Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel], December 29, 1907, Page 6, Image 6

About Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911

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6
We Week's Bills
Auditorium— Ferris . in
. >. "A Gold Mine." ..'¦'
nelnspo— "Chnrley'ii Aunt."
Burbnnk— "The :. ¦ Prince and
the Pauper."
Grand— "The Kerry Gow." .
Lou ¦' Angeles — "Way .-. . Down
Cant."
Mason — Marie Cablll In "Mar
. rying . Mary."
Orpheum — Advanced Vaude
ville. •
Flacher'* "Tile IllnKinnnt
Vnuilevllle. ' ¦
WILL TRY PLAN OF
NATIONAL THEATER
NEW YORK next season will be the
scene of a highly interesting experi
ment, and one which, if It is a suc
cess, will be of almost inestimable ad
vantage to American playwrights and to
American players. Foundations have
been laid in that city for a J3.0W.0D0 the
ater, a theater which has been endowed
by a conslfierable number of wealthy
New Vorkerf. When completed the house
is to he managed under a plan similar to
that in practice at the Theater Fran
calse, with the exception that It will be
privately, instead of governmentally,
supported.
If announced \ lans ar« carried out,
masterpieces of all countries wl.l be pre
sented at this theater, where will be
offered the best light opera and the best
musical comedy, as well as tiie best j
drama of the day. It is iikely also that i
foreign artists as well as foreign plays
will be presented there.
The scheme as outlined has obvious ad- j
vantages' and equally obvious dlsadvan- ;
tages. As pointed out by Elmer B. Har- |
ris In the course of a recent talk the
house will not be a national theater, but
a playground for the exotic rich— a ciass
theater. Despite this drawback, however,
its power for croud, rightly managed,
cannot but be large. Mr. Harris sug
gests that the management might insti
tute some sort of a competition for plays
having to do with American subjects;
that a dramatic club might be organized
and a company or artistic young players
developed. ;
In fact, he believes that some euch
move as this will be necessary if the
theater is to prosper. In speaking of this
necessity, Mr. Harris said:
Couldn't Get Stars
"The best autors and actresses today
are a.l stars, and they are making so
much mjney playing for the syndicate
that they would not think of going over
to the no-called national theater. It
would be a losing game for them. Hence
this theater must go without the best
talent. It can't liave the John Drews,
Mauuu Adamses and Dave VVarflelds, be
cause It can't afford to pay them the
amounts they could command elsewhere.
"More, playwrights, in the ordinary
course of events, will only submit their
manuscripts to this management as a last
resort. A play presented at this theater
wi'.l not be allowed to run long no matter
what its success, and no playwright will
be content with two or three weeks when
at another house he might hops for as
many years."
There, ir brief, are the obvioua disad
vantages. There is another that Mr.
Harris did not mention. The manage
ment of the theater will be controlled by
a little group of millionaires. Many per
sons believe today that the immediate
future of tne American stage will show a
strong trend toward socialism, and It Is
not to be believed that any play touching
upon this theme or depicting the social
istic movement in other than a disrepu
table light would be permitted in a thea
ter co governed.
Star System Bad
On the other hand, there are good rea
sons for believing mat the new theater
will perform a real service for the stage.
To begin with, It will mean the creation
in New York of a stock company of the
first class, and It will mean the artistic
development of new talent. The star sys
tem, satlifactory from a commercial
standpoint, makes for bud artistry. The
play ordinarily suffers through the ex
ploitation of the star.
In all probability, also, there will be an
air of refinement and elegance about the
conducting of this theater which will be
a Godsend to the general public; and if
the management should interest Itself in
playa offering a solution of ¦¦current prob
lems It would then perform an admirable
service to society.
I the New York project thrives Mr.
Harris believes that it may be possible In
the future to establish a chain of such
theaters, endowed by wealthy men of
different cities. In other words, Mr. Har
ris would have these millionaire theatrical
entrepreneurs form a syndicate of their
own. The cities he suggests as ripe for
the experiment are New York, Chicago,
Boston, St. Louis, Los Angeles and San
Francisco, with others to be added from
time to time.
"The power euch a chain of theaters
would exert," be cays, "would be tre
LOS ANGELES HERALD: SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 29, 190 T.
PLAYS PLAYERS
mendous. Little by little a dramatic lit
erature wo-.-d be born. Plays produced
at these theaters would be published and
widely discussed. The theaters would
become a stronger Influence In society
than so many pulpits or editorial chairs."
WILL PRESENT NEW
PLAY BY ANGELENO
WITH the announcement that Dick
Ferris and his company will put
on at the Auditorium next week
Mrs. Gertrude Andrews' play, "Kate
Shannon," local thep.tprgoers have awak
ened to the fact that here is a writer who
has a greater stage reputation than any
other resident of the Angel city. Yet so
MRS. GERTRUDE ANDREWS, PLAYWRIGHT
unassuming has been her work that out
side of the fact that her husband, Fred
G. Andrews, is Mr. Ferris' business man
ager the connection of the family with
things theatrical has scarcely been sus
pected.
Nevertheless, Mrs. Andrews has long
been intimately associated with the
drama m almost ail its sides, and this is
by no means her only venture Into the
realm of dramaturgy. In fact. It is her
fifth play, all her previous ones having
been eminently successful. Besides the
plays she has a long series of sketches,
one-act affairs, and monologues to her
credit, none of which has ever recorded
a failure.
Also, Mrs. Andrews has been on the
stage herself. She played for eight years,
in her more youthful days, as Gertrude
Andrews, and was accorded the laurels
of the successful actreßS. Hence her
knowledge of stagecraft Is by no means
that of the tyro; she knows It from the
ground up. She has even staged plays,
not only her own, which she always puts
on, but others. She was the right hand
of Manager Bishop of San Francisco in
his very best days, doing much work for
him in the way of revision, rewriting and
directing. Sne helped him put his plays
on, and she did much toward making
them succeed.
With all this behind her it Is no wonder
that Mrs. Andrews went about the pro
duction of "Kate Shannon, or the Dawn
of Tomorrow" without blare of trumpets
or shoutings from the housetops. Unlike
the amateur she did not send forth the
announcement that she was going to
write a play. She started In germinating
the Idea; she slowly and carefully
wrought out her theme and gradually
through two years of travail she brought
It to being.
Accepted in East
Now she is in a measure able to enjoy
the results. For "Kate Shannon" has
been passed with the highest praise by
everyone of the Shubert readers, the lead-
Ing one calling It "The best I have read
in many years." It is accepted for early
production in the east; Alia Nazlmova,
the great Russian actress, is wild over
the prospect of playing the title role,
and Henry Miller wants Margaret Anglinl
to create It. Meanwhile Mrs. Andrews
has arranged for Its premier in her own
home city, thus showing by her fentl
ment that she is a woman after all, und
Dick Ferris and Sparks Berry have
eagerly grasped the chance to place it
before her own public in faultless
fashion.
Florence Stone has read the play and
is enraptured with the title part, which
she will play; Sedley Brown and jess
Bonnor are now preparing the stage
equipment and Mrs. Andrews will start
rehearsals under her personal direction,
with the aid of Mr. Brown, next Tuesday
morning, when the play will be read to
the Ferris company for the first time.
The play itself, as Mrs. Andrews .says,
Is not of the "problem" order, though It
has Its lesson for those who think.
"X do not believe," says she, "that any
one but a woman with a strong maternal
feeling could interpret Kate Shannon her
self, for it demands the perfection of
mother love. That Is why I am glad
Miss Stone will first bring it to life, for
she has that maternal feeling to a de
cided degree. You know, a writer has
peculiar feelings about the presentation
of a play; it is her own child, the product
of her own brain, and she waits In
greatest expectancy the birth of it Into
the public view.
Drama of Life
"There is in tho play the element of
true life; in other words, it is full of the
vital facts of existence. It tells a story
that is true to life, and it does It plainly
and I believe convincingly. There Is no
'problem,' as the term' is usually under
stood, though some may write one into
it. On the contrary. It is eminently clean
and vigorous, with real flesh and blood
men and women and the atmosphere of
truih all through it.
"Kate is a western v.-oman, even In her
New York environment, and never loses
her inherent freshness and vigor. She
knows right nnd wrong through the berft
of life's teachers— experience. And she
never hesitates at the crucial points.
Her mother love is stupendous— so strong.
In fact, that It even smothers other
things, but It rises triumphant nt the
end, anil in this end it justifies all that
has gone before. That is all the 'lesson'
or 'problem' I have wrought Into It.
"Naturally, after two years' work on
the play, I am anxious to see it brought
to life. To me it is a part of my ex
istence, and 1 feel very strongly about It.
More so than I ever did about a previous
play. I shall work very hard on it all
next week, giving myself up to the re
hearsals, and we expect to see it perfect
In presentation Monday nleht.
"Mr. Brown and I have already agreed
on all the details of stage management;
Mr. Bonner and I have designed the
scenery nnd he Is now painting it, and
I think Los Angeles will have reason
to be proud at least of the presentation
and environment of its first play by an
Angeleno woman when the final curtain
falls."
Mrs. Andrews, as she says, has put
in vastly more time and energy on this
play than on any previous one, though
her past efforts have brought her much
fame and many dollars. Among the
dramas from her pen, most of which are
now running in the east, are "Eagle
Tavern," "A Kentucky Cavalier," "A
Virginia Romance," "His Honor the
Mayor," for Barney Barnard, "A Matrl
monlnl Muddle" and "In Berkshire Hills,"
all successes.
Her vaudeville sketches are always In
demand, and several of them are row
on the various circuits. With the pre
sentation of "Kate Shannon" In the east
she will begin work on another play
which Is already outlined In her own
mind.
OBSERVATIONS BY
A FIRST NIGHTER
LAST week at the Los Angeles theater
we had a first performance on any
stage. Next week at the Auditor
ium we are to have another one. The
Auditorium play Is the work of a Los
Angeles woman, Mrs. Gertrude Nelson
Andrews, wife of Fred G. Andrews, busi
ness manager for Dick. Ferris. It has
been named "Kate Shannon, or The
Dawn of Tomorrow." This Is a cumber
some title and must inevitably be dis
carded later. The play is not a problem
drama, but has to do with the tyranny
of mother love. It has been accepted
for early production by the Schuberts,
with a likelihood that Alia Nazimova,
the gifted Russian artist, will play Its
leaning role. The part Is to be created,
however, by Miss Florence Stone.
"Sham," which had Its first production
at the Los Angeles last Thursday night,
has In it the makings of a vastly di
verting little comedy, a comedy, too,
from which the moral Is not lacking. Its
lines snap and scintillate with all tho
unexpectedness of Chinese firecrackers
on a dry night. Its characters are real
persons, not puppets, and Its situations
are never Btrained. To be sure It needs
tinkering— what new play does not?— but
this tinkering once accomplished, "Sham"
should have a pleasing and a prosperous
season. It wants action, it wants a dif
ferent ending, and it wants a revised
and abridged first act. Much action tho
comedy does not need, but It needs
more than has been provided.
Just when we are to have the prlvllegs
of seeing Katherlne Emmet, the new
leading woman at the Belasco, In a role
worth while Is not quite clear. Last
week Jn "Lord and Lady Algy" she neg
lected what few opportunities the part
afforded her and in so doing I believe she
did well. Much depends upon first Im
pressions nnd had Miss Emmet playnd
this "horsy" part as it should >iave been
played, she undoubtedly would have cre
ated an unfavorable Impression. This
week the bill Is the old and shop-worn
"Charley's Aunt." a farce that will give
Miss Emmet less chance than the Carton
comedy. Doubtless there are good man
agerial reasons for presenting these
plays at this particular time, but they
are somewhat inscrutable to the lay ob
server.
The success of the Burbank's special
matinee last week gives good promise
for the future. There are many fine
one-act plays, plays that are miniatures
of artistic excellence, and It Is matter
congratulate that Manager Moroßco
has decided to give us more of them
In the future. The Burbank's Invitation
to players at other houses to attend last
Thursday's performance was generally
accepted and the body of the house
showed many professionals.
Wedding bells rang for Ollle Mack laßt
week and there was no echoing clang
from the patrol wagon gong, as certain
sensationalists had led us to expect there
would be. All in all the publicity given
to Mr. Mack's domestic affairs in certain
newspapers was a sad commentary upon
the taste of persons who enjoy reading
such stuff. Of course It was advertising
and it may have brought a few dollars
Into the Grand box office, though I doubt
It; but on the other hand It provided ef
fective ammunition for those persons who
habitually inveigh against the stage as
Immoral. Mack didn't seem to mind tho
row, nor did the woman in the case, who
took every means In her power to secure
publicity for matters better left undls
cussed, at least by others than the In
dividuals directly concerned.
There nre many bright lines in "Marry
ing Mary, ' which Marie Cahill brings
to the Mason this week. Here are a
few of them:
Drlnkwater (a perpetual tippler, to Mary,
thinking she is the maid)— lt you are real
good I'll give you a k133.
Mary— l never take liquor in any form.
Col. Culpepper— A gentleman never gets
drunk before breakfast.
Mary <to her pastor)— You have paid me
such a sincere compliment that I am going to
ba guilty of an Indiscretion; I am going to tell
you the truth.
Mary confesses that she Is married already,
or rather was married.
Her pastor— Dear, dear me— and the dear de
parted ?
• BEN WELCH, IN STREET ATTIRE AND COSTUME, AT THE ORPHEUM
Mary— Waen't dear oivl Isn't departed.
* Ortn»by j Culprppor , (speaking; of Mary)— Her
life is an unwritten page where my autograph
shall stand alone, surrounded by 'a', beautiful
white margin. ¦ ~ ¦•¦¦'.¦ ' -
Mnry (askle)-He wants to marry a blank
book.
Ormeny— Prnetlcal politics means compromise
with evil; I stand on principle.
. Mary— lf you stnml on It lon* enough you'll
sit down on the first thhiK handy.
Mary— lt's never safe to Ret away from glit
tering generalities
Ormsby (In anger, to his father. Col, Cul
pepper)—Oee, I wlnh I had some money to cut
you off from.
I had occasion to wander back on the
Auditorium stage just before the rise of
the curtain on "The Prodigal Daughter"
last week, and from curiosity looked at
the "prop" books and papers on a table
standing ready for the actors to use.
WARREN COOK (Top), Los Angeles. BERNARD DALY (Bottom), Grand
There were three large books there; one
was Volume II of Macaulay's England,
another was the Baptist hymnal and the
third was a campaign edition of the life
of Theodore Roosevelt. The paper was
the Manitoba Free Press of Winnipeg.
Now I want to know whether that hym
nal was in such company for a reason,
and how on earth, with all the papers
published In Los Angeles, a Manitoba
paper should stray Into a scene sup
posedly laid in London.
Eleanor Montell of the Ferris com
pany is the latest member of that organi
zation to be offered a change of orbit.
She has been asked to assume the role
of Salomy Jane in the play of that name
in New York city. The offer was a
tempting one, but I understand she la
going to remain here. Like Florence
Barker, she sees the ghost walk every
Tuesday In Los Angeles, while the Great
White Way is now populous with Jobless
players. And Mlbb Montell Is eminently
wise.
MANY PLAYERB ADOPT
"NOMS DU THEATRE"
A singular request made by Sam Ber
nard, the actor, to the court was recently
granted. He received permission to be
legally known by his stage name. He
w»s bnptlzcd Samuel Barnett, but when
25 years ago he adopted a stnge- career
he took the name of Sam Bernard. He
now prefers this namo, giving these rea
sons for his desire to change: "For my
own sake, my profession and my chil
dren." Another player who had his name
changed by law is Edwin Arden. His
original name was Hubert Pendleton
Smith, but finding Smith undesirable as
a stage name he received his father's con
sent to change It.
As the prejudice against the stage grows
less year by year fewer players change
their names for stage purposes, but there
are still a large number who for various
reasons are not known by their real
names. How many people know that
Marie Dressler's real name Is Leila Koer
ber? She adopted the name by which she
is known to all playgoers when she made
her first appearance in Saginaw, Mich.
She rarely refers to this engagement, ex
oept to say: "I've never been there since."
In private life Frltzi Scheff Is known as
the Baroness F. Bardeleben, her husband
being v young officer In the Austrian
army. Her mother Intended her to be
come a prlma donna in grand opera, so
sho originally named her Frederlcka. As
she grew up, although Miss Soheft says:
"I never grew, up very far," sho had a
governess who called her Fritzl, because
she said thnt the little Frederlcka was
the most Impish child she had ever
trained. The most Intimate friends of the
actress call her "Frißky."
Trlxie Frlganza's mother was a Span
iard, and her father an Irishman. As her
own name, O'Callahan, hardly seemed ap
propriate for an actress she took her
mother's name, Frlgariza. When she was
a child, and made her first appearance
upon the stage, Louis Harrison called her
Trlxle, because she was a regular little
vixen.
Charles Blgelpw is responsible for the
nickname given to Edith Decker. Be
cause her mother's name was Decker be-
DICK FERRIS AND FLORENCE
STONE
fore she was married Blgelow calls the
actress "Double Decker."
Marie Augusta \Davey is the real name
of Minnie Maddern Flske. She took the
name Maddern from her mother, and the
Fiske when she married Harrison Grey
Fiske.
During her first season Mary Manner
ing played more than fifty small parts
under her own name, Florence Friend.
When Daniel Frohman discovered her he
changed her name to Mary Mannering,
thinking It more attractive and euphoni
ous than her own.
Helena Modjeska during her girlhood
appeared throughout her native land
using her name, Modrzejewska. When
she sought to win success in this coun
try she simplified it, making it easier
for the Americans to pronounce her
name.
Mmc. Alia Nazimova was known In
Russia by her own name, Nasimoff.
She is the wife of the Russian noble
man. Count G'olovini. In New York,
where Mme. Nazmova has made such
a success, there are few who pronounce
her name correctly. The accent Is on
the second syllable, and the-thlrd sylla
ble Is slurred.
Few persons, even her most intimate
friends, know that Bijou Heron was
christened Helena, ami that Bijou Is a
pet name that she has been called
since her babyhood.
"Doro" Was "Btuart"
Because Marie Doro refuses to he in
terviewed little Is kqpwn of her pri
vate life, and not many know that
when she attended a fashionable young 1
ladles' school in New York she was
known to the students as Marie Stuart.
When Maude, Adams adopted a stage
career she did not use her family name,
Kiskadden, because of the objection
the Kiskadden family had to the stage.
However, If you were to receive any
business communication from this
popular star she would sign It with
her full name, Maude Adams Klskad
den. \
Much has been Written about Ethel
Barrymore, yet there are only a few
that know her first name is Blythe.
Camille D'Arvllle, whoso native land
Is Holland, had won a name for her
self as Neeltye Dykstra some time be
fore sho becamo well known in this
country. <¦
Julia Marlowe was originally called
Sarah Frances Frost.
Helen Ware, who has won much
praise by her Impersonation of tha
gypsy. Malena, !ni"The Road to Yester
day," is a San Francisco girl, who was
once /a soloist in a church choir and
known by her re'nl name, Remer.
Drina De Wolfe was baptzed Drlna
Waters, but when sho married Elsie Da *
" olfe's brother she took his name for
stage uss and dropped her own.
Mrs. Humphry Ward has concluded a
contract with a London manager for a
new play based upon her novel, "Tho
Marriage of William Ashe." Mrs. Ward,
with Miss Margaret Mayo again as col
laborator, has completely rewritten tha
version. Thi^ new performance, which
will open in London, will show some
radical changes, notably an entirely
new fifth act, designed to liven the action
and brighten the situation at the close.
Lester Lonergan and Adelaide Nowak
will head the second company to play;
"The Great Dlvldo" on tour.