o
select the cast, Thomas suggested D'Orsay for the leading part.

"Impossible!" said Frohman. "He can't do it."

[Illustration: _AUGUSTUS THOMAS_]

[Illustration: _SIR ARTHUR WING PINERO_]

Thomas was so convinced that D'Orsay was the ideal man that Frohman made
this characteristic concession:

"I think well of your play, and it will probably be a success," he
said, "but I do not believe that D'Orsay is the man for it. If you can
get another manager to do it I will turn back the play to you, and if
you insist upon having D'Orsay I will release him from his contract with
me."

Kirk La Shelle took the play and it was another "Arizona."

Frohman produced a whole series of Thomas successes, notably "The Other
Girl," "Mrs. Leffingwell's Boots," and "De Lancey." To the end of his
days the warmest and most intimate friendship existed between the men.
It was marked by the usual humor that characterized Frohman's relations.
Here is an example:

Thomas conducted the rehearsals of "The Other Girl" alone. Frohman, who
was up-stairs in his offices at the Empire, sent him a note on a yellow
pad, written with the blue pencil that he always used:

"How are you getting along at rehearsals without me?"

"Great!" scribbled Thomas.

The next day when he went up-stairs to Frohman's office, he found the
note pinned on the wall.

Such was the mood of the man who had risen from obscurity to one of
commanding authority in the whole English-speaking theater.

X

THE RISE OF ETHEL BARRYMORE

While the star of Maude Adams rose high in the theatrical heaven,
another lovely luminary was about to appear over the horizon. The moment
was at hand when Charles Frohman was to reveal another one of his
proteges, this time the young and beautiful Ethel Barrymore. It is an
instance of progressive and sympathetic Frohman sponsorship that gave
the American stage one of its most fascinating favorites. Some stars are
destined for the stage; others are born in the theater. Ethel Barrymore
is one of the latter. Two generations of eminent theatrical achievement
heralded her advent, for she is the granddaughter of Mrs. John Drew,
mistress of the famous Arch Street Theater Company of Philadelphia, and
herself, in later years, the greatest _Mrs. Malaprop_ of her day. Miss
Barrymore's father was the brilliant and gifted Maurice Barrymore; her
mother the no less witty and talented Georgia Drew, while, among other
family distinctions, she cam