New-York tribune., 1921-11-06
By Iiarriette UndcrhilI

Oh, ever thus from ehidhood's hour
I've seen my fondest hopes decay;
never loved Il tree or flower
But twas the first to fade away"
And SO, after waiting for years to
write our impressions of Lionel Atwill,
and perhaps make an impression in. the
doing thereof, we were hustled in and
oat Of that very attractive gentlemans
dressing room between the first and
second acts of "The Grand Duke" And
who, ask you, could make an impress
sion, let alone extract an interview, in
FIVE minutes? But, to agsip resort to
the poetic writings Of another, "Ah,
we'll, for us all some sweet hep hes"
and Mr.. Atwill may expect to be inter
viewed by US at least once in a season
so long as he remains on the stage.
THE Grand Duke" is one of those
plays in which Leo Dietrichstein used
to reveI. The hero is a clever, sas-
cinating, bored man Of middle age
VINO marries off everybody in the play
and then sits back and mixes his lonely
salad dressing with satisfied chucSIs.
1t looked for few moments in the
second act as though Mile. Martinez,
who had no moro claim on him than
that she happened to be the mother
Of his twenty -yearold son, was going
TO entanslc the Grand Duke Feodor
Michaelovitch in the chains of rnatr-
nony, but he remembered just in time
TO save the play from having a really
happy ending. And who ever heard
Of smart play with happy ending?
Perish the thought
Woman Proposes,
But That Is All
We had it all figured out that, at the
end of the play, we should go back
,tage and talk TO Mr. Atwill at
length, and VIC intended to ask his
opinion of Mayor Hylan, of the milk
strike, Of the film censorship, of the
employment problem, Of Christian Sci
ence and spiritism and few other
subjects which interest us, and all we
found time to do was to tell him that
we never should have known him in
that makeup and to ask him if he
liked his part. "It is a good makeup,
isn't it?" said Mr. Atwill as he glanced
N the mirror. "When We were out on
Office and demanded her money back
because she said she came to see Lio-
mel Atwill and had seen an understudy
play the part. Nonsense she replied
when they assured her that | had
played the Grand Duke that afternoon.
L think know MIR. Atwill Why, I've
known him for ycars:'" So it is not
surprising that we did not know him.
In the first place. he wears wig and
false forehead which makes him ap-
pear slightly bald and little taller
Then he wears his chest padded, so
that he appears to be much bigger
man than he is and very Russian. A
small mustache completes the disguise,
for We do notfbelieve that Mr.. Atwill
uses any face putty in effecting the
change, although some ono told ussthat
30 did 80. At any rate, we were very
close to him, and we could not detect
the use of any.
Tells the Fortune
Of the Grand Duke
~ find the role fascinating one
for change" said Mr.. Atwill in an
swer to our question. "But, of course,
| shouldn't care to play middle-aged
noblemen all the rest Of my life. Mr..
3slasco has told me that he is going
to choose widely different chara- ycrs
for me TO play each season, so the
future promises to be busy and in
teresting.'
''Didn't you love 'Dcburau..
Better than anything ever did"
And then we asked Mr.. Atwil to
play our favorite game with us--plot-
ting futures for the people in the
show. s"What do you think happened
to the,&Grand Duke Feodor Michaelo-