The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-04-14
Productions of Women Playwrights
81 FRANKLIN FYLEs.

would understand why criticism is
faccid and admiration is robust; be-
cause there she-well, why not say it,
since il is so-she strips beautifully.
She may not denude the very heart and
/ soul of a Gibson girl, for no such ex
/ posture of character is feasible in this
/ personation of an adventures; but she
surely does bare her arms to the tops
of her shoulders, and her torso nearly
down to her belt line, besides giving
thorough publicity-by means of a thin
skirt so adroitly weighted at the hem
! that il adheres to her closely-tO the
walking section of herself. 1 don't
/ think that so intimate or enrhralling
stage view of the fashionable drawing
room girl has ere this been buyable of
/ two dollars. 1t was a case of girl and
gown in a bewildering harmony that
| benumbed critical analysis of her act
ing on the first night. And who
thought of the Captain Marshall who
| mad written His EXcellency the Gov
/ ernor?" For there, conspicuous at the
| front of a proscenium box, sat the
more famed Fifth avenue dressmaker
who had designed Its Exceilency the
| Gown" in which the actress embodied
the belle of the period so transcendent-
ally.
Amelia Bingham is of social account
| in New York circles of well-ca pitalized
! fashion, and is known for bland, blond
amiability: also, she is a notably intel
| lectual woman, with gift OF glib CAB,
which she utilities as president of the
American Play-Goers' societN Amelia
had been far and long away since last
autumn on a tour with The Lilac
/ Room when she got back to introduce
that play 10 her own people. Joe We
/ Der had rented his music hall to her
/ for a month, and the sudden change of
show from extravanganza to drama
| took three persons unaWareS, If no
more. They were q man who looked
4 like a solid merchant here on goods
/ buying visit, and two girls who had
an aspect of Broadway familiarity; yet
! they. like him, had thought Weber's
| gaieties were still there; and so adher-
/ ing to music hall usage, he lit cigar,
/ leaned back i'm his boX-front chair be
| tween his girls and began to haze the
/ air with the smoke of tobacco. An
usher corrected him. Then he looked at
| the program, consulted with his COM
panions, and the three departed. How
ever. the house held very few who
didn't know that Amelia Bingham
would act in a new play, and the au
dience was as handsome as that which
gathered for Ethel Barrymore on the
ensuing night.
X X X
Those Of my readers who have seen
The Lilac Room" know how the
plump Amelia rolled into the sight of
| her New York acquaintance upon her
return from a southern tour-how she
arrived at a quiet English priory in a
runaway cart, hurtled into the recep-
| ton room through an open window and
| spraWled on the floor. She was enact
/ ing a Chicago heiress in the usual Ii
/ belOus manner of hOyden violence, and
the headlong entrance might reason
/ ably have been mistaken by the Eng
1 lish family for a method of rapid tran
sit usual to a vivaciOus American
young lady. The New Workers who
saw il gave a noisy greeting to the
actress, and awaited further proceed
ings. Rumors of the plays badness
had f1oated in ahead; yet its authors
were the same Evelyn Greenleaf Suth-
erland and Beulah Dix. who had writ
ten THE Road to Yesterday" very
cleverly; so there was a disposition to
indulge no prejudice until Amelia had
been seen in it, even though before her
advent a company of almost all Eng
lish inefficients had endeavored foggily
and soggily to create an English at
mosphere Of well-bred cOnventionality
for the American heiress to roll into
disturbingly. There have been hun
lent, as intOlerablc, yet their actresses
have contlived to popularize them.
Somehow or other, the gOodhumOred
and handsome Amelia failed to do that
Mesdames Sutherland and Dix pub
lished a declaration, next day, that the
fault came from her inability as a
coincidence, and they forbade her to
perform the play again. That reused
her, and she retorted in a speech that
2 faat lot ok in fIoV,, III
wrights. But it was not till after one
night of closure that Amelia spoke
about it publicly. The behavior of the
initial audience kept her awake the rest
of the opening night; a perusal of the
newspaper reviews in the morning COM
pleted her unnerving and a notice was
posted at the theatre saying she was
sick abed. But she pulled herself to-
gether for renewal of effort on the
third night-a quite hopeless waste of
tagged vim.
London audiences get angry at a per-
Torrance that doesn't entertain and be-
come savage mobs of abusive on
slaUght, New York audiences pity, for
give and never maltreat: but they do
try to get fun out of the fiasco. 1t went
that way with The Lilac Room"
Amelia figured I'm the play as a peace
hldhtI- HleuulilS every InlilS lDdl she
saw broken, from a leaky roof to a
sundered pair of hearts, yet it looked
merely ludicrOuS; she caught every
thing that she saw running dangerous
ly loose, from a brace of counterfeiters
to an eligible bachelor, yet it had no
aspects save those of absurdity: and
the sufferings of Amelia on the rack of
derision were acute, May Irwin, con-
fronting a malefactor with a pistol
shaped atomizer and with a squirt of
perfume, instead of a pop of bullets,
compelling him to give up bunch of
love letters. would be laughable in the
way that had been planned; but with
Amelia-I can't tell why-it seemed
nothing but ineffably silly With Ethel
Barrymore abed in the lilac ROOM
reused from redundancy to a sitting
posture by fancied CHESTS. who really