New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-06-04
GITHE galley slave chained to an


i oar" said Lew Fields, now per
forming in "Step This Way" sis IN no
worse position than the actor who has
come to be accepted in certain line
of character parts. It is like this:
The manager will not take chance in
giving such an actor a straight part,
and the public is disappointed If he
is seen in any other character than that
which it is accustomed to see him play.
SO there you are.
"You go to the theatre with expecta-
tons. You say: Let's go to see Jones
in the new play. Jones is excruclat-
ingly funny as a rollicking Frenchman;
he always amuses one So you go TO
the theatre with we'll defined anticipa-
tions. You take your seat, look at your
programme, and then discover, to your
horror, that Jones is down to imper-
senate Russian spy! Jones may be a
wonderful spy and thrill you to the
marrow-quite satisfying in all par
ticulars; but that is not what you paid
your money to see. You hate Jones
for his deception. Your whole evening
is spoiled-and thereafter Jones is
anathema, or something like that.
you may think that am exag-
gerating. But | am speaking the ex-
act truth, having known any number
of like cases. | recall going to the
theatre one night in London, some
years ago-Marie Tempest in a play,
as | recall it, called The Handful In
this comedy Miss Tempest imperson-
ated butterfly OF society, who, in the
last act, turned serious, with the re-
suit that her daughter in the play
eloped with her sweetheart. Miss
Tempest was excellent in this last act,
but imagine my amazement when the
audience set up the widest sort of
hubbub. One man in the pit cried
out: How dare you make our Marie
cry?' This cry was taken up by the
whole house. Result: Miss Tempest
cut out plays with weeps in them.
From then on she stuck to butterflies,
and avoided the weeping willows.
"The curious thing is that an actor
is rarely able to play what he wants
to, and when he does get the oppor-
tunity he usually falls down. SO.
after all, the manager and the public
may be right in the long run. But it
is a bad precedent-this compelling
actors to stick to certain line of
parts. 1t is bad for the actor; bad for
the stage. Very often the actor is able
20 escape this thraldom only by back
ing himself II was not so many years
ago that great uproar went up over
the country when the late Sol Smith
Russell-a very great comedian, but
little known to New York playgoers 49,
announced that he would, no longer
I step out of the character and sing
comic ditties, and more especially his
! famous recitation, Goose an d
Onions Yells went up each night for
the comic songs and Goose and
/ Onions but Mr.. Russell persisted and
succeeded finally in carrying out his
( notion of what he wanted to do and
what the public should see him do. II
he had been a salaried performer no
manager would have put up with this
'trifing with the wishes of audiences
Then take E. II. Sothern. When
about sixteen years ago Mr.. Sothern,
after making a great success in GER
tain side-splitting farces and sword
and buekler plays, announced that he
would come forth as Hamlet at the
Garden Theatre, there were those who
laughed in their sleeves! Even among
actors Mr.. Sothern's intentions were
the occasion for merriment. In this
last particular Mr. Sothern narrates
an amusing anecdote. When it was