Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-01
IRAWD hARTOR0 Ano hEr
SThe WARRENS Of virginia,
I AT 7hE~ BELAS 60. 81
@
BY w. HERBERT BLAKE

T1 HE limitations of real life as an
authority in dramatic impersona-
II ton were strikngly revealed in
little incident connected with the writ
er's criticism of THE College Widow"
production at the Belasco. The asser-
lion was ventured that Lewis Morrison
had made his college president too
slovenly in attire and too unscholarly
In mannerisms to befit even the easy
going dignity of a freshwater "preXy."
The criticism was made, / am free to
admit, mainly from personal impress
sion of error, aided by individual men,
ories of similar types, and not from
any logical deduction or careful analy-
sis of the probabilities.
Last week. in conversation, Mr.. Nor
rison laughingly remarked that he had
nodded makeup and impersonation
from a distinct memory of a certain
college president in the middle west,
with the soiled condition of whose linen
and with whose baggy trousers he once
had been tolerably familiar from per-
sonal visits to the great mans private
office while a student. The very things
about Mr.. MorrisOn's 'preXy' which
had impressed nae as untrue to life he
assured me. in all bantering good hu-
NOR, were drawn direct from life-at
least through the medium of a fairly
trustworthy memory
1t seemed a pretty effective knockout
to what self-assured reviewers doubt
less would call the critical instinct
Here was the character. There was
the professor. Art a twin to life. What
more could one wish? Better not argue
even in half jest, with an actor whom
heaven seemed to have designed for u
Confuter of critical heresies. Haul
down the flag and surrender!
To support Mr.. Morrisons viewpoint
I recalled a significant incident con-
nected with the country wide success
of Augustus Thomas "Witching
Hour" You remember how the hyp-
nothing hero reaches his climax of
amazing achievement by calmly 'front.'
ing his frantic enemy in the parior
while the latter pantingly presses the
muzzle of a revolver in the direction of
his liver. You cannot press that
trigger. You cannot fire that gun.
YOU CANNOT HOLD THAT GUM"
coolly observes the menaced hypnotist
in a placid crescendo.
And the revolver drops to the floor,
just as the wretchs jaw drops upon
his sagging collar. The new thought"
has vanquished the old gun play.
Psychics has melodrama on its knees.
1t was pretty but it wasn't convinc-
ing. In every large city in America the
critics complained that this was
stretching our imagination too far. You
might bluff a mans fist, but never his
cold cold derringer. This view was
not confined to the reviewers, but was
shared by many practical men Of the
world who saw the play. Up to thar
point in the drama we were shiVering
in our boots in the atmosphere of ter
ror and mystics in which Gus Thomas
had invested his interesting story,
Right then we laughed, and the spell
was broken. Everybody said Mr..
Thomas had let his fancy run riot with
the probabilities. 1t wasn't real life.
for it couldn't happen.
And everybody was quite wrong as
everybody so often is. A few weeks
ago l learned from a member Of the
John Mason company that this partic-
ular incident of the baffled gun plav
was an exact replica of what Mr.
Thomas had seen happen out west in
gambling hell. The one thing the
critics and the public had said was
absurd and irrational was simply and
prosaicly actual 1t couldn't hapDen
IN real life! Wen. it did, and what
more is there to be said?
Just few words, which NAV have q
bearing on both greenroom controvers-
les which have served me as a leadine,
article in this indolent summer sea-
son. double attack sometimes is
easier to parry than a single sbaft
The problem of Mr.. Morrson's "Drexv'
and of The Wltching Hour" is as
sentlaIIy the same. Art taking its ord
ers from Life, and Life its own Gre
dentiaL But all at once it occurs to
one that the drama is not life in tbe
Photographic sense-it is Onlv an IL
lusion of reality. To seem real an
illusion at times must be false i'm de-
tail. That is, to tell story, as to
paint a picture, the composite truth
is necessarily made up of partialities
of Characterization and perspective.
The trees in the background cover
smaller than the hut in the valley.
And the actual on the stage must
yield. very often to the ideal
This is why what really can happen
so seldom makes good dramatic ma
terial, and. incidentally, why any
shorthand expert need not necessarily