Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1920)

Alias Cinderella The famous glass-slippered heroine has an up-to-date self in Shirley Mason, one of the new Fox stars. By B. Henry Smith MAYBE you thought you knew all about Cinderella— but did you know that she once stuck chewing gum on the knee of the venerable Joseph Jefferson, screamed so that she fairly startled him out of his whiskers during one of his biggest scenes, and on another occasion had to come home in a cab because she had parted with some rather — well, rather intimate parts of her wardrobe and donated them to some brand-new poverty-stricken acquaintances ? Furthermore, I'll wager you didn't know that her name wasn't Cinderella at all — it's Shirley Mason. She began her career not by sitting in the ashes, but by sitting beside her mother in a box at an Elks' entertainment in Brooklyn, which may be less picturesque but certainly is more comfortable and interesting. And the two elderly, ugly sisters of the fairy tale, who really were remarkably pretty, were dancing on the stage. But when the orchestra swung into her favorite tune Cinderella cut such cute capers that somebody called for her, and she bounced out on the stage and danced a waltz that brought down the house. Now, the mother of the family had decided on a stage career for the two older girls, because they danced so well, and when they went to interview theatrical agents and managers Cinderella tagged along. So when the fairy godmother waved her wand itwas in a manager's office, and Cinderella got her first job, with no less a person that Peter F. Daly, at the age of two. Furthermore, it was a speaking part — she had to say "Daddy" at every performance. She played the part two years. Then the wand waved again, and she was picked from a roomful of youngsters to play Little Hal in the "The Squaw Man," with William Faversham. After that came an engagement as Meenie in "Rip Van Winkle," with Joseph Jefferson — and the chewinggum episode. One night when her cue came, in Boston, she was caught with gum in her mouth, and when she knelt down before Rip the only way to get rid of it was to stick it on his Shirlev boasts knee — which she did. As she left the r.ow of her digstage she took one backward glance nified teens. At this age she had her first speaking part. and saw Jefferson facing the audience with the gum sticking tight to his knee. Then she hid. Another night, in South Carolina, she fell asleep in the wings and just as Jefferson was in the midst of a tense emotional scene she awoke from a nightmare with a loud scream. Jefferson almost jumped out of his whiskers. He wasn't at all mad — oh, no, not at all ! When he went off the stage, she was again in hiding. But when at last she jumped on his lap to make up, the imp of the Perverse, which you frequently see peeping from her eyes, was on duty. When Jefferson said : "Are you going to beg my pardon?" she answered: "Yes, I'll forgive you." And as for the day when she distributed her wearing apparel among the orphans in a charity hospital, that happened also when she was playing on the road with "Rip Van Winkle." The imp became so active that Jefferson decided the child needed a rest, so he ordered the elderly sister understudy into the part, the other elderly sister in turn taking hers. At the hotel window opposite the theater that evening our Cinderella stood disconsolate.