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Show ft 7 r How Slie Gave Up Her Career to Make Her Millionaire Husband a Home- and Now Has Given Up Her Home to Help Him Re-Make 'His Fortune J'LIA ARTHUR, after an absence ab-sence of sixteen years, hag returned to the stage. She left it for love of a man. She returned to it for love of the same man her husband. She .sacrificed her career as an actress at the height of her suo-cess suo-cess to make a home for the man she loved. Then he had millions. Now, while still wealthy, he has lost some of his fortune. And she has gone back to the stage to help him restore that fortune. Home maker she was. Home keeper she is. Her avowed purpose pur-pose is to restore to him in ready money through her own labors the hundreds of thousands of dollars in ready money he lavished lav-ished on her in the days of plenty. She is paying what she considers a debt of love, Just when she had achieved the success for which she had worked and struggled since childhood to be known as one of the most accomplished and beautiful actresses on the American Amer-ican stage Julia Arthur sixteen years ago retired to private life as the wife of Benjamin Pierce Cheney, of Boston. Her purpose, she declared, was to make a home for him. In place of the noisy plaudits of adoring thousands thou-sands she chose the quiet affection affec-tion of the man who had won her. For sixteen years Julia Arthur Ar-thur was not heard of. Suddenly, Sudden-ly, less than two years ago, she emerged from a sequestered seques-tered married life to the glare of the footlights. Had she tired of home life? Did the spotlight lure her from the dullness of domesticity? Julia Arthur left the stage to become the wife of a rich man. RVid Vhq trnnfl Vtanlr tr it. as the wife of a man who needs ready money. Sixteen years ago she stepped from the stage dressing room into a home beautified by all that millions can produce. She returns to the stage dressing room practically without a home. For the series of financial difficulties difficul-ties which came upon Mr. Cheney, recently culminated when the United States Government Govern-ment started condemnation proceedings in the courts at Boston to obtain possession of Calf Island, in Boston harbor, for war purposes. iWhen Mr. Cheney married Julia Arthur he purchased the island for $25,000 and.built there for her a magnificent dwelling at a cost of $60,000. There she created for the man she loved a home that satisfied both of them. "When the Government notified the couple thaat it intended taking over the island at a specified figure, Mr. and Mrs. Cheney said the figure was unsatisfactory, but that the Government might use the island and buildings build-ings so long as the war lasted without charge. Thanking the couple for their generosity, the Government rejected the otfer, as the island is wanted permanently for naval purposes. Condemnation proceedings, therefore, are in progress which will take from them the dwelling dwell-ing in which they spent many happy years. Not because her heart hankers for old-time old-time applause, not because she wants excitement excite-ment or change, nor yearns for spot-lights and grease paint, nor even to earn luxuries, beautiful gowns and jewels for herself is Miss Arthur now appearing on the stage as a wage earning wife. Theatre managers kept on the lookout for plays in which she might star. They wrote her dutifully, and increased their offers. Yet days passed, months passed into 'years. The offers of the managers were ignored. The prophecies failed to be fulfilled. How could it be possible? How could Julia Arthur be happy, contented? Miss Arthur had gone on the stage as a child of f ' - : ' 1 1 . ' - e V (-!! ' U (Ik. ! , i l ' ' t r j. ' k ' f 1 , f ; : ' L OiioTO BV INTERM'TIONAL FlC-P-f SEK-YICB 4 The Music Room of "The Moorings," the $85,000 Home Which Benjamin Pierce Cheney Built on Calf Island for Julia Arthur When She Left the Stage to Make a Home for Him. eleven. Twenty years of her life had been spent before the footlights. How could she. endure en-dure any other life ? From her first success in "The Black Mask"' to her last sweeping triumph tri-umph in a dramatization of Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel, "A Lady of Quality," and as the Empress Josephine in "More Than Queen," she had become accustomed to the homage of thousands. How could the affection affec-tion of one man make up for that? "While Miss Arthur was playing in Shakes-perean Shakes-perean repertoire in the '90s Benjamin Pierce Cheney, of the old Boston Cheney family, fam-ily, undertook to back several plays. He was a multi-millionaire, considered one of the richest men in Boston and had large railroad holdings. The suggestion was made to him that he buy the dramatic rights of Mrs. Burnett's successful novel, "A Lady of Quality," Qual-ity," and have a play made for Julia Arthur. He had seen Miss Arthur acting with Henry Irving and Ellen Terry, and the part seemed a peculiarly happy one for her. He secured Miss Arthur for the play, and it proved the most successful of many seasons. After a long run in New York the play went on the road. Although everything was running smoothly, Mr. Cheney took occasion to drop his business in Boston and join the company in various cities on the way "West. Finally he joined the troup in Cincinnati. As usual, while there he talked business with Miss Arthur's brother, who managed the play, settled various problems prob-lems with the stage manager, and listened to the star's requests. The rest is told by Miss Arthur herself. "All the time there was a new look in his eye a glint of determination, and the ultimate ulti-mate effect of this was an event quite unfor-seen unfor-seen by me. One afternoon he sent a note to my hotel, asking me to meet him around the corner. I hastened to him. and almost before we had exchanged greetings he took a marriage mar-riage license out of his pocket and showed it Copyright v-',:;" ' , 4 t , - v : r . . - . j ' ' ' f " " r , j t . ' ' . 1 v 3 L - ' . , ' , ' " - 'I ' x " Vr; . s ' '"M. i - s f - L " '1' i " - 1 y ! ' k 1 - . t ; " 4 A 1 i. ' - ' ' ' ,l 1 i r , ' 1. ; i- . j s ( ' ' ' r v ' 4 . r ' ,u- i ,i .r L - . . - :-..- V" . ; i r , f - -r " '-si . . 1 U " ) v , - . . , " - . ' ' . - -y.s -V Julia Arthur la "The Eternal Mag-a Mag-a dalene," the Play in j Which She Appeared i After an Absence of Sixteen Years from the Stage in Order to Restore the Fallen Fortunes of the Husband for Whom She Left the Footlights. tome. '"We're going to be married to-day, he said qmetlv. I was sure we were not but we were. We slipped across the river to Covington, Cov-ington, Ky., and the ceremony was performed within the next hour. It was an unusual wedding wed-ding day m more ways than one. In the morning the sky was heavily overcast. At noon a heavv" snowstorm was raging. But when we were married the sun suddenly blazed forth. 'A good omen,' said Mr. Cheney, 'cheerfully. That good omen was' fulfilled. "Marriage brings problems to every woman,'' continued Miss Arthur in telling of those days. "To me it brought a very large and insistent one should I, or should I not, leave the stage? Mr. Cheney had found a thousand reasons why I should leave the stage and he promptly mentioned all of them. "The only one in the thousand which seemed to me to have weight was the one on which he dwelt the last that he so strongly wished me to retire and make a home for us both. From the time of my early childhood I had never had a home, and he was convinced that I sadly needed one. "If I had married more deliberately I would have remembered to wring a promise from Mr. Cheney to let me continue my work without argument. As it was, he was quite free to keep the question open, and he. availed himself of this privilege to the fullest extent. The situation was getting on his nerves. He was a man with large business interests, and as he did not need the money we were making, our financial success was no poultice to his recurrent re-current disappointments. Notwithstanding all this I remained on the stage for two years after my marriage." One night, in the midst of a performance of "More Than Queen," Miss Arthur fainted in a spectacular manner before a New York audience. "That ended it," said Miss Arthur. "Of course the cure indicated was rest, complete , 1917, by the Slar Company. Grc-at Britain Rights K - .1 . . y L 1 , Fortunes of the : m a , ,5,'.5wy-si. !s? --. v . lav he to - , ' , . 1 - s"' J. ot but t, .. , ( J l4h- formed V . , "f"-, ? , alwed- . ' 1 - - " ' v '-AVV st. At V , . , , - But X, ' " - u blazed . -v.- , - Cheney, ' " led tt 5 , j p erv ' ' - llino-0'f " T large phto rsv in-iertional film sehvicf Exterior View of "The Moorings" on Calf Island Near Boston Which the United States Government Has Just Condemned for War Purposes, Thereby Driving the Beautiful Julia Arthur and Her Husband to the Crowded Quarters of a New York Flat. freedom from anxiety and the tranquility of ' a home atmosphere. Equally, of course, I had no idea that my retirement would be permanent. per-manent. " "After a very little time there," said Miss Arthur, "my life on the stage began to seem strange and dream-like almost as if I had lived it on some other wandering planet. One thing I did learn was to be a housekeeper and a homemaker. Each year Mr. and Mrs. Cheney went to California, where Mr. Cheney had railroad interests. in-terests. Winter was spent in Boston, where the couple lived at the Parker House. Mrs. Cheney went out in society and sometimes ' entertained. She was considered one of the most brilliant and fascinating hostesses in the city. Until 19 15' Mr. Chenej-'s financial position po-sition was considered to be of the best. Then, suddenly by reasons of conditions in the business busi-ness world over which he had no control, Mr. Cheney fpund himself in financial difficulties. Within one year nine suits were entered against him in the Municipal Civil Court, of Boston, and nine in the Suffork Superior Court, eaerved. The suits were for trivial aims suits for kerosene and gasoline, for gilding letters, of a stenographer for taking shorthand notes. They indicated that , while Mr. Cheney was still wealthy lie was pressed for cash. Mrs. Cheney made her reappearance in ' r "The Eternal Magdalene," a play by Robert McLaughlin. Although nearly fifty years of age, . Miss Arthur was as beautiful as those who could remember last saw her. No lines marred her classic loveliness. Her voice had gained in that golden mellow quality which had a!-ways a!-ways constituted much of her charm In every way she was acclaimed a great success. suc-cess. After a run in New York Miss' Arthur went to Boston, and in her husband's city she was given thirty curtain calls on the 1, opening night. She was so overcome she sat down in the wines and wept. She is touring this country in Roland Burke Hen- ' nessy's intensely patriotic playlet, "Liberty ? Aflame." Miss Arthur says she will re- i main in the profession until she repays her husba nd. "v Si |
