The San Francisco call., 1895-10-08

famous, but her own am mbition has always
been to take up stage work OF the best
kind. She has persistently refused offers
to travel with spectacular companies, one
of the fattering offers that she received
having been made by Manager Henderson,
who was here with his extravaganza COM
pany last winter; and while she has been
posing for artists and occasionally taking
minor parts on the local stage, she has
been studying to fit herself for the profes-
sion to which she has hoped to attain.
In the East this season she is to take
leading parts in society plays, and though
her record as a California beauty will be
made strong feature in the advertising,
the beauty will be displayed only in such
costumes as ladies would be expected to
wear in public.
81 hope to get into the higher plays
sometime" said Miss Nolan when she was
asked about her Eastern ventures, "but for
the present have to do as am ordered,
and am ordered to do society plays.
"Ophelia would be my favorite character
and think that could do better in that
than in anything else, thought l don't
know why.
''Yes, 1 would like that better than
Juliet, though [ hope to sometime play
Juliet-on the stage of course. 1 would
rather take the part of Virginia than of
Juliet, and in some way it seems to me
that l could do better in that.
"Why? Oh, don't know; perhaps it is
because do not like Romeos very much.
eyes, Desdemona would like pretty we'll
/ do not know just what plays | will have
to go into in the East, but will be salts
tied to try any gentle role that may be as
signed to me. 1 do not want any heavy,
masculine stage work, and | will not un-
dertake any rough comedy parts. hope
to succeed either in the line of acting that
l have chosen for myself or to fail alto
gether."
Miss Nolan, who takes the name of
Marion Virginia from the famous Revolu-
tlonary general, is in her nineteenth year.
She was only 16 years old when she was
unanimously chosen as the model for the
statue in the famous Venus contest, which
caused columns of comment in the news
papers from San Francisco to New York
and Boston, and was even discussed at
conside rable length in the English publi-
cations.
PSilOQ VI OLA VI ulOhtlS
the girl posed for the sculptor, Rupert
Schmid, but the latter found it impossible
to complete the statue in the time allowed
and Mrs Waite's project of exhibiting Cali
fornia beauty at Chicago in competition
with the imported works of ancient and
modern masters had to be given up.
Sculptor Schmid and Mrs. Waite were so
enthusiastic over the work that had been
begun, however, that the sculptor COM
pleted the statue, though too late to send
1t to Chicago. Then the statue was exhib-
tied in the San Francisco Art School in the
Hopkins mansion, on Mob Hill. An at
tempt to secure the, work for the Mid
winter Fair was made, but the owners OF
the statue did not like to take the risk at
tached to the statuary corridor of the
Egyptian art gallery and the Venus re-
mained at the Hopkins Institute until
Rupert Schmid started with it for Italy at
the expense of syndicate organized here
by Mrs. Waite, to chisel the statue in
marble.
Since she was the model for that statue
Miss Nolan has posed several times for
painters, among them a European artist,
who, while travelling in this country, was
attracted by the newspaper accounts of the
Venus contest, but she declares that her
posing days are over
''1t is hard work." she said, when ques-
toned about that employment. "much