The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1906-09-16

which to indulge them, slides down
ward into Bohemianism. and Is in peril
OF dropping into disrepute.
Kalich in English.
The giving by Frederick Spachner OF
a play to his wife. Bertha Kalich. has
had hindrances. Not often Is 1t neces-
ssry to refer to managers in accounts
of performances, but the fight for The
Kreutzer Yiddish" calls for names.
Wagenhals and Kemper brought 1t
from It's Yiddist author, Jacob Cor
din, after seeing 1t with Kalich at n
Yiddish theatre, and they brought 1t
out last month In English with
Blanche Grey Fiske. who had under
taken to exploit Kalich in English.
bought 1t from Spachner, her husband.
who had bought 1t from Gordin. Heav-
et. and possibly the lawyers may know
VIII WINS 1t after those purchases; but
ore judge refused to stop Walsh. an
other has refused to stop Kalich, and
so 1t would seem that The Kreutzor
Sonata" is separately owned by differ
ent persons. / must enquire II the au-
thor collects double royalties The
row arises from the fact that GordIn
wrote a hundred Yiddish plays at star
walton pay under no explicit contracts.
and 80 the equity is a puzzle when
NhO Va ehOAh 0CNCLopcS I1h5ilbh fhiuC.
In the meanwhile. / can beat the
reporters at telling that Blanche
Walsh saw Bertha Kalich's first En-
glish appearance in the disputed play.
I sat close under the proscenium box
in which Blanche hid herself behind
hangings She came just after the
representation began and quit just
before II was over thus avoiding dis
oovery- by the audience. Rather a
broad minded woman she must be. for
/ heard no murmurings of Jealous
criticism; but when Bertha deserved
1t, at a rousing climax. Blanche OK
claimed: ''Great-great-that's I'M
mense."
May I in fifteen words remind you
that. in The Kreutzer Sonata" a wife
is maddened by liaison between her
faithless husband and a wanton sis
ter That is the condition of frenzy
which she reaches. in the final act
through a succession of acute cruelties
inflicted by the shameless lovers. The
Tiddish author says that the English
adapter, Langdon Mitchell. has raised
hobbs with the original matter. My
best opinion is that 1t Is nip and tuck
the Blanche and Bertha YER
sions until she finally is arrived at
4 HcH rIhltCHclI HdHulcS TIC
more adroitly than Gordin.
The husband and his sister in-law
pretend to start for the opera. The
wife knows that. really, they are off
for an evening OF carpal orgy. Brok-
en- in heart, crushed in soul. all but
crazed In brain, she turns down the
lights and sits in dim silhouette at
en- open window. The evening noises
of the streets, lowd at first, are slowly
silenced, and only the low, soft, noe
tLrnal music of the orchestra Is heard
Several hours of her vigil are betok-
tastrophe is created. and thus the au
dience is prepared for the finishing
home. The wife accuses them. The
man tries to lie himself out of the pre-
dicament. Put the girl brags at her
shame. Whereupon the wife attempts
to burn away her rivals beauty oy
throwing acid into her face She
fights in futile fury with her husband
to do that. Now In frenzy. she fires
the seven bullets of a revolver into
her husband and sister. A CORY cli-
rlax-yes; but merely melodramat tic
no; for the genius of Kaiich gives
heart and soul to 1t. She has a fun
third each of Duse's calm potercv.
MOQJeSka s subtle ART ana BernhardtS
emotional turbulence. which makes her
three thirds of great actress 1t Ia
a pity she didn't get into English be-
fore she was forty, but even at that
she may fill out her time till sixty. in
Guiding some annual farewell tours
unless she gets fat. In the absence
OF beauty. she is charming WITH an
face and a sinuously grace.
full figure. But If she should double
her present weight of a hundred ana
thirty pounds?
Three answers to that question NJ
adverdupoise waddle around Kalich in
The, Kreutzer Sonata once thew
were favorite and shapely actresses
Now they weigh between two hundred
and not an ounce less than three, and
the one who kicks the BEEN at the
top weight used to kick hats off in
comic opera. An old anecdote quotes
an unattractiYe chorus girl as saying
to the director who declined to hire
her; II must live, you know"
"Why2' he asked 4
If art is to be good It must be
cruel. Kalichs art is needlessIy
loaded with the obesity of her mother,
and housekeper in this
play. These fattened actresses have
10 liver" Dramatic art cries out,
'whyT