4 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY | 4 LIBRARY % | EVANSTON, ILLINOIS | BELASCO DINNER MR. DAVID BELASCO GIVEN BY The Society of Arts and Sciences HOTEL BILTMORE Sunday Evening, ^December //, r()21 Compliments of J. S. HIRSH Chairman Dinner Commit. zAddress / DAVID BELASCO delivered at the dinner given by The Society of Arts and Sciences in honor of his career in the theatre BILTMORE HOTEL NEW YORK. CITY V Sunday Evenmg December II, IQ2I w fork ®ribmt£ First to Last the Truth: News, Edi¬ torials—Advertisements Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations. SUNDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1921 The Master of Suspense It has been said of David Belasco, who lately celebrated his fortieth year as a theatrical producer, that he is a master of suspense. Up to Mr. Belasco's advent the audience too frequently knew what was going to happen in a play before it actu¬ ally happened. Belasco kept it guessing and excited. To that faculty as an author and a producer he owed much of his early success. But he soon learned that suspense was not enough. He was one of the first American producers to feel an obligation to give his patrons their money's worth. He stinted no ex¬ pense on his productions. He got the best actors that were to be had and patiently trained them in the parts they were to play. He spent money lavishly on scenery and prop¬ erties and costumes. His patrons did not know when they entered his theatres how the play was going to "turn out." They did know that they would see a good show, well acted and well put on. That was enough for them. They missed few Belasco produc¬ tions. Belasco has been well rewarded, but he has worked hard for his re¬ ward. He may be accused by the carping of employing stale threatri- cal tricks, of working melodrama for all it was worth, or descending now and then to pure claptrap to get effects. But he got the effects. And the effects were what playgoers wanted. His influence on the drama has been distinctly good. Because of him and of the Frohmans and of many other producers who have fol¬ lowed him we see better plays to¬ day than we saw a generation ago. This will be disputed by "Old Play¬ goer" and "Theatricus" and other valued correspondents, but it is a fact nevertheless. P. T. Barnum said that the public liked to be humbugged, but he not¬ withstanding always gave them the best show that money and brains could provide. It was the good show and not the humbugging sideshows that made his fame and fortune. Belasco early discovered that the people know when they are getting value received, and that is what he always gave them. He succeeded for the same reason that every able and honest man succeeds: because he played straight and fair with those upon whose support he de¬ pended for his prosperity. NEW YORK HERALD PUBLISHED BY THE SUN-HERALD CORPORATION, 280 BROADWAY TELEPHONE, WORTH 10,000 Directors and officers: Frank A. Munsey, President; Ervin Wardman, Vice-President; Wm. T. Dewart, Treasurer; R. H. Tithering- ton, Secretary. SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1921 David Belasco's Forty Years. There may have been other theatre managers who deserved a banquet with the same purpose as the one to be given to-night in honor of David Belasco to celebrate the rounding out of forty years of activity in the dramatic profession. Some of the stalwart figures of the palmy days must have labored just as long in the vineyards of art. John Ellslee devoted a notable career to the cause of the drama in the middle West. There were other impresarios of that period who lived to see the gradual evolution of the theatre from the simplicity of its earlier days in the United States. Yet it is doubtful if any one of them, however long his term of ser¬ vice may have been, lived to see so many changes in the theatre as David Belasco has witnessed. He began when the Far West was for¬ tunate in the possession of some famous actors, although the material resources of the theatres were mod¬ est in comparison with the facilities at the command of the managers of to-day. He has lived to control the most completely equipped playhouse in the United States. He is able to place at the service of his dramatists all that science has placed at the dis¬ posal of the theatre's art. Then he has passed through every stage of the development of the drama. He made his reputation by the production of the conventional melodramas and comedies of the late '80s and the years immediately suc¬ ceeding. Yet he was ever ready to encourage a new tendency in the theatre. He was always hospitable to young playwrights. When Eugene Walter appeared above the surface it was for Mr. Belasco that he wrote his best play, "The Easiest Way." When Avery Hopwood was earning his first laurels Mr. Belasco com¬ missioned him to write "Nobody's Widow." Edward Knoblock is an¬ other American playwright who profited by Mr. Belasco's recognition. Indeed, the catholicity of his taste made him wiling to accept plays from any source so long as they offered opportunity to him and his players. He has shown no discrimination against the foreign stage. He was willing to risk even "The Secret" of Henri Bernstein, so interested was he in the skill with which the play was written. Now he is inviting Sacha Guitry and Picard to his stages. Herman Bahr and Franz Molnar contributed brilliantly to the repertoire of Mr. Belasco's theatre, which is sufficient evidence of his ability to recognize the good in the dramatists of the Central Empires of yesteryear. Of course he inevitably enriched the list of fine actors on the Ameri¬ can stage, but it would be impossible to dwell here on all the achievements crowded into these forty years of ai-tistic activity. It is indeed enough that a manager should have done so much for the cultivation of the drama. Mr. Belasco took his good where he found it. Playwrights of all countries were welcomed to his theatre so long as they could pro¬ vide something available for his uses. He did demand, however, that their work should have genuine merit. He could bring that virtue to its fullest maturity. No other American man¬ ager was ever such a master of theatrical equipment. He was as broad minded in this respect as he was in regard to the playwrights. It was essential, however, that there should be deference to the genuine spirit of art. Nothing that was fad¬ dish and extravagant was adopted by Mr. Belasco merely because it was new. There had to be artistic worth in the manner of producing his plays, just as there had to be genuine worth in them. To maintain such a record for forty years is of itself an achievement worthy of the genius of any manager. The Evening Mail Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by the Mail and Express Co., 25 City Hall Place, New York City. HENRY L. STODDARD, President and Editor. DANIEL NICOLL, Publisher; W. H. STEPHENS, Sec'y. SUBSCRIPTION RATE, POSTPAID, DOMESTIC. One year, $10.00;; six months, $5.00; one month, $1.00. MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for republication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this paper, and also the local news. MONDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1921. The Wisdom of Forty Years. David Belasco has been a producer of plays for forty years. He is now at the top of his profession, a man whose genius and authority are recognized and accepted all over the world. He has a record of wonderful achievement in an art whose subject is human life. He has given to it a fidelity of devo¬ tion and an intelligence of perception rare even among the most successful. The wisdom of such a man, engaged in such a work, should commend itself to thoughtful people of all occupations—especially to those whose careers lie mainly before them. "In all these years," said Mr. Belasco himself, at a dinner in his honor, "it stands to reason that I must have learned something." He has, and he de¬ clares it took him years to learn it, though to de¬ fine it required but a moment. It is this: "Love is the only thing that matters, love is the one thing that counts." Mr. Belasco elaborated somewhat on his state¬ ment, but not at great length—really important truths do not call for many words. Those who would truly succeed must love their work; they must love those associated with them in their work; they must love the object of their work. This is the substance of what he has learned in forty years of labor and observation. Love implies belief. You must believe in your work if you expect to accomplish anything worth while. You must believe in those who work with you if you would secure that co-operation without which there can be no great attainment. You must believe in what you are working for—its ultimate and common good. Love/ belief, confidence, courage—these are the keynotes of human progress, the inspiration and the instruments of all triumphant effort. Either in in¬ dustry or in art, work that is for profit or wages only will fail, because it will lack the soul that makes it a living thing and gives it permanence. My dear . Hirsch; Let me thank you for the time and solicitude, the groat at¬ tention to the thousand and one details which you gave to the perfecting of the arrangement of the dinner of last night. I fully appreciate and understand all the pains and labor it entailed. I shall never forget that evening and how much of its success was due to your untiring efforts. it was, to ma, a very touching occasion and I am deeply grateful for your part In it. With ray thanks again and again, yours faithfully, Now york, December 12th, 1921. PB 1092-165-SB D-T 3 ins: r,j 812.091 B426a