Charles Frohman: Manager and ManMarcosson, Isaac Frederick
General
Charles Frohman: Manager and Man
Marcosson, Isaac Frederick
Frohman, Charles, 1860-1915; Theater -- United States
The Frohman sponsorship of the Duke of York's was celebrated with a
magnificent production of Anthony Hope's "The Adventure of Lady Ursula,"
which had been a success in New York with E. H. Sothern. It ran the
entire season. The play was put on in the usual Frohman way, so much so
that the British critics said that "the production, from first to last,
was correct down to a coat-button."
Until the end of his life the Duke of York's Theater had a large place
in his heart. At the back of private box F, which was his own box, and
which was also used for royalty when it visited the play, was a
comfortable retiring-room, charmingly decorated in red. Here Frohman
loved to sit and entertain his friends, especially such close intimates
as Sir James M. Barrie, Haddon Chambers, Sir Arthur Pinero, Henry Arthur
Jones, Michael Morton, and other English playwrights.
These busy days at the Duke of York's furnished Frohman with many
amusing episodes. On one occasion he was caught in the self-operating
elevator of the theater and was kept a prisoner in it for over an hour.
His employees were in consternation. When he was finally extricated they
began to apologize most profusely.
"Nonsense!" said Frohman. "I am glad I got stuck. It's the first
vacation I have had in two years."
The lobby of the Duke of York's illustrates one of Charles's distinctive
ideas. Instead of ornamenting it with pictures of dead dramatic heroes
like Shakespeare and Garrick, he filled it with photographs of his live
American stars. The English theater-goers who went there saw huge
portraits of Maude Adams, Ethel Barrymore, Marie Doro, John Drew, Otis
Skinner, and William Gillette.
On one occasion he was held up at the entrance of the Duke of York's by
a new doorkeeper who asked for his ticket.
"I am Frohman," said the manager.
"Can't help it, sir; you've got to have a ticket."
"You're quite right," said Frohman, who went to the box-office and
bought himself a stall seat. When the house-manager, James W. Matthews,
threatened to discharge the doorkeeper, Frohman said:
"Certainly not. The man was obeying orders. If he had done otherwise you
should have discharged him."
Frohman so loved the Duke of York's that he would go back to it and
witness the same play twenty times. During his last visit to England,
when his right knee was troubling him, he telephoned down one night to
have his box reserved. Matthews, to spare him any trouble, had a little
platform built so that he would not have to walk up the steps. Two weeks
later, Frohman again telephoned that he wanted the box held, and added:
"I am better now. Don't bother to build a theater for me."
Curiously enough, the first failure that Charles had at the Duke of
York's was "The Christian," which had scored such an enormous success in
America. But failure only spurred him on to further efforts. When an
English friend condoled with him about his loss on this occasion he
said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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