47
Here we have the House manager. He says he Is being robbed. While he is in Business, he will not be lonely if that is true. He is counting up with the Show Manager. The Show manager also says he is being robbed. Why don't they go To the Police? The Show manager says there Were Nineteen tickets in the Box. The house manager says there were only Seventeen. One of the men is Lying; which one is it? Let us count the tickets and See. Oh! there are eighteen. Then they were both lying. Well, they are both Managers.
48
Now we see the Heavy lady. The manager says she is a Light weight. He calls her that Because she has asked For her Salary Twice in Two days. Will she get her Salary? No; we do not think she will. To-night she will do a Shrieking stunt on the stage. To-morrow she will Do a serio-comic on the Hotel man, and then she will Have a walking part all the way back to Broadway.
49
Here we have the First-nighter. He comes to the First performance always. The fifth row Back for his. The manager Knows him. He knows all the actors and Calls them by their first names. He would like to belong to the Lambs' Club. After the Show is over he will tell the Manager, confidentially, just what he thinks about it. The Manager will listen very carefully and then Forget. Managers have excellent forgetories. But no Play ever succeeds unless it has the approbation of the first Nighter. One of them Told me that, confidentially, so it must be so.