New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-08-14
Fascinating
Is the Life of
A Farceuse
Doesn't Care Two Straws
IL She Catches the Hay
Fever Up in the Haymo,y
By Harriette Underh;ll

covered with wisps Of hay. Now, what
we mean is that the wisps of hay were
sort of woven in, careless like, and as
we never had seen anything like it be-
fore, on the stage or off, it was not
unnatural that our first question to
Miss Mackaye should be, "Well, what
is that?"
That" said Miss Mackaye, holding
1t aloft that we might get a better
view "Why, that is my costume in the
finale of The second act!"
But we were out in front all the
time and we saw no such Ewes apparel
"Oh, forgot; of course the censors
were here last night and made mo
cut that out. You know when my hus-
band comes over to the old coupe and
pulls the horse blanket away from me,
well, IN the original version he pulls
nc out after the blanket, and of course,
l haven't anything on. At least. it
looks so from the front, though in
reality l have this on and Miss
Mackaye shook the pink chemse with
the hay finish "The censors thought
it wasn't nice, but think look awful
cute in it, and Pm going to wear it
again. and Miss Mackayes brown eyes
twinkled just as they do on the stage
when she says something naughty.
Ms Mackaye
owes Her Part
isn't it a lovely part.' she contin-
ued. ooh, love doing it and l was
30 lucky to get it.. You know I've
always been in musical comedy, but l
always wanted to do drama. OF course,
had to work, so l had to take musical
roles; they are SO much more plentiful.
always, than the thing you want. Well,
Mr.. Hopwood saw me in See Saw and
he said he had me in mind for a part III
his show ever since that time. SO
when up in the haymow' came along
l was offered the part of Pattie with
the sanction of A. H. Woods. Do you
know Mr.. Woods? And isn't he a
peach to work for?"
We nodded "Yes" to both questions,
fol we thought of Nellie, the Beauti-
ful Cloak Model" Oh, yes, our past has
not been blameless, though we don't
say much about it, for we always fear
that we hadn't done right by little
Neil. However, that was quite another
story, so we pulled up short and came
back to the haymow
81 rehearsed for two days and
thought l was being successfully cute
and naive in the part of Pattie, when
Mr.. Hopwood said gravely, Mr.. Woods
wants to see you in his Office after the
rehearsal That could mean only one
thing-I wouldn't do in the part and
was going to be fred-and I pictured
myself wearing a sunbonnet and sing
ing songs until I was fifty. And
when l got there, what do you think
it was? Mr. Woods was offering me a
long contract! But suffered agonies
on my way to the Office. That's how
eae. was for the part. Do you like
the show"
"Well, truth compels me to say that
o., though, of course, I shouldn't.
l thought it was terribly funny"
$50 does every one, only they won't
ali say So They wouldn't laugh if they
DIDN'T like it, would they"
"That costume Of yours in the last
act is the most awful thing ever saw.
How did you think Of it,"
Her Costume
Just Happened
"wcll it sort of happened. Orig
inally the last act was played outside
the bungalow instead Of in the living
room. We climbed in taxi and the
! old thing fell to pieces. My legs got
so cut up that I couldn't walk and |
had to have some sort of protection.
OF course, my shoes and stockings
and all my clothes were burned up in
the barn, go l dug up those rubber
boots that / wear and pretended that
found them in the back yard. Then
thought Gertic's bridal veil would
give the finishing touch" Here N IS
Mackaye sneezed violently, seized a
tube OF menthol and box Of throat
lozcnges and applied them where they
\ would, presumably, do the most good
"Hay fever, You got it being Up in
TIC haymow without any clothes on,
we said, trying to be funny and to
point a moral at the same time, but Miss
Msckaye wouldn't have it so. NO, it's
being up In the haymow with all my
wet clothes on. If l took them off
sooner ] wouldn't have this cold"
"But your clothes aren't really wet
are they? thought they used glycer-
inc or oil or something like that te
give tnem that appearance
She Is Martyr
To Her Art
"Thcy do, but don't. tried it.
"Being funny is the hardest WORK in
the World. Not for one night, nor two
zor three. pcrhapz; but tia awfully
easy 70 slump in your lines. And writ
ing farce. Oh, my. Well, that is the
most diHcuit thing in the world IT.
easier TO be Shakespeare than ar
Avery Hopwood. OF course, any ono
can write farce, but It's difficult tc
write one that's going TO stay in one
place more than two consecutive weeks
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