The Power Behind The Scenes

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 466, 22 September 1928, Page 26

The Power Behind The Scenes

Mrs. Edgar Wallace Is a Busy Woman

Mr. Edgar Wallace were i asked how he finds it possible to write a mil- j lion words a year, he j would reply: “Ask Mrs. Wallace.”

She it is who listens to his plots j (says a “Daily Mail” contributor), discusses them with him, reads his maim- j scripts, searches his books for ideas 1 for plays, runs the plays, handles the money—in fact she is the business side of Edgar Wallace.

While Mr. Wallace is dreaming in his study—that is his own term for thinking out plots faster than anyone else can—his wife is manipulating a maze of figures, which represents the business operations of the most prolific author. When I called on Mrs. Wallace she

tore herself away from her work and gave me a few secrets about her husband. She said: “Of course, it is a busy life for me. I have to read every word he has written, and I am probably the greatest Edgar Wallace fan. Edgar Wallace lives for his work and so do I. Promotion “But let me tell you now that I never have any ideas. lam a good listener, and I hear all the plots and discuss them with my husband before they are moulded into stories. At meal times, in the evenings, in trains, wherever we are on holidays, we are always talking about new plays and new novels. “When I was his secretary, in addition to all this, I typed every word he dictated to me and then corrected the manuscripts afterwards. So you see I am steeped in Edgar Wallace. I don’t have to do the typewriting now. I have been promoted to looking after the plays and searching his old books for ideas for new plays.

“One evening two years ago, when we were sitting at home, my husband suddenly said, ‘I have a good idea for a play,’ and he there and then dictated to me the play which became ‘The Squeaker.’ He dictated it almost W’ord for word as it has been produced, even to the curtains between the scenes. “I said at once: ‘That is a fine story; write it down.’ But he said he was too busy, and it was three months before it was written. It was lying about for two years, and I think he would have lost interest in it had I not whipped up his enthusiasm. I regard ‘The Squeaker’ as his best play.” I asked Mrs. Wallace how her husband gained all the information necessary to write his novels and short stories. She replied: “Oh! he holds long conversations with omnibus conductors, policemen, waiters, caretakers —anybody, in fact, he meets. When he is abroad on holiday he assimilates everything he sees with amazing rapidity. And wherever we are he takes an extra bedroom where he can work.

Ex-burglar on the Stairs

“We have just returned from a holiday in Germany and Austria. I lost him several times, and always discovered him talking to an enginedriver or a conductor of a train. We have the most amazing collection of visitors here. I am never surprised to meet an ex-burglar on the stairs. “Work begins at home at seven in the morning, and when a novel or play has to be delivered quickly typewriters being to click at four in the morning and go on until bedtime. “Sometimes when my husband is really busy he will have a sleep in the evening and get up at midnight and work all through the night. He dictates very rapidly and rarely has to go back over anything he has written.” It was at the Apollo Theatre that I saw Mrs. Wallace, attending to various matters in connection with the running of “The Squeaker.” It seemed appropriate that I should find her there, for Mrs. Wallace is the Edgar Wallace behind the scenes.