Los Angeles herald., 1907-05-12
NOTES BY THE
MATINEE MAN
( s..**.s.*sss*s*s...* III.

T FELT sorrow for the thespians this
week. All the hilarity save the flow
er parade was missed by them; they
were in grease paint and costumes when
! the marchers and floats went by and at
| rehearsal most of the rest of the time.
| While they were making ready to make
others merry the others were having
the times of their several lives. 1t isn't
all beer and skittles, this mumming,
anyhow.
My esteemed contemporary, the Mat
inee Girl, who writes for the Dramatic
Mirror in New York, has found out that
Dick Ferris is on earth. congratulate
her on the discovery; we made it here
last fall. She says of Dick:
Have you heard of the wonderful dis
covery the record breaking, unparalleled
universal surprising stage wonder that
has been eXhumed, together with many
earthquake remains, in California? 1t is
an actor who doesn't take himself seri-
fun at Camille" even when he plays IN
1t himself.
Every time I do this silly stunt want
to laugh" Dick Ferris says, II really
can't take myself seriously. L wonder
how other people can-if they do.
when have to flop around like head
less young rooster and pull down the cur.
tains with driveling, Father, my heart
is broken don't think it's my heart. |
think it's just my head. I'm going to say
so some time"
Good reading, eh? But no special
news to us. What is the keenest JOY
about Dick, he doesn't take either him
self or his art" seriously. Too bad
that he has folded his tents and hiked.
But he'll be back next fall, and may
his coming be more auspicious.
Miss Matinee Girl also has some
things to say of 1.-THE Undertow," which
received a New York stock production
after the Belasco put it on here. She
likes the play in many respects, but
evidently the man who played Richard
Wells, so ably depicted here by Lewis
Stone, knew little either of the part
or of newspaper life. She says OF both:
If 1t be true that Eugene Walters The
Undertow," is his first play, other older
and more famous playwrights might nave
days as writer's for the stage Mr.. Wal
ters' work discloses keen character
sense. 1t reveals knowledge or the
power and necessity of conflict In drama
much nearer the center of the target than
did Jesse Lynch Williams in his near
dramatization Of one of, Of his % own tales,
tempt to depict the inner mysteries Of a
| newspaper office, an attempt at which
those who live in those mysteries laughel:
Mr.. Walters pulls hard upon the leg OF
credulity when he asks us to believe that
such a man as Richard Wells, a dip
somaniac newspaper man of lower rung
of the ladder, could turn the current or a
city's politics. At least for this task he
should have a man of tremendous power,
and the man chosen to portray Wells m
the ESSAY made last week showed no such
power. He denoted brainstorm rather
than calm conscious, consistent strength.
/ wish Mr. \, alters would make over his
hero, fashion him into man of some at
. ot,,,,, &c n hiObar standing N his
fession; for the newspaper world, as all
other worlds, has its caste, and this, the
better caste for 1t, is one of attainment.
The last time I saw Annie Russell she
was running around barefoot. oh, dear,
no; 1t wasn't so long ago as that; it
was part of the play. And her feet
are as dainty and pretty as any Elsie