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Stage Lovers' Series
Famous Actresses of the Day in
America* First Series
Famous Actresses of the Day in
America. Second Series
Prima Donnas and Soubrettes of Light
Opera and Musical Comedy in
America
Famous Actors of the Day in America.
First Series
Famous Actors of the Day in America.
Second Series
Celebrated Comedians of Light Opera
and Musical Comedy in America
David Garricfc and His Contemporaries
The Kembles and Their Contemporaries
Kean and Booth and Their Contempo-
raries
Macready and Forrest and Their Con-
temporaries
Edwin Booth and His Contemporaries
L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
200 Summer Street, Boston, Mass.
Publishers
FAMOUS ACTRESSES OF THE DAY
IN AMERICA
SECOND SERIES
JULIA MARL-OW:
Famous Actresses
of the Day
in America
SECOND SERIES
By, /
Lewis C. Strang
ILLUSTRATED
Boston
L. C. Page and Company
1902
i9'
THE LltRARV OF
CONGRESS,
TWO COfHM RECEDED
AUG. 23 1901
COPVR»«MT EHTSV
CLASS £&XX« No.
copy a
Copyright, iqoi
By L. C. Page & Company
(incorporated)
All rights rese?-ved
Colonial T$xt%z
Boston, Mass., U. S. A.
Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
PAGE
I.
Julia Marlowe in Melodrama .
11
II.
Henrietta Crosman
26
III.
Mary Shaw and "Ben Hur" .
46
IV.
Maude Adams in " L'Aiglon " .
54
V.
Amelia Bingham .
73
VI.
Ida Conquest
90
VII.
Phozbe Davies
102
VIII.
Mrs. Fiske as Becky Sharp
120
IX.
Hilda Spong ....
. 132
X.
Annie Russell in Light Comedo
149
XI.
Valerie Bergere .
. 176
XII.
Mary Mannering as a Star
. 185
XIII.
" Zaza " and Mrs. Leslie Carteb
k 201
XIV.
Anna Held ....
. 214
XV.
Sarah Cowell LeMoyne
. 226
XVI.
Mary Sanders
244
XVII.
Ada Rehan'b Nell Gwyn .
257
Contents.
CHAPTER
PAGE
XVIII.
Elizabeth Tyree .
. 270
XIX.
Grace George
. 286
XX.
Margaret Anglin
• 295
XXI.
Viola Allen .
. 312
XXII.
Maxine Elliott .
. 323
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Julia Marlowe as Mary Tudor in "When
Knighthood Was in Flower " . Frontispiece
Julia Marlowe as Barbara Frietchie in
"Barbara Frietchie" 12 "
Henrietta Crosman as Nell Gwyn in " Mis-
tress Nell" 27 .
Henrietta Crosman as Nell Gwyn, Mas-
querading as Beau Adair, in "Mistress
Nell" 40
Mary Shaw as Amrah in " Ben Hur " . .51
Maude Adams as the Duke of Reichstadt
in "L'Aiglon" 54
Maude Adams as the Duke of Reichstadt,
with Edwin Arden as Metternich, in
"L'Aiglon" 69 ""
Amelia Bingham as Blanche in "The
Climbers " 76 "
Ida Conquest as Dorothy Manners in
"Richard Carvel" 98 "
Phcsbe Davies 102
Mrs. Fiske as Becky Sharp in "Becky
Sharp" . 121
List of Illustrations.
PAGE
Hilda Spong 132
Annie Russell as Miss Hobbs in " Miss Hobbs " 1 50 .
Valerie Bergere as Cho-Cho San in "Ma-
dame Butterfly" 179
Mary Mannering as Janice Meredith in
"Janice Meredith" 188
Mrs. Leslie Carter . ... . . . 201
Anna Held as Anna in "Papa's Wife" . . 218 •
Sarah Cowell Le Moyne and Her Associates
in "In a Balcony" 238
Mary Sanders 244
Ada Rehan as Nell Gwyn in "Sweet Nell
of Old Drury" 267
Elizabeth Tyree 270
Grace George as Honoria in " Her Majesty " 288
Margaret Anglin 295
Viola Allen as Dolores in " In the Palace
of the King" 316
Maxine Elliott as Portia in ''The Mer-
chant of Venice". . ... 328
PREFACE.
The Second Series of Famous Actresses
of the Day in America is largely devoted
to a critical review of the theatre in the
United States from the fall of 1899 to
the spring of 1901. Whereas, in the First
Series, biography and anecdote were most
prominent, in this Second Series criticism
has been made the leading feature. In this
volume only such actresses have been con-
sidered whose work during the past two
seasons has been especially noteworthy.
This arbitrary classification will be found
to include some whose careers have already
been reviewed in the First Series, and
others who have come into marked prom-
inence since the fall of 1899. In addition,
therefore, to a critical consideration of the
Preface.
work of the newcomers, their lives have
also been recorded. The writer has tried al-
ways to be accurate as regards dates, and
complete as regards data, though he knows
from previous experience that it is human to
err, especially in dealing with biographical
matter that has been gathered from such a
variety of sources.
Lewis C. Strang.
FAMOUS ACTRESSES OF THE DAY
IN AMERICA.
CHAPTER I.
JULIA MARLOWE IN MELODRAMA.
With the production of " Barbara Frie-
tchie" in the fall of 1899, and of "When
Knighthood Was in Flower " one year later,
the final step, in transforming Julia Marlowe
from an earnest artist exclusively identified
with classic tragedy and comedy and the
more serious forms of modern drama, to a
popular star in up-to-date romantic melo-
drama, was taken. I suppose that the ex-
perience was inevitable, but one may, even
at that, venture to regret the waste of time
12 Famous Actresses.
and of effort involved in the descent of the
most satisfactory Juliet, the sweetest Rosa-
lind and the nearest perfect Viola of the
English-speaking stage of to-day to the level
of the heroine of a dramatised novel. What
if Miss Marlowe did play this heroine better
than anyone else could, better, indeed, than
the part deserved being played ? She must,
with her talent and training, at least have
done that much. But why should she have
played the heroine at all, when her art and
personality could have been so much more
worthily employed in illuminating some mas-
terpiece of dramatic conception to the infinite
credit of herself and with the unreserved
approbation of her public ?
Julia Marlowe originally produced Clyde
Fitch's "Barbara Frietchie" in Philadelphia
on October 10, 1899. In the first version
of the play, Mr. Fitch followed the John
Greenleaf Whittier legend to the extent of
having a gray-haired Barbara wave a Union
._
rasonwui
JULIA MARLOWE
As Barbara Frietchie in " Barbara Frietchie.
Julia Marlowe in Melodrama. 13
flag out of a window. In order to bring
this condition about, he ordered that a night's
vigil at the bedside of her dying lover should
turn to venerable white the brunette tresses
of the youthful Barbara. At the first per-
formance in Philadephia, therefore, it was
" yon gray head " which was seen at the
window at the conclusion of the play. Miss
Marlowe, however, declared that the hair-
bleaching process was absurd, and it was
never repeated. So the only resemblance
between the Whittier Barbara and the Fitch
Barbara that remained was the somewhat
superficial one found in the circumstance
that both defiantly flaunted the Stars and
Stripes in the faces of Confederate soldiers
marching through Frederickstown.
Mr. Fitch placed a double burden on
Miss Marlowe's shoulders when he passed
this play over to her for public presentation.
Not only did she have the responsibility
of acting the leading part, which furnished
14 Famous Actresses.
the only element in the play that made it
a possibility as an acting drama, but she
also had practically to create this character
from her own imagination. She was obliged
to mould Mr. Fitch's vague outline into
something resembling a human being, to
imbue with life a mere figurehead, to turn
a pleasure-loving girl into a serious-motived
woman, without a hint from Mr. Fitch how
to do it. Strange as it may seem, Mr.
Fitch, after the opening scenes of the play,
never paid the slightest attention to the
development of the character for which his
drama was named. He gave us to under-
stand that this Southern girl was capricious
and beautiful, a great flirt and a great favour-
ite. He showed her in love with a Union
officer, and then he dropped her and began
inventing situations.
Everything else that was found in the
character was put there by Julia Marlowe, —
the pervading sentiment, true and idealistic
Julia Marlowe in Melodrama. 15
at one and the same time, so true and so
idealistic that not even Mr. Fitch's aggravat-
ing melodrama could make it false and mawk-
ish. To Julia Marlowe were due also the
touching pathos, and the marvellous sincerity,
which were proof against Mr. Fitch's wanton
theatricalism. All these were the best of
histrionic art, and, in addition, were wholly
distinct from the wonderful charm and the
rich womanliness that the Marlowe tempera-
ment lent to Barbara Frietchie.
The play itself was so good for an act
and a half that one felt a personal grievance
against Mr. Fitch, the hard-working young
dramatist, for making the last two acts and
a half so very bad. Of course there was
unnecessary trouble from the first, caused
by naming the play " Barbara Frietchie." Mr.
Fitch, however, was cautious enough to print
the following note on the playbill as a sort of
buffer between himself and public opinion :
"The author disclaims any intention to the
1 6 Famous Actresses.
writing of a historical play. He has en-
deavoured merely to picture, in an imaginary
story, some of the spirit and atmosphere of
a certain period of our history, using the
personality of Barbara Frietchie as best lend-
ing itself to his purpose."
The truth of the matter was that Mr.
Fitch got it into his head that the picture
of a woman waving a hostile flag in the
face of the enemy would appeal to the
average theatre audience, and accordingly
he wrote a play, which he intended should
lead up to that incident. The leading up
process proved difficult of execution, and
Mr. Fitch finally had to drag in his flag
scene after the action had logically ceased.
However, disregarding Barbara Frietchie
and her preposterous death, let us see what
else Mr. Fitch had to offer. His first act
was rarely charming comedy. The door-step
scene was in every way delightful, barring
the unfortunate incident that represented the
Julia Marlowe in Melodrama. iy
Union Captain Trumbell as neglecting his
duty and practically lying in order to prevent
Barbara's Confederate brother from being
made a prisoner. False touches similar to
that are constantly found in war plays, but
some day a bold pioneer will write an original
war drama and leave out all such obvious un-
truths. In Mr. Fitch's second act the true
overshadowed the false. The parting of
Trumbell and Barbara was a moment of
the deepest pathos. The suspense in the
episode of the sharpshooters was well con-
ceived and, on the whole, effective. Barbara's
act of shooting one of the renegades savoured
too much of melodrama, however, but it
was not a circumstance in the melodramatic
line to what the third act furnished. This was
a deliberate and cold-blooded effort to harass
the spectator's feelings in a manner as inex-
cusable as that resorted to by Sardou in
the torture scene of " La Tosca." Moreover,
it was potent enough theatrically to succeed
1 8 Famous Actresses.
in causing a great deal of causeless worry.
Captain Trumbell was brought to Barbara's
house fatally wounded. First we were in-
troduced to a hard-hearted father, who would
turn the dying man into the street. Bar-
bara's tearful pleadings settled him. Next
there was a discarded lover gone mad and
seeking revenge. Finally there was the
stern soldier, who would carry the unfortu-
nate captain off to prison. The first scene
of the last act depicted Barbara's grief after
Trumbell's death. It, too, was trying, and
it arrived at no satisfactory dramatic con-
clusion. As in "Nathan Hale," Mr. Fitch
wrote his play to an inevitable, but illogical,
situation. Starting out as a comedy, the
action terminated as a tragedy with the
dramatically inexcusable death of Barbara.
In " Barbara Frietchie," Mr. Fitch plunged
headlong over the precipice of possible sec-
tional controversy, which William Gillette
skilfully avoided in "Secret Service," and
Julia Marlowe in Melodrama. 1 9
which James A. Heme never even ap-
proached in "Griffith Davenport." "Bar-
bara Frietchie" was strictly a Northern
play, and Mr. Fitch's bias was apparent from
the first, when, by means of the character
of Colonel Negley, whose intolerance of the
Union soldier was used for comic effect, he
placed the audience completely out of sym-
pathy with the South and with everything
Southern. Mr. Fitch's attitude was still
more pronounced in the character of Mr.
Frietchie, whose threats against the wounded
Captain Trumbell were so inhuman as to be
almost grotesque. No Southern gentleman,
no matter how bitter his feeling against the
cause for which the Federal soldier fought,
would have carried his hostility so far as
all but to expel a helpless and dying officer
from his house. At least, he should not
do it on the stage, where generalisation is
to an extent necessary.
Mr. Fitch's blunder in this particular
20 Famous Actresses.
robbed his play of much dramatic strength,
and it also destroyed a possible source of
honest sentimental interest. By forcing Mr.
Frietchie and all the other Southerners, ex-
cept possibly Barbara's brother, out of the
audience's sympathy, Mr. Fitch reduced the
conflict, which furnished the theme of his
drama, merely to a material issue. Barbara's
mental struggle, which resulted in her tram-
pling under foot every consideration of en-
vironment, a struggle the psychological and
dramatic possibilities of which were tremen-
dous, was completely ignored. All that was
presented was her superficial conflict with
external obstacles. In other words, instead
of a study of human character, we were
given a conventional melodrama. What im-
mense possibilities there were in this great
love, which wrenched Barbara from family
and from 'friends, which compelled her, be-
cause she was a woman and must concede all,
to cast aside her most deeply seated convic-
Julia Marlowe in Melodrama. 21
tions and prejudices, that she might meet her
lover on his own ground, that she might feel
that she was his, through and through ! Yet
all this material for a vital drama was passed
unheeded. Looking through Mr. Fitch's
spectacles, we could not perceive why Bar-
bara should lose a single night's sleep in
trying to reconcile herself to her lover's
point of view, nor did we see why she
should grieve unduly at disobeying so small-
minded and bigoted a father.
Indeed, Mr. Fitch's play was chiefly useful
for the opportunities it afforded Miss Mar-
lowe to exhibit her art as an actress. And
art of the highest quality it was, too, exqui-
site in its sentiment, convincing in its sincer-
ity, appealing in its pathos. Miss Marlowe
was always true. I always dread to hear
on the stage the feminine shriek, which the
emotional actress habitually utters when
she discovers a dead body ; and I was ap-
prehensive, therefore, of the moment when
22 Famous Actresses.
Barbara should learn of the death of her
lover. My fears were groundless, however.
Miss Marlowe's cry was heartrending, not
nerve-racking. It was the pitiful expression
of a grief-stricken woman, and in a situation
not so essentially artificial as the one devised
by Mr. Fitch that tragedy-laden moment
would have been almost unbearable.
I have already referred to " Nathan Hale,"
and, indeed, the parallel between the two
plays was striking. In both there was
the light comedy introduction, then com-
edy verging into melodrama, and finally a
tragic ending, which, although historically
inevitable, was logically — that is to say, as
the necessary outcome of the preceding
action — impossible. In " Barbara Frie-
tchie," even more than in "Nathan Hale,"
the death scene was not the outcome of
the drama proper, and it was also less effect-
ive from a purely theatrical standpoint than
one would naturally have expected. The
Julia Marlowe in Melodrama. 23
audience unquestionably felt that the shot
fired by crazy Jack Negley and resulting in
Barbara's death was wantonness, and it un-
consciously resented the trickery.
In the face of all its apparent and irritat-
ing faults, how happened it, then, that " Bar-
bara Frietchie," even in its most melodra-
matic moments, preyed so mightily on the
susceptibilities of the spectators ? There
were a number of well-defined causes for
this seeming paradox. First, I should place
Miss Marlowe's beautiful impersonation of
the leading character ; next, the thoroughly
capable acting of her company; third, the
love interest in the play, which appealed
strongly to the imagination and to the
sympathy; and, finally, Mr. Fitch's skill in
the effective development of his situations.
Plainly no artistic conscience kept him from
making them by hook or crook count for all
there was in them.
Paul Kester's dramatisation of Charles
24 Famous Actresses.
Major's romantic novel, "When Knight-
hood Was in Flower," which Julia Marlowe
presented during the season of 1900-01,
was better stagecraft than the average run
of plays taken from novels. This statement,
however, should not be interpreted as exalt-
ing Mr. Kester's work high among the na-
tions. " When Knighthood Was in Flower "
was fair melodrama, and that was all the
virtue it had. Its unreality never could be
escaped, and its characters were outside of
human experience. Its historical flavour
was flat and tasteless, and there was no
effort to attain even plausibility in the treat-
ment either of personages, or of characters.
However, the theatrical quality of Mary
Tudor was such that Miss Marlowe could
utilise the part advantageously for the dis-
play of her personal beauty, charm, and
variety as an actress. She made the charac-
ter, and incidentally she made the play, too.
It certainly would have been nothing with-
Julia Marlowe in Melodrama. 25
out her. As the coquette, she was brilliant,
dazzling, imperious ; passionately fond as the
maiden in love; an entrancing picture mas-
querading in male attire ; fairly thrilling in
moments of tempestuous anger. From first
to last Miss Marlowe dominated, and this
domination accounted for the popular suc-
cess of the drama.
CHAPTER II.
HENRIETTA CROSMAN.
Henrietta Crosman was decidedly the
sensational feature of the theatrical season of
1900-01. In her spectacular storming of
the bulwarks of New York cocksureness and
prejudice, one found the dramatic element
present in satisfying completeness. Fame
came to her literally in a night. She was
comparatively unknown at the time she stole
into New York, for stock company work,
however worthy it may be in other respects,
is not a breeder of widespread reputation.
The Bijou Theatre, where she made her
modest bow to the New York public on the
dreary, stormy evening of Tuesday, October
9, 1900, had just scored a failure, and for
two weeks before Miss Crosman' s entrance
26
.
HENRIETTA CROSMAN
As Nell Gwyn in " Mistress Nell.'
Henrietta Crosman. 27
had been in darkness. Never did a star
seek favour with such poverty of announce-
ment. She opened, naturally enough, to a
small audience, with not enough money in
the house to pay for the electric lights. But
she won out, won out squarely, too, on
her merits as an actress. Though booked
for only three weeks, she remained in New
York for over five months, the last part
of the run being in the Savoy Theatre, erst-
while a music hall. And she left New York,
it may be added, just as spectacularly as she
came in, driven out, so she claimed, by the
so-called Theatrical Syndicate.
The play which served Miss Crosman in
such good stead, and helped her to win rec-
ognition as a worthy actress, was a four
act comedy, called " Mistress Nell," in which
Nell Gwyn figured as the leading personage.
It was the work of George C. Hazelton, Jr.,
who, previous to the presentation of this
work, had been unknown as a dramatic
"28 Famous Actresses.
author. Writing about " Mistress Nell " as
a play, is exasperating business. One would
like to praise it heartily, if not enthusias-
tically, but he cannot do it and still keep
on good terms with his conscience. While
" Mistress Nell " was not in the first class of
plays, it was, nevertheless, a good enough
play to find fault with. That is a sincere
compliment, though I have yet to run across
a professional producer of plays who regards
faultfinding in that light. The union of
Miss Crosman's delightful Nell Gwyn with
snatches of dialogue here and there thaf
really sparkled with wit of the old comedy
school did far more toward bringing the
drama to a successful issue than either Mr.
Hazelton's skill as a playwright or his ability
as a delineator of character. The play was
rather poorly constructed. It lacked neat-
ness and incisiveness, and there was gener-
ally no point to the action when Nell was
not on the stage.
Henrietta Crosman. 29
"Mistress Nell" was light comedy, —
nothing more, — a fact that it was well
always to bear in mind, lest one were misled
by its mocking assumption of history, and
its serio-comic atmosphere of romanticism.
" Mistress Nell " was not unlike a light opera
without music, all for a bit of fun; and
if one found the fun there, the play fully
served its purpose. What would be the use,
then, of searching the musty, dusty tomes of
antiquity to learn if Mr. Hazelton fully
observed the proprieties ? What was the
difference whether he did or whether he did
not ? It was all for the sport there might be
in it, all for a joke and a laugh, simply to
amuse and to keep one awake until it was
time for him to go to bed. In a light
comedy, however, a serious intrigue is always
a bore, and Mr. Hazelton had quite a serious
intrigue on hand in this play. Fortunately,
the intrigue was developed so blindly that
the spectators could not fully fathom it,
30 Famous Actresses.
and consequently it did as little harm as
was possible.
In spite of the intrigue, therefore, and even
in the midst of it, there were many happy
moments. The theatre scene of the first act
developed a number of laughs, but it was too
noisy for me. The Romeo and Juliet inter-
view between the king and Nell, in the first
half of the second act, was crowded with
deliciously witty dialogue. The inn scene of
the second half of this act was at times sug-
gestively Shakespearian in atmosphere, and
entertaining throughout, broadly humourous
with its low comedy innkeeper and con-
stable, and snappy and sparkling in the play
between Nell, the Duchess of Portsmouth,
and the king. Equally excellent was the
third act, with Nell masquerading as a gal-
lant cavalier at the duchess's ball. Perhaps
the less said about the last act the better.
There was some good material in it, but it
was too lengthy, and, in the main, a some-
Henrietta Crosman. 31
what wearisome conclusion of the whole
matter.
Although "Mistress Nell" had its short-
comings, it was at least a play. It stood by
itself. It told a story that one could follow
and comprehend without the aid of a chart or
a diagram. It kept reasonably within the
limits of its chosen light comedy field. Its
characters, neither original nor especially
amusing, with one or two exceptions, were,
nevertheless, fashioned after excellent models.
The dialogue was at its best very good in-
deed, — genuinely "literary," in fact, — and
at its worst it was never merely perfunctory.
The action, not always strictly to the point,
did not absolutely drag, except when the
unfortunate intrigue that the Duchess of
Portsmouth was engineering loomed up in
the foreground. Whatever vitally concerned
Nell Gwyn was usually interesting. Such
situations were clear, snappy, and enter-
taining.
32 Famous Actresses.
It will be understood, then, that Mr.
Hazelton mastered the essentials of dra-
matic workmanship decently enough, and
that practically all his difficulties came from
lack of care, or of understanding, or of experi-
ence in working out details. There is a
great deal of pure mechanism about a play.
Such minor matters as exits and entrances
have to be arranged just so, or else they
affect the spectator unpleasantly. It is
rarely possible for a casual looker-on to indi-
cate exactly the shortcomings in a play-
wright's work, for the spectator is not given
time to study the drama in detail. He can
pass judgment only on his impressions, with-
out being able ordinarily to tell precisely
what causes the impressions. One thing is
certain, however, if the impression made
by a play is artistically incomplete, the
dramatist is always to blame, provided, of
course, his play is acted as he wrote it.
Ingenious stage management and intelligent
Henrietta Crosman. 33
acting may largely conceal a fault, just
as poor stage management and bad acting
will reveal it glaringly ; but, as a gener-
alisation, good acting cannot save a bad
play, nor bad acting wholly ruin a good
play.
In "Mistress Nell" Mr. Hazelton never
was sure of himself except when Nell Gwyn
was on the stage, and, with the excep-
tion of the tavern scene, which was saved
by its low comedy, every scene in which
Nell did not appear was unconvincing. The
first judgment was, of course, to pass over
to Miss Crosman all the credit for this
peculiar condition of affairs, and, without
doubt, great credit was due her for bolster-
ing Nell into captivating prominence. Yet
even Miss Crosman had her limitations.
Partially, at least, she attained her results
because she had at hand workable material.
The more correct statement of the case was
this : Mr. Hazelton was himself interested
34 Famous Actresses.
in Nell Gwyn as he was interested in no
other personage in the play. He felt the
action of the drama as a reality only when
Nell was mistress of the situation. He
thought of all scenes from which she was
absent only as connecting links. To his
mind Nell Gwyn was the play, and every-
thing else was padding.
There certainly was something about this
Nell Gwyn which made one wonder if the
real Nell were that sort of a person. Was
she so irresponsibly girlish ? I do not mean
giddy, gushing, gasping girlishness, the girl-
ishness of sweet sixteen or blushing sixty,
but unaffected, happy-spirited, full-blooded
girlishness, the girlishness of fearless inno-
cence, the bravado of untainted purity. It
did seem a bit odd to associate a Nell Gwyn
with innocence and purity. We grant her
wit, humour, charm, everything fascinating,
except the most fascinating thing of all, —
the spontaneous, unprudish, whole - souled
Henrietta Crosman. 35
good fellowship of a heart that is both
innocent and pure. There is nothing like
it under heaven.
Nell Gwyn won the love of a king — that
is history. Not by wit alone, I warrant, nor
by beauty, vivacity, or audacity ; but by the
union of all these charms, and mayhap with
them such strange innocence and purity of
mind, that even a king was tempted. Of
course you say impossible, and point to
Nell's life in triumphant vindication of the
impossibility. That proves nothing. Dragged
from the scum of London streets, she may
have been, bred in the gutter and nurtured
amidst rottenness. I have seen a beautiful
flower blossoming and fragrant on a dung-
hill. Circumstances point to probabilities,
but they do not fix conclusions. But, you
exclaim, she bandied rude jests with the
pittites in the theatre, and she swore like
a London cabman. Again, these things
prove nothing. Innocent and pure she
36 Famous Actresses.
may have been, though her jokes outlawed
those of Rabelais himself, and her oaths
were as sulphurous as the hell that was so
often on her lips. Fie, fie, you don't believe
it? Then you lack experience, and that's
an end on't.
Such, at any rate, was the Nell Gwyn that
Mr. Hazelton imagined and that Miss Cros-
man presented on the stage. And whether
you found her the ideal about whom Pepys
wrote so enthusiastically, or whether you
winked your eye knowingly at your neigh-
bour with a sly remark, "All right for the
ladies, you know, but not Nell Gwyn, not in a
million years," — whether she convinced your
historical notion or not, she was bound to
tickle your present appreciative sense. Sniff
at her as a wholly frivolous conception you
might, but that did not keep you from be-
coming very fond of her, when you saw that
she was wonderfully pretty to look upon, full
of jollity and of humour, droll, and of nimble
Henrietta Crosman. 37
wit. You only wished that she did not
laugh so much.
Henrietta Crosman came to me as a
wholly new sensation. Not only was she
a new star; she was a new actress as well.
My first impression regarding her was sur-
prise at the attractiveness — better yet, the
winsomeness — of her face. I had seen her
pictures, and, judging from them, I did not
expect to find her a woman of such magical
prettiness. There was a glow of personality
about her, too, that made itself manifest in
a smile of genuine happiness and pleasure,
— a smile that was something more than
a mechanical display of the teeth. Miss
Crosman's first victory was in " looking the
part" to perfection. She was at no pains
to establish an illusion ; that came of itself
at first sight of her. All that remained for
her was to maintain the feelings of delight
and approval and instinctive sympathy that
were aroused immediately on her entrance.
38 Famous Actresses.
In comparing actors one's inclination is to
award the prize of achievement to the por-
trayer of mighty emotions. His work is so
broad, so idealistically grand and noble, that
its very massiveness makes an appeal to the
imagination well-nigh irresistible. But the
light comedian has a right to considera-
tion, nevertheless. If not so great as the
tragedian, he is at his best much finer.
Moreover, he is nearer life as the average
man knows it first hand, while the spirit of
his work is more kindly, more grateful, and
more helpful. The tragedian awes ; the
comedian wins affectionate regard. As Nell
Gwyn, Miss Crosman displayed the art of
the light comedian at its best. Her work
was without evidence of effort ; it was spon-
taneous, free, and natural. Always moving
in an atmosphere of daintiness, sprightliness,
and effervescent joyfulness, she made Nell
a creature of considerable variety and of
potent fascination. Yet with her free spon-
Henrietta Crosman. 39
taneity Miss Crosman ever maintained the
essential elements of repose, of mental poise,
and of confidence in herself ; there was
always present the underlying strength of
technical sufficiency. In short, Miss Cros-
man lived Nell Gwyn.
The part itself was somewhat peculiar.
It required a considerable range of expres-
sion, and yet its moods were limited. Nell
was pictured over and over again in practi-
cally the same position — on one side the king,
on the other the tool for Nell's jest, and in
the middle Nell herself, the self-possessed
mistress of the situation. That was Mr. Hazel-
ton's stock situation, and in connection with
this situation Nell's moods were fixed. She
was never in a real difficulty ; she never felt
the shoe pinch ; she not once sounded a note
of sorrow nor even of fleeting pathos. The
part was light comedy, and light comedy only.
However, within its light comedy limits
there was great variety, — at least Miss Cros-
40 Famous Actresses.
man made great variety, for I could easily
imagine that the part might have been acted
in a nervous monotone that would quickly
have become wearisome. Miss Crosman had
a rich appreciation of points, and she read
remarkably well. Time and time again she
got her laughs, — not so much by what she
said as by the way she said it. That sort of
comedy is rich — and rare, too. It is the com-
edy of intelligent comprehension. Walking
about the stage, wrinkling the eyebrows, and
gesticulating with the hands are not such
wonderful things to do. A competent stage-
manager can readily train a novice in that
sort of "acting," if it be worth his while.
But the voice ! There is where the great
acting comes from. A voice that interprets
while it charms is the best of all gifts, and
this Miss Crosman possesses.
Henrietta Crosman was born in Wheeling,
West Virginia, her father being George
HENRIETTA CROSMAN
As Nell Gwyn, masquerading as Beau Adair, in " Mistress
Nell."
M
Henrietta Crosman. 41
Hampden Crosman, an officer in the United
States army. She came of good Puritan
stock, the Crosman family having been one
of the first to settle in Taunton, Massachu-
setts, where her grandfather, also a soldier,
was born. He was graduated from West
Point in 1823, and during the Civil War
was connected with the paymaster's depart-
ment, and stationed at Philadelphia. He
was the eldest son of Capt. George Cros-
man, one of the earliest settlers of Taunton,
Massachusetts. An uncle of Miss Cros-
man's mother, Stephen C. Foster, had a
national reputation as a song writer, among
his compositions being " Old Folks at Home,"
" Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming,"
and "Uncle Ned." When Miss Crosman's
father retired from the army, the family
made its home in Cleveland, Ohio, and it
was there, at a church entertainment, when
she was nine years old, that Miss Cros-
man made her first appearance on any
42 Famous Actresses.
stage as the little maid in "The Mistletoe
Bough."
She was educated at the Moravian Semi-
nary in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Being
gifted with an exceptionally fine singing
voice, she was sent, before financial troubles
came, to Paris to study, but in her eagerness
to forge ahead she ruined her voice. One
day Miss Crosman heard her mother say
that her Uncle Morrison, a brother of
Stephen C. Foster, knew John Ellsler, who
was then managing the Grand Opera House
in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. She saw in this
circumstance a chance to get a start on the
stage. She wrote to Mr. Ellsler and asked
for an appointment, and this resulted in a
meeting in Pittsburg, Miss Crosman going
there from Youngstown, Ohio, where she
was living. In order to pay her fare she
painted water-colours and sold them. The
manager first asked her to recite something,
but she was not prepared for that, and so it
Henrietta Crosman. 43
was home again to study " something." She
chose scenes from "Camille," and "Romeo
and Juliet," and then painted more pictures
in order to get back to Pittsburg. Mr. Ells-
ler thereupon secured for her the opportunity
to play Lettie, in Bartley Campbell's "The
White Slave," in which she made her pro-
fessional debut at the old Windsor Theatre
in New York, in August, 1883, her salary
being twenty-five dollars a week.
The next season she became one of the
original members of Daniel Frohman's Madi-
son Square Theatre Company, appearing as
Gladys Wincott in "The Rajah" the first of
the season, and in "The Private Secretary"
the remainder of the year. During the sea-
son of 1885-86, she was under the manage-
ment of George W. Sammis, in " Young Mrs.
Winthrop," and the next season leading
woman with Edward Collier, then starring,
for the first time, in a repertory of legitimate
plays. Leading business with Robert Down-
44 Famous Actresses.
ing followed. Miss Crosman began the season
of 1888-89 as Frederick Warde's leading
woman, but he released her so that she
might join Augustin Daly's company in New
York. Her principal part at Daly's Theatre
was Celia in "As You Like It," which was
highly praised. She left Daly's suddenly
and unexpectedly, as has happened in the
cases of many other actresses who have since
become prominent.
Miss Crosman's next two seasons were
spent with Daniel Frohman's New York
Lyceum Theatre Company, of which Georgia
Cayvan was then the leading woman, Miss
Crosman appearing as Lucille Ferrant in
"The Wife," Phyllis Lee in "The Charity
Ball," and Mrs. Stanmore in "The Idler."
Previous to assuming this last part, she had
been identified wholly with emotional work.
Mrs. Stanmore, however, was light comedy,
and was the first indication of her ability in
that line. Coming next under the management
Henrietta Crosman. 45
of Charles Frohman, she was given a chance
for two seasons to develop her talent in farce
in "Wilkinson's Widows," "Junior Partner,"
"Gloriana," "The Other Man," and "Mrs.
Grundy, Jr." The summer of 1894 was
passed in stock work in Denver, Colorado,
and that fall she joined " Burmah," a melo-
dramatic production then playing at the Bos-
ton Theatre. After that she was engaged
in stock work, both in Pittsburg and Brook-
lyn, though during the season of 1898-99
she starred with Charles Dickson in "Mis-
takes Will Happen." " Mistress Nell " was
first produced in Denver, on June 3, 1900.
CHAPTER III.
MARY SHAW AND "BEN HUR."
When William Young's dramatisation of
General Lew Wallace's novel, " Ben Hur,"
was acted for the first time at the Broadway-
Theatre, New York City, on November 29,
1899, much praise was bestowed on the
production as a spectacle, while but little
account was taken of it as a play. This
estimate was perfectly just, for Mr. Young's
stage version was an unusual combination of
unadulterated spectacle, drama, and opera.
It was, perhaps, best comprehended under
the classification of melodrama, the word
being used less in its modern sense of vio-
lent theatricalism, and more in its original
meaning of drama with music. Considered
46
Mary Shaw and "Ben Hnr" 47
purely as a play, however, " Ben Hur " could
be ranked only on the plane of its acting,
which was generally bad. It should be ex-
plained that the acting of a scenic play is
entirely according to the dictation of the
stage-manager, who, in the case of a big
spectacle like "Ben Hur," has a task fully
as delicate as that of the speculator bent on
the cornerning of wheat, of cotton, or of
anthracite coal, with the aid of a small amount
of capital and an unlimited amount of as-
surance. In both cases the vital question,
which must be guessed correctly to dodge
disaster, is : Which way is the public going
to jump ?
After the great popular success of "Ben
Hur " it is, perhaps, presumptuous to hazard
the opinion that this vast spectacle was acted
wholly in the wrong key. It may seem like
perversely declaring that the sun never
shines simply because one's attic bedroom
window is perpetually shaded by a ten-story
48 Famous Actresses.
apartment house. Personally, I was agreeably
surprised in the quality of " Ben Hur " as a
play. It proved far more worthy than I
expected. I do not mean that it was in any
way "great;" it was far too episodical, too
fragmentary, and too disconnected to stand,
had it not been so well supported by the
thorough acquaintance that the majority had
with General Wallace's novel. Neverthe-
less, it certainly had theatrical possibilities,
and these were greatly enforced by its influ-
ential religious appeal, its sturdy characters,
and its unquestionable picturesqueness.
The first act was all good theatrical ma-
terial. There was vividness and force of the
coarser sort in the gallery scene of the sec-
ond act. The interviews between Simonides,
his daughter, the Sheik, and Ben Hur, in
the third act, had strength and variety. The
whole episode that involved the discovery
and healing of the leprous mother and daugh-
ter was charged with considerable human
Mary Shaw and " Ben Hur" 49
interest and not a little emotion. The char-
acters, too, were in nearly every instance
more than ordinarily sympathetic, real, and
individual. Moreover, they had at the same
time the important element of romance. Ben
Hur, Messala, Simonides, Arrius, the Trib-
une, the Sheik, Esther, Iras, and Amrah
were all good conceptions, which had incor-
porated in them power and appeal.
Yet, with these valuable qualities very
much in evidence, " Ben Hur," as a play, was
exactly what its actors made it. They could
have raised it aloft as a drama of some im-
portance, impressive in its parts and united
in its whole. They could, through the per-
fect union of personality and art, not only
have emblazoned richly their own impersona-
tions and the scenes in which they appeared,
but they could also so subtly have placed
before the spectator the ever discreet but
ever present suggestion of the Saviour, as to
have made marvellously strong the convic-
50 Famous Actresses.
tion of the actual presence of the Christ,
thus giving the play peculiar power through
its religious aspect. To avoid any possible
misunderstanding, it should be stated that
the religious element in "Ben Hur" was
usually effective without being unpleasantly
gross or palpably hypocritical. It was never
forced, never permitted — except in the last
act — to predominate, and, most important
of all, it was never made absolutely tangible.
It was used constantly and consistently as a
spur to the imagination.
"Ben Hur," it seems to me, could have
been acted in a manner approaching artistic
tragedy with firmness, dignity, and emotional
power. Evidently those who staged it
thought differently, however, for, with the
single exception of the nurse Amrah, the
atmosphere was always that of noisy super-
ficial melodrama. Indeed, I point to Mary
Shaw's work in Amrah as a striking argu-
ment in favour of repression and depth.
;:
i
.
Lj
MARY SHAW
As Amrah in " Ben Hur.
Mary Shaw and "Ben Hnr." 51
There was seen force without distracting ef-
fort, appeal without noisiness, unflagging
interest without disturbing rush and flurry.
The melodramatic actor, painting his picture
with the most striking colours, and sticking
with persistency worthy of a better cause to
most violent contrasts, must sacrifice genuine
feeling. He expends all his power in explo-
sive recitation and broad unsuggestive ac-
tion. He has nothing left in the way of
imagination and subtilty, the two qualities
that make the art of acting really worth
while.
Because it was vivid, intense, and imagina-
tive, because it had strength, and depth, and
sympathetic appeal, Miss Shaw's Amrah was
without a rival in the cast. It is difficult —
more than that, it is impossible — ; even ever
so feebly to describe acting such as Miss
Shaw displayed. There was not only splen-
did perfection of technique, with all the satis-
fying interpretation and understanding that
ij2 Famous Actresses.
came from mental and physical self-control
and confidence, but there were also the
equally important essentials, imagination and
genuine emotion. One felt Amrah, not as
a modern family servant, but as the dog-
like servitor of the Orient, a creature
who knew no will save that of her master,
and whose love found expression in faithful
obedience and absolute self-abasement.
In its spectacular aspect "Ben Hur" was
a very remarkable affair. The stage is, under
ordinary conditions, a distinctly materialistic
affair, with its prosaic curtain going up and
down, its lights of many colours, its flies and
its wings. As little expect to get poetry
and fantasy in stage-settings as to find the
rich foliage of the tropics at the North Pole.
Still, the apparently impossible was, to a de-
gree, obtained by the artist who designed
the " Ben Hur " scenic effects. A taste of
his quality was in evidence in the prelude,
with its desert, where occurred the meeting
Mary Shaw and "Ben Hur" 53
of the three wise men under the brilliancy of
the Star of Bethlehem. The scene, which
was not marred by a single speech, was
nothing short of exquisite, while the effect
of great distance and mystic dimness that
was obtained was veritable magic.
CHAPTER IV.
In the spring of 1900, Maude Adams put
aside the fascinating witcheries of Lady
Babbie in "The Little Minister," and, after
a summer of hard study, donned in the fall
the masculine garments of the Duke of
Reich stadt, the ill-fated son of Napoleon,
pictured by the French dramatist, Edmond
Rostand, in his play, " L'Aiglon." The change
was an astonishing one, more astonishing, in
fact, than her successful hazard for a brief
season of Shakespeare's Juliet. Nor was the
experiment without its satisfactory reward of
critical and popular approval. Public opin-
ion, as with Miss Adams's Juliet, was, to be
54
MAUDE ADAMS
As the Duke of Reichstadt in " L'Aiglon.
Maude Adams in " UAiglon" 55
sure, hopelessly divided. But it is safe to
declare the actress was justified in her dar-
ing by those who had hearts to feel as well
as minds to understand.
Exceedingly sorry most of us were, in our
selfishness, that there ever had to be an end
to Lady Babbie. It was difficult for us, who
could never tire of the delightful Egyptian,
— for us who had yielded so surely time
and time again to her spell, — to imagine that
any one under any circumstances might find
her wearisome. Babbie was to us as some
dear friend, a cherished companion, whom we
loved very much, whom we wished always
with us, whose happiness was our greatest
pleasure, whose sorrows awoke in us keenest
sympathy ; a friend whom we felt that we
could trust to the end of time, who never
disappointed nor wounded us, who never fell
from our ideal, who returned sentiment for
sentiment, who inspired us to look up and to
seek beyond, whose sympathy was rich, full,
56 Famous Actresses.
and complete, whose influence was ennobling,
purifying, and broadening.
Tire of Lady Babbie? Tire of rippling
laughter and of innocent mirth, of sweet,
pathetic tears, of love, of youth, of beauty,
of all that is most gracious and most to be
desired? Tire of life that is charged with
kindly humanity, with gentleness, life that is
all springtime, fresh, clean, and joyous ?
How could one tire of these great and good
things ?
Ah, so we thought, but there was another
side to the picture, a view-point altogether dif-
ferent, the view-point of the talented, the pre-
ciously endowed little woman, who laboured
so long and so faithfully, revealing to us this
idealistic creation of the imagination. Again
and again she lifted the curtain, although her
personal interest in the scene must have long
before departed. Conscientiously, with re-
sourceful art, she regenerated the old, old
character, lived anew the old, old emotions.
Maude Adams in "L'Aiglon." 57
We were delighted as ever. But she ? Weary,
so weary ! How she must have welcomed a
change !
It may have been fancy, but it seemed to
me that I detected the slightest trace of in-
evitable boredom in Miss Adams's last per-
formances of Lady Babbie, a little loss of
spontaneity, a loss so trifling that one hardly
dared to hint that it was noticeable. I seemed
sometimes to feel that Maude Adams was
acting, that Babbie's laughter was not Maude
Adams's laughter, that Babbie's tears were
only make-believe, that her bewildering lights
anu shades were there because Maude Adams
willed that they should be. In short, I al-
most dared to maintain that I had seen Maude
Adams's art at work, something which, to
me at least, had never before been revealed
in this part.
Do you wonder, when you consider the
matter, that it should have been so ? Eight
hundred performances of the same role,
58 Famous Actresses.
speaking the same lines, feeling the same
things, hearing the same laughter, the same
applause, bowing to the same curtain calls,
and trying, trying, trying to be pleased with
it all ! The real surprise was that Miss
Adams stood it so long and remained so
nearly the perfect Babbie that she was to the
very end. It was not strange that one who
had seen her impersonation many times
should at the last have suspected a shade of
artificiality. The marvel was that she was
not frankly artificial, wholly mechanical.
Maude Adams made her first appearance
as the Eaglet in Louis N. Parker's English
version of the Rostand play in Baltimore,
Maryland, on October 15, 1900. In March,
1900, Sarah Bernhardt produced " L'Aiglon "
in Paris, and news of the tremendous effect
that the drama had on those of French blood
was immediately sent broadcast. "But the
play will never be a success outside of
France," was the accompanying verdict.
Maude Adams in " L'Aiglon" 59
How absolutely wrong was this qualification,
it needed only a single experience with the
great drama to perceive. "L'Aiglon" is
indeed French, and I can well understand
how the heart of a Frenchman must be torn
to shreds and tatters, and his soul must be
inspired and inflamed with the most enthu-
siastic patriotism by the action and sentiment
of the drama. But " The Eaglet " deals also
with sweeping emotions, with mighty strug-
gles, with stirring flights of the imagination,
with vast enterprises, with a supreme tragedy ;
and these belong no more to France than
they do to the whole world. "The Eaglet, ,,
therefore, is rightly to be classified with the
universal drama.
When Rostand gave his " Cyrano de Ber-
gerac" to the public, there was general
acknowledgment of his genius, and also gen-
eral skepticism regarding his ability to repeat
himself in force and strength and artistic
merit in a second play. After seeing Richard
60 Famous Actresses.
Mansfield's Cyrano and Maude Adams's Eag-
let, I was ready to testify that, from the stand-
point of the theatre, he had accomplished in
" L'Aiglon " the seemingly impossible. I
was willing to acknowledge that " Cyrano de
Bergerac" read better than "The Eaglet,"
but it seemed to me that " The Eaglet " acted
better than "Cyrano de Bergerac." Acting
literature is vitally different from reading
literature. Reading literature is first of all
an appeal to the mind, and through the mind
to the imagination and to the senses. Acting
literature is an appeal, first to the senses,
then to the imagination, and last of all to the
mind. In its appeal, the drama is a com-
bination of music, which stimulates the
imagination through the sense of hearing,
and painting and sculpture, which stimulate
the imagination through the sense of sight.
All genuine drama — and it should be rec-
ognised that all works written in the dramatic
form are not drama — must be acted to be
Maude Adams in " L 'Aiglon." 61
complete. That is the condition or the re-
striction or the privilege under which the
dramatist labours. He is writing for the
theatre — for actors and for spectators. It
follows, therefore, that no person — however
broad in culture, however catholic in taste,
however experienced in stage technique — can
judge finally and absolutely of the true worth
of a play as literature or as art, until he has
seen it competently presented on the stage.
Until I saw " Cyrano de Bergerac " acted
up to its full possibilities, as it was in Con-
stant Coquelin's impersonation of the title
part, I regarded "The Eaglet" as superior to
" Cyrano "as an acting play. But that esti-
mate was wrong. "The Eaglet," being more
theatrical than " Cyrano," suffered less from
feeble or mistaken interpretation. " Cyrano,"
on the other hand, has a humanity and a
vitality that raise it distinctly above its com-
panion piece. The difference is inherent, not
superficial. It is the spirit that inspired
62 Famous Actresses.
"Cyrano," which counts. "The Eaglet"
otherwise has points of excellence, fully
equal to those of its predecessor. It, too,
is an exhaustive exposition of character, and
its action is placed against a background of
marvellous suggestiveness and impressiveness.
"The Eaglet" is the symbolic presentation
of the spirit of a most complex and fascinat-
ing people ; it is the pinning down to dra-
matic exposition of the unconquered Napoleon.
It is a richly sympathetic and a powerfully
pathetic retelling of the " Hamlet " story of
a soul struggle against overwhelming odds.
Appreciating the truth, sympathy, sin-
cerity, and subtilty of the composition of
the character of the Duke of Reichstadt as
a dramatic creation, I, nevertheless, do not
feel that the Eaglet, himself, is the really
significant factor in Rostand's play. The
drama was not written, in my judgment, so
much to present the Duke of Reichstadt as
it was patriotically to inspire Frenchmen, and
Maude Adams in "L'Aiglon" 63
to set forth in symbolic form the ideal spirit
of France as Rostand conceived it. So clearly
evident has Rostand made his ideal that, not
only can France perceive her own perfect
image, and be enthused by it, but we outsiders
can see it also and be fired and inflamed in
a similar manner as is the Frenchman,
though to a less degree. Whether this in-
spiration would be felt so strongly in London
with an audience of Britons, is doubtful.
That it could touch an audience of Germans
is practically impossible. But here in this
country we have enough of the emotional
vivacity of the Frenchman partially to under-
stand him. The Frenchman is away ahead
of us in honest sentiment. We are ahead of
him in " horse " sense. He poses far more
effectively than we do. We are too crudely
and vulgarly self-conscious.
In that most striking creation, the grena-
dier Flambeau, it seems to me that Rostand
gives us, as it were, a summing up of France
64 Famous Actresses.
— France wholly optimistic and wholly de-
bonair ; France willing to risk everything for
a bit of sentiment — foolish sentiment, you
of stern practicability declare — even as
Flambeau risked his life for the pretty sen-
timent of guarding Napoleon's son, wearing
the uniform of the old guard, bearskin on
head and white-slung musket in hand ;
France, light-hearted and frivolous and gay,
but true and brave and faithful to the last
breath. What a picture of a nation is this !
What a picture ! What wonder that French-
men went crazy over Rostand's work ! The
greater wonder is that they could strangle
their emotion sufficiently to express it even
crazily !
It was the unmistakable presence of the
French spirit, in union with the mighty
struggle of the Napoleonic spirit, that made
the second act of " The Eaglet " so super-
charged with emotional stress, with pathetic
appeal, and with dramatic strength. In the
Maude Adams in "UAiglon." 65
Louis N. Parker version, used by Maude
Adams, this second act was a combination
of the second and third acts of the original
play. This crowding together process re-
sulted in momentary incongruity as regards
time, but it had value in continued and unin-
terrupted interest in the action. From the
moment that Flambeau appeared in this act,
until he perished by his own hand on the
field of Wagram, he overshadowed the
action. Helped on, buoyed up, urged for-
ward by the constant optimism and faithful
service of the irresistible grenadier, even the
weak, wan, wretchedly hopeless Eaglet dared
to try to fly — actually fluttered his wings
alone for the distance from the tree to the
ground. But it was all impossible. The
Eaglet was not Napoleon — except in his
own fevered imagination and in the equally
fevered imaginations of his loyal friends.
Struggle against the truth as he might, the
Eaglet was compelled to acknowledge a
66 Famous Actresses.
spiritual as well as a physical master — that
fixed quantity, Metternich. A Napoleon
could never have known the helplessness of
facing a will stronger than his own.
This subtle phase of the Eaglet's char-
acter — a phase that made the almost
indomitable spirit and strength of will dis-
played in the death scene nearly a complete
victory — was most dramatically exposed in
the mirror scene by Metternich, who pointed
out ruthlessly and relentlessly every weak-
ness, every taint, every flaw in the face, form,
and character of the struggling, terrified boy.
Nor could the pitiful little duke get the
phantoms from his brain until he dashed
the candelabra into the reflection of himself
and smashed the mocking glass into frag-
ments.
Before writing a word regarding Miss
Adams's impersonation of the Duke of Reich-
stadt, I wish to avoid all misunderstanding
by speaking my appreciation of her mental
Maude Adams in " L Aiglon" 6 J
power, of her art, and of her pluck. Whether
she was wise to force her resources to, and
even beyond, the limit, and whether, with
her slight physique, she did not risk too
much in undertaking such a tremendous
part as the Eaglet, are debatable questions,
perhaps, but they are really none of my
business. To declare, however, that by her
presentation of such characters as Juliet and
the Duke of Reich stadt she injured or jeop-
ardised her artistic reputation is out and
out nonsense. Her Juliet I recall in certain
of its phases as the best I ever saw. Re-
garding her Eaglet it may be asserted that
no loss of prestige was to be feared while
Miss Adams was able to make apparent at
all points her thorough mental command of
Rostand's conception. With her ideal of the
duke, her understanding of his character,
her treatment of his complexities and per-
plexities, her exposition of motives, of pur-
poses and cross-purposes — with these there
68 Famous Actresses.
was little or no fault to be found. Mentally
the Duke of Reichstadt was hers. This
of itself was a task of no mean nor small
order, for Rostand in the Eaglet portrayed a
human being, and portrayed him with ana-
lytical keenness, acumen, and completeness
most uncommon.
Miss Adams's first entrance was not effect-
ive. Her physical tinyness and weakness
made so overpowering an impression that the
notion of royalty and of Napoleonic heritage
did not at once strike home. Not until the
line spoken by the Countess Camerata,
"They say you do not know your father's
history," which was answered by the duke,
" Do they say that ? " did the fire begin to
burn. From that point, through all the
sharpening of wits and mental fence with
court and ambassadors and during the mag-
nificent outburst of infectious enthusiasm in-
spired by the history lesson — leading phases
of the first act ; through the magnificent
MAUDE ADAMS
As the Duke of Reichstadt, with Edwin Arden as Metter-
nich, in " L'Aiglon."
Maude Adams in " U Aiglon." 69
second act, which never permitted the tears
to leave the eyes, and the tremendous range
of emotion involved in the episode of the
painted soldiers ; in the meeting with Flam-
beau and the interview with Austria's em-
peror ; in the representation of the joy of the
child, the fear of the child, and the defiance
of the child; in facing the cool opposition
of the implacable Metternich, and finally
in the tremendous mirror scene, culmina-
ting with its purely theatrical but none
the less appalling crash of broken glass, —
in every one of these moments of the first
two acts Miss Adams was great.
But the climax of the second act marked
the climax of her emotional power. The
third act of " The Eaglet " may be quickly
passed by. It was picturesque enough, and
it may have had a certain value as a halting
place between the stress of the second act
and the mighty emotionalism of the scene on
the field of Wagram. Still, beyond its purely
JO Famous Actresses.
mechanical use in carrying on the story, it
seemed dramatically worthless.
The fearful scene on the field of Wagram
was completely beyond Miss Adams's powers.
She could not give physical expression to
those imaginary terrors, and one felt them
not. In that scene nothing short of the
impressiveness of tragic power would do.
Tragic power Miss Adams had not. The
mechanics of the scene were beautifully con-
ceived and executed. No apparitions were
visibly shown, and the cries and wild shouts
of phantom voices were so mingled with the
soughing of the wind, that it was not diffi-
cult to conceive of a fevered imagination
conjuring these mysteries from what was
really the droning roar of the gale. There
were all the elements of terror present, and
these were increased by the sense of loneli-
ness and dreariness wrought by the setting.
The full sweep of the stage was shown, with a
perspective of six, eight, ten miles, — the only
Maude Adams in " IJ Aiglon" Ji
distant objects in sight being the little mound
on which the terrified Eaglet wrestled with
his soul, the stolid figure of the sign-post
pointing the way to France, and in the fore-
ground the dead body of the grenadier.
Against this awesome and stupendous
background stood forth the weak, feeble
figure of the Duke of Reichstadt. It was
a moment when domination of surroundings
could be obtained only by the compelling
sweep of supreme tragedy. Miss Adams
failed to dominate, largely — almost wholly —
because she lacked the brute force. The
environment was too strong for her unfor-
tunate physical limitations.
What she lost in the Wagram scene she
recovered in the death scene. This was in-
describably pathetic, and the wan pitifulness
of it was well-nigh heartrending. Here just
those qualities that made ineffective the fear-
inspiring hallucinations of the preceding act
rendered vastly moving the bitter and vain
72 Famous Actresses.
fight of the little Eaglet against disease and
death. One could feel the power of his will ;
one could feel it straining and almost rending
into shreds the weak, unresponsive muscles.
The agony was the keenest emotional tor-
ture for the spectator.
Of light and shade, of touches of deeply sig-
nificant comedy, of delicacies of subtilty and
fine significance, there were many throughout
the impersonation, and they all were admi-
rable. Over the tragic figure of the Eaglet
Miss Adams cast her magic mantle of pa-
thetic appeal, made all the more powerful
by contrasting tones of touching humour
that were themselves almost weeping. Ex-
cept in the instance of the field of Wagram
pathetic appeal carried the day.
CHAPTER V.
AMELIA BINGHAM.
To make plain the position that Amelia
Bingham holds in the American theatre, her
publicity bureau has consistently referred to
her as an "actress-manageress," which, I
submit, is a fearful thing to call any woman.
However, the dilemma in which the genial
press agent found himself when he tried to
fashion a neat and compact label that should
fit Miss Bingham's case is not fully appreci-
ated until one attempts to do the same
thing himself. The facts to be conveyed
are that Miss Bingham is managing a
theatrical company and acting in it at the
same time, and that she is the only woman
in the United States who is doing pre-
73
74 Famous Actresses.
cisely those two things. In London men
who both manage and act are termed
" actor-managers,' ' and women in a similar
line of work are designated "lady mana-
gers," a combination that is even worse than
" actress - manageress." Doubtless, if some
original mind should invent a graceful
phrase that comprehended the whole of
Miss Bingham's versatility, she would be
properly grateful and gladly adopt it. I
have tried to be an inventor, but have not
succeeded.
Miss Bingham has made no secret of her
ambitions in a theatrical way. Her reiter-
ated purpose is to make the Amelia Bing-
ham Company, which began its public
existence on January 15, 1901, with the
production at the Bijou Theatre, New York,
of Clyde Fitch's comedy, "The Climbers,"
the standard stock organisation of the coun-
try, a successor, in a way, to the Augustin
Daly Company. Miss Bingham's enterprise
Amelia Bingham. 75
has thus far been conducted with business
acumen, good sense, and considerable artistic
enthusiasm. She has surrounded herself
with a company of players of reputation,
and she has produced an American drama
of unconventionality and merit. When Miss
Bingham decided to secure an original bit of
dramatic writing, and not rely for her first
success on a dramatised novel, Clyde Fitch,
among others, was requested to submit a
manuscript. It proved to be a " star " play,
and was therefore refused. Miss Bingham
desired a " stock " piece.
"I was convinced — I always have been,
for that matter — that ' the play's the
thing,' " she said. " Authors seemingly
could not comprehend that I wanted a play,
not a part ; that I wished people to leave
the theatre talking about the Amelia Bing-
ham Company, rather than about Amelia
Bingham alone. They could not grasp my
intention simply to make Amelia Bingham
y6 Famous Actresses.
the trade-mark of the best stock company
that I could get together."
Finally Mr. Fitch showed Miss Bingham
"The Climbers," which, originally written
for the Empire Theatre Company, had been
refused by Charles Frohman, and after that
by nearly every other manager on Broadway.
Miss Bingham liked the play, however, and
had the courage to produce it. It proved
a remarkable popular success. Referring to
herself and her future, Miss Bingham con-
tinued :
" I love work — hard work. No conscien-
tious actress with the interest of her man-
ager at heart can get on without work.
People who imagine that an actress can
maintain a prominent place in the front
rank of the vast theatrical army without
ceaseless industry are misinformed. Not
only must she study to improve her acting,
but she must read, hear good music, become
acquainted with the works of fine artists, do
AMELIA BINGHAM
As Blanche in " The Climbers,"
Amelia Bmgham. J J
everything to stimulate that necessary qual-
ity, imagination.
"When I announced my intention to es-
tablish my present enterprise, my friends
attempted to dissuade me, telling me that I
could never act a part, manage a theatre,
and supervise my household. They declared
that my health would not stand the strain.
Not only have I found time to take care of
myself physically, but I have performed all
my duties, and, in addition, entertained my
friends, read many plays, and kept abreast
with the larger interests of the day. I am
much interested in politics and finance, have
continued my acquaintance with the best
literature, and devoted considerable time to
painting and music, accomplishments in
which, during my school days, I had shown
some proficiency.
" What are my ambitions ? They are
boundless for my company. It is my hope
that some day the Amelia Bingham Com-
78 Famous Actresses.
pany will take the place of that organisation
directed for so many years by Augustin
Daly. He has always been to me the most
admirable figure in the theatrical world.
Shall I produce Shakespeare ? I fear not.
Personally, I do not believe that the actor
of to-day secures the training requisite for
the successful interpretation of Shakespeare's
plays. My own career is in some respects
like that of the average actress. It has been
of eight years' duration, and in that time my
opportunities to participate in Shakespearian
revivals have been few and far between. I
believe thoroughly in plays of modern life if
they are true to nature. I think our public
in general likes to witness unconventional
treatment of things that it knows about,
possible elements in the lives of those near
at hand. It is my intention to produce plays
that will contain, in addition to verity, sur-
prise. I do not want the cut - and - dried
dramas of which the public is weary.
Amelia Bingham. ?9
" If it be a feasible plan, I hope to confine
my efforts to the presentation of plays by
American authors. Frankly, it is a difficult
task to find them, but I mean to persevere.
When I have my own theatre — I shall cer-
tainly build one when the time is ripe for the
project — I hope to make it the home of
American drama."
" The Climbers " dealt with well-defined
phases of New York society. The action
opened just after Mrs. Hunter and her three
daughters, one of whom, Blanche, — played
by Miss Bingham, — was married, had re-
turned from the funeral of the man who
had been the head of the house. Blanche
and one daughter were unaffectedly grief-
stricken, but the widow and the youngest
daughter were chiefly concerned regarding
their social future. Consequently, when the
widow learned that her husband had died
without leaving her a penny, there was an
outburst, and the vulgarity of her nature
So Famous Actresses.
came bounding to the surface. In this first
act occurred the scene, in which Mrs.
Hunter and her daughter Clara disposed
of their Paris gowns, now useless to them,
to two fashionable callers. This episode,
according to Charles Henry Meltzer, was
not, strictly speaking, original. In the
germ, he declared, it was invented about
twenty years ago by the French dramatist,
Henri Becque, and exhibited at the Theatre
Francais, in " Les Corbeaux."
"If Clyde Fitch had been able to elabo-
rate the dramatic scheme indicated in his
first act," wrote J. Rankin Towse, "he prob-
ably would have written the best and most
interesting American comedy of his genera-
tion ; but he allowed himself to be tempted
by motives of mere theatrical expediency,
and abandoning satire for sensation, and
character for incident, suffered the threads
of an interesting and novel story to be lost
in a coarse strand of striking but conven-
Amelia Bingham. 81
tional melodrama. Unquestionably the fune-
ral scene is a hazardous experiment, and open
to criticism on the- score of good taste ; but
the purpose here is legitimate, if the demon-
stration of it is a little too violent to be alto-
gether artistic. It would be less shocking to
delicate susceptibilities in the written page
than it is in actual representation. The
satire is fierce and crude, but it is wholesome
and hits fairly one of the commonest and
most contemptible forms of human hypocrisy.
It is not even in the most remote sense a
mockery of grief. The employment of it,
dramatically, to throw into instant relief the
different characters and dispositions of the
assembled mourners, is an admirable device.
" The suggested problem is, how these
women would comport themselves, and how
they would fare, when thrown upon their own
resources by a clearly impending financial
catastrophe. It is a situation full of infinite
possibilities, worthy of the ingenuity of
82 Famous Actresses.
Pinero himself. The difficulties of work-
ing out such a scheme in compact dramatic
form would be prodigious, and perhaps it
was the realisation of this fact, or mistrust
of his own powers, that induced Mr. Fitch to
shirk them altogether. Certain it is that,
after the first act, the fate of ' The Climb-
ers,' so far as it is affected by any individual
character or conduct of their own, becomes a
matter of altogether secondary consideration.
The ruin with which they were threatened
is averted, in some way not very lucidly
explained, and the interest thereafter centres
in the domestic infelicities of one member of
the Hunter group — who is not a ' climber '
at all — and the efforts of her friends to pre-
vent her husband, a reckless and unprincipled
gambler, from ruining himself and everybody
connected with him. It is not necessary to
follow the purely melodramatic details of the
story. They are marked by the exaggeration
which too often accompanies a fertile inven-
Amelia Bingham. S3
tion, but they are good of their kind and are
adroitly managed. Two of them are remark-
ably effective. One of them is where the
embezzler, after a Christmas entertainment
in his luxurious home, is compelled to make
confession of his crimes, in a darkened room,
to the relatives he has robbed, and the other
— which is, perhaps, the best individual
scene in the play, certainly the strongest
emotionally — is that in which an honour-
able man, having betrayed, inadvertently,
his secret love for the heroine to a jealous
rival, lays bare his heart to the latter, and by
appealing to her nobler instincts converts her
from a state of veiled hostility to hearty
friendship. The first of these episodes is
purely melodramatic and of small artistic
consequence ; the second sounds the depths
of human nature and belongs to a much
higher order of invention."
Amelia Bingham — her name was Smiley
before she married Lloyd Bingham, at that
84 Famous Actresses.
time an actor — was born in Hicks ville, Ohio,
■ — "an Ohio Methodist," she called herself.
" My father was a strict Methodist," she
added, "and I was brought up to believe
that, outside of the Methodist church and
Sunday school, salvation was not to be
thought of. I don't believe a member of
my immediate family had ever been to a
theatre, much less known an actor, before
I startled and almost broke the collective
heart of the town by marrying my husband,
who was on the stage. It cut me to the
quick to have the neighbours turn against me
as they did when I married. My brothers
and sisters are sweet country people — the
salt of the earth. They couldn't understand
me, either. When I left at the time of my
marriage, I was under a deep, big black
cloud, I can tell you.
"Those first visits home were painful.
People turned their heads as I walked down
the street. My best schoolgirl friend, my
Amelia Bingham. 85
lifelong chum, passed me and looked me
square in the face as though I were a
stranger. My old Sunday-school teacher
had the courage 'to come to see me, and
when he went away, he took my hand in his
and said : « Amelia, I hear there are some
good men and women on the stage. I hope
so for your sake.' But as time went on, and
Mr. Bingham and I continued to go home
after each season, the neighbours began to
be more friendly. Then one of them got
in a hard place financially, and he wrote me
such a pitiful, apologetic note, that it made
everything plain to me. Well, I helped that
neighbour out, and little by little we came to
understand one another. Hicksville took
Amelia Bingham back to its heart, actress
though she was. I can't help loving the
old town. I was born there, and when I die
I want to be buried in the little cemetery,
where my place is waiting for me in the
family plot."
86 Famous Actresses.
Miss Bingham was educated at the Ohio
Wesleyan University. Her first stage expe-
rience was with McKee Rankin, with whom
she went on a tour to the Pacific coast. Miss
Bingham's first appearance in New York
was made at the People's Theatre on the
Bowery in "The Struggle of Life." In pur-
suance of her spoken resolution, " to be the
leading woman of a Broadway theatre in five
years or quit the business," she refused offers
for the road and determined to stick to New
York. Her next engagement was at Niblo's
in "The Power of Gold." Then she moved
a little farther up-town to the Fourteenth
Street Theatre, when she appeared in "The
Village Postmaster." From there she ad-
vanced to the American Theatre, playing
in " Captain Impudence " and in revivals of
the Boucicault dramas. Charles Frohman
saw her and engaged her for "The White
Heather " at the Academy of Music, and
under his management came her triumphant
^_
Amelia Bingham. Sy
march into prominence. She appeared at
the Madison Square in "On and Off" and
"The Proper Caper," and at Wallack's The-
atre in " At the White Horse Tavern " and
"The Cuckoo." Then she was chosen to
replace Jessie Millward in " His Excellency
the Governor" at the Empire Theatre.
During the season of 1899- 1900, Miss
Bingham acted in New York and Chicago
in the vacuous melodrama, " Hearts are
Trumps." In addition to these New York
engagements, Miss Bingham played for a
time with the George Holland Stock Com-
pany at the Girard Avenue Theatre, Phila-
delphia ; in " Nature " at the Academy of
Music, New York; in "The Capitol" at
the Standard Theatre, New York, under the
management of J. M. Hill in 1895, and at
the Herald Square Theatre with the Mor-
daunt and Block Stock Company in the
summer of 1898.
At the conclusion of the run of " Hearts
88 Famous Actresses.
are Trumps " in the spring of 1900, Miss
Bingham, who was nervously worn out by
the strain of constant appearances in un-
congenial parts in melodrama, sailed for
Europe with the intention of taking a long
rest. There she was a surprised witness of
the success which had rewarded the women
who had undertaken the management of
theatres. In England she found them put-
ting up a formidable fighting front against
their masculine competitors. She found the
same to be true to a lesser degree in France,
where Sarah Bernhardt was the most con-
spicuous figure in the ranks of women
managers. However, it was not until she
returned home in the fall, and found that
there was no suitable engagement in sight
for her during the coming season, that she
decided to emulate the example that she had
discovered abroad, and realise the dream
which is cherished by all players, — that of
some day having a company of their own.
Amelia Bingham. 89
As Miss Bingham expressed it, "Once my
decision arrived at, I outlined my scheme,
arranged all the bewildering mass of detail ;
in a word, found out just what I must do,
then did it."
CHAPTER VI.
IDA CONQUEST.
Although Ida Conquest, during the sea-
son of 1 899- 1 900, was not nominally the
leading woman of John Drew's company,
presenting " The Tyranny of Tears," she
was, because of her admirable impersonation
of that original conception, Hyacinth Wood-
ward, the most thoroughly discussed member
of the cast. This Miss Woodward was a
conception likely to excite controversy, and
Miss Conquest acted her with notably real-
istic art. Indeed, in illuminating and sug-
gestive power, in sympathy and in sincerity,
in simplicity and in directness, in freedom
from self-consciousness, in rich sentiment
and in artistic subtilty, her work was a most
90
Ida Conquest. 91
grateful revelation of the best that the actor
can offer. I do not deny that the character
occasionally slipped away from her, but she
gave so much, and the spirit behind it all
was so admirable, that fault-finding seemed
petty and unwarranted.
It was strange and novel study of woman-
kind that Haddon Chambers made in the
character of this private secretary, Hyacinth
Woodward. On her he lavished the cream
of his imagination and his art, and he suc-
ceeded in creating a woman, a creature of
complexed and hidden motive, of not easily
comprehended action, of great sympathy, of
rare charm, and of abiding fascination. Un-
doubtedly there were many who did not
understand Hyacinth Woodward. They did
not see why she should kiss her employer's
picture ; they could not fathom her unso-
phisticated frankness ; they were not able
to find the focus of her outlook on life. In
her Mr. Chambers suggested much and ex-
92 Famous Actresses.
plained little, and, consequently, the revela-
tion of truth came only to the sympathetic
student.
Mr. Chambers succeeded so well in deline-
ating an actual woman that he fooled com-
pletely those who were accustomed to analyse
a dramatist's creations by means of the labels
which had been ostentatiously pasted on the
foreheads of the puppets. An imaginary
human being, who can be understood only
through the exercise of a common human
sympathy, or by means of the same psycho-
logical methods that one uses in fixing the
characteristics of the man or the woman
whom one meets on the street, is to the
thoughtless playgoer no character at all.
Basing his judgment on obviousness and
superficiality, more than one reviewer de-
clared that Mrs. Parbury was the only char-
acter in "The Tyranny of Tears." As a
matter of fact, although she was the most
easily understood personage in the drama,
Ida Conquest. 93
she was also one of the least worthy artistic-
ally. Mrs. Parbury was theatrically effect-
ive, but she was not genuine. She was a
type. Hyacinth Woodward, however, was
not a type ; she was a woman. The play-
wright did not stand up before the multitude
and proclaim through a megaphone the points
in her mental and moral make-up ; he did not
write out her motives in large letters on a
blackboard. Still, he was not sparing in
data for those that were able to read fine
type. How suggestive was her story of early
poverty ! Brought up in the country, — her
father a minister, and she one of a family of
thirteen girls, only one of whom had been
fortunate enough to catch a husband, — she
was as ignorant of men as she was of life
conditions and problems. She had a pretty
wit, a positive genius for sizing up human
kind, and an astonishing frankness of speech.
She looked back on her poverty-stricken
youth with horror, and she talked about her
94 Famous Actresses.
childhood with cynical coldness and feigned
heartlessness. Narrow as her view-point was,
her judgment was instinctively sound. Her
independence and the expanding atmosphere
of her association with Parbury soon came
to be indispensable to her. She would die
before she would ever return to her home,
she declared. Yet there were those who
wondered that she fought back, instead of
meekly submitting, when Mrs. Parbury or-
dered her from the house.
"I liked that article," said Hyacinth,
referring to something that Parbury had
written, "it was so masterful. Oh, I ad-
mire strength." There was the key to her
curiously indirect and still wonderfully
simple feeling for Parbury — the feeling
which led her thoughtlessly to kiss his
photograph, and afterward to acknowledge
without shame that she had kissed it.
Toward Parbury' s intellect she had the at-
titude of a hero worshipper. In his role of
Ida Conquest. 95
an author, he was her ideal of a man. For
the condition of domestic martyrdom, which
his wife's petty despotism and his own easy-
going indulgence had forced upon him, she
had the utmost contempt, softened by the
regret that a man of Parbury's attainments
should permit himself to be so set upon.
Hyacinth's quick betrothal to the self-con-
tained, sane, cynically surfaced man of the
world, George Gunning, was very natural
under the circumstances. He was the first
man who had ever, to quote her own words,
"looked on her as anything more than a
machine." He was the embodiment of that
masculine masterfulness which she so much
admired. She had carried the burden of her
future so long, and it was such a wearisome,
humiliating burden, that she was willing
enough to shift it on some one else's shoulders
when the chance came. Moreover, she was
an extremely practical young woman. She
recognised fully the social advantages of
g6 Famous Actresses.
Gunning's offer of marriage, and she was the
more ready, therefore, to follow her heart's
inclination.
An extraordinary character and a remark-
able conception by itself, no less extraordinary
and not a whit less remarkable was Miss
Conquest's embodiment of Mr. Chambers's
creation. Her understanding of the part was
almost never at fault, and her impersonation
throughout was exceptionally complete. She
knew what she was about, and she fathomed
Hyacinth Woodward. She seemed at times
to be overdeliberate in action — too calm,
perhaps. This was particularly apparent in
some of her interviews with Parbury. Never-
theless, it was a splendid exhibition of acting,
one which stamped Miss Conquest as an
artist in the best sense of that much abused
word.
Trained as she has been exclusively in
modern light comedy, it would have been a
remarkable achievement, indeed, if Miss Con-
Ida Conquest. 97
quest had been able to assume with complete
satisfaction the mantle of romantic melo-
drama, especially in a character so wholly
superficial as Edward E. Rose made Dorothy
Manners in his dramatisation of Winston
Churchill's novel, "Richard Carvel." The
actor is dependent upon the dramatist for his
working material. The actor must have a
definite substance around which he can wrap
his personality and on which he may exercise
his art. Exceptions to this rule there un-
doubtedly are, but these exceptions are found
chiefly in the field of eccentric comedy, though
it is true that the born romantic actor will
often accomplish wonders in parts that are
the most flimsy artificiality.
Miss Conquest's peculiar field is modern
character, and the interpretation of this is
diametrically opposed to romanticism. Mod-
ern comedy acting is the faithful and con-
stant piling up of details ; it is infinite
attention to little things, and its effect is
98 Famous Actresses.
accumulative. It demands subtilty and in-
sight, suggestiveness and logical develop-
ment, breadth of mental understanding, but
quietness and repose in action. Such acting
must first of all appeal by its truth to the
intelligence, and after that conviction fol-
lows as a matter of course. Romantic act-
ing, on the other hand, must reveal in a flash.
It is an impression, not a growth. It must
idealise. It must reach the heart, for it re-
lies for conviction not on the mind but on
the sentiment. It must be broad, strong,
and sweeping, comprehensive, pregnant with
personality and inexhaustible in pictorial
resource.
Now Miss Conquest, in spite of her old-
fashioned garments, acted Dorothy Manners
as if Dorothy were a character in modern
comedy. She tried to interpret, whereas she
should have tried only to impress and fasci-
nate. She had a conception of Dorothy
Manners, and it is ungrateful to record that
IDA CONQUEST
As Dorothy Manners in " Richard Carvel.
Ida Conquest. 99
this conception nearly proved fatal, for
Dorothy Manners in the play was not capable
of analysis. She might have been felt, but
she was not understandable. Mr. Rose did
not develop her ; he simply presented her as
a fact. He did not make her act from defi-
nite motives ; she moved only according to
the melodramatic exigencies of the present
condition.
Try to analyse Dorothy, and there are pit-
falls everywhere. First one must write her
down a heartless coquette, who fully deserves
all the trouble that comes to her. Yet, so to
consider her, immediately knocks all the props
from under Mr. Rose's drama. We must
sympathise with Dorothy or else we have no
use for "Richard Carvel." Again, try to
find reasonable conviction for the motive set
forth for her marriage to the Duke of Char-
tersea. Her father owes the duke money,
we are told, and she must save the family
honour. She accepts the situation on the in-
1 LofC.
ioo Famous Actresses.
stant. She demands no proof, and she makes
no protest. She succumbs at once with
spiritless childishness totally at variance
with other well-defined phases of her char-
acter.
No, Dorothy Manners cannot be accepted
as a study of character. She must be thrust
upon one as an irresistible fascination. Miss
Conquest might have done for Dorothy Man-
ners what Mary Mannering did for Janice
Meredith. Janice also defied analysis, but
that did not prevent her from being a tri-
umph of personal appeal.
The most striking thing about Miss Con-
quest in this part was a dark-coloured wig,
which robbed the actress most strangely of
her individuality. Nor was she as success-
ful in depicting coquetry as one would have
expected. When Miss Conquest had a
chance to be sincere — there were several
opportunities in the inn scene of the second
act, and in the scene at the duke's house in
Ida Conquest. 101
the third — she showed a hint of her capa-
bilities. The part, however, was fantastic
and unreal. Miss Conquest is essentially a
portrayer of human beings.
CHAPTER VII.
PHCEBE DAVIES.
A curious phenomenon of the theatre
in this country is the fixed popularity of the
so called "rural" drama. Melodrama in all
its other forms, from the blood-curdling
thrills of the Bowery, to the reality-racking
adventures of chivalric nobility, has its ups
and downs. Not so with the " rural " drama ;
that goes on for ever. It is almost unneces-
sary to note instances. There are "The
Old Homestead," life-long companion of
Denman Thompson, actor transplanted to
the stage from New Hampshire ; and the
prototype of "The Old Homestead," "Old
Jed Prouty," to which Richard Golden always
returns after experiments in other directions
PHCEBE DAVIES.
Phcebe Davies. 103
have made him impecunious ; " Shore Acres,"
the best of them all, and its companion piece,
" Sag Harbour ; " " The County Fair," Neil
Burgess's most cherished possession ; " The
Village Postmaster," " Blue Jeans," and
finally, "'Way Down East," quoted on the
playbills as written by Lottie Blair Parker
and elaborated by Joseph Grismer, which
from 1897 to 1 90 1 served to exploit the
talents of Phcebe Davies, an excellent, if by
no means great, emotion actress.
"'Way Down East" achieved its great
popular success by clinging closely to con-
ventionalities. It pleased the great majority,
because it gave enough touches of life to
flatter a crude sense of realism, and then
padded thickly with gross sentimentality and
ordinary virtue, which appealed to an unreason-
ing sense of right and justice. " 'Way Down
East " suggested real life only in a super-
ficial and external way. There was no hint
of the heart and soul of the people, such as
104 Famous Actresses.
can be found in James A. Heme's plays.
Indeed, life was portrayed by means of cari-
cature rather than by honest representation
or imitation. Nevertheless, however rough
the method, there was no question of its
effectiveness. Under ordinary circumstances,
even the hardened theatregoer could not
escape wholly its impression of reality.
In the matter of sentiment, " 'Way Down
East " belonged to the E. P. Roe school of
literary thought. The downfall of Anna
Moore was, in its essentials, a very human
and even a very tragic story, just as the
downfall of Tess in Thomas Hardy's novel
was human and tragic. But notice the E.
P. Roe touch that made the story " proper "
but destroyed absolutely its truth. When
Tess sinned, she sinned because she was a
woman who loved and was ignorant. One
was led to believe that such was the case
with Anna Moore, until, to bring about a
wedding without shocking any one's ideas
Phcebe Davie s. 105
of propriety, he was informed that Anna
Moore did not sin at all, but was deceived
by a mock marriage. This was poor art and
poor law as well, and it killed immediately
any strength that the theme of the play
might have possessed ; but it also made
" 'Way Down East " immensely popular with
the person to whom its sponsors catered, the
average theatregoer.
By her impersonation of Anna Moore Miss
Davies plainly demonstrated that she had
in full measure the great gift of sincerity.
The part was almost a monotone — with one
single comforting exception — from first to
lpst the persecuted, long-suffering female,
who, smitten on one cheek, turns with
pathetic patience the other to the hand of
the smiter. The single exception to the rule
of non-resisting meekness came at the end of
the third act, just before Anna disappeared
in the whirl and rush and rattle of the most
famous snow-storm that ever stormed regu-
106 Famous Actresses.
larly eight times a week. On this carefully
prepared occasion Anna slashed out in a
fashion that won for her genuine respect.
She showed that she had some spirit, after
all ; that she was not wholly milk and mush
sweetness, and for the first time one saw a
chance of happiness for the bucolic David
Bartlett should he marry her.
These long-suffering, never-hit-back char-
acters are a libel on humanity. There is
E. S. Willard's favourite, Tom Pinch, that
miserable specimen of a man who lets every-
body in creation tread on his toes, taking as
the reward of conscious virtue bucketsful of
tears from the weakly sentimental mortals in
the audience. When we see the pathetic
smile quivering on the corners of Tom Pinch's
mouth, we murmur, " Beautiful ! Beautiful ! "
and when Pecksniff gives him a well-deserved
dig in the ribs we cry out in sympathy,
" Oh, the poor fellow ! Isn't that too
bad ! " But, honestly now, what would you
Phcebe Davies. 107
think of Tom Pinch out in the world ?
Would you ever dream of considering him in
any particular whatsoever the ideal man ?
No, you would put him down as a harmless
idiot, good enough, perhaps, to do chores
about the house under the supervision of the
tyrannous cook.
Anna Moore was not as bad as Tom Pinch,
largely because one can stand patient suffer-
ing in a woman better than he can in a man
— it is more usual. But, even in a woman,
this sentimental characteristic of never strik-
ing back does not amount to much outside of
novels and plays. It is not genuine human
nature. It is not an evidence of sportsman-
like spirit. Mankind loves a fighter, and it
is to the fighter that all the rewards of life
go. Turning the other cheek is a theory in
which no one seriously believes. There are
many reasons why one may not find it neces-
sary to return a blow with a blow, but there
is absolutely no reason why one should lie
108 Famous Actresses.
down and let another fellow walk over him,
simply because the other fellow, confidently
masterful, demands, with insolent assurance,
one's person for a promenade.
All the foregoing does not deny the
powerful appeal to inconsistent humanity
that a purely fictitious, passive sufferer, like
Anna Moore makes, particularly if the char-
acter be placed before one in the disguise of
a personality so thoroughly sympathetic as
that of Phcebe Davies, whose temperament
is of itself tear-compelling, and whose sincer-
ity is absolutely unmistakable. Miss Davies
is not an actress of wide range ; but the
comparatively few notes of emotional stress
within her range are strikingly well con-
trolled and undeniably effective. I noticed
in her work but one false note, and I am not
sure whether that was her fault or mine.
Her sobbing at the end of the second act,
after she had told David that she could
be no man's wife, struck me as forced and
Phoebe Davie s. 109
unnatural. However, this may have been
my personal prejudice against that method of
expressing overpowering emotion.
But, after all, the really remarkable feature
of her work was the fact that for three
successive years she gave us an Anna Moore
that was fresh, sincere and spontaneous,
whose mechanics were hidden and whose
appeal was undiminished. In this particular
Miss Davies is strikingly different from Mrs.
Fiske, whom to see twice in the same part
means — for me, at least — complete disillu-
sionment. The first time one experiences
Mrs. Fiske in a new character, the impres-
sion gained is one of marvellous spontaneity
and striking reality. After a second experi-
ence with the same part, however, one comes
away fully convinced that the actress is noth-
ing but an elaborate system of mechanics.
With Miss Davies, however, the second and
even the third impressions are practically the
same as the first. Miss Davies acts from
no Famous Actresses.
within, outward. She recreates her charac-
ter every time she presents it on the stage.
Mrs. Fiske, on the other hand, creates her
character once, and after that she copies
the original creation down to the minutest
details. Speaking of this feature of her
work, Miss Davies said :
" You cannot imagine how difficult it is to
be impressed with any semblance of meaning
in lines which have been repeated so often.
Despite my best efforts, occasionally I catch
my mind straying from the words even while
I am speaking them. Of course, anything of
the kind is fatal to the sincerity and genuine
feeling which are so much in an impersona-
tion like that of Anna. In order to overcome
the tendency, I have committed to memory
poems which had the power of arousing me,
and have recited them to myself immediately
before beginning my work in the third act
of the piece. A dainty bit, entitled 'The
Rosary,' served for awhile, and then I took
Phoebe Davies. in
refuge in Paul Laurence Dunbar's beautiful
poem, 'The Sun.' When each had become
merely a collection of phrases, I took to
carrying this book about with me, and I read
from it during each of the intermissions."
Miss Davies held up to view a copy of
"The Story of an African Farm."
"My husband, Joseph Grismer," she con-
tinued, "is very particular that the people
under his direction shall constantly be 'in
the picture,' by which he refers to that
sympathetic interest which is broken by
incongruous interruption. Mr. Grismer has
requested frequently that the 'dumb show'
conversations conducted in his dramas be
relative to matters which might be discussed
aloud with perfect consistency. He declares
that it is possible to think almost along the
lines laid down by the author, and I have
learned that his ideas on this subject are of
practical value. We " — Miss Davies alluded
to the " 'Way Down East " company — " used
112 Famotis Actresses.
to have a David Bartlett who, during Anna's
attempt to attract the attention of the 'Squire,
who has just ignored her, would whisper: