| In Photogravure. |
|---|
| [David Belasco] | [Frontispiece] |
| | PAGE |
| [David Belasco, About 1885] | [16] |
| [David Warfield] | [26] |
| [Mrs. Leslie Carter as Du Barry] | [42] |
| [David Belasco] | [60] |
| [Blanche Bates as Yo-San, in “The Darling of the Gods”] | [76] |
| [David Belasco, About 1889-’90] | [90] |
| [David Belasco] | [136] |
| [Frances Starr] | [224] |
| [Augusta Belasco, Mrs. William Elliott] | [298] |
| [Reina Belasco, Mrs. Morris Gest] | [300] |
| [David Belasco] | [320] |
| [David Belasco] | [336] |
| [David Belasco] | [418] |
| In Halftone. |
|---|
| [Blanche Bates as Cigarette, in “Under Two Flags”] | [2] |
| [A Scene from Belasco’s “Under Two Flags”] | [6] |
| [David Warfield as Simon Levi, in “The Auctioneer”] | [12] |
| [Mrs. Leslie Carter as Du Barry] | [34] |
| [Charles A. Stevenson as King Louis the Fifteenth, in Belasco’s “Du Barry”] | [40] |
| [Belasco, About 1902] | [46] |
| [Belasco’s “Studio” in the First Belasco Theatre] | [54] |
| [Belasco in His Studio at the First Belasco Theatre] | [58] |
| [A Scene from “The Darling of the Gods”] | [72] |
| [George Arliss as Zakkuri, the Minister of War, in “The Darling of the Gods”] | [82] |
| [Henrietta Crosman as Mistress Kitty Bellairs, in “Sweet Kitty Bellairs”] | [100] |
| [David Warfield as Herr Anton von Barwig, in “The Music Master”] | [114] |
| [Scene in Front of the Belasco Theatre, Pittsburgh, Pa.] | [126] |
| [Belasco’s “Adrea” Curtains] | [150] |
| [The Members of the Theatrical Syndicate] | [168] |
| [The Crowning Room,—Belasco’s Production of “Adrea”] | [178] |
| [Mrs. Leslie Carter as Adrea, in the Tragedy of that Name] | [186] |
| [Henry Irving in the Last Year of His Life—1904-’05] | [194] |
| [Blanche Bates as The Girl, in “The Girl of the Golden West”] | [198] |
| [To David Belasco] | [212] |
| [In Remembrance] | [214] |
| [The Opera of “The Girl of the Golden West”—A Souvenir, to Belasco] | [218] |
| [Frances Starr as Jaunita, in “The Rose of the Rancho”] | [232] |
| [Belasco in His Workshop] | [238] |
| [Switchboard of the Second Belasco Theatre, New York] | [246] |
| [David Warfield as Wes’ Bigelow, in “A Grand Army Man”] | [254] |
| [Charlotte Walker as Agatha Warren, in “The Warrens of Virginia”] | [264] |
| [David Belasco and His Father, Humphrey Abraham Belasco, in San Francisco, February, 1909—Their Last Meeting] | [272] |
| [Nance O’Neil as Odette De Maigny and Julia Dean (the Younger) as Christine De Maigny, in “The Lily”] | [282] |
| [Belasco, About 1911] | [286] |
| [Leo Ditrichstein as Gabor Arany and Janet Beecher as Helen, Mrs. Arany, in “The Concert”] | [290] |
| [“Oft in the Still Night”] | [294] |
| [David Warfield as Peter Grimm, in “The Return of Peter Grimm”] | [304] |
| [“The Student”—David Belasco] | [312] |
| [David Belasco] | [328] |
| [Frances Starr as Becky, in “The Case of Becky”] | [344] |
| [Belasco, About 1914] | [352] |
| [Frances Starr as Marie-Odile] | [360] |
| [Lenore Ulric as Wetona, in “The Heart of Wetona”] | [372] |
| [Belasco at Orienta Point—Summer Home of His Daughter, Mrs. Gest] | [428] |
| [Benjamin F. Roeder, Belasco’s General Business Manager] | [438] |
| [Sarah Bernhardt] | [450] |
| [David Warfield as Van Der Decken] | [456] |
| [Ina Claire as Polly Shannon, in “Polly With a Past”] | [460] |
| [Lenore Ulric as Rose, in “Tiger Rose”] | [466] |
| [David Belasco—His Latest Portrait, 1918] | [470] |
| [Belasco Leading the Parade of “The Lambs” up Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D. C.] | [476] |
“To him the laurels and the lyre belong:
He won them well, and may he wear them long!”
THE LIFE OF DAVID BELASCO
“UNDER TWO FLAGS.”—BLANCHE BATES THE RISING STAR.
The London engagement of “Zaza” ended, Belasco, Mrs. Carter, and the members of the “Zaza” company returned to America, sailing from Southampton, on board the steamship New York, August 18, 1900. Mrs. Carter’s tour in that play began at the Criterion Theatre, New York, on October 1, and Belasco turned his attention to launching Blanche Bates as a star. The histrionic vehicle which he selected for this purpose was a revamped dramatization of Ouida’s “Under Two Flags.” He had hoped to obtain a drama on a fresh subject for her use and he had asked Charles Frohman to assist in finding such a one. But, after waiting a considerable time without any suitable play coming to light and it being essential to bring her forward in something, Belasco determined to turn to an old subject and revivify it. “I decided, in desperation,” he writes, “to revive ‘Under Two Flags,’ which I had long been familiar with, of which I had made at least two versions, and which, in the old days, I had directed for Lotta. Her version of it, however, seemed very old-fashioned, and I employed Mr. Paul M. Potter to make a new adaptation of the book. I introduced a novel effect in that production in the sand-storm in the Fourth Act; it was simple in its mechanism, but it required much work to perfect it: it has since come into general use.”
Ouida’s novel is so well known to the public of the Library and, in one form or another, histrionic adaptations of it are so well known to the public of the Theatre, that the subject is, in every point of view, familiar, and minutely detailed consideration of it in this place would, therefore, be superfluous. The new theatrical epitome of that novel was made known, for the first time, at the Garden Theatre, New York, February 5, 1901. It was, in every detail, supervised and made practical by Belasco, and it owed its success to his ingenious and expert manipulation and to the embodiment of Cigarette given in it under his direction by Miss Bates. The story of that ardent, picturesque, adventurous girl is a story of amatory infatuation, brave exploits, and pathetic self-sacrifice, under romantic circumstances. The representative of Cigarette must be handsome, passionate, expeditious, magnanimous, resolute, full of resource, sparkling with energy,