The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-07
MARY ANDERSON IS BACK |
Visiting America for the First
Time in Ten Years.
THE STORY OF HER LIFE
A Crude, Gewky Kentucky Girl, She
Became in Time Brilliant Actress.
She Received Hundreds of
Offers OF Marriage.

The arrival in New York the other
day of Mrs. Antonio de Navarro sig
nalizes the first appearance in this
country since her retirement from the
stage and her marriage about nine
years ago of the gifted woman who
not only shed lustre but true womanly
dignity and worth on American dram
attic life when she was known as Mary
Anderson. She is always well worth
talking about, being one of those few
women who have recognized the obsti
nate. incontrovertible fact that domes-
tic happiness, within the confines of
matrimony, and a public career On the
stage are rarely concidental. When it
was rumored, in the early part of 1890,
that Mary Anderson was engaged to be
married 10 Antonio de Navarro, a son
of the enormously rich man who built
the gigantic and gorgeous Navarro
flats in New York city on seth street.
opposite Central park, the whisper was
decried as an advertising scheme. be-
cause the gifted actress was believed
to be devoted to her art and to a life
of single blessedness. Bear in mind,
however. that among her other COM
mendable gifts Mary Anderson could
never be justly accused of advertising
her parsonage by meretricious means,
and yet she was studiously made the
victim of such efforts through the we'll
meant intentions of her irrepressible
step-fa Their. DR.. Hamilton Griffin, who
is still in the land of the living, and
who met her at the White Star Line
pier when she and her husband-her
husband and she is possibly a better
Xpression-stepped from the gang
plank of the steamer Majestic. But ru
NOR for once proved true, and the love-
ly Blue Grass Juliet became the wife
of the millonaire's son, and since then
the mother of his 3-year-old boy. Rec
| ognizing the difficulty if not the fulfill
ity, of being devoted to both the stage
and her husband, she shook forever
the dust Of the temple of Thespis from
the folds of her virgin garment, al
| though shortly before this serious
| change in her life, she said, upon ore
| occasion. to her old time manager, John
| w. Norton of st. Loui=-you will re-
| member that he was killed in a rail
road wreck but "a short while ago
| when questioned about the story of her
| rumored pspousal. That is a matter
| to which ! have never given even q
second thought. = think l must have
had, since l have been upon the stage
MOI less than 1000 tenders of maria &c
| from artists, from noblemen, from
| nearly all kinds of men. and much &c
| l may appreciate the honor they have
| conferred upon me, their offers have
not fingered in my thoughts for mo-
| ment"
Nevertheless she married Navarro
| and while The American stage lost one
of its chief ornaments, he gained as
a wife an adorable woman who gave tc
| dramatic life, before the footlights an6
l.; =
and a nobility that. sad to say, rarely
| distinguishes it.
Have you ever heard the story of ths
humbleness of her beginning? Proba
bly, you will find it worth listening to
Mary Anderson was a poor Louisville
| girl and as green as grass. She was
fired with a desire to go upon the stage
and insisted upon reciting to every
| prominent actor who came ITO Louis
vile and would give her an audience
In this way the late John mccullough
heard and was so much impressed by
her that he wrote about her to hi
friend, John w. Norton, who was thal
the acting manager for Ben de Bar
opera house in st. Louis. Norton cam
to Louisville and listened to the over
grown child-she was little mOre-an'
agreed to get her a stock company 70
one weeks engagement, her step-fathe
promising to pay the rent of the thea
ter. The latter stipulation, when III
time for payment came, DR.. Gritfi1
was unable to fulfill and Norton as
sumed that risk also. The openin
night in her home city, Mary Ander
son. in the part of Juliet. played to tx
actly $40. The remainder of the wee
was little better. but it convinced Nor
ton that in the gaWky Kentucky girl
great actress was concealed She wa
then II years of age. That was nearl
30 years ago. How time flies. She wi
celebrate her 40th birthday on July
| next.
Just here should be related a stor
concerning the late General Sherma
which is too good to be buried. T
build a house--in theatrical parlanct
of course-for the Friday night of tina
first weeks engagement john Norto
went to St. Louis and invited a nun
Der of prominent people tamong other
General Sherman, who was then cit
izen of ST. 1Ou.s). to come to Louis
vile to see his dramatic wonder Afte
| the performance several of them Wer
taken behind the scenes and presente
| to Miss Anderson, who at that tim
was a perfect vision of beauty, bu
awkward General sherman kissed he
in his usual fatherly way-fatherly
what he called it-patted her on tn
head, complimerted her eXcessivef
and predicted great future for he
After the men had retired from he
presence Norton asked General Shel
man what was his frank opinion of tn
actress. The old warrior patted h
young manager on the back compass
sonately and said: My boy. sh
doesn't amount to shucks. There
nothing in her. She will never amour
to anything, no matter how long 81
lives"
~, lcr 1STS