The Actressocracy—Stage and Peerage

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 May 1929, Page 9

The Actressocracy —Stage and Peerage

T present the demand in our present light musical shows is for quickmo fire dancing and strenuous acrobatic feats from the chorus, neither of which is conducive to the development of good looks or grace (writes Mr. J. B. Booth in an article recalling the glories of the old-time Junoesque chorus beauty). The very speed involves strained expression and ungainliness, and is, of course, death to good singing. At the present moment the chorus girl is chosen for her legs and feet; her looks, her stage intelligence, and, least of all, her voice, are of minor importance. There are, of course, exceptions, but as a general thing the American school has for the moment eclipsed the really good-lookng girl, who possessed stage presence, grace of movement, and a voice. It is a delusion of the post-war school to imagine that the show-girls of the early days of the century were over-plump, heavy, and dull. Socalled staluesrjne beauty was largely a matter of clothes and feminine fashion, and the Wearers had as a rule personalities which were of value to the intelligent stage-manager. Hope of Peerage AL one stage of his success George Edwardcs was dangerously near losing his sense of humour, for once at least he quite seriously contended that the hopes of the future generation of the peerage lay in the Gaiety

chorus, and he would discourse at ( length on the eugenic advantages to be conferred on posterity by the union of scions of ancient races with the keenwitted, healthy, good-looking young women who decorated the Gaiety boards. And -it is a fact that the Gaiety girl turned peeress as often as not proved

an ornament to her new position, and was by no means the fish out of water expected by the pessimistic dowagers outraged society ingenues. No that, for one moment, stage and society alliances have been confined to the Gaiety. Surely never was there a stranger transformation than that of the irrepressible Vai Rhys into the millionaire Lady Meux.

As Lady Meux she owned the Derby winner Volodyovski, but took a keen interest in other matters than racing, and was an enthusiastic Egyptologist.

Lady Meux had an extraordinary collection of jewellery, and it may have been due to the old theatrical leaven that she would on occasions appear at a small private dinner-party wearing £30,000 worth of jewels!

It is on record that the only person who completely silenced Whistler was the peeress from the lighter stage. Ho had paintdd her twice in two famous portraits, the “Arrangement in White and Black,” and the “Pink and Grey,” and she decided to sit a third time for a smaller portrait. At one of the sittings Whistler was unusually highly-strung; nervous and irritable, he became at last impertinent, and passed all bounds. Then' it was that Lady Meux, abandoning the pose, turned toward him, and said very softly: “See. here, .Timmy Whistler! You keep a civil tongue in that head of yours, or I’ll have someone in to finish those portraits of yours”—with the faintest pos-

sible accent on “finish.” Jimmy literally danced with rage. He darted up to his sitter, his long brush tightly clenched .’’nd quivering in his hand. ' “Hoy; dare you!” he spluttered. “How'dare you!” But the ci-devant WI Rhy® nevwj sat again. \

By her will in 1911 half the noble and county families in England benefited; a famous K.C. received an annuity of £300; and the future of Temple Bar was provided for. A strange career, paralleled only, perhaps, by that of the Drury Lane minor actress who became Mrs. Coutts, and later Duchess of St. Albans.

In the palmy days of the theatre the Gaiety girl was; as a rule, welleducated, intelligent, with a practical common-sense knowledge of the world, unlikely to make stupid errors, and possessed of considerable tact. So it is not to be wondered at that in many cases the “actressocracy,” as it was called, was a striking success. And the debt of the peerage to the Gaiety is a heavy one. It was at the Gaiety, in the “Toreador,” that Gertie Millar, now Countess of Dudley, first achieved fame aS a bridesmaid, singing Lionel Monckton’s song, “Captivating Cora.” And there are probably some battered hearts that thrill at the recollection of Rosie Boote’s farewell to the Gaiety, on the. eve of becoming Marchioness of Headfort, when the gallery wholeheartedly joined in the chorus of her song: “Maisie is a daisy!”

Sylvia Storey, Marie Tempest, Denise Orme, Gladys Cooper, Kitty Gordon, Eleanor Souray, Zena Dare, Oelia Sinclair, Connie Gilchrist, Eva Carrington, May Yoh6, and further back still, Belle Bilton, Dolly Tester, and Miss Leamar—the lighter stage has supported the titled ranks nobly. And many of the alliances were successful, for the Gaiety girl of the Edwardes’s school was, as a rule, a woman of the world, possessing tact, and a reasonable intelligence which enabled her to adapt herself to her taaw surroundings—although, ’ of thrare were exceptions.