Photoplay (Jan - Jun 1922)

Mrs. Leslie Carter, the heroine of one generation in "Zaza 'and of distinctly another one in "The Circle ECHOES along the Rialto an oft recurrent maxim of art. "Make your sorrows profitable." Can you? Can't you? It depends upon the inner strength of the man or woman who makes the experiment. Broadway is fitting the proverb to Mrs. Leslie Carter. For while one friend of former days meeting her on the intersection of Broadway and Fortysecond Street, said gaily, "My only misgiving is whether you are not too young to play Lady Kitty in 'The Circle.' " another who passed on the other side observed: "There is a woman of sorrows. Her smiles are rainbow ones. There are always tears behind them." If ever woman distilled success from tears that Leslie Carter has already done. She wrote her memoirs. Briefly, poignantly, that which she told but emphasizing that which she did not tell. In those memoirs, forgotten by the busy, bias street. I find: "As I look back now, over the new emotions and experience that crowded into this period of my life, it seems to me like the changes in a confused dream in which I took part without volition of my own, — the sick room where lay my dying parent; the heavy sense of coming calamity; the arrival and departure of physicians and friends; the coming one never to be forgotten evening, of a group of unknown relatives, who eyed me solemnly, and then retired to hold a consultation upon my future; finally my hurried marriage and removal from my quiet, peaceful home. ALL these events took place so rapidly that I was dazed. I moved through them all as one asleep, and awoke to find myself in a strange city, Chicago, the mistress of my own home, with entree into a brilliant society waiting to receive me with the eclat due to a young and fashionable bride. "It is not astonishing that I entered into this new life with all the zest of a young, enthusiastic nature. I loved this world of beautiful things, polished manners and sparkling wit. I loved and trusted it. It seemed far more beautiful and sheltered than the woods, the cotton fields and the shabby old homestead on the plantation near Lexington. Kentucky. "I did not take part in private theatricals; in fact I had The Sorrows of Mrs. Carter The story of one of America's most famous stage stars who has just made a wonderful come-back in "The Circle'' By EILEEN O'CONNER 00 premonition of any kind that pointed toward a career that wa> to obliterate my past experience and create an entirely different life for me. The future was sealed. A season of desolation and utter darkness came upon me. A wi^e purpose, they say, is hidden in the throes of those awful tragedies that now and then engulf a human soul. "On a certain morning, a memorable one in my life. I lay on the sofa of my little rented room, staring blankly at the bare, whitewashed ceiling. My own future seemed abare and meaningless. If 1 had allowed myself to think of the past I should have gone mad. I stared stupidly at the ceiling and wondered in a vague way by what means thi< broken hearted young woman whom I knew to be myself, lying on the sofa with my hands under my head, was to >olve the problem of earning a living. "I can't explain how the thought of being an actress came into remind. It was like a flash of blinding light in the darkness. I turned suddenly to my mother and said: T am going upon the stage. We must start at once for Xew \"ork and see Mr. Belasco.' "I remembered that numbers of society women about this time had gone on the stage. I recalled the eagerness of several in my own set to appear under the auspices of Mr. David Belasco. That was what had brought his name and repute to my attention. It was by a feat of memory in my grief stunned state that there recurred to me the name of the man whom 1 had never met but who was to prove my savior in the hour of awful disaster." The years of creation of "The Heart of Maryland." of "Zaza." of "Du Barry" and "Adrea" by the distinguished pair, are part of the most brilliant annals of the much historic'! Highway of Amusement. Rose then fog of misunderstanding. Came the time when Mrs. Carter was no longer received in the Belasco offices, when her telephone calls were not delivered Her picture was taken down from the lobby of the Bel Theater. Mrs. Carter said nothing at the time about this fog of misunderstanding. Mr. Belasco withdrew within himself closed the door. Compared with him the Sphinx was chatty. The tall woman with hair of flame who had dominated Broadway, whom the critics have (Continued on page 108) 41 Benjamin. Pari Mrs. Carter, returned from abroad, has recaptured both America and Broadway