The Broadway Anthology | Page 2

song on the morrow. But in cooking the news for the public?One a.m. is the same thing as noon day.?So they rushed the star with these questions:?"Not conscripted yet?..."?"How do you like this town?..."?"Will you give any encores tomorrow?..."?"When will the war end?..."?Ruthlessly he plowed through them,?Like a British tank at Messines.?The tenor wanted a bed,?But Lesville wanted a story....?On the platform patiently nestled were twenty six pieces of luggage, Twenty six pieces of luggage, containing more than their content, Twenty six pieces of luggage would get him the story, he had not given himself. Craftily, one lured the reporters to look on this bulging baggage, "Pillows and pillows and pillow...." was whispered,?"Tonight he will sleep on them."?Vulture-like swooped down the porters,?Bearing them off to the taxis.?Next morning the papers carried the story:?"Singer Transports His Own Bedding,"?But the artist slept soundly on Ostermoors that night.?The baggage held scores for the orchestra.
BETTER INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
He was the head of a large real estate firm,?And his avocation was seeking the good in a Better Industrial Relations Society. They were going to have an exhibit in their church building, At which it was to be proved?That giving a gold watch for an invention?That made millions for the factory owner?Was worthwhile.?But they needed a press agent?To let the world and themselves?Know that what they were doing was good.?I was chosen for the work,?But the head of the large real estate firm?Thought that half a column a day was too little?To record the fact that a cash register company?In which he owned stock?Had presented a medal to an employee who had remained with them At the same salary for fifteen years.?So he had me fired.?And the Better Industrial Relations Exhibit was a great success. And many of the morning and evening newspapers?Ran editorials about it.
THE PRIMA DONNA
She had been interviewed at all possible times,--?And sometimes the interviews came at impossible ones;?But it did not matter to her?As long as the stories were printed and her name was spelt correctly. So we sent a photographer to the hotel one day?To take pictures of her in her drawing room.?He was an ungentle photographer?Who had been accustomed to take pictures of young women?Coming into the harbor on shipboard, and no photograph was complete Without limbs being crossed or suchwise.?But she did not mind even that,?If the pictures were published the next day.?He took a great number of her in her salon,?And departed happy at the day's bagging.?A great international disturbance reduced all the white space available And no photographs were printed the next day?Of the prima donna.?And when I met her at rehearsal, she said very shortly:?"Je vous ne parle plus" and looked at me harshly.?Was I to blame for the international situation?
PRESS STORIES
Though bandsmen's notes from the street below resound,?And the voices of jubilant masses proclaim a glorious holiday, I painstakingly pick out words on the typewriter,?By fits and starts, thinking up a story about the great Metropolitan tenor. The typewriter keys now hold no rhythmic tingle.?But the local manager in Iowa wants the story.?He has engaged the great tenor for a date next March?When the Tuesday musicale ladies give their annual benefit for the Shriners. He wants the concert to be such a success,?That his Iowan town will henceforth be in the foreground?Of Iowan towns, as far as music is concerned.?So he has wired in for this tale about the singer,?A story about his wife and baby, and what the baby eats per diem. And though the call is to the street below,?Where jubilant masses proclaim the holiday,?I must finish the story about the tenor's wife and baby?To put the Iowan town in the foreground, as far as music is concerned.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF CREDIT
The Irish prize play had come back to Broadway.?Where to put the credit? On the astute manager?Who saw in it?A year of Broadway, two of stock, eternity in the movies;?Or the League of Public Spirited Women?Banded together to uplift the Drama--?That was the question stirring dramatic circles and the public. It had failed in its first run of three weeks at an uptown theatre Miserably,?Despite glowing reviews in all the dailies.?But this come-back?At a Broadway theatre, with electric lights, and transient crowds That would save it--?Was the universal verdict.?During the first week there was a tremendous fight?Between the two factions for the?Distribution of credit, and some critics said?The League of Public Spirited Women was responsible?For bringing the play back, because they had bulletined it, And others said it was the astute manager.?But no audience came to the play after the second week.?And it went to the storehouse.?No one fought any longer for?The distribution of credit.
TEARS
Beads of perspiration on a hot summer's afternoon,?A hurry call from the Ritz,?Thoughts of plastering the city in half an hour,?With twenty-four sheets and large heralds,?And a page or two