am glad I got stuck. It's the first
vacation I have had in two years."

The lobby of the Duke of York's illustrates one of Charles's distinctive
ideas. Instead of ornamenting it with pictures of dead dramatic heroes
like Shakespeare and Garrick, he filled it with photographs of his live
American stars. The English theater-goers who went there saw huge
portraits of Maude Adams, Ethel Barrymore, Marie Doro, John Drew, Otis
Skinner, and William Gillette.

On one occasion he was held up at the entrance of the Duke of York's by
a new doorkeeper who asked for his ticket.

"I am Frohman," said the manager.

"Can't help it, sir; you've got to have a ticket."

"You're quite right," said Frohman, who went to the box-office and
bought himself a stall seat. When the house-manager, James W. Matthews,
threatened to discharge the doorkeeper, Frohman said:

"Certainly not. The man was obeying orders. If he had done otherwise you
should have discharged him."

Frohman so loved the Duke of York's that he would go back to it and
witness the same play twenty times. During his last visit to England,
when his right knee was troubling him, he telephoned down one night to
have his box reserved. Matthews, to spare him any trouble, had a little
platform built so that he would not have to walk up the steps. Two weeks
later, Frohman again telephoned that he wanted the box held, and added:

"I am better now. Don't bother to build a theater for me."

Curiously enough, the first failure that Charles had at the Duke of
York's was "The Christian," which had scored such an enormous success in
America. But failure only spurred him on to further efforts. When an
English friend condoled with him about his loss on this occasion he
said:

"Forget it. Don't let's revive the past. Let's get busy and pulverize
the future."

* * *

To the average mind the extent of Frohman's London productions is
amazing. When the simple fact is stated that he made one hundred and
twenty-five of these, one obtains at a glance the immense scope of the
man's operations there. Many of them stand out brilliantly. Early among
them was the Frohman-Belasco presentation of Mrs. Leslie Carter in two
of her greatest successes at the Garrick Theater.

The first was "The Heart of Maryland." It was during this engagement
that Charles bought the English rights to "Zaza," then a sensational
success in Paris. It was his original intention to star Julia Marlowe in
this play. When