HUMOR AND ANECDOTE
T he most distinctive quality in Charles Frohman's make-up was his sense of humor. He mixed jest with life, and it enabled him to meet crisis and disaster with unflagging spirit and smiling equanimity. Like Lincoln, he often resorted to anecdote and story to illustrate his point. He summed up his whole theory of life one day when he said to Augustus Thomas:
"I am satisfied if the day gives me one good laugh."
He had a brilliancy of retort that suggested Wilde or Whistler. Once he was asked this question:
"What is the difference between metropolitan and out-of-town audiences?"
"Fifty cents," he replied.
Haddon Chambers was writing a note in Frohman's rooms at the Savoy.
"Do you spell high-ball with a hyphen?" he asked.
"No, with a siphon," responded Frohman.
Charles Dillingham, when in Frohman's employ, was ordered to hurry back to New York. From a small town up New York state he wired: