Before the Footlights and Behind the Scenes: a Book about "the Show Business" in All Its Branches: from Puppet Shows to Grand Opera: From Mountebanks to Menageries; from Learned Pigs to Lecturers; from Burlesque Blondes to Actors and Actresses: with Some Observations and Reflections (original and Reflected) on Morality and Immorality in Amusements: Thus Exhibiting the "show World" as Seen from Within, Through the Eyes of the Former Actress, as Well as from Without, Through the Eyes of the Present Lecturer and Author |
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Page 20
... thing which is of the nature of an entertainment , with these three requirements : 1. A place of gathering . 2. An admis- sion fee . 3. An audience . This remarkably comprehensive term covers with the same mantle the tragic Forrest ...
... thing which is of the nature of an entertainment , with these three requirements : 1. A place of gathering . 2. An admis- sion fee . 3. An audience . This remarkably comprehensive term covers with the same mantle the tragic Forrest ...
Page 21
... thing the reader may rest assured , namely , that throughout this book , whether dealing with lofty themes or with little ones , the aim of its author is to furnish the truth in everything . What- ever faults these pages may exhibit ...
... thing the reader may rest assured , namely , that throughout this book , whether dealing with lofty themes or with little ones , the aim of its author is to furnish the truth in everything . What- ever faults these pages may exhibit ...
Page 26
... thing has passed into a proverb . When , as frequently happens , we are told that such or such a hotel is kept by an old ex - steamboat captain , we know at once that at that place the inner creature will be succulently pandered to ...
... thing has passed into a proverb . When , as frequently happens , we are told that such or such a hotel is kept by an old ex - steamboat captain , we know at once that at that place the inner creature will be succulently pandered to ...
Page 31
... thing to its brilliancy . This divine . tells us that the Drama has commenced its retreat , and will soon pass away . ' Nothing can be more evidently oppos te to the truth than both the assertion and the pre- dictio .. At no period of ...
... thing to its brilliancy . This divine . tells us that the Drama has commenced its retreat , and will soon pass away . ' Nothing can be more evidently oppos te to the truth than both the assertion and the pre- dictio .. At no period of ...
Page 38
... thing to say " This gentleman will have a hump on his shoulder at night ; and you are to lift up your shoul- ders as if to imitate his deformity , and lay great stress on the line ' You should bear me on your shoulders . ' " ' All of ...
... thing to say " This gentleman will have a hump on his shoulder at night ; and you are to lift up your shoul- ders as if to imitate his deformity , and lay great stress on the line ' You should bear me on your shoulders . ' " ' All of ...
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Common terms and phrases
actor actress American amusing animals appearance artists audience Barentin beasts beautiful boxes boxing the compass cage called Carrie Carrie Lee character child Cincinnati circus clown color costume course COVENT GARDEN cried critics curtain dear dollars drama dress Drury Lane Edwin Booth elephant engaged English eyes face father footlights French gentleman Gibeau girl give hand head heart hiss Jenny Lind Juliet lady laugh Leopoldine lion lioness London look Macbeth Mason menagerie ment mountebanks Nashville never night Ole Bull once opera painted pantomime Paris Pennyweight performance person piece play players poor pretty prompter rebel rehearsal Romeo Romeo and Juliet rushed salary scene seemed soldier stage manager stage-struck star street supe tell theatre theatrical thing thought tion told took town trapeze voice walk woman words York young
Popular passages
Page 55 - Othello; the mixture of love that intruded upon his mind, upon the innocent answers Desdemona makes, betrayed in his gesture such a variety and vicissitude of passions, as would admonish a man to be afraid of his own heart, and perfectly convince him, that it is to stab it, to admit that worst of daggers, jealousy. Whoever reads in his closet this admirable scene, will find that he cannot, except he has as warm an imagination as...
Page 58 - A distinguished theatrical performer, in consequence of the sudden illness of another actor, had occasion to prepare himself, on very short notice, for a part which was entirely new to him ; and the part was long and rather difficult. He acquired it in a very short time, and went through it with perfect accuracy, but immediately after the performance forgot every word of it. Characters which he had acquired in a more deliberate manner he never- forgets, but can perform them at any time without a...
Page 606 - His folly bears him. Boldly, I dare say, There has been more by us in some one play Laugh'd into wit and virtue, than hath been By twenty tedious lectures drawn from sin And foppish humours : hence the cause doth rise, Men are not won by th
Page 63 - Hamlet sitting down comfortably while talking to the ghost of his father ; or Macbeth inquiring — " Is this a dagger that I see before me, The handle towards my hand ?" from amidst the soft cushions of a parlor sofa ! A great many male tragic parts require the actor to fence, and that this is hard work for a slender man (or a stout one either, for that matter,) any one will testify who has seen Edwin Booth in Hamlet, or Romeo, or Richard the Third, or Forrest in \^QjGrladmtor or Jack Caglf.
Page 54 - Mr. Betterton (although a superlative good actor) labored under ill figure, being clumsily made, having a great head, a short thick neck, stooped in the shoulders, and had fat short arms, which he rarely lifted higher than his stomach. His left hand frequently lodged in his breast, between his coat and waistcoat, while, with his right he prepared his speech.
Page 532 - The Fine Gentleman in Garrick's little comedy of " Lethe " describes to jEsop his manner of spending his evenings : " I dress and go generally behind the scenes of both playhouses — not, you may imagine, to be diverted with the play, but to intrigue and show myself; I stand upon the stage, talk loud and stare about, which confounds the actors and disturbs the audience, upon which the galleries, who hate the appearance of one of us, begin to hiss and to cry, 'Off, off!
Page 59 - ... he has been obliged each time to prepare it anew, and has never acquired in regard to it that facility which is familiar to him in other instances.
Page 54 - He had little eyes, and a broad face, a little pock-fretten, a corpulent body, and thick legs, with large feet. He was better to meet, than to follow; for his aspect was serious, venerable, and majestic; in his latter time a little paralytic His voice was low and grumbling; yet he could time it by an artful climax, which enforced universal attention, even from the fops and orange-girls. He was incapable of dancing even in a country dance; as was Mrs. Barry: but their good qualities were more than...
Page 55 - Shakspeare himself, find any but dry, incoherent, and broken sentences : but a reader that has seen Betterton act it, observes, there could not be a word added ; that longer speeches had been unnatural, nay impossible, in Othello's circumstances. The charming passage in the same tragedy, where he tells the manner of winning the affection of his mistress, was urged with so moving and graceful an energy, that while I walked in the cloisters, I thought of him with the same concern as if I waited for...
Page 514 - And though now bent on this high embassy, Yet stoop we to take up our Cousin's glove...