The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-03-11
VERSATILITY IN ACTORS
BY FRANKLIN FYLES.

New York, March s.-Is any man an
actor who is not mimic? Is any
actor an artist who cannot initiate a
personality unlike his OWN If the
right answer is no, few of our stage
celebrities deserve their prosperity.
Are there other American players of
real renown than Mansfield and Good
win who can disguise themselves com
pletely in an assumed character? Are
not such men as Lackaye and Dixey
examples of versatility inadequateIy
rewarded? Yet there are a hundred
OF their equals in diversity Of talent
VINO get nothing at all beyond wages.
l donot think it was ever otherwise.
The old-time stock companies did not
develop anything like the amount of
mimetical ability that fond memory
lnnagines. Edwin Booth and Edward
A Sothern were about the only great
actors of the past in this country who
could oveTlay their individualities
with more than a makeup. Forrest
and Jefferson were unvarying in all
but externals. No matter how they
looked. and no matter how they spoke,
they were always themselves. So are
Gillette, Crane, Drew, Hackett, Bel
lew, Collier, Warfeld, the present
Sothern and the dozens of notable ex-
travaganza comedians.
The subject is suggested by the
Broadway temperance of Francis
Wilson and Lawrance D'Orsay, ex-
IRENE cases of unalterability. They
give proof that a star actors purse,
If not his pride, gains If he either
can't or won't alter his peculiaritieS
with his changes Of role. They take
the new names Of Sibsey and Killie
in THE Mountain Climber" and 1.-THE
Embassy Ball. but in no iOta are they
variants from the Wilson and D'Orsay
who were in Cousin Billy" and THE
Earl Of Pawtucket-" Again Wilson is
q perky, jumpy, artic little chap, with
a glib tongue and legs that want to
dance as they used TO in comic opera.
Again DOrsay is a slow, inert, draw
ling, siIly-ass fellow. If either were
any thing else he would displease his
audience.
Wilson In the 1.-THE Mountain CHM
ber," moreover, is abOgUs Alpine hero
as he was in Cousin Billy" and for
a futher safety in sameness, he is one
OF the thousand comedy husbands who
lie to their wives as to where they 60
away from home. Sibsey is d LOndoneI
who makes annual visits to Paris, and
while loIling on the boulevarde low
OF daredevil deeds on the mountain
tops Of Switzerland. She proudly puts
his tales into a book that makes him
q celebrity, and cOmpels him to go tC
the Alps and bluff, or stay away and
own up. He bluffs and wins. Moral;
When you have told a bold lie, stick
to 1t bravely-if you are an actor in q
pIay-and if your vice is as funny as
Wilson's, it will be rewarded by the
money of many audiences.
Probably when THE Mountain CHM
ber'' goes hence on a tour it will be
billed as original with its translator
as was done with Kraatz and NeaPs
Are You a Mason?" but the German
play was performed here lately and
audacity halted at the certainty OF
exposure. The fraudulent Alpine adj
venturer is changed to an Englishman
for Wilson, and our funny comedian
does the rest. Sibsey, the wealthy
merchant, IS Caddy, the jailbird OF
''Erminie," washed clean, with whole
garments instead of tatters, and HaI
instead of a thief, but the mannerisms
of COmicality are precisely the same
Caddy pretended to be a nobleman
and you can't have forgotten his mixed
pleasure and misery as the hOnore6
guest at a ball, where he wore the
title and clothes of the man he had
rObbed-how he strUtted with vanity
and shivered with fright-hOw il
pantomimic tricks quite as much as II
clownish jokes he was funny? WheT
you see Sibsey at the reception giveT
by his wife to glorify him as an Al
pist, accepting with glee the adulatfOT
of genuine mountain climbers, posing
proudly as the performer of feats be
longing to an actual hero Of the glaci
ers, and at the same time shaking
with a palsy Of dread that will be eX
posed, you won't miss one Of Caddy';
erimaces or Capers. Wilson's ways
are as effectual now as they were then
It IS curious how differently service
able an actors bag of tricks may be
Take the venerable John H. Stoddard
His fixed peculiarities were adaptable
to verydisimilar purposes. His las
character before retiring from thu
stage was the pious ScOtchman in
THE Bonnie BriaT Bush. But I re
tain an equally vivid impression of hi
irascfble lawyer in The Long Strike
and his cruel murderer in Rose MI
chel" Each was a masteTful persona
ton. vet there wasn't bit of. altera
ton for either of them in Stoddart'
own alert air, or jerky gesticulation
and none in his quick, crisp elocution
although he was an expert in dialects
A ball was shown in 1.-THE Embass!
BaIP' as the play was performed il
Washington last autumn, but th'
dance is merely mentioned in the new
spring version presented in New York
In the meanwhile, Augustus ThOma'
has endeavored to rewrite the comedy
improvfngIy. As before it permits Law
rance D'Orsay, in the guise of a haw
haw. bah-jove, sllly-ass military at
tache of the British embassy at oul
CanitaI. TO lounge and dawdle in {
morning suit, an afternoon suit, al
evening suit and an army uniform, al
correct to a nicely and fitted with pre-
Cision to his own symmetrical shape
nut the same playwright who cut, sew
ed and pressed a role that suited hin
well in 1.-THE Earl Of Pawtucket" ha'
not done as good a job for a second
season.
Il said to my dear friend, Augustus
Thomas" spoke DOray before th'
curtain. in exactly the broad pro
nupciation and heavy swell mannei
that he gives to his stage characters
ar~zxT Va