"I'd like to have Gillette," replied Thomas.
"You can't have him," responded Frohman. "He's engaged for something else."
With this the session ended. Frohman seemed strangely under the spell of the play. It made him silent and meditative.
The next day he gave the manuscript to some of his close associates to read. They thought it was too psychological for a concrete dramatic success. To their great surprise he agreed with them.
"The Witching Hour" was produced by another manager and it ran a whole season in New York, and then duplicated its success on the road. This experience made Frohman all the more determined to keep his own counsel and follow his instincts with regard to plays thereafter, and he did.
Charles regarded play-producing just as he regarded life—as a huge adventure. An amusing thing happened during the production of "The Other Girl," a play by Augustus Thomas, in which a pugilist has a prominent rôle.
Lionel Barrymore was playing the part of the prize-fighter, who was generally supposed to be a stage replica of "Kid" McCoy, then in the very height of his fistic powers. In the piece the fighter warns his friends not to bet on a certain fight. The lines, in substance, were:
"You have been pretty loyal to me, but I am giving you a tip not to put any money down on that 'go' in October."
One day Frohman found Barrymore pacing nervously up and down in front of his office.
"What's the matter, Lionel?" he asked.