| Show I MOPE I FOR TF t c L Pauline Hall E Has No Use for h i Homely Girls 11 t r r I PADDED GIRLS NOT C SUCCESS Pauline Iiill Says 3foiKiay bomctlrncs Pad > I Wit Gootl Effect But That They l Overdo the Tiling 1 t NEW YORK July 2 OSpecial correspondence I respondence to THE HEKALU How to become a prima donna how to keep tho I voice fresh do comic opera singers pad f when wearing tights and what snould be done to retain a healthy beautiful complexion I com-plexion arc questions often askedme by those who are dazzled by the illusions of r the stage as seen in front of the footlights Some eight years agol was a chorus girl I wearing tights dressed half a dozen times I in ono evening arid proudly earning my small weekly stipend which enabled me to I live a frugal Spartanlike existence It was an experience that I do not regret because it taught me patience wedded wed-ded me to perseverance and divorced me from the fatal ambition of wishing to become a ullfedged prima donna at ono N sad amateur bound So many begin on top I and descend not having mastered the aux LILaL5 rcqutremouts neccssar for perman oft success I have often thought of Popes hues Honor and fame from no condition I rise act well your part there all the honor lies When acting some minor part these lines have inspired me to do my best My am I I bition was never vaulting and so I avoided > tho humiliation of egregious failure To I use an agricultural simile I never essayed roles when I felt too green to be palatable S to the taste of a critical audience I never I 1 understudied with the view of taking any I ones part on short notice but I always knew rT GOOD FORM nearly every role in the opera In my dressingroom when others were singing on the stage I caught the music of their parts and could sing it as well as my own How to begin how to work up from the chorus is the question I can only say bo energetic have faith in yourself and be more or less favored by nature with a good voice a fine shape and I the requisite talent I never studied IE 1 Europe and on the whole I am contented I that I never had the desire or opportunity Where are the comic opera prima donnas who studied for years in Europe None oi them have met with great success but just the contrary If I did not wish to bo peL sonal I could mention half a dozen young ladies who graduated in Europe at the great conservatories came here and without with-out any apparent effort made lamentable failures Perhaps if they had begun in the chorus and gradually worked up the result would have been different To succeed in comic opera requires more talent than a sweet voice In fact a prima j donna in comic opera should be fine look t leg shapely be able to act have a certain chic and of course know how to sing I want to say something about the selec tion of an opera company Indeed I intend to make an innovation which will give the public an agreeable surprise Instead of surrounding myself with a lot of cheap and homely chorus i 4 C BAWriUST girls I will select them with an eye to their beauty of face and shapeliness of jegs It is a mistake to suppose that I chorus girls are never Jboked at but situ I ply heard They are the cynosure of every male eye in the audience and many ladies I like to cazo upon pretty chorus girls Recently m Re-cently I engaged a number of chorus girls I had them put on tights and present themselves for inspection and whenever their legs were out of proportion or bony I refused to employ them I do not intend to have nondescript lees bobbing around on the stage in my company A girl with bow legs need not apply for she would certainly hoodoo every performance perform-ance c I Then there is the lean shank girl who is nimble on her feet and oftentimes has a goodlooking face who is debarred It is a study to gaze at the nether limbs of girls who apply for place in the chorus Some have big knees that bulge out and murdor the symmetry of the legs while others are handicapped with fearfully big feet Then others have all calves and no hips and I vice versa 1 Of course I do not expect to find i Venus I I l PH L 1 1 JfG ICAIIJm lInITT 4i I i de Milo in every girl that applies but I do Lapp to find a certain jmlchriiudinous charm thatwill ornament the stagifand I I Sellght the audience shall also examiner examine-r I t i j 11 VI h a 4 I the complexions of my chorus girls because be-cause so many of them have complexions that all the paint in the world could not beautify I t 1 One more point in the selection of my ideal opera company have selected Ute I 1 second lady for beauty and voice although I I someone said it was unwise to have rival on the stage to attract and share the ap I plause Now that is just what I want If i my leading lady draws it will please and not make ine jealous The more attractions in mycompany the happier will be because be-cause my treasury will be the gainer About tights I Tiglitsliave a mysterious significance halo of poetical romance about themto tlie layman but to tho professional they coney con-ey nothing not associated with stern lealitj and hard Work Imagine the collision I coll-ision the undressed feeling that surges through th3 bosom of the young debutante as she emerges from the shadowy flies into be full glare of the footlights Every eye is focused upon her and she imagines the criticism that greets her appearance But lf she has to sins and act the peculiar feeling wears off and the artiste asserts herseLf l No jvoman on tho comic opera tage is fond of wearing tights I Itriow I had rather enact roles that do not require tights The rustle of the skirt is familiar fa-miliar to women and their legs have been used to heavy covering so naturally thin tights or heavy tights for that matter arc foreign to and incompatible with the daily custom of women One touch of nature makes the whole world L kin and when dress is in question women folks are in close affinity Women on tho stage have the same feelings tho same impulses pulses hopes and longings as their non professional sisters But wo have often to I sacrifice our feelings for art and as sacri fices have to be made so frequently we soon I become more indifferent and less sensitive r can see myself now standing for the iiist c I J I BELLE OF TUE BALLET time in the glare of the footlights and hear he buzz of voices that greeted me My desire was to retreat and discard my suit of clothes but the music kept me on the tage and somehow I got bravely through Padding the legs I have never had to pad when wearing Ights The public is skeptical and thinks a majority of women with shapely figures on the stage owe all to art and nothing to nature It has never been my misfortune tI o have to try and improve on nature but I have seen the more or less successful efforts of others in that direction Many women on the stage do pad but not as much as might be supposed Any one in he audience with critical discernment can ell when a woman on the stage wearing tights is padded If she has her legs padded her arms are of course out of proportion pro-portion and frequently her bust is so small that any one with half an eye can see the misfit Tho old days of sawdust padding existed long before my appearance upon the stage Padding is as near a fine art as possible but it can never simulate the beauty and symmetry of nature nor appeal to the ajsthetical eye of the trained connoisseur Knew a youngiaay wno was rather thin but symmetrical who conceived the idea of padding The result was she appeared ungainly un-gainly and the disparity between the size of her legs and her arms was so great it almost al-most provoked laughter Judicious advice was given to her and she gradually re duced her size One day sho discarded her padded tights altogether and the result was she looked one hundred times better and was much admired Occasionaly there is some excuse for a little lit-tle padding If a leg is not shapely on account ac-count of a shrunken calf a few layers of lambs wool will remedy the defect The outside tights are over untidy tights and carefully padded on the inside of the latter is the lambs wool thnt gives shape and beauty to many an otherwise ungainly looking leg By carefully padding the inside in-side tights legs can be made larger all over but they betray the possessor by the lack of proportion to the other limbs Few women appear in one pair of tights because an accident a sudden rent would expose the flesh to the audience But the under tights are not worn especially for that reason rea-son They help to keep tho wearer warm and prevent the outside tights from get ting soiled from perspiration I 1 desire to protest against the critcism directed against the women who appear in tights becuso I think with all ftleir al leged vanity men are more vain and pad themselves more ludicrously Not long ago I was surprised and amused to see an actors arms padded until they looked like those of Ajax defying lightning Of course his neck and body were to small to match such arms ana he looked redicu lous busMen Men on the stage are careful about hav ing the calves of their legs bulge out sufficiently and I presume if varicose veins were popular few actors would be without them There are many exceptions to the rule Comedians who have made wmttsitinnc do tint care to rind in I any extent unless some glaring personal per-sonal defect exists We have bow legged l thinshanked short and obese tall and stout and emanciated comedians who rather like the peculiarities of their ungainly un-gainly anatomy The comedian is fond of applause i and is not eaten up with vanity about his looks Whenever a comedian prides himself upon looking like Adonis as a rule he is not much of a success Tenors Ten-ors are apt to be either too thin or toostout and have romantic dispositions Often they call in the aid of art and try to do something to assist nature know a tenor now singing in England who had a pug nose Indeed his nose looked as if it had been thrown upon his face and only tho nostril end stuck He had a regular swayback nose and i in singing romantic parts of course the allusion was destroyed by his realistic proboscis One day he hit upon the happy plan of building a bridge making his nose a per fect aquiline It worked like a charm and made him appear very handsome One fatal night the comedian pot to skylarking and interpolating and dashed water on the tenors nose The bridge on his nose was swept away and tho audience roared with delight They thought it a part of tho opera but the tenor wanted to fight tho comedian Now I think the tenor was jus tifiable in making np a perfect nose because be-cause bis facoin us natural state would have destroyed the romantic character he essayed What can equal the vanity of a man who wears corsets lain told that some few men have been known to wear corsets in order to give shape to their bodies Those men lam happy to state were not professionals profes-sionals Men on the stage wear many varieties of dress and costume themselves regard less of cost but Ive never heard of one who had the temerity to appear on the boards wearing a corset And talk about shape and malformations Why very few men have perfect physical proportions The Apollo Belvideres are so scarce that when a really handsome actor fine physique and all that appears ho becomes the rage whether ho has much talent or not Personal beauty therefore can not be scoffed at either in male or female And what pessimist or dyspeptic critic can object to a few layers of lambs wool if it is intended to create proportion and charm tho eye i I do not wish to convey the impression that my associates of tile stage are more vain than those who are in private lifc Wo have to appear to the eye tho car and tho mind oft of-t l > O 1 our audiences and certainly some excuse 1 should be made if an artist in his or her I anxiety to pleaso should invoke the art of the professional padder Yes there are I professional padders and they of course are costumers T > eethics of tights isa question that occupies oc-cupies tIne attention of people off the stage more than those who are forced to wear ao breviated habiliments If the people who are eager to condemn would bo as generous gener-ous as Hamlet when ho said There is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so they would find little to take offense at in a pair of tights An artist who hasher has-her heart in her work is not trying to create an effect with her tights alone for her sole idea is to portray truthfully the character sho may be essaying The characters in tho opera are imaginary imagi-nary and the artist is trying her best to make an illusion real enough to please her auditors Why then should some moralist cry out against tights and declare they tend to demoralize and not elevate The purpose of the artist is genu ino and her object is to entertain and elevate ele-vate by depicting the foibles and weaknesses weak-nesses of human nature Any thing can be carried to a harmful excess One can eat too much and suffer from it A young lady can go to a ball and dance too much for her health And even shows that make a specialty of displaying tights and nothing else are I donfess any thing but elevat ing In grand opera the ballet is considered an attraction and adds beauty and frequently fre-quently many more dollars to the box office An artiste is not demoralized by I wearing tights and an audience cannot be demoral ized by seeing an artiste in tights I have often been asked about complexion and cosmetic The best way to get a rosy healthy complexion is to take proper exercise ex-ercise I walk several miles a day and ride in the evening on mybicycle And by the by bicycle riding is becoming morepopular nmnnff the ladies for I moot man in mv ides in the park I never vse patent cos unities and advertised creams and I am vain enough to fancy that my complex ion has not suffered from tho omission Bad skin or blotches on tho face come from the stomach and seas of patent creams would not take them away I see a great many suffering from stomach blotches and the more they try cosmetics the more hideous hide-ous they look Bo moderate in eating in dulge in no excesses sleep enough do not fret have faith in yourself love your profession and if success in life does not crown your efforts then consider that you were born under an unlucky star and try to be happy anyway PAULINE HALL |
