PROFITS OF POPULAR PLAYS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 281, 21 November 1908, Page 3

PROFITS OF POPULAR PLAYS

' " Everything he touches seems to tarn to gold." A little coterie of actors tml pressure]} were talking together iu A certain club not a hundred miles from Trafalgar Square, London, when one of the Thespians made this remark concerning Mr. J. M. Barrie. It was said that during the first week of his new play, "What Every Woman Knows," at the Duke of York's Theatre, sea.s were booked to the value of nearly £IO,OOO, which meant, as the money capacity of the house is nearly £3OOO, that even if no more booked seats were sold, the play would be performed !i> a full house for five weeka. And probably this is not exaggerate! in any way, for tbe success of .Mr. Barrie's books and plays has Ihvo;u l almost monotonous, llis" " Little Minister" has long since passed the £IOO,OOO mark in net profit—a play, by the w.iy, out of which Mr. Cyril Maude and hits partner were at one time taking £2,000 per week. "Peter Pan," "Quality Street," and " The Admirable Crichtoa were other successful plays, which art estimated to have yielded the author between £4OO and £SOO per week for quite a considerable time. Inferring to a few more recent play*, it might be mentioned that " The Merry Widow" has been a gold-mine to iu autlmr. Since its first American production at .Syracuse, Mr. W. 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 the States—a play which was produced at Drury Lane five years ago—it secured y for its lucky owners no less a sum than £200,000, of which £20,000 was paid to the late General Lew Wallace, the 1 author of the book from which the 1 play was adapted. Another piece which first saw the light in America—"Mrs. Wigga of the Canbags Patch"—is said to have yielded more than half a million pounds sierliug, while the recent revival of " H.M.S. Pinafore " and "The Mikado" recalls th« fact that Sir W. S. Gilbert's operas! « alone provide him with something like £12,000 a year. "Pygmalion and Galatea " is said to have contribuU'l £50,000 to the dramatist's ample fortune. '

la 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 in expenses and. salaries of £3500 per week, or upwards of £IBO,OOO a year. And yet llr. Gilbert's profits from half-a-dozen of bis operas is estimated at £OO,OOO. Mr. George Dance, who wrote "A Chinese Honeymoon," the most successful musical comedy of recent years,

which ran for two years and eight months, made between £60,000 and £70,000 out of the production. No London play, however, has ever been so financially successful as "Sip Van Winkle," in wliich Joseph Jefferson played the title-role w> fewer than 5,000 times. This play earned the amazing sum of £1,000,000, and for three successive seasons at Boston Theatre it averaged £4,600 a week in gross returns. "The Old Homestead," another American favourite, is credited with earning £950,000 in twelve years. Against these successes might be placed " Charley's Aunt," which earned £200,000 for Sir. Penley a,lone, although be had to share the profits with two others who were with him in the enterprise. And it is a remarkable fact that Mr. Brandon Thomas, the author, offered this play to several managers and they declined it. At last in despair be •ought the assistance of a City financier, and this gentleman put about £I,OOO into the venture, an investment

which yielded him no less than £37,009; while royalties amounting to £3,000 have sometimes accrued to him in one .week.

"Our Boys," which ran for four years in London, returned a weekly profit oi £4OO during that period; labile M T . Edward Terry, after paying nearly £4typoo in fees to Mr. Pinero, the author, cleared £60,000 out of " Sweet Lavender," which reminds one that Mr. Pinero is perhaps the highest-paid dramatist in England. He receives £2O for each .performance of a play, irrespective of a fixed sum in advance. "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray" earned him no less, than £60,000. As a contrast to these fortunes earned by dramatists on one play, it might be mentioned that the late H. J. Byrou, the author of "Our Boys," sold the

entire rights for £3OO. Perhaps tle worst s-troke of business the late 'Ow.ii Hall" ever did was when he parted with the rights of " The Gaiety Girl ' and "An Artist's Model" for £550 and £BSO respectively, although he was compensated to an extent by receiving £4,000 for "The Geisha." A £lO note was all that Lytton got

for his "Lady oi Lyons," a play wfaicn must have yielded scores of thousands of pounds profit. Tom Taylor received less for his hundred plays than one of our successful living dramatists wouid get for a single comedy, while Charles Reade's thirteen dramas probably did pot pay hiin at the rate of a shilling an hour for the time he spent on writing them.