The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 3, 1902, Page 11

THE SUNDAY CALL. SN r ~ AT THEODOwmE FROBERTS AS HE REALLY looOKSs the ting pen and or re sele for A AS SVENGALL Ibs character he cun only portray one char- acteristic and he bends all his energy to that one. He studies first his own face to find out how far it fails to realize his conception. If his artistic perception is true he uses his make-up only where na- ture has failed him. And one little word of advice I would give. Nothing is too much to do for make-up. Yet you may easily do too much. The nice perception that tells you when to stop is the highest development of the art, for it is most certainly an art. The words “this will do,” are responsible for more bad make-ups than ever lack of ability, If you are portraying a racial type re- member it is not enough to say that “some one of that race might have looked like this.” You must take the prominent characteristic of that race and portray it minutely or your make-up will be defect- fve. I have seen an Indian with the color, features and hair of a white man, but he would be a poor model to take if you would portray an Indian. Not “what will do” but “what can 1 do” is the talisman that gives success. Of course in grotesque characters, which are intended solely to create laughter, the possibilities are limitless, though in this line even the tendency is to run to an absolute similarity of types. For instance there is the Irish comedlan, the German comedian, the Hebrew, the English fop, the French waiter, etc. They are found in scores of plays, all made up precisely res and thunderous turns to amusing his little brother, ana “asides” have gove never to return. I then he learns to tell a story and express listened to the old gentleman who tells With his face the feeling of his words. like their prototypes. Of late, however, me that all has deterforated since his Then he wants to characterize, And his except in out-and-out burlesque, these young time—that there are no such actors face being all inadequate, he burns types ime-honored tgaditions of the pro- ion all of them—aYe rarely used. a cork to-day trod the boards and rattled the 1d paints a mustache and an im- fe: windows of “the Old Bowery''—and I ad- possible pair of eyebrows and hides behind It is in parts that forbid any adornment mit that no such towering glants domi- the door and springs out and says)*Boo” of the face—with whiskers, mustache or goatee, for example, or marked eccentric- ity of dress, but which nevertheless re- to his little brother. Then he reads detective stories of im- nate the stage to-day, but not because the sountain peaks are lowered, but because 5 il the plain has risen. 7 possible feats in false beards and burns to quires a clean-cut delineation of charac- £ o - i The dead level of acting is higher, and fool his mamma and as the idea grows the ter—or facial peculiarities that the skill of stage e exists the genfuses who rise above their fel- well-nigh universal stage-struck era the actor is taxed to the utmost. : lows find close competitors at either el- comes and if the disease is not'caught and Out of my own experience a good illus- e e e s e ol S et bow. And make-up—and the study that cured in time, behold a young actor, fully tration of such a one may be found In b s i e e st FOCS hand in hand with make-up—ls determined to hand his name down to pos- ‘the character of the Egyptan slave whica o SR e it e N o worTeS! largely responsible for this advance ali terity along with Booth and Forrest and I played with Fanny Davenport In “Cleo- y che a e, lor Bistori could o0 ‘the lids the rest of them. patra.”” Here was a character with little ng it N etie and et Sould The art'st in make-up has begun very In faclal make-up the artist starts with or no chance for make up. The face was £ i Rt i v e early to learn. As a little child before his canvas already prepared. His is not clean shaved and the dress quite devold AR R the mirror he has found that certain con. to say what size his picture, nor what of all ornamentation. To be historically e o dbpete =i § tractions of certain muscles have made Shall be the background. He is to re- correct almost absolute nudity was re- pepy s have made the public more 4., ticec As he advances in years he strict himself to the materfal ih hand— aquired. Hence on the stage it was a custom change " ‘]) oW/ ApRtecny mesus etily to make these faces express dif. his own face. a box of colors, a wig, some matter of much ingenuity to clothe him e cer 1 and the term reh dx:\ the w an::.(-llrlvm’m s he begins to compre- hair and puity or wax. He has no model presentably and still preserve this same not pnly to the face but ha Bupg An ”>7- tage 5 or guide. Ie has only an emotion or attri- effect he tip of the head- days- days of deep ct his littie brother he hute to port However complex the iirst of all these slaves were of spien- as SaRRPRANRRSS o verrpans partr Tgen A SCARBRO ‘THE &GIimnl LEFT BEHIND ME limbed, muscular and aid stature. clean athl a e, with that peculia quality cf skin 1t was neither red like the American India black like the Ethiopian, nor yell like the Mongolian, but som betwixt and between—or pe s y, a combination of all thr: At ne time it was of such color and texture as to show the play of the muscles beneath the skin in the me manner that the thews and sire of a thorou red horse outline themselves be h surface. In d they were imperturbable as the sphinx itself, but alert, quick, active, position as flent It is one of those characters which must be ma up so well that the audienee does not realize that it is make up at all, but accents it as re For this rea- int must be used evenly 1 the final color neither ull Like e of high it required months make-up to per- son the gre: and thorou shiny nor toc too ued. character ti s and lofty diz of study to every ty bri in “The Girl 3 very many points of clean shaved and the tore and texture of the to be 1 quite as carefu the face of smooth and al- that of the In- even while the acteristic to Zgyptian slave was wrinkleless seamed, lity is cf In Scarbrow, however, the shape of the face tly different. There are the bigh cheek bones, the strung grim line of the mouth, the aquiline nose and that peculiar upw slant to the eyes which is almost Asiatic. In making up this part T had out the cheek bones with putt to build and arch the nose in the same way, giving to the whole face that hatchet-like tendency so noticeable and so dangerously suggestive in the redmen. Over this the color tone had to be carefully blended and then ths wrinkles—not many of them, but all characteristic—marked in afterward. Here, however, the wig and the costum- ing comes most effectively to the actor’s aid, for they are truly distinctive and picturesque: Still, without giving the face the proper shape and tone quality the cos’uming would border on the ridiculous. As an example of what stage tradition may do—indeed, invariably does do—is the character of Svengall. This make-up, which was first created by Mr. Wilton Lackaye, has never since been deviated from in the smallest detail. The whis- kers, the long hair and the beaked nose make it quite easy, thougn the whole se- cret of the character lies iIn the eyes— those compelling, wide, staring. wild, al- most flerce eyes which give to the whole face that uncanny appearance which has made the character one of the strongest on the stage. In contrast to this, however, is my own make-pp for the part of Simon Legree in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Stage tradition has always shown him with a beetling brow over which a cowlick of black hair is piastered in a broad side part, a red Ii- quor, illuminated nose and as heavy, drcoping black mustache—something be- tween a Spanish brigand and a bad man from the “wild and woolly West."” Without ever giving ‘much thought to the subject, I had always accepted this idea as a matter of course, along with many other stage traditions, until one day, shortly before I was called upon to play the part myself, I chanced to come upon a copy of an old and rare ed!- tion of “Uncle Tom.,” in which Simon Legree was described as a man with a square, close cropped beard, a broad, low forehead, close cropped hair, a broal mouth, “and most distinctive of all, a broken nose. Accepting ‘this as the best standard to very 11 L 9982 ann L Wi liise? make-up accord- 1d in consequence presented an en- lifferent looking slave driver from Simon Legree always The broken nose even without beard and the hair would ke it distinctive. As it is, it needs no acting after such a make-up to show the man as brutal as Mrs. Stowe wrote him down. Hé is a type—a strongly marked type—the seafaring scoundrel of the slave tirely the traditional shown period as different from the brow-beating bully of the West as he possibly could be, and hence I have tried to make him look as he was described in the book. n to the dress I have changed him. Heretofore the part had always beea dressed with high top boots, a flannel shirt and a wide brimmed slouch hat in imitation of the cowboy. I've given him light clothes, with a straw hat e would most likely have worn tton fields under a broiling sun. in t Then, by standing with shoulders drooped slightly and head drawn down and set grimly forward, the whole bulldog ap- pearance of the man is shown at once. It is a make-up that caused me much study, ‘but it is one of the best, I think, that I ever attempted. It needs no fulsome description to show the points of difference between' Simon Legree and Canby, the ramcher in Ari- zona, which is nevertheless Just as.dis- tinctive a type. ' The alkali colored hair and mustache, the sun tanned skin, the heavy eyebrows, the slouch hat and the whole costume of boots, pistol belt, shirt and all make him of the West Western—strong, rugged, forceful, almost uncouth, but at the same time manly. It Is an excellent chance for make-up, but if badly done quickly borders on burlesque. There are many others I might describe, but these I'like best out of iy long years of acting. They serve best, too, as ex~ amples of what I desired to {llustrate. STORY OF A SONG CREATION. : She's the Rose of Killarney, the irl T love, Your eves, sweetheart, are brighter than stare ¢ U'll marry my own fond dove, Killarney, the girl I love. L&TTLE Irish lad, with a strong love of the Emerald Isle and a stronger 1 his pretty sister is responsible for the success of the latest catchy melody. The story of his devotion is almost pathetic. Mike Scanlan is the office boy and gen- eral utilitarian in the music rooms of Les Johnson, who has a reputation as a com- poser of coon songs and tunmeful num- bers covering a whole decade. Little Mike has been in America nearly all the years of his young life, but he has never forgotten his loyalty to his mother coun-~ try nor his great love and admiration for the winsome lass, whom he was proud to call his sister, the Rose of Kil- larney. Lee Johnson tells the rest of the story: “It happened one day that I was at an utter loss for suitable words to fit & melody which had been haunting me for days, and was on the verge of despalr when little Mike, who had just received a letter from his sister with the usual shamrock enciosed, suddenly startled me with the ery: “ ‘Say, Mr. Johnson, ain’t yer ever goin® to write a song about Ireland? I dom't think so much about these coon songs. Write about my sister, why don’t yer. She's the prettiest girl in Kilkenny. She’s the Rose of Killarney, See!| “That was enough for me. wrote the words without rising from my desk and ‘The Rose of Killarney,” my latest success, as you see, really the in- spiration of my loyal Irish lad and I'm pleased to give homor where all homor is due. “It is now hardly more than a fort- night since Maude Amber first sang the song at Fischer’ Theater, but in less than three nights It had become the most pronounced success of all my composi- tions.”