Los Angeles herald., 1907-03-03
HAS SUITES NOW
FOR ITS STARS
PLAYERS HOUSED IN THEM
HAVE EVERY convenience
Luxury Behind the Scenes in the New
Paris Theaters Keeps Pace
with the Attractions
in Front
Special Cable to The Herald.

| Special Cable to The Herald.
| PARIS, March 2.-While Rejane in
her new theater has provided for her
audiences spacious lobbies, beautiful
decorations and attractive girl ushers
she has not neglected her own comfort
| behind the scenes.
Her dressing room is not single
boudoir with the regulation tables ana
wardrobes, but a suite.
First, there Is Louis XVI library
! filled with valuable books and lighted
by half-concealed electric lamps. At
one side there is a handsome carved
wood door, a relic from some medieval
| chateau. Opening it the visitor be-
tween acts finds himself in charming
salon of the same Louis XVI style
with delicate sculptured white wood
reliefs, pale blue carpets and on the
walls tapestries dating from the eigh-
| teenth century.
Then there is the dressing room
proper. AS the actress is making up
| before the dressing table, with its
chased silver toilet set, its large mirror
illuminated by tiny lamps hidden in
punches of artificial mistletoe, does she
ever think of those days long ago Wnen
as little ingenue she scrambled into
her cheap costumes at the Porte Saint
| Martin, one of the lower boulevard
| theaters?
Sarah Bernhardt's dressing room,
like Rejane's, looks like a luxurious
home. Indeed, the celebrated artistic
spends most of her day there. Arrlv-
| ing at her theater at noon she remains
until midnight. So her apartments be-
hind the scenes serve as reception
room. dining room. office and boudoir.
The large entrance hall with its dark
hangings is used as restaurant, for
Sarah loves to gather a circle of friends
around her at meal times. The tables
are always laid in readiness, for who
knows when the capricious star may
call for some extra collation.?
After the hall comes the salon, which
is almost a conservatory, for mowers
and plants are everywhere.
Then there is a delightful empire
boudoir. which resembles a crystal
maze with its multitude of gilt-decorat-
ed mirrors. A side door in the salon
| leads directly to the stage, and the
busy actress-manager has only step
to take and she is before the foot
| lights.
The dressing rooms of the historic
Comedie Franchise have little in COM
mon with the luxury and gayety OF
| those found in private theaters, where
the fancy of personal taste may run
riot. Each suite has its vast ward
robe, dressing room and boudolr' all
furnished in dark woods, with the ex-
! CeDtlOn OF Mdudllle bttllcl o. NihSh -
| fitted up in white paneling and pale
tinted silk draperies. In these digni-
| fled apartments voices are seldom
raised above a whisper.
Yet even these somberly appointed
suites are palatial compared with the
tiny, ill-ventilated rooms, which the
stars of\twenty-five years ago used.
Alice Eavinge of the Palais Royal
theater was among the first to attempt
any decoration. Her dressing room,
which at the time was cited as a
marvel, was in reality only small
closet, where there was hardly space
for three people. 1t was hung with
cheap Japanese embroideries bought at
the Bon Marche, and the staring White
walls We're relieved only by pictures
cut from the current magazines.
At the height of YVette Guilberts
popularity she cared so little for ar
tistic adornment that the chief decora-
ton of hlr dressing room was a huge
sign in her eheval glass intimating
that bores needn't camp out there; that
they'd recognize themselves as bores
by being answered only In monosylla-
| blaS