of Converse L. Graves, who took over Morse’s interest, it was opened, May 21, 1883, as the Temple Theatre, with a play called “A Bustle Among the Petticoats.” Max Strakosch succeeded Graves as manager of the house, and in turn sold his interest to Albert G. Eaves, a New York theatrical costumer, who, in association with Edward Stone, conducted the theatre for a short time. Thereafter, about 1885, it was restored to ecclesiastical service as the Twenty-third Street Tabernacle. F. F. Proctor leased the property in 1888, tore down the old building and erected a new one, which, as Proctor’s Twenty-third Street Theatre, was opened, May 5, 1889, with a performance, by Neil Burgess and his company, of “The County Fair.” Dockstader’s Minstrels succeeded Burgess, and on August 31 “The Great Metropolis” was there first acted. “Shenandoah,” transferred from the Star Theatre, where it was produced for the first time in New York on September 9, 1889, was presented there on October 21, that year, and it ran till April 19, 1890,--receiving, in all, 250 performances. Stuart Robson played there, in “The Henrietta,” from April 21 to May 31, when the theatre was closed. It was reopened on September 8, 1890, with a farce by William Gillette, called “All the Comforts of Home,”--adapted from “Ein Toller Einfall,”--which held the stage till October 18, and, on October 21, for the first time anywhere, “Men and Women” was there produced. That event occurred _a year and a half after_ the theatre was first opened. Descanting on the inception of the play of “Men and Women,” Belasco writes: “About this time the newspapers were full of a bank scandal. A young man employed in a bank had speculated with funds and found himself in a very dangerous position. His father, a fine man of business, and a stockholder, had the sympathy of the entire public in his misfortune. Owing to the young man’s speculations, the bank was on the verge of closing, and the newspapers were full of harrowing details. As I read the accounts I came to this sentence in a statement made by the father: ’I’ll save the bank if it costs me a million a day!’ ’Henry,’ I said, ’there’s our play. We must deal with a father’s pride and love for his only son, no matter what deed the son may commit.’ To me the father’s statement meant: ’I’ll save my boy, though I am left without a penny and have to beg on the streets.’...