7 -t> 
 
a 
 
 i 
 
 % 
 
 i 
 
» 
 
 'Dedicatory 
 
 The Founders and Builders of the Selwyn-Harris Thea- 
 tres, mindful of the present greatness of Chicago, and with 
 unlimited faith in its future, dedicate to the pleasure of 
 its people these new playhouses. The Twin Theatres, finest 
 in America, are the fulfillment of an ideal, built of a desire 
 to give to the people of this Wonder City, to their children 1 
 and their children's children, two perfect temples of the 
 seven arts of the stage. It is the wish of the owners that 
 these theatres may be permanent seats of entertain- 
 ment of the highest quality, and that in them may J 
 ever be found that which delights with fancy and 
 instructs with truth, which relieves 
 its cares, and colors with romance 
 humdrum existence of every 
 With this high aim the Twin 
 were conceived; to this great 
 are they dedicated. 
 
 
 
 
 
 vuii'j'iy/j 
 
 
ON 
 
 4-J 
 
 -f- 
 
 (H 
 
 g 
 
 ■I— 1 
 
 CO 
 
 c 
 'E 
 
 :- 
 
 c 
 
 -C 
 
 -13 
 O 
 
 a 
 
 in 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 u 
 jEi 
 U 
 
"For the Glory of Chicago 
 
 55 
 
 By 0. L. HALL 
 
 (Dramatic Editor of the Chicago Journal) 
 
 THERE is nothing in the growth of a city which 
 arouses livelier interest or creates a greater thrill 
 than the dedication of a new playhouse. A 
 theater is more than a place of entertainment; it is a 
 seat of community pride. The charm of a city is 
 measured, by the stranger within its gates, by the 
 volume and quality of entertainment he may find in it, 
 and a city's maturity is gauged by the fondness of its 
 people for harmless and exhilarating play and by their 
 ability to promote and support the means of gratifying 
 that fondness. 
 
 The theater is the most nearly perfect institution 
 yet devised for the entertainment of mankind. It has 
 existed for thousands of years — almost from the begin- 
 ning of civilization — and has endured, unaltered in 
 purpose, though constantly enriched in means, from 
 the time when man first found delight in observing 
 himself copied, flattered or ridiculed by other men 
 having the actor's gift. 
 
 The city that would justify its claim to greatness 
 points not to its trade balances, but to the capacity of 
 its people for the enjoyment of life. This capacity is 
 evidenced by comfortable homes, clean streets, great 
 park areas, by libraries, museums and art galleries, but 
 it is evidenced by nothing more than by the number 
 and beauty of its theaters. Nothing gives to a city finer 
 
 distinction than the possession of a group of attractive 
 playhouses. The stage is indispensable to the welfare 
 of any community. 
 
 If the dedication of a theater is an event of recog- 
 nized importance in the life of a community, the simul- 
 taneous dedication of two playhouses, twin temples of 
 the most democratic of the arts, is an event to stir the 
 imagination. Here, side by side, have arisen two 
 splendid buildings to attest the faith of famous showmen 
 in the future greatness of Chicago. The Selwyn and 
 Harris theaters represent a rare and lovely gift to an 
 appreciative public. They represent more than at first 
 glance may be seen, for they are a measure of the 
 esthetic rather than of the material growth of the city. 
 
 The owners of these theaters, the Messrs. Selwyn 
 and Sam H. Harris, in bestowing their gift upon Chicago, 
 are generous beyond example. From the time when, 
 in October, 1837, Harry Isherwood and Alexander 
 MacKenzie introduced the drama here at the Sauganash 
 theater, through all the years of the amazing progress of 
 this wonder city, no manager or group of managers has 
 performed a single act of generosity equalling that of 
 the Messrs. Selwyn and Mr. Harris. 
 
 The theatrical history of Chicago may be written 
 more easily in names than in dates and events. Some 
 are the names of men now living, and failure to list 
 
 O. L. Hall, one of America's lealing authorities on the Theatre 
 
them here does not detract from the value of their serv- 
 ices. Many names shine brightly in the eighty-five 
 years of managerial history of the local stage, and there 
 is not a man in the long line who would not be proud 
 tonight to stand sponsor for these new playhouses. 
 John B. Rice, James H. McVicker, Richard Hooley, 
 John A. Hamlin, J. H. Haverly, Frank E. Aiken, W. B. 
 Clapp, C. E. Kohl, Will J. Davis — one can not write 
 the history of the Chicago stage without naming them. 
 They were valiant fighters for the glory of the growing 
 city and helped to spread its fame. 
 
 The formal opening of the Selvvyn and Harris 
 theaters is an event outshining any single achievement 
 of those respected pioneers. The Messrs. Selwyn and 
 Mr. Harris are likewise makers of history, as well as 
 builders and operators of playhouses. 
 
 They know well what they are doing. They have 
 long occupied positions in the front rank of American 
 producers of theatrical entertainment. They have held 
 to a high plane of activity and have made enviable 
 reputations as courageous, energetic, high-minded 
 managers. They have sought to make their names 
 trade-marks of excellence. By producing the best ob- 
 tainable plays they have merited and found prosperity, 
 and out of the success of their numerous and varied 
 enterprises have grown these two handsome playhouses. 
 
 In the case of theaters, as much as with human 
 beings, handsome is as handsome does. To what pur- 
 poses these houses will be given is amply indicated by 
 the past and present interests of the owners. In their 
 activities they passed long ago the stage of experiment 
 and doubt. They have been strong defenders of native 
 drama and have aided many a playwright to find his 
 public, but they have given evidence of an equal interest 
 
 in the drama of every land when it has been suitable for 
 American audiences. 
 
 It is notable that two countries should supply the 
 dedicatory plays for the Selwyn and Harris theaters; 
 England provides "The Circle" for one stage, America 
 gives "Six-Cylinder Love" to the other. These are 
 plays^believed to be representative of the nations which 
 furnish them. Plans for the further use of these theaters 
 include the exploitation, under the very best conditions, 
 of drama and comedy of the highest quality. 
 
 Even as the Selwyn and Harris theaters are orna- 
 ments to the city in an architectural sense, so will they 
 be, their owners are determined, a credit to the city as 
 places of pleasure. Inasmuch as the names of the 
 Messrs. Selwyn and Mr. Harris have a definite meaning 
 to American "playgoers from one coast to the other, it 
 was a happy thought that their names should be given 
 to their theaters in this mid-continental metropolis. 
 
 It may be taken for granted that effort to achieve 
 perfection in the conduct of these playhouses will not 
 be relaxed now that the important task of opening them 
 has been so successfully accomplished. What is well 
 begun is half done, but there is ever still something to 
 do. All that is required to be done to keep these 
 theaters among the very best in America will be done. 
 The vast resources of two great producing firms and of 
 their allies are at the command of these new houses. 
 
 Chicago gives glad welcome to the Selwyn and 
 Harris, to their owners, to Mr. Crosby Gaige, who was 
 chiefly instrumental in promoting the construction of 
 the theaters; to all who will be concerned in their 
 operation, and to the long succession of players who 
 will find these stages -ideal for their purposes. 
 
When Show Business Claimed 
 
 Crosby Gaige, the Profession 
 
 Gained a Real Genius 
 
 By PAUL SWEINHART 
 
 THE USUAL road to a high place in 
 the theatrical world is along the 
 vividly colored highway of publicity 
 with trumpets right and trumpets left, 
 trumpets fore and trumpets aft. Few 
 there are who have reached the heights of 
 affluence and station without the aid of 
 brass band tactics. 
 
 And yet once in a while an exception 
 is found that, through its rarity, stands 
 out like a New York show girl on a hick 
 town street, an exception that proves 
 success of the biggest measure can lie 
 gained even in the world of make-believe 
 without the aid of the tom-tom. 
 
 Illustrative of that point is Crosby 
 Gaige of Selwyn & Co. whom Sol Bloom, 
 hair-trigger theatrical real estate operator, 
 once said was "the greatest financial 
 genius of the show business." Which is 
 some compliment when one takes into 
 account that Lee Shubert, H. H. Frazee, 
 "Larry" Weber and several others would 
 pass any Edisonian test imaginable were 
 it composed entirely of questions relating 
 to the juggling about of millions on paper. 
 The record of Gaige, however, shows that 
 he has little to fear from comparison with 
 any of them. 
 
 Crosby Gaige was born to get ahead 
 in the theatrical or any other field; that is, 
 he was not born in New York City. If he 
 had been, the chances are that he would be 
 a wise-cracking sort of individual who 
 could tell you the location of every cabaret 
 in the city, but who would be working as 
 a clerk in a broker's office and dreaming of 
 shooting Indians in the streets of Detroit. 
 Instead, he began the first scene of his life drama in 
 an up-State town thirty-nine years ago and liked it 
 so well, that he remained there until it was time 
 for him to go away to school. 
 
 The entrance into school of any lad is an important 
 event in his life, for it marks the point at which father 
 and mother begin to shape him for a world beater. 
 And the heads of the Gaige family did not neglect 
 their duty, for they decided that the young hopeful 
 of the household should become a lawyer, with, of 
 course, the honors of Congressman, Senator and pos- 
 sibly the Presidency of the United States to follow. 
 Young Crosby thought pretty well of the plan, 
 although his thoughts were more in the direction of 
 being attorney in a big murder trial where mystery 
 and crime stalked hand in hand through every sitting 
 of the honorable court. Therefore, it was with great 
 avidity that he began the studies which carried him 
 through a small up-State seminary and finally matric- 
 ulated him at Columbia University in 1899. 
 
 CROSBY GAIGE 
 
 Hut one of the unscheduled courses that almost 
 every college has is that of conducting the college 
 paper and, strange to say, most every boy in college 
 wants to take just that course. Gaige was no excep- 
 tion and was soon employed on that Columbia 
 Spectator — as an office-boy. When he had acquired 
 all the tricks of that trick position, however, he was 
 promoted to a higher position and so kept climbing 
 until he was editor of that journal of scholastic com- 
 ment and observation. He liked the idea of the work, 
 too, and in a short time was serving news about the 
 freshies, sophs and anybody else around the campus 
 to the Times and other daily newspapers. 
 
 It was while thus employed that young Gaige 
 made the acquaintance of Roi Cooper Megrue. who 
 has since made some grand little name tor himself, 
 and together they became the victims of a dire college 
 disease; they wanted to write the college play. Their 
 friends remonstrated with them and they themselves 
 (Continued on page eight) 
 
CROSBY GAIGE ALWAYS SEES TO IT 
 THAT HIS TASKS ARE WELL DONE 
 
 (Continued from page six) 
 didn't know what il was all about. But the virus was 
 working and once they were given permission they 
 chucked all their books out of the window, figurative- 
 ly speaking, and set to work with a firm conviction 
 that Clyde Fitch didn't know the half of playwright- 
 ing anjd the Broadway musical comedy manufacturers 
 wouldj never realize how little they knew of their craft 
 until tjie next Columbia play appeared. They divided 
 the work up between them, with Megrue doing the 
 book, 'Gaige the lyrics and another chap the music. 
 Heavy were the bills lor midnight electricity, sleepy 
 were the days that followed, but, after due course, 
 "The Isle of Illusia" was finished, staged and pro- 
 duced] and the trio that had turned it out were hailed 
 as masters about the campus. 
 
 Bijt college plays, while they are long on glory, 
 don't bring much "dough," as they say in the show 
 business and, with their spurs thus won, Gaige and 
 Megrue began looking for new worlds to conquer. 
 They did not hover into sight very quickly though, 
 and the youngsters had very healthy appetites, which 
 soon forced them to pay a little attention to the re- 
 plenishment of their bank accounts. 
 
 This decision on their part turned them both into 
 what night be called, through a long stretch of the 
 imagination, restaurateurs. The name is unimpor- 
 tant, but the work was very much otherwise, for 
 they undertook to feed the 2,000 students that were 
 then at Columbia, which means 2,000 appetites four 
 timeslas great as that of the average man. Every 
 morning Megrue and Gaige would go to their steward 
 and lay out what was to be the menu for the following 
 day and then see that it was prepared and served in a 
 style 'befitting Columbia and the stomachs of their 
 patrons. If either Gaige or Megrue should ever go 
 brokej they could at once start a restaurant and run 
 it as Efficiently as any Greek. 
 
 It [was while serving luncheon one day, however, 
 that the big turning point in their careers arrived, for 
 they chanced upon a book entitled "The Lieutenant 
 Governor" which after they had both read it, they 
 decided would make a good play. So they went to 
 Miss Elizabeth Marbury, then in the play brokerage 
 business, and asked if they could dramatize it. 
 Wheeling 'round in her chair, Miss Marbury, who 
 might now be called "the Charles Murphy of the 
 women voters of New York State, " said certainly 
 with one breath and with another asked them how 
 they would like to become play readers for her at $5.00 
 per week each. And right there two young men rose 
 up from their seats and said, "When do I commence 
 work? " 
 
 Now, play reading and restauranting do not make 
 a very good combination, although Megrue used to 
 do the reading in the forenoon and Gaige in the 
 afternoon, the off member supervising the mess-hall 
 requirements during the rest of his day. 
 
 The scheme did not work out well, however, and, 
 after a bit, Megrue quit college altogether and joined 
 the Marbury office, Gaige going into the office of 
 Alice Kauser some time afterward. In both places 
 they got good training in what a play should be, how- 
 it should be produced and all the other details of 
 production, for both Miss Marbury and Miss Kauser 
 knew show business down to the first principles. 
 
 Some years later Gaige met Archie and Edgar 
 Selwyn, and when they told him that they were start- 
 ing a play brokerage office, he said, "I'm with you," 
 right on the spot and moved into their offices in the 
 Knickerbocker Theatre Building. Later, when Edgar 
 began to write, he bought an interest in the firm that 
 has never been relinquished. 
 
 Through the succeeding years, during which 
 Selwyn and Company became producers, Gaige 
 devoted more and more of his time to the financial 
 affairs of the firm and it is through his management 
 of the intricate problems that arise in such work that 
 he won the admiration of the real estate operator 
 referred to before. 
 
 When Selwyn and Company began the acquiring 
 of theatres, it was Gaige who executed most of the 
 deals and it was under his supervision that the Selwyn, 
 the Apollo and the Times Square have come to grace 
 West Forty-second street in New York and the Twin 
 Theatres in Chicago. His was the eye that planned 
 them, arranged their finances and watched them 
 slowly rise to completion, and all who have visited 
 them know how well the task was done. Gaige has a 
 complete knowledge of a theatre, whether it be as to 
 what color scheme would be best for the ceiling or, 
 whether their should be six or eight star dressing 
 rooms backstage. 
 
 Outside of the theatre, Crosby Gaige is interested 
 in farming, having a 200-acre farm in Westchester 
 county, where he breeds Guernsey cattle; in books, 
 for which he scours the world; in pictures, for which 
 he searches likewise. He is a member of the Union 
 League Club of New York and the Graphic of London. 
 When he has nothing else to do, he plays golf. 
 
 Despite these many activities, however, very little 
 is ever heard of Crosby Gaige as a theatrical man, 
 for while not possessing a dislike for publicity, he is 
 not of the temperament that seeks it. Here and 
 there, in a transfer of property or the forming of a 
 new corporation, his name will crop out. But even 
 these instances are rare, by reason of the fact that 
 dummies are generally used. 
 
 Show business might be divided into classes — one 
 consisting of promoters and producers, and the other 
 of business men. Crosby Gaige belongs to the latter, 
 which is the foundation and rock bottom of the 
 theatrical world, although the spotlight seldom 
 glimmers upon anyone so connected. However, with 
 a 200-acre farm in Westchester, and the endorsement 
 of Sol Bloom, he should worrv. 
 
Sam Harris and the 3 "T's" 
 
 The life story of a man who will not let any- 
 thing get in the way of his sense of humor. 
 
 By BERNARD SOBEL 
 
 L\TE! Sam H. Harris was late. It was 
 twelve o'clock and he was due 
 -'promptly for this interview; but, con- 
 trary to arrangements, he did not appear. 
 The minutes passed by determinedly. The 
 office force apologized repeatedly and pro- 
 fusely. Yet the truth could not be 
 concealed: Mr. Sam. H. Harris was late. 
 
 Finally, after at least a twenty-minute 
 tardiness, he walked in cheerfully and 
 announced in very clear tones: 
 
 "I am not at all sorry because I am 
 late. " Then he rubbed his hands together, 
 briskly as if he were warming himself 
 before a cozy fireplace. 
 
 "I beg your pardon," I stuttered, con- 
 fused. "Did you say that you were not 
 sorry because — 
 
 "Exactly. I came in late on purpose. 
 I wanted to prove to you, once and for all 
 time, that I am not the kind of man who 
 lives by a code of popular proverbs. 
 Popular proverbs are injurious to humor, 
 and positively I will not let anything 
 get in the way of my sense of humor. 
 Successful men, of course, are always 
 supposed to follow rules like 'Early to 
 bed and early to rise,' but I never do. 
 What success I have had, I made by being 
 natural, having my little joke, and working 
 like sixty. 
 
 "I believe that the fellow with a 
 sense of humor is a lucky man, for humor 
 means more than money. It is the best 
 'prop' in times of adversity and doubt. 
 When George M. Cohan and I were in the 
 theatrical business together, we got more 
 laughs out of our failures than out of our 
 successes. We always joked each other 
 about them. 
 
 ' ' How in the world did we ever happen to pick out 
 this show for a winner?' Cohan would ask with mock 
 seriousness; then both of us would get busy trying to 
 prove a comical alibi. 
 
 "Nevertheless, this sense of fun had, I know, a defi- 
 nite effect on my business career. You see, when I was 
 a youngster, in the primary grades, I started out to 
 make my fortune. My first job began with the letter 
 T — telegraph messenger. I was very proud of such an 
 important post and especially proud of the A.D.T. cap. 
 
 "My duties were limited, at first, to the immediate 
 district, but, after a time, they permitted me to deliver 
 stock certificates to some of the larger brokerage houses. 
 This experience gave me my first knowledge of large 
 money-values and my first desire to be a money-maker 
 myself. 
 
 "The fact that I was associating daily with promi- 
 nent people, however, made me somewhat conceited. 
 But not for long. A humorous magazine brought me to 
 my senses. It contained a picture of a messenger boy, 
 just like myself, sitting, sound asleep, in front of a door- 
 way, with a neglected telegram in his hand. Underneath 
 this picture were the words, 'A Case of Kidnap. ' Well, 
 that picture brought me to my senses. I decided that 
 I would abandon, at once, a profession that could be 
 made to appear so ridiculous. 
 
 SAM Jri. irtAKKib 
 
 "That very day, I went to Miner's Bowery Theater 
 and asked the doorman if he could use a first-class errand 
 boy. 
 
 " 'Sure, bud,' he said, shortly, giving me a quick 
 optical inventory. 
 
 "The answer came so fast that it scared me. But I 
 touched my hat out of respect to his dignity and followed 
 him back of the stage. I was so happy that I felt I was 
 in a dream. I was afraid that at any moment my guide 
 would turn around and run me out, just as if I had been 
 caught stealing under a circus tent. 
 
 "Once back of the stage, though, I took permanent 
 possession and have never given up possession since that 
 moment. At first, I was somewhat intimidated by the 
 actors, especially those in the more important roles. 
 But I soon found them a generous, sympathetic group. 
 Evidently they were badly in need of an errand boy, for 
 they soon had me busy chasing out for cosmetics, laun- 
 dry, sandwiches, and all sorts of things. 
 
 "They were thoughtful and always gave me extra 
 money for carfare — which I saved, however, and went 
 on foot, even though I was afraid sometimes to pass 
 dark alleys and empty lots. My mother was astonished 
 at the size of my earnings until, one day, she discovered 
 
 in 
 
the condition of my shoes. Then she gave me a vigorous 
 lecture on saving carfare and wearing out shoes. 
 
 "My personal acquaintance with actors was the di- 
 rect cause for starting my theatrical career. I found 
 that actors had a great deal of leisure time between 
 rehearsals and engagements and that they were very 
 glad to make a little extra money whenever they could. 
 I decided, therefore, after some time, to organize a small 
 company. I knew it was best to give 'turkey shows'; 
 that is, special performances on Sundays and holidays, 
 in towns in nearby districts which had no theaters of 
 their own. 
 
 " I was then in my teens and I must have managed to 
 make a businesslike impression, for the actors agreed 
 to work with me on a co-operative plan. As a result, I 
 was soon striding into railroad stations and buying half 
 a dozen railroad tickets at the same time while all the 
 loungers gazed at me enviously because of my acquaint- 
 ance with people of the stage. 
 
 "But the 'turkey shows' did not prove very successful. 
 Something unexpected and comical would always hap- 
 pen just in time to spoil things. For instance, I took 
 George Sidney, now in my production of 'Welcome 
 Stranger, ' as the head of a vaudeville show which I 
 intended giving in some little town, where I rented for 
 the performance, the hall of the Independent Order of 
 Red Men. When I got there, however, someone else 
 was using the hall, so I had to use the only other avail- 
 able place — the ball ground. It proved an excellent 
 place for a performance until we discovered that the 
 entire audience was coming in free of charge, by simply 
 climbing under the fence. 
 
 "Angry as I was, I couldn't help laughing at the sight 
 of men, women and children squeezing themselves under 
 that fence. It would have taken a whole regiment of 
 police to have kept that crowd out. Our loss, by the 
 way, including fares, was ninety-five cents. 
 
 "Nevertheless, these 'turkey shows' eventually led 
 to very large financial returns. They were the direct 
 cause of my partnership with A. H. Woods. We pro- 
 duced 'turkey shows' with a regular company. This 
 time, we put on melodrama with remarkable success. 
 We supplied sufficent blood, thunder, lost wills, wronged 
 heroines, and hissed villains to thrill the nation. Many 
 of our plays, now in stock, are still thrilling a wide range 
 of audiences. 
 
 "Where did I get the money to go into play pro- 
 ducing? Why, through the towel industry — the sec- 
 ond T in my history. The towels were a mere accident. 
 One day, I saw this ' want ad ' : 
 
 " ' Wanted — Hustling young man, not afraid of work. 
 Good salary and commission to the right party.' I 
 applied immediately and landed the job which proved 
 to be something new and original — supplying towel and 
 soap service for office buildings. This is the very same 
 service that thousands of firms now use, but, in those 
 days, few heard of such a service. The first day I went 
 out, I sold the service to sixteen people. The next day, 
 to thirty-two. When I handed in my orders, my em- 
 ployer looked at me seriously and said: 
 
 " 'Thank you, very much. You have done very 
 good work. You are fired. ' 
 
 ' 'Why, what's the matter?' I asked, astonished. 
 'Haven't I done good work? What do you mean?' 
 
 " ' I mean that I haven't capital enough to supply so 
 many orders at such a quick rate. I'll have to slow 
 down a while now until I can catch up with all these 
 new orders. ' 
 
 " His statement was literally true. Although he had 
 a good business proposition, he hadn't sufficient money 
 to finance it. 
 
 ' ' If you take me in with you, ' I said, ' I '11 get some 
 money and some orders too. ' The idea had come to me 
 suddenly and I didn't realize at the moment its full 
 significance. But he agreed at once; so we worked out 
 a regular system. Then I got some backing and started 
 
 a real business. Orders came in by the hundred; for I 
 
 invaded the telegraph and financial districts where I 
 had previously made friends as a messenger boy. 
 
 "Those were the days when some of the big hotels 
 were being turned into office buildings and the demand 
 for towel-and-soap service was very great. We made 
 money and it is gratifying to know that this very ser- 
 vice is bringing money to my partner's widow, today. 
 
 "Part of my funds for producing plays came from 
 another odd source — prize fighting. Sports had always 
 been one of my chief interests and, during my spare 
 moments I witnessed a number of amateur boxing 
 bouts. 
 
 "One night, I saw a stirring fight put on by a young 
 chap named Terry McGovern. That he had great 
 ability was evident ; but he was working for three dollars 
 a night! I knew, by instinct, that he was a born fighter. 
 I persuaded him to come under my management. Then 
 I began to arrange a schedule for him and, in a surpris- 
 ingly short time, he had made a name for himself as a 
 clean fighter. 
 
 "About one year or so later, I met George M. Cohan." 
 
 Mr. Harris stopped abruptly, walked over to his desk 
 and sat down. He looked at me seriously and then 
 went through the process of rubbing his hands briskly 
 together. 
 
 "You wonder why I stopped so deliberately?" he 
 queries. "Well, I had to impress you with the fact that 
 I had come to the big T in my life — the real theater. _ It 
 was at this time that I met Mr. Cohan. Our meeting 
 was a very auspicious one and highly formal. It occur- 
 red, in fact, at a picnic given by the Words and Music 
 Club. George and I were put on the same ball team, 
 chance did the rest. 
 
 "The equipment for the game was supposed to hive 
 been complete in every detail — brand new clubs, uni- 
 forms — everything. But when we started to play, we 
 discovered, to our surprise, that the most necessary 
 thing of all was missing — the ball. 
 
 " 'Never mind, 'said Cohan, 'I '11 use an apple instead.' 
 And an apple he used and so successfully that the game 
 went on famously. He was pitcher and I was catcher. 
 By the time the game was over, we had become staunch 
 friends. Our friendship ripened so quickly, in fact, that 
 after a little confidential talk, we decided to go into 
 business together. 
 
 " 'How much money have you?' he asked. 
 
 " 'None,' was my reply. 
 
 " 'Neither have I.' 
 
 " 'Good,' I responded, 'we are taking an equal 
 chance.' 
 
 "And an equal chance it was — and it proved to be a 
 very fortunate one for us. It made us success! ul; it 
 made theatrical history. 
 
 "These days, however, I am an individual producer; 
 but I have a staff of workers who have been very loyal 
 tome. Loyalty, after all, is the thing we need most. If 
 a man has loyal friends and loyal helpers, he has won 
 his fight. My advice to the ambitious is this: 
 
 "Ask yourself if you have two or three friends who 
 will 'go through' for you; that is, make every possible 
 sacrifice to insure your success. If you have such 
 friends you need fear nothing. If you have not, get 
 busy at once, striving to win them. Cultivate loyalty 
 in yourself and, thereby, attract loyalty to you. 
 
 "Personally, I feel that I owe certain obligations to 
 the public. I must be loyal. I must give people the 
 plays they like the best, plays that are worthy and clean. 
 I want to give good plays until — 
 
 Mr. Harris broke off casually and became somewhat 
 introspective. 
 
 "When the end comes," he continued, "I guess I'll 
 be a poor man. Nearly all the producers become poor. 
 Nevertheless, the fight is great while it lasts — just like 
 golf. One day it is good, the next day bad. but it's 
 always stimulating." 
 
 1 1 
 
Telegraphic Greetings from 
 
 Governor Len Small 
 
 of 
 
 ILLINOIS 
 
 GOVERNOR LEN SMALL 
 
 SAM. H. HARRIS AND THE SELWYNS, 
 Chicago, Illinois. 
 I congratulate you gentlemen, upon the completion of the wonderful new playhouse 
 dedicated to the theatre-loving public of Chicago. Duties prevent my acceptance of your 
 courteous invitation foCopening night, but I wish you all success in your effort to provide 
 wholesome and 'clean'entertainment in'a safe and artistic structure of which any city might 
 be proud. 
 
 LEN SMALL. 
 
 12 
 
Laugh Speedists in "Six Cylinder Love" 
 
 Ernest Truex and June Walker 
 Two Sam H. Harris stars who set the pace for the huge success of William'Anthony]McGuire's tremendous hit. 
 
 1 5 
 
The Selwyns— Archie and Edgar 
 
 (VICE VERSA) 
 
 Being the Story of a Climb to Success after a Jump in 
 Despair, the Moral of Which Is, "Cross Your Bridge 
 When You Come to It." 
 
 Bv ROY L. McCARDELL 
 
 (Kindness of Lewis Publishing Co.) 
 
 TH IS is really the story of two brothers 
 and a half, Edgar Selwyn, Archie 
 Selwyn, and Mike, their stepbrother. 
 
 We will devote most of the story to Ed- 
 gar, however, for he is the head of the 
 house and the handsomest. In fact, when 
 the day comes when we have Men's Rights, 
 and they will at least let the portraits of us 
 g< » ullooking fellow s .ih ei uate \\ il li I he 
 pictures of pretty girls on the magazine 
 covers, Edgar Selwyn's pulchritude in 
 polychrome will lead us all. 
 
 The Selwyns were a Cincinnati family 
 and moved to Toronto when Edgar was a 
 schoolboy, eager to learn, quick at his 
 studies and anxious to go through high 
 school and college. 
 
 But family vicissitudes intervened, for 
 while the boys were still in their 'teens 
 the Selwyns migrated to Selma, Ala. where 
 the father and mother died, and Edgar, at 
 seventeen — this was in 1893 — made his 
 way to Chicago, thinking the Middle West 
 metropolis, where a World's Fair was 
 holden, was the place an ambitious and 
 energetic young man might found his 
 fortunes. 
 
 But it was a time and place for spenders 
 and not earners. Edgar Selwyn could se- 
 cure no employment and his money gave 
 out. Shelterless, hungry and in despair, 
 he determined desperately to destroy him- 
 self rather than beg or to endure further 
 misery and hardship. 
 
 He picked him a bleak bridge at mid- 
 night and jumped into the Chicago River. 
 
 In those days the Chicago River had an 
 upper shell on it like asphalt, and any one 
 falling or jumping against it was liable to 
 sustain a fracture. 
 
 Climbing back up on the bridge with a 
 strained wrist and a badly bruised back, 
 his clothes dirty but not damp, young 
 Selwyn found a pistol poked into his face 
 and a thickset young man standing over 
 him and scowlingly demanding his money or his life. 
 
 Young Selwyn, who had no money and who had just 
 tried to dispose of his life, brushed the tears of self-pity 
 and pain from his eyes and burst into laughter. 
 
 "What are you holding me up for?" he demanded, 
 when he could calm himself to speak. 
 
 "Because I am broke!" snarled the gunman. 
 
 "Broke, and having a fine revolver like that?" 
 gasped our hero. "Come, let's hock it and stake our- 
 selves." 
 
 They got six dollars on the pistol. Then the gunman 
 and his victim fed, bathed, bought clean collars, had a 
 good night's sleep in a cheap hotel, and the next day 
 the gunman, an amateur at sticking up, as young 
 Selwyn was at suicide — or he would have known better 
 than to even try to dent the Chicago River — got jobs. 
 
 The amateur holdup man is now a substantial ticket 
 speculator, keeping well within the law, and Kdgar 
 Selwyn, if not a millionaire, is well on the way. 
 
 When, in collaboration with Roi Cooper Magrue, 
 Edgar Selwyn put this episode of on the bridge at mid- 
 night into the play, " Rolling Stones, " all the hard-boiled 
 eggs murmured: "What an improbable situation!" 
 
 ARCHIE SELWYN 
 
 Like S. L. Rothafel and other subjects of this series 
 of select success stories, Edgar Selwyn sold books on 
 the installment plan, but found this a dead method of 
 gaining a livelihood. 
 
 The year 1894 found Edgar Selwyn in New York, 
 where he got a job as usher at the Herald Square The- 
 atre. To ush is all right, but it is not a vocation that 
 makes the filling out of one's income tax return a com- 
 plex matter, so Edgar Selwyn, then nineteen, got with 
 William Gillette in a small part in "Sherlock Holmes." 
 
 Edgar received $35 per week for his histrionic efforts, 
 and he sent for his brother, Archie, and staked the 
 younger brother out of the weekly $35. 
 
 Meanwhile the half-brother, Mike, had arrived in 
 New York also, and had gotten a job as stage manager 
 for Willie Hammerstein at the Yictoria Theatre. This 
 position Mike strenuously held on to while Willie Ham- 
 merstein lived and the old Victoria, of the varieties and 
 the legitimate, endured. 
 
 Being young, handsome, graceful, and having the 
 manners of a Chesterfield, and a singularly clear and 
 pleasant voice, Edgar Selwyn progressed as an actor. 
 He played good roles with £. H. Sothern, and in time 
 
 14 
 
was cast for the part of Tony, the Mexican vaquero, in 
 Augustus Thomas's "Arizona." 
 
 In this last role he made a pronounced hit, and from 
 that on he was placed among the leading actors of 
 the American stage. 
 
 The parts he has enacted since then include: Felix, 
 in "A Gentleman of France"; .Tacky, with Fthel 
 Barrymore in "Sunday"; Jose, with Maude Adams 
 in "That Pretty Sister of Jose's"; Dr. Ranck, in "A 
 Doll's House"; Donald Burnside, in "Popularity," 
 and the leading roles in many of his own plays, 
 such as "Pierre of the Plains," and "The Arab." 
 
 Edgar Selwyn's first effort at play- 
 wrighting was a one-act piece," A Night 
 in Havana," which was presented as a 
 curtain raiser with a stock company which 
 he was managing in Rochester, some 
 fifteen years ago. 
 
 "A Night in Havana" was a good one- 
 act play, and encouraged by its reception, 
 he wrote "The Rough Rider's Romance," 
 "A Friend in Need " and " Father and Son. " 
 But it was not until "The Country Boy, " 
 which he wrote and presented in 1910, 
 that he had established himself as a play- 
 wright. Next followed "I'll Be Hanged If 
 I Do," written for and in collaboration 
 with William Collier; "The Arab," in 
 1911; "The Wall Street Girl, " for Blanche 
 Ring, written in collaboration with 
 Margaret Mayo and "The Crowded Hour," 
 in collaboration with Channing Pollock. 
 
 Now, all the while handsome brother 
 Edgar was going on from usher to actor 
 and from actor to playwright, brother 
 Archie was building up a business as a 
 playbroker. He is the business man of 
 the family, and some seven or eight years 
 ago he found himself with a thousand 
 dollars in the bankroll and his eye open for 
 an opportunity. Word came from Chicago 
 that Bayard Veiller's play, recently pro- 
 duced here by William A. Brady and 
 others, had received some good notices, 
 but was getting poor audiences. He took 
 a train for Chicago, saw the play, and 
 bought out Brady's interest for $10,000, 
 paying the thousand in his bankroll down, 
 and wiring to New York and borrowing 
 the remaining nine thousand dollars from 
 his brother Edgar and others. 
 
 Brought to New York, "Within the 
 Law," with Jane Cowl in the leading role, 
 was the outstanding smashing hit of the 
 season, and made a fortune for its owner 
 and established the fame of its author. 
 
 "Within the Law" was the beginning 
 of the better fortunes of the Selwyns. 
 They made so much money out of it that 
 they were able to hold on determinedly as producing 
 managers when their next two productions failed. 
 
 Of these, one was "The Girl and the Pennant," 
 featuring Christy Mathewson, star baseball player and 
 idol of the Polo Ground fans; and the second was a 
 dramatization of Owen Johnson's successful novel of 
 girlish gold diggers, "The Salamander." 
 
 Meanwhile William Harris, Jr. had produced a com- 
 edy by Salisbury Fields and Margaret Mayo called 
 "Twin Beds. " It was produced at the Fulton Theatre, 
 and in its second week Willie Harris was heard to 
 mutter: "I'm going to call this play 'The Folding 
 Bed,' and close it up!" 
 
 Urged on by Margaret Mayo, the Selwyns bought 
 "Twin Beds." They got it cheap. The night they 
 took it oyer the receipts jumped $400, and kept right 
 on mounting up. 
 
 "Twin Beds" has netted the Selwyns in the neigh- 
 borhood of a million dollars, and it is still rented out for 
 the road and in stock, and brought a mattress full of 
 money to them in motion pictures. 
 
 Now the Selwyn's have three fine new theatres all 
 their own and all in a row on Forty-second street; have 
 a new theatre in Chicago and the Selwyn in Boston; 
 plays in New York and plays on the road and everything. 
 
 In the affairs of the Selwyns, Edgar has the vision 
 and Archie cares for the cash. He doesn't care too 
 much for it, because his willingness to take a chance 
 against any odds — if the chance seems good to him — 
 gives Edgar many an anxious moment. 
 
 Sometimes Edgar and Archie quarrel about these 
 things and sometimes they quarrel about others, but 
 Archie believes Edgar is the finest actor, playwright 
 and brother in all the world, and Edgar believes Archie 
 is the best business man and far-seeing theatrical 
 manager in the universe. 
 
 Edgar was bitten harder by the dancing bug than 
 any living man since the days of St. Vitus. Archie can't 
 
 EDGAR SELVVVN 
 
 S2g that stuff. He goes in for exerciss without musicj 
 shoots a good game of golf, and is a bear at handball. 
 
 To a great extent Edgar and Archie divide their 
 theatrical activities by the curtain, Edgar staying be- 
 hind it and Archie in front of it. 
 
 Edgar is cool and calm, and, since the memorable 
 incident, previously recorded, he has never crossed a 
 bridge till he has come to it. Archie is excited and turbu- 
 lent, and while he wouldn't jump off a bridge he would 
 endeavor to jump over it. 
 
 Both Edgar and Archie are loyal to old friends and 
 those who have helped them, even to the cherishing of 
 kindly memories of them. Ever since they have had 
 offices, humble or sumptuous, the portraits of their 
 father and mother have always occupied the places of 
 honor on the wall. 
 
 In their hearts also they keep ever the memory of 
 that best and ablest of earnest men, Charles ("Pink") 
 Hayes, who helped them to build up their business from 
 the struggling days when they brought "Within the 
 Law" to New York on hope, hazzard and borrowed 
 money. 
 
 The motto of the S2lwyns is ths motto of the 
 Three Musketeers: "All for one, and one for all." 
 
 15 
 
"TWIN THEATRES bring glory to the 
 City of Chicago." 
 
 Says 
 
 State's Attorney 
 
 Robert E. Crowe 
 
 STATE'S ATTORNEY ROBERT E. CROWE 
 
 It's not an hour tor words; it's one for enthusiasm, and the new Twin Theatres are re- 
 sponsible for the joys that the playgoers find in what this dedication means. Rightly the new" 
 structures are "For the Glory of Chicago" ; edifices that not only the City of Chicago is proud 
 of but I know the_whole of Illinois will be. Congratulations to the enterprising owners." 
 
 STATE'S ATTORNEY ROBERT E. CROWE. 
 
 16 
 
Being Square With "The Circle" 
 
 Mr. John Drew renews familiar abilities. 
 Mrs. Leslie Carter ripens remembered talents. 
 
 17 
 
OUR MAYOR 
 
 WM. HALE THOMPSON 
 
 MAYOR OF CHICAGO 
 
 18 
 
"The Twin Theatres 
 
 55 
 
 Each Holds Settings for the Drama Befitting Its Place In the Realn 
 of Art — Luxury, Comfort and Ease the Paramount Idea In Design 
 Architectural Inspirations Furnished by England and Italy. 
 
 By WALTER S. DUGGAN 
 
 THERE SEEMS to be a wonderful misunder- 
 standing among the majority of architects of the 
 present day, as to the very nature and meaning 
 of Originality, and all of which wherein it consists. 
 
 Originality in expression does not depend on inven- 
 tion of new words; nor originality in poetry on invention 
 of new measures, nor, in painting on invention 
 of new colors, or new modes of using them. The chords 
 of music, the harmonies of color, the general principles 
 of the arrangement of sculptural masses, have been 
 determined long ago, and in all probability, cannot be 
 added to any more than they can be altered. 
 
 And thus do we hurriedly go on with our vein of 
 thought until history assures us that the art of the 
 Thirteenth Century was the foundation of all art — not 
 merely the foundation but the root of it; that is to say, 
 succeeding art was not merely built upon it but is all 
 comprehended in it, and is developed out of it. Passing 
 that historical Century, history further refers us to 
 three successive branches developed from it, in each of 
 the three following Centuries. The Fourteenth Century 
 was pre-eminently the age of Thought; the Fifteenth 
 the age of Drawing, and the Sixteenth the age of Paint- 
 ing. 
 
 Observe, first, the Fifteenth Century was pre-emi- 
 nently the age of Thought. It began with the first 
 words of the poem of Dante. Sufficient in number are 
 the names of marvelous artists, who adorned this Centu- 
 ry in Italy but it can be more easily recalled as the age 
 of Dante — the age of Thought. 
 
 The men of the succeeding Century felt that they 
 could not rival their predecessors in invention, but 
 might excel them in execution. Original thoughts be- 
 longing to this Century(the Fifteenth) were completely 
 rare; even Raphael and Michael Angelo themselves 
 borrowed all their principal ideas and plans of pictures 
 from their predecessors but they executed them with 
 a precision up to the time unseen. History guides us to 
 the information of the Fifteenth Century as having been 
 the age of Leonardo, Michael Angelo, Lorenzo Ghiberti, 
 and Raphael, — pre-eminently the age of Drawing. 
 
 The Sixteenth Century produced the four greatest 
 Painters, that is to say, managers of color, that the 
 world has ever seen; namely Tintoreto, Paul Veronese, 
 Titian and Correggio. Naming of this quartet is suffi- 
 cient to call the Sixteenth Century the age of Painting. 
 
 Searching back in the distant Centuries, the archi- 
 tects of the Twin Theatres, C. Howard Crane and 
 H. Kenneth Franzheim, employed the Thought of the 
 Fourteenth Century; the Drawing of the Fifteenth 
 Century, and the Painting of the Sixteenth Century to 
 achieve perfect ideas which were later rolled into proper 
 affiliation with tasteful selections of the following centu- 
 ries until they were all grouped and met face to face 
 with the skilled workmanship of the Twentieth Century. 
 
 A man who has the gift will take up any style that is 
 going, the style of his day, and will work in that, and be 
 great in that, and make everything that he does in it 
 look as fresh as if every thought of it had just come 
 down from heaven. It is not to be inferred that he will 
 not take liberties with his material, or with his rules. 
 Neither is it to be insinuated that strange changes will 
 not sometimes be wrought by his efforts, or his fancies 
 in both. But those changes will be sometimes marvel- 
 ous; and those liberties will be like the liberties that a 
 great speaker takes with the language, not a defiance of 
 the rules for the sake of singularity, but inevitable, 
 uncalculated and brilliant consequences of an effort to 
 express what the language, without such infraction, 
 could not. 
 
 Very fitting, therefore, in these days of ostentatious 
 "palaces" erected by the majority of theatre owners, 
 
 particularly those in the cinema field, it is with a sense 
 of relief that one finds such theatres as the Selwyn and 
 Harris, where the sole aim has been one of simplicity 
 and sincerity in the use of material.. An effort has been 
 made to achieve luxury, comfort and ease but to avoid 
 the tinsel, sham and make-believe so long associated 
 with the theatre, and to use instead the very finest ma- 
 terial in order to produce a setting for the drama befit- 
 ting its place in the realms of art. 
 
 Thus Chicago, — The Wonder City, — has today an 
 unchallenged institution in the Twin Theatres, two 
 perfect temples of the seven arts of the stage, thoroughly 
 functioned in erection after a common sense under- 
 standing of what is meant by Originality. 
 
 Modesty attends the Twin Theatres openings but 
 after all there is an under-current of pride which no one 
 could possibly confuse with conceit. The Twin Theatres 
 mean something more than merely new theatres in 
 Chicago. Our Great Metropolis, patriotically saturated 
 with the "I Will" spirit, has seen other theatres built 
 and opened. The significant thing behind the Twin 
 Theatres is that it is the most important move towards 
 equipping the faithful playgoers of this city with the- 
 atres that can be looked upon as institutions in pointing 
 with pride to the many civic undertakings in the 
 Progress of Chicago. 
 
 Chicago may well be proud of having been the birth- 
 place of the Twin Theatres, — the joining of hands of 
 America's foremost theatrical producers, the Selwyns 
 and Sam H. Harris. Is it not accurate in a hurried des- 
 cription of the Twin Theatres to claim Chicago stands 
 alone in the United States or in the world, for that 
 matter, of being the only city having Twin Theatres for 
 the highest form of art? 
 
 The building operations were conceived and begun 
 in the complex difficulties of labor unrest with commer- 
 cial and industrial chaos to contend with. Here it is 
 most proper to congratulate Crosby Gaige for his most 
 wonderful manipulation of situations that were heart- 
 rending at times, yet so triumphantly and skillfully 
 functioned that it isn't exaggerating to say Mr. Gaige 
 stands alone as a genius in the matter of promoting 
 such an institution as the Twin Theatres completed are 
 brilliantly credited with being. 
 
 In the making of a model institution like the Twin 
 Theatres a thousand elements combine with which the 
 average playgoer is unfamiliar. Space forbids a com- 
 plete detailed account of placing the credit, the smallest 
 particle of it, to where it could be joyously and rightly 
 tabulated in this hour of greeting. The Longacre Con- 
 struction Company is to be credited with the major 
 work in the construction of the Twin Theatres. The 
 skilled workmanship as accomplished in every trade 
 affiliated with the Institution is bewildering and conveys 
 positive assurance that the management of the Twin 
 Theatres has gone to enormous expense in having their 
 ideas of what they wanted to give the Chicago public, 
 fully fulfilled. To the credit of Charles Hunter Bettts 
 must go honorable mention of the highest rank for 
 tasteful selections in designs and decorations. 
 
 The exterior of the Twin Theatres speaks for itself, 
 being edifices that will be points of interest for the sight- 
 seers in our Wonder City. Poetical expressions could 
 bs employed to describe the impressions that the exte- 
 rior of the Twin Theatres inspires but again simplicity 
 and sincerity forms the passing comment. 
 
 The interior of the Selwyn Theatre, while Georgian 
 in general character, with the influence of Grinling 
 Gibbons, has a freedom from rigid period exactness 
 which helps to give an air of quiet genuineness in perfect 
 harmony and accord with the period represented. 
 (Continued on pige twenty-oie) 
 
 19 
 
LONGACRE ENGINEERING AND 
 CONSTRUCTION COMPANY 
 
 INCORPORATED 
 
 Building Construction 
 
 UNITY BUILDING 
 CHICAGO 
 
 GENERAL CONTRACTORS FOR THE TWIN THEATRES 
 
 20 
 
(Continued from page nineteen) 
 
 The entire walls, from the carpeted floors to the 
 coffered ceilings, are of the finest English walnut, espe- 
 cially selected for grain and texture. The walls are 
 divided into large panels, devoid of all carving, except 
 for 'the over-box, cornice and proscenium treatments, 
 the effect being achieved by the beauty of the wood 
 itself. In contrast to the soft brown tone of the walls, 
 the ceiling is an elaborate coffered pattern, in perfect 
 scale, executed in antique gold and greens, mellowed by 
 the patina of time. The lighting fixtures hanging from 
 the ceiling and in the boxes are of the finest old cut 
 crystal and gold. The boxes and proscenium are hung 
 with exquisite green and gold French silk damask, 
 draped in simple folds and avoiding the elaborate fes- 
 toons, cascades, and voluminous valances ordinarily 
 seen in theatres. The whole effect is one of simple rich- 
 ness, such as is found in the homes of the most discrimi- 
 nating. 
 
 The effect of luxury has been carried throughout 
 the whole theatre in the lobby, foyers, lounges, smoking 
 rooms, ladies' boudoirs, manager's office, and even in 
 the spaces to which the general public has no admittance. 
 
 The main lounge room in the basement is one of the 
 finest examples of English Georgian in the country. The 
 wood paneled walls are painted in a parchment color 
 that makes a perfect background for the unusually fine 
 collection of furniture and paintings. The soft blues of 
 the Adams consoles, painted in the manner of Angelica 
 Kauffman, harmonize perfectly with the neutral tone of 
 the walls, the paintings, and the coloring of the needle- 
 point and tapestry. In fact, the whole color scheme of 
 the room is so perfectly balanced that it may be likened 
 to a musical composition worthy of Rubenstein or 
 Tschaikowsky. 
 
 The ladies' boudoir adjoining the lounge on the north 
 is finished in a soft apple green. The furniture is in 
 parchment tone, illuminated by delicate decorating in 
 the manner of the Venetian furniture of the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 The men's smoking room, while Georgian also in 
 character, is finished in a more robust manner. The 
 paneled walls are in old ivory, and the furniture is wal- 
 nut with deep seated divans and chairs covered with 
 fine tapestry. 
 
 The lounge and ladies' boudoir on the mezzanine 
 floor, arranged for the balcony patrons, are finished as 
 beautifully as the remainder of the theatre. The walls 
 of the lounge are paneled in the same walnut as the 
 auditorium, and the simple groined ceiling is frescoed 
 with medallions and vignetted figures. 
 
 The ladies' boudoir is done in a soft lavender tone 
 and the furniture is delicately painted, as is that in 
 the boudoir on the lower floor. 
 
 In fact, the whole collection of furniture, paintings, 
 and "objets d'art" is one worthy of a place in any 
 museum, and volumes might be written on individual 
 pieces. 
 
 The Harris Theatre has been designed as has its 
 twin, the Selwyn, with the paramount idea — luxury, 
 comfort and ease. 
 
 The interior treatment here is also of wood, but the 
 architectural style is entirely different. Instead of 
 going to England for his architectural inspiration. Mr. 
 Harris has gone to Italy, the land of sunshine, music, 
 and romance — the land of Verdi and Donizetti, whose 
 names emblazon the cartouches in the frieze of the 
 auditorium. Here, instead of drawing from the eight- 
 eenth century, Mr. Harris has gone back into history 
 two centuries earlier, to Florence at the zenith of its 
 culture and artistic exuberance and splendor, and has 
 taken his inspiration from the palazzos of the old Floren- 
 tine podestas. But while the theatre is in the style of 
 the Florentine school, it also is in no sense a stupid 
 reproduction. 
 
 The walls are paneled in dark Italian walnut, em- 
 bellished with elaborate intarsia and gold ornament. 
 The box treatment, as a contrast to the dark mellow 
 tones of the walnut, shows an antique gold and poly- 
 chrome balcony window, hung with the richest oxblood 
 tassels in the form of baldichinos. 
 
 The ceiling is a handsome coffered one done in gold, 
 embellished with the richest colors, all antiqued and 
 toned down into an effect of quiet beauty. The whole 
 theme is one of utmost richness and refinement, and is 
 carried throughout the entire theatre. 
 
 The main lounge room in the basement, with the 
 ladies' boudoir and the men's smoking room adjoining, 
 is identical in plan to that of the Salwyn, except for 
 the ladies' boudoir, which is Georgian in style, the re- 
 mainder is Florentine. The main lounge and the 
 smoking room are reproductions of rooms in the Davan- 
 zati Palazzo in Florence. 
 
 The walls are finished in palmed plaster in both 
 rooms. The main lounge room, with its large fireplace 
 and its wood beamed ceiling illuminated in colors, has 
 the genuineness of the original rooms in the Davanzati 
 Palazzo. The furnishings of both rooms are, for the 
 most part, reproductions of the actual furniture used 
 there. The paintings and smaller objects of decoration 
 are originals. 
 
 The mezzanine lounge is carried out in a similar 
 spirit. The walls are of stone, and the ceiling is groined 
 and decorated with fresco. 
 
 In all America there is not a more artistic, honest, 
 worthy, sane, laudable, trustworthy and thoroughly 
 progressive Institution than the Twin Theatres, — the 
 gift of Sam H. Harris and The Selwyns to the People of 
 Chicago! 
 
 Three Memorable Dates In Chicago's History 
 
 June 28, 1840- 
 :. 18, 1922- 
 Oct. 9, 1922- 
 
 Sept. 
 
 Opening ot Chicago's first dramatic theatre, 
 Randolph near Dearborn, by John B. Rice. 
 
 Opening of Selwyn Theatre, Dearborn at Lake 
 street, by the Selwyns. 
 
 Opening of the Harris 1 heatre, Dearborn at Lake 
 street, by Sam H. Harris. 
 
 21 
 
Degrees of Safety 
 
 TN choosing a bank you should seek the highest degree of 
 -*■ safety. The statement of a bank's condition is told in 
 figures, but it is well to know what is behind the figures. In 
 learning the latter you will also learn the character and ability 
 of the bank's management. 
 Study of the figures given will show that this bank has attained 
 
 The Highest Degree of Safety 
 
 The stock of this bank is 
 owned by the stockholders 
 of the Continental and Com- 
 mercial National Bank. 
 
 The combined resources of the 
 Continental and Commercial 
 Banks are 515 million dollars. 
 $1 starts a savings account. 
 
 CONTINENTAL wCOMMERCI AL 
 TRUST and SAVINGS BANK 
 
 La Salle, Adams, Quincy and Wells Streets 
 
 22 
 
« 
 
 1?gdrit?" 
 
 Waterproofing and Floor 
 
 Hardening Material used 
 
 exclusively in these 
 
 Theatres. 
 
 A few other Chicago users — 
 
 Chicago Union Station Project 
 
 Marshall Field & Co. 
 
 Drake Hotel 
 
 Blackstone Hotel 
 
 Continental & Commercial National Ban] 
 
 McCormick Estates 
 
 WATERPROOFING COMPANY 
 
 OF AMERICA 
 
 RAILWAY EXCHANGE BUILDING 
 
 I'IKlXES 
 
 CALUMET 3300 
 CALUMET 3301 
 
 Harris 
 
 & Rodgers 
 
 I >ealers 
 
 Fine American and Foreign 
 Automobiles 
 
 1424-1426 S. Michigan Avenue 
 Chicago 
 
 McGutcheon 
 & Gerson 
 Service 
 
 ADVERTISING 
 
 Merchandising Plans 
 
 64 West Randolph Street 
 Chicago 
 
 21 Park Row- 
 
 New York 
 
 DanaT. Bennett 
 Company 
 
 Designers and Printers 
 
 -of- 
 
 Catalogues, Booklets, Heralds, 
 Cutouts, Window and Tack 
 Cards in from one to tour 
 colors. 
 
 250 West 54th Street 
 New York City 
 
 23 
 

 PREMIER PROGRAM FOI 
 
 Sam H. Harris 
 
 By arrangement with Lewis & Gordon — Presents 
 
 "SIX CYLINDER LOVE" 
 
 A COMEDY 
 
 By WILLIAM ANTHONY McGUIRE 
 
 —with— 
 
 ERNEST TRUEX 
 
 Staged under direction of Sam Forrest. 
 
 CHARACTERS 
 
 (In the order in which they speak) 
 
 Geraldine Burton ELEANOR GORDON 
 
 Richard Burton DONALD MEEK 
 
 Phyllis Burton ROSE BURDICK 
 
 Mary MARY HALLIDAY 
 
 Margaret Rogers LOUISE PRESSING 
 
 Bertram Rogers JACK LESLIE 
 
 Harold Winston NICHOLAS JOY 
 
 Gilbert Sterling ERNEST TRUEX 
 
 Marilyn Sterling JUNE WALKER 
 
 William Donroy RALPH SIPPERLY 
 
 George Stapleton BERTON CHURCHILL 
 
 Smith HARRY HAMMILL 
 
 Tom Johnson HOWARD HULL GIBSON 
 
 ACT I — The Suburban homes of Richard Burton and Gilbert Sterling. 
 Long Island. Sunday morning. 
 
 Intermission 9 minutes. 
 
 ACT II — Living Room of the Sterling home. Several months later. 
 Evening. 
 
 Intermission 6 minutes. 
 
 ACT III — The Sterling home. A month later. 
 
 For Mr. Harris: 
 
 Norman Houston General Stage Manager 
 
 Howard Hull Gibson Stage Manager 
 
THE TWIN THEATRES 
 
 The Selwyns Present 
 
 Mr. John Drew and Mrs. Leslie Carter 
 
 -IN- 
 
 THE CIRCLE 
 
 A Modern Comedy in Three Acts 
 By W. Somerset Maugham 
 
 CAST 
 
 (In the order of Their First Appearance) 
 
 Arnold Champion-Cheney, M. P ROBERT RENDEL 
 
 Footman CHARLES F. SEALY 
 
 Mrs. Shenstone PEGGY PORTER 
 
 Elizabeth CLARA MOORES 
 
 Edward Luton JEROME PATRICK 
 
 Clive Champion-Cheney ERNEST LAWFORD 
 
 Butler WALTER SODERLING 
 
 Lord Porteous JOHN DREW 
 
 Lady Catherine Champion-Cheney MRS. LESLIE CARTER 
 
 Staged by Clifford Brooke. 
 
 Synopsis of Scenery 
 
 The scene is laid in the drawing room at Aston-Adey Arnold 
 Champion-Cheney's house in Dorset, England. 
 
 ACT I— Morning. 
 ACT II— Afternoon. 
 ACT III — Evening of the same day. 
 
 The scene designed by Clifford Pember; built at Selwyn Studio. 
 
 Furniture decorations by John Hutaff, Inc. 
 
 Mrs. Carter's costumes designed by Mrs. MacHorter and executed 
 
 by Lucille. 
 Miss Moores' sport costumes and second and third act frocks designed 
 
 and executed by Milgrim. 
 
 For the Selwyns 
 
 General Manager John M. Welch 
 
 Company Manager W. L. Payne 
 
 Stage Manager , . Walter Soderling 
 
ASK FOR 
 T^HF 
 
 COUTHOUI 
 
 SYSTEM 
 
 AND 
 
 YOU 
 
 GET THE 
 
 RIGHT 
 SYSTEM 
 
 Tickets for the Best Attractions 
 in Chicago at box office prices 
 
 ONCE A 
 
 COUTHOUI 
 
 PATRON 
 ALWAYS A 
 
 COUTHOUI 
 
 PATRON 
 
 OFFICES AT ALL LEADING HOTELS AND CLUBS IN CHICAGO 
 
 26 
 
TELEPHONE RANDOLPH 6920 
 
 PLAMONDON- GABRIEL CO 
 
 Painting-Decorating 
 
 Special Hangings-Furniture 
 
 308 NORTH MICHIGAN AVENUE 
 CHICAGO 
 
 Chicago's 
 
 New Twin Theatres 
 
 HARRIS-SELWYN 
 
 as well as many other representative 
 
 buildings in Chicago where safety must 
 
 be assured, have installed Allen Fire 
 
 Protection Equipment. 
 
 W. D. ALLEN MFG. CO. 
 
 566-570 WEST LAKE ST. 
 
 CHICAGO, - ILLINOIS 
 
 Walton & Spencer Co. 
 
 Printers and Lithographers 
 
 1241-124 9 South State Street 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 11 
 
COMPLIMENTS 
 
 — of a — 
 
 Sincere Booster 
 
 - for the - 
 
 Twin Theatres 
 
 NEW YORK CITY 
 
 Stage Equipment of This Theatre by 
 
 PETER CLARK 
 
 406-08 West 30th Street, New York 
 
 This Theatre Has the Most Modern Equipment 
 for Handling Scenery 
 
 I he following is a list of theatres in New N. Y., Fordham, Bronx, N. Y., Providence, 
 
 York equipped by Peter Clark: New York Providence, R. I., Syracuse, Syracuse, N. Y. 
 Hippodrome, Metropolitan Opera House, New 
 
 Amsterdam, Henry Miller, Capitol, Times l have equipped the following theatres in 
 
 Square, Apollo and Music Box. Chicago: Balaban & Katz's Tivoh, Chicago, 
 
 Apollo and State-Lake Theatres. 
 For the B. F. Keith Company, I have 
 
 equipped the following theatres: Palace Other theatres are: National Theatre, Mex- 
 
 Theatre, New York, Prospect, Brooklyn, ico and National Theatre, Havara, Cuba. 
 
 28 
 
The Hidden Power 
 
 Such Is the General Manager of Theatrical 
 Finns Like the Selwyns and Sam H. 
 Harris In Forming the Whole Suc- 
 cess of Theatrical Enterprises. 
 
 IT'S NOT an 
 easy task sit- 
 t i ng in t h e 
 general manager's 
 chair of a theatri- 
 cal firm. One hun- 
 dred and one mat- 
 ter comes up with- 
 out a moment's 
 warning, each re- 
 quiring an instan- 
 taneous decision. 
 It's come to be 
 known that the 
 strength of a the- 
 atrical firm rests 
 with the qualifica- 
 tions and calibre 
 
 JACK WELCH of the indivjflua| 
 
 holding down this office. Labors of the general man- 
 ager do not come before the public such as the success 
 of "stars," but the general manager is a part of the 
 whole success of both "star" and firm. It's the duty 
 of the general manager to select the time of year and 
 the proper place for "stars" and plays to obtain their 
 biggest success. This is done via a clever handling of 
 the route books. Much could be written about the 
 responsibilities of the general manager but space for- 
 bids. Suffice it to say the office assists materially 
 in the whole success of a theatrical firm by the shrewd- 
 ness in which it is functioned. 
 
 In Jack Welch and Abe Levy, the Twin Theatres 
 have two of the best known and most competent gen- 
 eral managers in America. Each is versed in every 
 trick of the responsibilities of the positions they so 
 ably execute, and it will be upon their shoulders that 
 the duties to keep both theatres properly filled with 
 attractions that Chicago playgoers desire, will fall — 
 Levy for the Harris and Welch for the Selwyn. 
 
 The Managers 
 
 Each of the Twin Theatres Will Have Sep- 
 arate Managers, Who Will Work Joint- 
 ly For the Success of Chicago's 
 New Institution. 
 
 Col. "Billy" Roche 
 
 HARRIS 
 
 Col. "Billy" Roche will be the manager oi the 
 Harris. It is most fitting to use Tom Bashaw's words 
 in the "Herald-Examiner" anent "Billy's" appoint- 
 ment. Wrote Bashaw: "'The departure of Col. ''Billy" 
 Roche from the Palace Music Hall management is one 
 of those regrettable affairs which one finds hard to put 
 into words, but the Orpheum circuit's loss will be the 
 Harris theatrical concern's gain, and when the new 
 Harris swings open its door the "customers" will be 
 subject to congratulations as the genial, kindly Colonel 
 smiles upon the inpouring crowds." 
 
 Manager Roche is versed in every branch of the- 
 atrical management and his appointment has brought 
 the Harris offices the sort of congratulations that when 
 the playgoers of this city extend them they mean them. 
 
 Walter S. Duggan 
 
 THE SELWYN 
 
 It was fourteen years ago that Walter S. Duggan, 
 the Selwyns manager, first started in the theatrical 
 business in Chicago. Since that time the new man- 
 ager has been affiliated with the stage's greatest "stars" 
 in the role of publicity representative. It was while 
 managing Raymond Hitchcock in "Hitchy-Koo" in 
 Chicago that Duggan enlisted in the army for overseas 
 service. After actual service at the front, the Selwyns' 
 manager received a foreign discharge in order to be- 
 come press representative for the London Hippodrome. 
 On his return to America, Duggan exploited the trans- 
 continental tour of Jane Cowl in "Smilin' Thru," which 
 set a record at the Cort Theatre. Chicago has been 
 more or less the new manager's home for the last ten 
 years and his fondness for our Wonder City encouraged 
 the Selwyns to place him here permanently. In addi- 
 tion to the managerial duties, Duggan will care for t he 
 publicity of the Selwyn attractions. 
 
 The Editor of the Souvenir Program tried 
 in vain to secure Mr. Levy's photo, but 
 even the "borrow or steal" system failed 
 to give Abe the space he so righ tly deserves. 
 
 1" 
 
Avoid Loss — Add Comfort and Sanitation 
 
 In the washroom much can be done to help or to hinder the popularity of the theatre. 
 
 ROUSSO'S INDIVIDUAL 
 LOCKED-ON TOWEL SERVICE 
 
 The installation of Rousso's cabinets and In- 
 dividual Locked-On Towels in the new Harris and 
 Selwyn Theatres illustrates the interest the own- 
 ers have for public comfort and welfare and 
 further attests the popularity of this unsurpassed 
 system . 
 
 g^w^^^f This service supplies a clean CLOTH towel 
 
 for each person each time it is needed; a towel 
 that no one has used since it left the laundry and no one will use again until it is re-washed 
 and sterilized ; a service that eliminates the fire hazard which is always present where piles 
 of combustible waste are allowed to accumulate; a service that fosters good will in your 
 patrons and makes them glad to come back. 
 
 Individual Towel & Cabinet Service Co. 
 
 Cabinet Installed Free. 
 
 Towels Supplied at SI. 50 
 
 Per Month and Up. 
 
 33rd Street at Cottage Grove Avenue 
 Phone Douglas 3024 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 TELEPHONE SEELEY 7440 
 
 Twenty-six Years' Experience at Your Service 
 
 Entire Box Office Equipment and Tickets for 
 this Theatre Furnished by 
 
 The 
 
 Arcus Ticket 
 
 Co. 
 
 348 No. Ashland Avenue 
 Chicago 
 
 ROLL [ R C E S D ] FOLDED 
 
 FOOTBALL TICKETS BASEBALL 
 
 Coupon Books — Numbered Printing 
 
 Union Label Furnished on Request 
 
 Best for Least Money 
 Quickest Delivery Correctness Guaranteed 
 
 Mrs. Snyder's 
 
 Home Made Candies 
 
 Kitchen and Offices 
 
 119 No. Wabash Avenue 
 Shops 
 
 119 No. Wabash Ave. 
 
 20 So. Dearborn Street 
 
 30 W. Washington Street 
 
 6 So. Michigan Boulevard 
 
 218 So. Michigan Boulevard 
 
 143 \Y. Jackson Boulevard 
 
 Chicaeo 
 
 Chicago's Mrs. Snyder says: 
 
 "I can't make all the candy in the world, 
 so I just make the best of it" — neither 
 does she advertise, but she wishes to show 
 her good will toward the stage folk and 
 public by contributing for this space. 
 
 30 
 
Announcing 
 
 the arrival of our new Fall and Winter woolens — exclusive patterns 
 in fine English worsteds — real Huddersfields, genuine Bannockburn 
 —king of all Scotch tweeds, and Donemars — celebrated homespuns 
 from Ireland. A complete assortment of the best known 
 American fabrics. 
 
 Come in and look over the beautiful 
 new shades — you'll see many of your 
 favorites in the latest patterns. 
 
 JmAMiAp 
 
 THREE STORES 
 71 East Monroe 7 North La Salle 
 
 and. our new store 
 
 157 North Michigan at Randolph 
 
 Compliments 
 
 UNITED 
 
 Theatre Ticket Office 
 
 City Hall Square Hotel 
 
 MISS CLARA GURNEY 
 MORTIMER SUCHARD 
 
 PHONES RANDOLPH; 
 
 (0021 
 0022 
 
 TYSEN 
 
 THEATRE TICKET SERVICE 
 
 INC. 
 
 UNION HOTEL 
 
 72 W. RANDOLPH STREET 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 Every Prominent Attraction, Theatre and Show in the United States uses 
 
 CUTS AND MATS 
 
 Made by 
 
 "PHIL" P. BENEDICT ENGRAVING COMPANY 
 
 1400 Broadway New York City 
 
 ''Phil" Is Known From Coast to Coast. 
 
 Theatrical Work A Specialty 
 
 31 
 
Our Successful Record 
 
 The Sel'wyn and Harris 
 Theatres are two of the 
 many downtouun buildings 
 on which the AMERICAN 
 
 Bond & Mortgage 
 
 COMPANY has handled the 
 First Mortgage Bond issues, 
 and represent a part of our 
 long Successful Record. 
 
 During the twenty years the American Bond & Mortgage Company 
 has been in business many thousands of investors thruout the 
 United States have purchased from us many millions of dollars of 
 First Mortgage Bonds, secured by improved city properties, and 
 without the loss of one dollar. 
 
 Many of these investors have not only received full payment of principal and 
 interest but in addition they have enjoyed substantial premiums. 
 
 During wars, panics and depressions as well as in periods of prosperity we have 
 always made a market for our offerings altho not having obligated ourselves to 
 do so. This has enabled our customers to realize on their bonds before maturity 
 when they had need for their money. 
 
 Bonds purchased from us have paid the highest interest return compatible with 
 safety. The full benefit of the interest rate received has always been passed 
 on to the investor. 
 
 Our Past Performance is Your Future Assurance 
 Write for Edition S-H of "Our Successful Record" 
 
 American Bond & Mortgage Company 
 
 INCORPORATED 
 Capital and Surplus Over $2,500,000 
 
 127 N. Dearborn Street 562 Fifth Avenue 
 
 Chicago New York 
 
 Detroit Grand Rapids Rockford Davenport Columbus Cleveland 
 
 32 
 
How William Anthony McGuire 
 Climbed the Heights 
 
 To Authorship A Chicago Boy Who Has Won Big Honors. 
 
 IN THESE DAYS of fierce competition 
 to reach the ever reading and always 
 eye-open public, it is something to 
 move up to the front rails and stick there. 
 It is all the more achievement when the 
 success deals with a play that could stay 
 in the Broadway district for a solid year 
 and to big business. Such an achievement 
 must be credited to William Anthony 
 McGuire whose clever "Six Cylinder Love " 
 proves that the author knows what people 
 want and knows how to write it for them. 
 
 Mr. McGuire had the old hard and fast 
 struggles of the writer. Listen to what he 
 s*ys: 
 
 "My first play, entitled the "Walls of 
 Wall Street, " was produced at South Bend, 
 Ind. while I was a student of Notre Dame. 
 The two leading parts were played by Allan 
 Dwan (then a professor at Notre Dame) 
 and myself . Outside of a very good perfor- 
 mance — by Dwan — and the loss of my 
 moustache during act two, there is 'really 
 nothing about that production worth re- 
 cording. Shortly after this production, 
 with no actual reason for so doing, I deci- 
 ded that I was a playwright, and with a 
 keen foresight, I perhaps did not realize at 
 the time, I started out to protect my career 
 by becoming dramatic critic of the South 
 Bend News. I don't know of any newspa- 
 pers that ever requested the syndicate 
 privilege of printing my criticisms, but I 
 do recall that I gave many an author and 
 actor tons of encouragement because I 
 never wrote a destructive criticism, and 
 for this reason my reviews did not attract 
 any special attention and, in due course, I 
 was relieved of my position. 
 
 "Thereafter, I wrote the "Heights" for Frank 
 Keenan. This play held the record for New York's 
 longest run until the advent of "Lightning," having 
 lasted -one more consecutive week on Broad wav. 
 After that, a very good book written by James Medill 
 Patterson, entitled "Rebellion" inspired my play "The 
 Divorce Question. " I thought Mr. Patterson's book so 
 well written that I felt his theme might be generally 
 accepted through the force of his literary ability. Dis- 
 agreeing with his theme, I wrote an answer, and this was 
 the play "The Divorce Question." I don't know 
 whether Mr. Patterson considered my play an answer, 
 but the public liked my story. The play ran almost an 
 entire season in Chicago, and four companies subse- 
 quently presented it on the road. After this I wrote 
 " Everyman's Castle, " which after a year's tour with an 
 all star cast, became "The Good Bad Woman." Until 
 you asked to chronicle my plays, I had happily forgotten 
 this incident. 
 
 WILLIAM ANTHONY McGUIRE 
 
 '■Then I wrote a play for A. H. Woods, of which 
 "Peace" was the theme. A general international fight 
 destroyed my thesis. After that I wrote "Six Cylinder 
 Love." The critics have been very generous to this 
 play, and the public more so. True, some of the critics 
 have accused me of employing "hokum" to obtain my 
 results, but I defy them to write a play reflecting Ameri- 
 can life without resorting to this so-called "hokum," 
 because what is so commonly designated is the American 
 way of living. For instance, it was not an author who 
 discovered the banana peel as the means of a laugh, nor 
 is it far fetched to say that bad coffee has been the 
 beginning of many a domestic squabble. 
 
 " Hokum" has been a very much misapplied word, 
 because after reducing it to its finest meaning, which 
 does it describe the more accurately, Charlie Chaplin 
 fighting in a pastry shop . . hitting someone with a 
 custard pie . . or Petruchio in the "Taming ol the 
 Shrew" throwing a side of beef at a valet." 
 
 33 
 
Buick Motor Cars 
 
 Sold in Chicago 
 by 
 
 James Levy Motors Co. 
 
 Fourteen Models 
 
 Priced from 
 
 $960.00 to $2,342.00 
 
 Michigan Avenue at 23rd St. 
 Phone 4626 Calumet 
 
 PORTRAITS 
 
 — BY PHOTOGRAPHY — 
 
 A portrait of husband or father, 
 as he is today, is one priceless 
 possession, which, probably, you 
 will never have — unless YOU ar- 
 range a sitting for him. 
 
 Phone Harrison 7588 
 
 Lewis-Smith 
 
 prices are not excessive. 
 
 Lewis-Smith 
 
 Studio 
 
 BLACKSTONE HOTEL 
 
 MICHIGAN AVE. 
 AT SEVENTH ST. 
 
 C/ucago 
 
 F. P. SMITH 
 
 Wire and Iron Works 
 
 General Offices 
 and Shops: 
 
 Fullerton. Clybourn and 
 Ashland Aves., Chicago 
 
 Telephone Lincoln jooo 
 
 We make a specialty of High Class 
 
 Ornamental Iron and Bronze 
 
 for Theatre Buildings 
 
 ESTABLISHED 1884 
 
 Branch Office: 175 N. Dearborn St. 
 Telephone Central 0439 
 
 Contractors for Selwyn -Harris, State- 
 Lake, Woods, Apollo, Blackstone, Ill- 
 inois and Colonial Theatres, Chicago; 
 the Hippodrome and Keith's Theatre, 
 Cleveland, Ohio; the Shubert Theatre, 
 St. Paul, Minn.; Capitol Theatre, 
 Davenport, Iowa; James Theatre, 
 Columbus, Ohio, and many others. 
 
 34 
 
De Jonghe's 
 
 CHICAGO, ILL. 
 
 Hotel and Restaurant 
 
 J. A. HICKEY, Pres. and Mgr. 
 
 Cuisine Francaise 
 Specialties Known All Over the World 
 
 After Theatre Parties a Specialty 
 
 — DANCING — 
 
 12 E. MONROE ST. 
 
 PHONE RANDOLPH 2144— "CALL EMIL" 
 
 Telephones Down Town Good Storage Facilities 
 
 Franklin 5244 
 
 Franklin 22.57 Prompt Service 
 
 Franklin .5714 
 
 Central Transfer 
 Company 
 
 Inc. 
 
 AUTO TRUCK SERVICE 
 Theatrical Work Our Specialty 
 
 Largest Theatrical Transfer 
 in the World 
 
 Contract Work by Day or Week 
 Solicited 
 
 D. E. LAWLER, Manager 
 
 Office— Room 10 
 
 125-127 NORTH WELLS STREET 
 
 Enterprise Building 
 
 THE H. C. MINER POSTERS HAVE STOOD THE 
 TEST FOR MANY YEARS 
 
 THEIR steadily increasing demand and popularity in the 
 trade are proof of the lithographing craftsmanship of every 
 poster bearing a Miner trade-mark — an identification of 
 better advertising. 
 
 The H. C. Miner Lithographing Co. 
 
 General Office and Plant 
 
 518-534 West 26th Street New York, N. Y. 
 
 35 
 
The 
 Wrecking, Excavating 
 
 - and - 
 Foundation Work 
 
 on the 
 TWIN THEATRES 
 
 done by 
 
 W. J. Newman 
 Go. 
 
 19 No. Curtis Street 
 Chicago 
 
 TELEPHONE MONROE ,?2.?2 
 
 Big Special Offer! 
 
 a 
 
 DOWN 
 
 k 
 
 Puts 
 this beautiful 
 new mode 
 "Best" Lamp 
 in your home. 
 
 Our salesman is in your neighborhood. 
 Watch for him. He will leave one for 
 
 Free Trial 
 
 without obligating you in any way — call 
 Randolph 1280, Local 165— or call at the 
 
 E COMMONWEALTH EDISON O 
 LECTRIC SHOPi3 
 
 72 WEST ADAMS ST. CHICAGO 
 
 P. IZENSTARK 
 
 SPORTING GOODS 
 
 •*► 
 
 HUNTING— GOLF— FOOTBALL AND 
 BASEBALL OUTFITS 
 
 GUNS— AMMUNITION— FISHING TACKLE 
 
 42 So. Clark St. 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 36 
 
Broadcasting Selwyn News 
 
 Julia Chandler, Publicity Director for the Selwyns, Keeps 
 Constant Tab on the Public Consciousness of Two Continents 
 
 JULIA CHANDLER 
 
 N A BIG, buff-paneled 
 office, at the top of the 
 Selwyn Theatre Build- 
 ing in the heart of the 
 theatrical district ot 
 New York City, a 
 young Southern woman 
 sits at a big square desk 
 broadcasting news of 
 one of the most active 
 and successful theatri- 
 cal firms in the world. 
 This woman is Julia 
 Chandler, and the firm 
 whose publicity she has 
 been directing for the 
 past three years is the 
 Selwyns. Some fine day 
 when you are in New 
 York, if you will drop in 
 for a chat with this fascinating bit of femininity who 
 keeps tab on the public consciousness of two continents 
 you'll hear some interesting things about "the psychol- 
 ogy of reiteration"; the "value to a producer of 
 public confidence"; "euphonious phraseology", and 
 other such phrases which Mrs. Chandler has applied 
 with phenomenal success in her job of "telling the 
 world ". 
 
 That last is her own graphic description of her work. 
 "The Selwyns produce the plays, and I tell the 
 world," is the way she tersely describes it. 
 
 Mrs. Chandler is singularly qualified to "tell the 
 world" for the Selwyns, and to tell it in a manner which 
 will make it listen, for behind her present work lie 
 twelve years of brilliant newspaper and magazine suc- 
 cess. She began her literary career, on the Pittsburgh 
 Post as a cub reporter, and found it about the most 
 thrilling experience which had come into her life, for 
 she came from an old Southern family whose men folk 
 frown disapproval on women who compete with them 
 in business and professional life. When she, therefore, 
 broke down their prejudice sufficiently to gain the oppor- 
 tunity to prove herself as capable as her brothers, she 
 felt she had to "make the grade". From Pittsburgh 
 she became a special feature writer for the Chicago 
 Tribune, spending four years in this city covering 
 "Sunday assignments" and contributing successfully 
 to magazines. Then came seven years in Washington, 
 D. C, where, as a dramatic critic and editor, Mrs. 
 Chandler had ample opportunity for the study of the- 
 atrical publicity and its purveyors. 
 
 "In the growth of the American Theatre there has 
 been no factor more vital than the evolution which has 
 occurred in the past ten years in theatrical publicity and 
 the people handling it, " she told the writer of this sketch 
 in her New York offices a couple of weeks ago. 
 
 "During my years in Washington I reviewed over 
 nine hundred plays. Ahead of each of these plays came 
 men, or women, so I saw and talked with representatives 
 of theatrical producers from every section of the world. 
 At the beginning of this period I observed that the 
 chief consideration of the press representative was to 
 get space. It didn't seem to matter to him whether 
 what was put in that space was calculated to help his 
 'show' and create confidence in its producer, or not. 
 His ruling passion was a 'showing for his New York 
 office'. Of course the agent wasn't entirely to blame 
 if the firm he represented was not sufficiently astute to 
 know whether the sort of publicity he put over was a 
 help or a hindrance. In most cases the New York office 
 was too deluged with other interests to take the time or 
 trouble to know what was being broadcasted across the 
 world in its name. Truth to tell Mr. New York Pro- 
 ducer hadn't thought very much about the public 
 consciousness and the sort of thing his agents all over 
 the world were shoving into it through the medium of 
 
 the press. He hadn't taken time to figure out the power 
 of the printed word with a gullible public. The effect 
 upon his reputation as a producer by the constant 
 repetition of tawdry publicity had not been driven home 
 to him. 
 
 "Then,' said Mrs. Chandler, 'he awakened. And 
 when he awakened the day of the new publicity had 
 dawned. I don't know just how it happened but we'll 
 imagine it was something like this: 
 
 "A certain star told her manager that she wanted 
 him to employ the most capable writer he knew to 
 handle her publicity. 'He must not only have earned 
 his reputation as a writer of character and force, but he 
 must know heaps and heaps about public consciousness. 
 He must know the value of continuously pounding into 
 that consciousness the right thought about me; about 
 the play in which I am to appear; and about you as 
 the producer of that play. I want the confidence of the 
 public to which I play, and I can't get it through sensa- 
 tional stories about my jewels; the sort of baths I take; 
 whether or not I approve bobbed hair; or if I scratch 
 my husband. ' 
 
 " Mr. Producer objected that such a man (or woman) 
 would cost money. 'Then there's no better place to 
 spend it,' we'll suppose the star, sane enough, to have 
 replied. 
 
 "Then let's suppose that Mr. Producer yielded, and 
 having had his attention called to the vital matter, 
 watched the results for this particular star with this 
 particular play, and was amazed to see the public 
 consciousness so reached by the man he had employed 
 to 'tell the world' through the public press that by 
 and by the world gave the player in question an adora- 
 tion based on such lasting things as respect for her art; 
 confidence in the producer managing her; assurance 
 that the play in which she would appear would be 
 always the best obtainable. And the reaction of the 
 box office proved that the player who had thus begun 
 the era of a new publicity in the theatrical world had 
 been a thousand times right. 
 
 "Now the new publicity may not have begun just 
 this way, but it did happen — even before I gave up my 
 dramatic desk in Washington — that Mr. New York 
 Producer awakened to some understanding of the im- 
 portance of feeding the public consciousness with a type 
 of publicity which would make that public believe in 
 him. Somehow he came to the realization that he would 
 be judged according to the manner in which he was 
 represented in the press. He found out that it wasn't 
 enough to present the best plays he could get with the 
 best companies he could engage to play them and the 
 most artistic productions he could have builded. He 
 had to let the world know he was doing this, and had to 
 let it know in a way which would make that world 
 believe it. 
 
 " It was a vital discovery — vital to the producer and 
 as vital to the public. Out of it has grown a complete 
 evolution in the publicity departments of the biggest 
 theatrical firms in the world. The press representative 
 who keeps his (or her) fingers on the pulse of the world 
 must be a born psychologist. He must know people. 
 He must have the ability to write such a good story 
 that the Metropolitan Editor is glad to get it, but tell 
 it in such a way that it will forever reiterate the thing 
 he is trying to have sink into public consciousness. He 
 cannot do it obtrusively. He must have infinite tact, 
 both in his writing and in his personal associations. 
 Underlying, overlying, and forever permeating his work 
 must be his own saturation with his purpose, which is to 
 win the confidence of the amusement-seeking world for 
 the firm he is representing. To do this the Publicity 
 Director must have faith in his firm and the artistic 
 value of this firm's contributions to the theatre. Other- 
 wise he might 'tell the world' until Gabriel blew his 
 trumpet and the world wouldn't believe a word of it." 
 
 37 
 
THE WOODWORK IN 
 The Selwyn and Harris Theatres 
 
 — was — 
 
 Manufactured, Finished and Erected 
 
 — by - 
 
 Matthews Bros. Mfg. Go. 
 
 MILWAUKEE, WIS. 
 
 Chicago Office New York Office 
 
 605 No. Michigan Ave. 52 Vanderbilt Ave. 
 
 The Lighting Fixtures 
 
 installed in the magnificent SELWYN and HARRIS THEATRES 
 ■were designed and made in the Shops of 
 
 Victor S. Pearlman & Company 
 
 under the personal supervision of MR. VICTOR S. PEARLMAN. 
 
 Among the recent Chicago achievements of this firm are 
 
 -THE CHICAGO THEATRE", "THE TIVOLI THEATRE", 
 
 "DRAKE HOTEL" ( important portions), 
 
 -THE QUIGLEY MEMORIAL", and now furnishing the 
 
 -TRIANON" Dance Palace. ' 
 
 An invitation is extended to you to visit our Galleries when in need of 
 special lighting fixtures for any purpose. 
 
 ^Victor S. ^Pearlman & Company 
 
 Telephones Harrison 2707-8-9 
 
 533-535 S. Wabash Avenue, Chicago, III. 
 
 38 
 
Three Chicago celebrities telling 
 
 Mayor John F. Hylan 
 
 of New York 
 
 what the "Twin Theatres" mean as 
 a fulfillment of the "I Will" spirit. 
 
 Jerome Crowley, Chief Fitzmorris and Parnell Egan telling Mayor John F. Hylan of 
 New York, how proud Chicago is of the new Twin Theatres. Mayor Hylan replied: "New 
 York extends greetings to Chicago for having Mr. Harris and the Selwyns in their midst; 
 our people in New York are fully aware of the splendid theatre enterprises of these gentle- 
 men on Forty-second street. My sincere congratulations to the good people of Chicago for 
 making it an object for the New York producers to enlarge their scope of work. Let the 
 people of New York and the people of Chicago enjoy the shows these combined playhouses 
 will offer while they are good, clean shows." 
 
 39 
 
JOSEPH G. GLASER 
 
 ^ 
 
 Chicago's Oldest, Largest and Youngest 
 
 l&Btb (to iraUr 
 
 «g 
 
 "No Misrepresentation 
 Built The Glaser Reputation 
 
 1444-48 So. Michigan Ave. 
 
 » 
 
 Compliments of 
 
 A Friend 
 
 id 
 
Hearty Congratulations from 
 
 Mayor James M. Curley 
 
 of Boston, Mass. for the Twin Theatres. 
 
 MAYOR JAMES M. CURLEY 
 
 City of Boston, Office of the Mayor 
 
 August 29, 1922 
 I assure you it is a very great pleasure to extend to Messrs. Archibald Selwyn, Edgar Sel- 
 wyn and Sam H. Harris, representative leaders of the theatrical profession, my hearty con- 
 gratulation upon the dedication of the Twin Theatres at Chicago. No men in America have 
 more loyally served the highest and best character of dramatic presentation, and in the dedi- 
 cation of this beautiful theatre I sincerely wish them not only that prosperity which they so 
 eminently deserve, but even more than they can now anticipate. 
 
 JAMES M. CURLEY, 
 
 Mayor. 
 
 41 
 
SAM H. HARRIS' and IRVING BERLIN'S 
 
 Mubu lax ©tjeatr? 
 
 NEW YORK 
 Is Now Playing 
 
 Tie "MUSIC BOX REVUE" 
 
 The Last vvora in Entertainment 
 of its Kjna in the vvorla 
 
 COMING TO CHICAGO 
 
 MR. ALEXANDER CARR and MR. BARNEY BERNARD 
 
 CONTINUE TO OVERSTOCK THE 
 NEW YORK LAUGH MARKET WITH 
 THE SEASON'S BIGGEST HIT 
 
 "PARTNERS 
 AGAIN" 
 
 now piaying SELWYN THEATRE ^ x^ 
 
 DUE IN CHICAGO THIS WINTER 
 
 42 
 
The Treasurers for the "Twin Theatres" 
 
 AT THE HARRIS 
 
 EDDIE SAUNDERS — JAMES SHEEHAN 
 
 Courtesy in a box office contributes much to the success of an engagement. Sometimes this 
 fact is overlooked. In assembling the treasurers for the Twin Theatres, the management sought 
 the qualification of courtesy, for COURTESY will be the positive rule of these theatres. Play- 
 goers who select the Twin Theatres for their theatrical joys are entitled to "At Home" atmos- 
 phere. If such a feeling isn't prevalent, whether you are a purchaser of tickets or merely ask- 
 ing for information, the manager's office is your redress. The four new treasurers were chosen 
 with a view of making the Twin Theatres' box offices the leaders in theatre box office politeness. 
 
 AT THE SELWYN 
 
 SAM S. CHON — ABE HALLE 
 
 43 
 
"MY 
 LOVE 
 TO 
 MY 
 
 FRIENDS 
 IN 
 
 DEAR 
 OLE 
 
 CHICAGO— 
 THIS NOTABLE 
 NIGHT— THE 
 OPENING OF 
 THE TWIN THEATRES." 
 
 — Peggy O'Neil 
 
 Back in New York for a brief stay after a 2- 
 years' engagement in "Paddy the Next Best 
 Thing", Savoy Theatre, London. 
 
 u 
 
Stars On The Horizon! 
 
 T 
 
 HE management of the Twin Theatres has 
 many pleasant surprises in store for the en- 
 joyment of the Chicago playgoers. 
 
 The new season will not pass without the always 
 welcomed visit of that beloved star, Jane Cowl. 
 
 Wallace Eddinger and Mary Nash will be seen in 
 the highly successful Cort Theatre, New York 
 hit, "Captain Applejack." 
 
 The Selwyn Studios in New York were damaged 
 by fire last week, several productions and many 
 antiques being totally lost. 
 
 Frank Reicher, Selwyns new stage director, had 
 Mr. Ben-Ami join him in Berlin to see "Du Wunder- 
 lichen Geschichten des Kapellmeister Kreisler" which 
 the Selwyns will produce here under the title of "The 
 Mysterious Tales of Hoffman" with Mr. Ben-Ami in 
 the title role. 
 
 IF there is any advance news 
 wanted concerning Sam H. 
 Harris' or the Selwyns' stars and 
 attractions, write the publicity 
 department of the Twin Theatres 
 for immediate information. 
 
 Wallace Eddinger and Mary Nash, in "Captain Applejack." 
 
 Jane Cowl 
 
 One of the early attractions will be Barney Bernard 
 and Alexander Carr in "Partners Again." 
 
 William Collier will return to his loyal Chicago 
 following with "The Music Box." 
 
 The last effort in musical entertainment, and 
 that's what "The Music Box" is, will be a Chicago 
 treat this season. 
 
 "It's A Boy" is another Sam II. Harris success 
 that is credited to the fertile brain ol William 
 Anthony McGuire. 
 
 Chicagoans will learn with interest of the latest 
 development in the career of one of its most promising 
 buds, Louise Prussing, who is the daughter of 
 Eugene Prussing, a well known corporation lawyer of 
 Chicago. Miss Prussing is in "Six Cylinder Love.' 
 At one time the Prussings' home in Dearborn street, 
 was a center of hospitality for one of the most inter- 
 esting sets on the North side. At one time they lived 
 in Winnetka and there as on Dearborn street, some 
 of the best known men and women of Chicago were 
 their frequent callers. When Louise made her debut 
 she was acclaimed the most beautiful bud of the 
 season. Her hair was a beautiful spun gold color and 
 her eyes deep pools of blue with lashes that were a 
 special mark of beauty. 
 
 45 
 
IF YOU 
 DON'T 
 READ 
 
 VARIETY 
 
 YOU CANNOT 
 CLASS YOURSELF 
 AS A BONA-FIDE 
 FIRST-NIGHTER! 
 
 VARIETY reaches Chicago every Friday 
 morning, containing the news of the 
 Theatrical World when it is NEJVS. 
 Ask any dramatic editor or theatre manager 
 
 in Chicago. 
 
 i 
 
 Trice 
 
 20 Cents 
 
 New York Office 
 154 West 46th Street 
 
 Chicago Office 
 State-Lake Building 
 
 16 
 
Compliments 
 Amusement Service Corporation 
 
 THEATRE TICKETS?? 
 
 
 Phone Randolph 3489 
 Harry N. Waterfall 
 
 Palmer House Lobby 
 
 15 East Monroe Street 
 Originator of Theatre Ticket Ser- 
 vice in Chicago 
 
 
 Phone Dearborn 3800 
 Jack Horwits 
 
 141 N. Clark Street 
 
 Directly north 
 of Palace Music Hall 
 
 Our Service Charges 
 are Reasonable 
 
 Phone State 8400 
 Wm. Friedlander 
 
 Formerly Ernie Young's 
 
 53 W. Randolph St. 
 
 Opposite Woods Theatre 
 
 WIRE- 
 PHONE— 
 
 CALL 
 
 Phone Dearborn 3100 
 United Broadway Ticket Service 
 
 63 West Randolph Street 
 Opposite Garrick Theatre 
 
 OFFICE HOURS 
 
 9 A. M. to 9 P. M. 
 
 Reservations for Baseball, Football and other Amusements 
 
 AMUSEMENT SERVICE CORPORATION 
 
 47 
 
Plans of Exits — Twin Theatres 
 
 48 
 
i^7 
 
 £H7 
 

 * «. 
 
 Mv 4 
 
 r. ■ - - *, * 
 
 ■\^#H