The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1910-11-29
. BY HARRY p. BURTON

when a. woman is a great act
ress or when she is a great beauty,
she never tells the secret of her
|success!"
This has ever been the reply of
Sarah Bernhardt, the world 81
greatest actress, when any inter-
viewer, lucky enough TO get pri-|
vate audience with this most in
accessible of women, has asked her
to talk on "how to succeed in dra-I
matte art" nd no one has ever
yet been able to make the "Diyine
Sarah" unseal those wonderful
curling lips on this subject
So, naturally, when | asked her
if she would not tell the girls of
America how they should work
'earth's next Bernhard, | ex-
pected an evasive answer. But no
one can ever forecast an opinion
on what the marvellous tragedienne
will say, for is she not a woman
and THE Bernhard, too
81 have SO wanted to talk on
that line" declared BerHhardt AS
she sat before her mirror erasing
with grease paint her own femin-
unity and substituting with the
same pink stick the youth of
'L'Aiglon.'
you see, the little American
girls growing up all over the coun-
try who feel the fire in them
stand in great need Of a champion
and Sarah Bernhard wants to be
that for them. She Knows their
wants far better than they 10
themselves and she dots not want
them-this future race-to fall py
the wayside as most American act
resses of today have done-and all
through no fault of their own.
This is all because there is no
national conservatory of dramatic
are here. It's the one thing the
United States government should
have established above all other
things. 1t should be controlled Sy
the greatest teachers the country
can produce and there all budding
genius should have chance to be
brought to fruition. The most
promising should be cared for free,
| if need be.
There can be no great, uni
versal artists produced here in
America such as are brought forth
in France and Italy until there is
dramatic tradition built up
here. This means that even if
there were a conservatory started
here right away, no American girl
of this generation could ever be-
come the worlds greatest act
ress.' 1t means that the neces-
sary mental and temperamental
equipment can't be given here yet.
when you have genius at
present, what do you do with her?
You send her out with stock
company. She has had a few elo-
cution lessons somewhere in the
country or possibly short course
in a dramatic school-a years
training that has almost done
more harm than good.
THE first thing she does, then,
is to spoil her voucher great,
glorious, golden voice that is an
actress biggest possession. She
strains this wonderful instrument
to get her lines over In two or
three years all her chances of ever
fulfilling that first promise are
gone, for who can interpret with
raucous, harsh notes that could
never soothe nor lift a spectator?
ga girl in America must wait
until she is IS or 20 before she
can get a chance to go to the
Legitimate stage, and then she is
just ready to BEGIN her train
ing. But the formative part of
her life is passed. She is just a
mixture of Nthe bloods that have
produced her without one single
dominant note to give unity 20
the whole. If she is the typical
American girl she is retort of
LnerhanS French. Irish. English and