The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1896-09-25
ACCIDENTS TO ACTORS.
Real Tragedies Have Occurred Befor'
the EoOtlighfs.

=
Real Tragedies Have Occurred Before
the Footlights.
''That particular scene in Romeo and
Juliet, where Mercutio Is first slain by
Tybalt's thrust, and later falls HIM
self before Romeo's rapier, has been
responsible for many serious acci-
DENTS" said the veteran actor and man
ager, John w. Norton, as he laid down
the paper in which he had been reading
Of how Tom Keene had put out the
sight of fellow actor by an unfortu-
nate thrust of his sword at the Du-
quesne Theater in Pittsburg. "Accl-
dents fatal and serious are constantly
occurring in stage land, and every OLD
actor can show scars received in the
mimic strife The traditions of the
stage are full of such tragedies. With
the death of every well-known actor,
the story is revived of the tragic end or
Green, who expired with the dying
words of The Stranger on his lips
there is better and brighter world ;
There are apocryphal stories of King
Lear, who passed away with the gasp
ing words, Look there! Look there;' Of
a Richard III. who was found dead on
the stage after uttering the words:
Mount! mount my soul! thy seat is up on
high;
Whilst my gross flesh sinks downward
here to die.
"But those things all happened on the
ether side, If they ever happened. AMI
only tell the tales as they were told TO
me.
'I recall especially one well-set ira
gedy that is said to have occurred at
La Scala, Milan, about thirty years ago.
IN the very presence Of royalty itself
1t was at the finale of a grand produr-
tion of Fra Diavolo. then the reigning
operatic sensation. In the closing busi
ness the captured bandit chief is led up
a rocky path on his way to prison. He
turns to battle with his guards, when
Lorenzo orders his troops to fire, and
Era Diavolo dies effectively. On this
particular night the picturesque bandit,
who had always made a traditional
fall, so that he would remain the CEN
trail figure of the thrilling tableau upon
WHICH, tue CuI utSSOhOCd, IhtAoouS
ed some new business. He gave one
short, despairing call upon the deity
and then fell forward from his eleya-
ton into the very midst of the chorus
of soldiers and villagers. When MEM
bers Of the company, who, much mar
Yelling at the realism of the death fall,
ran to pick up the gifted singer he was
A h,,11a hod nix hic hoo y
In the confusion one Of the soldiers, a
beardless youth, known only as Giac
como, and very recent addition to the
chorus, quietly passed out Of the the
ter. He was pursued and arrested two
days later, when the romantic discov-
cry was made that Giaccomo was, in
fact, Juanita, beautiful Spanish girl,
whom the gifted tenor had met while
singing in the sunny land of her birth.
ruined and then deserted. She follow
ed him to Italy and nursed her ven
geance, and when he was at the zenith
of his fame she Joined the company of
La Scala, loaded her property gun with
a deadly bullet, and introduced some
startling realism on to the Italian
stage. Pretty story, isn't it? We have
nothing like it In American stage his
tory, although there is no telling what
kind of American stories could tell if
1 was talking to an Italian reporter in
Milan.
There Is as much of the unreal
thrown about stories of the stage as
there Is about the stage itself, and
many tales are told that are implicitly
believed that have no foundation in
fact. One of these is the old chestnut
that was hurled at the late Edwin
Booth in every city and town in the
country. He would be introduced to an
old play goer who would promptly COM
mence: I knew your father (the elder
Booth well, Mr.. Booth, and it was my
good fortune to be in the old so and so
theater the night when he was playing
Richard sometimes they said it was
Macbeth) and the old gentleman was
so carried away with the excitement
Of the moment that his swordsmanship
became terrific, and he forced Rich
mond (or MacduD off the stage, out on
to the street, the poor fellow doing the
best he could to parry your fathers
terrible strokes Now that incident
never occurred Edwin Booth told me
SO himself. Yet people go on telling
1t, and there are men in st. Louis who
now believe that they saw 1t. But l
not stage myths.
"One of the first of the tragedies that
come to my mind is that which befell
the Gail sisters, three beautiful girls
who were dancing at Richmond the
ater before the war. In those days of
gas footlights dancers wore a great
number of gauze skirts. One of the
girls approached too near the footlights
and in an instant was in flames. Her
sisters ran to her aid and shared her
fate. 1t was all over in an instant.
1.-THE sad fate of Clara Butler, which
was the stage name of Mrs. Frank
Frayne, Is more recent tragedy.
Frayne, who is dead shot, was playing
his piece, Isl Slocum,' in a Pittsburg
theater. In one scene he shot an apple
from his wife's head, standing with his
back to her. 1t was really the safest
and easiest trick In his repertoire of
mirror hung on the trunk of a stage
tree he was enabled to get perfect
sight. He used a breech-loading rifle.
On the fatal occasion he closed the gun
carelessly. AS he pulled the trigger
the barrel broke down, and a bullet
went crashing into the brain of one of
the sweetest little women that ever
made good man a good wife. Poor
Frayne. He nearly went crazy over it."