The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1884-02-23
NUMBER 10.


fore an audience is feat which only a
few actors havethorourghly acquired. A
good many fall so awdwardly as to ex-
cite mirth, and good many hurt them
selves. i remember young lady in one
of Daly's plays a few years ago to
whom he said "Here, you must fall
at this cue," AT that cue, according
ly, she tainted and fell, but she knocked
over chair and stand, broke lamp,
and set the stage on fire. The curtain
was rung down, the fire put out, and, in
dignant, he asked her what she meant
by such clumsiness.
swell" 7" she said, ''you never told me
how to fall, and nobody ever showed
me-"
She had never thought of taking a
lesson in so important matter.
Fanny Davenport is now large and
solid woman, but her fall in ''Fedora"
is one of the most effective bits of sage
business. She reels fainting to the sofa,
quivers, and dies in an instant, half
lying on her face, and as her Mortified
husband runs up to look and learns the
dreadful truth she roll entirely over by
sheer force of gravity and drops with
startling thud upon the floor.
The best fall 1 remember to have seen
is that of Francis Wilson in the "Prin
cess of Trebizonde" at the Casino, He
posed, among the comic statuary, on
pedestal foot and half high, with a
bass drum upon his breast. He would
fall directly over backward or on either
side without putting hand or bending
his body fall straight upon the floor
like wooden figure. L wonder it didn't
kill him, especially when he was eneor-
ed half a dozen times. 1 don't think a
death or fatal injury ought to be re-
peated too often.
Agnes Booth doesn't know how to
fall easily unless she has learned lately.
When she was playing the wife in ''The
Celebrated Case" she used to hurt her.
self every night--got black and blue
until she finally threw up the part, and
Miss Correll took it and "fell" into it
gracefully.
These recollectlons have been sug-
| gested by technical lesson. The other
afternoon l dropped into Frobesher's
College of Acting and found him engag-
ed teaching a class of theater-bound
young ladies how to fall; illustrating
his teaching with them one by one.
Remember this" he said: ''persons
fall either from fainting, drunkenness
or sudden death. They die either by
dagger, sword, pistol or poison-except
an occasional case like Mansfield, who
who died of apoplexy, Sudden death
is followed by sudden relaxation, which
causes the knees to bend as one of the
first visable signs. The knees bend,
the shoulders drop, the victim turns
partially in his tracks-so-and falls
so''--'not. " he resumed on recovering
his feet, las if he were built of iron or
wood, or even of flesh and bone, but as
if he were made of snow and sand-melt-
ing away at the bottom first.'
"Always fall diagonally," he conA
tinued; "head toward one corner of the
stage. Another thing: In recovering
from swoon, the head should be last
to rise. In regaining consciousness the
heart stirs first, then the hands and the
frame. The man rolls half over before
he lifts his head at all.n
Sometimes it is usual to fall on bein z
struck with the fist-men usually. 1t
is back fall and is effected by holding
body rigid, withdrawing the tongue
from between the teeth, raising the head
slightly, and falling straight on the
shoulders. I can teach anybody in an
hour so as to make the back fall uner-
ringly and safely"
Then Professor Frobisher resumed
his lesson, and came away.
This back fall 1 remember seeing
Charlotte Cushman make in surprising
manner, think it was in "Meg Meril
lies" She jumped up foot on the
floor and took the back fall with tre-
mendous effect.
In drunken falls the most reckless I
ever saw was that of Harry Watkins,
the well-known actor, who has probat-
ly played more parts and written more
plays that were put on the boards than
any other living man. 1 remember see
ing his jump fifteen or twenty feet dur
ing the delirIum tremens scene. a
Middleton" in "The Drunkard," his
own play, and askea him how he could
stand it.
"Well," he said, "my right side is
terribly bruised, and 1 have skinned my
arms, but am pretty well bandaged,
and am having some pads made to ease
my fall"