it, and on
looking he saw that the big-hearted manager had placed a hundred-dollar
bill there. Rickaby had known all along the story of the Wallack tour
hardships, and it was his way of expressing sympathy. Frohman afterward
said it was the most touching moment in his life. Speaking of this once,
he said:

"That hundred-dollar bill looked bigger than any sum of money I have
ever had since."

* * *

It was late in 1885 when Charles returned from the disastrous Wallack's
Theater tour, bankrupt in finance but almost over-capitalized in
courage and plans for the future. Up to that time he had no regular
office. Like many of the managers of the day, his office was in his hat.
Now, for the first time, he set up an establishment of his own. It
required no capital to embark in the booking business in those days.
Nerve and resiliency were the two principal requisites.

The first Frohman offices were at 1215 Broadway, in the same building
that housed Daly's Theater. In two small rooms on the second floor
Charles Frohman laid the corner-stone of what in later years became a
chain of offices and interests that reached wherever the English
language was spoken on the stage. The interesting contrast here was that
while Augustin Daly, then in the heyday of his great success, was
creating theatrical history on the stage below him, Charles Frohman was
beginning his real managerial career up-stairs.

Frohman's first associate was W. W. Randall, a San Francisco newspaper
man whom he had met in the Haverly's Minstrel days, in the mean time
manager of "The Private Secretary" and several of the Madison Square
companies on the road. He was alert and aggressive and knew the
technique of the theatrical business.

Charles Frohman's policy was always pretentious, so he set up two
distinct firms. One was the "Randall's Theatrical Bureau, Charles
Frohman and W. W. Randall, Managers," which was under Randall's
direction and which booked attractions for theaters throughout the
country on a fee basis. The other was called "Frohman & Randall, General
Theatrical Managers." Its function was to produce plays and was directly
under Charles's supervision. The two firm names were emblazoned on the
door and business was started. Their first employee was Julius Cahn.

These offices have an historic interest aside from the fact that they
were the first to be occupied by Charles Frohman. Out of them grew
really the whole modern system of booking attract