The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-09-16
Married Actresses On the Stage
BY FRANKLIN FYl Es
BY FRANKLIN FYLEs.

NSW loIh, sept. lo.-DOes the per
sonal worth of an actress affect her
professional value? The question is
pertinent to this weeks coming out of
Grace George, Bertha Kalich and Ellis
JeHreys in new plays. They have
laWtul husband apiece, and there never
mas been any scandalous talk about
them. Does the general public hold
them in higher esteem for being ire
proachable wives? 1t would be pleas
ant to believe so. But docs Sarah Bern
nardt, Eleonora Duse or Ellen Terry
pay any penalty of theatrical reproach
Tor being matrimonial nonconformists?
however, rewards Of wedock merit are
now awarded TO Grace Bertha and FL
lis by their husbands. who I'm all three
cases enable them 10 shine out star
rlngly- Reading people are not per-
United by Grace's manager William A
Brady to forget that she is his wife
IL is less widely known that Bertha
although presented IN English by Har-
rison Grey Fiske. has been controlled
ana promoted in Yiddish by her spouse,
frederick Spachner. who runs a Yid-
dish theatre I'm the Bowery And it
may be newsy to tell that Ellis. al
though under the auspices OF the Lieb-
lers In America. has a fondly capital
lzing husband i'm Herbert Sheath. a very
wealthy English actor
Grace George-Brady's gift from her
husband of another chance To distin-
guish herself i'm play called Clothes"
and illustrative of a section OF New
york society which is a smart set in
both the city and the country meaning
or the term. 1t is a knowing and a
fast set, belonging 10 the teLderloin,
next to millionaireism on the one side
and disrepute on the other The au-
Ihore are Avery Hapgood and Charming
Pollock. and for several reasons they
are fortunate i'm having Grace George
enact their heroine One is that she
wears gracefully the modish clothes
which give the title TO the play: she
doesn't look to be of less Importance
than the consequential raiment, but
makes them seem subsidiary to her
self. although she is anything but a
portly person. Her manner is modest,
unaggressive, almost apologize, and
therefore she personates without re-
pellance kind OF adventures. For
the character is a young woman who,
being left at the death of her father
with expensive tastes and habits, but
no money with which to indulge them,
slides downward into bohemianism, and
is in peril of dropping into disrepute.
The giving by Frederick Spachner of
play TO his wife. Bertha KaliCh. has
had hndrances. Not often is 1t neces-
sary to refer to managers i'm accounts
of performances, but the fight for THE
Kreutzer Sonata" calls for names.
Wagenhals & Kemper bought il from
Its Yiddish author. Jacob Gordin. after
seeing It with Kalich al a Yiddish the
atre, and they brought il out last
month I'm English with Blanche Walsh.
Harrison Grey Fiske, who had under
taken to exploit Kalich i'm English,
bought 1t from Spachner, her husband,
who had bought it from Gordin. Hea-
ven and possibly the lawyers may know
who owns IL after those purchases, but
one judge refused 10 stop Walsh an
other has refused to stop Kalich, and
so II would seem that The Kreutzer
Sonata" is separately owned by diff
ferent persons. / must inquire if the
author collects double ROYALTIES The
row arises from the fact that Gordin
wrote a hundred Yiddish plays at
starvation pay, Under no explicit con-
tracts. and so the equity is a puzzle
when one Of them develops English
value.
In the meanwhile I can beat the re-
porters at telling that Blanche Walsh
saw Bertha Kalich's first English APP
pearance in the disputed play. l sat
close under the proscenium box I'm
which Blanche hid herself behind hang
ings. She came just after the repre-
ocHldNlOu btSdI, ana quit Just dIIeT II
was over, Shus avoiding discovery by
the audience. Rather a brOad-mnded
woman she must be, for I heard no
murmurings OF jealous criticism; but
when Bertha deserved IT. at a rousing
climax, Blanche exclaimed: Great
great-that's immense"
$50
May 1 in fifteen words remind you
that in The Kreutzer Sonata" wife
is maddened by a liason between her
faithless husband and a wanton sister
That is the condition OF frenzy which
she reaches in the final act. through :
succession of acute cruelties inflicted
by the shameless lovers. The Yiddish
author says that the English adapter
Langton Mitchell. has raised hobbs
with the original matter. Ny best Opin-
ion is that IT is nip and tuck between
the Blanche and Bertha versions until
the finality is arrived at Then Mitch
ell handles the situation more adTOitly
than Gordin.
The husband and his sister-in-law
pretend TO start for the opera The wife
knows that, really, they are off for ar
evening OF carnal orgy. Broken in
heart crushed in soul all but crazeC
in brain. she turns down the lights and
sits in dim silhouette at an open win
dow. The evening noises of the street
loud at first. are slowly silenced, and
only the low, soft nocturnal music OF
the orchestra is heard Several hours
of vigil are betokened, an atmosphere
of impending catastrophe is created
and thus the audience is prepared foI
the finishing hOmiCides. The guilty
couple come home The wife accuses
them The ran trie1 TO lie himself out
OF the prediCament. But the girl braEs
of her shame. WhereupOn the wife at
tempts TO burn away her rivals beauty
by throwing acid into her face. She
fights I'm futile fury with her husband
10 do that Now I'm a frenzy she fires
the seven bullets of a revolver into hel
husband and sister A CORY climax
yes; but merely melodramatic--no; fol
the genius Of Kaiich gives heart and
soul TO It. She has a fun third each OF
Buses calm potency Modjeslta's subtle
Grt and Bernhardts emotional turbu-
lence. which makes her three-thirds Oi
great actress II Is a pity she didn't
get into English before she was forty
but even at that she may fill out hel
time till sixty. including same annua
oh TOT II