VOL. XXXVII
FEBRUARY, 1905
MAGAZINE”
See elicits AND THE STARS OF: BROADWAY By John Corbin
ANCAACNAIGHTS that extinguish the us 6 Zee): Sp stars—the earth is full of S BSYZ them! In the play world of x Broadway, the south pues ‘ Lj: ANS which is the Flatiron Build- EES | ing and the north pole, the tower of the Times, the electrical signboards assail the sight with a glare that blinds the soul, as the candle flame blinds the moth flitting crazily aboutit. What if the plays in the theatres are worse written and worse acted than in any other country! The cavernous maws beneath those blazing boards nightly suck in throngs of amuse- ment seekers vaster than in any other of the world’s thoroughfares. Overhead the gelid lights of heaven flash like diamonds. But the man in the trolley sees only the burst of terrestrial lustre enticing him to the Girl from Here or There; the sight of the lady in the cab is fixed by the emblazoned name of an actor of the kind called stars.
I
THE fate of the drama lies in the souls of the men and women in the audience, as the fate of a jest lies in the ear that hearsit. At first glance the Broadway public seems both varied andinclusive. Thisis theland of the common school and the commoner dollar. Nowhere is wealth so easily and so generally attained, and nowhere is love of amusement, and curiosity as to the world of men and women, so wide-spread and so keen. On the one side the theatres draw their audiences from the vast world of Fifth Avenue, open and splendid, the
Copyright, 1905, by Charles Scribner’s Sons.
VoL. XXXVII.—17
sinews of which receive their strength from the latest turn in Wall Street, and the spirit of which is of new elegance. But they depend perhaps even more on the world on the other side—the Tenderloin, dark and mysterious, yet open to everyone who pur- sues the will-o’-the-wisp of the flesh, and ex- cluding no one who has money in his purse.
Varied and inclusive the Broadway pub- lic seems, but is there in reality so much difference between Fifth Avenue and the Tenderloin? In many places the two meet even if they do not mingle—in the great restaurants, at the races, and here in the shrines of dramatic art; and in all the ob- ject of pursuit is the same—some new sen- sation to quicken a pulse that is dulled in the pursuit of money and pleasure. Both are for the most part too newly learned to care for simple art, too jaded to wrestle in the theatre with the drama of ideas or of
great tragicemotions. The gods of the par-
quet of to-day are the gods of the gallery of yesterday, and the heart and mind of the playgoer is much the same, whether shift- ing uneasily on the hard and elevated bench or reposing in the embrace of a padded orchestra chair. Fifth Avenue and the Tenderloin alike delight most in ragtime showgirls and the thrill of crude theatric sensations.
But what of the educated public, the product of established leisure, of university and foreign travel? Surely it is cultivated enough to love the sensuous side of dra- matic art without stooping to sensuality, and robustly intelligent enough to find joy in grappling with the great problems of life and death! No doubt! But the tra-
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