Charles Frohman: Manager and ManMarcosson, Isaac Frederick
General
Charles Frohman: Manager and Man
Marcosson, Isaac Frederick
Frohman, Charles, 1860-1915; Theater -- United States
To Charles, London meant J. M. Barrie, and to be with the man who wrote
"Peter Pan" was one of his supreme delights. The devotion between these
two men of such widely differing temperaments constitutes one of the
really great friendships of modern times. Character of an unusual kind,
on both sides, was essential to such a communion of interest and
affection. Both possessed it to a remarkable degree.
No two people could have been more opposite. Frohman was quick, nervous,
impulsive, bubbling with optimism; Barrie was the quiet, canny Scot,
reserved, repressed, and elusive. Yet they had two great traits in
common--shyness and humor. As Barrie says:
"Because we were the two shyest men in the world, we got on so well and
understood each other so perfectly."
There was another bond between these two men in the fact that each
adored his mother. In Charles's case he was the pride and the joy of the
maternal heart; with Barrie the root and inspiration of all his life and
work was the revered "Margaret Ogilvy." He is the only man in all the
world who ever wrote a life of his mother.
There was still another and more tangible community of interest between
these two remarkable men. Each detested the silk hat. Frohman had never
worn one since the Haverly Minstrel days, when he had to don the tile
for the daily street parade. Barrie, in all his life, has had only one
silk hat. It is of the vintage of the early 'seventies. The only
occasion when he wears the much-detested headgear is at the first
rehearsal of the companies that do his plays. Then he attires himself in
morning clothes, goes to the theater, nervously holds the hat in his
hand while he is introduced to the actors and actresses. Just as Charles
used to hide his silk hat as soon as the minstrel parade was over and
put on a cap, so does Barrie send the objectionable headgear home as
soon as these formalities are over and welcome his more comfortable
bowler as an old friend.
Curiously enough, Frohman and Barrie did not drift together at once.
When the little Scotchman made his first visit to America in 1896 and
"discovered" Maude Adams as the inspired person to act _Lady Babbie_, he
met the man who was to be his great friend in a casual business way
only. The negotiations for "The Little Minister" from England were
conducted through an agent.
But when Frohman went abroad the following year the kinship between the
men started, and continued with increasing intimacy. The men became
great pals. They would wander about London, Barrie smoking a short,
black pipe, Frohman swinging his stick. On many of these strolls they
walked for hours without saying a word to each other. Each had the great
gift of silence--the rare sense of understanding.
Barrie and his pipe are inseparable, as the world knows. There is a
legend in London theatrical lore that Frohman wanted to drive to
Barrie's flat one night. He was in his usual merry mood, so the
instruction he gave was this:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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