Newspaper Page Text
Copyright, 1913. by the Sta
Company. Great Britain Rights Reserved.
5
tableau—just how effective no one
knows better than Polaire, who
stages even the most trivial details
of her daily life with the skill of an
expert.
"Oh, mes pauvres enfants," she
murmurs, smiling delightfully through
a real, hope-I-may-die mist of tears,
“my precious babies! Is it not
adorable the way they love me? And
wicked Polaire—what is it that she
has done for her pets? Nothing!
She has forgotten them, neglected
them, never mentioned them once in
her contract, del, how I have
shame for myself when I think of it!
And it is for this that I shall not go
to your Etats-Unis—no, not one step,
Instead I shall enter some convent
and bury myself under an ugly black
veil to do penance for-my sins.”
Manager Gest tried hard to con
ceal his relief. He had already made
so many cone ssions to this artistic
temperament that he could have well
afforded to supply valets and trained
nurses for her pets. But he had sup
posed her objection concerned some
thing more serious and more diffi
cult to adjust than two lame dogs
and a fat, waddling pig.
A brand new contract was accord
ingly drafted, with clauses added
providing for the welfare of the
three animals which are to be Po-
laire's constant companions on her
American tour. Stripped of their
complicated Anglo-Franco-American
legal phraseology, t{>ese clauses pro
vide as follows:
That neither Miss Hoffman, Lady
Richardson nor any other person con
nected with the company shall en
joy the possession of any animal
pets during the tour. Fill. Dodo and
Napoleon are to enjoy the undis
puted freedom of the stage, dressing
rooms and auditorium of every thea
tre where the company appears, and
proper precautions are to be taken
to prevent “any parrot, cat, snake
or any other bird that flies, beast
that walks or reptile that crawls
irom entering the building while
Polaire and her pets are there.”
The kangaroo was specifically
mentioned because once when Po
laire was playing at a German
vaudeville theatre where there was
a boxing kangaroo on the bill, the
creature put on its gloves and
frightened Napoleon half to death
by chasing him all over the stage.
And t,he parrot and snake were
named. Manager Gest more than
Distracting Exhibitions of Artistic Temperament
That Follow the Effort to Harness
the Eccentric Polaire with Two Even More
*#
Erratic Stars**
last? One can fee! the tenseness of
the situation in the very atmosphere
of the room. Not a word is spoken—
there is not a sound save the nervous
tap-tap-tap of Polaire's slippered foot
as, with puckered brow, she scans
the last paragraphs of this long,
complicated agreement.
A dozen times within the past few
days Polaire has been on the point
of signing, only to discover some
fancied slight to her art or some
imagined favoritism to Lady Con
stance or Miss HofTman. which
made her angrily tear the labori
ously prepared document into shreds
and demand that an entirely new one
be drawn up.
It really looks, however, as if
American enterprise this time has
found the solution to this perplexing
probl'em of Gallic femininity. Polaire
has read the contract through twice
without voicing a single objection.
And now, see—she takes up her favor
ite gold pen. dips it in the jewelled
well of purple ink, which she affects
and gives her slender wrist a little
preliminary flourish to impart the
necessary boldness to her signature.
But she does not sign her name—
not yet. Instead,. Polaire flings down
her pen. scatters the sheets of the
contract on the floor with an im-
pe . oils sweep of her hand and starts
pacing up and down the room like a
mad woman. Any one not accus
tomed to her strange moods might
actually fear for his safety at sight
of the audden violence of her passion.
With a wisdom born of long experi
ence with temperaments artistic and
feminine, Mr. Gest says nothing. And
really there is nothing he can say,
for he has not even a suspicion of the
real cause of his prospective "star’s
latest outburst.
Now she pauses, her bosom heav
ing with emotion, cheeks flushed,
eyes flashing fire. She faces the
little group of astonished men like a
tigress and starts talking. But she
is so agitated, her words pour forth
in such torrent, and she emphasizes
them with such violent gestures that
it is several minutes before her
hearers know what she is getting at.
“Jamais de ma vie! Nevaire!!
Nie! ! ! ” she eriesk calling alter
nately on French, English and Ger
ms u to express himself. “This coil-
tract what yeu make—it says noth
ing, not one word about Napoleon, my
pig. and Dodo and Fifl, my pauvre
itttu. (’s—■ v«— i-n tv 111 T ■sign
P 3LAIRE—once known to fame as
the ugliest woman on the
stage, now by her own admis
sion one of the most beautiful—is
sitting at her writing desk in her
Paris apartment. Before her are
spread out the 100 closely typewritten
sheets, which compose the contract
binding her to a tour of America with
Lady Constance Stewart Richardson
and Gertrude Hoffman. Beside her
sits Morris Gest, of New York, the
man who has been careless enough
of his ow’n peace of mind to under
take harnessing together three of the
most tempestuous temperaments that
ever drove a manager insane by their
efforts to get what they want when
they want it.
In the background stand a half
-dozen French, English and American
lawyers. They look weary, these
lawyers, and why not? For two
solid weeks they .lave been trying
to reduce to legal contract form all
the feminine fads and foibles the
eccentric notions and artistic jeal
ousies which make this tempera
mental French woman what she is.
Is Polaire reaUy going to sign at
it—no, not for ten million francs—
unless you provide in it the protec
tion for my pauvres petites, my
precious pets.”
At this moment the door opens and
the pinkest of snouts appears, fol
lowed by the famous pig. Pearls,
rubies and diamonds sparkle on his
plump form wherever they can find
lodging, for it is Polaire’s newest
pleasure to adorn piggie with her
jewels instead of wearing them her
self. Behind the redoubtable Napo
leon come his inseparable comrades,
Dodo and Fifl, the crippled little
puppies which Polaire rescued from
death on the road to Versailles after
one of her motor cars had crushed
them.
With a scream of delight Polaire
rushes toward her pets, gathers them
one after another in her serpentine
arms, and fairly smothers them with
ardent embraces. It is an effective
Polaire and Her Crippled
Dogs Whose Rights Are
What Next?
Fully Protected in
Her Contract.
Lady Constance Stewart Richardson at One
of the Most Temperamental Moments
of Her Classic Dances.
:n'
half suspects, simply because Miss
Hoffman is known to be fond of
such pets.
Miss Gertrude Hoffman Who Is Barred from Using Perfume and Wearing Purple by the Terms of Polaire’# Contract*
“The mere pres
ence of lllies-of-the
valley in my vicinity
drives me into a
fury,” says Miss
Hoffman. “A stupid
friend of mine once
sent me a box of
them, and they ex
cited me so that I
seized a revolver and
drove the messenger
boy from the room."
The sight or sound of an
alarm clock irritates Lady
Richardson’s sensibilities
even more than lilies-of-the-
valley do Miss Hoffman’s.
Her contract becomes null
and void if by any chance
she find an alarm clock in
her dressing room or at her
hotel. In London once she
became so euraged at the
sight of one of the hated
things that she hurled it
through a costly plate-glass window.
It narrowly missed killing a promi
nent English nobleman who chanced
to be passing in the street below.
Poiaire’s contract provides that
her dressing room shall be draped
from floor to ceiling witn purple
bangings, and that un?<** So consid
eration shall any other member of
the company be allowed to wear pur
ple at any time. At the close of her
act a butler in purple livery must be
on hand to serve her with cham
pagne of a vintage and at a tempera
ture carefully specified in the con
tract.
How jealous Polaire is of her fel
low stars is shown by the clause
which provides for a trusted serv
ant of hers to ring the curtain up
and down for her act. Tihis is done
for fear the theatre’s regular cur
tain man might be bribed to deprive
her of her proper share of applause
by lowering the curtain too soon
Each of the stars demands a man
ager, press representative and mu
sical conductor of her own—all at
Mr. Gest’a expense. And each will
have, in addition, the exclusive serv
ices of a private detective to see
Polaire signed the contract the
following day without any further
trouble. It is written in duplicate
in French and English, covers 108
closely typewritten pages of legal
foolscap and is beyond doubt the
most complicated agreement of the
kind in the history of the law.
Polaire is delighted with it. “It
is my Magna Charta,” she declares,
“just the sort of agreement which
every great artist should insist upon
for the protection of her art, her
person and her temperament.”
“It is no contract at all,” says an
eminent New York lawyer who has
seen it, "but an attempt to describe
in legal terms an eccentric woman's
senseless foibles and to surround
the gratification of her whims with
all sorts of impossible and prepos
terous conditions.”
“You’ll naver be able to fulfill your
part of 'he agreement,” say Mr.
Gest's friends.
“Oh, yes, I shall,” he replies con
fidently, but he admits he has his
doubts on the matter when he com
pares the provisions of the Polaire
agreement with those of the similar
contracts ho has made with Ger
trude Ho'” ..an, the temperamental
American, and Lady Constance
Stewart Richardson, the equally
temperamental Englishwoman.
This is where the difficulty lies—
in this triple alliance of antagonistic
temperaments, each hoping to rise
to success on the failures of the
other two. Each of the three stars
has not been content with ensuring
herself getting what she wants when
she wants it, down to the most in
consequential things, but she has
tried to prevent the other two from
gratifying just as many of their pet
desires as she could- Many men of
experience in theatrical affairs main
tain that in signing three contracts
which conflict so violently in so
many respects, Mr. Gest has sown
the seeds for a crop of dissensions
which will take the courts years to
thresh out.
Each of the stars insists, for ex
ample, on a third floor corner
room with southern exposure in the
best hotel. This requirement can
easily be met in the large cities
where there are several hotels of
the highest standing; but what will
happen in the small one-night stands
where there is only one good hotel?
Manager Gest also scents serious
trouble over the matter of perfumes.
Polaire’s contract explicitly states
that “no one but herself shall use
any sort of perfume on the stage, in
the dressing rooms or in the railway
trains during the tour." She declares
that she is possessed of the exclu
sive rights to a "certain perfume of
such a delicate and peculiar nature
that the presence of any other per
fume would tend to destroy its
fragrance and thereby interfere with
her own happiness and pleasure.”
Polaire will not tolerate gardenias,
which happen to be Miss Hoffman’s
favorite flowers, and Miss Hoffman
bars lilies-of-the-valley, of winch
Lady Richardson is passionately
fond.
that none of her rights is infringed
upon by either of tihe others.
The stars demand that their
names shall be printed in type of
the same size In all posters, and
each of them insists that her name
shall be the only one to appear in
the theatre’s eilectric sign. Mr. Gest
will doubtless be able to get around
this latter difficulty by having the
artists arrive and leave the theatre
at different hours and by providing
three separate signs, each bearing
the name of one of the stars. Thus
with a little careful planning it will
be possible to have each artiste see
her name flashing by itself in elec-
“1 he boxing kangaroo frightened
Polaire’s pig half to death.”
trie lights when she passes the front
of the theatre.
None of bhe temperaments must
be given the slightest precedence
over the others. If their motor cars
should chance to reach the stage
door at the same time, they must
be drawn up at the curb in such a
way that the distance from the door
to each of the cars, will be precisely
tihe same.
Another point on which all three
contracts agree is that art cannot
flourish without a reasonably sym
pathetic atmosphere. To provide the
proper amount of sympathy, eaoh
star demands twenty of the best
seats for every performance to be
distributed among her countrymen.
Polaire, of course, will give her seats
to Parisians of the boulevard type;
Lady Richardson will distribute hers
among monocled Englishmen, and
Miss Hoffman will endeavor to find
in every city a score of typical
Broadway first-nighters to be her
guests.
“But these contracts alll seem very
one-sided,” one of Mr. Gest’s friends
remarked. “What do these exacting
ladies condescend to do for you in
return for all the attentions you are
going to lavish on them?”
"Oh,” replied Mr. Gest, “they are
willing to sing and dance and. act
a little occasionally, and they gra
ciously allow me to charge admis
sion to hear and see them. What
more could I expect?”
If tact is able to keep this tan
talizing trio of temperaments work
ing harmoniously together for even
part of a season, it will indeed be a
triumph- But many husbands and
theatrical managers, who have failed
dismally in their efforts to gratify
the whims of only one artistic wo
man, declare that Mr. Gest might as
well try to bring the moon to Broad
way.
“Lilies-of-the-valley always drive Miss
Hoffman into a fury.”