The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-01-18
~ HOW HAUNTING MEMORY OF AFACE
wvZy, MADE HELEN FREEMAN STAR

wasted so far as promoting the fortunes
Of said charming and distinguished
actress was concerned.
And yet Helen Freeman, q young slip
OF a girl from Cripple Creek and other
Rocky Mountain communities more or
less barbarous. accomplished In tine brief
space Of twenty minutes the beginnings
Of n destiny which to-day with good
cause makes her the most to be envied
young girl on the stage.
How did she do II? Was II by viz.
tue Of her face or her grace or her
charm, or her sclf-evident genius?
What open sesame unlocked for this
unsophisticated girl the magic doors
against which so many applicants have
beaten In vain--applicants who from
the laymans point Of view would no
doubt have been considered more likely
of succeeding In the task than Helen
Freeman?
Suffice 1t to say that it was not
beauty-that Is beauty in the strict
sense Of the term. Helen Freeman Is
not beautiful when measured by the
canons governing beauty. Were she
81 she would never have been able to
arouse the interest Of David BelascO.
who has a we'll known and well founded
prejudice against beautiful women as
potential dramatic artists.
Nor was It by virtue Of SURPRISING
grace of movement. That Is cheap
and common enough qualification. as
witness the average show girl In any
musical comedy. whereas Helen Free
man is--how can one define IL? Well.
for want of a better locution. let US
say charmingly awkward; no. better
yet. divinely awkward. Hers is that
certain type of a,iolescent girlhoOd
which n has ever been the despair Of
t painters to catch, and their triumph
| when they have on rare occasions. as
in the case of Whistler. succeeded i'm
transferring II To canvas.
In other words. Helen Freeman SO
| far as physical appearance is con-
| cerned is the type Of tender young
womanhood which the poets and paint
ers of the Pre- Raphaelite school have
| so dearly loved to idealiZe. She Is the
sort of girl that Ellen Terry seems to
have been when as the sixteen-year-old
child wife Of Watts she posed for his
now immortal "Sir Galahad." She 1:
the sort of girl Dante Gabriel Rossett
had in his minds eye when he con.
ceived THE Blessed Damosel'
All Of which is only TO say that Heller
Freeman is very far removed from any
vulgar and puchritudinous type O
beauty. and that while she might. ant
probably would. in a crowd pass unob
| served to the unframed eye, she will, Il
the rarer vision of the artist. Suggest
strange and undefinable potentialitie!
for beauty.
That is what first arrested the at
tention of David Belasco to the tall
thin young girl who by trick of fat
happened to arrive at the stage door o
1.-THE Bclasco Theatre one day about TIVE
years ago just as the manager cam'
out of the green room on his way to tn
stage where one Of his rchearsals wa.
in progress.
She was. according to her own de
scription OF herself, that day plainly
even unfashionably. dressed in a blacl
gown with very high. close fittinl
collar. Her hat. one OF those poke bon
net effects. also all black. she hat
made herself, and she wore it pulle
well down over her hair.
And now let David Belasco tell wha
followed:
Il caught a glimpse there in the hal