The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-08-28
LURE OF THE FAKE
DRAMATIC SCHOOL

That, in this country, there are In
Vulnerable fake dramatic schools
which batten upon ignorant and simple
stage-struck youth. causing the ruin
of hundreds and driving many to sui
eide, Is the revelation made by Miss
Henrietta Crosman. the noted actress,
in an article in the August number OF
Hampton's Magazine.
Miss Crosman, before exposing the
methods of the pseudo and fake schools,
says:
'Inasmuch as I myself began on the
stage and not in a dramatic school, L
admit am prejudiced in favor OF real
stage work for a beginner. l believe
in going up in balloons to learn bal
looming; 1T may break your neck, but
then, there is something actual and
decisive even, In broken neck. With
equal frankness, however. | Will admit
that some of the best stars on the
American stage today came. out OF the
good dramatic schools In New YORK.
Chicago and Boston; and that, mere
fore, q good word must be said for
some of these schools and their sys-
TENS.
THE trouble Is, most candidates for
stage education are beginners; and the
inevitable and pathetic quality of be-
ginner is that he doesn't know any
thing about the subject threatened"
ands of stage-struck youth are lured
to the schools of made-to order emo
ton and thus to shattered ambition
II have watched the operations of these
stage sycophants for years. says Miss
Crosman, land am firmly of the opinion
that the great bulk of them-always ex-
cepting the worthy few-are undoubtedly
pernicious in their influence and are de-
signed to take money from the silly
and ambitious but impossible amateur. If
the dramatic schools encouraged only
people who had real talent, they would
have very few pupils but have yet to
hear of an applicant to a dramatic school,
being refused on the ground that he or
she had no natural gifts
OF the many cases of defeat which Miss
Crosman cites, one of the most pathetic
is the following:
"rrake the case of Molly Daley and what
will call the Horatio Gull Dramatic
academy This institution is a type, of
many others. Mr.. Horatio Gull was a
quack actor. Molly Daley was easy prey
for Gull because she had talent, and his
training consisted in letting her do the
work she thought she could do, whether
Or not she was suited to 1t.
Gull gave special performances by his
pupils. Here would gather the host of
.lrnIring friends, relatives, prospective
pupils and boosters. Thus he showed
that he was actually turning out actors
and actresses The sympathy of the
audience was always with the perform
rs, the plays were therefore success
'ul-and profitable to Mr.. Foratio Cults
pocket.
molly Daley shone in these simple
pieces. She played Nora in The Dolls
House This was her last and crown
ing effort She went next to big
theater in San Francisco with her little
diploma and the CONVICTION that she
was going to be a great success. For
several months she stayed around the
heater. doing extra work when she
,ould get 1t (Which was seldom, always
Encouraged and carried along by the
1attery of the managers.
"Finally she saw she was being fooled
md came to New York; here she went
around to all the agents and managers,
ellihg them she had graduated from
the Gull school After she had been for
ia year repeatedly turned down a kind