Evening star., 1938-06-05


like something blown out of a flute.
Down all the Nations Broadways.
too, no doubt. and everywhere where
there Is any one with gray in his hair
who has ever been to theater. II am
youth!-eternal youth" she said be-
fore 1,15l audiences when she was
Peter Pan, and there are old theater
men from Boston to Coolacres, Calf.
(meaning Joe Laurie, jr), now ham
ding the melancholy art that comes In
the mail in cans. who still believe her.
They relive gossamer part of their
youth when they see the name In print.
The picture may, as they say, lay a
cake (that, you know, takes q dozen
eggs), but Lady Babbie" will get the
best of it from them.
"Maude Adams tonight" You can
see it in lights and hear the sock on
the jaw for any one who starts to walk
out on the picture in the middle be-
cause that was where he came It.
Maude Adams Kiskadden, the wrath
from Salt Lake City! At the turn Of
the century, men in satin-lined capes
followed her around the country be-
cause they felt they could not live
without her. In Knoxville. Des Moines,
Omaha, Portland, Biloxi, they were the
subject of giggling comment as they
sat IN their seats on the enchanted
aisle, staring up for the hundredth
time at What Every Woman Knows"
"Chantecleer," THE Little Minister"
or "L'Aigfon."
DO YOU believe in fairies?" demand
ed Peter Pan. IF you do, wave your
handkerchief" Well, now, if they had
not believed in fairies, would they be
there? They waved their handker-
chiefs.
She never married and any one
who was in misery over that fact had
plenty of company. When the news
papers printed that New York police.
making a gambling raid, had confis-
Gated faro layouts, roulette wheels.
poker tables. chips and photograph
OF Maude Adams" it was William NC
Kinley, President Of the United States.
who resented even so misty q slur. He
announced formally to the press that
he kept a picture of her in the White
House study. l. -.s-,@.-
A ND when Charles Frohman, that
shy and frightened great man of
the theater. to- whom she had been
most persistenly rumored engaged,
went down with the Lusitania, he
stood Quietly on the deck TO the end.
murmuring bits from the mermaid
lagoon scene of Peter Pan" Miss
Adams cut that, scene out because it
was too sad for children. and Mr..
Frohman, who watched over her in
rehearsals. was among the few in the
world to have heard 1t from her lips.
When his time came to die, no other
tribute could have broken more hearts.
It seemed to have broken. hers. It
was In Kansas City, November Z, 1915.
when she was Phoebe of the Ringlets"
IN Quality Street." that she got the
news and faltered. She went on with
the play and tour, but in Knoxville, a
few days later, she had q nervous
breakdown. and that. except for a few
desultory and widely spaced appear
ances, was the end Of Maude Adams
as an actress.
That is nearly % years ago now,
and the remarkable thing is that her
name lives on so resolutely. Remark
able because she was always more of
personality than an actress. Bern
hardt and Duse are immortal because
they gave the greatest performances
of immortal plays. But, with Miss
Adams, it is evanescent plays, like "a
Kiss for Cinderella" and Butterflies"
and "The Masked Ball." that the Ma
ton must rely on for memory.
When she and William Faversham
played Romeo and Juliet" frozen
william Winter compared the ardent
scenes to "a couple Of grasshoppers
singing their stridulous loves in the
hollow of cabbage leaf"
Yet when, on October ~, 1900, she
played the Duke of Reichstadt in Ros-
tand's "L'Aiglon" few blocks away
from the Divine Sarah Bernhardt's
Duke of Reichstadt "a situation re-
peated in theatrical history last year
when Leslie Howard end John Gielgud
offered competing Hamlets simultane-
ously. much to. the distress of Mr..
Howard, 1t was the Divine Sarah
who took a licking at the box office.
''L'Aiglon'' lasted Miss Adams a year,
and it Is a fact that all her plays ran
the length of her desire for the role.
In 40 years on the stage she has ap-
peared in only 81 plays, record whose
success cannot be matched by any
other actress.
MILLIONS of words have been
A written to describe the special
magic Miss Adams cast over theater
audience. and Walter Pritchard Eaton,
who has read nearly all Of them, says
the words most frequently used are
virginia. and "elfin." This reporter
saw Miss Adams only once and then
in a court room to which she came
at the age of SO to fight q civil suit.
She looked like gray-haired angel.
Walking past the jury, she SKINNED
across the floor, her amazingly small
feet hardly touching the floor, and.
In the bleak and frowzy Supreme Court
Building, where there we're few who
knew her, there was not an eye that
did not follow her as they would have
followed. the fight Of bird across q
blank sky. The jury gave her the
verdict.
Moviegoers Of the present genera
aon may know her (shatteringly
encagas As the actress who set the
pattern for uarpo's aloofness TO inter-
viewers. She never granted single
one building up a legend for ."se-
crecy" that must make Garb6 feel a.
II she has been living in fish bowl.
No fact of her life has ever reached
print at first hand. Yet the simple
facts make fascinating reading. Born
November IL, 1872, in Salt Lake City.
Made her first appearance at the age
Of months in the title role OF THE
Lost Baby" her mother carrying her
on the stage Of the old Salt Lake
Theater. last renorted as the site of