New-York tribune., 1918-09-15
Wallace Eddinger
By Harriette Underhill

Wallace Eddinser is exactly the same
off as he is on. BY that we do not
mean that he is ga very good young
man" neither arc we prepared, at the
present writing, to say that he is not
We do not know, having seen him for
only five minutes before he went on at
the matinee yesterday and then snatch
ing a word here and there between the
acts.
1t was his fault, however, not ours,
for we were there long before they
called "Overture,' but Mr.. EddinCer
didn't have q chance to answer nearly
all the questions We had come pre-
pared to ask. In fact, he just had time
to apologize for being late before he
had to dash on and apologize to ''Poile"
for being late az her party. only he
took hc1 box Of candy and she wasn't
nearly so nice about accepting his
apology as VIC had been.
What we started out to say, however.
before we interrupted oursclf was that
Wallace Eddinger's manner is exactly
the same whether he talks to you face
70 face or acrass Tic footlights. He Is
the soothingcst actor we know.
"As you know" said Eddinger, "act-
inG is much Ike writing, and being
natural is the most difficult thing in
the world. No doubt when you started
to write all sorts OF people who knew
nothing about it said TO you, Just be
natural That, too. is the advice of
w"' roean'r~ rersons to young actors,
and it sounds so simple.
--no sometimes you have an added
handicap. You don't know whether
you are being natural or not. For in
stance, in that second act, Leroy
+ Gumph might have reacted in so many
/ different ways. Now ] want your opin-
ion as to the way l play that second
| act"
! Was this subtle fattery, we won
dered, Or did MIR. Eddinger really want
cur opinion? 1t Was unusual but pleas
ant TO be asked for an opinion on sec
end acts and the way they are played,
and we determined to make the discus
sion last as long as possible We had
plenty Of time now, for Mr. Eddinger
didn't go on in the third act until after
Osprey Mandelharper had had her tele-
phone conversation with Bjou Roach,
of Flatbush, and had refused Elmer
Erdwurm's hand in marriage. We knew
Eddinger's cue to &c on, having
seen the play twice. 1t came after
Elmer warned Osprey that unless she
married him she might be "social
pyorrhea."
"I'll tell you why that second act was
go difficult of solution: couldn't de-
eide how it should be played. You see.
it happened so long ago that cant re-
member just how it feels to be under
the stimulus or the sedative influence
Of ones first drink. And then very
good young man would probably not be
at all obnoxious, even when he was in
toxicated.
People who drink are seldom anus
ing save to themselves, and had Row
Gumph figured out as a person who
reyer would make very much trouble.
no matter what his condition might be
SO my conduct gave me as much con-
Germ as it did Pearl Hanngan.
"Not only in the second act, but in
all Of the acts, the psychology of
Gumph was not so simple matter. 1t
wouldn't do to have him too polished;
neither did I want him to be too great
an ignoramus. ! tried to feel like
shipping clerk who had a Sunday suit
and another suit and a lot in Flatbush
partly paid for out of salary Of SIT
week.
II seemed to us as though Martin