The New York herald., 1922-12-17
BY JOHN nIcHUGH STUART.
Special Correspondence to THE NEW YoEE
HERALD.

| american, George Conan, ac-
companied him right up the
Channel last week, but, whatever the
reason. nobody ever imported into
these islands such large. permeating,
! persuasive-and nostalgic-doses of
American atmosphere as Charles 3.
Cochrane carried with him when he
came home to London from New York.
I've just been spending half en- hour
with him in his office, at the corner
of Bond street and Picadilly. Now,
you can appeal to an exiled Briton's
head by talk of Threadneedle street
and to his pride with word Of West
minister and Whitehall. But with word
of the ways that cross at Bond street
and Picadilly you touch the heart of
the empire. Those words sing of the
things zone does"-clubs, tailors
shops, galleries, everything-"Town, .
as Kipling said OF the banjo in an
equatorial swamp.
And here. with the buses rumbling
between Picadilly Circus and the Park,
carrying their loads OF gentlemen and
lady shop assistants to Putney and
'Ammersmith, with chaps just popping
! INTO the club or out, with mournful
Old fellows silently holding out the
contents bills OF the evening papers
here in this equatorial swamp of Brit
ish tradition Cochrane played the
banjo. Only the banjo he played was
strictly Yank and the town" he sung
was Broadway.
| And how "a
there was nearby place Of refreshment
not now indigenous to your New York or
ono homesick American would have
| broken into sobs. AS II was he was
| startled when a female in neat black,
instead Of a male In white said over the
mahogany, "Yes, sir?" instead Of
"Wotilyahavc?"
All of which means that Cochrane has
come back with no word about prohibi-
ton or steam heat or the subway or the
electric signs or the crowds, but with a.
sincere and compelling belief that Broad
way, the American stage, is doing more
for the art he serves and the business
he practices than is the stage Of Eng
| land.
The British stage does ono thing
superbly WELL" he said. "In polite
comedy, Wilde, Sutro, Galsworthy, you
can't touch It. But comedy Is only one
phase of drama and the polite is only
one phase of comedy. In everything
else you are miles ahead of u.s. With
out speaking OF musical things and
| spectacles, every phase of life is re-
| hected at this moment on stages along
Broadway, from Shakespeare to Frank
Bacon. And in every field from the GA
poetry of Shakespeare to the vernacular
of Frank Bacon, from the classic to the
ultra modern. like "Six Characters I'm
Search OF an Author" and "R u r" I
found things superbly we'll done. The
last two mentioned plays are the sort
that special societies would put on for
Sunday nights here IN London and
you've given them successful CONNER
cial production I'm New York"
Nor is Mr.. Cochrane vague about the
reasons for the New York virtues OF the
stage.
New York is full" he said. "of good
actresses. i don't mean to say that we
haven't good actresses here. We have
Marie Lohr, Fay Compton, Meggie Ala
banesi, women like that are sound
artists. But when you go to caste a
play here you're bound to get in a lot
Of frivolous kids. The old pride of
Bohemia, the aristocracy Of brains, the
society in which artists ought to be
proud TO live, has gone from the British
| stage. It's about so per cent. golf and
so per cent. society with big S. Why,
1 don't ever remember seeing an under
study IN New York Yet it's not un-
common here for some great lady OF the
stage to call up ON the telephone and
| say she can't appear. She has a doc
tors certificate, all right, and you can't
do anything with her. But our people
are losing the old tradition of serving
the public, Of playing as they paid to
see you play. Other things, outside
things enter into 1t too much.
"One young girl came TO see me about
playing certain part in New York
I know can play IT, she said. i can
know my Job. why, I'll stand on my
head IL you want me to" And she did.
yet had a leading woman here one
day tell me she couldn't play a part
because IL wasn't nice and her public
wouldn't want to see her in anything
that wasn't nice The part would have
given her the great artistic opportunity
/ OF her career.
''Your American girls. and your men,
too. are proud of being actors and ar
lists and they live for the theater. not
for some golf club or some swaniSy
| crowd that like 10 have them around
for dinner Take a girl like Jeanne
Eagels. In Rain she does a wonderful
bit OF work. She's Of the theater alone.
ana 4 venture 70 say she's satisfied
with that.
"'Rain Is a fine thing all through IN
writing, production and acting. John
Barymores Hamlet is the one that ap-
peals most TO me personally Of any I
have ever seen. lie is an actor. he has
voice, he Is human and he Is hand
| some.
I'VE are stuck 20 our tradition OF
drawing room drama and drawing room
artists. We do It well. but It reflects
| only one phase OF life. There are In
fialtely more that ought TO appear on
the English stage. They appear I'm our
literature. But there Is little encour-
agement for the producer here TO at
tempt the new on the stage. One reason
is tho better treatment the stage gets In
the press In New York. 1 don't mean
that your critics are not savageiy crit
ic1l mt times. But the newspapers rea-
lie that the production Of something
new In tho theater IL OF interest TO vast
| numbers OF people. Their minds are in
\ 'eUigently prepared for the novelty
| through the newspaper and n the nov
city Is good they will accept IT,"
Just TO try and break this tradition,
20 try and encourage British dramatists
to do something more than the polite,
| Mr. Cochrane Il going 70 give London
big dose OF Broadway To show how
| Broadway can out-Brton Britain, for
| Instance, his first splash will be to bring