Pauline Frederick : on and off the stage (1940)

40 Pauline Frederick reers as stars are made nowadays. Pauline Frederick is the youngest of all Mr. Gillette's leading ladies." Gillette was at this time fifty-three years of age, yet had still many years of fame ahead of him. The play he now put into production, " Samson," was written by Henri Bernstein and translated from the French by Gillette. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the famed story of Samson and Delilah. The title was selected because the leading character, like Samson, in order to wreak vengeance upon his enemy, also ruined his own life. The play opened at the Criterion Theatre in New York on October 19, 1908, and despite the vituperations and revilings of the press that it was an unpleasant and noxious play, it had a long run. Gillette played the part of a rich speculator who, convinced that his wife (Pauline Frederick) is unfaithful to him, takes revenge on her suspected paramour, another rich speculator, by causing a panic on the Stock Exchange, the result of which ruins both men. Gillette had just come back from a tour abroad and his return to Broadway was heralded as a great event. The public flocked to see him and the play. In the cast which he selected were several names which have since made important places for themselves in the Thespian world. The cast was: Cast of " SAMSON " Maurice Brachard William Gillette Elsie Vernette Pauline Frederick Marquis d'Andeline Frederic de Belleville Max d'Andeline George Probert Francoise d'Andeline Marie Wainwright Jerome le Govain Arthur Byron Henri Deveaux Henry Carvill Marcel de Fontenay H. J. Ginn Anne Marie Constance Collier