Philip Curtiss

Name: Mummers in Mufti — Chapter 31
Author: Philip Curtiss

Mummers in Mufti — Chapter 31 (1922)

Summary

“Mummers in Mufti — Chapter 31”, published in 1922, is a work by Philip Curtiss. It explores elements such as Bellsmith, show and Harcourt.

Quotes from Mummers in Mufti — Chapter 31 (Philip Curtiss)

Philip Curtiss, Mummers in Mufti — Chapter 31 (1922)

“ Harcourt laughed aloud. "To tell the truth, so does Walter Gay. He's a man after your own heart, Mr. Bellsmith. But the fact remains that those boys are big commercial possibilities. The public likes to dance to their music even if you or Walter Gay don't care to listen to it. With proper steering those rights of yours will be worth anywhere from fifty thousand to two hundred thousand a year to some one—to Melcher and Gaylord themselves if to no one else. You see, all the things like publishing rights and phonograph rights depend on the music being brought out first in the right kind of show. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Philip Curtiss, Mummers in Mufti — Chapter 31 (1922)

“ None of us could have afforded to have that uncertainty hanging over our heads forever. But at first, when we thought that your experiment with the show business was going to last just about a week, of course—"
"You were waiting around to be in at the death," suggested Bellsmith, "and buy me out for a couple of fish-hooks."
Harcourt laughed. "Well, Mr. Bellsmith, it's human nature to want to buy a thing as cheaply as possible. We thought that you'd be glad enough to get the whole thing off your shoulders and never see the inside of a theater again." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Philip Curtiss, Mummers in Mufti — Chapter 31 (1922)

“ His mental portrait had been of a man of fifty-odd, of the boulevard-banker type, heavy-jowled and cynical, faultlessly dressed but always wearing a derby hat, even at his desk, always smoking a black cigar and having, especially, a broad, black eye-glass ribbon and a little white edging at the top of his waistcoat. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Philip Curtiss, Mummers in Mufti — Chapter 31 (1922)

“ The show business is n't standing still. You 've put rather a jolt in it yourself. Of course we 've got to go slowly. For the present we need the sort of shows that Gaylord and Melcher are writing. There will always be some demand for those, especially in New York City, but we 're already beginning to think of to-morrow—and the day after that. Your show, as you have it now, is much more the type of thing that we used to get from Vienna, and we 'll never have a better bet than those old Viennese operettas. Men with your kind of talent are scarce in this country. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Philip Curtiss, Mummers in Mufti — Chapter 31 (1922)

“ Bellsmith shook his head.
"Well, I 'll be damned," commented Harcourt.
He paused again in his utter unbelief; then slowly explained.
"Walter Gay, to be frank, made the bull of his life when he sold you that show. I was in Chicago at the time, but believe me I gave him merry hell when I got back. He ought never to be trusted with anything in front of the curtain. Don't you know that you own the services of Tony Gaylord, the composer, and Fritz Melcher, the lyric writer? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Philip Curtiss, Mummers in Mufti — Chapter 31 (1922)

“ But furthermore,—and here is the joker—there was also a clause which provided that we could dispose of the contract as a whole but not any part of it. All or nothing. That is a clause which frequently appears in such contracts to keep a producer from dividing responsibility. It is purely a formal clause, and for that reason Walter Gay forgot all about it.
"In other words," announced Harcourt, "when you bought 'Eleanor' you also got the entire rights to the services of the most popular composer and the most popular song writer in New York."
"But I don't want them," said Bellsmith, blandly. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Philip Curtiss, Mummers in Mufti — Chapter 31 (1922)

“ It's you who have got them. They 've got a new show right now, the biggest thing they 've done yet, all ready for next year. But we can't do a thing about it and no more can any one else until we get this mess straightened out. Any time you pleased you could simply get out an injunction and stop the whole show."
Bellsmith grinned. "I'd almost like to do it. People are forever getting out injunctions against me."
Harcourt laughed. "I heard about that—from Israels."
"But why did n't they tell me?" demanded Bellsmith. I mean Melcher or Gaylord. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Philip Curtiss, Mummers in Mufti — Chapter 31 (1922)

“ It was now Bellsmith who was not greatly impressed and Harcourt who was pleading the case.
"'Eleanor,' as it proved, was a lemon for us, but that's neither here nor there. We had given each of those boys, Gaylord and Melcher, ten thousand dollars retainer. Our object was that, in that same contract to write 'Eleanor' for us, there was a clause that gave us the producing rights of all their output for three years. ”

Philip Curtiss

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Quotes from Mummers in Mufti — Chapter 31 (Philip Curtiss)

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