PROFITS ON POPULAR PLAYS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2366, 5 December 1908, Page 12 (Supplement)

PROFITS ON POPULAR PLAYS.

THE" £ S. D. OF STAGE' SUCCESSES.

“Everything ilie touches seems to turn to gold.” A little coterie of •actors and pressmen were talking together in'a certain chib, not a hundred rallies from Trafalgar Square, when one of the Thespians mode this remark concerning Mr J. M. Barrie. Id was saicl that during the first week of his new play, “What Every Woman Knows,” at the Duke of York’s Theatre,- seats were booked to the value of nearly £IO,OOO, 'which meant, as tho money capacity of tho house is nearly 300, that .even if no more booked seats were sold, the play would bo performed to ui full house for five weeks. WHAT “THE LITTLE MINISTER” BROUGHT IN.

And probably this is nor exaggerated in any way, for tho success of Mr Barrio’s books and plays has become almost monotonous. His “Little Minister” ililas long since passed the £ 100.000 mark in net profit —a play, by the way, out of which Mr Cyril Mauclo and his partner were at one time taking £2,000 per week. “Peter Pan,” “Quality Street,” and “The Admirable Crichton” were other successful plays, which are estimated to havo yielded the author between £4OO and £SOO per week for quite a considerable time.

Referring to a few more recent plays, it might be mentioned that 1 The Merry Widow” has been a goldmine to its author. Since its first American production at Gyraouee, Mr Henry AY. Savage has paid in royalties close upon £30,000. which works out at something like £SOO per week for the author. During the first'two years of “Ben Hur” in tho States—a play which wa s produced at Drury Lane five years ago—it secured for its lucky owners no less a sum Vhan £200,000. of which £20,000 wa* paid to the late General Lew.AYallace, the author of the book from which the play wins adapted.

THE GIBBER T-SCLLIYAN OPERAS.

Another piece which first saw the light lin America —“'Airs AA’iggs of the Cabbage Patch” —is said to have yielded more than half a million pounds .sterling, while the recent revival of “H.AI.S. Pinafore” and “The Mikado” at tho Savoy recalls the fact that Sir AA r . S. Gilbert’s operas alone provide him with something like £12,000 a year. “Pygmalion and Galatea” is' said to have contributed £50,000 to the dramatist's ample fortune.

In the height of the Gilbert and ■Sullivan boom’, it might be mentioned, these, prosperous partners had as many as twelve companies running at one time, all playing Savoy opera, requiring an outlay and expenses,in salaries of £3.500 per week, or upwards of £IBO,OOO a year. And yet Mr Gilbert’s profits from half-a-dozen of his oner*is is estimated at £90.000. R EM A RKA BLE AMERICA X PLAYS.

Air George Dance, who wrote “A Chinese Honeymoon.” tho most successful musical comedy of recent years, which ran for two years and eight- mouths, made between £60,000 and £70,000 out of the production. No London play, however, has ever boon so financially successful as “Rip Van Winkle,” ‘in which Joseph- Jefferson played the title-role no fewer than 5,000 times. This play earned the amazing sum of £1.000,000 r and for throe successive seasons at Boston Theatre it averaged £4,600 a week in gross returns. “The Old Homestead,” another American favorite, as credited with earning £9/50,000' in twelve years.

WHAT SOME MANAGERS MISSED

Against these .successes might be placed “Charley’s Aunt.” which earned £200,000 for Air Pcuiey alone, although lie had to share tho profits wil.lt two others who were with him in the enterprise. And at is -a remarkable fact that Air Brandon Thomas, the author, offered this pi’liy to several managers and they declined it. At last in despair lie sought tho assistance of «i- City financier, and thi s gentleman put about £I,OOO into the venture, an investment which yielded him no less. than £37,000; while royalties amounting to £3,000 have sometimes accrued to him in one week.

“Our Bovs,” which ran for four years in London, returned a- weekly profit of £4OO during that period; whilo Air Edward Terry, after paving nearly £40,000 in fees to Air Pinero, the author, cleared £60,000 out of

“Sweet Lavender,” which reminds one that All* Pinero is perhaps the highest-paid dramatist in the country. Ho receives £2O for each performance of a pi!ay, irrespective of a fixed sum paid in advance. “The Second Airs Tanquerny” earned him no less than £60,000. PLAYS SOLD FOR “A SONG.” As a contrast to these, fortunes earned by dramatists on one play, it might be mentioned that the late H. J. Bvron, the author of “Our Boys,” sold the entire rights for £3OO. Perhaps the worst stroke of business the lute “Owen Hall” ever did was when he parted with the rights of “The Gaiety Girl” and “An. Artist’s Atodel” for £550 and £BSO respectively, although he was compensated to an extent by receiving £4,000 for “The Geisha.”*

A £lO note was Vill that Lytton got for his “Lady of Lyons,’ a play which must hive yielded scores of thousands of pounds profit. Tom Taylor received less for liis hundred plays than one of our successful living dramatists would got for a single comedy, while Charles Reade’s thirteen dramas probably did not pay him at the rate of a shilling an hour for the time he spent on writing them.