The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 29, 1901, Page 8

ive of esent e years d so far pz tha r on this “Grandma.” a mem- Most won- | wonderful stage old ladies, she ¢ over the de d - « the refr days like the She may have Ler ¢ nat line, but she does n, and she adapts herse ly to the wishes of he pres now—so delightfully becomes a tribute in- to e her age. ed years to was reared a dancer. 2 new theory on an Gilbert repeats: early training as a Ith, high spirits’ and - | . n idea worth digesting. Per- haps e of the ballet, whom we hav « he habit of sentimentally for their long hours upon their s they will have the e end. Perhaps their 1 good form when we s uy At any rate, Mrs. know whereof she speaks, ing of her caregr in the d future tense. charming play we are put- don’t you think so?” she When we re- rehears- ing a 't know what it yet, but I a r to see it. I shall be with Miss ght along—3 indeed - I hope sert theorizes on old age she always c , the famous dancer a r He lived to be over 8 one of her teachers when, as a little she was practicing “at the bar. all took place in gland in the let Schocl of Her Majesty’s in the market. This was the old Her Maj- esty's T ter th stood on the ground where Beerbohm Tree's Theater now She d to go on the stage there, supe” and receiving her sons at the school. stands She was a 12 then, in company with a e girls who worked and the same way that she did. as really her own will and against m ion . that she went on the stage. Her family were English and of the conservative English type. It shows wh must have been a lit ant she &t home, or wk t a coaxer, that she had in the end and became a professionzl dancer just as she wanted to. her own way had to keep on with certain house- hold duties the feeding of the birds, the ) ;//A &\i@ve“e i \ ing of the water pitcher and the set of the kfast tabic. She bustlel aud the he loved. igh these as f hands feet could her and made for theater. That was the place floor was the A big hail with a slopin, place where the lessops t Along & piace. s bars were place nd “at the bar” were kept the practicing youngsters, Ranged in rows, they clung to bars while they perfecrmed their steps. Teach- ers, some of them gre: asters like Tag- lioni, came to the hall to give less The pupils were kept at the work for hours, and they were instructed to keep it up at home. This little Anne Jane Hartley did, clinging to her bedpost in the morning as soon as she was out of the bed, and practicing with all the energy ew day. This, she is why she is still an at 80 vs, active years of age. It is a little startling to think of Mrs. Gilbert as a tripping and whirling ballet dancer, in the light of the royal dowager and capable professional part that she i= piaying to-day. But her. versatiiity was always her trump card. She slid with an easy grace from dancing girl to Lady Macbeth, from Lady Mac- beth to comedy old woman. She was play- ing old woman roles when she still had to draw in the necessary wrinkles, and there is no one who can fill her place in them to-day. And as for that, she has danced in pub- lic on the stage since she passed the 70- year line. A story is told of how her little dance in “Cyrano de Bergerac” came to be introduced. There was not the slight- est idea of it at first. During one of the rehearsals when she, the duenna of 'the piece, was standing in an obscure corner she commenced beating time softly to the inspiring music incidental to the scene, and presently found herself dancing away gayly, unnoticed as she supposed. But Ada Rehan’s quick eye caught her at it, Ada Rehan told, and presently she roused to find Miss Rehan, Daly and Charles Richman all looking delightedly and af- fectionately on. ‘Good for you, grandma,” Daly cried. “Try that business over again.” And he had the dance rehearsed until it was letter-perfect, insisting that it be part of the regular performance. To go back to her early dancing days, she married during them, and while still an English’ woman she toured England THE SUNDAY CALL. " Ry M with her husband. It was in 1849 that she came to America, and from ‘that time on has been thoroughly American in feeling, apologizing most humbly for her English birth. She and her husband went West upon their arrival in New York, and for a long time they played in Wisconsin, Illinois and Ohio. Mrs. Gilbert has a vast amount of ex- perience in what is now being revived un- der the name of ‘“‘stock star” work. She belonged to a stock company which re- mained at one theater to support travel- ing stars. In this work she had to play every conceivable kind of role, and she got the broad and thorough training that i i | MUATA i is claimed by her and those of hex school to be the only foundation upon which to build an actress. The modern system of premature starring and specialization is what they complain of. She supported Edwin Forrest at this time, as well as other stars whose names have come down to us. They would stop in the town for a week or perhaps less; this made hard work for the stock com- pany, for there was constant cramming of parts to be kept up. Mrs. Gilbert had to study and play everything from light farces to Shakespeare. She claims that her first hit was in the little dance of the “Dromajah” in “Poca- hontas.” It was as accidental as that of “Cyrano.’” She happened to give a little hop, skip and a jump as she left the stage at the end of her scene—gave it on the impulse of the moment—and it caught the quick fancy of the audience. A whole dance was developed from it at the next rehearsal, oler work in this play was three-fold. The parts of Dromajah, the Tuscarora schoolmarm and the Wee-cha-ven-da were arranged so that she could carry them all, short as they were, and they made a name for her. She played these parts in the West with John Brougham, and afterward at a Daly benefit in New York. Although she was known to the New York public for so long as one of Daly’s “Big Four” (the others were Ada Rehan, James Lewis and John Drew), Daly was not the person who first brought her out in New York. He discovered her after Mrs. Wooed had brought her there from the West and advertised the “first appear- ance of Mrs. G. H. Gilbert from Pike's Opera-House, Cincinnati.” Daly opened in '69, and then Mrs. Gilbert went to him and remained with him from that time until his death, except for the short perfod when he gave up his the- ater and she had to take another engage- ment. It was with Daly’s Théater that she was identified to_all who knew her. She continued there, playing mostly ola lady and character parts, during the rise and fall of many leading women. She was there when Agnes Ethel rose in “Frou-frou” and fell to make way for Clara Morris in “Man and Wife.” She played with Fanny Davenport when the plump Fanny was not yet taking herself seriously and was assigned to comedy roles. Then came the famous days when LDEST ACTRESS Ada Rehan and here togethe: Richman, who in here re- * and still of her on isco. It star and Daly agreeab him to ter what tb last night in th had the East. The audience called up again and again, and it dent that ‘it was clap a farewell to not be satisfied wi of the whole com Implicitly obeyed, W left for curtain 1d they would the repeated returns t Daly was her he was present or not, and Drew must have somebody to return with y MrS. Gilbert button her 1 loosened preparatory to dressing for irried upon the stage wi ng his hard in view of the aud and left him alone to his curtain eall, his by rights. “When he met me in the wings he didn’t say anything about what I had done, but he stooped and kissed me and said, ‘God bless you, grandma,’ " she says when she tells the stor: Mrs. Gilbert still treasures some Call- fornia flowers that she pressed long ago. She got them just as she was leaving the coast after one of Daly’s visits here. The train stopped in a grimy spot, a desolate bit of the State, where one cabin was the only building in t. The miner sat at his door and near him, de, was a table on which stood a bunch of gorgeous Cali- fornia wild flowers. They made the only bright spot in the whole dingy picture, and everybody in the car noticed them. Half a dozen pretty women poked their heads out of as many windows and begged for them. They wers all young, all charming, in fact, they were some of Daly’s stage beautles. But the desolate miner was proof against their wiles, far more than any Johnnie who should be better used to them. He shook his head stolidly. As the train pulled out, the window where Mrs. Gilbert sat passed his door. She nodded and smiled as she passed. To her surprise he sprang from his seat, seiz- ing the flowers as he did so. With great strides he ran after the train, reaching it just in time to fling the flowers in at the rear door. “They'res for the old lady,” he cried. Mrs. Gilbert’s seventieth birthday was celebrated by Daly and the rest of the company. His theater had become home to her, bereaved as she was. When he died in 1899 she felt as if cast adrift from well known moorings. Frohman sent for her then and she accepted the engagement he offered because she felt obliged to continue earning, but it was with some dread that she went to a company com- posed of new faces. She joingd Annie Russell, who was then playhg “Miss Hobbs,” and she has been with the little star eyer since. Her last birthday was celebrated with a supper and a splendid * gift of a silver service, ahd she is grand- mothering this company as she did the old one. She looks upon her “Frohman period™ as a new chapter in her long life story. She is really blossoming anew in her new environment. She doesn’t look upon her- self in, the lght of a martyr at all, dragged about the country as she is. “San Francisco Is a great relief after an Eastern summer,” she said. I was glad to leave Nantucket, even, for the West. I am having a delightful outing.”