production, so the first male character that he filled was that of
_Colonel West_, and he did it with Miller.
This cast included not less than half a dozen people who were then
making their way toward future stardom. He engaged Wilton Lackaye to
play _General Haverill_; Viola Allen played _Gertrude Ellingham_;
Nanette Comstock was the original _Madeline West_; Effie Shannon
portrayed _Jennie Buckthorn_; while Dorothy Dorr played _Mrs. Haverill_.
Other actors in the company who later became widely known were John E.
Kellard, Harry Harwood, Morton Selten, and Harry Thorn.
Charles determined that the public should not lose sight of
"Shenandoah." All his genius for publicity was concentrated to this end.
Among the ingenious agencies that he created for arousing suspense and
interest was a rumor that the manuscript of the third act had been lost.
He put forth the news that Mr. Howard's copy was mislaid, and a
city-wide search was instituted. All the while that the company was
rehearsing the other acts the anxiety about the missing act grew. A week
before the production Frohman announced, with great effect, that the
missing manuscript had been found.
When the doors of the Star Theater were opened on the evening of
September 9, 1889, for the first performance of "Shenandoah," the
outlook was not very auspicious. Rain poured in torrents. It was almost
impossible to get a cab. Al Hayman, one of the owners of the play, who
lived at the Hotel Majestic, on West Seventy-second Street, was
rainbound and could not even see the _premiere_ of the piece.
However, a good audience swam through the deluge, for the gross receipts
of this opening night, despite the inclement conditions outside, were
nine hundred and seventy-two dollars. This was considered a very good
house at the standard prices of the day, which ranged from twenty-five
cents to one dollar and a half.
The play was an immense success, for at no time during the rest of the
engagement did the receipts at any performance go below one thousand
dollars. The average gross receipts for each week were ten thousand
dollars.
Charles Frohman watched the _premiere_ from the rear of the house with a
beating heart. The crash of applause after the first act made him feel
that he had scored at last. After the sensational ending of the third
act, which was Sheridan's famous ride, he rushed back to the stage,
shook Henry Miller warmly by the hand, and said: "Henry, we've got it.
The horse is yours!"
He meant the horse that the general rode in the play.
This horse, by the way, was named Black Bess. It got so accustomed to
its cue that it knew when it had to gallop across the stage. One night
during the third act this cue was given as usual. Its rider, however,
was not ready, and the horse galloped riderless across the stage.
"Shenandoah" led to a picturesque friendship in Charles Frohman's life.
On the opening night a grizzled, military-looking man sat in the
audience. He watched the play with intense interest and applauded
vigorously. On the way out he met a friend in the lobby. He stopped him
and said, "This is the most interesting war play I have ever seen."
The friend knew Charles Frohman, who was standing with smiling face
watching the crowd go out. He called the little manager over and said:
"Mr. Frohman, I want you to meet a man who really knows something about
the Civil War. This is General William T. Sherman."
Sherman and Frohman became great friends, and throughout the engagement
of "Shenandoah" the old soldier was a frequent visitor at the theater.
He then lived at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and often he brought over his
war-time comrades.
Not only did "Shenandoah" mark the epoch of the first real success in
Frohman's life, but it raised his whole standard of living, as the
following incident will show.
When "Shenandoah" opened, Frohman and Henry Miller, and sometimes other
members of the company, went around to O'Neil's on Sixth Avenue, scene
of the old foregatherings with Belasco, and had supper. As the piece
grew in prosperity and success, the supper party gradually moved up-town
to more expensive restaurants, until finally they were supping at
Delmonico's. "We are going up in the world," said Frohman, with his
usual humor. At their first suppers they smoked ten-cent cigars; now
they regaled themselves with twenty-five-cent Perfectos.
Unfortunately the successful run of "Shenandoah" at the Star had to be
terminated on October 12th because the Jefferson & Florence Company,
which had a previous contract with the theater and could not be disposed
of elsewhere, came to play their annual engagement in "The Rivals."
Frohman transferred the play to Proctor's Twenty-third Street Theater,
which was from this time on to figure extensively in his fortunes, and
the successful run of the play continued there. Wilton Lackaye retired
from the cast and was succeeded by Frank Burbeck, whose wife, Nanette
Comstock, succeeded Miss Shannon in the role of _Jenny Buckthorn_.
Frohman was now able to capitalize his brilliant road-company
experience. The success of the play now assured, he immediately
organized a road company, in which appeared such prominent actors as
Joseph Holland, Frank Carlyle, and Percy Haswell. He established an
innovation on October 26th by having this company come over from
Philadelphia, where it was playing, to act in the New York house.
The two-hundred-and-fiftieth performance occurred on April 19, 1890,
when the run ended. It was a memorable night. Katherine Grey and Odette
Tyler meanwhile had joined the company. The theater was draped in
flags, and General Sherman made a speech in which he praised the
accuracy of the production.
With his usual enterprise and resource, Charles Frohman introduced a
distinct novelty on this occasion. He had double and triple relays of
characters for the farewell performance. Both Lilla Vane and Odette
Tyler, for example, acted the part of _Gertrude Ellingham_; Wilton
Lackaye, Frank Burbeck, and George Osborne played _General Haverill_;
Alice Haines and Nanette Comstock did _Jenny Buckthorn_; while Morton
Selten and R. A. Roberts doubled as _Captain Heartsease_.
Frohman now put the original "Shenandoah" company on the road. Its first
engagement was at McVicker's Theater in Chicago. Frohman went along and
took Bronson Howard with him.
Most of the Chicago critics liked "Shenandoah." But there was one
exception, a brilliant Irishman on _The Tribune_. Paul Potter, whose
play, "The City Directory," was about to be produced in Chicago, was a
close friend of Howard. He wanted to do something for the Howard play,
so he got permission from Robert W. Patterson, editor in chief of _The
Tribune_, to write a Sunday page article about "Shenandoah." Frohman was
immensely pleased, and through this he met Potter, who became one of his
intimates.
Then came the opening of Potter's play at the Chicago Opera House.
Although Potter knew most of the critics, there was a feeling that they
would forget all friendship and do their worst. Five minutes after the
curtain went up the piece seemed doomed.
But an extraordinary thing happened. From a stage box suddenly came
sounds of uncontrollable mirth. The audience, and especially the
critics, looked to see who was enjoying the play so strenuously, and
they beheld Charles Frohman and Bronson Howard. The critics were
puzzled. Here was a great playwright in the flush of an enormous success
and a rising young manager evidently enjoying the performance. The
mentors of public taste were so impressed that they praised the farce
and started "The City Directory" on a career of remarkable success.
Frohman and Howard were repaying the good turn that Potter had done for
"Shenandoah."
* * *
Charles Frohman now had a money-making success. "Shenandoah" was the
dramatic talk of the whole country; it did big business everywhere, and
its courageous young producer came in for praise and congratulation on
all sides.
The manager might well have netted what was in those days a huge fortune
out of this enterprise, but his unswerving sense of honor led him to
immediately discharge all his obligations. He wiped out the Wallack's
tour debts, and he eventually took up notes aggregating forty-two
thousand dollars that he had given to a well-known Chicago printer who
had befriended him in years gone by. What was most important, he was now
free to unfurl his name to the breezes and to do business "on his own."
* * *
Charles immediately launched himself on another sea of productions. The
most important was Gillette's "All the Comforts of Home," which he put
on at Proctor's Twenty-third Street Theater. Frohman had just acquired
the lease of this theater. Already a big idea was simmering in his mind,
and the leasehold was essential to its consummation. On May 8, 1890, he
produced the new Gillette play, which scored a success.
This production marked another one of the many significant epochs in
Frohman's life because it witnessed the first appearance of little Maude
Adams under the Charles Frohman management.
Frohman had seen Miss Adams in "The Paymaster" down at Niblo's and had
been much taken with her work. He had been unable, however, to find a
part for her, so it was reserved for his brother Daniel to give her the
first Frohman engagement at thirty-five dollars a week in "Lord
Chumley." Subsequently Daniel released her so that she could appear in
the same cast with her mother in Hoyt's "The Midnight Bell."
While trying "All the Comforts of Home" on the road there occurred an
amusing episode. Frohman, who had been watching the rehearsals very
carefully, said to Henry Miller, who was leading man:
"Henry, you are something of a matinee idol. I think it would help the
play if you had a love scene with Miss Adams."
Accompanied by Rockwood, Frohman visited Gillette at his home at
Hartford, got him to write the love scene, and then went on to
Springfield, Massachusetts, for the "try-out."
That night the three assembled in the bleak drawing-room of the hotel.
Frohman ordered a little supper of ham sandwiches and sarsaparilla,
after which he rehearsed the love scene, which simply consisted of a
tender little parting in a doorway. It served to bring out the wistful
and appealing tenderness that is one of Maude Adams's great qualities.
"All the Comforts of Home" ran in Proctor's Theater until October 18th.
When the theater reopened it disclosed a venture that linked the name of
Charles Frohman with high and artistic effort--his first stock company.
With this organization he hoped to maintain the traditions established
by Augustin Daly, A. M. Palmer, Lester Wallack, and the Madison Square
Company.
He projected the Charles Frohman Stock Company in his usual lavish way.
He engaged De Mille and Belasco to write the opening play. This was a
very natural procedure: first, because of his intimate friendship with
Belasco, and, second, because De Mille and Belasco had proved their
skill as collaborators at Daniel Frohman's Lyceum Theater with such
successes as "The Wife," "The Charity Ball," and "Lord Chumley." The
result of their new endeavors was "Men and Women."
In this play the authors wrote in the part _Dora_ especially for Maude
Adams. They also created a role for Mrs. Annie Adams.
The cast of "Men and Women," like that of "Shenandoah," was a striking
one, and it contained many names already established, or destined to
figure prominently in theatrical history. Henry Miller had been engaged
for leading man, but he retired during the rehearsals, and his place was
taken by William Morris, who had appeared in the Charles Frohman
production of "She" and in the road company of "Held by the Enemy." In
the company that Frohman selected were Frederick de Belleville, who
played _Israel Cohen_, one of the finest, if not the finest, Jewish
characters ever put on the stage; Orrin Johnson; Frank Mordaunt; Emmet
Corrigan; J. C. Buckstone; and C. Leslie Allen, brother of Viola Allen.
In addition to Maude Adams were Sydney Armstrong, who was the leading
woman; Odette Tyler; and Etta Hawkins, who became the wife of William
Morris during this engagement.
At the dress rehearsal of "Men and Women" occurred a characteristic
Charles Frohman incident. When the curtain had gone down Frohman hurried
back to William Morris's dressing-room and said, "Will, that dress-suit
of yours doesn't look right."
"It's a brand-new suit, 'C. F.,'" he replied.
Frohman thought a moment and said: "Can you be at my office to-morrow
morning at eight o'clock? I've got a good tailor."
Promptly at eight the next day they went over to Frohman's tailor, whom
Frohman addressed as follows:
"I want you to make a dress-suit for William Morris by eight o'clock
to-morrow night."
"Impossible!" said the man.
"Nothing is impossible," said Frohman. "If that dress-suit is not in Mr.
Morris's dressing-room at eight o'clock you won't get paid for it."
The dress-suit showed up on time, and in it was a card, saying, "With
Charles Frohman's compliments."
Charles inaugurated his first stock season at Proctor's on October 21,
1890. Although the notices were uniformly good, the start into public
favor was a trifle slow. One reason was that a big bank failure had just
shaken Wall Street, and there was considerable apprehension all over the
city. By a curious coincidence there was a bank failure in the play. By
clever publicity this fact was capitalized; the piece found its stride
and ran for two hundred consecutive performances, when it was sent on
the road with great success.
For this tour Charles also introduced another one of the many novelties
that he put into theatrical conduct. He ordered a private car for the
company, and they used it throughout the tour. It was considered an
extravagance, but it was merely part of the Charles Frohman policy to
make his people comfortable. With this private car he established a
precedent that was observed in most of his traveling organizations.
* * *
With the stock company on tour in "Men and Women," the manager now
organized the Charles Frohman Comedy Company to fill in the time at
Proctor's. Once more he collected a brilliant aggregation of players,
for they included Henrietta Crosman, Joseph Holland, Frederick Bond, and
Thomas Wise. Each one became a star in the course of the next ten years.
The opening bill for the comedy company was Gillette's "Mr. Wilkinson's
Widows," and was presented on March 30th, immediately following the run
of "Men and Women." Henrietta Crosman subsequently withdrew from the
cast, and Esther Lyons took her place.
Charles Frohman reopened the theater on August 27th with a revival of
this play, in which Georgia Drew Barrymore, the mother of Ethel,
appeared as _Mrs. Perrin_. Emily Bancker, afterward a star in "Our
Flat," and Mattie Ferguson were in the cast.
On October 5th the company did Sardou's big drama of "Thermidor" for the
first time on any stage, with another one of the casts for which Charles
Frohman was beginning to become famous. It included a thin, gaunt
Englishman whose name in the bill was simply J. F. Robertson, and who
had just come from an engagement with John Hare in London. Subsequently
the J. F. in his name came to be known as Johnston Forbes, because the
man was Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson.
In this company was Elsie De Wolfe, who later became a star and who
years after left the theater to become an interior decorator. Among the
male members of the company, besides Forbes-Robertson, was Jamison Lee
Finney, who had graduated from the amateur ranks and who became one of
the best-known comedians in the country.
In the mean time Charles had commissioned Henry C. De Mille to furnish a
play for his stock company which was now on its way back from the coast.
This play was "The Lost Paradise," which the American had adapted from
Ludwig Fulda's drama. De Mille joined the company in Denver and
rehearsals were begun there. By the time the company reached New York
they were almost letter-perfect, and the opening at Proctor's on
November 16th was a brilliant success. The play ran consecutively until
March 1st.
The cast was practically the same as "Men and Women," with the addition
of Cyril Scott, Odette Tyler, and Bijou Fernandez.
In "The Lost Paradise" Maude Adams scored the biggest success that she
had made up to that time in New York. She played the part of _Nell_, the
consumptive factory girl. This character, with its delicate and haunting
interpretation, made an irresistible appeal to the audience.
"There's big talent in that girl," said Frohman in speaking of Miss
Adams. He began to see the vision of what the years would hold for her.
* * *
By this time Charles Frohman had begun to make his annual visit to
London. Out of one of the earliest journeys came still another success
of the many that now seemed to crowd upon him.
He had taken desk space with Abbey, Schoeffel & Grau in Henrietta Street
in London. On the trip in question Belasco accompanied him. One night
Frohman said:
"There is a little comedy around the corner called 'Jane.' Let's go and
see it."
Frohman was convulsed with laughter, and the very next day sought out
the author, William Lestocq, from whom he purchased the American rights.
Out of this connection came another one of the life-long friendships of
Frohman. Lestocq, a few years later, became his principal English
representative and remained so until the end.
Frohman was now in a whirlpool of projects. Although he was occupying
himself with both the comedy and stock companies at Proctor's, he put on
"Jane" as a midsummer attraction at the Madison Square Theater with a
cast that included Katherine Grey, Johnstone Bennett, Jennie Weathersby,
and Paul Arthur.
"Jane" became such an enormous success that Charles put out two road
companies at once. In connection with "Jane" it may be said that his
first real fortune--that is, the first money that he actually kept for a
time--was made with this comedy.
Production after production now marked the Frohman career. Charles had
always admired Henry E. Dixey, so he launched him as star in "The
Solicitor" at Hermann's Theater, on September 8, 1891. It was the first
time that the famous "Charles Frohman Presents" was used. In this
company were Burr McIntosh, Sidney Drew, and Joseph Humphreys. It was
the failure of "The Solicitor" that led Frohman to put Dixey out again
as star in a piece called "The Man with a Hundred Heads" at the Star
Theater. This also failed, so he ventured with "The Junior Partner" at
the same theater with a cast that included E. J. Ratcliffe, Mrs. McKee
Rankin, Henrietta Crosman, and Louise Thorndyke-Boucicault.
Early the following year he tried his luck at Hermann's with "Gloriana,"
in which May Robson and E. J. Henley appeared. Hermann's Theater,
however, seemed to be a sort of hoodoo, so Frohman returned to the Star,
which had been his mascot, and made his first joint production with
David Belasco in a musical piece called "Miss Helyett." Frohman had seen
the play in Paris, and proceeded at once to buy the American rights from
Charles Wyndham. This production not only marked the first joint
presentation of Belasco and Charles, but it was the debut of Mrs. Leslie
Carter, who had become a protegee of Mr. Belasco. When the piece was
moved to the Standard early in January, 1892, Mrs. Carter was starred
for the first time.
* * *
By this time Charles Frohman was a personage to be reckoned with.
"Shenandoah," the two stock companies, "Jane," and all the other
enterprises both successful and otherwise, had made his name a big one
in the theater. He now began to reach out for authors.
The first author to be approached was Augustus Thomas. He gave Charles a
play called "Surrender." It was put on in Boston. The original idea in
Thomas's mind was to write a satire on the war plays that had been so
successful, like "Shenandoah" and "Held by the Enemy." "Surrender"
began as a farce, but Charles Frohman and Eugene Presbrey, who produced
it, wanted to make it serious.
The cast was a very notable one, including Clement Bainbridge, E. M.
Holland, Burr McIntosh, Harry Woodruff, H. D. Blackmore, Louis Aldrich,
Maude Bancks, Miriam O'Leary, Jessie Busley, and Rose Eytinge.
The rehearsals of "Surrender" were marked by many amusing episodes.
Maude Bancks, for example, who was playing the part of a Northern girl
in a Southern town, had to wear a red sash to indicate her Northern
proclivities. This she refused to put on at the dress rehearsal because
it did not match her costume. Bainbridge, an actor who played a Southern
general, had a speech that he regarded as treason to his adopted
country, and quit. But all these troubles were bridged over and the play
was produced with some artistic success. It lasted sixteen weeks on the
road.
After he had closed "Surrender" Frohman was telling a friend in New York
that he had lost twenty-eight thousand dollars on this piece.
"But why did you permit yourself to lose so much money on a play that
seemed bound to fail?"
"I believe in Gus Thomas. That is the reason," replied Frohman.
* * *
Although immersed in a multitude of enterprises, Frohman's activities
now took a new and significant tack. Through all these crowded years his
friendship for William Harris had been growing. Harris, who had
graduated from minstrelsy to theatrical management and was the partner
of Isaac B. Rich in the conduct of the Howard Athenaeum and the Hollis
Street Theater in Boston, now added the Columbia Theater in that city to
his string of houses. Charles at once secured an interest in this lease,
and it was his first out-of-town theater. Quick to capitalize the
opportunity, he put one of the "Jane" road companies in it for a run and
called it the Charles Frohman Boston Stock Company.
VII
JOHN DREW AND THE EMPIRE THEATER
The year 1892 not only found Charles Frohman established as an important
play-producing manager, but in addition he was reaching out for
widespread theater management. It was to register a memorable epoch in
the life of Charles and to record, through him, a significant era in the
history of the American theater. From this time on his life-story was to
be the narrative of the larger development of the drama and its people.
With the acquisition of his first big star, John Drew, he laid the
corner-stone of what is the so-called modern starring system, which
brought about a revolution in theatrical conduct. The story of Charles's
conquest in securing the management of Drew, with all its attendant
dramatic and sensational features, illustrates the resource and vision
of the one-time minstrel manager who now began to come into his own as a
real Napoleon of the stage.
Charles always attached importance and value to big names. He had paid
dearly in the past for this proclivity with the Lester Wallack Company.
Undaunted, he now turned to another investment in name that was to be
more successful.
About this time John Drew had made his way to a unique eminence on the
American stage. A member of a distinguished Philadelphia theatrical
family, he had scored an instantaneous success on his first appearance
at home and had become the leading man of Augustin Daly's famous stock
company. He was one of "The Big Four" of that distinguished
organization, which included Ada Rehan, Mrs. G. H. Gilbert, and James
Lewis. They were known as such in America and England. Drew was regarded
as the finest type of the so-called modern actor interpreting the
gentleman in the modern play. He shone in the drawing-room drama; he had
a distinct following, and was therefore an invaluable asset. The general
impression was that he was wedded to the environment that had proved so
successful and was so congenial.
Charles knew Drew quite casually. Their first meeting was
characteristic. It happened during the great "Shenandoah" run. Henry
Miller and Drew were old friends. It was Frohman's custom in those days
to have after-theater suppers on Saturday nights at his rooms in the old
Hoffman House, and sometimes a friendly game of cards.