The New York herald., 1922-07-02

New YORK. 1OurS,
"a BUNCH OF FLoRoDoRA GIRLS
There are some actors and ac-
tresses in America who say that my
success was entirely due to tam
bark"
At one of the performances of 'Be-
yond Human Power" a man asked
i>r his dollar back. saying it was
'bum show"
When we were playing in St Louis
it was over 100 in the shade and
not a breath of air-I arrived at my
hotel exhausted. / lay down and
shut my eyes. Something made me
open them. On the wall to my right
was a crawling insect, to my left
two of these. >on my bed three and
on the ceiling six-at least. so 1t
seemed to me. I jumped UP. rang
the telephone. and called down:
"Send some people to room 174 i'm
mediately." A bellboy came.
I was standing in the middle Of
the room trembling, with Pinkie in
my arms. I said Look" pointing
wildly about me. He grinned. as
only a colored bellboy can. and said:
"Why, dat's a stink bug" "Stink
bug!" 1 shouted. There are hum
dreds all over the ROOM He con-
tinued smiling and said: Il guess der
are" I screamed. XIII them!"
He answered: "Oh. no. ma'am! dem
smell bad If dem killed"
1 do not remember what happened
next. -
In September, 1902, Vas again in
America and opened at the Garden
Theater under the management of
the late Charles Frohman in Aunt
Jeannie." by e. r. Benson ("Dodo'').
1t was a play full of charm and ele-
gance and received some splendid
reviews, but fancy it was little
trifiing. after my serious repertory.
in the early part of the year. Mr.
Frohman kpt this play on only
few weeks and I started almost im-
mediately rehearsing Sudermann's
"Es Lebe das Leben," translated by
Mrs. Edith Wharton-''The Joy of
Living"
This play was a great success. and.
with the exception of a few special
performances OF "The Second Mrs.
Tanqueray" and "Magda." ran to the
end of my engagement.
When 1 produced it on my return
to England at the New Theater it
was complete failure. 1t had al
ready been played excellently in Lon
don by a German company. but had
been condemned by the English
critics. 1 had hoped for the i'm
possible.
Charles Frohman and I shared the
expense of the production in Amer
lea, which was in every way splen-
did. / am ashamed to say I remem-
Der candlesticks costing f12.
Mr.. Frohman quarreled with me
over rehearsals. 1t was an intensely
difficult play to rehearse Bedte was
the emotional woman who does not
weep: and 1 fancy he thought my
reserve and constraint would be dull
and ineffective. 1 remember he
wanted to drop the curtain at the
end of a scene-when with great
dignity she walks out of the room
without noticing a small gilt chair
in front of her, almost falling-as the
chair topples over-cutting out the
scene which followed. I would not
hear of it; so Frohman would have
nothing more to do with the produc-
ton, and became solely responsible.
But for the aid of Prince Hugo
Won Hohenlohe, who happened to be
in New York at the time and gave
me some help in the details of Ger
man court etiquette-and the late
Mr.. Conried. who attended three re-
hearsals. giving me the most brilliant
assistance, | could never have got
through the production of this five
act play in two weeks-Sudermann
too, sent me very complete prompt
book.
v.
But I feel now as if / had told
enough-that in my memoirs. bS
it,rf mir hnr nd thorn hor al