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EDITORIAL, DRAMATIC SOCIETY _VOLUME CXH.—NO. 135. ??J*r-m • -' '"» Ethel Barrymore's New Audience ETHEL BARRYMORE has a new audience. Indeed, she has two new audiences, and if I may say so without offense, she seems to enjoy them both. Her first new audience is that which assembles twice a day at the Orpheum- to listen to J. M. Barrle's delicate, subtle and demurely cynical "Twelve Pound Look." The othisr audience is the in terviewer. Miss Barrymore is almost as much a stranger to the one as she is to the other. She assured mc that she was pleased with both. As a Frohman star, she was only per mitted to shine distantly.- As a vaude ville star, she beams intimately. Froh m?n wouldn't permit her to talk to r». and her appearances in his legitimate theaters were in the nature of society events, at which per sons much too -well fed pretended to ;>dore an art that they should have sincerely admired. They called Ethel Barrymore the aristocrat of the Ameri can stage and let it go at that. They were like folk at a classical concert— impressed and depressed. Moreover, because of certain very true things she said in confidence to a newspaper woman in the south, she became alien ated from the interview pages of the newspapers of the country. Frohman couldn't stand it to have anything said against society—even American so ciety. The purveyor of foreign plays was delicately sensitive to the opinions of New York relative to Ms bright star, Miss Barrymore, and frankness on the part of an actress is not to be endured—off the stage. So when the newspaper woman in the south broke faith and published—as she shouldn't -what Miss Barrymore had said about New York society audiences, Mr. Froh man said in effect: "You shall join the silent stars, and like Maud Adams and other dear children, you will be seen but not heard." Thus it happened that Miss Barry more has been a star in the legitimate for many seasons. She came to the Columbia in June of 1911 with "The TwelT c Pound Look," and another and a poorer Barrie play. "Alice Sit by the Fire." But she wouldn't be interviewed. Newspaper men like myself—if I do not flatter tbe writer too often—were that Miss Barrymore would i see us. "Why?" we asked, idly. ' Because," was the feeble answer. Miss I'trrymore as an actress was visible, but only with the saving row of the footlights in between herself and her inquisitors'. Mr. Frohman had so or d.ilned and so it was done. If his star would talk, let her talk to herself, (•ftid Frohman, and so the most impul ► c, generous and the frankest of in uees that I have met in years was 1 hidden in the columns of press BP°nt matter carefully edited by Froh rmm. So when I called on Ethel Barrymore a few days ago. Ia her dressing room at the Orpheum I enjoyed the distinc tion of being the second of Miss Barry more's sensational audiences. The first she had just left and she left them Cheering. I mean they were cheering. 4*4* A RE they not splendid?" she said. A\ waving me Into a corner where I sat as quietly as was possible for a nervous person. "Who?" I asked. 'Why, the audience," said she. "I have never had such splendid listeners In ail my life. They do not miss a c. How do you account for. that?" "It is very easy to account for," said with an attempt to prove the state nt by mere emphasis. "Barrie is iprehensive, and you understand „ * "Barrie," said she in answer and without looking into the mirror as . leading women are wont to do in in terviews, "is a remarkable man. A ajjag ilar man. He understands men »A-. he understands women. The men understands from a feminine point of view and women he comprehends from a masculine point of view. He is a baffling, enigmatical person is Bar rie. Nobody I know could write a play with the delicacy of touch that is evidenced in 'The Twelve Pound Look' and write it popularly. He is a keen musician who understands sational effect of a fine nuance •md Cic thrill thst there is in a dainty modulation. He is a big artist work .eg in miniature." •X- # * <£-•»>•* E did not talk much about Miss \J\I Barrymore's newness to inter " • viewers. She merely smiled n I recalled the fact to her that had never met me before. Whether 'lie smile suggested a distant satisfac tion, 1 am not able to say. She indi cated, however, with serene wisdom. that she was not afraid of male inter \ 'e» ers> hut that it was the female species whom she feared. To give you an idea of the delicate •luality of her consideration for news paper men I should tell you that about the only thing she divulged in the con- that she granted me permis * on to use was the one thing that I *49pBtf have published anyway. She 1 ■ilfj'ji.e that I looked like Barrie. Not that I believe it, at all, but it was nice "f her to say. Wasn't it? How would Jou like to look like the most delight ful of English writers who was born in Scotland? And how would you Ilk© to have a charming Interpreter of his lines assure you on her word of honor that the resemblance. partlculary about the forehead—a most important point—was striking. Naturally I asked Miss Barrymore if she had read all of Barries books, and naturally she said that she had. Nat urally, too, we agreed that Barrie had a fine forehead. It was inevitable, though I tell It who shouldn't. IT may be a little late now to advise you that I enjoyed the Interview with Miss Barrymore tremendous ly. She spoke with a sincere frankness about her tour in vaudeville and there was at no time the slightest sugges tion that she was posing. "What she does In "The Twelve Pound Look" is to "play up" and not "down" to her audience. The niece of John Drew has too much sense to underestimate the intelligence of her audience and ln the case of the interviewer she has the somewhat regal manner of a flattering queen. What she does at the Orpheum ln "The Twelve Pound Look" she does in her private capacity as Ethel Barry more. She assumes with lofty courtesy the mental regeneracy of her guest. "I do not know," said she, "how long I shall remain in vaudeville. I only know that it has been thus far a most delightful experience and that I have found hearers whom I never could have reached otherwise. The gallery gives me the favor of a whistling approval. It's pretty fine to win that, isn't it?" Nothing could be finer, as a matter of fact, because nothing could be more sincere than an Orpheum gallery's - ap plause. In the language of the vaude villian, "you've got to get 'era." I MAY at once tell you that I didn't ask Miss Barrymore anything about Mr. Colt, her husband. I didn't because it wasn't any of my business. Besides, one doesn't ask a lady im pertinent questions, even if one Is a newspaper man. She volunteered me some information about her baby, but that was merely because I volunteered some information about mine. What she said was that one learns much THE CALL SAN FRANCISCO, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1912. from children, and that an abstraction in a pinafore was the basis of most of Barries Inspiration from "Peter Pan" to the 'Little White Bird." which I advise you to read. Tha capacity to retain an innocent heart and the ability to remain credulous were gifts, she said, of the highest order. Children have them. Barrie has them. In Barrie it amounts almost to audacity —this naivete of the child, said Miss Barrymore. "In what particular.'' I asked, "does a vaudeville audience strike you as dif ferent from fashionable two dollar a ticket persons?" ,"In the particular of attention," she answered. The Orpheum audience gives you its ears and its brain. It comes to the theater solely to be amused. There is no clement of prob lem seeking, and no pose of hastily conjured culture* The Orpheum auditor has come to the t!iea,ter to be amused and entertained. That's the only reason he bought a seat. If the pla>er gives him entertainment he doesn't care; whether the performer's name is Drew or Booth or even Harrymore, and he doesn't particularly care who wrote or who produced the offering. There is no cant nor strut to the person who comes to the Orpheum. Names are nothing to him. Even though he recog nizes the hypnotism that resides in a name in the legitimate, he refuses to acknowledge any power ln a title in vaudeville. The player is put out on the stage as a fighter in a ring, and the audience, ln effect, says 'Make good.' Success with such %c audience is much more intoxicattng*4md grati fying than success before an audience composed of prejudiced persons influ enced by a name. "But if the vaudeville auditor chal- lenges the vaudeville player to 'make good,' he at least gives him an un divided attention to find out whether be does 'make good.' No player should demand more. It has been one of my greatest* pleasures in a professional career to learn that with such an audi ence I could command attention for Barrie and his beautiful play. "I could not ask for a more effective audience than these that I have newly found In the Orpheum theaters.** THERE was no talk of hardships, no discussion of the difficulties of her professional career, and no suggestion of the struggles that even a Barrymore must endure on the hard road to success. Everything about her life on the stage seemed to be taken as a matter of course by Miss. Barrymore. th© struggles, a natural corollary to her career and the hard ships what one might properly expect. Nevertheless, Miss Barrymore is ac counted one of the wealthy women of the stage. She spoke of her home in New York with much greater ease than a broker mentions his motor. She did not even hint that she was getting $3,000 a week for her tour of 12 weeks In vaudeville. The sum is not so ex travagant as you may think. She's worth It. Nobody gets $3,000 a week for 12 con secutive weeks unless one Is worth it. One might for a week, but not for months. If Miss Barrymore wasn't worth $3,000 a week to the Orpheum the gallery would resent the Imposi tion to such an extent as would make Miss Barryrnore's life on the stage un bearable. For \\ Is the audience, you know, that pays the salary. Not Mr. Meyerfeld. FOR the purpose of showing that Miss Barrymore was really pleased with her other new audience, the interviewer, and that she did not feel perturbed because the FYohman edict against interviews had been set aside by Meyerfeld's 'much more in clusive wisdom, I shall take the liberty of quoting Miss Barrymore verbatim ln this: "Say for me, if you please, that I am very happy to be in vaudeville. That the audiences are charming, and that I do not know that I shall ever care to return to the legitimate. I would like to remain a vaudeville star all my life if I could be sure that .there were other one act plays of the genuine human ap peal and deep beauty of Mr. Barries •Twelve Pound Look,' and that I might secure them.' There isn't a point in my playlet so subtle that the-audience misses it, nor a fantastic bit of imag ination so fragile that it, doesn't hit. ~ "The man who wrote the description EDITORIAL DRAMATIC SOCIETY PAGES 27 TO 36. Walter Anthony of himself when he said of the tiny hero in The Little Whit© Bird,' 'he's the little boy who calls me father,* is not too delicate for the purposes of a universal appeal. I am honored that the public likes me in such a play as this." * * * AND now, for the purpose of re minding you of the nature and qualities of this latest and finest acquisition to vaudeville, permit a paragraph or two of biography, for Sarah Bernhardt's threatened invasion of vaudeville is not so momentous nor Important as Miss Barrymore's intro duction of herself to an audience that loves her with a spontaneous affection not founded on anything so extraneous' as a mere name. Miss Barrymore was born in Phila delphia, August 15, 1879. She makes no secret of that important circum stance. Her grandparents were the first Mr. and Mrs. John Drew, the latter for years one of the most finished actresses on the American stage. For a long time Mrs. John Drew headed her own stock company in this city and was a re markable woman in many ways. At a period when she had passed the seven tieth milestone in her life she mad© a revival of the old English comedy, "The Widow Warren," in which sh© went through the figures of a dance. Miss Barrymore's mother was Georgia Drew, the sister of John Drew the second. Miss Drew was married to th© English actor, Maurice Barrymore, who, during the days of A. M. Palmer's stock company in New York, was looked upon as one of the best leading men in this country. Only the narrowest of mar gins- separated him from stardom. Barrymore was an actor of fine phy sique, much magnetism and was aa much at home in Shakespearean works as he was in modern comedy. He was a versatile man, had written plays, possessed a caustic wit and cared little where his random shots went home. Georgia Drew Barrymore was one of _ the cleverest leading women on the stage and was gifted at repartee. The wit of father and mother seems to have been handed down to the daughter. Miss Barry more has two brothers, Lionel, who gave up what promised to be a brilliant stage career to study painting in Paris, and John, who "arrived" some time ago to see his name in front of a theater in electric letters'. Miss Barrymore had only reached her fifth year when her mother died and she was taken in hand by her grand mother, Mrs. John Drew. The latter sent Ethel to the school of the Sisters of Notre Dame, in Rittenhouse square, where in the course of time she gavo promise of becoming an accomplished pianiste. Miss Barrymore had not th a«tght seriously of the dramatic stage, but she ''was enthusiastic over the piano. She wanted to go to Russia and. Germany to complete her musical education, but this was too expensive. Hence she turned to the stage, where she found that her family lineage was against her and that she would have , been better off, less being expected of her, if she were only plain Mary , Smith.