Los Angeles herald., 1907-09-22
THE ACTOR WHO OBEYS
BY
JOSEPH II. GRISMER

sCMr. Grismer is William A. Bradys CO.
producer of THE Man of the Hour" Way
Down East ''As Ye Sow" and other plays.
He translated and adapted Mile. Fih," THE
Turtle" THE Manicure" and other farces
from the French; co-author with Clay NJ.
Green of 'The New South in which he for
merly starred with Miss Phoebe Davies and
has for many years been established in New
York city as consulting stage directory
OF all the cant that is become part of
the special and particular vernacular of
the stage-that is, of the theatrical busi-
ness-the most violently absurd is that
which has to do with the quantity called
the Creative actor" There is such a
thing as 'creative actor" but his mani
festations have nothing whatever to do
with coherent and homogeneous dramatic
art. If we start with the premise that
the play is the chief unit in any worthy
exemplifcation of the art Of the theater,
then the creative actor must be an
anomoly; for there is no logical place for
him in any scheme that takes heed of the
integrity of the playwright, who is. per
Sc, the one really creative factor in the
sum of anything dramatic.
/ possess, unfortunately, an apt ex-
emplar that, while essentially personal,
may be employed for my illustration, for
he died O, few weeks since at the very be-
ginning of what regarded as the most
promising career of any genre player on
the American stage today. Nobody will
quarrel with what / have to say in praise
of him-although I am free to confess
that were he still among us managerial
caution might prevent my saying any
thing of the kind. 1t is, all too often, i'll
considered managerial praise that meta
morphoses de facto interpretative player
Of high quality into de Jure creative"
player of no use whatever in the world
save as bounteous contributor to the
common fund of hot air
McVicars as Horrigan
When Mr.. Brady and 1 were preparing
THE Man of the Hour for the stage
there were sent us, among others, the
late Frank McVicars. We exclaimed to-
gether, There's a Horrigan!" OF course
we had been impressed merely by the
mans externals-by his physique and by
the possibility of his adapting his full,
masterful personality to the special re-
quirements OF Mr.. Broadhurst's boss.
Our spirits fell as soon as McVicars spoke,
for his accent was of BowBells and
Picadilly. He had been seen in New York
before, it seemed. In the company of Mrs.
Bernard Beere, who made spectacular
failure when she came over from London
in 1923. He proceeded with her to Aus
tralia and had been there before we met
him That year had been passed in
stock in Los Angeles. We explained 10
him our fear that his English stamp was
too strong for the role of the Irish-Ameri
can, type indigenuous to our large cities
and not to be Caught" by any actor who
had not made study of 1t in the life.
II am not bad actor, gentlemen" re-
piled McVicars, with neither excessive
modesty nor the other thing. II should be
II l could not make my accent suit the
character undertake. Let me know what
the author wants and what you want. 1
can play the role If 1t be within my scope.
I've acted seventy-one roles in Shake
speare, six in Ibsen and more than 200 in
modern plays. 1 wish a trial In the east,
and / know how to do as LIN told.'
He's either real actor or a very bad
onel'' muttered Mr. Brady. 1 agreed with
him. We handed McVicars the role. He
came to the second rehearsal letter per-
feet and asked not fewer than 500 ques-
tlons of us and Mr.. Broadhurst. We sent
him to a mass meeting in Tammany hall
TO study general types on the platform; |
this was in the height of the Hughes |
Hearst campaign. He returned to tell us
he had seen a score Of men, any one Of
whom might be a Horrigan. So. with the