Evening star., 1943-01-03

Wilfrid H. Pettitt, which makes its.
pre- Broadway bow at the National
Theater on Monday evening, is his
404th play. Incidentally, it marks
also Woods 40th year as an i'm
presario
Playgoers of another area and an
other school first saw the name of
A. H. Woods emblazoned over lurid
posters in 1902, heralding fantastic
thriller called The Bowery After
Dark" Designed for customers of
the Dead-Eye Dick fraternity, it
opened at the Star Theater, then
located at Broadway and Thir-
teenth street in New York City,
where it developed into one of the
sensations of the post Victorian age.
Audiences Just Relaxed.
Audiences never had a better
time" Woods recalls. "They hissed
the william, applauded the hero and
wrote mash notes to the heroine 1t
was all done seriously, too; no kid
ding or that sort of thing. Those
were the lush days of show business.
Nobody suffered with inhibitions.
You expressed yourself freely in and
out of the theater Sometimes we
had all we could do to restrain ex-
cited lads ready to hurdle the foot
lights to halt the villain in his
dastardly plots. 1t was good fun,
though, and everybody had a re-
sounding good time
Encouraged by the success of his
first venture, Woods soon began
manufacturing melodramas with
the precision of a stamping machine
There emerged from his theatrical
factory a procession of plays that
bore the most unashamed titles
THE Crooked Path" Queen of the
White Slaves" Fast Life in New
York" Bertha the Sewing Machine
Girl" Nellie the Cloak Model"
Secret Service Man." The Great
Express Robbery" and The Life
That Kills"
Knew What They Wanted.
1t was only a 10-20-30-cent au-
dience he catered to, but it was the
Peoples Theater at the turn of the
century; they knew what they
wanted and he gave it to them with
extra fourishes. Even in those
distant. halcyon days virtue tri-
umphed over evil, except that it
wasn't quite as politely subtle as
today. Too, theatergoers hadn't been
refined to so esthetic point as
obtains today. Going to show
then was more or less in the nature
Of a picnic. They brought sand
wiches. fruit and candy.
Sometimes" says Mr.. Woods. II
wasn't sure whether I was running
a theater or a restaurant.
Eating candy in the theater today,
the producer points out, is a throw
back to the good, old days.
The Broadway Theater, not so
far uptown from his own field of
operations, intrigued him. He de-
cided that even playgoers with tastes
in drama considerably more discern
ing than his own clientele would find
interest in the type of rip-snorting
SHOWS ne was sponsoring II ne
produced them with top-fight actors
and actresses.
On Broadway in 1913.
Accordingly, he made his first
Times Square sortie with a play of
William Hurlburt's, New York" in
1913, proving his point. The theater,
which had given him his inspired
start, and in which he had prospered
beyond his fondest hopes. began
seeing less of his product after that
and in time the reformation was
complete. Mr. Woods began produc-
ing only for Broadway and it's
tributaries in every State in the
Union.
Although he sponsored goodly
number of hits before he took up
his managerial abode in Offices atop
the Fittings Theater, Forty-second
street and Broadway, it was after he
had set up house there that he be-
came a veritable Titan in show
business, particularly during the
frantic 1920s when he had % at