Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1910-03-13
BY SHIRLEY. OLYMPUS

StriCtest attention SHOULD be pdld
n to details it is upon the stage.
This applies not only to settings, but
to attire as well. Every person who
sits in an audience is critic-real or
fancied--of everything on the stage.
A man who knows no more about
dress than paying his wife's bills
thinks he has a right to say of an
actress. Her dress was dowdy," or
"She does not dress the part proper
ly." He may be right or wrong, but
he thinks he has purchased the right
to criticise by buying pair of tickets.
Two dollars on the treasurer's glass
slab makes some persons hypercritical.
1t is for the foregoing reasons that
criticism of Miss Blanche Walsh,
who has just closed her engagement
at the Mason opera house in THE
Test" is offered. Miss Walsh portrays
a poor girl, Emma Eltynge, who lives
in the soualor OF East Side, New York.
Fine raiment there means dishonor. II
we are to take Miss Walsh's portrayal
seriously we must believe that Emma
Eltynge was tricked into selling her
honor for her one-time sweetheart's
freedom from prison. She did not buy
gowns with it. Also Emma Eltypge
has put the past behind her when the
play opens and is trying to live a re-
spectacle life and make herself worthy
OF the love of n good man.
Here is the incongruity.
Miss Eltynge calls on the sister of
her new lover, a man of brilliance and
worth. When Miss Walsh walked into
the Thone drawing room she wore a
- a,N Iao sf
800 and a gown which any woman
would be proud TO wear. In other
words, Miss Walsh was dressed much
the same as any other caller at the
home of a millionaire Was this quite
in keeping with the part? 1t made
most of us think Emma Eltynge was
not quite as sincere, quite as true,
quite as ennobled as she would have
us believe.
The average woman cannot resist
the vain appeal of fine gowns. But
an actress, to be an artist in every
sense, should forget vanity.
No one would have Miss Walsh
dress like a sloven. But she should
change her hat to one which work.
ing girl could afford with decency and
honor and a gown which would not
make the womens eyes bulge with
envy. The writer Is not alone in
thinking this, judging from the numer-
Gus letters and telephone calls from
those two-dollar hypercritical critics.
where do they all come from?' is
the remark heard many times during
the last six weeks while 1.-THE Man of
the Hour was having its run at the
Belasco theater. Blessed If 1 know.
Suffice it to say they attended the
theater In crowds. If / am not greatly
mistaken or misinformed, $4,000 persons
witnessed Lewis stone and the Belasco
players in George Broadhurst's COM
edy This is about % per cent of the
total population of Los Angeles. The
great majority of the spectators were
adults, which means that rs per cent
of the men and women in Los Angeles
attended the play. If such thing
happened once in New York an ever
lasting fortune would be made for some
manager OF course, John Blackwood
has made pretty penny or two from
1.-The Man of the Hour" One week In
Los Angeles Is like a month in New
York. Had Lewis Stone and the Be
lasco players produced 1.-THE Man of
the Hour" in New York, how long
would the play have run?
Speaking of theatrical runs, it is Miss
Frances Nordstrom's portrayal of Mis-
tress Kitty Bellairs which has made
possible the three weeks of the David
Belasco comedy. Certainly others in
the Burbank company have aided, but
without an adorable Kitty the play
would not be the thing.
Miss Nordstrom will close her en-
gagement at the end of the week, to be
succeeded by Miss Marjorie Rambeau.
While know nothing about Miss Ram
beau's ability as an actress-she may
be one of the greatest of the great
rather regret Miss Nordstrom's going.
At times she did not meet my personal
ennroval She, like other leading wom-
en- was cast for parts unsuited to her
If she failed to measure up to stand
ard 1t was the natural result of being
In a stock company.
IT'S rather difficult to be great fifty
two weeks in a year. Any slight fail
ure Miss Nordstrom made in the past
is forgotten now that she has given
ne Kitty Bellairs If Manager Morosco
only would he could keep Sweet Kitty
Bellairs" going for several weeks
longer. He has a reason for taking off
the piece, and he knows best the value
of it.
Here's hoping Miss Nordstrom will
meet with the success she deserves
and will create in the minds of all be-
fore whom she appears the same pic
ture we have of her as the adorable
Kitty.
There's a twlnge of regret mixed
with feeling of anticipation in speed
ing the parting and welcoming the
coming Burbank leading woman, but
being loyal subjects of Thespis, we