Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-15
STAGE HAS LOST ITS ROMANCE.
MRS. PATRICK CAMPBELL SAYS
IndividuaIism Of Players
Gone, Famous English
Actress Declares.
Star OF "The Sex Fable" Glad
to Be Behind American
FootIights Once More.

"Wung Wung Wah Wah Woosh :
Woosh- Wish Wish" - which translated
into our native tongue means THE gay
girl Of Bcrneo, I wish I'd never been
! born-e-o'-sat at lunch yesterday on
the lap of her mistress, Mrs. Patrick
Campbell. and ate julienne potatoes
surrepticiously. because, of course. she
knew she wasn't allowed in the dining
room Of the hotel
"Wung- Wung," ETC., whose ancestors
are among the proudeSt OF the PeklngeSe
race, had come to Washington from
England and was travelling as the guest
of Mrs. Campbell. And Wung-Wung
suggested to Mrs. Campbell's interviewer
that 1t was odd that so few people over
here knew about this grand lady OF the
| English stage, and that 1t was probably
| a matter Of history that last Monday
night when Mrs. Campbell walked onto
| the stage of the Belasco it was the
! first time ever" she wasn't recognized
Immediately with "a great big hand"
Glad to Be in the States.
, Mrs. Pat" has, of course, been re-
| ferred to as the Sarah Bernhardt OF
the English stage Mrs. Campbell, as
a matter of fact, isn't at all the same
/ NlIlIdRG dS lIlt Ool SttASS
! she was playing ingenue Juliets when
Mime. Bernhard had grown into late
middle age But perhaps some will re-
call that tWo-score years or more ago
! they both toured England in "Pelleas
and Mellisande"-Sarah.t then so, play
ing the role of Pelleas tin tights, OF
course,) and Mrs. Pat" playing the
young girl part-and (tlis story the
latter tells on herselD one of the Irish
| ~ l1of
both old enough to know better"
! Mrs. Campbell and Wung Wung
| drowned upon by all the waiters) said
they were glad to be in the States,
particularly under the wing OF that
astute impresario, Gilbert Miller. About
the stage, too, they both feel the same
although Wings grease-paint memories
extend back so refining like four-score
years less than her mistress.
THE theater is not what is used to be.
The romance has gone out of it. Indi-
vidualism Is what makes acting. md
there isn't any more individuallsm.
Every one is like every one else" said
Mrs Pat" for whom George Bernard
! Shaw wrote "Pygmalion' and Who drst
played "Magda" in this country with
overwhelming success.
Like Everybody Else.
| lllCy SulO W WHO nSC VA
realism by being like everybody else
about them. Their mental visions and
ideals have not the play they used to
have. OF course it was pretty hard to
come back to idealism after the war
but still much of the glamor has gene
People don't take time enough to learn
how to speak" Mrs. Campbell, it will
be remembered. lectured here last sea-
son on the Importance OF diction in the
| theater
"As for acting in the movies it's the
same thing Even more. You can't dc
your best work because you do every
thing in sections. You do one scene
in two minutes. then you 90 it over
and over, Is times perhaps. There
is no sequential train of thought OF
emotion. How can you do your bes'
when you are interrupted every five
minutes or SOP" And Mrs. Campbell
knows because she was in Hollywood
last season and appeared in one hlm
The Dancers" which was her first and
apparently her last picture.
Hollywood is too full of cliques," she
said with a smile.
| Mrs. Campbell. about whom Shaw
wrote back in 1896 in one of his let
tiers TO Ellen Terry apropos of one OF
| his plays: II will go to the beautiful
Mrs. Campbell, who won my heart long
| ago by her pianoforte playing as Mrs
! Tanqueray," admits that America has
many very fine actors and actresses
Katherine Cornell, she thinks. is our
first actress-"her Elizabeth Barrett is
beautifur'-and she also admires ire
mendously the Lunt family ALFRED
| Lunt and Lynn Fontanne) and she
says that she would like to see Leslie
I, Howard play Hamlet"
English Wouldn't Stand 1t.
"As for these American actresses
they are so beautiful So bien soignet
And they're all married and have got
ten rid of their husbands! The trouble
with them is that their husbands spoil
them. They are much too kind to them
In England the men wouldn't stand for
such goings on. They would beat them
over the head no doubt"
This handsome lady, who once played
Juliet opposite Forbes Robertson's
Romeo "a "sure-fire" combination to
the box ofice) and whose acting in
The Matriarch' only few seasons age
was the talk Of London. seemed glad
that the Bourdet play, The Sex Fable
in which she is playing at the Belasco
had been so cordially received
I'VE like it," she said to Wung- Wung.
who had raised her head up to the
level Of the table. don't we?"
And Wung-Wung was about to an
| swer in the Affirmative when she saw
a waiter coming toward her-and with
that she ducked her head. gave a short
bark and got herself completely out OF