Los Angeles herald., 1892-10-02


OF the thrilling realism of the modern
drama. and the superb scenic produc-
| tion Of the Joint art of the scene painter
and the stage carpenter are brought to
bear upon the imagination.
NOTES FROM DUNLoP's NEWS.
Ellen Terry is i'll with the influenza.
Sell Simonson has become Dixey's
musical director.
So far is Patti from retiring, that she
has signed for tour of '94, at 98O0 per
concert.
Langtry and her new play The Queen
of Manoa, have been roasted" by the
critics who call both triumph of mil
linery and diamonds"
Mr.. Richard Mansfield is certainly the
Irving of America, but alas he is too
artistic, for common, everyday people
cannot understand half he says, and
watch his hands and index finger with
awe. He is no doubt a genius, but quite
as bad an actor as Irving.
The appurtenances of popular act
ress are of various kinds. Sometimes
she has husband, and sometimes she
is haunted and her unwilling footsteps
dogged by some other woman's base
lord. The point creating the difference,
that when the husband does not belong
to the actress he takes boxes, and when
the actress belongs to the husband he
gives them-sometimes to the manager.
The husband is q constant source of
revenue the conventional husband is q
peculiar danger to the peace of
| the theater. The former en-
hances the value of the leading lady the
latter is a check upon the enthusiasm
of admirers of her talent, damper to
! the zeal of her stage lover, and dis
turbing element in her tenure of the
| peace OF mind that is essential to artistic
work. If she have lover he is an even
more perplexing item in the calcula-
tions of the manager, and is may be
roughly said that his value as an ap-
purtenance is in inverse proportion to
his value as man. A lover whose in
| tentions are all that the most exActing
mother could desire, is rather draw
back than an advantage, from the
managerial point Of view. He
| is rather worse than a husband
| in his regularity of attendance at
the Stage door, and his prejudice against
supper parties and that form of critical
approval which crystallizes itself in dia-
monds; hesaves up his money to buy
chairs and tables for the home that the
leading lady is to occupy, instead Of
passing it through the box Office in pay
ment for seating accommodation of
mere ephemeral tenure; it is his selfish
ambition to obtain for the adornment of
an obscure fat, the beauty and grace
that the manager considers to be meant
for mankind. 10 word, he is as dan
gerous to long run as the influenza,
and as malevolent in his schemes Of an
nexatio n as rival manager.
Another appurtenance, the most COM
mon and the most troublesome of all, is
the mother who fills in the experience
Of the theatrical manager the place
which is allotted in humorous literature
| to the mother in-law. This lady starts
in business with belief in the superb
ority OF her daughter to all other ac-
tresses past and present, rooted con-
viction that her personal care is an
Indispensable element in the success
of her offspring, and pronounced
suspicion that all the branches of
management are leagued together
to bully and defraud the actress,
and all the other players are jealously
eager to spoil her finest scenes. When
the play is once started on successful
| run, her capacity for making trouble is
leseened, though she is always liable to
assert herself by threatening to deprive
the theater of it's leading lady at a mo-
ment's notice; but in the weary period
of rehearsal she constitutes herself q
greater temptation to granddaughter than
even stage carpenter at pantomime
time. She will argue with the manager
lnl> 1c f,,, ne n
with the stage manager about the ar
the composer about the scoring Of his pet
to an unalterable determination that
her poor child shall throw up the part
and 20 home, and at least six times
during rehearsal she shakes the dust of
the theater off her feet and promises to
take immediate departure. By the
time the first night has come, it is the
general opinion of every one except the
leading lady that slow boiling in oil
would be too merciful for her. But she
survives; and, when the curtain has
fallen and the calls have been taken,
drives away with her dear Alice in the
comfortable assurance that she has
had at least as much share in the success
of the piece as the authors.
Last in the list of appurtenances come
/ those of whom the management know
| little, and the public nothing at all.
They are not interesting, because they
afford no basis for scandal, and their
possession better becomes the actress
than pearls of great price. But there
are such things as small children that
| live daintily in neat little Harlem
homes, clothed and fed by the toll of a
brave little woman on the stage. Some
times their curly heads peep over the
front of q box; more often they are sed-
ulously kept away from the the
| acer, and never know that their
mother discards petticoats in the
sight of man that their soft little bodies
may be the more warmly clad. One
hears, too, of an invalid husband who is
worked for and petted, and is never per-
mitted to know that he is failure and
an incumbrance, being encompassed with
coil Of tender persuasion that labor is
pleasant when done for him, and that
life would not be half so dear if it
lacked an object for self-sacrifice. And
there is vet another kind of husband
who ia the most ruinous OF all appur'
tenances, less costly because be drains
the actress purse than because he takes
from her the joy of living and the
pride of success, hindrance to the
work of the present, and bar to hopes
of rest and peace and happiness in the
future, When such an appurtenanct
turks in the background of an actress
l fl l.