Los Angeles herald., 1905-06-09
PRINCE OF COMEDY
TALKS OF HIMSELF
NAT C. GOODWIN RELATES
EXPERIENCES
ESTEEMS HIS PERSONALITY
Expects to Remain in the Role Of Fun
maker to American Audiences
at Least Two Years
Longer
EsTEEMS HIS PERSONALITY

NAT &. GOOuWln, AintIlC@S iSoNihs
comedy artist, was in a happy frame of
mind when seen behind the scenes last
night at the Mason after the perform
ance and did not object to talking about
his professional life and his experiences
with the several plays in which he has
figured as the star at different periods
Of his life. He said:
Eyes, art in acting Is all right, II 1t
pays. There is a great satisfaction
about the art OF acting, and when one
is successful makes ones self feel as
if he would do anything in his chosen
profession"
wasn't "A Midsummer Nights
Dream a failure, Mr.. Goodwin"
mot by a sight. l have been
waiting for a chance to refute that
statement, and 1 wish you would dis
tinctly say that it was NOT failure.
We simply got scared and quit. We
opened to an enormous business, all the
first nighters and those who thought
they were somebody were there, and af-
ter the first act they gathered in the
lobbies of the beautiful New Amster-
dam theater and refused to enthuse,
not because it was not a fine produc-
tion, but because they wanted to see
more of me, not in the classic comedies,
but in the modern plays of The Usurp-
err Sort
'Its the question of man and the
actor, isn't it, Mr.. Goodwin"
Want No Donkey's Mask
"Well my friends would put it that
way, because they said If they wanted
to see Goodwin, they wanted Goodwin,
and they did not care to see Goodwin
hiding his features with donkey's s
mask.
"Then you have decided, Mr.. Good
win, to give them less art and more
Goodwin"
"Exactly-give them what they want.
Art is all right, but business is busi-
ness, and every one is in business to
make money. I want to make all the
money 1 can and make it honestly"
"You are net alone IN ithst view gMT
Goodwin. How about The Merchant
of venice?'"
my boy, The Merchant Of Venice
played to more money In its thirty-twc
performances than many all-star at
fractions play to in year. If I would
have kept it little longer I should
have been immensely rich, because in
spite of the critics the public liked the
performance and patronized US most
literally"
But don't the public like you as a
comedian?"
Eyes, it would seem So and yet, as
in the case of "A Midsummer Nights
Dream toward the last of our en-
gagement in every city where we
date the crowds simply because the in
telligent man, the thinker, the student,
all realized that we were giving them
something grander, better and more
than they had ever seen before and
they fiocked to the playhouse after they
had become aware of our Offering and
we turned them away, because the
walls would not hold all the deep
thinking people who desired to see
Shakespeare's greatest comedy"
That seIf-Esteem
"Did you analyze your work, Mr..
Goodwin, in both THE Midsummer
Nights Dream and The Merchant of
Venice'?"
"Yes, but you had better seek the re-
viewers of those plays for what my
opinion of myself would be might not
coincide with the views of the others"
"What about your new play, Mr..
Goodwin"
"Clever, sir, very clever. Come see it.
It would i'll become me to laud myself
therein, but I assure you that the ap-
probation that has been given to the
play convinces me that 1t is one of the
best have ever had.
"Will you ever attempt anything
serious again, Mr.. Goodwin"
"Ah, that's the question, as Shake
speare would say. have not given up
hopes entirely of convincing my friends
that they would accept me in the
serious as well as In comedy roles, but
for the next year or two 1 will devote
myself to plays that they like and
then may let time decide"