Boos Begin

A theatre is a dusty kennel, full of drafts and dust, scented forever with a sweet, unreal and sticky perfume, built of planks and plush, to house deceptions. Hoboken, N. J., is a squat and smoky suburb of Manhattan, a place where trains load and boats dock, where beery workmen lurch home along cobbled streets and where the world of art is chiefly represented by ancient and execrable examples of the cinema. Why then should anyone want to own a theatre in Hoboken, N. J.? Famed Author Christopher Darlington Morley (Where the Blue Begins, Thunder on the Left) knows, for last week he bought one, the Rialto, of which he said:

"It isn't a little theatre ... a famous old theatre and we plan to open Labor Day with our own stock company. We will try out a number of new plays as well as present revivals of plays that have been given on Broadway during the last few years. . . ."

Had Author Morley been alone in his venture, many persons would have supposed that he would soon discover how and where the boos begin. He was not alone. Playwright Harry Wagstaff Gribble and Stage-designer Cleon Throckmorton were his most noteworthy associates. For their first season of production, several plays were mentioned: March Hares, Dracula, The Old Soak, dramatization of Where the Blue Begins, dramatization of Thunder on the Left.