Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-04-29
Il. WH1TMORE,
Publisher and Proprietor.
The story or sothern's Great Hit.

Publisher and Proprietor.
The story OF sSthsrn's Great Hit.
OLIVE Logan's Washington cor. in Chicago
Timesl .
We had Sothern, the great Dun
dreary, with us this week, and a
boon companion he is if ever there
was one. What an extraordinary
career has been hisl l asked him
the other night, at a supper given
us both, to tell me some of the de-
tails Of his professional life. "To
begin with, then," said he, "Pye
been on the stage four-and-twenty
years"
Twenty-four years ago-I sup
pose he must have been a boy of
twenty then-he went on the stage
in England. For one year he acted
there, and then came to America.
lie appeared first in Boston. "And
there l made, l flatter myself"
says the jolly Sothern, "as bad a
failure as ever was accomplished on
any stage" For four or five years
following this exploit he drifted
about the country, his abilities in
dicating the usual walking-sticl
brilliancy of the utility man. But
he assured me that in his earliest
youth he had observed the amusing
peculiarities of the semi-idiotic
London swell, and determined to
initiate them on the stage if ever
he got an opportunity. But how
could he? His youth and gentle
manly figure fixed his status as the
stock lover of the walking lady in
white muslin in every piece.
"Have they cast you to a good
part in the new play?" | once asked
an actor engaged at Wallacks.
"Just another of those ID
Fredericks," he replied with dis
gusted grunt.
You take in the style of muff he
meant Of course; the fellow who
says, or words to that effect;
"Ah, dearest, | love you; spite of
the cruel opposition of your
parents, you, and you alone, shall
be my bride" Now there is posi-
lively no other way to play this sort
Of milk and water donkey but to
put bears grease on his hair, and
the best trousers proclrable by
credit or loan on his legs. He is a
dramatic mutton head, and will be
to the end of the chapter.
But one night Sothern was cast
for the part of "Glavis'' in the
Lady of Lyons, the usual fop Of
the fOotlights, in which it would
seem there was small scope for orig
.inal effort, every point being tradi-
tional among actors. Every "gag"
is known and sedulously impaired
to new actors by old stagers. 81
think of the revenge" roars the
bloody Beauseant. "I-I-J think of
the d-d-dinuer," shutters the inane
"GlaviS'" Later, during the
wild excitement Of the return of
"Claude Melnotte," his ransoming
his bride, the beautiful Pauline, the
mortified defeat of the schemihg
"Beauseant," tradition wills it that
"Glavis" shall throw his lace.bor-
dered handkerchief over his face
and sluggishly sleep When awak-
ened by the honest and bluff "Cpl-
onel Dumas, after thedenouement,
with the announcement, "Your
friend has gone to hang himself.
Perhaps you'd better accompany
him." his reply is the gag, 9TH tn
thank you-won't you come tooy"
In spite of the cast-iron rigidity
of stage tradition, Sothern saw in
"Glayis" an opportunity to embody
his idea Of Dundreary and his
efforts at originality in the foppish-
ness of the part met with such wild
success that, to use Sothern's ex-
preston, 'it killed the piece"
What he meant was chat the audi
ence got to laughing at such rate
over SGlavis" that it could not So
Der down sufficiently long during
his absences from the stage topump
up many tears from the peripathies
of Pauline.
Sothern was cast for the tHRing
part of "Dundreary" in Our Amer
lean Cousin by Laura Keene, his
manageresq, and at risk Of losing
his situation be refused to play the
part unless he was allowed toipter-
polate such gestures and even
phrases as he Thought would make
the part more amusing to the audi
enee, ia Thispermission was granted