The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-10-11
New York 1TLheatlricals
BY FRANKLIN FYI,GS

New York, Oct. 8.-The making Of
star actors is a difficult business. usu-
ally. though It looks easy sometimes.
one Of them as old as William II. Crane
and one as new as Orrin Johnson are
IN this weeks new dramas. THE
5penders' and Hearts COURAGEOUS. "
1neEe two men came to stage leader
snip from different directions-Mr.
crane by the slow way Of low comedy
long ago with the Holman opera troupe
ot cross-roadsters. through the carica-
Iure OF the notary in the memorable
eNtravanganza Of "Evangeiine." thence
into the antic farce OF ''Our Boarding
House with Stuart Robson, and at
length single dominance in THE Sem
ator;' while the expedited Mr. Johnson
never did any transforming. or roughed
it in any way, but at his outset only
dozen years ago, became a member
or Charles FrOhman's first stock COM
pany and played continuously under
that management till this season.
had TO trudge over corduroy roads
When was your age" said Mr. Crane
70 MT. Johnson, as they CHANGED to
meet on Monday, while you arrive
smoothly in an automobile
You must not infer. however. that the
veteran Mr. Crane is as old as he looks
IN the play which has been made for
him out of MIR. Wilson's story John
Gilbert used to say that. beginning at
the age Of 10 I'm old men parts and
sticking 10 them till he was "a he had
noted the passage Of his half century
and more by the steadily lessenfng ne
cessity Of painting his face. Line after
line made with a brush was rendered
useless by the relentless traCeries of ma
ture, until at length he needed no ar
uhciality Of Visage for his final per-
Iormance of Sir Peter Teazle Mr.
Crane will not arrive at that facial
condition for a long time yet But ais
makeup for the aged millionaire miner
In The Spenders" is so careful that, if
You didn't know to the contrary, you
might believe his wig and wrinkles had
grown on him. His head is a close
study from the book. So is his imper-
sonation Of the hale and hearty rough
and ready grandfather of a spend
thrift prOfiigate. whom he reclairns by
the harsh. but effectual. expedient Of
making the young man lose his fortune
in Wall street. It is exactly a Crane
role played in exactly the Crane man
ner.
Dramatic reviewers have acquired a
habit Of berating dramatized novels,
and Edward Z. Rose, who handles
many of them for Charles Frohman. is
especially an object Of their cruelty.
The Spenders" is on purpose a one
part comedy, with all the other charac-
ters merely circling around old Rines
at the center. But it seems to me that
Rose is originally clever in a. scene not
derived from the book. The param-
punt desire and difficulty in writing a
play for Crane is to associate him with
q love affair. He has in his day been
made woOer Of young girls, old maids
and buxOm widows. but never before
mas there been provided for him the
chance TO figure sentimentally and
amusingly as the pepper Of the matri-
monial question on behalf of a suitably
young man to a beloved young woman.
perhaps you read I'm Wilson's tale how
The grandson Of Rines and the daugh-
ter Of a New Yorker ached to wed. but
didn't get together at all. except pros
pectlVely in the last chapter 1t is diff
Ierent in the play. The consulate fell
low is about TO return to Montana His
sorrowful sweetheart packs her trunk
Tor trip to the Berkshires to get away
Tor awhile from the sutton whom She
olslikes, but whom she expects to be CO.
creed TO marry. Crane helps in the
packing while he does a lot Of willy
taking about a girl who became mis-
cradle because she accepted the wrong
cnap when she knew the right one. The