Los Angeles herald., 1906-12-25


BELASCO-"My Friend from India.
Under Two Flags
GRAND-"Under Southern Skies
PHEUM-Vaudeville
Smother Goose"
All will begin at 2 or 2:3O, giving
time for the usual Christmas dinner.
The Auditorium opens with the Dick
Ferris stock company In 1.-THE Great
Ruby tonight.
Two things drew a fashionable holi-
day audience to the Mason theater last
night-a beautiful woman and a new
play. And it is safe to say that nine
tenths of the feminine contingent went
to see the woman, and that few of the
men will go again unless to see her.
The woman is Maxine Elliott; the play,
Clyde Fitch's Her Great Match"
Maxine Elliott is one of the most
beautiful women on the stage today.
She is a sort of sublimated show girl;
the apotheosis of the actress lovely, as
distinguished from the actress clever,
virile or tragic. She is the embodiment
of stage pulchritude. She is gracile
and fascinating; cool as ice, calm as a
SNOWFALL and wholly eye-flling. All
she need do is to walk across the
boards in a glove-fitting evening gown,
WIN neT superb S1OulueIS ctllu ala
baster arms cleaning white in the cal
cium's glare, and every feminine heart
is aflutter on the instant. She has a
majestic repose, a splendid sang-froid,
fine taste and that charm of aloofness
which never permits her to become
common, and always gives the impress
sion of ultramundane exclusiVeness
which in itself plays havoc. She is
picture-almost a statue-one hesitates
1r1 1nr- 10
blood, so flawless is she.
But Maxine Elliott is not an actress.
No; never. That isn't her pose. An
actress has emotions, temperament
excitement action. None of these is
a possession of this thespian. She does
not act. She is always Maxine Elliott.
She creates no character, nor does
she project herself into part. She
remains ever herself, held we'll in hand.
Sometimes she is very charming-when
in good humor with herself, her pub
lie and her Nat again, she acts her
self lust as herself feels-very badly.
But ever remains her austere beauty
as cold and distant as star. Wen
bred she always is; gracious, dignlted
and quiet; her love passages are as
passkionless and dead as are the dron-
ines of a proofreader over the nights
Z grind: her anger is as lacking in heat
as is the glowing red of winter sun
set
Someone once wrote a play on THE
Importance of Being in Earnest" In
the aeons to come when they dramatize
the players of today as we nave Nell
Gwynne. the fit title for that of Maxine
Elliott will be: The Importance of Be
ing Lovely"
Given this imperturbable beauty and
asked to write u drama about her-
what then?
Clyde Fitch. the coiner of flip phrases
and the chronicler of societys tads'
foibles and follies, must needs cut his
cloth to gown the star presented him.
1t must be sumptuous, TO set off her
calm loveliness, yet without wrinkle
of laughter or a frill of mirth to dis
turb her icy aplomb. 1t must be devoid
Of emotions for they would jar upon
her collectedness. 1t must be tailor
made, by the most skilful and fashion
able man modiste of this generation OF
playwrights. and it must never break
that respectful beauty to smile or
frown With such limitations could
INSTRUMENTATION assuredly Fitch is
not-have given us vehicle of any in
herent value save as means to exploit
this frozen dream along these chosen
lines?
Her Great Match" is therefore
safety match one may grind 1T under
one neel Wlln ilO ncll6tl VI lNo 'PNi
ing fire; it will not ever crackle. In
IT. one may not search for mental pab-
rlum of the sustaining sort; such food
for thought as It may contain is in in
fnitesimal quantities, and is all care
fully predigested and pre-assimilated.
one may not even skim cream from 1t;
il is too milk-and- -watery to raise a
scum. It is froth of the frothy, writ
with a white kid -gloved hand, by
man in immaculate evening clothes, on
scented lavender paper with violet ink,
and carrying the delicate effeminate
perfume of a sachet.
The motif Of this affair Is the pro-
posed wedding Of an American girl by
her Cassie Chadwick of a mother to
princeling along the morganatic lines
common to those titled gentry. This
mother forges her daughters name to
marriage agreement for 100000. thus
making 1t new j. P. Morgan-atic af-
fair, The girl discovers it-and actually
almost feels an emotion for of course
Maxine Elliott is the beauteous daugh-
teri; but in order to save her fathers
reputation she acquiesces. Then there
comes the morning after; the prince
ling relents, fascinated by the ice
queens fair face, renounces his claims
to the throne, and ends all complica-
tions in the mush- -and-Water fourth act
by marrying her in the good old way.
And as they .Jve each other, the con-
ventional finale is thus achieved
Certainly this isn't much. Nor was
II expected to be.
The crafty Mr.. Fitch has so man
aged his affairs that Maxine Elliott
is never called on to do one moments
real actins, and thus has earned his
fee. All she is asked to Co is to be the
nice. pretty young woman (Which she
is. in a nice, lovely drawing room
gowned in beautifully smart "crea-
tons" speaking lines as innocuous as
she is. Even the humor consists merely
I'm fracturng the mother tongue by the
German-and Kolb and Dill can double
discount him at that, and be funny at
the same time-and in poking fun at
1.-THE morning after"
Yet the combination of pale mauve
drama and frost palace star. with the
ambient atmosphere OF aristocracy. act
ually pleased everybody especially the
fashionables; some with overplus Of
sentiment were delighted. and few
with hair-trigger waterworks even shed
a few tears.