The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1885-07-17
ACTORS MEMORIES.
IRVING, BOOTH AND OTHERS AT WORK.
Prominent Players and How They
Commit the Lines of Their Parts
An Actors sudden Rise, Etc.

An Actors sudden Rise, Etc.
"One of the most curious and incon-
prehensible things to the public in gener-
al in regard to theatrical people is the
manner in which they commit their parts
to memory" said well known actor and
manager to Philadelphia Times report
er. 'Only the other day a prominent
man said to me, The act of studying and
remembering parts of plays has always
seemed to me TO be Il most notable and
laborious accomplishment Well. il may
not be so very notable, but it is undoubt-
edly in many cases extremely laborious
There are, however. many exceptions
Some people are able TO learn their parts
with rapidity and ease. have seen some
professional people take hold of part
when there was no especial need OF mem
orizing 1t in a brief space OF time. and.
after reading it over, learn it perfectly
In a marvellously short time Ii is not
the best actor who can memorIZe the
quickest. To some OF the most prominent
people on the stage the task of commit
ting their parts is a hard one As man
ager 1 always preferred to have around
me people to whom this work was diff
cult. felt surer with them. knew they
had a well disciplined memory, and when
once they had learned their parts they
could be depended upon. But there are
exceptions to all rules 1 recall an in
stance of young actor who was in a com
pany l had in Washington some years
ago He was a bright fellow and had a
fine stage appearance, but he had the most
unretentive memory l ever knew. When
he had, after great labor. learned a part
he would often at the critical time forget
some of it. At last he got discouraged
and l got disgusted, and the sequel OF the
matter is that he is now a prosperous
farmer in Michigan
g | can always tell an actors tempera-
ment by the manner in which he studies
his part. 1t is sine index to his clarac-
ter. Any one who has ever seen Irving
study can attest the truth of that as
sertion. He takes the utmost pnins with
every line and word. He weighs every
syllable as though his life depended upon
1t. He studies slowly, not because of any
dificulty in memorizing for he has no
such difficulty, but because he pays the
same attention to the details OF the lines
Of the play as he does to the details Of the
scenery.
" Booth is another actor who was most
careful in his study, but it has been so
long since he learned n new part that the
task would now be almost a novelty to
him. Poor Ned Southern was a very in
teresting actor to be seen learning a part
There nothing slovenly about his
work. He learned easily, but he was &C
customed to pace up and down the floor of
his room, uttering a line over and over
again until he had struck the correct ex-
preston. But these efforts never created
anything artificial in him. He was ear
nest and sincere always. Fred Warde has
a notably quick and reteutive memory. /
recall an instance illustrative OF this
Theodore Hamilton was once engaged in
New York 10 play Edmund in King
Lear Edwin Booth was playing the title
role. Late in the afternoon Hamilton got
sick, and sent word that ne could not ap-
peal. The manager was in n most un-
pleasant dilemma, especially as it was the
opening performance of the engagement.
He looked about for some one to take
HamiltOn's place, and selected Warde.
who had been assigned to All inferior part
Warde protested that he knew practically
nothing of the part, and said he had not
sufficient time in which to study it. The
manager, however, insisted and Warde
got down to work. That night his Ed
mund was warmly greeted. He did not
miss a word.
/ remember one night when George
Rignold was playing Henry Fifth about
1876, in Ford's Theatre, in Washington, he
was taken suddenly i'll The manager
was in great trepidation. He didn't know
how on earth to get man in time to play
this important character that evening I'M
til f. X. Collier who was to strut across
hte stage as one OF the heralds, came for
ward and declared he'd fill Rignolds
place. He said he didn't know the part,
but would have it committed to memory
j.,
at Collier, but the manager had confidence
in the ambitious young fellow, and the
result of it was that although he had
only four hours in which to study the part,
he made great success. He is high in
the profession now and dates his rise
from the night he made the great jump
from a herald to n king. When the old
City Museum was still standing between
Fifth and Crown streets, b. G.. Rogers, an
old d-timer, was playing Bob Acres in The
Rivals He got sick and they called on
Sam Hemple, the popular Philadelphia
comedian, to take his place. Sam declared
he didn't know a word of the part.
80 Play it, anyhow moaned Rogers.
You've got three hours to learn it in, so
get to work.
Sam got to work, learned the part and
made capital hit.
troubles and they don't study much,
either. They learn one or two parts at
the beginning Of the season and play them
week after week without any change OF
bill. Even il they had many parts to
learn in a season there would not be one
third the trouble the actors of the old
school had The text of our modern
plays is easily learned and easily remem-
bered. Any actor VIII tell you that il is
far more difficult matter to learn prop
erly five lines of one of Shakspere's,
Knowless, or the other great dramatists'
blank verse dramas than it is to commit to
memory forty-fve lines from the melo-
dramas of to-day. Every man or woman
in these latter plays more or less changes
the text, either accidentally or purposely,
and in very many cases these interpolR-
tions are better than the original express
sions. l have seen playwriters stand In
the wings when their plays were being
performed and incorporate into the text
some of the words and sentences the ac-
tors substituted for the regular version.
why Men Turn Gray.
A successful man with black mustache
and gray head was asked the other day