Radio mirror (Nov 1936-Apr 1937)

BRINGS BACK THE GIRL WHOSE ESCAPADES SET A NATION BUZZING gaged girl in the United States," "the enfant terrible of Broadway," "the best actress among American mothers and the best mother among American actresses," "queen of the theaters' Royal Family." And finally — First Actress of the American Stage. And it was radio that brought the miracle about. For, three seasons ago, at fifty-four, Ethel Barrymore sought to revive on the stage one of her former successes, "Declassee." In it she played the role of Lady Helen Haden, the young heroine. Critics were kind but the paying public reneged; for the first time the paying public as much as said, by its lack of support, that a woman in her fifties — however great an actress she might be — could not create a satisfactory illusion of a girl despite all the makeup and wigs and clever corseting in the world. Theater-goers want their heroines young. So after a short run the play closed and Ethel Barrymore vowed she would never return to the stage again in any semblance of youth. The great tragedy of that, had not radio intervened, was that her thrilling voice and personality which really make her as an actress were still as young as ever. "Why should a voice be old?" she said to me. "My grandmother played on the stage until she was ninety-seven and if you had shut your eyes and listened to her you would have sworn hers was the speech of a sixteen-year-old girl. There's no such thing as 'an old lady's voice.' It doesn't have to be. If you've got artistry enough in the first place and physical fitness enough in the second place your voice can be exactly the same at a hundred as it was at twenty." Such a short time ago, before radio came into being, her great gift for acting would have been lost to the world with the closing of "Declassee". The shell surrounding her ar tistry, the graying hair and arthritic knee and sagging cheek, were no longer appealing to look upon. But on the air it's only the voice and personality that matter. Each listener in his own imagination builds his own picture of the heroine of the play, makes her sixteen or twenty-two, a blonde or a brunette, blue-eyed or brown, to suit his fancy. Ethel Barrymore knew she wasn't finished because a graceful old age had settled on her young beauty with the passing of the years. So last August the First Actress of the American Stage announced her permanent retirement from the theater, her forthcoming debut in radio in a series of her own. And with her initial broadcast, a dramatization of "Captain Jinks" — which was her first starring vehicle 'way back in 1901 — she performed the miracle of turning back the clock and being Ethel Barrymore at twenty-one. Gay, imperious, lovable, shocking, head-strong, temperamental Ethel Barrymore whose romances and capers and scrapes were eternally getting in the newspapers to delight your mama and grandmama (to say nothing of grandpop, too) ! who liked a breezy tidbit of scandal just as much as this terrible younger generation does. Now it seems a part of the Barrymore tradition, which includes brothers John and Lionel of course, is to make headlines. Ethel made her share and she started at it young. In 1891, a high-spirited and grownup girl of twelve, she defied about six kinds of child labor and truancy laws by going on the stage. Her actress-mother had died and left her the family home in Philadelphia and her little brother John to look out for. Her actor-father was broke and Ethel hated going to school anyway. She saw no reason why a young lady descended {Continued on page 67) Below, Ethel greeting her three children, John Drew Colt, Samuel Colt and Ethel Barrymore Colt, as they 'arrived in Hollywood while "Rasputin" was being made. The three famous Barrymores in a California garden — John, Ethel and Lionel. But Ethel has turned away from pictures for good, as well as from the theater.