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THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAN. FORTXAND. NOVEMBER 18, loe.
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BY A. H. BALLARD.
NKW YORK, Nov. 10. (Special Cor
respondence of The Sunday Orogo
gonian.) This is the way he does It.
Henry W. Suvase has planted the fame
of his name on the public mind.
He has made his name stand for qual
ity. We all know that he i.s one of the
very rich, and that theatrical and musical
productions are his hobby as well as his
business. He combines culture with prac
tical sense, and he lias unswervingly
striven for excellence.- Thus it is that we
trust a "show" when it comes from Sav
aKC. ,
How lias he built tip this name, and
how docs he continue to make pood with
all that travels under his banner?
He maintains here in New York a reg
ular, fully equipped play and opera and
"production" manufactory. It is'one of
the most interesting , establishments in
the city. It hives a lot of industrious
eople, .160 or more souls, who contribute
as much as any other collection of indi
viduals in existence to the amusement
of mankind. '
It is situated on Twenty-seventh street
and runs through to Twenty-eighth street.
Joining there with the back of the Castle
Square Theater, where the complete pro
duction is brought out. The raw materials
go in at the Twenty-seventh-streeet end
of the structure and come out a complete
play or opera, as the case may be, at the
other end. You can drive a 40-ton truck
through the doors of the raw-material
end. and there Is about everything in the
way of Industrial appliance under the
sun in the buildings and series of depart
ments that intervene between the initial
point and the auditorium at the "Hn
ished" end of the factory.
Mr. Savage has stamped his personality
plainly upon all his work. It is usually
the cas that every conspicuously suc
cessful enterprise that deals with the
public, as, for example, a newspaper or
a railroad, breathes In its atmosphere
the personality of some one vigorous,
masterful man. So it is with Mr. Sav
age's enterprises they all speak eloquent
ly in their every part of the powerful
mind, the active brain, the untiring per
son who conceived and engineered their
construction the aggressive and indefati
gable human being who Is ever pushing
them, toward higher and better results.
In Savage's Office.
I was not surprised to Hnd that he had
a whole building to himself for his play
factory, and 1 was quite prepared to
know that he had altered over a fine
brownstone house In Forty-third street
tall four stories of it) for his general
building. Where everyone can see it, to
guide the people who seek Mr. Savage or
his managers. Is a sign plainly telling the
etranger or the friend that here are Hen
ry W. Savage's premises.
This is in strong contrast to many of
the other big managers who aro wont- to
wcclude themselves in the retirement of
backrooms in some building and coop
their employes up ' In little six-by-eight
dungeons, where It is next to Impossible
tor anyone to reach them. The Idea is
to impress all comers that the managers
In question are extremely busy men whose
time can scarcely be bought for love or
money. In good truth, it is necessary In
some degree to hem these managers about
with some sort of red tape, so that tho
many people who seek them with -trifling
errands may not consume too much time.
Time Is their most valuable asset.
You see this tiling carried out in thou
sands of instances all over town in va
rious lines of business and In professional
octice. too. But what can we say of such
men as J. P. Morgan, whom anyone can
ee by going right In and walking up to
blm? And what can we say of Henry
AV. Savage? He does not coop himself up
like some others. He Is probably as busy
a man as any of the rest of them, but he
can be civil and he can find time also.
I suppose it is the man himself. Another
manager to whom I must allude again
is conspicuous In this respect. I haj-e
. heard it said a dozen times of Mr. Cort:
"Well, you can see him, anyway."
That is true, you can walk right In to
his desk, and woe betide the person who
has no business to transact. I think that
Is about the right policy to adopt. It
doesn't take a long time to ascertain
whether or not a caller has some busi
ness worth while with you. It does not
seem necessary for a really Influential
man to make It Impossible for people to
reach him. The rule is carried out among
the press bureaus of the big producing
managers. I will not criticise any of
these brainy and hard-worked men rep
resenting the big producing managers
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here, but I will say that several of them
shut themselves up and are difficult of
access to the general public, when they
arc hired to see the general 'public. Some
of them try to Imitate their chiefs In this
matter. But here we have another grand
exception, which seems to be tho excep
tion that proves the best rule, and per
haps points a moral, as to who in reality
is the hipgest frog in the puddle. W. M.
Bates, the highly trusted prees represen
tative of Klaw & Erlanger. who has in
comparably the largest interests to look
after and who has much more work to
do than any of the others, who can de
cide things where others have to go
higher up and consult someone else this
man Bates sits at his desk in his own
suite of offices in the New Amsterdam.
Theater building, and anyone can walk
right into his room and speak ' to him
without being molested in any way -whatever.
The man or woman orchiid. who
ever or whatever they may be, will get
right to Mr. Bates himself in the space
of half a minute's time, and he will dis
pose of them in loss if they have no busi
ness there. If they are proierly there
and have business with him they will get
everyting that is coming to them., and If
they are triflers they will also get just
what is coming to them.
The Play Factory.
But I was telling you about Mr. Sav
age's play factory. The factory is part
of him, and his office building is distinct
ly characteristic. 1 was going -up the
stairs to the private office when I heard
Hie sweet and thrilling notes of some
good soprano coining forth from the room
the door of which bore the inscription,
"Applicants received here." ' " -
In there was a girl having her voice
tried out by one of the Savage lieuten
ants. Oh. the thoughts that voice gave
rise to! How many hundreds of aspiring
young women have been in that room and
tried to pass the judgment of the people
who decide upon the musical and dra
matic capabilities of the applicants!
Nearly .all the members of the Savage
companies have passed through that door,
and from the thousands who ' have en
tered and come out. the present Savage
forces have been recruited. I could hear
the hope, the ambition, the anguish, the
enthusiasm of that girl who was singing,
and I offered up a little prayer at the
moment for her success. 1
Down on the ground floor there are gen
eral offices where ill comers are directed
to the various departments on, the other
floors. On the second floor Mr. Savage
has his particular private offices. The
third floor back, contains the desks of all
the managers. When a company reaches
New York the traveling business man
ager has a desk of bis own in that build
ing and he feels at home. That cannot
be said of all the other managements In
New York. Nearly all the traveling
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Personality.!
of One of
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managers, when they arrive back In this
city, must keep their offices In their hats
practically. This is one' of the little
things that I noticed which, in my esti
mation, tends to keep Mr. Savage's force
cemented together as a unit, and helps
coalesce all factors that make up the
united strength of his enterprises. There
Is an esprit de corps cultivated and
fostered Jn this manner that is Invaluable
to this astute manager and business
manipulator.
The play factory Is the result of many
years planning, and is praotlcaily the
combination of several minor establish
ments' that have grown up under the de
velopment of the Savage Interests in
several citit?s. r
Formerly Mr. Savage had different de
partments In Baltimore, Washington,'
Boston and New York. Lately he has
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united all umicr one :oof at the Eavaga
play factory in this city. All theatrical
companies organized ' and controlled by
Savage are drilled here, and all their
equipment -is devlseO, planned, and manu
factured here. To the minutest detail
the production, the oostumes, the scenery,
the properties are made, fitted, combined
and gathered together, here by skilled
hands that have been hired by Mr. Sav
age, by workmen - and workwomen who
swear by their chief and who are the
most expert that he' could obtain in a
very wide experience.
When you think of the magnitude of
Mr. Savage's undertakings in the past
with hit? grand opera enterprises and
other companies, and when you remem
ber that this year although 'he has aban
doned the English Grand Opera troupe
that he pleased all -America with last
year. -he. Is up to his ears in successful
labor with the Puccini masterpiece
"Madam Butterfly"; which opened the
other night to an amazed and delighted
audience at Washington and will come
here to the Garden theater. November 12,
and that he has already opened "The
Student King" opera troupe In Boston,
that Reginald de Knven piece that is said
to be better than "Robin Hood" that, bis
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forces are now rehearsing "Die Lustige
Witwe." the last year's popular success
In Vienna, Berlin and Hamburg and
which is so electrify us in December; and
when you do not lose sight of the fact
that he has on tour now the droll and
deliciously .fun -making fellow Harry
Bulger in "The Man From Now" with a
gorgeous production and enough hand
some girls, music and dancing to satiate
all the bald heads in the Northwest:
when you jot-down In your mind that
Raymond Hitchcock is being starred by
Mr. Savage over the country in Richard
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Harding Davis' splfndid farce comedy
"The Galloper" which has been almost
entirely rewritten this Summer; when you
keep in mind that this hard working
Savage has the original production of
"The Prince of Pilsen" with Jess Dandy
and the rest touring this country, and
other productions of the same thing
touring Australia, the English provinces
and France; when you note that Savage
lias also on the road in the United States
three "College Widow" companies, in
which the title roles are taken by actual
college, widows who have graduated from
American colleges; and when you take
the sweet unction to yourselves that all
of these "attractions" will visit the Pa-
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