Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1936)

I Love Being A Movie Star's Husband [ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 23 ] Two people very much in love work out their common destiny. It was her husband's tireless faith that first brought Gladys' voice to the screen As'aids in making a romantic impression on a particular young lady these forms of hirsute adornment are thoroughly useless.) That meeting in Italy was a pretty casual one and it was not until nearly a year later that we met again. The second time I went backstage to congratulate Miss Swarthout on her amazingly tul debut as the blind mother in "Gioconda" — and let me say here that mezzosopranos get almost as bad breaks as baritones when it comes to make-up. The third meeting was again backstage — this time after my New York debut in "Faust" with the American Opera Company. I won't vouch for the authenticity of the statement that I wore the most luxuriant crop of whiskers ever seen on a Valentine since before the days when the Metropolitan was known as the Faustspielhaus, but having seen some costume stills, I can assure you that I was a pretty fairly repulsive looking object. Our fourth and possibly most important meeting — remember now I am talking about the S( AE, Inc., and its formation and not the Chapmans — was a few months later when we were both engaged to sing on the same concert program. This engagement necessitated the learning of a duet, in fact a couple of dui I think it was probably during these rehearsals that the seeds were sown which eventually resulted in the formation of the partnership. For some time after this life followed its normal course for both of us. "Normal" is a pretty unexciting word to apply to what was really going on, for Gladys Swarthout was establishing herself as one of the outstanding American singers through her performances with the Metropolitan, in concert and on the radio, and Frank Chapman was whipping up a very good trade in concert and radio, with an occasional opera appearance around the country, as well as fifteen perfectly swell weeks doing a single on the Keith Circuit. During this time the two future partners saw quite a lot of each other, for New York's musical crowd revolves around an axis with a comparatively limited circumference. It was very rarely, however, that we had .1 . ham e to 94 be together without a crowd around us and it was on one of those rare occasions, when we were lunching in what is now our favorite restaurant, that I suggested it might be a very admirable idea indeed if we got married. The idea, although broached for the first time, seemed to meet with approval, and so we were married. INSTEAD of that being the end of my story, 'it is the beginning, for within a very few days we called a meeting at which Mr. and Mrs. Frank Michler Chapman, Jr., were present. After a very careful scrutiny of the immediately salable assets of the two, a definite course of action was decided upon. We had on the one hand a very beautiful young lady with a lovely voice, a fine career at the Metropolitan just in its inception, a faithful public scattered pretty well around the country and, as a result, an almost unique position. On the other hand, we found we had a comparatively young American baritone just beginning a career in this country but with certain experience in publicity work, law, and business, so the decision was not a difficult one to reach. "Let's," said I, "take this commodity which has already a very definite and ascertainable value in the minds of the music buying public and combine it with the knowledge of publicity, law, and theater, and see if with the combination of the two we can't make a profitable concern out of the combination, and at the same time, give a certain amount of pleasure to an increasingly large number of people." Mrs. Chapman stayed Mrs, Chapman for a long time during this meeting. "Thai is all right," she said, •'but what about your own career? You love to sing better than anything else in the world and your suggestion makes no provision for that." "Well, Mrs. Chapman," T replied — this was a formal meeting you remember — "I am afraid I must be brutally frank. The career of a female singer is. in these days, rather short, for the public demands youth and beauty and freshness. On the other hand baritones, like good wine, get more flavor with age, and when you are ready to quit your career I'll be just ready to go ahead." The lady, still being Mrs. Chapman entered a demurrer, "But you are not going to enjoy your life at all. You must sing." "All right," said I, "I am going to sing. I never said that I was going to quit, but my singing must remain as a subsidiary to the main business of SCAE, Inc." "What's that?" she asked. So I explained and I think that she was so fascinated by this high-sounding official cognomen that it caused her capitulation and she agreed to enter into the partnership > under the conditions I had laid down. Right here is as good a place as any to point out, once and for all, that I am not Gladys Swarthout's manager. My official position is chairman of the board of directors of SCAE, Inc., the president of the corporation is Gladys Swarthout and the board of directors, over which I preside, is composed of Gladys and Frank Chapman. Now I don't want you to get confused over a mere matter of nomenclature and to start wondering just how a partnership can be a corporation or vice versa — the name of the partnership is Swarthout, Chapman Amusement Enterprises, Inc., and that's that — and whether it is good business form or not, anyhow, at present writing, it is a going concern. The first year we felt our way rather cautiously, for it takes a little time to put any business on a paying basis. The singing partner completed her season at the Metropolitan and went on concert tour, and when she returned from that tour she had her tonsils out. That was the first big decision that the chairman of the board had to make and I can only pray that I never have to make such a ticklish one again. As a matter of record, two weeks from the day the offending organs were removed the partners did a full hour's radio show together and you can believe me when I tell you that the sigh of relief which I heaved when that program came to a highly successful conclusion weighed considerably more than any load of coal ever heaved. W/F look back at that summer with a feeling W 0f unbelief — there was a stretch of three whole weeks when we had no professional enment. Since then we have never had more than eighteen consecutive free days, and that \ at at ion was stolen last winter when we simply sneaked off to Nassau, leaving everything in the highly capable hands of our secretary. The next period of development brought no new professional activities for the partnership. The president did her full season at the Metropolitan and a couple of concert tours, while the chairman did one concert tour and a few radio engagements. Then we both went to Central City, Colorado, where we played in "The Merry Widow."