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WhvCireat Prima Donnas#
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A. the higher conaclona eent real B the centre nt Ideation i C the centre of emotional D the rotee control.
The linen show the nerve connections between these ties. The first head is of a normal person. The full control of
emotions is shown by the heavy lines between A and C. The second head is that of a prima donna. The nerve
flbera are atrotfg between B, C and D, but the control between A and C is weak. The third head Illustrates the Mow
nf blood to the emotional centres of the prime donna which robs the higher conscious controlling centres of strength.
WHY are prima donnas un
reasonable, capricious, vio
lent, often ungrateful —as
well as generally delightful?
Because, says science, they have
enormously developed sensory cen
tres In their brains, while their
higher inhibitory moral centres have
been switched off.
Nearly all the great ''tempera
mental geniuses” of history have ex
hibited the same peculiarities.
Professor David Edgar Rice, Ph.
D. (Columbia University), formerly
of Columbia’s department of psychol
ogy, has explained the underlying
reasons In a profound and scientific
manner.
The truth, very simply and un
scientifically stated, seems to be that
the prima donna and the “tempera
mental genius” have a very large
blood supply, and very large brain
centres, in a certain locality of the
brain, and that the higher moral and
intellectual centres of the brain are
comparatively neglected.
It can hardly be called the prima
donna's fault She has been gifted
by nature with an enormous centre
of vocal expression in her brain,
which uses up so much blood and
nervous energy that her moral and
intellectual centres do not have half
a chance.
Remember that, according to Pro
fessor Rice, there are "tempera
mental geniuses” and “Intellectual
geniuses.” Herbert Spencer was an
“Intellectual genius,” and was not
expected to do anything unreason
able. Richard Wagner was a tem
peramental genius,” and he was ex-
Sected to throw a wine bottle at bls
ost or do something at least as
startling as that once a day. And
prima donnas share the peculiarities
of “temperamental geniuses.’
First, let us satisfy ourselves that
prima donnas are unreasonable, and
then let us go more deeply into the
science that shows why they are
unreasonable.
Oscar Kammerstein discovered a
beautiful young American singer
named Felice Lyne. She became
famous In a single night after she
sang Gilda in “Rigoletto” at Kam
merstein's London Opera House. She
is only twenty years old.
The King and Queen went to hear
Felice Lyne, and the Queen told her
that she had “a perfectly lovely
voice.” Every honor fell to her
largely as a result of the discrimin
ating enterprise of Oscar Kammer
stein.
A few weeks ago the impresario
advertised Madame Berthe Cesar, the
noted French pritna donna, as Mar
guerite In "Faust,” a role in which
Miss Lyne had been singing. Miss
Lyne felt aggrieved at Mr. Kam
merstein, and at the next rehearsal,
when she met him, she beat him
over the head with the heavy score
of the work which had made her
famous, thereby causing him “great
bodily pain and mental anguish,” as
the lawyers would express it.
Another illustration of the prima
donna temperament was furnished
the other day by Miss Fritzl Scheff.
This sprightly young person was
travelling in a special car on the
Union Pacific Railroad. In >h» m Qra .
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Miss Fritzi Scheff, Who Pulled the Emergency Cord So That
the Train Would Stop and Not Make the Water Slop Over
While She Was Bathing.
Ing she took a private bath In her
private bath tub. The movement of
the train caused the tub to joggle
in an unpleasant manner and made
the water slop over. So the prima
donna quickly pulled the alarm cord
—that is provided for murders and
similar emergencies and brought
the train to a standstill.
“What is the matter T’ asked the
conductor. Miss Scheff explained vi
vaciously. The train stopped until
she had finished her bath.
Miss Mary Garden always explains
things interestingly, and she has
thrown a lot of light on prima don
nas’ morality and psychology. A
wealthy but simple-minded woman,
Mrs. David Mayer,o f Chicago, com
plained : that she had advanced the
money for Mary Garden’s musical
education, and that after Miss Gar
den became famous she snubbed her
benefactress.
“Have I snubbed the Mayers?” ob
served Miss Garden. “Really, I don’t
know whether I did or not I was
very young when they first became
interested in me. I was not inter
ested in them so much as I was in
making a name for myself. They
were merely the means to an end.”
Hundreds of other cases might be
cited. The most admired prima
donnas and actresses have shown
themselves unreasonable, capricious
and erratic,'"but no one admires them
a bit the less afterward.
Sir James "Crichton Browne, a fa
mous English physician, made an
address recently to the Child Study
Society at the University of London
on the difference between men’s and
women’s brains. His remarks inci
dentally explained some of the pe
culiarities of prima donnas.
“In woman,” he said, "the posterior
region of the brain receives a richer
flow of arterial blood; in man the
anterior region. The work of the
two regions of the brain is different.
The posterior region is mainly sen
sory ana concerned with seeing and
hearing. The anterior region in
cludes the higher inhibitory centres
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which are concerned with the will,
and the association centres, con
cerned with the appetites and de
sires based on internal sensations.
“There is a correspondence be
tween the richer blood supply of the
posterior region of the brain in wom
en, and their delicate powers of
sensuous perception, rapidity of
thought and emotional sensibility,
and between the richer blood supply
of the anterior region in men and
their greater originality on the
higher levels of intellectual work,
their calmer judgment and stronger
will
“The crown of the womans skull
Is flatter than the man’s, but the
back of her brain is relatively larger
than his ”
Now Investigation
shows that the tem
peramental genius usu
ually possesses a brain
that is highly develop
ed at the back, i, e„ in
the region where the
woman’s brain also is
relatively most devel
oped. In a musician, a
poet or an artist the £
centres of hearing, see- Rl
Ing and language are ,
most highly developed,
and these, as we have
seen, are in the back of
the brain.
Now, the prima don
nn is an artist and con- jMMI
slderably more of a wo- mBWrO
man than the average /a
woman, so that the
phenomena . which are Wpl? W
constantly going on tn
the posterior part of RO*
her brain must be aim ft-'
ply amazing, and an ex- ®
cuse for any sort of di W
does. Sj
Professor Rice agrees IT
with Sir James Cricb- ‘
ton Browne concerning
the distinction between
the sensory and higher
inhibitory areas of the "'RI
brain. He points out ”
that the tendency of science is to
localize, more and jnore, various
mental faculties in certain groups
of nerve cells.
"It has been found that the lan
guage centre Is split up and special
ized in a most extraordinary man
ner, said Professor Rice. ‘‘A man.
for instance, may know English and
French and Greek. Then he ma
vuffer an injury to his brain, and
he will be found to have lost his
knowledge of English, but to hav
retained his knowledge of French
and Greek. In fact any one or t’.v
languages of the group may be
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i4iss Mary Garden, Who Snubbed
Mrs. David Mayer, Who Had
Paid for Her Musical Education.
“I Was Not Interested in Them
When They Were Helping Me,”
Said Miss Garden, “but Only in
My Own Career. I Paid Them
Back Because I Would Consider
It a Discredit to Owe Money
to Such People.”
out. and leave the others in good
order.
"Language seems to be the centre
most concerned In the prima donnas
and other artists we are discussing.
“It must be obvious to anybody
that if there is an enormous develop
ment in one region of the brain, an
other is likely to be neglected. The
organism possesses only a certain
vitality, and if one part Is abnor
mally developed another is corre
spondingly undeveloped.
“Doubtless there are large ganglia
around the expression area In the
pritna donna's brain, connected un
with large white fibres. On the
other band, her moral Inhibitory
centres are just little pinbead dots
. roxammer. Tvrear bfiihid rugntß
Because, Science Tells Us, the Expression Centres
in Their Brains Take Up Jill the Blood Supply, and
the Poor Little Higher, Inhibitory Centres JI re Starved
connected with tiny threads. When
the expression centres are working
vigorously these little dots can hardly
get in a suggestion sidewise. Now,
a commonplace respectable person
would have good-sized moral inhibi
tory centres hitched together like a
well-conducted electric circuit.
“Much of our knowledge of the
localization of brain functions comes
through the surgical treatment of
brain diseases. If a patient is found
to be suffering from paralysis of cer-
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Miss relice Lyne Achieved World-Wide Fame as a Prima aWwl
D»nna at the Age of Twenty Through the Efforts of Oscar m
Hammerstein. Just Because He Had Engaged Another Prima ' V x .t
Donna Without Injuring Her Position, Miss Lyne Slapped Mr , >3 I ’ ' ; w
Hammerstein in the Face with a Lot of Music.
tain facial muscles, the surgeon trembling. sometimes terminating ' ' ' ,
knows exactly where to locate the with a kind of fainting tit gloitwfeW :
tumor that is causing the trouble. “Mnlibran. on first hearing Beet- ’ 'J' >V *s**
If it is a case of one-sided paralysis. boveu’s symphony in C minor, had a W ' -<' <■>
he knows precisely what artery lu convulsive attack, and had to be
the brain has been injured. token out of the ball. ? ? *"
“As a result of these investlga- “Musset. Goncourt. Flaubert Car- fc , .-■<*' * ’ ' '•
flops it bus been found that certain lyle had so delicate a ;>erception of
parts of the brain are the seat of sounds that the noises of the streets : 4
the impulses which man shares with and bells were Insupportable to them WWBBMHHiIk -lIIMBW
the lower animals, while certain “Urqulza fainted on breathing the |WiBM|KOfc •WWIMKaWW ''
other arc-is are the centre of tbo odor of a rose. Byron had a con- Im
so-called higher processes which con- vulslve attack on seeing Kean act ■ JwBBWI J<*r * Hg
trol or inhibit the purely animal Im- The painter Francis died of joy on >■
” U .!«- S ' . , . H-ehig one of Raphael’s pictures.”
. Uc often s ( s> a shifting of mon- We shall find Professor Rice’s scl-
tai control from the higher to the entitle facts and theories extens.veiv Wi IwMII
lower senses in a good inan who confirmed by the llv.-s of the most
suddenly goes wrong. Stevenson de- famous musicians and actors = , ■
picted one form of this shifting In Most of the great musicians wore
hls ’Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and ■'supermen." according to the phi'.
Mr. Hyde.' We see It also In the osophy of Nh-tzsc he. They were ;
case of Intelligent agreeable men above morality. It Is said th at onlv
who succumb to the effects of alee- <)n ,. Krt . nt musician was thoroughly
hoi, cocaine or opium. moral. That was Beethoven. Ho had
"In the case of the prims donnas meh a great, well developed brain
the overalevelopnient of their special that bls inhibitory centres wer<-able
senses Clicks the operation of the to overcome ills artistic eccentric)
higher Inhibitory prosesses, which ties, but there wa a terrific struggle
are, perhaps, naturally weak. All between lhe two.
control Is remove,!, mid the wild ani Beethoven abandoned the courtship
Dial in her, though a beautiful and nf a beautiful young gM who loved
artistic one i .ges without restraint. him, simply because he’ was deaf
" Ixunbroßo mentions greatly height nod middle aged, and felt that he T
cncd sensibility as the most promi- alioitld not tie her life to his Bat
nent characteristic of many of the he Is an amazing exception among v ?
Individuals whom ho regards as geniuses. fferyfi WwMl
geniuses. He says: ‘lf we seek the Richard Wagner stole th- w'f- -W ; - '
differences which separate a man >f his most, devoted admirer. Fran/
genius from an ordinary man. we I.fszt. was no better There a r BhKI
find that they consist In very great ztomparatlvely only a few great
part in an exquisite, aud sometimes musicians and singers who *•—"
perverted, ecuribilitv." not gratified their sensory .^p Ulß es r- i- v
Miss Felic* Lyne, the Youngest Frima Uonna on tno stage.
“The first time that Alfierl heard
music he experienced, as it were, a
dazzling In his eyes and ears. He
passed several days in a strange but
agreeable melancholy. Berlioz has
described his emotions on hearing
beautiful music: First, a sensation
of voluptuous ecstasy, Immediately
followed by general agitation with
palpitation. oppression, sobbing.
without regard to the feelings or
the rights of others.
The list of capricious modern act
resses proves the same tendency.
Ellen Terry made her reputation In
the company headed by Sir Henry
Irving, and abandoned him In his
old age when he ,vas beginning to
lose some of the prosperity he had
formerly enjoyed.
Evocyoody knows that Sarah Bera
hardt Is apt to reflect the workings
of her remarkable mind by throw
ing Inkpots at her associates and
other acta of violence. Inhibitory
centres have no work to do there.
Mrs. Brown Potter became stage
struck, deserted her husband and
went on the stage with Kyrle Bellew,
an actor of remarkable ability.
Some time later she left him, He
lost reputation and drawing power.
His last years, It Is said, were em
bittered by her action.
The temperament of the genius li
short is a compound of exquisite
sensibilities without adequate cou
scous control. The prima donna and
the actress share this temperament
with more or less of the genius.