Charles now made his first real appearance before the public, and in spectacular fashion. It was the custom of a minstrel company to parade each day. With their record-breaking organization the Mastodons gave this feature of minstrelsy perhaps its greatest traditions. Wearing shining silk hats, frock-coats, and lavender trousers, and headed by "the world"s greatest minstrel band," the "Forty--Count "Em--Forty"
swayed the heart and moved the imagination of admiring mult.i.tudes wherever they went.
Charles, who to the end of his days despised a silk hat, now wore one for the first time, but under protest. However, he manfully took his place in the front set of fours with the ranking officers of the organization, and marched many a weary mile. So great was his dislike for a silk hat even then that he invariably carried a cap in his pocket and the moment the parade was over the abhorred headpiece was removed.
The first stop of the Mastodons was at Toledo, Ohio. A great crowd a.s.sembled around the theater, and the treasurer, a weak little man, seemed afraid to raise the window. "They"ll run over me," he whined.
"All right," said Charles. "I"ll take the window and sell the tickets."
Up to this time his only box-office experience had been as a mere lad at Hooley"s Theater in Brooklyn, but he handled that big crowd with such skill and speed that even "Big Bill" Foote, who was the manager of the company, patted him on the back and said a kind word.
Foote, who was Charles"s superior officer on this trip, was a type of the big, loud, bl.u.s.tering theatrical man of the time. He was six feet tall, and he towered over his youthful a.s.sistant, who was his exact opposite in manner and speech. Yet between these two men of strange contrast there developed a close kinship. The little, plump, rosy-cheeked treasurer could handle the big, bluff, noisy manager at will. Such was Charles Frohman"s experience with men always.
The first tour was replete with stirring incident. When the company reached Bradford, Pennsylvania, they found the town in the throes of oil excitement. Oil was on everybody"s tongue and ankle-deep in some of the streets. A great mult.i.tude collected at the theater. After the first part of the show the gallery, which was full of people, creaked and settled a few inches, creating a near panic. While this was being subdued an oil-warehouse on the outskirts of the town burst into flames.
Most of the volunteer firemen were in the theater watching the minstrels. When an agitated individual out on the sidewalk yelled "Fire!" a real panic started inside the theater and there was a mad rush for the door.
Charles had just finished taking the tickets and stood with the ticket-box in his hand, trying to calm the crowd, but he was as a straw in the wind. The maddened people ran over him. When the excitement cleared away he was found almost buried in mud, mire, and oil outside, his clothes torn to shreds, but he still grasped the precious box in his hand.
Now began a comradeship that was unique in the history of theatricals.
The Mastodons, destined for long and continuous a.s.sociation, became a sort of traveling club. It was really a fine group of men, and the favorite of the organization was the rosy little treasurer who day by day fastened himself more firmly in the hearts of his colleagues.
Nor was this due to the fact that he was "Haverly"s pocket-book," as the men affectionately called him, and their first aid in all financial need. He was the friend, confidant, and repository of all their troubles. With characteristic humor he gave each member of the company a day on which he could relate his hardships. He had a willing ear and an open hand.
When he could not give them the relief they sought he invariably said with that constant smile, "Well, I sympathize with you, anyhow."
Frohman was custodian of the company funds. One day in Denver four members of the company found themselves without a cent. Charles had tided them over so many difficulties that they hesitated to ask him again. As they talked their troubles over they saw him coming down the street. Instantly all four went down on their knees and held up their hands in supplication. When Charles saw them he said, "How much do you want?" And they got it.
He was always playing some practical joke. With half a dozen members of the company he formed a little club which often had supper after the play. This club was the fountain-head of a thousand jests and pranks. On one occasion Charles suggested that for the sake of the novelty of the thing every member of the club have his head shaved. The group went to a barber-shop. Only one chair was vacant, however, and Charles Cushman got that chair. While his dome was being shorn of every vestige of hair Charles nudged the others and they crept away. When Cushman emerged, bald as a babe, he found himself alone. The joke was on him.
In his joke Charles was usually aided and abetted by Johnnie Rice, one of the many famous minstrels of that name. Rice could never resist the temptation to stroke long whiskers. Whenever the house was unusually big Charles took Rice out of the company for the first part and got him to a.s.sist him with the ticket-taking. Any spectator with a long facial hirsute growth was sure to have it caressed to the accompaniment of "Ticket, please."
Sometimes the men in the company, knowing of Rice"s eccentricity, often watched the gallery for such a performance, and it invariably made them laugh. Once while the Mastodons were playing an engagement at the Olympic in St. Louis they were surprised to find Rice sitting in a front orchestra seat, wearing a long pair of Dundreary whiskers. He looked so solemn that every one on the stage burst into laughter. It almost broke up the performance. Charles had provided the whiskers.
* * *
It was on this minstrel tour that Charles Frohman gave the first real expression to his talents for publicity. Everything about a minstrel company was showy and flashy. So Charles originated a unique idea of establishing a reputation for solvency. He bought a small iron safe about three feet high. On it were painted in large gilt letters, "Treasurer, Haverly"s Mastodon Minstrels."
In reality there was very little need for this safe, because "Jack"
Haverly"s constant and insistent demands for cash kept the company coffers stripped of surplus.
Charles saw in this safe a spectacular means of advertising. It was put conspicuously on the top of the first load of baggage that went to the hotel. He always engaged at least four men to unload it from the truck.
It was then placed in a conspicuous position in the hotel lobby and invariably drew a comment like this:
"Gee whiz! That Haverly show has got so much money that it is carrying a safe to hold it."
This was precisely the response that Charles desired. No sooner was the safe unloaded in the lobby than Charles approached it with great ceremony, holding a bunch of one-dollar bills in his hand. This immediately attracted a crowd. With an admiring gallery, he would stow away the money. Just as soon as the crowd dispersed he would be back on the job removing this "prop" capital to where it was needed.
He was always alert to publicity possibilities. Among other things he organized a drum corps composed of volunteers who were only too glad to serve him. He inspired this corps to such proficiency that its marching and counter-marching became a feature of the parades. By diverting the drum corps to one part of the town and the parade to another, having them unite later on, he was able to attract two big street crowds and then bring them together at a common point.
All the while the boy was growing in responsibility. Without a murmur he a.s.sumed practically all the duties of manager. He arranged the parades, visited the newspaper offices, devised new numbers for the company, handled the money, and always remained serene, undisturbed, smiling, and optimistic.
Now came evidence of his initiative. While his first desire was to build up the attractiveness of his bill, he combined with it a genuine desire to develop his a.s.sociates. Frequently he would say to men like the three Gorman brothers--George, James, and John--who were among his prime pals in the company:
"Why don"t you rehea.r.s.e some new steps? I"ll go on and watch you at rehearsals and we can put it in the bill."
Out of such incidents as this came a dozen new features.
* * *
During this tour Charles displayed on many occasions what amounted to a reckless disregard of danger. He had proved on the Dillon tour that he was always willing to take a chance.
Once while climbing a steep incline on the way to Gra.s.s Valley in California their special train stopped. When he asked what the trouble was he was told that they would have to wait on a switch while another train came down the single track. He was afraid he would miss the evening"s performance, so he asked the engineer if he could beat the down train to the double track. On being told that there was a chance, he said:
"Take it and go as fast as you can." He made his town in time.
Again in Colorado his train was stopped by a slight fire on a bridge. He urged the conductor to go across, and was so insistent that the man yielded, and the train got over just before the flames leaped up and the structure began to crackle.
What would have been an ordinary theatrical season waned. A minstrel company, however, seldom closed for the summer, so the tour continued.
For the first time Charles Frohman crossed the continent. Despite its high-sounding name and the glitter and splash that marked its spectacular progress from place to place, the long trip of the Mastodons was not without its hardships, for business was often bad. Nor did it lack interesting episodes.
Once while making an over-Sunday jump from St. Paul to Omaha the train broke down somewhere in Iowa, and at seven o"clock the company was four hours from its destination. The house had been sold out. Charles immediately began to send optimistic and encouraging telegrams.
"Hold the crowd," he wired. "We are on the way. Tell them we will give them a double show."
From every station he sent on some cheering message. When the train was half an hour from Omaha he sought out Sam Devere, the prize banjoist of the company and a great fun-maker.
"Go into the baggage-car and black up," he said to Sam. "I want to rush you on to the theater as soon as we get to town."
They reached Omaha at eleven-fifteen o"clock. Charles hustled Devere up to the opera-house in a hack. The comedian went before the curtain and entertained the audience until midnight. When the company arrived not twenty people had left. The final curtain dropped at two-thirty o"clock before a delighted but weary crowd. The telegrams from the treasurer which were read to the audience had saved the day--and the receipts.
In the early stages of this long journey of the Mastodons came an episode that made an indelible impress upon the memory of young Charles.
In view of the later history of the two actors in it, it is both picturesque and historic.
It was in Cleveland, and the day was hot. The Mastodons had just finished their parade, and Charles, weary, perspiring, and wearing the abhorred silk hat, entered the box-office of the Opera House on Cleveland Avenue. Sitting in the treasurer"s seat at the window he saw a st.u.r.dy lad fingering a pile of silver dollars. He slipped them in and out with an amazing dexterity. Hearing a noise, he looked up and beheld young Frohman with the tile tilted back on his head.
The boys" eyes met. Into each came a wistful look.
"I wish I had that silk hat of yours," said the boy at the window.
"I wish I could do what you are doing with that money," was the response from the envied one.
Such was the first meeting between Charles Frohman and A. L. Erlanger.
Here is another episode of those early days that resulted in a life-long and significant friendship. In a Philadelphia newspaper office Charles met a rangy, keen-eyed young man named Alf Hayman, who was advance-agent for Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Florence. When Hayman and Charles had concluded their business they started out for a walk. The Colonnade Hotel, at the corner of Fifteenth and Chestnut streets, was then the fashionable hotel of the city. In the course of this walk the two boys (they were each scarcely twenty) stopped in front of the hostelry, and Charles said:
"Some day I hope to have enough money to stop at the Colonnade."
He never forgot this, and whenever he met Hayman in Philadelphia he would always insist upon walking over to the hotel and recalling the conversation. Hayman afterward became general manager of all the Charles Frohman forces and remained until the end perhaps the closest of all the business a.s.sociates of the manager.