Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1901-04-23
IADY WINDERMERE'S FAM DID /
Ralph Cummings" "Fres" His Wife, Blanche Douglass on n
Company at Los Angees-prefers Miss Hail.
Story of the Trouble.

Ralph Cummings, now leading man
of the Burbank theater in this city has
drifted apart from his ain true wife
In a way that no novelist ever thought
of, says the Los Angeles Times. They
have been rent asander chiefly because
Oscar Wilde put two star petticoat
parts In Lady Windermere's Fan"
Mrs. Cummings is staying at the
Van Mugs Broadway with a heart
filled with aching wee, and Mr. Cum
mings Is at another hotel. How diff
ferent it might have been II in the
play there had been only Mrs. Erlynne
and no Lady Windermere, or just
Lady Wlndermere and no Mrs.
Erlynnel
There Is also leading lady In the
case. Mrs. Cummings says that the
leading lady caused her TO be fired"
from her own husbands company by
cruel Vaccinations. The leading lady
says various things about Mrs. Cum
mings.
Mrs. Cummings Is an actress, a
player Of ingenue parts, and known to
the stage as Blanche Douglass. She
is a pretty, Hufty little lady, with a
baby blue dressing jacket and lacy
things; also troubles.
THE YOUNG WIFE's TALE.
Il don't know how you ever found
II out," she said TO a reporter, with
laugh that was fairly damp with tears
II suppose 1t amounts to my being
discharged from the company they are
rehearsing without me. They haven't
given me my two weeko' notice though,
and if / cared 10 fight II would have
the law on my side In the courts.
II don't want 10 say anything that
would hurt my husbands business
here. but / think | have been treated
most unjustly. don't believe my hus-
band is so much to blame as the lead
ing lady, Laura Nelson Hall.
Il understand she has forced them
to drop me from the company BY
threatening to quit in the middle OF
the season. That would leave the COM
pany without q leading lady"
And she might have been Lady Win
dermere for sure 80 wistful was the
next remark: II guess my husband
decided he would rather lose me from
the company than Miss Hail.
1T began on the boat coming down
from the north" said Mrs. Cummings.
What the company said does not mat
ter, for they might have been preju-
diced and two outsiders came TO me
and remarked on the way Miss Hall
acted toward me,
when the company opened In this
city last Sunday, II might have been
expected that play would be chosen
in which the whole strength OF the
company would be shown. The Lit
tie Minister IN which there was no
ingenue part for me, was put on; there
is not much OF part for anyone ex-
oept Lady Babbie,"
"But that was all right II Is play
that Is very popular just now.
Now the company Is rehearsing
Lady Windermere's Fan. and am not
In Il. Miss Hall has taken the part OF
Lady Windermere which | had before
Miss Hall Joined US the first OF this
year. II il usual for the leading lady to
take Mrs. Erlynne. But, OF course. Miss
Hall. as leading lady had the choice OF
parts When she took Lady Winder-
mere, that let me out. / couldn't do |
Mrs. Erlynne. Good heavens, mol Why.
she Is 40 years old"
III will be recalled that Mrs. Er-
lynne is the woman with a past" and
mart OF the past Is Lady Wlndermere |
The latter does not know that Mrs. Er- |
lynne is her own mother, aud loathes
her for vile creature, as any good
woman would The point OF the play |
il that Mrs. Erlynne sacrifices the frag-
ments Of her own reputation TO save
the daughter who never learns the /
truth Of their relations An ingenue |
might do Lady windermere with q sIf-
nolent stretch Of the Imagination; one
never could do Mrs. Erlynne without
stralning somethiug.l
II don't know what am going to do
about It," said Mrs. Cummings. hope !