Sir John
Hare gathered together some of his colleagues.

"Frohman has done big things," Hare said to them. "He loses his money
like a gentleman. Let us make him feel that he is not just an American,
but one of us."

A dinner was planned in his honor at the Garrick Club. He is the only
American theatrical manager to be elected to membership in this
exclusive club. When Frohman was apprised of the dinner project he
shrank from it.

"I don't like that sort of thing," he said. "Besides, I can't make a
speech."

"But you won't have to make a speech," said Sir Arthur Pinero, who
headed the committee.

Frohman tried in every possible way to evade this dinner. Finally he
accepted on the condition that when the time came for him to respond he
was merely to get up, bow his acknowledgment, and say, "Thank you." This
he managed to do.

At this dinner, over which Sir John Hare presided, Frohman was presented
with a massive silver cigarette-box, on which was engraved the
facsimile signatures of every one present. These signatures comprise the
"Who's Who" of the British theater. These princes of the drama were
proud and glad to call themselves "A few of his friends," as the
inscription on the box read.

The signers were, among others, Sir Arthur Pinero, Sir Charles Wyndham,
Sir John Hare, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Sir James M. Barrie, Alfred
Sutro, Cyril Maude, H. B. Irving, Lawrence Irving, Louis N. Parker,
Anthony Hope, A. E. W. Mason, Seymour Hicks, Robert Marshall, W. Comyns
Carr, Weedon Grossmith, Gerald Du Maurier, Eric Lewis, Dion Boucicault,
A. E. Matthews, Arthur Bouchier, Cosmo Hamilton, Allan Aynesworth, R. C.
Carton, Sam Sothern, and C. Aubrey Smith.

* * *

Nothing gave Charles more satisfaction in England perhaps than his
encouragement of the British playwright. He inherited Pinero from his
brother Daniel, and remained his steadfast friend and producer until his
death. Pinero would not think of submitting a play to any other American
manager without giving Frohman the first call. In all the years of their
relations, during which Charles paid Pinero a large fortune, there was
not a sign of contract between them.

Frohman practically made Somerset Maugham in America. His first
association with this gifted young Englishman was typical of the man's
method of doing business. Maugham had written a play called "Mrs. Dot,"
in which Marie Tempest was to appear. Frederick Harrison, of the
Haymarket Theater, had an