Eugene O'Neill came early to recognize the fakery of the commercial theatre. It was in that “hateful” institution, after all, that his own father had gained fortune and celebrity. Yet, no matter how much he ridiculed the cardboard world of popular melodrama, young O'Neill grew in knowledge as he moved about freely in his father's house. “. . . I was practically brought up in the theatre - in the wings - and I know all the technique of acting. I know everything that everyone is doing from the electrician to the stage hands” (Cargill et al., 112). In the same way he became acquainted with the sensational effects obtained by producer-illusionist David Belasco, who specialized in snapshot realism. But O'Neill, who criticized Belasco, was himself innovator enough to use any device he thought might advance his dramatic intention.