Eugene David<br>...The One-Minute Pundit

Posted 5:25 PM by Gene

The huge spike in unemployment, combined with the loss of life savings by failed banks, meant that a once secure middle class could not meet their mortgage obligations. As a result, many walked away from recently built homes.

Recent history? No, the Panic of 1893.

Plus ça change....

Which brings us to the Wiki's poster. "In a scenic way", belched The Paper of Re-CORD, The War of Wealth "far surpasses any previous production of an American drama of its kind", meaning it employed STEPHEN "QUARTER-OF-A-CENTURY" HOLDENs even THEN. "There are 200 people on the stage." Your typical Shubert kvetches he'll go broke with ten. We couldn't find much on Charles T. Dazey (who wrote some silents) but we found something about the "proprietor", Jacob Litt, who died ten years after this show. He also produced In Old Kentucky, one of the many many forgotten long-running masterpieces of its day, and something called The Beauty and the Beast (!), and went insane, and left a million-dollar estate when a million was far more than a McMansion. History can teach us a lot.

P. S. We cannot conclude without this, er, rich description of the play (WARNING: SPOILER ALERT! PFFFFFFFFFFFFFT!):

"In Old Kentucky" ran for six months at the Academy of Music after touring the provinces. It is safe to predict as long a run for "The War of Wealth," because everybody will want to see the daring rescue of the heroine, who has fallen over a cliff at West Point, by the hero, who lowers himself over the precipice by the folds of Old Glory; the explosion in the bank vault, which releases the cashier from the living tomb into which he has been locked by the villain; the angry mob of depositors clamoring for their money during the run on the bank, which is dispelled by the sight of the yellow metal brought on the express wagon; the humorous express office scene, and the undoing of the villain in the last act.

This goes directly to what I complained about last night: no doubt this play was hokey, and overwritten, and overwrought, but it sounds as though to its thoroughly captivated audience it was great fun. Who has fun in the thea-TAH anymore?