New-York tribune., 1902-08-31
BEHIND THE FOOTL[GHTS.
ACHIEVING HUMOR BY ACCIDENT-THE
STRANGE, SAD TALE OF MAS
CAGNTS MANAGERS.

Katie Barry the little English woman who
| created the part Of Fl Fl in the American pro-
| ductfon of "A Chinese Honeymoon now run
| ming at the Casino is one of the hardest of
workers in comic opera, for, whatever part may
| be given her, she at once sets about making, so
/ far as she can. genuine personality out OF IL
| that shall be consistent from beginning TO end
! and alaost nightly tries out different bits or
business to discover what the audience likes
Everyone who has seen her Fl Fl has felt that
she has succeeded in making a winsome as weil
as a comical personality out of that part. and
every one has laughed at her business Her
own story of the part is interesting.
"FI Fi,' she said the other day, is good
part. and that's the main thing. Most comic
opera parts are poor you can't make per
sonality out of them however clever you are
All you can do is pop out now and then IN
bursts Of fun, like the stars from Roman
candle. Comic opera is one of the most baleful
influences our stage to-day for that reason.
If no other; but the public seems still able to
stand good bit of the food. all we can do
is make the most of our poor material. / never
played Fl Fl in England though people seem
to think did. I've evolved the part from taking
the feel of your American audiences. Much OF
my business has been accident, too. Good busi-
ness often comes that way.
For instance, when pick up my trunk and
stagger with it, I never meant to drop my hat,
but it fell off enc night, and the audience
laughed. So now / knock 1t off with my up
stage hand every night Some nights the maid
gets the elastic band too tight, and / have to
fight the thing to get it off, Then one night not
long ago, in the second act, when l tell the
Emperor that 1 said I'd stick. a hook
little skirt did catch to him. and couldn't get
You see, I'm sticking? cried, TO cover the
accident.
1.-The audience roared, and ever since I've been
trying 20 make that hook catch when it should.
But 1t won't do 1t any more.
Audiences are funny things, anyway" Miss
Barry continued. They're never the same two
nights running. I feel right away how they
stand toward me, and try to play my part
cordingIy. Some nights I know they dislike
me, and work hard as will 1 can't get them to
approve. The other might we had house that
just wouldn't laugh at anything. Mr.. Seabrooke
always asks me, 'How's the house Tonight
and that night 1 came off and said fiercely. a
lot of bricks! After his first entrance he came
off cross. too You're right said he. It's the
brickest house l ever played to-
Charles B. Hanford who played the one act
piece 1.-THE Old Guard last season. was ap-
preached the other day by who suggested
that the actor give the play in vaudeville this
year.
oh" said Hanford, that play isn't suited to
vaudeville. 1t wouldn't 60
We'll. never mind said the other man, cheer
fully, limitations are all the go now. Make up
as DeVery and pump eplgramS from hydrdnt
Alas! that in this world never tell
what serious consequences may follow from our
slightest, least considered acti Because of a
piece of mince pie eaten late at night all the sad
events of "A Modern Instance" followed. And
because the orchestra leader at the Hotel Ma
varre one Sunday last spring, for the first time
in a month, and for the last time for month
following, played Mascagni's intermezzo from
'Cavalleria Rusticana,' are to have that
composer in America this fall. Who can now
doubt that it was really a pig that caused the
War of 1912?
On that fateful spring evening in 1902. little
dreaming what lay in store, Aubrey Mittenthal
went to the Navarro to make a friendly call on
s. Kronberg. AS he about leave, the
hotel orchestra tuning their fiddles. began that
barrel organ favOFite. the intermeZZo from
''Cavalleria Rusticana.'
"Ah.' exclaimed Mr.. Mittenthai,. with a sigh
of pure pleasure "those strains, that tune! /
adore the intermezzo- Let me stay. yet awhile
and hear it through.
So he stayed yet awhile. and when the music
was Mr. Kronberg. looking into his friends
dream filled eyes said There many in
America who feel as You do There would be
money in bringing Mascagni to this country
"Done!' cried Mr.. Mittenthal. descending from
beauty to business.
And that is why we shall soon have Mascagni
among us.
Ezra Kendall once the editor Of small
upstate paper, which was saved from untimely
death. Kendall says many times by the fore
of the composing room. He was a good
man. very good man. that foreman Kendall
affirms, "but he could never understand me. |
LacngsI Never was a man laced by any one |
as 1 by that compositor. He said was WORTH !
less, lazy. fool. bIockhead a shiftless do |
nothing, fit for nothing earth but to talk and |
go to ball games. told him man could not |
be well fitted for any higher missions, but some |
how that didn't to improve his opinion OF |
me- He w.nt right on lacing me, and to this |
day the poor cannot understand how in the |
name of common sense have been judged with |
a star part. or how L can have made a success |
as an actor. 1 tell him l didn't do 1T in the |
name of common sense but by invoking the |
opposite divinities But he only retorts that |
was the biggest stick that ever tried to edit |
paper, with that air of hnalfty man assumes
when he ends a scientific argument with quo
alton from Genesis Revelations. You can
fool some of the people all of the time, but you
can never fool your valet or the foreman of
your composing ROOM.