The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-09-01
Open retteI' to
Young Girls
No. l..

THE essence of your letter is that
you want to know how to get on
the stage. The best, quickest and
| surest way is to simply go. That is
the only way to get there. Go in the
| chorus, go if you only sing in one act,
1 or one song, or even one line, but go
Do not wait for a dazzling opportunity
! to startle the world. 1t will never
come. No manager is going to come
to you in an upholstered auto van with
/ a parchment contract ready to be
| signed humbly offering you 81 600 a
! night TO make your first public appear
| anee as his prima donna with four
solos and a duet. Not if your voice is
| perfect. You must go to him and ask
for place in the chorus. and if he Of
! ters you $40 a week, take it. You will
| be doing we'll
Further than this I cannot advise
| you, as every woman is individual and
| the advice must depend on the person.
\ IL you are in earnest and really need
| advice come and see me. 1 viii be glad
to try your voice, and after that can
! tell you more in detail how to go about
the beginning of a career.
You may have a magnetism, a dash
| of action, a chord that are so individual
| as to warrant cultivation, ana you may
| be very ordinary and therefore obliged
to trUdge old beaten paths. 1 cannot
| tell now.
begin at the very bottom, to stand next
| to the pink tights and tinsel, to work
day and night, to study necessarily
and to shatter forever the cleaning,
shallow, magazine illusions of diamond
showers. flower chappieS and cham
payne suppers. These things and sue
cess never walk hand in hand.
You must not think that the only
requisites toward becoming a great
singer is to be born poor, quarrel in
church choir and have an ugly face. I
/ believe in the church choir, for the
music is good and cannot hurt you.
| And if you have an ugly face that looks
well behind the fOotlightS you are bet
! ter off than the beautiful girl, for you
Will not have as many temptations
| from duty and not as many compE-
4 ments to turn your head that are as
| truthful as a dogs pedigree or tales of
| your ancestors.
The reason more poor girls succeed
| than rich ones is that the rich girl is
not obliged to earn her own living, and
] unless she possesses the spark Of genus
/ she soon becomes weary of the hard
| ships of a stage life. She knows she
/ will have something to eat and a clean
shirt waist whether she works or not.
| But if you are not rich the beginning
| is easier, for you can study extensive
| ~ before you take your small part or
sprint about in the chorus For rich
or poor the real beginning is at the
/ bottom, for experience is power You
/
I every one did we would have no luxury.
1 for no one would want to turn out the
| lights or hold the carriage door OPEN
Every day letters like yours come to
me. 1 am always glad to answer them
/ and to help young girls along. for had
| such a hard time myself. l will tell
! you of two young girls who came to me
/ for advice and you can draw your own
! conclusions before you call at my home.
The first girl was very ordinary look
/ ing-in fact, homely. She called one
| day with her aunt, middle-aged wo-
| man that had long before spoiled her
niece with fiattery- Friends are more
/ to be feared than enemies in this bust
ness.
The girl was very patronizing to me
/ and seemed trying to make me feel
the Httleness of my success as com
pared with that she should attain
| asked her to sing and she condeScend-
lingly shrugged her shoulders and said
/ she sang everything.
! 'WeIl, sing something" l SAID, ana
| after a few more ShruSS ana SlanceS
| over her shoulder she sang a selection
! from Carmen as if she were doing
me favor. It used to cost me 80 every
time my voice was tried, so L did not
! appreciate it as a favor
| Her voice was good, but not unusual,
| and tod her so. 1 told her also her
/ appearance would make her success the
| harder, as the public demands TO see
as we'll as to hear. Then to encourage
| her I told her how Patti, Nielsen and
! Abbott began by singing on bar room
| tables, and how every good singer to
the present day had worked up by
| inches. But she interrupted me py a
! disdainfuI toss of her head and a
"Oh. 1 don't care what other singers
! careers have been. 1 am going to have
a career all my own.
What is your ambition?" L asked
her.
'Oh, I intend to be prima donna in
| a regular company.
You don't want to do Oshkosh, Fond
du Lac and Green Bay, do you?
Z? Oh, no! I intend TO sing six
months in New York
But no one does.
& will
Il thought you came to me for ad-
vice. L said. "and I will be glad TO
Here the dear aunt took the CONVEX
sation to herself. Rising haughtily,
with wrath and stiffness, she let fly a
lightning shaft:
Mrs. Davis, 1 have always heard
that you were kind. know now you
are not. You are mean and enviOuS
You are jealous of my little girl.
Naturally I showed them the front
door but 1 kept track of the little
girl"
Finally she became a member Of some
English opera companSE i'm Milwaukee
Had she not possessed the exalted
! opinion of herself, due to her feeling
relatives, she might sum- Win llAs
company. But she got to telling the
manager how to run the show, and at
ter three weeks he dispensed with hel
services. She is now singing in q
church choir at the round, juicy salary
of $500 a year.
The same day another young cir
came to me. She was very pretty anC
possessed a not bad voice. 1 talked
to her the same way and pointed. gu
to her the hardships and later the pos
sibilities of a singer. She seemed [,
absorb every word / said, and then
! told her there would be other Melbai
and PATHS. and that a successful SINCE
must begin with one great ambition
: always in sight and climb steadily VI
to ii.