AN INTERVIEW WITH " JO."

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7257, 17 January 1889, Page 6

AN INTERVIEW WITH " JO."

Miss Jennie Lee has been relating some remarkable incidents connected with Jo to a Brighton interviewer. " I suppose Jo was your first attempt to give a representation of a crossing sweeper?" said the interviewer. "No," replied Miss Lee. "The first time I played as a crossing sweeper, I was attired in rags of silk and had a golden broom. It was in the opera of "Lβ Petit Faust" at the Lyceum. I made a big hit. In San Francisco I was one of the company who supported the celebrated German actress, Madame Janauschek. in a version of ' Bleak House.' Up to this time I had only played funny parts ; but I was cast for Jo, and I remember so well at rehearsal Madame Janauschek complaining that I (a Londoner) could not speak the cockney dialect. In her broken English she said, 'I am sorry, but you will be a ereat big failure.* I assured her that I would do my best, with the result that in the evening I played Jo just as I play it now, and although it was not such a conspicuous part in that version of the play, it made the hit of the evening. Mr Boucicault was there at the time, and he came round to mc, and said, ' Look here, Miss Lee, you get Mr Burnett to write a version of "Bleak House" in which Jo is made a prominent figure, and you mark my words, you will make one of the biggest hits that ever a woman has made. , I was sceptical at the time, but the version was written and we left for London." " "What was your success there ?"—" Not a single manager would have anything to do with it. The universal lament was 4 Very sorry I cannot produce it; but it is too dreary. Nothing of Dickens' has ever been a success.' Mr Burnand at the Opera Comique was willing to try it on conditions that I could not possibly agree to. Alec Henderson offered to play it if it were put into two acts, so as to come before a burlesque. But this was declined, and at last I gave it up in despair. Eventually I made my first appearance in".7o" in Liverpool. It was an enormous hit, but even then the London managers would not have anything to do with it. Arrangements were then entered into for the Globe Theatre. Everyone was confident it would be a failure, and amongst them was Charles jJickens, jun. It was a kind letter that he wrote. He wished mc every good fortune, but he very much feared that nobody could realise the characters his father conceived. There is no occasion to tell you that the play was a big success, and one of the first persons who wrote was Charles Dickens, who, as they say in America, 4 took it all back.' We spent six years in England, then went to America, but lost everything in a fire, and the death of President Garfield resulted in every theatre being closed for two weeks. We moved on to San Francisco, from there to Australia, thence to New Zealand, and then back to Australia, where we stayed four years. The same success attended us everywhere, and has continued to do so since our return to England." 41 What is your own idea of Jo?"—"I think the character is the most wonderfully pathetic thing that has ever been written, and I know the extraordinary effect it has upon audiences. I have known men in the west of America, and in the Colonies, hard as nails, who drink and gamble, being influenced by it. I remember in one instance where we were making a prolonged 3tay, noticing a gentleman ia a box every night, who always eat behind the curtain in such a way that the audience could not see him. He excited my curiosity, and I asked why he came to the theatre; and if he came to see the performance, why ib was that he did not show his face. I was told that he had taken the box for four months, that he was one of the fastest men in town, but that' Jα 'bad a peculiar fascination.for him. During the whole of the period that man never missed one particular scene—the doorstep scene where Jo and Gussy meet. You conld see," said Mlas Lee, " that he waa affected by it."

"Your study of the character is from life ? "—" Yes, I have seen the same thing in real life in London, many a time. There are numbers of children whose lives I have investigated, whose wretched miserable homes I have seen, but who have no vice. They are not blackguards. They think a lot of a kind word. There was a typical Jo came under our notice when we were playing in London. Mr Burnett had to go to America, and I was left at home " —of oourse every reader is aware of the fact that Miss Jennie Lee is Mrs Burnett. "One of these crossing boys," remarked Miss Lee," used to follow Mr Burnett about. One day this boy came up to mc and said, ' 'Aye you heerd from'im? , I said 'Who? , "Im, 'im you know.' I said ' Oh! yes, I have. He said ' How is he ? Is he going to stay away long? , I told him I didn't know. • Well, , said he, 'I don't know what I'll do without him.' And every night during Mr Burnett's absence, that boy used to watch mc leave the stage door, and would always say' Good night, mum!'" "You must have come across some strange characters, Miss Lee ?"—•• Indeed I hay London especially. Whenever I go down Drury-lane, the boys—some of them lads of the worst characters—all know mc, and always speak, With Rome it is ' Good-day, Miss Lee;' others, ' Hollo Jo, how are ye I I always answer them kindly. One night at the Standard Theatre after playing Jo, I was stepping into my carriage when a woman—with such a fearful countenance—came up to mc and caught mc by the arm. I was a little bit afraid but asked her what she wanted. ' Are you Mrs Jo f she said. 'No,' I replied. 'Are you the girt then what plays that boy Jo V ' Yes, , I answered. 'iThcn God Almighty love you,' was the singular ejaculation. One thing which Miss Lee prizes very much is her broom. She has used the same broom, 'she said, for twelve years, and by this time it has become quite a curiosity. Some of the most eminent people'have put their initials on the handle, and it is covered in notches. Miss Lee told an amusing little story as to how a portion of her broom was one night taken as a souvenir by an officer in the army. This gentleman for fifty consecutive nights had occupied the same seat in the dresscircle of the theatre, but the time came fot him to embark for India. He wished to carry with him some little remembrance of Jo, so it appears he bribed one of the men at the theatre to take some of the twigs of the broom, and when Miss Lee arrived in the evening she found that part of, her broom was missing. Inquiries were made with reference to it, and then the facts became known.