The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-01-10
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her whole figure, while the two others
are kept focused on her face; and
there develops a fuli-iength woman of
the latest mode, topped by a plumed
hat of picturesquely enormous size,
gowned in flowing grace, all white and
profusely jeweIed.
After introducing herself so spectac-
ularly, Mrs. Potter recites three pieces
during fifteen minutes. Her deep, full
voice is used in very like a travesty of
elocution, beginning with Captive
Memories" a panegyric of love, with a
plaintIVe piano accompaniment, half
minute of dramatic silence between
verses and her intensity of facial ex-
/ preston devoted to phases of passion.
not To say spasms of erotic agony A
blithesome relaxation well might come
with "A Lesson With a Fam in which
she shows how that ostensibly cooling
article may be used to kindle a warm
flame of Irritation, but her manner is
that of tragedienne Turing a victim
TO hOrTid deed. Little Boy Blue" is a
pathetic account In rhyme of a child's
death that seems TO call for simplicity
| in recitation; but she intones it as
! though in imitation of her bishop uncle
ana granduncle in a church service:
and the gallery laughs at what it seems
| to conclude is buFlesquery: while the
parguet is divided among quizzical at
tention, puzzled interest and real alb
sOrption- And the lady herself9 She
weeps. Yes, she does. Tears come out
of her eyes, trickle down her cheeks
and drop on her bosom. Does she think
of the child lost to her in the separa-
ton from her husband? Is it the es-
sence of a temperamental actress
readily aroused emotion? Does she put
water under her eyelids and wink it
out? Anyway, they are wet drops, III
swear, for I sat in the second row and
reinforced the spotlights with an opera
glass.
The ehaperOn personated by Maxine
| Elliott in "The Chaperon." the new
/ play of wedlocked hands across the
sea, is an American countess through
marriage with a European ignobleman:
she has quit him in disgust and come
/ home to get a divorce if she can; and
| the audience makes her acquaintance
in the AdirOndacks, where she becomes
| transiently a matron to a hOuseful of
| girls and boys inclined to pair off. The
/ chaperOn is distracted from her duty of
watching the young folk by the arrival
of both her detested husband and the
| beloved fellow whom she gave up to
d
| them she paddles impuisively away in
| a canoe on a lake. is storm-tossed
ashore on an island, and it is at day.
break next morning that we see her
| there with her true lover, damp, cold
and bedraggled. Then her husband
tags along, catches her in the other
chaps comforting arms, and there is a
triangular row. But it is all for fun.
The Chaperon" is a comedy of many
little incidents and no big episode. This
middle act on the island is preceded by
one inside an Adirondacks lodge, with
an even dozen of girls and boys in an
evenings frolic, and is followed by
one in the camp, where six couples
come to summer espousals, and the
countess, getting rid of the count, sees
the way clear TO happier conjugality
with her native lover. 1t is giggle-
grille sort of foOlery by Marion Fair
fax, wife of Tully Marshall, an actor
and being of itself rather bright, is
made to shine by the brilliance of its
! presentation.
So wide and shallow is Maxine FL
liott's theatre that the box fronts are
set at a very fiat angle with the pros
ceniUm frame. The audience therefore
looks at a broadside of ornate archi-
lecture in white and gold which, with
the stage and box openings, suggests a
mat of enormous size cut out For pic
lures that are alive. On the night of
the houses dedication, these five aper-
lures held what were like great por-
traitures I'm water colors of lovely wo-
men, Maxine Elliott was the plays
center figure, of course. but in the
midst Of graceful groups and in a sue
cession of paintings that were right
good art. Tricky. too. was the picture
Of the island, for it came very slowly
out Of the night with the first light of
dawn Pickering in the sky, then glim-
merlng ~ the water and finally show
ing that bright streak along the lakes
further rim which is as sure as moon
light on water or sunlight on snow to
set spectators wild with enthusiasm
Inc upper box spaces showed scarcely
less piBorial groups of women and girls
IN gayer gowns than are often seen at
a theatre other than the opera. In one
lower box aperture was Geraldine
Farrar regarded as the Slightest
among this seasons singers at the two
opera houses, and here posed SLOWLY in
decoliette dress.
1t was the box opposite. though. that
held the picture at which all glasses
were directed in the plays intermis-
Sioiir lOt II contained Mary Anderson.
with her husbands Navarro family.
Yes, there was our Mary, famed as the
most beautiful American actress who
ever gained world renown. and now for
a long while out of American sight in
England. The years since her imDuI-
sive abandonment of the stage. leaving
Il tour unfinished, have effaced no more
of her beauty than they had to, and we
saw a handsome matTon with no token
in toilet or attitude of ever having
been an actress She betrayed no con-
sciousness that she was on show. and
didn't favor us once with a full view
OF her face. There was some guessing
why, with her seeming dislike for con-
splcuousness, she was there IN a box.
Her only other attendance on an open
ing first night that / recall was at
Maud Adams first playing of Juliet.
Several millionaires had been men
toned as having lent money for this
enterprise, and now il was UhiSDered