The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-01-04


| hearten her. Disappointment and cha
grin doubtless were felt to the full. but
her blood was up. AS she told the mana
ger from whom 1 learned about her My
voice is ruined. but l can still talk, and
| if ever / could act 1 can act now l am
not going to see the hard money of my
people thrown away. I've come back to
New York for the purpose of going on the
stage, and I've given up the idea of get
ting speaking part at once. l want an
engagement as a super
This, l take it, will be recognized by
everybody as a substantial come down. d"
The manager told her there was some
hope for her, and she went on to say that
so much attention was being paid this
summer to the handling of mobs in the
atrical performances that she believed
she would learn more as a super" than
she could from all the high-priced teach
ers in the city. | have said the girl Mas
no fool and this proves it, ''Suping'' in
the theatres is really becoming one of the
arts. Everybody is remarking on it and
more than that, testimony to the value Of
the super is given nightly in more than
one theatre by generous applause 1t is
quite revolution. when you think of it,
In the good old days that we are so fond
OF referring to as the palmy when there
We're comic opera primas before whom
those OF today look pale and couoTettes
who really understood their business, the
faithful super marched on and off the
stage without being noticed. Sometimes
3 bit OF awkwardness on his part raised
q laugh and brought about MS discharge.
bl- he was never thought of as an aotcr.
between him and the chorus there was a
yawning gulf.
When il comes right down to fact, the
shapely females who used TO make a line
of beautiful legs clear across the pros
cenium arch were nothing nut ''supers'
If they had opened their lips to sing the
strain of the Amazon march-did you
ever stop to think how unrealistic these
stage Amazons are? The real thing. you
know, has one breast cut away TO allow
freer action OF the arm, and she doesn't
wear blue tights, nay. by my haibred.
nor pink. nor any tights at all-but, as
was saying. if they had tried to sing It
is quite likely that they would have been
discharged also.
However. 10 the ChoIly boys and the
tald heads those statuesque persons were
choristers. and such was their status to
the undiscriminating public The girls
took the front and center. while the real
choristers warhled unostentatiously in the
rear. That kind OF super was not in
GividUalized. She had to keep step and
move in a stricksy formal. precise way.
The up-to-date "supers' work Is very
different proposition. a hundred OF them
may be on the stage at the same time.
but. unless they happen to represent an
army. there is no apparent precision in
their movements. In fact. however. their
Soings and comings are more precisely
planned than the svoluucns Of a military
company. Every man and woman Of
them is individualized and has his or
her part 10 do al Just such a time.
1t is fact. as the manager said. that
the modern Super Is getting the best
sort IF stage schooling. for ne Is com
PEELED 10 act So far as the girl is con-
cernsd who took nearly three years TO
find her level somewhere below the bot
tom. the manager hunted around among
the companies he had filed and found a
vaCa,scy. Somebody had fallen 81. and
the girl was jumped into The place.
she viii become IA actress IS
SIN to be seen. bot she IS earning her
living and houins as the yall do. that she
viii be singled from ,he ruck some day
and advanced 10 a speaking part-
II Is something 20 preserve a capacity
for surprise zs the years roll on. Tha,
first raan has lot of fun ahead Of him
OF that account. So has friend OF mine
whose prize was stirred today b. an
even; nc, in the least degree sensational
It's worth mentioning just as a sugsc.-