New-York tribune., 1921-12-25
Roberta and Grace
OF The First Year
Now Firm L Friends

When the manuscript Of "The First
Year, was ready to go into rehearsal
"a time when the producer and the
author and stage director entertained
the extravagant hope that the thing
might run an entire season-a young
California girl was selected to play
Grace Livingston, the small-town bride
who preferred travelling and seeing
things to staying in Illinois and lis
tening to church bells.
The California girl was Miss Roberta
Arnold, comparative newcomer to
Broadway. 1t was not 80 long before
the piece actually opened at the Little
Theater that they told the young ac-
tress about Grace, and then Roberta
met Grace and Grace met Roberta
They liked each other from the start,
and since then they've been as nearly
one as Miss Arnold has been able to
make them.
And now Roberta Arnold, in the sec
ond year of ''The First Year finds her
feeling for the heroine in the Craven
play warmer than it ever was before;
in fact, what was at first sincere ap-
probation for the part has developed
into positive affection, and is likely to
remain as such. Not once during the
5o0-and- something performances - the
exact statistics can be had at the Gold
en- otfices-has Grace, by any speech or
action, proved boring to the young
woman who introduced her to Broad
body else who has come to this city
with view to seeing what's what in
the theaters of Manhattan.
1t is indeed speaking we'll of Grace
to say that she hasn't had wearying
moments, as she and Miss Arnold have
been pretty thick, and if she were 60
ing to get on the nerves of the actress
she would likely have already done so.
"Grace Livingston, as created by Mr..
! Craven" said Miss Arnold the other
day, "is human and real-a genuine
person. It's part that you can't help
liking to play, and its the kind of part
I want to keep on playing. I've grown
to like it more and more and in it
have tried to give my conception of
what such young bride would be like.
when 1 got the part-it has seventy
two sides-I forgot everything else.
locked myself in a room and worked all
night, sacrificing all pleasures and try
ing to really convince myself that
was Grace Livingston. I studied the
Middle Western girls talk, her walk.
and tried to get an accurate concep-
tion of the mental attitude of this par
ticular Grace Livingston. I've never
known a small-town girl and have
never lived in a small town. But you
wouldn't have to know one or to live
near one to recognize that the part as
created by Mr.. Craven was real hu~
man being and that it was only up
to the actress to do her share.
II don't know when / would become
| tired of the part-certainly have not
| begun to tire of it yet. I don't think
my performance varies from night to
night. So far as my own work is con-
cerned, I'd like there to be more Grace
Livingstons and more Frank Cravens to
write them
Roberta Arnold has had an unusual
theatrical career. She has never asked
for a job, has never been in an agents
office, has never talked to a producer
except the producer for whom she hap
pened to be working, and has never
done motion pictures or tried to do
them. She played in Morosco stock in
Los Angeles and that sent her to New
York several years ago. She appeared
here first in a Hatton play and then in
another Hatton play and in still a third
Hatton play.
/ Then came adam and Eva which
had quite prosperous time of it at
the Longacre. During the time this
piece was sailing along easily in one
of Broadway's tributaries Frank Craven
was putting the finishing touches on a
new manuscript, another play of the
"Too Many Cooks" school, and this
new play happened to be "The First
Year" There we're those who were
sure that the part of Grace Livingston
would just suit an actress by the name
of Roberta Arnold. SO Miss Arnolc
slipped quietly into the part and the
play slipped quietly into the Little The
ater. Since then there has been nc
force strong enough to GUST it.