The theatre of science; a volume of progress and achievement in the motion picture industry (1914)

144 Ci)e CI)eatre proach of similar conditions in filmdom wherein the writer hopes to establish a clarified viewpoint for those whom such conditions might influence. Mrs. Langtry never attracted a paying audience to an American playhouse after she accepted $2,500 a week in vaudeville. May Irwin was wont to pack theatres all over the country, but from the very day that she accepted $2,500 a week in vaudeville — and for a very few weeks, too — her vogue, even in New York City, as a legitimate star declined ; and this, too, in the face of the known fact that her last play was her best. Not one grand opera star who appeared in vaudeville through necessity or convenience ever found the public or the managers receptive thereafter. Tavary, Mantelli, Del Puente, Italo Campanini, Suzanne Adams, Zelie De Lussan, and a dozen others not only had short careers in vaudeville, but they never again faced the public in the field where they earned their fame in America. Strangely enough, v/hile the great Bernhardt added nothing to her prestige through her advent in filmdom, her vaudeville triumph was unequivocal— an amazing illustration of an extraordinary woman and an unapproachable artiste. Because the subject is a little removed from the basic theme of the current volume, the writer is reluctant to embrace it to the extent that he feels the present theatrical conditions warrant ; but if the above statements serve to provide incentive for a greater discernment in seeking a change of artistic environment, the effort will not have been in vain. Nor is there any reason why the gentlemen who control the destiny of modern vaudeville should resent the writer's views in this allimportant matter ; they know that the majority of their "Monday acts" (meaning stars who sell their fame as