xt79kd1qg653 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt79kd1qg653/data/mets.xml Marcosson, Isaac Frederick, 1876-1961. 1916  books b92-275-32007854 English Harper, : New York ; London : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Frohman, Charles, 1860-1915. Theater United States.Frohman, Daniel, 1851-1940. Charles Frohman  : manager and man / by Isaac F. Marcosson and Daniel Frohman ; with an appreciation by James M. Barrie ; illustrated with portraits. text Charles Frohman  : manager and man / by Isaac F. Marcosson and Daniel Frohman ; with an appreciation by James M. Barrie ; illustrated with portraits. 1916 2002 true xt79kd1qg653 section xt79kd1qg653 



CHARLES



FROHMAN



MANAG ER
  AND
  Ni



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( 

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COPYRIGHT, 1914. BY DANIEL FROHMAN
              CHARLES FROHMSAN

 


Chzaraes

Manager



Isaac



and Daniel



tfrohmwan.

and  Alan

Marcosson
Frohman



jjwi/k an Appreciation
KK by James Al. Barrie

      Illustrated
      with
      Portra its



      ['K)



New   York and London



Harp er



Z   Brouiers



M. C. AlXPya. I



by

 
































































        CHARLES FROIIMAN: MANAGER AND MAN

        Copyright, igi6, by Harper & Brothers
              Copyright, i9i5, igi6, by
International Magazine Company (Cosmopolitan Magazine)
        Printed in the United States of America
                Published October, i9I6
                          1-

 








      TO

The Theater



That Charles



Frohman



  Loved and Served

Nought I did in hate but all in honor!
                  HAMLET

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                 Contents

CIHAP.                                        PAGE
     CHARLES FROHMAN: AN APPRECIATION . .
I.   A CHILD AMID THE THEATER               .
II.  EARLY HARDSHIPS ON THE ROAD .24
III.  PICTURESQUE DAYS AS MINSTREL MANAGER   46
IF.  IN THE NEW YORK THEATRICAL WHIRLPOOL    67
V.   BOOKING-AGENT AND BROADWAY PRODUCER    87
III.  "SHENANDOAH" AND THE FIRST STOCK COMPANY Iq4
VII. JOHN DREW AND THE EMPIRE THEATER  . .  135
VIII. MAUDE ADAMS AS STAR .58
IX.  THE BIRTH OF THE SYNDICATE .I 85
X.   THE RISE OF ETHEL BARRYAMORE.            212
Xi.  THE CONQUEST OF THE LONDON STAGE       230
XII. BARRIE AND TIlE ENGLISH FRIENDSHIPS    253
XIII. A GALAXY OF STARS .276
XIV. STAR-MhAKING AND AUDIENCES .290
XF.  PLAYS AND PLAYERS .303
XVI. "C. F." AT REHEARSALS .326
XFII. HUMOR AND ANECDOTE .340
XVIII. THE MA,4N FROHMAN .358
XIX. "WHY FEAR DEATH" .376
     APPENDIX A-THE LETTEAS OF CHARLES FROH-
        MAN.                                 393
     APPENDIX B-COM1PLETE CIIRONOLOGICAL LIST
        OF THE FROHAIAN PRODUCTIONS          42I

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Illustrations



CHARLES FROHAIN . . .
VIOLA ALLEN  .....
WILLIAMI GILLETTE . . .
JOHN DREW ......
CLYDE FITCH
HENRY ARTHUR JONES
IV. LESTOCQ ......
CHARLES DILLINCGHI,1AM
MAUDE ADAMMS.
AfJUDE ADAMS   . .
FRANCIS WILSON .
WILLIAM COLLIER . . .
MARGARET ANGLIN
ANNIE RUSSELL ....
WILLIAM FAVERSHAMI
HENRY MILLER  .. ..
WILLIAM H. CRANE . . .
AUGUSTUS THOMAS.
SIR .4RTHUR WING PINERO
ETHEL BARRYMORE .
JULIA MARLOWE ....
E. H. SOTHERN .....
ELSIE FERGUSON ....
EDNA MAY   ......
BILLIE BURKE .....
PAULINE CHASE ....
JAMES M. BARRIE . . .
PAUL POTTER .... .



                    Frontispiece
                    . Facing p. 84
  .......... . . . ..... ... " 114
                      "  i36
............ . .............      140
............ ...     --... .. . .      140
                         152
......... . . . . ..    ....." 56
.............. . . . .... ....    i6o
.. . . .. . . . . .      -T70
.. . . . . . .. . .      ........188
.. . . . . . .. . .      ........188
.............. . . . .. .... ... " 192
                         192
                         198
                         202
  ......... . . . ..... ... " 206
.. . . . ....  . ....." 210
... .  ... . .   .....   210
.............. . . . .... " 220
.............. . . . .... " 224
,. ......................." 228
..........          -- - "... .. . .      234
......... . . . ..... ... " 240
             ..........     244
 .............. . . . ....      250
.. . . ..  . ...     ;  ".......... 254
,.......... ... ......... .     264

 




            ILLUSTRATIONS

HADDON CHAMBERS .Facing p. 264
OTIS SKINNER.                                274
M,4RIE DORO.                                 278
JULIA SANDERSON.                             280
ANN MURDOCK .                                282
CHA4RLES FROHMAN AND DA1ID BELASCO.          286
MARIE TEMPEST.                               290
MME. NAZIMOVl.                               290
CHARLES FROHMAN'S OFFICE IN THE EMPIRE
  THEA TER.                                 370
CHARLES FROHMAN ON BOARD SHIP.               384

 







       Charles Irohbman:

                       an

               Appreciation

             By 7ames M. Barrie

 r      HE man who never broke his word. There was
       a great deal more to him, but every one in any
       land who has had dealings with Charles Frohman
will sign that.
  I would rather say a word of the qualities that to his
friends were his great adornment than about his colossal
enterprises or the energy with which he heaved them
into being; his energy that was like a force of nature,
so that if he had ever "retired" from the work he loved
(a thing incredible) companies might have been formed,
in the land so skilful at turning energy to practical ac-
count, for exploiting the vitality of this Niagara of a
man. They could have lit a city with it.
  He loved his schemes. They were a succession of
many-colored romances to him, and were issued to the
world not without the accompaniment of the drum,
but you would never find him saying anything of him-
self. He pushed them in front of him, always taking

 

CHARLES FROHMAN



care that they were big enough to hide him. When
they were able to stand alone he stole out in the dark
to have a look at them, and then if unobserved his
bosom swelled. I have never known any one more
modest and no one quite so shy. Many actors have
played for him for years and never spoken to him, have
perhaps seen him dart up a side street because they
were approaching. They may not have known that it
was sheer shyness, but it was. I have seen him ordered
out of his own theater by subordinates who did not
know him, and he went cheerfully away. "Good men,
these; they know their business," was all his comment.
Afterward he was shy of going back lest they should
apologize.
  At one time he had several theaters here and was
renting others, the while he had I know not how many
in America; he was not always sure how many himself.
Latterly the great competition at home left him no
time to look after more than one in London. But only
one anywhere seemed a little absurd to him. He once
contemplated having a few theaters in Paris, but on dis-
covering that French law forbids your having more than
one he gave up the scheme in disgust.
  A sense of humor sat with him through every vicissi-
tude like a faithful consort.
  "How is it going" a French author cabled to him on
the first night of a new play.
  "It has gone," he genially cabled back.
  Of a Scotch play of my own that he was about to
produce in New York, I asked him what the Scotch
would be like.
  "You wouldn't know it was Scotch," he replied, "but
the American public will know."

 

AN APPRECIATION



  He was very dogged. I had only one quarrel with
him, but it lasted all the sixteen years I knew him. He
wanted me to be a playwright and I wanted to be a
novelist. All those years I fought him on that. He
always won, but not because of his doggedness; only
because he was so lovable that one had to do as he
wanted. He also threatened, if I stopped, to reproduce
the old plays and print my name in large electric letters
over the entrance of the theater.

A VERY distinguished actress under his management
   wanted to produce a play of mine of which he had
no high opinion. He was in despair, as he had something
much better for her. She was obdurate. He came to
me for help, said nothing could move her unless I could.
Would not I tell her what a bad play it was and how
poor her part was and how much better the other parts
were and how absolutely it fell to pieces after the first
act Of course I did as I was bid, and I argued with the
woman for hours, and finally got her round, the while
he sat cross-legged, after his fashion, on a deep chair
and implored me with his eyes to do my worst. It
happened long ago, and I was so obsessed with the desire
to please him that the humor of the situation strikes me
only now.
  For money he did not care al; all; it was to him but
pieces of paper with which he could make practical the
enterprises that teemed in his brain. They were all
enterprises of the theater. Having once seen a theater,
he never afterward saw anything else except sites for
theaters. This passion began when he was a poor boy
staring wistfully at portals out of which he was kept by
the want of a few pence. I think when he first saw a

 

CHARLES FROHMAN



theater he clapped his hand to his heart, and certainly
he was true to his first love. Up to the end it was still
the same treat to him to go in; he still thrilled when
the band struck up, as if that boy had hold of his hand.

IN a sense he had no illusions about the theater, knew
  its tawdriness as he knew the nails on his stages (he
is said to have known every one). He would watch the
performance of a play in some language of which he did
not know a word and at the end tell you not only the
whole story, but what the characters had been saying to
one another; indeed, he could usually tell what was to
happen in any act as soon as he saw the arrangement of
the furniture. But this did not make him blase-a
strange word, indeed, to apply to one who seemed to
be born afresh each morning. It was not so much that
all the world was a stage to him as that his stage was a
world, a world of the "artistic temperament "-that is
to say, a very childish world of which he was occasionally
the stern but usually indulgent father.
  His innumerable companies were as children to him;
he chided them as children, soothed them, forgave them,
and certainly loved them as children. He exulted in
those who became great names in that world and gave
them beautiful toys to play with; but, great as was
,heir devotion to him, it is not they who will miss him
:nost, but rather the far greater number who never
'made a hit," but set off like the rest to do it and fell
by the way. He was of so sympathetic a nature, he
understood so well the dismalness to them of being
'failures," that he saw them  as children with their
knuckles to their eyes, and then he sat back cross-
legged on his chair with his knuckles, as it were, to his

 


AN APPRECIATION



eyes, and life had lost its flavor for him until he invented
a scheme for giving them another chance.

AUTHORS of to-day sometimes discuss with one an-
   other what great writer of the past they would like
most to spend an evening wi th if the shades were
willing to respond, and I believe (and hope) that the
choice most often falls on Johnson or Charles Lamb.
Lamb was fond of the theater, and I think, of all those
connected with it that I have known, Mr. Frohman is
the one with whom he would most have liked to spend
an evening. Not because of MIr. Frohman's ability,
though he had the biggest brain I have met with on the
stage, but because of his humor and charity and gentle
chivalry and his most romantic mind. One can con-
ceive him as often, sitting at ease, far back in his chair,
cross-legged, occasionally ringing for another ice, for
he was so partial to sweets that he could never get them
sweet enough, and sometimes he mixed two in the hope
that this would make them sweeter.
  I hear him telling stories of the stage as only he could
tell them, rising now and roaming the floor as he shows
how the lady of the play receives the declaration, and
perhaps forgetting that you are the author of the play
and telling you the whole story of it with superb gesture
and gleaming eyes. Then back again cross-legged to the
chair. What an essay Elia might have made of that
night, none of it about the stories told, all about the
man in the chair, the humorous, gentle, roughly educated,
very fine American gentleman in the chair!
                                   J. M. BARRIE.
  LONDON, I915.

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Charles



Frohman

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        Charles Frobman


                         I

            A CHILD AMID THE THEATER
 ONE evening, toward the close of the 'sixties, a
     plump, rosy-cheeked lad in his eighth year stood
     enthralled in the gallery of the old Niblo's Garden
down on lower Broadway in New York. Far below him
on the stage " The Black Crook "-the extravaganza that
held all New York-unfolded itself in fascinating glitter
and feminine loveliness. Deaf to his brother's en-
treaties to leave, and risking a parental scolding and
worse, the boy remained transfixed until the final cur-
tain. When he reached home he was not in the least
disturbed by the uproar his absence had caused. Quite
the contrary. His face beamed, his eyes shone. All he
could say was:
  "I have seen a play. It's wonderful!"
  The boy was Charles Frohman, and such was his first
actual experience in the theater-the institution that he
was to dominate in later years with far-flung authority.

  To write of the beginnings of his life is to become al-
most immediately the historian of some phase of amuse-
                         I

 


CHARLES FROHMAN



rment. He came from a family in whom the love of
mimic art was as innate as the desire for sustenance.
  About his parents was the glamour of a romance as
tender as any he disclosed to delighted audiences in the
world of make-believe. His father, Henry Frohman,
was both idealist and dreamer. Born on the pleasant
countryside that encircles the town of Darmstadt in
Crermany, he grew up amid an appreciation of the best
in German literature. He was a buoyant and imagina-
tive boy who preferred reading plays to poring over
tiresome school-books.
  One day he went for a walk in the woods. He passed
a young girl of rare and appealing beauty. Their eyes
met; they paused a moment, irresistibly drawn to each
other. Then they went their separate ways. He in-
quired her name and found that she was Barbara Strauss
arid lived not far away. He sought an introduction,
but before it could be brought about he left home to
make his fortune in the New World.
  He was eighteen when he stepped down the gang-
plank of a steamer in New York in i845. He had mas-
tered no trade; he was practically without friends, so
he took to the task which so many of his co-religionists
had found profitable. He invested his modest financial
nest-egg in a supply of dry goods and notions and, shoul-
dering a pack, started up the Hudson Valley to peddle
his wares.
/ Henry Frohman had a magnetic and fascinating per-
soniality. A ready story was always on his lips; a smile
shone constantly on his face. It was said of him that
he could hypnotize the most unresponsive housewife into
buying articles she never needed. Up and down the high-
ways he trudged, unmindful of wind, rain, or hardship.

 


A CHILD AMID THE THEATER



  New York was his headquarters. There was his home
and there he replenished his stocks. He made friends
quickly. With them he often went to the German
theater. On one of these occasions he heard of a
family named Strauss that had just arrived from Ger-
many. They had been shipwrecked near the Azores,
had endured many trials, and had lost everything but
their lives.
  "Have they a daughter named Barbara" asked
Frohman.
  "Yes," was the reply.
  Henry Frohman's heart gave a leap. There came
back to his mind the picture of that day in the German
woods.
  "Where do they come from" he continued, eagerly.
  On being told that it was Darmstadt, he cried, "I must
meet her."
  He gave his friend no peace unti] that end had been
brought about. He found her the same lovely girl who
had thrilled him at first sight; he wooed her with ardor
and they were betrothed.
  He now yearned for a stable business that would enable
him to marry. Meanwhile his affairs had grown. The
peddler's pack expanded to the proportion of a wagon-
load. Then, as always, the great West held a lure for
the youthful. In some indescribable way he got the
idea that Kentucky was the Promised Land of business.
Telling his fiancee that he would send for her as soon as
he had settled somewhere, he set out.
  But Kentucky did not prove to be the golden country.
He was advised to go to Ohio, and it was while driving
across the country with his line of goods that he came
upon Sandusky. The little town on the shores of a smil-
                        3

 

CHARLES FROHMAN



irig lake appealed to him strongly. It reminded him
cf the home country, and he remained there.
  He found himself at once in a congenial place. There
was a considerable German population; his ready wit and
engaging manner made him welcome everywhere. The
road lost its charm; he turned about for an occupation
that was permanent. Having picked up a knowledge
of cigar-making, he established a small factory which
was successful from the start.
  This fact assured, his next act was to send to New York
for Miss Strauss, who joined him at once, and they were
nmarried. These were the forebears of Charles Frohman
--the exuberant, optimistic, pleasure-loving father; the
serene, gentle-eyed, and spacious-hearted woman who
was to have such a strong influence in the shaping of his
character.
  The Frohmans settled in a little frame house on
Lawrence Street that stood apart from the dusty road.
It did not even have a porch. Unpretentious as it was,
it became a center of artistic life in Sandusky.
  Henry Frohman had always aspired to be an actor.
One of the first things he did after settling in Sandusky
was to organize an amateur theatrical company, corn-
pcsed entirely of people of German birth or descent.
The performances were given in the Turner Hall, in the
German tongue, on a makeshift stage with improvised
scenery. Frohman became the directing force in the
production of Schiller's and other classic German plays,
comic as well as tragic.
  N\or was he half-hearted in his histrionic work. One
night he died so realistically on the stage that his eldest
son, who sat in the audience, became so terrified that he
screamed out in terror, and would not be pacified until
                         4

 

A CHILD AMID THE THEATER



his parent appeared smilingly before the curtain and as-
sured him that he was still very much alive.

  Frohman's business prospered. He began to build up
trade in the adjoining country. With a load of samples
strapped behind his buggy, he traveled about. He
usually took one of his older sons along. While he drove,
the boy often held a prompt-book and the father would
rehearse his parts. Out across those quiet Ohio fields
would come the thrilling words of "'The Robbers,"
"Ingomar," "Love and Intrigue," or any of the many
plays that the amateur company performed in Sandusky.
  He even mixed the drama with business. Frequently
after selling a bill of goods he would be requested by a
customer, who knew of his ability, to recite or declaim a
speech from one of the well-known German plays.
  It was on his return from one of these expeditions that
Henry Frohman was greeted with the tidings that a
third son had come to bear his name. When he entered
that little frame house the infantile Charles had made his
first entrance on the stage of life. It was June I7, i86o,
a time fateful in the history of the country, for already
the storm-clouds of the Civil War were brooding. It was
pregnant with meaning for the American theater, too,
because this lusty baby was to become its Napoleon.
  Almost before Charles was able to walk his wise and
far-seeing mother, with a pride and responsibility that
maintained the best traditions of the mothers in Israel,
began to realize the restrictions and limitations of the
Sandusky life.
  "These boys of ours," she said to the husband, "have
no future here. They must be educated in New York.
Their careers lie there."
                         5

 

CHARLES FROHMAN



  Strong-willed and resolute, she sent the two older sons,
one at a time, on to the great city to be educated and
make their way. The eldest, Daniel, went first, soon
followed by Gustave. In i864, and largely due to her
insistent urging, the remainder of the family, which
included the youthful Charles, packed up their belong-
ings and, with the proceeds of the sale of the cigar factory,
started on their eventful journey to New York.
  They first settled in one of the original tenement
houses of New York, on Rivington Street, subsequently
moving to Eighth Street and Avenue D. Before long
they moved over to Third Street, while their fourth
residence was almost within the shadow of some of the
best-known city theaters.
  Henry Frohman had, as was later developed in his son
Charles, a peculiar disregard of money values. Generous
0o a fault, his resources were constantly at the call of the
needy. His first business venture in New York-a small
soap factory on East Broadway-failed. Later he be-
came part owner of a distillery near Hoboken, which
was destroyed by fire. With the usual Frohman financial
heedlessness, he had failed to renew all his insurance
policies, and the result was that he was left with but a
small surplus. Adversity, however, seemed to trickle
from him like water. Serene and smiling, he emerged
from his misfortune.
  The only business he knew was the cigar business.
With the assistance of a few friends he was able to start
a retail cigar-store at what was then 708 Broadway.
It was below Eighth Street and, whether by accident
or design, was located in the very heart of the famous
theatrical district which gave the American stage some
of its greatest traditions.
                          6

 

  A CHILD AMID THE THEATER
  To the north, and facing on Union Square, was the
Rialto of the day, hedged in by the old Academy of
Music and the Union Square Theater. Down Broad-
way, and commencing at Thirteenth Street with Wal-
lack's Theater, was a succession of more or less historic
playhouses. At Eighth Street was the Old New York
Theater; a few doors away was Lina Edwins's; almost
flanking the cigar-store and ranging toward the south
were the Olympic, Niblo's Garden, and the San Francisco
Minstrel Hall. Farther down was the Broadway
Theater, while over on the Bowery Tony Pastor held
forth.
  Thus the little store stood in a n atmosphere that
thought, breathed, and talked of the theater. It became
the rendezvous of the well-known theatrical figures of
the period. The influence of the playhouses extended
even to the shop next door, which happened to be the
original book-store founded by August Brentano. It
was the only clearing-house in New York for foreign
theatrical papers, and to it came Augustin Daly, William
Winter, Nym Crinkle, and all the other important man-
agers and critics to get the news of the foreign stage.
  It was amid an environment touching the theater
at every point that Charles Frohnian's boyhood was
spent. He was an impulsive, erratic, restless child.
His mother had great difficulty in keeping him at
school. His whole instinct was for action.
  Gustave, who had dabbled in the theatrical business
almost before he was in his teens, naturally became his
mentor. To Charles, Gustave was invested with a rare
fascination because he had begun to sell books of the
opera in the old Academy of Music on Fourteenth
Street, the forerunner of the gilded Metropolitan Opera
                         7

 

          CHARLES FROHMAN
House. Every night the chubby Charles saw him forge
forth with a mysterious bundle, and return with money
jingling in his pocket. One night, just before Gustave
started out, the lad said to him:
  "Gus, how can I make money like you"
  "I'll show you some night if you can slip away from
mother," was the brother's reply.
  Unrest immediately filled the heart of Charles. Gus-
tave had no peace until he made good his promise. A
week later he stole away after supper with his little
brother. They walked to the Academy, where the old
It alian opera, "The Masked Ball," was being sung.
With wondering eyes and beating heart Charles saw
Gustave hawk his books in the lobby, and actually sell
a few. From the inside came the strains of music, and
through the door a glimpse of a fashionable audience.
But it was a forbidden land that he could not enter.
  Fearful of the maternal scolding that he knew was in
store, Gustave hurried his brother home, even indulging
in the unwonted luxury of riding on the street-car, where
he found a five-dollar bill. The mother was up and
awake, and immediately began to upbraid him for
taking out his baby brother at night, whereupon Gustave
quieted the outburst by permitting Charles to hand over
the five-dollar bill as a peace offering.
  From that hour life had a new meaning for Charles
Frohman. He had seen his brother earn money in the
theater; he wanted to go and do likewise. The oppor-
tunity was denied, and he chafed under the restraint.
  [n the afternoon, when he was through with the school
that he hated, the boy went down to his father's store
and took his turn behind the counter. Irksome as was
this work, it was not without a thrilling compensation,
                         8

 


A CHILD AMID THE THEATER



because into the shop came many of the theatrical per-
sonages of the time to buy their cigars. They included
Tony Pastor, whose name was then a household word,
McKee Rankin, J. K. Mortimer, a popular Augustin
Daly leading man, and the comedians and character
actors of the near-by theaters.
  Here the magnetic personality of the boy asserted
itself. His ready smile and his quick tongue made him
a favorite with the customers. More than one actor,
on entering the shop, asked the question: "Where is
Charley I want him to wait on me."
  In those days much of the theatrical advertising was
done by posters displayed in shop-wi ndows. To get
these posters in the most conspicuous places passes were
given to the shopkeepers, a custom which still holds.
The Frohman store had a large window, and it was con-
stantly plastered with play-bills, which meant that the
family was abundantly supplied with free admission to
most of the theaters in the district. The whole family
shared in this dispensation, none more so than Henry
Frohman himself, who could now gratify his desire for
contact with the theater and its people to an almost
unlimited extent. His greatest delight was to distribute
these passes among his boys. They were offered as
rewards for good conduct. Charles frequently accom-
panied his father to matinees at Tony Pastorrs and the
other theaters. Pastor and the elder Frohman were
great pals. They called each other by their first names,
and the famous old music-hall proprietor was a frequent
visitor at the shop.
  But Charles became quite discriminating. Every
Saturday night he went down to the old Thedtre Comique,
where Harrigan and Hart were serving their apprentice-



2



9

 


CHARLES FROHMAN



ship for the career which made them the most famous
Irish team of their time. The next morning at break-
fast he kept the family roaring with laughter with his
imitations of what he had seen and heard. Curiously
enough, Tony Hart later became the first star to be
presented by Charles Frohman.
  All the while the boy's burning desire was to earn
money in the theater. He nagged at Gustave to give
him a chance. One day Gustave saw some handsome
souvenir books of "The Black Crook," which was then
having its sensatioal run at Niblo's Garden. He found
that he could buy them for thirty-three cents by the
half-dozen, so he made a small investment, hoping to
sell them for fifty cents in the lobby of the theater. That
evening he showed his new purchases to Charles.
  Immediately the boy's eyes sparkled. "Let me see if
I can sell one of them!"
  "All right," replied Gustave; "I will take you down
to Niblo's to-night and give you a chance."
  The boy could scarcely eat his supper, so eager was
he to be off. Promptly at seven o'clock the two lads
(Charles was only eight) took their stand in the lobby,
but despite their eager cries each was able to sell only
a single copy. Gustave consoled himself with the fact
that the price was too high, while Charles, with an
optimism that never forsook him, answered, "Well, we
have each sold one, anyhow, and that is something."
  Charles's profit on this venture was precisely seventeen
cents, which may be regarded as the first money he ever
earned out of the theater.
  But this night promised a sensation even greater.
As the crowd in the lobby thinned, the strains of the
overture crashed out. Through the open door the little
                         I0

 

A CHILD AMID THE THEATER



boy saw the curtain rise on a scene that to him repre-
sented the glitter and the glory of fairyland. Beautiful
ladies danced and sang and the light flashed on brilliant
costumes. With their unsold books in their hands, the
two boys gazed wistfully inside. Charles, always the
aggressor, fixed the doorkeeper with one of his winning
smiles, and the doorkeeper succumbed. "You boys can
slip in," he said, "but you've got to go up in the bal-
cony." Up they rushed, and there Charles stood de-
lighted, his eyes sparkling and his whole face transfigured.
  During the middle of the second act Gustave tugged
at his sleeve, saying: "We'll have to go now. You
follow me down."
  With this he disappeared and hurried home. When
he arrived he found the home in an uproar because
Charles had not come back. Gustave ran to the theater,
but the play was over, the crowd had dispersed, and the
building was deserted. With beati.ng heart and fearful
of disaster to his charge, he rushed back to see Charles,
all animation and excitement, in the midst of the family
group, regaling them with the story of his first play. He
had remained to the end.
  That thrilling night at "The Black Crook," his daily
contact with the actors who camre into the store, his
frequent visits to the adjoining playhouses, fed the fire
of his theatrical interest. The theater got into his very
blood.
  A great event was impending. A.lmost within stone's-
throw of the little cigar-store where he sold stogies to
Tony Pastor was the Old New York Theater, which, after
the fashion of that time, had undergone the evolution of
many names, beginning with the Athenaeum, and con-
tinuing until it had come under the control of the three
                         II

 

          CHARLES FROHMAN
famous Worrell sisters, who tacked their name to it.
Shortly after the New Year of i869 they produced the
exLravaganza "The Field of the Cloth of Gold," in
which two of them, Sophie and Jane, together with
Pauline 'Markham, one of the classic beauties of the
time, appeared. Charles had witnessed part of this
extravaganza one afternoon. It kindled his memories
of "The Black Crook," for it was full of sparkle and color.
Charles and Gustave had made the acquaintance of
Olsen, the doorkeeper. One afternoon they walked over
to the theater and stood in the lobby listening to a re-
hearsal.
  Owen, who knew the boys' intense love of the theater,
spoke up, saying: "We need an extra page to-night.
How would you like to go on"
  1oth youngsters stood expectant. They loved each
other dearly, yet here was one moment where self-
interest must prevail. Charles fixed the doorkeeper with
his hypnotic smile, and he was chosen. Almost without
hearing the injunction to report at seven o'clock, Charles
ran back to the store, well-nigh breathless with expec-
tancy over the coming event. With that family feeling
which has marked the Frohmans throughout their whole
life, Gustave hurried down-town to notify their eldest
brother to be on hand for the grand occasion.
  Charles ate no supper, and was at the stage-door long
before seven. Rigged up in a faded costume, he carried
a banner during the performance. His two elder
brothers sat in the gallery. All they saw in the entire
brilliant spectacle was the little Charles and his faded
flag.
  Charles got twenty-five cents for his evening's work,
and brought it home bubbling with