The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1909-09-26
How Pretty Ida St. Leon "
Learned to Play ''Polly"'

I Through a Star to Stardom" is the
title under which George Jean Nathan
writes interestingly of the rise of Ida
! St. Leon, who appeared little more
than a week ago at the Harnois thea =
ter in the principal part in Polly of
the Circus" The story Is told in the
! current issue of the Burr Mcintosh
! Monthly:
/ We have taken down from the dusty
shelf the thick chart-book of the Play
People of the more modern stage and
we have rUstled back its pages ON
4 which are chronicled their trials and
triumphs. their battles up the laurel
hill of drama-iand and the strategy
Of their careers. We have read again
the story of the Marlowe flower whose
/ bud was nourished by the tutelaGe of
/ Ada Dow aad of the Rehan art de-
I veloped by the hand of Augustn Daily.
We have perused once more the pages
that throw the sunlight of irving's
lagos over Terry and have regarded
again the hypnotic power of Belasco
in the cases of Leslie Carter and the
youthful Frances Starr.
Some of these pages tell of other
days and some tell of our own and
some are hallowed by the deserved
glitter of their brilliant names. And
yet. in the. face of the sanctity of
deeds done AID blinking in the strong
light of such records from the great
! chart book, We are inclined to believe
that another page is being written now
and that the story on this page-a
tory Of the developing OF a young girls
genius to the point of speedy and note
worthy aChievement-will some day
take it's place too in the fireside cycle
Of the thsaters once upon time"
Predictions. however, are not entire
ly necessary in. the case we are con-
sldering. The narrative, original in all
the annals of the stage. shall be its
own judge. And so, laying aside the
dusty chart book, we shall now tell
the new tale Of a little l6-year-old cir
Gus girl named Ida St. Leon, and of
how. in IA short space of time. she be
came the leading player in a big the
atrical production through the dra-
matte training she received at the
hands of Mabel Taliaferru.
Ida st. Leon comes of family that
has been identified with the saw-dust
ring for generations. Her mother and
her mothers mother and her father
and her fathers father were bareback
riders under the canvas tops long be-
fore she came into the world. Their
equestrian ability she inherited and
their footsteps she followed as soon as
she was able To sit on q horsr by her
self after she had been lifted onto its
back. A year ago, when Frederic
Thompson put on Polly Of the Cir
gus he engaged the ST Leon family
mother. daughter and san-to appear
in the circus scene of the play. The
Polly OF the east was Miss TaIia-
ferro.
When little Ida St. Leon did "A
samersault or two and rode a big white
horse around the ring on the stage in
the play for the first time. her initial
appearance Was odd i'm that il marked
not only her initial appearance on the
stage, but also the very first time she
had ever been inside a theater. In
other words. the play in which she did
her saw-dust acts with the other mem
bers of her family was the first dra-
matte production she had ever seen.
She knew absolutely nothing about the
art of acting. Bareback riding and ar
robatics We're her work. her life. But
the lure of the stage soon began tn
cast its glow across her little blonde
head and she began coming To the
thcatcr every night Iang before her