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NEW CULT AND THE ACTRESS!rrt through these agencies, you arc Just , earth whore an actress likes to have theIVkW ww too tired and worried to sleep nnvwav.I liad• *From the Dramatic Agency to the4 *Agency of Hope a Regular Progression for Many Women of the StageT Is estimated that four thousand actorsmy fortune toldspoke [up the third.: *card reader. Shelast week,Only a quarter- a ■said I was facing aappearance of affluence and success It Is i in her home town.When notice is given that the play will close the following week, almost the firstWiggin had disproved by proving that ODD FACTS ABOUT THEATRES Ith®.'treet level. The Palace Music Hall, i balconies. London, in fact, goes to th#which was built for an English Opera I other extreme now, and does not permitdark man and an offer, and that a light j thing the actress does after drying herwoman was to lose her position and thedark man waknow just what they are doing when nothustling between the office of managerand agent.It is hope made strong by necessity thatpermeates the atmosphere of day, but despair made bitter by the success of others surrounds the unsuccessful one by night. New truths, thoughts and sciences arebeing molded into religions and delivered from the platform, rostrum and stage of halls, churches and theatres, until they have taken the form of hope agencies, and it is surprising to note howr many faces are seen on, Sunday in the auditoriumtears, is to estimate how® she will stand financially. She Is usually in debt, and more discouraged than before she was engaged to play the part. Her only con-is that the remainder of theItgoing to give it to me, and , would you believe it. Richardson sent forand actresses are out of employment, yesterday and Q. jd TTiat M!pg Plt;irrinand it Is a matter of some interest to « had bcen slck a wcek_ and lf ?he (]i(1 nu, jshow up at rehearsal to-morrow, he c#rnpany are down and out with her.wouid give that part to me. j ,)ot a case Gf •• misery likes company.^ the i.tdy of the cult j jnlt an element of satisfaction In belnpr thecraze, disdainfully, ‘ ti.yre is * o class to I fractional part of a failure rather thana cheap fortune, nothing e’eca.ing. We the whole. Again, when the actress se-don t want cheap parts in chlt;II9 9she is none other than Rebecca Rowena Rapdnil, and that she is going to remain so until she marries Mr. Ladd—perhaps.If such scandalous gossip has been afloat about Rebecca, think what has been said about her friends. Of course, Rebecca has had to suffer the most, because sho is more prominent. Rut theothers have had to suffer, too. There’s Ernest Truex Abijah Flagg, for example. lie is accused of having bc^n In-gomar, and ITamlrt. and Macbeth, andThings Interesting and Curious InPlayhouses All Over the WoNdUnique Theatre Buildings.HE finest theatre In London remains permanently closed—a total failure! This is the Scala Thea-House and was opened with Sullivan’s i a theatre to be built with more than two Ivanhoe,” has its orchestra floor onHtre, which was built by a rich dentist for sentimental reasons on the Richard III., ami other heroes and vil- of the famous old Prince of Waleson week days in the outerthat are seeoffice of the theatrical agency.In conversation, on the corner of Forty-first Street and Broadway, a young girl whose face was tired and worn from constant applications for employment, saidto her friend, “You know I was up to the New Truth lecture yesterday. The woman spoke beautifully of the courage we should have and the love in our hearts for our enemies, if wre wished to succeed.“ I went to her hotel last night, and paid her two dollars for a private talk, and girls here the pause that makes the meat of mystery was held just long enough to lower the voice and congregate the crowd about her—“ she told me that I was physically as well as mentally unstrung. That I must look after my health, get more sleep and take more nourishing food, then I would be in a better condition to radiate ability and win success—that was It—radiate and win.”“ But look what it is going to cost you,” chimed in one of the group. “ First, two llollars to see her, then your medicine, nd if you are as tired as I am when Iip plays, wemust hold oursHv s Irghe . We mus* hold the thought lt;; success if we want it, and not imagine we are go.ng to fall.”But if you haven’t the i r!ee of yourmorning coffee, as I had not this morning, faintly spoke thearen't able to hold any thought except that you are hungry, andsecond,• Iyoucures a part after a long struggle, she Is so elated over It that, like every other person who has won, sho tells it exultantly, radiating hope and joy from the very fact of having signed. She permits herself a few more of the necessities of life dur-lalns, including Rip Van Winkle. This happened in the days when he was almost too small for even “short pants.» t!Theatre, ('* the little old dustbin In Tot-the street level, and so has Tree's His Majesty’s. The Savoy Theatre, home of the Gilbert Sullivan operas, is built on the side of a hill and practically in the middle of a block. Altnough the roof of the Savoy only rises a few feet above the level of the Strand Its orchestra floortenhain Court Road.” as it was familiarlycalled during its prime,) where the Jbun-Later, after he had begun to grow up and • crofts produced the successful comediesopens on an Inside street of such poordimensions that it would be called an alley In America. The Savoy was built at the time all London managers thought atheatre had no chance for success unless it was on or near the Strand. Sincetiers. The unlucky Waldorf was the last theatre built In London with three tiers, and its sister house, the Aldwych, on the other corner of the same block, and designed by the same architect, was the first one built under the two tier regulation.•••»Theatres, as a rule, are long lived, and the two oldest playhouses in America are the Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, and the Savannah Theatre, Savannah,Ga. Despite the fact that so many newreach toward his ’temis, he was Little p yy Robertson forty years ago. Theand little Aulls. and dentist had not reckoned up in the deIThere was a grab for that girl and a change of toneand conversation so spontaneous that thepassers by were nearly knocked off of thepavement. ‘‘Gome into this rostathis minute!” was the the group. They laughed, and ateconditionurantunar.i;noi:s cry ofthoydid not weep,ft luncheonthat the one as yet unfed might not feellonely.ing rehearsals, knowing that her salary is going to square everything in a fewworks.Two months ago this very existed, and the young girl hearsed in her part until four fore ti e opening performance, then told that her part would to a woman of greater prominence to together; assure the success of the opening twoweeks, and that In all probability, sheIiwas redays be-She wasbe givenrmu- *• I would be taken back into the companyrhu, conversation and its abrupt endingAm Z v A rw t 1 a _ « t nfrom beginning to endconditions.is a picture ofThere is always a little dissatisfactionat the commission ehaold gmsav.Vv-yAVV• ••V.V.ANNy.Afjv:*/A• 4• •v.*:• • iV.-.VAy.lt;rT . at the hopeagency. It is very seldom that a readerof character- in any form, past and future or a propounder of truth in any new ore, can afford to give his information for nothing. It is his livelihood. The -whole world, not alone the actress, likes to be jollied, and, if possible, convincedinto believing that their dark davs areabout over, but readings gratis would overflow the rooms of the soothsayer with anxious, questioning women. It isnot the actress who has landed and Isplaying or rehearsing, that fills the agencies of hope on Sundays, it is the man and woman in the profession who have exerted every effort in their power and spent almost every cent in their possession to secure a position and failed.In these peculiar days of failures In productions that open and close in a week or two, the actress of small means is plunged into new difficulties. She pur- |chases a wardrobe for a small part, which represents a large figure to her—borrowing the money in advance on her salary, or from some more fortunate friend. The last thing that she does is to write home for it.j after it had made a hit, and lf she was not taken back, the management would try to place her in something else. She did not reply. She was too stupefied by the revelation. Her friends In the New England city, where the play was to open, had arranged a little celebration for her. Her relatives were coming on to see her performance, and every one of her less successful sister workers w-ere rejoicing with her. After the terrible disappointment and humiliation was over, she started out again to look for work, but Broadway knew of the circumstances and the business proposition to the manager, became a doubt as to her ability to the agent.In this condition the actress seeks the soothsayer, perhaps no more than thejealous married woman or the anxiousmother, but she seeke them from a different motive. It Is not only hope for her success In her art that she wishes to listen as she would listen to a quieting melody, but it is hope and desperation for her maintenance.Writing home for money seems a mute acknowledgment of stringency instead of a reauest, and if there is one place onTHE SUNNYBRQOK CHILDRENWho They Were and What TheyDid Before They Lost TheirReal Identities..9 I• 4• •wMS•v►V.v• 4A.'vy.'•v,• *• •xx*V.-V• • ••-v.v:V.v/*:•X•'.V.V.• •• *y/—V.v• •y.v.•Y•Vy• *0V•v.AC•V.• .• •* •• • •y.v.• -v.vlt;lt;mm• *.V.• •• f'•y/.. • *•-* •v• •VV•V•«• •• *Mi*•v• *V.v,9 •v; v..•‘•'A•V• ••XvT-* ** •• *• • •*v• •A*.• ••vv• •■mm• f'•X• ••y.v.v.-*:vv•V,.v*• ••4n ,oIMrs. Kate Douglas Wiggin said in The*%Times two or three wreeks ago that EdithTaliaferro Rebecca Rowena Randall hadstepped out of her book and said: V* Youmade me. Now, how do you like me?” But Mrs. Wiggin did not say a wordabout the other children. She did not tell where they came from. She even left the supposition that they might be pretending they were Emma Jane Perkins, Clara Belle Simpson, Minnie Smellie, Alice Robinson, and Abijah Flagg.Of course, it had long been supposed that Edith Taliaferro was Just Edith Taliaferro, Mabel’s sister, and that she was an actress. It took Mrs. Wiggin and some others to find out what she reallyis—a character In fiction, not a make-believer, not a pretender, but a real character In fiction, which is the realest thing in the world. Until Mrs. Wiggin made this discovery, people went around saying that Edith showed much promise; that she was an actress in ” Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush”; that she was in The Girl with the Green Eyes,” with Clara Blood-good; that she was seen in ” The Vinegar Buyer,” and ” Weatherbeaten Benson,” and ” Marta of the Lowlands,” and even that she was “ Polly of the Circus,” justas her sister had been. All of which Mrs.Lord Fauntlerov,Ikey IkenstRn. and others. Just at present. after he has been discovered as Abijah, he is so close to the voting age— within four years of it—that he’ll probably be Insulted at the suggestion thathe is one of the children.Emma Jane Perkins, who is still known to her older acquaintances as Lorraine Frost, was an actress’ some years ago, appearing with Eleanor Robson in Audrey ” and with Millie James in “ The Little Princess.” Sho was also with Andrew Mack, and with Charles Ilawtrey, and a lot of other prominent stage people, until she almost adopted the dramatcrioratlon of the neighborhood, howev* r,and he built his beautiful marble playhouse on the disreputable side of Tottenham Court Road. On the east side of thethoroughfare lies the middle class respectability of Bloomsbury, wdiich consistently refused to be lured to the gorgeous new theatre in the near-by mean street of :ll-repute. while the general public had long sinco forgotten the ancient glories of the original temple of the drama on the oldsite.then other theatre districts have’ grown itheatres have been bul,t ln New Torl5 up around Leicester Square, Shaftesbury 1 ln the laEt decade only flve of the o!dAvenue, Charing Cross Road, and St. Martin’s Lane.•••Athens, Greece, and Red Wing, Minn., both rejoice in municipal theatres. Constantinople boasts of butone theatre, which is situated in the municipal gardensin Pera, which is the European quarter of the Turkish capital. The performances are usually in French, but recentlv anItalian operetta company4 Ipresented ourones have been eliminated—the Star, the Madison Square, the Manhattan, the Princess, and the Koster Blal Music Hall in Thirty-fourth Street. It has often been said that Daly’s, the Bijou, and Wallack’s were also destined for the discard, but they continue to defy timeand conditions undaunted. Wallack’s is the only unfinished theatre in New York, as the outer, building was never carried above the second story.although the•••At Spalato, ln Dalmatia, the race feeling between the Croats and the Italians,own - Prince of Piisen ” in the language^ origlnal P,ans called for a handsome of Tasso and Dante. There are several I offlce building. When it was discoveredmoving picture houses ln Constantinople. tJiat the necessary outlay of money wasnot justified by the probable revenue the structure was abruptly terminated at theSophia, the capital of Bulgaria, with its second story.as a profession. Once, when she w-as 1«5|who compose the population, is very bit- 130,000 Inhabitants, has a national the-old, she played Ophelia with Rob-jter The Italian theatre in that town atre which was eiyearsert Mantell In ••Hamlet,- which shejhllrned down some years flgo and the■Croat majority on the City Council votedthinks was her greatest achie\'ement. one of her Incarnations she Tvas Prince Henry of England, ho whom King John wished blinded, at the New’ AmsterdamTheatre, when Mr. Mantell was appearing In the place of the King. Now. as Emma Jane Perkins, she stands ready to take Rebecca’s placo should the need arise.Clara Belle Simpson is continually being,1 called Violet Mersereau by her girl friends, u’ho remember her past. She began to be talked about when she was nine years old, but It was with Margaret Anglin in a piece called ” The Eternal Feminine ” that she began to suffer the misunderstandings of the world. After being with Miss Anglin she went with Maxine Elliott, and then she became a Southern girl in ** The Clansman ” and liked that make-believe so much that she remained such for three years. Now sho is back at home with Rebecca and thea large sum of money (approximating $300,000) to build a new' Croat theatre to replace It, and this they refused to let to Italian companies. But there are no-Croat companies ready to bear the expense of going to Spalato, so the theatre remains closed.%•erected three years ago from the plans of two eminent Viennese architects at a cost of $400,000. It is a beautiful theatre In every respect, and looks more like a real temple of dramatic art than any playhouse in America—and this statement includes The New' Theatre.•••* At the time the London Hippodrome was ibuilt it was considered the most complete ! structure of its kind ln the world, but at ! the dress rehearsal it was discovered that•••At Prague, Bohemia, the same ill-feeling exists between the Bohemian and German elements of the population, and finds constant expression in their attitude tow’ard amusement. The Germans will notpatronize the Bohemian theatres, while the Bohemians conscientiously boycott the German playhouses. Fortunately for the foreign virtuoso or singer who desires to give a concert in the Bohemian capital, the Rudolfinium, that gem of concertIrkutsk, Siberia, has an opera house w’hich cost a million rubles, or more than ' $300,000, although the town has but 70,000 inhabitants, w'ho have to thank a paternal government for this artisttic enterprise. The opera house is really an elegant brick structure, reminding one of the Scala in Milan and of the Politeama at Buenos Ayres, and was the result of theno provision had been made to aocomxno- • date the large orchestra. For more than a year the musicians had to sit on ona side of the dress circle, where a number of boxes were altered for their use.When Bamum’s Circus and Sousa'ajBand visited Munich, ln 1900, the local jauthorities required them to pay an in*,j come tax on their receipts..others.Minnie Smellie and Alice Robinson have long been called sisters, such being the custom of the stage. One was known as Katheryn Bryan and the other as E^ta. When they really became themselves, in Rebecca’s town, they lost the relationship and took their real names. Minnie Kath-has been little Willie in “ Easthalls, is considered as neutral ground, and here the warring nationalities meet amicably to do homage to internationalgenius.%•99erynLynne,” Mandy Gates in Shore Acres,Heinrich, with Thomas Jefferson, ln ” RipVan Winkle,” and several other importantTerry’s Theatre, which is situated in the Strand near the Savoy Hotel, Is the first London theatre to be given over to moving picture exhibitions. Terry’s is but a little bandbox of a playhouse, and not to be compared in size to the historic Union Square, the Twenty-third Street Theatre, (where Charles Frohman first won hiswork of a select commission of inquiry which visited the. principal Continental opera houses. Tomsk, Siberia, which is; 1,800 miles from the European border, also has a palatial theatre, which wouldX'..4 m• • »:$•be a credit to any other city in the world.wI» » *t «*W TV/nil^ tomoo Honq TMnnri spurs as ft producing manager,) and the people with Millie James, ^lara Blood- ^^ y 4 TA.,ia gorgeous Majestic Theatre, which weregood, Ben Greet, and Louis James. | e B XT_. ___And Alice Etta has been almost as bad.She has been Shakespearian children -with Louis James and Katheryn Kidder, and with Robert McWade, Sr., she has played with Thomas Jefferson and with J. H. Stoddard, and, when she was only nine years old, she was a star for two seasons under the management of Charles E.Blaney.So, you see, It has taken Just about as long for Rebecca’s girl friends to findRebecca as It has for Mrs. Wiggin to discover who Edith Taliaferro really is. The only unpleasant thing there is to think about in this matter is the possibility that some day some one of these folks will forget herself and go back into the land of pretense/and try to act again.A Complete Stage.The Prlnz Regenten Theatre, ln Munich, where the Wagher festivals are givenamong the first of the New York theatres to succumb to the animated pictorial drama. It is but another evidence of the spread of the moving picture craze. The United States Consul at Salonika, in Turkey in Europe, in a recent report to the State Department describes the remarkable prosperity enjoyed by the two moving picture theatres In that city, which Is principally associated ln Americanminds with the kidnapping by brigands of Miss Ellen Stone, the American mission-The San Carlo Theatre at Naples and La Scala at Milan both have six balconies, and the same is true of the Con-stanza at Roma and the Marlenski (the 1 Imperial Opera House) at St. Petersburg. This is essentially a European style of construction, as no theatre in Great Britain or the United States hasMOMmanymV.W.• * «xm-X-V v •' V-r ..' 'V- t ■ - a X;. v*; . ■• • ’ ’• ’/' • • • . .'SvVnS ‘ 'ft- V-\ s-r.VivVV 'v;:;•-•;•AS'\vVI »• » • S'A-*'* * »-VNV' :v.«; .iV-VV* «.:-y * '»•v.vv.V.Vt • •* •X'v v.;, ’r\•SAW* • %V.VA-- •- : v. \ .•;• . A* - • ■ «*ary.every Summer, is said to possess the mostcompletely equipped stage of any theatrein tit* world. : W ■ wIn all but three of the London theatres the orchestra floor and stage are situated below the level of the street, so that entering from the sidewalk the spectator finds himself on the first balcony, or dress circle floor, and is compelled to walk downstairs to the ce’lar to find his orchestra stall. The Criterion Theatre, which Wyndham made the most fashionable theatre in London for a quarter of a century, is entirely situated under ground,the ceiling being about twelve feet belowh ' i'■■■• A ••••.V.v ••AAVvv. iXVv.;v • v.VV.j .% ’i*V'-v *, •- • -r . . ‘ v’■V®'-. .s’-’• •• ^M-Sr' ■ • '\ vw. - ••• . . v.A; • -xi,'V' 1 • 0 ** ‘ , V ■ X *- ».'v.’.Yf; • , -• # ‘ -7tv/ •’V-V 1 sVT ••V A *tSVAVxWA• avvAAV* *••VVA-.aX Kliy, uc “Ar’SK.e, ’ * Cl'fVIT\
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