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Copyright, 1913, by the Star Comoany Great Britain Rights Reserves.
IS LOVING HER THE WORST OF
Amazing Series of Misfortunes Uf if I I If li 1 C"
Which Relentlessly Pursues IS \J\Jw
the Men Who Have Loved,
Admired or Been Closely As
sociated with Miss Pauline
Frederick, the Peerless Beauty
A
NCIENT legends speak of
beauty that was attended by
a curse. We have come, per
haps, to regard “the fatal gift of
beauty” as a jest, but right in the
heart of the gay life of New York
is one who appears to possess it un
mistakably.
Miss Pauline Frederick has been
pronounced on good authority the
most beautiful woman on the Amer
ican stage. She is not only beauti
ful, but sweet, charming, lovely,
sympathetic. A long list of promi
nent men who have experienced her
charm and magnetic influence have
Buffered every kind of misfortune,
[varying from financial ruin to death.
So persistent has misfortune been
among those men who have admired
Miss Frederick, or at least have
been closely associated with her,
that those who know her declare
that “loving her is the worst of hoo
doos.”
Tom Thorne, a fellow player in
“The Fourth Estate,” committed
suicide. E. R. Thomas, the gay
young millionaire who assisted
her producing “The Little Gray
Lady," was parted from his
beautiful wife and terribly injured
in an automobile accident. Wilbur
Bates, a prominent theatrical man,
lost his wife and his position after a
brief association with her.
And now comes the news that her
husband, Frank M. Andrews, one of
the most brilliant young architects
in New York, is in business difficul
ties.
The ill luck of Miss Frederick’s
associates is the more remarkable'
because she has been singularly for
tunate in her own enterprises.
In three years she rose from the
humblest place in the stage army to
the proud position of star. Five
years after her first appearance she
was voted at the Actors’ Fund Fair
the most popular actress in America.
Before her Lillian Russell and Max
ine Elliott were considered the lead
ing beauties of the stage. At a
meeting of the Dramatists’ Club
Pauline Frederick was declared the
queen of American beauty. Harri
son Fisher, the artist, who is cer
tainly one of the best judges of
womanly beauty, has pronounced
her to be the purest type of beauty
in the country.
Three years ago she and Thomas
Thorne, a clever young actor whom
nearly everybody addressed as
“Tommy,” were playing in “The
Fourth Estate.” Thorne was only
twenty-five years old, the descend
ant of a noted English stage family
and already on the high road to suc
cess. All who saw this play, writ
ten by the multimillionaire, Joseph
Medill Patterson, will remember the
young man’s grim characterization
of the imaginative young poet re
porter, who was so profoundly de
pressed by his first assignment, the
suicide of a woman who could no
longer “endure the ghastliness of
life.” One morning “Tommy”
Thorne was found dead in his room.
He had hanged himself. A few said
he had been rendered melancholy
by the depressing character of the
part he had played nine times a
week in “The Fourth Estate.” More
Miss Pauline Frederick has been pronounced the most
beautiful woman on the stage. The long list of
prominent men who have experienced her
charm and magnetic influence have suf
fered every kind of misfortune vary
ing from financial ruin to death.
S,i' \/ »,
shook their heads and were silent.
But members of the company said
quite frankly:
“The boy was hopelessly in love
with the leading woman He knew
she was about to be married. He
knew there was no chance for him.
He believed he could not live with
out her and he ended his troubles
in this way.”
Miss Frederick moved in a grace
ful, stately way, onward in the path
of her fixed ambition.
Wilbur E. Bates, long associated
with a powerful theatrical firm, met
her. She reminded him that he had
been a classmate of her uncle’s in
Boston. He undertook to further
her theatrical fortunes. His wife,
the beautiful Spanish fencer, Ja-
quarina, resented with all the fervor
of her nature her husband’s admira
tion for his college mate’s beautiful
niece. Mr. Bates assured her she
was unreasonable. He unkindly said
that every woman becomes panicky
at sight of a beauty. The breach
widened. After a year of domestic
hostilities Mrs. Bates impulsively
brought suit for divorce. Some
what to the bewilderment of each, it
was granted. The theatrical world
knew Wilbur Bates no more.
When a second company of “The
Little Gray Lady” was organizing
for a tour of the West and South
the question of finance became a
poignant one. E. R. Thomas, tlje
meteoric young multimillionaire, they
remembered, was a patron of the
arts, and had several times financed
dramatic and operatic productions.
Mr. Thomas was summoned for first
aid to the ailing organiratlow. Ho
beheld Miss Frederick’s beauty. He
financed the production, and shortly
afterward Mr. Thomas complained,
as Mr. Bates had done, that his wife,
too, was unreasonable. But Mrs.
Thomas proved less unreasonable
than Mrs. Bates. The former beau
tiful Linda Lee, herself a famed
beauty from Kentucky, met and her
self admired Miss Frederick. Great
beauties can afford to be generous
and magnanimous.
But misfortune dogged Mr. Thomas.
After a panic he confessed judg
ment for one and a quarter million
dollars. The judge signed an order
garnisheeing his income, permitting
him the use only of a third of it
until all the debts had been paid.
It would take many years, perhaps
his full lifetime, to pay them.
That blow would have seemed
overwhelming to one of the young
turfman’s princely tastes but a
greater misfortune awaited him. In
an automobile wreck near Paris he
was injured and crippled for life.
Later his wife sued for, and secured,
a divorce.
Yet this was in no sense Miss
Frederick’s fault. It was merely a
coincidence.
Three years ago Miss Frederick
married. The husband her beauty
won was Frank Andrews, a very
brilliant architect, who designed
many great skyscrapers and whose
business associate was Charles P.
Taft, brother of the then President,
William H. Taft.
Mr. Andrews obtained a divorce
and seven days later he and Miss
FredericK went to New Jersey where
they v.*2rs c---"
Miss Pauline Frederick as She Appears in Her
Latest Photograph.
afterward she forsook the stage, as
she then said, forever.
A period of the greatest artistic
productiveness for Mr. Andrews fol
lowed. Under the inspiration of his
second marriage he did the best
work of his life. With the most
beautiful face recently seen on the
American stage close beside him,
and with one of its sweetest voices
reminding him that architecture is
frozen music and that she was more
intensely proud of his achievements
than of anything she had ever done
on the stage, he designed the Hotel
McAlpin in New York.
There fashionable women went to
drink tea and to admire the rare,
soft blendings of colors in the mu
ral decorations.
“They say his love for his wife
was his inspiration for this work,”
cooed the tea drinkers. “She is one
of the most beautiful women in
America and he’s just crazy about
her.”
So they said. What they are now
saying is different.
They have separated and are say
ing all sorts of unkind things about
one another now. Mr. Andrews’s am
bitious business plans have all gone
lip | 1 — .. . •
new Equitable building which would
have been the biggest skyscraper in
area in the world. To build this
would have been the biggest archi
tectural undertaking of the day, but
owing to a quarrel with multi-mil
lionaire Dupont the Andrews plans
were never carried out.
Mr. Andrews is not only separated
from his wife and his firm in the
hands of a receiver, but he has seri
ous trouble with another actress, Mrs.
Ruth L. Trufant, who is bringing a
$.i0,000 breach of promise suit against
Henry G. Williams, proprietor of the
Hotel York.
Mrs. Trufant alleges that Mr. An
drews made ardent love to her and
sought to part her from Mr. Will
iams.
Mrs. Trufant wished Mr. Andrews
to appear for her in her suit and tell
the Court how much he had loved her.
Mr. Andrews showed a shyness about
doing this, thinking that it might add
to his many troubles.
Mrs. Trufant resented this, and pro
duced a number of remarkable love
letters which, she said, had been writ
ten to her by Mr. Andrews, and
which proved his devotion. Here is
an example of one of the mildest
of these letters:
Dear-heart: It doesn’t get any
easier, and I find myself trying
to keep away from myself as one
avoids a disagreeableperson. Your
absence is an irreconcilable thing.
I cannot, and never will, grow
used to It ... I want you
if I could wade out into mid-
ocean and seize you from the
boat the manner and promptness
of your going would make people
sit up and take notice.
I spent all last night at the
'club, leaving there this morning
at 6 o'clock. Know I could not
sleep for longing for you. Why
can't I take your dear, kind face
in my hands and look into your
eyes and read what there is for
me? Do you love me any more
than him? With all your heart
do you miss me? Do you want
me there at your side? . . .
Please answer all these ques
tions, my sweetheart. I love you
with all my heart. I miss you as
I cannot express. I want you
every moment. I am sad and un
happy. FRANK.
To return to the brilliant but tragic
story of Miss Pauline Frederick. Od
the horizon appears another admirer,
a multimillionaire bachelor whose
heart has hitherto been regarded as
impregnable. The stage anil society
are equally interested in the questiou,
will the hoodoo that pursues Miss
Frederick’s admirers perch on him
too?
A line in the play "Joseph and His
Brethren," in which she played Poti-
phar’s wife, describes that character
thus: “Many men have loved her and
evil has overtaken them all. I know
one who died.”