“You must pardon me for not replying to your letter. I am much run down by overwork, and as I had to finish Mrs. Carter’s new play for the coming season besides much other work my doctor ordered me to the Adirondack Mountains, and before going I gave orders to my secretary to keep all mail for me until my return. Thank you for the story you sent. It is charming, but as it so closely follows the line of ‘Sweet Kitty Bellairs,’ and as that play has made such a success, I am afraid that another on the same subject and in the same period would fall flat in this country. So if anyone applies to you for the rights you will understand that I relinquish them.
“Next week ‘Sweet Kitty’ opens at my theatre for a few weeks, then it will be started off on tour. I need not tell you the condition of things theatrical in America. The Syndicate has brought nothing but disgrace and humiliation to the profession. Things artistic are at their lowest ebb. Last season was the worst financially the theatres ever experienced. Many fortunes were lost. Outside of ‘Sweet Kitty Bellairs’ I don’t think any manager produced a success. Of course I lost money on the production. A play of that period is expensive, and as I make my productions perfect it invariably takes me a year to get back the original cost. This coming season is the year of the Presidential Election, which always hurts the theatres, but I think we shall do well on tour because of our New York success. I think it inadvisable to attempt ‘Sweet Kitty’ in England until after its first tour in this country. If by chance it should slip up over in London it would hurt our prospects for the play here. While the papers attach very little importance to a play successfully produced in England, they cable over a failure with sensational particulars, and it hurts all throughout the country. I think it would be wise to arrange for the production of ‘Sweet Kitty’ in London later, making the arrangements during the coming season, but, as I stated, I don’t think it would be well to produce it yet.
“Hope that you are meeting with every success. With best wishes to Mrs. Castle and yourself,
“Faithfully,
“David Belasco.”
(David Belasco to Egerton Castle, in London.)
“The Belasco Theatre,
“New York, March 3, 1905.
“My dear Mr. Castle:—
“Your letter of February 5 received. I regret very much that ‘Sweet Kitty Bellairs’ has not done better than it has. But I am constrained to attribute this to the fact that, in order to please you, I put it on during an unpropitious season, when there was little or no interest in plays of the Georgian period, because the country was surfeited with them—with comic operas of the Eighteenth Century, and revivals of Sheridan. Again, I myself had just finished the production of ‘Du Barry,’ which, while it is of a more regal nature than ‘Bellairs,’ is still of the Eighteenth Century, a costume play of manners and customs. All this tended to take from ‘Kitty’ the charm of novelty, a detraction which could not be overcome by the fact that I spent more than $65,000 on the production and gave it a cast comprising some of the highest salaried artists in America.
“It was my intention to hold the play in reserve for Miss Bates, and produce it this year, with her in the title rôle. She is one of my own stars, and very popular. Had I done so, waiting for the flood of plays of that period to cease, I am convinced the result would have been far different.
“Miss Crosman closes in April, and I shall then recall the company, store the production and send it out when the road conditions in this country are more favorable. I believe it to be a valuable piece of property over here, and that it may yet make enough money to enable me to get back at least my original outlay. My loss up to date on the play is $50,000.