The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-13
THEATRICAL LETTER
 FROM FRANKLIN FILES

New York, Jan. 11.-Clara Bloodgood and Blanche Walsh are actresses or New York birth and breeding; neither had theatrical percentage. and both made the transit from society to- the stage: but the portions of society rom which they stepped out were separate and distinct Clara had grown up In an overlook of Stuyyesant Square, which used to be to New York what Belgravia is still to London. residence place for very pretentious families: Blanche had matured within sight or the Five Points. until recently our whitechapel for vice and squalor. Don't mistake me to mean that Blanche's mental or moral culture was less pains taking than Clara's;s for her father. Fatty Wlash. slum politician. educated his daughter thoroughly; but the fact remains that Blanche was a growth of the Five Points. and Clara of Stuy- vesant Square. The coincidences are curious, therefore, that Clyde Fitch wrote 'sThe Truth" for Clara Bloodgood with a polite Fifth Avenue liar for her to personate, and The Straight Road" for Blanche Walsh. with an impoiite bowery drunkard for her to personate. and that the two new plays were pre- scented at theatres directly across Broadway from each other on the same evening.
 The aptness of the title of The Truth" is in it's impertinency. The heroine is such an habitdal and im- pulsive liar that she can't tell the truth even when she sincerely means to. Thus, you see, Fitch's play Is so singular that Charles Frohman couldn't have been expected to think twice. if at all. of giving his prestige and mon- ey to 6 production of it, If 1t had come from an unauthoritative author. And Clara Bloodgood. not acting for a liv- ing, but for artistic distinction, would have flouted the suggestion that she take up the role of Sapphira with an Ananias father but. that 1t came from the Fitch who Is member of her smart set circle. and enlisted to make a successful actress of her. Happily. these conditions favored ."The Truth" and as consequence we get play that Is out of the ordinary in subject and matter, if not quite extraordinary as a draamtic revelation. Don't skip these next sentences in dread that they may lead into a summary of the plot. I shall write only that Clara Blood good, as F-itch's peculiar heroine. by foolish lying to her fond and trustful husband convinces him that her really clean relations with an unclean ad- mirer are foul. The first half of the | comedy is humorous with the womans | impromptu lies. but the second half is pitiful with the consequences of he1 | fa1eshoods, leading up to her regen- eration, and the whole has the rare
 merit of newness in design and facility in execution.
 For so many years have I observed
 first night audiences that I detect al | sight anything unusual in their make up. The social status of Mrs. Blood | good, and the vogue of the theatre l accounted for the presence of extreme 1 ly fashionable people at the introduc-
 tion of "The Truth" They clapped
 yet made no rude noise nor 5ogget
 their polite boise for the sake oi
 friendless. But interspersed with these
 modtshly garbed and nicely hammered
 ones were quite as many with contrast
 ing aspects and commoners. Just ai
 good as the genuine swells, mind you
 but not bearing the brand of the Ten
 der loin. These were out of their GUS
 tomary place. that was evident at
 glance. and was puzzling myself fol
 a solution of the mystery of their pres
 ence when 1t was cleared up by tn
 entrance of William J. Kelly on thu
 stage. He was hailed with applaus
 far louder and longer than had greete'
 the star actress. That was becaus
 Kelly had been for several years tn
 leading man in a Harlem stocl
 company. the stage idol of Harlem I leHinihe populauoh' anu hiS @ tL e
 Yorshippers had come down from tha end of the town to the central. to brea their half-dollar theatrical experienc } with a two dollar occasion when thei ] own Billy Kelly played the husban to the smart set Mrs. Bloogood.
 } Houston Street Moll, the characte ' that Clyde Fitch conceived as suitabl [ to the virile Blanche Walsh, in writin 7 The Straight Road" for her, swept in } to first view in a drunken sidewal . fight. She and another woman ha 8 been thrown out by bartender. Sh } was blear-eyed from drink, her fac white and bruised, her hair tousels'