The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-04-07
Second Wedlock Rehearsal in Plays
BY FRANKLIN FYLEs,

a
;STbe lady first" So I will Introduce the
widow Alcott TO you. Can you call Dor
ofhv DOrT TO mind? If so, it helps to a
clear idea of the creature who raises the
row-de-dOW in the drama put forth as
original by Percival Pollard and Leo
Ditrichstein; for Miss Dorr is q beauty
50 ripe that widowhood seems more suit
able 10 her than maidenhood; yet she is
still so lovely that it doesn't look unreal
fonable when a fellow ten years her ju-
Nor develops calf love for her.
That is the affair of hearts in The
Ambitious Mrs Alcott" A callow AIR.
winthrop, in the service of the state de
partment at Washington, meets Mrs. Al
colt. whose dead husband used to be the
American minister at an old world court
not detnltely designated. or perhaps he
was an ambassador, Is the country may
have been one to which We send a top
notch diplomat But the authors don't
dare TO be geographically explicit because
Mrs. Alcott was adulterous with the king
Of whatever country II was, and IL
wouldn't do TO identify the royal rascal.
ANYWAY, the widows wickeduess Is by
gone at the time of the play. and is
brought forward from the past by an Of
fetal report Of it, which gets misplaced
among other documents and thereby
faI into the hands Of senator. AS the
action of the play Is placed in Wash
ingtou. and dated 1907. this Senator
Pierce may be meant to stand in the fic-
ti0u for that particular senator who is in
fact chairman or some committee ham
ding foreign diplomatic affairs and who
wears whiSkers under his chin. Far be
e. from me the desire TO agitate Washing
ton OffiCiO-sOciety circles, but PercivaI
Pollard is, or has been. a Washington
journalist, and in his play he gives TO
that senator jolly. chubby wife and a
s-uSihIv sentimental daughter. | place
the responsibility ON Pollard. because,
but for his reputation as "A journalist /
would assume that his collaboration Dit
riChstein, had INDUCED in a habit OF
adapting German plays and asserting
them 10 be original in English. 1t is a
fact. too. that there is no atmosphere of
Washington excepting only such breezeS
as may watt themselves through Senator
Pierce S chin whiskers. In all other re-
spects, the characters might as well be
assembled i'm Berlin. London or Paris.
President Roosevelt is i'm II. to be sure,
but not visibly, and his order 10 suppress
the widows record, SO as to oblige some
monarch OF other. might come as well
from an European ruler
x \ X
Audiences look nowadays to see a third
act of compulsory interest in every ser
ioUs drama and if il is not there why
then the play is turned down. Now. for
the life of me, I can't be sure whether
the third act satisfied this demand on
the opening night. This is the reason for
uncertainty. The official report on Wild
ow Alcotts naughtiness is in her calf
lovers pocket and he doesn't know its
pUrport. but the widow does, and so does
an aged but still gallant Count Hegedy.
who desires to marry her, nevertheless.
Well now, consider that the widows
happiness or misery depends on the nllb-
Hrity or privacy of that paper. The count
grabs il away from the Calf-IOver. and
throws Ii into the fire Of q CRATE Have
YOU got that? And, if SO, would you, If
YOU were the author, drop the curtain at
ouce2 Pollard and Ditrichstein do not.
Thoy give heart disease to Hegedy so
that the row may agitate him fatally.
and the result is that his death puts the
heroine out of the spotlight at the third
acts climax. That is one of several rea-
sons why this THE Ambitious Mrs Al
cott' resembles Sardou's Diplomacy"
with no similar success
There are single lines which. in the
course of years Of playgOing. retain an
tneffsceable place in the mind long after
ten Such line is in the third act II
"A Marriage of Reason" It was night
at Delcombe Abbey. Suits Of armor and
Inverted flunkeys were all about the an
cestral halls The youthful heir to the
Tile Jay dangerously i'll. while a house
party. in decollete as TO the ladies and
immaculate evening dress as TO the gen
tiemen- breathlessly awaited news from
the sick room Nevertheless. thew dis
cussed their sentimental relations and
developed complications in passionate
Whispers. and the ancestral armor threw
pack the glitter Of jewels on heaving bare
hosons' and linen shirt fronts Then il
vas that Fanny Ward beautifully dressed
10 represent the second Lady Delcomba
claSped her hands over neT heart and
with a roll of her eyes towards heaven
inurmured:
I've tried-oh, I've tried so hard-to be
kyrle Berew was. ostensibIy. the star
OF Inc new play. and mis- acting sup
Ported his claim TO the position. But
lns smart set Or New Workers felt ar
interest IN Miss Ward that gave her first ,
pace i'm their attention. She is rehlem-
pered here for her appearance years ago
IN the role of Cupid, and in little else
Of Z hn alrFu
slight as its words: and the only lines
worth while were Miss Wards own She
showed that she could look lines better
tnan she can utter them. She was a
charming little love goblet. and she went
10 London, where she fascinated the
Nnoie town IN general, and one OF its
nch men IN particular Millionaire Lewis /
married and retired her; and from time
10 time she breaks out from connubial I
bliss to redppear on the stage. Her latest I
emergence. in "A Marriage Of Reason" is
her first in her native land.
j. Hartley Manners remarks. in the 1
program, that his play is founded on a /
novel by Mrs Arthur kennaTd. but that /
the construction. Chara cteriZat ton and /
entire dialogue" are all his own. But the I
type of the book can be seen through /
The play. After an act at the GoodwOOd !
races. in which a divorced nObleman ar I
ranges "a marriage Of reason, not of /
love. with a Chicago heiress. we arrive I
az DelcOmbe Abbey where the bride is /
prosecuted by the love of her husbands /
drops in To bestow her unrequited pas /
SION upon Lord DelcOmbe. Her stout /
husband also comes around. to roar about /
IT, But a truce 10 trouble, The sun is /
shining in DelcOmbe Park. Her ladyship 1
with two dozen lOng-stemmed roses in 4
her arms and half many more on her 4
mead, IS playing hide-and-seek with her /
hlue step-sOn. Suddenly. in the hollow /
or an old oak, she comes upon her hus- /
band, and he kisses her. She draws away I
rom minor. as he puts II. she shrank /
from his every touch"-as such manifes- I
uuons Of fondness were barn ed from I
Their 'mOckeTN Of marriage
The heir Of Dclcombe is thrown from his i
pony. and lies at the point of death" 4
during the amatory turmoil Of the third /
act His mother. the first Lady Del /
combe, comes i'm a very low-cut gown of 4
black and gold, 10 take the night shift /
q his bedside. from the second Lady 1
D. who is heartbroken in pink chiffon.
Just why the uncOmmonly good looking 1
trained nurse can't do this alone is not !
clear. In an intense scene between Lord