Mrs. James Campbell 12-11-1925 PREFACE. THERE is little need of a preface to such a book as this. It is such a big book-it holds so much-that I have been able to express myself pretty fully, and I do not find, in giving a last look at the pages as they lie before me, that I have forgotten to say anything I wanted to say. And if I had, I should not drag it into the preface and half say it, for fear of never getting a chance to say it anywhere else. I don't believe this book will be my last. I don't expect to get through writing on my favorite subjects for a good while yet a statement which some of my critics will receive, I fear, with indescribable anguish. The book is the result of many years of careful preparation, during which I have been gathering, from experience and from study, the material here presented. I have scorned no source from which reliable and worthy material could be derived-from the most ponderous volumes to the most ephemeral newspapers -from the reminiscences of the most cultivated and scholarly play-goers to the gossip of the humblest of the player-folk-from the experiences of the most celebrated actresses, actors and managers, to the experiences of my humble self, from girlhood to womanhood, through a life which has been full of strange vicissitudes. I give my work to the world in the sincere and earnest hope that it will do good. If it strips off some of the "gauze and vanity" from the "show world," I hope it also exhibits that world in a fairer and juster light to many who have hitherto looked on it with ungenerous and unenlightened eyes. AUTHORS' UNION, 264 PEARL St., NEW YORK, December, 1869. OLIVE LOGAN. 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 WARDROBE KEEPER. ARTISTE DEPAD. STRIKING AN ATTITUde. KING DUNCAN. GALLERY GODS. DELIGHTED Supes. THE STAGE IRISHMAN. Booтn's THEATRE. 39 OLD PARK THEATRE. 40 A FAIR SCENE. 41 THE STAGE FAST-MAN. 42 THE STAGE RUSTIC LASS. 43 A STAGE FOP. 44 MODERN INTELLECTUAL DRAMA. 45 PRIMO TENORE. 46 THE STAGE BENEDICK. 47 48 A SCENE FROM THE PLAY OF "ONE POOR GIRL." BURNT-CORK ARTISTS. 49 THE STAGE TOPSY. 50 AN OLD BOWERY STAR. 54 A FRENCH OPERA HOUSE IN THE OLDEN TIME. 55 OLD FASHIONED STREET MOUNTEBANKS. CONTENTS. Introductory. Why the Book is Written.-The Results of an Actress's Study and Reflection. The Mimic World a Land of Mystery.- False Conceptions of the Stage Life. What the Theme Embraces.- The "Show Business" in all its Branches.-The Extremes of Ex- travagant Denunciation and Servile Flattery.-The Golden Mean of Recollections of Early Life.-Cornelius A. Logan, Comedian, Critic and Poet. Vicissitudes of a Strange Career. - How a Family of Girls Took to the Stage.-Reminiscences of Cincinnati.-Floating Down the Ohio.-Residence in Philadelphia.-The Comedian as His Cotempora- ries saw Him.-The Critic and the Poet, as His Works show Him.- My First Visit Behind the Scenes, an Infant in Long Clothes.- My First Appearance Before an Audience, a Child of Five Years.—Chil- dren as Actors. Ristori's Debut as a New-Born Babe.- Drilling Children in the Art of Acting. - My Early Distaste for the Life.- Training for the Stage.-False Notions about "Genius."-The Road to Suceess a Road of Hard Work.-How Fanny Kemble Studied Walk, Gesture and Accent for Years before making a Public Appearance.- The Severe Training of Rachel the Tragedienne.-A Woman's Criti- cism of Rachel.-Her Wonderful Powers, her Serpent-like Movements, her Thrilling Intensity.-Brief Sketch of Her Life.-Kate Bateman's Training.-Anecdote of Julia Dean.—Mrs. Mowatt's Training.-Bet- terton, the great English Actor.-The Severe Discipline by which he Overcame the most Extraordinary Disadvantages, an Ugly Face, a |