Yet from this
pain-racked post he tried to direct his large affairs. There was a
telephone at his bedside, and he used it until weakness prevented him
from holding the receiver.

He could not go to the theater, so the theater was brought to him. More
than one preliminary rehearsal was held in his drawing-room. This was
particularly true of musical pieces. The music distracted him from his
pain.

Though prostrate with pain, his dogged determination to keep on doing
things held. Barrie sent him the manuscript of a skit called "A Slice of
Life." It was a brilliant satire on the modern play. Frohman picked
Ethel Barrymore (who was then playing in "Cousin Kate" at the Empire),
John Barrymore, and Hattie Williams to do it, and the rehearsals were
held in the manager's rooms at the Knickerbocker.

Frohman was as much interested in this one-act piece as if it had been a
five-act drama. His absorption in it helped to divert his mind from the
pain that had sadly reduced the once rotund body.

With "A Slice of Life" he introduced another one of the many innovations
that he brought to the stage. The play was projected as a surprise. No
announcement of title was made. The advertisements simply stated that
Charles Frohman would present "A Novelty" at the Empire Theater at eight
o'clock on a certain evening.

Frohman was unable to attend the opening performance, so he wrote a
little speech which was spoken by William Seymour. The speech was
rehearsed as carefully as the play. A dozen times the stage-director
delivered it before his chief, who indicated the various phrases to be
emphasized.

It was during the era of the New Theater when the so-called "advanced
drama" was much exploited. Frohman had little patience with this sort of
dramatic thing. The little speech conveys something of his satirical
feeling about the millionaire-endowed theatrical project which was then
agitating New York.

Here is the speech as Frohman wrote it:

_Ladies and Gentlemen:--My appearance here to-night is by way of
apology. I am here representing Mr. Charles Frohman--you may have
heard of him--the manager of this theater, the Empire._

_His idea in announcing a novelty in connection with Miss
Barrymore's play, "Cousin Kate," was really for the purpose of
getting you here once in time for the ringing up of the curtain.
This will be a special performance of a play to be given by a few
rising members of the