Actorviews (1923)

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160 Actorviews was a boy,” says Warfield, with a tortoise-rimmed twinkle. And, just between you and me, he would rather talk of the yesterday when he was a First Usher than of the now when he is a First Actor. But you and I have had him before in that fond and ancient role. “Now,” he said, “if I were to announce that next month, say, I would appear as Othello, it would create a little stir, possibly, among the theatrical writers. And the public would stay away from Powers Theater in great flocks.” “The box office invariably tells an actor what he shall and shall not play?’ I asked — not too ironically. “Invariably,” Mr. Warfield answered. “The public is the real manager of an actor, just as the public is the real editor of a newspaper. It’s folly, not to mention presumption, for an editor or an actor to pretend to be better than his ‘circulation.’ If men like me acted only what they wanted to have acted, and men like you printed only what they wanted to see in print, we’d have to have Fortunatus’ magic purse to keep open a theater and get out a paper. It’s our business — and it ought to be our art and pleasure — to give the public what it wants. “Oh, I know you hate that phrase — ‘what the public wants’! But who remembers even the names of the brilliant, art-arty publications that failed because they didn’t interest the public, or the actors that were too good for the regular, everyday drama of their day? Duse was the greatest actor of her day — bar none. And when she gave up drama for D’Annunzio what happened? She made the most