New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-10
Iaking, a Leap
Into the Past
W it'll Miss Ring
Saturn Has Three Rings:
broadway Whirl'' Has
One; 1t Needs No More
BY Harriette Underhill

After being sure all day that Some
thing was going to happen-lt did. We
walked into Blanche Rings dressing
room at the Times Square Theater and
called her Blanche, and we never had
met her. Such thing never has hap
pened to US before. But did Miss Ring
mind9 She did not. Perhaps she Is
used to having strangers greet her
like that; for, you know, every one
thinks of her as Blanche. Perhaps she
realized that we were still under the
spell of her first act In "The Broadway
Whirl." She must know that she gets
people that way, or why do they always
want to join in and help her sing her
choruses?
'Your slipper is united; I'll fasten it
for you," said Miss Ring as we sat
down opposite her in her dressing
room, and she made us put our foot
up on her $1,000 seed-pearl, Hickson-
covered knee while she tied the ribbon.
1t you had interviewed as many people
IS we have you would realize how rare
1t Is to have them meet you as man to
man. So many people get funny and
up-stage and unnatural and pugnacious.
But there is nothing highfalutin about
Miss Ring in the dressing room any
more than there is on the stage. She
is just the same. And so pretty and
fresh and sweet-bless her hearti
Back to the Good
Old Summer Time
There is something about the Ring
sisters, Blanche and Frances, that al
ways strikes chord that takes US back
to the old days of our romances. We
never see either of them now without
feeling that same way about it. Tho
frst time in our life that we felt we
were experiencing the grand passion
because we were going to the theater
and to supper without n chaperon
Amelia Bingham was playing "The
Frisky Mrs. johnson" There was a
beautiful young actress in the cast
named Frances Ring, and "the man"
told US that she was sister of the
famous Blanche, and that he knew them
both. "I1l take you back and introduce
You after the show" ne said. But after
the show he said it was so late that if
we went back stage we'd miss the train
for Passaic. So we didn't go, and I
thought about it for years. Knowing
q "the man. as we now do, we are sure
that he didn't know them at all, but
in those early times we believe every
thing.
And Then Again
The Same Old Story
And, then, the next time the birds
were singing in our heart and we were
afflicted with the same set of decisions
"the man" took us to see "The Mid
night Sons" and we sat in the third
row and heard Miss Ring sing "Rings
on my fingers and bells on my toes"
We were entranced, and again 'the
man" (not the same one, Of course)
said, II know Miss Ring, and III take
you back stage and introduce you after
the show" And again he didn't do it,
because it was New Years Eve, and he
said Miss Ring probably had some
thing on. And then we almost met her
at a supper party which Tommy
Meighan, her brother-in-law, gave at
the Ziegfeld Roof, and once again at a
Y~1r oh 30
on Delmonico's roof. But never quite
until last night. So that is, no doubt,
the reason we called her Blanche on
sight, because we had almost known
her for such long time.
The Nameless One
Makes Faux Pas
Just as we were telling her how she
hadn't changed bit nice man with
we did not catch rushed in for a mo-
ment. First he asked if either of US
wanted drink of ice cream soda or
anything, and then he said: blanche,
you haven't changed a bit in twenty
five years.
A~SofSHc, AStOIteu bLANCle,
hope I didn't look like this twenty-five.
years ago! You mustn't say that. 1t
makes me too old. Make it fifteen or
nothing"
Twenty-Five" insisted the black
haired man. 81 say you haven't changed
In twenty-five years. 1 insist it is
twenty-five years. Where's Tommy
Meighan 2"
"You've just missed him, unless he's
still in Charities room" Charlie is
Charles Winninger, Miss Rings hus-
band, and he looks like a jolly sort,
although we didn't have the pleasure of
meeting him because he was busy
dressing. So far as we know he is Miss
Rings only husband, and sister
Frances has always been married only
to Tommy Meighan. It's quite remark
ablel
= hope you people mean all the nice
things you are saying. 1t does my
heart good, and the funny part of it is
that I'm just as enthusiastic as I was
!, the first time ever walked ON the