The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-02-12

n
new play and a halt. and that is
all the novelty v-e got in Broadway
this week. IN the fractional piece
which is fifty minutes brief Miss
ADAMS IS a London girl of the slavey
type, although net a household drudge,
but worker in a laundry. This sketch
is cali d OPP o. NJ Thumb" because
ats poor little creature is insisnihcant.
hut il might as we'll have been named
Cinderelia Without 4 Change or
Luck, because the prince she DIR ans
of never comes; or The Shirt He Left
Behind Him. because her dreaming
IS about a fellow who leaves his shirt
long while uncailed for at the laun-
dry. The writing by Frederick Fem
ana Richard Royce is pathetic. and
stlll more fearful is she acting by Miss
Adams The waif from a workhouse
Amanda, is as ugly a slattern as the
actress can contrive TO make her by
putting on a bad complexion, a shape
less frock, an awkward manner and a
cookney speech. There isn't a whit of
concession to comelinesS. Even when
rot disfigured Miss Adams isn't beau
| tiful by Venus rules. but she is lovely
with her piquant face, graceful form
ana personal charm. She has the cour-
age OF her art thus to hide all that Is
slightly and show not so much as a
curled lock on her froWsy head or a
I scrap OF ribbon on her shabby breast
Amanda has kept herself from being
utterly miserable by pretending that
she isn't a namelesS founding, but OF
good parentage, and that the chap who
| left his shirt behind him is her SWEET
heart, who sends tokens of his love 10
! her and Will come soon TO MARI her.
after which she will lead a life of lux
ury. This fiction of her lima gination is
SO persist ently stuck TO, with new de-
tails at every telling. that her laundry
mates half believe while ridiculing her.
and she herself is almost convinced
that her lies are truths. When the
hero Of her senseless head and sensi-
tive heart at length calls at the laun-
dry for his linen we see that he is an
uncouth coekney OF the cOster variety,
but in her visionary eyes he is the
handsome gallant of hsr romance. But
he sess her only for what she is. a girl
unattractive to even such a rough
lcafer as he, and he will have none of
her as a sweetheart. His cTusl con-
tempt leaves her more forlorn at our
last sight of her than she WAS at the
first. Miss Adams acting of this dear
little wretch of homely sentim mt, with
her fond pretending. her make-believe
romance and her anguished olsen
chantment-this Cinderella who is leTt
hopeless in the ashes of her girlish de-
sires-is as exquisite a depletion as ]
know of.
There was no business necessity for
bringing out A" 'Op % Ne Thumb. lie
seems TO have been done solely 20 break
for Maude Adams the monotony OF
The Little Minister" in which she had
acted LOCO times lacking but three, She
had expected to enjoy Shakespearean
change TO 'AS You Like 1t" this sea-
son, aud all the outfit was ready. but
Boss Frohman saw no sense in denying
the demand for more of the Barrie COM
edy. He promised a brief relief for the
actress. however. in "A tranSitory re-
course TO The Masked Ball" the piece
in which she had accompanied John
Drew in his emergence TO starlight II
was then thought that while Drew
might get along without Ada Rehan
as stage mate, he surely would miss
her badly: but Maude not merely was
as good an aid as Ada, but at once be-
came a sharing partner i'm his success.
Possibly she is reconciled TO an I'M
broken continuance of THE Little Min
lister by the nightly sight of houseful
of 81 people. and perhaps less sordidly
by the jams of women at the matinees,
for actresses like to be liked by their
own sex. Anyway. the announcement
of The Masked Ball" was withdrawn
But 'Op o Me Thumb which was to
have, been introduced with It, becomes
instead a preface 10 The Little Min
/ ister.'
In this exceptional week Of but enc
full-length new play in. Broadway. l
may take the space TO digress from the
professional to the personal affairs of
Maude Adams. Is she the wife of
Charles Frohman? No impairment
question is asked oftener among people
who see her on the stage. / answer no.
Yet can't prove my denial positively.
But 1 argue that, IL they were husband
and wife, they wouldn't want 70 keep
! il a secret, and couldn't if they would.
Any effort by them to conceal Wedlock
would result i'm scandal. from which
both are absolutely free. They are alike
in disposition 20 be known publicly
by their theatrical works alone. / have
seen him show himself on the stage at
three first performances only, and each
time he was hauled on by main
strength. I have never seen her show
herself off the stage at any of the
places of actresses resort. He lives in
bachelor apartments at Sherry's in New
York, at the Carleton in London, and
/ has a fine country seat in Westchester.
where his privacy is impenetrable 10
other than his cronies. She has fash
iona BILE residence in town, a summer
villa on Long island. and the secIusion
| of neither home is ever invaded by
! biographies. Now, If these two were
married how could they, and why
| should they, keep so apart2
! We Americans are given 10 reckoning
up professional success in dollars, and
What's her income?" is asked about
| Miss Adams as it is other stage lead
! ers. All can tell you on that point is
| that she draws more money than any
other actress on earth. with either Mrs
| Carter Of Julia Marlowe second. Sarah
/ Bernhard probably. and Eleonora Duse
/ surely. are exceeded by our Mrs F'is&s
! in pecuniary value, if not also by Ethel
| Barrymore and Blanche Bates. 1t is
/ noteworthy that seven of these eight
| actresses were born and bred on the
stage, while the one exception. Mrs
| Carter. was so thoroughly done over
| by David Belasco that she was actual
~ made in the theatre. The point /
/ make is that cash and cheek are not
/ sufficient for the transfer of nOvices
! from society to the celebrity of stage
J land, and that managers can't, with all
their resources. force medioerity into
I theatrical success. No doubt a great
/ deal of genius is obseured by lack of
| luck With which to make itself known,
| but no tricks of exploitation ever yet
| made a public favorite of a performer
who hadn't the ability, of one kind Or
| another. to entertain audiences. Charles
| Frohman has put Maude Adams fore
! most among our actresses. and if he
| hadn't possibly no one would have done
It: but what hold is that all the F'roh-
| man facilities couldn't have fixed her
! where she is If she hadn't deserved the
J place by natural charm and acquired
| skill. Even if you make dramatic
/, purses of sows' ears the public knows