Just about that time a little Scot, James M. Barrie by name, already a distinguished literary figure who had blossomed forth as a playwright with "Walker London" and "The Professor"s Love Story," came to America for the first time. For three people destined from this time on to be inseparably entwined in career and fortune, it was a memorable trip. For Barrie it meant the meeting with Charles Frohman, who was to be his greatest American friend and producer; for Miss Adams it was to open the way to her real career, and for Frohman himself it was to witness the beginning of an intimacy that was perhaps the closest of his life.
Barrie"s book, "The Little Minister," had been a tremendous success, and, not having acquired the formality of a copyright in America, the play pirates were busy with it. Frohman, after having seen the performance of "The Professor"s Love Story," had cabled Barrie, asking him to make a play out of the charming Scotch romance. Barrie at first declined. Frohman, as usual, was insistent. Then followed the Scotchman"s trip to America.
Under Frohman"s influence he had begun to consider a dramatization of "The Little Minister," but the real stimulus was lacking because, as he expressed it to Frohman, he did not see any one who could play the part of _Babbie_.
Now came one of those many unexpected moments that shape lives. On a certain day Barrie dropped into the Empire Theater to see Frohman, who was out.
"Why don"t you stop in down-stairs and see "Rosemary"?" said Frohman"s secretary.
"All right," said Barrie.
So he went down into the Empire and took a seat in the last row. An hour afterward he came rushing back to Frohman"s office, found his friend in, and said to him, as excitedly as his Scotch nature would permit:
"Frohman, I have found the woman to play _Babbie_ in "The Little Minister"! I am going to try to dramatize it myself."
"Who is it?" asked Frohman, with a twinkle in his eye, for he knew without asking.
"It is that little Miss Adams who plays _Dorothy_."
"Fine!" said Frohman. "I hope you will go ahead now and do the play."
The moment toward which Frohman had looked for years was now at hand. He might have launched Miss Adams at any time during the preceding four or five seasons. But he desired her to have a better equipment, and he wanted the American theater-going public to know the woman in whose talents he felt such an extraordinary confidence. He announced with a suddenness that was startling, but which in reality conveyed no surprise to the few people who had watched Miss Adams"s career up to this time, that he was going to launch her as star.
[Ill.u.s.tration: COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY CHARLES FROHMAN
_MAUDE ADAMS_]
Some of his friends, however, objected.
"Why split and separate a good acting combination?" was their comment, meaning the combination of John Drew and Miss Adams. To this objection Frohman made reply:
"I"ll show you the wisdom of it. I"ll put them both on Broadway at the same time."
He therefore launched Miss Adams in "The Little Minister" at the Empire and booked John Drew at Wallack"s in "A Marriage of Convenience." His decision was amply vindicated, for both scored successes.
Charles Frohman now proceeded to present Miss Adams with his usual lavishness. First of all he surrounded her with a superb company. It was headed by Robert Edeson, who played the t.i.tle role, and included Guy Standing, George Fawcett, William H. Thompson, R. Peyton Carter, and Wilfred Buckland.
With "The Little Minister" Charles Frohman gave interesting evidence of a masterful manipulation to make circ.u.mstances meet his own desires. He realized that the masculine t.i.tle of the play might possibly detract from Miss Adams"s prestige, so he immediately began to adapt several important scenes which might have been dominated by _Gavin Dishart_, the little minister, into strong scenes for his new luminary. These changes were made, of course, with Barrie"s consent, and added much to the strength of the role of _Lady Babbie_.
To the mastery of the part of _Lady Babbie_ Maude Adams now consecrated herself with a fidelity of purpose which was very characteristic of her.
Then, as always, she asked herself the question:
"What will this character mean to the people who see it?"
In other words, here, as throughout all her career, she put herself in the position of her audience. She devoted many weeks to a study of Scotch dialect. She fairly lived in a Scotch atmosphere. One of her friends of that time accused her of subsisting on a diet of Scotch broth.
As was his custom, Frohman gave the piece an out-of-town try-out. It opened on September 13, 1897, a date memorable in the Charles Frohman narrative, in the La Fayette Square Opera House in Washington. It was an intolerably hot night, and, added to the discomfort of the heat, there was considerable uncertainty about the success of the venture itself.
This was not due to a lack of confidence in Miss Adams, but to the feeling that the play was excessively Scotch. A brilliant audience, including many people prominent in public life, witnessed the debut and seemed most friendly.
Miss Adams regarded the first night as a failure. Financially the play limped along for a week, for the gross receipts were only $3,500. Yet when the play opened in New York two weeks later it was a spectacular success from the start.
Here is another curious example of the importance of the New York verdict. "Hazel Kirke," which became one of the historic successes of the American stage, tottered along haltingly for weeks in Philadelphia, Washington, and Baltimore. In the Quaker City, "Barbara Fritchie," with Julia Marlowe in the t.i.tle role, came dangerously near closing because of discouraging business. Yet she came to New York, and with the exception of "When Knighthood was in Flower," registered the greatest popular triumph she has ever known. This was now the case with "The Little Minister."
Miss Adams was irresistible as _Lady Babbie_. As the quaint, slyly humorous, make-believe gipsy, she found full play for all her talents, and she captured her audience almost with her first speech.
Charles Frohman sat nervously in the wings during the performance. When the curtain went down his new star said to him:
"How did it go?"
"Splendidly," was his laconic comment.
"The Little Minister" ran at the Empire for three hundred consecutive performances, two hundred and eighty-nine of which were to "standing room only." The total gross receipts for the engagement were $370,000--a record for that time.
On the last night of the run Miss Adams received the following cablegram from Barrie:
_Thank you, thank you all for your brilliant achievement. "What a glory to our kirk."_
BARRIE.
Maude Adams was now launched as a profitable and successful star. Like many other conscientious and idealistic interpreters of the drama, she had a great reverence for Shakespeare, and she burned with a desire to play in one of the great bard"s plays. Charles Frohman knew this. Then, as always, one of his supreme ambitions in life was to gratify her every wish, so he announced that he would present her in a special all-star production of "Romeo and Juliet."
Charles Frohman himself was always frank enough to say that he had no great desire to produce Shakespeare. He lived in the dramatic activities of his day. It was shortly before this time that his brother Daniel, entering his office one day, found him reading.
"I am reading a new book," he said; "that is, new to me."
"What is that?" was the query?
""Romeo and Juliet,"" he replied.
When Maude Adams dropped the role of _Babbie_ to a.s.sume that of _Juliet_ some people thought the transfer a daring one, to say the least. Even Miss Adams was a little nervous. Not so Frohman. To him Shakespeare was simply a playwright like Clyde Fitch or Augustus Thomas, with the additional advantage that he was dead, and therefore, as there were no royalties to pay, he could put the money into the production.
When Frohman went to rehearsal one day he noticed that the company seemed a trifle nervous.
"What"s up?" he asked, abruptly.
Some one told him that the players were fearful lest all the details of the costume and play should not be carried out in strict accordance with history.
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Frohman. "Who"s Shakespeare? He was just a man. He won"t hurt you. I don"t see any Shakespeare. Just imagine you"re looking at a soldier, home from the Cuban war, making love to a giggling school-girl on a balcony. That"s all I see, and that"s the way I want it played. Dismiss all idea of costume. Be modern."
The production of "Romeo and Juliet" was supervised by William Seymour.
It was rehea.r.s.ed in two sections. One half of the cast was in New York, with Faversham and Hackett; the other was on tour with Miss Adams in "The Little Minister." Seymour divided his time between the two wings, with the omnipresent spirit of Frohman over it all.
Miss Adams had made an exhaustive study of the part. After his first conference with her, Seymour wrote to Frohman as follows:
_I thought I knew my Shakespeare, but Miss Adams has opened up a new and most wonderful field. An hour with her has given me more inspiration and ideas than twenty years of personal experience with it._