FIRST MEETING WITH CHARLES FROHMAN. |
Belasco was, during one period of his life, closely allied to Charles Frohman. Later, after Frohman had, with others, formed the iniquitous Theatrical Syndicate, he was, for many years, resolutely and rightly, antagonistic to him. Age and change, however, sometimes wear out antagonisms, and those estranged friends were reconciled not long before Frohman’s death in the Lusitania murder: the last production made by Frohman was a revival, at the Empire Theatre, New York, April 7, 1915, in association with Belasco, of “A Celebrated Case.” The first meeting of those managers occurred in San Francisco, while Belasco was rehearsing “American Born.” He has made this record of that significant incident: “Charles Frohman came to San Francisco at the head of the Haverley Minstrels. Gustave Frohman told me he thought his brother and I should meet. The artists of the town had a rendezvous at a Rathskeller at the corner of Kearny and Sutter streets, where we were in the habit of gathering after the theatre. Gustave Frohman and I were at a table, when he exclaimed: ’There’s my brother Charlie!’ I looked at Charles, our eyes met. We bowed. That was our introduction. We never had a formal one, Charles Frohman and I; we just knew each other.... He came to see ’American Born,’ was favorably impressed by it, and conceived the idea of forming a company and taking the play East. We selected Chicago as the best starting point for an Eastern tour and set busily to work to organize our company and arrange details of the business.”
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