The San Francisco call., 1910-07-24
MISS CROSMAN'S
MAXIM INCLUSIVE
Star at Columbia Sees Need of
Training Face, Hands and
Feet
Grows Enthusiastic When She
Discusses Role She Viii Have
In Nicholson Drama

mediately get into the papers. A law-
yer's wife could be immune for that
notoriety."
0t is nothing short of my duty at
this point to warn all wives of lawyers,
counsel attorneys and barristers that
they must not place too much credence
on that particular opinion of Miss
Crosman. even though everything else
she stated is as true as the blue sky.
I fear that if some lawyers wife would
accept those views too literally and
would lose her temper picturesquely in
Market street she would probably find
il again in the newspapers In the morn
ing and not in the lost and found
column at that. There ends the ad-
visory depression. We may return TO
Miss Crosman and her illuminating
NieWs.)
With me stage work has been
hard grind through many years, she
continued L went on the stage De
cause I had TO work. l had to support
my mother and an invalid father l
could not take what parts / wanted or
wait over a season in idleness. L mad
70 work all the time and as a conse-
ouence had TO take what was offered
me. I had ability in both comedy and
pathos and on that account l was val
liable to stock companies For year
1 was In Pittsburg."
We were not now talking to merry
hearted spontaneous comedienne In a
room filled with clustered flowers
which would be rare anywhere but in
California; we were talking to fel-
low worker, an earnest, intelligent
woman. who had been ambitious to get
along in the world in her profession
and who had got along because she
had health and gEit and cheerfulness
and determination and common sense
a woman with the sort OF genius that
was referred to by the pedant when
he said, Genius is the capacity for
taking infinite pains" Miss Crosman
took infinite pains and now she can
sit in a comfortable hotel, have eX-
cellent roles and as much leisure and
ease as may come to stage woman
who has to meet interviewers and re-
hearsals at uncertain hours around
brea kfast time.
We were at Pittsburg
I was in a stock company there for
e year" she reiterated. Il played
every night and every afternoon, a
change of bill nearly every week
was everything from Topsy TO Lady
Macbeth. / played the wearing emo
tional roles-Camille and Carmen-and
I would go back to my room and sit
I'D llll 4 III the ALlDl AlllS 0AAOS 4hS his
part for the next weeks play. l not
only learned my own part, but 1 studied
the part Of every character in the play.
] wanted to know the play 1t was
deadly, hopeless work. There seemed
no end TO il and no advance. But now
/ know it was good for me. ] know
that it helps me now, the training l
got in those days"
She turned to the artist, whose PEN
ell had been checked as he listened to
the energy and truth of Miss Crosman.
1T was as your work probably is" she
said: you strive for expression and 1t
does not seem to come, but afterward
YOU find that there has been a gain in
power
But your work now seems so spon-
taneous." I said. Il noticed some little
devices and conceits of yours, particu-
larly in one OF your laughing scenes in
Anti -Matrimony,' where you lay dou-
bIed up on the couch in a paroxysm of
laughter and wriggle your footi'
MY dear boy" laughed Miss Cros-
man. and with the laugh there was a
Vvistfulness that comes with years of
hard work. my dear boy, there is not
trick in the trade that 1 do not
know"
She thought a minute, searching
through her teeming pigeonholes OF
experience, and continued:
Ilat trlck OF llG lOOL lediueu
from Dion Boucicault. In the 'Shaugh-
rsun' there is a wake scene and Bouci-
oault was playing the part of the sup
posedly dead man. He was lying in
state. with the soles of his feet toward
the audience. and the old women would
come in and kiss him. AS they kissed
him he would wriggle his feet, and 1
never saw anything so ludicrously ex-
pressive as the movement of the soles
D, &c I have hOTr0We
that foot work.
The pillow business which ] use in
Anti -Matrimony' l cribbed from Nazi-
nova. She is a genius. In Little
Eyolf she does a lot of work with pill
lows which is very effective.
Yes" continued Miss Crosman-and
here is the part of this story which all
young women who aspire to the stage
should read-"yes," frankly. Il have
studied every actor / ever saw. and
have copied the great ones. At Daly's
] used to sit in the wings with my
eyes glued on the actors as they
worked l studied every little trick
I learned every conceit. squeezed
them dry of all that they had that
vas good.
You can't act with the face alone
The hands. in fact, are more expressive
than the face. Now, in one part I had
recently the heroine was sitting in a
chair in a room, pretending to be
asleep when her lover came in. Her
arm was over the side of the chair
toward the audience. AS he entered he
had the line to say, Pretty handsr At
that 1 wriggled my fingers, and it al
ways got laugh. That is what makes
art-the combination of face. hands
feet and body. IT must be all there
You notice a person in real life under
stress of emotion or excitement and
YOU will see that they always make
some play with their hands and feet
- might be noted in passing that
Miss Crosman makes no use of rococc
capitals In her application of the word
art" any more than a merchant makes
use of a capital when he speaks Of his
book keeping" With Miss Crosmar
art is a tool of her trade, a necessary
device TO get the ideas over the foot
lights. No woman could have less pose
and more poise in talking of her pro-
fession. For Miss Crosman is a bust.
ness woman whose business ii is &c
amuse her audience and she does thai
as intelligently, as skillfully, as sen.
sibIy as she knows how, and that il
much.
Miss Crosman had a bitter school OF
experience IN which to develop herself
.'One had to be strong to go through
it." she said.
When / married Mr.. Campbell he
thought that I had the making of q
star in me. I was discouraged. ] had