Jules ROMAINS. Autograph manuscript signed, Gaston Baty à Pigalle, [January 1930]; 9pages in-fol. On the arrival of Gaston Baty as director of the Théâtre Pigalle (built by Henri de Rothschild and inaugurated in 1929, administered by Gabriel Astruc with André Antoine as artistic director, who left after two months and was replaced by Gaston Baty). Jules Romains' article appeared in Les Nouvelles littéraires on January 18, 1930. "Next week, Gaston Baty inaugurates his direction of the Théâtre Pigalle with a revival of Simoun [by Henri-René Lenormand]. This is a considerable event from every point of view. It seems difficult to deny the Théâtre Pigalle the title that its creators had dreamed up for it, and that its first admirers bestowed upon it: 'the most beautiful theater in the world'". Le Simoun is "one of the most significant works, [...] one of the masterpieces, the first to date with Les Ratés, by Lenormand, that is to say, by one of the few French playwrights the whole world knows and respects. As for Gaston Baty, he is the man who, after struggling for ten years under the harshest conditions, served by precarious means, suddenly finds himself in possession of an incomparable instrument, a set of resources that it was not even reasonable to hope for"... André Antoine, "whose genius influenced a whole period of European dramaturgy, [...] was not given the extensive means that other countries were able to provide to a Reinhardt, a Stanislawsky"; but Baty is not responsible for this. "Nor is there any question of opposing Baty to the stage directors of her generation, or to the elders whose efforts she directly continues. If Gémier, if Copeau, if Jouvet, if Dullin had been entrusted with the Théâtre Pigalle, I am quite sure that each of them would have done well. [...] In accepting, Baty has shown a courage that I greatly appreciate. [...] A marvellous instrument has been placed in hands that are worthy of it. It will serve the triumph of this French dramatic renaissance which has been going on for ten years, which in the beginning encountered so much indifference, had to make do with such poor means, and since then has never been able to relax its heroic tension, so many resources of all kinds have been haggled over"... Etc. And Romains concludes: "Baty has far too much culture not to think that the 'grand spectacle' devoid of substance is the ruin of the theater; and that the most modern machinery is no more than an expensive compilation when the poetic spirit refuses to inhabit it. In short, Baty's accession to a position he deserves by virtue of his past, and which he has the good fortune to receive in the full force of his age and talent, should delight the true friends of the theater in France. Baty's failure would be detrimental to everything they love, to everything they have painstakingly defended, then gradually imposed over the last ten years. It would only accommodate those who are frightened by this renaissance, and whose interests are threatened as soon as art reclaims its rights". [Baty staged only two shows, the revival of Simoun (January 23 1930) and Pierre Dominique's Feu du ciel, which was a flop. He left the Pigalle theater in March 1930, and was replaced by Louis Jouvet, who created Donogoo by Jules Romains, before abandoning the Pigalle theater in his turn].