Show I F r Th 0 a O Oo o 4 J IE t 0 0 0 Q l f Q i d 0 B I J antic and Tragic Secrets of the Famous London 1 He sent a gold goldI I r Theater Revealed by the watch mono mond with witha w th tha studded a dia old x fob crashing to lj yF r the he age right at ather s Keeper of Stage i her feet A richly jeweled cigarette N r t 2 i io o case a seal seel ring Door 1 1 f end and also one set ti with witha a great ruby followed And came hand ful after handful of gold and silver coins and flutter 4 1 b f f f t n 0 Y 1 t Mrs Mabel Rus JJ i 0 t sell 1 0 r I former Gaiety r 1 star afar who is isnow now nowa tr tri i 0 T Parliament a mem member b er and 0 of f i j 1 ty who vouches for I 1 the ry ryr 71 truth troth of the H f 8 lP n r stage door keep y ers er's interesting reminiscences l 0 n t T THE famous AT A Gaiety Theater R in London one 0 night Gaby Deslys had hadI I just finish finished cd her dancing turn She stood before the footlights San an alluring figure smiling and bowing her acknowledgment of the ap- ap applause applause ap applause Suddenly she and the audience were astonished to see a young man in fault fault- faultless faultless faultless less evening clothes rise from his seat in a stage box only a few feet away and begin showering her with money and costly articles of jewelry First he be took from his pocket a gold watch with a studded diamond-studded fob and I andI sent it crashing to the stage staze right at her feet A richly j jeweled cigarette rette case a aseal aseal aseal seal ring and also one set with a great ruby followed And then came handful after handful of clinking gold and silver coins and fluttering banknotes Before theater employees could reach the young man and put a stop to his surprising exhibition of generosity he had showered the French dancing star With more than a thousand dollars in money and jewelry that was easily worth I four or five times this amount What this young man did that eve eve- evening eve evening I ning was only omY one of countless acts of extravagant folly to which the bewitch bewitch- bewitching bewitching ing beauties who crowded the Gaiety's stage inspired the men of wealth fash- fash fashion fash fashion ion and title who hovered about them like flies around a honey jar admiring jar and petting them heaping them with luxuries and often winding up by mal mak- mak making mak-ing mak ing them tem tl m their wives The stage door through which these beauties came and went was for fot many years yeara one of London's eagerly sought places There night after night men of wealth and prominence from all over the world gathered to seek the acquaint acquaintance ance anee of these charming creatures to lay costly gifts at their feet and to vie with one another for the precIous privilege f of f their companionship Naturally the man who stood tood tood guard over this stage door had bad to 1 be e one of great tact and intelligence e It was no noea ea say job to resist the hordes of wealthy and prominent men who ho be- be besieged besieged be besieged the entrance to the Gaiety's dress dress- dressIng dressing dressing ing rooms looms and to prevent the stars stan and the show shoy and chorus girls from being unduly annoyed by admirers whom they did not wish to encourage James Jupp was for tor more than thirty years the keeper of the stage door and now he be is the giving world some re- re remarkably remarkably re remarkably interesting rem reminiscences of hi his experiences In his book The Gaiety Stage Door recently published In Lon London don he be reveals for the first time the real facts ab about ut many of the romances and tragedies that made this so long the 4 most famous of theaters and one which was quite unique The fascinating true stories told by V Mr Jupp show the drab sordid side of a stage beautys beauty's life as well as the bright bright- brightly ly glittering side aide that holds the stage stage- stage struck girl irl spellbound a aa a t I v I Pr PraY aY l re 11 Edith Kelly who won the heart of Franks J Gould while kicking up her sprightly little sS a Y heels in a Gaiety musical 3 X y He knew mut the beau beau- beauties e au- au i rv ties who made z t tj cv j ts the GaietY such suchy y arY s t en an institution and rJ tf he tells wit h 1 r g grose rose greatest frank franl frankness ness how some L tripped through h r 1 the stage door to despair and mis y i viI ery erp and deathA death A while other more i F fortunate o 0 n e s sf art f found 0 u n d it the w t r P t 7 golden entrance e 4 f that le them to tos toa s tt Y J leI leIthem a r F I I wealth luxury s f i t J s an and d places in the c Gladys Glad s i y yi Coops Cooper i m most t 0 s Y i W ti tiu tia s 1 clr circles cl es of Eng Ing xii n A u a i iY one of the e y W Wt r W 4 il Ati ti 1 s Gaiety society t t r tr iU If I 1 iVi Ii h The Th 6 man who il n z I ft t th h Ct l W ose showered Gaby Deslys Mlle 4 t J 1 sto iX j 1 I j jI I t y fly husband a rich richand and and dId not ot money and Jew Jew- 1 A t lt o otY tY I permanently ul elry eiry says Mr Jupp had followed her all over the Continent Wherever she happened to be performing he could always be He begged and implored for her favor he bribed people to get him an introduction but she would have nothing to do with him None of his numerous offerings ever reached her but still he persisted When she came to London this man followed her never giving up hope that ono one day he would succeed in winning her favor The night he made the exhibition of his mad devotion in the theater he was led out out by a couple of attendants and taken to the stage door His jewelry and andas andas andas as much of the money as could tx reo re- recovered re recovered covered were all restored to him and then he was given the choice either to promise never again to molest Mlle Deslys or be given into charge in is which case matters would be made pretty black against him On giving his solemn word not lIOt to of fend offend again he was allowed to go A careful watch was kept so that he sh should uld not manage to gain admission to the theater but he never nevet turned up again One of the many beauties whom James Jupp has seen pass from the glare of the footlights to the softer radiance of fash fash- fashionable f drawing rooms rooms is rooms the forner for ner Mabel Russell She started as j a chorus chorus r r girl at the Gaiety when she was eighteen years old and quickly became a star Wh n she quit the stage it was to marry Stanley Rhodes Rhodes a nephew of CecIl Rhodes the Stanley Rhodes would bring her to the Gaiety in n his car says Mr Jupp and take her away after away after the show stow while several times a week weel he lie would shower bouquets upon her There is no shadow of doubt that it wasa was a r real love match bouquets Other m men gave her wonderful bou bou- bouquets bou- bou bouquets some of them worth i l hundred dollars at lit least but bat although she received re- re received re received them with a grateful smile she sho always looked lovers lover's tributes a bunch ite of at of orchids which were her or fa rte Ite flower Soo Soon lI after r Mabel label Russells Russell's marriage her husband was killed hued in ear car fora accident Sha to the Gaiety for II a time but bu sogn soon left lert the stage stagEr again for fort another rich rici marriage Her present husband is Mr HYlton who was a member of Par Par- Parliament until the last election on when his bis charming wife was elected to the seat he had held She enjoys the distinction of being the only former Gaiety Gs girl in England's making law body lot tut there may soon bea be a number of others other The former Mabel Russell has has written the Introduction introduction for Mr Jupp's book In It she declares that she knows no one J f better qualified than he to pre preserve th t he intimate memories mem rles of ot lif life behind the t he scenes at the Gaiety in its pomp p das da dl s 3 For Fol than thirty she he more snore years s says he w was s stage door keener at the t he Gaiety and and nd not only George Edwarde s the owner owner and manager manager but many of till tl ie ar artistes came to trust him lm as a confidant confida nt and welcome him as a friend n hIS knowledge must be many miny secrets secret s scores of romances and not a few Crag tragedies e dies The stories he sees fit to tell JIl car ll app appal al to a ow wide wide id public and not least lea it to those of whom he writes All the loads of flowers and and gifts ot at jewelry bonbons and other things that th at were sent t to to the Gaiety beauties ha hato ad d to pass through Jupp's hands and If the former stage-door stage keeper possessed possesse day d day to-day tenth one-tenth of the value all these the se tributes represented he would be not tar fa t from a millionaire Genie Gertie Millar who is soon to marry mart p the Earl of Dudley is believed to have ha ve broken all records for the number and an d lavishness of the gifts gift she received from fio m rich admirers Probably no other worn wom n a n was ever more persistently a and and d extravagantly aa a- a gantly g courted than she during daring d ring the earl early y days of ot her ber Gaiety triumphs triumph I dont don't suppose suppose her jewelry cool could d have b been en surpassed by any other g artISte says Mr Jupp and the al have known her ber to receive during durin g the week w would ula easily stock the largest larlest large larget at t J florists florist's shop in the West En Enof d of London f An amazing ng transformatIon I it was for the girl who a few fel v months before had had bad only y calico dresses to wear and ha had d been tolling toiling for long hours hour s every day in a Lancashire e mill The Maharajah of Co Cobs ch h B e h a r says Mr Jupp thought as little of present present- presenting presenting ing a lady with a Rolls Royce Ro Kolls-Ro cc a diamond tiara or en e a a V t furnished v lI villa villain villa in the countr country y f J or up P the tle river aj a I should o of f 1 standing a pala pal a cup of tea This fabulously wealthy In In- In Indian of th the dean dian prince was one e most generous men I hav have e come across My stage door was a minis minia m miniature nia- nia ture Lure Cogent Garden on the th thy e y occasion ofa of a first night nights Bas Baskets y 1 keta of the most exquIsite e flowers filled the hall haU and a athey as s they were carried carrie away to the in g rooms of the ladies to whom they were e sent their places would be filled by an another other consignment The most beautiful present I ever ere r saw was one sent to Miss bliss Gabrielle Ray Ray- Ray It was a complete grapevine which hid been trained to grow in the shape of a half hoop and looked loo like the handl handle handl of ofa o ofa f a gigantic fruit basket basket It stood atoll about t ten feet high and there were twenty h bunches of beautiful black grapes sus sus- suspended suspended sanded from the vine me It was certainly a thing of beauty but an en extraordinary one ono to depos deposit at atthe a atthe t aIt the stage door of a theater as a gift gifts It I It as was as brought in a cart and it too took lour sou r men Iren to carry It it There never has been either before or o r since another theater that was quite tho th e Institution the Gaiety became under the th e direction of George Edwardes The love loveliness lines liness of the women 11 v omen it drew to its stag o was ons talked about from one end of th the e world to the other For a girl to secure even the humblest place in Its ts chortIs cho u s was proof that she was e y ul o of face and figure Soon men who had at fir first t looked t to o the Gaiety only for fair companions for fo th their ir revelries began seeking wives there English fashionable society was aghast at what it thought the folly of o the firs first t nobleman to marry many a Gaiety girl bu but t before long loan such such marriages became to too o frequent to get geb excited about Sylvia Storey stepped from the Gaiety chorus horus into rich and fashionable society as the wife of at Earl Rosie Ross e Boote Boole wh whose e charm as a singer London theatergoers still remember is now tho th o Marchioness of The famous Mrs John Alexander Stir Stirling ling whose divorce scandalized England's smart set set was a show girl at the Ga Gaiety ety when when she won her ber rich husband So was Denise Orme who finally married Cap Cap- r l r tain lain the lIon Hon J R L Buller Duller thih th thiman man Mrs lira Stirling had sued for breach of promise e OIl May the graceful dancer who frequently understudied Gertie Gerie Millar became the wife of Lord Lard Victor Paget As will be told in these pages later on Lord Paget was one of the fen men who s keeps to elude the stage door keep keep- s c vigilance and make his way up the Je jealously guarded stairs and into his sweethearts sweetheart's dressing room Ill fated Ill fated Maudi Darrell the one one of cleverest singers and dancers the GaIety ever boasted married Ian lan Maud Hobson became the tha wife of Cap Cap- tain lain Captain Caplain W B Haley who ho later on was vas Prime Minister of the Samoan Islands Madge Saunders with whom the dusky Satan of Zanzibar became so infatuated the first time he saw her is now well ell known n in m society as Mrs bars Leslie Henson Marie one of the prettiest and most successful of all Gaiety stars IS the wife ife of Harold Borrett son ofa of a dIstinguished English general Connie ConDIe GIlchrist the Gaiety beauty became the tha Countess of Orkney May started her notorious matti- matti mon al career by learn leading mg the theaters theater's footlights to marry Lord Francis Hope Kitty Gordon was singing and aid dancing at the Gaiety when the lion Charles Beresford fell in love lave ve with her And there are many others who have made equally brilliant marriages At fist fashionable society turned a avery very cold and forb forbidding shoulder on brides bride who had once Olce been actresses or chorus girls but in m most cases It did not last lait so ery tery ery long Many of these former stage beauties proved so irresistIbly charming ard aril clever that s so- so society so society clety could not refuse them places inSide Its charmed circle e of men that made a mat mar mar- nage market marlet of the Gaiety Th Theater ater was by wasby w no means confined to Among those from other whom James Jupp Jupp used frequently to see wait walt ing waiting at the stage door was Frank J the lie American f The magnet that drew v Mr Gould GUld there was was- Edith ell I Kelly a little dancer Jancer who ho kas as then then delighting the Ga Gaels Gael's et ets et's s 's au audiences by the way she kicked licked up her heels in n n a musical comedy She became Mr Goulds Gould's second wife But Bat this was as one of the leaps from the Stae stage to wealth and fashion which dId not pro prose pro e permanently successful Now Edith Idly is divorced and eng engaged engaged in inan inan I an apparently endless legal battle with her former husband over tb th share of hIS fortune to which she thinks she IS entitled Another former Gaiety girl who did not find the happiness she expected with Ith Itha a rich and fashionable husband is beau beau- beautiful beautiful beautiful Gladys Cooper She married Cap Cap- tarn tam Captain Buckmaster but is now parted from him and back on the stage But tn is in spite of these and stillmore still more tragic disillusionments the idea rapidly spread that there was no better place for fora fora fora a girl to capitalize her good looks and anden en ture a wealthy husband than the stage of the Gaiety Theater Many of of these beauties succeeded many others other most failed most miserably In these pages next week will be given some intimate details of the trio tri triumphs and tra tragedies edies edie's whose whoso progress progreso James Jupp saw with his own ryes eyes while keeping guard over the Galet Gaiety's 8 stage |