The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-02-08
HOW A CLEVER SONG
 MADE A GREAT HIT
MSS PAULA EDWARDES TALKS INTERESTINGLY OF TWAS IT -BlRMlNGHAM'S BEAU TlFUL GlRLS.

Miss Paula Edwards, whose impersona- ton of Winsome Winnie in the musical comedy of that name has strength ened her reputation as a singer and actress in spite of the evident short comings of other members of the com pany. had a word to say yesterday of the origin and history of Was 1t You?" the song that keeps the audience in raptuous laughter in the latter part of the come dy's first act.
 :" Was It You?'" said Miss Edwardes, was perious experiment. to begin with. The song was written especially for our company. but 1t was some time before l could screw my courage up to the sticking point and attempt 1t. l was somewhat apprehensive that 1t might be resented as being a trihe familiar, and for that reason 1 hesitated to interpolate 1t in the play.
 "One night, however we were playing in Burlington, Vt, and I made up my mind to risk it. Burlington, you know is a college town and like all towns, is a center of no little culture and refinement. It occurred to me that if the song were ! acceptable to so exacting an audience as the Burlington one, it would surely go in other cities. So the last night we played in Burlington I tried it-not on the dog, but on the Burlington playgoers.
 "The house was crowded, the boxes and orchestra being filled with the most cultivated persons in the city. It took as- tonishlngly we'll There was not the slightest inclination to resent it, and so I resolved to risk 1t again when we got to New York At the Majestic theatre there it was, if I may say so, easily the hit of the play, and ever r.nce II has been acceptable.
 "Im inclined to think" continued Miss Edwards, a bit philosophically. that the qualification of ones personal vanity is the secret of all the joy and happiness in this life. This thought is forced home to me by the career of Was It You" Whenever we play two nights or more, the front rows in the orchestra are always eagerly sought after on the second night, and not only by men but even by young girls with their escorts In more than one town l have been thanked by pretty young girls for singing the song at the gentlemen they were with at the theatre. To take well the song needs to be sung when the boxes are we'll filled.
 "There Is really no reason for offense in the song, as the singer makes no un- happy personal allusion. The only re- mark to which exception might be made is addressed to the baldheaded man. and he is of course part of ths comedy. | When he rises to leave the orchestra, the audience at first believes 1t to be genuine displeasure on his part but l moment later realizes it's error and un- derstands that the joke ll not on the players
 What is my impression of Birming- ham?" asked Miss Edwards, in response to a question. ~ ell. to be frank, l have been most impressed with the singular loveliness of the girls here. n the boxes last night and the orchestra were q score of young women who were truly beauti- | full Many of them are of the English type of beauty, and yet Pm told that English character acting is not accepta- | bIe to the southern people. I wonder Is that true? No? An. Pm glad to hear it. There is no reason why it should be true | for you know the south is the most truly English portion of our population. Isn't | it?"
 And with that Miss Edwards was off for a walk through the shopping district.