The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-06
MAKEUP FOR THE STAGE
PRIMITIVE METHODS USED ny AC-
TORS TwENTy-FIyE YEARS AGO.
Improved Methods Are in Vogue To-
Day-A Good Makeup Is an I'M
portant Theatrical Detail.
Boston Herald.

Makeup" boxes are being prepared for
the coming year, and that is not the sim
pie process it used to be, when the finest
actress in the land could carry her dress
Ing table appurtenances in one of Huylers
pound boxes, and dress the face for the
stage in ten minutes, and get her false
face off, with dash of soap and water,
in as short a time.
To-day to make up well is one of the
most important details of an actors or
actresses daily or nightly routine. 1t is only
one of the many preparations for acting
of which the public enjoys the result with
out knowing anything of the time and
trouble it takes.
A players life looks fascinating to silly
girls. who think only of the few hours
behind the footlights, when the audience
is, if the player is lucky, applaudng and
admiring But that is the smallest part
of the successful players life, with its
study it's rehearsing, it's bother about
dress, its dressing, undressing, redressing
and undressing again, not to mention its
making up.
Some who find it burden to dress twice
day should fancy the nuisance it must be
to dress, undress and redress four and
often FIVE times during the processso of play
ing an exactfng part, and remember that
these changes of costume often mean strip
ping to the buff and changing even stock
ings., Frequently these changes for a wom-
an mean altering the dressing of the HAIR,
and even the makeup of the face.
The act of making up has undergone
some great changes in the last twenty
five or thirty years. Not much over quar-
ter of a century ago an actresses makeup
materials consisted of what was called a
buff ball. which was a ball of cream
colored chalk, a burnt stick and a pink
saucer" The lighting of the stage was
nothing like as brilliant as it is now, and
did not show up makeup as clearly. In
those days a bit of flannel rubbed on the
buff BALI was sufficient powder, the burnt
stick was used to darken the eyelashes
and pencil the eyebrows, and the rouge
from the pink saucer was rubbed on the
cheek bones and the lips. Women with a
keen eye for effect, and with an instructive
love for looking well, succeeded IN gettlnS
admirable results with those prin1ltiVe
methods. Indeed, last winter a weil-known
actress, whose stage experience extends
back into the days of the buff ball. said
emphaticaly that she believed she made
up just as well in those days as she did
Liquid white was the successor of the
bluff ball. and Doran's rouge, carmine
stick cosmetic of the burnt stick. until now
an actresses makeup box is an elaborate
almost always untidy--cong lomerate OF
boxes and appurtenanceS and makeup
simply to look well only a matter of half
an hour or more.
The Introduction of the electric lights put
an end to coarse make-ups Before that
time, red. white and black We're often APP
piled to the face as impressionists apply
color. Often those who admired an actress
across the footights were shocked when
they met her in her dressing-room to see
her face just a mask of rudely applied
color. The black simply hung on her eye
lids her mouth at near range red
hole, and the red and white on her cheeks
and brow simply swore at each other. To-
day eyes unaccustomed to the artificiality
n ELL
but more often they find it attractive, even
at near range Cissie Fitzgerald made up
for the stage is simply Cssie Fitzgerald.
with her best points emphasized.Z The
color her cheeks is heightened, her
lips are carmined and the blue shadows on
her eyelids are interesting.
BERNHARDT CRUDE.
Some actresses like Sarah Bernhard
cling to crude methods and the great
French player has a rather dirty appear
ance when ready for the stage. Julia Mar
lowe Taber looks painted when ready for
the footights. but she looks we'll painted.
The tints are blended, and blended arts
tically.
To do all this the makeup box has be-
come almost as large as the box for the
picture hat that Anna Held wears in the
latest photograph of her to come here. and
varies from that size down to the nine by
six japanned box that looks like the pri-
vate cash box of our grandparent, in which
he kept his will and life insurance papers.
1t holds liquid white. rouge cosmetic and
occasionally blue. violet chrome yellow
lumber powder, and many other pleasant
things, all with a stale odor of violet pow
der, with soiled-lookihg brushes and puffs
that are not soled even if they look So
The makeup boxes of men are to-day
much more elaborate than those of women
actors are often required to utterly change
their faces for a part. Women occasionally
do it, but not so often. Men, while still
young, are required to play old men to
simulate the facial characteristics of men
OF other races, to enact men of all sorts
en- who old and disfigured and women
or other lands, but rarely Actresses have
even played old women while they were
young. Sarah Bernhard did But few wom-
en- succeed in it, and fewer still care to do
T. and 1t is doubtful if any of them look on
portunity."
NY Mhe en- women play, at being of a foreign
mar and put on a dialect, and the end is |
accomplished But, as a rule a woman's
arr art OF making up consists in making her
sell look pretuer than she is, and occa-
sionally in making a round face look in |
terestingly hollow, sentimental or sad
The makeup box of a man. especially |
one who plays character parts contains |
not only all that, a woman must carry,
but 1t contains also fuller's earth black |
enamel, all kinds and shades of powders
ana sticks Of grease paste. as well as
things He must have blue powder to rnb |
on his face to convey the idea that he has |
NOT been able to get shave for several |
he. must rub his face completely over with |
fuIler's earth and draw the gray line of |
old age upon it with camers-hair brush |
usually three lines between the eyes lines |
on either side from the nose to the cor |
ners of the mouth. under the cheek bones |
and across the forehead. He must have |
joining paste to blend the wig with his |
face: He must draw blue lines on his |
hands, and he probably has to make and |
shape a nose of paste that must also be |
painted TO blend with the makeup of the |
face. If he has lost his teeth-that is If I
the character the actor is playing has-he |
must apply liquid enamel to the worries
supposed to be missing. hold his lips away |
from them while it hardens. and the deed |
Is done. To see actor sitting before his !
crossing table, hurriedly working on his |
face, is a very interesting sight and the |
result Is often most artistic. j. E. Dol !
SON of the Empire stock company is onesf
of the cleverest men at makeup in trJs |
country.
WOMEN IMPROVED
Women are almost never required to 90 /
work o. this sort. Charlotte Cushman did
1T in Meg Merriles, and so did FANNY |
Janauschek. Marie Wilkins made UP A liz |
tie in THE Two Orphans" Emma Sheri- |
dan attempted 1T in "Jekyll and HYDE