Evening star., 1924-11-23
Our Own Belasco, Bold and
Unabashed.
By Ph;1ander Johnson.

Lenore wins!
By neck-and much more; for
while Helen Hayes endeavors to
compete in the current drama with
an undressing scene just like those
they used to arrest actor ladies for,
yuhs and yuhs ago. .Lenore Ulrich
dons the gauzy Turkish trouser and
threatens even an Oriental shiver.
The bedroom farce. was interpreted
on new and even more positive lines
than ever before attempted by the
Woods drama, either Al or Hop.
There is no use moralizing about
THE Harem." 1t happened. 1t ex-
lists. The audience could take its
choice. 1t could either laugh or
grow indignant 1t adopted the
customary course under the circum-
stances. 1t chose to laugh, and the
only person on either side of the
footlights who showed any note
worthy modesty after the second
act had closed was the author him
self, who, Mr.. Belasco announced,
could not be found. His discretion
was commendable, in view of the
material that he had offered, but
quite unnecessary, for the audience
decided to grin and bear it, and
finally did nothing but grin more
and more broadly and whoieheart-
edly.
The player folk have long. since
disclaimed any intention If elevating
the morals of the theater. Many
0e
Dives, while giving exhibitions cal
Hculated to please public more re-
liable in patronizing ungoodly
things than in lending support to
the true and beautiful. The authori-
ties, so industrious in futile efforts
to fumigate the playhouse atmos-.
phere, ought, in all fairness, to have
something to say to these naughty,
naughty audiences.
Mr.. Belasco has never made any
pretentions to being a prude. His
artistry has always been fine, so far
as reading and pictorial effect are
concerned. He seems almost to be
testing the question as to whether
present civilization, recovering from
war shock, finds itself on the verge
of new morality, which sweeps
aside ancient scruples of display and
speech.
One of the pleasantest Belasco
memories is his mastery presenta-
tion of John Luther Longs Madame
Butterfly" In turning from Mr..
Long to Mr.. Hopwood, the vet
of
transfers his science from the
lepidoptera to the coleoptera. Re-
membering Getting Gertie's Gold
diggers" and the Ladies Garter, in
a Turkish Bath"-the precise titles
do not matter-any natural historian
will agree that in rolling up material
of all kinds for purposes of instinc-
tive solace. aud material comfort,
Mr.. Avery Hopwood is the noblest
dramatic tumblebug of them all
Mr.. Belasco has built him a shrine,
draped it with silken fabrics, IL
lumed it with enchanting trickeries
Of lighting, and, with such players
as Mr.. Courtney and Miss Ulrich as
the officiating powers, called on the
public to respect, even almost to
venerate, this 1924 model scarab.
The production of "The Harem"
frankly lies on the Freud idea of
the controlling basic suggestion in
the operations of the human mind.
No longer concerned with any
theory that the stage holds respon-
sibilities for promoting loftier stand
ards and ideals, the play descends,
sometimes with a bluntness which
impingcs on the bucolic vernacular,
to . discussion of the immortality
of the soul.
X II \ n
To declaim against "The Harem"
as q vicious influence would be a
futile enterprise. AS most of the
Peo1se who thronsed the theatsr ate
.r-s..i 80. -
=. Z