New-York tribune., 1918-01-13
Florence Says She Can't Help 1t

"I just can't help being myself. I'm
Florence Moore on and off the stage.
do love Il good author but ! can't be
trammclled and confined by one. I'm
sure if I we're playing Ophela I'd rise
from the grave and shout, Alas, poor
New>Yorick" have an uncomfortable
desire to make people laugh, and l
have to do it in my own way. Some
say it is the vaudeville habit. But |
tell you it isn't rs being Florence
Moore"
The speaker is the irrepressible
comedians whose mental and physi-
cal agility is the chief source of amuse-
ment in "Parlor, Bedroom and Bath
OF course a contributing factor to Miss
Moore's success may be the fact that
the play and the part fit her like the
traditional glove. But those who know
her best say it really doesn't matter.
Give her an audience and leave the
rest to her sure instinct for comedy.
"You know" says Miss Moore, 'im
provisation is only another name for
inspiration, and the best work is done
that way Wasn't it Michael Angelo
who said that work that had to be
sweated and porcd over was vile? Bee
thoven, you know, composed the Noon
light Sonata on the spur of the mo-
ment. Blind Homer chanted the Had
as he went along. All that the old
troubadours of France and Germany
needed was harp. They didn't even
need an actual lady for inspiration.
They invented her, too, as they went
along Then there were the F'loren
tine improvisators. My. what a word.
/ should call them nuts But these
boys simply tuned up their guitars on
the street corners and ratified off the
most beautiful love ditties in the
world. And how they went over! l
blush to think of it when realize how
elaborately we set the stage, learn our
lines, forget them, relcarn them and
rehearse them.
81 don't mean by this to belittle
authors, but to emphasize the indi-
vidual qualities of their interpreters.
Authors are my pets. They make
everything so nice and easy for you.
They get your situations all ready for
YOU and have lot of clever and in
dustrious actors working up your en-
trance for you while you are in your
dressing room changing your switch
and your spearmint. 4ou can't KICK
against a life like that.
"But here is what l mean--either
you're a poet or you're not. Either
YOU'RE composer or you're not. Either
you're funny or you're not. If you
have to work at being poet you're q
plumber. If you have to work at being
funny you're a crutch If you are
really funny you are going to think Of
something funny all the time You
can't be limited to certain gestures and
movements and lines. That's being a
dummy 1t would be unfair to your
self and to the play to repress your
impulses all the time. Think how ef-
fective it would have been. for instance
If Shylock, on discovering the loss of
his daughter and his ducats, had cried
out, 'Oi-Gewald, Web is mir. Shake
speare never thought of it, that's all
or guess he didn't know Yiddish."
Miss Moores method isn't the result
Of long familiarity with the salary side
of the footlights. She was the same
from the beginning. When she first
went on the stage she played in q little
company managed by her brother. Theil
repertoire consisted of the melodrams
and tragedies that belonged to the
horsehair couch period Of dramatic lit
erature. The casualties were dreadful
half the company was killed off in twt
acts and the survivors had to double up
Miss Moore was given such roles a
belinda, the Beautiful Laundress" O
Lady We're de We're" But they ncve
affected her that way. Disregardinj
the piteous plights of Belinda she mad
funny faces at the actors, or hurle