Los Angeles herald., 1905-05-25
BARNEY BERNARD
TO WRITE PLAY
WELL KNOWN ACTOR TELLS
OF HIS WORK
SAYS HIS ART is HIS LIFE
Not Doing All He Had Hoped to, but
Will Some Day Find the charae-
ter Best Fitted for
Him

IF starring" an actor has tendency
to give one the swell head" 1t has GER
tainly lost its charm on Barney Ber-
nard. He is the same as a star as he
was year and half ago in burlesque,
and what is more he says he feels the
same.
The same quick, nervous little man;
the same sensitive mouth and shrewdly
twinkling eyes and expressive hands.
forever echoing all he says in vivid
gesticulation, are there.
Eyes, 1 feel just the same. And so
glad to be backl The way Los Angeles
remembers old friends! 1t was sur
prise to me last night; but a surprise
I've worked hard for,' said Barney
yesterday.
I'm glad to talk about all hope to
do here in Los Angeles. The town has
believed in me all along, and not to do
my best here not to have you all see
1 am trying to do my best-it would
hurt more than anything else.
Wants a New Play
"I want to tell you that I'm not doing
all 1 hoped to yet. 1 can't until 1 find
my play. 1t is so hard to get what
want. Let me try to tell you,"-he
leaned forward eagerly, his gray eyes
seeming to see the embodiment of his
thought.
ser On, N IJebrax,, fret apd last. 1--we
my people. 1 was brought up among
them in New York; consciously and un-
consciously they have been my love
and my study since 1 can remember. I
want to write for my people. I want tn
express them-their family life with
it's beauty; their shrewdness, their
thousand idiosyncrasies; but 1 want to
do this in comedy drama, not burlesque.
1 do not want to belittle for the Gentle
or the Jew what is dear to me-"
This was Barney Bernard serious-as
one sees him, timid and grateful, max
ing his inimitable little curtain
speeches. He went on:
1.-The play want 1 must write, for
the most part, myself. 1t takes the Jew
to understand the Jew. AIDE is great
man, but he would burlesque him. In
trying to fulfill my ideal it is somewhat
as you critics have said, Cottrell has
gone to the opposite extreme and rather
overdone my family-man side. 1t is a
play that has but one character; there
fora ~ ie treu1endOuS ctrain
Not to Be Buresque
"But the play L want has got to
come-the comedy with the undertone
of tragedy. Why should the Jew be
burlesqued always, as if he had not his
sorrows? 1 am going to do what War
field did-but l am going to go farther
than Warfeld; am going to make my
pathos dominate my comedy; in short,
1 am going to make you, finally, realize
the Jew.
"How did I first happen to think 7
could do the pathetic? I'll tell you.
Two years ago, in San Francisco,
played Shylock. Yes, did. I'll prove
it by newspaper clippings. l played il
at a burlesque house sandwiched be-
tween two German impersonations.
made that burlesque house take my
Shylock seriouslyi 1t was only frag-
ment, but the San Francisco papers
saw my possibilities at the same time
1 did They said some day there would
be a new Shylock.
"There will be. 1 was only 26 then
I'm not yet old enough for Shylock
But 1 feel it. L am studying it con-
stantly 1 am going to play Shylock ir
dialect. Why not? Mansfield con-
siders it correct, but does not dare,
Mansfield had better not he does not
understand the tragic heart of the Jew
In the future / am going to show you
a new Shylock-after l have carried tC
success a comedy drama.
His Art Is His Life
MY art is my life. 1t has a sterr
purpose underlying it; it is that tina
makes me willing to wait. | am going
to San Francisco to play a return en-
gagement and will be on the road til
July. Then New York-my home.
don't know whether 1 will take bacl
The Financier' or drop it for some
thing that is a better fit. | am glad t
have an opportunity TO say all this I,
Los Angeles. 1t is like coming home tC
come back here; and any success
may attain will not be quite com
plete until 1 bring it back here
eSS