"He shoved me out--just shoved me out of the room.... It was that that
made me turn to play-writing. Florance wrote his own plays sometimes,
but it was only his acting and his face that saved them. And they were
too American. He never did really well outside America except in one
play, and that wasn’t his own. Now, I was out after money. And I still
am. I wanted to please the largest possible public. So I guessed there
was nothing for it but the universal appeal. I never write a play that
won’t appeal to England, Germany, France, just as well as to America.
America’s big, but it isn’t big enough for me.... Well, as I was
saying, soon after that I got a one-act play produced at Hannibal,
Missouri. And the same week there was a company at another theatre
there playing the old man’s ’Forty-Niners.’ And the next morning the
theatrical critic’s article in the Hannibal _Courier-Post_ was headed:
’Rival attractions. Archibald Florance’s "Forty-Niners" and new play by
Seven Sachs.’ I cut that heading out and sent it to the old man in
London, and I wrote under it, ’See how far I’ve got in six months.’
When he came back he took me into his company again.... What price that,
eh?"
Edward Henry could only nod his head. The customarily silent Seven
Sachs had little by little subdued him to an admiration as mute as it
was profound.
"Nearly five years after that I got a Christmas card from old Florance.
It had the usual printed wishes,--’Merriest possible Christmas, and so
on,’--but underneath that Archibald had written in pencil, ’You’ve still
five years to go.’ That made me roll my sleeves up, as you may say.
Well, a long time after that I was standing at the corner of Broadway
and Forty-fourth Street, and looking at my own name in electric letters
on the Criterion Theatre. First time I’d ever seen it in electric
letters on Broadway. It was the first night of ’Overheard.’ Florance
was playing at the Hudson Theatre, which is a bit higher up Forty-fourth
Street, and _his_ name was in electric letters too, but further off
Broadway than mine. I strolled up, just out of idle curiosity, and
there the old man was standing in the porch of the theatre, all alone!
’Hullo, Sachs,’ he said, ’I’m glad I’ve seen you. It’s saved me
twenty-five cents.’ I asked how. He said, ’I was just going to send
you a telegram of congratulations.’ He liked me, old Archibald did. He
still does. But I hadn’t done with him. I went to stay with him at his
house on Long Island in the spring. ’Excuse me, Mr. Florance,’ I says
to him. ’How many companies have you got on the road?’ He said, ’Oh!
I haven’t got many now. Five, I think.’ ’Well,’ I says. ’I’ve got six
here in the United States, two in England, three in Austria, and one in
Italy.’ He said, ’Have a cigar, Sachs; you’ve got the goods on me!’ He
was living in that magnificent house all alone, with a whole regiment of
servants."
V.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account