The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1935-06-07
PLAYED Shakespeare

Played Shakespeare
Now she has gone back to Eng.
land to star in a new play which
Sir James M. Barrie has written
for her and to make more pictures
for the h.Dominions Com
pany.
I think that eventually the little
star Of Escape Me Never" on the
screen, at present charming good
audiences at RKO Keith's. will
land in Hollywood. All the great
movie stars do, and there is no
good reason why Elisabeth Berg.
ner should prove an exception.
Inquiries have come OF this desk
as to whether Bergner was ever
banned in Germany. Henry Albert
Phillips, who is UP on the Bergner
career, insists that she was not.
In the Stage Magazine he says:
Some spectators have said
most Of them, in fact-that Berg.
ner has very large eyes. Various
observers have remarked on their
decided color; black, brown, gray.
Others insist that she was 50 tall!
Such big woman! With q clar.
ion voice!
II we are to be believed, Berg.
ner is none Of these things. She
is unbeliev&bly small, in every.
thing; voice, features, eyes, figure.
We call her eyes tawny, like her
hair. She is certainly not tall: a
slight wisp Of q creature that
any strong wind along the Rialt0
may one of these gusty winters
days blow away! Perhaps these,
too, are illusions, depending on
the role or the mood in which
each Of us happened to see her
last. Which is the true illusion
of Bergner, we shall never know.
Elisabeth Bergner'S career is
simple and soon told. She was
born in Vienna, where she first ap.
peared on the stage at the age of
IL. The capital Of the Hapsburgs
never seemed to have been over.
impressed with her work.
Reinhardt discovered" her.
"The moment saw her 1 knew
what she could d." he tells.
"When I found her, she was Grip
pied, so to speak. They did not
understand her. They had her
walking on with clutches of a
technique false to her sensitive
nature. / took Elisabeth and
threw away her crutches-for
knew she had wings! l could not
teach her how to fly, only how to
use them" Reinhardt made the
Little LiSI of Vienna the great
Bergner of Berlin. She became
the greatest box.office attraction
in all Germany. She received 1000
Reichsmarks performance.
Crowds stood in lines all night
and almost mobbed the theaters
wherever she played. PatricianS
and people acclaimed her genius.
The Bergner's greatest successes
were In Shakespearean roles:
Ophelia, RoSalind, Viola. Shaw'S
"Saint Joan" followed her Shake
spearean cycle. Then, "The Last
Of Mrs. Cheyney," "Strange Inter
Jude" "The Constant Nymph," all
in German, of course. These early
contacts with English and Ameri-
can drama and dramatiStS i'm
planted a secret longing that was
not to be gratified for many years
to come.
Although one Of the discards
and losses Of Nazi Germany in its
mad anti-Semitic Dummheit Miss
Bergner left that country before
the ban against non.AryanS' ap-
pearance in the national theater
was enforced. Today, there is no
artistic in the German theater who
can touch the hem Of Bergner's
garment, artistically. Germany'S
irreparable loss became the Aus.
lands priceless gain. In trying to
authenticate this statement, the
commentator is constrained to
make comparisons.