Show The e Great Ladies a of the Stage 11 Cool Ly Lynn F Fontanne Is hi Inspiration to Mate Aspirants 1 c tS 1 R RP Rc Rr Rr a. a P r c r r B y A Ar n y 9 f a rr 4 41 r spa h. w u Lynn Fontanne x An angel to aspiring thespians Filters Editor note One of the most molt Slam Slam- lam of at all nil the st stage stace e actresses of today Is le I Inn nn Fontanne She he and her husband hus hus- band Alfred I Lunt compose the most mORt and best but known n Reline acting team In the United States Staten today toda B By y VESTA KELLING NEW YORK AP Special News Service Rich Service Rich Lyn Lynne e is what hat Alfred AUred Lunt sometimes calls his wife Lynn Fontanne because of what he terms her Lady Bountiful Bountiful Bountiful ful complex complex which which makes this great lady of ot the stage prodigal of her time money and an enthralled enthralled enthralled en en- tenderness which notably includes Mr Lunt himself To select seven or eight young people for minor parts in their plays Miss Fontanne and Mr Lunt always seen side by side side will will in interview interview interview in- in as many as novice thespians painstakingly listening to the same part read over and andover andover andover over until the small hours of the morning night after alter night Miss Fontanne has coached free of charge many a budding actress On opening nights Miss Fontanne Fontanne Fontanne Fon Fon- tanne by nature stability itself extends this benevolence to her husband who is inevitably sunk in depression before curtain time convinced convinced convinced con con- vinced that the play is bad that he heis heis heis is poor in his part and that no one will come to see the show anyway any any- way voiced Slow-voiced Miss Fontanne has glowing reports relayed from the box office and at regular intervals assures him that they are about to make the hit of their career Once Miss Fontanne lost her step-ins step on the stage the stage the night Caprice opened in Chicago Not Nota a snicker was heard out front as without a pause in her lines she toed the garment under a near-by near sofa but when the scene was ended the audience burst into applause Miss Fontanne English born English born daughter of a French type-founder type attributes her steady nerves to her early British environment She isnow isnow is isnow now sponsoring a Spitfire fighter fund In the World war she drove an ambulance in the British volunteer volunteer volunteer volun volun- teer corps Unlike most stage stars both the he Lunts are from backgrounds he being the son of ofa a Wisconsin timber manIn man In the early a friend in London led little Lynn to Ellen Terry who listened to the child recite took her on tour and gave her a in the Sit Fire in 1905 She first came to this country in 1917 to work in Mr and the Countess and returned in 1917 with Laurette Taylors Taylor's company Lunt fell down a backstage flight of stairs when stricken on sight he ie bowed to kiss Miss Fontannes Fontanne's hand the first time they met That was at the Hudson theater in m 1919 when both were rehearsing for or Maid of Money The play flopped but the romance is enjoying enjoying en- en a run virtually unprecedented ed in the theater While the courtship gathered momentum they often sat around gloomy theatrical boarding houses in n the narrow canyons off Broadway Broadway Broadway Broad Broad- way with a bright young man named Noel Coward plotting the future Lynn and Alfred were to towed towed towed wed and costar All three would do a show together some time this to be Design for Living a hit of 1933 Nineteen twenty-one twenty was the Lunts' Lunts big year Miss Fontanne triumphed in her first great success success success suc suc- cess Dulcy while Lunt was in demand on Broadway after a two- two year run in Clarence Also they became Mr and Mrs At this point the merrily married married married mar mar- ried Lunts alternate between appearing appearing appearing ap ap- ap- ap for the Theater guild and under their own management and andare andare andare are now touring in There Shall Be BeI BeNo BeNo No Night I When not working they spend their time on their estate at Genesee Genesee Genesee Gene- Gene see Depot Wis which was Lunts Lunt's home farm as a boy and where the two have built bulIt a Swedish manor house and a swimming pool pool pool-an- an another other dream come true There Miss Fontanne presides in gingham dresses she even wears at New York rehearsals chews gum pampers her dachshunds raises chickens tends her flowerbeds flowerbeds flower flower- beds and helps her husband with his four-acre four truck garden Both indulge cooking fancy dishes but buthe buthe buthe he is the better cook and organize organize organize organ organ- ize folk dances in the village Although Broadway is forever mourning the death of the road the Lunts always find It boisterously boisterously boisterously alive and say they'd rather troupe than eat Lunt declares his wife is still sUII vague about North American geography however because because because be be- cause she once remarked to him in Minnesota that it was the most beautiful part of Texas she had ever seen When they are rehearsing a new play they will go over scenes for lor hours with the cast and then dismiss dismiss dismiss dis dis- dis- dis miss them After the remainder of the cast leaves Lunt and Miss Fontanne usually remain for another another another an an- other hour or two rehearsing various various various vari vari- ous ways to play their scenes where just the two of ot them are on stage Miss Fontanne has been quoted as saying that the date of her birth in Who was incorrect and that her age was nobody's business anyway but no amount of reckoning reckoning reckoning reckon reckon- ing can make her anything but a lovely looking woman as well as asas asas asas as an inspired comedian and tragedian tra tra- However she has been student and master of stage technique so long that she did not enjoy working working working work work- ing in the movie version of The Guardsman and has never accepted accept accept- ed an offer from from- the cinema She has no patience with playwrights playwrights playwrights play play- wrights who complain that their masterpieces go unread She says that every manager and actor is is reading reading all the time in inthe inthe inthe the hope of discovering even a abad abad abad bad play with a good idea which can be whipped into shape No matter how you slice her contentions contentions contentions con con- however the public would rather watch Rich Lynnie bicker wrestle flirt or coo with her husband husband husband hus hus- band in one of their frequently discreetly discreetly discreetly dis dis- dis- dis racy productions plot good or bad than most actresses in one better written Tomorrow Katherine Cornell |