FALL FROM WEALTH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 196, 19 August 1936, Page 9

FALL FROM WEALTH.

U.S. MILLIONAIRE. OLIVER MOROSCO'S PLIGHT. THEATRICAL HISTORY MAKER. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LOS ANGELES, July 29. In 1899 a young man from New York arrived in Los Angeles with 40 dollars in his pockets, a wife, a baby, and a mother-in-law to support. He took over the old Burbank Theatre, now a Main Street burlesque house, and clea/ed 7000 dollars during the first ten weeks of his management. His name was Oliver Morosco, and from that time until the depression year of 1929 the name of Oliver Morosco was recorded in the theatrical history as one of the outstanding producers and managers of the time. He produced "The Bird of Paradise" at the Burbank, and later was said to have cleared 5,000,000 dollars on Peg o' .My Heart," which he opened at the Burbank with Laurette Taylor as Peg. Fall in Japanese Boardinghouse. Late this month a man of 55 years stumbled and fell 25 steps from the office of a , Japanese rooming house on the second floor of 416, South Main Street, in Los Angeles, less than a block and a half from the Burbank Theatre, the scene of Los Angeles' earliest theatrical successes. At the Georgia Street Receiving Hospital he gave his name as "Oliver Morosco, age 55 years, address 6214, Leland Way, Hollywood." Surgeons said he was suffering from a skull fracture, and was in a most critical condition. Ilis bride of a little more than' one month, the former Genevieve Wallace, aged 32, local apartment house manageress, visited him at the hospitrl early in the afternoon. They \yp*e irarried in Los Angeles on. June

last in a civil ceremony at the Wilshire Chapel. At that time Morosco said he and Miss Wallace were married in Mexico in October last year, but decided to have the rites performed in Los Angeles because they had heard it was possible Mexican proceedings might not be recognised ill the United States. Entered at Midnight. T. Tademoto, proprietor of the Main Street rooming house, said Morosco climbed the stairs shortly after midnight, registered as Oliver Morosco, and paid 75 cents for a room. He went to the room, and apparently went to sleep. Later in the morning, Tademoto said, as his guest was leaving, he stumbled on the top step and fell to a crumpled heap at the bottom. Tademoto called the police, who took Morosco to the hospital.

For many years Morosco was rated as one of the topmost theatrical producers and managers of New York and Los Angeles, and only a few years ago was classed as a multi-millionaire. During the heyday of theatricals in Los Angeles he was connected with the Burbank, the Majestic, on South Broadway, the Morosco—now the President— on South Broadway, the Belasco on Main Street, near Fourth Street, and the Mason Theatre, on South Broadway. He later built the Morosco Theatre in New York, where he won great fame.

Police records in Los Angeles disclosed that on April 8 last he was arrested at Sunset Boulevard ancj Vine Street and paid a fine of 10 dollars on a charge of intoxication. In November last year he w,as arrested on a similar charge and was fined five dollars, which he paid in Sunrise Court.