Phantom Fingers
Chapter I
The Grand Theatre is one of the oldest in New York. It is peopled by the ghosts of thirty, forty and fifty years ago. This theater is a ramshackle and tremendous place with two balconies, as they used to build them then. It was opened by a play in which the great Constance Daly, now forgotten by everyone but the real old-timers, was starred. She was then at the height of her fame, and it was said that Ambrose Benedict had built this theater expressly for her. There was much more gossip at the time, of course, but it is well not to go too heavily into that at this time. It may come up again, however.
Occasionally a feature film goes into it now, but otherwise its seats are covered with dust and its stage is dark. In the far corners of the very large stage, against the exposed brick of the back walls, lean rickety sets, painted walls for hovels and gilded walls for living rooms, drops with street scenes painted on them in which the men wear tight pants and the women long skirts and hair, a canvas forest in which the tremendous numbers of William Shakespeare have resounded, some red plush furniture that no one has ever claimed;
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