The San Francisco call., 1910-05-01

made for the receipt and possible pub
lication of stories which she might get
and which were overlooked by the reg
ular sources of news gathering in Eu-
rope. That, to be explicit, is what Miss
Otis meant by 'syndicating her stuff
1t takes a live newspaper woman to
get along that way, but Miss Otis man
aged nicely, and it was while engaged
in this work that her path dfverged
from a writer's work TO the stage. 1t
happened because she interviewed old
John Stetson, the theatrical manager.
If you met Miss Otis the circumstance
wouldn't seem strange at all that a
terviewer the spark, or the flame
rather, of the actress skill. Her laugh
is the happiest thing I've heard since
Marie Cahill left us. When ] was lit
tie they used to ask me to laugh" she
said. because I had a funny way of
squirting up my eyes that made every
body else laugh, too"
The talent remains. Then. when she
talks she illuminates her speech with
unconscious gestures and when quoting
somebody else initiates them naturally
and without being conscious of the
mimicry.
Stetson did not have TO be particu-
larly sagacious, 1 should say. TO see
in his interviewer the making of an
actress. The young woman who piled
him with questions and loosened up his
conversation with pleasantries and sto-
ries could hardly have avoided exhibit
tion of her mimetic gifts, and so Stet-
son thought about her after she was
gone, and his thoughts did not linger
over what the paper was going to
quote him as saying so much as over
the personality of the woman who had
cornered him in an interview. The re-
suit was that Miss Otis received, soon
afterward. an offer from Stetson to ap-
pear in The Crust of Society,"" which
he was then getting ready for produc-
tion. 81 accepted" she said, though
with reluctance to give up my journal
istic aspirations"
You will ina gine, as 1 did. that the
financial lure was the bait that
hooked a Journalist and landed her
on the stage.
Without an hours previous training
for the work, she became an actress.
and that shows that if you have not
the natural gift of Stimulating and the
knack of mimicry the stage is no
place for you-a truth, by the way,
which nobody with a vain wish to be
seen over the footlights has ever
been known to. or ever will, accept
duct.
Nancy in oliver Twist" was her
first starring role. and it followed
close on to her stage debut. She went
under Charles Frohman's management,
appeared in Augustus Thomas pro-
duction of New Blood" and for nine
years or so was a well known and
highly regarded actress who never
managed to get farther away from
New York than Chicago. she was one
of the first to take the plunge from
the rocks of the legitimate to the
golden flood of vaudeville. Naturally
she was a success.
For one thing" she said. II was
glad to seek refuge in vaudeville from
the terrible roles in which 1 was be-
ing cast. Imagine me. with my dis
position, having to play such parts
as Madame Fouchard in The Two
Orphans If ever there was a new
play to be produced with a role in il
so bad that it would make your hair
curl in the mere contemplation of il.
they sent for me. If there is any
kind of wickedness fit for stage ex-
pioitation, did it. They used to say
of unspeakably wicked adventures
roles, or horrible hag parts, that's
an Elita Proctor Otis part and tele-
graph for me. I got so was
ashamed to mingie in the society of |
good women. If there was baby to |
be murdered on the stage / had to do
it or it wasn't well done, and as an |
exponent of crime was the rolled