New-York tribune., 1920-01-18
No More Boudoir Plays
For Johnny Cumberland;
At Least, He Says So

There is one advantage IN playing IN
bedroom farces; your costumes don't
cost you much. John Cumberland ad-
mitted this as he sat in his dressing
room after the curtain had fallen on
the last act Of "The Girl in the Limou-
sine" He was simply but tastefully
clad in q gray dressing gown, presum-
ably the property Of Doris Kenyon but
in reality his own, to be added, when
the season Is over. to his vast collec-
tion made during his reign Of the last
decade or so.
II have blue ones and purple ones
and red ones and now these two gray
ones to mark the seasons. The differ
ence In the color Of my habiliment Is
the only thing which identifies my past
performances. In all else they were
alike, or they seem 80 now, viewed
in retrospection-a lifetime spent in
crawling in and out of window boxes,
under beds, and being caught in inno-
cent but compromising situations with
other mems wives. No, your costumes
for they are furnished by the manage
ment, because they always are handled
by so many different people"
John Cumberland is just an humor-
ously pathetic of the stage as he Is on,
and of course there is no other like
him. That Is why we could not SO
heartily indorse his gently scathing re-
marks about bedroom farces as q per
petual occupation.
As the sun Is to the sunhower 30 is
Johnny Cumberland to the bedroom
farce. And we told him 80 frankly,
although 1t wasn't at all to his liking.
"You can't impress as with your sim
cerity," we said, unless you take off
that ridiculous, dove-colored dressing
gown" And he looked at us sadly Just
as he had at Doris Kenyon and said:
II can't can't take it of.
"But there Ii nothing in the world
so sad as a romantic actor, misunder-
stood. l had lived In the hope that
some day tho mantle Of Mansfield
would descend on my shoulderA and
then one day something did descend
and believed that Is was that mantle.
But when grasped 1t what was it?
I'll tell You what it was, 1t was bed
spread, and / have been wallowing ir
Twin Beds,' Fair and Warmer, 'Parlor,
Bedroom and Bath up in Mabels
Room "A Double Exposure . few
others and now this one"
"And this was originally called Bet
ty't Bed wasn't it?"
he nodded and went on: when any
one writes a bedroom farce he puts
the last period In place and then some
body says, And now we'll get Johnny
Cumberland But no more-Ive An
ished."
And what are you going to do
next3
Hamlet: King Lear 'othslio''"
"And what did you do beforc you
began crawling under beds and carry
ing on innocuous love affairs with
other mems wives and sweethearts2
"Why, l did the other men. The
ones who have the wives and sweet
hearts. / was the Juvenile, the hero.
the villain, the butler, tho chauffeur
anything-evsrything, but always play
ing with the great thought Some day
IN my shoulders If were cast for
a part Of the Roman army and went
on carrying a spear would think Now
how would Mansfield do this noblest
Roman Of them all7' and then I would
try to act noble. And SO for years
prepared for the great event."
"But now you're In pictures" we said
soothingly. "You need never sec an
other bed II you like. and at any rate
you ought to be glad that they are
making the beds 30 much higher than
they did Is it true that there IL .
1920 model called the John Cumber-
land'?"
II hadn't heard OF It, but it may be
true, and it is good thing for mo
that beds arc higher than they were or
I couldn't get under them with the req
uisite amount Of speed when l hear
Betty's or Mabers or Lucy's or Pol1y's
husband corning. Of course, I don't
stay under the bed. have nice