The Washington herald., 1907-08-04
WOMAN'S ON The STAGE
She Is Best Theatrical Investment
in the Country.
Bernhsrdt and Maude Adams Lead.
Feminine Mimics Are Most Re
nOVvned-GOOd Press Agents.

To those who say that women DO not
have fair chance in this world, it might
be- patent 10 carry the information that
the oldest stars on the stage are women;
that the youngest stars are women, that
almost half Of the successful plays Of
to-day are written by women; that there
are woman managers. play agents, dra-
matte agents. dramatic teachers. stage
managers. musicians. and scene painters,
saws the New York Telegraph. There
are woman press agents and woman
treasurers. Now woman lawyers. max
ing a speciality Of theatrical business.
have entered the field, and there are
theaters that appeal especially to women.
that are managed by women, and are
as much an extensive user Of femininity
as is the celebrated newspaper in Paris
which employs nobody but women.
Maude Adams is regarded as the best
theatrical properly in the United States.
/ Bernhardt is thv best in the world. Ellen
/ Terry has a larger following than any
male actor in England. Her daughter
/ is an actress and a stage manager be
/ sides "The Partisan Model was partly
stage managed by Gertrude Hoffman,.
The best mlmics are women. There are
/ no men that rank with Cecelia LOTUS,
Elsie Janis. Blanche Ring, and Fay Tenn
pleton.
Mrs. Fernandez conducts an important
I agency at which managers engage actors
and actresses. and at.which actors and
actresses secure engagements.
/ Most Of the foreign plays that come TO
( this country are obtained through Eliza
/ beth Marbury or Alice KaUser. Al
though there are men In the same field,
Charles Frohman. Clyde Fitch, and 9th
ers have by their patronage made it pos
/ sibIe for these women TO lead the list.
Some Of the best plays that are leased
to stock companies are leased through
/ Mrs. De Mile. the widow Of the play
wright who used to work with David
! Belasco. and the mother of two we'll
/ known actors and playwrights.
/ Mrs. Madge Carr Cooke. in Mrs. Wigs
Of the Cabbage Patch" has succeeded
better in London than has any male
star that the United States has sent 10
! the metropolis Of the world in some years.
/ Had it not been for Mary Shaw the
cult Of Ibsen would never have made the
! advances on the American stage that it
has made. While William Archer, Arthur
/ Symons. and others were fighting the
/ fight In England Mary Shaw was play
| ing Ghosts in this country and building
up a clientele for Ibsen's plays Mrs
Fiske followed her with a Dolls House"
and other Ibsenic productions, and these
two women did more than any of the
men have done. Mansfield, Wright Lori
mer, Wilton Lackaye, and other actors
Joined the procession later, but the
women were the first.
It was reserved for a woman, Eliza
beth Robins, to give London its first
play dealing with the question of woman
suffrage in a serious way. When Charles
H. Hoyt wrote about the subject in this
country he could see nothing except the
farcical side. He wrote "a Contented
Woman" for his wife, Caroline Miskel
and It succeeded, but it did not treat the
subject seriously.
The number of plays written by women
is astonishingly large Many of the man.
ayers and stars now turn first to women
when they are casting about for new
. pays. hi4 >. 4tA4trs tiA AA~A A'ANff44f VI
Harvard" 'The Boys Of Company B.
&c, has founded a new school of the
dramatization of -ecklessness and bOyish
gayety, and male imitatOrs are following
in the prints made by her French heels
One of the taunts most frequently flung
at ambitious women is that women imi-
tate and do not originate. It is pointed
out that there have been no women whose
work has approached that of Shakes
peare. The same might be said Of the
men. There are pretty nearly as many
near Shakespeares among the women as
there are among the men, and there arC
many more writing for the stage thar
there are women, although not so many
more that are writing well.
Although it has long been superstition
in the theater that only men can write
humorous songs, Marie DorO, William
i Gnlettes leading woman. has proved thai
the belief has no solid foundation. It wa.
she who wrote THE Doggie in Our Yard,
the song that Is the hit of 'The Little
Cherub," in which Hattie Williams stars
Elizabeth Schober, of Chicago; Mrs
Spooner. Of Brooklyn and Broadway
: Mrs Boyle, of Nashville, and Othel
women are theatrical managers.
The wife Of Charming Pollock is a press
agent, and there are other woman press
representatives.