post his placards for his series of lectures on Dickens. Charles
accompanied Gustave on these expeditions, and got his first contact with
theatrical advertising. Frequently he held the ladder while Gustave
climbed up to hang a placard. Charles often employed his arts to induce
an obdurate shopkeeper to permit a placard in his window. These cards
were not as attractive as those of the regular theaters and it took much
persuasion to secure their display. Charles sometimes sat in the
box-office of Association Hall, where the Vandenhoff lectures were given
and where Gustave sold tickets. It was here that Charles got his
introduction to the finance of the theater.

These days in the early 'seventies were picturesque and carefree for
Charles. The boy was growing up in an atmosphere that, unconsciously,
was shaping his whole future life. In the afternoon he continued his
service behind the counter, hearing the actors tell stories of their
triumphs and hardships. Often he slipped next door to Brentano's, where
he was a welcome visitor and where he pored over the illustrations in
the theatrical journals.

Life at the store was not without incident. Among those who came in to
buy cigars were the Guy brothers, famous minstrels of their time. They
were particular chums of Gustave, and they likewise became great
admirers of the little Charles. At the boys' request they would step
into the little reception-room behind the store and practise their
latest steps to a small but appreciative audience. This was Charles
Frohman's first contact with minstrelsy, in which he was to have such
an active part later on.

Strangely enough, music and moving color always fascinated Charles
Frohman. At that time, for it was scarcely more than a decade after the
Civil War, there were many parades in New York, and all of them passed
the little Broadway cigar-store. To get a better view, Charles
frequently climbed up on the roof and there beheld the marching hosts
with all their tumult and blare. Here it was, as he often later
admitted, that he got his first impressions of street-display and
brass-band effects that he used to such good advantage.

A picturesque friendship of those early days was with the clock-painter
Washburn, perhaps the foremost worker of that kind in this country. He
painted the faces of all the clocks that hung in front of the jewelers'
shops in the big city. He always painted the time at 8.17-1/2 o'clock,
and it became the pre