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SHOWMAN
ahead. Charles Frohman, already a prominent New York manager, was sending his production of ''She," starring William Gillette, west on tour. It was a tremendous thing— hundreds of people— trains of scenery —our little half-pint production would look like thirty cents in comparison. We were going east— they were coming west. Our paths would cross at St. Paul, where we played the week before they did. St. Paul would be the battleground, and that is no idle figure of speech. Presently we heard from our advance man that Frohman's man was already in St. Paul preparing to ' 'slough" us— that is, bury us under an avalanche of advertising or belittle us until the public would think we weren't worth seeing. I installed my understudy in my place in the cast and did a Sheridan's Ride to St. Paul. As soon as the train had stopped, I started inquiring for Frohman's man— fellow named McGeachey. They said he was up in the composing room of one of the newspapers. I chased up there, fifteen flights of stairs, and found him laying out an advertisement for next day's paper— very interesting reading for me it was. "Pay no attention," it said, "to the small barnstorming Brady company composed of only eight members—" it was
really "and reinforced by supers collected along
the byways and hedges—" we got our supers exactly the same way Frohman did— "Brady is a cheat and a faker and has no right to produce the play, as the sole right has been conveyed to Mr. Frohman by Mr. Haggard." As a matter of legal fact, Haggard had never
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