The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 26, 1905, Page 5

THE "Sm‘l FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. F one thing we may feel sure—and that is that Dick Hotaling’s Shy- lock will be different. “I am thin : s Dick Ho- taling, “of playing Shylcck with F perhaps, it is as well to preface w, before we go any farther, that it is t ree of our chummyness that kes my pencll write him “Dick”— ¢ course, to my loss, and conse- ter of cold lock fact who I may put to has little poor warped old tance of my meet- est bachelor in S: our’meeting the for- observed conve n refully if 1 wrote oming explicit, as it is in the iting ‘card? ould scornfully de- of him. WHO Is A sese, of course, is still a rose by any r but it isn't so with a man 49 unfamiliar name and & mystery—or a nobody. e boy who is just discovering ations of history, and who has weakness of accumu- a fragmentary noonday chop of information and the owledge home to his full sks obliging mamma, learn this morning?” of things; ‘rithmetic and his- say—history’s y fine!” And what did you leam ’s mice bistory?’ for mamma, after the fash- jon of women, wooes her mankind through their vanity. We rne t a dandy fellow b - "~ K v n - Dick says very to judge 2 man llke He demands so much ne of us can know how war with himselt.” right may be at 4 “I think,” goes on Mr. Hotaling, toy- {ng with his mental portrait of the abused Jew, “that I shall make Shylock darker than he Is usually made, and, perhaps, not quite so old.” “Irving’s Shylock too white, I always thought—too shell-like, it scemed to me. “And to me,” agrees Mr. Hotaling, and I am grateful for his support in my opin- fon of dissent. *His Shylock did not sat- isfy me altogether; it somiehow scemed lacking in humanness. Edwin Booth's Shylock was the one that seemed. to me great. Those two were the only Shy- locks I have seen—and I am not going to see Mansfield's.” *“Because—"" “Because I have my own conception of Shylock which I want to carry out, and— Oh, it i=n't vanity. I just want to keep my own intact. I don’t want.it to be affected, or weakened, or blurred by any other conception, however great. “I think I shall make Shylock darker; it will be more Jewish and, anyway, he might been a Portugue 1 ed Shyleck once.” Mr. Hotaling whimsical smile again. “I papery old and was have his lines. I had seen ‘s Shylock and admired him im- mensely, of course.” “I mean how did you play him,"from the inside or the outside?” “Oh, from the outside entirely. It was wirel k. It could hy . for youth does not un- ubt” if 1 comprehended from the «y him 2 P ent and He has mur- ¢ e you remember how he junges with it? make him sathy—he i m off from a the life of other spon himsclf, to get only human and trust ot can love by very force tous and the pro- to bring out this r to share ¢ Christians g at t He » that from re and would find a n in being admitted to would, W, « have mnot much sym- ck. He is a cruel, re- veagef he is not so bad- 1y trea d. You know that ter all he doesn’t lose his riches. He 1iy has to make them over to his hment is not so se- gilt lettered and yriously bound in soft moroe ¢o. open at the place where Mr, Hotal- ing left off when I s n, lies face down ubon the,shining desk, and I ask him how h studying. 1 see in my mind, now do- ing this, now doing that, and I am con- stantly adding to and taking from the picture. In getting ready for the play he has become very real to me. “Only the other day I thought of having him wear earrings. “I've mnever known it to be ~ done; there's nothing in Shakespeare to in- te that he doés—but why shouldn’t It would add to the picture, It would be charactéristic of the Jew— is in the Jew, even' the Jew of to-day, more than s > of orientul- ism, with the orfental love of adorn- it. and it was also a custem of the time. It is in ‘this way, with careful, thoughtful econsideration of the minute and seemingly unimportant details, and with the deeply.intimate under- standing of that larger side of the character—the examination of the soul, the searching for the springs of ac- tlon—that Mr. Hotaling is getting his Shylock ready. IN THE AERCHANT OF VENICE FOR SOEET CHARITY 8y Helen. Dave~ L0 is as every one who reads his morn- ing paper knows already, for sweet cha: ity that Mr. Hotaling will givé his Shy- lock, for the benefit of ' the Doctor's Daughters, who 6o a beautiful and unos- tentatious work of charity among the in- valid poor. The performance is to be at the Majest- fc Theater on Monday night. December 18, to be followed by a matiree the next day, Tuesday afternoon, December Mr. Hotaling, who is an amateur actor In the true sense of that much-abused word and not in the common and pervert- ed meaning of it, will be well supported. Mrs. Mark Gerstle, who has no longer to win her laurels in the mimlc world, who, like Mr. Hotaling is not a profes- sional because she already has every- thing that the most brilliant success could give her, is to be the Jessiéa. Miss Oilga Atherton, who appeared in “the ‘amateur production of “The Liars’ und made such a charming maid, will be the Nerissa. And Portia? Who will be this swegtest and finest of Shakespeare’s women? Who will venture Portia? This much I may assure you—Mr. Ho- taling will be more fortunate in his Por- tia than Mr. Mansfield is. His Portia at least will look the part, for she has the g00d fortuna to be a California girl, “divinely tall,”” and all the rest of that —jupt as Portla should be. She is Miss Hilda Clough, and Miss Clough is bringing a sympathetic appre- clation to the part, as well as a_charming personality. Her performance of Portia will be Interesting, for she has never scenr any of the great Portias—not Ellen Terry's nor Julia Marlowe's, not any Portla at all, in fact, except Mr. Mans- field’s most inadequate Portia, whom, perhaps, she would as well have left un- s Clough’s Portia, like Ellen Terry" ar the scarlet robe in the trial scene, but her conception of the part, if not’ the dressing of it, will be entirely her own. The .time seems propitious, when Mr. Hotaling is tclling me. iow he will play his Shylock, to jut the question that is torever rising to the top: v car you not to be cret that Dick Hotaling T T the that in high sta an Cub Jinks, both & be deep, wide gaps = were it not for his spe- . .there: we srying open a caled tor Dick Hotaling could have heen a —an It's i old story ple at he put aside b ; desire to humor his father, that he mide a toy of the nt that might have bronght him fom he wers my question with ne b that. “It isn’t because I didn’t try to be,” he tells me again with that whimsical smile. “When went' te w York the fon to go on the stage Bad made the acquaintance rohman here and of course th 1.did wh hunt him u chance to sceure me. —the past. all .the greeted me wi :ah, yee outer cofiice—ar and he last Hotaling—I remember the name ou want to go en the stage. Um-m-m. well, perhaps we can do ‘something for yYou. You might go around to my theater (it was the Lyceum then, with Georgia Cayvan and the lasco society dramas), and sce what the young zctors are deing.’ “1 went around, and I Watche tra young men—scrt of male do this,”-and Mr. Hotaling lllustrated with inimitable imitations, “‘and 1 sald to m m (0o good for this kind of thing!’ So I didn’t go back to see Mr. Frohman. I went to A. M. Palmer next. “There was @ big antercom where we walted—we who wanted to go ~on the stage. We were of all sorts—chorus giris, show girls for ‘Evangeline,’ Ingenues and heavies—everything from myself to Mrs. Bowers. I had a letter from W. L. James, who was Pestmaster General under Gar- fleld and some sort of a relative of mine; and after a good deal of walting I got the chance to see Mr. Palmer. 1 was ready, but he didn’t seem to be. I asked him just to hear me read, 1f.not for my sake at lcast for Mr. James'. very good. Jusf the thing, but not to-day. I'm toe busy to-day. But come back—let me see—say—well—um-m—come back a week from next Thursday.’ “I went back. In the meantime, I had been brushing up my meost ambitious speeches, and I had the happy inspiration Be- PIRS . MARA G SRSTLE - TRE TEIS/ CGE~NTALE PHore that the clever thing to do—the strategio move—would be to take a morning gown; that it would serve as drapery and make my appearance more effective; that thé sleeve falling when I made a gesture like this,” and Mr. Hotaling {llustrates for one fleeting moment the aspiring tragedian, “would be quite classical and toga-like “I waited in the outer room with my morning gown in a hand-bag, and—after a while—my chance came. Mr. Palmer saw me. He looked at me vaguely, and I ex- plained. “ ‘Yes yes, you were to read to me— but not to-day. Not to-day. You see I'm so pressed—rehearsals, making up companies, getting a new play ready— not to-day; but some other time, yes, some o*her time. Come back, let me see—waell, & week from next Saturday.’ “I took my bag with my morning gown back to the hétel to walt until a week from next Saturday. “To put in time I commenced taking singing lessons. When you pay Ave dollars a lesson your voice is sure to be remarkable—it's not in hwman na- ture for the singing master to find it otherwise, and of course mine was— a very remarkable tenor, not phenome- nal, to be sure—but remarkable, very remarkable. I could hope for much from it. That gave me another string to my bow, and I felt quite indepen- \dent. If I couldn't get a chance to act, I could sing. I always had that to fall back upon—and it was in this happy frame of mind I went back te Mr. Palmer. % “He remembered me this time—per- haps he thought It was just as well te. Perhaps he suspected that I had an in- dulgent father behind me and that I could tire him out before he could tire me. I had my lttle bag with the merning g with me, as usual. Mr. a boy orders to get the to arrange things as I a rough the door e to the stage, and was m his offic » let him know leading fr told me ready f when I im. s getting on, 1 thought, and There on the stage full blast. I never a put-up thing or nt back to Mr. npacking my morn- » little bag. He ex- wrsal in r it s a rel was is, ‘how ," he sald; and I gave him my card with him in my very membered I had my at there as when he would lessons I . with the intention of sur- tamily wWith my voice. I wther listened very patient- When I g h my here w tore for me cork couldTeport th in the mora- 1 went down, and I didn’t stay in the corking department long; a plice was found for me in the offic “That is how I came net to be an actor: But as an “I played Richelieu, Iago, ol's Revenge'— was In_our amateur performances Blanche = Bates played, and Olive Oliver, and Kather- ine Grey: Holbrook B us and was ¥ is Judge Muras! Hallett strel 3 Willie whe is Interlocuter in a min- and now, Our friends were very good to us—they came to see us and paid their way in.” The light is softening on Rollo Pe- * moonlight scene above Mr. Hotal- de plays along his little darting lightning om a summer night, luminating his talk with piquant surprises. He fingers the book of the play—Edwin Booth's prompt book—lingeringly and affec- tionately. He tells me in his spirit of =elf-bant “The best piece of acting I've ever done is this— role of a business man.” Of course, I can know nothing about that, but I do suspect that his Shy- lock, as well as belng different, will be well worth while both for the sake of the Doctor's Daughters and the point of view of Dick Hotaling. Iis lambent semtences I tongues of the wit the heat