The Washington herald., 1914-03-06
Womdn'S Special Interests
.tS By -. Z
WHO'S WHO AMONG
PROGRESSIVE WOMEN
Ethel Barrymore Is as Interested in
Music and Her Children as She
Is in Her Acting.
BY MARRY b. MULLErT.
JULIA cnArpLEn xANz.
lCopright. lsil.l

BY MARRY b. MULLErT.
lcopyrisht. lsi4l
Ethel Barrymore is-well. she Is Ethel
/ Barrymore; also. she is Mrs. Russell
| Colt: also the mother Of two very young
Colts; also q musician of so much talent
| that II she hadn't been an actress she
might have echoed down the corridors OF
Time as q pianist.
| A q matter of fact II was her girlhood
ambition to do that very thing. echo down
the corridors. &C. Her father was an
actor. Her cousins and aunts and grand
mothers were actors. What Of that? She
meant to write her name just as high as
| theirs In the Hall OF Fame, though under
4 Q different label
But man proposes and. sometimes, at
least. money disposes. The lack of II did
in this case. anyway. For money. and
plenty Of IL, was necessary II Ethel Bar
rymore was to carry out her plan of COM
pleting her musical education abroad: and
money was precisely the one gift which
the fairies hadn't given her-then.
: They have made up for their niggardli-
| ness since. But At that time-oniy about
. dozen years ago-these same fairies
| were rs stingy about giving her money
a. they were lavish with other things In
view of the way affairs have turned out.
however. nobody is going to blame them.
They probably knew what they were
about.
Not being able to have her first choice.
the most natural thing was for her to
take the second. especially as 1t was
made so easy for her. The daughter OF
Georgie Drew and Maurice Barrymore,
the granddaughter of the famous Mrs.
Drew. would have been given a chance
by any manager in America. So Il was
NIIrnriSinR that Charles Frnhnnan
found a place for her as undcrstudy in
one Of his best companies.
Finished Music Dreams.
That was a nice. kindly thing to do. of
course. But when Miss de Wolfe had to
be out OF the cast one night and this slip
OF girl was given her role, the other
actors almost had a company ht over the
situation Apparently they had a mo-
nopoly Of the worry. however. for the If
teen-year-old girl went on as calmly as
II she had faced audiences from her
cradle up.
When the piece took the road not long
afterward, she went with il as a regular
member OF the cast, and that finished her
dreams OF musical career. Like her
family before her. she has made the life
Of the stage her own.
Her debut as a star came about two
years later when she stirred the critics
and the blase theatergoers by her fresh
ness and charm in Captain Jinks" The
piece was produced in Philadelphia: and
because the play was Clyde Fitch's and
the company Frohman's. II drew a great
first-night audience.
They still tell the story of how Ethel
Barrymore came hurrying from her
dressing-room just as the curtain was
about to rise and asked the manager IL he
wouldn't lpnd har
she was absolutely broke" II was then
and there that those hitherto penurious
fairies turned over a new leaf. For in
stead of the modest s. requested, the
manager handed her ten times that
amount. led her to the peephole in the
curtain. and showed her an audience
packed to the doors. Since that night the
story of Ethel Barrymore. the actress, is
one with which many people are familiar.
But Of Ethel Barrymore. the woman,
the public knows comparatively little.
That she has had a social position un-
usual among stage people Is perfectly
true. But il Is Just as true that she Is no
climber Her manager says he never
can predict whether she will arrive at
his ofiice with a duchess in tow, or
whether she will bring some Bohemian
friend whose name has about as much |
chance Of getting into the Blue Book as
Saiiei Hds Ol negotiating a passage ]
through that eye of a needle.
Hns Many Interests.
She is tremendously interested in a lot !
of things. She has never lost her early
passion for music. Whenever she has a /
role which requires. or even admits of. a |
little music on the stage you are conscious
OF the pleasure she takes in playing for
her audience. 1t is as il a little Of her
early dream came true When she is
tired from rehearsing. or from a per-
formance. II is with her own music that
she rests herself
In her relations to her children. she
says she Is a combination Of new and old
ideas OF motherhood. She believes in
having interests outside the nursery But
she says her most compelling ones are
In that corner OF the house. When some
one asked her whether she would let her
own son go on the stage when he grows
up, she said that IL he had the talent for
II, and IL the stage called" him, il
should be his career IL she had her way |
But, she added. "hc must be a man
hrst. last. and all the time"
or course. having reached the position
where she Is the adored matinee idol Of
hundreds OF young girls. she is always
being appealed to as to whether she
would advise a girl to go on the stage
Her answer is that a girl who wants
more than anything else in the world to
DC an actress ought to he given a chance
70 show what she can do especially IL
{ is question Of bread and butter"