Omaha daily bee., 1914-02-01

HE recurrence In print of the
name of Mary Anderson IS
l due. well nigh wholly to her
HessssSsssssSssySsV participation with Robert
f&eykSSglf Hichens in the making into
play form of his romance OF
The Garden of Allah" No other cele-
brated actress of what may be termed
''ourtirne" has been so successful as'she
in making her retirement from the world
of the theater a retirement de factor as
well as de jure. Perhaps the explanation
of her success in this respect resides in
the fact that she meant to retire when
she did retire. Certainly her failure to re-
emerge has not been due 10 lack of OPP
portunity, for every manager OF note in
this country the last twenty-five years,
beginning with the late Henry e. Abbey
has made efforts to get "our Mary back
TO the stage. If only for single
American tour.
1t was in April. 1889. in the evening pre-
ceding a scheduled beginning of a week 5
return engagement in Philadelphia, that
Mary Anderson collapsed. She has never
since acted in either public or in that
capacity called private" because an
extra charge is made for the seats. That
final tour OF hers in 1sSs-1sS9 was the
record in receipts for any foreign star
who had ever acted in the United States,
for, despite her American nativity, Mary
Anderson had become indeed foreign
star. through having taken up her per-
sonal and professional residence in Lon
don.
When her engagement to Antonio
Navarro was formally announced. she
said that she would never act again.
Managers smiled, actors smiled, the news
papers smiled, the public smiled. 1t
seemed the only thing to say in the cir
oumstanees. But she kept her word
against monetary aIIurements that are
dazzling even when contemplated in this
day of salaries and percentages never
dreamed of in the time when she was re-
garded as the foremost American actress
When Mary Anderson retired Julia Mar
lowe was just winning a sort of tenta-
tive attention, thanks largely to the fact
that the late Robert @. Ingersoll was her
devoted press agent; Helena Modjeska
had Joined forces with Edwin Booth un-
der Lawrence Barretts management In
order that Booth might act vis-avis with
a Lady Macbeth and Beatrice Of intellec-
tual and artistic caliber; Fanny Janaus-
chek was experiencing the first pangs OF
realization that the public was losing in
terest in her; Barrett, himself, was
buoyant with hope after two years Of
great momentary success. the first he
had ever known. as co-star with Booth
and was preparing to stage the late VIII
liam YOungs blank verse play OF
"Ganelon." CYoung. by the way, was the
man who made the play Of Ben Hur
from the Wallace novel-an undertaking
regarded as quite as extensive in 1893 as
the. staging of The Garden Of Allah
proved to be in l9ll)
They were the big figures of our stage
I'm lSSs-Mary Anderson. Edwin Booth
Helena Modjeska, Fanny Janauschek and
Lawrence Barrett r. II. Sothern waI
acting farcical parts in THE Highest
Bidder" and Lord Chumley" Robert
ManteIl was playing the telepathic twins
in ''The Corsican Brothers" Richard
Mansfield was acting in cheap melo-
drama, Master and Man" while plan
ming to retrieve his fortunes with "Beau
Brummel" william Faversham had not
been heard Of. nor had Margaret Anglin
nor Maxine Elliott
OF all the American managers who have
tried % get Mary Anderson to act again
George c. Tyler, the head OF the Leblel
company. has been the most persistent
and the most nearly successful. II h'
didn't get her 10 resume acting he o.
least Induced her TO take charge Of th'
acting In the original rehearsals OF ''Th'
Garden OF Allah year ago-and II
those rehearsals by the way, she had thu
experience OF "bossing'' az least two ae