Untitled

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18353, 10 March 1920, Page 8

The forthcoming award of tho Cross of tho Legion of Honour to Mdmo. Hejane appears definitely to establish the principle, first set up in the case of Mdme. Sarah Bernhardt, of granting membership of this Order on tho specific ground of dramatic talent- As far back as 1906 the lato M. Catulle Mendes, tho poet, proposed to M. Briand, then Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, that Mdmo Bernhardt should receive tho distinction, but she refused it when told she was “ not be to decorated as a comedienne but as a professor at tho Conservatoire,” and it was not until 1914 that she secured tho decoration in recognition of her art. Actors and actresses who had previously been admitted to the Order wero officially gmuted tho distinction on other than artistio grounds.