The Washington times., 1936-12-15
THE VOICE OF
Broadway
By Louis SoboI
Down Memory Lane
With NazimoVa

"IlIl NdZIIIIONo
(Today, NazimovG continues
her reGallections of her early
days in the the1ter. Last meek tOe
left her as she and other men,
berS of the eccentric Paul Or
lenetfS company Dere trdUeltng
by coal barge-trom MoScol0
to Vologdd.J
I stayed in Paul Orleneff's
company for seven or eight
years. For four seasons we
toured Russia, and then he got
the idea he would like to play
Vienna. 1 was sent on ahead
-. no money, no anything.
Just Go to Vienna and get me a
theater." When I reached
Vienna there were no theaterS to
be had, so I went up to Berlin
and somehow managed to get
one there. BY that time I had
no money at all, so for four
or five weeks I got myself a job
directing a play for some Rus
sian college boys.
Orlenetf 1rriUed Just as 1U1S
beginning to despair of eUer see
ing him again E. . 1Oe played for
t1Uo DeekS in the theater that /
had leased, and then closed ...
no business. Then 1Oe sat just
sat in the lobby OF ratty lit
tie hotel 1OGiting for something
to turn up. OrleneH 1Oanted to
90 to London but he didn't
haze the money for tickets.
Finally I got diSguSted 1Dtth the
aDhole business. listen" / told
him, "I'm going to bed ... and
I'm not getting up until see a
ticket in my hand"
For Arts Sake
I stayed in bed for three weeks
.one of my friends, Olga, used
to bring me sandwiches. Then
one day Orleneff burst in, a huge
grin on his face and big package
under his arm. Here, baby" he
said, patting the package lovingly,
"is what is going to take us to
London. -" He told me that
while he had been out walking
he had met an old Russian friend
of his, and the man, who was a
painter, had been overjoyed to see
him. Come, my good friend, Or
leneff," he had said, 1--WE will go
up to my room and you may
choose any one Of my paintings
that you wish. You can sell it,
and then you will have money to
go to London. 80"
Orleneff unwrapped the pack
age and proudly put the painting
on my mantelpiece. 1t was a
very bad copy of an Old Master.
-. I stayed in bed.
For the next few days Orleneff
used to bring in groups of three
and four people,. complete
strangers to look at his precious
painting. They would peer at me
rather curiously, but he would
wave his hand deprecatingly, MUIR
mur "Sick actress. . never mind
her." and go on to explain the
marvellous beauties of line and
color in his masterpiece. After
that had gone on for while, Or
leneff strobe in one evening with
a fiStful of bills. Nov we go to
London!" he shouted gleefully. I
never found out where he got the
money, and I never asked.
Our rooms in London were
charming they were over a
saloon, and whenever we wanted
to get to them we had to walk
past the bar. But we did meet
some important people while we
were there Jerome X. jerome
and Lawrence Irving. Armed only
with a letter from those two to
Charles FrOhman, we set out for
America. None Of us had ever
been there before and not
one of us knew a word of Eng
lish.
"When we reached New York we
scurried Immediately into the first
little boarding house that we saw,
very frightened by all the clat.
ter and noise and confusion. I had
one suit on my back, and no other
clothes at all. The suit needed
brushing off, so I pushed the bell
in my room to get someone to
come and take it away. All I knew
of the English language I had
cleaned from a little book .
English in Ten Easy Lessons" "
There was a knock on the door e.
opened it, and saw huge Negro
standing there. Frightened to
death, I pushed the suit at him,
cried, "Clean!" and slammed the
door. I had to stay in my room
for a whole day . I had nothing
else to wear, and that was how
long it took for the suit to be
returned.