The Savannah morning news., 1903-09-22
new YORK TOPICS
GOSSIP AND CURRENT COMMENT
FROM THE METROPOLIS.

ian
How She Began Earning Her Liv-
ing mt Seventeen, Both MS an
Actress and n Story Writer-She
Ought to Be Lucky for She Is the
seventh Daughter of n Seventh
Dnughter-Henry Woodruff, Now
Playing the Name Role of the
Piece, Was Harry Woodruff in
His Younger Days, when Reported
Engaged to Anna GOuld-The Most
Picturesque Member of the GOeIet
Family Bore the Same Name as
the Young Woman Now to Marry
the Duke of ROxburghe.
New York, Sept. 19.-Miss Annie
Irish, whose part on the stage this
year is the leading role of 'Iras" (the
Egyptian En- ehantress) in Ben Hur.
has tried two or three times. but I'M
successfully, to work her way up to the
star level. Some day she will succeed,
providing she can get play exactly
suited to her needs.
Last year she thought she had it in
Arson Ponds Life" but though the
play read we'll and her part of Liz
Gould" was apparently just the role for
her to win with, the run of the piece
was short and her hopes were again
dashed to the ground. Worse yet, the
failure of Life" made it impracticable
for her and her husband. w. E. Dod-
son, to appear together this year.
though banking on the success of the
Pond drama, they had tentatively or
dered three plays in which both were
to figure.
BY all the rules of superstition An
ME Irish ought to be very lucky. She
is the seventh daughter of a seventh
daughter. She was born in England
of a family which never had heard of
race suicide, apparently. There were
thirteen children, all told. seven daugh-
ters and six sons all the daughters be-
ing older and all the sons younger than
She
She went on the stage at II. She got
her first place at sight because the
agent to whom she applied thought she
looked the part" to which he assign
ed her. Her pay was thirty English
shillings, or about 81 so a week. 1t
was because the family finances were
running low after her fathers death
that she took to the theater. Her thir-
" shillings didn't go far and came in
only part of each year. But she earn
ed quite an additional sum every year
before she was twenty writing stories
for the London weekly papers.
They weren't very good stories,
suppose" she said to a friend not long
ago, land l never thought of consider
ing myself a literary person because
wrote them. l just wanted the money,
and l saw there was a demand for sto-
ries, so l sent them in. They were ac-
cepted and that was all there was of
it. No, have preserved none of them
at ALL"
Miss Irish came to America ten years
ago with the Kendals on their first trip
| hither, and has never been back TO
! England professionally, though her
| husband has filled several engagements
| over there.
Miss Irish says the New York and
London theater goers differ vastly. The
audiences in this town are the most
puzzling she has ever seen. In any
London theatre-in almost any Ameri-
can theatre outside the metropolis
the audiences are practically the same
every night. Here it Is not so. To-
night the people in any given theater
may be of a high grade of intelligence
helpful, sympathetic and obviously
regular theater goers as a whole To-
| morrow night the people in the same
theater may be cold, heterogeneous,
| unsympathetic. the reverse of help
full. For a long time she could not
| account for this, but it finally dawned
upon her that the visitors to New
| York are so much more numerous in
| proportion to the regular population
that they often make up the ma jority
of the audience in any given theater
! Though the theaters here are patron
| lied as nowhere else in the world.
! Miss Irish thinks the percentage of
New York residents who go regularly
| to see the play is smaller than i'll
many other cities.
The title role in ben Hur' is play
! ed this year by Henry Woodruff. He
! is doing the part very WELL too, /
hear. but he is not attracting nearly
so much attention as he did when he
| played star engagement as the al
| legged accepted sutton of Anna Could
! now the Countess of Castellane
In those days he wrote his name
Harry" Woodruff. His friends are
glad to see that he has dropped the
dmlnutiVe OF the fine old English
| cognomen which his parents bestowed
| upon him. What a difference it would
/ have made in the Gould family his
! tory had Annals alleged enga cement
been followed by marriage with an
4 actor instead of the blond, little
| French count!
Goelet "reminiscences are always in
order and have been for many years
| Just now, on account of the announce
| ed engagement of Miss May Goelet
to a titled Englishman, they are bet
! ter current coin as gossip than usual.
The most picturesque member of
the entire Goelet blood was of practi-
| cally the same name as she who now
| expects soon to be a bride--Mary
Goelet. She was the great aunt of the
! present May, and was never married.
When the original Goelet fortune was
| divided her share was the old Goelet
| homestead 1t stood at the corner
of Broadway and Nineteenth street.
and was an old-fashioned four story
| and basement square structure of the
type thought elegant in the early years
of the last century. Just how old it
was no one of the present generation
ever knew 1t was by no means a
new house in 1885, when it came into
| the Goelet hands.
Nearly all the original Goelet for