Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-01-06

When You Lose Your Voice,
Why, Just Dramatic 1t
hat Says Leo Ditriehstein to New York Reporter,
Is the Source of the Comedy He Brings to
the Garrick, The Great Lover"

| peared was The Lost Paradise and one
| day Charles Frohmau came down to see
| me In the piece, which he intended doing
| in English. Through some mistake he
thought The Lost Paradise was to he
| given at the matinee and when he found
the bill was something else, as he told me
afterward, he decided to make a German
DAY or II. stay at LuchOws for dinner and
see the piece at night Perhaps seeing
me In two greatly different roles had some
thing to do with his engaging me. At any
rate he signed q contract with me to ap-
pear under his management
II spoke very little English then. so I inn
mediately began studying tue language of
nv adopted country with tutor The first
season | did not act at ALL but devoted my.
sell to learning the language and seeing
the plays. Then at last | made my debu.
in an Notwithstanding part and II was the
critic OF the New York Times who coined
the phrase in writing about the perform
ahce. Mr ptrichstcin played the part just
as Mr. Mansfield would have played it, a
phrase that has followed me ever since"
My trst pay was Gossip which
wrote in collaboration with CLYDE Fitch
Tor Mrs. LanEtry, | have written, helped
write or have adapted more than twenty
liNe plays since then. | keep in touch with
inc foreign market, and when | hear of
anything that sounds adaptable I send for
II ana read II. Very often a foreign
play cannot he played outside its own at
mosphere' but now and then there is one
winch is universal in its theme"
Low was The Great Lover wrtttcn?"
besan the play several years ago.
Ihen Mr.. BelasCO said he had found a plav
FOR me; he gave me "The Phantom Rival,
/ became absorbed in IT, and laid my play
aside with only an act and a half written
Nhen | fnally came back to it | found
IL mad grown stale and had no inspiration
TO finish It, Then met the Hattons, whom
mad once told about the play and they
asked me for the manuscript and perms-
sion to finish it. | turned it over to them
with complete scenario with this to
guide them they wrote the dialogue for
the last act and half Then the plav
went through the usual process of produce
tton and revision under my direction
Some have said that it does not pre-
sent true picture of life among the
operatic stars, but I hold that it does
lived for years at the Hotel Belvcdere
where many singers used to stay during
the heyday of the Academy of Music, aud
there had an opportunity of observing the
particular temperament of the opera singer
There are incidents in the play taken from
life-Campaninl lost his voice as Paure
does in the play: Emma Eames used TO
bring her dog to rehcarsals. and when the
violins played certain note the dog would
howl till Mottl the conductor threatened
to throw up his job If the dog were not
left at home. And then there was the
historic incident of one prima donna pinch
Ing another's leg till she writhed in pain
when she lifted her on horse in Valkyre'
"Caruso has been to see the play three
times Mr.. DitriChstein added as a CinCh-
ing argument, and from behind the foot
lights we have seen him acting through
the various episodes with us"