Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-14
SOME STAGE BABIES.
DUNE DIAUE DADIEO.
Distinguished Actors and Actresses
Who Made Their
FIRST APPEARANCE ON THE STAGE
In Roles That Required Only Calm Display
of kepOse.
GOOD SALARIES PAID CHILD. ACTORS
FIRST APPEARANCE ON THE STAG
GOOD SALARIES PAID CHILD. ACTORS
lcoRREspoN DrNcE OF THE D1sPAroH.l


Leslie Lyde has made herself the pet of the
town by her performance of Little Lord
Fauntleroy, Mrs. Frances Hodgson Bur-
nett's youthful hero, considerable attention
has been attracted to the dramatic perform
ances of children ii>general. How far chill
dren are susceptible ITO dramatic training
and whether dramatic talent or genius is
permanently improved or permanently in
jured by the attempt to develop it in child
hood are questions now meeting with much
discussion, while moro than one New York
manager, anxious to duplicate little Elsie's
success, has in training some pretty pink
cherub whom he contemplates bringing out
as a star, and to fit whom he is having a
play written, just as Mr.. Vincent Crummles
employed Nicholas Nickleby to construct
one to fit the pump and tubs he had pur-
chased at an auction sale.
Though the general opinion heretofore has
not been favorable to "Infant Phenome-
mons" and Juvenile Prodigies," and
though the interesting fact remains that in
the theatrical profession, as in every other
walk of life, precocious childhood seldom
develops into brilliant manhood or woman
hood, yet many of the most distinguished
actors and actresses Of that indefinite period
-'the olden time"-as well as several of
our own day, began their professional ca
reer not only in childhood but even in In
fancy.
WOULDN'T STAND A DUMMY.
,Theater-goers of the present day are ac-
customed to see dramatic babies personated
by large dolls so eDveloped in wraps that
their faces are invisible. There was time,
in the old DAYS of stock companies, when
manager would no more have thought of
producing play in which one of the char
acters was an infant without a live we'll
spring of pleasure than he would of having
the principal male. character played by
tailor's dummy.
There was no trouble in procuring babies
in those days. Every theater had settled
company, and if none Of its members could
boast an infant, there was pretty sure to be a
doorkeeper, stage carpenter, scene shifter or
musician'who could.
There is scarcely a. prominent actor or
actress now in the profession, who is mem
Der of an old theatrical family, but has been
carried on the stage as the infant in "Mr
and Mrs Peter White, - ''The Swiss Cot
tage," " "The Mariners Compass" or some
of the numerous other old-time pieces in
which baby is made to play prominent
part. Every one of the children of the late
E. L. Davenport-Fanny, Lille, May,
Edgar L. and Harry-thus made his or her
first appearance on any stage at a very early
period of infantile existence So did Efie
Ellsler and her mother, Effie Murray, be-
fore her, at the Walnut Street Theater
Philadelphia, where her father, John Muir
ray. was stage manager for many years.
EDWIN BOOTHS FIRST APPEARANCE.
The children of the great Junius Brutus
Booth were all made to do duty in this way,
and old "Uncle" John Ellsler, the veteran
actor and N manager, laughs heartily when
he tells how Master Edwin Booth kicked
and screamed when he was carried on-at
the age of 8 months-as the infant in mad
elaine, the Belle of the Fauburg."
Joseph Jefferson tells me that the first in
stance in which he ever knew an artificial
baby to be substituted for real one was at
Charleston, S. c., in 1852. 1t was before he
struck his big bonanza, Grip Van WinkIe."
and he was playing round of eccentric and
low comedy characters, aided by his first
wife, Maggie Lockyer, very clever SOU
brette. The baby who was to appear in
their favorite farce of "Mr. and Mrs.
Peter White was suddenly taken i'll, and
as it was found impossible to procure an
other on short notice a dummy or "prop-
erty" baby had to be substituted.
It sometimes happened that the only
babies obtainable would not tamely submit
to being carried into the glare of the foot
lights, but would protest at the top of their
voices to such an extent as to interrupt the
dialogue and prevent the audience from en-
joying the play. Then property" baby
would have to be substituted.
THE PROPERTY BABY's REIGN.
At length, finding that this kind of infant
every purpose, that the pieces
seemed to go just as we'll and that the spec
tators seemed just as well pleased as when
live babies, which were infinitely more
were used, managers discarded
the latter class, and the property baby
reigned supreme.
At length, when no live babies had been.
seen on the stage for many years, it occurred
to Kate Claxton that a revival of the old |
custom of having real live baby in PLAYS
might prove highly attractive novelty to |
theater goers of the present generation. Ac- |
she tried the experiment when she |
produced "a Double Marriage" in this city |
in the fall of 1879. The result proved that |
she was right, the real live baby making the |
most pronounced hit of the piece. When |
Dave Belasco and James Hearne brought
put their "Hearts of Oak" in the season of |
1879 go, they followed Miss Claxton' s exam |
Pile and live baby was made the most
prominent feature of the play, which it still |
to be, and there have been many |
,ther pieces of late years in which real |
babies have borne prominent part.
wELL-PAID CHILDREN.
Stage babies often earn excellent salaries.
usually receiving from $40 to $40 per week,
together with their expenses and those of |
heir mother or other relative who travel |
With them. Thus many an infantile actor
,r actress supports a whole family. These
nfants are the pet of the entire company,
Ind no feet-footed racer, valued at thou
ands of pounds or dollars and entered for
he Derby or the Futurity, is more solicit
'usly and carefully groomed, watched and
,uarded.
Children who play speaking parts often
eceive higher salaries than many older
performers. A little girl named French,
Who played the child Madelaine in IA
Celebrated Case, when it was first produced
It the Union Square Theater in the season
# 1S77'7S, received salary of S75 per
week. This little lady made at that time
ully as great success as that achieved by
title Elsie Lyde in Little Lord Fauntle-
oy." FRANK FERN.