The Washington times., 1931-09-04
True tOType
THREE YOUNG ACTRESSES
HAVE NEAR CORNER
ON TALENT
LRv GILBERT SEH.IDES-

NeoOranhv hook had picture representing several
with paper walls between them (and, of course little
figure in kimono lying the floor with stool for
pillow. Although l mnot naturally violent it has
always seemed pleasant to be able to shift par
tton or if necessary, break right through And-the
pleasures of the mind being always greater than the
pleasures of the body-it is supremely exharatng
experience to pass from small mental cell into an:
other, to feel yourself alert and moving freely around
the world
It is for instance pleasure to get into an argument
with taxi driver and discover that his mind is essen
TALLY of the quality that of criminal lawyer;
or to hear woman in New England stationery store
talk like Deilah to cigar salesman. We erect stone
walls in our minds; think that have to read the
ancients to learn wisdom go to the opera to hear
music and cooks and radios have, if we are lucky,
wisdom and music hundred times refreshing.
Katharine Cornell
One of the great pleasures the heater in the past
year has been the discovery that the finest actress
on the serious legitimate stage and the finest artist in
musical shows give exactly the same kind OF pleasure
and do it less by the same means Miss kath-
arne Cornell until she devoted herself magntcenty to
1.-THE Barretts of Wmpole Street." had the cheapest
material played succession of characters not only un-
important but unreal The situations were all forced
the motives awdry Yet she moved you she lit up these
false faces with fire of her she made their herocs
sound heroic, that you thousand times more
affected by the silly sorrows of her dshonored ladies
than by the sufferngs of your intimates.
Helen Morgan
Her parallel is Miss Helen Morgan Because she sat
on piano and twisted handkerchief while she sang
sob ballads her quality hard to discover yet it is
there She has the power to take trivial things and
make them appear for moment, infinitely tragic She
fortunate, few years to find the ideal com
material doesn't matter In the current Zegfed Foles
she hasn't single good song but she sings i m WIN
You" SO lightly and 50 gravely tha 1T soumos IKE
most eternal thngs). When she sang Why was l
Born?" it almost too much to bear Like Miss Cor
is exouisite they have voices which aren't according to
the rules but certain tones send shudder or a
thrill through those who hear them
What's Wrong With the Stage
Half century ago the theater was considered i'm
moral for the worst in the world: that it gave
pleasure The real objection to the theater that 1t
takes pleasure away from you; it makes you undergo
experiences ten times profound as those offered oy
your own life and for whom? For creatures who nave
no reality no life Plato wanted to Danish the poets
from his ideal republic because the poets told es ne
was right because suffer for crimes we have not
committed when encounter great artist The COM
pensation is there for u.s. emotions might arophy
and die away entirely if used them only in our daily
communication with people, the arts keep tnem ahVe
But hardly seems right that we SHOULD sufter because
cause Miss Cornell and Miss Morgan are great artists
Ethel Norman
One other young woman has created place for her
, self in the past year. Miss Ethel Norman. She is
phenomenal person who moved from the moderate oo
scurty of a night club to become the sensation of
popular CGirl Crazy, and at the end OF the
season was so much in demand that George White paid
$4,000 to buy her contract leaving her free to into
removed from the Cornells and the Morgans OF the
theater she entirely instructive person. doing
things without knowing why imposing herself on the
audience by her immense vitality, her simplicity and
something that looks like carelessness Short prObaDN
in mortal fear of growing fat dark she appeared trst
singing ribad song about Delilah and Sam; voice
which music critics would probably find untrue rang out
clear and loud the words spoken if the singer
took relish in them; and at the end she sroIled Oft
the stage, throwing her head back, and shquting-a
triumphant exit.
She reappeared to sing "Ive Got Rhythm" making
strange gestures with her hands her head move
ments which the of musical show SINGERS never
dreamed Of and again her freshness and her galety
conquered She the kind of applause which usualV
goes with less to acrobats and singers OF sent
mental songs.
think that sophisticated foreigner would recognize
Miss Cornell and Miss Morgan great artists; ne
would them with Duse and Yvette tIull6ert:
he would find nothing strange in them. For Miss Mer-
man he would have coronaris"ns h" would say sh"
typicaly American influenced by the coonshouers
of Harlnn1 iazz nroduct phenomenon more than an
artist The GREAT thing about the theater ths has
for both types and the oreaest pleasure the STAGE
can give is in recognizino Quality wherever it found