Omaha daily bee., 1919-06-01
BY ZAYDA GLOVER.

New York, May 5l.-A new mat
inee idol" is setting hearts alutter
mere.
A matinee idol" with whom both
men and women have fallen in love
This idol is not handsome, TO-
mantle actor, as you'd be led to
think.
This idol" is girl--a pretty,
wholesome, winsome young girl.
She's not prodigy, she's not pre-
tocious. She's just a clever, I'm
spoiled maiden of undoubted histri-
onic talent, and with a charm in
method and an appeal in manner
mat warns ones heart and electrifies
ones fancy. You feel strangely ele-
yated through the sight of her DUR
nlg one short act-the only act in
which she appears. You go away
from the playhouse with the memory
of her sweet face. her dulcet voice
and her plaintive farewell impressed
deeply upon you.
This new "idol?' She's little Helen
Hayes, appearing with William Gil
cite in Barrie's remarkable comedy,
Dear Brutus," at the Empire Thea
ter. She enacts the part of dream
child in the beautiful, enchanted for
est of might-have-been. She plays
up to Gillette in the role of Mr..
Dearth. the artist, in one of the
sweetest and quaintest scenes the
talented Barrie has ever written for
The stage. Your heart grows warm
at the sight of the wonderful affec-
ton between them. You laugh at her
amusing vagaries. And your eyes
moisten when, at the end, she is left
alone in the darkening wood, and
you hear her frightened appeal:
Come back, come back, daddy! l
dop't want to be might-have-
been!"
And who is little Helen Hayes?
Well, there isn't so very much to
tell about her, for she is still in her
teens. She comes from Washing
ton, D. c., and her old friends and
neighbors down there call her
Helen Brown, for her real name is
Helen Hayes Brown. OF course,
she dropped the Brown when she
went on the stage.
And how did she come to go on
the stage? Now, that is a story.
When Helen was just wee tot she
had an ingrowing toe, and the doc
tor said that maybe if she danced
a great deal she'd get over it. So
her mother sent her to dancing
class and little Helen soon became
the teachers pet pupil-the one
who was always put in the place Of
honor on the program when the
class gave an exhibition.
They used to give those exhibit
tons at the Belasco theater, in
Washington, and Lew Fields, who
was playing at the Balasco, drop
ped in to see one of them. Little
Helen caught his fancy at once, and
he went back and had talk with
Mrs. Brown.
The next season she made her
debut with Fields in "Old Dutch
She appeared with Fields, too, in
The Summer Widowers" and in
The Never Homes" Then Charles
Frohnan gave her the part of the
little girl in "The Prodigal Hus-
band" in which John Drew was the
star. Next she played in stock in
Washington for a couple of seasons
and learned lot, and so was quite
ready to take the job when George
C. Tyler was looking for someone
to play "Pollyanna" in a company
he was sending to the Pacific coast
The theater-goers of California
and Oregon fell in love with her at
once and when the box Office state
ments began to come in Mr.. Tyler
pricked up his ears and said, Here's
a find" So he had a contract
drawn up and sent it out to Mrs.
Brown and tied" up Helen for
term of years, promising that he
and Klaw and Granger would
"star" her just as soon as they could
find the right play.
Early this season Mr.. Tylor put
her into "Penrod" at the Globe
theater as the "Aapper" sister of the
boy hero of the Harrington comedy.
That reminded ALI Hayman Of her.