Stage Confidences

Stage Confidences

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Stage Confidences, by Clara Morris
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Title: Stage Confidences
Author: Clara Morris
Release Date: August 25, 2004 [EBook #13277]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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CONFIDENCES ***

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[Illustration: _Clara Morris (1883)_]
STAGE CONFIDENCES TALKS ABOUT PLAYERS AND PLAY
ACTING
BY
CLARA MORRIS
AUTHOR OF
"LIFE ON THE STAGE," "THE PASTEBOARD CROWN," ETC.

ILLUSTRATED
LONDON CHARLES H. KELLY
1902
_To
MARY ANDERSON
"THE FAIR THE CHASTE THE UNEXPRESSIVE SHE"_

_GREETING
To those dear girls who honour me with their liking and their
confidences, greetings first, then a statement and a proposition.
Now I have the advantage over you of years, but you have the
advantage over me of numbers. You can ask more questions in an hour
than I can answer in a week. You can fly into a hundred "tiffs" of angry
disappointment with me while I am struggling to utter the soft answer
that turneth away the wrath of one.
Now, you eager, impatient young damsels, your name is Legion, and
your addresses are scattered freely between the two oceans. Some of
you are grave, some gay, some well-off, some very poor, some wise,
some very, very foolish,--yet you are all moved by the same desire, you
all ask, very nearly, the same questions. No actress can answer all the
girls who write to her,--no more can I, and that disturbs me, because I
like girls and I hate to disappoint them.
But now for my proposition. Why not become a lovely composite girl,
my friend, Miss Hope Legion, and let me try to speak to her my word
of warning, of advice, of remonstrance? If she doubts, let me prove my
assertions by incident, and if she grows vexed, let me try to win her to
laughter with the absurdities,--that are so funny in their telling, though
so painful in their happening.
Clara Morris._

CONTENTS

CHAPTER
I. A WORD OF WARNING II. THE STAGE AND REAL LIFE III. IN
CONNECTION WITH "DIVORCE" AND DALY'S IV. "MISS
MULTON" AT THE UNION SQUARE V. THE "NEW
MAGDALEN" AT THE UNION SQUARE VI. "ODETTE" IN THE
WEST. A CHILD'S FIRST PLAY VII. A CASE OF "TRYING IT ON
A DOG" VIII. THE CAT IN "CAMILLE" IX. "ALIXE." THE
TRAGEDY OF THE GOOSE GREASE X. J.E. OWENS'S
"WANDERING BOYS." "A HOLE IN THE WALL" INCIDENT XI.
STAGE CHILDREN. MY "LITTLE BREECHES" IN "MISS
MULTON" XII. THE STAGE AS AN OCCUPATION FOR WOMEN
XIII. THE BANE OF THE YOUNG ACTRESS'S LIFE XIV. THE
MASHER, AND WHY HE EXISTS XV. SOCIAL CONDITIONS
BEHIND THE SCENES XVI. THE ACTRESS AND RELIGION
XVII. A DAILY UNPLEASANTNESS XVIII. A BELATED
WEDDING XIX. SALVINI AS MAN AND ACTOR XX. FRANK
SEN: A CIRCUS EPISODE XXI. STAGE FORFEITS AND THEIR
HUMOUR XXII. POOR SEMANTHA

ILLUSTRATIONS
CLARA MORRIS (1883) CLARA MORRIS IN "L' ARTICLE 47"
CHARLES MATTHEWS CLARA MORRIS IN "ALIXE" CLARA
MORRIS AS "MISS MULTON" CLARA MORRIS AS "ODETTE"
MRS. GILBERT, AUGUSTIN DALY, JAMES LEWIS, AND LOUIS
JAMES JOHN E. OWENS "LITTLE BREECHES" CLARA MORRIS
AS "JANE EYRE" CLARA MORRIS IN "THE SPHINX" CLARA
MORRIS IN "EVADNE" CLARA MORRIS AS "CAMILLE"
TOMMASO SALVINI W.J. LE MOYNE CLARA MORRIS BEFORE
COMING TO DALY'S THEATRE IN 1870

CHAPTER I
A WORD OF WARNING

Every actress of prominence receives letters from young girls and
women who wish to go on the stage, and I have my share. These letters
are of all kinds. Some are extravagant, some enthusiastic, some foolish,
and a few unutterably pathetic; but however their writers may differ
otherwise, there is one positive conviction they unconsciously share,
and there is one question they each and every one put to me: so it is
that question that must be first answered, and that conviction that must
be shaken.
The question is, "What chance has a girl in private life of getting on the
stage?" and to reply at once with brutal truthfulness and straight to the
point, I must say, "Almost none."
But to answer her instant "Why?" I must first shake that positive
conviction each writer has, that she is the only one that burns with the
high ambition to be an actress, who hopes and fears, and secretly
studies Juliet. It would be difficult to convince her that her own state,
her own city, yes, her own block, could each produce a girl who firmly
believes that her talent is equally great, and who has just the same