The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-10-07
Son Of Great Irving Makes Debut in New York
BY FRANKLIN FYIEs


that actors heads swell with vanity,
While their chests expand with strut,
when audiences applaud them as
though they were heroes in more than
make-believe. To me there is nothing
sillier on the stage than the hummer
who, after taking on fictional gloties.
doesn't put them off when he comes
before the curtain still pulled and di-
lated, and seeming TO see a medal for
bravery proffered TO him by every pair
of clapping hands. The case looked
utterly different when Henry B, Irving,
at the end OF his first performance in
America, was called out in the shoes
of his famous father to say something
pertinent, but not impertinent, to the
peculiar circumstances. There was no
doubling the reality of This embarrass-
ment as he wriggled awkwardly,
clutched the curtain to steady himself
and stammered for words. He knew
that all the evening the people had been
sizing him up by the measure of Henry
Irving to find him wanting, even
though satisfactory when considered by
himself alone. But he may not have
been aware that, as Malatesta in "Pao-
10 and Francesca" he had been brought
under a losing comparison with Law
renee Barrett and Otis Skinner.
Henry 3. Irving was seen at once to
resemble his sire wildly in face and
close similarity in speech; and then,
again, when he moved there was an al
most startling likeness in stride and
gesture. To me he seemed neither so
admirable nor so absurd as his father
for he lacked both the authoritative
power and the ludicrous mannerisms of
Irving the Great. He is an excellent
actor, 1 think, but not extraordinary.
His debut may be recorded as indubi-
tably successful. Along with him
comes his wife, Dorothea Baird, lis
per. She couldn't say ess, but only eth,
if to thay it were to thave her thoul.
She is tall, slender, exquisite, but why
should a girl unable to pronounce all
the letters of the alphabet ever have
become an actress? This Francesca
couldn't tell the truth about her own
name but said it was Franthethca.
If you have read Stephen Phillips
version in verse of the tale of Frances
ca of Rimini, the Italian bride whose
| sin Dante immortalized, and other au-
thors, from Rapagnetta to TennysoH.
further celebrated you know that Phil
| lips has poetiZed il imaginatively- II
also you have seen George H. Boxer 5
| tragedy which is the one that Barrett
arranged for the stage and Skinner
more recently used, you are aware that
| the Boxer play while possibly inferior
literature, is better drama. Almost all
| the theatrically strong points scored by
Boxer are missed by Phillips. and are
not even aimed at. For one instance,
The first meeting of Francesca and the
| Tyrant of Rimini with her revulsion
upon seeing that she is to be the wife
| of a hideous old man, and his eXulta-
| ton in the belief that young and
beautiful girl will love him, is an in
tensely dramatic passage with Boxer
| not paralleled by Phillips.
1 49, 4 hill cont o. n 2
| ing the adultery of Paolo and Frances
ca to the extreme of idealization, winds
| up his play with scene more carnal
than in the Philadelphian's. The hus-
band is not brought back from warfare
by his malignant court Jester to see
| his wife and brothers perfidy, but is in
formed by a jealous woman of his
household The lovers have been
shown to us in the famous Tennyson
kiss of Lancelot and Guinevere in
| garden, and now we see Ii in ardent
repetition in the lady's chamber late
at night: after which they retire into
a curtained alcOve where her couch
| has been visible: and when the hus-
band energies therefrom, with blood or
his hands and sword, he orders that the
slaughtered culprits be brought out fol
the assembled court to view. There
upon, four stalwart servitors enter car
rying the bed, upon which the lovers lie
as though asleep, side by side, en-
| braced as when death transhXed them
This climax is given with the new IT
wing at his best, and with all OF the Ole
| Irying's fineness of stage picture.
| Two exhibits of professional beauty
| a man and woman, from the roya
circle of English society and the cham
MON ring of American pugtlism, nave
come onto the New York stage Will
new plays. These human exhibits arr
frayed and stalled somewhat by year:
of strenuous encounters, yet stu ARK
objects of admiration who have not los
the desire to regard them as wonderful
| sights. Lille LanStry is on view II
"Retveen the Nightfall and the Light,
and Jim COrbett in THE Burglar an(
the LADY," Nor is it polite untruu
to say that both are acting, for the!
have become reasonably proficient.
The Jersey Lily reappears on th'
same stage where, nigh quarter cen
fury ago. she was raw in art, but wei
done in beauty. In the meantime tina
theatre has passed from drama Il
Keith-Proctor vaudeville, and her pres
emf playsis a tabloid tragedy occupy
ing but half an hour. In the first au
dience was Frederick Gerhard, her IN
innate comrade in the long ago, and be
side him sat his new bride, the Mari
Wilson, of show girl celebrity. Ate
, looking from Lily to Marie and baci
again. there was no doubling that Ma
RE is the handsomer of the two now
or that Lily never equalled her in ia
, cial features. But Lily's beauty whei
at it's height was surprising in two re
cts-wholesomeness of natural colo
and distinction of acquired style. Sh
S had the complexion of milkmaid an
the demeanor of a princess. The tin
: still shows itself through slight cos
metic overlay, and the grace is intact
i The face is not as smooth as 1t used I
= he. and it's expression has hardened
little. but she is not much impalre
as a type of beauty commonly terme
aristocratic.
Mrs. Langtry's New York debut wa
o made in the easy task of the mildly
tempted and placidly escaping woma
I'm IA Wife's Peril" yet her acting wa
e amateurishly inadequate. As the hero
inc of Between the Nightfail and TIN
Light" a strenuous tragedy name
from a line in Browning. she Is facil
: and even thrilling; which shows tina
K she has done something else than ru
horses since she slipped that bit of ic
down the Prince of Wales back. Th
q NAV is of her own writing, with som