New-York tribune., 1921-05-15

Inere ~ line IN "Iyollos Wild Uat'
which is spoken by Stein, the manager
---"If Shakespearian actors don't have
experience, ! don't know who does
And the same might we'll be quoted of
Stanley Hewlett, who made his Ameri-
can debut with Roland Young in
"Rollo's Wild oatD at the Punch and
Judy Theater. Mr.. Hewlett Is an actor
| Of sound tradition, valuable experience
ana a career rich in variety Of parts
and the best in dramas.
Says Mr.. Hewlett: 81 started in Eng
land as pupil with F. r. Benson (now
Sir Frank when / was nineteen and
the Benson company was at the height
of it's fame. Walter HampGen was just
leaving them, after some years, and in
the company during my initiation were
George Weir, long famous as an inter
prefer Of Shakespearian clowns; Ar
thur Whitby, II. o. Nicholson, Cyril
Keightly, whose work is so well known
in this country; Oscar Asche, Lyall
Swete and Henry Ainley. Indeed, our
stage of to-day is peopled with men
and women who got their early train
ing under the Benson banner.
Il we'll remember my first appear
ence on the stage. Just from college, /
joined the company at Scarborough, the
famous East Coast seaside resort. The
play was The Merchant of Venice,
Dressing accommodation was not lux
urious. | had magnificent makeup
box, with an array of grease paints
which was least likely to use l
dressed on the floor in a corner, and
put on makeup which proudly i'm
agined resembled that of a Venetian
peasant, but which looked more like an
African sunset.
Followed days of hard work and
good fellowship, and am proud to say
the friends Of those days / may still
claim. We ran really first class
hockey team, and / truly believe Ben
son was as much concerned with our
progress on the field Of sport as he
was with our acting. c. F. Hannah
Clark, now with Walter Hampden, was
our star player, magnificent center
half, who played for Gloucester County
On his vacations and was my very severe
mentor over the Sides Henry Herbert,
now well known on Broadway, headed
the other company under the Benson
management. | said goodby to Sir
Frank in Manchester shortly before !
sailed for this country, and he was
after my years of abseace just as
keenly interested in the doings of the
boys as in the days when we were
with him. Truly wonderful man, pos
sessing that indefnable something that
endeared and held the affection of all
who came in contact with him. If ever
a man deserved knighthood he did. He
did more than any man living to-day to
keep the torch of Shakespeare. burning
brightly, and his work will live on
when others are forgotten. 81 always
feel | owe very deep debt of graft
tude to Sir Frank and his wife, not
only for their tuition but for so many
kindnesses received at their hands.
Something ineradicable of that early
training lives in the heart Of every
true Bensonian. He taught us to play
up or play the game on stage, on the
hockey field and in our lives.
II stayed with Sir Frank for four
years, working my way up from crowd
and shouts off, the first murderers
and second rate lords to the dizzy
heights of second juveniles and a motl
ley of other parts, ninety-fve or nine
teen, it mattered net TO US. 1t was all
grist to our mill---we camoufaged our
faces with crepe hair or our limbs with
Armenia bole as occasion demanded,
but learned the lesson that no part is
too small to be worth troubling over
and that every part is worthy of our
best work. A fact, l fear, which is for
gotten by the young aspirants of to-
day, who seem to desire the most money
for the least possible amount of effort.
l would like to take some of them
through the old training we had in
those days. l fear it would spoil the
crease in their trousers, but they would
learn how to act, if they had it in
them.
Leaving Sir Frank Benson, was
lucky enough to join Mr.. H. B. Irving,
whose company numbered some of the
old guard who had served under Sir
Henry-Frank Tyars, Charles Dods-
worth, Tom Reynolds. Our repertoire
was as varied as it was interesting
Hamlet Lyons Mall Louis XII
The Bells Charles T. Mr.. Irving
was great teacher, very vivid, Iowa
MNM ~rwzx.