Show The Great Ladies es of the Stage Stage Stage- IAn An Afternoon f at Home H rie With Helen Hayes 1 1 Editors Editor's not nott ft One of the tle mod most sue cur o of all RII the great ladles of ci the Is Helen hayes whose tour of 47 cities In the United States In n 1938 with will the tle play Victoria Regina took In After a 1 Broadway run In Twelfth T Night this thiS' season she ahe again takes takei to the road show chow Vesta Veuia itching gl es an Interesting t tn typewriter type type- rewriter re- re writer profile of Miss hayes In the the- following following fol lot lowing tory story By VESTA KELLING HELLING NEW YORK Special News Serice Service Service Ser- Ser vice ice of UP A UP-A A minute Yorkshire terrier with a red bow tied lied to his frelock skitters into the room sees strangers and exits trotting A small boy catapults through a door gallops once around pointing point- point ing ng his finger and shouting Bang bang ang bang Then rushes off and returns with a still smaller boy They both circle going Bang bang ang bang and fall to wrestling I at t your fe feet t. t We await Helen Hayes at her herNyack herNyack Nyack N N. Y home She enters with her husband Charles MacArthur smiling with witha a large black French po poodle lle woof- woof ing ng at her heels and explains The nearly year old is a refugee ref ref- ugee gee Charles McNaughton son of ofa a British army officer stationed at t Singapore re and his actress wife Jane Jan ane Cobb who has appeared on Br Broadway dway with Miss Hayes The smaller boy a haired curly-haired eyed blue stout fellow of three is s James Gordon MacArthur her adopted son Poodle Is a Refugee From rom England The poodle called because his is sires sire's name was Topsy is also a refugee pet of English friends This foot five-foot pound gracious gra- gra ious clous great lady of the stage seems to o be very much the feminine half halff of f a suburban Mr and Mrs around Nyack She gave up the movies movi s she ie once s said id because she felt she le had to choose two out of three screen screen stage and home However However Howver How- How ever ver she has since added radio At this point Miss Hayes is a as busy a woman as s you'll find on this lis continent Just completing a Broadway roadway run of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night she will tour with the production until June re returning returning returning re- re turning to New York for Sunday broadcasts Displaying the estate gardens she pointed out tulip beds she had planted and comm commented ruefully But I wont won't s see e them in bloom As a member I of the Nyack Carden Garden Garden Gar Car den club Miss Hayes is an annual exhibitor and missed winning first prize for her roses lest last season for forthe forthe the first time in years The room 22 Victorian house the central portion of which Miss Hayes s says ys is around 90 years old Is situated high on the Hudson cliffs with a magnificent view of I the river Gardens are terraced down to the water with a swimming swimming swim swim- ming pool on one level Living iving Rooms Feature Odd Articles Living rooms feature artificial flowers lowers and feathers under glass red velvet hangings lace lac lacy a plaster cast cost of Miss Hayes Hayes' han us lamps amps oil paintings crystal chandeliers chan chan- gilt-framed gilt mirrors and not fireplaces not huges hues ones but the severe evere little white whit marble ones of ofa a bygone era The basement playroom and bar which MacArthur says is his retreat retreat re- re treat treat reat and which he imagines is Edwardian is quite a different matter The rather dark- dark green upholstery is in the MacArthur MacArthur MacAr- MacAr thur hur Tartan Theres There's a huge picture picture picure pic- pic ture ure of the late King Edward in shooting hooting clothes red glass lamp lampshades lampshades shades hades which give an eerie genie lighting lighting light- light ing ng effect e cuspidors a chess table a large oil portrait of a nude draped in a wisp of chiffon Two Hollywood Oscars occupy a window sill one Miss Hayes received received re- re when she won the 1933 Academy award for her ance in The Sin of Madelon Claudet Claudet Clau- Clau det written by her husband one MacArthur got for writing The Scoundrel with Ben Hecht District of Columbia-born Columbia Helen Hayes layes is the daughter of Frank V. V Brown who worked for a wholesale butcher concern and Catherine Hayes Brown who was washer washer her daughters daughter's constant companion for or years and end is now known as Brownie to theater folk all over the he country M Made vlade de First Appearance In n Class Helen made her first public appearance appearance ap- ap in a dancing school class recital at five garbed as a e. Gibson girl Her mother insisted she take dancing les lessons ons to correct pigeon- pigeon toes but she never became proficient proficient proficient pro pro- and fearing being left out of the show she worked up a mimicry act of her own I Dropping Dropping- by the Belasco theater for his mail the morning of this recital Producer Le Fields happened happened hap hap- to see one Helen Brown no 10 bigger than a beauty spot cap- cap captivating captivating an audience He looked up her mother and said If you ever want to put your child on the stage see me When Helen was eight Mrs Brown did exactly that and Helen ev 4 ih i h f t 4 f I Helen Hayes One of the super money makers of the stage T made her Ne New York debut in 1909 Old in Fields' Fields summer revue Dutch In the meantime however she had made her initial bow to commercial commercial com corn mercial footlights in Babes in the Wood at the National theater in Washington at seven Later she starred there in Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Prince and the Pauper I r suppose Miss Hayes says that I was the Sihrley Temple of my da day da At 14 the gerat Charles Frohman Frohman Frohman Froh- Froh man invited her to New York to play with John Drew in ia The Prodigal Husband Helen Hayes leda led a strange life as a e. child and adolescent girl al alternating alternating alternating al- al summers of playing with the greatest stars of the stage Drew William Gillette Billie Burke Vernon Castle with winters winters winters win win- attending a Washington con con- vent Lillian Russell became her hervery hervery hervery very dear friend I After playing in stock from 1913 to 1916 Miss Hayes went on tour tou I with Pollyanna In 1917 In Los Angeles she was given a movie test with Bill Hart at the Fox studios but was offered no contract More than a decade later she brought her infant daughter to Hollywood to show her husband writing for e. e studio there that the baby had learned to smile This visit launched a movie Career career career ca ca- reer which began in 1931 and during durIng during dur dur- ing which she played in such successes successes successes suc suc- as Arrowsmith A Farewell Farewell Farewell Fare Fare- well to Arms The White Sister Another Language and and Night Flight Miss Hayes' Hayes tours like those of Katharine Cornell and Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontaine have been phenomenal phenomenal phe phe- money moneymakers In 41 weeks of playing Victoria Regina in 47 cities in 38 1937 she grossed relates I At 24 Miss Hayes had never been to a e. night club never had dined alone with any man except Gillette past 60 and Producer George C C. Tyler then around 55 At 24 I was like a 16 year It was pathetic Charles Oharles MacArthur changed all that introduced her to her con con- temporaries They were married in 1928 When Miss Hayes was starring in Coquette she was forced to leave because a baby was expected the show closed and Producer Jed Harris Harris Harris Har Har- ris was sued by the company due to insufficient notice His defense which failed was based on a contract contract contract con con- tract clause which stated that the producer would not nor be toe responsible in case of fire flood or acts of God Hence the act of God baby This same child made her stage staged d debut but with her mother in Victoria Regina in 1937 on her seventh birthday and toured in the show I told Mary she was a parasite MacArthur comments Now she has her social security number en engraved engraved engraved en- en graved on a trinket on her charm bracelet Actually young Mary now taller than her mother is precocious Already Already Already Al Al- ready a critic of the drama she does not hesitate to refer to some of her mothers radio plays as mushy Her mother MacArthur says looks forward to early retirement from the theater but it will never happen Tomorrow Gertrude Lawrence |