University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

An historical study of the legitimate theatre in Los Angeles: 1920-1929 and its relation to the national theatrical scene

(USC Thesis Other)

An historical study of the legitimate theatre in Los Angeles: 1920-1929 and its relation to the national theatrical scene

PDF

Download

Open document

Flip pages

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content AN HISTORICAL STUDY OF THE LEGITIMATE THEATRE IN LOS ANGELES: 1920-1929 AND ITS RELATION TO THE NATIONAL THEATRICAL SCENE by Camille Naomi Rezutko Bokar A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Communications-Drama) September 1973 INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1.The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation. Silver prints of "photographs" may be ordered at additional charge by writing the Order Department, giving the catalog number, title, author and specific pages you wish reproduced. 5. PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have indistinct print. Filmed as received. Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 s r . * 5 ? ; . I 74-906 BOKAR, Camille Naomi Rezutko, 1941- AN HISTORICAL STUDY OF THE LEGITIMATE THEATRE IN LOS ANGELES: 1920-1929 AND ITS RELATION TO THE NATIONAL THEATRICAL SCENE. University of Southern California, Ph.D., 1973 Speech-Theater 1 5 University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan I I . j Copyright by CAMILLE NAOMI REZUTKO BOKAR 1973 THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. UNIVERSITY O F SO U TH E R N CA LIFO R NIA TH E G RADUATE SCHO OL U N IV E R S IT Y PARK LOS A NG ELES. C A L IF O R N IA 9 0 0 0 7 This dissertation, written by Camille Naomi Rezutko Bokar under the direction of h.&Z... Dissertation Com mittee, and approved by a ll its members, has been presented to and accepted by The Graduate School, in partial fulfillm ent of requirements of the degree of D O C T O R O F P H IL O S O P H Y Dean Date. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF CHARTS ...................................... iv Chapter I. INTRODUCTION .................................. 1 Background Statement of the Problem Significance of the Study Limits of the Study Source Materials Review of the Literature Remainder of the Study II. CULTURAL CONTEXTS— NATIONALLY AND LOCALLY (THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES)................... 24 III. THE EMERGING YEAR— 1920 ....................... 73 Introduction Background Discussion of Theatrical Activity Miscellaneous Theatre Activities Summary and Conclusion IV. THE HOLDING YEAR— 1 9 2 1 ..........................124 Introduction Background Discussion of Theatrical Activity Summary and Conclusion V. THE FULCRUM YEARS— 1922 AND 1923 ..... . . 188 Introduction Background ii Chapter Page Discussion of Theatrical Activity Summary and Conclusion VI. THE CRUCIAL YEARS— 1924 AND 1925 268 Introduction Background Discussion of Theatrical Activity Summary and Conclusion VII. THE SURGING YEARS, THE SPLINTERING YEARS— 1926 AND 1927................................. 401 Introduction Background Discussion of Theatrical Activity Summary and Conclusion VIII. THE CRISIS YEARS— 1928 AND 1929 .............. 610 Introduction Background Discussion of Theatrical Activity Summary and Conclusion IX. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS.................... . 783 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................... 822 APPENDIXES...............................................841 I. Cartoon Map of Playhouses and Productions, May, 1929 .............. 842 II. The Day Book............................. 845 III. Alphabetical List of Playwrights Produced in Los Angeles Between January 1, 1920, and December 31, 1929 ..... 1088 IV. Selective Index......................... 1126 iii LIST OF CHARTS Chart Page 1. The Majestic Theatre............................ 78 2. The Morosco Theatre.............................. 86 3. The Egan Theatre................................ 90 4. The Mason Opera House............................ 93 5. The Philharmonic Auditorium........................ 101 6. The Walker Auditorium— The Fine Arts Theatre— The Orange Grove Playhouse .................... 223 7. The Renovated Mason Theatre ..................... 308 8. The Biltmore.......................................315 9. The Figueroa Street Playhouse ................... 328 10. Long-Run Engagements, 1924-1925 .................. 371 11. The El Capitan.....................................407 12. The Music Box .....................................423 13. The Belasco.........................................436 14. The Vine Street................... 456 15. The Hollywood Playhouse............................467 16. The Mayan...........................................477 17. The Mission Playhouse.............................. 516 18. The Shrine Auditorium..............................532 ____________________________iv___________________________ Chart Page 19. Premiere Productions in 1926-27 ................. 580 20. The Windsor Square Theatre ...................... 652 21. Presentation of Major American, British, and Continental Playwrights According to Local or Road-Company Production Unit ................. 796 22. Presentation of Best Plays According to Production Unit (Local or Road Company) .... 805 v CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Background Los Angeles in The Twenties surely must have appeared to many to have been "The Cinderella City" of the country. As a result of several factors— expansion of its industrial, manufacturing, and financial base; an influx of people which pushed the population over the million and one-quarter mark by 1930; a surge of tourists throughout the year, in winter and in summer; the growing importance of the film industry; the increasing journalistic coverage devoted to the city "that growed like Topsy," and its portent for future growth in other metropolises— Los Angeles, formerly considered merely as "The Playground of the World," in the space of ten years moved to a position of regional importance comparable to that of the longer- established areas of New York and Chicago, and achieved, in many instances, a position integral to the economy and the culture of the nation and the area.'*' 1 2 Locally, in terms of cultural and civic achieve ments, Los Angeles undertook the building of a civic cen ter? opened a new, centrally-located main branch of an extensive library system; established the southern branch of The University of California at its Westwood campus, which facilitated the quiet but certain challenge to the intellectual exclusiveness of the mother campus at Berke ley. The newly-created (1919) Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra initiated its "Symphony under the Stars" series at the recently-selected hillside site, The Hollywood Bowl, while across the way in an adjacent canyon America's Oberammergau pageant, The Pilgrimage Play, unfolded. The Henry E. Huntington Art Gallery displayed its renowned eighteenth century English portraits to the public in 1928. For the only time in the city's history, Los Ange les supported two opera companies— The California Grand Opera Company, and The Los Angeles Opera Company. These and similar activities in Los Angeles during this time gave credence to the image after which Los Angeles occa- 2 sionally fashioned itself— the New Greece of the West. In The Twenties, the theatre in Los Angeles assumed such proportion that many viewed it as inevitable that Los Angeles should become a production center second 3 in importance only to New York. Monroe Lathrop, drama critic of The Los Angeles Evening-Express and dean of the city's theatrical journalists, asserted in 1926 that Los Angeles "... may yet give New York, whose world pre eminence in the creation of new plays is unquestioned, a 3 creditable race for first honors." Whether referring to Los Angeles as a production center of new plays, or a center for plays opened in New York (or elsewhere) but mounted with special "coast casts," the opinion persisted through the decade that ". . . it is logical for Los Ange les to develop into a production center."4 The above claims were founded on the activity which erupted in the city during The Twenties, for at the end of the First World War Los Angeles claimed only three major legitimate playhouses: The Majestic, The Morosco, and The Mason Opera House— the major road-show playhouse of the city. The first theatre had been leased by Oliver Morosco, who also owned The Morosco Theatre where a stock company was installed, for ten years. He occasionally premiered plays he was considering for New York production but primarily he used The Majestic as a center for touring companies and road shows. In 1918, his lease expired, and shortly thereafter Thomas Wilkes, sponsor of stock 4~ theatres in other western cities, assumed the responsibil ity for the playhouse. He installed a stock company pre senting popular fare at popular prices, which became direct competition for Morosco*s aggregation.^ Many of The Wilkes Company became significant contributors to local theatre, the national stage, and the movies— none more so than Edward Everett Horton, Wilhemena Wilkes Morgan, and Dickson Morgan. Thus, at the turn of the decade, two stock com panies, plus The Mason Opera House and The Philharmonic Auditorium— used occasionally for road-shows (theatrical, balletic, operatic)— bid for patrons. In addition, in 1920, Frank Egan reopened his small theatre which, during The Teens, had housed experimental and/or literary "little theatre" productions. It was made available again for presentations of a similar nature as well as for new works produced by Oliver Morosco. Further, The Mission Play, an historical drama of the rise and decline of the Missions in California, commenced its ninth successful season, and The Pilgrimage Play premiered in July, 1920. Over the next four years, theatre in Los Angeles subsisted, but it was neither as moribund nor as derivative as has been gener ally thought. Rather, the patterns and policies set in 5 these years were to determine the direction and development of the theatre in Los Angeles for the remainder of the decade. Then, in 1924, the legitimate theatre began its bid for a center-stage position. In March, The Biltmore Theatre, an A. L. Erlanger-affiliated house, opened. Two months later, The Figueroa Street Playhouse lit up its marquee. The former became the new terminus for road shows, while the latter, leased by a showman with "know how" in publicity-promotion, theatre, and films— Louis 0. Macloon— presented coast-cast productions of Broadway hits contemporaneous with their eastern engagement or shortly thereafter. The Fine Arts Theatre (The Walker Auditorium on Grand Street) was the site of a short-lived west coast Theatre Guild, and later in 1924, when renamed The Orange Grove Playhouse, became the location of the city's first Follies-type revue. But this modest outgrowth was a pale shadow beside the whirlwind eruption between 1926 and 1927, when six new theatres were completed, each devoted to becoming a pro duction house (no road shows):The El Capitan, The Music Box, The Belasco, The Vine Street, The Hollywood Playhouse, and The Mayan, in chronological order. In addition, The — — — — r Belmont Theatre, a recently-constructed movie house stand ing in a residential neighborhood, was converted to a spoken-drama playhouse, and The Mission Theatre (San Gabriel) also entered the commercial caravan with a stock company when it was not accommodating The Mission Play for which it was built. The Lincoln Theatre, also originally a movie house, in 1928 became the home of a troupe of pro fessional Negro actors, The Lafayette Players, who presented commercial theatrical fare with a weekly change of bill. The Windsor Theatre, part of the new Ebell Club facili ties, located in an exclusive newlv-developed area on the western fringe of the city, was also made available for commercial productions, and the new Shrine Auditorium, replacing the former structure which had burned in 1920, accommodated operas, ballet troupes, and theatrical pro ductions of an extravagant nature. The construction of playhouses devoted to "the spoken drama" was not the only mark of the "theatrical boom" in Los Angeles. An increasing number of individuals experimented as independent producers. In addition to Thomas Wilkes, Oliver Morosco, and Frank Egan— who were on the scene in 1920— Louis O. Macloon and Lillian Albert son, Edward Smith, Edward Belasco and Fred Butler, Carter T deHaven, Henry "Terry" Duffy, Edward Everett Horton, Homer Curran, 0. D. Woodward, and numerous others, swelled the ranks of producers. Moreover, in this period, The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre took shape and presented a season of six plays and sponsored The New York Theatre Guild in five productions. Throughout the period, several noncom mercial theatre organizations such as The Hollywood Com munity Theatre, The Harlequin Little Theatre, The Writers' Club, The Potboilers, The Ralph Herman Playshop, The Thea tre Mart, and The Pasadena Playhouse presented a palette of theatrical fare to enrich anyone's artistic tastes or intellectual cravings. This activity was so vital and varied that Variety, the national trade journal, stated that Los Angeles was probably the most active western city in this particular kind of theatre.^ However, by the September after the New York Stock Market crash, the theatrical fever had abated and only five of the theatres listed attractions.^ There was an upsurge during the Olympics of 1932, which convened in Los Angeles, but on September 6th of that year, Edwin Schallert, of The Los Angeles Times, wrote that "seeing a O play is almost a novelty." The vitality of the theatre dried up in the blistering winds of The Depression and 8 then was overwhelmed in the productivity of the movies. In the opinion of many, Los Angeles became "the worst show 9 town in America," a side-rail stop for national road companies trucking to San Francisco. It had not always been so— particularly in The Twenties. Statement of the Problem This study, therefore, proposes 1. To investigate and evaluate the forces which contributed to the burgeoning theatrical activ ity in Los Angeles between 1920 and 1929. 2. To explore the nature of the extraordinary vitality of the stage during this "boom" per iod by' a. Explicating the nature of the productions which were staged, b. chronicling, briefly, the critical response to these productions, c. determining what playhouses were built or renovated for theatrical use, and d. studying the nature of the individuals involved in theatrical production. 3. To examine the forces which induced the diminu tion of theatrical industriousness. 9 4. To ascertain and evaluate the position of Los Angeles theatrical activity in relation to the national theatrical scene. Considerations encompass the economic forces and the sociological factors, as well as the historical tradi tion in the area, plus relevant cultural cross references. Significance of the Study Except for a few recent studies treating of indi viduals involved in Los Angeles theatre or studies of a particular playhouse, no comparative investigation has been attempted of theatrical activity in the decade of The Twenties, during which time Los Angeles achieved the stature of a major metropolis and during which time it attained the high point of theatrical activity, i.e., when there were more theatres devoted to the staging of plays than at any other time in the city's history.'*"® This oversight may be the result of an attitude— prevalent at the time and persisting thereafter— which considered Los Angeles primarily as a road town for shows en route to San Francisco or which, with "tunnel vision" assumed that because Los Angeles was the film capital of the world, its theatre was derivative and/or second rate. Significantly, The Twenties was also the period in nr which native playwrights achieved serious literary status. In New York, during this time, more theatre buildings were erected and more productions staged than at any time in the history of Broadway. How theatrical activity in Los Angeles related to and/or reflected theatrical condi tions in the eastern metropolises, such as New York, Chi cago, and other big cities, and how it differed, if it differed, has heretofore not been examined. Moreover, studies of theatrical activity in the country have shown that, contrary to generally-held misconceptions, theatre did not diminish simply and directly because of the "talkies," the automobile, radio, or the Great Depres sion.^ No study has sought to apply these assumptions to Los Angeles theatre during the time when these factors manifested themselves. Limits of the Study This study is limited to the period known as The Twenties, for it was during that time that Los Angeles experienced its greatest theatrical activity. While this may appear to be an artificial delimitation, it is undeni able that during this time the theatrical output was abundant and a large part of it was characterized by experimentation and innovation. Moreover, it is one of ______-----------XX the few historical periods which is clearly marked by two historical events of world importance— the ending of the First World War and the Great Depression. This study examines the theatrical activity between the beginning of 1920 and the end of 1929 which transpired in the major legitimate playhouses of Los Angeles and Hollywood, and in the smaller noncommercial producing groups which were covered by the metropolitan newspapers. It excludes (1) those groups whose activity consisted primarily of play readings; (2) those organizations whose theatrical involvement was a development of a larger pro gram of club functions, e.g., The Ebell, The Friday Morn ing Club; (3) the presentations of local drama studios, high schools, and colleges and universities; (4) the the atrical fare available at the local vaudeville houses and musical comedy-revue theatres; (5) the activities of the municipal theatre of Los Angeles, which was funded by The Parks and Recreation Department; (6) the affairs of The Los Angeles Center of the Drama League; (7) the live "prologs" which accompanied the silent films; and (8) any attempt to detail the dramatic activities of ethnic and/or national groups.^ TZ It is understood that this study focuses upon the playhouses and producing units in the major locus of activ ity— -Los Angeles and Hollywood. By theatrical fare is meant the live production of plays, musical comedies, and musical revues which were offered as the basic fare of the producing playhouse or producing unit— commercial and noncommercial— and which comprised the sole or major offer- xng of an evening or a presentation. Source Materials The major reference works for this study were the files of The Los Angeles Times, The Los Angeles Examiner, Variety, and Billboard, all of which were perused through each issue between January 1, 1920, and December 31, 1929, plus other relevant issues. The Los Angeles Evening- Express was consulted over the same time period, and issues of The California Graphic were read from 1926 through 1928. The theatre magazines, Theatre Arts Monthly, Drama, and Theatre, also proved helpful for local and national theatre news, and The Architectural Digest, The Architec tural Record, The Architect and Engineer, The Pacific Coast Architect, and Southwest Builder and Contractor were consulted for information about theatre structures. Supportive reading was undertaken extensively in 13 three areas: general history of the period, history of Southern California and Los Angeles, and American theatre history with emphasis upon The Twenties. Several collections of theatrical material proved of immense value. The George A. Dobinson collection at the Main Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library contained programs and articles on theatrical activity. In general, the holdings at the Main Branch, and the personnel in the History Department and the Literature Division were excep tionally helpful. The collection of playbills and other theatrical material at The Los Angeles Museum of Natural History, while weighted toward the nineteenth century, was illuminating as background information. The L. E. Behymer Collection at The Henry Huntington Library was an unmatched source, and a manuscript biography of L. E. Behymer by his wife (unpublished and not part of the collection) proved valuable. In addition, the architectural drawings in the vaults of the Los Angeles City Department of Buildings and Safety provided the bulk of the dimensions cited in these chapters for the various theatres. The architectural firm of Robert C. Clements also opened its files to the writer for this study. The Oral History Collection in the Special 14 Collections at The University of California, Los Angeles, contained several taped interviews with individuals who were active in Los Angeles theatre during The Twenties, and interviews with actors, theatre owners, and theatre architects added insight and data. Several people also aided this study by their detailed responses via letter. Review of the Literature As mentioned above, there exist several theses and dissertations which treat of a particular playhouse or an individual who contributed to theatre during the per iod under consideration. One of the most comprehensive studies is that of Charles F. Peters who recorded the productions at The Biltmore Theatre, the leading road-show playhouse in Los Angeles, between 1924 and 1964.14 Three master's studies undertaken at The University of Califor nia, Los Angeles relate to this study: Muriel Ann Mouring's study of Henry "Terry" Duffy is an invaluable if somewhat limited study of Duffy's impact upon theatre on the west 15 coast. The history of The Pilgrimage Play in its first decade provides insight because it speaks of actors who vfere involved not only in the religious pageant but whose acting-producing touched the professional commercial theatre as well.'*'6 A study of The Mason Opera House -------------------------------------------------------------------33- appears to be a history, but is in fact an essay upon the opening of the theatre in 190 3 and the events leading up to the occasion, which handles the remaining fifty years of 1 7 its existence cursorily. Sue Wolper Earnest's dissertation undertaken at The University of Southern California treating of the theatri cal activity in the area between 1850 and 1893, as well as the investigations between 1880 and 1895, and 1895 and 1905 pursued by Edward Kaufman and Alan Woods, respective ly, assisted in understanding the tradition of theatre in lfi Los Angeles and its environs. Four dissertations fall within the precise span of this study. Marvin Kirschman's examination of The Belasco Theatre between 1926 and 1933 was enormously helpful, but since it made either little comparison or superficial com parison (frequently he grouped all theatre gross receipts together when production prices ranged from the popular- priced theatres— $1.25 top— to the road-company and pro- duction-house theatres— $2.50 to $4.00) among the theatres, 19 its assistance was of a special nature. Leonard Schoen studied Oliver Morosco's long-run premier productions, but the study stopped with 1922— just at the point that the- 20 atncal activity began to assume importance. Cheryl “TF Wilbur's study of The Shrine Auditorium is a detailed investigation of the history of the building of the struc ture and lists the events in an appendix at the end of the 21 study. Gayle Shoup's study of The Pasadena Playhouse is of assistance for those aspects which touched Los Angeles theatrical scene, but otherwise is an invaluable study of 22 its subject. Few general histories of American theatre discuss California, and those which do generally follow the prac- 23 tice of focusing upon San Francisco. However, Tom Owens has written about Los Angeles theatre, and Los Angeles: A Guide to the City and Its Environs, prepared by The Writers' program of The Works Project Administration, 24 gives a capsule history of the theatre in the city. Some specific information regarding theatre in California— San Francisco, Los Angeles, and points in between— is fur nished in the introductions to the Burns Mantle series of 25 Best Plays, beginning with the 1924-25 season. Only recently, therefore, has the theatrical phenomenon in Los Angeles attracted scholarly attention. Remainder of the Study Chapter II, Cultural Contexts— Nationally and Locally (The City of Los Angeles) is an overview of the — , ---------------------------------------------------------- xy cultural currents which eddied through this period in an attempt to provide a landscape against which theatrical events occurred. Chapter III, The Emerging Years— 1920, investi gates how theatre was changing during the first year of the new decade. Chapter IV, The Holding Years— 1921, looks at how theatre maintained its hold upon the audience just before the first significant changes occurred. Chapter V, The Fulcrum Years— 1922-1923, studies how patterns and policies initiated and/or frustrated in this time affected later theatrical directions, as well as brought Los Angeles to the attention of the rest of the country, theatrically. Chapter VI, The Crucial Years— 1924-1925, examines how changing conditions propelled Los Angeles from its stock company "backwardness" days into a production center of importance. Chapter VII, The Surging Years, The Splintering Years— 1926-1927, chronicles the new theatres erected in this period, the nature of production activity transpiring in them and in the other playhouses, and the factors which began to contribute to the erosion of the theatre in Los 18 Angeles. Chapter VIII— The Crisis Years— 1928-1929, relates the variety in quality and quantity in theatrical produc tion and further details those aspects which contributed to the variety, the lasting qualities and the curtailing factors in the theatre. Chapter IX— Summary and Conclusion. There are four appendixes. Appendix I is a cartoon map of playhouses and productions in May, 1929. Appendix II is a Day Book, which lists productions at each theatre, by week, through the ten-year period, including casts (selected), opening and closing dates of engagement in Los Angeles and New York, as well as gross receipts for local engagement when reported and available. Appendix III is an alphabetical list of playwrights produced in Los Angeles between January 1, 1920, and December 31, 1929. Appendix IV is a selective index. CHAPTER I Footnotes ^Robert M. Fogelson, The Fragmented Metropolis (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967), p. 78 says: Los Angeles "... was about to assume a place not among the regional metropolises like Boston, but among the few continental centers like New York." 2 Edgar Lloyd Hampton, "Los Angeles as an American Art Centre," Current History, XXIV (September, 1926) , 858-65; Lilliam Symes, "The Beautiful and Dumb," Harper's- Monthly Magazine,CLXIII (June, 1931), 22-32. 3 Monroe Lathrop, "Los Angeles— A World Capital of the Drama," The Los Angeles Evening-Express Yearbook, 1926 (Los Angeles: The Evening Express, 1926), pp. 78-9. 4 Herbert Moulton, The Los Angeles Times (hereafter referred to as The Times), July 11, 1925, II, 11. Harry Clay Blaney, head of the Standard Play Company, had said: "I predict without fear that within the next few years, Los Angeles and Hollywood will be among the most important producing centers of the United States— and second only to New York itself." Billboard XXXVIII, 23 (June 5, 1926), 6. 5 The maximum price at both theatres in 1929-20 was $1.00, but the cheapest ticket at The Majestic cost twenty- five cents, whereas at The Morosco it cost only ten cents. ^Variety, LXXXV, 1 (October 20, 1926), 94. 7 The Belasco and The Biltmore in downtown Los Angeles; The El Capitan, The Hollywood Playhouse, and The Vine Street theatres in Hollywood. O As Husbands Go: Edwin Schollert, The Times, September 6, 1932, Sec. I, p. 7. 19 _____ ^ 9An observation with which Edwin Lester, of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, concurred. Quoted in Henry A. Sutherland, "Requiem for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Auditorium," Southern California Quarterly, XLII, 3 (September, 1965), 324. ^0The number of legitimate playhouses has been var iously estimated at anywhere from sixteen to thirty-three, without much explanation of how this total was derived. This study considers the theatrical offerings at nineteen commercial theatres, cited in the text under "Background." Billboard, XXXVIII, 2 (January 9, 1926), 9, said that there were twenty nine theatres showing dramatic produc tions, one hundred and one showing pictures, fifty-eight studios, and two hundred and fifty producing companies. Hjack Poggi, Theater in America: The Impact of Economic Forces, 1870-1967 (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1968). Alfred L. Bernheim, The Business of the Theatre (New York: Benjamin Blom, Inc., 1932). 12lt seems quite likely, based on sporadic research, that there was an active Spanish-speaking "theatre(s)" during a large portion of this decade, but since its (their) activities were rarely reported in the metropoli tan daily newspapers, it was difficult to ascertain. The newspapers did make occasional references (sporadic arti cles) to ethnic and national theatrical activities, but did not report upon them regularly; a situation which was altered somewhat in the 1930's. 13two definitions of "legitimate drama" were sub mitted by Arthur Hopkins and Augustus Thomas during Con gressional consideration regarding the possible reduction in admission taxes charged for amusements. Arthur Hopkins said, '"Legitimate drama' is defined as a play that is a consecutive narrative interpreted by one set of charac ters all necessary to the development of the author's story, in two or more acts, the unfoldment of which con sumes more than one hour and 45 minutes in time. '"Musical comedy' and 'opera' are defined as legitimate drama set to music." Augustus Thomas said, "A spoken presentation by actors impersonating characters who tell and depict a single story uninterrupted by personal specialties, stunts, or exhibitions and which story has a beginning, development; 7T and consequential end, the whole manifestly meant to affect either or both the serious and risable emotions of an audience. "The play may be accompanied by concurrent music. "An opera is such a story with singing wholly or partly substituted for speech. "Pantomime is a similar story where elaborated conventional gestures are substituted for speech." Var iety , LXXX, 12 (November 18, 1925), 26. ■^Charles Francis Peters, "A Historical Survey of The Biltmore Theatre" (unpublished Master's thesis, Cali fornia State College at Long Beach, 1969). 1 s A Muriel Ann Mouring, "Henry 'Terry' Duffy: The West Coast's Leading Actor-Producer" (unpublished Master's thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 1969). 1 6 Earl Homer Jones, Jr., "The History of the Pil grimage Play: 1920-1929" (unpublished Master's thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 1965). 1 7 A,Ruth Miriamrose Gartler, "A Historical Study of The Mason Opera House in Los Angeles" (unpublished Mas ter's thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 1966). 1 f i J‘ 0Sue Wolper Earnest, "An Historical Study of the Growth of Theatre in Southern California, 1848-189 4" (unpublished Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California, 1947). Edward Kaufman, "A History of the Development of the Professional Theatre in Los Angeles: 1880-1895" (un published Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California, 1972). Alan Woods, "The Interaction of Los Angeles Theater and Society Between 1895 and 1906: A Case Study" (unpublished Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California, 1972). I Q Marvin Kirschman, "A Historical Study of the Belasco Theatre in Los Angeles and the Forces That Shaped Its History: 1927-1933" (unpublished Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California, 1971). o 0 Leonard Schoen, "A Historical Study of Oliver Morosco's Long Run Premiere Productions in Los Angeles, 22 1905-1922" (unpublished Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California, 1971). 21 Cheryl L. Wilbur, "A Phoenix Comes to Rest: The History of the Los Angeles Shrine Civic Auditorium, 1920- 1965" (unpublished Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1971). 22 Gail L. Shoup, "The Pasadena Community Playhouse: Its Origins and History from 1917 to 1942" (unpublished Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1968). 23 For example: George Freedley and John A. Reeves, A History of the Theatre (8th ed.; New York: Crown Pub lishers, Inc., 1968). Glenn Hughes, A History of the American Theatre, 1700-1950 (New York: Sanuel French, 1951). 24Tom Owen, "The Theatre in Los Angeles," Los Angeles County Museum Quarterly, I, 3-4 (1962-1963), 32-37. Workers of the Writers' Program of The Work Projects Administration in Southern California, comp., Los Angeles: A Guide to the City and Its Environs (2nd ed. ; New York: Hastings House, 1951). 25Burns Mantle, ed., The Best Plays of 1924-25 (Boston: Small, Maynard and Co., 1925), pp. 25-29; The Best Plays of 1925-26 (Boston: Small, Maynard and Co., 1926), pp. 24-32; The Best Plays of 1926-27 (Boston: Small, Maynard and Co., 1927), pp. 24-31; The Best Plays of 1927-28 (Boston: Small, Maynard and Co., 1928), pp. 20-27; The Best Plays of 1928-29 (Boston: Small, Maynard and Co., 1929), pp. 17-25; The Best Plays of 1929-30 (Boston: Small, Maynard and Co., 1930), pp. 24-32; The Best Plays of 1930-31 (Boston: Small, Maynard and Co., 1931), pp. 23-28. This series was consulted heavily from the 1909-1919 volume throughout 1932, as well as before and after. Two other dissertations proved of immense value; one aided in gaining a fuller picture of the theatrical situation in Chicago during this decade: William J. Robertson, "Dramatic Criticism and Reviewing in Chicago: 1920-1930" (unpublished Doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1964); and the other analyzed the long-run plays of the decade: Norbert J. Hruby, "Successful American 7 3 Plays, 1919-1929: Patterns and Their Implications (unpub lished Doctoral Dissertation, Loyola University, Chicago, 1951). CHAPTER II CULTURAL CONTEXTS— NATIONALLY AND LOCALLY (THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES) The period between November 11, 1918, and October 29, 1929, was a period of critical change in American life. A troubled decade, in which the old and the new were inex tricably mingled, its contradictions and confusions, may be sensed in the various titles by which it has come to be known— The Age of Normalcy, The Lost Generation, The Roar ing Twenties, The Jazz Age, The Fantastic Interim, The Sargasso Sea.^ The changes which marked this period are characterized by a tension created between the thrust toward experimentation and change, and the pull toward conservatism and conformity, changes manifest in the ero sion of the value system of the middle class; the establish ment of a mass-production consumer-oriented economy, and the accompanying creation of new outlets for leisure activ ities; the undeniable shift toward an urban society, and the cultural revolution in the arts and literature of the 24 25 period. The characteristics by which much of American society was known— origin from Northern Europe, farmers, businessmen, professionals by occupation, Protestant by religion, commitment to and belief in self-help, hard work, thrift and sobriety, and a concommitant dislike of diversity and personal indulgence— had been exacerbated by the World War. America had entered the global conflict to make the world safe for democracy, and a kind of super patriotism emerged which left little room for expressions of diversity and difference. Gradually, a national mood emerged which "blended aggression and sincere idealism, O patriotic dedication and xenophobia." When the emotional energies generated by the war fizzled into a mood of dis illusionment following the too-guick cessation of hostili ties, a concern for the future which verged upon fear and a turning inward in a frantic attempt to maintain control over a rapidly-changing national scene ensued.^ Ethnic and national groups were subjected to immigration quotas, to economic, social and psychological pressures.5 The most obvious response to the imagined threat that radicals and foreigners were taking over the country was the resur rection of the Ku Klux Klan. Generally viewed as an abnormality or as a repre hensible episode in American history, the KKK "in its ethnocentrism, provincialism and inability to accept the facts of twentieth-century life . . . mirrored perfectly the notion of Fortress America."*’ In a very real sense, this archetypal nativist movement was an expression of the tensions and conflicts of those who felt that the rapidly changing environment threatened traditional values. More over, with its appeal of moral authoritarianism, its voy eurism and sadism, its arrogant assumption of lawlessness, the KKK appealed to "the patriots," who saw themselves as guardians of public and private mores, while its attrac tively wrapped fraternalism provided an outlet for boredom, loneliness, and repression.^ Another more evident attempt to restore sanity to society was the enactment of The Volstead Act, which was aimed primarily at the eradication of the saloon and the liquor seller. Unfortunately, it only polarized cultural diversities and further intensified the conflict between city and country, as its attempts at reinforcement became increasingly more coercive and as corruption steadfastly f t increased. In addition to these repressive measures, The _ _ 2T Twenties has been viewed as an era of religious disen chantment— a position given support by the conflicts sur rounding the scientific inquiry into the origins of the Bible and the theory of evolution. Yet, for many, reli gion continued to have significance and vitality and, while there was a decline in the prestige of orthodox churches, there was also a perceptible increase in church membership. Protestant organizations continued to dominate the coun try's religious life.'*'® Moreover, while many people con tinued to find relevance in their lives through orthodox faiths, still others sought meaning in any number of disparate groups, which for all of their differences shared a common de-emphasis upon traditional dogma and ritual, and a promise of an easier way to heaven or to God, with a marked "theatrical" ambience, as for example Aimee Semple MacPherson's Four Square Gospel or Buchmanism.On a more popular level, Emil Coue's self-help message (Everyday in every way I'm getting better and better) captured the fancy of the country, and Bruce Barton's book, The Man Nobody Knows, reached the top of the best-seller list in 1926. Usually dismissed as a calloused attempt to liken Christ to a businessman, the book might as readily be seen as an effort to make Christianity relevant in terms of a __ Jg- metaphor understood by all,^-2 for many people in this decade were probably convinced that the major contribution of the United States to the world at large was in the field of business enterprise and technology— what the Germans had described as "Fordismus. The application of scientific principles to the processes of production, distribution, and communication had been linked to the destiny of the country by President Calvin Coolidge, who placed "Big Business" in an ethical and social framework when he said that "In its larger sense it is one of the greatest contributing forces to the moral and spiritual advancement of the race."^ And, in fact, the decade witnessed major changes— a sixty per cent gain in industrial production was realized during the decade; by 1929, the work week had been shortened to an average of forty-eight to fifty-four hours; business 15 courses became an accepted part of college curricula. However, the prosperity was not as widespread as one might believe. Real wages of unskilled laborers re mained fairly stationary between 1923 and 1929. The annual per capita income of the farmer in 1929 was $273 compared to $750 for all other persons. In reality, it was only the upper ten per cent that enjoyed a marked increase in -------------------------------------------------------------------27 real income.^ But for all the inequities in the society, the "prosperity" of the decade wrought major cultural changes. It shifted the purchasing power from the few very wealthy 1 7 to the many wealthy enough, and thus, in the 1920's, millions of Americans became "part of the carriage trade." Perhaps even more than the movies or the radio, the auto mobile revolutionized leisure, as it became a regularly- expected part of everyday life, rather than an occasional event (as was the case with the movies). It gave an entire populace a mobility "unknown since the pastoral hordes had 18 wandered across the grasslands of Asia and Europe." Culturally, the ways and institutions of a mobile people have always differed sharply from those of more fixed groups. With an increase in leisure time and with money more readily available, more people were able to take advantage of the new forms of mass media. Permitting an easy escape into worlds not their own, the movies gave one knowledge of how the "other half" behaved and misbehaved, and contributed to the changing expectation of the average 19 man, providing him with a guide of manners and mores. 3 A shared experience in the aesthetic and literal sense, the movies with their emphasis upon the visual (at least until the talkers), with their prices within reach of all, and with their elegant, comfortable palaces, leveled the dis- 20 txnction between the classes. Like the movies, radio also made possible a common bond of information and "sold one" on how he might partake 21 of "the promised world of success." Thus, through mass production and mass distribution, the average person was able to obtain possessions similar in quality and styling to those he envisioned the well-to-do possessed. Visible distinctions in life style became attenuated, and differ ences could be submerged by schooling. In The Twenties, 2 2 America began "its grand obsession with cosmetics." Increased leisure accounts in part for the spec tacular rise in professional sports during this period, but more to the point, they satisfied an instinctive need for individual expression in a society which was becoming 2 ^ collectivized rapidly. It has been suggested that in sports, the major components of the nation's myths were given ritualistic expression, with "the athletic pioneer" confronting tangible obstacles and overcoming them with O A ability and determination. Football, baseball, and boxing flourished. The symbiotic relationship between 31 these sports and their heroes, and the nation's anxiety may be grasped in the reaction to the bribery trial of The White Sox baseball team— they were found no guilty, and the courtroom cheered. Another kind of hero also reaffirmed the national ethic— the self-made man, and no one more so than Charles Lindbergh. Others had crossed the Atlantic before him, but the manner and means by which he accomplished the feat— technical skill, self-reliance, courage, modesty, and physical attractiveness, restored the country's faith in 25 familiar values. Popular literature (by G. Stratton- Porter, Z. Grey, E. R. Burroughs, and others) also con firmed the goodness of this belief. Most books centered around plots in which the moral and physical strengths of the major characters were tested and who, through their actions, reaffirmed positive virtues. However, a subtle shift in the kind of hero idol ized by the people began to emerge. Leo Lowenthal's study of biographical sketches appearing in The Saturday Evening Post and Colliers between 1901 and 1941, showed a movement away from individuals who had achieved success through enterprise and self-reliant means to personalities who attained recognition through "a lucky break." As he 32 observed, it was a shift from people engaged in vocations necessary to society's basic needs to people engaged in activities related to leisure needs— from "idols of produc- 2 6 tion" to idols of consumption." Superseding and underlining all these changes in the culture, was the statistic which the United States Bureau of the Census recorded— that the majority of the people in the United States, 51.2 per cent, lived in municipalities of 2,500 or more. One writer called it "a 27 revolution more profound than that of the 1770's." The long-term trend toward concentration in the cities brought about changes in employment patterns, with more people serving in public, personal, and domestic services than in 2 8 manufacturing and agriculture. Not only were more people moving to the city and working in the city, but the out lines and shape of the typical metropolis also began to change. The 19 30 census report showed that the central cities of 96 metropolitan districts had increased their population by 22. 3 per cent, but that the areas outside or adjacent to the central district had grown nearly six times as fast, in part because of the number of small towns clustered around the periphery of large cities, and OQ in part because of the emergence of residential suburbs. 33 Lower taxes and better land values outside the city, the desire for more healthful living conditions, and the mass use of the automobile facilitated these changes. The change in the physical configuration of the city was matched by an equally significant modification in the character of its population. With immigration from abroad sharply curtailed, the most spectacular growth was evidenced in the shift of the Negro to urban areas, whose numbers increased 9.7 per cent between 1920 and 1930 (by comparison to an increase of 4.9 per cent in native white persons). The Mexican population grew from 400,000 in 1910 to nearly 1,500,000 by 1930.30 The self-consciousness which the city acquired in this decade spurred numerous critical reactions. Much of it was gloomy, but Arthur Schlesinger depicted the rise of the city as the dominant influence in American life at the turn of the century, and later traced the growth of the 31 country m terms of the growth of its cities. Serious writers used the city— large and small, as both the set ting for and the metaphor of their novels and poems. Civic awareness and cultural aspirations coalesced in this per iod with notable results. Dimly, but with a degree of certainty, the city slowly began the task of building a _____— ------ 3T civilization to incorporate culture in all its forms— . . the culture of life in its higher social manifesta tions."^ Although any attempt to characterize the nature of the cultural revolution in the arts and literature is far beyond the scope of this investigation, a cursory examina tion indicates that the surge was vital, varied, and with long-reaching effects and influences. The postwar decade encouraged vigorous activity in the field of music, on both a collective and individual basis. The number of orchestras increased, the National Broadcasting Company began its sponsorship of weekly symphonic programs in 1926, the Philharmonic initiated its regular Sunday afternoon broadcasts two years later, and musical composition flourished, from Aaron Copland to Ernest Bloch, Roger Sessions, Deems Taylor, George Gersh- 33 win, and many others. Nonrepresentational painters gradually gained wider acceptance and understanding, and regionalists con fidently sketched the peculiar life of their regions (Thom as Hart Benton, Grant Wood, for example, among others). Frank Lloyd Wright continued the purity of architectural style in the works he designed during this period, and was 35 joined by pioneers of modern architecture: Richard Neutra, William Lescase, Raymond Schindler, and Eliel Saarinen.^ But in no area of artistic expression was the creative brilliance of the decade more evident than in the effluence of its writers. Any list of relevant texts proves that the number of works which illuminated the agonies and angularities of the period were abundant, and that many have retained their insights for later genera tions. Frequently accused of being irresponsible, deluded, alienated, and neglecting their roles as spokesmen of a culture, the writers of The Twenties, according to Malcolm Cowley, and others, lived their lives strenuously, insisted upon the value of their personal vision, and above all reflected the cultural tensions of their times— that it was neither possible to rejoice over what had happened during and after the war, nor possible simply to dismiss 35 01* repudiate it. They focused much of their disenchant ment upon the middle class which they viewed as the moral and political leaders of the country, and regretted the shallowness of culture which they found there— the utili tarian aesthetic, the acquisition of facile knowledge, the affectation of grace, the moral righteousness, the arro gance which assumed that economic progress secured for - — ^T£- one "cultural privilege and moral immunity from criti cism."^® But these artists were not merely propagandists and the experimentation in various forms has assured many of these works a lasting place in the history of litera ture.37 The Twenties continues to speak to later genera tions through its arts and literature, and through its concerns and problems. The conflicts between complaisance and conformity on the one hand, and dissatisfaction and experimentation on the other hand, carry a universal appeal about them. To some degree, most Americans perceived that the texture of American life was being altered. It was an awareness that isolation of geography and nationality, of politics and government, of habit and conventions, of mind and culture were no longer possible. If the period between the end of the first World War and the depths of the depression was a time of critical, change in the configurations of the nation, the changes wrought in the cultural make-up of Los Angeles were no less significant and traumatic. During this decade, Los Angeles experienced what has been called the largest internal migration in the history of the United States.38 37 The effects of this mass migration in such a short period of time affected the community by modifying the composition of its populace, diversifying its economic base, confirm ing its decentralized urban shape, and supporting cultural exploration in the fine arts, the performing arts, and literature. The population explosion and attendant economic boom of The Twenties in Los Angeles was but one in a con tinuing cycle of upswings which occurred approximately every eighteen years in the city's history. Between 1880 and 1890, lured by the moderate climate and encouraged by the rate war between competing railroad companies, people of "enterprise, talent, intellect, and culture" moved to the region. They were followed by people who wished to retire amid pleasant surroundings, by prosperous farmers, * 1Q and, eventually, by people of moderate circumstances. The period between 1889 and 189 3 and the first World War was a "golden century" of steady growth, when the community created its man-made harbor, augmented its water supply, engaged in wide-spread annexation made feasible by the world's largest interurban electric rail system, and im plemented progressive political changes in city govern ment. 40 _ _ _ _ _ — ^ It was a halfway Utopia of civilized development— post-frontier, pre-industry, pre-Hollywood, pre-auto- mobile— when social changes seemed almost to halt . . . The way of living had arrived at a status quo of maturity.4^ During these years, it also became "the most priggish community in America,"42 or, as Willard Huntington Wright averred, "a city devoid of lenience and cosmopolitanism."^3 Desirous of perpetuating familiar institutions and rela tionships , convinced that homogeneity created a harmonious society, and committed to realizing their material ambi tions, the people of Los Angeles gradually came to realize, however vaguely, the anxiety inherent in their view of life— "Los Angeles desired the size but not the character of a modern metropolis. Between 1920 and 1930, Los Angeles became the fifth largest city and the fourth largest metropolitan district in the nation.^5 Among those who pushed the population from 576,673 to 1,232,602 were people of wealth, speculators, and retired middle-westerners, but in general it can be said that these migrants came seeking opportuni ties in the economically-expanding manufacturing, indus trial, and service markets. By the end of the decade, the area had created a diversified economic base for the first time in its history, and the number of workers employed in J? all categories of the economy had increased three-fold.46 They were of a younger median age— "the large migratory movements . . . were composed largely of people of working age (mostly centered in the 20 to 40 age group, with the largest concentration in the 25 to 29 age bracket)."4' 7 Most of them came from areas west of the Mississippi— in this period, although midwesterners still accounted for 37 out of every 100 inhabitants in the region, the city began 4 8 to draw from areas closer to it. In addition, they created a more racially and ethnically heterogeneous city— three sizable minority communities added richness to the city's life— 97,000 Mexicans (in the city), 39,000 Negroes, 21,000 Japanese, plus 60,000 people of southern and eastern 49 European descent. But Los Angeles was a contradictory city. "Nowhere on the Pacific coast . . . was there so diverse a mixture of racial groups, so visible a contrast and so pronounced 50 a separation among people, as in Los Angeles." Moreover, unlike other big cities, Los Angeles had always been predominantly Protestant, although during the 1920's a Los Angeles Times study (1927) showed that only one in fifteen churchgoers was a member of any Protestant church, and more than eleven hundred thousand residents had no definite affiliation.51 And if the city had been a bastion of Protestantism in the 1920's, it also became the mecca of various cults, some with Fundamentalist orientation, such as Aimee Semple MacPherson, and others more unusual, such as the Theosophists, the New Thought movement, the 52 Bahai, and many others. Not only was the racial, ethnic and religious com position of the city altered during this decade, but its reputation as a stable and upright community was seriously threatened by the one industry which local boosters had not sought out— the movies. Crude imitations of the more artistic comedies of Cecil B. DeMille began to appear in the early 1920's with such flagrantly provocative titles 53 as "Red Hot Romance," "Lying Lips," etc. Moreover, the idea gradually gained currency that "the code of morality peddled on the screen was the same code by which Hollywood actually lived."5^ Censorship and purification drives were inaugurated— Dr. Wilbur Fisk, for example, wished to ban movies, automobiles, and divorce— and were intensified by such occurrences as Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's arrest and subsequent trials in connection with the death of Virginia Rappe in his apartment; the murder of director William Desmond Taylor, and the drug addiction within the 3T movie colony. The industry finally decided to appoint its own watch-dog commission, with Will H. Hays as president of The Motion Picture Producers and Directors of America, inc.55 With one form of entertainment superficially harnessed, censorship forces turned to the legitimate theatre. In September, 1923, the cast of Getting Gertie's Garter was arrested and the play altered. Three years later, the cast of Desire under the Elms was booked for presenting an indecent play, and in 1928, The Captive was stopped, and an ordinance enacted barring the presentation of any "obscene, indecent, immoral or impure drama," for bidding the presentation of subjects treating of sex degeneracy, perversion or inversion, and affixing a fine of $500 or six months in prison.55 Many of these drives to keep the City of the Angels pure were spearheaded by the Reverend Robert Shuler of Trinity Methodist Church, described by one writer as a "Methodist Savanorola," and the self-appointed and civicly-tolerated "boss" of the 57 city's ethics, politics, and morals. The other event which threatened the city's moral righteousness, and one which it shared in common with many other regions of the nation, was Prohibition. Although the city possessed only a few speakeasies and even fewer night clubs, it did not mean that there was no drinking. Los Angeles had a large "wet population," most of whom drank in the home rather than at bars.58 There were also political and civic problems in this decade, for whereas earlier the city had moved forward under the Progressive movement, in The Twenties local government was characterized by a series of scandals, by uninspired leadership and by an increasing indifference on the part of the voters to the needs of the city. Bribery charges were brought against the Mayor in 1919; in 1928, two Council members were charged with ac cepting bribes; and following the Julian Oil Scandal, the District Attorney was convicted and sentenced to prison. Four mayors served between 1919 and the end of the decade, but George Cryer's tenure spanned eight years. Regardless of a bashful, unassuming manner which apparently appealed to the public, Cryer was an uninspired administrator who had difficulty in attracting qualified men to staff posi tions .59 Not only did the community lack dynamic and for ward-looking civic leadership, but the rapid growth of the city by newcomers with synthetic loyalties to their 43 adopted city did not encourage voter responsibility. Between 1920 and 1926, less than forty-two per cent of the voting age population voted at general elections, and after 1926, no city bond issues were approved with the exception of funds for the damages occasioned by the break ing of the St. Francis Dam.^° As indicated earlier, climate was not a major pulling factor in this decade, for in the 1920's, indus trial and manufacturing expansion in oil and petroleum, rubber, automobile assembly, aeronautics; and the movies broadened the city's economic base, and contributed to the spectacular growth of the area.6- * - In the early years of this period, three major oil strikes were made, and by September, 1923, the average daily production for all of California had risen to 858,750 barrels, of which more than 530,000 barrels came from the Los Angeles area, confirming the shift from the San Joaquin 6 2 Valley to Southern California. By 1930, the petroleum industry was the major industry in Southern California, and had stimulated activity in related enterprises and contributed significantly to the growth of the Los Angeles harbor.^ Several plants connected with the rubber and 44 automobile industries also located in the Los Angeles area, impressed by the city's population growth, its man- made harbor, and its proximity to raw materials— the Goodyear Company, United States Rubber Company, B. p. Goodrich, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, Willys- Overland, and Ford Motor Company. Other national concerns followed and established branch plants, and by 1930 it was 64 estimated that there were 110 such concerns in the area. Moderate gains were also made toward establishing Southern California as an aircraft center. In 1922, Donald Douglas began to manufacture airplanes, and was joined in these efforts by several concerns, notably Lockheed Aircraft Company, which moved into new facilities in Burbank in 1927. However, by 1930, the area contributed 65 only about six per cent of the national product. The movies, which had located in Southern Califor nia as much for reasons of moderate climate and diversified landscape as for its remote geographical location (to the rest of the country) and its proximity to the Mexican border, quickly drew actors, directors and producers to Los Angeles. By 1930, it was a multimillion dollar industry, employing 15,000 persons, disbursing $72.1 million in salaries and wages, and creating $129.3 million ?5 c . n worth of product. Like the petroleum industry, it also stimulated related undertakings. Regardless of the fact that Los Angeles grew as a manufacturing center in these years faster than any other city with the exception of Detroit, and while its manufac turing output surpassed any other area in the Pacific region, Los Angeles was not the typical "factory town." The number of workers employed in manufacturing industries showed an actual increase, but the percentage of employees in these occupations actually declined from 28.3 per cent 6 8 to 22.5 per cent of the total number of workers. The number of workers in white collar jobs mounted not only because of the local prosperity, not only because large incomes from oil and the movies enabled the area "to buy as it never had before," but also because in this period Los Angeles experienced a boom in real estate, established itself as a financial center, increased its department store trade, and continued to support a thriving tourist trade.69 According to Mel Scott, workers in service activities comprised 42.1 per cent of the total number of employees in 1930. Finance, insurance, and real estate showed remarkable gains, and personal services, amusement, 70 and recreation activities witnessed healthy increases. While The Twenties in Los Angeles was a period of economic growth and achievement, however, it was also a time of unheralded boosting, unbridled speculation, and unrestrained conduct. Carey McWilliams described it as "one long drunken orgy, one protracted debauch," and James Findley observed that in this era there "occurred some of the greatest frauds and most sensational scandals in the 71 history of Southern California." Because community leadership in Los Angeles was exercised by men who believed in free enterprise and held unlimited confidence in the future of the area, a series of campaigns were organized to encourage tourists and to 72 entice industry into the area. This proliferation of community advertising was not without its negative effects, however, for in many cases it encouraged overconfidence and unwise expansion. Because it associated bigness and growth with economic progress and civic maturity, and because of the shortsightedness of its leaders, the crea tion of a modern city in a land of plenty fell short of realization. One area in particular in which speculation occurred was the real estate market. Responding to the influx of residents and tourists, building valuation between 1920 "47 and 1923 rose from $60,024,000 to $200,133,000.73 But by 1923 it had become apparent that too many of the building and real estate ventures were speculative in nature. Before the day of capital gains taxes there was nothing to inhibit or prohibit quick resale.74 In 1923, it was estimated that 12,000 people in the state were engaged in real estate, over one-third located in Southern Califor- 75 nia. Typical of the situation is the following account: I stepped off the train in Los Angeles one Febru ary morning in 1922 .... Like all other passengers, I was literally seized and fought over by a dozen different real-estate agents. . . . my hands and pockets were filled with leaflets, folders and other printed material. . . . Rescued, at last, by a friend . . . But he too, I learned with chagrin, had been badly bitten . . . All he could talk about . . . was the amount of money he was making in real-estate investments and speculation. It [Los Angeles] was population mad, annexation mad, and speculation mad.76 The number of business buildings also multiplied, peaking in 1926, when twenty height-limit structures were completed. As with residential developments, overexpan sion was also characteristic of this phenomenon. In 1927, eighteen per cent of the available office space was 77 vacant. That much of the economic advancement in the area was built on shaky ground became evident as early as _____ ^ 1920-21, when 274 cases of bankruptcy were reported. By 1929-30, the number had risen to 2,138. Prom 1924 on, the number of business failures in the region remained above the national average. The economic instability filtered through the social fabric, for Los Angeles led the nation in the number of suicides, embezzlements, and 7 8 bank robberies. That residents of the area were afflicted with the boom psychology and were susceptible to get-rich-quick schemes became painfully apparent in the Julian Oil Scan dal, in which 3,015,283 shares of preferred stock and 1.275.000 of common stock were overissued, and losses to 40.000 investors from every profession and strata were 79 estimated at one hundred to two hundred million dollars. The investigation was almost as disastrous to the moral fiber as the financial loss, for of all those indicted, no one was convicted, although the trial involved bribery, jury-fixing, an in-court murder, and the conviction of the O Q prosecuting District Attorney. The effect of the scandal was described by Carey McWilliams as a debacle which "spread a path of crime, violence, and social devastation as complex and as destructive as though a cyclone had O 1 struck the community." _____---- m Moreover, the speculative impulse was not limited to real estate or to oil stocks. Later in the decade, it was transferred to the stock market and, in 192 8, The Los Angeles Stock Exchange witnessed two wild trading sessions in bank stocks when three hundred million and two hundred million dollars were estimated as having been lost. With the New York Stock Market crash, the inflated boom-economy of Los Angeles came crashing down. In 1931 and 1932, investigations into fraud cases estimated losses at two hundred million dollars, involving over 75,000 victims. For the next ten years, business activity in Los Angeles 8 3 remained below the peak level achieved in 1929. Whereas Los Angeles eventually recovered from the damages suffered to its economy and its reputation in The Twenties, the physical contours which it outlined estab lished it as the epitome of the modern dispersed metropo lis, for by 1930 it sprawled over more than 440 square miles, an area three times the size of Chicago at the time. Up until 1920, however, despite the incredible amount of land available, over sixty-five per cent of the population within the Los Angeles metropolitan district resided in the City of Los Angeles. By 1930, the ------------------------------------- 5TF percentage had declined to 53.4 per cent as people moved out of the central city, and the surrounding areas grew in population.®^ However, the idea of living in outlying areas had its roots in events and traditions occurring before The Twenties. In the early part of the period between 1910 and 1920, the Pacific Electric Railway (the Red Car Line) with 1,114 miles of track, and the Los Angeles Railroad (the Yellow Car line) with 370 miles of track, comprising the largest interurban rail system in the world and weld ing together forty towns within a thirty-five mile radius of Los Angeles, made Los Angeles conducive to centrifugal growth.®® With the changes introduced during The Twenties — population increase, growing traffic congestion, growth of residential/business areas away from the central city— it became apparent that the system would have to expand if it were to survive. A plan was proposed in April, 1925, but it never materialized because of lack of vigor ous leadership in presenting the plan, inability to agree on how the extensions should be financed, incorporation into the controversy over the site for the proposed Union Station, and, in general, poor timing. Findley has concluded, moreover, that even had the plan been actual ized, the pattern of reliance upon the automobile would have been entrenched and the process of decentralization 87 even further advanced. If the evolution of the sprawling shape of the city can be attributed to the annexation of areas in need of water and municipal services, can be credited to the extensive transit system, and can be directly related to the increased mobility which the automobile provided, it was largely, if not primarily, the result of the home- owning impulse of its denisons, who viewed the ownership of a home as a status symbol second only to the possession of an automobile, and who conceived of the good community as one with the home as its foundation. In 1930, single family residences constituted 93.9 per cent of the total 8 8 / number of dwelling units. But by this time, the viru lent overextension was painfully apparent, for in the sum mer of 1929, an estimated 53 per cent of the total of 89 1,073,341 lots in Los Angeles County stood vacant. Decentralization of business and industry in Los Angeles was inevitable, given the development of the city over a wide geographical area. Large industries naturally required more space; some needed access to the harbor; as highways were improved, industries were able to move prod ucts throughout the region by motor transport, further facilitating the urban sprawl. Moderate water and power rates, and proximity to a work force residing in suburban areas, made the decentralization desirable and practi 90 cable. Although the downtown area still dominated the region's business activities, by the middle of the decade a discernible shift to outlying regions became apparent, enhanced by zoning policies which permitted the development of business along major arteries. Hollywood enjoyed the greatest growth, and by 1927 an estimated eight million dollars worth of buildings had been completed within two 91 blocks of Hollywood and Vine Streets. Several business centers emerged along Wilshire Boulevard. W. A. Ross developed Miracle Mile .between LaBrea and Fairbax Avenues, and a new Bullock department store rose in the Ambassador Hotel area. Unfortunately, as with most everything else, it was overdone and, in 1932, a study showed that more than 92 four hundred miles of business frontage stood vacant. In later years, the vacant residential and business land was developed, but long after The Twenties, it stood as a pathetic and expensive testament to the lack of city planning and the concupiscence of its citizenry. 5T But, difficult as it may seem, Los Angeles in The Twenties was not all ballyhoo, boast, boom, and bust. The period witnessed creative achievement in dance, music, architecture, painting, and literature, and several lasting cultural institutions were founded. In the dance, no names loom larger for their con tributions to modern dance than those of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn, who founded their school in the summer of 1915. By the following year, it was operating throughout the year. The dance forms with which they experimented, the students whom they inspired (Doris Humphrey, Martha Graham, Charles Widman, Louis Hoiset, and many others), and the dance criticism which they provoked left indelible 9 3 marks in dance history. In a more commercial vein, Fanchon and Marco, natives of the city, translated their form of ballroom dancing into successful revues (for example, Sun-Kist), but more particularly into the musical prolog which accompanied films (signed contracts with Fox-West Coast Theatres, RKO, and Publix). Their programs, at one time or another, included such "unknowns" as Mvrna Loy, Janet 94 Gayner, and Doris Day. As much as dance was fixed in the minds of some - ” ■ "5 4 people with Southern California, it was the achievements in music and architecture which were known by the majority. Following World War I, civic orchestras were founded in Pasadena, Santa Barbara, and Hollywood, by 1921. Commu nity organizations sponsored "sings," music weeks, and 95 opera reading clubs. The Hollywood Bowl was organized and there, in 1922, The Philharmonic Orchestra of Los Angeles played its first concert during the summer season.^ Much of the musical success of The Bowl concerts rested on the fact that in 1919 W. A. Clark, Jr. had founded (and funded) The Los Angeles Philharmonic, which introduced to the city such modern artists as Bloch, Schoenberg, and 9 7 Hindemeth, plus thirty-three American composers. L. E. Behymer continued his artists series which included performers from all categories, opera groups, and dance troupes. During the decade, two local opera companies found room for heady competition— The California Grand 9 8 Opera and The Los Angeles Opera. Architecture proliferated into as many modes as the imagination could concoct. Following the success of the San Diego-Panama-California Exposition in 1915, numerous structures were designed in the Churriguera style — Spanish Renaissance/Colonial which emphasized towers, 55 domes, arcades, bright tiles set against light-colored q q stucco— "the decorative tooth-paste of the Spanish." The most lavish realization was Hearst's San Simeon estate, but in Los Angeles it was used for St. Vincent's Roman Catholic Church at Figueroa Street and Adams Boulevard, as well as for such a public edifice as The Hollywood Chamber of Com merce. A more restrained version of Spanish Renaissance/ Colonial was incorporated into the numerous subdivisions which opened in this period, and whole areas were con ceived in this design, among them San Clemente and Santa Barbara's El Paseo section. Interest in embodying historical styles into con temporary design prompted Frank Lloyd Wright to delve into pre-Columbian civilization, with results still to be seen in Aline Barnsdall's Hollyhock House, and the Ennis home in which he relied on Mayan motifs, concrete blocks, and interior spaces. The enthusiasm for the exotic was put to flamboyant use in the movie palaces and legitimate theatres in the area, such as Grauman's Chinese and Egyptian Theatres and The Mayan Theatre (drama) Less pretentious and more humorous was the "pop" architecture which grinned its way across the landscape. Hamburger stands shaped like their product, an ice cream _ 56 shop in the form of an igloo, or a hot-dog stand in the 102 shape of a large dog were but a few examples. For all this "backward-oriented" architecture, the work of three pioneers heralded the emergence of modern architecture: Irving Gill, R. M. Schindler, and Richard Neutra. Gill, who had studied under Louis Sullivan and had come to California because of poor health, developed a style using "plastic-coated reinforced concrete walls, flat roofs and simple windows" with an absence of orna mentation. Schindler, whose commitment was to form and the spaces created by form, designed structures utilizing glass walls, movable partitions, patios, and made dynamic use of skeletal components, angled roofs, planking, and so on. 103 He also experimented with furniture as "floor terraces." Neutra shared Schindler's enthusiasm for new methods and new materials, incorporating plate glass, prefabricated structural parts, exposed steel supports, and glass 104 doors. Based on the work of these three men and others who joined them, Los Angeles in the 1930's and 1940's became a center of modern architecture. According to at least one source, The Twenties in Los Angeles was "an era in which experimental art flour- 105 ished." Foremost in this experimentation was Stanton 57 MacDonald-Wright, who worked in oil, watercolors, and murals, and experimented with color film. In this period he was recognized for his use of color to create "a sensa tion of luminosity."^06 Other abstract painters who achieved international recognition were Knud Merrill, Peter Krasnow, and Henry Lee McFee.^0" ^ In The Twenties, an important art school and gallery were founded when Chouinard Art School opened its doors in 1921, and The Huntington Library, with its extra ordinary collection of eighteenth-century English por traits (including six Gainsboroughs and five Raynolds) was made available to the public in 192 8. While it is undeniable that in this period Los Angeles was not recognized as a literary center of stature, there were several works which reflected the life of the 108 city in this decade. In 1924, Mark Lee Luther wrote The Boosters, a satiric spoof about an unsuccessful eastern architect who comes to the city, develops a western style of architecture, taps a producing oil well, and settles down to a comfortable way of life. Three years later, Don Ryan's Angel's Flight appeared— an acerbic, satirical view of the underside of Los Angeles' sunshine 109 world, written in colorful journalese. A more 58 far-reaching and serious work appeared in 1927— Upton Sinclair's OilI which ranged through most of the social life and institutions of the period, including Hollywood, cults, labor strife, corruption, and university life. Lawrence Clark Powell has declared unreservedly that it has "the largest scale of all California novels. Hollywood and the movies proved particularly fer tile ground. In 1922, Harry Leon Wilson wrote Merton of the Movies, a compassionate satire on the process of film making, with a detailed picture of life on a movie set and satellite activities of magazines, publicity, fans, and so forth. Six years later, Carl Van Vechten's Spider Boy was published, and it centered on the adventures of Ambrose Deacon, a playwright who joins the movie rtiill.^^ Thus, Los Angeles in The Twenties was an incon sistent city. Despite the unsettling atmosphere produced by rapid population growth, residential and business expan sion, and an unbounded urge to speculate, Los Angeles proved fertile ground for the performing and fine arts, and constituted a rich source for writers. Moreover, it established itself as a regional metropolis capable of drawing workers to its broad-based economy. In addition, it became the model for the modern decentralized city, 59 and to a certain extent became a more richly-mixed city— racially, religiously, and ethnically. On the other hand, it failed in this period to create a cosmopolitan city characterized by integration of cultures and a tolerance of diversities because it lacked dynamic civic leadership, because its residents and leaders were painfully susceptible to speculative ventures and were overwhelmingly committed to a good life of prosperity, because expansion and growth were confused with progress, and because in the face of irrevocable changes, it clung to its desire to remain a small, homogeneous community. CHAPTER II Footnotes ■^Helpful historigraphical essays on the period are: Henry F. May, "Shifting Perspectives on the 1920's," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XLIII (December, 1956), 405-27; Burl Noggle, "The Twenties: A New Historio graphical Frontier, 1921-1933," Journal of American His tory, LIII (September, 1966), 299-314. For a popular view see Frederick Lewis Allen, Only Yesterday (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1931). 2Robert Sklar, ed., "Introduction," The Plastic Age (1917-1930) (New York: George Braziller, 19 70), p. 27. George Mowry, The Urban Nation, 1920-1960 (New York: Hill and Wang, 1965), p. 1. 2Henry F. May, The End of Innocence: A Study of the First Years of Our Own Time, 1912-1917 (1st ed.; New York: Knopf, 1959). David Burner, "1919: Prelude to Nor malcy," in Change and Continuity: The 1920's, ed. by John Braeman, Robert H. Bremner, and David Brody (Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1968), pp. 3-31. 4The end of the war coincided with the closing of the American frontier, a coincidence explored by Oswald Spengler. 5In 1919 and 1920, there was also a series of strikes. Three immigration acts were passed by Congress and stand as legal witness to the dismay which engulfed the country in this decade. 6Robert Moats Miller, "The Ku Klux Klan," in Change and Continuity: The 1920's, ed. by John Braeman, Robert H. Bremner, and David Brody (Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State Uni versity Press, 1968), pp. 215-255. Miller makes the point that the KKK can only be understood in terms of the 60 61 tribalism of the times. George Mowry, ed., The Twenties; Fords, Flappers and Fanatics (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1963), pp. 121-53, contains selections by The Imperial Wizard, the Attorney General, etc. ^Miller, op. cit., has a classic paragraph in which he lists all the "enemies" of society, ranging from uppity Negro and conspiratorial Catholic to fuzzy international ist, arrogant intellectual, and Sabbath desecrator. Of necessity, their "sins" were legion— miscegenation, urban ism, Freudianism, surrealism, alcoholism, etc. 3Joseph R. Gusfield, "Prohibition: The Impact of Political Utopianism," in Change and Continuity: The 1920 *s, ed. by John Braeman, Robert H. Bremner, and David Brody (Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1968), pp. 257-308. See also Gilman M. Ostrander, "The Revolution in Morals," in op. cit., pp. 323-49. 9See C. Luther Fry, "Changes in Religious Organiza tions," in Recent Social Trends, ed. by The President's Research Committee on Social Trends, II (New York: McGraw- Hill Book Co., Inc., 1933), pp. 1009-1060. Vol. I, op. cit., pp. 382-442, addresses itself to the decline in prestige. •*-°Ibid.; and Paul A. Carter, The Twenties in Amer ica (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1969), pp. 54-55. llSee Mowry, The Twenties, op. cit., pp. 54, 161-65, 166-72. See also Nancy Barr Mavity, Sister Aimee (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc., 1931). ^See Mowry, The Twenties, op. cit. , pp. 157-60. Roderick Nash, The Nervous Generation: American Thought, 1917-1930 (Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1970), p. 147. l3Ostrander, op. cit., p. 344. ■^Coolidge's "Foundations of the Republic" speech, included in Sklar, op. cit., pp. 273-82. •^Mowry, The Twenties, op. cit., p. 3. Also George Mowry, The Urban Nation, op. cit., p. 15. 62 16Merle Curti, Growth of American Thought (2d ed.; New York: Harper, 1951), pp. 693-94. See also Gilbert C. Fite, ’ ’Farmer's Dilemma, 1919-1929," in Change and Continu ity: The 1920's, ed. by John Braeman, Robert H. Bremner, and David Brody (Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1968), pp. 67-102, a thorough discussion of the causes for the depressed agricultural economy. See also Irving Bernstein, The Lean Years: A History of the American Worker, 1920-1933 (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1960). ■^Mowry discusses the reason for the rise of the mass-production-consumer-oriented economy in The Twenties, and focuses on one major point— that corporate managers decided to expand facilities and production, and simul taneously to encourage consumption by stabilizing prices and raising wages. Urban Nation, op. cit., pp. 3, 5, cf. See also George Soule, Prosperity Decade (New York: Rine hart, 1947), an economic history of the decade. One major contributor to the purchase power of millions was the expansion of consumer credit, which prior to the war had been rigidly controlled. l8Mowry, The Twenties, op. cit., p. 43. See also Robert S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd, Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.— a Harvest Book, 1956), pp. 251-63. ■ * - 9Sklar, op. cit., pp. 13-19. 20See Mowry, The Twenties, op. cit., pp. 56-59; Sklar, op. cit., pp. 44-55. 21-Mowry, The Twenties, op. cit., p. 43. 22Sklar, op. cit., p. 17. 22Mowry, The Twenties, op. cit., p. 75. 2^Nash, op. cit., pp. 126-28. 2^The New York Times devoted more space to his return than it had to the Armistice ending World War I. See Elizabeth Stevenson, Babbitts and Behemians, The Amer ican 1920s (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1967), pp. 193-96. 63 2 6 Leo Lowenthal, Literature, Popular Culture, and Society (Palo Alto, Calif.: Pacific Books, 1968), pp. 109-136. 27 Charles N. Glaab, "Metropolis and Suburb: The Changing American City," in Change and Continuity: The 19201 s, ed. by John Braeman, Robert H. Bremner, and David Brody (Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1968), pp. 399-437. See also Constance McLaughlin Green, The Rise of Urban America (New York: Harper and Row, 19 65), p. 129; quotation by her. 2 8 Paul K. Hatt and Albert I. Reiss, Jr., eds., Cities and Society (Glencoe, 111.: The Free Press, 1957), pp. 64-77. See R. D. McKenzie, The Metropolitan Community (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1933). A particularly illuminating study. 29 See McKenzie, op. cit., p. 70, cf.; Glaab, op. cit.; Blake McKelvey, The Emergence of Metropolitan Amer ica, 1915-1966 (New Brunswick, N. J.: Rutgers University Press, 1968), pp. 48, 23, 48-63. 30 See McKenzie, McKelvey, Glaab, op. cit. See also Warren S. Thompson and P. K. Whelpton, "The Population of the Nation," in Recent Social Trends in the United States, ed. by The President's Research Committee on Social Trends, I (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1933), pp. 1-58; see also T. J. Woofter, "The Status of Racial and Ethnic Groups," Ibid., pp. 553-601. 31 The gloomy look is captured in Harold Stearns, ed., Civilization in the United States (2 vols.; New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1922). See also Ralph Borsodi, Ugly Civilization (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1929), who established a homestead on Long Island, and the twelve southerners who founded an agrarian colony outside Nash ville. Arthur M. Schlesinger, "A Panoramic View: The City in American History," in The City in American Life, ed. by Paul Kramer and Frederick L. Holborn (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1970), pp. 13-36. 32 Such writers as Edgar Lee Masters, Sherwood Anderson, Glenway Westcott, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Theodore Dreiser, John Dos Passos. See McKelvey, op. cit., pp. 64 73-74; Recent Social Trends, II, op. cit., pp. 958-1008. Quotation is by Lewis Mumford, The Culture of Cities (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., 1938), p. 492. ^■^Nash , op. cit., pp. 91-93, 96-98. 34 Carter, op. cit., p. 87. 35 Frederick J. Hoffman, The Twenties (rev. ed.; New York: Viking Press, 1955), contains an appendix of chronological events and literary publications between 1915 and 1932. See Hoffman, p. 444 for his characteriza tion of the age and its writers. See Malcolm Cowley and Robert Cowley, eds., Fitzgerald and the Jazz Age (New York: Scribner, 1966), pp. 1-4. *1 C Hoffman, op. cit., p. 415, 424-25. See also Nash, op. cit., pp. 121-25. See Milton Plesur, ed., Intellectual Alienation in the 1920's (Lexington, Mass.: D. C. Heath and Co., 1970); Van Wyck Brooks, in Sklar, op. cit., pp. 110-118 said that the American heritage has made the creative life synonymous with finished things whose message can be repeated and which stays put. 37 John K. Hutchens, ed., The American Twenties, A Literary Panorama (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1952), p. 23, cf. Robert E. Spiller, Willard Thorp, Thomas H. Johnson, and Henry Seidel Canby, eds., Literary History of the United States, II (New York: Macmillan, 1948) , p. 1296 cf. Frederick J. Hoffman, "Fiction of the Jazz Age," in Change and Continuity: The 1920's, ed. by John Braeman, Robert H. Bremner, and David Brody (Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1968), pp. 309-22. 3 8 C. Warren Thornthwaite, Internal Migration in the United States (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1934), p. 18. 39 Between 1877 and 19 41, the lowest mean tempera ture was 59 degrees. See Frank L. Kidner and Phillip Neff, An Economic Survey of the Los Angeles Area (Los Angeles: The Haynes Foundation, 1945), p. 3. For fuller discussions of these migrations, see Carey McWilliams, Southern California Country (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1946); Robert M. Fogelson, The Fragmented 65 Metropolis/ Los Angeles 1850-19 31 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967); and Morrow Mayo, Los Angeles (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1933). 40 For a discussion of the harbor's development, see Fogelson, op. cit., pp. 108-119; Harry Carr, Los Angeles, City of Dreams (New York: Grossett and Dunlap, 1935), pp. 107-27. He also discusses "The Rape of the Owen Valley," pp. 205-17. The aqueduct opened in 1913. For the progressive movement see Fogelson, op. cit., pp. 219-28, and George Mowry, The California Progressives (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951). 41 . Richard G. Lillard, Eden in Jeopardy (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966), pp. 49-50. 42McWilliams, op. cit., p. 157. 43 Willard Huntington Wright, "Los Angeles— The Chemically Pure," The Smart Set (March, 1913), in The Smart Set Anthology, ed. by Burton Rascoe and Graff Conklin (New York: Reynal and Hitchcok, 1934), pp. 90-102. 44Fogelson, op. cit., pp. 191-92. 45Ibid., p. 78. 46 See figures cited in James Clifford Findley, "The Economic Boom of the 'Twenties in Los Angeles" (unpub lished Doctoral Dissertation, Claremont Graduate School, 1958), p. 249. Mel Scott, Metropolitan Los Angeles: One Community (Los Angeles: The Haynes Foundation, 1949), p. 54. 4^Fogelson, op. cit., p. 84. Jacqueline Rorabeck Kasun, Some Social Aspects of Business Cycles in the Los Angeles Area, 1920-1950 (Los Angeles: The Haynes Founda tion, 1954), pp. 10, 15-16. W. C. Yeatman and Allen Jones, Population Trends in Los Angeles and the Nation (2d ed.; 'Los Angeles: Bureau of Municipal Research, 1933), pp. 33-36A. 4®Yeatman, op. cit., pp. 26-29; McWilliams, op. cit>, p. 146; Fogelson, op. cit., p. 81. 66 49 See Fogelson, op. cit., pp. 77, 71, 82-83, 29; McWilliams, op. cit., p. 316. See J. Max Bond, "The Negro in Los Angeles" (unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of Southern California, 1936), p. 40, cf. Isamu Nodera,. "A Survey of Vocational Activities of the Japanese in the City of Los Angeles" (unpublished Master's Thesis, University of Southern California, 1936), pp. 3-6, cf. ^Fogelson, op. cit., pp. 82-83. ■^George Burlingame, "How Religious Is the City of Los Angeles," The Los Angeles Times, August 28, 1927, II, 1, 10. Hereafter referred to as The Times. 52 Mayo, op. cit., pp. 269-92; McWilliams, op. cit., pp. 252-58. Lillian Symes, "The Beautiful and the Dumb," Harper's Monthly Magazine, June, 1931, p. 30. 5^Raymond Moley, The Hays Office (New York: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1945), p. 26. It is pointed out that DeMille comprehended the basic duality of his audiences who were able to enjoy taboo subjects only if they also were able to preserve their own sense of righteous respectability. See Arthur Knight, The Liveliest Art (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1957), pp. 117-20. 54 Remi Nadeau, From Mission to Modern City (New York: Longmans Green and Co., 1960), p. 217. 5^Benjamin B. Hampton, A History of the Movies (New York: Civici-Friede Publishers, 1931), pp. 300-302, contains a list of "Do's and Don't's." 5^Cited in The Los Angeles Examiner, April 24, 1928, I, 1, 2. Hereafter referred to as The Examiner. 57Joseph Lilly, "Metropolis of the West," North American Review, September, 1931, p. 24. McWilliams, op. cit., p. 343, says that he helped to unseat a mayor, a district attorney, and a number of police chiefs. ------------------ — --------------------------------------------- 67 Cp Gilman M. Ostrander, The Prohibition Movement in California, 1848-1933, University Publications in History, No. 57 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1957), pp. 68-81. Lilly, op. cit., p. 245, says that in 1929, 17,009 people were arrested on drunk charges. 59Findley, op. cit., pp. 64-65, 45-49. 6 0 Kasun, op. cit., p. 82; Findley, op. cit., p. 51. 61carey McWilliams, California: The Great Exception (New York: Current Books, Inc., 1929), pp. 236-39. ^See information, data, and interpretation in Findley, op. cit., pp. 353, 118-21, 111-13. 63Ibid., p. 375. C.A Ibid., pp. 254-61; Fogelson, op. cit., pp. 127-219. 83Nadeau, op. cit., pp. 19-202; Findley, op. cit., pp. 271-274. ^Nadeau, op. cit. , pp. 204-220; McWilliams, The Great Exception, p. 225. 67 Fogelson, op. cit., p. 127. 88Kidner and Neff, op. cit., p. 127. ®9See Findley, op. cit., pp. 287-340. Sales in department stores rose from $41,970,000 to $106,400,000 during the decade. ^9Scott, op. cit., p. 55. McWilliams, The Great Exception, pp. 236-37, says that the number of employees in clerical, domestic, and personal services areas rose ninety per cent in the decade. See Kidner, op. cit., p. 17; Fogelson, op. cit., pp. 132-33. 7^McWilliams, Southern California Country, op. cit., p. 136; Findley, op. cit., p. 9. 72 In May, 1921, the All-Year Club was organized, the same year that "Greater Southern California— Straight Ahead" was a slogan of The Times. In mid-decade, the Southern California Movement was organized. See Findley, op. cit., pp. 128-166. 73 . Findley, op. cit., p. 166. 74 Nadeau, op. cit., p. 149. ^ The Times. July 22, 1923, cited in Findley, op. cit., p. 175. 7 6 Oliver Carlson, A Mirror for Californians (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1941), pp. 122-23. In 1923, the State Legislature passed a law requiring a prospective real estate broker to pass an examination and to be bonded. ^ The Times, October 30, 1927, cited in Findley, op. cit., pp. 205-208. 78 Findley, op. cit., pp. 207-208, 238-39. McWilliams, Southern California Country, p. 247. 79 . Findley, op. cit., pp. 303-328. 80 Guy W. Finney, The Great Los Angeles Bubble (Los Angeles: Keith Forbes, 1929). 81 McWilliams, Southern California Country, op. cit., p. 245. 69 82 Findley, op. cit., pp. 333-34. Even Variety, June 20, 1928, p. 10, took note of the many film people and hundreds of ordinary investors who were wiped out. Q O JMcWilliams, Southern California Country, op. cit., pp. 246-47. 84 Mayo, op. cit., p. 221. 8 5 Arthur C. Davis, The Territorial Growth of Los Angeles, California (no city, no publishers, July, 1934), pp. 3-4. See also Richard Bigger and James D. Kitchen, How the Cities Grew (Los Angeles: The Haynes Foundation, 1950), p. 168. 8®See Findley, op. cit., pp. 31-32, 76 cf. ^ Ibid. , pp. 91-106. Q Q McWilliams, Southern California Country, op. cit., p. 159, says that the ex-villagers who came into the area gave Los Angeles its squat appearance as well as its flattened-out form. See also Fogelson, op. cit., p. 146. ^^Nadeau, op. cit., p. 157. 9 0 Fogelson, op. cit., pp. 147-54. 91 Findley, op. cit., pp. 212-33; Fogelson, op. cit., pp. 151-54. Findley, op. cit., pp. 230, 232. Q O Christena L. Schlundt, The Professional Appearances of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn (New York: The New York Public Library, 1962). See also Walter Terry, Miss Ruth (New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1969), pp. 114-15, 146-47. 9^Ben M. Hall, The Best Remaining Seats; The Story of the Golden Age of the Movie Palace (New York: Bramhall House, 1961) , pp. 220-28. 95 Howard Swan, Music in the Southwest 1825-1950 (San Marino, Calif.: The Huntington Library, 1952), pp. 235-37. 96 Edwin O. Palmer, History of Hollywood, I (Holly wood: Arthur H. Cawston, 1937), pp. 210-12. For a fuller history, see Isabel Morse Jones, Hollywood Bowl (New York: C. Schirmer, Inc., 1936). 97 Swan, op. cit., pp. 244-47. 9 8 Ibid., pp. 249-56. The Behymer Collection is a treasure of reviews as well as some of the memorabilia of the more than fifty years during which Behymer brought some "culture" to Los Angeles especially and to California generally. 99 Walton Bean, California: An Interpretive History (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1968), p. 460. See also John W. Caughey, California (3d ed.; Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1970), p. 475. Another interesting source is David Gebhard and Harriette Von Breton, Architecture in California, 1868-1968, Catalogue of the Exhibition, Art Galleries (Santa Barbara, California: University of California, April 16-May 12, 1968), p. 19. ■'■®°Gebhard, ibid., pp. 18-20. 101 Ibid., p. 21. Hall, op. cit., pp. 161-63, 158-59, 210-13. R. W. Sexton, ed., American Theatres of Today, II (New York: Architectural Book Publishing Co., Inc., 1930), pp. 103-105, contains pictures and plans of The Mayan. Gebhard, op. cit., pp. 21, 80-81. -7X1 10 3 Esther McCoy, Five California Architects (New York: Reinhold Publishing Corp., 1960), pp. 59-102, 149- 192. l-O^Bean, pp. cit. , p. 461; Gebhardt, op. cit. , pp. 22-23. 105 W. W. Robinson, Los Angeles: A Profile (Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968), p. 62. 106 David W. Scott, ed., The Art of Stanton Macdonald-Wright (Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Press for National Collection of Fine Arts, 1967), p. 11. 107 Los Angeles: 1900-1961 (Los Angeles: The History Division of the Los Angeles County Museum, 1961), pp. 30-31. Writers' Program of the Works Project Admin istration in Southern California, compilers, A Guide to the City and Its Environs (2d ed.; New York: Hastings House, 1951), pp. 128-30. 108 A brief discussion is found in the epilog of Franklin Walker, A Literary History of Southern Califor nia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1950), pp. 257-60. 109 Mark Lee Luther, The Boosters (Indianapolis: Ind.: Bobbs, Merrill, 1924). See also Don Ryan, Angel1s Flight (New York: Boni Liveright, 1927). For commentary on both, see Lawrence Clark Powell, Land of Fiction (Los Angeles: Glen Dawson, 1952), pp. viii, ix. l-^Upton Sinclair, Oil 1 (Long Beach: Published by the author, 1926, 1927). Lawrence Clark Powell, California Classics (Los Angeles: The Ward Ritchie Press, 1971), pp. 317-330. ^■^Harry Leon Wilson, Merton of the Movies (Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, Page and Co., 1922). It had been serialized in The Saturday Evening Post and TZ \ adapted into a play by Connelly-Kaufman, and has been filmed on three occasions. Carl Van Vechten, Spider Boy (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1928) . Powell, California Classics, op. cit., pp. 331-43. CHAPTER III THE EMERGING YEAR— 1920 "All Eyes West" Introduction Los Angeles leaped forward into The Twenties with an enthusiasm that remained undiminished for the remainder of the decade. The population mounted to 576,673 by June, and by October it was estimated that 2,000 people daily arrived in the city.1 Building permits issued during the year reflected the attempts to accommodate the surging population— 25,555 permits, of which 9,400 were for single and double residential complexes, ten hotels, and eighty- six apartment structures.2 Industries, too, expanded. A "Made in Los Ange les" week in late March, and a Southern California Indus trial week in mid-May called attention to the region's growing industrial and manufacturing capabilities. Harbor imports increased sizably, but exports jumped from approximately $10,000,000 in 1919 to nearly twice that amount in 1920. On July 31, the first dry dock in South ern California was completed. In midyear, The Los Angeles 73 74 Times stated that the city was tenth in population, mak ing it the largest city west of St. Louis; that it had the largest per capita number of automobiles; that it was the second largest wholesale terminal and had the cheapest hydroelectrical power; and that it merited an assessed valuation for the county of $1,050,000,000.3 Unemployment was only a problem that affected the rest of the country, for skilled laborers poured into the area.^ As the population continued to soar, Los Angeles became aware that it suffered not only a shortage of residences (there was even talk of using tents for dwell ings to relieve the situation), but that its school facil ities were inadequate as well. A school bond issue for $9,500,000 was proposed and passed.^ The best-lighted city in the nation and the fast est growing in the country, Los Angeles was not without its complexities and problems.® Next to providing munici pal services— water, electricity, gas, sewerage, etc.— for the mushrooming population, many of whom settled in newly-developed subdivisions, one of the largest concerns was the traffic congestion. In 1920, 161,736 automobiles were registered in Los Angeles.7 A law attempted to restrict parking in the downtown area between 11:00 a.m. Q and 6:15 p.m., but it was later amended. The.Automobxle Club installed a ringing traffic semaphore at the inter section of Figueroa and Adams streets,- and in October the 75 city placed signals along Broadway at major intersections.® Traffic accidents, however, continued to mount, and in November there were 2,097 accidents, with 490 injuries and 22 fatalities.1® Moreover, the city, which prided itself as "a second Chicago," experienced a minor earth quake in June and, while no one was killed, Inglewood suffered great property damage.11 Plans were made to add to the city's 105 theatres. Alexander Pantages scheduled a new vaudeville house; Sid Grauman outlined two new movie palaces; Marcus Loew, Harris and Ackerman, Sol Lesser, and the Gore brothers all marked out new movie theatres; and a Junior Orpheum was discussed. The new Los Angeles Speedway opened on February 28 in Beverly Hills. In the midst of a year caught up with garter flasks and overalls with patches, state picnics and fraternal reunions, the novelty of joy riding and auto matic fruit extraction machines, plans were announced in late May for a 75,000-seat outdoor amphitheatre to serve as the site for the 1932 Olympiad. Los Angeles seemed a new word coined for the 1920's. National and world inter est, focused upon the city which "has vamped the world . . . and wins people to her from all sections."12 Background The superficial somnolence of the theatrical scene 76 in Los Angeles in 1920 did not seem to augur a forthcoming emergence. However, a closer look reveals that while seeming merely to continue in its sedentary position, Los Angeles theatre, responding to the increased prosperity of the nation, the renewed vitality of the theatre in general, and the fulminating spontaneity and expansion of the city itself, was beginning to formulate the patterns which were to establish it as an important theatrical center in the nation: (1) Thomas Wilkes assumed the lease on The Majestic Theatre and installed a stock company; (2) Oliver Morosco, owner-lessee of The Morosco Theatre, returned to Los Angeles to mount a series of original plays, some in long-run engagements; (3) Frank Egan, owner of The Egan Conservatory of Fine Arts, reopened his little theatre for the presentation of several literary dramas, and some new plays staged by Oliver. Morosco; (4) The Mason Opera House, which A. L. Erlanger purchased from its owner, Mrs. Kate Deming, dark for only two weeks in the entire year, pre sented a full season of road shows, operas, and other dramatic ventures; and (5) The Philharmonic Auditorium was used to house a successful summer of musical comedy. In addition to the theatrical activity at these major play houses, there were two historical dramas, uniquely asso ciated with the history of the area. 77 Discussion of Theatrical Activity The Majestic Theatre One of the evident signs of increased vitality in the theatre was the entrance of a new stock company. Thom as Wilkes, who owned or leased theatres in Salt Lake City, Seattle, Denver, and San Francisco, where he had installed stock companies, assumed a short-term lease on The Los Angeles Majestic Theatre in June, 1919. The Majestic Theatre, located at 845 South Broadway, had opened on No vember 23, 1908, with The Land of Nod. Ticket prices ranged from twenty-five cents to one dollar, and a few front rows at a dollar and a half. Leased by Oliver Moros co for ten years, the theatre was used primarily as a road show house for productions of the John Cort and Shuberts organizations, although Oliver Morosco, associated with the New York producing teams, occasionally staged new works there.1^ During the first six months of 1919, the theatre, no longer leased by Morosco, housed a variety of fare. Wilkes reopened The Majestic on June 22, 1919, with The Lie, starring Lewis Stone at the head of a stock com pany. The operation was the first serious opposition which Oliver Morosco's stock company faced. The policy of the group was quickly established— a weekly change of fare, plays selected to feature the talents of the star, and popular prices.15 By August, however, Stone contem plated leaving the company and, in October, 1919, a new CHART 1 THE MAJESTIC THEATRE OWNER The Hamburger Family, owners of Hamburger's Department Store (currently The May Co.). ARCHITECTS Edelman and Barnett. BUILDING EXTERIOR 8-story office building plus basement; contained 114 office suites, 2 stores on street level; fireproof; 3 upper stores extended back and over the auditorium; resembled The Amsterdam Theatre, New York City. PATRONS' AREAS AND MANAGEMENT SPACE16 Lobby 30-1/2'-0" wide, 40'-01 1 deep, led to the foyer. Foyer 65'-0" wide, 15'-0" deep; white-red marble and granite columns, green side walls, highly ornamented stucco ceiling; wainscotted to height of 8'-0"; staircase at either side led to balcony and downstairs to lounge areas; crown chandelier hung from ceiling. Basement 2 foyers, 1 each for men and women AUDITORIUM Seating Capacity Divided into main floor, balcony, and gallery; variously cited as between 1650 and 1700. 00 CHART 1— Continued Construction Details 17 Balcony and gallery spanned each 78'-0" maintained without supporting columns. Longest cantilever of gallery and balcony, 27'-0" and 30'-0" respectively. Auditorium spanned with 3 reinforced concrete trusses, 71'-0" long by lO'-O" deep, calculated to support live/dead load of 750,000 pounds. Boxes 10 boxes without canopies, projected 6'-0" from wall; arranged in two tiers with no box on same level; sketch in The Times, August 7, 1927, showed 4 boxes on each side. Roomy seats (l1-9-3/4"), each with individual ventilation/heating. Appointments Color scheme of soft, dark green and old rose/gold; mahogany doors opened onto foyer. Decorative canvas above Proscenium Arch— 7 sections, designed by Anton Molkenboer; allegorical depiction of "The Casts of Progress." On house right: Indian, mother and child, water carrier, a thinker, a soldier; on house left: a cowboy, a young lady, a Spanish dancer, a Renaissance courtier, and page. In Center: 3 draped women represent ing Truth holding her mirror for Comedy and Tragedy. Arch decorated with paintings by Frank King. Drop curtain— heavy pale green silk velour, monogrammed with initials "H. M. T." STAGE AREA Stage dimensions 401-0" deep, 80'-0" wide, 70'-0" high. 38'-0" deep, 80'-0" wide, 64'-0" high (to underside of gridiron). O O Proscenium opening: 36'-0" wide, 35'-0" high (one source stated 45'-0" high). VO CHART 1— Continued Dressing Rooms Approximately 35, arranged in 3 tiers, and on both sides of basement; fitted with sanitary appliances, heat/ventilation, gas/electricity. Basement Musicians' room, property room, lavatories, etc. Fly Gallery; 25'-0" above stage connected to paint bridge. Electrical system controlled by 40 dimmers. 00 o 81 leading man joined the organization. Edward Everett Horton's contributions to the company over the next five years established for him a loyal following— one which supported him in 1928 when he expanded his activities to producing and acting. In conjunction with Wilhemena Wilkes, the artistic director of the Wilkes's theatres, and Dickson Morgan, the designer-stage manager, Horton built The Wilkes Stock Company into one of "the best paying 23 stock propositions that there are in the country." Horton made his initial appearance with the com pany in W. H. Post and William Collier's comedy, Never Say Die, on October 26, 1919. By the beginning of the new decade, the new leading man was firmly established in a company consisting of Evelyn Varden, leading lady, Alice Elliott, Franklin Pangborn, Forrest Seabury, Marie Curtis, Harry Garrity, and others. By this time, most of the plays ran for two weeks— light comedies revolving around a romantic interest, domestic difficulties, and whimsical philosophy.^ However, on January 18, 1920, Booth Tarking- ton and Julian Street's gentle satire on the affectations of the "smart set," The Country Cousin, opened a three- week run, and one month later, based on the popularity of the company in such plays as I Love You, The Five Million, 82 and The Professor's Love Story, Thomas Wilkes consummated a long-term lease on The Majestic, dispelling "the local tradition of the stage . . . that more than one company could not comfortably exist . . . "25 Throughout the summer, the company proceeded along established paths (A Dollar Down, A Little Journey, Lilac Time) , growing more certain in their skills.2(5 But in the early fall they embarked upon a number of experiments. For three weeks in June they had presented a musical— Bolton-Wodehouse-Kern's Oh Boy!— and elicited favorable comment upon the versatility of the company and the 27 elaborate manner of staging. Then, in August and Septem- 0 f t ber, while Edward Everett Horton was vacationing, the company experimented with three diversifyingly challenging works— Eugene Walters1 The Challenge, G. B. Shaw 's Man and Superman, and Ibsen's Ghosts, with John Davidson as leading man. The Challenge, a study of misdirected idealism, gave the company an opportunity to assume roles of stature,29 but it was Shaw's play that challenged the flexibility and experience of the group. While Edwin Schallert observed that the opening night interpretation lacked finish, he felt, nevertheless, that one should witness the production "if you want to have a breath of real fresh air in the 83 higher realms of intelligent thought."*® The show filled the accustomed two-week period. Ghosts was essayed at two matinee performances during the two-week run of an innocuous comedy, The Mar riage of Kitty (see The Little Harlequin Theatre, next chapter). The offering prompted critical appreciation 31 for the notable acting, lighting, setting, and direction. With Horton's return, the group resumed its policy of light comedies, with one notable exception and one notable success. Following On the Quiet, Peggy Behave, and Perkins— about which The Times critic commented, "Personally, I shall be glad to see the Majestic Company essay something of a more serious nature for a change," the Wilkes aggregation mounted St. John Irvine's realistic drama, John Ferguson, starring Frank Keenan. Presented for the first time on a Los Angeles stage, the undertaking was hailed as "one of the most notable performances of the local dramatic stage. The show ran for three weeks, and the following year, Thomas Wilkes sent it on tour of 33 the Pacific Coast. Then, on November 14, 1920, the group launched its most successful production of the year— Clarence. Although the play had been viewed at The Mason in a one-week stay, 84 the superiority of Horton's performance and the enthusias tic support established the company's first long-run record— fourteen weeks.^ ^ Thus, the first year of the new decade for the Wilkes Stock Company in Los Angeles boded well for the future. Fourteen comedies (34 weeks), six plays (15 weeks and 2 performances), and one musical comedy (3 weeks) were undertaken, including works by Barrie, Crothers, and Tarkington, as well as by Shaw, Ibsen, and St. John Irvine.During the year, the length-of-run for most plays was extended to an expected two weeks, with a healthy indication that longer runs would be supported if the play suited the talents of the company's leading man (Clarence) and/or a special star engaged for a special show (John Ferguson). Thomas Wilkes showed that he in tended to make his company at The Majestic a paying organ ization by staging popular light comedies and an occasional mystery, and by building up a skillful company of talented actors with engaging personalities. He also indicated (or allowed his sister to do so) his willingness to break the conventional mode to stage a serious play, a classic, or a new work. Clearly, the company had no intentions of being merely competition for The Morosco Theatre. 85 The Morosco Theatre Meanwhile, at the other stock company, The Morosco, located on Broadway between Seventh and Eighth Streets, just one block north of The Majestic, Oliver Morosco was not allowing the challenge of The Wilkes Stock Company to go unheeded. The Morosco Theatre had opened on January 6, 1913, with The Fortune Hunter (ticket prices ranged from $.25 to $1.00) and was intended primarily for the presenta tion of new plays, with comedies and mystery melodramas filling in the rest of the schedule. One week after The Wilkes Company bowed, Oliver Morosco premiered, on June 29, 1919, Thompson Buchanan's romantic comedy of a war veter an's changed image, Civilian Clothes. In 1920, he staged five more premieres, plus one new work possibly staged in 36 Oakland, California. Civilian Clothes closed on March 13, 1920, estab lishing a new long-run record for Los Angeles of thirty- 37 seven weeks, 373 performances. Morosco opened the play in New York on September 12, 1919, where it completed 150 performances. In Los Angeles, however, the remainder of the year at The Morosco was a comic cavalcade broken by only two plays of a more serious tone— one of which was a premiere. The twelve-week engagement of Polly with a Past, CHART 2 THE MOROSCO THEATRE OWNERS 3 O Oliver Morosco, and, as of 1916, his wife, Mrs. Annie T. Morosco. BUILDING EXTERIOR39 Part of The Garland Building; fire-proof concrete structure built on steel frame; approx imate cost, $500,000; separate entrances for main level and balcony, and for gallery. AUDITORIUM Seating Capacity 1500 barrel-backed seats, O'-32" apart; 1257 seats in 1926. Main level in 17 rows, gradually graded Balcony and gallery— each 12 rows, balcony pitched steeply Auditorium Dimensions— 78'-0" wide, 54'-0" long Appointments and Decorations Classical designs, frieze of cupids Color scheme— French gray/dull gold/green bronze, touches of light green and rose; upholstery and main curtain in maroon tones. 00 (T l 87 a long run assured as much by the policy sanctioned by Mrs. Annie T. Morosco (owner of the theatre) as by the antiseptic appeal of the moderately-risque play and the strength of the company,^® was followed by another "naughty" comedy, The Naughty Wife; by Anne Nichol's new work, The Gilded Cage, significant more for the opportunity it gave Bertha Mann to display her versatility in the double role of a vamp-actress and a self-sacrificing young woman, than for its dramatic or theatrical innova tions;^1 and by Why Marry? by Jesse Lynch Williams, the A o first play awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1917-18, which bounced along on the talents of the likable actor, Henry "Terry" Duffy, who later in the period became the west coast's most formidable super-stock producer.^ The only serious work (aside from one melodrama) which patrons viewed at The Morosco Theatre in 1920 was Eleanor Hinkley's Harvard prize contest drama, The Clam Digger, the story of a man's growing love for his dead wife's sister. It provided Louis Calhern with a powerful characterization as Amos Pike, but regardless of its merit, it lasted for only three weeks. The expectations of the Morosco Theatre audiences might not have tolerated it longer than that: 88 This play may never reach a great degree of popular ity with the laughter-loving audiences of Los Ange les because of its ending [Amos commits suicide] 44 • • • Apparently, Morosco felt that it would not please New York audiences either for it was not presented there. The year 1920 was the last one in which Oliver Morosco was an active, contributing figure to the theatri cal culture of Los Angeles. Constrained financially by the divorce proceedings initiated by Mrs. Morosco and restrained artistically from interfering with the opera tion of The Morosco Theatre, Oliver Morosco complicated his existence by entering into new schemes, including one grandiose plan which called for the erection of a movie studio village in an expanding area of the city— Hollywood at Western and Melrose Avenues. But during the summer and fall of 1920, he dominated the scene. In August, 19 20, he had three new plays running simultaneously at three different theatres— The Hummingbird at The Egan, Wait 'Till W're Married at The Mason, and The Clam Digger at The Morosco. In December, two plays were running con currently. ^ 5 89 The Egan Theatre Although the :Egan. Theatre, located on the east side of Figueroa Street just south of Pico Boulevard, was used by Oliver Morosco as a try-out center for his new- comedies and melodramas, it also served as a center for productions of literary dramas. Egan reopened the the atre on February 23, 19 20, with H. K. Maltby's The Rotters, starring Henry Corson Clarke (who had purchased the American rights to the play), as Clugston, and Wallace Reid, Famous-Players-Paramount movie star, as the gentle- man-chauffer. The satire on the hypocrisy of social values— in what was probably the American premiere (Corson owned the rights)— was warmly received, and critics com mented generously upon the exceptional finish of Clarke's performance, and the ease and conviction of Reid's work.4* * Wallace Reid and an all-star cast returned to The Egan stage with Ethel Mumford's farce, Sick-a-Bed, which may have been something of a publicity stunt, since the stage presentation followed by one week, the recently-released film, also starring Wallace Reid.4^ One week after The Rotters closed, Garnet Holmes staged three showings of the morality play, Abraham and Isaac, and a religious work, Nicodemus, which focused upon CHART 3 THE EGAN THEATRE OWNER Frank Cullen Egan CONFIGURATIONS-HISTORY Modeled in size and function after Withrop Ames' Little Theatre in New York. Seated 334 in 14 gently sloping rows; no orchestra pit, balcony, or boxes. Lounges for men and women, a Green Room, and a large ballroom upstairs occupied the remainder of the building.^8 Opened January 26, 1914, with Galsworthy's The Pigeon. Guarantors included prominent civic, social and cultural leaders— some associated with theatrical projects later in The Twenties.^9 In 1916, The Players Producing Company, headed by Richard Ordynsky and Clarence Brown, with Norman Bel Geddes as designer, and sponsored by Aline Barnsdall, wealthy oil heiress, initiated a series of experimental plays with Nju, by Ossip Dymov.5* - 1 Project lasted one season. Egan also operated The Frank Egan School of Drama (Conservatory of Fine Arts) on the premises. vo o 91 the disciple's life following the crucifixion of Christ. However, the most ambitious literary undertaking was initiated by professional actors Reginald Pole (Poel), Olga Gray Zacsek, and Juan de la Cruz, who presented Ibsen's When We Dead Awaken for four performances in April, in what was purported to be the west coast premiere of the play. Settings were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Jr.52 In November, the same group mounted Ibsen's Rosmersholm for a two-week run. Of the latter production, Edwin Schallert said: "Altogether a very convincing inter pretation of one of the strongest of Ibsen's plays," and he praised the company for its devotion to literary c o drama. These adventures in non-commercial, literary drama found scant space to grow, for Frank Egan had agreed with Oliver Morosco to allow the latter use of his stage for the presentation of some of his plays. The Hummingbird, by Maude Fulton, starring the author, was a slight comedy about a young American dancer whose spirit merits for her a medal from the French government. The play ran for four weeks, and was staged in New York in 1923 (produced by Frank Egan) where its cloying optimism submerged it in forty performances. It was revived for a long run in 92 Los Angeles by Egan."^ Slippery McGee was a crook melo drama by Edward Rose, and reintroduced William Desmond to the stage. Regrettably, the play was embarrassingly out- of-date— a letter is held by the villain as blackmail; a sister is forced to marry; a safe is opened by fantastic stunts— and it closed quickly in three weeks. Just prior to this, Morosco staged Marry the Poor Girl, by Owen Davis. The production's drawing power had little to do with the play (advertised as a premiere), which was judged "only a passable comedy," and everything to do with the guest.appearances of Francis X. Bushman and his wife, Beverly Bayne. Thus, during the first year of the new decade, The Egan Theatre, although unused for over thirty-one weeks, served as a tryout theatre for plays owned by Oliver Morosco and, of equal importance, served as the only forum in Los Angeles for the staging of literary works of non-immediate commercial value by professional actors. The Mason Opera House While fresh air penetrated the mustiness of the other theatres, The Mason Opera House, located at First and Broadway Streets, which had opened on June 18, 1903, CHART 4 THE MASON OPERA HOUSE OWNER John A. Mason; upon his death passed to his widow, Mrs. Kate Deming, who sold it in 1920 to A. L. Erlanger, who, together with Charles Frohman and Oliver Morosco, had leased the theatre on its opening. John A. Mason purchased the site from the Mesmer estate for $80,000.5^ ARCHITECTS (Benjamin H.) Marshall and Wilson, Chicago architects; John Parkinson, Los Angeles, su pervising architect. EXTERIOR Faced Broadway; light yellow terra cotta, lower part inlaid with ceramic mosaic; two stores at street level, grand entrance to theatre in between; three stories above rented for office suites; gallery entrance on Hill Street.5* * PATRONS' AREAS Foyer A kind of Pompein court, rectangular in shape, occupying about half the space between the Broadway Street sidewalk and the theatre proper; 2 stories in height, with 20 columns along the sides (comprising the 2nd story); between columns and walls were winding inclines which led to the dress circles, balconies. Finished in cardinal red and white; hangings in blue/green/red with patterns in stripes and diamonds; carpet in matching colors; hanging globes, ferns, furniture of a great drawing room.5^ Retiring rooms for men and women (gentlemen's contained a smoking room and a card room), check room. VO U) CHART 4— Continued AUDITORIUM Seating Divided into first floor, boxes, dress circle, and balcony. 700 on first floor, with 8 boxes; dress circle with 450; balcony with 450.®® Later article stated seating at 1800, and pictures show 6 boxes on each side— 3 at orchestra level, and 3 at dress circle level. Picture also shows that first level was divided into four sections, with center sec tion divided at rear into 2 sections. Balcony— cantilevered on rear pillars. STAGE 51'-0" x 97'-0" (one assumes depth by width).®2 Orchestra pit could accommodate full orchestra. Color Scheme Crimson carpets and drapes, with appointments (fixtures, etc.) of green and cream. Lighting controlled by switchboard (situated stage right) and five new dimmer banks. VO 95 with If I Were King/ starring Cissie Loftus and E. H. Sothern, continued to fulfill its role of Los Angeles terminus for road-show productions. All of the shows which played The Mason in 1920 remained for one week with but three exceptions: Friendly Enemies, Keep Her Smiling/ and The Satires of 1920. In between, several musical organizations took advantage of the stage— both The San Carlo and The Gallo Light Opera played two-week engage ments , and Reginald deKoven's Robin Hood returned for one. During the summer, Oliver Morosco staged several pre mieres. In this manner, the theatre remained filled for fifty weeks, the most active span for The Mason during the entire decade. Of the fifty weeks, more than four-fifths were devoted to comedic presentations (20 weeks) and musical entertainments (19 weeks), plus six weeks devoted to opera. A healthy sign was the recentness of a large proportion of the shows— the majority from the 1919 sea- son, three from 1920. Los Angeles also saw a higher number of works which had been eastern successes in this year, for of the twenty-eight road shows, nine had com pleted more than a hundred performances, seven had fin ished two hundred, and three each had completed runs of over three and four hundred performances, respectively. 96 There was no discernible pattern regarding the kind of casts which comprised the road companies. While the majority did consist of second companies, at least ten were headed by the New York stars.However, for all this activity, works by notable playwrights and composers were curiously few. The first full week at The Mason Opera House was filled by that theatrical warhorse, A Bird of Paradise, originally premiered by Oliver Morosco in 1911, in its eighth local engagement. It was succeeded by a series of musicals, bedroom farces, a spoof on Prohibition, Wet and Dry, with local delights, Kolb and Dill, and an Irish melodramatic musical potpourri, Macushla, with Chauncey Olcott. Then, in March, the theatrical year took on a justifiable lustre when David Warfield came with The Auctioneer. A sold-out house greeted the opening perform ance, and critics observed how his dynamic emotional interpretation eclipsed the gaucheries of the play.^ Scheduled for one week, the engagement was shortened when Warfield was struck by a delivery truck as he crossed to his hotel and suffered a fractured leg. Several other stars also appeared in vehicles of 97 more recent vintage. All featured a romantic interest. One took a jocular tone toward the position of emancipated women (Ladies First); one took an ameliorative note toward the American German who supported the Fatherland during World War I (Friendly Enemies); one swirled a colorful swatch through the old South with love, pride, and revenge (Mis' Nelly of N1Orleans); and one offered appealing philosophy for marital misadventures (Wedding Bells). Smilin1 Through was a fantasy about the power of love beyond the confines of death. The stars' perform ances enhanced each of the productions, which in many cases were slight and conventional, as for example, Nora Bayes, Louis Mann, Minnie Maddern Fiske, Wallace Eddinger and Margaret Lawrence, and Jane Cowl, respectively. One production was of greater interest for its technical achievements than for its literary or per formance contributions. Contrary to past policy when he had apparently declined entrusting his production to a second company, David Belasco sent Tiger Rose on tour. For Florence Lawrence, the troupe lacked the spontaneity and artistry which had made the New York run so success ful, but nothing could diminish Belasco's scenic signature: 98 . . . [Belasco's] personal touch is still apparent in the rain, the flickering lights, the rumbling thunders that electrify the action of the main dramatic episodes. Equally apparent is it too in the shadows of over-hanging trees through which break the golden tones of the dawn's prelude to the final act.67 Besides these star attractions, old favorites added spirit and color to the year. In addition to Kolb and Dill, and Chauncey Olcott, there came Raymond Hitch cock and Guy Bates Post, both of whom appeared in crowd- pleasing entertainments. Hitchcock, whose inimitable adeptness in sentimental musical pastiches dated as far back as 1900 (when he appeared in The Burgomaster), "even brought back the gallery gods with Hitchy-Koo, 1919, which he began with an impromptu monologue delivered in the 6 8 auditorium. Guy Bates Post, on the other hand, pranced through that treasury of histrionics, The Masquerador, which required him to play a dual role and necessitated two revolve stages, two complete stage crews, and three different sets of electrical equipment. The audiences loved itl The Times reported that it had grossed $20,472 in its one-week stay, more than Kansas City had shown! Thus, the parade of road-show attractions at The Mason Opera House during 1920 was numerous if not particu larly varied. Of the comedies viewed, an overwhelming majority of them were bedroom farces, such as, among others, Up in Mabel's Room, Parlor, Bedroom, and Bath, The Girl in the Limousine, Nightie Night, and Breakfast in Bed, Of the more serious works, only one was not a melo drama, Smilin1 Through. The musical offerings represented the greatest variety, ranging from musical comedies and operettas, through review, minstrel shows, and an extrav aganza, Chu-Chin-Chow, a luscious, fantasy-musical woven around the stories of the Arabian nights, set in ten scenes with eighteen musical numbers and 300 people, encompassing sex, drama, comedy, ballet, specialties, and so forth. It was also one of the earliest productions to charge a four dollar top— "What Niagara is to the falls of America . . . what Charlie Chaplin is to the comedians . . . that's what 'Chu-Chin-Chow' is to theatricals."^ During the summer months, when the road-show attractions withered in the heat of cross-country travel, Oliver Morosco premiered two new plays and offered one shown earlier in the east; all were romantic comedies and neither of the two new plays aroused enthusiasm. Seven Miles to Arden, by Anne Nichols, starring Henry Duffy and Betty Lindley, lacked both brilliant dialogue and action, while the scenery "looked so much like a setting from 100 'Carmen' one half expected a gypsy to appear."7- * - Wait 'Til] We're Married received a similar critical evaluation, but on the strength of Duffy's engaging characterization, Morosco opened the play in New York. It lasted fifty-six performances.72 The third work, Mama's Affair, by Rachel 7 ^ Barton Butler, was cut from the same whole cloth. One other work which Morosco had produced earlier in New York brought an ovation on opening night, when the outsized extremities of Charlotte Greenwood convulsed auditors in Linger Longer Letty.74 During 1920, The Mason Opera House enjoyed a full year of vitality and variety, if not one guaranteed to overtax the intelligence and overstimulate aesthetic appreciation. The theatrical slump brought on by the recession following the war did not affect the Mason until 1921-22. Without gross receipts, it is difficult to know which shows fared well, but judging by the kind of produc tion sent to the city, it is obvious that the Mason catered to the popular tastes of the public. The Philharmonic Auditorium The Philharmonic Auditorium was the other major theatre at which road shows usually played. Located at the corner of Fifth and Olive Streets, across Pershing CHART 5 THE PHILHARMONIC AUDITORIUM OWNER The Auditorium Company; later The Temple Baptist Church, which had originated the project of building the Auditorium, and which used the large auditorium for its church services. ARCHITECT Charles F. Whittlesley, architect of Sullivan's Chicago Opera House completed in 1903.^ BUILDING EXTERIOR76 165'-0” frontage on Fifth Avenue, 65'-0" frontage on Olive Street; used for 9-story office building. lll'-O" frontage on Olive Street for Auditorium proper. Fifth Street Six stores, three on either side of main lobby-entrance to theatre— 42'-0" wide; led to vestibule— 20'-0" x 33'-0" containing manager's office in house left corner; box office astride both vestibule and lobby— 20'-0' deep, 40'-0" wide, containing two elevators. At sound end of Fifth Avenue facade, stage entrance 9'-6" wide. Basement Cafeteria and banquet hall (seated 800), kitchen accommodations. Subbasement contained machine and engine rooms. On second and third floors of office building, a small choral hall, seating 800, with balcony and complete stage equipment; also on second and third floors a 1,000 seat £ lecture hall with balcony; also quarters for Temple Baptist Church. i - CHART 5— Continued THE AUDITORIUM 165'-0" x 110'-0", including the stage; said to be the largest theatre west of Chicago at the time. Seating Capacity Whittlesley said 3,500, which could be expanded to 5,000. 2,600-2,700 more likely. Foyer Horseshoe-shaped, extended completely around the auditorium; 12 pairs of doors; 22'-0" at its base. Auditorium divided into 3 areas on main level; first (nearest stage) in 3 sections; middle in 4 sections; rear (raised) in 4 sections; beyond rear sections were the men's smoker (13'-0" x 14'-0") and toilet and cloak room; at house right were similar rooms for women. Boxes Four on each side, on two different levels. Balcony-Gallery "Splits up at both sides into shallow galleries in four tiers, each of which merges into the main balcony without a break in the rows of seats. Balcony carried on great cantilevers of reinforced concrete. STAGE Orchestra Pit 12'-0" x 41'-0" (with electricians rooms, stage right; stage manager's room, stage left) . i _ . o _________________________________________ t s j CHART 5— Continued Dimensions 39'-0" deep x 80'-0" wide. Stage right: star dressing room (7'-0" x 12'-0"); scene room (12'-0" x 12'-0"); property room (same size). Stage left: star dressing room (7'-6" x 12'-0"); toilets, smoker, freight elevator [no other information provided]. i -1 o co 104 Square from The Biltmore Hotel, the Auditorium had opened on November 6, 1906, with the Lambardi Opera Company's presentation of Aida (the same opera which had opened Hazard's Pavillion which stood on the same site as the Auditorium). Since its opening, it had accommodated a variety of entertainment. For example, in 1913, The Chicago Opera had played its first Los Angeles engagement; in 1915, William Clune had leased the playhouse and there, on February 8, 1915, premiered Birth of a Nation.^8 In June, 1919, William Clark, Jr., had founded the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra with $100,000, and in 1920, it moved into the Auditorium where the Orchestra remained for forty-four years. In 19 20, only one opera company appeared at the Philharmonic (Scotti Opera Company), and only two revues took advantage of its availability— The All White Minstrels and The Passing Show of 1918. The longest theatrical engagement at the Philhar monic in this year was the five-week season of light opera offered by the Wilber Opera Company, a west-coast aggregation. Besides Mile. Modiste, Florabella, and The Chocolate Soldier, they staged an original revue, The Follies of Los Angeles— a panoramic "history" of the city from the dark ages "B.I.I.," which stood for "Before the 105 Iowa Invasion," to the contemporary scene with glimpses of Chinatown, Venice, a cafeteria, an airplane race, bath ing beaches, and so on.^® The attempt at satire was deemed amateurish, although greeted by a well-filled house. Miscellaneous Theatre Activities In addition to the moderate rejuvenation of the legitimate theatre in Los Angeles, two other major commu nity productions of distinct uniqueness invigorated the theatrical landscape— The Pilgrimage Play and The Mission Play. The Pilgrimage Play Interest in the feasibility of outdoor dramatic presentations had been aroused before World War I by two successful endeavors— Julius Caesar, in 1916, and The Light of Asia, in 1918. The latter was produced by Christine Wetherell Stevenson, founder of The Pilgrimage Play. Julius Caesar was a gigantic supernaturalistic affair, which benefited the Actor's Fund some $15,000 after expenses were deducted* The other pageant was entirely the opposite in intention. In 1918, Mrs. Christine Wetherell Stevenson, a 106 former patroness of the Philadelphia Little Theatre and a member of The Theosophical Society, which had a branch in Hollywood known as Krotona, sponsored thirty-five per formances of Edwin Arnold's The Light of Asia, starring Q 1 Walter Hampden. - * • Shortly thereafter, plans were set in motion to realize Mrs. Stevenson's dream of producing a series of plays based on the lives of the great prophets of the world, such as Jesus, Moses, Buddha, Mohammed, and Confucius. On May 26, 1919, The Theatre Arts Alliance was incorporated with the intention of supporting the perform ing arts and fine arts and, in particular "a great the- g p atrical project rivalling Oberammergau." A suitable site was located, but disagreement rent The Alliance and, when reorganized, one faction regrouped to found The Hollywood Bowl, while Mrs. Stevenson, together with H. Ellis Reed, pursued her plans for an American Passion Play. A new site was chosen at Cahuenga Boulevard and Highland Avenue, adjacent to The Bowl. Financed largely, if not exclusively, by Mrs. Stevenson, an auditorium and stage were built, a suitable script was worked out, a cast selected, and the first presentation of The Pilgrimage Play opened on June 28, 1920.83 Critical appreciation O A was abundant and perceptive of the script and the acting. 107 The first season closed on August 9, 1920, but The Pilgrimage Play was mounted yearly throughout the decade and between 1920 and 1964 was presented for a total of thirty-four seasons. The Mission Play The other pageant which contributed in a unique fashion to the area's cultural heritage was of longer standing, having first been staged in 1912. John Steven McGroarty's The Mission Play was a romantic dramatization of the colonization of California by the Franciscan mis sionaries, and was considered a "pioneer example of the illuminating of history on the stage.The play moved from the arrival of Fra Serra at San Diego in the 1760's through the decay of the missions. The ninth season opened on January 17, 19 20, and ran through May 30, with Frederick Warde as Serra, and Mrs. o 7 Tyrone Powers as Magdalen. In 1921, the play opened, for the first time, on New Year's Day and ran for five months, a practice repeated in 1922, when cool, rainy weather, which diminished attendance, forced the extension of the play through July 30. Immediately after the close of The Mission Play in 1922, McGroarty displayed a new work, La Golondrina, based on a true story of the romance and . 108 separation of Concepcion Arguellos and Count Nicolai de Resanof of Russia. Premiered on August 7, 1922, the play was as colorful as its predecessor, and even richer in sympathetic characterizations, and most of the critics thought it a better play than his earlier work, although Variety doubted if it would have as much popular appeal as The Mission Play. Miscellaneous One other production is of interest to this history because it signified the attempts to enrich the texture of the city's theatrical offerings, but also because it may have been the earliest effort in the decade to encom pass a literary theatrical production within a subscrip tion series. Early in the year, Reginald Pole organized a group of professional actors in Othello, with Pole as The Moor, Lawrence Mervil (Tibbett) as Iago, Frayne Wil liams as Cassio, Gwendolyn Logan as Emilia, and Mrs. Patricia Henshaw as Desdemona.®^ Frank Lloyd Wright, Jr. designed the simple setting approximating an Elizabethan theatre. The event seems isolated and yet each of the actors involved went on to contribute to other literary- oriented theatre groups, both in Los Angeles and in the east. More importantly, this undertaking and a later one 109 at The Egan Theatre, may have been a way of involving Philharmonic Orchestra patrons in theatrical activities, for Pole stated that "[they] were done under the sponsor ship of the Philharmonic Association as a part of the 9 n season's offerings to their subscribers." If this was true, one can only imagine what the complexion and direc tion of Los Angeles theatre might have been had such an arrangement been fully realized. As much as the increased fermentation and expansion of production was an indication of growing theatre matur ity, the change in ownership in The Mason Theatre was proof that Los Angeles was being eyed anew (if somewhat askance) as a growing market. In October, 1920, A. L. Erlanger purchased the Mason Opera House and office build ing from John Mason's widow, for a reported sum of between $200,000 and $300,000.^ There is no doubt that the decision was motivated as much by Erlanger's desire to avoid any disagreement with Marc Klaw in the wake of the dissolution of their firm as by reports that the Shubert Brothers were seeking to secure a theatre in the city. However, at the same time that the deal was closed, Erlanger announced through his representative, Joseph Bicketon, his intention of building a new theatre in the 110 downtown area.92 Thus, while assuring himself a measure of control over the available road show playhouse, Erlanger, cognizant of the age of the theatre and the shifting expan sion of the downtown district, made his bid to control the southern extremity of road shows playing the west coast.99 Summary and Conclusion The first year of the new decade in Los Angeles was a mixture of new life and frenzied final activity, with a steady flow of theatrical entertainment at The Mason Opera House. The new life was personified by the entry upon the Los Angeles theatre scene of Thomas Wilkes. Assuming the lease on The Majestic Theatre, he installed a stock com pany whose play choice encompassed light comedies with romantic interests, but whose aspirations included the realization of more challenging works such as Ghosts and Man and Superman, and tentative experimentation with new works; whose length-of-engagement ran from the usual two weeks through open-ended long runs; and whose personnel drew on the talented contributions of such individuals as Edward Everett Horton, Wilhemena Wilkes Morgan (director), and Dickson Morgan (designer), plus an occasional well- known and/or well-respected star (eg., Frank Keenan). Ill The producer at the other stock company, Oliver Morosco, was never more in evidence than in 1920. In addi tion to premiering five plays, presenting one other work new to the city (and just possibly also a premiere), and three plays staged earlier in the year in New York, he made extensive plans to enter into film production and real estate operations. With one exception in each case, all the new plays and all the works staged at the stock company theatre (some of the new plays were staged at The Mason or The Egan) were comedies with either a note of romantic interest or a certain meretriciousness. Long runs became a standard policy at the theatre, and only three plays were given short three-week engagements. Beyond introducing these new plays (three of which went into New York), Morosoco brought to Los Angeles a young actor whose position in local theatre history was to surpass his own— Henry "Terry" Duffy. Ironically, while it was one of Morosco's most productive years, it was the last year in which he was an active force, for financial stringencies prompted by personal difficulties and busi ness overexpansion effectively removed Morosco from control of his theatre, the kind of fare presented, the length of run, and other factors, and his other properties. 112 Besides these two major stock producers, Frank Egan reentered the theatrical scene making his theatre available for three plays presented by Oliver Morosco. Of greater importance, The Egan served as the only forum in Los Angeles for professionally-cast productions of liter ary drama and plays in an experimental vein. While these changes were occurring among the local ly-owned or locally-managed playhouses, The Mason Opera House, the major road-company theatre, enjoyed the most active year it would know during the entire ten-year per iod. Comedies and musical productions dominated the scene, filling thirty-nine weeks, plus six more devoted to opera productions. While most of the shows were pre sented by "second companies," at least ten were headed by the stars who had created the roles in New York. However, for all the activity generated at the theatre, including the summer presentations of Oliver Morosco, most of the shows still remained for only one week. And yet it was demonstrated that audiences could and would meet a $4.00 top ticket— the first instance of this advanced admission price in this period. The other theatre to which road shows were routed, The Philharmonic Auditorium, housed only a few productions, one of which was the five-week 113 engagement of a coast musical comedy troupe. In addition, the strength and financial resources of one woman, supported by local interest in community endeavors, brought to reality one of the longest-running productions in the area--The Pilgrimage Play. Moreover, The Mission Play entered another successful season. That Los Angeles was considered "in the national picture" as a potential center of theatrical activity became evident in A. L. Erlanger's purchase of The Mason Opera House, an action prompted (1) by his decision to abandon widely-scattered road activities in favor of a few centers with more than 100,000 people; (2) by internecine struggles in his organization, and activity generated by the rival Shubert organization; and (3) by the mushrooming importance of the city as a regional metropolis. The first year of the decade was a year in which many theatrical avenues were explored— the pull toward community projects and the tug toward greater commercial ization; and throughout, the quiet contributions of various little theatre groups. It was a year in which the hard line had not yet been drawn between those theatres used exclusively for commercial productions of a popular nature, and those devoted to experimental theatre. CHAPTER III Footnotes ^The Los Angeles Times, October 18, 1920, II, 1, 5. Hereafter referred to as The Times. 2The Times, February 27, 1921, V, 1. William A. Spalding, comp., History and Reminiscences; Los Angeles City and County, I (Los Angeles: J. R. Finnell and Sons, [1931]), p. 403. 3The Times, June 10, 1920, I, 1; II, 1; July 28, 1920, II, 1. ^The Times, November 14, 1920, II, 3. ^Spalding, loc. cit. ^Electric lights were turned on along Broadway on January 17, at a street carnival during which disguised movie stars mingled in the crowds and, if recognized (Gloria Swanson, Charlie Chaplin, Wallace Reid, Marie Prevost, et al.) brought $25.00 to the astute sleuth (prize offered by Sid Grauman). 7 James Clifford Findley, "The Economic Boom of the 'Twenties in Los Angeles" (unpublished Doctoral Disserta tion, Claremont Graduate School, 1958), p. 68. 8Ibid., p. 70. 8Ibid., pp. 74-75. ^°An editorial, "Speeding up," The Times, December 4, 1920, II, 4. ^The Times, June 22, 1920, I, 1, 3. 1 1 4 . TT5 12 Florence Lawrence, "Eight More Theatres for Los Angeles' List of 105," The Los Angeles Examiner, IXX, 1-2. Hereafter referred to as The Examiner. It stated that there were four theatres for the speaking stage, three for vaudeville, about a half-dozen for musical comedy/burlesque, and one for operas, concerts, and spectacular produc tions. The rest were movie theatres. Sid Grauman dis closed that the theatres he planned were to be done in an Oriental architectural style because the Oriental "has a higher conception of beauty, because his art is the reflec tion of his philosophy." Edward F. O'Day (quotation), speaking at California Real Estate Association meeting, The Times, December 10, 1920, pp. 1, b. 13 Dickson Morgan, personal correspondence, September 16, 1972, said that the Wilkes family had leased the Fillmore Theatre in San Francisco for Ernest Wilkes to perfect his acting and writing ambitions; it was not a suc cess . 14 Leonard Schoen, "A Historical Study of Oliver Morosco's Long-Run Premiere Productions in Los Angeles, 1905-1922" (unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of Southern California, 1971), pp. 201-4. 15The Times, June 15, 1919, III, 14. ~*~^The Times, June 6, 1924, II, 1; June 8, 1924, V, 1 (illustrated), gave information about the exterior and stated that the seating capacity was 1600. Unless otherwise indicated, all information is taken from The Times, October 4, 1908, III, 1 (illustrated), and from November 24, 1908, II, 1, 6 (illustrated). 1 7 The Times, November 24, 1908, loc. cit. 18 "A California Theater of Reinforced Concrete," The Architect and Engineer, XVII (May, 1909), 67-72. 20 Ibid. The Times, November 24, 1908, loc. cit. A sketch in The Times, August 7, 1927, III, 11, showed four boxes on each side, and their staggered placement. 116 pi First set of dimensions from The Times, October 4, 1908, loc. cit; second from The Architect and Engineer, loc. cit. 22The Times, October 4, 1908, loc. cit. Schoen, op. cit. 23Variety, LXVIII (November 10, 1922), 15, said: "The stock houses . . . are selling out. These houses, according to a well-informed theatrical man, are the best- paying stock propositions that there are in the country." 2^Morgan, op. cit., said that "the first six months of weekly changes of bill . . . were disastrous. The com pany was bucking a well-established organization at the Morosco. . . . Then at Christmas time, Willamene got her brother Alfred on the phone and wept hysterically, saying that she couldn't go on . . . and would he for her sake please, PLEASE let the Christmas show run over for two weeks. . . . The show was held over a second week seemed a que [sic] that the public had been waiting for. They started coming to the theatre in droves." 25Edwin Schallert, The Times, March 15, 1920, II, 12. 2 6 Opinion expressed by Edwin Schallert in his review of Little Journey, The Times, April 12, 1920, II, 10, and by Florence Lawrence in her review of Lilac Time, The Examiner, May 3, 1920, I, 11. 2Vhe Examiner, June 7, 1920, I, 10. 28 Horton spent his vacation filming. During this time, Patia Power (Mrs. Tyrone Power, Sr.) appeared with the company. 29 The Challenge, Schallert, The Times, August 2, 1920, II, 8. The Examiner, August 2, 1920, I, 11. 2Van and Superman, Schallert, The Times, August 9, 1920, II, 8. The Examiner, August 9, 1920, I, 9. Neither writer indicated whether Act III was performed. 117 •^Ghosts, Lawrence, The Examiner, September 2, 1920, I, 14. Schallert, The Times, September 2, 1920, III, 4, compared the play's place in theatre history to that of "The Pathetique" in musical history. •^John Ferguson, Lawrence (quotation), The Exam iner, October 18, 1920, I, 6. Schallert, The Times, Octo ber 18, 1920, II, 10. ^■^The production did not fare well on the road. The Times, January 19, 1921, III, 4; February 26, 1921, II, 9. Billboard, XXXIV (February 5, 1921), 22. Variety LXI (January 14, 1921), 19; LXII (March 4, 1921), 17. ^ Clarence, Grace Kingsley, The Times, November 15, 1920, II, 12. The Examiner, November 15, 1920, I, 8. 3^The genre designated for a particular play is derived either from the programs, from comments within the reviews, and/or from the summaries and labels used in The Best Plays series. The word play is an approximation for drame. •^The Los Angeles Evening-Express, November 3, 1926, p. 9. 0 7 J/Schoen says Morosco premiered seven plays: The Clam Digger, The Gilded Cage, Seven Miles to Arden, Wait 'Till We're Married, Slippery McGee, The Hummingbird, and Marry the Poor Girl. However, the last play opened in New York on September 20, 1920, and The Hummingbird may have been given its first production at The Fulton Theatre, Oakland. ^ The Times, September 27, 1919, II, 1. Morosco had transferred one-half interest in all his plays and productions and one-fourth interest in Oliver Morosco Photoplay Company to his wife on September 2, 1915. He signed to her all his rights and title to The Morosco Theatre, Los Angeles. The Times, October 11, 1916, II, 1. 39a11 information regarding the physical theatre is taken from Schoen, op. cit., pp. 180-83. 118 40 The Times, March 13, 1920, II, 7 (listed in advertisement for the play). 41Poll£, Kingsley, The Times, March 15, 1920, II, 12. Edwin Schallert, "He's Neutral, Is This Idol," The Times, March 28, 1920, III, 1, 8, said Calhern's charm and ability were interesting competition for Horton. The critics noted that The Majestic Company set a high stand ard in acting and scenic investiture, and in one instance chided Morosco for shoddy scenery, reminding him that audiences had been educated through the realism of the movies. "A New Center of Production," The Times, August 15, 19 20, III, 1. Morosco's financial constraints, his extratheatrical activities, his frantic pace of producing new works all contributed to the lack of attention. However, the Majestic director and designer were unusually talented. 42 The Examiner, December 13, 1920, I, 11. Schoen does not indicate whether this new play was presented in New York, but it seems likely that Love Dreams, which opened October 10, 1921 was a reworked (songs added) ver sion. 4^Duffy first appeared in Seven Miles to Arden, July 11, 1920; then in Wait 'Till We're Married, August 1, 1920 (presented at The Mason). At the Morosco, he ap peared in Why Marry? The Gilded Cage, and Buddies. He went to New York to appear in the second-cited play. He returned to Los Angeles in July, 1923, when he almost pro duced a play. 44 Maude Cheatham, The Examiner, July 26, 1920, I, 8. 45 The fate of the new plays: The Clam Digger did not go to New York; The Gilded Cage (staged as Love Dreams) opened October 10, 1920, and ran for forty performances; The Hummingbird (produced by Frank Egan) opened on January 15, 1923, and had forty-one performances; Seven Miles to Arden has no record of New York production; Slippery McGee was not produced in New York; and Wait 'Till We're Married opened September 26, 1921, and ran for fifty-six perform ances . 119 48The Rotters, The Times, March 3, 1920, III, 4. The Examiner, February 24, 1920, I, 10. The opening was a "society affair." 4^The play was advertised as "not the moving pic ture." Admission was at road-company prices, $2.50 top. A ball succeeded the opening night; Reid held receptions between the acts of the play. 48The Times, January 21, 1914, II, 7. 49For example, E. L. Doheny (The Belasco Theatre), A. G. Balch (The Hollywood Bowl), Harry Chandler of The Times, Charles Modini-Wood, H. W. Huntington, William Garland, etc. 88Nju, Henry Christian Warnack, The Times, Novem ber 2, 1916, II, 6. Ordynski, former assistant to Max Reinhardt, had also staged Macaire and Conscience. Gayle Shoup, "The Pasadena Community Playhouse: Its Origins and History from 1917 to 1942" (unpublished Doctoral Disserta tion, University of California, Los Angeles, 1968), pp. 53-54. ^ ■ ^ • Abraham and Isaac, Lawrence, The Examiner, March 23, 19 20, I, 11. 82Pole (aka Poel) was the nephew of William Pole, English scholar and producer of Shakespeare's plays in "the Elizabethan manner." Early in 1920 he had directed a production of Othello in Los Angeles. Throughout the decade he was associated with The Pilgrimage Play, appear ing as The Christus several times. In the spring of 1922, he directed and appeared in The Idiot in New York (April 17 and May 16, 1922), and the following year staged King Lear (March 9, 13, 1923). He was the ghost in Arthur Hopkins' production of Hamlet starring John Barrymore. ^^Rosmersholm, Schallert, The Times, November 10, 1920, III, 4. 54The Hummingbird, Lawrence, The Examiner, July 20, 1920, I, 10. ^ Slippery McGee, Schallert, The Times, December 27, 1920, II, 8. The Examiner, December 27, 1920, I, 6. 120 Critics noted the similarity to Alias Jimmy Valentine. C C Marry the Poor Girl, Schallert, The Times, November 30, 1920, III, 4. 57 The Times, December 5, 1901, I, 8, cited in Ruth Miriamrose Gartler, "A Historical Study of The Mason Opera House in Los Angeles" (unpublished Master's Thesis, Univer sity of California, 1966), pp. 12, 16-17. C Q The Times, March 8, 1902, II, 1. 59 The Times, June 14, 1903, IV, 2. c. n The Times, March 8, 1902, loc. cit. ^ The Times, June 14, 1903, loc. cit. See pictures in Gartler, op. cit., pp. 45-53. c 2 The Times, June 14, 1903, loc. cit. 6 3 Of the three productions which had opened in New York in 1920, Frivolities did sell-out business in Los Angeles; Mama's Affair, a Morosco production which had completed 98 performances in New York, arrived in Los Angeles with the entire New York cast; Breakfast in Bed featured a road company. 64 Stars headed Ladies First, Hitchy-Koo, Friendly Enemies, Three Faces East, Mis' Nelly of N'Orleans, Wedding Bells, Linger Longer Letty, Smi1in' Through, The Auction eer, and Mama's Affair. 65 The Auctioneer, Schallert, The Times, March 9, 1920, III, 4. Lawrence, The Examiner, March 9, 1920, I, 10. 6 6 Ladies First, Kingsley, The Times, March 30, 1920, III, 4. Friendly Enemies, The Examiner, May 4, 1920, I, 10. Mis' Nellie, Schallert, The Times, June 1, 1920, III, 4. Wedding Bells, Lawrence, The Examiner, June 8, 1920, I, 14. Smi1in' Through, The Times, July 27, 1920, III, 4. 6 7 Tiger Rose, Schallert (quotation), The Times, October 26, 1920, III, 4. Lawrence, The Examiner, October 26, 1920, I, 12.______________________________ 121 68Kingsley, The Times, April 20, 1920, III, 3. Vivian and Rosetta Duncan were in the cast. Their musical version of Uncle Tom's Cabin became one of the decade's hugh financial successes. ^8Hitchy-Koo, Kingsley, The Times, April 27, 1920, III, 4. Prices were increased to $3.00 for Hitchcock's and Post's shows. 78Chu-Chin-Chow, Kingsley, The Times, December 5, 1920, III, 1, 16. Schallert, The Times, December 14, 1920, III, 4. 71 /xSeven Miles to Arden, Lawrence (quotation), The Examiner, July 13, 1920, I, 10. Schallert, The Times, July 13, 1920, III, 4. 72Wait 'Till We're Married, Maude Cheatham, The Examiner, August 6, 1920, I, 10. ^ Mama's Affair, Schallert, The Times, August 17, 1920, III, 4. 7^Linger Longer Letty, The Examiner, June 22, 1920, I, 10. 78For a fuller history of The Auditorium, consult Henry A. Sutherland, "Requiem for the Los Angeles Philhar monic Auditorium," Southern California Quarterly, XLVIII (September, 1965), 319. 1 ft /0Unless otherwise indicated, all information is taken from Charles F. Whittlesley, "California's Largest Reinforced Concrete Building," The Architect and Engineer of California, IV (March, 1906), 19-27. 77Ibid., p. 22. 78Sutherland, op. cit., pp. 303-331. 78[Wilber Opera Company] The Examiner, July 13, 1920, I, 10. 88Julius Caesar, Warnack, The Times, May 20, 1916, II, 1. 122 81 The work had been adapted by Mrs. Georgina Jones Walton, of Hollywood. Edwin 0. Palmer, The History of Hollywood (Hollywood: Arthur H. Cawston, 1937), pp. 210-12. 82 Earl Homer Jones, Jr., "The History of the Pil grimage Play: 1920-29" (unpublished Master's Thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 1965), p. 26. go Ibid., pp. 35-36; 41-43, 49-50. He refers to an article in The Los Angeles Times of July 13, 1924, which said that she had spent between $75,000 and $100,000 of her own money on the project. The script contained four teen incidents and no crucifixion scene. 84 The Pxlgrimage Play, Schallert, The Times, June 29, 1920, II, 1, 12. Lawrence, The Examiner, June 29, 1920, I, 12. Consult Jones, op cit., for others. g c Richard Burton, "Theatre Activities in Southern California," Theatre Arts, IV (October, 1920), 346-47. 8 6 Marshall Breedon, The Romantic Southland of California (Los Angeles: The Kenmore Publishing Co., 1928), pp. 41-58, contains a lengthy synopsis of the play. 87 The Mission Play, Schallert, The Times, January 19, 1920, II, 12. The production played every afternoon and Wednesday and Saturday evenings. Prices ranged from $1.00 to $2.00. g g Golondrina, The Times, August 8, 1922, II, 2. Doris Anderson, The Examiner, August 9, 1922, I, 13. Variety, LXVII (August 11, 1922), 15. Reviews were usually written by the Variety representative in the particular city. 89 Othello, The Times, February 12, 1920, II, 7; February 18, 1920, III, 4; February 19, 1920, III, 4; Schallert, The Times, February 21, 1920, II, 9. 90 Interview included in Jones, op. cit., p. 91. The Times, February 12, loc cit., said at least one of the performances was a benefit for The Childrens' Hospital. 123 91 The Examiner, October 6, 1920, I, 14, said the deal cost approximately $250,000-$200,000. The plot was marked as 72'-0" on Broadway and 125'-0" on Hill Streets. Variety, LX (October 15, 1920), 14. The rumor of purchase had been heard during the summer when Billboard XXXII (July 24, 1920), 9 said that Erlanger had taken a purchase option. It also said that the lobby and foyer were large enough to hold a modern-built playhouse. 92 The Examiner, loc. cit. 9 3 At this time, local leaders were planning The Biltmore Hotel and an adjacent theatre. They had approached the Shuberts with the idea of directing it. Erlanger's announcement of a new theatre may have been a "flyer" to these local interests that he was interested in The Bilt more . CHAPTER IV THE HOLDING YEAR— 1921 More Than a Flash in the Pan Introduction In 1921, the one-time sleepy pueblo of "La Reina de Los Angeles," "stepped out on the ' Big Time1 circuit and definitely took her place among America's metropoli tan cities."^ On January 1, 1921, the city's population was given as 769,500 after the greatest tide of immigra tion known in the history of the country had descended upon Los Angeles, when more than 90,000 people had taken up residence in Los Angeles.2 Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr. looked at the burgeoning city and found that Los Angeles had one of the best-developed road systems in the country with 1,236 miles of paved streets within the city limits, accommodating more than 111,435 registered automobiles. The only city spared the Depression which followed World War I, by February, 1921, Los Angeles had increased her industrial output $400,000 ahead of the 1919 figure.2 124 125 Unemployment continued low, with an estimated one in every 140 unable to obtain work.4 To correct the impression that Los Angeles was only a winter resort for the wealthy few, a group of businessmen organized the All-Year Club, and on April 3, "Greater Southern California, Straight Ahead" was deemed a fitting topic for church-service homilies.^ Culturally as well as economically the city made strides. Dr. Robert A. Millikan was appointed director of The California Institute of Technology and Rufus B. Von- Kleinsmid became the new president of The University of Southern California. Voters approved a bond issue for the erection of a new central library and Henry E. Hunting ton purchased Gainsborough's "Blue Boy."6 In canvassing the attributes of the city which claimed to be "a modern Athens," S. Fred Hogue found that there were four major art museums in the city, which was also the home of a number of famous dancers, musical artists, painters, architects, and sculptors who found the area— if not al ways the residents— congenial to their work. In theatre, "The prominence which Los Angeles has attained as a dramat ic production center in the past few years has contributed toward attracting personalities of national prominence."^ 126 The year, however, was marked by extremes, ten sions, and a growing civic self-consciousness. Snow fell in Hollywood in early January and remained on the ground throughout the day. In May, the aurora borealis was visible. September recorded the hottest day in four years, while steady rains, which ended a long autumn drought, spurred flood conditions in December. Civic leaders, concerned that a false impression of the city might harm its image and its growth, denied that Los Angeles was a mecca for divorce seekings, pointing out that it was fourth after Reno, Dallas, and St. Louis.® However, it was not as simple a task to rid the city of its flourishing gambling establishments, and in late May, 1921, Rear Admiral Welles asked the Navy Department for permission and funds to clean up the vice of Los Angeles and to blockade the houses of prostitution, blind pigs, pokes, dens, and other unwanted operations along Spring Street. The Los Angeles Times which had exposed the situation intimated that the incumbent mayor knew of the "vice areas" and tolerated them.® On June 8, a new mayor, George Cryer, was elected and served for eight years, but moral laxity was uncovered in the Sheriff's office in March and the incumbent ousted for malfeasance. The 127 activities of the local Ku Klux Klan were investigated by the United States government in July.1® The regulation of auto traffic continued to be a problem, and in August, The Times reported that in the previous month there had been 2,404 automobile accidents, leaving twenty-five people dead and 550 injured.11 The suicide rate was shocking— 193 people had taken their lives by mid-October. The movie industry, still not an unduly welcome addition to the community, was shaken by the arrest of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle on manslaughter charges, giving added fodder to the censorship groups which were attempting to control salacious films. In later months, the murder of director William Desmond Taylor and the death of Wallace Reid from drug addiction kept these activities bubbling. The "travail" in tinseltown did not diminish until Will Hays put down his postman's cap and picked up the bull 12 horn. ^ Billy Sunday rivaled the beaches as a summer attrac tion, and one-piece bathing suits, smoking while floating in the ocean, Louise Glaum's "odd make-up— false eyelashes, and push skates (one long board with a leather toe clamp)— were less pressing concerns of the day. ■ — --------------------------r2^ Despite the "native-sons-of-Iowa" attitude toward amusements, the reluctance of local banks to offer finan cial assistance— particularly to the film industry— and the disastrous road conditions and high railroad costs which affected traveling road shows, the demand for entertain ment increased, and healthy conditions at the vaudeville houses, movie theatres, and legitimate theatres prompted the self-esteeming observation that "New York never had any more reputation than this, all of which must emphasize the fact that conditions in California, especially Los Angeles, are more than good. "-*-3 However, as S. Fred Hogue had sensitively perceived, "Los Angeles has hardly found its way culturally. The spirit is generally diffused among the people but it has not been symbolized."14 Background Despite the resurgence which theatre in Los Angeles evidenced in 1920, 1921 was a year of temporizing. The Majestic Theatre played a series of comedies and farces, and presented only one new work, which had been premiered earlier by The Pasadena Theatre-Gilmore Brown group. The Morosco Theatre continued its policy of light comedies which ran an average of five to six weeks, and m mounted no new plays. The Egan Theatre, on the whole, was unused, although it housed a few productions of literary works and new plays. The Mason Opera House continued to accommodate road-show companies, many of which stretched their engagements to two weeks. However, the theatre was dark for a total of thirteen weeks, eleven during the sum mer season. Yet, while the number of road shows dwindled, a newly-formed light opera company staged five works; Thomas Wilkes, lessee of The Majestic Theatre, revived Rip Van Winkle; and three new plays were introduced at this playhouse. The Philharmonic Auditorium served for a few revues and other musical attractions, including appearances by The San Carlo and Chicago Opera companies. Moreover, while activity at the downtown theatres was somewhat less than invigorating, two newly-formed organizations attempted to produce professional theatre away from the downtown district. Both were offered at the recently-completed Ambassador Hotel: the first, under the direction of Frank Egan, lasted eight weeks; and the second, "a society project," continued for eighteen weeks. In addition, The Hollywood Community Theatre, under the direction of Neely Dickson, presented a full season of' one-act and full-length plays, until eviction from their m reconverted bowling alley curtailed their activities. Three Shakespearean plays were staged at the Hollywood Bowl, The Pilgrimage Play entered its second year, and The Mission Play opened its tenth season. Discussion of Theatrical Activity The Mason Opera House The season at The Mason Opera House in 1921 was a meager one. Yet, in this fallow field, there was a modest harvest. Of the twelve offerings, seven remained for two- week stays, and seven were headed by stars of the New York company. Moreover, The Beggar's Opera company remained intact on its cross-country tour, and Marjorie Rambeau, popular star, played a two-week engagement.^ Further, of these twelve shows, at least half were productions of the past New York season (1920-21), plus three from the previ ous year. Two other earlier offerings were long-run suc cesses finally playing the road (East Is West and Irene, each with more than 650 performances). There was also a slightly more even distribution of kinds of entertainment offered, for although musical productions continued to dominate the calendar (13 weeks), there were five weeks of comedy and ten weeks of plays (drames). There was still a _ r^x prejudice in favor of American authors among these road- company presentations, particularly playwrights of popular fare (Mapes, Collier, and others), but plays by John Gay, Dion Boucicault, and James Barrie were also aired, and a Shakespearean repertory was presented. The year at The Mason Opera House opened and closed with two two-week appearances of Robert Mantell in Hamlet, As You Like It, Richard III, Macbeth, The Mer chant of Venice, Julius Caesar, King Lear, and Richelieu. Among these many and varied roles, Mantell's characteriza tion of Lear and Louis were deemed the triumph of his art: For sheer, powerful dramatic interpretation, Mantell has scarcely an equal. With marvelous skill and rare understanding, he gives his audi ence intimate views of this decadent monarch [Louis XI] in his intriguing, his plots and his flashes of almost insane rage.16 Between this auspicious opening of the new year and May, 1921, there was a scarcity of stimulating fare, al though a modicum of interesting performances. May Robson, whose appearance in Los Angeles signalled the commencement of the new year for the next several seasons, romped through a matriarchal fixit role in Alan Dale's new comedy, 17 Nobody1s Fool. Helen Menken created a heart-warmxng glow (to the tune of $28,000 in two weeks) in the senti mental comedy, Three Wise Fools, and Marjorie Rambeau, who _____ T7Z had first appeared at The Burbank Theatre in Los Angeles in 1910, in Oliver Morosco's production of Merely Mary Ann, rose above the inocuousness of The Sign on the Door— "a sort of combination of all the melodramas which Pollock ever viewed," with a performance "That is very fine indeed I"18 Then, on May 9, 1921, Mary Nash made her first appearance in Los Angeles. The play. Thy Name Is Woman, was a New York success (127 performances) not yet seen in Chicago. Miss Nash's performance garnered comparisons to Sarah Bernhardt, and the play was accorded high praise— "one of the greatest opportunities of the season to wit- 19 ness excellent acting and splendid playwriting." Unfor tunately, the drama about a lieutenant who tricks a young wife into betraying her smuggler-husband (he subsequently kills the woman) was too remote and stark to be popular— especially since it appeared at the rear of a four-month clutch of comedies, romances, and musical melanges. It grossed only $7,500 in its one-week sojourn. Notwithstanding this poor showing, the majority of plays which followed (road shows) exhibited a flavor ing of eclat in subject matter and style, and a thread of serious thought, and all were enacted by stars of caliber. 133 There were exceptions, however, for which no logical reason could be advanced. Willie Collier at the head of a mediocre cast mugged his way through The Hottentot, and audiences "loved it" ($12,000 in one week): Possibly Mr. Collier judged his audience's sense of humor from his experience in the "custard pie cinema" of six years since and doesn't know that quite a few Los Angeles folk are accustomed to table linens and know that a trophy cup isn't an ash tray or a cuspidor.20 However, in June, Ruth Chatterton and most of the New York company arrived in Los Angeles with Mary Rose, two months after its New York closing and prior to its Chicago exposure. Her performance in the whimsical drama 21 was compared to Maude Adams. Henry Miller with Blanche Bates paid their first call of the decade upon the city, and while The Famous Mrs. Fair was thought a bit passe (it was one of the 1919- 20 Best Plays), the reputation of the actors drew large audiences ($40,000 in two weeks at a $3.00 top). Until his death in the spring of 1926, Henry Miller used San 22 Francisco and Los Angeles as tryout towns for new plays. Fay Bainter's performance was also deemed superior to her material which, together with exotic settings, camouflaged the evanescence of East Is West.^ ________ Of the musical fare offered during this year, two T 3 7 musical comedies appealed because of their "hummable" tunes, Cinderella-based stories, and glowing performances by their leading ladies: Mary, with Mary Zender, and Irene, with Dale Winter. Toward the end of the year, one of the most delectable treats was offered to Los Angeles theatre goers— an English production of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera. It aroused encomiums: Oh, bedroom farce! where is thy snap? Oh, Follies and Revues galore, where is thy dash? Pale and timorous indeed are the jests and situations in these latter-day naughtiness of the stage compared with the daring with which our forefathers were beguiled. (The Examiner) . . . it is so beautifully done, so tuneful, so artistic down to the slightest gesture of the least important actor . . . . . . except for the charm of the opera itself, no feature of the production is so conspicuous as this evenness and perfection of finish down to the last detail.(The Times) Whether the production met with popular response is difficult to gage although the company did return after touring the coast to play an extra week in December, and « the posters announcing the production became cherished items. In the midst of this small number of road-show presentations (and perhaps because of their small number), - _ _ T75 four locally-inspired projects were given a hearing— two new plays, a repertoire of light opera, and a revival of Rip Van Winkle. The Timber Wolf was a new melodrama by Ernest Bishop, staged as a benefit. Although the critics recognized the limitations of the play, they felt that a new author of promise had been heard.25 Maude Fulton also offered a new work, Sonny, but other than the leading character which allowed the actress a role of pathos, whimsy, and humor, the play was 26 not a contender for further production. Much more ambitious in its scope, its organization, and its goals was the light opera company which W. G. Stewart, former director with Henry Savage, formed in March, 1921. In their first effort, although swamped by the city-wide advertising for the incoming engagement of The Chicago Opera Company, and without support from the 27 "local 400," the group found an encouraging response. Thus, when space became available at The Mason Opera House 2 8 in May, they staged The Firefly and The Mikado. On the strength of this moderate success, the company leased The Mason for four more weeks in July, but this time the lilt ing tunes of The Fortune Teller were absorbed by the upholstered seats, and the engagement was terminated after 136 two weeks.^ The company continued to be minimally active throughout the year, and in 1927 William Stewart assumed a short-term lease on The Vine Street Theatre for a produc tion of The Geisha Girl. Thomas Wilkes's willingness to explore types of theatrical fare other than that which might prove commer cially successful was manifested by his production of Rip Van Winkle, starring Frank Keenan. Thomas J. Jeffer son allowed the use of his father's script (the first time the work was being staged by anyone other than a member of the Jefferson family),^° which incorporated Joseph Jefferson's blocking and interpretation, and also permitted the utilization of his father's costumes and properties. He himself supervised the production. Al though enhanced by the spectacle which modern stagecraft and technology make possible, the revival nevertheless made it clear that the play was too long and the action too slow. The acting of the star and his cast were praised, even if one reviewer felt that Keenan missed the mark by being "too hard." Following its one-week engagement, Wilkes sent the production on tour along the coast but it did not fare well. ^ With the 1921 season, one is able to see more 137 clearly the symbiotic relationship between the national theatrical scene and The Mason Opera House. Although more road companies played two-week engagements, it is arguable whether this was the result of growing interest in legiti mate theatre in Los Angeles or a reflection of constricted conditions in New York and on the road which dictated that road companies "linger" for two weeks. Unlike the healthy conditions in Los Angeles, the country as a whole was suf fering from a post-War recession. In New York, theatres remained untenanted— fifteen of forty-five houses were dark in September, 1921— and by early spring, 1922, the 33 season had ended abruptly. In Los Angeles, the re stricted situation was admitted in mid spring, 1921, when The Times announced that many shows scheduled for The Mason had been cancelled. W. H. Wyatt, the theatre's manager blamed the drying up of one-night stops en route to Los Angeles which no longer booked legitimate presenta tions . ^ Edwin Schallert saw in the constrained conditions an opportunity for Los Angeles to originate its own pro ductions (new works or New York plays), and observed that "the play fever [unexplained] is running high hereabouts 35 at the present." There were obvious handicaps to the 138 achievement of this ambition. The first was the lack of playhouses— "The lack of theatres is the only thing that prevents one or two new stock companies from springing into existence." The second was the scarcity of new scripts, the unwillingness of proven playwrights to offer their plays to western producers, and/or the limited contact with New York producers who might have approved a coast production of a New York property. The third handicap was the hesitancy of any civic, social, or professional leader or group to step forth and actively support a theatre organization— whether a commercial enterprise or an "art theatre" project. In these early years (1921-1925), the critical years in terms of the development of the theatre, civic and social leaders were immersed in building up the reputation of the city as an industrial center and a city of homes and homeowners; in creating a year-around tourist haven; and in meeting the needs of the mushrooming population. Support of the arts was left to individuals, several of whom supported the fine arts, particularly painting and architecture, some of whom brought The Pil grimage Play, the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Concerts, and The Hollywood Community Theatre into existence, but no one of whom invested in theatrical projects as did, for 139 example, Otto Kahn in New York City, or Sam Insull in Chicago. Finally, as a fourth handicap, an atmosphere of distrust, directed largely toward the movie industry, may have encompassed, indirectly, the local theatre as well, inhibiting those interested in producing. The Majestic Theatre and Thomas Wilkes Following the successful fourteen-week run of Booth Tarkington's Clarence, The Majestic Theatre Stock company settled down to a comfortable season of light \ comedies and melodramas (five of which were on view for the first time in the city), and presented only one new work. Among the plays new to Los Angeles were the court room melodrama, The Acquittal, by Rita Weisman; Rachel Crothers' 39 East, a comedy of country youth in New York; The "Ruined" Lady, a romantic comedy about a young woman who tires of her eight-year engagement; My Lady Friends, a farcical comedy of a philanthropist who directs his for tune earned by selling Bibles toward four young women (later musicalized as No, No, Nanette); and The Wonderful Thing, a comedy drama of a husband who discovers that he loves his wife. - Regardless of the kind of play presented, however, the versatility and growing popularity of Edward Everett Horton, Frank Pangborn, Mary Newcomb, and Sara Sothern, plus other members of the company, confirmed the opinion that this troupe was becoming the constant and major con tributor to the theatrical life of the city. Horton's work— its variety, flexibility and grow ing subtlety— were noted in each production, but he walked away with the chief honors as the newspaperman in The Acquittal; invested Wedding Bells with a pep and subtlety which compared favorably to the road-company stars (M. Lawrence and W. Eddinger); sparkled with sureness as a dull young man in The "Ruined" Lady; distinguished himself as the superficially-colorless husband in Wonderful Thing; and created a classicly droll impersonation as Sam Harrington, the horse-shy lover with the same name as a famous jockey in The Hottentot.^ With the addition of Mary Newcomb, the ensemble work of the company became a recognized asset.Although the actress's first appearance aroused no jubilation, as her work matured she gradually lived up to such descrip tions as "brilliant," and "sparkles."99 Moreover, both Sara Sothern, ingenue, and Frank Pangborn, garnered their 141 share of praise for their skillfulness and sincerity.4® While the company enhanced its reputation as a polished versatile ensemble, the year was notable for the presentation of only one new work— Marian Wightman's Peter, a Pasadena prize play. Miss Wightman, a scenario writer for the Thomas Ince film studios, reworked the play for its professional premiere and Thomas Wilkes engaged Robert Edeson as guest star. The critics credited it with "inviting possibilities," and it was treated to a four-week try out at The Majestic, but the play was not produced in New York City, although Thomas Wilkes had announced such plans. 4^ Thus, 1921 may be summed up in the words "conven tional" and "smoothly professional." In fifty-two weeks, nine comedies filled forty-four weeks, only The Acquittal and Peter qualifying as drames or melodramas. Of these works, nine had opened in New York during the 1919-20 season, and only Turn to the Right was a product of a pre war season. Interestingly, this latter work and The "Ruined" Lady had the longest runs of the year— six weeks each. Turn to the Right, advertised as "the greatest comedy since 'The Old Homestead,"' succeeded because it was a wholesome domestic comedy of reformed prison inmates, 142 mortgaged farms, and lovely young women, and received a spirited, individualized, natural production (acting, directing, and setting).^ The "Ruined" Lady sustained a long engagement in part because it brought Edward Everett Horton back from vacation, and in part because of lack of any competition (only The Morosco Theatre was open, and its production had been on the boards all summer). ^ With The Majestic Theatre solidly established in Los Angeles, Thomas Wilkes turned his attention to his 44 other companies in Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Denver. He also established a group in Sacramento,^ made plans to branch out into Honolulu,^ and undertook to expand his holdings in San Francisco.^ More importantly, during the presentation of Rip Van Winkle, he announced that he intended to establish a western center (Los Angeles and San Francisco) "for repertoire [sic] productions and current New York successes which eastern managers refused to send A 8 west because of the expenses entailed.1 ” A slightly dif ferent and more correct version was released by Michael Corpor, manager of The Majestic, who stated that Wilkes planned (1) to use the theatre to house a stock company and to stage premieres, possibly with a star engaged for 49 the production and (2) to tour shows. To carry these 143 ambitions forward, Wilkes began negotiating for a contact with a New York producer through whom he might obtain coast rights to eastern successes and for whom and with whom he would try out new plays as potential Broadway material. In addition, Thomas Wilkes or his brother, Alfred, also sought to lease a Broadway theatre as an out- 50 let for works produced in the west. The Morosco Theatre and Oliver Morosco By comparison with the previous year, the theatre season at The Morosco was undistinguished. Only eight plays were staged, six of which were romantic comedies with happy endings and a touch of optimistic philosophy about the goodness of humanity. Only Three Faces East, a spy melodrama, and Happiness, a drame, broke out of the mold. Excluding The Gilded Cage, which had opened in 1920, all the plays ran at least five weeks, with Daddies and A Tailor-Made Man filling eleven weeks each, and Adam and Eva playing for nine weeks. Of the plays selected, however, all had played more than 150 performances in New York and five of them were popular favorites with runs of more than 300 performances, thus furthering the conclusion that the Morosco Theatre was a playhouse devoted to proven 144 successes of plays of ready comprehensibility. Daddies, seen in Los Angeles for the first time, enjoyed its lengthy run on the strength of its push-button- warming story— a bachelor club adopts war orphans, one of whom turns out to be an attractive young woman, and the ingratiating performance of Henry Duffy. Adam and Eva, an American comedy which followed immediately after Daddies, ran for nine weeks. It was the first viewing in the city of the popular Best Play of 1919-20 (385 performances). Three Faces East, a mystery melodrama which usually found favor at this theatre, was a "boner," "whose produc tion did not tally with the usual Morosco standards— lines incompletely memorized, poor attack, indifferent acting, wobbly scenery." It was judiciously avoided by the 51 patrons. A lethargy affected most of the remainder of the season. A Tailor-Made Man, in spite of indifferent attend ance at the opening, ran for eleven weeks throughout the summer of 1921. Happiness, by J. Hartley-Manners, a superior work in the Barrie vein, taxed the understanding and capabilities of the company— they "labored efficiently to make it go. Only toward the end of the year was the company 145 able to arouse renewed vitality and interest with G. M. Cohan's A Prince There Was, proving themselves capable of shaded performances and ensemble acting in a play whose message about "the redeeming power of love" was seasonally timely.54 The Morosco Theatre went about its theatrical business during 19 21 without the supervision of the man who had given it his name. Oliver Morosco, beset by personal and financial problems, did not return to Los Angeles. In September, 1919, Mrs. Oliver Morosco had sued him for separate maintenance and had asked to have him prevented from disposing of any property in which she had an inter est.55 Regardless of these personal difficulties— and perhaps because of them— Morosco expanded his professional and business activities. In July, 1920, just about the time that he and Mrs. Morosco were seeking a settlement, he announced the formation of Oliver Morosco Productions, Inc., capitalized at $2,500,000 with himself as president, George R. Bentel, owner of the Ascot Speedway in Los Angeles, as vice-president, and Frank Egan as secretary- treasurer. The corporation was formed to produce plays and films, and to erect a new theatre building in Los Angeles. 146 A year later it was made known that Morosco had reached a settlement with his estranged wife for a reported sum of $249,000, with the agreement that he would purchase the Morosco Theatre in Los Angeles from her for approximately $150,000.5(5 Just about that time (March, 1921), he incor porated Moroscotown— a grandiose scheme to build a film studio-Greenwich Village complex on a twenty-acre site at 57 Western and Melrose Avenues in Hollywood. Then Morosco consolidated all of his holdings— current and future stage and film productions as well as theatrical real estate in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other cities, under the name of The Morosco no Holding Company (capitalized at $11,500,000). The action led to the collapse of The Morosco empire. The Egan Theatre and Frank Egan In common with other theatres in Los Angeles, the theatrical year at The Egan was sparse, consisting of the presentation of two literary dramas, two new works, and a revival of a Booth Tarkington play with juvenile movie star, Wesley Barry. The two literary works featured much of the same personnel who had brought two Ibsen plays to The Egan stage in 1920. Reginald Pole, Olga Gray Zacsek, 147 Juan de la Cruz, Victor Rodman, Catherine Henry, and Charlotte Hamer presented a one-week engagement of Hedda Gabler, but while their commitment was deemed admirable their production failed to be freshly illuminating or pertinent. This was probably due in some part to the dis parity of acting styles, for while the men were praised for their restraint and skillful interpretations, both Miss Zacsek and Miss Henry, as Hedda and Mrs. Elvsted, 59 overemphasized effects and strained for emotionalism. Pole, Zacsek, and de la Cruz also appeared in a spring production of Maeterlinck's Monna Vanna, directed by Hedwiga Reicher. Offered at four matinee performances in early March, the offering aroused sufficient interest so that it was extended for another full week, plus a special matinee on April 6 for The Chicago Opera Company troupe, whose Los Angeles program included the operatic version with Mary Garden in the title role.*’0 In between these two literary adventures, Frank Egan offered three productions— Wesley Barry in his stage C. I debut and two new plays. It is uncertain whether the new plays were properties optioned by Egan himself or whether they had been considered by Oliver Morosco and turned over to Egan when his affairs became complicated by 148 other interests and outside individuals. Always Tell the Truth, by Augustin MacHugh, was a mixed-up farce-drama about the problem of getting along with one's in-laws which aspired to "Shavian satire, the epigrammatical aptness of Wilde and the philosophy of Nietzsche," and achieved only tiresome platitudes and artificial conven- r 9 tions. Some interest in the production derived from the appearance of May Collins, who at the time was Charlie Chaplin's fiancee. Under the title, True to Form, the play was presented in New York by The Actors' Repertory Theater, Inc., on September 12, 1921, and ran for fifteen performances. The Kangaroo, by Victor Mapes, was a mystery-comedy about two aviators whose hasty landing coincides with the anticipated arrival of two detectives. Neely Edwards and Russell Simson brought two weeks of good business to a play bandaged together with types, which unravelled to a dull ending.^ One other production staged at The Egan Theatre, although not sponsored by the owner of the playhouse, gave credence to Edwin Schallert's statement that there was keen interest in play producing in the city. A group of actors— Edwin Schallert called them old troupers— 1 4 9 including Florence Stone, Vesey O'Davoren, Zeffie Tilbury, Lawrence Grant, and others, had organized themselves as The Caravan Players (later changed to The Vagabond Play ers) and offered Henry Arthur Jones's Mrs. bane's Defense. It evoked praise but had to vacate the theatre because of 64 the scheduled opening of the MacHugh play. Throughout the next month, the group lived up to its name, playing in communities around Los Angeles. On May 20 and 21, 1921, at The Trinity Auditorium, it gave its second program, consisting of a musical introduction, and The Valiant, by Holsworthy Hall and Robert Middlemas, a drama of a con demned criminal's refusal to admit his identity to his sister. The unsettling impact of the play conveyed through the restrained emotionalism of the acting created C C a provocative evening m the theatre. J Thus, the second year of The Twenties at The Egan Theatre resembled another innovation of this decade, for it was like a cafeteria of dramatic fare: two classics, a popular play with a movie star, two new plays— a comedy and a mystery— and one drama. The Philharmonic Auditorium The use of the Philharmonic Auditorium for theatri cal productions reflected the general scarcity of road-show 150 companies. Only two musical revues appeared at the theatre between January and October— The Greenwich Village Follies and Sinbad, with Al Jolson. The auditorium did accommodate, however, The San Carlo Opera, The Chicago Opera, and the early efforts of The California Light Opera. While Greenwich Village Follies admirably encom passed the entertainment wishes of most viewers, it was Sinbad with its gorgeous spectacle and above all the joy ful songs and humor of Al Jolson to which Angelenoes flocked. Variety estimated that the production grossed $45,000 in its two-week stay.^^ In between these two extravaganzas, The Philharmon ic housed no theatrical productions, except occasional benefits, local revues, and a minstrel show. Fanchon and Marco's Sun-Kist arrived in November and its topical appeal— it centered upon an oil king who becomes a movie producer— insured some interest. Finally, in December, Comstock and Gest's "fantasy-orgy," Aphrodite (complete with camel), "light on the mind and low on the waist line," compensated in some ways for the drought.®^ The year closed with Cluck-Cluck, a passable show which caught the audience's fantasy because it reached the city despite 6 8 flood-demolished roads. 151 Theatre at The Ambassador Hotel and The Hollywood Community Theatre While professional theatre in the central city of Los Angeles settled down to a predictable status, artis tically more exciting ventures were fulminating in outly ing regions. Two projects, both presented and enacted by profes sional actors and directors, were housed in the recently- opened Ambassador Hotel, but only the second could be said to fit into the broad outlines of the little theatre con cept. As was true in most major metropolises in the years before World War I, Los Angeles had experienced an urge to experiment with playwrights whose vision of life extended beyond or beneath the superficial realities of existence, and whose means of expression was original and frequently as anarchistic as those of composers, painters, and danc ers. In the fall of 1916, Aline Barnsdall had sponsored a short-lived art theatre at The Egan (not known by that name at the time), which had opened two years earlier. Lack of interest and constrained financial support, the vitality of experimental theatre activity in other parts of the country, the dispersal of manpower, and the shifting interests brought on by the commencement of the World War 152 temporarily curtailed these activities. With the cessation of combat, the cut-back plant ings began to green again and were joined by new growths. In the Los Angeles area, numerous groups sprang up, with The Hollywood Community Theatre and The Pasadena Playhouse receiving the attention of national chroniclers. However, besides these two, there were The Ambassador Theatre Play ers and The Harlequin Little Theatre, plus numerous others.^ The Ambassador Theatre Players The Ambassador Theatre Players were the first legitimate spoken drama group "to play" the 800-seat Ambas sador Theatre, intended primarily as a premiere house for First National films shown twice daily at $2.00 admission, which had opened on February 5, 1921, with the film, Passion. By the end of the month, Variety was reporting that the project was a flop with "big pictures" because the millionaire clientele for whom the hotel was intended were reluctant to pay the increased admission price (regardless of the outstanding prologs which accompanied the individual films), and the "middle-class" stayed away because of the 71 "deluxe establishment" reputation. As a result, the lessees changed their program— a few orchestral selections, 153 a feature film preceded by a suitable entr1acte (prolog), and a one-act play. There were two film showings daily (top price of $1.50, all seats reserved), with The Ambas sador Players appearing nightly and on Tuesday and Friday afternoons. The company was drawn from the local stage and 7 2 cinema talent, and was directed by Frank Egan. The restrictions of the undertaking limited its chances of success. All of the plays were one-acts, and all but the last were comedic or melodramatic in tone. The company opened on March 21, 1921, with Fancy Free, a satire on marriage, but the production lacked finish, possibly because of the haste with which it had been organ- 7 * 3 ized. J By the second week, a sureness marked the com pany headed by Helen Jerome Eddy, Gaston Glass, and Pat Calhoun, and The Claw overwhelmed the shallowness and antiseptic suggestiveness of the film, Scrambled Wives: The success of the one-act drama at the Ambas sador Theater was finally assured last night when "The Claw" made one of the most notable hits in local dramatic history. . . . the one-act drama, with its appeal of the spoken voice, the tense and colorful situations, and the thrilling situations, . . . will undoubted ly make a profound appeal to every spectator . . . ^ But the following week, The Vacuum, a gruesome melodrama evoked laughter from the audience because of its 154 drawn-out crisis and the declamatory, overemotional acting 7 ^ of the group. 3 Thereafter, the play offerings slipped into low,and not until The Clock, by Robert S. Courtney, did the company find itself. The drama, set in a lonely farmhouse people by three brothers, one of whom is a blind deaf mute, and a sister, examined the psychological deterioration of individuals, and was played with effective reserve. The Examiner thought that it ranked as "probably the best achievement of the Ambassador Theater dramatic organization thus far."77 The new-found certainty arrived too late for, fol lowing the production of The Secret Way, the management discontinued the one-act plays, allegedly only for the 7 f t summer.' The Harlequin Little Theatre Three months after the dispersal of The Ambassador Players, the Los Angeles newspapers announced the revital ization of the theatre with a drama group known as The Harlequin Little Theater (sometimes also known as The Little Harlequin Theatre). Unlike The Ambassador Theater Players, The Harlequin was not a hastily-organized stop gap undertaking, nor was it part of a grab bag of 155 entertainment. Rather it seems likely that this was the earliest attempt in this decade to organize a subscription theatre dedicated to the evocation of representative plays by the great playwrights of the past and present. The board was directed by Mrs. R. D. Shepherd, a former actress known as Odette Taylor; Mrs. Caroline E. Smith, personal representative of W. A. Clark, Jr., patron of The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and director of the activi ties of the Philharmonic Auditorium; and Mrs. Charles Jaffras, social director of the hotel, who announced that a twenty-six week season of plays by Barrie, Shaw, Pinero, Hauptman, Galsworthy, and others was to be presented by professional actors.Monday and Friday evenings were reserved for subscription patrons, with individual admis sion set at $1.50.®® The embryonic endeavor became a reality on Monday evening, November 7, 1921, with three one-act plays: Roses, by Suderman, Barbara, by K. S. Goodman, and A Night in the Inn, by Dunsany. Before a distinguished crowded house, the company displayed its aptitude, versatility, finesse, and charm.Three more series of one-act plays were offered but, despite the professional status of the company and the deceptive ease of mounting shorter plays, the 33^ Harlequin Little Theatre showed signs that it was moving too quickly and had not yet agreed upon the theatrical territory they wished to explore. The Queen1s Message (November 21 bill) was a creaky and obvious melodrama; The Bathroom Door (November 28 bill) not only provoked exaggerated portrayals but seemed more appropriate as a vaudeville skit. Greater care in the choice of material was not the only necessity. Hasty casting placed many actors in the same kind of role in successive plays only Q O serving to emphasize their personal mannerisms. Finally, on December 5, 1921, The Little Harlequin Theatre essayed its first full-length play, Candida, with Mary Forbes in the title role, J. A. Smythe as Morrell, and James Young as Marchbanks. The Shavian delight was greeted with restrained but warm response— "an extremely comprehensive presentation," "very acceptably performed"— Q *5 and all the actors garnered favorable notice. Still committed to a weekly change, the group then mounted its only frivolous fare of the 1921 offerings, The Marriage of Kitty, a prebedroom comedy of the "explan ation era," staged during the previous year at both the Mason and Majestic theatres. For some reason, the company had had only four days to prepare the show, and as a 157 result, "characterizations went to the bow-wows" while the O A actors searched for lines. Finally, a month and a half after its inception, The Harlequin Little Theatre found itself, and the work of the company was marked by an evenness and an excitement in performance and a sureness of play choice, which included one new work and plays by Crothers, Ibsen, Shakespeare, Shaw, and Sheridan.85 The new play was a three-act drama about the double standard, The Flaming Moment, by Maude Moore Clement. It contained believable female characters, a novel point of view, and a powerful climax, but was weakened by its vapid male characters and a penchant for platitudinous polemic.88 Of greater merit and providing considerably greater opportunity for the company were the productions of A Doll's House, The Merchant of Venice, School for Scandal, and Arms and the Man. A new leading man, Craig Ward, joined the company for Ibsen's play and his performance as Torvald "transcended the possibility of losing audience sympathy." Although Mary Forbes realized Nora with enthusiasm, The Examiner critic thought her better suited for more stately roles. These small disagreements not withstanding, the reviewer concluded that the production 158 was "as heroic an effort as the present reviewer remembers o 7 having seen in years." On January 9, 1922, the company presented its first Shakespearean production, The Merchant of Venice, and critical opinion was generously complimentary of the Elizabethan style of staging and the acting. The run was 8 8 extended for two weeks. School for Scandal, the next production, although uneven and impaired by some inappropriate acting, also ran for two weeks: It was the Harlequin’s most interesting produc tion, though not its best. . . . On the whole, this production of "The School for Scandal" is true art for art's sake, and de serves the attention of those who value an earnest effort to do something genuine against great ob stacles. And, of course, the play itself is, as it has always been, superlatively brilliant. ° Only four more productions remained for this organization— a one-week run of Shaw's Arms and the Man, two weeks of A Pair of Silk Stockings, a successful comedy of the 1914-15 New York season, Rachel Crother's The Three of Us, and Othello. The unevenness in caliber among these four plays may have been dictated by the weekly-fortnightly change of program which probably necessitated an occasional "breather." It is also quite possible that audiences 15? preferred the popular "American" plays for, while the com pany was praised in all four productions, The Times reviewer observed that audience attendance was better at A Pair of Silk Stockings than at any other show since The 90 Harlequin commenced in November. The final presentation of The Harlequin Theatre opened on March 6, 1922. In their eighteenth week, the company mounted Othello with R. D. MacLean as the Moore, Mary Forbes as Desdemona, Charles A. Smiley as Brabantio, Caroline Cook as Emilia, James Neill as Cassio, John Macfarland as Iago, and Priscilla Wilde as Biana. The Times commented favorably on MacLean's ability to synthe size his heroic training and experience successfully with the more modern inner psychological realism. Mary Forbes was credited with giving her best local performance and, on the whole, it was accounted a fitting conclusion for 91 the company. ' Within the week, The Times announced that, as of March 24, 1922, the theatre would revert to the showing of films.92 Notwithstanding the brevity of this venture, in its eighteen-week existence, The Harlequin Little Theatre dramatized four weeks of one-act plays and fourteen weeks 160 of full-length dramatizations, including two plays by Shaw and Shakespeare, and one each by Crothers, Ibsen, and Sheridan. Altogether, these five playwrights filled nine Q O weeks of the season, or exactly one half. Why then did it subsist for only one season? In the first place, psychologically, it seemed incorrect for the particular clientele of the hotel— primarily tourists whose exclusiveness was based upon money. This reputation, actual or perceived, kept the theatre from reaching a broader-based (or different-based) audience. Realistically, there was little reason to assume that the hotel clientele would give its transient support to a literary-oriented theatre. In the second place, historically, there was lit tle precedent in the area for a subscription theatre with a weekly change of fare. In the third place, geographi cally, The Harlequin Theatre was removed from the downtown district with its established amusement center or other entertainment complexes along the beach or developing in Hollywood. Moreover, transportation was not easily effected, the automobile probably being the most direct and recommended form— not one available to every theatre- lover. Decentralized theatre had been undertaken previ ously but always on a community-theatre level. This undertaking was one of the earliest, if not the first, attempt to establish a professional theatre in a newly- developing region of the city. And finally, in the fourth place, intrinsic factors also proscribed the success of the project. The attempt to stage a new program weekly seems incredible, if not utterly foolhardy. The demands on the acting talents of the company (whether a repertory company or by-production) were immense; the financial out lay must have been staggering. The reason for this policy remains unexplained. The perceptual framework of the directors may be one answer; that is, they may have per ceived the Harlequin Little Theatre in the framework of current stock company practices and road-show engagements which changed fare every week as a general rule. They may have felt constrained to compete with the movie theatre history of the theatre or may have thought that this was the only way to handle a playhouse in a neighbor hood location. Financially, it may have been less expen sive to mount a production on a weekly or fortnightly basis and keep the theatre occupied than to present an occasional show with the theatre remaining dark in between engagements. And just possibly, the weekly change of bill may T6T have been dictated by the small group supporting the project. An open-ended engagement might have found the theatre empty after two or three weeks. Regardless of the reasons, the choice was artistic ally depleting. The Hollywood Community Theatre While The Little Harlequin Theatre was an out growth of the interest in "art theatres" which blossomed after World War I and may be viewed as an emulation of such eastern organizations as The Theatre Guild, The Hollywood Community Theatre was a manifestation of the effluence of artistic forces which converged just prior to and during the War. The theatre was founded by one talented, energetic, indomitable (perhaps somewhat daffy) woman— Neely Dickson. Miss Dickson had studied theatre in America, Europe, and the Orient and had taught at The University of California at Berkeley. Upon her return to Hollywood, she prevailed upon her friends and their acquaintances, most of whom had no previous experience in theatre, and together they raised $3,000 toward the establishment of The Hollywood Community Theatre, intended as 163 . . . a blending of the best . . . a little theatre that toes the mark in everything but in nothing steps over the line . . . a community theatre for the community, of the community, and by the commu nity.94 An unused bowling alley at 1742 North Ivar Street in Hollywood was leased, with the members of the committee (headed by John H. Moulton and Shepard Mitchell) under writing the first year's rent. The building measured thirty-five by eighty feet on the outside and was divided in the following manner: fifteen feet for a small box office, foyer, administration room, and coat room; forty- five feet for an auditorium which seated between 194 and 200; and a thirty-foot wide by twenty-foot deep stage. The entrance was reached through a lattice-and-lantern-hung pergola but, because the rear of the lot sloped downward, access to the stage from the dressing-room cottage at the rear was effected by two long flights of stairs.^ Wooden chairs lent by local merchants for the run of each produc tion were replaced in the 1919-1920 season by upholstered seats. For the first part of the opening season, all chairs were on one level, after which the eight rows at the rear were elevated on a platform.^® From the beginning, the theatre was supported by the community. Merchants lent folding chairs, a piano; 164 interior decorating was achieved "at cost"; actors, direc tors, designers worked without salary; the press recorded the events with editorializing pride; and the Board of 97 Education urged teachers to attend productions. The opening bill consisted of four one-act plays, one of which, Food, was performed by actors under contract at The Lasky Studios. Although this contingent contrib uted to the popularity of the Hollywood Community Theatre, the "presence of professional actors was never considered by the originators of The Hollywood Community Theatre as being of any particular significance in relation to the success of the undertaking," for Neely Dickson's goal was g o to involve amateurs in productions of good one-act plays. At the end of its first season, The Hollywood Community Theatre had mounted twenty-two one-act plays for a total of twenty-four nights, had played to an attendance of 4,500, had paid all its debts, and recorded*a profit of $100." By 1919-20 each of the six presentations played for two weeks, the list of contributing members had increased to 160, and the season's ticket list represented names from all of Southern California. The fourth production of the third season opened on February 2, 1920, 165 and offered two one-act plays not yet seen in Los Angeles— The Green Scarf by K. S. Goodman and For Distinguished Service by F. C. Knox— included professional actors and designers from the legitimate stage and films, and was judged "a brilliant general effort."10' 1 ' The March program also featured one-act plays, but the final production in April introduced Clare Rummer's whimsical comedy about a sated millionaire and his neglected wife, A Successful Calamity. Unusually well cast and delightfully performed, the announced two-week run was extended for an additional week.102 In its fourth season, The Hollywood Community Theatre increased its prices (season, $6.00; individual, $1.50), lengthened the engagement of productions, offered more full-length plays than evenings of one-acts, and increasingly incorporated the professional actor into the presentations. The first bill featured three one-act plays— Poor Old Jim, a satire on spiritualistic affairs by Wil liam C. DeMille; Half an Hour, by James Barrie, seen for the first time on the coast; and Rider of Dreams, by Ridgely Torrence, "a dramatic sketch about Negro life," i n i enacted in black face. The full-length plays were almost as varied as the one-act plays, although they leaned toward English and American playwrights. Henry Hubert Davies' satire on mankind's general susceptibility to molluscry, seen for the first time on the coast, was followed by the poetic tragedy, Paolo and Francesca (Stephen Phillips' version). The small stage created problems in the larger ensemble scenes, but the charm of the play and the proficiency of Conrad Nagel and Helen Jerome Eddy justified the incon- 104 venience. James Barrie's poetical examination of philosophies and aspirations, Dear Brutus, presented with the author's special permission since the work had not yet been published, found such a warm response that the run was extended to three weeks, while Belinda, A. A. Milne's repartee-filled comedy enacted by Henrietta Cross man, Phillip Hubbard, Helenita Lieberg, Clark Marshall, and Joyce Perry completed the season.-1 - 0^ The Hollywood Commu nity Theatre had moved into that half-way position between a community and professional theatre, between an art theatre and a commercial enterprise. There was no reason, however, to imagine that the fifth season would be The Hollywood Community Theatre's last season. The first program lent support to the 167 opinion verbalized one month later that the smaller the atres in the city "show a breadth of taste, a courage in undertaking difficult or new productions, and a devotion to art for its own sake."^®^ It consisted of three one- act plays and a dance-pantomime: Ropes, a new play by Wilber Daniel Steele, which examined the strength of the marriage bond, given a frivolous wife and an attractive "intruder"; In 1999, Crumbs That Fall, and Gustav Morales' Spanish ballet, Royal Fandango, premiered at The Neighbor hood Playhouse in New York City in May, 1921. The panto mime was deemed "the radiant crown of the first enter tainment of the season," although "for dramatic interest, well-balanced themes and pictorial diversity, the Hollywood 107 Community Theatre never has housed a more perfect bill." The next three offerings were The Hollywood Commu nity Theatre's most successful in many ways: first, they encompassed a spectrum of modes; second, they varied in stylistic expression; and third, they moved from a pungent satire of theatrical art to sociological concerns. Edwin Schallert credited Miss Dickson with making "dramatic history" with her presentation of Shaw's satire on the theatre, Fanny's First Play, and both he and Miss Lawrence commented on the exceptional performances and the growing 168 i n q popularity and support for the theatre. An American version of a look behind the scenes of show business, Rollo's Wild Oat,-*-^ followed and was succeeded by John Galsworthy's The Silver Box, a humorously cynical yet sympathetic look at the shams and hypocricies of the rich, and the inequality which wealth breeds in the courts of law.^® During the run, plans for a new theatre were announced inasmuch as the playhouse had been ordered closed by the Fire Department ^ No playhouse was erected for the Hollywood Community Theatre, and Doris Anderson penned a fitting but saddening tribute which said that The Hollywood Community Theatre, in its five-year history, had staged about eighty-five plays, "about eighty of [which] would not have been seen in Los Angeles without The Hollywood Community Theatre productions. The remainder of the season was presented at The Egan and, with the move downtown, the zest of The Holly wood Community Theatre diminished. The two final produc tions were Enter Madame, a character study of a prima donna who attempts to win back her husband; and James Barrie's three-character work, A Slice of Life, presented in conjunction with a new play, His Father's Boots, selected from among those submitted in a Hollywood 169 Community Theatre play contest. Henrietta Crossman and Ramsey Wallace continued the tradition for fine perform ances in the first offering, but the perceptive critic (and one imagines the perceptive playgoer as well) did not fail to note a subtle shift in the caliber of theatrical fare offered. Florence Lawrence, who found the evening entertaining and more than "ordinarily worth seeing," thought the play and the production "more conventional than they usually present. "113 This was not the only change, for individual admission rose to two dollars. With the final production, the let-down was unmis takable. His Father's Boots, Carol McMillan's three-act comedy-satire of an emancipated parent, was obvious in its development, unbelievable in its romantic episodes, and peopled with exaggerated characters.^14 In the years following the disbanding of The Hollywood Community Theatre, Neely Dickson directed her talents toward her theatre school established in the fall of 1922. Occasionally she returned to production. In January,' 19 23, as part of a community-sponsored drama week, she staged four one-act plays at The Hollywood Women's Club, and that May offered Milne's The Dover Road, the fanciful comedy about the eccentric Mr. Latimer's unique T7JT premarital "counseling service," starring among others, Edward Everett Horton. Sporadic production, usually associated with her studio, continued for several years, and she handled the direction of The Pilgrimage Play during one season, but the work of The Hollywood Community Theatre as a consistent, contributing theatrical force was over. As with The Little Harlequin Theatre, no group or individ ual stepped forth to underwrite The Hollywood Community Theatre. Perhaps such response was implausible in a city where size, quantity, expansion, and activity were offi cial Chamber of Commerce slogans, and in which a large majority of its leaders shared General Otis' belief in private enterprise rather than public-sponsored civic underwriting. The Hollywood Community Theatre did not survive that difficult transition from a small theatre serving the needs and interests of a given community (artistically, socially, or geographically) to a profes sional or semiprofessional unit with larger patronage. For some, The Hollywood Community Theatre may have seemed a bit precious or conservative, for most of its plays were chosen from among Anglo-American playwrights (Kummer, Shaw, Galsworthy, Barrie, or Milne), and many were rather more charming than substance-filled. Nevertheless, the ITT discontinuance of The Hollywood Community Theatre left the city with a disrupted and uneven heritage of support for dramatic organizations which, like The Hollywood Community Theatre, made welcome the individual "seeking refreshment in the theatre." Miscellaneous Three Shakespearean plays enlivened the summer of 1921, all of them staged at The Hollywood Bowl. The Tempest, mounted in June, was presented as a benefit for The Bowl building fund and took full advantage of the outdoor setting to create "a veritable jungle of Bermuda"; utilized fully the available talents, including an eighty- five member company supported by ballet and choirs; and was reckoned to be the "most ambitious Shakespeare produc tion attempted here." In late summer, A Shakespearean Festival came to life, with A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Taming of the Shrew. Both drew large and appreciative audiences. Summary and Conclusion Following the infusion of various new forces upon the theatrical scene in 1920, the second year of The Twenties was sparse and temporizing in character. In the 172 face of a stable business economy and a growing population (resident and transient), The Mason Opera House was dark for thirteen weeks, and the number of theatrical produc tions diminished. Road conditions, in which smaller cities no longer supported one- to three-night stands, and rising railroad fares (freight and passenger), plus an uninspir ing season in New York caused fewer shows to take to the road. But the twelve production units which did stop at The Mason constituted a more evenly-balanced season, emphasized recent offerings, and more than half were headed by New York stars who had originated the roles. Moreover, two presentations of Shakespearean repertory were included during the year (Robert Mantell), and Henry Miller paid his first visit of the decade to the city which he would use as part of a west-coast tryout circuit for plays he was considering as possible Broadway mater ial. In addition, two productions played the city prior to their Chicago engagement, suggesting that a flexibility regarding booking was considered, prompted, perhaps, by the growing cognizance that Los Angeles was assuming importance in the theatrical world. It may also have been less expensive to travel across Canada, down the west coast, and then back across the country. Moreover, 173 although the number of road companies was not large, more than half (seven) fulfilled two-week engagements. Cer tainly, the decision was influenced by the fewer number of shows on the road and the need to rely on the larger cities to make an engagement profitable, but this trend at least indicated that Los Angeles was among those cities. Among the local producers, some of the theatrical fervor of the previous year evaporated, while it erupted on other fronts. Oliver Morosco, so active in 1920, did not visit the city, and The Morosco Theatre offered a conventional season of romantic comedies, mysteries, and a rare drama. No new plays were staged and productions ran at least five weeks or longer. Frank Egan again made his small theatre available for literary productions, but exploration in this area was inhibited by Egan's production program, which included the staging of two new stale comedies. For the most part, however, the theatre was dark. Thomas Wilkes also seemed to view the year as "a breathing space." The Wilkes Stock Company reaffirmed its position as a proficient, talented group, even though the kind and variety of fare offered aspired no further than that of good, professional entertainment. Only one TR new work was presented and that one featured guest star Robert Edeson. But for all this temporizing, some events indi cated that exploration continued, and some of these activ ities were fulfilled and some were frustrated. Thomas Wilkes revived Rip Van Winkle and, in addition, began to sound out eastern contacts who might be willing to channel to him new scripts and theatre properties. By the middle of the year he announced that he intended to bring Los Angeles into the ken of important theatrical production. Available space at The Mason Opera House encouraged W. G. Stewart to further his production plans for The California Light Opera Company. However, The Vagabond Players, a group of professional actors, found their efforts to form a producing or stock unit handicapped by the lack of available suitable theatre space. And beyond the charmed circle of Los Angeles' Broadway, two projects were undertaken at the theatre located within The Ambassa dor Hotel. The first was an unrealistic attempt to weld films, entr'acts, and one-act plays into a program designed to attract the residents of the hotel and the residents of the surrounding neighborhood. The second was a quasi little theatre project, funded by subscriptions, directed 175 by individuals experienced in promoting The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, enacted by professional actors, and encompassing one-act plays as well as longer works by Shaw, Shakespeare, Sheridan, and other notable playwrights. It lasted but one season, when dwindling financial sup port, diminished interest, the strain of weekly or fort nightly change of fare, and the unfortunate "outpost" loca tion— one perceived as the haunt of the "hauteur"— can celled the project. This record of interrupted support of theatre organizations seeking a viable, financially-sound existence outside the commercial theatre is one of the less satisfy ing aspects of theatre history in Los Angeles in this decade. Support and interest was developed and maint- tained for commercial projects. Thomas Wilkes, for ex ample, established a New York contact and thus set up the expectation that Los Angeles could produce New York shows shortly after their eastern exposure, and/or frequently concurrent with that showing. However, commitment to, involvement in, and excitement about "art theatres" or theatrical offerings which expressed a wider range of artistic experience was timid and spasmodic. Groups which broached this area found themselves handicapped by 176 lack of theatre space, and held back by the indifference of civic leaders and individual patrons. The momentum, however, was building toward those years characterized as the most active in the entire history of theatre in Losngeles. CHAPTER IV Footnotes ■^Laurance L. Hill, La Reina: Los Angeles in Three Centuries (Los Angeles: Security Trust and Savings Bank, 1929), p. 161. ^"Los Angeles Industries Show Surprising Gain," The Los Angeles Times, February 27, 1921, I, 1-2. Here after referred to as The Times. "Seventy Years' Growth in One," The Times, February 27, 1921, II, 1. Howard C. Regley, "Greatest Tide of White Spot Rush Beats Gold," The Times, Octo.er 16, 1921, II, 1-2. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr., "Why Los Angeles Is Largest City in the Far West Today," The Times, March 20, 1921, V, 5. ^The Times, February 27, October 16, 1921, loc. cit. ^Ibid. 6The Times, November 14, 1921, I, 1. 7Fred S. Hogue, "Los Angeles Modern Athens," The Times, September 11, 1921, II, 1-3, 5. He cited four galleries: The Huntington, The Otis Art Institute, The Southwest Museum, Museum of History, Science and Art. Among the dancers mentioned were St. Denis-Shawn, Belcher, Marion Morgan, and Kosloff. Numerous landscape artists, sculptors, and architects were named, plus several musical artists. ^The Times, March 20, 1921, II, 1, 7. ^The Times, May 22, 1921, I, 1-2; May 24, 1921, II, 1, 9. 177 * — - T7F ^ The Times, July 19, 1921, II, 1, 5. ■^Editorial Cartoon, The Times, August 9, 1921, II, 4. 12 William A. Spalding, comp., History and Reminis cences: Los Angeles City and County, I (Los Angeles: J. R. Finnell & Sons [1931]), pp. 408-9. "^Billboard, XXXV (November 5, 1921), 78. 14„ Hogue, op. cit. 15 The number twelve does not include such productions of other origin as Uncle Tom's Cabin or The Bird of Para dise, which would have raised the total to seventeen. Two-week engagements: two Mantell appearances, Three Wise Fools, The Famous Mrs. Fair, The Sign on the Door, The Sweetheart Shop, Mary, and Irene. The star attractions which stayed for two weeks included Helen Menken, Bates/ Miller, Bainter. Nash, Collier, Chatterton. ■^Mantell, The Los Angeles Examiner, January 11, 1921, I, 10. Hereafter referred to as The Examiner. Reviews appeared in the metropolitan dailies between January 4 and 11, 1921. * 1 7 Nobody's Fool, Florence Lawrence, The Examiner, January 18, 1921, I, 6. Variety, LXI (January 21, 1921), p. 12. I O J-°Three Wise Fools, Lawrence, The Examiner, Febru ary 1, 1921, I, 10. Sign on the Door, Grace Kingsley, The Times, March 15, 1921, II, 4. Otheman Stevens, The Examiner, March 15, 1921, I, 10. 1 Q Thy Name Is Woman, Lawrence (quotation), The Examiner, May 10, 1921, I, 10. Kingsley, The Times, May 10, 1921, III, 4. The production opened in Chicago at The Playhouse, May 22, and closed two weeks later. 2^Hottentot, Lawrence, The Examiner, May 17, 1921, I, 8. 2%ary Rose, Edwin Schallert, The Times, June 28, 1921, III, 4. Lawrence, The Examiner, June 28, 1921, I 179 13. It played for two weeks at The Illinois Theatre beginning January 16, 1922. 0. L. Hall "The Season in Chicago," said it mystified its second season public, in The Best Plays of 1921-22, ed. by Burns Mantle (Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1922), p. 17. 22Miller/Bates, Schallert, The Times, October 18, 1921, III, 4. 23East Is West, Schallert, The Times, November 22, 1921, III, 4. ^ Beggar1s Opera, Lawrence, The Examiner, November 8, 1921, I, 11. The Times, December. 1 3 ; , . 1921, III, 4. 25Timber Wolf, Schallert, The Times, May 23, 1921, II, 8. Billboard, XXXIII (September 10, 1921), 22. 26Sonny, Schallert, The Times, November 15, 1921, III, 4. The Examiner, November 15, 1921, I, 10. 97 ^ 'Iolanthe, Lawrence, The Examiner, March 8, 1921, I, 8. Variety, LXII (March 18, 1921), 13, 18. 28Firefly, Lawrence, The Examiner, May 24, 1921, I, 10. The Mikado, Lawrence, The Examiner, May 31, 1921, I, 10. Pavlovska, Ruysdael, and Tibbett were sin gled out for their work. ^ Fortune Teller, Lawrence, The Examiner, July 5, 1921, I, 10. Variety, LXIII (July 22, 1921), 14. 30Edwin Schallert, The Times, June 15, 1921, III, 4. Variety, LXII (April 8, 1921, 13. 33- Rip Van Winkle, Schallert, The Times, June 21, 1921, III, 4. Lawrence (opinion on his hardness), The Examiner, June 22, 1921, I, 12. Soliloquies were obvious, frequently unnecessary. 32Variety, LXIII (July 1, 1921, 12. 33Jack Poggi, Theater in America, The Impact of Economic Forces, 1870-1967 (Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell Univer sity Press, 1968), p. 52. 180 •^The Times, May 26, 1921, III, 4. Variety, LXII (April 29, 1921), 19. 33Edwin Schallert, "Play Sources Right Here," The Times, April 3, 1921, III, 1, 17. 36Ibid. 3^Acquittal, Schallert, The Times, February 21, 1921, II, 7. Wedding Bells, Kingsley, The Times, April 18, 1921, II, 3. The "Ruined" Lady, Schallert, The Times, August 22, 1921, II, 7. Wonderful Thing, Schallert, The Times, November 7, 1921, II, 12. Hottentot, Kingsley, The Times, December 5, 1921, II, 7. 33Billboard, XXXIV (April 16, 1921), 14, said she had appeared in My Lady Friends, with Chauncey Olcott, in Heart of Paddy Whack, and in His Brother's Keeper, opposite Robert Edeson, her husband. 39Kingsley, The Times, April 18, 1921, II, 3, wrote, "Alas! When . . . will they cease presenting the inex perienced, curly-haired cuties in the guise of leading ladies. . . . She reminds you of the leading lady of high school dramatic class." Parlor, Kingsley, The Times, June 28, 1921, III, 4. Lady Friends, Kingsley, The Times, October 3, 1921, II, 9. ^®For example, Kingsley, The Times, May 16, 1921, I, 9. It was noted that occasionally Pangborn became too broad. ^■'•Peter, Schallert, The Times, July 25, 1921, II, 12. Lawrence, The Examiner, July 25, 1921, I, 8. The Times, August 10, 1921, III, 5. 42Turn to the Right, Kingsley, The Times, May 16, 1921, II, 7. 43"Ruined" Lady, Schallert, The Times, August 22, 1921, II, 7. The Examiner, August 22, 1921, I, 9. ^^Seattle. The company opened at The Metropolitan on March 5, 1916, and later moved to two other theatres. By January, 1922, it was operating as a cooperative. 181 Billboard, XXXIII (May 28, 1921), 16; XXXII (June 4, 1921), 15; XXXIII (June 11, 1921), 15, 19. Variety, LXV (Janu ary 27, 1922), 17. Salt Lake City. This company also encountered difficulties in late 1921, but the closing was cancelled and Variety praised Wilkes for continuing in the face of uncertain business conditions. In February, 1922, the group became a cooperative. Billboard, XXXIII (November 12, 1921), 25. Variety, LXV (December 2, 1921), 15; LXV (February 3, 1922), 19. Denver. The Wilkes Stock Company opened at The Denham Theatre on Armistice Day, 1918, to an audience wearing white gauze masks. Although the theatre was closed for two and one-half weeks during the flu epidemic, it reopened in December, 1918, and began its fifth season in 1922. Billboard, XXXIII (November 26, 1921), 24; XXXIV (July 15, 1922), 7. 4 ^ JThe Sacramento troupe opened in the fall of 1921 and closed the following February. Billboard, XXXIII (October 29, 1921), 24; XXXIV (February 18, 1922), 98. 46Billboard, XXXIII (February 12, 1921), 6. It is uncertain whether Wilkes ever produced at The People's Theatre in Honolulu, and he may have had companies in Portland and Spokane at one time. 4 "^Wilkes assumed the lease on The Alcazar where, on August 26, 1922, he reopened the theatre with The Champion, starring Kay Hammond and George Barnes. Billboard, XXXIV (August 19, 1922), 24; XXXIV (September 9, 1922), 24. 48The Times, June 15, 1921, III, 4. 48Edwin Schallert, "His Hat's in the Ring," The Times, June 19, 1921, III, 13, 15. 58Variety, LXIII (August 19, 1921), 12, said that Wilkes was making his second attempt to break into New York. The first may have been to stage his brother's (Ernest) play, Broken Threads. ^ Three Faces East, Kingsley, The Times, June 13, 1921, II, 7. 182 52Tailor-Made Man, The Examiner, July 19, 1921, I, 10. C O -’- ' Happiness, Lawrence, The Examiner, October 3, 1921, I, 12. Prince There Was, Kingsley, The Times, Decem ber 19, 1921, II, 9. The Examiner, December 19, 1921, I, 14. 55 J-JShe filed suit against him for separate mainte nance on September 6, 1919. The Times, September 27, 1919, II, 1, 3. Variety, LVIII (May 7, 1920), 3; LX (September 3, 1920), 11. 56Billboard, XXXII (July 17, 1920), 1, 83. Var iety, LXII (April 15, 1921), 13. c 7 -"The Examiner, January 3, 1921, I, 3, showed a sketch of the proposed Moroscotown. Variety, LXII (April 15, 1921), 13. 88Variety, LXIII (June 3, 1921), 13. Billboard, XXXIII (November 19, 1921), 1. ^9Hedda Gabler, Schallert, The Times, January 18, 1921, III, 4. The Examiner, January 19, 1921, I, 12. 88Monna Vanna, Lawrence, The Examiner, March 8, 1921, I, 8. Kingsley, The Times, March 14, 1921, II, 9; April 7, 1921, III, 4. 61 °xPenrod (Wesley Barry), Lawrence, The Examiner February 15, 1921, I, 10. Variety, LXII (February 25, 1921), 14. 62tq Tell the Truth, The Examiner (quotation), April 19, 1921, I, 9. Schallert, The Times, April 19, 1921, III, 4. 82Kangaroo, Kingsley, The Times, June 21, 1921, III, 4. Lawrence, The Examiner, June 21, 1921, I, 8. f i A "Mrs. Dane's Defense, Schallert, The Times, April 12, 1921, III, 4. 183 65Valiant, Schallert, The Times, May 21, 1921, II, 7. The Examiner, May 21, 1921, I, 9. 6^Sinbad, Kingsley, The Times, April 26, 1921, III, 4. Lawrence, The Examiner, April 26, 1921, I, 8. 67Aphrodite, Schallert, The Times, December 6, 1921, III, 4. 68Cluck-Cluck, The Examiner, December 28, 1921, I, 15. 68For a discussion of The Pasadena Playhouse, consult Gayle Shoup, "The Pasadena Community Playhouse: Its Origins and History from 1917 to 1942" (unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1968) . 70Billboard, XXXII (December 25, 1920), 7; XXXIII (February 12, 1921), 7. 7- ^ Variety, LXII (February 25, 1921), 47. 72The Examiner, March 4, 1921, I, 8; March 9, 1921, I, 10; March 18, 1921, I, 8. 73Fancy Free, Schallert, The Times, March 23, 1921, III, 4. 7 A /ftThe Claw, Lawrence, The Examiner, March 29, 1921, I, 8. 75Vacuum, The Examiner, April 5, 1921, I, 10. Kingsley, The Times, April 6, 1921, III, 4. 78The Times, April 12, 1921, III, 4. 77The Clock, The Examiner, May 3, 1921, I, p. 78The Times, May 11, 1921, III, 4. The Examiner, May 13, 1921, I, 8. 78Florence Lawrence, "Fashionable Society Is to Have a New Purpose in Life," The Examiner, August 25, 1921, I, 10. 184 80The Examiner, October 16, 1921, IX, 2. An adver tisement in the January 9, 1922, program stated that a season ticket could be purchased for $40.00, two for $75.00. Some of the actors were Allen Connor, Dorothy Conrey, Henrietta Crossman, Robert Edeson, Mary Forbes, David Imboden, Otto Matieson, Colleen Moore, J. Anthony Smythe, and Florence Stone. The Examiner, September 24, 1921, I, 9, listed some of the patrons. O " I °-'■Opening program, The Examiner, November 8, 1921, I, 11. 82See The Times, November 23, 1921, III, 4. The Examiner, November 22, 1921, I, 14. The Times, November 30, 1921, III, 4. 82Candida, Schallert, The Times, December 7, 1921, III, 4. The Examiner, December 6, 1921, I, 15. Q A °^Marriage of Kitty, Kingsley, The Times, December 17, 1921, II, 13. The Examiner, December 16, 1921, I, 15. Q C ° Other actors who performed with The Harlequin Little Theatre were Eric Snowden, H. Ellis Reed, Caroline Frances Cook, Nigel Barrie, and Harry L. Rattenbury. 86Flaming Moment, Kingsley, The Times, January 4, 1922, III, 4. 87Poll's House, The Times, December 29, 1921, III, 4. The Examiner, December 27, 1921, I, 11. p O °°Merchant of Venice, The Examiner, January 10, 1922, I, 10. The Times, January 11, 1922, III, 4. R. D. Maclean portrayed Shylock. 88School for Scandal, The Times, January 25, 1922, III, 4. 88Silk Stockings, The Times, February 22, 1922, III, 4. The Times, February 26, 1922, III, 35. 81Othello, The Times, March 8, 1922, II, 9. 82The Times, March 15, 1922, II, 11. 185 Q O ^-’ Given the similarity of personnel, one wonders if this organization was an outgrowth of an attempt in 1920 to incorporate plays into The Philharmonic Orchestra subscription ticket, or at least to offer orchestra ticket holders a reduced price on theatre tickets. See Egan Theatre, Chapter III. Q A ^William Gilmore Beymer, "The Hollywood Community Theater," Theatre Arts Magazine, III (July, 1919), 171-73. O^Ibid., p. 176. Alice Lynch, "The Hollywood Com munity Theater," Drama, X (November, 1919), 47. During the first season, 400 subscription tickets at $3.50 each were sold, plus 30 contributing member tickets at $25.00 each. 96Beymer, op. cit., p. 176. O^Ibid., and Lynch, op. cit. 9®Beymer, op. cit., p. 177. ^ Ibid., p. 178. It is no accident that the one- act play was the staple of most little theatre groups. The form was financially practical and could be handled with greater ease (if not always with accompanying depth) by amateur performers. European writers in particular had provided an extensive library of one-act plays, and in America, with the inception of playwriting classes, this form continued to receive new life. Perhaps, most importantly, this form was a rebellion against the commer cial theatre and its frequently attenuated full-length works. Moreover, as Edward Goodman noted, the form is less restricting and can be more stimulating, and can provide an evening's variety in artistic expression, and as such can appeal to many publics. Edward Goodman, "Why the One-Act Play?" The Theatre, XXV (June, 1917), 327. •^^Gilmore Beymer, "The Hollywood Community Theater," Theater, XXXI (March, 1920), 197. •1-0^-February, 1920, Schallert, The Times, February 4, 1920, II, 9. The Examiner, March 11, 1920, I, 14. TF6 10 9 •'-^Successful Calamity, The Examiner, April 23, 1920, I, 6. 10-^September, 1920, Antony Anderson, The Times, September 22, 1920, III, 4. Lawrence, The Examiner, September 22, 1920, I, 10. The only other evening of one-act plays was presented in January, 1921. ^Q^Paolo and Francesca, Antony Anderson, The Times, December 2, 1920, III, 4. Lawrence, The Examiner, December 1, 1920, I, 12. iQSpear Brutus, Schallert, The Times, February 17, 1921, III, 4. Belinda, The Examiner, March 30, 1921, I, 8. 106"Art Theaters Active Here," The Times, October 23, 1921, III, 13. ■*-0^September, 1921, Schallert, The Times, Septem ber 28, 1921, III, 4. ^Fanny's First Play, Schallert, The Times, November 3, 1921, III, 4. Lawrence, The Examiner, Novem ber 2, 1921, I, 5. lO^Rollo's wild Oat, Lawrence, The Examiner, December 7, 1921, I, 17. Kingsley, The Times, December 7, 1921, III, 4. H Q silver Box. Kingsley, The Times, January 19, 1922, III, 4. Doris Anderson, The Examiner, January 20, 1922, I, 13. ^Kingsley, loc. cit.; Anderson, loc. cit. 11^Anderson, loc. cit. H^Enter Madame, Lawrence, The Examiner, February 8, 1922, I, 12. Kingsley, The Times, February 7, 1922, III, 4. H4Final Production, Schallert, The Times, May 9, 1922, II, 9. The Examiner, May 9, 1922, I, 10. 1871 11 ^ The Examiner, June 3, 1921, I, 8. 1 16 The Examiner, September 13, 1921, I, 11; September 16, 1921, I, 9. 117 11/Variety, LXIII (June 24, 1921), 13, said that "things were humming theatrically in Los Angeles." CHAPTER V THE FULCRUM YEARS— 1922 AND 1923 "And the Boom Continued" Introduction "The City and the entire county were walking ahead with seven-league boots, not only in buildings, but in commerce, manufactures and population."'*' By the close of 1923, the population of the city had climbed to nearly one million people.2 During the first six months of 1923, housing was provided for 22,036 families, about 132,000 newcomers were welcomed, and approximately 1,600,000 visi- 3 tors came to the area. Undaunted by the railroad strikes of 1922, tourists crowded to Southern California, regard less of the inconveniences caused by delays and stops along the way.- ® In anticipation of President Harding's proposed visit, The Los Angeles Times prepared a summary of the changes in the city since his last stay in 1915. _________________________________18JB_______________________________ ^ The population had doubled from approximately 425,000 to 850,000; The outlines of the city had been noticeably altered by the erection of 321,662 buildings; A small lumber and coast port in 1915 with less than six miles of dock and only one oil export terminal, in 1923, Los Angeles was the world's largest oil port and the coast's most important lumber and fishing harbor with more than thirty miles of docks and piers; About three small oil fields produced 6,120,000 barrels of oil in 1915, whereas eight years later, eight fields yielded approximately 200,000,000 barrels per year; The movie industry had moved from its wooden-studio stage to producing nearly ninety per cent of the fourth largest industry in the United S t a t e s . ^ Recognized as the richest county in the state in October, 1922, by early July of the following year, the city was acclaimed the richest per capita in the nation (italics mine).® In October, 192 3, The Biltmore Hotel opened, and on November 10, The University of California beat the University of Southern California, 13-7, in the first n football match staged in the newly-completed Coliseum. The Times established its radio station, KHJ, in 1922, and the first "Symphony Under the Stars" was played at The Hollywood Bowl. In March, Gainsborough's "Blue Boy" arrived in the city and that fall William Clark, Jr., pledged to support the Los Angeles Philharmonic for another five years.® 190 However, for all the real and vaunted progress in these two years, there were unsightly blemishes in the picture. In January, 1922, The Times reported that there had been more murders, robberies, and auto deaths in the previous year than at any other time in the city's history, with 92,134 arrests.9 In May, 1922, about 150 people were called to testify before a grand jury in connection with a Ku Klux Klan raid in Inglewood and, while the hearings were proceeding, another night visit made headlines in August.10 In 1922, Los Angeles County had the nation's highest automobile mortality rate. Fraudulent movie training agencies bilked the throngs of stardust-blinded young women who flocked to Hollywood in the wake of renewed production activities.11 Los Angeles continued to receive coverage in national journals. Like Channing Pollock (a playwright whose work, The Fool, had been premiered in Los Angeles), 12 many considered the city "a boob town." In 1923, The Times carried a series of articles comparing the two major California cities. The first set featured Eddie Boyden and Harry Carr. Looking at Los Angeles, Boyden saw a city of narrow streets, densely populated with cars, and broad ideas. Carr compared it to a white bull terrier 191 "too busy chasing cats and pals to have any subtleties," and concluded that "When you come to examine the essence of its soul you find that Los Angeles is a woman's town." Far from being a derogatory comment, he maintained that "no pioneering country amounts to much until women arrive." However, he admitted that when one thought of San Francis co, one envisioned theatres and cafes, but that when one thought of Los Angeles, one envisioned department stores and bungalows. "Los Angeles is essentially feminine, 1 ^ downright and practical and somewhat material," he said. A more penetrating look at the city, its progress and its problems, was offered by Ben Macomber, economist with The San Francisco Chronicle. Focusing on the activ ity in real estate, Macomber concluded that speculation was rampant and the installment structure enormous, both factors deleterious to a stable economy. "Full of places of the new rich," he concluded that Los Angeles needed to establish itself as an industrial center in order to sup port the great numbers of people drawn to the city.^ His first article was a definitive profile of the city in the Twenties, illuminating its psychology, capturing its con tradictions, far flung yet crowded, feverishly active, "A city turning itself inside outi" 192 a city metropolitan and cosmopolitan in population but provincial in many ways; a city of bustle and enterprise— not yet one of poise and restraint; a city of sharp internal dissensions and a united front to the outside; a city of all the churches and creeds of the world and with a crime problem that has almost broken down its police department; a city intoxicated with its growth ; self-hypnotized by the gestures it has made to allure the world; a little touched by the repetition of superlatives; a city with a froth of speculation running with its tide of development; a city where success has made the mass uncritical of risks. Background "Show business on the Pacific Coast is enjoying prosperity, even if the shades are drawn elsewhere in the country," declared Walter Hearn, treasurer of The Mason Opera House. As business conditions remained healthy and the population boomed, amusement centers flourished. In May, 1923, it was estimated that fourteen million admission tickets to places of amusement were sold in 17 Los Angeles and Southern California. In part, this was because of the desire and willingness of "the average person to jump into his car from the suburbs and drive 1R fifteen to twenty miles to see what he wants." In its summary of the year past (1923), The Times stated that Los Angeles offered a choice of over 130 theatres which 1 9 showed movies, plays, and vaudeville. ^ 193 In spite of a temporary financial crisis at the end of 192 3 which retarded the bounding situation, creating near-panic conditions in the movie industry, as well as 90 among local bankers and merchants, Florence Lawrence of The Los Angeles Examiner boasted, "Big City Days have arrived in Los Angeles" in the entertainment industry, and both the movies and the spoken drama need new play houses :21 With everything in the amusement line doing nicely, the theatrical world as far as the West coast and Los Angeles is concerned is looking about for more theaters. If one half of the agitation and promises come true this city will be supporting several new theatres before the end of next season. . . . and Los Angeles' Rialto will shortly undergo much remodeling.22 However, even as Billboard was making this prediction, the other national amusement-trade journal, Variety, was say ing: There are entirely too many amusement centers in Los Angeles for the population. The best show men in town feel that the city will wake up with a bang some day soon, to find out that the population isn't any way [sic] near large enough to support all the theatres . . .22 The prediction was not fulfilled until the later years of the decade, and an amusement-voracious public spent more than three and a half million dollars in September, 1923, alone.2^ — 194 Responding to this rapidly-expanding market, several individuals announced plans to build "spoken-drama" theatres in Los Angeles and Hollywood. None of these theatres as outlined below materialized, yet in each instance, some aspect— location, architect, sponsor, intended production policy, or something else— linked these unfulfilled projects to developments in 1926-27. In May, 1923, Walter Hast, New York producer who staged Suspicion at The Egan Theatre, announced that he and Nat Carr were ready to erect a playhouse at Hollywood and Vine to be 25 known as The Hollywood Playhouse. The Hollywood Play house opened at that location four years later, but Hast was not associated with it. However, the corporation with which he was probably involved, and which showed Nat Carr as a member, was later absorbed by the firm which erected The Hollywood Playhouse. One month earlier, Edward D. Rowland, formerly with the theatrical producing firm of Rowland and Clifford in Chicago, publicized that he was investigating a site at Seventh and Olive Streets t in Los Angeles— a fact confirmed by G. 0. Davis of the 2 6 Robert Marsh Realty firm. No playhouse arose at that site, but E. D. Rowland joined forces with the individuals seeking to build a theatre at Hollywood and Vine, and 195 became the artistic director of The Hollywood Playhouse. G. 0. Davis, meanwhile, promoted both The Belasco Theatre and The Mayan Theatre, serving as the manager of the lat ter (see Chapter VII). Film personalities also were afflicted with the urge to erect playhouses. Why is not clear! It may have been their way of involving themselves in the city's growing amusement and cultural market, and to do so in a fairly open field, likely to turn an investment. Given the degree of control exercised by chains and syndicates of movie theatres and vaudeville playhouses, the spoken- drama playhouse probably was the only area open. Follow ing the overpublicized accounts of Hollywood's "Purple Period," these projects may have been an attempt to "Legitimize" their profession through support of the generic, more-respected form— live theatre. Certainly, their involvement can be viewed as a western response to a national phenomenon of building in New York, Chicago, and other cities, and just as easily can be interpreted as a smart move by local capital, for if someone like A. L. Erlanger was investing in a new road-show theatre, then the market was ripe for exploitation. Thus, Alan Holubaru film producer, backed by: local — — — — — — rsF capital of unspecified amount, announced plans for the construction of a theatre to accommodate eleven to fifteen hundred people for the west side of Highland Avenue, adjacent to The Hollywood Hotel, to be designed by A. G. 27 Lansburgh. One month later, he put aside rumors that he had abandoned his plans but his death in November ter- 28 minated the project. However, three years later, The El Capitan Theatre, a fifteen hundred seat playhouse, designed by Lansburgh, situated on Hollywood Boulevard just west of Highland Avenue, became Hollywood's first spoken-drama theatre. Concurrent with Holubar's announcement, a group of film personnel, including Pickford, Fairbanks, Schenck, Lesser, Grauman, and West Coast Theatre, Inc. executives (among them Adolph Ramish) stated their intention of 2Q building a theatre at one of three Hollywood sites. Noth ing came of this particular scheme, but Ramish was probably the largest backer behind A. G. Wilkes's lease of The Vine Street Theatre which opened in January, 1927 (cur rently The Huntington Hartford), and movie personnel made The Music Box a reality in 1926. Before any of these projects sorted themselves into reality, however, two new playhouses opened in 1924— The Biltmore Theatre and The 197 Figueroa Street Playhouse. And even while these plans were posed, revamped, and scratched, the city showed that it was able to support longer theatrical engagements at The Mason Opera House and to originate local productions which enjoyed a measure of success in the city and on the coast. Oliver Morosco premiered the comedy which went on to break records in New York, and this sealed the opinion of those who relegated the taste of Los Angeles to saccharine-and-sludge— Abie's Irish Rose. However, in these years it also became apparent that that producer's fortunes— locally and nationally, personally and professionally— were cracking apart. Frank Egan continued his quiet contribution to local theatre, although the shift toward greater involve ment in commercial enterprises was evident. Two major activities involved the Wilkes family. Thomas Wilkes formalized his New York contact and, through Sam H. Harris, staged a number of new plays. In addition, he staged a series of star-performances and expanded his operations in San Francisco. His sister and brother-in- law, meanwhile, launched the first attempt at a west coast Theatre Guild with The Fine Arts Theatre, and for a short time seemed destined to deflect the commercial bias 198 of theatre in the city. Los Angeles began to assume advancing importance in the theatrical world: No city in the country can hope to pass Los Angeles as an amusement center in a very few years. She is coming fast and the people are here to help, and being willing by their patronage.3° Discussion of Theatrical Activity The Majestic Theatre and Thomas Wilkes During 1922 and 1923, no one person did more in legitimate theatre to boost Los Angeles toward realizing the above-cited goal than Thomas Wilkes, who premiered ten new works, presented two new plays unveiled earlier at his theatre in San Francisco, staged five plays with stars— some of whom had appeared in the particular work in New York— mounted seven stock company productions— three of which were viewed in Los Angeles for the first time— and, in association with Sam H. Harris of New York, organized coast companies in recent Broadway hits. In addition, he I secured theatres in San Francisco and assumed a ten-year least on The Harris Theatre in New York City. The first quarter of 1922 at The Majestic Theatre continued along familiar lines. Scandal, a moderately — 19C J / risque romantic comedy was succeeded after six weeks by Nobody1s Money, a farce-comedy built around the escapades of two writers who attempt to outwit their possessive publisher and the Internal Revenue Department, 33- and gave way to Smilin1 Through, a romance in which the acting of Mary. Newcomb and Edward Everett Horton and the artistic settings merited special praise.32 Then Thomas Wilkes inaugurated his series of pre miere plays. As early as August, 1921, Variety had reported that Wilkes intended "to crack" New York again, an ambition confirmed the following February (1922) when Alfred G. Wilkes— the brains and money in the family— began seeking a theatre.23 In April, 1922, The Times announced that Sam H. Harris had formed an alliance with Thomas Wilkes to produce at his New York theatre plays aired in Los Angeles, and to allow Wilkes "first call" on shows running at his eastern playhouse.In addition, Wilkes announced later that he intended to bring to The Majestic plays associated with a particular star, who 35 might also appear m a new work while on the coast. The first new play that Wilkes launched in 1922 was Owen Davis' The Nervous Wreck, a farce about a young man sent west for a rest, whose rescue of a young woman 2 W 36 brought him a wife and restored good health. The hilar ity of the improbable adventures, couple with the meticu lous work of Edward Everett Horton, propelled the play into the "hit" category. Difficulties between Sam Harris and the "coast impressario" delayed the New York opening until October 9, 1923 (with June Walker and Otto Kruger)^ but the New York showing completed 279 performances and might have run longer if Harris had not closed the show in the imbroglio between the producers and Actors' Equity over terms in the actors' new contracts.^® Revived at The Majestic in 1923 with Horton in his original role, the play ran for thirteen weeks. The second premiere, In Love with Love, by Vincent Lawrence, also contained "heavy heart interest." Los Angeles critics did not hold much hope for the slight play (although Variety thought it had a "corking" first act), but it ran for 128 performances in New York, with 39 Lynn Fontanne and Ralph Morgan. With the presentation of his third new play, Wilkes introduced a slight change: a recognized star joined the company to create the lead. Edward Everett Horton had left the company on July 1, 1922, at the end of the third week of Buddies, presumably to appear in the _ - J Q J eastern production of The Nervous Wreck.^ The first play offered under the amended policy was Channing Pollock's morality-melodrama, The Fool, with Richard Bennett as Daniel Gilchrist, a young rector released from his posi tion when he refused to retract sermons on social equality, and who thereafter attempted to live the life of a modern-day Christ. A star-studded premiere called unmis takable attention to the importance of the event. Critics found the play prolix yet moving, in part because of the heroic tradition of the story, but also because of the subtle yet powerful acting of Richard Bennett, Mona Bryant, Frank Vogeding, and Sara Sothern. They declared that the theatrical manner in which attention was called to the Jew-Christus— long hair and beard, lighting the old man's head with a "baby spot"— crushed subtlety, questioned the intelligence of the audience, and very nearly aroused 41 laughter. The production opened in New York on October 13, 1922, with James Kirkwood and three members of the original company (Sothern, Vogeding, and Maude Truax). It faltered in its first three weeks but then, in part because of the author's efforts at publicizing the play, the production found its audience and achieved a run of 387 25? performances.^ Thomas Wilkes who had had a disagreement with Channing Pollock, allowed his twenty-five per cent share to be bought for $25,000 by A1 Lewis, who in turn sold it to the Selwyns.^ Richard Bennett also appeared in Edward Rose's new mystery-melodrama, The Rear Car, a derivative work which pleased Los Angeles audiences for thirteen weeks. It traveled as far east as Chicago, where it was dismissed as "idiotic," but did not commute to New York.^ The year closed with three short-run presentat ions of two comedies seen for the first time in Los Angeles— The Champion, The Meannest Man in Town,^5 and East Is West, starring Kay Wallace, New York understudy 4 6 for the role of Ming Toy. Thomas Wilkes resumed his tryout of new plays at the beginning of the year (1923), but none of the four works was more than "fair entertainment," all had a familiar ring about them, and no one of them went on to The Harris Theatre in New York. Lee Hutty's Climbing, a Cinderella story, "did not ring true," although L. B. 47 Mayer purchased the screen rights to the play. Cather ine Chisholm Cushing's eighteenth century costume play of the illusions and disillusion of youth, Nancy Fair, 203 groaned under its melodramatic trappings and befuddled performance. "The play is about as natural as a tin minnow . . . The house rocked with comedy when it should AO have wept or thrilled," said The Times. Her foray into realistic social drama, The Poppy Kiss, was equally un- subtle and unbelievable, for the movie actress, desirous of "kicking the habit" in order to maintain her star status, wore a poppy-patterned dress and poppies in her AQ hair. 3 The Trouble Hound, by Martha Stanley and Adelaide Matthews, was a slight piece about a young man whose easy ways were altered when he became engaged. It was played with an esprit which both Edwin S. Schallert and Monroe c n Lathrop attributed to Wilhemena Wilkes's fine direction. After trying out these four new works of limited quality, Wilkes's star series was a welcome change. The first offering, The Riddle: Woman, found only Mme. Medea Radzina, a European actress, prepared for the emotional demands of the play. But such lapses were forgiven and forgotten with the long-anticipated appearance of The Bad Man, starring Holbrook Blinn (in his New York creation) as Pancho Lopez, a swashbuckling, shoot-from-the-hip Robin Hood. The superiority of the acting and the play's broad-based 204 appeal— "for the serious-minded, it is dynamite; for the light-hearted intellectual, it is spice; for the moron, it has pistol shots and laughter"— kept the show at The Majestic for fourteen weeks.51 The theatrical constellation glowed its brightest with the lengthy engagement of Marjorie Rambeau in three plays. However, two other fine actors preceded her appearance. Ivan Miller first appeared in Ernest Wilkes's innocuous comedy about a millionaire's resemblance to a famous crook, A Man of Action, and then was joined by Elise Barlett Schildkraut in a revival of Julius Goodman's 1916 melodrama, The Man Who Came Back. Grace Kingsley, of The Times, filed the latter work in the category of a "cheap, clap-trap melodrama with sophomoric writing thrown into the bad bargain," but described the acting as "capi tal," and the direction of Wilhemena Wilkes as "inspiring as a dexterous instructor and a tasteful picture-maker."52 The Rambeau festival which aroused interest by a one-week delay— it was announced that Miss Rambeau was suffering from an appendicitis attack, and it was the only time that the theatre was dark during the Wilkes C O regime— commenced with The Goldfish, J and was succeeded by two new plays— both later presented in New York. The 205 Road Together, about a couple no longer in love, who take up their fragmented lives when they realize that they cannot bear separation, gave Miss Rambeau and H. Reeves- Smith sympathetic, balanced roles. The show was closed in New York after one performance on January 17, 1924, when the author and the producer decided that Miss Rambeau's nervous tension was discernible to the first-night audi ence. It was alleged to be the first time that a show with an established star closed after one performance.^ The Valley of Content, by Blanche Upright, which premiered in San Francisco, gave the star an opportunity to portray a role of broad range, but critics considered the play insincere and lacking in r e a l i t y .^5 When produced in New York by Wilkes, during the 1924-25 season, it garnered only light trade, despite its undeniable feminine appeal. Another work introduced by Wilkes, but not pro duced in Los Angeles, also fared poorly in Gotham. Peter Weston, originally titled The Whirlpool, by Dazey and Osmun, pictured the illness, desertion, death, and despair which a man's despotic domination of his three children wreaks. The production had received encouragement in San Francisco, had been chosen one of Chicago's Best Plays of 206 1922-23, but was written off in New York as a "melodrama on an obsolete subject." It closed in twenty-three per formances . ^ Although Wilkes's record for successful engagements of new products showed a higher percentage of "misses," he scored heavily with the last work he offered at The Majes tic Theatre in these two years. Topsy and Eva had played eighteen successful weeks in San Francisco with an average weekly gross of $14,000, but opened in Los Angeles without the stars, Vivian and Rosetta Duncan, whose disagreement with the producer over a requested $3,000 weekly salary C O resulted in their suspension. However, two weeks into the Los Angeles run, they rejoined the musical potpourri of plantation melodies, rag, jazz, farce, pathos, burlesque, and melodrama and "a wild tumult of joy and applause" engulfed them.-^ After six weeks, the production moved on to Chicago where, in twenty-two weeks, it grossed $500,000, a musical- comedy record at the time. During its forty-six week engagement, in which it competed successfully against another popular show, No, No, Nanette, the sisters altered the musical and also succeeded in arousing the ire of the Cicero, Illinois, police department with their charge that 207 an officer had beaten them.®® Topsy and Eva finally rolled their eyes at New York on December 23, 1924, and batted them closed after twenty weeks (159 performances). Variety blasted the show as dull and unimaginative, and the production as skimpy: "Topsy and Eva" is a novelty in one way: it is the first time any legit producer has shown courage enough to try and sell [sic] Manhattan village a composite burlesque show disguised under cork, and expect it to live up to a reputation manufactured in the broad open spaces, where space and more space seems the only answer to this cross-word puzzle of the show business. If this one clicks, a tea-house on the Bowery ought to clean up.®-*- But the "open spaces" loved it! Upon closing in New York, the Duncans, by that time sole owners of the property, toured the country. Upon their return to Los Angeles in June, 1926, the show grossed over $200,000 in ten weeks.®^ Thus, in the years 1922 and 1923, Thomas Wilkes mounted ten premiere productions at The Majestic Theatre: The Nervous Wreck, In Love with Love, The Fool, The Rear Car, Climbing, Nancy Stair, The Poppy Kiss, The Trouble Hound, The Man of Action (by Ernest Wilkes), The Road Together. Four went on to New York, where The Nervous Wreck, In Love with Love, and The Fool established runs of over 100 performances. The Road Together closed after one 208 performance. The Rear Car was a success on the coast and in Chicago, but did not move eastward. Peter Weston, not shown in Los Angeles, and The Valley of Content, premiered in San Francisco, and both failed in New York. Topsy and Eva rolled up huge gross receipts across the country before being brushed off in New York (although playing more than a hundred performances there). In these two years, the premiere presentations filled one-half of each year— twenty-four in 1922 and twenty-eight in 1923. In addition, two shows established long runs: The Bad Man for fourteen weeks and The Rear Car for thirteen weeks. The Majestic Theatre flew the banner of a production house. The phenomenal activity by Thomas Wilkes was made possible by the fortuitous combination of several factors: first, his family had acquired sufficient capital in oil investment to consider it "profitable to produce plays and lease theatres," according to one source;^ second, he arrived in Los Angeles when the city was propelling itself into the position of a major metropolis, installed a stock company at The Majestic Theatre which bested the competi tion at The Morosco Theatre, and in so doing established another link in his theatre chain; and third, he solidified 209 his San Francisco holdings by leasing the famous Alcazar Theatre, which he acquired from Fred Belasco's widow and 6 4 sister. There, in late August, 1922, he opened a stock company with The Champion, starring Kay Hammond and George Barnes. Thus, between the two California cities, he was able to implement his program of maintaining stock companies, of trying out new plays, and of bringing stars westward to appear in works they had made famous or in new plays. However, while his policy of selecting good plays and presenting them with sophistication and taste initially met profitable support in San Francisco, by the summer of 1923, The Alcazar was suffering heavy losses, allegedly because the fixed price of admission, a dollar and a half, gc was deemed too high. One year later he relinquished the theatre to Henry Duffy and confined his production activity to The Capitol Theatre and The Columbia Theatre in that city. However, he was unable to repeat his earlier suc- 66 cesses. Several other factors contributed to Wilkes's suc cessful activity. For one thing, he entered an agreement with Sam Harris which gave him access to that producer's eastern successes and new scripts. For another, in August, 210 1923, he leased The Harris Theatre in New York for a period of ten years, beginning Labor Day, at a stated annual rental of $90,000 (coincidentally, just when The Alcazar was floundering). The action may have been the result of the agreement with Harris— either it was part of their agreement or came about because of the association— but in so doing, Wilkes precariously overextended himself and jeopardized his entire empire. Finally, in addition to his appearance at the psychologically right moment, with sufficient capital to realize his plans, and a contact which channeled eastern successes to his coast houses and through whom new works were tried out in California, Wilkes had the good fortune to see these plays imaginatively realized through the efforts of Wilhemena and Dickson Morgan, director and designer. For the time being, Thomas Wilkes laughed at those who had said that nothing could be done with The 6 8 Majestic because it was jinxed. The Morosco Theatre and Oliver Morosco The history of Oliver Morosco and The Morosco Theatre in Los Angeles in the two years between 1922 and 1924 is a tale of personal good fortune and tragedy, of 211 attempts to regain prominence and authority in the theatre world, and of unwise investment, overexpansion, and ulti mately, bankruptcy. The theatrical seasons at The Morosco Theatre in 1922 and 1923 were remarkably similar. In both years, more than three-fourths of the period was devoted to bland comedies of romantic roulades, rebellion, and rodomondade, broken only by two works with a serious tone, Blood and Sand, the dramatization of Ibanez's Spanish love triangle with a tragic ending, and Dulcy, Kaufman and Connelly's compassionately satirical look at a female type with universal overtones. The former, requiring six settings and a cast of twenty-six, was an expensive production which lasted two weeks. Florence Lawrence, in her review, congratulated the management for having discovered that "theatre patrons here don't want light comedy always and 69 forever." But her intuition proved faulty for, of the next nine plays staged at the theatre, only two were not comedies. Dulcy, Kaufman and Connelly's combination Mrs. Malaprop and Little Miss Fix-It, lasted six weeks and was judged "one of the most entertaining shows presented in 70 Los Angeles in a long time." As 1923 unfolded, it became increasingly clear that 212 the management intended to stage long-run engagements, with three weeks the minimum, of intellectually light-weight puerile comedies. A glance at the plays mounted in this period provides any historian with a fair representation of the "top ten pop writers" of comedies and melodramas: Frank Craven, Frederic and Fanny Hatton, Avery Hopwood, Willard Mack, Frank and Alice Mandel, W. Smith and Victor Mapes, Adelaide Matthews and Martha Stanley, and Anne Nichols. Of these presentations, only Spite Corner, a warm character study of young love in New England, lasted two weeks, swamped in the heavy competition of new fare and popular stars at the other playhouses, but also because it struck a wrong note in the steady series of bedroom farces (Scrambled Wives), topical and slightly risque comedies which revolved around war treated humorously and antisep- tically (Three Live Ghosts), the generation gap and flapper mothers (We Girls), marital disharmonies and emancipated women who still long for a home and husband and a new morality with the old ending (The Broken Wing, The Boomer ang, and The Gold Diggers), plus an occasional melodrama (Tiger Rose). 213 Besides this emphasis on light-weight plays and long-run engagements, it became evident that the theatre was no longer primarily a premiere house, for only two new works were mounted in these years: Morosco's presentation of Abie's Irish Rose and The Lady Killer. The latter, a spoof of all mystery-melodramas, such as Seven Keys to Baldpate and The Bat, was ineptly handled and crudely enacted and, yet, was kept before the public for seven 71 weeks. These changes in policy were undoubtedly related to the change in fortune in Oliver Morosco's life and to the expectation of The Morosco Theatre audiences. In these two years, the once exhaustingly-active producer mounted only two new plays— Abie's Irish Rose and A Sportin' Thing to Do. Anne Nichols' actor-proof senti mental comedy premiered on March 5, 1922. Edwin Schallert found the story wanting in logic and reality, but con cluded that, while "It is not a big play, nor a strong play, nor a great play . . . it is an entertaining play, 72 and . . . it is going to have a long run." The show ran for thirty-six weeks in Los Angeles, and opened in New York in the fall, but Morosco was not connected with the long-running success. Anne Nichols, charging that Morosco 214 had delayed his option on a New York production, organized a company and produced it herself. Suits and countersuits between the author and Morosco ensued, but he was unable 7 to collect any money. Thompson Buchanan's "problem comedy" of a generous woman who tolerated her husband's second marriage knowing that in time he would return to her, closed after a two- week tryout. The play was reminiscent in plot and tedious in development, and its intimate quality was diffused in the vastness of The Philharmonic Auditorium, where it was staged. It opened in New York on February 19, 1923, and closed after forty-one performances.^ Oliver Morosco's involvement in Los Angeles theatre was probably so minimal between 1922 and 1923 because he had extended his interests and energies along other avenues. Having amalgamated all of his holdings in 1921 into The Morosco Holding Company, Morosco announced his intention in February, 1922, of building a million- dollar theatre on Seventh and Hope Streets in Los Angeles. Before May, however, the site had shifted to 929 South 75 Broadway and the theatre did not materialize. In the meantime, he married Selma Paley, was named in a $250,000 damage suit for breach of contract in 2 ^ connection with Moroscotown, and acquired the leases on 7 6 The Century and The Casino Theatres in San Francisco. He planned to make the former a production house for new plays presented by stars supported by a resident company; 77 the latter would be used for musical comedies. By late August of 1922, a struggle among the officers of the com pany developed, with George Hentel, general manager and vice-president, and Frank Underwood, secretary lined against Morosco. One month later, in early October, Morosco relinquished his responsibility for the San Fran cisco theatres. During the same period, the Moroscos lost 78 their first child, a daughter. As the internecine feuding continued, Morosco resigned as president. In late July, 1923, The Oliver Morosco Holding Company was accused of fraud, mismanagement of funds, and the commission of a crime involving $2,500,000 79 stock swindle. A receivership was designated in the person of John M. Riehle. In February, 1924, the com pany's bankruptcy petition, filed three months earlier, was dismissed and indictment proceedings initiated. The or investigation substantiated that Morosco had been fleeced. Four of the officials were found guilty of the charges and sentenced to prison. In 1926, Morosco entered a 216 bankruptcy claim listing liabilities of over one million dollars. The Egan Theatre and Frank Egan While Thomas Wilkes and Oliver Morosco were alter ing the configuration of their respective domains, Frank Egan, too, appears to have altered his concept and inten tions regarding theatre, deciding to emphasize plays with commercial appeal. Only one production in the two-year period was of any literary or historical significance, a two-week run of Ingomar, a poetic drama first produced in America in December, 1851, and revived by R. D. MacLean and Olga Gray Zacsek with the intention of playing it in the original style. The play's mock heroics, exotic characters, and blatant situations only prompted a humor ous response from the audience. Nevertheless, Edwin Schallert commented on the timelessness of the piece, saying that "it is worth seeing, more worth it than lots of sophisticated Broadway attractions, for it possesses o o genuine poetic beauty and that is always worth seeing." Notwithstanding this single attempt to breathe life into a by-gone artistic experience, the remainder of the fare offered at this theatre underlined the conclusion that Frank Egan had revised his policy of supporting 217 experimental or literary dramatic presentations. Other than three productions sponsored by others— Creighton Hale moved Just Suppose from The Mason Opera House; Willard Mack revived Red Bulldog; and Walter Hast produced Sus picion, a new murder-mystery, coauthored by Wheeler Dryden, actor, and George Appell, local lawyer®®— Egan backed only six productions: a twenty-week revival of Maude Ful ton's 1920 romantic comedy, The Hummingbird, which he owned; two romantic farce-comedies of salacious mood; a melodrama about drug addiction; a new comedy; and a domes tic treatise. Only the last one did not trade on the currency of topicality and/or suggestiveness. The Demi-Virgin, by Avery Hopwood, was a highly- colored version of Hollywood life, with the "gawk appeal" of a strip party, to which the program made specific refer- 84 ence. Oscar Apfel's melodrama, Morphine, was a "fellow traveler": It has such tremendous situations, such great moments; it has such instances of great acting. On the other hand, it has an almost ludicrously crude and naive quality, is so sophomoric in the handling on [sic] its material at times, that you gravitate between almost as many moods in watching it as the dope-soaked heroine herself.®-* What small measure of poignancy it achieved derived from extrinsic factors. Wallace Reid, popular film star who 218 had received critical acclaim for two plays staged at The Egan in 1920, had died four months earlier in January, 1923, as a result of drug addiction. Frederic and Fanny Hatton's new satire on feminine emancipation, The Waning Sex, was deemed a "bright and nifty idea" badly in need of surgery on its verbiage and O C . sentimental attitude if it was to succeed. In Chicago, it had been panned as a "rough, dull witless farrago of Q 7 vulgar nonsense, and when Getting Gertie's Garter opened in Los Angeles on June 26, 1923, Schallert wrote, "The author has devised about 3568423 ways of avoiding mention- 8 8 ing a nasty innuendo." Notwithstanding this critical derogation, Gertie's two-hour attempt to return a diamond- studded garter to a former suitor titillated audiences throughout the summer. Then, in the first week of Septem ber, a blanket warrant was issued against Frank Egan and nine members of the cast for producing and participating 89 in a play that was deemed "indecent and obscene." The interest in the play is more readily under standable than the belated nature of the censorship action. Gertie was the only comedy of its kind to provide moderate curiosity on the summer theatrical scene. The Majestic was into a series of filler-type plays between the Blinn 219 and Rambeau appearances; The Mason was dark except for the Miller-Anglin stands; and The Morosco staged two long runs. The play's risque reputation had preceded its Los Angeles production, and the city's opportunity to witness plays with implicit sexual activity thus far had been limited to short engagements of road shows. Why the censorship drive was initiated in the fall is less understandable. The out-of-the-way location of the theatre and its limited seating (334) may have caused moral arbiters to consider it a diminished threat. Per haps they thought most people otherwise preoccupied during the summer or considered it the kind of play only tourists would be likely to support. With the "opening of the fall season" and the resumption of school, it became more probable that the production might be viewed by a young adult "out on the town." One source averred that the action was a delayed local response to New York censorship fervor over the suggestiveness and nudity in the revue, Artists and Models.^ It may also have been an attempt to whitewash the theatrical stables during the engagement of The Wayfarer, a religious pageant (see pp. 245-46). Whatever the reason, Los Angeles was once again to retain its unsullied image of the City of Angels. The 220 offensive scene was edited,91 the fifty-dollar fines were paid, and the production reopened on September 19, 1923, to play five additional weeks by which time it had estab lished the longest run in any city outside New York, and just possibly even surpassed that city.92 Besides these offerings, Egan staged two produc tions with some merit. The First Fifty Years was conven tional romantic-domestic fare, but its journey through fifty years of married life featured only two characters. At the end, as the aging husband resolves to kiss his wife, he forgets his purpose while crossing the room and picks up a card deck instead. The play and the perform ances received exceptional praise, somewhat out of propor tion to the critical appreciation given The Emperor Jones, which was running contemporaneously at The Mason: . . . the piece remains a striking novelty in the theater, a real and fine contribution to theatri cal literature. If you are a lover of the theater, don't I beg of you, miss this unique and absorbing play.93 Earlier in the year, Egan had backed an all-Negro production of Africanus, a new play by Eloise Bibbs Thompson, a former Los Angeles newspaperwoman. Staged at The Walker Auditorium and directed by Olga Gray Zacsek, the play concerned a group of Bantus who attempt to involve 221 American interests in their liberation plans. Although the play was melodramatic and vaudevillian in tone, the event in itself was significant for, as The Times observed, for the first time in Los Angeles theatre history, a drama of the colored people, written by a Negro author, and intended for a black audience had been realized by an all-Negro cast. During its two-week engagement, with the first floor reserved entirely for non-Caucasians, it gave "promise of being one of the most unique attractions of downtown Los Angeles. These two offerings were the exception to Egan's activities in these two years, and one can only speculate about the reasons for the turn of events. It may have been initiated as a result of his friendship with Oliver Morosco. Morosco had taken The Hummingbird as far east as Boston, but did not take it into New York. Beset by financial adversities, he may have sold the product to Egan, a long-time friend and associate. Egan staged it in New York, where it lasted forty performances. The produc tion was said to have cost him anywhere from twenty-five to forty thousand dollars.®^ The set-back seemed only to invigorate Egan, who made plans to open The Waning Sex in New York and who later presented White Collars. He also 222 undertook the management of Doris Keane, which involved the presentation of the actress in two new plays. With such expansion, including the lease of a theatre in San Francisco, Egan may have been forced to convert his Los Angeles playhouse into a commercial operation. The move may have been expedient, but it closed the small theatre to experimental productions. The Fine Arts Theatre In mid-1923, three ambitious, industrious, tal ented, and idealistic individuals set about to fill the vacuum left by the demise of such explorative theatrical groups as The Hollywood Community Theatre and The Little Harlequin Theatre. Responding to a national movement dissatisfied with the artistic restrictions and commitment to private profit of the commercial theatre, and counter acting the encroaching bland enticements of the theatrical fare in Los Angeles, Wilhemena Wilkes, Dickson Morgan, and France [sic] Goldwater organized "a theatre devoted Q C . exclusively to the finer art in music and drama." D Wil hemena Morgan, sister of Thomas Wilkes, was a talented director whom Billboard had cited in 1921 as one of the three women directors in the country.9^ Dickson Morgan, designer for the Wilkes theatres in Los Angeles and San CHART 6 THE WALKER AUDITORIUM— THE FINE ARTS THEATRE— THE ORANGE GROVE PLAYHOUSE BACKGROUND HISTORY Owned by George W. Walker. Envisioned as far back as August, 1907, when it was announced that a six-story building containing a 1200-seat theatre was being planned for the east side of Grand Avenue near Seventh Street.98 Opened December 21, 1908, with vaudeville bill headed by Pierce and Roslyn, "operatic toreadors," plus "Walkerscope."99 REMODELING A reported $20,000 spent on remodeling: lobby redone in a carved stone finish; audi torium redecorated in a blue-and-gray color scheme supervised by Dickson Morgan and H. C. Frost; new stage curtain and cameo painting above proscenium arch; $5,000 switchboard i n s t a l l e d .100 Seating Capacity Variously cited as between 700 and 900; one article claimed 775.101 No description of the stage. to to u> 224 Francisco, claimed previous directing and acting experi ence at Stanford University, where he was instrumental in the founding of The Theatre Arts Department."**^ France Goldwater directed a concert bureau, managed artists, and •m3 arranged programs for clubs and recitals. The earliest inkling of their plans became known in late July, 1923, when Miss Goldwater signed a five-year lease on what was known in local theatre circles as "a white elephant," The Walker Auditorium at 730 South Grand Avenue. The founder's plans for the initial season were modest— six plays in two-week engagements, presented at popular prices of fifty cents to a dollar and a half.-*-^ Subscription tickets were available and the venture en listed many patrons, including one substantial donor, Irving H. Heilman, a pioneer California banker and philan thropist, who guaranteed the working and running expenses for several weeks.'*'®'* On October 14, 1923, The Fine Arts Theatre debuted to the public at an informal concert at which the goals were reiterated.***®® On November 5, 1923, the theatre became a reality with Androcles and the Lion, preceded by by Seiler's curtain-raiser, Time Will Tell. Although there were three other openings that evening— two featuring 225 popular performers, Ed Wynn and Harry Lauder, plus the premiere of a new play— The Fine Arts Theatre drew a mixed audience of "ordinary folk and literati. "107 reviewers commented favorably upon the play, a rare medley of wit and wisdom with a deeper meaning for those who appreciated it; the company, particularly the work of Franklin Pang- born and Helen Jerome Eddy; and the direction and design: The directorial chests of the Little Theater movements should swell away up with pride, because Willamene Wilkes and Dickson Morgan had the courage to produce the plays now showing at the Fine Arts Theatre.108 The two-week presentation was succeeded by Karl Capek's fantastic melodrama, R.U.R., which fascinated a large audience. Not all the reviewers were overwhelmed with the piece, for The Examiner critic thought it lacked interest and humor, while Monroe Lathrop thought it . . . gave to playgoers the most novel, stimulat ing and provocative adventure, perhaps in years • • • As a smashing tract for the dignity of labor against materialism and as a specimen of savagely skillful use of the parable in drama, "R.U.R." dwarfs anything seen in years on the local boards.109 At this point in The Fine Arts Theatre's history, it became evident that the ideals advanced in the heat of the summer had begun to bloat in the winter of competi- tion. The play was extended into a third week, and then Z2F for two more weeks. Wilhemena and Dickson Morgan re signed. Franklin Pangborn also left. According to The Times, "friction" between the producer and the three members had caused the severance.-'--*-® Whatever the real reasons, they were confusing, contradictory, and never fully explained. On December 20, 1923, Variety took note of their departure, stating that the endeavor had not been a financial success. Yet, one month later, the same journal reported that the theatre was doing well and that the Morgans and Pangborn had left because of differences in temperament and disagreements concerning production matters. The Fine Arts Theatre survived the split and Frank Elliott was appointed the new director. However, the third production did not enhance its reputation, for Edward Knoblock's 1918 play, Tiger I Tiger!, was a plati tudinous drama of a man who marries a woman younger than himself and inferior to him in education. But, with its fourth and final offering, The Fine Arts Theatre re established its direction. As with the first offering, the reviewers penned panegyrics about The Adding Machine, which had opened in New York less than a year earlier: 227 . . . a most remarkably startling and vivid and bitterly satirical and at the same time hilari ously humorous play . . . It is bitingly bril liant. After its four-week run, The Fine Arts Theatre ceased operation. No explanation was given for the sudden termina tion of the first west-coast Los Angeles-based Theatre Guild. Two weeks later, the house was leased to a new producer who moved the artistic pendulum back into the commercial theatre, staging comedies and musical revues. Neither France Goldwater nor Frank Elliott was actively engaged in theatre during the remainder of the decade, and any further plans by the Morgans were cancelled when Wil- hemena died in May, 1925, from complications following the death of their second child.Dickson Morgan continued to design and direct and later he was instrumental in inaugurating a matinee series. Throughout his long life, he remained active in theatre. However, nothing as ambi tious as their dream of creating a Theatre Guild was attempted until late in the decade when the Los Angeles (Civic) Repertory Theatre was formed. 228 The Smith-King Players1 Summer Sojourn at Dalton's That Los Angeles theatrical boundaries were expand ing was evident not only in the increased activity of Thomas Wilkes and the attempt to found a west-coast Theatre Guild, but in such curious ways as the placing of a theatrical unit in a theatre usually given over to vaude ville, tabloid-revues, or films. Such was the case with the short-term engagement of The Smith-King Stock company at Dalton's Theatre, the former vaudeville house owned by Alexander Pantages. The Dalton brothers had leased the house in March, 1922, for tabloid musical comedies and reviews, but in May, they announced that the Smith-King company, housed at The Raymond Theatre in Pasadena, would open at their theatre at the end of the month. The short-term engagement was notable for at least three reasons. The first of these was that the group gave the city its first view of Zona Gale's 1920-21 Pulitzer Prize winning play, Lulu Bett; . . . one of the finest plays that this town has ever seen excellently played. (The Times) "Lulu Bett" is far superior to its companion best seller, "Main Street," mainly because one has in tense sympathy for and interest in Lulu . . . (The Examiner) 229 A second reason was the intelligent if not unusual play choice, the absorbing productions, and above-average per formances, which prompted The Examiner reviewer to declare that the group "will challenge the attention of the entire theater-going community."I1^ And the third reason was the try-out of a new comedy, In Walked Jimmie, a sentimental "Cinderfella" play. Following this ten-week engagement, The Smith-King Players toured California and then returned to The Raymond Theatre, Pasadena, where their productions were not financially successful because of the size of the theatre and the competition from Gilmore Brown's organization at The Savoy. There is no evidence to illuminate the reason for the company's short stay or even to explain the thinking behind the Dalton's decision. It seems quite likely, however, that the company was contracted for this two- month period between the engagements of two musical stock companies. What is unmistakable is the shift which the group made after a few weeks, from the works of Gale and Pollock to light farce and romance— a change prompted perhaps by the taste of the audience accustomed to the vaudeville-revue fare of the house, dictated by the 230 financial exigencies of production, and/or forced upon the company by the size of the theatre. The Mason Opera House The third and fourth years of The Twenties at The Mason Opera House were not remarkable, and yet there was a note of encouraging vitality in the kind and number of productions that played there, both road shows and coast productions, and an indication of the growing importance with which the city was being viewed by eastern producers. The pattern of production was similar in both years. There were a few unusual presentations, many featuring the stars of the original production, surrounded by an entire landscape of popular entertainment— musical come dies, revues, familiar melodramas, and domestic comedies— some of which were distinguished by the personality of the performer around whom the vehicle was built. In 1922, the theatre was unused for only seven weeks. The active period encompassed nine comedies, eleven plays, eight musical offerings, two minstrel com panies and three revues. Most of the shows were road- company offerings, with a few coast undertakings scattered throughout. All of the shows remained for one week only, except The Bat, The Passing Show, and The Circle,____ 231 which played for two weeks, and two Morosco-sponsored productions: Mike Angelo which played for two weeks and Letty Pepper which lasted four weeks. Among the authors represented were Akins, Benavente, Crothers, Drinkwater, Galsworthy, Maugham, Milne, and Shakespeare. Although the first half of 1922 opened with the popular star, May Robson, as a Plymouth, Massachusetts, spinster, who found emancipation on a California ranch, i on It Pays to Smile, the season quickly achieved balance with several artistically demanding and theatrically outstanding plays and performances. Nance O'Neil, in Benavente1s bitter drama of a wife's frantic but futile attempts to save her husband from his incestuous feelings, The Passion Flower, exploded in "one of the most stupendous things achieved in dramatic history of the present, "^l One month later, Ethel Barrymore played to sell-out houses; the orchestra had been moved to the foyer to accommodate additional seats in the auditorium, and an extra matinee was added. Zoe Akins' Declass^ was a stylish tragi-comedy, but the actress mesmerized her audiences: All the Barrymore finesse is apparent. She's the same magnetic figure, whose slight gaucheries of manner are forgiven even while they are ZTZ recognized and the wonderful full-voiced manner of speech . . . prevails, with perhaps a bit more incoherence of delivery. In the quieter scenes a poise and subtlety marked the star's work which held the audience in absolute quiet . . .122 Several other stars held the stage of The Mason Opera House between Barrymore's engagement and the end of July, when the theatre went dark for five weeks. David Warfield's energy and magnetism, enriched by the dis criminating work of the company— all of the 1921 New York contingent, seven of whom had appeared in the original 1911 presentation— made the creaky machinery of The Return of Peter Grimm fascinating. The one-week engagement 123 grossed $26,000, with an extra Friday matinee added. His success was eclipsed though not surpassed by the appearance of two of the stars of "The Gilded Age" of theatre— Mrs. Leslie Carter and John Drew— in Somerset Maugham's The Circle. The combination of "these two resplendent personalities" in an urbane, muftied comedy dazzled a public still blinking from the appearances of other luminaries. The production grossed $32,500 in two weeks.12^ No less impressive and in some way more important were the quieter, less-glamorous productions of Walter Hampden, Henry Miller, and a New York Theatre Guild 233 offering. Walter Hampden, who had created his first starring role in 190 8 in A Servant in the House, and had gone on to establish his own theatre where he staged literary dramas, opened his first Los Angeles engagement on March 28, 1922, with Hamlet— an accelerated version, devoid of stamping and posturing to which the star "brought something new and different in his conception of the role. Something that is fresh with potency and ion vitality ..." His production of Macbeth and The Taming of the Shrew displayed his emotional powers and technical skills, but most reviewers agreed that he created his most congenial and fully-realized role in Othello, which provoked storms of applause and stamping feet from the audience, in what may have been "a first" in local history. Henry Miller completed the star appearances in the first half of 1922. He brought two new plays and explained his reason for selecting the coast as a try-out area, saying that it gave him a fuller opportunity to attend to the requirements of rehearsal and performance, under financially less-exorbitant conditions. Her Friend the King, a slight comedy about an American widow who ingratiated herself with the king by her lessons in 234 traveling incognito, scarcely taxed the talents of the company. La Tendresse, however, a probing, unsentimental look at the relationship between love and tenderness, sensitively balanced with humor and pathos, was admirably realized by Miller, Chatterton, and Bruce McRae.Both plays eventually opened in New York. In between these engagements, Los Angeles received its first glimpse of a New York Theatre Guild offering when Laura Hope Crewes, Dudley Digges, Leonard Mudie, and Erskine Sanford offered A. A. Milne's delicate play of social pretensions, Mr. Pirn Passes By. It was welcomed as a theatrical event: "[The play] is caviar with English muffins and a demitasse. . . . So big a tempest and so small a teapot. But that, as it happens, is its charm.1 '*-^ Leavening these heady theatrical offerings was a variety of popular fare. The Bat, which had thrilled New Yorkers for 878 performances, did not disappoint Los Angeles theatregoers, who shrieked and gripped armrests, mulled over clues, and agreed not to divulge the ending of the play.-*-25* Chauncey Olcott provided his usual sentiment-filled evening: Olcott swaggers about, trilling one moment and scattering gems of Marcus Aurelian hue the next. He is invariably received with ovations and encouraged to come again . . .130 235 Elsie Janis and Her Gang bounced in with her "bomb-proof" revue; Charlotte Greenwood rollicked through Letty Pepper with the soles of her feet, the calves of her legs, and a midget; Kolb and Dill made merry about their physical disparities in Give and Take (a new farce); Leo Ditrich- stein renewed his acquaintance with the city after ten years with The Great Lover and Toto; and there was Irene, The Passing Show of 1921, and London Follies. The fall, 1922, season saw fewer star attractions and a greater number of coast offerings and, on the whole, was only passably exciting. Abraham Lincoln, John Drink- water's chronicle play starring Frank McGlynn, was acclaimed "a classic," and brought out large audiences from "the professional and social spheres."131 John Galsworthy's social drama of conflicting values between an aristocratic family of culture and their nouveau-riche aggressive neighbors ranked in literary quality with the previous play, but The Skin Game aroused only moderate interest. The subject matter and its relentless treatment may have been "too close" to the reality of the city that was referred to as "a boob town," but the mediocre pre- 1 on sentation did little to enhance the play. The coast undertakings were even less inspiring. 236 Thomas Wilkes's production of Rachel Crothers' humorous yet critical look at the shams of society-folk, The Nice People, was badly-timed. Cast with actors from the Pacific Coast, the company was overshadowed by the bril liance of Abraham Lincoln, which preceded it. The film version had played the city a few weeks earlier and unusu ally warm weather kept audiences away. "Some theatres had hardly a corporal’s guard on either Saturday, Sunday, or Monday nights." Even the critics seemed to have wit nessed different performances, for Edwin Schallert observed only a fifty per cent turnout, while Florence Lawrence said that "the audience turned out en masse." Still, the show grossed $9,000 in its one-week stay ($2.00 top), measuring up to road-company presentations of straight plays.133 Oliver Morosco displayed Mike Angelo, the play which had inaugurated the new Shubert-Curran Theatre in San Francisco. It gave Leo Carrillo an opportunity to display his comedic-pathetic range, but otherwise was an artificial product.Willard Mack returned to the Pacific Northwest and had Sgt. O'Fallon match wit and weight with bootleggers and romance in The Red Bulldog. Be Careful Dearie, an original musical supported by local 237 capital, had only one saving factor, Bill Frawley, whose comedic talents saved the show from sinking at its launch ing.136 The beginning of 1923 had a distinct feeling of deja vu about it, for although the comedies which continued to dominate for eighteen of the total of forty-one weeks, had a more realistic mixed tone about them, and although musical entertainment dropped off, works with more serious pretensions showed a muted record. Only Elsie Ferguson, Charles Gilpin, and Fritz Leiber added stature to the early months, which commenced, predictably enough, with the appearances of May Robson, and Kolb and Dill. Miss Ferguson's vehicle, The Wheel of Life, was an undistinguished costume melodrama which had opened in Chicago. Her sympathetic performance could not salvage the piece, which closed on tour.13^ The Emperor Jones opened at The Mason on January 15, 1923, to an audience comprised of many nonregular first-nighters, professionals, and Negroes. While there were some reservations, critics were unanimous in their praise of Gilpin, his endurance, versatility, and "unflag ging magnetism which is almost superhuman.1,138 Comments from the audience ranged from expressions of boredom to 238 outbursts of shock. Edwin Schallert thought the work "the strangest dramatic contraption that has ever visited the stage in this city," while Florence Lawrence, who considered it intriguing, novel, and obvious, urged her readers to see and to study it. From the comments made by the reviewers in other cities, Chicago, for example, it appears that the production-on-tour was less satisfying than during its New York presentations. Fritz Leiber began his Shakespearean repertory, in competition with Feodor Chaliapin's Los Angeles debut, with a powerful, crude, sweeping Macbeth, succeeded by a Hamlet, which one critic considered "one of the best per formances of the Shakespearean tragedy in the aspect of its ensemble and its feeling that have been seen on the local stage. He followed it with Petrucchio, Iago, The Merchant of Venice, and Marc Antony— the latter being considered an unusual choice for the star whose interpre tation placed the role "on a new pedestal of repute."141 These hardy, late-winter shoots, were soon joined by a field of distinguished artists in plays of more than passing interest. Ina Claire, Bruce McRae, and Paul Harvey epitomized the sophistication of Arthur Richman's comedy, The Awful Truth, about a divorcee who brushes - - Z3F aside a scandal standing in the way of remarriage.li®5 Margaret Anglin, supported by Max Montesole, Janet Cameron, Henry Mowbray, and Henry Minturn, in A Woman of Bronze, evoked comparison to Bernhardt. She followed her spring appearance with a return visit in August, brilliantly realizing Wilde's A Woman of No Importance, and Orrick John's new comedy, A Charming Conscience, a satirical look at American menfolk.1^ Henry Miller favored the city with his second pre- Broadway tryout, and The Changelings, a comedy of genera tions, received a dazzling presentation.1^5 It ran for 123 performances in New York and was the only new work tried out in 192 3 to move eastward. Even the musicals and melodramas and productions of ready comprehensibility which filled out the midyear landscape showed style and substance. Monroe Lathrop zoomed in on the fun and failings of Walker Whiteside's "upholstered prince of India," Tamar, The Hindu. . . . [It deals with] impossible lands and people invented for the juvenile minds that revel in wild flights of fancy and love to shudder and "pretend." It is a structure to hold the elaborate collection of 'mustey' props . . . [without which] it would be the merest ancient claptrap melodrama.1^6 Leo Ditrichstein in The Purple Mask provided such engaging 240 good fun that the audience demanded a curtain call after each of the five acts.^^ Fred Stone, "The Fairbanks of the Stage," flew up through the cellar, rode a horse bareback, joked, sang, and danced through Tip-Top. Red Pepper, a gorgeous extravaganza featured two horses and a turkey. Movie stars also returned to the stage, a practice which had begun to intensify in 1921. Creighton Hale appeared in Just Suppose, and Eugene O'Brien brought a play about breaking into the movies— Steve. Popular actor, Henry Duffy, almost brightened the summer doldrums with The Dust of Erin, starring Tom Moore. However, the production was cancelled when the producer disappeared. It was rumored that the show was "in the red" $30,000; that Duffy was unhappy with the production; that he was depressed and earlier had tried to commit suicide.^® Frank Egan offered to back the show, but it folded. Duffy later wrote Egan that he had gone away to recover from a breakdown.From such a hapless beginning, Duffy recovered to become the coast's most influential stock producer. Theatrical affairs took a healthy upswing with the commencement of the fall, 1923, season, for of the nine 241 shows which played at The Mason between September 9, 1923, and the end of the year, only three played one-week engagements. However, while the greater number of produc tions extended their engagements, the caliber of the fare evidenced little variety. Most of the plays were comedies of domestic buffets and bliss, of national foibles and follies wrapped in a chauvinistic hue, or melodramas of teeth-chattering capers and curdling cries, such as The First Year (of marriage), So This Is London, and The Cat and the Canary. Guy Bates Post, in his comeback to the legitimate stage, expressed the tenderness and love of the music teacher in The Climax, with simplicity and sym pathy. Ed Wynn, complete with Arabian "balloon" pants, velveteen jacket, and a fireman's hat, created a "hoot" as The Fool.^*^* Finally, Louis 0. Macloon brought to town his production of Salisbury Field's comedy-melodrama Zander (Alexander the Great). The play was of less importance than what the appearance of the production and producer portended for Los Angeles theatre. For one thing, the work was seen in Los Angeles only three and a half months after its close in New York. For another, the production was not a road show which had played other major cities on 242 its way to Los Angeles, for Macloon had contracted for "the Pacific Coast productions of the new comedies and dramas produced by the Charles Frohman office," with the right to present them in the territory between San Diego and San Francisco.151 variety, which had observed Mac loon 's presence in Los Angeles in November, 1923, stated that the producer was looking for a theatre where he planned "to run the shows [exclusive presentations of New York successes] simultaneous [sic] with the New York engagements."152 By the end of 1923, it was apparent that Los Angeles was no longer considered a one-week dead-end stop or lay-over for San Francisco engagements. The decision to retain road companies for two-week engagements was the result of several factors: an increase in population, one willing and able to partake of the numerous entertainment offerings in the city; the policy of longer runs estab lished at the stock companies; the growing interest by local personnel in theatre projects. In these years, it was noticeable that New York shows were traversing the distance between the two coasts more speedily and produc ers were considering the area as a profitable location for testing new plays— whether or not they went on to . 243 New York or other eastern cities. The Philharmonic Auditorium Although The Philharmonic Auditorium was used for only one road show during all of 1922, The Greenwich Village Follies (excluding engagements of The San Carlo Opera Company and The Chicago Opera Company), several local undertakings took advantage of the available play house. The most ambitious was the spring engagement of Will King and his musical-tabloid-revues. With a weekly change of bill and three shows daily at popular prices, the King shows were hardly likely to be above "grind quality," but they surprised the skeptical. The Examiner reviewer spoke about their abbreviated version of A Pair o' Sixes: . . . [King is not only] providing the best amuse ment value for the money in town, but his produc tions at the Philharmonic Auditorium are eclipsing all the revues Los Angeles has seen for years.^53 However, the weekly change of bill began to take its toll, for the fifth week's presentation lacked showmanship and pep, and by the seventh week, "high class vaudeville" was incorporated into the show. The engagement closed after the eighth week, although the company moved to The Pan- tages vaudeville theatre. Besides this venture, a few benefits and a minstrel 244 show, three new efforts were aired: Alma Latina, a new opera by Guiseppe Micelli, had little impact upon the theatre-going public at large, although it drew large audiences from the city's Latin-speaking communities;15^ Oliver Morosco staged Thompson Buchanan's new play, A Sportin' Thing to Do (supra, page 213); and Chuckles, an all-Negro musical revue, made up in enthusiasm what it lacked in quality. The year, 1923, saw more musical entertainment at this theatre than at any other time in the young decade, all of local or west coast origin. There was a one-week revival of Mozart's The Impressario; The Los Angeles Community Theatre staged The Girl from Iowa; Ackerman and Harris offered two revues, Struttin' Along and The Pepper Box Revue, the latter featuring the big talents of Sophie Tucker, plus Fanchon and Marco. In addition to The Black and White Revue, and A. B. Marcus' Hello Prosperity, the city also received its first taste of a continental revue, The Petrograd Chat-Noir. "Altogether it is such a big show that you will find many turns, acts, and parts of turn that will fill you with delight."^55. However, the highlight of the season, theatrically, dramatically, and socially, was none of these musical 245 entertainments. Romeo and Juliet, directed by Frank Reich- er and starring Jane Cowl and Rollo Peters, plus Dennis King, Jessie Ralph, Louis Hector, Gordon Burby, Roger Ayerton, and others, emphasized the volitility and passion of youth and was "gloriously coordinated." The one-week engagement grossed $32,367.156 One other company played The Philharmonic for three weeks and, although coverage in the English-speaking newspapers was limited, The National Theater of Mexico, in its first American tour featuring Senora Nelly Fernandez and twenty-two Mexican artists, found sufficient encourage ment to return for another three-week engagement and appearances later at The Pantages Theatres. Other Productions Theatrical production in Los Angeles spilled out of the conventional playhouses into the receptive outdoors. Besides The Mission Play and The Pilgrimage Play, three other outdoor pageants enriched the period: an Actors Fund benefit of A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Historical Revue and Motion Picture Exposition and Monroe Doctrine Centen nial in the summer of 1923, and The Wayfarer pageant in September, 1923. 246 Both of the latter were set in the new Coliseum adjacent to Exposition Park. The former, concocted by a group from the movie industry and The World Amusement Service Association, was a poorly-conceived attempt to merge business and art, and featured a world's fair of exhibits, a rodeo, a demonstration of movie-making, a nighly display of fireworks entitled "Montezuma, or The Fall of the Aztec Nation," and historical pageants from American history. The exposition failed to "catch on," and ended in bankruptcy as "one of the biggest flops of the century.1,158 Its antithesis in intent and content, The Way farer, a pageant of brotherhood among nations opened on September 8, 1923. Conceived by Dr. J. E. Crowthers, the play opened on the battlefield of Flanders, moved through six Biblical scenes, and ended with 7,000 people, repre senting the peoples of the world, carrying national flags and marching behind the uplifted cross while the national anthem resounded. Edwin Schallert comprehended its appeal, its pictorial beauty, and timely reawakening of "impulses 159 toward the veneration of neglected ideals." 247 Summary and Conclusion The years 1922-1923 were a period of forward move ment and a time of frustration, the nature of which shaped theatrical activities in the remaining years of the decade. Thomas Wilkes finalized his arrangement with an eastern contact whereby original works under consideration by the New York producer were tried out on the west coast, and several properties presented in the east were channeled to the coast for presentation in Los Angeles or San Fran cisco. In arranging this contact, Wilkes bridged the theatrical worlds of both coasts, bringing Los Angeles into the expanding national theatrical scene, initiating the movement from west to east, and breaking the reliance upon eastern road-show imports. What Wilkes's action accomplished was to set up and support the notion that Los Angeles could mount coast units of New York products with a great measure of effectiveness and that it could and would support open-ended engagements of new plays. In these two years, Wilkes premiered eight new plays, three of which went on to healthy engagements in the east after enjoying successful runs in the city. Two other works were tried out and also went east, with one entering New York under Wilkes's sole sponsorship. He also backed two shows 248 not directly originated by or connected with Sam Harris; Peter Weston fared poorly, but Topsy and Eva sustained a creditable run. Besides these new offerings, Wilkes also expanded his presentation of stars in new works and eastern successes. While Thomas Wilkes was actively extending the scope of theatre production in the city, Oliver Morosco's influence was diminishing. Caught up in personal and business difficulties, he staged only two new plays and, while Abie's Irish Rose was a phenomenal success on both coasts, Morosco lost out to the author who produced the show on her own in New York. The other new play, by Thomas Buchanan, closed in a month in the east and fared poorly in Los Angeles as well. The theatre which bore his name tried out only one new play, and devoted the remainder of the two years to conventional comedies and mysteries installed for prolonged runs of three weeks or more. The thrust toward commercialization, which was evident in Wilkes's undertakings, was most marked in the direction which Frank Egan's activities took in these years. At his little theatre, only one literary work found voice. Thereafter, Egan staged popular fare, ranging from the sentimental comedy to the bedroom farce, from the 249 lurid melodrama of dope addiction and a toothless satire on female emancipation to the comedy of the sexes, Getting Gertie1s Garter, which encountered censorship action during its lengthy engagement. However, for all this movement away from new theatrical avenues, Egan did back a produc tion of Africanus, the first experiment in a play written by a Negro, enacted by a black cast, and promoted to draw the Negro community, which was given "downstairs" seating for the engagement. The Mason Opera House manifested the ups and downs peculiar to the business of show business. In these two years, the theatre entertained a glittering caravan of stars; found room for the classic repertoires of Walter Hampden and Fritz Leiber, analyzed the pre-Broadway pre sentations of Henry Miller during both summers; offered a more even program of theatrical fare, balancing popular entertainment with more thoughtful and challenging works; showed, belatedly, the first view of an O'Neill play and a Theatre Guild offering; and, by the fall of 1923, achieved the two-week engagement as a staple of its calendar. In addition, both at The Mason and The Philharmonic, independent efforts became more numerous and more profes sional, for the most part consisting of a number of "movie 250 star" vehicles, several revues, the engagement of a Spanish-speaking troupe from Mexico, the "almost" debut of Henry Duffy as a producer, and the entrance upon the local theatre scene of Louis O. Macloon. In the case of these independent efforts, their relation to later developments is significant, for several revues found particular favor with audiences in later years, and it was a form which seemed peculiarly in touch with the talents and interests of the coast (ca. 1924-1928); the Spanish-speaking theatre took root in the city; Duffy became the most extensive producer on the coast; and Macloon accelerated Los Angeles' right to challenge New York's "Number One" position. While activity on the commercial scene intensified, propelling Los Angeles toward that position where it commanded serious consideration as a production center of importance, an effort was made to leaven or enrich the trend by initiating a west-coast Theatre Guild. The Fine Arts Theatre was intended as a professional group devoted to playwrights whose position, artistically and/or philo sophically, was less apt to obtain a hearing in the popular theatre. Runs were deliberately limited in length and support was anticipated through subscription. However, the undertaking folded after four productions. By the 251 second offering, the temptation to capitalize on the suc cess of a show by extending the run became too great, and "artistic differences" split the producing-directing- designing team. The Fine Arts Theatre collapsed. Besides these activities— Thomas Wilkes's expan sion and involvement in eastern theatrical activities; Frank Egan's energetic involvement in production; Oliver Morosco's diminishing contributions; several undertakings by independent producers; the attempt to found a coast theatre guild; and a short-term engagement of a profes sional troupe at a downtown vaudeville house; plus the longer runs at The Mason; and the entrance of Louis 0. Macloon— several other individuals expressed an interest in erecting new theatres for the spoken drama. Foremost was the announcement that A. L. Erlanger was to direct the theatrical affairs of the new Biltmore Theatre. All the other projects were advanced by local investors, including several connected with the movie industry. None of these projects— save for the Biltmore— materialized as outlined in these years. Several factors were responsible, but the primary determinant was the recession which attacked the city at the end of 1923 (later than the rest of the country) and which extended into 1924, when it was 252 compounded by other factors. As a result, money became tight and barely-suppressed panic affected local bankers and merchants. Thus, the one time that hesitancy occurred, the effect proved deleterious to the growth of the theatre. Had the forces set in motion by Wilkes, implemented by Macloon, and enriched by such groups as The Fine Arts Theatre coalesced with the forces promoting the new theatre structures, it is just possible that Los Angeles theatre might have found its pace before the parasitic interest of eastern and other producers debilitated the scene later in the decade. It is just possible that it might have found itself before it was swamped in the "New York squeeze" and the anticipations of the tourists, and it might have had a better chance of resisting "the recency rage" which afflicted the local theatre between 1926 and 1929. It is just possible that it might have felt less frenetic and frantic about its theatrical image; that it might have found ways, means, and interest in staging long-run engagements of New York shows contemporary with their eastern showing and new works, plus literary revivals; that it might have impressed the numerous playwrights in the city that the theatrical eruption was less a mistake and more of a long-lasting certainty. 253 Perhaps such would not have been the case anyway, for the speculative aura given over to quick money, super latives, speed, size, and suicide persisted throughout the decade in Los Angeles. In addition, the image of the city as a contradictory conglomerate of over-size boob town still wearing its Middlewest prairie blinders and af flicted with a hyperactive moral vision; a racy "kootch" town with all caution thrown to the ocean breezes, or a half-witted moron with critical faculties carefully inop erative and artistic sensibilities a few notches above salivating at sentimental drivel, whistling at risqud revues, and shrieking at chilling mysteries persisted. So did the notion that Abie's Irish Rose was the high mark of artistic achievement in the theatre. Los Angeles was not the Athens it claimed to be; but neither was it the boob town its detractors derided it as. CHAPTER V Footnotes "''William A. Spalding, comp., History and Reminis- censes Los Angeles: City and County, I (Los Angeles: J. R. Finnell and Sons Publishing Co. [1931]), p. 411. 2 The Los Angeles Times, January 1, 1924, I, 9. Hereafter referred to as The Times. 3 Ibid. The Times, September 16, 1923, I, 1-2. ^Ibid. ^"What Harding Will See That Was Not Here when He Visited Last in 1915," The Times, July 29, 1923, II, 1, 8. g Frank Wheeler, "Los Angeles County Is Richest in State," The Times, October 22, 1922, V, 1, 4; The Times, July 23, 1923, II, 1. 7 The Times, November 11, 1923, I, 1, 13. g Spalding, op. cit., pp. 414-15. < 3 The Times, January 16, 1922, II, 8. I, 1. lQThe Times, May 15, 1922, I, 1-2; August 12, 1922, 11 Series which ran throughout the week commenced on November 12, 1922, II, 1, 3. 12 Ted Le Berthon, "Is Los Angeles only a Boob Town After All?" The Times, April 1, 1923, III, 13-14. Pollock had declared that any play which failed in Los Angeles was certain to succeed in civilized centers. See Majestic Theatre below. 254 255 1 3 Serxes entitled "What Los Angeles Thinks of San Francisco, What San Francisco Thinks of Los Angles," ran throughout the week from July 9 through 13, 1923. Eddie Boyden, The Times, July 9, 1923, I, 1-2. Harry Carr, The Times, July 10, 1923, I, 1-2. Harry Carr, The Times, July 12, 1923, I, 1-2. ■^Series entitled "The Truth about San Francisco, The Truth about Los Angles," ran throughout the week from November 12 through 16, 1923. Ben Macomber, The Times, November 12, 1923, I, 1, 5; November 14, 1923, I, 1, 5? November 16, 1923, I, 1, 5. 1 ^ - ‘ --’ Macomber, The Times, November 12, 1923, loc. cit. ■^Cited in The Times, March 6, 1922, II, 6. 17Billboard, XXXV (June 30, 1923), 157, 162; XXXV (May 19, 1923), 89. 18Variety, LXXI (July 4, 1923), 18. 1%he Times, January 1, 1924, I, 9. 28Variety, LXXII (November 1, 1923), 22. Laemmle ordered Universal Studios shut; Zukor ordered a cut-back at Famous Players. Ken Taylor, in his review of The Per fect Fool (The Mason, November 5, 1923), wrote that one would never have guessed that there was a slump in Holly wood by the number of film stars at Ed Wynn's performance. O * | -'-Florence Lawrence, "Longer Runs Come into Vogue Here," The Los Angeles Examiner, October 14, 1923, IX, 1-2. Hereafter referred to as The Examiner. 22Billboard, XXXV (March 24, 1923), 82. 23Variety, LXVI (April 21, 1922), 5. 2^Billboard, XXXV (November 17, 1923), 91, 104. 23The Times, May 29, 1923, II, 1-2. The theatre was designed by Myron Hunt and H. C. Chambers, which firm later designed The Vine Street Theatre (Huntington Hart ford) . There are similarities. 256 26The Times, April 29, 1923, V, 1, 3. Variety, LXX (April 26, 1923), 13. 2^The Times, March 5, 1923, II, 1; March 13, 1923, II, 10; March 15, 1923, II, 11. 23The Times, April 17, 1923, II, 22; November 21, 1923, II, 5. 2^The Times, March 14, 1923, II, 10. The sites were Hollywood at LaBrea, owned by Joseph M. Schenck; Hollywood at Highland, owned by Sid Grauman; Hollywood at Cahuenga, owned by West Coast Theatres, Inc. 3QBillboard, XXXIII (December 24, 1921), 76. O I -^Nobody's Money, Lawrence, The Examiner, Febru ary 27, 1922, I, 10. 32Smilin' Through, Grace Kingsley, The Times, March 27, 1923, III, 3. The Examiner, March 27, 1923, I, 11. The Times, April 6, 1922, II, 13 (settings). 33The Times, March 22, 1922, II, 11. Variety, LXIII (August 19, 1921), 12. 3<^The Times, April 1, 1922, III, 3. Grace King sley, "Wilkes Goes in for New Plays," The Times, April 16, 1922, III, 29-30. The Times, July 26, 1922, II, 11. Billboard, XXXIV (April 22, 1922), 25; (September 2, 1922), 23. 33The Times, December 14, 1922, II, 11. Variety, LXIX (January 5, 1923), 6; (January 19, 1923), 15. Wilkes joined The Producing Managers Association under a special membership for stock company managers, only the second individual to be granted this privilege (Jessie Bonstelle was the other). •^Nervous Wreck, Edwin Schallert, The Times, April 24, 1922, III, 3. Variety, LXVII (May 26, 1922), 14. In his autobiography, Davis makes no mention of the play's tryout in Los Angeles. Owen Davis, My First Fifty Years in the Theatre (Boston: Walter H. Baker Co., 1950) , pp. 89-91 257 "^"Inside Stuff," Variety, LXIX (January 19, 1923), 14; LXXII (October 11, 1923), 19. 38 Burns Mantle, ed., The Best Plays of 1923-24 (Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1924), p. 10. 39 In Love with Love, The Examiner, May 22, 1922, H, 2. Variety, LXVII (June 16, 1922), 17. 40 The Times, June 1, 1922, II, 15. 4~ * ~ The Fool, The Times, July 13, 1922, III, 3. Schallert, The Times, July 14, 1922, II, 11. George Marion, Jr., The Examiner, July 14, 1922, II, 3. William Foster Elliott, "Christ in the Drama," The Times, July 16, 1922, III, 35. 42 Burns Mantle, op. cit., pp. i x , 215-16. Richard Bennett had contracted to appear in He Who Gets Slapped before coming to Los Angeles. Frederick Donaghey, "The Season in Chicago," in The Best Plays of 1923-24, op. cit., p. 18, called it "the worst of the Broadway hits." 43Variety, LXIX (January 12, 1923), 12. He had bought into the property for $5,000. 44 Rear Car, Marion, The Examiner, August 7, 1922, I, 11. Variety, LXVII (August 11, 1922), 19, found it moved entertainingly enough until the last act when it blew up. Dudley Ayers stepped into the role on August 18, 1922. Sheppard Butler, "The Season in Chicago," in The Best Plays of 1922-23, ed. by Burns Mantle (Boston: Smith, Maynard & Co., 1923), p. 26. 45 Both plays were products produced by Harris1 associates (Cohan: Meanest Man) or were owned by Harris (Champion). Of Meanest Man, Kingsley, The Times, November 20, 1922, III, 3, said lines were muffed, exits and en- . trances show, and comedy points missed. 46 East Is West, Lawrence, The Examiner, December 11, 1922, II, 2. The silent film version opened at The Kinema on December 3, 1922. 258 ^ Climbing, Schallert, The Times, January 1, 1923, III, 3. The Times, January 25, 1923, II, 11. A O *°Nancy Fair, Kingsley, The Times, February 5, 1923, II, 9. The Examiner, February 5, 1923, I, 11. One of the lines: "God made me a genius, but Nancy has made me a man." ^ Poppy Kiss, Kingsley, The Times, February 26, 1923, II, 9. Dickson Morgan said that the play began with the heroine falling into a bed of poppies in the court yard of an asylum; she arose via the trap door on a poppy red couch; the process was reversed at the end of the play. "Dickson Morgan Interview," August 25, 1966, in Oral History Collection, University of California, Los Angeles. ^ Trouble Hound, Schallert, The Times, March 19, 1923, II, 9. Monroe Lathrop, The Los Angeles Evening- Express , March 19, 192 3, p. 20. Hereafter referred to as The Express. 5 - * - The Bad Man, Schallert, The Times, April 9, 1923, II, 15. Lawrence, The Examiner, April 9, 1923, I, 13. ~^Man Who Came Back, Kingsley, The Times, July 30, 1923, II, 7. James N. Gruen, The Examiner, July 30, 1923, I, 11, who found that the play still thrilled. 33She appeared in this same work at The Majestic in 1926, and at The Vine in 1929. 5^Road Together, Lawrence, The Examiner, September 24, 1923, II, 3. The Times, January 20, 1924, I, 2. 55Valley of Content, Schallert, The Times, Octo ber 29, 1923, II, 9. Variety, LXXII (November 1, 1923), 14, said it had a heavy plot and was badly directed (Wilhemena Wilkes was involved with The Fine Arts Theatre at the time.) 5 Variety, LXXVIII (February 18, .1925) , 18. Went into cut-rate prices in the last two weeks (total of five) of the run. 259 57peter Weston, Variety, LXIX (December 1, 1922), 16. Billboard, XXXV (March 17, 1923), 41, said it scored heavily in Chicago. Butler, op. cit., p. 27. Variety, LXXII (September 20, 1923), 17, found it platitudinous and old-fashioned. Starred Frank Keenan and Judith Ander son. 58The Times, May 23, 1923, II, 7. The Examiner, June 20, 1923, I, 14. Variety, LXXII (October 18, 1923), 11. Billboard, XXXV (November 10, 1923, 45. According to the Dickson Morgan Interview, Wilkes received a tele gram from Sam Harris asking him if he could use The Duncan Sisters, who were playing a successful vaudeville engage ment in Los Angeles at the time (April, 1923) , for a few weeks as it would help him out of a hole. S^Topsy and Eva, The Times, November 27, 1923, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, November 12, 1923, I, 13 (reviews of The White Sisters in the title roles). Among the songs were "Give Me Your He^rt and Give Me Your Hand," "Um-Um, Da-Da," "Moon Am Shinin'," and "Rememberin'." "Inside Stuff," Variety, LXXIII (November 22, 1923), 9, said the disagreement had been a frame-up to build patron age for the show in Los Angeles. 88Frederick Donaghey, op cit., p. 17, said it was the "freak of the season"; a terrible thing. Variety, LXXV (May 28, 1924), 10. Frederick Donaghey, "The Season in Chicago," The Best Plays of 1924-25, ed. by Burns Mantle (Boston: Small, Maynard and Co., 1925), p. 24. 61Variety, LXXXVII (December 31, 1924), 19-20. 62Variety, LXXVIII (April 29, 1925), 19; (May 13, 1925), 19. Mantle, Best Plays of 1924-25, op. cit., p. 10. 88Leonard Schoen, "A Historical Study of Oliver Morosco's Long-Run Premiere Productions in Los Angeles, 1905-1922" (unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of Southern California, 1971), p. 386. 8^Variety, LXVIII (September 1, 1922), 14. Bill board, XXXIV (August 19, 1923), 24; (September 9, 1922), 24. Besides Wilkes, Morosco, Klaw-Erlanger, and G. Ebey 260 sought to acquire the theatre which, at one time, was known as the most famous stock theatre in the country. ^^Variety, LXXI (July 4, 1923), 32. The price was initiated in March when Wilkes introduced his "star series," with Holbrook Blinn in The Bad Man. f t f Variety, LXXXVI (September 24, 1924), 16; LXXI (July 4, 1923), 32. BilLboard, XXXV (July 14, 1923), 112, said Wilkes planned to open The Capitol in 1923, and would assume the lease on The Columbia in 1924. He opened the latter in 1925. 67Variety, LXXII (August 30, 1923), 1; LXXIII (December 20, 1923), 10. f 8 Grace Kingsley, "Wilkes Goes in for New Plays," loc. cit. 69 Blood and Sand, Lawrence, The Examiner, December 18, 1922, II, 3. Schallert, The Times, December 18, 1922, II, 3. 70 Dulcy, The Examiner, June 25, 1923, I, 11. 71 The Lady Killer, Lathrop, The Express, December 3, 1923, pp. 8-9. 72 Abie's Irish Rose, Schallert, The Times, March 6, 1922, III, 4. 73 Schoen, op. cit., p. 393. 74 Sportin' Thing, Lawrence, The Examiner, Septem ber 5, 1922, I, 11. The plot resembled almost to the point of plagarism, A Woman of Bronze. All other theatres were occupied, but one wonders why it was not presented in the city earlier, when The Mason was dark (July 30 to September 2). 7^Variety, LXIII (June 3, 1921), 13, said stocks were sold at $100 per share for preferred. Billboard, XXXIII (November 19, 1921), 1, said Morosco's theatres in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other cities were involved. Variety, LXVI (February 10, 1922), 12. Billboard, XXXIV 261 (February 11, 1922), 10; XXXIV (June 3, 1922), 17. 7 Vhe Times, April 2, 1922, I, 3; February 10, 1922, II, 3; April 18, 1922, II, 1. The Examiner, April 18, 1922, I, 11. 77Variety, LXVI (April 14, 1922), 19. The Times, April 18, 1922, 10c. cit. 78Variety, LXVIII (September 1, 19 22) , 15; LXVIII (October 6, 1922), 12. 79Variety, LXX (August 18, 1923), 6; LXXI (July 26, 1923), 14. The Times, August 18, 1923, I, 1-2, said that he had turned over all his enterprises in exchange for all the assets of the company consisting of 1800 shares of 8% preferred stock and 160,000 shares of common stock. No stock, however, was offered to the public. It said the Holding Company was started in July 23, 1922 (see above references to founding in 1921) and had liabil ities of $350,000. 80Variety, LXXII (October 18, 1923), 11, 32; LXXII (October 25, 1923), 12; LXXII (November 15, 1923), 10; LXXIII (February 7, 1924), 10; LXXV (August 6, 1924), 12. The United States District Attorney reported that Morosco was broke. 8Variety, LXXXIII (February 24, 1926), 26. George Bentel and another officer received four-year sentences; two others received two-year-one-day sentences, and one was found not guilty. 82Ingomar, The Times, April 25, 1922, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, April 25, 1922, I, 10. 8 8 •^Suspicion, Lawrence, The Examiner, December 12, 1922, II, 3. O A °^Demi-Virgin, Schallert, The Times, April 17, 1923, II, 11. Variety, LXX (April 26, 1923), 13. 8^Morphine, Kingsley, The Times, May 22, 1923, II, 13. Henry Corson Clarke suffered a fall during The Rotters in Detroit and died in Los Angeles in March, 1923. 262 88Waning Sex, Schallert, The Times, November 6, 1923, II, 11'. Lawrence, The Examiner, November 7, 1923, I, 15. 8^Variety, LXII (April 15, 1921), 9, also quoted Percy Hammond, who said the play tried to be wicked but only succeeded in being guilty. 0. L. Hall, of The Jour nal, called it a farrago. 88Getting Gertie's Garter, Schallert, The Times, June 27, 1923, II, 9. Lawrence, The Examiner, June 28, 1923, I, 12. 89The Times, September 6, 1928, II, 1-2. The Examiner, September 7, 1923, II, 1. 98Variety, LXXXII (September 20, 1923), 10. 9^The Examiner, September 15, 1923, II, 1. 82Variety, LXXII (November 1, 1923), 15, said it established the house record, but The Hummingbird had played a longer engagement. The Examiner, October 18, 1923, I, 15, said it played 135 performances— more than any other city other than New York. But New York recorded only 120. Q O Fifty Years, Kingsley, The Times, January 16, 1923, III, 3. 9 4 Africanus, Kingsley, The Times, January 24, 1922, III, 3. The Examiner, January 24, 1922, I, 10. 9^Variety, LXIX (January 12, 1923), 19, 26; LXIX (February 15, 1923), 14. These articles also refer to the numerous friends Egan made during this production, and the game way in which he took his losses. 98The Times, July 29, 1923, III, 23. Variety, LXXI (July 26, 1923), 14. Billboard, XXXV (August 4, 1923), 83. 97Billboard, XXXIII (October 1, 1921, 18. The Times, September 9, 1923, III, 24, said that she had started a little theatre movement in the city several years ago, had studied in London with Gordon Craig and Ellen Terry, and while on the continent had become enter tainment director for the 33rd Division in France. She had also directed Leo Ditrichstein. . _ 26^ ^8The Examiner, August 18, 1907, I, 7. 9^The Times, December 20, 1908, III, 2. 188Grace Kingsley, "Minors in Mutation," The Times, November 4, 1923, III, 27, 29. Billboard, XXXV (August 4, 1923), 83. 10^The Times, July 23, 1923, III, 23. Variety, LXXIV (March 12, 1924), 16; LXXXIX (November 23, 1927), 49. 102"Dickson Morgan Interview," loc. cit. 103The Times, September 8, 1923, I, 7; September 9, 1923, loc. cit. 104There was no clarification of the kind of play to be staged or whether the two-week engagements were to be consecutive or spaced throughout the year. 105The Times, November 4, 1923, loc. cit. Variety, LXXII (November 15, 1923), 13. 106Billboard, XXXV (October 27, 1923), 84, 110. 18^Androcles and The Lion, Kingsley, The Times, November 6, 192 3, II, 11. ^08Ibid. The Examiner, November Lathrop, The Express, November 7, 1923, - * - 88R.U.R. , Lathrop, The Express, I, 22. The Examiner, November 4, 192 3, 110The Times, December 25, 192 3, iner, December 17, 1923, II, 3. ^ ■ ^ • ■ ' • Variety, LXXIII (December 20, (January 17, 1923), 14. •^--^Tiger, Tiger, Lawrence, The Examiner, January 8, 1924, I, 15. 113The Adding Machine, Kingsley, The Times, Febru ary 5, 1924, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, February 5, 1924, II, 5._______________________________________ 6, 1923, I, 17. I, 14. December 4, 19 23, II, 5. II, 9. The Exam- 19 23), 11; LXXIII ----------------------------------------------------------------- J5T 114 The Times, May 28, 1925, II, 19. lie: The Times, May 6, 1922, III, 3. Plays were given a two-week run; there was a daily matinee at 2:20 p.m.; evening tickets ranged from $.25 to $1.00. All seats were reserved. ^^Lulu Bett, Kingsley, The Times, May 22, 1922, 11, 11. Marion, The Examiner, May 22, 19 22, II, 2. The novel did not have a happy ending, unlike the play. 117 The Examiner, June 5, 1922, II, 3 (Florence Lawrence, in her review of The Sign on the Door). 118Billboard, XXXIV (September 2, 1922), 76. 119 The only opera company to play The Mason was The Russian Opera Company in its first American tour. It opened with Pique Dame, the first Tchaikovsky heard in Los Angeles and followed with Boris Gudonov, Eugene Onegin, Tsar's Bride, Dubrovsky, The Snow Maiden, and The Demon. Houses were crowded for their two-week engagement. 120 It Pays to Smile, Doris Anderson, The Examiner, January 3, 1922, I, 15, described the actress's acting: "Her inimitable delivery . . . her fussy mannerisms as she smoothes her silks, her sudden tenderness, her funny escapades with highball and dice ..." 121 Passion Flower, Schallert (quotation), The Times, January 17, 1922, III, 4. Doris Anderson, The Examiner, January 17, 1922, I, 9. 122 Declasse, Lawrence, The Examiner, February 21, 1922, I, 11. The Zoe Akins collection at The Huntington Library contains material from this tour. 123 Peter Grimm, Schallert, The Times, March 21, 1922, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, March 21, 1922, I, 12. 1 24 The Circle, Schallert, The Times, June 6, 1922, II, 9. 265 125 Hampden, Schallert, The Times, March 28, 1921, 11, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, March 28, 1921, I, 13. 1 ozr Othello, Schallert, The Times, March 31, 1921, III, 3. The Examiner, March 31, 1921, I, 10. 127 Henry Miller, Her Friend the King, Schallert, The Times, June 20, 1922, II, 9. Lawrence, The Examiner, June 20, 1922, I, 15. Tendresse, Schallert, The Times, June 27, 1922, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, June 27, 1922, I, 11. 12 8 Mr. Pirn Passes By, Schallert (quotation), The Times, May 30, 1922, II, 15. Lawrence, The Examiner, May 30, 1922, I, 7. 129 The Bat, Doris Anderson, The Examiner, January 24, 1922, I, 11. 130 Olcott, The Examiner, February 28, 1922, I, 10. 131 Abraham Lincoln, Schallert, The Times, September 12, 1922, II, 11. Doris Anderson, The Examiner, September 12, 1922, I, 11. 132 The Skin Game, Schallert, The Times, October 31, 1922, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, October 31, 1922, I, 12. 133 . Nice People, Schallert, The Times, September 19, 1922, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, September 19, 1922, I, 14. Variety, LXVIII (September 22, 1922), 15. 134 Mike Angelo, Lawrence, The Examiner, October 3, 1922, I, 9. 135 Red Bulldog, Lawrence, The Examiner, December 19, 1922, II, 3. It surfaced in New York during the 1927-28 season as The Scarlet Fog. 136 Be Careful Dearie, Marion, The Examiner, Septem ber 5, 1922, I, 11. 137 Wheel of Life, Lathrop, The Express, March 13, 1923, p. 16. 266 • * - 38The Emperor Jones/ Schallert, The Times, Janu ary 16, 1923, III, 3. Lawrence, The Examiner, January 16, 1923, I, 11. 139Ibid. •^^William James Robertson, "Dramatic Criticism and Reviewing in Chicago 1920-1930" (unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1963), pp. 145-46, said that Chicago critics dismissed the production elements as amateurish. •^•^Leiber, Schallert (Macbeth) , The Times, Febru ary 6, 1923, II, 11; (Hamlet) The Times, February 7, 1923, II, 11. 142The Merchant of Venice, The Times, February 10, 1923, I, 11. 143The Awful Truth, Lathrop, The Express, April 24, 1923, p. 13. 144The Woman of Bronze, Lawrence, The Examiner, May 8, 1923, I, 13. Woman of No Importance, James N. Gruen, The Examiner, August 7, 1923, I, 13. Conscience, Kingsley, The Times, August 21, 1923, II, 11. Gruen, The Examiner, August 21, 1923, I, 15. •^^Changelings, Schallert, The Times, June 26, 1926, I, 11. Gruen, The Examiner, June 26, 1923, I, 14. In his Act II curtain speech, Miller greeted the city as "the new home of the spoken drama." 146The Hindu, Lathrop, The Express, April 3, 1923, p. 12. ^-^The Purple Mask, Lawrence, The Examiner, May 1, 1923, I, 15. •*-^8Pust of Erin, The Examiner, July 31, 1923, II, 1. The Times, August 2, 1923, II, 1; August 1, 1923, II, 10; July 31, 1923, II, 1. Billboard, XXXV (June 16, 1923), 6. •^9Billboard, XXXV (August 11, 1923) , 10 757 •*-50perfect Fool, Ken Taylor, The Times, November 6, 1923, II, 11. 15^Zander and Macloon, Lawrence, The Examiner, December 17, 1923, II, 3. The Examiner, December 20, 192 3, II, 2. Variety, LXXII (January 3, 1924) , 15. The show closed in Santa Barbara. 152Variety, LXXIII (November 22, 1923), 38. 153Will King, The Examiner, May 23, 1922, I, 12. l5^Alma Latina, Schallert, The Times, April 7, 1922, II, 11. The company was made up of professionals from Buenos Aires and Mexico. 155chat-Noir, Gruen, The Examiner, November 20, 1923, I, 17. Moscow's Chauve-Souris was entertaining New Yorkers and would play Los Angeles in 1929 and 1930. 15^R0meo and Juliet, Schallert, The Times, July 31, 1923, II, 11. Gruen, The Examiner, July 31, 1923, I, 15. l^Nelly Fernandez, The Examiner, July 10, 1923, I, 12. 158Centennial, The Examiner, June 27, 1923, IV (devoted entirely to the exhibit). Billboard, XXXV (July 14, 1923), 1, 116; XXV (July 28, 1923), 116-17. Variety, LXXIX (July 26, 1923), 20; LXXIX (August 9, 1923), 19. • * ~ 5^The Wayfarer, The Examiner, June 24, 1923, II, 3. Lawrence, The Examiner, September 9, 1923, I, 1, 3. Schallert, The Times, September 9, 1923, I, 4. CHAPTER VI THE CRUCIAL YEARS— 1924 AND 1925 "What Goes Up Must Come Down" Introduction In 1924 and 1925, several factors caused Los Angeles to reduce its Charleston-paced expansion to a more leisurely toddle. While the country as a whole had exper ienced an economic depression in the early years of the period, Los Angeles suffered a recession in 1924, particu larly in the oil and building industries, and in real estate development. The Nation's Business, which recorded the country's economic health, showed the region in "the gray" between December, 1924, and September, 19 25. Natural causes also contributed their share of repressive influences. Drought conditions forced a cur tailment in the use of electrical power in 19 24 and seri ously affected agricultural output. An outbreak of hoof and mouth disease in February necessitated a quarantine on the county by the following month, and it was not _____________________________ 2 M______________________ controlled until the summer after an estimated loss of $1,600,000 in livestock. During this time, Arizona closed its roads to California, cars were driven through disin fecting troughs, and all unpaved roads in the county were closed.1 The epidemic was followed by a plague which struck the Mexican quarters of the city in late October and threatened to spread to other areas of the city. All of these events did not go unnoticed in other sections of the country and, as a result, campaigns were organized to offset adverse publicity and to counteract the diversionary attraction of the just-maturing Florida 2 land boom. Frank Wiggins of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce traveled throughout the country in a specially- designed railroad car, displaying an exhibit entitled "A 3 Man-Made Eden." In August, the film industry inaugurated its first "Great Movie Season" week, billed as the Mardi Gras of Los Angeles, with a parade of film stars and local celebrities. Perley Poore Sheehan penned a valedictory tribute to Hollywood as a World Center, and in November, The Los Angeles Times devoted a section of a Sunday edition to a summary of the industrial, financial, geographical, and demological growth since the opening of the decade.^ The campaigns apparently were effective for, in 2 7 I T 1924, the number of summer tourists equalled that of winter visitors.^ Had there been a noticeable dimunition in this transient migration, it is probable that the recession would have been even more severe. However, even with this influx, business was still off its pace, with some depart ment stores and other business establishments reducing their work force.® Thus, in order to increase local pride and to balance the false picture of conditions in the southland, The Times sponsored a contest during January and February for the best description of the attractions of the city. Throughout the spring, it ran a series of articles on the ethnic and foreign communities in the area. One event, however, it could not gloss over— the Santa Barbara earthquake of June 29, 19 25, killed at least seventeen people and caused damage in the millions.^ While a brake had been applied to the city's ascendancy to the top ranks of metropolises, industrial interests continued to flourish and building operations steadily altered the physiognomy of the land.8 In July, 1925, th’ e Internal Revenue Bureau supported the belief that the region was one of the wealthiest in the country when it stated that at the end of the fiscal year, more net income was reported in Los Angeles than for any other 271 • Q period m the history of the Bureau. In September, al though activity in residential property had diminished, it was reported that Los Angeles still maintained the nation's lowest density per dwelling, of 4.5 persons per unit.^® A new city charter was passed and George Cryer continued his mayoral duties.^ Tourists continued their hegira to the coast, arriving at a rate of three to four thousand daily and found 415.68 square miles awaiting their various incur- 12 sions. Among the many places of amusement waiting to entertain them was the new Fun Palace at Ocean Park, reckoned as the second largest amusement edifice in the world. It could hold 200,000 people and measured 225 x 260 feet.^ In addition, there were the motor speedway at Cul ver City; the newly-erected Olympic Auditorium for boxing; four vaudeville houses and a musical-tabloid theatre, plus various penny arcades and "museums"; Wrigley Field baseball park (30,000); The Coliseum (90,000); the El Patio ballroom (checking facilities for 7,500 people); The Palais de Glace ice skating rink (3,500 persons); 131 movie theatres; amusement piers from Coronado to Malibu; at least fifty country clubs and three municipal golf courses, with twelve 272 more under construction; musical events including The Hollywood Bowl offerings and The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra; and the Huntington and Exposition Park art galleries— to mention only the better known.^ But for all the real and imagined progress during these two years, discordant notes were sounding for those who would listen. After 1924, Los Angeles remained above the national average for business failures.15 A county- wide expos6 of spiritualistic freaks and imposters un veiled forty-six practitioners.15 And over all was the fact that the region never fully recovered from the eco nomic setback of this period, handicapped by an overconfi dent laissez faire attitude and crippled by the lack of funds increasingly diverted into speculative schemes. Fortunately, tourism continued to nourish the local economy, but during The Great Depression, when the area's greatest industry was curtailed, the economy of the area was doubly afflicted.1^ Background "When you're far enough west, then you're east again." While it is difficult to apply this aphorism to many phases of the growth of Los Angeles, it certainly _ _ - 273 applied to the expansion of activities in the amusement industry, including the legitimate theatre.Thomas Wilkes continued his policy of trying out new plays, some of which starred the actors intended to recreate their roles in New York. Relinquishing his lease upon The Majes tic Theatre, he assumed the management of The Orange Grove Playhouse, which he used exclusively as a production house. Following Wilkes's departure from The Majestic Theatre, a new group premiered a play by popular actress Maude Fulton but, despite hopeful plans to produce other plays, the lease was picked up by the former manager of the theatre who installed another stock company. Succeeding the abrupt demise of The Fine Arts Theatre, The Walker Auditorium on Grand Street was leased by two men who presented two comedies before withdrawing their support. The theatre was relit by Harry Carroll, who renamed it The Orange Grove Playhouse for his revue, Pickin's. It was the first long-running original revue in Los Angeles theatre history. After Carroll withdrew, Wilkes stepped in. The most evident changes on the theatrical scene in these years was the erection of two new playhouses and 274 the remodeling of The Mason Opera House. A. L. Erlanger opened The Biltmore Theatre in March, 1924, as the new home for road shows.^ The Figueroa Street Playhouse, owned by The Friday Morning Women's Club, was leased to Louis 0. Macloon. Together with Edward D. Smith, he offered a few Broadway musical comedies concurrent with their eastern showing, and thus initiated a policy which soon had several western producers scrambling for New York successes in an attempt to be the "first" with the western production. In addition to these producers, Frank Egan con tinued active, The Morosco Theatre persisted in its stock- company policy of light theatrical fare, and The Philhar monic Auditorium housed a few sporadic productions, notably the appearances of Eleanora Duse and the presentations of The Los Angeles Grand Opera Company. The Little Theatre scene flourished in these years, prompting a Variety reporter to comment that Los Angeles seemed to be the most active western little theatre 20 city at the time. The already well-known Pasadena Play ers opened their new playhouse in 19 25, and a small but hearty group, The Potboilers, rewarded their auditors with several noteworthy and unusual dramatic presentations: "for sheer daring in their plays and for novelty of 275 production [they] have won brilliant commendation from the advanced thinkers of the community."21 The colony of writers located on the coast, many primarily associated with the screen in dustry, organized under The Authors' League, bought a clubhouse, and presented programs of one- act plays with casts of professional actors. Herbert Moulton of The Times believed that it was logical for Los Angeles to develop into a producing center OO given the decline of the road, while Edgar MacGregor advanced other reasons: Los Angeles had the actors and was able to supply the sets and properties needed, it was an ideal place to study one's script with its cool evenings, 23 and a 52-week season encouraged production. That the growth in theatrical activity was more than mere puffing is substantiated by Louella Parsons' article in which she did not hide her surprise: If Los Angeles gets our plays and our stars and goes in for big theatrical attractions, she will soon be one of the greatest cities in the world. I have a feeling with all the film stars here, many of them former stage favorites, it will be the logical thing for Los Angeles to continue her en couragement to the youthful stage producers, who now are successfully experimenting with New York dramatic hits. Certainly the plays I have seen are presented with as much care and attention to detail as if they were making their bow on Broadway. I must confess I had not expected to find the theatrical offerings so many nor so promising.24 __________________________ 276 That amusement-seeking residents and tourists were supporting the area's various recreational complexes was evident from the figures released by the Internal Revenue Bureau: between June 30, 19 24, and the same time the fol lowing year, $42,750,000 was spent on amusements of all 25 kinds. Los Angeles was "alive with productivity." Discussion of Theatrical Activity The Majestic Theatre, The Orange Grove Playhouse, and Thomas Wilkes The Majestic Theatre.— The final year and a half of Thomas Wilkes's association with The Majestic Theatre was divided clearly into the period where he continued to present stars in recent Broadway successes and in new works, and that period where he presented works suitable to the return engagement of Edward Everett Horton. Of the stars introduced upon The Majestic stage, Pauline Lord was by far the most important, bringing her extensive talent in an important work, Anna Christie, only the second O'Neill play to be seen on the professional stage in Los Angeles in The Twenties. Supported by two other members of the New York comapny, Mildred Beverly as Marthy and George Marion as Chris, Miss Lord aroused____ 277 critical wonder at her comprehensive performance, although all the characterizations won praise. Moreover, the play wright's ability to balance the meanness and decency within man were justly noted, despite the fact that Monroe Lathrop felt that the play descended to the commonplace at the end.2® The other star appearances of early 1924 at The Majestic Theatre featured Margaret Lawrence and Wallace Eddinger in four romantic comedies, three of which were new works, plus Leo Carrillo and Genevieve Tobin. Wallace Eddinger returned to Los Angeles in Captain Applejack, by Walter Hackett, a farcical extravaganza in which a leisured Englishman relives his father's pirate 2 7 career, and then essayed a contrasting characterization in Pokey. However, the Robert Housum work failed to charm and lasted only two weeks. It was not moved on to New York.2® Together with Margaret Lawrence, he then appeared in Lea Freeman's romantic comedy of a romance-starved New England spinster and the Lochinvar who transformed her, All Alone Susan. Both actors were miscast and the play was overwritten and lacked conviction in its situations and 29 characters. The only new work subsequently produced in New York 278 was Lynn Starling's In His Arms, in which the acting of Miss Lawrence and Vernon Steele, as well as the ingratiat ing direction and captivating setting of Wilhemena and Dickson Morgan ("[it] can almost give lessons to a New York producer"), made of the "little comedy of hearts," an enchanting evening, for which Monroe Lathrop compli mented Thomas Wilkes, "California's new captain of the theatre," for bringing added eminence to the local theatri cal scene.^0 The other guest appearances brought Leo Carrillo back to a town always amused by his characterizations, and introduced Genevieve Tobin in her New York success, Polly 31 Preferred. When Wilkes contracted with Horton to return to The Majestic, he astutely launched the actor in a series of light romantic comedies and romance-mysteries, in many of which Horton had previously appeared. The Nervous Wreck and The Rear Car, both premiered at this theatre in 1922, were hugely successful. The former ran for thirteen weeks, establishing the long-run record for the playhouse in this two-year period, and .grossed $85,500 for the ten weeks reported; the latter tallied $31,400 in four weeks. Most of the other shows revolved around the 279 humorous trials of pre- and post-marital bliss: The First Year, which ran for eight weeks and brought Dulcie Cooper's talents to the attention of theatre-goers; The Darlings, a new work by Mayo and Kennedy, a forgettable hodge-podge; Just Married, which caught Horton in bed with his shorts (gasp from the audience) and the rest of the cast without their lines; Cuckoo, by George Scarborough, a gruelish fabrication about a suspicious husband, the only new work ever staged by Wilkes to last one week; and The Alarm Clock, a Hopwood farce. A welcome break in this stream of daffy drivel was offered with two thought-provoking plays: Sutton Vane's "farce-tragedy" of life between the here and the hereafter, Outward Bound, and Kaufman and Connelly's satiric phantas magoria of modern values, Beggar on Horseback. Both were Best Plays of the 1923-24 season; both suitably challenged the actors, who contributed sensitive, unique character izations, and the audience: A most fascinating two hours of entertainment for all who have imagination. If it fails to have the long tenure it deserves it will be because too numer ous a part of our audience refuse to support fresh ideas in the theater that call for a little thinking "out in front."33 Beggar on Horseback might have been expected to keep away Z M theatre-goers who had been indulging in a steady diet of light fare, but it grossed an average of $6,000 in its five-week engagement.^4 It is difficult to estimate how much of the patron age established under the Wilkes regime remained with the theatre as it began its management under various individ uals with varying policies. As early as March, 19 24, Variety had reported that the playhouse, owned by the Hamburger family, had been sold to Max Price of Cleveland, a fact which The Times confirmed in June. The new owner and Thomas Wilkes negotiated a lease throughout the remain der of the year, but no satisfactory agreement was reached. The new directors of the theatre, a cooperative of stage and screen actors and directors, under the general directorship of Harry Caulfield, leased the theatre for five years for $307,500 (an earlier article had said $350,000), and announced their plans to stage new produc- 0 7 tions and current Broadway and European hits. The project weathered one offering, Maude Fulton's romantic drama about a middle-aged former acrobat-clown who falls in love with one of the orphans he has reared. The Big Top was lengthy, verbose, and contrived, and the show closed 281 at the end of four weeks because of the star's illness. O p It had grossed only $22,500 in that time. The Majestic remained dark for five weeks until August 9, 1925, when Michael Corper, former manager of the theatre under Thomas Wilkes, assumed a five-year lease and quickly established the policy of presenting romantic comedies— most of which were being seen in the city for the first time (except two)— in a fortnightly change of bill. The company consisted of many of the former stock- company favorites. The expertness of the company allowed critics and audiences alike to enjoy the projections, if not to accept them completely. The Sap, adjudged a weak play, provided good characterizations, while What's Your Wife Doing? covered its comedic deficiencies with a great deal of noise.^ The antiquated humor of Rolling Home was salvaged by that "delightful farceur," Edward Everett Horton, while To the Ladies was able to stand on its own satiric shafts and comically familiar characters.^® Never Say Die cele brated Horton's debut at The Majestic Theatre six years earlier, but not even his talents were able to enliven the monotonous padding, banal theme and "middle-aged sentiment" of Cock o' the Roost.^ Horton left the 212- company at the end of November, 1925, and did not appear in an extensive engagement until early 1928, at which time he undertook the dual responsibility of actor and producer. Following Horton's departure, Corper experimented with different policies. He exhibited the first local stock production of The Show-Off? he purchased the coast rights to Weak Sisters, a comedy about a small-town reformer who meets a past acquaintance when he calls on "the ladies of the evening." The Times felt that to describe it as "lightly amusing fare" was to dignify it, 42 yet Corper kept it trudging along for twelve weeks. Then he brought back to Los Angeles the star whose destiny was linked throughout the decade with personnel from The 43 Majestic Theatre. The return of Marjorie Rambeau to The Majestic stage in April, 1926, restored some of the glamor missing since Horton's departure. Her first appearance, in The Goldfish, was a nostalgic but successful choice. It was followed by The Night Quel, a recent Broadway offer ing. With her third appearance, however, actress and play meshed in a noteworthy dramatic and theatrical event. Edwin Schallert summarized the general response to They Knew What They Wanted by writing, "it deserves a run, both because of the quality of the play and the auspicious 283 quality of the production. The 1924-25 Pulitzer Prize play ran for five weeks, grossing nearly $35,000. After the production of Kempy, Michael Corper joined forces with Ralph Spence, author of The Gorilla, Arthur Freed, lessee of The Orange Grove Playhouse, and Will Morrissey to present The Music Hall Revue. The Orange Grove Playhouse.— If theatre-goers seek ing more than amusing diversion in their dramatic fare lamented the passing of The Fine Arts Theatre, those interested in evaluating original works were given the opportunity when Arthur Freed, composer and song writer, leased the former Walker Auditorium. He staged two com edies, both of which failed: A Naughty Nice Girl and The Invisible Husband. The theatre then went dark for the summer, until Harry Carroll, with his associates, Ballard MacDonald, Arthur Freed, Ernest Young, Will Morrissey, and Alexander Oumansky, on September 5, 1924, opened Pickin's, the first long-run Ziegfeld-type revue in the city's theatrical history. The theatre was renamed The Orange Grove and appropriately redecorated with orange lights in the marquee 284 proscenium arch shaped like an orange bower, and walls covered with vistas of groves and mountains set between AC nasturtium-entwined pillars. ° In general, local critics praised the theatrical conglomeration, particularly the staging, scenery, costumes, and chorus. Florence Lawrence proclaimed: It is high time that this city had its own revue. More individual than any other city in America, its tremendous population numbers perhaps more distinguished men and women than any other city in the country except New York. Theatrical productions made here have encircled the world. Stage first nights are as brilliant in jewels and attire as in any American city, and those scintillant occasions when a great cinema production is offered to the world are world-famous events, to be likened in distinction and fame only to the advent of some great royal personage.^ The Variety representative, less committed to local boost ing, recognized that Carroll had . . . pulled a real Ziegfeld on the Los Angeles mob. They, of course, want to get in on everything that smacks of Broadway . . . However, all in all, Carroll has given Los Angeles the musical entertainment and novelty for which it always c r a v e s . The revue continued for twenty-five weeks through March 1, 1925, with weekly appearances by guest stars. Six weeks after it closed, Thomas Wilkes opened/ the theatre as a production house for recent Broadway successes and new plays with special star casts. 285 Wilkes's tenure encompassed several changes. No longer committed to a stock company, he was no longer bound by the tastes of a stock-company audience. All of the works that he presented, with the possible exclusion of The Duchess of Pittsburgh and The Fall Guy, showed a a degree of sophistication toward relations between men and women. These plays expressed points of view regarding intellectual, social, religious, personal, and sexual vanities which were original or, at best, thought-provok ing, and removed from the run-of-the-mill Pollyanna philosophy, whether exaggerated with a satirical brush as in Meet the Wife, The Eternal Masculine, Playthings, and Honeymoon House; or probed with near-clinic psychology, as in Hell-Bent fer Heaven, and Desire under the Elms; or enveloped in the gaudy cellophane of sensationalism as in White Cargo. Most of the productions featured star per formers surrounded by a cast of local actors. Mary Boland appeared in two comedies which con trasted a woman's varying penchant for intruding upon a man's life. Meet the Wife, about a female celebrity hunter 49 whose husbands disliked being part of her collection, was succeeded by Gertrude Purcell's new comedy, The Eternal Masculine, in which a wife detonates her actor-husband's 286 dalliance with a younger woman by disclosing his age.^® Roberta Arnold also appeared in two Wilkes; productions. Both were new works, only one of which was seen in Los Angeles, and both were flops. Playthings, by Fanny and Frederic Hatton was a sophisticated attempt to treat seriously a "plaything" who seeks to break away from her gold-digging ways. To the credit of the authors, no neat resolution was advanced. The play grossed only $19,700 in four weeks. Of the other star engagements, only one could be considered a significant contribution to dramatic litera ture and theatrical value, and it redeemed Wilkes's repu tation— Frank McGlynn in Desire under the Elms. The others were Honeymoon House, starring Jack Norworth, a treatise on the absurdities which result when two girls, who said they would rather die than be separated, and their hus bands set up communal housekeeping; The Duchess of Pitts burgh , with Maude Truax, a farcical character-comedy, unfortunately labeled a mystery, about a socially-ambitious mother who hauls her daughter between continents in an attempt to bait a wealthy husband; and The Fall Guy, featuring Ralph Sipperly, a cops-and-robbers domestic comedy. Both the first and the third fared only moderately 287 well at the box office or in the columns. The second "bombed." The Variety reviewer said that he "may have seen a worse play" but he did not know where, and Monroe Lathrop faulted Miss Truax's gross interpretation as the fat, florid, nouveau-riche wife of a Pittsburgh pickle baron. The show sank after two weeks and grossed only $7,100.52 While productions of plays with a comedic outlook exceeded those with more serious pretensions (six to three), the latter group filled thirty weeks and five days of Wilkes's lease, whereas the former filled only twenty weeks and two days. Of the more serious works, Hell-Bent fer Heaven sustained the shortest engagement. Hatcher Hughes's 1923 Pulitzer Prize winning play was a story of a religious fanatic who plots to revive a feud between two Blue Ridge Mountain families in which a romance has just matured. It aroused carefully-considered encomiums for the polished acting which avoided the cari cature implicit in the roles, and for the subdued but realistic settings of Dickson Morgan. Popular acceptance was minimal, however, and several factors were respon sible.^2 Margaret S. Carhart, in her summary of the season in Southern California, said that it failed to please ------------------------------------------------------------------ ZFF holiday audiences and asserted that the changed ending was a mistake. The reasons seem specious, for the play ran for three weeks beginning November 15, and not during December as Miss Carhart stated. Moreover, the original production had also "allowed" Rufe, the conniving reli- _ 54 gious fanatic, to escape. More likely factors were the mixed tone of the play, the depiction of a clergyman as hypocritical with his god as with his neighbors, and a cast made up entirely of local actors— the only production 55 not headed by a star of some stature. The other two dramas introduced by Thomas Wilkes both established long runs and both were tinged with sensa tionalism. However, they varied in artistic merit. White Cargo, the dramatization of I. V. Simonton's novel, Hell's Playground, depicted the corrosive effects of the tropics— dreams gone cynical, love debased to satisfaction, and days counted in empty whiskey bottles. In reviewing the production, Monroe Lathrop addressed himself to the play's role in contributing to the theatrical education of Los Angeles and to its position in the larger cultural context: Now we can say, with respect to the theater, that Los Angeles has become truly metropolitan . . . [for it is witnessing a play] with the repute of unreticence . . . [one] contrived to give new stimulus to ganglia which now react sluggishly to more restrained appeals. "White Cargo" is of, by and for an era that demands a new "shot in the arm."5® Angelenos who had not yet seen Rain, the begetter of all later tropical melodramas, flocked to the show for seven weeks, and supported it for twelve and one-half additional weeks later in the year. It was also revived in 1927. The last work which Thomas Wilkes produced at The Orange Grove was also the most important— Eugene O'Neill's Desire under the Elms. The local critics, almost in spite of themselves, rated it a moving, possibly great, play: I have seen many plays that interested me much less . . . and few . . . a very few indeed— that have interested me more. But despite this fact I would not go on record as recommending it. But it is drama— drama tense, bitter, cold, and as cruel and relentless . . . in all its hor rible— and they are horrible— and vital essentials. Even at the risk of being contradictory, how ever, I must hail it as masterful.5^ Florence Lawrence thought it "a masterly study in greed," and an examination of strong, primitive emotions couched in untempered language,58 while Monroe Lathrop called it . . . a dour drama of power, imagination and truth . . . its essence is that of unmitigated tragedy. Its dour characters are as hard and their souls as dry as the stony soil from which they eke a sub sistence.5^ 290 He found the ending disappointing, however, with O'Neill groping "for a way to end his complex tale and his hand grows feeble by comparison with what goes before." The acting of the cast, headed by Frank McGlynn, Jessie Arnold, Arthur Lubin, Norman Feusier, and Forrest Taylor passed critical muster. In addition, Lathrop scrutinized the response of the audience and concluded that while the viewers occasionally erupted with a ribald reaction at the more sensational moments or a pitiful gasp at the more startling situations, their most genuine response approximated that of intellectual curiosity, probably because the author's intent "to heap up his agonies is all too apparent. There will be many, too, to dispute the accuracy of his motivations."60 The tributes were shared by Dickson Morgan, the director, and by Thomas Wilkes, who . . . has done a courageous thing in giving this play to Los Angeles, and interest in the author and the theme which he proposes will undoubtedly make it one of the outstanding attractions of the sea- son.6^ - The tribute to the producer's intrepidness seemed excessive until nine days after the opening when, on February 18, 1926, the cast was arrested and charged with staging an obscene play in violation of City Ordinance 291 119 37. The affair soon became a cause celebre.6^ One national magazine, which devoted a lengthy article to the history of the subsequent trial, opened with the tag line, "Los Angeles must be purified," and closed with the state ment, "Lewdness and immorality must not escape punishment 6 O in this City of Angels." The belittling tone is unmis takable, but the writer does not allude to the trouble which the play encountered throughout the country, nor to the fact that at the time it was the only production still running (Chicago's run had closed after five weeks). Seventeen members of the company were arrested. During the trial, on April 15, the court witnessed an unexpurgated version of the play, throughout which the jury wept and afterwards applauded.64 The trial ended with a hung jury and, although a new trial date was set for April and then again for July, the prosecutor admitted that the case— which had already cost the city more than $2,000— was probably a dead issue.66 The play closed after an eleven-week run. Within one week. The Orange Grove underwent a Janus-like transformation, donning its night club attire when Will Morrissey's Music Hall opened. Thomas Wilkes.— While these activities and 292 productions occupied much of Thomas Wilkes's energy and time, other events in San Francisco and New York affected his future plans and thus his continuing involvement in theatre in Los Angeles. Wilkes continued to try out new works, some of which were subsequently unveiled in Los Angeles and played one of the other available theatres. One of these was The Caliph, a musical comedy built around the talents of Raymond Hitchcock. Reviewers praised the chorus of "California peaches" and the beauty of the production but agreed that the score was old-fashioned and that "even Hitchcock cannot survive the material."66 The production was turned over to storage. Wilkes also continued to operate houses in San Francisco. Having relinquished The Alcazar to Henry Duffy, he reopened The Columbia Theatre in January, 1925, with Kolb and Dill in Politics, and a new era of production success seemed imminent. However, by fall he was having trouble finding or organizing suitable productions and was suffering financial set-backs, in part because of compe tition from the adjacent Shubert-Curran. Thirteen months after he had opened The Wilkes-Columbia, the producer returned the theatre to its owner, who then made arrange- 29 3 merits with Homer Curran to share one-half interest with Lee Shubert.67 Wilkes also suffered reverses in Los Angeles. In October, 1925, the musical comedy, All for You, by Charles Grapewin and George V. Hobart, with lyrics and music by Arthur Freed, opened at The Mason. With a talented cast and an expensive production, it .aroused favorable comment, even Variety begrudgingly recognizing that the production should succeed in the West, where it is "pretty nearly in 6 Q the 'natural' class." The show was reworked during the seven-week engagement; new songs were added and Nancy Welford joined the cast. Nothing more came of the $75,000 investment except a suit filed by Grapewin, who claimed to have loaned Wilkes $10,000, for which he was to have f i 9 shared in the profits from White Cargo. Wilkes fared somewhat better with Silence, Max Marcin's melodrama of a convicted man who refuses to speak of his crime in order to protect his daughter from scandal. Starring Bert Lytell, absent from the stage since 1919, the play was considered ingenious, and gripping, and the acting 70 of the entire company was satisfactorily moving. But, increasingly, Wilkes's touch soured a produc tion or a relationship. Earlier in 1925, he had formed an 294 association with Charles L. Wagner, through whom he pre sented Sydeny Blackmer in Quarantine, two months after the production closed in New York. A "romantic trifle" about an unmarried couple quarantined on an island, the produc tion was removed after three weeks of depressing business (grossed $12,000 at $2.00 top ticket).^ Blackmer's earlier success, The Mountain Man, replaced it. Again, the critics were unanimously enamoured of Blackmer's work: It is a genuine creation and an event in the theater. The actor's assumption of the dialect of the young mountaineer, his gaucheries, his furtive bewilder ment in the strange environment, his hidden power and withal his poise born of a frank sincerity, is an example of a virtuosity seldom encountered in a visit to the theater. Not for a moment is the actor in evidence . . . a creation on the whole, that will linger in the memory of all who see it.^^ And again, summer audiences stayed away. It closed after two weeks and a gross of $6,900. The Wagner-Wilkes association was trouble-fraught on the eastern coast as well. Wagner, who had assumed the management of The Harris Theatre in New York although Wilkes remained in control of the property, initiated legal proceedings against Wilkes in February. Wilkes contested. Summarizing the various actions, Variety reported that Wilkes had leased The Harris Theatre for ten years at an 295 annual rent of $90,000; that Wilkes's affairs were con fused and "have been for some time"; and that Wagner had bought a one-third interest in the theatre (or in The Wilkes Corporation) for $30,000 during the summer of 1925.73 Wilkes charged Wagner with mismanagement of The Harris, saying that he had passed up three available book ings in order to install his own production of The Caro linian with Blackmer, whom Wagner managed. The show closed after twenty-four performances, losing money for both the production and the playhouse. Wagner filed a countersuit in which he asked for an accounting from Wilkes and demanded that the corporation be placed in receivership. He also started another action for back salary and other obligations totaling $44,200. Wilkes was ordered to repay Wagner $30,000 in forty days.7^ The timing of these actions further illuminates the unstable condition of The Wilkes Corporation and/or the unscrupulous dealings of the Wilkes brothers. In September, 1925, Sam H. Harris, having disposed of his interest in the Selwyn and Harris theatres in Chicago, sold his New York theatre to the Shuberts. Thomas Wilkes's lease automatically expired as provided in his agreement 296 with Harris. He was refunded the $90,000 which he had posted in advance and was given six months (March) to vacate the t h e a t r e . In an attempt to get back the money he had invested, Wagner launched his court cases. But throughout 1926 and into 1927, machinations and deviations continued to support a bankrupt corporation and to cover up the personal extravagances of Thomas and Alfred G. Wilkes, while plans went forward to erect their new play house in Los Angeles. The Morosco Theatre While changes were fomenting on the theatrical scene, The Morosco Theatre continued along its familiar path of presenting plays for sheer amusement, fashioned upon ready appeals to sentiment and ideas which reinforced traditional beliefs. In January, 1924, The Morosco Holding Company receiver-officers admitted that they intended . . . to produce any sort of play for four weeks . . . because even poor plays make money in that length of time [since] . . . it does not cost more than $1,500 to produce.^ However, the validity of the generalization admits of ex ceptions . Of the eleven productions mounted in 1924, nine were comedies built around the domestic scene, with a 297 soup9on of romance, and an occasional risqu£ element. Only The Famous Mrs. Fair and the "mystery-meller," The Cat and The Canary, were of a "heavier" nature. The comedies were The Lady Killer, Cornered, Not So Fast, Shore Leave, Shavings, Six-Cylinder Love, The Open Gate, It's a Boy, and Nighty-Night. The Open Gate was the only new work presented at the theatre during 1924. Labeled as an "uplifting comedy drama," it revolved around a World War I veteran's attempts to "go wrong," all of which turn into opportunities for him to "make good." The critics pointed to its familiar situations and characters, and predicted its popularity because of its reliance upon facile "appeals to sentiment rather than upon any felicity in new invention 77 to intrigue the audience." The show ran for seven weeks with healthy gross receipts. The two near-long runs were staples of this stock company: a sentimental domestic comedy, It's a Boy, which ran for five weeks, and a mystery-melodrama-farce, Cor nered, which ran for seven weeks. The former paraded the expected gallery of stock characters— young couple, grandma, Jewish salesman, country boy, man of the world, a preacher, a rich man— and lauded the virtues of small-town life 78 against the evils of the city. 298 Of the "heavier works" shown in 19 24, both had been seen in the city during the road-show presentations, but The Famous Mrs. Fair allowed "The Morosco Company . . . [to perform] excellently well with the first really fine play they have had in many months."^8 It also gave Florence Lawrence the opportunity to remind the audience of its responsibilities: It is important, however, for every father and mother to think carefully whether or not such plays are really good for their sons and daughters. There is just the chance that a problem which Mr. and Mrs. Fair had to face may, when translated through the eyes of the young, breed discontent and rebellion in the younger members of the house hold.80 In mid-June, The Morosco unveiled The Cat and the Canary, which ran throughout the summer, providing healthy competition for the generic mystery, The Bat, playing con currently at The Figueroa Street Playhouse. It showed an arithmetic average for the thirteen weeks reported of $7,800 (it ran sixteen weeks). The kind of play presented in 1925 did not differ measurably from the previous year, although several plays contained a note of seriousness. The length of run did alter, however, with only three shows playing an engage ment of four weeks and two staying for six weeks. More- over, two productions were repeated for the first time in 299 the history of the theatre in the 1920's.8^ The two comedy-dramas with realistic underpin nings were Thank You, about the underpaid minister whose existence depends on charity, and The Back-Slapper, in which a wife exposes her husband's cruelty and insensitiv ity at a dinner given to advance his senatorial candi dacy.8^ The theatre's movement into deeper waters, however, frequently taxed the talents of the company and aroused little enthusiasm from among the critics or the patrons. Similar in style to Beggar on Horseback, Deliverance was given a "fair" rating, despite its contrived beginning (the hero falls into a dream when the office boy dopes his drink), and its embarrassing resemblance to The Adding Machine (the hero dreams he murders his rival, stands trial, and enters eternity). Variety bluntly stated that it was poorly staged and outside of the leads "atrociously o g acted." J On the other hand, Cobra, a study in contrasts between a woman's attempts to break-up her husband's friendship and the kindness of the friend, was considered one of the season's more vital and engrossing theatrical 84 pieces. Then, on February 28, 1926, The Morosco Theatre 300 Stock Company introduced a drama new to Los Angeles, still running on Broadway, unseen as of yet in Chicago, and recipient of the 1925-26 Pulitzer Prize award— George Kelly's Craig's Wife. The superior craftsmanship of the playwright, his convincing characterizations and situa tions, his sound knowledge of psychology were recognized immediately: . . . the season has offered its share of out standing character studies, most of which have been of the more sensational type ("What Price Glory," "Desire Under the Elms"), but . . . I do not know of any that has proved humanly more interesting than the one offered in George Kelly's intimate little household drama . . . Here is a piece that is worth attention.^5 Monroe Lathrop was even more complimentary: With a skill that no American writer has matched, and that only Ibsen parallels, Kelly has filled out his character. It is as relent less as "Hedda Gabler."®® The members of the cast "acquitted themselves well," in particular Jane Morgan and Gavin Crawford (who had recently joined the company as the leading man) as the husband and wife. The audience cheered when the husband shattered the mantelpiece ornament. Superiority of production also characterized The Outsider, Dorothy's Brandon's penetrating study of the medical profession, the psychology of a cripple, and a 301 young healer's fervid faith in his special powers. If critical response had held the managerial reins, the play would have been allowed a longer engagement, but it was replaced after two weeks with a mystery farce. Notwithstanding these plays of more than transient appeal, the popularly-oriented work still constituted the bulk of this "family theatre"— romantic imbroglios, domes tic distress, chauvinistic charades, and scarifying mys teries. By 1926, The Morosco Theatre had become the proto type stock company, the only such organization in Los Angeles at the time. Frank Egan and The Egan Theatre Even before the theatre world began taking note of the new playhouses opening in Los Angeles during the spring of 1924, a new play, presented and staged by a new combina tion of producers, nudged even the skeptical to attention. In itself, the work was not literally avant-garde or theatrically innovative, but White Collars, by Edith Ellis, was to run for two and one-half years, playing 1,072 per formances before closing on May 9, 1926, breaking every O O record for a long run west of Chicago. ° The production then reopened on July 25, 1926 and played an additional 302 twenty-six weeks, for a total of 144.5 weeks. The play was sponsored by Frank Egan, in associa tion with Louis O. Macloon, and was directed by Lillian Albertson. Macloon had just presented Miss Albertson in Zander (the Great), and in between engagements at The Mason and the commencement of a coast tour, the three arranged to produce and to mount Ellis' play.89 The domestic comedy with a social consciousness was a hit,98 and was the ideal example of the kind of play which Egan believed had the best chance for success: "... those which have characters recognized by the audience as counterparts to someone they know intimately."91 Following the successful opening of White Collars in Los Angeles, plans were made to produce the play in New York but disagreements delayed the opening. After Miss 92 Ellis and Frank Egan settled their differences, the co producers contended, with Egan finally purchasing Mac- loon's share for $15,000." When the play opened in New York, critics found it talky but entertaining. Variety also illuminated the eastern metropolis's view of "made in California" theatrical productions: . . . with "Abie's Irish Rose" as living example New York may be a bit suspicious of shows with 303 coast endurance records, but it should have a successful engagement in New York.94 While the affairs surrounding White Collars were being resolved, Frank Egan assumed a ten-month lease on the (Lurie) Capitol Theatre in San Francisco, and also sponsored Doris Keane in several plays.Egan agreed to manage Doris Keane in her personal success, Romance, and to present her in Czarina, an historical-romantic comedy about an episode in the life of Catherine II of Russia. He also saw her through Gladys Unger's new play, Starlight, which was closely modeled upon several incidents in the life of Sarah Bernhardt. Directed by Edith Ellis, it premiered at The Curran Theatre, San Francisco, in late September, and opened a two-week engagement at The Bilt- more Theatre on October 20, 1924. The Variety reviewer in San Francisco, who wished Egan well with the show, had thought the play "too frank and too deliciously risqu£ to find favor in the smaller towns.Edwin Schallert con curred, and found that the sudden shifts of tone created an uneasiness in the audience, particularly in the immi- Q 7 nent-bxrth scene.*' The play opened in New York on March 3, 1925, pro duced by Frank Egan in association with Charles Frohman, 304 Inc. Variety did not foresee a long run, finding the play uneven in craftsmanship and somewhat outdated in language, although it praised the lavishness of Egan's production. Q Q It ran for seventy-one performances. Frank Egan returned to Los Angeles following the two New York openings, but he made no further substantial contribution to theatre. In September, 1926, he suffered an attack of typhoid fever, and the following March died after a stroke. The Mason Theatre The chronicle of theatrical activity at The Mason Opera House in 1924 is remarkable less for its production record than for the determination of its owner to convert the 1903 playhouse into a modern, practicable theatre. Unable to sell The Mason even as he went forward with plans for the erection of The Biltmore Theatre, A. L. Erlanger, in association with Joseph Toplitzky, authorized the Los Angeles firm of Meyer and Holler to renovate the playhouse completely, leaving only the original shell of the struc ture intact. In addition to modernizing its name and its interior, the theatre also ceased to be the main road-show playhouse in Los Angeles, tenanting any production, many of local origin or sponsored by locally-based producers. The chapter on the glorious days of The Mason Opera House closed somewhat ignominiously on a production of local origin, Mile. Magnificent, billed as "a topical musical revue." Planned for three performances, it closed after the second performance.. Five years later, George H. Oswald was ordered to pay claims, plus interest, to eighty-four members of the company amounting to $8,666.9^ For the most part, the rest of the fare in 1924 was as equally forgettable, with an occasional bright moment. Fourteen production companies used the playhouse, eight of them road companies in New York shows, plus The Robert Mantell repertory. Two new plays and three local acting favorites also filled the calendar. During the first two months, familiar plays and familiar entertainers claimed the stage. However, before the theatre closed, audiences had the opportunity to relish two offerings of | classical plays and two classical examples of popular entertainment. David Warfield was memorable in Belasco's richly embellished production of The Merchant of Venice: "He makes Shylock live— a tremendously appealing figure, not so much the symbol of a race, but an individual pathet ically borne down by unfair advantage. The two-week engagement grossed $31,000, a sizable achievement even at 306 the $3.00 ticket price. Interest in the Shakespeare production, however, seemed paltry by comparison with the turnout for The Passing Show and Bombo. Willie Howard, at the head of the Schuberts' Tenth Winter Garden revue drew $25,000 in one week ($3.00), while A1 Jolson, who delighted auditors, critics, producers, and theatre managers during his two- week stay, grossed $75,200 ($3.50 top). Speaking of Jolson's appearance, Edwin Schallert wrote: Shakespeare [Mantell troupe] played to half houses last week, but Al Jolson is going to knock them dead. I am sorry about the unpopularity of "Hamlet," but I must say that I am all whooped up about Al.101 Immediately preceding Jolson's appearance, Robert Mantell had presented a two-week repertory engagement of Shakespearean works, and Richelieu, which critics declared his finest study.^02 That the repertory was poorly attended (gross receipts of $12,000 in two weeks) may be explained in part by changing audience tastes, but also by the unchanged repertory familiar from previous years. In addition, Mantell's acting style, which emphasized "the grand manner" and vocal orotundity, was in sharp contrast, even at this date, to the more naturalistic interpretations of John Barrymore, Fritz Leiber, Jane Cowl, and Rollo 307 Peters. The critics, however, paid tribute to the still- commanding genius of the artist: What a rest from the cheap and tawdry enter tainment of current theatricals in general are the beautiful words, the depth of human observation, the music of the poetry, the arrestingness of the drama of the Shakespearean plays which Robert Man tell and his most able company are putting on . . . Despite his age, Mantell's "Hamlet" is a beau tiful triumph . . . If it lacks fire at moments, it more than makes up in tenderness . . .103 The only other shows to play the old Mason Opera House before it closed were Whispering Wires and The Old Soak; a dreary musical, The Morning After, intended as a showcase for movie actress, Dorothy Devore; Just Married, the only romantic comedy to stop at the theatre; and Walker Whiteside in two melodramas. The first of these, Mr. Wu, was considered a terrible and dreadful thriller in its time . . . and still an interesting character study, [but] . . . there is no tremendously impor tant reason for its revival . . ,1°4 The other was Sheep, a new work premiered earlier in Denver, about which Edwin Schallert said that he could be 105 more caustic if he did not find it so amusing. Closed for remodeling on June 29, 1924, The Mason reopened seven and one-half months later, on February 16, 1925, with Austin Strong's comedy-drama, Seventh Heaven, CHART 7 THE RENOVATED MASON THEATRE Renovations estimated at between $133,000 and $250,000.^6 Consisted of: 1. The outer lobby, designed to resemble the loges surrounding the open courts of Roman villas, was repainted in brilliant colors (not cited) over Pompeian plaster. Earlier article mentioned rusticated marble dado, with marble pilasters in color, and panel in formal design. Bronze grills gave onto the main foyer. 2. The main foyer, surrounded by a balustrade from which hung flowers, with a fountain at the center, and large marble urns at each of four corners, with concealed light ing. 107 3. The inclined floors, or "scaffold-like entrances" to the balcony, were removed and replaced with concrete steps, providing additional space on the main floor for smoking rooms. 4. Within the auditorium, seating 1,700 (with a probable reduction in seating): a. New seats of dark green upholstery were placed "with regard to ample spacing." b. The boxes were removed, improving the sightlines (pictures of the original auditorium show that there had been two tiers of boxes with three boxes in each tier, on either side of the auditorium at the orchestra and dress circle level). c. A new curtain was hung, replacing the old one with advertisements on it. d. New steam radiators were installed in the former "standing room only" location. e. The row of benches along the rear was discarded. 1 f l f t f. The proscenium was narrowed slightly (no dimensions given).xuo 5. The building was fire-proofed throughout. 6. The blue and gold in the panels, drapes, and carpeting may have been the consistent color scheme throughout the theatre. 30.9 starring Helen Menken, Jason Robards, Sr., and Reginald Barlow. Critics commented favorably upon the theatre's face-lift and upon the representative audience from the professional world, politics, and society "who returned to the theatre where they have been the inspiration of many parties in the past and gasped their approval of the changes."-*-99 About the play, they were somewhat divided, Monroe Lathrop calling it "theater of today at its best," Florence Lawrence finding it thrilling, and Edwin Schal- lert, in a tone of near-apology, summarizing its overall appeal as "true-blue course of wholesomeness," lacking in subtlety and sophistication. They were equally divided about the acting. Lawrence invoked comparisons with Bernhardt, Fiske, and others of like stature, while Schallert found Miss Menken emotionally extravagant and Jason Robards, Sr., lacking in reality. Lathrop on the other hand thought Robards captured the audience by "his ability to divest his work of the manners of an actor. Perhaps the exhiliration of the evening affected their critical powers. The production stayed for three weeks, and was the only road show to play the theatre for the remainder of 310 the year. In fact, between the time it closed and May 15, 1926, only two others stopped at The Mason— Ma Pettingill and The Gorilla. The limited number of road shows which played The Mason was the result of action taken even before the theatre had reopened. A. L. Erlanger leased the theatre for thirty-two weeks at the reported weekly figure of $1,500 to Louis 0. Macloon, lessee of The Figueroa Street Playhouse, and E. D. Smith, former manager of The Mason Opera House and The Biltmore Theatre.Macloon and Smith intended to stage west coast productions of current New York musicals, and on March 9, 1925, they opened No, No, Nanette, starring Nancy Welford, Marie Wells, Pauline French, Taylor Holmes, Angie Norton, and Derek Glynne, in the fourth company of the musical comedy still unseen in 112 New York.The show ran for seventeen weeks, grossing $135,000 in six weeks, the length of time for which Variety reported figures. In April, the same journal stated that the Macloon-Smith team had arranged to produce Lady Be Good and What Price Glory, agreeing to the same terms which 113 had been worked out with H. H. Frazee for Nanette. The mold for the practices of the next several years had been cast— coast productions of current, successful - 311 Broadway shows, obtained by meeting stiff guarantee and percentage demands. In the middle of the run of No, No, Nanette, Macloon sold his interest to Smith, as well as his share in The Mason Theatre lease, the upcoming musical, Lady Be Good, and the booking contract with Homer Curran, San Francisco. Macloon, who had already established a reputa tion for boorish behavior with drama reviewers, had been placed on Equity's list of suspended producers over diffi culties which developed during the run of Romeo and Juliet. His "sleight-of-hand" dealings were not limited to actors and theatre critics. Early in the run of No, No, Nanette, Macloon and Smith had announced that tickets for shows at The Mason and The Figueroa were to be sold only at the respective theatre box-offices, alleging that scalpers had caused the failure of Seventh Heaven.However, Variety gave a different version of the story. In an article headlined, "Macloon and Smith Fall Down Trying to Hold up Los Angeles Brokers," Variety said that prior to the open ing of the musical, the producers had visited the broker, George Gittelson and informed him that he would have to pay them a twenty-five cent premium on tickets which he handled. When Gittelson rejected "the hold-up," the 312 producers advertised their intention not to do business with any of the brokers because of their abusively high prices. The brokers in turn agreed not to handle any seats for attractions managed either by Smith or Macloon. 11 The popularity of the show continued undiminished. Smith followed Noy No, Nanette's phenomenal success with Lady Be Good. It entertained throughout the summer, *1 1 grossing $182,300 for thirteen of its fourteen weeks. ■ LO He then apparently intended to fill the theatre with yet another musical, Tell Me More, by George and Ira Gershwin and B. G. DeSylva, which had closed in New York after thirty-two performances. But when Equity ruled that he had to bring both principals and chorus to the coast, he closed the show in Chicago, where it had played for two 117 weeks at The Selwyn Theatre. Edward Smith then left The Mason and invested his energies in the new El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, which he opened as its first lessee. The vogue for musical comedy, however, had caught on, and a group of Los Angeles residents decided that they could successfully produce, cast, mount, and "put across" a musical comedy. Patsy, a musicalized Cinderella story, sent the critics into panegyric fever: 313 Yet another bright spot in the theatrical world! Don't miss it! Patsy! A show! Thus trumpeted Edwin Schallert, and Florence Lawrence, 118 Mabel Brundige, and Variety agreed. One week later, Variety offered the thought that "the book and the cast interpreting it may not be taken seriously around here."-*-19 Apparently enough people did, for the show completed ten weeks, dropping to an estimated gross of $12,000 only once during the run. Abraham Lincoln Erlanger had been unable to "un load" his theatre, but during these years being a landlord for shows which stayed anywhere from two to seventeen weeks was as profitable as the days when he had been both owner and booking manager. And with another theatre at their disposal, Los Angeles found ways, means, men, and motives to produce shows. The Biltmore Theatre When the long-awaited Biltmore Theatre opened on March 3, 1924, the first new spoken-drama playhouse to be erected in the decade, it shared the glory of the occasion with several other events. The Chicago Opera, starring Mary Garden, Rosa Raisa, Feodor Chaliapin, and Edith Mason, 314 commenced their engagement the same evening and heightened anticipation by their late arrival, which delayed the curtain at The Philharmonic until 9:15 p.m. Edwin Schallert considered this opening the artistic and social highlight of the e v e n i n g . -^0 Nevertheless, the opening of The Biltmore Theatre was an event of historical signifi cance. Located at the southeast corner of Grand and Fifth Streets, the theatre had been unveiled for an in vited audience on the evening before the official opening, when Thomas Bendix and his twenty-five piece orchestra entertained. Florenz Ziegfeld's extravagant and beautiful musi cal, Sally (561 performances in New York), was the first production on The Biltmore stage. Headed by the majority of the New York company, including Leon Erroll, Walter Catlett, Irving Fisher, Frank Kingdom, Phil Ryley, and others, the lead was assumed by Shirley Vernon. Marilyn Miller, who had created the role on Broadway was in the audience with her husband, Jack Pickford. Grace Kingsley called the production a triumph for the company, while Monroe Lathrop was more specific: "Sally" has ornamental effects, comedy, cos tume novelty . . . and charm and display of skill, a tangible and humorous plot . . . a score in CHART 8 THE BILTMORE Owner A. L. Erlanger and Joseph Toplitzky formed The Los Angeles Biltmore Amusement Corporation, with funding by local supporters. Architect-Patrons' Areas See Charles Francis Peters, "A Historical Survey of The Biltmore Theatre" (unpublished Master's Thesis, California State College at Long Beach, 1969), pp. 1-50. Auditorium Seating Capacity The Times said 1,667: 709 on the lower level, 426 in the balcony, 390 in the second balcony, and 72 in the loges, ten each in the boxes. Peters' study said 1,641; Mr. C. E. Oliver, long-time manager of the theatre, ordered 1,636 tickets. Appomtmentsx Curtain showed a map of California and the state seal, with an old galleon; above the arch were four cameos with expressions of comedy and tragedy (Roman masks). Concave acoustical wave or drape curved from arch to the ceiling. 236-lamp chandelier, 2 large carved wooden lanterns suspended from the boxes. Color scheme: blue/gray/antique gold. Stage Area 99'-0" wide x 33'-0" deep, with proscenium opening of 40'-0". u H U CHART 8— Continued Other Areas Combination Ladies and Gentlemen's Smoking Room on balcony level; lounges located on main floor, balcony, gallery levels. u> < T \ 3IT which Jerome Kern has quite outdone himself, bal lets by Victor Herbert, settings by Joseph Urban and players who leave little to be desired.124 The audience, including "aristocrats who had scarcely ven tured out to the theatre since the opening of the Mason," enjoyed the show, and joyously "batted balloons around" during the intermission.125 Sally stayed for two weeks, during which time it grossed $78,000, $14,000 of which came from the opening night when tickets ranged from three to ten dollars, even though prices for the rest of the run were fifty cents to three dollars and a half. Although Grace Kingsley of The Times prophesied that "with the Biltmore, we shall now have long runs of eastern productions just like Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia," the statement was more a hope than a reality. In 1924, only three shows broke the two- week mold: Lightnin', on view in Los Angeles five and one-half years after its opening in New York where it had established a record run of 1,291 peformances, lasted nine weeks; and Merton of the Movies remained for three weeks; while The Vilna Theatre Troupe stayed only one week. Critics and audiences alike were delighted ,with Lightnin', a comedy of a western folk hero, written by the recently-deceased Californian, Frank Bacon. The demand 318 for tickets was so great that extra performances were added, even one on Good Friday afternoon (April 18). 126 Only two other road shows put in at the theatre: ihe first coast tour or Irene Bordoni, contratice, in a charming, smart musical piece, Miss Bluebeard ($29,200 at $3.00 top); and Ethel Barrymore at the head of a road company in Alfred Sutro's delectable drawing-room comedy, Laughing Lady ($22,500 for two weeks).^2^ Then, in its first summer, the theatre offered no road shows, and would have been dark except for three productions not sponsored by New York producers: Romance, which moved to The Biltmore after its Figueroa Street Playhouse engagement; The Caliph, produced by Thomas Wilkes and starring Raymond Hitchcock; and The Vilna Jew ish Theatre Troupe in a repertory of plays including The Dybbuk, The Green Fields, Days of Our Life, The Abandoned Nook, and Nevale. Although not all of the productions were covered in the English-written metropolitan newspapers, those which were (The Dybbuk and Green Fields) prompted observations on the large audiences, the natural "magnifi- 128 cent technique" of the actors, and the ensemble playing. The troupe then went on a brief tour, and returned to per form at The Gamut Club from October through February, 19 25. ^ When road companies began stopping at the theatre in September, all except one were musical offerings and all fared well at the box office. The only interruption in this musical caravan was virtually assured a successful engagement in Los Angeles. Merton of the Movies was greeted on opening night by film notables, stars, and producers. Other theatre goers also found the warm satire amusing and helped to extend the engagement to 129 three weeks. The 1924-25 season moved into high gear in the new year, displaying an uninterrupted parade of road shows between January 18, 1925, and the end of August. There were the musical offerings: The Magic Ring, with Sydney Greenstreet and Mitzi, whose style evoked comparisons with movieland's lovable tramp; Politics, with Kolb and Dill, who burlesqued the political scandals of the period; and two revues, The Greenwich Village Follies, which showed slumping returns during its three weeks ($22,000, $14,000, and $8,600), and Artists and Models, Shubert's lavishly embellished and drastically underdressed production. Scattered among these were the dramatic presenta tions of May Robson and Olga Petrova, and a battery of historical and classical revivals. The two historical 32Q- adventures, Sancho Panza and The Three Musketeers, fur nished a study in contrasting acting styles and audience preferences. The former, a highly florid fantasy of the distant past given in a comedic mood, admirably suited Otis Skinner's flair for humorous extravaganza. Buttressed by a fine cast, including Robert Rosaire as Dapple the Donkey, the show drew such audiences that only Blossomtime surpassed its total receipts ($38,000, $31,500).131 Qn the other hand, The Three Musketeers, while earning criti cal plaudits for Fritz Leiber's natural and ingratiating manner, grossed only $6,000. His Shakespearean repertory showed similar receipts. But if Leiber's little-heralded talents met with restricted audiences, his artistic inno vations rewarded those who came. His Hamlet, a "young, impulsive, sensitive, manly" prince, was deemed "a treat that no one who loves a good play well-acted can afford to 1 on miss." His Macbeth, played against a setting of draperies and lighting so kaleidoscopic and intense as to be occasionally distracting, scaled the despair of the TOO character. J The other plays repeated his previous engagement, although this time he played Brutus in Julius Caesar. But the intellectual and theatrical treat of the T2T season combined a rare play with a company of unmatched quality. Headed by Minnie Maddern Fiske, Chauncey Olcott, Thomas Wise, James T. Powers, Lola Fisher, Marie Carroll, and others, The Rivals offered the "ultimate of individual art, and the penultimate of exquisitely balanced ensemble" with a humor fabricated of both ideas and situations. James S. Carter, who had first seen the play with Joseph Jefferson and Mrs. John Drew, disliked James Powers' interpretation of Bob Acres as a low-comedy lout; regretted that Olcott was unable to put aside his "sweet Irish singer" manner; and felt that Mrs. Fiske lacked some of the vivacity of Mrs. Drew. The production, however, was a popular success, grossing $32,000 in two weeks.134 The comedic, occasionally probing, mode of theat rical fare seen at The Biltmore during the first part of 1925 was not altered measurably throughout that summer. Henry Miller offered two new works for the critical appe tites of Los Angeles audiences: The Grand Duchess and The Waiter, a comedy of a group of exiled Russian aristocrats, which mixed tones and styles with such abandon that critics 135 saw little hope for its success, and Embers, in which the luminous talents of Henry Miller, Laura Hope Crewes, and Margalo Gilmore, were applied to the problem of an 322" errant wife, her husband, another woman, and the children which each woman bears. Florence Lawrence stirringly challenged the Los Angeles audience to rise to "the strong meat" of the play: . . . Los Angeles is a progressive theater-going city. It likes that which is new and vibrant. This appetite is too often starved. Lack of nourishment may indeed have depleted the theatri cal hunger for the moment,' but one taste of this [play] . . . will wake the zest for more and still more of such delightful theatrical fare.1-3® It was the last such Pacific coast try out undertaken by Henry Miller, for the actor-director died the following April. Blanche Bates and Frank Keenan also enlivened the summer of 1925 with Mrs. Patridge Presents, and Smiling Danger, a new melodrama. Frank Keenan's play provided him with a role worthy of his histrionic talent, but the work was so weak and obvious that critics urged abandonment 137 without regret. No such critical indifference greeted George Kelly's comedic study of the "genus Americanus"— The Show- Off, starring Hobart Cavanaugh as the "quintessence of gall on legs [who] stumbles onto the right track by sheer lop luck and comes out of the story its hero."1 0 Audiences were less entranced by its pungent wit, extravagant 32 3 characters, and lacerating satire of America, for the production grossed only $11,900. It was the poorest show ing of all the $2.50-two-week engagements. With the conclusion of these summer engagements, The Biltmore Theatre underwent a change in policy. From January, 1925 until September, all production had remained at the theatre for two weeks only. The two productions which stayed longer filled vacancies created by the can cellation of The Chauve-Souris and Ethel Barrymore. An analysis of these productions shows that, regardless of ticket price, familiar musicals and operettas were the consistent "high grossers," followed by star attractions, melodramatic, fantastic, risqu£ in mode. (See Appendix for gross receipts). Sally, Irene and Mary reported $15,000 for the first week; the second week is unknown. Ethel Barrymore's production of The Laughing Lady grossed $22,500, but the ticket price was not advertised. However, in September, 1925, a change took place. Edward D. Smith undertook a long-term lease on the theatre, installed his production of No, No, Nanette for seven weeks, and closed the Bilt more to any road show until November, 1925. Then only one unit (Robert Mantell) put in to the theatre which went 324 dark again throughout December. Robert Mantell opened the Los Angeles engagement of his farewell tour with King Lear, which his advancing years and theatrical genius made "a thing of poignant, 139 fiercely gripping power." Among the other well-known 140 roles of Richelieu, Jacques, Macbeth, and Shylock, Mantell introduced his version of a modern-dress Hamlet. Both Edwin Schallert and Ted Cook commented on the zest with which the audience greeted the experiment, although they pondered whether the reaction was critical approval or mere fashionable acceptance. They noted, however, that after a few scenes the novelty wore off (Polonius was stabbed with a sword concealed in a cane), and Schallert concluded that the half-hearted departures from old ideals 141 had little advanced Mantell's reputation. With its literary obeissance complete, The Bilt- more Theatre swept into 1926 with a nimble foot and full voice. A specially-organized coast company opened The Student Prince at The Biltmore, while the New York engage ment was still running, and the combination of romance, singable tunes, and a touch of mawkish comedy kept the production running for twelve weeks. It grossed $257,000; established the theatre's long-run record not equalled 3 2 5 until 19 46 and Oklahoma; and was outdistanced only by two movies, Ben Hur for 16 weeks and Wings for 17 weeks, both shown in this decade. Three weeks later (after a two-week engagement of Scandals), despite a rain which brought death and destruc tion, a production came to town which not even the home- folks wanted to miss— Rose-Marie. Its dazzling production numbers (especially "Totem Tom-Tom"), its excellent songs (familiar from radio exposure, particularly "Indian Love Call"), its interesting and logical book, and the exciting voices and attractive personalities of Marie Shamshon, Allan Rogers, Betty Byron, and Charley Sylber enchanted audiences for eight weeks. It assumed third place among the theatre's long runs (Lightnin1 was second with nine weeks). At least during much of late 1925 and 1926, Grace Kingsley's claim made at the opening of The Biltmore came true for Los Angeles did have long-run engagements of eastern productions comparable to Chicago and other large cities. Of special significance is the fact that these two long-run musicals were presented on the west coast concurrent with their New York engagements, indicating a recognition of the growing importance of theatre in Los 326 Angeles. Louis 0. Macloon and The Figueroa Street Playhouse Columns of professional journals are filled with the peripatetic adventures of its members. In 1920, Variety had carried a small "personal" that Louis 0. Mac loon had left Chicago for Los Angeles because of his wife's poor health, where he intended to seek a position 144 m the movies. With such minimum notice, the man whose theatrical undertakings and professional manner earned him the soubriquette "self-styled 'Belasco of the Pacific Coast,'" entered the Los Angeles scene. But his impact was not felt for three more years. In the meantime, the "well-known advance agent and show promoter" married Lillian Albertson (April, 1923). A native of Indiana, Miss Albertson had grown up in San Francisco and received her first acting opportunity in Los Angeles at the first Belasco Theatre. In 1909 she went to New York and appeared in Paid in Full with Tully Mar shall.145 In June, 1921, she divorced Abe J. Levy, A. H. Woods's partner at The Eltinge Theatre, New York. By late fall, 1923, "the dapper New York theatrical and motion J2T picture man," the former general press representative for Oliver Morosco, and former general publicity manager for William R. Hearst's Cosmopolitan Pictures, was in Los Angeles seeking a theatre. -*-^6 while awaiting his call from the wings, Macloon sponsored a coast tour of Zander (the Great) starring Miss Albertson, and joined forces with Frank Egan in the presentation of White Collars. Simultaneously, the Los Angeles Friday Morning Women's Club completed its new clubhouse at 940 South Figueroa Street, including offices, meeting rooms, lounges, dining areas, a gallery, and a theatre, planned allegedly for the sole use of the members. However, because the structure, which was said to have cost $750,000 exceeded the estimated budget, the group considered leasing the theatre for commercial productions. The Playhouse was leased by The Los Angeles Play house, Inc., Louis O. Macloon, president, and Lillian Albertson, secretary/treasurer, at a $25,000 yearly rental for the first two years, and $2 7,000 for the remaining three years of the five-year lease.147 a maximum ticket price of $1.50 was set for the evening performances, with matinees scheduled on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. ° Variety had announced that Macloon intended to CHART 9 THE FIGUEROA STREET PLAYHOUSE OWNER The Friday Morning Women's Club ARCHITECTS Allison and Allison; decorator, E. Peterson BUILDING EXTERIOR Renaissance style, stone building, archways at sidewalk entrance; three pairs of wooden double doors led to lobby. Above archways at the street was the inscription, "In Essen tials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity." PATRONS AREAS Lobby and Foyer Not described; lobby overlooked by a balcony; Spanish light fixtures AUDITORIUM Seating Capacity 1228— 92 7 on first floor, 301 in balcony — (920 on first floor, 308 in balcony) Seating could be expanded by placing chairs in the triforium, a cloister-like promenade on the house left side of the auditorium at the second level; no boxes An intimate quality in the auditorium; there was no space between the rows of seats ^ and the stage opening, and no decorative proscenium arch; the area was marked by ° q CHART 9— continued two tall lanterns^"5® Color scheme: mahogany and flame; ceiling set in with ducal crests hand-decorated in blue and gold; hangings of red and blue; chairs in blue and gray THE STAGE 24'-0" deep by 80'-0" wide, with proscenium width of 36'-0" 28'-0" by 90'-0" with proscenium opening 66'-0" high 35'-8" wide proscenium opening^-5! <jj to vo 3.30 open his theatre with Partners Again, starring Barney 152 Bernard and Alex Carr, but instead, the premiere pre sentation was Romance, starring Doris Keane in Edward Sheldon's comedy-drama, supported by a few of the New York 153 cast and a number of local actors. Although Monroe Lathrop found the Victorian pacing mildly irritating, on the whole he maintained that the play retained its vital ity : But "Romance's" settings of ante-bellum America help greatly in its glamor of reminiscence; its structure, with prologue and epilogue framing the main story; its freedom from obvious theatrical effects; its very human picture of life's con trast of eager youth ready to bound forward into the risks of adventure and disillusioned age vainly trying to instill some caution into youth; its rich, pulsing and beautiful dialogue— these combine to make an entertainment of rare merit, force, and appeal. -^4 With subsequent productions, Louis O. Macloon established himself as the premier purveyor of shows which appealed to sophisticated yet popular tastes: comedies of romance and adventure (Romance); comedies of the familiar (The Clinging Vine, Welcome Stranger, The Goose Hangs High, Kelly's Vacation, The Door Mat); sophisticated comedies of social mores (Spring Cleaning); comedies with a vein of social satire (The Whole Town's Talking, The Great I Am); melodramas of love and suspense (The Lady, The Bat) ; and 331 an occasional serious play which wandered into this Attic armory (Dark Angel/ Copperhead, Lullaby). From the opening of the theatre through the end of 1924, all productions played engagements of four- to five- weeks duration, except The Clinging Vine, which remained for eight weeks. Spring Cleaning, which had premiered in Chicago and was still current in New York, was presented in association with the Selwyns and starred Pauline Fred erick and Cyril Keightley. Interest in the production was aroused through newspaper articles relating how well the show was doing at the box office, and detailing how much the production had cost to bring to Los Angeles ($1,000 a week royalty, $5,000 invested in scenery, plus 155 stars' salaries, etc.). The Whole Town's Talking, Emerson and Loos' satire of a Sandusky, Ohio, merchant who invents a past with a cinema queen so as to be "acceptable" in his fi- 15 6 ancee's eyes, was succeeded by the fourth appearance of The Bat. While no one of these four plays was a flop at the box office, The Clinging Vine had that fortuitous combina tion of factors which spelled success: (1) "a bright, clean comedy, merry all the way through and free from situations 332 or lines which cannot be repeated in any circle, domestic or otherwise"; (2) a skillful, charming, well-balanced cast headed by Peggy Wood, Trixie Friganza, Derek Glynne, and Roy Guisti; and (3) technically superior staging "with brisk dances, clever business, and a wealth of pretty 157 girls, snappy dancers and good singers." The show grossed $69,700 in the seven weeks reported (admission increased to $2.00). Welcome Stranger, by Aaron Hoffman, was Macloon's only qualified failure (grossed only $30,000 in four weeks). Several causes can be cited, all of which can easily be summarized in one word: "ill-chosen." The play, a product of the 1920 New York season, was crippled by an obvious theme, and material handled in a painfully coy manner. The film, also starring Sydney Toler, had been released in Los Angeles in September. Comparison with the blitheful sophistication of The Clinging Vine was inev itable, and Welcome Stranger, depleted of funds after the box office was robbed of $4,000-$5,000, was gladly put • 4 - 158 into storage. The Lady, by Martin Brown, a melodramatic study of a traveling comedienne abandoned by her socialite husband, was more interesting for its background history than for 333 its theatrical or dramatic significance. The play had opened in New York in December, 1923, produced by A. H. Woods. However, one year earlier, Variety had reported that Macloon had purchased the rights to a play entitled A Gentleman's Mother, when Sam H. Harris had released it because it was unsuitable to Jeanne Eagels. Macloon's involvements in the theatrical backrooms of New York were respectably complicated. The coast production brought Pauline Frederick back to The Figueroa. Hailed as "a real triumph for the star," and referred to as "a dramat ic masterpiece," it was the first production to fulfill the agreement with Homer Curran of San Francisco whereby Macloon's shows alternated with road attractions at The Shubert-Curran.Between the first of the year and the fall of 1925, Macloon introduced several new plays along side the Broadway successes. In addition, he subleased the theatre to Thomas Wilkes during part of the summer, although the rest of the time it was shuttered. Macloon was forced to stop productions temporarily as a result of disagreements with Actors' Equity. The two new plays which followed The Lady and The Goose Hangs High were written by local authors, and neither was unusual in subject matter, characters, or 334 point of view. The Great I Am, by Tom Geraghty and C. D. Lancaster, starred Taylor Holmes as a swaggering individ ual whose impervious self-reliance propels him into state politics. Critics found the story commonplace, and the types so overdrawn that the players had "to fall upon their roles and with main strength wring from them the juice of character, which they do almost with one accord." Besides these literary deficiencies, a make-shift, drab setting hastened the termination of the engagement (grossed only $4,500 in its first week; second not re ported) . The Door Mat, by Ethel Clifton and Brenda Fowler, while it treated of the transformation of a female "door mat" into a vivacious and independent woman, at least .*■♦1 benefited from Lillian Albertson's faultless, sympathetic performance.162 The limited success of these two new/plays, the tepid response to Kelly's Vacation which separated t h e m ,163 and the failure of The Dark Angel, which followed, nourished Macloon's boorish manner. He "bawled out" the Variety representative and refused him entry to the theatre (along with Don Kruell of The Los Angeles Herald), declaring he would not have a.second-string, critic xeview his shows. 315; The Dark Angel/ the only drama which Macloon offered, was almost predictably a flop. It reopened the theatre after the only time up until then when it had gone dark and, based on past policy, audiences might have expected yet another comedy. Additionally, it was unlike other plays with serious overtones (for example, The Lady) which had the appeal of romantic adventure and a happy ending. Since, at the time, Macloon and Smith were already backing extravagant productions of musical comedies, this lone dramatic work must indeed have seemed like a bird of a different feather in this producer's coop. Moreover, it came into the playhouse unheralded by any prepublicity which might have boosted attendance, and the use of the cast from Kelly's Vacation probably jolted some viewers' aesthetic sensibilities. Finally, H. B. Trevelyan's tale of heroism and romance set in war-time England (and still current on Broadway), was quiet, slow-paced, and without the pyrotechnical conflicts of the day which received such glib resolutions. Audiences were not taken with the pas tel-like verities of the play. In three and one-half weeks it grossed only $13,000. Variety estimated that 164 Macloon had lost approximately $8,000. Regardless of these set-backs, Macloon achieved a 336 coup in bringing to The Playhouse the Jane Cowl-Rollo Peters production of Romeo and Juliet. Seen in a short engagement in July, 1923, the 1925-version included most of the original company (Charles Brokaw replaced Dennis King). Once again the critics applauded the originality and vitality of the interpretation. But audiences were "off" Shakespeare, whether up-dated or old-fashionly conservative, in a single presentation or in repertory. At a $2.50 top ticket price, the show grossed only $6,000 in its first week and less than that in the second, whereas production costs amounted to $10,000 weekly. Not only was the show a financial failure, but it resulted in an altercation which ended with Macloon being placed on Equity's "Unfair List." He was forced to divest himself of his holdings in the successful musical comedy, No, No, Nanette, and any other properties which he owned jointly with Edward Smith. However, the Macloons regained the good graces of Actors' Equity and The Producing Managers' Association, and on September 14, 1925, opened Little Nellie Kelly, starring Alice Cavanaugh, Lester Cole, Franklyn Farnum, and Bettie Gallagher: 337 . . . strictly true to type, in the velocity of its pace, the lilt of its tunes, the Celtic slant of its humor, and the nice clean sentiment of its romance, free from anything that leaves a bad taste. -1-67 Staged by Lillian Albertson, the production struck a responsive chord with Los Angeles audiences who patronized it for six weeks, after which it moved to The (Wilkes) Columbia Theatre, in San Francisco. Macloon then presented the most noteworthy production of his tenure at The Figueroa Street Playhouse, What Price Glory, starring Mitchell Lewis as Flagg and Hale Hamilton as Quirt, supported by Nanette Vallon as Charmaine, Clark Gable as Kiper, Victor Rodman as Lipinski, Edward Woods as Moore, William Stevens as Gowdy, Karl Marker as Lewisohn, and Norman Feusier as Cokely. Of the critics read for this investigation, all paid attention to the play first and to the acting and other production elements second: "What Price Glory" is the private feud, in the undiluted speech of men who have become bestial and lustful, of soldiers who haven't a thought that they are fighting to make the world safe for democracy; of men, sweaty, lice-bitten, drunken, 'whose last thought is of morals or croix de guerres. The chief characteristic of "What Price Glory" is its manifest sincerity as a historical document. (The Express) ----------------------------------------------------------------- T J 8 T "What Price Glory" is something more than a play; it is an experience. Plays are either diverting or they are not diverting. Experiences are something quite different. [It] is basically real and genuine— and therein lies its true power and conviction. (The Times) The play is a piece of vivid literature which combines humanity and history with master touch. It breathes reality. (The Examiner) -*-69 Monroe Lathrop and Florence Lawrence both thought that Lewis and Hale were in control of their parts, while Edwin Schallert felt that Hale had a slight advantage because of the comedy of his role. The rest of the cast were cited for their strong, individualistic support. The production remained for eleven weeks, and established the theatre's 170 long-run record under Louis 0. Macloon's term. Then, with a facility that indicated his ability to judge the box-office appeal of a product, Louis 0. Macloon offered the national premiere of The Love Call (purchased for $70,000 after it was abandoned by Geraldine Farrar, known then as Fraquita), starring Grace LaRue as the gypsy princess and Robert Rhodes as Armand. It opened "cold" 171 m Los Angeles on January 19, 1926. The romantic charm of the music, the lavish production, the balanced ensemble of principals, and the proficiency of the chorus spun superlatives from the critics. However, Monroe Lathrop 339 and Bruno David-Ussher, both of The Evening Express, observed that Macloon had Americanized the work, patterning the rhythms and orchestral effects after prevailing Amer ican popular music, incongruously introducing a foxtrot element, a Charleston chorus, and saxophonic effects. Ussher also thought the waltzes inferior to those of The Merry Widow. Macloon then surprised his followers and retreated from the recentness and reality of What Price Glory, and the splendor and musical enchantment of The Love Call, and offered the first local production of Augustus Thomas' American classic, The Copperhead, with Lionel Barrymore in his first Los Angeles appearance. Schrewd Macloon knew that Barrymore was to begin work on The Bells at Chadwick Studios and arranged for his stage appearance. It was an event, and it excited Los Angeles for six weeks: I do not know of any play that I have seen in months that progressed so evenly, and so quietly, and still so tensely. I do not recall any that so curiously and compellingly held enthralled even between the acts, almost in a spell of silence, or at least of stillness and placid calm, its audience. Barrymore became veritably an idol by virtue of his portrayal. ^ 3 Incredibly, it was replaced by still another drama, but Lullaby could not hold audiences beyond three weeks, 340 regardless of skilled performances, fascinating staging (12 scenes over a 69-year span), and a subtle story. The attractiveness of Macloon's offerings resided in the kind of play he chose, and its relative recentness; the superior staging it was given (evidence of the atten tion and talents of Lillian Albertson and the financial investment of the producers); and the inclusion of star performers in the casts. In addition, he maintained inter est in his shows through publicity stories. His commitment to the novice playwright was token. Without a doubt, this was a showman interested in the business of show business first, and the furtherance of dramatic literature, artis tic careers, or theatre history second. And such purpose paid off! It also set others to imitate him. The Philharmonic Auditorium The opening of two new playhouses in early 1924 and the appearance of The Chicago Opera Company undoubtedly created an ambience of stature and sophistication gratify ing to the boosters of Los Angeles culture. Yet, in early February, 1924, a series of performances unfolded which Los Angeles was one of the few cities privileged to wit ness . 341 Five months earlier, a slight yet commanding white- haired recluse had departed from Europe to perform for the last time in America. At four matinee performances, Los Angeles paid tumultuous yet frequently hushed homage to the legendary greatness of Eleonore Duse. In an audi torium draped with the national flags of the United States and Italy, representatives from every status and station of life partook of "the realm of greatness." The Closed Door (La Porta Chuisa), by Marco Praga, provided the actress with a role malleable to her sensitivities. In analyzing her acting, Edwin Schallert said: Duse's art is perhaps greater as an influence now, than through the manifestation by her personal art. The years . . . have quenched the old, glorious fire, and ardor . . . But the technique, finesse, the absolute and genius individuality remain. Apparently she moved little, occasionally even leaning on the shoulders of other members of the company, and while her voice quavered on the deeper notes, it still possessed "a quality that is as rare as the perfumes of the desert ,,175 • • • Her second appearance as Mrs. Alving in Ghosts (Spettri, Les Revenants, Those Who Return) carried the audience to the "emotional Nirvana that a really great 342 tragic portrayal brings," and afforded "probably the finest study of her personal technique." By the time D'Annunzio's The Dead City (La Citta Morta) was performed, Duse, "by some strange witchcraft . . . [seemed] to be conjuring a more vivid spell with each succeeding portray- 177 al." With her final characterization in Thy Will Be Done (Cosi Sia), William Prohme declared, "One had seen the greatest of modern tragediennes in a great tragic moment."178 During the remainder of the year, The Philharmonic Auditorium was used discontinuously, but at least four projects are worthy of mention, as evidence of the variety of fare. Stuart Walker's Portmanteau Theatre presented The Book of Job and four one-acts (Six Who Pass While Lentils Boil, The Very Naked Boy, The Medicine Show, and The Gods of the Mountain) which made clear anew their aim of offering unusual works with novelty and artistry. Two local undertakings attempted to involve that particular audience entertained by follies and revues. Smiles of 1924, billed as "the West's First Follies," was probably also one of its worst. However, Steppin' High found a large following: [It] has every ingredient to make it popular 343 in this part of the country. There is plenty of speed, pep, good singing and fast stepping."179 The show grossed $24,600 in two weeks at $1.50 top, and stepped in in November for an additional two weeks. A more lasting contribution to the cultural heri tage of the city opened on October 6, 1924. The Los Angeles Opera Company offered six operas and included the e - singing talents of Muzio, deLuca, Gigli, Schipa, Picco, 1 on Savameva, and others. The successful venture was repeated the following year, when it encountered competi tion from The California Opera Company. This latter group opened its season on October 6, 1925, in the newly- completed Olympic Auditorium. The talents of Torri, Schipa, Stracciari, deHidalgo, Martin, d'Alvarez, Journel, Muzio, and the Kosloff dancers were displayed in Manon, Tosca, Samson and Delila, The Barber of Seville, Madame Butterfly, Aida, The Love of Three Kings, and The Romance of the Infanta. One week earlier, from September 29 through October 5, 1959, The Los Angeles Grand Opera had presented Aida, Rigoletto, Carmen, Lakme, Cavalleria 181 Rusticana, and La Navarraise. Theatrical fare, however, was limited and pallid. And yet there were at least three dramatic productions which caused critics to sharpen their perceptions and pas sions. One had a history dating back to the fall of 1924, when Mrs. George Dobinson, wife of the former drama critic of The Los Angeles Times (whose school of expression had been converted into The Gamut Club), who was an accomplished performer and speaker, had launched a stock company com prised of professional and semiprofessional actors. The comedies and mysteries were presented at The Club House in Glendale and opened on a Wednesday evening and ran through the following week. Shortly after the theatre opened, The Express noted that it was becoming quite the thing to dine 1 op and then motor over to Glendale to see the plays. In its first season, the group also acquired the directorial talents of Fred J. Butler, cofounder of the famous Alcazar Stock Company in San Francisco. Later in The Twenties, Butler, together with Edward Belasco and Gerhold 0. Davis, assumed the lease on The Belasco Theatre (the second), and made it one of the foremost producing theatres on the west coast. It was under Butler's direction that The Dobinson Players staged Olga Printzlau's play, Manna. The produc tion was so successful that the engagement was extended to three weeks, and then on May 11, 1925, opened at The 345 Philharmonic. Variety, which covered the show, remarked on the ability of the amateurs to hold their own with the professionals; alluded to the ingenious manner in which the material was built; and concluded that "with the right handling and presentation it should be profitable fare even in New York City." Regrettably, in Los Angeles, it was not profitable, the production grossing only $5,100 in 183 its two-week engagement ($1.50 top). Fata Morgana, presented as a showcase for Ota Carew, failed to enchant either the critics or the audi ence. The former were quick to decry the contrived ending which wrenched the play's irony, and the latter was slow 184 xn fxlling the audxtorium. In the midst of these "small beers," a genuine, heady draught was offered to satisfy the most discriminat ing connoisseur— Julia Arthur in Saint Joan. Although audiences were not oversized, they were "spellbound by its [the play's] tragic import and subtle ironies." In gener al, the supporting case was praised for enhancing the play's significance, but Marjorie Driscoll pondered . . . what would have been the effect if the entire cast had chosen to humanize their roles, as Miss Arthur does; to play it as drama of men and women as, the suspicion grows, Shaw really in tended it to be.^ ^ 3 4 6 1 Another dramatic production did not appear at The Philharmonic until the end of September, when L. E. Behymer presented Blanche Bates and Margaret Anglin in a repertory of plays. Little Theatre Groups Of the numerous small theatre ventures which flourished in Los Angeles during 1924-25, two groups re ceived generous critical coverage, largely because their activities were not duplicates of other such organiza tions, but also because they staged a regular series of productions. However, whereas both The Writers Club and The Potboilers began their theatrical presentations as entertainment for club members, the latter were quickly taken up by the public, whereas one attended productions at the former as an invited guest of one of the members. In addition, whereas The Potboilers began as an amateur group and incorporated professional players within their ranks, The Writers Club productions were always staged by professional actors from the stage and films. Above all, The Writers Club confined their monthly presentations to one-act plays, while The Potboilers expanded their produc tion horizons to the full-length plays of avant-garde 186 American and European writers. 347 The Writers Club.— In 1920, increasingly aware of their growing contribution to the nascent movie industry, desirous of achieving recognition by their colleagues, and eager to facilitate social contacts, the writers of the screen industry formed a unit which became a branch of the Authors' League of America. The Screen Writers Guild, established on July 15, 1920, began seeking a clubhouse to centralize their operations, and one year later took possession of a one-story "bungalow" at Sunset Boulevard 187 and Las Palmas Street, in Hollywood. On October 30, 1921, the clubhouse was officially opened, and the goals of the organization, reiterated: to advance the interests of the screen writer; to combat censorship; and to work for the recognition and standardization of national and international photoplay copyrights. - * - 88 Their theatrical endeavors at this stage were addressed to penning various revues on behalf of the needs of their own organization o - i , 189 or others. However, on December 2, 1922, The Playroom at The Club was officially inaugurated with the production of four one-act plays: The building was a low one-story bungalow effect with a wide veranda and a porch. The small theatre seated about 200 and was situated in the . ^ center of the building. It had a stage with per haps a 30 ft. apron. On either side of the audi torium were club rooms, and at one time . . . they served luncheons and dinners.190 The successful undertaking was not repeated until February 23, 1923, when three plays, including a section from Andreyev's The Sabine Women, were performed by actors 191 drawn primarily from the movie industry. Thus, the ambition of The Writers Club was established early in its producing career: an aesthetically pleasing program of one-act plays exquisitely was performed, which together with the dinner that preceded the presentation, formed an engaging social and artistic evening. The final evening of the first season included works by G. E. Fort and Edward Montague, but the highlight was Elmer Rice's Home of the Free, starring Vernon Steele. The evening had "established unquestionably the metier of The Writers Club."192 A confidence marked the second year of the Writers Club's theatrical producing. The season was extended to six programs, which usually were presented on two evenings toward the end of the month (except the first program), and encompassed a range of theatrical expression in four or five one-act plays. Most of the works were products 349 of well-known authors, with an occasional offering by a member of The Club. A large audience greeted the September presentation of three plays, but it was with the new year that the group commenced production in earnest, when two Molnar plays, both of which cast a quizzical eye upon romantic roulades, were the focus of the February program— The Field Marshal, seen for the first time on an American 193 stage, and A Matter of Husbands. Filled houses con firmed the popularity of these evenings, and Pauline Rail of The Express related how, after a long bus ride out to the Sunset Boulevard location, she found the March program sold out. That particular evening was an enviable combina tion of literary and performance talent. William Farnum prompted an ovation in Ten Minutes, Richard Madden's study of fear in a prison, while Edward Everett Horton and Patsy Ruth Miller, left the audience weeping with delight over their ghostly points of view in Say It with Flowers, and William P. Carleton stunned with his performance as Yank in Bound East for Cardiff. Two other plays completed' an evening which showed "Hollywood at its gayest, but 19 4 discreetly so. Perfect relaxation. Hobbies at hand." Five one-act plays were again planned for the 350 April program, but after opening night, April 25, the presentation was shortened to four works. Mrs. Frank Keenan, who had watched her husband's performance in Fame, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage at the evening's conclusion. Edwin Schallert found the mildly-experimental program admirably acted: "The screen writers have been outdoing themselves and the latest program seems by all odds the 195 best." Whether The Writers Club was outdoing itself is a matter of point of view and perspective. The 1923-24 season closed with two programs of conventional and enter taining plays. However, while The Club was contributing little in the way of original works penned by its members, it was thoroughly and artistically surveying some of the best one-act play literature available. The point was not missed by the members and their guests, who crowded the first bill of the 1924-25 season, which consisted of A Prologue to King Lear, by Molnar, The Monkey's Paw, The Lady in Red, and The Three of Us. Thereafter, programs proceeded monthly through July (no program in March). January's offering drew attention to the skill of the performers since the works 196 exhibited were familiar to the majority of the viewers, 351 while February's program was a mixture of the decidedly familiar with the unmistakably new.1^ But with the April program, The Writers Club moved into virgin territory staging four new plays in a "glitter ing demonstration of the genius which is to be found in the local literary and cinema community." The lofty tone of the tribute aside, all of the plays were modest achieve ments: The Actress, by Joseph Jackson, starred Creighton Hale and Ada Gleason, in a play "with a deft twist on an old situation"; His Poor Wife, by Doris Anderson, wittily sketched the distaff side of the domestic arrangement; A Bird in Hand, by Percy Heath, depicted the haggle between two women over a man; and The Strength of the Weak, by Mary McCarthy— the evening's only serious work— was a 19 8 poignant portrayal of sacrifice and survival. Although the following month's affair returned to the more usual balance of something new and mostly famil iar, the program included two new plays and an incomparable performance by Tyrone Power. A Jug of Wine and Thou, by Maude Fulton and Robert Ober, and The Devi1's Tatoo, by Florence Pierce Reed were characterized as "episodes of uncouth life, domestic humor, the former streaked with ironic humor and the latter with tragic intensity." 352_l Patterson Greene thought that The Devil's Tatoo, a melo dramatic study of a wife's revenge upon her insensitive husband, deserved high credit for undertaking a psycholog ical study of power (he did think the ending awkward, 199 however). Power portrayed the superstitious husband. The year ended with two variegated programs which moved from the grimness of Synge's In the Shadow of the Glen to the mock heroics of Phillip Moeller's Helena's Husband; from the serious character study of The Clod to a burlesque of the screen actor's 'hutographing addiction" in With Fondest Affection. 20(^ It seemed unlikely that The Writers Club would alter their program given the success with which past productions were greeted. Yet, during the 1925-26 season the calendar showed that the group was exploring other patterns of presentation. Moreover, it was the first sea son to extend throughout the year, commencing in September and concluding in June. September's program consisted of five plays, three by club members and two by well-known American authors, one of which, Paul Green's No 'Count Boy, had won the 1925 Little Theatre Tournament in New York. The other plays were Hecht and Goodman's The Poem of David, Semper 353 Fidelis, On the Old Vamp Grounds, and The Play's the Thing, 201 in which spotlights were the only dramatic personnae. The second program was less interesting for its original offerings than for its revivals, but the January program was made memorable by Richard Schayer's new play, Private Jones, a kind of tabloid What Price Glory, set in a German trench. It was "masterful in its dramatic punch 202 and power," and peopled with strong characterisations. The last four programs of the 1925-26 season were the most varied and ambitious in the short history of The Writers Club. February saw only one new play, Don11 Be Yourself, written by George Hopkins especially for Helene Sullivan and judged a respectable vaudeville piece if the on * 5 actress wished to return to the footlights. April's program was considered "one of the most delectable feasts they have had this season," and included Mrs. Peckham's Carouse, starring Flo Irwin, DeWitt Jennings, and Frances Raymond, all of whom had appeared in the original farce of a temperance worker introduced to the joys of intoxica tion.204 May's program featured only two plays, and June only one. It was the only time The Writers Club mounted a full-length play. Jose Echegeray's masterpiece, The Great 354 Galeo.to, was unproduced in the city, and its powerful depiction of the corrosive calumny of slanderous tongues which make an outcast of a woman was overwhelming in its unpitying movement. Although The Times reviewer thought the production lacked professional authority, he concluded that "It was a satisfaction even with certain drawbacks to 205 witness so splendid a play." In its short history, The Writers Club had become the recognized "meeting place for all the creative people in town"— writers, directors, and actors. While its pur- . . 206 pose seemed similar to that of The Lambs, the group was the only producing unit committed to the surveying of the rich body of one-act literature, and theatrical situa tions which could be pungently expressed in the shortened form. That no great plays arose from these conclaves may be bemoaned, but it did not seem to be the intention of the group to serve as the refinery of the artistic and intellectual currents of the day. The Potboilers.— With a self-consciousness that seemed almost to beggar success, a group of "bohemians" interested in the arts banded together on December 31, 1922, and toasted in the new year by forming an 355 organization designed to "keep the pot boiling for painters 20 7 and sculptors." Convening in the basement of The Egan Theatre, The Potboilers sponsored exhibitions by interested artists and on Sunday evenings presented entertainment concocted by willing members and guests. One year later, they celebrated their first anniversary with a Russian program prepared under the direction of Sigurd Russell, the group's artistic director. A noncommercial enterprise dedicated to "the advancement of art in this city," The Potboilers continued to exhibit paintings and sculpture and to sell them whenever possible (without commission), and 20 8 to act as an informal employment agency for its members. Sometime during 1923 or early 1924, the group rented a hall on Third and Main Streets where, in February, 1924, they presented four one-acts about which The Times wrote: "Each presentation was unusually fine, . . . [but] 209 The players, for the most part, appeared to overact." In March, they picked up their belongings and moved to a loft in Chinatown on Los Angeles Street, where they un veiled their first full-length play. It was the first Los Angeles production of Eugene O'Neill's Beyond the Horizon. The group had taken a decisive step. It continued to stage shorter works, usually every other weekend throughout a 356 month (seemingly giving preference to new plays)* In addi tion, they committed themselves to mounting a longer play, either by an American playwright generally considered not commercially viable, or by a continental playwright 210 recognized as a master m his country. However, despite this ambition, the group had not yet found its metier. A production of Uncle Vanya, staged at The Gamut Club on 211 South Hope Street, was pale fare, although the produc tion of The Wedding Morning, which was offered in June at the new location, 730 North Broadway (near Sunset), was 212 greeted by "a good-sized and appreciative audience." The Potboilers was launched upon two years of innovative, artistically successful productions. The Potboilers rippled the sedentariness of early summer with the premiere of Olga Printzlau's Manna, directed by Clarence Thomas and performed by a cast made up largely of professional actors (William Burress, Karyl Marker, Doris Kemper, George Webb, Ann Lockhardt, Raymond Hatton, Arthur Rankin, et al.). The drama of a young man who attempts to share the message of love, while vaguely reminiscent of Pollock's The Fool, was unusual in its mosaic-like interweaving of character and episode with lyrical dialogue. These factors, plus the skilled acting, ----------------------------------------------------------------- 357 prompted one critic to allege that it was "one of the most interesting plays of the season."212 It was staged for seven performances around the city. The group then went on a vacation, but rather than laurel-lolling, it toured the coast, definitely present ing Beyond the Horizon at The Golden Bough Theatre in Car mel. Upon its return to Los Angeles, The Potboilers shook the theatrical scene with daring and rewarding pre sentations, following a rather tepid beginning with Rudolph Besier's comedy, Don.2^ On September 29, 1924, a small audience "thundered its applause" for The Potboilers' interpretation of Six Characters in Search of an Author. The play deservedly received the bulk of the critics' at tention, but the work of Hanley Stafford and Olga VeOlin as the father and stepdaughter was deemed exceptional. For the first time in its youthful career, the group extended an engagement to a second week (announced orig- 215 inally for five days). Another major presentation was not advanced until December 1, but the production of Eugene O'Neill's powerful drama of protest against an indifferent society and the restrictions of his art, disclosed an inspired portrayal by Mitchell Lewis. With The Hairy Ape, "The Potboilers 35# . . . [had] arrived." Comparing the group's steady growth to the similar maturity of The Pasadena Players, Pearl Rail of The Ex press pronounced: "It looks like the Potboilers had passed the probationary stage and passed into the popular stage." Florence Lawrence was more specific about the reasons why they found a niche: "This organization has registered an appreciation of the true histrionic spirit, love of power ful drama, and zeal and daring in presenting such plays as 216 are commonly described as 1 non-commercial.1" It might be added further that The Potboilers were the only pro ducing group in Los Angeles essaying this type of theatre. However, one organization was not in sympathy with the efforts of The Potboilers or its growing popularity. At the end of the week, the Fire Department stopped the engagement on the grounds that the theatre failed to com ply with regulations regarding fire exists, in spite of the fact that the building had been a former fire engine house and had been used for entertainment and theatrical / 217 presentations for the past seventeen years. Performance space was made available to the group at the Denishawn School, 930-932 South Grand Avenue, and undaunted by their peripatetic existence, The Potboilers plunged into its most productive year and, up to that time, its most innovative. Of eleven shows, only one was a revival and one other was offered by an outside group. Between the beginning of the year and June, 1925, The Pot boilers and their viewers were immersed in philosophical, theatrically experimental plays, all of which were products of European playwrights. In February, Failures, Lenor- mand's ironic, bitter view of life as exemplified by two artists (playwright-husband and actress-wife), which ranged over fourteen scenes, received critical scrutiny from the 218 metropolitan newspapers and large audiences. The group then moved further into the experimental and the esoteric when it staged the American premier of Evreinov's fantastical monodrama, Behind the Curtain of the Soul, coupled with Maeterlinck's The Blind, and a pantomime of masks, A London Fog. The study of man's inner conflicts, personified dramatically as the rational I, the emotional I, and the subconscious I, disclosed the manifest possibilities for variety of expression in non- 219 realistic art. Even Variety took note of the occasion, and after stating that the production of the Evreinov play "stood out head and shoulders over the other two," declared that "This organization is well worth 360 220 encouragement." The production ran for eight perform ances, from March 21 to 28, 1925. Stimulated to even greater challenges, the group celebrated with Andreyev's colossal play (5 acts, over 40 in the cast), The Life of Man, which moved from birth to youth, through fulfillment, to ruin and death in kaleidoscopic impressions containing pathos, satire, crudity, bitterness, and truth: Andreyev attempts to reconcile our feeling of what life ought to be with the evils that confront us at every turn. It is too drab in atmosphere and too uncompro mising in truth to appeal to the average amusement seeker. For this reason, those interested in the drama . . . will feel a debt of gratitude to . . . the Potboiler group for staging this unique produc tion, which never could be a success in the com mercial sense.221 This first west coast production ran for two weeks and attracted large audiences. These three productions marked the pinnacle of The Potboilers' achievements. Although it staged other plays almost as exciting, not again did the shows manifest such a consistent level of experimentation in the realms of literature, philosophy, and dramaturgy. In June, the group varied its schedule of conti nental playwrights and large-cast productions with 361 Arthur Richman's probing melodrama of the corrosiveness of material possessions in terms of the depersonalization of the individual and the devaluation of morals— Ambush. Compelling performances by Henry Kolker as the father (in his first appearance west of Chicago), Rose Tapley as the mother, and Virginia Scott as the daughter, prompted Monroe Lathrop to state: Out of considerable experience in observing plays, I can recall only a few cast with more pre cise care and acted more graphically than "Ambush" . . . His [Kolker1s] work in this piece is one of the soundest examples of acting art seen here in years.22^ This digression into "domestic drama" was soon set aside in favor of less conventional works. Tolstoi's monumental protest against the arrogance of authority, the smugness of the socially elect, the indissolubility of marriage bonds, and the casualty of a soul afloat without a rudder, required over fifty actors and ten settings. One of the critics wrote: Redemption "must be set down as one of the things that will be memorable on our stage in recent times." It played for nine performances. The Potboilers proceeded with its commitment to thought-provoking, artistically challenging theatre, but as the summer wore on, its course seemed less forward and T52 even occasionally frivolous. In its final summer in a theatre of its own, the group offered Welded, O'Neill's psychological study of two neurotics whose marriage oscillates between love and hate, hope and degradation, and Fata Morgana, Ernest Vajda's bitter-sweet comedy of . youth's initiation to manhood. The critics were divided in their appraisal of the latter play and its incorpora tion into The Potboiler^' policy. The Times reviewer con sidered it a delightful evening; The Examiner thought it a cynical work; and Monroe Lathrop, chastizing the group for "running with the hounds," found the "jocular peek at seduction" in a Boccaccio mood clumsily realized, particu larly by Stella deLanti, who left unexplored the subtle 224 world of by-play. The many movie actors and producers in the audience indicated the shift in acting personnel and audience composition. "The earnest laboratory of profounder life prob lems," as Monroe Lathrop had referred to them, did not regain their adventuresome spirit until December. Follow ing a revival of Beyond the Horizon (for two weeks), and 225 "a package production" of Everyman, the experimental nature of The Potboilers took substance with Ernest Tol ler's tragedy of social revolution in Germany, Man and the -----------------------------------------------------------------36T 226 tosses. The production, which ran consecutively for two weeks, was followed by three works less taxing artis tically, intellectually, and theatrically. Thy Name Is Woman, familiar through its screen treatment and a road- company presentation in May, 1921, was followed by The Man Who Ate the Popomack, a tragi-comedy about a man who tests the hypocrisy quotient of his friends by eating the world's most delicious and odiferous fruit. The latter production "did not measure up to the usual Potboiler standard . . . some of the players not up in lines and others manifesting 227 lxttle knowledge of stage procedure." Perhaps the monthly change of bill and emphasis upon intellectually weighty and artistically demanding plays began to drain the imagination and energies of the group. The imminent change of location may also have affected the morale, for when The Potboilers moved into The Gamut Club, the members shared a stage with other producing units. Although never men tioned, the financial drain occasioned by the technically- difficult shows may have had some bearing. In March, 1926, Herbert Moulton of The Times had written that the group had "just broken even" on its early offering, Fail ures , and thereafter had established a revolving endowment 364 fund in the form of a loan to each production to be repaid 22 8 from the proceeds of the production. There was no indication how the "loan fund" was replenished. In addi tion, the inclusion of "movie actors" assured numbers in the audience but did not likewise guarantee quality in per formance . The last undertaking The Potboilers offered at The Denishawn Studio was Carl Schoenherr's drama, The Chil dren 's Tragedy, staged under the title, The Candle. The play was greeted on opening night by a house crowded with many "film folk." Reviewers praised the sensitivity and sincerity of the male actors (Mervin Williams and Robert Ames), but at least one thought that Leatrice Joe 229 "Labors diligently but not to great purpose." Within the narrow span of two years, The Potboilers "had arrived." By early 1926, its theatre had become the fashionable place to go for one's avant-garde entertain ment. With its move to The Gamut Club, The Potboilers was required to restrict its production schedule to allow use of the facilities by other groups. At the same time, the focus of the group changed, and productions became less experimental and, oddly, less professional despite the infusion of professional actors. The base of interest had 365 widened and the original organizers saw no way to return to that time and that place— spiritually, psychologically, artistically, and historically— where they could produce the kind of play with proscribed audience interest. Lacking a theatre of their own, finding their goals di luted, without financial support, the vanguard position of the members of The Potboilers dissolved. Summary and Conclusion Theatrical activity in Los Angeles between 19 24 and mid-1926 was characterized by expansion in the number of playhouses, by an increase in the ranks of producers, and by a change in production expectations. Two new playhouses lit their marquees in this period. The Biltmore, which opened on March 3, 1924, was the manifestation of A. L. Erlanger's intention to erect new playhouses for touring companies in cities with a population in excess of 100,000. This policy sealed the demise of the road (although many towns were still the atrically alive by virtue of local stock companies and/or tent shows), and underscored the trend toward centraliza tion in larger cities. The Figueroa Street Playhouse was erected for _____ _____ 366 entirely different reasons. Belonging to The Friday Morn ing Women's Club, an organization long recognized locally for its contributions to the cultural development of the 2 20 city, the playhouse had been intended primarily for The Club's own productions. However, the playhouse was leased to Louis 0 Macloon, and from its inauguration on May 5, 1924, became a participant in Los Angeles' "The Great White Way. " The Biltmore Theatre was the expected terminus of road shows and the hoped-for home of open-ended engage ments of those productions. However, even in this two- year existence, it was open to independent producers. Further, despite predictions to the contraryr in these two years most of the road-shows (and the majority of local productions, as well), remained an average of two to three weeks, with the exception of the nine-week-long run of Lightnin' and the seven-week engagement of No, No, Nanette (not a road show). Moreover, the newness of the theatre, the expansion in the city's population, and the upturn in the national theatre picture did not ensure The Biltmore's continuous occupation, for in both years, the theatre was dark for more than ten weeks. Unable to dispose of his other theatre, the former 3 6 7 major road-show playhouse, A. L. Erlanger elected to re model The Mason and, when reopened in early 1925, made i-t available to any adventuresome producer, plus an occasional road show. Before its closing in June, 1924, the theatre had housed fifteen production units, only four of which were not road companies of shows initiated in New York, and two of which were local attempts. When the theatre re opened in 1925 and up to May, 1926, only two of the eight productions were road shows of current or recent New York productions. The shift was evidence of the attempt to shake off reliance upon fortnightly presentations of road shows belatedly viewed after New York runs and cross country endurance contests, and was an indication of the maturing initiative whereby individuals, motivated by any number of reasons (especially, the availability of funds and the growing resident and transient population), were sponsoring shows for long runs sooner than a road company could present the play. Of the six productions which were not road presentations, four were musical offerings and all were backed by coast producers. Two of these were original productions. The second major change in the theatrical land scape of Los Angeles from 1924 through mid-1926 was the 368 broadening of the ranks of producers. In addition to The Morosco Holding Company, which continued to direct the affairs of The Morosco Theatre, Thomas Wilkes and Frank Egan, other producers appeared. The Morosco Theatre held to its course of stock company fare with an "entire family" appeal, but Frank Egan and Thomas Wilkes enlarged their horizons. Egan introduced a slight domestic comedy with sociological shadings, White Collars, which continued to run for nearly three years, establishing the city's long- run record; he leased a theatre in San Francisco for ten months; produced two plays in New York, and managed Doris Keane in two productions, probably three— Czarina (Cather ine the Great). Thomas Wilkes, completing a five-year least on The Majestic Theatre, where he had successfully sponsored a stock company, assumed a short-term lease on The Orange Grove Playhouse, where he presented recent Broadway hits, among them White Cargo and Desire under the Elms, and new works. In addition, he sponsored productions at the other theatres in the city; maintained theatrical operations in San Francisco; and leased The Harris Theatre in New York; plus directing companies in Denver and Salt Lake City. A group of actors and directors leased The Majestic 369 Theatre upon Thomas Wilkes' departure with the intention of producing original works and recent Broadway shows, but after a four-week run of Maude Fulton's The Big Top, they bowed out from their engagement and became one of the earliest examples of a group whose announced long-range commitment was dissolved after one unsuccessful attempt. Michael Corper, former manager of The Majestic Theatre under Thomas Wilkes, then installed a stock com pany. Later, with the managers of The Orange Grove Play house, he also formed an alliance to produce musical re vues . Arthur Freed and various associates assumed re sponsibility for The Orange Grove Playhouse (Walker Auditorium— Fine Arts Theatre), where they tried out two comedies before launching Pickin's, a long-run original Pacific-coast revue. Louis 0. Macloon and his wife, Lillian Albertson, lessees of The Figueroa Street Playhouse, mounted polished productions of recent Broadway hits, usually comedies, with stars from the New York production whenever possible, or actors with sufficient marketable appeal. In addition, together with Edward Smith, manager of The Figueroa Street Playhouse, and future director of the first legitimate 370 theatre in Hollywood, The El Capitan Theatre, he undertook to produce a number of musical comedies concurrent with their New York engagement. Henry Miller exhibited two new works in his west coast pre-Broadway tryout; Frank Keenan essayed a new play; DeRecat and Bostick staged a coast Follies; Petrie and Smith backed a Negro revue. A group of local theatre buffs formed a corporation and devised the musical, Patsy, which ran for ten weeks in Los Angeles with respectable gross receipts. A third major change, the expansion in production activity, was encouraged by the growing support for the longer engagement. This is shown in Chart 10. However, while production activity increased and public interest and support sustained a greater number of long runs, the survival rate of new works dropped. Thomas Wilkes tried out five new works (four of them premiered in Los Angeles) at The Majestic Theatre, but only one went on to New York, and only two played engagements of more than two weeks. At The Orange Grove, he presented four new plays (three premieres, no one of which was considered worthy of exploitation outside of his theatres and only one of which had a run of four weeks).. His production of 371 CHART 10 LONG-RUN ENGAGEMENTS, 1924-1925 Number of Production Theatre Weeks 6 All Alone Susan The Bat The Copperhead Just Married Kiki The Last Warning Little Nellie Kelly Nighty-Night Majestic Figueroa Figueroa (early 1926) Majestic Morosco Morosco (early 1926) Figueroa Morosco 7 All for You Cornered The Open Gate Mason (not a road show) Morosco Morosco 8 The Clinging Vine The First Year Rose-Marie Figueroa Majestic Biltmore (early 1926; a road company) 9 Lightnin1 Biltmore (a road company) 10 Weak Sisters Majestic (early 1926) 11 Desire under the Elms What Price Glory? Orange Grove (early 1926) Figueroa 12 The Student Prince Biltmore (early 1926; a road company 13 The Nervous Wreck Majestic (a revival) 14 Lady Be Good Mason (not a road company) 16 The Cat and the Canary Morosco 372' CHART 10— Continued Number of Production Theatre Weeks 19 White Cargo Orange Grove weeks (7, 10, 2 weeks and 5 days 5 day engagements) 26 No, No, Nanette Mason, Biltmore, El Capitan (17, 7, 2 weeks engagements) 144.5 White Collars Egan (118.5 weeks, 26 weeks engagements) -----— 3737 The Caliph, with Raymond Hitchcock, was given little chance for permanence, although All for You, Wilkes's other musical offering, fared better, surviving seven weeks. His musical, Polly of the Circus, did not play Los Angeles. Frank Egan presented only two new plays, and scored a hit with both of them. Arthur Freed, on the other hand, after trying out one new play and one reworked New York show, converted The Orange Grove into a Music Box- type theatre and launched Pickin's. Maude Fulton and a group of actors and directors reconsidered their plans after their first offering. Louis 0. Macloon presented no premieres at The Figueroa Street Playhouse in 1924, and of the three new works displayed in 1925, two by local authors were given two-week tryouts, and dropped while the other was probably staged as a result of a contractual agreement between Mac loon and A. H. Woods, New York producer. The Morosco Theatre introduced only two new works, one for seven weeks, one for two weeks. Neither found t further fields of exploitation, unless in other stock pre sentations . Further, there was a growing tendency in all the atrical ventures (with the exception of The Morosco stock 3741 company) to feature casts headed by stars, either one or more of whom had created the original role(s) in New York, or stars with sufficient stature and/or appeal to ensure a return on the investment. By choosing to incorporate "star performers" into their coast productions, the Los Angeles producers set themselves up in competition with the road companies in New York. While these commitments to new playwrights were timid, an increased proficiency in mounting coast produc tions of New York shows, as soon after closing as rights could be obtained and/or while the New York show was still running, was definitely realized. In this trend, Louis 0. Macloon and Edward Smith led the way with their productions of No, No, Nanette and Lady Be Good. The practice inten sified and shaped Los Angeles theatre in the next two years. Moreover, there was a growing willingness on the part of the "big" productions to play Los Angeles, those which for reasons of economy might have by-passed the city. While such aggregations as The Moscow Art Theatre and various Ziegfeld shows either did not travel west or were noticeably few, Eleonore Duse, Joan Arthur (with Shaw's Saint Joan), the special companies of The Rivals and 375 later Trelawney of the Wells did fill engagements, and in 1926, The Miracle established a five-week engagement. There were also other changes in production activ ities in those years in Los Angeles. There was a growing success in the creation of musical shows. These theatrical endeavors made particularly good use of the talents of the west-coast performers: technical proficiency in dancing and singing, great vitality, physical attractiveness ("If it is true that Ziegfeld ’glorifies' the American girl, California . . . seems to produce them already glorified"), and a brashy quality emphasizing display and movement. Moreover, there was a subtle capitalization of works with a sensational flavor, for example, White Cargo, What Price Glory, Desire under the Elms, Starlight, etc. In the next few years, the trend assumed blatant propor tions . The richness of theatrical experience in these two and one-half years also included the innovative, independ ent work of little theatre groups, in particular that of The Potboilers which chose works of an experimental nature, philosophically and artistically, especially those penned by European artists, such as Andreyev, Evreinov, Lenormand, Maeterlinck, Pirandello, Toller, and Tolstoi. They produced only three American playwrights: O'Neill, Olga Printzlau, and Arthur Richman. The reasons for the expansion of theatre in Los Angeles during this time are many and complex. Certainly, within the decade, the city propelled itself into the position of a modern metropolitan center by virtue of its expansion in population, manufacturing, and finance. The area which had been known primarily as a hold-out for the middle-aged White Anglo-Saxon Protestant from the Midwest also achieved in this period a greater mix among peoples. Moreover, although it was only one of many amusement and recreation outlets, theatre profited from the exploitation of the area as a tourist region. The boom in theatre may also be viewed as an exten sion of the booster psychology so prevalent in the region which set out to prove that Los Angeles was as good as any other major metropolitan center. Additionally, this expansion may be considered in historical context as the last phase in a westward movement which had commenced in New York and gradually spread to the opposite coast, mani festing itself in Los Angeles in the 1920's. Poggi's study of the New York scene has shown that by the end of the 1925 season, New York was beginning to feel the results of its 377 overextended building program. A similar situation main tained in Chicago, where theatre owners were leasing and/ or selling their properties and electing to become land- 232 lords. Los Angeles erected six new playhouses in 1926- 1927, just at the time when both established and fly-by- night producers were looking for more lucrative fields. Thus, Los Angeles' desire to establish its metropolitan character and its cosmopolitan sophistication coincided, unfortunately, with the phenomenon in New York theatre circles where it became financially more profitable for a producer to sell royalty rights to coast producers and avoid the risks of sending a New York-originated company across the country. But while the erection of new thea tres in Los Angeles in 19 26-1927 seemed to be a reflection of an eastern impulse, in fact, it was a delayed response to activity originated in 1922-1923 which, for various reasons, did not materialize. In addition, the expansion occurred at a time when the industry which had shaped the image of the area in the 1920's was in an uncertain period. In transition between the silent films and "the talkers," the movie industry was at that juncture which permitted and may even have encouraged actors to work in both media. 378 Unfortunately, there was a curious deprecatory atti tude toward theatre in Los Angeles throughout this decade. Eastern inhabitants distrusted "made-in-Los Angeles" products (an attitude which apparently had not prevailed toward earlier coast importations). The expansion of the atrical activity was viewed as a kind of aberration which only unlimited funds, undiluted optimism, and frontier truculence made possible, or it was explained away as the activity of those interested in making a "quick buck," or those who could not "make it" in New York. This superior, biased attitude expressed by out siders was met by an all-too-prevalent insecure, copy-cat attitude practiced by insiders. As one observer had noted, the Los Angeles crowd was almost embarrassingly self-con scious, hungering for novelty at the same time that it sought productions already given the stamp of approval by Broadway. To complicate the near-schizophrenic response, theatre patrons were enjoined to realize that they and their city were unique and sophisticated, able to digest 233 the "strong meat" of plays. Any one of these positions was adolescent, and on the shifting grounds of what it "should be," Los Angeles theatre had difficulty establish ing what it "could be." Henry Kolker, speaking of the little theatre growth in Los Angeles, made an observation which applied to the entire theatrical picture in Los Angeles between 1924 and mid-1926. Kolker asserted that "the psychological time was right" for Los Angeles theatre to develop its 234 destiny. Its destiny, regrettably, did not encompass the richness of theatrical life which one was able to wit ness between 1924 and mid-1926. CHAPTER VI Footnotes ^-During the drought, consumption of electricity was curtailed in manufacturing concerns, street lighting, and agriculture by about 25 per cent. Not until October was normal street lighting reinstated, and streetcar opera tions returned to normal schedules in November. William A. Spalding, comp., History and Reminiscences; Los Angeles, Vol. I (Los Angeles: J. R. Finnell and Sons [1931]), p. 423. James Clifford Findley, "The Economic Boom of the 'Twenties in Los Angeles" (unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Claremont Graduate School, 1958), pp. 141-48. 2Findley, op. cit., p. 423. - ’ Wiggins died while on this tour. 4The Los Angeles Times, November 16, 1924, II, 1-2. Hereafter referred to as The Times. ^Findley, op. cit., p. 132. 6Variety, LXXVII (January 28, 1925), 26. ^The Times, June 30, 1925, I, 1-4, 14, and days following. ®See Spalding, op. cit., p. 422. See The Times, Midwinter Issue, January 1, 1925, IV, 2, 8. ^The Los Angeles Examiner, July 13, 1925, II, 1. Hereafter referred to as The Examiner. •^The Examiner, September 27, 1925, IV, 2. ■^Spalding, op. cit., pp. 431-32, 434-37. 380 383? 12 Among these many miles were the more than 2,000 acres of Venice which had been incorporated into the city. 13Billboard, XXXIV (June 24, 1922) , 51; XXXVII (February 7, 1925), 105. The Examiner, July 1, 1925, I, 15. "^"Four New Show Houses Going up in Hollywood," The Examiner, September 13, 1925, IV, 1, 6. Agnes Pallen, "Amusement Life Assuming World Leadership Here," The Times, October 18, 1925, III, 29-30. 15 Findley, op. cit., p. 293. ~^The Times, November 9, 1924, I, 1, 2, 12. 17 Findley, op. cit., pp. 151-52, 160. 18 Jimmy Gruen, "Cradle of New Drama Rocked in Los Angeles, by Master Directors," The Examiner, January 27, 1924, IX, 3. 19 As early as 1920, Erlanger had announced that he intended to abandon all one-two-three night stands and planned to book about forty cities with populations of 100,000 or more. Variety, LX (November 5, 1926), 1, 9. 20 Variety, LXXXV (October 20, 1926), 94. 21 Florence Lawrence, "Tiny Theaters Bask in Fame's Spotlight," The Examiner, March 15, 1925, IV, 7. 22 Herbert Moulton, The Times, June 11, 1925, II, 11. 23 "Los Angeles: Wonder City for Theaters," The Examiner, July 24, 1925, II, 9. 24 Louella O. Parsons, "Louella Parsons Paints 'City of Angels' in Roseate Colors," The Examiner, June 7, 1925, I, 5. 25 The comment was made in Variety, LXXX (October 28, 1925), 67. For differing point of view, see Variety, LXXX (September 30, 1925), 44. 382 26Anna Christie, Edwin Schallert, The Times, Febru ary 17, 1922, III, 12. Monroe Lathrop, The Los Angeles Evening Express, p. 24. Hereafter referred to as The Express. Gruen, The Examiner, February 12, 1924, II, 2. Thomas Chatterton played Matt. 2^Applejack, Lathrop, The Express, March 3, 19 24, p. 9, said that when the movies were compared with the stage, "the comparison is all in favor of the latter." Lawrence, The Examiner, March 3, 1924, II, 3. 23Pokey, Lawrence, The Examiner, March 24, 1924, II, 3. Pearl Rail, The Express, March 24, 1924, p. 8. 2^a11 Alone Susan, Schallert, The Times, April 7, 1924, II, 11. Lathrop, The Express, April 7, 1924, p. 8. 3^In His Arms, Lathrop, The Express, January 21, 1924, p. 8. Schallert, The Times, January 21, 1924, II, 7. Variety, LXXIII (January 31, 1924), 16. 3^Magnolia, Gruen, The Examiner, May 19, 1924, II, 7. Lombardi, Ltd., Gruen, The Examiner, June 2, 1924, II, 2. Polly, Gruen, The Examiner, June 17, 1924, II, 3. 32Edwin Schallert, The Times, July 20, 1924, II, 13, concluded that Horton belonged on the stage because of the peculiarly intimate quality of his acting which depended on his manner and vocal inflections. The Darlings! Variety, LXXVII (December 31, 1924), 18 (probably written by Arthur Ungar, head of Variety office in Los Angeles). Q O •^Outward Bound, Lathrop, The Express, February 16, 1925, p. 6. Lawrence, The Examiner, February 16, 1925, I, 11. 34Beggar on Horseback, Lathrop, The Express, April 13, 1925, I, 6. Lawrence, The Examiner, April 13, 1925, I, 13. 35Variety, LXXIV (March 26, 1924), 10, 12. The Times, May 7, 1924, II, 1; June 6, 1924, II, 1, said it had been sold for one million dollars. 3^The Examiner, March 19, 1925, II, 1. 383 37 In addition to Caulfield, Maude Fulton, Priscilla Dean, Edward Francis Cline, Brandon Hurst, Jerome Gibler, Norman Allen were cited in the program for The Big Top. Variety, LXXIX, II (May 27, 1925), 22. •^The Big Top, Lawrence, The Examiner, June 1, 1925, I, 15. ^ The Sap, Lawrence, The Examiner, August 31, 1925, II, 3. Wife Doing, Gregory Goss, The Examiner, September 28, 1925, I, 12. 4Qto the Ladies, Herbert Moulton, The Times, Aug ust 11, 1925, II, 11. Kingsley, The Times, November 2, 1925, II, 9. ^ Cock o' the Roost, Moulton, The Times, November 16, 1925, II, 9. The Examiner, November 16, 1925, II, 2. 4^Weak Sisters, Schallert, The Times, January 11, 1926, II, 9. 4^She had appeared at the same theatre for Thomas Wilkes, was involved in his production of The Vortex in 1927, and worked for Pangborn at The Vine in the fall of 19 29. 44They Knew What They Wanted, Schallert, The Times, May 4, 1926, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, May 3, 1926, I, 13. 45A Naughty Nice Girl, Charles Goss, The Express, March 11, 1924, p. 12. Gross receipts for the second week hovered between $2,000 and $3,000. The Invisible Husband, Kenneth Taylor, The Times, II, 11. It grossed only $10,500 in four weeks. 4®Rall, The Express, September 8, 1924, p. 14. 4^Pickin's, Lawrence, The Examiner, September 6, 1924, I, 4. Schallert, The Times, September 6, 1924, II, 7 384 ^^Variety, LXXVI (September 17, 1924), 17, which went on to say that much of the show was "too fly and smart for the town, and a bit too trady," but that Carroll should find support. 49 Meet the Wife, Lathrop, The Express, April 13, 1925, p. 6. The Examiner, April 13, 1925, I, 12. 50 The Eternal Masculine, Lawrence, The Examiner, May 19, 1925, I, 15. The work premiered on the same night The Pasadena Playhouse opened. 51 Playthings, Lawrence, The Examiner, August 10, 1925, II, 3. George Warren, "The Season in San Francisco," in The Best Plays of 1925-26, ed. by Burns Mantle (New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1926), p. 25, said Miss Arnold was too incisive for the plaything and referred to her as "the Lesbian siren." Downstream, the other new work, collapsed in New York after sixteen performances. 52 The Duchess of Pittsburgh, Variety, LXXXI (Janu ary 6, 1926) , 25. Lathrop, The Express, December 28, 1925, p. 6. Kingsley, The Times, December 26, 1925, II, 7. 53 Hell-Bent fer Heaven, Mabel Brundige, The Ex press , November 16, 1925, p. 6. Lawrence, The Examiner, November 16, 1925, II, 3. 54 Margaret S. Carhart, "The Season in Southern California," The Best Plays of 1925-26, p. 29. 55 The similarity of tactics between the fictional minister and a well-known reverend in Los Angeles were probably not overlooked. ^ White Cargo, Lathrop, The Express, June 22, 1925, p. 8. Cast included Arthur Clayton, George Pierce, Douglas Gilmore, and Marcella Zaballa. 57 Desire under the Elms, Schallert, The Times, February 10, 1926, II, 9. 5 8 Desire under the Elms, Lawrence, The Examiner, February 10, 1926, i, 13. 385 59 Desire under the Elms, Lathrop, The Express, February 10, 1926, p. 14. 60OP. cit., above three reviews. 61 The Examiner, op. cit. 62 The Times, February 19, 1926, II, 1. 6 3 Conrad Seiler, "Los Angeles Must Be Kept Pure," The Nation, May 19, 1926,' reprinted in O'Neill and His Plays, ed. by Oscar Cargill, N. Bryllion Fagin, William J. Fisher (New York: University Press, 1961), pp. 443-48. 64 . Times, op. cit. listed Frank McGlynn, Arthur Lubin, Forrest Taylor, Norman Feusier, Jessie Arnold, Margaret Wesner, Felix Haney, Arthur Foster, Harry Desser, Allen Elder, Billie Leicester, Harrison J. Terry, Dorothy Meeks, Joan Standing, Richard Sloan, Nina Chapman, and Dan Freeman. There may have been some changes during the run for The Times, March 23, 1926, II, 5, said that "The play is now running with a few changes," but that the company intended to fight to show it as written. 8^The Express, April 17, 1926, p. 6. 88The Caliph, Variety, LXXV (June 25, 1924) , 16; LXXV (June 18, 1924), 10. Lawrence, The Examiner, July 22, 1924, I, 15. 67Variety, LXXXI (February 3, 1926), 25. 68A11 for You, Variety, LXXX (November 4, 1925), 26, also thought the scenery too gaudy, and that it would not hold up in $3.85 territory. Goss, The Examiner, October 26, 1925, II, 2. Lathrop, The Express, October 26, 1925, p. 11. 69 *Variety, LXXXII (May 5, 1926), 58. 70 Silence, Schallert, The Times, December 26, 1925, II, 6. Lawrence, The Examiner, December 26, 1927, II, 3. 71 Quarantine, Lawrence, The Examiner, June 30, 1925, II, 5. 386 72 Mountain Man, Lathrop, The Express, July 21, 1925, I, 15. The cast included many Majestic Theatre favorites. 73Variety, LXXXII (February 24, 1926), 23; LXXXII (march 3, 1926), 18. 74 Ibid. 75Varietv, LXXXIV (September 29, 1926), 44. Bill board, XXXVIII (September 25, 1926), 1. 7^"Inside Stuff," Variety, LXXIII (January 31, 1924), 26. 77 The Open Gate, Schallert, The Times, October 6, 1924, I, 7. Lawrence, The Examiner, October 6, 1924, I, 11. 78 It's a Boy, Kingsley, The Times, November 24, 1924, II, 7. 79 The Famous Mrs. Fair, Kingsley, The Times, March 10, 1924, II, 9. 80 Lawrence, The Examiner, March 10, 1924, II, 3. 8X 4 weeks: New Brooms, The Song and Dance Man, Cobra. 6 weeks; Nighty-Night, The Last Warning, Kiki. Repeats: So This Is London, The Best People. 82 Thank-U, Moulton, The Times, February 1, 1926, II/ 9. The Back-Slapper, The Times, February 15, 1926, 11, 9. 8 3 Deliverance, Schallert, The Times, April 6, 1924, II, 7. Lawrence, The Examiner, April 6, 1924, I, 11. Variety, LXXVII (April 15, 1925), 24. 84 Cobra, Schallert, The Times, May 11, 1925, I, 13. 85 Craig's Wife, Schallert, The Times, March 2, 1926, II, 11. The play was running at The Morosco-New York. 387 88Craig's Wife, Lathrop, The Express, March 1, 1926, p. 14. 8^The Outsider. Reviewers noted that it held particular appeal for Los Angeles, "The storm center of clashing healing methods." Kingsley, The Times, March 22, 1926, II, 9. Goss, The Examiner, March 22, 1926, I, 10. 88Varietv, LXXVI (October 15, 1924), 9. 89The message of the play that the middle class admitted that money makes class, also included a poke at the belief that one had to be miserable in order to be happy. 90White Collars, Variety, LXXIII (February 7, 1924), 16. Lawrence, The Examiner, February 1, 1924, II, 5. 91The Times, May 31, 1925, III, 24. 92The author maintained that because the play had not been produced at a "first-class" house, according to contract, that the rights should revert to her. Then the author sided with Egan, saying the others had lost their rights because they had altered the script. Variety, LXXV (June 11, 1924), 16; LXXV (June 25, 1924), 16. Billboard, XXXVI (December 20, 1924), 25. 93Variety, LXXVII (January 21, 1925) , 18; XXVII (January 28, 1925), 17. 94Variety, LXXVIII (February 25, 1925), 21. The New York Times review, cited in The Times, March 17, 1925, II, 11. Variety, LXXVIII (April 22, 1925), 19. Burns Mantle said the play found tough sledding against Broadway competition, and probably would have folded if Anne Nichols had not invested with profits from Abie's Irish Rose. Burns Mantle, ed., The Best Plays of 1924-25 (Bos ton: Small, Maynard & Co., 1925), p. 12. 95Variety, LXXVII (December 31, 1924) , 13, 25. Egan vigorously denied that he was associated with Macloon in the San Francisco presentation. 388 ^ Starlight, Variety, LXXVI (October 8, 1924), 16. 97Starlight, Schallert, The Times, October 21, 1924, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, October 21, 1924, II, 5. Some of the play's "sophistication" lay not only in the colorful life Bernhardt had led, but in the fact that Miss Keane donned one of her costumes in full view of the audi ence . ^ Starlight, Variety, LXXVIII (March 11, 1925), 27. 9^Mlle. Magnificent, . The Times, June 27, 1924, II, 9. Variety, XCIV (February 6, 1929), 61, XCV (May 1, 1929), 70. lOOlhe Merchant of Venice, Lathrop, The Express, March 11, 1924, P. 12, thought Warfield's vocal range limited his characterization, and noted that scenes had been rearranged and inverted, but did not say how. ^^Bombo, Schallert, The Times, April 29, 1924, II, 11. 102Richelieu, The Times, April 15, 1924, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, April 15, 1924, II, 3. ^ Hamlet, Kingsley, The Times, April 16, 1924, II, 11. 104Mr. Wu, Schallert, The Times, April 1, 1924, II, 9. ^ ^ Sheep, Schallert, The Times, April 4, 1924, II, 11. Gruen, The Examiner, April 4, 1924, II, 3. 10^Variety, LXXVII (February 4, 1925), 16. Florence Lawrence, "Mason to Reopen in New Glory," The Examiner, August 10, 1924, V, 7. 10 7 The articles confuse in their references/descrip tions of the outer lobby and main foyer. Florence Law rence, "Erlanger's New Mason Pleases Eye," The Examiner, February 11, 1925, I, 5. 3 W 10 8The Express, February 13, 1925, p. 9, shows the wide proscenium arch with a proscenium door on stage right (no indication if it was a practical door). Lawrence, ibid. 1Q9Seventh Heaven, Lathrop, The Express, February 17, 19 25, p. 8. Lawrence, The Examiner, February 17, 1925, II, 1, 9. Schallert, The Times, February 17, 1925, cited in Ruth Miriamrose Gartler, "A Historical Study of The Mason Opera House in Los Angeles" (unpublished Master's Thesis, University of California at Los Angeles, 1966), p. 71. HOAbove entries, ibid. 11 Variety, LXXVIII (February 18, 1925) , 17. ^ %o, No, Nanette, Lathrop, The Express, March 10, 1925, p. 15, said that the show was a triumph for the actors, and the appeal to the eye an excuse to indulge in adjectives. Lawrence, The Examiner, March 10, 1925, II, 3, called it a "knock-out." I I O XJThe arrangement variously stated was either (1) 50 per cent of the profits with a guaranteed minimum of $30,000; or (2) the first $20,000 to Smith-Macloon, and the remainder split 50-50. Variety, LXXVIII (April 22, 1925), 18; LXXIX (June 10, 1925), 20. 114Variety, LXXXVIII (August 24, 1927), 45, said Macloon was the first manager to be declared "unfair" by Equity. Macloon-Smith alleged that scalpers reserved large blocks of tickets and then returned them unsold too close to curtain for patrons to utilize them. 115Variety, LXXVIII (March 25, 1925), 20, 25. ^ 6Lady Be Good, Lawrence, The Examiner, July 8, 1925, II, 3. Kitty and Ted Donner were featured in the As tai re ro le s. 11 Variety, LXXX (October 7, 1925), 20. ^•^Patsy, Schallert (quotation) , The Times, March 10, 1926, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, March 9, 1926, ------------------------------------------------------------------ 3 W I, 13. Brundige, The Express, March 9, 1926, p. 8. Variety. LXXXII (March 10, 1926),20. 119Variety, LXXXII (March 17, 1924), 24. 1 9 0 uCleopatre, Schallert, The Times, March 4, 1924, II, 1, 16. •*~^Variety, LXIV (September 2, 1921), 2, said that Toplitzky had originally offered the proposed theatre to Homer F. Curran to operate for the Shuberts. TOO Charles F. Peters, "A Historical Survey of The Biltmore Theatre" (unpublished Master's Thesis, California State College at Long Beach, 1929), p. 45. The Times, February 24, 192 4, V, 1. 123 All other information is taken from Peters, op. cit., pp. 32-45. Harris Allen, "The Biltmore Theatre," Pacific Coast Architect, XXVII (January, 1925), 5-9, 11, 46. ~^ 24Sally, Lathrop, The Express, March 4, 1924, p. 12. Kingsley, The Times, March 4, 1924, II, 1. Lawrence, The Examiner, II, 1. 125 Above entries, ibid. 126 Lightnin*. The original cast members were Paul Stanton, Thomas MacLarnie, Sam Coit, William F. Granger, James C. Lane, Jane Oaker, Jessie Pringle, Minnie Palmer, May Durea, and four others. The company was met by a group of official greeters and Mrs. Bacon was given the key to the city. Lawrence, The Examiner, March 18, 1924, II, 5. 127 Laughing Lady, Lathrop, The Express, June 3, 1924, p. 24. Lawrence, The Examiner, June 3, 1924, II, 3. 12 8 The Dybbuk and Green Fields, The Express, Septem ber 1, 1924, p. 6; September 2, 1924, p. 15. The Examiner, September 1, 1924, II, 2; September 2, 1924, I, 15. 129Merton of the Movies, The Examiner, December 9, 192 4, II, 5. Lathrop, The Express, December 9, 1924, p. 10. _____-------------------------- ; ------ : ----------- J3X-1 130The Magic Ring, Ralph E. Greene, The Examiner, January 20, 1925, I, 15. •^3-*-Sancho panza, Lawrence, The Examiner, February 3, 1925, I, 15. ^ %amlet, Greene, The Examiner, February 24, 1925, I, 16. Kingsley, The Times, February 24, 1925, II, 11. 133Macbeth, Lawrence, The Examiner, February 25, 1925, II, 3. 134The Rivals, James S. Carter, The Times, May 31, 1925, II, 20-21. Lathrop, The Express, May 26, 1925, p. 12, thought that Powers clowned his way through the show so much that he concluded the actor had no grasp of the character. Lawrence, The Examiner, May 26, 1925, I, 15. 133The Grand Duchess and the Waiter, Schallert, The Times, June 9, 1925, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, June 9, 19 25, I, 15. - * - 36Embers, Lawrence, The Examiner, June 16, 1925, 1, 15. Lathrop, The Express, June 16, 19 25, p. 8. 137Mrs. Patridge Presents, Lawrence, The Examiner, August 11, 1925, I, 15. Smiling Danger, Chester Paul, The Examiner, August 25, 1925, I, 14. Variety, LXXX (September 2, 1925), 23. 138The Show-Off, Lathrop (quotation), The Express, July 7, 1925, p. 10, who thought it a red-letter event in present theatre. Goss, The Examiner, July 7, 1925, I, 14, who could not understand how any woman would be attracted to the grotesqueness of Piper. 13%ing Lear, Kingsley, The Times, November 24, 1925, II, 11. 140See reviews throughout the week. The Examiner, November 26, 1925, II, 3; November 27, 1925, I, 13; Novem ber 29, 1925, II, 3. The Times, December 3, 1925, II, 11. ^ ^ Hamlet, Schallert, The Times, November 26, 1925, II, 11. Ted Cook, The Examiner, November 25, 1925, I, 11. 392 -*-^^Rosencrantz and Guildenstern looked like boy scouts, Polonius like an undertaker. Claudius wore a claw hammer coat, and the ghost appeared in a doughboy outfit with cheese cloth cape. Mantell wore an afternoon coat, derby, and spats for the graveyard scene. The Student Prince, Schallert, The Times, December 29, 1925, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, December 29, 1925, II, 3. It was reckoned as one of the most "satisfactory performances which has ever crossed the continent." Starred Arthur Pryor, Margaret Cantress, Toots Pound, et al. • * ~ 4- ^ Rose-Marie, Schallert, The Times, April 7, 1926, II, 9. Goss, The Examiner, April 6, 1926, I, 13. - * - 44Variety, LVII (January 9, 1920), 22. 145The California Graphic, February 19, 1927, p. 4. 146Variety, LXXII (June 24, 1921), 13; LXX (April 19, 1923), 4, 13, 14; LXXIII (November 22, 1923), 38. Billboard, XXXV (December 8, 1923), 107. 147 Thelma Lee Hubbell and Gloria R. Lothrop, "The Friday Morning Club: A Los Angeles Legacy," The Southern California Quarterly, L (March, 196 8), 84. Macloon had picked up Why Not? when released by The Equity Players. In February, 1923, Lillian Albertson joined the cast. Variety, LXX (April 19, 1923), 13, 14. 148The Times, April 20, 1924, III, 30; April 21, 1924, I, 11. Opening night tickets cost $3.00 to $5.00. 149Frank Vreeland, "A Theatrical Oasis in the Movie Desert," Theatre, XLII (August, 1925), 22-23, 54. The Times, April 13, 1924, V, 3, cited the second figure. The Examiner, March 25, 1924, I, 11. 150Vreeianaf pp. cit., pp. 22, 54, shows the ex terior and the lobby. "A New Club Building in Southern California," Architect and Engineer, LXXXIX (October 24, 1924), 79-91, is a portfolio of pictures. "The Friday Morning Club," Pacific Coast Architect, XXVI (November, 1924), cover, 11-21, includes a good view of the front of the auditorium proscenium arch. 393 151 The Times, op. cit., cited the first figure. Vreeland, op. cit., p. 23, gave the second figure. Fram ing plans in Los Angeles City Department of Buildings and Safety cited the third. 152 Variety, LXXIV (March 19, 1924), 10, said that Macloon had made an agreement with A. H. Woods and Arch Selwyn to stage shows controlled by them. 153 The change was probably dictated by Bernard1s death in March, 1924, although it could have been prompted by "the image" The Club wished to maintain. 154 Romance, Lathrop, The Express, May 6, 1924, p. 22. Lawrence, The Examiner, May 6, 1924, I, 7. The two male leads were Vernon Steele and Niles Welch. Miss Keane recorded her 2,000th performance during the five-week run. 155 Spring Cleaning, Lathrop, The Express, June 10, 1924, p. 24, in which the writer placed Lonsdale in the Wilde, Shaw tradition. The Times, June 6, 1924, II, 9; June 18, 1924, II, 9. Muriel Elwood, Pauline Frederick (Chicago: A. Kroch, 1940), pp. 122-24. 156 The Whole Town's Talking, Lathrop, The Express, July 8, 1924, p. 19, found Arthur's comedic ways imbecilic; a thing more simian than human in its manner. 157 The Clinging Vine, Lawrence, The Examiner, September 30, 1924, II, 3. Kingsley, The Times, September 30, 1924, II, 11. The story was a staple of the period: a flapper grandmother instructs her granddaughter in the ways of an enrapturing female. 15 8 Welcome Stranger, Schallert, The Times, November 25, 1924, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, November 25, 1924, II, 3. Hoffman had referred to his play as a con troversy over "electric light and Isralite." Edward Smith was the box-office manager at the time of the robbery. Variety, LXXVII (December 31, 1924), 13, cited the grosses. 159 Variety, LXVIII (October 27, 1922), 15. 160 At least initially the arrangements called for Macloon to fill every other four weeks at The Curran, 39 4 beginning March 8, 1925. After Wilkes's failure to make the adjacent Columbia Theatre a paying venture, Macloon also booked there. Variety, LXXVII (December 3, 1924), 14. 161The Lady, Lawrence, The Examiner, December 26, 1924, I, 9. Goose Hangs High, Schallert, The Times, II, 8. Lawrence, The Examiner, II, 9. 162The Great I am, Lawrence, The Examiner, Febru ary 16, 1925, I, 11. The Door Mat, Lawrence, The Exam iner, April 21, 1925, II, 3. Variety, LXXVIII (April 22, 1925), 19. - * - 63Kelly's Vacation (Spring Fever) , Frederick Donaghey, "The Season in Chicago," The Best Plays of 1923- 19 24, op. cit.. p. 13. Donaghey's opinion about the play made him wonder if there should not be a mandatory play censor. Lawrence, The Examiner, March 2, 1925, I, 3. Lathrop, The Express. March 2, 1925, p. 16. He thought it a red-letter event in local theatre. 16^The Dark Angel, Lawrence, The Examiner, March 26, 1925, II, 3. Lathrop, The Express, March 26, 1925, p. 19. -*-®^Romeo and Juliet, Lawrence, The Examiner, May 12, 1925, I, 15. ■^^Disagreements arose during rehearsals of One Trip on the Silver Star, which apparently Macloon had agreed to produce for Miss Cowl if she brought Romeo and Juliet to the coast. It resulted in Equity calling out the cast of the Shakespeare play, and her husband, producer Adolph Klauber, alleging that Macloon had countered his agreement to pay the actress $2,500 for eight weeks plus 25 per cent of the profits. He published a letter saying that they were accustomed to doing business with people "whose word is as good as a bond. Neither she nor I have ever experienced 'fly-by-night' treatment before ..." The clash continued for three years. Variety, LXXIX (May 27, 1925), 22; LXXIX (June 10, 1925), 20. ^ ^ Little Nellie Kelly, Lathrop, The Express, Sep tember 15, 1925,vp. 19. Lawrence, The Examiner, September 15, 1925, II, 3. 3W5 168iphis was the second company Macloon had organized. San Francisco saw Emmett Corrigan. Both The Times and The Examiner carried articles (publicity release) saying that Macloon had paid over $35,000 for the rights to the play. The Examiner, October 8, 1925, II, 5. •^•^^What Price Glory, Lathrop, The Express, October 27, 1925, p. 8. Schallert, The Times, October 28, 1925, II, 9. Lawrence, The Examiner, October 27, 1925, I, 4. 170a road company toured the western area, closing February 9, 1926, leaving several engagements unfilled because of Corrigan's alleged illness. The actor denied the allegation saying the tour was cancelled because of the unprofitable one-night stands. Variety, LXXX (February 13, 1926), 1; LXXXII (March 24, 1926), 20. ^^Billboard, XXXVI (December 12, 1925), 30. -*-^Love Call, Lathrop and Bruno David-Ussher, The Express, January 20, 1926, p. 33. Schallert, The Times, January 20, 1926, II, 9. Lawrence, The Examiner, II, 9. Almost predictably there were troubles, with Rosa Rolanda breaking her contract because of unbearable treatment. •^•^The Copperhead, Schallert (quotation) , The Times, March 5, 1926, II, 9. Lawrence, The Examiner, March 4, 1926, I, 13. 174Lullaby, Goss, The Examiner, April 13, 1926, I, 13. l ^ The Closed Door, Schallert, The Times, February 20, 1924, II, 1, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, February 20, 1924, I, 5. Charles Chaplin, The Times, op. cit., found Bernhardt more studied and artificial; Duse more "direct and terrible." l^Ghosts, Schallert (quotation) , The Times, February 25, 1924, I, 10. Gruen, The Examiner, February 25, 1925, I, 14. ^77The Dead City, Schallert, The Times, February 27, 1924, II, 11. 396 1 7 8 T h y Will Be Done, William Prohme, The Examiner, March 1, 1924, I, 14. Schallert, The Times, March 1, 1924, II, 13. -l^Smiles Qf 1924, Lawrence, The Examiner, April 8, 1924, II, 3. Variety, LXXV (April 16, 1924), 24. Stepping High, Schallert, The Times, September 11, 1924, II, 11. Variety, LXXVI (September 24, 1924), 16. 180The operas were Andrea Chenier, Manon, Romeo and Juliet, L'Amico Fritz, Gianni Schicci, and La Traviata. 181Starring Raisa, Meisle, Hackett, Gentle, Kurenko, Lappas, Rimini, and The Belcher Ballet. ^-83Rall, The Express, October 28, 1924, p. 17. 183Manna, Variety, LXXIX (May 27, 1925), 27. The Examiner, May 12, 1925, I, 15. 184Fata Morgana, Lawrence, The Examiner, December 8, 1925, II, 5. l85Saint Joan, Marjorie Driscoll, The Examiner, April 6, 1926, I, 12. Schallert, The Times, April 7, 1926, II, 9. - * - 88Besides these two groups some of the others were The Santa Monica Theatre Guild (first season, 1923); The Dobinson Players; the nationally-known Pasadena Play house; The Masquers; The Mummers; The Troupers; The Liter ary Theatre, associated with University of California Extension Division; various ethnic and national groups, The Playcrafters, which read and produced original works. 18^The Examiner, July 14, 1920, Ir 10; July 21, 1921, I, 11. • * - 880fficers were Frank E. Woods, president; June Mathis, vice-president; Eugene Presbrey, treasurer-secre- tary; Dwight Cleveland, recording secretary. The Examiner, October 23, 1921, IX, 4. ^88The Writers' Cramp, Writers' Revues, usually staged at The Philharmonic Auditorium or The Ambassador Hotel._________________________________________________________ 397 190 Allen Rivkm, Personal Correspondence, September 20, 1972. Schallert, The Times, December 4, 1922, III, 3. The plays: Cup of Life, The Tryst, The Saffron, In the Roaring 40's. 191 The other two plays were Clear as Crystal and Cycle. The actors included Carmel Meyers, Wallace Beery, Snitz Edwards, Raymond Hatton, et al. The Times, March 2, 1923, II, 11. 192 . Final program, Lawrence, The Examiner, June 10, 1923, I, 11. 193 September program, The Examiner, September 13, 1923, I, 15. February program, Schallert, The Times, February 25, 1924, II, 9. 194 March program, Rail (quotation), The Express, March 31, 1924, pp. 8-9. The Examiner, March 29, 1924, I, 5. 195 April program, Schallert, The Times, May 5, 1924, II, 9. The plays were When Caesar Ran a Newspaper, Another Way Out, The Experiment, and The Dragon's Claw. 196 December program, The Examiner, December 13, 1924, I, 10. Lawrence, The Examiner, December 14, 1924, I, 12. January's program included Thirst, with Lilyan Tashman, and a rare appearance by William H. Crane, in His Last Appearance. Lawrence, The Examiner, January 24, 1925, I, 11. 197 Lawrence, The Examiner, February 28, 1925, I, 11. The plays were The Boob, The Wonder of the Age, The Widow's Veil, and Aria da Capo. 198G o s s , The Examiner, April 6, 1925, I, 10. 199 May program, Patterson Greene, The Examiner, May 4, 1925, I, 10. The Times, May 4, 1925, I, 13. 200June program, The Examiner, June 16, 1925, I, 15. July program, Whitney Williams, The Times, July 22, 1925, II, 9. 798”! 2^^September program, The Express, September 28, 1925, p. 15. The Examiner, September 28, 1925, I, 12. 202November program, The Examiner, November 14, 1925, II, 2. January program, Schallert, The Times, Janu ary 12,. 1926, II, 11. 203March program, The Examiner, March 6, 1926, I, 10. 28^April program, Moulton (quotation) , The Times, April 12, 1926, II, 9. 205June program, The Times, June 16, 1926, II, 11. 288Comparison to The Lambs was made by Variety, LXXVIII (April 15, 1925), 18, 23. Rivkin, op. cit. 207Billboard, XXXVII (July 25, 1925), 42. 288Ibid. The Express, December 27, 1923, p. 6. 209The Times, February 29, 1924, II, 11. The four plays were all apparently by local writers and were per formed by amateurs. 210There were no reviews that this investigator could find. Billboard, XXXVI (April 19, 1924), 13, cited the production dates. 211Uncle Vanya, The Times, May 22, 19 24, II, 9. The Examiner, May 21, 1924, II, 2. 2l2The Wedding Morning, The Examiner, June 16, 1924, II, 10. 91 . Miss Pnntzlau was a movie scenarist who, at the time, had just completed a film script from Kathleen Norris' book, Butterfly. Manna, The Express, June 26, 1924, p. 25. The Examiner, June 27, 1924, II, 2. 3^Don, Besier was better known for The Barrets of Wimpole Street. The Times, August 20, 1924, II, 9. 3991 I 215 . Six Characters m Search of an Author, Schal lert/ The Times, September 30, 1924, II, 11. The Examiner, September 30, 1924, II, 3. 216 The Hairy Ape, Rail, The Express, December 2, 1924, p. 17. Lawrence, The Examiner, December 2, 1924, II, 5. 217 . Billboard. XXXVII (January 3, 1925), 43. 21& Failures, Kingsley, The Times, February 18, 1925, II, 9. The Examiner, February 17, 1925, II, 2. Lathrop, The Express. February 18, 19 25, p. 8. 219 Behind the Curtain of the Soul, The Times, March 21, 1925, II, 9, said Evreinov's work "drags aside the fabrications we used to protect ourselves." Brundige, The Express, March 23, 1925, p. 6. The Examiner, March 25, 1925, I, 15. 220 Variety, LXXVIII (April 8, 1925), 22. 221 The Life of Man, Goss (quotation), The Exami ner, May 6, 1925, I, 15. Lathrop, The Express, May 6, 1925, p. 15. 22^mbush. Lathrop, The Express, June 17, 1925, p. 6. Schallert, The Times, June 17, 1925, II, 11. Goss, The Examiner, June 16, 1925, I, 14. * 223 Redemption, Lathrop (quotation), The Express, August 3, 1925, p. 8. The Examiner, August 3, 1925, I, 10. 224 Welded, The Examiner, August 25, 1925, I, 15. The production starred William J. Kelly and Claire duBrey. Fata Morgana, Kingsley, The Times, September 22, 1925, II, 11. Goss, The Examiner, September 22, 1925, II, 5. Lathrop, The Express, September 22, 1925, p. 11. 225 Everyman was staged for two weekends in Novem ber, with Ruth Helen Davis in the title role. 226 Man and the Masses, The Examiner, December 8, 1925, II, 3. Lathrop, The Express, December 8, 1925, p. 16, recognized that the experience of the play might not ---------------------------------------------------------------- stttn appeal "to a psychology as yet unawakened on this side of the globe." 22^The Man Who Ate the Popomack, The Examiner, January 14, 1926, II, 2. The Times, January 14, 1926, II, 9. 228Moulton, The Times, March 12, 1925, II, 9. 229The Candle, Brundige (quotation), The Express, February 16, 1926, p. 6. Lawrence, The Examiner, Febru ary 17, 1926, I, 11. 230Hubbell and Lothrop, op. cit., pp. 59-60. 23- * - Polly of The Circus, Variety, LXXVI (October 29, 1924) , 18. 232Jack Poggi, Theater in America: The Impact of Economic Forces, 1870-1967 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1968), Chaps. Ill, IV. Frederick Donaghey, "The Season in Chicago," The Best Plays of 1926-27, ed. by Burns Mantle (New York: Dodd and Mead, 1928) , p. 18. 9 o o -’ variety observation, cited above, regarding the opening of Pickin's at The Orange Grove. Florence Law rence's exhortation in connection with Henry Miller's production of Embers at The Biltmore. 9 O A ^J*Henry Kolker, cited in The Times, June 13, 1925, I, 17. CHAPTER VII THE SURGING YEARS, THE SPLINTERING YEARS 1926 and 1927 "There's No Business Like Show Business" Introduction Having drawn attention to itself by extensive advertising campaigns and the antics attendant upon its Topsy-like expansion in real estate, construction, and petroleum, and having survived the threat to its moral values which the movie industry and colony threatened to unleash, Los Angeles in 1926 and 192 7 settled into a stable pace of development, making steady advances in population, industrial and economic growth, education, and the arts and sciences. In 1926, approximately 38,000 building per mits were issued, a number equalled the following year. Among these new structures were several legitimate thea tres, plus Grauman1s Chinese Theatre, The Orpheum, The Tower, The United Artists Building, The Hotel Roosevelt in 401 ------------------------------------------------------------- 40 2 Hollywood, The Dyas Department Store (Broadway Department Store), plus St. Vincent's Hospital, California Lutheran, and an addition to Good Samaritan Hospital.1 Sears, Roebuck and Company opened its first retail store, the Elks dedicated their new temple, and The Shrine Auditorium was made available for civic and community affairs. The regents of the University of California began expending the appropriation for the Los Angeles campus at Westwood (dedicated, October 25, 1926).2 On June 22, 1927, the new City Hall was dedicated. By 1927, it was estimated that there were 5,700 factories in the area, employing 170,5 31 people, with an output valued at one and a quarter billion dollars. The value of all exports in 192 7 totaled more than one hundred and thirteen million dollars, and the movie industry shook off its hesitation and confusion and expended more than one hundred and two million dollars as it entered "the talker era." Culturally, the city could claim notable achieve ments. In July, 192 6, the new central branch of the Public Library system was formally dedicated and opened to the 3 public. Aline Barnsdall presented her villa and acreage at Olive Hill for use as an art center. W. A. Clark, Jr. — 4 03 gave his private library, said to contain at the time ap proximately 10,000 rare first editions and manuscripts, to the University of California, Los Angeles, and at the end of 192 7 announced his intention of continuing his subsidy of The Philharmonic Orchestra. At the bequest of the owner, the Huntington estate became the property of the people of California. The second season of Sunday after noon concerts in the air commenced January 17, 1926, at the Coliseum, with admission ranging from a dime to fifty cents. Tourists continued to flock to the area in the 4 greatest numbers in five years, and the city continued to be placed under journalistic microscopes. Nellie Revell, a feature writer for Variety, discovered that there were more clubs in Los Angeles and Hollywood "than there are 5 in a double pinochle deck," and concluded that "Southern California is a locality, a climate, and almost an infec tious disease."^ But along with these quiet and impressive advances in the economic and cultural life of the city, there per sisted a carnival attitude and a spirit of display and exhibitionism. The slogan, "Tires on Credit," applied to 7 the entire town, according to one columnist. _ _ _ _ 4 0 4 Approximately 150,000 people turned out to greet Charles A. Lindberg in late September, 1927/ and about an equal number squealed their sorrow over Valentino1s death, cul minating in his burial in Los Angeles on September 7, 1926. Sister Aimee Semple MacPherson disappeared in the ocean off Venice Beach in May, 1926, and before she returned, at least one life was lost. The hearing into her alleged kidnapping filled the newspapers for the remainder of the year, and rumblings about the oil swindle involving C. C. Julian and members from every walk of civic and cultural Q life were becoming more audible. Miss Los Angeles, the Spanish seiiorita whose large dark eyes glittered with the progress of her pueblo, had not yet discarded all of her mud-tinged skirts. Background Nothing perhaps, better illustrates the unfold ing of Los Angeles into the stature of a world metropolis than its almost sensational expansion theatrically in the past three years.® In 1926-27, Los Angeles theatre "lifted itself out of the provinces class." Variety acknowledged this fact, stating that Los Angeles had established itself as a long- run stand, which together with San Francisco, could support a production for a four-to-six month engagement.Edwin 40 5 Schallert hailed a long overdue revival in the spoken drama, arguing that theatre presented from key cities with in a proscribed territory would curtail transportation costs, insure improved productions, and permit the viewing of a Broadway show within a few months of its New York opening. Support for the contention that Los Angeles was an amusement center of stature was forthcoming from such diverse and arcane sources as The Federal Bureau of Labor, which reported in April, 1927, that during the past three years only New York had built more theatres than Los Angeles. It went on to say that there were five persons for each available theatre seat, excluding The Hollywood • i ? Bowl and The Coliseum. Of the four states which con tributed over two-thirds of the total admission taxes collected in the country, California was third, preceded 1 3 only by Illinois and New York. The unprecedented avalanche of theatre construction in Los Angeles did not pass unnoticed elsewhere in the country. "Over-seated Los Angeles Will Have 52,260 Addi tional Seats," Variety headlined, and pondered: "How the builders expect to book attractions for them is a mystery to Eastern showmen." Managers of the theatres already in 406 operation expressed pessimism regarding the success of the new playhouses but their black thoughts little daunted the promoters who claimed that the new theatres would bring both prestige and profit to the city and to the backers. Within nine months after the first legitimate theatre opened in Hollywood, Florence Lawrence called for a cessation of the production policy which relied upon the staging of current Broadway hits contemporaneous with their New York presentation, or as soon as rights could be pur chased, with the original company or stars of comparable appeal. Of the six new commercial playhouses opened in these two years, four changed managerial staffs, vacillated in production policies, and in other ways evidenced diffi culties by the end of 1927. A fifth followed course in early 1928. Discussion of Theatrical Activity The El Capitan Theatre The first commercial legitimate theatre in Holly wood opened on May 3, 1926. Located at 6820-6838 Hollywood Boulevard on the south side of the street, The El Capitan Theatre was part of a six-story office building and CHART 11 THE EL CAPITAN OWNER Charles E. Toberman, native Texan, by 1907 established in real estate, insurance; promoted among other structures, The Egyptian Theatre, The Chinese Theatre, The Hollywood Bowl. ARCHITECTS Exterior— Morgan, Walls and Clements; Interior— G. Albert Lansburgh, who had designed in part or in whole, Municipal Auditorium, Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco; interior of San Francisco Opera House; Martin Beck Theatre, New York City; Orpheum theatres in Kansas City, Salt Lake City, New Orleans; State-Lake movie theatre, Chicago; collaborating architect for Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. DESIGN STYLE East Indian. Lansburg stated: "In designing this theatre the problem was to plan a dramatic house that would have an exotic character, since the theatre is in Hollywood, where a majority of the residents demand the extraordinary . . . not heretofore been used in Southern California."I6 BUILDING EXTERIOR17 Site— 124'-0" on Hollywood and 180'-0" deep. Height— 103'-9" from sidewalk to molding around top of roof. Exterior, front— Spanish colonial design with sedate gray-colored walls in terra cotta and stone, with ornamental plaster and iron work. PATRONS' AREAS AND MANAGEMENT SPACE Vestibule o ■'J CHART 11— Continued 60'-10'1/16" deep (including lobby behind [inside] it); 39,-l-3/4" wide (including ticket office at house right); SWBC stated 32'-0" x 30'-O''.-*-® Ticket office— as deep as vestibule itself; contained 3 box-office grills. Lobby Area Entered through one of five pairs of glass double doors; at far (south) end, four pairs of double doors. First-floor "Foyer" Entered through four pairs double doors at south end of lobby area; within the audi torium proper— actually space behind the last row of seats in auditorium; entire width of auditorium; 21'-8" deep from curvature of last row of seats to wall of foyer. Mezzanine Foyer 17'-10-1/2" deep, width of building. Above first-floor lobby area— men's toilet, women's restroom and toilet; manager's office and waiting room. Basement Oak-panelled lounge— 44'-8" wide, 28'-3" deep (approx.), 12'-0" high. East area (house left) corridor gave onto men's toilet. West area (house right) were women's rest room and toilet; phone booth area. AUDITORIUM Seating Capacity Main floor— 854; boxes— 32; loges— 136; balcony— 510. Total— 1,532. First Floor ________________________________________________J .aofe. CHART 11— Continued 98' —10-1/4" wide from wall to wall, 79'-9" deep from rear wall (of foyer) to auditor ium side of stage house wall. SWBC stated 105'-0" wide by 88'-0" deep.^ Boxes One on each side, each accommodated 16; divided into 4 areas, each at different height. Balcony Center located 4'-6" behind rear wall of stage house; separated into two sections by cross aisle, 3'-6" wide at center of curvature. Divided into five seating sections, including two wedge-shaped areas accommodating only 24 seats each. Color Scheme and Appointments Oriental colors of blue-green and gold, alternated with red hues; decorated by John B. Smeraldi, who had worked on Hall of Records and Biltmore Hotel.20 Carpets and tapestries of neutral color; massive chandelier. Ceiling design connected the boxes and was part of proscenium arch decor. Asbestos curtain— 2 peacocks (profile) at each corner of raised area. STAGE AREA Orchestra Pit Could accommodate 50 musicians; 9'-2" deep from center of railing curvature to edge of stage. Apron Area 3'-6" from edge of stage to curtain line; accommodated footlight trough. o VO CHART 11— Continued Proscenium Opening Somewhat less than 51'-5" (measurement of curtain) 28'-0" high. SWBC stated 46'-0" wide, 28'-0" high.21 Stage Floor Level 32,-4-13/16" deep from curtain line to back wall of stage house, 81'-8-3/4" overall width of stage. Stage left— property room (13'-l/8" deep by 14'-6-7/8" wide [approx.]); stagehands' room. Stage right— switchboard; separated by wall and fire door were 2 dressing rooms, a doorman's room. Upper Levels 18'-4"— 6 dressing rooms (3 on each side) 27'-6"— fly loft, fly gallery, paint bridge, art room 65'-6"— gridiron Overall Dimensions of Stage House 113'-5-3/8" wide, 39'-5-1/4" deep Basement Green room— in southeast corner, 26'-2" wide, 19'-8" deep (approx.), 12'-0" high. Stage left— 5 dressing rooms, 2 showers, rest rooms. Wedge-shaped protrusion north of stage house wall (west side)— 19'-6" dressing room. T O department store erected by Charles E. Toberman. The theatre was leased by Edward D. Smith, former general man ager of the Shubert theatres in Boston. In Los Angeles, he had been the first manager of the new Biltmore Theatre and had worked in that capacity for a short time under Louis 0. Macloon at The Figueroa Street Playhouse. With that individual, he had produced No, No, Nanette with a special Pacific coast cast, and had mounted a production of Lady Be Good. From the beginning, his policy was clear and competitive: ". . .to engage Gotham hits for inde- 22 terminate runs." The premiere production introduced the metropolis to the distinctive talents of Bea Lillie, Gertrude Law rence, and Jack Buchanan in Chariot's Revue, for which orchestra seats cost fifteen dollars and balcony location 23 seats were five to ten dollars. Emmett Corrigan, general stage director of the theatre, introduced the owner, the lessee, and Miss Pauline Frederick, who delivered the dedicatory address. Chariot's Revue enchanted the critics and the opening night audience: [The curtain] . . . rose on a show whose like is never encountered in our native musical comedy. [It] has a punch— but a velvet one [for] you are in the presence of ladies and gentlemen and of cleverness which does not rely on questionable TT2 means. Some of it is caviar to the general because some of the travesty is not familiar. . . . The show, in short, sets a new standard for talent by which this Western public will henceforth judge the pre sumptions of American revue producers who seek to "get away with murder" by mediocrity.2' * Panegyrics tucked into history, the show was only a quali fied success. It grossed a total of $104,900, but only the first and last weeks showed returns above $16,000, the amount Smith was reported to have guaranteed the Selwyn office for a twelve-week run (italics mine). After a six- week engagement in Los Angeles, the run was terminated, and all coast bookings were cancelled, including the proposed Curran Theatre stop. It was reported that the New York producers had lost $50,000 on the coast engagement.25 Several reasons were posed for the less-than-en- thusiastic reception to the opening production, some of which Monroe Lathrop had alluded to in his review: the English "mood" of the piece; the subtlety of sophisticated allusions; and an emphasis upon intimacy and skill rather than upon eye-boggling display, "whistle-able" tunes, and orgies of movement. Perhaps, there was more than a gram r of truth in Variety1s observation: "The revue clicked with the picture crowd and got a great send-off from the ----------------------------------------------------------------- 9T3T dailies, but seemed to go over the heads of the rest of California."26 Other restricting factors were the admission price and the faulty acoustics of the theatre. Two dollars and fifty cents was generally the price charged for road shows. Admittedly, most road shows which played at The Biltmore during these two years usually charged three dollars or more. But The El Capitan set itself up to compete for that audience, and did so, moreover, in a new playhouse with a sizable seating capacity located in an area hitherto unknown as an amusement center (the theatre was located at the western extremity of Hollywood Boulevard's "amusement strip"). In addition, according to Variety, the width of the auditorium tended to drown speech, and during the first week at least, the machinery which circulated the 27 air contributed to the aural discomfort. After its first production, a two-month silence descended on the theatre, disturbed only by a two-week engagement of No, No, Nanette, and a special peformance of Raquel Meller. Although Edward Smith seemed unwilling or unable to recognize that an audience for sophisticated theatrical fare was inadequate to support an open-ended engagement, he did enjoy one moderately long, financially successful 4 i 4 - production. The Green Hat, Michael Arlen's dramatization of Iris March, iconoclast, aroused strong interest among female patrons, although critics found the play talky and diluted. "The book was a fantasy, the play is a tragedy, festooned in sentimentality, strongly tinged with oriental p O color." Smith did not bring the New York company to Los Angeles, or a road contingent, but assembled a company headed by Ruth Chatterton, Gareth Hughes, Catherine Bennett Ralph Forbes, and Montague Shaw. Audiences filled the theatre for seven weeks ($98,700). It was Smith's last success. The Bride of the Lamb, William Hurlbut's study of the potent relationship between religious ecstasy and sexual excitement, flopped. Overshadowed by the real-life drama of the MacPherson "kidnapping" (daily currency at the time); based upon a subject unlikely to find a popular following (portrayed the pettiness of small town life familiar to a great many of the city's residents with Mid western backgrounds); and suffering from comparison to Rain (had completed a six-week engagement at The Baltimore earlier in July), Hurlbut's play was weakened by plot con trivances, and The El Capitan production was miscast in the major roles. The show grossed only $20,400 in its short, ------------------------------------------------------------------5X3- OQ three-week stay. Smith tried to maintain his unique kind of theatre, but every effort failed. The engaging musical romance, Castles in the Air, which had opened in New York only two months earlier, charmed the critics and bored the audi ences. Undoubtedly, the piquant quality of the play limited its appeal, and its delicate nature was swallowed in the large theatre. Edward Smith was said to have lost $75,000 on the venture.^® Then, in December, 19 26, The Times "rumored" that The San Carlo Opera might play its three-week Los Angeles engagement at The El Capitan, after which the theatre 31 would be converted into a vaudeville house. Neither prediction materialized, although the theatre did in fact "go dark" for the first three months of 1927. Only a two- week "filler" engagement of Lady Frederick, by Somerset 32 Maugham, starring Pauline Frederick, broke the darkness. Instead, Smith announced that he intended to re- open the theatre as a popular-priced playhouse. Just what was his concept of such a theatre is difficult to determine, for when the marquee was relit on April 3, 1927, it advertised Edwin Justus Mayer's "comedy of the romantic spirit"— The Firebrand, "a bedroom farce transplanted to — ----------- 416 the sixteenth century." Not only was this a rather unusu al choice for an announced "popular-priced" theatre, but admission had been reduced a bare fifty cents. In spite of an opening night audience which seemed "anxious" to approved the performances of Elise Bartlett Schildkraut, Ian Keith, William Farnum, Ethel Clayton, and Marjorie Bennett, the satirical romance of an episode in the life of Cellini closed after four weeks, with $28,400 in the till.34 Edward D. Smith bowed out of theatrical producing in Los Angeles, and the examples of the kind of production which he wished to sponsor emerged only rarely in the next three years of the decade. With but few exceptions, The El Capitan Theatre joined the other new playhouses in navigating chartered waters. The El Capitan was closed but not forgotten, and on July 14, 1927, this western out post of Hollywood's "Great White Way" resumed its dazzle with Henry Duffy's production of Don Mullaly's domestic comedy, Laff That Off. From the sophisticated, smart, subtle choices of Edward Smith, most of which 1'belonged to the caviar class of entertainment . . . piquant, refreshing 35 and unusual," The El Capitan became the home of plays of established reputation, guaranteed to appeal to every ----------------------------------------------------------------- ctt member of the family. Admission to any of the ten weekly performances could be achieved by the purchase of a ticket ranging from thirty-five cents to one dollar and fifty cents. Henry Duffy was not unknown in Los Angeles, for in 1920 he had ingratiated himself in several comedies pro duced by Oliver Morosco. After appearances on Broadway, he had organized stock companies in several eastern cities, including Montreal. By the middle of the decade, he had launched a company at The Alcazar in San Francisco and had begun to extend his operations northward. Earlier attempts to gain a foothold in the south at Long Beach and Pasadena had proven unsuccessful, but Duffy "scored" with his first Hollywood theatre. He was greeted by one of the largest houses in the history of The El Capitan Theatre. Scoffing at the supposed jinx on the theatre (reference to the poor luck of the previous lessee) and the superstition that peacocks were bad luck (reference to asbestos curtain), Duffy admitted that his plays were not intended to educate the public. He had concluded several years earlier that "highbrow drama" neither attracted an audience nor paid costs. Laff That Off, a romantic comedy of a young woman befriended by three bachelors, was a paradigm of Duffy's dictum: a play of ready ----------------------------------------------------------------- 418' comprehensibility with no villains and no crimes, whose triteness and implausibilities were made acceptable by the skillful acting of the company.The show ran for seven weeks and was followed by three more comedies, two of which played five-week engagements. What Anne Brought Home followed Duffy's clean play policy and by the time he assembled his third production, "the Billy Sunday of the curtain stage," had dug in to OO prove that he had found his audience. During the run of The Patsy, Duffy installed sound-proof doors at the balcony entrances; carpeted the foyer; and enclosed the rear of the auditorium with thick glass (creating a lounge between the last row of seats in the auditorium and the rear wall of the auditorium). There was no confirmation, however, that he had reduced the seating, as he had indicated he planned to do. The next play was probably the best example, to date, of the "Duffy formula." Pigs, by Anne Morrison and Patterson McNutt, was not the latest New York comedy, but it had been popular (347 performances). From the New York cast, Duffy imported May Buckley, popular American actress, to recreate her role of the mother. The play showed the great American home on the stage, with its "typical" 419 characters: the 18-year-old adolescent who needs $250 so he can buy fifty pigs and "turn a profit"; the schoolgirl- . sweetheart sufficiently worldly-wise to raise the needed money, by blackmailing the village vamp; the somewhat be wildered but doting parents; the understanding grandmother; the good-for-nothing uncle; the older, spoiled brother. It was the kind of family familiar to half the people in town. If these factors were not sufficient guarantee of volume patronage, the curiosity of witnessing the theatrical demeanor of pigs may have been, for the show ran for eleven weeks, dropping below $5,000 during only the week before Christmas. Thus, in its brief existence, The El Capitan served as a barometer of the theatrical situation in Los Angeles. A spacious, ornate playhouse whose appointments stood favorable comparison with the neighboring movie palaces (Grauman's Chinese was across the street), The El Capitan began as a production house catering to a clientele able or willing to pay two dollars and fifty cents for admis sion; knowledgeable of the current dramatic hits and con temporary theatrical styles; familiar with the special talents of American and European actors; inclined toward the less conventional dramatic pabulum and susceptible to ¥20- recondite wit, delicate humor, and an occasional soupcons of social inquiry. To an outsider, The El Capitan must have appeared like some foreign appendage. Located at the western ex tremity of Hollywood Boulevard's amusement strip; with a seating capacity rivalling most movie theatres; directed by an individual whose previous local experience was obtained at the main road-show playhouse; catering to an audience drawn in large measure from the movie colony (since they could afford the admission price and since their ranks included many transplanted eastern actors), The El Capitan Theatre was an anomaly in the community of Hollywood. And yet, G. A. Lansburgh in selecting the style of the theatre had claimed that the majority of the residents demanded something extraordinary. Hardly a sociological observa tion, his comment, nevertheless, may be a partial clue to the expectations of the audience which tolerated the unusu al as long as it was within the outer boundaries of the community's understanding and experience. Lavish theatri cal structures were the order of the day in Los Angeles, as in any other part of the country. However, long-term engagements of productions representative of a minority view of experience (Bride of the Lamb, The Firebrand) or --------------- 42 i i productions which incorporated artistic skills based on a heritage somewhat different from the American theatrical tradition (Chariot's Revue) were not. Only The Green Hat received a mass-audience following, largely because of the popularity the novel had achieved, but also because the play was sentimentalized and expressed a tidy morality in its conclusion. Henry Duffy's policy was very nearly the opposite of Edward Smith's. The plays he chose were affirmations of the status quo. They were built around the home. They depended upon readily-recognized characters; upon the equation that what happened on stage could and did occur within one's own circle of experience; upon sarcastic sal lies and hustle-bustle noise and activity; and upon a kind of ingrown humor which lauded the provincial superiority of many of the characters. All of the plays exemplified the national myth that hard work and a lucky break, or an occasional, but necessary, "playing the game with the other man's bag of tricks" brought monetary success, social recog-- nition, an attractive mate, and a happy hereafter. Henry Duffy's career was living proof of this Horatio Alger legend. Attractively packaged, intellectually unencum bered, reasonably priced, Duffy's productions were assured T221 a consistent patronage. The Music Box The second new playhouse to open in Hollywood in 1926 differed from The El Capitan in several respects. It was located at the eastern extremity of Hollywood Boule vard, since marked by stars in the sidewalk and along the street lights. It was an intimate theatre, accommodating approximately only two-thirds of the former's seating capacity. It was leased by a corporation, most of whose directors and supporters were associated with the film industry. And its policy was self-evident from its name. However, in one important respect, The Music Box resembled The El Capitan and the other two new Hollywood playhouses: all were built and owned by individuals or corporations with long-standing commitments to the development of Holly wood. In fact, these four theatres fit into the larger picture of Hollywood expansion and exploitation.^® The Hollywood Music Box, located on the south side of the street, at 6120-22 Hollywood Boulevard, was pro moted by Carter de Haven, who, together with four other individuals, had incorporated The Hollywood Music Box Cor- 41 poration m July, 1925. In September, 1925, the board CHART 12 THE MUSIC BOX OWNER Heirs of the Philo Beveridge estate, specifically Phyllis Beveridge Brunson, whose husband. Clare B. Brunson was executor of the estate. ARCHITECTS Morgan, Walls, and Clements; erected by William Simpson Co. BUILDING EXTERIOR Site— 90'-0" (E-W), 175'-0H (N-S) to alley separating it from American Legion Stadium.^ Height— 30'-4" from sidewalk to pointed roof, at front of building; conservative Spanish motifs. Second level— Spanish hacienda-type porch.^ PATRONS1 AREA AND MANAGEMENT SPACE Vestibule and Lobby Vestibule— 20'-0" wide at sidewalk opening, 24'-0" wide at interior, 16'-7" deep (to 4 double wooden doors, each 2'-6" deep separating vestibule from lobby). Lobby— as wide as vestibule, 16'-5" deep; at south end, 4 double doors gave onto foyer overall depth of vestibule and lobby— 40'-6". Ticket office— house right of vestibule-lobby area. First-Floor "Foyer" Entered through 4 double doors at south end of lobby; within auditorium proper; squat T-shape, actually space behind last row of seats. ■ to — — ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________uu CHART 12— Continued Shallow base of T— 24'-0" wide, 18'-8" deep; house right— 2 executive offices. Cross bar of T— 16'-6" by 70'-0" wide (width of back of auditorium). Mezzanine Foyer Dimensions approximated first-level foyer; in south wall— men's and women's restrooms (east and west ends, respectively). North wall— stairs led up to roof garden (dancing between acts, after show). AUDITORIUM Seating Capacity Main floor— 660; balcony— 320; total 980. First Floor 70'-0" wide at back row of auditorium seats, 59’-8" deep from concrete dividers behind last row of seats to orchestra pit rail; 65'-9" deep from dividers to house side of proscenium arch. 3 seating sections, 20 rows in each section. Boxes None; 2 niches, 1 either side. Balcony 3 seating sections each containing 8 rows, last 39'-3" from house edge of proscenium arch to center of balcony face curvature. Decorations and Appointments Not discussed in accounts; plain walls in "marked-off plaster" to resemble heavy CHART 12— Continued concrete slabs; deep stencilled border along top of walls; beamed ceilings (either painted concrete or actual beams). Proscenium arch— restrained, virtually nonexistent. Curtain— emblem and name of theatre (no way of determining whether asbestos or grand). STAGE AREA Orchestra Pit 7'-7" deep. Proscenium Opening 351-0" wide, 27'-7" high. Stage Floor Level 33’-3" deep from edge of stage to rear wall of stage house. 39'-4" deep from rear wall of stage house to center of pit rail curvature. Narrow trough to accommodate footlights. Stage right— switchboard. Stage left— property room (5'-6" wide, 20'-0" deep (approx.). Upper Levels 8'-7"— 2 dressing rooms (stage left) 16'-7"— 3 dressing rooms (all 8'-8" wide, 2— 7'-2" deep, 1— 7'-3" deep). 24'-7"— paint shop (16'-8" wide, ll'-12" deep) stage left, connected to paint bridge which led to fly gallery (stage right) 68'-10“— gridiron. Overall Dimensions of Stage House 73'-11" wide, 32'-15" deep. Ls zz CHART 12— Continued Basement Green room— directly beneath stage, 35'-0" wide, 22'-3" deep, 13'-5" high. 2 chorus rooms, either side of green room. Stage left— musicians' room beyond chorus room. Stage right— women's toilet with showers beyond chorus room. Along rear wall— 7 dressing rooms, men's toilet stage left. L 9ZZ 4 2 7 1 of directors was announced: Carter deHaven, president; William S. Holman, of The Christie Film Company and Metro politan Pictures Corporation, secretary-treasurer; B. Y. Taft, one of seven children of an early settler, large property owner and developer of Hollywood, vice-president 45 and sponsor; plus Bert Lytell, Lewis Stone, Jack Warner, and Raymond L. Schrock. Together with the other members of the board, deHaven rounded up sufficient funds to assume a twenty-year lease on the theatre at the reported sum of $750,000.46 The theatre was christened with Carter deHaven's revue, Fancies. Admission to the opening cost eleven dol lars. Ticket prices thereafter were not much less expen sive, ranging from seventy-five cents to three dollars. Although the announced premiere for October 18, 1926 was put off for two days because of the illness of Arthur Kay, musical conductor, the Wednesday night opening did not disappoint. It turned out to be an eye-gawking affair, with traffic blocked off to accommodate the arrival of the audience, many of whom included the movie-star stockholders of the corporation. Edwin Schallert restricted his vocabu lary in order to recapture his feelings: ------------------------------------------------------------------4 - 2 S - Dazzling! Radiant! Gorgeous! The adjectives are right where they belong this time, for they describe the most brilliantly staged musical show, and one of the most resplend- ently eye-filled theatrical entertainments that has ever been presented in Los Angeles.4^ The uniqueness of the production lay not only in its being the first of its kind in the theatrical history of the city, but resided primarily in the quality of the production: the beautiful ensemble, the stunningly-mounted scenes and dazzling costumes ("nearly make the show in it self," "chapter could be written on the costumes and draperies done with reserve"), the imaginative dances of Larry Ceballos which were skillfully executed, and the A O pulchritude of the female members of the cast. Without any hesitation or embarrassment, Monroe Lathrop pronounced it a "wow" that could meet the test of London or New York.49 The conglomeration of specialty numbers and traves ties did not pass with unreserved praise, however. Review ers found the show overly long; weak in its comedy routines, which burdened Eddie Lambert and Thomas J. Dugan; and lack ing distinction in its musical numbers, regardless of the excellent voices of several of the principals, notably Doris Eaton, Morton Downey, John Maxwell, and The Round- 429 Monroe Lathrop had heralded a six-month run for the revue, but history recorded otherwise. Financial troubles raised their green-hued faces even as critics were acclaiming the show. Carter deHaven, who had taken court action against several members of the corporation prior to the show1s opening in an attempt to force them to meet their subscriptions, asked the board for an additional sum of $26,000 to $50,000 shortly after the show opened to keep the revue running.Variety, which had agreed that deHaven deserved to be supported for the daring and lavish production he had assembled, estimated that the revue had cost approximately $75,000 to mount, and opined that it had to reach close to the house capacity of $24,000 if expenses 52 were to be met. As expenses and animosity continued to spiral, Carter deHaven was asked to resign and was barred from the theatre by police force.On Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1926, a curtailed and revised version of the revue was inaugurated, starring Lupino Lane, Ted Donner, Henry Barsha, Nancy Carroll, Doris Eaton, and others. It empha sized skits and dance numbers rather than spectacle and music and was priced at a $2.50 top. The Hollywood Music Box Revue, originally entitled 430 Fancies by its originator, Carter deHaven, closed on Janu ary 29, 1927, having grossed $188,600 in its fourteen weeks or an average of $13,400. Its likes were not seen in Los Angeles for the remainder of the decade, if at all, thereafter. The "entirely actor-owned . . . probably the only house in the U.S. where a group of theatrical per formers, producers, and professional people in general will control all the stock," had proven an expensive, 54 unwanted toy. The corporation which had raised $100,000 prior to the theatre's opening, and which later had agreed to an additional assessment of $13,600, found that it still owed the government $17,617.15 for admission taxes. The board levied another ten dollars to meet the indebted- 55 ness. Throughout the next two years, the playhouse was leased by a number of individuals, but rarely did it attain the luster of its initial production, although it retained its troubled history. Louis O. Macloon, who had just terminated his contract with The Friday morning Club at The Figueroa Street Playhouse, leased the theatre in January, 1927.^® At the time, he had a production of The Tavern in rehearsal, which subsequently opened a four-week engagement at The Biltmore Theatre. Also, he was sponsoring, 431 covertly, the production of One Man's Woman at The Orange Grove Playhouse, where he later produced plays with sugges tive titles and, occasionally, with salacious material. At The Music Box, Macloon followed the musical policy of the theatre with two productions, neither of which was a success. In spite of the incomparable talent of Fannie Brice and Ted Donner, Peanuts Byron, Don Barclay, Marie Callahan, and others, The New Hollywood Music Box Revue fared poorly, grossing only $82,300 in six and one- half weeks. Peggy-Ann fared even less successfully, clos ing at the beginning of its fourth week. The Rodgers and Hart musical comedy, still current on Broadway, grossed only $18,500 during its Hollywood engagement. The poor response may have prompted Macloon to initiate action to "get him out from under." Thus, when Barrett Greenwood failed to appear at three shows because of illness, the producers cancelled those performances, although the under study was ready to appear. Macloon held Frank Gillmore of Actors' Equity responsible for Greenwood's absence, saying that "because of a personal issue between Gillmore and himself, he has been the victim of malicious spite and a systematic campaign of character assasination." He dared 57 the union to strike his other shows. — --— ------------------------------------------------------' 4 3 2 ' The only successful show which Macloon staged at The Music Box was typical of the newer works which ex pressed disenchantment with all the inflated values of traditional American systems. Chicago, Maurine Watkin's satirical melodrama based on her experience as a newspaper reporter, had opened in New York only three months earlier, starring Charles Bickford and Francine Larrimore. The Hollywood production featured Clark Gable as the hard-nosed reporter and Nancy Carroll as the beautiful murderess whose pathos-filled (rehearsed) testimony results in her freedom, a vaudeville contract, and a "squib" on the back page; another murder fills the first page of the newspaper. The C O production was an audience "grabber" for nine weeks. But Chicago was the exception. Variety took this time to announce that Macloon intended leaving the theatre to enter real estatement investment, and further told of the Macloons1 impending divorce plans. Both claims were in error. In December, 1927, the Macloons leased the new Windsor Square Theatre (Ebell Club), where they introduced The Desert Song, and they reconciled their personal differ- 59 ences. With the termination of Macloon's tenure, The Music Box was not occupied by any one person under a ------------------------------------------------------------------T O long-term lease until 1929. In the interim only one pro duction was of any real literary and theatrical merit. Following Exposures/ a "revue-plus-movie," and a brief appearance by Edward Everett Horton and Mrs. Reginald Denny 60 in So This Is Love/ Thomas Wilkes opened his production of The Vortex, Noel Coward's biting depiction of civiliza tion as a vortex of beastliness. In spite of an inauspi cious opening (Marjorie Rambeau had walked out and had to be replaced by Gwendolyn Logan-Seiler; the production opened on a rainy Christmas Day), the critics held that The Vortex just might catch' on because of the excellent performances, the beautiful setting, and the stunning cos tumes.®^ However, the subject matter of the play and the uncoated manner of treatment were too severe (no melo dramatic romance or camouflaging hurly-burly). The show closed after five weeks, registering a gross of only $12,400. It was the last production Thomas Wilkes pre sented in Los Angeles and the final theatrical involvement for any member of the Wilkes family. The Music Box exemplified many points about the theatrical situation in the city. The revue substantiated the claim that a number of Los Angeles residents were willing to sponsor entertainment comparable to that viewed ----------------------------------------------------------------- T3T in eastern metropolises, and to create that entertainment from among local talent. This kind of initiative charac terized much of the theatrical spirit of these two years, but the promotion and sponsorship of the project was less carefully considered. Given a small theatre— and The Music Box was the smallest new theatre to be built in these two years— and a policy directed toward shows requiring heavy investment in cast and staging, either the price of admis sion had to be advanced to cover the cost of the outlay, or the producers-sponsors had to anticipate an extensive initial outlay. The sponsors had invested extensively prior to the opening of the theatre, but, apparently, they had given little thought to how monies would be raised to meet further production costs. Moreover, three dollars was an unprecedented admission price for shows of local origin, one generally reserved for road productions only. But the considerations of over-priced tickets, timid and inept management, and limited vision, aside, audiences just did not support the revue. Apparently unaware or uninter ested that Los Angeles was attempting to establish itself as a theatre center, and confronted with a great number and variety of amusement and recreational opportunities, the potential theatre-goer probably thought twice about _ - g^5 traveling "out to Hollywood" to view a musical revue, one whose reputation for sophistication and female pulchritude was considerable. Besides, it cost as much as a road show with New York stars. Moreover, a theatre sponsored by a coterie group, namely movie personnel, may have seemed designed to exclude the average theatre patron. The Belasco Theatre Eleven days after The Music Box opened in Holly wood, the third new playhouse built in Los Angeles during The Twenties opened on November 1, 1926. Unlike any of the other new playhouses, The Belasco did not undergo a change in production-management staff and this was one of the major factors in its conspicuous and continuing suc cess during this period. In common with the other six new theatres erected between 1926-27, The Belasco was built by a man whose activities were directly responsible for changing the dusty pueblo into a bustling boom town— Edward L. Doheny, Sr., who had discovered oil within the city limits at Second Street and Glendale Avenue in 1893. Located on the east side of the street at 1050 South Hill Street, The Belasco Theatre was leased by three men, two of whom had impressive experience in various CHART 13 THE BELASCO OWNER • 1 62 Edward L. Doheny, Sr., wealthy oil magnate, allegedly worth one million dollars in 1922. ARCHITECTS Morgan, Walls and Clements; built by P. J. Walker Co. BUILDING EXTERIOR63 Site— lOO'-O" (N-S) , 144'-7" (E-W) . Height— 3 stories at front. PATRONS' AREAS AND MANAGEMENT SPACE Lobby 29'-0" wide at sidewalk (including side "pillars"), 25'-4-l/2" wide at sidewalk (without pillars); 26'-2" wide at interior, 29'-9" deep (to inside [east] edge of 4 pairs of double doors, each 3'-0" deep). Ticket booth— house right side of lobby, 2 ticket booths, one farther north (closer to sidewalk) delineated by free-standing wrought-iron railing. First-Floor Foyer Entered through doors which separated it from lobby; T-shaped. Base— 32'-5" wide, 13'-6" deep; cross bar— 12'-0" deep (from pillars which separated base from cross bar to rear row of auditorium seats), nearly 70'-0" wide.^ Appointments/decorations— wood-beamed ceiling; Moorish design; mirrored walls; base board and floor done in Moorish-designed tile; spotlighted picture of David ^ Belasco. CHART 13— Continued Mezzanine Foyer ("Art Gallery" on Architectural Drawings) Full width of building, save for stairwells and as deep as cross-bar of T-shaped foyer below. Basement Rest rooms and lounges. AUDITORIUM Seating Capacity Main floor— 656; balcony— 403; total— 1,059. First Floor 79'-6" wide, 51’-8" deep (from back wall of auditorium to center of orchestra pit rail curvature); Kirschman states: 80'-0" wide, 55'-0" deep from proscenium opening to back wall of auditorium. Three seating sections with 19 rows. Boxes None. Balcony 3 seating sections with 11 rows in each section. 32'-0" depth from curtain line to center of balcony rail curvature. Appointments/Decorations Upper part of walls treated with acoustical plaster, corrugated in composition, and decorated to simulate draperies (at suggestion of Professor Sabine of Yale, Pro fessor Knudsen of Stanford). U.£t CHART 13— Continued Lower wall— antique oak with sand-blasted decoration. 3 Moorish windows on either side of auditorium, of cast Travertine wrought iron and micanite, with stained glass. Proscenium arch— elaborate, made of cast Travertine, rose full height of wall; old gold blended with dome. Asbestos curtain— a port, with sailing vessels in distance. Little else written about color scheme, other than it emphasized dark, rich tones. STAGE AREA Orchestra Pit Unused in early years; pictures during time of opening show it filled with ferns. Proscenium Opening 42’-0" wide, 28'-0" high (Kirschman stated width of 46'-0"). Apron Area 3'-8" deep, accommodated footlight trough approximately 2'-6". Stage Floor Level 32'-0” deep— curtain line to rear wall of stage house. Upper Levels 22'-6"— fly gallery at stage right (9'-0" deep, 30'-0" wide), connected with paint shop at stage left via paint bridge. 65’-9-5/8" gridiron. Overall Dimensions of Stage House 82’-0" wide, 30’-8" deep. to og CHART 13— Continued Basement Green room— located directly beneath stage, 42'-0" wide, 21'-8" deep, walls sten- ciled-decorated; beam ceiling decorated. Rear wall— 9 dressing rooms of various dimensions, northeast corner— -director's room; on either side of green room— a star dressing room. West side of green room— musicians' room, 2 chorus rooms, rest rooms, showers. Along north wall— stage crew room, large chorus room (12'-6" deep, 12'-7" wide), janitor's closet which was last room before one entered patron's area (Men's lounge). L6£fc ______ aspects of theatrical direction and management. Edward Belasco, youngest brother of David and Fred Belasco (nine in the family), had joined Fred as treasurer of The Central Theatre, San Francisco. Fred Belasco, at one time or another, had managed both Alcazar theatres in San Francisco and had built the first Belasco Theatre in Los Angeles in 1904, at 334 South Main Street. Edward remained with his brother until Fred's death in 1921, at which time he as sumed that the management of "The Plain" Alcazar would fall to him. Instead, his young nephew, son of Edward's sister and her husband, coowner of the Alcazar, was appointed and Edward was dismissed. Thereafter, he worked with Harry Sebastian on various movie-making projects which brought him to Los Angeles in 1923. Their relationship terminated in 1925. Edward Belasco then began seeking a position in theatre in Los Angeles. Fred Butler, the second member of the triumverate, was a revered and knowledgeable theatre man who had begun his career as a five-dollar-a-week extra at The Old Grand Opera House in San Francisco, with such companions as Maude Adams and David Warfield. From acting, he had turned his talents to directing and had staged plays from New York to San Francisco. He had mounted productions at the first ----------------------------------------------------------------- m Belasco Theatre in Los Angeles.^ In the mid-1920's, according to Kirschman, he returned to Los Angeles seeking a position in films, but was unsuccessful. He did, how ever, direct productions for The Dobinson Players in Glen dale, as well as staging productions at The Writers Club. Fred Butler was acquainted with Edward Belasco and introduced him to Gerhold 0. Davis, friend of Ned Doheny, and the third member of the team.68 In late 192 3, The Petroleum Securities Company had purchased property from the T. J. and T. Company on the northeast corner of Eleventh and Hill Streets, where it planned to build a height-limit office building for the 69 corporation. The Petroleum Securities Building was com pleted in 1925, but it-did not stand on Hill street. It was erected approximately five blocks west of Hill Street and one block north at 714 Olympic Boulevard. Kirschman seems to confuse these two properties and speculates that Doheny built a theatre on south Hill Street because "busi- 70 ness m 1925 was moving south from Bunker Hill." Indeed, it was assumed at that time that the center of the business district, restricted on its northern boundary by Bunker Hill, would continue its southward expansion as it had over a period of twenty-odd years. However, the business ----------------------------------------------------------- 44 2" district was already beginning its decentralized spread northward and westward, in particular, into Hollywood and 71 along Wilshire Boulevard. Doheny, Sr., apparently recognized or sensed the direction of this trend, for the firm's office building stood on a major east-west thoroughfare. The original site was converted into a parking lot, according to Doheny's 10 grandson. Thus, it is quite possible that although Doheny did not consider the Hill Street site a suitable location for the corporation's offices, he was agreeable to its use for a theatrical structure. Plans were being made for a new theatre adjacent to The Belasco, and both struc tures were located at the southern tip of Broadway, which boasted numerous vaudeville and movie theatres, as well as two "spoken drama" playhouses— The Morosco and The Majes- tic. Above all, Doheny may have agreed to the construc tion of a theatre on the Hill Street land as a favor to his only son, Ned.On July 22, 1925, Gerhold 0. Davis announced that Edward L. Doheny, Jr., vice-president of Petroleum Securities, had signed a lease giving him and his associates use of the theatre for fifteen years, at a yearly rental of $24,500, plus ten per cent annually of the —" M J building cost, estimated at $1,500,000. Marvin Kirschman learned from Edward M. Belasco that the monthly rental was $6,120, although Doheny was satisfied with $2,000 to $4,000 per month, if profits did not permit meeting the stipulated rent.74 Beyond these possible reasons for Doheny's invest ment in a theatre, there is the intriguing coincidence of the opening of The Belasco Theatre and the investigation into Doheny*s activities in connection with The Elks Re serve oil lands. The erection of a theatre to further the city's cultural growth and amusement opportunities could scarcely have harmed his reputation, which two historians have described as hardly known for public responsibility.7^ The policy of the theatre, announced as early as April, 1926, promised New York successes, with the original 76 stars when possible, as well as new works. Most produc tions ran for six nights (Sunday dark), plus matinees on Wednesday and Saturday. Admission ranged from fifty cents to two dollars and fifty cents, although all seats for the "Grand Society Premiere" cost $5.50. The first entry on the production ledger of The Belasco Theatre was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the flapper comedy which had premiered that May in Chicago and had just 444 opened on Broadway in September. The Belasco Theatre company was one of four touring companies.^7 While neither the play nor the company was outstanding, the production grossed $102,500 in its seven-week stay. This average of $14,500 was surpassed by only one other show in these two years, and it played a shorter engagement and was headed by a popular star.78 The opening production was important not only be cause it indicated the "moderately safe" road the lessees intended to follow in their production policy, but also because it was the first manifestation of the arrangement worked out between Homer Curran and the Belasco team. Early in 1926, Curran, who managed The Shubert-Curran in San Francisco, had contemplated entering the production field in Los Angeles. Various factors conspired against him but Curran, nevertheless, decided to sponsor "coast- companies" of popular Broadway attractions. It was he who arranged with Edgar Selwyn for the western territory rights to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, reportedly assuring him a profit of $25,000— "the first time such a large amount 79 [was] guaranteed for a visiting company." Belasco- Butler-Davis' subsequent presentations varied in recentness, but all proclaimed a conservative artistic stance and a popular theatrical mode. For example, the two shows staged after Gentlemen Prefer Blondes were both melodramas from David Belasco's store house: The Son-Daughter (November, 1919) and The Dove (February, 1925) . Neither featured any members of the original New York casts, although the lat ter did star Richard Bennett. It is quite possible that The Son-Daughter was intended as a "filler" until The Dove could be prepared. The Son-Daughter was one of the few shows to play an abbre viated engagement, and most of the cast from this show also appeared in The Dove.^O Moreover, Edmund Lowe, a member of the original New York cast, who wrote a review of The Belasco Theatre production, praised the company's efforts given the short time they had had to prepare. Additionally, this production had been postponed several times because Holbrook Blinn, its star, had been unable to arrange for the west-coast engagement. When it was decided to cast Richard Bennett, for whom the leading role was supposedly written, that actor first had to com plete commitments to a new play, Creoles, and a production of They Knew What They Wanted. Bennett closed the Pulit- zer-prize winning play in San Francisco on Saturday, Janu ary 8, 1927, and joined the rest of The Dove company in Los ------------------------------------------------------------446" o o Angeles the following day. The production opened on Friday, January 14, 1927, the first time that a Belasco Theatre production did not begin at the top of the week. Bennett's magnetism, technical ability, and compo sure as "the best damned Caballero" in Mexico won the critics' plaudits. Dorothy MacKay, however, pleased some and dismayed others, one of whom thought she played "too 83 much like a puzzled kitten." Audiences "loved" every purple-filled moment, and the show grossed $76,100 in five weeks. It might have done even better, but it encountered strong competition from The Miracle. Even so, it was a successful engagement, showing the highest weekly average gross of any play in these two years— $15,220. Having displayed a "social" comedy and two adven ture melodramas, the theatre then offered two romantic- character comedies separated by a drama of passions.®^ Is Zat So?, a pugilistic comedy, established the theatre's long-run record, which remained unsurpassed until the summer when The Great Necker filled seventeen weeks. The Los Angeles production, featuring James Gleason and Robert Armstrong, plus at least seven members of the origi nal company, scored a hit with reviewers and patrons alike. It remained for eleven weeks, grossed $146,600 and ------------------------------------------------------------------T4T established the third highest weekly average of $13,327, its lengthy engagement notwithstanding. The appeals of the production were multiple and indicative of what The Belasco Theatre audiences liked: a technically proficient production headed by skillful, likable stars; and an attractive comedy with snappy dialogue, quickly-developed situations, and realistic characters all built around a subject with a passionate national and local following. Moreover, the play was built for the "family trade": "Is Zat So?" is something the whole family can enjoy. It's not dull, even if it is free from sordid suggestions, and it's a complete refuttal [sic] of that charge that public taste demands a heavy leaven of "crime" or "sex" in all its stage successes. The absence of comparable competition helped assure the o/r success of the play. The next production flopped. Comparing its failure to the factors which contributed to the previous produc tion's success, one finds that The Barker featured no "star names"; that the play, which may have seemed shallow and uninteresting to some (college-educated son of a barker is vamped by the snake charmer at the instigation of another woman who does not want the ballyhoo man to leave the cir cus) , probably shocked a great many others; and that it had 448 to compete with Big Boy, starring A1 Jolson at The Bilt- more, and The Honor of the Family, starring Otis Skinner and the entire New York cast at The Figueroa Street Play house. One other factor possibly contributed its small share: Dorothy MacKaye, set for the role of the snake charmer, was arrested, along with Paul Kelly, in the death of her husband.^7 The Belasco team retreated to a comedy following The "Barker-bust." The Great Necker, by Elmer Harris, was the first new play offered at The Belasco Theatre. It revolved around a middle-aged Lothario from Great Neck, Long Island, and the humorous contretemps which result when he decides to marry a young flapper. Critics praised the acting of Taylor Holmes and the rest of the company, and were favorably impressed with both the direction and the settings. The play, however, was found wanting. Neverthe less, its swift-moving development and its breezy attitude (stockingless legs, dancing with "lips glued together," the suggestion that an undergarment was removed) gave the play a "delicious" farce quality which kept it running for O p seventeen weeks. By the time fall competition moved in, the lessees of The Belasco Theatre owned the international production 4 7 T ? rights to the play and fifty per cent of all future movie and stock contract presentations. The Great Necker opened in New York on March 6, 1928, starring Taylor Holmes. It lasted thirty-nine performances. According to Edward M. Belasco, the author claimed that the Shuberts closed the show in order to rework it into a musical comedy, while Fred Butler, who had gone east to direct the Broadway show ing, maintained that they had vulgarized the lines and 89 stage business, and had interfered with casting. The Belasco team then tried another new play, but The Devil's Plum Tree, which studied the currents of pas sion versus the spiritual, and which described the healing power of faith, was too "operatic" in mood to obtain an extended following. Nevertheless, the popularity of Ruth Chatterton, who portrayed the leading feminine role; the titillation inherent in the subject matter; and the remote ness of the locale and the customs (seventeenth century Croatia) brought audiences to the theatre for eight weeks.^ A. H. Woods, who owned the property, ordered the production east, allegedly for a New York opening. The show never appeared on Broadway. The Devil's Plum Tree was replaced by another 4 ' 5 0 ~ melodrama, Laugh, Clown, Laugh. The combination of a con summately-defined portrayal by Lionel Barrymore and a familiar story (Pagliacci) were unbeatable. The production Q 1 grossed $52,100 in five weeks of its six-week engagement. Of all the new theatres to open in 1926-27, The Belasco was the most successful. The popular following which E. L. Doheny, Sr. had among a certain group of influ ential residents may have accounted for a portion of the anticipated audience at any given production. However, more certain factors were the nature of the men who directed the theatre and the kind of shows which they produced. Both Edward Belasco and Fred Butler handled the managerial and directorial aspects of the theatre with professional finesse. They utilized their past knowledge and success fully exploited current practices. The sensitive direction of Fred Butler, the obvious attention to production de tails and the evident financial outlay were Belasco Theatre trade-marks which characterized every production. More over, both men were committed to the theatre, specifically and generally. There was never the feeling that they were exploiting the art form for their own purposes or that they would "pull out" if a particular show failed to catch on. Doheny's noblesse oblige attitude regarding the payment of 4 5 1 _ the rent may have nurtured this rather confident manner. Above all, however, certain characteristics of production policy and the kind of play presented were deciding factors. All the plays were uniformly priced. There was no "clueing" the audience that a particular show was "special" by raising prices. All of the plays featured stars of some stature, and the two which did not attempted to draw audiences by capitalizing on the fact that The Belasco engagement was being shown at the same time the show was running in New York. All of the plays, regardless of their vintage or company composition, were readily com prehensible comedies or melodramas— plays not unduly sophisticated nor excessively risqu£; not threatening of one's morals nor daring in subject matter or artistic treat ment; neither avant-garde nor experimental. The Vine Street Theatre As The Belasco Theatre entered into its first full year of operation, two new playhouses located within one block of each other, separated by Hollywood Boulevard, opened on January 19 and 24, 1927, respectively. Both were promoted by men with extensive experience in the theatre, although in the case of one the association was more remote ------------------------------------------------------------------^ 5 2 " than practical. Both were built by individuals with a history of involvement in Hollywood development. However, The Vine Street Theatre was erected by one set of individ uals on property acquired through a long-term lease, and leased to still a third group, whereas The Hollywood Play house was built and operated by one corporation— the only such example of this kind of commitment. In the shimmering glamour of yet another Hollywood "premiere," many failed to notice the darkened hulk of The El Capitan Theatre, which stood unused at the edge of the arc-lights' circle. It had opened but seven months earlier. By the time it reopened, The Wilkes Vine Street Theatre no longer carried the pro ducer 1s name on the marquee. When plans for The Vine Street Theatre were first announced in February, 1926, they listed a different cast of characters and referred to a different location. This early announcement stated that Cecil B. DeMille was erect ing a theatre for Thomas and Alfred G. Wilkes on the east side of Vine Street, 150 feet south of Hollywood Boulevard, near the Lasky Studios at Selma and Vine Streets: Wishing to take some part in the development of the stage drama within Los Angeles, I welcomed the opportunity of joining with the Wilkes broth ers in this project to make the center of film making also a great local point for the best pro ducing brains of the legitimate stage. . . . I --------------------------------------------------- — 4 5 3 | % can foresee a time when Hollywood can seriously rival New York as a stage production center.92 The Wilkes brothers have a great chance to assume the leadership in this movement. They pi oneered here when a small population made a legit imate theater very much of a gamble, and their early successes with the historic Majestic Theatre have now expanded into a chain of eight houses.93 It took deMille one month to change his mind. Frank R. Strong and John F. Wilson stepped forth to build the the atre on the northwest corner of Selma and Vine Streets (1611-1615 North Vine Street). The two men had leased the property for ninety-nine years, at the reported sum of $1,600,000, from Jacob Stern, builder and owner of the nearby Plaza Hotel. Ground for the new theatre was broken in May, 1926, the same month that The Examiner disclosed that the Wilkes brothers had brought film magnates Adolph Ramish, one of the owners of West Coast Theatres, Inc., an extensive chain of movie theatres, and Carl Laemmle (the first president of The Universal Film Company) into their organization.®^ Three months later, Variety divulged that Famous-Players- Lasky was backing the Wilkes project with the understand ing that the brothers would produce plays both in New York and Los Angeles "that could then be turned over . . . for 9 S screen production." That the Wilkes organization was casting about for funding is unmistakable. How desperate this gambit must have been can be understood if it is re called that the $90,000 posted at the time they leased The Harris Theatre in New York had been returned to them when the Shuberts purchased the theatre. To compound the already complicated picture of who was involved in sponsoring The Vine Street Theatre, two additional names were cited as members of the lessee- producing team. Laura D. Wilck was a New York play broker- recently-turned producer, who was reported to have formed a "combine [with A. G. Wilkes] to offer duplicate produc tions of New York successes on the coast." The plays they were considering included The American Tragedy, The Donovan 96 Affair, Broadway, and The Captive. C. O. Baumann entered the charmed circle in November, 1926. A former partner of the Kessell brothers with whom he had produced the Keystone comedies, he was an officer in The Universal Film Com- 97 pany. Baumann organized The Pacific Coast Theatrical Corporation, capitalized at $500,000, with himself as majority stockholder.^® Thus, as the theatre moved toward its opening, it became unfortunately clear that the Wilkes organization was experiencing so many changes that the fortunes of the theatre were handicapped from the outset. 455 Additionally, it was evident that the theatre was being directed by two men who had no previous direct experience in managing a playhouse or directing theatrical productions. A. G. Wilkes's previous involvement had always been admin istrative, and had focused upon the finances of The Wilkes Corporation. Thomas Wilkes, the brother who had changed the shape of Los Angeles theatre history, was not con nected with this venture. And Adolph Ramish, who turned out to be the financial power behind the operation, was 99 rarely mentioned in the newspaper articles. A page from the property book in the Frank R. Strong, Inc. offices gives valuable information about the building costs and (overt) lease arrangement. Written by Frank Strong, it stated: Vine St. Theatre Built on 99 yr. leased lot from Jacob Sterns Owned jointly by Frank R. Strong, Inc. and John F. Wilson Cost $200,000. 5 yr. option in lease to purchase lot at $2000 a foot from about Feby 1st 1926 Leased for 25 yrs to Wilkes Bros at $48,000 a year - 10 years and 53,000 " " - 15 " Rent starts and due Dec. 20th 1926 Secured by Chattle Mttge. on all furnishings and equip ment costing some $90,000 August 1, 192 8 Took title from Stearns according to op tion - borrowed $200,000 from P.M. [no explanation] 5 yrs - @ 6% and paid Jacob Stearns. Mortgage dated about Title in Frank R. Strong, Inc. and John F. Wilson. ^ 0 CHART 14 THE VINE STREET OWNERS Frank R. Strong and John F. Wilson— headed syndicate which developed S.W. corner Holly wood and Vine. ^ ARCHITECTS Myron Hunt and H. C. Chambers; Dickson Morgan, collaborating architect. BUILDING EXTERIOR102 Site— 100'-13" wide, 175'-0" deep. Building dimensions— 81'-11" wide, 169'-3-l/2" deep (from front to fan room, deepest part of building); height at north end of building— 37'-5-l/2". Facade— large mason blocks; at second level— 3 French windows. PATRONS' AREAS AND MANAGEMENT SPACE Entrance Way 21'-0" wide at sidewalk, 22'-8" wide at interior; 21*-3" deep from front of building to 4 pairs of wooden panelled doors. Office (house right)— 20'-7" deep. Box office— 7'-8" deep, with bronze grill opening 2'-8" deep. First Floor Foyer T-shaped; shallow-squat base— 22'-8" wide, 9'-7" deep; cross bar— 18'-1" deep (draw ings do not cite width, although back of auditorium measured 80'-2" wide). Decorations— red carpet, walls of "soft-washed gold in mottled plaster"; wall facing lobby doors decorated with large unframed mirror composed of 48 24"-square mir rors. CHART 14— Continued Mezzanine Foyer Reached by stairwells onto 7'-0" square landing. Turning west— proceeded up stairs which gave onto balcony cross aisle. Turning east— moved toward lounge. Lounge 40'-10" wide, 18'-5" deep, with 3 French windows in eastern wall. House right— men's smoker, toilets, telephone booth. House left— powder room, ladies toilets. Decorations and Appointments Gold carpet, walls of "soft-washed gold," fitted with sofas, chairs, tables. AUDITORIUM Seating Capacity First level— 572; balcony— 441; total— 1,013. (According to The Times, 585, 447, respectively; total— 1,032).105 First Floor 80'-2" wide, 42'-10" deep, from edge of back of platform at rear of auditorium, which was 2'-4-l/2" wide, for a total of 46'-2-l/2". 3 seating sections with raised cement platform at rear of each section. Center— 208 seats. Boxes None Balcony 25'-1" from curtain line to curvature of balcony rail. * 2 sections separated by 4'-0" cross aisle. - J CHART 14— Continued Front section— 227, in 3 sections Side sections— 214, in 5 sections. Appointments and Decorations Walls— plain, deep sand color; ceiling— beamed walnut intricately decorated with gold and ornamentation (similar treatment for underside of balcony and "ceiling" of main foyer). Doors, trimming— old Italian walnut; carpeting— neutral brown. Seats— copper red and black with Roman gold stripes. 2 chandeliers. ® Asbestos curtain— diamond-shapes in reds/browns/greens/golds. Working curtain— could be raised, lowered, drawn off to side; lined and interlined to absorb sounds. STAGE AREA Orchestra Pit 6'-4-l/2" deep (from curvature of rail to edge of stage). Apron Area 4'-9" from edge.of curtain line, contained footlight trough which filled all but about l'-O" of the depth. Proscenium Opening 38'-0" wide, 24'-0" high (another drawing cited 25'-6" high). Stage Floor Level 34’-10-1/2" deep from curtain line to back wall of stage. 74’-6" overall width of stage: central area— 38'-0"; stage right area— 19'-0"; £! oo CHART 14— Continued stage left area— 15'-2". Stage right— switchboard on platform which was 7'-6" deep. Stage left— property room (ll'-6" deep, 15'-3" wide, N.W. corner), closet, shower, toilet, single dressing room (8'-4-l/2" deep, 14'-4" wide). Upper Levels 10'-ll-l/2"— stage manager's office against east wall, stage right side (19'-10" wide, 61-5" to 8'-8-l/2" deep). 18'-4"— 3 dressing rooms and toilet along north wall (stage left) 24'-2"— scenic artist's room (10'-0" x 14'-4", N.W. corner), connected with fly loft gallery on stage right by means of paint bridge. 56 '-5-1/2"— gridiron. Spotlight perch— against east wall of stage house (stage left). Basement Trap-room area— 58'-2" wide, 22'-4-1/2" deep; across back wall— electricians' room, 2 toilets, men's dressing room (ll'-6" deep, 19'-4" wide), ladies' dressing room (same dimensions as men's), 2 toilets, musicians' library (9'-9" wide, ll'-6" deep); musicians' room— 9'-8" deep, 13'-9" wide. MISCELLANEOUS Lighting on stage— spotlights entirely (no borders); 14 spotlights in ceiling of auditorium. - -^60' Notwithstanding the chaotic arrangement within the Lessees' affairs, plans went ahead for the opening of the theatre, which was to be strictly a production house (no road companies, no stock company). On January 19, 1927, Arthur Green, on behalf of the lessees, introduced Frank K. Galloway, president of The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, who in turn introduced Adela Rogers St. John to deliver the dedication.^ ® Patrick Kearney's adaptation of Dreiser's novel, An American Tragedy, christened the theatre. The produc tion merited unstinting praise for the superior acting of the company headed by Leslie Fenton, Helen Millard, Ruby Rush, Harry Mestayer, and Margaret Seddon; for the tasteful settings, changed with remarkable speed; and for the evoca tive lighting. During the second week of the western premiere production, masks were used to indicate the strug- 109 gle between Clyde's two natures. The production ran for nine and one-half weeks, during which time it grossed $105,800, or a respectable weekly average of $11,136. It was the only time for the remainder of the decade that the theatre registered such a figure. The fortunes of the new theatre after its opening moved steadily downhill. The next production bore 461 similarities to the first. The Noose was a product of the current New York season; its west-coast presentation was directed by an actor who, like Harry Mestayer, appeared in the cast; it was built around the plight of a young man, his code of honor, and his entanglement with the law. As with the first production, the critics praised the acting, but were less enthusiastic about the play. Its lack of originality in subject matter and treatment (a sentimental melodrama of the underworld and bootlegging); its gratuitous attempts to arouse sympathy (thinking the youth dead, the cabaret girl pleads for his body); and the deus ex machina ending (the execution is stayed, but it is never learned by whom) probably disenchanted the more sophisticated theatre-goer. The crudeness of action probably offended others. And if one countenanced Edwin Schallert's opinion, not only was the company not fully prepared on opening night, but the subdued key and re strained acting were annoying.^'*' Then for some inexplicable reason, the producers presented yet a third play built around a murder— The Donovan Affair, by Owen Davis. Again production values outdistanced and covered up the literary and theatrical inadequacy of the play: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------462" . . . of the three productions at the Vine, "The Donovan Affair" deserves the leather medal. The cast which is none too good, struggles with the material and succeeds in getting an abundance of laughs where none were intended— and vice-versa. The play lasted three weeks and four days, and grossed only $16,900. In the last week of the engagement, Harry Mes- tayer announced his resignation as director general, and one week later, Alfred G. Wilkes and C. 0. Baumann retired as producers. The responsibility for the playhouse 1 1 - 3 reverted to Adolph Ramish. Ramish placed the theatre in the hands of Arthur William Green, and under his direction the next several productions were as uneven in quality as they were unpre dictable in kind, recentness, or length of stay. Dickson Morgan's production of John Galsworthy's drama, Loyalties, which he had staged for four matinee performances at The El Capitan in April, was revived for two weeks, with almost 114 the entire original cast. The redoubtable warhorse of tropics-melodramas, White Cargo, returned for its fourth 115 engagement. W. G. Stewart, who earlier m the decade had organized The California Light Opera Company, mounted a production of The Geisha Girl, which because of union difficulties and "terrible business" collapsed in two 116 weeks. 4 6 3 ' The fiasco closed the theatre for five weeks, during which time it is likely that Ramish and Greene con tinued their efforts to lease the theatre. These proposals failing, Green and Henry Kolker sponsored Anne Morrison's nonspectacular farce, The Wild Westcotts, at a top-ticket price of $1.50. The domestic situation with its familiar problems and characters drew a large, representative audi- 117 ence during its six and one-half weeks ($37,000). It seems clear that The Vine Street directors were attempting to skim off some of Henry Duffy's cream and The Hollywood Playhouse's honey, for both theatres staged similar type plays at the same prices. The experiment was not repeated. After another dark period of six weeks, the theatre was leased by a local playwright who stated his intention of producing new plays. He presented only one— his own. Relations, by Edward Clark, was a "Jewish comedy" about a milliner whose business is ruined by his relatives. It 1 1 O played for eight weeks. ° The theatre then went into hibernation for two and one-half months. Of all the new theatres which opened in this decade, The Vine Street should have been the one "most likely to succeed." The Wilkes brothers had been instru mental in shaking Los Angeles theatre out of its sanguine 4 g. - 4 - acceptance of stock company fare and road-company retreads. In the six years that he had produced at The Majestic and The Orange Grove, Thomas Wilkes had mounted a variety of plays, among them American classics, and new works, a num ber of which were produced in New York. More than any other person, Thomas Wilkes, aided greatly by the artistic insight and theatrical ability of Wilhemena Wilkes and Dickson Morgan, was responsible for bringing Los Angeles theatre to the attention of the rest of the country in the early years of this period. However, between the death of Wilhemena and the opening of the playhouse intended as a monument to her aspirations (at one time the theatre was to have been called The Queen, since the brothers had nicknamed her "Queenie"), the Wilkes theatrical empire had begun to dis solve, its erosion hastened by Thomas Wilkes's dissolute personal life and Alfred Wilkes's multifarious machina tions. In the meantime, the theatrical landscape had filled in with skillful competitors. In 1928, Alfred G. Wilkes filed a voluntary peti tion in bankruptcy, listing assets of $2,358,000 and lia bilities of $903,879, and citing more than 300 creditors, chief among whom were Max C. Fleishman of Santa Barbara 465" ($50,000) and Adolph Ramish ($44,355). He also owed money for unpaid admission taxes. One year later, however, he incorporated a real estate firm. Whether in connection with this latter operation or other affairs, Alfred G. Wilkes, according to one source, was sentenced to San 120 Quentin Federal penitentiary where he died. The Wilkes Brothers epitomized the laxness and frenzy of the period, but they were not alone. In Los Angeles, last outpost of the speculator, rapid turnovers seemed to be the order of the day. Speaking of the owners of the theatre, Frank R. Strong and John F. Wilson, Pam Hanrahan wrote: During the fast moving twenties so many income properties had mortgages that were not amortized and the income used for still further real estate purchases, thus this or that investment was abandoned to save something else.12- 1 - The Hollywood Playhouse No such uncertainty or mismanagement characterized the ownership, production policy or directorial responsi bility of The Hollywood Playhouse, although its protracted evolution might have boded otherwise. As with the three other new playhouses in Hollywood, this theatre was built by individuals with life-time commitments to the area. 4 6 6 - However, whereas all the other theatres were built by one or two people and then leased to someone else, The Holly wood Playhouse was built, owned, and managed by one corpor ation. As with The El Capitan before it, this, the last spoken-drama theatre erected in Hollywood during this decade, was directed by a man with years of experience achieved in an eastern city. In April, 192 3, The Times had announced that Edward D. Rowland, formerly of the Chicago theatrical producing team of Rowland and Clifford, and Harry P. Caulfield, movie producer, were planning to construct a 13-story building 122 in Los Angeles which would include a 1200-seat theatre. The site was abandoned for a location on the west side of Vine Street, north of Hollywood Boulevard, which was pur chased from The First Methodist Episcopal Church of Holly wood by A. T. Mayer. He announced his intention of build ing a theatre for The Hollywood Amusement Company (offi cers: Edward Rowland, Harry P. Caulfield, G. R. Dexter, Nathan Carr, and R. H. Naylor, Jr.). However, the lessee corporation entered into voluntary bankruptcy in December, 1922.123 Three months later, The Hollywood Playhouse Realty Corporation announced plans to build a $600,000 playhouse CHART 15 THE HOLLYWOOD PLAYHOUSE OWNERS Hollywood Playhouse Realty Corporation— all board members (except two) officers of Guaranty Building and Loan Association. George R. Dexter, an attorney who had opened Hollywood's second law office, with Gilbert Beesemyer, organized The Central Commercial Savings Bank, at N.E. corner of Hollywood and Vine; Beesemyer, in 1930, admitted to direc-' tors of Guaranty, personal overdraft of $7,630,000. Coming after the Wall Street failure and the Julian Oil scandal demoralized and depleted the community# A. Z. Taft, Jr. com mitted s u i c i d e . 124 ARCHITECTS Harry L. Gogerty and Carl Jules Weyl; decoration executed by Stephan Herbaczek. BUILDING EXTERIOR Site— 100'-0" wide, 181'-0" deep. Building— reinforced concrete, stuccoed in soft tones; marked by 4 pepper trees at curb, hung with lanterns and lights; Spanish Renaissance in architectural feeling. Deep cornice above theatre entrance way had two shields in either corner with initials "HPH." PATRONS' AREAS AND MANAGEMENT SPACE Entrance Way No dimensions cited; in house left wall, stairs led to upstairs offices; box office in house right (north) wall. oV 1 CHART 15— Continued First Floor Foyer 80'-0" wide, 20'-0" deep.126 Grand staircase, centrally located; 2 pillars against third step from bottom, elabor ately carved, rose to ceiling which was treated with beam-work and gold-leaf sculp tured molding; on central landing, 3 floor-length mirrors reflected 2-tiered wheel shaped chandelier; 2 other smaller chandeliers in foyer. Color scheme— graduated blues and vermillion. Mezzanine Foyer Furnished partially as a lounge, partially as a music room; women's restrooms (house right) men's across foyer. Patio 56'-0" wide, 22'-0" deep, entered via 3 glass double-doors from mezzanine foyer; floor, tables tiled; wrought-iron Spanish furniture; in corner of central section of north wall— outdoor fireplace. AUDITORIUM Seating Capacity First level— 700; total 1,148. Consisted of main floor and balcony. Pictures show a box on either side, but no indication of depth, dimensions; may have been a niche. Appointments and Decorations Boxes very ornate, scrolled, pillared, baroque in feeling; proscenium arch defined in same manner. 4681 CHART 15— Continued Ceiling appears to have been treated with wooden beams and a deep-carved cornice. 68'-0"— depth from curtain line to last seat.-*-28 STAGE AREA Orchestra Pit No reference to same in description, but area between stage and seats deep enough to accommodate organ. Apron Shallow, contained footlight trough. Stage area 72'-0" x 361-0". Proscenium opening— 40'-0" wide, 30'-0" high. Gridiron 65'-0" above stage floor, which was trapped. 23 dressing rooms, 2 large assembly rooms below stage; green room with library. 4 7 0 - on the west side of Vine Street (1733-35 North Vine Street), north of Hollywood Boulevard. The officers were: A. Z. Taft, Jr.— President and Director Frederick G. Leonard— Vice-President and Director Charles R. Stuart— Vice-President and Director G. R. Dexter— Treasurer and Director Orville L. Routt— Director Edward D. Rowland— Managing Director Robert M. Jones— Secretary. This time the plans proceeded as announced and, as construction forged ahead, efforts were made to enroll founder members and associate members. When the playhouse opened, there were over 200 individuals and firms repre senting civic and business interests, society, the arts, and the "learned professions" listed. Founder members were entitled to special ticket privileges, and both founder members and associates had the option of voting on the selection of plays and expressing their reactions to the productions. -^1 The owners-lessees indicated their decision to 132 stage plays which were decent and entertaining, and rationalized their choice by saying: Ml . . . there is a tremendous Middle-West population that is not "theater-broke" (to the same extent that Eastern audiences are) . This element is by no means sophisticated in dramatic unities, and there is therefore a tremendous educational field for the new house to occupy. -^3 Referring with heavy-handed subtlety to a theatre which had opened the previous May and failed, they went on to say: The sophisticated theatre clientele of Hollywood . . . is insufficient to support a theatre. This clientele is exhausted within a week or ten days and then business falls off with a sharp decline that is startling. 1;*4 The theatre opened on Monday, January 24, 1927. Emmett Corrigan, serving as master of ceremonies, intro duced Edward Davis, who delivered the dedication, although the program carried a special address by Carrie Jacobs Bond. Between this opening performance and December 16, 192 7, the corporation sponsored six comedies, all but one of which were new to the city; all of which were structured around familiar characters and heart-warming domestic- romantic situations; and many of which featured a number of the original New York company. Alias the Deacon, a product of the 1925-26 New York season, starred Berton Churchill and Frances Underwood in a rural comedy about a later-day Robin Hood, who earns his money as a card shark. As Monroe Lathrop perceptively 7rnr observed, the play took the crooks from Turn to the Right, borrowed the tramps from Outside Looking In, filched the prize-fighter and manager from Is Zat So?, and won one's heart through a likable scalawag with Lightnin1s lineage. "It's good clean entertainment that makes no bones to be anything but straight jolly theatrical hokum, brewed solely to amuse."-^5 The hokum, skillfully and sympathetically "dished out" by the leading characters, and served in a technically interesting setting which made use of motion picture effects in the railroad box-car scenes, kept the play on the theatre's boards for seventeen weeks and three days, grossing a total of $124,400, or roughly $7,300 weekly. The theatre had scored! A tried-and-true plot, a closet of familiar charac ters, eye-pleasing settings, and proficient acting, characterized the succeeding presentations. Myron Fagan’s version of the Cinderella tale, The Little Spitfire, with Dulcie Cooper, delighted local theatre-goers for seven and one-half weeks (weekly average of $6,640). If I Was Rich, however, introduced some changes. Technically the play was a comedy, but unlike its prede cessors, it flirted with mystery-melodrama. Moreover, while 473 three of the roles were assumed by members from the origi nal New York company, the romantic leads were undertaken by two young actors, Phil Tead and Gay Seabrook (who later became part of Duffy's organization.)137 However, following the successful production of The Hometowner, it became evident that the corporation was having difficulty finding plays which offended few and pleased many, and which managed, somehow, to retain a fresh point of view among the plethora of works devoted to exposing the unique qualities of the domestic unit. More over, the professionalism of the production began to fray. Meet the Wife had been seen earlier at The Orange Grove Playhouse, and The Hollywood Playhouse company seemed unable to revivify a play outworn with artificial situa tions, overdrawn characters, and draggy action. Slipshod staging (late cues, misplaced emphasis, slow tempo, etc.) only further emphasized the play's weaknesses.138 The corporation then tried a new script— The Second Year, by Fred Kennedy Myton. This chauvinistic tract on woman's proper place in the home brought forth no new arguments, plodded through a few bromidic jokes, and man aged to survive for two and one-half weeks only on the strength of the work of Enid Markey, Theodore von Eltz, and 3Tf the rest of the company (total gross, $6 ,400) .-*-39 Besides this faltering production calendar, The Playhouse also found that its administration was splinter ing. Robert Jones assumed the office of the president, and later resigned his responsibilities as business manager. E. D. Rowland resigned as managing director and was joined shortly thereafter by A. Leslie Pearce, stage director. Together the two entered independent production later in this period. Whether the flaccid productions were the cause or effect of these administrative changes is unknown, but what is certain is that following them, The Hollywood Playhouse ceased production activities, and leased the Theatre. The first production to take advantage of the revised policy was an exercise in nostalgia, which con tributed little to the theatrical landscape. The Morning After was a new treatment of a play staged earlier in New York by George M. Cohan under the title Los Angeles. For its Hollywood premiere, songs and dances were added, but it still remained catatonic: . . . as entertainment [it] presents a case rather hopeless . . . sometimes one does not know if one is witnessing a farce (boudoir), a musical show, a revue, or a performance of the Russian ballet, -^l ....... — 475 Nothing could arouse interest in the production— neither the return to the Los Angeles theatre by Oliver Morosco nor the recently-acquired but genuine skills of Selma Paley (Mrs. Morosco). The show closed after five and one- half weeks. Its artistic deficiencies notwithstanding, the production may have been forced to close anyway, since the show's "angel" walked out when he learned that Morosco had diverted funds intended for the production of a series of French operettas to The Morning After, the purchase of a car, and the down payment on a house. Within one year almost to the day of its opening, The Hollywood Playhouse became a real estate investment, and only the pluck or naive optimism of some actors, writers, and directors provided an occasionally stimulating evening in the theatre. Given the combination of a broad- based corporation, whose members were drawn from every walk of life, and which was operated by directors with ties to Hollywood's business, economic, and financial circles, it is small wonder that The Hollywood Playhouse determined on a policy of presenting plays with some built-in guarantee of gaining acceptance. With the example of The El Capitan before them (which had failed with its policy of sophisti cated fare at road-company prices), the directors of The 376 Playhouse set out to educate their "Middle-West audiences." This "education" would appear to have concentrated on the technical aspects of theatrical production, for the choice of plays could hardly have claimed to expand the audiences' literary, aesthetic, critical, psychological, or social horizons. The policy worked, at least for a time, until competition and oversaturation dictated a change in policy. The Mayan Theatre The last new playhouse to open in Los Angeles during these two years was more interesting stylistically than theatrically. The Mayan Theatre, promoted by a man whose knowledge of and experience in theatre were dis tressingly minimal, was erected on the east side of the street at 1044 South Hill Street at an estimated cost of $600,000 on land leased for ninety-nine years by N. W. Stowell from Allie L. Kieffer, heir of Samuel L. Rindge, 143 early developer and extensive land owner in Los Angeles. The theatre was leased for twenty years by Gerhold O. Davis and others, including, according to early sources, E. L. Doheny, Sr., his son, and Edward Belasco— all associated with the adjacent Belasco Theatre.144 Whether all three of the lessee-management team of The Belasco Theatre were associated with the operation of The Mayan CHART 16 THE MAYAN OWNER Nathan W. Stowell, Los Angeles "capitalist"; owner of the Stowell Hotel. ARCHITECTS Morgan, Walls and Clements; built by Scofield Engineering Construction Co.; decorated by Richard Sobieraj, assisted by Senor Francisco Cornejo, Mexican artist, student of American archaeology. ARCHITECTURAL STYLE In the spirit of the architecture of the Mayas, "... because of its great ornamental value . . . a style especially adaptable from the standpoint of construction, logically fulfills climatic requirements, and offers relief from the stereotyped designs of the past with their repeated adaptations of classic or renaissance designs."145 BUILDING EXTERIOR146 Site— lOO'OO" wide, 144'-0" deep. Height— 53'-6" from sidewalk to top of front of building. Facade— divided into 3 distinct horizontal divisions: Base— consisted of 2 characters; repeating geometric designs, suggested by wall treatment in Upper Temple of House of the Magician, Uxmal, Yucatan. Central Section— 7 corbelled Mayan arches, each surmounted by colossal figure in ceremonial robes intended to represent Huitzilopochtli seated upon earth monster. Facade finished with splayed cornice of angular waved silhouette. Marquee— hung from building at height of 16’-5-1/2", 39'-0" wide; elaborately carved. CHART 16— Continued PATRONS' AREAS AND MANAGEMENT SPACE147 Entrance Lobby— "The Hall of Inscriptions" 31'-0" wide at sidewalk, 34'-6" wide at interior, 17'-61 1 deep (from sidewalk to auditorium side of 5 double doors separating lobby from foyer). Walls profusely engraved with symbolic motifs; recesses in trefoil arches filled with primitive paintings;148 lintels above doors ornamented with shields, feathers, etc.; tile floor incorporated relief based on Zapote wood carving in altar of Temple of the Sun, Tikal, Guatemala. Box office— house right, with 3 grills. Grand Foyer— The Hall of Feathered Serpents"14^ 77'-6" wide (at least), 16'-6" deep (from double doors to center of interior wall of foyer [which followed the curvature of the auditorium]). Walls— wainscotted to height of doors with slabs of Zapote wood, carved with designs in low relief. Opposite doors giving access to foyer— a Mayan arch enclosing long, low seat, framed with tile, flanked by serpent columns which ended in huge serpentine heads at base. Frieze at top of wainscotting— mustard-colored, and encircled room. Black base border in room; carpeting— plain Indian red with border of gold, blue, and green. Mezzanine Foyer— The Emperor's Hall" 81'-6-1/2" wide (from stairwell to stairwell) and as deep as area beneath it. Design features— massive stone beams which supported balcony above; Aztec designs— 8 panels illustrated historical events, customs of Aztecs. Staircase on west wall— steps led to landing which gave into a "tunnel of stairs" which led to administrative offices (which would be above entrance-lobby). CHART 16— Continued In foyer— restroom located to right and left of central stairway which led to administrative offices. AUDITORIUM Seating Capacity Divided into 2 areas: main floor— 713; balcony— 778; total— 1,491. First Level (Main Floor) 77'-6" wide (from inside of outer concrete wall to opposite wall), 59'-4" deep (from rear wall of auditorium to curvature of orchestra pit rail) . Center section— 22 rows; side sections— 21 rows. Walls treated with acoustical plaster intended to give impression of Cyclopean masonry-stones set in staggered planes "to contribute to the impression of great strength." Ceiling— imitation Zapote wood, consisted of radial cantilever beams and cross beams decorated in primitive colors; center formed calendar illustrative of Mayan year of 260 days; central lighting fixture in sunburst design.151 Boxes None. Balcony Separated by cross aisle, 5'-4" wide at curvature; consisting of 3 sections. Front section— divided into 3 areas, each with 10 rows. Rear section— divided into 3 areas, 11 rows. 77'-6" wide, 63'-0" deep (from rear wall of balcony to center of curvature of balcony railing). ^ VO CHART 16— Continued Decorations-Appointments Proscenium arch— central focus of auditorium, consisted of central stage and 2 side or tableau stages separated by ponderous monoliths in form of square piers, tallest being 31'-0", elaborately carved with personages, symbols, inscriptions; 3 areas linked by heavy bas-relief in warm gray tones. Central stage asbestos— elaborate, fantastic, tropical composition of standing, kneeling figures. Central stage grand drape— silhouette of 2 pyramids and adoring figure. No description of upholstery or carpeting. STAGE AREA Orchestra Pit 30'-6" across, 10'-2" deep (pit rail to curtain line). Apron Area Accommodated footlight trough, edged with border; movement between central stage and side stages possible but difficult, since trough filled most of width of central stage. Proscenium Opening 42'-0" wide, 27'-6" high. Side Stages 11'-6" wide opening; no indication of height of opening or depth of triangular shaped stage area; closed off at rear by rolling steel shutters. > £ > O C O CHART 16— Continued Central Stage Floor Level 38'-0"— depth from curtain line to back wall of stage house. Offstage left of central area— star dressing room (13'-6" deep, lO'-O" wide, 8'-3" high, with an anteroom, lO'-O" wide, 7!-10" deep). Upper Levels 12'-0"— switchboard (offstage right) 24'-0"— stage left: paint room (10'-0" wide, 16'-8" deep); paint gallery (L-shaped lO'-O" wide, 38'-0" deep); paint bridge across rear of stage led to fly gallery at stage right. 59'-8"— gridiron. Overall width of stage house— lOO'-O". Basement Level Reached by stairs behind the tableau stages. Greenroom— centrally located, 25'-6" deep, 43'-0" wide. Stage right of greenroom— star dressing room, electricians' room, 2 chorus rooms. Stage left of greenroom— star dressing room, stagehands' room, large chorus room. Downstage of greenroom— musicians' room, restrooms for men and women, 2 large chorus rooms (each 39'-0" wide, 38'-0" deep). Against rear wall— 5 dressing rooms. XS-fc 482 is unclear. In his review of the opening night perform ance, Edwin Schallert named all three of the Belasco lessees, while Monroe Lathrop referred only to Gerhold 0. Davis. On the other hand, Billboard disclosed that opening night tickets for the entire main floor had been sold to 152 E. L. Doheny. ^ Little is known about Gerhold 0. Davis prior to his association with Belasco and Butler at The Belasco Theatre. Kirschman, citing Edward M. Belasco as his source, stated that Davis was "primarily a promoter con- 153 stantly looking for new projects." Davis' name first appears in this chronicle when he announced that Edward Rowland and Harry P. Caulfield were planning to build a theatre at Olive Street between Seventh and Eighth Streets. Coincidentally, the same firm— The Robert Marsh Co.— also handled the negotiations between N. W. Stowell and the own er of the property on which The Mayan Theatre was erected. It is quite possible that, initially, Davis had considered his involvement with The Mayan strictly as an investment, and had intended to employ someone with greater theatrical experience to manage it. As early as July, 1926, The Examiner carried a "rumor" that Oliver Morosco would be in charge of the then-named Stowell theatre.^54 ^ Perhaps Davis had hoped that Homer Curran, with whom The Belasco triumverate had a booking arrangement, would enter directly into the management of The Mayan, for Curran had been seeking a southern outlet for productions to which he had purchased west coast rights. It is equally probable that he thought Louis Lurie might become involved. Although both of these individuals owned the coast rights to the first two shows which were staged at The Mayan, neither became more directly involved in the theatre's management. Edward M. Belasco recalled that both his father and Fred Butler complained about Davis' fiscal irresponsibility and near-constant indebtedness. Whether factual or not, it was a shaky basis upon which to initiate any theatre, but especially one devoted to the staging of shows which involved considerable outlay if they were to be realized as intended. The announced policy of the theatre was the presen tation of musical comedies with specially-cast coast com panies. Tickets could be purchased for fifty cents or two dollars and fifty cents. The opening production was Wodehouse, Bolton, and Gershwin's Oh, Kay1 The rippling score, the stunning dances, the comedic efforts of James 484 Donlan, and the beautiful chorus elicited unstinting praise. And, although Elsie Janis was not ideally suited to a role which required that she suggest romance and sing several songs ("Clap Your Hands," "Maybe," "Someone to Watch Over Me," "Do-Do-Do," and "Fidgety-Feet"), her imita tions of well-known personalities inserted toward the end of the show helped to recapture her reputation. Perhaps because the role taxed her, Miss Janis failed to appear in the last two performances, claiming loss of voice. Her understudy, Kathleen Kidd, finished the Los Angeles run, but when Miss Janis announced that she would not appear in San Francisco, Davis accused her of faking, attached her personal effects, and filed a suit against her, claiming breach of contract. ^ 5 During its eight-week stay, Oh Kay! grossed $135,500. The largest average weekly gross ($16,900) which a Davis-sponsored production was to show, Oh Kay! set a high standard for subsequent shows to meet. Two other musicals followed. Twinkle Toes starred Joe E. Brown and Nancy Welford, plus Flo Lewis, Marie Wells, Regis Toomey, Douglas Keaton, Sergei Arnold, and many others. After three successful weeks in San Francisco, the production moved into The Mayan for a six-week stay, during which time the spoof of Hollywood (a hick detective T O pursues a movie star who has walked off a train in Kansas) 154 won over the critxcs. However, despite the talents of the stars, a "peachy chorus," and smart costumes and set tings, the show grossed only $73,435. Perhaps the subject seemed simplistic to Los Angeles inhabitants who knew otherwise about Hollywood. Perhaps Los Angeles audiences did not trust the accolades about Joe E. Brown, unknown in the city prior to this production. Regardless of the reasons, Davis persisted in staging musical comedies. Sunny, with Helen Patterson in the role created by Marilyn Miller on Broadway, may have been the first production in which the Belasco team was involved, for, according to Variety, the Belasco triumver- ate had acquired the coast rights. The pleasant romance of a bareback rider who smuggles her way to America was a bright, spontaneous show done in an unpretentious manner. It lingered for ten weeks, grossing an average of $16,111. It was the first mustical to utilize the tableau stages at the side. It was also the last successful show which Davis sponsored, and next to the last for which he was the 157 sole or primary lessee. In the short history of the playhouse in 1927, it was evident that The Mayan theatre would not have an easy 486 road to travel. Even before it opened, Los Angeles was overseated and several new playhouses echoed too frequently to the sound of caretakers' brooms rather than to the ricochets of applause. Regardless of the popularity of musical comedy, it was an expensive form to produce. If G. 0. Davis considered these factors, he may have assumed that agreements with managers in San Francisco would satisfy all exigencies. As it happened, in 1928 the theatre accommodated more than the musical comedy, and only rarely booked a road company. And yet, the playhouse survived (still standing in 1973), resisting efforts to convert it into a height-limit office structure. Perhaps Huitzilopochtli had so ordained it. The Biltmore Theatre While history was being made in Los Angeles and Hollywood with the erection of six new playhouses all owned by local capital, the pattern of production evidenced at the principal "road" theatre indicated the growing importance given to Los Angeles as a profitable theatre center. In fact, 1926 and 1927 were probably the healthiest span The Biltmore Theatre enjoyed in its entire history. First, the theatre was dark for only fifteen weeks 487 in the entire two years. Second, there was a more even distribution of musical shows and plays/comedies— twelve of the former, nine of the latter. Almost predictably, musical comedies were the most popular attractions, pro vided that they were up-to-date and contained "singable" tunes, many of which were already familiar to the viewers. The plays which "scored" well were all melodramatic in mode, with the exception of Old English, whose story of individuality, honesty, and loyalty was stirringly depicted by George Arliss. The sophisticated comedy was only a second-runner and heavy dramas fared poorly. Third, the majority of shows were headed by stars, and to these the patrons flocked, even at the increased ticket price of $3.00. In fact, during these two years, only two of the twenty production units which played The Biltmore were not road companies. Of these, ten were headed by the stars of the New York production and usually several (or all) members of the eastern contingent: Naughty Cinderella, Old English, Magda and The Riddle: Woman, The Arabian, The Last of Mrs. Cheney, Big Boy, Shanghai Gesture, Gay Paree, The Madcap, and Blossomtime (1926 pro duction) . The Student Prince and Rose-Marie were being enjoyed in Los Angeles at the same time that New Yorkers 488 were humming their tunes. My Maryland opened in the city a few weeks after its Broadway debut. All of these musical productions featured special casts. Although Rain and The Cocoanuts were not relatively new, they were guaranteed to draw audiences by virtue of the stars associated with them. Only three road attractions featured no special "names," but Blossomtime, The Vagabond King, and Scandals were of such a nature as to appeal anyway. Fourth, more of the shows were of more recent vintage. Of the ten units in the "star category," two were products of the 1924-25 New York season; four had first appeared in 1925-26; one had bowed in 1926-27; and two had yet to open in New York. ^ 8 This revised position attested to the importance with which theatrical producers viewed the city, and was belated recognition that audiences were no longer tolerant of inferior or tardy productions— at least with road shows. Overall, the production schedule at The Biltmore showed a heavy bias toward recent shows: three from 1927-2 8, one from 1926-27, seven from 1925-26, four from 1924-25, and one each from 1922-23, 1920-21, and 1918-19. Scandals and Blossomtime are difficult to classi fy accurately because there were so many versions of these productions. One show moved to The Biltmore from Hollywood. -- ^ g - Finally, most productions broke out of the rigid two-week schedule. Of the total number of productions (twenty), thirteen remained longer than two weeks; six stayed for three weeks (one of which was intended for a longer run but was terminated by illness in the cast); three were supported for four weeks; and one each filled five, six, eight, and twelve-week engagements. The Student Prince established the theatre's long-run record, which was not surpassed or equalled for another twenty years (excluding film presentations). The road shows which were booked for two-week engagements, and Louis 0. Macloon's productions, all were priced at a $2.50 top. These productions were: the three revues, the two engagements of Blossomtime, and the two dramatic shows not headed by stars with current popular followings— Bertha Kalisch and Walker Whiteside. Of these "lesser" theatrical products, both engagements of Blossom time showed the highest gross returns ($33,000 and $29,000), while Bertha Kalisch's productions fared most poorly ($16,200 total), exceeded by The Arabian ($17,200), and The New Hollywood Music Box Revue ($18,500). Louis O. Macloon's other production, The Tavern, averaged only 159 $7,950, despite critical opprobrium. 7mr All the other shows played at the new, increased admission price of $3.00, with the exception of Cocoanuts, and possibly Big Boy and The Last of Mrs. Cheney, for which no prices were stipulated in the advertisements. In this $3.00 category, two revues were the only productions to stay for two weeks. Scandals showed the ■ I C A wear of touring the provinces, but Gay Paree dazzled. Starring Chic Sale, Frank Gaby, Douglas Levitt, and Loraine Weimer from the New York company, the show grossed $40,000 in two weeks, showing a higher return during its second week. Nudity of the "high-brow . . . 'plastique' . . . sculpturesque type— stationary and static, but not necessarily electric," may have generated the second-week response. It probably also accounted for the brief stay.^^ Of the shows which played three-week engagements, all grossed more than $30,000 and all were musical come dies. The Vagabond King scored $50,000. As Monroe Lathrop averred, the musical had everything: romance-adven ture, brawls, humor, robes of royalty and picturesque tatters; exceptional melodies, such as "The Song of the Vagabond," "Only a Rose," "Some Day," and "Love for Sale"; scenic and costume investment; a strong company; and highly 162 capable direction by Richard Boleslavsky. 491 Both Naughty Cinderella ($45,000 total gross), with Irene Bordoni and several of her New York compatriots; and The Madcap ($40,800 gross), with Mitzi, Sydney Greenstreet, Arthur Treacher, and others, in a pre-Broadway tryout, fared well. However, the response to My Maryland ($30,000) is puzzling. The New York premiere had taken place only three weeks earlier, and the songs were robust and roman tic ("Your Land and My Land," "Listen to the Mocking Bird," "Same Silver Moon," "Maryland, My Maryland," etc.). But the production boasted no "names," and its newness precluded exploitation via radio and records. Perhaps, too, the patriotic simplicity of the story and the theatri cal bunting of the Civil War turned away the toddling generation. Moreover, there were six other openings during 16 3 the same week at various theatres in the city. While the musical shows established the long-run records and drew the largest grosses (generally speaking), the serious plays not only- staged moderately long engage ments, but also fared well at the box office. Without exception, all were headed by a star. George Arliss and a cast which contributed notably individual performances were greeted by an "immense audience" at the opening of Galsworthy's Old English. The engagement grossed $82,900 492 1 6 4 for the three weeks reported (stayed four weeks). Shanghai Gesture probably could have remained for several weeks based on the receipts reported for three weeks ($71,500). However, its star, Florence Reed, became ill during the run and then received word of her mother's death. The melodrama was built around the futility of human vengeance and was overpowering in its exoticism, pageantry, and faint touch of prurience. Miss Reed's performance as Mother Goddam (and her powerful speech, "I Survived") contributed to a demonstration on opening night 1 s? C "which had never been equalled in local theater." Although other productions exceeded the box-office receipts which Rain garnered, probably no other production equalled it for dramatic moment. Nothing could obscure Miss Eagels1 performance: 1 7 Her portrayal does make dramatic history. Her interpretation of Sadie is a masterpiece of portraiture. Brazen, impudent, she swaggers to keep her courage up— and breaks in pitiful pathos when her shrill femininity fails to win her own way. Badgered by fate, covering her frailty with a veneer of indifference . . .1*8 Eagels touches on greatness . Miss Eagels' performance was not a solo achievement, more over, for the road company featured strong characteriza tions by Ethelbert Hales, Blanche Frederici, Alfred 493 Hickman, and others. Only The Last of Mrs. Cheney, a Best Play of the 1925-26 season, failed to gross more than an average of $20,000. Starring Ina Claire, Roland Young, and several members of the New York cast, the play— set among the upper middle class English who spend a great deal of time discuss ing their possessions, and whose morals are really less attractive, and genuine than those of a young female jewel thief— probably was limited in appeal, regardless of, or because of, its trenchant wit and charming sophistry. The 170 reviewers praised the acting, highly. Only two shows exceeded the three dollar maximum. Cocoanuts, with the Marx brothers, grossed $69,500 in four of its five weeks. Big Boy, with Al Jolson, climbed to $101,000 in three weeks. Critics were pleased with Jolson’s rendition of Negro spirituals and praised his skillful, charming, ebullient acting. These factors helped to make The Jazz Singer, the first talking film, such a .. . 171 walloping success. One illuminating fact about these two years is disclosed by a breakdown of shows according to producers. Excluding Louis O. Macloon's offerings, those of Bertha Kalisch and Walker Whiteside, ten of the remaining— over 494 half— were presented by the Shubert organization. All of these were musical comedies with top gross receipts. The control of the road which this producing team exerted is evident in just this one city in this two-year period. In addition, two other events occurred to make theatrical history. In a period when reviewers searched their thesauri for recondite phrases to capture the per formances of some stars, one performer taxed their vocabu laries in the extreme. Raquel Meller, Spanish contratice, played three performances in the city (two arranged by her manager, Ray Goetz; one sponsored by a local committee headed by Charles Chaplin). Singing in Spanish in a voice of limited register, Meller, who appeared alone on the stage, entranced "an audience which was without question the most brilliant assembled in the city." Schallert apologized for eulogizing her. In three performances, the 172 star grossed $25,300. Raquel Meller's performance seemed a final incarna tion of that flickering golden age of "super-stars." Two months later, The Biltmore Theatre changed its costume and showed a film. Although the decision to use this particu lar theatre was viewed as a questionable experiment, Ben Hur, starring Ramon Novarro and Frances X. Bushman, swept 495 away any previous hesitation. Ben Hur was presented with out any stage prolog (an orchestra played throughout the presentation) and with certain sound effects created backstage. A. L. Erlanger, who had sold the movie rights to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, kept his theatre profitably occupied for sixteen weeks during the summer of 1926, a feat which he had been unable to achieve since its opening. The experiment became a regular part of the calendar in the 173 next years. The Mason Theatre The pattern of production at this, the other Erlanger-owned theatre, was very nearly the opposite of that at The Biltmore. Whereas the latter housed only two productions sponsored by one local producer, The Mason housed only three road companies. Not that all the produc tions were sponsored by local capital, but most of the productions did not fit the general concept of a road-com- pany show: a company comprised of a New York cast, some of the New York cast, or none of the New York cast, pre senting an attraction which had opened in New York some time earlier, which company was intended to play in more than one geographical region of the country. Additionally, 496 all but four of the total number of shows were priced at $2.50. Of the five offerings presented by local producers, Thomas Wilkes's production of Silence has been discussed in the previous chapter. Kolb and Dill appeared in two musicals, A Pair o' Fools and Queen High, but these coast favorites, whose comedic style one reviewer has character ized as "the Dutch brand of humor," found that their audiences were shrinking, for neither production achieved 174 the success of past engagements. The intrepid Louis O. Macloon was responsible for the other two coast productions of recent New York suc cesses, which Los Angeles saw before such other metropolises as Chicago. Tip-Toes, by Bolton, Thompson, and George and Ira Gershwin, was a slight musical, but a sparkling produc tion, effervescent story, skilled dancing and singing by Eddie Bussell, Ona Munson, Eddie Nelson, Charles Howard, and others, prompted Edwin Schallert to proclaim: "Declare a holiday right away and go down to see 'Tip-Toes.' And above all don't miss this one. For it's a tip-top 175 show." However, the show failed to catch on, probably because it followed the successful ten-week stay of Topsy and Eva with the Duncan Sisters, but also because the two 497 176 leads left during the second week. Macloon also "struck out" with The Butter and Egg Man, a Best Play of 1925-26. The production, starring Johnny Arthur, and "a particularly well-rounded cast," amused the opening night audience until it laughed itself hoarse. The general public, who seemed tired of plays about the theatre, smiled faintly. The show grossed 1 77 $39,100 in five weeks, diminishing steadily. The one new work, Patsy, a musical comedy sponsored by local capital, has been discussed in the previous chap ter. The only new work which was tried out prior to eastern exportation was a crude, tasteless melodrama with pretensions to Greek tragedy. Creoles, presented by Thomas Wilkes in association with Sam H. Harris, and star ring Richard Bennett, was a lurid story of a gentlewoman driven by poverty to degradation. Schallert found it "just plain punk," burdened with an indeterminate supporting cast, and exciting only when the hurricane blew down the 178 set. Of the shows owned by actresses, only one was new to Los Angeles, and yet it fared the poorer of the two. The other remained for ten weeks and drew an average weekly 498 gross of just over $20,000. Only The Student Prince showed a slightly higher figure in its twelve-week stay, at a three dollar top. An ovation, with flowers "which threat ened to rival a Pasadena rose festival," greeted the Duncan Sisters in Topsy and Eva. Much like a similar work which had also defied all canons for good drama and which also had originated on the west coast, Topsy and Eva awakened paroxyms of loyal support among the hometown populace. Sentimental, sludgy, "cutesy," retrograde, or any other similar adjective failed to diminish the charm of the two actresses whose innocuous good humor and song-and-dance talents transformed the cloying musical into passable 179 entertainment. The other star-backed production contrasted with Topsy and Eva in artistic intent, creative realization, and audience response. Lulu Vollmer's drama, Sun-Up (New York, May, 1923), was a tragedy of unfaltering love and courage. Although dated in its references to war; unrealistic in its incorporation of the spirit of a dead man who speaks to the Widow Cagle; sententious in its situations; old- fashioned in its lesson of love; outmoded by its refusal to rely on excessive action or subject matter treating of flapper-adults, gold-digging young people, or vapidly 499 happy young couples, the underworld, or the theatre, Sun-Up still riveted one's attention by virtue of the integrity of the main character, Widow Cagle, unerringly realized by Lucille Laverne, "recognized by sophisticated play goers the country over as one of the notable figures on 180 the dramatic stage today." The show did not draw audiences ($17,300 for four weeks), but when moved to the more suitably-sized Egan Theatre, it ran for fifteen weeks. Among the "miscellaneous productions" which played The Mason were Ma Pettingill; Castles in the Air; and The Princess Company from Madrid, which commenced its one-week repertory with La Maiqueria-The Passion Flower. The English-speaking newspapers did not cover the engagement. Making a bid for the long-run record in any Los Angeles legitimate theatre was Jed Harris1 production of Broadway, by Phillip Dunning and George Abbot, a Best I 0*1 Play of 1926-27. Los Angeles audiences apparently agreed with Florence Lawrence that Broadway was not a geographical location but a point of view, for they sup ported the punch-filled melodrama of love, lawlessness, and death at The Paradise Club for fifteen weeks, during which time the average weekly gross was $13,240 for the 182 fourteen weeks reported. 500 The three road productions which played The Mason were each representative of a specific type of play, but only one drew audiences less for its contemporaneity than for its star-crammed cast. The Gorilla was a mystery- melodrama, while The Judge's Husband was a quiet satire I 0*3 of female lawyers. But Trelawney of the Wells was special. It featured "The entire planetary system of the American theater [which] has been drafted to supply enter tainment . . . in a tale of actors defying conflict with 184 convention." The production recaptured the magic of the theatre, a quality lacking in much contemporary fare, but grossed only $19,100 in its one-week stay ($4.00 top); less than Topsy and Eva grossed, on the average, during one week. At one time the principal road-company theatre, in 1926-27 The Mason became yet one more stage for the varied efforts of individual producers. The Majestic Theatre and The Orange Grove Playhouse In 1924, after the astonishingly-rapid demise of The Fine Arts Theatre, the former Walker Auditorium was leased by Arthur Freed. He presented two comedies, and then joined forces with Harry Carroll and others to launch 501 Pickin's, for which the theatre was renamed The Orange Grove Playhouse. In 1925, after the revue closed, Freed subleased the theatre to Thomas Wilkes. After a year's respite, Arthur Freed reentered the production field with The Music Hall Revue, a potpourri of parodies on current theatrical pieces and local events, contemporary dance fads, and "girls, girls, girls." Tables and chairs were set in the first few rows of the auditorium and dancing on stage was encouraged during the intermis sion. Assisted by Eddie Lambert (and his big shoes), comedians Lynn Cowan and Lester Cole, and the singing and dancing of Hal VanRenssaelar and Midgie Miller, the revue caught on, in spite of (or because of) some "rough „185 stuff." Perhaps the success of this kind of entertainment (seven weeks, weekly gross $7,600) prompted the producers to move to a larger, more centrally-located theatre. Thus, in early June, Will Morrissey (Ralph Spence and Arthur Freed) and Michael Corper formed a partnership, and the second edition of the revue opened at The Majestic on June 20, 1926. It continued for seven weeks (average $7,200). An audience had been found for the prurient revue which included an "A1 Woods Bedroom Farce," a bathtub 502 episode, and several jokes which The Express reviewer said could be dry-cleaned. Speaking either of this edition or the earlier version, Carey McWilliams, respected historian of Los Angeles, called it "as common, trashy, and mere tricious a performance as could be imagined."^8® Corper, with the "tunnel vision" which financial success can inflame, tried his luck one more time with a revue entitled Monkey Business. Variety declared it a futile gesture to keep it going, but the reviewer was wrong. This revue ran for nine and one-half weeks and grossed a healthy weekly average of $7,660, with no drastic 187 drop in receipts. (Italics mine.) However, Michael Corper had overextended himself physically and financially, and as a result he hit upon the idea of booking shows into The Majestic. The only appeal of Struttin' Sam from Alabam1 was its abbreviated 188 engagement. The novelty of seventy-five Hawaiians carried The Prince of Hawaii along for three weeks. But neither production extricated Corper from his debts. He lost the lease on the theatre because he owed $15,000 in back rent, as well as $10,000 in salaries to actors and IRQ stagehands. 03 Thomas Wilkes then returned to the site of his 503 former successes, but his regime was distinguished by only one noteworthy offering. Meanwhile, at The Orange Grove, Arthur Freed reached the startlingly unoriginal conclusion that the city lacked for comedic presentations. He launched his program with the last of the Potash and Perlmutter comedies— Partners Again, starring Alexander Carr, one of the original team, and Eddie Lambert. He followed it with an original work from the pen of Norman Feusier, a local actor. Know Your Onions was billed as "another 'Abie's Irish Rose,'" and it traded upon the gyrations peculiar to Los Angeles in the 1920's. Most of the reviewers thought that the work "had a chance" for stock company presentation if not for Broadway: "Judged by the standard of the few plays that get their baptism out here, it has smoothness, and workmanship and is distinctly 190 show business," said Variety. Nothing else succeeded. Loving Ladies, a new script, was a network of absurdities stuffed with an inane plot and meaningless words, and made intolerable by the misguided performance of T. Roy Barnes, star, whose acting halted the show "to the pace of a nag turned out to pas- ture." Schallert summed up the general response: "It is without question the saddest farce of the year." It even 504 prompted many patrons to walk out; a rather unusual 191 occurrence in Los Angeles, according to Variety, Rain, presented only three months after the city had witnessed Jeanne Eagels vivid impersonation, gave Charlotte Treadway, released from the "treacly roles" and inhibited tastes of stock company audiences, an opportunity to display her talents. But the production found no audi ence, and when the actors filed unpaid salary claims, it was disclosed that The Wilkes Brothers had sold the rights to the play, when in fact they were owned by Henry Duffy 19 2 (for the entire coast, except Los Angeles). Shortly thereafter, the theatre was leased by Louis O. Macloon, under whose direction it became known as the playhouse "which presented plays in as questionable taste as pos sible. "193 At The Majestic Theatre meanwhile, Thomas Wilkes resumed production as manager for Pacific Productions, 194 Inc. He staged eight shows: two borrowed from Holly wood, two new plays, three on view for the first time, and one seen previously. Only one remained for longer than three weeks. Both new plays were farces with an ingratiating note of familiarity. After Eight P.M.— ? left few 505 innuendoes undiscovered, while the resemblance of The Lucky Son of a Bishop to Jonson's Volpone did little to 195 enhance the former's chances of success. The two Hollywood imports both fared well. An American Tragedy grossed an average $6,425 in four of its five weeks. Dickson Morgan's production of All God's Chillun Got Wings prompted the observation: "That theater goers are willing to accept more substantial fare than mere entertainment found its answer in a capacity house which followed the discussion with rapt attention."196 There is no evidence that Wilkes heard this response, for in between these two productions— which represented the extent of artistic experimentation during his regime— Wilkes revived The Gorilla; scheduled The Ghost Train, which was helped along by the fine direction of Virginia Brissac who had directed her own theatre in San Diego; and presented a propagandistic tract. The only other play he produced was Appearances, supposedly the first play written by a Negro to be produced on Broad way. After its Majestic Theatre engagement, L. E. Behymer picked it up and installed it at The Figueroa Street Playhouse for a short engagement. Wilkes stepped out temporarily, but Clifford and 506 Robinson's modern miracle play. Behind the Veil, a mealy version of the Faust legend, complete with faltering verse and symbolic characters, sermonizing, and a trick ending with the half-lit face of the hero floating near the top of 197 the proscenium arch, offered no respite. Then, after a dark period of eight weeks, P. E. Blackwell leased the theatre for his production of John VanDruten's Young Woodley. Thomas Wilkes served as produc tion manager. The penetrating study of English preparatory school life and the unfolding physical maturity of one of its students opened to a filled house which gave the cast, headed by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., a "demonstration . . . 198 of grand opera proportion." In his grasp of the role, his charming manner and his sincere portrayal of deeper 199 emotions, "Fairbanks, Jr., Puts Pater in Total Eclipse." The production of one of The Best Plays of 1925-26, which was reasonably priced at a two-dollar top and which featured a strong cast, should have run for several weeks. It closed in three, after an abysmal response of $9,000. From this latter-day point-of-view, the failure seems inexplicable. Competition from other theatres may have been a contributing factor, but gross receipts indicate 507 that the show never "caught on." Reopening a theatre which had been dark for nearly two months, especially one referred to as "the home of turkeys," the production probably had little chance of succeeding. Moreover, the English setting gave the play an air of effeteness, and its subject matter probably aroused the superior feeling that no such situation existed in American private schools. Perhaps the whole-hearted support by professionals, many drawn from the movie colony, connoted to the average play goer that this was not his kind of play. And, finally, many may have agreed with Monroe Lathrop that the play's weakest point was the woman's fondness for the adolescent boy. Perhaps it is not too large a claim to state that Young Woodley, more than the failure of such sophisticated productions as Chariot's Revue, Castles in the Air, or The Last of Mrs. Cheney, demonstrated how small was the audience for works expressive of a sophisticated, ambigu ous situation. The short-term lease which Blackwell had assumed was filled out with a return visit of Cradle Snatchers. Thomas Wilkes moved to The Music Box where he offered his final theatrical presentation, Noel Coward's scathing comedy of civilization's corrosive effects— The Vortex. 508 The irony is unmistakable. While Young Woodley was having difficulty finding an audience at The Majestic, subjects of a delicate nature treated in an indelicate fashion were finding a ready hearing at The Orange Grove Playhouse. Between December 25, 1926, and the early part of October, 1927, only four works were staged, each with a certain air of licentious- i ness about them, actual or apparent. One Man's Woman, about a misogynist's conversion by a lady who turns out to be a prostitute, was purely an exploitative undertaking. It was played up as "a sensational sex play," and utilized salacious advertising. It would have made Richard Bennett weep with chagrin to see how far it had outstripped Creoles, opined Monroe Lathrop.^0^ By the fourth week, it was disclosed that Louis 0. Macloon was the anonymous producer behind the play, having leased the theatre for one hundred dollars a day. The show stayed for fifteen weeks, grossing only $53,700 in that time. One cannot help but wonder why the protectors of the community's morals did not close the show, given their previous action with Desire Under the Elms, and their subsequent pogrom against The Captive. Perhaps they reasoned that its very blatancy kept away the audience member they were devoted to protecting. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Given the subsequent involvement of the Hearst newspapers in expunging The Captive/ one wonders if the publisher was unaware of the play's contents, or chose to look past a production sponsored by a former Hearst employee. Macloon, who had signed a long-term lease with George W. Walker stating that he intended to present guest 201 stars in New York plays at popular prices, then offered The Strawberry Blond, which referred to a husband's struggles to keep his wife ignorant of past pecadilloes, digressed temporarily with a number of films, and re instituted his policy of deviate drama with The Scarlet Virgin (presumably offered by Monte Carter and Sidney Miller, Macloon's former manager). The play shocked with its epithetic language, lurid situations, and calloused attempts at sensationalism. It amused with its melodramat ic exaggerations of a girl who is saved from "earning money for an ailing father" by a "sap reporter." It knocked itself out of any serious critical consideration by its impossible characters and stodgy dialogue. Macloon concluded his tenure with the innocuous 1920 comedy, The "Ruined" Lady, risque only by implication. The history of The Majestic Theatre and The Orange Grove Playhouse in these two years is a narrative of the 510 rapidly disintegrating theatre scene in Los Angeles, evi dent perhaps only at the fringes, but real nonetheless. Of the productions which found any long-term support, all were off-color in some respect. Of the producers who sponsored shows, few seemed concerned about literary merit, superior staging, or shaping audience taste. At least two saw the theatre as a means of lining their personal pock ets, and one was not above outright dishonesty. Decaying standards, compounded by the overavailability of theatres, together with a certain provincialism of taste which con fused moral judgments with artistic merit, eroded the fiber of Los Angeles theatre. The Figueroa Street Playhouse On the evening before the first new legitimate theatre opened in Hollywood, Louis 0. Macloon— the one individual who most completely epitomized the prototype of a skillful, opportunistic, protean theatrical producer— mounted his final production of the spring, 1926, season at The Figueroa Street Playhouse. Young Blood, a satirical comedy about a young man who rebels against his neglectful parents by flunking out of school and taking to "the cellar stuff" and the parlor maid, passed uneventfully, and the ---- — ------------------------------------------------- 511 theatre went dark for the entire summer, except for a three-week engagement of a new musical comedy, Nancy, sponsored by Thomas Wilkes and Heath Cobbs. The William Clifford-Jean Schwartz effort suffered from a rural set ting, a scarcity of engaging tunes, and unimaginative „. • 202 staging. Although the Macloons put no production into the playhouse between June' 13 and August 17, 1926, they were busy finalizing plans for their new theatre to be built by Shelly N. Tolhurst at Figueroa and Seventh Streets. Sketches showed a Spanish-style playhouse, with set-back entrance, and an open-air garden-type lobby surrounded by 203 small shops. Cradle Snatchers was announced as the opening production. The theatre was never erected, how ever, and the comedy of three wives who take up with three college youths was installed at The Figueroa after opening at The Curran in San Francisco in August. Notwithstanding this set back, Macloon's final season at The Figueroa was varied and attractive. He revived Madame X, Alexandre Bisson's melodrama of mother love, starring Pauline Frederick. It is possible that he had intended to open the fall season with Sidney Howard's play, Lucky Sam McCarver, but changed his mind when it 512 failed in San Francisco: "... there wasn't enough gravy [in the play] and the public wants gravy with its enter- 204 tainment," Macloon declared. Cradle Snatchers, however, did not disappoint the theatre-goer and was typical Macloon fare: it was a recent Broadway hit which was still playing in New York; it was a comedy with a proforma plot and solution, with just an interesting suggestion that it was not committed to a "happy ever after" conclusion; it featured a cast headed by stars Helen Bolton, Florence Auer, and Grace Travers. The show ran for fifteen weeks with a top ticket price of two and a half dollars. Loose Ankles, his final production, folded in three weeks. Its story of three gigolos who earn their living as escorts for middle-aged women was unappealing to many, and the production was inferior, something which was rarely one said of a Macloon offering. At the end of the run, The Friday Morning Women's Club took back their lease on the theatre, reportedly even paying Macloon a moderate amount of money to be rid of him. At least one of the causes for the severed relations was Macloon's high-handed manner. According to one source, he had refused the club use of the theatre for dramatic 513 207 presentations during their meetings. Moreover, "Laughinc Louie" had established a reputation for truculent behavior with anyone who disagreed with him— theatre owners, news paper reviewers (whom he barred from the theatre), perform ers, union representatives, and others. In addition, the plays which he staged at The Playhouse during the previous season had a certain immoderate quality about them and featured characters who flaunted conventional morality and made it seem appealing to do so. And just about this time, it became public knowledge that Macloon was backing the salacious show, One Man1s Woman, at The Orange Grove. Nothing could have been more antithetical to the lofty ideals of the club. Macloon survived the slight, if such it was, and went on to produce at other theatres in the area, perpetrating still other predicaments, and launching slick productions of Broadway successes. With Macloon's departure, the Women's Club was "overwhelmed with inquiries concerning terms on which the lease" might be secured. Subsequent events indicate that the announcement was probably intended to create the vaunted situation, for between January 30 and May 7, 1927, only three productions took advantage of the available stage: a two-week benefit engagement of What Price Glory, with ------------------------------------------------------------------5T* Emmett Corrigan and Clark Gable as Flagg and Quirt in the first week, and Louis Wolheim in the second; three appear ances of Ruth Draper; and the Behymer-sponsored engagement of Appearances (moved from The Majestic). Then Homer Curran booked two road shows into the vacant house. Otis Skinner's revival of The Honor of the Family, with the entire New York company, was greeted by a playhouse of "discriminating theater goers [who] thronged the orchestra and gallery and reveled in the wit and deft 20 f t craftsmanship and its brilliant presentations." The show fared well in its two-week stay ($24,000, at $2.50 top) . Abie's Irish Rose (Anne Nichols' company) lingered for six weeks, and Variety maintained that it could have stayed four more. From then until the fall of 1928, The Playhouse found no suitable tenant or one willing to take a long-term risk on the theatre. Edward Everett Horton returned to the legitimate stage in two comediesWill Carleton and Ann Sheridan concocted a dull amusement, Joan of Arkansaw, larded with songs bearing titles such as "Hark, the Lark" 210 and out-dated "contemporary" references to Jackie Coogan; and a stock company which had been performing at the STS newly-completed Mission Playhouse, in San Gabriel, under took a short engagement. Plans for The Mission Theatre, intended primarily as a stage for The Mission Play, had been initiated early in the decade, but construction had ceased in the spring of 1922. The property on which the unfinished theatre stood and the historical play were taken over by the creditors of John Steven McGroarty, author. But in late April, 1926, The Mission Playhouse Corporation was formed to repossess the property ($155,000); to pay off the $20,000 still owed various banks; to sell stock for public subscription; and to 211 complete the theatre. The new playhouse opened on March 5, 1927, with an invitational performance of The Mission Play in its first season as a civic institution (McGroarty had given full rights of the play to the people of California). Tickets were priced at one hundred dollars, and the production featured R. D. Maclean, Violet Schramm, Richard Sterling, and William Ellingford. Upon its closing on May 24, 1927, plans were made to activate the theatre with a stock 212 group, and thus between September 10 and October 30, 192 7, the company, headed by Charlotte Treadway, Harland Tucker, Florence Oberle, and others, presented a different CHART 17 THE MISSION PLAYHOUSE ARCHITECT/DESIGN Arthur Benton; modeled after the Mission at San Antonio de Padua, Monterey. BUILDING EXTERIOR212 Site— located : :n 7-acre tract, formerly part of Mission San Gabriel. 3 sections: cei uer section— theatre; side sections— contained open cloisters and gardens enclrby high walls; west garden— 40-0" wide, 125'-0" long contained models of the 20 missions; east garden was intended to contain an Indian village during Serra's time. Finish— plastered with gunite to give textured finish, treated with warm gray water proof paint; pitched roofs covered with red mission tile. PATRONS' AREAS Flag-stoned patio gave onto wide foyer encircled with iron-grilled balconies. AUDITORIUM Seating Capacity— 1,492. Shape To resemble old-world theatre of the period of The Mission Play— oblong, most seating on main level; loges along side walls, few feet above main floor; shallow balcony at rear. Projection booth. £ a \ CHART 17— Continued Appointments and Decorations Walls— textured acoustical plaster hung with 12 banners representing 12 provinces of Spain; 12 heavy wall lanterns (wrought iron) between banners; ceiling of imitation wood timbers. Color scheme— browns, blues, and greens. Asbestos curtain— emblazoned with royal coat of arms of Spain; tapestry curtain— soft iridescent blue embroidered with figures of conquistadores and senoritas. STAGE According to SWBC— 150'-0" wide, 120'-0" deep; proscenium opening— 55’-0" wide, 28*-0" high; dressing rooms could accommodate 200. ui H - j 518 comedy, weekly. It opened with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which Edwin Schallert deemed better in many ways than the production which had opened The Belasco Theatre the year previously. ^14 A painstakingly-lavish production of Girl of the Golden West; The Gorilla; Three Wise Pools, which The Times reviewer declared so enjoyable as to cause a reconsideration of the play-a-week policy; Just Married; and Square Crooks followed. The company was able to sur vive the production merry-go-round and still produce "very creditable" performances because many of them had worked together at The Morosco. When The Mission Playhouse was needed for McGroar- ty's latest play, Babylon— an historical satire with paral lels to contemporary vanities and foibles— Norman Sprowl, business manager of The Mission Playhouse Corporation and manager of the theatre's stock company, decided to keep the group together. Undoubtedly he canvassed the available theatres, and wisely chose not to venture into Hollywood and compete with Henry Duffy. He moved the troupe into The Figueroa Street Playhouse. The decision was unfortunate, regardless of the high performance level achieved. The competition in down town Los Angeles was overwhelming and the moment had passed 519 for this type of undertaking, the admiration and support of the critics notwithstanding. Not even the club members supported the productions, regardless of the arrangement whereby the owners agreed to share profits fifty-fifty in 215 lieu of rent. During the run of The Ape, a mystery by Adam Hull Shirk, president of The Los Angeles Society of Magicians (and probably expanded from a one-act version staged earlier at The Writers Club), the theatre was shut down when the orchestra walked out. The Norman Sprowl Players did not survive the altercation, nor the slight 216 audience response. The Figueroa Street Playhouse continued along its uncertain but dogged path, and in the fall of 1928 became the home of the most ambitious undertaking in literary theatre in the city's history. The Morosco Theatre While the theatrical landscape resounded with the echoes of theatre construction and eddied with the changing currents of theatrical taste, The Morosco Theatre continued along its firmly-established path of presenting theatrical fare coated with idealism. Between January 3, 1926, and December 31, 1927, the 520 theatre mounted thirty-eight productions, twenty-seven of which were comedies. Only one new work was presented. However, only two of these plays had been staged previously in the city, and nearly one-half (sixteen) were drawn from the 19 25-26 and 192 6-27 seasons. Among this number were three Best Plays. Moreover, in an attempt to hold the patrons, the theatre introduced four new leads in the fall of 1926, and later added a new leading lady. Although most of the plays were changed every two weeks, there were exceptions: Love'Em and Leave 'Em, Synthetic Sin, and The Creaking Chair stayed four weeks; The Family Upstairs and Kiki six weeks; and The Patsy for eight weeks. Love'Em and Leave 'Em was a slight comedy about two sisters, which Florence Lawrence found of little merit: The play . . . is of the loud, vulgar comedy type. It strips off the veneer from every charac ter in its cast and makes a joke of every serious- minded young working man or woman. Without a bright spot in the whole performance, the audience yesterday roared uproariously at the slang and the burlesque of sophistication given by these work-a-day boys and girls. The whole performance, however, is full of noise, bickering, jealousy and suspicion.217 Audiences which apparently liked their theatre obvious and boisterous supported the play for four weeks ($22,650). Synthetic Sin, by Frederick and Fanny Hatton, was 5m: the only new work introduced during these years. Risque of title and otherwise reassuringly safe, the play was outdated.^l8 The other long-run shows were equally predictable: The Creaking Chair was a mystery-melodrama; Kiki, which lasted six weeks (discussed in the previous chapter) al lowed the viewer to loll in the fantastic world of adven ture and make-up; and The Family Upstairs was built around the classic formula for "sure winners"--a recognizable family, consisting of a tired but wholesome father, a mother who has scrimped for her children all her life, a marriageable daughter, a half-grown son, the young suitor who proves he is more eligible than any other interested male; sophisticated direction; and performances of "real 219 quality." ? The Patsy, which established the two-year 220 long-run record of eight weeks, followed. It was in the three-week category that examples of more adventuresome theatrical fare could be found. Dancing Mothers, a Best Play from the 1924-25 season, led this category with receipts of $17,700. The irony and ambivalence of the play which looked at the "doormat" wife and mother evoked varying opinions even among the critics. Edwin Schallert looked at it from an historical-moral point 522 of view: "Is the maturer generation of the present day more relentless than the youth of today in its quest for pleas- 221 ure alone?" Florence Lawrence, on the other hand, con sidered the psychological and social questions surrounding a woman's position in the home, her means of self-realiza- 222 tion, and society's outmoded perception of her. Con tributing to the success of the production were the four new leads: Alma Tell, Mitchell Harris, John Litel, and Elizabeth Allen, whose talents were compared to the golden days of Maclean, Dix, Ruggles, and others. On the Stairs, which grossed the second highest in the three-week category, was a mystery-melodrama, as was The Night Cap, but The Last of Mrs. Cheney was a digression from the conventional fare. The sophisticated drawing-room comedy of a female crook with a more refined sense of honor than her blue-blood "sources" had been seen earlier at The Biltmore Theatre, but it is unlikely that many in The Morosco Theatre audience had seen Ina Claire's impersona tion. The attention given this play ($16,200) prompts the conclusion, supported by Dancing Mothers, that sophisticated and/or serious fare could and did find a place in The Morosco schedule, provided it was not overdone. On the other hand, the plays which fared best in 523 the two-week category were prototypes of the kind of fare which always found a large eager audience at The Morosco: the romantic comedy of the likable but humble underdog whose "stick-to-it-iveness," variously interpreted as industriousness, tenacity, or late-blooming luck, wins him a job, respect, money, and always the girl; and the slight ly salacious, safely-sensational play of "fast people," who strangely resemble ordinary folk in their ethics and aspir ations. Applesauce, which exemplified the former, grossed $11,600.^3 Ladies of the Evening surpassed that amount at $12,700 in spite of a pedestrian treatment of the Pyg malion story, with a street-walker as the central figure in o o a the experiment. The other plays in this two-week category fell within these parameters. Only Sinner, by Thompson Buchanan, offered a diversion. A moderately startling treatise about a woman's escapades in and out of marriage, the play was followed eagerly by its audience; an audience generally envisioned as nice, stolid, conventional, and eager only for something light after a Sunday meal. Per haps they tolerated the frankness with which some of the play was marked because they knew that the status quo would be restored at the end. Florence Lawrence disparaged the 524 ending because it subscribed to "all the laws of Madam Grundy"— the husband slaps his wife into adoring obedi- 225 ence. Among the plays which showed disappointing gross receipts in the two-week category was The Music Master. It should have performed otherwise, since the production starred Otto Lederer in the lead role; reportedly the first time that it had been enacted by anyone other than David Warfield. However, while critics were delighted with the production, the audience found the play freighted with outdated plotting and embarrasing in its attachment to values associated with another generation. It showed only $8,500 in the box-office till.22* * In December, 1927, business at The Morosco Theatre fell off considerably, probably because of the holiday season, but most certainly because it had been announced that a new lessee was about to assume control of the theatre. Gertie, which Edwin Schallert said "is the best show that the Morosco has presented since 'The Patsy,1" and The Four-Flusher, a simplistic character 22 7 comedy, ended the tenure of The Morosco Holding Company. Within six months, the theatre had also changed its name. From this brief look at The Morosco Theatre ----------------------------------------------------------------- 523- between 1926 and 1927, one gathers a picture of the kind of theatrical entertainment which audiences enjoyed and patronized at the popular-priced theatres. The Morosco Theatre audience enjoyed going to the theatre— for many it must have been a fortnightly jaunt on Sunday afternoon or evening— to view optimistic plays which confirmed their comfortable life style, and which were not exorbitantly priced. Even Variety had observed that the theatre enjoyed a consistent patronage.228. However, apparently the maintenance of the theatre became a burden to The Morosco Holding Company, and on January 1, 1928, Gerhold 0. Davis, lessee of The Mayan Theatre, assumed control. An era had closed. The Egan Theatre Given the growing sophistication in theatrical tastes across the country and in the city, the growing local population and continued influx of tourists to the area, plus the expansion of theatrical operations in the city, one might have assumed that Frank Egan would utilize his 334-seat theatre in an imaginative production program. Rather, he chose to offer wholesome comedies. He replaced White Collars after 1,072 performances ------------------------------------------------------------------52^ with Charm, a comedy which lauded the "attractions of small town life." It opened to a small but responsive audience and continued for eight weeks— an achievement considering its nostalgic mode. In early fall, when Egan was struck with typhoid fever, White Collars was revived for another twenty-six weeks. Following his recovery, Applesauce, seen earlier at The Morosco, took to the boards. In the eighth week of the run, on March 15, 1927, Frank Cullen Egan died following a sudden heart attack. He left his estate, including the theatre and the school, to Mrs. Harriet C. Bentel, wife of George Bentel, former head of The Morosco Holding Company who had been sentenced to prison following the investigation into the bankrupt cor poration. His only surviving brother contested the will.229 Lee Parvin continued to manage The Egan, and at least for the remainder of the year, the theatre was not engaged by any garden-variety producer, actress desirous of displaying her newly-acquired talents, or huckster "in" for the quick buck with salacious material. Lucille LaVerne moved her production of Sun-Up from The Mason, where it played an additional fifteen weeks, interrupted for a one-week run of Ghosts.229 Then, on 527 October 4, 1927, she unveiled a new work, Salt Chunk Mary, set in Pocatello, Idaho. The ponderously sentimental melodrama gave the actress a colorful role as the good- hearted proprietoress who determines to save a young member of the gang using the hotel as a hideout. The show con- 231 tinued for nine weeks. By the end of 1927, all of the early shapers of Los Angeles theatre had passed from the scene or were no longer effective forces— Thomas Wilkes, Oliver Morosco, and Frank Egan. The Belmont Theatre One of the clearest examples of the foolhardy, optimistically naive endeavors which vexed the theatrical scene in Los Angeles in the later years of this period and which contributed to the over-saturation was the undertak ing sponsored by Ruth Helen Davis and her husband, Dr. C. H. Archibald. The Belmont Theatre, which had opened on March 2, 1926, was the fourth movie house dedicated by The West Coast Theatres, Inc. in sixty days. Located at First Street and Vermont Avenue in a neighborhood area approxi mately three miles from downtown Los Angeles, the theatre 528 seated approximately 1,600 in a balcony and main floor, and contained a stage, described as "unusually large, in 232 breadth and depth.” Sometime toward the end of the year, Miss Davis leased the theatre. A graduate of Hunter College, New York City, she had studied with George Pierce Baker and Ada Dow, and had worked with Frank Benson and Ellen Terry. Her husband had invested in eastern theatre productions.233 They announced their plans to stage popu lar plays at popular prices (fifty cents to one dollar, evening). The first neighborhood legitimate theatre in Los Angeles opened on January 16, 1927, with Sitting Pretty, by Miss Davis, a comedy-farce-travesty of a female rancher who crashes New York society. The novelty of the undertaking, a new play, and a cast which featured several film actors kept the show going for three weeks, with healthy grosses ($10,500 for two weeks reported). The next two shows also featured film actors. James Kirkwood and his wife, Lila Lee, starred in The Fool and The Man Who Came Back, but neither fared well at the box office. As a consequence, the lessees decided to offer a wide variety of plays in two-week engagements. A theater is like a grocery store or a cigar counter. If you keep the sort of goods the people wish they will come to you r e g u l a r l y .234 529 With this supermarket attitude, only the most attractively wrapped package— one guaranteed to satiate the appetite without disturbing the mind— was certain to please. Smilin* Through brought Wyndham Standing to the stage in a role he had created in the silent film version. Red Kisses, a new smorgasbord burlesque of all tropical melodramas, had only one merit— "a native chorus" which sashayed through "everything from the hula to the black bottom, and how!"235 The Best People introduced Mrs. Reginald Denny to the Los Angeles stage, and was preceded by a curtain raiser of scenes from The Merchant of Ven- 1 ice. In May, Franklin Pangborn joined the group for Ladies Night and Charley1s Aunt. Finally, during the week of June 12, 1927, a summer policy of vaudeville and films was initiated. Then, sometime toward the latter part of July, the lessees brought into their theatre one of the more successful tent companies in Southern California— 2 *37 Horace Murphy's Comedians. The metropolitan dailies did not cover his offering(s), but an article in the August 24, 1927, issue of Variety detailed the reasons for his success with East Is West (fifth week): prices— family circle at 20<r, main floor and loges at 50<r policy— weekly change of program with two shows 530 nightly, at 7:15 and 9:15 a five-piece orchestra heavy on brass conversion of the theatre into an atmosphere appro priate to the play (oriental garb on usher ettes, vague Oriental-ish decor) the sale of candy between acts blatant, stereotyped playing— Murphy as villain, Charlie Yang, "looked like an Irish burlesque comedian, but he got almost all the laughs."228 That the policy met with Miss Davis1 sanction if not her artistic approval is certain since she made a pitch for her school between the acts. In such fashion, The Belmont subsisted. As the year progressed, it also became obvious that The Belmont was functioning very much like a neighborhood movie theatre which showed a film after its first-run engagement (see Appendix— Day Book, October 30 through December, 1927, for offerings). In January, 1928, the theatre celebrated its one- year anniversary, and throughout the early part of the new year staged familiar plays, a few classics, an occasional new work, and introduced film actors. By summer, The Bel mont was dark. What the brief "legitimizing" of The Belmont signi fied is best understood in terms of the larger context. The theatre became available in the "down period" of the movie industry and was an astute maneuver on the part of 531 the owners to keep it occupied. As a legitimate theatre, it capitalized on the appearances of film actors to draw audiences. But The Belmont added to the fragmentation of the potential market by drawing off audiences from The Vine Street, The Hollywood Playhouse, and The El Capitan, in particular. The Philharmonic Auditorium and The Shrine Auditorium Given the increased availability of theatres, it is not surprising that The Philharmonic was not used extensively for theatrical productions, although it con tinued to house community pageants, dance troupes, and operatic aggregations. However, in September, 1926, L. E. Behymer pre sented Blanche Bates and Margaret Anglin. The size of the theatre curtailed the chances that the engagement would be financially successful. Additionally, the four-play repertory consisting of Footloose, The Texas Nightingale, Candida, and Peg the Actress and Caroline was sandwiched 239 m between other events. Nevertheless, the personal magnetism and skill of the actresses supported by a well- rounded company, stimulated critics and patrons. The major competitor for attractions suitable to CHART 18 THE SHRINE AUDITORIUM OWNERS The Al-Malaikah Temple. BACKGROUND Second structure known as The Shrine Auditorium; first burned on January 11, 1920. First intended primarily as a meeting place for fraternal functions. Second conceived as serving the needs of the community. DESIGNERS John C. W. Austin and Gustave Albert Lansburgh (designed interior of The El Capitan, and other theatres around the country). COMPLEX Auditoriurn part of a complex which included an adjacent banqueting hall. Seating Capacity Main floor— 3,337; balcony— 3,29 4; total (at the opening)— 6,631. Balcony— span of 168'-0". Stage 72'-0" deep, 192'-0" wide. Proscenium arch— 100'0" wide, 37'0" high at its crown. Dressing Rooms on four levels. U1 u> to CHART 18— Continued Cheryl R. Wilber, "A Phoenix Comes to Rest: The History of the Los Angeles Shrine Civic Auditorium" treats at length and in detail about the acoustics, lighting, features of the stage, etc.24l < j i co to 534 large auditoriums was the new Shrine Auditorium, which opened on January 23, 1926, with an extravagant revue, featuring many film stars (the private opening had been held on January 16, 1926). In October, 1926, The Los Angeles Grand Opera Company presented eleven performances at this auditorium, returning the following fall. But the most profitable event to utilize the auditorium in its early years was the five-week engagement of The Miracle, 243 which grossed $501,850, according to Variety. The pro duction, which had been guaranteed for $40,000 by a group of prominent civic leaders, headed by Harry Chandler, received coverage in the metropolitan newspapers from March through its opening. The Miracle, priced from $1.10 to $4.40, evoked glowing accolades from the critics: Drama became a series of vitalized throbbing pictures before [one's] eyes— a blending of strange somber processions, a verbal poem of romance, a fantastic and barbaric ceremonial in the wedding scene, a majestic and superb climax of gilded pomp and circumstance, and all the while a veritable juggernaut of humanity moving constantly and con stantly under the momentous inspiration of a genius mind.2*4 Most newspapers carried separate reviews of the play's theatrical and musical components, and Bruno David-Ussher, of The Evening-Express, after comprehensive analysis of Humperdinck's techniques (the sources he adapted, the use 535 of the Wagnerian leit-motif for each character, etc.) declared finally— with some obvious reluctance— that "The music meets and propels the stage action, but rarely does it measure up to the inward, mystic momentousness of the 2 4 6 stage symbolism." In late 1927, the A1 Malaikah Temple formed a light opera company, tinder the general direction of Frank M. Rainger, with Edward Rowland (formerly associated with The Hollywood Playhouse) as general manager. Beginning December 26, 192 7, and for the next ten weeks, they staged a different light opera or musical comedy, weekly. Theatre on the Fringe Even while activity in the commercial field thrived during these years, theatrical involvement in smaller producing units was as active and in many ways more vital, whether occurring in a series of matinee perform ances, among ethnic enclaves, or little theatre groups. Matinee Theatre Performances One of the most interesting developments on the local theatrical scene was a reflection of a similar occurrence in New York, although its inception was prompted by different motives. During 192 7, a series of matinee 536 performances of works generally considered lacking commer cial viability was instituted by Dickson Morgan. In New York, the practice of staging classical plays had become a successful way of keeping these works in the "living museum of theatre" and of stretching actors' talents. Dickson Morgan initiated the practice in February, 1927, with All God's Chillun Got Wings (February 22, 23, and 25), when, rejected as director for The Vine Street Theatre, he approached A. G. Wilkes with this alterna tive.24^ Large, receptive audiences greeted the play, which Schallert felt was melodramatic and resolved with a vague ending "in the O'Neill fashion," although Lathrop thought it "a truthful working out of a tragic, distress ing situation."247 one of the most jarring practices was the use of a Caucasian actor in the lead role. The audi ence applauded the undertaking at length— perhaps one indication that a hunger for this kind of theatre existed. The show moved to The El Capitan for three additional performances (May 6, 12, and 13) and to The Majestic for a three-week engagement in June. Whether because of the warm response to his first undertaking, or because he was shut out from producing- directing on a full-time basis, Morgan then offered 517 Loyalties (six performances at The El Capitan) starring Charles Quartermain and Mary Forbes, plus Arthur Lubin, Cyril Chadwick, Carla King, Lawrence Grant, Eric Snowden, and others. The play, the acting, and the production all garnered praise: I do not know of any play that I have seen in months from which I have derived more personal pleasure, nor of any performance which was in so large a majority of its aspects s a t i s f y i n g . 248 Arguing for and against the loyalties of race and class, veering from angles of prejudices to those of hatred and esprit de corps, the drama reveals pitilessly the frail standards of human ity and the slender fabric on which social conven tions are established.249 The newspapers again commented on the large crowds in at tendance: "The elite of the city's intellectual throng these matinees." Its gross was $9,000. The production also filled a two-week engagement at The Vine Street Theatre. Regrettably, it was the last venture Dickson Morgan sponsored for the next few years. Irving Pichel, however, carried on the practice with his offering of Caesar and Cleopatra (November 28, 29, December 1, and 2, 1927, The El Capitan).25® The play's humor, satire, and intelligence brought out by Pichel, Violet Wilson, C. Quartermain, M. Shaw, and others, delighted the auditors, even if lengthy scene changes 538 blunted the overall impact of the play. The sheer logis tics of undertaking such a production while sharing a stage with The Duffy Players performing ten times weekly is a mark of the dedication or daffiness of those determined, dogged theatre people. In the end, such handicaps wore down the determination. As spasmodic as these efforts to realize literary theatre on the professional level may seem, there is a thin "through-line." In the early years, the undertakings of Pole, Zacsek, and others were continued by The Harlequin Little Theatre and supplemented by The Hollywood Community Theatre. In late 1923, The Fine Arts Theatre attempted to build a west-coast Theatre Guild. When their plans fal tered, The Hollywood Art Theatre came upon the scene and in May, 1925, staged Liliom at The Hollywood High School Auditorium for one week (Arthur Lubin, Adda Gleason, Rhea Mitchell, Lloyd Corrigan, etc.).2^^ In October of that year, the group was incorporated and began seeking a suitable theatre for its operations. Toward that end, The Hollywood Art Theatre sponsored two productions, both staged at The Hollywood Bowl— Julius Caesar and Robin Hood. The first was a mind-boggling extravaganza, with an all- star cast (numbering 1,500) , spread over seven and one-half 539 acres of the hills, which Variety described in this fashion: They took a stage that would hold two ordinary theatres. They assembled a cast that looked like an Equity benefit. They built life-sized sets of the Forum, battlefield, Senate and soldiers' camp. They made the hugest production of "Julius Caesar" . . . America has ever seen. They played it for two nights before audiences of 18,000 to 20,000. And they still call it the "Little Theatre."222 With the production of Robin Hood, the group suffered a financial set-back.222 The Hollywood Art Theatre ceased operations. However, many of the people involved became active participants in the Matinee performances, and later, in The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre. National/Ethnic Theatre Groups In addition to The Matinee performances, and the occasional meritorious outcroppings around the city (for example, J. S. McGroarty, author of The Mission Play and La Golondrina, penned Jan, a poetic treatise on the futility of war; Mrs. Florence Dobinson continued her efforts to arouse appreciation for Stephen Phillips by mounting The Sin of David; a Shakespeare (reading) series was held every Monday at The Biltmore Hotel; The Fine Arts ----------------- - - - 5?0 Forum presented a repertory of five classical plays in the spring of 1926, concluding with Ghosts) the city could claim, if it did not exactly nourish, several national theatre groups. None of them achieved the status of com parable organizations in the larger eastern metropolises, in part because these minority enclaves were small, and in part because geography dispersed their number and impact. However, in early 1926, The Times devoted a lengthy article to several of these groups: two Italian companies (Compania Dramatic Italiana and Italica Arta Company); a Polish troupe; at least three Mexican companies, which usually staged their productions in small motion-picture theatres; a Chinese aggregation; and a Yiddish company which had leased the former Capitol Theatre at 338 South Spring Street.2^ Certainly, these were not the only such organizations and brief notice was taken of German, Russian, Hungarian, French, and Swedish groups as well. Most of the production units used The Gamut Club until it was torn down, seriously undercutting the chances of establishing a centrally-located, uniquely-focused play- 255 house for these productxons. One of the more intriguing pages in the history of theatre in Los Angeles during this decade is the 541 activity of various Yiddish Theatre groups. In July, 1925, The Hebrew Actors’ Union in New York had announced that a Jewish Theatre was to be established in Los Angeles under the artistic direction of Jacob Goldstein, with Morris Nasatir as general director. The first all-Yiddish stock company in Los Angeles opened at The Capitol Theatre on September 20, 1925, with The Rabbi's Homestead.255 By March, however, the company encountered financial problems, and floated a stock issue which the local Jewish community o c 7 readily supported. In May, the well-known actor, Boris Thomasevsky opened an engagement of The Jolly Cantor, a musical comedy, one week later presenting The Golden OC Q Thread, an operetta. But in August, 1926, The Yiddish Company went into bankruptcy, and the theatre was closed temporarily. One month later it was announced that it would reopen with The Rumanian Wedding and throughout 1928, at least, the theatre was used by various troupes, many of whom were "road companies" from the east.259 However, The Yiddish Theatre failed to make a place in the theatrical history of the city comparable to that of New York. The reasons might easily constitute another investigation. While the individual of Jewish heritage had been a noticeable and leading contributor to 542 the city's early professional life, in the 1920's he became 260 the victim of subtle prejudice and pressure. By this time, moreover, two separate and distant "neighborhoods" had taken shape— the Boyle Heights district and the west- side area around Santa Monica, Wilshire, Fairfax, and La- Cienega Avenues. The latter area was settled largely by second-generation Jews, whose identification with the arts probably differed from that of their parents' generation which viewed the theatre not only as a means of employment, and a channel for preserving the culture, but also as a meeting place. Certainly many of the artists and manage ment personnel in the film industry were Jews. However, their support of theatre was minimal in part because the industry's executives maintained New York residences in the early years of this decade; in part because it is unlikely that these artists of Jewish heritage had more than minimal contact with the community which gave rise to such enterprises; and in part because the trend was toward absorption and assimilation particularly as the industry entered the "talker era" and the movie colony took on an air of respectability. These reasons and speculations only graze the situ ation, but one is left with the strong feeling that in the 543 Los Angeles of The Twenties, Jew and non-Jew was more interested in establishing his place in America's Eden than in staunchly maintaining ways of enriching the fabric of 261 the community through his peculiar heritage. In addition to these aggregations, two producing groups continued the successful pursuits which had brought them to the attention of Los Angeles theatre-goers earlier in the decade— The Writers Club and The Potboilers. The Writers Club From the tentative efforts of its first productions in 1922, The Writers Club had expanded into a series of monthly offerings, usually with one or two presentations in the fall, and regular monthly offerings throughout the late winter and early spring. With its fifth season, the group which had varied its format considerably throughout the previous year, returned to its more usual format. While the September and October offerings featured one- act plays probably familiar to most of the viewers,2®2 the November program was decidedly unique, for all of the plays were penned by resident authors, all were models of different genres, and all were performed by newcomers and troupers. Ambush, by Rupert Hughes, dealt with the Civil ------------------------------------------------------------------5^7 War; The Ruby/ by Adam Hull Shirk, was a mystery-melodrama set in Los Angeles; A Man of Peace, by Joe Jackson, was a drama; and Burglars Prefer Twin Beds, by Harold Shumate, a comedy. Florence Lawrence pronounced the evening "a bril liant closeup of the latent power which is right here in Los Angeles," and went on to reflect: It is a splendid precedent. It should be fol lowed up by more of such efforts. Members of The Writers should be urged and encouraged to develop material for these plays. They should be exploited by the club, which is organizaed first of all to bring writers together and to aid and abet their best interest . . . How interesting if that group would constitute itself a real production unit.263 The next two programs partly sustained Miss Lawrence's hope since they balanced familiar pieces with works offered by club members. Donald Crisp, actor and director, contributed The Hold-up, and Empty Arms to the January program, and the March offering contained three "black-outs" and a tone poem about war seen through the eyes of three soldiers "born into eternity." The Margaret Houghton piece was the hit of the evening "which held the audience spellbound."26^ However, it was the quality of performances and the renewed acquaintanceship with good drama which provided pleasure in the April program. Henry Kolker in A Game of Chess, and Fritz Feld in The Man in the Bowler Hat 5?5 contributed luminous performances, and even Florence Lawrence admitted that the plays were "above par in variety and quality." But she felt that the writers were lax in their goals: We don't expect authors to act, although some of them do. But when it comes to writing, that's another story. The Writers' Club, however, evi dently believes that it should depend entirely on actors for its genuine entertainment. Writers pay the bills, eat their luncheons in the club, and buy tickets for the monthly or thereabouts performances of one-act plays; but they don't write— at least not for the club. . . . But despite the fact that within the membership list of this club are some of the most famous writers in the country, not one local author was represented on the program.265 If the club members were anxious about their limited contributions to the dramatic treasury, they nonetheless exhibited little desire to alter the pattern. The May program featured only one play by a club member and that was not a new work. The season concluded with two products of local pens. Neither received lengthy critical evaluation. When the series was revived in September, 1927, the four works offered were guaranteed to awaken interest. U.S.A. (Universal Sex Appeal), by Roland Bottomley, and Cupboard Love, by Eliot Crawshay-Williams provided the 546 comic relief, but it was the serious works which contrib uted outstanding characters and aroused emotional involve ment. Of particular merit was Martin Flavin's new play, Casualties, a probing character study of a young woman's resentment of the poverty in which she and her war-gassed husband live, and her fragile attempts to break free by taking a lover.26^ The October offering was cut to the familiar pat- 26 8 tern of known works fascinatingly portrayed. In order to provoke new works a contest was sponsored, and December disclosed two original pieces: The Little Colonel and A Cup of Tea. Ironically, The Times review, while taking note of these original contributions and their casts, focused upon 0. R. Cohen's Shakespearean parody, The Melancholy Dane, 269 set m Ethiopia. Florence Lawrence was fully attuned to the bleakness of the situation, and commenced her article by quoting Jessie Arnold who served on the play selection committee: "Ever since this prize has been offered by the club . . . there seems to be slight interest in creating sketches, playlets or even black-outs. Many contributions are received— but they come from outsiders."2^ She then offered at least one reason for the embarrassing disinclination: 547 Many of the writers apparently can't take the time to polish and shape and carve their work with cameo precision. They prefer to block out their lines on a grand scale and leave the details to studio director and cutting room.2^ If the writers showed a disinterest in producing for their own organization, they manifested no such disin clination in supporting the efforts of others. Thus, January's program contained three familiar works, and Thou Shalt Not Trespass, by Emmett Corrigan, which provided him with a powerful role.2^2 The final offering just possibly unveiled two new pieces: Immortal Youth, by Rupert Hughes, which The Times reviewer considered an ambi tious but sophomoric attempt at sentimental drama; and Troupers, by Patsy Grey Ingersoll, a humorous, poignant look at Los Angeles theatre in midsummer during the "in- 273 between season." At the end of June, 1928, The Writers Club was invited to participate in The Little Theatre Conference at The Pasadena Playhouse, where it presented A Pound of Flesh, Buying a Gun, Smarty1s Party, Immortal Youth, and Troupers. Certainly the invitation was recognition of the the consistently fine productions staged at the club, regardless of the small contribution made by members to the evenings. However, it is doubtful whether the group ever seriously conceived of itself as a producing unit of original plays. Although it would have seemed the logical place for such creative work, the urge or compunction was not one which most members felt impelled to fulfill. Nevertheless, The Writers' Club was one of the most consistent producing units in the city, and the plays which they staged, for the most part, held some intrinsic literary merit and were assured of professional, skilled performances and unusual staging. That the undertaking was insular is undeniable, but perhaps it managed to sur vive the decade precisely because of its restricted audi ence and prescribed goals. The Potboilers Having moved at least five times in their short life, the change of location to The Gamut Club should have been but one more "trial by fire" for the little theatre group whose adventures into the minds of the more daring and artistically stimulating playwrights had brought the efforts of The Potboilers to the attention of local theatre lovers and national observers. However, with its reloca tion (and perhaps because of it) at least three changes took place: there was a gradual shift away from the ---- 5 T 9 ~ playwrights of central and eastern Europe; there was a more obvious reliance upon professional players drawn largely from the film industry; and there was a change in manage ment. For its first offering at The Gamut, The Potboilers revived an earlier success, Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author,274 and followed it with O'Neill's expressionistic study of atavism, The Emperor Jones. The latter production satisfied both the large audience and the critics, and Monroe Lathrop felt that James B. Lowe's performance, despite its shortcomings (for example, halting transitions), outshone Charles Gilpin's in its magnetism, passion, and nervous mobility. Moreover, two other Pot boiler trademarks were much in evidence: superiority of ensemble work and inventive manipulation of large groups (director Ole M. Ness) . The show played for five nights.^^ But with these two offerings, the behind-the- scenes tensions began to affect the public offerings. The planned production of Kaiser's From Morn Till Midnight was cancelled, although the press was allowed to view a per formance— perhaps in the hope of averting speculation. The gesture failed. The Express reviewer wrote: "The production falls sadly below the usual standard of this 550 little group of theater art enthusiasts," and Billboard noted that it was the second time they had cancelled a production because it was not up to their usual stand ards. 276 But The Potboilers next action was even more dis turbing. In early May they returned to the "production of short comedies and plays of lighter vein" enacted by film actors. As The Express reviewer dryly commented: Clever comedies and movie stars on Friday and Saturday evening . . . marks a departure for Rus sell and Ness [producer, director] who have pro duced more than twenty full-length dramas in the past two years.277 In June they staged The Bells, but Ralph Ince's perform ance as Mathias, spoken with clarity and sensible intona tion, failed to stir the imagination, and Helen Brooks 2 78 looked chic but over-acted. Vitality and integrity were restored with Reginald Pole's production of Arnold Bettett's comedy of "mistaken identities," The Great Adventure, but the production of Pirandello's Pleasure of Honesty, planned for late June, was cancelled. July's performances of Salome only further 279 scarred their reputation. Cognizant that these lackluster productions were straining the resources of the group and decimating the 551 interest of their followers, Sigurd Russell formalized 280 plans to build a theatre. It never became a reality. Thus, stoked only by desperation, The Potboilers launched the fall season. R.U.R. had been seen in Los Angeles three years earlier at The Fine Arts Theatre, but this production was so compelling that, with unusual 281 unanimity, the critics praised it. Any foreboding about the integrity and the future of the group was suspended by its next four productions. Suderman's classic, Magda, received a "splendid production" 2 82 in Octoberand Leonid Andreyev's weird, sorrowful, and sardonic study of a banker who sinks gradually into a comatose state of depression, The Waltz of the Dogs, was "unsurpassed by anything this non-commercial theater has attempted.1,288 Three short weeks later, the group met the challenge of Shudraka's Little Clay Cart, which was enjoying a revival at the time in New York. But if The Potboilers seemed merely to be copying a current vogue, the atmos pheric staging and individualistic performances subordin ated withal to the overall aim of the play, contradicted any such thought. Critics were entranced by the play: "Frankly, I didn't expect such a fascinating melodrama, nor 552 so much gay comedy, nor so embellished a mood of fantasy in no a a dream so ancient." The announced six-day engagement was extended for four more performances the following week. The success of the Chinese melodrama did not alter their plans for Processional, which opened the following week (December 20-23, 25, 1926). Monroe Lathrop found the rollicking summation of American life enthusiastically realized, and even Edwin Schallert, who felt that the play appealed more to the intellect than to the emotions, appre- 285 ciated the considerable efforts of the group. The Pot boilers seemed to be in its element again. However, with a kind of historical prescience, Sigurd Russell resigned as manager-producer of The Potboilers at the end of the 286 year. During the reorganization which followed, The Potboilers sponsored two productions whose antithetical artistic positions expressed the group's uncertain goals. In January, they offered The Gay Gnani, a kindly satire of Los Angeles' great outdoor sport— the selling of real estate. The cast was drawn "almost entirely of motion 287 picture folk." In complete contrast, Paul Spier staged the American premiere of StanisTaw Przybyszewski's psy chological treatise of four people seeking happiness ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 553- outside marriage— For Happiness. The Express reviewer felt certain that while it probably appealed to the self-analyt ical bent of the Slavic temperament, it seemed "morbidly unwholesome" to the more volatile Anglo-Saxon.^®® In February, the group announced a new board and, two months later, also changed its name. The Litcle Thea tre of Los Angeles was guided by a board of directors which included Ralph Ince, Henry Kolker, Francis X. Bushman, Maurice Barbour, Dorothy Farnum, and others. Its first production, Pirandello's The Pleasure of Honesty, was greeted by a large audience, but Variety observed that if the group continued to use screen actors, the need for long, "diligent, penetrating rehearsals" would have to be attended to.^®9 In July, "This . . . little theater of the motion picture folk," repudiating The Potboiler's previous "bias heretofore in favor of foreign drama," mounted its second production. A Man's Man was Patrick Kearney's satire of the American's compulsive need to define himself by joining groups. Directed by the author and greeted by the now- standard audience of film notables, the production 290 dragged. One month later they unveiled their version of Savoir's satirical fable, The Lion Tamer, and in October, ....... 53^ they presented Molnar's Fashions for Men/ which only evoked criticism about the miscasting, the badly spoken and/or forgotten lines, and the poorly-realized character izations : If it is the purpose of this organization of play enthusiasts to amuse themselves with rehears als, they have perhaps accomplished their design. If they aim to present modern drama in present- day form, their performance last night shows a wide divergence on this mark.291 Nothing further was heard from The Little Theater for several months. Then, toward the end of the year, they reappeared. Absent from the November presentation were actors whose previous experience had been limited largely to the "silent camera." The Great Catherine and The Artist featured Hedwiga Reicher, Eugene Gowing, Bert Sprotte, and Fritz Feld. Packed houses valued the change, responding to the wit, the delectable characters, and artistic per- poo formances. The final presentation was a fitting denouement to The Potboilers' vexed existence. The Jest, a vehicle for the Barrymores earlier in the decade, depicted the turbu lent hatred and bitter intrigue in the court of the 293 Medicis. It offered "a rare treat to theatergoers." In ------------------------------------------------------------------ 535 April, 1928, Frayne Williams and Eneida DeCassan presented a dramatic reading of The Master Builder. The following week, the Gamut Club was razed and The Potboilers faded out (but not away). Not again in this decade did there exist a producing group so dedicated to the incarnation of the intellectually and artistically provocative works of continental and American playwrights. The Potboilers had begun as a coterie organization devoted to the recreation of those works which stated a unique position and/or which offered suitable challenge for the acting-directing-design skills of the group. Gradually, as a greater number recognized their personal vision, if they did not always understand or transform it, their efforts increased and they became "popular." Yet, at this stage, they still man aged to retain their maverick point of view. However, three factors conjoined to dilute their efforts. First, the group found no permanent home for their presentations. As they matured, when a playhouse of their own might have provided them with a base necessary for continuous experi mentation, funds were not forthcoming and sponsors were virtually nonexistent. Second, the group tolerated the incorporation of film actors within its ranks. The move may have been one of expedience (the film performers may 556 have been a source of financial support), but given the difference in goals and training, production standards were lowered. Further, regardless of the sincerity of these performers, their support was too often too much like dilettantism. Regrettably, the view proved correct, and The Potboilers suffered through these actors' well-inten tioned efforts. Third, the group was looked upon as a stepping stone to employment in the expanding commercial theatre and movie industry--a fact which Billboard com mented upon. And even if this were not the major consider ation, the commercial theatre in its enviable position of being able to pay its performers, skimmed off The Pot- OQ A boilers' forces. Unlike other organizations with simi lar ambitions (for example, The Theatre Guild), The Potboilers' kind of product was not emulated nor reproduced on the professional commercial stage in Los Angeles. Moreover, The Potboilers did not set itself in competition with the commercial stage. Nevertheless, the "competition" undermined it just as thoroughly. The Garret Club One other group certainly contributed to the rich ness of little theatre offerings in the city during these 557 years. An outgrowth of The Seven Arts Playhouse, organized in May, 1924, the Garrett Club primarily staged one-act plays, and occasionally "experimented" with full-length productions. In February, 1925, they offered St. John Irvine's The Ship, and in October, tackled Bergstrom's Karen Bornemann, which they accomplished with "professional strength and admirable poise." By this time, they had expanded to three performances per production, and metro politan dailies noted that they were rapidly developing 29 6 "a metier of speed and dramatic assurance." In May, 1926, they essayed Suderman's The Fires of St. John, a production "worth seeing," which played for six perform ances. That July, "the cut-ups of the local little theatre," offered their version of the past season with their Garrett Gaities.2^8 With the new year, they undertook the presentation of a trilogy of representative American plays: the western premiere of A Man's Man, Anna Christie, and Lewis Beach's A Square Peg. Throughout the year, they continued staging American playwrights (August— The Old Soak) and premiered one work which later was presented on the commercial stage in Los Angeles and in New York, Edward Clark's Relations. However, by February, 1928, information about their 558 activities (or lack of) was no longer printed. While the group never assumed the importance of The Potboilers, in its unpretentious manner it essayed a representative number of playwrights, and in its emphasis upon American writers, complemented the focus of The Potboilers. By July, 1926, it was estimated that the group had produced no less than 200 one-act plays. The cessation of its activity was a further raveling of the theatrical fabric of Los Angeles. Summary and Conclusion Nothing distinguishes these two years— 1926 and 1927— more clearly than the completion and opening of six new playhouses, the erection of a new theatre for The Mission Play (San Gabriel), the dedication of the new Shrine Auditorium, and the conversion of a former movie theatre into a legitimate playhouse. Locally, conditions were conducive to the broaden ing of the theatrical milieu. Having survived the reces sion of 1924-1925, and having wallowed through the real estate-oil-construction speculation of the earlier years of the decade, the city set about attending to the state of public and private cultural institutions (libraries, galleries, civic center, etc.). The population continued 559 to mount, albeit more slowly, and following the scare of the hoof-and-mouth disease and the plague, tourists once again inundated the area, in numbers surpassing anything witnessed in the previous five years, according to one OQQ journal. ^ Los Angeles had established that it could and would support long-run engagements, and, given the presence of a colony of stationary actors and technical artists, it appeared feasible that a regional center for theatre could be established. To these factors was added the one necessary requisite— the willingness of local capital to invest in theatre. This latter need was met and six new playhouses thrust their shadows across the landscape. Each shared certain similarities, some of which suggest the degree of competition which they provided for one another, others hint at the band-wagon psychology which motivated the projects and contributed to the ill-defined nature of responsibility between the owner(s) and the lessee(s)- producer(s) . Each of these new playhouses was sponsored in part or in total by individuals with long-standing commitments to the community. In a very real sense, this initiative is an outstanding example of how Los Angeles differed from other metropolises which also experienced a similar expansion in theatrical activities. The theatres erected in Los Angeles (with the exception of The Biltmore) were not western extensions of eastern theatrical real estate empires (for example, Erlanger, Shubert, Cohan, Woods, S. Harris, etc.). Each of the four new theatres located in Hollywood was part of the development of a particular section, for each stood at a crucial location in the cross-shaped area where the greatest amount of real estate expansion occurred— Hollywood and Vine, "The Heart of Hollywood": The El Capitan at the western extremity of Hollywood Boulevard since marked with star-studded side walks, The Music Box at the eastern extremity; The Vine Street Theatre south of the boulevard on Vine, The Holly wood Play House north of the boulevard. Each was built by individuals who either had settled the region and held extensive land holdings and/or who had displayed a history of civic interest. This was equally true of the two new theatres in Los Angeles. Each of the theatres was built by one set of indi viduals and leased to another set, with the exception of The Hollywood Playhouse. This suggests that, while these structures were a tribute to the intent of local citizens to enrich the cultural life of their community and might be 561 considered a mark of the spirit of free enterprise without ties to eastern capital, eastern producers, or eastern influences, they were, nevertheless, real estate invest ments. No one of the builder(s)-owners, with the possible exception of E. L. Doheny and C. E. Toberman (The Belasco and The El Capitan, respectively), ever permitted a lapse in the lease arrangements or in other ways made conces sions to the producer(s)-lessees(s). The Hollywood Playhouse and The Music Box Theatre provide illuminating insight into the peculiarity of the local situation. Both theatres were leased and operated by corporations, but whereas the former was sponsored by representatives drawn from every station, status, and profession and was the only attempt to evoke community participation in a commercial theatre, the latter was promoted by a group of movie personnel. However, both corporations assumed that their theatrical investment, if not exactly profit-making, would at least be adequate to keep the venture healthy. They failed to comprehend fully that investment in theatre rarely pays a dividend. Each of the theatres was directed, managed, or leased by men with considerable previous theatrical experi ence, but in the case of The Mayan and The Vine Street _ g _ Theatres the experience was more remote than real, whereas the affairs of The El Capitan and The Hollywood Playhouse were overseen by men whose experience had been garnered in large eastern metropolises whose theatrical activity antedated the explosion of the Twenties. Their perception of the area, the background of theatre in Los Angeles, and the composition of its populace was derived from recent exposure. Each of the new theatres set itself up as a pro duction house, devoted to the presentation of shows new to the area, with casts assembled for that particular production, in an open-ended engagement. Each intended to produce recent New York plays, contemporaneous with their eastern showing or as soon as rights could be obtained. The productions usually featured stars from the eastern engagement or actors of comparable stature. Even The Hollywood Music Box Theatre was an attempt to transplant the intimate revue to western soil. The idea of Los Ange les as a production center second only to New York had been realized— in a special interpretation of that phrase: new theatres, productions of recent Broadway hits (no waiting upon a road-company retread), star performers, long-run engagements. 563 Thus, The El Capitan Theatre opened with Chariot* s Revue, which had closed in New York only two months earlier and had played only brief engagements enroute to the coast (for example, one month in Chicago). Of the eleven pro ductions essayed at the playhouse in these two years, two were drawn from the 1926-27 season, six were taken from 1925-26, and two from 1924-25. No new works were under taken, and most of the productions featured stars. The Music Box's sole reason for becoming a reality was to stage intimate revues, with local talent and occa sional eastern stars. When the city’s only attempt at this sophisticated and technically demanding form was abandoned early in 1927 and plays and musical comedies were introduced, three were representatives of the 1926-27 season, and one was drawn from the prior season. The Belasco Theatre opened with a production intro duced in New York only a month and a half earlier, but in its year and one-half span, it mounted only one other work from the 1926-27 season. Nevertheless, while it seemed less addicted to the "recentness rage," it found it no less difficult to obtain rights to plays. Moreover, its venture into the area of new works proved remarkably successful, two plays filling twenty-five of the total sixty-one weeks 564 of production. However, by the time the last three playhouses opened in 1927, the "fever" for works running on Broadway was pandemic. The Vine Street Theatre opened in January, 1927, and its first three productions were plays then cur rent or just closed on Broadway. The Hollywood Playhouse which lit its'marquee one week after The Vine Street opened with a production from the 1925-2 6 season, but that featured the star of the New York engagement, and was followed by three works drawn from the 1926-27 season. The Mayan, which did not open until August, premiered with a musical comedy from the 1926-27 year, which had closed two months earlier in the east. This scrambling for plays fresh from Broadway, which had allegedly been initiated by Louis 0. Macloon and his associate Edward D. Smith with their offerings of No, No, Nanette and Lady Be Good, was not an affliction confined to the newer playhouses."^®® For example, at The Figueroa Street Playhouse, leased through 1926 by Macloon, five of the thirteen offerings were taken from the years 1926-27 and 1925-26. At The Morosco Theatre, a stock company, sixteen of the thirty-seven shows came from these two seasons. The Biltmore offered twenty shows, eleven of 565 which were recent Broadway hits. Throughout these years, there were a number of productions presented by specially- cast companies intended for open-ended engagements on the coast. Some of these companies were organized by New York producers, but others were sponsored by "independent producers" with or without an affiliation to another Los Angeles playhouse (for example, Macloon while leasing one theatre frequently presented shows at other playhouses; Kolb and Dill, however, who backed two shows at The Mason, were not connected with a local house). Moreover, of the road shows which played The Biltmore in these years, the majority included the stars of the original production, whereas at The Mason, eight of the fourteen productions were drawn from the seasons between 1925 and 1927. Indeed, excluding the new works, just slightly less than one-half of the total number of productions staged in these two years— eighty-six of the total of 182— were products of the 1927-28, 1926-27, or 1925-26 New York seasons. The claim that Los Angeles was a theatrical production center seemed more than boastful banter. However, the situation contained the organisms of self-deterioration. Granted that Los Angeles could tap a sizable permanent and transient population, willing 566 to be liberal with its money; assuming that its economy was stable and healthy, if tinged with the ever-present speculative urge; given that it could claim several new playhouses devoted to the spoken drama each built by local capital, an ample number of actors whose number was swelled by others, and an impressive coterie of backstage artisans; conceding that the stagehands' requirements were less stringent in Los Angeles than in San Francisco, other factors, within and outside, the profession limited the chances that the healthy adolescent would realize a mature adulthood. In 1925, Brock Pemberton, New York producer, had pin-pointed the dilemma: "... unless the hinterland breaks the habit of playing copycat [to the New York stage] . . . the future of the stage art is not rosy."^®^ The copy-cat syndrome afflicted both producers and audiences. Los Angeles producers scrambled for the rights to contem porary New York productions and in so doing inflated the demands of New York producers,, which were frequently out landish if not exorbitant. Florence Lawrence in the early spring of 1927 stated that "Los Angeles is setting a pace in play production that will soon eat up all the New York 30 3 - • successes." She went on to draw the pungent, meaningful 567 comparison regarding the attitude of eastern producers: they looked upon Los Angeles as a revived gold ore vein. Given the eroding situation in New York, with plays lasting a shorter period of time and playhouses once deemed insuf ficient in number standing vacant, and a similar symbiotic situation in Chicago, the increased interest and activity in Los Angeles was "gravy" to the eastern producer. By July, 1927, local producers were complaining about the prohibitive demands of the New York producers: outright bonuses of five to ten thousand dollars, royalties ranging 305 from fifteen to fifty per cent, plus authors' rights. Given the likelihood that the coast producer could afford these inordinate tithes, he was driven to make a success of his production in the two major coast cities, with the possibility of a few other scattered engagements. In other spots, he encountered stiff opposition from the movies. Either owners/managers of movie theatres booked a film version of the play in adjacent theatres, or movie- house syndicate owners refused to allow a road show to play an available theatre or demanded excessively high rental.^®® If a producer purchased the production rights for all the territory west of Denver, he also had to consider the dent which railroad fares, touring accommodations, stage crew 568 requirements, publicity, and so forth, would make in the profits. But the bind upon the potential producer was more complex than has thus far been indicated. The majority of producers was reluctant to try new works. Of the nineteen (my underline) new plays presented on the boards, excluding the musical revues which brings the number to twenty-four (Duchess of Pittsburgh counted in the 1924-25 season), only one enjoyed a lengthy engagement of seventeen weeks; only three completed runs of between eight to ten weeks, with three more filling engagements of six weeks; and one played for four weeks. Two more ran for three weeks, but eight closed after two-week periods, and one collapsed within the week (see Chart at end of Chapter). Considering only the thirteen major producing theatres at the time (excluding The Belmont, The Mission, The Philharmonic, and The Shrine), a rough average of two new offerings per theatre were essayed in these two years. Louis 0. Macloon committed to the staging of cur rent Broadway hits from the outset of his career in Los Angeles, stated that Los Angeles was in a transitory state and was not ready to produce new plays— yet. It had the actors necessary for productions, but he concluded that the 569 public needed to be educated to the theatre-going habit, anc that took money. Other producers confirmed a similar hesitancy, although stating various reasons for their posi tion. 30 7 The irony of the situation is not fully compre hended until one further recalls the presence in Los Ange les of a number of writers who had achieved success on the New York stage. Their creative fires were not stoked by the belated-prominence of the local theatre. Perhaps they did not consider the phenomenon seriously, viewing it as yet another example of "braggadocianism"— one as quickly deflated; perhaps they felt no compunction to write for the stage which they viewed with the world-wise superiority of an easterner. Perchance they feared an ostracism simi lar to that which Patterson Green said affected musical artists; As soon as an artist passes a fortnight here the rumor spreads that he is "local," with a result of hysteria comparable to witchcraft or pro-German ism. Artists take care to keep their presence un known. A summer in Los Angeles once it becomes known, has a paralyzing effect on the demand for an artist's services.308 These debilitating factors notwithstanding— the theatrically naive audience, the onus attached to the western artist, the theatrical owner's short-sighted ------------------------------------------------------------------ s w involvement limited to investment, the bind placed upon the local producers— Los Angeles was still ripe territory for many. Local favorites brought vehicles suited to their talents: for example, Kolb and Dill; The Duncan Sisters with Topsy and Eva; Anne Nichols with her own road company in Abie's Irish Rose; Lucille LaVerne whose production of Sun-Up established a following at The Egan. Ruth Helen Davis and her husband leased the former movie theatre, The Belmont, and openly directed their efforts at drawing a neighborhood audience. Henry "Terry" Duffy entered the local production scene, and set about establishing himself as the most comprehensive producer on the west coast. However, even as the theatrical scene expanded, so did the number of ill-conceived, artistically-retrograde number of productions. One overlooks here the questionable practicality of launching a theatre devoted solely to the expensive and technically-demanding musical comedy (The Mayan); or the introduction of a playhouse devoted to the musical revue which demanded a moderate-sized playhouse and a higher-priced admission ticket to meet the higher production costs, as well as an audience knowledgeable of current ideas, fads, gossip, etc.; or the undertaking of a stock company in a neighborhood theatre seating over 571 fifteen hundred people (The Belmont). Such theatrical presentations as The Ape, Joan of Arkansaw, Behind the Veil, Red Kisses, After 8 P.M.— ?, The Lucky Son of a Bishop, and others of their ilk, would never have seen the stage-side of an asbestos curtain if space and time and money had not been available. And with few exceptions, most of the theatres, old and new, were available. Of a total of one hundred and four production weeks, The Bilt- more was dark for fifteen weeks; The Majestic was shuttered for twenty-five weeks; The Mason was silent for twenty-nine weeks; and both The Figueroa Playhouse and The Orange Grove were dark for thirty-three weeks. Distressingly, The El Capitan was closed for thirty-three weeks out of a total of eighty-seven; The Music Box was shuttered for fourteen of the total of sixty-two production weeks; and The Vine Street was dark for twelve of its fifty weeks. The Belasco Theatre was dark only five days in its sixty-one weeks of production. The healthy state at this theatre was as much the result of the lessee's "connections" with New York producers and a production arrangement with Homer Curran in San Francisco, as it was due to the careful "middle-of-the- road" kind of play which they chose to produce and the lavish attention paid to their staging. The Morosco 57T Theatre was active for the entire two-year period. Unfor tunately, while it was a "paying concern," the theatre was given up by The Morosco Holding Company because of debts incurred in the bankruptcy suit. The Hollywood Playhouse was dark only five days, also, but its stable facade began to crumble by the end of the year. A like irregularity in production struck The Mayan in 192 8. Some of the newer products had merit, but given the increased competition and the overall improvement in pro duction standards, clumsy but well-intentioned plays were submerged within a few weeks. Moreover, increased avail ability of theatre space brought forth the voyeuristic work. The risqu4 but sanitary play had found a place in the theatrical lexicon long before the advent of A. H. Wood's bedroom farces, and it was tolerated for the cathar tic antiseptic that it was. The rare artistic work treat ing a taboo subject in an outrageous manner could call upon a respected historical lineage to support its integri ty. But during these years a shabbier product trading on entendres found a home in the theatre. There had been the tropical melodrama and the religious zealot pieces. But in 1926-1927, The Orange Grove Playhouse made a point of pre senting plays in as questionable taste as legal bounds 573 permitted, and sevdral playhouses introduced plays with provocative titles if not always permissive language and subject matter (for examples, After Eight P.M.— ?, Syn thetic Sin, Creoles, The Great Necker, Red Kisses, etc.). The musical revues of Michael Corpor or Will Morrissey, trailing in the vanguard of other more sophisticated offer ings, traded upon off-color material and suggestive danc ing. The kind of product notwithstanding, the quality of theatre is, in large part, determined by the caliber of the individual involved in theatrical production and his perception of and commitment to the theatre. The produc ers involved in theatre in Los Angeles in these two years might be classified under three categories, although no one individual was confined exclusively to one area: the pro ducer who wore the cape of the charlatan with uncommon comfort; the producer committed to the conservative road in his theatrical offerings; the producer concerned with the proficient realization of the technical aspects of a play, and indifferent to or less committed to shaping audience tastes or formulating aesthetically-balanced seasons. In the first category one might include the Wilkes 574 brothers, Michael Corper, Will Morrissey, Oliver Morosco, and Louis 0. Macloon. Although Thomas Wilkes seemed the logical person to reap the benefits of the expanded theat rical scene, given his outstanding contributions to its emergence in the earlier years, by 1926-27 his empire had crumbled largely because of mismanagement of funds and profligate personal habits. Cut off from production con nections and outlets in New York, his theatres were returned to their owners and Thomas Wilkes was reduced to sporadic producing. His brother, Alfred G. Wilkes, sup posedly the mastermind behind the entire empire, was involved in business machinations and suspect dealings which, in their way, drained the empire. When he assumed the responsibility for The Vine Street Theatre, not only were the operations of The Wilkes Corporation confused and convoluted, but Alfred Wilkes undertook the management of the theatre with no previous direct experience. Michael Corper, former manager of The Majestic Theatre during the Wilkes regime, began to produce plays at the same theatre; entered into an association whereby he presented musical revues; and, by 1926, in part because of the indelicate nature of much of the material he sponsored and in part because of the diversion of funds for personal use, was 57^ bankrupt. Will Morrissey exemplified the kind of individ ual trading on limited talent and maximum trash. Oliver Morosco, unfortunately, tried to revivify his career, but in his first production since 1922, he diverted the funds intended by his "angel" for a series of operettas, toward the staging of a musical comedy starring his wife. Louis 0. Macloon, perhaps the most omnipresent producer during these two years, while sponsoring productions of current Broadway hits, also backed a number of suggestive pieces at The Orange Grove Playhouse, which he advertised with "come- on" posters, and which he kept running even when the pro ductions went into "two-fers." In the second category belong almost all of the independent producers in the city during this time, with the possible exception of Edward D. Smith, whose policy of presenting plays and musical comedies which were sophisti cated, whimsical, witty, refined, arid occasionally also intellectually curious and/or socially conscious, met with a baffled response. Frank Egan, with his program of quietly-humorous comedies, belongs in this category as does, most certainly, Henry "Terry" Duffy, committed to a policy of clean, wholesome plays which the entire family could enjoy or which a fellow would not be ashamed to take 576 his girl to see. The policy of The Hollywood Playhouse was a shadow-echo of that established by Duffy, and even The Belasco Theatre triumverate succeeded because their plays were artistically and socially moderate. In the last category, one must include most of the producers, but particularly Louis 0. Macloon, Henry Duffy, The Belasco Theatre team, and Edward D. Smith, whose pro ductions were always impeccably cast and staged. Lastly, a look at the audience, or the penned perceptions of it, may explain why the theatre seemed less than it claimed to be. One derives the feeling that many of the patrons were viewed affectionately as theatrically- naive boobs. Patterson Greene defended Los Angeles audi ences against the charges of W. Stewart Robinson, who had called them the worst in the country, going to the theatre to gawk at the movie near-greats rather than to appreciate the play/production, and declared this "double feature" a decided bonus: In my opinion Los Angeles is a doubly good show town. You are insured in two directions. If the show is worth seeing you can center your attention upon it. If otherwise, you at least have some pleas ant view on the audience side of the f o o t l i g h t s . - ^ 9 However, other factors tend to indicate that the audience was theatrically unsophisticated, overwhelmingly 577 preferring the romantic comedy, the mystery-melodrama, the musical comedy, or operetta theatrical offering. A glance at the plays which sustained runs of more than four weeks substantiates this claim. The Hollywood Playhouse heralded the ignorance of its potential audience and capitalized on its assumptions to launch productions of wholesome plays. Florence Lawrence observed in May, 1927, that the city's taste in things theatrical seemed to "be genuinely 'old- home' type."^® Given the fragmented fabric of life in Los Angeles, the on-going influx of tourists and residents, and the technological inventions which pulled away from the community experience (car, movie, radio), the support given these productions might almost be viewed as a necessary exercise in nostalgia. But there were more insidious factors legislating against the success of the theatre, in particular the chan ces for success of a new play. As Florence Lawrence had observed, the city seemed "sluggish of praise" for its own artists and productions, and gave eager support only to those works which had been given the New York stamp of approval. In so doing, it abrogated one of the essential qualifications for consideration as a production center— the opportunity for critics and audience alike to develop 57£ the ability to evaluate original works for their contribu tions to the theatrical mode as well as their illumination of the cultural life. For this attitude, Miss Lawrence in part blamed the cultural leaders of society: Going to the theater seems to have become almost a forgotten social quality. Men and women of culture make a short dash to New York, see ten- or-so plays and come back stuffed with enthusiasm or bored with over-indulgence.311 Further proscribing the chance that Los Angeles theatre might realize its own boundaries, spirit, and the atrical pace were the anticipations of the tourists, at lease according to one producer who said: "Look at those motor cars.... Notice those state licenses. Do you think these folk from Ari zona, Indiana, Florida and Illinois came out here to see the work of a California playwright? They did not. They gave up their eastern trip to come to Los Angeles. When they go to a theater they want to see the equivalent of what they would have [seen] were they passing their time in the "roaring for ties ." They want to go back to their own homes and . . . be able to discourse to their neighbors about the drama as well as the scenery of California. . . . Principally they would like to tell him [sic] about the same plays which he or his wife may al ready have seen down in the "roaring forties" of Gotham.312 Miss Lawrence observed that such a policy was prudent, but hardly promising of much adventure. Thus, as H. 0. Stechan noted, while the city was acclaiming itself as the second producing center of the 579 country, more than half of its million inhabitants were unaware of this transformation, and were content to think of the city as a film center, temporarily suffering a sud den exhibitionist display of theatrical productivity which would dry up if ignored.^13 But the drought was a thing of the future, and these years were rich with a variety of theatrical experi ences. One could sample the stock company offerings of t The Morosco Theatre or the road-company presentations with star performers. Or, one could visit the production houses which mounted current or recent Broadway hits with an occasional popular star capably supported by actors drawn from the community, and one could partake of the artistically avant-garde works skillfully produced at either matinee performances or at the active little theatre groups such as The Potboilers or The Garret Club, or explore beyond the city's borders at The Pasadena Play house or The Santa Monica Theatre Guild. CHART 19 PREMIERE PRODUCTIONS IN 1926- Theatre Production 580 -27 Length of Engagement Belasco The Great Necker^ 17 weeks Belmont Sitting Pretty 3 weeks Red Kisses 2 weeks Egan Salt Chunk Mary 9 weeks Figueroa Street The Love Call 6 weeks Nancy 3 weeks Joan of Arkansaw 2 weeks The Ape 1 week Hollywood Playhouse The Second Year 2 weeks 2 days Majestic Second Music Hall Revue 7 weeks Monkey Business 9 weeks 4 days After 8 P.M.— ? 2 weeks Lucky Son of a Bishop 2 weeks Behind the Veil 2 weeks Mission Babylon 2 weeks Mason Patsy 10 weeks Morosco Synthetic Sin 4 weeks Music Box Music Box Revue 14 weeks 4 days New Revue 6 weeks 4 days (2 weeks at Biltmore) Exposures 7 weeks 2 days Orange Grove Duchess of Pittsburah 1 week (of 2 week 2 day total) Music Hall Revue 7 weeks 2 days Know Your Onions 5 weeks 4 days Loving Ladies 2 weeks Scarlet Virgin 6 weeks Vine Street Relations*^ 7 weeks (of 8 week total) ■^Opened in New York March 6, 1928 (30 performances)* 20pened m New York August 20, 1928 (105 perform- ances). CHAPTER VII FOOTNOTES William A. Spalding, comp., History and Reminis cences, Los Angeles City and County, Vol. I of III Vols. (Los Angeles: J. R. Finnell & Sons [1931]), pp. 438-460. 2 Sam M. Miles, ed., The Los Angeles Evening-Ex press Yearbook, 1926, 1927 (Los Angeles: The Evening- Express, 1926, 1927). 30pened on July 6, 1926. 4 The Los Angeles Examiner, August 31, 1927, II, 1. Hereafter referred to as The Examiner. Variety, LXXXVI (March 9, 1927), 6. 5 Nellie Revel articles in Variety, LXXXVI (March 30, 1927), 43, and LXXXVIII (July 28, 1927), 41. See also The Examiner, October 10, 1926, IV, 1-2. 6Nellie Revel, March 9, 19 27, p. 35. 7Ernie Carr, Variety, LXXXVIII (August 10, 1927), 39. O Guy Finney, The Great Los Angeles Bubble (Los Angeles: The Milton Forbes Company, 1929). Q Monroe Lathrop, "Los Angeles— Second Only to New York in Theatrical Importance," The Los Angeles Evening- Express Yearbook, 1927, p. 79. Florence Lawrence, "3 Theaters Open in Year, 2 Others planned: Los Angeles Lifts Self Out of 'Provinces' Class," The Examiner, December 25, 1926, III, 4. Variety, LXXXIV (July 28, 1926), 39. 581 ------------------------------------------------------------------ 5S2 ■^Edwin Schallert, "Tide May Be Turning for Spoken Drama," The Los Angeles Times, April 25, 1926, III, 17. Hereafter referred to as The Times. ■^"Theatre Construction Here Second to N.Y.," The Examiner, April 10, 1927, IV, 1, 8. 13Billboard, XXIX (May 14, 1927) , 8. ■^"Over-Seated Los Angeles Will Have 52,260 Addi tional Seats," Variety, LXXX (September 30, 1925), 44. ^Edwin 0. Palmer, History of Hollywood, Vol. I of 2 vols. (Hollywood: Arthur H. Cawston, 1937), pp. 165-66, 229-30, 210-12. See also the Toberman biography by Grace G. Koopal, Free Enterprise (Los Angeles: Anderson, Ritchie and Simon, 1970). 1 6 G. Albert Lansburgh, "The El Capitan Theatre and Department Store Building, Hollywood," The Architect and Engineer, LXXXVIII (February, 192 7), frontispiece, 35-43, 88. "El Capitan Theater and Store Building in Hollywood Has Interesting Features," The Southwest Builder and Contractor, LXVI (September 25, 1925), 43-44. 17 Unless otherwise indicated all dimensions are taken from drawing and blueprints dated March 26, 1925, in the possession of The Los Angeles City Buildings and Safety Department. Harris Allen, "Recent California Theatres," Pacific Coast Architect, XXXII (July, 1927), 10-31. The Times, October 1, 1924, II, 10; May 2, 1926, III, 24-25. 18 Southwest Builder and Contractor, op. cit., pp. 43-44. 19 Ibid. The Los Angeles Evening-Express, March 1, 1927, p. 10, carried an advertisement for All God's Chillun Got Wings, with the following breakdown: 100 7 seats @ $1.50; 360 @ $1.00; 158 @ $.50 = 1525. The drawings also show that seven seats along the outer edge of the main floor had been crossed out, reducing the seating to 1,485. Hereafter referred to as The Express. 20The Times, March 21, 1926, III, 23, 25. The Examiner, March 21, 1926, II, 1-2. 583 o I •^Southwest Builder and Contractor, op. cit. , pp. 43-44. 22The California Graphic, IV (September 18, 1926), 3. Variety, LXII (April 1, 1921), 15. The former reported his supervision of the building of the Great Northern Theatre, Chicago; The American, St. Louis; and three houses in Boston. The latter reported his settling down in Los Angeles and investing in commercial property at Western Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard. 22Seats for the rest of the run ranged from $.75 to $2.50, with matinees on Thursday and Saturday (prices reduced accordingly). 24 Chariot1s Revue, Monroe Lathrop (quotation), The Express, May 4, 1926, p. 6; Schallert, The Times, May 5, 1926, II, 9; Lawrence, The Examiner, May 4, 1926, I, 13. 25Varietv, LXXXII (February 17, 1926) , LXXXIII (June 16, 1926), 36. V ^^Variety, LXXXIII (June 9, 1926), 37. Reviews and commentary were written by the Variety representative stationed in the particular city who, in the case of Los Angeles, was Arthur Ungar. At the end of the run, about a dozen film stars appeared on the stage (including Chap lin, Valentino, Cody, and Gilbert) in the "clan scene," some wearing kilts, others with trousers rolled above their knees, "which surprised the audience." 27 Variety, op. cit., p. 35. The following week contradicted this report, Variety, LXXXIII (June 16, 1926),36. 2 8 The Green Hat, Lathrop (quotation), The Express, August 10, 1926, p. 8. Lathrop referred to a De Rouche- foucald observation that women were "rakes by impulse and prudes by necessity." Schallert, The Times, August 11, 1926, II, 9. Variety, LXXXIV (September 1, 1926), 38, said at one particular matinee that only 12 of the 1,551 seats were occupied by men. 584 29 Besides Martha Hedman, the cast featured Louis Bennison, Will R. Walling, Marjorie Montgomery, et al. Bride of the Lamb, Schallert, The Times, September 29, 1926, II, 9. Patterson Greene, The Examiner, September 28, 1926, II, 4. 90 The cast featured Juanity Wray, Raymond Marlow, Mary Wells, Ray Ramond, et al. Castles in the Air, Law rence, The Examiner, November 3, 1926, II, 5. Lathrop, The Express, November 3, 1926, p. 5. Variety, LXXXV (January 12, 1927), 38. 31The Times, December 7, 1926, II, 10; December 10, 1926, II, 10. 32 Lady Frederick, Schallert, The Times, December 28, 1926, II, 3. Clark Gable's straight-forward manner of creating the heavy was declared novel and convincing. 33Billboard, XXXIX (February 12, 192 7), 9. The Express, March 9, 1927, p. 28. 34 The Firebrand, Lathrop, The Express, April 4, 1927, p. 17. Lawrence, The Examiner, April 4, 1927, I, 10. Schallert, The Times, April 5, 1927, II, 11. 35 Comment m Schallert's review of The Firebrand, ibid. C. E. Toberman, Personal correspondence, March 7, 19 72, said that the monthly rent was $5,000. 36Variety, LXXXVIII (July 20, 1927), 46. Laff That Off, Lawrence, The Examiner, July 15, 1927, II, 14. Schallert, The Times, July 16, 192 7, II, 7. Lathrop, The Express, July 15, 1927, p. 15. 37 The Times, ibid. The Examiner, ibxd. The Express, ibid. Dale Winter and Henry Duffy starred. 38 "Clean Lowbrow Plays Planned," The Times, July 17, 1927, III, 13, quotes Duffy on the kind of plays he will stage: '" . . . they're certainly not the kind written for the purpose of educating the populace. But they will be clean plays . . . the kind that every member of the family may witness and enjoy.'" 5^5 39The Times, October 9, 1927, III, 17-18. 4®The notion of competition in the development of the area was interjected into an interview with Henry L. Gogerty, architect of The Hollywood Playhouse, October 7, 1972. 41The Hollywood Music Box Corporation, Seal affixed July 20, 1925. Los Angeles County Hall of Records. 42Palmer, op. cit., pp. 71-73cf., 90 cf. 43Both buildings still stand in the spring, 1973, the former used as a movie theatre, The Pix; the latter used as a bowling alley. All dimensions unless otherwise indicated are taken from the drawings in the vault of The Robert C. Clements firm, dated April through July, 1926. 44For illustrations, see Architect and Engineer, LIX (January, 1928), p. 64. Harris Allen, "Recent Cali fornia Theatres," Pacific Coast Architect, XXXIII (July, 1927), pp. 10-31. Exteriors retouched in latter. 45 B. Y. Taft was one of seven children born to A. Z. Taft, whose extensive land holdings in Hollywood included some of the most extensive and expensive commer cial development in The Twenties. Palmer, op. cit., p. 91. 4 6 The names included John Barrymore, William Beaudine, Clarence Brown, Francis X. Bushman, Edwin Carewe, Lew Cody, Viola Dana, Reginald Denny, Dorothy Devore, Fred Fralich, Pauline Garon, Hoot Gibson, John Gilbert, Lloyd Hughes, Robert Z. Leonard, Douglas Maclean, Mae Murray, George Ullman, King Vidor, Jack Warner. The Times, Octo ber 17, 1926, III, 23. Edwin Schallert opening night review, The Times, October 21, 1926, II, 1-2. 47 Schallert, ibid. 4 8 Lawrence, The Examiner, October 21, 1926, I, 12. 49 Lathrop, The Express, October 21, 1926, p. 18. Special notice was given to the "Serpentine Dance," and the military finale of Act I, with the chorus ascending through the trap. 586 50See sources cited above. Also, Variety, LXXXV (November 17, 1926), 43, said there were about twenty scenes in the first half, and ten in the second, which was brought to a quick climax when De Haven announced that a drunken stage crew had put up the wrong set. 51Variety, LXXXIV (August 4, 1926), 35; LXXX (October 27, 1926), 86; LXXXV (November 10, 1926), 35. 52Variety, LXXXV (November 17, 1926), 36, 43, said that allowing for fixing, "Hollywood will then have the best revue entertainment that has ever been shown in south ern California." Variety, LXXXV (November 24, 1926), 41. ~*2The Examiner, November 16, 1926, II, 4; December 23, 1926, I, 10. 54 Quotation from Billboard, XXXVIII (July 17, 1926), p. 9. 55Variety, LXXXVI (March 16, 1927), 38, said that the corporation had paid one-half of the $100,000 deficit incurred since the inception. See also Variety, LXXXVI (March 30, 1927), 11. 56Variety LXXXV (December 22, 1926), 37; LXXXIX (October 26, 1927), 11. One report said the lease cost $75,000, that Macloon had expended $15,000 and agreed to pay $3,000 for the first three months and $6,000 there after, while the later article said he put down $25,000 in security and had leased the theatre for five years at a weekly rate of $965. 57 Peggy Ann, The Times, July 4, 1927, II, 8; July 8, 1927, II, 8. Variety, LXXXVIII (August 3, 1927), 32. 58 Chicago, Lawrence, The Examiner, March 26, 1927, I, 10. 59 Macloon was charged with nonpayment of admission taxes, and also was found guilty of having removed items from the property (e.g., a piano, drapes, heaters, ex tinguishers, etc.). Variety, LXXXVIII (September 7, 1927), 49; LXXXVIII (September 14, 1927), 49; XCI (June 20, 1928), 51; XCIV (March 8, 1929), 51. 587 fin So This Is Love/ Schallert, The Times, September 20, 1927, II, 11. Greene, The Examiner, September 19, 1927, I, 12. f i 1 ^Besides Miss Seiler, the company included Barton Hepburn, Ivis Goulding, Helen Sullivan, Mary Forbes, Fergus Reddie, et al. The Vortex, Schallert, The Times, December 26, 192 7, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, December 26, 1927, II, 8. 6 2 M. J. Werner and John Starr, Teapot Dome (New York: Viking Press, 1957), p. 5. 6 * 3 All dimensions are taken from the drawings in The Robert C. Clements firm, March 22, 1926, and July revisions. "Distinctive American Architectural Ideas Reflected in Belasco Theatre of Los Angeles," Southwest Builder and Contractor, LXIX (January 14, 1927), 46-47. Architect and Engineer, XCIX (April, 192 7); XCII (January, 1928), 63. The Architectural Record, LXII (August, 1927), 133-40. Architectura1 Digest, VI (1928) , 12. Harris Allen, "Recent California Theatres," Pacific Coast Archi tect, XXXII (July, 1927), 10-31. 64 Marvin Kirschman, "A Historical Study of the Belasco Theatre and the Forces That Shaped Its History: 1927-1932" (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California, 1971), pp. 35-36. He gives the foyer as 80'-0" wide by 26'-0" deep. He also indicates a cloakroom in the foyer, but the drawings do not show it. f i f i Kirschman states: 1106, 700 on main floor, 400 in balcony, but gives no source. Southwest Builder and Contractor, January 14, 1927, p. 47, stated 1160. 66Billboard, XXXV (August 18, 1923), 119. See Kirschman, op. cit., pp. 13-32 for fuller treatment. 67The Times, October 29, 1926, II, 9. f i f t Kirschman, op. cit., pp. 87, 31, says this is how the three men met but does not say how Butler knew Davis. Davis is discussed further under The Mayan Theatre. 69 The Examiner, November 13, 1923, II, 1. 588 70 Kirschman, op. cit., p. 32. 71 See Chapter II, Los Angeles Section, for discus sion of this. 72 E. L. Doheny, III, personal correspondence March 6, 1972. 73 Belasco's son included a reference to this friendship, in Kirschman, op. cit., p. 31. 7^The Times, July 23, 1925, II, 1. The Examiner, July 26, 1925, IV, 2, 9. Kirschman, op. cit., p. 95, said that in The Thirties when the unpaid rent reached $200,000, Doheny cancelled the debt. Stockholders included promi nent civic leaders, among them Irving H. Helman, banking baron, and Harry Chandler, The Times's owner-to-be. 75 Werner and Starr, op. cit., pp. 208-24. When Doheny returned from Washington, D. C., December 21, 1926, his welcome eclipsed that of Will Rogers' who was also on the train, and many of the throng followed him home (in cluding the president of the University of Southern Cali fornia, and former Senator Frank Flint). The Express, December 22, 1926, pp. 3, 11. 76The Times, April 18, 1926, III, 22; V, 5. Page four of the opening night program reversed the order. Cited in Kirschman, op. cit.. p. 28. 77Variety, LXXXV (November 3, 1926), 44, said Mrs. Doheny had purchased the entire first floor seating, causing slights to civic officials, etc. Homer Curran, with whom Belasco-Butler-Davis were associated had guaran teed Selwyn $25,000 for the show. Bert Lytell delivered the dedication. 78 The company featured Joan Marion, Mary Ricard, Herbert Standing, et al. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Schallert, The Times, November 3, 1926, II, 9, felt that the performance needed dash. Lawrence, The Examiner, November 2, 1926, II, 4, thought that Lorelei taxed Miss Marion. Lathrop, The Express, November 2, 1926, p. 9. 589 79Variety, LXXXV (November 3, 1926), 44; LXXXIV (September 29, 1926), 53. Kirschman stated that Curran was helping The Belasco team by arranging for this produc tion, but they more than carried their share, for the show fared poorly in San Francisco, and only its prolonged engagement in Los Angeles helped to meet the arrangements with Selwyn. on The company featured Dorothy MacKaye, whose lisp irritated Monroe Lathrop, John St. Polis, Glenn Tryon, et al. Son-Daughter, Lathrop, The Express, Decem ber 21, 1926, p. 6. Lawrence, The Examiner, December 21, 1926, II, 6. Schallert, The Times, December 22, 1926, II, 9. 81Edmund Lowe, The Examiner, December 21, 1926, II, 6. OO Belasco reportedly asked $25,000 for the produc tion rights to The Dove, exorbitant but in keeping with Selwyn's deal. One wonders if the figure did not include rights to The Son-Daughter. p O The Dove, The Examiner, January 15, 192 7, I, 8. Lathrop, The Express, p. 11. 84 In February, 1927, The Belasco extended its cir cuit to include San Diego and Santa Barbara. It served as an "out-of-town" tryout, and probably helped the producers to meet royalty arrangements. Variety, LXXXVI (February 16, 1927), 60. 85 Is Zat So?, Lawrence, The Examiner, February 22, 1927, II, 4. 86 The Mason was dark for six weeks of the run; The Biltmore was showing two productions by a local producer. None of The Majestic offerings could be considered compe tition. 87 Since the play also failed in San Francisco, the last-mentioned probably was only a compounding factor. The caliber of acting, sensitive direction, and exciting pro duction were praised. The Barker, Schallert, The Times, May 10, 1927, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, May 10, 1927, I, 12.__________________________________________________ 590 88The Great Necker, Schallert, The Times, June 9, 1927, II, 9. Lawrence, The Examiner, June 8, 1927, I, 10. Lathrop, The Express, June 8, 1927, p. 19, regretted the "sexual" emphasis of the play, but his reaction was prob ably directed largely to the overall theatrical situation with lurid offerings and come-ons, e.g.. Creoles, Synthetic Sin, After 8 P.M.— ?, etc. Variety, LXXXVII (June 15, 1927), 47. pg °7Kirschman, op. cit., p. 146. g a uThe Devil's Plum Tree, Marquis Busby, The Times, October 5, 1927, II, 9. Lawrence, The Examiner, October 4, 1927, II, 4. 91 The critics found the play talky, uneven; were ecstatic about Barrymore. Laugh, Clown, Laugh, Schallert, The Times, November 30, 1927, II, 11. Lawrence, The Exam iner, November 29, 1927, II, 4. Barrymore changed the ending (hanging) and simply departed from the scene. Fred Butler introduced a dwarf. 9 7 The Times, February 3, 1926, II, 1. 9 3 The Examiner, February 3, 1926, II, 1. 9^The Examiner, May 29, 1926, I, 10. Variety, LXXXIV (August 4, 1926), 34; LXXXIV (August 11, 1926), 53. Billboard, XXXVIII (September 25, 1926) , 1. Qfi . Billboard, XXXVIII (October 30, 1926), 9. 97The Times, November 29, 1926, II, 9. Palmer, op. cit., p. 193. 9 8 Dickson Morgan, personal correspondence, Septem ber 16, 19 72, said that A. G. Wilkes "was spending ALL of his time and effort to keep himself out of prison— some thing to do with mail fraud and/or the Doheny oil scandal, and his brother in booze." He referred to Baumann as the money-bags that Wilkes brought in. ------------------------------------------------------------------5?T QQ ^^Billboard, op, cit. Thomas Wilkes was producing at The Majestic-Los Angeles at the time The Vine Street Theatre opened. ■*-00pam Hanrahan, personal correspondence, September 18, 1972, executive secretary of the corporation, member of the firm since 1934, who also added, "Due to the depression . . . and consequent inability to pay off the mortgage (held by International Reinsurance Company) the property was lost to the mortgagee." ^^ The Examiner, May 9, 1926, IV, 1. Palmer, op. cit., pp. 224, 263. Pam Hanrahan said he was born in San Diego, came to Los Angeles in 1895 and developed the Silver Lake Area. I AA XUi:,All dimensions are taken from the blueprints in the Los Angeles Department of Buildings and Safety, dated June 18, 1926. 10 3 Description from Morgan's letter, op. cit. Reference to chandelier in The Times, January 2, 1927, V, 4. 104The Times, ibid.; Morgan, ibid. It had a very moderne feeling about it. lo s UJSeatmg from the blueprints. The Times, December 26, 1926, V, 1. The Examiner, December 25, 1926, IV, 6, said 1,036. Palmer, op. cit., p. 259, said 1,034. 106 Morgan, op. cit. H. O. Stechan, "Proscenium Arch Abolished in Newest Hollywood Theatre," California Graphic, IV (December 11, 1926), 9. The Times, January 16, 1927, III, 21, 23, showed a picture of the exterior and a sketch of the foyer-lobby. 107 Morgan, op. cit. The Times, January 2, 1927, V, 4. 10 f t Tickets for opening cost $1.00 to $5.00, but thereafter were priced between fifty cents and two dollars and fifty cents. Matinees were held on Thursday, Saturday afternoons. Morgan stated that Green was hired because the lessees knew nothing about running a theatre, and the ^ manager-publicity agent "the snake, cut their throats." Monroe Lathrop, in his review of the opening production, identified him as an attorney. 1 OQ The show had opened in New York in October, 1926, and was unseen yet in Chicago, where it played a 5-week engagement. An American Tragedy, Lathrop, The Express, January 20, 1927, p. 9. Lawrence, The Examiner, January 20, 1927, II, 4. Schallert, The Times, January 21, 1927, II, 9. 110It played five more weeks at The Majestic, and four in San Francisco. Louis Lurie, whose theatre(s) Thomas Wilkes had leased in that city, was reportedly another investor in the production. Variety, LXXXVI (January 19, 1927), 52. llllhe Noose, Lawrence, The Examiner, March 29, 1927, I, 14, who thought William Holden kept everything to a drawing-room pitch. Schallert, The Times, March 30, 1927, II, 9. 112 The Donovan Affair, The California Graphic, IV (May 14, 1927), 17. The Examiner, April 28, 1927, II, 4. Morgan's setting, and Mestayer's direction were praised. 119 The Examiner, May 20, 1927, II, 4. The Times, September 3, 1927, II, 7. 114 See discussion later in this chapter. 115 White Cargo, Greene, The Examiner, June 6, 1927, I, 12, said that it met with near-capacity houses, many renewing acquaintance with the play. 116The Geisha Girl, which Variety said grossed only $5,500 in two weeks. Raymond Hitchcock stepped out at Equity's suggestion. There was a dispute between Stewart and H. G. Allen to whom the former said he had sold the property. Variety, LXXXVIII (July 13, 1927), 34. The Times, July 2, 1927, II, 3; July 6, II, 8; July 9, I, 17; July 10, II, 16. 117 The Wild Westcotts, Schallert, The Times, August 19, 1973, II, 9. Greene, The Examiner, August 18, 1927, I, 10. 593 -^Relations, Gregory Goss, The Examiner , November 15, 1927, II, 4. 119Variety, XCII (October 10, 1928), 39; XCVIII (April 9, 1930), 65. • * - 20Alfred G. Wilkes, Inc. Seal affixed March 23, 1929, Los Angeles County Hall of Records. Morgan, op. cit. 1 T1 Hanrahan letter, op. cit. 122The Times, April 29, 1923, V, 1, 3. Variety, LXX (April 26, 1923), 13. The announcement was made by G. 0. Davis of The Marsh Realty firm. Davis later leased The Mayan Theatre. 123The lease was signed in early February, 1925, and specific information about the proposed playhouse stated it would seat 1,116, contain a stage 35'-0" x 90'-0", with a proscenium opening 40'-0" x 30'-0", and mount plays with casts drawn up for the specific production. The Examiner, November 10, 1924, I, 6. The Times, November 11, 1924, II, 5. The Examiner, February 11, 1925, I, 8. The Times, February 15, 1925, V, 2. • * ~ 24The Examiner, November 8, 1925, IV, 2. Palmer, op. cit., pp. 183, 216 cf, 262. 125 Blueprints for the theatre were not available; the architect had not retained his. He gave this writer his personal copy of The Rotogravure Section of The Holly wood Daily Citizen, January 22, 1927, devoted to the the atre. The Pacific Coast Architect, XXXIII (April, 1928), 35-40, contains pictures, although it erroneously cites Morgan Walls and Clements as the architect. ^2®Campbell MacCulloch, "A New Art Theatre in the West," Theatre, XLIV (May, 1927), 29. ^2^MacCulloch, ibid. H. 0. Stechan, "New Ideal Animates Builders of Hollywood Play House," California Graphic, IV (October 16, 1926), 4. The Times, September 13, 1925, V, 9; December 5, 1926, III, 27; January 16, 1927, III, 21, 23. The Express, January 22, 1927, p. 13. — — -------— 594 •^-^Descriptions derived from pictures cited above. MacCulloch, op. cit. ■*-^MacCulloch, op. cit. / p. 62. The Times, Septem ber 13, 1925, V, 9. 130^6 Playhouse Corporation appears to have been an amalgamation of two previous organizations— The Holly wood Amusement Company and Rockett Productions, Inc. On the board of the latter was one D. L. Skelly, who was the fiscal agent for The Playhouse Corporation. G. R. Dexter served on the board of both and may have directed the absorption. i on , Information taken from The Opening Night Program and Promotional Flyer in the archives of The California Historical Society, entitled Hollywood Playhouse, 32 pp. 1 The Times, September 13, 1925, V, 9. MacCul loch, loc. cit. 133 Rowland, cited in MacCulloch, ibid. 134 Ibid. A. Leslie Pearce was general stage director, Rita Glover was scenic art director. Perform ances were given nightly, with three matinees per week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. $1.50 was top ticket price. 135 Alias the Deacon, Lathrop (quotation), The Express, January 25, 1927, p. 11. Schallert, The Times, January 26, 1927, II, 9. Lawrence, The Examiner, January 25, 1927, II, 4. Churchill and Underwood were from the New York cast, which included Joseph DePew, Walter Perci- val, Walter Emerson, Jimmy Guilfoyle, Burdell Jacobs, Helen Ferguson, et al. 136 Conflict of honest chorus girl versus preten sions of her millionaire relatives. The Little Spitfire, Busby, The Times, May 27, 1927, II, 9. Lawrence, The Examiner, May 26, 1927, II, 4. If I Was Rich, Schallert, The Times, July 20, 1927, II, 9. Three members were from the original New York cast. 595 138 The Hometowners, Lawrence, The Examiner, Septem ber 13, 1927, II, 4. Meet the Wife, Schallert, The Times, October 26, 1927, II, 9. Lawrence, The Examiner, October 25, 1927, II, 4. 139 The Second Year, The Examiner, November 26, 1927, I, 6. 140The Examiner, November 13, 1927, V, 7-8; Novem ber 29, 1927, II, 4. Billboard, XXXIX (December 10, 1927), 8. 14^The Morning After, Schallert (quotation), The Times, December 19, 1927, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner December 17, 1927, I, 8. Variety, LXXXIX (December 21, 1927), 50. 1 42 Variety, XC (February 15, 1928), 48. 143 The Examiner. May 18, 1926, II, 1, said Stowell owned in fee the southern fifty feet and leased the northern half. The Examiner, August 22, 1926, IV, 3, said the land was owned by Keiffer and had been leased by Stowell for 99 years at an aggregate rental of $900,000. 144 The Times, May 13, 1926, II, 1. 145 Donald E. Marquis, "Archaelogical Aspects of the Mayan Theatre of Los Angeles, California," Art and Archaeology, XXIX (March, 19 30), 99-111, 124 (15 illustra tions) . Robert B. Stacy-Judd had delivered a series of lectures between the end of July and early August, 1927, which were serialized under the title "Mayan Architecture and Its Adaptability to Modern Conditions," in The South west Builder and Contractor, LXX, Parts 1, 2, 3 (August 19, 26, September 2, 1927), 36-38, 36-39, 36-38, respec tively. 146 All descriptions are taken from the Marquis article and Francisco Cornejo, "Descriptions of Architec ture and Decorations of The Mayan Theatre," Pacific Coast Architect, XXXIII (April, 1928), 13-29, 40. Architectural Digest, VI (L928), 8-11 (illustrations). 596 - 1 -4^Unless otherwise indicated, all dimensions are from the drawings in the firm of Robert C. Clements, dated September 22, October 9, 1926. 148 The arched openings are trefoil shaped and found only in the palace at Palenque Chiapas. Cornejo, op. cit., p. 14. 149 The serpent was the predominant symbol in the spiritual and cultural life of the Mayans, representing the unity of Quetzal, God of Air, and Coatl, snake god of earth. 150 The drawings showed a breakdown for the kind of seats to be ordered, and the total amounted to 707 on the main floor. 1ST The Times, July 31, 1927, V, 5. Cornejo writes at length about the ceiling, the proscenium arch decora tions . Schallert, The Times, August 17, 1927, II, 9. Lathrop, The Express, August 16, 1927, p. 11. Billboard XXXIX (August 27, 192 7), 1. 153 . Kirschman, op. cit., p. 92. 154The Examiner, July 27, 1926, I, 13. 155 Oh Kay 1, see Schallert, Lathrop, op. cit. Lawrence, The Examiner, August 16, 192 7, II, 1, 7. Var iety, LXXXVII (June 15, 1927), 42; LXXXIX (October 19, 1927), 50; LXXXVIII (October 12, 1927), 45. I C C. Twinkle-Toes, Kingsley, The Times, October 11, 1927, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, October 11, 1927, I, 12. 157 Sunny, Schallert, The Times, November 24, 1927, I, 15. Lawrence, The Examiner, November 23, 1927, I, 12. 1581924-25: Old English, Big Boy. 1925-26: Naughty Cinderella, Magda, The Last of Mrs. Cheney, The Shanghai Gesture. 1926-27: Gay Paree. 1927-28: The Arabian, The Madcap. 59 7 159 The Tavern, Lathrop, The Express, February 22, 1927, p. 13, thought it Cohan's best. Otheman Stevens, The Examiner, February 22, 1927, II, 4, concurred. 160Scandals, Schallert, The Times, March 23, 1926, II, 11. ^•*~Gay Paree, Schallert (quotation) , The Times, September 21, 1927, II, 13. Lawrence, The Examiner, Sep tember 20, 1927, II, 4. 16 2 If I Were a King, Lathrop, The Express, May 3, 1927, p. 16. Greene, The Express, May 3, 1927, II, 4. - I £ O My Maryland, Kingsley, The Times, October 5, 1927, II, 9. Richard Creedon, The Examiner, October 4, 1927, II, 4. 16401d English, Lawrence, The Examiner, December 28, 1926, I, 12. Schallert, The Times, December 29, 1926, II, 11. 165 Shanghai Gesture, Schallert, The Times, June 15, 1927, II, 9. Lawrence, The Examiner, June 14, 1927, II, 4. The Examiner, July 9, 1927, I, 10. The Times, July 14, 1927, II, 5. 166 Grossed $102,400 in five weeks reported. Antic ipation had diminished by its belated arrival and partially satisfied by spin-off models. ■^^Schallert, The Times, June 23, 1926, II, 9. 168 Lawrence, The Examiner, June 22, 1926, I, 14. 1 69 Lathrop, The Express, June 22, 1926, p. 10. 170 The Last of Mrs. Cheney, Lawrence, The Examiner, April 5, 1927, II, 4. Schallert, The Times, April 6, 1927, II, 11. 171 . Big Boy, Schallert, The Times, May 25, 1927, II, 7. Greene, The Examiner, May 24, 1927, II, 4. 598 1 72 • ‘ ■'^'Raquel Meller, Schallert, The Times, June 15, 1926, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, June 14, 1926, I, 10. Valentino dropped a flower she gave him; she crossed herself. She refused Chaplin who returned the second night 17 2 Ben Hur, Schallert, The Times, August 3, 1926, 11, 11. He noted that the prolog was "outstandingly popu lar in Los Angeles." ■^^Kolb and Dill, Busby, The Times, January 26, 1927, II, 9. 175Tjp-Toes, Schallert, The Times, August 18, 1926, II, 9. Lawrence, The Examiner, August 17, 1926, I, 10. 176Variety, LXXXIV (August 25, 1926), 45; LXXXIV (September 22, 1926), 38. 177 Butter and Egg Man, Lawrence, The Examiner, September 7, 1926, I, 10. Schallert, The Times, September 18, 1926, II, 11. 178 Creoles, Schallert, The Times, November 24, 1926, II, 9. Lawrence, The Examiner, November 23, 1926, II, 4. It opened in New York in an altered version with Allan Dinehart. 179 Topsy and Eva, Lawrence, The Examiner, June 8, 1926, I, 16. Several new songs had been added. 180 Sun-Up, Lawrence, The Examiner, May 3, 1927, II, 4. 181Variety, LXXXV (December 1, 1926), 24, said that a coast producer negotiated for the show but learned that Harris wanted a $25,000 guarantee plus 65% of the gross, plus a $5,000 advance toward production costs. 182 Broadway, Lawrence, The Examiner, September 27, 1927, I, 12. Schallert, The Times, September 28, 1927, II, 9. 183 Judge's Husband, Lawrence, The Examiner, April 19, 1927, I, 12. 599 184 Trelawney of the Wells. John Drew died while on tour in San Francisco. Lawrence, The Examiner, June 7, 1927, II, 4. Schallert, The Times, June 8, 1927, II, 9. IOC Music Hall Revue, Lawrence, The Examiner, May 1, 1926, I, 8. Schallert, The Times, May 3, 1926, II, 9. Variety, LXXXII (May 12, 1926), 45, said the low overhead of $3,500 per week guaranteed a profit. 1 Q/r Second Music Hall Revue, The Examiner, June 12, 1926, I, 10. The Times, June 22, 1926, II, 11. The Express, June 21, 1926, p. 7. Carey McWilliams, "Los Angeles," Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine, N.S. 85 (May, 1927), 135-36. 18 7 °'Monkey Business, Lawrence, The Examiner, August 12, 1926, II, 4. Variety, LXXXIV (August 18, 1926), 84. 188Struttin' Sam, The Examiner, October 18, 1926, I, 12. Variety, LXXXV (October 20, 1926), 98. Rented costumes, hanging pieces, ragged dancing; gruesome sniff act. 189Variety, LXXXIV (September 1, 1926), 54; LXXV (December 1, 1926), 25-26; LXXXV (December 29, 1926), 31; LXXXV (January 5, 1927), 36. i on Know Your Onions, Variety, LXXXIV (September 8, 1926), 46. Lawrence, The Examiner, September 2, 1926, I, 12. 191 Loving Ladies, Lathrop (first quotation), The Express, October 12, 1926, p. 14. Moulton, The Times, October 13, 1926, II, 9. Variety, LXXXV (October 20, 1926) , 99. 192 Rain, Lathrop, The Express, November 8, 1926, p. 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, November 6, 1926, I, 6. Variety, LXXXV (December 8, 1926), 45; LXXXV (December 22, 1926), 42; LXXXV (January 5, 1927), 37. 19 3 . . Opinion expressed by Edwin Schallert in his review of The Scarlet Virgin, The Times, August 3, 1927, II, 9. 600 19^The similarity in name to the corporation which leased The Vine Street Theatre is striking, with A. G. Wilkes at The Hollywood Theatre from December, 1926, through May, 1927, and T. Wilkes at The Majestic from January through July, 1927. If the corporations were one the degree of nepotistic support and financial juggling was laocoon. 19^Eight P.M. and Son of a Bishop, Moulton, The Times, February 8, 1927, II, 9. Busby, The Times, June 7, 1927, II, 11. • * - 9^All God's Chillun Got Wings, Gregory Goss, The Examiner, June 20, 1927, I, 10. 197Behind the Veil, Schallert, The Times, August 10, 1927, II, 9. Gregory Goss, The Examiner, August 9, 1927, I, 12. Variety. LXXXVIII (August 17, 1927), 52. 19^Young Woodley. Schallert, The Times, October 22, 1927, II, 7. l"Younq Woodley, Lathrop, The Express, October 21, 1927, p. 15. ^OOpne Man's Woman, Lathrop, The Express, December 27, 1926, p. 13. Lawrence, The Examiner, December 27, 1926, I, 6. Variety, LXXXV (January 5, 1927), 39. 201The Times. April 19, 1927, II, 11. 0 f i 9 ^u^Nancy, Lawrence, The Examiner, May 25, 1926, I, 11. Schallert, The Times, May 26, 1926, II, 9. Variety, LXXXIII (July 7, 1926), 19; LXXXIII (July 14, 1926), 14; LXXXIV (August 25, 1926), 46-47. 203The Examiner, April 13, 1926, I, 8. 204The Times, August 15, 1926, III, 23. Madame X, Schallert, The Times, August 19, 1926, II, 9. Lawrence, The Examiner, August 18, 1926, I, 10. Muriel Elwood, Pauline Frederick (Chicago: A. Kroch, 1940), pp. 140-42. 205cradle Snatchers, Lathrop, The Express, Septem ber 28, 1926, p. 12. Lawrence, The Examiner, September 28, 1926, II, 4.__________________________________________________ 601 206 Loose Ankles, The Examiner, January 11, 1927, I, 12. 207Variety, LXXXV (March 23, 1927) , 41. 20 R u The Honor of the Family, Kingsley, The Times, May 25, 1927, II, 9. Lawrence, The Examiner, May 24, 1927, II, 4. 209 Edward Everett Horton appearances. Variety, LXXXVIII (August 10, 1927) , 49. Busby, The Times, August 10, 1927, II, 9. Gregory Goss, The Examiner, August 30, 1927, I, 10. 210 Joan of Arkansaw, Schallert, The Times, October 7, 1927, II, 9. Variety, LXXXIX (October 19, 1927), 51. 211 The Express, April 27, 1926, p. 15. Variety, LXXXI (February 3, 1926) , 23. The Times, December 22, 1926, II, 12; January 26, 1927, II, 8. 212The Times, July 28, 1927, II, 5. 213 "Traditions Preserved in Permanent Home of Famous Mission Play at San Gabriel," Southwest Builder and Contractor, LXIX, Part 1, Serial No. 1788 (June 24, 1927), 36-37. "New Mission Playhouse Realizes Dream," California Graphic, IV (April 16, 1927), 23, 40. The Times, March 6, 1927, I, 3; III, 17. 214 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Schallert, The Times, September 13, 1927, II, 11. 2~^The Times, December 11, 1927, III, 17, 29. 216 The Ape, The Examiner, December 13, 1927, I, 13. The Times, December 14, 1927, II, 11. The Express, December 16, 1927, p. 8. 217 Love'Em and Leave 'Em, Lawrence, The Examiner, December 6, 1926, I, 10. 218 Synthetic Sin, Schallert, The Times, February 22, 1927, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, February 21, 1927, I, 10. 602 2-^Family Upstairs, The Examiner, October 11, 1926, I, 12. 220The Patsy, Lawrence, The Examiner, April 4, 1927, I, 10. 22-*-Schallert, The Times, September 7, 1926, II, 11. 222Lawrence, The Examiner, September 6, 1926, I, 10. poo Applesauce, Moulton, The Times, August 24, 1926, II, 11. 2 24 Ladies of the Evening, Schallert, The Times, November 22, 1926, II, 11. 2 2 5. Sinner, Lawrence, The Examiner, October 17, 1927, I, 14. 2 2f i The Music Master, Schallert, The Times, May 18, 1926, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, May 17, 1926, I, 12. 227 Gertie and The Four-Flusher, Schallert, The Times, December 6, 1927, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, December 19, 1927, II, 6. 228Variety, LXXXVIII (July 20, 1927), 44. 228The Times, March 16, 1927, II, 1-2; March 23, 1927, II, 1. 230 Ghosts. Reviewers thought her work too emotion al. Schallert, The Times, July 27, 1927, II, 9. Law rence, The Examiner, July 26, 1927, I, 12. 2 21 Salt Chunk Mary, Busby, The Times, October 6, 1927, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, October 5, 1927, II, 4. 232The Express, March 3, 1926, p. 15. poo The Examiner, December 21, 1926, II, 2. Cali fornia Graphic, IV (April 30, 1927), 4. . - gQ3 234 The Times, March 13, 1927, II, 21-22. 235 Variety, LXXXVII (April 20, 1927), 49. 236 The writer is uncertain where this bonus was limited to week-ends only. 237 Variety, LXXXVIII (August 24, 1927), 15, said he had four companies. Billboard, XXXIX (July 23, 1927), 9, said he had five. 238 Variety, op. cit. 239 They played Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday evening, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday afternoon, and two performances on Saturday. Dr. Anna Besant and Lawrence Tibbett were the other events, and in addition there was heavy competition from new plays and film premieres. All other available theatres were booked. 240 For various reviews consult The Times, Septem ber 30, 1926, II, 9; October 1, 1926, II, 10; The Exam iner , September 28, 1926, II, 4; September 29, 1926, I, 12; September 30, 1926, II, 4. 241 Cheryl R. Wilber, "A Phoenix Comes to Rest: The History of the Los Angeles Shrine Civic Auditorium, 1920- 1965 (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California at Los Angeles, 1971). 242 Ibid., treats at length of the architects' relationships, seating (and its handicaps), acoustics, lighting, features of the stage, pp. 140-45, 157-71, cf.; 314-23, 324-45, 346-56. The study contains an historical chronology of events. 243 Ibid., shows the production closed February 27, but this writer believes it ran for five weeks through March 5. 244 The Miracle, Schallert, The Times, February 2, 1927, II, 9. 245 The Miracle, Bruno David-Ussher and Lathrop, The Express, February 1, 1927, p. 3. Greene and Lawrence, The Examiner, February 1, 1927, I, 8. ------------------------------------------------------------GUT 246Morgan, personal correspondence, op. cit., said that Wilkes allowed him to stage the plays on the condition that he lend him $3,000, which was not repaid. 247A11 God's Chillun Got Wings, Schallert, The Times, February 23, 1927, II, 9. Lathrop, The Express, February 23, 1927, p. 10. 24®Schallert, The Times, April 20, 1927, II, 9. 24®Lawrence, The Examiner, April 20, 1927, II, 4. Busby, The Times, May 24, 1927, II, 11. 250 Pichel was actively involved in "experimental theatre" in Los Angeles, Carmel, San Francisco, and The University of California at Berkeley. Caesar and Cleo patra, The Times, November 30, 1927, II, 11. Gregory Goss, The Examiner, November 29, 1927, II, 5. Liliom, Greene, The Examiner, May 27, 1925, II, 4. 2^2Julius Caesar, Variety, LXXXIV (October 3, 1926), 45, 51. 253 Robin Hood, Greene, The Examiner, June 15, 1927, I, 12. 2^4The Times, March 21, 1926, II, 11. 255 Earlier m the period, newspapers referred to a troupe of professional Chinese actors. In 1928, Chaplin saw such a group and with other movie personnel sponsored a series of special performances. The Examiner, August 13, 1923, I, 7. Groundwork for this venture had been laid by the appearances of the Vilna Troupe between August, 1924, and the following spring. The Examiner, October 3, 1924, I, 15. Billboard, XXXVII (July 4, 1925), 6. Variety, LXXX (September 16, 1925), 54. Billboard, XXXVIII (March 13, 1926), 8. 25^The Examiner, May 22, 1926, I, 13. 605 259Variety, LXXXIII (August 4, 1926), 34. 2®9Carey McWilliams, Southern California Country (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1946), pp. 321-23. Max Vorspan and Lloyd P. Gartner, History of the Jews of Los Angeles (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1970), pp. 115 cf., 133-53, 213-15. P 6 1 Even the White Russians, self-styled aristocrats who had settled in Hollywood, found their enclave disinte grating by the end of 1920. P 6 P The plays included The Man Who Died at Twelve 01 Clock, Meet the Missus, Where the Cross is Made, Theo dore, Napoleon's Butler, Man in the Cab, etc. p £ O ^DJNovember, Lawrence, The Examiner, November 22, 1926, I, 12. The actors included Fairbanks, Jr., Robards, Sr., D. Jennings, Rosemary Cooper, H. J. Eddy, H. Bos- worth, et al. p c . A *January, Lawrence, The Examiner, January 31, 1927, I, 10. March, The Examiner, March 5, 1927, I, 10. The Express, March 7, 192 7, p. 9. 2f ^April, Lawrence, The Examiner, April 25, 192 7, I, 12. Whitney Williams, The Times, April 25, 1927, II, 8. May, Lawrence, The Examiner, May 21, 1927, I, 10. June, Gregory Goss, The Examiner, June 30, 1927, II, 4. p £ 7 'September, Busby, The Times, September 27, 1927, II, 11. 2690ctober, The Examiner, October 31, 1927, II, 4. 269 December, The Times, December 3, 1927, I, 6. 270 December, Lawrence, The Examiner, December 4, 1927, V, 7, 9. 271Ibid. 272 January, Schallert, The Times, January 13, 1928, II, 9. 606 273February, Busby, The Times, February 17, 1928, II, 9. March, The Times, March 31, 192 8, I, 7. 274Six Characters in Search of an Author, Greene, The Examiner, March 11, 1926, I, 12, considered the play a kind of toy one makes to amuse oneself. Hanley Stafford, Olga VeOlin, Carmen Sharpe, Charles Gillman played the four adults. 278 ' - ' The Emperor Jones, Lathrop, The Express, April 8, 1926, p. 33. The Examiner, April 8, 1926, I, 13. 2^6From Morn Till Midnight, The Examiner, April 29, 1926, I, 14. Mabel Brundige, The Express, April 29, 1926, p. 15. Billboard, XXXVIII (May 8, 1926), p. 39. 2 77 One-Act Plays, The Express, May 5, 1926, p. 11. 278The Bells, The Examiner, June 17, 1926, I, 12. 278Great Adventure, The Examiner, July 19, 1926, I, 11. Salome, The Examiner, July 31, 1926, I, 10. o on The Express, June 21, 1926, p. 7. The Times, June 25, 1926, II, 11. California Graphic, IV (September 4, 1926) , 9, said they were considering a location in Plummer Park just beyond the Pickford-Fairbanks studio. The theatre was to have seated three to four hundred. Mrs. Kate Gartz gave $1,000. O Ol R.U.R., The Times, September 3, 1926, II, 9. The Examiner, September 2, 1926, I, 12. 282Magda, The Examiner, October 29, 1926, II, 4. The Express, October 29, 1926, p. 25. 2 83 The Waltz of the Dogs, The Times, November 22, 1926, II, 11. 284 The Little Clay Cart, Schallert (quotation), The Times, December 9, 1926, II, 9. Lawrence, The Examiner, December 7, 1926, II, 5. Lathrop, The Express, December 8, 1926, p. 11. 607 2pc Processional, Lathrop, The Express, December 22, 1926, p. 11. Schallert, The Times, December 23, 1926, II, 7. 286California Graphic, IV (January 8, 1927), 28. 287 Gay Gnani, The Examiner, January 7, 1927, I, 12. 288 For Happiness, The Express, January 25, 1927, p. 11. 289 The Pleasure of Honesty, Lawrence, The Examiner, April 8, 1927, II, 4. Variety, LXXXVIII (April 20, 1927), 50. Kolker was praised as Baldovino. Others included Gladys Brockwell, Claire McDowell, Crauford Kent, J. Carrol Naish. 290 A Man1s Man. It had been staged three months earlier by The Garrett Club. Schallert, The Times, June 14, 1927, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, June 13, 1927, I, 14. 291 Fashions for Men, Lawrence, The Examiner, Octo ber 27, 1927, II, 4. Schallert, The Times, October 28, 1927, II, 9. 292 The Great Catherine, Schallert, The Times, November 25, 1927, II, 11. 293 The Jest, Busby, The Times, January 28, 1928, II, 7. 294 . ^Billboard, XXXIX (June 11, 1927), 37, which said that approximately five of the professional companies were using players formerly with The Potboilers. 295 Karen Bornemann, The Examiner, October 3, 1925, I, 11. 29 6 The Examiner, March 16, 1925, I, 11; April 18, 1925, I, 15. 297 The Fires of St. John, The Times, May 20, 1926, II, 9. The Examiner, May 20, 1926, I, 13. 608 298 The California Graphic, II (August 7, 1926), 19. 299 Variety, LXXXVI (March 9, 1927), 6. There had been a ten and one-half per cent increase in tourist tickets on railroads, and more than 28,346 cars from other states entered California. 3^®Muriel Babcock, "Theatrical Season Promises to Set First-Run Record," The Times, December 4, 1927, III, 17, 30. 30Variety, LXXXVIII (September 28, 1927), 44, carried an article stating that eastern showmen wondered why Los Angeles had taken the lead from San Francisco in the matter of "runs," and concluded that in the northern city no theatre charging more than $1.50 was allowed to operate without a minimum of ten men in the pit, regard less of the nature of the production, and that stagehands' requirements were also more stringent there. According to the article, a show grossing $7,500-$8,000 could continue for six to fourteen weeks in Los Angeles, whereas San Francisco was up against a $10,000 stop-clause. 302 Variety, LXXXI (December 2, 1925), 21. 303 Lawrence, "Let's Have Some Stage Offerings by Home Talent," The Examiner, March 13, 1927, V, 7, 9. 304 See Jack Poggi, Theater in America, The Impact of Economic Forces, 1870-1967 (Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 1968), pp. 46-96. See also Burns Mantle, ed., The Best Plays of 1926-27 (New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., Inc., 1927), p. 18, and The Best Plays of 1927-28 (New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., Inc., 1928), p. 14. 305 Babcock, "Local Stage Gains Fame," The Times, July 10, 1927, III, 17-18. She said that the prohibitive demands would make it imperative for Los Angeles to come forth with its own plays. 306 Billboard, XXXVIII (November 13, 1926), 6. 30 7 Babcock, op. cit. 308 Greene, "Calling Los Angeles Home Hurts Ar tists," The Examiner, October 30, 1927, V, 10. Some of the playwrights in the area were L. Stallings, P. Kearney, J. Murfin, Z. Sears, M. Marcin, L. Lajos, E. J. Mayer, G. Unger, M. Fulton, E. ' Vajda, R. Hughes, The Hattons, and others. 309 Greene, "Los Angeles as Show Town Is Defended," The Examiner, January 24, 1926, V, 10. 310 Lawrence, "Clean Dramas Stand Best with Box Office Men," The Examiner, May 1, 1927, V, 7-8. 311 Lawrence, "More Interest by Public Chief Need of Stage," The Examiner, June 6, 1926, V, 7-8. 312 Lawrence, "Thumbs Down on New Plays Boon to Gotham," The Examiner, V, 6, 9. 4. 31 3 The California Graphic, IV (February 5, 1927), CHAPTER VIII THE CRISIS YEARS— 1928 AND 1929 "Never Before— And Not Again, for a Long Time" Introduction To visitors returning to the city after an absence of some years, the shape of Los Angeles was only vaguely familiar. Since 1925, more than 200,000 residents had been added to the city, and five hundred billion dollars had been expended on building and construction. In the four- year period, approximately 877 miles of pavement had been laid, and the city's valuation was assessed at over two and one-quarter billion dollars. Among the structures com pleted in the two-year period, The City Hall, dedicated on April 26, 1928, was as uniquely symbolic of the city's growth as was the opening in September, 1929, of Bullock's Department Store on Wilshire Boulevard. A new mayor, John C. Porter was elected in 1929, and for the first time in that year, bank clearings passed the billion dollar mark. 610_____________________________ 611 According to one source, industry experienced a quiet but steady advance, with both Goodyear and Firestone opening new installations in 192 8. The Willys-Knight- Overland Plant became the area's first automobile manufac turer. Although hardly comparable with eastern operations, both Douglas Aircraft Company and Lockheed Aircraft Company made important gains in the manufacture of aircraft. In September of 1928, the city hosted the International Aeronautical Exposition, and in June of 1930, the Los Angeles Municipal Airport was dedicated. In August, 1929, the southern branch of The Univer sity of California began the final transfer from its Hollywood location to its new site in Westwood, and The University of Southern California commenced its fiftieth academic year. Early in 1928, The Huntington Galleries were opened to the public, and in October, Mount Wilson acquired one of the largest telescopes in the world. The movie industry continued to dot the landscape with new palaces. The United Artists opened in January of 1928, followed by Warner's Hollywood in April. In May, 1929, Sid Grauman sold The Chinese Theatre to the Fox West Coast chain for an estimated three million dollars, and three months 612 earlier the first Oscars had been awarded. Yet, beneath the surface of this steady, unspec tacular progress, there were signs that the frenetic fevers of the decade had not yet abated. As early as 1928, local newspapers were reporting on the unpredictability of the stock market, and even before the New York Stock Market crash, erratic investing in the Los Angeles Stock Market depleted the savings of many residents, particularly fol lowing the frantic activity in Bank of Italy stock. The Julian Oil swindle case, which had concluded with the dis missal of charges against the defendants, descended upon a scapegoat in District Attorney Asa Keyes, who was sentenced to prison for accepting bribes during the hear ing. Alexander Pantages, owner of a chain of vaudeville and movie theatres, was convicted of assaulting one of his employees, while his wife was given a ten-year probation on a manslaughter charge and ordered to pay $78,500 to the occupants of the car which her vehicle had struck. In February, 1929, the only son of oil magnate Edward Doheny was murdered by his secretary who then turned the weapon upon himself. The Reverend Robert Shuler was acquitted of charges of libel against the Knights of Columbus, but blame was much more difficult to affix in the 6 1 3 collapse of the St. Francis Dam in March, 1928, in which over four hundred people lost their lives, thousands were made homeless, and property damages were estimated at more 2 than thirty million dollars. At the beginning of 1930, it was estimated that the city's population registered 1,231,730— a numerical increase of 655,057 and a world record for the decade for any city of over 500,000 inhabitants in 1920. Los Angeles 3 had become the fifth largest city in the country. Background Against this background of expansion and excess, the theatre scene was one of contradictions. For the first time in the history of theatrical endeavor, Los Angeles sponsored a repertory theatre. The name was a misnomer, however, for the theatre did not rotate productions; it did not feature the same cast in different roles; and its scope of presentations was relatively narrow. Neverthe less, the group presented a series of plays; sponsored productions by The New York Theatre Guild; and survived, in the face of worsening economic conditions and increasing exploitation on the local scene, for three seasons. In addition, the incoming road shows featured a number of 614 national and international troupes whose productions created an eclat unequalled in the city's theatrical his tory: The Stratford-upon-Avon troupe. The D'Oyley Carte Opera Company, Moscow's Chauve-Souris (Bat Theatre), Eva LeGalliene's Civic Repertory in one production, The New York Theatre Guild with several productions, and various foreign-language aggregations. With the passing of the construction mania in the legitimate theatre, many of the new, and old, playhouses were vacant for considerable periods of time. The Biltmore Theatre, no exception to this condition, showed films for long spans during the two years and thus managed to remain occupied most of the time. With an increased availability of space, intrepid individuals, with a seemingly never- ending supply of funds, rushed forward to experiment with theatrical investment and production. Henry Duffy took charge of three playhouses in Los Angeles-Hollywood; Edward Everett Horton, popular actor, produced successfully for nearly two years; and Franklin Pangborn, a compatriot from The Majestic Theatre, also entered the producers' ranks. Several individuals with film connections experimented in legitimate theatre in the hope of furthering their film careers. _____ 615 While censorship had altered the course of few shows in the years before 192 8, in March, The Captive prompted the passage of a city ordinance forbidding the participation in or sponsorship of any play deemed morally offensive— particularly any play dealing with perverse sexual relations. At least two shows resulted in arrests following the passage of this ordinance. For the actor, the eastern producer, the coast- producer, and just about anyone intent on airing his pro duction, Los Angeles became the last open theatre market, and with it came all the excesses and exuberances of such fervid activity. In fact, the zenith had passed, but not until afterwards did this become apparent. Discussion of Theatrical Activity The Morosco, The Hollywood Playhouse, and The El Capitan Henry "Terry" Duffy impressed himself upon the canvas of the flickering years of this decade like a movie studio announcing its latest product. He had first ap peared as a foreground figure of momentary interest in 1920, starring in Oliver Morosco's production of Seven Miles to Arden. He remained in Los Angeles for several 616 months creating likable but fleeting characterizations in several other Morosco offerings, until in 1921 he embarked for New York to recreate the role of William Plumb in Wait Till We're Married. Two years later, he crossed the stage again, but his first Los Angeles producing attempt was more a phantom than a reality for The Dust of Erin, starring Eugene O'Brien, evaporated with the disappearance of the producer. One year later, in 1924, he assumed the lease on San Francisco's Alcazar Theatre (which Thomas Wilkes was no longer able to operate successfully), and the first chapter in the career of the Pacific Coast's most ambitious stock producer drew to a close. In between his ingratiating appearances in Moros co' s romantic comedites and before and after his renuncia tion of the responsibility for The Dust of Erin, Henry "Terry" Duffy had managed five stock companies in Washing ton, D. C., Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Brooklyn, and Montreal. Later, he divulged that he had first entered theatrical management at the age of eighteen, where he discovered that sentimental dramas such as When We Were Twenty-One or Because She Loved Him tickled the till to full capacity 4 along the kerosene circuit. As his policy of clean dramas found welcome 617 support, Duffy bought The Plaza Theatre in San Francisco, renamed it The President, after his earlier successes in Washington, D. C. , and reopened it in June, 1925.^ That summer, he rented The Metropolitan Theatre in Seattle, and later in the fall, when he moved in to The Seattle-Heilig, which he leased for ten years, Duffy began to assemble his g Ford system of theatres. In November of 1925, he opened The Heilig Theatre in Portland, Oregon, also renamed The President. Even as he looked northward, Duffy was aware that the locus of theatrical activity lay to the south, in the ballooning city of Los Angeles. However, his efforts to obtain a theatre in the city or suburbs were frustrated until July, 1927, when he registered his first claim— the 7 newly-erected (May, 1926) El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. Having established a Los Angeles base of operation, Duffy sought to improve his holdings along the northern half of his chain. In September./ 1927., he remodeled The Moore Theatre in Seattle at an estimated cost of $200,000, O and renamed it, predictably, The President. That same fall, he leased the old Orpheum in Vancouver, British Columbia and installed a stock company. However, here he encountered competition from The Allen Players, and by the 618 following June, in order to counteract their inroads, he 9 reduced his ticket price to a top price of one dollar. In Portland, meanwhile, he moved his company from The Heilig to the renovated Baker Theatre, seating 1,350, which he christened The Dufwin. It had cost him about $100,000.^ While Duffy was solidifying his position in the northwest, changes transpired in Los Angeles of which the eager theatrical producer took advantage. At the end of 1927, the court had ordered The Morosco Holding Company, which held The Morosco Theatre in receivership, to dispose of its holdings. Gerhold O. Davis, lessee of The Mayan Theatre stepped forward to direct the Morosco. While he retained the stock company policy and prices, Davis chose to stage plays with a somewhat more cosmopolitan tone: Ernest Vajda's wry look at first marriages, Grounds for Divorce; Louis Verneuil's farce, Oh, Mama, which prompted Florence Lawrence to observe that The Morosco Theatre had switched from "oatmeal and weak tea to caviar and cham pagne" Martin Flavin's comedy of coincidence on the nineteenth floor of the Alabaster Hotel, Service for Two; and, before relinquishing his responsibility, an exquisite production of Noel Coward's comedy of eighteenth century pecadilloes, The Marquise. No one of the productions was 619 an overwhelming finanial success, with the highest average gross recorded for Oh, Mama— $5,050. New carpeting, commodious seating which replaced the worn-out narrow chairs, freshly-tinted walls, and new chandeliers reflected the new life of the theatre when The Los Angeles President opened on May 3, 192 8, with Lindsay and Robinson's domestic comedy, Tommy, featuring four of the original New York cast. Henry Duffy received an ova tion about which Edwin Schallert observed that the audience equated the successful resolution of the fictional lives of the characters in Duffy's plays with the advancement of Duffy's career: "His advance in the theatre world here has 12 been turned into a popular victory." Of the fourteen productions which Duffy sponsored at The President (The Morosco), only one-half of them were headed by members of the original cast. However, among the actors who constituted "the local companies" were perform ers who had ingratiated themselves with Duffy's audiences earlier: Jason Robards, Sr., Gladys George, Zeffie Tilbury (Why Men Leave Home); Gay Seabrook and Emerson Tracy (Take My Advice); Robert Keith, Lillian Dean, Helen Ferguson (That Ferguson Family) . In other instances, the local company drew upon the large movie colony: Patsy Ruth Miller 620 and Cameron Prud'homme (The Nightstick); William V. Mong and Dean Jagger (Shavings); Robert Frazier and Betsy Ross Clark (Remote Control). Duffy realized that his audiences preferred plays which reinforced society's norms, but he also recognized that they wanted productions with an air of up-to-dateness about them. Thus, he attempted to place a leading actor at the head of his company whenever possible: Dudley Clements, Clara Verdera, Leslie Austen from the New York cast in The Wooden Kimono; Leo Carillo and Elise Bartlett Schildkraut in The Bad Man; Clara Blandick recreating her New York impersonation in Skidding; Walker Whiteside in two of his fantastic melodramas; and Taylor Holmes in The Sap. Moreover, Duffy endeavored to present recent fare: nine of the fourteen shows were drawn from the 1926-27, 1927-28, and 1929-30 eastern seasons, with six from the 1927-28 season alone. But whether headed by a star or not, whether recent or not, the play still had to fall within the parameters of the taste and expectations of the audience. And so Duffy astutely balanced his offerings between the mystery melo drama (The Wooden Kimono, set in a deserted inn, gave the stage crew guaranteed overtime; The Skull, whose ------------------------------------------------------------------5TT spiritualistic nonsense in a deserted church prompted the audience to warn the endangered characters; Remote Control, set in a radio station); the action melodrama (Nightstick/ a cops-and-robbers glorification of the overworked law enforcer; The Bad Man, remote adventures in which an over weight but boisterous Leo Carrillo swaggered through an uninhibited characterization of Robin Hood; The Hindu and The Arabian/ two pastiches of perfumed villainy starring Walker Whiteside); and the family play with heart and human interest (Tommy; Why Men Leave Home— because women are more interested in Pekingnese pups, purloined cocktails, and ocean voyages; Skidding; The Sap; The Ferguson Family, and Shavings). All of the plays were new to Los Angeles audiences, except the Carrillo and Whiteside vehicles, and Shavings. The gross receipts picture even more clearly the kind of play that the audience at The President enjoyed. The Skull averaged $6,214 in its seven, weeks, and was followed by two adventure stories (The Hindu, five weeks, $5,640 average; The Bad Man, seven weeks, $5,560 average); one success story of a lovable bungler who makes good (The Sap, six weeks, $5,616 average); and another mystery (Remote Control, five weeks, $5,560 average). 622 Philip Scheuer of The Los Angeles Times thought that The Sap was not one of Duffy's brightest offerings, but Florence Lawrence reluctantly admitted that even though the hokum was wearisomely heavy, "The Duffy slogan calls for entertainment and each moment of the three acts pro- 13 vides it." Even The Wooden Kimono established a respect able average of $5,230 during its ten-week stay, with Tommy showing $5,200 in eight and one-half weeks. While Duffy was pursuing his policy of popular entertainment at The President, a change in another Los Angeles theatre challenged the ambitious scion to spread his theatrical empire wider and thinner. The Hollywood Playhouse, following the resignation of Edward Rowland as artistic director, underwent a series of trial programs. The Hollywood Playhouse Corporation relinquished its commitment to produce shows, and two independent offerings moved in: The Morning After, the musical comedy flop sponsored by Oliver Morosco; and The Scarlet Woman, Zelda Sears' new play, premiered in late December, 192 7, at The Egan. Then, in February, Orville Routt, president of the board of directors, arranged with the Charles Frohman office to stage Interference, the English melodrama of blackmail. The Playhouse presentation ------------------------------------------------------------------ &2T of the play still running on Broadway, featuring Douglas Gilmore, Montague Shaw, George Berraud, Isabelle Withers, Doris Lloyd, Flora Bramley and others, was reckoned a worthwhile dramatic piece not to be missed by serious play goers. Variety bluntly stated that it "is better all round entertainment than this town is accustomed to. The six-week run grossed only $42,200. The theatre then launched what promised to be its most artistic period, for Orville Routt appointed Joseph Schildkraut as director-general. Associated with him were his father, Rudolph Schildkraut; Fritz Feld, like the Schildkrauts a student of Reinhardt; and Frank Reicher, a former director with The New York Theatre Guild, where the younger Schildkraut had risen to fame in Molnar's Liliom. In addition to the staging of plays, Schildkraut announced his intention of establishing a theatrical training school and initiating a series of lectures on modern stagecraft and dramaturgy. The lofty plans for "an art theatre for the people" survived through two productions. George Scarborough and Jamie DelRio's new play, From Hell Came a Lady, roused unqualified praise for the physical production, but drew mixed, almost apologetic, response for the script and the acting. The story of a 624 young woman, whose professional inducements as the attrac tion outside a boardwalk concession lead to paternal com plications, vacillated uncertainly between melodrama and farce (with an ending in which the girl threatens to jump from a lighthouse roof but instead returns to her forgiving husband), and was laden with stilted dialogue. In addi tion, while the reviewers considered Lionel Belmore's work adequate, they felt that Mae Busch was unequal to her role; Harry T. Shannon was lugubrious; and other actors uncer tain. However, the spectacular staging of the opening scene in "Hell," synchronized with wierd lighting effects and unusual sounds, and the later lighthouse set, with its indelible illusion of the sea, were deemed artistic achievements. The production, which had cost about $40,000 to stage, ran for four weeks, during which time it grossed $32,450.16 Following the scenic extravagance of the first offering, the directors swung to the pristine, quaint humor of Louis N. Parker's turn-of-the-century London comedy of love and adjustment, Pomander Walk. The large cast was impeccable in its characterizations; the settings by Werner Wittkamp were beguiling; the music was charming. The pro duction closed in three weeks, having grossed only 625 $10,800.17 Schildkraut relinquished his position. What a Man, a comedy of misplaced husbands and bedroom focus, filled a four-week engagement before Henry Duffy assumed the management of his third Los Angeles theatre. As with his two other Los Angeles playhouses, Duffy pursued his goal of bringing popular theatre to Los Angeles patrons, but with some subtle differences between this undertaking and his other two houses. Of the fourteen productions which he sponsored at The Hollywood Playhouse, all except one were romantic or light comedies (no myster ies or melodramas); one-half had been seen in the city previously; one-half were products of the 1920 New York season, or earlier; and one-half featured stars more likely to appeal to the parents and grandparents in the potential audience than to the young adult, namely, Leo Carrillo, Robert McWade, May Robson, and Guy Bates Post. In addi tion, productions played shorter engagements. Only five shows stayed for five weeks, while four remained for less than that. However, in order not to unduly emphasize the policy of familiar plays with familiar stars, Duffy rotated his productions cleverly. He opened with Leo Carrillo in 626 Lombardi, Ltd., a play which had opened in New York in 1917. His next play had also been seen in the city pre viously, but The Best People featured a cross-section of societal types (rich parents, flappers, and a chauffeur), and the appealing work of Jason Robards, Sr., Natalie Moorehead, Montague Shaw, and Marion Lord. The third offering brought James Spottswood from New York to recreate his role in The Lady Next Door. The cycle then began again with one or two necessary repetitions. Among these warming, unsophisticated plays, Duffy presented only one mvsterv thrl 1l.p.r. Danger, by Tom Barry, unseen in New York; and one new romantic comedy, Cooking Her Goose, by VanLoan and Westman, premiered earlier in San Francisco. With nine theatres along the coast, Duffy had found a workable solution for filling The Hollywood Playhouse, and gross receipts confirm that there was a strong follow ing to support the theatrical endeavors of Carrillo, Post, Robson, and McWade, provided there was also an occasional *1 Q conservative change of pace. Lombardi, Ltd. showed the highest weekly gross receipts of $6,450 and remained for eight weeks. Mother1s Millions, starring May Robson established the long-run record of nine weeks and still 52T showed an average return of $5,366. Guy Bates Post played five weeks in The Masquerador and the production returned an average of $5,560. This Thing Called Love, starring Kay Hammond and Tom Moore, fared the best of the more recent offerings with younger stars. It remained for seven weeks during which time the average gross receipts amounted to $5,300 weekly. The new play, Cooking Her Goose, fared poorest. However, as the decade moved toward its close, the fortunes of The Hollywood Playhouse began to take on a deja-vu tone: plays "about nothing in particular"; plays more quaint than powerful; plays more innocuous than merely old-fashioned, salvaged by fair productions which I Q redeemed the play's deficiencies. Such a self-defeating policy spawns dwindling returns, and from October, 1929, on, Duffy changed productions every three or four weeks in an attempt to retain his regular patrons. Even Holiday, in which Duffy and Dale Winter starred, played only four weeks, and was followed by The Gorilla, whose two-week engagement in 1930 completed Duffy's fulltime management of The Playhouse. While directing The Hollywood Playhouse and The President, Duffy saved his best products for The El 628 Capitan. Here, he staged popular plays of recent Broadway vintage, only six of which were not headed by the stars of 20 the New York companies, but all of which exhibited a wider gamut of fictional experience than those examined above, while combining "a sincere and human love interest 21 with an abundance of humor." Additionally, Duffy exer cised the option of occasionally altering a play to suit his audience, cutting out "the rough stuff," or blunting the impact. For example, in Dancing Mothers, although the door-mat wife-mother left at the end, there was a glimmer of hope that she might return. In the Duffy production she 22 returned before the final curtain. However, with each of the productions at this theatre, Duffy insured an attraction guaranteed to draw "one of those huge audiences always in evidence at the 23 matinee premieres of this house." Two Girls Wanted contained good construction, plenty of humor, a sang-froid performances by Jason Robards, and delightful work by Gay Seabrook and others. New Brooms sparkled with Robert McWade's peppery performance and satisfied with its happy philosophy. The Show-Off was a worthwhile piece of dramatic literature and featured a cast headed by John Louis Bartels 629 and Enid Markey, plus three other members of the original New York cast, including Helen Lowell as the mother. The Baby Cyclone was a healthy contrivance, bounced along by the performances of Montague Shaw, Harrison Ford, Natalie Moorehead, and others, while The Shannons of Broadway— a comedy-melodrama-vaudeville melange of back-stage life and home-town pathos— brought Lucille Webster Gleason to The El Capitan stage. In the last week of the run, her hus band, James Gleason, joined the company. So This Is London and Abraham Lincoln featured members of the original companies, as did Lightnin', the heart-warming melodrama of local color, which featured Mrs. Frank Bacon, the author's widow, Bessie Bacon, and Percy Pollock. Henry Duffy and Dale Winter celebrated their first successful year in Hollywood by returning to The El Capitan stage in The First Year. Both Burlesque and She Couldn't Say No were "ace high shows." The former starred Hal Skelly, Oscar Levant, Eileen Wilson, and Ralph Theodore in the comedy of back-stage life. All had created the roles in the original eastern showing. The latter featured the sharp-cornered, long-legged Charlotte Greenwood. Courage provided a change of pace by providing a departure from Duffy's "customary perfect exemplification of the age 630 24 of innocence." Of these numerous offerings, four had been chosen as Best Plays of their particular season: Abraham Lincoln, 1920-21; The Show-Off, 1923-24; Dancing Mothers, 1924-25; and Burlesque. 1927-28. However, since Duffy's admitted policy called for entertainment first, and literary merit only coincidentally, other factors of amusement value must be considered. Of the sixteen productions viewed in these two years (including Pigs which had opened in 1927), seven were drawn from the recent Broadway seasons of 1926-27, 1927-28, and 1928-29. Only four selections were chosen from years prior to 1920 and three of these were vehicles 25 for the stars and/or held peculiar local interest. Moreover, Duffy made certain that the seven shows which had been seen in the city on a previous occasion drew a large audience by casting New York stars from the original cast, or other popular performers (New Brooms, The Show- Off, So This Is London, Dancing Mothers, Lightnin1, The First Year, Abraham Lincoln, and Boomerang). An analysis of the long-run engagements and the gross receipts indicates that The El Capitan Theatre audiences liked their plays recent, snappy, and headed by 6 3 1 stars. She Couldn't Say No, starring Charlotte Greenwood, established the long-run record by remaining thirteen weeks. Astonishingly, it also established the highest average gross receipts, $6,706, and was a product of the 1926-27 New York season. Burlesque, headed by Hal Skelly, was shown in New York during the 1927-28 season. In Los Angeles, it played for seven weeks and showed an average gross of $6,014. The Duffys followed with their five-week engagement of The First Year which registered an average of $5,920. Two other long-run engagements showed respect able averages, and both were recent products. Two Girls Wanted played for eleven weeks, during which time the aver age weekly gross receipts were $5,580. The Shannons of Broadway, stayed one week longer, but its receipts were equally high— $5,50 8 weekly. The show had opened in New York during 1927-28. Abraham Lincoln, starring Frank McGlynn in his original creation, remained for only two weeks and also showed the lowest receipts, a total of $9,700. However, what is remarkable about the Duffy produc tion plan is the fact that, with the exception of the highest and lowest grossing shows (both featuring stars), all of the plays fell within the $5,000-$6,000 category, 632 regardless of literary merit or absence thereof, regard less of the play's vintage, regardless of the appearances of stars or not, regardless of the elaborateness of stag ing, and regardless of the subject matter (given the out lines which permitted only plays of optimistic philosophy and romantic resolution, with an occasional mystery melo drama) . This fact alone is tribute to Duffy's uncanny perception of his audiences' tastes, and recognition of their loyal following. However, while this examination suggests that Duffy's policy was successful on the financial and popular planes, several factors indicate that Duffy was probably only just "making ends meet." In 1929, only one show sus tained a long run of thirteen weeks, with only two others lasting for seven and six weeks, respectively. Perhaps, increasing competition within his own theatrical chain, particularly among his three theatres in Los Angeles- Hollywood, forced Duffy to change his bills more frequently in order to hold on to his regular patrons. Also, by 1929, "the talker" had begun to resolve some of its earlier dif ficulties and may have drawn off a percentage of Duffy's audience, given the favorable correspondence in subject matter and admission prices between Duffy's theatres and 633 the movies. Also, in these two years, the number of "once-in-a-season" (or, once-in-a-lifetime) type of attrac tion had increased, for example The Chauve Souris, Strat ford-upon-Avon troupe, D'Oyley Carte, presentations by The New York Theatre Guild, and these may have dented Duffy's patronage. Above all, by 1929, Duffy's policy included a star at the head of each of this theatres, an expensive prac tice, even if the star did not share in the gross receipts — as did Charlotte Greenwood (whose shows were sell-outs) who received a guaranteed salary plus a percentage of the 2 6 gross. Given the pallid subject matter of many of the plays— Duffy had concluded that "in the popular-priced theater the public does not support either questionable plays or what might be termed the serious drama"— Duffy retained his audience in part because his productions 27 generally were visually stylish and convincingly real. It was a financially-draining practice. Further, in January, 1928, when Duffy had announced that, his stock companies were in a stable financial condition, he had also admitted that "mounting costs out here have considerably 2 f t cut down on his profit chances at the scales charged." The reference is to the increased salaries paid to stage 634 crews and musicians. Finally, even when a Duffy production did capacity business, salaries and royalties frequently ate away the profits; for example, Burlesque, a fact which 29 Variety poxnted out. Duffy's ability to guarantee the original producer and author of a Broadway play a run of sixteen to thirty-five weeks throughout his chain of theatres gave the Pacific coast producer leverage in ob- 30 tainxng these successes. However, eventually xt also boomeranged, since the practice set up certain expectations on the part of his audience regarding the kind of play associated with Duffy's theatres; since it became a 'pot of gold" for eastern producers; since it compounded Duffy's problem of finding suitable scripts; and since, above all, it was a costly venture.^ In early 1929, Duffy had traveled east on a shopping trip for suitable scripts and upon his return declared that of the number of plays which he had viewed (variously cited as anywhere between thirteen and twenty-one), the bulk of them were objectionable in character, story or dialog: ". . . not one could a father take his daughter to watch, without ensuing embarrassment 32 to both." With fewer moral overtones, Variety pinpointed Duffy's difficulty: "He knew last winter that he could not find sufficient plays to operate houses so close 635 33 together." It is also possible that Duffy was attempting to buoy up a crumbling institution— the theatre as a place of entertainment attended by the family as a unit. But Duffy's dilemma was not limited to Los Angeles, for as the situation in individual theatres began to erode, the entire system suffered dysfunction. In December, 1928, he had pulled out from Vancouver, British Columbia, after eight months during which he had lost approximately 34 $44,000. Yet, despite this set-back, Duffy still con trolled nine playhouses: three in Los Angeles, two each in San Francisco and Oakland (local capital had erected a new theatre for him, The Dufwin, and in August, 1929, Duffy had leased The Fulton Theatre), and one each in Seattle and Portland. However, The Dufwin-Portland was as frequently dark as it was occupied through much of 1929. Scheduled to close in March, 19 29, because of stagehands' demands and poor business, the theatre remained open until July, 1929. In Seattle, criticism of Duffy's productions by radio station KJR created a theatrical tempest. Other theatre managers came to Duffy's support and attacked the review er (s) , and labor and business organizations urged Duffy to 35 remain. However, the producer announced that the theatre ------ g56 would be closed until Easter Sunday, and it was in fact dark for nine months, closing permanently in February, 1930.^ Throughout the early part of 1930, Duffy tried to keep his theatre in Portland open, even accepting financial assistance from his creditors (the good will of his cred itors was not limited to Portland). But in June, the theatre closed. Duffy would return to that city in future years, but on a contractual basis rather than as a les- 37 see. In an effort to salvage the situation in Oakland, Duffy moved his company out of The Dufwin to The Fulton because he said he could operate the latter more economi cally than the newer playhouse. However, by June, George Eby had resumed the management of The Fulton Theatre and was offering stiff competition to Duffy's company which Q O was back at The Dufwin. By mid-1930, it was no longer a secret that, as Billboard colorfully but bluntly stated, "Duffy Goes Bust." The affairs of his corporation were placed in the hands of a receiver and, in July, a bankruptcy claim was filed with assets of $649,000 listed against liabilities 39 of $495,472. In August, he filed a personal petition of bankruptcy, listing liabilities of $703,49 3 and assets of 637 $361,750.^® The reasons for the downfall of the Duffy empire have been explored above, but a few other factors must be mentioned. First, Duffy spent thousands of dollars improving real estate owned by others and, in addition, also bought playhouses outright which, in turn, he reno vated. Second, he had made investments in other business property, and had purchased a seventeen-room home in Hillsbourough, a suburb of San Francisco, which featured an art collection valued at $12,000 (the house and its furnishings were auctioned to meet his liabilities). Third, the bulk of Duffy's extensive empire-building took place toward the end of the decade, in the face of worsen ing business conditions and more exacting demands by theatrical unions.^ Thus, the speculative mania of the period took its toll of the west's most expansive theatri cal producer, as much as had his foolhardy optimism. Following the bankruptcy, Duffy restricted his theatrical activity to San Francisco and Los Angeles and, for a time, was active in the northwest. In July, 1930, Principal Theatres, Inc., bought The President (Morosco) Theatre for a reported sum of $400,000, and leased it to Fox-West Coast Theaters as a newsreel theatre. With un canny irony, the famous Morosco Theatre closed as a "spoken 638 42 drama" theatre with a production of Crime. Duffy returned The Hollywood Playhouse to its owners in May, 1930, although he produced there for a short period in October and November. At The El Capitan, he worked out an arrangement with the owner, Charles E. Toberman, whereby he remained as supervisor of productions. According to Murial Ann Mouring, who has written of his career, Duffy continued to manage The Alcazar in San Francisco and The El Capitan through 19 36, and produced at these theatres 43 sporadically thereafter. In May, 19 37, The Henry Duffy Players, Inc., was dissolved and was not reorganized until four years later. Duffy returned to production in 1947, buying a musical comedy which he presented on Broadway under the title Music in My Heart. It played 125 perform ances. But his area of interest was the west coast, and in 1952, in Los Angeles, he presented Otto Kruger in Affairs of State, and Billie Burke in Life with Mother. It was his final producing effort. Nine years later, he 44 was dead. In the early 1.970's, The El Capitan is used as a film theatre, while The Hollywood Playhouse has been converted to a television "talk-show" studio. 639 The Vine Street and The Majestic Theatres He was one of the city's most popular actors, hav ing established a following among "the pros" and the pa trons during his five-year engagement with The Wilkes Stock Company at The Majestic Theatre. Sporadic appearances in 1925, 1926, and 1927 reminded his audiences of his growing skill. In March, 1928, together with Maude Fulton and Ben Kutcher, and backed by his brother's money (and his own), he signed a six-month lease on The Vine Street Theatre. In this fashion, one of the period's most delightful and rewarding theatrical experiences was afoot— thanks in large part to Edward Everett Horton.^5 Although his announcement that he intended to produce clean wholesome comedies with an occasional spicily-sophisticated play, at prices ranging from fifty cents to one dollar and fifty cents, appeared to be in direct competition with Henry Duffy's theatres, in fact the differences became readily apparent. The venture did not find its metier until the third production, but the Horton touch was evident even in the opening show. A Single Man was Hubert Davies' 1911 comedy of a 36-year-old bachelor, who in his misguided attempts to find romantic adventure with the girl next door— a flapper with notions decidedly at odds with his own— overlooks the attractions of his understanding, lovely secretary. While most of the reviewers thought the role suited to Horton, they could not understand his choice of opening fare, and found the introduction of orchestral music at the moment when the novelist and the secretary embrace "inexcusably unprofessional. No one seems to have caught the delicate nuance that the title of the play was an apt description of the star's marital status as well as his artistic position, that is, his own man; or that the "age of the play" was likely to arouse its own kind of curiosity; or that the introduction of music during the embrace was a wry tongue-in-cheek piece of theatrical ity. However, it was with the third presentation, Robert Sherwood's The Queen's Husband, that the configuration of a Horton production took shape: a role tailor-made for Horton's talents— vocal and facial inflections— an orches tral sense of pacing and punch, the ability to move with grace and ease between satire and wit, clowning and farce; a literate play, soundly constructed, peopled with individualized characters, fitted with bright lines, and 641 informed with an occasional philosophical foray; a cast of distinguished, sure craftsmen, including Mary Forbes, Lois Wilson (successfully stepping from the silent films to the stage), Mitchell Harris (with long credits achieved at The Morosco Theatre and The Mission Playhouse), plus Bram Nossen, Fergus Reddie, and novice Lloyd Nolan; smart direc tion by Maude Fulton; and handsome settings. As H. 0. Stechan declared, Horton had rarely been seen to better advantage in all the years he had played in Los Angeles and, more importantly, with his offerings, "You can count on seeing something different, and worthwhile. There is a distinct flavor to his productions."^8 Thus, at their best, Horton's productions required judgment (aesthetic and ethical); they made demands upon the intellect and they engendered participation. Horton's next attempt reaffirmed this goal. Spread Eagle, Brooks and Lister's caustic cartoon of Ameri ca's dealings in Mexico, was a cobbled play marred by stilted dialogue. Yet, Horton saw in it an examination of the country's foreign policy seldom discussed on the stage. He gave the work an impeccable production, featuring Allan Vincent, from the New York company, as the son, and DeWitt Jennings as the financier. He himself played a subordinate 642 role, another mark of his professional integrity and his sincere interest in theatre. The three-week engagement was not a success and Horton then staged Mary’s Other Husband, a "triviality of the theatre." The role of the husband, who impersonates a butler in order to support his wife's social pretensions, allowed Horton to ingratiate himself anew in a familiar characterization— one reason he may have chosen it: "The more anguish and mental suffering a playwright can pile up for Mr. Horton the better the audience likes the play."^® He followed this with a revival of Clarence, his best role, according to Marquis Busby of The Los Angeles Times. Audiences and critics alike thoroughly approved. Horton C " I extended his lease for another six months. The next five months at The Vine Street Theatre witnessed Horton's most attractive, adventuresome, and popular productions. They began with the first profession al production west of the Rockies of Shaw's Arms and the Man, and starred, in addition to Horton, Florence Eldridge, Mary Forbes, Charles Quartermaine, Joan Maclean, and Mitchell Harris as Bluntschili, Raina, the Mother, Major Petov, Louka, and Saranov, respectively. Edwin Schallert rated the production as "excellent entertainment," finding 643 the play even more timely than when originally penned. He concurred with Florence Lawrence that: . . . the Vine Street Theatre stepped up several notches in its production status last night . . . [the production] set a pace in humor, scenic art and finesse of casting which made it one of the suc cesses of the season.^ The emphasis on the continental and the cosmopoli tan continued with Frederick Lonsdale's rapier-like satire on matrimonial expeditions, On Approval, whose exquisite production (even if it took forty-five minutes to set up the lounge scenery), and inspired casting, drew a crowded, appreciative house: . . . the play is undoubtedly a play for the initiate. You need to have a split-second sense of humor to catch all the snappy lines . . . and a human understanding as well. No slapstick offering ever got the continuous succession of laughs which greeted the premiere last night.53 Her Cardboard Lover, a starring vehicle for Tallu lah Bankhead and Leslie Howard in New York, surpassed the earlier successes: The first nights at this house have become quite the most distinguished of any theater event in the community. The intellectual elite are always there. Don't by any chance say I called them that. But just look about you and see them for yourself. There is no show, no pomp, but the surety of an amusing play deftly acted, well-staged and a delight ful informality about the proceedings which puts the finale cache of individuality to these perform ances. 54 644 Apparently more than just the intellectual coterie enjoyed Horton's offering, for the show ran for eight weeks and was revived later for three more: His [Horton's] work in the last six months has outstripped in finesse and brilliance anything which his earlier presentations offered, and with a little more attention to make-up, especially for character ization, the actor might easily step into the role of supreme light comedian of the stage.^5 But Horton's most successful production was ahead of him. He opened Molnar's romantic comedy, The Swan, on January 20, 1929, one week after The Los Angeles Reper tory Theatre had premiered Molnar's The Guardsman. The delicate, sentimental romance of a tutor piqued into play ing a rival for the hand of the Princess in order to interest the intended Prince played to capacity houses during its four-week stay at The Vine Street Theatre (Variety stated that $10,500 was capacity at $1.50 top). Horton then moved his operations to The Majestic Theatre, where the show continued for another seven weeks.^ The Majestic Theatre, after a series of inauspi cious productions in 1927, had been leased in 1928 by Lillian Albertson, the distaff half of the producing team of Albertson and Louis O. Macloon. In spite of their active involvement in previous years and an investment 645 which included renovating The Majestic Theatre (new seats, draperies, curtains, panelled walls, removal of footlight parapets), the team staged only three productions in Los Angeles (plus one which did not play the city— Burlesque). The reasons for this curtailed activity are discussed following the conclusion of Horton's offerings. Horton's decision to move to The Majestic was abrupt and unexplained. Although The Swan was drawing capacity audiences at The Vine Street Theatre, Horton stated simply that matinee trade in Hollywood was not strong and business exhausted in two weeks. An examination of gross receipts contradicts this statement. At The Majestic, which he redecorated with red carpeting, red- striped seat backs, a futuristically-designed curtain, wall mirrors and chandeliers, he said he hoped for drop-in trade.^7 One can only ponder whether the lessee of The Vine Street Theatre, Adolph Ramish, had increased Horton's rent following the actor-producer's success, or whether Ramish had been persuaded "to bump" Horton by the backer of the incoming operation. The transaction must have caused hard feelings, for Franklin Pangborn, the incoming tenant, whose offerings are discussed after those of Albertson-Macloon, had been a co-actor with Horton in The 646 Wilkes Stock Company at The Majestic Theatre earlier in the decade. At the downtown theatre there were slight differ ences in the caliber of plays produced, prompted perhaps by the location, by memories of the kind of farcical fare in which Horton had initially received recognition, or because film commitments drained the star's energies (he had signed a long-term contract with Warner's in Septem ber, 1928). In any case, Horton continued to attempt to juggle popular fare with more demanding pieces. Following the seven-week run of The Swan, he revived the horse-racing farce, The Hottentot, which had been an earlier success. After four weeks, he hit upon a production to please theatrical aficionadoes and "gallery bums." He revived Dion Boucicault's melodrama, The Streets of New York, com plete with period settings changed to the whistle of the stage manager, paper snowstorms, tenement-house fires, shielded footlights, period costumes, period music, and rollicking, tasteful performances by Horton, Enid Bennett, 59 Tully Marshall and a large cast. Having attended to the popular, Horton moved with equal facility, but not equal popularity, into the realm of high comedy. He introduced S. N. Berhman's "fabulous 647 comedy," Serena Blandish, featuring Sylvia Field and Selmer Jackson. Behrman's work with its mingled moods of sophis tication, fantasy, idealism, and cynicism, and its witty humor and brilliantly-rapiered dialogue was hardly likely to draw large audiences, but the modernistic sets and the increased admission price (two dollars) probably kept many more patrons away. The show lasted for four weeks, gross ing only $26,400. The critics found Behrman intriguing 60 and amusing, and the work of the company impeccable. The actor-producer ended his spring season with the inocuous romance, Love in a Mist, but returned in the fall to stage four more productions: C. Stafford Dickens' courtly comedy of an actor who impersonates a prince, The Command Performance; A. A. Milne's whimsical comedy of eloping husbands and wives, Dover Road; a revival of Card board Lover; and Vincent Lawrence's wry look at marriage, Among the Married. The last-mentioned was the only produc tion to play for more than three weeks, although the first show was in a class with The Swan and Arms and the Man: The production which reintroduces him is one rich in the quality of its settings and atmosphere. It sets an exceptional pace for the new undertakings of the Horton company, and it will draw especial interest to the latitude of Horton's talent. He has the chance to draw two distinct characterizations, and he does this conscientiously and well.^l — ------------------------------------------------ T T 3 T f f Both the other productions flopped financially, being too sophisticated in one case and too whimsical and slow-paced in the other. But if Horton was discouraged, he nonetheless unfurled his final production with a flourish: a daring play, albeit one whose mode shifted uncertainly from comedy to realistic social drama; a brilliant produc tion; and a crystal-edged performance by Horton, Florence Eldridge, Mary Astor (her first appearance on the stage), 62 Phil Tead, and Gavin Gordon. In January, The Macloons reclaimed their lease on The Majestic and installed their coast production of New Moon, a musical comedy. Horton took Among the Married to San Francisco and played in Oakland in the spring, as well as fulfilling his movie contracts. He returned to producing later in the 19 30's, and remained a vital figure in theatre, movies, and tele vision for another thirty-odd years. What is important about Horton's project is that he showed it was possible and financially practicable to mix plays of more than passing interest with those pretend ing to nothing more than amusement. Moreover, he accom plished this while retaining his popular following as well as his professional and artistic respect. Of the seventeen plays which he staged, perhaps only five can be dismissed 649 as "pure entertainment," that is, works whose themes, situations, and/or characters made little more than fleet ing impression or demand upon one's artistic, intellectual or spiritual faculties: A Single Man, Gossipy Sex, Mary's Other Husband, The Hottentot, and Love in a Mist. Among the other works were plays by Behrman, Boucicault, Lonsdale, Milne, Molnar, Shaw, Robert Sherwood, and Tarkington, plus four other theatrically enchanting and/or challenging if imperfect works: Her Cardboard Lover, The Command Performance, Spread Eagle, and Among the Married. The Swan established the long-run record of eleven weeks, although Her Cardboard Lover also achieved that number in two separate engagements of eight and three weeks, respectively. On Approval followed with seven weeks, and Among the Married completed six weeks. The other eight productions were equally divided, half filling five weeks and the other half closing after a month's run. Average gross receipts indicate that, for the most part, Horton's audiences were willing to sample and to support both the challenging and the ephemeral. The Swan showed a weekly average of $9,590 in its eleven weeks, while Clarence registered $8,325 in four weeks. Among the Married, The Streets of New York, and The Command _____----------------------------------- S ~ 5 U Performance followed with $7,859 (three weeks), $7,720 (five weeks), and $7,700 (three weeks), respectively. Arms and the Man reported a healthy weekly average of $7,075 for four weeks, and even Serena Blandish was not too far down the line, with average receipts of $6,350 (four weeks). A Single Man, the initial production, showed a $6,000 average for five weeks. Of the works which grossed less than $6,000, Spread Eagle showed a respectable average of $5,466, and only three hovered in the $4,000 category. Of greater importance is the somewhat astonishing success of the majority of Horton's offerings. Charging a dollar and fifty cents top throughout most of the season, Horton's productions outdistanced his competitors in the popular- priced category, including Henry Duffy. Horton showed that an audience did exist in Los Angeles for sophisticated fare (relieved occasionally by a light-headed or farcical work), exquisitely staged, felicitously enacted, and reasonably priced. It was done without condescension or panoply, and with a great deal of panache.63 Prior to Horton's move to The Majestic, the theatre had been used in 1928 by Lillian Albertson for three shows. Vincent Youman's current musical comedy, Hit the Deck, £5T featuring Buddy Wattles as Bilge, Kathryn Crawford as Looloo, May Boley and Regis Toomey, ran for sixteen weeks and was characterized as: . . . "a typical Macloon production"— no names other than that of May Boley, a couple of good voices, corking good feminine chorus, so-so male contingent and Mitchell and Durant [a former Fan- chon and Marco comedy team] . . . costly production [costumes and scenery].64 Sex, a flabby version of Mae West's sensational play of a reformed harlot, expunged of its odorous elements (action modified and language denuded of vulgarity), was declared an "im-possible tract" and closed during its second week. "One thing about the Los Angeles public— it can stay away from a rotten show with as much determination as it can stay away from a good one," Variety averred.®^ The Desert Song salvaged the Macloons' professional reputation. The operetta had opened on December 29, 1927, at the new Windsor Square Theatre; played seven weeks at The Mason Theatre; and returned to play twenty-two more weeks at The Majestic (plus two more later at The Mayan), where it grossed $2 81,200 at a $2.50 top. The Harbach- Mandel-Romberg-Hammerstein II's operetta, starring Lionel Braham, Perry Askam, Elvira Tanzi, Johnny Arthur, John Merkyl, and featuring Maria Bekefi, renowned dancer who CHART 20 THE WINDSOR SQUARE THEATRE OWNER The Ebell Women's Club SITE Wealthy section of city on Wilshire Boulevard at Lucerne Avenue; extended from Wilshire to Eighth Street; consists of 2-story clubhouse facing boulevard with reception room, tea room, gallery, dining area, patio enclosed along side street side by cloister walkway . THEATRE EXTERIOR66 South end of property; linked to other buildings architecturally (Spanish Renaissance); distinguished by five arches at street beyond which were five double doors. PATRONS' AREAS AND MANAGEMENT SPACE Vestibule 50'-0" wide (at street), 10'-2" deep to doors; ticket office, administration space at (house) right. Main-Floor Foyer 18'-6" deep, 76'-7" wide; areaway at house left led to women's restrooms; exit vesti bule at house right gave directly onto Lucerne Street; stairs from foyer led to mezzanine. Second-Level Lounge 31'-0" wide, 21'-0" deep, gave onto men's restrooms and toilets (house right), O ' V CHART 20-— Continued women's rooms (house left); ramps from promenade outside foyer led to balcony cross aisle. AUDITORIUM Seating Capacity Main level— 904; balcony— 394; Total— 1,298. First level— 96'-6" wide, approx. 76'-0" deep; balcony— divided by cross aisle into four rows below, six above; seating divided in both areas into three sections. 37'_3"— depth from line drawn across curvature of balcony rail to wall of stage house. STAGE AREA 34'-6" deep, 41'-0" wide; proscenium opening— 27'-9" high. Stage right— an additional 15'-0", and 12'-9" wide area (somewhat deeper than rest of stage in which were located, at various levels, the dressing rooms). Stage left— 15'-6" area, plus property room, ll'-O" wide and depth of stage. 24'-6"— height at which fly gallery was placed, 60'-0"— gridiron. "Apron"— accommodated footlight trough; access to stage gained also from 5-stair unit in auditorium on either side. c . 7 Greenroom located off passage outside of stage house (up stage). O'I U1 u> — ---------------------------------------------------------- 657 had captivated Los Angeles audiences in The Miracle, was f t f t reckoned a "stunning success." However, after little more than three weeks, the imbroglios which seemed so synonymous with Macloon produc tions erupted. Despite a three-month lease on The Windsor, Lillian Albertson transferred the show to The Mason 69 Theatre because of poor business. She may have felt some justification in her action because residents of the area, complaining of the noise, blocked traffic and general nuisance value of the theatre, sought to have the club's permit revoked. However, the City Prosecutor ruled that 70 the theatre violated no city zoning ordinance. The Ebell Club sued Miss Albertson for nonpayment of rent, and in the midst of its action, Maria Bekefi sued the producer. The trial dragged on through early 1929 and was compounded by other suits initiated by actors con nected with other Macloon-Albertson productions.^ In the meantime, two events occurred which strained the already bruised relations between the producing team and The Actors' Union, and restricted their production activities. In January, 1929, Lillian Albertson, who had assumed the direction and production management of all the Macloon shows, informed Equity that because of her 655 deteriorating health she had appointed Macloon, who at this time was on the Union's unfair list, as general manager. 72 The Union, m turn, placed her on the unfair list. Then The Desert Song company, which had been allowed to continue on its tour as long as there were no lay-offs without pay met with some apparently high-handed action by Miss Albert son, and Equity pronounced that once the musical closed, 7 3 "the Macloons are through as producers." But in August, 1929, determined not to be shut out from producing, Miss Albertson bearded her foe; sent out a fifty-two page open letter addressed to Equity, entitled "One for All and All for One, But That One Is Frank Gill- more"; and detailed what she considered were the Union's arbitrary and unfair methods. Through the fall, the pro ducers forged ahead with their plans to stage the musical, New Moon. In December, they filed a $100,000 suit in District Court against the Union officers (who had threat ened their members with suspension if they worked a Macloon show, and proclaimed intentions of initiating sympathy strikes among other unions as well), claiming that they had already invested $5,000 toward the show, plus rent on the theatre at $1,000 a month, and a $3,000 addi tional investment.7^ As the battle heated up, it was ^ rumored that Harry Chandler, publisher of The Los Angeles Times, was behind the Macloons in the Union battle, as well 75 as supportxng them fxnancxally. For all the persiflage, in early January, the factions settled their differences; Macloon agreed to pay in full any claims still outstand ing; and New Moon opened on January 20, 1930, with an all- 7 6 Equity cast (68-71 members). It ran for ten weeks, after which the producers revived The Desert Song and The Student Prince. On June 2, 1930, they opened a four-week engagement of John Wexley's prison drama, The Last Mile, starring Clark Gable, Eddie Wood, and Russell Hopton. Although Gable had appeared in Macloon productions earlier, this play propelled him to the attention of movie scouts and his career in films was guaranteed. It was the last production the Macloons staged at the theatre. In August, The Majestic became a movie house, although it continued to be used for stage shows sporadically, thereafter. When Edward Everett Horton had stepped out from The Vine Street Theatre, the lease had been assumed by a corporation consisting of Priscilla Dean, film actress, Franklin Pangborn, and S. George Ullman, former business manager for Valentino and a figure with well-established 77 contacts xn motxon pxctures. The undertaking appears to ----------------------------------------------------------------- 53T have been a venture to school film stars, supervised by Franklin Pangborn. Between February 18, 1929, and January 11, 1930, fourteen shows were presented, only six of which were new to the city, only two of which bore literary merit, and the first several of which featured film actors. Pangborn himself appeared in only six of the shows. The first production, Weak Sisters, underlined the association with the film industry, for in addition to Pangborn, the cast featured Priscilla Dean, Maude Truax, and Joan Wyndham. At the end of Act Two, approximately twenty starlets mounted the stage to present flowers to the cast. With the fifth production, The Jade God, a recent (1928-29) New York offering, the Pangborn policy underwent a mild change: the runs were shorter (usually three weeks), fewer film stars were featured, and some effort was made to select works with profounder pretensions than the tickling of the funny bone or spine. Expressing Willie, a merry comedy by Rachel Crothers, was followed by the only truly notable play and production. Coincidentally, it was Pangborn's most financially successful production. Phillip Barry's comedy of life in an American family headed by a widowed mother and four children who tyrannize, The Young est was appealingly rendered by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., ^ Lurene Tuttle, Charlotte Stevens, Claire DuBrey and others whose consistent portrayals plumbed the wit, effervescence, and vitality of the play. In its five-week engagement, the production grossed $30,000 (at a $1.25 top).^® Following this success, Pangborn presented Marjorie Rambeau in a trio of plays, all of which frankly traded upon her appealing personality and beautiful voice: What a Woman Wants; a revival of Merely Mary Ann; and In Love with Love. The first piece was a sentimental soiree of one spinster's rebellious attempts to snag a husband and a baby, about which Phillip Scheuer of The Times observed: It was clearly demonstrated last night that histri onics, however old fashioned they may be, still approximate the effect of grand acting before a large percentage of an audience frankly partial to them.79 In its four-week engagement, the production grossed an average of $5,400, followed by Merely Mary Ann, with $5,300. Together with The Youngest, and the opening bill, these four shows were the only ones to show an average weekly gross of more than $5,000. Pangborn's producing closed on The Rear Car, which was given a new ending for the occasion. Billboard reported that he had profited little since he undertook the project "due in large part to the high rent on the house." His 659 backer, the wife of a wealthy Beverly Hills broker, was fin said to have lost $50,000. The actors suffered the loss of a showcase for their talents, but little can be offered to justify the suffering which the audience had been forced to endure. The undertaking had offered little in the way of original works, notable theatre pieces, lasting dramatic literature, visually exciting staging, or memor able, illuminating, or humorous performances. The Vine Street Theatre is the only playhouse to survive as a legitimate theatre, known as The Huntington Hartford. The Music Box Theatre While The El Capitan, The Hollywood Playhouse, and The Vine Street Theatre suffered various fates in these declining years of the 1920's, at least they were occupied for all or a large portion of the time. The Music Box, the smallest of the legitimate theatres, and the second new playhouse to have opened in Hollywood, could make no such claim. During 1928, it was leased for short-term engagements by a variety of producers, regardless of their previous experience in the theatre, and for productions of a special nature which had been tried out at other play houses in the area. Of the former, no one scored a success, 660 and only two plays can be thought unusual: Noel Coward's The Vortex, produced by Thomas Wilkes (discussed in previ ous chapter); and Dixie McCoy's production of Gilbert Emery's work, Tarnish, a Best Play of the 1923-24 season. Miss McCoy, a former casting director with Christie Studios (five years), leased the theatre as a showcase for film stars. Critics found more material for praise in the cast's efforts than in the play's merits, noting in partic ular, the work of Albert Gran. Barton Hepburn, who re portedly had backed the production in order to get placed in movies, missed the distinctions required of his role Q * 1 and in general seemed unprepared. The four-week engage ment grossed an average of $6,050. While this figure was low, it was surpassed by only three other offerings at this theatre in these two years, all of which were priced above a dollar and fifty cents, and all of which were musical offerings. The fate of the other nonmusical fare can be adjudged accordingly. And most of the fare deserved that fate. The only uniqueness in John P. Rivert's mystery-melodrama, Who?, OO was its setting— a mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean. * George Sherwood, who later appeared at The Hollywood Play house and The Vine Street Theatre, cheapened the theatrical 661 potentiality of Women Go on Forever, by diluting the play from "a slightly cock-eyed view of life on west 46th Street [New York] to a creaky, utterly preposterous piece of old-fashioned 10-20-30 junk."®3 Yet, its tepid resem blance to the realism and variety of characters in Broadway stirred enough interest to keep the play running for eight weeks (grossing $21,500 in five weeks at a $2.00 top). That it kept going was due in part to the "soft line" taken by the critics, which practice Variety felt retarded Los Angeles' theatrical maturity: There is much talk about how bad show business is out here. As long as manager don't put on bet ter shows, with real actors, people won't come, and as long as the local reviewers keep on raving ecstatically over every bad troupe making a senti mental holiday out of the function of dramatic criticism, the managers probably won't feel it necessary to give 'em better fare.®^ If the managers and producers heard the judgment they evidenced no signs of reform. Max Dill and Dr. Charles O. McGettigan penned a musical, A Pair o' Docs, about two physicians who undertake to rejuvenate Florida octogenarians. The reviewers found scant cause for praise, concluding that it "was all right for the old Columbia burlesque circuit of twenty years ago."®3 Still Florence Lawrence of The Los Angeles Examiner noted that the opening ------------------------------------------------------------------5^7 was brilliantly attended and was marked by an impressive flower display, with which practice she seemed impatient: . . . it seems that Los Angeles has grown up enough so that the footlight demonstration might be eliminated. Probably the trombone player, who received one bouquet and a couple quarts of water in his lap, will agree that this would be a good idea. The spontaneous comedy of this episode might well be included as regular business in the show. By the time it completed a short San Francisco engagement, Dr. McGettigan had "dropped" $50,000.®^ Only two revues reminded one of the original inten tion of the new playhouse. In The Hollywood Music Box Revue, Lupino Lane, the star-trap-projected dancer-come- dian, was surrounded by several former associates of the original Music Box Revue, Fancies. The entertainment brightened Hollywood's night life for six weeks.®® Harry Carroll's revue closed in three weeks when it could not cover running expenses. The extravagance and arcaneness of the intimate revue was beyond the pocketbook and inter est of many in Los Angeles: . . . it brought sparkle to Los Angeles' night life which has been sadly needed. It has good voices, attractive music and a production which has not been equalled in a local theater for sev eral years. In between these disastrous financial and ---------- artistic ventures, three productions moved to The Music Box from other theatres: The Pasadena Playhouse premiere production of O'Neill's allegorical play, Lazarus Laughed, which featured the same cast headed by Irving Pichel, Victor Jory, Gilmore Brown, and Lenore Shanewise, and which 90 found an appreciative but small audience; and The Ken- Geki (sword) plays presented by former members of the Imperial Theater of Tokyo, sponsored by Joseph M. Schenck, Cecil B. DeMille, Samuel Goldwyn, Charles Chaplin, and L. E. Behymer, aroused critical acclaim: . . . the cumulative dramatic tension, the exqui site staging of these strange and exotic pieces, should in themselves prove sufficiently alluring to any lover of the theater. Only superlatives would do justice to the act ing of these players.91 The New York Theatre Guild's production of Strange Interlude, which had completed an eight-week engagement at The Biltmore, was the only other show to transfer to The Music Box. Featuring Judith Anderson, who had joined the company in its last week at The Biltmore, the production remained for two more weeks. In its way, the Strange Interlude engagement contributed to the difficulties which The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre was experiencing in its first season. The New York Theatre Guild demanded that -------— — — 664 seventy-five per cent of the gross receipts be returned to The Guild. The exorbitant demand may have dented The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre's treasury. But when the produc tion played its Hollywood engagement at reduced admission prices, the action most likely also affected The Los 92 Angeles Repertory Theatre's credibility. After remaining dark for two and one-half months (in these two years, the theatre was dark for more than fifty-seven weeks), The Music Box appeared ready to become more than a landmark when 0. D. Woodward assumed a five- 93 year lease on the theatre in early 1929. Woodward was a successful stock company producer who at one time had troupes in Omaha, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Denver, St. 94 Paul, Spokane, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. In May, 1928, he closed his stock company in Detroit, having previously resigned as general manager of The National Players in St. Louis and Cincinnati, and undertook a tour of Dracula with the original New York company (he had obtained the coast 9 5 rights from Horace B. Liveright). He had also obtained the rights to The Play's the Thing, in which he starred Guy Bates Post. Both works were staged at The Biltmore Theatre, in June and October, 1928, respectively, where they encountered heavy competition from Belasco Theatre ------------------------------------------------------------------ 5^5 shows of a similar nature, The Spider and The Royal Family (discussed below under Biltmore Theatre). Having determined to cast his fortune with we,st- coast theatres, Woodward leased The Music Box. His Los Angeles "fling," short-lived though it was, reflected upon the man's commitment to quality theatre. He produced Lonsdale's comedy of social differences between the English aristocracy and an actress risen from the working class, The High Road; and Philip Barry's charming, jesting philosophical work about love and marriage, Paris Bound. Both productions featured competent castsboth were attractively mounted; both were offered at popular prices ($1.50 top); both were flops. The High Road played three weeks to box-office receipts averaging $7,600, while Paris Bound closed after two weeks. The sophisticated comedies, dealing with the manners and mores of upper-middle-class Englishmen and Americans probably were restricted in appeal anyway, but the "popular theatre price" may have been a confusing factor, keeping away the "carriage trade," and baffling those patrons of regular popular-priced entertain ment who dropped in. Internal factors may also have accounted for poor attendance for while several actors in both presentations were efficient and convincing, the 666 productions lacked snap, and suffered from an overall ineptness with the lines and a tenuousness in "extracting 97 the full juice of the theatrical tidbit ..." Regardless of this poor showing, Woodward intended to continue, but got caught in a squeeze play between the author of Dracula, John L. Balderston, who sued him for staging the play, saying he had assigned exclusive rights to Mr. Liveright, and the New York producer. Woodward contested the suit and succeeded in having the temporary restraining order dissolved, but then he was battered 9 8 severely by another manipulation. Arthur Hopkins ob tained a court order restraining him from proceeding with the coast premiere of Holiday, claiming that Woodward had failed to meet the agreed-upon production date of August 5th, and had not allowed him to approve the casting. Wood ward, who had already invested $35,000 in preparing the show for its San Francisco premiere where the advance sale QQ at The Columbia was impressive, abandoned his plans. Variety alleged that a rival coast producer had framed the trouble. Henry Duffy staged the play in Los Angeles in April, 19 30. O. D. Woodward retired from The Music Box, and in 1930, Billboard reported that he planned to start a stock company at The Capitol Theatre in Long Beach.'*'®® 5^7 In October, 1929, Simeon Gest leased the theatre and the following January, The Los Angeles (Civic) Reper tory commenced its second season. However, before it could do so, one of the most ill-conceived theatrical aberra tions of the entire period was foisted upon the public. Maternally Yours was a mindless comedy about the various ways of predetermining the sex of children (numerology, eating raisins, mumbo-jumbo, etc.), which gave viewers, such as they were, nothing better than half-pint bottles of milk passed among the audience at intermission. The show closed during its first week, having grossed $1,600. Of the play, Variety said: "They say there have been worse plays in Los Angeles. Don't believe it."101 The Music Box still stands, but its auditorium echoes to the responses of a movie audience. The Orange Grove Playhouse and The Egan Theatre The shuttered theatre was not a curiosity limited to the newer playhouses erected in Hollywood between 1926 and 1927. The Orange Grove Playhouse, which had developed a reputation during 1927 as a theatre of prurient drama, presented only two plays in 1928. Both were derivatives trading on earlier successes in their genres: Kongo was a tropical melodrama, running "true to equatorial prece dent" ; while Speakeasy was a picaresque melodrama of the hard-boiled denisons of the big cities! underworlds. Reviewers dismissed the first work with its canvas set painted with barrels, palm trees, etc., but audiences apparently like a melodrama of misdirected revenge, burnt cork, and pseudo-African costumes undulating gyroscopically for the show implanted itself for twelve weeks, grossing 102 $49,600 for ten weeks reported. Speakeasy closed in two weeks. ^ The theatre, which then went dark for a year, re awakened its tawdry reputation with the amateurish, sordid melodrama, The Night Hawk, whose paltry dialogue and . . . . . 104 repetitious situations astonished rather than angered. August Robert Levy leased the theatre in August to present his troupe of Negro actors in O. R. Cohen's "blackface comedy," Come Seven, a delectable spoof of the 105 white man's view of the typical Negro, but the theatre went dark again until December, 1929, when Ruth Rennick, local actress, attempted to establish a stock company. The project was ill-timed; the plays were limited in appeal if not thoroughly old-fashioned (The Passing of the Third Floor Back was first played in 1909, and The Power of Love, 669 was characterized by outmoded heroics and stilted dia logue) ; the actors were not always up in their lines; and the angel, a local sportsman who had promised Miss Rennick $6,000, was arrested on suspicion of murdering his friend. The project collapsed. At The Egan Theatre, meanwhile, theatrical activity was hardly as desultory but only rarely more distinguished. Louis C. Wiswell, former manager for Henry W. Savage, one time associate of Homer Curran, and manager of The El Capitan Theatre under Edward Smith, assumed a short-term lease on the 334-seat theatre. On December 27, 1927, he premiered Zelda Sears and Garnet Weston's penetrating study of spiritual evangelism. Undertow drew obviously upon the Aimee Semple MacPherson kidnapping incident, but the authors had created a gripping story, leavened with humor, which interwove themes of parental domination, sexual unfulfillment and congregational fervor. The production was sparked by the authoritative characterizations of Elise Bartlett Schildkraut, Montague Shaw, Zelda Sears, Theodore Von Eltz, True Boardman, and others, under Henry 107 Kolker's direction. After three and a half weeks, it was moved to The Hollywood Playhouse where it continued for five more weeks. Any plans for an eastern engagement, 670 however, were abandoned for New York was already graced with three plays of similar derivation. Two other productions attempted to revive the reputation which The Egan had earned before World War I, when it had relished experimental and/or literary plays. In April, 1928, The Los Angeles Opera and Fine Arts Club, which throughout 1925-26 had been presenting one-act plays and opera readings, leased The Trinity Auditorium for one week in order to stage Maeterlinck's Monna Vanna, starring 10 8 Boris Karloff, William Stack, and Olga Gray Zacsek. Two weeks later, the group tackled For the Soul of Rafael, a romance about the ruthlessness of the American conqueror in southern California (with Karloff, Zacsek, J. Frank 109 Glendon, and others). Encouraged by the warm response to these offerings, the artists formed The Sydney Sprague Repertory Theatre; leased The Egan; and offered Lajos Biros1 Hotel Imperial, converted years earlier into a silent film, but unseen as a legitimate drama. The sophisticated play was greeted by a large opening-night audience appreciative of the actors' efforts. However, limited funds handicapped the production and when audience support faltered, The Guild was dissolved and salary claims were filed against Hiram McTavish, the attorney who had 671 "angeled" the group. In July, Tom Kress, Chicago producer who, by that time, was managing The Egan, offered Olga Printzlau's morality play about the acceptance of a Christ-like person in peasant Russia— Window Panes. Following an eight and one-half week run, the play opened in San Francisco.111 In between these undertakings, which in a conserva tive fashion attempted to expand the artistic consciousness of the audience, there were several propagandists and meretricious offerings. The most sincere— The Jazz of Patriotism, by Fanny Bixby Spender— sponsored by Josephine Dillon Gable, was a four-episode treatise whose pacifistic 112 arguments provoked laughter in the audience. The most tasteless was Sidney Goldtree's production of The Married Virgin, by Edouard Bourdet. Seen on Broadway in 1921-22 as The Rubicon, the play was a French comedy about a wife-in-name-only whose lover urges her to consummate her marriage so his position will be made clear. Since its earlier productions, the emphasis had been increased upon the play's sexual content, "pounded out with 113 drums and brasses unshadowed, and brazen in effect." Edwin Schallert, who recognized the play's worth, further decried the crude playing. The show ran untouched for 672 eight weeks. Perhaps the theatre's out-of-the-way location and its small seating capacity placed it beyond the censors Perhaps the play's heterosexual vulgarity was considered tolerable if hardly artistic. No such oversight or excuse protected The Captive, another Bourdet work. Within one week after it was closed, The Married Virgin skulked out of town. Then, in 1929, The Egan became a tryout house for original plays, most of which filled short engagements. E. Magnus Ingleton began the parade with The Bad Woman, about which Florence Lawrence said: "'The Bad Woman' . . . was merely the positive grade of performance in which 114 practically every phase was either worse or worst." Illegitimate, by Hunter Keasy, belonged "to an epoch when 115 'Ten. Nights' was followed by "East Lynne.'" Regret tably not only were the plays mediocre, but the performers were self-indulgent. In the former, the actors frequently went up on lines; in the latter, Wanda Hawley left the stage in the second act, and the producer sued her for XX6 alleged intoxication. However, not all offerings were so ill-conceived or without some grain of merit. This World and the Next offered some funny observations on spiritualism; Unusual 673 Weather satirized real estate salesmen. Some were more sincere than accomplished, for example, This Is College, Why Men Don't Marry. One or two showed promise. The Big Gamble, by J. B. Hazelton, treated wittily and sympatheti cally the plight of a sculptor who felt bound to love and marry every woman he rendered in marble. Her First Night, by Sidney Toler (actor) and William McNalley (critic of The Minneapolis Tribune) capitalized on the Lillian Foster, actress, incident in London. The policy of presenting original works continued into the 1930's, although the number diminished. In October, 1930, the theatre was leased by the French-speak ing theatre from San Francisco. In 1934, it was renamed The Musart Theatre and returned to its support of little theatre activities. In early 1973, the outlines of the theatre can still be recognized, although it is used as an office-supply salesroom. The Mayan Theatre The Mayan Theatre, the last new playhouse opened between 1926 and 1927, was no exception to the affliction which plagued the other playhouses. Inaugurated as a musical comedy theatre, its first two offerings had been 674 joint ventures between Gerhold 0. Davis and two San Fran cisco producers, Homer Curran and Louis Lurie. Sunny, the third production, was offered by Davis and his two former partners at the adjacent Belasco Theatre. After its ten- week engagement, Davis offered Rodgers and Hart's droll fantasy, A Connecticut Yankee, for which he may have been the sole producer. As a result, certain economy measures may have been necessary. The production featured no stars (although Pearl Regay was brought from New York), and Maurice Kusell, who staged the dances, undertook the role of "The Yankee"; and the emphasis was placed upon the pro duction and the book. However, notwithstanding the number of lovely tunes ("Thou Swell," "My Heart Stood Still," "On a Desert Isle with You," etc.), and an engaging company which made up in enthusiasm what it lacked in "star ap peal," the musical comedy was whisked off after two weeks and two days. Meager gross receipts of $25,200 confirm that the show had flopped. Forced to compete with a large number of other more familiar, more romantic, and more comprehensible musical comedies (Hit the Deck, The Desert Song, the operettas/musical comedies at The Shrine— the only time four musical offerings vied for patrons), A Connecticut Yankee quickly became a matter of history. ^ At this juncture, Gerhold 0. Davis attempted to relinquish both the artistic direction and administration of the theatre. Throughout the next two years, five other individuals leased or "temporarily purchased" the theatre. Davis himself, who apparently stayed on as house manager, booked one production. Among these were three plays seen earlier in New York, four new works, and three productions inaugurated at one of the other playhouses in the city. Of the New York plays, none unleashed greater paroxyms, resulted in more lasting repercussions, or sus tained such a short engagement than The Captive. Edouard Bourdet's delicate, literate study of lesbianism, trans lated by Arthur Hornblow, Jr., had opened in New York in the fall of 192 6, starring Helen Menken and Basil Rathbone. At that time, Variety declared it one of the most daring, best-written (avoiding any reliance upon pornographic 117 language), and best-acted plays in years. However, it became enmeshed in the city's agitation to clean up the so-called "dirt shows," and the cast was arrested. A play jury of twelve citizens voted seven to five in favor of the production remaining open, but the company was held for trial. The case was dismissed only after the producers agreed to withdraw the production. It had completed 180 676 performances. The Los Angeles production, sponsored by Edward Rowland and A. Leslie Pearce, former artistic director and stage director respectively at The Hollywood Playhouse, and starring Ann Davis, Kenneth Thompson, Olive Tell, Lawrence Grant, Charles Miller, and Marian Sutherland, opened Wednesday evening, March 21, 1928. All the critics praised the company, and most found the play morally offensive. The Times, for example, said, "There has been no finer cast here in many months. From The Examiner, in part, came, "An adequate cast numbering several well- 120 known players," and from The Express, "beautifully * ] O 1 mounted and superbly acted." Edwin Schallert, the least vociferous and vituper ative of the critics, after comparing elements in the play to those in ancient tragedy, said the work moved to its sickish end, leaving the audience dissatisfied and 122 numbed. Florence Lawrence recognized the play's crafts manlike construction and brilliant writing, with language which occasionally approached poetry, and denounced its vile implications as "a menace to the community" and a threat to girls of susceptible age. With the righteousness of historical hindsight, she pointed out that ancient 677 Greece had paid the penalty for its decadence and declared 123 that neither ethics nor art was advanced by the play. In his review, Monroe Lathrop first referred to Bourdet's other work currently on view in the city, The Married Virgin, which he admitted was exhibited "with the purposed stress on its vulgar implications." He then attempted to balance artistic and critical considerations of The Captive with what he deemed were his moral responsi bilities. He indicated that the play was a model of stagecraft and sincere in its intent. He maintained that the theatre had the right to touch on the subject (he referred to the Greek playwrights, to Brieux, to O'Neill). He discouraged the thrill-seekers by defining the play as: . . . a tragedy and solemn psychoanalytical trea tise, somewhat prosey and wordy, but a thoughtful, reticent, delicate and profoundly earnest consid eration of that form of sex perversion known as Lesbianism.^24 He then cited his objections. First, the play offered no hope for the malady. The wife went to the other woman "like a dog to her vomit." Second, the solution, whereby the husband found solace with an attractive mistress, posed an illicit companionship as the only alternative to an unbearable marital situation. Third, the production was attractively packaged with excellent acting, staging, etc. _ 6T8 Last, the management placed no barriers upon who might view the production. Only H. 0. Stechan disagreed. Concurring that the production was unusually well done, he dismissed the possi bility that the play was morally, harmful: Clean-minded adults will hardly be harmed by such a play as "The Captive," though it probably would give false notions to shallow-pated mor ons. 12 5 Critical response notwithstanding, the play's chances of success were proscribed even before its opening. William Randolph Hearst allegedly had told the producers some six months earlier that he would not tolerate a pro- 1 0 f i duction and would stop it "no matter what." The morning after the opening, the Hearst newspapers uncovered their yellow cannons, carrying full-column, front-page headlines and editorialized stories. The Los Angeles Examiner shouldered the bulk of the campaign, referring to the play as "a wriggling, unwholesome thing," "a spider." An editorial called for the insidiously evil thing to be closed IMMEDIATELY!, and Florence Lawrence claimed that it depicted "one of the two relationships to which even France 127 takes exception." The newspaper campaign, with front-page coverage, continued unabated through Tuesday, March 27, 192 8, at 679 which time the production was firmly and decisively 12 8 stopped. The producers' trial dragged through most of April. On April 18, a jury of four men and seven women acquitted them of staging an objectionable play, and the 129 prosecution dropped the charges against the cast. However, any hope of reopening the production reckoned without the bulldog tactics of Mr. Hearst. On April 19, a full-column, front-page headline clarioned, "Law Urged to Ban Degenerate Shows." City Prosecutor Lickley suborned The City Council to pass a new ordinance before the produc tion could reopen, even urging suspension of council rules regarding scheduling. City Council President William G. Bonelli balked at these tactics, but on Monday, April 23, 1928, The Council passed an ordinance making it unlawful to present or to participate in any way, 11. . .in any obscene, indecent, immoral, impure scene, tableau, incident, part or portion of any drama, play, exhibition, show or entertainment, which tends to corrupt the morals of youth, or others . . . or to give . . . [a play] depicting or dealing with the subject or theme of sex degen eracy or sex perversion, or sex inversion."13® A fine of $500 and/or imprisonment for six months was the affixed penalty. The ordinance was invoked at the end of the decade. The two other New York hits produced at The Mayan 680 in these two years were of a decidedly different character, but each was an exemplary representative of its genre. Sam Salvin and Rufus LeMaire, who had assumed a long-term lease on the theatre, presented Schwab and Mandel's hit 131 Broadway musical, Good News. The happy-go-lucky musical of college life, with well-known tunes ("Varsity Drag," "Lucky in Love," "The Best Things in Life Are Free," etc.), and a New York cast headed by "Sunkist" Eddie Nelson, Lester Cole, and Margaret Breen was faultlessly attired and handsomely staged (said to have cost more than $60,000 to assemble). It enchanted Los Angeles all summer, gross- 132 ing $360,140. Variety had suggested that the production would earn approximately $750,000, with more than half coming from Los Angeles alone. Despite the success of the musical, Salvin abandoned plans for west-coast production and gave up his lease on The Mayan. The owner appointed G. O. Davis as manager. Throughout 1929, Davis booked shows owned by other individuals, including one road show, Rachel Crothers' whimsical comedy, Let Us Be Gay. The smart piece about marriage and infatuation among the upper classes, which had opened in New York only two months earlier (February, 1929) , may have been a "balloon production" by John Golden, 681 who was formulating west-coast expansion plans. The com pany was managed by David Golden and featured the latter's wife, Effie Afton. The show sustained the theatre's second longest run in these two years, but it was less than 134 a popular success. Perhaps Variety was right that the Best Play of 1928-29 was "too smart for the locals." Cut-rate agencies, pushing the show as a current Broadway success, short-changed the play and the patrons, for they brought in the balcony crowd "which does not know what they 135 are going to see and know less after they see it." Of the four new works essayed in these years, three of which went into New York, at least two were dis tinct achievements and both were produced by the same man. One other was a blatant attempt to capitalize on a local notorious situation, and the fourth brought Rowland and Pearce back to The Mayan. The producers' second attempt was as futile as their earlier investment in The Captive, but whereas the Bourdet play had literary merit, Little Orchid Annie had "kicked around" production circles for several years. One reviewer wrote: [It] starts off like "Lombardi, Ltd.," gets into the tune of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," has the tinge of "Abie's Irish Rose," plus an abundance of crude and vulgar cracks and still it is just not entertainment. ° 682 Squawk/ by scenario writer, John McDermott, an insignificant play, attained some historical importance as the first play in Los Angeles theatrical history to be 137 sponsored by a cut-rate agency. The other two premieres were far more noteworthy as much for the quality of the plays as for the caliber of the actors involved. Ernest Pascal's The Marriage Bed, was produced by Felix Young, its translator, who was a former booking agent with Young and Selznick. He may have hoped to capitalize on the contemporary interest in frank marital discussion and on the availability of film stars willing to appear in stage plays. "Magnificently staged," with Alice Joyce, Owen Moore, Doris Lloyd, Blanche Freder- ici, William Davidson, and others, and "magnificently directed" by Robert Milton, the play developed its treat ment of divorce logically and artistically, with trenchant 138 dialogue and sound psychology. The show ran for five and one-half weeks, with "Annie Oakleys" helping to extend the run. It moved on to seventy-two performances in New York. Felix Young returned to The Mayan in mid-1929 with Charles Kenyon's new drama, Top o' the Hill. Edwin Schal- lert expansively called the production, "a sort of turning 6^3 point in theatrical history here," probably because the event marked the combination of a new play by a renowned author and a notable cast. ^ Although Schallert's claim was exaggerated, the production, starring Helen Menken and William Boyd (New York actor), Hilda Vaughan and Anderson Lawlor, concealed the play's weak spots. Unfortunately, the theatre was only three-fourths filled for the premiere which was an invitational affair, and the show closed in two weeks. In New York, where it was Kenyon's first offer ing since Kindling in 1911, the play lasted two weeks. As the decade closed, a new musical comedy of the gold-rush days jingled onto The Mayan stage. Oh, Susanna, presented by Franklyn Warner and Sam Roark, drained super latives from the critics, who were also honest enough to cite the operetta's deficiencies: a story bogged down in dialogue, and in need of revision and an injection of humor, and a score so reminiscent that it was a tribute to the composer's adapting abilities. The $85,000 investment, which cost $18,000 weekly to operate, closed after five weeks.140 For all the activity which vitalized The Mayan in these two years, the playhouse was used for theatre produc tions during only fifty-four weeks. W. R. Hearst leased 684 it for two films starring Marion Davies. In 1930 it was used for both films and theatrical offerings, including a guest appearance by Maurice Chevalier. In 1931, Sid Grauman produced Once in a Lifetime, with Aline MacMahon, Charles Lawrence, Marie Nordstrum, and Louis Sorel (Moss Hart appeared during the eight-week run). He also spon sored Street Scene, The Man in Possession, and revived Mrs. Bumpstead-Leigh. While it no longer houses stage plays, the archi tectural uniqueness of The Mayan may still be appreciated— if one also views a Spanish-language and/or pornographic film. The Figueroa Street Playhouse In 192 7, local interests in the city of Chicago and a New York producing unit had merged forces and monies to bring to "The Windy City" four Theatre Guild productions. Between September 19, 1927, and March 24, 1928, The Theatre Guild presented Pygmalion, The Guardsman, The Second Man, and The Doctor's Dilemma. Local actors followed with Heartbreak House and Mr. Pirn Passes By, plays also intro duced by The Guild. The entire six-play project was underwritten by financier, Samuel Insull, and the 685 engagement was followed by another Guild production, The Silver Cord, starring Laura Hope Crewes. By 1928, the idea had spread across the Mississippi, where west coast culture consumers announced plans to form a repertory theatre, "following the example set . . . in the East and Middle West."1^1 Directing the fortunes of The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre were L. E. Behymer, president, the impresario whose associations with local theatre extended back to the turn of the century and The Grand Opera House, The Los Angeles Theatre, and The Mason Opera House, before he began arranging musical and theatri cal concerts on his own series; Simeon Gest, vice-president and general manager, brother of the international producer, Morris Gest; H. Ellis Reed, secretary and production mana ger, local figure instrumental in the founding of The Pilgrimage Play, The Hollywood Bowl, and various other cultural projects; and H. 0. Stechan, literary editor, editor of The California Graphic, and formerly associated with The Pasadena Playhouse. The goals of the organization were idealistic and far-reaching: the establishment of a professional organization devoted to "the best in drama, native and international," in an effort "to build up a dependable clientele for worthwhile plays," and the 686 presentation of visiting attractions. Challenging the city to realize its artistic destiny, Behymer declared that the time was "ripe for Los Angeles to have a repertory theatre with the prestige of The New York Guild, or The Moscow Art Theatre": . . . [which] seeks the intellectual object of the little theatre with certain compromises to popular taste; aims to satisfy the needs of a general public for better and uncommercialized entertainment, and yet is conducted on a commercial basis to the extent that the players are paid.-*-43 On November 3, 1928, the officers of The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre sponsored a banquet attended by civic notables from financial, social, and artistic circles, at which the stars of the first production were guests. Separating the verbiage from the facts, in its first season The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre offered six plays, staged by professional casts, for a $10.00 sub scription ticket and sponsored a Guild road company in four plays, for which admission was raised to three dollars (individual tickets for the other Los Angeles Repertory Theatre shows ranged from seventy-five cents to two dol lars) , and backed a road company in The Guild's production of Strange Interlude. The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre embarked upon its uplifting adventure— christened by speeches from Mayor 687 Cryer and L. E. Behymer— on November 19, 1928, with Sydney Howard's biting study of mother love, The Silver Cord, starring Nance O'Neil, supported by a cast of local actors (the author was in the audience). Edwin Schallert thought the work "fell somewhat short of being a great play" because its significance was not far-reaching. Monroe Lathrop, however, declared that "It is as near to Ibsen as an American author ever gets in insight and grim, biting realism.1,144 Praise for Miss O'Neil's characteriza tion ("reaches the heights of her powers") and the rest of the company was unqualified, and "an audience of broad * 1 4,c representation" loudly expressed its appreciation. Molnar's The Guardsman followed in January, with Lowell Sherman as the actor who tests his wife's faithfulness by disguising himself as her lover, a Russian guardsman. Both Schallert and Lathrop felt the play was likely to "appeal to the smarter playgoer who doesn't get a pain in the head from thinking in the theatre," but the work of the company, at least according to the latter, was somewhat disappoint ing for Sherman was constrained, and Doris Lloyd was insuf ficiently disingenuous.146 John Galsworthy's "vivid panorama of human mo tives," Escape, moved into the theatre immediately after 688 the Molnar play. Vernon Steele, Eric Snowden, Marion Clayton, Ilka Chase, and others, in uniformly fine por trayals with authentically correct diction, created The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre's "most striking play yet 149 presented." For unexplained reasons, the curtain was delayed thirty minutes on opening night, and the show was offered for only three weeks. It was succeeded by Louis Bromfield's dramatization of,his own novel, The Green Bay Tree, retitled The House of Women. The play brought Miss O'Neil back to The Playhouse stage in the dramatic study of the differing loves and devotions among a mother and her two daughters, impersonated by Helen Jerome Eddy and Olive Tell.148 The fifth production, A. A. Milne's fantasy about the bombshell which is created when Mr. Pirn Passes By, ran for only two weeks. Booking arrangements for the incoming Theatre Guild presentations may have precluded a lengthier engagement, but equally tenable contributing causes existed within the production itself, for the play was misinter preted and miscast. The company seemed determined "to jazz up the work," and played "rather insincerely." On the whole, the actors seemed indifferent to their task. Louis Bennison was too rude in his role; Betty Middleton 689 played the Englishwoman as a flapper with an annoying gasp; Paul Irving portrayed the lead with a stoop of deformity rather than one of age; and Percy Haswell strained credu lity for "either she is a bit matronly or he [Bennison] is 149 a trifle too youthful." ” In addition, the slow tempo was attenuated to the point of tedium. Variety took another opportunity to berate the Los Angeles theatre patrons and their slight support of the play: "[the play] is too whimsical for this suburb of Des Moines. "-^0 The last production, however, made up in daring for any earlier unfulfilled ambitions. The Capek brothers' fantastic fable, The World We Live In, moved the critics to encomiums: . . . unquestionably stimulating and unusual. . . . It is distinctively one of the ablest undertakings that the Los Angeles Repertory Theatre has to its credit. (The Times)^51 . . . The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre should be proud of its achievement . . . undoubtedly the most interesting and successful of the several offer ings . (The Examiner)152 A theatrical experience not to be missed . . . a production of high color, varied costurnery, and large personnel . . . a splendid valedictory for the Repertory Theater's season . . . Its acting is on the plane of its unstinted scenic beauty. (The Express) ^3 With three members of the original New York cast— Robert 690 Edeson, Paul Irving, and Edgar Norton, as the philosopher, the dictator ant (and other roles), and the Icheumon fly, respectively— and a cast of over forty, the animal allegory was given for two weeks, only. Two-thirds of the way through the first Repertory Theatre season, the four Guild offerings came to Los Angeles. The company included Brandon Evans, Peg Ent- whistle, Neal Caldwell, Warburton Gamble, Robert Keith, P. J. Kelly, Lawrence Leslie, Alan Mowbray, Elisabeth Risdon, and others, in The Doctor's Dilemma, The Second Man, Ned McCobb's Daughter, and John Ferguson. Each play was presented for one week in a theatrical deluge unequalled in the city's history (Strange Interlude was in its seventh week at The Biltmore Theatre when this contingent opened its month-long engagement). On the whole, both the plays and the players provoked critical acclaim. Of The Doctor1s Dilemma, they wrote: The play is amazingly interesting and the brilliant quips remain as bitingly sharp as ever. (The Times)^54 Funny, thoughtful and an acute delight for the lovers of good acting that conceals its tricks. (The Express) 155 The Second Man was appreciated for its nuances and subtle ties : 691 As pastel comedy, skillfully contrived, with deli cate shadings of irony, this piece . . . never becomes so obtrusively high-brow that it ceases to be interesting, though it never fails to be at the same time most genuinely intellectual. (The Times) -*-56 Neb McCobb1s Daughter was reckoned "a very worthwhile play- homey and unobtrusive outwardly— but full of punch when you get down to the kernel of its drama." It offered new opportunities for each of the players to display their talents and was considered excellently played. With the final offering, John Ferguson, the play and the playing were unmatched.^ ® The success of The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre was unmistakable among the critics, but the box-office story was somewhat less glowing. Of the Repertory Thea tre-sponsored offerings, only Mr. Pim Passes By recorded a disturbingly low gross (two-week engagement, average of $5,500) for reasons discussed above. Both O'Neil produc tions were successful (The Silver Cord showed an average of $7,833 for the three weeks reported, while The House of Women reported an average of $7,875 for four weeks), and were surpassed only by the Molnar play ($8,250 for four weeks). The other two productions showed average receipts between $7,700 and $6,600. The results prompt certain conclusions. The 692 productions which featured well-known stars, such as Miss O'Neil and Lowell Sherman, fared better at the box office, and the only light play— The Guardsman— with its romance, disguise, and spicy situations, by an author known among theatre buffs and uninitiated alike, fared best. Moreover, judging by gross receipts, the project aroused modest, although not overwhelming, support, despite claims (and hopes) by its directors that such an undertaking would find its audience. However, while the total gross receipts for any one production were not startling, the average weekly figures approximated those of the better popular- priced theatres. To attempt to plumb the reasons why The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre failed "to light up the theatrical sky" of Southern California is a complex and frustrating task, frequently more reliable in the breach of conjecture than in the reality of facts. One of the factors which con tributed to the gradually-eroding support given to The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre can be summed up in the amoeba-like phrase "breach of faith." For example, all of the shows sponsored by The Repertory Theatre, excluding The Guild road productions, h^d been announced for four- week engagements. Yet only three attained that goal. 693 Booking problems may have dictated schedule juggling, but other factors point to the conclusion that tepid support of the project caused the directors to fall back on prac tices which may have puzzled if not angered the subscrib ers. The third offering, for example, Escape, which played the first abbreviated engagement, was put into "the (cut- rate) agencies." According to Variety, the entire run was dependent upon cut-rates, raising serious questions about 159 the extent of subscription support. Further, "the credibility gap" was probably widened by the manner in which the production of Strange Interlude was handled. The Guild booked the O'Neill play into The Biltmore Theatre for a long run, completely disregarding an already agreed-upon production contract with The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre. When Repertory subscribers voiced indignation over the high-handed tactics of the eastern aggregation, they were allowed to buy tickets for two dollars and a half (prices were scaled at a four dollar top). But charter members and nonsubscribers alike must have felt duped when, following the eight-week Biltmore Theatre engagement, The Guild show played "a return engagement" at The Music Box Theatre in Hollywood with prices openly advertised at a two-fifty top and a company 694 160 starring Judith Anderson as Nina. The ethics of the Interlude operation aside, the scheduling of Guild shows against Los Angeles Repertory Theatre-produced shows frequently placed the latter at a distinct disadvantage when competing for patrons. Strange Interlude played for nine weeks against three Repertory- produced offerings. In the final two weeks of the Inter lude engagement, the four Guild shows moved into town, and the situation became crucial: "They were in competition with each other which neither could stand," declared Florence Lawrence. She went on to state that theatre lovers might have considered the financial outlay for the Guild offerings "a must," had the companies lived up to their reputation: The companies were in no way comparable to those which won such fame for this supposedly artistic producing center of the East, and generous subscrib ers who sought to encourage art found themselves and their guests more bored than diverted by the offerings which bore the New York Theatre Guild banner. Although the comments seem somewhat bile-colored, gross receipts indicate that support for the "four-play company" declined steadily. The Doctor's Dilemma registered $13,000, followed by $10,300 for the Behrman play. Sydney Howard's drama could "drum up" only $8,000, and the final _____ 695 offering closed with $7,800 in the till. A weekly change of fare probably taxed the financial resources of even the most avid playgoer. The Interlude probably made the sacrifice seem foolish.-*-®2 Besides the expense involved in sponsoring the Guild productions and the strong likelihood that they may have drained The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre treasury, it appears that the directors underestimated the extent of operating expenses for a Repertory season. Shortly before the opening, L. E. Behymer had stated that royalties for a four-week run would cost about $2,500, with other 1 C . O expenses averaging around $500 per week. Allowing that this figure might have included salaries (actors, crews, musicians, etc.), it hardly seems possible that it covered the other expenses of "the nut"— rental, advertising, printing, house personnel salaries, and so forth. If, as seems likely, the directors invested their own money in the project, their generosity quickly reached its limit. To the factors of "credibility gap," erratic scheduling, occasional less-than-professional quality of the companies, and expensive associations, other more tangible and intangible reasons can be cited for The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre's flaccid season. During the 696 opening months, the city was affected by a flu epidemic, with 20,000 cases reported in November, alone. The Health Department ordered that persons who coughed or sneezed in "L6 4 theatres be asked to leave. Although the Repertory Theatre productions fared well in this period, greater support might have given the project an operating margin, which might have deflected the impact of some of the prob lems which arose later. Moreover, according to at least one source, a sizable proportion of the subscriptions was drawn from among the "Hollywood film colony," in itself insufficient to provide the kind and degree of support which such an undertaking required. In addition, "the psychological moment" for such a venture seems to have been wrong. Before the mania for recent Broadway successes spread like a cancer throughout the theatrical scene in Los Angeles; before the eruption of new playhouses created an overflow of inferior theatrical productions; before the inroads of the talking film, which not only created another outlet for patrons1 money but also brought to the coast actors desirous of finding a place in the films and willing to do anything to be no ticed by film directors with the result that the plays1 697 stature diminished, an undertaking such as The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre might have capitalized on the audience created by such groups as The Potboilers. This first attempt in Los Angeles to organize a subscription audience for an entire season's offerings, including "home-based" shows and road-company offerings, ended its initial under taking in a theatrical situation which Variety described as "panic" among the legitimate houses. The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre continued for two more seasons, but L. E. Behymer was no longer associ ated with the group. The organization moved to The Holly wood Music Box, allegedly because the bulk of support for the group had come from the Hollywood area, and was renamed 167 The Civic Repertory Theatre. Also, it was operated 1 6 R along commonwealth lines, with no star performers. The reshuffling of location, managerial personnel, and actor commitment (employment) may have accounted for the lengthy delay in the commencement of the second season, which finally opened in January, 1930. They were not the only changes. The plays in the second season were aimed at a broader-based audience, since the first season's plan to stage unusual plays not gener ally presented on a commercial stage— "artistic ventures"— had lost money for the sponsors. Eight plays for a ten dollar season ticket were offered (single tickets priced at $1.50): And So to Bed, by Myron Fagan A Bill of Divorcement, by Clemence Dane A Romantic Young Lady, by G. Martinez-Sierra The Hero, by Gilbert Emery The Imaginary Invalid, by Moliere Goin' Home, by Ransome Rideout The Wound Stripe, by Neil Blackwell (a premiere) My Son/ by Martha Stanley The Glory Declared/ by Ralph Culver Bennett (a new work) The decline in The Civic Repertory's fortunes can be measured by the qi^ality of the last three works, al though it is quite possible that the last-listed play was not part of the subscription series, even though managed by John Moss, The Civic Theatre manager. In three per formances, the drama about the work of The Salvation Army during World War I, penned by a University of Southern 170 California law instructor, grossed only eleven dollars. Earlier, however, Variety had pinpointed the crucial difficulty under which the organization was _____ ^ operating. Although The Civic Repertory Theatre claimed several hundred members, it could not claim one hundred per cent support, with "response from filmdom's art lovers 171 . . . not so forte." With their third season, The Civic Repertory returned to its high ideals and higher prices ($2.00 top), staging The Apple Cart, with Alan Mowbray and Doris Lloyd; The Infinite Shoeblack; Peter Pan; Porgy, with an all- Negro cast drawn almost exclusively from among the ranks of The Lafayette Players at The Lincoln Theatre; Justice; The Merchant of Venice, with Helen Freeman, Maurice Mosco- vitch, and William Stack; and French Leave. In this, its last year, The Civic Repertory was sponsored and managed by The Hollywood Bowl Theatre Association, which agreed to direct the affairs of The Civic Repertory Theatre, but "not 172 to be responsible for its financial obligations." Mayor Porter urged the citizenry to support the undertaking, saying that "it marks the coming of age in Los Angeles in a new direction," but The Civic Repertory Theatre succumbed 173 to financial pressures and audience disinterest. Both before and after The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre assumed the lease on The Figueroa Street Play house, other producers tried their hand at wooing the Los — -------------------------------------------------7DXT Angeles public. Arthur F. Smith, a producer with extensive real estate holdings in Long Beach, presented three pro ductions : Owen Davis' comedy, The Triumphant Bachelor; Excess Baggage, a comedy of vaudeville life and the preten sions which "going Hollywood" create; and a new musical, Tell Me Again. The depiction of backstage life was more than passable entertainment, balancing moods of tenderness and bittersweet comedy with dramatic situation and humorous 174 moments. The musical, however, with its freakish book (a drowned man returns after his wife is remarried) , uninspired acting, and too few musical numbers, cost the producer around $100,000. In July, 1928, when he was unable to meet wage claims, he was jailed.175 The first play was personally sponsored by Kenneth Harlan in his return to the legitimate stage. Following the departure of The Los Angeles Reper tory Theatre, two new works were tried out, neither of any lasting value, except that Bad Babies, by George Scar borough— a melodramatic tract on the scars which The Jazz Age had left on the moral standards of youth (indiscrim inate sexual relations, rape, abortion, death, thrill robberies, and overall philosophy of "get a kick out of life")— encountered the wrath of the law. The critics had 701 dismissed the play with its anaemic plot propped up by such hoary devices as a Christmas Eve setting, and had barely 176 tolerated the staginess of the acting. ° The production probably would have died from box-office drought if, nine days after its premiere, the police— shown the proper scope of their responsibilities by the Reverend Robert Schuler— had not arrested the cast and stopped the performance. Two days later, cut-rate agencies capitalized on the event and 177 flooded the city with fifty-cent passes. Expunged of some of its objectionable elements, notably the language, the production was allowed to continue for six weeks. It surfaced again in November for five more weeks, before the prolonged court hearings (and a second jury) found the play as presented indecent and immoral. The author, stage manager, and cast members were found guilty on three counts (the first jury had deadlocked at seven to five for conviction). Appeals continued throughout the early part of 1930, and finally Scarborough's six month sentence was reversed, although the cast had to pay fines ranging from 178 one hundred to three hundred dollars. The other new work, Moon Madness, suffered similar 179 critical disparagement. Although Monroe Lathrop was referring to Bad Babies, his comment, stripped of its moral 70^ implications, could apply just as readily to any one of the plethora of opportunistic ventures devoted to self-aggran dizement rather than to artistic achievement: "a brazen specimen of the influences that are destroying the dignity 180 and charm of the theater as a social institution." Depressed and alarmed by the degenerating situation in Los Angeles theatre, The Friday Morning Club put The Figueroa Street Playhouse up for sale. There were no buy ers. The playhouse managed to survive abberrations, changes in taste and amusement habits, and, nearly fifty years after its opening, is still presenting theatrical 181 attractions and film offerings. The Belasco Theatre While the other playhouses, old and new, were trucking their "Temporarily Closed" signs in and out of storage, The Belasco Theatre, the first new playhouse erected in Los Angeles during the outbreak of 1926-27, moved down center into the star spot as the most presti gious theatrical institution. Of all the theatres, it was dark the least number of weeks— just over six weeks during the two years; it exhibited the largest number of recent Broadway hits— of a total of nineteen productions, four 703 were drawn from 1926-27, seven from 1927-28, and three from 1928-29; and it presented six, possibly seven, pro ductions before they were seen in "The Windy City" (one was seen at the same time as Chicago viewed another com pany) — The Command to Love, The Royal Family, The Little Accident, The Racket, The Spider, The Front Page, and The Chauve-Souris. Further, the composition of these seven companies was anything but second-rate: the first two starred actors with reputations comparable to their New York colleagues who originated the roles; the third drew some of the New York company, notably the author, Thomas Mitchell; the fourth featured fourteen members of the eastern cast, and The Spider drew six of the New York con tingent. Although The Front Page featured a "coast-built cast," Los Angeles was thrilling to the behind-the-scenes stories of journalism's white knights at the same time as was New York. The Chauve-Souris appears to have come to Los Angeles directly from its New York engagement. Besides this emphasis upon recent Broadway successes with star casts, The Belasco Theatre also introduced short engagements of recent Broadway hits with the actors whose names had become synonymous with their roles: Jane Cowl in The Road to Rome, with six of the New York cast; June 704 Walker and C. Aubrey Smith in The Bachelor Father/ plus nine of the original company; and Helen Hayes in Coquette, and four other leads. These last productions came to Los Angeles along the more traditional route. Of the new plays undertaken in these years, The Belasco team was solely responsible for only one, The Pirate. Wiswell cosponsored both The Scarlet Woman and The Queen Was in the Parlour, the latter in its American premiere. These policy changes affected the theatre patron as well, for while most of the productions were still priced at the usual $2.50 top, at least three were scaled to $3.00: The Road to Rome, The Bachelor Father, and The Command to Love. It also seems likely that Coquette was similarly priced, although no prices were specified in the advertisements. The Moscow Bat Theatre commanded a $4.00 top. A series of agreements between Belasco, Butler and Homer Curran in San Francisco made this program possible. In April, 1928, the Los Angeles producers contracted with their San Francisco counterpart to supply plays from May through the first of 1929 for The Geary Theatre, whose management Curran had recently assumed. The announcement 705 of the arrangement called attention to the kind of play to be presented— current New York successes with original 182 casts. While the arrangement seems to have been a for malization of an agreement in force between the producers from the inauguration of The Belasco Theatre, and while there had been a tendency to "play up" Broadway successes with stars, the policy was intensified during these two years. The compact was a boon to the Belasco team, for it is unlikely that they would have been able to tap the New York sources so successfully had they been unable to guarantee a long-run engagement fulfilled between the two coast cities. Kirschman in his study of The Belasco Theatre states that in 1929 the "balance of power" shifted to San Francisco and Homer Curran since most of the New York productions and coast shows originated in one of the two San Francisco houses. While this is true, it is a matter of record that most of the shows played longer 183 engagements in Los Angeles. Certainly, the arrangement provided the Los Angeles playhouse with continuity when in February, 1929, Fred Butler, artistic director of The Belasco, died suddenly. Moreover, the production agreement enabled Belasco, Butler, and Curran to draw upon the better ----------------------------------------------------------------- 7ffF New York successes. In these two years, the theatre staged six of The Best Plays from the seasons between 1926 and 184 1928-29. One other factor which may have enhanced the drawing power of The Belasco Theatre was the possibility that a Belasco engagement might lead to employment in the film industry.'*"®'* With these behind-the-scenes considerations as background, an examination of the individual plays accord ing to the receipts which they recorded gives some idea of the kind of play which was most popular. The Front Page established the long-run record at The Belasco— ten weeks— and also recorded the highest average weekly receipts for productions priced at $2.50— $17,777, based on the nine weeks reported. The Front Page had that combination of factors which spelled success: a Jazz-paced, action-filled melodrama, still current on Broadway, offered by a well-directed, type-perfect cast, including Roscoe Karns as Hildy, Rolf Harolde as Walter Burns, and Doris Kemper as Mollie. The demand for tickets prompted the theatre to schedule two special midnight matinees, but just how popular the play was becomes more apparent when one considers that it held up against The Stratford-upon-Avon troupe; a return 707 engagement of Mary Dugan, a melodrama of the same tone with similar plot focus; and the three-week engagement of The D'Oyley Carte. It did not drop below $15,000 until its tenth week, by which time it had probably begun to exhaust its potential, and in which time Strange Interlude opened.188 "A bit of fervid madness," The Squall was only a skeleton upon which to hang exotic settings, storm scenes, colorful characters, raw emotions, and "underdress" par ades. Nevertheless, it averaged $15,300 over five weeks. LuluBelle, which only barely surpassed The Squall in gross receipts, was cut to the same pattern. Set in Harlem, it utilized David Belasco's settings and his production fetishes. Caucasion actors played the major Negro roles, and while there were Negro actors on the stage they did not mingle directly with the white actors. According to Variety, the five-week engagement could have been extended for an additional three weeks, but The Queen Was in the Parlour, which had opened in San Francisco, was scheduled 187 to come in. The shows which registered the next highest returns all followed the popular-appeal pattern of "the top three." The Spider (seven weeks, $15,000) was a mystery melodrama 708 with six of the original cast, which began in the middle of a vaudeville act and introduced a seance and a luminous mandolin swaying above the heads of the audience. The Scarlet Woman, the only new work tried out in 1928, achieved a respectable engagement because Pauline Frederick TOO imbued the slight play with humanness and style. The production averaged $13,250 in its six-week stay. The Racket, a "hot melodrama" of newspapermen, gangsters, politicians, and police, with an avalanche of action and rapid-fire dialogue, starring fourteen members of the original cast, including E. G. Robinson, John Cromwell, Hugh O'Connell, Romaine Callendar, and others, reaffirmed the superiority of the quick-footed, occasionally loud mouthed male to correct society's vices.It recorded an average of $12,100 for five weeks. The Little Accident, was unusual in that its main character was an unwed father, but in other ways it was predictably conventional (mater nity room scene provides humor; bachelor marries the child's mother although engaged to another woman). Thomas Mitchell, its star and co-author, helped to raise the receipts to a weekly average of $12,950. Like The Front Page, The Royal Family had the necessary elements for success, and although the latter 709 differed in setting, it too moved at a furious pace, con tained pungent dialogue, and prodigal heroics. It was superbly cast with Frederic March, Helen Bolton, Emelie Melville, Oscar Apfel, and others. To those who recognized the broad outlines of the Drews and the Barrymores, the play took on a delicious note, particularly with John 190 Barrymore in Hollywood at the time. Surrounding these productions which might be con sidered typical of The Belasco Theatre fare were works with both more lasting literary value and productions whose scoring chances no bookie would have handicapped. Arthur Wing Pinero's monochromatic study of the reefs in marriage, Mid-Channel, was probably intended as a filler, since it was announced for a short engagement. But the relevance of its theme (despite some dull intervals and heavy-handed platitudes); the shaded, yet humane performances by Con way Tearle, Ann Davis, Lawrence Grant, and others; and the elaborate, tasteful settings established its audiences ($11,000 average over three weeks). Variety stated that it closed two weeks ahead of time to allow for the incoming 191 production of The Squall. The Queen was in the Parlour, Noel Coward's comedy^drama, fared less well, notwithstand ing the presence of popular star, Pauline Frederick 710 ($10,625 average over four and one-half weeks). The sub ject matter was less vital than those romantic works which set out to reform society; it appeared less vigorous for not being peopled with adrenalin-driven, fast-talking iconoclasts; and its world-weary, ironic characters rarely allowed themselves the indulgence of naivete.^2 At the other extreme were The Pirate, The Night Hostess, and The Door Between. The first was a "romance of the Caribees," with over-age and over-weight Doris Keane portraying a female pirate who ruled the richest ship on the seas. The "abundant setting" did little to hide the incredulous story, ineptly plotted and burdened with dialogue. The show closed abruptly, having lived up to its 193 name. Of the remaining shows, The Silent House, a Shu- bert Brothers road show, explains its subject matter in the title, while Saturday's Children, Maxwell Anderson's romantic comedy, was allowed only a two-week (filler) engagement. The warm appeal of the play, and the engaging performances of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Mary Doran, Isabel Withers, and Howard Hickman, however, enchanted holiday 19 S audiences ($9,250 average). Of the special $3.00 road productions, all featured 711 star performers; three included most of the New York com pany; three were chosen as representative Best Plays for their respective seasons; and all had been popular eastern successes. The Road to Rome fared the best, probably because of the presence of popular actress, Jane Cowl, as well as because "The Road to Rome" is amusing all the time, a bit cynical now and then, and best of all it has the allure of an ultramodern viewpoint, made quite logical even when set back some two thousand years or so.1®6 It was also one of the very few sophisticated comedies to play the theatre in these years, and contained an agreeable mixture of naughtiness, spice, and ageless philosophy about the futulity of war ($20,500 average for three week engagement). The Bachelor Father had the built-in appeal of its 1 07 genre, although its view was more realistic. The Com mand to Love was, in some ways, the most distinctive pro duction of the period at this theatre for it mingled a company of high caliber.(Basil Rathbone, Mary Nash, Violet Kemble Cooper, and Henry Stephenson) in an urbane comedy richly marbled with humor and witty dialogue, and enriched by unmasked motivations. Regrettably, its high-comedy style was probably one reason why it enjoyed such limited 1T1 19 f t patronage (average of $13,800 over five weeks). Coquette's failure to catch on is puzzling (average of $11,500 for three-week engagement). True, the produc tion's arrival trailed the release of the altered film version starring popular actress, Mary Pickford. Moreover, the play was the only work staged at The Belasco between 1928 and 1928 which could be considered a border-line tragedy, and its treatment of honor as a guise for uphold ing false principles, an excuse for meanness and selfish ness, and a wedge for separating those who care for each other was guaranteed to shake sepulchered standards. But for all these drawbacks, imagined or real, the production starred the darling of the American stage— Helen Hayes. However, she was exhausted by the play's lengthy New York and road engagements by the time the show reached Los Angeles and anxious about the expected baby. The star was absent twice during the final week of playing. Additional- ly, Coquette was the only production to come to town in the wake of another three-dollar priced engagement. Of The Chauve-Souris little need be said except that its continental combination of vaudeville, night club, and circus acts seemed a "must" for a large number of Angelenos. The show averaged $18,750 in its six-week 713 engagement. The troupe returned for a second successful visit the following year. In these two years, The Belasco Theatre moved to the forefront of all theatrical establishments by offering a greater number of recent shows with a greater number of star performers. In 1930, the theatre retained its posi tion of leadership, in part because both The Mason and The Biltmore theatres were involved in litigation following the death of A. L. Erlanger. But by then, because it became increasingly necessary to economize, The Belasco began to sandwich plays from less current seasons and shows with lower overhead between the recent successes. In addition, gradually the emphasis upon stars of the original company was abandoned, although the actors employed were always those with popular and professional reputations. No premieres were staged. By 1931, only one road company played The Belasco Theatre. In 1932, two new works were artistic and finan cial flops. In 1933, Edward Belasco turned the theatre back to the Doheny interests, and independent producers moved in. In 1973, it is used by The Temple Immanuel Baptist congregation. 714 The Biltmore Theatre Undoubtedly some of the success which The Belasco Theatre achieved in these years was helped by the re stricted competition offered by The Biltmore and The Mason theatres, for the latter was dark for forty-two weeks, and the former, dark only thirteen and one-half weeks, showed films during thirty-nine weeks. At The Biltmore Theatre, all save two productions were road company shows, with a locally-sponsored opera troupe, The Columbia Opera Company, filling three weeks toward the end of 1929. The undertaking cost the Los 199 Angeles sponsors more than $26,000 in losses. The two coast-sponsored productions were both offered by 0. D. Woodward. Dracula featured Bela Lugosi in the title role and Bernard Jukes as Renfield. Both critics and patrons failed to appreciate the genre, Edwin Schallert and Florence Lawrence questioning the credibility of the piece, and audiences on opening night leaving before the last act. However, the acting drew commendation. Concurrent, with the Dracula showing, The Belasco'Theatre was running The Spider. Audiences obviously preferred the literal-mindedness of the conventional mystery-melodrama which apparently seemed to them more comprehensible, if no 715 more logical, for The Spider showed consistently higher grosses. The Play's the Thing, Molnar's rueful, saucy, human comedy arrived at the end of October, starring Guy Bates Post. The play and the company overwhelmed the critics: . . . in the motley institution of the American stage, peopled with gangsters, murderesses and ladies of uncertain virtue, a play like this one . . . stands out like a flawless diamond in a window full of paste gems. (The Times) In its four-week engagement, The Best Play of 1926-27 grossed only $32,700 at a $2.50 top. Running concurrently at The Belasco, The Royal Family, American in its subject matter and its manners, showed an average gross of $13,671 in its seven-week stay. While the productions at The Biltmore were few, the presentations of works by important playwrights, usually with well-established stars, predominated. Ethel Barry more, supported by three members of the New York company, illuminated Somerset Maugham's sometimes talky comedy about infidelity and marriage— The Constant Wife. In its two-week stay, the show grossed $37,000. George Arliss brought his production of The Mer chant of Venice to Los Angeles in December, 1928. In his summary of the New York season, Burns Mantle had written 716 of Arliss' performance: "His critics were polite, his 202 friends a little disappointed, his business fair." Los Angeles reviewers found his interpretation more intellec tually appealing than emotionally satisfying, but Edwin Schallert correctly analyzed its strengths and pinpointed a reason for its limited appeal: His Shylock is hard, brittle, defiant and a bit cold, but it has solidity and power . . . humanness is less strongly suggested, but then Arliss has never sentimentalized.2®2 John Drinkwater1s antic examination of the gap separating generations and classes in England, Bird in Hand, found scant support, but a revival of Dion Bouci- cault's After Dark was relished during its four-week stay. As Edwin Schallert acknowledged, "it will prove an unmiti gated delight to everyone who loves the theatre— and even, 204 I am tempted to add, the circus." However, one production overshadowed everything else staged at The Biltmore in these years— The New York Theatre Guild's presentation of Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize winning play, Strange Interlude. "Not since 'Parsifal' several years ago, has showgoing been so much of a ceremonial," pronounced Mr. Schallert. As he noted, the attention was directed primarily at the play and only 717 secondarily at the company of Pauline Lord, Ralph Morgan, Donald MacDonald, and Harry Bannister, as Nina, Marsden, Sam, and Darrell, respectively. Of the critics consulted for this study, Schallert and Lawrence were impressed, although their praise was qualified. The former thought the play a "splendid dramatic experiment," deserving respect even if it fell short of the author's intentions. Miss Lawrence referred to the potent charm of the work and penetratingly analyzed that the men had counter-attrac tions to Nina which engrossed them, whereas introspection seemed the only substitute to the physical impulses which had dominated Nina's youth. Finally, she concluded that the play appealed more to the intellectual faculties than 205 to the sensxbilities. Monroe Lathrop was not awed by the play which he defined as an "orgy of sex manifestation/ peopled with "marionettes who speak nothing but his morbid love to ponder the abnormal," and declared that O'Neill, undisciplined in succinct expression, got away with the 206 aside because he was a cult of the time. During the second week of the engagement, a dis cussion was held, including ministers, theatre historians (Kenneth Macgowan), and newspaper critics. In its last (eighth) week, Judith Anderson replaced Miss Lord, and also 718 played the two-week engagement in Hollywood, commencing May 6, 1929. The show grossed $171,360 at a $4.00 top. Only five other production units stopped at the theatre: Frank Craven's golf-amid-the-suburbanites-comedy, The Nineteenth Hole, which played a seven-week handicap; May West's Hogarthian burlesque of the 1890's, Diamond Lil; and two Shubert revues, A Night in Spain, an attractive show which shamed their later offering, Gay Paree, about which Variety wrote: Out here where panning a show is not consid ered in line with the spirit of boost everything, Harrison Carroll of the Herald . . . has been the first to say bluntly what other newspapermen have been saying privately about the type of revue that gets this far west. "The discouraging fact about this extravaganza of vulgarity is that it will probably fill the Biltmore to the rafters . . . I can think of no other way to describe 'Gay Paree' than as an insult to the intelligent playgoer. Its gags are old, its situations and some of its dancing are downright raw. "I might add that some of the props look as if they have been through a season of Sells-Floto [circus]. 'Gay Paree' has a touch of sadism and exploits the effeminate man as no other revue has. It is about the limit."207 Variety went on to point out the bind under which the critics operated: if they "squawked" about the inferior quality of the shows, the eastern producers simply cut off the supply.__________________________________________________ 719 The only other engagement was Maurice Schwartz's Yiddish Theatre troupe which had earlier played a highly- ■ 9 successful one-week engagement at The Mason Theatre (grossed $25,000 at $2.50 top). Here they achieved half that amount, perhaps because the troupe had exhausted its potential audience, or because the move to the "uptown theatre" kept the potential audience away. In March, 1930, A. L. Erlanger died, but The Biltmore Theatre survived until 1964, accommodating coast productions of New York hits, original efforts and road shows which gradually assumed the bulk of the offerings for the remaining history of the playhouse. The Mason Theatre Unlike the situation in the previous two years, an equal emphasis upon road companies also characterized the Mason Theatre fare, but with the exception of Miss Barrymore's productions, and those of Fay Bainter, William Hodge, and Walker Whiteside, all were offered by visiting repertory companies. Coast producers staged two works still current in New York at the time, and two new musicals tested their tunes. Miss Barrymore, who had appeared at The Biltmore _____ 720 in May of 1928, returned fourteen months later. She brought the two plays she had created during the earlier part of the 1928-29 season, only two weeks after she had closed her New York engagement. Both works were literary gems; both represented different styles and philosophies of life; and both permitted the star, supported by Louis Calhern and a competent company, to display her remarkable range. Martinez-Sierra's quiet study of a benign life devoted to self-sacrifice, The Kingdom of God, played for two weeks, and was replaced by Hatvany-Akins1 worldly view of modern love, The Love Duel. Despite a heat wave at the end of the month, the engagement drew both the curious and the knowledgeable, the regular playgoer and the diletante, and grossed $80,000.208 One month earlier, theatre buffs had had the oppor tunity to evaluate a dramatic experiment when Jealousy, by Louis Verneuil, arrived one week after closing its Chicago engagement. The inexorable way in which the author threaded his web of deceit and doubt resembled Ibsen's technique, but it was the two-character cast and the faceted performances of Fay Bainter and John Halliday which intrigued. With little action, and no visual enticements or musical divertissement, the show grossed $52,100 in 721 four weeks ($2.50 top).209 William Hodge bounced into town with Straight Through the Door, and those who liked his philosophy and his drawl gave him the usual end-of-Act-Two ovation, but the production grossed only $15,800 in its two-week stay; an amount which Walker Whiteside barely surpassed with Sakura and The Hindu. Perhaps aware that his kind of vehicle hung more comfortably in the theatrical closet than on the modern stage, Whiteside had appended a foreword to the program of The Hindu, urging the audience not to take the play seriously, "for it is merely an enlivened mystery pin of the Far East." In April, 1929, he returned with The Royal Box, set in 1810 London, and confirmed that he was 211 "one of the theater's aristocrats." The repertory theatre troupes which wended their way to the far downright area of the country came from as far away as England and as close as Utah; with traditions stretching back to the eighteenth century and as recent as the mid-1920's. Moving across Canada, and entering the United States along the Pacific Coast, The Stratford-upon Avon players, with their zestful spirit enveloped in a balanced and unified ensemble, and penetrated with emotion al intensity and a lively tempo, showed Los Angeles 722 audiences that the bard was an invigorating experience. Judging by the critics' comments, Julius Caesar and Richard III drew the largest audiences, the former filling the theatre with "boys in short pants, flappers, fathers and mothers who probably hadn't attended the theatre more 212 than six times in six years." Moreover, the produc tions commanded the respect of the audience "accustomed to snatching hat and coat as the curtain begins to descend," and after the final curtain fell on The Taming of the Shrew 213 gave the troupe eleven rounds of applause. By the time Edwin Schallert reviewed Richard III, he confirmed the group's popularity: The favor which this Stratford organization has gained since its arrival here is nothing short of sensational. A little more than a week ago they were drawing scarcely a handful of people. Patron age has built up . . . until for the closing pro ductions some absolute sell-outs are in prospect.^14 The troupe welcomed in the new year, 1930, as well. A month and a half later, the opportunity to enjoy good voices, buoyant yet disciplined performances, lilting music, and comedy that moved from the sublime to the ridiculous occurred when The D'Oyley Carte Opera Company presented The Mikado, Trial by Jury, Iolanthe, Pirates of Penzance, The Gondoliers, and Ruddigore. The three-week engagement was a joyous success, grossing $53,000.2^5_______ 723 With a reputation far less imposing but with an impact more far-reaching in American theatre, Eva Le- Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre revealed Gregorio and Maria Martinez-Sierra's lyric poem of life's quiet joys and sorrows, The Cradle Song. Featuring Mary Shaw, Harry Davenport, Mary Hone, Phyllis Rankin, and others, the presentation entranced.2 Bearing only the credentials of having directed his own company in repertory since 1923 over a circuit of fourteen towns from Salt Lake City to Seattle, Moroni Olsen brought his players, a nucleus of New York actors who had worked together for five years, to Los Angeles in April, 192 8. He had announced a four-play repertory of Lilies of the Field, by John Hastings Turner; The Detour, by Owen Davis; Candida; and Anna Christie. They staged only the first two, but in their hands the character comedy and the domestic drama received intelligent interpreta tions.^^ The last troupe to venture into the theatrical center of the southwest was also the one with the most distinctive acting style and the largest repertory of plays, most of which were unknown to a large percentage of theatre-goers. Cradle of European actors who later rose to 724 prominence on the American English-speaking stage, Maurice Schwartz' Yiddish Theatre staged eleven different produc tions in their one-week stay, including works by Ibsen, Toller, Peretz Hirschbein, Romaine Rolland, Andreyev, Gorki, Sholom Asch, and Sholom Aleichem. Capacity houses greeted the performances of Schwartz, Celia Adler, Anatol Winogradov, Lazar Freed, Maurice Strasberg, Wolf Goldfaden, Bertha Gersten, Isidor Chasier, and others, who moved easily from the tragi-comedy of Tevya, through the intense character studies of The Lower Depths and the impassioned restraint of Ghosts, to the pathetic plight of the Jew in New York as depicted in Rags. The intense realism of the acting, the deftness of pantomime and vocal inflection, the attention to the minor details of character portrayal, and the versatility and ensemble commitment all drew 218 favorable comment. By comparison to these presentations, the remainder of the theatrical fare seemed tinseled, but audiences flocked to the court-room melodrama, The Trial of Mary Dugan, whose touches of realism included a special marquee sign in courtroom jargon and guest appearances by judges from the Los Angeles bench. The show grossed an impres- 219 sive $15,875 average in its eight-week stay. Tr5 Most of the coast-produced New York productions and the new works originated at The Mason failed as artistic ventures, and all flopped financially. Gregory Ratoff sponsored The Kibitzer, a Jewish version of The Sap, sev eral cuts below that saccharin comedy. Its short two-and- one-half week stay only brought law suits against the actor-producer.220 Richard Walton Tully, author of The Bird of Para dise, returned to the stage with a new musical play, His Blossom Bride. The romance of the Hopi Indians was his torically incorrect in its depiction of "Uncle Sam's" benevolence. As a play-production, it was "badly written, atrociously directed, incredibly acted . . . Slow, turgid, 221 dull, incomprehensible." Patrons agreed with the critics. As a theatrical piece, The Wishing Well would not have been considered by even the most desperate of stock companies. But as an example of the kind of trashy produc tion promoted by brazen or naive individuals which eroded the theatre, it was unequalled: The musical score has some tunes that are pretty, if ordinary. But the book is such childish twaddle as rarely reaches the professional stage . . . the tale lies quite within the period of The Five Little Peppers.1,222 TI^ It was sponsored by Ernest Geary, a San Francisco real estate broker, and F. S. MacFarland, a former director of a Chautauqua circuit who had also arranged the routes for The San Carlo Opera Company, and Sousa's band. In four performances, their show grossed $2,033. The rent on the theatre was $4,000 per week, with $6,400 earmarked for 22 3 salaries, and other expenses amounting to $6,700. Only Follow Thru, the golf operetta, stood a cut above these amateurish undertakings, and it failed, despite an excellent cast and well-known tunes ("Button up Your Overcoat," "If There Were No More You," etc.), in part because of its opening coincided with the stock market crash, but largely because it was the first Schwab-Mandel musical to be priced at three dollars. Variety reported that balcony trade was "way off except on weekends," and estimated that its producer, Homer Curran, had lost any where from $25,000 to $50,000 on his first producing •JO A venture xn Los Angeles. As with The Biltmore Theatre, The Mason survived the death of A. L. Erlanger and The Depression. In June, 1930, Erlanger interests belatedly entered the local pro ducing field, and staged one show, Subway Express, a murder- melodrama. In September, control of the theatre passed 727 to the recently amalgamated organization, R. K. 0., which formed Metropolitan Productions to produce plays later to be transferred to the screen. Only Jane Murfin's Women Who Take ever got up on the boards. Throughout the suc ceeding years, the theatre was used sporadically, eventu ally becoming a Spanish-speaking theatre, and later a Spanish-language film house, before being torn down. The Lafayette Players While the picture on the commercial theatrical scene was one of fragmentation and vast exploitation, there were other aspects which contributed to the richness of theatrical experience unequalled up to this time and unsurpassed in many areas since then. On August 24, 1928, Los Angeles acquired its first professional, all-Negro stock company. The Lafayette Players, directed by Robert Levy, was an omnibus title derived from the playhouse on Seventh Avenue between 131st and 132nd Streets in Harlem, where the group had originated early in the 1920's. In addition to their Harlem theatre, they had also sent touring groups to Philadelphia, Washing ton, Baltimore, Norfolk, Richmond, Pittsburgh, Indianapo- 225 lis, and Chicago. The theatre, which they leased in 728 Los Angeles for twenty-six weeks with an option to extend, had been built by Adolph Ramish at 23rd and Central Avenue in the southern section of the city as a "For Negros Only" movie theatre, seating between 2,100 and 2,300. It had opened on October 7, 192 7, with First National's film, Rose of the Golden West, starring Mary Astor and Gilbert Roland. ^6 The Los Angeles Lafayette Players included actors with experience on Broadway, in Harlem, in Chicago, and elsewhere around the country, notably Evelyn Preer and Edward Thompson, whom David Belasco had brought to New York from Chicago to appear in his production of LuluBelle. At the time, Variety had said: "They are regarded as about 227 the best known players of their race in New York." The program of a light comedy or a melodrama, plus entertainment by a musical group, changed weekly. The Lafayette Players bowed with Rain, featuring Evelyn Preer as Sadie, and a number of "Hollywood notables" (Chaplin, Grauman, etc.) in attendance. Reviewers found their work professionally satisfying and sincere, and as the weeks 22 q progressed their admiration grew. Between the usual fare, the troupe occasionally revived certain plays which pointed up their versatility. In September, they staged In Old Kentucky, complete with its horse race, burning 729 stable, "leap for life," and a pickanniny band. At the end of October, they mounted a capable production of Anna Christie, which The Examiner reviewer declared "a decided 229 triumph." The group, which continued to intrigue Los Angeles and Hollywood, offered its first musical. Queen High, in December. Patterson Greene said it really heated up with Evelyn Preer's blues number: Blue? It was ultramarine, purple indigo. It was more than mean. It was menacing. Was it art? Who cares. The Lafayette Players have zest and enthusiasm. They seem to take joy in amusing an audience, and the audience takes joy in being amused. It's low brow, and, if you ask me, it's good.2^0 The unique theatrical troupe increased its following throughout the year. In April, 1929, Billboard noted that they boasted a larger white than colored following, . . . but their success is due in great measure to the excellence of the casts and good judgment in picking plays giving the patrons what they want and not merely what the management wants.23^ Occasionally a guest artist like Clarence Muse appeared. Recently featured in the film, The Hearts of Dixie, the well-known and respected actor played the dual role in Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. Keeping pace with the trend toward revivals of American melodramas, they staged Over the Hill to the Poorhouse. They closed their first 730 season of forty-three weeks on June 17, 1929. In September, The Lafayette Players began their second season, while in San Francisco, S. A. Goldtree presented another Lafayette troupe. In their third week, they ventured into musical comedy with Hit the Deck, about which The Times wrote, "Singing and dancing is undoubtedly 232 the proper tempo for the Lafayette Players." But they also proved their ability with What Price Glory, and Tangerine, the latter in its Western premiere. The group ventured into an original revue at the end of the year, but Harlem Scandals, starring Nina Mae McKinning (under contract to MGM), who had little opportunity to demonstrate her talents, was dull, slow-paced, and burdened with off-color jokes.233 Two weeks into the new year, on January 18, 1930, The Lafayette Players closed. The novelty had worn off and business was so bad that an entire family was admitted for one dollar. Ramish offered the theatre free of charge to Levy for one night to help him meet overdue salaries, but 234 the troupe refused. Unlike many another ebullient troupe, The Lafayette Players returned later in The Thirties. 731 Windsor Square Theatre At The Windsor Square Theatre, meanwhile, few professional productions materialized following the.prema ture departure of Lillian Albertson's production of The Desert Song. The Ebell Club, owners of the playhouse, attempted to initiate a series of historical American plays, but offered only Abraham Lincoln. The Ken-Geki plays, Ishmatsu and YozoKida,. which later moved to The Hollywood Music Box, debuted at The Windsor, appropriately 235 transformed by Sid Grauman. An attempt to organize a stock company failed after two weeks in January, 1929, but in June, three benefit performances of Hamlet brought together the trained actor and the semiprofessional in an interpretation of the play decidedly ahead of its time and yet unmistakably an outgrowth of the period's interest in psychology. Dr. Cecil E. Reynolds, who had appeared in a number of Pasadena Playhouse productions, portrayed the central figure as a scholar-madman who breaks under the stresses of the particular situation. Besides "Edgar Lear," the company included Montague Love, Rudolph Schild- kraut, Herbert Rooksby, Lionel Belmore, Fritz Feld, Eric Snowden, Jerome Sheldon, Eily Balyon (Gertrude), and Elsa Mathews Chambers (Ophelia), and was directed by Joseph TS1 Schildkraut.236 However, in the fall of 1929, the theatre found one tenant whose contributions to the theatrical history of Los Angeles in this period were genuine, if limited to a particular audience. Victor Neuhaus, a Denver publisher, leased the theatre for once-a-month presentations of German-language plays, as well as works by other European playwrights. The project opened on October 25, 1929, with Schiller's Kabale und Liebe. Enthusiastic audiences greeted the next two efforts, Flaschsmann, the Educator, by Otto Ernst, and The Three Twins, by Kurt Hernnfeld. Throughout the next several years, Neuhaus1 group found consistent, loyal support. In the 1970's, the theatre is still in very active use. The Belmont Theatre At The Belmont Theatre the stock company sponsored by Ruth Helen Davis and her husband persisted with its weekly change of light fare. Early in the year, they hosted a meeting to found an art theatre. Reginald Pole, Irving Pichel, Sigurd Russell, Ole M. Ness, R. D. MacLean, and L. E. Behymer attended. To test the feasibility of their undertaking, they presented two matinee performances 733 of The Idiot, with Pole as Myshkin, Boris Karloff as Rogoshin, and Olga Gray Zacsek as Natashya. A near-capa city house greeted the gripping dramatization enacted with sensitivity and restrained emotional power, but no further 237 performances materialized. The theatre returned to its established stock policy, with an occasional change of pace, such as William Desmond's return to the stage. In March, 1928, it became a production house, but neither The Guilty Man, by Miss Davis, nor Rachel, by Leila Taylor, a romanticized treat ment of episodes in the French actress's life, amounted to anything beyond the competent performances of Joda Marinoff and J. Frank Glendon in the former, and Hedwiga ooo Reicher in the latter. Then, Oliver Morosco tried his hand with Hell Cat. Critics praised the scenery; dis missed the Javanese-situated melodrama as a later-day eruption of the 10-20-30 thrillers ("nothing short of terrible"); and blasted the acting. The show closed in three days.2^ In June, J. P. Goring subleased the theatre and initiated a policy of presenting a film and a play on the same bill. The experiment lasted four weeks. In mid-July, 192 8, the lease reverted to West Coast Theaters, Inc. 734 The Shrine and Philharmonic Auditoriums and Foreign-Language Groups At the two large auditoriums, The Shrine and the older Philharmonic, theatrical fare was a small part of the year's programming. Nonetheless, commencing on Decem ber 26, 1927, and for ten weeks thereafter, The Al Malaikah Temple Light Opera Company, under the general direction of Frank M. Rainger and managed by Edward Row land, with Charlotte Woodruff, Louis Templeton, Ralph Erroll, Richard Powell, staged a different operetta or musical comedy weekly. In terms of available box-office receipts, Naughty Marietta, The Prince of Pilsen, No, No, Nanette, The Chocolate Soldier, and Sally were most popular, although the venture apparently found a consistent patronage. The Chicago Opera Company played The Shrine in both years as did The Los Angeles Opera Company. At The Philharmonic, meanwhile, equally few the atrical productions were staged, but a large number were offered by national troupes or foreign-language aggrega tions24® which enriched the heavily Anglo-Saxon culture of the city. In April, 1928, Boris Thomashevsky brought his troupe to the Philharmonic with Bar Mitzvah, while Mollie Cohn was appearing in a six-week engagement at The 735 Capitol Theatre. On April 13, The Times reported that "she is winning encomiums."24- * - Later, Thomashevsky also played The Capitol, and in late August turned his talents to the outdoor drama, staging Joseph and His Brethren at 242 The Hollywood Bowl. In early May, Morrxs Waxman attempted to recreate S. Ansky's legend of love and self- realization, The Dybbuk, but his production failed to 243 realize the play's terror, pathos, and beauty. The Belasco Theatre, which was dark in December, 1929, follow ing the early closing of The Queen Was in the Parlour, booked performances by Jack Berlin and Mollie Cohn in A Night in the Underworld, Dance to Death, Eternal Song, and Manke from Odessa.244 Another contributor, in some ways more vital than the Yiddish endeavors, was the Spanish-speaking theatre. Early in September, 1928, Senora Virginia Fabregas and a company of approximately twenty-five players inaugurated an eight-week engagement at The Capitol Theatre. After a two-month tour of Southern California, Senora Fabregas also appeared at The Philharmonic in La Enigma and Magda, about which The Times wrote: "[This] greatest dramatic actress of Mexico proved her worth to a large and appre ciative audience . . . scored one of the greatest successes 736 245 of her career." In November, L. E. Behymer presented the troupe in The Cardinal, Louis Parker's study of Juan de Medici, and the members justified themselves anew as "artists of the first rank," according to Patterson Greene.246 As eagerly as he supported local theatre, L. E. Behymer also continued to bring to the city troupes of international reputation. Thus, at the end of 1929, he sponsored Adolf Fassnacht and the Frieburg Passion Play. The simple epic, suffering from condensation for American presentation, and the rhetorical vocal style and panto- mimically varied physical interpretation alienated American 247 audiences accustomed to the realistic approach. German theatre groups were among the most active in the city. In 1924, The German Players staged a full season of sixteen plays at The Gamut, and persisted in their undertaking until the Club was torn down. As the movies continued to draw the foreign artist from Europe, other drama societies took shape. In 1928, The Russian Dramatic Society presented Chekhov's Marriage Proposal and Nemirovich-Danchenko's At Midnight. In February, 1929, Bela Lugosi's vivid performance in Molnar's The Devil, supported by Agnes Bardoly and Anne Narocy, was 737 enthusiastically greeted by an audience largely Hungarian 248 m origin. In April, the wife of the French consul and the French societies throughout the city attempted to establish a French-speaking Little Theatre group. These and other foreign-language groups, plus the numerous little theatre organizations which sprang up toward the end of the decade, several of which survived through The Thirties, provided some artistic alternatives to the usual commercial fare. Matinee Theatre Among these alternatives were the matinee perform ances. Introduced in Los Angeles in 1927 by Dickson Morgan, the practice was continued by The Hollywood Com munity Players (Hollywood Repertoire Players) in 1928. At The Hollywood Playhouse, they staged Andreyev's Waltz of the Dogs, Suderman's The Fires of St. John, Bennett's The Great Adventure, and Strindberg's The Dance of Death. In the first offering, Paul Spier, Gene Gowing, and Sheldon Lewis captured the counterpoint and philosophical ardor of Andreyev's Slavic tone poem, but were unequal to the 24Q Suderman piece. Bennett's light-hearted comedy proved to be an exceptional piece of entertainment in the hands 738 of Reginald Pole, Mary Worth, Mario Carrillo, while initially,. Strindberg's acrimonious drama of relations between the sexes evaded the capabilities of Jessie Arnold, Paul Spier, and William Raymond. However, by the time the production filled a full vacant week at The Playhouse, 250 they had plumbed the play's full force and bitterness. Their efforts were curtailed when Henry Duffy assumed the lease on the theatre because of the ten-performance schedule of that troupe. Of the numerous little theatre and community theatre organizations in the later years of this decade, none were more active and in some ways more important than The Ralph Herman Playshop, The Theatre Mart, and The Writers Club. The Playshop The Playshop had begun tentatively but with clear emphasis in the fall of 1926, with Charles Kenyon's drama, Kindling, succeeded by St. John Irvine's character study, Jane Clegg. The organization survived through the year although its performances were only occasionally reviewed. By May, 1927, they were located in a small theatre on the second floor of a warehouse owned by Herman's -------------------------------------------------- 735T father, at 1635 Cordova Street, near the intersection of Washington Boulevard and Vermont Avenue. The plant accom modated one hundred and four, in backed benches located on one level. The stage measured twenty-five feet by sixteen feet. By 1929, The Playshop was known as "Los Angeles' Greenwich Village Theatre." It had also developed a following: "The Play Shop," a bijou adventure in the the ater, is attracting much comment and attention . . . The picturesque stage and auditorium make it well worth while to be cast either as actor or audience and ambitious young writers are making use of the opportunity to give a sort of "test performance" for their creative work.^51 In June, 1928, the policy of alternating new works with a series of classical dramas had been established. The productions used actors from the stage, the movies, and the community. Five new works were seen during the slimmer months: Pay Day, by Rowland Brown, about which the reviewers had little to say; The Extra Girl, by Tom McNamara, whose original viewpoint, interesting story, and clearly-drawn characterizations lifted it above the usual pallid fare; Slaughter, by Kay Clement, which discovered "Gloria Grey as a stage actress, supported by Rollo Dix," and which achieved its effectiveness through "the new theory of dramatic acting— 'the mental over the 740 252 material'"; Mejico, by Georgia Fawcett, a fast-moving comedy-melodrama which The Times reviewer thought an acceptable piece; and Lifers, by Blackmore and Grouch, which took a frank look at the vicious exteriors college youth affected.253 These contemporary accounts were balanced by two classical plays: a modern-dress Hamlet and Oedipus Rex. William Thornton achieved an occasionally brilliant, intelligent reading in the former.25^ Interest in the production was sufficient to extend the run for a second week. Thornton, who had appeared with Walter Hampden in The Light of Asia, in 193,1 assembled a repertory of Shakespearean plays and trouped through the southwest, south, and middlewest.255 Oedipus Rex ran for three weeks through November and was considered "something of an event of importance in affairs dramatic," in part because a little theatre group had dared to undertake it; in part because of the careful craftsmanship of the settings, costumes and lighting; and in large measure because the production was "one of con siderable depth and power," with Francis Joseph Hickman an imposing figure as Oedipus, supported by Robert Seiter, Ralph Matson, and Mildred Paver, as Creon, Teiresias, and ------------------------------------------------------------------m r pc/* Jocasta, respectively. The agreement reached between Herman and Hickman continued through 1929. In April, one-act plays were added to the calendar. Of the new full-length plays, The Love Storm, by James W. Clark, about a bachelor who finds it difficult to locate a girl who will enter marriage merely as a business proposition, was a popular success. Among the classics were Macbeth, Salome, and Strindberg's The Father.258 In early 1930, the group assumed new quarters in Hollywood at 1141 Gower, the former workshop of sculptor, Prince Troubetzkoy. Here the stage was approximately thirty feet wide and the house accommodated nearly two hundred. The casts were now drawn almost exclusively from "the army of talent available," most connected with film work. But the majority of them had considerable experience in the legitimate theatre. The balance between classics and contemporary works was maintained, although the emphasis appears to have shifted in favor of the former. Productions were usually staged for ten days. In spring, Ibsen's A Doll's House took shape, and following the staging of a new work in May, and some one-acts in June, Lucille LaPointe, Frank Ball, William Moran, Virginia Barber, and Ttt Allan Brock appeared in Ghosts. Reviewing the organization the production, Variety wrote: Nothing palpably highbrow about the little theatre and its audience excepting the colored benches and weak tea. Brand of work before the footlights seemed expert enough compared with much of the No. 2 and No. 3 company efforts often encouraged downtown. Sincerity of performance and illusion was there despite the close quarters and the home-made scenery. Performances better than Lucille LaPointe1s or Frank Ball1s in the mother and par son parts respectively aren't often found in regular houses— certainly not in L.A.259 The Lower Depths; A Love Wife/ by George DePorto-Riche; Honor/ by Sudermann; The Wild Duck; The Jay Walker/ by Olga Printzlau; a revival of The Father; and Lysistrata were other plays the group tackled. As far as this writer has investigated, the group survived through the end of 1931. At that time, the pressures of film production and the restrictions placed upon the contract players by their studios, may have drawn off the energies of the actors. The Theatre Mart While The Herman Playshop experimented with classics and occasional new works as a kind of prototype of The Actors Studio, The Theatre Mart served as a show case for new plays and also acted as agent for the authors. Founded and funded by Mrs. Alice Pike Barney, the theatre 7TJ designed by Webb Keedy, was set among terraced gardens at 605 North Juanita Avenue in Hollywood.2®0 Mrs. Barney, who had inherited her husband's fortune, had become a little theatre buff in Dayton, Ohio, and Washington, D. C. In early 1926, already relocated in California, she had tried out a new play in San Francisco, of which George C. Warren had written, "The first-night audience laughed at the 'big' situation. Comment unnecessary on this one."2^ Mrs. Barney commenced her latest project in Octo ber, 1928. Sensations, by Rita Kissin, a scenario staff writer at Universal Studios, was distinctive only in its enticing title.2®2 Another full-length play did not mater ialize until December, although there had been one-acts and musical divertissements throughout November. Arthur Clayton spoofed melodramas of the tropics in Lallipaloosa, but the good-natured comedy was ineptly structured and too 2(TO leisurely-paced Two produced playwrights then showed their wares: Leighton Osmun's Why Professor, was a slight comedy of the aspirations of a high-brow playwright;- and Aurar.ia Rouver- ol's Really Hilda, a triangle-comedy-drama evidenced solid craftsmanship. With the new year, the first work by the sponsor surfaced. The Lighthouse, a story of 744 retribution laid in Central America, had been honored by the Washington, D. C. Drama League in June of 1927. The merit of the play raised questions about the standards which had been applied. Occasionally a work of merit shook off the chaff. The Barrens, by Oakley Stout, set on the edge of a Minne sota forest, was Ibsen-like in its use of the disrupting influence of a stranger and the psychological impact of the land upon the people. It was deemed one of "the most successful Theatre Mart ventures," aided largely by the strong work of Sarah Padden, Bert Sprotte, and Arthur Clayton.265 Given the nature of the project, unevenness in quality was inevitable. In the spring, among the crop were two plays by Mrs. Barney: Legitimate Lovers, whose comedy of a playwright marooned on his yacht with a group of women ("mauve souls edged with pink") amused large audiences; and The Transgressors, which blended a familiar story with distinct characters and penetrating insight.266 After a summer of light fare, including the Yale puppeteers, and a musical by Mrs. Barney which later moved to The Figueroa Street Playhouse, the playhouse suffered a seige of meretricious garbage. But The Theatre Mart 745 survived and moved into The Thirties offering new plays and accommodating other production groups. Its importance in terms of the quality of plays produced is negligible, but during its existence, it served as the single location where a novice or experienced playwright could hear his work. The Writers Club As various small theatre groups sprang up, each devoted to its own version of good theatre, The Writers' Club moved along its well-established path of combining a social evening of dinner and one-act plays staged by pro fessional actors. The inaugural program of the 1928-29 season was typical in its balance of American and conti nental plays, familiar works, and new attempts. The Weak Spot, by George Kelly, and A Marriage Has Been Arranged, by Sutro, took the honors for craftsmanship and insight as well as for the manner in which they were enacted. The November program, however, displayed several different works of originality and merit. Three Inanimate Things and a Man, by Don Travis, used a pewter jug, a vase, and a clock (symbolizing prudence, pleasure, and time) to explore the relative values of those things which a man holds ------------------------------------------------------------------7SF important. It starred Henry Walthall. Kenyon Nicholson poked fun at the vanity of actors in The Marriage of Little 267 Eva, and two other new works filled the bill. December brought the work of Dan Totheroth to The Writers Club stage. Breaking the Calm, a drama of suppressed feelings, was given a powerful rendering by Aileen Pringle, Robert 268 Edeson, and others. That The Club occasionally considered the more serious questions of life was apparent in the February program, which presented the American premiere of John Galsworthy's drama of responsibility in a family, The First and the Last. It was fully realized by Robert Ames, Joan Maclean, Lionel Barrymore, and Clyde King. In harsh contrast to the poignancy of the Galsworthy work was the 269 nagging virago in O'Neill's Before Breakfast. The serious mood penetrated the March and April programs as well. The March program, which opened with three curtain-raisers, one by playwright Justus Mayer, and another by film director Tay Garnett, included among the three longer works, Madeline Blackmore's study of a small Spanish town familiar with death, To Die with a Smile. Its pathos, irony, and bitter humor were sensitively cap tured by Belle Mitchell, Carlo Schipa, and Wallace -------------------------------------------------------------r^y 2 70 MacDonald. Of the April program, The Examiner reviewer said that "three plays contended with the forces of modern existence and the fourth met the challenge with a melo- 271 dramatic attack." Among them was Thomas Ahearn's expressionistic study of a credulous oil driller driven insane by the pumping of the drill and the hypnotic eye of a man already dead. Unlike other seasons which terminated in early summer, this year continued through July, by which time "the Renaissance temper of mind" was evident in play selec tion. For example, the June program included Black Butter fly, a play of revenge and jealousy set in Harlem, and Two-Three-One, a comedy about a much-sought-after bachelor. The July bill included plays on the pressing topics of the day: matrimony, men, the underworld, and "the talkies." - • As the decade drew to a close, The Writers' Club remained the only professional organization committed to the one-act play form, written by professional writers and enacted by professional actors, before an audience of professionals and their guests. The eighth season opened with a particularly "brilliant" program, which combined in a rare manner the acting talents of a number of theatre lights, with those of tried-and-true playwrights. John 748 Colton and Richard Sharpe's dramatic glimpse into the life of Lucretia Borgia, Satan's Grandmother, starred Nance O'Neil. Rupert Hughes' comedy of rose fever, Goodnight Gwendolyn, also appeared on the bill, which also featured 272 the talents of James and Lucille Gleason. The many actors residing in or passing through Hollywood usually found themselves contributing to the evenings of The Writers Club and well into 19 31, the social fiber which bound these activities together received encouragement. Miscellaneous Of the numerous theatrical activities which began to proliferate at the end of this period, two in particular developed into active organizations in The Thirties. The Beverly Hills Community Players, organized at the end of February, 1928, offered a three-act play that June. Enacted by a professional company, and staged by a profes sional director, the choice of play indicated a concern for bringing American playwrights to the attention of the Los Angeles theatre-going public. After Kempy, they staged Cosmo Hamilton's new play, The New Poor; Nixy, by Florence Clay Knox; and in May, 1929, George Kelly's Behold the ------------------------------------------------------------------ TO- Bridegroom. Their fall season opened with Noel Coward's Hay Fever, and they continued into the new decade providing an opportunity to combine the talents of the professional actor and the trained amateur in productions of quality. In a different area entirely, theatre entered the halls of learning when The University of California's "southern campus" at Los Angeles opened its new auditorium on November 7, 1929, with Phillip Barry and Elmer Rice's play, Cock Robin, unseen in the city. That fall, The Los Angeles Shakespeare Foundation staged Richard III and The Merry Wives of Windsor in Royce Hall, with R. D. Maclean, Francis X. Bushman, Maude Fealey, Sarah Padden, Florence Oakley, and others. Both presentations provoked appreci ative audience and critical response, but regrettably even 27*3 then, its acoustics were imperfect. Nevertheless, the auditorium continued to be used for visiting attractions, and for many years was "home" for The Department of Theatre Arts. Summary and Conclusion They were years of confusion and contradiction, of culmination and crisis. They were the years of the entrepreneur— big and little, skilled and naive, idealistic ------------------------------------------------------------------ 75U- and crass, successful and pathetically unsuccessful. Following the eruption of new theatres in 1926 and 1927, and the surge of heady activity, theatre owners, managers, and lessees found that drawing a public to their establishments demanded more than a mere announcement of their existence. In these two years, all but one of the new playhouses underwent a change in management personnel and programming policy. It was not only the availability of theatre space in the playhouses which prompted the would-be producer to try to "make a killing in the Los Angeles theatrical market." The area continued to draw the winter and summer tourist, who conceivably might spend a fraction of his holiday funds on theatrical entertain ment. Moreover, Los Angeles had proved that it could support a long-run engagement. Further, the industry which had probably done more to alter the image of the area, the movies, was in a quandry. Indecision filtered through studios and movie theatres as the industry attempted 77 A profitably to incorporate into its system, "the talker." However, like Henry Ford's plants before them, the movies found that they had to shut down before they could manufac ture and introduce their new Model A. In this lull, the 7?r legitimate theatre in Los Angeles thrived. So healthy was the theatre that film operators claimed that the ? 7 c patrons were keeping away from the picture palaces. Into the breach rushed several theatrical entre preneurs. There was Henry Duffy, of whom none was more active or potent, for he expanded his chain of stock com pany houses to include three in Los Angeles-Hollywood, and six more along the Pacific coast. In each, he implemented his policy of clean drama sumptuously mounted, smoothly enacted, and happily concluded. There was Edward Everett Horton, who like Duffy, had first appeared on the local scene at the beginning of the decade. Like Duffy, Horton offered light fare at popular prices, but the actor-turned- producer leavened his offerings with sophisticated come dies, an occasional serious work, and stylistically effer vescent pieces, and proved that popular-priced fare need not deaden the aesthetic and ethical faculties. Horton and Duffy were joined by others who attempted to provide a variety of theatrical fare. 0. D. Woodward, a newcomer to the local theatre scene, staged only four plays, but each was a distinctive theatrical production, including two Best Plays, a sophisticated comedy, The High Road, and the generic vampire piece, Dracula. L. E. TS1 Behymer headed up the most adventuresome undertaking in literary drama presented on a subscription basis to be essayed in Los Angeles up to that time. The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre derived its impetus from local as well as national currents. Locally, attempts to form an art theatre could be traced to Aline Barnsdall's experimental project in 1916; to The Harlequin Theatre in the early 1920's; and The Fine Arts Theatre in 1924. The Hollywood Community Theatre and The Potboilers continued the campaign for alternatives to the commercial theatre. The matinee offerings of 1927 and early 1928 proved that an audience existed for literary drama, and Joseph Schildkraut showed that a following could be mustered for such works. When these currents met with The New York Theatre Guild's plans for touring their productions, The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre embarked on its first season, in which it staged six plays offered at a ten dollar subscription ticket; sponsored a Theatre Guild troupe in four plays; and backed The Guild's production of Strange Interlude. For reasons including erratic scheduling, juggled engagements, fluctu ating artistic quality in performance, and play choice directed more at what The New York Theatre Guild had introduced than at what would provide a balanced season, 753 • The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre, noble in purpose, faltered in execution. Along with this "uplift project" there were the producers with considerable experience who thought to par- lay their product into a hit. Some came from New York or San Francisco; others were already on the scene. Sam Salvin brought in Good News; John Golden tested the west coast theatrical temperature with Let Us Be Gay; Homer Curran found it impossible to stage a second work after Follow Thru; Lillian Albertson, handicapped by union and personnel problems and poor health, staged only The Desert Song, Hit the Deck, and Sex. In company with these theatrically-wise producers were the coterie of individuals in "for the quick buck"; and the persons who organized showcases for actors seeking employment in the movies. Among the first was Goldtree's blatant exploitation of Bourdet's play, The Married Virgin; The Night Hawk, a prurient piece, kept before the public by the cut-rate agency which had sponsored it; a bastardized version of Women Go on Forever; and Squawk, an overnight product based on The Julian Oil scandal. To these meretricious melodramas of muck were added the impossibly inartistic products which would never have 754 been given a hearing if money had not made it possible to take advantage of available theatre space: Maternally Yours, Happy Days, Who, Blossom Bride, The Wishing Well, and Tell Me Again among others. A few notches above these were the offerings organ ized to display the talents of actors anxious for film contracts. The plays, fortunately, were usually tried-and- true Broadway successes, and the quality of the productions varied according to the integrity and skill of those involved. Conway Tearle intrigued in Mid-Channel; Kenneth Harlan ingratiated in Excess Baggage; Franklin Pangborn and his cohorts occasionally diverted in their sojourn at The Vine Street Theatre; several other offerings, including those of the little theatres, entranced. At the road-show theatres, meanwhile, the attrac tions were notably fewer in these two years, and the emphasis was divided between those productions playing the western provinces to help pay back the New York producer, such as the Shubert revues, and the forays of Frank Craven, Mae West, Walker Whiteside, William Hodge; and the group of noteworthy star-cast productions and touring repertory troupes, among them the appearances of Ethel Barrymore, George Arliss, Fay Bainter, John Halliday, The New York 755 Theatre Guild, Eva LeGallienne1s Civic Repertory, The Stratford-upon-Avon aggregation, Maurize Schwartz's troupe, The D'Oyley Carte, and The Chauve-Souris. The Belasco Theatre, the only playhouse not to experience a managerial change, also sponsored road com panies in these years, and these comprised about one-half of their offerings. In 1928-29, this theatre became the most important and consistent production house, in terms of the number of shows, the merit of the plays, the quality of the productions, and the caliber of the actors. New works comprised a small minority at this theatre, and excluding those plays which were aired at The Egan Theatre, usually by local authors, the original plays seen during these two years at The Belasco Theatre or any of the other play houses were, for the most part, artistically derivative and theatrically deficient. For awhile, then, theatre in Los Angeles thrived. "Not in years have Pacific coast legit managers experi enced such top heavy business as they are now having," 2 7 avowed Variety, in July, 1928. By the following May, however, the situation had deteriorated, and the same journal noted that . . . the panic is still on in legit houses . . . 756 warm weather, lack of tourists, and some 480 other excuses are set forth for the infrequency of the villagers to pay full price of box-office seats.2?7 The reasons for the shift were numerous and complex. The economic situation, worsening nationally, was particularly bad locally. In February, 192 8, Variety had reported that there were more people unemployed than at any other time in the previous three years. Night life was at a stand still. In June of 192 8, a depression in the local stock market, particularly in Bancitaly [sic] stock, Richfield Oil, and First National of Los Angeles holdings, hit both the theatrical crowd and the lay speculator: Much of the local depression in theatre attendance in the past few months has been attributed to the heavy speculation in Bank of Italy shares, with a large majority of the town's residents plunging to the limit. . . . an acute shortage of ready cash prevails for the stock gamblers simply haven't had the money to spend on amusements.^78 The situation only worsened following the stock market crash and with the onset of The Depression business fell at an alarming rate. Locally, The Chamber of Commerce's reluctance to discourage incoming laborers only compounded the situation, so that by mid-1930, Los Angeles was in the throes of its worst depression since 190 7, with more skillec laborers out of work than at any other time in twenty years. 757 Internal conditions only exacerbated the situation. If "the road was dead," New York producers still looked to the local producer willing to pay the demanded-for royal ties as a source of income. However, in Los Angeles, the local producer, particularly Edward Belasco, was economi cally constrained. In order to cut back on expenses, Belasco began to offer less current shows and to rely less on road companies. Henry Duffy's empire began to fall apart; Edward Everett Horton withdrew from producing; The Los Angeles (Civic) Repertory limited its second season of production to a half-year's offerings. Certainly, other producers stepped forward, but too often their commitment extended no further than one show. Improved conditions in the film industry also gradually affected Los Angeles theatre. Actors of all caliber flocked to the region, and their willingness to appear in any kind of production temporarily seemed to boost conditions in "stock companies," located in sur rounding towns. In fact, it only bloated the situation as these companies proliferated they drew off patronage from the Los Angeles playhouses, further intensifying the cen trifugal nature of Los Angeles theatre.2?9 in the face of worsening economic conditions across the country, actors 758 continued "to pour into the west coast despite a surfeit 280 of talent." Among this army of talent were Broadway personalities in need of work, film names, aspiring ama teurs, and eager collegians. All of them were exploited to some degree, for in their eagerness to find employment and to use the stage as a stepping stone to the films, the actors' talents frequently were submerged by the mediocrity of the play and the shabbiness of the production. In May, 1929, Florence Lawrence had declared that the time was right for a change in the direction Los Angeles theatre was going: It is time that Los Angeles, so captious in its demands, should try seriously to offer drama which will be more than a gay adventure, more than a merry skylarking through the motions of play producing.282 She went on to say that the audience for theatre in Los Angeles went to a play "for the love of the play," having put aside numerous other potentially attractive alterna tives. Her plea, however, with its "dead-ringer" insight into the local situation, went unheard— at least for sever al more years. Even had there been no other attractions in the sunny Eden of Los Angeles to draw away the theatre patron, even had there been no constriction in the economic largess 759 of the public, theatre in Los Angeles at the end of the 1920's was deteriorating because, as Variety so perceptive ly noted and so bluntly stated: . . . where fly-by-night shows keep going in and out, the effect must reach the public . . . Legit may yet be revived out here, but not until the shoe-stringers and promoters are cleaned out, real showmen take hold of the situation and actors get wise to t h e m s e l v e s .^83 CHAPTER VIII FOOTNOTES ^"Big Contrast Noted Since 1925 Trek," The Los Angeles Examiner, June 1, 1929, III, 1-2. Hereafter referred to as The Examiner. 2 . William A. Spalding, comp. History and Reminis- censes: Los Angeles City and County, I of III (Los Angeles: J. R. Finnell and Sons £19 31,1), pp. 461-512. 3 The Los Angeles Times, June 6, 1930, I, 1-4. Hereafter referred to as The Times. ^Florence Lawrence, "Duffy's Magic Formula Made Free for All," The Examiner, December 2, 1928, V, 6, 9. 5Variety, LXXVIII (April 8, 1925), 21. Billboard, XXXVII (April 18, 1925), 7; XXXVIII (March 20, 1926), 23. 6Billboard, XXXVII (April 18, 1925), 26; XXXVII (November 21, 1925), 45. Variety, LXXX (October 28, 1925), 45. H. O. Stechan refers to Duffy's Ford system in California Graphic, August 20, 1927, pp. 10-17. 7 Duffy had made attempts to establish companies in Pasadena, Long Beach, and Los Angeles. Variety, LXXXVIII (July 20, 192y), 46. 8Billboard, XXXIX (September 3, 1927), 26. ^Variety, LXXXIX (November 30, 1927), 38; XCI (June 20, 1928), 61. 10Variety, XCII (August 15, 1928), 60; XCIII (October 24, 1928), 61. 11Variety, LXXXIX (December 14, 1927), 49. Lawrence, 760 761 The Examiner/ January 16, 1928, II, 4. 12Tommy, The Times, April 10, 1928, II, 11. Edwin Schallert, The Times, May 4, 1928, II, 9. The production featured Sydney Toler, Lloyd Neil, Alan Bunce, and William Janney from New York. 13The Sap, Philip Scheuer, The Times, August 26, 1929, II, 7. Lawrence, The Examiner, August 26, 1929, II, 4. ^ interference, Variety, XC (March 4, 1928), 61. Reviews were usually written by the Variety representative located in the particular city, who at this time in Los Angeles was Arthur Ungar. Marquis Busby, The Times, February 28, 1928, II, 11. - * - 5The Times, March 3, 1928, II, 8. ^ From Hell Came a Lady, Schallert, The Times, April 16, 1928, II, 7. Lawrence, The Examiner, April 12, 1928, I, 10; April 16, 1928, II, 4. Variety, XCI (April 25, 1928), 54. ^Pomander Walk, Schallert, The Times, May 29, 1928, II, 11. Gregory Goss, The Examiner, May 29, 1928, I, 12. Billboard, XL (June 23, 1928), 6. The company included Lionel Belmore, Allan Connor, Helen Sullivan, Barbara Leonard, and many others. The music from Marjo- laine the musical version was used. ■ J Q J-°Speaking of May Robson in Mother's Millions, Florence Lawrence wrote that the actress "epitomizes the vigor of mind and heart to a throng which crowded the thea tre." The Examiner, February 4, 1929, III, 6. ■^Schallert, The Times, November 5, 1929, II, 11. Scheuer, The Times, December 2, 1929, II, 7. 2 f l Two Girls, J. Robards, Sr. featured; Courage and Boomerang, Hammond and Moore; Dancing Mothers, Belle Bennett; The First Year, The Duffys; She Couldn't Say No, Greenwood and Washburn. 2-*-Schallert, The Times, June 10, 1928, III, 13, 32. p p ^'‘Dancing Mothers, Schallert, The Times, June 3, 1929, II, 7. p O ^JThe Shannons of Broadway, Lawrence, The Examiner, September 24, 1928, II, 4. p ^ ^Courage, Schallert, The Times, March 11, 1929, II, 7. p C ^ Abraham Lincoln, The First Year, Lightnin' . 26Variety, XCVI (September 4, 1929), 59. According to Billboard, XLI (May 11, 1929), 32, which listed only seven houses, they were Robert McWade in The Big Pond (The Alcazar), Edmund Breese in Maniac (The President)— San Francisco; Leo Carillo in The Bad Man (The President); Hal Skelly in Burlesque (El Capitan), Tom Moore and Kay Hammond in This Thing Called Love (The Hollywood Playhouse)— Los Angeles; May Robson in The’ Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary (The Dufwin)— Oakland; Taylor Homes in The Nervous Wreck (The Dufwin)— Portland. 2^Billboard, XXXIX (August 13, 1927), 61. The up ward social mobility which the bulk of Duffy's plays lauded implied that material gain was one's due given hard work— a belief given visual reinforcement by Duffy's scenic embel lishment. 28Variety, LXXXIX (January 4, 1928), 22. 2^Variety, XCV (June 5, 1929), 51, specific refer ence is to Burlesque. 2®Even when The Duffy chain began to disintegrate, eastern producers, specifically The Shuberts, recognized how encompassing was his system which "takes care of the majority of Western production." Billboard, XLII (April 5, 1930), 7, 12. "Duffy Goes Bust," Billboard, XLII (May 24, 1930), 1, 5, said that he was a prime power in the stock rights sales of Broadway successes whereby a large number of Broadway shows were exhibited directly after their eastern engagement in one of his theatres. 8^For example, Billboard, XLI (December 7, 1929), 5, announced that Duffy had purchased the rights to rt 763 Never Rains, agreeing to run the show for a minimum of six teen weeks at $1,000 per week, and the same amount for each additional week. 32Variety, XCIV (February 20, 1929), 1; XCIV (March 6, 1969), 118. 33Variety, XCIX (May 28, 1930), 55. 34Variety, XCII (December 12, 1928) , 48. 35Portland: Variety, XCIV (March 27, 1929), 53. Seattle: Billboard, XLI (January 26, 1929), 4. 36Variety, XCIV (January 3, 1929), 14; XCVIII (Janu ary 29, 1930), 83. Billboard, XLII (February 15, 1930), 29. 3Variety, XCV (June 19, 1929) , 5; XCV (July 3, 1929) , 103; XCIX (June 4, 1930), 70. Billboard XLI (March 30, 1929), 5; XLI (April 13, 1929), 32; XLII (March 29, 1930), 51; XLII (May 31, 1930), 32; XLII (December 6, 1930), 39. 3Variety, XCVI (August 14, 1929), 53; XCIX (May 14, 1930), 63; XCIX (June 11, 1930), 49. 39Variety, XCIX (July 2, 1930), 63. Billboard, XLII (July 5, 1930), 27. 40Billboard, XLII (August 16, 1930), 15. 4Vee Muriel Ann Mouring, "Henry 'Terry' Duffy: The West Coast's Leading Actor-Producer" (unpublished Master's Thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 1929), p. 41. Editorial, Billboard, XLII (June 7, 1930), 42, ex pressed the hope that Duffy could solve his difficulties for the theatre needed his kind of high-caliber production;: XLII (August 23, 1930), 14; XLII (October 18, 1930, 30. 42 Opened June 16, 1930. The Times, July 20, 1930, III, 17-18. 43Mouring, pp. 41-42. 44Ibid., pp. 42-66. He died November 21, 1961. 751 45 The Times, February 15, 1928, II, 8. Lawrence, The Examiner, February 17, 1929, V, 6-9. Winter Horton had operated a small steel plant which had increased its earn ings from $35,000 to $400,000 before he sold it. 46The Times, March 11, 1928, III, 13, 18. 47 A Single Man, Marquis Busby, The Times, March 16, 1928, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, March 16, 1928, II, 4. Variety, XC (March 28, 1928), 53. 48 The Queen's Husband, H. 0. Stechan, California Graphic, May 26, 1928), 13. Busby, The Times, May 21, 1928, II, 7. Patterson Greene, The Examiner, May 21, 1928, II, 4. 49 Spread Eagle, Busby, The Times, June 25, 1928, II, 7. Greene, The Examiner, June 25, 1928, II, 5. 50 Mary's Other Husband, Schallert, The Times, July 16, 1928, II, 14. 51 Clarence, Busby, The Times, August 13, 1928, II, 7. Variety, XCII (September 5, 1928), 62. 52 Arms and the Man, Variety, XCII (September 12, 1928), 51. Schallert, The Times, September 13, 1928, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, September 12, 1928, II, 4. 53 On Approval, Lawrence, The Examiner, October 10, 1928, II, 4. 54 Her Cardboard Lover, Lawrence, The Examiner, November 26, 1928, II, 4. 55 Ibid. Busby, The Times, November 26, 1928, II, 7. 56The Swan, Schallert, The Times, January 21, 1929, II, 7. Greene, The Examiner, January 21, 1929, III, 6. Variety, in reporting gross receipts, made reference to capacity. Cast featured Ralph Forbes, Lois Wilson, Mary Forbes, and Marie Dressier. ^The Times, February 17, 1929, III, 13, 27. 765 C O Variety, XCIII (September 19, 1928), 48. 59 . The Streets of New York, Schallert, The Times, May 6, 1929, II, 7. Lawrence, The Examiner, May 6, 1929, III, 6. 60 Serena Blandish, Scheuer, The Times, June 10, 1929, II, 7. Greene, The Examiner, June 10, 1929, II, 4. 61 The Command Performance, Schallert, The Times, September 28, 1929, II, 9. Gregory Goss, The Examiner, September 28, 1929, I, 8. 62 Among the Married, Schallert, The Times, December 2, 1929, II, 7. Lawrence, The Examiner, December 2, 1929, II, 6. Variety, XCVII (December 25, 1929), 53. 6 3 That serious drama found small place in his repertory is less a comment on his limited theatrical awareness or philosophy than a reality that such plays would have been incompatible with his style. 64 Variety (San Francisco), LXXXIX (November 30, 1927), 52. 65Sex, Variety, XCI (May 9, 1928), 75, 82. Schal lert, The Times, May 1, 1928, II, 11. 66 . Dimensions are taken from drawings in The Los Angeles City Department of Buildings and Safety, dated January 6, 1927. Frequently, the dimensions were not given for the particular area of interest to this writer. There fore, some figures are approximate. 6 7 Pictures are shown in Harris Allen, "A Notable Women's Club House," Pacific Coast Architect, XXXIII (Feb ruary, 1928), 11-27. Architectural Digest, XI (1928), 13-15. "New Ebell Club House Splendid Example of Mediter ranean Type in Architecture," Southwest Builder and Con tractor, LXX (December 23, 1927), 44-46. 68 The Desert Song, Schallert, The Times, December 30, 1927, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, December 30, 1927, II, 4. 766 ^Variety, XC (February 15, 1928), 61. Rental amounted to $5,625, of which $2,500 was still unpaid. 7QVariety, XC (February 22, 1928), 49; XC (February 29, 1928), 53; XC (March 7, 1928), 46. 7^The_Examiner, January 4, 1928, I, 10. Variety, XCIV (February 6, 1929), 61. 70 'The action may have been a transparent disguise to bring Macloon back into production, but Miss Albertson was seriously ill throughout much of 1929. Variety, XCIV (January 30, 1929), 57. 73Variety, XCIV (March 20, 1929), 63. 74Variety,-XCVI (August 7, 1929) , 191. 7 5Variety, XCVII (December 11, 1929), 63; XCVII (December 25, 1929), 51; XCVII (January 1, 1930), 49. Billboard, XLI (December 21, 1929), 5. 7^Variety, XCVIII (January 8, 1930), 113. 77The Times, January 23, 1929, II, 7. Variety, XCIV (March 6, 1929), 50, 115; XCIV (March 13, 1929), 51, also mentions Adolph Ramish as a member of the corporation. TO The Youngest, Schallert, The Times, September 10, 1929, I, 13. Lawrence, The Examiner, September 10, 1929, II, 4. 79 What a Woman Wants, Scheuer, The Times, October 14, 1929, I, 13. 88Billboard, XLII (January 25, 1930), 28. Variety, XCVIII (January 15, 1930), 65. 81Tarnish, Variety, XCIII (December 19, 1928), 42. Schallert, The Times, September 26, 1928, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, September 26, 1928, II, 4. 82 Who?, Critics dismissed it as a dime novel murder story. Gross receipts for one week, at a $2.00 top, amounted to $3,700. 767 Q O °-’ Women Go on Forever,- Variety, XC (March 21, 1928), 66. Schallert, The Times, March 14, 1928, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, March 14, 1928, II, 4. 84Variety, ibid. 85Variety, XCII (August 29, 1928), 55. Q C. A Pair o' Docs, Lawrence, The Examiner, August 23, 1929, II, 6. Busby, The Times, August 23, 1928, I, 11, found the book "very, very sick." 8^Variety, XCIII (November 7, 1928), 48. O p The Hollywood Music Box Revue, Schallert, The Times, December 26, 1928, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, December 26, 192 8, II, 4. 89 Carroll, Lawrence, The Examiner, September 16, 1929, II, 6. Q f ) The "tour" was hardly likely to have been finan cially profitable for the two-week engagement grossed only $7,000. Q 1 Ken-Geki, The Times, June 19, 1928, II, 9. In two weeks, the troupe drew in $6,100. 92Variety. XCV (May 1, 1929), 56. 93Variety, XCIV (March 20, 1929), 78. 94Billboard, XXXVIII (March 20, 1926), 52. 95Variety, XCI (May 16, 1928), 51. Billboard, XL (April 14, 1928), 48. 9 6 The High Road: Harry Mestayer, Montague Shaw, Ann Warrington, Helen Sullivan, Hazel Whitmore, et al. Paris Bound; Whitmore, Creighton Hale, Phil Tead, Henry Hall, et al. 97 The High Road, Schallert, The Times, April 15, 1929, II, 7. Lawrence, The Examiner, April 15, 1929, III, 6. Paris Bound, Scheuer, The Times, June 11, 1929, II, 11. Lathrop, The Los Angeles Evening Express, June 11, 768 1929, p. 23. Hereafter referred to as The Express. 98Billboard, XLI (July 6, 1929), 6; XLI (July 13, 1929), 4. " Billboard, XLI (August 31, 1929) , 6. 100Variety, XCVI (August 14, 1929), 53. Billboard, XLI (Marc h 1, 1930, 28. 8 ^Maternally Yours, Variety, XCVI I (January 1, 1930), 53. Schallert, The Times, December 24, 1929, II, 7. in? Kongo, Busby, The Times, December 26, 1927, II, 11. Greene, The Examiner, December 26, 1927, II, 8. 03Speakeasy, Schallert, March 20, 1928, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, March 20, 1928, II, 4. Its closing was said to have been necessary because of Henry B. Wal thall's film commitments (which were unnamed). The Times, March 27, 1928, II, 11. 104 The Night Hawk, The Times, April 26, 1929, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, April 26, 1929, III, 6. It was sponsored by a cut-rate agency in the city; profits were so small that salaries were paid from the Equity bond. Variety, XCV (April 17, 1929), 55; XCV (May 22, 1929), 55; XCV (June 12, 1929), 56. ~*~^^Come Seven, Scheuer, The Times, August 2, 1929, II, 11. lO^The Passing of the Third Floor Back, Scheuer, The Times, December 3, 1929, II, 11. Gregory Goss, The Examiner, December 3, 1929, II, 6. Variety, XCVII (Janu ary 1, 1930), 49, said the second show closed in one night. See also XCVII (December 18, 1929), 50. 107 Undertow, Schallert, The Times, December 28, 1927, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, December 28, 1927, I, 10. Lathrop, The Express, December 28, 1927, p. 7. Variety, LXXXIX (January 11, 1928), 52, thought that while the play would do with a smart audience a "church element might squawk." 7 W • * - 08Monna Vann a-, ; The Times , • April 24, 1928, said the production was "effective to the tiniest detail," and was marked by outstanding interpretations by the three princi pals . J-O^For the Soul of Rafael, The Times, May 4, 1928, II, 9. • * ~ - * - %otel Imperial, Lawrence, The Examiner, May 24, 1928, I, 12. Variety, XCI (May 23, 1928), 57; XCI (May 20, 1928), 54; XCI (June 13, 1928), 53. ^Window Panes, Schallert, The Times, July 7, 1928, II, 7. Lawrence, The Examiner, July 7, 1928, II, 4. 112The Jazz of Patriotism, The Times, October 16, 1928, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, October 16, 1928, II, 4. It was said to have registered the city's lowest gross on October 23, 1928— $11.00. 113 The Married Virgin, Schallert, The Times, Janu ary 31, 1928, II, 14. Lawrence, The Examiner, January 31, 1928, III, 14. 114 The Bad Woman, Lawrence, The Examiner, January 29, 1929, III, 6. 115 Illiqitimate, Busby, The Times, April 24, 1929, II, 11. 116 Variety, XCV (May 1, 1929), 56; XCV (May 8, 1929), 65; XCV (May 29, 1929), 42. 117 Variety, LXXXIV (October 6, 1926), 80; LXXXVI (February 2, 1927), 41. 118 Variety, LXXXVI (February 16, 1927), 1, 40. Burns Mantle, ed., The Best Plays of 1926-27 (New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1928), pp. vii, 4, 5. The play had been produced by Charles Frohman, Inc., which was controlled by Famous Players-Lasky. Its president, Adolph Zukor, opposed the production and threatened to resign, which his contract prevented. Mantle considered including it in the 1926-27 anthology, many of those whom he had canvassed having cited it among their nominees. T m ■^^Schallert, The Times, March 22, 192 8, I, 13. •^^Lawrence, The Examiner, March 22, 1928, I, 2. ^■2^Lathrop, The Express, March 22, 192 8, p. 12. ^22Schallert, The Times, March 22, 1928, I, 13. 10-3 Lawrence, The Examiner, March 22, 1928, I, 2. 124Lathrop, The Express, March 22, 1928, p. 12. IOC H. O. Stechan, The California Graphic, March 31, 1928, p. 13. 12^Variety, XC (April 4, 1928), 49. 127 . . . Marjorie Driscoll, The Examiner, March 22, 1928, I, 1. Editorial, The Examiner, March 22, 1928, I, 2. Lawrence, The Examiner, March 22, 1928, I, 1. 12 8 The producers had been arrested on Thursday afternoon, March 23, and released on bail. Friday's attempt to stop the show was unsuccessful, but an injunction passed on Friday was revoked the following day and both Saturday performances were stopped and the cast arrested. The audience was turned away on Monday evening. 129 It took four days to select a jury, during which time one of the jurors considered testified that he had lived in the city for twenty-two years, had never been to the theatre, and had seen only two movies— both in his church. Variety, XC (April 11, 1928), 46. The Times, April 19, 1928, II, 1, 2. l in uThe Examiner, April 18, 1928, II, 1; April 19, 1928, I, 1; April 21, 1928, I, 1, 5; April 24, 1928, I, 1, 2. 131 The lease was set variously at twenty years and forty years. Variety, XC (March 14, 1928), 56; XCI (June 27, 1928), 53. 132 Good News, Busby, The Times, May 23, 1928, II, 9. Lawrence, The Examiner, May 23, 1928, II, 4. Variety, 77T XCI (May 30, 1928), 54, said it excelled the New York and Chicago productions. 1 ^ Variety, XCIV (January 23, 1929) , 62. •*~^Let Us Be Gay, Schallert, The Times, May 11, 1929, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, May 11, 1929, I, 6. The Times, May 26, 1929, III, 13. 35Variety, XCV (May 29, 1929), 53. Average gross was only $5,900. •I3^Little Orchid Annie, Variety (quotation) , XCIV (April 10, 1929), 54. Busby, The Times, April 5, 1929, I, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, April 5, 1929, III, 6. Both Wilkes and Macloon had held the rights to it at one time. 137 'Story was built around the Julian Oil Scandal, and District Attorney Asa Keyes's acceptance of bribes. The company ran up and down the aisles, brandished weapons, uttered profanities, etc. Variety, XCIV (March 20, 1929), 67; XCIV (March 27, 1929), 56. TOO The Marriage Bed, Schallert, The Times, October 18, 1928, II, 9, found the unrelieved tone of the play distressing. Lawrence, The Examiner, October 18, 1928, I, 12. •*~^Top o' the Hill, Schallert, The Times, July 9, 1929, II, 9. Lawrence, The Examiner, July 9, 1929, II, 4. Lathrop, The Express, July 9, 1929, p. 12. •^^Oh, Susanna, Schallert, The Times, December 31, 1929, II, 15. Lawrence, The Examiner, December 31, 1929. I, 8. Variety, XCVII (January 8, 1930), 118. •^^Billboard, XL (September 29, 1928), 40. ~^2The Times, September 16, 1928, III, 11; The Examiner, September 16, 1928, V, 9. ~^2The Times, October 28, 1928, III, 14; November 11, 1928, III, 11, 27. 772 144 The Silver Cord, Schallert, The Times, November 20, 1928, II, 1, 11. Lathrop, The Express, November 20, 1928, p. 19, 145 Ibid. both papers. Lawrence, The Examiner, November 20, 1928, II, 4. Company also included Kay Johnson, Jane Altemus, Philip Strange, Phillips Holmep, et al. 146 The Guardsman, Schallert, The Times, January 15, 1929, II, 17. Lathrop, The Express, January 15, 1929, p. 18. Greene, The Examiner, January 15, 1929, III, 6. Company included Doris Lloyd, Claude Fleming, Blanche Frederici, et al. 147 Escape, Schallert, The Times, February 12, 1929, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, February 12, 1929, III, 6. 148 The House of Women, Schallert, The Times, March 6, 1929, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, March 6, 1929, III, 6. 149 Mr. Pirn Passes By, Busby, The Times, April 2, 1929, II, 13. Goss, The Examiner, April 2, 1929, III, 6. Lathrop, The Express, April 2, 1929, p. 14. 150Variety, XCV (April 17, 1928), 68. 151 Schallert, The Times, May 14, 1929, II, 7. 152 Lawrence, The Examiner, May 14, 1929, III, 6. 153 Lathrop, The Express, May 14, 1929, p. 23. 154 Busby, The Times, April 16, 1929, I, 11. 155 Lathrop, The Express, April 17, 1929, p. 11. 156Schallert, The Times, April 23, 1929, II, 11 157 Ned McCobb's Daughter, Schallert, The Times, April 30, 1929, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, April 30, 1929, III, 6. 15 8 John Ferguson, Busby, The Times, May 7, 1929, II, 13. Kenneth Taylor, The Express, May 7, 19 29, p. 23. 773 159 Variety, XCIV (February 20, 1929), 63; XCIV (March 6, 1929), 53. 160Variety, XCV (May 22, 1929), 55. 161 Lawrence, "Let City See Plays Original," The Examiner, May 19, 1929, V, 6, 9. 162Variety, XCV (May 22, 1929), 55. The article does not make clear whether the $68,000 guarantee was for the 4-week Los Angeles engagement alone, or included San Francisco as well. If the latter, then Los Angeles met half of its commitment; if the former, the dent in The Los Angeles Repertory Theatre treasury was extensive. 163 The Times, October 28, 1928, III, 14. 164 Variety, XCIII (December 5, 1928), 10, 44. 165Variety, XCII (October 10, 1928), 61. 16^Variety, XCV (May 22, 1929)> 61. 167 The Times, December 11, 1929, II, 17. 1 6 f i Billboard, LXII (January 25, 1930)., 29. 169 . William H. Cline, The Times, January 26, 1930, III, 14. 170 Variety, XCIX (July 9, 1930), 52. 171 Variety, XCVIII (February 19, 1930), 66. 172 The Times, September 4, 1930, II, 2. 173 The Times, October 31, 1930, I, 6. 174 Excess Baggage, Busby, The Times, March 5, 1928, II, 7. Lawrence, The Examiner, March 5, 1928, II, 4. 175 Tell Me Again, Schallert, The Times, May 16, 1928, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, May 16, 1928, I, 12. Variety, XCI (June 6, 1928), 50; XCII (July 25, 1928), 50. 77? 176 Bad Babies, Scheuer, The Times, August 20, 1929, I, 11. The Examiner, August 20, 1929, I, 12. 177 Variety, XCVI (September 4, 1929) , 58. 17 8 The Times, January 28, 1930, II, 1; February 1, 1930, II, 2. Variety, XCIX (May 28, 1930), 48. 179 Moon Madness, Muriel Babcock, The Times, October 3, 1929, II, 9. The Examiner, October 3, 1929, II, 6. Variety, XCVII (November 13, 1929), 65; XCVII (December II, 1929), 6. 180 Lathrop, The Express, August 20, 1929, p. 17. 18Variety, XCVII (December 11, 1929), 63. TOO....... The Times, April 13, 1928, II, 11; December 9, 1928, III, 13, 24; February 5, 1929, II, 11. 183 Marvin Kirschman, "A Historical Study of the Belasco Theatre and the Forces That Shaped Its History: 1927-1933" (unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of Southern California, 1971), p. 173. 184 Saturday's Children, The Road to Rome— 1926- 1927; The Racket, The Royal Family, Coquette— 1927-1928; The Front Page— 1928-1929. 185 Kirschman explored this aspect at length, op. cit., pp. 130 cf. 186 The Front Page, Schallert, The Times, December 31, 1928, II, 7. Lawrence, The Examiner, December 31, 1928, I, 8. 187 The Squall, Schallert, The Times, September 24, 1928, II, 7. Lawrence, The Examiner, September 24, 1928, II, 7. LuluBelle, Schallert, The Times, October 8, 1929, II, 11, called it dynamic entertainment, although he had wondered why a play like The Squall had been inflicted upon California. Variety, XCVII (November 6, 1929), 61. 188 The Scarlet Woman, Busby, The Times, March 6, 1928, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, March 6, 1928, I, 775 12. Muriel Elwood, Pauline Frederick (Chicago: A. 1940), pp. 155-58. 189The Racket, Schallert, The Times, April 17, 1928, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, April 17, 1928, II, 4. 190The Royal Family, Schallert, The Times, October 30, 192 8, II, 9. Lawrence, The Examiner, October 30, 1928, I, 12. •^•^Mid-Channel, Busby, The Times, September 4, 1928, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, September 4, 1928, II, 6. "•"The Queen was in the Parlour, Schallert, The Times, November 12, 1929, II, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, November 12, 1929, II, 4. The Examiner, November 19, 1929, II, 4, said Miss Frederick owned the rights. 193The Pirate, Schallert, The Times, April 16, 1929, I, 11. Lawrence, The Examiner, April 16, 1929, III, 6. Variety, XCV (April 24, 1929), 47. Kirschman, op. cit., pp. 187-89. •*-^Night Hostess, Schallert, The Times, May 13, 1929, II, 7. Lawrence, The Examiner, May 13,

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

A Survey And Analysis Of Current Attitudes Toward Censorship Of The Legitimate Theatre In The United States

PDF

South Coast Repertory, 1963-1972: A Case Study

PDF

A History Of Theatrical Activity In Fresno, California, From Its Beginnings In 1872 To The Opening Of The White Theatre In 1914

PDF

An Analytical Study Of Structure, Characterization, And Language In Selected Comedies By Philip Barry

PDF

A History Of The Development Of Professional Theatrical Activity In Los Angeles, 1880-1895

PDF

A Historical Study Of The Characteristics Of Acting During The Restoration Period In England (1660-1710)

PDF

A History Of The Los Angeles Greek Theatre Under The Management Of James A. Doolittle And The Los Angeles Greek Theater Association, 1952-1969: The Professional Theatre Producer As A Lessee Of C...

PDF

A Critical Study Of The Influence Of The Classical And Christian Traditions Upon The Character Of The Hero As Revealed Through The Concepts Of 'Love' And 'Honor' In Three Restoration Heroic Tragedies

PDF

The interaction of Los Angeles theater and society between 1895 and 1906: a case study

PDF

A Historical Study Of The Belasco Theatre In Los Angeles And The Forces That Shaped Its History: 1927-1933

PDF

Becket's chameleon character: an analytical study of the universal appeal of Thomas Becket's dramatic character

PDF

The Paradox And The Grotesque In The Work Of Friedrich Duerrenmatt

PDF

A Critical Study Of Murngin Dramatic Ritual Ceremonies And Their Social Function

PDF

A Critical Analysis Of The Nature Of Plot Construction And Characterization In Representative Plays Of Harold Pinter

PDF

A Critical Examination Of The Works Of Clifford Odets According To A Psychoanalytic Criterion

PDF

A Re-Evaluation Of The Major Works Of George Kelly

PDF

"The Ramona Pageant": A Historical And Analytical Study

PDF

The Nature And Significance Of The Father In The Plays Of Eugene O'Neill

PDF

A Historical Study Of Oliver Morosco'S Long-Run Premiere Productions In Los Angeles, 1905-1922

PDF

A Historical Study Of The Origins Of The Persian Passion Plays

Asset Metadata

Creator Bokar, Camille Naomi Rezutko (author)

Core Title An historical study of the legitimate theatre in Los Angeles: 1920-1929 and its relation to the national theatrical scene

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Communication (Drama)

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag OAI-PMH Harvest,Theater

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Advisor Butler, James H. (committee chair), Malone, David H. (committee member), Stahl, Herbert M. (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c18-872088

Unique identifier UC11364513

Identifier 7400906.pdf (filename),usctheses-c18-872088 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 7400906

Dmrecord 872088

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Bokar, Camille Naomi Rezutko

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA