Big Earnings of Writers of Plays.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 175, 22 July 1909, Page 3

Big Earnings of Writers of Plays.

Everybody, says a London gossip, is j talking about the success which has ! come so suddenly to Jerome K.Jerome. 1 Two London plays— both big money ! makers—have fallen to the lot of the i British humorist. Perhaps there is j nobody in the play-writing line more j worthy to win out after so many years lof struggle. It is estimated that his • takings must be something like £4OO | a week, although failure was freely predicted for his*' Passing of the Third ! Floor Back," and most of the London | critics "roasted" it. Despite his hum- ] orous predilections, he takes a v :ry serious view of life, knows a lot about social problems, and devotes much of his time to studying the condition of the "submerged." In fact, his last two plays,particularly "The passing of the Third Floor Back" are really studies of social tendencies. j The fact that Jerome has struck oil j proves that are plenty of fortunes i still to be made from play-writing, despite the recent failure of one or two admittedly good plays. Among the most successful moneymakers in the play writing line today are J. M. Barrie, and Hall Caine. After one week's production of Barrie's latest pay, ' What Every Woman Knows," at the Duke of York's Theatre, the box office had seat orders in hand for £IO,OOO. Out of his earlier play. "The Little Minister," Barrie and his then partner, Cyril Maude, netted the neat little sum of £2OOO a week, whlie "Peter Pan," "Quality Street," and "The Admirable Crichton" brought to their author £SOO each weekly, for quite a considerable time. Hall Caine has been neetting £6OO a week from hU plays for a long time now, and the recent Gilbert and Sullivan opera revival has brought Gilbert nearly £IO,OOO. Among other London playwrights who have amassed fortunes mighc be mentioned Pinero, who cleared £60,000 out of one play alone —"Sweet Lavender." Pinero is actually the highest paid dramatist in England. He gets £2O for each performance of a play, irrespective of a fixed sum paid in advance. By this arrangement he made another £60,000 out of "The Second Mrs Tanqueray," and be has been adding to his income by the production of his plays in Paris. It is really remarkable how the element of luck enters into wealth winning in the matter of play writing. The best made plays—like the best laid plans—do not pan out. There is no earthly reason why the recent well written "Paid in Full!" should not have made a fortune for its author in England as it doubtless did in America. Here, again, the vicissitudes of chance must be borne in mind. In this case bad luck came in the form of a pretty actress who was not suited to the heroine's part. Even "Charley's Aunt," which earned a very large sum of money for Penley, was refused several times, and Brandon Thomas, the author, literally hawked it about from manager to manager for a long time. He finially interested a man who put £IOOO -into it as a venture,and had out of it within a few weeks £37,000.