The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1888-10-05
HALOS ABOUT ACTORS.
THE GLAMOUR OF THE FooT-LloHrs
AIDS TO ENTHRAll SILLY DAMoeLe.
The Disenchantment Of LAss Who Loved
an Actress-The Political Mess That
Boston Women Have Muddled-0ossip
Of the Hub.
From Our Special Correspondent


seems to die out. 1t il the matinee gusher.
The gushers Of year before last may have
married or otherwise acquired rev objects OF
worship, but the handsome actor who may
happen to be the temporary object OF adora-
hon never lacks plenty Of devotees In the
orchestra chairs.
Just now "Adonis" Dixey seems to be en-
towing his perennial tribute of girlish bushes
and adiniring gances. but later In the season
II will be Robert Mantell, "Curley" Bellew,
young Davenport or young Sothern, who
will occasion this green sickness.
Innocent enough all this may be, and
usually is. The mania manifests itself in a
regular attendance at the theater, buying
the actors photograph and staring after him
on the street.
But it is not always thus. An oft-repeated
scene IN the dressing room Of a popular actor
b that of his opening by the half-dozen letters
Of extravagant admiration from infatuated
girls and women, joking over them with his
chums, perhaps handing them afterward to
his wife, or to the stage manager or call boy.
The tributes come in such numbers that they
become nuisance, and from being the laugh
Ing stock of the theater they occasionally
escape into the hands Of :he men about town,
who enliven their meetings in the hotels and
restaurants with these choice epistles and
toss about on the tongue of sport the names
of daughters of many family honorably
known in the town.
So it is with the bouquets which are
packed into a popular actors dressing room
with the cards of the senders attached So it
;c <ba he which in
dozens with dainty autographs affixed.
***
Many father and mother who would not
have their fair daughter contaminated with
the acquaintance of such a person as an
actor, one outside the pale of their society,
would be nightly interested in seeing certain
autographs which are familiar to the fire.
quenters of the greenroom.
1t is to the credit of more than one pre-
possessing actor that he takes no advantage
of the opportunities for Irritation given him
by silly girls, but keeps the knowledge of
their insanity to himself, and protects the
poor things from the chatter of idle tongues.
Xxx
This girlish folly might furnish strong
argument against the stage, if you could
prove that the stage was responsible for the
existence of hundreds of girls possessed OF
freakish emotions and no sustaining dignity,
and it might prove something against the
good sense of the rising generation if it
wasn't matter of record that there was just
as much fuss over Montague and Rignold in
their day, and over their predecessors when
they trod the stage.
Perhaps this matinee madness may be in
some degree an inherited instinct. The
mothers Of these girls could tell something
about that. They could tell how the pretty
girls of their set used to wait to see Charles r.
Thorne, Jr., or Walter Montgomery off the
stage, or how the fever broke out over Harry
Montague Probably no actor was ever more
admired than he. Every hour brought flow
ers, presents and notes from admiring women
and girls.
What an uproar could be made in society
if popular actor should publish fac simile
of the letters received by him during one
year, even.
One who is now staid matron told the
other day of the time when her set were
quite wild over the juvenile man at the
Museum six or seven years ago. There were
many stories rife about this young actor,
connecting his name with this or that young
person. These very tales only served, appar-
emily, to increase their interest in the hero of
them.
These girls would sit in the front row at
every matinee with eyes and ears for no one
but Tom -
At last they were thrilled with delight and
excite ment, because they believed that in one
scene their idol had recognized them He had
been brought in drowned, in the course
of the play, and they felt sure that,
from his position, lying fiat on the
stage near the footlights, he had seen and
smiled upon them.
When one of the girls expressed doubt
as to whether from his place, with the foot
lights between, he could really have seen
them, they decided to test the important
question with an experiment.
They adjourned to the chamber of one of
the girls where with the bed for stage, one
of their number impersonated drowned
man, with a couple of candles to serve as
footlights The other girls sat on the floor
as audience To their lasting modification
they discovered that the actor could not have
recognized them and the smile was not for
them.
s*s
But worshipful maidens do not always
burn incense to those of the opposite sex.
Before the dazzling career of the luxury.
loving actress - became observ-
able to the world at large, as it is at the
present day, she showed off her PAGES very
prettily in Boston.
All the idle youth in town who had spend
ing money commended for position among
her gallants. The girls, too, were fascinated
by her. One in particular was so anxious to
breathe the same air with. the gay actress that
she persuaded her parents to take rooms in
the hotel which the butterfly of the stage
patronized. and was SO fortunate as to gain
for herself room next to her divinity's |
suite
The smitten damsel was sweet |
and refined of nature and she had |
put her Juliet upon an ideal pedestal, |
as creature of angelic flesh, feeding upon
rose leaves and drinking nectar, breathing |
only romance and superior to the vulgarities |
common to ordinary beings.
When this ethereal actress assembled to her |
room after the theater, the adoring maiden |
might have seen that she was escorted by a |
retinue of champagne bottles walters and |
dudes but the adoring maiden wasn't look