Show I I f ft fy t s t I y Duse rc How Financial Reverses Force the Great reat Italian Actress to Break Her Her Lo Long g Kept Vow Never Again to Appear 4 Jr I I in a Play by Gabriele d dAnnunzio o J Eda of the grieving another of a r rin t passion for t r in which the A t ty y but Still Sh She Refuses to tor i woman always pays 1 the Cruel ViI Wrong rong He Did H Hr Her HI r I 1 YI t t iq k t e v e rU ii r 1 r U p w 1 fix aPy tAS AS ey i ya t t l li i ag t twy yS S t y l y p J 3 It w o 1 4 tr r 6 I I i 2 t y td d EMr a l y 5 r 5 t ta a M h bt tt rl v i A r R S Si i i t 4 pS s ei eiX X Y 1 J s n if r w C t Its ya yaa a w Eleanore Eleanora Duse DUle ii y I 3 heart the actress was whose whole broken o o c it 1 s 2 i r 33 4 when the man she loved made a novel of the story of her peat past which she had confided to his ears 5 J L P LEANORA DUSE the great ItalIan Ital- Ital Italian i ELEANORA E Ital 1 ian San actress who at the height of of her fame thought nothing of mak mak- making iA i ing mg kings want visit on her haughty pleasure IS now in her declining years ears ears being A forced to endure as bitter a humiliation as could come to a woman of her proud 5 sensItive nature Financial reverses resulting from the 1 war ar compel her to return to the the- stage and the only play she can can an find that SUitS 11 her genius gemus and promises the success she have to restore her ber fallen fortunes is one by the man who cruelly betrayed 1 E her love and broke her ber Gabriele heart heart t literary genius gemus war ar hero bero and heartbreaker extraordinary 8 By appearing in IA m Berlin Berhn in a play by S Sc c DAnnunzio the actress is breaking her kept herlong-kept long kept vow to divorce forever her ber genius gemus and his and never again agam to lend her brilliant talents to giving vivid reality real real- realIty reality ity to a creature of his Ius imagination This was to have been her ber le enge for forthe forthe forthe the grievous wrong DAnnunzio did her ber when he be turned into a novel the heart secrets she had confided to his ears In Inthe inthe inthe the days of her devotion to him When Eleanora Duse Duso scanned the pages of the story which w hick DAnnunzio had significantly named Tire and saw the brazen unfeeling use he had made of the torum romantic past she had revealed only to rum him her heart was as broken and she was almost beside he herself with pith Ith grief and wounded pride Of course she at once broke off all relations with the man roan whose chose hose genius had so long kept pace with Ith hers and Whom she had bad made the partner of her every I joy and sorrow And although the greatest triumphs of her career had been scored in The Dead City GIO Gio conda conda and others of drama dramas she swore that never again agam would she appear in any play of wrIting But fate hada had a cruel trick to play on Eleanora Duse When her fortune oJ was as S swept Sept ept away and she found herself oblIged to return to the tho stage the only play she could find that offered reason reason- reasonable reasonable reasonable able certainty of financial and artistic success was as one by the man she eho hated and de pi ed 1 Thus This is not to be wondered at for as the critics have long noted practically R 11 I M every one of recent plays plas has seemed to be bo written especially for her It was as a cruel dilemma the actress faced On the ono one side her pride the heart wounds hounds which are said never to have bave healed on the tho other the Insistent demands of her creditors and the omi omi- ominous ominous ominous approach of old age But although Duse has broken her vow VO and consented to appear in one of plays she remains as un- un unforgiving un unforgiving forgiving as aJ before to the man himself The playwright has not been perl permit permitted Jt- Jt ted to attend any of the rehearsals of his play If It he be chances to be in the audience he gets no flash lash of recognition from the tragedienne She docs does not as she used often to do in other days seem to forget her stage hero and direct her impassioned declarations of love at the tho box or orchestra chair where here zio zio is sitting She never sees him never mentions his name The servants at her hotel and at the theater are constantly admon admon- admonIshed admonished admonished on no account to admit hum him to her presence Yet Duse has always with her ber the die dis dis- dis disturbing disturbing knowledge that it is DAl zio's play in which she is again delight delight ing Ing the world of theatergoers and that the applause of her audiences is a trib- trib tribute ute to the genius of the man who be- be betrayed betrayed be betrayed her ns as a well weIl as to her wonder wonder- wonderful wonderful ful acting ability This is why hy her ber friends say the actress ha has aged many ears in III the short space apace of a few months and why hy her al- al always al always ways sad countenance has taken on a sadder cast than ever The humiliation Due Duse is 13 undergoing IS in painful contrast to the haughtiness with which the oho he it over the m in the digs s when she was has at the height of her fame and the devotee devoted liw etheart of o DAnnunzio Once when she was pIa playing mg Magda in Stuttgart the tho King of summoned her ber manager to the royal box at the end of the second act net and an- an announced an announced flounced that he be world give himself the pleasure of visiting the actress in her dressing room immediately When the manager hurried to tell Du Due e of the great honor royalty has about to confer on her she replied r 1 S I ra Gabriele d An- An 4 w s 1 k Y t ter nunzio literary genius war hero and heart break J er extraordinary u ar re 4 t 5 k Y banged the ilia door In n s her managers manager's face fir N y y t k kand and turned the key c k in the lock The roan man manager I roanI w ager renewed through s Paly I 13 t the keyhole his bis pleas for her to show ro royal royal- royale al e tit r x ty proper courtesy y yu u t y t but Du Duso o continued to to reply that she was wasp as p tars dressing and could couldn n 1 iti r r see nobody Tell her that Ill I'll walt wait said the o c f fa a blandly have to tos s ti l walt wait a long time was Duse's answer for I shall not leave lave l this room es 19 long liS as you lI are e The waited waited- 1 ten minutes fifteen s t f twenty a half hour but still thel theta e was as no r sign of Duse's open open- h s b ing the door The Tho Ida in playing Cleopatra with great success because became she was quite as S unhappy in her love affair as Egypt's queen Tell his majesty that I am very grateful for hid lus compliment and flattered by his attention But also tell him that that I feel just dust as much honored by hearing from you how much he enjoys my act act- actIng acting act acting ing Please say to him she added al- al although al although though she was already fully dressed for the the next T act that I cant can't see aee him because Iam I am dressing Just then the King came walking down the corridor leading to the stars star's dress dress- dressIng dressing ing room When Duse saw him she audience began to grow crow impatient anat yielding to the tho worried d at last tho King managers manager's delicate hints left his place at tho dressing room door No sooner had he resumed his lIS sent seat in inthe inthe the royal roial box than the curtain rose and Duse went ent on with the play just jus as if nothing had happened To fo this day no- no nobody no nobody of her distaste for forKing forKing body knows 5 the cause causo King William but although she played in Stuttgart many times after this thus she never permitted the monarch to be presented pre pre- presented pre presented to her In fact or fiction you will anything more morl idyllic than the relation Duse and DAnnunzio before the publication of his brutally bl frank franJ novel Irre They loved each other other as asman asman asman man and woman roman seldom do and the world profiled by y the intensity of their devo de de 0 04 4 cr s x tion because each of o f them seemed to In- In Inspire In Inspire spire the others other's other s genius Both the ac- ac actress actress ac actress tress and the man manof roe manof n of letters reached their g greatest rea t est heights of fame while living hYing to- to together to together gether in the exotic paradise which their romance created The material which incorporated In inTire Piro included not only secrets Duso Duse had confided about her life before she met him but also many almost photo photo- photographic photographic graphic details of their intimacy as they sat together on the tha shores of Lake Labe Nemi or hid from the moonlight on the terraces of tho villa which they shared for a awhile abile bile Duse laid bare her ber soul to this loser lo of hers little dreaming that he would make literary of her hearts heart's story y and hand it over over to a curious v world orld In the pages of a novel no DAnnunzio is believed to have profit profit- profited profited ed tremendously by his shameless be- be betrayal betrayal be betrayal of the actress's love His pub pub- pub ushers could hardly supply the demand Fire that when hen the tho for fOl came public understood that the I tory story pictured with the greatest frankness the love lovo life of Eleanora Duse Dose Duse was by no means the first or thelast the thelast last victim of inordinate passion for making his life Just dust wt one ro- ro romance romance ro romance mance after another Some one has aptly described him as an amorous en- en engineer engineer en engineer and a study of his romantic operations shows that the numerous hearts into which ho bo has bas made nUl de his way vay by all the tho arts known to the tho born lover were invariably left aching or hopelessly broken he Defor hc was twenty he had fought a duel over a woman A year ear later found him carr carrying lIlg on an ardent double romance lomance with the woman who later be L J r came cams his first wife and that young ladys lady's mother Just as a athis this e elderly I d er h sweetheart of his was about to succumb to his advances he deserted her ber gray hair and wrinkled face for her daughters daughter's youthful bloom Hn His HI romance with Ida the beautiful dancer was almost as remarkable remark remark- remarkable remarkable able as his love affair with and Duse-and Duse st It probably ended almost as sadly for the heroine In lo lov love life all as asin allin asin in many of our movie movie dramas it seems tobe to-be be always the woman who pays and pay pays and pays At first it rt was thought that Ida Ruben Ruben- Ruben stein regarded her love affair quite as cynically as DAnnunzio and was equal equal- equally equally ly when It tt came carne to an abrupt end and he turned e eagerly erly to sonic Bomo quite different blossom in m the tha garden of love But now it Is strongly suspected that her heart may have been almost as badly damaged a as Duss Duse Dusts Dust's s by the unhappy out out- outcome outcome come corne of her years of intimacy with the Italian literary genius Gossip in m Paris says that it was to try to heal the she suffered when tired of her and cast her aside that she undertook her recent adventurous trip into the wildest jungles of India and China Indo China Duse now in such straitened circum circum- circumstances circumstances stances lived up to a few years ago in inthe inthe inthe the greatest luxury Before her fo fortune tune was swept sept away she owned a palace on ont t the Grand Canal in Venice and another m in Florence The latter the tho Lapponi Palace was built in III 1620 1520 and the actress spent immense sums in putting repair and fitting- fitting it with the conven conven- conveniences fences of modern life Her lIer effort to replace her ber lost wealth is a courageous one for she Is far from frem froma a 11 young woman She was born in 1859 1659 the daught daughter r and granddaughter of ac- ac actors actors ac actors tors well known in a modest way She went on the stage when she was only thirteen years tears eats old It was not however until seven years later that she scored her first great triumph Duse married an Italian army officer before she was twenty and by him had one daughter The marriage proved unhappy un- un unhappy un unhappy happy and soon after the girls girl's birth the parents separated The daughter was brought up with the greatest care All through her girlhood the fact that her mother was an actress has as carefully concealed from her and It was as not until she herself was old enough to be marri married d that she was waa wa per per- permitted per permitted mined to see Duse Duee act DAnnunzio was Us near death some months ago as the result of a fall from froma a window that left him witha with a badly broken head A deep veil of mystery was thrown about the accident and to this day it is not certain where It occurred The playwrights playwright's fiends said it was wasat wasat wasat at his villa but other stories had it that he fell or fell or was hurled from hurled from the win win- window window dow of a suite in a Milan hotel where he had gone a few hours before VI with with h n a deeply wiled veiled and richly dressed woman According to this version of the acci acci- accident accident accident dent companion disappeared disappeared disappeared shortly after his senseless body vas aa picked up from the pavement and before the police or the hotel manager could ascertain her het identity Of course there was no end of lation atlon speculation as to which h hof of many loses it who vho is in was said Bald to have accompanied him bim to tho the Milan hotel There was particular eagerness to know what happened in to the suite just before the rights playwrights body plunged through the window glass and hurtled to the street below f R r 1 |