This little farce comedy of the future was originally a four-act drama. It was written 17 years ago, immediately after the Helicon Hall fire, as a means of diverting the writer’s mind from thoughts of that tragic event. The play was accepted for production by David Belasco, but years of delay took place, and finally the manuscript was submitted to other managers, and in the course of time all copies were lost. If this should come to the eye of anyone having a copy, the writer will be glad to hear from him.
The present version has been sketched out for an editor friend who wanted to publish the story as a serial. Readers of an observant turn of mind will detect the outlines of the play. Act I was laid in the Roof Garden of the Pleasure Palace; Act II in the Entrance Hall at the foot of the 99 flights of stairs; Act III in the kitchen of the Consolidated Hotel; Act IV at the Country Estate of the Lumley-Gothams. New material, not in the play, was supplied between the last two acts. It is amusing to note that many details about airplanes and wireless telephones, imaginary when the play was written, are now everyday affairs to us all!
For the original suggestion of this story the author is indebted to Mr. Fred D. Warren, from whom he purchased the idea.
Pasadena, California
February 1924