Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1884-10-03
WOULD-BE ACTRESSES.
Queer Ideas of Certain Young
Women.
New York Sun

Women.
New York Sun
When a young woman gets the
idea into her head that she is cut out
for an actress you can neverc9nylnce
her that she is mistaken" said the
atrical manager yesterday. :" | have
been in the busines thirty-two years
now, and have acted in the capacity
of manager for five stars and great
many companies. In that time | have
met scores of young women who were
/ stage-struck. Eighteen out of every
/ twenty have turned out to be flat and
dismal failures, but every one of them
| had an excuse to offer for her non
success. As rule, it is the poetic
| and sentimental side of an actress
life which catches young women.
Then, too. the romantic fancies which
are so much encouraged by indis-
criminate noyel-reading, and the
stories of such writers as Ouida tend
to give them them false idea of the
life they are actually obliged to lead.
They say that painter will some
times look at the subject he is trying
to put on canvas SO long and so earn
estly that the subject itself becomes
imprinted on his mind, and when he
looks at his painting he does not see
what is actually daubed on the can
vas, but sees the subject itself. That
is the reason so many painters whine
about the unappreciatiVe public and
the cruelty of the critics. The same
thing is true of girls who are anxious
to become actresses.
"You have heard girls relate Cur
few Shall Not Ring Tonight Yes.
Then YOU will understand what |
mean. You have seen a girl rse
among a party of friends in a back
parlor, strike dramatic attitude and
begin poem. AS she proceeds 10
ward the climax you have heard the
piteous shrek and yelp, the mouth
ing, gulping an9 gasping, and the
final sigh. 1t is to you and every
body else in the room but her a silly
bit OF rantlng. Dc you know what it
is to the girl? To her it is soul. You
can never convince her that she is
not giving the most stupendous elo
cuti0nary effect, ana throwing a
wealth of pathos and feeling into the
lines.
1.-The same is true of a girl after she
gets on the stage. People sKicker at
the bad acting of q poor actress, and
never realize for moment not only
that she is doing her best, but that 1t
is too great performance. She feels
that she is as perfect as she can be in
the lines, and hence she does not un-
derStand the indifference Of the
audience. l don't know OF a better
illustration of the perseverance which
a woman will show in pushing her
self before th2 public than that of
young woman who came on here last
season from San Francisco. She is
we'll known out there as a society
woman, and is quite popular among
the amateur actors. 1t is said that
her people are well to do, and she
certainly spent great deal of money
of late. She decided to become a
professional actress, and, with the
usual modesty of such aspirants, made
arrangements to begin her career al
the top of the ladder. Wit! all res
pect to her, a4d+-eSteemed .er very
highly as lady, 1t must be said that
she possessed few advantages in d per
sonal way for the career of an emo
tional actress than any womaM | ever
saw. She was very thin and round
shouldered and extremely awkward.
Her face was not only of q common
place type, but it was of such d char
acter that it was utterly impossible to
make it up so that it would look at
tractive from the front. When tell
you that she was also unable to dress
becomingly, you will perhaps suspect
that she lacked some of thc elements
that 90 to make successful and pop
ular actress. She had serious of
costumes made for the role in which
she was to make her debut here. Each
one was more grotesqGe than the last.
AS | have said, she was fragile and
light The dressmaker constructed
a series of costumes which would
have been too big too gaudy
and too heavy for a woman fifty
pounds heavier than she was. The
actress came on here, hired theater
and made debut. She had a good
company to support her. and it IS said
that her experiment cost her family
IS, 600 She made an instantaneous
aud distinct failure. She played Julia,
| Pauline aud one or two other stand
ard romantic characters. She proved
conclusively that she couldn't act at
all"
Did she give up the stage and go
back to San Francisco2'
Not bit of it. She insisted that
every one Of her audiences for week
in New York, that every circle IN the
CITY, and that every caud ID man whose
advice she asked was leagued against
her. She stuck to the stage. She is
at il yet About week ago | saw a
dispatch in one of the dramatic papers
which told of the hard treatment she
had been subjected to in one Of the
small towns in the interior of the
state, where sac was travelling about
with small company of her own.
| The audiences we're very rude The
fact is, they almost mobbed her. All
this IS discouraelng, but 1t will have
no effect upon the young woman. She
will probably keep on acting forever.
| There are huHdreds of women
whose careers on the stage are very
! similar to this, except that they DO
not have TIE money to provide COM
pany of their own. They appear as
stars for one consecutive night, and
are then forced to take any sort of a
place that offers In a travelling com
pauy. Half the girls who are now
| playing servants part in small thea
ters or dancing about IN variety shows
began their career as Juliet or Julia ="
TIE Voters Of 1881.