Charles Frohman: Manager and ManMarcosson, Isaac Frederick
General
Charles Frohman: Manager and Man
Marcosson, Isaac Frederick
Frohman, Charles, 1860-1915; Theater -- United States
One phase of Charles's great success in life was revealed in this
attitude toward his women stars. He succeeded because he mixed sentiment
with business. He was not all sentiment and he was not all business, but
he was an extraordinarily happy blend of each of these qualities, and
they endeared him to the people who worked for him.
The attitude of the great star toward Frohman is best explained perhaps
by Sir Henry Irving. Once, when the time came for his usual American
tour, he said to his long-time manager, Bram Stoker, who was about to
start for New York:
"When you get to America just tell Frohman--you need not bother to write
him--that I want to come under his management. He always understands. He
is always so fair."
One detail will illustrate Frohman's feeling about stars, and it is
this: He never wanted them, male or female, to make themselves
conspicuous or to do commonplace things. He was sensitive about what
they said or did. For example, he did not like to see John Drew walk up
and down Broadway. He spent a fortune sheltering Maude Adams from all
kinds of intrusion. With her especially he exhausted every resource to
keep her aloof and secluded. He preferred that she be known through her
work and not through her personal self. It was so with himself.
Frohman was one of the most generous-minded of men in his feeling about
his co-workers. On one occasion when he was rehearsing "The Dictator,"
William Collier suggested a whole new scene. The next night Frohman took
a friend to see it. Afterward, accompanied by his guest, he went back on
the stage to congratulate his star. He slapped Collier on the back and,
turning to his companion, said:
"Wasn't that a bully scene that Willie put into the play?"
He was always willing to admit that his success came from those who
worked for him. Once he was asked the question:
"If you had your life to live over again would you be a theatrical
manager?"
Quick as a flash Frohman replied:
"If I could be surrounded by the same actors and writers who have made
_me_--yes. Otherwise, no."
This feeling led him to say once:
"I believe a manager's success does not come so much from the public as
from his players. When they are ready to march with him without regard
to results, then he has indeed succeeded. This is my success. My
ambition frankly centers in the welfare of the actor. The day's work
holds out to me no finer gratification than to see intelligent, earnest,
deserving actors go into the fame and fortune of being stars."
Nothing could down his immense pride in his stars. Once he was making
his annual visit to England with Dillingham. At that time Olga
Nethersole, who had been playing "Carmen," was under his management.
She was also on the boat. The passenger-list included many other
celebrities, among them Madame Emma Calve, the opera-singer, who had
just made her great success in the opera "Carmen" at the Metropolitan
Opera House. Naturally there was some rivalry between the two _Carmens_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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