“There was an old building on Twenty-third Street. Proctor now [1890] turned this building into a theatre, and ’C. F.’ asked me to write a play for the opening.... Frohman,” writes Belasco, “had persuaded F. F. Proctor to turn an old church ... into a theatre. ’C. F.’ was to supply the company and a new play. Proctor, a pioneer with a tremendous amount of ambition, had been making money in vaudeville and wanted to enter the theatrical field. ’Dave,’ ’C. F.’ said, ’I shall depend upon you for the play.’... I advised him not to wait an instant, lest Proctor’s enthusiasm die out. The following week the old church began dropping its ecclesiastical aspect as fast as the wreckers could do away with it.

“I was strongly tempted to write the opening play alone, but when I saw how much depended upon it I had a touch of stage fright. Naturally, my thoughts turned to Henry De Mille.... We had always been successful because our way of thought was similar and we were frank in our criticism of each other’s work. He excelled in narrative and had a quick wit. The emotional or dramatic scenes were more to my liking. I acted while he took down my speeches. When a play was finished, it was impossible to say where his work left off and my work began [???—W. W.]. This is what collaboration should be.

“It was five o’clock in the morning when I was seized with the idea of asking De Mille to assist me and I hastened at once to his house. I knocked on his door with the vigor of a watchman sounding a fire alarm, and when De Mille at last appeared he was armed with a cane, ready to defend his hearth and home. I told him of the necessity for a play for ’C. F.’s’ opening and he agreed to work with me. In the profession De Mille and I were thought to be very lucky as ’theatre openers.’ Looking back, I see how many, many times it has been my fate to break the bottle over the prows of theatrical ships. Here we were again,—De Mille and I,—talking over the birth and baptism of yet another New York manager!”