hope diamond lady. Mrs.
Roosevelt attends occasionally, but does most
Of her theater going in New York. The Presi.
cent, in his eight years in the White House.
has been four times-to see his friend, Walter
Huston, in 'Dodsworth' and Knickerbocker
Holiday" and to attend the two command
performances" Outward Bound'' and life
With Father" given in connection with the
annual Birthday Balls.
SOLO APPEARANCE
incidentally, that appearance probably will
be the only one Life With Father will have
mere since Washington's law on child labor
that no girl under 18 or boy under 16 may be
galntully employed-is iron-clad. Since there
are three such youths in that Broadway hit,
most Washingtonians will have to be satisfied
with reading about it, as they have had to be
IN the case of almost every smash that hit
Broadway with a youngster in an important
part.
An interesting point about shows at the Ma.
tional theater: Although the top-hat and tiara
section often is spotted with empty seats, the
balcony hardly ever is and frequently has tc