Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-10-05
DADDY LONG LEGS"
LONG BUT SWEET
Henry Miller and Ruth Chat
terton in Jean Webster's
Sugary Success


ORPHAN CHILDREN.
sadie Kate. te........s.........'.... dillian koss e
Loretta ..............,.........V Virginia Smith
tSsddy Perkins Master Dewey smith
Judy Abbott t4.................Ru Ruth Chatterton
Act I-plning Room OF the John grier Home: s,
Al coilese. Act III Three years olapsel-.At
Lex Will9w Farm; Act M CrWo months
n sound like the fairies-Judy Abbott.
Can you remember the day when plays
had real villains7 That was way back
before the new villainy'' came into
fashion That was before they discovered
the Institution instead OF the Individual
as the really wicked thing in all this
human mess. Perhaps one OF these days
they'll grow 90 enlightened that they'll
have to put child labor, "the system" the
police. the trust, competition and the or
phan asylum back on the shelf with tho
personai-devil villain. But all that's be-
side the point There was real, sure
enough vi1lainess down at the Broad last
night, when Jean Webster's sweet and
sugary success, Daddy Long Legs"
showed itself.
But Jean Webster knew better than TO
depend on a villainess alone. She threw
IN a wicked institution. too. The villainess
kept the institution and the institution
kept orphans. 1t kept Judy Abbott longer
than usual and let her go to high school
just so as to make her work. The viii
lainess never kept anything else-either
the peace or her temper. She nagged.
She whined. She cowed things. But
when the trustees visited she talked
about how her pets kept her young and
hopeful. So, OF course, Judy had to ex-
pose such perf1dy in a high-tempered
speech, and one of the trustees who
hadn't been trusteeing long enough to
get bad habits had to send her off to
college without letting on who he was.
Judy spent the next four years in some
very interesting ways. She talked a good
deal about how miserable she had been in
the asylum, how happy she was to be
out, and how miserable she was at not
having any parents. She fell in love with
buth her metaphorical benefactor Daddy
Long Legs" who derived his name from
the optical tricks of his autos headlights.
and her honest-to- goodness trustee, who
met her as Jervis Pendleton, a man en-
numbered with ancestors. OF course, he
reciprocated OF course, she feared he
might hesitate over an orphan and sent
him away. And, Of course, in the end
she found out who Daddy Long Legs"
really was, and everything was sweet
as could be. In between Judy found
time TO become n popular authoress fer the
Century Company and to write wonder
terent from the sort Of the thing which
one character described as mot true,
but comfortable" The play, II is gen.
orally agreed, is not autobiography.
No. DADDY Long Legs" is simply a
success. II is full of laughter and pathos
and whimsicality, mostly of the stage
variety, 1t is true, but the kind playgoers
like. There is a most marvellous and inn
possible college tea, where none of the
baQ folo NJ
where they scream II anybody threatens
to sit in the weak chair or move the fur
niture on the family skeleton" an ink
spot. There is even a butler named Wal
ters. who insists on his master taking
his medicine, and a recalcitrant master
who thereupon takes all the bottle at one
dose.
There are a good many other things to
account for the success besides the sugar
and suet. One of the principal of these
is Ruth Chatterton. Miss Chatterton is
not only an accomplished young ingenue
with pleasant and pliable voice, which
has qualities in II almost approaching the
strained earnestness of Ethel Barrymore's
deep tones. Her personality-a certain
inner restraint that stops lust short of
sulkiness-fits the spirited but unhappy
little orphan perfectly. Bits like the
opening passage about green paint would
be admirable acting in any field and with
any personality
Miss Chatterton works hard and Sc
rously and successfully with her mate
rial. Others work as hard but scarcely
so seriously From screaming college
girls to Mr.. Henry Miller himself the
performance is generally keyed to an
exaggerated STACEY sense of comedy
Some of the obvious htmor, like sitting
in uncertain chairs, might be funnier II
played nearer life.
But the point is hardly worth quibblIng
in the face OF Daddy Long Legs" ap-
pealing qualities-as Mr.. Miller knows
He throws It all off with a kick of the
foot, shrug of the shoulders, twist of
the head or a comic bear-Iike waddle
When he must clown at the tea, he does
II as IT should be done, like a genial
TLoo4.;ooI DI1