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of a dreamer." Whether Grau, a well-known theatrical figure of his day, was entirely apt, I feel that he was nearer the mark than later historians who spoke of me as cold. Grau had occasionally listened to me hold forth on that subject. His reproduction is overformal, but I will borrow a quotation.
"Think of what we would have today if moving pictures had been invented five hundred years ago," Grau quoted me as saying. "Consider how history would have been enriched, how facilities of education would have been improved. Think how intimately all the great figures in stage history— Shakespeare, David Garrick, Kemble, Macready, Edwin Forrest, Rachel— would be revealed to us. The light of their genius would be imperishable and shine as brightly for us today as it did in the heyday of their glorious careers. What a difference that would make to humanity. If we can give future generations what we of the present have missed, I shall be more than satisfied."
Use of such flowery language would have caused a bad evening for me at Shanley's, with master ribbers like Marcus Loew and Sam Bernard at hand. Yet this was the way my mind was working, and one night I hit upon a name which expressed my ideas. It came to me while I was riding home on the subway. My brain was tired and consequently I jotted it down on the back of an envelope. Trouble was that next morning I couldn't read my handwriting.
Later, after mental jogging and study, I was able to make it out. The name was "Famous Players in Famous Plays."