Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-10-12
BEAUTY is JEALOUS.
The World Doesn't Know of Half the
Rows Behind the Curtains.
EVERY LADY OUGHT TO BE A STAR.
Lolita, Minnie Palmer, Pauline Hall and
Urquhart all Guilty.
ENCoREs BRING TEARS TO RIVALS


said welI-known theatrical manager the
other day, "is the personal jealousy of lead
ing women"
He has been connected with stage and
general dramatic management for number
OF years, and ought to know whereof he
speaks.
"It may seem like small thing to you,
dealing only with the details of the nightly
production of play. Inquire Of any gen.
eral manager who gets the necessary people
together, and must keep them together in
order to produce the play efectively-and
then of the men who have their money up,
the playwright the owners, the hackers of
the enterprise, aud whose present financial
prosperity and future reputation depend
upon the success of the piece and the season.
OF all the creatures God ever created the
sweetest and best is woman, and in the dra-
matte profession she is the most difficult to
deal with. Everybody, or nearly every
body, knows how it taxes human patience
and ingenuity to manage one woman salts
factorily. Nobody but dramatic man
ager, and perhaps Mormon, can estimate
approximately the full extent and scope Of
contract embracing a dozen or more of
women.
LIKE A FIRE BETWEEN DECKS.
Jealousy, jealousy-persoual jealousyl
The greatest artists who ever trod the boards
are not free from its cankerous and ran
tankerous influences. Among the smaller
fry it RACES like a fire between decks in a
cotton-laden ship. 1t may not burn the ves-
sci up, but it must be fought inch by inch
and hour by hour, tooth and nail, to prevent
such a catastrophe. The decks may be SO
hot we can scarcely stand on them, but the
rest Of the world knows nothing about it.
"The poor simple fool who writes a play
is like the architect who builds hotel and
fails to make all Of his rooms front rooms
and the best in the house. When he thinks
he is doing clever thing by getting several
characters on nearly the same plane of i'm
portance, he lights a torch that is inextin-
guishable. The popularity OF one is usually
gall and wormwood to the rest An encore,
q recall, and beyond all else, an interpola-
tion that tends to this thing styled hit, is
enough to flood the wings with bitter tears
I have actually witnessed an actress cry
with vexation because she could not be
placed on the stage as advantageously as a
rival, and another for the reason that the
entrance prescribed didn't suit her.
A FREQUENT EXPERIENCE.
tWheu you are occasionally walked ND in
the night to get kilograms from your COM
pany like this, you'll understand what net
ties beset the path of the general manager:
"OsHKosH, WIS, Up. M.-Miss McBeth re-
fused to go on tonight unless Miss Ingenue quits
Big house. . ''SMTTH."
"Now, with: thousands OF dollars hanging
on a eaprieious woman's tenn per, things like
this are constantly. occurrin e. That Is why
you'll see nobody but gray-haired men in
this business; it turns gray the first season.
And this is the real explanation of many a
dramatic failure. The company doesn't
pull together. Men and women may be ex-
celIent actors and actresses in their respect
i've roles, but they can't produce a piece
successfully night after night hating and
sneering at each other"
This will remind those who are familiar
with the inside workings of the profession
Of the general jealousies of noted actresses.
There is Lotta and Minnie Palmer, for in
stance, to mention more recent and particu-
lar circumstances. Minnie Palmer has been
exceptionally we'll handled OF late years.
Lotta has not had such good fortune. They
are rivals because they attract the same class
of theater-goers.
LUIS Or SEALOUS1ES.
And there is Pauline Hall and Isabella
Urquhart. They hate each other sincerely.
The natural jealousy of two handsome
women, whose chief claim to public ap-
wal lies in lovely figure and exquisite1y
modelled features, easily found an open
rupture at the Casino during the run of
''Erminie" in q dressmaker episode in
which a well-known newspaper man figured.
The dressmaker is probably the only person
who coined the quarrel into dollars.
Marie Halton's first fuss was with pretty
chorus girl; then she grew jealous of a lead
Ing lady singer who got the applause, and
who, in all fairness, is the better singer, the
two almost coming to actual blows and hair
pulling one evening in the middle OF the
performance. Marie Burroughs and Annie
Russell involved the whole management of
the Madison Square in a row. 1t was all
because Mr.. Presbery, husband of Russell,
wouldn't place the fair Burroughs on the
center of the stage in one of the plays re-
Gently produced there. Every stage ought
to have Mt least two or three centers from
which these footlight beauties could strike
the audience in the most favorable way.
THE CRITICS DID THIS.
Ada Rehan is not only handsome woman,
but good actress, but she is consumed with
envy at rivals success. Rehan at various
times has been jealous of Edith Kingdom,
because the Paris critics praised the latter
more than the artistic Ada; of Henrietta
Crosman last season because some critics
said Crosman played certain part better
than Rehan. 1t was probably the critics
fault. Why will they draw these odious
comparisons!
Coming down from leading women of the
legitimate to common, everyday farce
comedy it may safely be alleged, generally,
that every soubrette is jealous of every other
soubrette who takes the shine out OF her in
any particular
Flora Walsh, wife of Charles Hoyt, will
never tolerate any other brilliant or even
clever woman in the same company.
Flora Moore, who was the leading SOU
brette of Lew Rosen's new piece. became so
insanely jealous OF Moliie Thompson, pret-
tier and younger member of the company,
that Flora or the company had to come back
to New York. The managers compromised
on FIora's departure, but not until there
was square knock-down in the dressing
room.
But this is so common among women of
the profession that names might be multi
piled indefinitely. The only real sa.ifactory
way would seem to be for each woman to
have her own company and be her own star.